The title of my course is New Testament Survey:the Gospels. The instructor is Dr. Kevin Hester. I will be watching four DVDs a week. The title of my book is JESUS AND THE GOSPELS. The author is Craig L. Blomberg. I will be reading three chapters this week.
The first DVD talks about literary criticism. This is trying to understand what the author was trying to say in the text. It can be very helpful in reading the New Testament.
The next DVD is an intro to the Gospels. The title of "Gospel" means "Good News". It truly is good news. The instructor describes a gospel as a narrative about Jesus with an apologetic purpose.
There are different themes for each Gospel. They each have different "portrait" of Jesus that they seem to promote. In Matthew, the focus is Jesus as King. In Mark, it shifts to Jesus as suffering servant. Luke's Gospel centers on Jesus as Saviour. The Gospel of John focuses on Jesus as God. It is amazing how each one portrays Him differntly, but we need Jesus to be all of those for us. And He always is!!!
Hey Tyler, I have always heard about harmony in the gospels the different views would make perfect sense, but I have also heard that Jesus's mother had some veiws as well, is there any evidence of that in your study?
I haven't heard anything like that yet. I have(from other sources) heard about some of those "other gospels" that claim to be written by apostles. The early church recognized this and was very careful to authorize just any writing that was accredited to an apostle. The Holy Spirit was the guide in those decisions. There were probably several forgeries back then. We see these later in the "gnostic" gospels found in Egypt in 1947. I hope the instructor talks a little about these.
The nest DVD talks about the book of Mark. Mark's gospel has the "roughest" form of Greek of all the Gospels. It also offers vivid details. The theme is Christ as the suffering Servant. Scholars believe that this is the Gospel that Peter taught. Mark is believed to be John Mark from the book of Acts. Church traditions teaches that John Mark was a companion of Peter when he was at Rome. Therefore, it is believed that Mark wrote Peter's account of the Gospel while they were together.
I like all the Gospels of course, but Mark is right to the point, no extra stuff but Jesus and his miracles. do any of you guys have one that you seem to connect to more than the others?
You know, I like the gospels as well,and I have often thought why did Peter not get to pen one. I think out of all the disciples Peter was the closest to Jesus, more so than the others. Does anyone else have thoughts on this?
I can say that there is a lot of times I can relate to Peter in regard to his failings. I love how Jesus tells him his name is "rock". It gives me hope.
If I remember correctly, I think a lot of scholars think that Mark got a lot of his material from Peter (at least that was how the Holy Spirit got a lot of the information to Mark--in that view.)
Maybe Peter didn't like to write very much. Maybe Mark's Gospel is almost like Peter's Gospel. That's a lot of "maybes," ha!. I guess we can ask when we meet them!
Is this view still prevalent? In any of your reading, have you read about Mark having a close association with Peter?
I posted about Mark and Peter earlier this week. Some think that John Mark was a companion of Peter when he was at Rome. Maybe it is some of Peter's stories about Jesus that he wanted to write down. Maybe Peter did not know Greek and needed someone who did to write it for him.
You will notice some posts below that relate to various topics of discussion by our online community of preachers.
One of the purposes of Preachers' Meeting is to provide a place for young ministers or those recently called to preach to interact around the principles in a course of study recommended by our local group of preachers in the Southern Illinois area.
We invite you to look in on our conversations. If you would like to add comments as a guest, you are welcome to do so. If this looks interesting to you, you may join us as we start a new session. You can look in the side bar (or sometimes it is moved to right below this post) to see the weekly requirements. We start new courses every 8 or 9 weeks. As already mentioned, you are welcome to comment as a guest before that time.
Below these posts, you will see the word, "comments." Just click on it, and you will see a box on the right side of the screen where you may add your comments.
Look around. Enjoy yourself, and come back often!
Weekly Requirements
Here is a review of the general requirements for each week.
You have three assignments each week
(1) Make at least two initial posts in your posting area. The first one will be the name of the course, and the names (or numbers of the DVD's) of the chapters or lectures you will be covering during the week. The second one will be a comment on one of those chapters. You will receive one point for getting the first post in on Tuesday or Wednesday. You will also get a point for getting at least one more initial post in.
