There are four books in the Bible that are ancient biographies of Jesus: the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And while individual stories about Jesus and his teachings are familiar to many people, these books have way more to offer if we read them from beginning to end, and see how they connect Jesus' story into the overall biblical storyline. So, let's talk about how to read the gospel. First of all, this word gospel. What does it mean? Well, it means "good news". Which raises the question, "Good news about what?" Well, in Mark's gospel, Jesus enters the story announcing that the "time" is fulfilled. God's kingdom has come near, so turn around and trust this good news. So, the good news is about God's kingdom arriving, but what does that mean? Well, this is Jesus' way of summarizing the whole biblical story that leads up to himself. The whole story. Okay, give me the short version. Well, the story begins with God creating a good world and then appointing humanity as his representatives to rule it. But then, the humans rebel over and over, leading to a world of violence and death. That's a problem. But God's committed to making it work. So, he chooses Abraham and his family to restart the project. Then, through Moses, God brings the family into a garden land of abundance so that he can restore all of the nations through them. Right. Israel becomes a kingdom with amazing kings like David. But eventually Israel rebels, too, and it leads them into destruction. But Israel's prophets said that God wasn't giving up. He was going to personally come and restore Israel, so that his justice and peace could spread to all nations and all creation. This hope was called "the kingdom of God". And that is what Jesus said he was bringing to Israel. Yes, Jesus' good news is about God's kingdom, the new creation that was arriving to restore humanity to their role as God's partners in ruling the world. This is why the gospel has so many stories about Jesus liberating people from death and disease, along with all of his teachings about generosity to the poor or forgiveness and loving your enemies. He was inviting people to live in God's new world. Exactly. This is one of the main goals of the gospel: to show how Jesus is bringing the whole biblical story to its fulfillment. That is why the gospel authors are constantly appealing to the Hebrew Scriptures while telling the story of Jesus. Yeah, like when Jesus is born in Bethlehem, Matthew reminds us that this was anticipated by the prophet Micah. And he directly quotes him from Micah. Yeah, these direct quotes are really common. But more often the gospel authors weave biblical phrases into the story without telling you. So you can discover it for yourself. Like when Jesus is baptized and God announces from the skies, "You are my son, my beloved. With you I am well pleased." Now, if you do some digging you'll find that God's statement blends together phrases from three biblical texts to identify Jesus as "the royal son of David," "the seed of Abraham," and "the servant who is going to suffer for the sins of his people". Whoa! That is subtle. Yes. The Gospel accounts do this on every page. Every book is constantly showing how all of the biblical stories about Abraham or Moses and David and all the prophets, all of it points forward to Jesus. Now, why are there four different accounts? Wouldn't one be enough? Well, the diversity is on purpose. Each of the four gospel authors has shaped and arranged their stories about Jesus differently, so they can emphasize different things about him. Matthew presents Jesus as a greater Moses. So, he has grouped Jesus' teachings into five large blocks, just like the five books of the Torah. Luke highlights how Jesus is God's royal servant from the book of Isaiah who brings God's light to the nations. Mark presents Jesus as a new start for humanity; bringing the mystery of God's new creation crashing into the present. John focuses on Jesus claimed to be Yahweh the God of Israel become human to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Those are really different from each other, but they all tell the same basic story: a man from the region of Galilee teaching this good news, but who is ultimately crucified as a criminal. Yes, all four books of the gospel are showing how the arrival of God's kingdom through Jesus led him up to the cross where he was enthroned as the king of God's new world. He is given a robe, a crown and a scepter. Right. And as Jesus suffers the consequences of humanity's rebellion he is showing that the power of God's kingdom comes through his love and self-sacrifice. When he is raised from the dead, we are watching the dawn of the new creation. So, the gospel authors don't just want their readers to know about the good news of God's kingdom. They want them to become a part of it. Yes, the gospel is designed to persuade us to trust and follow Jesus so that we can participate in the new creation that he began.
I like the Bible project but I cannot stand how they say “Jesus.” Perhaps it’s correct, but it makes him sound so much less approachable. That is weird and small for me to say but... there it is. :( great great series though. Really thoughtful, and I like the use of themes.
hi there I'm Mika not Micah
Awesome graphics and good teaching. I will be using some of these in discipleship...
Who's Gee Zahz?
I've been binge watching these this week after trying to find a video about the book of Ruth on Sunday and ran across their video. As someone who just started to read the bible in the last few months and feel a tad lost their intro into how to read and word studies have been very enlightening. I've been watching the videos of the books I've already read and wow, really helped point out stuff I totally didn't catch.