We are in Hour 15 of "Learn the Bible in
24 Hours" in which we're going to address the gospels. Obviously, we've finished unit one, the Old
Testament. We've had a introduction into the New Testament,
but now we're jumping right in and we're going to attempt in this hour, to summarize the
gospels. That's in itself an ambitious task, but
that's what we're up to so, the question is, we speak of the canon. That's
from the Greek word meaning rule or basis. The canon, the Bible. Is it complete? The Old Testament ended with unexplained ceremonies, all those sacrifices we read through. It also closes with unachieved purposes,
the covenants and so on. We have in the Old Testament, un-appeased
longings and of course, we have unfulfilled prophecies. So the Old Testament by itself,
the Tanakh, as our Jewish friends would call it, is incomplete in the sense that it leaves
you dangling. It's incomplete. What completes it? The New Testament. Jesus gave us the key in John 5, verse 39,
He says, Jesus Himself said, "Search the Scriptures, for in them, ye think you have eternal life
and there they which testify of Me." I want you to remember when you read the New
Testament, when they present Jesus Christ from the Scriptures, which happens several
times in there, the Scriptures, the term there refers to the Old Testament. The New Testament's in formation at that time.
So one of the challenges I put forth to you, is can you present Jesus Christ to your
Jewish friends, using just the Old Testament? That's what they did all through the New Testament. Think about it. There's an incident that occurs in Luke 24
where Jesus greets them on the Emmaus Road, gives them a seven mile Bible study. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but
there's an interesting verse there. He says, "And beginning at Moses, and all
the prophets, Jesus expounded unto them all in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Himself." Notice that. Beginning at Moses. Who wrote the Torah? Moses. It says that so many times all through the Scriptures
we reviewed. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He, Jesus
expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning who? Himself. And so that's what we're about. Now, in the Old Testament, there are hundreds
of prophesies. And I thought we'd go over each one this evening. No, I'm kidding, okay. Let's just make a quick glimpse at those Old
Testament prophesies that are quoted just in the gospels. That He was to be of David's family, that He'd
be born of a virgin. That He'd be born in Bethlehem. That He would sojourn in Egypt. That He would live in Galilee, in fact, in
Nazareth. He would be announced by an Elijah like Harold,
that would occasion the massacre of Bethlehem's children, that He would proclaim a jubilee
to the world. His mission would include the gentiles. His ministry would be one of healing. He would teach through parables. And there are lots of others of course too. These are the ones that are directly quoted
as fulfilled in the New Testament text. And then there's a whole bunch of just the
last week. Make a triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver. Be smitten like a smitten shepherd. He would be given vinegar and gall, they
would cast lots for His garments. His side would be pierced. Not a bone would be broken. He would die among the malefactors. His dying words were foretold. He would be buried by a rich man. He'd rise from the dead on the third day and
the resurrection would be followed by the destruction of Jerusalem. All these things are mentioned in the Old
Testament and expressly indicated as fulfilled in the New and the references are all there,
they'll be in your notes, but... So the New Testament consists, of course, just
like the Old Testament opened. It has five historical books, just like we
have the Torah, the five books of Moses. In the New Testament, we have the four gospels
and Luke volume two. Luke is in two volumes. Luke and Acts, which is like Luke one and
Luke two if you will, but five books. Then we have the interpretation of those
historical books in 21 interpretive letters. The formal term is epistle, just a word
for letters. Paul's epistles are 14 of them. If I count the book of Hebrews, which I do. People, some scholars feel that Paul may not
have written the book of Hebrews because it's unsigned, but there's some reasons for it
being unsigned. We'll deal with that when we get there. But 14, I'll call Pauline epistles and seven
for lack of another word, I'll call the Hebrew Christian epistles, written by Jews to Jews
and so forth. And then of course, the final book, the
apocalypse, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Notice that word is singular. It's not Revelations plural. Whenever I hear someone say that
I know they haven't been to any of our Bible studies. It's singular and we'll, obviously deal with
that specially when we get there and so. Okay, it's interesting that the Old Testament
presents Jesus Christ in prophecy. The gospels will present Jesus Christ in history,
as it actually happened. The book of Acts will present Jesus Christ
in the early church. And the epistles will express Christ in the
experience. And the apocalypse of course in His coming
glory. So the Old Testament says in effect, "Behold
He comes." And the gospel says, "Behold He dies." And yet, Acts says, "Behold He lives" and
the epistles say, "Behold He saves" and of course, "Behold He reigns". So that's a
snapshot of what we're up against of how He, ... He shall glorify Me, the Holy Spirit
will glorify Jesus Christ. Taking another snapshot of the New Testament
in another way, we've got the historical books, the four gospels and Acts. We have then following that, the epistles
from Romans to Philemon and following those we have the Hebrew epistles from Hebrews to
Jude and then of course the prophetic books. And we're going to focus right now, of course,
on the gospels. We'll take these four gospels. We'll talk about each one. What makes them
distinctive, and then we'll try to summarize what they all say in a singular geographically
based profile. And that will give you a quick exposure to
it. One of the things that you want to be sensitive
to is the gospels are designed. They're designed. And Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. First of all, Matthew being a Jew, presents
Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Mark presents Jesus Christ in His role as
the suffering servant. Luke emphasized, being a doctor, he emphasizes
Jesus Christ as the Son of Man. And John presents Jesus Christ as the Son
of God. And what's interesting, once you recognize
that, you'll discover that every detail of the gospels support that mission in some surprising
ways. For example, the genealogies. Matthew, being a Jew, and presenting Jesus
Christ as the Messiah, the Meshiach Nagid starts his genealogy at Abraham. Abraham called, in a sense, as the first
Jew, if you will. And he gives the legal line of Jesus'
genealogy. Mark presenting as servant. We don't worry about the pedigree of servants
