We have made mention recently of an old adage by St. Augustine relating to the relationship of the two Testaments. And this is the statement that we've made of late, that the new is concealed in the old, and the old is concealed in the new. Some of you have heard that many times. To some it may still be a new statement. Let me just read it again and just consider the relationship of the two Testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. That Old Testament section of your Bible that's 39 books and the New Testament section of your Bible, 27 books. The new is concealed in the old and the old is revealed in the new. In another place, I've found this particular statement. Let me share it with you, and then I'll tell you where it comes from. God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old, and the Old be made manifest in the New. For though Christ established the new covenant in his blood, still the books of the Old Testament, with all their parts, caught up into the proclamation of the gospel, acquire and show forth their full meaning in the New Testament, and in turn, shed light on it and explain it. Now that statement comes from a document known as the Constitution of Divine Revelation from Vatican II. And no, I have not become a Roman Catholic this week. In a chapter, the fourth chapter, under the title Concerning the Old Testament, Rome makes very clear its understanding and continuity that is in keeping with St. Augustine from some 1,600 years prior. And though Rome has much with which we would disagree, this is not the sermon for that necessarily today, my quotation is no endorsement of the records of Vatican II, but I believe we can agree with this statement that their declaration is in keeping with Augustine, and more importantly, both are expressive of the scripture's stated relationship of the Testaments themselves. And more pertinently to the matter at hand, the Lord Jesus, as recorded for us by Matthew himself, points to this particular work of his apostles as bringing in their new covenant writing treasures out of old covenant texts. We see this all throughout Matthew's gospel as he cites one Old Testament text after another demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ or Jesus is the Messiah. Let me have us begin today by turning to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Now we are still in this Introduction to Matthew's Gospel. I don't know how long I'm going to be in the introduction to Matthew's Gospel. Those of you who know me know that I like introductions. They last a long time usually. There are just some things that we need to kind of set clearly on the table before just jumping madly into 28 chapters of a book of the Bible. Matthew chapter 13 beginning in verse 51. Now, Matthew has, in chapter 13, been recounting various parables of Jesus, kingdom parables. And he's been saying things like, the kingdom of heaven is like a sower that goes out to sow. The kingdom of heaven is like a like a man who sows good seed in his field, the tares and the wheat parable, or like a mustard seed, or like leaven in a bread, and he has all these different illustrations he's using to demonstrate the truth of the kingdom of God, and several points at which, in Matthew 13 alone, in Matthew 13, verses 14 to 15, in Matthew, 13 verse 32, and Matthew 13 verse 35, and Matthew 13 verse 43, over and over, Matthew dips back into the Old Testament, or Jesus, we could say, dips back into the Old Testament, in order to elaborate on the full manifestation and meaning and significance of the kingdom of heaven that has come among them in his ministry. And then in Matthew 13, 51, Jesus turns to his apostles, he turns to his disciples, he turns to these men that follow him around, he looks at them in verse 51 and says, have you understood all these things? And I would really wanna pause before I say what they say, but they say, yes. Sure, we get it, we understand. Jesus then makes the comment, Therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household who brings out of his treasure new things and old. Or as some allude to the idea that he's bringing new things out of things that are old. Mark Ross, in his commentary on the book of Matthew, makes this comment. He said, the parable points toward the service to the kingdom which the disciples will render. Having been trained for the kingdom of heaven, they have a treasure from which they must share new things and old. Things are in that treasure and both are to be shared. There was much that was new in the teaching brought about by Jesus, at least so far as understanding is concerned, but it was all continuous with the old revelation previously given in what we call the Old Testament. Both are to be found in the teaching of the well-trained scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven. In other words, I wonder here if Matthew is maybe using this particular event in the instruction of Jesus, this question and answer and then further instruction that he has with his disciples. I wonder if Matthew may even be pointing to his own understanding of his work as a scribe of the new covenant. His work as an apostle that is going to write a very document. His word as an apostle who in fact is in the middle of writing. his gospel record? And I think the answer to that question is yes. Matthew sees himself as one scribe of the new covenant, drawing new and glorious treasures out of things perhaps considered old. Well, why do we mention this? Why do we start in an introduction to Matthew like we did last week, just kind of giving an overview of Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1. And why don't we come today and jump all the way to Matthew chapter 13. And in a few moments, we're going to jump all the way to Matthew chapter 28. Why not just wait until we get to Matthew 13 to kind of lay this out? Well, at this point in introducing the gospel of Matthew, we are trying to lay hold of what Matthew is doing in giving his gospel account. I'm wanting us to step back just a little bit and ask some questions and say, what is it that Matthew is trying to accomplish in the big picture in writing this gospel record? In this, we might say that Matthew has learned as a disciple to read the Old Testament in light of the new, that the treasures that are hidden in that Old Testament record might be revealed in the new covenant text. This is a good way for us to read the Bible. It's a good way for you and I to read the Bible. It's a good way for us to take the Old Testament, and as we move into the New Testament, to anticipate that the writers of the New Testament have not forgotten that there is an Old Covenant text. In fact, again, I'll allude to the study the guys have been having in the book on Irenaeus' work, on the demonstration of apostolic preaching, Irenaeus is saying, basically, that this is exactly what the apostles did, is they went out to