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Matthew

A look at some resources for Matthew

I began to pastor Clough Pike Baptist Church on January 21, 2021. I began an 85 sermon series from the book of Matthew. A month and a half prior, I preached from Matt 28:18-20 as my sermon that was in view of a call. Christmas Day 2022.

When I began my first Sunday, it was interesting to see the faces of people when they stood for the reading of Scripture and I read the genealogy of Jesus from Matthew 1:1-17.

I’m not a Matthew scholar but I have preached through the book and I’ve come across some books that I found helpful. These are not in any particular order.

Commentaries I found helpful throughout:

 

Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNT) is a very nice series. Commentary series are not all equal and books within a series are not equal. I enjoy the layout and organization of the PNT as a whole. This edition of Matthew by Leon Morris is one of the better ones in the series for sure.

Morris answers many of the questions I have asked when reading the text. While not overtly helpful in thinking about application, he does an excellent job of helping the reader understand the historical setting. His citation of Old Testament allusions and quotes is better than most. He is theologically sound and scholarly enough to allow me to nerd out some. His comments on the Greek New Testament and etymology were very helpful in deciphering various opinions.

 Hendrickson, William and Simon J. Kistemaker. Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew. Vol. 9, New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2001.

Early on I had some questions that other commentaries did not answer. I had another pastor friend who turned me on to this series. I had it on Logos so it made it easy to access. The books are available but they are not cheap or easy to come by. Outside of answering some questions, this commentary helped me to see the argument Matthew built throughout the different sections. Hendrickson is a master at deducing the flow of the argument in short succinct ways. This didn’t translate to my preaching but it did my understanding!

Carson, D.A. “Matthew,” in The Expositors Bible Commentary, edited Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.

Every commentary written after 1984 cites this work by Carson. I began to read him before I would read any other commentary because it seems that most people build off of his work. Reading Carson first allowed me to work through other material quickly because he addresses most everything and while other writers may deal with issues with more depth than him, they may not do so in a completely helpful way. I did not always agree with Carson but those times were few. This work is better at dealing with the text and less on the history concerning Matthew.

Blomberg, Craig. Matthew. Vol. 22, The New American Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 1992.

The New American Commentary is the most egregious commentary series for having very good and very bad volumes. This commentary by Blomberg is one of the better ones in the set. I enjoy the layout and while it seems dated in some areas, it is helpful as a good pastoral commentary. There is a balance of academic and lower-level issues handled in this set. This book is good for pastors but accessible enough for anyone to find profitable. There were some historical and cultural issues that Blomberg explained better than anyone else.

Other books I found helpful but did not find helpful enough to dig into their entirety:

Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI;  Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009.

Keener had some parts that were excellent in cultural issues. Outside of some of the cultural issues, I did not find that I agreed with his arguments enough to continue to read and recommend.

Barclay, William, The Gospel of Matthew. Vol. 1-2. The Daily Study Bible. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster John Knox Press, 1976.

Barclay flirts with various points of heresy so I read him cautiously. Before commentators pointed to Carson, they would point to Barclay. His reading outside of the New Testament and sourcing is phenomenal. His theology, questioning of miracles, and his Christology are suspect so I read him some.

Boice, James. The Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5-7. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2006.

Boice, James. The Gospel of Matthew: The King and His Kingdom Matthew 1-17. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books 2001.

In full disclosure, I didn’t know Boice finished the Matthew series. I only had through chapters 1-17. His commentaries are his sermons and they are some of the most edifying and encouraging. He was the pastor of 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia, PA. These two commentaries helped me see the pastoral heart in the text. He also disagreed with great prejudice with Barclay which I enjoyed. However, when Barclay was helpful he noted that in his commentaries. I found him to be balanced not just in how he dealt with Barclay but in other areas, a trait I hope to grow more in as a pastor.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. La Vergne, TN: Spring Arbor Distributors, 1995.

If you are a theologian and you got caught in an assassination attempt against Hitler and you wrote a book about discipleship, I’ll read it. The Cost of Discipleship is not just a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount but it is primarily that and it is fantastic. When I preached through the Sermon on the Mount, this book most challenged the application of the text.

Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1971.

