Matt, Mark, & Luke

We were introduced to Jesus Week by Nevil, a very intellectual Aussie. He teaches us about the synoptic gospels where 'syn' means together and 'optic' means to see. The New Testament has many more manuscripts than any other piece of literature in the ancient world. Other major events in ancient history were recorded quite a few years after the fact yet when it comes to the Bible, many events were recorded hundreds of years beforehand.

All of the prophecies of Jesus came true which causes a huge disruption in the Jewish church today because it proves Jesus as Messiah even though they don’t want to believe it. The Bible consists of an autograph signature from God which is prophecy because no other religious book has it. Throughout the Bible, we will see God referred to as 'Lord' which means master, but He is also referred to as 'LORD' which is a substitute for the holiest Jewish name for God that they wouldn't speak out loud. This name is Yahweh. In some Bibles, this is mentioned in the preface. I find it beneficial to read the Bible's preface.

The 400 Years of Silence takes place after Malachi (the last book of the Old Testament) and before Matthew (the first book of the New Testament). There were no prophets during this time. The final old covenant prophet was John the Baptist who after 400 years paved the way for Jesus (Mark 1:2-4). Reading the Bible is a lot like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. The first step is looking at the picture on the box... the big picture (covenant!). You'll next go for the corners, then the edges, and finally play with the pieces until they fit together. Testament is Latin for covenant. (Heb 9:16-17) A testament requires the death of the testator. (Matt ch 21-28) is one week, (Mark 11-16) is one week, (Luke 19-24) is one week, and (John 13-19) is within 48 hours.

Matthew means gift of God. He was formerly a Levite (Matt 9:9-13, Mark 2:13-17, & Luke 5:27-32) which suggests he was once destined for priesthood but rather became a tax collector (despised by all). This makes him a failed pastor so basically a pastor’s kid (PK) gone wrong. When you have a foal right when they are born they have self-will and then if you ever want to ride him you have to break him in. You want him to follow your will. When he becomes submissive to your will this is called praus which means meek (Matt 5). God blesses the meek who follow His will. This book is written to the Jews going off of Mark's gospel but using the '5 blocks of teaching' similar to Moses. Jesus's '5 blocks of teaching' is parallel to the Pentateuch. Matt 5-7 show the lifestyle of the kingdom (Genesis), Matt 10-11 shows the mission of the kingdom (Exodus), Matt 13 shows the growth of the church (Leviticus), Matt 18 shows the culture of the kingdom (Numbers), and Matt 24-25 showed the future of the kingdom (Deuteronomy). Matthew gives a genealogy dating back to Abraham (Matt 1:1-17). He uses the keyword 'fulfilled' (Matt 5:17) as Jesus will be portrayed as 'Messiah'. The keyword used in the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) is 'authority'.

The book of Mark is the gospel of Peter written by Mark. It begins abruptly and ends abruptly with the good news from John the Baptist to the empty tomb of Jesus. His Greek name is Mark but his Aramaic name is John (Barnabas’s nephew). He starts as a failed missionary but ends up being the greatest. The audience is unbelievers and seekers in Rome (Latin slaves). It doesn’t have a genealogy or birth narrative because it would have been irrelevant to these people. The key word is 'immediately' (Mark 1:10) a sense of action leading you to the main scene of Jesus’s crucifixion. Describes Jesus as a 'servant king'. A keyword used in the Great Commission (Mark 15) is 'proclaim'. This is the shortest and most vivid gospel giving account to specific eyewitnesses.

Luke was a doctor and traveling companion of Paul. There is good evidence that he was also a gentile (outsider). The book of Luke was written to Theophilus as a defense brief to Rome of what Paul was teaching but was also for Greek readers. ‘Theo’ as in God and ‘philus’ as in friend. He shows a strong interest in outsiders such as shepherds, prostitutes, and Zacchaeus. It goes off the perspective that Jesus is one of us, the 'Son of Man'. The genealogy in this book goes as far back as Adam as he was a son of God and a father of all mankind (Luke 3:23-38). It offers a big focus on the women's perspective (Mary & Martha, Mary & Elizabeth) and also gives a detailed birth narrative (Luke 1:41) as well as recording Jesus's circumcision and bar mitzvah (Luke 2:21, 41-52). The keyword (Luke 24:46-49) in the Great Commission is ‘witnesses’. Witness means martyr (laying your life down for Christ).

