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Bible Hacks: Reading the Gospels Well
The post Bible Hacks: Reading the Gospels Well appeared first on Brandon Kelley.
[callout]For the next four weeks, I’ll be co-teaching a class called, Bible Hacks where myself and Daryl Docterman will teach short sessions designed to help you read the Bible better. Below are my teaching notes from session four as well as the audio of the class. Past sessions are listed at the bottom of this article:[/callout]
Audio Version:
[button href=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/abundant-life-brandon-kelley/id1030753835″ primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in iTunes[/button]
[button href=”http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/brandon-kelley/the-abundant-life-with-brandon-kelley?refid=stpr” primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in Stitcher[/button]
Imagine for a moment that you were asked to tell the story of your last community group meeting. How would you start the story? What happened? Put us in the situation. How would you do it?
Let’s also imagine that every other person in your community group was asked to do the same thing. How would they start the story? What would they describe? How would they do it?
Now, here’s the question: would the stories of your last community group meeting be the same? No, of course not. Right? But a follow-up question is in order: if the stories are different, does that mean they are wrong? I propose no.
The emphasis you put on a specific detail may be different – probably is – than what another person emphasized on a specific detail. Every sentence you and your group write or speak is filtered through what you think is important and what your perspective was in the story. We all know this. But we sometimes forget it. Especially when we read the Gospels.
The Gospels – 4 Perspectives Guided by the Holy Spirit
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all books about Jesus. They are all gospels. In terms of a genre, they are quite unique. They contain historical narrative and imperative. In other words, they tell the story of Jesus’ ministry and they dive into specific teachings that Jesus taught.
It’s important to realize that each author tells the story of Jesus and His kingdom in order to address the needs of the Christian communities they were writing to.
Matthew writes to a primarily Jewish audience with what seems to be the goal of showing how Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. He also emphasized that Jesus ushered into the world His kingdom – one they didn’t expect.
Mark writes to a primarily non-Jewish audience with the what seems to be the goal of encouraging Christians in the Roman Empire (maybe even Rome itself).
Luke, being a gentile himself, writes to a “most excellent Theophilus,” but was likely intended for a wide audience with what seems to be the goal of examining and confirming the life, work, and humanity of Jesus.
John’s gospel is unique. He plainly states his goal in writing his gospel, namely, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). His gospel was transferrable to all contexts, Jewish, and gentile alike.
Four gospels, four perspectives, four purposes in writing, and one guide: the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:20-21 says this:
knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Peter, one of the apostles, tells us that the prophecies of Scripture didn’t come from men’s interpretations, but they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:16 says this:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness
God is the source of Scripture. He used men to write down what He wanted to be said. It’s vital for us to understand this because it’s not complete to simply say that these men simply wrote about Jesus. They wrote about Jesus while being guided and carried by the Holy Spirit Himself.
All four gospels are equally valuable and equally authoritative.
Reading the Gospels Well
Narrative
As mentioned already, there is a lot of narrative in the gospels. It is set in first-century Palestine and it’s important to remember the NT context when we read the gospels. There are details in the narrative that we may miss if we’re not aware of the context of the first century.
Teaching
When we read the gospels, we likely have a harder time understanding Jesus’ teachings and His parables than we do understanding the narrative portions. We’ll dive into how to read parables next week, but let’s consider some principles for Jesus’ imperatives – or teachings.
We must keep in mind that there are culture gaps and that the first-century context is different from our context. Case in point: Roman soldiers were allowed to force people to aid them in transporting their baggage. So maybe you’re walking down the road and your donkey is carrying your stuff and a Roman soldier tells you to walk with him and carry his baggage. It’s likely you won’t face this situation, so when Jesus says, “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:41), you don’t really know what to do with it.
But if we take a moment and stop, we can see a principle in what Jesus is saying. In fact, He tells us what the overarching principle of what He is giving real-world application to is in verse 39: Do not resist the one who is evil. If someone is attempting to do evil to you, respond with sacrificial love rather than retaliation.
It’s also important to approach Jesus’ teaching and His imperatives (do this, don’t do that, etc.) with the proper starting point. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart make this point in their book, How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth:
They are not law in the sense that one must obey them in order to become or remain a Christian; our salvation does not depend on perfect obedience to them. Rather, they are descriptions, by way of imperative, of what Christian life should be like because of God’s prior acceptance to us.
They are saying what we emphasized last week: our identity in Christ drives our obedience to Christ. And the imperatives are simply what it looks like to be obedient to Christ.
Principles for Reading the Gospels Well
Worksheet
Work through a passage that is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and see how each author approaches and explains what happened.
Here’s the worksheet.
Want to grow your faith even more? Let's be email friends. I'll even give you a free copy of my 4-week audio course and daily devotional called, Journey to Knowing God.
First Name:
Email address:
Leave this field empty if you're human:
[callout]
More From Bible Hacks
Session one: The Overarching Story of the Bible – by Daryl Docterman
Session one: Seeing the Gospel in Every Crevice of the Bible – by Brandon Kelley
Session two: Understanding the Old Testament Context – by Daryl Docterman
Session two: Understanding the New Testament Context – by Brandon Kelley
Session three: Going From Original Meaning to Contemporary Application – by Daryl Docterman
Session three: Identifying Theological Realities and Obedient Actions – by Brandon Kelley
Session four: Reading the OT Narratives Well – by Daryl Docterman
[/callout]
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The post Bible Hacks: Reading the Gospels Well appeared first on Brandon Kelley.
