NOTES OF A READING ON MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
C.A. Coates
CHAPTER 1
C. A. C. It would appear that Matthew is rightly put first of the gospels as linking on with the Old Testament promises. Rem. Romans 9 would show that.
Rem. And Romans 1, "Come of David's seed according to flesh, marked out Son of God in power"; He is to inherit the promises. "Son of David" has the Solomon character in view, and "Son of Abraham" has Isaac in view, when the assembly comes into view in a very striking way. C. A. C. Matthew is written specially to help the Jewish believers and all is linked with the Old Testament. The ancient promises are all taken account of but yet it was intended to lead them on to the new thing-- the assembly. This is the only gospel that speaks of the assembly.
Ques. "The generation of Jesus" would look backwards and forwards. Would it refer to a new generation coming in? These three titles of Christ (Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham) are all promise titles.
C. A. C. So that all turns on "Jesus Christ come in flesh". The whole of Scripture turns on that pivot, you might say. The whole of the Old and New Testaments turns on a divine Person come in flesh.
Rem. Twice it speaks of "his brethren" (verses 2,11). A company is suggested that is going through.
Rem. There is that blessed Person who is going to bring all in, the Man of God's purpose.
Ques. Psalm 72 speaks of those who "shall fear thee... from generation to generation" (see J. N. D. 's note). Psalm 122 is the answer. In Timothy it speaks of "the seed of David" (2 Timothy 2: 8). What is the import of that? C. A. C. It is David the king in this chapter (verse 6); all the royal promises were connected with David. It was what pious Israelites looked for chiefly, that the Son of David should come in to exercise kingly power. It involves dealing with everything adverse to God and to His people, which has to come in first before the universal dominion and power that was connected with Abraham.
Rem. This is a great moment; we should let it have its effect on us.
C. A. C. It was not exactly a new thing in the mind of God; He had it in view for many centuries.
Rem. "Whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen, for glory to God by us", 2 Corinthians 1: 20. All had the assembly in view, and what God would secure at the present time. This is a sort of double fulfilment to the promises. At the end of this gospel there is the command to preach to all nations, "baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", Matthew 28: 19.
C. A. C. It says, "His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall bless themselves in him; all nations shall call him blessed", Psalm 72: 17. So that the Gentile must needs come in. You must needs have Rahab and Ruth.
Rem. His name at the end of the chapter, speaks of Him as Saviour. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins". It is not limited to Israel only; His death is involved.
C. A. C. And He is presented so beautifully in the first two chapters as the subject of affectionate care, which links a little with what we have been seeing in Joash in Chronicles. He is brought forward as a little Child to be protected and safeguarded, and in a certain sense that is the position now. He was infinitely great, but He comes in at the very lowest point, as a new born Babe; nothing could be smaller or weaker in this world, and I suppose that is why Joseph is more prominent than Mary in these two chapters.
Rem. The first 17 verses are to clarify our minds in regard to the Person coming in, and we should carry these things in our minds throughout.
C. A. C. It is all known to faith and love and is what appeals to us very touchingly. At the present time Christ is only known to faith and love, and it is in the faith and love of His people that He is, so to speak, preserved. Though so great (He is Emmanuel), yet He is pleased to take a form in which He is cared for, preserved and guarded, and those divinely taught are able to take up this privilege. It is most important in view of assembly service and Joseph takes up the responsible side. How wonderful that God should have made known these great secrets, that we should be told that the coming into human form of this blessed Person is a matter of the power of the Holy Spirit. I suppose the Holy Spirit never undertook so great a service as when He became the medium by which a divine Person came into human form; it is expressly said to be of the Holy Spirit. We are permitted to contemplate this great objective fact. While it was the will of God, of the Deity, that one divine Person should come into human form (and He came into it of His own will too, for He came down from heaven), yet the Holy Spirit is the mighty Actor in the matter. Joseph was told that "that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit". I think we should recognise the Holy Spirit's place in the incarnation. Joseph was evidently a man that could be trusted to hold such a secret; it was in safe keeping with him.
Rem. The instruction coming to us is that we should be similarly alert and protective in that way.
C. A. C. The beautiful character of Joseph stands out before us as a model of a righteous man. There are many things that appear difficult to the human eye; this was shrouded in darkness and mystery. But Joseph does not come hastily to the conclusion of the matter; he gives it consideration and as he ponders he gets divine illumination. And you see the consideration that belongs to a man, not a gracious man, not a merciful man, but a righteous man. It led him to consideration of the matter; he made no hasty conclusions.
Rem. While he pondered the matter, help came.
C. A. C. There is a divine solution to every matter that seems difficult with relation to divine things. God always has one but His people are not always in the quiet sober condition of mind in which they can get it. But here was a man who could get it. No doubt Joseph represents the responsible side, while Mary presents the subjective side. That is our exercise, to be able to have to do with the greatest wonder in the universe. Here is the greatest thing that ever happened, or ever will happen in the universe of God, and here was a man suited to have the handling of it and its very deep instruction. So that it is Joseph who is to call his name Jesus. Joseph is the actor; it raises the question whether we are prepared as divinely taught, to handle the matters connected with the incarnation of Christ. Joseph handles them in such a way that they could not have been better handled; he did everything that was comely and suitable at the moment.
Rem. Joseph is called son of David (verse 20).
