The Gospel of Jesus Christ was sweeping the Roman Empire. For over 20 years, the Eleven Apostles and Paul had been preaching, planting churches, and writing epistles.
In every corner of the world, people’s lives were being gloriously transformed by the Gospel.
Amid that, after 20-plus years of ministering the gospel of Jesus, Matthew, the saved sinner, is moved along by the Holy Spirit to write a letter, a Gospel picture of the saving ministry of Jesus. As Matthew the Publican, who had become a disciple, was called to be an Apostle and sat to write God’s Word, another man spoke God’s Word in another city. That man was Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. It is incredible how the same Spirit of God, breathing out the Word of God, produces such a perfect correspondence in two completely different places.
What do I mean? At the same time, the Gospel by Matthew showed Jesus calling men and women in Israel to repent and believe in Him as their Christ. Paul wrote that he had been called to preach and teach the same message. Why? Because Christ’s message, the Apostles’ message, the Early Church’s message, and our message today – are all the same. Repent and believe in Jesus, and you will be saved.
The Four Gospels and their powerful presentations of Christ’s gospel messages were written FOR Christ’s Church, TO Christ’s Church, and BY the Apostles of Christ’s Church. The Four Gospels were written after the birth of Christ’s Church in Acts 2. The Four Gospels were written to those who were saved and trained in Christ’s Church from the very era when Paul and the Apostles took the Good News to every creature. The Four Gospels should be the richest treasure trove of Christ’s Church, mining the very words of Christ as He speaks to every heart laden with sin as God the Son, the Savior of the world.
This morning we continue to look at God’s Word through Matthew. Matthew had as his target to draw men and women into the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Holy Spirit placed this book at the beginning of the New Testament. For all 28 chapters of the gospel by Matthew, we see the careful and systematic presentation of all the components of genuine saving faith.
But before we read Matthew, please listen again to Jesus speaking to Paul and commanding him as to what the ministry of the Gospel would be for him. Acts 26:12-20. Please stand and listen to the Master’s Message given to Paul.
As we turn to Matthew this morning, we are studying what Jesus teaches as real repentance. We could distill the essence of Christ’s message in the Gospels to be that “repentance is an aggressive pursuit of holiness”. Genuine repentance means that a man has come to be sorry for the consequences of his sin and hates sin itself. Repentance means that the man in love with sin comes to hate sin because of its exceeding sinfulness.
(WWJ-38; 001126AM)
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