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Bible Bootcamp: The New Testament

Welcome to our third and final installment of Bible Bootcamp.

As you will hear in the PODCAST, with due deference to Peter’s challenge to you and me—1 Peter 2:2 (KJV), “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”—we thought if beneficial to take a bird’s-eye view of the entire Bible. An overview. A survey. The box top to the biblical puzzle.

This so that we can understand how each individual piece fits into the whole.

As we consider the New Testament, we see that it is divided into three broad groups: the historical, the personal letters, and the prophetic. Each of these three groups have their own over-arching message: 1) Jesus is here; 2) Jesus was here; 3) Jesus is coming back!

Bible Bootcamp: The New TestamentThe first group consists of the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John – and the Acts of the Apostles. Matthew paints the picture of Jesus the King, beginning with Jesus’ genealogy, stemming through King David and stopping at Abraham – the “founding father” of the Jewish faith. The Gospel of Mark paints the picture of Jesus, the King who came to be a Servant. Mark includes no genealogy whatsoever, but instead reveals Jesus’ perpetual servanthood for mankind. Luke was written by a gentile medical doctor who paints a picture of Jesus being fully human, beginning with Jesus being born a baby from his earthly mother, Mary. The genealogy that Luke includes goes all the way back to Adam, showing that Jesus is fully human, a son of Adam. Luke reveals more human attributes more “human characteristics” than the other Gospels such as hunger, fatigue, and emotions. Then, the Gospel of John paints the picture of Jesus as God, particularly God who became a man! Consider John’s first verse:

In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

Then, John concludes his Gospel with this proclamation:

The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. (John 20:30-31)

The final New Testament “history book” is the Book of Acts, also written by Luke. It tells the story of how the Church – the movement known then as “the way” – began. It’s not written as a theology book, but as a history book. There are things that happened then, but do not regularly happen today, such as miracles performed by the Apostles. Today, miracles are the exception, not the rule. But it was just the opposite in the days of the early Church.

Those five books comprise the New Testament’s historical section.

Then, there are what I call the “personal correspondences”.

Now, that the whole “Christian Life” has begun, the 21 New Testament Epistles reveal how to live the Christian life today, beginning with the fact that “Jesus came”!!

Paul’s letters are arranged in our modern Bibles by length, not by the year they were written; eight of which were written to individual churches who had their fair share of problems. Some were doctrinal, others were inter-personal. It just showed that, even at the beginning of the Christian Church, any time you get a group of people together (even with a shared mission in life) tensions will rise. Three of Paul’s letters were written directly to pastors (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus). And Paul’s letter to Philemon was the only Pauline Epistle in the Bible written to a dear, personal friend.

The remaining personal letters, or Epistles, are not named after who they were written to, but the “general epistles” are named after who they were written by (with the one exception of the Book of Hebrews).

And finally, there is the New Testament prophetical book: The Book of Revelation. It proclaims that Jesus is coming back! And, when He does, He wins. And when Jesus wins, we win!!

At its beginning, the Book of Revelation promises the reader a special blessing from God.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)

While it may seem hard to understand, it only appears so without its interpretive key, which we learn about in Revelation 1:11,

[the angel] said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

In other words, the Book of Revelation is written according to John’s first century understanding of what he saw as God revealed the future to him. It’s written in a language of appearance… not in literal description.

Also, John leaves no doubt that with the completion of the Book of Revelation, all Scriptural revelation has come to a conclusion. There is no new revelation today.

I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.

20 He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!”

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

21 May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people. (Revelation 22:18-21)

So, this is how the Bible is generally laid out:

    • Old Testament – Jesus is coming.
    • New Testament – Jesus has come.
    • New Testament history books – Jesus is here.
    • New Testament personal letters – Jesus came.
    • New Testament prophesy – Jesus is coming back!

All of this, Genesis through Revelation, confirms that Jesus wins, and when He wins, we win. So, as Peter wrote, we ”as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that [we] may grow thereby.”

(This podcast is by Dewey Bertolini. discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)