Dear Friends,

A few comments before I proceed. First, JoyInVanity wins the prize for identifying the Miles Davis album alluded to yesterday-- so, JIV, send a private email to Schlissel@aol.com and tell me your address; I'll send you the prize.

Second, while my solicitation of correction still stands, I suppose I should have mentioned that I had assumed I was writing to Messiah's folks and friends from the worldview conference in Virginia. To deal in any meaningful way with objections from a Roman Catholic point of view would take us too far afield, I fear.

That being said, I will offer what follows in this paragraph, for the graciousness of tone and spirit displayed by the inquirer ought not to be rewarded with silence. a) There is a world of difference between the presence of images in a place of worship and the presence of idols as the object (or medium) of worship. No need to get into official dogma versus real practice. We've seen enough statues' toes rubbed off, enough groveling before clay, to have propelled us far beyond the point of being open to such evasions as this. b) Anyone who affirms the authority of Scripture to define what is acceptable to its Author, must recognize and admit that even what God had given for one particular use, had occasionally been corrupted by religious rationalists into another use—and such use was explicitly rejected by God. A citation of 2 Kings 18 merits an actual look at what it says: "[Hezekiah] ground up the copper serpent Moses had made--for until those days the Children of Israel used to burn incense before it; he called it Nehushtan." Nehushtan, roughly translated, means "that stinking copper thing." It is worth noting that it was not the heart motives of Israelites that was cited as reason for anything: not in the Numbers incident nor in Hezekiah's time. Rather, in the first instance the Israelites were following a simple command to look and be healed. Spurgeon, by the way, has treated this text (and/or Jesus' mention of the serpent on a pole in John 3) masterfully in a sermon. It would repay anyone the time to read it. But we were saying that the text reports the difference not as a matter of heart but as a matter of use. They originally looked to the serpent to be healed, for God commanded it. In time, however, they did not look at it to be healed at all, but they REVERENCED it, the object itself, burning incense before it, or "to it" (minimally an act of devotion, or perhaps more specifically, an act of prayer and petition, thus making the parallel with Romish use rather precise). By way of a reminder, see point a), directly above. And understand, please, that as the Protestant Chaplain at a major NYC hospital, and as one who must share the chapel space with the representatives of Rome, it is a daily event for me to be confronted by the full-blown idolatrous character of what rank-and-filers DO with the license they've been handed by the powers—and the encouragement they've been given—to burn incense before these idols. Not to mention how warm they get if they SUSPECT that anyone does not share their reverence for created things. c) Those interested in the fascinating subject of Jewish iconography and its possible influence on Christian practice, should read, "Jewish Historiography and Iconography in Early and Medieval Christianity," by Hans Schreckenberg (who wrote the definitive book, by the way, on the portrayal of Jews in Christian art) and Kurt Schubert. It is part of the outstanding series co-published by Van Gorcum (in Holland) and Fortress Press (in America): Compendia Rerun Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum. Lastly, all points above (a, b, and c) would be fortified by a visit to a museum featuring actual or reconstructed synagogue art. I've been to three different exhibits. Romish statuary is not in the same category as Tabernacle adornment or synagogue art. And that is obvious even before one observes what adoration is rendered to the dead idols by devotees of Rome.

But as I return to my actual subject, let me not forget to say how much I love you, and that I always will. I'll be in Atlanta next week and again in April for the wedding. I'd count it pure joy to see you all on either or both of those visits. You are my number one Christian daughter. I know you always will be. I might sign myself, "A slave to your charms since your birth, Daddy".

I was saying how my prejudice, how my jaundiced expectations concerning what I'd find in the New Testament Scriptures-- how God used my wrong surmising to slap me in the face when I faced the actual texts. Wow!

(And this seems like a good point to add a "footnote": The same phenomenon that prepared me to become a Christian has been oft-repeated in the experience of many-a Protestant convert to Rome. These Protestants I speak of were expecting to read in the Church Fathers, descriptions of early Christian faith and practice which would sound very much like their own (American Baptist versions) and very unlike Romish vesions. But lo!, when they finally read these things for themselves, they experience what feels like an overturning of their apple-carts. They find what might be regarded as justification for Romish claims. Of course, if I thought Rome's claims were ACTUALLY justified all through, I'd be apologizing for them. My point is NOT that the Church Fathers justify Romanism, but that the injudicious use of a broad brush by anti-Romanists creates a situation wherein an unguided tour of the Fathers might well appear at variance with what Protestant disciples had been lead by their teachers to expect. Ditto the contemporary portraits of Rome that are not based on fact but on sentiment and whimsy. Such overloading of one's case has the long-term effect of hurting the Protestant cause. There is enough in Rome's teaching to make certain forms of Protestantism seem altogether beautiful, let alone justified. But when one attributes too much (or too little) to one's opponent, that defender is running the risk of losing more than an argument, the moment the disciple finds out that the teacher did not know what he was talking about. It might pay to bear in mind that fundamentalists and Romanists agree on roughly 80% of their affirmations.

