The sermon by Jason Dohm provides a comprehensive summary of the Gospel of Matthew, emphasizing its distinct Jewish flavor and the importance of reading it with an understanding of Jewish traditions and the Old Testament. Matthew's Gospel, written by a Jew for Jews, presents Jesus Christ as the long-awaited Messiah — the Son of David and Abraham. The sermon outlines the structure of Matthew, noting that it is organized thematically rather than chronologically, with five major discourses followed by narratives that illustrate Jesus' teachings. The speaker highlights the centrality of Jesus in the Gospel, portraying Him as the fulcrum around which all else revolves. The Gospel of Matthew is shown as emphasizing Jesus' life, words, miracles, discipleship, death, and ongoing mission. Jesus' teachings recapture the heart of the matter, focusing on the internal aspects of the law beyond mere external compliance. His miracles serve both as proof of His messianic identity and as metaphors for spiritual healing. Jesus' discipleship method involves close companionship and practical teaching, and His death is portrayed as the ultimate act of substitutionary atonement. The ongoing mission of Jesus, carried out through His followers, reflects His authority and continuous work in the world. The sermon underscores the necessity of a personal relationship with Jesus, emphasizing the need for His influence in every aspect of life and the importance of loving Him deeply.

Okay, let's ask for the Lord's help. Father, each week as we come to this time of preaching, we pray, knowing that it's possible, that it's easy to have the time come and go and not be very fruitful. And not be very fruitful. And so God, we want to come to this time with a heightened level of expectation that you are going to show love for your people in a very practical way by sending your Holy Spirit to help me preach things that would be such a blessing to your people and that your Holy Spirit would help all the hearers. Having already done work to make them ready, and now working to be a tutor, one who comes alongside to help and explain and press these things upon the heart.

God, we are so desperately in need to take a normal part of our routine and make it fruitful. So we pray for your help. Trusting and knowing that you love your people. You desire us to be a fruitful people. Come and prune through this time in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, there's no brilliance in the sermon title. It's about as plain as it gets. This is a summary of the Gospel of Matthew. And it's a wrap up of 2 and 1 half, well, not quite, 2 and 1 fourth years of labor on my part and yours.

The Gospel of Matthew is a Gospel written by a Jew, written to Jews, written about the king of the Jews. And so it has a very distinctive Jewish flavor to it, which is sort of a problem for me and for you because we're Gentiles. And how many times during the course of the last two years and three months have we just had to slow down and I've been saying, okay, we have to stop and make sure we're coming to this text like a Jew would come to this text with a very full-orbed view of the Old Testament. Because if we come to this text any other way, we're going to have problems and we're not going to get out of it what we need to get out of it. So week after week it's been that.

OK, put on your Jewish lenses for this text. And it's really helped us, I think, with our understanding of the Old Testament. When you understand the Old Testament better, you understand the New Testament better. And so week by week we've been doing this. The Jewish flavor of the Gospel of Matthew started in chapter 1 verse 1, in the very first verse of the whole book of Matthew.

We read this, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. So you get Jewish, Jewish, Jewish, all through just the first, the introductory verse of the whole book. First of all, it's about Jesus Christ. Christ is Jewish. The title is screaming that it's part of Judaism.

It's part of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's about the Messiah, this King who was promised to the Jewish people, to this family that was picked out by God and He said, you're going to be My special people and I will be your God. And so all through the Old Testament God has been promising, He's going to send, He's going to send, He's going to send, and then Jesus is born and the Messiah is here. So in verse 1, chapter 1 verse 1, the Gospel writer Matthew, this Jewish tax collector, is writing about the promised one, the anointed one. That's what Messiah means.

That's what Christ means, the anointed one. And he's the Son of David, the greatest King and the Messiah. The Jews were expecting a Son of David. So Matthew is sending down the roots of his Gospel into the Jewish stream right off the bat. He is the son of David.

So much so that when Jesus at the very end of this Gospel asks the experts, whose son is the Messiah going to be? They answer without hesitation, he is the son of David. This comes from Psalm 110. And the son of Abraham, the great patriarch, the father of the nation, and the man that God made this covenant with, that Jesus would come from his line and would be the ultimate fulfillment of this promise to be a blessing to all the nations, to all the families of the earth. In terms of the structure of the book, I went back to the introductory sermon that was preached two years and three months ago.

Looking at the outline of the book, and that's really exactly what we've seen. You have chapters one through four, which are an introduction, which sets the gospel in a context, talks about the birth of Jesus and brings us up to the point where he's going to start his public ministry. And then at the very end, the very last half chapter, chapter 28 verses 16 and forward, You have this conclusion that is the Great Commission. And between those two things, between the introduction and this last half chapter that serves as a conclusion, you have this pattern of five things happening. You get a long sermon and a narrative that is very relevant to the sermon.