so he's the only one that does not have a genealogy in it. Luke, because he's presenting Jesus as the
Son of Man, he starts the bloodline from Adam and he takes it through and we'll examine
it more closely here in a little bit. John has a genealogy, but most people don't
recognize it. The first three verses of the gospel of John
are in a sense, the genealogy of the pre-existent One. God Himself. Now one of the things we talked about when
we were in Jeremiah is the blood curse that was pronounced on the royal line. By the time you get to Jeconiah, God has really
had it with the line of kings and Jeconiah, to him He said,
"Thus saith the Lord, write this man childless. A man that shall not prosper in his days for
no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David and ruling anymore
in Judah." Well, not only was Jeconiah the last of the
kings before the Babylon captivity, but this is a blood curse. This is a curse on the royal line and
I should point out that Jeconiah and Jehoiachin and Choniah are all names for the
same guy. But I always visualize ... as I ... Just by way
of review, I always visualize when I read this that there must have been a celebration
in the councils of Satan. Because from Satan's point of view, it would
seem that God has defeated His own plan. Shot Himself in the foot as we might say. Because the Messiah was to come from the line
of David, but here we have a blood curse on the line of David. How can that be? And as you ponder that apparent enigma,
I always visualize God turning to the angels and saying, "Watch this one. Okay?" So, the genealogies, okay? We have Matthew takes his genealogy from Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and so right on down through to David. Straightforward enough. Luke, being a doctor and oriented to Christ's
humanity, Son of Man. He starts his genealogy in effect, from Adam
and from Adam to Noah we reviewed when we went through Genesis five. Remember those 10. And from Noah on to Abraham, he fills
it in with Shem, all the rest of them anyway. And so when Luke gets to Abraham, down
through David, obviously, Luke and Matthew are identical, if you examine them carefully. But that takes us to David. When you get to the house of David, Matthew
takes His genealogy through the first surviving son of Bathsheba and down through Jehoiachin,
down to Joseph. Now Jehoiachin is where the blood curse is
announced on the bloodline of Jehoiachin. You come down through that bloodline, you
come to Joseph the legal father of Jesus Christ. But he was not the blood father of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the curse that was pronounced in
Johiachin or Johiakin did not, does not descend to Joseph. In contrast to that, Luke does a different
thing. When he gets to David, he takes a left turn. He doesn't go through Solomon, he goes through
a second surviving son of Bathsheba, Nathan and down through ultimately to Heli the father
of Mary and we could go through some of the details in this. There's a number of
them that are blotted out because of the third and forth generation issues, and I won't
go through all of the technicalities they'll be in the notes that accompany this. But
the main point is what most people have not done their homework about the daughters of
Zelophehad in the Tanakh. In the Torah there's an exception on the rules
of inheritance. Zelophehad had 5 daughters, no sons,
he went to Moses and asked for a special dispensation. Moses went to prayer to the Lord. The Lord says, "Give it to him." So in Numbers 27, we have this recorded that
if he has no sons, and the daughters marry within the tribe, they will inherit. That's the basic idea here. When you get to the days of Joshua, these
five daughters come to Joshua, and say hey check the record, we got an exception. He says, "Indeed they do." So in Joshua 17, this is recorded. What happened when this occurred was that
the father of the bride adopted the husband as his own son. And so the son-in-law became a legal son of
the father of the bride, you follow me? To make the inheritance. Now it occurs in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah
7, Numbers 32, and other places. And so what happens is, what you discover
is all this anticipates the lineage of Jesus Christ. This exception in the Torah, anticipates our
Messiah. See, Joseph was, in addition to being the
son of his father, he's also the son-in-law of Heli, Mary's father. And that's so stated in Luke, chapter 3, verse
23. Many people don't notice it because in the
Greek, the word is nomizo which means reckoned as by law, in other words, he was the son-in-law,
but that way, the inheritance flows to Jesus Christ through Mary, thus end-running
if you will, the curse that was pronounced in Jeconiah. I mention this. It's important in a Messianic sense, but it
also is a lesson to realize. That every detail in the Scripture, Old and
New Testament is there deliberately by design and as you discover that, when you find what
appears to be an extraneous detail, if you'll be diligent and dig into that, you'll discover
it's relevant and it almost always will point of course, to Jesus Christ. So that's the virgin birth. It was hinted at in the garden of Eden, the
seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, we notice. It was prophesied in Isaiah, in Isaiah 7:15,
"A virgin shall conceive and bear a son." And the end run of a blood curse in Jeconiah
so there's three allusions, if you will, to support the virgin birth issue. When you get to John, chapter one, verse
one, "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was
made." And uh, "The Word became flesh and dwelled
among us, tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory. The glories of only begotten the Father full
of grace and truth." So, we see that same title, the Word, that
John uses the Word of God as his title of Jesus Christ in the opening of, all through
his gospel, but he also used it in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 19, we see, "I saw heaven open
and behold a white horse and He that sat on him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness
He doth judge and make war and He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and His name
is called the Word of God. That's a title of Jesus Christ. One of the most interesting definitions for
truth is when the word and the deed become one. And Jesus Christ's incarnation is a fulfillment
of all those Old Testament allusions to the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Savior that would
come. Well, so we ... That's one of the designs of the
gospels. Matthew, being ... presenting Jesus Christ
the Messiah emphasized that when Jesus said. Matthew took shorthand. We know that because he was a tax collector. It was a job requirement to have stenographic
skills so he was able to write shorthand and that's one reason Matthew's gospel's
the longest because he has the discourses written down verbatim. You take the discourses out, Mark is longer
