 Okay, so welcome everyone to class. We'll just begin with the word of prayer with someone we willing to pray for us before we begin. Dear Heavenly Father, as we gather here for our class we ask for your guidance and wisdom to be with us open our hearts and minds to receive your word with understanding. May our time together be fruitful filled with insights and blessings in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you sister. So today we're going to be looking at the last chapter. I haven't put it on PowerPoint. Does everyone have their textbook with them? So you can just look at it in your textbook. So the first topic is Jesus God was what I was thinking we could skip because you'll have already done the Christology class. So you'll have that kind of corrected. Is that okay if we skip that question? Everyone alright with that? The first and second question is Jesus God and the Trinity. Is anyone who wants to discuss that? If you all would like to we can go through it. Anyone online who wants to? Okay, so we'll skip those first two if you would like to discuss it just post in chat and then we can come back to it. So we'll go straight into question 3 the different titles for Jesus Christ. So we see that there are many different titles that are used to describe who Jesus is and some of these titles refer to Jesus's sonship or the fact that he is begotten of God. He's the first of creation the first born of creation. So how do we understand those terms? Does that mean that Jesus is part of the creation or is he what does it mean if it's saying the first born of creation? How do we understand that? So let's just begin by reading Hebrews 4 3 if someone could read that for us. Hebrews 4 3 for we who have believed to enter the enter that rest as he has said. So I assure in my breath they sell not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Okay, thank you. So we're just going to focus on that second part of Hebrews 4 3. His works have been finished since the creation of the world. So when we say that Jesus is the first born we're not meaning to say that Jesus was created first and then the rest of creation came to being but that God is outside of time. So what we read here all his works were finished before the creation of the world. So before the world was created God already knew everything that was going to happen. He knew that the fall was going to happen. He knew that Jesus was going to come in and that Jesus would have to pay for the sins that Adam and Eve had set off as something that was going to pass on to all humanity. And so when we read about Jesus as the first born of creation we are basically saying in his humanity he was the first born as in there was a new creation that began with Jesus. Right, so we see the comparison between Adam and between Jesus. Adam was the first created being and Jesus was the first born in this new creation that is part of God's kingdom. Okay, so he's the first son in that after him we all are called sons and daughters of Christ. Okay, so that is where the term first born comes in. It doesn't mean that Jesus was created first and then the rest of us were created or the rest of the world was created in his humanity and as a new creation Jesus was the first and then the rest of us are sons and daughters of God. Whereas Jesus was the father we are adopted. So Jesus is the only begotten, right? He's the only one who can claim that he is a direct son of God through the Holy Spirit. So that whole thing of Mary conceiving by the Holy Spirit. Whereas all of us are begotten of human parents and we are adopted into God's family through Jesus Christ. Okay, so does that make sense? Is that clear? Any questions? No? It's all okay. Every online makes sense. Okay, we'll go into the next part which is the gospel accounts and what seems to be contradictory gospel accounts. We look at three examples from this or actually there are five. We look at four of them and one of them I'll just post something on Google Classroom later today. Also, sorry I forgot. The video was posted online yesterday. Sorry for the delay. I wanted to do it on Friday. I had a problem with the recording. The video stopped in between so I had to re-record and put it up and all of that. So it was posted last night. So you can catch up with that. That is for your other class New Testament survey. So contradictory gospel accounts. Let's just look at the first example, the demoniac of Gadara or the garrisons. So there are three accounts of this person who was demon possessed. We see it in Matthew 8, in Mark 5 and in Luke 8. Now we want to read each of those accounts but online students are able to hear. Are those online? Okay, you're able to hear me. Okay. So in these three accounts of the demon possessed man, Matthew records two demon possessed men and Mark and Luke record one each. But if we look at other details of the story, everything else is exactly the same. They are all in the same place. That is in the garrisons. That's where Jesus goes and meets this demon possessed man or men. Jesus goes by boat. Those men live in a tomb. They are possessed by demons. The demons go into pigs. The pigs die. So all of those things are the same in all three accounts. The only difference is that Matthew says there are two men and Mark and Luke say there is only one man. So what can we conclude here? Is there an error in one of the gospel records or were there two men? Was there one man? One way we can look at it is what we talked about earlier. The gospels are written from different perspectives. So Mark and Luke may have focused on the one man because they wanted to tell the story of the one man and they wanted to emphasize Jesus's power over the demons. Whereas Matthew was talking from the perspective of he records that there were two men. So that could be one of the difference just in perspectives. The other difference that some people talk about is that Mark 1, 21 to 28 has another demon possessed man that he talks about. And so Matthew clubs these two stories together and talks about it as two demon possessed men. This is another explanation that some people have given. But the main thing is that whether it's one man or two man, it's the story of Jesus's authority over the demons. That's the main point of the story, not about how many people there were. So just in that difference of numbers, it could be a perspective. How we look at it is that it was just a difference of perspective because it was written by different people who were trying to make their point through the story. Is that acceptable? Yes. The next story we look at is the centurion and the noble man. Maybe we'll just read through these stories. Matthew 8, 5 to 13. If someone can read that for us. Matthew 8, 5 to 13. Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant is laying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and hate him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be king. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go and he goes and to another come and he comes and to my servant do this and he does it. When Jesus heard it, it marveled and said to those who follow. As surely I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into an outer darkness. There will be weeping and crashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, go your way and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour. Thank you. And we'll read John 4, 46 to 54. So Jesus came again, took Ghana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was a certain noble man whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and implored him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe. The noble man said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, go your way, your son lives. So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him saying, your son lives. Then he inquired of them, the hour where he got better. And they said to him yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, your son lives. And he himself believed in his whole household. This, again, is the second sign Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into Galilee. Okay. So based on how we assess the previous story of the demoniac, what do you say about these two stories? Are they the same story just given from different perspectives or what do you think? Did you all pay attention to all of the details in the story as we were reading? Yes, sister, both that they believed Jesus, his word and they were healed. Although Jesus did not come personally and healed, only he sent his word and they were healed. Okay. But is it the same story that both Matthew and Matthew and John are recounting or are they two different stories? What do you think? Okay. Why do you say that, sister? Because one is a centurion and one is this other person, two different person, sister. Two different persons, okay. Any other thoughts? Anyone else wants to add? I think only the place is the same place, Capernaum. Okay. So in Matthew, it's Capernaum and in John, it's Kena. Okay. Now, Galilee, John 46, 446 says who was sick at Capernaum. And there was a whose son lay sick at Capernaum. Okay. But Jesus is in Kena, okay. And what does Matthew 8 say? In Matthew 8, it says Jesus entered Capernaum. Okay. Where the centurion, it is about the servant and here it is about some person's son. Yeah. So unlikely to be the same. Unlikely to be the same. Okay. Yeah. So because there's actually no overlap between these stories, they're both stories of healing. They're both stories of somebody going to Jesus on behalf of somebody else who's not there with them. The sick person is not there with them. But the sick person gets healed wherever they are. But everything else is different. The place is different. The person is different. The relationship to the sick person is different. One is a servant. One is a son. So we, there is no necessity for us to say that these two are to the same stories. But Matthew and John have given us completely different details. Instead, we just consider them as two different incidents completely. Okay. So that's how we can also assess when we have two different accounts. We look at how much of an overlap is there. And in that overlap, what are the things that are different? Okay. Are the things that are different very significant or are they just minor things that actually may just be a difference in how the Gospel writer has written the story? Okay. So this third one, I've actually already answered on the e-learning classroom because someone had posted a question about it. So we won't do it in class. What I'll do is I'll just copy that and post it on Google classroom and y'all can read it there. Okay. So this is about the woman who anoints Jesus's feet in some stories, Jesus's feet in some it's Jesus's head. So just read that up once I posted on Google classroom. The next one we'll do is what was written on the cross. We see here if we read these four accounts in the Gospels, each one of them says a slightly different thing. This is Jesus the king of the Jews, the king of the Jews. This is the king of the Jews. Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. So again here, why is it that each of these Gospel writers wrote that sign differently? Did they all not read the sign well and just wrote the wrong thing when they were writing in their Gospels or is there some significance to this, to how they chose to to recall what was written on the sign? Okay. So if we look at it, then really is nothing contradictory in these things. All of them are saying that Jesus is the king of the Jews, but John adds that Jesus was from Nazareth. Okay. So in this case, we don't, there's no need for us to worry that each of them said something different. If they were saying something completely opposite of the other Gospel writer, then it's something for us to think about. But here they're just saying the same thing in different words and all of those things complement each other. So each of them give us a little more information or add something or take away something based on what was important in their record of the story. So this is also just like an incident of different perspectives or different focuses that they wanted to place on what was posted on the cross above Jesus's head when he was crucified. Okay. Is that all right? Worldwide maximum, many, most places it's injury, you know, so that's the most one which John uses. Yeah. So yeah. And we see that the king of the Jews continues through all of them. Okay. So the last one is, did Jesus drink the sour wine when on the cross? So we have two verses mentioned here, Matthew 27 34. It says they gave him sour wine, mingled with galt drink. And when he had tasted it, he would not drink. On the other hand, John 19 30 says, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said it is finished and bowing his head. He gave up his spirit. So one account says that he refused to drink the sour wine. The other one says that he actually drank it. But if we look at the sequence of events that happened on the cross, what Matthew is narrating is the sour wine that was given initially when Jesus was crucified. And the point of giving that wine was to numb the pain that they were feeling. So Jesus chose not to take that wine. Instead, he chose to bear that pain that he was experiencing. He chose to bear it until he came to the end of his six hours on the cross. Okay. And then what John 19 is talking about is just before Jesus dies. Again, he's thirsty and this time he asks for something to drink and they give him wine. So he's doing it to quench his thirst rather than to numb the pain. And he quenches his thirst. And then he is able to make that last statement of it is finished and he breathes his last. Okay. So these are two different times in the crucifixion when sour wine is given to Jesus. One time he chooses not to take it. And in the end, he takes it for the purpose of making that final statement. Okay. Do we have time? Okay. So we look at the, with that, we come to the end of the Gospel accounts and what are some different ways in which the Gospel writers have recorded similar events or the same events. We'll just look at the, at some difficult things that are said in scripture that are a little difficult to understand. I think before the break, maybe we can just discuss this first one and then we'll come back and continue from here. So John 19, 8 to 12, if someone can read that for us, please. John chapter 19 was eight. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying he was more afraid and again into the praetorium and the set to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Verse 10, then Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me? Do you not to know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? Verse 11, Jesus answered, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. Verse 12, from then on Pilate sought to release him, but the chew cried out saying, if you let this man go, you are not a Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks again, Caesar. Thank you. So we see here the mention of in verse 11, Jesus says, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. So what does it mean that one person has sinned more greatly than the other? Does it mean that some sins are worse than others and some sins are okay, some sins are less important or what do you all think? All sins are equal. Okay, equal in what sense? Equally bad or there's no big or small sin. Okay, so what do you think here when Jesus is saying the greatest in what does that mean? Is that the question? What does Jesus mean by the greater sin? If all sins are the same, there's no bigger or smaller sin, then what does it mean when Jesus says this is a greater sin? Is he referring to Judas? Yes, he's referring to Judas. So we'll just finish this, sorry. Okay, so if you recall, there are certain times in, there's a time in the Old Testament and there's a time in the New Testament when people sin and they fall dead immediately. Right? You remember those two stories in the Old Testament and New Testament? There was a times when God's glory is revealed in much greater ways and so when sin enters, it's dealt with immediately and in with great severity because God has just revealed his glory and people are already rejecting that and sinning. In the same way, Judas was someone who had experienced Jesus's ministry. He was one of the chosen 12. He had walked with Jesus, lived with Jesus, seen Jesus's ministry, his life, his everything. He had been one of those disciples who had really witnessed the life and ministry of Christ but he turns against Jesus whereas pilot was not in any way exposed to all that Judas had, right? All that revelation that Judas had and he was just a person in authority who had a decision to make. Now Jesus is not saying that you're not sinning. Jesus is saying you are sinning but your sin is not as bad as Judas is because Judas has had a greater revelation. So it's based on what was the revelation that was given to that person and what is the impact of the sin that they have done. So because of Judas' sin, Jesus is now standing before pilot. Because of Judas' sin, now Jesus is going to be put to death but pilot only had that one decision to make on how he was going to use his authority. So because of that we are saying based on the revelation, based on the impact and what was the consequence of the person's sin, it was greater on earth. The consequence of their sin on earth was greater but both of them the consequence of sin, the wages of sin is death. So that final eternal consequence is the same but what was the consequence of their sin on earth, how it impacted them and the world would be greater for Judas than it would be for pilot. Okay, we can come back and address any questions if you have some but we'll just take a break now and I'll return in 10 minutes. Thank you.