Turn to the book of Matthew in chapter number one. The book of Matthew in chapter number one. And this week we are going to begin a journey through the gospel of Matthew. We're going to be preaching the book of Matthew verse by verse. And so we are beginning this journey because I felt it was necessary for us to gain some perspective on the one whom we are following. We are disciples of Jesus. That's what we are, by the way. We're not just Christians. I mean, they called them Christians because they saw that they'd been with Jesus, because they walked like Jesus walked. What we really are is disciples of Jesus. If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. That's what we are. We are disciples of Jesus. And if we're going to follow him, we should know him. And also, in knowing Jesus, we want to understand the value of knowing Jesus. Because knowing Jesus will lead us to a greater knowledge of God. And if you have been following along in my morning devotions, you have probably heard of the discipleship triangle. What this triangle describes for us is that the more we know God, the more we will love Him. And then the more we love Him, the more we will desire to be obedient to Him, John 14, 21. And then the more we are obedient to Him, the more He will reveal Himself to us, which means we know Him better. Which then means because we know Him better, we're going to love Him more. And then because we love Him more, we're going to desire to be more obedient to Him. And then as we are more obedient to Him, He reveals Himself to us even more. And so that triangle grows. And so this is our reason for growing in the knowledge of Jesus is because it causes us to love Him more. But as we think about Matthew, you might ask the question, why Matthew? Why are you going to preach through the book of Matthew to reveal unto us who Jesus is? Why not Mark or Luke or John? And there's a couple of reasons why that is true, but mainly the reason that I chose the book of Matthew is because of the contents of Matthew 16 and 18. In Matthew 16 and 18 we have the church, the beginning of the church in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18 tells us some more about the church. And so since it is in the church that God has chosen for His plan of discipleship and since the institution of the church is in Matthew 16, I thought it would be good for us to look through the book of Matthew and then those of you who were with us last Sunday night, You are looking for something in particular. I told you for a way for you to look at as we were teaching the book of Matthew some things to look at as we go through it. Also in the book of Matthew not only do we see that the church is God's plan for discipleship but also at the end of the book of Matthew we see the commissioning of the church and so As we continue to promote discipleship in the church, we want to see that discipleship is how Jesus built the church and it is his plan for sustaining the church. And so we're teaching the book of Matthew. So we get to look at Matthew and we're going to read just one verse. Matthew 1 and we're not beginning with Matthew 1 today because we are giving you an introductory message. We're going to begin with verse 22. Matthew chapter number 1 and verse 22 says, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, So in this verse we see one of the main themes which is present in the book of Matthew. Matthew wrote his gospel to Jewish believers. He wrote his gospel and the theme of the book of Matthew is that you see that he is the king of the Jews. You see that he is the king of kings. You look at Mark, you're going to see that Mark wrote his gospel to show us that Jesus is the suffering servant. If you look at the book of Luke and see how His book was written, he wrote the theme behind it is Jesus is a son of man. If you look at the book of John, you see the reason that he wrote and the way that he wrote is that Jesus is a son of God. But the book of Matthew, you have Matthew who is a Jew writing to Jews to show them how that Jesus is the king of the Jews. His desire was to show them that Jesus is the one who fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, as you go through the book of Matthew, and this might be something that you try to take note of as we go through this study, and I don't know exactly how long it's going to take, there are what? 28 chapters of the book of Matthew. And so, you know, if we just did one chapter a week, which is not going to happen, you know, we'd be in it for 28 weeks. And so you're looking at more than a year probably we're going to be in the book of Matthew. But one of the things you're going to say is 16 times in the book of Matthew, you see this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was written. And so Matthew is driving home this point that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, and so we want to keep that in mind. Another thing we want to keep in mind as we read through the book of Matthew and we study the book of Matthew, it is not exactly chronological in its content. This book is formulated around five major sermons which Jesus preached, and we'll look at that as we go along. Then they will be followed by an examination of how he lived based upon what he taught. We will also see how he challenged his disciples with what he taught them. In other words, this is what Jesus said, and this is what Jesus did, and then this is what he expects you to do. And that's always the case. We need to understand that as Christians, that Jesus gave us the perfect example, and then we're to follow that example. And so, we ought to know in our lives, today this is how I'm following Jesus. This is, in my life, what I'm doing in order to follow Jesus, because I'm a disciple. And because I'm a disciple, this is the way that I'm following Him. It's not, hey, I got saved, and then, woohoo, everything's good. No, I'm a disciple of Jesus, and I'm no