Nevil agrees with some theologians that as you read the gospels you see the face of the Lion in Matthew, in Mark you get the Man, in Luke the Ox, and in John the Eagle (Eze 1). Matthew and Mark zero in on men but Luke and John zero in on women. Christ always has to have male and female witnesses and testimonies. Marriage is not to make you happy, that is a by-product. It’s meant to change you and make you more Christlike. So we know that marriage is a covenant but did we know that the rings are the seal, the reception is the covenant meal, the covenant memorial is the certificate and photos, consummation is the blood covenant, the witnesses (the covenant attorneys) are the best man and maid of honor because they are the ones meant to protect the covenant (the couple). In heaven the only one to have the marks of their death will be Jesus as it was the seal of the blood covenant of eternal life.

Isaiah wasn’t written first but it was put first because he is called the prince of prophets and considered the most eloquent Hebrew. The 400 years were spent without the Ark as it was lost with Jeremiah and never recovered. The new temple consisted of a 4-inch thick veil and a block of stone instead of the Ark in the holiest of holy places. The stone was for the priest to make sacrifices as had been done once a year on the Ark, but (Ezekiel 36:26) talks of a new covenant heart. (Matt 2:22-23) says it was prophecied but nowhere in the Old Testament does it prophecy that Jesus would be a Nazarene, but Nazareth in Hebrew means the branch (Isaiah 11:1). The people mocked Jesus for being from Nazareth, it was a term of reproach because Nazareth was historically looked down upon. Even though we know Jesus was born in Bethlehem these people didn’t know that.

Pilot wrote a message above the cross (John 19:18-22) in three languages, "Jesus of Nazareth (for the Jews to laugh at), the king of the Jews (what He was being accused of as blasphemy)". Now usually people weren’t crucified unless they were utterly barbaric because this way of death was so barbaric. Jesus withstood it longer than anyone else showing that He has endured more pain than anyone else who ever lived. He didn't even deserve it. (Isaiah 2:2-4) Rivers flow down because of gravity and gravity is pulled by mass but the Bible says that all nations shall flow up to Him (house of the Lord). Now glory in Hebrew is Kabod which means weight. We see from the rest of the verse that justice and God’s law always work together.

The six woes (Is 5) are insatiable greed, pleasure at the expense of the Lord, bound to sin in defiance of the Lord, an exchanging of spiritual and moral price tags (what’s right is seen as wrong and what’s not right is seen as right), spiritual and political pride, and those who deny justice. Can we see this today? Repentance shifts your thinking to God’s thinking. There's a gate to the first 5 commandments, to love God. If you break that you break them all just like the second half where the gateway is family, if you don’t honor your mother and father you break the rest of them. We are meant to go vertically to God and horizontally to each other, making a cross.

How can there be a God if there’s so much pain and suffering? Leprosy is horrible because you can’t feel a thing and it’s lonely. Pain is an indicator that something needs to be fixed. It is a warning sign. The world gets tripped up when there’s pain with no reward. You go through pain in sports so that you can come out better. The pain stops you from keeping your hand on a burner. But with God, there is a purpose that He knows and as a believer you might not see that purpose but that’s why you got to have faith. Faith keeps you going. Faith reminds you of the reward that’s waiting for you after.

Comparisons between John the Baptist and Elijah are a lone voice in the wilderness (Mark 1:1-4), called Israel to repentance (Mark 1:4-8), confronts an apostate king named Herod/Ahab (Mark 6:14-18), confronts a bloodthirsty queen named Herodias/Jezebel (Mark 6:27-29). (John 1:19-21) John the Baptist came only as the spirit of Elijah to pave the way for the son of God (Mal 4:5-6 & Matt 11:13-14) but Elijah truly does come back (Luke 9:30) in an appearance to Jesus. The cross in Greek is Xylon which means tree which goes back to the tree of good and evil that caused the first fall of man which Adam and Eve yoked us to as an eternity of sin and death, but when Jesus died on that cross He unyoked us from the tree.