Why Are There Four Gospels — John 14

0:00 Let's open with a word of prayer. Father, come to you this morning. We thank you for this time that we have to open your word. We ask that you would teach us, each one of us, something special today that each one of us might hear something that would be from You. We pray that You would speak through me, through my mumblings and imperfect speech, that You would work through me and that you would bless our hearts today.

0:30 It's in his name we pray. Amen. I appreciate the opportunity to be here once again and open the word with you. We're going to be mostly in the New Testament today and we're going to be talking about Jesus Christ as he's presented in the gospels. Why are there four gospels?

0:58 We have most of us, especially some of the more mature of us have probably heard along the lines in in our past about the different aspects of Christ that are brought out in the gospel. So, maybe it'll be a good review for some and maybe for some of you this will be something that you haven't delved into much before. Why are there four gospels? We could have had five and we could have called them the Christian Pentateuch maybe or we've got all this repetition among the gospel. So why not eliminate all this repetitious stuff and condense it into one and maybe have some more miracles and some other good stuff and just have one long gospel.

1:36 So why are there four? And and what's the significance that each writer brings to the person of Jesus Christ? The gospels are ultimately about Jesus Christ. They're they're about his ministry and they they showcase the work that Christ accomplished and why he came to Earth. So, before we begin, I want to look at a at a couple of scriptures to give you a little bit of a preface.

2:11 There are four symbols that are present in both Ezekiel and Revelation. I'm not sure if it's presented in another context but I know of these two. In Revelation four, we have this picture Revelation four and verse seven about four living creatures. And the four creatures are are listed as as such. And the first creature was like a lion and the second creature like a calf.

2:48 The third creature had a face like that of a man and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. We're not going to dwell on that too much and this is also in Ezekiel, I believe chapter one. If I was a really prepared speaker, I would bookmark all of these, but I'm not that prepared. Ezekiel chapter one. And Ezekiel chapter one and verse 10, as for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man, all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left and all four had the face of an eagle.

3:43 So this is the this is the parallel I want to draw into the gospels. We have the symbol of lion, the ox or calf, a bull, etcetera, however you want to translate that, a man and an eagle. In history, those four have represented different aspects. The lion obviously being the king of beasts. It speaks of royalty and strength.

4:07 The ox or calf is a laborer, a servant. Man speaks for itself a humanitarian aspect and the eagle as something regal, something holy, something representative of the heavens in general, if you will, if you will put it that way. And those are the four things that I I think the four writers of the gospels are trying to portray Christ. Those are the symbols that are being brought out. There are there also could be four possible audiences for the gospels.

5:25 There are motives of the branch as we read in Jeremiah 23, Zechariah, and also in Isaiah. Jeremiah 23, five and six. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I shall raise up for David a righteous branch. Okay, here's the branch motive and then here's the specific, and he will reign as king. In Zechariah three eight, Jesus Christ is referred to the branch, my servant.

6:04 That's three eight. In Zechariah six twelve, the branch is referred to as the man. In Isaiah four:two, he's called the branch of the Lord or Jehovah. So here we have the branch referred to four ways, the king, the servant, the man, and the branch of the Lord. There are also four behold motives in the Old Testament.

6:31 In Zechariah nine, behold your king, that's verse nine of chapter nine. In Isaiah 42 again, we've got behold my servant. Zechariah six twelve, behold the man. And Isaiah 40 and verse nine, behold your God. These are all references to Christ in in the prophets.

6:53 And another thing that maybe this is taking it too far or maybe this is just another way of thinking about it, but there are four colors that were present in the construction of the tabernacle. And that's in Exodus, we don't have to turn there, but the colors of the tabernacle that the Lord specified were purple, scarlet, linen being a white or neutral color, and blue. Purple being the color of kings, so there's the royal aspect, Scarlet being the color of the servant. White representing humanity and perfect humanity as we'll get to in a little bit. And blue speaking of the regalness and the heavenly nature.

