Good morning to all of you.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Samir Massou.
I'm one of the professors at Trinity and a member of Christ the King and a former elder.
I was thinking this morning, which is more important, to see the trees or to see the forest?
Do you start with the big and go down to the small or do you do the reverse?
And I decided in my case I have no choice.
If the elders said to me, Samir, you have two whole years to speak on Matthew.
You can preach on Matthew for the next hundred lectures, next hundred Sundays.
We would look at every tree.
We would look at every plant.
We would look at every verse.
Every paragraph.
Every section.
And we'll try to see the forest.
We'll try to see all the trees.
But they didn't give me two years.
They only gave me today.
So, we're going to be like a helicopter hovering over the trees, trying to see what the big picture is.
We are in the Gospel of Matthew.
And there are some really important themes in Matthew.
One of them you should be noticing by now.
That Matthew often points out that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament scriptures.
He uses about 14 passages that have this introduction.
This happened that scriptures may be fulfilled.
Or this happens as the prophet Jeremiah said.
Or as Isaiah said.
I listed several of them here.
Not the whole list.
But several of them.
Just to remind you that that is indeed a very important theme in Matthew.
That God's plan is being fulfilled.
But there is a second theme.
And instead of telling you now what that theme is, I'm just going to wait to the end.
See if you can put one and one together and figure out what's going on.
So, we're going to look at a theme and ask ourselves at the end.
So, what was that all about?
Okay.
That theme can be seen in six places.
And if you look at the back of your bulletin, I gave you a fairly specific outline.
And let's begin with Matthew chapter 1, verse 5.
Matthew 1, 5.
What I want you to do here is to notice two specific names in this passage.
Rahab and Ruth.
You may remember Rahab from Jericho, from the book of Joshua.
And the siege of Jericho.
And Ruth, of course, is the Moabite woman who is discussed in the book of Ruth.
The important thing to notice is that he is giving us the genealogy of King David.
And everywhere else, he only mentions the father.
But at this point, he also decides to mention the mother.
So, why does he mention the mother?
Because one mother is Rahab and the other mother is Ruth.
Rahab was a Canaanite.
Ruth was a Moabite.
In other words, neither one of them was Jewish.
They were non-Jews.
So, realizing that David is their descendant, what he is clearly saying is that even King David is not 100% Jewish.
Even King David has Gentile blood in him.
Race issues are very important in all cultures.
And this past year, we have been going through a lot of racial issues in this country.
And we need to move on with racial issues.
We need to treat each other as brothers, as family, rather than divide and separate and discriminate and things like that.
But, I am Lebanese.
So, I ask my daughter, who is only half Lebanese, what does she think?
Does she think she is an Arab?
Or does she see herself as an American?
How does she see herself?
Or maybe she sees herself as an American Arab?
Or as an Arab American?
For my son, it doesn't seem to matter that much difference.
But for her, it seems to matter a lot.
So, I ask her, when it comes to ISIS, for example, how do you perceive ISIS?
Do you perceive ISIS just as an American who is angry at a group of people who are martyring Christians?
Or do you see ISIS as an Arab?
When I look at ISIS, because I'm an Arab, and because ISIS are Arabs, I look at it differently than she does.
And so, there was, as you know very well, last century, a horrible evil man by the name of Hitler,
Hitler, who thought, absolutely wrongly, that some races are better than other races,
and that, in his case, if you were blonde hair, blue eyes, Aryan, then you were the supreme race.
And that other people, it's okay to kill and send to Auschwitz and Dachau and concentration camps.
And he had three groups of people at the bottom of the list.
The Jews, the gypsies, and the Arabs.
Had he won World War II, I may not even be here.
But Hitler was advocating racial superiority, and we're better than everybody else,
and we're the superior race, and all of you are inferior.
And I think God, in his own sense of humor, decided to humiliate Hitler in public,
in front of the whole world.
And so, in the Berlin Olympics, who was the great American athlete?
Jesse Owen.
