March 9, 2025 • 50 mins
The divide between the Old and New Testaments often leaves Christians wondering how these seemingly different parts of Scripture connect. In this illuminating exploration, we uncover the profound relationship between these testaments and how they form one cohesive narrative of God's redemptive plan.
Through a thoughtful examination of biblical themes, we discover that the Old Testament isn't simply a collection of ancient stories but a purposeful foundation laying groundwork for Christ's arrival. The recurring pattern of promise and fulfillment becomes clear as we trace God's covenant relationships through history—from whispers of redemption in Genesis to the explicit prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi.
We examine how Jesus and the apostles constantly referenced the Hebrew Scriptures, with the New Testament containing hundreds of citations, quotations, and allusions that reveal Christ as the culmination of everything the prophets anticipated. The Kingdom of God emerges as the overarching theme binding all Scripture together—patterned in Eden, promised to Abraham, glimpsed in Israel's history, and ultimately embodied in Jesus.
A fascinating case study from John's Gospel demonstrates how Jesus' words to Nathanael about "angels ascending and descending" directly reference Jacob's dream in Genesis 28, revealing Christ himself as the true connection between heaven and earth. Without understanding such Old Testament foundations, we miss the rich theological significance of Jesus' teaching.
Whether you're new to Bible study or have been reading Scripture for decades, this exploration will transform how you understand the beautiful unity of God's Word and deepen your appreciation for how every part of the Bible ultimately points to Jesus Christ.
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Episode Transcript
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Doug McMasters (00:05):
Thank you for your words and the way that you
all prayed it was wonderful tobe a part of.
So we are now coming into a newsection of our Route 66 study
by coming into the New Testament.
Tonight's going to be a littledifferent.
I'm not going to give you abroad overview of all of the New
Testament, so much as to try togive you a bridge between where
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we of the New Testament.
So much as to try to give you abridge between where we're
heading and where we've been, soto sort of pull together the
Old Testament and the NewTestament.
I'm sure many of you probablygrew up in Sunday school.
I didn't have that opportunityand you learned a lot of Old
Testament stories.
We had a service review timethis evening and we were able to
hear from a lot of OldTestament stories.
We had a service review timethis evening and we're able to
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hear from a couple of ourteachers and the children and
just how they're focusing on alot of Old Testament people and
things, and Sunday school isfilled with that.
My childhood didn't have any ofthat.
I wasn't taught anything otherthan the few little times I
showed up at church during avacation Bible school a couple
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of times with my aunt going toher Methodist church, where the
only thing I can remember islighting off matchsticks and
putting them together in theshape of a cross.
That's all I can recall, and itwasn't until I found my
mother's Bible that I reallybegan to look into it and to
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read it.
But I think we might havesomething in common many of us
is that unless someone has givenus some clear and careful
teaching from God's Word, wemight not understand what all of
that teaching in the OldTestament has to do with the
church or with the New Testament, and so it's important that we
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have, as Paul said, I wanted todeclare to you the whole counsel
of God to be able to help usunderstand the importance of
what is 39 of the 66 books thatare in our Bible.
Just think about that.
The connecting, for instance,the first three chapters of the
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book of Genesis with the lasttwo chapters of the book of
Revelation, and to be able tounderstand that paradise lost
becomes paradise regained, andjust to feel the resonance of
what's stated in those firstthree chapters with what's
declared in the last two is animportant thing.
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Or to understand how Israel'sExodus story out of Egypt is in
relationship to the wondrousredemption that we have in Jesus
Christ, or to understand howthe prophets when they speak to
the nation of Israel in the timeof the kings and all of its
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disobedience and ruin and thentheir return back to the land,
but the prophets don't speak ofthat as a culmination but really
as only a stopping point, withfurther promises yet ahead.
And then Malachi finishes andyou're thinking this story is
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left unfinished.
And if you don't feel that whenyou flip open your Bible to the
book of Matthew you might notunderstand that something
directly connected to where wejust left off is happening now.
So it's been my prayer and it'sbeen our determination, micah
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and me, to be able to ensurethat we get that whole counsel
of God perspective to try to seethe links between the Old and
the New Testament.
Sadly, a lot of people gothrough life thinking that the
Old Testament just doesn't meanmuch to them.
It can be confusing to a lot ofpeople.
It can be unintelligible tothem because they just are lost
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in the middle of a world that'scompletely unfamiliar to them.
I remember teaching at afriend's church.
He was starting a church in StJohnsbury, vermont, and up in
that area preached a message andone of the people came
afterwards and said I neverthought we needed the Old
Testament at all.
Can you imagine that?
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But sadly, that person'sperspective has also been seen
throughout church history indifferent times and in different
ways.
In fact, it started as early asthe second century AD with a
guy by the name of Marcion.
He was born in 85 AD and diedin 160 AD, and Marcion saw a big
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separation between what hethought of as the God of the Old
Testament of the God of the NewTestament, and so he put
together what could legitimatelybe called the first attempt at
a canon listing of inspiredscripture.
But he got it really, reallywrong.
The only thing that was in hislist was a very, very truncated
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edition of Luke that had missingfrom it all of the infancy
accounts of Jesus, the baptismof Jesus and many, many other
verses, and other than that,there were only 10 letters of
Paul.
That was it.
Thankfully, marcion'sperspective wasn't accepted.
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In fact it was shut down fairlyquickly and needfully.
But that idea still exists thatthere's something different and
distinct from the Old Testamentto the New Testament, to the
New Testament.
But when we read the NewTestament.
If we read it with a heartthat's open to what it's about
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to tell us, we can't help but beconvinced of the importance of
the Old Testament, because theOld Testament does not allow us
the luxury of ignoring ordownplaying the Old Testament.
Listen to what Paul said inRomans 15.
Whatever was written in ourformer days was written for our
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instruction.
Or 1 Corinthians, 10, 11.
These things happened to Israelas an example and they were
written down for our instruction.
Example and they were writtendown for our instruction.
Or 2 Timothy, 3, 16 and 17,where he's commending Timothy
for the things that he wastaught and learned.
And he said to them to him, allscripture, referring mainly to
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the Old Testament, is breathedout by God and profitable that
the man of God may be complete,equipped for every good work.
So the development of aminister of Christ comes through
the understanding of the OldTestament scriptures, very, very
important.
So Paul is clear, and the otherNew Testament authors are clear
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, that the Old Testament is notoutdated or superseded and
therefore left to be ignored.
By no means.
The scriptures tell us thatJesus himself is a hearty yes
and amen to the promises of God.
What are those promises.
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You have to go from Genesis toMalachi and find them out.
You have to go from Genesis toMalachi and find them out.
So let's just think for aminute of just how broadly the
Old Testament is used in the NewTestament.
First of all, the New Testamentis literally bookended by the
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Old Testament.
You can go to Matthew, chapter1, and you open up to the
genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Genealogies in the book ofGenesis and the books of
Chronicles give us anunderstanding that we're in
familiar territory here.
Or you go to the last words ofJesus in the New Testament and
find out that he's pulling fromthe book of Isaiah in Revelation
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22, 16.
So the first and last bit ofthe New Testament is filled with
the Old Testament.
Each of the gospels lead offwith discussions and statements
from the Old Testament.
Matthew, of course.
I just spoke about thegenealogies.
Mark quotes Malachi, chapterthree, and verse one in Isaiah,
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chapter 40.
Luke peppers the first twochapters with a number of images
from the Old Testament and Johnbegins with what In the
beginning.
What other book starts with inthe beginning?
It's remarkable, right Genesisand John with the same words.
We see it in the life of Christ, even in the preparation for
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his public ministry and histemptation.
What does he say to Satan whotempts him?
It is written Three quotes fromthe book of Deuteronomy.
And one of the last things thathe did before he ascended into
the heavenlies was to open upthe minds and hearts of his
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disciples so that they mightunderstand what, that the things
were written were written abouthim, right.
