Studying God's Word

The trinity is one of the hardest concepts for unbelievers to understand about the Christian faith so don’t broach the subject initially when you witness for Christ unless you’re asked about it. There’s plenty of time later to discuss the trinity. The Bible itself doesn’t name, declare or define the triune Godhead as such. This name was given by men to better understand the concept. The Bible just speaks about each person in the Godhead as an accepted matter of fact like it’s no big deal. The Bible takes the same approach when stating the Bible is God’s Word. Each person in the trinity is mentioned often in the Bible and we have to pay attention in order to understand which person is being referenced. Probably the best illustration of the triune Godhead is in Mark 1:9-11, at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, where we see all three persons of the trinity present at the same time.

Mark 1:9-11 – It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He (Jesus) saw the heavens parting and the Spirit (Holy Spirit) descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven (God speaking), “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

If anyone ever tells you they don’t believe in the trinity refer them to Mark 1:9-11. We can believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit without knowing everything about them. The same holds true for believing there is one God existing in three persons, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We know God cannot lie and the Bible is the unerring truth of God so by faith we must believe in the trinity even though we may not fully understand it. We won’t have perfect knowledge of the spiritual world until we get to heaven and probably not even then.

Mark 1:23-24 – Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are-the Holy One of God!”

Mark 1:34 – Then He (Jesus) healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.

Mark 3:11 – And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him (Jesus), fell down before Him and cried out, saying, You are the Son of God.”

Mark 5:7 – And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”

In Mark, Jesus has several interesting encounters with people who were possessed by demons. In every instance the demons knew Jesus immediately by name as the Son of God and were fearful of being tormented or destroyed which means they recognized Jesus’ authority over them. Since demons are spirit beings that confirms Jesus is also Spirit. In our physical world we can see and recognize people but we can’t see invisible spirit beings but demons can recognize other spirit beings on either side of the veil. Demons are fallen angels who once served Jesus as part of the host of heaven so, of course, they will recognize Jesus as soon as they see him. These encounters Jesus had with demons are well documented and serve as further proof that Jesus is the Son of God.

Mark 9:25 – He (Jesus) rebuked the unclean spirit , saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”

The disciples tried unsuccessfully to remove the demon from this person so they brought him to Jesus. Jesus told them this kind of spirit can only be removed by prayer and fasting. Notice that the demon was deaf so he couldn’t hear the disciples command to come out of the man anyway. Only the Spirit of Jesus could see and know this demon was deaf and dumb and only God’s Spirit and voice of authority could communicate with the demon and cause him to come out of the man. Jesus didn’t need to speak his command to the demon verbally. That was done for the benefit of Jesus’ disciples and those standing nearby so that they would believe and God would be glorified. Demons are much more powerful than human beings and this demon would obey only the command of God himself so the fact that Jesus successfully removed the demon is another proof Jesus is God. When spirit beings like God, the angels and demons look upon us they see more than our physical bodies. Our invisible spirit is like a neon sign to them. They see the real us, our eternal spirit. We each have a unique spirit like nobody else’s in much the same way as our fingerprints are different from anyone else’s on earth. In the spirit world we’ll be recognizable as individuals, who we really are, and not some indiscriminate shimmer of light like some people think.

Mark 1:1 – The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 1:2-3 – “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight. ‘ ”

Isaiah 40:3 – The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

In the Old Testament the title Lord always refers to God (because Jesus wasn’t around yet) whereas in the New Testament the title Lord could refer to either Jesus or God. In Mark 1:1, the author is letting us know his gospel is about Jesus Christ. Mark 1:2-3, is a restatement of Isaiah 40:3, which means John the Baptist is the forerunner of God himself who will physically walk the earth. In the above verse the prophet Isaiah states that the Messiah will be God. Mark is indirectly letting us know in Mark 1:2-3, that Jesus is both Messiah and God by referencing the Old Testament scripture of Isaiah 40:3, to call Jesus Lord. Many places in the Bible acknowledge Jesus as God as an accepted fact the same way the Bible assumes we all know the author of the Bible is God.

When you read the word Jesus in the Bible automatically say to yourself, “Jesus is God.” For the life of me I can’t understand people who say they believe in God but they don’t believe Jesus is the Son of God or that Jesus is God. The Bible says clearly that Jesus is God. There’s only one God but the triune Godhead exists in three persons, God the Father, God the Son who is Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit, who is sometimes referred to as the Holy Ghost. I know it’s confusing but that’s what proves to me it’s the truth. Anyone making up a fake religion would have come up with something much easier for the the weak-minded to understand.

