O'Donnell Matthew

All Authority in Heaven and on Earth
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3966-4
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 1088 Seiten

Reihe: Preaching the Word

Jesus is King. Standing as a central theme of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus's kingly authority has profound implications for how we live in the world and interact with those around us. In this reader-friendly commentary, seasoned pastor Doug O'Donnell leads us through the first book of the New Testament, highlighting key themes and offering helpful illustrations for preaching. Drawing on years of pastoral experience, O'Donnell shows how Matthew's various emphases-including Jesus's messianic titles, fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, teaching on the kingdom of heaven, and present and future role as judge-all relate to Christ's kingship. Designed to help pastors faithfully preach God's Word, this commentary ultimately highlights Matthew's call to all people to worship and obey Jesus, our humble King and gracious Savior. Part of the Preaching the Word series.

Douglas Sean O'Donnell (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is the senior vice president of Bible and church resources editorial at Crossway and is a member of the ESV Translation Oversight Committee and a Senior Fellow of the Center for Pastor Theologians. He has written over twenty books, including commentaries, Bible studies, devotionals, and a children's curriculum. In addition to his writing, he contributes editorially to several major commentary series, including Crossway's Commentary on the Greek New Testament,  the Concise Bible Commentary, the Conversational Commentary, and the Reformed Exegetical Theological Commentary on Scripture. ?He is the general editor of the ?Knowing the Bible ?series and the liturgies and Scripture editor of The ?Sing! Hymnal.

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Donnell, Douglas Sean

Leseproben

1

The Melodic Line of Matthew

An Introduction and Overview of the Gospel of Matthew

WHEN VAN HALEN’S album 1984 hit the record stores, many a young lad, myself included, signed up for piano lessons. This was because the great guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, learned to play piano and proceeded to compose the hit single of that album—one still played at many NBA tip-offs—“Jump.” In six short lessons I learned how to master this melody, which in those days was enough to impress friends, woo girls, and justify the expense of ten-dollar lessons. My performance at the junior high talent show was enough to bestow upon me that prestigious adjective-noun combination—rock star. I entered the stage. The spotlight moved across my face and fingers. Cameras flashed. A sixth grade girl fainted. Wearing black dress pants, a white shirt, one glove, cool sunglasses, and (yes!) a skinny piano tie, I sat on my poorly padded bench and bum before my Korg 500 digital synthesizer and played perfectly the rudimentary bass line and monotonous melody of Van Halen’s masterpiece.

I’m not certain if such an introduction to a Gospel is sacrilegious or just silly. I intended neither. I actually intended to get your attention in order to make a basic point about music and to show how such a point can and does relate to our study of any piece of literature, notably Matthew’s Gospel. The point is this: just as every good song has a melodic line (a tune that brings unity to the whole by its recurrence)—think of the chorus of “Jump” or “Ode to Joy” of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement—so too does every book of the Bible.

I’ll put it this way. The four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—all sound the same. That is, they all have a similar bass line. It’s as simple as the two C notes I learned for that Van Halen song. They focus on the same person (Jesus), and they were written for the same primary purpose (conversion to Christ; see John 20:31). In all four we hear those same deep, steady notes of Jesus as the Son, Savior, and Christ. We behold him as a miracle-worker. We hear his teaching and his call to faith and repentance. We encounter his passion, death, and resurrection. In these ways, all four sound the same. They have the same bass line. Yet each Gospel has a distinct melody of its own. And just as we can recognize the melody of “Ode to Joy” each time we hear the first four notes or “Jump” when we hear the first four chords, so can we recognize Matthew’s melody if we hear the recurring themes.

In Beethoven’s Fourth Movement of the Ninth Symphony, the beginning and the end are important. Matthew’s Gospel is the same. We hear the melody most clearly at the top and tail. Look at the first words with which Matthew begins: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David” (1:1). Notice the first two titles applied to Jesus. The first is “Christ.” That is not a last name. That is a title. It means “anointed one” or “king.” This is a book about King Jesus. That point is reiterated with the next title, “the son of David.” David was the great king of Israel, the one to whom a great promise was made. In 2 Samuel 7 we are told that through his offspring God would establish a forever kingdom. So with those first two titles you can hear the first note of the melodic line: Jesus, the King. Jesus is a sovereign who will be sovereign over an everlasting kingdom!

