Category: 4 Gospels + Good News of the NEW Testament
What are the Gospels?
FOUR Gospels:
GOOD NEWS! (That’s what Gospel means.)
Matthew, Mark, Luke & John begin the New Testament proclaiming the Good Newsof Israel’s long-awaited Messiah and talk of JESUS Christ.
The four Gospels are first hand witness + proclaiming GOOD NEWS
by two Jewish Apostles of the Messiah JESUS, Matthew & John
Two gentile(non-jewish) followers of THE WAY of Jesus Christ, Mark & Luke, who proclaim the GOSPEL recorded from witness of Peter, Paul and other Apostles and disciples of JESUS in the first century.
READ the Good News of the Messiah and Savior Jesus from accounts of His twelve Apostles & others witnessing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the four Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
SHARE the Gospel
with your Christian friends and those who do not yet believe in JESUS CHRIST.
Comment on a TalkofJESUS post and SHARE in your social media world.
IF you have READ my 2025 CE EASTER post (above), then you may realize that the GOSPEL — in John’s case — has been preached for a number of years.
~ A.D. 85 – the Gospel of APOSTLE JOHN
Do the math and you will easily see that since Christ rose from death sometime around AD 30-33 according to most historical estimates, then EASTER had been celebrated by saints of The Way for OVER 50 YEARS by the time the Apostle recorded:
his Gospel,
three epistles to the Church and
the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John!
– with specific mention of the witness of saints of seven churches as examples to us.
To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs,
appearing to them over a period of forty days
and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
JESUS’ historical crucifixion on a Roman cross is an undisputable fact.
Christ’s resurrection after three days — in His recognizable resurrection body, with the wounds of the Cross –– and in the very Spirit of the same JESUS of Nazareth — the Son of Man known personally to hundreds of disciples and thousands of first century witnesses — is true and verifiable fact REJECTED by those who also deny the One Living God of all creation and all of its created.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
..but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
Gospel of John 17a,18b CSB
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
John closes his proclamation and witness of Apostolic Good News:
This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his {Jesus’] testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the [scrolls] that would be written.
AND as you know from our 2025 Easter post, the Lord challenged Nicodemus:
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”
Now through the testimony of both Peter and John recorded by Luke in Acts of the Apostles we will glance at the Trinity and introduction of the Spirit on Pentecost ~AD 33.
40 days, and then Pentecost
And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
.. they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.
[Two angels instructed the Eleven]
..” This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”
Please consider its Gospel application in your own brief mortal life. - RH
Acts 2 is a powerful chapter that introduces the Holy Spirit’s dynamic presence in the lives of believers and demonstrates the transformation it brings. The followers of Jesus move from being a fearful, waiting group to a bold, active community witnessing for Christ. The chapter underscores the compelling power of the Gospel message and the magnetic draw of a loving, unified, and Spirit-led community. This chapter serves as a timeless model for the Church, inspiring us to be led by the Spirit, devoted to God’s Word, committed to fellowship, and actively involved in meeting the needs of those around us.
On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples are together when a sound like a violent wind fills the house, and they see what seems to be tongues of fire that separate and rest on each of them. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they start to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enables them. A diverse crowd gathers, bewildered because each person hears their native language spoken. Some are amazed and wonder what it means, while others mock the disciples, suggesting they are drunk.
For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, because he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost.
The CHURCHES and their saints in every place have become dear to the Apostles — including Paul.
But for those early years after the RESURRECTION of the Lord Jesus Christ +++ Pentecost continued to provide evidence and witness of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Twenty years after Christ’s ascension now — twenty years after the first signs of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem on Pentecost — and during the remaining years of the mortal lives of the Apostles PENTECOST provided the saints of The Way a gospel witness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — who will come again in GLORY at the last Day.
What’s NEXT in our witness to the world in 2025 CE?
Lord-willing, in MAY 2025 TalkofJESUS series from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians will continue.
