How to Apply the Gospel of Matthew in Life

By Judith Okech

The gospel of Matthew is the life of Jesus from birth to death. Likewise, it depicts our lives from the beginning to the end. Living life and understanding how to live life are, however, two distinct factors of a human being.
“How to Apply the Gospel of Matthew in Life” therefore makes it much easier to incorporate the teachings in our day to day activities. It will help you increase your conviction to love and serve the Lord. Understanding the whole gospel will bring out your charism and help you utilize it.
If these factors describe you, then you are the right candidate for this book.
•Life has shown you its dark side, and you feel enough is enough.
•You find it very difficult to read the Bible.
•It is not easy for you to understand the Bible, no matter how much you pay attention to it.
•You are at that time of your life when you feel you need to give more time to Christ.
Are you wondering why I decided to elaborate on the gospel of Matthew?
People read books more than they read the Bible. You can read a book for four consecutive hours but find it too difficult to read one book in the Bible at one sitting. It makes the information you get scanty. Your likelihood to forget becomes higher. You undoubtedly cannot apply something you have forgotten to your life.
Reading this book will break even and make it easier for you to understand the Bible at large. You will also enjoy the Bible stories that you previously could not read. Once you get glued to a Bible story, you will ensure you read it to the end.
This book is, therefore, the gospel of Matthew used as a foundation for a new beginning. A copy of this book will take you back to the Bible. When you have the Bible at your fingertips, you have conquered the enemy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judith Okech
• Release date: Jan 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463873076

Judith Okech

I am a self-driven personality who does any work I lay my hands on to satisfaction. A passionate Christian who focuses on the in-depth meaning of God’s words of prosperity in Jeremiah 29:11(I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for).Throughout the sixteen years, I was in employment; my desire to give often flickered in my mind. Inspired by the diverse unfathomable events of human life, I began to write my first Christian book in late 2016 after several successful mentor-ships. I display my books with confidence that the readers will experience profitable changes in their lives.

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How to Apply the Gospel of Matthew in Life

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Copyright © 2017 by Judith Okech

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.

Disclaimer

This book explains the Gospel according to Matthew based on the understanding of the author. Its purpose is to help the reader uncover the significance of the different teachings, parables, and miracles in the book and conform to the requirements to achieve salvation. The reader is therefore solely responsible for the results. The author or publisher is only but an instrument of transmission.

Table of Contents

The Introduction

Prelude

Chapter 1 - The Power of Obedience

Chapter 2 - Who was John the Baptist?

Chapter 3 - The Temptation of Jesus

Chapter 4 - Jesus’ Teachings in Galilee

Chapter 5 - Jesus’ Healing Ministry

Chapter 6 - Jesus’ Instructs the Twelve Apostles

Chapter 7 - Jesus Uses Parables to Affirm His Teachings

Chapter 8 - The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem

Chapter 9 - The Awful Horror

Chapter 10 - The Plot Against Jesus

Chapter 11 - The Resurrection of Jesus

Conclusion

The Introduction

Matthew is one of the four gospels in the New Testament that emphasizes the relevance of Jesus’ coming. Matthew narrates the story of Jesus right from His birth to His death and resurrection citing prophecies in the Old Testament, which relate to the events in his narrative.

He begins by explaining Jesus’ genealogy, most of whom are prominent names in the Old Testament. He proceeds to recount the activities right from when Mary was expecting Jesus until Jesus got crowned the Messiah.

The book of Matthew demonstrates the turbulence in the life of Jesus until His crowning as the Messiah.

The belief and skepticism of the people are also clearly outlined. Rejection and witch-hunting among the non-believers and the jealous who did not want Jesus’ prowess to exist show up throughout the book.

There is a clear indication that there exist distinct views about Jesus in the book of Matthew. Some believe in and receive Jesus’ teachings with vigor. People who reject Jesus’ teachings prefer to continue abiding by their prior disapproved laws.

Prophet Isaiah and Jeremiah are among the prophets in the Old Testament who predicted all the events in the Gospel of Mathew. It is an indication that the coming of the Messiah was expected many years before it happened.

Matthew keeps referring to the predictions when he says this was done to make what the prophet had said come true. Matthew wants us to deeply understand and put into practice Jesus’ teachings to ensure salvation. Jesus’ numerous miracles stress the fact that He is the Savior.

In this book, you will learn how to relate the gospel of Matthew with the current life situation and scoop out relevant points that will play a major role in shaping your life and that of your children. The application of the teachings of the gospel is also well outlined.

Prelude

In this book, I have given you a snippet of the scriptures (in my own words) right from the beginning to the end followed by an explanation of my understanding of the scripture about human life. To enable easy reference to the Bible, I have indicated the specific Bible scriptures.

The Gospel of Matthew and Life summarizes the six stages involved in making the teachings relevant to our lives today:-

Reading the Bible

Understanding the contents

Analyzing the meaning

Relating it to today’s life

Absorbing the contents

Practicingthe values

To practice Jesus’ teachings, you must have done well in all the other five stages.

Note: The Gospel of Matthew is very much related to the Gospels of Mark and Luke.