7:37 So those are what those are what I think the gospels are bringing out. Now, to get it back into the gospels and actually start looking at this and seeing why why they wrote this way, The Gospels differ for not only these reasons, they present Christ in different ways, but they also... There there are some parts that are very repetitious. Certain Gospels leave out certain details. Other Gospels will emphasize a certain event in a way that's not emphasized in the same way in another Gospel.

8:14 So why is that? What are the... What are the writers trying to show us? And I want to read from John chapter 14 in verse 26. Because we know we can trust the word of god and we can view the word of god as the infallible word of god and so, we should not be looking at the gospels and seeing errors in them just because one presents it in a different way or has a detail that somebody left out or has a complete story that somebody else left out.

8:45 It's not because there's an accident or there's a mistake there. In John fourteen twenty six, Christ is speaking here and he says, but the helper, the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and here's the key part, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. So I think the writers of the of the gospels were strengthened by the holy spirit and also given by the holy spirit certain things to write. The holy spirit helped them to remember certain aspects and some of the writers like John for instance was written by the the apostle John who was with Christ during his ministry. Luke was not.

9:29 Mark was not. They were not among the apostles and so you have some of that that was revealed to them through the Holy Spirit and through perhaps oral tradition and some other sources because they were not of the apostles. So, they would not necessarily know details that for instance, John did. John being the disciple whom Jesus loved and one of the disciples that was closest to him. As an example about why the gospels differ, there are two instances in Matthew where Matthew records two people being healed.

10:45 So Matthew presents Christ as the Messiah and the key verse here in Matthew is in chapter 27 and verse 37. I'm going to flip over here to give you this key verse and then we're going to start more back at the beginning of the of the of the book. Matthew 27 and verse 37 reads, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Of course, that was the sign that was written, that was posted on Jesus' cross. This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.

11:18 So, how does Matthew show Christ as the king of the Jews as the promised Messiah? What's important to the Jews? What would have been important to the Jews would be Christ's fulfillment of the new... Of the Old Testament prophecy. So in Matthew, there are more than 60 references and 40 quotes, direct quotes from the Old Testament.

11:41 Luke, Mark, and John don't have this. They have some. There's definitely references there, but Matthew has way more than anybody else. Why? Because to a Jew, that's a very important thing because the Jews had the Old Testament.

11:56 The Greeks didn't. And, you know, that wasn't a concern as, you know, to them. But to a Jew is very important that Matthew was pointing out. This is how the man Jesus was fulfilling all of the prophecies in the Old Testament. So, it's showing Christ as the Messiah that way.

12:14 How many times do we read for it had been written by the prophet as it had been written, as it was told. This happens over and over and over. This was spoken this was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet fulfilling saying this and it's quote quote quote quote over and over and over. The book begins of course then with the genealogy. Mark...

12:38 I'm sorry, Matthew and Luke contain genealogies. Mark and John do not. The genealogy in Matthew shows Christ's legal descent from David and right to the throne. Genealogy being a very crucial and important thing to a Jew. They...

12:57 Every Jew knew where he came from. And that's a very important thing to a Jew. So that's why Matthew starts out with the genealogy. I mean, from verse one, in Luke it's not that way. Luke is...

13:10 Luke's genealogy is present a couple chapters in. This genealogy shows Christ's legal descent as king and and as the descendant of David. And it's revealed that Jesus, the the son of David, the son of Abraham. Very important to a Jew. The virgin birth, Matthew is careful to point out that was predicted in Isaiah seven fourteen is what's quoted in chapter one and verse 23.

13:41 Directly quoted, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. That's Isaiah seven fourteen. The Bethlehem location that is quoted in chapter two verse five is from Micah five and verse two Where it says, and you Bethlehem land of Judah are by no means least among the leaders of Judah for out of you shall come forth a ruler who shall shepherd my people Israel. So, he's establishing Christ. He's establishing his genealogy.