than Matthew. Matthew's a larger gospel because the
discourses are verbatim. Mark emphasizes his servant hood and so he
emphasizes what Jesus did. Now he's actually the secretary for Peter
and Peter was an action guy. Peter, we all know, we all love Peter. He was ready, fire, aim kind of guy, you know? And the only time he took his
foot- The only time he changed feet was when he took his foot out of his mouth, right? Anyway, but that was Peter in the gospel. But after the- In Acts on, you see him filled
by the Holy Spirit. It's astonishing to see the difference in
articulation. We see Peter in the gospel periods clumsy,
he's always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. From Acts chapter two on, filled by the Spirit,
you'll look at his sermons. Acts chapter two, his first sermon. Acts chapter three, his second sermon. They're astonishingly elegant. Well organized. To the point. You see, the Spirit at work. Well, Luke of course, emphasizing that His
humanity. Emphasizes what Jesus felt. And John, of course, emphasizes
who Jesus really was. So, Matthew what Jesus said. Mark what He did. Luke what He felt. John who He really was. Matthew's writing to the Jew. Mark to the Roman. Luke to the Greek. John to the church. Different focus. Different emphasis. The first miracle being a very Jewish thing,
the lepers cleansed. Because to a Jew, the lepersy was a emblem
of sin. Both the gentile emphasis, both Roman and
Greek where a demon was expelled in, in Mark and a demon expelled in Luke. These are the first miracles. John picks for his first miracle to be record,
the water turning to wine. A mystical thing. And emphasizing the deity of Christ in
a different way altogether. And the last thing that Matthew the Jewish
gospel in a sense, ends as a Jew would focus on the Resurrection. Very focused on that. Mark emphasizes the Ascension. Luke emphasized the promise of the Spirit
and he in a sense is setting up his sequel for Luke volume two, the book of Acts, the
giving of the Spirit in the early church. John closes with a promise of the return
of Christ and that sets up his sequel. What's John's sequel? The book of Revelation. So you begin to recognize the evidence of
design all through here. Now, remember while we were in Numbers, we
talked about the camp of Israel. The east, west, south, and north how they
had different ensigns. On the east was the Judah. On west was Ephraim, the south was Reuben,
and north was, these were the camps. Each camp of three tribes. And of Judah the emblem was the
lion. And on the east was the ox. On the south was the man, and the north was
the eagle, if you recall. And how interesting it is, that these four
faces are the four faces of the cherubim and they're also emblematic
if you will, of the four gospels. Lion of the tribe of Judah. The ox being the emblem of service, emphasis
on Mark. Man being Son of Man being Luke's emphasis. And the eagle being emblematic at least of
John. So it's kind of interesting and there's
also a different style because Matthew focuses on the groupings. Mark is like a snapshot. It's like a shooting script and that was very
characteristic of Peter's style anyway. And Luke is of course, narrative. Very, very well documented narrative, easily
checked out. And of course, John is the mystical one as
we'll notice as we get into the details. But there's some anticipative pre-announcements
that we should be sensitive to. In the upper room, Jesus says to His disciples,
"But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father should send in My name, He
shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said to
you." Here's a statement by Jesus Christ that in-
that anticipates and authenticates what they did in advance. Through- That the Holy Spirit will be the
One doing this. And He will bring all things to their recall. And so we believe that the four gospels,
in fact the whole New Testament very supernaturally, superintended in its detail. Something else that Jesus says about the Holy
Spirit, is that- Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into
all truth for He shall not speak of Himself. Strange. But whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He
speak and He will show you things to come. Very interesting remark. The Holy Spirit will not speak of Himself. Now you may recall as we went through the
Old Testament, there were several times there was a type, a typo-logical anticipation in
which the Holy Spirit was always represented by an unnamed servant. We saw that in Genesis 24 when Eleazar is
to gather a bride for Isaac. We saw that in the book of Ruth that an unnamed
servant introduces Ruth to Boaz. It's interesting, wherever we see the typo-logical
application, the Holy Spirit's always unnamed. Even when we know by doing some research what
His name was. His name was Eleazar that- Which means comforter
so it's interesting how consistent that is. He doesn't speak of Himself. He's sort of almost hiding in those illusions. So we have the Coming One. Sometimes called the Second Adam. He's a prophet like Moses. He's a priest like Melchizedek. He's a champion like Joshua. He's an offering like Isaac. He's a king like David. He's a wise counselor like Solomon. He's beloved. Then rejected. Then exalted Son, like Joseph. So we see the Coming One anticipated even
in a broad typo-logical sense in the main players in the Old Testament. And, there are rhetorical devices like this
that are deliberate by the Holy Spirit. Remember when we were in Hosea? This is all a little bit of review here, where
God says through Hosea, "I have also spoken by the prophets. I have multiplied visions and used similitude's
by the ministry of the prophets." And indeed we've explored some of those allegories,
analogies, metaphors, similes, similitude's, types. There are over 200 different kinds of devices
in the Bible and we've been- We've cataloged all of those and given you references and
examples in the appendix to our book, on the codes and so forth. And so. Now there are types. We looked at types. The ark of the covenant's a type. The sacrifice on the brazen alter. The mercy seat in the sanctuary. The water from the rock. The manna from the sky. The brazen serpent lifted up. We've talked about all of these in the Old
Testament as types. The Passover lamb is in a sense the ultimate
one. And the scapegoat. These are all types from the Old Testament. Those are types. That's one form. There's metaphors. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is a metaphor. The good Shepherd. The lily of the valley. The root out of the dry ground. The fruitful branch. He had no form nor comeliness, yet He's altogether
lovely the song. So we see these enigmatic allusions in a metaphoric sense. Well, moving on, we also notice that there's
a lot of healings on the Sabbath, the demoniac in Capernaum. Peter's mother-in-law's raised, He cast
out demons on a Sunday. There're not all done on Shabbat. The impotent man in Jerusalem. The man with the withered hand. The woman bowed together. The man with dropsy. The man born blind. Many of these are done- The ones that
