Reference Series · On Jesus
The Kingdom of Heaven · Sheet 3 · The Five Discourses
Matthew’s five great discourses, the life told between them, and the people and commands around them
“And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” Matt 4:23
Matthew names the message three times: “the gospel of the kingdom” (4:23; 9:35; 24:14). The first two, nearly word for word alike, frame chapters 5 to 9: teaching and preaching in the Sermon on the Mount, healing in the mighty works that follow. Every passage on this sheet links to its ESV text.
What the kingdom rests on
God is our Father
“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”Matt 7:11; 6:9
We are his children
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”Matt 5:44–45; 5:9
So we are family
“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.”Matt 23:8; 12:50
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”Matt 22:34–40
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”Matt 7:12
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”Matt 6:9–13
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”Matt 28:18–20
Names and titles of Jesus
“Our Brother” is a description, not a title the Gospels use. The idea is theirs: he calls those who do the Father’s will his brothers (Matt 12:50), and after the resurrection sends word to “my brothers” (Matt 28:10).
Matthew 1 to 28, by chapter
Epilogue · Matthew 26 to 28
Matthew 26:2 to 28:20
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt 28:18–20
The last words of the Gospel send the disciples back to the five discourses: “all that I have commanded you” is what the book has just recorded.
Disciples of Jesus
Matthew names them in pairs, the way they were sent out (Mark 6:7). Matt 10:2–4; Mark 3:16–19; Luke 6:14–16
Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael are first called in John 1:35–51. Tradition identifies Nathanael with Bartholomew. Luke calls Thaddaeus “Judas the son of James” (Luke 6:16).
Mary called Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Susanna, “and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” Luke 8:1–3
They followed him from Galilee to the cross, and were first at the empty tomb. Matt 27:55–56; 28:1–10
Sent ahead of him two by two into every town and place he was about to visit, with instructions much like the Twelve’s. Luke 10:1–20
John the Baptist’s own messengers carried questions to Jesus and his answer back. Matt 11:2–6; Luke 7:18–23
“And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” Matt 4:25
The sower’s seed falls on all of them; the soil decides the harvest. Matt 13:3–9
“All that I have commanded you”