a crucial clue to reading and preaching the Gospels
Paraklesis – encouragement, exhortation, for life and ministry
April 2026
Dear fellow-workers!
We are well used to the 2 Stages of Biblical revelation, the Old Testament, and the New Testament.
We don’t apply the Old Testament, without reading it in the light of the New Testament. This is basic to our Salvation History, our Biblical Theology, and teaching of the implications of the Bible text to our lives as believers today.
You might also reflect on the fact that within the Old Testament, there are different Eras of revelation.
• Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [Job.]
• Moses, the Exodus, the Sinai covenant, the Tabernacle, the wilderness wanderings
• The Judges, the entry into the Land.
• Samuel; Saul, David: Jerusalem, David’s house; [Psalms], Solomon, the Temple, [Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Song of Songs].
• The kings, the division of the kingdom, the prophets, the exile to Assyria, the exile to Babylon and the prophets of exile.
• The return to the Land, the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem, the prophets of the return.
We consciously place and interpret the books of the Old Testament in these various Eras, and interpret them in that historical and theological context of Salvation History and Biblical Theology.
So we don’t get upset about Abraham or Job offering sacrifices, because the Levitical priests have not yet been inaugurated, and Tabernacle/Temple have not yet been built. We see how Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah and Haggai tackle the specific issues of their day, etc.
We do not always recognise that there are 2 Eras of Salvation History and Biblical Theology in the New Testament.
If we don’t take account of this reality, we will easily misunderstand the New Testament, and misuse it in our preaching.
Here are the 2 distinct but related Eras of New Testament revelation.
Era 1. Jesus’ earthly ministry, his teaching and miracles, his death and resurrection. This Era was written down in the second Era in the Gospels[1], but Gospel writers preserved and recorded Jesus’ ministry as it was during his life on earth.
Era 2. Life after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, and his pouring out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the ministry of his apostles and prophets, including the writing of the New Testament and the mission to the Gentiles.
Please notice:
• Jesus is the teacher in both Eras. In Era 1 he teaches personally and directly to his disciples and all who hear him. In Era 2 he teaches through his apostles and prophets, as by the Spirit he leads them into ‘all the truth’ [Jn 16:13].
• In Era 1, Jesus mostly taught before his death, before the New Covenant was inaugurated by his atoning death and his resurrection and ascension and his sending of the Spirit. It is really like the final moments of Old Covenant life, with much teaching about the New Covenant. For the example, the ‘Lord’s prayer’ is an Old Testament prayer: it does not mention Jesus Christ! Whereas post-Pentecost Era 2 prayers are full of Christ! [Ephes 1:3-4; 3:14-21]. The Lord’s Prayer was taught by Christ, and was fulfilled by Christ by the New Covenant in his blood.
Some evidence for Eras 1 and 2.
Of course the 4 Gospels were written in Era 2 but they consciously record what happened in Era 1, with occasional explanations for the people of the next Eras for whom they write, such as these words from Mark 7 which provide information for later Gentile readers:
‘The Pharisees and all the Jews to not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, etc’ [vv. 3,4].
In the same chapter we also find that Mark adds a comment which shows the relevance of Jesus’ earthly teaching to a contemporary later issue:
‘In saying this Jesus declared all foods clean’ [v. 19].
We find references back to this first Era of Jesus’ earthly teaching:
‘the things which were fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word’ [Lk 1:1,2].
‘The Word became flesh… we have seen his glory… [Jn 1:14]
‘Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book…’ [Jn 20:30].
‘all that Jesus began to do and teach’ [Acts 1:1].
‘not I, but the Lord’ [1 Cor 7:10,11].
‘This salvation … first announced by the Lord’ [Heb 2:3].
‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touch, this we proclaim concerning the Word of life…’ [1 Jn 1:1 etc].
And Jesus prayed for the disciples who believed in him during his earthly ministry [Jn 17:6-19], and then prayed for ‘those who will believe in me because of their message’ [Jn 17:20, and see that prayer in 17:20-26].
Era 2 was promised and provided by Jesus after this death and resurrection through ‘the Spirit of truth’, the Paraclete. Jesus promised his revelation in Era 2 in these words:
‘The Advocate, the Holy Spirit … will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you’ [Jn 14:26]. Notice that this promise includes the provision of the Gospels.
‘When the Advocate comes … he will testify about me’ [Jn 15:26]. The disciples will learn more about Jesus.
‘But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth … he will tell you what is to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you’ [Jn 16:13-14].
We often apply these promises to all believers, but they are addressed to a particular group of people at a particular time for a particular purpose, and that was to enable the apostles and prophets to write the New Testament, including both the Gospels and all the other books.
This revelation is from the Father, and from the Son, by the Spirit. It is a fuller revelation than Jesus has given in the Gospels. It is the Era 2 of revelation in the New Testament.
So how does this influence how we interpret and preach the Gospels?
As we do not interpret the Old Testament, or preach it, without showing its fulfilment in the New Testament, so we should not preach the Gospels without showing their fulfilment in the remainder of the New Testament.
As we should not read the New Testament into the Old Testament, so we should not read Era 2 into Era 1 in the New Testament.
