Thinking About the Bible Like Jesus

We're continuing in our series on the Sermon on the Mount.

So we'll read from Matthew 5 and from verses 17 to 20.

Verse 17.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill them.

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,

not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law

until all is accomplished.

Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments

and teaches others to do the same

will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them

will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds

that of the scribes and Pharisees,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

And this is God's Word.

All right, before we look at this passage, let's pray.

Our God, we ask now,

that you would help us.

Lord, we need your help.

Lord, we need you.

Oh, we need you.

In this hour, we need you

to come and help us understand

what you have to say to us, Jesus,

through this part of the Sermon on the Mount,

this really important part.

So we ask for help.

We ask, Lord, for the help of the Holy Spirit right now.

And we pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So we're, on Sunday nights,

working our way through the Sermon on the Mount.

And in this passage,

these few verses we read,

we're really moving our way toward the thesis,

the big idea,

the central idea of the entire Sermon on the Mount.

And Jesus is talking to everybody tonight.

If you, tonight,

are a Christian

who has been a Christian for some time

and you have never been more sure

of God's work in your life

and you're in a state

where you feel like you're really growing right now,

Jesus is certainly talking to you.

And if you are a Christian

who is struggling tonight,

you know yourself,

we've been looking at this in the mornings,

a justified sinner,

but there's a big emphasis right now on sinner.

You feel like you're walking through it a bit,

Jesus is talking directly to you.

And if you come tonight

not really knowing yet

what you think about Christianity

and you think maybe, at best,

the idea of God is a probability,

but you don't know much more than that,

Jesus right here in these verses

is talking directly to you.

And what is it that connects all of us tonight,

no matter where you are spiritually?

No matter where you are spiritually tonight,

what is it that connects all of us?

And it's that Jesus, in this passage,

tells you what he thinks about the Bible.

So this passage is telling you

exactly what Jesus thinks

about the Old Testament

and then also, of course,

the New Testament as well.

So if you're a Christian tonight,

you have to conform your view of the Bible

to whatever Jesus thinks about the Bible, right?

So you've got to read the Bible

in the same way that Jesus does.

And if you're not a Christian

and you've come to the Bible before

and you've struggled with it

or you've rejected it

or you've said,

I'm not sure that this is really

God's authoritative word in this world,

at least you've got to come

and be willing to see

how Jesus reads the Bible.

Because if you're reading it

merely through your own lens,

through your own subjectivity,

and rejecting it,

then you've not yet come to deal

with the Christian claims about the Bible.

Because what Christians think about the Bible

is what Jesus says about the Bible,

what He thinks about the Bible.

And so in that way,

we all, no matter where we're coming from tonight,

we need to hear what Jesus thinks about the Bible.

And so that's what He gives us right here.

He tells us, first,

what He thinks about the Old Testament,

secondly, that He makes sense of it,

and finally, He doesn't dismiss a single word

in the Old Testament.

He actually raises it to a higher meaning,

a higher plane of power.

So let's look at that.

First, a bit of context first.

When Jesus came here in the Sermon on the Mount,

He's coming as a teacher.

And in His early ministry,

when He started teaching,

people called Him Rabbi.

And so they're picking up on the language

of Second Temple Judaism in the first century.

And there were many people

that were teachers in that culture,

particularly the scribes and the Pharisees.

And so when Jesus came teaching,

people were very suspicious of Him

because what they did was

they compared Him to the scribes and the Pharisees.

And every time Jesus would teach,

it would sound different

than the scribes and the Pharisees.

And so immediately,

what did He say already in the Sermon on the Mount?

He said,

blessed are you who are persecuted.

And the scribes and the Pharisees

were in a position of power,

not persecution.

And so immediately,

suspicion.

Blessed are the persecuted,

the reviled.

Blessed are those who show mercy.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

And this is flipping on its head

exactly the thing that they thought of

in the lives of the scribes and Pharisees.

And so immediately,

suspicion.

