Life of Christ - Introduction

We begin a new study this evening in our grow class. So let me back up a little bit and just remind you of what Grow class is for some of you this may be your first time here where you may not have been here very much so Talk a little bit about what we're trying to do on Wednesday nights as a part of our discipleship ministry growing people in Christ and in the word of God We have what we call on Wednesday nights a grow class Grow as an acronym which stands for getting the riches of the word and we we've built that Concept on three passages of scripture want to just remind you of those Getting the riches of the word we are focused on the word of God as Colossians chapter 2 Paul reminds us that As you have received Christ Jesus's Lord continue to live in him verse seven says rooted and built up in him Strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness we We live for Christ we grow in Christ as we are rooted in him built up in him strengthened in the faith the faith being the body of Teaching of the word of God the body of doctrine and the word of God So we're focused on the word getting the riches of the word we want to get the riches of the word Solomon says in Proverbs chapter 4 and Verse 5 to his son get wisdom get understanding do not forget my words or swerve from them verse 7 says wisdom is Supreme therefore get wisdom though it cost all you have get Understanding and the idea here is to search for it to look for it to dig for it to get it the most precious Possession you can obtain is the word of God and the knowledge and Description and wisdom the word of God gives you but The word of God is described as riches and the obtaining of the word of God is described as Getting riches as though we were mining them I love the way Solomon says this in in Proverbs chapter 2 where he says my son if you accept my words and Store up my commands within you turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding And if you call out for insight and cry out for understanding then notice these next few words and If you look for it as for silver and Search for it as for hidden treasure Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth Come knowledge and understanding so getting the riches of the word We believe here at the chapel is all about studying the word of God the riches of the word of God digging them out Digging for them not just skimming the surface but doing some deep digging to get the real riches of The word of God and that's the greatest thing you can have in your life It's the greatest possession you can have the greatest thing you can obtain is the riches of the word of God That's what the grow class is all about now in order to do that what we're doing in the grow class Just remind you to kind of reset our our purpose here is we are Alternating studies between doctrinal studies and Bible survey studies What we're attempting to do is introduce you to all the ten major doctrines of the word of God ten major doctrinal areas We just finished the doctrine of the Bible What the word of God is and how God got his word to us? And then we also want to in this class give you a Through the Bible survey cover the whole Bible now You know on Sunday mornings we go through a book of the Bible on Sunday evenings we do more devotional type things Wednesday evening is to give you the big picture It's to give you an overall view of the entire Bible and how it all ties together And so we'll be doing some survey although it will be for a survey type thing It will be a little more intense and in depth than than what you might expect So that's what we're doing tonight We're starting in a New Testament survey study of the gospels or the life of Christ So as we begin the life of Christ we're gonna study the four gospels and you might wonder Why don't we just start with Matthew and study right through? Well, that's a good way to do a study of the gospels, but there is a lot of repetition of material in the gospels because they're they're all for covering the same time frame of the life of Christ and so what I've chosen to do is a chronological approach the events of the life of Christ beginning With his birth and we'll actually do some background study first tonight and next week We'll do some background type things, but Starting with this birth and going right up to his resurrection all that the gospels cover We will do chronologically and we will survey drawing material from all four of the gospels So that will be our approach in this study Let's begin tonight with reasons for studying the life of Christ. Why would we study the life of Christ? What are we trying to do with this? Well, there are six reasons at least the first one is that history is Christocentric History is centered on the person of Jesus Christ We date history based upon Christ. You realize that don't you? BC and AD BC before Christ and time is measured from approximately the birth of Christ The Roman calendar changed after the birth of Christ and through it off a little bit He was actually born around six to four BC before Christ He was born before Christ, but anyway that's because of a change in the calendar But anyway, we we we talk about the past history as before Christ and Since the birth of Christ history is measured by AD and Odomony or in the year of our Lord is what that's Latin for in the year of our Lord So even time man's history is divided by Christ now there's a great move away from that today and there's a move Trying to do away with determining