Matthew 1–13 introduces Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Son of David, and Immanuel, “God with us.” The Gospel of Matthew traces Jesus’ family line, his birth, baptism, and temptation, then shows him teaching with stunning authority in the Sermon on the Mount, healing the sick, calling disciples, and announcing the kingdom of heaven. Some people welcome that message, while others, especially religious leaders, begin to resist it.
Who Wrote the Gospel of Matthew, and Why?
The book itself doesn’t name its author, but the earliest Christian writers consistently attributed it to the apostle Matthew, also called Levi. Before following Jesus, he worked as a tax collector, a job that made him wealthy and widely despised.
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
After Jesus’ resurrection, the apostles passed along his teachings and miracles, and Matthew gathered and arranged many of them to highlight who Jesus is. He doesn’t record everything; John tells us Jesus did far more than could ever be written down (John 21:25). Matthew wrote with a mostly Jewish audience in mind, showing again and again how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. That’s why he quotes the Hebrew Scriptures so often. When you read Matthew, it’s worth looking up those quotations to see how they connect.
Jesus the Promised Messiah (Matthew 1–4)
Matthew opens with a genealogy connecting Jesus to Abraham, the father of Israel, and to King David. It’s not just a list of names. It announces that Jesus is the long-awaited King God had promised. Then Matthew describes Jesus’ miraculous birth to the virgin Mary.
Matthew 1:22-23 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Jesus isn’t just a great teacher or a prophet. He is God himself come to live among his people. In chapters 2–4, Matthew shows Jesus reliving Israel’s story: he goes down to Egypt and comes out again, passes through the waters at his baptism, and faces temptation in the wilderness. But where Israel failed, Jesus remained faithful. Then he began his public ministry with a clear message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17).
Jesus the Authoritative Teacher (Matthew 5–7)
Matthew arranges his book around five major blocks of Jesus’ teaching, and the first and most famous is the Sermon on the Mount. Like Moses receiving the law on a mountain, Jesus goes up a mountainside and teaches what life in God’s kingdom looks like. He blesses the poor in spirit, the meek, and the persecuted, and he calls his followers to a righteousness that goes all the way to the heart.
Matthew 7:28-29 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
The religious teachers of the day mostly quoted earlier rabbis to support their views. Jesus spoke on his own authority, repeatedly setting his words alongside the law with the phrase “But I tell you” (Matthew 5:22). Only someone who is truly God could speak that way, and the crowds could sense the difference.
The Kingdom Welcomed and Rejected (Matthew 8–13)
In chapters 8–10, Jesus shows his authority in action. He heals the sick, calms a storm, drives out demons, forgives sins, and even raises the dead. Then he sends out his twelve disciples to carry the same message. Notice the kind of people who respond: tax collectors, outcasts, and nobodies whose lives Jesus transforms.
But opposition grows in chapters 11–13. Religious leaders accuse Jesus of working by the power of Satan, and many towns that saw his miracles refuse to repent. Even so, Jesus keeps extending a warm invitation to anyone willing to come to him.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In chapter 13, Jesus begins teaching in parables, stories that reveal the kingdom to those with open hearts and conceal it from those who have already rejected him. In the parable of the sower, the same seed produces very different results depending on the soil. That sums up the first half of Matthew. The King has arrived, and his kingdom is breaking into the world. Every person who hears about Jesus faces the same choice: welcome him and follow him, or turn away.
The Takeaway
Matthew 1–13 shows that the Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as the promised Messiah, God with us, and the authoritative teacher who brings the kingdom of heaven near. Some welcome him and others reject him, and his message still calls everyone to repent and follow him.