Again, God used my expectations to knock me down a peg or two. Instead of finding the New Testament to be a guide for Gentiles in "How to Gross-out Jews," I found in it a veritable obsession with Jews and Judaism. Jesus was concerned always to convince Israel that He was the one in harmony with the Older Testament. James taught Christians how to behave in synagogue. Paul's deepest letters dealt head-on with the question of "Who is a Jew?," and, "If Jesus is the Messiah, why didn't the rabbis believe in Him?" and, "Are Gentile Christians Israelites?" I was astonished. And in nearly thirty years of studying the Bible, I've only become MORE convinced that the New Testament is, in its essence, the final chapter of the Old Testament, so much so that neither makes sense without the other.

Yet I've come to regard the the matter of the precise relationship of each Testament to the other as one of the few matters in theology and history which truly matter. By "matter," I mean that the impact of the answer to that question-- impact on both Christians and Jews--is incalculable.

More soon. But the weekend looks packed, so I can't say when. But next time I hope to outline the New Testament's attention to the question of the Jews. And if space permits, I'd like to confess what I believe to have been the fatal error of the Reformers, my heroes though they be.

Please pray for Mara, a 26 year-old anorexic I've been ministering to. She was put in ICU today, in mittens and restraints, to be force-fed. Her life is in danger as she has dropped to under 60 pounds and is missing vital nutrients. Pray for her to find strength in Christ to achieve victory over this horrible ailment.

Pray also for my dear Judith, a patient we've known since September. We've seen God do wonderful things in her life and in the lives of her mom, grandmom, and siblings. Now J is in a different hospital, intubated, barely able to attain consciousness, as her body continues to succumb to the ravaging foe that is breast cancer. She is 37.

Thank you, dear family, for your patience.

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Homework assignment: Read pages 12-27 of Jaroslav Pelikan's, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600), which is Volume 1 of his incredible multi-volume work, "The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine." And you lovers of liturgy and church music, try to get ahold of "The Sacred Bridge, Volume II" by Eric Werner; it is subtitled, "The Interdependence of Liturgy and Music in Synagogue and Church during the First Millennium." It answers questions most have not learned to ask (I do not except myself). And to the really ambitious, try to get a copy of the 1890 book by (the very odd) Rev. James Gall: The Synagogue, Not the Temple, the Germ and Model of the Christian Church. Though the author be slightly eccentric, with signs showing in this volume also, his basic thesis here is so sound and sure that one laments the diminished interest even in the question he addresses. And one more-- no, two more (three?)-- provocative books to consider: Heather McKay's, "Sabbath & Synagogue: The Question of Sabbath Worship in Ancient Judaism," in which she questions whether what took place in ancient synagogues might properly be called worship at all; and lastly, "The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue," by James Parkes, a classic in its field. (And for those very interested in this field, lay your hands on "The Anguish of the Jews," a 1964 work by Edward Flannery, a Catholic priest, who calls 'em as he sees 'em, even if it means telling the truth about not-so-Saint Ambrose. Ambrose aggressively defended the propriety of burning synagogues to the ground, successfully pressuring Emperor Theodosius to rescind his prior order requiring the bishop of Milan  to rebuild a torched synagogue, and demanding that the perpetrators be punished. You can imagine what such a decision meant for the Jews: deprived of any hope of justice (in a CHRISTIAN Empire!), OPEN SEASON was virtually declared for bullies, thugs, and marauders who confined their choice of targets to the blood relatives of Jesus, the people for whom St. Paul was willing to burn in hell.

March 9, 2006

OK. You talked me into it; let me give it a go.

