Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1, please. Matthew chapter 1. I'll begin with a word of prayer, and then we're going to get into our opening study of the book of Acts, something I've declared I would teach for probably over a year now, and finally has fit into the timing of the schedule. so I'm going to teach on Acts and I have as the series title being Acts the Continuing Works of Jesus Christ through the Church. I'll even explain that as we get there, won't get there till we get to the book of Acts, but Today what I want to do is a survey of the New Testament so you see where Acts fits in. I haven't taught a survey in the New Testament for 20 years, I guess it's been. I think 2005 was the last time I I did a survey of the New Testament, which is different than this one, so giving you an overview to so you can help see where the Book of Acts fits into the New Testament and then we'll go forward from there. But let's begin with prayer. Dear Father, we thank you for Christ. Thank you for the opportunity to meet together today and I just pray that we would be continually carrying and helping to bear the burden that everything that the Magners face. May anything significant that they share with us, may it be something that we have considered, that we have concern for, and that we have prayed about. And again, we rejoice, we give thanks for what you allowed to take place, not only with the changing of the date for the meeting, but how well the meeting went for them, and we do pray for their future there as well. I just pray you guide us in our study. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. First of all, I want to look a little bit at the timing of the New Testament. As we enter into our New Testament, there's 400 years basically of silence from the Lord on what had taken place between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew. But during that time, a lot of things have happened. I've taught about that in the past as well, the intertestamental period of time. where the scribes went from being copyists of the word of God to lawyers making decisions. And we could go on and on about the changes that had taken place. Around 4 BC, I know that sounds a little bit odd, but around 4 BC is when Christ was born. And the gospels are gonna cover a period of that, about 33 and a half years. And so rounding it off, we're gonna take it right into about 30. A.D. is when the Gospels come to a conclusion, and immediately it picks up with the Book of Acts. And the Book of Acts is also historical in nature, just like the Gospels are historical in nature, so is the Book of Acts. And the Book of Acts is going to, just almost exact, cover about 33 years again. They're going to cover from about 30 A.D. to 63 A.D., so just getting right into about 33 years there. So 33 years of the life of Christ is covered in the gospel, 33 years of the life of the early church is covered in the book of Acts, and then there's about another 35 years, so you can almost divide it into thirds, where it covers the time period of the rest of the New Testament. uh and so various things are taking place during that time in fact during the writing or during the activity of the book of acts let me word it that way 11 of the epistles have been written a majority of them of course by the apostle paul but 11 uh epistles are written during the writing or during the time period of the book of acts and then the next 35 years there's basically 11 more now including revelation as an epistle It's technically would be a prophetic historical book, but it's also considered an epistle as well. So 11 more of the epistles are written during that time period. So again, we don't have activity going on there that is being recorded, but we do have things that are taking place in the early church, and during that period of time more of the epistles are being written. And so, when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John write, it's all after the life of Christ is over. They're going to write right up until His death, burial, and resurrection. Matthew is one of the very first. Now, that's more coincidence than anything. Just like in the Old Testament, the actual first book written is probably the book of Job, which is not recorded until you get into the poetical books, but he lived in the time frame of Abraham and so forth, and Job is probably actually the first of the written Old Testament books. The first of the written New Testament books is probably James and then Matthew. So Matthew is going to be the first writer. Mark is going to write. Luke and then John. John's going to be the last of the writers. Luke is going to be the second of the writers. So you have only Matthew's account writing to the Jews for eight years approximately. Then you get Luke's account which is written to the Greeks. Then you get Mark's account around 66-67 AD, so about 16-17 years after Matthew writes. Mark would then write. He's writing to the Romans, and then you have John writing to the world, but not until about 85, so about 35 years later. So think of the expanse between that. We have all four of the Gospels that we can comparatively read. They didn't have that. And actually it was because of its designation written to different people groups, they wouldn't have that comparative study like we would have today. And so just kind of a, just an overview of the timing, just so you understand the timing of where everything fits. And as we go through the Book of Acts, we're gonna do a number of topical studies, but we are going to try to just navigate our way through the book as well. getting what is going on in the book and how things transition. One of the first things I'm going to be talking about is church planting, and we're going to look at that, the need for churches and how the churches were planted. So we're going to do some thematic studies, but then we're going to do some progressive studies through the book as well. So the second thing I want to look at is the purpose, and again we're just doing a survey of the New Testament today, not specifically just focusing on Acts, and so I want to take you through really quickly the four Gospels and helping you to see the purpose of each of the Gospels. So the book of Matthew is written again to what people group? written to the Jews. And what is Matthew's theme, or what is he telling them about, what is he telling the Jews about Christ? He would declare that Jesus Christ is, he's king. And