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You are about to listen to a song from Reverend Dr. Albert Abe. Let's ask the word of God.

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Continuing our series on how the Bible was written. Hallelujah. How the Bible was written. We've looked at the Old Testament. We are not done with the Old Testament. But today we are continuing with the New Testament. Hallelujah. And we'll start off by looking at the major categories in the New Testament. Although it is a book of 21 different writers, there are categorizations. Hallelujah. And the first categorization is the first four books, which is referred to as the Gospels. The Gospels. And this record the life, the ministry, the death, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Gospels or the first four books, you know, dealt with that aspect of Christianity, which is the birth, the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And a subheading for the four would be the Synoptic Gospels. When we say Synoptic, you say when you come to midweek, you have to write hallelujah. Because there'll be a number of new words or old words that you need to understand. Synoptic Gospels. And the first three, which is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, will be the synoptic gospels, which means that synoptic means that they are seen together, or they share a similar structure, content, and perspective, or they are viewing the life of Jesus through one lens, a similar lens. I hope you are getting me. So if you realize most of them will talk about his birth, his ministry, his death, his resurrection. Many of the miracles are the same. The diction, the wording, most of them are the same, although there are little differences, but they see Jesus through the same lens. That's what it means to, you know, be called a synoptic gospel. And many events and teachings overlap between the first three books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So we call them the Synoptic Gospel. And then we have the fourth gospel, which is called John. John is a bit unique, it's a bit different because it is more theological in its um uh in its approach to the life of Jesus. He puts a more theological or who Jesus was. He was not interested in the birth, he was born in the manger and he was connected to Abraham. He was not, he was more interested in the divinity of Jesus. I hope you are getting me. So if anyone has John chapter 1, verse 1, you can start. Hallelujah. Everybody knows what it is. So let's go. John 1, verse 1. He says, What? In the beginning, so he went to the beginning of beginnings straight away. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him, and there was nothing made. He was telling you that the man who you are calling a carpenter is the word made flesh. He made everything, all things were made by him. I hope you are getting so you realize that it's a bit different from Matthew, Luke, uh, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because they are more interested in his life. He went to the temple, his parents were looking for him. But John said no. Hallelujah. He went straight into who the person of the word was. His manifestation that the ancient word is what has manifested to us. Bible said that we beheld his glory. It was John who said that, as of the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So you can realize that in the first chapter, it is much different from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who are a bit more um the Jesus, the son of Abraham, the son of David, you know, and then goes through the genealogy to Jesus. I hope you are getting it. So the synoptics are more interested in those, the other I just described. And John is more theological in his approach or who Jesus was or the divinity of Jesus. Please, am I making any sense? And then it's also in John that we see what we call the I am statements of Jesus. You don't see it in the others. I am the bread of life, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am, I am, I am many I am statements trying to show you who he was. I don't know whether you are, he was more interested, not in Jesus, you know, the son of Mary, but the ancient of days, hallelujah. So you when you read the book of John, you realize that the focus is I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the bread of life, I am the resurrection. All those things are in John. Hey, hallelujah. Some of you haven't noticed, you think they are all spread out. But you see, when you read the Bible with this kind of understanding, then you know what you are looking for when you go to Matthew, you know what you are looking for when you go to Mark, Luke, and John. Is that okay? So John was more interested in revealing the divinity of Jesus. Then we go to the historical book, which is the book of Acts. So Acts gives us history, right? History because there were some happenings in Jerusalem after the resurrection. The disciples gathered the birth of the church, the coming of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, you know, and what happened after Pentecost, the healing, you know, at the gate of beautiful, and then the encounter that Paul had with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Then, you know, the church gathered, and then the Holy Spirit said, separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work unto which I've called them, then Paul's missionary journeys. I hope you are getting what I'm saying. So it's more about history, what had happened after the resurrection and the birth of the church. So we have a history book, and which is the book of Acts. Also the ministry of Peter and Paul, the work of the Holy Spirit, the birth and the expansion of the church. Then now we come to the epistles. So you can see we are going in a certain order: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then we come to Acts. Then now we are in the epistles, which are the letters written to the churches. So even with the letters, we have categorization. So we have the Pauline epistles, yes, written by Paul or attributed to Paul. When we go a bit more into it, you realize that he did not write all. There were some that the authorship of Paul was undisputed. But there were some that