are recorded- They're probably done on many days, but the ones on the Sabbath are recorded
specially because that raises of course, these tensions between the leadership at that time
and the Lord Himself. Making the point, first of all that He's the Lord of the Sabbath Himself
in any case, but also He points out that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath and that is one of the main themes that causes a lot of tension. But let's start focusing on the four gospels how they're specific. The gospel of Matthew of course, emphasised
that Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In the introduction we have the genealogy,
the baptism, the temptations and so forth. Then Matthew focuses on primarily the Galilean
ministry, up north. Up in Nazareth, around the sea of Galilee
and so forth. We'll find that it's a tenfold message. There are 10 miracles. There are 10 rejections. Again, this tenfold governmental emphasis. Matthew does pick up the climax of the ministry
down in Judea, where He presents, when Jesus presents Himself as a king and of course,
we have the crucifixion and the resurrection in the, in the gospel of Matthew in a- In
its 28 chapters to give you a overview of this thing. Now, it's useful to understand the interval
between the testaments. In about 63 BC, Pompeii conquers Judea. The rise of the Roman Empire. Herod Antipater, he's an Edomite, he's appointed king of Judea. And I should mention something. The
Edomites obviously, as you may recall from Obadiah and the rest, were the traditional
enemies of Israel. Herod was not Jewish. He was- not only was he not Jewish. He was a- He was ethnically linked
to the traditional enemies of Israel. In 40 BC, the Parthian Empire, which is a
rival to Rome, to the east. The vestige of the old Persian Empire. The Parthians conquer Judea. And it's interesting that the Romans in 33
years later, regained Judea. Herod the Great succeeds Herod Antipater
and so in 31 BC, 6 years later we have the Battle of Actium, that's where Octavian
defeats Marc Anthony and the republic becomes an empire. He adopts the name Augustus Caesar and in
31 BC. Now, this leads us to the issue of the Magi. You see, you need to understand that Judea
was a buffer province between Rome and the rival Parthians to the East. The Roman empire and the Parthian empire in
that region were rivals. Rome grows later to be much, much larger,
but at this stage they are rival empires struggling over this buffer state called Judea. It's not even- Even though Herod was king,
he was in Rome. He didn't- It was too dangerous to be in Judea. See, the Magi now, in the Parthian empire
were the hereditary priesthood that was responsible for establishing the king. One of the jobs the priests had was to pick
the next king. So the Magi were not kings, but they were
very, very- That's where you get the term magistrate. There were a combination religious and administrative role. They're hereditary. They were always Medes in that area, or what
we would call today, Kurds. When the Magi come to Jerusalem, by this time
it's deemed safe enough that Herod is in Jerusalem. But when the Magi show up, it isn't three
guys riding camels as we now embody in our traditions. There was a group- We always think there's
three because there were three gifts that show up, but that, that doesn't mean there
were three. There might have been more. But more importantly, they would be- They
would enjoy a military escort. That's why the whole city is in an uproar
because the Magi arrived. They don't know why. Herod is really nervous. He doesn't know that- He doesn't know whether
or not they're there to precipitate some kind of an incident between the Parthians and Rome. And when they arrive there and he receives
there- The emissary there, the emissary says where is He that's born king of the Jews. That's a put-down. Herod is not Jewish. He's appointed by Rome. These people want to know, who's the one that's
born to be king. That shakes Herod up. There's a rival on the scene. He has the scribes check. They check Micah 5:2 and find that it's supposed
to be Bethlehem and they- They give thanks and they go over to Bethlehem to worship Him. He's shook up. As soon as they're out of town, he starts
making preparation. He has all the child- The Jewish children
two years old and younger, slaughtered because he assumes that he's going to nail that rival
before it gets serious, but they- The whole picture of the Magi is not understood because
most people don't realize that was a cabal, that was established we believe, by Daniel
when Daniel was put in charge of the Magi five centuries earlier. And when Daniel's put in charge- A Jew, the
Persian empire puts a Jew in charge of that hereditary priesthood, you can imagine how
that went over. They set up Daniel 6, the lion's den thing
that you all know about. So but apparently, Daniel entrusted to
a subgroup that he could trust a prophecy that they would know when the Messiah was
coming. And, and people try to make the star that
they're following something astronomical. No, I don't believe so. I believe it was supernatural and that's why
they were following it and in fact, it leads them to where they're supposed to go. And people- You see planetarium
shows try to guess you know, what star they were following, and that misses the point
and so anyway let's move on here. Now, in Matthew, not only do we have that record
which is important at the Christmas time and so forth, but we have the sermon on the
mount which gives moral standards and motives. Critical, critical discourse. We also have this confidential discourse on
the Second Coming of Christ where four disciples come to Jesus for a private briefing. And Matthew 24 and 25 recorded what we called-
It happened to occur on the Mount of Olives so we call it the Olivet discourse. And then we have this fascinating series of
parables in Matthew 13 where Jesus gives 7 parables that describe that which was not
revealed in the Old Testament. People miss that. And what was not revealed in the Old Testament,
Paul tells us in Ephesians 3, was the church and so we have this strange kingdom
parables in Matthew 13. We have the sower and the four soils. The tares and the wheat. The mustard seed. The woman and the leaven. The treasure in the field. The pearl of great price. And these are ... and then the dragnet. These are the seven kingdom parables. And why does Jesus speak in parables? The disciples came in that chapter, verses
10 and 11, He says that the disciples came and said unto Him, "Why speak us thou to them
in parables?" He answered and said unto them, "Because it
is given to you to know the mysteries that came from heaven, but to them it is not given." Let's understand this. Most of us presume and many commentaries encourage the idea that Jesus spoke in parables to make certain things clear. They make it clear to those that have the
Spirit. They're actually designed so that only His
own will understand them. They're designed- These are given to you to
