New Testament Overview

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Do you remember the Bible categories from last week? If not, here is a quick recap.

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If these numbers aren’t ringing a bell, that’s okay. We learned that the 66 books of the Bible fit into different groups. This is helpful to know as you study. I could encourage you to read last week’s Old Testament blog before diving into this one.

We ended the Old Testament with humanity still in bondage to sin. We pick up today with the story of God sending His son, Jesus, to step into humanity himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The first 4 books of the NT are the gospels (which simply mean good news – because they share the good news of Jesus coming to earth). These books are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

They are the same account of Christ life but told through the lens of 4 different men (so you have some stories that may be in one and not another).

Book of Matthew written to Jewish believers, and He speaks of Christ’s fulfillment to the prophecies written about him in the Old Testament. Jesus is the promised one This is why we read a genealogy tranced back to Abraham. We are literally seeing the promise He gave Abraham being fulfilled (Genesis chapter 12).

The book of Mark was written to Gentiles Christians (those who were not Jews but believed in Christ). Most scholars believe that the book of Mark was the first gospel written. He records Christ as the suffering servant. The one who came to die for our sins.

Luke was written to a man named Theophilus. Luke was writing to help him place his faith in Christ. We see Luke record Christ’s humanity and gives emphasis that he is the Savior. Therefore, you see a different genealogy from the one in Matthew. This genealogy points back to Adam, Christ coming from man.

The last gospel is John, and it is written differently than the first three. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the “synoptic gospels” because of their similarity. John wrote to Gentile nations that did not believe in Christ yet. He records Christ as the Son of God.

From the gospels we step into an action-packed account of what happened after Christ ascended into Heaven.

Acts, the next category, is written by Luke. He is the same one who wrote the gospel of Luke, and this is a history book. Not just any history book; a theological history book. The author is doing something with what he is saying. We see the church begin here; the Holy Spirit comes to indwell in the lives of believers.

John 14:26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all.  things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

The Holy Spirit still comes to dwell in those that repent and confess their faith in Christ.

If you remember in Gen chapter 12 the promise God gives to Abraham states that “all people will be blessed through you,” this is coming to life as the gospel is spreading to all people.

We then have 21 epistles (maybe you’ve heard them referred as that before but that simply means “letter”). These are written by different apostles “which in Greek means person sent.” This refers to the 12 disciples (and at times or people under an apostle... for instance Paul).

These 21 letters are written to individuals or churches and there are 2 major themes at hand in all of them.

The first is orthodoxy. This deals with what are correct doctrine and theology.

The second is orthopraxy. This deals with how to act from correct doctrine and theology.

All of the 21 letters are telling either individuals or churches what is correct Christian beliefs, either from an encouragement/teaching standpoint or rebuking standpoint.

Friends, this is how important it is to know why you believe what you believe. Your thoughts about who God is, the Bible, theological views literally overflow into your life. They impact how you react to the world around you.

False teaches and doctrine were attempting to penetrate the early church then and they continue to penetrate the church today.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4

We want to be able to know God’s truth from false teaching. How do we make sure we can do that? We want to be in the Bible studying it for ourselves. We don’t just want to take what someone tells us and believe it is true. Remember the church at Berea in Acts 17:11? We read that they searched the Scripture day and night to make sure what Paul was telling them was true! We want to follow that example.

Back to the 21 letters, these are the books of Romans – Jude.

The last book of the NT is the book of Revelation. This is the last category I referred to. Revelation is an eschatology book which is fancy for “the end times” It’s a prophetic book written by the apostle John who also wrote the gospel of John and the 3 letters of John. He was exiled on the island of Patmos and had a vision to write to 7 churches. These churches were churches in existence then, but these letters also tell us about certain conditions that occurred through history and even now. He tells these churches the things they are doing great and not so great. He also warns them about the issues they are having.

This book can serve as a warning to Christians who have grown numb to faith, and also serve as encouragement to Christians who are faithfully enduring right now.

This book gives us hope in Christ and his return. We live in the church age where we have celebration in Christ first coming (in the gospels) but we are anticipating his second coming. This book reminds of us that hope, that he will return for his people.

As we read through the Bible, it’s incredibly important to understand the big story of what’s happening, which we’ve spoken of God’s redemption plan.

After understanding that, we want to go a little deeper and understand the context of the book we are reading and how it fits into the puzzle.

Ask yourselves questions like “Which category of the bible does this book fit into? What is the author saying with what he is doing?”

Also ask yourself the orthodoxy and orthopraxy questions. “Am I understanding the correct doctrine and theology from the passage I’m reading? Am I applying this belief to my life? Are people seeing Christ in the way and I live and is he being glorified?”

I hope this outline of Scripture was helpful for you during your study time. Next week we are going to cover how to study the Bible inductively, and then we will have some guest on the show!

Until then, continue to share your faith with gentleness and respect.