Sermon Notes on Matthew

Jesus disdained religious elitism, especially that practiced by the Pharisees and Sadducees. None of them were selected to be among His 12 apostles. Instead, He took Matthew, the absolute opposite of everything that 'official' Judaism stood for in Jesus' time.

Matthew was the most notorious sinner of the 12 apostles. He was also the author of the gospel attributed to his name, but even so, he reveals no real details about himself in his writing. He only mentions his own name twice, first when he lists the apostles in Mt 10 and again when he mentions his own call in Mt 9.

He was also probabbly the most educated of all the gospel writers and had the most knowledge of the Old Testament. He quotes the Old Testament 99 times in his gospel, more than any of the other gospel writers.

His biggest claim to fame is that he was known as a tax collector, the most hated profession among the Jews. He bought a tax franchise from the Romans and sat at a table all day collecting levies and tolls. He had to collect a certain amount for the Roman government, but anything he collected above that was his. This gave rise to incredible extortion among tax collectors and because they worked for Rome, they were hated by the Jews. They were treated as traitors. They could not attend synagogue. They could not testify in court. Hated and despised above all things.