What do you think of when you think of the Old Testament? The first things that come to my mind are creation, covenant, and the foundation of morality. Then I recall some of my favorite people to study: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Job, David, Solomon, Elijah, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. This is what comes to mind first and those men I listed are like relatives. As a matter of fact, I have spent much more time with them than many of my relatives and I know much more about them.
When I asked my wife what the first thing was when she thought of the Old Testament, the first word out of her mouth was “long.” That’s appropriate. The Old Testament accounts for just a little over 75% of the entire Bible.
How well do you know it? How often do you study it? How important is it to read and to know the Old Testament? That is a question we’ll address in our sermon as well as: When Jesus came, did that do away with the Old Testament? If so, what part or parts?
There is loads of misinformation and wrong teaching going on in our world regarding the Old Testament. This is nothing new. It was this way in Jesus’ time and all time between His and ours. In fact, when Jesus began His ministry the Old Testament moral teaching had been so perverted and manipulated by the Scribes and Pharisees that people didn’t have a clue what to do or what to believe.
The Scribes created so many rules that it was all a person could do to keep up. They made the Law of God, which was intended to be a blessing, into a curse. We can do the same today if we are not careful. We can impose man-made rules and regulations to the extent that a visitor of our church looks around and says, “no thanks.” That’s what many of the Jewish nation were saying when Jesus arrived. They were starving for Biblical teaching, starving for true righteousness and starving for grace and love.
What a shock it must have been when Jesus announced to them in Matthew 5:17 that He had no intention of getting rid of the Old Testament, but declared that He would fulfill it completely.
What did He mean? Let’s find out together. I can’t wait!
Much love,
Wes LeFlore – (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
