The Old In The New

Introduction

Video: True and Better (3:20)

Tension

I love the way they present this video. Every time I watch it, I make new connections between Jesus and the stories of the Old Testament. Especially now, as we have spent the last year and a half working our way through the Old Testament in this series called the Gospel Project. You might remember this video as we have showed it a couple of other times along the way, but hopefully you have so grown in your understanding of the Old Testament that you were able to make many more connections today then you did the first time.

So next week we are going to begin our summer series on the book of 1 Timothy and I am very much looking forward to that, but by way of an unintentional introduction... I am actually gonna begin this morning looking at a few verses from 2 Timothy. Timothy is a young pastor leading his local church in Ephesus and these two books are letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to instruct him on how to do this well.

In verse 14 of chapter 3 we hear Paul encouraging Timothy:

2 Timothy 3:14 ESV

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

Who did Timothy learn these important things from? To a degree, he learned it from the Apostle Paul, his mentor, but it is more likely that he is talking about his mother and grandmother who are recognized in chapter one as having a great impact on Timothy’s faith. This seems much more likely as we consider the next verse:

2 Timothy 3:15 ESV

15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

What are the Sacred Writings that Timothy would have known from childhood? This would have primarily been the Hebrew Scriptures or the TaNaKh that we talked about last week. The Law, the Prophets and the Writings of the Old Testament. Paul is telling Timothy that there is value in his childhood education which would have been a steady dose of the Old Testament. And what are these “sacred writings” able to do? “make you wise for salvation”.

It is so sad to me that there are teachers right now who are arguing against the significance of the Old Testament. Why do we need those old stories? Isn’t the New Testament enough? Hasn’t the New Testament made the Old Testament obsolete for the modern times? Let’s just forget about all that ancient history and move on with the Jesus in the New Testament.

Wasn’t it Winston Churchill who rightly said, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”?

Seems to me that the Apostle Paul is saying something very similar here. Since Timothy knew the Old Testament, he knew a history full of ways that did not work for God’s people.

Ever since God gave Adam and Eve the one and only commandment in the garden of Eden, mankind had suffered one epic failure after another in being what God created them to be. As we have seen, even the hero’s of the Old Testament who often shined brightly against the surrounding corruption of their time ...eventually revealed their own tragic flaws as well.

Timothy knew this stories from his childhood and Paul points this young pastor to how they are able to make him wise for salvation, even though they could never bring him salvation. The repeated failures of God’s people throughout the Old Testament only drove him to look for something else. Something more.

In speaking of the “principal purpose of the law”, Martin Luther said:

“It is a mighty hammer to crush the self-righteousness of human beings. For it shows them their sin, so that by the recognition of sin they may be humbled, frightened, and worn down, and so may long for grace and for the Blessed Offspring (Jesus Christ)” - Martin Luther

He was commenting on Galatians 3:24 where it says:

Galatians 3:24 NIV

24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

This history of the generations of God’s people who failed to keep his perfect law made Timothy wise for the salvation that is only available through faith in Christ Jesus.

And I can’t speak for you, but as it did for Timothy, it has done for me over the past year and half but I do hope that you have had at least some of the experience as well.

I find these verses especially compelling because of what comes next. The next two verses are the “go-to” verses for many of us when we are looking to defend the idea that the Word of God is so important in the life of the believer… …and believe it or not…these verses are primarily about the Old Testament.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

While this may be a familiar verse, what may be less familiar is that at the time that Paul is writing this, much of the New Testament had not even been written, let along collected together in anything resembling the Bibles that we carry around today. So when the Apostle Paul says that there are lessons to be learned from “All” Scripture, he is primarily talking about the value of the Old Testament, for the tasks of growing us in righteousness and equipping us for good work.

So studying the Old Testament is a very worthy undertaking, especially as we seek to learn how these “sacred writings...are able to make (us) wise for the salvation” that is only available “through faith in Jesus Christ”. That is the essence of this Gospel Project journey that we have worked through together.

