ARCHIVE The Gospels - Lesson 1: An Introduction to the Gospels

you [Music] you have you ever noticed how important news is in our lives the important information we receive about the world around us influences our opinions our values our plans and many other aspects of our lives at times news events are so significant that they change our entire worldview well when we stop to think about it the Bible itself is sort of like an archive of news stories it records all sorts of good and bad news related to God's people throughout history and as we study these stories they influence and change us in many ways but without a doubt the best news scripture has to tell us is a collection of reports that we refer to simply as the good news or the Gospels they are the life-changing accounts of the person and work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this is the first lesson in our series the Gospels in this series we will explore the books written by Matthew Mark Luke and John about the life and Ministry of Jesus Christ in this lesson which we have entitled introduction to the Gospels we'll gain an orientation toward these books that will help us to understand them more clearly and to apply them more fully to our lives today in our introduction to the Gospels we'll touch on four crucial matters first we'll examine the Gospels in terms of their literary character second we'll look at their status in the church third we'll consider the unity between the Gospels and fourth we'll explore the variety that distinguishes them from each other let's begin by looking at the literary character of these books usually when we read literature we have some idea of what sort of literature we're reading and that's what guides us as to how to read it and what we expect so that for example if you read a historical novel you're not expecting it to be factual history and you're not mislead or if you were to read say volume of short stories and you know it's not a continuous novel you don't read it in that way so we really need to have some idea of what sort of literature we're reading and what kind of conventions of that literature are operating we'll explore the literary character of the Gospels from two perspectives first we'll consider the genre of the Gospels they are overarching literary characteristics and second we'll discuss their historical reliability let's first turn to the genre of the four Gospels in general terms genre is a category or type of literature genres are typically distinguished from each other on the basis of their literary form and function such as their style of narration and their use of figurative language the Bible contains many different genres for example there's historical narratives such as the stories about David in the Old Testament another genre is poetry such as the Psalms letters or epistles are another genre and so is prophecy and so on each genre of literature has its own conventions its own ways of communicating this is why it's so important for us to understand as genre of the Gospels it's easier to understand what they teach if we first understand how they teach to understand how the Gospels communicate will identify and describe their genre in three steps first we'll make some general statements identify the Gospels as historical narrative second we'll compare them to the specific type of historical narrative namely greco-roman biography and third we'll compare the Gospels to biblical historical narratives such as the histories in the Old Testament let's begin with a general category of historical narrative historical narratives are stories about people who lived in the past and about the actions and events that took place in their day at a basic level the Gospels are historical narratives because they record the life and Ministry of Jesus Christ but the bulk of the Bible and the Gospels themselves are intentionally written in narrative form because we are story people we are engaged naturally not only mentally but even in our emotions and even physical sensations when we are engaged in a great story and stories also enable us to live vicariously through the experiences of others this is a large part of the power of story and so the Gospels coming to us in the form of literature in the form of narrative enable us to not only learn truths about Jesus but to experience him firsthand to see the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven coming in action to see Jesus as compassion not just as a statement Jesus loves humble people but to see him tell stories and really live out stories where the humble are lifted up and the proud are brought low and the stories and the the form of literature that the Gospels are enable us also to follow the example of Jesus even as his disciples did giving us this giving us the stories in narrative form enable us to also follow Jesus in that way to identify ourselves with those characters in their failures and in their successes and to seek to live faithful in the own and are in our own story which is our lives in the secular writings of the ancient world historical narratives typically developed in three main parts the beginning of the narrative introduces characters and establishes a goal for the characters to achieve the middle often presents challenges or obstacles to the characters success and accomplishing their goals the end is the conclusion of the account of events it usually shows how the characters either did or did not accomplish their goals the Gospels follow the same basic outline each begins by introducing Jesus as the main character in the story and describes his goal of bringing salvation for God's kingdom each continues by presenting challenges to Jesus Authority and work and each concludes by describing the outcome of Jesus earthly ministry because of these similarities almost everyone agrees that historical narrative is the overarching genre of the Gospels within the larger category of historical narrative some interpreters have suggested that the Gospels belong to a smaller group of narratives known as greco-roman biography we will consider these comparisons between the Gospels and greco-roman biography in two steps first we'll look at the similarities between them and second we'll look at some of their differences let's begin with their similarities ancient biographies are counted the lives of great leaders although they included many different characters and stories greco-roman biographies describe these characters and stories in ways that highlighted the featured leader they defended the leaders ideas and perpetuated awareness of his actions from one generation to another and the Gospels were similar to ancient biographies in these ways we also see parallels to some ancient biographies in the fact that Matthew and Luke include birth narratives and all four Gospels detailed Jesus death the Gospels also follow the conventions of ancient biography as they trace the events of Jesus life like other ancient biographers the Gospel writers arranged the events between Jesus birth and death in various ways sometimes they arrange things chronologically sometimes they group things according to topic and sometimes they even arrange them around geography I think it's important to realize at first initially that to recognize that the Gospels are generally chronological for example they begin with the baptisms by John the Baptist and then you see Jesus being baptized then you have Jesus's ministry followed by his arrest his trial his crucifixion and resurrection and so in an overall sense there is a chronological order at the same time there are places if you compare the two Gospels there will be sometimes events or wording might be given in a different order I think that that only causes a problem if we read the Gospels as intending or claiming to give precise chronological order in every single respect but most authors and most kinds of narrative actually allow for an author to to organize his material by order that's other than chronological for example often we'll see we'll see logical order or will see a topical grouping of subjects early Christians for example Eusebius a fourth early fourth century Christian historian and Bishop he he notes that that the differences in the Gospels order was already widely known and early readers didn't have a problem with this because they didn't assume that this strict chronological intention was was intended another important characteristic of greco-roman biographies is that they related past events as historical realities so that the past was distinct from the present biographies focused on recording the unique unrepeatable lives and contributions of specific historical individuals in general ancient biographers tried to research and preserve accurate oral and written records consider the example provided by the respected biographer Plutarch who lived from about AD 46 to 120 Plutarch was a secular Greek historian who wrote around 80 70 about the same time the Gospels were written he began his work life of Cicero with a background on Cicero's parents but acknowledged the limitations of data regarding Cicero's father listen to this excerpt from Plutarch's life of cicero it is generally said that hell via the mother of cicero was both well born and lived a fair life but of his father nothing is reported but in extremes for whilst some would have him the son of a fuller and educated in betrayed others carried back the origin of his family to Talos Atias an illustrious King of the Volscians who waged war not without honor against the Romans Plutarch's caution and separating fact from speculation regarding Cicero's parents indicates that at least some ancient biographers paid attention to historical detail and were interested in accuracy the Gospels give evidence of being every bit as careful as Plutarch in their reporting broadly speaking it's fair to say that the Gospels are historical narratives written during a time when biographical literature was popular in the greco-roman world this widespread openness to biographies probably encouraged the Gospel writers in their task and inclined them to adopt some of the formal conventions of those biographies but despite the similarities between the Gospels and greco-roman biographies there are also significant differences although there are several differences we might mention we'll focus on just three first the Gospels are differ from greco-roman biographies and their intended audiences ancient biographies were usually intended for broad audiences while the Gospels were