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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Commentaries on the Pentateuch

Commentaries on the Gospels

The Gospel in Matthew.

If we are properly to understand Matthew’s Gospel within its context one question we must ask is as to what his message is, both about the Law and about the Good News. In doing so, once we are reasonably confident about the original Greek text, we must in seeking to understand Matthew’s thought take the Gospel as it stands. For whatever critical methods may be applied to it for various reasons, and whatever sources he may have used, it is what he wrote as a whole that is the final product, put together to proclaim his message. And it is this final product that must be seen as revealing what in his view he considered the message of Jesus to be. That being so, that is the basis on which his teaching must be judged and understood.

In the first chapter of his Gospel Matthew stresses a number of things about Jesus. Firstly that He is Jesus the Messiah, the son of Abraham, to whom was given the promise that through his ‘seed’ all the world would be blessed (1.1). Secondly that He is the son of David (1.1) ‘the King’ (verse 6), who was promised that his descendants would rule over an idyllic everlasting kingdom (1 Kings 7.13, 16; Ezekiel 37.24-28). Thirdly that He is in the line of those who went into Exile, and so is identified with Israel in its continued suffering (noticeably and significantly he does not mention the return, for Israel was mainly still in exile). He is thus a part of all that is important in Israel, including its suffering.

Fourthly, and most vitally, for it is the basis of His very Name, is the fact that He has come to save His people from their sins (1.21). Thus every time that the name of Jesus is mentioned, throughout the Gospel, it should call to mind this statement. It is to be kept in mind throughout. He is the Saviour from sin.

To these four basic ideas we might possibly add a fifth, and that is that He had come in order to ‘fill to the full’ what the Scriptures have declared (1.22-23), a theme which will be continued on throughout the Gospel. For He has come as the divinely born child (1.23), brought out of exile in Egypt (2.15), from the heart of Israel’s suffering (2.17), and brought up in lowliness in Nazareth (2.23). As Isaiah has made clear His way will be prepared for Him as a king (3.3), that He might be a light to the people (4.16), and as the Servant of the Lord He will bring healing and restoration to all (8.17), and being endued with the Spirit (compare 3.16) will go forth to tend a broken nation and to bring right religion to the Gentiles (12.17). While He will be frustrated by the hardness of men’s hearts (13.14-15), nevertheless He will open His mouth to reveal things hidden from the beginning of time (13.35).

In accordance with His destiny He will enter Jerusalem as its King (21.5), where He will be rejected by those who fail to recognise Him for what He is, but in the end will become the cornerstone which binds all together (21.42). To this end He will undergo His foreordained suffering (26.54, 56), dying in ultimate forsakenness (27.46), but rising again to receive authority and power with a view to the evangelisation of the world (26.64 with 28.18-20).

Matthew’s first major point concerning the coming ‘Good News of the Kingly Rule of God’ (4.23; 9.35; 24.14), is that Jesus is the son of Abraham (1.1, 17), and therefore the One through Whom the promises of blessing on the world are to be fulfilled (Genesis 12.3). He is the promised seed of Abraham in Whom all is to be achieved.

This purity of descent would be seen as important among the Jews. In as far as they were in control of them all the highest positions in the land went to pure Jews. Those who were privileged to supply wood to the altar had to be able to trace their ancestry back, as had those who sought high office. Such Jews would only intermarry with other families who could also prove their purity of descent. This was especially true of the priesthood. And genealogical records were carefully preserved for these purposes. For these pure Jews saw themselves as forming a kind of elite in Israel, and in many cases despised those who could not demonstrate such purity of descent. This was especially important to them because they considered that as trueborn sons of Abraham (at least theoretically) they were sure of salvation at the last day.

Matthew thrusts that idea to one side. That our being of the seed of Abraham is not essential to ‘salvation’ Matthew makes clear when he informs us through John the Baptist that ‘God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham’ (3.9), and when he warns the Pharisees against trusting in the fact that Abraham is their father (3.9). Nevertheless by indicating that He is the son of Abraham he wants us immediately to recognise the connection of Jesus with the Old Testament promises and prophecies. It is because He is the seed of Abraham par excellence that He has done what is described in the Gospel, in order that the whole world may be blessed, and He is therefore to be seen as the answer to Israel’s prayers for salvation and deliverance (1.21).