dates by Christ and so there's a real move to call the era We live in now the common era and before that before the common era BCE or CE and just do away with the name Christ as there is in practically every Part of our world and culture But history is Christos entry second reason for studying the life of Christ is that Christ is the pattern man for believers Christ really is the pattern man person for believers He he really is the ideal for us to pattern our lives after There are a number of verses here and I could have put these on the screen, but I've chosen to look at them with you Because otherwise we will probably not open our Bibles this evening So I want to want to do a little bit of that keep your fingers familiar with where these passages are first John chapter 2 Let's begin there first John chapter 2 We're going to quickly look at a few verses that describe the fact that Christ is our pattern for living First John chapter 2 verse 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did If we claimed to know Christ if we claim to live in Christ being him then we're supposed to live as he lived Well, how do you know how he lived? You've got to study his life. You've got to understand the way he lived in the gospels So John teaches that in a more limited sense Peter teaches that in first Peter chapter 2 Look back a couple pages at first Peter chapter 2 verse 21 In a context where Peter is talking about suffering Suffering unjustly he says in first Peter 221 So this you were called because Christ suffered for you Leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps Now this is more specific to the sufferings of Christ, but Peter does indicate that even in his sufferings Jesus was a pattern for how we should suffer Because he did not retaliate when he was When he was being crucified and things were being said about him He did not try to vindicate himself. So he's a pattern for even our suffering and then look at one other passage along these lines Well a couple more actually three more Ephesians 424 Ephesians 424 what Paul's talking about the old self and the new self Verse 24 of Ephesians 4 he says and to put on the new self Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness Christ is the pattern for how we should live in the sense that the new man the new self that we are called to be in Christ Is like God? Well, how do we know what God is like as we'll see in a moment? It's through Christ That's how we know what God is like through through obviously what the word teaches us But we see it lived out in the life of Christ not only is Christ the the pattern man for us now Jesus actually makes what God is like tangible something we can see something we can observe in action and we can say okay That's the way Jesus handled the situation. That's the way I'm supposed to live That's the way God wants me to be new in in Christ So not only is he the pattern for the way we live now, but Christ is also the pattern for what we will be Right now Christ is the pattern for what we will be in Philippians Turn over a couple pages to Philippians 3 Philippians 3 verse 20 But our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there the Lord Jesus Christ who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control We'll transform our lowly bodies So that they will be like his glorious body Even our bodies will be like Christ someday and John says it this way in 1st John chapter 3 and Verse 2 dear friends now are we the children of God and what we what we will be has not yet been made known But we know that when he appears we shall be like him For we shall see him as he is We have the hope that someday we will be like Christ Completely fully finally like Christ So Christ is the pattern man for believers his life is the way we are supposed to live And so Studying the life of Christ Unfolds for us that pattern of how we are to live Okay, two reasons why we study the life of Christ any questions comments Okay, third reason the Command to grow in the knowledge of Christ we are commanded to grow in our knowledge of Christ 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 18 Peter says but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Lord and Savior Jesus Christ him be glory both now and forever amen We are called to grow in grace that's character We're also called to grow in the knowledge of Christ. That's our understanding of who he is So that we can be more like him we can be transformed into his image So we're commanded to grow in our knowledge of him you really can't grow in your knowledge of Christ without studying the gospels and Who Christ is fourth reason For studying the life of Christ is the Bible is Christ of centric not only his history centered around Christ but The Bible is also centered around Christ John chapter 5 John 5 verse 39 John chapter 5 verse 39 Jesus sparring with the Pharisees the religious leaders Says this you diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life These are the scriptures that testify about me He says in verse 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life These are the scriptures that testify about me. What's the purpose of the scriptures to testify about Christ? The center of the scriptures everything centers around him the person and work of Christ Everything leads up to the person and work of Christ in the Old Testament everything in the New Testament is either an explanation of the person and work of Christ or The theological understanding of what that means for instance in Paul's