Discover The Word

Thursday, October 2, 2008, Part 1

“All these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (Hebrews 11:39).

IDEA: As we look back to the first coming of Christ, we have the reality of God’s Savior, but looking ahead, the people of the Old Testament had only a promise.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate that what believers in the Old Testament could only imagine, we now possess.

In 1931 the George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson River was opened. Thousands of people cross the bridge each day, but they seldom think about the fact that there is a bridge.

In 1900 people knew they needed a bridge but couldn’t really imagine what the George Washington Bridge would actually be.

I. The people in the Old Testament were shut out of a direct approach to God. They could not imagine anything different from what they knew.

They approached God in the temple through a priest.

The mass of worshipers could not enter the Holy Place and only a priest once a year could enter the Holiest Place of all.

Between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies was a massive curtain which shut God in and shut the people out.

The people of the Old Testament knew that God was holy and unapproachable. He dwelt in mystery.

II. When Jesus died, the massive curtain was torn from top to bottom. So what?

The need for a priest and a priestly system was replaced by Christ.

Jesus made it possible to approach God as our Father.

III. The Old Testament saints lived by faith in a promise of a bridge. We live today in faith of its reality.