Matthew: the King who fulfills the Scriptures
A guide to Matthew's Gospel: who wrote it and for whom, its five great sermons, its key passages and themes, and how it presents Jesus as the promised King.
Matthew is the first book of the New Testament and the Gospel that most carefully connects Jesus to the Old Testament. Its opening words present Him as the son of David and the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1), the heir of both great promises, and again and again it pauses to say that something happened to fulfill what the prophets had written.
The book presents Jesus as the promised King and the authoritative teacher of God’s people. Around the story of His birth, ministry, death, and resurrection, Matthew arranges five long blocks of teaching, the best known being the Sermon on the Mount. It ends with the risen Jesus claiming all authority and sending His followers to make disciples of every nation.
Its message is that the whole story of Israel was leading to Jesus, that His kingdom has arrived, and that following Him means learning to obey what He taught. If you have limited time, read chapters 1–2, 5–7, 13, and 26–28.
Who wrote Matthew, and when
The Gospel itself does not name its author. From the early second century onward, the church has consistently attributed it to Matthew, also called Levi, the tax collector whom Jesus called from his booth (Matthew 9:9) and who became one of the twelve apostles. No other name was ever attached to the book.
Scholars discuss the date and the sources. Most place the Gospel somewhere between the 60s and the 80s AD. Those who date it earlier point out that it speaks of the temple as still standing; those who date it later note its developed teaching on the church. Many scholars also think Matthew drew on Mark’s Gospel and on other collections of Jesus’ sayings, while others hold that Matthew wrote first. This site leans toward the traditional authorship and a date before the temple fell in 70 AD, and regards the question of sources as a secondary matter.
Why it was written, and for whom
Matthew wrote for readers who knew the Old Testament well, most likely Jewish Christians and the synagogue-shaped communities around them. He rarely explains Jewish customs, he traces Jesus’ family line back to Abraham rather than to Adam, and he quotes the Scriptures far more than the other Gospels.
His purpose was to show that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, and to give His followers a manual for discipleship. Matthew is the only Gospel to use the word church, and its teaching sections read like instruction for a community learning to live under the King. At the same time, the book keeps opening the door to outsiders: wise men from the east, a Roman centurion, a Canaanite woman, and finally all nations.
How the book is structured
Matthew alternates story and sermon. Five great discourses, each ending with a note that Jesus had finished speaking, are set within the narrative of His life. Many readers hear in those five blocks an echo of the five books of Moses.
- Chapters 1–4: Genealogy, birth, baptism, temptation, and the first disciples.
- Chapters 5–7: The Sermon on the Mount.
- Chapters 8–9: Ten miracles that show the King’s authority.
- Chapter 10: The sending of the twelve.
- Chapters 11–12: Growing opposition and questions about who Jesus is.
- Chapter 13: Parables of the kingdom.
- Chapters 14–17: Feeding the crowds, Peter’s confession, and the transfiguration.
- Chapter 18: Life together in the church.
- Chapters 19–23: The road to Jerusalem, the entry, and conflict with the leaders.
- Chapters 24–25: The sermon on the end of the age.
- Chapters 26–28: The Last Supper, the cross, the resurrection, and the commission.
Key passages to know
The name that explains the mission
She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
— Matthew 1:21 (BSB)
Before Jesus is born, His purpose is announced. The name Jesus means the LORD saves, and the angel says what He will save from: not Rome, but sin. The next verses add the name Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:22-23).
The law fulfilled
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
— Matthew 5:17 (BSB)
Jesus is not a rival to the Old Testament. He is its goal. In the Sermon on the Mount He goes on to show what the law always meant, reaching past actions to the heart.
An invitation to the weary
28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
— Matthew 11:28-30 (BSB)
In a chapter full of rejection, Jesus turns to ordinary tired people and offers rest. The yoke He gives is discipleship, and He promises that it fits.
The confession
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
— Matthew 16:16 (BSB)
At the center of the Gospel, Peter says out loud what the whole book has been showing. Jesus responds by speaking of His church for the first time and then, immediately, of His coming death.