epistles and so forth So the Bible is Christ of centric number five Christ is the revealer of God People want to know what God is like well the way to know what God is like How does God feel about things what are his thoughts about things is to study the life of Christ? John chapter 1 John chapter 1 verse 14 The word that speaking of Christ the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us We have seen his glory the glory of the one and only who came from the Father Full of grace and truth. We've seen his glory the one who came from the Father and he says down in verse 18 No one has ever seen God but God the one and only Notice the emphasis here on the deity of Christ God the one and only Who is that the Father side has made him known? Jesus Christ has made known who the Father is He has declared him to us. He's made him known and Then there are other passages that tell us the same thing I love that passage in John chapter 14 where Jesus is Preparing his disciples for his departure in the upper room He says do not let your heart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me in my father's house or many mansions If it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare place for you and if I go and prepare place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also And where I go you know in the way you know and Thomas says to him Lord we don't know where you're going How can we know the way in verse 6 Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life no man come with unto the Father But by me and then Philip one of the other disciples the accountant disciple the the bean counter disciple The guy who loved figures the guy who said to Jesus when they were ready to feed 5000 and Jesus asked Philip testing him John 6 says Jesus was testing him How much will it take to feed these people and Philip has it all figured out? He's got a calculator out and he's got it all figured out It's gonna take 200 penny worth to feed it'll take this much to feed all these people and we don't have that much and Jesus was testing well in this case Philip asks another accounting type question verse 8 He says Lord type of the chase get to the bottom line basically is what he says Philip says Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us Philips already getting you know kind of confused about all this Talk that Jesus is doing about going somewhere and I'm the way the truth in the life and Philip is just saying Lord Just forget all this just show us the father and that will be enough and Jesus answer is great Verse 9 Jesus answer don't you know me Philip even after I've been among you so long such a long time Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father Now Jesus is saying if you had really observed my life closely You would know the Father you would know who the Father is you'd know what he's like you would have seen the Father And so Jesus reveals the Father in his own lifestyle his own life He reveals who the Father is so Christ is the revealer of God He brought God into human experience for us to see and Then the sixth reason for setting the life of Christ is that doctrine derives From history doctrine derives from history They're they're working on it back there so they'll get it in a minute What what we know and believe about doctrine is based upon the historical events of the life of Christ We believe the resurrection of Christ, but that's built on a historical event The resurrection of Christ is a doctrinal truth But it is built on a historical event of the resurrection so those two go together and so the life of Christ Which is the history of Christ the historical events of the life of Christ really help us to formulate our doctrine of who Christ is So that that's a very important reason for studying the life of Christ six reasons for studying the life of Christ Any questions comments anything you'd like to add or ask about The book of Hebrews Cause Christ a priest after the order of Mokizadek and that's the question you're asking what is what is meant by that and the whole The whole that factors into the whole purpose of the book of Hebrews the book of Hebrews is to show that Christ is Superior to the Old Testament anything in the Old Testament In fact starts out by saying in superior to angels in the first couple chapters And then then he talks about being superior to Moses and then he talks about being superior to the eronic priesthood and the reason for this is The reason for that is because the writers writing to Hebrews who are being tempted to go back to the Jewish religion and leave Christianity because of persecution and so he's saying you can't go back to the eronic priesthood Christ is a different kind of priest He's a priest after the Mokizadek priesthood now there a couple of reasons for that the reason he compared in the Mokizadek rather than Aaron is because number one the Bible does not tell of the beginning of Mokizadek he just is there in fact Hebrews says He has no parents well He did have parents, but there's no no mention of he just appears on the scene of history So there's no mention of his ancestry and in that sense He is somewhat like Christ Christ is pre-existent has existed in eternity past The other thing is that Mokizadek was both a king and a priest and that's made clear in Genesis 14 What Abraham comes to him he's a both a king and a priest that was not allowable in the in in Israel You couldn't be a king and a priest fact you remember a king who got in trouble for trying to do a priest's work