You know,

this is a usurper.

They wanted to kill Him all the time for it.

And especially,

especially,

there was a lot of suspicion

around what Jesus thought and said

and did about the law.

So Jesus mentions that here.

I didn't come to abolish the law.

But there was a lot of suspicion

around Jesus' use of the law.

So we think of the law,

the Old Testament,

the Ten Commandments,

the laws in the books of Moses,

Genesis to Deuteronomy.

There's 613 of them listed

from Genesis to Deuteronomy,

613 laws.

And what did they say about Him?

The scribes and the Pharisees

accused Jesus over and over again

of libertarianism.

You know,

of taking the law,

the Old Testament laws,

and playing fast and loose

and rereading them.

And they were worried about

how He treated the Sabbath.

They were worried about

the fact that He was going out

and He was eating

with tax collectors and sinners,

which by their interpretation of the law

was not acceptable.

And so people were always saying,

Jesus plays fast and loose

with the law.

They were suspicious.

And Jesus responded.

At one point He said,

the Son of Man came eating and drinking.

He came sitting down

with tax collectors and sinners

and everybody's saying,

look at Him,

a drunkard,

a glutton.

And then what does He say?

He says,

yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.

Now when He said that,

He was talking about Himself.

And He's saying,

look at me

and the things I do

and you will see

not the abolishment of the law,

but the fulfillment.

He says,

wisdom will be justified by her deeds.

Watch the deeds of wisdom,

my deeds,

and you will see one

who has received the law

in exactly the way it was meant

and has lived it out

in exactly the way

it was meant to be lived.

And that created a deep suspicion,

libertarianism,

everybody said.

Jesus says,

with great wisdom and skill here,

I have not come to abolish the law.

I have come to fulfill it.

What does He mean?

First thing He means,

Jesus first tells you

what He thinks about the Old Testament.

Here,

now in verse 17,

when He says that,

do not think I've come to abolish

the law or the prophets.

That's what He says.

Notice that.

I've not come to abolish the law

or the prophets

and the prophets.

I've not come to abolish them.

I've come to fulfill them.

That little phrase,

the law and prophets,

is something you've got to pay attention to

because the research

we've been able to do

on this phrase

in the first century

in this realm of what was called

Second Temple Judaism,

the religious culture of the first century

where Jesus lived,

the law and the prophets

was a shorthand

to mean the entire Old Testament.

So sometimes people come to this passage

and think Jesus is saying,

I didn't come to abolish the Ten Commandments.

I came to fulfill them.

Yes.

But here,

when He says the law and the prophets,

He's actually talking about

the whole Old Testament,

not just the law,

not just the 613 laws

in Genesis to Deuteronomy.

And,

you know,

whoa.

Chapter 7,

verse 28,

at the end of the Sermon on the Mount,

everybody looks out

when He says stuff like this

and says,

it says,

they were astonished

because He spoke

like one who had authority,

not like the scribes did.

So the scribes

were receiving the law

and interpreting it

for the people.

He comes and says,

I came to fulfill

the entire law and prophets.

They would have known

in the first century

what He means by that.

He means,

I came to fulfill

the entire Old Testament,

the law and the prophets.

So in the Old Testament,

the Hebrew Bible,

the Hebrew Bible

originally composed

has three sections to it.

The first section

is Genesis to Deuteronomy,

the law.

That's the short word for it,

the books of Moses.

And in the second section

of the Hebrew Bible,

the Old Testament,

it's called the prophets.

And in our English Old Testaments,

we think of Joshua

as the beginning

of the historical books.

But Jesus would have

thought differently.

The first century,

they thought differently.

Joshua was the first prophet.

And there's three sections.

There's the law,

there's the prophets,

and then finally,

the Psalms or the writings.

And that's because

the Psalms are the first book

of the wisdom literature,

the very end

of the Hebrew Bible.

And when the King James Bible

was translated

after a guy named Jerome

translated the Bible

into Latin,

some of the things

were rearranged,

right?