Matthew’s second point is that Jesus is the son of David, and therefore the coming expected King of the House of David, the Messiah, (Matthew 1.1, 17). For the genealogy makes quite clear, in the places where we can compare it with other records, that the line that is being traced is the line of descent to the throne commencing with David, through to Zerubbabel (1.6-12). He is thus depicted as of direct royal descent. This Messiah was eagerly awaited by the Jews under various forms, and this recognition of Him as Messiah becomes clear in what follows, in for example Peter’s declaration in 16.16, ‘You are the Christ (Anointed One - Messiah), the Son of the living God’; ’in His being called ‘the Son of David’ (1.1; 9.27; 12.23; 15.22; 20.30-31); in various parables which refer specifically to a king (especially 21.37-39; 25.31-46); and in references to Him by foreigners as ‘the King of the Jews’ (2.2; 27.37). It is finally emphasised when having been enthroned in Heaven (26.64) He declares, ‘All authority has been given to me in Heaven and on earth’ (28.18).

For the importance to Israel of the direct descendant of the throne of David see Lamentations 4.20. He was seen as their very breath. This was why in the book of Kings such emphasis is laid on the king. In a sense what he was the people were, and they were summed up in him. Like king, like people. He determined the whole tenor of Israel’s life and worship (with always a remnant who remained true to the Lord, and would act when the opportunity arose, but not against the Lord’s anointed).

Matthew’s third point is that Jesus is in the line of those who went into exile (the return is significantly not mentioned, for that was only of the few). But in His case, on their behalf, He has returned from Exile, casting aside the all-pervading influence of ‘Egypt’. He has led the way as the Trek Leader on behalf of those who follow Him (Hebrews 2.10). This is especially made clear in two of the ‘prophecies’ which are said to be ‘filled to the full’, where Jesus is seen as having responded to God’s call to come out of Egypt, thereby doing what in their hearts Israel had failed to do (2.15), and in the weeping of Rachel over those whose hearts ‘remained in Exile’, because they had refused to return to Him, something which had continually brought on them the suffering that resulted from their failure, and still continued to do so (2.17). Thus in Him could be seen to be ‘filled to the full’ the whole history of Israel. In a sense which would have been seen as very real He could be seen as Israel (Isaiah 49.3).

Matthew’s fourth point comes from his portrayal of the proclamation of the angel concerning Jesus in which we learn that His name is to be called ‘Jesus’ (YHWH is salvation). This is because He will ‘save His people from their sins’. It is thus made clear what the purpose of His coming is. He is coming as His people’s Saviour. And this is later expanded in terms of Him being the Servant of the Lord Who has come to give His life a ransom for many (20.28, compare 8.17; Isaiah 52.13-53.12). And that being so we should immediately begin to look for clues in Matthew as to how this salvation is to come about.

We do not have to look far before we discover the answer to our question, but before we do so we must take to heart one thing. We must remember here that we must not make Matthew speak in Lucan terms. Matthew must be allowed to speak for himself. For he did not write his Gospel as a kind of supplement to the other Gospels and to Acts. He wrote it as complete in itself. We may therefore expect to see his opening themes as being later carried through and fulfilled within his Gospel and explained within it. It is difficult for us to do this. Our thoughts have been so taken over by Luke’s presentation, which we mainly misrepresent because of our bias towards Acts 2, that we tend to see all else in the light of it. But we have no reason for believing that Matthew had ever read Luke. He and his words must therefore primarily be judged in the light of what he says in his own Gospel.

Having laid a foundation for what is to come in depicting the birth of Jesus as being in ‘fulfilment’ of Old Testament prophecy, Matthew avers that the basis of what Jesus has come to do is first proclaimed by John the Baptiser. John declares, ‘Repent, for the Kingly Rule of Heaven is at hand’ (3.2), and this is the message that Jesus will take up (4.17), although in His case it will be amplified as being concerning ‘the Good News of the Kingly Rule (of Heaven)’ (4.23; Isaiah 61.1-2). According to Matthew therefore both John and Jesus came declaring a call to repentance, to a change of heart and mind towards God, and combined it with the promise that the Kingly Rule of Heaven was at hand (3.2; 4.17). (Heaven being simply another way of describing God).

By these words Matthew is therefore rooting John’s and Jesus’ message firmly in the line of the Old Testament prophets (Jeremiah 8.6; 20.16; Ezekiel 14.6; 18.30), and proclaiming that in them what the prophets prophesied concerning the coming of the final Kingly Rule of God was in process of fulfilment (e.g. Isaiah 9.6-7; 11.1-10; Ezekiel 37.22-28). The prophets had spoken of it in earthly terms, for they knew no other, but their words clearly go beyond anything that could take place on earth. In their minds is a ‘kingdom’ that surpasses all that earth could offer, an everlasting Kingdom ‘in which dwells righteousness’ (2 Peter 3.13).

