Thanks for joining us on the line of fire on our special equipping broadcast.
Really, from the heart. Here to infuse you with faith and truth and courage. We're on the front lines today. We're all in the line of fire. It's a battle.
And things are intense. And one of the things that we face constantly is misinformation. We face lies. We face falsehoods. We see our kids being picked off by social media influence. We see massive media bias. Sometimes you don't know who they are.
Who to trust. And it's the same when it comes to teaching, scriptural teaching. What is scriptural? What isn't?
What's the latest fad? What's the misinterpretation? What's healthy? What's important? We really want to do our best on this broadcast to challenge you to think afresh about scripture and to be committed to follow the truth wherever it leads.
And if I say anything that strikes you as controversial, be assured it's not spoken lightly. Be assured it's the fruit of decades of study, over 50 years of study in the Word. And be assured my goal is for you to study and you to look and you to see, is this true?
Is it right? Is it biblical? Especially as we focus in this series on the importance of the salvation of Israel and understanding the Jewish roots of the faith, it is not just abstract information. If I may, I want to step back and say some broader things, especially for those of you who are newer to our broadcast and newer to our ministry. If you're not getting our frontline newsletter, sign up today. Not only will you get this equipping, edifying, eye-opening newsletter once a month, and I really believe you'll be looking forward to the contents each month, and I'm getting so excited preparing the contents for this month's newsletter. But if you're new, we'll put you on our welcome tour. And with that, we'll take you into my own testimony from LSD to PhD, and we'll tell you about the three R's of our ministry.
So I want to pause here and do this because you might think, all right, this is, Dr. Brown, you know, you shared the last couple of days. It's really interesting. I didn't know a lot of it, but does it really matter? Does it really matter in the end?
Is it really important? So our own ministry, you can boil everything down to three R's. We're here to be your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. So you put everything under that and here to hold your hands up, here to say you're not crazy. You haven't lost your mind, what you believe, what you feel down in your gut.
When you see how crazy things are around you, you're not crazy. We're here to stand together and to give you the tools to help you not just dig, but then stand and push back so together we can make a difference. But broadly, in our ministry, everything falls under three R's. The first is revival in the church, and that's what we focused on in our special series last month using revival or we die as a textbook. Revival.
The health of the church is of paramount importance. The darkness is always going to be dark, but we got to get our light shining brightly as we are healthy, as we are thriving, as we are casting off yokes of bondage and oppression, as we are getting whole and strong, just like the physical body. Think of it like this, that you're a farmer. You do outdoor work and you get really sick and you can't even get out of bed, so everything on your farm is suffering. As you get healthy, as you get strong, as energy comes back, you can take on those tasks and soon enough everything is healthy and thriving again. That's how it is with the state of the body. The second is revival in the church, and that's what we focused on in our special series last month using revival or we die as a textbook. The yoke on your neck, you're emaciated, you're weak, and that yoke squeezes on you.
As you get stronger and healthier, and in that sense, fat, not physically fat, right, in the natural, but spiritually speaking, as you do, boom, the yoke breaks. That's what God wants to do with a healthy, thriving church. A revived church will impact America, and we can go from revival in the church to reformation in society. We can go from outpouring in the church to awakening in society.
Yes, yes, that's why revival is so important. Our second R is gospel-based moral and cultural revolution. Jesus is so changing us that it has a revolutionary impact on the society around us, that it awakens a culture that is confused and lost, and as the gospel spreads through a revolutionized people, it literally produces a moral and cultural revolution. That's the second R, and the third R is where it all ends, the redemption of Israel, the Messiah coming back to Jerusalem as his own people welcomed him. The culmination of the ages, as Paul writes in Romans 11 25, that the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, the hardening that's been on Israel in part is lifted, and so, in consequence of this, and on the heels of the mass harvest of Gentiles into the body, all Israel will be saved. The culmination of the promises, so for us, they're all intertwined.
A revived church alone can bring about a moral and cultural revolution in the society. A revived church alone can provoke Israel to envy, and the Messiah returning to Jerusalem is the culmination of the promises. Does that make sense to you? Can you see why this matters? And as you see anti-Semitism rising worldwide, anti-Semitism rising around the globe, you have to say, why Israel? Why the Jewish people?
Why do they matter so much? Remember, we need Jesus like everybody else. I've said about my own people, Jews are like everybody else, except more so, meaning that it seems that we've got our good qualities are really good and our bad qualities are really bad. But in that respect, we're like everybody else, and Jesus Yeshua shed the same blood for us as for everyone, and my greatest goal, what would bless me the most, would be as a result of this series that more of you are praying for the salvation of my Jewish people than ever before. That more of you have a burden to see the Jewish people saved, and more of you have an understanding of why it's so important for us to stand with Israel in so many respects as well.
Let me summarize what we laid out in the first couple of days here. God did not send his son into the world as a Jewish rabbi to establish a lovely new Gentile religion called Christianity. Rather, Yeshua came into the world to fulfill what was written in Moses and the prophets, to bring to realization the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to establish a new and better covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and now that new and better covenant is made available to the whole world.
