We'll see. But as Christians, we believe in a book that is not new, right? It's 2,000 years old, at least we think of the New Testament, and much older than that, thousands of years even older than that in the Old Testament. And we are not the first people, the first Christians, to study that book. And so there's a temptation, and I'm as guilty as anyone, that I want the quickest way to how can I grow? And I get that question a lot. What's the quickest way? What's the fastest way? People kind of want to look at the Christian life. And again, I totally get this because this is a little bit of my personality. How do I climb that mountain? How do I conquer that? And then what's next, right? There's a lot of us who we have hobbies, we have things. We did that for a while. And then we kind of get bored and we move forward and move on. And we think in short periods, how do I kind of speed it up? And there's ways you can do that now with technology. You can watch a YouTube video. You can watch experts. And it's great. And those are all wonderful things. And a temptation, I think, with Bible study is to always go to the experts and try to sit on their shoulders and learn from them. And if you never do your own work, you're missing out. And you're just not going to internalize it the same way. There are certain fields. I have a good friend who's a Southwest pilot. And I'm really glad he didn't learn to be a pilot on YouTube. You can learn a lot about flying, a lot about aviation, but at some point, he really needed to go through, experience things, develop a sense of what it's like to fly, what it's like to fly in clouds, what it's like to fly in instruments. He needed that. Same thing, I think, in medical doctors, you're really thankful that they actually had someone with them. They did this procedure before. They did it on you. If someone's going, this is my first procedure when you're having it, it's just not a good sign. But I was reminded of this quote by Dr. Ian Malcolm. And I think it applies in a way. We'll see. But you stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could. And before you even knew what you had, you patented it. You packaged it. You slapped it on a plastic lunchbox. And now you're selling it, and you want to sell it. Does anyone know where that quote's from? Oh, you guys. We don't have any real fans here. Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park. Anyways, I was just at Universal. I got Jurassic Park on my mind. But he's being critical of them building the park because they basically took technologies, they didn't do the work themselves, and they're going ahead and pushing forward. I think there's a way in which you watch a YouTube video, you watch someone else who spent their whole life studying the Bible. I'm guilty. I listen to preachers who've spent their whole life studying, and I want to sound like them tomorrow. I'm listening Saturday night to a sermon going, well, I hope I sound like that guy tomorrow. And you go, well, you can't. Why? Because he's... say MacArthur, 80 years old, and he's been in the text in his Greek New Testament for the last 60 years. You're just not going to be able to fast forward. And if you do, you're going to miss something. So that's kind of my humorous take on this is not DNA replication or cloning. But in the case, you understand, we really want to be quick about it. I wished you could write a dissertation in a month. Trust me, I wish you could. So let's pick up where we were. Let's go backwards a little bit. We finished up looking at, so author, audience, occasion, and we're just about to pivot to purpose when we stopped last time. I think Jacob, you would have got that quote. You would have got the Dr. Ian Malcolm quote. So we were left off on purpose. Just as a reminder, we were looking for the importance of background information. Background information is important because of what we want to get out of it, which is we want to find what is the biggest idea, unifying idea, in a composition or in the book of the Bible. What is the central theme? And the way we're going to find that is by putting together all the background information and starting to identify who wrote it, who he wrote to, audience, and then the occasion. So what prompted that writing? And say, we looked at last, I think the last verse we looked at was Galatians, and looking at that there was a false gospel being taught, and so the whole letter is geared towards, hey, you're being taught something wrong. Someone is teaching you error, and I'm shocked and I'm disturbed how quickly you are following them. So I need to come and correct that, which is kind of where the linchpin turns for, this is the purpose now, this is what I want to accomplish. And when I'm studying a book of the Bible, it's as simple as a piece of paper. Especially at this point, we haven't talked a lot about you can gather background information by looking at a study Bible, by looking at other things. But my encouragement is not to do that until you're stumped. Keep looking, keep looking. Because they did that at some point. The person who wrote that commentary, the person who wrote that study Bible had to do that. And they gained the information for themselves. And that's a different way and a deeper way of learning. So do the best you can. Like I said, scratch a piece of paper. I'm looking for all that information I can find. Author, audience, occasion, typing down verses, whatever, and going from there. We're going to pivot here a little bit, because this kind of occasion and purpose do end up being a little bit of two sides of the same coin. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, as an example, he says, So he's talking about the coming of Christ, I think particularly to the church. I think the context here of the day of the Lord, they're thinking it has come. He's correcting them, and he's particularly talking to the church and talking about the rapture. They're worried, they're panicking in their theology that they've missed it. And so he's writing them in regard to that problem. So occasion equals problem, and he's going to purposefully give a solution. And our gathering together, you may not be quickly shaken in your mind or be alarmed, whether by a spirit or a word or a letter, as if from us to the effect of the day of the Lord has come. And when we think of purpose, this is what I mean. The purpose or what the book was intended to accomplish in the audience, it's the difference the author intends to make. It's the result of, I'm writing you because of a, sometimes, not always a problem. There are definitely some books like 1st, 2nd Corinthians where there's problems and he's writing to correct. But it's helpful in a problem. Solution, occasion, purpose. And the purpose is, this is where you're at, and I'm going to tell you where I want you to be. These are the things you don't know. I think of Colossians, he seems to always come back to part and whole, fullness. You know in part, I want you to know in full. That's the purpose that he's talking about. So back to the second Thessalonians chapter 2, that same thing. You see the occasion there is they're worried they're panicking and he's saying the purpose of this letter is so that you have confidence of when the day of the Lord has come and so then the very next verse you see I'm writing for this purpose that no one in any way would deceive you for it is not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed which of course is gonna trigger which of course this is where over the course of a lifetime, you start to put things together and go, this isn't the first time you've read Man of Lawlessness, whether Daniel or the words of Christ, and this should trigger some of that. This is where Croft's references are helpful as well, but these things need to happen, they haven't happened, and when they happen, then you know for sure that the day of the Lord has come, but don't let anyone deceive you. The apostasy hasn't come, the Man of Lawlessness hasn't been revealed, the Son of Destruction, the Antichrist, then Don't worry. You don't need to be panicking. You need to have confidence that these are the things you can know for sure that someone comes in and says, the Lord returned. You can say, no, no, no, no. We're not going to miss that event. If you look at the Olivet Discourse, if you look at what we're studying in Revelation, when the Lord comes, you'll know it and everyone's going to know it. So don't be deceived. That's his purpose. So as a reminder, author wrote to a particular audience. This is the logic for a reason with a specific purpose. So back to Galatians chapter 1. In chapter 1 verse 11. And then in chapter 4, "...however, at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now, having known God, or rather, having been known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you want to be enslaved all over again?" Again, we're looking for, what does he want to accomplish here? And then you come to later in the book, Galatians 5, 7-8, you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth, which is this case, the truth of the gospel. This persuasion is not from him who calls you. And so if I was looking and taking these three passages, again, I'm kind of walking through it, but you would kind of note reasons, reasons, reasons, and then kind of what is unifying those reasons. And you could simply say, why write Galatians? Because someone's teaching error, occasion. What does he want to accomplish? He wants them to not turn away from the one and only true gospel. Do not turn away from it. Colossians uses that language of, some of these things give the appearance of wisdom. It might look, because we all want an easy way to be godly, an easy way to be spiritual, it gives this appearance that if I do certain things, if I fast every Saturday and Sunday morning, somehow that'll make me a more spiritual person. If I keep all of traditions and festivals that'll make me more spiritual." You might even say, well, I understand those are Old Testament, those are Jewish holidays, and the church doesn't have to keep them, but I'm going to keep them anyways, which a lot of what's going on here with the Judaizers, because in some way you think those are going to make you acceptable before God, and he's saying, no, that's not how the gospel, it's not Jesus plus anything. In 2 Peter, another example, therefore, chapter 1, verse 12, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them and have been strengthened in the truth which I present with you, I consider it right, as long as I am this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has indicated to me, and I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure, which is his imminent death, you'll be able to call these things to mind. So you're looking at, and this is very early, it's not always early, this is chapter 1 of 2 Peter, why would you say, why is he writing, what would you say the occasion is? Anybody? Okay, well I might say that my purpose, why do they need reminded? drift and I would say because he's saying, I'm gonna die. So I think of occasion here, why am I writing? Peter's writing because he says, I'm gonna die really shortly and you need this before I die. I need to remind you. It's kind of last words of a loving father. I'm going to die. You need to be reminded. So you have the truth when he dies. Then you say on the purpose side, then you start to go And this is where if you were studying and noting, and we're going to get into this next time, some of the things to look for, like repetition, you're going to start seeing something pop up like you brought up, Brett, which is remind, remind, remind, remind. So that purpose statement, you kind of go to chapter three and go, oh, well, you made it very clear. This is now, beloved, the second letter I'm writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand. by the Holy Prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your Apostles. So he wants you to remember, and I want you to remember particularly, not just my words, but he wants you to remember Scripture. And he does so in a way here where he speaks of the Holy Prophets, which we'd understand as the Old Testament, and the commandment of the Lord, the Gospels, and Lord Savior spoken by your apostles." So, he encompasses this to say, if you're wondering, does the New Testament ever claim to be scripture, this is a good place where Peter says, yes. You're not just talking about the Old Testament, the holy prophets that spoke in old, but also the commandments of Christ spoken by the apostles. He wants you to remember those things. If you want to look for a way, and I've been told before that you don't need a study of your