The Story Retold | The Gospel of Matthew
In this Story Retold class session, we take a big-picture look at the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew writes to show us Jesus as the promised King—fulfilling God’s covenant promises to Abraham and David, teaching with authority like a new Moses, and sending His disciples to the nations. This overview is designed to help you read Matthew with the main themes “playing in the background.”
Big Idea:
Jesus is the true King who fulfills God’s promises, teaches God’s ways, and sends His people into the world.
Class Highlights:
Purpose & Audience: Matthew leans Jewish and majors on fulfillment of the Old Testament.
Prologue (1–2): Genealogy and birth story underline Jesus’ royal line; the Magi reinforce His kingship.
Five Teaching Sections:
Sermon on the Mount (5–7): Life in God’s Kingdom.
Mission (10): Sent ones with Jesus’ authority.
Parables (13): The Kingdom’s mystery and growth.
Community (18): How disciples live together.
Olivet (24–25): Judgment, hope, and the end of the old order.
Climax (26–28): Cross and resurrection—Jesus is rejected, then vindicated as King.
Frame: Emmanuel—God with us (1:23) and I am with you always (28:20).
Commission: Disciples are sent to all nations (28:18–20).
📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Class
Open with prayer. We'll get started and we'll get through this big idea of the Book of Matthew. We're not going to get down into deep details. What we're trying to do here is to have a nice thousand-foot view. We all like those views when you go somewhere and you climb the little towers and you're like, Whoa, I've never We've seen it from this perspective before. That's the way it is. You get a different perspective from above. Because I lived relatively close to Sioux Falls growing up, When we would fly somewhere and we started flying south, I was like trying to find our house because it was just a completely different way. It was easy to find because we were just a half mile off the freeway. I spent a lot of time looking for that overhead view, and that's what we're going for here today. So let's open with prayer and we'll get started. Covenant Keeping God, we come before you and we understand that your story is one unfolding witness to your mercy and your grace. And as we come to the Book of Matthew, we pray that we would more greatly understand the story that you're trying to tell and how it applies to us.
Give us the gift of discernment as we come to your word and as we read may it be used in us to build us up in faith and to make us holy. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So when you think of a biography, what type of things you hope to learn from a biography? Where they were born. Where they were born. Yep. What else? Where they went to school. Where they went to school. Yeah, another good one. Yeah, what shaped their life? You're We're also looking for maybe some details that, especially if it's somebody famous, some details that you couldn't get anywhere else, like an inside view to the story. Well, we get that with the Gospels, right? In some way, each of the Gospels have some background information. Even though Mark doesn't have a birth account, we get this idea of the history of Jesus. Luke and Matthew have a Christmas story. We find out what they learned, how they were influenced. We get insights that we might not get from other people telling the story. I think about the times that the Gospels say something to the effect of, And Jesus knew this, or you get insight into what he was thinking.
It's told from that perspective. In that way, the Gospels are like biographies. This Gospel of you is an important biography of Jesus, but it's more than that, because it's showing us something very specific about how he's the promised king. But it also tells us that we are to follow him, that we are to be people that follow after this Messiah, this king. And so as we come, we're going to look at the main purpose and audience here of Matthew. We have a filling sheet. I happened to mention that our grandfather would be very disappointed in your tardiness. So we have this purpose of an audience of Matthew. Matthew is written primarily for a Jewish audience. And we're going to get some different audiences with the other Gospels. But this one, and you can see it in multiple things that you do. Now, it doesn't mean it isn't good for us as a Gentile audience in the 21st century, but you see this specific idea of fulfillment, this idea that Jesus is the one who does this. So Matthew is written mainly for a Jewish audience. It also shows us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophecies.
It's getting this idea not only of specific things, but in types in the Old Testament. We'll get to that when we talk about Moses. But he is this fulfillment of what was promised. It's the continuing of the story. The class in the book we're looking at is the story retold. Matthew is a big part of that idea, that it's republishing the story of God reaching out to his people, of God bringing grace and mercy to his people. The key verse that we want to think about is right there at the beginning. Verse one. It's nice that Matthew does this for us. The Book of the Geology of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Now, there's some things that we want to look at here. Considering that this is a Jewish audience, they're looking for the Messiah, and they're going to be very mindful of two particular covenant promises regarding the Messiah, right? The Davidic promise, the Davidic covenant, that there will be one who is a king who is on the throne for all time, and they're also going to think back to Abraham. Now, Abraham was like a little regional king, but this is more the idea of that the Davidic promise, the Davidic promise that he is the son of David is primarily about the kinship the son of Abraham takes it back to this beginning of this promise of the land, of God having a people that can't be numbered.
