Matthew: Jesus Is The King of the Jews
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Matthew: Jesus Is The King of the Jews
Matthew 2:2 (ESV)
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Matthew 21:5 (ESV)
“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
Today we’ll be studying the gospel of Matthew. In the church and ministry setting we always hear the word “Gospel”. We know it to be the “good news”. Not just plain ol’ good news but the gospel is the good news of salvation addressed to a world lost in sin. Don’t you feel like all we’re seeing nowadays is bad news, everyday? The best part and the core of our good news is Jesus. Since we’ve finished the Old Testament portion of our series we will see that this good news is the fulfillment of the prophets of the Old Testament prophesying about the Messiah.
The gospel of Matthew presents Jesus Christ as the king of the Jews and not only the king of the Jews but of the whole earth. I’m glad to be starting this study of the New Testament and in the next three weeks we will be studying through the rest of the gospels, the account of good news, the good announcement that is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord! However, let me ask you this: Why are there four gospels? Why are there four accounts of the life of Jesus Christ? Matthew, Mark, and Luke follow the same flow. The gospel of John is a little different in talking about seven signs of Jesus but again, why do we have four gospels? Are they contradicting?
Here’s what we see when we look back at the Old Testament. When you look at the specific passages of the promised coming Messiah you find four distinct aspects.
The Messiah would be the King
Zechariah 9:9 “Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he”The Messiah would be a servant
Isaiah 42 “The Lord’s Chosen Servant”The Messiah would be a man
Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”The Messiah would be God
Isaiah 9:6 “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
What’s amazing is that in the New Testament, the four gospels show just that!
Matthew - Presents Jesus as the King
Mark - Presents Jesus as the Suffering Servant (Jehovah’s servant come to do the will of the Father)
Luke - Presents Jesus as the Son of Man (Christmas Story when Jesus was born)
John - Presents Jesus as God (The Word WAS God)
What we find in these four views of the Messiah aren't contradictory but they’re complimentary. Today we have the privilege of studying Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew as the King, the King of the Jews. In fact, Matthew was written to show Israel and to ALL that Jesus is the King.
Here’s a quick background on the book of Matthew. It was written around 60-65AD primarily for Jewish Christians who were given the responsibility to share its message with the world. The author is Matthew who was a tax collector. In fact, he was collecting taxes when he answered Jesus’ call to follow Him. He immediately began to follow Jesus. Now let’s look further into the background of Matthew presenting Jesus as the King.
I. The Person of the King
What we have first presented in the first 17 verses of the book of Matthew is the ancestry of Jesus traced back to King David who is a descendant of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. Matthew is presenting Jesus as the King through his lineage.
Matthew 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
We see the royal lineage all the way back to the nation’s inception in the Abrahamic Covenant. Matthew is showing us here if you’re going to be “the King of the Jews” you must be a descendant of David. This royal origin goes all the way back to 2 Samuel.
2 Samuel 7:12-13 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
He is also said to be Son of Abraham. Abraham, the first Jew, and Jesus being a descendant of him, establishes his Jewish identity and that Jesus was in fact an Israelite.
Genesis 17:5b-6 but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
This recalls the promises God made to both David and Abraham. At the very beginning of the gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus Christ as the descendant of the Father of Israel, Abraham and Great King of Israel, David. This is the position of Jesus Christ emphasizing his Jewish identity as “the Son of Abraham” and royal position as “the Son of David.” However, his lineage isn’t the only thing that we see of him from the text.
His name. He is Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. You see, Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua which means “Yahweh Saves” or “The Lord is Salvation”. Remember Joshua in the Old Testament? He was the appointed leader who led Israel into the promised land.
Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Now we have Jesus in the New Testament, Yeshua: The Lord Saves, appointed by the Father to lead sinful people into eternal life. He is the one who leads them into salvation. He is the Savior and the Messiah. The name Christ is derived from the Greek word Christos, which translates the Hebrew term Messiah, meaning “the anointed one”. Remember the key thing here is that Matthew’s audience is the Jewish people; to show and also prove that Jesus is the King of the Jews. This King and Savior emphasis is carried throughout the book of Matthew and after seeing his background as the person of the King. Now let’s look at his life and what he did with his time on earth.
II. The Proclamation of the King
During Jesus’s time on earth, he proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom. In fact, the word kingdom is important in Matthew’s Gospel. Over one-third of the New Testament’s use of the word kingdom appears in the Gospel of Matthew (55 out of 162 times). When you think of the word kingdom you think of a place or a land in which a king or queen rules. This isn’t the case with the teachings of Matthew. The emphasis isn’t the land but the authority of the King. It isn’t geographical but relational. Look at these two verses where both John the Baptist and Jesus preach about this kingdom.
Matthew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The term “kingdom of heaven” is a reference to the rule of the heavens over the earth. Jesus came to defeat and dethrone Satan. Jesus’ offer of the kingdom was not limited to the earthly realm of the kingdom, but the heavenly also. Now because of this Matthew lists five major teachings of Jesus revolving around the Kingdom of Heaven:
The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7): The Righteousness of the Kingdom of Heaven
Sending of the Twelve (Mt 9:36-10:42): Announcing to Israel the Kingdom of Heaven
Parables of the Kingdom (Mt. 13): Principles of the Kingdom of Heaven
Sermon on Church Administration (Mt 17:22-18:35): Applying Kingdom Principles to the Church
Sermon on End Times (Mt 23-25:46): God’s Judgement When His Kingdom comes
The proclamation of the kingdom is really significant because it talks about the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. But to be a part of the Kingdom, we need to choose the king that has been provided. Not through laws or principles but really acknowledging the one true King. In Matthew 22:1-10 we have the good news of the Messiah and the promised kingdom through one of Jesus’ parables which he left us with to make a huge impression about His Kingdom.
Matthew 22:1-10 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
This same invitation is ongoing today. Are we like those who don’t pay attention to God and even ignore the invitation to the kingdom? Maybe we are stuck in a place where we are not willing to accept his invitation. Our only response to this invitation should be to stop making excuses and make the decision into the kingdom of God. One of these days the banquet will be filled, and you won’t want to miss that.
III. The Passion and Authority of the King
After Jesus’ teachings and his ministry period of about three years he began to talk of his own coming death and resurrection. The Passion of Christ refers to the week of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Matthew 20:18-19,28 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
28 “...even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus explained that his death would be a ransom. Here is the dictionary definition of ransom.
Ransom: a means of deliverance or rescue from punishment for sin, especially the payment of a redemptive fine. Jesus’ death was a payment so that others could be free. But it doesn’t stop there. When he establishes the Lord’s Supper, he taught that his blood would be “shed for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt. 26:28)
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ paved the way in establishing his kingdom here on earth. This explains why Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection was absolutely necessary. You see historically when a dominant kingdom defeated another kingdom that victory secures full dominion over the conquered kingdom. If you consider John 12:31 that says
John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
In this verse, Satan is directly referred to as the ruler of the world. When Jesus died and resurrected he literally took away Satan’s dominion over this world. Today Satan seems to appear just as dominant, but don’t be deceived, Satan has already been defeated. One of these days Jesus is returning to claim this world that really belongs to him. Here he will establish his millennial reign on earth.
While we wait for his earthly kingdom, Jesus Christ turns to us as believers to carry out his authority by actively proclaiming his coming kingdom. Matthew closes his book by quoting the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I’ve personally highlighted “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given me” because often we take this for granted. Today, if we truly belong to Jesus Christ, we have this mandate to help others acknowledge that Jesus is the true king who will rule this world. His Kingdom will surely be glorious and everyone could be a part of it. It would be a shame if some people would miss it.
-Rev. Reuben J Cabrera