Explaining Christ From the Old Testament

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

(Luke 24:27, NASB)

This passage in Luke is awe-inspiring. It is also frustrating.

Awe-inspiring because it tells us that on the day that Jesus rose from the dead He took the opportunity to explain everything the Old Testament Scriptures had to say about Himself as He walked with them down the road. He started with Moses and went right through all the prophets.

A few verses later (Luke 24:44-49) Jesus explains to a bigger group of His disciples that everything written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms has been fulfilled. These Old Testament passages contained the truth which they were to testify to the nations:

That the Christ would suffer;
That He would rise again from the dead on the third day;
That repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations.

Awesome.

Yet, it is frustrating. Because Luke was not inspired to include the content of Jesus' explanation. We know that He explained everything. We even get a brief outline.

But that's it.

Instead of being bummed out by this, we can rejoice that the Old Testament Scriptures are still written. We can hold them in our hands and read them today. However, many Christians seem to think that the Old Testament is irrelevant for the modern believer.

This idea could not be more incorrect.

On resurrection day Jesus did not say that those poor disciples would need to wait until the New Testament was written before they could understand Christ. Instead, Jesus reprimanded them for being foolish. Slow of heart in believing what had already been written! He did not hesitate to proclaim from the Old Testament everything they needed to know.

While we may not have a transcript of Jesus' teaching that day we do have two wonderful gifts.

The entire Old Testament.
The entire New Testament.

Some interpreters try and make every passage in the Old Testament a passage about Jesus. This is a mistake. Jesus did not teach that everything that was written was written about Him. Instead, He explained everything that was written "concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." The road was only seven miles long. Jesus' explanation didn't last all day!

In the New Testament we have inspired writings which cite and explain Old Testament passages concerning Jesus. This is not exactly the same as hearing it from the lips of Jesus Himself. But, it is the next best thing.

In the coming posts we will take a look at the use of the Old Testament by the authors of the New Testament to see how the Holy Spirit led them to explain Christ to the first generation of Christians. I'll tag each of them as "Old Testament Series."

By studying these examples, I pray we will all be better equipped to know and love our Savior and explain Him to the world.

Related Videos

Comments

Prayer vs. Petition

Q: What's the difference between prayer and petition? Phil 4:6 for example. A: An excellent word study question! When attempting to study words from the text it is necessary to analyze the word being studied in the original language (in this case Greek) as attempting to look up the words in English will often produce erroneous results. For example, in English the word petition has within its range of meanings things that are certainly not within the scope of meanings for the Greek word (i.e. “a sheet that is signed to demonstrate agreement with some principle or desire for some social action to be taken” is part of the range of “petition” but not of the Greek deesis from which “petition” is translated). The word most commonly translated as “prayer” in our English Bibles is proseuche , which appears 36 times in the New Testament (NT) in one form or another (for the purposes of this study, we are only examining the usage of these words as nouns – the verbal forms will not be

Smoking Hookah

Q: This week a young Christian talked with me about the practice of smoking Hookah. They attend a church [which] is reaching out to the many Indian and Muslims in the surrounding areas. Their church also have several ministries that support missions in India and Arab countries. As they spoke with me they said that many of their Christian friends are smoking the Hookah. They said that they have been told that certain types of Hookah smoking involve no tobacco but are simply flavored water, other types of Hookah smoking do include tobacco but in a ‘more pure’ form than that of cigarettes that have additives. The Christians that they know of who partake in smoking Hookah do not feel that there is anything sinful in this practice and believe that it is just a part of certain cultures as a way to relax and socialize. Apparently during certain celebrations some of these culture groups get together as a family and include smoking the Hookah together as part of the festivities. These Chris

The Church Isn't A Business

I used to be a salesman. I sold a lot of different stuff. I worked retail. I did door-to-door. In all my various jobs my function was essentially the same. I was the link between company and customer. Successful companies know their customer demographics. Many sales meetings revolve around numbers. Persons are treated as statistics. The customer becomes a set of numbers, preferences, and habits. Really successful companies cater their goods and services to a target demographic. It's all about the consumer experience. I remember when I began in pastoral ministry. People assured me that my experience as a salesman would be beneficial. They said there was a lot of overlap between pastors and salespeople. That may be true in our experience. But is it true of what we read in Scripture? When I open my Bible and read about Christ's church I see a beautiful design that is very different from a business. Night and day different. When Jesus walked the earth He rebuked those who

The "Jesus Loves You" Problem

Q: I've encountered a lot of teaching and Christians who believe that saying, "Jesus loves you!" is a valid form of evangelism. Do you disagree with this? If so, why? It seems like a loving way to reach out and to encourage those who are not believers. A: What a great question! There are certainly a lot of materials and teachings that encourage Christians to use the phrase, "Jesus loves you" as an outreach and evangelistic tool. Much of this teaching that I've encountered emphasizes following the lead of the Holy Spirit. It claims that the Holy Spirit will often lead Christians to say this to non-believers to encourage them and try and lead them to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Fourth Year Ministries does not teach or endorse this as a valid evangelism strategy. That's not because we don't want it to be valid! Truth be told, we would love for this to be a good practice for Christians. It would certainly open some more doors for us. I

10 Things An Evangelist Is Not

You've probably heard the term Evangelist before. Most people have. The term most likely brings something to mind. Sometimes positive. Often negative. Does your idea match what other people think of when they hear the term evangelist? More importantly, do any of these ideas match what the Bible tells us an evangelist is ? The truth is that most of the popular ideas about what an evangelist is and does are based on the culture, not the Bible. This is a problem. The cultural idea of an evangelist is so popular that it is beginning to be used by companies. If you go to popular job sites and put the term evangelist into the search bar you will find many non-church jobs looking for evangelists. Many of these positions include the duties of spreading knowledge about a particular company, product, service, or idea. The Bible tells us that Jesus gave some Evangelists for His church. And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as

Fourth Year Ministries

Search This Blog