know the Spirit- The mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them, it is not given because
He goes on and He quotes from Isaiah actually, "For whosoever hath to him shall be given
and he shall have no more abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath. Therefore, I speak to them in parables because
they seeing not, they seeing see not, and hearing, they hear not. Neither do they understand." And that's actually an echo of what's
in Isaiah chapter six and so on. In other words, what happens at the end- Before
Matthew 13, the last few verses of Matthew chapter 12 is where they confront Him and
they accuse Him of doing His miracles by Satan. And that causes a shutdown. A whole different style of ministry. From that time on, from Matthew- The end of
Matthew chapter 12 on, Jesus only speaks publicly in terms of parables because He's intending
those truths to be constrained, confined to His disciples. And He gives us these interesting ... 7 parables in Matthew 13. The sower and the four soils. The tares and the wheat. The mustard seed. The woman by the- ... we won't take- In
this brief sermon we don't have time to develop all these except to point out that they are
internally consistent, the idioms continue throughout to be consistent. What's interesting is when we get to the book
of Revelation, we have seven churches. Seven letters to seven churches where the
same person, Jesus Christ who gave the seven parables to the disciples, gives- Dictates
seven letters to seven churches and we'll discover- When we- We'll look at that in depth
when we get to Revelation, where we'll discover that they parallel these four- These seven churches parallel the seven kingdom parables in detail. Well, let's move on to the gospel of Mark. Mark has no nativity narrative or genealogy
because he's dealing with the Servant hood. His is longer than Matthew if you exclude
the discourses. It's a graphic perspective of an eyewitness. There's names, there's times, there's numbers,
location. When he sits on the grass, it's green grass
and so forth. It's all- You'll discover if you're- The details
are there like a shooting script. He is Peter's amanuensis, or what we might
call, as a secretary or a stenographer. And there's evidence that it was translated
from the Aramaic and so the gospel- Again it's the four- There are four voices that
announce. There's the mighty voice of 12 are selected
and sent. And then he focuses on the Coming Climax,
the Transfiguration, the Final Week and so forth. And then he has a finale of the Resurrection
and the Ascension in his gospel. Gospel of Luke, again he was a doctor. It's the most complete narrative. There are over 20 miracles. Six of which are unique to Luke's gospel. There are 23 parables in Luke, 18 of them
unique to Luke. So Luke is broader in scope, in a sense, than
the others, in a sense of speaking. He is an authenticated historian writer. So William Ramsey, a skeptic, set out to discredit
Luke. And did his research and was astounded to
discover, he was just astonished to discover that Luke had done his homework and the details
of Luke prove out to be confirmable in history and so he- Luke emerges very much vindicated
and Ramsey becomes a believer. He's a gentile. He's a physician and probably a slave as was
common in those days. And Luke is in a sense, in two volumes. Volume one is the gospel, Luke one, I'll call
it. And Luke two is what we call the book of Acts. He apparently got sponsored by a very high
official who's called here Theophilous that could be a title, it might be his name. He obviously is the one that is ... has made it
possible for Luke to accompany Paul and to document it all. There are scholars that believe, and there's
support for this view, that the documents of Luke are the required documents to Caesar
in an appeal. When someone appealed to Caesar as Paul did,
the law required that all the history precede him to Rome, of all the background. And that was an expensive thing to do in those
days and Luke's doing it. If you study Luke carefully, from that point
of view, it seems to be supported. You'll notice in Luke there's always an emphasis
when there's an uprising that was the Jews that stirred up the uprising. You also notice that in Luke the centurions
are always good guys. There's- If you profile centurions
as they show up in Luke, they are a great bunch of guys so, he's the beloved physician. There is more mentioned of healing in Luke
than in Matthew and Mark put together. There are more technical terms in Luke, than
in the writings of Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician. More medical terms than Hippocrates, the father-
He was known as the Father of Medicine. And included interestingly enough are
obstetrical details of the nativity. And he also probably was along with Paul
to treat Paul's eye problem. Paul apparently had an ophthalmic malady of
some kind and that may be part of Luke's support and service to Paul so. And you know, it's interesting, I love
what Harry Ironside said of Luke. He says, "The religion of Israel could produce
only a pharisee. The power of Rome could only produce a Caesar. The philosophy of Greece could only produce
an Alexander, who in a sense was a infant at heart. It was to this Greek mind that Luke wrote-
He presents Jesus Christ as the perfect man. The universal man and the very person the
Greeks were looking for." I think that's provocative. Very interesting. Very interesting. It's astonishing to me to see how many people
publishing books on- In the public marketplace, have no concept of who Jesus Christ is. They have no- People present themselves as
experts of the Bible or whatever have no grasp of who He is, and it's just a question of doing
your homework. Luke of course, focuses on the incarnation. There are two annunciations. There are two elect mothers and there's two
anticipated births. He- Luke also focuses on the Galilean
ministries, the teachings, the miracles, and the 12 being sent. He also focuses on the journey towards Jerusalem. And he talks about the heir being executed,
presented riding a donkey, Passover to Gethsemane and Golgotha and so forth. He focuses on the seven crises of Christ. His birth of course. His baptism. His temptation. His transfiguration. His crucifixion. His resurrection and His ascension. This is the analysis by G. Campbell Morgan. And I think it's very valid - seven major
milestones in the ministry of Christ. The gospel of John. He has a prologue. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. In John talks about the public ministry to
the Jews. The signs, the declarations, and the conflicts. Then he talks about his private ministry to
His own people, to His own disciples. As John would- John was on the inside wasn't
he? And the presages, the anticipations, the
departure, the coming of the Spirit. And then he focuses on the tragedy and the
triumph. The apprehension, the prosecution, the crucifixion,
the burial and the resurrection. It's interesting to realize that virtually
