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7:1-10 The Gentile
Who Had More Faith Than Most Jews
Rabbi
Glenn, with the help of Moishe Rosen, did a great
job a couple of weeks ago telling us about Yeshua’s
interaction with the Roman Centurion who was stationed
in Capernaum. This Gentile leader of 100 soldiers
loved our people whom the Romans conquered and
ruled. He respected our customs. He honored our
religion and our God. From his resources, he built
the synagogue in Capernaum for the Jewish people.
That kind of love and sympathy and generosity
for our people from one of the conquerors was
very unusual and amazing.
This
non-Jew knew that Rabbi Yeshua was a man who possessed
real authority - spiritual authority - and that
if the young Rabbi from Nazareth prayed, God would
hear His prayers, and the Centurion’s slave, who
was sick and about to die, would be healed. He
knew that Yeshua was close to God, and God was
working with Yeshua to do miracles, and that God
and Yeshua could overcome a very serious sickness
that would result in death.
Yeshua’s
conclusion about this Jewish-people-loving Gentile:
Not even in Israel have I found such great faith.
This non-Jew had greater faith and confidence
in the God of Israel and in the Messiah that He
sent than almost everyone in Israel. He had greater
faith than most of the common people. He even
had greater knowledge, confidence and trust in
God than most of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Priests,
Rabbis, sages, scholars and Israel’s Torah-teachers!
The faith
of this wise and humble Centurion foreshadows
the faith of and the salvation of the Gentiles.
The Holy Spirit, working through Yeshua, and writing
through Luke, is letting us know that something
wonderfully new was about to happen with the other
nations. Even though Yeshua worked almost exclusively
among the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the
Messiah’s mission would reach beyond the Jewish
people to the other nations of the world. Messianic
Jewish salvation would soon begin to reach the
nations! That was new and exciting and fantastic!
That was and is great news for the world!
To me,
this wonderful Roman Centurion, who had such great
faith and humility and love for God’s people,
and love for God Himself, is a symbol of the true
Church, which today primarily is found in the
Evangelical Church. This Roman Centurion had faith
that was greater than virtually everyone in Israel.
That tells me that Jewish Believers should have
an attitude of humility toward our Gentile brothers
and sisters. We should understand that they often
have greater knowledge and faith and wisdom and
experience than we do. They have thought through
and prayed through many matters of the Faith.
The have great institutions and colleges and seminaries.
We have much to learn from our Gentile Christian
brothers. Yes, the Gentiles can learn some things
from us in the Messianic Jewish community, but
we have much to learn from them.
I grow
weary of the arrogance and the disrespect that
many who are part of the Messianic Jewish movement
have toward the Church. I am tired of those who
try to distance themselves from the Church, who
don’t want to identify with Christians and Christianity,
who refuse to say that they are Christians - which
means a follower of the Messiah.
Messianic
Jews are members of two communities. We have dual
citizenship. We are part of the Jewish People
(in fact we are the true Israel, the faithful
remnant of Israel) and we are part of the Church,
and we must identify 100 percent with both.
I am
Jewish. I identify with my people, and with the
God of Israel, and with the land of Israel, and
the Hebrew language, and Jewish history and culture.
I identify with many of the good Jewish traditions.
I identify with the covenants and with the Torah
and with the rest of the Holy Writings. I identify
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with Moses and
the prophets, with the kings of Israel. I am 100
percent Jewish and proud of it. I am also a I
am a Messianic Jew. I am a follower of the Jewish
Messiah, who is the Christ. I am 100 percent Christian.
There
are not two distinct Churches - a Messianic Jewish
movement and the Church. There are not two bodies.
There are not two faith communities - a Messianic
Jewish movement and a Gentile Church. Ultimately
there is only one Community that belongs to Messiah;
there is only one body made up of Jews and Gentiles.
Through faith, salvation, baptism and the indwelling
of the Spirit we become part of a united new humanity.
This one new man, made up of Jews and Gentiles,
has an amazing unity that unites us into one body,
one family, one new and living organism, one holy
community that belongs to the Messiah.
Our unity
is based on the reality that all of us have one
God and Father of all who is over all and through
all and in all. All of us have the same Lord.
All of us have received the same Spirit who lives
in us and is transforming us into the same image.
All of us participate in the same initiation by
which we show our commitment to and faith in the
same God. All of us share the same core beliefs
and adherence to the truth. All of us enjoy the
same hope of eternal life in the New Jerusalem.
All of us are members of the same community. All
of us are part of the same body that works together.
To be
faithful to the Lord and the united new humanity,
Messianic Jews must identify with the faithful
remnant of our Gentile Christian brothers and
sisters. Today, that faithful remnant is primarily
found in the Evangelical Church. Evangelicals,
Evangelicalism, Evangelical Christianity, represents
the visible, identifiable faithful remnant of
the true Church.
We may
talk about the Jewish and Gentile wings of the
Church. We may talk about the Messianic Jewish
movement and the Gentile Church (and Messianic
Jews can and should maintain our distinct Jewish
identity culture, heritage and traditions; and
it is important, and I would say, necessary, to
have our own wonderful Messianic Jewish communities);
but we must always keep in mind that ultimately
there is only one community.
