Lesson for November 25, 2020
Knowing the Bible
Lesson 27
The Four Gospels and the Book of Acts
The four writers of the Gospels are recording events that they either observed or were told to them by someone who observed the life of Jesus Christ on earth. Matthew for example presents Jesus Christ as the Messiah and King of Israel; Mark presents Jesus Christ as the Servant of God the Father; Luke presents Jesus Christ as the Son of Man emphasizing His perfect humanity; John presents Jesus Christ as the Son of God emphasizing His perfect deity. The writers of the Gospels wrote to a specific group of people and therefore their record of events is slightly different, some emphasizing or observing things the other writers did not. For example, Matthew was written to the Jews, Mark was written to the Romans, Luke was written to the Gentiles, and John was written to everyone.
The Gospel of Matthew
Time of Writing: 45-50 A.D.
Theme: Jesus the Messiah, King of Israel
Matthew places great emphasis on the teaching ministry of Jesus Christ to Israel. When Matthew says, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” it is a reference to His royal genealogy from King David and his human genealogy from Abraham. There are two different genealogies in the Gospels: the genealogy which is found in Matthew ends with Joseph the husband of Mary and is the legal line of Jesus. The genealogy which is found in Luke ends with Mary the mother of Jesus and is his royal line.
Jesus Christ is demonstrated the King of the Jews and Matthew will answer the question, “Is Jesus Christ the King of the Jews?” Matthew says, yes, He is. Christ has a legal right to the throne — he will demonstrate that; Christ has a moral right to the throne, a judicial right to the throne, and a prophetical right to the throne. The genealogy which is found here emphasises two persons: “son of David, son of Abraham.” The reason for that is because of the Davidic Covenant which promised David that he would have a son who would reign forever, and “son of David” indicates the future fulfilment of this covenant found in II Samuel 7:8-17 and Psalm 89:22-37. “Son of Abraham” goes back to the principle of how the Jewish race came into existence. Abraham was a Gentile who because the first Jew, and “son of Abraham” is explained in Romans 9:6-14. The principle of the founding of the Jewish race is salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. Abraham believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness. (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:1-3) In Romans 9:6 when Paul says all Israel is not Israel, he is simply saying that even though you are physically born a Jew you are not saved, the only way you can be a true Jew in every sense of the word is to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. The Jewish race began with a believer in Christ, Abraham.
A unique characteristic is that Matthew is the only writer of the Gospels to include the prediction by Jesus of the church. (Matthew 16:18, 18:17) Matthew is only writer to include the resuscitation of certain saints after the resurrection of Christ. (Matthew 27:51-52) Matthew is also the only one who records the fact that the religious leaders got together and decided to fabricate a story to explain away the Resurrection. Another characteristic unique to Matthew is that he records the fact that Judas felt sorry for his sins. In the case of Judas, he felt sorry for his betrayal of Jesus, an innocent man. But Judas never believed in Jesus as his Savior.
The Gospel of Mark
Time of Writing: 57-63 A.D
Theme: Jesus the Servant of God
As the Servant of God, no genealogy is given by Mark. The emphasis is on the works of Jesus as a servant. The key verse that underscores this is Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” In comparison to Matthew and Luke, the Gospel of Mark is much more concise, and brief in nature. However, all the important aspects of Christ’s ministry are covered by him. This is often seen in the use by Mark of the Greek word “eutheos,” which occurs 42 times and means immediately.
Other defining features of the book of Mark are the large number of miracles and parables than in the others Gospels. Mark also devotes a lot of his writing to the last week leading up to the Cross. Mark writing style, which was used by God the Holy Spirit paints a picture of Jesus as the One Who has come to serve the human race by giving His life freely to redeem us from the slave market of sin.
Mark also quotes from Isaiah and Malachi to let his readers know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was prophesied hundreds of years before as it was given to the nation of Israel. Mark tells the story that was most likely told to him by Peter, his spiritual father and close friend of his family according to Acts 12:12. He begins with the story of John the Baptist who was the forerunner to Christ that announced His coming. Mark went on to travel with Paul on more than one occasion on his missionary journeys.
The Gospel of Luke
Time of Writing: 60 A.D.
Theme: Jesus the Son of Man
Luke writes about the life of Christ in hypostatic union as the human-divine One emphasizing His humanity. Luke was writing primarily to a Greek or Gentile audience therefore he places the emphasis on Christ’s perfect humanity. In this way, Luke presents Jesus as the Man sent to the entire human race not just to the nation of Israel. Luke wrote this Gospel to his friend Theophilus in order to give a clearer and more detailed account of the life of Christ. Luke concentrates on the details and the chronology of the events as an investigative reporter might do. Luke was a very well-educated man as a doctor and his writing reflects his education. The key verse in his gospel is Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus from Adam emphasizing His humanity. The unique features of Luke’s gospel are the detailed account of the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus (1:5-2:52), the genealogy in keeping with a primarily Gentile audience (3:23-38), the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection (24:13-35), miracles (5:1-11, 7:11-17, 13:10-17, 14:1-6, 17:11-19, 22:49-51) and parables unique to his Gospel (10:30-37, 15:11-32, 16:19-31), the many prayers of Jesus 3:21, 5:16; 6:12, 9:18, 29; 11:1, 23:34,46), the Person and work of the Holy Spirit (1:35, 3:22, 4:1,18; 10:21) and the universality of the Gospel, not just a Jewish Gospel (2:10,14,31-32, 3:6, 9:54, 10:33, 17:16, 19:10, 24:47).