So the first one started in chapter five, this was the Sermon on the Mount. You had a three chapter sermon, followed by narratives that fit in with what Jesus taught. So you have a long sermon and then a narrative, an account of what is happening in the life of Jesus Christ and his disciples that relate back to the things that have just been preached by Jesus. And then it happens again a second time. And then it happens again a third time.

And then it happens again a fourth time. And then it happens again the fifth time where you have another long sermon and then Narrative things that are happening in the in the life and times of Jesus Christ that relate to the preaching That that he's just just done. Here's what John MacArthur says Here's what John MacArthur says Matthew makes no attempt to follow a strict chronology, and the comparison of the Gospel reveals that Matthew freely places things out of order. He is dealing with themes and broad concepts, not laying out a timeline. And this is what we've seen as we've done the comparison to the other Gospels, is that Matthew organizes by themes.

So if you want a timeline, you go to Luke. Luke's our careful historian who's putting things right in order. But if you want things by theme, Matthew is our guy. He's organized it that way. I've titled the sermon, A Summary of the Gospel of Matthew, not the summary of the Gospel of Matthew, because it's an enormous task.

We have 130 sermons that I'm summarizing. So I hope you pack the lunch. 28 chapters. We've had somewhere between an average of 4 to 5 sermons per chapter. And we've been going through them and it's something like 130 sermons that we've spent in this Gospel.

And a lot of things can be said about the Gospel, but Jesus Christ obviously is at the center of it. Jesus Christ is the Son that all the other characters, all the other settings, all the other circumstances that are related are revolving around this sun at the center of the solar system. S-U-N, S-U-N, sun, the center of the solar system is Jesus Christ. And He's the center of the whole Bible. And so of course He's the center of this Gospel.

And I trust that love for this Redeemer has been nurtured for two years and three months. If that isn't true, if We've come away with a better knowledge of facts and figures, and we've not had an increasing love for this Redeemer who would be so kind to leave the privileges, the honor, the glories of heaven to take on the form of a servant and to lay down his life for sinners, then my efforts have been a colossal failure. It's love for Christ that a Gospel should inspire. As we listen to the things that Jesus says, as we look at the things that he does, and ultimately his greatest work, the laying down of his life and then being raised from the dead, should just cause Love for God, love for Christ to rise up in our hearts. Listen to what Matthew says in Matthew 13 verses 16 and 17.

Matthew 13 is the parable chapter. He's just piling up one parable right after another And right in the middle of the chapter, Jesus says this, Matthew 13 verses 16 and 17, But blast are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it, and hear what you hear, and did not hear it." Jesus is pressing on His disciples the privilege of seeing what they saw and hearing what they heard. And this is true of everybody who has lived after the time of Christ. The time before Christ is pointing towards the time of Christ.

So much of everything that happened in world history leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ was simply to point to this pinnacle of history, this Mount Everest of human history, which is the life and times of Jesus Christ. So Jesus looks at these disciples and says, do you see what's happening here? Everybody up to this time who was righteous was looking forward to my life and times. Looking forward to my sermons. Looking forward to my works.

Looking forward to my sacrifice and to my raising from the dead. And you get to see it. And so it is for everybody who has lived after the time of Christ. We get to see what they wanted to see but couldn't. We get to hear what they wanted to hear but couldn't.

It's such a privilege to live in the gospel dispensation where the things that were shadows for them, it's like noon day to us. The sun is out and it's shining. And everything that was just pictured, just getting glimpses of, we have in full bloom. That's why Jesus when he's talking about John the Baptist says that he's the greatest prophet born from a woman but the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than him because he was a giant in the valley. In other words, he was before the time of Jesus Christ and before the giving of his life, the sacrifice that all of history was pointing towards.

The whole Old Testament is pointing forward to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So John the Baptist is the last of a kind. And he's a giant, but he's a giant in the valley. And a midget on top of the mountain can see further than John the Baptist is. You and I are the midgets on top of the mountain.

And so John the Baptist was a giant, but he was standing in a valley. And you can see further than him, you're greater than John the Baptist in this way. You have the blessings of the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel of John. And so you can see further. Here's what we're going to do with the rest of the time.

You have all these things in the Gospel of Matthew. So I just tried to categorize, just tried to lump them into, put them into buckets together so we can kind of talk about them in categories so I've got these six categories that you see on your handout the life of Jesus the words of Jesus the miracles of Jesus, the discipleship of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and the ongoing mission of Jesus. So strap on your seat belts where you have to go fast. There's so much to cover. Number one, the life of Jesus.

The life of Jesus Christ. Paul says this in Romans 8 verse 29. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren." Paul is talking about what God the Father has been up to. One of the things he has been up to is to give us an image for his people to be conformed to. It is the image of Jesus Christ.