If we
do not publically and unashamedly identify as
Jews we do wrong. We do a disservice to God, and
our covenants with Him, and our people and to
ourselves and our children. If we do not publically
and unashamedly identify with the other true followers
of the Messiah, we sin against the New Covenant,
and the new united humanity, and the Lord of the
Ekklesia, the Called Out Ones.
I am
a Christian. Yes, I know that the term Christian
is sometimes misunderstood. Most of my Jewish
people think that Christian means Gentile. And
so, if a Jewish person says they are a Christian,
many will think that we are no longer Jewish.
But, this came be overcome by more communication
- clarifying that Christian means a follower of
the Jewish Messiah, and that a Jew who follows
the King of the Jews is more Jewish than ever,
and that one can be a Christian and a Jew at the
same time, and one can be a Christian and a Messianic
Jew at the same time. This difficulty in communication
is an issue we can deal with. But, it is very
important to identify with the Christian community,
and one way I do so is by declaring that I am
a Christian.
If we
do not publically and unashamedly and clearly
identify with the other true followers of the
Messiah, we are hypocrites and stupid, because
we are part of the Called Out Ones, and everyone
- believers and non-believers - know who we are
part of. The world will still identify us with
the Nazarene, and as followers of the Messiah,
and as part of the Ekklesia, and as Christians.
We will fool no one - just as the Jewish people
in German, who identified themselves as Germans
of Mosaic Persuasion - convinced no one that they
weren’t Jews.
I am
a part of the Church. I am part of Christianity.
I am a Christian. But, not all of Christianity
is Christianity. There is wheat and there are
tares. I identify with the Evangelical Church.
Evangelicalism is the purest, truest-to-the-Bible
form of Christianity. They are my Gentile brothers
and sisters who share the one Faith.
It is
right not to identify with parts of nominal, historical
Christianity who have perverted the Faith, who
have added to the Word of God or taken away from
the Word of God, who preach another Gospel, who
proclaim a false salvation message that will not
save. I dis-identify with Roman Catholic Christianities
and Liberal Christianities. For many reasons,
they are unfaithful to the Word of God. They are
in serious error and are dangerous. It is good
to point that out and avoid them. But, we must
not dis-identify with Evangelical Christianity.
That is inappropriate and wrong.
Within
historic Christianity I am a Protestant. That
means I am part of the protestors who continue
to protest the theological errors of the Roman
Catholic Church. Within Protestantism I do not
identify with the Liberals who have gone astray.
I am part of Evangelical Christianity. I am an
Evangelical. Evangelicals are my brothers and
sisters. They are my fellow saints and fellow
citizens of the New Jerusalem.
Those
of us who are Messianic Jews are part of the community
of Israel, and we are part of the true Church.
We must identify with both. I unashamedly identify
as a Jew and as a part of the Evangelical Church.
I declare that I am 100 percent Jewish, and 100
percent Christian.
Some
within the Messianic Jewish community want the
rest of the Church to see the Messianic Jewish
movement as the rightful leaders of the Church.
This is based on the ideas that Israel has a special
place among the other nations; that we are a kind
of priesthood among of the nations, bringing the
nations closer to God, and bringing God closer
to the nations; that we are the first-born son
and the elder brother, that the prophets and apostles
and Lord came from us; that we started the Church,
and that God will bring things back to Jerusalem.
I don’t know if Messianic Jews should be the leaders
of the Church. But, if you believe that and want
that, then be worthy of leadership by fully identifying
with the rest of the Evangelical Church!
From
now on, for the well-being of our movement, and
for the unity of the Body of the Messiah, and
the blessing of the true Church and the world,
I call upon all Messianic Jews to publically identify
with the Evangelical Church. If you don’t, you
will be missing the mark; you will be sinning
against the Lord, sinning against your brothers
and sisters, sinning against the unity of the
one New Man, the united new humanity that the
Lord has suffered so much for and that is so precious
to Him. If you don’t you are small-minded; parochial;
limited in vision; and unfit to be a genuine leader
in Messiah’s United Community made up of a relatively
small number of Jews and a large number of Gentiles.
7:11-17
God working with and through Yeshua will
overcome death itself
Yeshua
helped the Centurion’s servant overcome illness
that brought him very close to death. In this
next incident, God working with and through Yeshua
will overcome death itself! Humanity has some
great enemies like Satan, sin and death. Death
is a very powerful enemy. On our own, it is impossible
to overcome this enemy. Every human being will
die - die the First Death - Physical Death, followed
by the even worse Second Death - which is Gehenna,
Hell, the Lake of Fire.
There
is something deep inside us that likes life, and
desperately wants to live. If we could overcome
death, and live forever in a perfect place, every
normal human being would want to live, and not
die. Life would be so sad, so frustrating, so
depressing, so unfair, so empty, so ultimately
meaningless - if there is no life after death.
