The 4 Gospels No 1

The 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke & John “The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf/ox, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle” (Rev.5:7; cf., Ezek.1:10).

Introduction to the 4 Gospels What are the Gospels? – is there any other kind of literature to which we can compare them? In my early talks I spoke about the importance of identifying the genre of each particular book in the Bible. The Scriptures are grouped with an awareness of distinctive types of books. The Gospels are the nearest we get to a biography of Jesus and each Gospel covers the same time period. However, they are a unique genre, which marks them out as different from any literature in the first century.

The foundation and focus of each Gospel is the Person of Jesus Christ – His biography with a priority given to the events surrounding His crucifixion (about a third of the Gospel material relates to His death). However, the Gospels are not only about Jesus’ biography but give an account of His teaching and His ministry – there a real sense in which Jesus created and formed the four Gospels, they are the direct outcome of His speaking and the best way to communicate to future generations about Jesus. I think Luke’s explanation about how he wrote his Gospel provides us with an amazing insight about the principles behind his personal authorship of Luke/Acts (Lk.1:1-4).

The key word regarding this genre is “gospel” – the Greek word is “evangelion” which is the proclamation of good news which gives the clue as to how the Gospels took form. Before they were formulated into documents they were spoken forth as good news of salvation. The first preachers were called heralds. The gospel is not for reflection or study, but it is good news for lost souls.

When Jesus walked out of obscurity on the day of His baptism, He was baptized in water, simultaneously baptized in the Holy Spirit, and began His momentous ministry by preaching forth good news which included a call for repentance, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat.4:17; cf. Mat.3:8, 11). We must never lose sight of this; the Gospels were forged in the context of mission. Jesus’ biography, nor His teaching can be isolated from a constant and daily proclamation of the good news that the kingdom of God has come in the person and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men who wrote the four Gospels (each written by apostles or their associates hence their ready acceptance) were engaged in ongoing mission and the proclamation of the gospel (good news). Written material followed the proclamation of the gospel by necessity – the crying need to explain and preserve the apostolic testimony to the truth of the gospel proclaimed by John the Baptist and then by Jesus Christ produced the 4 Gospels. The apostolic testimony and commentary about the life of Jesus’ and His teaching were vital for future generations of Christians. Biographical information about Jesus needed to be written down as the number of Gentile believers increased and the original disciples spread outwards from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the empire and older believers, who had heard the teaching, the sayings and the parables of Jesus were dying off one by one. The words and activity of Jesus are exactly recorded for us in the Gospels - the crises in His life, His spontaneous

New Life Radio – Talk No 35

Derrick Harrison

09/06/2021

The 4 Gospels No 1

responses to men and women in their need and His responses to those who oppose Him. The Gospels are a unique and rich resource for the church. It is the life and teaching of Jesus which impacts our life more than anything else, but it is also the truth about Jesus – His eternal Sonship, His real humanity which are revealed to us for the first time in the Gospels. The miracle power of God is also revealed for the first time in relationship to human need. There are many miracles and demonstrations of power in the O.T. – equal to anything in the N.T. but there is nothing to compare with the miracles associated with the person of Jesus Christ. We may look to the early church at Jerusalem (Acts) as our blue-print for church, but for our model of ministry we look to Jesus. There is no doubt that the same miracle power of God which we see in the ministry of Jesus is also clearly manifested in the early church. I have always been mystified as to why Jesus’ preaching and teaching is not considered a model for our preaching and teaching. In actual fact one also finds it strange that the exponents of expository preaching do not look to the apostolic examples of preaching in the Acts. True preaching is firstly, missional – it is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus’ life and death, resurrection, and exaltation, and includes a clear call to repentance, baptism for remission of sins and the immediate availability of the Holy Spirit. Preaching is the cutting edge of the missionary thrust into unreached territory; it is the declaration of the truth of the gospel among people groups which are hearing the good news of the gospel for the first time. The challenge of this and the joy of proclaiming the gospel to those who have never heard is something the church has little experience of, we get glimpses of what this gospel can accomplish when our missionaries return to tell us their stories, but the Lord intends in these days that each church be a missionary congregation. It is the church that is sent into the world, to accomplish the Lord’s mission.

The written scriptures follow the proclamation of the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Orality precedes written documentation. The written word is the oral word recorded, - written down in order for future disciples to benefit (Jn.17:20). The disciples who wrote down their recollections of Jesus’s words, His life and ministry were encouraged by Jesus’ words about the ability of the Holy Spirt to quicken their memory, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (Jn.14:26).

The gospel of Matthew has proved particularly helpful as a teaching resource for teaching discipleship. In the early church it was used for this purpose and today there are many courses on discipleship based on Matt.5-7, which is known as “The Sermon on the Mount.”