The prophets make clear what is meant by ‘repentance’. It is the opposite of ‘holding fast to deceit and refusing to return to God’ (Jeremiah 8.5). It is the opposite of ‘failing to speak what is true and right’ (Jeremiah 8.6). It is ‘repenting from wickedness’ by saying ‘what have I done?’ (Jeremiah 8.6). It is a turning away from holding on to the things that caused God in the past to bring judgment on cities (Jeremiah 20.16). It is a turning away from all idolatry and abominations (Ezekiel 14.6). It is a turning away from all transgressions against God’s Law (Ezekiel 18.30). It is thus a turning to God and a turning away from all that is seen to be sinful and wrong.

The idea of ‘turning to God’ is emphasised in Hosea 6.1-2, where the call is to ‘return to the Lord’ in order to be healed and restored (compare Hosea 14.1). And this is the emphasis of all the prophets in one way or another. The idea of ‘turning from all that is sinful and wrong’ is emphasised in Isaiah 1.16-17, in which it is made clear that a turning from their evil ways and doings will issue in forgiveness and total cleansing from sin (Isaiah 1.18). Again a feature of the prophets. Both are brought together in Hosea 12.6, ‘Turn to your God, keep mercy and righteous judgment, and wait on your God continually’. And we might parallel that with Micah’s words, ‘What does the Lord require of you but to do what is right, to love compassion and to walk humbly with your God?’ (Micah 6.8).

Thus in his message John was calling on all Israel to turn back to God and as a result to produce fruitfulness in their lives in readiness for the coming Kingly Rule of Heaven (God), which could be seen as at the very door. It was a continuation of the message of the prophets. But what distinguished John from all the previous prophets was that he proclaimed that the Coming One was now on the very verge of arrival, and that this Coming One would drench men with the Holy Spirit, transforming those who through Him received the Holy Spirit so that they would be revealed as true grain and as being fruitful (3.10-12). Again it was a repetition of the ideas of the prophets (e.g. Isaiah 32.15; 44.1-5; Ezekiel 36.25-27). The heavenly rain will come on them and those who respond will be like the good grain separated from the chaff (compare Psalm 1.3-4). Through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit the ‘wilderness’ will become ‘a fruitful field’ (Isaiah 32.15). Those who respond to Him will have accepted the wheat of the true prophet, as against the chaff of the false prophet who merely ‘dreamed’ (Jeremiah 23.28). They will spring up like reeds amid the waters (Isaiah 44.4). They will be purified in the cleansing fire (Zechariah 13.9; Malachi 3.2; Jeremiah 23.29; Numbers 31.23).

On the other hand He will also overwhelm (baptise) in fire those who are like chaff (Isaiah 5.24; see also Job 21.17-18; Psalm 1.4; 35.5, and the multiplicity of references to fire as God’s means of judgment such as Isaiah 4.4). He will thus come to save and at the same time to bring judgment on those who refuse to respond (compare John 3.17-21). The same fire will both purify and destroy (Isaiah 4.2-4).

And Matthew sees this as happening in the presence of Jesus among His own. His evidenced power over Satan is revealed in that He casts out evil spirits by the Spirit of God, and that is why men can know that the Kingly Rule of God has come to them (12.28). That is also why those who oppose Him are in danger of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit (12.31). It is thus the time of the Spirit, and Jesus is therefore to be seen as pouring out His Holy Spirit as He drenches His people (3.11; compare Luke 11.13; John 3.1-6; 4.10-14), giving them ‘good things’ as they seek the Father (7.11), which Luke equates with the Holy Spirit at work during the life of Jesus (11.13). It is indeed by the Spirit of God that He has come among them as the Servant (12.18). And after the resurrection Matthew (without referring to the Holy Spirit) again represents the presence of the risen Jesus with His followers as being the equivalent of Luke’s Pentecost. What others speak of as the coming of the Holy Spirit is seen by Matthew in terms of the continuing presence with His disciples of the risen Jesus (Matthew 28.20). Thus Jesus presence among His people and the working of the Holy Spirit are seen as synonymous.

