Delve Into Matthew, Hebrews, and JamesExemplo

DAY 2 – MATTHEW II

In order to portray Jesus as the culmination of the work God began through Israel, the author begins the whole book with a list of Jesus’ ancestors. This list is arranged in such a way as to show Jesus coming at the beginning of the seventh group of seven generations after Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites. The seventh seven was, for the Jews, a time of special celebration, and so the implication is that Jesus came to bring a special time of God’s blessing to the world. This book is therefore a combination of literary forms (an ancestor list, action sequences, and collected teachings) whose overall purpose is to show people how to be part of what God has done in the world through Jesus and what God continues to do through his followers. 

Because the author wants us to recognize the importance of the five speeches that Jesus’ teaching has been gathered into, they’re all marked off in the same way. Each one begins with the disciples coming to Jesus for teaching, and after each one there’s a variation on the phrase, “After Jesus had finished saying these things . . .” These five speeches express five different themes, and these themes run through the episodes in the story that lead up to them. And so the core of the book is divided into five thematic sections of story plus teaching. These five sections take up five different concepts that are crucial to understanding and participating in the kingdom of heaven.

• The first section reveals that this kingdom is based on an inward “righteousness” that’s obtained not by complying with legal requirements but through character transformation. 

• The second section demonstrates that the new community has a mission to reach out to people everywhere.

The third section shows that the kingdom is hard to recognize and easy to misunderstand, but it’s nevertheless actively growing throughout the world. 

• The fourth section shows how relationships in the kingdom of heaven are to be like those in a family: fellow believers are brothers and sisters because they’re all children of one heavenly Father. 

• The fifth section shows that the citizens of this kingdom will be scattered throughout the world by their enemies, but this will give them the opportunity to tell people everywhere about Jesus. 

After these five concepts have been explained, the book concludes with the story of how Jesus gave his life for the sake of the world, was raised from the dead, and sent his followers out to welcome people everywhere into the kingdom.

PRAYER: Thank You, Father, for sending Your only Son to sacrifice His life on my behalf. Thank You for the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.