you're gonna find that, and I'll show that to you really briefly here in this opening study. In fact, let's look at how Matthew opens here, Matthew chapter one, beginning in verse number one. where it says this, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And then he's going to go into genealogies, verse after verse after verse of genealogies. Again, that is significant because to a Jewish person, something that is very significant to them is who they descended from and of what tribe are they and of what people group did they descend from. And so that's extremely important to them. When we get to Jesus Christ as servant, we're not going to have a genealogy because who cares where a servant came from? It's a servant, it's not a king. And so Jesus Christ is not only king, he's going to be a servant, and we learn that and have quoted verses because of that. And so the book of Matthew is going to be declaring how Jesus Christ is King, and it's gonna announce in here that he is part of the line of David, and it's gonna take him right up until his birth. Now, I want you to notice in chapter two and verse number two, and then I'm gonna take you to chapter 27, Herod saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? So he's already beginning to get this title. They are talking about him being the king of the Jews. And so, OK, where is this guy that is born? Now, I believe somewhat it was his was a little tongue in cheek or with a little bit of sarcasm. Oh, this king of the Jews, where is he? talking about this baby, but at the same time, people knew because of the prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ that he would ultimately be king. So let's go over to chapter 27. Let's go from the beginning of his life to the end of his life on earth. Again, when we talk about beginning and end, we are talking about, John chapter one is gonna talk about how he was declared and how he came in bodily form. I want you to understand that Jesus Christ has always been the son of God. You can learn that from Psalm 2 and other passages. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And so there has been some teaching, and that's the book of Isaiah, just quoted. There has been some teaching out there, even in some fundamental circles, that Jesus Christ did not become the son of God until his birth. and that would not be true. A son was given, and I just want you to understand the eternality of the Son of God in that part. So I'm not just saying he's eternal, that position was eternal as well. So in Matthew chapter 27, let's look at just three verses here. They're spread out a little bit. In verse number 11, Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him saying, art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, thou sayest. And so again, it goes back to that. Here's a different governor and he's going to ask, are you the king of the Jews? Look at verse 29 with me, please. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And so again, I think with sarcasm, Herod said it. With truth, I believe it was ask of the governor. And now the people are mocking, ah, King of the Jews, they're gonna mockingly bow. They're gonna mockingly put a crown on him. This is a crown of thorns though. And they are going to mock him using this. But then again, look down to verse number 37. and possibly in your Bible like it is in mine, it's in all capitals, and set up over his head his accusation written, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. And again, it will go on, well, he's Saif, he's the King of the Jews. And so this is the point that Matthew is getting across. Now with a king, then there must be a, Kingdom, there must be a nation there must be some type of a system And so that's going to be declared throughout the book of Matthew as well So as you're reading the book of Matthew and please turn over to mark as well mark chapter one But as you're reading the book of Matthew, you're going to read about Christ being written to the jews about being the king of the jews Now the question might be we're gentile. Is there any application to us? Most definitely there is i'm not going to teach on that. That's not the purpose of this series But as you can go through the Beatitudes, and I've been working on a series for many years on the Beatitudes, and we'll preach that if the Lord so tarries another 500 years. I'll probably still be trying to preach. No, but at some point, yes, definitely there are applications to us as Bible-believing Christians. We can apply all the scriptures to our lives. So Mark is writing to who? What's Rome at this point? Okay, it's Gentile, what else? What's the significance of Rome at this point? They're in power, they're in political power. And so Mark is writing to those people who are in that political power under that nation. And I'm just gonna have you note two verses together with me. Let's look at verse number, now he is writing that Jesus Christ is what? Perfect servant. So you got a perfect king, now a perfect servant. That again is important because the Romans are in power. And so servitude is very important to them. And it says in verse number one of Mark chapter one, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. And then it goes into on a number of verses and talks about John the Baptist. In fact, I think all the way down to verse 13. And so he is talking about this is the Son of God, but he's a perfect servant. And you're going to notice in reading this book, it's going to use repeatedly throughout the book, maybe some reason to read the book of Mark and something to look for, like immediately in a straight way. This is significant because you want a servant who is going to respond and do things immediately. You want somebody as a servant that's going to immediately get to the task that is before them. And so Mark is going to use that terminology throughout his writing of the book. In verse number 14, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. This, I think, is significant. You may not see as significant as I do. but it's almost in somewhat as he stayed in the background as a servant would, while John the Baptist is laying forth as was predicted in the Old Testament, and again spoken in the New Testament, John the Baptist is that forerunner of Jesus Christ preparing the way. And in the book of John, most clearly, is somewhat that baton handoff of the disciples as he passes them from his teachings to the teachings of Christ. But as John the