John’s job would be to get us ready.

And he did so by showing how to be pleasing to our heavenly Father through confession, repentance, and baptism.

Matthew’s gospel is the Royal Gospel, written primarily for a Jewish audience, and the events he recorded surrounding Jesus’ birth and childhood make it evident that He was indeed the promised king.

Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born, something that was not only unusual, but humanly impossible. And it’s something that is doubted by skeptics, and unbelievers, even today.

To Matthew’s readers this genealogy was very important, and very interesting. And it was vital to Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the King of Kings. This is the royal gospel, written to the Jews, to show them that Jesus is the king they were expecting, the one foretold in Scripture.

Having concluded his main argument in the 12th chapter, our author now tries to get in the last word on just about every aspect of the Christian life.

Jesus is central to the plan of salvation.

And now that Jesus, the promised Messiah, has come, a new covenant between God and man is in effect.

The old is invalid, so there’s nothing to go back to.

It takes discipline to make a disciple.

We’re going to look at several victors in faith, and some who weren’t, on the surface anyway, so victorious. And then focus on the One who perfects our faith and brings ultimate victory to all who are faithful.

Obviously not everyone agrees on the value of walls, and sometimes they do what we expect them to do, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they keep us safe and secure, but sometimes walls fail. This morning we’re going to explore three walls, walls that stand, walls that crumble, and walls to build upon.

The Bible confirms that if we have faith in God there is no need to live in fear. And as we discovered when we began our study of faith in the Faith Chapter, faith is best understood by looking at the lives of those who lived by faith.