Destination: Matthew, Mark, and Luke | Skip Heitzig

perhaps it was a pleasant day just like this in the Galilee when Jesus spoke to an assembled multitude it's unlikely that anyone in the audience understood the importance of what they were about to hear the Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke opened the New Testament like three mountain peaks revealing different aspects of the Messiah keep your eyes open you won't want to miss what these Gospels reveal about Jesus Christ all right you're ready for the New Testament let's get going hey you finished the Old Testament how many of you were here for the Old Testament you stayed with us throughout that look at that congratulations I bet there were more of you you're just too lazy to raise your hand that's okay to turn to the New Testament Gospel of Matthew now tonight I'm aiming to go through Matthew Mark and Luke so that plane is going fast tonight and we're just gonna glance out the window a few times and here's why is because those three Gospels are very similar and by the end of the night you're gonna understand the differences and the similarities between them now here's the difference between the old and the New Testament at least one of them you have a document the Old Testament the 39 books of the Old Testament that were written over thousands of years hundreds almost 1500 or so years it was arranged written compiled the New Testament is different it was written and compiled in a single lifetime it's a very short period of time the Old Testament has promises and anticipates while the New Testament fulfills those predictions and anticipations now there's a little formula that will help you in how the New Testament and the Old Testament interface and it goes like this the new is in the old contained while the old is in the new explained that is the new is in the old contained there's hints and predictions and hopes in the Old Testament for the fulfillment that will come later on so the New Testament the new is in the old contain the old is in the new explain when you read through the New Testament you go oh I get it now all of those unanswered predictions have nice little bows tied on them in the New Testament so all 39 books of the Old Testament have anticipated this the New Testament and the coming of the Messiah now in between Malachi where we left off last time and Matthew are about four hundred years they're called four hundred silent years and when it says silent years it's not because there was nothing going on there's a lot going on it's that God wasn't speaking until now four hundred years God said nothing suddenly he breaks on the scene with an angel giving a message to a guy named Zacharias in the temple about a boy named John who's going to be born and be the forerunner of Jesus Christ those four hundred years a lot happened and I want to give you a thumbnail sketch because when we left the Old Testament who was in charge of the world the medo-persian empire was in charge of the world suddenly we come to the New Testament and everything's different we read about Rome we read about Herod we find out that the Jews in Israel are speaking a new language the language of Aramaic and they're reading a version of the Bible that's different from the Old Testament and that is their reading the Greek version or the Septuagint version of the Old Testament so what has happened well let me give you a quick sketch remember that Ezra Nehemiah and who's the guy with the weird name saruba Bell brought a group of fifty thousand people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city in the temple see you already know the answers to these questions this is great while they were doing this the people grew last they didn't want to build anymore so two profits were raised up Haggai and Zechariah to stimulate them to continue the job that God had called them to do and so they finished it the last prediction of the Old Testament or one of them was that a person was coming and Elijah like forerunner to turn the people's hearts back to God it was anticipating John the Baptist meanwhile over in Macedonia a guy by the name of Philip of Macedon was struggling against the medo-persian Empire the Persians assassinated Philip and in Philips place a young man by the name of Alexander who would be Alexander the Great rose to power now Alexander was not a fighting man he was a bookworm in fact his personal tutor was one by the name of Aristotle he didn't want to fight but when his dad was killed he got really ticked off and he decided to take vengeance if he could on the medo-persian Empire and very quickly he took an army and he went east against the Medes and the Persians well within 10 years he conquered the world and so now it's a greek-speaking world he conquers it people are speaking Greek after a while everywhere he dies at age 31 in Babylon when he dies they said well who's going to take over your kingdom and he says give it to the strong they divide up the kingdom between four generals of Alexander the Great you follow me so far I'll give you their names you don't have to remember them you won't be quizzed Lusa MCUs Cassander Ptolemy and Seleucus weird names huh those are the four generals there were two notable generals that had empires that affected Israel up north the Syrian Empire under Seleucus called the Seleucid dynasty and down south in Egypt under ptolemy called the Ptolemaic dynasty and they had sons and they had sons and they had sons and