As I think constantly about the affairs of Christ on earth and in history, certain recurring thoughts keep grabbing the microphone and hogging the floor. In the next several posts, Lord enabling, I'll try to lay out a few of these concerns. Just let me note two preliminary considerations: 1) I welcome any and all input, ESPECIALLY if I'm wrong. There's only one thing more embarrassing than being publicly wrong, and that's being publicly wrong again because one did not heed correction. So here's to the man who said, "Accepting correction only means I might be a better servant tomorrow than I was today-- not a bad thing at all." Still, I cannot promise to engage in exchanges. Thus, just because I do not answer you does not mean I did not hear you. It only means I work three full-time jobs and cannot type. So I must elect to hunt-and-peck out the REQUIRED newsletters for Messiah's Ministries. Which leads us to: 2) It is likely that themes I'm working through in my little kepalah will be more fully developed in our Messiah's Updates (and hopefully, revivified Messiah's Mandates). Those desiring to be on that snail mail list may write to Pastor@MessiahNYC.org.

Now, a thought or two for tonight. Of the many human mechanisms used by our great God to bring me to Himself by a Spirit-created faith, a very significant one was my prejudices which I had brought with me to the Bible. Chief among my wrong notions was this: The Old Testament was for Jews, the New Testament was for Gentiles. Hindsight allowed me to see how God used that embedded foolery of mine by overthrowing it upon exposure to His actual Words. How can I express this? We grew up in Bensonhurst thinking that the world was neatly divided into two people groups: The Jews-- chosen by God-- and the Christians-- who were mostly Italian, thought I, but certainly all of them were Catholic. No one needed to say Roman Catholic in Bensonhurst. There was only one kind. And nearly all we could count were Italian. O, we HEARD about Protestants, but we simply conceived of them as Catholics who hadn't converted to Italian yet. Or something like that.

The point is: We Jews had our ways, the Gentiles had theirs. In no particular was this more glaringly so than in worship. While it's true that our liturgies were in Hebrew, every Jewish child had to attend Hebrew School and learn how to read and write, if not speak, that old tongue before he attained bar mitzvah status. Catholics-- and I knew plenty of 'em!-- had their Mass in Latin; and while the language was required in their parochial schools, I never heard any of my friends speak Latin to each other. Hebrew, in contrast, was a living language, the official language of an official Jewish nation, and retained by most Jews to some extent no matter where they lived. The point is, Jews were SUPPOSED TO understand what they said and did, and why they said and did it. Christians, on the other hand, appeared to be terribly ignorant. Mind you, this last was a judgment of CHARITY. After all, Christians kneeled in front of statues, a thing expressly forbidden us (not everyone? the 10 C's didn't apply to Christians? Hmm.), crossed themselves when passing "religious" fixtures, put idols in their gardens, and generally did rote things, all of which together, appeared to have no bearing on what they ACTUALLY did. If questions were asked, one group of the other, Jews had handy explanations for their beliefs and practices, whereas the Catholic kids couldn't explain much if any of their faith. While Jews were born asking "Why?", Catholics seemed not merely to accept, but to bask in the mystery of it all. By thinking of their gross idolatry as rooted in ignorance, we paved the way to enjoy friendship with them as neighbors. No one, we thought, could SELF-CONSCIOUSLY attempt to defend idolatry! "Forgive them," one might have said our attitude was, "for they do not know what they are doing."

Now, you'll recall that I introduced this to explain my mindset as I first began to tremblingly foray into that dangerous land called The New Testament. I fully expected to find there the prototypes of those Gentile ways; at least, some instruction or command requiring that they do in their religious life what we Jews had been forbidden to do-- in no uncertain terms-- in ours. See, beyond the Second Command, Isaiah 40:18-23, 41:5-10, indeed, virtually all the prophets. The testimony was without exception: God may not be approached through statues. It is forbidden, futile and stupid. Those who bow before idols and/or pray to what is dead are pathetic. "But"-- remember the but-- since they don't know any better, we must practice the same tolerance we ourselves request: leave us to follow our conscience. After all, the Book says, "All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever(Micah 4:5).

But when I turned to the New Testament, and when I read the Gospels, and the Acts, and the Epistles, I found nothing like what I expected. On the contrary-- and this was the "hook" that kept me coming back: what I read seemed perfectly familiar to me. If Jews were birds that thrived in air and Gentiles were fish that thrived in water, I supposed, before reading it, that the New Testament would be an aquarium, a wet spot, the wet, wet, wettest spot of the world. There I'd discover the mouth of the river which fed the goyim, the foreign depths in which they swam, the source of their blatant idolatries, and the explanation of how it was that they felt no qualms about their goyishe ways. Surely the New Testament Scriptures would explain the mystery of the Gentiles! But what I found...what I found, bless the Lord, was not goyishe water at all. It was not even damp. No, this was air, this was sweet air, wonderful air, everywhere air. This was MY environment. And for all the things I had thought of Jesus before reading His Word, the one thing I had no suspicion I'd find confronting me in the NEW Testament was the uncomfortable fact which would not go away: in the background of every page, supporting every scene, the whole context of all I was hearing, seeing, smelling: it was Jewish, certified Jewish, genuine Jewish. The New Testament was kosher, more kosher than me! This was MY book! Why hadn't I been told?

