reading of God's Word. It is from Matthew 28 and verses 16 through 20. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, we pray that as I dig into your word and especially an overview of this amazing book, that you would enable me to clearly articulate the things you have put upon our hearts and that you would enable each one of us to be encouraged that we are in the kingdom and the kingdom power that you have given is sufficient to overcome the world. Bless us, Father, as we continue to worship in Jesus name. Amen. Well, it's obvious we're up to Matthew in our Through the Bible series. And before I dig into the text, I want to say a few words about the incredible structure of the book of Matthew. As you know, I don't always agree with the Bible Project's analysis of books. Sometimes they do a fantastic job, sometimes the video is weak. But if you're a highly visual person, I highly recommend that you look at their two videos on Matthew. The two videos together are only about 15 minutes, and they're extremely well done. That video shows a foundational block at the beginning, climax block at the end with five blocks of teaching in between that parallel the five books of the Pentateuch and establish the renewal of the kingdom by the prophet like Moses and the king like David. It's one of the ways that several people have seen this book as being structured. Now I'm going to hasten to say it is not the only structure that scholars have found. Anybody who has studied Matthew knows that there has been a huge debate on what structures Matthew. And each scholar seems to think that their structure is the only one. It's the real one. It's my contention that most of those insights from scholars are not mutually exclusive. They are all true. This is a beautifully written book that intricately weaves several structural devices together in order to emphasize different layers of truth. Just for an example, is this book biographical and therefore chronologically structured? Well, mostly yes, but scholars point out that it is more than simply biographical. It is also topically arranged, and almost everyone admits that some things are topically grouped together. But because this is a literal history, we would expect most of it to be chronological order. Now, does the whole book recapitulate the history of Israel, as some scholars claim? Yes, and it does so in remarkable ways to show that Jesus is forming a new Israel and establishing a new kingdom. Indeed, Matthew shows Jesus to be the Israel encapsulated into one person. And so that's just another lens through which to view the book. That lens helps us to avoid the dispensational error. Others have recognized that this book has geographical movement in the major five portions from mountaintop, down to town, down to water, then back up to town, and then back up to mountaintop. Thematically, these parallel his descent into death and back up into resurrection. But again, if you overlay that structure over the other structures that people see, you find remarkable parallels. This is even true of the chiastic structure given by Mago and Nagasawa. You would think that would be mutually exclusive of the other structures, but amazingly it is not. I think he has shown layer upon layer of perfect parallels in the book that form a thematic chiasm. with the growth of the kingdom in chapter 13 being at the heart of it. The whole book is about the kingdom of Jesus, but those parables keep us from being surprised at the opposition to the kingdom at its early stages. So it starts off small, almost unnoticed, but eventually grows to fill the earth. It's a marvelous correction to ideas of instant perfection. But anyway, most of these structures take us to chapter 13 as the center. Other authors have pointed out that Matthew clearly structures the entire book around sections of Isaiah. And it is true, but he does so as an overlay to other structures. But wow, does Isaiah ever open up the book of Matthew? Others have noticed that Matthew is beautifully organized in a back and forth interplay between story and teaching, story, teaching, story, teaching, with each section ending with the words, when Jesus had finished saying these things. And they argue this is the only way to structure the book. But when you overlay that structure with the other structures, again, it accomplishes the same thing. And this too focuses the entire book on the parables of the kingdom in chapter 13. Uh, and all you have to do in order to recognize this particular. Back and forth structuring is to read Matthew in a red letter Bible. I'm not a fan of a red letter Bible because black words are just as much as inspired words as the red letters are. But in this case, it does give some good visual cues. And I won't get into all of the other structural fights that are out there. If the Bible was inspired by God himself, we ought not to be surprised that there are layers upon layers of structure and complexities that we wouldn't expect out of a normal person. It's an inspired book. Now I say all of that because I don't want you to think that the structure I will be using is the only structure you can see in this book. But in one sermon, I think it's probably the simplest way of handling such a complex book. And so this morning, I'm going to simply divide the book up into 10 progressive parts, with each part giving another aspect of Jesus and his kingdom. Let me just quickly walk you through those chapters. 