Jesus in the Four Gospels
KING....... Matthew presents Jesus as king. Written primarily for the Jew, He is the Son of David. His royal genealogy is given in chapter 1. In chapter 5-7, in the sermon on the laws of his kingdom.
SERVANT...... Mark depicts Jesus as a servant. Written to the Romans, there is no genealogy of a servant. Why? Men are not interested in the genealogy of a servant. More miracles are found here than in any other gospel. Romans cared little for words; far more for deeds.
MAN..... Luke sets forth Jesus as the perfect man. Written to the Greeks, His genealogy goes back to Adam, the first man, instead of to Abraham. As a perfect Man, He is seen much in prayer and with angels ministering to him.
GOD...... John portrays Jesus as the Son of God. Written to all who will believe, to lead men to Christ (John 20:31), everything in this gospel illustrates and demonstrates His divine relationship. The opening verse carries us back to "The beginning".
Dr Griffith Thomas gives pictures of the Gospels in this way:
- Matthew is concerned with the coming of a promised Saviour.
- Mark is concerned with the life of a powerful saviour.
- Luke is concerned with the grace of a perfect saviour.
- John is concerned with the possession of a personal saviour.
Let us present another answer to the question, "Why four Gospel? " scripture answers much for us. Scripture uses numbers with precision, accuracy and real meaning. You know that seven is the perfect number; three is the number of the Godhead; forty is the number of testing. Four is the number of the earth. Look at a few illustrations. There are four points of the compass, north, east, south and west. There are four seasons of the year, spring, summer, Autumn, winter. In the parable of the sower, our Lord divided the field into four kinds of soil.
Later He said, The field is the world. If four is the earth number, how fitting that the holy spirit should have given us four Gospels in which to depict the earthly ministry of the Heavenly One.
When we draw nearer, we see then the good reason for four Gospels. Christ is the one glorious Theme of them all, but each of the writers is absorbed with some special feature in Christ's character it with convincing power. It is the unfolding of this particular view of the work of Christ that stamps the design on each book.
Let us pause to say this. All the Gospels are bound up with the promises of the messiah in the Old Testament. We cannot explain the Gospel apart from the great messianic prophecies in the Old Testament.
The prophets have portrayed a magnificent picture of the messiah. They have told of His offices, mission, birth, suffering, death, resurrection and glory. Let us consider the names and titles which the prophets have bestowed upon Him.
He is called the king. Psalm 72; Isaiah 9:6-7, 32:1, Jeremiah 23:5, Zechariah 9:9, 14:9. These passages, among many others, tell of the kingly office of the messiah. The prophets tell much of His kingdom and its extent, and of Christ's ultimate triumph.
He is called the man, the Son of man. Genesis 3:15; 22:18; Isaiah 7:14 - 16; 9:6
He is called God. Isaiah 9:6; 40: 3-5; 47:4; Jeremiah 23:6
It is as these four that Jesus is outlined in the Gospels.
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