The One New Man Study - The Theology Of Jew And Gentile - One In Messiah
Entire Study Recently Updated January 2006
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The One New Man Study - The Theology Of Jew And Gentile - One In Messiah Entire Study Recently Updated January 2006
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Lesson Fifteen: The Early Jewish Church And The Gentile Division
TEXT: John 4:22 - Salvation is of the Jews....
Malachi 4:5-6 - Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: [6] And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. The name is Jesus, Yeshua, Joshua, Jacob. His name sadly, has been used to malign Jews for centuries, yet He Himself was an Israeli-born Jew from Bethlehem, the city of David. Just as the prophets had prophesied - that He WAS and IS the Messiah of Israel, the son of David, the son of Abraham after the flesh.
Matthew 1:1
The promise of a Messiah was first made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, founders of the Jewish family; a promise later renewed to King David, that one of their descendants would reign over the nations forever:
Genesis 28:14 - And thy seed shall be as the
dust of the earth, and thou shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east,
and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the
families of the earth be blessed.
Luke 2:47
His whole life was spent among the Jews. Only on rare occasions did Jesus have interaction with those not under the covenant. One day when a non-Jewish woman approached Him He said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." (Matthew 15:24) His death was not without the involvement of Gentiles - the Roman soldiers, Pilate, Herod. But most of those surrounding the Cross were Jewish people who had watched and followed for the three years of His public ministry. Resurrection morning at the tomb also saw, not Gentiles, but JEWISH people except for the Roman soldiers who were so scared they shook and became like dead men. The resurrection appearances during the next 40 days would be to JEWISH people. When He ascended, those gathered were JEWS. The 120 in the Upper Room waiting for the "gift of the Holy Ghost," was either a son or a daughter of Abraham. (Acts 1:4).
Matthew 15:24
What about Pentecost? The first recipients of the gift of the Holy Spirit were Jewish people. And Peter called on the Jewish prophet JOEL and Israel's Jewish King David as witnesses that Jesus was the manifestation of what these men had seen (Acts 2:16,25). This Jesus is both "Lord and Messiah." (Acts 2:36)
Acts 2:16
The newly 3,000 baptized believers soon grew to 5,000 and more, were not founding a new religion. They were simply living out the fulfillment of centuries-old faith in the one true God who had made a promise in the garden, then to their ancestors, that He would come to deliver them and ultimately the whole world through them. These new believers were Sabbath-keeping, son-circumcising, Torah-observing, feast-celebrating Jewish people who now celebrated JESUS (YESHUA) as the one who brought meaning to it all. None of these practices ceased when they believed in Yeshua. They still frequented the Temple (Acts 2:46; 5:12). They were often present at the normal hours of prayer (Acts 3:1). Even after having been called before the Sanhedrin to defend their faith, they continued daily in the Temple. (Acts 5:42). Ananias, the man who baptized Paul, "was a devout observer of the Law." (Acts 22:12).
Acts 2:46
Salvation, however, is not obtained by observing the law. It is a free gift from God through the vicarious death of the Messiah. Now they could understand why Isaiah had spoken of a "suffering" servant (Isaiah 53:3). Even the feasts and sacrifices took on more meaning. Passover and Pentecost, the Day of Atonement and the Feasts of Trumpets were no longer a deliverance of long ago and a holy law written on stone tablets on Mount Sinai. Rather, they were a recognition of the Messiah who has already come - our Passover Lamb, and a law written in our hearts (BOTH JEW AND GENTILE) Jeremiah called it a "new covenant."
Jeremiah 33:14-18 -
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which
I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. [15]
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to
grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
[16] In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and
this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.
[17] For thus saith the Lord; David shall never want a man to sit upon the
throne of the house of Israel; [18] Neither shall the priests the Levites want a
man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do
sacrifice continually.
Jeremiah 31:31-33
This was NOT a
new religion. It was the fulfillment of something that was built upon an
early foundation many centuries prior to the establishment of the First Church.
I hate using the word "Judaism," because most who practice Judaism today are
practicing a religion unto itself without knowing Messiah. For the sake of
context I'll use the word "Biblical roots," in the sense that the church's FIRST
roots were based upon Jewish covenants, promises and commandments. ALL these
connect the modern believer to Christ even today - that which "pertains to the
adoption," and the "glory." When a Gentile comes to Faith in Christ today, he is
grafted into the Jewish covenant spoken of in Jeremiah. Christ called the "NEW
COVENANT," His Blood! That points us to what He did for us ALL at the cross in
reconciling man to God and also bringing about a ONE NEW MAN on the Earth -HIS
BODY - comprised of both Jewish and Gentile believers. That root system is still
in place today even though because of ignorance and rank anti-Semitism over the
church's history those roots have been pushed aside for a more Gentile
expression of worship.