written for the relatively specific audience of the early Christian Church although they exhibit certain traits of biographies they're fundamentally intended for religious uses within the church this specific design is confirmed by how quickly they became regularly used in the teaching and worship of the church second the Gospels differ from biographies in their embassies greco-roman biographies typically emphasize the personal qualities of their main characters encouraging others to imitate their lives and personalities although there are many ways the life of Jesus is our example the Gospels have a distinctly different focus they emphasize the uniqueness of Jesus they focus on him as the one who reveals God and who redeems his people as no one else can this is why so much of the narrative of the Gospels is spent on the last week of his life the Passion Week third the Gospels and ancient biographies represent different cultures biographies gave expression to greco-roman interests values and lifestyle the Gospels are much more influenced by Jewish culture and especially by the Old Testament this is true even of the Gospel of Luke the gospel most influenced by Greek culture and five in conclusion there are notable similarities between the Gospels and greco-roman biographies and these similarities can shed some light on the meaning of the Gospels but in light of the significant differences between them it's clear that the Gospels do not fit neatly into the genre of greco-roman biography now that we've considered the Gospel accounts in terms of general historical narrative and greco-roman biography were ready to compare them to the genre of biblical historical narrative as similar as the Gospels are to typical historical narratives and even to greco-roman biographies they're most similar to the historical narratives in the Old Testament and this should not surprise us after all the Old Testament narratives were a part of the Gospel writers sacred scriptures from the many references each gospel writer made to the Old Testament we can be confident that they knew the Old Testament well probably far better than most Christians today and their familiarity with the Old Testament influenced how they approached their task moreover the Gospel writers and the authors of the Old Testament historical narratives wrote for a similar purpose namely to explain and defend God's covenant with his people for instance historical narratives such as Exodus chapters one through nineteen provide the historical basis for the Mosaic Covenant in Exodus chapters 20 through 24 this purpose is clear in passages such as Exodus chapter 24 verse 8 where we read this narrative account Moses then took the blood sprinkled it on the people and said this is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you other biblical narratives such as Joshua chapters 1 through 23 provide the basis for the covenant renewal in Joshua chapter 24 and the narratives of the books of Judges in 1st Samuel are the historical basis of the Davidic covenant in 2nd samuel chapter 7 and in a similar way the Gospels provide the historical foundation of the new covenant that Jesus established listen to the way Luke's narrative in Luke chapter 22 verse 20 echoes the account in Exodus chapter 24 verse 8 that we just read after the supper Jesus took the cup saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood which is poured out for you in summary when we compare the Gospels to other known genres of literature they're most similar to biblical historical narratives but this doesn't mean that they are precisely like other biblical historical narratives in every way after all they do borrow some features from greco-roman biographies in this sense we might say that the Gospels are a new type of biblical historical narrative so as we read them it will help to think of the Gospels primarily as biblical historical narratives but we should also see their biographic emphasis on Jesus and interpret their other characters in relation to him having explored the genre of the Gospels were ready to turn to the question of the reliability of the Gospels as historical accounts about Jesus [Music] throughout history a distinction has consistently been drawn between reliable historians and unreliable historians between reliable sources and unreliable sources the question for us is did the authors of the four Gospels write reliable or unreliable records of Jesus life while the criteria of our day are not identical to the criteria they followed there is plenty of evidence that Matthew Mark Luke and John had the resources and motivation to write trustworthy accounts about Jesus although there are countless ways that we might prove that the Gospels are trustworthy historical records of Jesus life will focus on just six pieces of evidence first the Gospel writers had access to records of the events they recorded just like today the ancient world expected reliable historians to have access to many facts related to their subject consider once again the Roman historian Plutarch in his opening comments to the life of demosthenes he laid out these common cultural expectations for how a historian should do his work if any man undertake to write a history it is in the first place and above all things most necessary to have plenty of all sorts of books and to hear and inform himself of such particulars as having escaped the pens of writers are more faithfully preserved in the memories of men lest his work be deficient in many things as we can see here Plutarch strongly believe that a trustworthy historian needed to have access to reliable sources and he placed a high value on carefully accounting for all available sources including both written accounts and those transmitted orally each of the Gospel writers was either an eyewitness to the life of Jesus or had direct contact with eyewitnesses to Jesus life since Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus they were present for many of the events they recorded mark was a close companion of peer and learned directly through him and Luke traveled with Paul and sought out reliable eyewitnesses for his gospel listen to what Luke wrote in Luke chapter 1 verses one through three many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word therefore since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account second we can also see the historical reliability of the Gospels in the high level of candor in their works ancient standards for good historiography require historians to be candid or honest in the way they reported history they were expected to report a spectrum of details including those that were not necessarily favorable to the message being portrayed in this respect it's significant that the Gospel writers so frequently describe the failures of Jesus disciples and in the case of Matthew and John that meant describing their own personal failures and if some interpreters are right that the young man running naked from the Garden of Gethsemane in mark chapter 14 verses 51 and 52 is mark himself but mark also described his own shortcomings and without exception all the Gospel writers exposed the failures of Jesus disciples as a whole admitting that the leaders of the infant church movement were far from perfect as just one example mark chapter 6 verses 51 and 52 records the disciples failure to understand Jesus miraculous feeding of the 5,000 they were completely amazed for they had not understood about the loaves their hearts were hardened time after time the Gospel writers reported the misunderstandings and moral failures of Jesus disciples but if mentioning these failures was likely to undercut the authority and respectability of the leaders of the church why did the Gospel writers do it many readers are troubled by the fact that the disciples are presented as less imperfect and less imperfectly understanding in the Gospels for one thing it points to if I may put it so the reliability of the gospel tradition that our evangelists were prepared actually to include things that made the earliest leaders of the church look if not bad at least not so good so in a sense that's a testimony to the reliability and accuracy of of our Gospels let me suggest to you that the very tendency of the disciples to make themselves look bad in their own stories one of the strongest arguments for the authenticity of the Gospels see if you read ancient accounts of the kings of Babylon or Syria or the Emperor's of Rome be they just go from victory to victory triumph to here are my glorious exploits and so now of course we look back and say well what what really happened we look at we look at the disciples and they're just these moat you know just just think of this what fool would make up a religion in which their hero is crucified which is a proof of sedition and lawlessness through a Roman and the Romans dominate and a proof of being a curse to the Jews and that's your primary audience you would never make this up unless it happened third our confidence in the reliability of the gospel writers is strengthened by the corroboration of other historical sources both Roman and Jewish historians confirmed a number of the claims of the gospel narratives and even modern archaeology has found evidence that their records are true for instance greco-roman historians such as plenty the Younger Suetonius Tacitus and Julius africanus referred to some of the basic data of Jesus life death by crucifixion and lasting influence so we have the Jewish historian Josephus writing a history of the Jews for the Roman government in the first century AD who mentions Jesus Christ as existing and have having a band of followers we have the Roman historian Tacitus in the 1st century AD same time period as Josephus writing about Jesus Christ and having a band of followers even the Jewish Talmud mentions that Jesus existed I think there's one general way in which we are really very well-placed to consider the reliability of the Gospels better than we used to be in in the sense that we now know a great deal more about first century Jewish Palestine but we did say fifty years ago and we know that through discovery of literature like the Dead Sea Scrolls and to archaeology and archaeology in in the horizont is continuing apace constantly new discoveries and so we know a great deal about as it were the context in which Jesus ministry took place and there are all sorts of ways in which we can ask whether the sort of things the Gospels say fit credibly into that into that context does it make sense to see