Matthew Part 01 Series Introduction

Where do you come from?' There are many ways to answer this, aren't there?

Most people in Warwick, when they ask me, hear my answer; 'from Brisbane'. I dare not tell them where I was born.

That could be another way to answer: "| was born in Tamworth. Yes, I'm ashamed of it, but I do indeed come from New South Wales."

There are many ways of answering, "Where do you come from?' For example, "My parents come from England and Wales, so I guess I come from Britain, though I have no memory of it." You might answer, "l come from Sarina", or Yangan, or Wallangarra, or Calliope. There are other ways, too: I come from a family of alcoholics. I come from a long line of trades. I come from the educated and cultured eastern suburbs of Sydney. I come from overseas. I come from Victoria. A toddler might answer, "I come from my mummy's belly, silly!" Or as one son answered in front of his school principal: "l come from the glint in my Daddy's eye."

Where I 'come from' tells others something about is. About who we are, and who we might be. And where we come from raises questions about where we're going. "Dave, if you come from Brisbane, I wonder why you're here in Warwick? If you come from Victoria, why are you now in Queensland?

If you come from a family of alcoholics, why are you not also an alcoholic?"

Where we come from raises all sorts of questions about why we've come here: I came from Brisbane because I had to leave. I came to Queensland to start a new life. I'm not an alcoholic because I've finally learnt to be loved by Jesus, and I'm now learning to love like him...

Where does Jesus the Messiah come from? There are many possible ways to answer this question, too: "Well, he comes from God. From the Father, The Holy Spirit, From Mary.. From the prophecies of the Old Testament, that's where he comes from! From Bethlehem, of course! From Nazareth. From Israel. From the Jews. Or if we're familiar with Matthew's gospel, we might say: "From Egypt..."

This term, we're learning about Jesus the Messiah—about where he comes from, from Matthew's gospel. Because where the Messiah comes from will tell us an awful lot about his destiny—and, as we'll hear - about ours. About your destiny. About mine. And about who we are and how we can live in the meantime, where we live.

We've crafted this series as friends, in our Band of Brothers' of fellow Presbyterian ministers. We each pastor a sister church at Mackay & Sarina, Warwick, Robina, Stanthorpe and Biloela. Together, we'll be teaching you from Matthew's gospel Over seven terms. But it won't be seven straight, not back-to-back, not like we did with Romans - sequentially. Instead, we'll be pacing it out with Matthew: stretching our seven-part series over at least three years and interspersed with other teaching.

Matthew's gospel has 28 chapters! Some of them are quite long. It's the longest gospel, so we'll be taking our time (Apparently, unlike us, God's got all the time in the world). We think it's long because Matthew seems to have modelled himself on Moses!

Moses had five big slabs of teaching: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. There are five lessons from Moses, that start the Old Testament. So Matthew has five lessons too, that start the New Testament: Five big speeches. Matthew structures his long gospel around these five big lessons by Jesus the Messiah. The most famous, of course, is his 'Sermon the Mount, which we'll hear next year.

Because Matthew structures his teaching like Moses, we're taking you through their five books together, side by side: Moses, Matthew. In each of our churches, we've already started with Moses: when we did the book of Genesis, in our 'God's Dysfunctional Family' series. Now we're making a start in Matthew. Then, next term we'll return to Moses: with his next book, Exodus. We'll return to do more Matthew, starting next year. Then book three of Moses, then more Matthew, and so on. Matthew and Moses go together: Like hand in glove. Like NSW and QLD. Like a good scarf that goes with your beanie.

This term is Part 1: "Dangerous Promises'. Because the New Testament starts with danger in all nine episodes of this term, from Matthew chapter 1, to chapter 4.

We've called this term 'Dangerous Promises', because these opening chapters drip with fear and an abiding sense of fulfilment, everywhere. Fear and fulfilment. Of apparently 'long-dead' promises now coming alive, to fruition... but tragically, and at great cost to the innocent.

To help you, we've made this 'Series Companion' for the term. This will help you get traction in God's Word—because traction is the opposite of distraction, We encourage you to turn your phone off in church and to take notes, instead, in this series companion. It's not because we want to be old school, but so we can use our series companion to learn from one another, as we meet mid-week in our growth groups. In our crazy tech-saturated culture we need to unlearn to doom scroll, and newly learn how to listen well.

Matthew strains to show us, at length, where Jesus the Messiah comes from. He paces out Jesus' actual arrival. In fact, we only get to hear Jesus speak publicly, finally, in chapter 4 of the gospel. It's not till the end of this term that we'll hear the first words preached by Jesus (Matthew 4:17)

From that time on Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near:'

Even Jesus' opening words to us, sound dangerous. They sound rough in our hyper-sensitive culture, and provocative to our ears: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Somehow, the Jesus of Matthew's gospel sounds demanding of me. Commanding, even. Compelling... like I should pay attention! His words seem to reach up off the page and grip me around the heart. This doesn't sound like baby Jesus in the Christmas story!

'Repent' sounds like we've got some serious problems on our hands. And whenever something 'comes near' we know instinctively to be careful. But what on earth does Jesus the Messiah mean, when he says, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near? Well, we're about to find out, together: in depth, in detail, in delight even, over the coming three years. So are you ready?

May God bless us, as His people, as we grow in our understanding of the gospel together and as He works through it to change us together.

Your Brothers in Christ,
Rev. David Bailey, Rose City PC (Warwick)
Rev. Peter Evans, Stanthorpe PC
Rev. Andrew Purcell, Callide Valley PC
Rev. Mike O'Conner, Salt Church (Robina)
Rev. Troy Wilkins, Mackay and Sarina PC