they kept fighting each other and south sandwiched in between north and south was Israel so they always got the brunt of the battles now Daniel predicted all of this already one of the notable Syrian kings Seleucid Kings was a guy by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes who slaughtered the Jews murdered them sacrificed a pig in the altar of the temple that zerubabbel had built and it was really really a problem until I'm making it very short until the Syrians came to a town down in Judah called Modine and there they announced to the whole city you're gonna worship Zeus you're gonna turn away from your God Yahweh you're gonna worship our God under the pain of death the chieftain of the city agrees saying we'll do whatever you want we'll worship any God you want at that point a Hasmonean priest by the name of Mattathias kills the chieftain of the city for blasphemy starts a revolt his son later on judas maccabees continues the revolt it's known as the Maccabee in revolt and now they are able to take back israel and take back the temple that had been desecrated by the way the Jews called that the abomination of desolation they were able to take it back and now Israel was under Hasmonean rule Jewish rule until 63 BC when a guy by the name of Pompeii a Roman took over the world and moved his way throughout the empire including Israel so the Romans are in power also Judaism because of the Romans has a new temple that's right a guy by the name of Herod decides he's a megalomaniac by the way short guy with a with a big vision and he decides to take the temple do a favor to the Jews take that little temple that zerubabbel made into a 35 acre complex and so the Jews now worship in a newly refurbished temple and in something called a synagogue which never existed in the Old Testament until they came back from the captivity so their synagogues everywhere they worship in a temple and they're reading from a Greek Bible called the Septuagint about 285 BC a group of scholars in Alexandria Egypt were very exact to take the Hebrew Scriptures into the common language of the people which was now Greek you could speak Greek and get by anywhere in the world at that time so all of these changes have been happening in 400 silent years they're not so silent as you say very very busy and very active now we come to the Gospels the word gospel comes from an old anglo-saxon word God spell that's where it comes from Godspell and it means good news the original word of the word that is used in the Greek language is you and gely on you and Gillian and it means to to have good news or to proclaim good news same idea we have four Gospels four utterances of good news now these are not really for biographies as much as for testimonials by four different people and they have an agenda before I tell you their individual agenda I'm going to tell you their big-picture agenda their common agenda they're trying to get something across they give historical information that will convey a biographical explanation that will lead to personal transformation that's their big agenda they want to give you the facts of history but they want to convey the the life of Jesus the person of Jesus in hopes that people who read and are in contact with this information and explanation will be changed personally transformed in fact John we'll see next week writes as much toward the end of his gospel these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name now tonight I said we're gonna cover Matthew Mark and Luke we call these three Gospels the synoptic Gospels because they follow a common outline or synopsis same grid same style of writing in all three they follow the same basic geographical outline early part is the Galilean ministry latter part is the Judean ministry and then the betrayal the crucifixion and the resurrection it's the same kind of grid pattern or outline same basic order John and his gospel is entirely different and so next week we'll study his gospel alone look at the Gospel as a four-fold picture of Jesus Christ if you like music think of it as a string quartet they all have different instruments but they're all playing in beautiful harmony with each other a gorgeous song is compiled with these four Gospel writers or if you're into movies think of it as the Holy Spirit being the set director with four different camera angles they all have different points of view and so one may emphasize the expressions on the face the other might shoot a b-roll and shoot the crowds and their reaction another might emphasize another characteristic etc etc okay Matthew Mark Luke John Matthew was written for the Jews Matthew portrays Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy the Lion of the tribe of Judah and so the key word in Matthew is the word fulfilled that it might be fulfilled Matthew will say which was written by the Prophet and he will then quote it the Gospel of Mark was written for the Romans for the Romans and Jesus is portrayed in mark as the obedient servant the key word in that book is the word immediately now I'll explain that in just a minute Luke was the gospel written for the Greeks and the key phrase in that book is the phrase son of man I'll explain that in just a moment John was written for some say the church others say the world in general because it's portraying Jesus Christ in such a way that people will receive him and believe in his name as I just quoted Matthew emphasizes what Jesus said okay what he said