Series: New Testament Overview
Category: Core Seminars, Bible Prophecy, Bible Interpretation, Biblical Theology, Life of Christ, Person of Christ, Resurrection of Christ, Work of Christ, Covenants, Justification, Regeneration / New Birth, The End Times / Return of Christ, The Gospel
Detail:
Introduction
In Luke 4:14-19, the gospel writer describes Jesus returning from his temptation in the desert and announcing the dawning of a new age in history. The dawning of a new kingdom. Turn with me to Luke 4:14, as I read:
“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.’
Now, imagine you’re a faithful Jew in the synagogue that day, following along. You know this passage of Isaiah 61 by heart. You know that this passage points to the coming of a messianic king who will, when he comes, proclaim freedom to the prisoners, open the eyes of the blind, and release the oppressed. And, suddenly, you see this man standing in front of you, reading the words: “The Spirit of the Lord is on ME, because he has anointed ME to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent ME to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And just as you are starting to say, “Wait, is he saying that he is the coming Messiah?,” he rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant, sits down, and then announces “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
In that one sentence, your concept of the entire Old Testament is blown apart and the New Testament has been inaugurated. The carpenter’s son is reading prophecy about the Messiah, and ascribing it to himself! There is no neutral response to this moment; Christ says he is the end of thousands of years of waiting.
Welcome
Welcome to the New Testament Overview Core Seminar class. This week is the first of a 26 week overview of the New Testament. You can see what each of these weeks will cover on the back of your handout. Many of you have been attending the Old Testament overview class, which takes as its theme "The Kingdom of God" and the Promises God made to His People. The New Testament overview picks up that theme by studying both "The King and the Kingdom" and the Promises God has Kept to His people. Our hope is to demonstrate the continuity of themes across the span of scripture, just as we saw in Luke 4, the continuity from the Prophet Isaiah to Jesus Christ.
Today we will discuss the structure and purpose of the New Testament Overview class, and then I’ll run through the whole New Testament twice: once to overview the types of literature we’ll encounter in this course, and a second time to paint a picture of the message of the entire New Testament.
Purpose and Summary of Course
To understand the big picture of each book of the New Testament. [More like a flight across the country than a family cross-country road trip]. We will avoid getting caught up in the minor details, but we’ll see the scenery change as we fly over different books.
To understand the continuity between the books in the NT
To realize the Promises God has kept to His People from the OT
To hear God speak to us today through His Word and so to be challenged in our lives.
Like the Old Testament class, our course is structured to discuss different aspects of the King and the Kingdom. We will not be looking at every detail of every book and will not be covering all parts of the books we are studying. But we’ll profit from a better understanding of the broader picture.
We’ll begin with a basic introduction to the New Testament:
Authorship of the New Testament
The New Testament has 27 books with 8 or 9 human authors that can be grouped in 3 major prophetic circles.
Petrine Circle:
Matthew, Mark, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, and James
Matthew is one of the apostles, but remained in Jerusalem.
Mark is not an apostle, but was a close companion of Peter. Thus Mark’s gospel is largely thought to be Peter’s account of Jesus’ life.
Peter himself wrote 1 & 2 Peter
Jude & James are both half-brothers of Jesus, and key figures in the Jerusalem church.
Jude picks up many themes from 2 Peter
James is rich in his use of Matthew’s gospel, particularly the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7)
Pauline Circle:
Luke, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Timothy, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Titus, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Hebrews
13 letters of Paul
Hebrews (unknown authorship but “Timothy our brother” 13:23 places him within the Pauline Circle),
Luke / Acts (It is clear that Luke is part of Paul’s circle: note the “we passages)
Johannine Circle.
John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Revelation
Written by the Apostle John, the Apostle whom Jesus loved.
And yet with a number of human authors, we see a unity in both the NT and OT Scriptures, because as Peter says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (II Pet. 1:20-21) Regardless of a particular human instrument, God is the One true author of Scripture.
Genre
So, what exactly did God inspire? Not a single style or a single genre, but a diversity of writing and perspective that contains the unity of his word. I’m going to run through the three genres of the New Testament—taking us from Matthew to Revelation—as we look through the three basic genres. Those would be the Gospels (including Acts as a continuation of Luke), the Epistles (or letters), and the apocalyptic literature (Revelation, which is also a letter). We’ll start with the Gospels.
