The Gospels
An Overview
Happy New Year! We are finally back this month after taking a short break these last few weeks for the Christmas season and we’re kicking back off with a bang. If you can recall where we left off, we just concluded our study of the Minor Prophets in mid-December which officially puts us in the gospels to kick off the new year. I can’t think of a better time to start our breakdown of the New Testament than the very beginning of 2025. And what better way to start than discussing the life of Christ Himself? Throughout this month, we will be taking each gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and breaking them down into a two-part weekly study. We will be tackling some amazing aspects of Christ’s life that we are so easily inclined to gloss over when reading the gospels and I’m excited to see what God reveals to us through His word as we study this great section of scripture. As John Piper so beautifully states, “The gospel is good news because it brings a person into the everlasting and ever-increasing joy of Jesus Christ. He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening waves; he is the solid beach under our feet, and the air in our lungs, and the beat of our heart, and the warm sun on our skin, and the song in our ears, and the arms of our beloved.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is not just the greatest news that can possibly grace our ears, but it is also the focal point of all of scripture. As we constantly saw through our study of the Major and Minor Prophets, God’s plan to save His people was, is, and will always be Christ. This is the hope that every Christian looked forward to and the hope today that every Christian looks back to. With today being the odd week out for our study, this will be an introductory post on why a study of all of these books is so vital, even though they all cover a similar timeline. With this in mind, let’s dive in.
The Synoptic Gospels
To begin, let’s start by acknowledging a term that will be brought up whenever you do a deep study of the gospels. That term would be the ‘synoptic gospels’. The term synoptic simply means a general summary or synopsis. And the term synoptic gospels refers to the books Matthew, Mark, and Luke because while each one is written from a different perspective, they all cover the same timeline and similar material. But what about John? What does the book of John cover that makes it so unique and separate from the rest? For the full answer, you’ll just have to come back at the end of January when we break down John’s gospel, but for now, the short answer is that John covers a wide scope of history and different theological claims that the other books simply don’t cover. This unique outline is what leads many Christians, including myself, to claim that the book of John is their most favorite book in all of the Bible. Beyond just the timeline and summary of these books, however, is the audience that these gospels were meant to reach. When we see what exactly is said in each of the gospels and what parts of certain stories are highlighted differently among these four books, we see who in particular these men were trying to reach. When looking at the book of Matthew for example, we see a strong emphasis on Jesus being the King of the Jews. The reason for this is that the audience that Matthew is trying to reach is a Jewish audience who have a high view of the Old Testament law. Mark, on the other hand, focuses on Jesus as the suffering servant. This focus was for a wide-ranged audience who needed to be convinced that this Jesus was God and not like other kings who have come and gone. With Luke being a doctor, we see a large part of His book is focused on the miracles Jesus performed and is mainly focused on reaching the non-Jewish community with evidence that Jesus is the Christ. The book of John is written for every non-believer with the goal of convincing them that Jesus is God. When all of these views are considered, it’s easy to see why we must search and study the gospels for all of the wisdom they have to offer.
So That We May Know
Furthermore, not only do the gospels differ in their details, but they support the claims of Christ being who He says He is. The fact that four men who had no relation to each other recorded the life of this man who claimed to be the Christ and each of them recorded multiple of the same miracles performed and the same way that Jesus was raised from the dead speaks volumes to His deity. It’s one thing for one eyewitness to claim these things about Jesus, but to have multiple men record the same timeline with many similarities and few differences just goes to show that these men weren’t striving to copy each other verbatim, but they also weren’t seeking to be set apart from one another either. They simply recorded what they saw Jesus do. And each of these men saw Jesus perform miracles, claim to be one with God, and rise from the dead. Those are some pretty astonishing claims. When all is said and done, we can look to the end of John’s gospel for the reason as to why we are studying the gospels in such detail this month. John 20:31 says, “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.” The reason we are studying these ancient pieces of scripture is the same reason they were written. To see if, in fact, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. I hope and pray that as you go on this journey with us through the gospels this month, your minds will be opened to all the details that you may skim over every time you read these famous books and that you will find a new appreciation and deeper love for your savior.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] The Gospel. (2024, September 12). Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/topics/the-gospel#
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