I am a huge fan of consistently preaching Christ from the Old Testament. If you are planning to preach through an OT book of the Bible this year, you might be interested in what my former professor, Pete Enns, says about the task:
“…pastors have the privilege and challenge, in a variety of creative and engaging ways, to teach their people what the OT is about. It may take time to earn the further privilege of bringing these Christians to appreciate more fully how Israel’s story is transformed in Christ. And this is not a quick fix, but a process of reunderstanding God’s Word, modeled after the NT writers, that may well take considerable time to implement.” (p. 216 in, Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, edited by Berding and Lunde; emphasis added; I found Enn’s and Bock’s views very helpful)
Let me add to that italicized phrase: bringing these Christians to also appreciate more fully how Israel’s story is transformed in Christ to become our story. That last part is critical for a truly Christ-centered hermeneutic/homiletic.
If you do devote that kind of time, your parishioners will rise up and call you blessed. You, of course, will have to navigate the OT carefully, avoiding the minefields of endless historical data–even minutia–that doesn’t preach well (I’m convinced God never intended it to preach). This keeps the sermon running on theological tracks (how it’s functioning for the Church, what you probably think of best as principlizing). Most importantly, you will have to employ the skill of moving from the OT to Christ-crucified, preferably from the vocabulary and images of your preaching portion.
If you want some help and enjoy listening to sermons, listen to as many Tim Keller sermons on the Old Testament. If you like reading, you will profit from a book I just completed last week, Heralds of the King.
The variety of preachers who contributed sermons in the book resulted in a variety of ways to move from the Scriptures to the Savior.
Preach Christ well from the OT for God’s glory in the church… (Ephesians 3:21).
Randal
Would you say that there are some details given in Old Testament narratives that are not useful for preaching and teaching?
Thanks for interacting with the site. One of our goals is to determine what details flesh out the story and which ones are critical for conveying theology. It’s so easy in narrative to lose precious time on “insignificant” details. So my answer is a careful “yes.” That’s why we want to talk in terms of preaching portions and contexts that determine meaning. The minutia must fit into the communication of truth without it becoming a trivia session.
This post is an excellent reminder to put Jesus at the center of all we do. It’s also very effective in bringing to light the true meaning of the Old Testament passages. Moreover, your tip on seeing this skill take place through the use of listening to Timothy Keller sermons is well advised, as I recently had the privilege of doing just that. What I found in observing his sermons was how the Old Testament preaching portion was truly fleshed out in recognition of Jesus. That is, his sermons found a way to show how Old Testament passages that fell under the old covenant, apply to Christians such as us in the new covenant. In summary, this is a game changer, and I look forward to putting this technique into practice. Thank you!
Very Respectfully,
Jared Dellapietro
Thanks for reading the post, Jared. Glad we’re studying together and can analyze Keller’s approach to reading the OT.
What are some creative and engaging ways to teach the people what the OT is all about?
One great way is to preach through the Old Testament! But, you must have longevity in your church to do that (*smile*). Far easier to preach/teach broad stroke messages about the major people and events in the OT.