Evangelical Theological College

Background and the Message of the New Testament

Submitted to: Dr. Frew Tamrat

Email: Frewt

Course: survey of New Testament

Desalegn Demisse

Email: [email protected]

Due date, 27th Mar, 2020

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 Contents page

1. Background of the New Testament ------------------------------------ 2

2. Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------- 2
3. The promise of the Old Testament ------------------------------------- 2
4. The coming of Messiah -------------------------------------------------- 6
5. The factors of the development of the New Testament ------------- 7
 Political ----------------------------------------------------------------- 7
 Social ------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
 Language --------------------------------------------------------------- 8
 Economical ----------------------------------------------------------- 8
 Cultural ---------------------------------------------------------------- 8
 Religion --------------------------------------------------------------- 9
6. Message of the New testament -------------------------------------- 10
 The Message of Matthew: Jesus, the Son of David ------- 11
 The message of Mark: Jesus, the son of man ---------------- 12
 The Message of Luke: Jesus, the son of Adam -------------- 12
 The Message of John: Jesus, the son of God ---------------- 13
 The Message of Acts: Jesus, the Risen Lord ------------- 13
7. Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------- 14
8. Bibliography ----------------------------------------------------------- 15

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Background of the New Testament

Introduction

The time of the New Testament was the time of transformation from Old Testament to
the New Testament one. That time sometimes known us inter-testament time. When Jesus comes
to this world according to the plan of God for the salvation of human being, almost part of
contemporary world was under colonial domination of the Roman Empire. Accordingly the
whole Palestine and the rest Middle East parts were colonies of the powerful empire of the
world. Hence the public upheavals were around Palestine region by the revolts of Judaism time
to time. The main reason for the upheavals of some patriots was to come back to the promise that
God has given for their forefathers and they lost due to their disobedience. That is Free State of
Israel nation. They expected that the land will be free from the dominion of the Roman
governors and they were trying to undertake the government by force, as a time of Hesmonian
revolt. It is not true all the times; because God is in control of the history of the world. Another
issue we ponder is their movement in searching the power they also expect the Messianic rule of
the region and emancipation of the country of Israel. But the purpose of the coming of the son of
God was not to liberate them from worldly governance, but to freeing them from the slavery of
satan and sin. This paper is written to show that the nature of the world of Middle East and how
the Gospels express the history of Messiah the savior of the world. And I have tried to include
the focus areas of the Gospels and the message that the authors tried to explain about the son of
God.

I. The promise of the Old Testament

The New Testament is the one Old Testament hoping for in the long period of time. From
the very beginning of the History of this world or the creation of God, the Bible teaches that God
has given the promise that tells the God news for the fallen human being. This happened due to
the first man who was God has created and put in to the garden fall to sin. Bibles teaches when
God has created the world; there was nothing corrupted and fallen at the time God had finished

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the work of creation. “God saw all that he had made and it was very good. And there was
evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” (Gen 1:31). But the first man disobeyed to the
command that God given them. And they heard the crafty words of satan that insisting to eat of
the tree of life and have knowledge. Therefore, they sentenced by God to experience the death
and dismissed them from the garden that God kept them comfortably. “So the LORD God
banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken After
he drove them out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming
sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gen 3:23-24)
But God never left them hopelessly when they left the garden, God has given the promise
that the one who born of the woman will crush the head of satan(serpent). “So the LORD God
said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild
animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your
head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:14-15). Who will crush the head of satan? The Bible
says that a one who will bear of a woman. Throughout of the history; no one could be born out of
the natural process. But Christ only fulfilled the requirement of the promise that God had given
them in Garden. This is the background of the coming study of the New Testament.
The other point we should ponder is the plan of God for the world from the very
beginning of the history, did not devastated by the scheme of devil; but God continued the work
of redemption through different kinds of elected persons of Old Testament. For instance, as
individual Abel, Enoch, and Noah were the examples of the elect of the faith of pre-patriarch era
according to Hebrews 11. God chose Abraham to begin new history of divinely governance to
the earth through his descendant Israel. Mark Dever wrote; “we saw that God created the earth
and then patiently bore with a people who rebelled against him. Beginning with Abraham, he
chose a special people of his own.” (Dever M. 2005). The purpose of God calling Abraham was
to prepare the nation for the coming of His perfect kingdom and to bless whole nations of the
world through the children of him.
When God give them covenant on the Mt. of Sinai through Moses’ leadership; He
promised that they to be His chosen people and holly nation. But the children of Israel did not
able to carry out the purpose of God to them. They fall to keep the covenant and the standard that

