The Old Testament is About Jesus - Biltmore Baptist Church

Introduction

I really liked Lesley’s sermon last week and it made me think about something
How many times have I heard that churches say that they are “New Testament” churches
I’ve even heard from people that they don’t see why we spend time in the Old Testament
Here’s the thing; and it came to me during Lesley’s message about Scriptures
Lesley quoted Paul in 2 Timothy 3:15-17

And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

What Scripture is Paul talking about? Here’s a hint: it’s 2000 years ago
There was NO OLD TESTAMENT or NEW TESTAMENT – just Hebrew Scriptures
So, just to be clear, the Holy Scripture that Paul is saying is “God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” is what we now know as the OLD TESTAMENT
The New Testament was literally being played out in the experiences of the Apostles – and Disciples like Timothy and Titus.
Jesus recognized the following three things about the Old Testament:

It’s Authority
It’s completeness
The stories were factual

1. Jesus recognized it’s Authority

On blueletterbible.org, Don Stewart wrote this in his article: “What Was Jesus’ View of the Old Testament?”

For the Christian, the proper view of Scripture is the view of Jesus Christ. As God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus is the last word on all matters of faith and practice; whatever He taught settles the issue. Consequently, it is crucial that we understand how He viewed Scripture.

Stewart goes on to point out

Jesus’ view of the Old Testament can be seen by the way He used the Old Testament Scripture.

Jesus responded to a question about divorce in Mark 10:5-9 by quoting Genesis 1:27:

It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law, Jesus replied. But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.

In Luke 18:20, Jesus cites Exodus with the authority of the 10 commandments:

You know the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.

In Luke 10, an expert in the law asks Jesus what must he do to inherit eternal life
Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Jesus has a very good reason for respecting the authority of Scripture: He wrote it
Moses wrote all this stuff down but where did he get the information from? God
Jesus and God are one in the same.
Of course Jesus would honor the authority of the book that He wrote
And the main thread that winds throughout the Old Testament is the prediction of the Savior who was to come.
A very specific visit from God was more than 5000 years in the making
God chose a people-group to tell His story to and they did a good job of keeping records
So when Lesley was telling you about the Scripture that Timothy had to work with, she was talking about the Old Testament.
And the ultimate proof of authority comes when Jesus arrives to complete the story
The New Testament is the culmination of all the love that God built in the Old Testament

2. Jesus recognized its completeness

Jesus recognizes the completeness of the Old Testament when He refers to it as the Scriptures. In John 5:39-40, He says:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Jesus tended to divide the Scriptures into the Law and the Prophets
He also included a third section, the Psalms, which He quoted on His brief return after His resurrection when He said in Luke 24:44-47

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Almost anything that we face in this world can be explained in the Scripture
The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles and Revelation now form additional Scripture
It was through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that the Scriptures are completed
The Old Testament explained the plan that God had for the world He created
The New Testament gives the ultimate goal of eternal life in Jesus Christ
It all fits together as a perfect puzzle: the Old Testament leads everything to Jesus
And in the New Testament, Jesus fulfills everything that was predicted and promised in the Old Testament
The two Testaments complete each other and now we add the New Testament to what we consider as Scripture

3. Jesus recognized that the stories were factual

I had a guy in a previous church I served call me to task about a sermon I preached
This guy was actually a pillar of the church believe it or not.
He told me that “we are not a fundamentalist church” and the “Bible is a story book that was written to relate to the people of the times”
Jesus must have been a Fundamentalist, because He believed every story in the Bible
He believed the people and events of the Old Testament were real and factual
He believed in the story of Jonas. Here’s what He said in Matthew 12:40:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

In John 8:56, He testified that Abraham was real: “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
And then in in Matthew 8:11, he talks about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus also confirmed the story about Elisha the prophet and Naaman the leper. He used the story as an illustration that not everyone is healed. Luke 4:27 records Him saying:

And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.

Jesus acknowledged the story of David and his men eating the bread of presentation. Matthew 12:3-4 records the conversation between Jesus and the religious leaders:

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread – which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.

Stewart goes on to point out that Jesus taught that David was the writer of certain Psalms. In a conversation with the Pharisees Jesus made His view clear:

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

Jesus was quoting form the 120 Psalm. He believed David was the person who actually wrote this particular Psalm.
According to Jesus, the Law was indeed given by Moses. After Jesus healed a man with leprosy, He told him to follow the command that was given by Moses. Matthew wrote:

Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Jesus believed that there was an actual Law given to the people through a real person—Moses. Again, we are dealing with actual history and that’s how Jesus saw it.
Jesus believed Sodom and Gomorrah was a fact and the story of Lot’s wife was an actual event (Matthew 10:14-15 and Luke 17:32
Stewart writes that “Jesus Confirmed Some of the Most Controversial Stories Found in the Old Testament”
He mentions Adam and Eve in Matthew 19:4-5
Cain and Abel in Luke 11:50-52
The great flood in Matthew 24:37-39
Don’t anybody try to tell me these were just stories when Jesus Christ tells me they were real
The Bible is real!! Jesus Christ is real!! The Old Testament is About Jesus Christ