8 Reasons We Need The Old Testament

*** Be sure to watch the video at the bottom ***

It is a sad fact that most people do not know much of anything about the Old Testament other than a few stories, some proverbial statements, and the fact that some of the stuff in there is awfully uncomfortable to read.  And, really, do we need the Old Testament considering its “old” and we have the “new” Testament now? 
The truth is, we do need the Old Testament.  I’m going to briefly give 8 reasons we need the Old Testament – this is not a lengthy treatment but hopefully is a helpful introduction to our need to understand more deeply the Old Testament

 

1.  The Bible is one book made up on 66 books – how could anyone

Video: Sermon from Mark 7:14-23

Here is another recent sermon I preached in early April for my preaching class.  Some of you helped me out with one of my illustrations via Facebook, and I very much appreciate that!  Hope you enjoy… I welcome any feedback/constructive criticism, etc.

 

 

Living in the Crazy House

Have you ever been humiliated – like, really humiliated?  What was it for?  Usually humiliation comes in two forms:  either we a) are seen doing something incredibly awkward in front of lots of people, or b) we are exposed for being stupid, prideful, or plain wicked.  I want to talk about the second of these today – because who can make a spiritual point out of doing something awkward things in front of people anyways?

 

In the Bible we see many people humiliated – in fact, just about every major figure in the Bible is humiliated for their sin, stupidity, and wickedness at one or more points in their life.  Whether it’s Abraham being humiliated for saying his wife was his sister so he wouldn’t get killed, or Joseph’s brothers being humiliated when they were exposed for having sold Joseph into slavery, the stories abound.  But one in particular has captured my attention lately – that of King Nebuchadnezzer.  From this point on we’ll call him Neb.

 

Neb was an

That One Sin

What’s the one thing you regret the most in your life?  Something you did, a relationship you hurt or ended, an addiction you had?  Well, whatever that one thing is, Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones has some words for you from his book Spiritual Depression.  Most people can pinpoint something that they regret, if not many things they still regret.  Should a Christian live with these regrets?  Is it best to try and “forget” them, learn from them, or to continue to be sorry for them to make sure we don’t do them again?

 

First, says Lloyd-Jones, let’s get one thing straight:  “The fact that you are troubled is no indication that you are not a Christian; indeed, I would go further and say that if you have never had any trouble in your Christian life I should very much doubt whether you are a Christian at all” (p. 66).  If you are troubled by your past, this may actually be an indication of two things which prove you’re a Christian:  the Holy Spirit has convicted you concerning sin and righteousness (the difference between your life and the Jesus life you claim), and you

A Whole Gospel for A Whole Person

There is tragic truth in these words of Martyn Lloyd Jones:  “…a common cause of spiritual depression is the failure to realize that the Christian life is a whole life, a balanced life” (Spiritual Depression, p. 52).  By “balanced”, L.J. does not mean we only give part of ourselves to God and keep part of it for us; nor does he mean we don’t go all in for Jesus.  He means that the gospel takes all of us, it is a balanced or an entire message for the entire person.

 

The gospel is like a glorious, multifaceted jewel.  Looking at it from a certain angle you see one radiant truth shine forth.  Turn it just slightly and suddenly something else comes out which you did not see from the other angle.  Turn it again and still another wonderful, beautiful sparkling truth catches your attention.  The glory of a multifaceted jewel is not in its ability to fascinate you with one angle but that every which way you look at it, it radiates and amazes.  So it is with the gospel.

 

But the tragedy is that

What Would The Marathon Man Say To The Persians?

This question was recently posited in class:  what would the marathon runner say to the Persians had he kept running and went to one of their cities to announce the victory of Athens?  You know the about the Battle of Marathon, right?  The one where the guy ran 26.2 miles from the battle site to his hometown Athens and declared the victory of Athens over Persia.  It was a most unlikely victory for the Athenians, but you can read more about it on your own if you’d like (and apparently some of it is more legend than history).  The point of it all was this:  how should we portray this good news to non-believers?  My professor Gerry Breshears gave a pretty brilliant answer which I’ll try to accurately reflect here.  

 

The question about the marathon man sort of stumped us, as does many of Dr. Breshears’ questions.  I recently realized who Breshears is like:  he’s like a

Because of The Resurrection…

“What does all of this matter?”  This was the question posed by one of my friends in our community group a few nights ago.  We had been discussing Peter’s sermon from Acts 2, the first Christian sermon given just moments after Pentecost.  We’d spend maybe 10 minutes sharing points of interest, asking some questions, and then got into the fact that for Peter, the resurrection was of great importance.

 

But just what does the resurrection mean for us today, anyways?  Why would Peter give it such an inordinate amount of time in his sermon (at least 9 verses to it, and 1-2 to Christ’s death), and should this be of any insight for preaching today?  After hearing my friend confess that this discussion was interesting but

Two Reasons You Lack Joy… And How It Can Be Restored

When was the last time you took a good, hard look at your life and asked some penetrating, difficult questions?  “Am I or am I not seeking God?  How am I doing at loving God with all my being and loving others as I love myself?  Do I live with an obvious joy because of my relationship with Jesus Christ?”  These questions are really, really hard to ask ourselves.  Martyn Lloyd Jones writes about the depressed Christian in his book Spiritual Depression, and describes well the person assuming their salvation without looking hard at their lives:

They have assumed that they are right about the first things, but they never have been right about their justification, and it is just here that the devil causes confusion.  It suits him well that such people should be concerned about sanctification and holiness and various other things, but they can never be right until they are here, and that is why we must start with this.  It is no use going on to deal with the superstructure if they foundation is not right (p. 26).

 

Lloyd Jones was concerned that we had a sure foundation before

What I Learned from My Day in Court

Speeding tickets suck.  I should know, as I’ve gotten two in the past 14 months – one via a stupid side of the road police photo machine, the other by a sheriff on I-5 near Salem, OR.  I was just following the rest of traffic, I promise!  But, I was over by about 12 mph, so I confess I deserved it… sort of.  That was back in December, and on January 3^rd I was standing before a judge in Woodburn awaiting my fate.

 

I arrived 15 minutes early but had been beat out by at least 20 people already seated in the Room of Doom; about

Ecclesiastes: On life, meaning, and man’s ultimate responsibility

Have you ever seen a movie where, during 95% of the movie, you could honestly say you did not know how it was going to end?  When all the characters and plotlines seemed to come together only in the last two minutes of the two hour movie?  One such movie that comes to my mind is “The Usual Suspects”.  Seriously an amazing film – if you haven’t seen it then I won’t play spoiler.  Just suffice to say that if you can figure the whole thing out before the end, I’d be impressed.  Or maybe I’m just a bad end-of-the-movie-guesser.

 

Either way, the book of Ecclesiastes is a lot like a movie with an excellent ending that you just didn’t see coming.  King Solomon writes perhaps the most confusing and depressing book in the Bible, and hardly any