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God expect as His people. Due to that God punished them and gave them to be defeated by their
enemies and finally them taken out to captivity and dispersed to neighboring powerful nations.
Dever M. affirmed that they were hopelessly despaired; “Those people, the nation of Israel,
waxed and waned for almost two millennia until their once high hopes almost vanished when
their nation was crushed a final time by an alien invader—the mighty Roman Empire. When this
final defeat occurred, they felt disappointed to the point of heartsickness and despair.” (Dever
M. 2005 p.22). Both Assyrian and Babylonian captivity was due to the disobediences against the
law and covenant that God has with them.
The Bible teaches us that the Old Testament is the shadow of the New Testament. The
prophecies of the Old Testament affirm that the covenant God has with Israelites been broken
and God compelled to give the new one; because of their fail to keep the commandment and
covenant. “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their
ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my
covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will
make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their
mind sand write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Jer 31:31-33).
This prophecy came following the destruction of the nation of Judea by the Babylonian empire.
This powerful empire destructed whole nation of Judea and its’ neighboring countries. Also they
destructed the temple of the Lord and took over the vessel of the house of YAHWEH. There
was nothing left behind for them those helpful things of worship of God. There was no temple,
no ark of covenant, and no any instruments that help the worship of God. Therefore; God
promised to give a new covenant to the remnant of Israel and Judea. This promise of the Lord
has affirmed by the writer of the New Testament epistle to Hebrew. He also argues that God had
seen the fault with the first covenant; otherwise He never had intended to establish the new one.
“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought
for another. But God found fault with the people and said: The days are coming, declares the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It
will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from

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them, declares the Lord” (Heb 8:7-9). What does this new covenant mean? The comment of the
New International Bible Dictionary says that “…revelation yet organizes itself under the older
testament; with its anticipatory symbol of Christ’s coming…and the newest testament,
commemorative of His accomplished redemption. (Jer 31:31; 2Cor 3:6)” (Merrill C. T. 1967 P
238). The Old Testament in whole its teaching shows that how the fulfillment of the promise that
God has given to the first people who are fall to sin. Abrahamic covenant, Israelites covenant,
Davidic covenant and …so on, has a clue that God’s way of salvation in that time and the time to
come.
When Jesus seat around the table at the night that he was betrayed; He remind them that
they should take of the cup for the memorial of His death. It is “And he took bread, gave thanks
and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance
of me.”In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant
in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19-20). This new covenant is very
significant for the formation of New Covenant that God has given to Judea’s remnant. Merrill C.
T. defines it such way “Each of these covenants anticipated the same redemptive death; yet
difference appear particularly in their ceremonial response. A dispensation may thus be defined
as a covenantal period during which faith in Christ is manifested by distinct form of ceremonial
obedience.” (Merrill C. T. 1967 P 238) Jesus is the fulfillment of the New Testament which God
talk throughout the Old Testament scripture. Jesus was reminded them that the New Testament
was started when He flow out His blood. Therefore, the believers take as the memorial of the
establishment of the new covenant, memorization of death, and use it as ceremony of his
resurrection until he comes.
The New Testament was launched by Jesus’ death bloodshed and death, and
commemorated by Christian who believes his death and resurrection until Jesus comes whenever
the take time of communion. This is the symbolic expression of the communion of the believers
will experience in the coming kingdom of God. According to Merrill C. T. “…The future
covenant of peace, when our internal salvation will reach out to embrace external nature (Ezek
34:25), when direct spiritual communion will become “face to face” (Ezek 20:35; and 37:27),
and when divine forgiveness will achieve the goal of peace among all nation. (Ezek 34:28) Jesus
said that I will never eat of this until the kingdom of God comes “I have eagerly desired to eat

