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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 News of 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.
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  • Above the Golden Rule

    Above the Golden Rule

    Jesus said: “This is the great and first commandment.”

    Do you know what it is?

    You do not have to be a Christian to know the golden rule. We have heard it quoted by unbelievers as a standard of behavior that we should love one another.  But do not fall into the trap of the world in giving a commandment of God and an emphasis of Jesus a misplacement in your priorities.

    In fact, that is the trap the Pharisees and Sadducees often tried to bait with their questions to Jesus. Whatever His answer, they had a better one… or so they thought. In fact in this instance they probably had the Ten Commandments in mind.

    Matthew 22

    The Great Commandment

    34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

    36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

    37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

    39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

    What is Jesus saying here?

    In context of the Ten Commandments, the first four Commandments relate to our obedience to and worship of the Living God. These are the MOST important, yet even Christians have a tendency to overlook their importance.

     Deuteronomy 5:

    6“‘I am the Lord your God…

    7 “‘You shall have no other gods before me.

    8 “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them…

    11 “‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

    12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God…

    The second is like it… The ‘golden rule’ is a summary of Commandments IV – X, which all relate to how as God’s family we must love one another; yet first: You shall love the Lord OUR GOD!

    Matthew  22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

    37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

    Worship God with ALL your heart, soul, and mind!

    What does this “greatest Commandment” mean to followers of Christ Jesus who have a personal relationship with the Living God?

    Understand what Jesus tells us about our worship of the Lord here:

    • Heart -‘ kardia’ – ‘denotes the centre of all physical and spiritual life’
    • Soul – ‘psychē’ – the breath of life; the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions (our heart, soul etc.); the soul as an essence which differs from the body and is not dissolved by death (distinguished from other parts of the body)
    • Mind – ‘dianoia’ – the mind as a faculty of understanding, feeling, desiring; way of thinking and feeling; thoughts, either good or bad

    Does JESUS mean to say that GOD should be the center of our physical and spiritual life? Does our ‘lord’ mean to say that the seat of our feelings, desires, affections ought to focus on God? Does Christ imply that a Christian should think first about God and what God desires for our life?

    Yes. Yes. And yes.

    “You shall love the Lord your God

    with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

    This is the great and first commandment.

     

     

  • After the Resurrection

    After the Resurrection

    John 21:14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

    My purpose here is not to convince you of proof of the resurrection, but to convict you with the command of our our risen Lord.

    Mark 16:15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

    16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned…”

    We would do well to study all of the Gospel and what Christ Jesus, our Lord, has commanded His servants, those saved by the Blood of the Cross and sent into all the world as witness of God’s compassionate love for sinners like us.

    Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

    13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

    Dr. Luke, historian recording his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles from the first hand testimonies of Peter and the Apostles probably records this with the most details:

    Luke 24: 

    Jesus Appears to His Disciples

    36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”

    37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

    38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

    40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them.

    44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

    Here is a lesson in Scripture from our risen Lord I would have liked to have heard.

    Trust that Luke and the other scribes of the Gospel have accurately recorded much of this as part of what we have read from the life of Jesus Christ prior to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

    45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

    48 You are witnesses of these things.

    One witness betrayed, then hung himself. Condemned to Hell, Judas was not present for these commands.

    One witness to the dark night of Jesus’ trial did not flee, but remained near enough to have denied Jesus as His lord three times. John is witness of Jesus forgiving Peter, before sending Peter to follow in His way to the Cross.

    thomasOne witness had to place his hand in the wounds of the resurrected body of Jesus.

    But we would not have been any less skeptical than Thomas, who was also later martyred for His witness of these things.

     

    Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

    And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

  • Is Your Faith Futile?

    Is Your Faith Futile?

     

    John 11.25

    If in Christ we have hoped in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

    1 Corinthians 15:19

     

    Walk up to an unbeliever and tell them, ‘Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.’

    What will they think? What will they say?

    Will an unbeliever have hope in the resurrection? It is an issue that Paul addresses in writing to the church at Corinth.

    We have just celebrated ‘Resurrection Sunday,’ which the world knows as Easter from ‘traditions;’ however Paul addressed the same questions one might ask you: questions like, ‘Is your faith futile?’

    Isn’t your faith in the resurrection of a man from the dead (Jesus OR you or me…) rather useless and impractical?

    In a word, NO.  Paul’s missing question (for unbelievers) would be:

    Do you believe in God?

    (Remember that Paul is writing to the church. We believe in God. Right?

    IF yes; then all things are possible with God. [Matthew 19:26, Mark 9:23, Mark 10:27]

    The Resurrection of the Dead

    1 Corinthians 15 (English Standard Version)

    12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

    So IF you believe in God, AND IF you believe the Bible is God’s word; do you believe that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead?

    13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

    14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

    STOP here for a moment. Do you believe in God? YES. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? NO.

    (This is what some believe who claim God, but refuse to believe that God would send his only Son to the Cross as a living, human sacrifice for your sins and for mine.) Here is what unbelievers (and some with false claims as christians believe:

    NO, God created man to live and die. Live for this day as God would wish.

    NO judgment, NO hell, no accountability for sin beyond the grave… WE believe in a God of history, but not a God of the present (or of our future).  We may believe in a Jesus of history, too. But our soul dies with our body. No resurrection.

    Paul goes on about the gospel (Good News), as if it too were a lie.

    15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

    17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

    It always comes back to that issue of SIN, doesn’t it?

    Does GOD require a sacrifice for sin? Shall a mere man suffer consequence for sin at the hand of God?

    Is God just? OR is God merciful to all (with justice for none)?

    IF there is NO resurrection and NO eternal life; THEN life has no more meaning than a measurement of a man’s time and death no more meaning than the end of a meaningless life.

    18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

    19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

    Is there no difference in the soul of a Christian and the soul of one who will not believe God?

    Do the dead lie in the ground with lifeless souls rotting with bones and flesh?

    OR

    Does the soul find rest? Does the soul find sleep? (While the seed of flesh and blood waits in the ground for the germination of new Life of the resurrection?

    20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

    And now Paul refers to our sin, for which Christ paid the ransom of His Life on the Cross.

    21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

    Yes, the Resurrection of Christ Jesus is Good News! He IS the Lord over life, as He IS the Lord over death. The Cross would not be necessary without sin; as the resurrection would not be possible without Christ.

    Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

    HE IS RISEN! Our faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord stands on the proof and evidence of Scripture. Our faith in the resurrection is not in vain; for we are not our flesh and bones, but living souls: born again in Christ Jesus our risen Lord!

    53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

    “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
    55 “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

    56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

    58 Therefore, my beloved brothers (and beloved sisters in the Lord), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.