Of course this isn’t the first time I have argued this is it? For some reason I felt the need to bring up the merits of our endeavor many times over the past year and a half. Even pointing us to how Jesus himself did a Gospel Project of sorts after his resurrection when he appeared to the two men on the road to Emmaus.

Later in that chapter we see Jesus doing the same thing for all his Disciples. First, He freaks them all out but just appearing in the room, they figure he must be a ghost so Jesus shows them the scars in his hands and feet and they sat down for a Friday fish fry and everybody was good again…Ok, the fish was boiled, but you get the idea, it had a calming effect. And right after this, starting in verse 44, we read:

Luke 24:44 ESV

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Alarms should be going off in your mind right now. What is Jesus talking about? “Law” “Prophets” “Psalms”? Those are the three categories of the Jewish version of the Old Testament. The TaNaK. He uses “Psalms” here instead of “Writings” but it is the same idea. So Jesus himself is telling his disciples and by extension us, that the Old Testament points to Him as the Christ!

But he did more than just tell them:

Luke 24:45 ESV

45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

(Debbie?)

Luke 24:46–47 ESV

46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

“Thus it is written...”? Where? Where did Jesus say these things were written about Him? In the Old Testament, and he is opening the minds of the Disciples to finally understand how it all fits together. These same Disciples, turned Apostles will become the authors of the books of the New Testaments.

That is why, all but 10 of the Old Testament books are directly quoted in the New Testament, and if you include the indirect connections then you almost have all of them.

And all but 10 of the New Testament books include a direct quote from the Old Testament, and most of those 10 are shorter letters to Gentile people groups who wouldn’t understand the references anyway.

The big idea is that there is little reason to disregard the Old Testament as an obsolete, irrelevant or even impractical part of Scripture as it is imperative to have some working knowledge of the Old Testament to even understand the New. And my hope is that each of you now have a much more than just a working knowledge of the Old Testament, but you understand it as something that has made you wise for the salvation that is found in Christ Jesus.

So to finish out our study, we are going to spend what time we have left looking at the last book the Old Testament as it is presented in our English Bibles. Remember how our Bibles are laid out in something like a reference section of a Library, where each section is divided by category, and it looks like this…you can see Malachi at the end there. But in our study we have been following a Chronological timeline of the Bible, but we see that Malachi is also found at the end of that way to layout the books.

Malachi was prophesying about 100 years after God’s people had returned from Exile and rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple and the book gives us both a look back to the promises of the past and it points us forward to the hope we have in future events. In this way it is a great end our study together just as it is a great end to the Old Testament.

So if you would open your Bibles with me to very last book of the Old Testament, it is found on page 801 in the Bibles in the Chairs, I will pray and we look at this short book together.

Truth

So the Prophet Malachi was one of three prophets in this time and his message understandably coincides with what we read about Nehemiah last week. That even after the celebrations and ceremonies over the rebuilt Temple to worship rightly and the rebuilt walls to worship freely, the people were right back to disobeying God’s commands. So Malachi addresses many of these issues including

Rebuking themg for their sacrifices, as the people were offering blind or lame sheep instead of the choice lambs that the law required.

Rebuking them for their unfaithful Priests, who were alloweing these practices and not teaching the whole counsel of God, but showing partiality in their instruction.

Rebuking them for their idolatry and marriages for foreigners - yes this again. Men were even divorcing their Jewish wives they had been with for years to be with these idolatrous women.

Rebuking them for the offerings - the text says they were robbing God by not giving Him the tithe that the law demanded.

Sadly, none of this surprises us much because these kinds of things are more the norm than the exception when it comes to what we have seen in the history of God’s people. But as sure and certain as is the unfaithfulness of God’s people is the faithfulness of God despite the actions of His people.

The book even starts out with a reminder of God’s continued love for His people. That out of all the peoples of the earth God has singled them out for a relationship…but then as the chapter goes on we see a recognition of God’s involvement with other people groups as well.