One of the great values of each of the gospels is that we get to see Jesus. We get to hear His words, we get to see His works, we get to see how He relates to His friends, and see how He relates to his enemies. And we get to see the life that we should have lived, but have not lived, but need to aspire to live. We have this pattern, a beautiful pattern, an incomparable pattern. You can't go look at anyone else's life.

Even in the Bible you can't go look at their life. Think of the mixture in Abraham's life. Think of the mixture in David's life. Think of the mixture in the disciples life, even Paul's life. Pick another life even in the scriptures.

And you have all kinds of mixture. There's no mixture in the life Jesus Christ. It's all beauty. It's all to be desired. It is the perfect pattern.

So here is this mold. And now for believers, the Holy Spirit indwells and he starts pressing you into this mold. And there's a lot of uncomfortabilities with being pressed into this mold. It takes a lot of pressure to get a natural born man or woman into this mold. And it begins with a new heart, but it doesn't end with a new heart.

You have to be transformed into this image over time. And so one of the things that is being done in the life of Jesus is just to lay down a pattern of beauty. Every bit of it is desirable. We should look at this gospel and the words of Jesus, the works of Jesus, the self-sacrificing of Jesus, and desire to see every little bit of it established in our lives. This is what the fruit of the Spirit is on display, on steroids in the life of Jesus Christ.

All of the fruits of the Spirit all the time. The life of Jesus is defined by His identity. Jesus Christ. Jesus the Messiah. Jesus the anointed one.

Jesus the Redeemer. Everything about his life is defined by his identity. God's been saying all along that he's going to send a redeemer for his people. And so everything that happens in the Gospel of Matthew, you can just tack it right back to there. You can just tie it back to who Jesus Christ is.

We're different than that. Our life forms our identity. In other words, the things that happen in our lives ends up in our identity. It's exactly the other way around with Jesus. It's his identity.

It's who he is that's driving everything else about him. Secondly, it's a short life. We ought to say that about the life of Jesus Christ. It is a short life. 33 years.

I've already been alive a decade longer than Jesus was alive. Have you ever thought about that? I just thought about that about 7 seconds ago. I have been alive a decade longer than Jesus Christ was alive. He had a miraculous birth that was recorded, and then he disappears for 30 years.

And he lives 30 years of his life in relative obscurity after this miraculous birth where there's angels, where there's a sign in heaven where there's a king trying to kill him, then 30 years in relative obscurity, and then just three years in ministry, three years only. But the Bible says that even though he had a short life and even though his public ministry was only three years, that he finished everything the Father gave him to do. That's John 17 verse 4. Even in this short life, he finished every bit of his work. His whole task list was checked off in 33 short years.

Another thing about the life of Jesus. Jesus lived a life of prayer. This characterized his life. We saw this so many times in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 through 15 are devoted to prayer.

Right in the middle of it, he teaches his disciples to pray. That's because Jesus prayed. That's because Jesus knew how to pray. That's because when Jesus prayed, His disciples were in awe. So the parallel text in Luke, they actually draw this out of Jesus.

They say, Jesus, please teach us how to pray. What would it have been like to hear Jesus pray to his Father. Well, we know this. In the Gospel of Luke, the disciples were so awed by hearing Jesus pray, they said, Jesus teach us how to pray like that. And the Lord's Prayer is a response to their request to learn how to pray.

Jesus was a praying man. In Matthew 14 verse 23 it says, and when Jesus had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was there alone. Now this is the same text in which He's going to go walking out to them on the water. And he goes out to them in the third watch which means what?

It means he's been praying for nine hours. Jesus was a praying man. And I remember there were various points in the Gospel of Matthew where it would talk about Jesus praying and I would just roll out the parallel text in Mark, Luke and John just to show the Gospels are saturated with the counts of Jesus going away to be alone to pray. Jesus who was the Son of God who didn't have any problem with his connection with his Father. And yet it was a great desire of his heart to pray and Jesus felt like he needed it.

This is one of the great mysteries of the incarnation and what it's like for Jesus to be fully man and fully God at the same time. Jesus felt a great need in his soul to go away and be with his Father for nine hours at a time. And we can say this for sure, if Jesus needed to pray, We need to pray. How much more? If Jesus Christ, Jesus the Son of David, Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the Son of Man needed to pray, how much more do We need to be a people devoted to prayer.

Here's another thing about the life of Jesus. It was a life of gladness. We don't really spend a lot of time thinking about this, but this is the testimony of scripture, that Jesus's life was a life of gladness. You would think that maybe it would be described as a life of sorrows. After all, he was a man of sorrows.