Continuing our theme of mission/evangelism – even Luke the gospel writer was not an apostle but a co-worker, a travelling companion with the apostle Paul (similarly, Mark the gospel writer was not an apostle either, but he was a co-worker with the apostle Peter). Luke carefully explained his methods of writing his Gospel/Acts – he had mingled with those associated with the birth of Jesus, particularly the mother of Jesus and like Paul he had mixed with the original apostles, but His Gospel reveals a writer who had deep insight from the Holy Spirit about the Person of the Lord Jesus and His life on earth.

I believe I have established the fact that Scriptures were the direct result of missionary preaching and missionary evangelism. Following the compilation and the writing comes the translation of Scripture. Just as it is exciting to consider how the Scriptures came to be written, it is equally

New Life Radio – Talk No 35

2 Derrick Harrison

09/06/2021

The 4 Gospels No 1

exciting to trace the history of Bible translation and the history of the Bible Societies. In our own nation, the translation of the Bible by Wycliffe into the vernacular language of ordinary men and women and the multiple handwritten copies was an essential part of their evangelisation of Britain.

Similarly, Tyndale’s translation of the Bible was the result of his urgent desire for ordinary people to have access to the truth of the gospel and to be instructed for godly living.

The fact that there are 4 Gospels means that we get four viewing platforms from where we can view the life and ministry of Jesus. One very useful study tool is a “Harmony of the Gospels.” This document simply places the 4 Gospels side-by-side in parallel columns. This tool helps us to see at a glance the shared material between the Gospels and those places where we notice differences between them, often revealing the insights and priorities of each writer. Perhaps simply the choice of a single word. We may then take our magnifying glass to examine the exact meaning of a word or the significance of a Greek tense.

One of the first thing you will observe in your “Harmony of the Gospels” is the unique independence of John’s Gospel from the other 3 Gospels. The second thing you will observe is the inter-dependence of the other Gospel writers on each other, pointing to shared source material alongside independent material unique to each Gospel. Later, we will need to give a brief explanation of this source material. Each one of the Gospel writers has his own unique insights/revelations and his own purpose in writing, he also writes from within a certain community and to a particular audience. The reason why I placed the verse from Revelation at the head of my talk was to illustrate the individual focus of each of the Gospel writers, “The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf/ox, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle” (Rev.5:7; cf., Ezek.1:10).

We can identify Matthew as the “King” – the Son of David, Mark as the ox (the servant), Luke as the Son of man (the humanity of Jesus), John as the flying eagle. Following through on these types can open particular lines of revelation. However, there are many more clues within each Gospel to help us to grasp the importance the Gospels in the context of the N.T. The danger of the above key to grasping unique portrait of Jesus painted by each writer is the fact that we must not close our mind to other truths about Jesus in each Gospel. Scripture never conforms to our neat boxes!

Introduction to Matthew The prominence of Matthew, in the history of the church: Matthew, according to the number of times it is quoted by subsequent Christian writers points to the fact that its use was widespread and prominent in the church, nor has its importance diminished, especially Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Characteristics of Matthew: a) his writing is concise, clear and orderly, b) he has a Messianic interest which identifies OT prophetic predictions and notes when they are fulfilled in the life of Christ (quoted from the LXX) and they are usually prefixed by the formula – “that it might be fulfilled,” c) his Gospel has a particular focus on Christian Jewish interests – references to the law (5:18), the seat of Moses (23:2), commandments to be fulfilled (19:17; 23:23), d) in contrast to the

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3 Derrick Harrison

09/06/2021

The 4 Gospels No 1

point, Matthew has a universal interest – foreign magi come to worship Jesus and He commissions the church to engage in world mission.

Outline of Matthew’s Gospel The Structure of Matthew is carefully designed, more carefully structured than the other Gospels and may account for the fact that it is most quoted by subsequent writers and therefore perhaps it was more widely used in the early church for teaching purposes. The most obvious feature of Matthews structure is the alternating blocks of teaching material and discourse sections – like a multi-layered jumbo sandwich.

1. Infancy Narratives (1:1-2:23) 2. Preparation for Ministry (3:1-4:11) 3. Galilean Ministry (4:12-25) 4. FIRST DISCOURSE: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1-7:29) 5. NARRATIVE (8:1-9:34) 6. SECOND DICOURSE: The Mission instructions (9:35-10:42) 7. NARRATIVE (11:1-12:50) 8. THIRD DISCOURSE: The Kingdom Parables (13:1-52) 9. NARRATIVE (13:53-17:27) 10. FOURTH DISCOURSE: The Sayings of Jesus (18:1-35) 11. NARRARIVE: The Judean Period (19:1-22:46) 12. FIFTH DISCOURSE: Teaching on Eschatology (23:1-25:46) 13. THE PASSION & RESURRECTION NARRATIVES (26:1-28:20).