Well, it doesn't stop there.
The authors of the NewTestament who write the letters,
pick up from the life of JesusChrist and the focus of Jesus
Christ, and they build Christianteaching and theology out of
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the Old Testament, the book ofRomans, in all of its statements
.
You'll find it filled withquotations.
You can simply just take thebook of Romans in about that
kind of pace, flip through itpage by page, chapter by chapter
, and just notice how thetypeface indicates how much of
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the Old Testament is there.
The middle part of Galatians andthe argument about
justification by faith alone isfilled with statements that come
from the Old Testament, thecovenant, discussions in the
book of Hebrews, and so the NewTestament authors quote, allude
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to or cite the Old Testamentliterally hundreds and hundreds
of times.
Roughly 30 of the Old Testamentbooks are quoted at least once
and several things are quotedseveral times the Ten
Commandments, leviticus, chapter19,.
A number of Psalms like Psalm 2and 22, and particularly 110.
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Chapters in Isaiah, chapter 6,and we'll be looking at more
when we get to chapter 40,chapter 52 and 53.
Particularly Now, some of theNew Testament writings don't
quote the Old Testament, like1st, 2nd or 3rd John.
But you can't look at the OldTestament and say it doesn't
have anything to do with the OldTestament.
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That's just simply not apossibility.
So let's kind of dive a littledeeper and understand how some
of this develops from the oldtestament to the new testament.
As we look at god's actions inthe old testament, we see a
continuity of intervention ofgod into human affairs right,
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which, of course, with thecreation of all things.
But he interacts intimatelywith humanity in the garden,
having prepared it for peopleand given them responsibilities.
As we go through the OldTestament, we find that he
speaks to individuals withpromise, such as he does to Adam
and Eve immediately aftergiving them a promise in the
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midst of judgment, but alsomaking clear to Abraham in a
covenant that speaks to us ofsalvation, moving forward to the
people of God in Egypt and Godbringing Moses and calling him
to be the leader of the people,to bring them out and to bring
them into a relationship withhim that we understand.
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That comes through not only theexodus event but into the mount
sinai and the covenant.
There we find god interactingand bringing about the kings.
We see him acting in thedecline, in the exile of babylon
and and also His interventionin its return, and again through
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the prophets, who speak aboutjudgment and disobedience and
yet promises of redemption whichleave us wondering is God going
to continue to act?
And so we come into the NewTestament and find that those
things are picked back up againand God intervenes by coming
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himself to bring the arm ofsalvation to humanity.
Not too long ago, we started aseries that brought us into an
understanding of a key theme, oroverarching understanding of
all of Scripture and God's bigpicture.
We called it.
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You might remember goingthrough that where we talked
about the kingdom of God as anoverarching theme, and so some
of this will sound familiar toyou.
We just want to highlight thepoints that the kingdom of God
is patterned in Eden, that itwas lost to humanity, it
perished in the fall.
You might remember kingdom,patterned kingdom, perishing
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kingdom promised in sort ofimplicit ways in the
proto-evangelion, where Godspoke to Adam and Eve about
crushing the head of the serpent, but also given directly to
Abraham.
We began to see the kingdompartially seen in Moses and his
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leadership of the people andtheir exodus out of Egypt, and
as that kingdom developedthrough the course of the nation
of Israel, we saw sort oflittle instances of what that
might look like, particularlywhen we saw the reign of David
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and Solomon.
But as Solomon's kingdom goesinto decline and as it leads to
the destruction of Jerusalem andthe people brought into exile
in Babylon, the prophets take upthe front stage and they begin
to speak about a prophesiedkingdom that even reaches, as I
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said, beyond the return fromexile back to the land.
One thing that we do need totake note of, though, is that,
as the Old Testament comes to aclose, those proclamations are
still hanging in the air, stillwaiting for something said or
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done that tells us they're nevergoing to materialize or that
they're actually coming intoexistence, and that anticipation
brings us into the NewTestament, which is called the
present kingdom.
And now, with Christ ascendedinto the heavenlies and sending
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out, the Holy Spirit hasempowered his people to be
proclaimers of the kingdom, aswe share the gospel and we
anticipate the day in whichJesus will bring it all to a
close and into a consummation ofthe perfected kingdom and every
enemy of God will be broughtdown and every one of his
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children brought into a blissfulrelationship in which he is
with us and we're with him.
And so, when you understandthese things, one of the things
that you come into the OldTestament to feel deeply and
should feel deeply is this wordpromise.
And one of the things that youshould feel deeply when you read
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and understand the NewTestament is a word fulfillment,
right?
So let me just talk aboutpromise for just a second.
One of the things that I used tolove with my parents was to be
given some little encouragementthat there was going to be some
ice cream at the end of theafternoon, right, and so just
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going to take that up.
Maybe you had an experiencelike that too, and I'll take my
grandmother this time instead ofmy mother and my father.
So let's say, my grandmotherpromises me some ice cream, but
first of all we have to go to myuncle and aunt's house and then
we're going to drop off at thepharmacy, and then we have to do
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a few other things at thegrocery store and after all
that's finished, we get to havesome ice cream.
So what's that going to buildin a little child's mind and
heart?
Right, just think about thatfor a second.
Now let's just sort of dissectthis in a little more of a
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categorical way.
That very thing when we make apromise, we're making it an
announcement about a realitythat isn't yet in existence.
The reality now is differentfrom the reality that's being
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talked about, and so what itdoes is it binds that reality
with the present one, thatthere's a connection there.
And because there's aconnection between the moment of
the promise and the period inbetween, we realize that all of
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these things aren't just lifehappening in happenstance or
simply in some cyclical manner,but that time in human history
actually has a progression, andas a little boy I could mark
down that progression.
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First of all, we have to go toaunt and uncle's house, and then
we have to go to the pharmacy,and then we have to go to the
grocery store and then, afterall the things are done ice
cream, right.
But there's a linear movement,that life isn't just simply
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happening haphazardly, thatthere is definitely movement,
and we can mark out thatmovement as it gets closer to
the time of fulfillment.
And when the Old Testamentspeaks it moves us a little more
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deeply and more progressivelytoward that time of absolute
fulfillment.
And so you have the whispers ofredemption in Genesis, chapter
3, the promise granted toAbraham.
And as it begins to moveforward, we begin to understand
more of the one who gave thepromise and more of what the
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promise would look like when itcomes, as we move through Moses
and as we move into David.
And these covenants are broughtinto existence are spoken about
in anticipation as we talkabout the new covenant in the
prophets of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
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So what that does, like itwould do for any child who's
wondering how quickly we'regoing to be able to get through
all of this, is that it buildsattention, right.
It builds an anticipation thatis full of tension.
Any little child.
One thing they don't have ispatience, right.
I would like my ice cream now,please.
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Right?
And so that tension in the OldTestament needs to be felt
because what happens is thosewho have been entrusted with
this promise are not in controlof making that promise
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actualized.
Just as a five-year-old Dougcannot tell my grandmother I
want my ice cream now, I have towait on her to be able to give
it to me.
So the people of God had towait, in the tension, dependent
upon God, for the actualizationof those things.
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And so when we enter into theNew Testament, when you open up
the gospel of Matthew, rememberyou're coming into a world that
is filled with promise andtension and anticipation,
looking for fulfillment, lookingfor fulfillment.
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And so it should have beenimmediately clear to everyone,
when the words come forth out ofthe mouth of John the Baptist,
when he quotes Malachi and hequotes Isaiah, that he is the
forerunner of the man of promise, the Messiah.
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There should have been nohesitation for any of the people
living in that time.
Had they really felt thepromise in all of those little
dimensions, they would have saidhe's here, we're at Dairy Queen
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, right, we're here, it'sfinally here.
And that's why it was sodisheartening and disruptive for
John the Baptist to sit and tosee himself under judgment from
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the religious leaders, or Jesusto have to explain himself to
these men over and over and overagain, when his behavior was so
clearly marked by what waspromised in the Old Testament.
