The last two Wednesdays we've gone through the books of the Old Testament.
Today we're going to be finishing off this mini-series within the series of Rightly Dividing.
And we're going to be going through the books of the New Testament.
So the title for the sermon tonight is Books of the New Testament.
I really had to edit down my notes. There's a lot of information and I'll try
to get it done within about 40 minutes as best as I can here, okay. Books of the New Testament.
But when we look at Psalm chapter 12, we were given a promise by God there
in verse number 6.
So there are two promises there. The words of the Lord will be purified
over time, okay. And this I believe obviously is a great example
of the King James Bible which we hold and believe. We believe it's the pure
Word of God. We believe it's preserved. We believe it's without error. We believe it's
a perfect English translation of the original languages, okay.
And so of course when it comes to, you know, in the time of Psalms
the entire Bible is not written yet. It required a time of purification
of building from, you know, as time progressed, as the Lord saw fit
to have people write the Bible. But now when the Bible was
completed and all six books of the Bible were completed, the promise that God gives
us there in verse number 7, thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them
from this generation forever. You know there are some that believe
or they call the Old Testament writings the Scriptures. But when they think
of the New Testament books, they don't think of them so much as the Scriptures
as much as the Old Testament. There are some Christians that feel that way.
And some think, well that's just, because a lot of the New Testament are the writings of Paul.
That's just how Paul felt, you know, at that particular point in time.
That's just his opinion. No, the New Testament is the preserved
word of God as much as the Old Testament. In fact, the New Testament
tells us all about Jesus Christ and tells us, now that we have received salvation
by Christ, how we ought to live our lives in accordance to
that new covenant that God has brought in. But notice what it says
there at the end of verse number 8. The wicked walk on every side
when the vilest men are exalted. It's not something we like to
think about, but this is a common theme of the New Testament books. That yes,
the Gospel's been preached, people are getting saved, men are
growing in the faith, men are being holy, they're overcoming sin,
they've been instructed by God how to live righteous lives, how to set up churches,
how to be organized and orderly and all those kinds of things. But then around
these churches there's always going to be wicked men walking on every side
as was prophesied here in the book of Psalms. There's always somebody wanting to
come into the church and defile the word of God, defile bringing false doctrines.
And that's another major element of the New Testament, how to deal
with heresy, how to deal with persecution from those that seek to hurt
us. So we're going through the books of the New Testament. We're going through the books of the New Testament
and just like the Old Testament could be broken up into different groups,
so can the New Testament. So of course most people know the first book
of the New Testament. In fact everyone's very familiar with the first four books of the New Testament.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And these four books are known as
the Gospels, the Gospels of Jesus Christ. And they are
great books. I mean these are the core, the main books that you would
really want to get your head into, the books you really want to study the most.
You know, read through them, understand what Christ was like, God manifest
in the flesh, walking on earth some 2,000 years ago.
You know, we see Christ honoring the Old Testament, him keeping himself
perfect, but also bringing in New Testament teaching and of course
giving that ultimate sacrifice for all men. Now when we start with
the book of Matthew, it is the author of the book of Matthew
of course is Matthew the Apostle. One of the disciples that
followed after Christ. We know him also by the name of Levi in the book of
we studied the book of Luke as a church. He was known there by the name of Levi
and Matthew was a publican. He was a tax collector which gave up his
full time job to follow after Christ. And many
say that the book of Matthew is tailored for the Jews, for a
Jewish audience. I'm of agreement in
that in general for two reasons. Number one, the book of Matthew does
highlight Jesus Christ. Now if you guys go to Matthew chapter 1, go to Matthew chapter 1
verse 1, it does promote and highlight Jesus Christ as
the King of the Jews, as the King or as the Messiah.
And of course this was a promise that was given to Old Testament Israel, the coming
Messiah, the King that would come to restore all things through the line of
David. But Matthew 1 says, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ
and of course Christ is Messiah, the Son of David
the Son of Abraham. So of course the Son of David referenced
in him as the King, not just the King, but the Messiah, the Christ
that was promised to come into the world. So that is the focus of the book
of Matthew. The second reason why it is, you know,
I would agree that it's tailored toward a Jewish audience
is because out of all the other gospels
it references the Old Testament more than
any of the other gospels that I had.
I had to kind of look this up, I mean I recognise this just by reading the Bible
that the book of Matthew is full, just constantly going back to the Old Testament prophets.
