79. Beginner Bible Course: Introduction to the New Testament

EPISODE 79    The simple Bible overview of...AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

Welcome to the new Testament! God had been silent for 400 years. He hadn't been sitting around during that time. God was continuing to set the stage for the next part of keeping his promise in the new Testament letter of Galatians. The writer, Paul carried along by the Holy spirit, wrote this about what we're about to study. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born under the law in order that he might redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons let's break that important introductory verse down first, when the fullness of time came, when we get to the new Testament, the stage was clearly set for the next part of God's promise.

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The word fullness means completely ready, pregnant, like a woman, ready to deliver a child. When you study the period between the old and new Testament, those 400 years often called the intertestamental period. It's amazing how the stage had been set during that period of time. First, let's talk about politics in our old Testament study, near the end of second Kings through the late prophets, Daniel and others, we saw the first two kingdoms Babylon and the kingdom of the Medes and Persians after Malakai put down his pan, the Greek kingdom arose. You've probably studied Alexander the great, his sudden demise and his kingdom being split up among his four generals.

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If you haven't, all you need to do is read Daniel chapters eight and 11. It explains exactly what happened between three 30 BC and about one 60 BC. One of those generals in the solution line was Antiochus the fourth Antiochus Epiphanes also called Antiochus the great, those who hated him called him. Antiochus UPenn monies. The madman you'll read about how he entered Jerusalem, defiled the temple in the most heinous of ways and symbolized evil to the Jewish people. After him came the Maccabean revolt. The remnants of Judah rise up under the Maccabees revolt and actually gain independence on November 28th through December 6th of this year, many on our planet will celebrate Hanukkah, Hanukkah commemorates.

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The liberation of the temple during the Maccabean revolt or tradition says oil for the lamp. There was only to last for one day lasted for eight. Some of this history is beautifully captured in the apocryphal books of first and second Maccabees. They're worth reading, even if they didn't meet all the tests for which books got in the Bible in 63, BC Pompei got into trying to resolve a dispute between two brothers, her kindness, the second and Arista bolus. These are Jewish men, but notice the Greek names. We'll get to culture in a moment. Starting in 60 BC, Rome controls the remnants of Judah and the area of Judah now called Judea.

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They have become a full Roman vassal under Pompei, about 25 years later, Herod the great one of their own is promoted by Rome to be their King. He rules from 37 BC to four BC, and he enters into our gospel story. Those were the political times. Now let's look at the culture, Alexander, wasn't just the military conqueror. He brought the Greek or Hellenistic culture to the area of Judea. If you look at a new Testament map during the time of Christ, you'll see Greek cities, but the bigger thing they brought was a worldwide language, classical and coin, a Greek classical that which was used in political discourse and formal documents and coin a or common Greek.

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That was the trade language effectively for the whole world. When the Roman military machine rolled over, they brought two things with them. The POCs Ramano peace of Rome and roads, the roads would allow the good news about the savior to spread rapidly. And the Roman peace would allow people to move about freely the Greek language, which the Romans kept and encouraged would allow the good news to be communicated broadly. And as we'll discover in the common language, think about that for a moment. Important documents were communicated in classical Greek. Yet the new Testament is written in common Greek.

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The language people would use for shopping lists and chit chat. The fullness of the times also related to their religious environment. A number of religious groups had risen up in the 400 years between the testaments. One was named the Sadducees. They controlled that rebuilt temple and the succession of high priests. They embraced the Hellenistic culture, theologically. They only accepted the first five books of the old Testament, the law of Moses, primarily, perhaps because they denied the resurrection of the body and the presence of angels. And they downplayed miracles. This group believed God was not involved in human affairs to any extent, essentially, they were like deists.

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So the Sadducees, which Jesus met many times in the new Testament where the political elite, the religious liberals who rejected a large portion of the old Testament scriptures. And remember, they didn't believe there was any resurrection of the body, no life after death. What you had here was all you got as a reaction to the sad. Jesse's another group Rose up that we'll meet in the new Testament, who rubbed shoulders with Jesus, the Pharisees, unlike the Sadducees who are the political elite Pharisees Rose up from among the common people. They tried to remove the center of their religion from the temple to the home, hoping and doing so they could bypass those corrupt priests, the Pharisees embraced the whole old Testament, and then believing that God gave God given reason.