C. A. C. Joseph is one of the seed royal and surely in him there was that which corresponded with Christ. According to the position of the moment, Christ present there as a little Child, parental care was needed and Joseph is presented as exercising parental care over the little Child and its mother. The greatest possible things are presented to us in a form that a little child can take in. That is the wonder of Scripture.
Rem. Why does it say, "They shall call his name Emmanuel"?
C. A. C. That is too deep a question to squeeze in just at the end of the meeting!
I suppose the very name Jesus would show itself that a divine Person was coming in. It means' Jehovah the Saviour '. It is really a divine name; Jehovah or Jah really is' a Saviour 'and the reference to His people is suggestive. A Jew in reading this would have no difficulty to understand what is meant; it is all connected, Jah,' the Saviour 'as having a people and His name being called' Emmanuel '. It indicates He has certain rights, kingly rights in relation to His people. We need carefully to consider that the coming in of Jesus here is God taking up His rights, not asserting them from heaven but taking them up here. That side of the truth is important. That is really the meaning of the word we so often come across in the New Testament--' Kingdom '. No power of evil can deprive God of His rights and everything for us depends upon God asserting them. If He did not every one of us must perish eternally. The very fact that they are taken up in Him that bears the name of Jesus indicates to us how God has taken them up. They are the essential basis of the moral universe. The stability of the universe depends upon the power of God to maintain His own rights. When Adam and Eve disobeyed the command of God all men's rights perished at once and all that remained were God's rights and He at once came in to assert them in the promise to Eve's seed and in the clothing of Adam and Eve. That is God asserting His rights. Whatever men or Satan could do, God maintained His rights to sovereign mercy. It comforts me greatly to think that all my blessing depends upon God asserting His rights. So Paul went about preaching the kingdom of God. F. E. R. said that our great weakness was that we did not preach it. The kingdom is God asserting His rights. All blessing for fallen creatures depends on God asserting His rights and He asserts them in Jesus.
Ques. Why is it salvation from sins only?
C. A. C. Nothing attached to His people but sins; I think it is the shutting out of any right on their part but that did not shut Him out from salvation on His part! In a certain sense it was the great question and it attached to people who were recognised to be the people of Jehovah; when they were looked at, only sin was seen to be attached to them. It was possible to men in that condition to get the knowledge of God and it became the very occasion of knowing God. I know God first in my place as a creature with nothing attached to me but sins.
Rem. As to God turning the departure of the Jew to account.
C. A. C. God could not be limited in relation to His creation. "Is God the God of Jews only?" Paul says. If God undertakes to save His people from their sins it is the sure pledge that He will undertake everything. If He undertakes to act for us in relation to those abominable things that are so obnoxious to Him we are entitled to know that He will undertake for us in regard to every part of our creature need. It is the pledge that He will undertake everything. It was' saved 'not only from the guilt of their sins but from the power of them; it is the greatest thing. The Lord said to the paralytic, "Thy sins are forgiven", his greatest need. Well, it was Jehovah the Saviour and when they murmured He said, "Rise up", Matthew 9: 6. That is, it is the power of Jehovah to do those things, the one as well as the other. And that is the way God asserts His rights and brings our hearts into subjection to Him because we find we are our worst and bitterest enemies but that God is our friend; He is for us. The bringing out of all this in the life of Jesus was what God was, so that anyone with eyes to see it would see the One who was "God with us", so that they should call Him "Emmanuel". Joseph could call His name Jesus but we have all to come to call His name Emmanuel. In that which we see in Jesus we are brought to the happy and holy conclusion that that is God. It is amazing how vague and dark people's thoughts are about God, even those of religious people, but the thing is to look at Jesus as He is presented in the pages of the evangelists and to come to the conclusion that He is God, that He could not be other than God. It is dreadful to think of Him merely as a good man. Napoleon said (and he was far from being converted),' I know men, and Jesus is not a man '; that was to say that He was a divine Person. This particular title of God is to be noticed, Emmanuel. We often find God under the title of' El 'in the Old Testament, which is the God of victorious power. It looks at God as coming into combat with every hostile power, to deal with it victoriously. In the gospels every power of the enemy that oppressed men was completely met in the victorious power of God. In Isaiah 7: 14 we get this promise, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel", and then we find in Isaiah 8: 8, 9 the land is Immanuel's land: "And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go further, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel". And in verse 10 it says, "Speak a word and it shall not stand: for God is with us". That is, every hostile power is brought to nothing in the presence of Emmanuel, everything that is contrary to Him and to us.
Ques. Is this all expressed in the kingdom?
C. A. C. Yes, and so it is with everything contrary. If I have a bad temper, who can deal with it? I need Emmanuel. The kingdom is where God is asserting His rights, not against us but for us; not in the way of judging what is evil-- He is not now on that line-- but in delivering His people from evil so that they can be happy in His rights and so that He can deal with all that is against us. We cannot deal with it but He can.
Ques. Does Romans 7: 24 fit in with this? "Who shall deliver me...? I thank God...".
C. A. C. Yes. Now that man has got deliverance he has really got to know Emmanuel, he knows God. If we do not walk humbly we may lose the gain of the deliverance but that does not make it less real. It is essential to me to have God, acting for me in the exercise of His rights, to set me free from everything that is hostile to me and to Him, and everything is hostile to both; it could not be otherwise. It is striking in this gospel that the Gentile got light in priority to the Jew. There was no star for the Jews. "God with us".' Us 'would be all those who recognise Him in Jesus. It is open to any to come into the' us '; it is those who recognise God revealed in Jesus. It is the thought of power as against all evil.