1. Infancy Narratives (1:1-2:23) Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, he begins his Gospel by introducing Jesus Christ as the son of David and the son of Abraham. David begins the kingly genealogy and Abraham the Jewish line but Jesus Christ begins a new genealogy of His own of which we are part. The genealogy of Abraham immediately follows (v2) and leads on to the genealogy of David (v6) and concludes with Joseph the husband of Mary, “of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (v16).

Matthew then explains how he has structured his genealogy, in 3 sections repr4senting 14 generations each (v17), this was according to rabbinic traditions regarding genealogies. It would be quite interesting at this point to compare this genealogy with that of Luke who traces Jesus’ genealogy (according to His humanity right back to Adam who is a described as a son of God – of course He was God’s first-born (human) son.

I think of particular interest in Matthew’s genealogy is the inclusion and the naming of Rahab, Tamar, and Ruth three women whose presence speaks of God’s amazing grace extended to both Jew and Gentile. The fact that Matthew includes the name of Rahab and Ruth indicate a feature of his Gospel which is its universality which contrasts with its Jewish particularity.

2. Preparation for Ministry (3:1-4:11)

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4 Derrick Harrison

09/06/2021

The 4 Gospels No 1

The angel visitation to Joseph, Matthew, and Luke both include their own genealogy, but they also have their unique birth narratives – Matthew’s related to Joseph’s and Luke’s related to Mary. One powerful feature of Matthew’s Gospel is his unique clarity. We are all familiar with his beginning to the birth narrative, “now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise …” (Mat.1:18). Now note his clarity of statement about doctrinal truth, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Mat.1:18). Matthew is making an undeniable statement about Jesus’ Virgin Birth. This truth is again repeated, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (v20). Of course, these words were spoken to Joseph for his peace of mind, but they have immense significance for the church and point to the usefulness of Matthew’s Gospel as a teaching manual for new believers and the use of this Gospel for liturgical purposes.

The angel speaks to Joseph declaring to him the certainty of Mary’s delivery and the name of her child to be born, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (v21). Matthew records the fact that Joseph immediately obeyed the instruction to marry Mary and the fact that he did not know her sexually until after Jesus was born.

Another key feature of Matthew is his constant reference to Messianic prophecies from the O.T. fulfilled in the events of Jesus’ life, he frequently uses this kind of formula, “so all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (v22).

Matthew records the visit of the Magi, holy, wise, and kingly men from the east who represented those Gentiles from outside of Israel who would come to worship the king of Israel (ch.2). This demonstrates Matthew’s universalism which comes to ahead in the great commission of Jesus at the climactic ending of the Gospel when Jesus commissioned His apostles to preach the gospel throughout the world.

John the Baptist is introduced as a fiery preacher in the wilderness of Judea, calling for immediate repentance due to the immanence/near arrival of God’s kingdom. Matthew inserts a prophetic fulfilment regarding John taken from a prophecy in Isa (40:3). He came not only in the spirit of Elijah but also wearing his garb and eating his food (3:4). The church generally has underestimated the ministry of John due to its apparent brevity, but that is a mistake, Matthew records the accompanying manifestation of God’s presence as he preached, “Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him” (v5). What was happening here? – the presence of God was so present and active in the ministry of John that people from the region round about were being drawn to his preaching and they were queuing along the bank of the Jordan river to be baptized as a token of repentance for their sin. Jesus also requests baptism, despite John’s protests and so meet Jesus for the first time in the Gospel account. Father’s affirmation is particularly important, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (V17) in the light of what follows.

Jesus, now has the Holy Spirit upon Him and He is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, despite Father’s declaration of Jesus’ Sonship the devil questions His Sonship, demanding that He prove it by turning stones into bread. The devil then urges Him to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple in order to test God’s promises

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5 Derrick Harrison

09/06/2021

The 4 Gospels No 1

and finally the devil shows to Him the kingdoms of the world offering them to Jesus if He will bow down and worship him. Jesus dismisses the devil from His presence.

3. Galilean Ministry (4:12-25) Jesus begins His ministry in Galilee of the Gentiles. His first words are those of John Baptist, calling men to repent in the light of the immanence of the Kingdom’s manifestation. Jesus calls His first disciples to follow Him, - Peter and Andrew, John, and James, each of them fishermen. They immediately obey His call to follow Him who promises that they will become fishers of men.

V23-25, is a summary, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demonpossessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them” (v23-24).

Truly, the kingdom has indeed dawned and is clearly manifested in the empowered ministry of Jesus. To encounter its powerful impact requires repentance demonstrated by baptism in the Jordon River.

New Life Radio – Talk No 35

6 Derrick Harrison

09/06/2021