The Gospel Truth

Answers Bible Curriculum Year 3 Quarter 1 Lesson 3

This week in our Answers Bible Curriculum Sunday school, we introduce ourselves to the four New Testament gospels. Why four gospels? How do these accounts of Jesus’ life fit together? And how should we respond to the claim that the gospels feature contradictions? We’ll consider these questions and more.

Rather than one main text, we will use various New Testament passages in our lesson.

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so it might be a little bit weird looking but I guess we’ll just talk to you like this and uh yeah okay I’ll keep one one afternoon sorry about technical difficulties but let’s get started welcome to Sunday school thanks for being here well we’re we’re talking about the gospels today our title is the gospel truth and this is part of our introduction to the New Testament I’ll skip the review from what we did last week but you know that we talked about the New Testament as a whole but we’re we’re transitioning to the the four gospels themselves and we love these books because they tell us about the life of our stages you can type but perhaps you’ve heard someone say that he the gospels have a number of differences in them and how can we believe these gospels when they contradict one another why are there these differences in the gospels isn’t that a sign of contradiction well how would we respond to that question ask yourself right now how would you respond to someone who says Hey the difference between the gospel show that we can’t believe this this question represents what is sometimes called the synoptic problem how do we account the differences in the gospel accounts that each writer was writing about the same life that is a Life of Christ we want to answer that question today and we’ll see that far from calling into question the believability of the Gospel the differences in the text actually affirm the reliability of the Gospel accounts there is no true synoptic problem that we’re going to be more specifically why that is things are online for today’s class well first consider why did the authors fight the gospels we’ll then discuss why we have four gospels and we’ll finish by considering how we should understand the differences in Nagant let me pray Donna I thank you for your provision there’s still a way that I can come to recovery time amen I’m certainly investigating why the gospels were written that’s the answer is obvious to you considering how important this is why wouldn’t you want to write about it but let’s see what the gospel writers themselves say because into the gospels we have it we’re going to look at each starting with Luke to open your Bibles please so Luke chapter one verses one to four and we’ll hear why Luke wrote this gospel by the way when we refer to these books as Gospels to say gospel Luke we mean the good news of Luke or more accurately the good news that he’s this kite according to Luke in the Greek the title given to these books by later readers is simply according to Luke but we call it the Gospel According to Luke and gospel just means good news all right let’s read Luke one for chapter one verse in as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished Among Us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants the word it’s been sitting for me as well having investigated everything carefully from the beginning so write it down for you the consecutive order most excellent Theophilus so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have in taught all right let’s just do this thing since this is written for a certain Theophilus this Theophilus is called most excellent phrase that is later used in Acts by those addressing the Roman Governor Felix and then the Roman Governor Festus Theophilus by the way is a common Greek name it means lover of God or lover of a god it’s not a uniquely Christian name so it’s actually common in the three coils notice that Luke’s name is not mentioned at all here in order to mention anywhere in the gospel we’ll talk in a moment why we still conclude that Luke is the author of this work there’s a lukanologist that he was not the only one to write on this subject it says that many of undertaken took in a pile and accounts of the same accomplished Among Us and they’re just Luke’s position in relation to the things accomplished he does not claim to be an eyewitness but he says he is one who along with others including Theophilus has received the teaching from those who were eyewitnesses and Servants of the word Luke says that you decided she would write an account as well but notice his method Luke carefully investigated everything from the beginning Luke did expensive research beyond what he had heard initially from the eyewitness Luke wants to be an accurate teller of history and give this history through Theophilus in consecutive order and why I’ll notice the perfect statement in verse 4.

