What are the Gospels?

Review:

God made everything and made us to live with him in a wonderful world.

We sinned and chose our way instead of God’s way.

Sin broke our relationship with God, with others, and even creation itself.

God loved us so much he launched a great Rescue plan:

We see this pointed at in Genesis looking forward to the messiah sacrificing himself to defeat Satan and the power of sin.

God chose Abram and promised him that his descendants would become a nation, have their own land and would be a blessing to the whole world.

God rescued Israel from the bondage of slavery giving them laws to follow and a sacrificial system to deal with sin.

But Israel continued in a cycle of sin and repentance

The Old Testament shows us how Holy God is, but the reality of human sin- that all of us have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.

We can’t go to God, so God announces that he must come to us.

That’s where the Old Testament ends: with a clear picture of humanity and our failures but also of God’s promises to rescue humanity.

The In-between Time

The Fullness of Time

There was a waiting period of 400 years between the OT and the NT.

During this time Greece rose to power, then Rome. When Christ came the Roman empire had brought:

A common language (communication)

Roads (transportation)

Peace

The perfect time for the message of the Gospel to spread quickly throughout the world

Looking for the Messiah

Jews in Jerusalem had different groups with different expectations for the Messiah and God’s rescue plan for Israel and the world.

Pharisees: Most religious. Focused on following God’s laws and created new rules to clarify how to follow the law well. They believed in a Messiah that would usher in a golden age of peace and justice.

The Pharisees developed a tradition of strict interpretation of the Mosaic law, developing an extensive set of oral extensions of the law designed to maintain religious identity and purity.

The word Pharisee comes from the Aramaic word which means “to separate.”

Pharisees started around 150 BCE and became the dominate Jewish group after the fall of the temple in AD 70. Subsumed by the Rabbinic movement around AD 135.

Sadducees: Jewish leaders with most power and money. Priests that ran the temple and the courts. The cooperated with the Romans who left them alone as long as there was no trouble. They did not believe in a coming messiah or the resurrection of the dead.

The Scriptures possessed supreme authority to the exclusion of oral traditions.

Recent scholarship has questioned earlier assumptions that Sadduccees were aristocratic or priestly.

Much less info available on this group.

Their emphasis was on human responsibility and free will. They rejected fate.

Essenes: Spiritual. Wanted to spend their time reading God’s word and praying. Most lived in communities in the desert. They believed in an apocalyptic coming Kingdom. Variety, but some believed in two messianic figures, one from the line of David (king) and one from the line of Aaron (priestly).

Second century BCE to first century CE.

Not mentioned in the New Testament or rabbinic literature.

Talked about by Greek authors such as Philo and Josephus.

Most famous group is the community at Qumran where we found the dead sea scrolls.

Rejected oral teaching and tradition.

They believed in a true remnant of Israel and saw themselves as the sole legitimate representation of the twelve tribes of Israel as whole in the current age.

They were an eschatological community that believed they were living in end times and the Messiah(s) would come soon.

Believed in divine determinism and that they had personal angels.

Believed in everlasting life and the resurrection.

Zealots: Hated Rome and wanted to have their own nation. They viewed the messiah as a military ruler who would overthrow Rome.

Zealot is used in the normal English way (having lots of zeal) in the OT and NT, but is described by Josephus as a political group.

Josephus uses the term to describe a partisan faction responsible for the internal crisis and collapse of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Little evidence Zealots were an established party, but there are multiple examples of revolts during the 1st century where people rebelled against Rome.

All of the notes in letters come from The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

What are the Gospels

Books of the new Testament Overview

1. Gospels

2. Acts

3. Epistles

4. Revelation

What is a Gospel?

Gospel: Euanglian > Godspell (Old English) > Gospel. Means GOOD NEWS.

There are four Gospels, or books that tell about the Good News: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Question: Why are there four books, not just one?

Different audiences

Different emphasis

Some realities are best understood by looking at from different points of view

The 4 Gospels

Synoptic Gospel: (Means to see the same way)

Matthew: Matthew was a follower of Jesus. His gospel has a particular emphasis on the OT and Judaism.