preach, they took the Old Testament in hand, and they had the revelation of Christ that had been given to them, they had the spirit of Christ they'd been filled with, and they took that Old Testament text and they preached it in a new covenant context, bringing out the fullness of the treasures that were hidden therein. One of my Favorite writers is the 20th century writer F.F. Bruce. If you've read much of Bruce, maybe you have an affinity for him as well. Bruce is a New Testament scholar, and he makes this comment having just finished quoting from an Old Testament scholar that basically says, well, the Old Covenant or the Old Testament needs to be understood on its own. When I was in seminary back in the early 90s, I had an Old Testament professor, and no Old Testament professor wants to be told, well, you know, the full revelation of the Old Covenant is in the New. Oh, no, no, it's all just about the Old Testament, right? And they're all excited about, well, I did say no Old Testament scholar. That's not true. But a liberal Old Testament scholar certainly doesn't want to think that he needs the new covenant to fully understand the old. I had a professor in seminary that was very much like that. He loved the Old Testament. And it was like, we never got to the New Testament to see the full disclosure of what's really happening here. Well, Bruce is interacting with that idea a little bit. He makes this comment. He says, as a New Testament student, I gladly avail myself of the permission to read the Old Testament in light of the New. That is a permission that's granted to you as well. It is something that would be wise for you to do. I was having a conversation a few weeks ago with a couple of guys at the pastor's conference, and we were talking about reading Genesis chapter one, and it was on the doctrine of creation, and can we rightly see the doctrine of the trinity in Genesis chapter one? And some would say, oh, well, you can't. You can't see the trinity there because you can't use later revelation to help you understand earlier revelation. Friends, if you can't use later revelation to help you understand early revelation, you're gonna be what? You're gonna be stuck up that proverbial Greek without a paddle, right? We are thankful that the Lord has revealed more to the apostles, and they indeed have written down for us this document that helps us understand the fullness of the old. So Bruce says, I gladly avail myself of this permission. And you can almost, he doesn't put quotes in there, but he's being a little snarky probably at that moment. There is something more to be said if we begin to atomize the scriptures, we cannot even treat the Old Testament by itself as a unity or the Old Testament theology as a single subject of study. What's he saying there? If we atomize the scripture, if we just look at little atoms, If we divide everything up in a little text, and it's all we're going to see is just that text, we can't understand the fullness of that text unless we relate it to the breadth of the context of the rest of the whole of the Bible. He says the Old Testament is interpreted in the New. It is true. But he adds the Old Testament is also interpreted in the what? In the Old. He realized that if you start in Genesis and you read later Revelation, it's going to help you understand what? Earlier Old Testament texts. Later Old Testament texts will help you understand earlier Old Testament texts. He says, for example, a relation between the use made of the Exodus motif. Remember the Exodus? In the book of Exodus, the story of the people being delivered from Egypt in bondage and being taken to the promised land. Well, that Exodus theme, or that Exodus motif, he said, a relation between the use made of the Exodus motif to depict the return of the Babylonian exile. So later in the history of Israel, after they've been in the Promised Land for many years, they've had a united kingdom, monarchy under David, under Solomon. The monarchy breaks up. You have 10 tribes that go north, two tribes that are in the south. You have the divided kingdom, the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom. Later, the northern kingdom is destroyed by Assyria in like 722 BC, and the southern kingdom finally falls to Babylon in like 586 BC. When that happens, and the people are exiled to Babylon for Jeremiah's 70 years of captivity, when they return from captivity to that, well, today is Israel, but the promised land, Canaan, when they return, the biblical writers make use of the Exodus imagery from earlier in the Old Testament. He says, a relation between the use made of the Exodus motif to depict the return from the Babylonian exile and the use made, hear this, of the same motif to depict the New Testament message of salvation. The idea being delivered not out of Egypt and not out of Babylon, but delivered out of captivity and sin and darkness in the kingdom of Satan, being delivered out of that by the Lord Jesus Christ. Historic Christianity, Bruce says, recognizes in the New Testament the goal or the telos of the old. And with this, he makes an interesting comment about Aristotle, who wrote about the idea of understanding things in light of their telos, their end, their aim, their purpose. He says, though we don't need to go all the way with Aristotle, he's not too excited about just ingesting all of Aristotle, rightly so, he says, Historic Christianity recognizes in the New Testament the goal or telos of the old, and though we do not need to go all the way with Aristotle to agree with him, we should agree with him that anything, hear this, anything is better understood in the light of its telos, its purpose, its goal. If we can understand where things are moving toward and understand what the goal is and the destination, then we can better understand our way along the journey. Our preaching of the Bible, our teaching of the Bible is not to be like the drive that you may take with your kids from time to time. Janice and I love to take drives. We'll get in the car. We have no idea where we're going. That drives a kid nuts. Where are we going? I don't know. We're just driving. What are we going to do? I don't know. We're just going to drive. How long are we going to drive? You know what's coming next. I don't know. And pretty soon after about 10 of those questions, you're thinking, why'd we bring the kids? So usually we don't. We just go on a drive with no one, all right? They want to know where we're going, what we're going to do when we get there, what's going to happen when we get there. Why? They've got to know the end from the beginning, right? Well, this is not a casual drive of a man and wife that just want to get in the car and get a break for a couple minutes and drive around and not know where they're going to be, right? We know eventually we're going to end up at home. That's kind of the end goal there. But in our study of the scripture, it