The Gospels: Matthew

Hi friends,

Happy 2022! I hope you all had a fantastic new year. It has been a little while since Addy and I posted on the blog. We decided to shift our focus to the podcast for a bit because life is crazy. Addy and I were both moving pretty fast in 2021 and we had to step back and slow down a bit. But here we are in 2022! We are so excited to bring the blog back. Things are going to look different on the blog. Each week Addy or I will post a quick summary of what our podcast, Our Hearts Surrendered, episode covered for the week. That way, if you don’t have time to listen to our podcast, you can get a summary of what we talked about by reading our blog. We hope you guys enjoy this and we can’t wait for all of the new things we are working on for 2022!

This week we are kicking off a new series called The Gospels. Each week we are going to take one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and dive deeper into the book. This week we started with Matthew.

Matthew was most likely written by Matthew who also went by the name Levi. He was a tax collector for the Roman government. This job was not very popular and Matthew was seen as an outcast. Matthew was called by Jesus to be a disciple in Matthew 9:9.

Matthew includes Jesus’ lineage in the first chapter which we can often skip past but the reality is, this lineage is so cool. We get to learn about the sinners that God chose to be a part of Jesus’ lineage and ultimately, the redemption story.

The book of Matthew was most likely written between AD 55-65. It was also written for the Jewish audience at the time and this is evident throughout Matthew’s writings. Matthew emphasizes Old Testament prophecies and how Jesus fulfills those which then points to Jesus being the Messiah. One quote from an apologetics class I took states, “Jesus is the culmination of promises delivered by the prophets over a thousand years.”

The summary in my ESV Bible states this account “alternates between Jesus’ activities of healing and casting out demons, and major blocks of his teaching, including the Sermon on the Mount, the Parables of the Kingdom, and the Olivet Discourse.”

The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ life and ministry and ends with the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. This is for all believers to share the story of Jesus’ life and the salvation He offers to all people.

I encourage you to listen to the podcast as we go in more depth. I hope you learned something new about Matthew and I encourage you to read Matthew on your own and dive deeper because we are just scratching the surface here.

Praying for you guys and I hope you have a great week!

My heart,

Sophie