Book of the Week: The Gospel of Matthew

photo-3This week’s book of the week is none other than The Gospel of Matthew.  The first gospel in the New Testament was written by Matthew, one of the original twelve disciples.  As a tax-collector, he really hit on many parables on money.  And ethnically, as a Jew, he included more Old Testament quotations than any of the other gospel writers.  He was trying to persuade his Jewish brothers and sisters that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies of the long-awaited Messiah.

Top 5 Ideas (narrowing this down was tough):

  1. “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
  2. “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38).
  3. “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16).
  4. “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you; ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.  But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men'” (Matt. 15:7).
  5. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27).