longer following my own path. I'm now following the path of Jesus. And so, this is what Jesus said, this is what Jesus did, and this is what we are to do, or this is how we are to live. When we think of this, we can think of the times that Jesus challenged them like in the midst of the storm. Jesus is training them to live by faith. He is training them to believe and to practice what he taught them. And so, we're going to see how Jesus came, what he did, what he said, and what he accomplished through the death and the resurrection. We'll get into it a little bit later as we go along, but we'll see that we have some introductory chapters, really Matthew 1-4 is some introductory chapters and then with Matthew 5 begins the first sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, which is contained in Matthew 5-7. And then it will go on to some practical applications. So we'll see that as we go. So we'll have the introductory chapters, then we'll have the five major messages, and then we'll have the closing with what he accomplished with the resurrection. But as we get here and we're looking at Matthew chapter 1 verse number 22, we know that this is talking about Jesus because if you go to Matthew 1.1 it says, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. And so, one of the things we want to remember is, I don't know how it is in your Bible, but if you look in my Bible, There's the difference between the Old and the New Testament, that one page. I don't know what you have in your Bible between the Old and the New Testament. Maybe you have something in between there that explains to you the Inter-Testament period. But between Malachi chapter number 4 and Matthew chapter number 1 was 400 years of history. What we see as we close the Old Testament, I mean, for us to understand what's going on in Matthew, we really need to know what's going on in the Old Testament. And as the Old Testament is closed, we see the children of Israel anticipating the coming Messiah. So let's go to Malachi chapter number 4. These are the last words spoken by the last prophet. Listen to what Malachi says. For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings." Who is that Son of Righteousness? I know you know. But notice that Malachi is talking to the Old Testament saints and he's telling them the son of righteousness is going to arise with healing in his wings and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall and you shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Oreb, for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. And so what do we find here at the closing of the Old Testament? We find here the promise of the Son of Righteousness that would come to heal, the one that would tread down the wicked, and the one that would come, even the one that would come, Elijah, that would come before them and would turn the hearts of the children, the fathers to the children and the children to the father. This is also prophesied if you want to take the time. Again, we remember we're thinking about Jesus is the one that come that it might be fulfilled which was written. And so we're showing you a couple of places in the Old Testament where it says there's one coming. There's one coming that is the son of righteousness. If you look in Isaiah chapter number 40 and verse number 1, we're also going to find this promise of one coming. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness prepare you the way of the Lord. make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." What's it saying there? The voice of one crying in the wilderness is going to come. That's the one that's going to come to prepare that will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. And then how is the glory of the Lord going to be revealed? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And so it's talking about the coming of John the Baptist and the coming of Jesus Christ. That's what Isaiah is prophesying here. Verse 6, The voice said, Cry, and he said, Why shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower afield. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower but the Word of our God shall stand forever. And the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the same was God, and the same was in the beginning with God. What's this talking about? It's talking about the prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist and the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of Righteousness. And so as we open up the New Testament, we find that the children of Israel heard the words of Malachi. This One is coming. This Son of Righteousness is coming. Also we hear, He's going to send Elijah that's going to come before Him and He's going to prepare you the way of the Lord. And the children of Israel, as we close the book of Malachi, are still looking for the fulfillment of that prophecy. When is the Son of Righteousness coming? When is the promised Messiah coming? When is the one that was promised to Abraham and the one that was promised to David? When are they coming? When is the Messiah coming? And that's where we close the Old Testament. We close the Old Testament full of unfulfilled prophecies. But as we open the book of Matthew, we see that Matthew is saying, This was done that it might be fulfilled which was written. The title of the message today is Fulfilled How I Love to Proclaim it. Not Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim it but Fulfilled How I Love to Proclaim it. And so Jesus comes to fulfill the promises that we find in the Word of God. But what happens between Malachi chapter number 4 and Matthew chapter number 1? Well, that is a period of time of 400 years. 