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Making Disciples is Planting Congregations
We are excited to hold our next Growing Healthy Messianic Congregations Conference in the greater Boston area on June 21 through 23, 2014. Please pray that many more healthy Messianic Congregations will be planted in the Northeast. For our newer readers who may not have studied the biblical teaching on the importance of Messianic congregations, here are some of the key scriptural values that undergird our Messianic Planting imperative. In Jeremiah 31:35-37 God has made a gracious commitment to preserve the Jewish people as an identifiable nation:
Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name; “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the Lord, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation forever.” Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the Lord.
A Messianic congregation is an expression of God’s gracious commitment and is essential to His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Yeshua has “all the authority in heaven and on earth,” and with that authority He has commanded us to make disciples (Matthew 28:18). If we are convinced of His Lordship, we must therefore be committed to His discipleship, for He said, “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
This means raising new believers in the faith so that they will live out God’s faithfulness in their circumstances. It starts with immersion, which testifies publicly to what the Spirit did at salvation: identifying the new believer with the Lord (Matthew 28:20).
However, discipleship is not only the one time act, but it is the ongoing activity of growing as believers in all that Yeshua has commanded. We are to teach the truth, not merely transfer information, so that believers will observe all that Yeshua commanded.
The primary function of any congregation is as a disciple-making center. It is healthy disciples, not larger numbers, which is the goal of the congregation. What does this have to do with a Messianic congregation? Well, the undiscipled believer is an unfaithful believer. If a new Jewish believer understands his or her Jewish identity in Messiah, then this same God who promised that He would not “leave nor forsake our people” is seen in the eyes of the Jewish community, and to all who are looking, as the same faithful Lord who said, “I am with you always to the end of the age” (Joshua 1:9; Matthew 28:20). Also, as Gentiles are saved through the evangelistic work of Messianic congregations (“also to the Gentile,” right?), they will be grounded and grow in the same faith, by the same discipleship. This makes their own communication of the Good News more clear and meaningful to the Jewish people and all people.
Also, every Messianic congregation demonstrates the absolute equality of Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles as one Body in Yeshua. God doesn’t want non-Jews to become Jews any more than He wants Jews to become non-Jews. It is this unique unity in our diversity that demonstrates God’s faithfulness to His Word. Thus the Messianic congregation demonstrates the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, “In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18; Galations 3:8). The Messianic congregation’s normative celebration of the Biblical Feasts is the very testimony of God’s redemption of Jews and Gentiles in Messiah that was divinely established to be the Body’s witness of Yeshua (John 1:29). Thus, the Gentile believer can more fully demonstrate God’s faithfulness through the Feasts of Israel as the Biblical witness that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel.
When Yeshua’s faithfulness is demonstrated in His followers, then His fellowship with us is seen through Messianic communities (Matthew 18:20). Messianic congregations are the living testimonies of God’s triumph in Messiah. They reveal God’s faithfulness in Messiah Yeshua to eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that desire after Him.
We need to bring the Good News to all people and see them come to faith in Yeshua, but never leave them undiscipled. Discipleship is the means by which new believers are enabled to grow in their relationship with God, to develop spiritual understanding of the truths of God’s Word, and to gain wisdom for living faithfully for the Lord.
Faith in Yeshua makes you a child of God, discipleship is God’s way for you to mature as His child. As there is no salvation without faith in Yeshua, so there is no proper spiritual growth without proper Scriptural discipleship.
Please pray for us and stand with us as we boldly move forward so that the greater Jewish community and all people will clearly hear the Good News of Israel’s Messiah who is therefore the Savior of the world.
Happy Israel Independence Day!
This year on May 5 at sundown, Israel will celebrate its 66th anniversary since it became a nation again! After many generations of dispersion and persecution, the people of Israel are once again back in their homeland and today every Jew has a place to call home. We want to imitate Paul in his zeal for the salvation of Jewish people, and therefore, we are setting a priority to pray and reach out to Jewish people everywhere including in Israel. We see that Messiah’s love will control our hearts and make it a priority to serve Israel because of His promises. Often our heart’s concern for the Jewish people is, understandably, that individuals would see Yeshua through the prophets, like Isaiah 53. Yet, the more immediate Jewish concern has been to survive and thrive as a people—a value which is often summed up in the phrase Am Yisrael Chai (the people of Israel live).
The survival of the Jewish people is the lynchpin of God’s future activity and victory, because the return of the Lord is tied to the repentance of Israel. Yeshua said: You will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39).
In light of all the troubles that Israel has endured, including the many hundreds of years the Jewish people had gone without a state, one might think that perhaps God has changed His mind and forsaken Israel as a nation. Not so. The Scriptures are clear that even if the Jewish people themselves would think this, it is never the case that God could let go of Zion.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.” Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you ... Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me” (Isaiah 49:14, 16).
Just as David could not rule over all of Israel and remove the adversaries until the people accepted him as king (2 Samuel 5:1-5), Yeshua will not return to reign on the Davidic throne and remove the adversary, Satan, until the Jewish people acknowledge Him as King. Peter reiterates this point when he proclaims to the Jewish people:
“Repent and turn to God, that your sins might be wiped away, in order that the times of refreshing might come from the Lord, and that He might send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you - even Yeshua. He must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised…” (Acts 3:19-21).