Baptist is going about in preaching, Christ somewhat stays within the shadows. And then when John the Baptist is put into prison, then steps forth Christ more as a public ministry here in verse number 14. And again, I'm just showing you that because here he is King of kings and Lord of lords, but at the same time, a perfect servant and willing to somewhat stay in the shadows as long as necessary for the purpose of God's word to be proclaimed. Let's go over to the book of Luke. Please, Book of Luke, first chapter. First four verses. Now, it's very interesting, the background of all these four men who are writers as well. I'm not going into the details of that. There is a lot of information regarding how Mark got his information to write. There's even a lot of information about Luke and how he got his information to write. Does anybody know really the occupation of Luke? He was a doctor. But his hobby was a, he was a historian. And so one of the things that he was known for was gathering information and timetables. And because of that, he had gathered a lot, and more than any other. I'm just kind of throwing some seeds out here along with that. He had included more ladies' names than any of the other writers, because they played a significant part of the history. And so Luke brings that out differently than Matthew would. Matthew would hide the ladies somewhat in the background, somewhat, not to every degree. It's even interesting in the genealogies, the mention of Tamar, the mention of Rahab the harlot and others there in the genealogies. But with Jewish, it's more the focus of the men and what they are doing, the men who would sit at the gate. Now Luke is gonna bring out these ladies in his historical view. And let's begin with verse number one of chapter one. For as much as I have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. Doesn't it sound like an historian? He says, one of the things that I'm trying to do is I'm trying to take eyewitness accounts and I'm trying to put them in order. These are things that are most surely believed. So he's not trying to get on the edge. He's not a conspiracy theorist who is writing things that nobody else is writing about. And they're questioning if it's really even part of the life of Christ. He says, I'm taking the things that we know happen. I'm taking these eyewitnesses accounts and eyewitness accounts, and I'm trying to put them in order so that we have an orderly declaration here. Do you notice in verse number one, many have taken an ad to set forth, and there were numerous people trying to write. Now this stops and causes me to just kind of hit the pause button a little bit here on where we're going and just have a sidebar for a second. There was a decision made by really the early church fathers as to what was really the inspired word of God. And no doubt, as there were false teachers and false prophets, there are going to be those that are falsely writing about the life and ministry and the person of Christ. And so that early church is going to have to make the decision, and really I know, let of God, of which of these books of them were authored by God, inspired by God, and given for man to read. And Luke is one of those writers that have done this. even if they have delivered them unto us from the beginning, which were eyewitnesses and ministers." And I think this is really important. He is not just getting everybody's opinion on what is happening, but really those who have been engaged in the ministry and in the work of Christ. He says, I want eyewitnesses who were part of the ministry of the word. Look at verses three and four yet with me though, please. it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, O most excellent Theophilus, it's interesting who that is, we'll probably get into it in the book of Luke, or excuse me, the book of Acts, that thou mightest know the certainty of these things wherein thou hast been instructed. So most excellent Theophilus who has been instructed, he says, I want you though to have God's word on this, not just man's account of this. So let's go over to the book of John. So Luke was writing to what people group? I didn't go through this yet. He's writing to the Greeks. And he is writing that Jesus Christ is what? Okay, several answers there which were all correct. He's the perfect man. You might declare him to be the son of man and that's going to be declared more in the book of Luke than anywhere else. So you think about this, the Greeks would be concerned about that perfect specimen of a man. The Greek games were taking place there. Many other things, the Olympics, that we would be similar to our Olympics, were going to be taking place in Greece. That focus was on the perfect man. They're going to have their gods and so forth that they worship. And so Jesus Christ is being declared to the Greeks as the perfect man. And that is going to be taught throughout the book of Luke. Then finally we get John writing, and I say finally because it is many years later. 35 years after Matthew had written the first of the Gospels, John writes the last of the Gospels. He is not writing to a specific people group, he's writing to the world. He's writing to the world that Jesus Christ is not just a man, but Jesus Christ is also God. He's 100% man, 100% God. Pastor Seth had talked about Jesus Christ being man, and I referred when I came up in the pulpit several weeks ago to Hebrews chapter 2 and verse number 14. He took part, likewise took part of the same, that flesh and blood that every one of us, but this is God robed perfectly in the flesh of man. And Philippians chapter 2 and other passages talk about that as well, and that will be a wonderful segue, but not quite yet. Let's look at John chapter 1 and verse number 1, and then we'll drop down like we did in the book of Mark to the 14th verse. In the beginning was the Word, capital W, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. This is a declaration that Jesus Christ was not just a man, but he was God. He was there from the very beginning. Now, the beginning here is mentioning the beginning of creation and can go back further than that. He was beyond the beginning of that, but he was also part of creation. In fact, there was nothing made without him. he is the light that shineth into all men according to this passage as well and then if you would drop down to verse number 14 with me and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth do you remember christ or remember god declaring that he would not share his glory with another And so this can be fulfilled, Jesus Christ fulfilling that glory, because he is part of that Godhead, that glorious Godhead. So would you go to chapter 20 with me, please? Let's go all the way to the end of his writing. John is going to bring out the first of the miracles in Cana of Galilee, where he turned the water to wine. From that point there was a greater belief even from the disciples of who he was. In this was the introduction in John chapter 1, I shouldn't even skip over that. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Who declared that? John the Baptist declared it twice and declared this is him and in fact just some other man I can't go I gotta go on we're going to Acts not John I'd love to teach you more about John chapter one but this is where Andrew Nathaniel others are going to be introduced we have found him who did they find they found the Messiah And they were declared, we have found him. And John the Baptist took those that were disciples, follower learners of him, and had them to begin to follow and learn after the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, his ministry was to prepare the way. And part of that preparing the way was preparing these men to ultimately follow Christ. It did not become a power struggle with him. And so in John chapter 20 then, he declares in verses 30 and 31, really the purpose of writing this book, which help us again to see the theme, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. Several things that are really important. Does anybody know how many miracles are recorded in the gospels? Anybody remember that magical number? 35, 35, if I remember correctly, I haven't looked at it in years, I'm pretty sure I remember correctly. 35, he said there were a lot more. Notice also in the presence of his disciples, and this was really important because he was also trying to develop them into what power and authority he had and as their followers of him. But these are written, the ones that were chosen to be written, but these are written, verse 31, that ye, now who's the ye? Jews? Greeks? Romans? Who's the ye? It's the world. And it's like somebody said, it's us. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Let's jump right to the book of Acts. We're almost there anyway. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. The purpose of the book of Acts, what is the purpose of the book of Acts? I believe it is this, to show how Christ took the gospel into the world through the church. Now, I'm making somewhat a read-between-the-lines statement there. Let me show it to you. The former treaties, verse one. The former treaties have I made O Theophilus. So who had written to Theophilus? It was Luke, remember that? So Luke is now also declaring to be the author. What a perfect author, somebody who's a historian anyway. Of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. So to me, this is the continuing work of Jesus Christ. Now, how can that be? Well, we believe because of what the Bible teaches in the indwelling of Christ. And Christ is not just sending these men forth, but he's guiding them. He's calling out. Remember the calling out? I don't know if you've ever read this, but in Acts chapter 13, when the church of Antioch separate unto me, And through the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Jesus Christ, they chose Paul and Silas and Barnabas and others to ultimately take the gospel into the world. So the ministry of Christ did not end at the end of the Gospels. This is the continuing ministry of Jesus Christ, and he's going to do it through the church. So the Gospels were all about what Jesus began to do and to teach, but this is about his continuing ministry. Would you look at verses two and three with me? Until the day which he was taken up after that, he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. Again, the apostles that Christ had chosen. For the sake of time, look at verse number eight. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. So this isn't just empowered by Christ. I don't know if you remember this, but in Matthew chapter 28, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. That's a dunamis here. But in Matthew chapter 28, all authority is given unto me. All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. That's authority. So Christ was saying, I'm gonna send you forth in my authority, and the Holy Spirit is going to empower you as you become eyewitnesses declaring the gospel to this generation of people. So the books of Matthew through John are recording the historical data of the person and works of Jesus Christ. The book of Acts is recording now the first century church, its beginning, and taking it all the way to Rome. Well, what are the epistles? Let me just briefly state this. We're at the time of the Sunday school was to close. So what are the epistles? Well, to me, what the epistles do is take the person and works and teachings of Jesus Christ and explain them. How did he do that? And what does that mean to us? And so what I really believe, it's almost like a commentary explaining what the person of Christ is all about, what the words of Christ were all about, what the ministry of Christ were all about, and that is being explained. And then what's the purpose of Revelation? Well, it's a prophetic declaration of future history. He talks about until the consummation of the age. And at the consummation of the age, God is going to set forward this prophetic history. And that is what's being declared in the book of Revelation. So there's a really quick brief overview, about 30 minutes. of our New Testament. So the first 33 years occupied with Christ, the next 33 years is going to be primarily occupied with the church, and then the last 35 years we just are occupied with the epistles that we have. And so we're going to be focusing beginning next week on that 33 years of that church in motion in the book of Acts. Let's begin or let's close with a word of prayer. Dear Father, we thank you for your word. I trust that what I said, even though very quickly, just helps us to better understand why you've given to us the New Testament, why it's ordered like it is in the order that we have it. And then, Father, help us to understand the ministry of that local church. And it's really the ministry of Christ going forward and how he's guiding and using the local church. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.