Jesus as a Jewish teacher within that particular sort of context and I think that on the whole we can say that if it's so well and when we remember that of course conditions in Jewish Palestine changed radically after the Jewish revolt 66 to 70 so we have as it were a limited time period in which to test whether the Gospels fit into that time period rather than had they been reflecting simply a situation after the Jewish revolt we wouldn't expect all the material that correlates with with the situation we know about in early first century Judaism a fourth reason to trust the Gospel accounts is that the training Jesus disciples received should have taught them how to preserve an accurate record of his words and deeds within Jewish culture discipleship was a well-established way of life in fact the Hebrew word for disciple is Talmud which means student or learner specifically a disciple was a student of a particular sage or rabbi moreover in the Jewish culture of Jesus day one of the key exercises in learning from a rabbi was memorization and one of the responsibilities of his disciples was to learn the words and wisdom of their teacher listen to Jesus words to his disciples in Luke chapter 6 verse 40 a student is not above his teacher but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher Jesus meant that all who follow him were to study learn and shape their lives according to his teachings and actions the twelve disciples closest to Jesus had a great responsibility to learn Jesus teachings while many others who learn from Jesus likely committed much of his teaching to memory as well fifth we must never underestimate the fact that the Gospel writers had strong theological convictions that emphasized the need for a true reliable record for example in John chapter 20 verse 31 the Apostle wrote these words these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name in this passage John stated plainly that people could receive God's gift of life only if they knew and embrace the truth about Jesus in a similar way Matthew recorded these words of Jesus in chapter 28 verses 19 and 20 of his gospel go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you here Matthew stated that Jesus disciples had the responsibility of teaching everything Jesus had commanded them as genuine followers of Jesus they could not ignore the need to give true accounts of what he had done and said Gospel writers did not record the events of Jesus life simply for their historical value on the contrary they knew that faith in Jesus was more than simply knowing the historical facts about him but they also knew that true faith could not be based on a false or fallible historical record they expressed Jesus words and deeds clearly and accurately because they wanted their readers to believe in the real Jesus the Jesus of history 6 like all biblical writers the Gospel writers were not left on their own to write their records of Jesus words and deeds the Holy Spirit led them in this effort the inspiration of Scripture is such a vital doctrine because it gives all of Scripture one ultimate author so when we look at the Gospels and we see four different authors giving four different perspectives on Jesus we need to appreciate appreciate those perspectives but realize that the Holy Spirit inspired all of them and so they come with very different agendas theologically and audiences they're writing to and backgrounds and experiences with Jesus but we have a wonderful unity in them while we have a diversity based on the human authorship the inspiration of the Spirit in Scripture doesn't remove the human element or the human work in that but what it means is is that God gets exactly what he wants through these human efforts listen to Jesus words in John chapter 14 verses 25 26 all this I have spoken while still with you but the counselor the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you no matter how good Jesus disciples were at memorizing they couldn't have mastered everything that's why jesus promised and sent the Holy Spirit to his apostles and the Holy Spirit enabled them to recall what the church throughout the centuries needed to know about what Jesus had done and said as John wrote in chapter 21 verse 25 of his gospel Jesus does many other things as well if every one of them were written down I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written it's interesting when you when you talk to people about who Jesus is and you're asking who Jesus is some people might say well he's just he was a rabbi you know he's a teacher or some people might might claim that if you look at different world religions and different groups they claim many different things about him but in the wisdom of God God allowed his I he led through his Holy Spirit his eyewitnesses to write the deposit of faith in four complementary accounts so that we have in Matthew Mark Luke John we have whether through the author himself or through his sources we have a definitive eyewitness testimony safeguarded by the Holy Spirit which serves as a standard so that if anyone says what Jesus said that their jesus would do this or Jesus wouldn't do that we have written there the undeniable account we can go back to and God has given us that that touchstone for our faith now that we have spoken of the literary character of the Gospels we're ready to turn to their status in the church as authoritative written texts will explore the gospel status in the church by considering their composition and their authenticity as the Word of God let's turn first to their composition when we speak of the composition of the Gospels we have in mind the way they came to be written who were their authors why did they write these books how did they write these books questions like these are important for Christians to explore because countless interpreters have focused on the human processes of composition to diminish the divine authority of these books but the good news is that careful exploration gives us every reason to be confident that the Gospels are not only the works of you and beans but also the Word of God we'll look at three matters related to the composition of the Gospels first we'll explore the similarities between the various gospel accounts second we'll survey some theories of composition that have arisen to explain these similarities and third we'll offer some comments regarding to certainty with which we should commit to these theories let's begin by considering the similarities between the Gospels while composed separately the gospel accounts of Matthew Mark and Luke have often been grouped together and called the synoptic Gospels the term synoptic simply means seeing together and has been applied to these Gospels because they cover largely the same material they include many of the same accounts of Jesus words and deeds and when they report the same sayings of Jesus they often use exactly the same words for instance consider Jesus healing of a paralytic in Matthew chapter 9 verse 6 we read this account of the Lord's words and actions but so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins then he said to the paralytic get up take your mat and go home now listen to mark chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 but that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic I tell you get up take your mat and go home and again in Luke chapter 5 verse 24 we read this but that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralyzed man I tell you get up take your mat and go home in this example we see that each of the synoptic Gospels contains an almost word-for-word account of the same miracle story other parallel stories found in at least two of the three synoptic Gospels include the healing of a leper the exorcism of a demon in Capernaum the healing of Peters mother-in-law the calming of a storm at sea the raising of gyruss dead daughter the entrusting of authority to the twelve Jesus walking on water the healing of a man's withered hand the feeding of 5,000 people with a few loaves and a few fish and Jesus Transfiguration the three Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke often - the Synoptics because they actually look at things from as it was similar perspective similar glasses of life and that can sometimes give the impression I wore made why do we need three when one would be sufficient and it'll be sad to lose any one of the three synoptic Gospels because they do actually each contribute something slightly different and it's worth just seeing some the differences between them Mark's Gospel is the gospel which has got far more color than some of the other Gospels and actually tells some of the individual stories at greater length even that's a shorter gospel it's individual stories are told of greater length it's Matthew who's then squeezed those stories into much shorter comforts because he's trying to put so much more into his gospel and in particular Matthew is trying to put the teaching of Jesus which Marcus Gospel strangely omits most of Jesus's teaching so Matthew's Gospel gives us a very authoritative Jesus our teaching Jesus and if you want to kind of compact compendium of Jesus teaching Matthew's Gospel as it butwhat's Luke giving us well it Luz given us yet more teaching Jesus Lucas given us the parables in the particular many more than Matthew and he's also given us a farm also human portrait of Jesus making contact with all kinds of people very inclusive loving caring Jesus some people think that Luke was not just a medical doctor but was also something the psychologist is able to convey human emotion really well and I think therefore the three Gospels we've got three very different texts which we need to value each one of them I think that the fundamental reason why we have three Gospels that's that account for the life of Jesus in basically the same way is the richness and beauty of who Jesus is cannot be captured by a single account so you when we think of what God intended no single writer could exhaust for us the significance of what Jesus accomplished what Jesus said and what Jesus did I also want to add to that however that we should be sensitive to the differences in the three Gospels yes they say essentially the same thing but there are nuances and colors to each gospel so on the one hand they tell us the basic story of what Jesus did and what he accomplished and at the same time the Gospels also show us different facets of Jesus so it's sort of like a kaleidoscope everything is within the kaleidoscope and yet you look at