The 4 Gospels Explained In 20 Minutes
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Imagine four different photographers at a wedding. One focuses on taking uplose intimate moments. All the little things, the bride and the groom smiling at each other, them cutting the cake, all that kind of thing. Another of the photographers backs up to get the grand scene, the beautiful venue, the ballroom, the dancing, lots of people, the tables where people are eating. Another one focuses down into the minute details, taking pictures of the rings, the flowers, the lighting. And then imagine a fourth, an old friend who's known the groom his entire life and is taking photos of the things that he knows his best buddy would want to remember forever. If you put all four of those photographers and all the pictures they chose to take together, what you would get is a depth, a fullness, a complete picture of all the aspects of what happened at the wedding.
It would be wonderful for that couple to have and to keep for the rest of their lives. That's why we have four gospels. It might seem odd that God chose four different accounts of the same thing. Why would he do that? Well, it's because we're dealing with four different perspectives written to four different groups of people. And each individual is choosing to focus in on the things that matter the most to them and to the audience that they're trying to reach. Now, we can see this by going through each of the gospels and seeing how they're different and how they're similar so that we can see what we're going to get out of reading all four, which I strongly encourage you.
I know we all have a favorite. Mine is John. I'll admit that upfront. We all have a favorite, but we need them all. And I wanted to talk about why that is.
We'll start with the book of Matthew. Matthew looks at Jesus the king. That's the story that he's telling. Matthew was a tax collector. He was Jewish. He obviously knew the scriptures really well. And he's writing to a Jewish audience.
Right from the beginning, the opening of the book, he says, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Matthew's key theme in his book is the fulfillment of prophecy. He talks about how Jesus fulfilled prophecy all over his gospel. The structure is set up with five major sermons, each of which echo the five books of Moses. Again, he's showing the intimate Jewishness of Jesus Christ the King. The sermon on the mount, for example, he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be children of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when you reproach you, when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You see how Matthew tied everything in with the kingdom. That was a very Jewish ccentric perspective. He talks about the prophets who were before you. He talks about being the children of God. He even uses the phrase kingdom of heaven instead of kingdom of God because by the time that he wrote his gospel, their practice of not using the divine name had long since been cemented.
It got to the point where they wouldn't even use the word God very often out of fear that in using that term, they're going to violate one of the ten commandments which says not to take the name of God in vain. So whether you agree with that or not, the Jewish people of his day absolutely did view it that way. So rather than saying kingdom of God, he says kingdom of heaven. using heaven instead of God was a common way to get around that at the time. And you can see the very Jewishness of Matthew's writing there. Whereas the other gospels often use the phrase kingdom of God. Matthew is presenting Jesus as the new Moses.
Moses 2.0, the ultimate teacher, the one that Moses said would come after him and would be greater than him. That's Matthew's point. Next, we have Mark. Mark gives us Jesus the servant. Mark is the shortest gospel. He wastes no time. He jumps right into the action.
Very much like a movie, right? An action movie from the beginning, the very start, something blows up, something happens, it draws you in. That's what Mark's doing. He's fast. He's urgent. He's action-packed. He doesn't start with a genealogy.
He doesn't start with a birth narrative. He gets right into it with John the Baptist and then immediate action. He uses the word immediately repeatedly throughout his gospel. This happened immediately. That happened immediately.
Mark's audience was Roman and the Romans valued action and power and authority. That's who Mark is wanting to appeal to. And that's so that's how he structures his gospel. For instance, after casting out an unclean spirit, Mark says they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, "What is this? A new teaching? For with authority he commands, even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." The report of him went out immediately everywhere into all the region of Galilee around them.
Mark 1 verse 27 and 28. That's the kind of thing that would appeal to a Roman audience. Jesus, he was strong. He was all inspiring. He took action. He had authority. He had fame that went out.
That would very much appeal to the Roman audience. And so that's why Mark chose to take that direction. But Mark also makes it clear that Jesus came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many in Mark 10:45.
Mark wrote the shortest gospel but it really packs a punch. He shows Jesus power and he shows his authority because that's what his audience would have appreciated the most. Then we have Luke. Luke gives us Jesus the perfect human. Luke was a physician. He was a gentile. He was a a historian.
He was very meticulous in particular. And Luke is writing to a primarily Greek audience. His methodology was stated this way at the beginning of his gospel. Since many have undertaken to set in order a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately for the first to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilles, that you might know the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed. Luke 1 1-4. That's a very long sentence, but it really shows Luke's methodology. He took the time.