And he was an African American, and he is supposed to be inferior to these Aryans.
But God showed that that's a lot of nonsense.
Racial superiority is a lot of nonsense.
It would be easy for somebody to say, we are Jews.
We have the prophets.
We have the Torah.
We have the temple.
We have Moses.
We have all of these things.
And look at our great King David, the greatest king in Israel's history.
And you look at this passage, and guess what?
Rahab is not Jewish, and Ruth is not Jewish.
God is saying, even the greatest Jewish king is not completely Jewish.
Even the greatest Jewish king has Gentile blood in him.
So, don't go around championing racial superiority.
The second passage, Matthew 2, verse 1.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judah, during the time of King Herod,
Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked,
Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?
We saw his star in the east, and we have come to worship him.
Wise men, Magi from the east, saw the star and followed it,
and come to King Herod, who is an Edomian,
and they asked, Where is he born King of the Jews?
Wise men from the east, non-Jews,
Gentile wise men are asking King Herod,
Where is he born King of the Jews?
Hold on here just for a minute.
I want to show you some contrast
to help you appreciate what's going on in Matthew.
Turn to the Gospel of Mark,
to the incident, chapter 4,
where Jesus calms the storm.
So, Jesus was asleep.
There is a horrible storm.
The boat is about to sink.
The disciples are about to die.
So, in Mark 4, 38,
Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.
The disciples woke him and said to him,
Teacher, don't you care if we drown?
He got up, rebuked the wind,
and said to the waves,
Quiet, be still.
Then the wind died down,
and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples,
Why are you so afraid?
Do you still have no faith?
That's not a compliment, by the way.
They were terrified and asked each other,
Who is this?
Even the wind and the waves obey him.
Who is asking this question?
Not Sanhedrin,
not Pharisees,
not outsiders,
not some tourists from Egypt.
Jesus' own disciples are asking,
Who is this man that even the wind and the sea obey him?
The irony of it is that they are Jesus' disciples.
They're not some, you know,
Rabbi Gamaliel disciples.
They are Jesus' disciples,
and they still,
after this time that they have spent with him,
approximately a year,
are still wondering,
Who is this guy?
Jesus' own disciples don't know who he is.
Haven't figured him out yet.
And Jesus later on,
just for fun,
asks them,
Who do people say I am?
Ah, you're John the Baptist,
you're this, you're that.
And then he drops the hammer.
Who do you say I am?
Well, there,
the Holy Spirit helped them out.
Here they have no idea.
You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
Here,
they're still asking,
Who is this guy?
Go back to Matthew.
The disciples have no idea who Jesus is.
Who in the Gospel of Matthew
is the first group of people
to know who Jesus is?
Gentiles.
Wise men from the East
know Jesus,
know the identity of Jesus,
the position of Jesus,
the rank of Jesus,
better than Jesus' own disciples.
It'd be embarrassing if my,
you know,
if somebody I completely don't know
knows more about my family
than my own children.
That'd be embarrassing.
Wise men from the East,
Gentiles are the first to recognize
who Jesus is.
And so,
and so,
we move to chapter 2,
verse 13.
After the Magi come and visit Jesus,
and give him their gifts,
they return,
and then in verse 13,
chapter 2, 13,
when they had gone,
an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph
in a dream.
Get up,
he said,
take the child
and his mother
and escape to Egypt.
Stay there
until I tell you,
for Herod is going to search
for the child
to kill him.
Jesus' life
is in danger.
It is not time
for Jesus
to die.
It's too early.
It's not the right time.
He will die,
but not now.
But Herod,
fearing competition,
Jesus is the king of the Jews,
wants to eliminate competition
and secure his position.
So,
what he wants to do
is to kill Jesus.
So,
Jesus' life
is being threatened
by a murderer
who wants to kill him.
Of course,
the issue is,
Jesus needs to hide.
But where should he hide?
Where should he hide?
I was thinking of
several places in the Bible
where people hide.