there's three great discourses that you find nowhere else in the entirety that Matthew portrays them so Matthew will emphasize for the Jews what Jesus said the Gospel of Mark records what Jesus did that's his emphasis what he did it's he's filled with action he's wanting to get things done Luke was written about what Jesus felt and it was written by a guy named dr. Luke who was a physician and he writes about the compassion of Jesus Christ and there's more miracles of healing in the Gospel of Luke than any other of the four Gospels and then John speaks about who Jesus was that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God at John chapter 20 so one about what Jesus said what he did what he felt and who he was again like a set director with four different camera angles or a string quartet now Matthew the Gospel of Matthew and again we're just gonna skim tonight looking at a few things and then go to the next book matthew is writing to the jewish people about their messiah salvation has come to the jews to the house of israel he's the son of Abraham he's the son of David he's the fulfillment of the promises and the anticipation of the historic Jewish people now Matthew organizes his material into five great sections five great sections some are geographical some are biographical five great sections one of the most famous is the Sermon on the Mount now Matthew had another name his name originally was levy Levi he was Jewish he escaped from the priesthood he was probably a PK a priest kid and he decided he would become a tax collector one of the most hated occupations in the land working at a toll booth in Galilee when Jesus called him chapter 9 of Matthew records his calling when Jesus came up to him and said Matthew follow me and he left his customs Tollhouse booth and he followed Jesus Christ Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 begins this way the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David the son of Abraham genealogy Genesis the beginning the origin matthew is careful to give us the pedigree the genealogical record of jesus christ why because he's picturing jesus as of the king of the jews as the messiah the fulfillment now that's very important because if somebody claims to be the king of the Jews to claims to be the Messiah the first question out of a Jewish person's mouth is really what tribe are you from and where were you born because there saw some predictions that that person has to fulfill they're gonna want to know these things a few years ago I had a guy come into the church when the church is in a different location than it is here much earlier on and he claimed to be Jesus and one of my assistant pastor said skip there's a guy named Jesus he says he is the Jesus and he wants to see you and I thought oh I've always wanted to meet Jesus bring it on so the first question I asked him is what tribe are you from anyway oh I said let me ask you another question where were you born now he said Bethlehem in Judea okay I'll ask you another question it's when I said where are you born he said Pittsburgh I pointed to the door and it's a get out of here see there are some very definite fulfilment of predictions that were made the Messiah has to fulfill and so this is the genealogy now look at verse 17 without going through it all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations from David to the captivity of Babylon are fourteen generations from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations so we have three sections of fourteen generations this is called literary symmetry now what Matthew is doing again for the Jewish person is bringing out three great epic periods in their history the first being the patriarchy from Abraham to David by the way both Abraham and David were given Messianic promises the second great period of history is the monarchy from Israel's greatest King David unto the Exile to Babylon the third period the captivity and he follows from the Exile all the way up to the time of Jesus Christ now verse 18 look how it begins now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows a note about the term the name Jesus Christ don't think that Christ is his last name I know by the way some people misuse his name and they'll even put an H between Jesus and Christ sometimes when they want to swear people get the idea that his first name was Jesus and he was of the Christ family and the Christ family lives in this street here's their address that's not what it was they didn't have those kind of names he was Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth Christ is the Greek word Christos the Hebrew equivalent is mashiac which means Messiah so what does Messiah really mean simply Anointed One now the origin of the term seiyya or anointed one or Christ comes from a Hebrew word that means to rub or to smear and the idea came from a certain ceremony when priests and kings were initiated they inaugurated their ministry they smeared their head or sometimes poured olive oil which would signify that God the Holy Spirit was coming upon them and in making them suitable to do ministry so for generations the Jewish anticipation was for the deliverer called the Messiah The Anointed One of God the one who would deliver us deliver our people set up his kingdom in fact a common Jewish prayer that was uttered by the very Orthodox every morning went like this I believe in the coming of Messiah and even though he tarries yet I will wait for him every coming