Grace Bible Church
PastorTeacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday, February 7, 2014
We have been traveling back and forth through the four Gospels, – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Each Gospel focuses in on a different aspect of TLJC and His ministry on the earth.
It is important for us to learn about our Lord’s life especially in the Gospels.
The four Gospels speak of the different aspects and views that God the Holy Spirit inspired the different writers to put in writing.
Divine inspiration – God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human writers of Scripture, that without waving their human intelligence, or their individuality, or their style of writing,
Their personal feelings or any other kind of human factor, His own complete and coherent message to man was recorded in perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture = Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek
The very words bear the authority of divine authorship = verbal plenary inspiration of the Scripture.
First four Gospels = write what He desired to reveal to them in a book or a Gospel with their own style and their own vocabulary,
God’s words about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is motivating them to speak from their own experience the life of Christ in their own viewpoint inspired by the accuracy and the preciseness of the word of God.
Matthew = the apostle Matthew. Mark = John Mark of Jerusalem. Luke = Dr. Luke and the apostle Paul. John = written by John.
LUK 1:3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write {it} out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus;
The Bible is a message system: it’s not simply 66 books penned by 40 authors over thousands of years, the Bible is an integrated whole which bears evidence of supernatural engineering in every detail.
The importance of the Gospels and the “Word of God” or ” from God” as brought out in the Gospels are found both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
EZE 10:14 And each one had four faces. The first face {was} the face of a cherub, the second face {was} the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
First face refers to Mark’s Gospel. Second face = the face of a man, referring to Luke. Third the face of a lion = Matthew. Fourth face of an eagle – Gospel of John.
HEB 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
PRO 30:5, Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
LUK 11:28 But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it.”
ACT 6:7 And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
EPH 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
1TH 2:13 And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.
JOH 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
JOH 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
1PE 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.
REV 19:13 And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God.
2SA 22:31,”As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tested; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
PSA 33:6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
1PE 1:25 But the word of the Lord abides forever.
REV 4:6-7, and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.
REV 4:7 And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
The lion mentioned first = Gospel of Matthew. Calf – Gospel of Mark. Man, – Gospel of Luke. Eagle – Gospel of John.
Typology Numerology, the number four is symbolic of global completeness denoting the entire world, the earth.
The gospels also give us a fourfold manifestation of Christ: He is seen in His sovereignty (Matthew), ministry (Mark), humanity (Luke), and deity (John).
Christian tradition has connected the authors of the four Gospels – (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) with the four “living creatures” that surround God’s throne, REV 4:7.
REV 4:7 And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
Anyone who gives this book some time to reveal itself has to be impressed with the accuracy and preciseness of what it says, when it says it, and how it says it.
The Bible is a book where Evidence Demands a Verdict.
The Bible gives us evidence and then puts the ball in our court, as it were, and says in effect; what is your opinion or verdict that you conclude after hearing the facts that have been presented?
The symbols are the Lion, the ox, the man or the servant-hood of men, and the eagle.