Old Testament, this is a great verse that you would go, well, 2 Peter, his whole purpose is to remind you not just of what he's writing in 2 Peter, but actually to remind you of the importance of Scripture, which includes all those books that you may not spend a lot of time in, that your pages might be a little clean. This Bible's fairly new to me, but it's really funny, because if you can see here, You kind of know what I'm in. I mostly use this one to preach with Revelation, but it's all torn up in Revelation. And then you go back here, because it's brand new, and I've never read the Old Testament in it, and nice and clean. But Peter's saying, you should go ahead and read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Micah. Those are important, and you need to know the things in there. You need to be reminded of those things. I'm telling you, before I die, that's the most important thing for you that you might be prepared to live. for the Lord. So that is where we were supposed to end last time. So author, occasion, purpose are those main four things, or three things, author, audience, occasion, purpose, yes, four things. Questions on that, real quick. So we've been going through some letters. When I think of other books, it doesn't seem like it'll jump right out at you. be very clearly saying, I'm writing this to you, so that. And maybe you'll be talking about different genres, like narratives or poetry. Is it all the same? I mean, audience? I will synthesize. Question being, When books aren't very clear, how do you find? We're going to talk more next time with maybe some strategies to look for. For example, the beginning of the book, the end of the book, the first verse, the last verse. We're going to talk about that in a moment. Repetition is going to be another one. We're going to cover some of that next week. I would say Old Testament narrative is harder because that's why you need to go get all these things. By that I mean you need author occasion and purpose because it's not always so clear that you have to get a context. Because what the writer and the original audience have is context. You know, this is an Israelite who's getting this letter who is in exile. There's a context to that that we have to go figure out. Oh, that whole book is written in that context, which will then help you go, what does he want to teach them as they're coming back into the land, say, Ezra, Nehemiah. So it is a little bit more challenging at different times. A lot of New Testament books are going to be more clear. The assignment, we'll get there in a minute, is going to be Jude for next week. And you're going to see a clear central theme. But sometimes you're going to have implicit, even purpose statements. But most of the time, purpose is going to be probably a little more explicit. Which does lead me to kind of the background information of this, how to find it. It is going to be read the book, read the whole book, and intentionally look for the information. And you just have to keep making notes. And if you didn't get it the first time, that's okay. And I think that is where we're too quick to go and read what someone else wrote, what someone else says. I have some good examples, not so much in today, but moving forward. actually would be, well we'll see maybe, it might be worth looking at today. I don't have any slides for it, but there's some books that are just as an example to go all the way back to the target and we talked I think a little bit about that back then, but a book like Colossians which is so well known and the Sunday school answer of what is the book about I mean, if any book's about Jesus, Colossians is, right? But that's a really general statement. What specifically is Colossians trying to communicate about Jesus? And so a lot of commentaries, a lot of study Bibles are going to probably talk about Colossians is about the supremacy of Christ, which is true, and that's a huge topic in Colossians. But I could argue, I think we can sharpen that. And I would say as you sharpen those things, that's where it's going to have more impact. When you're really going to get in there and go, okay, there's a specific way the supremacy of Christ is meant to impact the way the Christian lives. There's a way to sharpen that, I guess, is what I would say. How do you get that? You've got to read, read, reread. But you really need all these things in this way to go, and you might get two of them. You might get three of them. And my encouragement is read the book again and keep going. And it also might mean that you are in a book. So the way we're trained to read is probably a little bit randomly. I'm all for you guys having a yearly Bible reading plan. One of the challenges is that we train ourselves to read a verse at a time and you might get through Isaiah in four weeks. but you want to read it twice. So it's hard to catch these repetitive things if you don't read it more than once. And so that's the only negative thing about doing a Bible reading plan on a yearly basis is you need to read it more than that. So I would say even if you have a shorter daily reading plan where you're just trying to get, because it is good to get all of that information of the whole scripture, but then to specifically pick along the way a specific book to say, yes, I'm doing a 10-minute daily reading just so I'm in the word, but I'm also trying to understand this book this month or this year. That's where, for example, the assignment with Jude, you can read Jude over and over and over and over and over pretty fast, which is why it's a good example of how to do that. I think I brought this up before, but in my hermeneutics class at seminary, that was the test, you know, I was like, go write 35 things about Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 through, I don't know, 6 or something, and then his little trick was, next time, you know, you handed it in, and 35 more. I do, I just remember being like, we were okay, you know, we didn't know Greek at the time, so English was fine, and you were like, there's a comma between these two words. I mean, that's how bad it got. There's a period at the end of the sentence. And that was his point, though, to say, like, you normally don't read that intentionally. Of course, that's a comma, because we read English. But trying to really look that intentionally is very, very, very