This way of presenting it should be compared with Luke 24.49 together with Acts 1-2, but seen in the light of Luke 4.1. Luke too recognises the continual work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus while on earth, and through His disciples once He has risen. He simply represents it in a different way. Thus Matthew makes clear that for him the Holy Spirit is already present because Jesus is present (4.1; 12.18, 28, 32). For him the drenching with the Holy Spirit has begun once Jesus has begun His ministry, and the result is that people have responded and have become disciples. This presence of Jesus in the power of the Spirit must be what Matthew sees as the fulfilment of the prophecy of John concerning the Holy Spirit, for this is clearly how he sees the Spirit’s work and he describes no other. He would hardly have so emphasised the promise without providing us with a description of its fulfilment. After all Matthew is the Gospel which emphasises ‘fulfilment’.

This coming of the Holy Spirit in abundance had been promised by the prophets, and it was prophesied that it would change men’s hearts and transform them so that they abounded in fruitfulness and totally dedicated themselves to the Lord (Isaiah 44.1-5). Through the Holy Spirit coming down on them like water God would put His Spirit within them and would transform their hearts (Ezekiel 36.25-27). This was indeed how God would hallow His Name (6.9; Ezekiel 36.22-23). In both cases these promises were also linked with the forgiveness of sins and cleansing from impurity and iniquity (Isaiah 44.22; Ezekiel 36.29, 33) and with repentance (Ezekiel 36.31). So John’s promise of the coming of One Who would drench them with the Holy Spirit (of which his baptism was a picture), promised that God would work more abundantly in making men repentant, so that He might forgive their sins, cleanse away their iniquities and impurities, and inwardly make them new men and women. (This is why Mark could describe John’s baptism as ‘a baptism of repentance unto the forgiveness of sins’ (Mark 1.4)). And this in Matthew’s terms was what Jesus was here to do.

He tells us that it was by His presence that Jesus thus ensured the work of the Holy Spirit on men and women in His own day, and the work of the Holy Spirit through His disciples in the future (28.20). As we have already seen Luke describes the same in a slightly different way. For while he parallels the idea of the Spirit at work through Jesus in His day (Luke 4.1; 10.21), he also describes the future work in terms of the work of the Holy Spirit as sent forth by Jesus (Acts 2), in contrast with (or should we say in parallel with) Matthew’s presentation of it as resulting from the presence of the risen Jesus. The difference is merely, however, a difference of emphasis. In both cases it is descriptive of the living God at work.

The promise, therefore, is that what the Coming One would do once He arrived would be by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Indeed that is why God has given Him the Holy Spirit (3.16). And all that follows in Matthew’s Gospel must be seen in the light of this. That is why Jesus takes up John’s message. For He also proclaims, ‘Repent for the Kingly Rule of Heaven is at hand’ (4.17, compare 3.2) thus identifying Himself with John’s promises. But He will take it one step further for He will go on to reveal that the Kingly Rule of Heaven is in process of establishment on earth (13.1-52), through the work of the Holy Spirit, ready for the future yet to come.

That Jesus’ proclamation is one step ahead of John’s also comes out both in John’s words, and in the different status that those who respond to Him will enjoy (11.11). For while John is the preparer of the way (3.3), Jesus is the Coming One promised by John, who having received the Holy Spirit (3.16-17) will pour Him out on others (3.11-12). The result is that their status will be ‘greater’ than that of John the Baptiser (11.11). In Matthew (as indeed in Luke 4.1, 18) the Holy Spirit is already at work through Jesus (Matthew 12.28, 32).

Luke differentiates between the coming of the Holy Spirit in Jesus at work throughout His ministry (4.1, 18; 10.21; 11.13) from the coming of the Holy Spirit as sent by Him in Acts for the advancement of His Rule, while Matthew sees the work of the Holy Spirit as taking place by the presence of Jesus, both during His life and after His resurrection. What follows the resurrection will be but a continuation of what has been true on earth (Matthew 28.20). At present Jesus is present with them in the power of the Holy Spirit and sends out His disciples to make disciples. As the risen Jesus He will continue to be with His disciples to the end of the age, and they also go out to make disciples.

Furthermore Matthew early on emphasises that in Jesus light has come into the world. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light (4.16). Light has sprung up on them (4.16). This is a quotation from Isaiah, and in Isaiah this quotation comes in the very passage that promises the coming of the greater David, the Messiah (Isaiah 6.1-7). We might well therefore from this remember here Jesus own words ‘I am the light of the world’ (John 8.12). It is clear from all this that Matthew sees Jesus proclamation of the Kingly Rule of Heaven (God) in terms of His presence among them as the Coming King, in terms of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (12.28), and in terms of His presence among them as the light of the world (4.16).