so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught in the same I won’t use Theophilus to be totally constant in the message that you have received I don’t want you wondering or doubting about any part of the good news regarding Jesus I want you to know the exact truth therefore I write notice Luke acknowledges that Theophilus had already been thought about you but Luke wants the Oculus to be totally confident in the truth you know that truth exactly and do constant in it all right so a few interpretation questions what can we determine about who Theophilus is or what kind of person he is well I could say something appears to be a man of some important or authority because that title most excellent that’s used elsewhere to apply to important people he appears to be a gentile his name is a common Gentile name is the position of secular Authority not usually occupied by Jews and we’ll see that the Gospel of Luke itself as we invest in different gospels this is the Gospel of Luke itself is very much oriented towards Gentiles so it makes sense that Theophilus would be a gentile s appear to be a Christian he already hasn’t taught about Jesus but Luke wants Theophilus to become more confident in the truth any appears to be a real person with a name like lover of God might suggest that Luke wrote to an imaginary person who was a stand-in for any Christian lover of God so he’s addressing all Christians by addressing this metaphorical lover of God well there are enough personal details here to suggest that Joshua was a real person not just a standard there’s a lot to say though that the office was the only intended recipient it was common for writers in the Greek and Roman world to address a literary work a wealthy speechman who was later provide the financing for the publication and dissemination of the work we see this in a non-Christian writings as well so that could be somewhat a sum of what is going on here moreover Lucas is probably aware that he writes not only the benefit the office but many other Gentile Christians who similarly need assurance and greater understanding of the Gospel now think a little bit about the history involving Jew and Gentile discuss later in the book of Acts and in the Paul line letter why might new Gentile Christians need Assurance in the gospel get me okay and there they might not be as familiar with the Old Testament and not sure how the Salvation message they’ve heard connects with the previous revelation and Luke definitely does make a number of references to the old tests and that I think is part of it I could be part of it the why else why does gentile need a gentile Christian need further Assurance of the exactness of the Gospel remember what’s one of the main issues that Paul has to deal with especially in Galatians you oh Danny yeah there are many of these Gentile Christians they heard the message from Paul they believed the Salvation message but then these other preachers started coming in and they say no no you you’re not saved yet if you want to be saved you’ve got to become a Jew and so it might be feel confused about the gospel wait am I saved or not what is the message that saved did Paul or others alter the message whenever they gave it to us and certainly there were Jews who were persecuting um the Jewish believers they were treating them like they were false Believers so the Gentiles were observing this they’ve got the judaizers they’ve got the persecuting Jews and they are not as familiar with the Old Testament and so you can understand that they might have some questions is the gospel that we heard the true gospel or has it been altered and I think that is one of the things that Luke is responding to Luke is assuring these Gentile Christians Theophilus included that the good news of Salvation that was first taught by Jesus and later by his Apostles has never required ritual observance of the law for salvation and despite the Jewish and judaizing opposition to the contrary Gentiles are included in a contrary included in the gospel without becoming Jews so as Dr Keith Essick said in my new testament studies class Luke writes a history to prove from another angle what Paul proves by argument in his letter in Galatians oh sweet okay thank you yeah my arm was getting tired okay but how do we know it was Luke who wrote the Gospel now basically it’s a process of uh analysis considering the New Testament as a whole whoever wrote Luke also wrote acts since the two books are very similar acts even opens with a with the writer referring to his previous work given to Theophilus on the life of Jesus which is certainly what the Gospel of Luke is but in the book of Acts the writer uses the first person to describe his own travels with the Apostle Paul therefore the writer of Luke and acts had to be a Pauline companion who is however not specifically mentioned in acts so it’s not going to be Timothy it’s not going to be Silas it’s not going to be Apollos it’s somebody who traveled with Paul who could have written these Works who nonetheless did not mention himself by name now we know that Luke was a companion of Paul we know he was a gentile we know he was a physician because of some of the other things written in the Paul line letters Colossians second Timothy and Philemon but Luke is not someone who’s mentioned by name in Luke or acts so process of elimination we we look at these criteria who could have written it who was not mentioned and the only one who could who fits the bill is Luke the