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And so, when we come into theNew Testament, what the New
Testament is giving us is thissense that Jesus has filled up
this preparatory, incompleterevelation of the Old Testament
through the people of Israel,that he has come to bring it to
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culmination, to give it its highpoint, its climax, in the sense
that it's all pointing to himand finalized in him.
It's brought to completion, andthat's what we mean by the word
fulfillment.
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Christ is, as Paul said inRomans, the end of the law.
It is the very finishing point,the teleos, the end point of
which it was all anticipated.
It's wrapped up in him.
And so when we talk about theOld and New Testament, we're not
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just talking about things thatare related to each other simply
, but things that are actuallyinterdependent to one another.
That's how closely bound theyare.
And so when you come, forinstance, into the gospel of
Matthew, you find that wordbeing brought out over and, over
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and over again.
Remember, the Old Testamentword was promise and the New
Testament word is fulfillment.
And so when you come to Matthew, there are 10 explicit
fulfillment passages Matthew 1and 2, in several different
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places in that chapter, chapter4, chapter 8, chapter 12,
chapter 13, chapter 21, chapter27,.
All over it.
Just to give you an example,matthew 4,.
Jesus left Nazareth, went tolive in Capernaum, by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun andNaphtali.
This was to fulfill what wasspoken through the prophet
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Isaiah.
Land of Zebulun and land ofNaphtali, along the road by the
sea, beyond the Jordan, galileeof the Gentiles, the people who
live in darkness have seen agreat light.
And for those living in theland of the shadow of death, a
light has dawned.
Who is that light?
It is Christ.
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And what is the light?
How do you come into that light?
The very next verse, from thenon, jesus began to preach repent
, because the kingdom of heavenhas come near.
There are 10 of those very clearfulfillment passages.
There's another one which usesa form of the fulfillment word
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in Matthew 13.
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilledin them, which says you will
listen and listen but neverunderstand.
You will look and look butnever understand.
You will look and look butnever perceive.
And in addition to thosefulfillment statements, those
very clear statements, areseveral other fulfillment
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passages that don't have theformulaic introduction of
fulfillment but actually arestatements of fulfillment.
For instance Matthew 2.
In Bethlehem of Judea, theytold him, because that is what
was written in the prophet.
And you, bethlehem, in the landof Judah, by no means are the
least among the rulers of Judah.
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So there's several more ofthose, in addition to the ones
that are explicitly statingfulfillment language, in
addition to the ones that areexplicitly stating fulfillment
language.
The emphasis here is that God issovereignly controlling history
, he's governing all of humanhistory to bring it to a place
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of fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
And so Jesus himself said inMatthew 5, I have not come to
abolish the law, but to fulfillit, to bring it to its fullness,
to bring it to its climax, tobring it to its completed,
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designated purpose and end.
So we see promise andfulfillment through that
fulfillment language, andMatthew is just one example of
that.
But there's also fulfillment ofthe Old Testament by way of
another thing called typology.
Typology, fulfillment language,looks forward and it speaks
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directly and predicts a newtestament event.
But typology is a little moreindirect and a little more
analogous in the sense that ittakes people and places and
institutions, such as king davidor the temple itself or the
temple worship sacrificialsystem, and shows in the
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antitype, the fulfillment, jesusChrist, paralleling those
things in a fulfilling kind ofway.
We often have to lookdifferently at reality in this
sense, because what we have arethe shadows before the reality
rather than the reality, andthen see the trailing shadow,
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and that's a little opposite ofhow we think.
But when you see the OldTestament shadows, we need to
look up and wonder what is thereality that those things are
foreshadowing for us, the typeand the anti-type, the type
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being the mark of the reality.
And if my ring were a seal, Iwould take my ring and stamp it
and say there's King David,there's the temple, there's the
sacrificial system, and youwould look at those things and
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they're real marks.
But David and the temple andthe sacrificial system are only
marks of the thing whichactually imprints them, the seal
itself, who is Jesus Christ?
And so, for an example, as wasbrought out when we sang, adam
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is a type, christ is theanti-type.
Paul makes this argument inAdam all die, but in Christ all
shall be made alive.
So here is Christ as theanti-type of which Adam is, but
the type.
Just as death from sin enteredthe world through one man, adam,
and thus cursing all ofhumanity, life enters the world
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through one man, jesus, thatbecomes available to all who
believe on him.
So all who are in Christ liveand all who are in Adam, if
Christ hadn't intervened, woulddie.
The Word of God also sees Godworking out his plan in typology
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by Jesus, not only markingthose people and places and
institutions, but also theactions of the nation of Israel
and even Israel itself becometypes of what Christ does.
So that, for instance, matthewspeaks about Jesus being brought
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as an infant out of Egypt andbrought back into the land of
promise as an antitype of whatHosea was speaking about, about
the exodus and the exile, whenhe was speaking to the people
there, when he was speaking tothe people there.
And so there's a direct connectin Jesus experiencing, as the
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true Israel and as the perfectIsrael, some of the things that
the nation of Israel itselfexperienced.
And so the New Testamentwriters saw the Old Testament
through the fact of Christcoming, and the Old Testament
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context gave them a betterunderstanding of who Christ is
and what Christ has accomplished.
So I want to just take a momentand show what you're going to
see when you read your NewTestament and how it brings the
Old Testament in.
First of all, we have what wecall citations.
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Citations Citations use anintroductory formula.
It is written.
That's the formula and you cansee that several different times
in several different ways.
That's the formula and you cansee that several different times
in several different ways.
And what the New Testamentwriter is saying is that the Old
Testament is very clearly beingused and by using this formula,
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it is written is really justsaying look, don't miss this
Right, don't mistake theauthority from which this has
come.
It's come from God's word inthe Old Testament.
It is written, and sometimesthey're very specific about
where that comes from and othertimes they're non-specific, but
the citation is there.
For instance, a specific onewould be Matthew 2.17, spoken by
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the prophet Jeremiah.
A non-specific one would beJohn 6, as it is written, as it
is written where is not given.
It's non-specific.
Acts 13.33, written in thesecond Psalm Boy.
That's very specific.
33, written in the second PsalmBoy.
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That's very specific.
Ephesians 4.8.
Therefore, it says Very, verynonspecific.
Then there are quotations.
So there's not only citationsbut there's quotations.
And quotations are similar tocitations but they don't use the
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formula it is written.
So, for instance, a goodexample would be Romans 9, 7.
Neither is it the case that allof Abraham's children are his
descendants.
On the contrary, your offspringwill be traced through Isaac.
And that last little phrase,your offspring shall be traced
through Isaac.
And that last little phrase,your offspring shall be traced
through Isaac is a quote fromthe Old Testament, but it
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doesn't have the citation.
It is written eitherspecifically or non-specifically
, and so it's a signal that theOld Testament is significant and
that the New Testament isbringing in the ideas of the Old
Testament into hisargumentation, but is doing so
in such a way that if you didn'tknow the Old Testament, you may
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not be able to catch what he'sdoing.
Let's kind of talk about adifferent one.
Let's kind of talk about adifferent one.
Let's say, if you're goingsomewhere that you're not
accustomed to living at all,david soon is going to be living
in Vancouver.
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Right, have you ever lived inVancouver?
You've never lived in Vancouver.
So what David might say when hegets to Vancouver and he starts
to realize that Canadianculture is not New York City
culture, he might say somethinglike boy, I'm sure not in Kansas
anymore.
What is that a quote of?
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He didn't say, as Dorothy saidin the Wizard of Oz in Act 3,
scene 2, but he did quote themovie right, and if you knew the
movie you'd understand theconnection.
That's what a quote is comparedto a citation.
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But back to Romans 9 and verse 7.
Listen to what Paul's saying.
In fact you could turn therejust for a second just to give
us a better feel for it.