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this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds
fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15-16). This shows that the New Testament will be
in its fulfillment and communion of believers is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Therefore the
New Testament is come and will come fully in the kingdom of God. This is why Jesus said I will
eat this bread and cup of covenant in the kingdom of God.
II. The coming of Messiah
Messianic Kingdom of God was very important to the Jewish Old Testament community
throughout the History. As it is predicted in Old Testament time the Jewish people was waiting
for the coming of the kingdom of God for the long period of time. The prophetic affirmation of
the Old Testament helps the people to keep the promise that God had given for their forefathers.
Hill and Andrew say, “The Old Testament, or Old Covenant, remains an essential part of the
Christian Bible because the two covenants form one record of God’s progressive and redemptive
revelation to humankind.” Therefore; Jesus’ response to the disciples when they were asking
Jesus about when He would establish the Kingdom for Israel; And Jesus affirmed that the
salvation is not only for the Jews people, but to all the nations of the world. Jesus replied; “It is
not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8 TNIV) This question
was very important to His disciple to know when the promise has given to their forefathers will
be fulfilled. But the response of Jesus shows that the scope of His kingdom is not limited to
Jewish land; but they should be His testimony to all nation of the world. Not only that Hill and
Andrew affirm that the central message of the Old Testament was to propose that the messiah is
the coming in the time of God. “Having said this, we consider it appropriate to discuss the issue
of the Christ, or Messiah, as the center. One cannot ignore the perspective of Jesus himself, who
insisted that many of the Old Testament authors were writing of him (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39,
46; 12:41). It must be understood, however, what Jesus meant by this sort of statement.” (Hill
and Andrew)
The matter of the Messiah is the central message of the Old Testament. Prophesy of
Mosses, Hanna, King David, and prophets were talked frequently about the coming of the
Messiah. What the Holy Bible teaches about the coming of the Messiah in the time of Old

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Testament was the someday the Messiah will come and establish the kingdom for Israel. This
takes place when the Messiah takeovers his enemies and reestablish the kingship of Davidic
kingdom. The people suppose that the messiah kingdom will be the kingdom that to be
established on the earth by conquering all the powerful kingdoms around the nation of Israel as
well as the Roman Empire. For instance; the Disciples of Jesus were asking Jesus about His
kingdom establishment. “So when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time
going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Their expectation was the kingdom of Messiah

III. The factors for the development of New Testament

A. Political
There were four Gentile Kingdoms on a road pre and post coming of New Testament.
Due to the disobedience of the people of Israel and Judea, God punished them by raising the
kingdom of the gentile. The northern kingdom of Israel had taken to captivity 722 BCE by the
Assyrian. They deported from their home country to Assyrian and replaced the land by Gentile
peoples Kings 17;1-41. Then the Judea kingdom stayed about two century and the kingdom of
Babylon emerged and captured whole southern kingdom. Also they deported to Babylon 586
BCE and the city of Jerusalem completely destroyed and the people had taken as captivity to the
towns of Babylon. This captivity lasted about 70 years according to the prophecy of Jeremiah 29.

