Bible In A Year: Overview of the Gospels

The Gospels continue the story of Scripture by recording the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each present true accounts of Jesus with distinct details and emphases. Together, they reveal Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises and explain the significance of His works and teachings. The Gospels show that the story of redemption continues in Christ according to the Scriptures.

Transcript

Welcome And How To Listen

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our mission is to help the people of God understand the Word of God. Join us each Monday and Thursday for new episode releases. Listen to our full library of content at teachme the Bible.com or by downloading the Teach Me the Bible app from any app store. You're listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Welcome back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. For those of you who don't know, my name is Alex Wolfe, and I'm here with Dr. David Klingler, and we're continuing to walk through the story of the Bible. Our mission is helping the people of God understand the word of God. I want to encourage you to download our app. You can find it on any app store. We also have it on Apple TV, Roku app, all kinds of places you can have access to the app to listen more easily or watch even. And uh just also a reminder we have other resources on our website, teachmethebible.com, you or on the apps, I suppose. Uh where there's book studies, Bible studies, there's um uh resources like articles and blog posts, and uh in addition to what we're doing in this series, which we're again walking through the Bible in a year. And so we've

Entering The New Testament Story

SPEAKER_04 1:20

uh been kind of walking through the old testament, and we find ourselves today beginning in the New Testament, although I think an important note to make is we're not starting a new story. That's right, right? It's continuing on from the Old Testament story, and and we've said how Israel is beginning to come back into the land unrepentant, but it's setting up the scene for what we're gonna find in these gospels when the Messiah comes, uh steps his foot on the earth. And so um we're going to kind of today give an introduction to uh the gospels uh in the in the beginning of the New Testament. So if you want to take it away,

Inspiration In The Author’s Telling

SPEAKER_04 2:00

yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 2:00

Um so uh boy, here's an important distinction. I think that that I don't think I I I know that that people when they think about Jesus, they think about the gospels, they think about the the oh, this is the one where Jesus heals the blind guy. This is the one where Jesus walks on water, this is the one where Jesus feeds the you know the crowds, the four thousand. It's like friends. Is it friends that all the episodes, or this is the one where the other thing is? That's exactly uh and so they don't think of uh of the the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke, the gospel of John. And and when they think about uh you know Luke, they don't think about Acts. You know, so uh and so it's an important distinction to make that inspiration is not in the events, it is in the inspired author's telling of those events. Let me give a an example, an illustration, I think, that works and uh uh have used uh uh in in in classes. Um let's say that I'm driving down the road one day and I see uh uh some car wreck, right? And uh, you know, it's out here on the on the the the the freeway and and then a few days later, uh I'm talking, you know, I'm riding in the car with one of my sons and uh they just happen to be texting and driving. I'm going, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me tell you a story. Um the other day I was driving on this same road uh and I saw a guy not pay attention and and he was texting and driving and you know he he about killed himself right here, right? He big wreck and about killed himself right here. Uh a few days later, my uh my wife says, Hey, do you know do you mind if I take the we have this little ranch vehicle, it's just this little you know junky thing that sometimes we use to run around in. And and uh but there was a time when the tires were bald and said, Hey, do you mind if I take the uh the little ranch? Say, oh yeah, no problem. No, just be careful because it's raining outside and those tires are bald, remember? And and I saw a guy the other day hydroplane on the freeway and about killed himself, right? And say, Well, wait a second, is that the same story? Well, no, it's not the same story, but it is the same event, right? And so, so you highlight different uh uh uh parts of the event, different things that happen in the event to make the specific point. And so each four of these gospel writers are writing to communicate not just that Jesus came and appeared, but but uh they're they're writing to communicate to the audience something specific, right? And they're communicating a specific way. And all the parts of the story that they're telling fit together in their telling of

Do The Gospels Really Contradict

Dr. David Klingler 4:52

the story. Yeah. And so you'll hear people say, well, the gospels contradict themselves. No, they don't contradict them themselves at all. They uh they're they're actually very internally consistent, you know. Um when it says Jesus healed the blind guy, well, was there one blind guy or was there two blind guys? Well, if there was two, then there was one. So one story focuses on one, maybe one story focus so that you can focus on different details uh and uh to make the point. Um if you want to understand the gospels, and here's the here's the point I'm making, if you want to understand the gospels, you don't intermix them.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, right.