14:16 He's establishing where he was to be born and this fulfills the prophecy here and there's a lot more quote. We're not we're not going to go through every single Old Testament reference here but another thing that solidifies Jesus as being the king, the promised Messiah is how Matthew goes into detail about John the Baptist. In Matthew three verse three, we have the the quotation from Isaiah which is Isaiah 40, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the lord, make his paths straight. So, it was it was prophesied that before Christ, there would be another that pointed to Christ and Matthew establishes him here and Christ actually also quotes from Isaiah a little bit later in Matthew in Matthew 11, you don't have to turn there, in 11 in verse 10, Jesus is speaking and says, this is the one about whom it was written. Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you.

15:30 So, Matthew is careful to record this, that Jesus is validating the testimony of John the Baptist and John the Baptist's ministry. And that's important because the two of them are so entwined in the prophecies that one can't exist without the other. So this is another thing to point out and this is what's important to a Jew who have the Old Testament and these prophecies is, okay, well if if John the Baptist is real, okay, this helps. This helps us realize that this must be the Christ, the Messiah. Matthew shows Christ as king here.

16:05 In in his book, he shows Christ as king and not only the king but the rejected king and he also is very careful to point out that this rejection is clearly by the Jews. We turn over to the the account of the crucifixion and here Matthew is very careful to point out. Where is it here? I totally lost my place here. I can't find it.

16:45 So, I'll I'll paraphrase. But he points out that Pilate recognizes Jesus as being innocent and when the Jews say, let let his blood be on our heads and our children. Matthew is careful to point this out that this rejection is by the Jews, that Jesus was the king, the Messiah, the king of the Jews who was rejected by the Jews. And and he shows Pilate's assessment of Christ's innocence here. We move further into the book towards the end here and in the account of the resurrection, Matthew specific and he shows that Christ not only rose but then also appeared to many and that's also important that Christ not the fact that Christ appeared validates that he actually rose which was an important aspect of of the Christ and as we look at the few parables that are present, all of the parables in Matthew are not all of them, most of them refer to the kingdom.

18:01 So if Jesus is the king, he's the Messiah, he's the king of the Jews, he's a king who has a kingdom, he has people who are part of his kingdom and so the parables that are in, for example, chapter 13, all point to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus being the king who is the king of his own kingdom. The other gospels don't show it that way. Matthew is consistent here in his theme and maintains that Christ is the supreme ruler and ordained by God and is faithful to his own people. So, there's a little bit about Matthew.

19:22 You know, to where you start to feel it as as a whole. That's where you start to notice the different writing styles and and what they're bringing out here. Mark is the shortest gospel. Mark is relevant to the Romans, the Roman Christians. The Romans don't care a thing about his genealogy.

19:41 They don't care where he came from. What they care about is is a very... Is brevity, this simple, direct, and active style here. Mark is is very interesting because all all he does in here is say, and immediately after, and immediately after, and immediately after, and right after this, and right after this, and then they immediately went to here. And it's it does over and over and over and over and over and and that's Mark's writing style and Mark is portraying Christ as the servant of god.

20:12 The content in these 16 chapters which is by far the shortest of the gospels, the content is mostly the same as Matthew and Luke. Like I said before, John is a little, it's kind of set aside almost on its own from the other three but Mark has details that the other Gospels leave out Even though it's the shortest one, he crams other details in here that everybody else leaves out. Details like how Jesus looked or how he was angry or how he walked on the road to Emmaus or the green grass that the 5,000 sat on. The very interesting colorful details and he's emphasizing the servant here. In 16 chapters, there are 19 miracles listed and only four parables.

21:00 So, he's not concentrating on the teachings of Jesus. He's concentrating on the actions. So, he's got all these miracles. So, you see Jesus serving. You see the servant serving.