more than half of the book is on the last week of Christ's ministry. John gives us a lot of that detail and
there are eight miracles that make up the gospel of John. Turning the water into wine is the first one. What a strange one. And you really won't understand that unless
you understand what water was used. It wasn't just some handy water that happened
to be in the household where this wedding was taking place. It was a water of purification. Cana is up in the north. What they had for ritual purposes, down in
Jerusalem, they used the ashes of the red heifer to create water of purification and that was
then in the presence of the priest that were in the various Levitical cities, and wherever. And so it was the water of purification that
were in these jars that they used. It also was not public. The only people who knew what was going on
was the disciples, but He was demonstrating to the disciples by that miracle, turning
that water into wine, that He was the Lord of the Torah, Lord of the Bible. Lord of the, the- That He was the Lord. That would be very significant to a Jewish
mind. It wasn't just water into wine, it was that
water that He would presume to use. He also healed the nobleman's son, curing
the Bethesda paralytic. He fed the 5,000. Then He walked on the water. He gave sight to the blind man. The raising of Lazarus. And the draft of the fishes. These are the main- Each one of these give rise to an "I am" statement
and I'll come to this. One of the key verses in the gospel of John. Now it's obviously John has the most famous
verse of all in chapter three. "For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son that whosoever believe in should not perish, but have everlasting life." We all- Probably the most quoted verse in
the entire Bible, comes out of John. But there's another verse that I think is
also a very key verse to understand and that's John chapter 1, verse 11 and 12. "He came unto His own, but His own received
Him not, but as many as received Him to them gave He the power to become" what? "The sons of God. Even to them that believe on His Name." When we were in Genesis chapter 6, we made
a big point of the fact that the Benai HaElohim phrase in the Old Testament
always refers to a direct creation of God. In the Old Testament, generally, it's used,
except in one place, it's used of angels. The other one, that the only other thing that's
a direct creation of God is Adam. Adam was a direct creation of God. You and I are not. We're sons of Adam. There's a difference. Unless we're born again. See, to them who received Jesus Christ, to
them gave He the power to become a direct creation of God, a son of God. That's the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. But that term is used very precisely, that
way. So you and I are not sons of God unless
we're regen- Until then, we're a son of Adam. Adam was a son of God, but he blew it. You and I are sons of Adam, unless we receive
Jesus Christ in which there's a second experience. And that's what Jesus is going to deal with
when He meets with Nicodemus in John chapter three. Very key- Key concept here. How many did receive Him? See, that's introduced in John. He goes on then to talk about eight people
that received him. Peter and Nathaniel and those guys will occur
before the end of that chapter. Nicodemus, emerges as a key player in chapter
three. The woman at the well in chapter four, the
Sychar one. The man born blind in chapter nine. Mary & Martha at Bethany in chapter 11. The 11 apostles are dealt with in 13 and 14. Mary Magdeline chapter 20 and then Peter in
chapter 21. So we find this progression of the eight that
did- In various ways under various circumstances, each with it's own lessons to be learned as
you investigate it, or did receive Him. Now, in retrospect, see Matthew, presents
the Promised One. He says, "The Promised One is here. See His credentials. Matthew emphasizes His credentials, His genealogy
legally and all that. Mark says, "This is how He worked. See His power." Mark emphasised the power of Jesus Christ. Luke, this is what He was like. See His nature. His humanity. How He felt. He wept and so forth. John, this is who He really was. See His God-ship. These are the- Each one has it's- If you're
seeing Jesus Christ in quadraphonic, if you will. Four different views. Four different emphasis. There's a confrontation that I get going through
and trying to pick a few highlights each one is a tough thing because there's so many precious
things- But I really have to include John chapter eight because they're really
at it. There's a very, very nasty exchange between
the pharisees and Jesus Christ and they call Him a bastard. That's not the way it's translated in the
king James, but it- We are not sons of fornication. See, they're alluding to the fact that Mary
was- That He was illegitimate is the allusion. And so He- (laughs) I'll tell you a little
bit about your background. And He goes on and it's an incredible confrontation. But as your father Abraham rejoiced to see
My day, he saw it and was glad. That shakes them up. Then said the Jews unto Him. The word- When John used the word Jews, he's
alluding to the leadership of the Jews, not Jews in general, but he's speaking to the
leadership- Of speaking- And that's been a subject of misunderstanding through the centuries. Then said the Jews unto Him, "Thou art not
yet 50 years old and hast though seen Abraham?" (laughs) "Jesus said unto them,"- I love this. "Verily, verily I say unto you before Abraham
was, I AM." Now, as a gentile, we don't pick up on that,
because we don't realize what He's saying. They understood what He was saying. He claimed to be the voice in the burning
bush in Exodus four. See, whenever we have a chance of missing
something, the pharisees come to our rescue. The next verse, they took up stones to cast
at Him. Why? Because they understood. He was claiming to be God. He claimed to be the voice of the burning
bush. They took up stones to cast at Him, but Jesus
hid Himself and went out of the temple and going through the midst of them and so passed
by. What does that mean? I have no idea. Somehow, He just slipped through. And I think that's interesting. John eight you want- "I am that I am". He said- ... When Moses asked God who
shall I say? You know- Who shall I say sent me. I AM that I AM. The Echyeh asher Echyeh phrase. Jesus lays claim to that. He says, "I am the bread of life." "I am the light of the world." "I am the door of the sheep. Anybody that comes in but by Me is a thief
and a robber." "I am the good shepherd." "I am the resurrection and the life." "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And "I am the true vine." Now, it's interesting that each- ... There are series of miracles. Each miracle gives rise to a discourse. Each discourse includes an "I am" statement. And you begin to realize that John's gospel
is very, very intricately organized and it's worth- Worth understanding that. The tabernacle furniture. When we went through that back in Exodus. Each one refers to Jesus Christ, by the brazen