It's telling us these important things. That's primarily how we know that this is to a Jewish audience because they would have lived with these promises as their operating system. This is what they were waiting for, the king that fulfilled the promise of the Messiah. The basic structure of Matthew is pretty simple. We have the prolog. It tells us as it starts out, the birth of the king in verses one and two. Before we have the particular story of Jesus being born, for example, we also have the genealogy. So a big part of this prolog is genealogy. Jesus is connected to David. He's connected to Abraham. He is a Jewish King. He is the one following through with this. Following through this promise of the story from the beginning, from Abraham through to here in Matthew. We also have this idea, a story that is only told in Matthew, the Magi, because they worship Jesus as a king. It's driving home this idea of king. God ordained to have these Magi come from the east. And Matthew tells us this story because his focus is he wants his Jewish audience to know that Jesus is a king.
So ever wondered why that's the... Matthew is the only one that has a story of the magi. That's why. His audience. Luke is primarily to a gentle audience. Not the same concerns, right? So Luke doesn't tell that story. Then as we continue through the structure of Matthew, we get five major teaching sections. There's five books of Moses. So this idea here is not only in these five major sections, it's also connecting us to Moses, not just in the stories, but in the way it's laid out. The first major teaching section, you know it, you love it, the sermon on the mount. Tells about life in God's Kingdom. Another part of this is think about how the sermon on the Mount starts, the Beatitudes. It's a story of an upside down kingdom. The world is this way, but God's Kingdom is this way. Who inherits the Earth? Not the strong, not the powerful, the meek. There's this idea here as this starts out that this kingdom that Jesus is going to be talking about is different. It is unique. It is not a kingdom of this world. It's telling his followers how to live in the kingdom.
Then we have the mission discourse where he sends out the disciples. They are sent, and they're going out with his authority. That teaching section is a big part of not only is this something they keep to themselves, but they go out to share the message with everyone. Then we have the parables of the kingdom in verse 13. This shows us the Kingdom's mystery and its growth. You know these parables, they are a struggle for the people that are around them because they just run contrary to the way that human minds think, the way their Jewish minds thought about how things should be. Jesus comes and tears those ideas down and instead instills in them this idea of the Kingdom and how it is going to grow and how it is a mystery because God is the who is doing it. Then we get to another teaching section, which is Matthew 18, which is community instructions. Usually, when we talk about Matthew 18, what do we usually think of? The conflict, church disciplines. But he's showing his people how to live at peace with one another. And think about that. It's parts of the law we don't read very often, but how much of the law in the Old Testament was is, if this happens, do this.
You think of some sections, there's some real specificity in the Old Covenant law. If two men are fighting and they make contact with a pregnant woman, they are liable for two lives, and the baby dials. They're liable to the life of the woman and the life of the baby, things like this. There's a lot. I'm using that as an example because it's the first one that came to mind. But Jesus is doing what the Old Covenant does, showing them how to live together in peace in these community instructions. Then last is the Alivet Discourse. Does anybody know anything about the Alivet Discourse? It starts after Jesus has delivered the woes on the pharisees. And as he says to the pharisees, Behold, I'm leaving your house to you desolate. And as they're walking away from the temple, the disciples, Matthew 24: 1 says, And they were going away. And the disciples looked at the temple and said, When shall these things be? And Jesus says that the temple is going to be destroyed. So it's basically the ushering in the end of the old covenant. It's talking about this new thing that is going to That happened.
Matthew 24 is very clear that at one point, the temple will be completely destroyed, not one stone left upon another. And so this is talking about this coming judgment. But there also is a talk of hope in this teaching section. It is a long discourse. There's a lot to go through. But the idea here is the end of the old and the ushering in of the new and the hope that that brings. Then in Matthew 26-28, we get the climax. We get the high point of the story, right? It is the death and resurrection of Jesus. So This idea that Jesus is king starts with us at the beginning, but is he received as a king? Not at all. He is rejected. He is Killed. He's not just, We don't want you to be king. We're not going to install you as king. He is executed. It is the religious leaders and the state come together and keep him from being a king. And there's a day in there where all hope is lost. Saturday is silent, but then Sunday, he is victorious. The state, the religious rulers do not have power over Jesus. Jesus is the true king because he not only has power to be king, but he has overcome the power of the state and the power of the religious leaders.
He is the true kingly power. So then Matthew 28 ends with what? The great commission. And so the idea in Matthew 28 then is not only this victory that Jesus has over sin and death, but it means something beyond these people who are standing here. It's more than just this thing that has happened in Jerusalem. We get the idea in the great commission, go into what? All the world. And do what? Make disciples of all nations. There is a sending out. So this message of Matthew is more than just a... It is to a Jewish audience, but it is for more than a Jewish audience. Why? They go into all the world and make disciples. I always say, you've heard me say it a ton of times, we fail to understand how outlandish that is to the Jewish mind. The idea that the covenant would be open to other people No. Gentiles are dogs. They are unclean. They're all these things. But we get this idea in Matthew by the sending out of Jesus that this is a message for all people. What's the portrait that we're meant to understand of Jesus as we read through Matthew.