We'll be done in just a moment,but I want to give you an
understanding of these things.
Romans 9, 7.
Romans 9, 7.
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Now it's not as though the wordof God has failed, because not
all who are descended fromIsrael are Israel.
Neither is it the case that allof Abraham's children are his
descendants.
On the contrary and there's thebold print we're given some
help there by the people who setup our Bible's typeface your
offspring will be traced throughIsaac.
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So what is Paul doing there?
He's going back to the OldTestament and the unstated
person of Ishmael, right.
And the whole backstory ofIshmael and Isaac is just left
unstated but understood as aliving illustration of the
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opposition and the variancebetween those who are of the
flesh and those who are of thespirit, whether or not they're
descendants physically ofAbraham.
So it is only those who, byfaith are children of Abraham,
are the ones who are called intothe promise, not just physical
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descendants.
He goes on to say that veryclearly.
That is, it is not children byphysical descent who are God's
children, but the children ofthe promise are considered to be
the offspring, for this is thestatement of the promise.
At this time I will come andSarah will have a son.
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Sarah will have a son.
So we have citations, we havequotations, citations that are
specific or nonspecificquotations, which don't give us
the formula but give us thepassage.
And then there's another onecalled allusions, allusions and
allusions.
Again they don't have acitation formula, but they're
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sort of little brief snippets ofOld Testament passages where
there's a broad idea or personor place or scene in the Old
Testament that's brought intothe discussion of the New
Testament, and they're onlyfragments or summaries of Old
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Testament passages.
And so it's easy for these toslip by you unless you know your
Old Testament.
And you might have recognizedthat many, many times in Matthew
there were little nuances ofargument that were being used by
Matthew to explain Jesus Christas the Messiah.
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That if you didn't know the OldTestament you wouldn't catch it
at all.
But if you're tuned into theOld Testament, a whole new level
of understanding opens up foryou.
We find those in a lot of movies, and someone said this and I
think it's a great way toillustrate that, when you watch
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different children's movies thatare popular these days, they've
realized that they need to putinto those movies things that
will keep the parents asinterested as the children.
But there's a lot of popculture references that the kids
don't even understand andsometimes better, they don't
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that the parents do understand.
And when the parents see itthey go that's great, you know,
they laugh and enjoy it and thekid is enjoying it at their
level too.
So, for instance, in DreamWorksmovies, in Shrek 2, there is
Farbuck's coffee, right, ofcourse we know what that is.
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A little kid probably justdidn't even think about it.
So unless you know your OldTestament, you're not even going
to think about it.
But if you know your OldTestament, you're going even
going to think about it.
But if you know your OldTestament, you're going to
really think about it and it'sgoing to open up new vistas for
you.
Let me give you an example ofwhat I mean by that Genesis,
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chapter 28,.
Right after we have Jacobtricking his brother Esau and
having to flee.
We come into chapter 28 andJacob is at leaves Beersheba and
he comes toward Haran and hecomes to a certain place and he
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spends the night there becauseit's gotten dark by then and he
takes one of the stones that isjust lying around and he lays
down.
So it doesn't, it's no place togo.
It's not like there's a Motel 6there or Holiday Inn or
anything.
He just finds a rock and laysdown and goes to bed because
it's dark.
He's running away and as he laysdown he dreams, and in verse 12
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of Genesis 28, we have thisreally strange statement.
He dreamed a stairway was seton the ground, with its top
reaching the sky, and God'sangels were going up and down
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the stairway.
You know, pretty vivid dream.
Might have had a little toomuch of Bono's pizza before he
went to bed, you know.
And here's this bizarre dream.
Why are we given thatinformation?
We just go on.
The Lord was standing therebeside him saying I am the Lord,
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the God of your father, abraham, and the God of Isaac.
I will give you and youroffspring the land of which
you're lying.
This guy's just had to run awayfrom home.
And God meets him in the middleof the night, in the middle of
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nowhere, and tells him thepromise I gave Abraham is the
promise I gave to Isaac, is thepromise I'm giving to you.
Look, I'm with you, I'll watchover you wherever you go.
I will bring you back to thisland, for I will not leave you
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until I've done what I'vepromised you.
And when Jacob awoke he saidsurely the Lord was in this
place and I did not know it.
He was afraid.
And he said what an awesomeplace this is.
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This is none other than thehouse of God.
And he called the place Bethel.
This is the gateway of heaven.
Did you hear that?
This is the gateway of heaven?
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And so he set a stone that wasnear his head, set it up as a
marker, he poured oil on top ofit and named the place Bethel
the house of God.
We could easily pass by that,not really giving a whole lot of
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understanding to the dream.
We might even remember thedream, but the stairway and the
angels coming up and down, maybenot, until we get to the Gospel
of John, and in John, chapter 1, these men are starting to come
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into an interaction with Jesus.
Philip finds Nathanael and toldhim we found the one that Moses
has written about in the law,and so did the prophets Jesus,
the son of Joseph from Nazareth.
Can any good thing come out ofNazareth?
Nathanael asks Come and see.
Philip answers and Jesus sawNathanael coming toward him and
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said about him here truly is anIsraelite in whom there's no
deceit.
Nathanael's shocked him andsaid about him here truly is an
Israelite in whom there's nodeceit.
Nathanael shocked how did youknow me Before?
Philip called you when you wereunder the fig tree, I saw you.
Jesus answered Rabbi, you'rethe son of God, you're the king
of Israel.
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Seems like an awfully rash andhearty thing to say, but
remember the Old Testament isfilled with what Promise,
intention and anticipation.
That's why these guys said whatthey did so quickly Because
there was promise, intention andanticipation that made them
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ready to find the Messiah.
Jesus responds to him do youbelieve?
Because I told you I saw youunder the fig tree?
Why should he believe?
Listen to what Jesus says.
Next You'll see greater thingsthan this.
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Then he said truly, I tell you,you will see heaven opened and
the angels of God ascending anddescending on the Son of man,
descending on the Son of man.
That's an allusion to Genesis,chapter 28, where Jacob said
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this is the place where God was,this is the house of God, this
is the gateway to heaven.
And Jesus is making a veryclear statement, by way of an
illusion, that he is the houseof God, that he is the gateway
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to heaven.
If you don't read your OldTestament, you're not going to
know that, you're not going tocatch these things, and so, as
best we can, I want you to readthe New Testament and love
Matthew and Mark and Luke andJohn and Acts and Romans and 1st
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and 2nd Corinthians, and on.
We go, but don't forget wherewe've been, and, for those of us
who are teaching all of the NewTestament books, let's remember
to bring what we've learnedinto where we're at as we go
through them, so that we mightcontinue to see these
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interactions.
Remember, the early churchwasn't just Jewish.
It very shortly began to reachinto the Gentile nations, and
many of them, just like us, havenot had the luxury of being
taught the scriptures from ouryouth, and so Genesis was just
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as much a mystery to them as itis to us when we first read it,
and so they learned, as theapostles didn't hold back on
forcing them to read the OldTestament and to understand it
and to realize that that promisehas now come to fruition in
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Jesus Christ.
So don't be afraid of beingchallenged to reach back time
and time again as we continue tomove forward into the New
Testament more deeply.
Right, so let's pray more deeply.
All right, so let's pray.
Father, we thank you forgranting us a position in time
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to know that Christ has come,that he has come in response to
all of your purpose plan andyour promise plan to bring about
life to the nations, so thatpeople from every place might
declare you as Lord and Savior.
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Lord, what a wondrous privilegeit is not to be in the tension
and anticipation of promise, butto be in the wondrous place of
fulfillment and completion.
But to be in the wondrous placeof fulfillment and completion.
And yet we can understand someof those points of tension and
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anticipation, because we stillhope in steadfast confidence and
wait for that coming day whenall that Christ's kingdom will
be in its full unveiling as itbrings the last enemy to defeat
and death is finished, finally,and life will reign, and where
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holiness will be home and wewill be your people and you will
declare yourself to be our God.
