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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 10. How the Gospels Grew
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How the Gospels Grew
Let us turn first to the Gospels. It helps to remember just how there came to be four Gospels. Mark's seems to have been the earliest, as it is the simplest of the Gospels, and the one keeping more nearly a chronological, rather than a topical order of events. It is the simple recital of the leading things of that period as Mark learned them from Peter, and wrote them down under the Holy Spirit's guidance.
But there were certain questions troubling earnest Jews which it did not answer. That this Jesus was really the Messiah of their prophecies was a puzzling thing to thousands of earnest, godly Jews. Their Messiah when He came was to establish a kingdom. This Jesus had not done so. How could He be the promised Messiah? This was the question that puzzled John the Herald as he lay in prison. [Note: Mat_11:2-19.] This Jesus filled out all the personal side of the prophecies, the teaching and healing and so on, but He did not fill out the official side; He did not establish the Kingdom. Why? But the official side could be filled out only through His acceptance by the nation; and instead of acceptance He was being rejected. And our Lord in replying to John simply said he must be content to wait. Jesus would not anticipate the actual rejection which He clearly saw was coming.
Now Matthew's Gospel was written for these Jewish questioners. Its whole atmosphere is peculiarly Jewish, to a degree quite beyond Mark and Luke. It begins with the kingly genealogy, and sets forth for Jewish readers how fully this Jesus fulfilled personally all the old prophecies, and did not fill out the official because He was rejected by the nation. Then later Paul was sent out to the great outer, non-Jewish, Gentile world. And as one is always led to adapt his message to the people he deals with, so Luke, Paul's companion, was led to write a Gospel for these non-Jewish outsiders, in which much of the Jewish standpoint and atmosphere and phraseology is left out.
Then that generation passed away, and there came another generation, a later one than that to which Jesus humanly belonged. To them, and so to all after generations, John's Gospel is written. The first three Gospels are absorbed with the rejection of Jesus. Why was He rejected? There must have been some reason for it. John's Gospel groups together incidents and facts showing that Jesus was indeed rejected, but that it was by the small group of men holding the official reins of the nation and driving hard. And they were controlled by the basest, most selfish and devilish motives in their rejection. And He was accepted by men of all classes; He was doubted, then inquired into, and then believed and trusted lovingly and loyally, against bitterest persecution, by men of highest rank and humblest. This simple setting of each Gospel helps much in tracing its teachings. Of the four, Matthew's is the one in which the Jewish colouring is strongest.
We want to go through each of these Gospels and gather out just what is taught about our Lord's return. Before doing so, however, a question arises. How shall we regard the teachings addressed by our Lord to the inner circle of disciples? How do these teachings apply to us Gentile Christians? There is a twofold division of all men in the Old Testament,—into Jews, and the nations, or Gentiles. This twofold division is in constant evidence, and is natural enough in a Jewish Book. In the New Testament there is a new group called the "Church" coming to the front, making a threefold division, namely Jew, Gentile, and the Church. This new group is a body of people containing—strange to say, very strange to a Jew—both Jew and Gentile, associated on terms of intimacy and love. The link that binds them together is personal attachment to Jesus. This threefold division is sharply marked in the New Testament. The Jew is quite distinct from the nations, and the Church is as sharply distinct from each of the others.
This distinction should be kept clearly in mind, for the usage of our day tends to rub it out. That is, the distinction between the Jew and all others is as sharply marked as ever; but that between the Church and the nations is not distinctly marked, but rather blurred over or wiped out. In most nations designated as Christian (and that means all nations cf the Western World) the Church is made a function of government, an integral, official part of the nation. And in our own American nation there is a constant attempt or tendency to consider the Church as something that works upon society or the nation as a whole, rather than being a distinct body whose influence upon society and the nation may be more marked and greater, because of the principle involved in the line of separation between the two being sharply drawn.
Now without making any comment on this, one way or the other, it should be noted that it tends to blur out in our minds the distinct line between the nations and the Church which is so sharply defined in the Bible. To get a clear understanding of the teachings of the Scripture one must remember this sharply drawn line between these three bodies of people,—the Jews, the nations, and the Church.
Now this leads us back to the question, how shall we regard the teachings of our Lord to the disciples? that is, how do these teachings apply to us, who are members of His Church? There is no Church in these Gospels. It was not formed until the day of Pentecost. Well, there were no disciples chosen until after John's imprisonment. John was Jesus' official representative. Treatment of him was treatment of Jesus. John's imprisonment was the first sharply decisive event pointing to the rejection of Jesus the King, and so the Kingdom. It was so accepted by Jesus. It is at this point that He makes certain changes. He begins the selection and training of a small group of men. He begins preaching to the multitudes; and He changes His centre of activity from Judea to the less dangerous neighbourhood of Galilee.
These disciples were Jews racially, but in allying themselves with Jesus they had practically broken with the national leaders. The antagonism between the national leaders and Jesus was sharply drawn that baptism day in the Jordan, when John the Herald's witnessing to Him was received with such silence by the Jerusalem deputation. [Note: Joh_1:19-34.] It grew more sharply and bitterly marked until the climax of the cross was reached. That antagonism extended to Jesus' followers. Near the close Jesus' going back into the vicinity of Jerusalem was considered dangerous to His life. This is shown by Thomas' remark about going to Bethany:—"let us also go that we may die with Him." [Note: Joh_11:8-16.]
These disciples were Jews racially but not representatively. They were the group around which the Church of the day of Pentecost was shaped. They were the seed of the Church. The only words spoken about the Church in the Gospels are in Matthew's Gospel. [Note: Mat_16:16-20; Mat_18:15-20.] They are spoken only to the inner circle of these men. And—mark it keenly—they were spoken after the break with the national leaders was so decisive that Jesus was beginning to prepare His disciples for His suffering and death. There are three main groups of Jesus' teachings in these Gospels, of instruction to the multitudes, of criticism and disputation with the leaders, and of instruction to the inner circle of disciples. The line between these groups of teachings is distinctly drawn.
Now these disciples were the Church in its seed form, they were the leaders about whom the Church would form. And so the teachings to them are to them representatively as the Church, and therefore they are teachings to the corporate Church, and to those of us belonging to the true Church. It will help immensely to keep this simple distinction in mind as we push on.