MATTHEW

Matthew’s purpose is to show that God has kept His ancient promises to Israel through the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. The long-expected reign of heaven is now coming to
earth, bringing the Jewish story to its climax. Matthew begins by highlighting that Jesus was the
son of David,Israel’s most famous king, and the son of Abraham, Israel’s founding patriarch. Jesus
is the true Israelite and God’s promised Messiah.
The Messiah is shown as reliving the story of Israel- going down into into the Jordan River,
facing temptation in the wilderness, gathering twelve disciples as twelve new tribes, ascending a
mountain to deliver a new Torah, etc. the author highlights the idea of Jesus as a new Moses by
collecting his teachings into five long speeches. These are marked off by some variation of the
phrase After Jesus had finished saying these things: just as the Torah had five books, Matthew
presents five major sections.
The books concludes by telling how Jesus brought about the great new act of redemption
for His people. As in the story of Israel’s Exodus, a Passover meal is celebrated and then
deliverance comes. Jesus gives his life for the sake of the world and is then raised from the dead.
At the beginning of the book, Jesus is given the name Immanuel, meaning “God is with us.” At the
end, Jesus sends His followers into the world with the promise that surely I am with you always.

MARK
Mark appears to be written for an audience in Rome. A Roman centurion’s declaration
near the end of the book – Surely this man was the Son of God! – models the witness to Jesus this
gospel calls for.
The opening half of this fast-moving drama keys on the question: who is this man? An
episode at the end of the first half shows Jesus healing a blind man in two stages, so that he slowly
comes to see. In the same way the disciples have only gradually come to recognize who Jesus is.
Then in a key moment in the story, between its two halves, Peter confesses that Jesus is the
Messiah.
Noe the conflict moves out into the open. Jesus has come to introduce a radical new way
of life that will undercut existing power relationships. The second half of the drama depicts this in
three acts:
- First, Jesus and His disciples travel to Jerusalem.
- Next, Jesus teachers in the temple and clashes with the established leadership.
- In the final act, that leadership executes its plan and has Jesus arrested and crucified,
seemingly overturning all he has done. But then God overturns their deed and raises Jesus
to life. So Mark readers are called to be faithful to Jesus, even in suffering, because this is
how God continues to overturn the existing order and establish the way of life that Jesus
taught.

LUKE
The books of Luke and Acts are two volumes of a single work for a more detailed introduction to
Acts! Together they tell the story of how God first invited the people of Israel, and then all nations,
to follow Jesus. In the first volume, the movement is toward Jerusalem to other nations, closing
with Paul proclaiming the kingdom of God in Rome, the capital of the empire.
Luke addresses his history to most excellent Theophilus, most likely a Roman official. His
volumes are stocked with details from sources Luke had available: letters, speeches, songs, travel
accounts, trial transcripts and biographical anecdotes. Luke’s purpose is to show the fulfillment of
God’s plan to bring his light to the world through Israel. The earliest Jesus-followers take up this
calling by announcing Jesus’ victory over sin and death to all nations.
 - First, Jesus ministers in Galillee, the northern area of the land of Israel;
- Next, he takes a long journey to Jerusalem, during which he welcomes people into the way
of God’s reign and challenges Israel’s current understanding of the kingdom;
- Third, Luke tells how Jesus gives His life in Jerusalem and then rises from the dead to be
revealed as Israel’s King and the world’s true Lord.

JOHN
John closes his book by revealing his purpose in writing Jesus’ story. These are written that
you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life
in His name.
John begins his book by echoing words from the Bible’s creation story – in the beginning –
showing his readers that this is a story of a new creation. Just as the first creation was completed
in seven days, John uses the number seven to structure his book. For the Jew’s, the number seven
represented completeness and wholeness, a finished work of God revealing His purpose for the
world.
John records seven instances in which Jesus revealed His identity by using the phrase I am,
the name by which God had revealed himself earlier. Similarly, John records seven miraculous
signs that Jesus performed. John’s narrative mentions twice that the resurrection of Jesus took
place on the first day of the week. In this way, he confirms that5 the power of a new creation has
broken into our world.