That was the raise of the world kingdoms. These kingdoms were very cruel and harshly
treating the people of the world. Babylon lasted about 539/537 BCE and replaced by Persian.
Persian allowed the return of the remnant of Judea to their native home country chronicles 36:21-
23. Then Persian kingdom reined the world about 333 BCE. The Persian era was very good to
the stability of the people of Judea. They built the temple, started the worship of synagogue, and
built the cities of Judea Haggai 1-2, Zachariah 4:1-14, and Malachi 1-3. Greek empire was very
strong and cruel compared to the previous kingdoms. Especially the Seleucid era brought
persecution to the people of the Judea in the time of Antheucus Epiphanus IV.(Merrill C. Tenney
1994)
Another point to ponder is the end of the kingdom of Israel from the domination of native
territories and the conquest of Palestine by General Pompey of Roman Empire. This helped to

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reduce “Xenophobia” or dislike of foreigners. The spread of gospel made easy through public
interaction without limitation in Greek world.
B. Social

Social life of the New Testament age was varying province to province. Due to the Greek
social freedom each province of the Roman Empire can experience social life the people’s social
life was very good. Public interaction was very strong. Social classes according to Merrill C.
Tenney there were wealthy and poor, legal and illegal peoples, and free peoples and peasants
together in whole Roman Empire. (Tenney M. C.1994 p.75 ). In the same manner Jewish
community includes aristocrats and peasants social class. The social groups of the Jewish
community are Hasmonian, Essence, Zealots, Pharisees, and Sadducees. Each social group has
its own purpose and nature for the interests of Jewish community. As many historians believe
God used each social group for the growth of the New Testament.

C. Language

Writing system in the New Testament of Greek world has great contribution in the
growth of the New Testament. The Latin language was common in all Roman Empire and most
part of the Europe as well as eastern Mediterranean world. Language was based on the Latin
language, Greek, and Aramaic language. In the time of Jesus ministry the Aramaic language was
common and applicable in Judea and Samaria. Throughout the Roman world the Greek language
was usual and communicative language. The Latin writing system was very important to
communicate in western part of the Roman and Mediterranean world.

D. Economical

Economic setting of the time of the New Testament was; `people engaged in every
employment without selection of job. Agricultural, industry, trade, and transportation highly
contributed in the growth of economy of the Roman Empire. Christians were very active in job
creation wherever they dispersed in the time of persecution at the early history of Christianity.
Therefore; believers were eager to preach the Gospel throughout Roman world as they interact
with people. .

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 E. Cultural
Cultural development of the Greco-Roman world was multi-dimensioned according to
Tenney M. C. Cultural nature of the Roman world was founded by the policy of the assimilation
of Greek culture or the policy of “Hellenization”. Writings, art, music, buildings, and sport were
very important in cultural growth of any age. These points have great contribution in the growth
of the New Testament. Cultural matter had been widely shown as the daily life activity as
literature, sport, language, science, and philosophy school. Literature and language were based
on the Latin language, Greek, and Aramaic language. For instance, in the time of Jesus ministry
the Aramaic language was practical. Throughout the Roman world the Greek language was usual
writing language. The Latin writing system was very important to communicate in western part
of the Roman Empire. (Tenney M. C 1994. p 80). Sport was the major way of people’s
entertainment and a way of the fitness measured. Therefore; the Roman Emperors were failed in
great immorality and were using it for the harsh measures like killing innocent individuals for
their entertainment in theater. Science and school of philosophy came from the philosophy of
Socrates and Plato. Especially, Socratic philosophy of morality had been common in the schools
of science and philosophy. And the science produced by Hipparchus (160) the mathematics of
plain and trigonometric to justify the distance between moon and earth. Also Eratosthenes (273-
192 BC) estimated the circumference of the earth through Geographic science. These all has
little contribution for the growth of the New Testament, thus Paul said Greek seeks wisdom (1
Corinth 1).

