What We Are Teaching 9-25

Here is a preview for what we will be teaching this Sunday morning in Sunday School.

Our Big Question for this Sunday is "What is the main point of the Old Testament?"


The Main Point
When we start reading in Genesis chapter 1 we are very quickly introduced to the hero of the Bible. Our creator. God.


The following pages, filled with stories, letters, messages etc.... reveal who God is and what he is like through his words and actions. If we keep reading all the way through to the end of the New Testament it becomes clear that our hero is Jesus Christ. The New Testament makes it clear that the Old Testament was pointing to Jesus the whole time. If we are to understand the Old Testament we have to understand its about Jesus. Even Jesus himself told us that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. See John 5:39 and Luke 24:27.


It's All About Jesus
When we interpret the Old Testament correctly we begin to see all the promises made by God to have their "Yes" in Jesus. He is the object of our faith, the forgiver of sins, the giver of eternal life, and the one and true sacrifice.


There are lots of different ways that the Old Testament points to Jesus. He is revealed through prophecies, promises made, types of themes, and through different titles. There are hundreds of prophecies made in the Old Testament that were fulfilled when Jesus came. Also in the Old Testament we see that God was using people, institutions or events to point us to Jesus.


For example...

Adam, who foreshadows Jesus as the second Adam; 

The priesthood, which prefigures Jesus as our High Priest; 

David and other kings, who prefigure Jesus as the King of Kings; 

Moses and the prophets, who prefigure Jesus as our ultimate prophet. 

Animal sacrifices, which prefigure Jesus as the sinless Lamb of God slain for our sins; 

The temple, which prefigures God’s presence dwelling among us in Jesus; 

Judges, who foreshadow Jesus as the final judge of all people.

When Abraham left his father and home, he was doing the same thing that Jesus would do when he left heaven. 


Like Job, innocent Jesus suffered and was tormented by the Devil so that God might be glorified, while his dumb friends were no help or encouragement. 

When Hosea married an unfaithful prostitute wife whom he continued to pursue in love, he was showing us the heart of Jesus, who does the same for his unfaithful bride, the church. 

In the Exodus account of Passover, Moses met with the elders of Israel to instruct all the people to follow the Lord’s commands for the Passover Feast. They were to place blood over their doorframes with hyssop (a common herb bundled for cleaning), and no one was to leave home until the morning. By being marked with a lamb’s blood, death would not come to the home but would pass over. Paul says that we see Jesus in this because “we have now been justified by his [Jesus’] blood, much more shall we be saved by him [Jesus] from the wrath of God.”


Its About Jesus Not Just Good Examples to Follow. 
Jesus is the central theme of the Old Testament. Everything points to him in some way. He is the reason it unfolded as it did and the reason it was written and given to us.


If we go to the Old Testament, not to learn about Jesus, but just to learn some principles for good living then we have missed the point. If we only go to it to learn to follow David's example and avoid Saul's example then we are moralizing the Old Testament. We are turning it into a form of Aesop's fables: A good story with a moral point. This is not a Christian approach to the Old Testament. We must see it in light of Jesus. 


Here are a few of questions you can ask your student to further discussion:
1. Was there anything you heard in Sunday School today that jumped out at you? What stands out?


2. What was the main idea in Sunday School this morning?


3. Have you been reading any Scripture lately? Where at? If not, lets read a chapter in the Old Testament together and see what we can learn about Jesus. 

Some of this taken from "A Book You'll Actually Read on the Old Testament" by Mark Driscoll.