This morning we move on to the New Testament and we will deal with New Testament theology which means we will not be dealing with New Testament exagerical details. Just like we couldn't do it in the Old Testament, we can't do it in the New Testament class work either. The New Testament theology certainly does assume a lot of exagerical work. The period between Malachi and Jesus Christ is about 420 years and that's a long time, almost as long as the history of the United States. This given 80 years after Columbus discovered America from that point on till now, that's the period length of time between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. There's a lot of material there, the inter-testimentary writings, to which many critical writers appeal for an understanding of what John the Baptist said, what Jesus said, etc. The Paul helps us to bridge the gap when writing to the Galatian church he said, but when the time had fully come, or in the fullness of time, God sent his son born of a woman born under law to redeem those underlaw that we might receive the full rights of sons and because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts. The Spirit who calls out Abba Fathers, so you are no longer a slave but a son and since you are a son, God has also made you an heir. To take that out of context, I mean out of the whole biblical context would certainly give you the wrong impression. You wouldn't be able to interpret this passage if you didn't see it in its Old Testament context. Again, I don't want to go into detail on this now, but I repeat, Paul here ties us right in with the Old Testament and we are going to spend a bit of time on that. This morning, let us pray. Lord our God grant that we may be able to concentrate on the material before us. We are in a rather unusual circumstance and we thank you for the presence of the two Philips here with us today so that the work of the seminary can go far beyond the immediate halls of learning here. And now we pray that you will bless us as we spend the last part of this semester looking at the teaching of the New Testament and how it relates to the Old. God bless us together. Give us joy in our work for Jesus' sake. Amen. Empires grew strong. Empires came and empires went. Malachi was in the Middle Persian Empire. The Egyptian Empire remained through various circumstances and in varying ways dominant empire to ever be reckoned with. Jesus' parents would never have fled there with him had Egypt not been an area of strength and protection. The Greek Empire came and went. The Roman Empire came in about a hundred before years before Christ. Empires came, empires went, but the kingdom of God continued. But there was progress in the developing of that kingdom and there was a further unfolding of God's covenant and he of whom the Old Testament had spoken so eloquently came on the scene the mediator. New Testament theology I submit deals with these three main concepts and I'll be referring to them again as we move along this morning. But looking at New Testament theology itself and you pick up the different works you are immediately encountered with a wealth of discussion about the character of New Testament theology. There is a tremendous debate about that even more so it seems to me than there is about the Old Testament. Are we to consider New Testament theology basically a historical and a descriptive discipline? Are we simply just to follow through the history of thought and describe the people and what they thought? That's what the Von Rad approach in the Old Testament you'll find different New Testament wanting to take writers, wanting to take New Testament theologians that is wanting to take this historical descriptive approach in a way it's almost a secular approach. Then there are others that insist on taking this salvation historical approach and that sounds real good if the history of salvation. Now I find it very interesting that Howard Marshall and I'll be giving you a full bibliography later on before the semester ends. Howard Marshall in a book Jesus the Sager which has just come off the press or very recently 1990 gives a review of different men and I'll refer to some of these but he has a criticism of lad and lad is pretty much next to the Bible the Bible for New Testament theologians and evangelical seminaries. Yes, he says this man takes a salvation historical approach but he doesn't give us a full and proper setting really bus in his work once readers of the New Testament to really understand that the New Testament is more than just a history of salvation. salvation history it gives us the history of the kingdom the kingdom that was spoken of in the Old Testament the kingdom of which the king the Christ comes and redemption is a very important part of that no doubt. So you'll find writers Marshall written by saying just to take the salvation historical approach is not satisfactory you're not doing for justice to the New Testament if you do that taking I repeat just the history of salvation the salvation events you've got to put him in the forward context you got to put him in the context of the Roman world within which these people wrote. Within the context of God the sovereign ruling over the nations as he did in Old Testament times so get the broader picture if you want to understand the full New Testament message then there's those that say. The best way to approach New Testament theology is to look at the different writers and talk about the theologies of Matthew the theology of John the theology of Luke the theology of Paul and there's a theology of Peter then an end of James and of Jude as if the New Testament is a collection of theologies. Now there's no doubt about it that each writer had his unique emphasis the call of their theology was the same but in their circumstances with their unique gifts and speaking to the people that they were particularly concerned about Paul through the different congregations James general Peter to a general audience yes they did give unique expression to the gospel message of the kingdom of the Christ and how to live in obedience to the Christ within his