The Bible’s One Great Message: Everything Points to Jesus

When the risen Christ appeared to His disciples, He taught them that all they had witnessed had happened so that, “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44, ESV). These three expressions refer to the major divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, of which Psalms was the most prominent book. Jesus was therefore teaching that the whole Old Testament bears witness to Him. It contains many commands, promises, histories, poems, and warnings, but these parts belong to one unfolding story—the story of God redeeming sinners through His Son. The disciples needed to learn how to read Scripture with Christ at its center, and so do we.

Acts 3:17–26 shows us that Peter learned this lesson well. After God healed a man who had been unable to walk from birth, a crowd gathered around Peter and John at Solomon’s Portico in the temple complex. Peter did not use the miracle to promote himself, build his reputation, or entertain the people. He used it as an opportunity to proclaim Jesus. The miracle opened the door, but the gospel was the message. Peter immediately corrected the crowd’s misunderstanding: the man had not been healed by the apostles’ own “power or piety,” but through faith in the name of Jesus.

Peter began by confronting the people with their sin. They had rejected Jesus, delivered Him to Pilate, and demanded the release of a murderer. But Peter also said, “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers” (Acts 3:17, ESV). Their ignorance did not make them innocent. They remained responsible for rejecting the Holy and Righteous One. Nevertheless, their wickedness collided with God’s sovereign purpose. “What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18, ESV). Peter then called the crowd to respond: “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19, ESV). He did not merely explain prophecy or offer interesting information about the Bible. His Christ-centered interpretation demanded repentance. To have one’s sins “blotted out” presents the picture of a debt being erased from a record. This forgiveness does not come through religious effort, family heritage, or good intentions. It is received through repentance and faith in the crucified and risen Jesus. This must shape our teaching as well. A Bible lesson that informs the mind but never calls sinners to Jesus has failed to reach the purpose toward which Scripture leads us.

Peter’s sermon first directs us to the Law of Moses. He quoted Deuteronomy 18:15–19: “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you” (Acts 3:22, ESV). Moses was a prophet, mediator, and deliverer. God used him to lead Israel out of slavery, reveal His Word, and establish the covenant at Sinai. Then, Moses pointed beyond himself to a greater Prophet. Jesus is that promised Prophet because He speaks the very words of God and reveals the Father perfectly. He is also greater than Moses: Moses was a servant in God’s house, but Jesus is the Son over God’s house (Hebrews 3:5–6). The Law points to Jesus in more ways than this direct prophecy. The Passover lamb anticipates the Lamb of God whose blood shelters His people from judgment. The sacrifices teach that sin brings death and that forgiveness requires a substitute. The high priest foreshadows the perfect Priest who enters God’s presence for His people. The tabernacle declares that holy God intends to dwell among His people through an appointed mediator. Even the exodus provides a pattern of redemption: God rescues His people from bondage, brings them under His gracious rule, and leads them toward an inheritance. These institutions were real gifts to Israel, but none of them could provide final salvation. Their incompleteness created an expectation that only Jesus could fulfill.

When Peter said that “all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days” (Acts 3:24, ESV), he showed that the prophetic writings also point to Jesus. Beginning with Samuel, the prophets developed the promise of God’s anointed King. God promised David a descendant whose kingdom would endure forever (2 Samuel 7:12–16). Isaiah announced the virgin-born Immanuel, the righteous Branch, and the suffering Servant who would be “pierced for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5, ESV). Jeremiah promised a new covenant in which God would forgive iniquity and write His law upon His people’s hearts. Ezekiel foretold cleansing, a new heart, and the gift of God’s Spirit. Jesus fulfills all these promises because He is the promised King, suffering Servant, covenant Mediator, and giver of the Spirit.  The prophets also show that the Messiah’s suffering was a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan. Peter told the crowd that God had foretold “that his Christ would suffer” (Acts 3:18, ESV). Many in Israel expected a conquering Messiah but failed to understand that the Christ must first suffer for sin. Jesus did not go to the cross because His mission had failed, as many first-century Jews may have thought. He went because the Father’s saving purpose was being fulfilled. As our substitute, Jesus bore the curse deserved by His people, satisfied divine justice, and secured their forgiveness. The cross was the fulfillment of the redemption promised throughout Scripture.

