The narratives of the Old Testament served as types and shadows pointing forward in history to the time when Israel's messiah would be revealed in the person and work of Jesus.
In support of this view, the advocates of redemptive-historical preaching drew heavily upon the text of Luke 24:27, where Jesus is teaching the disciples on the road to Emmaus: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (English Standard Version).
Further support was taken from verse 44 of the same chapter, where Jesus says, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."
The Bible was seen, not as a collection of abstract moral principles, but rather as an anthology of the events of God's great works in history.
However, the main controversy surrounding this preaching method is the question whether or not using the characters of the Bible as moral exemplars for the believers today diminishes Christ as the center of the text.