Gentile physician and that’s the view of the early church they said Luke was the writer which is interesting because that makes Luke the only Gentile writer of scripture and he wrote about a fourth of the New Testament in these two Works Luke and acts very important so one reason that the gospels were given as we see from the Luke of introduction the introduction of Luke the gospels were written to give greater confidence and Assurance in the message of salvation received by believers but this is also the only reason that they were written let’s now look over at John chapter 20. let’s hear why the Apostle John says he wrote his account of Jesus life and Ministry you have a question Danny Luke know that he was writing the inspired scripture even with that phrase the exact truth we know that the other some of the other scriptures some of the other writers knew that they were writing scripture as we talked about last time certainly the apostles were aware was Luke aware I think you could argue that he was um I don’t know if I would come down super confident on that he wasn’t an apostle he was under the oversight in the oven up an apostle but certainly he was trying his utmost and we can see in the looking back at it he was writing scripture I think he could have been aware but um I’d have to think about that a little bit more but let’s look at why John writes his gospel John chapter 20 verses 30 to 31 let’s look at those verses so just a couple pages over actually a number of pages over Now understand where these come these verses come in the context of John Luke wrote his purpose in the beginning of his gospel John gives his more towards the end of the Gospel he’s come near the conclusion this is right after Thomas expresses belief in the Risen Christ and Jesus responded to Thomas because you have seen me have you believed blessed are they who did not see and yet believed and then verses 30 and 31 look at those with me therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that believing you may have life in his name now observe with me briefly on this passage notice the term signs on this term is used in the Gospel of John it’s another word to describe Jesus miracles miracles proving who he is the signs of who he is and notice the author’s admission of selectivity it says he did not write about all the signs that the disciples witnessed later on John will say and the last verse of his gospel and there are also so are there also many other things which Jesus did which if they were written in detail I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written so John admits he didn’t write everything that he could have written but why did he write what he did well he says so that you the reader May believe that Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God by believing in him you will have eternal life in his name so unlike Luke who’s John’s intended audience if he’s saying this is written so that you may believe what have they not done yet they haven’t believed John is primarily writing to unbelievers and as I think I argued last time unbelieving Jews this is a more Evangelistic gospel here John wrote his gospel so that those who read it or heard it shared by Christians might be saved by believing in it so then we see two banks in the faith of those who already believe now why four Gospels couldn’t one or two have been enough well perhaps but God’s wisdom dictated otherwise you may be aware of a certain statement regarding the witness of the testimony or witness or testimony from the Old Testament when it came to a court of law how many witnesses were necessary to establish a fact two or three but how many does the New Testament provide four So based on the Old Testament statement more than enough it’s not that every Everything the Bible says has to be confirmed by two or three writers but this is just that may be one of the reasons why we have four but there’s also a unique emphasis in each of the gospels yes they all Describe the life of Jesus but the writers had specific purposes and audiences in mind when they were reporting Jesus life now according to Dr Essex remember he’s a professor here at the Seminary I’m persuaded now he has a view and I’m persuaded of this view that is borne out in the gospels that you have two gospels written primarily to Gentiles and two gospels written primarily to Jews and within each pair you have one that’s intended for unbelievers and one that’s intended for believers primarily obviously it’s gonna be useful for either but it has a specific emphasis to unbeliever or believer and you can see the chart I actually pulled this straight from my notes from the New Testament studies course you can see the chart that I put on the screen so the gospel of Mark is intended primarily for Gentile unbelievers and you could even say new believers who are spreading Jesus message to the Gentiles while the Gospel of Luke is an account intended for Gentile Believers meanwhile the Gospel of John as we saw as an account tender for Jewish unbelievers while the gospel of Matthew is intended for Jewish Believers strengthen them in faith now this is not to say that if you share Matthew with a gentile unbeliever or ask them to read Matthew that you’re doing something sinful no but if you we do want to appreciate and maximize the what appears to be the gospel’s original designs now it’s also common for us to speak of the gospels as highlighting different aspects of Jesus nature you may have heard Mark presents Jesus