Lord, as we continue to venturethrough your word, help us to
understand all that you have forus, in all the ways that you've
given it to us, so that wemight truly grasp a hold of
Christ all the more, and torejoice in him and to display
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him as we live our life, inlight of who he is and what he's
done for us.
And we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you for your words and the way that you
all prayed it was wonderful tobe a part of.
So we are now coming into a newsection of our Route 66 study
by coming into the New Testament.
Tonight's going to be a littledifferent.
I'm not going to give you abroad overview of all of the New
Testament, so much as to try togive you a bridge between where
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we of the New Testament.
So much as to try to give you abridge between where we're
heading and where we've been, soto sort of pull together the
Old Testament and the NewTestament.
I'm sure many of you probablygrew up in Sunday school.
I didn't have that opportunityand you learned a lot of Old
Testament stories.
We had a service review timethis evening and we were able to
hear from a lot of OldTestament stories.
We had a service review timethis evening and we're able to
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hear from a couple of ourteachers and the children and
just how they're focusing on alot of Old Testament people and
things, and Sunday school isfilled with that.
My childhood didn't have any ofthat.
I wasn't taught anything otherthan the few little times I
showed up at church during avacation Bible school a couple
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of times with my aunt going toher Methodist church, where the
only thing I can remember islighting off matchsticks and
putting them together in theshape of a cross.
That's all I can recall, and itwasn't until I found my
mother's Bible that I reallybegan to look into it and to
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read it.
But I think we might havesomething in common many of us
is that unless someone has givenus some clear and careful
teaching from God's Word, wemight not understand what all of
that teaching in the OldTestament has to do with the
church or with the New Testament, and so it's important that we
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have, as Paul said, I wanted todeclare to you the whole counsel
of God to be able to help usunderstand the importance of
what is 39 of the 66 books thatare in our Bible.
Just think about that.
The connecting, for instance,the first three chapters of the
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book of Genesis with the lasttwo chapters of the book of
Revelation, and to be able tounderstand that paradise lost
becomes paradise regained, andjust to feel the resonance of
what's stated in those firstthree chapters with what's
declared in the last two is animportant thing.
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Or to understand how Israel'sExodus story out of Egypt is in
relationship to the wondrousredemption that we have in Jesus
Christ, or to understand howthe prophets when they speak to
the nation of Israel in the timeof the kings and all of its
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disobedience and ruin and thentheir return back to the land,
but the prophets don't speak ofthat as a culmination but really
as only a stopping point, withfurther promises yet ahead.
And then Malachi finishes andyou're thinking this story is
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left unfinished.
And if you don't feel that whenyou flip open your Bible to the
book of Matthew you might notunderstand that something
directly connected to where wejust left off is happening now.
So it's been my prayer and it'sbeen our determination, micah
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and me, to be able to ensurethat we get that whole counsel
of God perspective to try to seethe links between the Old and
the New Testament.
Sadly, a lot of people gothrough life thinking that the
Old Testament just doesn't meanmuch to them.
It can be confusing to a lot ofpeople.
It can be unintelligible tothem because they just are lost
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in the middle of a world that'scompletely unfamiliar to them.
I remember teaching at afriend's church.
He was starting a church in StJohnsbury, vermont, and up in
that area preached a message andone of the people came
afterwards and said I neverthought we needed the Old
Testament at all.
Can you imagine that?
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But sadly, that person'sperspective has also been seen
throughout church history indifferent times and in different
ways.
In fact, it started as early asthe second century AD with a
guy by the name of Marcion.
He was born in 85 AD and diedin 160 AD, and Marcion saw a big
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separation between what hethought of as the God of the Old
Testament of the God of the NewTestament, and so he put
together what could legitimatelybe called the first attempt at
a canon listing of inspiredscripture.
But he got it really, reallywrong.
The only thing that was in hislist was a very, very truncated
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edition of Luke that had missingfrom it all of the infancy
accounts of Jesus, the baptismof Jesus and many, many other
verses, and other than that,there were only 10 letters of
Paul.
That was it.
Thankfully, marcion'sperspective wasn't accepted.
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In fact it was shut down fairlyquickly and needfully.
But that idea still exists thatthere's something different and
distinct from the Old Testamentto the New Testament, to the
New Testament.
But when we read the NewTestament.
If we read it with a heartthat's open to what it's about
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to tell us, we can't help but beconvinced of the importance of
the Old Testament, because theOld Testament does not allow us
the luxury of ignoring ordownplaying the Old Testament.
Listen to what Paul said inRomans 15.
Whatever was written in ourformer days was written for our
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instruction.
Or 1 Corinthians, 10, 11.
These things happened to Israelas an example and they were
written down for our instruction.
Example and they were writtendown for our instruction.
Or 2 Timothy, 3, 16 and 17,where he's commending Timothy
for the things that he wastaught and learned.
And he said to them to him, allscripture, referring mainly to
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the Old Testament, is breathedout by God and profitable that
the man of God may be complete,equipped for every good work.
So the development of aminister of Christ comes through
the understanding of the OldTestament scriptures, very, very
important.
So Paul is clear, and the otherNew Testament authors are clear
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, that the Old Testament is notoutdated or superseded and
therefore left to be ignored.
By no means.
The scriptures tell us thatJesus himself is a hearty yes
and amen to the promises of God.
What are those promises.
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You have to go from Genesis toMalachi and find them out.
You have to go from Genesis toMalachi and find them out.
So let's just think for aminute of just how broadly the
Old Testament is used in the NewTestament.
First of all, the New Testamentis literally bookended by the
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Old Testament.
You can go to Matthew, chapter1, and you open up to the
genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Genealogies in the book ofGenesis and the books of
Chronicles give us anunderstanding that we're in
familiar territory here.
Or you go to the last words ofJesus in the New Testament and
find out that he's pulling fromthe book of Isaiah in Revelation
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22, 16.
So the first and last bit ofthe New Testament is filled with
the Old Testament.
Each of the gospels lead offwith discussions and statements
from the Old Testament.
Matthew, of course.
I just spoke about thegenealogies.
Mark quotes Malachi, chapterthree, and verse one in Isaiah,
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chapter 40.
Luke peppers the first twochapters with a number of images
from the Old Testament and Johnbegins with what In the
beginning.
What other book starts with inthe beginning?
It's remarkable, right Genesisand John with the same words.
We see it in the life of Christ, even in the preparation for
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his public ministry and histemptation.
What does he say to Satan whotempts him?
It is written Three quotes fromthe book of Deuteronomy.
And one of the last things thathe did before he ascended into
the heavenlies was to open upthe minds and hearts of his
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disciples so that they mightunderstand what, that the things
were written were written abouthim, right.
Well, it doesn't stop there.
The authors of the NewTestament who write the letters,
pick up from the life of JesusChrist and the focus of Jesus
Christ, and they build Christianteaching and theology out of
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the Old Testament, the book ofRomans, in all of its statements
.
You'll find it filled withquotations.
You can simply just take thebook of Romans in about that
kind of pace, flip through itpage by page, chapter by chapter
, and just notice how thetypeface indicates how much of
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the Old Testament is there.
The middle part of Galatians andthe argument about
justification by faith alone isfilled with statements that come
from the Old Testament, thecovenant, discussions in the
book of Hebrews, and so the NewTestament authors quote, allude
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to or cite the Old Testamentliterally hundreds and hundreds
of times.
Roughly 30 of the Old Testamentbooks are quoted at least once
and several things are quotedseveral times the Ten
Commandments, leviticus, chapter19,.
A number of Psalms like Psalm 2and 22, and particularly 110.
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Chapters in Isaiah, chapter 6,and we'll be looking at more
when we get to chapter 40,chapter 52 and 53.
Particularly Now, some of theNew Testament writings don't
quote the Old Testament, like1st, 2nd or 3rd John.