But some suggest that there is over 60 times, some suggest even over
100 times the book of Matthew references, not necessarily directly but indirectly
Old Testament teachings. So I do believe it is
tailored toward a Jewish audience, you know those Jews that were newly saved
and kind of like the book of Hebrews, trying to understand how do we
behave from the transition of the Old to the New Testament. But
nevertheless it's for all. You can't just say this book is for one group of people
and that's it. The Bible has been given to all and the dangers of just
saying it's just for the Jews and that's what many people do, many preachers
that hold to dispensationalism will say it's just for the Jews and the reason
they say that is because we have the clearest and most detailed
teaching of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 with the coming
of Christ. And of course our church believes that's the rapture but they'll say no, no, no
the book of Matthew is for the Jews, Matthew 24 that's just for the Jews, it's got nothing to do with
believing Gentile churches or anything like that. Also another thing they commonly
teach is the book of Matthew has the phrase the kingdom of heaven, it's the only
book that uses that phrase the kingdom of heaven, the other books reference it
as the kingdom of God, when you study it out there's no difference, God uses
that word interchangeably but the dispensationalists say well this is a Jewish book
and the reason it says the kingdom of heaven is because the kingdom of heaven
which strangely is on the earth, not even heaven, but anyway is just for the Jews.
So you've got to be careful, yes we can always say certain books like the book of Romans
it's tailored to a group of people, it's tailored to the Romans, but you can't
just go down the deep end and just leave it there, no
the Bible is written for all, it's for believers so we can know more
of Christ. After the book of Matthew we've got the book of Mark
now Mark is a man that you'd be familiar with if you've been reading through the book
of Acts, but Mark is the man who joined Paul and Barnabas
on their first missionary journey but for whatever reason he returned
home and Paul wasn't happy with him, the apostle Paul wasn't happy with him
but then Paul and Barnabas if you remember the book of Acts they would have a dispute
they would go their separate ways, they would go and
continue on their ministries to visit churches and things like that
and Barnabas would take Mark later on with him on his journey
and if you guys can just, no actually don't turn there, you go to
Mark chapter 10, go to Mark chapter 10 and it kind of
sounds bad, you can't see the personalities there between Paul and Barnabas
Barnabas is the nice one, he gets Mark to go with him
Paul didn't want anything to do with him, but at the end of one of the last
letters that Paul writes in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 11
he says only Luke is with me, take Mark
and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the
ministry. So even though Paul wanted nothing to do with Mark for a while he started
to realise Barnabas got him right, Barnabas got him
back on board, got him back on track and now he sees the prophet of Mark
and he wants Mark to come and be with him in fellowship and minister with him
so there is a good story with Mark at the end of all that disputing that went on
but in Mark chapter 10 verse 45 it kind of gives us the idea
one of the key themes of Jesus Christ in the book of Mark
it says for even the son of man came not to be ministered unto
so the book of Matthew is about him being the king, being the Messiah
and of course the king is usually the one you would minister to
so there's a bit of a difference here where it says for even the son of man came not to be ministered unto
but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. So many would look at the book of Mark as thematically
describing Jesus as a minister, describing Jesus
in other words we're saying that is a servant, he was our servant and this is why
the book of Mark is heavy on miracles
it's probably the book that has the most miracles that Jesus Christ did
because as he was performing miracles, he was healing the sick, casting out devils, making the blind to see
making the lame to walk, all these things, he kept being a minister, a servant
to the people. So that's kind of what the thematic picture of Jesus Christ
in the book of Mark is, is him as a servant
then we've got the book of Luke, the gospel of Luke and Luke, we don't know much about Luke
but he is mentioned in the book of Colossians, don't turn there, Colossians 4.14
which says Luke, the beloved physician, so that's all we know about Luke
that he was a physician, he was a doctor, as we would term them today
and he wrote the book of Luke
but the book of Luke, as we've studied as a church, is not a book that is in
strict chronological order, it is in general chronological order
from a big picture, but many of the stories sometimes are not in the same
in the right chronology, Luke wrote in a
more topical style gospel, so he kept many
of the same stories together, even though they might have been separated by many months
or many years, but he brought many of the stories close together that were related toward
one another, and generally speaking
Jesus is thematically portrayed in the book of Luke as a
man, the man Christ Jesus, the son of man
talking about his humanity, Jesus Christ wasn't just 100%
God, he was also 100% man, and that's kind of the theme
of the book of Luke there, then of course after the book of Luke we have John
please go to John chapter 13, go to John chapter 13
please, John chapter 13 verse 23
John chapter 13 verse 23, and we know John as another