(2) Go to your fellow student's posting areas, and ask them a question or make comments about their intial posts. You will recieve one point for completing this assignment before 12:00 a.m. on Friday morning (that would be before midnight on Thursday).
(3) Answer the questions asked.
(4) On Fridays, I will also give directions for making remaining posts during the week. Be sure and read those, and take them into account when making at least one of your remaining posts.
In all, we want to make at least nine posts during the week. You will receive points for that as follows:
9 or more posts - 12 points
6-8 posts - 10 points
3-5 posts - 6 points
1-2 posts - 3 points
You will have the extra points you had accumulated by getting things in on time. Those are bonus points that will be used only to move your grade closer to 100 if you need them. They will be awarded each week if needed to move your grade up to 12 for the week. If you do not need them for that week, they will be carried over to the next week(s). Remember the posts that count for points will be at least three sentences long.
Thoughts on Application
Roger gave some good thoughts on application:
"Chapter 75, titled: 'Apply Within' is a lesson in application. The writer explains why it is sometimes difficult applying a sermon to real life situations. I will list some of the reasons application is not applied to our lives.
"First it is "hard work", it is hard to find application to every situation in the congregation,
"second, is wrong assumptions, assuming the audience is able to apply any and all biblical truths is totally a wrong assumption,
"third, is fear, fear of being to deep or to simplistic in the text and failing at application, and then there is training or lack thereof,
"many preachers know the text, and the history and the order of things but are totally untrained in application. One gentleman said it this way," how can you be a good football player when you can pass the ball, or when you can kick the ball, or when you can run with the ball but you don't know the rules of the game."
If you live in the souther Illinois area, we would like to invite you to a Couples' Marriage Enrichment Seminar on Saturday, February 27. It starts at 6:00 p.m and will run to 9:00 p.m.
After the welcome, there will be a dinner. Then there will be an opening session, followed by two breakout sessions, then a short closing.
The Keynote Speaker is Dr. Randy Carney (That's me :)!) and Roger and Janet Dutton will be speaking during the breakout sessions (That's Roger, who is commenting on this blog during this term!). Randy and Rhonda (my wife!) Carney will also have a breakout session discussing "Keys to Marital Bliss."
The Keynote Address will be on the topic of "The Way to a Successful Marriage: The Shocking and Surprising Truth."
Roger and Janet will be talking about "Hope for Restoring your marriage."
The cost is $15.00 per couple and that includes a dinner and all seminar materials. A nursery and childcare will be available. (Please indicate that you need these services when you register.) A book table with resources from Handfuls on Purpose Christian Bookstore will be available.
The seminar is for couples of all ages, ranging from newlyweds to marriage veterans!
To register, call 618-627-2228 to let the church know how may will be attending. Payment can be made at the event. (Make checks to TFBC.) For more information, call the church at 618-627-2228.
The Greatest Love
Since Valentine's Day falls on Sunday this year, I imagine there will be a ton of sermons going out on the topic of love.
Paul talked about love and respect in marriage (Ephesians 5), but he was really saying that that was an illustration of the relationship between Christ and the church.
Christ
Left Heaven to come to this earth.
He
Overcame adversity while here. He even conquered death!
He
Valued mankind so much that He gave Himself on the cross.
He desires fellowship with us. He reconciled the world to Himself, so that people could have an
Intimate realtionship with Him.
He meets all of our
Needs.
He is the supreme example of
Giving.
Do you see the word, LOVING, there? That is what He is--our LOVING Savior! Because of that, we should love one another.
Course 11 Week 4
Scroll down to the week 4 area to begin commenting.
Dealing with the Closed American Mind
One of the chapters Roger is reading is entitled, (something like) "Dealing with the Closed American Mind." I don't know if it is mentioned in the chapter, but I suspect that if you tak about something where a person has a felt need, you can gain their hearing somewhat.
What are your thoughts?
You may scroll down and comment in the week 3 comments area. Visitors are welcome to comment also.
Connecting with Postmoderns
This is something most preachers do every Sunday. If you have young unchurched visitors in your church, you will be trying to reach postmoderns. Even some of your church youth are more influenced by postmodernism than by their previous Sunday school teaching.
Here is my reply to one of Roger's posts:
"Roger, what tips stand out to you for commecting with postmoderns? I think the term modern referred to an age in history that related to new thoughts in science, etc. (If I am off base, refresh my memory.) Post modern refers to the time following that era. Connecting with postmoderns is something you have to do, whether you realize it or not, almost every time you preach."