Saul maybe yeah, I'm thinking of another one though. Saul didn't get in trouble for For doing a priest's work. He got in trouble for not being fully obedient to the Lord Someone else I'm thinking of Dana Uzaya The a priest a king one of the greatest kings in all of Judah marine 52 years But he went into the temple to offer incense remember that and got a smoothing with leprosy So he's not supposed to do both king and priest Jesus is unlike the Aaronic priesthood Israel's priesthood. He's like Melchizedek's in that he's both king and priest So that's the reason why Hebrews compares him to Melchizedek Okay, other questions comments maybe Okay, let's let's take a look at some of the reasons for the four gospels the gospels cover the same territory They cover the same material. Why do we have four of them? Why couldn't just write one gospel and cover everything? There are differences in the gospels. Why is that take place? There's there's difference in the material they cover there's a difference in sometimes even the order of things There's a difference in style difference in language difference in arrangement of the subjects There's a difference in the method of treatment of each event. There's a there's their differences in emphasis and What we what we must understand is as we saw in our study of the doctrine of the Bible Every writer of the gospel as every writer of the Bible is true every book of the Bible Every writer of the gospel is inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what he writes so God inspired God breathed that in his word through Matthew He also did it through Mark, Luke and John and all of them are inspired and they wrote without error So there's got to be a reason it's not like they're competing with each other to get the right stuff There's a reason for four different gospels There's a reason why you have four different perspectives on the life of Christ and when you think about it They come from such different perspective perspectives Luke was a medical doctor and you can tell in his writings that he did a lot of investigation He even says the front of his beginning of his book that he investigated the life of Christ thoroughly Pulled together a lot of resources and and put down in order the things that he was writing Matthew writes from his own perspective as a disciple Mark writes from the perspective of Peter John Mark was was nephew of the apostle Peter and he writes from Peter's perspective and we'll see who he wrote to and why In a little bit John is the last of the gospel writers writing a full 60 years after the events took place So John's gospel is more reflective it it shows evidence of of years of reflection and John's gospel is more theological in the sense that he tells us at the end of the book There are lots of things that Christ did more than could even be put into a book But these things I have written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing you may have life on his name So he had a very theological purpose. I want to show you that Jesus is the Son of God I want to lead you to faith in him So he arranges his material picks out certain events from the life of Christ to fulfill a particular purpose and it shows the years of reflection that John has so there different approaches in the different Gospels what are the reasons why we have the four Gospels? Let's let's cover this kind of quickly and they don't want to get to some Well, we can't do this real quickly. I'd love to get to some neat maps and stuff tonight That's really what I really get to you need to see some pictures Wake up a little bit the importance of the subject. Here's one reason for four Gospels the importance of the subject a fourfold emphasis Gives you the impression gives the reader the impression this is really important stuff This is not something that can be covered just from one perspective The coming of the Son of man into the world to provide redemption is The most crucial story of the Bible. It's the emphasis of the Bible and so this is going to be told from four different perspectives It's going to be like four reporters Rather than just you know one kind of junior gossips in that. That's not a very important story Discover it and give us a little write up, you know No, this is going to be covered in detail four different perspectives the importance of the subject secondly the richness and Fulness of the subject We have four Gospels because no one perspective can capture the fullness and the richness of everything in the life of Christ So each gospel complements the others Although they're very different in style and emphasis They're narrating the same story. They're very different in the way they approach the story and that's because of the richness and fullness of the the subject of the study of the life of Christ It would be very much like me asking four people to describe this building from the outside But one of them was standing out in the front parking lot one of them was standing over in the side parking lot one was standing Over here that little drive on that side and one is standing down near the ball field They would be describing the same building but their description would sound very different They would be seeing it from different perspectives and so it would sound very different They would all be describing the right building and their perspective would be true what they're describing is true But they would be describing different aspects of the same building. That's what we have in the Gospels Now let's