General Introduction to the Gospels, Part 2

Driving home: Positively stated, I said that these are spirit-inspired records which can be likened to four picture galleries of the King in which each of the gospel writers is an inspired painter who is drawing a series of pictures, …

The Gospels are likened to four picture galleries of the King, where each writer is an inspired painter, presenting the one glorious person of Christ from different perspectives and highlights.

Nor are they a court transcript giving us exact quotations of the very words of Jesus Christ or of His deeds viewed from only one perspective. Positively stated, I said that these are spirit-inspired records which can be likened to four picture galleries of the King in which each of the gospel writers is an inspired painter who is drawing a series of pictures, painting a series of pictures with reference to the person and work and sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we walk through the four galleries, at the end of that trip we come to the conviction it is one glorious person who is set...

4:50 - 6:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first point is that the Gospels expand and delineate the apostolic preaching summarized in Acts. Using Peter's sermon in Acts 10 as an example, Martin shows that the Gospels…

Martin describes timing his reading of Peter's sermon in Acts 10 (1 minute, 27 seconds) to illustrate that Luke provides a summary, not a full transcript, of apostolic preaching.

I took my little stopwatch, and I timed how long it would take me to read this entire summation of Peter's sermon with due pauses, with due emphasis, and you know how long it took me? One minute and twenty-seven seconds. Now do you think Luke intends us to believe that Peter came into the house of Cornelius, stood up, began to preach, and in one minute and twenty-seven seconds, his son was born? No.

14:08 - 14:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first point is that the Gospels expand and delineate the apostolic preaching summarized in Acts. Using Peter's sermon in Acts 10 as an example, Martin shows that the Gospels…

An example of a listener summarizing Martin's previous sermon in 22 seconds, demonstrating how a distillation differs from the full exposition, just as Acts summarizes apostolic preaching.

Do you think the sermon was over? Of course not. What we have is a summary, a skeletal outline of the sermon of Peter. For instance, someone who was here last week and was listening and retaining what they heard might walk out of the building, someone drive into the parking lot, stop the individual and say, where are you going?

14:39 - 15:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not envy those who sat at the feet of Peter, Matthew, or John, for the Gospels allow you to have the apostolic teaching embodied in inspired record, giving you the privilege of entering into the fellowship of the apos…

The Gospels allow believers to have 'an apostle in your bedroom, in your living room, at your kitchen table,' continually telling them about Christ, granting the same privilege as the early church.

And isn't that exactly what John said in his first epistle? The things we have seen, the things, the things we have heard and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, these things we declare unto you that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, dear Christian, listen. If you understand aright what the Gospels are in relationship to the rest of the New Testament, and in particular now the book of Acts, you will not, envy those who sat at the feet of Peter and heard his eyewitness testimony at the feet of Matthew or at ...

21:04 - 22:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Steep your souls in the Gospels to feel the weight of doctrine and reflect a clear consciousness that your practice is conditioned by the great realities of Christian doctrine.

Martin quotes Bernard's 'Progress of Doctrine' to emphasize that Christian doctrine is founded on observable facts about Christ, which the Gospels present as 'elementary lessons' in a simple, factual manner.

The Christian doctrine is a doctrine concerning facts which have occurred and a person who has been manifested within the sphere of human observation. The foundation of all that is to be known of the word of life are laid in that which was seen with the eyes and heard with the ears and handled with the hands of men. 1 John 1 1 through 3 Then it is necessary for every learner that before all inferences or applications the facts themselves as mere phenomena should be rendered in the clearest light. Hence our elementary lessons are narratives of the simplest form a plain report of words and deeds...

33:13 - 34:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not merely believe propositional truth without the engagement of your person with Christ's person; true engagement requires giving up the government of your life, humiliation, penitence, repentance, and self-loathing …

Martin uses the analogy of not marrying an unknown woman to explain that God does not call us to personal attachment to an unknown Christ; the Gospels reveal who Christ is.

whatever he is I'm not asked to enter into personal attachment to an unknown Christ any more than God asked me to marry an unknown woman marriage is serious business I'm not going to pledge to love to cherish to nourish some unknown commodity I'm not going I want to know if I see a woman whom I regard worthy of that kind of sacrifice and self giving love and God does not call upon us to enter into personal attachment to an unknown Christ so what has he done he's given us the gospels the four portraits the king he says would you be married to my son consider him this is my beloved son look at h...

43:32 - 45:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid a Christianity that feeds exclusively on the Epistles (doctrinaire, heady, impersonal) or only on the Gospels (sentimental, mystical, doctrinally truncated); seek a proper balance where minds and hearts are continu…

Martin recalls a tombstone in Edinburgh for martyred Covenanters, with a poem stating that the 'prelates rage... chased them up to heaven,' illustrating the willingness to die for truth when it's attached to a glorious person.

for propositions because those propositions are attached to this glorious person who has won their hearts they are willing to die for truth why? because truth is not an abstraction it's a person's you see it but their willingness to die is not the willingness of the fanatical Muslim who is willing to die for his faith it is the willingness born of an intelligent understanding of the propositions because this person died for my sins if I must die for his truth all those who take my life can do is chase me up to heaven how in the world have you heard a man like that now that language is not orig...

49:27 - 50:56 Read in full sermon