{"id":55,"date":"2014-05-01T12:05:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T12:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=55"},"modified":"2014-04-29T20:50:06","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T20:50:06","slug":"matthew-a-brief-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-a-brief-introduction.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew: A Brief Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i>\u00a0\u201cAll this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet\u2026\u201d<\/i>\u2014Matthew 1:22<\/p>\n<p>The gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness account of Jesus\u2019 life, death, and resurrection, written by one of the 12 disciples in Christ\u2019s inner circle. Matthew (also called Levi) was a despised tax collector and \u201csinner\u201d before Jesus found him. When Christ came calling, he literally\u00a0left it all behind, making an instant decision to follow the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, Matthew wasn\u2019t present at Jesus\u2019 birth or during his childhood, but he did have access to Jesus\u2019 mother, Mary, and to Jesus himself to learn about those times. And from early on in Jesus\u2019 ministry the former tax collector was not only a witness to, but also an active participant in God\u2019s redemptive story on earth.<\/p>\n<p>Writing from a distinctly Hebrew standpoint, and speaking to Jewish readers, Matthew\u2019s gospel emphasizes Jesus as our Messiah and King, the One who has come at last to save his people from their sins.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/04\/Crown.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-205\" alt=\"Matthew: A Brief Introduction\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/04\/Crown.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[CGB,300-01; WBH, 520-21]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by <a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u201cAll this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet\u2026\u201d\u2014Matthew 1:22 The gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness account of Jesus\u2019 life, death, and resurrection, written by one of the 12 disciples in Christ\u2019s inner circle. Matthew (also called Levi) was a despised tax collector and \u201csinner\u201d before Jesus found him.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,2],"tags":[18,16,17,302],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historicalbackgrounds","category-literaryinfluences","category-matthew","tag-gospel","tag-jesus","tag-levi","tag-matthew"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew: A Brief Introduction - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-a-brief-introduction.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew: A Brief Introduction - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0\u201cAll this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet\u2026\u201d\u2014Matthew 1:22 The gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness account of Jesus\u2019 life, death, and resurrection, written by one of the 12 disciples in Christ\u2019s inner circle. Matthew (also called Levi) was a despised tax collector and \u201csinner\u201d before Jesus found him.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-a-brief-introduction.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-01T12:05:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-29T20:50:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Crown.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew: A Brief Introduction - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-a-brief-introduction.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew: A Brief Introduction - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"\u00a0\u201cAll this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet\u2026\u201d\u2014Matthew 1:22 The gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness account of Jesus\u2019 life, death, and resurrection, written by one of the 12 disciples in Christ\u2019s inner circle. 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He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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