were attributed to him. I don't know whether you are getting me. And there were contentions in the early church whether Paul really wrote them, because you realize that Paul's letters had a certain structure. And some of the epistles or letters to the churches didn't have that typical structure that Paul's letters had. I hope you are getting me. So we'll be getting a bit into them into those details. Now, the epistles to the churches, we have Romans, first and second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, first and second Thessalonians. Hallelujah. So these were to the churches. Then Paul also wrote letters to individuals. We call them his pastoral letters. So there were letters to churches which were to groups of people. So all the ones that we mentioned before were letters to the churches. Then we have pastoral letters. When we say pastoral, we are talking about someone who is, you know, someone who takes care of another person, poeman or a shepherd. And this was letters written to his sons in the Lord or individuals. So this we have first and second Timothy, we have Titus, and then we have Philemon. So these are pastoral letters or letters to individuals. A hallelujah. And you have to take notes when you read these letters. Some of you just open your Bible and start reading. You don't realize that this is desire portion for an individual. A hallelujah. There are some things that I'll tell Pastor Bright, it is not necessarily supposed to be law. I don't know whether you are getting me. And there are some things I'll write to the church, which are and you realize that in Paul's letters, there were some things that he said that this one I am a Christian, I'm a believer, and I have the Holy Spirit. So I can advise on it. And there are some other things he said, these are commandments from the Lord. So when you read the Bible, you have to know what is biblical and what is scriptural, because there is a difference between them. When we say something is biblical, it means it's in the Bible. But it doesn't necessarily mean the Bible recommends it. So we have polygamy in the Bible, but the Bible doesn't recommend polygamy. We have um murder. People committed murder. But just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean it is recommended by the Bible. David killed a man and married, you know, married his wife. David was a man after God. But if you look at Prophet Nathan's condemnation of David, you realize that just because the act existed doesn't mean that it is what? Supported by God. I hope you are getting me. So there are things that are biblical, which means they are in the Bible. When you say the thing is scriptural, it means that it is supported by God. And when you read the Bible, you have to be able to tell. There are some things that are descriptions of people's choices, people's lives and stories, not necessarily an endorsement of those things. Please, I hope you are getting me. Okay, so we've looked at the pastoral letters. And the pastoral letters they focus on doctrine, which is salvation, grace, justification, and then also church order and Christian living. Because the one written to Timothy, Timothy was a pastor over the church. So Paul was trying to write to him to help him in his journey to pastor the people of God. So there's a lot of church order and Christian living there. Then we have general epistles, or what we call Catholic. Catholic doesn't mean the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic means universal, or it's a general letter, not necessarily addressed to a church or an individual, but can be read. It was a general readership for believers. Please, I hope you are getting me. So we have the book of James. It wasn't written to a particular church. And then we have first and second Peter, first, second, third John, and then Jude. Please, I hope you are getting me. It was not a letter necessarily written to individuals. They are called general because they were not addressed to specific churches, and then they had a broader audience. Then we also have the last categorization, which is the apocalyptic books. Apocalyptic, which is the book of Revelation. And then the characteristics of the book of Revelation would be the visions and prophecies, which focus on the end times, judgment, and then the victory of Christ. You know. So those are the general categorizations of the books. There are some other books that I've not yet put anywhere, but we'll get there. Hallelujah. But these are the general categorizations. So going back to the gospels, they were all not written at the same time. Hallelujah. And we have to know how they were written. In fact, the gospels were written around AD 65, right? Which was, you know, there are differences in opinions about when the first was written. But the first gospel which was written was the gospel of Mark, right? And it was written between AD 60 to 70. So people just approximate it to be around A.D. 65. And why is this important, right? If you look at the whole life of Jesus, right? The life, the birth, the crucifixion, resurrection, the events happened, Jesus died, and many years later, before the books were written. So how were they remembered? It was not like as Jesus was living, then someone was following him with a pen. No, that's not how they were written. And we'll see it from the book of Luke when we get to Luke how the books were written, how the synoptic gospels, some of them were written, right? So Mark was the first gospel which was written. It is the shortest gospel, and it is fast-paced, right? About more than half the book was talking about one week. The next time you read, one one whole, like about half the whole book was dealing with one week, which is the passion week. So a lot of things happened quickly. Jesus died, you know, crucified. Many things happened quickly. You know, so it is important you understand. And there was a lot of immediately, so it's like a dramatic movie. Many things were described graphically in the book. You know, things were given the way they were, right? And it was written for Roman believers. Or, you know, when Jesus was born and Jesus lived, he was in the Roman Empire, or the Romans were the ones who had control over the world. You know, that's why you hear