How to Find Jesus in the Old Testament: part 1

so the point here is Jesus is throughout the Old Testament ready to be discovered and he seems to talk about it like it's something that you should be noticing as you read through the Bible let me explain to you what we're doing we're about to start a new series something I'm very excited about doing even though I'm not entirely sure how it's gonna play out as we kind of unpack it and go through it the series is gonna be on the topic of how to find Jesus in the Old Testament that's like the easy to grasp title a more fancy title would be the theology of typology and what we're gonna do is we're gonna tackle this issue of Jesus in the Old Testament that that is God purposefully and deliberately placing content in the Old Testament that was meant to be clear and even sometimes unclear pictures of Jesus analogies of Jesus appearances theophanies that sort of thing all of the above you know teaching that's related to him in some way that this is throughout the Old Testament and I think this is a very exciting thing to study I think there's something about it that just ministers to our spirit like we need to get into Jesus in the Old Testament there's some very exciting about it it's also I think neglected I think that we tend to not do this very much and when you think about it you're like yeah you know I I'll study a whole book of the Old Testament and not necessarily be thinking that much about this issue or maybe not be equipped with the ability to think very well about the issue I don't know how am I supposed to do this how do I know I'm not just making stuff up I'm not just like finding Jesus right the way I you know discover like an imaginary friend like how do I know I'm not doing that and so I want to talk about that as well because this is also not only is it exciting and neglected it's also a little dangerous because in a sense we're almost telling people I'm not I don't think I'm gonna do this but we're almost telling people read between the lines and I've heard people say some interesting things you know and sometimes I heard one person put it this way sometimes you're thinking when they when they go to the Old Testament they find some passage where it's referencing Jesus at least in their opinion and you think to yourself is my pastor onto something or is my pastor on something because I'm like going about that buddy so one of the things I want to do is I want to look for instance are there rules in scripture for how we find Jesus in Scripture that's one of the things we'll look at as we go in this series of the last several weeks so let me let me give you kind of a brief overview since this is the first in this series I don't like introductions I just like terrific writing the content but but I'm gonna give you the brief overview today and make a couple important points so we can get started right today we're gonna lay foundations we're just gonna establish the fact that it is in fact a New Testament teaching that Jesus is throughout the Old Testament in pictures and types and all sorts of different ways even allegories in the in description so that's that's today after this we're gonna start to look not at the Old Testament we're gonna start to look at how the New Testament does this so we'll look at say the book of Matthew and how Matthew uses the word fulfilled when it talks about the Old Testament because Matthew doesn't more than any of the other Gospels right then we will look at maybe the book of Hebrews because Hebrews is all about typology and all about Jesus in the Old Testament and what we're gonna do is we're gonna sort of sit back and say look some of these New Testament authors have already done the work for us we're gonna look at examples of types of Christ throughout the scriptures I'll one week we'll just do a bunch of types of Christ I'll will look at Melchizedek and we'll look at the rock that was struck and we'll look at you know what we'll just in fact what will specifically do is look at types of Christ that are clearly identified as types in the New Testament and while we're doing this what I'm gonna try and do god-willing is pull out principles that we can use so that then when we get into the Old Testament for ourselves we can say this really is about Jesus because in the same way that the New Testament uses the old we're using the old so we're trying to draw principles so then after we've gotten these principles from the New Testament we're gonna go into Genesis and then we'll do our series Jesus in Genesis with all that sort of you know skill that we've now obtained from the New Testament this is this is what really excites me is we're gonna go to the New Testament to obtain our methodology for how we find Jesus in the old then we'll go to the old and do it it's going to take approximately 800 weeks no I don't know how many weeks this will take I can't predict exactly how long it'll be because I can't prepare the entire thing in one sitting and then and then teach it over all those weeks so really I have to I've made kind of a general lesson plan and I'll be spending the time and I'll be learning this with you and then coming and sharing it with you I don't even pretend to be the guy that has the corner on the market on this issue but I will spend many hours preparing the content to the best of my ability using the best of whatever God's given me giftings and teaching and that sort of thing to understand it break it down into something simple and bring it to us for our consumption so we can use it make something good out of it so there is a there's a couple different ways of approaching this right you can do this Jesus in the Old Testament thing to prove Christ or you can do it to know Christ I'm gonna do it here to know Christ that's the focus here I've done this to prove Jesus already in the evidence for the Bible series so my focus here isn't to go I have to have an ironclad case I have to have a lot of really strict rules for showing that this is about Jesus so the rules for prophecy I did that already in the evidence for the Bible series instead we're doing this to know Jesus this is like an in-house thing as Christians we're going we're already believers we already believe the Bible we just want to understand it better so taking the Bible as one book that's what we're starting now you could use this as a cumulative case because we're gonna see Jesus so thoroughly in the Old Testament and you could go we're just making that up well the thing is other people have tried this Joseph Smith for instance he tried to find himself in the Old Testament and it's laughable the way he did it right we find Jesus clearly in the Old Testament this is not a fabrication this is not made up the the old and new are definitely part of a progressive revelation of God and let me deal with one possible objection we all talk more about this in future weeks but we're worried about the word allegory at least most of us who care a lot about verse by verse teaching we're worried about the word allegory and the reason is because when you allegorize scripture it