From that note of kingly authority Matthew subtly drops a half-step to the next note. He does this by moving from Jesus being “the son of David” to also being “the son of Abraham.”

Who was Abraham and why does he matter? Abraham was the non-Israelite Father of Israel. That is the point Paul will make in Romans 4, that Abraham of Ur wasn’t a “Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13) until he became one (you’ll have to think about that to get it). And why is he important? Abraham is important because he too received a great promise from God. In Genesis 12:1–3 God explained how through him and his offspring all “nations” would be blessed (cf. 17:4; 18:18; 22:18).

So, the point of these two persons and promises is this: Jesus will be that Davidic King who will reign over that eternal kingdom that will be a blessing to all peoples of the earth.

Jesus is King. That’s the first note. Jesus is the King of Jews and Gentiles. That’s the second. The third is a necessary admonition: Therefore, this King Jesus is to be worshipped. Read 2:1–11. This is perhaps the best summary picture of Matthew’s Gospel. Here we find very non-Jewish people—“wise men from the east” (2:1). What have they come to do? They have come to finish the melodic line. They have come to worship the newborn king—to give their allegiance to him.

That’s how this Gospel begins. That’s the top.

Next let’s turn to the tail. Like a fine symphony, Matthew’s melodic line resurfaces time and again through each chapter, oftentimes like a cello quietly playing in the background, until finally we come to the finale, where the whole orchestra, chorus, and even the audience stand up, play, and sing in one voice! This happens in the last three verses—the Great Commission. Listen for yourself. Listen for the culmination of all the subtle and strong sounds.

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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (28:18–20)

Underline all the all phrases: “all authority,” “all nations,” “observe all” (cf. “always” in v. 20). Those are the same three notes found in 1:1—2:11 and found, as we will see throughout our study, everywhere in this Gospel. If it helps, you can think of it like this. Here’s my prosaic summary: Jesus has all authority so that all nations might obey all he has commanded, or more simply and poetically, like this:

All authority

All nations

All allegiance

I don’t like to say any one passage in the Bible is more important than another, for they are all divinely inspired, but I will say that if you understand the Great Commission in its context, you will very well understand the Gospel of Matthew.

This chapter will not be an exposition on the Great Commission per se. I will do that later in chapter 89. This is only a preparation for it. That is, at the start of our exploration of Matthew, I want to show you these three notes—this melodic line—so you might better hear them when we come to them.

All Authority

So listen to the first note of this Gospel—all authority. After his sacrificial death and glorious resurrection, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (28:18).

That is not a statement you hear every day, is it? Yet, it is so familiar to us that we don’t recognize how bizarre it is. Think of the most famous and powerful man alive today. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, it’s Barack Obama (the President of the United States at the time of this writing). If he said what Jesus said, what would you say of him? If he called a press conference and said, “I have all authority in Chicago,” what would you think of him? How about if he said, “I have all authority in America”? What if he said, “I have all authority over the world”? If he said any of those, you’d think he was (to borrow from C. S. Lewis) either a liar or a lunatic, or more precisely an unrealistic egoist or an overly ambitious idiot.

Nobody talks the way Jesus talked. Those today who have great authority, even if they overestimate their power and over-esteem themselves, do not talk like Jesus talked. They do not claim to be the king of Heaven and earth. They do not claim, as they sit on their glorious throne no less(!), that every person from every time and everywhere will one day come before them to be judged. They do not claim to have authority to forgive sins. They do not claim to be greater than the temple and the Torah or to be the fulfillment and embodiment of the Hebrew Scriptures. They do not claim that their rule will spread to every corner of the world. They do not claim to establish an unconquerable church and institute new sacraments that have themselves as the foundation and focus. They do not claim that all their commandments are to be obeyed.

Yet with that said, as striking as such statements are, the more striking fact about Jesus is not only that he made such claims, but that somehow such claims are believable. Jesus is believable! Right? You believe him. I believe him. Maybe we’re just extremely gullible. Maybe we were all just brainwashed as children. That might explain some of us, but it doesn’t explain all of us. It doesn’t explain how for so many centuries very sensible, non-superstitious people have taken Jesus at his word. There is something very believable about Jesus, about the testimony of him that a fisherman,1 doctor, and tax collector put together.

And as I come to this tax collector’s testimony, I compare it to...