Can we apply Old Testament passages to Christians

Can we apply Old Testament passages to Christians?

Matthew 15:24 He answered,

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

Like the prophets in the Old Testament, Jesus was sent to God’s people. Jesus lived and died under the Old law.
The Prophets were sent to warn God’s people that they were sinning, on the brink of disaster or about to be over run by the enemy.
It was no fun being a Prophet.

Jesus message to the lost sheep of Israel was not pretty.

Luke 19:43-44 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

Can you see why Jesus cried over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-38

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
38Look, your house is left to you desolate."

Jesus had come to tell the lost sheep of Israel that for them it was over.

Luke 20:9-19

He went on to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. 10At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. 13"Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.' 14"But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir,' they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. "What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "May this never be!" 17Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
" 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone? 18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." 19The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

Look at verse 19.

“…because they knew he had spoken this parable against them.”

There is no doubt about whom that parable is spoken. The teachers of the law knew it and so did the chief priests.
How many times have I sat in classes and in meetings and heard this passage “applied” to Christians. How many times have I, in the past, done the same thing? It wasn’t spoken to Christians. It wasn’t even directed at the garden variety Hebrew. It was directed at the teachers of the law and the chief priests. There are many more passages like this and I believe that we should be taking note of them and be careful how we handle them.
You will hear or you may have said , as I have, that “We can use the principle taught in the OT to teach …etc.” Where do we get the authority to change the meaning of the Bible?
We use the word “principle” when we should be using the longer sentence “I want to bind this on others.” For instance: We know that the Sabbath was a command under the Jewish law. We know that we are not under the law but under grace. Therefore the Sabbath does not apply to Christians.
But, if I want to stop you from participating in sport on Sunday. I simply apply the principle of the “Christian Sabbath.” In other words I simply tell you that “we are not under law, but if it was good enough for God to tell the Hebrews to rest, then don’t you think it would apply to Christians as well?” The answer is, No we can not apply it to Christians today because it didn’t apply to Christians back then.
It is adding rules where no rules are given.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:17-18

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

This passage says one of two things.
1. The law has been fulfilled and has disappeared or
2. The law has not been fulfilled and the Jews are still under the law.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that he had come to fulfil the law.
Colossians 2:14 says that

“having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Matthew says that Jesus came to fulfil the law and Colossians says that he took it away.
Colossians says that the law was against us and that it stood opposed to us.
Do we think anything has changed?
Do we think God has reinstated the law?

Jesus died a painful death to fulfil the law. Why do we want to apply its principles to Christians today.