Malachi 3:1 – Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of Hosts.

The above verse verifies God is coming to earth himself and will be identified by John the Baptist. The verse says God will physically enter his temple and usher in the new blood covenant which we know Jesus did both of those things. While God doesn’t shout from the pages of the Bible, “Jesus is God!” nether does he try to hide it. For those who have eyes let them read and understand. For those who have ears let them hear and understand.

Exodus 23:20-21 – Behold. I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.

Jesus sometimes appeared in the Old Testament as an Angel and the capitalization in the above verse means the angel is Jesus. The phrase, “to keep you in the way.” means to save you and, “bring you into the place I have prepared,” means taking you to heaven. Beware means to watch for his coming and, “obey His voice,” means to repent of your sins and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. By his use of the phrase, “He will not pardon your transgressions,” God is making it abundantly clear that he’ll not be the one forgiving sins but Jesus only. Most importantly, the last phrase in the above verses tells us Jesus is the coming Messiah who will save his people and his other name is God. God saying “My name is in Him,” is simply another way of God saying, “I am Jesus.”

Even in the wilderness God was telling the Israelites that he would one day come to earth in the flesh and save them unto eternal life, although God was referring to the second coming of Christ. The first coming of Christ was primarily to save the Gentiles and set up the kingdom of God on earth. If anyone tells you Jesus is not God please refer them to the Old Testament scriptures of Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 3:1, and Exodus 23:20-21, for their knowledge and understanding. Do it gently so as to not offend. There are dozens of scriptures in the Bible that refer to Jesus as God so it’s not exactly a secret. The problem is most people don’t take the time to actually study the Bible as they should. For those who have eyes let them see and understand. For those who have ears let them hear and understand.

John 10:30 – I and My Father are one.

Matthew 1:22-23 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

If each of us made a list of our genealogy it would ultimately lead back to Adam, the first man. Since God created Adam he is Adam’s father and, by extension, our father as well. Like any father God loves his children dearly. God made all of creation for our benefit. God has given us his Word, the Bible, which is the wisdom of God so that we might know him and the salvation plan he has for us. The Bible is essentially God’s love letter to us. Every book of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation reveals God’s love for us through the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming down to the earth from heaven to redeem fallen mankind from their sins by his sacrificial death on the cross in our place. The Old Testament is Christ prophesied and the New Testament is Christ fulfilled. There are over 1000 prophecies in the Old Testament, over 500 of which have been fulfilled in the New Testament and documented as fact. Over 60 of those prophecies were about Christ and Jesus fulfilled each one which proves beyond any doubt Jesus is the Son of God. This is to prove God is who he says he is and the Bible is the truth of God.

Less than 10% of Christians who attend church regularly have read the entire bible and fewer still actually study God’s Word. How can we get to know God better if we don’t read his Word? How can we please God if we don’t know his commandments and obey them? God’s chosen way to talk to us is through his Word and if we make the conscious decision not to read the Bible we’ve chosen not to communicate with God. How crazy is that? While it’s important for Christians to to read the entire Bible, it’s critical that they read the gospels because therein lies the central theme of the Bible; the whole point of creation and human history, which is the restoration of man’s lost fellowship with God. When Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden that sin was imputed to every person who came after him. We are all born with a sin nature from Adam. We can’t wash the sin away or rub it off or do enough good works to make it go away. We’re branded with this sin and headed for spiritual death in the lake of fire because a just God has decreed that the wages of sin is death.

Our only hope is that a merciful God will save us. God is love and the magnitude of God encompasses a love for us greater than we’ll ever know or fully understand this side of heaven. A love so great that God was willing to step down from his throne in heaven, take on on human flesh in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and die a horrible death on the cross in our place so that we might have eternal life in heaven in his presence. Only God met the qualifications of a sinless sacrifice and only God can impute his righteousness to all men which results in eternal life. God loves us that much! If God loves me enough to die for me I can at least glorify God by reading about the story of my salvation contained in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as chronicled in the gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Praise God for his love, mercy and grace!

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Matthew 1:22-23 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth.

Luke 19:10 – For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

John 10:30 – (Jesus speaking) – I and My Father are one.