21:13 He does one thing and then immediately he goes and does something else. It starts right away after we've got... It starts with Jesus' ministry after the... His baptism and it goes right into his ministry because that's what would be important to the Roman Christians. When He was baptized, immediately coming out of the water and immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go into the wilderness.

21:37 And it says that He was in the Sea Of Galilee and immediately He called for Simon. And then they immediately left their nets and followed him and he went a little bit farther and then immediately he called out to them and immediately they left their nets and followed him. It's the sense of immediate, immediate, immediate and he's going from one thing to another. This is Christ as a servant being active and this is what's important. It's always the servant who's serving and we can go into a lot more detail about all of this too but this is what we're what we're trying to see is, okay, he's got this emphasis on all of these miracles.

22:15 He's got more miracles than any of the other gospels and they point to how Christ is working, how Christ is serving, how Christ is compassionate and loving and how he is ultimately serving. And the the key verse from Mark, I would propose is in chapter 10 and verse 45 where it says, for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Maybe we could think of that as a key verse here. If we move to Luke, Luke is very different from Matthew and Mark. It's been called the most beautiful book ever written.

23:38 This writing style, a very, a very fluid and educated writing style. And what also were they important? What was important to the Greeks at this time was seeing the ideal man. That's part of what was going on in the culture. And Luke is portraying Christ as the son of man.

24:00 The son of man, meaning ultimately, he was the son of man. He was the perfect son of man. We are all sons of men, but he was the son of man, the ideal. He was the ideal. He was perfect and that's how Luke goes about presenting him because to his audience, that is what was important.

24:20 It's very... The book is very comprehensive. It's very logical and orderly. Luke is the only writer who dates references to historical figures. In chapter one and verse five, it's in the days of Herod, king of Judea.

24:39 There was a certain priest named Zacharias. He's got a... You got a very specific reference here to a person most of them would know. In chapter two and verse one, he says, now it came about in those days a decree went up from Caesar Augustus. So you again, you've got you got a you got a time frame here and Matthew and Mark don't do this sort of thing this much.

25:04 Chapter three, we have now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when not only that but then, you know, when when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, that's when. Because this is important. The Greeks want to know what's going on. This is part of this chronology that's very important. These dates that are very important.

25:23 So, gives them a reference point. So, as Luke is portraying Christ as the perfect human being, he's he's portrayed as one that empathizes. He's also portrayed as one who's very strong and compassionate and how is that? Okay. So, how is he pictured this way?

25:41 One way is that there's an emphasis on prayer life. I'll touch on that in a second. His prayer life, there's also an emphasis more so here than in the other gospels about women and children. Sympathy and compassion are portrayed here. One example of how it emphasizes women is in chapter eight and this is just one of the ways, women contributed monetarily to his ministry.

26:11 And it came about soon afterwards, let's see here, And also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. Mary, who was called Magdalene from whom seven demons had been had gone out. And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod Stewart and Susanna and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means. Women are also mentioned here as observing the crucifixion. Women were present at the crucifixion and Luke also points out that Christ first appeared to them after the resurrection.

26:44 So there's an emphasis here. So, you know, the women would be more important to the perfect man. Not necessarily, it's not necessarily as something that would be as important of a king to do or a servant to do. But as the perfect man who is who is perfect, one who is just, one who empathizes, and one who understands the human condition is going to put an emphasis on women because women are important too and the children are important. The emphasis on prayer life is evident here in a...

27:18 I'll give you a couple of passages at his baptism in chapter three and verse 21. Now it came about when all the people were baptized that Jesus was also baptized and while he was praying, heaven was opened. Indicating that he was praying during the baptism. I don't know all the details of that, you know, maybe he was praying all the way down into the water or as he was standing there with John. He was praying.

27:47 We see his his prayer life here. He prayed in secret and there's a whole bunch of references to this in Luke. If you want to write these down and look for Adam later you can. In chapter five and sixteen, chapter six verse 12, chapter nine eighteen, want to read that one. Nine eighteen, He was praying alone and it came about that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him and they they came to Him.

