Introduction: The Gospels

Starting The New Testament

Up to now, we have been covering the Old Testament.

But now we are in the New Testament.

We will continue with “The Story” next week.

But before we begin, I want to tell you a little bit about the New Testament.

The New Testament is split into 4 segments:

The Gospels

The History

The Epistles (Letters)

The Prophecy

The New Testament begins with 4 books, back to back to back.

And I want to focus our discussion today on these 4 books.

The names of these books are:

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

And we call these the Gospel accounts.

They are named after the people who authored them.

All of the Gospel accounts are records that record the life of Jesus.

4 accounts that all record the life of 1 man.

Gospel of Matthew

Matthew the disciple wrote the book of Matthew.

He was a Jewish man, but worked as a tax collector for the Romans.

Most of his own people hated him.

They saw him as a traitor to his people.

To the Jewish people, Matthew was barely human scum.

Matthew left his job with the Romans after Jesus called him to follow.

Whats interesting is that, even though Matthew was hated by his people, his gospel account is directed primarily toward his people.

The book of Matthew pays special attention to how Jesus fulfils all of the prophecy given in the Old Testament that pertains to the Messiah.

And Matthew was specially suited to this task with his previous job.

Having been a tax collector, Matthew was good at sorting through records and ensuring that everything lined up properly.

He was detail oriented and focused on the symbolic meaning of Everything Jesus said or did.

He wrote his account to prove to the Jewish people that Jesus is the Messiah that their scriptures foretold.

Mark

The Gospel of Mark was written by Peters apprentice Mark.

Peter was a fisherman called by Christ to be a disciple.

Peter was a bit of a mans man.

Hardcore worker and laborer that was very action oriented.

Not everyone knew how to read and write back then, particularly common people.

Common tradition says that Peter had his apprentice Mark write down his account of Jesus life.

Remember, this is an action oriented fast paced man.

And this Gospel reflects that.

The Gospel of Mark is fast paced and focused primarily of the direct actions of Jesus.

Peter wanted to communicate that Jesus actions in life demonstrate that Jesus is the perfect servant of God.

Luke

The Gospel of Luke is really interesting.

Luke was a gentile convert to Christianity.

He traveled with the apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament.

Luke was a very well educated and respected Physician (doctor) in his time period.

We don't know if Luke ever met Jesus face to face, he probably didn't, but that's what provided this account to us in the first place.

Luke was obsessed with compiling a detailed academic historical record of the life of Jesus.

Traveling with Paul, Luke would meet hundreds of Eyewitness, and worked diligently to compile a solid History of the Life of Christ.

The style of writing mirrors academic papers of the time period.

Luke's focus was to provide a solid and reliable historical record of the man named Jesus.

John

The Gospel of John was written by the disciple John.

John was probably the youngest of the apostles.

He likes to call himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”.

Some people think of John as a doe eyed sweet quiet man.

Often artwork depicts John as laying his head in Jesus lap.

But John was not some weak, hyper feminine man.

He was passionate and loved Jesus passionately.

There was once a time where some people were mocking Jesus, and John wanted to call fire down from heaven to burn them alive.

Which earned him the name “son of thunder”.

John wore his heart on his sleeve.

If he loved something, he loved it passionately.

If he hated something, he hated it passionately.

The Gospel of John was written to people who were already Christians.

And it emphasizes that Jesus is God.

Variations

All 4 of these records overlap each other.

When We continue with “The Story” next week, I will be going through all of the accounts simultaneously because of this.

Now, some people say that these accounts aren't reliable.

Particularly because some events are recorded in some of the gospels, but not in others.

Sometimes they describe the same event, but describe it differently.

Matthew may record an event, that Luke doesn't record.

Mark and John may describe the same event, but Mark says It happened in one location, while John doesn't say where it happened.

I Have a video I want you to watch.

Chosen Compilation

Pick your favorite of those 3 scenes.

Dont discuss it with your friends at all.

Write it down in as much detail as you can to explain it to us.