it from different angles and we see different pictures of who of who Jesus is so we see the wisdom of God the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and giving us this multifaceted view of Jesus in contrast to the synoptic Gospels much of the material of John's Gospel is unique while John also recorded that Jesus walked on water and fed 5,000 people he included many events that are not recorded in the synoptic Gospels for example John reported Jesus turning water into wine Jesus conversation with the Samaritan woman and Jesus raising of Lazarus from the dead but even though the stories of Jesus ministry and life vary among the four Gospels all four witness to Jesus baptism Jesus last meal with his disciples Jesus death on the cross and Jesus resurrection from the dead the similarities and differences among the Gospels have led to many competing explanations so now let's turn to the theories of the Gospels composition because of the many similarities between the synoptic Gospels scholars have developed many theories regarding their compositional history these theories are often rather complex and they can be confusing when we first begin to study them we might summarize the most popular theories in this way most interpreters believe that mark was written first and that Matthew and Luke used material from mark and perhaps from other sources but other interpreters believe that Matthew was written first and that mark used materials from Matthew and Luke used materials from both Matthew and Mark still others believe that both Matthew and Luke were based on sources we no longer have that mark used materials from both of them as you can see even comparing the general characteristics of these theories can be a little confusing by contrast the composition of John is fairly simple most interpreters agree that he wrote near the end of the first century and was familiar with at least one and perhaps all of the synoptic accounts it's sometimes suggested that he avoided repeating lots of the material that he you had already been mentioned in the Synoptics and chose to provide additional information that was most relevant to the communities to which he ministered with these theories of composition and mind let's talk about the certainty with which we should hold to them at the outset we should recognize that biblical authors often use oral and written traditions and this didn't compromise their inspiration or authority so there's nothing wrong in principle with believing that any of the Gospel writers relied on prior source material as Luke wrote in Luke chapter 1 verses 1 through 3 many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us therefore since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you all the other Gospel writers seem to have had access to similar sources although they didn't explicitly mention it the way Luke did if we assume with the majority of interpreters that Mark wrote first he didn't have access to any previously written gospel but he almost certainly used oral traditions at least from his close friend Peter Luke and Matthew probably used Mark's Gospel as a model in addition to this Matthew and John had their own recollection on Jesus life and teachings and all four riders were infallibly superintended by the Holy Spirit as we've seen previously in summary we can appreciate the theories regarding the relationship between the Gospels but we should not feel the need to understand all their intricacies or to commit firmly to any one of them what these theories offer us is the confidence that the Gospel writers each had the ability to draw information from multiple sources and to construct reliable accounts of Jesus life and teaching when we see overlap in their accounts we have the opportunity to consider the different perspectives of the Evangelist no matter which preceded the other and when we read material that appears in only one of the Gospels we can study it in light of that particular writers purposes having considered the composition of the four Gospels we're ready to address their authenticity in the early centuries of the church there were some disagreements about which books from the Apostolic age truly belonged in the New Testament some early church leaders did not acknowledge all of the books we now have in the New Testament others believe that we should include additional books beyond the 27 that we now have but these disputes didn't involve the books of Matthew Mark Luke and John these four Gospels and no others were always received as genuine and authoritative by the faithful Churches of God [Music] for example the 3rd century church fodder origin who lived from 81-85 to 254 argue that only the four Gospels we now possess in the New Testament were authentic Origen is quoted by the church historian Eusebius who lived from about 80 to 63 to about 340 listen to the words Eusebius attributed to Origen in his work ecclesiastical history book 6 chapter 25 section 4 the four Gospels are the only indisputable ones in the Church of God under heaven in addition a century earlier the Church Father Irenaeus who lived from ad 130 to 202 had spoken collectively of a four-fold gospel in his work against heresies book 3 chapter 11 section 8 listen to what he wrote it is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are he who is manifested to men that is Jesus has given us the gospel under four aspects but down together by one spirit Irenaeus said he knew of no time when any of the four was disputed or when any other gospel than these four was used in worship in the church there were at least three reasons for the early church's bold confidence in these four Gospels first the church received the Gospels as authentic because they were written by the trustworthy authors named in their titles it's highly likely that the Gospels were originally anonymous but it's also likely that when they were first published they were received by people who knew the authors or perhaps even distributed with letters identifying the authors and from the earliest times Christian writings associated the Gospels with the names Matthew Mark Luke and John four men known from the New Testament as church leaders with good reputations second early Christians were also confident in the Gospels place in the Canon from the fact that these books had apostolic approval Matthew and John were apostles eyewitnesses to the words and works of Jesus Mark was thought to have received much of his material from Peter who spoke affectionately of Mark as my son in first Peter chapter 5 verse 13 and as we have already seen in Luke chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 Luke explained that he based his work on eyewitness accounts moreover in his ecclesiastical history Eusebius reported that the Apostle John personally approved all three other Gospels before writing his own listen to what Eusebius wrote about the Apostle John in book 3 chapter 24 section 7 of his work the three Gospels already mentioned Matthew Mark and Luke having come into the hands of all and into his own two they say that he accepted them and bore witness to their truthfulness and third all four Gospels are supported by the witness of the church in the first century all four books are old enough that living eyewitnesses to Jesus life and ministry would have been able to reject or confirm their accounts and as it happened the eyewitnesses did confirm them by receiving the Gospels into the churches at a very early date God testifies to his own voice in his word but for our help we can look at historical events that are mentioned in Scripture and we can see that they do correlate with what we know history from other sources on a more general plane we can see that the social conditions the political conditions the geography and all these other kinds of general things mentioned in the Bible they are consistent with what we know about the historical period in which they were written including first century Palestine when the Gospels were written however when we look at the specific historical things in the Bible and the historical conditions and circumstances they describe it provides us a reasonable basis for knowing that they come from the time in which they say they come and that with the spirits testimony that we gain real confidence that they are the Word of God and so that in the first century and second century of the early church the Gospels as we know them the the four canonical Gospels were received universally as from apostles or from apostolic sources and were regarded as faithful and reliable eyewitness testimony of what Jesus did and who he was and the things he taught there are a lot of reasons for believing that the Gospels are reliable inspired and have the facts we might say straight but maybe the most important thing you can say is this that the eyewitnesses sealed their testimony with their lives you would think that before one of them was flogged beaten tossed into jail crucified just one of them would have said oh by the way you know it's really just a story they died for what they said now of course we all know that people are willing to die for people died for lies all too often the vast majority of all people die for lies don't know their lives a tiny number of people will die for light it they know to be a lie if it gained them immense power or wealth or prestige during their lifetime they got none of that they were nobodies in this world they were constantly on the run they were impoverished they sacrificed they were beaten and then they died and not one of them recanted their testimony so we can be pretty sure that it happened now that we have examined the literary character of the Gospels and looked at their place in the church we're ready to look at the unity between all four New Testament Gospels will consider the unity among the Gospels first by affirming that each book tells the same story of the kingdom of God and second by exploring their emphasis on Jesus as the one who brings the kingdom of God let's begin with the affirmation that the same overarching story is related by each of the New Testament Gospels in a general sense we can say that the story that is told in the books of Matthew Mark Luke and John is the gospel in fact this is why the books themselves are referred to as the Gospels they are the books that tell the gospel story but what exactly is the gospel story the word gospel translates the Greek word om Gallion which simply means go so when the Bible talks about the gospel of Jesus is referring to the good news