I'd eventually come to an more disturbing question: why don't the Gentiles yet see it? Was 2,000 years not enough to absorb this simple reality?-- the Bible, the WHOLE Bible is Jewish. How could God take such care to get it done while His guests still seem loathe to appreciate it: The Bible which testifies to the Jewish Messiah, that Bible testifies to Him in ways most decidedly Jewish.

Next time we'll ask the question definitively asked by Miles Davis on track 1 of (guess the album title and win a prize), "So What?"

So, if I began posting journal-type thoughts on this ... thing ... would anyone read them, i.e., would it profit anyone to read an old man's musings on Jesus and His reign, etc.?

Pastor Steve

The Goyim Are Coming (5B)

Now, when we go to the book of Acts, we open it and we see that after Jesus had commissioned them in chapter 1, the first business of the apostles was to appoint a twelfth to replace Judas, because this is the story of the new Israel that’s going to move beyond the borders of Jerusalem.  In chapter two you have the Holy Spirit coming to the church and now revealing how the Spirit was in Christ, and Christ is in the Spirit, and this church is now joined to him by the Spirit. 

Let’s look in Act 2.  The day of Pentecost.  How familiar are we with Pentecost?  Well, the Jewish understanding of it might help a little bit.  The Jews associated Pentecost, it’s one of the three pilgrim feasts where the male members of Israel were required to be at Jerusalem.  The first one was Passover.  The second one was Shavuot, or Pentecost.  And the third one was Tabernacles, or Succoth, Booths.  These holidays are in Deu 16, Lev 23, elsewhere explained.  It was the national holidays for Israel.  That’s when things got really big at Jerusalem.  You remember Jesus went there when he was twelve years old.  You recall that incident?  And his life and ministry are marked by Passover celebrations in the Gospels.  Passover was a big deal.  Seven weeks and a day later (that’s why it’s called Pentecost, it’s the fiftieth) there would be another convocation, another assembly in Jerusalem.  So the people who had witnessed the crucifixion would now go home and come back and be there for Pentecost.  It would be a big assembly, and enormous population in Jerusalem at this time.  It was a major feast.  What is it that Pentecost celebrates?  Well, I can’t give you the math right now, but we can talk about it another time.  If you email me I’ll try to point you to the sources.  But the Jews celebrate Pentecost as the giving of the law.  That’s when they say the law came from Mt. Sinai to Moses for Israel.  What was the law for Israel?  The defining material.  Israel was what the law says we are.  That’s how we know who we are.  The law makes us distinct from all the nations.  Now I’ve been arguing that it’s Christ who’s going to make the people distinct.  But how are you going to know that Christ is in these people?  How does Christ intend to separate his people in the world from the rest of the world?  Well, if you look at the first Pentecost, according to the Jewish understanding, something interesting happened in association with it. 

“When Moses came down from the mountain he found the people worshipping a calf.  And God said to him, ‘I’ve seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people.  Now, leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them, and I may destroy them.  Then I’ll make you into a great nation.’  But Moses pleaded for them.  And Joshua and Moses make it down near the camp and Moses says, ‘Look, it’s not the sound of victory we’re hearing.  It’s not the sound of defeat.  That’s party time down in the camp.  Something bad is happening.’  And Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, and his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.  And they took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire.  Then he ground it to power, scattered it on the water, and made the Israel drink it.  And he said to Aaron, ‘What did these people do to you that you led them into such great sin?’  ‘Don’t be angry, my Lord,’ Aaron answered, ‘You know how these people are prone to evil.  And they said to me, “Make us gods who will go before us. And as for this fellow Moses how brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what happened to him.”  So I told them, “Whoever had any gold jewelry, take it off.”  And they gave me the gold.  I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.  I didn’t do anything!  I’m a witness to what happened, but I didn’t do it.’  Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and become a laughing stock to their enemies.  So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, ‘Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.’  And all the Levites rallied to him.  And then he said to them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, “Each man strap a sword to his side.  Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.”’  The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about 3,000 of the people died.  Then Moses said, ‘You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.’”  Later on, God reiterates the blessing to the Levites.  “ ‘Because you chose the covenant over your family, and your kin, your blood, because you chose the covenant on that day, I have chosen you, and you will be the ones to know my will.’” 