of Caesar, you hear of all these, they are emperors, right? And because they ruled the world, people who became believers, there was persecution of Christians in the first century after Jesus died, which meant that if you are a Christian, some of them were fed to lions in amphitheaters. There was a lot of games. When you go to Commodore Hall and you see the back of Commodore Hall, their structure is the structure of what the Roman Empire usually had. So they had a lot of games, the Olympic Games, that's you know, all those things came from there. Hallelujah. And they had a lot of drama, plays, you know, people, the sports, bodily exercise, gyming, the boys who go to the gym. And there were different gods in the Roman Empire, right? The God of sex, the God of entertainment, and all that. So they worshiped them with all these things. And the people who proclaimed Jesus in the first century, they were persecuted. So this book, Mark, was written to persecuted believers or Christians. And that is why you realize that Jesus was described in it as a suffering slave or servant of God. Because the people have to be able to relate to him. So in the book of Mark, you realize that the lens through which he looked at Jesus was a suffering servant of God. I hope you are getting it. So when you are reading the book, you have to have it at the back of your mind that although there are different descriptions, it's more about suffering, you know, persecution and all that. So you realize that a lot of the emphasis of the book would be on suffering because the book was written to believers who were being persecuted, who were being killed for their faith. Is this making sense to anybody at all? Okay. Then you go to the book of Matthew, and then look. Then we know John was the last that was written. So many people believe that Mark was used as a reference for the other books that were written. Hallelujah. So the books, you know, the story first started as oral tradition, right? Oral tradition, which means that people usually just talked about it until they were formulated into you know books. I hope you are getting me. So, like let's say um the story of Nkrumah or the first president of Ghana, right? It was initially stories about the overthrow of Nkrumah and the things that happened before people started writing books later about the events that happened around that time. Please, I hope we are getting me. So they first existed as oral traditions and later written as books because there were eyewitnesses who spoke about the stories, the miracles, the things that happened, right? Then later they were put together in a book. So um maybe I'll not go into very deep theological information about this so that people don't get confused. But, you know, there are things that when you are interested, you can read further. Hallelujah. I'll put a book on the church page called Four Portraits, One Jesus, you know, which talks about the four gospels and how they look at Jesus and how they were written. That's a bit more in-depth than what I'll do in this service. Hallelujah. So I'll go to Matthew quickly and I'll not talk about the Q source and all that, because it was believed that the books were written from a source called the Q source. When you are, you have some time when you read, you you get to know a bit more about the Q source. You you can't be an ignorant believer. Just walking about and you want to marry and give birth, have children. What would you teach your children? You have to teach junior about Q source. How would you know? How do you teach junior about Q source if you don't know Q source yourself? Bible says that let parents hand this ordinances over, hang them around their neck, and teach them to your children. You are growing, you are saying, Papa, I want to marry. And you are not interested in knowing this, you just want to know about Christmas story, Easter story. You open the Bible and say, Book of Psalm. No, we have to know more. Hallelujah. So you read a bit more about the Q source and you understand how these books came to be. We even have the M source and we also have the L source, you know, but later those are a bit deep. So you can look at them. So, Matthew. So Matthew was written to Jewish believers or a Jewish audience. And you realize that the Jews they are more interested in genealogies, right? Who are you related to? Because they say we are children of Abraham, or we come from the Abrahamic line. I hope you are getting. And that was why the Jews had problems with the Samaritans, because the Samaritans were Jews. Yes, that you know, when the Babylonians came to uh how do you call it to capture, you know, Israel, when the kingdom was broken into the northern and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom was, you know, um colonized by the Assyrians. They were the first who you have to know the Bible. Hey, you are growing up and doing these things till now you've not studied to realize that, oh, after David, there was Solomon, after Solomon, there was Jerobo Bram. Then now the thing divided the Southern Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom, you know, the capital was hey, you have to know. Not so that you preach, Fed now, you are laughing. Yes, you have to know these things. So then when you read your Bible, it makes sense. Hey, hallelujah. So the Jews took pride in the encounters of Abraham, that we are sons of Abraham. Hey, hallelujah. We come from a man's encounter. The Jewish nation has its source from Abraham. Then they also pride themselves in David. So you realize that when you go to Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. So why do you now start? There were many people who live before David, though. There were many people who lived before Abraham. So why didn't he mention the son of Adam or Seth? Oh, Seth, sorry. Because the Jews they have their linkage or their heritage from Abraham and they take pride in David because they said that the kingdom of David would mirror the realities of the coming Messiah. The kingdom of the Messiah would be like the kingdom that David established. Because it was David that brought it together. When Saul was alive, he was fighting, but it was not a nation. It was David that brought it together. I hope you are getting me. And