about Jesus but what exactly is this good news who is Jesus and what story do the Gospels tell about him to answer these questions we need to understand that the word gospel sometimes referred to a very specific type of news in the ancient world specifically when warrior kings or Emperor's conquered new territories they sometimes made imperial proclamations of their victories and announcements called good news in this use of the term gospel the good news was an announcement of a king's victory and that his reign would bring blessing to his people in fact this is also how the term was sometimes used in the Old Testament for instance listen to the words of Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7 how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news who proclaim peace who bring good tidings who proclaim salvation who say to Zion your God reigns in this passage isaiah envisioned the wondrous approach of messengers on the mountains surrounding Jerusalem announcing the good news that Israel's time of exile was over they announced peace and salvation because of the reign of God overall in the context of Isaiah's prophecy the reign of God the building of his kingdom on earth was the good news that the people of Israel and Judah needed to hear it was the news that under God's kingship they would have rest from their enemies and live in God's worldwide kingdom forever but in Isaiah's day God had not done this yet Isaiah's prophecy looked forward to a day in the future when God would come in power as king over the whole earth and the good news that Matthew Mark Luke and John told was that this day had finally been realized in Jesus the Gospel writers all told the same story pointing back to Jesus as the one who had brought the kingdom of God and who was fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies they were messengers with beautiful feet who announced the good news that the kingdom of God had come to earth through its final King Jesus this one story of the coming of the kingdom provides the overarching unity that all four Gospels share in light of this fact it shouldn't be surprising to learn that the New Testament Gospels use terms like gospel and evangelize far less frequently than language referring to God's kingdom various forms of the word gospel appear and only 23 verses across Matthew Mark Luke and John in contrast to this phrases like king kingdom of God and Matthew's special term Kingdom of Heaven are used around 150 times now that we understand that all the Gospels tell the same story of the kingdom of God let's look at their emphasis on Jesus as a king who brings the kingdom of God our discussion of Jesus and the kingdom will divided into three parts first we'll consider some proofs that the Gospels offer to demonstrate that Jesus brought the kingdom ii will describe the vocabulary the bible uses to talk about jesus and the kingdom and third we'll see that Jesus brings the kingdom in stages let's begin with some proofs that Jesus brought the kingdom there are many different ways that the Gospels assert the coming of the kingdom of God in Jesus but for our purposes in this lesson we'll focus on just three the first proof of the kingdom of God will mention is Jesus power over demons listen to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12 verse 28 if I Drive out demons by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you in this passage Jesus had just exercised a demon and his ability to cast out demons proved that he had brought the kingdom of God a second way the Gospels demonstrate that God's kingdom had come was through Jesus power to heal the sick and to resurrect the dead the Gospels regularly indicated that Jesus power to heal as well as the same power that he had given to his disciples was proof that he had brought the kingdom of God we see this theme in Matthew chapter 4 verses 23 and 24 chapter 8 verses 5 through 13 and chapter 10 verses 7 & 8 we also see it in Luke chapter 9 verses 1 through 11 and chapter 10 verse 9 and in many other places the coming of the kingdom was also seen in Jesus authority to forgive sins listen to what Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah in Isaiah chapter 33 verses 22 through 24 the Lord is our judge the Lord is our lawgiver the Lord is our king it is he who will save us no one living in Zion will say I am ill and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven Isaiah indicated that it was God's royal prerogative to heal and to forgive and he prophesied that healing and forgiveness would eventually come through the Messiah when the Messiah restored God's kingdom on earth and this is precisely what Jesus did he calls people to enter God's kingdom he offered them life instead of death it was a message of salvation a message of deliverance from sin listen to Jesus discussion in mark chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say get up take your mat and walk but that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic I tell you get up take your mat and go home Jesus amazed everyone when he announced that as the son of man in whom the kingdom was present he had the authority on earth to forgive sins in Jesus God's rule had come God's reign God's kingdom was here on the earth that meant blessings for God's people it meant that God's peace which Isaiah had prophesied so many years before had finally come with these proofs in mind let's talk about the vocabulary the Gospels use to talk about Jesus and the kingdom one reason Christians sometimes don't immediately see the Gospels emphasis on the kingdom of God is that the Gospel writers used so many different words to talk about it obviously they used words like King and Kingdom but they also used words like rain rule authority throne son of David and many other words that pointed to God's sovereignty and control New Testament authors use a variety of vocabulary to talk about the kingdom of God and not only explicit words but they also use related concepts so we can see for example that a title for Jesus like Christos which means the Messiah The Anointed One that speaks in Old Testament language about the king the son of David or we can see in a word like kurios a title again for Jesus which again speaks of him as a king as someone like Caesar Caesar had that title as well and so within the context and time of the New Testament writers people would understand the authority that's conveyed by a word like Lord of course the most important phrase that we have is the phrase kingdom of God or in Matthews case Kingdom of Heaven in particular and so that phrase would talk in two ways one about a certain domain of Christ's rule over his people but also it's more of a verbal idea sort of the reign of God the authority of God ruling over his people so related concepts like the concept of obedience for example it isn't explicit in terms of the kingdom of God but it's certainly implied in terms of the Kings Authority and a kind of obedience and even worship that is called for in relation to Jesus as just one example the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man in mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 12 doesn't use the words king or Kingdom verse 10 however forces us to see the kingdom meaning of a whole story when Jesus says the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins the kingdom of God had come to Earth in Jesus powerful acts of healing and words of forgiveness in fact against the backdrop of the Old Testament prophecies describing the glorious blessed nature of the kingdom of God every good thing that Jesus did was a taste of God's kingdom in one way or another from the Old Testament expectation and hope for the kingdom of God especially from the Book of Isaiah the hope of God coming to rule and reign to establish his kingdom was the hope of a time of restoration when all would me be made right and so one of the things that we see worked out and uses ministry and in the Gospels themselves is that Jesus's healing ministry and his restoring of people raising of dead sons and stopping of hemorrhaging of hemorrhaging of blood for people and straightening broken limbs and healing blind eyes these are not only FF stations to use his power and authority in an apologetic way they certainly are that they're not only manifestations of the power of God they are in fact a witness to the hope that God's reign his restorative kingship his storage of kingdom is coming and has now come in Jesus so this is one of the many ways in which we see the kingdom of God worked out even apart from the language of the kingdom of God itself now that we have looked at some proofs that Jesus brought the kingdom of God and considered the vocabulary the Gospels used to talk about Jesus kingdom let's briefly describe the stages in which Jesus brings a kingdom Jesus taught that the present experience of the kingdom he offered was not the whole picture another stage of the kingdom was yet to come at some point in the future the kingdom of God would come in all of its fullness Jesus described this future day in Luke chapter 21 verses 27 and 28 at that time they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory when these things begin to take place stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near many Jewish theologians had interpreted the Old Testament to teach that when the Messiah came he would do away with the old age of sin and death all at once and replace it with the new age of the kingdom of God but Jesus indicated that he was bringing the kingdom in stages he inaugurated the kingdom during his Berkeley ministry the kingdom continues now as he reigns from heaven and it will be consummated or completed in the future when he returns in apocalyptic Judaism all of reality was divided into two periods the present evil age and the age to come and the expectation there is that when God assured in his endtime kingdom the age to come it would happen cataclysmically suddenly and absolutely you move immediately from the period before the kingdom to the kingdom of who the period of the kingdom the age of the kingdom but in the New Testament you have what I've called the elongation of New Testament eschatology so that the age of the kingdom as was envisaged in apocalyptic Judaism is subdivided now into two periods the president for the the already of the Kingdom of Heaven and the not yet of the kingdom of heaven when we speak about the kingdom of God we often talk about it as having come but actually we still anticipate the kingdom coming in the