will help us, I think, if we know the end from the beginning. So my hope is in these introductory studies of Matthew that we can begin to kind of unpack that end, unpack that goal, see what it is that Matthew's trying to do with his gospel that will help us as we move through it together. So with that in mind, with the thought in mind that when Matthew's writing, when Matthew's doing what he's doing, he himself is thinking This New Covenant revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, or to use appalling term, Matthew would have seen himself like the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, who calls himself a minister of what? A minister of the New Covenant. As a New Covenant minister, understanding that there is an old covenant prior to that, that's informing Matthew as he writes. It shouldn't be surprising to us. In fact, I think we should be looking for Matthew in his writing to be intentionally making connections as he lays out his gospel account of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. We ought to be looking for him to make connections to the Old Testament revelation. We should be anticipating that he is going to draw from that Old Testament text and he's gonna bring out things that have been hidden, things that we might not have been able to see apart from Christ and his Holy Spirit being given to his apostles and them writing down for us this glorious revelation that we call the New Testament. So we saw last week that Matthew sees his writing, and the title that we gave to last week's sermon was His Writing is a Witness or a Record of the New Creation of Jesus the Messiah. Look back in Matthew chapter one for a moment, Matthew chapter one. Matthew opens his gospel declaring that the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham, is likened to a new Genesis. or a new creation. We actually saw the first two words in the Gospel of Matthew in the Greek text are Biblos Geneseos, Book of Genesis, Book of Origins, Book of Beginnings. Theologically speaking here, we're looking at the record of a recorded text It highlights the work of Jesus the Messiah coming into the world, bringing about a new spiritual creation in making the church. GK Beal makes this comment in his book on the temple and the church's mission. He says, Matthew's point in using this phrase is to make clear that he is narrating the record of the new age, the new creation launched by the coming death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today, coming back to Matthew, we want to have our attention drawn to another section of his work. that will, I hope, intimately connect with what we've been laying out earlier in the sermon, but also last week as well. I wanna take you to the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 28, Matthew chapter 28. We typically refer to this text as the Great Commission. What I wanna call today in the sermon, beginning with the end, And my hope is here that we can connect several pieces of text in the Bible. One, I want us to connect Matthew 1-1 with Matthew 28, 16-20. We alluded to this last Lord's Day, but we didn't have a lot of detail given. I want to see if I can give some more of this today. Well, I just saw a blessing walk in. Wow. Sermon pause. Welcome back. My goodness, now everybody's looking at you. They wouldn't have seen you if I hadn't said anything, I'm sure. It's good to see you. Good to have you back. So in Matthew 28, 18 to 20, I want to connect that to Matthew 1, verse 1, which I hope will serve to kind of pull the book together. You ever think about bookends? All right, you ever had those books and you're just trying to set them up and they just keep falling down or whatever? You're like, where are those bookends, all right? And you finally get to and you squish all the books together and you're like, you have that happy feel inside. You're like, yes, it all holds together now. That's good, all right? Nothing's falling out. I think Matthew 1.1 and Matthew 28.16-20 will kind of do that. They form theologically, sometimes people refer to it as an inclusio. And basically it's what we're going to try to demonstrate is that these two bookends, these two outward markers holding things together, we're going to see as we move through Matthew that what we find in Matthew 1.1 and Matthew 28, 16 to 20 is going to be demonstrated throughout the text. The themes that pop up in 1.1, the themes that get reaffirmed in Matthew chapter 28 are being demonstrated throughout the book. in various events, various conversations, various sermons, various miracles, various things that happen, kind of elaborate on those particular themes. Let's begin by just reading Matthew 28, 16 to 20. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up 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 the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of days. Now, before we lay out this passage, let me just make a few comments here about Matthew 1-1 and Matthew 28, and then we're going to look at an Old Testament text, and then we'll come back and make some conclusions. So you probably recall in your mind Matthew 1.1. Maybe you can just quote it. The record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And there we saw in this book of Genesis, this book of New Beginnings, that Matthew presents Jesus as one, the Messiah, the long-anticipated Messiah, the anointed one, the promised one of God that the people were longing for and looking for to come and bring them deliverance. Number two, he presents Jesus not just as the Messiah. He presents Jesus as the son of David. And as the son of David, he is the rightful inheritor of the promises made to David that he will be the seed of David or the son of David. He will be the one that will be seated on David's throne. He will receive all the promises that God has made to David to build him a house and to perpetuate his line. And his line will terminate in the final seed, the final son, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And just a side note there, maybe a clarification on something I said last week. I think I confused a few people. Received a couple of texts this week about Luke's genealogy, that I had made some kind of a comment about that Matthew is the last genealogy in the Bible. What I meant by that is that Matthew, being a genealogy of Jesus, the genealogy of Jesus is the last genealogy in the Bible. Now, Matthew gives a genealogy, and Luke gives a genealogy. It's a little bit different, and we'll be talking about that in the coming weeks when we actually get into the genealogy. As far as Jewish genealogies go, we don't have any more after the genealogy of Jesus. Why? Because we've come to the point. We've come to the whole reason for why we're keeping all these genealogies. We are going from Adam all the way to Jesus. Or, as Matthew records, we're going from Abraham all the way to Jesus, and it stops