Why The Old Testament Matters Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

[Show clip from West Wing]

Perhaps you’ve run into some people who have confronted you with similar arguments. They want to know why you follow some of the “rules” we find in the Old Testament and yet ignore others. I’ve found that is an objection that many disciples of Jesus aren’t well equipped to answer. In fact, I would guess that there are a lot of you here this morning who are so uncomfortable that you’re praying no one ever raises the issue.

And you’re not alone. There is a well-known megachurch pastor who recently wrote a book based on the premise that “when it comes to stumbling blocks to faith, the Old Testament is right up there at the top of the list”. In that book, he makes this appeal to church leaders:

Would you consider unhitching your teaching of what it means to follow Jesus from all things old covenant?

TENSION

That is certainly one approach we could take to dealing with this apparent inconsistency in the way we handle the Old Testament laws. We could just say that the Old Testament is no longer relevant and ignore it altogether. But what I hope we’ll see this morning is the Old Testament is not a stumbling block to faith at all, but rather a crucial element in the development of our faith and that when it is handled appropriately, it is a tremendous source of hope. So rather than unhitch from the Old Testament, what I want us to see this morning is that we actually need to embrace it.

TRUTH

We’re in the section of Romans where Paul is writing about how to have genuine love for others, both those inside and those outside the church. My original plan was to preach one message on verses 1-7 of chapter 15 today and then another message on verses 8-13 of that chapter next week.

But as I was beginning to prepare those messages, I sensed that there is one verse in that section, the one we’ll look at this morning, that would profitable for us to dig into in some more detail. So I’ll cover that one verse this morning and then next week, I’ll come back and address the rest of those first thirteen verses in chapter 15. But in order to make sure that we don’t take that one verse out of context, I’ll begin by reading the entire passage.

[Read Romans 15:1-13]

By now, you’ve probably figured out that the one verse we’ll tackle this morning is verse 4:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Here’s the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage today:

Hope is enhanced when I understand the back of the Book

in light of the front of the Book.

I think that most of us intuitively understand that is true. Although I know there are some of you who read the end of a book or watch the end of the movie before you go back and start at the beginning, most of us don’t do that for a couple reasons. First, it would spoil the rest of the book or the movie. But even more importantly, we need the rest of book or the movie to help us fully understand and appreciate the ending. And I would suggest to you that is the best reason that we should never even consider “unhitching” from the Old Testament. Without the front of the book, the back of the book is not nearly as meaningful and fulfilling and life changing as God intends for it to be.

That is the point Paul is making to his readers here. As we’ll talk about more next week, Jesus has just finished quoting Psalm 69 in verse 3 in order to reinforce the idea that Jesus did not live to please Himself, but rather to serve both Jews and Gentiles. He has already quoted the Old Testament Scriptures frequently in his letter, but he takes this opportunity to tell them exactly why he does that. He confirms for his readers, and for us, that the Old Testament Scriptures have immeasurable value because they provide insight we would not otherwise have. And that added insight results in hope. Or as I’ve worded this morning, hope is enhanced when I understand the back of the book in light of the front of the book.