And Matthew clearly considers this is all that needs to be said about Jesus’ opening ministry. No one can really doubt that in His preaching Jesus said more than, ‘The Kingly Rule of Heaven (God) is at hand’. (He would not have got far on that). But Matthew sees no need to expand on that here, because what it means will be revealed throughout the remainder of his Gospel. He expects us to read it with commonsense and discernment. To him ‘repent for the Kingly Rule of Heaven is at hand’ sums up the message of Jesus. The Kingly Rule of Heaven was about to burst in on men once they responded to the message of Jesus. For through His word the Kingly Rule of Heaven, which is already established in Heaven as over the earth (Psalm 22.28; 93.1; 97.1; 99.1; 103.19), will come into being on earth in His followers.

That Jesus would have said far more than this is clear, and Matthew therefore expects his readers to understand this, and wait for his fuller explanation of what that message was later. It is the Good News (4.23) for which Israel has been waiting. (Just as the same Kingly Rule of God is the Good News proclaimed by Paul in Rome (Acts 28.23, 31)). He would therefore expect his Christian readers to read into it the full message of the Gospel which had come to them, for as Luke makes clear, the message of the Kingly Rule of God includes ‘the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ’ (e.g. Acts 28.23, 31), although, of course, in Acts amplified as a result of the crucifixion. Meanwhile, until Jesus was crucified for them they would still have to offer their offerings and sacrifices, but, as Matthew makes clear, that would only be until Jesus finally replaces the sacrifices (20.28).

What this message of the Kingly Rule of God (Heaven) fully involved will come out as we study Matthew further, but in its summary form as described here (4.17, 23) at the beginning we must see it as containing much of what later follows.

However, while Matthew delays his fuller explanation, we may assume that Jesus did not, but that He made it clear at the time to the crowds what He meant as He followed up His words by expanding on His central theme, for it is quite clear that He would not just have stood up and said ‘the Kingly Rule of God of at hand’ and then have ceased preaching. While we are nowhere told the detailed content of His initial preaching, we may therefore confidently assume that it contained the seeds of what would later come to full flower later in the Gospel. In Luke His opening ministry is defined in terms of the Anointed One in Isaiah 61.1-2 (Luke 4.17-19).

Matthew is, however, more interested in demonstrating what Jesus’ message was to those who had responded to this proclamation of the Kingly Rule of Heaven, whom he refers to as ‘the disciples’ (5.1). He does this in the Sermon on the Mount, for in chapters 5-7 he makes clear through words of Jesus what is the essential nature of the Kingly Rule of Heaven for those who have believed. Later he will reveal more of what Jesus’ message was to the crowds in chapter 13. For He spoke to them in parables.

This emphasis brings out that Matthew is writing his Gospel for believers so as to show them what is required of them by their response to the Gospel of the Kingly Rule of God, rather than as an evangelistic organ. He is basically saying that having proclaimed the Kingly Rule of Heaven to the crowds, certain of them became disciples, and it was these Whom He then gathered on the mountain in order to lay bare to them the heart of what the Kingly Rule of Heaven was all about.

Alternately he may have chosen this method so as to be able to give his readers a taste of that Kingly Rule before telling them how they could enter it. For the truth is that any description of the life of Jesus must necessarily in the end have been for both believers and unbelievers.

In Pauline terms, however, the acceptance of the Kingly Rule of Heaven resulted in their ‘justification’. Receiving the Sermon on the Mount resulted in their ‘sanctification’, their setting apart as ‘holy’ by being His holy people.

Throughout his Gospel these will be two of his themes. One will be the proclamation of the Kingly Rule of Heaven, the other will be the establishment of that Kingly Rule of Heaven on earth in the persons of the new congregation of Israel that He was establishing. Both themes recur continually. The old Israel, which will not receive His message, and is slowly being replaced by the new Israel who will (7.13-27; 16.18; 18.1-35; 21.43).

By the time of chapters 5-7 Jesus is seen as having a largish number of ‘disciples’ who have responded to the message of the Kingly Rule of Heaven. They are therefore already believers. And there, at the Mount, these ‘His disciples’ gather to Him and He speaks to them. These are the ones who have already responded to His message concerning the Kingly Rule of God, and have ‘violently entered into it’ (11.12). They have repented (4.17) and had their sins forgiven (9.2, 5-6). And initial forgiveness followed by continuing forgiveness is a basic of the Kingly Rule of Heaven (6.12, 14-15; 18.21-35) This is the essence of Jesus’ message. Compare Mark 1.4. His subsequent words in the Sermon on the Mount must therefore be seen in that light.

