Mensa Otabil - Understanding Scripture (11/08/2025)
Luke chapter 24, verse 27: «And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.»
Having rebuked his two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus now starts speaking. But you have to remember, they still don’t know it is Jesus. So he’s a stranger walking with them, and he starts teaching them from the Scripture. He opened the Word of God to them and started exposing the Word of God to them. And Jesus, if you look at the passage, it says he expounded to them the Scriptures. That means that he was really doing a Bible exposition.
Ah, we wish we had been on that road to listen to Jesus teaching and exposing the Scriptures. And he was presenting what the Scriptures had said concerning him. The Bible says he began from Moses and all the prophets, and then he used all the Scriptures. In other words, he would look at Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and all the rituals in the Old Testament, and he would point out to them, «This is about me. That is about me. This sacrifice is me.»
And then he would go to the prophets, and he would look at what Isaiah said, what Jeremiah said, what Micah said, and what David said. He’s just lining up all these Scriptures and showing how the story of his life is told throughout all the Scriptures. He used all the Scriptures to tell the story. What an amazing exposition that would have been! These two disciples of Jesus are having a Bible study with Jesus, and he’s talking about himself and pointing them to the things that are important in his life.
So what we see here is that Jesus is now opening the eyes of their understanding. He opens the Scriptures first, and it is when the Scriptures open that their eyes will be opened. When you understand the Scriptures, then you gain a full understanding of who God is. Later on, he met other disciples and went through the same process with Peter, James, John, and the rest.
If you read the New Testament apart from the Gospels, you hear the teachings of the apostles: what Peter said and later what Paul taught. The things they taught were based on the explanations that Jesus gave in the Scriptures concerning himself. That is when the disciples came to understand how the Old Testament Scriptures related to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important for us today, as we study the Scriptures- especially those of us who love the Old Testament-that we must always interpret the Old Testament in the light of Christ.
If you don’t see Christ in the Old Testament and you only see what is happening there for itself, you miss the purpose of Scripture. The purpose of Scripture is not to elevate David, Isaiah, Elijah, or even Moses. The purpose of Scripture is to reveal Christ. So when we read the Old Testament, instead of just looking at the characters there, we must ask, «What does it say about Christ? How does it show us about Christ?» Because all of that Scripture is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. For any Christian who wants to do a real good Bible study, that should be your mindset: looking for Christ in the Old Testament.
You say, «But he wasn’t born there.» Oh, he is the Ancient of Days; he’s been there from the beginning. He’s there throughout all the writings, and that is what he showed his disciples. I pray that each one of us will have that encounter with God where we will see Jesus Christ presented through the pages of the Scriptures. Well, tomorrow we will conclude our teaching on this part of Scripture about the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, teach me your Word. Let your Holy Spirit reveal Christ to me as I study the Scriptures, in Jesus' name. Amen.»