they said that the coming Messiah would mirror the realities of David. So the writer of this book will now start off the book and say, Listen, the man I'm about to tell you about is a son of David and the son of Abraham. Hey, hallelujah. He's the one we've been waiting for. He's the one the prophets, without saying that, that's what it meant. And that's why it is an offensive book to the Jews. Because they don't accept Jesus as the Messiah. They are still waiting for the Messiah to come. So you realize that it starts, then said, Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Then he goes on, and more genealogy, more interpretation. And you realize that the purpose of this is to help a Jew who has now found faith in Jesus to understand that Jesus is the Messiah. Hallelujah. That's the purpose of the book. So that's how it starts off, not with the birth of Jesus, right? As in in the manger. It starts off by the genealogy because Jews like genealogy. And then you also have structured teaching blocks, like the Sermon on the Mount. There was a lot of information about Jesus' teachings. Because the Jews they like their rabbis. Hey, hallelujah. If you are going to be, you have to teach. Hey, which Messiah is this that doesn't teach? You don't have Wolo, you don't have information. And you say you are a Messiah, you are not serious. No, so you realize that in the book of Matthew, there's a lot of teaching. The other books were more about Jesus' miracles, and he went there, he visits. But you realize that, Matthew, there are a lot of teaching brothers. Long teaching sessions. Hey, hallelujah. Because the Messiah will have to be our rabbi. He has to teach us. I'll give you shepherds after my heart. And they'll feed you with knowledge. You can't be Messiah if you don't have knowledge. Hey, hallelujah. You want to be Messiah of your family and you are deficient in knowledge. Hey, the Lord have mercy on us. So in the book of Matthew, Jesus was portrayed as the king and messiah. Hey, hallelujah. Then Luke was written with a historical and an investigative approach. And it was written for a gentle audience. It's like Jesus was the universal savior in the book of Luke. I hope you are getting me. He was written, he was describing that book so that we can accept him. So you realize that there are many marginalized groups of people who are in that book, like women. You know, in their days, women were not the main thing. No, they were they were marginalized. But when you look at the book of Luke, there are many women and the woman with the issue of blood, and the woman who did is a woman, because these are marginalized people who are not respected in a certain way, who were not seen to have a place. Hey, hallelujah. The woman who came to Jesus and said, Listen, heal my daughter. And Jesus said, Listen, we don't give the children's bread to dogs. He said, No, if the dogs they eat crumbs that fall off. Hey, can you talk back at a messiah? A woman cry, don't talk back to your husband, let alone the Messiah. But you realize that in the book of Luke, there is a place for everybody. Hallelujah. The marginalized children. When you read the book, you realize that even children, they were not the main men were the main thing back then. But in the book of Luke, you realize that the outsiders, you know, because the book, the focus of that book was for the world or a gentle audience, or a unique Jesus was portrayed as a universal savior. But when you read the book of Luke, he's like the savior of the Jews. Matthew, sorry, Matthew, Jesus was like the savior of the Jews because he was portrayed to be their Messiah they were waiting for. Is that okay? And then the suffering Jesus was in Mark. Then when you get to Luke, the universal Jesus. Hallelujah. So you contains detailed birth narratives and parables not found elsewhere. So there are many parables in Luke you don't find anywhere. Many mystical things and explanations and you know things like that. And um Luke presents Jesus as the Son of Man or the universal savior for all humanity. So let's go to the book of Luke, chapter 1, verse 1. And he said that inasmuch as many, 1 verse 1. So this is how he started his book. He didn't start with genealogy because we we don't know Abraham like that. Hallelujah. We are Gentiles. How do you know it's in Christ that we are connected to Abraham? You which part of you is comes from the Middle East? You don't, you are not part. That's for the Jews, Matthew. But it doesn't mean you don't read Matthew. Hallelujah. So Luke has now brought all of us in because Jesus is like the savior of the world. That's the lens through which Luke was looking at Jesus. He said that inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which has been fulfilled among us. So you realize that one, no, go back. There was a narrative, which means that there were things that happened. So it's not like fictional stories. Luke was saying that there were things that were fulfilled among us. It means that you are a witness to read. But the people who were readers, some of them knew the things that had happened. So he said, many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been. So it was not only Luke who had written. You later find out that there were many books that were written, some of them were not accepted. All sorts of stories which were not verifiable. And some of you know, some of them are coming back. If you go on TikTok, it's lack of knowledge why those books were not accepted. Because we'll be talking about canonization, which is how we came to have the books we have. What criteria did these books meet? And what criteria did the other books in? Like they did not meet some criteria, and that's why they were not accepted. And Luke said that many people have set in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us. I want you to take note of this. Fulfilled what? Among us. Now you can go to verse 2. He says that just as those who were from the beginning, or those who were from the beginning, eyewitnesses. So there were people who saw the things. In fact, Luke himself was not one of them. He was a guy who followed Paul. I hope you are getting me. So it's not like he was one of the uh what's the name um disciples. No. So he is saying that there