But the way Jesus

received the Bible,

it was in three sections.

Law, prophets,

Psalms, or writings.

And here,

he's just giving you shorthand.

He's saying,

I came to fulfill

the whole law and prophets,

meaning the entire Bible.

That's the way

they would have said it.

Like we would say

the scriptures

or something like that.

And that means,

well, what does he say?

Verse 18,

for truly I say to you,

until heaven and earth

pass away,

not an iota,

not a dot,

will pass from the law

until all is fulfilled,

all is accomplished.

Iota is a little,

is the smallest Greek letter.

And so it's just

a little squiggly.

And dot,

he's referencing there

the smallest Hebrew letter.

It's called a yod,

and it's just a little

squiggly as well.

And you see what he's saying?

He's saying,

I'm so serious

about the Bible

that all the letters,

the letters matter to me.

The yods and the iotas

matter to me too.

And all of it

will be fulfilled.

All of it

will be accomplished.

When he came

at the beginning

of his ministry

to the synagogue,

he opened the Isaiah scroll.

And he read from it.

This is the beginning of Mark.

And what does he say?

He says,

today,

this reading is fulfilled

in your hearing.

I came to fulfill it.

Isaiah,

Genesis,

Malachi,

all of it.

That's what he's saying here.

Now,

let me bring this to us,

apply it for a moment.

That means that

whether you're a Christian

tonight or not,

I think all of us,

even as Christians

in the modern world,

we have difficulty

day in and day out

coming to the Bible

and receiving it

and re-receiving it

as truly God's

authoritative speech

to us.

We have trouble

with that,

receiving it that way

over and over again.

Let me just say,

why do we believe

the Bible

is God's authority to us,

God's word to us?

It's not merely

because there are

101 and more

really good

inductive and deductive,

empirical and rational

arguments

for why the Bible

is God's word,

like the manuscript

tradition that we have,

like the fact that

we know very well

that the scrolls

we received historically

is the very Bible

that you're reading

in front of you

right now.

The arguments

for the resurrection,

the argument that

as soon as this Bible

was being written,

Christianity transformed

the Roman Empire

in a matter of 150 years

and the martyrs,

the apostles who saw him

and were willing

to give their lives away,

all sorts of reasons

that testify

to the authority

of God's word.

But more important

than any of that,

the real,

why do you believe

the Bible is God's word?

And here we learn,

here we learn

that one of the reasons

you should

is because Jesus Christ

himself

looked at the Old Testament

and said,

that's the word of God.

And I've come

to fulfill

every bit of it.

And look,

if Jesus Christ

rose from the dead

in the middle of history

and he did,

then you've got to believe

everything he believed

about the Bible.

Yeah?

If Jesus Christ

rose from the dead

in the middle

of human history

and he did,

you've got to believe

whatever he believed

about the Old Testament.

Now that's very important

because,

second application,

because,

look,

every single one of us

needs authority

in our lives.

And if you dismiss

the idea

that God has spoken

into the world

in an authoritative way

through Scripture,

if you say,

I'm not so sure

that that's real,

that that can happen,

then all you've done

is transferred

the possibility

of final authority

to yourself,

to your own subjectivity

and your own feelings

and your own emotions.

Now,

we need to hear

some wisdom on this.

and some years back,

Taylor Swift spoke

at NYU's commencement

at their graduation

and this is what she said.

She said,

I know,

she said,

I know it can be overwhelming

to figure out

who you're going to be

after today,

who you have to go and be

after you graduate

from uni.

And she said this,

I have some good news for you.

It's totally up to you.

Everything is totally up to you.

And she said,

and I have some terrible news for you.

It is totally up to you.

Now,

for just a little moment,

she captured

exactly the problem

with modernity,

the paralysis

that's involved

in the modern age

that says,

you are your own authority

and that is good news

and you are your own authority

and that is terrible news.

That is truly terrifying.