Matthew 26:28 – (Jesus speaking) – For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

John 14:16 – (Jesus speaking) – I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:23 – (Jesus speaking) – If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

John 3:36 – He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

John 12:48 – (Jesus speaking) – He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

As my thoughts turn to God I fully understand my finite mind cannot even begin to comprehend the true magnitude of God. That doesn’t stop me from trying to learn all I can about God. I know a little bit about God now from what he has revealed to us. In heaven I’ll know a lot more about God but even with an eternity to plumb the depths of God I’ll never come close to knowing all that God is and I’m okay with that. God has always existed. Think about the untold billions of years God had to plan creation before he spoke it into existence. Every last detail was thought out and planned from beginning to end before God pressed the start button. God does as he pleases therefore he is never surprised. If you don’t believe in God or you’re unsure what to believe you’re in luck. This is the blog site for you because I’ve investigated all the evidence and it’s an irrefutable fact that God exists, or as God says, “I AM”. Let me refer you to the first fifty or so blogs on this site for those proofs of God. If you have an open mind and are searching for the truth you’ll find it there.

We’re real and our life is not an illusion as some religions suggest. If you want proof just pinch yourself. As far as we know we’re the only intelligent life form in the universe and we live on the only water planet in the cosmos capable of sustaining life. I see only two possible reasons for us to be here. Either we randomly evolved from a single cell life form into a human being comprised of 75 trillion specialized cells organized into specific biosystems all necessary for life to exist and complete with a brain that is the greatest computer in the known universe or God created us and placed us here on earth. The first scenario is a bridge too far for me. The odds against us evolving from the primordial ooze are so high it’s virtually impossible so that leaves us with God as the only logical answer for our existence. The theory of evolution is linear going from the simpler to the more complex. Evolution cannot allow for excess capacity; you evolve only what’s needed to survive. It’s a nice theory but there’s no proof to back it up. Most people only believe in evolution because we’re brainwashed by our education system all our lives to the point where everyone believes the lie. A look at the evidence exposes the lie.

How can evolution explain the fact that man only uses 10% of his brain capacity and how can we explain why human beings developed an excess brain capacity of 90% in the first place? I know the answer. God created Adam with 100% brain capacity but after Adam’s fall from the Garden of Eden and sin entered the world man’s brain usage was reduced by God to 10% of its capacity. Man’s brainpower will be restored to 100% in heaven. Now that we know that God created the universe and everything in it let’s ask the most important question; WHY? We know that God is never wrong, never makes a mistake, never changes his mind and always has a reason and a plan for everything he does. God is the ultimate planner down to the most minute detail and the evidence is in creation itself. There are over 300,000 different species of beetles on earth. That much variety isn’t possible with evolution. Microscopic E. Coli bacteria are propelled by a rotating universal joint that’s a masterpiece of engineering. Biosystems work together as a whole or they don’t work at all so evolution in not a possibility. Who other than God could show this much attention to detail in the natural world? There’s no other logical explanation for what we see in nature other than God created the universe just as he said.

We also know that God created all the millions of angels in heaven at one time and gave them free will. As a result, one third of the angels rebelled against God and there was sin and war in heaven. Lucifer and his fallen angels were defeated and thrown to earth. God then created man and placed him upon the earth with the free will to decide whether to serve God or Satan. This way any rebellion against God will be on earth so that those who go to heaven will enter without sin and will be unable to sin once there. There’s no way God was ever again going to allow sin or war to enter heaven. God has given us his Word, our Holy Bible, so that we can know God and gain the knowledge, understanding and wisdom needed to make the right decision as to our destiny. God gave us our eternal spirit at conception which means we’ll live forever. There’s no turning back for us; it’s now heaven or bust. We need to comprehend fully what that means. A hundred billion years is the blink of an eye in eternity. It’s up to us to decide whether we spend that eternity joyfully in the presence of God in heaven or in pain and agony in the lake of fire along with Satan and his fallen angels. The Bible tells us what we need to know to choose rightly. One last point; our “testing time” on earth to decide whether to serve God ends the moment our heart stops beating. If we haven’t accepted God’s gift of salvation by that time our fate is sealed and we’ll go to hell. There is no do-over or second chance so don’t delay. Now is the time of your salvation! Look up the “sinner’s prayer” on the internet and repeat that prayer to God as soon as possible to ensure your place in heaven. I hope to meet you there some day!