there. Matthew not only presents Jesus as the Messiah, the long-anticipated Deliverer of God's people, as the Son of David, the King, the Ruler of God's people, he also presents Jesus as the Son of Abraham in the text that Josh read just a moment ago, that in Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed, but specifically in those Abrahamic texts in the Old Testament, like Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, Genesis 22, and other texts, or if we jump all the way to Galatians chapter 3, we find that the true seed of Abraham, remember it's not seeds, Paul says, it's what? It's just a seed. Look over there for a moment, Galatians chapter 3. Since we're doing the introduction, we'll just make it longer. Okay, so Galatians chapter 3. Now I gotta find where in Galatians chapter three. Yeah, Galatians chapter three, let's start in verse 15. Galatians 3.15, brethren, I speak in terms of human relations, even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises, and this will take us back to like Genesis chapter 12, those promises that Josh read about. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, and to seeds, referring to many, but rather to one and to your seed that is Christ, or that is the Messiah, which Matthew is identifying with. Jesus, and Paul identifies the Messiah as Jesus as well. Remember, I mentioned last week that Matthew was maybe taking a page from Paul's playbook, or maybe Paul was taking one from Matthew's playbook, demonstrating from the Old Testament scriptures that Jesus, the historical Jesus, is the what? The Christ. And right there in that verbiage, the Jesus is the Christ, you realize you have in that, Jesus is the Christ, those four words pull together both Old and New Testament. Jesus, the clear central figure in all the Bible, yes, but the clearly revealed Jesus, historically born of Mary, and the one who enacts the new covenant, is the Christ, the Messiah of the Old Testament anticipation. Back in Matthew chapter one, We see that Matthew presents Jesus as the Messiah, the long-anticipated deliverer, the anointed of God, the son of David, the king, and the son of Abraham, the one through whom the blessings promised to Abraham would then come to all the nations of the world. Now, let's fast forward to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28, the connections between Matthew 28 and Matthew 1, I think, are important. And I think they will serve to kind of pull things together. Now we're kind of after the fact here, aren't we, in Matthew chapter 28? He's been born. He's lived. He's died. He's been raised again, right? And now he's making his final appearance to his disciples, his 11 disciples. This is after the betrayal of Judas, and it's before Matthias in Acts chapter 1 there when they replace Judas Now we have these 11 apostles, and they proceed to Galilee. They've been told by Jesus several times already that I'm going to die, and after I die, I'll be raised, and I'll go to Galilee, and I will appear to you there, and I'll talk to you there. We have come, in a sense, full circle in the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter one through chapter four, most of chapter four, gets us that introductory kind of prologue, introducing us to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Matthew chapter four, for the end of the chapter, we find Jesus making his public appearance. And where does he make his public appearance? He makes it in Galilee. Galilee of the Gentiles up in the north. That's where he begins his public ministry. And here he's going to end his public ministry, if you will, at the same place. Notice it says that the 11 disciples proceed to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated or chosen or appointed. Now, this is a whole study in itself, and it would be fascinating to kind of track this down. It might get Ryan back on the Mount Zion kind of a thing, but there are mountains all over the book of Matthew. But there are also specific mountains in the book of Matthew. And it seems to me that this is probably a very specific mountain, a place that Jesus normally meets with his disciples. Find Jesus in Matthew chapter five going up on the mountain, sitting down to teach the Sermon on the Mount. We find Jesus in Moses-like fashion at the end of Matthew chapter seven, the beginning of chapter eight, coming down from the mountain after he has taught on the law of God. We find Jesus again in Matthew chapter 17 going up on a high mountain to be transfigured before Peter and James and John. We find Jesus a few verses later again in Moses-like fashion coming down from the mountain after he's transfigured and made glorious before men. And here we find at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus again designating a meeting to take place on a mountain. Mountains often in the Bible carry very religious significance. They carry the significance of places that God might make himself known to people, that God is to be worshiped. We find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is on a what? It's on a mountain, the Mount of Olives, right there outside the gates of the city. When Jesus comes, Jesus comes to these men, and think about the last time he saw these men. Last time he saw these men, they'd all done what? They'd all deserted him. They'd all left him. And Jesus has told them, through the angel that has come to Mary, and through the previous revelation he's given to them, I'm gonna meet you on the mountain, up in Galilee, go there. And so here they are in Jerusalem, where Jesus is crucified, and now the empty tomb is there, and they realize they have to go where? They have to go back to Galilee. Look back in Matthew 28 in verse seven. The angel has come to the women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. They're there at the grave, and the angel comes and says in Matthew 28, verse seven, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. And just a few verses later, In verse 8 through 10, it says, they left the tomb quickly for fear of great joy. And great joy, they ran to tell the disciples that Jesus had met them and greeted them. And they came and took hold of his feet and they worshiped him. This Jesus said to them, do not be afraid, go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee. There they will see me. They've had the testimony of the ladies about the resurrection of Christ. If we put all the other gospel accounts together, they've had ample, ample evidence, ample testimony that Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead. And they have to walk from Jerusalem all the way to Galilee. Don't you wanna be a fly on the wall of that conversation of what they're thinking? And the last time we saw him, we deserted him. The last time we saw him, we left him. Know what it says. Verse 17, and when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some were doubtful. And the word