Bible Story: Introduction N.T.

1. The New Testament Divided Into Four Sections

As we open the New Testament, we find twenty-seven books. A very logical, systematic section of inspired writing. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 1, verse 21. It is indeed the word of God and not the word of men. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. All scripture is given for inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work, as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3, the last two verses. The New Testament is divided into four sections in a very systematic way. First of all, we have the life of Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, each telling us the good news, the glad tidings, the gospel of the Son of God.

And then the book of Acts, in a section all its own, tells us how to become a Christian. And then in 21 epistles, Romans through Jude, we learn how to live the Christian life. And finally the book of Revelation, which tells us the hope of a Christian. So the New Testament enjoins upon us four brilliant truths: the life of Christ, how to become a Christian, how to live as a Christian, and the hope of a Christian. Some have said the book of Revelation tells us how to die as a Christian. Revelation 14, 13 says, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. And the next to last verse in the Bible says, even so come, Lord Jesus.

2. Why Four Accounts of the Life of Christ?

So the thrust of the entire Bible is Christ is coming. The Old Testament said Christ is coming. The first part of the New Testament said He has come. And the last part of the Bible says he is coming again. Why do we have four accounts of the life of Christ? Many people have asked. Why did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell us the story of the life of Christ? Let’s suppose that four observant, honest people, were to witness an automobile accident involving two cars. The man who saw it would say, I can tell you the make and models of the cars and how far the skid marks are. A woman viewing it would say, I don’t know anything about that. But the woman in the first car had on a blue dress, and the woman in the second car had on a green dress.

A little girl observing it would say, I don’t know anything about that, but I saw a baby doll in that first car, and a little boy watching it would say, I saw a little dog almost get run over, too. All of them told the truth, but their fuller story corroborated and substantiated each other’s testimony. And we have that purpose for four accounts of the life of Christ. As a result of four men inspired to write the life of our Lord, we have a fuller, richer story with no contradictions, but much substantiation. For instance, Matthew evidently wrote to the Jews and stressed the kingdom of Christ. They misunderstood the nature of the Messiahship of our Lord and Redeemer, and they were written to to correct their misconceptions and to set forth the fact that the kingdom of Christ had come, but it was a spiritual emphasis and not a carnal rule and reign.

Mark, briefer than the other accounts, evidently was written to the Romans, the military mind of the day, and thus, with sharp and decisive strokes, Mark was inspired to write of the power and majesty and glory and grandeur of Christ. And when Jewish customs are explained, Mark to his Roman auditors puts in parenthesis, as in Mark 7, what is meant by Jewish customs. There it says the Pharisees accused the Lord and his disciples of eating with defiled hands, and Mark puts in parentheses, that is unwashing hands. And then the book of Luke, evidently written to the Greeks, stressed the ideal manhood of Christ. The Grecian state for years has said to the mothers of Greece, if you have a little girl, you can just throw her away.

3. John: Jesus Concerned for the Individual

But if you have a boy, give him to the state, and we’ll make him the ideal specimen of manhood, physically, mentally, and socially. But in Luke 252, we read that Christ is the ideal man, and he added the dimension, the stature of spiritual perfection. Then the book of John, written much later, written by the dearest friend the Lord ever had, a deeper, richer treatise by far. And it stresses the divinity of our Lord and yet puts emphasis upon his love of the individual. Jesus concerned for the individual. For instance, in John chapter 1, Jesus had time for Andrew and for Simon Peter and for Philip and Nathaniel, and to transform their lives and their very thinking.

And to make such an impact on his life that two times later in the book of John, Nicodemus is mentioned. In John 7, when he takes up for the Lord before the Sanhedrin, and then in John 19, when he courageously, along with Joseph Arimathea, begs for the body of Jesus to make proper burial. In John chapter 4, in a tender scene, never to be forgotten. Our Lord had time for the woman at the well in Samaria near Sycor to tell her all things she had ever done, according to her own words, and to make an impact upon her life forever. In John 5, when no one else had time, Jesus took time on the Sabbath day to heal the man who was lame. Others were rushing over him by the pool of Bethesda, the sheep gate.

But our Lord in compassion had time for him. And then in John chapter 8, Jesus took time for the woman that had been accused of adultery, to send her on her way to sin no more, and to send her accusers, self-righteous, arrogant, pharisaical men on their way to do some spiritual thinking. In John 9, he had time for the man born blind, and to also reach out and touch him spiritually with the power of his infinite life. In John 11, he went to Bethany and had time to raise Lazarus from the dead, saying, I am the resurrection and the life. If a man believe in me, though he die, yet shall he live. If a man believe in me, he’ll never really die. And in those words, Jesus gave answer to Job’s ancient question, if a man dies, shall he live again?