Wow! So let's go back way, way, way, way back to Genesis chapter 12. God calls Abraham.
At that time, his name was Abram. God calls Abram and says that he will bless those who bless him, and you see that promise goes down to his physical seed, Israel. He will bless those who bless him. He will curse those who revile him or treat him lightly, and his seed, and then through your seed, the whole world will be blessed. Through Abram's seed, the whole world will be blessed. Let me put it to you like this. Jesus is the Savior of Israel, excuse me, Jesus is the Savior of the world because he's the Messiah of Israel.
Let me say that again. Jesus is the Savior of the world because he's the Messiah of Israel. If he was not the Messiah of Israel, he would not be the Savior of the world.
If he is the Messiah of Israel, he is the Savior of the world. I've debated many rabbis. By God's grace, I believe I've had the privilege of holding more public debates with rabbis than any living human being on the planet today.
A calling that I take with the utmost seriousness. Some of them have become dear friends over the years. And sometimes you'll hear a rabbi say, Jesus is fine for the Gentiles. Christianity is fine for the Gentiles. And if they want to believe in this Trinity or the deity of Jesus, that's fine for them. If they want to believe that he fulfills prophecy and died and rose from the dead, that's fine.
If it brings them closer to God, wonderful. But we Jews have our Torah, we Jews have our tradition, we Jews have our 613 commandments and that's what we have to obey. And we don't believe that God is a Trinity and we don't believe that God can become a man or a man can become a God, so we reject that but it's fine for you Gentiles. No, it doesn't work.
It doesn't work. Because Yeshua came as the Messiah of Israel. And the New Testament writers explicitly said he's the one who fulfills what's written in Moses and the prophets. So if he didn't die in accordance with what the prophets taught, if he didn't rise in accordance with what the prophets taught, if he's not coming again in accordance with what the prophets taught, then he's the Messiah of no one. He's the Savior of no one.
You can't have these two things being mutually true. That he's not the Messiah of Israel, so the Jews don't have to believe in him, they have their own covenant, but he is the Christ of Christians. He is the Savior of Christians.
The entire world. No, no, he is not the Savior of anybody if he's not the Messiah of Israel. And every strand of the New Testament, every historical part of it, every theological part of it is rooted back in that fundamental revelation that he's the Messiah of Israel, that he's the King of the Jews.
Think of it. When he's born, how was he born? What's he called at birth? The King of the Jews. When he dies, what's he called? He's called the King of the Jews. If it's meant in a derogatory way, you know, this crucifixion, look, that's the King of the Jews. Look at this guy dying on the cross.
Doesn't matter. That's what he was and that's what he is and that's reality. And throughout the Gospels, wow, he's the one who fulfills what's written. And in Luke 24, he opens the disciples' minds so they can understand that everything he did was what was written in the scriptures. And he says to the Jewish leaders in John 5, if you believe Moses, you'd believe me. And this is just fundamental, fundamental.
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Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. Alright, so if you're saying, wow, you're covering a good amount of ground and some of this is new to me, maybe for some of you it's all new, maybe others it's just a good refresher, fear not, you get everything in my book, our hands, our stand with blood, the tragic story of the church and the Jewish people. In this book, which is yours for your gift of any size, we'll tell you at the end of the broadcast so you can get it, but in this book I go through church history, it's painful, it's painful but we've got to face it. It happened, Jewish people know about it, we need to know and be aware and be able to respond as true followers of Jesus Yeshua. It'll take you through the Jewish background to the faith, it'll take you through contemporary lies, misinformation, misreporting and with actual data that you can look up and research for yourself.
It'll go through lots of controversial scriptures, we really get in depth in the word. Who is the real Israel according to the word? What is the real Jew according to the word? What do the scriptures actually say? We'll go verse by verse by verse, we'll dig out the Hebrew and the Greek but in a way that you can understand and we'll dispel some myths about Judaism, about the rabbis, about the Jewish people who once again I proclaim need Jesus Yeshua, an order to be saved. Let's talk about the concept of New Covenant for a moment. New Covenant, where do we get that idea from? Or the New Testament, where do we get that idea from?
Well that comes from the prophet Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible. In Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 to 34 God says that the days are coming when he will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the previous covenant on Sinai which the people broke because of disobedience.
So even though it was God's perfect life giving Torah, because it was written on stone not on human heart, people rebelled. He said now I will write it on their hearts, put it in their minds, I'll forgive their sins, I'll remember their iniquities no more. So it was a covenant with you, the Jewish people.
A new and better covenant. It's quoted in Hebrews the 8th chapter. Did you know that when it's quoted in Hebrews the 8th chapter, all four verses, that's the longest citation of an Old Testament passage in the New. It's Jeremiah's New Covenant prophecy and then part of it is quoted in Hebrews the 10th chapter. And then in Luke at the Last Supper Yeshua makes reference to this, the New Covenant in my blood. So the concept of New Covenant comes from the words of the prophet Jeremiah. You say but it doesn't mention the Gentiles there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's initially the Messiah's New Covenant with Israel and because God called Israel to be a blessing to the whole world, this is now made available to everybody. Everybody gets to partake in God's covenant to Israel and Judah as equal heirs, equal citizens without Gentiles becoming Jews or Jews becoming Gentiles.