That's Isaiah 53. But in Hebrews, when the author of Hebrews categorizes or characterizes the life of Jesus. The author of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 1 verse 9, you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions." So the author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9 is quoting Psalm 45, which is a prophecy about Jesus, that he would love righteousness, he would hate lawlessness, and something would spring out of that, gladness, and that he would be always the most glad among his fellows. Jesus was the happiest man who ever lived because he was the most obedient man who ever lived.

He loved righteousness, he hated lawlessness, and something flowed out of that. He was happy. Do you want to be happy? Maybe you should love righteousness more. If you want to have a glad life, maybe you should hate lawlessness more.

We think, when we are not thinking rightly, we think that God is withholding good things from us in His law. Not true. The best things are completely lawful. Jesus knew that. Jesus lived that way as if the best things were completely lawful.

That he could wholeheartedly go after the things that would make you the most glad. Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness above all of his companions. So in spite of all the opposition that we see in his life, someone's always attacking Jesus in this gospel and the other gospels too. But in spite of all that opposition, In spite of all the hardships that he encounters in these Gospels, when his disciples are disquieted, we hit that in almost every chapter, Jesus, there's not one ounce of peevishness in Jesus towards this opposition and toward the hardship of his life. You see a lot of things in his life, but peevishness is not.

He's been anointed with the oil of gladness more than his companions. So if we think of Jesus as an austere, unapproachable man, we've not considered the gospel rightly. He lived the gladdest life that has ever been lived. And this should have application to our own lives. We shouldn't be a peevish people because Jesus isn't a peevish Lord.

And as we're learning to be conformed, as we're being conformed into this image, the more we're like him, the less peevish we're going to be. So that we become a people that you can crank up the pressure on us. You can send opposition, you can send circumstances that are pressing in on us, and there's no peevishness. There's gladness in the middle of it. Here is something else about the life of Jesus.

He lived a life of mercy. He lived a life full of mercy. In Matthew 23, verse 23, it is right smack in the middle of this text where he's pronouncing eight woes on the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees and right in the middle of this you get Matthew 23 verse 23, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith, These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. And what Jesus is railing against in Matthew 23 verse 23, this hypocrisy in the lives of the scribes and the Pharisees that they tithe down to the garden mints. But they neglect the weightier matters of the law.

Jesus' life is completely in the other direction. Jesus gives full unfettered attention to the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faith. My favorite story of mercy, of the mercy of Jesus in the whole Gospel of Matthew, and we could go to a bunch of different places, just start thinking of where in the Gospels Jesus demonstrates mercy. My favorites though in Matthew 15 starting in verse 21, there's this woman of Canaan.

So she's a Gentile, she has a demon possessed daughter, And she comes and she's seeking mercy from Jesus. And the first time he just ignores her. But she persists. And the second time he rebukes her and calls her a little dog. And she persists.

And the third time he marvels at her faith and he is merciful towards her. The mercy of Jesus in the gospels is a substantive mercy. A substantive mercy. It's a mercy that doesn't just hand out fish, it's a mercy that teaches to fish. So that the people that he's had mercy on actually end up better, not just patted on the head.

You remember that about the mercy of Jesus in the Gospel? He doesn't just say, oh, just have a better life today. He leaves them with a better life forever, just like this woman. He deals with her in such a way that he's merciful, but there's substance to it. And when she goes away she gets more than just her request.

Matthew 9, the very end of Matthew chapter 9, Jesus looks out on the multitude and the text says that he had compassion. He was looking out on these people and he said they are just like sheep without a shepherd. And he had compassion on them. So he prays, He prays, he tells his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers and then that leads right into chapter 10. What does he do in chapter 10?

He sends out his disciples to the lost sheep of Israel to start gathering sheep. The triumphal entry in Matthew 21, what is Jesus doing as he enters Jerusalem? He is weeping. I think we learned that in Luke, it's not in the Matthew text. Jesus' life is a life of mercy and compassion.

Next, Jesus' life is a life without sin. It's a completely sinless life. It's a life completely without compromise. Think about your discouragements in the faith. So many of my discouragements in the faith come from the mixture that I see in my own heart.

One day I have a good day and the next day is bad. Even the good things that I do, I see that there are wrong motives mixed in with it. Jesus didn't have any of that. He lived a completely sinless life. He never compromised, not one time.

Not one time. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. This is so important because it makes him an acceptable sacrifice. It makes him a lamb without blemish, a spotless lamb that can be sacrificed, that can atone for the sins of others. Next, Jesus lived a life that perfectly fulfilled the Old Testament types.

He lived a life of fulfillment. In Matthew chapter 5, this is his first sermon, this is right at the beginning of his public ministry. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, Jesus says, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." So you have all this law. How many times did we hit a text and say, this is just like the ceremonial law.