One of the more unique things that Malachi does is that he...

Malachi looks backward to the covenant for all nations

A blessing to all the nations of the earth is a curious thing to be reminded of here because God’s people have just come from all the nations of the earth. They were exiled there for 70 years and now finally they are back trying hard to establish themselves as a distinct people group once again. And in the midst of that effort, God is reminding them through Malachi that His plan was never to end with them, but to work through them to affect the rest of the world.

This is great news for all of us who does not have a Jewish heritage. Because if the promises of God were limited to the Jewish people then I would have no hope. So even though most of the Old Testament speaks of God’s special relationship with the Jews, here at the end, Malachi is bringing us back to the beginning to remind us that God’s promises were always aimed at a bigger target. The establishment of God’s people was always aimed at being a blessing to all people - even us on the other side of the World.

Malachi looks backward to the covenant for all nations

Malachi looks forward to the hope for all people

So at the end of Malachi chapter 2 it talks about “The Messenger of the Lord” and it says

Remember that these questions are coming from the same people that have been ripping God off, offering Him sick and dying animals, not paying their share to keep the Temple going, practicing idolatry, trading in their wives for newer foreign models all while the priests stood by and said “good job!” And then they have the gall to say, “Where is the God of justice”.

I don’t think that what they really want is “justice”? The fact that their is not a smoking ash heap on the sidewalk where they were just standing is an act of God’s grace and mercy - are you sure you really want justice? You who call evil good and good evil you think you even know anything about justice?

But I don’t know if we can be too hard on them, because we are often the same. We don’t really want justice either. In truth, we want preferential treatment. We want grace and mercy for our injustices, but when someone sins against us…throw the book at ‘em. “Why aren’t you gett’n him God!” “Where is the justice!”

Well Malachi goes on to talk about the day when the justice will come, but it won’t be one sided like the people were hoping:

Great! Bring it on. We are ready. Or are we?

Malachi 3:2 ESV

2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.

We might not be as familiar with these things, but these are two highly potent processes that dig deep to reveal the impurities of the substance that they are working on. You see the “messenger of this covenant” the covenant of the Law, is not coming just to bring judgment on the rebellion of those other guys. This messenger will bring judgement on every person who is under that law, and none of us can stand under that - that is what we have learned throughout the Old Testament. We cannot stand under the law.

But as sobering as that truth must be, these same verses also point us to a future hope. Do you see how there are two “messengers” mentioned in verse 1. The “messenger of the covenant” who is the “Lord who will come to his temple” that is one. But who that person is will be revealed by first messenger. The “messenger who will prepare the way” for him. Who might that be?

That is what everyone was wondering for the next 400 years, until an angel appeared in the Temple to a priest named Zachariah and told him that even now in his old age he would have a very special son.

Luke 1:14–17 ESV

14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

This is that first messenger that Malachi prophesied would come to prepare the way. In fact if we look at the final words of the book of Malachi, the final words of our Old Testament, we see an even richer connection. The Old in the New:

Malachi 4:5–6 ESV

5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Gospel Application

The Old Testament Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation, because they show us that there is no salvation apart for that which comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That first messenger was John the Baptist, and it was he who pointed to Jesus as “the lamb of God who will take away the sin of the World”.

But we don’t only read of what John said about Jesus, we also have some of what Jesus said about John. Jesus said:

Matthew 11:13–15 ESV

13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Landing

Is that you? Do you have ears to hear the unified story of Scripture? That John came as that first messenger to point us to Jesus in whom we have a “true and better” Savior than this world has ever known? I pray it is, and I pray you know Jesus as both Savior and Lord.

As always if you have any questions about any of this please feel free to connect with me I would love to talk with you on those, and even as we move forward into the New Testament next week with 1 Timothy, I hope that our time in the Old Testament will work to bring us a deeper understanding of all that we learn there in the New.

Let me invite the worship team to go ahead and take their places as I pray.