helpful. And if you do get stuck, it's OK. Ask other people. You can ask Google and those things. But you might be surprised that it's not as helpful. The real big issue is you just want to make sure you internalize it and can go and argue from the text. We're going to spend a little bit of time, I don't think we'll get through it, but we're going to start talking about the two kinds of central themes. The way I like to use central themes is that language because I'll probably talk in topics and a lot of times just understand if you're reading another how to study the Bible or you're reading a commentary or a study Bible, they might talk about themes plural. I usually talk about those themes as topics. So I think in Philippians, which a lot of people say the point of the book is joy, I'd say that's a huge topic in Philippians. That's just kind of how I use it. It helps me and my brain But I think there's a central theme that's different than joy. But almost everything's going to say, because it's mentioned all over the place, I do think it's a major topic. but I like to distinguish that. Or you could say it's a major theme, but there's one central theme. Either way just helps me kind of distinguish them. There's two kinds. We all love explicit, because explicit is something where the author explicitly states his subject directly. And so that's really nice, because he'll tell you what his central theme is. I'm writing this with this in mind, and everything's unified around that. I'll let you guys write that. If you want to, I can probably email out these slides, but again, it's good for you to write, because that's how we learn. The harder ones are implicit. So, this is when the theme is left unstated. The temptation of implicit themes is to lose your conviction, lose your nerve, that there is no central theme. That you're just going, this is so random, this is so hard, I don't know what he's even talking about. Which, I would say, one of the ways to do that is to go back through, reread it, and maybe start more general. and then start to, can I get more specific than that, can I get more specific than that, but the implicit has to be approached a little differently because you're going to have to put things together. We're going to talk about that in a minute, but let's talk about the easy ones with very explicit central theme. So, you also don't necessarily get them, this is why it's important to read the book multiple times, you may not get them at the beginning of the book, you might get them towards the end of the book. The Gospels are a really good example, because this will help you go, why is this Gospel different than this Gospel, which is different than this Gospel? But you have to read, in the Gospel of John, 20 verses before you get an explicit central theme. John 20 verse 30, Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe, so think purpose statement, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that believing you may have life in his name. Now what you learn here is Jesus did a lot of things and John doesn't care about a lot of them. He doesn't care about the birth of Jesus, which is why John 1 starts the way it starts. He doesn't care about genealogy. And a lot of that's impacted by who's the author and who's the audience. His audience doesn't care about genealogy, so he doesn't give a genealogy. He's writing with a very specific purpose, and then I think a very specific sense of thing, a very specific purpose, that he wants an outcome that you believe. And that's where you go, believe what? That Jesus is the Son of God. So I chose to write these things for this purpose and about this subject, which is the deity of Christ. There is. Yeah. So I would say right here as a good example, I would say the purpose statement is what does He want to accomplish? He wants you to believe. He wants you to take action. The central theme is, what subject is he writing about? Not so much the action. It's not an action. That's the purpose. The subject here, or the central theme, would be the deity of Christ, or the sonship of Christ, that he's the son of God. Which is going to help distinguish it from Matthew, to use an example. And then you'll start going like, well, it almost seems like he's writing something so different. Well, it's because he tells you, there's all these things Jesus did that I'm not telling you about. So I'm not going to talk about the Sermon on the Mount. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. Matthew's going to tell you about the Sermon on the Mount. I want everything, and this is why if you look at the Gospel of John, and even if you didn't have it explicitly, you'd start to go John 1, 1, and the beginning was the Word and the Word is with God, and you start going, well what's he saying? He's talking about Christ, the Word, being with God, being God, you start to see all the miracles at the very beginning, going, oh, this isn't a human at all. This is, this is, in Humanities, I emphasized His deity, His miracles. So you, you really, before 20, you'd already start to get that sense. But then it's very explicit in 20 that I'm talking about Jesus as the Son of God. It is the emphasis, it is the subject around which He organizes His material. Right. And so it is, it's subtle in the sense that, so what's the problem? Well, you almost have to look at the flip side. And that's where sometimes you can get these by finding the other. So, if you say, what's the occasion of the Gospel of John? I mean, unbelief. You don't believe Jesus is the Son of God. But to your point, that sounds a lot like the central theme, right? But again, it's answering a different question to help you give yourself context to go. John has to sit down, use the rules of language, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that is saying, I want people to believe in Jesus. The problem is they don't believe in Jesus, so my purpose is to write an account about the life of Christ, not about all these extraneous things, but very specific things about His life that all relate to the central theme of He's not just a man, He's the Son of God. Was that helpful? Can I back up to the occasion real quick? So would you say, you said a question, the question was what is the problem? Is that kind of what you're looking at for the occasion? So the question's on the occasion, and yes. So