Christopher J. H. Wright - How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All Its Worth

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ZONDERVAN

How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All Its Worth

Copyright 2016 by Christopher J. H. Wright

First published by Langham Preaching Resources in the United Kingdom under the title Sweeter than Honey.

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition March 2016: ISBN 978-0-3105-2465-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wright, Christopher J. H., 1947- author

Title: How to preach and teach the Old Testament for all its worth / Christopher J.H. Wright.

Description: Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016008386 | ISBN 9780310524649 (softcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Old Testament Homiletical use. | Bible. Old Testament Sermons. | Preaching.

Classification: LCC BS1191.5 .W75 2016 | DDC 221.071 dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016008386

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: LUCAS Art & Design

Cover photo: Lightstock

Interior design: Matthew Van Zomeren and Kait Lamphere

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To

Jonathan Lamb

in friendship and gratitude
who, as pioneer and director of the
Langham Preaching program 20022013,
enabled me to develop the substance of this book
through teaching it in many different countries.

All the royalties from this book have been irrevocably assigned to Langham Literature (formerly the Evangelical Literature Trust).

Langham Literature is a programme of the Langham Partnership International, founded by John Stott. Chris Wright is the International Ministries Director.

Langham Literature distributes evangelical books to pastors, theological students, and seminary libraries in the Majority World and fosters the writing and publishing of Christian literature in many regional languages.

For further information on Langham Literature and the other programmes of LPI, visit the website at

www.langham.org

Detailed Table of Contents

W hy should we bother to preach from the Old Testament? Many preachers hardly ever do. Many churches go on from year to year with nothing but sermons from the New Testament and maybe sometimes a psalm. And perhaps you say, Whats wrong with that? We are followers of Jesus Christ and we read about him in the New Testament. And there is plenty to preach from in the New Testament. What more do we need?

And to be honest, the Old Testament is a difficult set of books. There is a lot of history, and we dont like history, especially when its full of strange names. There is a lot of violence and war, and we dont like that either. And there is a lot of weird ritual stuff about priests and sacrifices, clean and unclean food, and strict rules with nasty punishments. How can such ancient customs possibly apply to us today? And it all seems to be about this one chosen nation, Israel, which doesnt seem very fair on the rest of the world. And since it all happened before Jesus, is it not now all outdated and irrelevant? Of course, there are a few good stories that you can preach a clear and simple message from, and some of the Psalms can be very encouraging for peoples faith. But apart from that, trying to preach a sermon or teach a Sunday school class from the Old Testament is too exhausting for the pastor or Bible study leader and too confusing for the people. Its much easier to stick with what we know the New Testament.

If thats how you feel, let me offer three reasons right away that should at least make you want to dig a bit deeper in trying to understand the Old Testament and learn how to preach and teach from it.

If the president of your country or somebody very important like that gave you a personal gift, I think youd take it home carefully and look after it very well. Maybe youd put it on a shelf for everybody to see. Or suppose you give a really special gift to somebody you love more than anyone else. Its a very expensive gift, and you saved for years to buy it and give it. And then that person only looks at a small part of your gift and doesnt even bother to take the wrapping off most of it. They just put it to one side and forget about it. How would you feel? Well, God is more important than anyone in the universe, and he loves us so much that he gave his Son to save us. And it is this same God who gave us the whole Bible, including what we now call the Old Testament. What does God feel if we dont even bother to open most of his gift? He gave us these books; what does it say about us if we just ignore them year after year?

Sometimes we talk about the Bible as the Scriptures, and of course we now include both the Old and New Testament in that. But at the time Jesus and Paul lived, when people talked about the Scriptures they meant the books that are now contained in what we call the Old Testament. For them, the Scriptures were Gods greatest gift to his people (second only to the Lord Jesus Christ). They treasured them. They studied them lovingly and taught them to their children.

So Paul knew that his friend Timothy, whose mother and grandmother were Jewish, had learned the Scriptures (i.e., the Old Testament) from childhood, and he encouraged him to study them carefully and teach and preach them urgently and often. When Paul says Holy Scriptures and all Scripture, he means the whole of what we call the Old Testament. Read what Paul says here about the Old Testament and notice the reasons Paul gives to Timothy for preaching and teaching from it.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.