This is just like this sacrifice. This is just like this offering in the Old Testament. So many times in the book of Matthew, the text forced us back into the ceremonial law to say, this is Jesus just doing what this was pictured in the Old Testament. This is the scapegoat. This is the lamb without blemish.

This is the morning and evening sacrifice. This is the free will offering. And on and on and on. The history, the history of the people of Israel is just a picture of Jesus Christ. There's this people that are in bondage and slavery And God sets them free and brings them into a promised land.

Who leads them there? This leader named Joshua. Jesus' name is just a different form of Joshua. Even the history of the people of Israel is a shadow of the noonday sun that is Jesus Christ. The prophets, how many times did our Gospel writer Matthew say, this was to fulfill what was said by the prophet.

More often than not, it was Isaiah. Wasn't always Isaiah. Sometimes it was Zechariah or Micah or Malachi or on or on. But so often, it was the prophet of Isaiah. The virgin birth was a fulfillment of prophecy.

The flight to Egypt was a fulfillment of prophecy. The slaughter of the baby boys in and around Bethlehem was the fulfillment of a prophecy. That Jesus would be from Nazareth was the fulfillment of a prophecy. That he would minister in Galilee, that he would be the light that would shine on Zebulun and Naphtali was a fulfillment of prophecy. That he would ride on a donkey was a fulfillment of prophecy.

All the circumstances surrounding his death found in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 is fulfillment of prophecy and on and on and on and on. You won't be able to flip through Matthew and not see an offset of our Gospel writer or Jesus or both quoting a prophet, something about his life. So Jesus did not start a new religion. There's a new covenant, But Jesus did not start a new religion. Listen to what Mark Dever says.

By the way, Mark Dever has two books. It's volume one and volume two. So they're companions. They go together. The first one is called Promises Made.

And it's a summary of every Old Testament book. And it'll tell you the theme of the book. And it'll drive home the central thrust of each book of the Old Testament. And then volume two is promises kept. So You have promises made and promises kept.

And promises kept is just a summary of all the New Testament books. And it really just drives home how in the New Testament you see God keeping the promises that he made in the Old Testament. So I was reading from promises kept the summary of Matthew this week and I came across this quote from Mark Dever. Mark Dever says, if you were to rip your Bible in half and take away the Old Testament, Jesus would say, you won't understand that book. You get that?

If you just came and found the Old Testament and New Testament division mark and ripped it apart and threw away the Old Testament and kept the New Testament and started reading and Jesus came to you, what Jesus would say is, you can't understand what you're reading. You can't understand that book. You need all that that you just threw away. Now, so much of evangelicalism has done just that. Ripped the book apart and said, we only care about this.

The part you say you care about you cannot even understand because promises were made and this part that you say you want to keep are the fulfillment of these promises and if you want to understand it in any sort of fullness, you better keep the other half. You better master it. Okay, that was the life of Jesus. Number two, the words of Jesus. The words of Jesus.

Here's what Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. You could quote it with me. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is the perfect description of the words of Jesus as recorded by Matthew, our Gospel writer.

This is what Jesus is doing with his words. He's teaching doctrine. He's giving reproof. He's correcting. He's training in righteousness to make us mature that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

It's a perfect description of the red letters in the book of Matthew. There are three things I want to say about his words. And we could spend all day here, but we're not going to. I'm just going to say three things that come to mind about his words. The first is that nobody gets to the heart of the matter like Jesus does.

Nobody, nobody, nobody gets to the heart of the matter like Jesus does. In Jesus' first sermon in Matthew 5, the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, six times Jesus says, You have heard, but I say. You have heard, but I say. You have heard, but I say. That is the pattern of Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse what?

Beginning in verse 21. You have heard but I say. And what is he doing with those six things? He starts with murder, then he goes to adultery, Then he goes to lawful vows and owes. Then he goes to something else, something else, and the pattern's always the same.

You heard this, but I say this. He's recapturing the heart of the matter. He's dealing with the people who want to take the laws of God and make them external, and make them manageable, and make them doable. And he's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This law is about so much more than external behavior.

It's about what's happening in that heart of yours. It's about what's happening in that heart of yours. And you can't do it. And you can't manage it. Jesus spends a lot of His time helping us to understand that what is required in the law cannot be done or managed by us.

The point of the law is not for us, is not to establish ability in us, it's to humble us, it's to break us, It's a tutor to bring us to Christ. Humiliated by the fact that we cannot keep His Law so that we'll run to the cross for mercy. So Jesus time after time after time is taking a people who want it to be exterior and manageable and doable and saying no. And driving us back to the heart of the matter. In Matthew 12, Matthew 12, so much of it is about the Sabbath.

