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Four Gospels, Four Beginnings, One Jesus

by Wayne Davies
9/20/2014 / Bible Studies

The New Testament begins with four "gospels" four divinely inspired accounts of the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How each gospel begins sheds much light on who Jesus is and what he came to do.

Mark 1:1-8
Mark begins his book by taking us back to the Old Testament prophets who predicted that God would send a special messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah. John the Baptizer was the fulfillment of these prophecies, and so he bursts onto the scene in the wilderness surrounding the Jordan River to preach a message of repentance and judgment to get Israel ready for the coming King.

Since Jesus is the much-anticipated Messiah ("the Anointed One"), God had planned centuries in advance for a forerunner to pave the way for his kingdom to come.

Matthew 1:1-17
Matthew begins his account by taking us even further back into the Old Testament. He identifies Jesus as "the son of David, the son of Abraham". "Son of David" is a messianic title that appears throughout Matthew's book, and demonstrates that Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise to David (2 Samuel 7) that from his line would come a king whose reign would last forever.

This is why Matthew provides the genealogy of Jesus, beginning with Abraham and tracing the family tree of Jesus through David and ending with "Joseph, the husband of Mary" (Matthew 1:17).

Furthermore, to call Jesus the "son of Abraham" connects him to the promises made to Abraham in Genesis 12. Through Abraham's seed (offspring), God promised to bless all peoples of the world. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has accomplished that by providing the ultimate sacrifice for sin that opened the gates of heaven to those who would embrace him as Savior and King. As Paul teaches in Galatians 3:16, Jesus is that seed.

Luke 3:23-37
Like Matthew, Luke also provides a genealogy of Jesus. He traces the family line through Mary, and takes us all the way back to Adam, the first man. Not only is Jesus the son of David, he is also the Son of Man. Interestingly, "Son of Man" is the title that Jesus used of himself more than any other. It, too, has messianic connotations, as indicated by its use in Daniel 7:13-14, where this "son of man" is "given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." Son of Man can also emphasize the humanity of Jesus, for he humbled himself by becoming subject to the frailty of mortal flesh, willing to serve his subjects by dying for them in his first coming before reigning over them in his second coming.

John 1:1-14
Finally, John takes us all the way back to eternity past, for he makes the mind-bending statement that Jesus is the Word, and "the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1). The apostle makes this clear in his purpose statement at the end of his book; he wrote his gospel so that we would believe that Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:31). When Jesus referred to God as his father, the Jewish leaders knew exactly what he meant by saying that he was the Son of God, he was "making himself equal with God" (John 5:16-18). Jesus' claim to deity infuriated the religious establishment and led to his crucifixion on the charge of blasphemy, for these same men told Pilate, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God" (John 19:7).

Each gospel writer contributes a critical component to the multi-faceted picture of Jesus found in Scripture. He is the Son of David, the King of Israel. He is the Son of Abraham, the seed of blessing to all nations. He is the Son of Man, the suffering Servant who came to save humanity from its sin by giving his life on the cross as a ransom for many. And he is the Son of God, deity incarnate, Almighty God in human flesh, that we might see and savor his divine glory in this life and the next.

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