The greatest commandment
37 Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
— Matthew 22:37-40 (BSB)
Asked to rank the commandments, Jesus gives two, and says everything else hangs on them. The whole Old Testament, He claims, is about love for God and love for neighbor.
The commission
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
— Matthew 28:18-20 (BSB)
The Gospel ends on a mountain with the risen King. He has all authority, He sends His people to every nation, and He promises to be with them to the end. The book that began with Immanuel closes with the same promise.
Main themes
Fulfillment. Around a dozen times Matthew stops to say that an event fulfilled what a prophet had written. Jesus is called out of Egypt, dawns as a light in Galilee, heals as the Servant heals, and rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, each time with a quotation attached.
The kingdom of heaven. Jesus’ first sermon announced that the kingdom of heaven was near (Matthew 4:17). Matthew’s phrase means the same thing as the kingdom of God in the other Gospels: God’s rule, arriving in Jesus. His priority for His followers is plain: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)
Discipleship. Jesus calls fishermen and a tax collector with the same two words, follow Me (Matthew 4:19; 9:9).
God with us. The name Immanuel at the start, the promise of Jesus’ presence where two or three gather (Matthew 18:20), and the final promise to be with His people always frame the whole Gospel.
Mercy for outsiders. Matthew’s Jesus eats with tax collectors, quotes the prophets on mercy over sacrifice, and welcomes Gentiles who come in faith.
How Matthew points to Christ
Every page of Matthew is about Jesus, so the question here is which Jesus Matthew wants us to see. He is the Son of David, the true King, born in Bethlehem and greeted by foreign worshipers. He is the new and greater Moses, who comes out of Egypt, passes through the water and the wilderness, and teaches from a mountain. He is Isaiah’s Servant, gentle with bruised reeds. And He is the Son of God, declared so at His baptism and confessed by Peter.
Matthew is equally clear about why the King came. Jesus says the Son of Man came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). At the Last Supper He speaks of His blood of the covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). And at the moment of His death, Matthew records a sign that the way to God is now open:
At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
— Matthew 27:51 (BSB)
The curtain that separated people from God’s presence, which stretches back to the tabernacle in Exodus, is torn from the top down. Three days later the tomb is empty. The King who fulfills the Scriptures is alive, and He is with His people still.
How to read Matthew
Twenty-eight chapters at one a day takes four weeks. Read the five sermons as whole units rather than in fragments; the Sermon on the Mount in particular is meant to be heard in one sitting. Watch for the word fulfill, for the phrase kingdom of heaven, and for the theme of righteousness, which for Matthew means a life shaped from the inside by God’s will.
Three misreadings are common. The first treats the Sermon on the Mount as a ladder to earn God’s favor. It is addressed to disciples, it opens by blessing the poor in spirit, and it assumes a Father who already knows what His children need. Obedience in Matthew is a response to grace, not a way to buy it.
The second treats Jesus’ hard words to the religious leaders as contempt for Jewish people in general. Matthew himself was Jewish, writing to Jewish believers; his criticism is a family argument about faithfulness, and his Gospel ends by sending the good news to every nation without exception.
The third reads the parables and the sermon on the end of the age as puzzles to decode. They are meant to change how you live now.
Where Christians differ
Faithful Christians differ on the date of the Gospel and on whether Matthew used Mark, as noted above. They also read the sermon in chapters 24–25 in different ways, some seeing most of it fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and others seeing it as mainly about the future return of Christ. Both agree that Jesus is coming back and that His followers are to be found faithful when He does.
Reading on
Matthew pairs naturally with Mark, the shortest Gospel, and with Isaiah, the prophet he quotes most. A month-long path through all four Gospels is laid out at 30 days in the Gospels.
Read Matthew slowly, and pray the prayer Jesus taught in chapter 6 as you go. Then take what you learn into a local church, the community this Gospel was written for, where the King’s teaching is still heard and His presence is still promised.