400 years of history on this earth takes place between the book of Malachi chapter number 4 and Matthew chapter number 1. Much happens in the land of Israel. Much happens in the world during the time of the close of the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew chapter number 1. If you was with us when we studied through the book of Daniel, you'll know when we talked about this period of history and you remember the prophecy that Daniel gave of Daniel's image He prophesied about the major powers that would come upon the world. You know that you have Nebuchadnezzar coming in the nation of Babylon and how that Babylon would be the supreme world power. Daniel prophesied this, and so we know that Babylon is also the nation that took Judah into captivity. Earlier you saw Israel fall to the Assyrians, but it is Judah that fell to the Babylonians. And then as you follow world history, what happens after Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon? You know you have the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire, right? And so the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire, that happens. During the book of Malachi, you have the timing of the children of Israel being captured by Nebuchadnezzar. And then before the Old Testament, in the Old Testament writings, you see Cyrus rising up and Cyrus coming to power as the main power in Medo-Persia. And so Cyrus rises to power and then during this 400 years, you have the rise and fall of Alexander the Great, which is the Greek power. And then you have next, you have the coming of the Roman Empire. All of that has taken place in world history between the close of Malachi and the beginning of the book of Matthew. And so the world has changed dramatically from the beginning of the end of Malachi to the beginning of Matthew. And really, when you open up the New Testament, you're going to see new places that you've not heard of in the Old Testament, like Judea and Galilee. You may have heard of Samaria. You know, there's some areas that you haven't heard of. There's a place you haven't heard of in the Old Testament. There's no such thing as a synagogue. But you open up the New Testament and there in front of you is a thing called a synagogue. You hear of some new people. You hear of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You didn't hear of those in the Old Testament, so where did those come from? You hear of some new things, like I said, the synagogue, and you hear Jesus say, you have heard that has been said, so what he's talking about there is the oral law, and so you see the significance of that and how that is such a predominant part in the New Testament. But where did that come from? As you close the book of the Old Testament, you don't find those things. And you open the New Testament, all of a sudden, those things are there. Well, these are things we need to learn about. We need to understand those things just a little bit in order for us to be able to comprehend some of the events that's taking place in the book of Matthew in the New Testament. And so, keep in mind that we're going to spend some time today looking at these things. Today is really an informational type thing. But the main point that I want us to keep in mind as we're going through the book of Matthew, this was done that it might be written, that it might be fulfilled which was written. Matthew was written to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament. We're actually going to see as we study today the benefit of understanding fulfilled prophecies. We're going to see that it had some impact in the way that Alexander the Great treated the Jews as he came into Jerusalem. You want an interesting story? I don't have time to get into all of that today. But when Alexander the Great marched into Jerusalem, you're going to see that he marched in Jerusalem differently than he marched into other cities. He treated the inhabitants of Jerusalem differently. Do you know why I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit? The reason he did was because of a fulfilled prophecy. of Daniel saying how that the king of Grecia, which was not a world power yet, would rise to power, speaking of Alexander the Great. So that fulfilled prophecy changed the way that Alexander treated the nation of Israel. He was persuaded by a fulfilled prophecy. A pagan king that was conquering the world in less than 10 years. Think about that. He conquered the known world in less than 10 years. He died at the age of 32. A young man died at the age of 32. But when he came to Jerusalem, he treated them differently because of a fulfilled prophecy. It's important for us to understand impact of fulfilled prophecy. Knowing the prophecy of the rising of Cyrus was something that built my faith in God because I understood how that it was prophesied that Cyrus was going to come 200 years before he was born. And if the prophet said Cyrus is going to come and then God made it happen, it allowed me to see the sovereignty of God and how God orchestrates the events of this world. And it increased my faith as I learned to have confidence in the sovereign God. And so fulfilled prophecy has impact in our lives. And for these Jewish Christians, it will have impact for them because they will see Jesus is not just like any other person who might come along and proclaim to be the Messiah. No, Jesus is the Messiah because He fulfilled these prophecies. So we want to understand the impact of fulfilled prophecies. This Son of Righteousness is going to come and Jesus is this Son of righteousness. He is the one that fulfills these prophecies. And so as we journey through Matthew, we will see how Matthew lays out these prophecies. Again, 16 times he's going to say, this was written that it might be fulfilled which was spoken. Just like we read in Matthew 1.22. He said that to increase the faith of the Jewish Christians. And we want to focus on that point as we go through. There again is another thing that you can go and study and dig into yourself. Go and study the word fulfilled. Find it. How many times? Sixteen times in the book of Matthew and study all those things out which we'll get to them eventually but