Lloyd-Jones is a master expositor and this commentary on the Sermon on the Mount was my first commentary on this subject. I have turned to it many times. Lloyd-Jones is not succinct but he is not superfluous. His thoroughness and what appears to be tenderness in dealing with the souls of those who heard him preach the sermons comes through in his commentary. I highly recommend it to you.

I read many other books, articles, and web pages. What was the most helpful? The Bible followed by the Greek New Testament. After 85 sermons through Matthew, my problem isn’t in understanding the text, it is obeying it. These verse at the end of the Sermon on the Mount summarize it best:

“And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes (Matt 7:28-29).”

Categories
Gospel Matthew

A Letter to My Friend Matthew.

Matthew,

I wanted to write you to say thank you. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our last two years together. We have walked through about 85 sermons. You’ve taught me much of our King. I was not sure exactly where we would go when we started but I knew we’d be on this journey together.

You taught us and challenged us as you told us about Jesus. We began to see the themes of the King and the Kingdom as we walked through your gospel. As we walked through the life of Jesus, we saw his power to heal and save. We saw his tenderness to children and the needy. When we encountered the outcasts, we wanted to resonate with them but you kept showing us the religious people who just never seemed to get it. Everything we heard was not easy but it was necessary.

When we wanted to trust in our good works, you taught us the upside-down life of the Kingdom. The great sermon of Jesus taught us the character of Kingdom life in the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12). We thought we are doing pretty good at this religious thing but you were strategic to record Jesus’s sermon that left us all condemned who rely on our best efforts (Matt 5-7). We were treated with much grace when we learned it wasn’t about doing great deeds for Jesus but knowing him (Matt 7:21-23).

With the emphasis on knowing Jesus as the essence of the Kingdom, we were energized to live with the Kingdom on display in our daily lives (Matt 8-9). As we lived to display the Kingdom, we saw how we are also sent to declare the message of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is no longer measured by geography but the Kingdom is on the move through the disciples of Jesus (Matt 10).

We were humbled again when the Kingdom expectations helped us stay on course by seeing Jesus as the Messiah. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, the one who gives us rest, the one who heals, and the one who gives us entrance into the family of God (Matt 11-12). If we are being honest, we’d like to hear Jesus teach and explain the parables (Mat 13). We want to follow Jesus but sometimes we settle for fandom. I think your gospel helps us religious people who want to make things more complicated and convoluted by things we can control (Matt 14). We don’t Jesus. He’s the King. He does as he pleases.

The Kingdom came into focus as we journeyed together (Matt 15-17). Jesus started to focus on the Kingdom community and gave us some very challenging words about how we are to live (Matt 18-20). Normally, we would want to leverage our privilege, wealth, family relationships, or even religious deeds, but the King will have not of it. If we come to him with anything, he rejects everything. If come with nothing, he gives us everything. If we are being honest, the upside-down life of the Kingdom is a work in progress.

As we approached the last week of the life of our King, the Kingdom passion, we can’t imagine what this time was like (Matt 21-28). The King’s entrance, final miracles, cleansing of the temple, and the last supper somehow didn’t prepare us for the crucifixion. I guess we are too often hard on Peter who denied Jesus. We are more like him than we want to admit but I guess that’s what we have learned, we are more like the anti-heroes of this story than we are like the hero.

Even more astonishing is that King Jesus knows all of this and still, he took the final cup of the Passover meal. He drank the fifth cup of God’s wrath. He drank the cup we deserved. Died the death meant for us. Death swallowed up in victory as he rose again.

It isn’t how we would have written up the story but it isn’t our story to write. I guess it isn’t yours either, you are just the one who recorded it. You were a tax collector and outcast but Jesus made you our teacher and friend. The Kingdom does that, doesn’t it? It takes enemies and makes friends. It takes outcasts and makes them family. All it took was for the Son of God to leave heaven and come to earth, live perfectly, die for us, and rise!

I think we have just scratched the service. For now, we will close your gospel but we will keep learning about Jesus. We will keep living out this Kingdom life. It isn’t our life to live but his. Thanks for helping us learn more about Jesus. We learned that what it took is what we could never provide. We need Jesus. You’ve taught us about him. Thank you.