I will post some of his answers here if he sees the question in time.
Preaching--Proclamation of God's Word
Preaching, by one definition, is the proclamation of God's Word. As such, a person, can take the Scriptural passage and find some of its main points and emphasize those points.
While I believe we should learn all we can about the grammatical construction of the words of Scripture, and that we should learn all we can about the historical setting for when those words were originally spoken; the nice thing about proclaiming the Word is that you can just take what the text says and emphasize it. Then the Word will not return void.
People with all different types of backgrounds have been called to preach throughout the centuries. Some very "unlearned" (as the world would put it) men have had great results by simply taking the main ideas of Scripture and simply emphasizing them. As long as we do not twist the meaning, this simply shows the amazing power of the Word of God.
New Format
I am going to try putting my comments for each day in this left sidebar. The comments areas for the remaining weeks are displayed to the right. That is where you will place your comments for each week.
13 comments:
The title of my course is New Testament Survey:the Gospels. The instructor is Dr. Kevin Hester. I will be watching four DVDs a week. The title of my book is JESUS AND THE GOSPELS. The author is Craig L. Blomberg. I will be reading three chapters this week.
7. The Gospel of Matthew
8. The Gospel of Luke
9. The Gospel of John
The first DVD talks about literary criticism. This is trying to understand what the author was trying to say in the text. It can be very helpful in reading the New Testament.
The next DVD is an intro to the Gospels. The title of "Gospel" means "Good News". It truly is good news. The instructor describes a gospel as a narrative about Jesus with an apologetic purpose.
There are different themes for each Gospel. They each have different "portrait" of Jesus that they seem to promote. In Matthew, the focus is Jesus as King. In Mark, it shifts to Jesus as suffering servant. Luke's Gospel centers on Jesus as Saviour. The Gospel of John focuses on Jesus as God. It is amazing how each one portrays Him differntly, but we need Jesus to be all of those for us. And He always is!!!
Hey Tyler, I have always heard about harmony in the gospels the different views would make perfect sense, but I have also heard that Jesus's mother had some veiws as well, is there any evidence of that in your study?
I haven't heard anything like that yet. I have(from other sources) heard about some of those "other gospels" that claim to be written by apostles. The early church recognized this and was very careful to authorize just any writing that was accredited to an apostle. The Holy Spirit was the guide in those decisions. There were probably several forgeries back then. We see these later in the "gnostic" gospels found in Egypt in 1947. I hope the instructor talks a little about these.
The nest DVD talks about the book of Mark. Mark's gospel has the "roughest" form of Greek of all the Gospels. It also offers vivid details. The theme is Christ as the suffering Servant. Scholars believe that this is the Gospel that Peter taught. Mark is believed to be John Mark from the book of Acts. Church traditions teaches that John Mark was a companion of Peter when he was at Rome. Therefore, it is believed that Mark wrote Peter's account of the Gospel while they were together.
I like all the Gospels of course, but Mark is right to the point, no extra stuff but Jesus and his miracles. do any of you guys have one that you seem to connect to more than the others?
You know, I like the gospels as well,and I have often thought why did Peter not get to pen one. I think out of all the disciples Peter was the closest to Jesus, more so than the others. Does anyone else have thoughts on this?
I can say that there is a lot of times I can relate to Peter in regard to his failings. I love how Jesus tells him his name is "rock".
It gives me hope.
If I remember correctly, I think a lot of scholars think that Mark got a lot of his material from Peter (at least that was how the Holy Spirit got a lot of the information to Mark--in that view.)
Maybe Peter didn't like to write very much. Maybe Mark's Gospel is almost like Peter's Gospel. That's a lot of "maybes," ha!. I guess we can ask when we meet them!
Is this view still prevalent? In any of your reading, have you read about Mark having a close association with Peter?
Peter, James, and John, all three, were part of that inner circle. It's hard to say which of them might have been closer to Jesus.
I posted about Mark and Peter earlier this week. Some think that John Mark was a companion of Peter when he was at Rome. Maybe it is some of Peter's stories about Jesus that he wanted to write down. Maybe Peter did not know Greek and needed someone who did to write it for him.
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