Looking Ahead to the Fall Quarter of Sunday School

The lessons in the coming quarter of Concordia's Sunday School materials take us back to the very beginning of the Old Testament—the creation of the world, the fall into sin, the formation of a nation through whom God planned to send a Savior.

Of the 150 Bible accounts we study every three years or so, more than 50 are from the Old Testament. Why? Because it’s there where we find explanations of how we came to be, why we need to hear the Law, why we need also the sweet words of the Gospel. Whether taking us through the narrative history of God’s plan for salvation or giving us pictures (theologians call them types) that foreshadow the coming Savior, each Sunday School lesson we study in the Old Testament points us toward the sacrifice of Christ for our sins.

There are many good reasons to use Concordia Publishing House materials. Whether you use Growing in Christ or Cross Explorations, you’re getting lessons that balance Law and Gospel and, most important, focus on Christ as our Savior.

God bless you as you teach God’s children His Word!

Why Teach the Old Testament?

More than a third of the lessons in our current scope and sequence for Sunday School at Concordia Publishing House teach accounts from the Old Testament, four out of every ten fall, winter, and spring quarters and a generous portion of our summer quarters as well. Why?

• These lessons answer unique questions not addressed in the New Testament. How did the world and human beings begin? Why is there sin and trouble in the world? How did God prepare the world for the coming Savior?
• These lessons show the depth of God's love and concern for His people. They show His providence for both the spiritual needs of all people, and for their physical needs as well. (God provided food for a widow and her son through Elijah. He also provided food for "all the earth" [Genesis 41:57 ESV].) 
• These lessons shares God's forgiveness.
• These lessons demonstrates God's love for all nations. (Yes, Jonah, that includes Nineveh!)
• These lessons reveal Christ. He is revealed in the first Passover lamb and the blood painted on the door frames. He is revealed in the ram caught in the thicket. He is revealed in the bronze serpent lifted up on a pole for the healing of Israel.

The Old Testament lessons are divided among our four fall quarters, which means they are taught every four years. (Most of our New Testament lessons are repeated at least every three years.) This repetition allows the Bible accounts to be reviewed and taught anew in a depth appropriate to each student's age and development stage, contributing to the student's overall biblical literacy.

This fall the cycle begins anew, with lessons coming from the first 28 chapters of Genesis.

God bless you as you teach His children His Old Testament Word!

Why Teach the Old Testament?

The arrangement of lessons in Sunday School materials published by Concordia Publishing House incorporates four quarters, 52 lessons, from the Old Testament. Given the duplication of a few key lessons in the New Testament (especially lessons around Christmas and Easter), nearly one-half of our lessons are from the Old Testament.

Why?

It gets us in trouble with some customers, those who would really prefer that we align fully with the three-year lectionary. The Old Testament is not presented chronologically in the lectionary. Readings are usually chosen to connect in some way with the Gospel lesson and theme of a Sunday in the Church Year.

So why?

I see at least three reasons:

• The Old Testament, along with the New, is the historical account of God's relationship with His people, especially the unfolding of His plan for our salvation. Those who wish to understand and appreciate the Bible need to know the Old Testament.
• The lessons in the Old Testament are important, not because they teach about wonderful, faithful people of God, but because they point us to Jesus Christ and the salvation God accomplishes for us through Him. We study these people not as examples of their behavior, bu as examples of those with faith in Christ.
• Every account in the Old Testament can and should be tied to that salvation history and studied to see how it points us to Christ.

We are nearing the end of the current cycle of Old Testament accounts. Next fall we will return to the beginning, to the accounts of the creation of all things and especially the creation of humankind as the crown of creation.

Do you think our current scope and sequence includes enough Old Testament? Too much?

Which Old Testament accounts do you think are missing and should be included?

God's blessing as you teach His children His Old Testament Word!

Did Your Lesson Point to Christ?

How did you do on Sunday? Did your teaching opportunity go well? The crucial question you should be asking yourself is this one: did your lesson point to Christ?

A recent letter suggested to me that, while there were probably some good moral truths to be gleaned from lessons about the Tabernacle or the twelve spies in Canaan, we could better spend our time in Sunday School teaching the Creation account more frequently. I responded with two basic goals for Old Testament Sunday School lessons.

One is to teach as much as is practical about the narrative thread of the Bible, the history of God's plan of salvation for humankind. This will provide a Gospel skeleton, a framework, on which to hang each of the lessons we teach. The creation of the world, and of human beings, and the fall into sin set in motion events that took place over many generations and centuries according to God's specific plan.

The more important reason to teach these Old Testament accounts, though, is that each of them points us to Jesus. A lesson about the Tabernacle will remind us that just as God chose to live among His people during their years in the wilderness and as they claimed the land He has promised them, so He chose also to live among His people in human form as Jesus of Nazareth, and He promises to be among us today through the Means of Grace, His Word and Sacraments. The Tabernacle points to Jesus. Each Old Testament lesson should do the same.

Where was Christ is the lesson you taught on Sunday? A promise from God? A type? A fulfillment of a prophecy?

God's blessings as you teach God's children about Jesus even in your Old Testament lessons.