1 through 3 deal with the coming of the king. Chapter 4 deals with the testing of the king. Chapters 5 through 7 deal with the manifesto of the kingdom. It properly interprets the Old Testament law of God. And believe me, without a law, you don't have a kingdom. Chapters 8 through 10 are filled with miracles and in many different ways showcase the power of the kingdom. Without power to back it up, you really don't have a kingdom. Chapters 11 through 12 deal with the various reactions to the kingdom, some hostile to Jesus, some embracing him as the Christ, some doubting. Chapter 13 gives parables of the kingdom's gradual growth, something that the Jews apparently were not expecting. They wanted it suddenly, just like that. But when you realize that the kingdom grows gradually, it gives you hope during difficult times. This is the center and the heart of Matthew. Chapter 13 is a huge corrective to Amil and Premil. Eschatologies. Most people focus on the Olivet Discourse when they're dealing with eschatology, but chapter 13 I think is even more key. Chapters 14 through 20 gives repeated calls to have faith and to live by faith as they apply kingdom principles to every area of life. And they would need that faith to be able to deal with the next section, the clash of two kingdoms in chapters 21 through 22. Chapters 26 through 27 then show how Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies about a suffering Messiah who would lay down his life for his people. And without that suffering, you don't have a kingdom. And chapter 8 shows us the risen and conquering king commanding his troops to advance his kingdom until the end of the age. It really is a marvelous book with a very, very logical structure. So let's begin at chapter 1. And the way that Matthew introduces us to Jesus in the first chapter is a little bit curious, at least in the Greek. The first words, the book of the genealogy, are just two words in Greek, Biblos Geneseos. Those are the exact words used for the title of the Greek translation for the book of Genesis. Biblos Geneseos, the book of Genesis or the book of beginnings. Now in their commentary, Davies and Allison give seven reasons why this should not be translated as the book of the genealogy and should instead be seen as the title for the whole book of Matthew, the book of beginnings. They're going to be different beginnings and began in Genesis, but this will be the New Testament book of beginnings, the genesis of the new creation. Now, I'll only give three of their seven reasons why this is true. First, they point out that the word book is never used to describe genealogies. Sorry, a book is a book. That word book is not just referring to the next few verses, it's referring to the whole book of Matthew. Second, the literal rendering is beginnings, not genealogies. Third, the Jews of that day would have immediately recognized the first two words as the title page for their book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. That commentary gives several pages of proofs I'm just not going to get into. that Matthew intended to trigger thoughts of Genesis in our minds, but explicitly make us think that this is another book of beginnings that answers the problems in the first book. And it is, uh, this book records the beginning of the new covenant of a new creation, uh, the making of all things new. Where Genesis shows the beginnings of the old creation, Matthew shows the beginnings of the new creation. Where Genesis ties us to the old Adam, Matthew ties us to the new Adam, Jesus. And in a rapid fire way, the next words set up Jesus as the long expected Jewish Messiah. The very next word, Jesus, is really the Greek name for Joshua. Joshua and Jesus are the same word in Greek. Jesus will be the new Joshua who will lead his people in a new conquest. And that's why Matthew ends his book with Christ's call for the church to engage in the conquest of the nations with the Great Commission. and with a sword of the word and promising, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And Matthew even ties a connection between the exodus he was calling Jews to in the first century and the 40 years or the generation to follow and the original exodus and the original 40 years before the conquest of Canaan. Okay, the next word is Christ, which is the Greek word for Messiah. And so Matthew doesn't beat around the bush and make you guess as to who Jesus is. Now he says right up front that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the hundreds of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. And Matthew will be packed full of quotes from old Testament books that look forward to what Jesus would do. So he's the Messiah. He's the Christ. The next words are the son of David. Well, that immediately clues us into the fact that he is Israel's long anticipated King, who was to be the son of David and of all of the gospels. Matthew lays the most emphasis upon the fact that Jesus is the son of David, the king of Israel. Being the earliest gospel, well, at least on my view, I know there's debate, but on my view and the view of the ancient church, being the earliest gospel, this all makes sense. Matthew is the perfect introduction to the New Testament, and it beautifully ties the two testaments together as one work. Anyway, the term the Son of David was a phrase constantly used by the rabbis of the first century to refer to the coming Messiah. And so again, he's not beating around the bush. He's going to do everything he can in this book to establish this initial claim. and that there are not two messiahs, a kingly messiah and