Dr. David Klingler 5:31

Uh the one of them was written first, and and there's a big argument about whether Matthew was written first or whether whether the gospel of Mark was written first. It doesn't matter. Right. It doesn't change what each what what Matthew said or what Mark said. Uh and uh it's it's highly, highly likely that the readers of Matthew didn't have Mark, and the readers of Mark didn't have Matthew. Uh and uh and then Luke comes along and he writes to Theophilus, and uh, and we know that that Luke had access to, it appears he had access to to both Matthew and Mark. Um but Theophilus didn't. If Theophilus had Matthew and Mark, Luke wouldn't have to write his gospel. Right. Uh but Luke writes his gospel. Uh he begins by saying, you know, uh he's writing to Theophilus so that Theophilus will know the exact truth about the things accomplished among us, and that us would include Luke, who's not in the gospels. Luke is in the book of Acts. Yeah.

unknown 6:30

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 6:30

And so just as those were eyewitnesses uh, you know, and servants of the word handed them down to us. And so he's he has done research, he's he's he knows the eyewitness account, right? But now he's communicating that to Luke and all the things that were irrelevant in that account to explain Paul and Timothy and Barnabas and uh in Luke's present ministry, yeah, uh, so that Theophilus will know the things accomplished among us. Luke, Paul, right. So so these these uh gospel narratives, these gospel stories, have to be understood individually.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 7:08

Right. And often we do this, right? I don't know, it's kind of a gospel stew where you throw in all the stuff and you mix it up, and then you know, and then people say, well, this one contradicts with that one, and then uh and the other thing is uh is you'll find places where you don't understand the point being made unless you're tracking through the story.

Plot Context Changes Hard Passages

Dr. David Klingler 7:31

Here's uh so so Moses uh you know gives the command. This is in Exodus chapter 20, Deuteronomy chapter 5, uh that the children are to uh to honor your father and mother. Uh Paul repeats that in Ephesians, right? In Ephesians, uh uh, you know, children uh honor your father and mother, for this is the first command with a promise. And and so you're you know, so you've got Paul and Moses and uh and Jesus all uh you know uh in in you know places saying one thing, but then Jesus uh this is over in uh uh in uh Luke chapter 14. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, he's uh even his own life. He cannot be my disciple. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, Jesus. Um boy, you're you're you're you know, do you agree with Moses? Well, of course he does. Well, but well, but Moses said you're not on your father. What's going on here? Well, you have to understand what's developing in the plot of the gospel of Luke to understand what's going on here. And and each scene moves the plot to the next scene in each gospel, and so the gospels are internally

Why Luke’s Order Matters

Dr. David Klingler 8:43

consistent. Um the the Sermon on the Mount in the the the Gospel of Matthew is going to drive everything in that book. That's right. That all of the words of Jesus are going to to show up again all the way uh through the book. The uh Luke Acts, um uh you know, the book of Luke begins. Um you know, Luke tells it this way. He says uh uh that he's writing an orderly account and uh and or a uh you know in consecutive order, or something like that. You know, they translate it, something like that. Right. And and we think, well, the chronological, it's not chronological. It's it begins with the birth announcement of John the Baptist, then the birth announcement of Jesus, then the birth of John the Baptist, then the birth of Jesus, then the ministry of John the Baptist, then the ministry of Jesus. Uh and and so John the Baptist's ministry ends, this is in chapter three, John the Baptist's ministry ends in prison, uh, and Jesus' ministry begins with his baptism. Well, John the Baptist baptized Jesus, but how did John the Baptist baptize Jesus if he's in prison? No, no, no. Uh that's that's the orderly account. He's telling about the ministry of John the Baptist from beginning to end, and then he tells about the ministry of Jesus from beginning to end. Right. And um, and so why is that relevant? Well, um, you need to know this in the book of Acts because when we get to our book of Luke, because when we get to Acts chapter one, and the disciples are replacing Judas Iscariot. Judas, remember Judas betrays Jesus, and uh he is uh uh he hangs himself, and and so the uh so the disciples they're they're going to draw lots to fill the office according to the the the uh the prophecy in Psalm 109, let his office be uh occupied by another man or let another man take his uh in it says this is in chapter one, verse twenty-one of Acts. It is therefore necessary that the men who accompany uh the who have accompanied us all the time um that the Lord Jesus went out uh uh from among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up. In other words, the qualifications for being the eyewitness along with the other eleven was you had to be there the whole time from the baptism to his taking up. And yeah, and so ties it all together. Yeah, so so the the the details that are included in Luke are necessary for understanding Acts.

