Boy, I am so excited to be sharing this time with you. Michael Brown here together with you on the front lines here to empower you, to help you engage in the world in which we live, to infuse you with faith and truth and courage, to help you stand strong. If you're not getting my Frontline newsletter, which will help further equip you and strengthen you, the one we'll be sending out this month, I think is going to give a teaching that could really impact you and help you to be strong on a daily basis in God and to overcome weakness.
And it's absolutely free. Go to thelineoffire.org and sign up today to get our emails. We are just getting started in a brand new series on the Jewish roots of the faith, on understanding why Israel's salvation should matter, understanding why Israel today should be of significance to the church, better understanding the spirit of antisemitism and Jew hatred in the world, and doing all this while still preaching clearly that Jesus Yeshua is the only way to salvation, still preaching clearly that Jew and Gentile need Jesus and outside of him we are lost, still preaching clearly that we are one in the Messiah. Jewish believers, Gentile believers, there's no higher, lower, better, worse. We are one in the Messiah.
We are spiritual equals. At the same time, we have unique calling and destiny and purpose. So my goal in this series is not just to give you all kinds of new information like, wow, I never knew that, but more like, whoa, I didn't know that. That is really important to understand.
That is really important to get right. So let me back up to something. And the question is, why should we care about this? And we started this yesterday.
I want to go back and then expand on it. Our Messiah himself is Jewish. His roots are Jewish. Much of the teaching of the New Testament is best understood in the context of the full revelation of that which came before it in the Hebrew scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. And the New Testament is constantly quoting from the Old Testament, constantly alluding to it, looking back to it, building on it. And Yeshua said this in Matthew 5 17. He said, don't think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets. I didn't come to abolish, but to fulfill. So it's only through him that we see the fullness of the revelation of that which is in the New Testament, of that which is in the Old Testament. But without that fundamental revelation, as one pastor some years ago wrongly said, we need to get unhitched from the Old Testament. What a mistake. What a wrong word and concept.
No, we need to build on it in order to rightly come into the full revelation of Jesus. Think of trying to understand the life of Abraham Lincoln, apart from him being American, apart from him living in the days of slavery, apart from the Emancipation Proclamation, apart from the Civil War. Then who was he?
He was some nebulous, courageous leader who ended up getting assassinated. But without the context, without the background, it does. We're missing everything. Or think if you're just watching scenes of the fall of the Berlin Wall some decades ago, a momentous event in modern history. But you have no idea of why the wall was put up. And you don't understand the realities of World War II.
And you don't understand the rise of communism and the separation between East Berlin and West Berlin and East Germany and West Germany. Suddenly, things come alive when you understand the whole history. Those aren't just bricks coming down.
That's not just bricks and mortar coming down. That's history being rewritten and changed. You know, even to read the background to a hymn, there was an old classic hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. And it's talking about going through really difficult times, tragic times, and how God's peace can be with you in the midst of it. Well, I sang that song as a new believer for years and enjoyed it. But it was only many years later, I found out the context in the background, that it was written by a man who had lost much of his family in a tragic accident at sea. And he wrote that song in the midst of the pain and the anguish of losing his children. And then when traveling back across the Atlantic writes that song, now it has a whole lot more meaning. Well, when we just plug back into some of the simple Jewish background to the New Testament, remember that our Savior is Jewish.
It makes a difference. So I want to read to you again the names of the 12 disciples as rendered in the complete Jewish Bible of the Jewish New Testament by David Stern, now with the Lord, our dear departed colleague. These are the names of the 12 emissaries. Remember Yeshua, that's his Hebrew name. That's what he would have been known by speaking to his friends and his family. His mother's name was Miriam in Hebrew, so Miriam.
We say Mary because that's how it comes to us through Greek into Latin into English, but her name was Miriam. If that troubles you, well, get over it. And why does it trouble you? And why does it trouble you?
Why does it trouble you? And his father's name, Yosef, Joseph. So these are the names of the 12 emissaries. First, Shimon called Kepha and Andrew his brother, Yaakov ben Zavdai and Yohanan his brother, Philip and Bartolomai, Taoma and Nati-Jahu the tax collector, Yaakov bar-kal-fai and Tadai, Shimon the zealot and Yehuda from Creote who betrayed him. If that troubles you, if it sounds too Jewish, you need to ask the Lord, why is that?
Why is that? Now, I want to paint a totally different picture and then we're going to look at some more scripture. And our textbook for this month's series is outside of scripture, Our Hands are Staying with Blood, the tragic story of the church and the Jewish people.
At the end of the broadcast, I'll tell you how you can find out more about this book and get a copy for yourself. So, let's picture this different. Let's say that the Italian people were the chosen people, not the people of Israel, but the Italians. And the holy city was Rome where the temple was built. And the Messiah's name was Jesu, Jesu, yeah. And his mother was Maria and his father Giuseppe, right?