becomes incredibly flexible like you could almost do anything you want with scripture and so people who teach verse by verse and who care very much about getting the verse in context we tend to be a little it hesitant to use things like allegory but when it comes to Jesus in the Old Testament I think allegory is divinely approved but not any allegory and not reckless allegory and that's what we'll get into I'll explain this stuff so we can hopefully open ourselves to this sort of concept let me give an example of what I mean I'm gonna compare two authors you may be familiar with CS Lewis and j.r.r tolkien I don't know I forget what jr. R stands for John Ron Ron Tolkien and I don't know but jr. R Tolkien he wrote the well-known book write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Lord of the Rings was actually originally one book I'm definitely a Lord of the Rings fan myself as many of some of you guys are actually now he wrote originally as one book and the time he wrote it was around the time of World War two and so people they saw these two sides good and evil and they started drawing analogies or allegories to World War two the Axis and Allies and they started seeing like here we've got we've got the elves and the dwarves and the men and they're coming together in the people of Rohan and that's like America coming late to the battle when they come in with the horses and the Battle of Helm's Deep yeah I'm a nerd now j.r.r tolkien is interesting because he comes out and says no that's not an allegory that's a coincidence he writes in the foreword of one of the editions of the Lord of the Rings he goes this is not allegory I detest allegory and he tells us his goal in writing Lord of the Rings would you like to hear did you know what his goal was he said I wanted to see if I could write a really long book and it was originally written as one book not three not a trilogy the publisher split it into three books he had it as one giant book that was his goal and if you've ever read it which I have you you'll you'll get into why why is he describing this mountain for three pages when they're just writing past it it's not even really part of the story and so cuz he's like longer is better you know that's his goal now CS Lewis let me come along with CS Lewis so my point here is if you go into junior art Okun looking for allegory you're making it up it's not coming from the author however CS Lewis is a totally different story isn't he he wrote something called The Chronicles of Narnia now in CS Lewis Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia his stated goal was allegory he wanted to write a children's book that would teach them truths about the doctrines of Christianity truths about Jesus so Aslan is a deliberate purposeful picture of Jesus in The Chronicles of Narnia when I go to The Chronicles of Narnia and I looked for allegory I have full permission from the author to do so because the author has said that was why I wrote it when you go to the Old Testament and you look for pictures of Jesus you have the approval of the author because God's Holy Spirit is divinely inspired that Jesus is in the Old Testament in pictures and allegories in all these various ways and so when we go to the new what we're learning as we'll study it is we're learning how he went about putting Jesus in the old conceptually in all these different ways so we're gonna start today by now just now you have the idea that's the big overview of what we're doing right now we're gonna start if you would turn to Luke chapter 4 and we're gonna start with Jesus's own mouth starting with the mouth of Jesus we're gonna listen to what before we do anything else what did Jesus say about Jesus in the Old Testament about how to find him there and I will tell you guys I am now moving at least for the sake of this particular series we're moving to the ESV translation so we've been doing New King James for quite a long time in my own studies I've slowly been moving away from the idea of wanting to use the New King James as my regular Bible but I'm having a hard time studying other translations thoroughly enough to know if I want to like lock myself in so we're just gonna go to the ESV for the experience it's like pretty good to try it out try it in this series it'll give me a lot of time is studying with that particular translation we may go to it permanently I couldn't tell you for sure yet now if you have the free phone apps that have the Bible you probably got a free ESV on your phone or on your on your iPad or computer that's fine or you could buy one and that'd be fine as well but but anybody who's bothered by this it's not a conspiracy the best we can have available to us for our purposes and something is faithful to the Word of God I will put a link in this video description to the evidence for the Bible series the part where I talk about Bible translations so I could explain that in more detail in another video it's there it's just called I forget what it's called what did I name that video anyways the Bible translations like the good the bad and the ugly yeah yeah there's a few videos I did on that so anyways that research is all available online it's free but let's dig in now Luke chapter 4 verse 16 this is from Jesus's own mouth and look at look at how he gives us a foundation for this whole idea here's the author right he's telling us he's telling us what what we should look for and he came to Nazareth 4:16 where he had been brought up and as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written and I'll read in a moment what he read but the the scene is said it's this Jesus shows up the synagogue it's normal procedure at the synagogue synagogue is a gathering probably a smaller gathering of a local gathering of Jewish men who would come together and sometimes Gentile converts and they come together to be able to read the scriptures everybody didn't have their own Bible they gather together one of the things they did they would have a daily reading or a weekly reading so he opens up to the to the to the reading of that day they hand in the scroll different guys would would stand up to read this time it's Jesus's turn or so it seems and then verse 18 here's what he reads the Spirit of the Lord is upon me no this is from Isaiah 61 verses 1 & 2 the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim Liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and then what he does next is this is so cool he rolls up the scroll he gives it back to the attendant and then it says he sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him the idea is like you're not supposed to be done yet like there's more reading to be done and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing Jesus doesn't even bother interpreting it as far as what it means except to tell them and that just happened like he reads it says that was yes that was literally about me right now in this moment what Isaiah wrote the Spirit Lord was upon me these were words he wrote so I could say them to you right now fulfilled check mark again bill done accomplished that is a