Study 4: What are the Gospels? 

The Bible has four gospels which can be found in the New Testament, the word ‘gospel’ actually means ‘good news’ and the 4 books are named after their authors; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  These books (manuscripts) were written and recorded by the men who had journeyed with Jesus, and as they aged, they knew there was a growing need for historical records to be made (Normal stuff for the time and culture).

The gospels are incredible to read as they are written from different men, with different backgrounds and life experiences but all focused on sharing who Jesus is and what he taught from their experience of Jesus. 

When you go about exploring the Bible, you will find that the gospels present some of the miracles of Jesus, with things like healing the sick, the deaf and blind. Jesus even speaking over the bodies of people who had died and life returning into them. The gospels show Jesus as the son of God in his control and dominance over the physical realm known to humanity. 

The gospels also show Jesus as God in the natural realm too, as he speaks against storms and high seas and can control them. He walks on water and feeds thousands from a simple packed lunch a lad had to offer.  Because Jesus is seen in the gospels as God, certain people wanted to kill him, this is particularly obvious when he starts forgiving people’s sins. 

Jesus is also the King over the spiritual realm. We see in the gospels that he frees people from demonization and even says to people ‘your sins are forgiven.’ Once the community started to see Jesus working in the spiritual realm they plotted his death. 

As the gospels gather momentum, retelling the life of Jesus, they each describe Jesus’ journey to the cross and ultimately his crucifixion. Each account talks about his death and his resurrection 3 days later. Each of the gospel explains why Jesus went on this rescue mission and how he gave his own life for us to sort out our sin.