The Four Gospels

Date: 7/1/99
Speaker: David Meiklejohn
Text: Revelation 4v6-8

Revelation 4v6-8

And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

There are four beasts mentioned in the text from Revelation. Each of these matches well with the themes of the four gospels, each of which concentrates on a different attribute of Christ. I'd like to look at the four gospels, and the pictures we are given of the Lord through them.

Matthew - The Lion - Christ the King

The book of Matthew was written to the Jews of the time, and the picture of Jesus is very much orientated to the Jew. He came as their Messiah, their king they had been waiting for.

ch 1 v 1 - right from the start we see his claim to be king. He is the son of David, of the regal line. He has every right to claim the throne. The only thing stopping him was the curse placed on Jehoiachin by God, that his child would never sit in the throne. However, while Jesus lineage passed through Joseph, he was not Joseph's natural son, and so the curse didn't pass onto him.
ch 2 v 1 - the wise men saw the star and came from the east, looking for a king. They came bringing tribute and fully expected to find a new-born king in Jerusalem. The king was not what they expected, but no less a king.
ch 4 v 17 - throughout Jesus' early ministry, his preaching was that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. It was there for the claiming, if the people would accept him. It was only when they rejected him that this message stopped and Jesus talked of the physical kingdom of God as a more future thing.
ch 11 v 28-30 - after his rejection, Jesus gives a more personal message. The Jewish kingdom is put off and a new, personal kingdom is offered. He talks of his reigning in people's hearts, rather than in their country.
ch 27 v 37 - people who were crucified had their crimes wriiten over them so that passers-by would know what was being punished. Jesus crime was that he claimed to be king of the Jews.

Lessons

The king has his throne, his palace and people bring tributes to him. What he says is law, and his subjects carry it out without thought to themselves.

Christ should be king in our hearts. He should have the highest position and be the source of our obedience.
Our lives should exalt and honour Christ, not ourselves. We should want to point him out to others and not cry out "lok at me!"
He is deserving of all that we can give him: our money, our time, our service, our energy, our hearts.

Mark - The Ox - The Lowly Servant

Mark is a very quick-moving gospel. It concentrates on the works of Christ rather than his teachings, and the term straightway is used a lot to emphasise how full of works Christ's life was. There is no genalogy in Mark - a servant is just a servant and does not have a family line.

ch 1 v 9 - Jesus humbled himself by identifying with the sinners who came to be baptised by John. He came down to their level and associated with them.
ch 1 v 16-17 - When Jesus called his disciples, he didn't call them to a position, but to a work. He didn't say to them "Come and be my disciples", but "Come... and I will make you fishers of men". This should be our attitude in entering Christian service, that of doing a work fot the Lord, not of gaining a high position. Jesus had a servants ministry, and he was always looking to help people: to feed them or heal them. He showed no love of rituals, but practised a very practical religion.
ch 10 v 35-45 - James and John had been getting the wrong idea, and were looking for a position in Jesus' ministry. He made it clear to them that they were not there to Lord it over others but to serve others. The one who makes himself lowest is the one whom God will exalt most highly.

Lessons

The servant takes no time to think of position. His master's work is what is important, and he dedicates his life to that with no thought of himself.

We need to humble ourselves and start seeing others as being more worthy and more important than ourselves.
The works that we perform are evidence, to ourselves and to others, of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and controlling our lives.
Our service should not be a chore to us, but should develop naturally from our love of the Lord; for what he is, what he has done and what he continues to do for and in us.

Luke - The Man - The Perfect Human

Luke, as a doctor, has a very precise way of expressing the life of Jesus, and in his book we see Jesus as the perfect man, the example for us to follow.

ch 3 v 23 - as Matthew states the kingly line of Jesus through Joseph, Luke gives us his human line, through his mother Mary.
ch 2 v 21-24 - we see him going through the normal things that a human child went through. Jesus fulfilled all the demands of the law, and followed the customs of the people, as we should obey our own governments.
ch 4 v 3,7,9 - he was tempted, just as we are all tempted, in all aspects: in body, in mind and in spirit. Here he uses the Word of God as his defence, an example to us when we face temptation.
We find throughout Luke's gospel that Jesus prayed a lot. He relied on prayer for strength and guidance, at his baptism, in the wilderness, before choosing his 12 disciples, before his transfiguration, for Peter, in Gethsemane and on the cross. He was in constant contact with the Father.
ch 10 v 30-37 - the story of the good Samaritan is only found in Luke. By it he shows that he is the good Samaritan, the one who is looked down upon, but the only means of help, when the church and the state fail. He also gives us a pattern for the loving way in which we should live out our Christian lives.
ch 10 v 38-42 - we see here how it is important for us to keep a close relationship with the Lord. He is not a distant God who cannot be known, but rather wants to be know by us. He even calls us his friends. We see here that our relationship with the Lord is more important than our service for him.
ch 19 v 10 - Jesus sums up his purpose here. The 'Son of Man' title points us to his humanity, and he came to rescue the rest of humanity.

Lessons

We see the perfect man in Christ, and he leaves us a pattern of life to follow and to aspire to.

He shows us that we can have victory over sin. We should not think of our sins as inevitable, but as failures that we need to correct.
He shows us that we need to take our strength from our prayer life. Before we go into any situation, before we make any decisions, we should be coming before the Lord, for strength, for closeness and for guidance.
He shows that we need a right relationship with God before we can serve him. Without that, our service is all done in the flesh, and is worthless. It's easy to place service too highly and let it come before our prayer life and Bible study, but our relationship with God should come first. Everything else will then fall into place.

John - the Eagle - the Lord God Almighty

John shows Jesus as the Lord Almighty, God incarnate, part of the divine Trinity.

ch 1 v 1 - this genealogy is not one of a man, but of God. He has always been, and is part of God, one with God.
ch 1 v 3-5 - we see here Christ's part in creation. He created all things he is the source of all life, and he came to bring spiritual light and life to men.
ch 2 v 7-9 - here we see Christ's power over creation in his first miracle. The elements are obedient to his command.
ch 3 v 1-3,15 - the message from Jesus that John conveys throughout his gospel is that Christ brings eternal life. The emphasis is always on the spiritual.
ch 4 v 13-14 - again Christ talks of eternal life as he offers himself as the water of life to the Samaritan woman.
ch 6 v 35 - here Christ calls himself the bread of life, the source of spiritual nourishment, that keeps us alive and gives us strength.
ch 8 v 12 - the light of the world. Again we hear this phrase. Light brings in truth, it exposes, it also gives life.
ch 10 v 27-30 - Jesus tells his disciples that he and God are one. This sums up his whole message in John, that he is God, that he and the Father are one, and that he came to bring eternal life to those who will believe on him.

Lessons

Throughout John, we see Christ as God, the creator of the universe. He is the almighty and he offers us eternal life.

There are no other ways to God. Jesus said he is the way, the truth and the life. If he really is who he claimed then all other ways are false.
He is the means by which we can know God - the light. He opens our eyes and lets us see a glimpse of what God is truely like.
He is our provision, our source of life, our nourishment. When we feel spiritually weak it is often because we are not feasting from the bread of life and drinking of the water of life.

Summary

In each of the gospels we see a different picture of Christ. They build together into a picture that fills us with awe, and teaches us so much. He is our King, our servant, our example and our God. As revelation ch 22 v 13 says, he is the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega. He is our Lord Jesus Christ.

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