since we have the four Gospels Let's talk about each of the four the different emphasis of each gospel and here's a major reason why we have four Gospels each of them has a different emphasis each of them has a different audience in mind And so I want to give you this little chart and Hopefully you can see this Okay, here's the four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John now let's begin bearing with the date here for Matthew Matthew is considered to be the first the earliest of the Gospels written around 50 a.d There's some dispute about that but Matthew may well be the first Gospel written the emphasis of Matthew is on Jesus Christ as King That's the emphasis in Matthew You say wait a second Matthew doesn't tell us in chapter one verse one of I'm writing to tell you that Jesus is the King All you have to do is read Matthew carefully and that's very obvious Matthew starts with a genealogy and he traces Christ only back to Abraham Okay, the father of the Jewish nation, but he traces him through David The King on whose throne the Messiah is to rule and so you have the King of the Jews You've got Abraham David highlighted in that genealogy Matthew is the only gospel that describes the visit of the the Magi the three Typically understood as three we don't know how many there were the wise men Who brought three gifts? There may have been ten of them, but you know there are wise men who brought three gifts These men were King makers in in Persia That's what the Magoay were they were King makers. They were the people who installed put kings in power And they have come because they have heard that the King of the Jews has been born They tell hair of that in Matthew's it Matthew's the only gospel that presents that And there are many other evidences of the fact that Jesus is being presented as the King of the Jews and so Matthew's Audience is the Jews and he's writing to show that Jesus is the King of the Jews. He is the rightful King of the Jews so The Redeemer King manifested as a way to describe the book the key verses 423 and 935 both of which say that Jesus went to many towns and villages Healing many of diseases and preaching the gospel of the kingdom He's introducing the kingdom. That's what Jesus is doing. That's what Matthew's thrust is all about Mark Written a little bit later 6465 AD probably Mark's emphasis is Jesus Christ as the servant He describes Jesus as a servant a busy worker hastening from one town and one task to another Mark doesn't focus on the teachings of Christ There's very little about the teachings of Christ like Matthew has the Sermon on the Mount Matthew has the the parables of the kingdom in chapter 13 the all of it this course in chapters 24 and 25 Mark doesn't have that mark doesn't mark focuses on Jumping from one activity one task to another the words immediately or straightway occur 40 times in the book of Mark So Mark is all about Jesus did this and then immediately this and then straightway he went here and it's just a kind of a listing of the servant activities of Of the life of Christ. There's no genealogy in Mark tracing his ancestry to prove his kingly line or anything like that Mark is all about servanthood activity Key verse you could say would be Mark 1045 and he has written the book is written to a Roman audience Mark 1045 the son of man came not to be ministered to or to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many That seems to be the thrust of the gospel of Mark Luke written around 60 a 62 AD Luke's emphasis is Jesus Christ as the son of man and it is written to a Greek audience He addresses his book to a man who has a distinctly Greek name theophilus and the lover of wisdom lover of God is the meaning of the name the us fellow lover of God But Luke's gospel is is distinctly describing Christ as the son of man. It's interesting Luke also has a genealogy tracing the ancestry of Christ But it doesn't stop at Abraham. It goes all the way back to Adam So Luke's emphasis is not on the Jewish nation or the king David it's on tying Jesus into the human race the first man Adam There's a lot in in Luke on the prayer life of Christ the power of the spirit There's more in in Luke than any other gospel in those themes which indicates the humanity of Jesus. He is the son of man So you might say that a key verse in Luke would be Luke 1910 For the son of man is come to seek and to say that which was lost Joe Well, that you're it's a good point. Joe's asking the question. Why would Luke tie the concept son of man into a Greek audience? Isn't that a Hebrew concept? And it's a great question because you're touching on two different ideas two different uses of the term son of man in the Bible son of man in some instances in the New Testament does have a uniquely Hebrew tie into the book of Daniel In Daniel chapter 7 where Daniel one of his visions Daniel sees one like son of man receiving the kingdom from the father in heaven and he rules over all the kingdoms of the era And there's sometimes in the Bible that New Testament or that Old Testament thrust of the son of man being a divine title But typically son of man is a is a human title. It's indicating his humanity Not only is he the son of God. He's also the son of man And so Luke is using that term in that sense of the humanity of Christ um Focusing upon his reliance upon God and the Holy Spirit Through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit That is something that would be uniquely needed to a Greek audience because what do Greeks pride