F. Religious
Religious in Roman world has different kinds of belief groups. Mostly people
experiencing the worship of “animism” the worship of creature, worship of kings “kyrios”
(looking the kings as lord), mystic worships, magic and horoscope, and so on. The social and
religious groups of the Jewish community are Hasmonian, Essence, Zealots, Pharisees, and
Sadducee. Especially Pharisees were very strong religious group and opponent to the Roman
operation. But there was no clear revolt against Roman governance but they have great zeal to
the Jewish Free State. “The Pharisees believed in not upsetting the balance of power between the
Jews and Rome. They would hate the Romans but tolerate them until the Messiah came. For the

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Pharisees Jesus could not be the Messiah because he was from Galilee.” (Jams W. Ermatinger
2008 p.14) They have very strong religious and life morality. They and the followers of Jesus
Christ have the same belief of the life resurrection. The other group was Sadducee. They were
very important part of the religious group. They were dominant of the part of leadership and the
service of the temple. They were cooperate with Roman governor and supporter of their
governance. “The Sadducees were rivals of the Pharisees, believing in the predominance of the
Temple. As the central place of worship, the Temple symbolized Judaism. Unlike the Pharisees,
the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body. Both the Sadducees’ position with
the Temple and the power of the high priest were dependent upon the Romans, who controlled
Jerusalem and could appoint the high priest.”(Jams W. Ermatinger 2008 p.13) These groups
were working with Roman emperor for the sake of the political position. The third group was
Essence. They were found in whole part of the country. But they were not cooperating with any
group of society. But they settled separately around Dead Sea as some evidence show. “As
separatists who generally lived apart from society, they viewed Jewish religious society, namely
the Sadducees, as traitors. Josephus (an early Jewish historian) related that they lived in many
cities throughout Palestine but were mainly isolationists. Evidence suggests that they resided
near the Dead Sea at Qumran.”. Zealots: a member of an ancient Jewish sect aiming at a world
Jewish theocracy and resisting the Romans until AD 70. according to Concise Oxford
Dictionary. This group was living with peoples in every part of the country. The diversity of the
groups helped the followers of Jesus to tackle the argument that have been arisen from different
religious group.

IV. Message of the New testament

Generally the New Testament teaches about the savior of the world coming and how God
fulfills the promise that God has given in Old Testament in His right time. A right time that the
people waiting for. Thus Paul affirms that Jesus is the son of God came in His right time to
emancipate those who are under the law. “So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery
under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent
his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might

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receive adoption to son ship.” (Gal 4:4-5, TNIV). According to the writings of Mark Dever the
theme of the New Testament is all about Christ. “All four authors include in their accounts the
same basic themes about the mission and message of Jesus and we will find no disagreement
between them. For example, our discussion of Mark is titled “Jesus, the Son of Man,” because
this is a title Jesus uses to refer to himself that is very prominent in Mark’s Gospel. But we
should not conclude that “Son of Man” is not used in Matthew. Indeed, it is used about thirty
times in Matthew.” (D. Mark. 1984, p.40). The thing we ponder is how the gospels described
Jesus Christ as the savior of the world. The main point is, since the New Testament is about
Jesus Christ what is the core message the Gospels tells us? The above mentioned points by Mark
Dever help us to understand the nature of the coming of the son of God to the world and how the
work of redemption has takes place. This idea also elaborated by Mark Dever so far; “The New
Testament tells the story of how all the promises made in the Old Testament were actually kept.
And as we understand what God is doing in the grand scheme of history, our own
disappointments and hopes will begin to fall into perspective. In order to view the whole New
Testament, we will look first at Christ, then at God’s covenant people, and finally at the
renewal of all of creation. Think of three concentric circles. First, we focus on Christ; then we
expand outward to the new covenant people; and, finally, we take in all creation.” (D. Mark.
1984 p. 23). Therefore; we can conclude the central message of the gospels is to show the
centrality of Jesus Christ in the time of the New Testament.
a) The Message of Matthew: Jesus, the Son of David

The Gospel of Matthew widely portrays that the kingship of Messiah in the kingdom of
God. Matthew starts the Gospel account from the genealogy of Abraham through King David to
Jesus the son of Joseph. “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of
Abraham” (Matt 1:1 TNIV). Matthew proclaims the Messiah who was promised to Abraham,
David, and their offspring. The implication of the Gospel of Matthew is to show that the
kingdom of God that was promised to their forefather is at hand. But unless you accept it the
kingdom of God will be taken off and it will be give to other nation to those who bear the fruit.
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people
who will produce its fruit.” (Matt 21:43 TNIV) Kingship of the Messiah was highly emphasized