typically, it's not always a problem, but a lot of times it is a problem. Or maybe problem isn't the right word, but in essence there's something going on. So like for example, Colossians. I don't think It's not negative that they don't fully understand what it is to be sanctified. It is a problem, but in one sense it's not negative. It just is what it is. They don't know any better. So I'm going to, you know in part, I'm going to teach you the full. Whereas in 1 Corinthians it's more problems are problems. Luke, to kind of carry on with the gospel, so why is John different than Luke? He does it early, so this is nice. He lets you know. So Luke's very, the question back to the how do you find these things is it's that cultural gap that we're Western thinkers and your Bible is not a Western book. And so when we think of orderly accounts, This is a good example. We immediately go, if you were to write an orderly account, you would especially, you would order it chronologically. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And he's going to say this, orderly sequence, but If you study Luke, it's anything but orderly in the Western mind. But that's just because we've got to understand what he means by orderly. And so, inasmuch, verse 1, as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. So he's saying, hey, other people have written about this. He might be talking about Mark. He might be talking about Matthew. He might be talking about things that we don't have. where the Spirit has inspired Him to write very specifically, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses, servants of the Word, handed them down to us, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully and from the beginning, to write it out for you in an orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty about the things you have been taught." And again, when we see orderly sequence, we go, well this is like a history book. But they don't write history the way we write history, and you can know that, and we don't have time to work through it, but if you study Luke, you're going to see that. He didn't write a chronicle account, rather he's going to write an orderly thematic account. A good example is the Sermon on the Mount. You have it chronologically, at least I think to an extent, with Matthew. So Matthew chapter 5 through Matthew chapter 8, you have the Sermon on the Mount. But in Luke, you're going to find all the pieces of his teachings But they're all broken up throughout the whole book. What's he doing there? Well, again, there's a couple solutions. It's kind of when you get into what people call the synoptic problems. He could be highlighting that Jesus taught these things multiple times in multiple places. That's very well when you see different synoptic accounts. It could just be he's teaching every day. But it also could be he's telling you, I'm talking about this, but I'm ordering these events in a way that's intentional around my subject. And I'm going to write this orderly sequence about the life of Christ. Then you're gonna get to where some people want, I think it's more about this explicit statement, what is his purpose and what is then the central theme of an orderly sequence of life crisis. Probably better, some people want to look at his humanity a little bit more in Luke, which is somewhat brought out as well, but this is the main thing. Everything's ordered around him giving an orderly sequence uniquely different than anyone else's written for Theophilus, which you could also say Why? What do I want to accomplish? I want you to have certainty about the things you haven't taught. So that's really nice, right? Because in the first four verses, you're going, you have, Luke's not mentioned yet, but you have an audience in Theophilus, and you have an occasion and a purpose and a central theme all right there. So that's great. All right, your assignment. It's not big. But I will ask about it if I remember. Read you to identify the explicit central theme. The goal with this is simply to give a very easy book that is one chapter long and for you to realize that you don't have to have degrees behind your name or titles in front of your name. You, if you study the word, if you intentionally look for these things, you could understand. You could write the commentary. That's the point of this. That God talks to us in a way that we, if we are Studying ourselves would be approved, and we're listening, then we can understand what the Lord says. And then, like I said, it absolutely changes your conviction. Because now all of a sudden you don't know what to say to your friend, you don't know what to say, and then all of a sudden it becomes, This is what God says, and that's where the conviction comes. Not because you think this is the best thing, or this is the way church should be, but you're convicted by the scripture. This is very clear. God has something to say about his church, or something to say about the way a Christian lives, or something to say about parenting, or something to say about life. You're convinced this is what God says, because you've done the work and you've understood it. Alright, the harder ones. Implicit. So, there's an idea around which all the parts of the book are related. There's a conviction, though. There is a central theme. Because there has to be. There has to be something that unifies all these different parts. But it's not stated explicitly. It doesn't mean it's not there. It just means there's a context and an environment where the original audience understood it. And we just have to do a little more work. To illustrate this, if I was to play a game and you were to fill in the blank, There's a really old game show, but I'm not old enough to even have ever seen it, but I've heard it talked about in this context. But I think you guys can play anyways. But if I just would say word association game, and I was to say June, July, August, what would you say unifies those three words? Summer, right? If I was to say Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, what do all four of those things have in common? the best. So, Midwest, so you say right there, you go, there could be multiple things. I'll say Nebraska and we'll get rid of the river. That way, Nebraska's not a river, I don't think. But you go, Midwest, states. Like, there's something we know. Without me telling