kingdom so we can look at what the different men have said and how they emphasize their unique approaches but to speak of the New Testament as a series of theologies makes me awfully uncomfortable I hope it does you also because there is not a series of theologies there's one that us logos one word of God that comes to us in the richness of the entire hundred years of the New Testament period and then there is an awful lot of discussion about how the New Testament theology is to relate to the Old Testament now I already refer to that when I said that many of the little liberal writers go particularly to the inter Testament period and they go to the apocalyptic writings as much if not more than they go to the Old Testament writings after all you got to see a man in his context you got to see Jesus and John the Baptist in their context and what was their context what was the Roman Empire and that just prior to the Roman Empire what was going on in the two 300 years before Christ you had all that apocalyptic writing that suit a peg of old writing you had these different concepts of what the kingdom was to be how is or was to be delivered and what the phrase kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God really meant in Judaism writings and then they try to project that which came out of the inter Testament period into the New Testament mind and don't pay too much attention really to what the Old Testament itself says now one thing that I have really appreciated about lad is that he said and Ritterboss does that Marshall does too and others got three whose work is more the knowledge systematic theology I believe than a biblical theology but anyway these men point out that you never understand John the Baptist you won't understand Paul what their conception of God is what their conception of the Christ is what their conception of the covenant is what their conception of the kingdom is unless you go to Moses the poets David Solomon as well as the former and the pre-exile can put these Eric prophets so the relation is of New Testament theology is to the whole Old Testament but evangelical scholars and lives for one pays very little attention to what actually was done in that 420 year period that I referred to between Malachi and Jesus and how much of that do we actually study in an evangelical seminary such as covenant is there's not an elective course in inter Testamentary times is there I played for one that reformed theological seminary in 90 and it fell on deaf ears because it's not a period of revelation that is inspired revelation but it nevertheless forms quite a background because Jesus and the New Testament writers were all members of the Jewish community that came right out of that inter Testamentary time so in a way we should pay some attention to these and it won't hurt you at all class to read the apocryphal book sometime once twice or again you'll find some parts very inspiring some parts rather dull but I know people say that about certain books and parts of the Old Testament also I don't find many people reading the genealogy for example and find it very devotional very chilly up building so it is but nevertheless those books do help you to understand the historical background the literary background but to say that they had a real impact on the message that we get in the New Testament I would say no I would not go along with that now going on to the various written works oh my read read read read there's boss part of your assignment for reading the New Testament he starts in page 297 and it goes right on he never ever gets to Jesus death much less his trial his whole course got up through the mid up to part of the ministry and he to conclude this discussion on the relationship between kingdom and church Matthew 16 but if you want to know what boss thought about the revelation of Jesus that came through his public ministry as well as his nativity in John the Baptist you read boss and he gives he sets the stage then you got a plough on for yourself the coming of the kingdom by reader boss of work has been translated not on how many different languages deals only with the three synoptic gospels and only by reference to some of the other writing I have here also this work for Marshall it's a series of essays basically and he tries to cover the Old Testament as I said this book just came out in 1990 and he's got a number of subjects the aims and methods the person the work of Jesus Christ and he has theological essays and one of the essays here is what I consider rather interesting and that is observations on the covenant in the New Testament I'm going to refer to one of the things he says so you can get these works the deal with part but they're usually not listed as New Testament theologies they are works in the area of New Testament theology now I'm going to give you a list and I'm sorry I don't have it for you now of the different writers as I also indicated on the reading assignment that you should pay attention to the different authors that have been working that have made a tremendous impact on the whole field of New Testament theology and Marshall gives us a summing up of these and let me just refer the name to the names you have the list of these names Staufer and we begin in the beginning of the Second World War we won't even go back of that Staufer was the first of the critical writers followed by Boltman in 1948 then a.m. Hunter a British writer came in 1957 Richardson in 1958 C.C. Riery yes a dispensational fame in 59 Councilman in 67 Cuomo in 73 Jeremiah's in 71 L.O.C. L.O.H.S.E. in 74 L.A.D. in 75 Gotbelt 76 Nio in 76 Guthrie in 81 and these are all substantial works that cover the whole New Testament and if you want to become a New Testament theologian you've got some reading to do class and some of this is tough reading because concepts are taken and they're analyzed and discussed and they're related there is a plethora of works on the whole New Testament mind you in the last 50 years so the New Testament has been studied I'm not referring now not even to commentaries or introductions I'm referring just to New Testament theologies people