And these people who have confined the Sabbath to external, sterile, mechanical things that you can keep score on. The Sabbath has become a scorecard to these people and Jesus says, No, no, no, no, the heart of the matter, the heart of the matter, the heart of the matter, the heart of the matter. Number two, Jesus is the master of the law. Now First of all, if you don't understand this, Jesus gave the law in the Old Testament. So Jesus is the ultimate expert in the law because there's Not an Old Testament law and then Jesus' law in the New Testament.

That's not how it works. Jesus is the Word. He's always been the law giver. So it's not a shift in law giver at all. And so Jesus shows himself to be the master of the law.

In Matthew chapter 22, remember this man comes to Jesus and says, Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law? And he says, the laws of love. The laws of love are the great commandments in the law. Loving God and loving your neighbor is what you hang all the law and the prophets on. You remember that in Matthew 22 verse 40.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So you who thought you had a scorecard for self-righteousness away with you. This is about love. All of it is about love. It's about loving God and it's about loving your neighbor.

So Jesus recaptures the law from men who had perverted it. That's what we see in Matthew chapter 5, Sermon on the Mount. You heard, but I say. That's what happens in Matthew 20 when this man wants to know which is the great commandment. The laws of love is the great commandment.

So when Paul, in his epistles, says love is the fulfillment of the law, he's just picking up on what Jesus is teaching. Finally, the words of Jesus, the rebukes. Will you ever be able to forget the rebukes in the Gospel of Matthew? So those who want a teddy bear Jesus, a Santa Claus Jesus, need to go somewhere else other than the Gospel of Matthew. Because some of the most full-throated rebukes that you'll ever hear in your life did come from that crazy street preacher.

It came from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the woes of Matthew chapter 11 when he is condemning those who lived in Corazine and Bethsaida and Capernaum, these towns, these little towns in Galilee where they were always hearing his sermons and seeing his miracles. And he says, you've been listening to my sermons and you've been seeing my miracles, but you wouldn't repent. If I had taken these sermons and these miracles to Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented, but you will not. You remember the woes of Matthew 23 where he is pronouncing judgment and giving the sternest rebukes that you have ever heard of in your entire life.

So number one, we had the life of Jesus. Number two, we had the words of Jesus. Thirdly, we have the miracles of Jesus. Jesus was healing. Blind people weren't blind for long around Jesus.

Deaf people weren't deaf for long around Jesus. Leopards weren't leopards for long around Jesus. Dead people weren't dead for long around Jesus. Water didn't make you sink long around Jesus. Hungry people didn't stay hungry long around Jesus.

He was feeding 5, 000 with a few loaves and a couple of fish. And this is the point where we would do well to understand that what would Jesus do isn't always a good question. Often it's a great question. So I don't think we should throw the question out, but sometimes you're nothing like Jesus. You're not going to feed 5, 000.

You're not going to walk on water. You're not going to make the blind see. In all likelihood, you're not going to raise the dead. So what would Jesus do sometimes is an irrelevant question because not only was he fully man, he was also fully God and we see that in his miracles. Jesus doing things that would just set the world on fire.

Jesus did set His world on fire by doing these things. Jesus did His miracles for two primary reasons. Here they are. Why did Jesus do His miracles? Number one, to bear witness that he was who he said he was, that he is who he says he is.

In Matthew chapter 11, the disciples of John the Baptist come to him. John the Baptist has been imprisoned by Herod. John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus to ask him, are you the one or should we wait for another? What does Jesus say? Go and tell John the things which you hear and see.

The blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the death here. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them." The main reason why Jesus did his miracles was so that you would know that he really is the Messiah, that he really is the Christ, that he really is the Redeemer that has come to save his people. And so all these things, it had been said, in the time of the Messiah, you'll see these things. So Jesus can just quote Isaiah and say, tell the John the Baptist that the things that are prophesied in Isaiah you see right now. And actually in the parallel text, it doesn't happen this way in Matthew, but in one of the parallel texts, Jesus says, they ask the question and Jesus actually does a healing on the spot.

And then says, go tell John the Baptist, and he quotes Isaiah. Though Matthew doesn't record that, But one of the other Gospel accounts, it's recorded, Jesus does a miracle on the spot, just to drive home the point. The things that would happen in the time of the Messiah are happening right in front of our eyes. Jesus is the Messiah. Secondly, these miracles are a physical picture of what Jesus can do for sin-stained souls.

These miracles are a physical picture, something you can see that show what Jesus can do for sin-stained souls. There is no better example of this than Matthew chapter 9. Listen to Matthew chapter 9 beginning in verse 2. Then, behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven." And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes.

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Then he said to the paralytic, arise, take up your bed and go to your house. And he arose and departed to his house.