We should recognise that both the Old Testament and Era 1 of the New Testament reflect the situation before the full inauguration of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood on the cross.
We should remember that the major themes of Era 2 in the New Testament are not found as major themes in Era 1.
In Era 2 we learn so much more about Jesus, his Atonement, his sacrifice, propitiation, defeat of sin, death and the devil, his substitution for us, his acceptance of God’s judgement and wrath in our place, his Resurrection, his Ascension, his heavenly rule, his return, the future resurrection of all people, his judgement of the world, and his cosmic significance. We learn about his work within us by his death and resurrection, as he enables us to die to sin and to live to righteousness, and as we are transformed into his likeness. We learn to await the return of our Saviour, the judge of all.
We learn of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church and in believers, as he witnesses to our spirits that we are children of God, and as the fruit of the Spirit grow in our lives. We learn of our Trinitarian life with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We learn of the priority of gospel proclamation, of Christ’s mission to the Gentiles, that Gentiles are members of the same body as Jews, and that some Old Testament requirements for God’s people are not required of Gentiles.
We learn how to live as believers without an earthly temple, nation, or land, and how to lift our eyes to our heavenly Saviour, and to live a heaven-directed life on earth. We learn how to live and to long for the return of Christ, the reconciliation of all things under him, and the glorious future of his church.
Jesus’ main focus of ministry on earth was to his own people, the Jews.
He sends his disciples to the Jews:
‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel’ [Mt 10:5,6]. And his instructions were to ‘proclaim the message … heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons’ [Mt 10:7-8].
But after his death and resurrection he gave a wider commission and different instructions.
‘… make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…’ [Mt 28:19.20].
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus found a description of his own ministry in Isaiah 6.
‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind…’ [Lk 4:18,19].[2]
But when he spoke to his disciples after his resurrection, he used these words:
‘…repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his [the Messiah’s] name to all nations’ [Lk 24:47].
In the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, to be a disciple meant that you had to leave your job and your family, in order to follow him. ‘He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.’ [Mk 1:20]. ‘I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.’ Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God’ [Lk 9:61,62]. But in Era 2, people become believers, and stay at home with their families. Indeed Paul writes these words:
Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them [1 Cor 7:17].
Perhaps this suggests that the life of disciples in the Gospels is not a paradigm for all believers, but a model of what it is to be a gospel ‘worker’ in Era 2.
In Jesus’ instructions to his disciples when they are sent out on mission, they all have exactly the same instructions, such as, ‘to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness’ [Mt 10:1]. But in Era 2, after Pentecost, different people have different gifts for ministry.
‘Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? To all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?’ [1 Cor 12:29,30].
I have only outlined some aspects of the distinction between Era 1 and Era 2 within the New Testament revelation.
One response may be to only read and preach the Era 2 books, and ignore the Gospels. I think this would be very unwise. The Gospels are just as much part of Holy Scripture as the other New Testament books, and the Old Testament. All the books of the Bible are God’s good diet for his people!
We should remember to preach both the Old Testament and the Gospels in the light of the most complete and final verbal revelation of God in Era 2 of the New Testament.
When we preach the Old Testament we should do justice to the passage we are preaching from, while also showing the full glory of Christ and the gospel.
So also, when we preach from the Gospels, we should do justice to the passage we are preaching, and also show the full glory of Christ and the gospel revealed in rest of the New Testament.
Help people to enter the world of the Gospel passage, understand it, feel its drama, interactions and progress. Don’t just use it as a launching pad for a sermon from Era 2! But also make sure you do read and preach the Gospel passage in the light of the greater revelation found in Era 2!
When we preach from the Era 2 New Testament books, we need to take people to that world to find God’s word, and then bring it home to our world.
When we preach from the Old Testament or from the Gospels, we have to take our listeners to that world, and then to the Era 2 world, and then home again to our world.
I hope you find this distinction helpful in your reading, interpretation and preaching of the Gospels, recognising their unique place and role in Salvation History and Biblical Theology, and so their unique contribution and role in our lives and ministries.
Postscript.
In some churches there is a natural focus on the Gospel reading, I suppose because Gospels are about Jesus, and we want to honour him. However, of course, Jesus himself in his teaching honoured and authenticated and lived by the Old Testament. And, as I have shown, the other New Testament documents are authored and inspired by him as well! So we should honour all parts of the Holy Scripture equally.
Some preachers confuse the word ‘gospel’ which is both a literary term, and also a theological term. To preach from the Gospels does not necessarily mean that we are preaching the gospel! As I have shown, one of the vital elements of Jesus’ teaching in Era 2, is the fulness of the glory of the gospel of his saving death and resurrection. We should preach from the Gospels: we should also preach the full New Testament and Biblical gospel!
Notes
1 In this paper I use Gospel for the written documents, and gospel for the central message of salvation in Christ. ↑
2 John Stott famously used these words for what he called the ‘Nazareth Manifesto’ for the church. With great respect, I think these words applied only secondarily to what the disciples would do, nor what we should do, but only to what Jesus did. We find the instructions about fully New Covenant post—Pentecost mission at the end of both Matthew and Luke. This is what we should do. ↑