themselves in? Knowledge Wisdom debate First Corinthians one Paul said the Greeks seek after wisdom Jew seek after a sign Greeks were very proud of their independence and the fact that they could figure anything out by reasoning it out And so the gospel that is specifically designed for a Greek audience is going to emphasize Jesus In his humanity and dependence upon the father In prayer and through the power of the Holy Spirit He's going to be dependent on the father. He's not going to be the intellectual Giant that can figure anything out Like the Greeks would think I think that's why that emphasis on his humanity comes to the Greeks But great question using that term because that term does sometimes refer to deity and an Old Testament sense Okay, the gospel of John written late 85 to 90 AD and The emphasis is Jesus Christ as the Son of God. I mean John tells us that he tells us why he wrote his gospel I mentioned the verse a few moments ago in John 20 verses 30 and 31 he says but many other things that Jesus did among the disciples could be written But these are written that you might know that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing you might have life in his name So his audience is basically the world. It's written to a broad audience to anybody to show that Jesus is the Son of God And the key verse as we've already said John tells us why he's writing John 20 30 and 31 That's the verse that really describes the thrust of this book There's no genealogy in John either Why Why do you think there's no genealogy in John He was God's son exactly and how does John start how's John's gospel start? You may remember the first in the beginning Was the word The word was with God and the word was God The same was in the beginning with God and then he made all things and so forth And so it begins with not he's the son of David not he's the son of Abraham not he's the son of Adam. He's the son of God So clear Focus on the deity of Christ in the book of John So you've got four different approaches to the life of Christ in the four gospels and they compliment each other Jesus is the king of the Jews. Jesus is the perfect servant Jesus is the son of man And he is the son of God and those four perspectives all blend together to give a full orbed view of the life of Christ That's why you've got four gospels Story couldn't be told adequately in one in one story one person one author Let me just say a word about the apparent differences in the gospels and then we'll get to some of the pictures and maps um The differences in the gospels there are differences in the way that even the same account is recorded different details are given um, sometimes they're in different order in the gospels and so there have been many who've struggled with that Let me just give a couple of reasons why there are differences in the gospels Sometimes the difference in details or what is covered or not covered in one gospel or the other is Because of the different emphasis um John may describe something differently or add bring in different details of an event Then Matthew would to fit better his purpose and what he's trying to draw out of the story Show from the story. They're not they're not contradictions. They are complementary accounts Of the same event in the gospel. So that's one reason for apparent differences in the gospels When they're covering the same event another reason is they're just reporting different details of the incident And you have to put them all four together to get the full incident That's one of the uh Values of studying the gospels like we will study them as we survey them is to take Events sequentially chronologically in the life of Christ and bring to bear the account from all four of the gospels You put all those four accounts together or in some cases only one or two or three of the gospels cover an event But you put all the material together you get the full picture Of what was happening or at least all that God wanted us to know about it There have been some apparent differences or apparent contradictions that have been resolved With new information from archaeology or further study of um A particular word or or cultural Understanding of the background and so forth and that sometimes clears up some apparent differences in the gospels Okay, in question about the four different perspectives and the reasons why there are four gospels before we Begin to touch a little bit on the geographical background of the gospels john There There seems to be some evidence that it was given on two different occasions at least in the in the two gospels there at different times now um In Matthew's gospels clearly a part of the sermon on the mount and Luke's gospel It's not necessarily a part of the sermon on the mount it could be that Jesus repeated it at some other point I Feeding of the 5,000 interestingly enough john's asking the differences there that's the only um Account or miracle that's found in all four the gospels and so that's one where you really do pull together all four perspectives But they're there sometimes there's confusion between the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 Those were two separate events on Separate occasions and when you read the context of both you can tell they took place at different locations different times in the ministry of Christ. So there were two big meals that Jesus served and um Sometimes those two are confused. Yeah Yes, Herb I would agree herb is asking how old was john when he died and You know Jesus died