Romans 9:4
Acts 11:26
Acts 9:2
Acts 28:22
Tertullus called Paul "a ringleader of the Nazarene sect," when he was making accusation before Governor Felix. Peter's housetop vision at the tanner's house in Jopps and Paul's Dasmascus Road experience brought major changes. Gentiles began to be welcomed into the family, and they did not have to become Jews to be accepted. This was very confusing to a people who had kept themselves scrupulously separate for all those years. A Jerusalem Council had to be called. Some were vehemently opposed to this revelation:
Acts 15:5 - But there rose up certain of the
sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise
them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
Acts 15:19-21 - Wherefore my sentence is, that
we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: [20] But
that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from
fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. [21] For Moses of old
time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every
Sabbath day.
Paul was sent to the Gentiles but that did not detract from his passion for his fellow Jewish brethren. Usually along his journies of preaching and teaching, his first stop was usually always at a synagogue: in Salamis, Pisidian, Antioch, Iconium, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus (Acts 13:5, 14; 14:1; 17:2, 10, 17; 18:4; 19:8) Paul made every possible effort to reach his fellow countrymen.
Acts 28:17-23 - And it came to pass, that
after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were
come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed
nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered
prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. [18] Who, when they had
examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me.
[19] But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto
Caesar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. [20] For this cause
therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that
for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. [21] And they said unto him,
We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the
brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee. [22] But we desire to hear
of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every
where it is spoken against. [23] And when they had appointed him a day, there
came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the
kingdom of God, persuading them
concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from
morning till evening.
Acts 28:28 - Be it known therefore unto you,
that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.
Romans 3:21-22 - But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
[22] Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all
and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Acts 21:39 - But Paul said,
I am a man which
am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech
thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
Acts 24:14 - But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy,
so worship I the God of my fathers,
believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
Galatians 2:16 -
Knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
It seems a contradiction in terms when Paul says, "Christ is the end of the law," and then say, "the law is holy." Jesus had made it clear He had not come to do away with the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them: (Matthew 5:17). But the law has never been able to make one righteous. It is only through the Holy Spirit that the "righteous requirements of the law," can be fulfilled:
Romans 8:4 - That the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Titus 3:5 - Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; All of this was no surprise to the Jews. Isaiah had foretold in scripture that the Jewish nation was going to be restored and used by God as a light of His covenants and commandments to the Gentiles - "that thou (Israel, Messiah Jesus) may be MY salvation unto the end of the earth." This was done through Christ and then the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the church at Pentecost.
Isaiah 49:5-6 - And now, saith the Lord that
formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though
Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my
God shall be my strength. [6] And he said, It is a light thing that thou
shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and
to restore the
preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that
thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Another historic event some 60 years later called the Bar Kokhba revolt of the A.D. 130s was defeated and Jews were forbidden to go into the city. Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city, named it Aelia Capitolina and dedicated it to three pagan gods. Any believers left in the holy city were not GENTILES. They took control of the holy places and entrenched themselves as leaders of the Jerusalem Church. There were still scattered Jewish believers in the Diaspora - those outside Jerusalem and the Land - until as late as the fourth century, even believers in Messiah in Jewish synagogues, but there was little of Jewish influence left. It is not surprising that Gentile Christians started understanding the Jewish people less and less. And we have not come back down that road even today.
The Jewish connection to the Christian faith is almost forgotten today. Few consider the fact our Lord was and is the Jewish Messiah who now sits at the right hand of Father God interceding for us. The Church has become so Gentile in its practice of faith that those of us who would seek to bring light in reclaiming our Jewish Biblical heritage are considered strange. But the original root system of Biblical principle and worship MUST be restored. When Gentiles seek to impose their way of worshiop and culture on Jews that frustrates an already frustrated situation! The Jewish people are the "fathers" of the Church. Malachi warned us prophetically that if we don't honor our "fathers" and "mothers" - The JEWISH PEOPLE - the Lord is going to bring a curse upon planet Earth.
Malachi 4:5-6 - Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: [6] And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
In 2004 a well known actor produced a movie based on certain events in the life of Christ concerning His Death. The Jewish world got very offended in many circles, including Messianic circles, because many feared the movie would open up a multi-millennium old wound - "who killed the Messiah?" (That movie by the way was based more on Catholic tradition and yes heresy than the Word of God -but anyway - we won't meddle with that for now) Even though we have already looked in detail in two earlier lessons at Replacement Theology, I want to reiterate something that happened in the church's past through the voices of Origen and Constantine. By the time of Origen, about the middle of the third century, it was an accepted fact and belief among most Christians that God's dispersion of the Jewish people was God's method of showing them and the world He was finished with them. Origen wrote in Against Celus:
"They will never be restored to their former condition. For they have committed a crime of the most unhallowed kind, in conspiring against the Saviour of the human race."