[callout]For the next four weeks, I’ll be co-teaching a class called, Bible Hacks where myself and Daryl Docterman will teach short sessions designed to help you read the Bible better. Below are my teaching notes from session four as well as the audio of the class. Past sessions are listed at the bottom of this article:[/callout]
Audio Version:
[button href=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/abundant-life-brandon-kelley/id1030753835″ primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in iTunes[/button]
[button href=”http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/brandon-kelley/the-abundant-life-with-brandon-kelley?refid=stpr” primary=”true” centered=”false” newwindow=”true”]Subscribe in Stitcher[/button]
Imagine for a moment that you were asked to tell the story of your last community group meeting. How would you start the story? What happened? Put us in the situation. How would you do it?
Let’s also imagine that every other person in your community group was asked to do the same thing. How would they start the story? What would they describe? How would they do it?
Now, here’s the question: would the stories of your last community group meeting be the same? No, of course not. Right? But a follow-up question is in order: if the stories are different, does that mean they are wrong? I propose no.
The emphasis you put on a specific detail may be different – probably is – than what another person emphasized on a specific detail. Every sentence you and your group write or speak is filtered through what you think is important and what your perspective was in the story. We all know this. But we sometimes forget it. Especially when we read the Gospels.
The Gospels – 4 Perspectives Guided by the Holy Spirit
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all books about Jesus. They are all gospels. In terms of a genre, they are quite unique. They contain historical narrative and imperative. In other words, they tell the story of Jesus’ ministry and they dive into specific teachings that Jesus taught.
It’s important to realize that each author tells the story of Jesus and His kingdom in order to address the needs of the Christian communities they were writing to.
Matthew writes to a primarily Jewish audience with what seems to be the goal of showing how Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. He also emphasized that Jesus ushered into the world His kingdom – one they didn’t expect.
Mark writes to a primarily non-Jewish audience with the what seems to be the goal of encouraging Christians in the Roman Empire (maybe even Rome itself).
Luke, being a gentile himself, writes to a “most excellent Theophilus,” but was likely intended for a wide audience with what seems to be the goal of examining and confirming the life, work, and humanity of Jesus.
John’s gospel is unique. He plainly states his goal in writing his gospel, namely, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). His gospel was transferrable to all contexts, Jewish, and gentile alike.
Four gospels, four perspectives, four purposes in writing, and one guide: the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:20-21 says this:
knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Peter, one of the apostles, tells us that the prophecies of Scripture didn’t come from men’s interpretations, but they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:16 says this:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness
God is the source of Scripture. He used men to write down what He wanted to be said. It’s vital for us to understand this because it’s not complete to simply say that these men simply wrote about Jesus. They wrote about Jesus while being guided and carried by the Holy Spirit Himself.
All four gospels are equally valuable and equally authoritative.
Reading the Gospels Well
Narrative
As mentioned already, there is a lot of narrative in the gospels. It is set in first-century Palestine and it’s important to remember the NT context when we read the gospels. There are details in the narrative that we may miss if we’re not aware of the context of the first century.
Teaching
When we read the gospels, we likely have a harder time understanding Jesus’ teachings and His parables than we do understanding the narrative portions. We’ll dive into how to read parables next week, but let’s consider some principles for Jesus’ imperatives – or teachings.
We must keep in mind that there are culture gaps and that the first-century context is different from our context. Case in point: Roman soldiers were allowed to force people to aid them in transporting their baggage. So maybe you’re walking down the road and your donkey is carrying your stuff and a Roman soldier tells you to walk with him and carry his baggage. It’s likely you won’t face this situation, so when Jesus says, “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:41), you don’t really know what to do with it.
But if we take a moment and stop, we can see a principle in what Jesus is saying. In fact, He tells us what the overarching principle of what He is giving real-world application to is in verse 39: Do not resist the one who is evil. If someone is attempting to do evil to you, respond with sacrificial love rather than retaliation.
It’s also important to approach Jesus’ teaching and His imperatives (do this, don’t do that, etc.) with the proper starting point. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart make this point in their book, How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth:
They are not law in the sense that one must obey them in order to become or remain a Christian; our salvation does not depend on perfect obedience to them. Rather, they are descriptions, by way of imperative, of what Christian life should be like because of God’s prior acceptance to us.
They are saying what we emphasized last week: our identity in Christ drives our obedience to Christ. And the imperatives are simply what it looks like to be obedient to Christ.
Principles for Reading the Gospels Well
Worksheet
Work through a passage that is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and see how each author approaches and explains what happened.
Here’s the worksheet.
Want to grow your faith even more? Let's be email friends. I'll even give you a free copy of my 4-week audio course and daily devotional called, Journey to Knowing God.
First Name:
Email address:
Leave this field empty if you're human:
[callout]
More From Bible Hacks
Session one: The Overarching Story of the Bible – by Daryl Docterman
Session one: Seeing the Gospel in Every Crevice of the Bible – by Brandon Kelley
Session two: Understanding the Old Testament Context – by Daryl Docterman
Session two: Understanding the New Testament Context – by Brandon Kelley
Session three: Going From Original Meaning to Contemporary Application – by Daryl Docterman
Session three: Identifying Theological Realities and Obedient Actions – by Brandon Kelley
Session four: Reading the OT Narratives Well – by Daryl Docterman
[/callout]
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Twitter
Email
Print
The post Bible Hacks: Reading the Gospels Well appeared first on Brandon Kelley.