future in fact Jesus taught us to pray like that your kingdom come now as it is in heaven and there is a sense which because the King has come he's inaugurated and set up his kingdom here on earth but we wait for his return of the second coming of Christ will be the day in which all the full benefits of what Jesus did when he first came will the implications will be finally worked out and there is a sense which every believer has the job of announcing the Kings future coming as they go out into this world with the gospel so we call people to get ready the day when Christ will return but yet as believers we do enjoy the privilege of having Christ as our Lord now so we live under his reign now but wait for the day when we will fully have that realized not only for us but actually for the whole of creation - not surprisingly most Jews in the first century turned away from Jesus because the kingdom he described didn't look like the kingdom they expected and wanted they expected a king and a kingdom that would overthrow Rome and free the Jews from Roman when Jesus showed no interest in being that kind of King many turned their backs and walked away just as we see in Luke chapter 17 verses 20 through 25 and John chapter 6 verses 60 to 69 and of course this rejection ultimately led to Jesus execution the great irony of the Gospels is that Jesus death by crucifixion was at the same moment both the climax of the hostility against his kingship and the victory of his kingship in Kingdom his resurrection and ascension were his path to his royal throne at the right hand of God the Father this is why Jesus used the forty days between his resurrection and ascension to teach his disciples about the kingdom of God as Luke reported in Acts chapter 1 verse 3 in Matthew chapter 28 verse 18 Jesus put it this way just before he ascended into heaven all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me the kingdom of God is the theme of good news that binds together the events of Jesus life in the Gospels the Gospels proclaimed the good news that God has kept his promise that his kingdom has come in Jesus and Jesus victorious life assures us that one day he will return to consummate his kingdom bringing us all its blessings in all of their fullness so far in this lesson we've examined the Gospels in terms of their literary character looked at their status in the church and considered their unity at this point we're ready to talk about the variety that distinguishes them from each other as we have seen all four Gospels present the same story of the coming of God's kingdom but each does this in its own way we'll explore this variety in two main ways first we'll look at some apparent difficulties in the reconciling of the Gospel accounts and second we'll look at the distinctive emphases of each gospel let's begin with the apparent difficulties when we read the Gospels the overwhelming impression is how similar they are to each other there are however a number of places where the gospel records appear to say different things of course most of these differences are so minor that they cannot with any degree of seriousness be called contradictions a few however do trouble some readers that is why it's important for us to look at a few of the most significant kinds of apparent difficulties some of the most common differences relate to chronology the order in which events are described in the various Gospels as biographical narratives each of the Gospels follows the same basic timeline each begins with Jesus birth then moves to his death and finally to his resurrection but they often list other events in Jesus life in different orders the reason is that the Gospels sometimes group events according to priorities that were quite acceptable in the first century but might not need our modern expectations rather than following strictly chronological priorities the gospel sometimes order their episodes according to theme or geography for example mark told the story of Jesus being rejected in his hometown in mark chapter 6 verses 1 through 6 but Luke placed it sooner in the narrative in Luke chapter 4 verses 14 through 30 so that it was the first story in Jesus public ministry Luke's Gospel gives the story more prominence than marked does and it even tells a longer version of a story to emphasize the theme of rejection the Gospel writers were far less interested in preserving a precise chronological itinerary for Jesus ministry than they were with clearly communicating the coming of the kingdom in his teachings and actions a second type of difference is the omission of material in one or more of the Gospels for example John does not mention the institution of the Lord's Supper in his gospel omissions like this can be explained in a number of ways they may result simply from different writers emphases or they may also result from later Gospel writers not feeling the need to repeat portions of what appeared in the books of earlier Gospel writers whatever the case Oh Misha pne's do not imply disagreements or contradictions between the Gospel writers think about a conversation you've had that involved multiple people each person who speaks doesn't feel the need to repeat everything the others have said already instead each person focuses on adding his own particular perspective perhaps with some new detail and maybe with a different emphasis scripture does this explicitly from time to time for instance in second chronicles chapter 9 verse 29 the chronicler explicitly said that he was omitting details that had already been recorded by other writers this also happens at least three other times in second Chronicles and often in the books of first and second Kings so it shouldn't be surprising to find that one gospel writer omitted important materials has it already been mentioned by another a third common type of apparent difficulty results from similarities between different events that occurred in Jesus ministry that is to say at times two Gospels seem to describe the same event in different ways but they may actually be describing two similar but different events it's important to remember that Jesus was an itinerant preacher that is he moved around from place to place he also performed many of the same types of miracles in different places healing many who were blind or lame and of course jesus answered many of the same questions and challenges over and over again in addition to this people responded to Jesus in similar ways on different occasions consider the accounts of Jesus being anointed in Luke chapter 7 verses 36 through 50 and mark chapter 14 verses 3 through 9 in Luke Jesus is in the house of a Pharisee but in mark he's in the house of Simon the leper these are not two contradictory reports of the same event rather it reports of two different events a fourth type of apparent difficulty is confusion caused by different speeches that had similar content one of the best-known examples of this is Jesus Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 verse 1 through chapter 7 verse 29 of his Gospel and Luke's similar set of teachings in Luke chapter 6 verse 17 through 49 in Matthew chapter 5 verse 1 we're told that it took place on a mountainside but in Luke chapter 6 verse 17 we're told it took place on a level place there are at least three ways to approach this problem first of Matthew and Luke may be talking about the same sermon given at the same time and place the southwestern side of the Sea of Galilee is not a rugged mountain side but rolling hillsides rising from the sea this elevated area also has many smaller areas that are relatively flat so the same geography could be called both a mountainside has in Matthew and a level place as in Luke in the second place this may be an example of the ancient practice of creating a composite speech putting together into one sermon things that Jesus spoke on different occasions this is a technique used by ancient historians and raises no questions about integrity or reliability in the third place it's also possible that Jesus preached two very similar sermons on two different days in two different settings one on a mountainside and one on a plane because of the style of Jesus ministry it's certainly reasonable to assume that Jesus would repeat many of his teachings to new audiences who were unfamiliar with them by observing the variety of ways the differences in the Gospels can be harmonized we can be assured that they're united witness to Jesus life and ministry is true yes there are seeming discrepancies in details but there are also reasonable explanations for each of these kinds of differences and when we discover that Jesus taught the same thing on different occasions we can see the consistency of his ministry and message and find a variety of ways to apply his teachings to our lives we began looking at the variety among the four Gospels by asking about apparent difficulties in the texts so at this point we're ready to continue looking at the variety of the four Gospels by exploring their distinctive emphases because each of the Gospels was written by a unique author who brought his own perspective and concerns to his account of Jesus life and ministry there are differences among the four Gospels knowing that each of the four Gospels has been inspired by the Holy Spirit we're confident that each account is free from error and therefore does not contradict the other but that doesn't mean that there are no differences the Holy Spirit used the personalities interests and ministry situations of the human authors to shape those differences so if we want to be blessed in all the ways the Holy Spirit wants to bless us we must take the Gospels unique approaches into account when we read them in many circumstances in life we find that different people talk about the same truth in different ways anyone who has watched small children play knows that one event can have multiple compatible interpretations each child has his or her own perspective on the games they played only by listening to each of them talk about the games and we piece together a picture of what really happened one might be enthusiastic about the colours of the toys another might be more interested in describing the sounds they made another might excitedly report running around these different perspectives do not contradict each other but they do indicate that each child found some part of the games more interesting than the others in a similar way each gospel writers own interests and concerns are reflected in his account of the Gospel story no