Gospel / Acts
The word ‘gospel’ is not used of literature at all before the 2nd century, when the 4 accounts of Jesus’ life started to be known as ‘Gospels’ (Probably due to the use of ‘gospel’ in Mark 1:1)
As in all Bible histories, the focus is theological, not chronological. So no attention is given to describing a “balanced” account of Jesus’ life—as you would find reading a year’s worth of newspapers. Instead, these books zero in on the events that really matter from a theological perspective: the death and resurrection of Jesus.
In that sense, the Gospels do not give the same attention to providing temporal markers as a modern biography would. They are more concerned with the significance of what happened than with the date of what happened. So the order is always logical but not necessarily always chronological.
What the Gospel writers find significant about Jesus, and what they intend for us to find significant about Jesus, is that he is the promised Messiah. This promised Messiah would bring his people freedom not by conquering the Roman occupiers (again, the day of God’s vengeance is not yet here), but by shedding his blood, and being raised from the dead. They want their readers to understand that Jesus was the King and had come to inaugurate the Kingdom, but not in the way many of the people and disciples had anticipated.
Acts
This book is really a continuation of Luke’s Gospel. The recipient is the same, Theophilus, and Luke begins Acts with a recounting of where he had left off from his previous book. In the same way that the Gospels do not provide a “balanced” account of Jesus’ life, Acts does not provide a “balanced” history of the church’s growth. For example, we see only hints of the spread of the gospel east or south (eg. Ch. 8 with the Ethiopian eunuch). Rather, geographically speaking, the focus is on the ever-closer approach of the gospel to Rome, the heart of the known world. The focus shifts from Jerusalem to Rome to show the shift that there is from Old to New Testaments. No longer is the world to come to Jerusalem to hear of God (like those in Acts 2). Rather the gospel is to be taken to the world.
Of course, all through the book, the “hero," so to speak is clear. This is not so much the “Acts of the Apostles” as it is the “Acts of the Holy Spirit,” working through the word of God. In fact, there are repeated summary statements about the triumph of the Word throughout Acts. We see its climax in Acts 28 as the gospel is preached in the heart of the known world. Paul, we learn, is imprisoned in Rome under house arrest, but the gospel is free:
“ For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Epistles
Those histories take us through the first five books of the New Testament. Of course, for many Christians in America, outside of the Psalms and Proverbs, the Epistles (or letters) of the New Testament tend to be the most read books of the Bible. The reasons are obvious: they are direct, usually have stated purpose and applications, and most dangerously, we tend to think we can understand and apply them apart from their original context. We tend to approach the Epistles like Cliffs notes to the Bible…just explain to me how Christians should live today and don’t bore me with all the other details. If that approach characterizes your view of the Epistles (as it has mine in times past), you will not only disregard the value of significant portions of Scripture, but you will also undermine your ability to truly understand the teaching of the Epistles themselves.
So more about this genre. Epistles tend to be either occasional or general. Occasional epistles are letters written at a particular time to a particular church in a particular situation for a particular purpose. General Epistles are letters written broadly to a group of churches, rather than just one or two. They are addressed to Christians in general.
Of course, many letters have both occasional and general features—but understanding how much of a letter was addressed to a very specific context (like 1 Corinthians) vs. addressed to a fairly general context (like Romans) can be quite helpful.
Revelation
Well, there is one final genre we find in the New Testament, and it is confined to the book of Revelation. This is a letter addressed to 7 particular churches; it is prophecy; and it is apocalyptic. The book itself conveys many important elements of New Testament theology, including, the elements of God’s sovereignty, God’s holiness, and God’s worthiness to be praised, while also illuminating Christ as the sovereign judge over all of creation and the divine, redeemer-king. Revelation also give us the fullest picture in Scripture of the Kingdom in its final expression, as John describes the new heaven and earth, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.
The Message of the New Testament
Well, those are the types of books you can expect to find in the New Testament. But what is the message that they communicate all together? In short, if we can summarize the message of the Old Testament as Promises Made, the New Testament is about how God has kept those promises.
