Matthew

By Joyce Webb 2006

Introduction:

Who was Matthew?

He was a Jewish man. He was tax collector for the Roman government. The Romans ruled over the Jewish lands. The Romans ruled much of the world at that time.

When a nation conquers (takes over) another nation by fighting in a war, they often make the nation they conquered pay money to them. This money is called taxes. The Jews had to pay taxes to the Romans. Tax money paid for soldiers to fight. It paid for roads to be made and buildings to be built.

Matthew worked for the Romans by collecting their taxes.

The Jews hated the Romans because the Romans took over their land and now the Romans made laws and told the Jews what they could do.

Matthew was a Jew working for the Romans collecting money for the Romans. The Jews thought that this was awful!

Also, tax collectors were often not honest. For example: if a Jew owed $5.00 in taxes, the tax collector might say, “You owe $7.00.” Then the tax collector would put $2.00 in his pocket and give the $5.00 to the Romans. The tax collectors got rich by not being honest.

The Jews knew this happened so they did not like tax collectors.

When Jesus called Matthew to be his disciple, some people were very surprised. How could a man who was a tax collector be called by Jesus to be his follower?

Matthew did leave his work and followed Jesus. He became a good person. He learned how to live a holy life like Jesus.

We can learn to be like Jesus, too. Maybe we have done wrong things n our life, but if we come to Jesus and learn, Jesus can forgive us and change our lives to be like Jesus’.

 

Chapter 1      verses 1-17     Read the Bible verses

Chapter 1 begins with a list of the Jewish families, starting with Abraham in the Old Testament through to Joseph, Mary’s husband.

This was the line of the families showing Jesus’ ancestors.

Joseph was not Jesus’ father. God the Holy Spirit was Jesus’ father. Joseph was like a father to him on earth. He took care of Jesus like a father.

 

Chapter 1    verses 18-25    Read the verses

The word Messiah was a Hebrew (Jewish) word meaning “the anointed one.”

In the Old Testament, when a man was chosen to be a special leader–especially a king or a priest—the man would kneel before a man of God. The man of God would pour oil over the man’s head. The oil would run down over his face and onto his clothes.

The olive oil flowing over them was a picture of the Holy Spirit being all over them. Like a blessing of God covering them, the Holy Spirit covered them so they could talk and behave like a holy person.

Anointed men were special leaders chosen by God.

 

Another meaning that also came with the name of Messiah was “the promised one”.

God had promised the Jewish people that a leader would come to save them and lead their nation. They would have peace and success.

All through the Old Testament the men of God preached that a “Messiah” was coming.

Jewish women would have thought it an honor to be the mother of the Messiah.

The Jewish people often named their sons names that meant Saviour–names like Joshua.

 

One thing the Jews may not have given much thought to was this baby was to be born of a woman who was a virgin.

 

When the angel came to visit Mary, a young unmarried woman, and said, “God has chosen you to be the mother of the Messiah.”, Mary was surprised! Mary asked the question, “How can this happen? I’ve never been with a man.”

The angel explains that the Holy Spirit will come and start the baby in her body. It will be a miracle (supernatural happening).

The angel told her that when the baby is born, he is to be named Jesus.

Another name for him will be the Hebrew word Immanuel or Emmanuel meaning “God is with us”. This title should have told the Jews that this baby was God, not just any baby.

There was a prophet (a person who told what would happen in the future) in the Old Testament named Isaiah. He lived about 800 years before Jesus was born. He said that there would be a virgin who would have a baby boy and he would be the Messiah. Isaiah 7:14

The Jewish people who heard that prophecy must have thought the prophet Isaiah was crazy. A virgin can’t have a baby!

But 800 years later, an angel told Mary, a virgin, that she was to have a baby.

Through the years Jewish women may have thought it would be wonderful to be the mother of the Messiah. Here now, is Mary, not married, and is about to become pregnant.

Who was going to believe her story that the Holy Spirit made her pregnant?

Most of the people seeing Mary pregnant would think just what we would think today. They would shake their heads and whisper to each other.

Mary knew this. Many thoughts were going through her head. Also, how was she going to explain this to Joseph, her husband to be?

In Old Testament times, a woman who was not married and was found to be pregnant could be stoned to death. The Bible does not say that Joseph was planning to stone her, but Joseph could refuse to marry her.

He was thinking about not marrying her. Then an angel came to him and told him to go ahead and marry Mary. The angel explained that the baby was in Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit and that the baby was to be a special person anointed by God. That this son would save his people from their sins.

The Jews missed this part—from their sins. The Jews were always looking for a leader to save them from the nations that ruled over them. They wanted a Saviour to give them power to rule themselves and bring peace and success.

A Saviour to save them from their sins was not on their minds at all.

The whole time Jesus lived, the Jews kept expecting Jesus to rise up and overthrow the Romans and let the Jews rule their own land again.

Jesus never showed that he planned to do that.

If Jesus did not plan to be a king then the Jewish people did not think he was the Messiah. To them the Messiah was going to save them from other kings ruling over them.

How could Jesus call himself the Messiah if he was not going to try to rule?

The “anointing” on the Old Testament was usually for priests and kings. God was anointing Jesus to be a priest first, later he would be a king.

All through Jesus’ life the Jewish people were confused by that and never understood the reason for Jesus’ being here.

Many times Jesus told them why he had come, but they just couldn’t understand it. One time Jesus said, “Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of God is near.” All the Jews heard was “Kingdom”, they missed the part about “Turn from your sins and turn to God.”

The reason Jesus came the first time (and he is coming to earth again) was to be a priest not a king. Jesus came to save us from our sins.

Maybe you think you are a good person. You think that you are not a sinner. The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

Have you ever sinned and done wrong? Then you are a sinner.

Jesus is the only one who can take away our sins. Jesus is the one who died on the cross to pay for our sins. He is the one who can forgive us.

We need to come to him and say, “I am a sinner. I am sorry for my sin. Please forgive me and wash all my sins away and make me clean in my heart.” Jesus will do it.

Then Jesus wants you to be a follower of him and learn to live in a way that pleases him.