Matthew 1:1 ESV

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

This literally reads “The book of genesis of Jesus Christ”

It is the Genealogy from Abraham, through David, to Joseph

Matthew 1:23–25 ESV

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Based on this introduction, what is the Gospel of Matthew about?

It’s focused on how Jesus is the anointed one fulfilling the promises of God in the Old Testament.

The four primary purposes of Mathew are to show that Jesus is:

The Messiah, the long awaited king of God’s people

Jesus is the new Abraham, the founder of a new spiritual Israel consisting of all people who choose to follow him including Jews and Gentiles.

Jesus is the new Moses, the deliverer and instructor of God’s people

Jesus is the new Immanuel, the virgin-born Son of God who fulfills the promises of the OT.

(Citation)

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament Purpose

Matthew’s primary focus was Jesus’s identity. Matthew’s Gospel stressed four aspects of Jesus’s identity. First, Jesus is the Messiah, the long-awaited King of God’s people. Second, Jesus is the new Abraham, the founder of a new spiritual Israel consisting of all people who choose to follow him, including both Jews and Gentiles. Third, Jesus is the new Moses, the deliverer and instructor of God’s people. Fourth, Jesus is the Immanuel, the virgin-born Son of God who fulfills the promises of the OT.

Mark: was a good friend of Peter and we believe that his Gospel was a record of what he had heard from Peter.

Mark is the shortest gospel with the least unique material.

Mark is probably written for a Gentile audience. He translates or explains some Aramaic or Hebrew words and Jewish customs which can be helpful for us as non-Jewish readers.

Mark 1:1 ESV

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Based on this, what is the purpose of Mark?

Four purposes of Mark are to show what the Good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of god means for readers:

Pastoral - To teach Christians about the nature of discipleship

Missionary-training - to explain how Jesus prepared his followers to take on his mission and to show others how to do so as well

Apologetic - to demonstrate to non-Christians that Jesus is the Son of God because of his great power and in spite of his crucifixion

Anti-imperial - to show that Jesus, not Caesar, is the true Son of God, the Savior, and Lord

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament Purpose

four interrelated purposes in Mark’s Gospel, all of which revolve around Jesus’s identity as Son of God: (1) a pastoral purpose: to teach Christians about the nature of discipleship; (2) a missionary-training purpose: to explain how Jesus prepared his followers to take on his mission and to show others how to do so as well; (3) an apologetic purpose: to demonstrate to non-Christians that Jesus is the Son of God because of his great power and in spite of his crucifixion; and (4) an anti-imperial purpose: to show that Jesus, not Caesar, is the true Son of God, the Savior, and Lord.

Luke: A doctor who set about writing a detailed historical account of Jesus in Luke, and the spread Gospel to the whole world in Acts

Luke 1:1–4 CSB

Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. So it also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.

Based on this, what is the purpose of the Gospel of Luke?

The Purpose of Luke

It provides knowledge and certainty. It answers questions for non-Jewish believers what it means to worship a Jewish savior that most Jews are rejecting.

“That you may know” or “have certainty in” the things you have been instructed or taught. We’ll contrast this with the purpose of John soon.

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament Purpose

The primary purpose of Luke’s Gospel, then, is the edification of Gentile Christians in need of instruction.

John: One of Jesus’ closest disciples of Jesus. John is focused on the meaning of Jesus.

John is known as the “spiritual Gospel”

John 20:30–31 ESV

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

What is the purpose of John’s Gospel?

“That you may believe in Jesus”

Three Purposes of John

Evangelism- the reader will come to faith

Discipleship- The reader is a believer but will grow in their belief

Combined: The Christian reader will be encouraged by this Gospel to evangelize others.

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament Purpose

John’s purpose encompasses both aspects, evangelism of unbelievers and edification of believers, and that John pursues an indirect evangelistic purpose, aiming to reach an unbelieving audience through the Christian readers of his Gospel.

The Story of the Gospel

In order to understand the story of the gospel we need to understand the story of the Old Testament

The problem: Sin which destroys our relationship with God, others.

Salvation: Through his work with Israel God has promised to rescue the world by sending a Messiah from Israel, born in Bethlehem, a king and priest. God has a lot of promises to keep.

And in Jesus all of God’s promises come true.