somewhere around 30 AD if he was born around 4 bc somewhere around 29 30 ad Jesus died John was already a disciple he wrote his gospel 95 you're talking about 65 years later There are many who believe that John was in his late teens or early 20s when he was a disciple Okay, now that throws a different Twist on things, doesn't it because you know when we think of the disciples were thinking of robust 40-year-old man Who have a little bit experience in life? John was probably a late teenager or maybe early 20s But he may have lived mid 80s 90 He was an older man He refers Refersed himself as the elder in one of his epistles So yeah, Mary Okay Okay Mary's asking what are the what are called the synoptic gospel? I wish I had my Glenn back whiteboard or just the whiteboard. I shouldn't Sorry, shouldn't say that Uh, we said I had that because I could draw a few things here um synoptic is uh Is a made from two Greek words uh, sin preposition which means together an optic which means The eye or to see to see together is the the meaning of the word synoptic and that's a word that's used of the first three Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke and the reason for that is Matthew, Mark and Luke cover pretty much the same material and pretty much the same order 92% of John's material is not found in the other Gospels Is not shared with the other Gospels and the reason for that is John's gospel is uniquely theological He has picked out only certain events which prove his point that Jesus is the Son of God It was not his purpose to give a chronological blow by blow account But the other three do the other three pretty much go through the life of Christ chronologically So they they see things together and the word synoptic is a word which is used to describe that so whenever you hear that term the synoptic Gospels s-y-n-o-p-t-i-c synoptic That's what that's referring to the three Gospels that see it the same way Yes, Tommy Yeah, Tommy Tommy's asking if these are the only Gospels written there were there other Gospels out there there were other Supposed Gospels written Several of them in fact were written later than The original Gospels were written and they were passed off as Gospels they were they were fakes The gospel of Thomas is probably the most familiar a writing about the life of Christ that was was proposed to be genuine All of these were determined by the early church to not be genuine Gospels But there were a lot of imitations counterfeits a lot of fakes that were going around um If if you'll go back and get the CD on on our doctrine of the Bible and the canonicity Study that we did because to go all back into that to give you all the reason but but basically to summarize it the The Gospels and all of the the legitimate books of the Bible were recognized as a legitimate when they were written uh when i when i did that study we went through the new testament and showed how even the writers themselves understood they were writing the word of god and they understood that the other books were The word of god you know Paul and first Timothy quotes from Luke and calls it scripture Peter and second peter three Yeah, second peter three quotes from or talks about peter or talks about Paul in his Writing of scripture so you know they knew they were writing scripture and the early church knew what were the legitimate books and what weren't There was a lot of controversy and attacks on that and for that reason the church finally said okay We're gonna make this clear and so they had the church councils and they decided these are the legitimate books If you're familiar with Dan Brown's book the Da Vinci Code and the movie Dan Dan Brown was a Great writer, but an absolutely horrible historian and an apostate as far as the faith is concerned He He basically said all these Gospels these other early Gospels really gave the true picture of the life of Christ And that the church councils 300 years after the time of Christ were the ones who finally decided what the books of the Bible would be and that's simply not true The early church fathers within 10 or 15 years of the death of John the Apostle were already quoting from New Testament books and calling them scripture They knew what the scripture they had already determined that the only reason for the council of Nicaea and council of calcidon and others that dealt with this in later years was to To Deal with attacks on the scriptures That's a kind of a short answer to a real long topic Yes Yes, okay any other questions we're not gonna get to the maps tonight rats. I love the maps No, no, I love the questions even better any other any other questions you have or things you want to ask about talk about Okay, let's pray Father were so grateful that you've given us an account of your son's life on this earth So that we might Live as he lived that we might understand Um how you intended mankind to be Lord we didn't get enough of a look at Adam before he sinned to really know what life Perfect life would be and what you intended human life to be But we have that now that we we have the life of Christ unfolded for us and we see What you're like and what we are supposed to be growing toward So I pray that as we study the life of Christ will do so not just to not just to gain more information But we'll do so to really grasp Who Jesus is and and what is life is like and how we should be more like him in the way we handle situations and respond to people Make us more like him as our prayer for this study In Jesus name we ask it amen