The return of Yeshua will “restore everything” and bring “the times of refreshing.” Messiah’s reign on earth is tied to the Jewish people “repenting and returning to God.” Therefore, Satan is desperately trying to avoid his own demise by preventing the return of Messiah. He is doing all he can do to destroy Israel and the Jewish people now; at the same time he is trying to make faith in Yeshua so alien and repugnant that no self-respecting Jew, let alone the nation, would ever desire to repent and turn to Yeshua!
Thus Messiah’s return to planet Earth is linked to Israel’s repentance and faith in Him as Savior and Lord (see Matt. 23:39, Zech. 12:10, Acts 3:19-21). Hence Satan’s desperate strategy is to destroy the Jews before they recognize Yeshua as their Messiah. Understand, all of this pictures the spiritual battle in which we are all called to fight the good fight:
“For we battle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces…” (Eph. 6:12).
As we celebrate Israel’s 66th anniversary, let us never forget the reality of spiritual warfare.
Let us study to show ourselves approved in understanding these issues. Let us not only rejoice that God has sustained Israel for these sixty six years, but actively proclaim Good News to Israel and all people while we can. Happy Israel Independence Day!
Aren't Christians and the New Testament Anti-Semitic?
Because Jewish history is filled with persecution by many 'so-called Christians', I often hear questions that presume guilt---"Isn't the New Testament anti-Semitic? Doesn’t it teach Christians to hate Jews? What about Christian anti-Semitism and the Holocaust?"The New Testament is Jewish?
It’s a shock to many people when they discover just how Jewish the New Testament is! Jeremiah the prophet foretold that God would give the New Testament (or New Covenant, Brit Chadasha) to our people: “Behold, the days are coming when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah. It is not like the covenant that I made with your fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord….for I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:31-32, 34).
This New Covenant is what Messiah Yeshua (the Jewish way to say Jesus) initiated when He came to make atonement for sins. This was to establish the basis of the New Covenant relationship between God and His people: God’s forgiveness of sins through Messiah’s atonement for all who will believe.
As a young Jewish man growing up in New York, I thought the “New Testament” was a combination religious rulebook for Gentiles and an anti-Semitic instruction manual. I was surprised to find out the New Covenant is actually the Lord’s love letters to those who seek Him.
The Jewish Messiah's Love
And as far as being a cause for anti-Semitism, this could only happen for those who have never read it’s pages. For in this Jewish book, Yeshua is presented as “the King of the Jews”. Yeshua is shown crying over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), fulfilling the Law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17) and in His daily activities, identifying only with the Jewish people (Matthew 10:5-6; 15:24). How could any so-called follower of Yeshua claim to have the King of the Jews in their hearts and also hate the Jewish people? Absurd! Rather, true Gentile followers of the Jewish Messiah love the Jewish people. The life and teachings of Yeshua give no justification for any kind of hatred, let alone hatred of His Jewish people. “For the love of Messiah controls” them (2 Cor. 5:14). It is rather to be said that anti-Semitism is proof of the ignorance of Messiah and His teachings.
True Followers of Jesus Love the Jewish People
The experience of the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 40’s, as well as other anti-Semitic persecutions, are often thought of as an expression of “Christian” hatred toward the Jewish people. The *Holocaust was no such thing at all. Gentile governments have routinely used and abused the label of religion in a futile attempt to justify their pragmatic and evil (as at times like the Holocaust,) national interests. In the Hebrew scriptures as well, the same truth is revealed: anti-Semitism is anti-God (see Psalm 83:1-5).True Gentile followers of Messiah were persecuted, imprisoned and murdered by the Nazis for helping the Jews in their areas. Jewish believers in Messiah were killed as quickly as the other Jews. There was nothing about the Holocaust that represented anything taught in the New Covenant or by any faithful follower of Messiah.
The Real Cause of Anti-Semitism
The New Covenant teaches us how the Jewish Messiah came to resolve a problem that is universal: the problem of sin. The sin that motivated and manifested itself in the Nazis is essentially the same problem all people have: rebellion against God. The sin problem ends when a person, any person, acknowledges their sin to God and places their trust in Messiah Yeshua.
I had the opportunity to speak at a Businessmen’s Breakfast, where I shared the message of Good News in the Messiah. I invited the people there to respond to God’s love and forgiveness in the Jewish Messiah. Of those who responded, I remember one businessman who burst into tears. Up to that point he had been an anti-Semite. But now he was convinced of his sinfulness and wanted to repent. After we prayed he mentioned that he was stunned to have heard the message of forgiveness and new life in the Jewish Messiah from a Jewish man! It became clear to him that his anti-Semitic feelings were just one symptom of his rebellion to God…affirming the scriptural truth that anti-Semitism is anti-God… and anti-Messiah.
As evil and offensive as anti-Semitism is, all sin is offensive to God. Though some sins are not nearly so blatant, God is aware of them all. All who sin need to repent in order to be forgiven and cleansed of their sins. The message of Good News is for all who will trust in Israel’s Messiah and the Savior of the world, Yeshua.
Regional Conference Greater Boston Area
Word of Messiah Ministries Regional Conference is scheduled on June 21- 23 in greater Boston area. Come for two days of training, instruction and problem solving for planting, developing and maturing Messianic congregations. Register Now! -------
Word of Messiah Ministries
PO Box 79238
Charlotte, NC 28271 United States
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