Utter paralysis.

Look,

God spoke into the world

and that means

no matter how you feel

about it every day,

there is an authority

that stands above you.

And the man who changed

the world 2,000 years ago

is the very same man

who looks at this book

right here,

the Old Testament

he's talking about

in his time

and says,

that is the word of God.

And Jesus himself saying,

I receive that

as the very word of God.

If Jesus died and rose again

and he did,

you've got to believe

what he believed

about the Old Testament.

Secondly,

he also tells us here

that he makes sense

of the Old Testament.

So,

now,

the second major point

is to say this,

is to highlight

what he says at the end.

I didn't come to abolish

the law

and the prophets,

the whole Hebrew Bible,

I came to fulfill it.

And this word,

fulfill,

I saw one commentator,

one translator,

said,

you could translate it

literally by him saying,

I came to fill it full.

I came,

I came to take

the whole Old Testament

and fill it full.

Fill it full of what?

Fill it full of meaning.

Another way

to translate this word

for fill

is to say,

I came to show you

the purpose

for which the Old Testament

exists.

To fill it full of meaning.

To really show you

ultimately

what it's all about.

What he's saying there

is that the Old Testament

is not in any way

just a bunch of laws,

613 laws.

It's not just a bunch

of historical chronicles

of an obscure people group

in the ancient Near East.

It's not an endless account

of genealogies

that don't point you

to anything.

He's coming to say

that throughout

the entirety of the way

of that history,

it was always moving

and pointing directly

to him.

That he came

to fulfill,

to fill it full,

to make sense

of the whole of it.

Let me give you

one example.

Genesis 3.15.

In the beginning,

we did not follow.

We did not obey the Lord.

We were made in God's image.

We rejected that.

And when that happened,

when our sin broke the world,

the serpent,

the personal conscious evil,

the serpent,

Satan,

he was there.

And God spoke to the serpent.

What did he say?

He said,

I will put enmity,

I will put war

between you and the woman,

Eve,

between your offspring

and her offspring.

He will crush your head

and you will crush his heel.

That's actually the word crush.

And boy,

I will put enmity

between you and her,

singular masculine noun,

offspring.

That's important.

The singular masculine,

the offspring,

that is referred to

in Genesis 3.15

is a singular noun,

one person

and a boy,

a masculine verb,

a masculine noun.

And you see that

all the way back

in Genesis 3.15

when God said,

I will make war

between you,

Satan,

and the offspring of Eve.

That singular masculine

little boy,

one little boy

will one day come

and you will bite his heel

but he will step on your head.

In other words,

what happens when a poisonous snake

bites your heel?

You die

because, you know,

veins,

the blood runs everywhere.

You die

but in the midst of death

it says at the same time

the boy will crush your head.

You see,

that was all about Jesus.

From the very beginning

of human history,

God spoke a prophecy

about Jesus

in Genesis 3.15.

He came

and Jesus fulfilled that

and in Luke 24

Jesus is walking

on the road to Emmaus

and he turns

to these two disciples

and he says to them,

it says that he told them

for a long time,

what does he say,

that the law of Moses,

the prophets,

and the Psalms

were all about him.

That's what Luke 24 says.

What is that?

That's the threefold division

of the Hebrew Bible.

In other words,

he explained to them

before he ascended

that the whole Old Testament

was about him,

always about him.

So here's a way

to think about it.

The Bible is not a book

written to you.

The Bible is not written to you.

The Bible is written

to people in the ancient Near East.

The Bible is written,

Matthew's Gospel

is written to Jewish people

in the first century.

But because God

is the divine author

of Scripture,

because it is God's Word,

the Bible is written for you.

The Bible,

in other words,

the Bible is written to you,

not originally,

but because God is author,

it's written for you,

it's written to you.

Ultimately,

ultimately,

the Bible,

let me give you a second one,

the Bible is not about you.

The Bible is about Jesus.

But the Bible is about

how much Jesus is for you,

for you.