as servants Matthew presents Jesus as king Luke presents Jesus as human and John presents Jesus as God well this is okay there is something to this but as Dr Essex councils we need to be careful not to over emphasize this division it’s not as if we don’t see anything about Jesus’s Humanity in John or we don’t see anything about Jesus deity in Matthew we do all the gospels emphasize these different aspects of Jesus in varying degrees for example and I think you can appreciate this because the pastor’s been going through mark one of the reasons why Jesus servanthood is so astounding in Mark is because Mark shows that Jesus really is Israel’s King and God that’s what makes his servanhood so great so we just want to remember that caution when thinking about distinctions between the Gospels now consistent with these different purposes and different emphases you may have noticed if you’ve read through the gospels that they’re not completely the same first of all they don’t all discuss the same events for example Mark and John say basically nothing about Jesus childhood while Luke and Matthew do but even within Luke and Matthew they don’t mention the same parts of Jesus childhood the visit of the Magi is in Matthew but not in Luke and the visit to the Shepherds is in Luke but not in Matthew so they don’t all talk about or they don’t mention all the same events second of the events that they do all share the gospels don’t necessarily discuss the events in the same order now we’re very accustomed to Modern histories which generally record events happening in strict chronological order but ancient histories while chronological or not as strict in their chronology they allowed for some historic episodes to be moved around within a general time frame to emphasize a particular theme or Point what we would call topical organization so it’s not that the authors say that the event happened at two different times rather they chose to report that of the event that happened in two different spots in their narratives for example if you’ve ever read through both Matthew and Luke you’ll notice that they don’t present The Temptations of Jesus in the wilderness in the same order both record three main Temptations in the wilderness but Matthew has the temptation to make bread then the temptation to jump off the Jerusalem Temple and then the temptation to worship Satan and receive all the world kingdoms but Luke flips those last two first bread then Temptation for all the world kingdoms by which being Satan and then the temptation to jump off the temple why the difference why this rearrangement the answer is debated but certainly it has something to do with what each author wants to emphasize about Jesus and about his Temptations we can certainly see a progression in the magnitude of Temptation in Matthew you start from the most seemingly enough Luke appears so I wanted to emphasize something about Jesus ending up in Jerusalem one of the things that’s striking about Luke and acts is the emphasis on Jesus and then later Paul’s journey to Jerusalem you may recall that one statement from Luke he set his face toward Jerusalem talking about Jesus Luke as a narrator he wants to understand there’s this drive to get to Jerusalem and I think that’s present even in the Temptations He wants to emphasize Jerusalem that’s not quite the same emphasis in the other Gospels so we do have this sometimes within a general time frame of things happening sometimes a a movement of where those events are reported between the Gospels but the overarching event order is certainly the same now we can easily more easily compare the different gospels and whether they report a particular event or Not by using what’s called a Harmony of the Gospels you may have used a Harmony or something that comes from a Harmony study before and the results of a Harmony can take different forms in your Bible you might have some Harmony notes related to various section headings for example if I go in my Bible I using the John mccarthur Study Bible if I go to Luke Chapter 4 verses 1 to 15 the section title provided by the the translator says The Temptations of Christ but then right underneath and Mark 1 12-13 so by just looking at that note I I know as a reader of that Bible oh okay this same event is described in the other gospels in these other sections so that’s one place you might see Harmony indicated you can also buy a Harmony presentation of the gospels themselves John MacArthur has one called one perfect life it’s a book where all the gospel texts the four gospels are blended into a single account so that you can read each event with the most complete Viewpoint possible so let’s say we get to The Temptations of Christ and the the book will feature each gospel’s writings about that Temptation right next to each other so that you know what every gospel writer said if he said anything about it all at once and you can see more easily how the gospels complement each other how they connect awesome if you have a study Bible you might have a chart somewhere in your Bible which shows the specific events of Jesus life and where they are reported or not in each gospel again using the John mccarthur Study Bible if you go to the beginning of the New Testament there’s a bunch of introductory material I imagine other study bibles are similar and within that introduction material is a Harmony of the gospels and a pretty long chart that lists the different events of Jesus life in in chronological sequence and then