Stop Blending The Four Accounts

Dr. David Klingler 11:15

Now, here's the problem it's hard to separate those in your mind. Uh you you need to put some uh you know, basically a uh a wall uh in between the gospel accounts. Not so that you um you know don't learn about Jesus. You we put a wall in so you understand what that gospel writer is saying in his gospel, right? Because uh again, the inspiration uh inerrancy is not in the event itself, but your only access to the event is through the uh the telling of the apostles and prophets. Let me let me make the this point a little more clearly. So let's say that we're you know, let's let's get in our, you know, uh was it an 85 DeLorean? Phil, is it an 85 DeLorean uh that uh Back to the Future? Whatever. Let's get in our Back to the Future uh uh you know DeLorean and let's do some time travel. Uh-huh. Uh and and and and we we get in there and we go and get going to 88 miles an hour. This is dating all over, you know. Uh if you hadn't seen uh Back to the Future, bless your heart on what's wrong with you. Uh but uh but you know we set the the clock for uh you know for the the the conquest and we go and and there we are. We you know we we get out of the the DeLorean, the the doors uh you know they they they swing up and uh and there you are and and and you're gonna watch uh the uh the the conquest of Jericho, right? And uh and you set up your video camera uh and uh and you start watching these these people walk in front of the camera and you keep watching and they're just walking, you know, and they're circling the city. And you you keep watching through your camera lens and you say, wait a second, that that's the same people. You know, there they go again. It's the same people, and and they just keep walking by and you know, and you know, there's there's just a multitude of people, and they keep walking around and walking around. Seven times they do this, and then they all stop and then they blow some horns and the walls all fall down. You're going. What on earth? Okay, well, there you go. Well, there you go. What? I I don't what do you make of that? I I don't know what to make of that. I saw the event, I have it video recorded. What's the significance of it? You need the prophet to explain it. Uh and so it's it's not just the event itself. Now, the event is supernatural, right? But you need the inspired uh uh uh explanation of the supernatural events.

Miracles Need Inspired Interpretation

Dr. David Klingler 13:55

Yes, we're not saying the event didn't happen. No, the event happened, and the event was supernatural, but but the supernatural miracle, you know, the feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000, the uh the walking on water, the healing of the blind man, causing the blind to see, the uh the the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the dead to be raised, the poor, all of those events have to be explained interpreted by the early in the yeah, in their in their the their significance and relation to the previous revelation uh of the uh of the prophets. Right. Uh and so it is the eyewitness account, the the the apostles inspired explanation, uh, inspired explanation of the events and their importance, relation to the Old Testament. All this took place in order to fulfill uh that which was proclaimed by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin will bear it. You know, uh and so these are the type of uh of things that are important. And so the gospel writers, each gospel writer is going to highlight their telling of the story for their specific uh purpose. Uh in the gospel of John, he came to his own, the word became flesh, tabernacle among us. Uh and so John is highlighting uh the signs, you know, the words and works, many other signs Jesus did in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these were written so that you would believe. Uh he came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But whoever receives him, and and the way that John sets out that contrast is very interesting. We'll talk about this more. We're gonna go through each of these gospels and and explain uh how each of these gospels uh work in the coming weeks. But we want to just introduce this, and so just to get you uh get you thinking, the the light and the darkness, the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend. That that's John. Um he came to his own and the known his own didn't receive him. You know, the poster child for his own would be Nicodemus, uh a poster child for someone not his own would be the Samaritan woman. And uh, and in fact, every time Jesus goes to to Jerusalem, he's rejected. Every time he's up there, you know, in the uh this around the Sea of Galilee, the you know, he's he's received. And he came to his own, his own didn't receive him, but whoever receives him, and so there's this contrast going all the way through the story and this developing uh of the of the story. Uh the eyewitness account of both the words and works of Jesus. Uh the upper room discourse uh is going to explain these things. Yeah. The death, burial, resurrection, the re uh you know, recommissioning of Peter and sending out the disciples. It's all there in one book, uh, but you have to understand how each of the scenes of John's book fit together.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yes.

Dr. David Klingler 16:43

Um Luke's doing something very different. He's trying to accomplish something uh very different than John, and he's presenting the material in a very different way.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 16:56

Uh, you know, so um the the poor rich contrast, both uh spiritually poor, uh you know, uh the the the poor, the humble will be exalted, uh the rich, the prideful, the arrogant, the exalted will be humbled. Uh that's that's uh Luke. And you know, any story dealing with money, it's in Luke. Right. The the rich man rises. Uh and so right, so you know, the way that Luke prevent uh presents it, uh the the uh in chapter five of Luke, there you know, why you know the Pharisees are going to ask Jesus' disciples what why do y'all eat with tax gathers and sinners? And and and so uh Jesus does a lot of eating with sinners all the way through Luke, Acts, and particularly uh he eats with the Pharisees who were sinners. I say some recognize it, some don't. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Uh and it's not that they don't need to repent, uh, it's that they don't think they need to repent. So that that's the way that that Luke tells the story. Matthew does the, you know, he has a different strategy, Mark has a different strategy, and but they're all telling the same part of

What Each Gospel Emphasizes

Dr. David Klingler 18:09

the story. Okay, so if we were to summarize all four, it would be the promised Christ appeared, um, the promised one of the old testament appeared, was rejected by his own. You know, and just so John says it, you know, he came to his own, his own didn't receive him. He was rejected by his own, um, both during his life and after his death, burial, and resurrection. Now, uh the um that that plays out in Luke Acts. Okay, you don't get that in that re post-resurrection rejection um after, you know, in the in in Mark, you know, or or Matthew or or John. Uh but it plays out in Luke Acts. And so the continuing rejection of Israel and the gospel and going to the Gentiles is fully fleshed out in the uh in the book of Acts, and it explains Paul's ministry, Luke Acts. Um you get indications of that. You certainly get that explanation in the book of Matthew, but it's in the book of Matthew. And so point is simply there are four parallel tellings of the same part of the story, the same part of God's redemptive history.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 19:19

They refer to uh oftentimes the same occasions, the same events. They don't always refer to the same events, but but often they refer to to some of the same events. Uh, but they're telling this story to make different points. Uh and so that's uh that's important. That's good.