huge thing this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing Jesus sees himself as stepping into the fulfillment of ancient scriptures that were about the Messiah we'll get more into this as we do as we go today so John 5 is the next passage we'll look at John 5 John 5 verse 39 we're also gonna be looking at a couple other verses in John 5 it says I'll give you guys a moment to get there I'm excited about this so I'm just gonna talk really fast released that you listen fast it'll be we'll all be even John 5:39 you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me look at the contrast he draws he's like okay Jewish men you're searching the scriptures you're thinking that you'll get eternal life by searching the scriptures but the Scriptures aren't going to give you eternal life they're gonna tell you about me and I am going to give you eternal life the purpose of the Scriptures is not to give you life it's to point you to Jesus who gives you life now he includes I mean inclusively the scriptures that's just referencing the Old Testament Genesis to Malachi and he says yea they bear witness about me so what then should I expect as I read the Old Testament I should expect them to bear witness of Jesus according to Jesus now at this point there's a skeptic who might be listening in thinking like yeah but prove it's from Jesus and I'm like that's a different study one of my issues sometimes with sometimes skeptics is that they want you to stop all of your Bible studies and only do apologetics only prove the Bible all you can do all day long is prove the Bible you know when the passage in Nazareth they're like well how do you know Nazareth really had a Jewish group of people there how do you know Jesus knew how to read how do you know he went to the synagogue on this how do you know they would let him read that scroll everything so skeptical that they can't actually do theology so we're gonna we're gonna put the brakes on that and we're gonna be now because I know I online I have plenty of viewers who are skeptics like that I'll say just pause for a second and do theology for a moment and understand the Christian view if nothing else but what I should expect according to Jesus is that all through the Scriptures there's witnessing of Jesus does this mean every verse there are some who think it's every verse every chapter it's in between the in between the words it's the words themselves it's that verse numbers which were added later by other people and I I'm not saying that but we should see throughout the Scriptures testimony of Jesus in John 5:45 Jesus goes on he says in that same conversation with them do not think that I will accuse you to the Father there is one who accuses you Moses on whom you've set your hope for if you believed Moses you would believe me for he wrote of me but if you do not believe his writings how will you believe my words according to Jesus Moses wrote of who Jesus I'm getting excited about reading Moses now Moses refers to they could use them to use that term to refer to a lot of things but specifically here the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Bible Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and please bird don't Deuteronomy sorry too much coffee Moses wrote of me now I'm excited that means Leviticus has stuff about Jesus yes that's what that means yes that's what that means and this is legitimized by Christ himself so there are a variety of ways we'll see this there are clear things there are unclear things there are things that didn't that were there that were not didn't become clear until you realized what they were about till Jesus comes and then it's like you go back and you understand it better so that of course is all there so we have isaiah being quoted we have the scriptures being about jesus according to him we have in general then we have moses wrote of him and that Moses wrote enough about Jesus to make these Jewish guys accountable to know who he was well that's interesting because he hadn't even died and risen yet yet you'd believe me now one thing they had is they were eyewitnesses of Jesus as many miracles and the wonderful signs he was doing and of course the scripture talks about in Deuteronomy we'll get there eventually one day in Deuteronomy talks about the Prophet that was to come and all this other stuff so there was literally enough about Jesus in the Pentateuch to make them accountable for knowing who he was according to him now let's skip ahead G and Jesus is the timeline of Jesus right he comes he dies on the cross he rises again and yet he has not yet ascended it's that 40 day period where he's on the earth doing all kinds of teaching apparently and here we are Luke 24 turn to Luke 24 please this is what's called the road to Emmaus the road to Emmaus we call this the road to Emmaus because it happened while they were on a road that led to Emmaus mystery solved Luke 24 verse 13 after the resurrection of Jesus in fact this is right after this is like that day it says that very day that would be the day of the resurrection verse 13 here two of them to the disciples were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened while they were talking and discussing together Jesus himself drew near and went with them so they're discussing like oh the crucifixion and our hope was set upon Christ and like and then they're starting to hear rumors and stories that he's risen but they don't yet believe them verse 16 and this is really interesting their eyes were kept from recognizing him so Jesus draws near he's resurrected and their eyes can't see him it doesn't say he was unrecognizable physically says their eyes couldn't so the the problems with their eyes as though God supernaturally kept them from understanding who they were looking at keep that in mind verse 17 and he said to them what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk and they stood still looking sad then one of them named Cleopas answered answered him are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days and he said to them what things and they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel yes and besides all this it is now the third day since these things happened moreover some women of our company amazed us they were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women said but him they did not see so they recount the story as it was at the moment right and so you're right there in the moment verse 25 and he said to them o foolish ones o foolish ones and you rebukes them listen to the rebuke it's really interesting and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken he doesn't just say that they were foolish for not believing the report of the women in a sense he does this with Thomas when Thomas doesn't believe the report of the other disciples and then the and and the women but in here he highlights a different issue he says slow and hard to believe in all that the prophets have spoken now maybe not everything was clear but there are very clear statements in scripture about the coming Messiah who will suffer and die along with the