"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."
(Hebrews 1:1-2)
The Spirit always points to and bears witness to the person and work of Christ.
Why?
Why point to Jesus Christ?
What's the point of pointing to Christ in the gospels?
For the first century Christian disciples and gospel teachers, Christian faith and life are rooted in the person of Jesus. His ancestry, his birth, his earthly ministry, and ultimately his divine kingship (heavenly God), stand as our guide and example for Christian ethics and righteousness. The gospels make it very clear that for the Christian witnesses and their prodigious followers, salvation by faith stems entirely from God’s gracious acts, especially in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so the gospels are written almost entirely focused upon the life and times of Jesus, but for the instances where the focus shifts to the works of The Holy Spirit (per Jesus' direction). And it's important to note that Jesus never neglects instructing his followers to look for The Spirit in times where inspiration is particularly important, especially in prayer.
The gospels are written to encourage obedience in the lives of the Christian people. And likewise, the gospels make it clear that Christians have a part to play in maintaining their salvation. As Jesus lives in obedience, his followers see his example, they see him doing the good news, doing “the will of my Father in heaven”. Over three years Jesus is shown living the good news and thereby making clear the synergistic nature of the Christian faith. The divine and human cooperation that is the mark of a genuine living faith. And that active intentional faith involves the fruit-bearing Christian mission, evangelism, to “make disciples of all nations”. The gospels accomplish this instruction in faithfulness by making clear the life and times of Jesus. The gospels focus upon Jesus, the Son of Abraham, the Messiah who draws all the nations of the world to worship, and it does this because Jesus has been anointed, he's been given “all authority in heaven and on earth".
And so, this is why the first Gospel, known as "The book of Matthew", uses the term Christ (Christos) in the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah,” meaning “anointed one.” The writer leaves no doubt who the disciples believed Jesus to be. And for good reason. These gospels aren't merely genealogical historic documents, they're not simply a local news source, though they are known as the good news. These gospels talk about life, ethics, the truth. These are references to the obedience expected from a Christian given in the example of the person Jesus, given in the life and times of the Savior who is both man and God. These aren't simply breaking news, they are The Good News.
The gospels are The Word of God. The gospel writers do this without any self-consciousness, their writing authoritatively indicates that Jesus has been uniquely anointed by God for the work of salvation. They aren't trying to make a claim, they simply profess the truth as witnesses to The Truth. And they bring the receipts. All of them paying the deadly ultimate price for their witness.
They talked about obedience, ethics, justice, and righteousness, focusing all their attention on the person of Jesus Christ and his lifelong example. And they died for those truths, they died for him. They refused to save themselves, for his sake, they obeyed the words they wrote in the gospels. They not only wrote the gospels, but they lived by those words. They lived and died for those words.
The New Testament gospel writers absolutely believed that what they witnessed and what they wrote was in fact The Word of God. The New Testament writers believed that the Old Testament was divine inspiration from The Holy Spirit, and they absolutely believed the same of the witness that came to them in that same Spirit. Divine inspiration deals with the words, not the people. Both the Old Testament and New are Testaments are written by men but both also are inspired by The Spirit.
The gospel writers absolutely believed that they were writing holy scripture.
"...but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was preached to you."
1 Peter 1:25
The New Testament and gospel writers make more than 1000 references to the Old Testament and directly quote the Old Testament 320 times. They are confident that the good news messages they received are inspired by the same Holy Spirit who spoke the word of God in the Old Testament. Their words are divinely inspired. Not that they, in their own persons, are inspiring beings, but that their words are authoritative words, divinely inspired by the Spirit of Truth. And the most amazing thing to note in this lesson is that these gospel witnesses wrote SCRIPTURE, the divinely inspired word of God, even when they didn't always understand what it was they were writing.
Luke writes scripture, and admits he doesn't always understand the divine nature as to why he's writing what he's writing. Paul on the other hand writes authoritatively about the divine nature of the words he's writing. And even the Old Testament scripture writers struggled with understanding the inspiration behind their writings. For instance, Daniel recognized he was recording God’s Word, but he didn't understand the meanings of many of the things he wrote about.
Earlier I asked, "Why point to Jesus Christ?"
The gospels MUST point to Jesus because they are the divine revelation, the inspired scriptures, the word of God. They cannot help but point to The Word of God who is Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. Regardless the human witness. Regardless the weakness of those human beings. Their words are DIVINE WORDS. Holy Scripture. Inspired by The Spirit of Truth. That fact isn't in question. At least not in their minds.
And so, before we jump into the nitty gritty of the gospel witness, let's keep in mind that these gospels are indeed the Word of The Lord. Words inspired by Jesus Christ and given by the Holy Spirit. And by the way, they are words given to you and me as well. Words meant to be shared. Not words empowered by their writers, not authorized by those writers, and not limited only to those who did the writing. These are the Words Of God. There is no copyright on them. They are divinely given to men. Meant to be shared by every believer of those words. Even when the believer doesn't necessarily understand what they are sharing.
James 2:19
"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."
But the demons twist and distort the scriptures because they know that they are divinely inspired. Both the believer and the demon believe in God and Jesus Christ is Lord, but only the believer is inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak the truth that is the scriptures. The demons can't speak the truth, they are eternally condemned. But you...you're not. Not yet. And you can know this because you can share The Word of God.
“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life."
- Jesus' promise in the gospel of John 5:24
The Word of the Lord.
Praise be to God.