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One of
the most important duties of the Church is to
be engaged in evangelism - bringing the Good News
about Messianic Salvation, declaring the Eternal-Life-Saving-Message
to a lost and dying world.
For
evangelism to be as God-honoring and as effective
as possible, it is necessary to do things the
Lord’s way. And the Lord has given us very
specific instructions regarding the way we are
to engage in evangelism, including the precise
Message that is to be proclaimed.
Here is
that Message: We are sinners and Messiah is the
one and only Savior that the Father has sent to
save us. The human need for salvation is very
great. We are helpless and desperate and can’t
save ourselves. Yeshua, the One who is rightly
called Immanuel (God With Us), entered this world
and lived a perfect, God-honoring life. He died,
was buried and rose from the dead, thereby overcoming
the very real and utterly destructive forces of
Satan, Sin and Death. Salvation comes when we
acknowledge this and become loyal to the Three-In-One
God.
The Lord
has also given us specific instructions as to
how we are to engage in evangelism - boldly, courageously,
honestly, unashamedly, shouting the Good News
from the housetops!
The God
of our salvation has made it clear as to who this
Message of Good News is to go to. It is to go
to everyone, to the whole world, to Jews and to
Gentiles.
And,
the Lord has made very clear the priority of the
proclamation of this Message. It is to go to the
Jewish people first. Paul, one of the greatest
men of God who ever lived, one of the greatest
leaders in the Church, one of the greatest evangelists
of all time, writing to the Messianic Community
in Rome specifically instructed them about this
priority in evangelism: I am not ashamed of
the Good News, because it is the power of God
that brings salvation to everyone who believes:
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile (Romans
1:16).
We know
that bringing the Good News to the Jewish people
first is an ongoing divine priority and not a
historic irrelevancy precisely because of Paul’s
calling. The Rabbi from Tarsus was God’s Apostle
to the Gentiles. That was his special calling.
Gentile evangelism was the focus of his ministry.
That was what the Lord asked him to do. One would
think that the Apostle to the Gentiles would go
to the Gentiles first! But that is not what he
did. The Apostle to the Gentiles always went first
to the Jewish people! Whenever he went to a new
city, he first brought the Message of Salvation
to the Jewish community in that city. If the authoritative
Apostle to the Gentiles, and one of the greatest
evangelists of all time, proclaimed the Good News
about salvation through Messiah to the Jew first,
shouldn’t we?
We
know that “to the Jew first” is an ongoing, divine
priority and not a historical irrelevancy that
ended in the first century because Paul used
that same word “first” twice in Romans 2:9-10,
and that usage is not limited to history that
ended in the first century. There will be trouble
and distress for every human being who does evil:
first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory,
honor and peace for everyone who does good: first
for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
The
Apostle to the Gentiles is giving us a divine
principle as to how God deals with human beings:
There is a divine priority regarding the way the
Creator rewards and the way that He punishes us,
and that priority is punishment comes first to
the Jew and then to the Gentile; reward comes
first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.
This “first
to the Jew” principle didn’t begin with Paul and
it didn’t end with his death. This divine priority
is seen all the way back in the time of Genesis,
with Abraham. In his day, the Gospel was already
proclaimed - first to the one who was the first
Jew, and then later to the other nations (Galatians
3:8).
This principle
of to the Jew first is seen in Israel’s birthright.
The Lord made the Jewish people His firstborn
son-nation among the other son-nations when God
told Moses to tell the king of Egypt: Thus
says the Lord, "Israel is My son, My firstborn”
(Exodus 4:22). The birthright of the firstborn
son gives the Jewish people the position of prominence
and priority.
And, when
the Savior came into this world, where did He
go? To Rome, the capital city of the mighty Roman
Empire? No, the Greatest Evangelist Of All went
to the Jew first. He actually became a Jew. He
was a child born to us, the nation of Israel,
a son given to us, the Jewish people. His life,
ministry and mission was prioritized to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel - to the Jew first.
This same
divine priority is revealed in Yeshua’s command
to His representatives in Acts, Chapter 1. Before
He ascended to Heaven, the Lord Messiah gave this
instruction regarding their evangelistic priorities:
You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and
in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
Earth. Messiah’s emissaries were commanded
to begin world evangelism with the Jewish people;
and only after their “first to the Jew” evangelism
was accomplished, then they were to bring the
Eternal-Life-Saving-Message to the other nations.
And this is what they did, and they turned their
world upside down.
And, when
the Son of God returns from Heaven to planet Earth,
His feet will not first set down on Mount Fuji
or on any of the seven hills of Rome, or on any
other mountain of the nations, but on the Mount
of Olives! His divine priority to bring salvation
to the world will be to the nation of Israel first!
“To the
Jew first” is not a historical irrelevancy that
ended in the first century. It is an ongoing,
divine priority. It started with Abraham; it was
declared to Pharaoh. It was demonstrated by the
first coming of the Son of God; it was engaged
in by His representatives, even the Apostle to
the Gentiles. “To the Jew first” will be the principle
of Messiah’s second coming in the future.
This “to
the Jew first” principle is an ongoing divine
priority. Don’t you think that if we had the same
“first to the Jew” priority for our evangelism,
we would better honor God, and be more effective,
and better able to turn our world upside down?
That’s our intention. I hope it becomes yours,
and that of many, many others as well!
Shalom!
Rabbi Loren
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