All those Catholics praying to Mary are just spitting into the wind. As the mother of Jesus, Mary is a blessed human being with a special place in heaven. Mary was born into this world with a sin nature from Adam’s fall like all of us were. As a young woman God selected Mary to be the mother of Jesus but that doesn’t make her divine. The early Catholic church adopted a lot of pagan traditions and one of those was mother goddess worship which has evolved into making Mary divine and sinless from birth. This in unscriptural. The Bible says you are to pray to God directly and in Jesus’ name. So if you disobey God and pray to Mary that means your prayers won’t be answered. Your prayers are falling on deaf ears.

In their arrogance and pride, the Catholic Pope and his priests have established the church doctrine of making Mary divine and requiring members to take their prayers directly to Mary. Supposedly Mary receives everyone’s prayers because Jesus is too busy to receive them himself directly. Mary then sorts through the prayers and takes them to Jesus. What a bunch of hogwash! Although Mary is in heaven she’s just a human being like us and has no special ability or capacity to hear the prayers of everyone on earth. In that regard Mary is no different than you or me. If you or I died and went to heaven could we hear the prayers of everyone on earth? No, of course not! Jesus is God and only God can hear the thoughts of every person on earth simultaneously. In addition, how can God be too busy when he’s omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent? A bird doesn’t fall from the sky without God seeing it. In the gospel of Luke Mary says she is the maidservant of the Lord and blessed to be chosen as the mother of Jesus. Mary admits to her lowly state (i.e. a human being) while acknowledging Jesus as her Savior. If Mary were divine she’d not be in a lowly state and she’d have no need of a Savior. The only divine being in the universe is God. It’s blasphemy to call Mary divine and to worship her as such.

Luke 1:46-47 – And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

By having their members pray to Mary the Catholic church, by intent or through ignorance, has insured that the prayers of the faithful are not heard by God. The Bible says we’re to pray directly to God in Jesus’ name and to go to God for the forgiveness of our sins. God’s Word is perfect and God cannot lie so how did the Catholic church arrive at this unscriptural doctrine? Why are Catholics told to confess their sins to a priest in a confessional booth and ask his forgiveness when the priest himself is a sinful human being? It’s because the Pope has the audacity to usurp God’s power and steal his glory by saying the Pope knows better than God on all issues relating to Christianity. Isn’t it obvious our prayers won’t be heard or answered by God and our sins won’t be forgiven if we disobey the prescribed way to communicate with God on these matters? Why has this happened in the Catholic church? Satan long ago infiltrated and corrupted the Catholic church. In fact, Satan has owned the Catholic church lock, stock and barrel for at least the last 1400 years, Over time, Satan has inspired and instituted virtually every Catholic church doctrine and they’re all the exact opposite of what God wants and commands us to do. Satan likes to fly under the radar and go undetected but with the Catholic church he couldn’t help himself. Satan had to totally corrupt the Catholic church which left his fingerprints everywhere as proof of his existence to those of us who are observant. For those who have eyes, let them see and understand.

I find it amazing that there are 1.5 billion Catholics in the world and they all, for the most part, accept and obey the doctrines of the church when those doctrines are all the exact opposite of what God commands in his Word. I don’t get it. The proof is right there in God’s Word in plain language everyone can read and understand. Now, either Catholics don’t know what’s in the Bible and haven’t read the Bible or they listen to and believe what the Catholic clergy has been telling them about God and they’ve been totally indoctrinated and brainwashed since birth to blindly follow the Pope’s directions. How else can you account for people praying to a human being instead of God Himself? How else can you account for people sitting in a box and asking forgiveness of their sins from another sinful human being who also needs forgiveness? The Bible and our commonsense both confirm that there is one eternal God in heaven who made us all and only God can receive prayers and act on them because he is omnipotent. Sin is disobeying God so only God can forgive our sins because only God can determine who gets eternal life in heaven or hell based on our sins.

Catholics who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will inherit eternal life in heaven in the presence of Almighty God. However, those Catholics who disobey God in favor of following the doctrines of the Catholic church established by sinful men full of pride with their own corrupt agenda will lose their reward.

