The Gospel According to Joseph: Teaching Christ from the Old Testament

Back at the beginning of the summer, when I started this preaching series on The Gospel According to Joseph, one of the things I also set out to do was to teach how we can see Jesus in the Old Testament (OT), i.e. how to see what the Holy Spirit was showing the original audience and is showing us about God's redeeming nature and work in Christ. Jesus Himself told us in passages like Lk. 24:27, 44 and Jn. 5:46 that the OT is about Him, but seeing exactly how it teaches us about Him is not quite so easy. My senior pastor, Chris Hutchinson, has written a couple of great articles on preaching/teaching Christ from the OT that can be found here and here, and there are several of good books written on this subject like David Murray's Jesus on Every Page. But, in the interest of ease and practical use, I have attempted to boil it down to some basic questions that we can ask of any OT passage to help us to see how Jesus may be in that passage. Throughout the series, I presented four questions that we can ask of any OT to help us to do just that, and here I want to recap those questions.

Now, all these questions do not always apply to every OT passage, but we can ask these of any passage and one or more of them will help us to see Jesus on that page of Scripture:

1. What does this passage reveal about the sinful nature of man who needs redemption? When we see an aspect of man's sinful nature and need of redemption in an OT passage, we can see Jesus there, for He is the ultimate solution to man's need.
2. What does this passage reveal about the redeeming nature of God? When we see an aspect of God's redeeming nature in an OT passage, we can see Jesus there, for He brings together all those aspects in His person (i.e. who He is) and in His work of redemption.
3. How does this passage reflect upon or prepare us for the person or work of Christ—i.e. who He is to us (His person) and what He does for us (His work)? For example: An OT story might point us to the lordship that God exercises over His people, in which we can see Jesus' person, for He is the lord of the Church. An OT story might present a hero as a representative of the people, in which we can see Jesus' person, for He is our representative before God. Or, an OT passage may describe a sacrifice or priestly duty under the ceremonial law, in which we can see Jesus' work for us as our ultimate sacrifice and priest, satisfying God's wrath and interceding for us. An OT passage may describe a king ruling and defending his people well, in which we can see Jesus' work for us as our ultimate king, ruling and defending His Church. An OT passage may describe God teaching His people about Himself, His salvation, or this world, in which we can see Jesus work for us our ultimate prophet, revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will and mind of God. 
4. How is the text calling us to respond to the grace of God and follow after Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit? This is the part of preaching and teaching from OT stories where it's appropriate to see some instances as examples to be followed, but these examples are still Christ-centered. They are OT illustrations of what Paul says in 1 Co. 11:1 "Be imitators of me [i.e. follow my example], as I am of Christ."

Certainly much more can be said about seeing Jesus in the OT, but I believe these four questions boil it down for us in a holistic, practical way. What do you think? Am I missing anything? 

B. B. Warfield once said that the OT is a room "fully furnished but dimly lit," and when we use Christ as the interpretive tool, the lights come on and we see everything clearly. I pray that these questions will help turn on the lights for you as you read through inspired Word of the OT. 

By His Grace,

Taylor