were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word delivered them to us. So there were eyewitnesses who saw the occurrences, and then there were a narrative or stories which are oral traditions of things that had happened. Then he says that ministers of the word which delivered them to us. So they were passed down. There were stories that were passed down. Then verse 3. It seemed good to me also, having had a perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account. So Luke was trying to write the accounts, having been exposed to all the stories, all the miracles, all the happenings. And he said that they were not necessarily written in a certain order, right? Because as I told you, Matthew started with genealogy, right? Then you go to Mark, you know, the focus was a bit different. Now you have come to look, and he said that he is writing, having had understanding of all things, to write an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus. So Theophilus, we all know Theo means God. Philos means love, so lover of God. So he was writing this letter to what is believed as a lover of God. Hallelujah. Or the name of a person, so there are two schools of thoughts. That is actually a person called Theophilus, who is like a person in authority or a governmental person, and he was offering discipleship to this person who has come to know Christ. And another thing is that because it's a universal gospel, it is to any lover of God or Tio, which is God, and Philos, which is love, lover of God. Oh, hallelujah. Verse 4. Then he says that the reason why, you see, all the gospels they have an agenda. So if you read them carefully, you know what the agenda is. When you read the book of John, chapter 20, you see the agenda of John, right? All the letters were written with an aim in mind. And Luke is saying that that you may know the certainty of those things which you have you were instructed in. So you realize that the purpose is that he wanted to solidify or bring this guy or this person to a place where they believe or their belief system is cemented. Hallelujah. A certainty. There are many people whose faith is shaky. Something happens more now, they are no longer believers because although they had faith, it had not been cemented, or there is no certainty of the things which were instructed. So Luke wrote an orderly account in such a way that when you read his letter or you read his book, you would come to a place where your faith is solid. Hallelujah. Verse 5. Then he says that there was in the days of error, now he has started a story after telling you how he came to write. So there were eyewitnesses who passed down information to people, and there were many people who wrote. Then after they wrote, Luke had access to all the stories that were written, and he wrote an orderly account. So that's how the book of Luke was written. The Bible is not against research. Hallelujah. It's not against research. He said this was allowed as an inspired book. But he didn't write it in his room. God is saying, no, no, no, no, no. He said, I did a perfect research of all the materials that existed, and I wrote an orderly account to Theophilus or the lover of God. I pray for you that in your life, in your own life, there'll be a place where you are searching to get an order, an orderly account of how things are supposed to be. Because God is not against that. Hallelujah. Because all through I felt like the Bible was the holy men were moved by the Holy Spirit. It means that everybody was there now, the Holy Spirit. They say, Oh, Luke 1 verse 1. Then you start writing as no, no, no. Luke said I did research. And God is not afraid to put it in his word. That even that I was I was in it. Hallelujah. I inspired it. I pray that the next time you search the scriptures, you will find God Himself. Oh, hallelujah! You will find God. Then the last one was written, which is the Gospel of John, which was written around AD 85 to 95, about almost 100 years after the events happened. You can see it's a very long time. Do you know five years? Some of you cry, you are in relationships you've forgotten that you are in. Like the people who you dated before, you will show them, you say, Ah, do I know you from anywhere? Wow. That's an intentional amnesia. Yeah. No, I mean there was a day I saw a guy who said he was my classmate. It took me a while. Yeah, it took me a while to remember the guy. So you can imagine 65 years before the first books were written. And then the last books were written almost a hundred years after. If God was not in this, you know, and it was not like the books were written together in one place. They were written on different, you know, some of them, different countries. Some of them were found in Egypt. Some of them, in fact, the Bible was written on three continents with people who never met themselves. Some of you have not left Africa before. We've not even left Ghana. Even Togo, we've not gone a crowd, people have not left before. Wow. The Lord have mercy on us. So, John, we are on the book of John. So John was written AD 85 to about 95. And it's highly theological. I've already spoken about it. That he went straight in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. Because he was more, he was not interested in the life of like the earthly life was in the divine life. And that's where you see the I am the miracles and things like that. That's in the book of John. And you realize that there were extended dialogues like Nicodemos, the Samaritan woman, you know, all of them at the end, you know, it was written with a different structure, a mature theological perspective, and a broad audience. And the emphasis was Christ. Oh, hallelujah. So in Matthew, Jesus was portrayed as a king to a Jewish audience. In Mark, he was portrayed as a slave or a servant or a suffering servant. And the book was written to believers who were suffering under the Roman rule. And then he also shows Christ in power. Although he was a suffering savior, he was exalted in the same book. Then look, Jesus as the Son of Man, you know, or the universal savior. Then John, Jesus as the Son of God. Hallelujah. Do we have some structure in our minds now about how the books came to be? But you realize that when you get to the