The Sermon on the Mount is not to be seen as words spoken to ‘outsiders’ among the Jews, calling on them to somehow get themselves right and start obeying the Law of God. They are a call to those who have responded to His declaration of the presence of the Kingly Rule of God. They are spoken to those who have repented and received forgiveness and the inward working of the Holy Spirit, so as to begin to live in that light. They are insiders, and the Sermon is a rallying call and an explanation of what is now required of them. Just as in the time of Moses God had delivered His people from Egypt and brought them under the Kingly Rule of God (Deuteronomy 33.5) and then at Sinai confirmed this fact (Exodus 20.1-2) and showed the new people what God required of them (20.3-23.33), (thus deliverance first, requirements afterwards), so Jesus has delivered His new people by bringing them into the Kingly Rule of God (Heaven) through repentance and forgiveness and now reveals what will be required of them.

The fact that they are classed as ‘His disciples’ confirms that a work of the Spirit has already taken place in them, for they have responded to the One Who is filled with, and Who drenches (baptises) men with, the Holy Spirit. They must therefore in Matthew’s terms be seen as those whom Jesus has drenched with His Holy Spirit and are each therefore already one of His, as long as their hearts are true. They are those who have already been ‘blessed’ by God with their futures secure (5.3-9). This is continually assumed within the sermon. It is assumed that they are truly blessed (5.3-11). It is assumed that they will want to pray for the establishment of His Kingly Rule (6.9-13). It is assumed that they call Him ‘Lord, Lord’ (7.21-22). Thus His words, given in His earlier preaching, are seen as having already been in action in their lives through the Holy Spirit making them His ‘disciples’ (compare how being similarly ‘made disciples’ is an idea which Matthew also uses, in words of Jesus, in order to describe the future work that follows His resurrection - 28.19), and it is to them as disciples on whom the Spirit has worked that He speaks. He has sent forth His Spirit on them through His word (3.11; 12.17; Isaiah 55.10-13 with 44.1-6) and now calls on them, having responded to His word, to reveal it by their fruitful lives. For they are those who outwardly at least, have responded.

For them it is therefore now no longer a matter of living so as to prepare for the coming action of God, which was the message of the prophets and of John, but of living in response to the action of God which is now at work through Jesus, the One Who is indwelt by and now dispenses the Holy Spirit. He is the One Who as God’s light has shone on them (4.14-16), Who has been revealed to them as God’s light, and through Whom they are to live their lives under the Kingly Rule of Heaven, seeking first His Kingly Rule, which will result in all other of God’s blessings being given to them (6.33). That is why they are ‘greater’ than John the Baptiser (11.11). They are members of a community in which the Holy Spirit is now present and at work in and through Him.

So what is being called for in Matthew 5-7 is not a response in order to enter under the Kingly Rule of Heaven, but a response because they have already entered into it. What He declares there is to be the consequence of their having responded to the Good News of the Kingly Rule of God. It is to be the consequence of their first having experienced the work of the Holy Spirit; of their having been made repentant; of their having received forgiveness; and of their having responded to Jesus, and having received the work of the Spirit through Jesus into their lives (3.12; 4.16; John 3.1-6; 4.10-14). They have become new people and are therefore now expected to live in a new way, as light in the world (5.16), responding to the coming of His light (4.16), a way which is totally different from that of the Scribes, with their teachings of Moses and the elders, and Pharisees, with their rites of cleanliness and law observance, who are still in the old dispensation (5.20), for these have failed to come to the light. They are to be fruitful trees (7.16-18, compare 3.8-10). Note how this call to be a light in the world (5.14- 16) follows immediately on the fact that they have in Jesus seen a great light (4.16) which has shone on them. In other words Matthew 5-7 is spoken to men and women who have already been ‘converted’, who have turned to God and have been born again by the Spirit from above, and in whose hearts the light has shone, men and women who are now seeking an avenue through which to work out their new experience, because God has worked within them through Jesus’ word. In a sense they are a new undefined community (something which will be given form later (16.16-19; 18)). Matthew is following the ideas of the Old Testament prophets as amplified in Jesus, appealing to all Jews as Jews, and only gradually introducing the idea of the new ‘congregation’ (of Israel) later in his Gospel in order to demonstrate how ‘the church’ (ekklesia - church, congregation), made up of all who truly responded to the Kingly Rule of Heaven, came into being through the work of Jesus. Compare how Isaiah parallels the pouring out of the Holy Spirit with the ‘going forth of God’s word’ in Isaiah 44.1-5; 55.10-13 to produce spiritual fruit. In a similar way in Matthew the going forth of His word is like the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, producing fruitfulness and judgment, wheat and chaff, the Holy Spirit and fire (13.3-50), and producing light in their lives.