Let’s now get to the nitty-gritty.

Chapter 1 - The Power of Obedience

Jesus’ genealogy is not just put in the Bible for historical purposes but for us to analyze the characteristics of the people, the activities they performed, and their relationship with God.

If we make a comparison with other families in the Bible, it helps us understand why God chose to have His son Jesus Christ from that particular family and not any other.

Matthew cited the family tree of Jesus Christ and listed the names. He also went ahead and just stated that there were fourteen generations from the time of Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon and fourteen from the exile to the birth of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1: 1-17).

To have a clear view of Jesus’ ancestors, we have to refer to the Old Testament to relate the characteristics of Jesus’ family tree members.

Why fourteen generations from every major event to another? Why do I call them major occurrences? Let us look at the briefs one by one.

One thing we will all agree with is that in these events, the celebrities involved had a deep conviction to God. Those who may have attempted to go astray quickly sourced absolution from God. The other observation is that from the time of Abraham to the birth of Jesus Christ, the people continually drew away from God.

The four majors in the number fourteen!

How Abraham won God’s favor

Abraham was extraordinarily obedient to God’s commands to the extent that he was ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac; little did he know God was testing him. Just before he killed his son on the mountain, an angel appeared to him and asked him to stop. He instead sacrificed a ram that seemed trapped in the nearby bush.

God discovered Abraham’s obedience was beyond par. The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven promising Abraham blessings.

Genesis 22: 17-18. I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants, all because you obeyed my command.

If we go back a little bit, we observe that even the conception of Isaac the only son of Abraham and his wife Sarah was a miracle after a long wait. Abraham was one hundred years when Isaac was born, yet he was still ready to obey God’s command to sacrifice him.

The greatest factor to master here is Abraham’s obedience to God’s authority irrespective of the fact that he waited for a child for so many years.

According to Abraham’s story, it’s obvious that most of us cannot match up to Abraham’s qualities yet still get so impatient when we think God is quiet on us. God had blessed both Abraham and his wife Sarah with the virtue of patience.

Moving on, we get to know that Abraham and Sarah’s patience and obedience bore uncountable blessings to their generations.

Was it not worth the wait?

If we allow God to take control of our lives and persistently ask Him for the virtue of resilience, our impatience soon fades away.

Try to imagine how much blessings Abraham could have missed if he got impatient! That is exactly what happens to most of us when we try to do anything possible (which may not please God), to achieve what we want rather than wait for God’s time.

God has a plan for each day of our lives. It’s the unpleasant activities that we sometimes engage in that distort God’s plan.

We shouldn’t force things; let’s emulate Abraham and get hold of all that God has in store for us.

King David Appointment

We all remember Goliath as a giant size man who was killed by David despite David’s small stature.

But who was David?

David was appointed king of Israel after God rejected the kingship of Saul.

Saul disobeyed God’s command when he told some people living among the Amalekites to leave so that they escape death. God had instructed Saul to kill everybody including their animals. But Saul only destroyed the worthless animals and retained the rest.

God disliked his disobedience and instructed Samuel to go and anoint one of Jesse’s sons – David, as King.

God instructed Samuel to get the olive oil, go to Bethlehem to a man called Jesse and anoint one of his sons to be the king, to replace Saul (1 Samuel 16:1-10).

Jesse had several sons, but he did not imagine his last son David would be God’s choice. So Jesse paraded his sons one by one, but the Lord chose none of them. Samuel inquired if Jesse had more sons and he reckoned the youngest is still herding. Samuel promised to perform the sacrifice only when he arrives.

When David came, The Lord said to Samuel this is the one - anoint him.

1 Samuel 16:13, Samuel took the olive oil and anointed David in front of his brothers. Immediately the spirit of the Lord took control of David and was with him from that day on.

God chose the least expected among Jesse’s sons.

God still chooses the least expected among siblings to date so it should never be a surprise to the rest of the family. It does not only happen when God is appointing His prophets but even as He apportions blessings.

People say God is mysterious because they hardly ever understand how he works.

It is because He’s the only one who knows us in and out thus His choices may leave us with our mouths wide open.

David’s fame

There was a fight between the Philistines and the Israelites in the valley of Elah. Goliath who was a Philistine confidently thought his gigantic physique would be a threat to the Israelites. Goliath referred to Israelites as Saul’s slaves. He dared them to choose one of their men to fight him and promised if he won, Israelites would be slaves to Philistines, but if the Israelites won, Philistines would be slaves to Israelites (1 Samuel 17: 9-11).

Goliath kept threatening the Israelites every morning for forty days. Jesse sent his son David to check on his three brothers who were among the fighters.

David asked Saul to let him fight Goliath. As the Philistine kept moving closer to David who was just carrying a stick, he despised and scorned David since he was just a small boy. But David’s faith sustained him.

1 Samuel 17: 45-46, David answered, "You are coming to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty. The God of the Israelite armies, which you have defied. This very day, the Lord will put you in my power.

I will defeat you and cut off your head, and I will give the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds and animals to eat. Then the whole world will know that Israel