It would be a tragedy for us to spend 26 weeks studying the New Testament, gaining the ability to understand the different genres, the occasion and audience of each Epistle, why the Gospels are not modern biographies, and yet miss the entire point of the New Testament which is to understand that God has kept his promises of the Old Testament in Christ and therefore we can trust him. As our pastor, Mark Dever, put it:
“The point of the New Testament, indeed, the point of the whole Bible, is that God has made promises to us, he has kept those promises to us, and we are called to trust him because he is the keeper of promises! God has revealed himself to humanity through his promises. And that is why faith is so important. At the end of the day, the Bible does not lie on the shelf like a passive object for us to investigate. At the end of the day, it turns and looks at us and says, will you believe and trust?”
As we study the New Testament we will see through whom God fulfilled His promises [Christ], to whom He has fulfilled His promises [the New Covenant People], and what ultimate fulfillment of those promises will entail [the New Creation]. So we will spend the rest of our time today going back through the sections of the NT we have just considered, but this time around we are going to think about the NT through the lens of promises God has made, has kept, and will continue to keep.
Christ
So, to recap, what is the message of the New Testament? Promises Kept. And we’ll begin by asking, “through whom were they kept?” Obviously, Christ. As we consider the New Testament, we see from the outset that God has fulfilled His most important promise—sending a Savior for His people. Ever since Genesis 3:15, all of Creation has waited for this One, this seed of the woman, who would crush the serpent’s head. Throughout the Old Testament, from the giving of the law to the prophets, the way to Christ was being paved, predicted, and anticipated.
In the Gospels, we see the plans and promises of God from the Old Testament being fulfilled in the person of Christ. Jesus was everything Israel had hoped for and needed. He was faithful where Adam and Israel were not; He lived without sin; He fulfilled every prophecy from the Old Testament that was written about Him. He was the coming prophet promised to Moses in Deut. 18 (v.15, 18-19). He was the coming King foreshadowed by and promised to David in 2 Sam. 7 (v. 12-13). He was the Divine Son of Man spoken of in Daniel 7:13-14. He was the suffering servant that Isaiah said would be pierced for our transgressions (Is. 53:5). He is the Messiah that Zechariah predicted would be rejected, later to return again and be received by His people and reign over them.
All these prophecies and many more allow us to read the accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with Technicolor. What had once been seen in fuzzy black and white has now come to life in full color. And as we continue reading into Luke’s account of the early church in Acts, we see that God’s promises fulfilled through Christ were not meant merely for those who were part of Israel by birth. Rather, He had come to establish a people that were not identified by national, geographic, or ethnic heritage but by a common future which is established forever in Heaven. In Acts, we see that Christ’s church is being expanded through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
While we can read any one of the Gospel accounts and learn everything we need to understand about why Jesus came and what our response to Him must be, we see that God provided for multiple Gospels to emphasize different aspects of the glorious Christ and each to be aimed at particular audiences. So, Matthew places emphasis on Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecies in the Old Testament, which would have been important to Jewish readers. Read Matthew to understand who Jesus is in light of all that we have studied in the Old Testament. Mark seems to be recording Peter’s account of Christ for Roman Christians at a time when Apostles were being killed and it was vital for the early church to have a recorded Gospel. Read Mark and watch as the scenery flashes from one event to the next, pulling away from the details and helping you understand what is most important. Luke, in both the Gospel of Luke and Acts seems to have a more Gentile audience in mind and emphasizes that Christ came not just for the Jews but for all who would repent and believe. He then goes on to record the spread of that Gospel in the first century church. Read these two together—the Gospel of Luke and Acts—to understand the power of God at work in Jesus Christ, first in his earthly ministry and then in his body, the church. And then read John, with his laser-like focus on the deity of Christ, to marvel at the person and work of Jesus while on this earth in human flesh.
The New Covenant People
So what is the New Testament about? First of all, Christ—through whom the Old Testament promises were kept. But it is also about the people of God—to whom has God fulfilled his promises.
Up until the coming of Christ, a relationship with God was mediated through the sacrificial system established in the Old Testament law. An individual did not approach God on his or her own, but went through the Priests. Furthermore, God’s presence was associated first and foremost with the tabernacle and later the temple in Jerusalem.
