Don't Neglect the Old Testament

A surprising amount of people read and believe in the New Testament but reject or ignore the Old Testament. God gets split in two, becoming the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. The focus turns to Jesus and everything that came before gets relegated to "stories". Yet, without the Old Testament, there would be no New Testament. Did you know, of the 39 books in the Old Testament, Jesus quoted from or referred to 22 of them? During his lifetime, he may even have quoted from all of them for, as John says in his Gospel, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25)

Here are some other links between the Old and New Testaments:

• About 850 passages from the Old Testament are quoted or alluded to in the New.
• The Gospel of Matthew contains over 100 quotations from 20 Old Testament books.
• The Gospel of Mark contains 15 quotations from 13 Old Testament books.
• The Gospel of Luke contains 34 quotations from 13 Old Testament books.
• The Gospel of John contains 11 quotations from six Old Testament books.
• The Gospels combined contain over 160 quotations from the Old Testament.
• In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, there are 53 quotations.
• In the book of Hebrews, there are 85 quotations.
• Galatians contains 16 quotations.
• Revelation alone has 245 quotations or references to the Old Testament.

Jesus often referred to prophets of the Old Testament, for instance, "Now He said to them, There are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." (Luke 24:44) Without the Old Testament, there would be nothing to fulfil.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus explained to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that it was necessary for Christ to suffer. "Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." (Luke 24:27).

As the preacher Dwight Moody once said, if Jesus Christ could use the Old Testament, let us use it. Do not neglect the Old Testament. 

Image Source: Forest Baptist Church