They're Italians. And he had disciples with names like Matteo and Luca and Marco, yeah. And the Italians were specially chosen by God to bring the message of salvation to the world, but the bulk of the nation rejected Jesu. And he was the chosen man, and he warned them, he pleaded and said the temple's going to be destroyed, you're going to be scattered, but they didn't listen. Many listened, but the leaders rejected the message and the Italians got scattered all around the world.
And these Italian believers, they were faithful though. And they went and began to tell everyone about Jesu. They told the Russians about him. They told the people in England about him. And they told the Arab peoples about him.
And they told the people of Israel about him. And all around the world, all around the world, these people from all these different nations, these non-Italians, they believed in the Italian Messiah. But among the Italians, just a tiny, tiny little group believed, a very, very small group, and they were rejected by their own people.
Now wouldn't it be natural for you as a non-Italian to have a burden for the Italians? Wouldn't it be natural for you to say those are the Messiah's own people? Isn't that what's written in John 1?
He came to his own, and his own didn't receive him? And what if he says, I left from Rome, I ascended to heaven from Rome, and I'm coming back to Rome. I left from Rome, and I'm coming back to Rome.
And I won't come back until my Italian people in Rome welcome me home. We'd be praying for the Italians. We'd be saying, oh God saved them. What's the same thing with Israel? Now let's flip it back to the Bible. That's why it makes sense for all of us to have a burden for the salvation of Israel. Because that's the Messiah's own people. Let me say it again. God loves the whole world.
I said that yesterday, I want to say it again today. He loves the whole world. He cares about Jew and Gentile. When a Jewish person comes to faith, when a Gentile person comes to faith, there's joy in heaven.
He shed the same blood for each of us, and yet there is a family history here. And as a non-Jewish person around the world, you say, boy we we want the Messiah's own people to be reconciled to him. And I ask you this, why is he coming back one day to Jerusalem?
Why not to some other place? Why do the future prophecies in the Old Testament that we'll look at in days ahead, why do they talk about a future for Jerusalem, Zion? Why is it he left from there, Acts 1, he's coming back there? His feet will touch on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14 says it literally is his feet, the Lord's feet will touch on the Mount of Olives, literally. Why?
Well this will become clearer and clearer as we go on. My point is, this is not my burden because I'm a Jewish follower of Jesus. Look, I have been outside the U.S. preaching probably about 200 different trips. I have been overseas, so not just Canada, Mexico, but overseas flying over the Atlantic, the Pacific, over 160 times. Maybe one tenth of those trips have been to Israel. For example, if I've been to Israel 16, 17, 18 times, I have to check exactly, I've been to India 29 times.
I've been to Italy 28 times. I've been to other countries more than I've been to Israel. So I don't just have a focus, the Jews, the Jews, the Jews, but there's a reason that the Gospel is to the Jew first. And there's a reason that many Christians as they read their Bible say there must be something to this. Now over this month, we're going to confront a lot of lies.
We're going to confront a lot of misinformation. And I'm not just saying believe me because I've studied, believe me because I have a doctorate in Semitic languages. Plenty of people have studied, plenty of people have doctorates, and you don't need a doctorate to understand the Bible. I'm not just saying I've prayed about this, I've been on my knees asking God for insight because maybe you have as well. I'm saying let's explore the Scriptures together. Let's look at history together and let's see what we find.
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Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. Let's go on with the Jewish roots of the faith. Let's go to the letter of Jacob.
Say where is that? Oh, we know it is James, the letter of James, but in Greek it's Jacob, it's Jacob. Now his name is spelled slightly differently. It's Jacob versus Jacobus to distinguish him from the patriarch Jacob, but the name is Jacob. It has no connection to James.
In other words, the letters there have no connection to James except through this lengthy process from Hebrew into Greek into Latin and finally into English, but the name itself has no connection to James. If you read it in Spanish, it's Santiago. Santiago?
Where did you get that? It's Jacob, Jacob. In Greek, where did you get Santiago?
Ah, Saint San Diego. Diego, which is then a Spanish corruption of Jacob. So I'm going to read the opening verse like you'd be used to it in English translations. From James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. That's right, standard translation.
How about this? From Yaakov, servant of God and of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. That would be more in keeping with how it was originally written. Even though it's written in Greek, it does say Yaakov and who's it written to? To the 12 tribes scattered abroad. This is written to Jewish believers. This is written to Jewish believers scattered around the world and on a certain level even addressing Jews that may not know the Messiah and calling them to faith in the Messiah.
Now let's go a little further. Jacob chapter 2 verse 2. Jacob chapter 2 verse 2.
Read it in most of your translations. It says something like if a man comes, if a rich man comes into your meeting or rich man comes into your assembly or rich man comes into your meeting place, what does the Greek say? If a rich man comes into your synagogue. Synagogue?
No, no, no, no. It can't be synagogue because that's where Jews worship and this is for Christians. Hang on, we're putting up those walls that didn't exist back then. Synagogue was a meeting place of Jews and who's this written to? Jewish believers in Yeshua.
