Matthew was an eyewitness of Jesus writing his account of his experience with Jesus to help people discover that the Jesus is the promised Messiah.

Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah which are mathematically improbable!

We have copies of the Hebrew Scriptures that pre-date the life of Jesus so these fulfilled prophecies were not written up after Jesus’ life. Many of these prophecies are things that happened to the Messiah not things He could control.

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Matthew 2 Video:

Matthew 2 Notes:

Are you an open-minded person or are you more closed-minded?

In Matthew 2, Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Matthew was an eyewitness of Jesus writing his account of his experience with Jesus to help fellow Jews come to believe as he had.

3 of the ways Matthew does this includes the following:

1. In his Gospel, Matthew, one of the followers of Jesus, references 68 Old Testament passages.

2. Matthew also points out the parallels between Jesus and the people of Israel so that we may see that He was fulfilling what Israel was called to do but could not do so.

In fact, no human being could. As promised from the very beginning in Genesis 3, God would send a snake crusher to take on evil. God came to do for us what we could not do.
Like the people of Israel, Jesus left Israel to survive in Egypt.
Like the people of Israel, Jesus came out of Egypt.
Just like Moses, the leader of the people of Israel when they left Egypt in what’s called the Exodus, Jesus survived infanticide. The Egyptian pharaoh ordered all baby boys under age 2 to be killed and so did the evil King Herod.

3. Matthew also points to messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus.

In chapter one he points out Jesus was born of a virgin and in chapter 2 he points out he was born in Bethlehem, survived an infanticide, came up out of Egypt, and was raised in Nazareth.

You should know we have copies of the Hebrew Scriptures that pre-date the life of Jesus so these fulfilled prophecies were not written up after Jesus’ life. And many of these prophecies are things that happened to the Messiah not things He could control.

Matthew also tells the story of the Magi, who were more than likely Persian. This reminds us of how the Jewish Messiah came to be a blessing to all nations.

Now the probability of any one person fulfilling the over 300 prophecies of the Messiah by chance is mathematically impossible!

A Westmont College professor and Mathematician Peter Stoner counted the probability of one person fulfilling even a small number of messianic prophecies. He determined that the chance of a single man fulfilling “just” 8 of the prophecies found in the Hebrew Scriptures would be one in 10 followed by 17 zeros!

In order to comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates:

“… we take 10^17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly. Blindfold a man and tell him that he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one?”

Matthew 2 – Are You Open Minded

Matthew 2 Video:

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