The Gospel of John
Time of Writing: 85-90 A.D.
Theme: Jesus the Son of God
John writes about the life of Christ in hypostatic union as the divine-human One emphasizing His deity. The key passages in John’s Gospel are John 1:1-14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 20:30-31, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
In these two passages, it is clear that John being a Jew and an eyewitness to the life of Christ emphasizes the Messiahship of Jesus. His appeal to the nation of Israel is seen throughout the Gospel in presenting the evidence that Jesus is the promised Messiah. John obvious desire is for people to recognize Jesus as the Savior and believe in Him as such. John uses many synonyms for believe in his Gospel such as receive, drink, eat, come, and enter. John uses the term life and eternal life throughout his Gospel pointing to the result of believing in Christ.
In the first twelve chapters of the Gospel of John the public ministry of Jesus is outlined with emphasis on the His interactions with the Jewish religious leaders of the day and their rejection of Him as the Messiah. John includes a detailed account of the six illegal trials of Jesus before the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman governor, Pilate. He then goes on to detail the crucifixion of Jesus, His burial and His resurrection.
Though John’s primary purpose was to demonstrate that Jesus was the Son of God and the Jewish Messiah, he also did an admiral job of portraying the humanity of Christ as well. We actually see this in the first few verses of his Gospel when he states that Jesus (the Word) was God and He (the Word) was made flesh and dwelt among us. By doing this, John described the unique Person of the universe, the God-Man, Jesus Christ Who came to seek and to save those who were lost by dying on the Cross as a payment for their sin.
John records the unique analogies that Jesus used to describe Himself. Jesus described Himself as the Bread of Life (6:35), the Light of the World (8:12, 9:15), the Door (10:7), the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14), the Resurrection and the Life (11:25), the Way, the Truth and the Life (14:6), and the True Vine (15:1). All of these unique analogies were to illustrate the fact that Jesus Christ alone is the only Savior and that there is salvation in none other.
The Book of Acts
Writer: Luke
Time of Writing: 65 A.D.
Theme: The History of the Early Church
The style in the Greek language of Acts is exactly the same as the style of the book of Luke. There is no question as to the fact that Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. He was writing Acts while Paul was writing the four prison epistles. Luke was with Paul and both of them were apparently writing at the same lime. Luke, a physician was one of the great educated men of his day and it is obvious from the Greek he used.
The book of Acts is the written history of the early church before the Canon of Scripture was completed. There are many things in the book of Acts which are doctrinal, and which are just as true today as they were in the day in which it was written. And there are certain things in the book of Acts which never occurred again. Many things recorded by Luke cease to exist because they existed in place of the completed Canon of Scriptures. Once the Canon of Scriptures was completed there was no further need for certain spiritual gifts for example. Many times, when we read about the believers in the book of Acts searching the Scriptures; they were actually studying the Old Testament Scriptures because they did not have the New Testament.
Acts 1:1-2, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to Heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.” Theophilus is referring to a person of wealth and influence in the Roman Empire. We know exactly the status of this person because of the phrase in Luke 1:3, “most excellent.” Luke referred to Theophilus in the same manner that both he and Paul referred to the Roman governors Felix and Festus. (Acts 23:26, 24:3, 26:25)
About all that Jesus began to do and teach is the completion of the story from the Gospel of Luke. Notice the order here. With us it is teach, learn and do: but with Jesus it was “do and teach.” Before Jesus could teach He had to first of all do. This refers to miracles, all of the acts of healing, to every supernatural act performed in the power of the Spirit by Jesus Christ, and He had to do these things in order to get a hearing. This is the principle which is given in Isaiah – the Messiah would come with signs to Israel. These signs were the various miracles and acts of healing. Because He performed these signs people would listen to Him. The important thing was the message, not the miracles. The miracles would alleviate suffering temporarily, but the teaching of Jesus would alleviate suffering for all eternity.
Until the day when He was taken up to Heaven is the transition between volume one (the book of Luke) and volume two (the book of Acts) of Luke’s writings. Until the day is a reference to the Ascension. This is the last day covered in the book of Luke; this is the first day covered in the book of Acts. The humanity of Christ was lifted up by the power of God the Father, the author of the divine plan.