But Christ’s coming inaugurated a very different way of communicating with God the Father. Jesus hints very early on in His ministry that things were about to change. In John 2:19-22, He teaches that the means of mediation between God and Man would no longer be a through animal sacrifices at a physical temple located in Jerusalem, but though Christ Himself. The writer of Hebrews helps us understand how this would work when writing in Hebrews 9:11-15:
“When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not manmade, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”
It is this work of Christ applied to all those who repent of their sins and place their faith in Him that establishes His new covenant people, the people of His blood. These people are distinct from the rest of humanity not because of their ethnic or socioeconomic similarity, but because they have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and are now living out what it means to have the guilt of sins permanently removed.
The Epistles of the New Testament are all about understanding what it looks like to be this new covenant people: on the one hand, understanding the truth of this radical gospel news—and on the other, learning how to live as a gospel-transformed people. In Romans, we see God’s people instructed in the nature of saving faith. In 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Paul teaches a troubled church how to live holy lives in a very secular culture. In Galatians, Paul is very clear about what Christianity is about in contrast to legalism. Ephesians provides a beautiful and succinct theology of the nature and purpose of the church. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul encourages Christians to rejoice in Christ and learn from Christ’s humble example. Colossians, while similar to Ephesians, teaches the implications of the supremacy of Christ. Paul teaches the Thessalonians how to prepare for the second coming. Paul’s letters to Timothy are the most personal correspondence of the Epistles, as Paul encourages Timothy and gives instruction in what to look for in elders and deacons. Paul wrote to another partner in the ministry on Crete named Titus, and a short letter to Philemon, the owner of an escaped slave, instructing on the Christian life and Christ’s church. The writer of Hebrews helps us understand how the old covenant relates to the new covenant. James acts as the Proverbs of the New Testament, giving very practical instruction on living as a Christian. Peter, who would be crucified for following Christ, writes to early Christians about enduring suffering and persecutions. John writes 3 letters in addition to his Gospel, helping Christians battle early heresy concerning the nature of Christ and helping them understand what it means to obediently follow Christ. And Jude, while brief, sharply warns believers about the dangers of following false teachers.
All of these letters are the manual of life for God’s new covenant people. They answer the question “who are we?”—not an ethically consistent, morally superior class of people, but instead people who have been saved by grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone. And then they help us understand what it looks like to live life corporately, as the church, out of gratitude for that salvation in a way that proclaims God’s character to the watching world.
The New Creation
So the New Testament is about Christ, about his new covenant people, and about the final fulfillment of his promises. Christ instructs His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Since the dawn of Creation, God has been about having creatures, made in His Image, worshiping Him as they properly image Him. Sin, and God’s right wrath against sin, broke this perfection. Yet the story of the Bible, the story of this Creation we see coming to a conclusion through Christ, is God establishing a new Kingdom which doesn’t just replace Eden but surpasses it. And so the New Testament concludes with a vision of this future.
John’s vision of the future New Creation in Revelation sees God’s people living in God’s city for eternity. To quote our pastor, “The end will be like the beginning, only better. The Garden of Eden, in some sense, will be restored. God will dwell with his people. The whole heavenly city is presented in Revelation as a perfect cube, which recalls the Most Holy Place in the Old Testament temple. The Most Holy Place, which represented the presence of God on earth, was also in the shape of a cube. Only now, this heavenly cube is not restricted to the high priests once a year, as in ancient Israel. Rather, all the children of God will enter his presence, and we will live there with him forever!” (Message of the New Testament, 32)
The New Testament and the entire Bible helps us to understand the past, ourselves and the lives we live today, the future, and how we are to relate to God. If you have thought of Scripture as only addressing one of those categories, I hope you will continue attending this class as we unpack the inestimable riches of God’s promises made and kept in the Scriptures.
God has made lavish promises in the Old Testament. Today, we live in that gap in history—during the day of God’s favor, but before he finishes his plans. And so in the New Testament we see clearly how God has made all of his promises “yes” in Christ. And that gives us faith to trust him while we wait with eager expectation for the redemption of our bodies, of this world, and for the final dwelling of man with God to which all of his promises point. That is reason for much rejoicing, and it is fuel for faith.