28:19 You've got it also in chapter nine in twenty eight and twenty nine, chapter 22, 17 through 19. And Luke is where it's recorded the Lord's Prayer in chapter 11. And we have the prayer at Gethsemane in Luke 22. Prayer wouldn't be as important if if Luke was trying to portray Christ as the Messiah, that's not as important. Why why is it important here that he brings up the prayer life?

28:49 Because as a man, speaking of Christ's humanity and how he took the form of a man and everything that went with it. So, communication now. He's a man. So, he has to have communication with the lord and so this is why he's got this emphasis on the whole prayer life And there's even parables in Luke that highlight this. In Luke 11, he has parables here that are referenced that the other gospels don't.

29:23 Luke 11, this parable that begins in verse five. Suppose one of you shall have friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And it's the parable of this guy being persistent, asking for something persistently. There's the there's the parable of the persistent widow who's demanding for justice. And eventually, she gets what she wants.

29:48 What is this telling us? This this is the importance of prayer and being persistent. He goes on to say in... Where is it? In chapter...

29:57 I believe it's 18, if I wrote my notes correctly. We've got the Pharisee and the publican that are praying in the temple. He also has Where is it here? Well, I didn't mark this one either. When he's saying ask, the whole ask, seek, and knock discourse.

30:34 He's emphasizing prayer here and the importance of prayer and the importance of persistence in prayer. This is something that the other gospels don't don't show in such a way. The genealogy that's in Luke shows Christ's right as king through birth or blood rather than Matthew's where it traces the legal descent. Luke's genealogy traces Christ to another of David's sons. And the reason for that is that in the in the Old Testament, it's it's prophesied where where God told David that he would have an heir on the throne.

31:13 But then there's also predicted where one of the kings, I I forget who, but it said there's a prophecy against him that says he shall never have a son reign. And so Jesus' right as king comes from both ends because through the legal line, it presents Jesus as king and his right through that royal line. But the reason why it also had to come from the bloodline was so that that prophecy... So that both prophecies were fulfilled at the same time. And therefore, since both of those genealogies, the bloodline and the legal line came and manifested in Christ, there's...

31:56 Therefore now there's no more rightful heir to the throne of David. Jesus was then the last one because the two lines came together with him. This is part of the perfection here. It's kind of cool actually. There is no more right to the throne.

32:10 So Jesus is the right the right to the throne of David. He is the king of the Jews here. Jesus also in the book of Luke refers to himself very specifically as the son of man. More so than any of the other gospels, he talks about himself as being the son of man. And again, the son of man being the term for being the perfect human.

32:34 He perfecting humanity, Him being the one manifestation of humanity and also being perfect at the same time. That's John's that's Luke's synopsis. And we'll move on here to John because we've got less than ten minutes left. So, I know this is very short and so excuse me for being so short, but I wanted to make sure we got through all four of these. There's so much more that's here.

33:41 As I read in in John fourteen twenty six. But what's the point of the Gospel of John? The key verse that I would hypothesize is chapter 20 and verse 31. But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name. John presents Jesus Christ as God, ultimately God.

34:11 Matthew presents his kingship as the Messiah. Mark presents his servanthood and his service. Luke shows him as the perfect son of man, but John shows him as God, ultimately God. Both holy God in in in both spellings of the word, w h o l l y, holy God and h o l y, holy God. And every chapter showcases this deity.

34:41 The gospel of John is is built, if you will, around seven. And John uses the the number seven and its multiples more than any of the other ones, more than the other gospels. It's built around seven miracles. He's got the turning water to wine in chapter two, healing the nobleman's son, that's in chapter four, healing a crippled man in chapter five, feeding the 5,000 is four, that's in chapter six, walking on water also in chapter six, healing the blind in chapter nine, and raising Lazarus in chapter 11. There is an eighth miracle that's only for the disciples of the miraculous fish in chapter 21.