trying to wrestle with hey what is the real Theros Logos the message of God in the New Testament how are we to understand it how did it come to us what is its meaning what a challenge now I know that we at the seminary here we offer a number of courses that every MDiz student and most of the MA students especially exagerical MA exagerical are expected to take so you deal with the pastoral pistols and you deal with Paulina pistols and you may deal with Gospel and Acts and you deal with it more from the historical, literary and general content point of view and I know what you are expected to do I have the outlines here of the other classes and I'm not minimizing and I'm not anyway depreciating what you're doing in those other classes you need that in order to become theologians but I being an Old Testament specialist coming here to tell you now how you got to wrap it all together makes me feel a bit uneasy and a bit uncomfortable I've tried to keep up to an extent but I've made it mostly in Old Testament and I'm thankful that I did because it does help me to understand what all these other guys are writing about but I haven't been able to read all these people that I've just referred to I read summaries so I want to make this immediate I want to make it clear that I don't want to give the impression that I mastered New Testament theology I wish I had done Old Testament theology in which I spent so much more time it's a tremendously intriguing subject not just the study parts which is necessary but to see the whole picture as we've been trying to get the whole picture of the Old Testament Now our approach will be as with the Old Testament and I'm going to maintain that to see the overall picture of the Old Testament we've got to follow what we found in the Old Testament if we're going to see the New we've got to follow what's in the Old the kingdom is the second and the book's written on the first three gospels entitled the kingdom, the coming of the kingdom Lad begins his studies his first 170 pages deal with the kingdom very important all-inclusive concept that's the all-inclusive base but what about the covenant and mediator a word on that what I want to stress now first of all when we deal with the threefold meta that complex the three concepts don't drop your Old Testament because the New Testament is the fulfillment the further out working the development of what the Old Testament has presented and we know the Old Statement that we just presented the Oldists were filled in the New and the New cannot be understood unless you look back to the Old Testament that certainly is true here the New Testament is the development presents the development of and is a record of the fulfillment of basic to the Old Testament concepts now I want to point out immediately that not all three of the basic concepts are specifically mentioned by name in certain contexts where we just love to see the word used just like when we dealt with a covenant of creation hey you don't find the word covenant in the first five chapters of Genesis so can we speak of a covenant well I think that's one reason why Mr. Marshall wrote and you know Howard Marshall has the great New Testament professor in Scotland wrote about observations about the covenant in the New Testament and he says very specifically here that second our discussion has confirmed the basic tenant of reformed theology that there is but one covenant of grace in the Old Testament and the New Testament alike one covenant his essay on kingdom well maybe we got a look at the kingdom from two points of view but what I want to point out is what he says here that even though the term is not used too often it is absolutely basic to practically everything the New Testament teaches just because the term deoteca comes across just a few times 33 times specifically doesn't mean that you can say oh well we can drop the covenant idea now because Jesus is the great center oh no says Marshall hey you never understand Christ properly unless you see him in that context so by implication you gotta keep in mind that when Jesus was sitting at the table with his disciples and said this is the blood of the new covenant he presents himself as a great covenant mediator now the term mediator doesn't come through very often Messiah Christ does often Christ the Messiah the Messiah the Christos but the idea of the Messiah as mediator Macytase comes through only very very sporadically but at very crucial points hey the mediator the Macytase is there so we have the three concepts the Basalea look you look in your great concordance and the kingdoms the kingdom the kingdom the king the Basalea you start looking for the word covenant and then you have the word deoteca you remember what boss wrote about that the big problem that the New Testament writers may have had and wanting to translate the idea of barit into New Testament the attacker and remember also a former professor here professor JB pain has his book on the older testament he takes the second meaning of testament as primary for this word deoteca deoteca whatever we want to pronounce it a word that's used very much in common New Testament parlance I mean in times it was soon tacky that means the thesis between two soon tacky really gives an emphasis a bilateral action deoteca but the emphasis on monolateral monogistic unilateral and so the term deoteca can be translated testament testimony as well as covenant bond contract they took the translation deoteca because they wanted to put the emphasis on the unilateral character of what the New Testament presents concerning the relationship between God and his people that bond that bond of love and life is monogistically unilaterally established and unconditionally established that's the emphasis and repeatedly we have this word well repeatedly 33 times and I already refer to masites now going on to the method I want to call your attention again to and I don't know if you have it with you to my little sketch that I gave you when I made first work on this sketch I do a line right through here because that was stopped for me and the dream about what goes on beyond