It is true that this ‘conversion experience’ has not all yet been spelled out by Matthew in Jesus’ own words, but it is all contained in what John has promised and it is intrinsic in the idea of the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingly Rule of Heaven, the details of which will be spelled out later. These are in fact the only descriptions that he gives which explain what Jesus preliminary message was, and he would have assumed that his readers would see in this proclamation of the Kingly Rule of Heaven by Jesus the fulfilment of what John had promised and had laid the groundwork for.

What then did Jesus proclaim in Matthew’s view, when He proclaimed the Gospel of the Good News of the Kingly Rule of Heaven (God)? The answer can only be that in some way He proclaimed the fulfilment of what John had promised (3.11-12; compare Luke 4.18-19 with Matthew 12.15-21), His pouring out, on men who repented, of His Holy Spirit. For that was what John proclaimed that Jesus had come to do, and Matthew gives us the content of no other message than that, and later assumes the presence of the Holy Spirit powerfully at work (12.28, 31).

How Jesus Himself expressed it in these early days we are not told, but that Jesus did pour out of His Holy Spirit on men before Pentecost is not only made clear in John’s Gospel (3.1-6; 4.10-14) but is also apparent in Luke 11.13 combined with Matthew 7.11. And it should be noted that Matthew constantly thinks in terms of the personal presence of Jesus, when others think of the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 28.20, compared with Luke 24.49 in the light of Acts 1-2). To Matthew the Holy Spirit is summed up in the presence of Jesus, the One Who drenches in the Holy Spirit. Thus when Jesus was calling on men to believe in Him, and to respond to the Kingly Rule of Heaven (God), from Matthew’s viewpoint He was calling on them to receive and respond to the Holy Spirit. This explains why after the resurrection he feels no need to look forward to a future coming of the Holy Spirit. For he sees Him as has already having been present in Jesus, and as the One Who will now be present in Jesus with His people until the end of the age (Matthew 28.19-20). What the future holds as far as he is concerned is found first in the presence of Jesus with His people, and then in the presence of the risen Jesus with His people, as a continuation of what they had already previously experienced as disciples. It is different for Luke for he intends also to tell the story of what followed Jesus’ resurrection in some detail. He therefore makes clearer distinctions, although He also see Jesus’ ministry in terms of the outpoured Holy Spirit (Luke 4.1, 18).

In order further to understand what Jesus proclaimed when He proclaimed the Kingly Rule of Heaven we must look at Jesus’ use of the term as portrayed later in Matthew. He declares that the Kingly Rule of Heaven belongs now to those who are poor in spirit (5.3). It is entered by ‘turning’ and becoming like a little child who comes to Jesus, trusting, humble and responsive (18.3-4). It is not just a matter of repentance under the old Law, for it results in being introduced into a new state and status before God in that it makes the one who enters it ‘greater’ than John the Baptiser (11.11). That such a state and status is conferred on the one who enters the Kingly Rule of God is revealed by the fact that, once within it, it is recognised that some will be more responsive to Jesus teaching than others and this will determine their grade within it, but not result in their exclusion from it (5.19). It is entered by means of determination and a forceful response, with nothing allowed to get in the way (11.12). Along with God’s righteousness it is to be sought before everything else that is important (6.33). In order to enter it, it is necessary to be willing to do the will of His Father in Heaven (7.21), and He immediately then points out that this means hearing His own words and doing them (7.24). Such entry requires a righteousness greater than that of the Scribes and Pharisees (5.20), an idea which is expanded on in 5-7 and chapter 23, an inner righteousness rather than one revealed by outwardly fulfilling all necessary ritual. It requires repentance from a true heart (3.2; 4.17), and a turning away from hypocrisy and cant (23.1-36). It involves, as a result, the rejecting of hatred and contempt for others, and of divorce and dishonesty and the loving of heir enemies, and the doing to others what they would wish others to do to them, for as those who have been forgiven they must themselves forgive. It involves being ‘perfect’ even as their Father in Heaven is perfect (5.20-48), and thus Christ-like and God-like. All this will result from their repentance and receipt of forgiveness and the impact of Jesus on their lives as they are submitted to the Kingly Rule of Heaven.

The Scribes and Pharisees are in fact as a whole refusing to enter it, and are seeking to shut it up to others (23.13). For entry under the Kingly Rule of Heaven is not found in the teaching of the Law as found in Judaism, nor in following the ceremonial and ritual requirements of Pharisaism. It is rather basically found by coming personally under His Kingly Rule, and obeying Him (assumed in 7.13-27). But they must expect that this will result in persecution for His sake (5.11).