two accounts look exactly the same all the New Testament gospel stories describe the same Jesus but they often speak about him in different ways and highlight different aspects of his ministry we have four Gospels but one Jesus what would should we make of that well first of all it's the intelligence of the earliest Christians to recognize that Jesus was far too complex a historical figure to be subsumed under one portrait the Gospels are like portraits and so it's recognizably Jesus in all four of the canonical Gospels but at the same time they are taking different angles of incidents into the character of Jesus in various ways I'll give you an example in the Gospel of John we have basically no parables and no exorcisms in the Gospel of Mark Jesus is characterized by parables and the most frequent miracle in the early part of the Gospel of Mark is exorcisms well these are different portraits and yet manifestly the same Jesus and each gospel writer has a slightly different point of view about Jesus not in the sense that one thinks he's the Christ and another thinks he's not but that they have different emphases about how to reveal that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and at same time the savior of the world and so they felt free and they had the freedom under inspiration to emphasize different aspects and different portions of the Ministry of Jesus and different ways of framing the question and giving answers there are many distinctive characteristics and themes of the Gospels but in this introductory lesson we'll focus on the way each gospel answers two questions who is Jesus and how do we follow Jesus let's begin by looking at how Matthew answers these important questions of all the Gospel writers Matthew is the one who is most concerned to communicate that Jesus is the messianic king of Israel that was foretold in the Old Testament a small sampling of the places Matthew mentions Jesus kingship includes chapter 2 verse 2 in which the Magi asked where they could find the one who has been born King of the Jews chapter 7 verses 21 through 23 in which as Lord Jesus said he would not admit all who called him Lord to the Kingdom of Heaven chapter 20 verses 20 through 28 when the mother of the Apostles James and John requested that her sons be given a privileged place alongside Jesus in the kingdom chapter 25 verses 31 through 46 where Jesus told a parable about his judgment as king at the final day in chapter 27 verse 37 in which Matthew ironically noted that the Roman soldiers put a sign above Jesus head at the cross that read this is Jesus the King of the Jews it was expected at God's messianic King would bring to earth God's Messianic Kingdom he would deliver Israel from exile and her enemies he would rule with righteousness establishing peace and prosperity Jesus did all this but he did not do it in the way that Jews expected listen to Jesus words in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them Jesus understood that many Jews who witnessed his ministry would think that he was destroying the law of God and failing to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament that's why he said with emphatic clarity that he was fulfilling the law and the prophets even if it didn't look that way not only in this passage but time after time Matthew reported that Jesus fulfilled one aspect or another of the Old Testament Scriptures demonstrating that he was truly the Messianic king of Israel so according to Matthew how do we follow Jesus Jesus perfectly kept the law of God but that isn't all he did he said that keeping the outward demands of the law wasn't enough God has always required the citizens of the kingdom to obey Him from the heart the good news of the gospel is that the kingdom has come bringing forgiveness and salvation to God's people and giving us new obedient hearts and our changed hearts give us both the power and the motivation to follow Jesus with a loving thankful joyful obedience when we talk about obeying God from the heart a hearts really an all-encompassing term I teach my people it's from head to heart to hand is how we need to obey Him and how we need to love him a head would be the seat of the imagination seat of the mind and we're supposed to love God with all of our mind we're supposed to love God with all of our affections and we're supposed to love God with all of our hands and feet so heart doesn't mean just something in your chest that's thumping away it's an all-encompassing term so do we love God outwardly well indeed we do but it's also with our affections that we love God we love God with everything and I believe that word heart points right to that everything now that we have seen how Matthew's Gospel answers our two questions let's explore what Mark has to say first according to mark who is Jesus throughout his account mark emphasized that Jesus was the suffering son of God who conquered the enemies of God's people mark recorded many instances of Jesus miracles killing his power over the forces of evil even though mark is far shorter than Matthew and Luke's Gospel it records almost as many miracles 18 and all from the very start of Mark's Gospel we see that Jesus was the conquering and suffering son of God in the first chapter alone John the Baptist prophesied Jesus coming and then Jesus began his public ministry he was baptized was tempted in the desert called his first disciples drove out evil spirits and healed many people from various sicknesses even a superficial reading of this action-packed rapid-fire narrative says that Jesus was powerfully conquering the enemies of God's kingdom a closer reading also shows that mark portrayed him as a suffering son of God right from the beginning of his ministry for instance in mark chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 we read this account following Jesus baptism at once the spirits sent him out into the desert and he was in the desert forty days being tempted by Satan he was with the wild animals and angels attended him Jesus suffered the onslaught of Satan's attacks from the very first moment of his public ministry and this picture of Jesus as suffering servant continued to grow throughout Mark's Gospel as Jesus endured persecution and rejection so how does mark say that we should follow Jesus the suffering Conqueror on one hand Mark's Gospel does not sugarcoat the Christian life Mark described discipleship as a difficult and often frustrating process in which we not only suffer but also make mistakes and fail in fact a distinctive trait of Mark's Gospel was how often Jesus disciples failed to understand him or to respond in faith in mark chapter 4 verse 40 jesus wondered if his disciples had faith at all in chapter 6 verse 52 the disciples hearts were hardened in Chapter 7 verse 18 Jesus accused his disciples of being dull because they failed to understand his teachings in Chapter 9 verse 18 the disciples were unable to drive out an evil spirit in chapter 9 verses 38 to 41 the disciples mistakenly attempted to hinder an exorcist because they didn't know him and in the course of chapter 14 one disciple betrayed Jesus to the authorities one denied all association with Jesus and the rest abandoned him this emphasis in Mark's Gospel teaches us at least two things about following Jesus first just like the disciples we won't always understand Jesus in fact we're likely to misunderstand many things in the Bible so we need to be humble enough to recognize that we all have much to learn as part of this we need to receive the Bible's teaching by faith knowing that God's Word is true even if it seems strange or wrong to us in second difficulties and suffering are inevitable for Christians there are many dangers many temptations to turn away from following him listen to what Jesus said in mark chapter 8 verses 34 and 35 if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it Jesus taught that we need to be faithful in our commitment to him we have to be willing to suffer as Jesus suffered to stand against temptation and spiritual attacks but notice something else in this passage Jesus is not only the suffering son of God he is also the conquering son of God in fact he conquers through his suffering death and if we follow him faithfully in suffering for the kingdom we will be rewarded with eternal life suffering has the effect of focusing our awareness on what is truly important of getting us because of pain getting us to realize this is not all that there is there's something more that I'm living for and I still trust God in the midst of it because I know that the reality of what I have in Christ is greater than my comfort my safety and my happiness and those that I care about Jesus came as a suffering servant in anyone who would follow Christ needs to have a place in their lives for significance suffering this is so much a part of who Jesus is that when we come to this world that is so filled with suffering if we are to be part of Christ's ministry we need to have a place where suffering in our own lives not only our own suffering but the suffering of other people that we actually grieve with those who grieve in and invite their suffering into our lives as well and become part of that administers in that context and when we enter in to this world with a category for suffering and a recognition that it's one of the main ways God wants us to minister as we follow Christ we're starting to understand the heart of God and then God refines us this suffering produces character it produces hope it produces perseverance and so we are able to see God working in refining ways in our lives in the midst of suffering as much if not more than any way else with Matthew and Mark in mind let's consider how Luke answers our questions about Jesus and his followers Luke's Gospel answers the question who is Jesus by proclaiming that he is the compassionate Savior of the world Jesus brought God's salvation to the rich and the poor alike to the religious leaders and to the social outcasts Jesus good news was for everyone even for the unnoticed and the despised Luke emphasized this in many ways Jesus honored the sisters Mary and Martha in a time when many men considered women inferior Luke recorded parables and narratives that presented women the sick and the crippled and even non-jews as worthy of praise and imitation Jesus praised the widow who gave her small life savings of the temple Luke told a story of a despised tax collector Zacchaeus whose response to Jesus was a model for all Luke's readers time after time Luke recorded Jesus