book of John, John chapter 20, verse 20, let's look at it quickly. John 20, 30. He says that, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. You got what I'm saying? Because he carefully selected them the miracles that he wrote in the book. And he said that there were many things that Jesus did that I didn't add in my book. They may be in the other books. And that's why we said that there was a Q source, there was an El source. And that's also we've believed that the other miracles were there. Hallelujah. But we said we don't need all the miracles. The ones that we've documented, what's the purpose? He said that Jesus did many signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, 31. He says that, but the butthis are written that you may believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. So the writer is saying that the purpose of the book is this. So if you keep on reading John and you don't come to this place, you've wasted the book. Because he said, I have carefully tossen these miracles so that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life. I pray. See, every book that is written has an intent behind the book. It's not just written so that we can share, oh, this is what I got when I was reading it. This is what I got. No, you have to get life. He says that believing you may have life in his name. He says, believe you may first know that Jesus is the Son of God. Yeah. And many people don't have it because we read the book in you know, beats. You read uh John chapter 15, verse 5. Say, I like the vine, the story about the vine. We are the vine people. Wow. He says that there were many miracles, but the ones that were documented. He says, I am the vine. You are the branches. Oh, we are the branches. Wow. He said this is what we like. The purpose of this story is so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. And in believing in him, you may have life. It's not about now, he said, Oh, you know, but this, oh, you have gone there again. God bless you. You know, but there's a purpose behind the books. So today we learned a few things. That the first, there are categorizations in the New Testament. The first four books are the gospels. And I said, I'll be uploading a book, four portraits, one Jesus, because they are all portraits of the same Jesus. It's like taking a picture from the front of kingdom, taking a picture from his side, taking a picture from the back. Sometimes maybe he's wearing an earring in the left ear. So when you take the picture from the left, you see it. But when you take the picture from the right, you will not see the same earring. And you realize some of you are saying, uh, some of the stories, it looks like they are similar, and then there are differences. It is supposed to be complementary. That what you didn't get in story A, you will get from story B. I hope you are getting it. And what you didn't get from story B, you get from story C. So it is not now to become like, you know, then they are not true. Because someone said that when in John John said this, and Matthew didn't say this, and that the purpose is that they are it's it's describing one person. Four portraits, one Jesus. And it's a book everyone must read before you marry. When another time we look at the rules of canonization. You know, a canon is a rod. So there was a measuring rod on what was accepted as scripture and what was rejected. Although there were stories, there were many stories, as Luke said. There were many narratives about the things that happened among us. Okay. So any questions, I'll take them quickly. Freddy, you can ask.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Thank you, Pastor. And God bless you for the in-depth teaching. Um, while you were teaching, my mind was just running. I see that there's a lot of gap, a lot of learning. Thank you for agreeing.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Now, people who are looking pompous, like this things we are sharing, we've learned them before, but they don't know that they are like, oh, this is like a revision.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Please go. Yes, please. So thank you, Pastor. God bless you. So, Pastor, please, the the book of Acts, yes, the authorship, and I would like you to share insight on. Um, you you mentioned earlier that there's some of the books that Paul is attributed as a writer, other books that um, for example, like Luke writing, um, he was a disciple and then he wrote the book. So the book of Acts, who is the author and what goes into that? Because some people believe it's the Apostle Paul, others say otherwise.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Okay, so um the the answers are in the books anyway, you know. So I think the book of Luke, um, I say the book of Luke, um Acts itself, it's attributed to Luke, the same person who wrote the book of Luke, that he wrote the book of Acts. But there are aspects of it that you know there are contributions, it's not like one person wrote the entire thing. A person can write a majority of a book, like when they attributed the first five books to Moses, Moses' death was in the same five books. So who wrote about his death? And after him. So do you get me? So you realize that he wrote a majority of it, but there were other contributors. And history has it that back in the day they had what we call pseudonyms, which are popular figures that they attribute writings to. So other people wrote, but then they were attributed to some popular figures, right? So there are contributions from many places, right? But there is an author which the book is attributed to. So Acts was attributed to Luke. I hope you are getting me. Uh-huh. Yeah. A follow-up question.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

So, Pastor, please, um, based on what you said about the book of Moses, so even reading Samuel, the book of Samuel, um, chapter 25 of 2nd Samuel, the Bible said that Samuel died. So when I was reading, I asked myself several. So, who wrote the rest of the things, the accounts of David and all? And so, like you said, I just said it to get clarity that there are others who wrote or um who contributed, but the Bible does not recognize them, or is there a place for the recognition to those who wrote?

