We have 27 books of the New Testament which can be divided into four groups:
The 4 Gospels
The book of Acts
The Epistles – sub-divided into the Epistles of Paul and the General Epistles
The book of Revelation
The focus of the New Testament is mainly centered on Jesus Christ and His teachings, as well as how He taught disciples who were then commissioned to go out and spread those teachings to the whole world. For example, see Matt.28:18-20, Mark 16:15 and Acts 1:8.
Many of these teachings are expounded through a collection of some of the many letters (epistles) written by a few of Christ’s servants – Paul, Peter, James, John and Jude. These letters alone constitute 21 of the 27 New Testament books.
In the last book – Revelation –we can read a sober account of many prophetic events that must come to pass before Christ’s second coming as King of kings.
Readers of all age groups have been fascinated by each of these New Testament books. This is probably due to narrative style of some of these books, as well as the easy to read style of most of the epistles.
New Testament Books: The 4 Gospels
The first four New Testament books – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – constitute the 4 Gospels.
The gospel accounts go over the life of Jesus Christ, His miracles, His teachings, how His message was opposed the establishment of the day, and His death by crucifixion. The first 3 books are similar in many aspects of their accounts and are called the synoptic gospels.
The fourth gospel by the apostle John is very different in its approach. In fact, chapters 13-21 relate exclusively the events just prior to His arrest, trial and crucifixion, all of which took place in less than 24 hours.
All these four New Testament books have an account of His resurrection.
In addition, they all contain a lot of information on His teachings on how to live a godly life and obtain eternal life.
In many Bible versions – called red letter Bibles – the words of Christ can be found in red in the books of the New Testament, i.e. the 4 gospels, Acts and Revelation.
New Testament Books: Book of Acts
The book of Acts in the New Testament continues the story of Christ after His resurrection and how He empowered His apostles to fulfill their commission of preaching the gospel. In Acts, the apostles obey their God-given commission to go out and preach the gospel to the world.
New Testament Books: The Pauline Epistles
The epistles written by the apostle Paul – termed Pauline Epistles by scholars – constitute 14 of the books of the New Testament.
They are filled with messages from Paul to various other congregations of God’s Church in the world, especially Europe.
They cover various aspects on how to leading a godly life and various topics of theology. Some of these things are difficult to understand by the average person, as even Peter says in 2 Pet.3:15-16.
The Pauline Epistles, together with the general epistles, provide deep insight into the beliefs of early Christianity.
New Testament Books: The General Epistles
The general epistles cover the letters from James, Peter, Jude and John.
Each of these letters includes teachings as to how people should
live their lives in a godly way
handle their lives in relation to non-believers
be constantly on guard against satanic attacks, such as being led astray by false teachers
be on guard against biblical beliefs taken out of context
New Testament Books: The Book of Revelation
The book of Revelation speaks mainly about the chronological events to occur before the return of Jesus Christ on earth.
However, it also includes a few historical events, and other events to occur after the return of Christ.
There is a lot of controversy about the book of Revelation, but nevertheless, it remains one of the most popular in the New Testament.
Revelation has the distinction of being the last New Testament book and that of the Holy Bible.