Four Gospel Narratives

The Gospels, which are the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible, tell the good news of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God gave us four Gospel narratives because each narrative provides a unique viewpoint. When you put the four Gospel narratives together it gives you a perfect picture of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of Matthew, He is the King of Kings. In the Gospel of Mark, He is the Supreme Servant. In the Gospel of Luke, He is the Son of Man. In the Gospel of John, He is the Divine Christ.

Matthew:

Written by a Jew and primarily for Jews, the theme of the Gospel of Matthew is The King and His Kingdom. A key phrase in the Gospel of Matthew is … “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet …”. Matthew takes Old Testament prophecies and proves through them that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of Kings.

  • Matthew was a tax collector; he was a man everybody hated. The Jews hated him because he worked for Rome and the Romans hated him because he was a Jew.
  • The Gospel of Matthew is interesting in the way that it is organized. It is not written in chronological in order. It is organized by subject.
  • Matthew uses the phrase “That it might be fulfilled as it was spoken by the prophet”, and other similar phrases, to prove that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He goes into the Old Testament and he takes a prophecy and then he brings it into the life of Jesus and says, this is the fulfillment of that prophecy, therefore, this is the Messiah … the King of the Jews … the King of Kings.
  • For a tax collector to know that much about the Old Testament was an unusual thing. Since they did not have many manuscripts back then or books like we have today, Matthew must have memorized scripture and we see that in the way that he writes. Things in the Gospel of Matthew are written in combinations of three or seven to help with memorization.
  • The Gospel of Matthew presents the regal genealogy, the Royal genealogy of Jesus. Matthew systematically traces this genealogy all the way back to Joseph.
  • Matthew writes historically but he inserts some things that you really would not expect. You will be reading along and you are going along fine and then you will hit something and think, oh, whoa, what is that?
  • It is Matthew's primary and deliberate purpose to show how the Old Testament prophecies received their fulfillment in Jesus. Matthew shows how every detail of the life of Jesus on earth was foreshadowed in the prophecies and thus should compel the Jews to admit that Jesus is the Messiah.
  • The Gospel of Matthew deals with the law more than any other Gospel narrative writer. He introduces us to the Scribes and Pharisees, and he deals with them harshly.
  • More than anything else, the Gospel of Matthew contains the teachings of Jesus. If you really want to know the mind of Christ, read the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus used parables as one of His methods of teaching. These parables were common stories with a single message that everyone could relate to.
  • God guided every word in the Gospel of Matthew to give us a perfect picture of the King and His Kingdom.

    • Mark:

    Mark, John Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, primarily wrote down what he heard Peter, Simon Peter, teach and preach. Mark is writing for the Romans and the theme of the Gospel of Mark is The Supreme Servant. Everything in the Gospel of Mark focuses on what Jesus did.

    • A key verse in the Gospel of Mark is Mark 10:45 … “For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”.
    • There is no genealogy in the Gospel of Mark because people are not that interested in the genealogy of a servant. Instead, Mark begins with the ministry of John the Baptist.
    • The Gospel of Mark is written to the Romans and the Romans were not impressed by rhetoric. They were impressed by deeds. There is a great deal of activity in the Gospel of Mark. Mark is showing us what Jesus did and so he writes about many miracles. Mark is not focused on proving who Jesus is, but is instead focused on vindicating Jesus’ ministry by His activity.
    • Mark was involved in the ministry of Jesus. He was involved in the first missionary journey when Barnabas decided to take Mark with them, and Paul concurred, and they went to Cyprus. On the second missionary journey, Barnabas took Mark back to Cyprus.
    • Mark wrote down Peter's stories and it will surprise you a little bit at times because of the way it jumps around.
    • Mark provides many personal touches and presents an emotional gospel narrative. Mark includes things that the other Gospel writers do not include like the emotion that Jesus had at a certain moment.
    • The Gospel of Mark does not flow grammatically like the other Gospel narratives. It is just one story after another. Mark will record five or six miracles in a row, one right after the other.
    • The Gospel of Mark includes accounts of how Jesus interacted with hostile doubters including Jewish leaders, neighbors and family.
    • Mark did not polish what he wrote to make it pretty. Mark just wrote it like it was.
    • God guided every word in the Gospel of Mark to give us a perfect picture of the Supreme Servant.

      • Luke:

      The Gospel of Luke was written by a Gentile for Greek Gentiles. Luke was a medical doctor. Everything in the Gospel of Luke is precisely detailed and meticulously researched. The Gospel of Luke shows us Jesus the man and the Son of Man Is the theme.