within those events where the more specific events take place in each gospel and you may say but I don’t have a study of Bible I don’t get to enjoy this harmony stuff well actually you can because you can just get the stuff online you can go to a study Bible website like blueletterbible.org which is where I went and I picked up a piece of a Harmony chart and I put it on your screen this is what Blue Letter Bible gives as a Harmony for one section of Christ’s life Christ’s Ministry outside of Galilee so if you look at the whole chart you’ll see the progression where Jesus is moving and the main events but within those events you can see what’s happening and where it’s reported in the gospels so just take a moment to look at this chart you may notice a few things sticking out one Matthew Mark and Luke are obviously pretty similar you can see the three columns they all are reporting or nearly all reporting the same events uh Luke Luke doesn’t mention one of the things that Matthew and Mark do but they’re pretty similar and here we have all the gospels following the same order in describing these events this isn’t always the case sometimes they’ll they’ll take it in a different order but for this section they’re all going in the same order but you also notice that John hardly overlaps John doesn’t describe most the events given here so they’ve got three books that are really similar three gospels really similar and John very special this is why the by why Bible scholars often refer to Matthew Mark and Luke as the synoptic Gospels this is a term that means their content is really similar in general but John is most unique admitting many of the events that are in the other three gospels but including many events that are not in the other three Gospels so this provokes two questions why are the three synoptic gospels so similar well let me just get out of the way no it’s not because there was one original gospel that the writers merely copied this is what many liberal Scholars maintain Ah that’s why they’re so similar rather it’s because they’re all describing here’s the real reason they were all describing the same historical events and representing the standard Apostolic teaching of the day so they one of the reasons they’re so similar is because they’re all describing things that actually happened but as many of these Apostles ministered together for a time in Jerusalem it’s not um it’s not strange to understand that they had a consistent message yes each Apostle had his own emphasis but there was agreement among the apostles as what was important to report about Jesus life there’s certain things that are essential the apostles are all giving a consistent message and their gospels reflect that and the gospels of those who were under their teaching reflects that their Associates so we can understand why the synoptic gospels would be similar but why then is John so different well it’s not because John was a rogue Apostle or anything again liberal Scholars their explanation is oh John he comes from a totally separate Christian tradition he’s like a contradictory still Accords perfectly with the other three rather the uniqueness of John comes from the unique situation of the gospel’s writing now I’ve listed oh let me go back to the other chart I’ve listed here some dates with these with these books these are Dr essex’s these reflect Dr essex’s view John MacArthur might be a little bit different others might take a little bit different View if you can see most Scholars agree that the synoptic gospels were written much earlier than John’s gospel John’s gospel is likely written 20 to 30 years after the other Gospels um during which John’s intended audience was experiencing something very different from what the earlier gospel writers had all the other Apostles are martyred at this point and John is the only surviving Apostle it’s probably aware of the existence and the circulation of the other three gospels Matthew Mark and Luke so as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit he did not desire to Simply cover the same ground with his gospel rather he wrote a gospel from a different perspective to complement not contradict the other gospels and to minister specifically to the people he was writing to in his own time so that’s one of the reasons or that that explains why John’s gospel was a little different than the others now this idea of complementarity is Central to all the Gospels we come back to our question now if the gospels are true and accurate then why are there differences among them but by now you’ve already seen the answer gospels were written from div were written to different audiences and they’re written in different situations they were written from different perspectives even though they’re all writing about the same history they’re written from different perspectives and with different emphases and these perspectives don’t contradict each other rather they complement each other this is natural considering these um these differences in background it’s natural to see some differences in their accounts it’s like four ancient viewers who are observing a sculpture and they’re observing us an ancient sculpture but they have slightly different angles on that sculpture they’re all seeing the same object but there’s going to be some variation in their report of that object some different emphasis different things that they talk about and they don’t talk about by reading these reports and by appreciating each perspective we