THE GOSPEL RECORD
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John provide the most accurate record of who Jesus is. Each of the Gospel writers was present during the life of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and John were three of the twelve Apostles. Luke was a companion of the Apostle Paul and must have known the other Apostles as well. They wrote first-hand accounts of Jesus’ ministry on earth. While each of them wrote from different perspectives, as you would expect from four different witnesses, all of them left no doubt that Jesus was God in the flesh. Show More
I’m going to take a brief look at each of the Gospels before we focus on the miracles of Jesus in the Gospel of John
GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
The Gospel of Matthew was written by a Jew to a Jewish audience who knew the Old Testament scriptures. Matthew wanted to show that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. That Jesus was the fulfillment of time-awaited prophecy. As a result, Matthew uses the expression, “that it might be fulfilled”, meaning that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies. He quotes more from the Old Testament than any of the other Gospel writers.
Matthew emphasizes the teaching nature of Jesus and the theme of the “kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God” as a means of describing Jesus’ rule on the earth and in the human heart. Matthew left no doubt about the deity of Jesus.
GOSPEL OF MARK
The Gospel of Mark was probably the first Gospel written. Many theologians believe that Matthew and Luke may have used Mark’s Gospel as a source of information. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the Gospels and written to a Gentile (non-Jewish) audience, probably to those who were Romans.
Mark focuses on Jesus as the suffering servant who ministers to the physical and spiritual needs of those He was sent to.
The message of Mark’s Gospel is that Jesus was a man of action and His message was urgent and important. Mark demonstrates to the Roman mind, that Jesus was the son of God. He even uses a Roman soldier’s words at Jesus’ crucifixion, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).
GOSPEL OF LUKE
Luke was a Gentile and wrote to a Gentile audience. He starts with Jesus’ birth and because Luke also wrote the Book of Acts, you could say, the birth of the Church. In Luke, there are many parables that are not recorded in the other Gospels. Jesus is portrayed as the compassionate Savior of the world. It is important to know that the words Savior, Messiah, and Christ have the same meaning but in different languages. Savior is English, Messiah is Hebrew, and Christ is Greek. All of these terms are used to describe the nature of Jesus- to rescue the lost. Which is the nature of God!
The Gospel of Luke is universal in appeal in that he is all-inclusive. Luke’s Gospel is for all people, Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, slave or free, and noble or outcast!
Luke emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit and the importance of prayer in Jesus’ life and ministry. This is of course to meant to be an example to us all… the work of the Holy Spirit and prayer!
GOSPEL OF JOHN
John’s Gospel is the most theological of the Gospels with its focus on who Jesus is rather than what He did. The purpose of John’s Gospel message is found in John 20:31, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you have life in His name”.
John’s Gospel is the divine gospel in that it clearly demonstrates through seven miracles and seven statements that Jesus is God! The number 7 is considered to be God’s number, the number of perfection or completion.
THE NUMBER SEVEN
Before we look at the seven miracles found in the Gospel of John lets turn our attention to the number seven.
While the Bible does not explicitly say that the number seven is a holy number, Christiansand Jews consider seven to be a holy number.
Genesis says that God completed or perfected creation in six days. Then God rested on the seventh day. The Hebrew word for the seventh day is Shabbat or Sabbath. Since God rested on the Sabbath that is God’s day and is known as the seventh day.
Since man was created on the sixth day, the number six represents man a creation, not a creator; less than God!
As a side note, the early Hebrews and Greeks did not have a number system. The Arabic number system we use today was not created until the 6thor 7thcentury by the Hindu’s in India.
Because God completed His work and rested on the seventh day, that’s the reason for the observance of the Hebrew Sabbathon the last day of the week. Remember Sabbath means the seventh day.
For Christians the triple 7 as in 777 represents the threefold perfection of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit each a seven.
Most people know that the number 666 represents the number of the “beast”. Revelation 13:18 says, “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666”.
Remember, 6 is less than 7. I heard someone say that the 666 means, “not God, not God, not God”! It makes perfect sense to me.
THE SEVEN SIGNS IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Signs and wonders, or miracles, are indicators or point to something. Just as a street sign points to a direction or name of the street. In the same way, God’s miracles point to the divinity of Jesus and the following:
- That Jesus is God
- That Jesus is the healer
- That Jesus is the provider
- That Jesus has conquered death
- That we can trust in Jesus
Next time we will look at the seven Miracles found in John’s Gospel.
- Cana Wedding; water into wine… 2:1
- Jesus heals the nobleman’s son… 4:46
- Jesus heals the paralytic… 5:1
- Jesus feeds the 5000… 6:1
- Jesus walks on water… 6:15
- Jesus heals the blind man… 9:1
- Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead… 11:1
CONCLUSION – JESUS IS GOD AND HE IS AT WORK… IN US!
- John 14:12“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father”.