There's a famous passage
from Jeremiah,
chapter 7.
You may not know
that it is from
Jeremiah, chapter 7,
but you've heard
the passage.
The prophet Jeremiah
asks the evil leaders,
has this house
which is called
by my name
become a den of robbers
in your sight?
Has this house
which is called
by my name
become a den
of robbers?
What do robbers
do in caves
or in dens?
They hide
so as not to get caught.
so there were
all these evil people
who were disobeying God
and wanted to hide
so that God
wouldn't catch them
and others wouldn't see
that they are evil men
and be safe.
And of all the places
they decided to hide,
they decided to hide
in the temple.
So,
Jesus could have hidden
in the temple.
Earlier,
when another king's life
was in danger,
the high priest Jehoiada
takes the young prince
and hides him
in the temple
for seven years
where the evil queen
Athaliah
could not kill him.
so he is hidden
in the temple
for seven years
and not found
and was safe.
So,
if I were Joseph,
I would have gone
to a godly high priest
and say,
look,
this is Messiah.
He wants to kill him.
Can you hide him?
But he doesn't.
Where else could you hide?
Well,
David was part
of the court of Saul
until Saul
became very jealous
of David
and people would say
Saul killed his thousand
but David killed
his ten thousand
and David was young
and Saul was getting older
and David was popular
and Saul was less popular
and so jealousy set in
and Saul decided
to kill David.
So,
where does David hide?
in the Judean wilderness
and you can read
several fugitive psalms
in which David wrote
while he was a fugitive
hiding from Saul
trying not to be captured.
Then we have
a repetition of this
with Absalom,
David's son
who becomes king
and wants to kill his father
and David hides
in the Judean wilderness
and you know
what was so well hid
in the Judean wilderness
that for two thousand years
nobody found it.
Two thousand years
and nobody found it.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
in the caves
just above the Dead Sea.
So,
Jesus could have been hid
in the Judean wilderness
for two thousand years
and he wouldn't have been caught.
But where does he hide?
In Egypt.
Think about that.
Of all the places
in this world,
where does Jesus
find refuge?
In a Gentile
country.
Gentiles
provide David
safety.
Safety.
Moving on.
Chapter 8.
Chapter 8,
verse 5.
When Jesus
had entered
Capernaum,
a centurion,
that's a Roman soldier,
a captain of a company,
a centurion
came to him
asking for help.
Lord,
he said,
my servant
lies at home
paralyzed
and in terrible suffering.
Jesus said to him,
I'll go and heal him.
The centurion
replied,
Lord,
I don't deserve
to have you
under my roof,
but just say the word
and my servant
will be healed.
For I myself
am a man
under authority
with soldiers
under me.
I tell this one
go and he goes
and this one
come and he comes.
I say to my servant,
do this
and he does it.
Look at verse 10.
When Jesus
heard this,
he was astonished.
Only two places
in the Gospel
of Matthew
where it says
Jesus was astonished.
When Jesus
heard this,
he was astonished
and he said
to those
following him,
I tell you
the truth.
I have not found
anyone in Israel
with such
great faith.
Who is the person
who
in all of Israel
had the greatest
faith
that Jesus
ever saw?
A Roman
centurion.
A Roman
centurion.
I would have thought
that the disciples
would have the greatest
amount of faith.
They don't.
Maybe
Nicodemus.
No.
Of all the people
who had the greatest
faith,
of all the people,
the one who had
the greatest faith
was a Roman
centurion.
I understand
what he's talking
about
because I served
in the army
for two years
during the Vietnam
era.
I was working
on my PhD
at the time
and so
I was drafted
into the army.
