Fulfilled

June 17

I Kings 19-20

Psalm 72:17-20

Proverbs 16:4-5

Acts 13

Fulfilled

“Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation was sent.  For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning Him….Therefore watch out, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you:  ‘Look, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish;  For I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should recount it to you.’”  Acts 13:26-27, 40-41 LSB

As part of his first missionary journey, Paul traveled to Pisidian Antioch, which is in Asia Minor, in modern day Turkey.  On the Sabbath, Paul and Barnabas went into the synagogue and sat down.  They listened to the reading of the Law and the Prophets and then Paul stood up to speak.  He gave them a quick history lesson recounting the children of Israel’s time in Egypt, their deliverance, wandering in the wilderness, and entering the promised land.  He then talked about the time of the judges and finally the kings beginning with Saul and then David.  Paul went on to explain to the Jews present that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise God gave to David and how the life and death of Jesus fulfilled the prophecies proclaimed throughout their history by the prophets they read from every week in their synagogue.  He tried to help them understand that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah.  They had been waiting and looking for him for centuries and when He came they rejected Him, which also fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies.  In verse 38 Paul explained, “Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and that in Him, everyone who believes is justified from all things which you could not be justified from through the Law of Moses.” 

Many Christians think that the Old Testament is the story of the Jewish people and the New Testament is the story of Jesus so they can just study the New Testament because that is the most important thing for us today.  That is not an accurate interpretation.  The entire Bible is about Jesus.  We cannot have an understanding of who Jesus is or His purpose in coming if we do not study the Old Testament.  God gave us the whole Bible.  Jesus Himself referred to the Old Testament scriptures throughout His ministry.  If it was not important He would have told the early church fathers that the scriptures they already had were for the Jews and that they were going to write a new book for Christians.  Clearly, that was not His intention.  There are prominent teachers in the church today that suggest that we do not need to study the Old Testament because it is not relevant to believers today.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God gave us the entire Bible and expects us to avail ourselves of the entire counsel of His Word.  The more we read and study all of His Word, the more we can get to know our loving and merciful God, who reveals Himself to us in the form of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.