Introduction to the Book of Matthew
The book of Matthew holds in its pages, an eye-witness account of the life of Jesus while He walked the dusty roads of Galilee.
The first 16 verses are just a bunch of names of His ancestors. They're hard to read. I can't pronounce a lot of those names myself, so you can just skip that.
Verse 17 sums up sort of a miraculous overview of the entire lineage all the way back to Abraham, the 99 year old man, who's wife was barren and she was pretty old, too. God told Abraham that he would become a nation! That's a huge miracle, but you can't read about it here in Matthew. This book is about Jesus.
Verse 18 begins Jesus' journey. Matthew is the first of four gospel accounts. BTW, they're improperly called "the Gospels" by many people everywhere, but there is only one Gospel. The word "gospel" simply means "good news" and this summer we'll have read four eye-witness accounts from four different men, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew, Mark and Luke are also called the "synoptic gospel accounts" which means they tell similar occurrences and occasions in Jesus' life. John is not considered a synoptic gospel because he wrote with a specific intent. He wasn't just chronologically writing events as the other three authors. No, John was writing to a different audience and with a different reason. We'll talk about that later. After Jesus was crucified and rose from the grave, conquering death, we will read in the book of Acts as Luke shares another series of his own experiences. We'll talk about that later, too.
This is the account written by Matthew. Let's see how he shares what he saw and learned in his day and how Jesus affected everyone He came into contact with.
Did you know that your birthday reflects Jesus' life?
The book of Matthew is good stuff! Get ready to read about some pretty strange occurrences about 2000 years ago. In fact, they were such awesome things that your birthday is reflected in the life of Christ! Did you know that every calendar date reflects Jesus' life? How? Because the calendar everyone uses worldwide is based on the life of Jesus. Jesus' life separated B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (anno domini which is Medieval Latin and means "the year of the Lord.") Get the picture? Your birthday is a date on every calendar!
Are you ready? Let's read Matthew 1-2
The first 16 verses are just a bunch of names of His ancestors. They're hard to read. I can't pronounce a lot of those names myself, so you can just skip that.
Verse 17 sums up sort of a miraculous overview of the entire lineage all the way back to Abraham, the 99 year old man, who's wife was barren and she was pretty old, too. God told Abraham that he would become a nation! That's a huge miracle, but you can't read about it here in Matthew. This book is about Jesus.
Verse 18 begins Jesus' journey. Matthew is the first of four gospel accounts. BTW, they're improperly called "the Gospels" by many people everywhere, but there is only one Gospel. The word "gospel" simply means "good news" and this summer we'll have read four eye-witness accounts from four different men, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew, Mark and Luke are also called the "synoptic gospel accounts" which means they tell similar occurrences and occasions in Jesus' life. John is not considered a synoptic gospel because he wrote with a specific intent. He wasn't just chronologically writing events as the other three authors. No, John was writing to a different audience and with a different reason. We'll talk about that later. After Jesus was crucified and rose from the grave, conquering death, we will read in the book of Acts as Luke shares another series of his own experiences. We'll talk about that later, too.
This is the account written by Matthew. Let's see how he shares what he saw and learned in his day and how Jesus affected everyone He came into contact with.
Did you know that your birthday reflects Jesus' life?
The book of Matthew is good stuff! Get ready to read about some pretty strange occurrences about 2000 years ago. In fact, they were such awesome things that your birthday is reflected in the life of Christ! Did you know that every calendar date reflects Jesus' life? How? Because the calendar everyone uses worldwide is based on the life of Jesus. Jesus' life separated B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (anno domini which is Medieval Latin and means "the year of the Lord.") Get the picture? Your birthday is a date on every calendar!
Are you ready? Let's read Matthew 1-2
