Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christianity. Without His life, death and resurrection, where would we be? Exactly, doomed to a life and eternity separated from God. So God has led me to a Bible study through the Gospel of Matthew to allow you and I to learn to be more like Jesus.
The writer of the book of Matthew
A disciple of Jesus, Matthew(Levi) wrote this Gospel. The words of the Gospel seem to agree with this. It is what we would expect a Jew to write. Matthew (Levi) respected authority. He was sure that Jesus Christ was King. So, the tradition is probably right.
The reason that the author wrote the Gospel
He probably wrote the book to Jews. He wanted to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. A careful study of the Gospel will show this. Some of these facts are:
He shows the family of Jesus. It was the same as the family of the Jews.
He claims that the Old Testament gave facts about Jesus’ birth. They were facts about the Messiah.
He has an interest in the Law.
He tells about other Jewish customs. (One example is in Matthew 15:1–9.)
All of this tells us that the Gospel was written to witness to the Jews. So is it important to the gentiles(non-Jews)? Yes! He insisted that it was for all nations too. (28:16–20.)
I believe that Matthew wrote to Jews, because he wanted them to know that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus would save them from the results of their sins. He would rescue them from the power of that sin in their lives.
What we can expect to learn from the Gospel of Matthew:
The Old Testament tells us about many hopes. It describes many things that people could expect. And Jesus is the answer to them all.
Jesus is the Messiah. He is God who became man. He shows this by the authority of His teaching. He shows it by the nature of His miracles, His love, His death and resurrection.
The stories about Jesus are facts of history. Matthew was recording the truth.
Jesus teaches about various subjects. There is the Kingdom of God. He tells what Christians should be like too. Also, there are specific matters. There is the matter of divorce. There is the subject of remarriage too.
Jesus is the hope of the world. Matthew shows how the Good News is for everyone.
Start praying today that God would speak to you during this study through the book of Matthew.