coming Messiah who will rule and reign that there was a minority group even at the time of Jewish leadership or Jewish thinkers who thought maybe there's two messiahs one suffers and dies and one rules and reigns because it was hard for them to believe all that the prophets had spoken oh they were ready for the ruling and reigning god I'm ready for heaven but I don't know if I'm ready for what it takes to get there you know I'm ready for glory I'm just not ready for the glory of life that comes often times before that and so in the same sense it's like they didn't believe everything that was written there is a danger that we need to avoid and that's in believe being selectively parts of Christianity that we like and leaving aside other ones that maybe we have a harder time with because of whatever whatever the reasons my life situation the culture I'm in just the way I think it's really healthy if you know that you're in a place where if you have an idea in your head and you read in Scripture that it's wrong that you'll change your idea that's like this is like just how it's supposed to be you know like I'm supposed to let myself come underneath the authority of God and change my opinions based upon Scripture and I try to do this but I know personally it can be a struggle and sometimes a process as you are encountered with things in Scripture and you go this isn't where I would like I wouldn't wrote it that way lord like and the foolishness that I'm experiencing in my heart when I think this but yet I've thought that I've thought that and then I changed my mind because I was being a fool and so we should be doing that I'm so he rebukes them because they didn't believe everything now he goes on in verse 26 he continues he says was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and we can think here of things like Psalm 22 in Isaiah 53 that talked about the suffering servant the talked about the one who bears the sins of others and even dies and then enters into glory and so Jesus is like you should have known you should have known verse 27 and beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself now yeah this is like if we could trade this Bible study series for Jesus and what he said to these guys in English on the road to Emmaus probably I need it in English sorry I would absolutely make that trade Jesus is literally doing a study series with them on this 7 mile walk called Jesus in the Old Testament and it's and it this actually now you might be like I missed out and it bugs me I missed out on this but this might actually be the source of some of the New Testament stuff do you not think these guys wouldn't told everybody all that stuff that Jesus said do you not think that maybe perhaps this influenced the writing of Hebrews or that this influenced 2nd Corinthians when he talks about typology of Jesus or that it affected something Matthew writing his gospel we may actually have some of the exact content Jesus share with these guys in our New Testament here today that's quite possible so really neat really cool stuff but notice how he did it it says beginning with Moses or starting at Moses that's Genesis and then he continues through all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures all the scriptures so we have Moses the prophets and the writings this definitely includes Genesis through Malachi the entire Old Testament and he does a survey through there he didn't have the scrolls with him he you know he knows subscription don't worry and he and he just shares with them this this this this there's pictures of Jesus prophecies of Jesus explanations analogies or allegories and foreshadowings and all this kind of stuff according to Jesus Jesus in the Old Testament is something that's legitimate it's a good study to do that's all I'm saying verse 28 we continue it says so they drew near to the village to which they were going he acted as if he were going to farther but they urged him strongly saying stay with us for his toward evening and the day is now far spent so he went in to stay with them when he was at the table with them he took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and verse 30 ones real interesting and their eyes were opened and they recognized him so just like their eyes were kept from recognizing him now the opposites happened their eyes are opened not that they were physically closed but there was something keeping them from seeing who Jesus was so now they see Jesus for who he is and he vanished from their sight and they said to each other did not our hearts burn within us while we talked while he talked to us on the road while he listened opened the scriptures to us this is the effect of a Jesus in the Old Testament study it's the opening of the scriptures this is the point guys once you realize that CS Lewis was drawing an allegory with the Chronicles of Narnia you go back over the story in your head and you go that's like when they cut his hair and oh and he the older law that oh I get and the white I like and it's all it click click click click and it opens it up to you and the same thing is true of the Bible of the Old Testament when you see Jesus through it it's not an added later idea it's the original purpose it's the original design Jesus in the Old Testament I also think it's really interesting too there's there's kind of an allegory within the passage that I'll point out if I can you might wonder why were they really kept from recognizing him first off right we noticed we noticed it was their eyes that couldn't see him it wasn't that he was unrecognizable it was they were unable to recognize so it was on them not him so I don't think I had to do with some disfigurement or something of Jesus I wouldn't that's not what the text seems to say but there's a parallel if you look at verse 16 and then verses 31 and 32 let me read those to you real quick and I'll look at this parallel it says but their eyes were open or assuming verse 16 their eyes were kept from recognizing him and then verse 31 and 32 I have that somewhere here in my notes ah and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight and they said to each other did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with to us on the road while he opened the scriptures to us when they started their journey to Emmaus they knew the Old Testament but didn't understand Jesus in the Old Testament they meet Jesus they are with him but they don't know it by the end of the journey the scriptures are open and they can see Jesus in the Old Testament and they can see Jesus right in front of them I think it's a picture of how Jesus says when you when you open up your eyes and you see me in the Bible you see me and I think has a really neat picture so I get excited about this stuff forgive me really awesome stuff in verse 35 it tells you one more tidbit about when they noticed him it says then they told what had happened on the road they there go back to the disciples and it says and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread the thing that really unlocks who Jesus is and his whole purpose is when you