He talked to eyewitnesses from the beginning. He wanted to make sure everything was traced accurately to provide a history of Jesus that would appeal to his audience. He gathered accounts. He organized them carefully. Tried to put things in order. His theme was that Jesus is for everyone, not just for the Jews. So you see that a lot in his gospel.
He's got some unique stories. The good Samaritan, for instance, only appears in the book. Zakayas appears in the book. The prodigal son. All of these things show that Jesus wasn't only concerned with the Jews, even though that's where he went to primarily at first. His intent was to bring in the whole world to right worship to be the savior for all, not just for the Jewish nation. He pays special attention to women, to the poor, to outcasts.
And that would absolutely appeal to the Greek audience at the time. He talks about Jesus reading Isaiah when he says, "The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18 and 19. Jesus is the savior of all humanity. He came to help everyone, including and especially the outcast and the downtrodden.
Then we've got John. Oh, John. John is very different from all the other gospels. John gives us Jesus the son of God. It's a very philosophical theological approach. It's different from the other gospels which we call the synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Those gospels share a lot of the same stories, same structure, similar timelines. But John is different. John was written by the disciple whom Jesus loved that laid against him at the last supper and it was written later than the other gospels. The estimate is in the '90s AD and it was written for a different purpose. Right from the beginning we have John 1:1 that famous verse. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. John backs all the way up to long before Jesus' birth, before all of creation, and says way back then, the word Jesus was with God and the word was God.
He outlines the divine nature of Jesus, the divine beginning of Jesus, and then says in John 1:14, "The word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only son of the father, full of grace and truth. For John, this isn't just history. This is theology. John centers his entire writing around seven miracles, seven signs of Jesus. turning water into wine, healing the official son, healing a paralytic, feeding the 5000, walking on water, healing a blind man, and raising Lazarus. That number seven is very important and symbolic.
He also included I am statements where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. His purpose for doing that, he says, quote, therefore, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
That's in John 20:30 and 31. John's gospel is a lot longer and includes a whole lot of unique material that is not in all the other gospels for the purpose of presenting Jesus as having a prehuman existence and as being the son of God. So to summarize the four gospels from their four perspectives, we've got Matthew, Jesus the king. We've got Mark, Jesus the servant. We've got Luke, Jesus the perfect human. and we've got John, Jesus, the son of God. All four perspectives are necessary and useful and we can read them at different times in our own spiritual path.
So when should we focus on each of the gospels? When should we read in the different accounts? Well, with Matthew, when we're needing a reminder of God's promises, that he's faithful across all generations, that the prophecies, the promises he has made will come to pass. That's when you want to read Matthew because he focuses on how Jesus fulfilled so many prophecies. Read Mark when you're feeling overwhelmed or powerless. When you need a reminder of Jesus' authority, his power, his compassion to the downtrodden, read that. When you wonder if God's going to act in your life and see just how much power he has to do so when you see the power that was imbued in Jesus Christ and everything that he did.
Read Luke when you're hurting, when you feel forgotten or marginalized, when you need a reminder of Jesus compassion. And then read John whenever you're wrestling with deeper questions, when you need to encounter the mystery and majesty of God, that personal relationship, that divine spark, when you're really focused on what I've talked about in numerous videos in the past, the nishama, the divine breath, that is all over John's writing, and that's when you want to read it. So why four gospels matter? The early church included them all for a reason. They could have just picked one and said, "No, Matthews is good enough. That's good enough. He covers everything."
But they didn't do that. When John came along, they could have said, "No, we already have three. We really don't need a fourth." But they saw the value in it, and so they included it. Those multiple perspectives matter. And something you may not have thought about, they also add credibility to the testimony. Cuz think about it.
Let's say that four different people saw a car accident from four different angles. The way each one describes what happened, the emphasis they put, it's going to be different from each person. Even though there's going to be a lot of crossover, each one is going to include different details from their perspective, their vantage point, and their point of view. Those differences are complimementaryary, not contradictory. Well, you have the same thing with the four gospel accounts. Each writer is focusing on different things from their own perspective and the audience that they are reaching out to and yet they are harmonious and that lends credibility. If every gospel put everything exactly the same way, that would really feel like they are colluding together to make sure every detail is the same and that would be less trustworthy.