alter, the brazen laver, the table of show bread, the lamp stand, the alter of incense,
the golden alter, that is the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat. And they each speak of an aspect
of Jesus Christ's ministry. The atonement. The brazen alter. The regeneration of the laver. The living bread. The table of show bread. The light of the world from the lamp stand
to the menorah that's there. The alter of incense. The intercession. The incense is the prayers
of the saints. The ark of the covenant, covenant access. Notice that the mercy seat is a separate element
of furniture, even though we look at it as the lid of the ark of the covenant. It's a separate piece. It's made differently. The ark is made out of wood covered with gold. The mercy seat is solid hammered gold and
that speaks of the propitiation. And as you know from Summer materials, there
is a possibility that the mercy seat will be the very throne from which Christ rules
in the millennium. Let's talk a little about the chronology. There's a lot of confusion on this. Tiberius was appointed in 14 AD. That's a matter of fact because Augustus died
in August 19th of 14 AD. We know that the ministry started in the 15th
year of Tiberius. Now be careful with that. That's year 14. It's during the following year, in other words,
the 15th year. It's not the 15th- It's not AD 15 yet. It's AD 14 plus some months. You follow me? So it's in the 15th year. And you know, I had fun with a, one of
our beloved staff members who's such a loyal- He always travels with me and we were at
the Steeling the Mind of America conference, big 3,000 thing, and he was manning the book
table, it happened to be his birthday, 50th birthday. So, I said to the whole audience I want you
to- If you get a chance, say- Wish Gordon a birthday. He's entering his 6th- he's entering his
60th, His 6th decade. And gee, he must be 60. He doesn't even- They go up to him, but gee
you don't look 60. And I'm not 60, I'm 50. (laughs) So I was playing with him that way, but see,
if I'm in my 71st year, I'm 70 years old plus. So understand, the 15th year that within the 15th year of Tiberius means it's AD 14. So if you- If it's the 14th year and he came to power in the 14th year, that means the ministry began in 28 AD. 14 plus 14. You with me? Not 29. 28. And that means the fourth Passover which is
when He was crucified, thus becomes April 6th of 32 AD and this is Sir Robert Anderson's
dating. I mention this up here because this is what
we happen to believe. It doesn't mean we're right, but I want you
to know the basis we're using. There are many good scholars that have different
approaches to the chronology that are defendable, but many of them I tend to reject because
many of them try to justify a Friday crucifixion. And from three passages in the Scripture,
it's clear to me that it could not possibly have been on a Friday. And that causes me to dismiss some of these
other reckonings. This one is in the Scripture, easily defended,
and it's also the one that Sir Robert Anderson has excellent background on so, whether
you agree or not, at least you know where we're coming from on a chronology and you'll
see why I want to get in this. Let's go to Autumn of 28 AD. Begins at Nazareth. And where He grew up as you realize. And then He goes down to Bethabara
where He gets baptized in the Jordan, where John the Baptist is baptizing. And from there He goes up to the mount
of Temptation in ... And back to ... Back up to Salim which is a ... And then from
there up to Cana. And that's where Nath- That was Nathaniel's
home town. And that's where He gets His first disciples,
John, Peter and Andrew, Philip and Nathaniel. And this is all in John chapter- This is all
in the first chapter of John, if you will. That brings us to the Spring of 29 AD, the
first miracle, the wedding at Cana, that's again up in the Galilee area. Then He moved to Capernaum. The village of Nahum, actually. And He sets that- He apparently sets Himself
up there as a base of operation of the Galilean ministry. He will go down to Jerusalem and purge
the temple in- That was one of several incidentally. That's also where He has His visit to Nicodemus and so forth down there. He tarries for a while and gets baptized then
and ... Then, we have John the Baptist's last testimony in John chapter three, very
early into things. And that brings us to the winter of 29 AD
from which we go up to Sychar, the woman at the well occurs in John four and then
up to Cana where ... Jesus heals the son of the royal official there. And they back down in Jerusalem, He- There's
a healing at the pool of Bethesda. Brings us to the Spring of 30 AD in Jerusalem. That's where John the Baptist, about this
time, is imprisoned, and this also begins His public ministry in Galilee. He goes up to Nazareth, makes His formal announcement
at the synagogue there, quoting from Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2. And they try to throw
Him off a cliff, but don't succeed, obviously. So He uses His mandate, He declares
it from Isaiah in Matthew four and also recorded in Luke four. He's driven out and they try to throw Him
off a cliff. He heads over to Capernaum, calls four
disciples in Matthew four. We have Peter's draft of fish there, the healing
of Peter's mother-in-law, healing of the leper and so forth. That brings us to the Summer of 30 AD at Capernaum
where He heals a paralytic and there we hear Matthew's call to service, if you will. And that way, remember to go- They picked
the ears of corn on the Sabbath. We have that whole confrontation in Luke chapter
six. The man with the withered hand in Luke chapter
six. And His fame, of course, starts to spread
throughout the Galilee region. And that's also about the time we believe
it was the sermon on the mount, that's also in Luke six, but also detailed for you in
Matthew's chapter five, six, and seven. And in which, Jesus reinterprets in effect,
the 10 Commandments and others putting them to a much higher level. One of the heart, not just one of actions. And as a standard that is God's
standard. Then we have the cen- The healing of the centurion's
servant and so forth around- we have around Nain, we have the widow's son, raised there. We have John's question- John the Baptist is in prison. He sends an inquiry team to ask some
questions, you may recall. He dines at Simon's house and then returns
home. That brings us to the Autumn of 30 AD, and
we're in Capernaum as His headquarters. The blind and dumb man are healed and that's
where they accuse Him of doing this by Beelzebub and that ends ... From that point on, He speaks
only in parables. We have the 7 kingdom parables I alluded to. And from the Galilee area, He's on His
way from Capernaum across the sea to Gadara which is on the eastern shore and there's
a storm enroute there that is prominent of course in Matthew four. That's where the demoniac is healed. Very, very important passage because we learn