The following is a fictional first-hand account of John and his Gospel witness of three A.D. first century men so familiar to Christians that we may have missed the impact of the events of Holy Week on the New Testimony of their saved lives.
~ A.D. 85 – the Gospel of APOSTLE JOHN
You’ve just read from the beginning of my Gospel just published. By now everyone I mentioned in this introduction to the Lord Jesus Christ is long gone along with many more followers of the Way and Apostles.
As you know I was the youngest of the twelve. It’s been fifty years now since His resurrection. And those who were not murdered for our faith after Jerusalem’s destruction [in A.D. 70] just fifteen years ago have been buried in Christ. Yet we know that these live with Him in eternal life.
These include my brother James — and Jesus’ brothers. And in Rome, Simon Peter, my early mentor and close friend, — and our beloved Apostle Paul.
But today I want to tell you about two men — important men, in fact even more important than Paul at that time — older men of great honor and faithful leaders of the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin. Trouble was that if they would have followed Jesus openly back when they tried to speak up in their official capacities,
Caiaphas (who controlled all of the political outcomes and income in Jerusalem at that time) would have had them banned from the Temple for life. And even though their age dictated that these Elders should prepare their graves for the near future, Caiaphas probably would have had them stoned to death.
A.D. 30 – Joseph of Arimathea
After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission.
Although you know this Gospel well from the day of Jesus' crucifixion and burial, from an earlier time we will witness what these secretive disciples of Jesus from the Sanhedrin encountered when they came to Him privately.
Recall that Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the grave and called him out while the Jews were weeping for him. The witness of Lazarus had been the buzz of all Jerusalem when their Christ rode into town just five days earlier.
Throughout these previous three years of Jesus’ teaching and miracles many of the Jews of every class had believed in Him — and even some Samarians, Romans and Syrians.
,, But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.,
,, Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.,
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
Do you suppose that Joseph or Nicodemus would have missed this important feast? Of course not! These members of the Sanhedrin would have been expected to be in the Temple courts.
Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him!
Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
A rhetorical question, no doubt, attempting to show consensus of the learned Rabbis of the Sanhedrin. But, an unexpected internal dissention:
“Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”
John 7:51 – Question of Nicodemus to the ruling council
Their mocking response is not unexpected.
“Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Gospel of John 3:
Please focus on the real men present and not present in this all-too-familiar Gospel. These are:
Nicodemus, an esteemed Pharisee, is the man who calls Jesus, 'Rabbi' or 'teacher.'
Pharisee is Of Hebrew origin cf פָּרַשׁ (H6567), A sect that seems to have started after the Jewish exile.
Rabbi, also of Hebrew origin, is a proper way to address certain Masters:
my great one, my honourable sir
Rabbi, a title used by the Jews to address their teachers (and also honour them when not addressing them)
“Truly, truly [amēn, amēn ], I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Gospel of John 3 ESV
Jesus response clearly addresses the Kingdom of God (since this leading Pharisee has confessed that He is from God), for Jesus had in the past referred to these as 'blind guides.'
But Nicodemus becomes clearly confused by Jesus' illustration. So his response is literal (with no clear picture of God's Kingdom).
“How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
John 3:4 – Nicodemus (who is old) asking Jesus how to be ‘born again.’
“Truly, truly [amēn, amēn ], I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus had met the Son of Man face to Face back then. And now the next thing Jesus said of Himself made more sense to Joseph, him and other believers familiar with the Books of Moses.
And the people spoke against God and against Moses, – Numbers 21
Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, [repentance] for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people.
[And Jesus has interceded for all who repent and ask Him to intercede before God the Father. — Washed of sin — baptized – changed permanently by the Spirit]
And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
And what must those faithful Jews have wondered — even those so bold as Joseph of Arimathea after Christ’s crucifixion – to see the Son of Man LIFTED UP on a ROMAN CROSS?
“.And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
Picking up in John’s fictional re-telling of Jesus’ burial and also in his Gospel:
~ A.D. 85. John’s reflection on Jesus’ resurrection
On the third day of Jesus’ burial Mary of Magdala returned to the tomb just before dawn.