So imagine this scene. A man paralyzed is brought. Now they're coming because Jesus has a reputation, because the stories have gotten out that Jesus can make paralytic men get up and go home. That's why they're bringing him. So Jesus says, be healed, right?

No, Jesus says your sins are forgiving you. Jesus looks at paralytics and says you've got a big problem and it has nothing to do with your arms and legs. You've got a big problem and it's that you need to be reconciled with God. You're living a life at war with God. And so your big need isn't that you can't use your arms or use your legs.

Your big need is that your sins must be washed away. If you die in your sins, The lack of the use of legs and arms will be the least of your problems for all eternity. So the miracles of Jesus are this. They're a physical picture that Jesus is able to do what we really need, which is to deal with our sins and to reconcile us to God. Jesus raises a couple of people from the dead.

It's just to show that he can raise men spiritually from the dead. He raises a couple of men physically from the dead to prove that he's able to raise spiritually from the dead. Number four, the discipleship of Jesus. The discipleship of Jesus. Many are following Jesus.

Often throngs of people, great multitudes of people, are following Jesus. But Jesus has zeroed in on twelve men. And he knows from the very first day that one of them is a son of perdition and will betray him. And that's part of the plan too. But he is making disciples.

And this process begins in Matthew 4 verse 19 where he looks at Peter and Andrew and they're in the boat and he says, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus takes fishermen and he makes them fishers of men. And the only thing those two things have in common is just the play on words. Fisherman and fisher of men have nothing else in common other than it's a great memorable play on words. Jesus transforms disciples.

He takes plain old blue collar guys and He turns the world upside down with them. He brings them to maturity by living with them, by walking with them, by talking with them, to them, by living life with them. We see firm, patient discipleship in the life of Jesus. He's saying to these men, He's repeatedly saying to them, you of little faith. He's putting up with men who have little faith.

But He's helping their faith to grow. He's coming alongside them to live with them to help their faith to grow. The giving of His life is happening literally long before it happens figuratively. Jesus is giving his life to his disciples in a very tangible way. I think I said that backwards didn't I?

It's happening figuratively. He's giving his life to his disciples long before his death on the cross, isn't he? The giving of his life is thorough. He is being poured out as a drink offering. He is turning his life upside down to make disciples.

Now we're disciple makers, right? We were in the Great Commission text last week. Now it's not just Jesus making disciples. Now he's folding his people into that and commanding us to make disciples like he made disciples. And so, how do we do that?

Well, we look at his life. How did he make disciples? He lived with these men. He turned his life upside down for these men. If we're going to obey God and be disciple makers, our lives are going to get turned upside down.

Friends, we are praying for converts. We are hungry and thirsty for converts, at least I am. We've got a lot of activity, we don't have many converts. I want converts, But understand what this is going to mean for my life and for your life. It's going to be really messy like it was for Jesus.

Because you don't start with a lot of faith. You start with a little faith. You start with faith like a mustard seed. Teeny weeny faith and a messy life and Jesus is patient with you and he makes disciples not by just speaking and leaving but by living with you. Day in and day out.

Week in and week out. Month in and month out. Year in and year out. That's how Jesus makes disciples. So I pray that we are hungry for converts for the glory of God.

But just understand what that's going to mean. We're going to make disciples like Jesus made disciples. And He'll help us. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit to help with this. And we have the manual.

But it's going to be messy when God starts giving converts. We're going to have to turn our lives upside down, or else our disciple making is not going to look anything like Jesus' disciple making. Number five, the death of Jesus. The death of Jesus. His words were wonderful.

His miracles were wonderful. The pattern of his life was wonderful. These are nothing compared to his death. He came to die. All those things were part of it.

All those things were necessary. But they all led up to some substitutionary atonement. The innocent standing in the place of the guilty. The hope for me and the hope for you is grounded that someone who lived the life that I should have lived but didn't would swap spots with me. Would trade places with me.

Otherwise I don't have any hope because you either got to plead guilty or innocent and I know enough about myself that a thousand times over, a million times over, I just have to plead guilty. So what's going to happen to me? Well, the gospel means good news and here's the good news. We know the bad news, that we're a million times over in a position where we just simply have to plead guilty. That's the bad news.

The good news is that there's one who has lived the life that I should have lived, and that you should have lived, and he's willing to swap places with you, so that all your sin and defilement, Even the things that you thought were righteousness but God has looked upon and said those are filthy rags. Don't bring me those filthy rags. That you can take all that defilement and put it upon him and then all the righteousness that is his. What kind of a trade is this friends? That is offered in the gospel, the innocent standing in the place of the guilty.

All my guilt going to Him. All His righteousness coming to me. This is the Gospel. John 10 verses 17 and 18. Jesus said, Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. When we come to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, it is anything but the trains jumping the tracks. The plan of God being derailed. It is the plan of God being fulfilled, period.