what the day we're doing more than dreaming I saw three epochs of revelation beyond the Old Testament epochs and I call the first one there the new testament introduced John the Baptist Christ birth then the new covenant established Christ ministry there's a real difference between John the Baptist who introduces and Christ birth introduces the Christ ministry establishes and that includes his death and then after Christ has been resurrected and ascended with petty cost we get the third New Testament epoch of revelation now this is especially that which is mediated through the Apostles those going out preaching in the New Testament era and all the writing so there's basically then the three epochs the introduction the ministry of Christ the introduction of New Testament introduction to the development of the covenant the kingdom being introduced the establishing of it under Jesus ministry and the development under the Apostles now I want to read from boss page 299 the first paragraph speaking about structure or method of doing New Testament theology there are three ways in which the structure of New Testament revelation can be determined from within scripture itself to add from within scripture itself is essential then scripture determines our method the scripture determines our approach and the goal to which we go we dare not impose upon the divine process of revelation and this product esteem from any outside source no laying a grid on the New Testament that's thought up from outside of scripture scripture has to presented for says if redemption and revelation form an organism then like every other organism it should be permitted to reveal to us its own articulation either by way of observing it or by our receiving from it the formula of its makeup where at certain high points it reaches a consciousness of its own inner growth a mouthful but all of this is so too don't go to outside sources go strictly and only to scripture itself and then he has a number of pointers he says if you want to know the structure of the Old Testament you go to the Old Testament you see the indication from the Old Testament you have got to listen to the teachings of Jesus and you've got to listen to the teachings of Paul and the other apostles the Old Testament Jesus and the Apostles they are your sources and your method then has to be the scripture the entire scripture to determine just exactly what you will understand and what the content will be of New Testament theology and I want to emphasize that our method is going to be that what is often been referred to as the historical progressive organic adaptable God revealed himself in history New Testament gives us history he did it progressively he moved on it wasn't static he did it organically that which was revealed in the beginning like with John the Baptist repent, receive forgiveness for that your entrance into the kingdom that in a way is a very crucial concept right at the beginning of the New Testament picked up from the old carried on through to the new and it's very adaptable it was spoken and that's one reason why people can speak of the different theologies too because each one as I said before each of the writers spoke as he was gifted wrote as he was able to the specific context in which they were working but when we deal historically and progressively we run into quite a debate as to how which books we are to work with how were to work with them and which ones and I'm sure that from New Testament introduction and exegesis and other courses you've come to realize that the order in which we have the books in the New Testament is not the order in which they were written but no one knows for sure absolutely sure which is the first book and if I say there is evidence that there are some pre Pauline documents to which Paul refers which were the first things written you might say prove it I can't Marshall refers to them from the other writers refer to them because Paul refers to them but nobody knows when Paul wrote them to whom well he wrote to the glossions but when we don't know the sum assumed that Paul was writing right soon after his conversion within a couple years well but what is the order is James first many seem to say yes James and then we get first and second Thessalonians followed closely with first and second Corinthians then Galatians then we get the three four prison epistles Ephesians Philippians Colossians and Philemon then was marked first now I'm back in the Gospel according to New Testament scholars they really feel that most of the epistles were there before and all this theology about Christ this discussion about Christ who he was and that had to be filled in with the background of his coming and what he actually preached and so we get many say Mark was first and Matthew Luke would depend on Mark but no one can prove that just like they can't prove whether now Joel was first or whether Joel sums up the prophets but there's a real linking connection which again is understandable because they deal with the same. So if we have Mark Matthew Luke then comes Peter then first and second Timothy John his gospel his letters and the book of Revelation is that the order in which we should develop our theology of the New Testament? If we do it from that point of view then we do it from the point of view of how it was understood how it was written and then we're dealing more with theology rather than with the historical process of revelation. Do you understand what I'm saying if we follow the truly historical progressive organic adaptable revelatory process then we're going to start with John the Baptist then we go to Jesus ministry and then we enter cost then we go to the establishing of the church and in the context of the church being established the letters start coming but Acts only takes us up to Paul Paul and prison we don't know exactly how long Paul lived after Acts the Acts account closes but we do know that beyond that yet we have Peter and John and Jude writing. So what order do we follow do we follow the theological development or do we follow the historical progressive and I think bus sets the stage for