apostle that was taught by Jesus Christ, and it says here
in John 13 23, now there was a leaning on Jesus' bosom
one of his disciples whom Jesus loved
so John would speak of himself in this book as the disciple
whom Jesus loved, he didn't name himself, he didn't call himself by his name
he referred to himself as his third person, and that's who John is
and you know the book of John predominantly
represents Jesus, not as the man, but predominantly
as Jesus our God, you know, the deity
of God, and through that as the son of God
as well, and of course John 1 very clearly in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God, and the word was God
of course that later on takes us to Jesus Christ, and so the big picture
the big theme of Christ in that is that he is deity, that he is
God Almighty, and that he is the son of God
instead of starting with the birth of Christ in Bethlehem
he starts off from the beginning, you know, not only is he God
he's the creator of all things, and please go to John 20
John 20 verse 31
it's quite a good book in the sense that it gives us
the reason why this book is written, I mean many of them do, but this one's a very good reason
John 20 verse 31, it said but these are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ
the son of God, and that believing you might have life
through his name, very clearly why the book of John was written
to give you faith, to cause you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
okay, he's the son of God, specifically there, and one thing
that, you know, with our gospel presentations, we go door to door
be sure you include references to John, because that's the purpose
behind it, okay, and many of us would use some type of variation
of the Romans road, and that's a good book to go through as well, to describe
salvation, but never forget to use John, obviously John 3.16
many of us use that, I use John 3.18 sometimes, John 1.12
and I'm trying to close their need to receive the free gift
so make sure you also add references of John to your
gospel presentation, that was the purpose it was written
for the four gospels, what they represent, and how they show Christ
and it's always nice to have these four, you can compare scripture to scripture, spiritual to spiritual
and get a better, a greater view of the work of Christ on this earth
but then, just like the Old Testament books, had a lot of
historical books, the New Testament also has a history
well, it doesn't have historical books, but it has one history book
okay, and that's the next one, the book of Acts, the book of Acts is known as
the history book, or the church, about the church history of the
first disciples and the apostles, after the ascension of Jesus Christ
it's also known as the Acts of the Apostles, that's why it's called Acts
it's the Acts, the works, the things they did after Christ
ascended up into heaven, please go to Acts 1.1, Acts 1.1
Acts 1.1
the Bible says here, the former treatise have I made
of Theopolis, of all that Jesus began both to
do and teach, so notice that the writer of Acts
says, look, I've written a former treatise, O Theopolis
to Theopolis, okay, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach
so the author of Acts says, look, I've written one of the gospels, I've written one of those
where Jesus began to do and to teach, and it's very easy to work
out who the author of the book of Luke is, of the book of Acts
it's Luke, because in Luke 1.3, Luke 1.3 it says
It seemed good to me also, having made perfect understanding of all things, from the
very first, to write unto thee in order most excellent
Theopolis, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things
wherein thou hast been instructed. So you see, Luke's writing to
this Theopolis, you know, both the book of Luke and then
the book of Acts, and in the book of Acts he references the former writings that he wrote before
of the works of Christ, and so many, you know, see not just
Luke as the author, but the book of Acts as a continuation
I mean, it's basically, it picks up straight where the book of Luke left off
and it's just a pure continuation of what he had written before
The book of Acts covers a period of about 30 years of church history
again, from the ascension of Christ, and it's a really interesting book
so obviously it starts with a lot of the work in the church in Jerusalem
and the first, what was it, the first 1 to 12 chapters
deal with primarily, you know, all the disciples, but it focuses on Peter
the Apostle, and Peter would have, you know, work in Jerusalem
but also in Samaria, ok, he was focused in the local areas
a lot, and of course, God had instructed them, Jesus Christ had instructed them to go throughout all the world
and preach the gospel, so we have those first few chapters
dealing with Jerusalem and Samaria, and then chapters
13 to 28 follows the ministry and the work
of Paul, Paul as a missionary being sent out
by the church in Antioch to go to other places in the Roman Empire
other place, other Gentile cities, other places, you know, in Asia
and things like that, and he went out starting churches, you know
winning people to the Lord, preaching the gospel, starting churches
and those are chapters 13 to 28
and this is a book where, I don't know if you guys, when you read it, it just seems to end abruptly
like you have Paul getting arrested, being taken as a prisoner
being taken to Rome, and he's talking about how he's going to bring
his, what's the word I'm looking for, he's going to bring his
his appeal, his appeal to Caesar
in Rome, and if it's the first time you've read through the book of Acts, I'll never forget the first time I read it
I'm like, oh man, I can't wait to see him deal with Caesar, what's he gonna say?