The Bible's about you

only because it's about Jesus

who is for you,

who is God with us

and for you

and for us.

Right?

And so,

I'm going to do something dangerous,

very dangerous here.

And that's,

I'm going to give you

Charles Spurgeon's key

to evaluating sermons.

And the first key

is don't evaluate sermons.

That's the first key.

Boy,

ministers are the worst

about that,

going to other churches

and evaluating sermons.

Don't evaluate a sermon,

receive it,

you know,

even as much as you can,

receive it.

But,

but,

Charles Spurgeon,

what he says

about evaluating a sermon.

This is from 1859,

sermon number 242

of volume 5

of Charles Spurgeon's

collected sermons.

And this is what he says,

a Welsh minister

who was preaching

last Sunday

at the chapel

of my dear brother,

Jonathan George,

told this story.

A young man

had been preaching

in the presence

of a seasoned,

mature minister.

And after the young man

had finished preaching,

he went up to the old minister

and he said,

what did you think

about my sermon?

Now that's mistake

number one there.

And the minister said,

a very poor sermon indeed.

A poor sermon,

said the young man.

It took me so long

to study it.

Aye,

no doubt about that.

Why,

did you not think

my explanation of the text

a very good explanation?

Oh yes,

said the preacher,

it was a very good explanation.

Well then,

why do you say

it's a poor sermon?

Didn't you think

the metaphors were appropriate

and the argument conclusive?

Yes,

they were very good

as far as that goes,

but nevertheless,

it was a very poor sermon.

Will you tell me

why you think

it was such a poor sermon?

Because,

he said,

there was no Christ in it.

Well,

said the young man,

Christ was not in the text.

He wasn't mentioned.

We are not to be

preaching Christ always,

said the young man.

Christ was not present

in the text I read.

We must preach

only what is in the text.

And the old man said this,

don't you know,

young man,

that from every town

and every village

and every little hamlet

in England,

there is a road

to London?

Yeah,

said the young man.

Ah,

said the old minister.

And so,

from every text

in Scripture,

there is a road

to the metropolis

of the Scriptures,

Jesus Christ.

And my dear brother,

your business

is when you go

to the text

and you get in the pulpit,

you say,

now,

what is the road

to Jesus Christ?

And then you preach

a sermon running

along the road

towards that great metropolis.

And he said,

I have never yet

found a text

that had not got

a road to Jesus Christ

in it.

And if I ever do find one

that has not a road

to Christ,

if I ever do find one

that has not a road

to Christ,

I will make it.

I will go over

every hedge,

I will cross

every ditch,

but I will get

to my master,

for the sermon

cannot do anybody

any good

unless there is

a savor

of Jesus Christ

in it.

Jesus came

to fulfill

the law and prophets.

He is the point

of the Bible.

Lastly,

he elevates,

he doesn't stop there.

Jesus thinks

the Bible is God's word.

He says that he

is the one

that makes sense

of all of it.

And then lastly,

he raises

the teaching

of the Old Testament

to an even higher level,

far from what

the scribes and Pharisees

thought he was up to.

They thought he was

being fast and loose

with everything

in the Old Testament,

with the laws,

and boy,

he doesn't.

He raises it

to a different plan.

So he says here,

therefore,

whoever,

Jesus says,

if you relax

the least jot,

the least iota,

the least dot,

yod of the Hebrew Bible,

any of the commandments,

and you teach others

to do the same,

to relax any of it,

you'll be called

least in the kingdom

of heaven.

But if you teach

everything,

you'll be called

great in the kingdom

of heaven.

For I tell you,

unless your righteousness

is greater,

exceeds that

of the scribes

and Pharisees,

you will not even

enter the kingdom

of heaven.

Boy,

what is he saying?

He's saying far,

far from being licentious,

far from being libertarian

about the Old Testament

and the laws

that were given.

He says,

I've come to fulfill it

and I've come to raise it

to a level

that the scribes

and the Pharisees

never did.