But you can't look at the OldTestament and say it doesn't
have anything to do with the OldTestament.
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That's just simply not apossibility.
So let's kind of dive a littledeeper and understand how some
of this develops from the oldtestament to the new testament.
As we look at god's actions inthe old testament, we see a
continuity of intervention ofgod into human affairs right,
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which, of course, with thecreation of all things.
But he interacts intimatelywith humanity in the garden,
having prepared it for peopleand given them responsibilities.
As we go through the OldTestament, we find that he
speaks to individuals withpromise, such as he does to Adam
and Eve immediately aftergiving them a promise in the
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midst of judgment, but alsomaking clear to Abraham in a
covenant that speaks to us ofsalvation, moving forward to the
people of God in Egypt and Godbringing Moses and calling him
to be the leader of the people,to bring them out and to bring
them into a relationship withhim that we understand.
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That comes through not only theexodus event but into the mount
sinai and the covenant.
There we find god interactingand bringing about the kings.
We see him acting in thedecline, in the exile of babylon
and and also His interventionin its return, and again through
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the prophets, who speak aboutjudgment and disobedience and
yet promises of redemption whichleave us wondering is God going
to continue to act?
And so we come into the NewTestament and find that those
things are picked back up againand God intervenes by coming
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himself to bring the arm ofsalvation to humanity.
Not too long ago, we started aseries that brought us into an
understanding of a key theme, oroverarching understanding of
all of Scripture and God's bigpicture.
We called it.
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You might remember goingthrough that where we talked
about the kingdom of God as anoverarching theme, and so some
of this will sound familiar toyou.
We just want to highlight thepoints that the kingdom of God
is patterned in Eden, that itwas lost to humanity, it
perished in the fall.
You might remember kingdom,patterned kingdom, perishing
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kingdom promised in sort ofimplicit ways in the
proto-evangelion, where Godspoke to Adam and Eve about
crushing the head of the serpent, but also given directly to
Abraham.
We began to see the kingdompartially seen in Moses and his
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leadership of the people andtheir exodus out of Egypt, and
as that kingdom developedthrough the course of the nation
of Israel, we saw sort oflittle instances of what that
might look like, particularlywhen we saw the reign of David
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and Solomon.
But as Solomon's kingdom goesinto decline and as it leads to
the destruction of Jerusalem andthe people brought into exile
in Babylon, the prophets take upthe front stage and they begin
to speak about a prophesiedkingdom that even reaches, as I
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said, beyond the return fromexile back to the land.
One thing that we do need totake note of, though, is that,
as the Old Testament comes to aclose, those proclamations are
still hanging in the air, stillwaiting for something said or
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done that tells us they're nevergoing to materialize or that
they're actually coming intoexistence, and that anticipation
brings us into the NewTestament, which is called the
present kingdom.
And now, with Christ ascendedinto the heavenlies and sending
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out, the Holy Spirit hasempowered his people to be
proclaimers of the kingdom, aswe share the gospel and we
anticipate the day in whichJesus will bring it all to a
close and into a consummation ofthe perfected kingdom and every
enemy of God will be broughtdown and every one of his
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children brought into a blissfulrelationship in which he is
with us and we're with him.
And so, when you understandthese things, one of the things
that you come into the OldTestament to feel deeply and
should feel deeply is this wordpromise.
And one of the things that youshould feel deeply when you read
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and understand the NewTestament is a word fulfillment,
right?
So let me just talk aboutpromise for just a second.
One of the things that I used tolove with my parents was to be
given some little encouragementthat there was going to be some
ice cream at the end of theafternoon, right, and so just
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going to take that up.
Maybe you had an experiencelike that too, and I'll take my
grandmother this time instead ofmy mother and my father.
So let's say, my grandmotherpromises me some ice cream, but
first of all we have to go to myuncle and aunt's house and then
we're going to drop off at thepharmacy, and then we have to do
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a few other things at thegrocery store and after all
that's finished, we get to havesome ice cream.
So what's that going to buildin a little child's mind and
heart?
Right, just think about thatfor a second.
Now let's just sort of dissectthis in a little more of a
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categorical way.
That very thing when we make apromise, we're making it an
announcement about a realitythat isn't yet in existence.
The reality now is differentfrom the reality that's being
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talked about, and so what itdoes is it binds that reality
with the present one, thatthere's a connection there.
And because there's aconnection between the moment of
the promise and the period inbetween, we realize that all of
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these things aren't just lifehappening in happenstance or
simply in some cyclical manner,but that time in human history
actually has a progression, andas a little boy I could mark
down that progression.
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First of all, we have to go toaunt and uncle's house, and then
we have to go to the pharmacy,and then we have to go to the
grocery store and then, afterall the things are done ice
cream, right.
But there's a linear movement,that life isn't just simply
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happening haphazardly, thatthere is definitely movement,
and we can mark out thatmovement as it gets closer to
the time of fulfillment.
And when the Old Testamentspeaks it moves us a little more
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deeply and more progressivelytoward that time of absolute
fulfillment.
And so you have the whispers ofredemption in Genesis, chapter
3, the promise granted toAbraham.
And as it begins to moveforward, we begin to understand
more of the one who gave thepromise and more of what the
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promise would look like when itcomes, as we move through Moses
and as we move into David.
And these covenants are broughtinto existence are spoken about
in anticipation as we talkabout the new covenant in the
prophets of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
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So what that does, like itwould do for any child who's
wondering how quickly we'regoing to be able to get through
all of this, is that it buildsattention, right.
It builds an anticipation thatis full of tension.
Any little child.
One thing they don't have ispatience, right.
I would like my ice cream now,please.
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Right?
And so that tension in the OldTestament needs to be felt
because what happens is thosewho have been entrusted with
this promise are not in controlof making that promise
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actualized.
Just as a five-year-old Dougcannot tell my grandmother I
want my ice cream now, I have towait on her to be able to give
it to me.
So the people of God had towait, in the tension, dependent
upon God, for the actualizationof those things.
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And so when we enter into theNew Testament, when you open up
the gospel of Matthew, rememberyou're coming into a world that
is filled with promise andtension and anticipation,
looking for fulfillment, lookingfor fulfillment.
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And so it should have beenimmediately clear to everyone,
when the words come forth out ofthe mouth of John the Baptist,
when he quotes Malachi and hequotes Isaiah, that he is the
forerunner of the man of promise, the Messiah.
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There should have been nohesitation for any of the people
living in that time.
Had they really felt thepromise in all of those little
dimensions, they would have saidhe's here, we're at Dairy Queen
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, right, we're here, it'sfinally here.
And that's why it was sodisheartening and disruptive for
John the Baptist to sit and tosee himself under judgment from
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the religious leaders, or Jesusto have to explain himself to
these men over and over and overagain, when his behavior was so
clearly marked by what waspromised in the Old Testament.
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And so, when we come into theNew Testament, what the New
Testament is giving us is thissense that Jesus has filled up
this preparatory, incompleterevelation of the Old Testament
through the people of Israel,that he has come to bring it to
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culmination, to give it its highpoint, its climax, in the sense
that it's all pointing to himand finalized in him.
It's brought to completion, andthat's what we mean by the word
fulfillment.
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Christ is, as Paul said inRomans, the end of the law.
It is the very finishing point,the teleos, the end point of
which it was all anticipated.
It's wrapped up in him.
And so when we talk about theOld and New Testament, we're not
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just talking about things thatare related to each other simply
, but things that are actuallyinterdependent to one another.
That's how closely bound theyare.
And so when you come, forinstance, into the gospel of
Matthew, you find that wordbeing brought out over and, over
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and over again.
Remember, the Old Testamentword was promise and the New
Testament word is fulfillment.
And so when you come to Matthew, there are 10 explicit
fulfillment passages Matthew 1and 2, in several different
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places in that chapter, chapter4, chapter 8, chapter 12,
chapter 13, chapter 21, chapter27,.