SPEAKER_00 41:19

No, so that that's why I said that there were many pseudonyms. So if you do theology, what is said is that books attributed to do you got what I'm saying? Attributed, not necessarily written by. If you are a Christian, you say this book was written by Moses, right? But if you are a theologian, you said attributed to. Because it was not just the main guys that were used. Although for purposes of bringing the books under an umbrella, they were attributed to big blocks. But otherwise, we will have too many books in the Bible because this one was written by this, this was written by this, this was written by this. No, so the books were attributed, looking at what they covered. Do you get what I'm saying? So books were added to what they wrote. I hope you are getting me. Like, or sections were added to what they wrote. So they did not alter everything because they may have altered a majority of it, and other people contributed. When you read any book, you can see that there are books that there are certain chapters that were written by people. But at the end of the day, you say it's an OED post book. But maybe his assistant contributed a chapter, but you will never know. Do you get me? Sometimes it's written that, oh, this chapter was written by this person. But the purpose is not the individuals, it's the story. The focus is now on the story, not who wrote it. I'm the one who is going to claim the victory for writing this book or that book. It's really about what the book soughts to tell us than who wrote it. I hope you are getting me. As I said, I went to the book of Isaiah and I said there were three Isaiahs. There was what? Proto-Isah, Deutro Isaiah, and Trito Isaiah. Because the book spanned for over a 700 year period. And by then, people were not living up to 700. In fact, they were not living more than 100. Do you get me? In the beginning, they were. But by the time you get to Jeremiah, Isaiah, people had a normal lifespan, which is like what we have now. So that and you look at the book carefully, the categorization realize that there was one who was prophesying to them before they went into captivity. And there was one who was talking to them in captivity, and there was one who spoke to them when they got back from captivity. And they are all on what Isaiah. But if you are a theologian, you would now say we have proto Isaiah, we have Dietro Isaiah, we have Krito Isaiah. For purposes of you know, the prophecies of the Christ. And did you read Isaiah? Does one of the Isaiah actually spoke about a lot of the prophecies about the Christ? Which of them wrote a lot about the Christ? Yes, Ditro Isaiah. The second Isaiah, when they were in captivity, right? So the detraizer was speaking about a savior. Do you get what I'm saying? Because they were in captivity. And we are talking about someone who saved them, not just from their physical captivity, but from their sins. And you suffer on the cross, you do this. The prophecies were like that. When you go to Jeremiah, you have to study the books like that. So that when you are reading a certain part, you know what the emphasis is, what the focus is, who it was written to, what it sought to achieve. And all that. Is that okay? What's the second question? And then I'll be out of here.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

Thank you so much, Pastor. God bless you.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

Bless you too.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

My question is about um the cultural context and interpreting the Bible. Yeah. So, like, when is it relevant to interpret it in that context? When do we apply it to ourselves?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

I'll be making Pastor Bright teach biblical hermeneutics. Yeah. Hermeneutics, how to interpret the Bible. Hallelujah. So I think I'll have a whole we'll have a whole series on biblical because what you are talking about is an aspect of interpretation. And it's a very important one. Otherwise, you take many scriptures out of context. Hey, hallelujah. Because the gospels, the stories happen in a certain cultural context. And you realize that, you know, there was a time when Jesus died. I think um Zelot, whose name was Zelot? Is it Simon or Simon the Zelot? There was one who was part of the Zelot party. It was a party of the resistance, what we call the resistance. You know, because they were under Roman rule, there were a group of Jews who stood up and said, you know, I have to even teach about all those things. The intertestamental period. Yeah. The 400 years. You have to be taught, oh, you see, you probably are not making your pastor sit up. You go to church, it's you just say reveal. Bless me. Then you go to church, say it's my mother church. Then you say, Oh, God is love. This level in your life is beyond that. Between Malachi and Matthew. You know, because if you don't in Bible school, they had a whole lecture block on the inter-testamental period. Because there are many references you see in the New Testament. If you don't understand that period, you don't understand how those groups came up because they were not in the Old Testament. The zealos were not there. The the uh San Hindri was not there. The many of the things, the what Herodians, who are they? Aha! They were eating from the king's table. So they were choking. They were they were chokes. When you read the stories of Jesus, it will not make sense to you until you understand. So another thing I'll deal with in this midweek services is the intertestamental period and how some groups you read about in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and June and Acts came about. Otherwise, you will never understand your Bible. You think you do, but you don't. Hey, hallelujah. So let's say the zealots, they were the resistance. They don't hear Jai. They were under captivity, they were slaves, like Romans were ruling over them. And they will rise up and resist and fight. They don't even have weapons. And you realize that a similar one happened, and there were many people who were killed. Many were killed because they felt that the Messiah will rise up through the resistance against oppression. I don't know whether you are getting. They think that through their resistance, God will raise the Messiah, or the Messiah will come from the clouds. Come and lead their army. So there were even armed groups. And they are all in your Bible. And they all came from Malachi to Matthew. So now we talk about culture, right? Because it was a culture of the people. Why Jesus didn't have any female disciples? People said all sorts of things. The reality is that the rabbis of the time didn't have female disciples. And the reason is that you any inappropriate thing or an appearance of it, because you slept with