Follow Me II: Observing through the Old Testament
We continue our series on observing and imitating Christ in this week’s podcast episode. But we specifically want to spend time focusing on observing the person of Jesus in the Old Testament.
While these images may be a bit fuzzy or blurry, we can still see Jesus. We see David writing in the Psalms, describing his worship of God the Father, or articulating his anguish. We know it is written by the pen of an ancient king. But it is written by the Spirit of the Eternal King.
We could spend a year of podcasts looking at Old Testament descriptions of Jesus, and that would be a profitable study. But we decided to focus on two passages in one episode. First John and Matthew discuss Psalm 40:6-8 and then move to Isaiah 50:1-6.
Each of the passages mentioned, and countless others throughout the Old Testament, are worthy of extensive study. Let us encourage you to scour the Old Testament this week for descriptions and depictions of our Lord.
0:00 You cannot read the Gospels without hearing Jesus’ command to “Follow Me.” You cannot read the rest of the New Testament without seeing the theme of walking with Christ. John and Matthew recap the introduction of this series and the specific topic we are focusing on this episode.
5:00 We have all seen old pictures of loved ones. Perhaps it is a blurry black-and-white photo of great grandparents or grainy portraits of parents. But we can recognize them. So it is with the Old Testament and Jesus. The images may seem a bit fuzzy, but the believers recognize their Shepherd.
8:00 So where can we see these foreshadows of Christ in the Old Testament? And how can we know for certain these are fuzzy pictures of our Lord? Our first example is Psalm 40:6-8. Hebrews is our book for understanding how God’s plan of redemption unfolds throughout the Old Testament. God was never interested in the blood of an animal. It was a symbol, a foreshadowing of Christ and His substitutionary death of the cross.
10:00 We can observe that Jesus is depicted in Psalm 40. But how can we imitate Him? How can we walk in His prophesied footsteps? Jesus’ ears were open to the Father. His heart delighted in the Father. Are our ears always open for God’s voice? Do our hearts only find pleasure in Him? Are we moved by the same motivations as Jesus?
13:00 The next Old Testament description John examines is Isaiah 50. In this passage, we find the failed servant of Israel and the faithful servant of Jesus. Before we can see the descriptions of Jesus, we must listen to the descriptions of Israel and see if our lives follow their pattern.
18:00 But then there is a description of the faithful servant, our Lord, Jesus. This is a description of Jesus before the cross. He awoke every morning to hear the voice of the Father and do what pleased Him.
20:00 The first thing we have is the effectiveness of Jesus’ ministry. He has words to sustain the weary. But how was His ministry so fruitful? Because the Father woke Him every morning and Jesus obeyed. There are two ways of rebellion: open and quiet. Jesus refused both.
25:00 We are moving through some really big ideas very quickly. These require a long soak in the Scriptures; an unbroken gaze upon Christ. John and Matthew have to do that, and so do the rest of us.
Supporters
For this week's Supporter Appreciation Episode, we return to hearing the testimonies of different believers in Christ Church New Albany.
After hearing what careful evangelism looks like for so many weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to hear how God drew different people to Himself. We began this short series of testimonies with Media Gratiae's office manager Acey Floyd and continue it this week with University of Mississippi law professor Chris Green.
Supporter Appreciation Episodes are small, tangible ways of showing appreciation for those who partner with Media Gratiae monthly. If you are a monthly supporter, click here for the additional content. As with everything we do, we never want finances to be a genuine barrier between out content and those who want to access it. If that's you, reach out to us at info@mediagratiae.org.
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Show Notes
Podcast Resources
Psalm 40:6-8
The Book of Hebrews
Isaiah 50