Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Matthew (with Jeff Cavins) - 2026

Fr. Mike Schmitz (0:04)

Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to The Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using The Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today, we are joined by Jeff Cavins once again, as we move from the period of exile into our next Messianic checkpoint. We had John, then we had Mark, and now we have Matthew, and so we have Jeff. Because we have Matthew, we also have Jeff.

Jeff is going to give us that introduction into what we should pay attention to, what we should attend to when it comes to The Gospel of Matthew. Jeff, it's awesome to have you again on the show.

Jeff Cavins (0:46)

Well, it's good to be with you again. The story continues.

Fr. Mike Schmitz (0:51)

Yes. Also, I just said on the show, is this a show? I don't know. On the podcast, on our show, we always have this. Yeah, the story continues.

And gosh, we just, I think, when I say the period of exile, not only the period of exile, but the period of, not the period of the prophets, but we just got done with a long section of the prophets. I think it was, was it 100 days? I mean, it was at least, I think, 90 or something in there of prophets, which probably, for most people, was their first exposure to the prophets. And what a gift to be able to walk all the way through and hopefully have some context. And now we have the context launching to The Gospel of Matthew as well.

Jeff Cavins (1:27)

Right, it was long enough for people to say, how many prophets are there?

Fr. Mike Schmitz (1:32)

Right, exactly.

Jeff Cavins (1:33)

And I think that, in all fairness, people can get a little bit confused during that time. And it is a lot. And it might be good just to remind all of our friends that one time through the Bible is not enough, one time through is like an introduction, and then, hey, you got the rest of your life to work it out and that's what you've done, that's what I'm doing. And it's been years and decades for me, and I never get tired of it, but the more you do it, the easier the story gets, and I don't know if it gets easier to live, but it's easier to understand the more you do it.

Fr. Mike Schmitz (2:07)

That's a good way, that's a good distinction, I think, to make. It's not necessarily an easier to live, but to get that sense of, okay, I have my bearings. I know for a lot of people who have contacted me, they said over the prophets, they had to have their Bible in front of them as they were listening. Maybe not everybody, but a lot of those, there's just like, okay, I need to follow along and be really attentive. I can't, I mean, I think there's something good about the podcast, which is get in your car, drive, and let the God's word wash over you, let him pour his word into you.

But sometimes there's that sense of like, okay, I need to pause and I need to actually carve out some time where I can not only hear the word of God, but also see it because again, those prophets sometimes, it's easy to get lost. And so I'm glad we're here now.

Jeff Cavins (2:54)

Well, it's kind of a reprieve now because we are taking a look at one of the Messianic Checkpoints, which is The Gospel of Matthew.

And it kind of, you know, when we go into this people like, ah, okay, all right. Now, yeah, I know where we're at. I know what's going on here. So we want to take a look at this, at this gospel. And, you know, I get that question all the time. What's your favorite book of the Bible? And I always have to divide it up into the Old Testament and the New Testament. And when we come to the New Testament, I always say it's the Gospel of Matthew. I love.

Fr. Mike Schmitz (3:23)

I would probably say the same thing.

Jeff Cavins (3:25)

Yeah, yeah, I love it. And, you know, it's written to Jewish people. And so being written to Jewish people means that Matthew is going to use some words and some phrases and some ideas that the Jewish people will get, but other people might not get it, you know, unless they have somebody to explain a little bit of this to them, but it is just filled with so many good things, and we'll talk about a few of those today.