Part 61 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series
David begins by speaking about how God meant us to read the Bible. He says that somebody has damaged our Bibles by adding chapter and verse numbers and we have become ‘text people’. The gospels are not strictly biographies as more than one-third of the text describes the death of Jesus. David says that they are more like extended news bulletins. The writers had witnessed events and they reported on them. Why are there 4 gospels? David compares them. He looks at this book from two angles: who was Matthew hoping to reach and what was his intention. Matthew presents Jesus as the king of the Jews, particularly recording what Jesus said. Jesus was popular in the north of Israel but unpopular in the south where he was eventually killed. Matthew uses Mark as his framework but adds much more, beginning with the conception and birth of Jesus. He has 5 sermons included, collected under 5 themes, interspersed with Jesus’ deeds which illustrated his sermons. Matthew aimed toward Jewish readers, referring often to how Jesus’ life fulfilled Old Testament scriptures, but it is for gentiles as well. David believes this gospel brings Jew and Christian together.