And what does he mean

by that?

You know,

he's saying the law

to me,

the prophets to me,

the writings to me

are so important

that I'm telling you

your righteousness

must be greater

than even the scribes

and Pharisees.

Now,

he's saying something

very radical

in his context

that would create

a lot of anger,

a lot of frustration

with him.

He's saying

that Judaism,

Second Temple Judaism,

as it was being practiced

by the scribes

and the Pharisees,

is not righteous enough.

He's saying

all the external conformity

to the Ten Commandments,

all the practicing

and the memorizing,

all the laws being obeyed

visibly before your eyes,

he's saying

that is not enough

to enter the kingdom

of heaven.

He's saying

I've come to say

something that radical,

that extreme.

Now,

what does he mean by that?

The rest of the Sermon

on the Mount

is what he means by that.

So,

you have to come back

to really see

what he means by that.

But let me give you

an example.

The very next passage,

he says,

you've heard

the Ten Commandments,

you've heard it taught

by the scribes

and Pharisees,

do not murder,

but I say to you,

if you are even angry,

unrighteously angry

with your friend,

your brother,

your sister,

then you've murdered

he said,

you've heard that it was said,

don't commit adultery.

And the scribes and Pharisees

running around saying,

I've never committed adultery.

I've been faithful

to my spouse.

And he's saying,

but if you've looked

at another person

with sexual lust

in your heart,

you've committed adultery.

And Jesus is saying,

look,

I've come to raise

the law

to its true level,

the level,

what,

of the heart.

I've come to show you

that external conformity

to the law

is not the full intention

of what the Old Testament

was teaching.

Now,

instead,

that if you really want

to obey,

if you really want

to have righteousness

in your life,

you've got to internalize

the law.

You've got to begin

from the heart

and move outward.

your righteousness

has got to exceed

that of the scribes

and Pharisees.

Now,

when he said something

that extreme,

what was he saying?

He's not trying

to get you to say,

okay,

well,

if I can get my heart right

and I can go out

and I can exceed

the righteousness

of the scribes

and Pharisees.

No,

he was saying,

look,

these guys are doing it

as best as any human can.

And,

look,

he was saying

every single person

in this world

is condemned by this.

If you really want

to follow the law,

try,

you can't.

That's the point,

that's the first point

of the Sermon on the Mount.

You can't

because it begins

from the heart

and moves outward.

And when he said,

your righteousness

has got to exceed

the scribes and Pharisees,

he was saying,

you need a righteousness

that you will never

be able to achieve.

You need a righteousness

that is not your own.

You need an alien righteousness,

an outside source,

and that takes you

right back to verse 17

where he said,

I came to fulfill

all of it.

So,

we'll close with this.

His comment,

I came to fulfill

the law,

exists in two senses.

Two senses.

Here's the first sense.

He came to be

from the inside out

every bit of righteousness

that we never were.

That's the first sense

of fulfillment.

He came to be

from the inside out

every bit of righteousness

Israel never was.

The scribes never were.

The Pharisees never were.

We never were.

You never were.

I am not.

He came to be that.

That's the first sense.

Let me give you

a quote

to flesh this out.

I got two quotes

as we finish

from John Calvin.

Both of these

are from 1534

from John Calvin's

preface

to the translation

of the Bible

into French

by a friend of his.

So,

he wrote a preface

to the Bible.

Not the best idea,

maybe,

to write a preface

to the Bible,

but they did it.

And there are

some great quotes

in it.

This is what he says.

Because Jesus Christ

has fulfilled

all righteousness,

he desired

in all the right ways

that you never will,

then this is true.

Every good thing

is to be found

in Jesus Christ alone,

he says.

For he was sold

to buy us back.

He was sold

to buy us back.

He became the captive

to deliver us.

He was condemned

in our place

to absolve us.

He was made a curse

for our blessing.

He was made

the sin offering

for our righteousness.