concerns for those that society rejected or overlooked as just one example listen to this account from Luke chapter 7 verses 12 through 16 as Jesus approached the town gate a dead person was being carried out the only son of his mother and she was a widow when the Lord saw her his heart went out to her and he said don't cry then he went up and touched the coffin and those carrying it Stood Still he said young man I say to you get up the dead man sat up and began to talk and Jesus gave him back to his mother they were all filled with awe and praised God a great prophet has appeared among us they said God has come to help his people in the first century Roman world a widow who had lost her son would have had little means of provision and little opportunity to find work by emphasizing Jesus compassion for her Luke pointed out that the Lord's work as a savior was intended even for the poor and helpless as the people at the end of this account commented Jesus ministry to the needy and powerless was proof that God had come to help his people so how does Luke's Gospel answer the second question how do we follow Jesus well in keeping with Luke's concern for the poor one thing we can do is have compassion on others we should care for the poor and strive to meet their needs we should be willing to give our possessions food money and time to sustain them in fact God often sends charitable Christians and answer to the prayers of the needy as Jesus said in Luke chapter 12 verse 33 sell your possessions and give to the poor provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted where no thief comes near and no moth destroys when we follow Jesus faithfully by caring for his people he rewards us with an eternal inheritance another way we can follow Jesus is by resting confidently in the fact that God will meet our needs too listen to Jesus words in Luke chapter 12 verses 22 to 31 do not worry about your life what you will eat or about your body what you will wear and do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink do not worry about it but seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well as members of God's kingdom we can be confident that our great king Jesus Christ will care for us and meet our needs and this emphasis on trusting the Savior is closely related to two other themes in Luke's Gospel peace and joy for instance near the beginning of Luke's Gospel in Luke chapter 2 verses 10 through 14 we read this angelic announcement I bring you good news of great joy glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and twenty two chapters later Luke ended his gospel the same way he began it at the end of his story the disciples were following Jesus and experiencing the joy that the angels had prophesied back in Chapter two three times that conversation in John 20 Jesus says peace be with you and I don't think he was saying hello I think he was saying this is the foundation of reality even though you've just been through agony you've lost the one you love and you never knew I was going to come back you're going to soon be under the Romans dictatorship you lived under oppression is going to get much worse I want you to know that I'm here and when I'm here I bring a fundamental peace I am your joy so that no matter what happens no matter what happens your outward life would roam at what's inside your life if you know me there's a foundation of real peace the biblical word is Shalom this holistic righteous reign and rule of God no matter what comes down the pike and I bring joy I'm not just here to mollify you I'm here to bring you real joy joy that is more than emotion joy that's a positive understanding that I am in control of all the world and that I will let nothing happen to you that doesn't come through me first Jesus says I love the way Paul says it when he talks about the fruit of the Spirit II says when that's when the Holy Spirit comes to Phillip Christians life all of you will love the next word is you'll have joy and I think that those are inseparable of course he adds six other things but the major thing is that when the love of God is shed abroad in my heart the response is I don't then live by my own understanding of reality which would be probably pretty cynical pretty pessimistic pretty negative but when Jesus is present the only response is I'm at peace he's brought his resurrection power to my life and I have joy I have hope because in Jesus there is no defeat there is no things coming apart he brings all things together holistically completely listen to Luke's final words in chapter 24 verses 52 and 53 then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they stayed continually at the temple praising God in luke's gospel following Jesus means rejoicing in our salvation and all of God's blessings peacefully resting in him trusting in him to meet all of our needs and being willing to be used by him to bring these same blessings to others having seen how Matthew Mark and Luke answer the questions who is Jesus and how do we follow him we're ready to consider how John uniquely answered these questions in his gospel John portrayed Jesus as the Son of God who accomplishes the eternal plan of salvation in emphasizing Jesus identity as the Son of God John spoke of Jesus unique relationship with his father Jesus is the ultimate revelation of his father and the only one able to make eternal life available to all those who put their faith in Him for instance whereas the other three gospel writers began their accounts with the birth of Jesus or his earthly ministry John began his gospel by saying that the Son of God had been involved with the father in creation and now the father was being revealed through his one and only son another way John communicated this glorious message was in the I am sayings made by Jesus in these statements Jesus alluded to God's covenant name Yahweh sometimes translated Jehovah in Exodus chapter 3 verse 14 God himself explained that the name Yahweh essentially means I am Jesus alluded to this name in John chapter 6 verse 35 where he said I am the bread of life we also find it in chapter 8 verse 12 and chapter 9 verse 5 in the phrase I am the light of the world and in chapter 10 verses 7 & 9 we read I am the gate in chapter 11 verse 25 it's I am the resurrection and the life in chapter 14 verse 6 it's I am the way and the truth and the life in Chapter 15 verse 1 we find I am the true vine and in chapter 8 verse 58 Jesus made the climactic announcement I am in each of these instances Jesus declared himself to be the bearer of the sacred Old Testament name of God and revealed God in his own person Jesus place at the center of God's eternal plan of salvation is particularly evident in Jesus high priestly prayer in John chapter 17 listen to what Jesus prayed in John chapter 17 verse 24 father I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world Jesus related the salvation of his followers to the love that the father had for the son before creation his point was that our salvation is an outpouring of the father's love for Jesus so if John portrayed Jesus as the Son of God who accomplished the eternal plan of salvation how does John's gospel answer our second question how do we follow Jesus in John's Gospel the primary way we follow Jesus is by being loved by God and by showing that same love to each other Jesus established this model for us to follow in many ways for instance we see it in John chapter 17 verses 23 and 26 where Jesus spoke of the Father's love for his son it was this eternal love of the father for the son that was behind the eternal plan of salvation that Jesus accomplished so it makes sense that in John's Gospel discipleship is characterized by love as Jesus said to his followers in John chapter 13 verses 34 and 35 love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another according to John we follow Jesus by loving each other with his kind of love in this way discipleship is both initiated and conducted in love God's love for us initiates our discipleship and God's love through us to each other is the expression of our discipleship this helps us understand why John referred to himself throughout his Gospel as the disciple whom Jesus loved and not the disciple that loved he knew but whatever ability he had to love others came from the depth of Jesus love for him Jesus followers are first loved and then they're called to love one another one might wonder if differences in the distinctives in the four Gospels somehow indicates that they're incompatible that they're telling contradictory stories but I don't think that's the case at all I think that what we have in the four Gospels are four compatible perspectives on the story of Jesus there are all four Gospels are unified in the idea that they're telling us the history of this man who is the incarnation of God who comes into the world to save sinners from sin and death and each gospel does look at that Jesus from different perspectives and emphasize different details of his life but those message messages are and perspectives are not contradictory but they are compatible in this lesson we've been introduced to the study of the Gospels we have seen their literary character noting that the Gospels are reliable historical narratives we have also considered their status in the church seeing that they are an authentic part of the New Testament Scriptures and we have looked at them in comparison to one another finding that they all tell the same story of the kingdom of God even though each portrays Jesus and discipleship in its own distinctive way understanding the Gospels is critical for every Christian we place all our confidence in this life and the next in the hands of Jesus whom we have never seen face to face everything we know about him we know through his word especially the Gospels hopefully the things we have learned in this introductory lesson have prepared us to explore each of the four Gospels in much more depth in order to understand how each evangelists message and packs our faith and life [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Thirdmill

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Keywords: seminary, Theology Matters, Bible, For the World, Study, Biblical Education, Richard Pratt, Education, Free, gospel, Theology, Ministry, Third Mill, Truth, Reformed, God, Mission, gospels, Scripture, Jesus, Lord, Salvation, Word, Teacher, Holy Spirit, New Testament, Third Millennium

Id: rYqqiZRqTdk

Length: 108min 24sec (6504 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2017