a great deal about the spirit world from that encounter. And so He heads back,
and we're now Winter of 30 AD in Capernaum. Jairus' daughter and the women with the issue
of blood, both of these strange events occur there and the Holy Spirit links them together
because Jairus' daughter, who was raised from the dead, is 12 years old. The woman with the issue of blood has had
that issue for 12 years. Are they connected? Maybe not directly in one sense, but clearly
in the mind of the Holy Spirit. As we look at those two, we see a very interesting
thing. Jesus is on the way to heal a Jewish daughter. When the woman by faith is healed. And it can be viewed as a model of both
Israel and the church in some interesting ways. So, I'll let you get into that and see what
you see there. There's two blind men healed. Man dumb and possessed. All this is going on up there at Nazareth. And people take offense in Mark six. The apostles are sent out in pairs in Matthew
10 and Mark 6. It's about this time that John the Baptist
is executed. And that's a major mile stone. Jesus comments on that in some of- and then
they return to Capernum. That brings you to the Spring of 31 AD at
Capernum. We have the return of the 12 that were sent
out. And He then retires to Bethsaida. Now, they've just by the way, discovered Bethsaida. It's surprising because it's very much inland. See the shore was much higher in those
days. So, Bethsaida we know it's on the shore, but
it's on the shore in their days. It's actually quite a ways from the shore
today. But it's being excavated. It's relatively new. It's kind of interesting to get into all
of that. This is where He feeds the 5,000 and returns
to Capernum. Jesus walks on water in this area. On the way back to Capernum. And here we have the sermon on the bread
of life and all of that. Eating with unwashed hands and He comments
on that in Matthew, in Mark seven I should say. Summer of 31 AD coming from Capernaum. He actually takes a Summer cottage at Tyre. Many people don't realize that. And that's all in Mark seven. And then He helps the Canaanite woman. And then he's in Gentile country again
at Decapolis. And this is where deaf and dumb man are
healed. Feeding the 4,000 there. Then he ends up in Magdala. And which is a town on the West shore
of the Sea of Galilee. Up near the North- the Northwest corner. And that's an area where there's two tall
mountains and a valley between it creates a venturi effect and the source of these very
violent storms on this relatively small lake. We would call it a lake. But here's where the Pharisees demand a
sign. They're always demanding signs. (chuckles) Back in Bethsaida we have the leaven
of the Pharisees and the inquiries of Herod and so forth. But autumn 31 AD we have a journey Northwards
to Caesarea of Philippi. And we have the famous declaration in Matthew
16. And where He talks about on this rock- on this
I'll build my church. The Transfiguration. Many scholars have different
estimates of what, which was the mount of transfiguration took place on. It's my suspicion, can't prove it, but suspicion
that it was probably Mount Hermon. That's the highest mountain in the area. But in any case, it's right there
by Caesarea of Philippi in a sense, it's just a little further North. But there's many, many other scholars have
slightly different conjections on that. There's a possessed boy who's encountered
and so forth. Back in Capernaum we have the tribute money
question. The whole idea of finding the coin in the
fish and so forth. Many people misunderstand that parable by
the way. Well, it's not a parable it's an incident. That was a tax they were not required
to pay. They paid it anyway. They asked for tax and Jesus says is it for
us or for strangers? It's for strangers. We're not strangers. Go pay it anyway. Go find a coin in the- And it's an
interesting lesson about that, but it also, that's the contest of who is the greatest
and so forth. That all occurs there, up there. Then we get down to Jerusalem. We heading for, towards the climax now. He goes down there to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. In, which is in John seven. Jesus is the living water was His point there
as they were celebrating that. That's where the woman was taken in adultery. He deals with that. That's where He also announced that He's the
Light of the World in John chapter, John seven and eight is rich material. Then He returns back up North to the Galilee. In the Winter of 31 AD now. The Samaritans reject Him. And He goes down to Peraea. Which is on the East bank as we might call
it. And that's where He encountered the issue of the good Samaritan and the unrighteous steward. The rich man and Lazarus. All these parables. The 70 are now sent out. Again this is Luke. And it's from the Parean ministry there. Then we pop back to Jerusalem and He heals
the man born blind, the good shepherd discourse. Which incidentally, He, in which He alludes
to Hanukkah. Which our Jewish friends celebrate at the
time that many of us are celebrating Christmas. Hanukkah is important feast like all the-all
the Jewish feasts are important to understand. Hanukkah is the key to understanding Daniel
nine. We've touched on that already. He tarries at Bethabara and that brings
us to the Spring of 32 AD. We're getting near the climax now. He heads from Bethabara to Bethany. And Lazarus is raised from the dead. They have a plot to kill Jesus. He moves to the village of Ephraim. Which is up North a little bit. And then in route to Perea he encounters 10
lepers. He heals all 10, but only 1 comes back
to thank Him. You remember that interesting thing in Luke
17. And then you have the parable of the persistent
widow. We have the pharisees, the publican, the rich
ruler thing in Luke 18. And then the vineyard workers and the request
of the mother of the son's of Je- Like a Jewish mother, she wants her sons to be at His right and
left hand. And He tries. He straightens her out on that. But then He's at- then He goes from Perea
to Jericho. And this is important. There He meets- is blind Bartimaeus
and then he has Zacchaeus in the tree, the young guy. And the parable of the 10 talents, etcetera. Now, an incident occurs here I want to just
highlight, from Jericho a ... the six days before Passover He goes from Jericho to Bethany. That's more than a Sabbath day's journey. So, six days before Passover could not have
been a Shabbat. Which means that Passover that year could not be
on a Friday. It's one of three reasons, but just pointing
that out to you. This is one of the reasons that we hold
with those scholars who believe it was either Wednesday or Thursday. We think Wednesday for a number of reasons,
but. It clearly was not Friday. That's a church tradition by ... born of some
misunderstandings. So, that's a quick snapshot we- we'll leave
the final week for the next session to get into detail. But the final week, we call the agony
of love. Six hours in eternity. In those six hours are far more that happened than could happen in six hours, but we'll deal with that in our next session.
