•The Same

•“Jesus was the same yesterday, as he is today, as he will be tomorrow” - Hebrews 13:8 

•Paul speaking of Jesus, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him”  - Colossians 1:15-17

•Jesus was not Plan B.

•In the garden before the apple, Jesus, before the tabernacle and its sacrifices, Jesus, during the temple era, Jesus, and now Jesus, and at the end of time, Jesus.

•You can never hear that name too many times.

•So why the old testament?

•So why not bring out Jesus first?

•The old testament is a prototype, a fore runner, of the new

•The OT does a few things

•God reveals himself, his character, his love

•God revels his standard and law by doing so reveals sin 

•God demarcates a people that love him, serve him, honour him and shows us that he is will rejects those that reject him

•The most important point of old testament is to put us in a place where we meet Jesus.

•Luke 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

•Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

•2 Differences with the NT & OT

•The OT uses physical parallels to show us future spiritual reality

•Why?

•Cause the spiritual is weird.

•It’s hard to understand.

•Physical things which we can see and touch make more sense to us.

•More so, even then, it is only by the Spirit we understand spiritual things. 1 Corinthians.

•Examples

•God’s people

•NT – when you trust jesus and become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes into your life, He removes the heart of stone and regenerates you spiritually with a heart of flesh, Romans 3 talks of this being the circumcision of the Heart, other than a changed life, there’s not much to see.

•OT – Circumcision, the removal of the foreskin, was a physical sign that that man was one of God’s people

•NT – God’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, it transcends national boarders, language groups and people

•OT – God’s kingdom was Israel, it was physical, you could see it on a map, you could go visit it

•People break the law and do sin

•NT – Jesus without any sin died on a cross as punishment for your sins

•OT – The community would recognised they sin, the priest as representative would go before God, he would confess the sins of the people, he would take a animal, an animal without defect, he would then cut it’s throat, he would then let the blood drain, they would collect it with their hands and bowels and poor it over the altar.

•Why? Cause this is a physical parallel for a future spiritual reality

•There’s a different mission

•The Old Testament is a come and see religion, the new testament is a go and tell religion.

•OT: God’s message was for the Jew

•NT: Out mission is to go and make disciples of all nations