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in the Gospel of Matthew. The symptoms that confirm the kingship of Jesus are; at the very birth
of Jesus Herod feared of His birth as a political opponent; consequently; killed many
children(matt 2), the triumphal entrée of Jerusalem(Matt 21:5-7 TNIV), His prophetic oracle
about eschatology which tells Jesus will sit on His “glorious throne” (Matt 19:28, 25:31), and the
writing of Pintos Plate “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS” (27:37 TNIV)

b) The Message of Mark: Jesus, the Son of Man

Mark’s central message of the gospel of Jesus is “suffering servant” of God. As the son
of man; Jesus came to bear the sin of whole human race and to deliver man from the
consequence of sin. “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and
whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:44-45 TNIV) Jesus
mainly called Himself ‘son of man’. What does “For evidence, they might point to the title Jesus
used to refer to himself, ‘Son of Man.’ After all, it sounds like a humble title, as if Jesus is saying,
‘I’m nobody special. I’m just another run-of-the-mill guy.’ But when you study the texts
themselves you find that Jesus clearly meant more than that with this strange phrase ‘Son of
Man’.”(D. Mark 1984. P. 70). We can realize that Jesus is the “son of man” who came to save
human being from the bondage of satan and sin.
According to Mark Dever; Jesus claims that He is the servant of God to bear the sin of
human being and to give His life as a ransom of whole people. So his instruction to his disciples
concerning his identity was as full of the servant language of Isaiah 53 as it was full of the lord
language of Psalm 110. Isaiah 53:3 reads, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of
sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised,
and we esteemed him not.” When the disciples became excited about the Transfiguration, Jesus
told them the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected (Mark 9:12).
c) The Message of Luke: Jesus, the Son of Adam

The message of New Testament in the gospel of Luke; Jesus is the son of Adam. What
does that mean? Luke affirms through deep investigation of His biography from different source
of eye witness; that Jesus was the man who from God; born of virgin woman, grew up in poor

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carpenter family, who cooperate with men, women, children, different kinds of class of
community of Jewish people and … so on. This shows us that the purpose of writer is to show
Jesus came as the “son of Adam” to bear the sin of human being which inherited from fallen
nature of Adam. Therefore; Luke widely describes the purpose of the coming of the son of man
to the whole world. Thus D. Mark articulated the purpose of the gospel of Luke clearly; “The
great message is that we, who were made to know God, have separated ourselves from God by
our sin; we deserve his judgment by the way we live; but God, by his great love in Christ, has
come and lived a life deserving no punishment. He has taken our sins on his body on the cross—
the sins of all those from every nation who repent and believe in him.” (D. Mark. 1984 p. 96).
The main reason for coming of the Messiah is to save the human race from the consequence of
sin, by taking judgment that deserved for the punishment of sin.
d) The Message of John: Jesus, the Son of God

The main focus of the gospel of John is the help the readers to understand who Jesus is
and to believe in Him and so to have eternal life, according to John. “Jesus did many other
miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these
are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing
you may have life in his name” (20:30-31). This verse shows us that the purpose of the book of
the Gospel of John is the firstly, the reader will know who Jesus is and to believe in Him, thus
have eternal life. The verse clearly stated that Jesus is the son of God.
Jesus’ teachings focus not on what was going on his ministry, but He focuses on who is
he. The main concern of Jesus’ ministry was to encourage His follower to believe that the
messiah who prophesied in Old Testament has come according to John. More than any
testimony; the testimony of John the Baptist is strong evidence for Jesus’ son ship. “I have seen
and I testify that this is the Son of God” (1:34). As Dever Mark affirms the theme of the gospel
of John is affirming of the coming of the Messiah who has been prophesied in the time of the
Old Testament. “Christ” is the Greek word for “Messiah,” and like the other Gospels John
presents Jesus as the one who fulfills the Old Testament promise of a coming Messiah. As 20:31
says, “Jesus is the Christ.” Some scholars have suggested that John’s Gospel was specifically
written for Jews looking for the Messiah. “Whether or not the book was written with this