a suffering messiah, like some rabbis thought. Matthew adds, the son of Abraham. The Messiah who was to be the son of Abraham was a suffering Messiah. And so the kingly son of David is exactly the same Messiah spoken of by Abraham and the prophets who were before him, a Messiah who would suffer and die. And this too would have been a shock to some rabbis who insisted, no, there had to be two messiahs, not one. But commentaries point out that the reference to Abraham also makes it clear that Jesus is the Messiah of Gentiles, not just of the Jews. After all, Abraham was saved as a Gentile, wasn't he? And the book begins the pattern of writing every New Testament book in Greek rather than in Hebrew. That, too, is a clue. The kingdom is gone to the Gentiles. And the genealogy of Jesus We'll also make the same point. While most of the names in this list are names of Jews, Matthew makes it clear that this Messiah identifies with Gentiles, with the broken, with the hurting and the outcast. I'll just give you some hints starting at verse two. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Now while Jacob and Judah had plenty of other problems, Judah's daughter-in-law, Tamar, is an embarrassing piece of history for the Jewish leaders who prided themselves on their pedigree. Tamar was a Gentile daughter-in-law of Judah whom he impregnated. Perez was the result of incest. Verse five shows that Rahab the harlot was also in Christ's genealogy. Not only was she saved out of prostitution, but she was saved out of the cursed Canaanites who had been doomed to destruction. God identifies with Gentiles and sinners by putting them into Christ's genealogy. Verse six places Jesus as a descendant of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And though there are many other chaotic problems that this genealogy goes through, none of it was by accident. Verse 17 shows a sovereignly governed symmetry. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are 14 generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are 14 generations. I mean, it's almost too neat for some people to find it believable, and yet it is true. And if you want, I can show you how that all divides up. Every person begotten in this genealogy was perfectly prepared by God to be part of the process of producing the Messiah. Not one more or one less would do. Everyone was essential. Everyone was counted. And certainly there was a lot of chaos that could be seen in this genealogy, but God also intended that there be a symmetry in the midst of all the chaos. And let me quote from William Hendrickson. on the significance of these numbers. He says in scripture, seven frequently indicates the totality ordained by God. 14, which is twice seven, also brings out this idea. And I would just add that 14 is a double witness of perfection. He goes on. So it would seem, does 3 times 14 equals 42? This is equal to 6 sevens and immediately introduces the seventh seven, reduplicated completeness or perfection. And that's the end of the quote. Christ, of course, is the reduplicated completeness of perfection. And accordingly, the gospels tell us that he started his ministry on a Sabbath day, in a Sabbath year, during a jubilee year, which is the year of release and liberty that happens once every 49 years. And William Hendrickson gives a lot of scripture. He actually gives 24 pages of exposition on those 14s to further describe the symbolism of those three 14s and the people in it. When you dig into this, it's really marvelous. Christ came in the fullness of time. And just as the Holy Spirit hovered over the formless earth to make the original creation, the beginning of the new creation was wrought by the Holy Spirit in this chapter as well. And Jesus was miraculously formed from Mary, just as Eve was miraculously formed from Adam. A neat reversal there. And there are a lot of other parallels that Matthew is beautifully crafting into this story. And so chapters one through two show the incarnation of Jesus and his young childhood. He was a real man, not simply a gnostic figment who appeared one day. Without his manhood, he could not be our mediator or savior. But unless he was divine, he could not be our mediator or savior either. And chapter three shows that this king was properly prepared for by John the Baptist. He was the herald of the king. John quotes Isaiah 40 verse three and applies it to Jesus. And since John the Baptist was very respected by the people, John's affirmation that Jesus was the Messiah was powerful. John gave Jesus a baptism into priesthood. Every priest in the Old Testament had to be baptized at the age of 30 before becoming a priest, and Jesus needed to fulfill the law in that respect as well. And so all three chapters deal with the coming of the King to Israel. The second section, chapter four, shows the testing of the king. Satan threw everything at Jesus that he could to destroy him morally, but Christ came out victorious, and he stands as a model for how we should resist Satan in that chapter. By the way, all four of these chapters introduce in tiny cameos many of the themes of the book as a whole and show how Jesus alone could replace the first Adam as the perfect man. Other cameos that come up are Jesus beginning in obscurity and yet being sought by the Magi or rulers of the East. Well, that anticipates the fact that his kingdom will start small and in obscurity and will eventually be entered by all the nations of the earth. The unsuccessful opposition that his kingdom will later have is already