Why Luke Must Stay With Acts

Dr. David Klingler 19:36

Um the book of uh Luke Acts, uh Luke Acts then is uh uh is so when we think Luke, you need to think of Acts. And at the seminary, um, you know, we we have a course and the master's level we call you know we it's the gospels, and we just cover Matthew, Mark, uh, Luke, and John. And then then in the next course, uh it's Acts, Paul, and epistles. Well, I don't think that's the best way to to you know arrange those books. Right. I understand why they do it. Um so in the PhD program uh we put Acts with the Gospels, right? And so it's the Gospels, so it's Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke X. You know, as but Luke X, you have to say Luke X.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

It's not Luke and Academy, Luke X. You have to put it all together, right?

Dr. David Klingler 20:24

Well, why do they put Acts with the the Pauline epistles? Well, because uh in chapter uh nine, you're introduced to this guy named Saul of Tarsus, who has this uh come to Jesus experience literally, uh and his name is changed to Paul, uh, and he is the missionary that's gonna take the gospel to the Gentiles, and he's going to go on missionary journeys in his uh that that's that are recorded in the book of Acts. And during those missionary journeys, during the story that's recorded in the book of Acts, uh it kind of gives the uh you know the backdrop, the the backstory for a lot of what Paul writes uh in to the Galatians, to the Thessalonians, uh to the uh Corinthians or what have you. So uh and so if we read Luke Acts, um records a lot of Paul's ministry uh in the second half of the book of Acts, uh then you'll understand those epistles better, the Pauline epistles better. Uh and so there's a reason why we put Acts Pauline epistles together.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 21:33

Um but when you put Acts with Pauline epistles, you really are move removing Acts from the Book of Luke. And we want to think Luke Acts is the unit, and then oh, and that explains the Pauline epistles, right? At least some of them. So that's good. So that's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Very good.

Dr. David Klingler 21:49

Uh in the in the coming weeks, we're gonna go through uh Matthew, Mark, John, Luke Acts. We'll we'll probably do it that way, and then we'll talk about the Pauline Acts. Epistles. The Pauline epistles, and we'll say this again, but just uh to let this start to sink in. Uh the the Paul's letters, epistle, what's an epistle? It's a letter. Paul Paul writes letters to different churches and people in the churches. That's all epistle means. From the longest to the shortest. And so the longest is Romans, and you know, and then you have the Corinthians letters, and then Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and first, Second Thessalonians, and then and then you get letters to individuals, uh, Timothy and Titus and Philamon. And uh uh and uh and so they go from basically longest to shortest, but they're not chronological. We're gonna cover them in chronological order and kind of put them in to the Paul's uh you know missionary journeys. That's always great. Uh and uh and that's how we'll cover those. Uh after that, we'll go to the general epistles. Uh that why are they called general epistles? Well, because they're not Paul's epistles. Paul didn't write it. And they're not actually general, they're they're actually very specific. They're written to uh a Jewish audience, right? Uh and so you have uh uh we'll talk about this when we get into the book of Galatians. Uh but Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles, uh, and then you have Peter, James, and John. Uh they are uh you know presenting the gospel to the Jews, uh they're going to the circumcision, Paul's going to the uncircumcision, and so you've got uh uh Peter, first and second uh Peter, first and second, third John, uh, and James, uh all of these letters written to uh to Jewish believers. We throw Jude in there as well. Right. Uh and uh and then we'll finish the year out with Revelation and cool. And uh then so that's where we're headed. That sounds great. Uh and so if we kind of just think about the these books in this way, I think that's uh that's really

Recap And How To Follow Along

Dr. David Klingler 23:56

helpful. So we wanted to take just uh a week to introduce the gospels and kind of set the stage for what we're gonna do with the New Testament. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

So just to recap, we're not trying to recreate the historical events in the gospel, as is quite popular today. Um we're trying to understand what the authors said about those events in the way that they said them. Uh or in the way that they told it. And so uh that's what we're gonna be focusing on next week as we jump into Matthew, I believe. So all right. Well, thank you for joining in and continuing to follow along the story of the Bible. We hope that it's uh helpful to you as you continue to learn God's Word. Um, jump in next week and we'll pick up where we left off.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

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