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audience in mind, the center of John’s Gospel is the message of who the Messiah is and what he
came to do.” (Dever M. 1984. P.104). but no matter how much Jesus taught about His purpose
to come; the Jewish people hasn’t accepted Him and rejected Him violently. Every miracles and
teachings are evidence for the messiah ship of Jesus according to the gospel of John.
e) The Message of Acts: Jesus, the Risen Lord

The final part of the gospel is the book that records the continuation of the ministry of
Jesus through the ministry of disciples as many theologians believe. This book is the recording
account of the disciples; how the gospel reached almost part of the world by apostles’ ministry in
order to accomplish the great commission. Luke affirms that the gospel former he wrote is the
recording account of worldly ministry of Jesus. “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about
all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving
instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.” (Acts 1:1-2). Theophilus
has read the former book of Luke and had full information on the life of Jesus Christ. Now
Luke’s concern was how the continuation of the gospel that he wrote takes place and the
disciples of Jesus carried out the good news to the rest part of the world.
The central message of the book of the Acts is to show the out spread of the Gospel of
Jesus throughout the rest part of the contemporary world. After the resurrection of Jesus the
disciples started to spread the gospel North ward of the Palestine and around Mediterranean
world. Their ministry divided in two phases. The first phase is the ministry around Jerusalem
Acts 1-12 and the second phase is Acts 13-28. The main concern of the stories and the central
issue of their preaching is the resurrection of the messiah from dead according the promised
prophesies of the Old Testament. According to Mark Dver the significance of the preaching of
the apostles about the resurrection is to show the hearers how He is messiah and will reign the
kingdom of God. “The great question concerning the resurrection is, what does it mean? What was the
significance of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, after being crucified, got up from the dead? At Pentecost,
Peter argued from Old Testament prophecy as well as from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that

Jesus uniquely fulfilled the promise for a Messiah. And Jesus the Messiah came to bring in the kingdom
of God, that is, the rule and reign of God” (Mark D.1984 p. 129) The apostles were preached the
Gospel of Jesus throughout the Greek world in different kinds of approach in order to reach the

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peoples based on their socio-cultural nature. This very fast spread of the Gospel shows that it is
not only the effort of the disciple to obey the mission that Jesus has given but by the power of the
Holy Spirit.
V. Conclusion
I tried to grasp only what is necessary for the focus area of my paper. In case of the
limitation of the paper it is impossible to cover whole part of the life time of Jesus ministry in the
gospels. Even my paper reach the scope of His ministry, whole gospels could not have cover
whole part of Jesus’ earthly life account. My paper has covered only the background and the
massage of these five books. What I have tried to survey on both background and the message of
the New Testament time is not enough because of the limitation of the page and in order to avoid
tiredly reading.

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 Bibliography

Barnes A. (2001). Notes on the New Testament, Revelation. A division of Baker Books
House Company. Grand Rapids, MI.

Gordon David T. (2005) (Lecture of audio). New Testament one; Christ and His Church:
Ockenga Institute of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Hale T.(1996). The Applied New Testament Commentary. David C Cook Global Mission
Lee Vance View, Colorado Springs, CO. USA

Kellum L.S., Kostenberger A.J., Quarles C.L. (2009) The Cradle, the Cross, and the
Crown, an introduction to New Testament. B&H Publishing Group. Nashville, Tennessee

McGee J, V. (1983) Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Radio,
Pasadena, California, USA

Merrill C. Tenney. New Testament Survey. Wm.B. Erdmann Publishing Company:

Intervarsity Press. 1994

Today's New International Version Bible; International Bible Society at

http://www.TNIV.info

Tukunboh Adeyemo, Africa Bible Commentary: word Live Publishers. 2006.

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