ourselves can gain a much Fuller picture of this Grand sculpture even though we don’t have access to the work that they were observing to apply that directly to the gospels because the gospel writers have differences from each other we can actually get even Fuller understanding of Christ and his work actually if the gospel writings were too similar that quality itself would make them suspect for consider police work if two witnesses report the exact same story detail for detail what’s the usual conclusion by the police it’s rehearsed this is not a true testimony they conspired to give a certain account because it’s not natural for people who should have different perspectives different embassies to report the exact same thing detail for detail so it is the gospels the differences in the gospel accounts don’t make them less credible it makes them more credible because these differences your perspective audience and purpose they are natural and expected now before we close hopefully we have enough time to go through all this let me alert you to two kinds of situations you might find in the gospels when it comes to their differences and at first when you encounter these things they may seem like contradictions they’re not actually here are the two different situations number one when you encrypt events but they’re not actually the same happening there are two different events for example someone might say hey the gospels give a contradictory account of the woman who anointed Jesus with perfume winning Jesus’s feet they’ve got the perfume they’re wiping his feet with their hair you they’re they’re describing the the same happening but the reaction of the people and the onlookers is different and it’s presented in different contexts so we’ve got a contradiction actually there’s a simple answer to this contradiction and it’s that they’re actually describing two different events they’re similar but they’re different they’re distinct it just just so happens that you did have someone who anointed Jesus’s feet towards the beginning of his ministry and a moral woman and but you also had someone anoint Jesus closer to his crucifixion and there are a number of differences in the passages that emphasize yes these are not the same event even though at first they may seem like they are the same this is um similar situation with Jesus cleansing the temple John 2 John Chapter 2 says that Jesus cleansed the temple during the Passover at the beginning of his ministry but Matthew 21 Mark 11 and Luke 19 say Jesus cleansed The Temple at the beginning of Passover week at the end of his ministry so is John repurposing the cleansing of the temple into a new chronological spot no it’s another example of a similar event happening at a different time Jesus cleansed the temple both at the beginning and at the end of his ministry and you can even see in the passages what Jesus says in each instance is different in John 2 he says destroy this Temple I’ll re build it in three days but he doesn’t say that in the other cleansing he says something different but the fact that Jesus had to cleanse the temple twice and Israel still rejected him shows Israel’s utter spiritual bankruptcy it’s like you can’t you can’t fix this broken machine it just has to be disposed and that’s where God’s judgment came on Israel so similar but distinct events is something to be aware of as you read through the Gospels another thing to be aware of is where different levels of information are provided on the same event again this may at first appear when we encounter the situation it may appear to be a contradiction but it’s not actually let me give you two examples someone might say for instance Matthew 8 says two demoniacs had the Legion of demons in the country of the garrisones but Mark 5 and Luke 8 mention only one demoniac with the Legion of demons so we’ve got a contradiction no again the solution here is simple there really were two demoniacs but it wasn’t inaccurate from Mark or Luke to just report one for simplicity’s sake they chose to focus on only one of the two characters what they reported about that one was still accurate Matthew just gave extra information on that event that um Matthew or that we’ll just consider we did the same thing in our own communication today for example you might report to someone that you bought some cookies from a girl scout who came to your door even though usually multiple Girl Scouts appear um appear at the door at the same time you don’t have to mention though if you say oh I bought I bought some girl um I bought some cookies from a girl scout you don’t have to mention the other girl scouts or even their accompanying parents you don’t have to be like technically I bought it from their parents and the other girl scouts all the same time no it’s it’s still accurate for you to just mention one seller and it’s a simpler way to convey your meaning if someone wants to mention the others that’s fine but you don’t have to or consider how we often refer to Paul’s missionary Journeys we say Paul preached and established churches Paul did this Paul did that what was it only Paul what about Timothy and Silas they were there too shouldn’t we say Paul and Silas preached or Paul and Timothy established churches we could but we don’t have to it would still be accurate without mentioning the others who were part of that event the point about what happened and what Paul did is still clear so it is with these two demoniacs that’s because one writer gives extra