Now, you move to the New Testament on the day of Pentecost, and the way that chapter begins as the Jews gather in Jerusalem to celebrate it, in the older version it says, “When the day of Pentecost had fully come.”  In other words, when the real Pentecost has arrived.  Not the type, but the reality.  “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They all saw what seemed to be tongues of fire separating and coming to rest on each of them.  And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.  Now, there were staying in Jerusalem god-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven (because it as a required feast, you must go) and they heard them speaking in their own language, and they were utterly amazed.  ‘How is it that each of us hears them in the native tongue?  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya and Syrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.’  Amazed and perplexed the asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’  Some, however, were making fun of them and said, ‘They’re plastered.’  Peter, taking the keys of the Kingdom in his hand and exercising those keys in Jerusalem, stands up with the eleven, raises his voice addressing the crowd, ‘Fellow Jews, and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain to you.  Listen carefully to what I say.  These men are not drunk as you suppose.  It’s only nine in the morning, and the bars are still closed.  No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.’”  And then he gives a summary of the universal changes that are coming about from a major shift in the administration of the affairs of this world, and uses prophetic language to talk about the moon and the stars and all these things, meaning this is a new day.  This is the upheaval of the old way and the entrance of the new way.  The last days have come upon us now, just as our prophets foretold.  The Messiah has come.  That’s his message.  Look at this.  “ ‘Let all Israel be assured of this:  God had made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Messiah.’”  That’s his confession in Mat 16.  That’s his message on the day of Pentecost.  What is the message of the apostles?  Jesus Christ is Lord.  And the Holy Spirit coming from heaven was the Lord’s anointing and installation in heaven as the Prophet and Priest and King of all time.  The Holy Spirit was signified in the older administration by oil or by water application.  But now the Holy Spirit himself comes up Christ in heaven, and as the oil ran down Aaron’s beard in the Psalms, now the oil of the Spirit runs down on the body of Christ which is on earth and connects us to the head in heaven so we are one with him by the Holy Spirit, and the evidence of this is what happened with the tongues, the flame, and Peter’s explanation that the languages indicate the universality of this message.  This is the new day, the final administration of God’s grace.  And that’s what I want you to know.  God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Messiah, and this is his anointing.  “And when the people heard this they were cut to heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’  And Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are afar off.  For all whom the Lord our God would call.’  And with many other words he warned them, and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’  Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.”

Now, you need to have a block of cement on your head to miss what Luke is recording for us.  The Jews are gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate the giving of the law.  But when they read the law, and what happened when it was given, 3,000of their own number died because of riotous idolatrous living.  How can you be made right with God by being a Jew?  Can the law make you right with God?  What did the law do when it came?  It killed 3,000 of the people who received it because they were living in violation of it.  But when the Spirit of God came on the fullness of Pentecost, he added eternal life to 3,000 of that number, and brought them into the proper side of the antithesis.  Now, for our purposes one of the most important things in this passage is that this, now, becomes an identifying mark.  The Holy Spirit separating people from the world is what distinguishes us from the world, not external regulations of the sort that Israel gloried in, but the resident Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit takes center stage for the purpose of pointing to Christ, and Christ accepts it for the purpose of pointing to the Father, in order that glory might be given to the full triune God in whose name baptism is administered.  The fullness of God indicated in the fullest name in Scripture, in the name of the Father, one name, the Father, and in the name of the Son, one name, the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit.  And this baptism, now, signifies people coming into the new creation out of the waters of judgment, out of the flood, out of the drowning of the Egyptians.  All these symbols of the Old Testament now come to fullness on the day of Pentecost, and there’s a new Israel being formed.  This is the new Israel. 

Now, Jesus Christ has made provision for their administration, for their affairs, and all kinds of things with latitude.  And look at how they work.  Verse 42.  “The devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” What must we do?  What may we do?  What is binding on us day-to-day?  And what is an area of freedom?  “And to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread.”  It’s all about food.  “And to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe.  And many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together.”  It’s all about food. “With glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  Now, we don’t have time to go into this tonight.  But also in this scheme there’s a movement from Jerusalem to the Gentiles where Peter is taking the baton and in the book of Acts handing it to Paul.  And Stephen is the middle-man in this narrative.  So if history is the biography of great people, then the book of Acts is the story of how God used Peter to get things going, and then Paul to continue the work. 