And where did they meet? In a synagogue. Exactly. There was no such thing as a church building then. If you said we're going to church, what did that even mean? We're going to church?
What's that? If you said we're gathering together as believers, oh yeah, yeah, okay. Where the believers all come together, yeah, the ekklesia, the congregation all comes together.
Wonderful. But there was no such thing as a church building back then. They didn't have formal church buildings for a few centuries actually. Did you know that? Yeah, I mean this is historic. This is no big revelation I'm bringing here. It's just simple history. But look it up in Greek.
Jacob 2, 2. If a rich man comes into your synagogue, synagogue. Now this word occurs all through the New Testament. Yeshua would go into the synagogues and preach. In the book of Acts, Paul go into a synagogue and preach.
And there's one time in Acts where it might just mean assembly in general speaking of a crowd. But every other time, Revelation 2, 9 and 3, 9 where Yeshua rebukes certain people who claim to be Jews or not but are a synagogue of Satan. Same word, synagogue. Why is it basically only here that it's translated assembly or meeting place? Because it's a Christian letter to Christians and Christians don't meet in the synagogue.
You see how twisted it is? Now this is a Jewish letter from a Jewish leader, half brother of Yeshua, named Yaakov, Jacob, writing to fellow Jews just like Paul wrote to gentile believers in Corinth and Galatia and different places. This is a letter written to Jewish believers scattered around the world and where do they meet? What's the name of a meeting place of Jews?
It's called a synagogue. Again, this is not like new Revelation. This is basic, simple information that many of us can go our entire lives in the Lord and never even know. And that should affect our thinking somewhat. Look, to say it again, you've got to understand culture and background with anything you're studying, right? If you're studying the Revolutionary War in America, what's the context of it? What's the context of the colonies? What was our gripe with England?
What was going on? When you're reading Shakespeare and there's certain cultural references, then what does it even mean? Look, I can read a newspaper today in India or I remember being in Nigeria and reading a newspaper. Even in England you're reading a newspaper and their words and phrases I don't understand because they're cultural. They're used a certain way in a certain culture.
So let me give you another example. You know the account of the woman with the issue of blood, right? And she just wants to touch the hem of Jesus' garment. So we have it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke recorded. And then elsewhere Matthew tells us we have other accounts of people just wanting to touch the hem of his garment. The hem.
If they could touch it they'd be good. It wasn't because there was special healing power in the hem. It's just that he's got kind of like a, you know, a flowing garment the way it'd be worn.
You know, men weren't just, you know, wearing jeans, right? So you've got this this long garment and and like robe-like garment and the furthest thing out the hem. What's the Greek word in some of these verses? What's the Greek word for hem? It's kraspadon.
Kraspadon. Now when the Old Testament was translated into Greek we call that the Septuagint. Many of you are many very familiar with that.
Some not as familiar. But it's called the Septuagint, right? The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. So you remember in Numbers 15 when God told the people of Israel, the men, that they had to wear these tassels, these fringes on their garments and it would be a certain color, this blue, purplish blue color. And when they would wear it they'd look at them and they would remember the commandments, that they would remember that they should keep the commandments. So those those ritual fringes.
So in Greek that's kraspadon. And Jesus as a law-abiding, a Torah-abiding Jew, as as he walks by, what's the the furthest extremity of his garment? The fringe! The fringe! The tassel! So when they say if we could just touch the the fringe of his garment, the tassel of his garment, that's what they're talking about. That's that's what they're talking about.
Now let me let me take this a little further. Peter mightily filled with the spirit of Pentecost. We'll get into the Jewish background to the feasts and holy days in a little while. So Peter mightily filled with the spirit, gets up, preaches Pentecost, heals the sick, you know, man born lame in the third chapter. So Acts 2 preaches for the spirit. Acts 3 mightily used by God the healing of the sick and preaching boldly and fearlessly. And and you go on chapter after chapter where Peter is being used by God, Peter's anointed by God, maybe a decade or so has gone by.
And you get to Acts the 10th chapter and he has a vision symbolizing that God is now declaring the Gentiles clean through the through the cross so that he shouldn't think of them as unclean anymore. And it's in the form of unclean animals, right? And some say well God was showing him he could eat any food.
Let's not even debate that right now. But what does Peter say when God says kill and eat? It's all this unclean food. Kill and eat. He says I've never eaten anything unclean my whole life.
Well hang on. Peter, Peter at this point has been following Yeshua for a decade or more full of the spirit being used by God in signs and wonders and miracles. But it didn't occur to him that he should have pepperoni pizza to make it contemporary or shrimp and lobster. Now he it makes clear later in Acts that those dietary laws will not put on Gentile believers. But as a Jew, Jewish follower of the Jewish Messiah, he continued to live by the Torah. Why wouldn't he?
Why wouldn't he? He's a Jew. But now it's in the power of the spirit. Oh we'll get deeper in this as well. 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 and prayer and 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.
