HOLY SPIRIT IN THE FOUR GOSPELS
Pastor J. C. O’Hair
Many years ago some servant of the Lord thought he knew why Four Gospels were written. He thought that the four-faced creature of Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:7 was the fourfold portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Ezekiel beheld four faces on the one creature: the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of a man, and the face of an eagle.
Many have accepted that servant’s interpretation; and they have agreed with him that Christ in Matthew is the LION, or the Great King, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. (Revelation 5:5). They see Christ in Mark as the faithful SERVANT, typified by the OX. (Isaiah, 42:1). They say in Luke we have the genealogy of the Second Man from heaven back to the first man. (I Corinthians 15:47 - Luke 3:38). Here we have the two men; the one who lost the image and likeness of God, the other One Who is the express image of God. We learn that in Luke Christ is called “The Son of man” 25 times. So they see in Luke the man Christ symbolized by the face of the MAN. All the way through John’s Gospel we find the eternal Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ set forth. John surely sets Christ forth as God in human form, the Word made flesh, Who came down from heaven, and as the eagles soar in the heaven, they say, that Christ, in John, was typified or symbolized by the EAGLE.
We read in the Bible: “Behold thy KING.” (Matthew 21:5 - John 19:14). “Behold My SERVANT.” (Isaiah 42:1). “Behold the MAN.” (John 19:5). “Behold your God.” (Isaiah 35:4).
Matthew, Mark and Luke are called “The Synoptic Gospels.” “Synoptic” means giving the same general view of the whole. John is indeed the unique Record, as there are in John 14 whole chapters of facts not mentioned in the Synoptic Records.
Christ is called “The Son of man” in John’s Gospel at least ten times. And in John 4:29 the woman said, concerning Christ, “Come, see a MAN which told me all things that ever I did.” Christ knew all things (John 4:25 - John 2:25 - John 21:17). Christ was in Samaria, in the Gospel of John. (Chapter four). The Samaritans were not Gentiles. Every other scene in John is set on a Jewish stage. In John 1:49 Christ is the King of Israel. It is in John that we read, “Behold, the MAN.” (John 19:5). We find the word “Jew” more than 65 times in John, but the word “Christian” is not found once. In John’s Gospel we have no record of the interviews of Christ with the two Gentiles mentioned in Matthew 8:1 to 12 - Matthew 15:22 to 27 - Mark 7:24 to 30 - Luke 7:1 to 12. So we should be Bereans and be careful about following the fanciful teaching of others, remembering I John 2:26 to 28.
In another message we wrote that Christ, in the Gospel of Luke, is “Israel’s Shepherd King” and that, in the light of Luke 7:1 to 12 - Luke 19:9 and Luke 13:16, no Bereans will call the Gospel of Luke the Gentile Gospel. In John’s Gospel there is no record of the “kingdom” parables of Christ; no record of the “kingdom” “Our-Father” prayer or of the Sermon on the Mount or of the Golden Rule, recorded in the Synoptics. The so-called “great commission” is missing. In the Synoptics we do not have the Lord’s Prayer, which is in John 17:1 to 25.
In Matthew, Christ is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. But in all Four Gospels He is King, Servant, the Perfect Man, and the eternal God. Moreover Luke 3:23 to 38 and Matthew 1:1 to 17 compared with the first chapter of John, prove that Christ had legal right, birth right, and Divine right to take David’s throne, which He will yet occupy. (Luke 1:27 to 33). We should be careful about accepting at full face value that Matthew was written to the Jews; Mark, to the Romans; Luke, to the Greeks; and John to Christians.
What is the Gospel?
Believing
Christ died, that’s HISTORY.
Believing
Christ died for YOUR sins and rose again, that’s SALVATION.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto
you the gospel which the preached unto you, which also ye have received, and
wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
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