doubtful there could probably better be translated hesitant. There's some reluctance, there's some struggle, there's some anxiety in the hearts of these men, and they worship him. They've already acknowledged, they've already acknowledged very clearly that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Messiah, he is the rightful inheritor of all those anticipated promises. You think back to Matthew chapter 16 where Jesus asked the disciples, do people say that I am? And then he says, but who do you say that I am? And Peter, speaking for the 12, says what? You are the what? You are the Christ, the son of the living God. They equated the idea of the Messiah with the sonship, the divine sonship of Jesus. They've already acknowledged him to be the Messiah. And as the Messiah rightfully, like Psalm 2 would say, the anointed one of God that has been seated on God's holy hill, his perfect son, he is to be what? He is to be worshiped. They worshiped him. I think it's back in Matthew 14. Yeah, let's look back in Matthew 14. This word, this word for worship, I believe it only occurs twice in Matthew's gospel. And in Matthew chapter 14, we have the event where Jesus walks on the water. And where Peter, with great Boldness says if it's you, do what? Command me to come. So Jesus commands Peter, come. In verse 29, Peter gets out of the boat. Now we often, we're hard on Peter, aren't we? Would you have gotten out of that boat? I don't know that I could have gotten out of that boat. Even if he had said come, I think, I might have followed that up with, are you sure? You know? Is it really you? But he goes, he gets out of the boat and he walked on the water. I mean, that's like amazing. But then he begins to what? He begins to sink. He cries out, Lord, save me. Jesus stretches out his hand and takes hold of him and says to him, you have little faith, why did you doubt? When he got in the boat, the wind stops and notice what happens here. Those who were in the boat worshiped him saying, you are certainly what? You're certainly God's son. What I wanna connect there is that the worship that is given to Jesus as the son of God in Matthew chapter 14, and the worship that is given to Jesus as the Messiah here in Matthew chapter 20, when they worship him, they're recognizing something about him. Matthew 16, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. They equate those two things. You are the son of God, we'll worship you. When they worship him in Matthew chapter 28, they haven't forgotten who it is they're worshiping. They're worshiping Jesus. They're worshiping the Christ. They're worshiping the son of the living God. Jesus came up and spoke to them back in Matthew 28, verse 18. Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. All authority. has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth. Now, there are several points in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus claims to have authority, where Jesus is recognized as one having authority. His miracles testify to his power, his authority. His words testify to his power and his authority. The people at the end of Matthew chapter seven are amazed because he doesn't teach them as their scribes and their leaders, their teachers. He teaches them as one having authority. But here Jesus makes a very distinct emphasis, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. What Jesus is here pointing to is the idea of his messianic reign, his messianic kingdom, has now been given to him. There's a text, and we don't have time to go into it today. We'll do it in the future. Daniel chapter 7. I'm going to encourage you to go and read Daniel chapter 7. I almost wanted Ryan to preach Daniel 7, then stop, and then we do Matthew. There's a lot of imagery in Daniel 7 that pictures Jesus coming in the clouds, not coming to earth, but coming to the Father, coming to the Almighty, the Ancient of Days. And he's going to the Ancient of Days to receive from him a kingdom, and he will then bestow this kingdom upon his people. Here in Matthew 28, verse 18, I think Jesus is making an allusion to this idea of him having received authority, him having received all authority in heaven and on earth. Now this is connected clearly back to Matthew 1.1 in the statement that Matthew makes that Jesus is the son of David. How so? Because as the son of David, he's the what? He's the king. But he's not just any son of David. Rehoboam was a son of David. Rehoboam is not the son of David that's being referred to in Matthew chapter one, verse one. Rehoboam is not the one who's been given all authority in heaven and on earth. But Jesus as the rightful seed of David, son of David, the ultimate son of David, does receive all authority in heaven and on earth. As such, he possesses this rule in his kingdom. Quickly, let's move on to the passage in Matthew 19 to 20. And we're not trying to give a full exposition of this text. We will come to it again, I'm sure. But in verses 19 to 20, notice what you have there. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew ends his gospel by taking this idea of Jesus being the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ, worthy of worship, Jesus being the Son of David, the King, possessing of all authority, and now he shifts to the idea of Jesus commanding his disciples to carry the blessing of his reign, where? To all the nations of the world. This is his end game. This is his end goal. This is the telos, if you will, for Matthew. This is where he's been moving everything. Jesus, as the son of Abraham, as such, being the singular seed of Abraham, he carries the blessing given to Abraham to all the nations of the world. Now, this is a striking turn for Matthew. Maybe you haven't seen it yet, but look back in Matthew chapter 10. The idea of going to all the nations of the world would be a radical thing. Remember, all these men are Jews. They're very Jewish in the sense that everything about them is Jewish. Everything about anything that matters to them is Jewish. The nations don't matter. What are the Gentiles? They're what? They're dogs. That's the term that's used often in the Gospels for Gentiles. If you came today to feel good about yourself, you know, stop. That's what we are. We are just the Gentile dogs, all right? Jesus comes in Matthew chapter 10 after Matthew kind of lays out the 12. This is kind of the summary of the 12, the 12 apostles. These 12, verse 5, Matthew 10, 5, these 12 Jesus sent out after instructing them. Do not go, do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And that's, that's it. He doesn't just say, I want you in your preaching and in your teaching to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's the positive part. He doesn't just say that. He adds the negative and even opens up with a negative. Don't go to the Gentiles. Don't go to the Samaritans. And now at the end of Matthew, he does what? I want you to go. I want you