The stone had been rolled away, its seal broken and no Roman guards present anywhere!
She ran back to get Simon. I ran with them back to the garden tomb where I stooped to look in the cave and saw the linen cloths lying there. Then I turned to Peter as he went inside.
When I followed him I also saw the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head by itself, folded up in a place away from the stacked linen cloths,
Then I was certain that the Lord was no longer there.
Mary remained behind as Simon and I ran back into town.
Then in the tomb she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain.
(Neither Simon nor I had seen them, but Mary shared this angelic conversation with us later.)
She then turned around and saw a man standing outside the tomb. He asked the same question of her as the two angels,
“Woman, why are you weeping?” Then the man inquired, ’tis zēteō,’ that is, “Whom are you seeking?”
Then she addressed him, kyrios(which generally means, Lord) — “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
But then, she reported the man’s reply she heard in a familiar voice:
“Μαρία” (Maria or Mary)
“Rabbouni (Rabbi) , she answered Jesus in Hebrew.
Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father” and sent her to us with some additional instructions.
fictional paraphrase of John 20:15-18
Peter and I somehow missed Him too, but our Lord was there in the flesh — alive and breathing!
Later that evening
We were still afraid that the Jews would come after us too, especially Peter. We had locked the doors of our upper room in Jerusalem.
שָׁלוֹם שָׁלוֹם לְךָ
“Peace, Peace to you.”
It was the Lord Jesus greeting us as He stood suddenly with us in this locked room!
Then He showed them his hands and his side — a gash through each hand, open yet without blood — and a long upward rip into His right ribs, again without blood. Our risen Lord, who the Romans and Jews had lifted up nailed to a Cross — our friend and Master whom we had laid in a tomb — RAISED UP and in our very presence — in Person!
And then Jesus said again,
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Then the Lord breathed on the ten of us and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
(I cannot explain the sudden warm breath which lit on my head and infused my flesh.) Then He continued,
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Monday, a week later
Jesus appeared to us again, except this time Thomas had returned. Once again the doors were locked.
שָׁלוֹם לְךָ
“Peace be with you.”
““Put your finger here, and see my hands,” He said to Thomas. And after Thomas obeyed our Master Jesus also said, “Put out your hand, and place it in my side.
Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
(We were all amazed — still — and meek before Him as if God the Father was in our midst in the Son of Man who had suffered this injustice — for us — and for those of you who now believe.)
Later we would return to Galilee as the Lord commanded, home once –l but now just one more place where our risen Rabbi Jesus, the Christ of God would again teach us why He had been lifted up for our sake from the words of Scripture we had heard for years and yet did not fully understand because He had not yet anointed us with the Holy Spirit.
Christ IS Risen!
He taught us for fifty days more that we may proclaim the Gospel to those who believe.
Do you believe?
Jesus was lifted up on a cross in order that your sins may be forgiven
AND
that you might be born again — in water and in Spirit.
Celebrate His Resurrection +++ Have a blessed Easter.
“Are you the king of the Jews? ” the governor asked him. Jesus answered, “You say so.”
— Matthew 27:11 (CSB)
Religion — Mingled with Politics – A.D. 30’s style
You know the old expression about mixing religion and politics -- ('Don't do it' all warn. Yet in every century our religious and political leaders rely on it.)
Today, Good Friday 2025 of the Common Era, we will address both!
—The POLITICS of ROME mingling with the RELIGION of JEWISH rulers of first century Jerusalem.
First, ROME and the rule of Pilate, the Roman Governors, several Caesars and captive/cooperative kings. This of course would include severalKing Herod’s and various Governor Herod‘s.
The cooperative nature of the Roman peace made strange bedfellows, so to speak.
Although it all comes to its pinnacle in the trial of Jesus Christ, the politics of these Roman and faux-Jewish governors and subject-kings will continue to affect the Apostles and saints well beyond Jerusalem’s destruction by Rome just forty years from this pivotal day in history.