day so now we're having the origins the genealogy and the birth of Jesus Christ now in Matthew's Gospel remember I said Matthew emphasizes what Jesus said to show the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy so there's three big sermons or discourses in Matthew's Gospel the first is the Sermon on the Mount Sermon on the Mount Matthew five six and seven the second great sermon or discourse in Matthew are the kingdom parable seven parables given in Matthew chapter 13 very unique these writings to this gospel and the third is called the Olivet discourse given in its fullness in Matthew 24 and 25 now the Gospel of Mark Gospel of Mark if you look at it just by Counting chapters it looks like it's the shortest gospel right you know what it's longer than Matthew if you take out those discourses that I just mentioned if you took out those three great discourses emphasizing what Jesus said if you took those out and just read the historic material mark is actually slightly longer than the Gospel of Matthew probably mark was the first gospel that was ever written and others followed later on tradition says that mark was written by a guy named John mark but he was taking dictation from the Apostle Peter so that Mark's Gospel is actually Peters account as told by Peter to John Mark who wrote it down in Rome as Peter gave him the dictation now it was Mark who was in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested and ran away he fled naked as the one somebody grabbed his robe he literally streaked out of the Garden of Gethsemane he has to live that with the rest of eternity the early church in the book of Acts met in his mother's home at first when Peter was put in prison and then he was released he came to Peter's home in Acts chapter 12 well John Mark seemed to have a cowardly streak in him because though he went on Paul's first missionary journey when they were in Pamphylia he ran away and went back home to his mama in Jerusalem which really bothered Paul so that the second missionary journey when Barnabas by the way John Mark was the nephew of Barnabas the compadre of Paul when Barnabas said hey let's go visit people we'll take John Mark Paul said I'm not taking that guy he ran out on us last time it's done this is that John Mark he's the author of this gospel okay I want you to think of it this way Matthew and Luke give us color pictures of the life of Jesus if you're a photographer remember the old slides color slides they're like color slides of the life of Jesus the Gospel of John is like a studied portrait and I'll explain more next week the Gospel of Mark is like a rapidly moving motion picture and Mark views Jesus as the servant the servant and so the key verse is mark chapter 10 verse 45 that says the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many notice how the Gospel of Mark begins in chapter 1 verse 1 there's no genealogy just says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God John the Baptist is introduced and the story moves on now why is that why does Matthew and Luke and by the way John all have a genealogy all of them have a genealogy even John if you want to dispute that wait till next week study I'll show you all three have a genealogy mark has no genealogy simple he's picturing Jesus as a servant nobody cares about the genealogy of a slave if the emphasis is he's an obedient slave a servant on the move there's no pedigree or genealogy that is required now how does mark picture Jesus as a servant well here's how this gospel contains less teaching and a whole lot more action than all of the others and Mark moves from what action to another action by using connective words very very selectively he uses an now then immediately straightaway and if you if you just read through it you feel like reading because he's like he doesn't give it a rest the way he connects sentences is interesting 40 times in the first chapter he uses the word end and if you were to count up now the word now and the word and in all 16 chapters of the Gospel of Mark you'd have 1331 times those words are used and now now immediately I want to give you a sampling of that look at chapter 1 verse 9 it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and immediately coming up out of the water he saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending upon him like a dove then a voice came from heaven you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased immediately the spirit drove him into the wilderness and he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered to him now after John was put in prison Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the gospel and as he walked by the Sea of Galilee sees in the wilderness now all of a sudden he's walking in Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen then jesus said to them follow me and I will make you become fishers of men they immediately left their nets and followed him when he had gone a little further from there he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother who also were in the boat mending their nets and immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with hired servants and went after him then they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught he does that through the whole book so Matthew and Luke color slides John a studied portrait this guy a motion picture filled with action les saying more doing because he's picturing Jesus not as the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy as much as for the Romans and obedient servant now something to note about mark much of Mark's Gospel nearly half is devoted to the final week of Jesus Christ's life on earth chapter 10 through the end of the book is that focus now what happens during the final week of Jesus on earth he gets crew safai that's what happened to him the last week and he died on a cross he was betrayed and then he rose from the dead and half nearly half deals with that that's the focus and that by the way is the focus of the Gospels collectively and that by the way is the focus of the New Testament and that by the way is the focus of the whole Bible a guy named Graham scrog II once put it this way if you cut the Bible anywhere it will bleed we've already studied throughout the books of the Old Testament what we call the Scarlet thread of redemption it's all pointing it's all focusing on the cross the ultimate sacrifice so the material compiled in the gospel has more material about this sacrificial death than anything else and Mark really demonstrates that a lot why because the cross wasn't an accident it wasn't an afterthought it wasn't God going now what do I do in Revelation Jesus is called the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world whose God's plan all along all Old Testament history anticipates the cross looks forward to it all New Testament history after it looks backwards to it in fact even in heaven Jesus will be celebrated for his sacrifice John looked and he said I saw a lamb as though it had been slain and the anthem in heaven says for you have redeemed us by your blood out of every tribe kindred tongue and nation that will be our anthem in heaven the redeemed will sing it now I'll give you some figures in the Gospels in the four Gospels there are four chapters in all four Gospels that deal with the first thirty years of Jesus life it's not much for chapters that deal with the first 30 years of Jesus life 85 chapters not for 85 deal with the last three and a half years of Jesus life more detail of those 85 chapters that deal with the last three and a half years of Jesus life 56 of them deal with the first part up until the final week 29 of those 85 deal with just the last week and of those 29 13 chapters in all four Gospels focus on the final day of Jesus life the day of giving his life as a sacrificial lamb for the world so all total if you were to count up the verses the events of the last day of Jesus Christ on earth are given 579 verses in all four Gospels so that is the focus and mark dramatically shows that okay so this goes on again same synopsis same outline same grid as Matthew except the speeches are gone so you have the Galilean ministry the Judean ministry and mark closes with Jesus ascending into heaven and his followers becoming servants like he was taking up the mantle and bringing the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ now we come to the Gospel of Luke the Gospel of Luke is the most complete narrative of the life of Jesus of all four Gospels it's the most complete narrative I'll explain in a second it's also the most natural reading narrative if you were to go from the Old Testament and you were reading through the Bible I would suggest after Malachi go right to Luke because it it follows the natural sequencers 400 silent years but before that the last prediction is a forerunner like Elijah is going to come and so Luke up with an angel speaking to Zacharias a priest in the temple quoting Malachi so if you're reading Malachi and you go through Luke oh oh oh I get it I see the promise and here's the fulfillment it makes natural sequential sense go to chapter 1 verse 17 the angel says to Zacharias the priest he speaking of this forerunner John the Baptist will also go before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah now here's the quote from Malachi to turn the hearts of the father's to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord now I mentioned just a moment ago the Luke is the most complete record this is what I mean by that Luke records 20 miracles 7 of those 20 miracles are only found in the Gospel of Luke and nowhere else they're unique to the Gospel of Luke Luke records 23 parables 18 of the parables are unique only to the Gospel of Luke and found nowhere else I mean really fresh cool parables like the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the Good Samaritan also there's some great stories that are found nowhere else like the road to Emmaus the disciples after the resurrection they're all bummed out and they're walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus about seven miles and Jesus comes up we'll look at that in just a moment that's also found in this gospel there's other elements found in the Gospel of Luke you with me still tonight okay I mean I know I'm going fast and sand a lot of things you awake okay good you're good okay so there's some other elements that are found in the Gospel of Luke that are found nowhere else Lucas Fett is filled with songs songs something called the Magnificat if you've ever heard of that remember Mary when she says my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior and she goes and right or-or-or utters and it is written through a half a chapter this beautiful song of Mary called the Magnificat also there's a song of Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist's who conceived she also breaks forth in a song of praise the songs of Christmas are found