35:26 That miracle was only for the disciples. And that's another topic for another message here. So I'm going to kind of glance at that and we're going to keep going. There are seven main miracles that are as part of His public ministry. John is the only writer to give the length of Jesus' ministry.

35:48 So, we have Luke who's dating chronology here as what's going on in the rest of the world. John is where we get the idea that Jesus' ministry was about three years long and he does this through feast references. So, in chapter two and verse 12, Oh, yeah, that's why. It's in chapter twelve and thirteen, that's why. After this, he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers and his disciples and they stayed there a few days and the Passover of the Jews was at hand.

36:26 So we have a Passover. And then in chapter five, he lists, after these things there was a feast of the Jews. We're not sure which one this was. There's a Feast in chapter five, chapter six and verse four, the Passover, the Feast of the Jews was at hand. So here's Passover number two.

36:56 In chapter seven, we have the Feast of Booths was at hand. And chapter 10 and verse 22, and it was at the time the feast of dedication and then in chapter 12, we have the Passover again. So, John's the only gospel that points out all these feast references to give us a timetable. John also has the smallest vocabulary. Luke being very literate, very educated.

37:38 John has a very small vocab... Vocabulary and uses smaller words but he uses these as a stressing point. The word father appears in John a 118 times. The word believe occurs a 100 times. World is 78 times.

37:59 Love is mentioned 45 times. Witnessing or testify, 47 times. Life, 37. And light, 24. So more than any of the other gospels, he's got a much shorter vocabulary, but he's using this as a way to point out a matter of importance.

38:18 He's stressing certain things here. So what's... What what are the important things? Father, believe, world and love. Those are the four most important things.

38:27 Those are the four words he uses more than anything else. He's using seven like I mentioned before, the seven and its multiples. The seven being the symbol for completeness, for perfection that that that ancient Hebrew number. So he's got seven miracles or signs that the that the gospel is kind of structured around, but there are the seven I ams in the gospel of John. I am the bread of life.

38:53 That's in chapter six. In chapter eight, I am the light of the world. Chapter 10, I am the door. Chapter 10 again, I am the good shepherd. Chapter 11, I am the resurrection and the life.

39:07 In 14, the way, the truth, and the life. And in chapter 15, I am the vine. There are seven I ams there. There are also seven references to Jesus Himself stating I am. The identification of himself as God.

39:25 That happened seven times in chapter four twenty six, six verse 20, eight, 24, and twenty eight and fifty eight. So three times in one chapter. And then he has chapter 13 in verse 19, chapter 18 verses five and eight and that one's actually a double one. So seven times he has the I am, the statement I am. And in chapter six, this bread and the loaves discourse, it occurs 21 times, three times seven.

39:58 The bread from heaven occurs seven times. He's referenced, He's called the bread of heaven seven times and seven times we have the reference comes down from heaven. That's in chapter six. So John here is showing Christ in a completely different way. He's showing Christ as God.

40:56 That's the most important thing. John 14, no, not 14. John 20 verse 31. Jesus is the Christ, He's the Messiah in Matthew's gospel. He's the servant in Mark's gospel.

41:13 He's the perfect son of man and because he was a perfect perfect son of man, he was also the perfect sacrifice. As we see in the Old Testament and in the law, all sacrifices were always perfect lambs. They could not have diseases, they could not have spots or blemishes, they couldn't have birthmarks, they couldn't be crippled, they had to be perfect. And Luke shows Him as the perfect Son of Man and therefore our perfect sacrifice and John shows Him as the Son of God. And why?

42:09 He can identify Himself as a man. He can identify Himself as a servant who served for us and we can identify that He is the Son of God and our Savior. We thank you for this time that we've had and that we might be able to ponder these things this week and that you bless us as we go. It's in His Son's name. Amen.