us you start with the old testament which we've done then we look at Jesus ministry which we're going to be doing and then we move on to the establishment of the church and the Paulina pistols that's the order. And if you want to put all this material that you're studying in the seminary into a proper new testament setting follow that order from John the Baptist right on through to what John wrote in his book of revelation but John in his gospel definitely brings you to the time of Jesus ministry. So you take John's writings you have to separate that from what he wrote in the latter part of his life or he wrote it all in the latter part of his life but what he wrote about he wrote about Jesus ministry and did that in a very unique way and I hope we can spend an hour on that but now we've got to get into that meat of the matter having dealt with some formal problems and discussion here. New Testament theology going to throw me numeral to the kingdom in the synoptic gospels and it's John the Baptist who introduces us to the kingdom. John the Baptist an Old Testament prophet and a New Testament preacher may I put it that way I'm most comfortable with it that way his prophetic work ties in really with the Old Testament. He is a lie to the second he stands at a transition point is John the Baptist who says Aggie King the kingdom is at hand it is near the NIV says if he doesn't say it is here it has come. Oh it's close it's close the Old Testament prophets had pointed way to the future. John the Baptist points to that which is coming it's there but not yet fully fully comes it's at hand can almost reach it but not yet there. Now John the Baptist that preaches as in a way as a New Testament preacher but he's in the Old Testament era and what I find interesting that at his birth according to Luke chapter 1 verse 17 and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of righteousness to make ready a people prepared for the Lord when his birth is announced he's tied with Elijah but his task is announced he must prepare the New Testament audience for the Messiah for Christ. In the spirit of Elijah yes then Zachariah when he's able to speak says this is chapter 1 verse 70 to 76 and you my child will be called a prophet of the most high for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins because of the tender mercy of our God that is in chapter 1 Zachariah at the birth of Jesus knew the relationship of Jesus Christ to John the Baptist. He knew the relationship of John the Baptist to David he knew the relationship of John the Baptist to the covenant and Zachariah the priest saw his son as ministering to the son of David bringing to fuller expression the covenant that God had made with his Old Testament people. Then when John comes on the scene having been presented in that way first by the age of the Lord and then by his father John comes preaching and he preaches repentance preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and he's the one who says to the kingdom is at hand. Now repentance is certainly an Old Testament team shoe be sorry return turn about Matthew 3 verse 2 and verse 8 mark 1 verse 4 Luke 2 verse 8 repent the call went out to the scribes and the Pharisees in the priest as well as to the average people. The New Testament period thus begins with a call to repent there had to be a change of heart a change of mind a change of direction but along with repentance came the absolute assurance of forgiveness God would forgive recall Micah what a God who forgives and forgets now why does John preach repentance and forgiveness. It's the only way to enter the kingdom there's no other way to become members of the kingdom that David represented the great cosmic redemptive kingdom. It's the only way to get out of the parasite kingdom in which people are bound right from their birth and by their sin. They got to turn from the parasite kingdom to the kingdom of life turn confess repent and God will forgive you and he'll wipe the past and you will become members servants blessed in heriters of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus and that's represented by him for he preached the Messiah to the third concept Messiah. Matthew 3 11 mark 1 7 Luke 3 16 and 17 behold the Lamb of God behold the Messiah behold the greater one. He is near he is coming and then when he is busy baptizing he says he is here and then John receives he must increase and I must decrease forgiveness repentance to enter the kingdom to become servants of the Messiah the King. If anyone on also to deal with the and to preach the baptism with spirit and fire this Messiah is going to be a judge he's going to be the one that will give us the spirit of God or he'll give us the fire of God. The spirit who enables us to repent to receive forgiveness and to become blessed in heriters of the kingdom or we're going to come under the fire of the judge. Either or will be the fire of the spirit or will be the fire of judgment. Boy John doesn't mix words. He doesn't mean his concepts by any means and he puts this on the context of the kingdom that God the sovereign one is raining. So those are the basic concepts in his preaching repentance forgiveness the Messiah the baptism with fire and spirit that is the curse of the blessing of the covenant. He doesn't use the word covenant but implicitly it's there and if you can read he says a man too they say it's the only way it makes sense. He ties in with the Old Testament. Mones is saying about the curse and the blessing the prophets having preached at all the time. The poet's being so aware of the wrath of God is the love of God and oh the blessedness of being under the love of God and what a blessing it is to come from underneath the wrath of God. Well summing up the kingdom is here and the person of the Messiah his work will begin. He will reign and he will judge he will bless and he will give clear expression to the curse of the covenant. The kingdom is here the Messiah is here and he is administering through the covenant will pick up on Jesus ministry and dealing with the idea of the kingdom covenant mediator in the first three gospels next time.