in the Gospel of Luke the Shepherd's out in the field in Chapter two the song of Simeon when he's presented in the temple Jesus is presented that's found in this gospel Luke chapter one verse one begins in as much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which are being fulfilled among us just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account most excellent Theophilus something I want you to to notice here about these verses we had a question a little while ago about the Bible how do you know the Bible is the Word of God etcetera when you think of the Bible written I don't want you to think that the Bible was written like like dictation where God is in heaven and goes Isaiah yeah ready okay write this Paul write this Paul wrote letters this guy wrote an account any cold research from a variety of sources said it an order he said arranged it and then presented it so what you have here is an example of human cooperation with divine inspiration God is using human authors now we know what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 all Scripture is given by inspiration of God or better translation all Scripture is god-breathed the word Fanu stas God breathed and is profitable for for reproof correction instruction in righteousness so somebody asked well how did it happen again it wasn't dictation it wasn't what some call concept inspiration that these guys just felt really inspired where people say boy you know I heard a song tonight it was really inspiring to hear this song that's probably what it means when people say the Bible is inspired these guys were just filled with inspirational thoughts no this is how it happened there's a scripture in 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 21 that says this holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit the word move means carried along it's a word used for sailing vessels and here's a basic explanation man when he wrote hoisted his sails and God carried that vessel along to the destination God wanted it to reach you see there's a God in heaven is big enough if a person sits down and writes under his inspiration to get the words the nuances the vocabulary exactly as he wanted it to be spoken they were carried along they were moved by the Holy Spirit and so here's a perfect example of human cooperation in writing the scripture who is Luke Luke was a doctor most scholars believe he's from troe as Troas could it be some belief that when Paul was in Troas and he saw a vision of a man from Macedonia saying come over to Macedonia and help us some believe it was actually he saw Luke in his vision Luke had situated himself or relocated himself to Philippi and that's the person he was looking for who later on joined Paul's mission team we don't know for sure but it's a thought okay so Luke's a doctor he's a Gentile doctor he's the answer to the question that you took on your little text message moments ago he's not Jewish he's a Gentile he was a doctor probably owned by a guy named Theophilus who he mentions here and also an act shop for one you go wait a minute a doctor being owned yeah get this 2,000 years ago doctors were slaves boy things changed a lot huh they were actually owned and aristocrats owned a few different physicians and they were gracious to them but probably he was owned by Theophilus now as a doctor Luke writes as a doctor there's a lot of medical terms in this book in fact here's an interesting statistic there are more medical terms in the Gospel of Luke than in the writings of hypotheses the father of medicine it's laden with it in fact just here in these verses look at verse 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers you see the word eyewitness it's the word out top tie in Greek we get the word autopsy from it autopsy they were I witnessed they dissected if you will the life of Jesus Christ it's a medical term look at the very next one and ministers it's the Greek word who pair tie literally means under rowers used in the medical world to speak of a medical intern the student here's what he's saying we were researchers and interns of the great physician we studied his life we took it apart and all of these different sources and then he writes his account now the emphasis in this gospel is the humanity of Jesus Christ and as I mentioned at the beginning Luke wrote for the Greeks and the Greeks had an idea of someone they called the perfect man the perfect man back in the age of Pericles the golden Periclean age they rode and spoke off and about the perfect the ideal man and the ideal City well Luke introduces the ideal man but this isn't just a good man this is the god man fully God fully man and so he uses the phrase son of man more often in this book than do the others now this perfect man has real compassion and Luke shows the compassion of Jesus Christ and as I mentioned moments ago more miracles that Jesus performed are written about in the Gospel of Luke then Matthew and Mark put together he's a doctor he's going to notice this and he notices the compassion in chapter 1 verse 41 something I wanted you just to notice about the ministry of John the Baptist it happened when Elizabeth this is the aged wife of the priest Zacharias who served in the temple happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary Mary comes from Bethlehem being announced to that she's gonna have Jesus that the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and what I want you to notice as the verses