you we're talking about states, you immediately have a context of, oh, those are all states. What do they have in common? What are we talking about? We must be talking about certain states. Now, that doesn't tell you everything, because what are you going to say about those states is still going to be there. But you start to see parts. And then you're asking, what unifies those parts? The idea of states. Now, maybe if you say it differently, if you start to say Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, North Platte, Nile, Now all of a sudden, it's like, so you might have thought, man, I think John is talking about states. And then all of a sudden, you get this Nile, and then you go, oh, no, it's actually, we're talking about rivers. So that's where, if I had to draw it on the board, it becomes very helpful. And I'll do it visually sometimes. I'll draw an empty circle, and then I'll start drawing out lines and say, what I think this pericope, and by that I mean a section of scripture, maybe a chapter sometimes, chapter breaks are deceptive at times, but this is what this is talking about. And then I'll do another line, this is what chapter 2 is talking about, this is what chapter 3 is talking about, and then try to eventually figure out what's in the middle. What unifies, what do these have in common? When I was preaching through the Gospel of Mark, very early I can remember thinking everything felt Like, it's about discipleship. Discipleship, deception. I have a good friend who wrote a PhD on discipleship in the Gospel of John. But I don't think you can say discipleship is the central theme of John. It's a topic. And discipleship is related to if Jesus is the Son of God. But it's a topic, not the central theme. So you're looking for the thing that fits every area. I remember I said, Mark, disciple, disciple, disciple. But then I got two sections. that had nothing to do with discipleship. And then I went, oh, I don't think that's right. There's something that's broader in Mark that's being emphasized than discipleship. That's not meant to downplay discipleship. It's just meant to say that's an important topic within a broader central idea that he's talking about. Matthew is a really good example of an implicit theme. In fact, you probably have in your mind that this is the gospel to the Jews, and if you really think about it, he doesn't ever say it explicitly. It's just from the content that people say that. And that's kind of helpful. It's always interesting when you start reading commentaries and you realize, like, people go, well, why do they believe that? And it's like, well, actually, it's just because of the language or the content or the context and subject around that matter. But you go to chapter 1, and you're at least struck by this, that, one, it starts with genealogy. So even the more you know scripture, the more you're going to start going, compare, contrast. This is different than John. because it starts with the genealogy. And then if you really get in there and you're going like, well, let me look at Luke's genealogy. Well, it's different than Luke's genealogy. And then you start figuring out, well, what is Matthew doing that's different than Luke, that's different than John? But just within Matthew, you're going to go, OK, what's he highlighting in the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ? The son of David, the son of Abraham. If you were to go there and go into chapter 2, then he's actually going to work from Abraham down. So it's not from Adam and Eve like in Luke. It's from Abraham. But distinctively, he starts with and says, which you would be a little bit surprised by this, he emphasizes firstly that he's a son of David. Normally you'd say, genealogy is Christ the son of Abraham, the son of David, he's a Jew first. But no, the emphasis is on the son of David. Why? Because we start to go, oh, this is an important piece that you're going to see throughout this book of Matthew that he's the son of David, the son of David, the son of David. If you go to the end of the book and you start again, you're putting these pieces together, it begins with he's the son of David who is, of course, the most famous king, the one who has a promise, a covenant that he will have a descendant sit on the throne forever. And then you get to the end of the book, Matthew 28, again just trying to look at different parts and then you try to go, how do they relate? The You know it well, the Great Commission, but you find in the context here, at the end of the book, the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain, which Jesus designated. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, and he says this, he says, Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." You also have to ask the question, why does Matthew end the way it ends? Because even that's interesting, because you start to go, why wouldn't it end the book that way? and you go, well, they're different than us, one, but also this ends on the note of all authority. And now you're having, okay, son of David, all authority, what kind of person has all authority in really the ancient world, for sure, but even today, and you get back to that idea of not just authority, but very specific kind of authority, which is this idea of kingship. And so, it's true that Matthew is about Jesus being the Jewish Messiah. That's true. And it's a huge important topic. And it's true in Matthew that Jesus has all authority and authority is a huge topic. But I would say the central theme that is bleeding through everything is this idea of He is the King of the Jews. And that's highlighted different ways. One way, Matthew chapter 2, is you have this story and it's the only place that you have this story in any of the Gospels. And you have to ask, whenever you have a story, that is only in this gospel, not important to John, not important to Luke, why is it important to Matthew? Well, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea, in the days of the heir of the king, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem. So you have Magi who are Gentiles, unbelievers, saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? Right there, chapter 2, you have a title attached, very early, King of the Jews. He wants to tell you this story because his theme is distinctive about the kingship of Christ, where Luke