It is clear from this that entering under the Kingly Rule of Heaven is by a personal response to Him as the King, by a looking to Him in child-like trust, and by a willingly coming under His rule. This will then result in the willing response which differentiates those who are under His Kingly Rule from those who are not.

Entry under the Kingly Rule of Heaven results from a true response to the word which He has sown which produces a harvest (13.19-23). For the Kingly Rule of Heaven will spread and become outwardly successful, but within its visible sphere will be that which is outwardly unworthy, being like weeds sown by an enemy (13.28) and like inedible fish (13.48). But these are not really a part of His Kingly Rule (13.41). They are not ‘sons of the Kingly Rule’ but are ‘sons of the Evil One’ (13.38). For some will call Him ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do the things which He says (7.21), because their hearts are not right with Him, and some who saw themselves as sons of His Kingly Rule, and who should have been, will in the final day be cast into outer darkness (8.12) while at the same time they will see all who have been faithful to God entering into it in its final phase (8.11). Thus the Kingly Rule consists of all who are truly responsive to His word. Being in it is so important and so precious that men will rightly sell any treasure in order to enter it (13.44-45). The coming of His Kingly Rule is equated with the doing of His will, and that is what those who are in it must seek (6.10). And it is revealed as present by His casting out of evil spirits by the Spirit of God (12.28). Thus the Kingly Rule of God was here among them in power.

Those who are under His Kingly Rule forgive, because they have been forgiven (18.21-35 compare 6.14-15). By this it is made clear that coming under His Kingly Rule results from having been forgiven. It thus results in being willing to forgive others. And that is why in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches them to pray that they may be forgiven their daily sins because they forgive others (see 6.12). Such an attitude is an assumption of being in the Kingly Rule of God, because those who are in it, being in a state of having been forgiven, are filled with a sense of forgiveness towards others. They have been ‘hired’ in order to labour for Him and receive their reward (20.1). Many who are called will refuse to come, (it is hard for a rich man to enter under the Kingly Rule of God - 19.23), but the numbers will be made up by the poor and needy. Many of them will respond. And each will receive his wedding garment so that he is fit to be present there (22.2-13). Forgiveness and being ‘put in the right’ are both the results of entering the Kingly Rule of God.

While we cannot claim that all this was preached in Jesus’ early days in full detail when He was proclaiming that ‘the Kingly Rule of Heaven is at hand’, the kernel of it certainly must have been, for Jesus was never inconsistent. Thus those who were His disciples, who listened to his Sermon on the Mount, were those who had already responded to this Good News of His Kingly Rule (4.23; 9.35) and had entered into the Kingly Rule of Heaven (God) and enjoyed a new state and status. They had responded to the Good News of His Kingly Rule (4.23; 9.35; 24.14) which was proclaimed at large for those who would respond, and revealed as present by the wonderful works that He performed (9.35) and by His casting out of evil spirits (12.28), and would in the end be revealed to all the world (24.14).

It may be asked, ‘If this is so, why did Matthew not tell us early on what the content of His evangelistic message was?’ As he could certainly have discovered something of the details from the disciples who were with Jesus at the time, we can hardly say that it was because he was not present at the time, or that he did not know what it was. But we have already suggested one reason why he did not, in suggesting that he wrote primarily for believers. But we must also reckon on the fact that, while reasonably assuming that his believing readers would know exactly what its content was, he intended by his brevity to awaken the expectancy of any other readers for what was to follow as they read on in order to learn what the nature of this Kingly Rule was. He did not want to give them just the kernel in summary form at the beginning, he wanted them gradually to appreciate its full-orbed message as they read through his Gospel. And by the time that they had done so they would know what the Kingly Rule of Heaven was.

Later on a further aspect is added to this message as Jesus begins to prepare for His coming death. Jesus will then speak of ‘giving His life a ransom for many’ (20.28), and of the ‘blood of the covenant’ which He would shed for His own (26.28). This shedding of His blood was therefore to be substitutionary on behalf of His own (20.28, with Mark 10.45). Note how Matthew emphasises Jesus as our representative, offering Himself as a substitutionary ransom on our behalf (lutron anti pollown - 20.28), and as being for the forgiveness of sins (26.28, compare 1.22), and to act as a sealing of the covenant of redemption (26.28). It was now made clear that the Sermon on the Mount had lying behind it the idea of the offering up of the Lamb of God Who would take away the sin of the world (John 1.29), so that His redeemed people might live in the way that He described.