understand his sacrifice this is my body broken for you and when you come to the realization that this is about God sending his son to die on the cross for our sins now you now you get it and the light bulb goes on and you understand who he is and seeing the crucifixion the light goes on so the point here is Jesus is throughout the Old Testament ready to be discovered and he seems to talk about it like it's something that you should be noticing as you read through the Bible and now what I want to do is let's look a little bit some other passages we're gonna look at the book of Acts so the preaching in the book of Acts reflects this whole idea that Jesus was in the Old Testament it wasn't just like a side note it was actually really important to them so in Acts chapter 2 we have the first what we call the first preachment in Acts you might want to use that fancy word on somebody it's a preachment it's just when Peter he preaches the first open gospel message in acts 2 and I won't read it because it's a little long for us today but he quotes multiple prophecies in that opening message he's like hey let me tell you about Jesus and he starts quoting Old Testament prophecies and out of how they relate to Christ in the second preachment in acts 3 verse 18 we read this the second time he Peters preaching the gospel openly it says but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer he thus fulfilled so he's hanging his preaching upon Old Testament teaching it's not an afterthought it's a foundational thought Jesus in the Old Testament here's a foundational thought I'm trying to drive home how important this issue is as you continue that same preachment Acts 3 verse 21 it says whom heaven must receive until the time of restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago Moses said and I was courting Moses the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers you shall listen to him and whatever he tells you and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people and all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days Peter's just doing what Jesus said right he's like look this is all been predicted throughout the prophets both Moses and all the prophets talked about the stuff we've just experienced Jesus coming Jesus doing that Bluff that life of ministry Jesus died on the cross Jesus rising from the dead and now forgiveness being preached in his name yeah yeah that's in all of the prophets verse 25 he says you are sons of the prophets and of the Covenant that God made with your father's saying to Abraham and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed God having raised up his servant sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness this is just steeped in the idea that Peter is using the Old Testament to preach Jesus to these guys and he's all through it so the next preachment is in Acts chapter four and here we have it in verse verses 10 and 11 of Acts 4 it says let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom God raised from the dead by him this man standing before you as well this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone this is a quote from psalm 118 and so he talks about Jesus how he's crucified and then he now if you've ever studied psalm 118 it's just like a really amazing messianic psalm and especially the last portion of the psalm is like just it deserves a careful verse by verse study it's like this really neat pictures of Jesus and stuff throughout the psalm and Peter recognized that and he used it to preach to them I mean when Jesus was on the cross he quoted Psalm 22 as if to draw attention to the very psalm that talked about him doing the very thing that he was doing while he was quoting the song that talked about him doing it I don't think I can say that again do you do you see the pattern acts 2 the first preachment Jesus in the Old Testament the second preachment acts 3 Jesus in the Old Testament the third preachment acts 4 Jesus in the Old Testament do you doubt the pattern well look at Acts chapter 5 action 5 verse 42 look at how consistently this sort of thing is in the New Testament church it says in every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ the Christ is Jesus now here's where a lot of times us Gentiles miss the point the thing that they were teaching and preaching teaching and preaching teaching us to do with explaining preaching us with proclaiming they did both and the thing that they were teaching and preaching was that the Christ is Jesus now Christ is a title not a name the Christ is the Messiah and in that first century Jewish time that they were in right in that area if you said someone is the Christ you were saying there are there is this person the Old Testament has said is coming and he will do all these glorious things and his the teaching about the Messiah the Christ is throughout the Old Testament and guess what Jesus is that guy so this is what he was doing he was he was daily in the temple and from house to house he was going around showing Jesus in the Old Testament that was the normal thing that they did and every time you see the term Christ it's a very significant thing in the scripture realize that it's a claim about the identity of Christ the identity of Jesus I should say ok Acts chapter 7 it's over to sitting a survey of Acts looking for where they referenced this teaching about Jesus in the Old Testament so in Acts chapter 7 I won't read the whole thing but Stephen he gives an address right before they stone him they kill him and if you read through his address his long address it's like what's he doing he's time I like genealogies and stuff like who is he's talking about and you realize he's literally teaching them about Jesus in the Old Testament and that's how he's preaching to them there's all these parallels he gives between Jesus and the deliverers of the Old Testament and this is a case for allegory a case for pictures of Christ how we see Moses and Steven uses Moses as an example Moses went to the people of Israel the first time and they rejected him then he came to them a second time and they received him and he gives a list of other people who the first time they came they were rejected by the people and the second time they were received and he says don't you know you've rejected the Messiah just like he rejected all those guys and he's drawing parallels between their lives and the life of Messiah I would go so far as to say that was the point of their life was the life of Jesus that the goal the target the rest of the stuff was was made to happen so that it might reflect Christ in Acts chapter 8 we read about this eunuch the Ethiopian eunuch who's on a journey he goes to Jerusalem to worship he's been converted and he is on his way back to Ethiopia and he's got a scroll and the scroll is of Isaiah and he's reading the scroll from Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 this beautiful messianic passage about the sufferer servant who dies for our sins and in acts 853 he's meeting Philip and Philip comes up and Philip notices that the guy's got to scroll out and he