Catholics who pray to Mary and ask priests to forgive their sins gain nothing and offend God. Their sins are still with them and will remain with them until they go to God directly and ask for their sins to be forgiven. Imagine all those Catholics praying to Mary and going to confession thinking all their sins are being forgiven when all the time their sins keep piling up in heaven and when they get to heaven they’re still accountable for that mountain of unforgiven sin because they didn’t go to God directly for forgiveness as he commanded. Catholics who reduce Jesus to a cookie during mass are not really making Jesus Lord of their life. They are just paying lip service to Jesus. Their discipleship to Christ is meaningless so they will lose their reward. Satan has, in effect, handcuffed the Catholic church and all its members and made them ineffective workers in the kingdom of God. Catholics who go to heaven will weep at how the Pope and Satan duped them and they’ll mourn their lost opportunity to have served God while on earth. If you include the Apostle Peter as the first Pope as the Catholic church claims (which I don’t) then Pope Francis is Pope number 266. Mark my words, we’ll all be present on the last day when the vast majority of the Popes will stand in judgment before the wrath of God for leading their congregations away from the truth of God. The first will be last and the last will be first. I’d be surprised if more than a handful of the earlier Popes make it to heaven. The power of the church really started to exert itself over Christianity with the papacy of Gregory the Great (590-604 AD). Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All the Popes after Gregory have continued to support and create unscriptural Catholic church doctrine and ultimately they will wind up being thrown into the lake of fire for their sins.

I’ve just completed an investigation of the gospels and at the end of each gospel I included how each writer died. It occurred to me maybe everyone doesn’t know how all the Apostles died including some of the most noteworthy disciples of Christ. I thought I’d include a list here how some of the early followers of Jesus died.

PETER – The Apostle was imprisoned in Rome by the Emperor Nero who had him crucified upside down in 67 AD.

MATTHEW – The Apostle was preaching the gospel of Christ in Ethiopia and suffered martyrdom by the sword.

JAMES THE LESSER – The Apostle was thrown from the top of the temple and when that didn’t kill him he was beaten to death with a club.

JAMES THE GREAT – The Apostle was put on trial in Jerusalem and sentenced to death. James was beheaded.

BARTHOLOMEW – The Apostle was also known as Nathaniel. Bartholomew was preaching the gospel of Christ in present day Turkey. Bartholomew was flayed to death by a whip while in Armenia.

ANDREW – The Apostle was crucified in Patras, Greece for preaching the gospel of Christ.

THOMAS – The Apostle was on one of his missionary trips to India to preach the gospel when he was stabbed to death with a spear.

JUDE – The Apostle was also known as Thaddeus. Jude was killed by arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

PHILLIP – The Apostle was beheaded in Turkey for preaching the gospel of Christ.

SIMON THE ZEALOT – The Apostle was sawn in half in Persia for preaching the gospel of Christ.

MATTHIAS – The Apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot was stoned for preaching the gospel of Christ and then beheaded.

JOHN – The last of the original disciples of Jesus did face martyrdom in Rome where he was boiled alive in a huge basin of oil. However, John was miraculously delivered from death by God (remember God needed John to write his gospel and the book of Revelation). John was also sentenced to work in the mines on the Isle of Patmos but ultimately John died of old age as the only Apostle not to suffer martyrdom.

PAUL – The Apostle was imprisoned in Rome and beheaded by the Emperor Nero in 65 AD.

MARK – The writer of the book of Mark and disciple of Christ was preaching the gospel in Alexandria, Egypt when he was martyred. An angry mob bound Mark’s feet and he was drug through the streets of Alexandria by a team of horses.

LUKE – The writer of the book of Luke and disciple of Christ was hanged in Greece for preaching the gospel.

JOHN THE BAPTIST – John was the prophesied forerunner of Christ. John was imprisoned by Herod and later beheaded.

STEPHEN – This disciple of Christ was stoned to death in Jerusalem for his faith.

The above individuals are just some of the famous people from the Bible that we know were killed in service to God. The number of unknown Christians who were martyred in the early days we’ll never know but there were a lot. Today in America Christians aren’t persecuted like they were back then but the day will come when they are so we need to be prepared to meet that challenge. Revelation tells us Christians will one day be beheaded for not renouncing their faith in Christ.

Some Old Testament prophets called to service by God were also slain:

ISAIAH – Killed with a saw by Manasseh, King of Judah.

ZECHARIAH – Slain in the temple by Joash, King of Judah.

JEREMIAH – Stoned to death in Egypt by Jews living there.

EZEKIEL – Slain in Chaldea by the chief Jew living there.

HABAKKUK – Stoned to death in Jerusalem by Jews.

AMOS – Tortured and killed with a staff by the priests of Bethel.