For MORE insight into the politics of first century Jerusalem take a look at the above post from September, A.D. 2020. - RH
The Governor’s Examination of the Jewish King Jesus
From Pilate’s early-morning awakening by Jerusalem’s Jewish officials it began like this (as reported by Matthew, Jesus’ Disciple who had himself had an official tax-collecting post for Rome).
After tying him [Jesus] up, they [the chief priests and elders of Jerusalem] led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
— Matthew 27:2 (CSB)
At this point Matthew reports nothing more of the examination of Jesus by Pilate.
Let’s look at the testimony of the other Gospels.
So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews? ”
He answered him, “You say so.”
3 And the chief priests accused him of many things.
Pilate questioned him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? Look how many things they are accusing you of! ”
But Jesus still did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed.
–– Mark 15:2-5 (CSB)
(The Gospels witness this mix of the Jewish false charges and the examination of the Governor in this brief early-morning balcony scene of sorts.)
Let’s move back a bit further in the transition of the actions which brought the accused King Jesus of the Jews before the Roman Governor.
Luke 23:
Then the whole company of them [the gathering of the Council] arose and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying,
“We found this man [Jesus] misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
And Pilate asked him,
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
And he answered him, “You have said so.”
Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds,
“I find no guilt in this man.”
But they were urgent, saying,
“He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”
Can you see the contemptable REJECTION of Pilate’s authorityby the same religious officials?
They falsely claimed that JESUS would not allow Jewish followers to pay a Roman tax to Caesar — a tax which of course funds the Roman Governor and legions overseeing this captive city of Jerusalem.
Therefore the next POLITICAL move of both the Governor and these Jewish religious officials is to send the case to a more mutually agreeable jurisdiction – that of the Roman-appointed King legitimately appointed by the Caesar’s from the ruling family of the Herod’s.
The King’s Examination of King Jesus
We refer, of course, to political Judean King receiving Jesus, the Christ of the Jews!
(How volatile this judgment challenging who is king?)
And when he (the Roman Governor Pilate) learned that he [Jesus of Galilee] belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he [Jesus] made no answer.
The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him [the Jewish Christ or Messiah, Jesus] with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he [King Herod] sent him [Christ Jesus] back to Pilate [the Roman Prefect/Governor].
And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
Yes, 'strange bedfellows' indeed, but not so out of the ordinary for the great Herod's - Kings of the Jews!
Friends, Romans and Jewish countrymen.. (let us make pax–shalom)..
Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them,
“You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.
Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us.
Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.”
Jerusalem Evangelical Witnesses Political Action Committee –
JEWPAC
Now don't get all bent out of shape over my fictional illustration of the San Hedren of A.D. first century Jerusalem -- religious leaders beholden to the politics of Rome.
WE all know and recognize the function of Political Action Committees -- even 21st century C.E. Christian Evangelical PAC's
-- they raise and spend MONEY to influence a political outcome desired by leaders holding the purse-strings of THE PEOPLE.
“What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him [Judas Iscariot] thirty pieces of silver.
One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up..
“.. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ ..”
The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
and they cried out—the whole multitude—saying, “Away with this One, and release Barabbas to us,” .. Pilate again then—wishing to release Jesus—called to them, but they were calling out, saying,
Surly, a pre-meditated placement of party members loyal to its leaders pressing against true judgment -- shouting down all opposition in order to create a consensus of social truth opposed to the True Savior of Jew and gentile.
These Chief Priests of Jerusalem had party leaders and blind sheep in their political pocket!
No Jew would dare oppose the mammon of their political power and leadership.
Buying the lies of status quo
AFTER Jesus burial and resurrection these same Political Action Committee-men would have to counter true witness of over five hundred men who knew that the Christ – Jesus of Nazareth – was no longer in the grave.
HE IS RISEN!
.. some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened.
A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. They told the soldiers,
“You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ If the governor [Pontius Pilate] hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.”
So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say.
Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.
[.. reports the Disciple Matthew Levi, who recorded his Gospel in Hebrew about 30 years later.
