“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”Read the surrounding chapter
Time, place, and setting
- Time
- First century ministry. Composition before or after AD 70 remains debated. 8
- Place
- Galilee and Judaea, with Jerusalem central to the passion and resurrection narratives. The final commission takes place on a Galilean mountain. 1
- Setting
- Jesus teaches, heals and gathers disciples amid Jewish scriptural hope, religious controversy and Roman authority. His death and resurrection lead to a mission to all nations. 1
Present a developing story
Matthew can be introduced through its movement from Jesus’ identity in Israel’s history to his final commission. Ancient biographical expectations help explain its concentration on Jesus’ life and significance. 16 Its speeches and actions develop discipleship together. 5 Five major teaching collections appear in chapters 5 to 7, 10, 13, 18 and 24 to 25. Each follows encounters that give the teaching a setting. The Sermon follows the call of disciples and the gathering of crowds; the sending discourse follows compassion for shepherdless people; the community discourse follows misunderstandings about greatness. These connections provide an explanatory framework for the book. 1
A concise account of the narrative can retain its turning points: birth and preparation, Galilean proclamation, recognition and resistance, movement to Jerusalem, passion and resurrection. Peter’s confession in 16:16 is particularly useful because the next scene exposes his resistance to Jesus’ suffering. The turning point shows why receiving a title is different from understanding the mission it names. The final commission also completes the opening promise of God’s presence. Matthew therefore offers more than separate doctrinal proof texts: its connected story gives its teaching direction and makes the disciples’ learning visible. 1
Explain identity through the opening scenes
The genealogy identifies Jesus through Abraham, David and the exile. Its added notices carry remembered family history. 6 Selective arrangement serves the account of Israel’s hope and fulfilment. 9 The angel’s message to Joseph names salvation from sins and explains Mary’s conception as of the Holy Ghost. Joseph’s obedience, the Magi’s homage and the family’s danger then give those claims an actual narrative setting. The contrast between homage and Herod’s fear reveals opposing responses to Jesus’ kingship. 20 The story’s particular actions are more useful than invented details about the visitors’ number, names or route. 1
The explicit quotations offer clear bridges to earlier Scripture. Isaiah 7 concerns a sign within Judah’s crisis; Hosea 11 remembers Israel’s childhood and the Lord’s painful love; Micah 5 names Bethlehem in royal hope; Jeremiah 31 includes Rachel’s grief amid return and covenant promise. Matthew receives these texts within its account of Jesus. A teaching explanation can first state what each earlier chapter says, then identify the actual quotation and how Matthew uses it. This preserves Israel’s history while making Christian fulfilment intelligible. It also distinguishes explicit quotation from a proposed conceptual resemblance. 1
Connect interpretation with actual context
Matthew 5:17 belongs within the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus and his authoritative teaching. 10 The surrounding Sermon treats reconciliation, desire, truthful speech, love, prayer and possessions before ending with hearing and doing. Fulfilment elsewhere also connects Scripture with Jesus’ action and authority. 11 Reading a saying with its surrounding movement helps explain what it contributes. The Lord’s Prayer, for example, joins hallowing God’s name and seeking his kingdom to daily bread, forgiveness and deliverance. Dependence upon the Father gives the petitions their shared direction. 1
The setting also helps readers recognise vivid rhetoric. Contextual tests can distinguish deliberate exaggeration while retaining the teaching’s force. 18 Hyperbole needs to be identified through the actual saying. 19 A beam in the eye makes self scrutiny memorable; the image is part of the rebuke against judging another while ignoring one’s own fault. The parables use different images for reception, growth, value and separation. Chapter 13’s public and private settings contribute to their arrangement. 21 Explanation can therefore identify audience, figure, immediate point and response before drawing a present application. 1
Keep historical horizons proportionate
The narrated ministry belongs to first century Galilee and Judaea under Roman power. Herod appears in the birth narrative and Pilate in the trial, while Jerusalem becomes central to the passion. These notices locate events in the story. The temple oath controversy also contributes to debated proposals about the Gospel’s composition. 8 The Gospel itself does not give an explicit publication date or a detailed account of its author’s writing circumstances. A historical introduction can distinguish received attribution, the narrated ministry and proposals about composition without making any one chronological reconstruction carry more certainty than its evidence permits. 1