goes do you understand what you're reading right now and the guy says how can I understand unless someone explains it to me and then it says in verse 35 then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about Jesus so we have this guy who's who's become saved gets to know Christ because he's just reading the Old Testament and then a believer comes alongside and shows him do you see it do you see Jesus here in the Old Testament again I mean it's so far it's in almost every chapter of Acts this concept in in Acts chapter 9 we have the conversion of Saul and after Saul gets converted Saul was one of those guys who when he when he came to Christ he just kind of hit the ground running serving the Lord and ministering to people and witnessing and whereas some people they come to Christ and go in hiding which is probably not a good idea but acts 9 22 says but Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus and how did he confound them by proving that Jesus was the Christ so he just goes into Jesus in the Old Testament I mean he knew his Bible well and so when he came to know who Jesus was it's like it all became open to him and he got it so he would literally have discussions and debates about Jesus in the Old Testament and he proved that Jesus is the Messiah the Christ of the scripture interesting when Peter meets Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 do you see the pattern yet am i belaboring this too much I'm not done there's more I could do more that we're doing you in Acts chapter 10 Peter goes to Cornelius Cornelius is a Gentile and God has sent Peter there to preach the gospel to the Gentiles to show that God will wash clean anyone who puts faith in Jesus you don't have to become a Jew for it you can just put your faith in Jesus and Acts chapter 10 43 here's what Peter says to Cornelius he says to him to Jesus all the prophets all every prophet all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through his name all the prophets bear witness of Jesus and trusting in him that's what Peter said that was what the New Testament believed that's what Jesus thought this is this is very Christian guys Jesus in the Old Testament this is the author's intent and so I'm I'm stoked getting ready to do this this series but let's keep going in Acts chapter 13 we have Paul and he's at the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia there's multiple antiox he's at the one in pasilla not that you'll remember that or care about it that much but that's technically where he is right Antioch in Pisidia and in Acts chapter 13 verse 14 he says but they went on from purga and came to Antioch in Pisidia and on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down after the reading from the law which was the standard thing that reading a text and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying brothers if you have any word of encouragement for the peoples say it so Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said men of Israel and you who fear God listen now what just happened is Paul as far as they're concerned Paul is a traveling rabbi right Paul was still the rabbi when he got saved he's still Jew like I said any Jew is when they get say there's still the Jew you know you're just a completed you you already met your messianic now you believe in the Messiah so they've got a traveling rabbi they read the text and then they have a time for people to share so they're like hey we got our guests over here Paul and the in his group do you guys have anything to share and Paul like well in fact I do so he gets up in he stares he says many brother listen to me and what he begins in acts 13 is an Old Testament Bible study proclaiming Jesus he doesn't just say God loves you Jesus paid for your sins he actually establishes it with Scripture I'm not saying you always have to do this but that's the example that we've been given here we can learn from it in acts 13 27 we read some of those things he said this is for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath fulfilled them by condemning him if they had got it if they realised who Jesus was if they understood the Old Testament properly they never would have done that to Jesus because they would have not wanted to be part of such a thing but they didn't get it but but what he says is they didn't understand the utterances of the prophets that's what the prophets meant originally they're read every Sabbath they fulfilled the prophets by condemning him because the prophets said that that would happen and though they found in him no guilt worthy of death they asked Pilate to have him executed and when they had carried out all that was written of him they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb so you see that the idea that it was all written ahead of time is very integrated in the preaching of Jesus in the preaching of Peter in the preaching of Paul it was Paul's normal custom to do this to do Jesus in the Old Testament studies when he traveled around to the different synagogues Acts chapter 17 actually talks about how he did this all the time it was like his his normal method of operation acts 17 verse 1 it says now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews a gathering of the Jews and Paul went in as was his custom this is his custom now and on three sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures he did Bible studies explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying this Jesus whom I proclaimed to you is the Christ he's the Christ so he reasoned with with them reasoned with them he was like you see this text and I think of what Jesus did you see this text this is what Jews for Jesus does today in Israel they literally go around and say hey can we reason with you from the Scriptures to show you that Jesus is the Messiah and they show Isaiah 53 and they show Psalm 22 and they show these other various passages in Acts chapter 17 again we have the Bereans the Brees a really interesting group it says the in verse 10 of acts 17 it says the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they'd arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue it was his normal thing I'm gonna go to the synagogue I'll start there I'll share with the Jews that are gathered about Jesus in the Old Testament now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica they received the word with all eagerness examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so now we always use the Bereans as our example of good Bible study habits right you don't just take my word for it you like go is that really what the text says and that's good that's healthy but if we look at it in context they were specifically checking to see if Jesus was in fact the Messiah so they were able to through Bible study of the Old Testament confirm the identity of Jesus and then they put their faith in him that's pretty neat if you ask me verse 12 many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men what a great thing to do do you doubt do you go how do I know Jesus really is who we have I think it's interesting is that