Job 14, verse 14. Jesus had time to wash the apostles’ feet, John 13, and impressed Peter in such a way as he girded himself with a towel to perform this act of humility that Peter later wrote in 1 Peter 5:5, gird yourself with humility. The lesson there was not washing feet, the lesson there was the humility it takes to wash clothes, wash feet, wash a car, paint a house, help anybody in need in the name of Jesus. As Matthew 10 42 says, if you give a cup of water in Jesus’ name, it’ll be remembered. So Jesus, the friend of the individual, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all written to stress that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. In fact, at the end of these books, in John 20, verse 31, John is inspired to write, These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that in believing you might have life through his name.

Why these four accounts of the life of Christ. In Mark 14, 47, we have an illustration. We read that someone standing by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane took a sword and cut off somebody’s ear. But if we put Matthew and Luke and John with Mark 14, 47, we learn that Simon Peter was the one with the sword. He cut off the right ear of Malchus, and Jesus healed him. Thus the purpose of four accounts to give us a fuller, richer story that substantiates and corroborates the greatest life ever lived. Years later, the apostle Paul was inspired to write of the gospel of Christ, which consisted of the story of the death, burial, and the resurrection of the Son of God, 1 Corinthians 15 1 to 4.

4. Acts Tells Us How to Become a Christian

These items are items of good news, glad tidings, gospel teaching, and that’s why we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the life of Christ. Now the book of Acts, the second section of these 27 books, and the second of the four divisions, logically set forth, is a unique book. It stands all alone. It really tells us of the gospel of Christ in action in the hearts and lives of men. It tells us how to become a Christian, a Christian, one who belongs to Christ, one who is a part of Christ. Many times people say the word Christian means follower of Christ. No, that’s what a Christian does. He is one who belongs to Christ, one who is a part of Christ. But the Bible teaches us that to be a Christian means that we will follow Christ.

And that’s what a Christian does, not what he is. And the book of Acts tells us, in brilliant strokes of vibrant beauty, of the establishment of the Church of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 2, Joel chapter 2, and Daniel chapter 2 in the Old Testament, all find their fulfillment in Acts chapter 2. When the mountain of the Lord’s house was established in the last days, and the Lord poured out of his spirit upon all flesh, and the kingdom of God’s dear son, that immovable, unshakable kingdom which Daniel foresaw was established. And on that day, that great day of Pentecost, a great message was preached of Christ and Him crucified. A great crowd assembled. Great results ensued. Three thousand were added to the church that day. What a great phenomena it was when the Holy Spirit was poured out in overwhelming the apostles as the gospel was introduced to the Jews.

5. Acts Is the History Book of the New Testament

Peter, using the keys of the kingdom the Lord had given him, Matthew 16, 19, unlocked the doors of the kingdom to the Jewish people. Acts 2. In Acts 10, Peter used those same keys to unlock the door of the church to the Gentiles at the household of Cornius and Caesarea. So all flesh, Luke 3:6, had seen the salvation of God. The book of Acts is a majestic book because it also is the history book of the New Testament. And it gives us a historical background for most of the books which follow. Let me illustrate that. The historical background for many books which follow. The little book of Philippians is a rich four-chapter book in the heart of the New Testament. But before you ever read a line of it, you need to go back to Acts 16, where the church of the Lord was established in the city of Philippi.

And you remember the notable occasion where Paul and Silas were beaten and left in the innermost prison at midnight. And at midnight they sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. Remember the story of the conversion of Lydia, the casting out of the spirit of divination of the young damsel, and then even the conversion of the Philippian jailer himself. This is the background historically in Acts 16 to the four-chapter book of Philippians, which follows. Before you read 1st and 2 Thessalonians, you need to study Acts 17, where Paul and his cohorts establish the cause of Christ in the beautiful city that is now called Salonica, one of the prettiest cities in all the world. Before you read 1st and 2nd Corinthians, potent, powerful books, you need to read Acts 18.

Verse 8 of that chapter says, Many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized. They became the nucleus of the church of God in Corinth. Before you read the book of Ephesians, or 1 and 2 Timothy, or Revelation chapter 2, all which have their setting in the beautiful city of Ephesus, read Acts 19 and 20, where the gospel of Christ came to that city, which was one of the marvelous areas of the world, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was there, the beautiful marble temple erected of the goddess Diana. So the book of Acts tells us how to become a Christian. The cases of conversion in the Bible. You need to turn to Acts 2 and Acts 8 and Acts 9 and Acts 10 and Acts 16 and Acts 18.

And Acts 22, 16, which says, Why terriest thou arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord, to find the historical background for the cases of conversion. If you want to know how to become a Christian, read the book of Acts, where men became Christians. And if we do now what they did then, will be what they were then, and they were simply Christians, members of the Church of the Lord, the one Jesus said he would build, Matthew 16, 18. The one Paul said Christ purchased with his own blood, Acts 20, verse 28. We learn of the establishment of the church, how to become a Christian, and we have the historical background for most of the books which follow in the book of Acts.

And the last nine chapters of Acts, Acts 20 through 28, form one of the grandest, most eloquent, exciting narratives in the whole Bible. It tells of the trials and triumphs of Paul through the gospel as he went to Jerusalem, Caesarea, and finally to Rome, to speak of the kingdom of God’s dear son, Acts 28, verse 31.