maybe you want to do that on your own. Because it's going to increase the faith of the Jewish Christians and it will increase our faith as we see the story of the Bible being fulfilled. You see, we want to understand that this is not just the story of Jesus. It's not just the story to the Jews. You go all the way back to Genesis in chapter number 3 and the seed of the woman coming to crush the serpent's head. The Old Testament was written to reveal to us about that seed. Now we see in Matthew 1, we see that seed that was promised in Genesis 3 is coming. That one that was promised to David that would sit on his throne forever. We see that one coming. Then you go to the book of Revelation and you notice the book of Revelation says the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is the story of the Bible. Jesus is the fulfillment of the entire text of Scripture. And that's what we're going to be able to see. And that's how it's going to build our faith, is we see that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Word of God. You know, in this world, you don't find too much that is true. You go and listen to the news broadcast and this person says one thing and this person says something else, depending on which side of the aisle you're on. You know, you just don't find much that is true. But you go to the Word of God and all you find is truth. You find it being fulfilled, God stating it, God promising it, and God fulfilling it. You can believe the Word of God. That's why it's important for us to see this was done that it might be fulfilled which was written. So that's the basis of what we want to see as we study the book of Matthew. But another thing we want to see and another thing you'll notice as you go and you get into the New Testament, you're going to see a change of mindset in the Jews. If you think about the Old Testament, what was the mindset of the Jews in the Old Testament? Where did we leave them? What happened to them? They're in captivity. Why are they in captivity? Why did Nebuchadnezzar come down to Jerusalem, the city of God, and capture that city and disperse the children of Israel throughout his kingdom? Why did he do that? Why did he send them throughout Babylon? Do you know the answer to that question? Why did God allow the nation of Israel to be captured? It's because of idolatry, right? Jeremiah, and you can be turning to Jeremiah 25, Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. Why is he known as the weeping prophet? It is because Jeremiah was given the duty of telling Judah that God's going to come and bring judgment upon you. Nebuchadnezzar's going to come. The king of Babylon's going to come, and he's going to capture you, and you are going to go into captivity for 70 years. Jeremiah 25, 1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The witch Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah, even unto this day, that this is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but you have not hearkened. and the Lord has sent unto you all his servants the prophets rising early and sending them but you have not hearkened nor inclined your ear to hear they said turn you again now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doings and dwell in the land that Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever and go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them. And provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do you no hurt. Yet you have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt." The prophets have come and said, serve the Lord. Serve Him only. Love the Lord thy God. Have no other gods before me, right? The children of Israel wouldn't do that. They continue. They would not listen. They would not follow God wholeheartedly. They continue to follow after false gods. I can't talk this morning. And we know that is the history of the nation of Israel, right? Because what happened when they come out of Egypt and Moses goes up to Mount Sinai and he's gone for 40 days? What do the children of Israel do? They go and say, create us a God, and they created these calves, right, the golden calves, and they worshiped them shortly after they come out of Israel, or out of Egypt. And I am lost, Aaron. There you go. I could not think of Moses' brother's name. And they told Aaron, make us these gods, right? And Aaron told them, these calves, these are the gods that brought you up out of Egypt. From their very beginning they were an idolatrous people and because of that God's going to send them into captivity for a period of 70 years and that is where we close the Old Testament. The children of Israel in captivity. What do we find as we open the New Testament? Read through the New Testament and where do you see the children of Israel worshipping false gods. You don't see it. They have a lot of problems. They have a lot of issues. The Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the lawyers, they have a lot of issues. But their issue is not following false gods. That issue is done. They are no longer worshipping idols. That is nonexistent. So what happened? Where did this infatuation with the gods of this world, where did that go? How did Israel become the most monotheistic people in the world? This infatuation with the gods of this world seems to be cured. How'd that happen? Well, there's some things and some reasons why we assume that happened. because of fulfilled prophecy being fulfilled right before their very eyes. Think about what that must have been like to hear the prophecies of Jeremiah and then to see them come about. to hear about the rise of Cyrus and there you are captive in Babylon and the prophet has said Cyrus is going to come and he's going to defeat Babylon and Cyrus the king of Persia is going to come about and then there you sit in Babylon in captivity and then here comes the Medo-Persians down and they defeat the Babylonians and all of a sudden this man named Cyrus