They made us
take exams
and I was the only one
with close to a PhD
and all the other
students
were just graduating
from high school
so they would score
and then suddenly
it would curve
and shoot up
and my score
would be here
and their score
would be here
which it should
since I had about
four years,
five years more education
than they did
and the people said
but you know
you should become
a captain
in the army
not a private
and if you're a private
you have to salute
everybody
you have to do push-ups
if the drill sergeant
is mad at you
you have to do
all of these things
and then they put
this idea
in my mind
become a helicopter pilot
you will start
as a captain
wow
and then he said
you know what you can do
as a captain
you can go back
to basic training camp
and make the drill sergeant
who harassed you so much
salute you all day long
and I thought
to myself
sweet revenge
I'd make him do
as many push-ups
as he made me do
push-ups
in the army
if a captain
gives you an order
you don't do this
you do not do
what I'm going to do next
I'll say
oh sir
you give me an order
did you go to West Point
no you didn't go
to West Point
oh so you went
to an inferior
military school
what was your GPA
what was your grade
point average
did you graduate
in the top third
middle third
or lower third
lower third
so you're an inferior
student
you know
are you in good
physical condition
no you're not
I'm in better
good physical condition
than you
ah
well
based on this data
I'm not going
to do anything
you know
go back to school
get in shape
improve your IQ
and then I'll think
about obeying you
you think it works
like that in the army
you think so
what matters
is the rank
not the person
and so the Roman
centurion says
I give orders
and they obey
I don't have to be there
I give orders
they obey
Jesus guess what
you give orders
the sickness
will obey
you've got power
you can do it
you don't have to be there
when Eisenhower
launched
D-Day
did he have to be
on the beach
no he didn't
he could launch it
from his headquarters
you don't have to be there
but you have the power
you order it
and nature will obey
and Jesus says
I've never seen
anybody in Israel
with so much faith
the person
with the most faith
in Israel
is a Roman soldier
a Gentile
and then a couple more
take a look
at Matthew 28
Matthew 28
this is
the famous
great commission passage
in verse 18
Jesus says
then Jesus came to them
and said
all authority
in heaven
and on earth
have been given to me
therefore go
and make disciples
of all nations
baptizing them
in the name of the Father
and the Son
and of the Holy Spirit
and teaching them
to obey everything
I have commanded you
and surely
I am with you
always
to the very end
of the age
look what the
great commission is
it is not
go
to every Jewish
village
and make a disciple
it is not
go to every Jewish
town
and make disciples
it is not
go to every Jewish
city
and make disciples
it is what
go to the whole
world
the gospel
of Matthew
begins
with the world
the wise men
coming to Jesus
it ends
with Jesus
going
to the whole world
they come
to him
he goes
to them
what does
Jesus want
he wants
disciples
from the whole
world
to put it
in different
words
he wants
Gentile
disciples
he wants
not just
from a small
circle
just from
one family
or just
from one tribe
or just
from one
nationality
or just
one ethnic
group
he wants
disciples
from the whole
world
and then
Matthew 21
which is a
famous parable
of Jesus
in which
Jesus
is
describing
God's
frustrations
with Israel
he sends
them
his words
prophets
with prophets
so they
beat one
they curse
the other
one
they kill
the third
one
so he
sends them
more prophets
and they
mistreat them
as well
just the same
and then he
says
I'm going to
send them
my son
they will
respect my
son
my son
is not
just another
prophet
my son
is my
son
prophets
are here
and he
is here
this is
the last
ultimatum
and what
do they
do
they take
him
and crucify
him
and then
Jesus
says
what do
you think
is going
to happen
with this
kind of
situation
turn to
Matthew
21
33
Matthew
21
starting
with
verse
42
Jesus
said to
them
have you
never read
in the
scriptures
the stone
the builders
rejected
has become