you quote isaiah 53:2 people just just hold it up I actually it sucks actually Isaiah 52 like verse 13 all the way through 53 but just bring it to somebody and let them read it and then ask who do you think this is about and they'll be like well obviously that's about Jesus and then just let them know that it was written you know 600 years before Jesus I think that kind of matters like this is neat this is amazing stuff of course that's in my evidence for the Bible series but do you see that the pattern here in acts 18 for Paul's at Corinth and it says he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath and tried to persuade jews and greeks how the same method he would use the old testament to preach jesus in acts 18 5 when silas and timothy arrived from macedonia paul was occupied with the word testifying to the jews that the christ was jesus so just consistent consistent consistent this is what he does now there is an anomaly here because you might ask do I have to use Jesus in the Old Testament in my evangelism is that what it's saying in acts and I don't think so you can though obviously you can they do but do you have to in Acts chapter 17 I think there's another example in acts as well Paul goes to the Gentile audience and when he's there in Athens speaking to the Gentile he actually doesn't use Jesus in the Old Testament as his method of convincing them of who Jesus is he uses the conscience and he uses the testimony of the resurrection so the conscience that our awareness of God he rebukes them for their idols and then he uses their awareness of of the fact that they have moral guilt and the foolishness of idolatry and then you talk to them about the resurrection of Jesus so it's just interesting oh there's different tactics for different groups of people in the book of Acts if we're thinking about how to outreach and how to evangelize people often will pick one method of evangelism and elevated as the only single possible method or way it may be a legitimate method and it may be very good but scripture seems to involve a couple different angles two different groups of people but yes but if we're to be Christians and we're to want to understand the Word of God then we're gonna need to look at Jesus in the Old Testament if I want to know him better if I want to understand the Old Testament at all I really need to see Jesus in it says this is a worthwhile study a very worthwhile study Apollo says I'll give you one more example there's actually more I can also give one more Apollo's in Acts chapter 18 verse 28 it says he powerfully refuted the Jews in public showing by the scriptures that Jesus actually that the Christ was Jesus again it's the Messiah of the Old Testament is Jesus and he proved it Paul had open public debates about the identity of this Old Testament Messiah and proved that it was Jesus and that was his method of outreach so that's Acts let's look at some of the epistles I told you today we're laying a foundation we're showing how important it is and how throughout the scripture this is a big deal and perhaps a neglected area of Bible study at least somewhat neglected in a lot of our lives probably even in my own if I if I must admit to having one failing one little failing in my entire life I will admit to it I guess yeah I know it's definitely neglected in my own I'm excited about getting into this because I will be studying it with you just a few days before you coming to share it afterwards so in the epistles okay first let's look at first Corinthians chapter 15 first Corinthians 15 is has what's called a Creed this was like the first New Testament Creed we often think about Creed's like you know the Apostles Creed or the nice seein create or you name it there's different Creed's and different churches hold two different Creed's that sort of thing this is actually the Creed that we find in the Bible it's not the only one I don't think but it's definitely a Creed and the first Creed we find in the scripture so Creed is a formulated doctrine put in - like a slogan or statement or basically this is exactly how we want to say it and we're locking it in with these words so this Creed goes back to pretty much most people agree within five years of the crucifixion of Jesus so this Creek goes back to before the writing of the first Corinthians book itself before the writing of Matthew Mark Luke or John this is ancient ancient Christian content first Corinthians 15 verse three and four it says for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received and here's the Creed that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures it was important enough to include it in the creed that it was in the scriptures that Jesus would die it would be buried and would raise again that this is all according to the scriptures in Romans 1 1 through 3 Paul lays out the gospel in the beginning of we just finished our series on Romans so this might be fresh on some of your guys minds we're in Romans 1 I mean just like a little over a year ago so it should be really fresh Romans 1 verse 1 through 3 says Paul a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God and listen to how he describes the gospel which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh and then he goes on it's it's it's all Old Testament man the New Testament is Old Testament that's the point I like the phrase the the New Testament what's in the New Testament concealed or in the Old Testament concealed excuse me is in the New Testament revealed as a nice way of considering these things we're seeing a flow of thought at the end of Romans we went over this actually last week Romans 16 verse 25 and 26 it says now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ and these words are so neat according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed to us and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the and of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith now this implies something we can take notice we're not just saying here that Jesus is in the Old Testament we're saying more than that this passage is saying that what was okay there's clear indications of Jesus in the Old Testament but once Jesus comes dies and rises all of a sudden we know what to look for so now when we go back and we look at the text it's disclosed it's been opened to us you can know more now than they could know before Jesus came you can have a greater understanding of the Old Testament then you could have before Jesus came for several reasons we have we have Jesus as the model we know what we're looking for when we look there we also have the New Testament writings as examples and instructions on how to do this and how many times they tell us was fulfilled was fulfilled was fulfilled that sort of content so two more passages and then we'll talk a little bit well we'll call it for tonight so revelation 19 this is interesting revelation 19:10 there's just this statement at the end of Revelation 19:10 that is very profound about the nature of prophecy the very nature of prophecy and prophecy here not just speaking that I'm telling you