Adapted from the daily devotional, Discovering Christ, Donald Fortner, October 29

2. NIV Philip found Nathanael and told
him, “We have found the one Moses wrote
about in the Law, and about whom the prophets
also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph.”
In we are told plainly that the Lord
Jesus found Philip.
NIV The next day Jesus decided to
leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him,

3. Then, in verse , Philip told Nathanael, “We
have found the Messiah.”
Which is true?
Did the Savior find Philip, or did Philip find Him?
Yes!
Without question, all who get Christ seek Him.
Seeking Him with all our hearts, we find Him.

4. NIV You will seek me and find me
when you seek me with all your heart. I will
be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will
bring you back from captivity. I will gather you
from all the nations and places where I have
banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will
bring you back to the place from which I carried
you into exile.”

5. Then, finding Him, we discover that we began
seeking Him because He had found us by His
grace.
Knowing where Philip was, the Shepherd and
Bishop of his soul looked him up, found him
out, and called him by His grace.
When he was found of the Savior, he found the
Savior.

6. “I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me;
It was not I that found, O Savior true,
No, I was found of Thee.”

7. All who are saved are saved by the will of God
our Savior; and we gladly acknowledge that to
be the case.
NIV It does not, therefore, depend
on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
NIV

8. Today, I specifically want to call your attention
and my own to the fact that the Holy Spirit here
reminds us again that the message of the Old
Testament is the same as that of the New —
Christ crucified.
Many read the Bible as though it were two
books: the old Bible and the new Bible.
That is a serious mistake.

9. The Word of God is one Book of Divine
Revelation; and the message of the Book is one.
It is the Gospel of Christ.
When Philip described Christ to Nathanael, he
said, “We have found the one Moses wrote
about in the Law, and about whom the prophets
also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph.”

10. All the Old Testament speaks of just one “Him.”
It speaks of just one Man.
Moses and the prophets had nothing to say
about anything or anyone else. Perhaps you
think, “The Old Testament speaks about many
people and many things: Adam, and Enoch, and
Noah, and Abraham, creation, the nation of
Israel, the Egyptian Bondage, the plagues, the
Red Sea, the giving of the law, the judges, the
kings, the Babylonian Captivity, etc.”

11. Most people would agree with you. But here we
are told that there is just one “Him” of whom
Moses and the prophets wrote.
This is confirmed in many places
NIV And beginning with Moses and
all the Prophets, he explained to them what was
said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

12. NIV He said to them,
Then he opened their minds so they could
understand the Scriptures. He told them,

13. NIV All the prophets testify about him
that everyone who believes in him receives
forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Christ is the sum and substance of the Old
Testament.
The Apostle Paul asserts that Christ crucified is
“the whole will of God.”

14. NIV For I have not hesitated to
proclaim to you the whole will of God.
NIV For I resolved to know
nothing while I was with you except Jesus
Christ and him crucified.

15. To Him the earliest promises pointed in the days
of Adam, Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.
To Him every sacrifice pointed in the ceremonial
worship appointed at Mount Sinai.
Of Him every high priest was a type, every part
of the tabernacle was a shadow, and every
judge and deliverer of Israel was a picture.

16. If we read only that which was written by Moses
in the books of the law, the Pentateuch, we
would see the Christ everywhere in the first five
Books of the Bible. He is set before us by Moses
as the Seed of the woman, who must crush the
serpent’s head.
NIV And I will put enmity between
you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will
strike his heel.”

17. The great Prophet, like Moses himself, God
would raise up among the children of Israel,
whom God’s chosen would obey.
The Seed of Abraham, in whom all nations
would be blessed.
NIV For Moses said, ‘The Lord your
God will raise up for you a prophet like me from
among your own people; you must listen to
everything he tells you.

18. Anyone who does not listen to him will be
completely cut off from their people.’ (
) “Indeed, beginning with Samuel,
all the prophets who have spoken have foretold
these days. And you are heirs of the prophets
and of the covenant God made with your
fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your
offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’
( )

19. Not only is Christ crucified the message of
Moses, He is the message of all the prophets.
“We have found the one Moses wrote about in
the Law, and about whom the prophets also
wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
All the law and all the prophets spoke of Him.
They wrote of His birth of a virgin, the place of
His birth, Bethlehem.

20. NIV Therefore the Lord himself will
give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and
give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
NIV “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me one who will be
ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”

21. His sufferings and the glory that should follow.
NIV Yet it was the Lord’s will to
crush him and cause him to suffer, and though
the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he
will see his offspring and prolong his days, and
the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

22. After he has suffered, he will see the light of
life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my
righteous servant will justify many, and he will
bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him
a portion among the great, and he will divide the
spoils with the strong, because he poured out
his life unto death, and was numbered with the
transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors.

23. His ascension to heaven, and His mediatorial
reign at the right hand of God.
NIV When you ascended on high,
you took many captives; you received gifts from
people, even from the rebellious—that you, Lord
God, might dwell there.
NIV The Lord says to my lord: “Sit
at my right hand until I make your enemies a
footstool for your feet.”
And asserted many things relating to His
person, and office, and work.

24. The prophets described Him plainly as the King
of the house of David
NIV When your days are over and
you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your
offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and
blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is
the one who will build a house for my Name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
forever.

25. I will be his father, and he will be my son.
When he does wrong, I will punish him with a
rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by
human hands. But my love will never be
taken away from him, as I took it away from
Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your
house and your kingdom will endure forever
before me; your throne will be established
forever.’”

26. Who came to be David’s Lord as well as his son.
NIV I say to the Lord, “You are my
Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”
NIV "I have installed my king on Zion,
my holy mountain." I will proclaim the LORD's
decree: He said to me, "You are my son; today I
have become your father. Ask me, and I will
make the nations your inheritance, the ends of
the earth your possession.

27. He is the Lamb foretold by Isaiah.
NIV He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its
shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

28. The righteous Branch mentioned by Jeremiah.
NIV “The days are coming,”
declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for
David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign
wisely and do what is just and right in the land.

29. The Messenger of the Covenant promised by
Malachi.
NIV “I will send my messenger, who
will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly
the Lord you are seeking will come to his
temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom
you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

30. The Messiah, Anointed One, according to
Daniel, was to come at a specific time & be put
to death at a specific time.
NIV “Know and understand this:
From the time the word goes out to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the
ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and
sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets
and a trench, but in times of trouble.

31. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed
One will be put to death and will have nothing.
The people of the ruler who will come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will
come like a flood: War will continue until the
end, and desolations have been decreed.

32. If you want to know who those saints of old
trusted, just read the Old Testament. When
Philip said to Nathanael, “We have found the
one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about
whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael knew immediately that Philip was
saying, “Nathanael, we have found the Christ!”

33. The Person they all saw afar off, on whom they
all fixed their eyes was one and the same Christ
we trust and worship.
The Spirit which was in them testified of Christ.

34. NIV Concerning this salvation, the
prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to
come to you, searched intently and with the
greatest care, trying to find out the time and
circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in
them was pointing when he predicted the
sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that
would follow.

35. Do you find it difficult to see Christ in the Old
Testament?
Do I?
If we do, the fault is all our own.
It is our spiritual blindness and ignorance that is
to be blamed, not the imaginary ambiguity of the
Book.

36. The eyes of our understanding need to be
enlightened.
The veil needs to be taken away.
Let us pray as we open the Scriptures,
“O Spirit of God, open this Book to my heart
and open my heart to this Book. Take the things
of Christ written upon these pages and show
them to me.”