What's gonna happen? But then it doesn't happen, you know, it just cuts off
it kind of leaves this to be continued feeling in the book of Acts
and I was like, oh man, what happened to it, you know, but I think it's done like that on purpose
I think it's done like that to be continued feeling on purpose
so we don't feel like the Acts are done, it's not like a book
the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the disciples are finished, it's a we read it
and we go, man, it hasn't finished, we gotta keep going, you know, we're the ones
that have to pick up after Paul and all these Apostles and disciples and continue the work
of preaching the Gospel, continue the work of planting churches, continue the work
of shining a light to this lost world, and I think that's why
it ends so abruptly, so we know it's not ended, the work is still to be
continued, alright, so that's the book of Acts, then we get onto
the epistles, the epistles are another way of saying letters, okay, letters
to specific churches, specific groups, or specific people
and most of these epistles were written by Paul the Apostle
so we start with the first epistle, Romans, okay, so
obviously tailored toward the Romans, but applicable to everyone
and if you go to Romans chapter 1 verse 10
Romans chapter 1 verse 10, he's writing to a people that he's never met
so at this point in time he had not met them, even though we know historically he's on his way
to Rome, but when he wrote this letter he hadn't yet reached there, okay, so whatever that timeframe is
but in Romans 1.10 he says
making requests if I by any means now at length I might have a
prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you
so Paul's desiring to go and meet these people, to meet this church, but he's not yet
met them, okay, now please go to Romans chapter, well actually in the same chapter
verse number 16, it is, the book of Romans is the best
epistle in terms of explaining the Gospel in great detail
and it breaks down in a lot of detail, and in Romans 1.16 it says
for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek, so at the very beginning he outlines
his reason for writing to the Romans, he wants to explain this Gospel
of Christ that he's not ashamed of, and he wants to educate them in
great detail, so chapters 1 to 11 is basically
this Gospel presentation in detail, okay, he speaks of our
sinfulness, he speaks of God's plan for redemption, he calls
on people to believe on the Gospel, to call upon them
the Lord, and then those are chapters 1 to 11
okay, then the next chapters, chapters 12 to
16 is about how we ought to live in response
to salvation, once we have been saved, once we have
now believed and called upon the name of the Lord, how should we live
as Christians, so it's to have the right response
as saved people, now if you go to Romans chapter 11
please, Romans chapter 11 verse 36, Romans chapter 11
verse 36, some people, those that want to teach a
workspace Gospel, will see the end of Romans as yes
it's work and living godly, and tie that in
to the Gospel of salvation, and say well see, it's not just faith
it's works as well, but the Gospel presentation finished at the end of chapter 11
and if you look at chapter 11 verse 36
right at the end, it says very clearly, for of him
and through him, of course Christ, and to
him are all things to whom be glory forever
amen, I love the end of that at the end of chapter 11, because
he's finished the Gospel presentation, and then just reminds everyone
it's because of Jesus, it's because of Jesus, not because of you, right
it's of him, it's through him, and it's to him, all things
salvation is available to us by the finished work of Jesus Christ
so that's kind of the end of that chapter, when you get to chapter 12
okay, now that I've got there, now I understand it's all Christ, what do you want me to do
God, how do you want me to live in your way, so we've got to make sure we
separate those chapters from those beginning chapters, okay, then we have
1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 5, please, 1 Corinthians chapter 5
and we've studied 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians as a church, and even though it's called
1 Corinthians, it's not the first letter
that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, it's the first letter that God saw fit
to canonize for us, as his inspired words, okay, but look at
1 Corinthians 5, 9, it says, I wrote, this is obviously
Paul to the Corinthian church, I wrote unto you in an epistle
not to accompany with fornicators, because I've already written you an epistle
not to accompany with fornicators, okay, so this is now another epistle talking about
the other epistle that he had written, okay, so
of course, Paul was very familiar with the Corinthian
church, he had spent some 18 months in the city of Corinth
and had many people saved, and he basically established this church
so this is one of those churches that was very, very familiar with the people that were there
and unfortunately, even though he was there for so long, it's one of the worst
churches, maybe the worst church you're going to read about in the New Testament
and this is why I studied with 1 Corinthians, I said
man, if we get this bad, at least we know what we need to do to fix ourselves, right, and if we're not
this bad, praise God, you know, we're doing something good, and you know
what encourages about me when I see these really bad churches
is I think I would give up on that church, but then I see how God
still is able to work with them, that God was able to use them and get them back
we'll look at that in 2 Corinthians later, but yeah, it's probably one of the worst
churches, a lot of divisions within the church
just carnal believers, babes in Christ, lack of knowledge
you know, they've been infiltrated by false doctrine and false teachers
those kinds of things, they even had somebody in such wicked
sin in the church, everybody knows about it, and when Paul hears
about it, he goes, what are you doing? Kick this guy out of the church
and again, I'm thankful, yes, it's a really bad church, a really bad situation
but I'm thankful we have these stories, so then we can read this and go, well
now we know what we need to do to kick someone out of the church, we know the sins that
are so wicked that are committed, that we would then need to step in and remove that
person from the congregation, so even though it's sad for that church, hey, we get the blessing
of learning from that, and hopefully not having to go through those same