go on is that John the Baptist ministry really began when he was just about 9 inches long and about a pound and a half and he was still in the womb and it says that he was also filled with the Holy Spirit and he jumped he lept for joy and Elizabeth said though babe in my wound boom not just move jump leap for joy now I I'm zeroing in on this first because if there's ever a debate as to when life begins if you're a Christian this should end the debate if you say well the life begins as soon as the child is born no life begins as soon as there is conception and here's the babe in the womb that Elizabeth said by the Holy Spirit was jumping for joy now Luke also has a genealogy over in chapter 3 so Matthew has a full-on full-blown genealogy and Luke has one two but they're different they're the same the one is in Reverse of the other the names are pretty much the same until Luke gets to King David then he takes a left turn and does not trace the genealogy of Jesus Christ through King Solomon and the royal lineage but through another son of David named Nathan and most scholars believe that the Gospel of Matthew is Joseph's genealogy while the Gospel of Luke is Mary's genealogy okay so I want to explain something to you because this is the answer to a dilemma in the Old Testament the Prophet said the deliverer the Christ the Messiah is going to come through the Royal line of Judah and through the house the Royal line of King David okay but the kings of Judah as time went on God got so fed up with their degenerative behavior he finally says enough is enough and he places a blood curse on King Jeconiah listen to this this is Jeremiah 22 verse 30 the Prophet says by the Spirit of God record this man childless a man who will not prosper in his lifetime none of his offspring will prosper none will sit on the throne of David or rule in Judah anymore which was true none of Jack and I as descendants sat on the throne of David it was succeeded by his uncle and then it was ended completely by the time of Jesus there had not been any kind of Davidic dynasty for hundreds of years so now we have a contradiction God says the Messiah is going to come through the line of David but now God curses the royal line of David and says none of the descendants are gonna sit on that throne and we have a huge problem it is solved by the genealogies solved by the genealogies because Joseph was not the physical father right is the stepfather he was the legal father because he brought him into his under his name into his household so he's not the physical but the legal father which gives Jesus the dynastic rule since his own genealogy goes through the Royal line the kingly line back to David but that line is cursed okay so Joseph gives Jesus the legal right to rule but Jesus is the physical biological descendant of Mary because Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit so we solve a wonderful problem by not only two genealogies but by a virgin birth okay I'll show you that and well I won't show you that in just a second because we're almost out of time but here basically if the royal line is cursed then God got around his own curse by having Jesus born of a virgin fulfilling the legal dynastic right as well as the biological right of Jesus being the bloodline of King David but the royal line was cursed but that's okay because Jesus wasn't the biological son of Joseph okay enough to said now go down to Luke chapter 19 we'll close this off as you're skipping let me tell you what you're skipping over Luke follows the same synopsis is Matthew and is Mark the same grid the Galilean ministry occupies the early part of the chapters of the Gospel of Luke up to chapter 9 in chapters 10 through 19 there's a lengthy discussion from chapter 10 to chapter 19 of the journey and the stops and the words of Jesus Christ on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem for his final trip before the Passover during that time he teaches his disciples and these final chapters is the presentation of Christ as the King to the Jews and he's outlined here and spoken of here more here than in any other gospel Matthew or Luke chapter 19 verse 41 now as he drew near that is to Jerusalem he saw the city and he wept over it saying if you had only known even you especially in this short day the things that make for your peace but now they are hidden from your eyes for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you and surround you and close you in on every side and Louisville you and your children within you to the ground they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation tie this in with the Bible study we had outside on July 2nd we gave this explanation of Daniel chapter 9 Daniel chapter 9 and what we just read dovetail perfectly because Jesus was holding them accountable to recognize a certain day you didn't realize the day of your visitation or as one translation puts it the day of God's coming to you or as another translation puts it your day that God offered you salvation now Daniel predicts the very day when Jesus will be presented to the Jewish nation as the Messiah Daniel chapter 9 verse 25 26 and 27 give that outline I won't rehash it here is the fulfillment of that now Luke also features and here's where we close a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus that has caused me yearning ever since if there's ever a sermon of Christ I wish was recorded on CD or DVD or mp3 to set tape and 8-track would do or even in