Introduction to Matthew

Having finished our series on "the prayer life of Christ," this morning, we embark on a new journey into the Gospel of Matthew. And as I generally do, when beginning to workthrough any Book of the Bible, I want to start off this morning, with an introduction to the Book, so that, we can enter into our study, with an understanding of some of the key themes and ideas that spring out of the whole of the Book. This will help us to look at the broader context, withinwhich, our chapter by chapter, text by text, exposition takes place. And certainly, we will turn back to these key ideas and themes throughout our study, periodically pulling back from the trees, to once again, view them, in light of the whole forest.And then finally, for this morning, we will make some important observations about the genealogy, here given in Chapter 1, which we will find, fits right into the main theme and purpose of the Book.