doesn't care about this story. For we saw a star in the east, and have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Which should start, if you didn't know the story, you'd start to go, what is going on? How can a king be born and no one even know it? He continues, gathering together all the chief priests, scribes, and the people, he's inquiring of them where the Christ was born. And they said to him, and this is almost like a dumb moment, they all know where he's going to be born, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophets, which you see throughout Matthew, which is emphasis on fulfillment of scripture. And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a leader who will shepherd my people Israel. It's only recorded in Matthew, but it is important. It connects that question of implicit theme as you start to go, OK, what connects chapter 1, Son of David, and the emphasis on Son of David, all authority, my commandments are law now, teach everyone my commandments, and this story about the Magi that's unique to Matthew. What connects all those things together? And you go, kingship is what connects all those things together. Another one, which... When I studied Mark, I just saw this and I thought it was interesting because you can use different words to describe things. And you can even see the theme, I think, bleed through in these kinds of details. So in Mark, when I'm preaching Mark, and you got to be a little careful when you look at all the parallels and all the different, like, A harmony of the gospel can be really helpful, but also sometimes the only problem is, is you start preaching other books. And it's like, well, Mark was really trying to communicate something very specific here. We want to get that. I want to preach that truth, the spirit it's teaching through Mark, not... preached the parallel passage somewhere else, so you gotta be a little careful with it. But, I'm always looking to gather more information at other parallel passages, so in this case Matthew 9, but Mark 5 says it this way, and one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing him, fell at his feet. And so, you know the story, his daughter's dying or dead, and he is a father, like any father, saying, please help my daughter. You're the only one who can help her. She's at the point of death, or in this case, you know, we know later has died. But then when you get to Matthew 9, I remember seeing this when I was studying Mark, and he doesn't say fell. You know, he says in 18, while he was saying these things to them, behold, a synagogue official came and was bowing down before him. and said, and he says the same exact thing. So, Matthew sees the same event in the life of Christ. I'm sure it's, both are true. He fell down, and he is what we would consider in a bowing posture. He's bowing down. But, even in the language, you go, why does he say bowing down and why does Mark say fell? Well, Mark doesn't care about the kingship thing the way Matthew does. And you get a visual here of him even trying to emphasize, look, he's a synagogue official, an authority official, is bowing down the way you would bow down to the king. That's just one of those little ways that I remember as I studied that book, looking at things, you go, oh, even in some of those little, very small details, you probably miss but you start looking for a central idea and you start to go, oh, this fits here, this fits here, there's a purpose here, this is what God wanted to communicate it here. Especially when you start to preach the Gospels, you really have to have a conviction. I mean, why ever preach, just preach Matthew and be done? You see guys, you need to know about the life of Jesus. Let's just move on. Let's preach some New Testament epistles." No, Matthew has something very specific about Christ that the Spirit wants to communicate to you, and Mark has something very specific through the Spirit that wants to communicate to you as well. Another implicit theme, hopefully we'll finish this one before we're done, but Acts, and when they had heard in Acts chapter 5, and when they had brought them, they stood them before the Sanhedrin, and the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly commanded you not to continue teaching in his name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." And so, we have an implicit theme in Acts, it never says what structure, what subject, how is he ordering his material, he just doesn't come out and say it. So you're reading the material, and you're starting to see parts, and then it's your job to start to go, what unifies the part which we've been doing. So that's Acts 5 says they've been out preaching the gospel and here is the high priest, this would be at this point the enemy of the gospel, the chief enemy, because the gospel hasn't gone from Jerusalem yet, and they say, this isn't Peter or John, this is the leaders saying, you fill Jerusalem with your teaching. All of Jerusalem's heard of the gospel, heard about Jesus. They obviously think it's to try to pin the murder of Christ on them. My point is, though, they've filled Jerusalem with the gospel. You get to Acts chapter 8, so you fast forward a little bit. Acts chapter 6, Ananias and Sapphira, you have chapter 7, you get into Philip, who is going out and going to preach to the eunuch. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about, and they're scattered because of the context of persecution, proclaiming the good news of the word. Now Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began preaching Christ to them. And so you see a movement here from being filled in Jerusalem to Samaria. You get to Acts chapter 10. Cornelius has a dream. He is part of what is called the Italian cohort. He is a Gentile. Peter's ultimately going to get this vision as well. Cornelius is going to get a vision to call Peter. Peter's going to also get a vision because He's going to, in essence, say here in chapter 10, I have never gone into a Gentile's home. I've never defiled myself in that way. So it's a very important story because God has to come and say, no, you can't say what I've said is clean. You can't say is unclean. And so you see that gospel go forth here to the Gentiles and kind of fast forward to the end of chapter 10, verse 44, that while Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the word. tracking that. And