to go to all the nations of the world. And I want you to do what? I want you to go, I want you to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now, that's just a quick comparison of Matthew 1.1 and Matthew 28, 16 to 20. There's another connection I want to try to make and then come back and make a few points of application. Really it's the points of application we ended with last week, but I want to stress them again from this text. The point of connection I want to make for you at this point is going to take us back to the Old Testament. I know last week I kind of opened up with kind of a tricky question about turn to the book of Genesis and you started to go to Genesis 1.1 and I said, no, no, no, go to Matthew. All right. Well, I'm just gonna tell you ahead of time, this is a tricky thing I'm gonna say. I want you to go to the last book in the Old Testament. Now, don't turn, all right? The last book in the Old Testament. What's the last book in the Old Testament? Malachi, right? Malachi, all right? Let's go to the last book of the Jewish Old Testament. The last book of the Jewish Old Testament is 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles. We have our ordering of Old Testament books based on what's called the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which probably was the translation that Paul often used on his journeys when he's preaching and teaching, often cites out of the Septuagint. The Hebrew Old Testament, or to us, we often call it the Masoretic Text. The Masoretes were a group of Jewish scribes and teachers somewhere around 1,000 or so AD, somewhere in there. And they helpfully put into the Hebrew Old Testament for us vowels and markings and things like that. Jews, the Hebrew language does not have vowels. It's a very neat language of just consonants. That becomes problematic for you and me because we like what? We like to buy a vowel, please, Alex. We like to have one. I'd like a vowel, please. What's it going to be? A, I, O, U, that kind of a thing. Sometimes a Y, that kind of a deal. The Mazarites helped us in putting vowel markers in the Hebrew text to help us know how to pronounce things. You think those Old Testament names are hard to read? Think of how hard they'd be to read without vowels. Man, that would be really strange. Well, I don't know why I got off on that. Go back to 2 Chronicles. And probably just put your finger on 1 and 2 Chronicles. You're gonna go before the Psalms and take a few lefts, and you're gonna get to Chronicles, all right? First and second Chronicles, and you might be thinking, do I have those books in my Bible, all right? You're doing your daily Bible reading, you get to first and second Chronicles, you're like, wow, do I wanna read first and second Chronicles? Why can't every book be like Judges, you know? Battles and stuff like that. Why can't every book be Philippians, nice and short? First and second Chronicles. First and Second Chronicles are the final two books in the Old Testament. Now the Septuagint arrangement of Old Testament books ending with the book of Malachi has a sense at the end of Malachi of anticipation of what's going to be coming in the new covenant. Talks about John the Baptist, not my name, but as the messenger of the Lord. It talks about the Lord coming to his temple. It talks about some really interesting things in the book of Malachi about what's going to happen in the dawning age of the Messiah. Second Chronicles ends a little differently. Second Chronicles ends with a declaration made by Cyrus, right? Remember the sermons that Ryan's been giving us on the Book of Daniel. You got the Babylonians and the Medes and the Persians. And Cyrus is like this king toward the very end that commissions the people to go back and to build the temple. Let's look together in 2 Chronicles 36. 2 Chronicles 36, verse 22. Now, above that, there's a big gap, if you will, between verses 19 to 21 and verses 22 to 23. There's a time gap because in verse 19, the Babylonians went in and they burned the house of God. They burned the temple. It broke down the walls, burned the buildings. Those who escaped from the sword in verse 20, he carried away to Babylon and they were servants under the rule of the Persians. Verse 21 says, all this was to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths all the days of its desolation and kept sabbath until 70 years were completed. So Jeremiah the prophet prophesied that you're gonna go into captivity, you're gonna go to Babylon, you'll be there 70 years, all right? Now, jump, in a sense, 70 years from verse 21 to verse 22, all right? Now in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, this is the fulfillment that you're gonna come back, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying, thus says Cyrus, the king of Persia, quote, The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. This is in many ways, if we were to give Cyrus this title, this is a great commission given by Cyrus to the people to go back and to build the temple. Now let me, keep your finger there on 2 Corinthians 36. I'm hoping you're sticking with me, I'm hoping you're flipping in your Bible with me, because you'll probably get really lost if you're not looking with me. So, Isaiah 45. Isaiah prophesies before Jeremiah. Some anticipate or get the relationship between Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah prophesies at 11 o'clock, the judgment is going to come on Judah, the southern kingdom. Jeremiah comes along and prophesies at the stroke of midnight. The judgment is here. All right? That's kind of the relationship with these two men. Isaiah is before Jeremiah. He's prophesying before this ever comes up. He is prophesying, listen, before Cyrus is ever even born. Remember, Isaiah is probably about 100 years before Jeremiah. Jeremiah says you're going to go into captivity for 70 years. And then you're going to be sent back. So we might have 150, 200 years between this statement of Isaiah and what happens at the end of 2 Chronicles 36. Now, if you don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture and the idea of prophecy that can tell the future, then this is going to be a hard text for you. But if you happen to believe that God is the ultimate author of Scripture and that Scripture is the very inspired word of God and God can reveal to men before things happen what's going to happen, you'll be very comfy here. Notice Isaiah chapter 44. Let's just start in verse 26. Confirming the word of his servant and performing the purpose of his messengers, it is I who says of Jerusalem, this is God, This is, it is I who says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited, and of the cities of Judah, they shall be built, and I will raise up her ruins again. It is I who says to the depth of the sea, be dried up, and I will make your rivers dry. It is I, hear this, it is I who says of Cyrus. Huh, who's Cyrus? He's not even what? He's not even born yet. He was not, as your mother would have said, a twinkle in his mother's eye. He was nothing. This is years before Cyrus ever comes on the planet. But God says through the prophet Isaiah, it is I who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he will perform all my desire, and he declares of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple your foundation will be laid. This is before the temple's destroyed. It's before the walls are destroyed. It's before the city's burned. The people are still looking at Isaiah like, oh, you're just like a prophet of doom, Isaiah. It's not really gonna happen. 