Amen. Jesus came to die. No one could take his life from him. He had the power to lay it down, he had the power to take it up again. He did lay it down and he did take it up again.

The cross tells it all. The cross tells it all. It tells of an almighty holy judge who is angry against sin. And it tells of mankind who has earned the wrath of God. Has earned it like you earn a paycheck.

The wages of sin is death. But it tells of a God who is not only just, but also the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. Number six, the ongoing mission of Jesus. Jesus has sat down, he did say it is finished, he has sat down at the right hand of the Father, but he is not done. He is continuing to intercede for his people, He has sent His Spirit to be the helper, to be the comforter, to be the one who gives power, to be witnesses.

And He is continuing his ministry through his people. Jesus is continuing his ministry through his people. And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

The things that we see Jesus doing in Matthew are still to be done in this earth. Jesus is still doing them. He's doing them through his people. That's why we are called the Body of Christ. He is the great head of the church, but he still has hands and feet here.

And he still, the gospel ministry of Jesus Christ is alive and well because Jesus is alive and well and he sent his spirit and he has commissioned his people. A few concluding remarks. Jesus Christ is our ground and hope. He's it. You don't have any hope in this world, in this life apart from Jesus Christ.

If we are ever to be saved, it will have to be through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me. If you are ever going to be saved, it will have to be through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here's the point, you need Him. You don't just need Him for one point to be justified. You need Him every day after that, as desperately as you needed him on the first day. You need him to be sanctified. You need him to make progress in the faith.

You need him for the fruits of the Spirit to be manifested in your life. You need him. I hope that we're leaving the Gospel of Matthew with a pressing sense of need for Jesus Christ. When I flip through these pages and remember these texts, I say, I need that, and I need that, and I need that, and I need that, and I need that, and I need that, and I need that, and there's no end to it. May the Gospel of Matthew leave us with a pressing sense of need for Jesus Christ.

Every beautiful thing that we see in those pages we desperately need as much today as on the day when God saved us for those who have put our faith in Him. Lastly, just consider the pattern, Consider the beauty of this life, of these words, of these deeds, of this death, this pattern of life, a self-sacrificing life. Jesus says in Matthew 16 verse 24 and 25, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Here's the great paradox.

Here's the great paradox. If you want to save your life, you want to keep your hands on your pleasures, you're going to lose your life. This is what Jesus says. This is what all natural men finally experience. All that grasping, all that holding on to comforts, entertainments, pleasures, and they find that They are without comfort, they are without entertainment, they are without pleasure in the end.

But those who will lay down their life, who will follow Christ and take up their cross, find that they haven't really given up anything at all, they've gained everything. It's a trading of nothing for everything. That's what the taking up of your cross is. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. So as daunting as taking up the cross is, it really is A giving away of nothing of value to gain everything of value.

As the sovereign over all things in heaven, in heaven and on earth, Jesus is worthy of obedience. Right? Anything wrong with that logic? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Because that is true, Jesus is worthy of your obedience, but that is only a sliver of the story.

Here's the rest of the story. Because of his perfections, because of his words, because of his life, because of his miracles. He's worthy of your love. He's worthy of a lot more than your paltry little obedience. Now I'm at risk of minimizing obedience here.

I'm not trying to do that. I'm just saying that your obedience isn't very impressive. Neither is mine. And he's worthy of more than that. We should do our duty, but the Christian faith isn't primarily about duty.

It's primarily about the affections of the heart. Read the Gospel again. Read the Gospel. Pick a Gospel. Any of them.

Read it. You'll find that He's not just worthy of your obedience, He's worthy of every affection of your heart. He is worthy of your love. Oh, may we read these Gospels and love Him more. May this be the great effect of the Gospel of Matthew on us, is that we see him as one who is worthy not just of our obedience, as if our obedience adds one little thing to him, but that he's worthy of every affection of our heart.

Let's pray. Oh God, this is true. You are worthy of every affection of our heart. We find so many competing affections there. Oh God, strip us of them, I pray.

I pray that you would be kind and merciful. That you would come and put your finger on the competing affections and you would strip us one by one of those affections that are really worth nothing when you are worth everything. I pray that Jesus Christ would be high and lifted up in our eyes as we continue to study his life and his words and his miracles in the gospel. And that he would be to us a pearl of great price that when we see it our heart would be arrested, stopped in its tracks. And that for joy over it we would sell all to have this one precious treasure.

God, we see that that is what you're worthy of, and we see who we are, how mixed our hearts are, how cold they can be at certain times, how greatly in need we are to be more sanctified, more conformed to this image. Oh God, please, please send your Spirit to stir us up and to increase the rate of our sanctification. That we could be more like this beautiful image that we've seen in the Gospel of Matthew. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.