The gospel of John is totally different from the three synoptic gospels. We know the synoptic gospels were all written within a few years of each other. Mark was written first and then Matthew and Luke both used Mark as a template to follow when writing their gospels. The synoptic gospels covered the who, what, when and where of the life of Jesus in pretty much the same order so in many ways all three gospels are very similar. The Apostle John was familiar with the synoptic gospels but he was also aware that there was a lot of the story of Jesus left untold. John didn’t want to repeat what what had already been said. John was much more concerned with the how and the why of Jesus’ life. We’re not sure when the gospel of John was written. We know it was after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD because of certain references in the text. We also know it was written before John wrote the book of Revelation which was around 95 AD. The best guess is John wrote his gospel in Greek around 90 AD while he was living in Ephesus, a Roman city in Asia Minor, which is now present day Turkey.

By the time John wrote his gospel 15-25 years after the synoptic gospels the church had changed in many ways. What started as a small Jewish movement in Jerusalem had gone out into the wider Gentile world and the church had become overwhelmingly a Gentile movement. Christianity was suffering from growing pains and needed some clarification and there were heresies arising within the church that needed to be addressed. We know that the writers of the synoptic gospels each had a targeted audience in mind but with John his intended audience was the entire world. The purpose of John’s gospel was to make it clear to everyone that Jesus is the Word, God in the flesh. John emphasized that Jesus is the Son of God whose death and resurrection give eternal life to all who believe in him. John gives us the “how” and the “why” of eternal life and John’s gospel has been used to lead more unbelievers to salvation than any other book of the Bible with the possible exception of the book of Romans which is my personal favorite.

More than 90% of John’s gospel is not found in any of the other gospels. John places his emphasis on the identity of Jesus as the Son of God and how we, as believers, should respond to his teachings. The consistent theme of John is the deity of Jesus. Seven times in John we read where Jesus refers to himself with the phrase “I am”, claiming the personal name of God as his own. Jesus is declaring to the world that he is God. John always portrays Jesus as being in charge and knowing all future events before they unfold which, of course, he does because he is God and the author of history. Of all the gospels, or any other New Testament book for that matter, John most clearly teaches the deity and preexistence of Christ. I think the reason for this is the Holy Spirit had been very active in John’s life for a long time and as a result John was made more aware of the spiritual truths of the kingdom of God than any other living person. More than 90 times John uses the terms “knowing” and “believing” God as the keys to salvation. Along with the gospel of Matthew, John provides the most striking proofs of Jesus’ messiahship which it does by narrating the seven “I am” messianic signs. The gospel of John also taught the difficult concept of the triune Godhead which requires acute spiritual perception. For all of these reasons, John is known as the spiritual gospel.

John wrote his gospel because he wanted to address the entire three and a half years of Jesus’ ministry because the synoptic gospels only focused on the last year of Jesus’ life. John doesn’t mention the parables of Jesus but instead focuses on long discourses where Jesus taught his disciples about the kingdom of God. John does the best job of giving distinct personalities to each of the disciples. By the little extra details John provides in his gospel you can tell he was a witness to those events and is recalling them from memory. John presents Jesus as God acting in human form. It’s clear in John’s gospel that John has greater spiritual perception and understanding of the kingdom of God than the other gospel writers. John is careful in his gospel never to mention himself by name but he does give us clues when he refers to himself as the witness or the disciple whom God loved. Most people don’t realize that John was most likely Jesus’ first cousin because his mother was thought to be the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus. At any rate, John was illiterate and at the end of his life dictated his gospel to preserve his eyewitness testimony of the life of Jesus Christ and the glory of God. John was the only Apostle not to suffer a martyr’s death. John wrote the book of Revelation around 95 AD on the Isle of Patmos and died a few years later around 100 AD of of old age.

In addition to there being four gospels, another proof that the Bible was authored by God is the fact that Luke, a Gentile disciple of Christ, wrote one of the gospels in addition to the book of Acts which is a history of the early church. The 39 writers who wrote the other 64 books of the Bible were all Jewish men. Why would God use a Gentile in his Word? I see two reasons. First, God wanted to show his salvation plan for man included Gentiles as well as Jews. Second, God wanted to reveal the gospel of Christ to a Gentile audience therefore he needed a Gentile writer. In the ancient world Jews and Gentiles were suspicious and untrusting each other. No Gentile was likely to put much stock in Jesus as the Son of God unless they heard it from a fellow Gentile and vice versa, That’s one of the reasons why we have the Jewish gospel of Matthew speaking to the Jews and the Gentile gospel of Luke speaking to the Gentiles. The gospel of Mark was a special case. There you had the Jewish Mark writing his gospel for the Gentiles in Rome at their own request because they had heard Peter preach the gospel of Christ and had become believing Christians. Rome was the seat of the Roman empire and the largest city in the world at the time so it was filled with Gentiles eager to receive the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