      • Luke presents The Son of Man. He presents Jesus as the man, the complete man and the God man. He is writing to the Greeks, who worshipped the human body, and Luke is describing Jesus as the perfect man.
      • Luke was a very faithful friend to Paul and was with Paul to the very end of Paul’s life.
      • The genealogy presented in the Gospel of Luke goes back to Adam, the first man.
      • The Gospel of Luke is the Gospel narrative of the underdog. Luke points out how Jesus lifted those up those who were the underdogs of his day. The Gospel of Luke is the most sensitive of the gospel narratives. Luke also dwells on the idea of Christs’ tenderness towards women and how Jesus lifts up womanhood.
      • The Gospel of Luke is also the Gospel narrative of prayer. More than in any other, we see the kneeling Christ.
      • Luke is the Gospel narrative of joy. He has an element of joy in everything he writes.
      • Luke shows us in his writings how Jesus was able to deal with his critics. Every time adversaries would bring up issues and try to debate Jesus, Jesus was able to deal with that, and many times Jesus deals with it by telling a story. Luke weaves the wonderful truths that Jesus taught throughout his accounts of these debates.
      • Because of his research and study, Luke was able to write a definitive account of the life.
      • Luke gives details that the other Gospel writers do not provide. When you read the Gospel of Luke, you will notice how precise he is in every situation including Christ's triumph as the resurrected Son of God.
      • God guided every word in the Gospel of Luke to give us a perfect picture of the Son of Man.

        • John:

        John is unique in the sense that he is not trying to give us a chronological life of Christ. The Gospel of John starts out … In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That is the theme of the Gospel of John … the Word was God … and the rest of the book is an explanation of what that means.

        • There is enough Judaism in the Gospel of John that every Jew could understand it and there are also enough descriptions of Gentiles coming to be saved that every Gentile could understand it. John is showing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah and the anointed one, that would resonate with the Jewish mind. Then John goes on and uses another phrase, “The Son of God”, and that is a Greek idea. Therefore, the Gospel of John is a universal Gospel narrative written for everyone in the world. 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.”.
        • It is written in beautifully simple Greek. John’s Greek is both simple and profound, and he is a master of verb tenses. In English, tense means time, past tense, future tense, present tense, but in Greek it is not that way. John is a master of orchestrating verb tenses. For example, when he talks about our Salvation, that we are born of God, he will use the perfect tense. The perfect tense is action that has been completed in the past, with the results continuing in the present. That is what Salvation is. It is an action completed in the past, there is a conversion experience, but the results continue in the present.
        • There is no genealogy in the Gospel of John because God has no genealogy.
        • The numbers used in the Gospel of John have symbolic value. For example, ten is the human number (because we have 10 fingers and 10 toes); eight is a transition number that means things are going to change; seven is the number of perfection; six is the number of imperfection; five is the number of grace, four is the cosmic number; three is the divine number; and one is the number of unity. So, there were seven miracles presented in the Gospel of John, only seven. John picked out seven miracles that showed Jesus’ authority over different elements.
        • Everything in the Gospel of John is pointing to the fact that Jesus is not just a man. The Greeks particularly had trouble with the idea of God and man in one being. So, the Gospel of John shows very carefully and clearly that this man, Jesus, was God.
        • John probably started following Jesus when he was around 18 years old and at that time, he was called the son of thunder. So, John starts out as the son of thunder and winds up as the Apostle of Love. That was a big transformation.
        • John refers to miracles as signs. A sign is something that points to something else. John said that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which he did not include in this book. What John wrote was included in order that readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ and have life through His name.
        • Belief is a word that John used repeatedly. Belief is an action word that means more than mental assent. It means more than just agreeing with something. It means acting on it and that is a point of emphasis in the Gospel of John.
        • God guided every word in the Gospel of John to give us a perfect picture of the Devine Christ.
        • The Gospel of John contains some of the greatest statements in the entire Bible on the deity of Jesus Christ including the great “I Am” sayings of Jesus that declare His deity, which can be used to share the Gospel as follows:

          1. Jesus said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger” (John 6:35). Bread in the Bible is the symbol of spiritual life. People all over the world have the same inborn hunger for something, and that something is Jesus Christ.

          2. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). We know that no plant or animal or human life on this earth can live without light. What the sun is to the earth, Jesus Christ is to the human heart.

          3. Jesus said: “I am the door” (John 10:9). The Kingdom of God also has an entrance. It is Jesus Christ. A building may have many doors. But God has only one door to His Kingdom, and that door is Jesus Christ.

          4. Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5). When you receive Christ, He gives you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit produces fruit in your life … love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control.

          5. Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The shepherd lives with his sheep. He gives them food and protection and security. Jesus gave His life for us, His sheep, when He died on the cross.

          6. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25). Jesus offers us eternal life through His life, death and resurrection. We can become new creatures when we are born again spiritually.

          7. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). You have a decision to make when the Holy Spirit convicts you of your need for God and urges you to receive Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of your life, the One who can forgive your sins, the One who can give you eternal life. You can either accept this gift or reject it. To accept it and receive Christ into your heart is as simple as sincerely saying “Lord Jesus, come in. I’m willing to turn from my ways, my sins, and I want to receive You as my Lord and Savior.”