errors that they went through, and so Paul's goal in 1 Corinthians
is to bring this divided church back into unity
then we have 2 Corinthians, and it's basically a continuation of
1 Corinthians, and Paul had not yet visited the church he had planned to
Paul had lots of plans to visit lots of people, he just can't always make it there
he can only do so much as one person, but he had heard good reports from others
from Timotheus and others, that the Corinthian church had turned a corner
they had improved, they had taken to heart the letter that
he had written to them, and they had done many improvements, so Paul encourages
them to continue to keep working toward those things
and even to accept the person they kicked out of the church
that the guy had repented, and as a church to forgive him
to bring him back to the fold, and continue on as a church
so it also talks about resolution, resolving issues
with people that have been kicked out of the church
2 Corinthians also deals with sending financial aid to other churches
other believers, other brethren in need, if you remember the Corinthian church were lacking in that area
so Paul's encouraged them, hey, you know, you had made a promise basically
to send some money, you better complete that, it doesn't look good on you if you don't do that
and it also, 2 Corinthians also helps the church
identify remaining false teachers that were within the church
so this is what I'm talking about, a lot of great things in the New Testament
but many times just those false teachers, those false prophets, they're always there
they're always the wicked, you know, just trying to get
into the church, trying to influence them in a bad way, and as I
think about these, you realise how important it is to have good leadership
in a church, how important it is to have good, faithful men
in a church because these wicked people come in when people aren't ready for it
and they can be easily misled, and that's not the only church
the next church, Galatians, Galatians is the next epistle that we read about
and Galatians contains some really great teaching on salvation
on faith, on the finished work of Christ, and the reason for this book
is that the church, it's probably strange for us to think about
but the church had fallen away from a clear gospel presentation
they had, again, infiltrators coming to the church, beguiled them
deceived them, they started to think of the works of the Old Testament as a possible
necessity of their salvation, so the gospel was getting muddied
in the church and Paul had a great concern, that's why he has such great
teaching on salvation by grace through faith
it also is a great book for those that are on the fence on replacement theology
and dispensational theology, I mean, the book of Galatians just rips
the book of Galatians just rips apart dispensationalism
I mean, it just does, it is so clear that
the physical nation of Israel has been replaced
by a spiritual nation of Israel
and our dispensational brothers, they panic over that, they say, oh, what do you think of
look, the spiritual nation of Israel is made up of Jews and Gentiles
those that have believed on Jesus Christ, okay
the Old Testament physical nation was made up, yes, of believers and also
non-believers, okay, the spiritual nation is better
it's made up of 100% believers, the Old Testament nation was made up of some
believers and some non-believers, I mean, the spiritual nation is so much better
and it's very clear that that spiritual nation is the Israel
of God, you know, since the New Testament has come into effect
alright, let's keep going, the book of Ephesians, go to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1
Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1, Ephesians is
I think the first letter, I'm pretty sure it is, I mean, he was definitely in prison when he wrote
this letter, but I think it's the first letter he wrote while he was in prison, and he doesn't
rebuke this church, this church seems to be doing things right, he's not
there attacking them, rebuking them about anything, if you look at Ephesians
4, 1, it says, I therefore the prisoner, so there it is, he's in jail, the prisoner
of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of
the vocation wherewith ye are called
so he's trying to encourage this church to live a life
worthy of the calling, ok, they're doing well, it's like, keep going
you know, keep going, keep serving the Lord, and
not a lot of this book is about salvation directly, though it does
touch on salvation, it's primarily about just living
holy, blameless lives, you know, going strong for the
Lord, standing strong for the faith, that's what it's about, and it's really unusual
when I see preachers take the book of Ephesians and try to
make it about the Gospel, now of course it contains Gospel in there
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, we love to quote it, right, but it's not
just 8 and 9, verse number 10, and it's almost like Paul preempted this
you know, knowing that this book is about works and walking in
accordance to his ways, and so at the beginning he says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9
for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God
not of works, lest any man should boast, so it's like he just preempts it
let me make this very clear, salvation is not by works, but you should be working
ok, you should be doing this thing, and that's why in verse number 10 he says
for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God before ordained that we should
walk in them, that's the purpose of Ephesians, so you know, it's like
he knows that people are going to use that and teach works based salvation
from that, and so he puts that in there, like just that little nugget of truth
to destroy their false theology, alright, so let's go to Philippians now
look at the Philippians, and this is the second letter that he's in jail, he's in prison
and Paul spent some months
I think maybe 3 or 4 months in Philippi, so
we also know of the Philippian jailer, we quote this a lot when we go
in Acts chapter 16 verses 30 and 31
you know, it says what must I do to be saved, well that was in Philippi
you know, when Paul was over there, and so the book
of Philippians is basically an epistle of thanksgiving and
affection, you know, Paul's saying to the church, I love you guys, thank you for your support
they've been sending him financial assistance and necessities for him
as he's been going out in the ministry, did I tell you to go to Philippians 4?