I encourage you, over the course of the next month, sit down and read Matthew and look for these things. That's the purpose of our class here, is to help us really unlock what's happening in the gospel of Matthew. So what's the portrait? He is the promised king. There was this promise to David that he would have one on the throne. Jesus is that king. And even though there isn't a palace in Jerusalem where he is now reigning. He is a resurrected king, which is far greater than any king that has come before. He is an ascended king. Now, Matthew doesn't have an account of the ascension, but that That would have been part of the story that they would have known. They are understanding that he is a king over all people. If he had just taken over in Jerusalem, he would be a king on a throne in Jerusalem. But because of his victory over sin and death, he is a greater king. We have to remember this idea of being a king over all people is present in in the Old Testament quite often, where it talks about how all people's coming into the fold, all people's coming into the covenant.
Not only that, but it's foreshadowed in the genealogies. We're going to be taking a look during advent of the women in the line to Jesus, in the genealogy of Jesus. You look at it, there's these women, Ruth, Rahab, that come from the outside the covenant. These are Gentiles who are brought into the fold. There's this idea, this foreshadowing in the genealogy of non-Jewish blood ending up being in this great Messianic king. My favorite theme in Matthew, I've mentioned it in the past, I love the theme of and looking for the theme of, Jesus as the new Moses. Where did Moses deliver the law from a mountain? Where's the sermon on the Oh, wait, I gave the answer away in the question. Where's the sermon on the mount? It's on a mountain. When the people are in need, when the people are hungry, what does Moses What does God do through Moses? He sends manna. When the people are hungry, what does Jesus do? He multiplies the bread and the fish, right? He doesn't have quail come from heaven, but it's the same idea that Jesus is a new Moses. So he is the bringer of a new covenant.
God ordains the story in such a way that all these things happen. And Matthew draws out these things for us in the way he tells the story so that we Understand this. Moses brought the old covenant. Jesus brings the new. Then we also have this important idea of God with us. So we have Matthew 1: 23 and verse 28: 20. They frame the whole book that Jesus has come to be among his people, that he is with us. This is something new that he has done. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Emmanuel, God with us. The story isn't over. The story isn't over with the great commission. He continues out. He goes before us. And so that is the idea that he is God with us. And that really is, like I said here, it frames the whole gospel. This idea that those who have been alienated from God through the work of this King, this Messiah, Jesus, the promised one, we are brought in and God is with us. What we have then is this call to discipleship. Matthew doesn't just say, Hey, here's all this information.
Do something with it. No, he tells us what to do. It's a call to follow Jesus, a call to be disciples. Ultimately, the gospel of Matthew doesn't really have a conclusion, right? It has a mission. It is ascending. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. We're still a part of this story. We're the ones doing that. We're the one discipling. We are the all nations. So yes, the gospel of Matthew, it ties everything up in a pretty neat bow. But at the end of the day, the story hasn't ended. It's still going. We are a part of this. And so our mission is to go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. And so what this springs up in us is a question, what does it mean for us in everyday life to live as disciples under King Jesus? How do we serve our King? What do we do? That's the great sending question that Matthew asked for us. So as we close up, We see here that Matthew shows us that Jesus is the true king. It's not Caesar, it's not Herod. There's only one who fulfills the promises of God. We see this in the way that the genealogies line out the genetic case.
We see it that he is like Moses, delivering this new information. And we see that he also is one who is sending people on a mission This is a great thing that is to expand. So he fulfills God's promises. He teaches God's ways, and he sends us into the world to do so. So the question that I want to leave us with, will we hear those words of Jesus and follow him? Will we do what our King, the promised Messiah, has called us to do? What questions do you have about Matthew? Does that help frame the book for you a little bit. That's our big picture. Well, if you have any questions, let me know. I kept it 22 minutes. That's really good for me. That was the goal. Something that we can do, that we can see this overarching picture, and it can be... You know how I like to always say, I like us to have music playing in the background when we study the Bible. Something that is like, Okay, this is how this works, that there's this big theme that's going on. I hope that this big picture of the idea of this king who fulfills God's promises when you read Matthew, is playing.
Also, don't forget the Moses connection. That's important. That's my favorite one. Yeah? Are you going to go online? Yeah. I am. My friend Brandon has been sitting back there recording Yeah, I'll put it on the website, but it'll also be on the YouTube channel and Vimeo and all those places. I am going to a concert, and I'm going to see Anna, and so it'll be a couple of days. But, yeah, it'll be Tuesday, probably. Demon Hunter, War of Ages and Conviction. It's going to be a fun one. All very boldly Christian groups. A lot of times, there's always some that aren't connected. It's all groups that I know, so it'll be fun. Two I haven't seen. I was like checking boxes. It makes me feel good. Anna was willing to go unlike her siblings. School and work. But I tried. All right, I'll conclude us with prayer here, and then we'll move on. Gracious God, we are so blessed to have your word and to know that it tells us a story, that it isn't just a story that was promised, it was a story that was fulfilled. We pray that we live on this side of your story, that we see the covenant fulfilled.
We pray that we would this week be mindful that you are king, that you are in control, and that you are the one who has sent us on a mission. Help us to live on mission for the great commission in this coming week. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