All over it.
Just to give you an example,matthew 4,.
Jesus left Nazareth, went tolive in Capernaum, by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun andNaphtali.
This was to fulfill what wasspoken through the prophet
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Isaiah.
Land of Zebulun and land ofNaphtali, along the road by the
sea, beyond the Jordan, galileeof the Gentiles, the people who
live in darkness have seen agreat light.
And for those living in theland of the shadow of death, a
light has dawned.
Who is that light?
It is Christ.
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And what is the light?
How do you come into that light?
The very next verse, from thenon, jesus began to preach repent
, because the kingdom of heavenhas come near.
There are 10 of those very clearfulfillment passages.
There's another one which usesa form of the fulfillment word
(26:13):
in Matthew 13.
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilledin them, which says you will
listen and listen but neverunderstand.
You will look and look butnever understand.
You will look and look butnever perceive.
And in addition to thosefulfillment statements, those
very clear statements, areseveral other fulfillment
(26:34):
passages that don't have theformulaic introduction of
fulfillment but actually arestatements of fulfillment.
For instance Matthew 2.
In Bethlehem of Judea, theytold him, because that is what
was written in the prophet.
And you, bethlehem, in the landof Judah, by no means are the
least among the rulers of Judah.
(26:56):
So there's several more ofthose, in addition to the ones
that are explicitly statingfulfillment language, in
addition to the ones that areexplicitly stating fulfillment
language.
The emphasis here is that God issovereignly controlling history
, he's governing all of humanhistory to bring it to a place
(27:20):
of fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
And so Jesus himself said inMatthew 5, I have not come to
abolish the law, but to fulfillit, to bring it to its fullness,
to bring it to its climax, tobring it to its completed,
(27:45):
designated purpose and end.
So we see promise andfulfillment through that
fulfillment language, andMatthew is just one example of
that.
But there's also fulfillment ofthe Old Testament by way of
another thing called typology.
Typology, fulfillment language,looks forward and it speaks
(28:06):
directly and predicts a newtestament event.
But typology is a little moreindirect and a little more
analogous in the sense that ittakes people and places and
institutions, such as king davidor the temple itself or the
temple worship sacrificialsystem, and shows in the
(28:30):
antitype, the fulfillment, jesusChrist, paralleling those
things in a fulfilling kind ofway.
We often have to lookdifferently at reality in this
sense, because what we have arethe shadows before the reality
rather than the reality, andthen see the trailing shadow,
(28:50):
and that's a little opposite ofhow we think.
But when you see the OldTestament shadows, we need to
look up and wonder what is thereality that those things are
foreshadowing for us, the typeand the anti-type, the type
(29:11):
being the mark of the reality.
And if my ring were a seal, Iwould take my ring and stamp it
and say there's King David,there's the temple, there's the
sacrificial system, and youwould look at those things and
(29:32):
they're real marks.
But David and the temple andthe sacrificial system are only
marks of the thing whichactually imprints them, the seal
itself, who is Jesus Christ?
And so, for an example, as wasbrought out when we sang, adam
(29:58):
is a type, christ is theanti-type.
Paul makes this argument inAdam all die, but in Christ all
shall be made alive.
So here is Christ as theanti-type of which Adam is, but
the type.
Just as death from sin enteredthe world through one man, adam,
and thus cursing all ofhumanity, life enters the world
(30:21):
through one man, jesus, thatbecomes available to all who
believe on him.
So all who are in Christ liveand all who are in Adam, if
Christ hadn't intervened, woulddie.
The Word of God also sees Godworking out his plan in typology
(30:44):
by Jesus, not only markingthose people and places and
institutions, but also theactions of the nation of Israel
and even Israel itself becometypes of what Christ does.
So that, for instance, matthewspeaks about Jesus being brought
(31:05):
as an infant out of Egypt andbrought back into the land of
promise as an antitype of whatHosea was speaking about, about
the exodus and the exile, whenhe was speaking to the people
there, when he was speaking tothe people there.
And so there's a direct connectin Jesus experiencing, as the
(31:29):
true Israel and as the perfectIsrael, some of the things that
the nation of Israel itselfexperienced.
And so the New Testamentwriters saw the Old Testament
through the fact of Christcoming, and the Old Testament
(31:49):
context gave them a betterunderstanding of who Christ is
and what Christ has accomplished.
So I want to just take a momentand show what you're going to
see when you read your NewTestament and how it brings the
Old Testament in.
First of all, we have what wecall citations.
(32:09):
Citations Citations use anintroductory formula.
It is written.
That's the formula and you cansee that several different times
in several different ways.
That's the formula and you cansee that several different times
in several different ways.
And what the New Testamentwriter is saying is that the Old
Testament is very clearly beingused and by using this formula,
(32:37):
it is written is really justsaying look, don't miss this
Right, don't mistake theauthority from which this has
come.
It's come from God's word inthe Old Testament.
It is written, and sometimesthey're very specific about
where that comes from and othertimes they're non-specific, but
the citation is there.
For instance, a specific onewould be Matthew 2.17, spoken by
(33:03):
the prophet Jeremiah.
A non-specific one would beJohn 6, as it is written, as it
is written where is not given.
It's non-specific.
Acts 13.33, written in thesecond Psalm Boy.
That's very specific.
33, written in the second PsalmBoy.
(33:25):
That's very specific.
Ephesians 4.8.
Therefore, it says Very, verynonspecific.
Then there are quotations.
So there's not only citationsbut there's quotations.
And quotations are similar tocitations but they don't use the
(33:50):
formula it is written.
So, for instance, a goodexample would be Romans 9, 7.
Neither is it the case that allof Abraham's children are his
descendants.
On the contrary, your offspringwill be traced through Isaac.
And that last little phrase,your offspring shall be traced
through Isaac.
And that last little phrase,your offspring shall be traced
through Isaac is a quote fromthe Old Testament, but it
(34:12):
doesn't have the citation.
It is written eitherspecifically or non-specifically
, and so it's a signal that theOld Testament is significant and
that the New Testament isbringing in the ideas of the Old
Testament into hisargumentation, but is doing so
in such a way that if you didn'tknow the Old Testament, you may
(34:33):
not be able to catch what he'sdoing.
Let's kind of talk about adifferent one.
Let's kind of talk about adifferent one.
Let's say, if you're goingsomewhere that you're not
accustomed to living at all,david soon is going to be living
in Vancouver.
(34:54):
Right, have you ever lived inVancouver?
You've never lived in Vancouver.
So what David might say when hegets to Vancouver and he starts
to realize that Canadianculture is not New York City
culture, he might say somethinglike boy, I'm sure not in Kansas
anymore.
What is that a quote of?
(35:16):
He didn't say, as Dorothy saidin the Wizard of Oz in Act 3,
scene 2, but he did quote themovie right, and if you knew the
movie you'd understand theconnection.
That's what a quote is comparedto a citation.
(35:41):
But back to Romans 9 and verse 7.
Listen to what Paul's saying.
In fact you could turn therejust for a second just to give
us a better feel for it.
We'll be done in just a moment,but I want to give you an
understanding of these things.
Romans 9, 7.
Romans 9, 7.
(36:07):
Now it's not as though the wordof God has failed, because not
all who are descended fromIsrael are Israel.
Neither is it the case that allof Abraham's children are his
descendants.
On the contrary and there's thebold print we're given some
help there by the people who setup our Bible's typeface your
offspring will be traced throughIsaac.
(36:28):
So what is Paul doing there?
He's going back to the OldTestament and the unstated
person of Ishmael, right.
And the whole backstory ofIshmael and Isaac is just left
unstated but understood as aliving illustration of the
(36:52):
opposition and the variancebetween those who are of the
flesh and those who are of thespirit, whether or not they're
descendants physically ofAbraham.