sorry, go to Philippians 4.15, Philippians 4.15
and just to sort of support that, it says here
so you see the Philippian church is just very conscious of Paul and his work
and his needs and they're constantly making sure he's provided for
and so the Philippian church is also a church that Paul never had to rebuke in the pages
he's just showing them his thanksgiving, appreciation and love
for their service, alright, Colossians
so I hope you can see, all these books have a different flavour, they're all yes different churches
but there's a different flavour to each of these epistles
so the book of Colossians, again Paul is in prison
Paul never met this church, go to Colossians 2.1, Colossians 2 verse 1
Colossians 2 verse 1, Paul writes
so he has never met these guys, right, and so the Colossian church
unfortunately had been infiltrated by false teachers
quite severely, had been infiltrated, so look at verse number 8 there, Colossians 2.8
and he warns the church, he says
and one thing you notice in the book of Colossians, he's always talking about the deity of Christ
so we saw there that in Christ was the fullness of the Godhead bodily
go back to the previous chapter, Colossians 1.17
Colossians 1.17 speaking of Christ, he says
and again, just reinforcing his deity, reinforcing him as the creator of the world
so what I believe by looking at the big picture, is there were false teachers
who were training coming in, and probably denying the deity of Christ
you know, that's probably what was going on, so he's reinforcing, be careful of these people
reinforcing the deity of Christ in this book
alright, the next one is 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians and
1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians really go well together
again, it's kind of like a continuation, but 1 Thessalonians
Paul is preparing the church for trials and tribulations
and of course, you know, every church, every believer will go
through certain trials and tribulations, so Paul's encouraging them
to see it through, but of course, it's the most famous book
in terms of the rapture, it has the most famous rapture passage in chapter 4
and so, then he takes that principle and of course applies it to the end times
we can apply it to the end times of the coming tribulation, the coming persecution
but what's going to get us through these trials, what's going to get us through the tribulations
is knowing that Christ is returning, knowing that Christ is going to come back
that's what's going to give us the hope to be able to overcome tribulation
and difficulty, then we go to 2 Thessalonians
and again, like I said, it's just a continuation of 1 Thessalonians
and he explains in more detail about the tribulation
the coming tribulation, not just standard tribulation, but end times tribulation
and that's why in chapter 2 he spends a lot of time speaking of the antichrist
the son of perdition, the man of sin
all these names that are given to the same person, and so as a church
they would be aware of what would come prior to the rapture
prior to the gathering of the saints into heaven
and so it gives that great awareness of future tribulation
again, just holding the hope of Christ's return, and that will get us through
those difficulties in those times, then we have other
we have other epistles that were written by Paul, this time not to churches directly
but to individuals, so we have the next three
1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus, and these epistles
are also known as the pastoral epistles, these are the epistles
that I as your pastor spend most of my time reading, just over and over again
and I refresh my memory, what is it that I need to do as a pastor
making sure I'm not letting things go, I'm not accomplishing things
that I need to do, and at the same time not getting myself too
busy with activities that I don't need to do, that's why these are important pastoral epistles
if you have a desire to be a pastor one day a bishop
these are the books you need to really get your head into, but 1 Timothy
he's writing to Timothy as a younger pastor, I don't know how old he was
but obviously as a younger pastor he would be less experienced, so Paul
writes to him to encourage him in his youth, and he teaches him not just
how to lead a church, but how to organise himself
and how to behave within the church, okay
and he also outlines in the book of 1 Timothy the qualifications needed
for the two church officers, that being the office of the bishop and the office
of a deacon, because as Timothy grows, as the church will grow, he would need
additional men to help him with that church, and then we have
2 Timothy, the epistle of 2 Timothy
is about 4 or 5 years after 1 Timothy
so you've got now Timothy a lot more experienced, he's a lot more
mature, a lot more knowledgeable, and so Paul doesn't write in the same way
he writes to a more mature pastor in a sense
and yes again he encourages him as a pastor, as a leader in the church, but Paul
spends a lot of time sharing to Timothy Paul's own
personal struggles, his own personal persecutions and hardships
that he's gone through, and if you guys go to 2 Timothy 4
go to 2 Timothy 4 and verse number 6
2 Timothy 4 verse 6, the reason I believe
Paul is sharing these hardships that he's gone through, is I believe he's
preparing Timothy to go through the same hardships, he's saying
Timothy this happened to me, this is likely going to happen to you, okay
so he's warning him, he's preparing him for the difficulties, the hardships
that Timothy will go through, not only that
but here in 2 Timothy 4 verse 6, let's read it, Paul says
for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure
is at hand, so he's saying to Timothy look, my death's around the corner
I'm soon going to pass on, and so what I think is Timothy
has had Paul as a mentor
as someone that he could go to for encouragement and guidance and he's saying look Timothy
this is the time when I'm not going to be there anymore, and you're going to have to continue
the work, you're going to have to now stand on your own two feet
and just soldier on, get ready for the coming difficulties, so that's what I think
2 Timothy is about, a more mature pastor, someone who needs to learn
to realise you just have to now stand on your own faith
I'm not always going to be there to help you. Then we have Titus, Titus is another
pastor, another pastoral epistle, and look at Titus chapter 1
verse 5, the Bible gives us a reason why Titus is
the kind of work that he's doing, but Paul says to Titus
for this cause left I thee in Crete, and Crete is an island
that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting
and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee
so Titus had a job to not just have his own church
but to have other church plants and ordain other pastors
other bishops to oversee those congregations
now I've been criticised for having a church down in Sydney by a few people
just other, not from this church, and not even
within that church, just other people that I know, and it's like
it's unbiblical to pass two churches, well look at Titus
Titus was commanded, obviously there were in all these cities on this island
in all these towns, there was congregation of believers, and for now
until Titus could ordain elders, and bishops
to oversee those churches, guess who was looking after him? It was Titus
we don't know how many there were, but I'm assuming there were a couple, there were at least 2, 3, 4, 5
potentially, and so he was overseeing all these churches
did he just want to be the main guy in charge? No, he was there to wait for the right person
to stand up, wait for the right pastors to show up
to ordain that man, and then he could move on, and help the other churches
so it's perfectly biblical to be a pastor of multiple churches, Titus was that way
but of course the goal is to instal
elders in those congregations as well, and so
it's not just dealing with that, but it's also instructing Titus how to conduct himself
with a pastor when it comes to dealing with heresies in the church, not just heresies
within the church, but heretics within the church, and by
and the principle way by dealing with that is ensuring that sound doctrine
is being taught behind the pulpit. Okay, then we have
Philemon, and this is another where Paul
is in prison, and Philemon was a man who had
servants under him, and it just seems by
chance, and of course nothing is by chance when it comes to God, but
Paul met one of his servants, Onesimus, who had
run away from Philemon, and so Paul meets this guy
gets him saved, and he goes well now that you're saved, you need to go back to your master
that's the right thing to do, you need to get back under his authority, go back to work
and so he writes this letter to Philemon to say basically look
Onesimus, he's got saved, he's a brother in the Lord, please treat him with
love, he's coming back, please receive him back to employment basically, okay
so it's a very personal letter to Philemon, and I think there's a lot of great truths
there with the relationship between employer and employees
so if you're having difficulties in your workplace, that's probably a good book to read through
okay, then we have other epistles
and these are terminally
commonly labeled as
general epistles, and the first one
under this is Hebrews, now I am
a strong believer that the book of Hebrews was written by Paul, and I think many of you
guys are, many of you guys, we can see the same type of writing, the same
type of thoughts, the way Paul writes just seems to
come through the book of Hebrews, but we don't know for sure, it's not actually written
within the pages of the book, it was written by
Paul, so I strongly believe it was, but I'm not going to
fight you over it, if you don't believe it was written by Paul, but anyway, most likely
it was Paul, and the book of Hebrews
is mostly about the replacement
of the old covenant with the new covenant
showing that the new covenant is superior to the old covenant
and he's writing to Hebrews or Jews that are believers, that are
saved, that have trusted in Christ, now of course I mean, I can
understand if I were in their shoes, I'm used to the Old Testament practices
yes I've placed my faith in Christ, yes I'm now in the
new covenant, I'm in the New Testament days, and I can understand
the confusion, that the pressures they may feel to go back
to the old ways of doing things, because there was nothing wrong with the Old Testament practices
God instructed them to do those things, right, it's just that
well now that Christ has come, put that behind you and follow after Christ
that's the key thing, that Christ, and that's what the book of Hebrews is all about
is by showing them, look, yes your heart's set on those old ways of doing things
but Christ is actually better, Christ has fulfilled all of those things
by putting those things aside and following after Christ
you are keeping those things in Christ as it were, that Christ had
was the picture, was the type, was the illustration of all those things that have come before
and so it was just helping them
detach themselves from the old ways and going after
Christ and being fully, living under
the new covenant ways if you want to look at it that way, and so that was basically the purpose
of the book of Hebrews, a lot of them were being pressured to basically
go back to the old ways and sort of trust that
as a way of salvation, not just Jesus Christ, like mixing
the law with Christ. Then we have the book of James
the book of James, and many believe, we can't know this for sure
but many believe that this was written by the half brother
of Jesus, it's my belief also that it was written by the half brother
of Jesus, so of course Mary after she gave birth to Jesus
and Joseph, just like any married couple, had children, one of those was
James, and the book of James is a book written
about the necessity of believers doing
work, okay, just get into the work, right
start being productive for the Lord, start working for the kingdom
of God, and unfortunately like every book that has to do with works
there are always those that come and twist what it's about
and they'll say well this is salvation, this is about salvation, you cannot be saved by faith alone
but you need works as well, of course that's not what it's about
you know, the book of James is about living a holy life
a holy life, you know it starts off with the need to overcome temptation
overcoming sin, living holy, you know it's not just your faith
you've got the faith, now do some works, you know, put it into practice
put your faith into practice and get some works under your belt
it's encouragement for us to get out there, do the works for Jesus Christ
then we have 1 Peter, 1 Peter, of course Peter
the apostle, we all know him very very well, and 1 Peter
is written for believers and to encourage
us to stand out from the world, not to be just worldly and look like the world
and be like the world, not that we ought to stand out from the world
but the truth in 1 Peter is also the fact that if we do stand out from the world
that we will face suffering and persecution
and so it's a letter really to prepare us, again, for suffering and persecution
to encourage us through those times and go well why has this happened
no no no, you should have known this from the beginning, when you start living for the Lord
you're going to suffer, you're going to be persecuted by the world, so that's sort of 1 Peter
