Why 4 Gospels?

This week the From Hevel to Eternity podcast is starting a chapter by chapter walk through the book of Matthew.  We invite you to join in and read along with us. 

Matthew is the first book of the New Testament and is one of the four Gospel accounts (with Mark, Luke, and John).

• All four gospel accounts affirm the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus. 

• All four gospel accounts affirm that Jesus was fully God and fully man

• All four gospel accounts affirm that Jesus lived a perfect life and was the Messiah

• All four gospel accounts affirm faith in Jesus as the only path to redemption for sinful man.

If the gospel accounts affirm the same theology it begs the question: why four gospel accounts?

• First off, Who Jesus is and what He accomplished is significant.  His earthly ministry was action packed and His Divinity is beyond our full comprehension. 

• Putting all of this into one Gospel account would be too much for our heads to compute.

• John concludes his gospel account by stating ‘There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn't have room for the books that would be written.’ (John 21:25)[WEB translation]

• God, in His perfect wisdom, inspired the four gospel authors to reveal exactly what we needed to know about Jesus.

• The gospel accounts were not written to be mere biographies of Jesus (though they do contain historical facts about the historical Jesus)

• At a high level, each divinely inspired author focuses on specific characteristics of Jesus.

  • The Gospel of John, which focuses on the divinity of Jesus, is the most likely gospel account to use phrases like Eternal Life, Believe, and glory

  • The Gospel of Luke, who is writing his friend Theopholus to tell him about Who Jesus is and what Jesus accomplished, has the highest percentages for phrases like Savior and Salvation and the Kingdom of God.

  • Mark, who I’ll jokingly term the Michael Bay of the gospel writers, writes the shortest, most condensed, and action packed gospel account.  And the percentages show his book is WAY more likely to use words like immediately, right away, just then, suddenly, or at once as he weaves his way through cutscene after cutscene.

  • Matthew, who most frequently points toward Jesus as being the Jewish Messiah & the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, has the highest percentages of words like fulfilled and righteousness.

If you’re interested in learning more about why there are four different gospel accounts I highly recommend the below audio cast from Danny Akin (provided by the Gospel Coalition).  If you are looking for a free Seminary level course about the Bible I highly recommend the below link for Interpreting & Teaching the Bible (provided by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary)

Danny Akin: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary course: Interpreting & Teaching the Bible; Pt. 9

[https://www.sebts.edu/academics/distance_learning/interpreting-teaching-bible.aspx]

Danny Akin: Why Four Gospels? New Testament Basics - Wake Crossroads 2004-05 (via Thegospelcoalition.com) [https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/why-four-gospels]