your rabbi, you sleep, you eat, you are, you walk, you are in the same room with your rabbi. It's not like you live in a separate room, like you are in another house, like how we go for missions. So the boys are here, the girl, if someone is your rabbi, you have to watch the person, you have to study the person, you have to live. That's why the disciples were always with Jesus. They walk with him. And he couldn't have come, he first came as a Jew. Remember that. He was born a Jew. Then he died and birthed Christianity. So when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, when you read there, many of the practices there were practices of the Jews. That's why there are people who wake up and start interpreting Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Really, if you want to understand the church, you go to the gospels, you go to the epistles and the Acts, because that was when the church was built. Hey, hallelujah. There are things you can learn from, but there were practices that were Jewish practices, like Passover. It's not a Christian thing, it's a feast of the Jews. They say, Oh, during Passover, this happened. It's a feast of the Jews. He went to the temple, right? And he sat in a chair. What do you think that means? In the temple, they left a chair for the Messiah. Nobody sat in that chair. And when Jesus read the book that day and he said, Ah, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me after he sat down. You think it's a casual thing? It's something that could make them kill. Because how dare you sit in this seeds that for over 400 years, nobody sat in. So you read your Bible, you casually read it because you've not read how it came to us. I don't know whether you are getting it. Bible said that after he read it, he closed the book and sat down. And you think that he sat down in a plastic chair. Huh? You need to be lunch. No. He sat down in the mesh. The chair they left for the mesa, who is going to be their rabbi? Because the Jews they believe that God is God is like He teaches and He feeds wisdom. So in their temple, they left a chair. And now when you go to certain charismatic churches, they leave a big chair. You see a throne there, like and the pastor's through. The Mesan has come already. But then to the after reading the prophecy of Isaiah, that the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me. He sat down in the Messiah's chair. They could have killed a lot of people that day for that acts. Even sitting now in pastor's chair, some ushers who allow you. Now you come to sit down in the messiah's chair, or you walk to the medical school and you go and sit in a dean's chair. Like you enter the dean's office, she's not around. She's using the washroom. Then the dean walks back and you're in the chair. You want to be out of this school. You know, so I'm just trying to tell you that it's good. If I start, I'll not finish. Right? But it's when you read the Bible, the undertones, there is culture, there are practices, and if your understanding is not deep, you'll be interpreting the Bible as a Ghanaian. You are interpreting it in a sexy way. Very bad people, bad people. But that's not what it means. Yes. Or Korean interpretations of the Bible. Yeah. If you are someone's wife, the person owns you. Yeah. And that's why they can kill a woman who commits adultery, but not the man. Because you are the man's property. You cannot say, How about him? Hey, you are not afraid. That's the culture in which Jesus came in. And many people don't realize how much Jesus was a champion for women. Because when the disciples came and they realized that he was talking to a woman, they were surprised. A woman, you have the effortly to ask a rabbi a question in public. And that's why Paul wrote that let the women remain silent in the church and ask their husbands a question. Because you realize that if those things were not done, many Christians will be killed. Because you have sent the gospel to a society that has practices. And because of the liberty of the gospel, there was freedom. So now women were speaking openly in the church. So a man has come to church who just came from the community. And in the community, a woman you don't speak back. But in the church, there is freedom. So you are talking anyhow. The men who go back home don't have anything to do. So you realize that people were killed because of the belief systems of the church. Many Christians were persecuted. I don't know whether you are getting me. And I want you to understand when we get deep into it, you now understand how God was a champion, how Christ was a champion for the marginalized women. So all those things were said, but it was wisdom to keep them alive. Because if you go the way of the kingdom, that there is neither there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither male nor female. Do you know what those things meant in a Jewish community that there is neither male or female? That we are all one in Christ. What do you mean we are all one? Go to the UK and say you are the same as the Duke of Edinburgh. That we are all one. We are all royal priesthood. What do you mean, royal priesthood? Look at this boy from from Cole Gonosis and that's why the Jews. Because of his writings to the church, that there's neither Jew nor Greek. Jew. You don't understand. The things he wrote about the church, that we are all children of Abraham through Christ. You just come and say, Through Christ, we are a son of Abraham. So that an airman walking around saying that he too is a son of Abraham. That somehow we are the we are the branch which was crafted in. It was Paul who brought all these concepts. And you don't understand how much the Jews hated it so much that no Jewish child will be named Paul. But he said that through Christ we have been crafted in as a wild olive branch. Me too, I'm a son of Dasantehine. Yeah. I'm a son of Dasantehine. I'm not, I don't have any royal blood flowing through me, but through Christ, we are all children of God. Father, we thank you for this evening. We give you praise for your word. We give you adoration for opening our eyes to see. We don't take for granted your many mercies. We don't take for granted your word. As our eyes are progressively opening to the deaths and the riches of your word, may we never be the same again. May families be eternally transformed. May the children who come through these people be taught at home, may giants be raised. Ah, in the name of Jesus, may we not be weaklings, may we not be ignorant believers. May we understand what we have come to believe in the name of Jesus through this edified church. May giants in the kingdom be raised. And when we open our Bibles, may we appreciate the eternal truths locked up in the scriptures. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.