The first Christians were converted Jews in and around Jerusalem but once the faith moved out into the wider world it became almost exclusively a church comprised of Gentiles. Luke was actually part one of a two-part history of the church that he authored. Since that history was a Gentile history only a Gentile could tell it and have a Gentile audience believe it. God again used Luke to write the book of Acts which was part two of the history of the church. Who better than a Gentile to chronicle the growth of the early Gentile Christian church? Only God could coordinate the two books of the Bible essential to Gentiles and have them both written by a Gentile so they would be believed. God is in total control of his creation and nothing happens without God’s consent. Luke’s gospel is carefully researched and written in Greek by someone good with words. Luke was both a physician and a scholar. Luke was also a disciple of the Apostle Paul and accompanied Paul on some of his missionary trips. Luke was even imprisoned with Paul for two years in Caesarea. Luke makes it plain in his gospel he wasn’t an eyewitness to the life of Jesus Christ but he affirms that he thoroughly investigated the ample evidence available on the life of Jesus. Luke interviewed all the eyewitnesses he could find who actually saw the miracles Jesus performed and heard his teachings.

Luke was believed to have been written after Mark and Matthew and sometime in the early AD 70’s. There’s no doubt Luke carefully documented the findings in his gospel because there was tons of evidence and he knew all the players personally. Luke wrote his gospel narrative in an orderly sequence but perhaps not in a strict chronological order (because he wasn’t there). Luke’s portrait of Jesus is well balanced and skillfully emphasizes Jesus’ divinity and perfect humanity. Luke wrote his gospel to strengthen the faith of believers and to challenge the misconceptions of unbelievers, especially the Gentiles for whom it was written. Luke seldom quotes the Old Testament and while Luke is the longest gospel it’s the easiest to read. 60% of Luke’s gospel is unique and contains stories found nowhere else. Thus, there’s a great deal that readers of Scripture would not know if the third gospel were not in the Bible. For instance, Luke is the only gospel with a description of Jesus’ ascension into heaven.

Luke gives special emphasis to prayer because he considered prayer one of the most precious things in the world. The gospel of Luke is noted for its portrayal of the importance of women in a time when women were treated as second class citizens. Luke praises God more than any of the other gospels. Luke shows supreme interest in the poor, the outcasts and the downtrodden of the world. The most outstanding characteristic of Luke is that it’s the universal gospel. All barriers are down. Jesus Christ is for all people without distinction. A Jewish person would not have written Luke. Of all the gospels Luke best shows the infinite sweep of God’s love for man, his special creation. Luke answered Jesus’ call to preach the gospel to all nations. Luke was from Macedonia so he returned to Greece to preach the gospel of Christ where he suffered martyrdom by hanging.

The book of Mark was written by John Mark, a Jew from a prominent Jerusalem family some time between 55-70 AD, while in Rome where Mark was a disciple of the Apostle Peter. As a young man Mark accompanied his uncle Barnabas and the Apostle Paul on their first missionary trip. Later, in Rome as Peter’s disciple and personal secretary Mark was always present when Peter preached the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles who lived there. Mark not only heard Peter preach often he had numerous private conversations with Peter where he learned intimate details of the life of Jesus that he later recalled from memory as he wrote his gospel. Peter was illiterate as were all the disciples of Jesus except for Matthew.

The Gentiles in Rome asked Mark to write down everything Peter was preaching about Jesus so as to preserve the eyewitness testimony of Peter, greatest of the apostles. Mark probably wrote his gospel shortly after Peter’s death in Rome in 67 AD. The Emperor Nero had Peter crucified upside down on a cross. Mark’s gospel was written in Greek which was the common language of the civilized world. Since Mark was writing his gospel for a mostly Gentile audience he rarely quotes from the Old Testament. The hallmarks of the Greek style of writing are realism and simplicity. Mark’s goal was to write down and report all of the facts of Jesus’s life as he knew them even if he was unsure of the exact order of events (because he wasn’t there). Mark’s gospel is a straightforward, dramatic narrative about Jesus emphasizing Jesus’ actions and deeds while also stressing Jesus is the divine Son of God.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels. The word synoptic comes from two Greek words which mean “to see together.” There three gospels can be compared side by side and much of the material is the same and with pretty much the same events in the same order. Much of the wording is even identical. In fact, only 24 verses in Mark do nor occur somewhere in Matthew or Luke. However, each of the gospels are different enough to show they were not written by the same person. The evidence points to the gospel of Mark being written first and then used as a guide by Matthew and Luke when they wrote their gospels. Matthew and Luke changed the order of events slightly as they recalled them. Matthew and Luke also fitted in extra material as they saw fit. Mark is the essential gospel because it’s the first and most complete record of the life of Jesus.