anticipated in chapter 2 by Herod's hatred of him and attempt to kill him. Christ leaving Israel for Egypt anticipates in a small way that Israel will be rejected and the Gentiles received. Indeed, the new exodus from Israel will happen under John the Baptist, just as there was an exodus out of Egypt in the Pentateuch. And just as Joshua came out of the Jordan River to face the opposition of the Canaanites, Jesus came out of the Jordan River to face the opposition of the Jewish leaders. I mean, there is a ton of those kind of parallels. I'll just stop there. But they give glimpses or hints of how the king and the kingdom are going to be portrayed in the rest of this book. In chapter four, verse 17, Jesus began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. If it's at hand, it can't be 2000 years later. Uh, we're going to have to rush through some of the rest of these. The third section chapters five through seven are recognized by almost everyone as being the manifesto of the kingdom. I love the sermon on the Mount and of all three chapters are the manifesto of the kingdom. then the Beatitudes constitute the distillation of this upside-down kingdom that looks like no other and has a power like no other. No one can keep the principles of this manifesto without being regenerate and being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's impossible otherwise. It's impossible for a Pharisee to think that he can measure up after he has read the Sermon on the Mount. It takes supernatural grace to love those who hate you and who persecute you. It takes supernatural grace to have joy in those circumstances. So it gives us a feel for the supernatural nature of this kingdom. So the kingdom is not a list of rules of how to get into the kingdom or earn the kingdom. Where does he start in chapter 5, verse 3? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You can't buy your way into the kingdom. You gotta start off bankrupt. And he goes on to talk about mourners, meek, the hungry, the thirsty, people who don't have anything to contribute, right? Too many people have approached the Sermon on the Mount moralistically. They try to be in the kingdom by trying to act like a believer should. Well, that's approaching it backwards. Christ gave his sermon to devastate the Pharisees and their self-righteousness and to give comfort and hope to the true believers. And if we see this as a means of entering the kingdom, then we'll cause people to either give up hope or to become self-righteous. See, in contrast, this sermon starts with emptiness and moves to fullness and overflowing. It starts with inability and moves to deeds of righteousness. It starts with God and moves to man. Every religion known to man does the exact opposite. Now they recognize we're alienated from God, but that causes them to think that they must supply what is lacking. World religion is the story of man seeking to do what God alone can do. Man seeking after God. That's what the Pharisees were doing. But Jesus said in Matthew 520, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And what's the upshot of the whole sermon? It's only the perfect Christ can give us a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. So there is a sense in which the Beatitudes crystallized the entire Sermon on the Mount in just a few words. So it's no wonder that the next section, chapters 8 through 10, give illustration after illustration of the need for the supernatural power of God's kingdom. Jesus healed many, cast out demons, it appears, for the first time in history. Commanded the wind and the waves to obey him. Converted Matthew the tax collector. That's another miracle, right? Raised people from the dead. Healed the blind and the mute. I mean, he's the god of impossibilities. But the interesting thing is that after doing all of that, he sent out his 12 to do exactly the same impossible things. But they didn't do it in their own power. They did those miracles in the name of Jesus. And so there is a logical development in this book. We first of all have to recognize the king, believe that he is perfect, embrace his laws of the kingdom, and experience the power of the kingdom. And the book shows that not everybody does that. The fifth section, that's chapters 11 through 12, shows the reactions of the people to Jesus. He's just given the manifesto of the kingdom and shown that without him, we can do nothing, but that the reverse is also true. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I mean, that's kingdom living. He's shown that. But having confronted Israel with the nature of this kingdom, there are three reactions that people have. Some believe and submit to him and they join his kingdom in faith and baptism. Some still question whether he could really be the one prophesied. They have doubts. And then most of the leaders hate him and plot to kill him. So basically three reactions. Interestingly, John the Baptist, who had earlier affirmed him, began to wonder himself whether Jesus was the Messiah. Now, I think it's so cool that Matthew includes that in there so that we're not surprised by similar reactions in the early stages of the kingdom. Any of us can succumb to doubt. Chapter 11 verses 20 through 24 shows two cities that had rejected his message and that passage shows Jesus pronouncing woes upon them. I think I'd be motivated to leave those cities if I were a citizen there. Chapter 12 shows the scribes and Pharisees engaging in the unpardonable sin by blaspheming the Holy Spirit, ascribing to Satan what