comes to power. Can you imagine what that must have been like? The prophet was right. Fulfilled prophecy right before their very eyes. J. Sidlow Baxter in his book called Explore the Book has this to say, way back in the writings of their own prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. The very happenings that were now upon them had been clearly foretold. The destruction of Jerusalem. The exile of Judea's sons and daughters in Babylon. The subsequent sudden overthrowing of Babylon itself. The brilliant conquest of Cyrus the Persian who overthrew Babylon. The ensuing edict of Cyrus for the restoring of the temple at Jerusalem. These were all foretold 200 years in advance. Fulfilled prophecy has an amazing effect in someone's life. When you see the Word of God prophesied and you see the Word of God fulfilled, when you get it, it has an amazing effect in your life. Again, that's why we're focusing on these things were written that it might be fulfilled which was spoken or which was written. Because if you get God prophesied God spoke through his prophets and then God brings it about. You're going to see he's God. And that's what happened to the children of Israel. Also, as we said, if you were with us when we studied the book of Daniel, you'll know that Daniel was very faithful in the court. In the Babylonian court, Daniel was faithful, and he chose to remain faithful. And then he had those prophecies of Daniel about his image and how it's coming about. Daniel's faithfulness had an impact. This is what happens when you're faithful to God, when you follow Him, and you won't be defiled with the king's meat, and you won't turn after the gods of this world, but you stay like Daniel, faithful to God. This is the benefit. And then also, They were in the world and the world was full of false gods and they saw how that these false gods were nothing but lying vanities. All of this worship of Balaam and how that proved nothing and how it helped him in no way. What they came to realize is that Jehovah was the one true God, the creator of all things, the sovereign ruler of the universe. You might also say this. God sent him in captivity to chasten them. You might say that God accomplished his desire in purging idolatry from their heart. God's chastening hand accomplished its work. And so the children of Israel now no longer followed after false gods and to this day they are not fallen to idolatry. The idolatry of the false gods of this world. They are still wholeheartedly dedicated to God. They miss Jesus. But they are still monotheistic. They are still only serving the one true God. But they have this new mindset. This new mindset. They're no longer idolatrous. But now, hey, let's dedicate ourselves to Jehovah. The new not mindset comes about. What that brings about for them is a new love for the Scripture. A new hope of looking for the Messiah. This One that's going to deliver them from the oppression that is in this world. They begin looking for the One that is promised. This Son of Righteousness that we read about in Malachi. That would bring healing. They begin looking for Him. And because they are looking for this one that is prophesied, where do they find the prophecies? Well, they find the prophecies in the Scripture. So they become dedicated to the study of Scripture. Again, if you want to find that, let's go to the book of Nehemiah in chapter number 8. This is the children of Israel as they are coming back They're going back to their nation. They're coming out of captivity and they're going back to Jerusalem. They're going back to rebuild the temple. They're going back to Nehemiah and goes back to rebuild the temple walls. Baxter again says this, there is now an impelling new desire to grasp the imperishable truths of the revelation which has been committed to them as the covenant nation. and as a passion that the nation shall fulfill its vocation as the guardian of that peerless deposit of divine truth which will ultimately mean salvation to the ends of the earth. They are now falling in love with the scriptures. Let's read the book of Nehemiah chapter number 8 verse number 1. And all the people gathered themselves together as one man in the street that was before the water gate and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel and Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both the men and women and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month and he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday. That's probably six until noon. before the men and the women and those that could understand in the years of all the people that were attentive under the book of the law and Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood which they had made for the purpose understand that the pulpit of wood Where did it come from? There you go. And beside him stood Mataniah and Shema and Ananiah and Uriah and Hilkiah and Masaiah on his hand and on his left hand, Petodiah and Mishael and Malchiah and Hashem and Hashbaranah, Zechariah and Mishulam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was above the people and when he opened it, all the people stood up and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. We can go on. What did it happen? Look at verse number 8. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. They read and they said, this is what that means. They read the scripture And they said, this is what that means. That's what preaching is, by the way. It's what Ezra started. Read the scripture and say, this is what the scripture means. That's called expository preaching. And so that's what they did. But they gained this new love for the Word of God. And so as we see them gaining this new love for the Word of God, then we begin to think about, well, where is this new love for the Word of God? Where is this Word of God going to be taught? We know that it started there as we read in Nehemiah, but how's all the other people going to receive it? Well, there was this thing called a synagogue. So the timeless truths would be expounded to the people And the places that it would take place was in a building that they built called the synagogue. So the synagogues happened in this 400-year period of time. And for us as Christians, we want to understand that our worship of God really, how we're worshiping today, is an emulation of the worship in the synagogue. And it is this preaching of the Word of God, reading the Word of God and explaining it. Preaching the Word of God is something that the heathens know nothing about. It took its rise in a synagogue. So you have this place where this new love for the Word of God is going to be taught in this place. And the place became known as a synagogue. Then who's going to teach it? If you go back and you study the Old Testament, there was this group called the scribes. Remember, they didn't have such a thing as a printing press, and they didn't have the ability to print books like you and I have. Every scripture that they had had to be handwritten. And there was a professional group of scholars known as scribes. Their job was to write the scriptures, to copy the scriptures. That's why they were called a scribe. But then it was their job also to interpret and apply the law in the Old Testament scriptures. These scribes became the guardians, the expounders, the doctors of the law to the whole nation. And because of their ability to read the Word and study the Word, their influence began to grow. And as their influence grew, they become infatuated not only with just the word, but, I want to use a phrase, every jot and tittle. As they wrote the word, they began looking at the jots and the tittles, which would be accent marks, there you go, the accent marks on the writings and they began to try to find hidden meanings in the accent marks and in the way the words were written. They became infatuated with the letter of the law. So there comes the scribes. But then there's another group. Why did the children of Israel go into captivity? They went into captivity because they did not keep the law. Because they fell into idolatry. And so during this 400 year period of time, when the children of Israel, there's a great history. Go back and study the Maccabean Revolt. There's some great history of how the children of Israel impacted the world history at that time. When Alexander the Great's kingdom is broken up into four divisions because he didn't have an ancestor to take over and read how Syria and Egypt and how they clashed and the place they clashed was most likely in Israel. Go back and study that and how Israel had an impact in world history. But anyway, here's what the Pharisees knew during that time. The children of Israel went into captivity because of their not keeping the word of God. And so what the Pharisees said was this, we're not going to let that happen again. We're going to make sure that we never go into captivity again. And so we're going to make sure that we adhere to every single word in the law. They were very patriotic for Israel. They wanted Israel to gain power and to be the nation of the world again. They wanted to do everything they could to make sure Israel was the people of God. Their desire was to reconstruct the repatriated Jerusalem community as a nation separated from all others to Jehovah by the most scrupulous observance of the law. And in order to do that, here's what they did. If the law says you can't walk a mile, more than a mile, on the Sabbath day, let's make sure that we're not breaking the law. So let's say you can't walk a half a mile. You know, if the law says this, let's just make it tighter. And if the law says you can't do any servile work on the Sabbath on the Sabbath day, well, let's take it so far as, listen, don't even move a chair, because if you move a chair, then it might kick up dust. And then you would be working because you'd be kicking up dust. And so they began this whole interpretation of the law, and they began to get more and more strict about what they felt the Bible said. And it began to be that it wasn't what the law said, but what the Mishnah said, or the oral law. You'll see this come into play in the New Testament when you hear Jesus said, you have heard that have been said of old time. What's he talking about? You've heard them say the oral law, what I say unto you. Listen, it's not the moral law or the oral law that's important. It's what the Word of God says. But they went so far. And listen, this is the danger. You catch yourself in legalism because you begin to take what the Word of God says and you begin to Take it even farther than what God intended because I want to make sure I don't go against the Word of God. And so you become a legalist and you begin to put more and more strict laws upon people trying to follow the Word of God. Listen, we've got to be careful about that. That we aren't Pharisees ourselves where we are so concerned about what we think the Bible says instead of what the Bible actually says. But there comes the Pharisees, and that's why they came into being. Because they wanted the children of Israel to make sure they didn't fall into captivity. So listen, they said, if it says this, let's go even farther. Let's be even more strict in what the Bible says. That's where they were. So you have this moral law called the Mishnah. You might have heard of the Mishnah before and that's what it is. It is their interpretations on the law and there's even interpretations on the interpretations of the interpretations. Rise to Phariseeism. Around the 2nd century AD, it was not until the 2nd century AD that the Mishnah was put in writing and it would become the Talmud. But There you have the Pharisees but another group that comes into being is called the Sadducees. Now I don't have time to get into all of this but it has to do with the high priesthood. There was a time in this 400 year