Seeing Christ In The New Testament

This book again finds the author Ervin N. Hershberger at his best, as one editor noted. He continued, I would rate this book right up with his Tabernacle studies. Readers will once again be amazed and delighted to see figures and types of Christ where they least expected to find them. The writer to the Hebrews wrote in 10:1, For the law having a shadow of good things to come. Hershberger brings these shadows alive. This book has served many through personal studies and group studies. Every preacher and Bible teacher could benefit from this well thought out study."

Jesus ascended to heaven. End of story. But then how do we explain the many Christians, in nearly every century since, who claimed to have seen, heard, met, and touched Jesus in the flesh? In Seeing Jesus, Robert Hudson explores the larger-than-life characters throughout Christian history who have encountered the actual face or form of the resurrected Christ--from the apostles Thomas and Paul in the first century to Charles Finney in the nineteenth and Sundar Singh in the twentieth. Hudson combines history, biography, spiritual reflection, skepticism, and humor to unpack awe-inspiring and sometimes seemingly absurd stories, from a surprise sighting of Jesus in a cup of coffee, to Christ appearing to Julian of Norwich during a life-threatening illness to assure her that "all manner of thing shall be well." Along the way, he uncovers deeper meaning for us today. Through Hudson's quirky and lyrical prose we get to know people of unflinching faith, like Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Silouan the Athonite, and Sojourner Truth--those who claim radical encounters with Jesus. The result is a fascinating journey through Christian history that is at once thoroughly analytical and deeply devotional.

The Holy Scriptures, the Bible, is the foundation of our faith. It is God-breathed. It gives us the full knowledge of Him and of His Son. “This is the eternal life, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). God’s word gives us eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus. It makes us men and women of God. It is most profitable for our spiritual life, for it teaches us, convicts us, corrects us, and instructs us in righteousness. Thus, we are made complete and fully equipped to do God’s will. We are exhorted by our Lord himself to search the Scriptures for in them is the witness concerning Him (see John 5:37). A special blessing is given by God to those who read, hear and keep His word (see Revelation 1:3). The New Testament is composed of twenty-seven books. Each of these twenty-seven books reveals Christ to us in a special aspect of His fullness. Thus, we are able to know Christ in His fullness. In this volume, each book in the New Testament is briefly discussed, with special attention to seeing Christ in His fullness. It is not an exhaustive study, its purpose simply being to offer a taste of the sweet word of God so as to induce us to search His word more diligently. May He draw us deeper into His word so that we may be drawn deeper into Him.

"The word of God is living and operative" (Hebrews 4:12a). It is "living" and not just letter because it gives life. The Scriptures are "operative" because they contain not only theological ideas to be pondered but also spiritual realities to be experienced. For "every scripture is divinely inspired [God-breathed], and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work" (II Timothy 3:16-17). "Ye search the scriptures," said the Lord Jesus Christ, "for ye think that in them ye have life eternal, and they it is which bear witness concerning me; and ye will not come to me that ye might have life" (John 5:39-40). It behooves us, therefore, to diligently read the Bible and meditate on it. To encourage God's people to study God's word, brother Stephen Kaung delivered a series of messages on the sixty-six books of the Bible. Commencing in 1983, each Lord's day the survey of one book was shared from the New Testament; and a similar sharing from the Old Testament commenced in 1986. Each message is merely a panoramic view of each book of the Bible; a tasting of the sweetness of God's word. The aim is to provide the saints with some basic understanding in their search of God's word. These being spoken messages, no acknowledgement of the names of the many commentaries consulted is indicated. This survey of the Holy Bible will be published as Volume I and Volume II under the overall title of God Has Spoken: with Volume I bearing the subtitle, Seeing Christ in the Old Testament, and consisting of two physical volumes, Part One (Genesis to Song of Songs) and Part Two (Isaiah to Malachi); and Volume II bearing the subtitle, Seeing Christ in the New Testament. May God use these volumes to increase our love for His word.

The Old Testament both tells the story of Israel and points to the coming Messiah. Kaiser distinguishes between Old Testament passages that describe national Israel's glorious future and those that point to Christ and his kingdom. Kaiser's chronological approach traces Israel's developing concept of Messiah through different time periods.

We tend to look to the New Testament to tell us about Jesus, yet it was the Old Testament about which Jesus said, “the Scriptures point to me!” In The One Year Book of Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, Bible teacher Nancy Guthrie takes readers from Genesis through Malachi, shining the light of Christ on the promise of a descendent who will put an end to the curse of sin; the story of a father who offers up his son as a sacrifice; the symbol of a temple where people can meet with God; the prophecy of a servant who will suffer; the person of a king who will rule with righteousness—and so much more. Day by day throughout the year, readers will see the beauty of Christ in fresh new ways, creating a deeper understanding and appreciation for who Jesus is and what he accomplished through his Cross and Resurrection.