45.1, now this is where chapter breaks don't always help you. You understand when the Bible was written, it was not written with chapter breaks. It was not written with verses. It was just written with text, all right? You need to read straight through 44 into 45. Let me back up a little bit, 28. It is I who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, he will perform all my desire, and he declares of Jerusalem, she will be built, and of the temple, your foundation will be laid. Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, his anointed. Let me do this again. Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, his Messiah. And I'll be making this kind of, on the inside, I just kind of go, ooh, that's kind of cool. What's he saying? Cyrus is going to be, by God, an anointed servant who is going to be like a messianic figure who is going to send the people back to rebuild God's house. Back to 2 Chronicles 36. I, thus says Cyrus, verse 23, 2 Chronicles 36, 23, thus says Cyrus, the king of Persia, the Lord's anointed, the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah, the Lord's appointed deliverer. The Lord the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever therefore is among you of his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. I believe that when Matthew is constructing his gospel narrative, remember what we said earlier. The old is revealed where? In the new. Matthew knows this. Matthew knows this. He's anticipating this. He's anticipating a future coming Messiah who will work in such a way to bring old glorious things out of that old covenant text, reveal them and make them shine, make them sparkle, if you will. Like, I never saw that before. And it's not like the magician who draws the rabbit out of the hat. He draws the rabbit out of the hat. Why? Because he put it in there. All right. It's just like, you know, how to get there. God has intended this to happen long ago. He has hidden these glorious truths. I suppose in that, as I give that illustration, I'm thinking it kind of is like the magician. God put it in there earlier to be brought out later on. Thinking about that illustration just a little bit more as I'm preaching. Cyrus is this messianic figure, and I think it's almost unmistakable that Matthew would see the connections. As we go through the book of Matthew, you'll see even more that one of the things that God is doing, he is reconstructing a house. It's not a physical house. He's reconstructing a spiritual house that consists of a reconstituted nation of Israel founded upon the apostles, founded upon Christ, but also the apostles. Paul says that in Ephesians chapter two, founded on the apostles and the prophets. And then they go out to the nations of the world and bring in the Gentiles, you and me. Peter says what in 1 Peter chapter two? We're all being put together as a what? As a house, a spiritual house being built for God to inhabit by his spirit that we might proclaim the excellencies of God to the world. He is building a house. It's a new creation kind of a house and it's going to culminate in the makings of a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem in the eternal state. I wish we had time to go back in like Isaiah 65 and 66 and show that as well. We may do that later on. Something else interesting about 1st Chronicles. 1st Chronicles begins, I know, in that kind of a text that you always want to skip. It begins with a genealogy. And the genealogy is almost three chapters long. And the genealogy really kind of culminates on David. And David, for the following, I don't know, 15, 18 chapters or so, begins to talk about how he wants to build for God a new what? A new house, a new temple. Matthew, it would have been impossible to mistake what was going on between these two realities, these two books, pulling these things together. Quickly, in the time I don't have, let's go back to Matthew 28, and I just want to think about these three things. Matthew 28, but also Matthew chapter one, Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus as the son of David, Jesus as the son of Abraham. Matthew is going to labor in this book to prove to you that the historical Jesus, born of Mary, is the long-anticipated Messiah, the one hoped for and longed for to deliver men. Now, when Jesus comes in his earthly ministry, the people didn't understand what kind of Messiah he was. They often thought he would be like a political Messiah who would come and crush Rome and bring the Jews back to their days of flourishing like in the days of the United Kingdom under David. He wasn't that kind of Messiah. He was a Messiah not coming to set them free from Egyptian tyranny or Babylonian captivity or Roman oppression. He was a Messiah that was coming to set them free from sin and death. So I would ask you the question today. Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Jesus, the Messiah, who comes to set men free, who has come to set you free from sin and death. You see, all throughout the Gospel of Matthew, this is what Matthew will be laboring to prove. So I would exhort you to give heed to the book of Matthew. I would encourage you to listen and see if Matthew actually makes his case. And does he make it well? I guess I've been a dad now for 31 years. And I don't know how many times in all the years of parenting, I can't quickly add up how many years of parenting, but I think I'm probably almost at a century of parenting. And I would imagine this is probably true in your house as well. It is not uncommon for children to have doubts. Now, it's not uncommon for any of us to have doubts. But I would especially just address this for a moment to you young people. I would argue, and I will argue, for, Lord willing, many months to come, that Matthew makes a sound and almost irrefutable case. that this Jesus, who has come into the world, is in fact the Christ, the Messiah of God, who has come to set you free from sin and from death. I would encourage you to give your attention, not just to preaching. Give your attention to the Word of God during the week. Read the Word of God. Read the Word of God prayerfully. Read the Word of God patiently. Read the word of God, asking God to help you as you read it, to see