Geography and scriptural language contribute to the narrative’s meaning. Particular exodus allusion proposals require attention to their actual verbal and contextual evidence. 7 The explicit return from Egypt quotation is therefore a clearer starting point than a resemblance left unmarked by the narrator. The final Galilean mountain also provides an actual location for the commission. Jesus’ initial sending to Israel and later sending to all nations remain related themes. 14 Teaching both scenes together makes the developing mission visible while respecting each commission’s original instructions and audience. 1
Teach healing with mercy and attentive care
Matthew 8 and 9 present different needs and different encounters. The centurion’s trust leads into a picture of the kingdom’s banquet with the patriarchs. 3 Jesus touches, speaks, responds to appeals, forgives and calls. Matthew 8:17 explicitly relates his healing ministry to Isaiah 53:4, and 9:13 uses Hosea 6:6 in explaining mercy. The final picture of crowds as sheep without a shepherd leads to prayer for labourers and the sending of the Twelve. Compassion has a practical direction: it moves toward people, recognises their needs and asks for workers who will serve them. 1
James 5 provides an explicit Christian companion for prayer when people are sick. Its chapter joins patient endurance, truthful speech, mutual confession, prayer and the congregation’s care. First Corinthians 12 names gifts of healing within the Spirit’s work for the common good, and chapters 13 and 14 give love and edification their essential place. Pentecostal Church of God ministry can draw these contexts together in expectant prayer for divine healing, active gifts and attentive support. Matthew’s compassion keeps the person receiving care in view, while apostolic teaching gives the gathered community a pattern of prayer and mutual service. 1
Explain accountability and forgiveness together
Chapter 18 begins with a child and concern for little ones before addressing correction and forgiveness. Witnesses and communal prayer belong to the effort to recover a brother. 4 The debt parable connects received mercy to responsibility toward another. 12 Its dramatic contrast makes refusal of compassion visible. A pastoral explanation can therefore retain both the seriousness of wrongdoing and the purpose of restoration. The lost sheep, the offending brother and the unforgiving servant are related scenes within one discourse, rather than separate formulas for winning disputes. 1
The preceding narrative also exposes the disciples’ own need for correction. Peter resists Jesus’ suffering, disciples struggle with faith, and questions of greatness continue to arise. Jesus answers ambition through humility and later through service. These scenes can help a congregation speak honestly about its failures without losing the hope of learning. The promise of Jesus’ presence among those gathered in his name belongs within this communal teaching. Prayer, humility, truthful speech and practical care form a connected response to his instruction. 1
Relate public life to allegiance to God
The Jerusalem entry receives language from Zechariah 9 and Psalm 118. The psalm’s humble deliverance and royal hope frame its use in the Gospel. 15 Jesus heals within the temple and receives children’s praise before disputes about authority intensify. The tribute question then uses a coin to reveal the limits of Caesar’s claim. 17 The answer must be heard within the actual trap and the wider claim of God, alongside the commandment to love God and neighbour. Its narrative setting helps explain the encounter without replacing it with a modern political programme. 1
Chapter 23 names neglected justice, mercy and faith, and the following discourse returns repeatedly to faithful responsibility. The master’s absence in the parables creates a time for conduct to reveal allegiance. Matthew 25:31 to 46 gives hunger, thirst, exclusion, nakedness, sickness and imprisonment a concrete place in the judgment scene. These details make care visible. Teaching watchfulness through these surrounding passages can keep expectation of the Son of man joined to ordinary service, rather than reducing readiness to curiosity about a timetable. 1
Present the cross and commission as one movement
The passion includes the supper’s words about forgiveness, Gethsemane’s prayer, the disciples’ failure, trial, mocking, crucifixion and burial. Jesus’ cry from Psalm 22 is spoken in genuine distress. The women’s presence and their resurrection announcement contribute to the transition from sorrow to witness. The final commission joins baptism, teaching and the risen Lord’s authority. 13 His promise of presence accompanies the disciples as they make disciples of all nations. Teaching obedience includes the mercy, truthfulness and care heard throughout the Gospel. 1
Acts 1 and 2 provide an explicit Christian context for the Spirit’s power and the church’s witness. Pentecost includes tongues, proclamation of Jesus, repentance, baptism, prayer and shared provision. First Corinthians 12 to 14 relates active gifts to the common good, love and intelligible worship. These passages give Pentecostal witness a communal shape that fits Matthew’s teaching about following Jesus. The risen Lord’s authority sends people into a life of learning, prayer and service, and his promised presence sustains that life. A presentation of the book can thus finish where its narrative finishes: with Jesus and the people he sends. 1
Sources
Numbered references support the material above. Scripture quotations use the KJV.
