Also when God sent His servants (prophets) to them, they mistreated and killed them. 7:13-14, Matt. The sovereign work of God in planting the wheat was dependent on the work of redemption being completed and Jesus being raised from the dead and glorified. The passage in John twelve (12) identifies Jesus as Jehovah on the throne over Israel as seen by Isaiah the prophet (Isa. Israel should have been the place where faith in God was found, but Jesus says otherwise. These statements define for us the title of Messiah and it’s dispensational connection. 1:1) we know the first emphasis of his gospel is the presentation of Messiah. What then? This article explains the simple but real differences which exist between the writing of the four gospels. But in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” If we’re wise, here we may see the thoughts and counsels of God from before the foundation of the world, and God’s intention in connection with blessing man (John 1:4). The three are distinct from each other, although they all have certain connections. Because His divinity is what John presents, it is here we see so characteristically the sovereign grace of God that leads and draws any individual to faith in Christ – they are born of God, not of the will of men (John 1:12-13). The new dispensation would be a new planting by God. All the additions and all the differences in the four gospels have intentional purpose by the Holy Spirit. 13:3, 24). There are various glories of Jesus Christ revealed and developed by the Holy Spirit in the different gospels, and we do well to understand these differences. God had suffered long, with much patience, the disobedience and failure of this people, by the law and sending them prophets to call them back to the law. Matthew shows the presentation of Messiah to Israel, who is the fulfilment of all Jewish promises, shows the rejection of Messiah by the Jews, and then shows the transition to the new dispensation, even giving its specific name. The Spirit uses Luke to, more so, deal with the low state of man as fallen. We see that each gospel is about the Lord’s life and death, and the majority of the story in each is told by using many of the same exact events, often using the same words and phrases. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.”, The parable tells us the general events of the Jewish dispensation, and why it came to an end. The kingdom of heaven, the Christian dispensation (Ch. And John’s character is not simply God limited as a answer for the Jews – certainly He is this. With the Jewish dispensation ended, God would have a new planting in the new Christian dispensation. The classic Nativity scene is actually an amalgamation of the different gospel accounts Reuters. This is clearly shown in this parable in Matthew: Matt. Whether the writers presented Jesus as the King, the Servant, the Son of Man, or the Son of God, they had the common goal that people believe in Him. So John doesn’t present to us the birth of a baby into this world and time, who by linage was the Son of David and the promised Messiah. They are the differing character and viewpoint presented to us by the Holy Spirit through the writer. They had a story to tell and a message to share, but they also had a definitive audience to which that message was intended. Each of them set out to accentuate a specific and unique portrait of Jesus. In His divinity He created all things; they had their origin from Him. The four Gospel writers were no different. It shows Jehovah/Messiah coming to the people, Emmanuel, Son of David, the rightful King of Israel. This principle is boldly brought out in John as a consequence of His rejection. They are the differing character and viewpoint presented to us by the Holy Spirit through the writer. who already have certain natural talents and abilities before he calls them. After finishing the sermon, the Spirit of God through Matthew doesn’t take long in showing the failure of Israel concerning the new dispensation and its founding principle of grace through faith. They’re also narratives with plot, characters, and setting. The Jews are set aside by God from the beginning and are treated as reprobate. But how does it fit into the character of Matthew’s gospel? The gospels are not merely collections of reports or sayings of Jesus. The reality is that the four gospels are not written as chronologically the same; each gospel has its own unique order. Despite His rejection by Israel, the Good Shepherd will have His own sheep (John 10:3-5, 10:11-16). Each of the gospel authors had a distinct purpose behind his gospel and in … It is unique to Matthew, again showing transition from one dispensation to another. One scholar, Frederick Grant, pointed out that the Psalms has five divisions and that the "Megilloth" (the five books of Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, and Esther) is a set of five as well. Perhaps Matthew, as a Jew writing to a Jewish audience, simply felt five pieces to his gospel account was a good or "Jewish" organizing principle for a historical document about the Messiah. While the entire Bible is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16), He used human authors with different backgrounds and personalities to accomplish His purposes through their writing. For special tasks, like the writing of the gospels, God seems to work with people (e.g. 3:2, 4:17, 10:7, 13:11, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, and 47, 25:1, 14), the kingdom, power, and throne of the Son of Man (Dan. We see that God waits until Jesus is rejected by the nation in order to set the Jews aside. They simply fail to understand, in their carnal minds and reasoning, the ways and purpose of God in giving the different written accounts of the life of Christ, and that the author, the Holy Spirit, never intended these accounts to be the same. For example the synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – present the coming of Jesus Christ to Israel for the purpose of being received, while the gospel of John shows Jesus as rejected by His own and the world from the very first chapter (John 1:10-11). He was not sent except to Israel. In many different passages in Matthew we can see the transition between dispensations being implied by the Spirit. This first destruction of the city and temple was caused by Israel’s utter failure under the law and the overwhelming growth of idolatry. In this principle, which is the means of our redemption freely given to us in Christ Jesus (Rom. He presents God come in the flesh into the world He had created. 4:4). 3:2); Jesus preaches the same thing (Matt. There are various glories of Jesus Christ revealed and developed by the Holy Spirit in the different gospels, and we do well to understand these differences. In His person He was distinct (John 1:1-2). Early Catholic writers noticed the variations in the gospels concerning their portrayal of Jesus. Each of the four writers has a different emphasis concerning Jesus' ministry and a different specific target audience of would-be readers for their book. The Holy Spirit guided each of them when they wrote so that none of them recorded historical errors or contradictions.Â, The variations among the gospel writers, such as various events included or deleted, relate to what theme or focus the writer of a particular book desired. It is like, as Gleason Archer states in his book "Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties," a camera taking different pictures from a variety of angles of the same room. 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10). Man in Adam was proven to be depraved, and the world is condemned as a result. Answer: Here are some reasons why God gave four Gospels instead of just one: 1) To give a more complete picture of Christ. The sons of the kingdom that are cast out are the Jews. This week we ponder the differences of the birth narratives of Jesus.