Four viewpoints gives it trustworthiness and it gives us a richer picture from different perspectives that we need at different times in our lives. So here's a practical application of all this. First, read all four gospels, not just your favorite. Mine is John because I tend to be very philosophical. I tend to be the kind of person who likes to imagine how things will be, to think about the bigger picture. And John is all about that. But I also read the other gospels.
Right now, I'm going back through Matthew for all the reasons I've already given. Each of them offers a unique perspective. Each of them reveals different aspects of Jesus that we need to understand.
Also keep in mind that unity doesn't mean uniformity. And that's another good reason for having four gospels with four different perspectives. Different styles and emphasis are acceptable. All of them point to the same truth. You can apply that in your own life when you encounter other Christians who don't see things or express things exactly the way you do. Can you appreciate their point of view? Can you see how what they're saying and the way they say it adds richness?
Also allows us to approach scripture with humility and curiosity. Understanding that differences invite us to a deeper understanding and they make us think harder about what we believe and whether or not other people can have a similar harmonious idea without being exactly the same as we are. And it also is important because it we need to ask what each writer is trying to show us. If we only had one account, we would just take it for granted. Well, this is everything that happened. This is all we need to know. But with four different perspectives, when one account, one gospel includes something that the others don't, we can ask, why did this gospel writer include this and the others didn't?
What was he trying to tell us? What was he getting after? What question should I be asking myself about this? And finally, it gives us a faith that's rooted in history. These were real events from real witnesses. Like I said, if four different people saw a car accident, the way they described it would be different. Having different eyewitness accounts and the careful research that went into some of them, like Luke, that really helps us to see that these things really happened.
And it's not just a story that somebody put together. And that explains why there are small differences in the way different gospel writers tell those stories. Matthew and John were there. Mark got his information from Peter who was there. And Luke interviewed countless eyewitnesses who were there. So we can trust these testimonies.
Now, here's what I encourage you to do. First, again, read all four gospels. Immerse yourself in all of the accounts of Jesus life. Notice what each account chooses to emphasize and ask yourself why the writers included those specific details when others didn't. Let the gospel speak in its own voice. Don't try to ram them all together and make sure every little thing has to fit perfectly with every other thing that other people said in the other gospels. Let them tell their own story and learn from it.
The results of doing that is from Matthew, we get a stronger faith. We see God's faithfulness throughout it. Mark energizes our faith by showing us God's power. Luke expands our faith by showing God's compassion and John deepens our faith by showing us God's nature. Put together, the four gospels give us the fullest picture of Jesus Christ. They show us Jesus the King and Jesus the servant. Jesus the fully divine and Jesus the fully human.
It shows fulfillments of the promises and the answer to our universal needs. It shows that Jesus is worthy of worship, trust, obedience and love. Seeing it is God who said light will shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul wrote at 2 Corinthians 4:6. And he's right. The four angles of light from each of the four gospels shine on the face of Jesus Christ differently and allow us to see different aspects of who he was. They're all inspired.
They're all true. They're all necessary. And they're all gifts. So, we should be taking advantage of all of them, which is why God made sure we have them all in the Bible. Let this be our prayer. Aba Father, we thank you for these four gospels, these four precious accounts of your son's life and ministry. Thank you for giving us multiple perspectives, multiple angles, multiple voices, all testifying to the same glorious truth.
Help us to read them with open hearts and open minds. Help us to see Jesus more clearly through each one. Help us to appreciate the unique gifts each gospel brings and to let them all shape us into the people you've called us to be. May the King of Matthew rule in our hearts. May the servant of Mark inspire our service. May the Savior of Luke extend our compassion. And may the word of John deepen our worship.
We ask these things in the name of Jesus, the one these four gospels so beautifully revealed to us. Amen. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my book, The Broken Mirror: Rediscovering Our True Nature in Christ. Readers call it a fantastic book where you will feel yourself discovering your identity in Christ. One reviewer praised it as five-star material for the spiritual mystic or group Bible study. It's time to escape legalism and shame. Discover you're already God's beloved child with divine nature flowing through you with what reviewers describe as excellent writing style and elegant pros like a campfire discussion with a knowledgeable and gifted recon tour journey from Genesis to Revelation uncovering your true identity.
This book shows how to access God's peace, wisdom, and strength from within. Your struggles become opportunities for divine light to shine through. available in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook. The link to the book is in the video description. May God bless your journey along his path for you. [Music]