So it is only those who, byfaith are children of Abraham,
are the ones who are called intothe promise, not just physical
(37:18):
descendants.
He goes on to say that veryclearly.
That is, it is not children byphysical descent who are God's
children, but the children ofthe promise are considered to be
the offspring, for this is thestatement of the promise.
At this time I will come andSarah will have a son.
(37:40):
Sarah will have a son.
So we have citations, we havequotations, citations that are
specific or nonspecificquotations, which don't give us
the formula but give us thepassage.
And then there's another onecalled allusions, allusions and
allusions.
Again they don't have acitation formula, but they're
(38:02):
sort of little brief snippets ofOld Testament passages where
there's a broad idea or personor place or scene in the Old
Testament that's brought intothe discussion of the New
Testament, and they're onlyfragments or summaries of Old
(38:23):
Testament passages.
And so it's easy for these toslip by you unless you know your
Old Testament.
And you might have recognizedthat many, many times in Matthew
there were little nuances ofargument that were being used by
Matthew to explain Jesus Christas the Messiah.
(38:44):
That if you didn't know the OldTestament you wouldn't catch it
at all.
But if you're tuned into theOld Testament, a whole new level
of understanding opens up foryou.
We find those in a lot of movies, and someone said this and I
think it's a great way toillustrate that, when you watch
(39:08):
different children's movies thatare popular these days, they've
realized that they need to putinto those movies things that
will keep the parents asinterested as the children.
But there's a lot of popculture references that the kids
don't even understand andsometimes better, they don't
(39:29):
that the parents do understand.
And when the parents see itthey go that's great, you know,
they laugh and enjoy it and thekid is enjoying it at their
level too.
So, for instance, in DreamWorksmovies, in Shrek 2, there is
Farbuck's coffee, right, ofcourse we know what that is.
(39:52):
A little kid probably justdidn't even think about it.
So unless you know your OldTestament, you're not even going
to think about it.
But if you know your OldTestament, you're going even
going to think about it.
But if you know your OldTestament, you're going to
really think about it and it'sgoing to open up new vistas for
you.
Let me give you an example ofwhat I mean by that Genesis,
(40:14):
chapter 28,.
Right after we have Jacobtricking his brother Esau and
having to flee.
We come into chapter 28 andJacob is at leaves Beersheba and
he comes toward Haran and hecomes to a certain place and he
(40:35):
spends the night there becauseit's gotten dark by then and he
takes one of the stones that isjust lying around and he lays
down.
So it doesn't, it's no place togo.
It's not like there's a Motel 6there or Holiday Inn or
anything.
He just finds a rock and laysdown and goes to bed because
it's dark.
He's running away and as he laysdown he dreams, and in verse 12
(41:02):
of Genesis 28, we have thisreally strange statement.
He dreamed a stairway was seton the ground, with its top
reaching the sky, and God'sangels were going up and down
(41:23):
the stairway.
You know, pretty vivid dream.
Might have had a little toomuch of Bono's pizza before he
went to bed, you know.
And here's this bizarre dream.
Why are we given thatinformation?
We just go on.
The Lord was standing therebeside him saying I am the Lord,
(41:45):
the God of your father, abraham, and the God of Isaac.
I will give you and youroffspring the land of which
you're lying.
This guy's just had to run awayfrom home.
And God meets him in the middleof the night, in the middle of
(42:12):
nowhere, and tells him thepromise I gave Abraham is the
promise I gave to Isaac, is thepromise I'm giving to you.
Look, I'm with you, I'll watchover you wherever you go.
I will bring you back to thisland, for I will not leave you
(42:36):
until I've done what I'vepromised you.
And when Jacob awoke he saidsurely the Lord was in this
place and I did not know it.
He was afraid.
And he said what an awesomeplace this is.
(42:58):
This is none other than thehouse of God.
And he called the place Bethel.
This is the gateway of heaven.
Did you hear that?
This is the gateway of heaven?
(43:21):
And so he set a stone that wasnear his head, set it up as a
marker, he poured oil on top ofit and named the place Bethel
the house of God.
We could easily pass by that,not really giving a whole lot of
(43:41):
understanding to the dream.
We might even remember thedream, but the stairway and the
angels coming up and down, maybenot, until we get to the Gospel
of John, and in John, chapter 1, these men are starting to come
(44:03):
into an interaction with Jesus.
Philip finds Nathanael and toldhim we found the one that Moses
has written about in the law,and so did the prophets Jesus,
the son of Joseph from Nazareth.
Can any good thing come out ofNazareth?
Nathanael asks Come and see.
Philip answers and Jesus sawNathanael coming toward him and
(44:29):
said about him here truly is anIsraelite in whom there's no
deceit.
Nathanael's shocked him andsaid about him here truly is an
Israelite in whom there's nodeceit.
Nathanael shocked how did youknow me Before?
Philip called you when you wereunder the fig tree, I saw you.
Jesus answered Rabbi, you'rethe son of God, you're the king
of Israel.
(44:51):
Seems like an awfully rash andhearty thing to say, but
remember the Old Testament isfilled with what Promise,
intention and anticipation.
That's why these guys said whatthey did so quickly Because
there was promise, intention andanticipation that made them
(45:12):
ready to find the Messiah.
Jesus responds to him do youbelieve?
Because I told you I saw youunder the fig tree?
Why should he believe?
Listen to what Jesus says.
Next You'll see greater thingsthan this.
(45:36):
Then he said truly, I tell you,you will see heaven opened and
the angels of God ascending anddescending on the Son of man,
descending on the Son of man.
That's an allusion to Genesis,chapter 28, where Jacob said
(46:03):
this is the place where God was,this is the house of God, this
is the gateway to heaven.
And Jesus is making a veryclear statement, by way of an
illusion, that he is the houseof God, that he is the gateway
(46:26):
to heaven.
If you don't read your OldTestament, you're not going to
know that, you're not going tocatch these things, and so, as
best we can, I want you to readthe New Testament and love
Matthew and Mark and Luke andJohn and Acts and Romans and 1st
(46:47):
and 2nd Corinthians, and on.
We go, but don't forget wherewe've been, and, for those of us
who are teaching all of the NewTestament books, let's remember
to bring what we've learnedinto where we're at as we go
through them, so that we mightcontinue to see these
(47:08):
interactions.
Remember, the early churchwasn't just Jewish.
It very shortly began to reachinto the Gentile nations, and
many of them, just like us, havenot had the luxury of being
taught the scriptures from ouryouth, and so Genesis was just
(47:30):
as much a mystery to them as itis to us when we first read it,
and so they learned, as theapostles didn't hold back on
forcing them to read the OldTestament and to understand it
and to realize that that promisehas now come to fruition in
(47:54):
Jesus Christ.
So don't be afraid of beingchallenged to reach back time
and time again as we continue tomove forward into the New
Testament more deeply.
Right, so let's pray more deeply.
All right, so let's pray.
Father, we thank you forgranting us a position in time
(48:18):
to know that Christ has come,that he has come in response to
all of your purpose plan andyour promise plan to bring about
life to the nations, so thatpeople from every place might
declare you as Lord and Savior.
(48:38):
Lord, what a wondrous privilegeit is not to be in the tension
and anticipation of promise, butto be in the wondrous place of
fulfillment and completion.
But to be in the wondrous placeof fulfillment and completion.
And yet we can understand someof those points of tension and
(49:02):
anticipation, because we stillhope in steadfast confidence and
wait for that coming day whenall that Christ's kingdom will
be in its full unveiling as itbrings the last enemy to defeat
and death is finished, finally,and life will reign, and where
(49:26):
holiness will be home and wewill be your people and you will
declare yourself to be our God.
Lord, as we continue to venturethrough your word, help us to
understand all that you have forus, in all the ways that you've
given it to us, so that wemight truly grasp a hold of
Christ all the more, and torejoice in him and to display
(49:51):
him as we live our life, inlight of who he is and what he's
done for us.
And we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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