all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded, so Jewish believers, that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. And then the end of the book, you are in the least likely place, which in their minds is the end of the earth, the last known place on the map, which is Rome. You're in Rome with Peter. and therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God, so gospel, was sent to the Gentiles and they will also hear. We go down to verse 30, and he stayed two full years in his own round of quarters, welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence unhindered. But you have from chapter one, you're in Jerusalem, and at the end of the book, you are in the furthest ends in their mind in Rome, where the gospel has gone to the Gentiles. And then you get to chapter 1-8, and I wouldn't say, like I said, this is implicit, I wouldn't say this would jump off the map. You wouldn't know he structured the book this way until you finished reading the book. But then you read the book, you started to put the pieces together, and you start to go, oh, this is really, this makes sense. The spirit also reflects Luke's history. This is also historical. when you will receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, Jesus saying, both in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and even to the end of the earth, preaching the kingdom of God, teaching and serving the Lord Jesus with all confidence, unhindered." And so the angel's reminding him here of what they're supposed to go do, and the book of Acts shows you how that is accomplished. And so it's a very simple outline of how the Gospel fills Jerusalem and Judea, goes to Samaria, and then to the Gentiles, even to the ends of the earth, which finds us in Rome. But you wouldn't know that unless you read the whole thing and did some work to try to, unless you have like a lock trap memory and you remember everything you read, which maybe some of you do. But you wouldn't know it unless, for me, I have to write it out. Sometimes I need something very visual and I really do. I have to, I have a big circle and it's a question mark and I'm on a journey trying to figure out, and again, sharpen that so that it's clear to me, because hopefully if it's clear to me, then it would be clear when I teach it. Questions? One minute. Oh, I see that hand. I'll do it all. Do it all. So that's a good analogy. To study books, you have to build them. And it really does have to be built. And that's kind of what I'm saying. When you think of, say, application, implication, we think of observation, interpretation. Because we're still in observation, right? We're going to observation, interpretation, application, implication. To get to what I think we all want to say, the fun stuff. What does this mean for me? The fun stuff. You have to have the foundation. And if you're not building it, so yes, you need all those pieces to have the solid foundation so you can interpret it rightly, which means then you can actually know what it means for you. So I'm trying to bring this home from the last, I guess, two sessions is when it started getting pretty needy. So read the book. And read the book again. Identify the author. Identify the audience. the occasion, I wrote a little note down, what prompted the author to write the book? So something sparked the author, something, right? Which, and we have dual authorship, so again, God wants to say something, but yes, but it's through this person, and again, the relationships, and who he's made him, and good cases like Peter, Paul. Okay, so there's a prompting, and then the purpose, there's a specific purpose for writing the letter, I'm assuming to accomplish Yeah. He wants some change. He wants some change. OK. And then there's a central theme, and that is explicit. Am I tying that together or am I tying it together? So there's a central theme that could be explicit or implicit. Or implicit. And then there's other themes, but you like to refer to those as topics. So that when we go through each chapter, a circle, drawing out to get to the central theme, whether it be explicit or implicit. And then there's other topics that we Do they necessarily correlate to the central theme? Oh yeah. Right, like any composition, because everything, every paragraph, it's June, July, and August. Yeah, okay, okay. So they all correlate. Which is why, and the Gospel is such a good example why he's picking the stories he's picking, because it all correlates back to what his mission is in communicating this major, I think I, I use different English, but like major topic, major subject, like it's that idea, there's this unifying, and again it might be explicit and it might be implicit. Real quick. So, I don't want to always answer and do too much because I think it is helpful. If you go through MARC and you do that, I would argue that it is a, so not specifically kingship, but more authority. authority to the Roman world. And the way he communicates it, you see it in Chapter 1 with the quoting of Isaiah, the prophet that they would probably know, and the way authoritative figures, Caesars, Kings, enter is by having a forerunner come into town and say, this is who's coming. You'll see it play out pretty consistently. So, and this is where sometimes with the Gospels, I definitely would say that's definitely a major topic, or you could say that is a theme. I just think the central theme that ties all of, even the suffering servant sides, and something that goes back to audience. So sometimes when it's really emphasized on the servant aspect, you have to ask a question of that Roman audience, how much would, it's all true because it's biblically true, but how much would they be connecting? What does he want that audience to connect? And does he have authority just over Gentiles? I mean, does he have authority just over the Jews, because he's a Jewish king? Or is he savior of, like, the whole world, which is where you kind of see Mark and John being more distinctively Gentile than Matthew. Well, the study of the Bible may not have the right answer. Because I will tell you this, it doesn't necessarily talk like that. And when you start to talk to very smart eggheads, no one with a PhD behind their name wants to say anything absolutely means anything. Everything's caveated like, well, it could mean. So awesome. Thank you, guys.