information on the situation doesn’t mean that the other writers are being false they just they weren’t at they didn’t go to that same level of information as the one one more example of this Matthew 8 says that after learning that his beloved slave was desperately sick a centurion came to Jesus and implored Jesus to heal the servant or to heal the slave so this the Centurion came to Jesus but Luke 7 says that the Centurion did not come but he sent friends in his stead he sent Jewish friends on his behalf and then in a later message this Centurion tells Jesus don’t come to my house I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof I didn’t even feel worthy to come to you myself but just say the word and my slave will be healed now we could look at this and be like oh is this a contradiction skeptic might be like aha see one says he came the other one says he didn’t come but again there’s really no contradiction here it’s just another example of one author giving extra information and one author just keeping things simpler this time Luke is the one who decides to give action information that Matthew does not but when Matthew writes it’s still true Luke just explains the means of the centurions coming to Jesus the Centurion came via his friends unless you say I don’t know about that again we do the same thing we do the same thing in our own communication let’s say I took a test in one of my classes and the teacher grades it but because he’s sick a substitute is the one in class who actually hands the test back to me it would still be accurate for me to say my teacher gave me back my test even though technically my teacher didn’t give it to me it was the substitute who did on behalf of the teacher as an intermediary or again we may talk about Paul writing his letter to the Romans we would all affirm that did Paul write his letter did Paul write to the Romans he did but technically Paul didn’t write it because Romans 16 22 says that tertius and emanuences was the one who actually wrote the letter at Paul’s Direction so Paul dictated the letter and someone else wrote it but isn’t inaccurate to say that Paul wrote Romans of course not that’s not inaccurate because essentially Paul did write Romans even though it was via a secretary so back to the Centurion there’s no inaccuracy in saying that the Centurion came to Jesus as Matthew does because in essence the Centurion did come to Jesus via the intercession of his friends just one author chose to give more specific information while one author chose to keep things a little simpler so we do have differences in the gospels but these differences are not truly contradictory we can we can believe what the gospels declare so just coming back to our main question our main questions today like er this this lesson has all been about can we believe the gospel truth can we believe the four gospels we certainly can’t the gospels were written to bring us to belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to strengthen our faith and understanding after becoming saved God has given through the gospels abundant witness to the life and work of Jesus not two witnesses not three Witnesses but four these Works feature unique perspectives and emphasis but all harmonized perfectly with each other and the rest of scripture and declaring the good news about Jesus now the differences of the gospels are not true contradictions they’re just manifestations of the special perspectives of each writer the difference is enhance rather than denigrate the trustworthiness of these accounts and you and as we just talked about two differences are worth highlighting when it comes to the gospels and and making sure we don’t see contradictions where there are none whenever we see two similarly reported events that are actually distinct from one another and when there is a difference in the level of information given in two writings about the same event wow we actually got through almost everything questions uh any quick questions before we uh problems something that that seems like a contradiction or is just difficult in the text many people will instantly say oh there’s something wrong with the text you know this is what the liberal Scholars do see there’s a problem in the text it’s a new consistency is something inaccurate but rather when we say actually let me just see if this is really true how could I possibly work this out we come to a a very maturing conclusion we actually work through the problems of the text rather than just throw up our hands because there is a solution to each problem and we do grow in our understanding and in our in our maturity as we wrestle through those yes Steve um yeah yeah thanks Steve um the the metaphor of the the court is is one that’s often applied to the to the gospels as a Harmony and it is true yeah it is like a beautiful chord or a beautiful piece of music when you have the the four different parts coming together and your other point about it’s a little it’s a little silly for us to be like oh we’re the ones who found the contradiction because of the other guys before us we’re so we’re so ignorant and foolish no I the human mind has has consistently been one to investigate issues so if we think the issues that we we see through the text are are the uh we think we’re the first one to deal with those no people have been dealing with those questions for a long time it’s like someone was asking me the other day um well how can we believe the six day creation because you had light