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They interpreted the old Testament with a whole bunch of oral rules and laws. One scholar has estimated about 600 rules or laws. They've viewed written scripture and oral interpretations on an equal note. They believe God was very much present, very much in control and willing to help his people. The third group that emerged were called zealots. These were people who believed we will not compromise with idolatrous Rome. They paid no taxes and they look for opportunities to undermine Rome any way they could. One sect of the zealots called the Sakari were assassins. They liked to work Roman crowds and put ice picks into people's ribs.

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This group became, if you pardon the expression, such a thorn in Rome side, that they eventually caused the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a D a fourth group, where the SCNs they emerged during the Maccabean period. They're also likely the group responsible for Qumran and the preservation of the dead sea scrolls. These folks were ascetic the setting aside of conveniences and normal culture. They were also communal and strict, particularly towards ceremonial, washings prayers and keeping the Sabbath. Not surprisingly. They came to believe they were the only recipients, the only true recipients to the promises God had made to Israel.

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And they were in times oriented. If you know anything about the life of Jesus, just imagine now Jesus walking among these four groups. Imagine him speaking about him being raised from the dead to a group of Sadducees who believe in no afterlife. Imagine him scolding the Pharisees for their oral traditions that deny the written word of God in the old Testament. Imagine him paying taxes to Rome, to the zealots, listening to his words, or calling Simon the zealot to be one of his disciples. And imagine what a separatist ascetic Essien would think when Jesus ate and drank with the riff-raff in Judea or Galilee, politically, culturally, religiously, the times were pregnant.

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When the new Testament curtain opened for act two, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son. That's our second phrase. God sent forth his son. That's the theme of the new Testament. This is surprising. God sends forth his son, but it shouldn't be surprising. We got a hint of this to Abraham. Someone will come from you. That will bless all nations. It was more than a hint when God made a covenant with David. One will come from you from your line, who will sit on the throne and rule forever. When Isaiah said the suffering servant would bear the iniquities of many.

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He had to be talking about someone more than one mere man. And in Daniel's vision, the angel was shameless about it. That one who was coming that one like the son of man would be handed from God himself, rule over all nations eternally. An eternal rule requires an eternal being. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son born of a woman, the Stomper born of a woman that would also make this son sent forth from God. Human born of a woman may be also hints of the first promise of the old Testament. Do you remember it that the seed of the woman would crush Satan's head and destroy the power of sin?

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When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law in order that he might redeem those who were under the law. The covenant of the old Testament was keeping the law of a Holy guide. In the old Testament, we learned the purpose of the 10 commandments was to show us how utterly sick we are incapable of keeping those laws of a Holy God. We clearly were under that law, buried under it and guilty breaking those laws was sin. And we learned sin separates us from a Holy God and brings death. The new Testament said that son of God, born of a woman came to redeem us from that to pay a price, to buy us back.

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Do you remember our story of the little girl with her ship? The new Testament is about God's son, born of a woman who would pay the price of sin to a Holy God and bias back for God and not just bought back. Paul's last phrase that we might receive the adoption as sons, the promise of God will come full circle. For those who received this adoption, he will be our guide and we will be as people. And we will be together. Welcome to the last 27 pieces of God's jigsaw puzzle. The story continues the new covenant, new, not in the sense of replacing the old but of fulfilling it.

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Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood. We will see what that means going forward as for the 27 pieces or books in the new Testament for our accounts of Jesus' life, seeking to demonstrate he's God's son, born of a woman here to save us. I called him this Stomper in the old Testament episodes. I'm going to now switch to a new term savior. We call these first four pieces. The gospels in the gospels, the savior is introduced the fifth book in the new Testament, switches genres to history. It explains the spread of the good news of the salvation. The savior brought the 20 pieces that follow that are in the genre of letters.

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These 20 letters explain how the salvation brought by the savior is applied to the lives of those he's redeemed in every area of life. He wants to redeem every area of our lives. The 27th piece is an amazing vision of how he, the savior will complete our salvation, where all things are redeemed and God's kids are as God intended in creation with him forever. Now I completely understand that's a lot to get your head and heart around. If, as a student of the Bible, you're already a follower of Jesus. Those things are gonna make a whole lot more sense as we move forward together.

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If you're a seeker or even a skeptic, I'm going to invite you to tag along. Please many people right there with Jesus and his audience in the first century heard what he taught, saw what he did and the way he did it concluded he wasn't the one and walked away, but many also believed and kept following him. So about those first four pieces of the new Testament, jigsaw puzzle, why four gospels, they basically tell the same story about the same person. So why four? I'm going to answer that in our next word picture.