the capstone
the Lord
has done
this
and it
is marvelous
in our
eyes
so if
Israel
keeps
determined
to reject
God
therefore
I tell
you
that the
kingdom
of God
will be
taken away
from you
and given
to people
who will
produce
its food
you don't
want it
I'll give
it to
somebody
else
and the
somebody
else
are the
Gentiles
if you
have been
listening
there is
a word
that I
used
several
times
actually
every time
we looked
at this
passage
I used
that word
it's the
word
Gentile
I want
you to
remember
we have
four
gospels
one of
them
is written
by Luke
another one
is written
by Matthew
when we
think of
the gospel
of Luke
it is the
gospel
to the
Gentiles
it is
written
to a
Greek
person
by the
name
of
Theophilus
and it
is designed
to help
Gentiles
convert
so in
our own
minds
we have
this
dichotomy
Luke
is for
the Gentiles
and Matthew
is for
the Jews
well that
is true
in many
cases
but not
in every
case
even in
this gospel
which is
written
for Jews
the
concern
is with
the Gentiles
I can
understand
it
if Luke
is concerned
for Gentiles
I mean
that would
be natural
but a
Jew
like Matthew
records
that God
is concerned
with the
Gentiles
Matthew
is concerned
with the
other
group
which now
brings me
to the
application
who
in our
case
is the
other
group
who
in our
case
is the
other
group
who
in our
case
are
those
who
are
not
in
our
small
group
inner
circle
this
congregation
whom
does God
want us
to go
to
when he
says
go to
the
ends
of the
world
where
should we
go
first
I am
sure
because
when I
was an
elder
we
talked
about
this
often
I am
sure
that we
were going
to have
a
family
night
and
we
affirm
our
commitment
as a
church
our
mission
our
goals
our
values
we
do
not
want
to be
a
private
club
an
inclusive
society
a
closed
door
that
unless
you're
in it
you can't
join it
we
want
the
door
to be
open
we
want
to
go
out
we
want
God
to do
his
will
in
Kenosha
whether
it
is
tutoring
little
children
or
witnessing
I don't
know
we'd
have to
ask
ourselves
where
where do
we go
who are
the other
group
other than
us
and so
what can
you do
you can
think
about
that
ask
yourself
whom
do I
have
burden
for
other
than
my
immediate
family
of
course
I
have
a
burden
for
my
son
of
course
I
have
a
burden
for
my
daughter
of
course
I
have
a
burden
for
my
grandchildren
that
just
seems
natural
I mean
it doesn't
take extra special
measure to have
burden for
one's family
but anybody
else
do I have
any students
in my case
that I have
a special
burden for
yes
and some
of them
I know
very well
and some
of them
I hardly
know at
all
but I
have
a burden
for them
and I
I try
to befriend
them
and talk
to them
and reach
out to
them
and in
my case
I have
15 weeks
to do it
and I see
them three
times every
week
and I am
an authority
figure
you don't
accept the
Lord
you don't
pass this
class
not really
I have
students
God
wants me
to reach
I have
relatives
God
wants me
to reach
there may
be people
in Kenosha
that God
wants me
to reach
and the
same
to Christ
the King
so ask
yourself
for whom
do I have
burdens
who are
the others
outside
of my
inner
small
inner
circle
and the
second
thing
is
you know
stop
the elders
or some
leaders
in the
church
and say
what can
we do
with this
fit
in terms
of the
larger
ministry
of our
church
what do
we want
to focus
on
knowing
that we
cannot do
everything
let's at
least do
something
and let's
arrive at
a
consensus
that that's
where we
want to
head
so what's
the second
tree
in Matthew
the first
tree
God is
fulfilling
his promises
to the
prophets
the second
tree
God is
concerned
about
taking the
gospel
to the
Gentiles
to the
whole
world
not just
us
but the
whole
world
let's
have a
word of
prayer
Lord
Father
thank you
for these
dear
brothers
and sisters
who are
here
thank you
for placing
us in a
family that
is really
special
with many
with maybe
even so
many godly
people who
love you
and care
about you
thank you
for our
desire
to reach
out
give strength
and wisdom
to our
desire
give
an
obedient
heart
and a
caring
heart
and may
you guide
us
the elders
the congregation
as a whole
as we
reflect
about
our
mission
and what
you would
want us
to be
and do
I ask
you these
things
Lord
Father
in Jesus
precious
name
Amen
I
.
Amen