The Psalms poetically lead us to Jesus. Psalm 2 presents God’s anointed King ruling over the nations. Psalm 22 portrays a righteous sufferer who is mocked, surrounded by enemies, and delivered by God. Psalm 16 anticipates the Holy One who would not be abandoned to the grave, a passage Peter applied to Jesus’s resurrection in Acts 2. Psalm 110 reveals David’s Lord seated at God’s right hand and serving as a priest forever. In Jesus, these lines of hope meet: He is the suffering righteous man, the risen Holy One, the universal King, and the eternal Priest. The Psalms give words to His suffering and victory, and they teach His church to worship Him.

We must be careful, however, when saying that everything points to Jesus. This does not mean that every Old Testament sentence is a secret prediction or that we may ignore a passage’s original meaning. Rather, every passage belongs to the unified history of creation, fall, promise, covenant, redemption, and restoration that reaches its fulfillment in Christ. Some passages point to Him through direct prophecy; others through promises, offices, sacrifices, events, patterns, or unmet needs. The Old Testament reveals the problem of sin, displays humanity’s inability to save itself, and develops the promises that Jesus fulfills. Christ-centered interpretation is not forcing Jesus into the Bible. It is reading every part within the redemptive story God Himself has given.

Peter demonstrates this unity when he moves from Moses and the prophets back to Abraham. He told his hearers, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed’” (Acts 3:25, ESV). That promise reaches back to Genesis 12 and 22, but it looks forward to Jesus. Paul makes this explicit in Galatians 3:16 by identifying the promised offspring as Jesus. God’s plan was never limited to one nation. Through Abraham’s offspring, the blessing of salvation would extend to every family and nation of the earth. This is where Acts 3 connects directly to the Great Commission. The risen Christ commanded His disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, ESV), because God had promised long before that all nations would be blessed through Abraham’s offspring. Peter preached first to his Jewish hearers because they were heirs of the covenant promises: “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first” (Acts 3:26, ESV). But the word “first” anticipates the gospel’s movement beyond Jerusalem. Acts records God’s grace advancing outward until Christ is proclaimed among the nations. Indeed, Acts as a whole presents the risen Jesus continuing His work through the Spirit-empowered witness of His church.

Peter also teaches us what the blessing of salvation actually means. God sent Jesus “to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness” (Acts 3:26, ESV). The blessing is not improved circumstances, physical health, or financial success. Jesus blesses sinners by turning them away from rebellion and restoring them to God. Grace does not leave us comfortably enslaved to sin. The same Savior who forgives also transforms. Therefore, we must never offer people a Christ who provides comfort without repentance, salvation without lordship, or forgiveness without a changed direction.

If we are to follow Peter’s example, our teaching must be biblical, Christ-centered, and urgent. We should explain passages in their proper context, trace their place in God’s redemptive plan, proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus, and call people to repent and believe. Peter was compassionate toward his hearers, but he was not vague about their guilt. He spoke honestly about sin and clearly about grace. Likewise, we must not soften the disease until the cure becomes meaningless. People must understand what God has commanded, how they have sinned, what Jesus has accomplished, and why they must come to Him.

The urgency could not be greater. Peter warned that everyone who refuses to listen to the promised Prophet “shall be destroyed from the people” (Acts 3:23, ESV). Jesus is not one religious option among many; He is God’s final and authoritative Son. Those who hear Him receive life, but those who reject Him remain under judgment. Our neighbors, relatives, coworkers, children, and friends are moving toward eternity. We do not love them by remaining silent. The Great Commission requires more than inviting people to a church service. It calls every believer to speak the gospel, teach the truth of Christ, make disciples, and help them obey everything He has commanded.

The whole Bible declares one glorious message: the promised Savior has come. The Law prepares the way for Him, the Prophets announce His person and work, and the Psalms sing of His suffering, resurrection, priesthood, and reign. Acts 3 shows Peter opening these Scriptures, proclaiming Christ, confronting sin, offering the way to forgiveness, and calling for repentance. This must become the pattern of Christ’s church. We must open the Bible and show people Jesus; we must proclaim His finished work and summon the lost to turn to Him. The fields are ready, the nations need the gospel, judgment is certain, and Jesus is worthy. Let us therefore teach the whole counsel of God as one great testimony to Jesus and carry that message urgently to the ends of the earth.