the future exactly but that I'm proclaiming in the name of God like prophetically I'm speaking as a prophet and revelation 19:10 it it's recounts an issue between an angel and John it says then I fell down at his feet to worship Him this angel but he said to me you must not do that I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy that's interesting huh the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy the very nature their very function the very purpose the spirit of the prophecy is that it's about Jesus that's the point it's actually the main point of the text Jesus is literally the key to understanding the Old Testament and once you know who Jesus is it unlocks the Old Testament for you and that's the last verse we'll get into today which is second Corinthians 3 I think this relates directly to what we're talking about today I don't know if you've ever read this verse in this context 2nd Corinthians 3 verse 16 it says but when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the analogy here is that it's interesting because here's a Jesus in the Old Testament analogy right is that Moses when he went into the tabernacle he was there so near God's glory that he came out and he glowed or he had some sort of manifestation of God's glory coming off of his skin so he wore a veil and the reason for the veil according to the scripture is so that they would not see the glory fading the glory was fading it was temporary he was in the God's presence that he came it would fade and that this is like an analogy to the idea that Moses or the law was meant to point you to Christ but it was going to fade in some sense as it delivered you over to Jesus but he then describes the veil I'm giving you the context of 2nd Corinthians 3 he describes this veil as being upon the heart of the unsaved person as they read the Old Testament particularly the Jew who's actually reading the Old Testament and that the veils on their heart they're they're reading it but not comprehending they're like many of the Jews of Jesus's time reading it we should probably I would have been one of them you know like reading it but not getting it reading it but not seeing Jesus in it as though there's some veil something blocking them from seeing the glory of Christ but verse 16 when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the Lord is the spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and we all with unveiled face behold beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit I you know what I meant I think I meant to put in also a couple verses before that so let me actually turn there real quick because I don't want us to miss this point it's kind of important like everything I say ever okay maybe not everything but it's definitely important okay is that New Testament just first Corinthians second Corinthians okay so second Corinthians chapter 3 look at the description of how when they're reading the Old Testament they don't see Jesus there's a veil but when they read the Old Testament they do see Jesus the veil is removed that's the context so 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 well starting in verse 12 since we have such a hope we are very bold not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end but their minds were hardened for to this day when they read the Old Covenant the same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away yes to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts but when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed and then you see what you see the purpose you see the point it's not like you don't get the Bible at all without Jesus you just don't get the point you don't get the main point you're reading Chronicles of Narnia but you're not realizing it's all an allegory the whole point is it refers to Jesus so we intend to with unveiled face look at the Old Testament and see the glory of Christ so I have some questions I want to try to answer in this series now that I've laid out the foundation what rules are there that we can get from Scripture when I look at the New Testament and see how it does these allegories and these pictures of Jesus can I bring this into like sort of can i systematize it a little bit and go here's like some policies I can have as I approach the Old Testament so I can faithfully see Jesus in the text we're not making stuff up are there limits to this thing what rules keep me from making up new theology and getting weird how do I avoid that yet without throwing out the baby with the bathwater you know I thought throwing out the fact that Jesus is in fact the point here so we're gonna be a little bit analytical about this stuff and I'm not just gonna say well the New Testament writers were inspired so don't try to figure out how they figured out that part they were inspired I'll say yes I believe they were inspired but I also think God is rational and so maybe I can't figure out why every allusion to the Old Testament is used in the new but it doesn't mean I can't figure out why any of them are used doesn't mean I can't learn something from it and apply that to my own study of the Old Testament to be able to get so much more out of it what God intended us to get the first time because it seems to me from the teaching of Jesus from the teaching of Peter from the teaching of Paul from Apollo's from the New Testament epistles from the book of Revelation it seems to me that there's an awful lot of Jesus in the Old Testament and it's not just once every three like books where you find you find oh that's a prophecy about Christ there's a lot more than that so we're gonna get into all that stuff so let's pray and we'll talk father God we we trust your word excited because Jesus is the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy this is it that the veil is removed we look to the Old Testament and we look for Christ and we pray that you'd equip us with wisdom and you give us real like solid methodology so we could approach this thing from a place of safety but also from a place of discovery we want to see more of you to know you better to understand you better we pray you to unlock the scriptures for us and give us great wisdom as we study the New Testament to see how it uses the old as we then move into the Old Testament for ourselves to try to understand how we see Jesus we we pray for wisdom we pray that you would open our eyes to see you in Jesus name Amen [Music]

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 84,455

Rating: 4.9012346 out of 5

Keywords: How to find Jesus in the Old Testament, Jesus in the Old Testament, Jesus in the O.T., theology of typology, typology of Christ in the Bible, how to see Jesus in the Old Testament, discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, finding Jesus in the Old Testament, Christology, seeing pictures of Christ, types of Christ, Mike Winger, Bible Thinker, how to find Jesus in the O.T., Jesus is in the Old Testament, Jesus throughout the OT, how to find jesus in the old testament: part 1

Id: WWlpQauXiTU

Length: 57min 3sec (3423 seconds)

Published: Mon May 28 2018