period of time that Zadok was the high priest and he was removed and you had the Asmians put in and so the Sadducees were tied to the Zadokites and the Asmians and the high priesthood. Anyway, the Sadducees were tied to the high priesthood and they were very aristocratic. And with Alexander the Great, and I didn't get into this much, but you know that with Alexander the Great, when Alexander came, he influenced the entire world by changing the culture of the world to Greek culture. It's called Hellenism, by the way. And so the language of the world, the language that would have been spoken in the known world would have been the Greek language. And so he influenced society. by influencing culture. And so the Sadducees fell in love with Greek culture. The liberties that were provided in this Greek culture. And so they began to follow after Hellenism. And that's where you get the term Hellenistic Jews. They were the ones that wanted to be Jews but they wanted to follow the Greek liberties. Well, the Sadducees and the high priesthood are the ones that followed after that. And the Sadducees rejected the oral law. So the Sadducees were part of the Jewish religion in the Jerusalem council. Anyway, they were part of it. The Pharisees and the Sadducees made up the ruling parties of the Jews. But they rejected the oral law and you know they had some other things that they didn't believe in. They didn't believe in anything spiritual. They didn't believe in any resurrection or anything like that. But the Sadducees came about during this intertestament period as those that were following after the Greek way of life, the Greek liberties. And so here we are, we find ourselves in this This time between Malachi and them still looking for the coming Messiah. You have this new form of religion that has come up. It's called Judaism. You have the Pharisees and the Sadducees ruling the Jewish community. You have also, which I didn't get into this, King Herod and where he came from. He's not a Jewish king like King David was. He is appointed by the Roman government and I didn't get into that. There's so much that we could get into to talk about that it's good for you to know if you're studying the New Testament. But here you have the rise of Judaism and their desire to follow God and their desire not to fall back into idolatry and to be different from the rest of the world by their desire to be separated under God. And so you have that and you have this religious system that comes up through this period of time in between Malachi and Matthew. And it's into that into this messed up, misunderstood, this new environment of Judaism that God interjects himself. He's going to send John the Baptist. He's going to send his son Jesus. And Jesus will begin the process of fulfilling the promises given to Abraham and to David. Next week we will dig into the scripture a little deeper and see the genealogy. Notice if you're back in Matthew chapter number one, as we read, it says, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Let me throw this out there for you real quick too. Christ is not the surname of Jesus. You know, I'm Mark Campbell. It is not Jesus Christ as his surname. It is Jesus who is the Christ. That's His position. That's what He is. It is Jesus of Nazareth. That's how you know who He is. It is Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One, the Promised One, the Son of Righteousness. The genealogy of Jesus. The Son of David, Son of Abraham. And as we go through this, we'll see even this genealogy was given as we said, now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which is spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying. All of this was done that it might be fulfilled. So hopefully you have an idea of some of the things that you'll begin to see as we open the New Testament, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes and the synagogues and all that. You'll know where that came from and you know what's going on. But you'll see more than anything that Jesus is fulfilling those prophecies that He is the Anointed One. He is the Christ. He is the Son of Righteousness. And what does the Son of Righteousness do? It brings healing. What does our world need today? This world needs to see righteousness. They need to see the righteousness of Christ. They need healing. And the healing that the world needs can only come through Jesus. You'll not find healing in possessions. You'll not find healing in position. You only find this healing through the Son of Righteousness, which is Jesus Christ. We're learning the gospel of Jesus, the declaration of Jesus, the fulfillment of the prophecy. I hope this stirs your heart to want to know more and to learn more and to study with us as we dig into the book of Matthew and see how he is the fulfillment and how Jesus is the one that we should be following and you begin to discipline yourself to follow after the footsteps of Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to you today, we are thankful for the promises we find in your word. And we are thankful that you are the fulfillment of those promises. God, our hearts are always amazed as we see Jesus fulfilling these prophecies. I pray, God, that you will stir the hearts of those who know you to desire to know more about you so they can follow you more closely, so they can be more obedient. God, I pray that you will reveal yourself to us so that we will love you more, so we will desire to be more obedient, so you reveal yourself to us more. We can be greater disciples, Lord. And God, if there's one that doesn't know you here today, I pray that they will begin to see that Jesus is a fulfillment and that He is the only way to have life. And Him was life. and him was light, and the light was the life of men. We thank you for Jesus. We pray that you will stir our hearts to love him more. Draw your people unto yourself, we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.