Life is so meaningful, so hopeful, so exciting,
so much better able to endure well when we know
that we can overcome death!
But we
can’t overcome this awesome enemy on our own.
Death is too powerful an adversary for us. And
we are too sinful, too weak, too frail, too powerless
to overcome death. Money and things and status
among other humans and politics and education
and science and technology and philosophy and
other religions and being a good person can’t
overcome death. But there is a way to have victory
against this great enemy! God the Father, working
with and through Yeshua His Son, can overcome
death.
7:11-17:
Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain;
and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied
by a large crowd. Note that a large crowd
followed Rabbi Yeshua. He was very well-known,
very popular among many of the Jewish people.
Rabbi Yeshua and His crowd were about to meet
another crowd.
Now
as He approached the gate of the city, a dead
man was being carried out, the only son of his
mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd
from the city was with her. It is so sad,
so tragic, for a woman to lose her husband, and
then her only son. A sizeable crowd from her city
tried to honor her and comfort her by going with
her to bury her son. But, that was all the crowd
could do - try to comfort her. But, there was
Someone from another crowd who could do more than
just try to comfort. He could bring real comfort
by alleviating the cause of the sadness.
And,
Luke tells us that these two crowds converged
- Yeshua and His crowd heading toward the gate
of the city, and the other crowd leaving the city
to bury this only son of the widow. When the
Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and
said to her, "Do not weep." Because
of His love and compassion, and because He was
filled with the Holy Spirit, and close to God
and sent by God to do good things to the Jewish
people; and because He was being used by God to
do the miraculous, to show us that Yeshua was
Someone Very Special, and that we should believe
in Him, Yeshua was able to do what no one else
in those two crowds could do, that only a few
in Israel had ever done.
And
He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers
came to a halt. And He said, "Young man,
I say to you, arise!" The dead man sat up
and began to speak. And Yeshua gave him back to
his mother. Wow! The young man was brought
back to life! The grieving mother truly had been
given real and amazing and lasting comfort!
Someone
dying and being raised back to life was an extremely
rare event, even among the Chosen Nation. I think
that something like this had only happened three
times in Israel’s history - once by Elijah, once
by Elisha, and once when a dead body came in contact
with the grave and the bones of Elisha. But, nothing
like that had happened in 800 years, since the
time of like Elijah and Elisha. This puts Yeshua
on the same level with Israel’s greatest miracle-working
prophets; but He is more. He is far greater than
Israel’s greatest prophets!
And the
two crowds of people knew that something very
unusual, very powerful, very significant had just
happened. Fear gripped them all, and they began
glorifying God, saying, "A great prophet
has arisen among us!" and, "God has
visited His people!" And, they were
right. This miracle was evidence that God was
present in a very powerful and special way. God
the Father was working in a very powerful way
through Yeshua of Nazareth. Yeshua was on a level
with Israel’s greatest prophets like Elijah and
Elisha whom God had used to bring the dead back
to life.
What
happened here - God using the Messiah to bring
this young man back to life, and bring real comfort
to a grieving mother, foreshadows what the Lord
Yeshua will do in the future, and in a much greater
and more permanent way, to all those who know
Him and believe in Him.
He who
is faithful and true, and the Amen, who is never
wrong and cannot lie, promised: An hour is
coming and now is, when the dead will hear the
voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will
live. An hour is coming, in which all who are
in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come
forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection
of life, those who committed the evil deeds to
a resurrection of judgment.
This
is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that
He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up
on the last day. For this is the will of My Father,
that everyone who beholds the Son and believes
in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will
raise him up on the last day.
I
am the resurrection and the life; he who believes
in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone
who lives and believes in Me will never die. I
am the way, the truth and the life.
Do you
believe these promises? If we believe this, it
will change our perspective. It will help us have
a good attitude. It will bring us genuine comfort.
It will help us patiently endure. It will give
us happiness in the midst of life’s difficulties.
It will make life meaningful. We will be people
of peace and joy, able to focus on what is right
and important - not things and money and power
and status, but helping other human beings get
close to God, and recognize who Yeshua is, and
be enabled to live forever. We will get close
and become part of and involved and building up
the sons and daughters of God who share eternal
life and will live forever in the New Heavens
and the New Earth and the New Jerusalem, those
who have overcome the great enemy of death.
God is
faithful! What He promised to the Jewish people
in the time of Isaiah we know will surely happen
because He sent the Messiah who showed that He
is able to overcome death!
Here
is what God promised us in the time of Isaiah:
The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet
for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of
aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined,
aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow
up the covering which is over all peoples, even
the veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time, and the
Lord Adonai will wipe tears away from all faces,
and He will remove the reproach of His people
from all the Earth; for the Lord has spoken.
Your
dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who
lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for
your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the Earth
will give birth to the departed spirits.
I
will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will
redeem them from death. O Death, where are your
thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?
Thanks be to God for Messiah, our Passover Lamb
who has come and died and risen and ascended and
given His Spirit to those who believe, who likewise
will surely rise and ascend!
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