Jesus had done by the Holy Spirit. But Christ's casting out of demons was a proof positive that the kingdom of heaven had come. And so we begin to have a stronger and stronger realization of man's depravity, and that apart from sovereign grace, no one would believe. But we also begin to get a stronger and stronger sense that the messianic kingdom can break through all of that. And all of these reactions are totally consistent with the next section, chapter 13, which gives several parables to illustrate the initial stages of the kingdom. It may start as small as a grain of mustard seed, but over time it will grow into a huge bush. It may start off as a tiny bit of leaven in the dough, but it will eventually leaven the whole lump. That chapter completely contradicts the dispensational ideas of how the kingdom comes. The next section, chapters 14 through 20, is a call to faith and to faithful living. Knowing everything that we know, we're called to faith and to faithful living. How many times does Christ rebuke his disciples in this section for little faith and calls them once again to have faith, to live by faith? Story after story shows that citizens of his kingdom can do the impossible if they will only live by faith. It takes faith to make Simon's confession of Christ as the Messiah in chapter 16. and it takes faith to answer Christ's call to immediately take up your cross and to follow him and to be willing to die with him in the same chapter. The disciples were rebuked for having little faith when they could not cast out a demon out of a young boy in chapter 17. And throughout this section, you see every area of life being intercepted with a call to stop living by the world's wisdom and to live out the kingdom principles by faith. That involves how we interact with civil authorities. It takes faith to live humbly and to forgive as Christ calls us to forgive in chapter 18. But all who are in the kingdom have access to that kind of supernatural power. And if we refuse to forgive, as the kingdom commands, then the chapter ends by saying the kingdom of Satan triumphs over us. It takes faith to live out Christ's call for kingdom marriage in chapter 19. That call seems impossible to his disciples. They have a hard time believing that he could be serious, but Jesus expects all kingdom citizens to obey that call, why? Because they have access to the kingdom's supernatural power by faith. They're expected to live in terms of that supernatural power. He calls us to faith and faithful living in chapter 19, in our interactions with young children, in our stewardship of wealth, and chapter 20 is the ultimate call to faithful stewardship of kingdom resources. Now, there are two feedings of huge crowds with a few fish and a few loaves, and both feedings challenged his disciples' faith. The first feeding is in chapter 14, And the second feeding is in chapter 15. He first fed 5,000 Jewish men plus women and children, and there were 12 baskets left over, far more than what they had started with. The second feeding was in the Gentile country of Tyre. It was way outside of Israel. After healing many Gentiles, he fed 4,000 men, plus women and children, and had seven baskets left over. They're obviously two quite different groups of people, but they illustrate that Jesus was sent to minister to Jew and Gentile and that he was the bread of the world. Now all of those calls to faith were needed to be able to get through the next section, which outlines the clash of two kingdoms. Christ's kingdom is not unopposed. And the eighth section, that's chapters 21 through 25, really gets intense as these two kingdoms clash in a very overt way. It's clear by this time in the book that the leaders of Israel are not in the kingdom of God. John the Baptist had excommunicated them from the kingdom. Instead, they represent the kingdom of Satan. And boy, do those two kingdoms clash. In chapter 21, Christ rides into Jerusalem on a donkey to declare that he is the fulfillment of Zechariah and the other prophets, that he is the king of Israel. He proceeds to cleanse the temple a second time, calling the leaders thieves. That shows his authority over the temple. What is the temple? It's God's throne room, right? And while this section welcomed the praises of children and infants, it has one scathing denunciation after another of the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees. If you want your ears to burn, read all of the bold woes that Christ shouted at the scribes and the Pharisees in chapter 23. Anyone who thinks being like Jesus means being sweet, nice, and mild-mannered needs to read those chapters. He was holy. But he was anything but nice. There is a vast difference between pleasant niceness and a holy zeal that is good. And of course, you know the long Olivet Discourse in chapters 24 through 25 that pronounced judgments upon Israel and which showed Jesus to not only be a judge, but a king who would take over the whole world. But he does so through redemptive judgments. It is par excellence, the clash of two kingdoms. Now that leads the religious leaders in the next section to plot to kill him, and all of chapters 26-27 portray him as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the suffering Messiah. God anticipated this. That section begins with the threat of his death, a woman pouring perfume over his head as a symbol of his burial, Judas betraying him, his arrest scourging, trials by both the Jewish leaders and Pilate, and despite his innocence, being put to death on the cross. But