CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
October 4, 2009
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
PRAYERS AND PETITIONS:
God’s will for our congregation Our nation, military, and leaders
Various friends, relatives and co-workers The spread of the good news
Happy Birthday to Jaycee Mearns (4th)
UNDERSTANDING GOSPEL
“This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true” (John 21:24).
Some read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as though they are just a biography of Jesus. Other read them in view of a covenant, and being about events before Acts 2, see them as under the old law or covenant of Moses, and interpret them with that in view. The four Gospels are unique books and there are several ideas that we need to keep in mind when reading them. As literature, they contain history, law, poetry, biography, and prophecy. However there is more than just that.
One idea that we need to realize is that there are three audiences involved in the gospels. First, there is the audience of the original events. This would include the words and works of Jesus as He interacts with people, whether religious leaders, disciples, or His apostles. That means we need to understand in particular the Jewish culture of the day. Jesus used every day illustrations in His parables familiar to the people. He explained what God intended the meaning of the Hebrew scriptures to the people and to religious leaders of the day who were set in their traditional interpretations. We must keep this in mind when reading the gospels.
The second audience were those to whom the authors wrote. All four gospels were written after the resurrection of Jesus. It appears that Matthew wrote to a Jewish-Christian audience in the Middle East, and in my opinion was around the middle of the 40s A.D. A number of scholars think that Mark was influenced by Peter and wrote his gospel to the Gentile world. Mark, if you remember, traveled with Paul and Barnabas as far as the coast of Asia Minor before he deserted them (Paul’s words). Later he was a companion of Paul in the spread of the gospel. It appears that Mark saw the need for a brief book explaining Jesus to the Gentiles (1). Luke was a doctor who had a benefactor who sent him to investigate what was believed among them (Luke 1:1-4). While we can see this in different ways, I think that he probably finished his gospel before the Acts 15 conference and was investigating the early church, a continuation of his gospel in Acts. The latter part of Acts was a running account of Paul’s work in particular. Luke is writing to believers (2).
John writes in the early eighties in my opinion to churches in Asia Minor. Asia Minor was a hotbed of religious ideas, pagan, Jewish, and Christian, and the corruption of a number of Jewish and Christian doctrines. I see two ideas that John is addressing. One is the growing influence of mystery religions, an early form of Gnosticism that would develop early in the second century A.D. The second is that of the struggle of Jewish Christians in Asia Minor in the aftermath of the Jewish revolt of 66-70 A.D (3). We will look at this more below.
The third audience that reads the gospels are us, you and me. We read the gospels from a Western perspective and have at times read that into the gospels. It is something that we must keep in mind, even be careful of, least we draw inaccurate and wrong conclusions. One such idea is that of the idea of kingdom. From our American perspective, we have read the word kingdom with what we are familiar with and equated it with the church. In the gospels, that is not what is in view but rather the rule or reign of God. This has caused us to misread some texts such as Matthew 13 and the seven parables of the kingdom as church ages rather than what God’s rule is like.
Let’s look at John briefly. John is writing to the church, to Christians, Jews and Gentiles. He is addressing situations that they are facing in 80 A.D. He is drawing on the experiences and teachings of Jesus to address these situations.
The first is found in John 9 - the man born blind. Jesus puts some mud on his eyes and tells him to wash. The man then sees. He is brought to the Pharisees because it was the Sabbath. A discussion ensues in which he claims that he was blind and now sees. His parents are called as witnesses but for fear of being cast out of the synagogue, put it back on their son. Finally the son is cast out of the synagogue. Jesus finds him and asks if he believes in the Son of Man? Jesus then reveals that He is that man and the healed one believes. Why does John relate this story?
In the 80s, there was the fear of being cast out because they were followers of Jesus. In some areas, relations between Jews and Christians were good but in some they were not. The synagogue was an important aspect of life where friends and families gathered and where scripture was taught. Being cast out was traumatic but he encourages believers to trust in Jesus. The same could be said for those Christians who belonged to the trade unions and were cast out because they no longer worshipped the local deities.
And what about today. Some may be cast out of businesses or organizations or schools because of a declared belief in Jesus. Trust Him. Some might be cast out from churches because we do not hold to traditions that the leaders and members hold. Trust Jesus.
The second idea is found in the use of Moses in John. Why Moses? If Jewish Christians were involved, they would certainly be very familiar with the Torah. Keep in mind also that the Bible of the first century church was the Old Testament. John was drawing on Moses either directly or indirectly to teach lessons from the life of Jesus that the Christians in the 80s could relate to in their personal situations. The same could be said of us today; being familiar with the Torah is important in understanding Jesus. A quick review of John will reveal in the beginning like Genesis 1, the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, the manna, and the Passover, all coming from the Torah.
Finally, there is the Holy Spirit especially in John 14-16. Debate centers on whether the Holy Spirit is only for the Apostles or for all believers. Why would John relate this to believers in the 80s? There is a fear of persecution, if not actually occurring. John is telling them that they were not alone, that they had a Helper (4) who would aid them however He works in this world. We too have that same Helper who comes as a Guide, a Paraclete, who stands along side of us in our troubled world to remind us of Jesus.
As we can see, there is much more to understanding the gospels. I pray this will benefit your study.
George B. Mearns
(1) I realize that God had a hand in all of this but the how is not explained.
(2) Many scholars would date Matthew, Mark and Luke in the late 50s or 60s, and some even later. I personally think that those dates are too late and that these books were the earliest in circulation.
(3) Rodney Stark in Cities of God, suggests that Jews and Christians got along quite well until about the fifth century when Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. There however might have been local disagreements in some areas such as Asia Minor.
(4) Helper is just one of a number of words that identify the Holy Spirit’s role as the Paraclete. See Tim Woodroof, A Spirit for the Rest of Us, Leafwood, 2009.