Mark’s theme is to identify Jesus as the Son of God and at the same time summon people to repent in faith to the good news of Jesus Christ. Mark also strives to show us the human side of Jesus. More than any of the other gospels Mark emphasizes the passions and emotions of Jesus. Mark gives us a strong picture of both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus. After all, Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. The first coming of Jesus to the earth was as a suffering servant and Mark is the gospel that best portrays that. As you read Mark you can feel Mark’s awe, astonishment and excitement because he knew Jesus was God among us. Mark knows he’s writing down the greatest story ever told. The story of God coming to earth to redeem his fallen creation from sin and restore their fellowship with God so that man can have eternal life in heaven in the presence of Almighty God.

Because Mark served two apostles, Peter and Paul, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Mark was an important disciple of Christ in his own right. Mark was involved in much of the work of the early church and Mark was a gifted preacher of the gospel as well. As a disciple Mark responded to Jesus’ command to preach the gospel to all nations. Mark moved to Alexandria, Egypt where he founded the Christian church there. Mark was martyred for preaching the gospel while in Egypt. Mark had his feet bound by an angry crowd and he was drug by his heels through the streets of Alexandria by a team of horses.

The gospels present independent, coherent narratives centering on the messianic mission of Jesus Christ which culminates in his death on the cross and his resurrection. Each of the four gospels are necessary in the story of Jesus because they each have a distinct structure and literary plan with a particular theological emphasis. Each gospel highlights a different aspect of Jesus’ identity and mission. Viewed together the four gospels provide a comprehensive testimony of the most remarkable man who ever lived, the God-man Jesus Christ, who came to earth from heaven to secure salvation for those who place their trust in him.

The book of Matthew is placed as the first gospel in the Bible because it’s the Jewish gospel and God’s original plan was to bring salvation to the Jew first and then the Gentile. Matthew is the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. Matthew weaves Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah with New Testament fulfillment of those prophecies in the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible contains over sixty prophecies about the promised Messiah which Jesus fulfilled and Matthew covers just about all of them. Matthew refers back to Old Testament prophecy about sixty times with statements such as “was fulfilled” and “so that what was spoken might be fulfilled.”

Matthew was a Jew writing his gospel in Hebrew between 60-70 AD with a strong Jewish perspective to convince other Jews that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. All Jews knew the Messiah would be a direct descendant of King David so Matthew began his gospel with a genealogy of Jesus’ bloodline from Abraham through King David and finally to Joseph. Many people don’t realize it but if the rule of the kings of Israel had not been broken Joseph the carpenter would have been the rightful king of Israel as a son of David. Jesus, as the adopted son of Joseph, was the legal heir to the throne of Israel. Most people are also unaware that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also of the Davidic bloodline. Jesus was heir to the throne of Israel both legally through Joseph and by blood through his mother Mary. God was making it clear to everyone from every angle that his Son Jesus Christ was King of the Jews.

As an Apostle of Christ and one of the twelve original disciples of Jesus Matthew saw the miracles Jesus performed and heard his teachings about the kingdom of God. Matthew wrote his gospel to preserve his eyewitness testimony about the ministry of Jesus. Matthew’s gospel emphasizes certain theological truths. 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. We refer to this as the church, the kingdom of God, consisting of both believing 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 Old Testament.

The gospel of Matthew has given us the entire salvation plan for man from Genesis to Revelation. Matthew reveals God’s future plans for his church and kingdom. Matthew contains the five discourses of Jesus outlining many of his teachings which is why Matthew is known as the teaching gospel. Scripture is quoted from Matthew more often than any of the other gospels. Matthew is especially strong concerning end time events and the Second coming of Jesus Christ. Matthew’s dominating theme is that of Jesus as King. Matthew writes his gospel ultimately to demonstrate the royalty of Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Lion of Judah, and the Son of Almighty God. On the Mount of Olives before ascending back to heaven Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, which was to preach the gospel to all nations. Matthew went on to preach the gospel of Christ in Ethiopia where he suffered martyrdom by the sword.