As need arose collections of Jesus stories were consolidated and preserved for use in instructing new Christians. Early Christians read and reread the same stories during worship, and particularly at major events and rituals and festivals. Christians do something very similar today for example: When we read and reread the nativity stories during the Christmas season, or, they return again and again to Paul’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 1:23-26) as they observe that worship ritual. MATTHEW designed his Gospel as an apology against a hostile militant Judaism. He wanted to help his community to explain and defend its conviction that Jesus is the Messiah in and through whom the fulfillment of God’s purposes was accomplished. His Gospel was intended to be an aid in his community’s debate with non-Christian Judaism The second purpose of Matthew’s Gospel was directed more to the internal life of his community. He wanted to teach his fellow Christians. His Gospel helped Christians understand the Jewish origins of their faith, and advised them concerning the shape of that disciplined community life which was in harmony with their faith. So it instructed about the ethical implications of Christianity. The Mosaic Law had a central role in the faith of Judaism. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the end of the cultic sacrifice, the The law assumed an even more fundamental importance. It was reverenced as the inspired revelation of the will of God, the heart of Judaism. Matthew agreed that Jesus’ teachings were not, a corrective or a substitute for the Jewish law. That law had an unconditional validity, which was enduring Matthew 5:17-20. The Jewish leaders refused to live by it, Matthew 23:1-3, simply because they were not capable to interpret the law. Only Jesus was, Matthew 7:28-29. The Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) did not replace the law but rather radically restated its demands in the light of the establishment of God’s heavenly kingdom.