and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember that man that one day came to Jesus, he wanted Jesus to work a miracle for him, and he's like, do you believe? Lord, I what? Lord, I believe, but help my what? Help my unbelief. Anybody ever, don't raise your hand. Anybody ever feel like that? You know, I believe. I struggle so much with belief. There's some of you that you seem rock solid, you never seem to have doubts. And that's fabulous, and that's wonderful, and praise God for that. And you should thank him for that. But there are so many others that struggle with faith. Believers that struggle with faith. I'm not talking about non-believers. I'm talking about believers that struggle with faith. Your faith will be well-placed, my friends. if you trust the spirit of Christ working through this precious brother apostle who has demonstrated so effectively that Jesus is the Christ. So if you're that struggling believer, I would encourage you to prayerfully approach this book. And if you're here today and you do not believe that Jesus is the Christ, you do not believe that Jesus is the deliverer that you need from sin and from death, then let me ask you this simple question. Then who is your deliverer? Because there's no question in your life that you have sin. And you might wanna sit there and, I don't have sin. I'll bet you if you let me hang around you for a couple minutes, I could find plenty. And you'd find plenty of me. But I'm not the one saying I don't have any. I have plenty. What did Alistair Begg say in that sermon? If you people knew how wretched I really was, you wouldn't come. And if I knew how wretched you were, neither would I. I mean, it's just great that God doesn't just let all of our stuff just plop out on the table. But if you don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the deliverer of God, the Savior from sin and death, then who is going to save you from sin? And friend, who is going to save you from death? because you will die. You will not always be young and healthy and sound of body and mind. You will get older or you won't get older, and you'll just die today. You need a savior from sin and from death, and Matthew presents Jesus as that kind of Messiah. Matthew presents Jesus also as the son of David, the one having all authority in heaven and earth. Cyrus just had authority from God on earth to rebuild a building. Jesus has authority from God in heaven and on earth. And might I even add from Philippians chapter two under the earth as well. But all creation might one day give praise to him. Why? Because he is the rightful and only soul, singular, ultimate, consummate son of David. He is the king. He has all authority. And you will one day answer to this king. because he is now on his throne and he's ruling and reigning over all things. And brothers and sisters, let me just speak to you as Christian brothers and sisters for a moment. Do you realize that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is your king, has all authority and he commands in the church that we should teach you to obey, what? All of his commandments. Somebody comes along and tells you, oh, the Old Testament's not for Christians, we don't need a law anymore, that's not for us, I just need Jesus and I just follow the life of the Spirit. Would it be that that was just some kind of wonky Quaker type person or something over here? But no, that is mainstream evangelical Christianity. The Old Testament, ha, who needs that? I mean, I got a New Testament and Psalms and it fits in my pocket, that's enough for me. You need all the commandments of Christ because they are all for you to keep. Now, that's a very brief admonition about the commands of Christ. I know that opens up all kinds of questions. You think, well, what about lambs and what about sacrifices and what about ceremonial laws and all those kinds of things? But I don't think we're wrong to say that we must keep all Christ's commandments because Jesus said that. And Jesus affirmed the continuing validity of the Old Testament as well. Granted, the law comes to us by way of the hands of Christ, not by way of the hands of Moses. But the law does come to us. It comes to us by Christ, and we must keep all of his commandments. Brothers and sisters, if you're living your life today as if somehow your obedience doesn't matter to Jesus in every matter, then you're diluting yourself. Because your Jesus, the Jesus that Matthew is presenting to you, is the son of David, the king, the one who is enthroned on Zion's holy hill, who commands you to keep all of his commandments. Every one. I don't know which one you might be sitting here thinking, I don't have to do that one. Before you just throw that one aside, you might want to counsel with someone. You might want to talk to somebody. And if you think I'm confusing at this point, and you're wondering about a particular command, you come see me later, and we'll talk about that command. Brothers and sisters, we are called to be a holy people, and we are called to keep his commands. But one last thing, and that is that Jesus is the son of Abraham. And this is like, there's so much to talk about at this particular point. But I think about the blessing that Christ brings to the nations of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew presents us with a picture of Jesus where Christ has the nations on his mind. And we're not going out, this is not a sermon against Christian nationalism and all those kinds of things, but we're not going out to baptize nations. He says, baptize them. Not baptizing a nation. We're baptizing those people out of the nations that have been made disciples that have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We baptize disciples, and we're good Baptists, so we baptize disciples alone. We don't baptize those people that aren't disciples. We baptize disciples, those that have come to faith in Jesus Christ and committed themselves to him as their Messiah, as the son of David, as the son of Abraham. We baptize them. And we have a heart and a longing that Christ has as well to see many, to see many in the nations come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I pray that God will give us help and insight as we move through this introduction to Matthew, and there may be more introduction next time, but I appreciate your prayers, and I appreciate your attentiveness, and I hope that in here, you will catch a glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, your Savior. Let's pray together. Father, we bless you, and we thank you, And we ask, oh God, that you would help us in our times to make much of Christ. Help us now to make much of the Lord Jesus Christ and his self-giving offering. Help us to see him, this one who has saved us, our Messiah from sin and death. He bore our sin, he died in our place, that we might be forgiven, that we might live to God. We ask, oh God, your help in this hour, in Jesus' name.