Isn't that amazing? Let's dig a little deeper. Jesus said I did not come to abolish the Torah of the prophets but to fulfill. Then he goes on explaining how even every last little letter, even stroke of a pen in the Torah must be fulfilled until heaven and earth pass away.
Everything has to be fulfilled and it's been an ongoing fulfillment. So let's think of this. This is in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 beginning in verse 17. And as he opens it up he begins to say you've heard it said but I'm telling you. You heard it said don't murder. I'm telling you don't hate your brother in your heart. You heard it said don't commit adultery. I'm telling you don't commit adultery in your heart. So how does he fulfill Torah there? He takes the moral commandments of the Torah to a higher level.
Got it? He doesn't abolish them. He doesn't say it used to have a stop sign now speed up. Used to say don't go over 40 miles an hour.
I'm telling you now you can go 100. No, no. It's quite the reverse. There was a standard. I'm raising the standard. So he takes the moral commandments of the Torah to a higher level. What about the blood sacrifices? Will they find their fulfillment in him? That he dies as the full expression of the sacrificial system. What the sacrificial system can only point to he fulfills once and for all through his blood. What about the high priesthood and the whole temple function? He becomes our great high priest and he makes us into a spiritual temple.
So he takes all these truths of Torah and the Old Testament and brings them to their fullest meaning. How about the calendar? How about the calendar of Israel? Well in ancient Israel you have the spring feasts and the fall feasts or the spring holy days and the fall holy days.
So it begins with what? This will be the first the beginning of months to Exodus 12 the Passover. Now the Hebrew calendar a couple thousand years ago underwent a shift so we don't have the same order of months. In other words the Jewish calendar today starts in the seventh month of the biblical calendar.
But the biblical calendar starts in the spring. So the first month, the first feast is what? Passover. Which centers on the sacrificial lamb. The lamb whose blood is slain. Passover slash unleavened bread. And then right in the midst of this they're all summarized in Leviticus 23. And then on the first day after the Sabbath within the Passover because it's a seven slash eight day celebration.
Within that what happens? You have first fruits. First fruits.
Dedication. These are harvest related festivals so dedication to the first fruits. And then 50 days later you have Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. Then you have a gap of several months and then you have Yom Teruah, the sounding of the trumpet. Then ten days after that, ten being a number of testing in scripture, ten days after that Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And then five days after that Sukkot, Tabernacles.
The time of great celebration and rejoicing and living in these booths or tabernacles for a week. Alright so how does Yeshua fulfill those? Well when he comes into the world what does John say in John?
Yohanan, the immerser. John the Baptist. What does he say in John 1 29? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is pictured as a lamb going to slaughter. He's celebrated in the book of Revelation as the Lamb of God.
So his blood now liberates us from bondage not to Egypt but to sin. And then the consecration of our lives unleavened bread, the purging out of evil and wrong. And then what's the first day after the Sabbath within Passover?
That's a Sunday. And what happens on the Sunday? He rises from the dead. He rises on first fruits.
And what does Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians 15? That Messiah has risen the first fruits of those who slept. So he dies at Passover in conjunction with the sacrificing of the Passover lambs, bringing the cleansing symbolized by unleavened bread. He rises from the dead when?
Yes, at first fruits. That's Sunday after the Sabbath. And then he sends his spirit at Shavuosh, Feast of Weeks, which by the way in Jewish tradition is associated with the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. What happened when the law was given on Mount Sinai? The Ten Commandments were given, the children of Israel fell into idolatry, and how many died?
About 3,000 were put to death. What happens at Pentecost? Shavuot. Yeah, 3,000 come to faith. You see the biblical calendar unfolding.
And this we'll get into a little later. He returns with the blast of the trumpet, bringing cleansing to Israel, and then the ingathering of the nations. Jesus Yeshua fulfills what is written in Torah and Prophets.
He doesn't abolish. He brings it to its full meaning. Okay, so all of this is laid out in the book. Our hands are stained with blood. We have chapters on Jewish background, Jewish roots of the faith.
All the things we've opened up here in these first few broadcasts we get into here in further depth. But then we take into some of the painful chapters. You see, one of the strongest reasons that Jews don't believe in Jesus is because of church history.
You know, if you just think back to the days of slavery in America, when you're kidnapped and brought over here in the most torturous, horrific conditions from Africa to America. You barely survive Middle Passage, and now your slave owners are called Christians. Are you going to be interested in their God or their holy book, which justifies this? So many Jews see Christianity through the lens of church history. It's incumbent on us to show Jewish people what a real follower of Jesus is like, and what the real gospel looks like, and what Jesus really taught.
So this is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word, in prayer, in your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to TheLineOfFire.org, TheLineOfFire.org, and click donate.
