Jesus In The Ot

Jesus in the Old Testament

This morning, as we continue on our adventure through the Old Testament, we review quickly where we are at. In Genesis, we saw the age of the Patriarchs, the famous forefathers of the Jews. In Exodus we saw the years of Slavery. In Numbers, we saw the period of Wandering. In Joshua, we saw the period of Conquest. And in Samuel, we see the beginning of the period of the Kingdom.

We looked last week at the first king, Saul. And we saw how Saul placed his confidence in the wrong places. And so, God took the kingdom away from Saul and gave it to David, a man after God’s own heart.

David is used by God to write much of the Psalms, the songbook of the nation of Israel. We want to look at some key themes in the Psalms over the next few weeks. And today, we are going to look throughout the OT and one very key theme presented over and over: the revelation of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

One of the arguments some people will give for not believing in Jesus is that they say he is never mentioned in the Old Testament. They look at Jesus sort of like an afterthought in God’s plan. But as we will see today, that is far from the truth.

To start us understanding this truth, we are going to start by making reference to three NT references.

1. The Emmaus Road - Luke 24:25-27 - Jesus has been raised from the dead, and he walks along the road with two disciples. They are confused about how the one they thought was the messiah could be killed. And Jesus answers them: How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Think of the lesson on the Old Testament to have Jesus personally walk through the whole OT and share all the prophecies about himself!

2. The Ethiopian Eunuch - Acts 8 - Philip meets a high court official who is reading a section of the prophet Isaiah. He doesn’t understand it, and asks Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” He thought there was more to the passage than he understood.

3. Simeon - Luke 2 - When Jesus is born, a man in Jerusalem is looking for him. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

I use these three examples to start with today to remind us that Christians in the early church were very aware of prophecies of a coming Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one of God. Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Anointed One of God appears in various places in the Old Testament, and we want to look at a few references today.

We don’t have time to look at all the references - and even if we did, with our limited human wisdom we would probably miss more than half of the references to Jesus in the Old Testament. Many times he appears in sign or symbol. Remember Jesus tells us that the sign of Jonah - Jonah’s being 3 days in the belly of the whale - was a sign to the three days Christ would spend in the grave before raising again. The Rock that Moses drew water from in the Old Testament - 1 Corinthians 10 tells us “that rock was Christ.” But there are other references where we very clearly see Jesus referred to. We want to look at some today.

In fact, there are some 300+ prophecies about Jesus that are fulfilled in his birth, life, and death. and the odds of them all being fulfilled by one person are extremely improbably. It would be like covering the whole state of texas with several feet of quarters, and somewhere in the state hiding one red quarter. Then having someone parachute down out of a plane and land somewhere on the state of florida and picking up that one red quarter their first pick blindfolded.

Where do we see Jesus in the Old Testament?

•Genesis - In Genesis 1:1, we see God creating the heavens and the earth. God later says in verse 26, “Let us make man in our image.” This is not just the father creating here, but the son and spirit as well. John 1:3 tells us Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.