writing it's this one it's the story of a couple of disciples after Jesus was crucified and they're just sort of bumming around walking from Jerusalem to town of Emmaus about a seven mile walk they're discussing what had happened they're very disappointed very disillusioned very confused because they left everything to follow Jesus one of them is named Cleopas we don't know what the other guy's name is they they believed in past tense that Jesus was their deliverer now he's dead okay while they're talking to each other Jesus cruises up walks next to him incognito they don't recognize him joins the conversation verse 17 and he that is Jesus said to them what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk in are sad as if he didn't know and then one whose name was Cleophus answered and said to him are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have you not known the things which happened there in these days and Jesus he said to them what things so they said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people go down to verse 27 and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself don't you wish you had that Bible study on record verse 32 verse 31 and their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight remember he's in a resurrected body and they said to one another did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road while he opened the scriptures to us okay what I want you to notice here in closing Jesus comes post resurrection and gives them a Bible study Bible study not hey guys watch this miracle give him a Bible study and it was a prophetic Bible study beginning with Moses I bet he went back to Genesis the first writings of Moses in Genesis 3 when it is a prediction of the the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent probably skip forward to Genesis 22 remember Mount Moriah and Abraham sacrificed his son on Mount Moriah you know that the top of Mount Moriah is where Jesus was crucified Golgotha I remembered the prediction in Genesis 22 in the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen it was just the other day he probably took him to Exodus the smearing of the blood on the lentils and the doorpost took them to the tabernacle and showed how that fulfills Jesus Christ took him to the serpent in the wilderness lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so the Son of Man should be lifted up so it was a prophetic Bible study it's also 2nd I want you to notice it was an ex additional Bible study for it says he expounded to them in all of the scriptures loved to have had this on record and not only that it was about him for it says he expounded all the things concerning himself see this is important Moses the prophets the Psalms all speak about himself Jesus was showing them how the whole Bible has Jesus Christ as its main subject Hebrews would agree he says of the son the son said I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me now in closing is that you said in closing twice now skip when you gonna really close now notice what they said did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us not what didn't our hearts burn within us as we spoke to him or did not our hearts burn within us as he looked at us with those eyes and we experienced that know our hearts burned in us as he spoke to us the burning of the heart the heartburn that they are describing was Jesus Christ taking something very familiar very old the scripture they grew up with it and applying it in a brand-new way to their hearts and hearing what they had always heard the Scriptures they were Jewish they grew up with it hearing what they're always heard has explained expounded by Jesus Christ caused a burning of the heart here's the point I leave you with when Jesus Christ is revealed to you in his word it will set your heart on fire that's what will set your heart on fire and I hear people all the time I want some new experience with Jesus I want some new this that you don't need anything new what you need friend is the old stuff newly applied to your situation now that'll give you a burning of the heart set you on fire let's pray for that father we thank you that week by week as we read your word your Holy Spirit brings some thing that we've read before but in a new way to our hearts it sets our hearts on fire and truly as you speak to us it can be said did not our hearts burn within us Lord there's nothing greater than to know that God is speaking to us but God is a word from heaven for us a word of instruction about what we're going through about decisions we're gonna make and Lord when we get it our hearts burn or we want more of that we want to understand things that have been long familiar to many of us and I pray Lord you'd reveal more and more of yourself and the more you reveal the more we would commit to obedience or we lay ourselves before you tonight as living sacrifices we give you our bodies we want you to move through us we know you have a plan uniquely for us each one of us to fulfill we pray Lord that you speak from your word and out of obedience we'd follow in Jesus name and men

Channel: Skip Heitzig

Views: 1,169

Rating: 4.7777777 out of 5

Keywords: How to study the Bible, How to read the Bible, Jesus, Skip, Skip Heitzig, How to know God, Matthew, Mark, Luke, synoptic gospels, service, sermons, sacrifices, sovereignty, King, prophecies

Id: u5nbxMTat1I

Length: 57min 5sec (3425 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019