that's what it's about, to warn us of coming difficulties
2 Peter is to warn us, to warn believers of false prophets
and heresies that will infiltrate the church
so again you see that same thing coming through many of these books
and again, how do we overcome these things, how do we overcome the difficulties
by holding onto the hope of the coming of Christ
and to live in accordance to that promise, to hold onto that promise
2 Peter 1 verse 4
2 Peter 1 verse 4 reads
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust
so just prompt us, you've got so many promises
so much to look forward to, you know, live like you were
live after those promises today, you know, so that's what 2 Peter is about
then we have 1 John, 2 John, 3 John
and of course it's the same John that wrote the gospel of John
so 1 John, and these books are very similar in a sense
it's a lot about fellowship and love
these 3 books, but they're sort of targeted towards 3 different groups
and 1 John is a
sort of, has a very blunt description of what is right and wrong
you know, it speaks of Christ, and it speaks of the Antichrist
you know, it speaks of the love of the Father, and the love of the world
and it's like, where are you, you're either in one place or you're in another place
and so, you know, it's making sure that we understand the difference between
what is right and wrong, and of course when it deals with the love of the Father
that is the love that John is seeking
for us to have in our lives, in order for us to love properly
in order for us to have the proper expression of love to God
and against that which is wicked, we need to have the love of the Father with us
the fellowship that we need to have with the Father, so that's 1 John
2 John is also about fellowship, but in reverse
so it warns us not to fellowship and not to befriend
false teachers, you know, not to bid them godspeed
and, you know, be an encouragement, you know, there are certain people
we are to not fellowship with, we've got to keep the difference between
light and darkness, and otherwise these people will come in and just influence
your life, you know, and turn you against the Lord, so that's 2 John
it's fellowship, but not to fellowship with certain people, then we have 3 John
and again, 3 John is about love and fellowship, but this time it's
more about expression toward the brethren in the church, our brothers and sisters
in the Lord, yes, I mean 1 John has a lot of that as well, but 3 John kind of
focuses, narrows in on that as well, just having unity, love and fellowship
with brethren within your local church, then we have the book of Jude
the book of Jude, please go to Jude 3, verse 3
there's only one chapter, Jude verse 3
and I feel sorry for Jude, because he says here
he goes, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you
of the common salvation, I was about to write to you
about salvation, about the gospel, right, and then he goes
It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints
for there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old
ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God unto lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ, so he wanted to just write about the common
salvation, but then he saw it needful to write about false prophets, to those that are going to
creep into the churches and hurt them, so it's like this urgent warning
he was going to do something else, but now I need to urgently warn you
that there are people in your midst, or there are people that are going to come and teach you false
things, and that's the urgency we need to have with false doctrine
and when people come in wanting to teach their false doctrines, we need to
act with urgency, and get rid of that leaven, before it leavens
the whole lump, you know, then we have the final book which is Revelation
and of course the Old Testament had a lot of prophets, and they prophesied of the future
many times, well we have one book of prophecy, in the New Testament
and that's the book of Revelation, and it's
called Revelation because it reveals, it reveals the end times, it is
a full, concise, and clear presentation of the end times
I love it, there was a time when I couldn't understand it, and I just
I found it very hard to get through, I'm excited for the time I can actually preach it
to this church, because it just shows us so much about the future
events, and that's what a lot of people are excited about, a lot of people are just, what's the future hold
what does God say, the book of Revelation is full of it, and it's clear
and unfortunately so many people misunderstand it, they split it up into
so many sections, it just becomes unreadable, no it's actually
pretty readable, it's pretty, it's in chronological order
almost all the way, just half way, it starts again, but anyway
just not going into that, but basically it teaches us about the coming collapse
of the world systems, governments and finances
and that's going to come through worldwide warfare
that will come into this world, and the beast or the antichrist will take full advantage
of that situation, set himself up, bring in a new financial system
the mark of the beast, and cause tribulation to come upon the saints
he'll come and lead persecution against believers, and many
many believers will lose their lives for the Lord, okay, that's the coming tribulation
that 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians also warned us about
and of course it's not just about the tribulation, it's the hope
of Jesus Christ's return, that he's coming again, that he's going to rapture his
saints at the third seal, sorry at the sixth seal, when the sun and moon are darkened
and the Lord comes back, we're in heaven with the Lord forever
once he takes us safely into heaven, God's going to pour out his wrath
the full measure of his wrath, okay, upon this earth
upon the beast, upon those that took the mark of the beast
and just totally wipe out the earth as we know it, I mean
no mountain will be left, basically standing, and then after that wrath of God
Jesus Christ comes back on the horses with all the believers
and finally destroy the last armies of the antichrist
set up his thousand year kingdom to rule and reign with us forever
we'll be there with Christ, you know, maybe having thrones, I don't know
the work we put in today guys, will affect our positions in that coming
kingdom, and then when that thousand years is over
Satan will be finally destroyed in the lake of fire, and God will create a new heavens
and a new earth, so there's a great end to the story
those are the books of the New Testament, thank you guys for being patient, and I hope that's helped you
understand the New Testament a little bit better, let's pray