Are we so totally blind and full of Anti-Semitism in the church world today that we have never paused to think that it was NOT just the Jewish people who killed Jesus? What about Pilate? What about the Roman soldiers? They were actively involved in his torture, crucifixion and arrest. Furthermore, Jesus Himself declared that HE LAID DOWN HIS OWN LIFE for all of humanity. In other words, our SINS put HIM ON CALVARY, not Israel, not the Jewish race, not the Romans, but the SINS OF THE ENTIRE WORLD - JEW AND GENTILE!
John 15:13 - 15 - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. [14] Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. [15] Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
John 10:13-19 - The
hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. [14] I
am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. [15] As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep. [16] And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one
shepherd. [17] Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. [18] No man
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
[19] There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
The church in A.D. 325 needed a resurrection celebration date other than Passover, which was what the early church celebrated up until that time. Passover was too Jewish for the Gentiles. What we got in exchange for this demented actions was EASTER:
"It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast, we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with an enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul,"
Those are the words of Constantine to the assembled bishops at Nicea in A.D. 325. At the conclusion a huge church banquet ensued. The Roman calendar had conquered. The annual celebration of the Lord's passion and resurrection would not have a new name - Easter - strangely similar to Eostre, the Teutonic goddess of spring, dissimilar to Pesach, or Passover, the festival of its origin. God's calendar of events was replaced by the Western Church from this point forward. In his insistence that the Church change the calendar of God and that man was able to do such without penalty, Constantine forever separated the Church from its Jewish roots. And even though many are awakening to the need to return to those roots as part of our walk with God, many still insist the Church today does not need to become too "Jewish." I submit to you that it's not about becoming too "Jewish," but it IS an issue about becoming "BIBLICAL!" WE MUST RETURN TO THE ROOTS OF OUR FAITH if we are to see Revival!
Other church fathers would enlarge Constantine's edicts. Luther, Chyrsostom and Martyr. All recognizable names in Church History but names synonymous with doing one of the most horrific things to the church of the Lord Jesus, Yeshuah - dividing us from our Jewish heritage. By the time the Second Nicene Council in A.D. 787, believing Jews had to prove they were "Christians." They were, for the most part required to renounce all forms of Judaism in front of witnesses. The Lateran councils of A.D. 1179 and A.D. 1215 ordered Jews to live in separate quarters and to wear distinctive dress. THIS PAVED THE WAY FOR GHETTO LIVING AND THE YELLOW BADGE REQUIRED PRIOR TO AND DURING THE TIME OF THE NAZI HOLOCAUST! Martin Luther became the final nail in the coffin. As much as he did to bring a "reformed Church" into a knowledge of grace, he also reeked with anti-Semitism that drove him to write things against the Jews. When Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany he didn't have to look for to find a spring board to justify his actions. Luther was quote in this evil dictator's Mein Kampf!
In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella signed the decree to evict Jews and confiscate their property in what has now become to be known as the Spanish Inquisition. Today in Toledo, Spain is the corner of an ancient street near San Juan de lost Reyes. Hanging from the walls of this old monastery were the chains in which Jewish people had been tortured and killed five centuries earlier - stark reminders of a dark past. That dark past is not just in the history of the world. It's also found embedded deeply within the confines of the church! We need to repent! Jesus is the Messiah of the JEW and the GENTILE or He is not Messiah at all. Yeshuah, Son of David, has now become Jesus Christ, Savior of the Gentiles.
In earlier times the Jews received us into their family, but now we are rejecting them! In the heart of the Church, the Gentiles are in and the Jews are out. And now the blindness that Paul foretold would come on the Jewish people, has fallen upon the Gentiles. And the unity that the Gentile church has destroyed between the Jew and the Gentile in Yeshuah can not be found even among us Gentiles! (GIVE THAT LAST STATEMENT A LOT OF THOUGHT!) We're reaping what has been sown and it's time for us to repent! Paul left us with a sobering warning about arrogance when it comes to the Jewish race. He warns us of arrogance and pride in our dealings with them as Gentiles:
Romans 11:18-20 -
Boast not against the branches.
But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. [19] Thou wilt
say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. [20] Well;
because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Be not high
minded, but fear: For if God spared not
the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold
therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but
toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also
shalt be cut off. [23] And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall
be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. [24] For if thou wert cut
out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to
nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural
branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? 25] For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in
your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the
fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
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