He was marred

that we might become fair.

He died for our life

so that by him

fury is made gentle.

Wrath appeased.

Because of his righteousness,

darkness

turned into light

for us.

Fear reassured.

Despisal despised.

Debt cancelled.

Labor lightened.

Sadness made merry.

Misfortune made fortunate.

Difficulty easy.

Disordered now ordered.

Divisions united.

Rebellion subjected.

Intimidation intimidated.

Ambush uncovered.

Assaults assailed.

Combat combated.

War,

our war with God

warred against

by him.

Vengeance avenged.

Torment

that we deserve

tormented

in him.

Damnation

now damned.

The abyss

has sunk

into the abyss.

Hell

transfixed.

Death

dead.

Mortality

made immortal.

Now that's why he's Calvin.

That quote.

But boy he's pointing

to Jesus.

Look what is he saying?

He's saying that

the one who fulfilled

all righteousness

took on your

unrighteousness

so that you might

receive his righteousness.

That's the first meaning

that he fulfilled

the law.

He fulfilled all of it

for you.

He fulfilled the whole of it.

Desire outward

in your place

so hell could be

transfixed

!

For you.

The second sense

the final sense.

One more quote.

How did he do it?

How did he do it?

The second sense

he's saying

I came to fulfill

every bit of it

from my heart

outward in your place

and I came to do it

by fulfilling

everything the Old Testament

was talking about.

That's the second way.

He's saying

I came to do it

by fulfilling

everything the Old Testament

had always pointed to.

And so here's Calvin again

same preface.

How did he do it?

Jesus Christ

he says

is the new Isaac

the beloved son

of the father

who was offered

as a sacrifice

but nevertheless

did not succumb

to the power of death.

He says

Jesus is Jacob

the watchful shepherd

who has such great care

for the sheep

which he guards.

Jesus is the good

and compassionate

brother Joseph

who in his glory

was not ashamed

to acknowledge

and forgive his brothers

however lowly

and abject

their condition.

Jesus is the great

sacrificer

and elder Melchizedek

who has offered

an eternal sacrifice

once for all.

Jesus is the sovereign

lawgiver Moses

the new and better

writing his law

on the tablets

of our hearts

by the spirit.

He is the faithful

captain and guide Joshua

to lead us

to the promised land.

He is the victorious

and noble king David

bringing his hand

all

by his hand

all rebellious powers

to subjection.

He is the magnificent

and triumphant

King Solomon

governing his kingdom

in peace and prosperity.

He is the strong

and powerful Samson

who by his death

has overwhelmed

all the enemies.

This is what we should seek

in the whole of scripture

truly to know Jesus Christ

the infinite riches

that are comprised in him

and are offered to us

by him

from God the Father.

If one were to sift

through the law

and the prophets

Calvin says

he would not find

a single word

which would not draw

us back

to Jesus Christ.

Therefore

Paul says rightly

that he knows nothing

except Jesus Christ

and him crucified.

Jesus Christ

fulfilled

everything for you.

Everything.

And so tonight

you can say

I am far more sinful

than I'm willing to admit

and yet

I am far more

loved by Jesus

than I've ever dared

imagine.

Let us pray.

Father

thank you

for the revelation

of Jesus

the incarnation

and how

it shows us

the truth

about the Old Testament.

So we want

Lord tonight

to think about

the Bible

in the same way

you do

to read it

through the lens

of the truth

of the one

who came to make

sense of

all of human history

Jesus.

So I ask for some

that they would be helped

to see the power

of scripture

because of the power

of the gospel.

I ask for others

that they would be able

to see that Jesus

fulfills all righteousness

in their place

and I ask for all of us

that we would see

that as the new

and better

Jesus you are

the new and better

the new and better

Moses and David

and Solomon

Joseph

Melchizedek

that we would know

that you came

to redeem us.

So reinvigorate

our vision

of your glory

through our reading

of scripture

we pray

in Jesus name

Amen.