Want to understand the New Testament? Read the 'Old Testament'

 Want to understand the New Testament? Read the 'Old Testament'- By Joseph Farah - https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/want-understand-new-testament-read-old-testament/ It must have been a very depressing and confusing Passover week for the closest followers of Jesus, who has trekked with Him for years through the Galilee with the expectationthat He would shortly assume the kingship of Israel, reining and ruling from Jerusalem. After all, that's what they were expecting when the week began. Instead, their teacher, their rabbi, their Lord, was arrested, imprisoned, tortured, tried by a corrupt high priest and the equally tainted Sanhedrin, and finally crucifiedlike a common criminal by the Roman military authorities on a high holy day. Peter, for one, was so discouraged that he denied three times being one of His followers. The other apostles hid in fear for three days and three nights, not comprehendingwhat had become of their Messiah or what would become of them. Early Sunday morning, a group of women close to Jesus – Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and Joses, Salome, and others – who had prepared spices for embalmingHis body, walked to the garden tomb. Knowing the entrance to the tomb would be covered by a huge, rolling stone, they wondered aloud, "Who will help us roll away the stone?" When they arrived, they were shocked and perplexed to find the large stone, sealed under the watch of Roman guards, already rolled away, the Lord's body gone. "Two men … in shining garments," probably angels, spoke to the women, saying: "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake untoyou when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again" (Luke 24:7). The women, experiencing both fear and joy, hurried back to tell the 11 apostles and other disciples what they had seen and been told. No sooner had they left than they weremet by the risen Jesus Himself, who said, "All hail … Be not afraid; go and tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see me" (Matthew 28:9-10). Though some of the men did not believe the story, Peter and John ran to the open tomb and found only Jesus' grave clothes. That same day, two of the apostles decided to journey to the village of Emmaus, a distance of nearly 7 miles. Maybe they needed to clear their heads of all the things theyhad experienced over the last four days. Perhaps they just wanted to talk through all that happened. As they walked and talked, they were joined by the risen Jesus, but they did not recognize Him. Jesus asked them, "What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" The one named Cleopas responded, "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?" Jesus said, "Which things?" They said, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priest and our rulers delivered himto be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, whichwere early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women hadsaid: but him they saw not." Jesus responded, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? Andbeginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Why is this important for today's believers to understand? This was the same day that Jesus rose from the dead. The only scriptures Jesus could use to explain to Cleopas and his friend on that long walk to Emmaus were those that werealready written: the Hebrew Scriptures, which we problematically refer to as "the Old Testament." It would be decades, at least, before the Greek Scriptures, or the "New Testament," would be written and widely circulated to spread the Gospel far and wide. Think about that. The apostles, we're told in Acts 17:6, had turned the world down without the benefit of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or any other books ofthe "New Testament," which means their main resource, from which came all of their scriptural references, was the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible. That's what Jesus used to explain all to his friends on the road to Emmaus, and it was not merely enough. In fact, after that lesson, Cleopas and his companion agreed: "Didnot our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Luke 24:32). It must have been quite the Bible study. We've all heard the story about the road to Emmaus. But the point is this: Jesus explained the good new using only the "Old Testament,"suggesting that after 2,000 years, we should be able to do likewise. We should be able to mine the Hebrew Scriptures to evangelize our Jewish brothers and sisters. That's what Jesus was doing. After all, it would be decades before His apostles and disciples,all Jewish, would even think about bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles. The "Old Testament," or Tanakh, is the foundation for our faith as Christians. Without it, we cannot fully appreciate, or explain, or comprehend the work of Jesus, the veryJewish God-Man, who came to atone for the sins of the world and build His kingdom here in Earth. That's why I chose the title for my latest book, "The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament," specifically what Peter said about this very topic in Acts 3:18-26 on theday of Pentecost: "But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, thatyour sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hathspoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye arethe children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning awayevery one of you from his iniquities." It's one continuous love story – from beginning to end.