before the sun like that that couldn’t possibly be if if the author meant the text literally well that issue is that question is not unique to today people were asking that question even back in the early church and there was a response to that question which was simply uh God can create light without a son that’s not that hard so yeah that’s a good reminder Steve we should not think that we are we are so much better than those who came before us it is true that we have more resources and our technology has advanced but it’s not like the people back then were irrational and they just accepted things that were obviously contradictory no no that’s a that’s a silly assumption just a few application questions as we close today a lot of this uh discussion has been directly application related project related but just a few more things to think about which is better reading a Harmony text of all the gospels or reading each gospel by itself well the answer is each have their benefits now Harmony will give you if you just read through a collection of everything together we’ll give you a fuller understanding of Christ’s Ministry help you see the connections between the Gospels but don’t just say oh I want to read the Harmony and I don’t want to read the individual gospels anymore because let’s remember it the authors had a reason for selecting what they did they didn’t include everything because they had a purpose they had a specific intent in their writing they chose the details they did to include and they chose details to exclude so we shouldn’t rush to fill in all the details or all the blanks in each particular gospel there’s a reason Mark didn’t say such and such there’s a reason Luke didn’t say such and such so let’s appreciate that by just um by just focusing on Mark’s gospel or just focusing on Luke’s gospel so we can understand what Luke was saying or what Mark was saying so again there’s benefit each in our class here because we’re doing a Chronological Study we might end up doing more of a Harmony topical approach rather than a um more confined to a particular gospel but just know that there is an important benefit from Reading each gospel in its in its own um in its own context all by itself number two what should we do with the claims of missing gospels like the Gospel of Mary or Gospel of Barnabas or Gospel of Thomas well there’s a reason they weren’t included by the early church their their claims had to be assessed and they were assessed primarily on the agreement with the the primarily on the agreement with the rest of the Bible and on their historical reliability what kind of clues in the text did they indicate whether these are historically reliable or whether they were written when they claimed to be of written the four gospels are in perfect agreement with the rest of scripture and they passed the historical reliability tests while these other gospels so-called gospels they don’t they contradict scripture where they just can’t they can’t um hold up to uh scrutiny whenever they claim to be written at a certain date or by a certain person and they couldn’t possibly have been so we don’t have to worry oh was there a missing gospel no no number three if you were challenged by a skeptic with a charge of contradictions between the different gospels what is the best way to respond to those accusations well first ask them to show you what the contradiction is you know people will sometimes make a general Claim about the Bible without actually having any specific examples so ask them oh what contradiction are you talking about and if they tell you go to your go to the Bible and actually look look at the passages in which that supposed contradiction occurs many times by simply reading the two passages you can show the person there is no true contradiction and we did that in some respects today but even if you open a passage you read it and you’re not sure about how to explain the contradiction don’t feel like your faith has been shattered or you suddenly lost just let the person know you don’t yet know the answer tell them how you’ll attempt to find out and let them know how you will get back to them about it never feel bad about not knowing the answer to every question you do want to be ready to make a defense for those who give who ask you to give an account of the hope that is in you that’s what scripture commands us to do and you also want to be clear with each person that you are confident in God’s word but we’re all growing and learning and none of us has total knowledge we all press on for the prize but even where we don’t know something we can still let the person know I will find this out and get back to you well that’s it for this week next week we approach the question who do the gospels reveal Jesus to be thank for your patience today as we work through the technical issues let’s pray as we close God I thank you for these people I thank you for these gospels that they’re trustworthy they are a beautiful Harmony God we thank you that we have these abundant Witnesses and even these varied Witnesses about the life of your son Jesus and his ministry on our behalf thank you that we have salvation by trusting in Jesus Lord Jesus thank you for coming and saving us by your gracious work doing what we could never do and securing for us eternal life with you what a blessing and I pray that people will continue to be blessed today as they worship and as they hear more of the word in Jesus name amen thank you guys see you next week