- The Holy Bible, King James VersionKing James translators · 1611
Matthew 1 to 28; Genesis 12; Exodus 4 and 24; Deuteronomy 6 and 8; Isaiah 7, 42 and 53; Jeremiah 31; Hosea 6 and 11; Micah 5; Zechariah 9 and 13; Psalms 22 and 118; Ezekiel 36 and 37; Daniel 7; Luke 3 and 24; John 20; Acts 1, 2 and 15; 1 Corinthians 12 to 14; James 5; Greek Matthew 28:16 to 20
View the source - A Greek English Lexicon of the New TestamentJoseph Henry Thayer
Historical entry 3100, complete senses 1 and 2, especially Matthew 28:19
View the source - The Gospel according to St Matthew, Cambridge Bible for Schools and CollegesA. Carr · 1893
Matthew 8:1 to 15; introduction, Authorship of the Gospel
View the source - Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, MatthewHeinrich August Wilhelm Meyer
Matthew 18:15 to 20
View the source - The Structure of the Gospel of Matthew as NarrativeH. J. Bernard Combrink · 1983
Pages 66 to 70 and 87 to 90
View the source - Genealogical Annotation in Genesis as Background for the Matthean Genealogy of JesusJohn Nolland · 1996
Pages 115 to 122
View the source - Exodus Allusions in the Midsection of the Gospel of MatthewCedric E. W. Vine · 2023
Pages 3 to 8 and 21 to 23
View the source - The Oath Formulas of Matthew 23:16 to 22 as Evidence for a Pre 70 Date of Composition for Matthew’s GospelCharles L. Quarles · 2021
Pages 1 to 5 and 20 to 22
View the source - Matthew, Tyndale New Testament CommentaryR. T. France · 1985
Commentary opening and Matthew 1:1 to 17, genealogy
View the source - The nature of the law’s fulfilment in Matthew 5:17: An exegetical and theological studyBradley M. Trout · 2015
Contextual consideration: Literary context, The antitheses, The kingdom of heaven and Fulfilment of the Old Testament
View the source - Fulfilment of Scripture and Jesus’ Teachings in MatthewR. Alan Culpepper · 2015
Fulfilment of Scripture and Jesus’ teaching and narrative authority
View the source - The motive of forgiveness in the Gospel according to MatthewMarius J. Nel · 2015
Narrative, epilogue, historical and internal conflict discussion; conclusion
View the source - The Resurrection Narratives in Matthew’s GospelDavid Wenham · 1973
Pages 49 to 54
View the source - Israel and the Universal Mission in the Gospel of MatthewTae Sub Kim · 2013
Published dissertation summary, pages 153 to 155
View the source - Psalm 118 and the Eschatological Son of DavidIan J. Vaillancourt · 2019
Pages 733 to 737
View the source - What Are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco Roman BiographyRichard A. Burridge · 2018
Introduction, I.4 to I.8 and I.13 to I.15; preview PDF pages 20 to 24 and 29 to 31
View the source - Show Me the Money: Jesus, Visual Aids, and the Tribute QuestionN. Clayton Croy · 2020
Pages 202 to 206
View the source - A Methodology for Detecting and Mitigating Hyperbole in Matthew 5:38 to 42Charles E. Cruise · 2018
Pages 92 to 96 and 100 to 103
View the source - Jesus’s Use of Hyperbole in the Gospel of MatthewStefanus Kristianto · 2026
Published dissertation summary, pages i to iv
View the source - Matthew, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New TestamentDavid L. Turner · 2008
Matthew 2:1 to 12, pages 77 to 79 and 85 to 86, licensed preview
View the source - Reading Matthew 13 as a prophetic discourse: The four parables presented in publicJacob J. Scholtz · 2015
Complete article, pages 1 to 7
View the source