Background: The four books that begin our New Testaments are, without doubt, the most read and beloved books in all the Bible. Most of our information GOSPELS about the life and teachings of Jesus are contained in these works. We Greatest Story Told call them “gospels” because they contain “good news.” (“Gospel” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon godspell, meaning either “God story” or “good story.” In Greek, these books were known as euangelion which means “good message.”) Key Texts: Lk 1:1-4 Although they focus on Christ’s life, the gospels are not primarily Many have undertaken to draw up an biographical works. It is important to understand that these writers account of the things that have been were not just passing on stories about Jesus. They were writing to fulfilled among us, just as they were convince their readers that Jesus was the son of God and the savior of handed down to us by those who from the world. Thus, the gospels provide carefully selected pieces of the first were eyewitnesses and ser- Christ’s life that are intended to persuade us to either become or remain vants of the word. Therefore, since I disciples. For instance, each of the gospels devotes almost a third of its space to a very small portion of Jesus life - his death, burial and myself have carefully investigated ev- resurrection. As preachers and persuaders, these authors wanted to erything from the beginning, it seemed expose their readers to the central issue of Christ’s life. They were not good also to me to write an orderly concerned with telling us about Jesus as a child or young adult. Such account for you, most excellent Theo- information would have made interesting biography, but it was periph- philus, so that you may know the cer- eral to the purpose of a gospel. Even Christ’s ministry and teaching are tainty of the things you have been only sketchily covered - John admits that very little of what Jesus said taught. and did could be recorded in any one book (Jn 21:25). Jn 20:30-31 Because these authors are preaching rather than reporting, it should not surprise us that the gospels are not meticulous about such things as Jesus did many other miraculous signs chronology or some of the details of Christ’s life, or that they do not in the presence of his disciples, which always agree with each other on every point. Although attempts to are not recorded in this book. But make all four gospels match up exactly are interesting, they may these are written that you may believe actually do us a disservice by taking our attention off of the fact that four different men having different reasons, wrote to four different audi- that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, ences about their experiences of Jesus. and that by believing you may have life in his name. Why four gospels? Wouldn’t one view of Christ’s life suffice? Thankfully the differences in men and motives leading to the writing of these books has provided us with a remarkably balanced look at our Lord. Because John had a different perspective than Mark, and because the needs of Matthew’s audience were different from those of Luke’s, we have a multi-dimensional picture of Jesus. It is the tension between these four viewpoints which makes Jesus come alive and puts flesh on the bare bones of historical facts. Although they focus on Christ’s life, the gospels are not primarily bio- graphical works. It is important to understand that these writers were not just passing on stories about Jesus. 105 Sermon Outline The Silent Years Introduction: Outline: The importance of context illustrated by the word I. External Developments Shaping the New Testament World “run.” The book of Daniel was, for the Jew of the intertestamental period, a 1. run a mile road map to the future. In this book, God specifically reveals the shape 2. get a run in your hose of the world over a 400 year period. 3. faucets and noses run A. Nebauchadnezzar’s Dream 4. run amok 1. Read Da 2:36-38 - Babylon is the head of gold. 5. run for office 2. Read Da 2:39a - Medo-Persia is the chest of silver. 3. Read Da 2:30b - Greece is the loin of brass. The meanings of words are determined by the words 4. Read Da 2:40 - Rome - the legs of iron. that occur around them. Words have little meaning B. Daniel’s Dream and Antiochus Epiphanes apart from the context in which they occur. How much 1. Read Da 8:3-14 more important is context for understanding events and a. Ram with 2 horns = Media and Persia (vs 20) behaviors and persons. Many Christians act as though b. Goat = Greece (vs 21); horn = Alexander background and context are unimportant to under- c. “Another horn” = Antiochus Epiphanes standing the New Testament. The way we ignore the 2. The persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes Old Testament, you might think God had wasted his 3. The Maccabean Revolt time all those years. It is difficult for us to grasp that the more we study the Old Testament the better we under- II. Internal Developments Shaping the New Testament World stand the New. A. History of Israel’s “Decline and Fall” 1. 1010-930 B.C. - The Zenith of Israel. The same can be said of the Intertestamental Period - a. King David - establishing the Kingdom the “Silent Years.” Most of us step out of Malachi b. King Solomon - establishing the Cultus straight into Matthew. That causes real problems, 2. 930-586 B.C. - The demise of Israel. however. You can’t read very far in your New Testa- a. Division of the Kingdom ment without coming across some things your Old b. Destruction of Israel - 721 B.C. Testament did not prepare you for: Pharisees, c. Destruction of Judah - 586 B.C. Sadducees, Herodians, the Feast of Dedication (Jn B. An Imitation Kingdom 10:22), synagogues, Greek-speaking Jews, Roman 1. Return of the Exiles - 538, 458, 445 B.C. procurators - all have their roots in the time between the 2. Political realities: testaments. The world into which Jesus was born was a. Israel was no longer an independent nation. a product of both ancient and recent history. A clear b. The Maccabees were not rulers so much as rebels. understanding of both helps us to gain a clearer under- 3. Religious realities: standing of him. a. Intense religious persecutions b. Religious leaders or political hacks? Most of us step out of Malachi straight into Matthew. That causes III. The Messianic Hope A. The Shape of the Messianic Expectation real problems . 1. Messiah expected to be soldier/statesman/philosopher. 2. A superhuman figure combining the best of David, Solomon, Nehemiah and Judas Maccabeus. B. Our Window onto Messianic Expectations 1. Old Testament passages - Read Isa 11:1-5, 10-16 2. Intertestamental literature preaching expectation 3. New Testament passages - Read Lk 1:67-75 Conclusion: The God of History at work in History to change the course of History. 106 Gospel Lessons The Relationship between the Four Gospels Although each is unique, there are many similarities among the Gordon and Stuart summarize: “John represents a clearly first three gospels. You would expect some similarity simply independent telling of the story. He uses only those words because they all tell the same basic story. A number of duplica- absolutely necessary to be telling the same story, and even uses tions are so striking, however, they can only be explained by a different Greek word for fish! The other three are just as clearly suggesting that later gospel writers used earlier gospels to interdependent in some way. ” complete their own books. How did it happen that Matthew, Mark, and Luke chose so many Matthew, Mark, and Luke are commonly called the “Synop- of the same stories and even told them in the same words? tic” gospels (from the Greek; “syn” = together, and “optic” = According to the most accepted view, Mark was the first gospel seeing; thus, “to see together”). Over 90% of Mark is found in to be written and was subsequently “rewritten” by Matthew and Matthew, while 53% is contained in Luke. The amount of Luke to serve other purposes and audiences. The fourth gospel material found exclusively in Mark would barely fill two pages. (John) was written long after the others for yet another purpose and did not draw from the other gospels for material. This similarity can be demonstrated from the account of the feeding of the 5000 - one of the few incidents found in all of the If this is true, it opens up a very fertile field of study in the gospels. gospels. (This example was taken from How to Read the Bible By noticing what Matthew and Luke added to Mark’s account, for all its Worth, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart). you begin to understand what motivated them to write a gospel in the first place. Luke, for example, is the only gospel writer to 1. Number of words used to tell the story: include the story of the widow’s son (7:11-17), the sinful woman Matthew 157 Mark 194 (7:36-50), the Good Samaritan (10:29-37), the woman healed on Luke 153 John 199 the Sabbath (13:10-17), the rich man and Lazarus (16:19-31), 2. Number of words in this story common to all of the first three and Zacchaeus (19:1-10).