The King (Matthew) Series

It is fitting that the first verse of the first book of the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, identifies Jesus as the Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. These few words sum up the culmination of the entire Old Testament, and in them are the seeds from which the New Testament plan will grow. The long-awaited, promised Messiah, the restorer of God’s kingdom and the redeemer of his people, is Jesus himself. This is Matthew’s central message, his purpose for writing his book.

In his first verse, Matthew made an amazing claim. At the time he was writing, many Jewish readers would have been skeptical about the idea that the man Jesus was indeed also the promised king or Christ. After all, he was merely a carpenter from a backwoods province, and they wanted a king just like other worldly kings—politically connected, militarily powerful, and personally charismatic, with all the accompanying pomp, circumstance, and credentials.

So Matthew writes the genealogy of King Jesus all the way from Abraham, to Joseph His earthly Father. The theme of Matthew’s Gospel is “The King and his kingdom.” Matthew foes to great length to show King Jesus and how He relates to people of His Kingdom.

Isn’t it great to know that our King wants to relate to His subjects? But not only as subjects but as His children and brothers and sisters He so dearly loves.

So Matthew starts out with the pedigree. Just like an earthly king, The King of Kings had an earthly pedigree. There’s proof of who our King is. However, Jesus was not interested in the pomp of being a king. It was deserved and even demonstrated.

Let me show you what I mean

**Matt. 2:1-2**

The Earthly rulers knew that the King of the Jews was being born. Kind of fitting that those very words were hung over The King on the cross huh?

The best outline I could use is one from another man. Dr. Warren Weirsbe outlined Matthews Gospel, scholarly and perfectly. Let me use his outline and put what God has showed me in this Wonderful outline of Dr. Weirsbe.

I. The Revelation of the King (ch.1-10)

In these first 10 chapters of Matthew’s Gospel we hear the phrase over and over again, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Really you can break down these first 10 chapters like this:

His person—1-4

His principles—5-7

His power—8-10

A. His person—(ch.1-4) In these first 4 chapters we see Jesus from birth to the temptation after His baptism. A small snapshot of His person in just a few chapters.

Sort of like when you have your first child and you film every step, every detail, scrapbook everything. Child 2 well...not so much and by four they’re fortunate if you know their name.

Just kidding. We are not offered much detail about His person but we have some of the highlights of His life. How are highlights revealed? Second step

B. His principles (ch.5-7)

This is the Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus outlines how are character ought to be. This is the greatest sermon ever preached on record, because it’s the only recorded sermon of Christ Jesus.

One highlight here

**6:31-34**

This leads us to:

C. His power (ch. 8-10)

These three chapters show His miracle working power. We sing the old hymn but do we believe there is power, power

wonder working power?

I believe with all my heart Jesus will take care of you. I believe with all my heart that no matter that Jesus works on my behalf. I’ve seen it more and more that I can trust God to be faithful to me even when I am faithless.

What power He has for us!

II. The Rebellion Against the King (ch.11-13)

The rebellion starts with the rejection of His messenger JTB in ch.11. It’s amazing at the correlation in Scripture of the rejection of god first started with the rejection of the prophets of God. The same is true here in Jesus’ life. They rejected His prophet JTB.

Over and over again we see this truth amplified even in Acts. The people were reminded of the fact of how they rejected God’s

messenger. I wonder if that is still true today? Could it be we spend more time worrying what a church member thinks or feels than we do what God’s Messenger says in a sermon?

So they Attacked the King. They attacked His works. He really is working for the devil that’s how He did that. He’s providing some sort of hocus pocus stuff.

Then they refused to obey what He said. Boy, what a testimony for us. Blatant disobedience to His Word is sin. And BTW so is gossip, and slander, and attacks on other people.

So then they attacked Him personally. This is always the progression. Satan wants a person to reject God’s man, God’s work, God’s Word and then God himself. Total rebellion of the authority of God.