the way Matthew constantly quotes Old Testament prophecies as being fulfilled, he makes it clear Jesus orchestrated this. He was not a victim. Chapter 26 verse 5 shows them trying to avoid killing him on the Passover, but Jesus is in control. They don't have a choice. And in the midst of that, Jesus celebrated a meatless Passover one day early with his disciples, showing them that this was his whole life. It was leading him to his death. The Passover prophesied this hour of suffering and death, just as the Passover lamb had to be slain to save the people. He had to be slain in order to redeem his people. Jesus knew that his death was not a tragedy, but was instead the means to his victory. Jesus deliberately climbed the cross. He was not a victim in the technical sense of that term. But that leads to the last section of the book, chapter 28, which describes the resurrection of Christ and the Great Commission. This portrays the risen and conquering King commanding his foot soldiers to advance his kingdom. And, um, until all nations are baptized and obeying all things found in the Word of God. So those are our marching orders. We may not quit until that is accomplished. And when you read the book from this bird's eye view, you see a beautiful and a victorious plan. The king has invaded the world, successfully challenged the world, and is now claiming the world as his own. So that's the overview of the whole book. And what I want to do right now is I want to end by giving four additional applications. And my first one is that this book was written to do more than simply inform you about a beautiful plan. It was written with the intention of transforming you. This morning, I've had to give you a framework for understanding the book. But you should read the book with an eye to obeying it by God's power. Whether you're looking at the angels' interactions with Mary and Joseph, or the wise men's worship of Jesus, or his casting out of demons, every chapter is relevant to how we are to live out the kingdom today. If Jesus faced demonic attack in chapter 4 through fasting, we should not think that we are beyond fasting in our spiritual warfare. His instructions on divorce and remarriage are not obsolete. They are binding rules in his kingdom. If his resurrection gave power and holiness to the disciples, it should give power and boldness to us. None of this is theory. God wants the book to change us. It is the book of beginnings, kingdom beginnings that each generation must expand upon and live out more and more consistently. Second, all the core doctrines of the faith can be found in the book of Matthew. Numerous quotes from the Old Testament show Matthew teaching the inspiration and the authority of the Bible. Uh, he teaches us about the virgin birth of Jesus, his humanity, deity, sinlessness roles as prophet, priest, and King, especially as King. Uh, it is rich in the doctrine of the Trinity. Now, perhaps not as rich as the gospel of John, but it is there. And if you go through all of the fundamental doctrines, you will find them in this book. Third, this is a book that upholds the entire moral law of the Old Testament, which makes sense. You don't have a kingdom without a law. In Matthew 5, 17-19, Jesus said that the Old Testament moral laws, including the least important of the case laws, not taking a mother bird with her young, continues to have authority in his kingdom throughout history. And over and over, Jesus castigated the Pharisees for adding to the Old Testament law as well as taking away from the Old Testament law. If you can read Matthew without coming away a whole Bible Christian who loves the law of God, you have not read it with open eyes. It is a book that internalizes the law to everything inside of us and externalizes the law by applying it to every area of life, to marriage, to civics, to child rearing, to economics, to other areas. Of course, it does so in seed form, much like Genesis does. It is, after all, the book of beginnings, right? but it's a marvelous book upholding the law of God. And then finally, if you are discouraged over the state of the kingdom today, read chapter 13 and regain courage and hope. We are still in the beginning stages of the kingdom and Christ's kingdom will grow until the entire world is leavened by his grace. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, I thank you for giving us books like Matthew. And though we have barely dipped into the surface of this book, I pray that each one of us would realize that there are depths there that we need to mine and prayerfully ask for your wisdom. And I pray that you would help us to live kingdom lives that are more and more consistent and more and more consistently to experience the supernatural power of your Holy Spirit working through us. Thank you for the incredible examples that Christ and the disciples set for us in what it means to live by grace, to live by the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, may we take the Great Commission seriously and not give up, until all nations are Christian nations, obeying all things that your word says. Bless, Father, the Church of Jesus Christ with a greater passion for your kingdom, a greater appreciation for all of the resources that we have in your kingdom. And we pray that you would extend the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ more and more through our efforts. We thank you for your promise that our labors in the Lord are not in vain. And we pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.