Now, tempus is fugiting, time is flying, so we have to hasten on to some of the significant points in the book of Acts so that we might come to them again in more detail. 

In chapter 3, Peter is enabled with John to perform a great miracle in the sight of all the people.  “A man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put to beg.  When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.  Peter looked straight at him and said, ‘Hey, come here.  Look at me.’  So the man gave them his attention expecting to get some moolah.  Peter said, ‘Silver or gold I don’t have.  But what I have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’  Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong and he jumped to his feet.”  Again, God picks a great guy to heal.  Just like the blind man who’s not ashamed to testify.  This guy doesn’t just get up, he starts doing Swan Lake.  He is all over the place.  And people are seeing him in the courts walking, jumping, praising God, imitating Nureyev.  “When people all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that this was the man who used to sit begging, they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened.  Peter takes the opportunity and says, ‘Men of Israel, why does this surprise you?  It’s not by our name that we did this. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant, Jesus.  You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though Pilate had decided to let him go.  You disowned the holy and righteous one, and asked that the murderer be released to you.  You killed the author of life.  But God raised him from the dead.  We are witnesses.  And by faith in the name of Jesus this man whom you see and know was made strong.  It is Jesus’ name, and faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him as you can all see.  Now, brothers, I know you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.  But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets saying that his Messiah would suffer.  Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you, even Jesus.’”  And then he goes on to say something interesting.  That “ ‘this was promised through the prophets.  For Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.  You must listen to everything he tells you.’”  Please, escucha men.  “ ‘Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’” 

Here it is again.  Jesus Christ is the differentiation.  He is the antithesis.  If you don’t listen to him, you are cut off, you are a broken branch, you are no longer Israel.  You cannot boast about your Jewishness and say that you’re right with God, because Christ is the terminus of all that Jewish stuff.  It’s all come to reside in him.  Every Passover lamb had efficacy because of its connection to Christ, every Day of Atonement.  And, by the way, I said the azazel yesterday without telling you what that was.  That’s the scapegoat that was sent off into the wilderness.  All of these things had efficacy for the people of the older administration because they were tied to and explanations of Jesus Christ to come.  Now that he has come you have to believe in where all these things were pointing.  You can’t go back and say we’ll just do those shadows and things.  He is the one, Jesus Christ.  If you don’t believe in him you’re no longer a Jew.  You’re not among the people of Israel.  And yet, remember what Paul told the Gentiles in Ephesians.  “You who were separate from God.”  In fact, I want to read it again because it’s so powerful.  “You who were Gentiles by birth, and called uncircumcised.  You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope, without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  He himself is our peace.  You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” 

If you’ve never read the New Testament in this light before, I assure you joy awaits you in the morning.  Things will unfold and be like there’s light shining on every page.  It’ll be as clear as day what the issue was in the New Testament.  What do we do with all these Gentiles who are getting saved through faith in Jesus Christ?  Do we incorporate them into the church, into Israel, with being bound to every Mosaic distinction that was upon us?  Or do they come in on another basis? 

And this is what’s going to be told in the book of Acts as we go through the church in Jerusalem, moving after the assassination of Stephen, when a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem.  Somebody tell me.  When I told you the first time what the outline of Acts was.  It was Acts 1:8.  Jesus’ words.  “He said to them, ‘You will be my witnesses’”. where?  In Judea.  And?  In Samaria.  And?  To the uttermost parts of the earth.  But so far for years they’re hanging out in Jerusalem.  Nobody’s moving a muscle.  And we have very limited time.  It’s worse than the time limit tonight.  We got forty years.  This thing is going to be down.  Jesus said every stone’s going to be knocked down.  We gotta get this message out.  But nobody’s moving.  So God, as he has done in the past, sends motivation.  He sends a persecution.  And all except the apostles were scattered.  Where do you think they were scattered?  Throughout Judea and Samaria.  Well, what a coincidence!  What do you know?  “And after godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him, Saul began to destroy the church, going from house to house.”  This is house to house visitation, the origin of it.  Some people feel that way, anyway.  “And he dragged off men and women, and put them in prison.”  And you just have the wonder of God in the telling of this story to see how it moves from Jerusalem to a persecution that forces the message to Samaria.  And when the message comes to Samaria, something interesting.  The Holy Spirit did not arrive with the message.  “And so when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God, they sent Peter and John there.  When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them.  They had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.  And Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”  Why?  Because Peter is the one who is going to open the door of the Kingdom at each of the major junctures outlined in Acts – in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria.  The Kingdom is evidenced by the name of Jesus Christ, by baptism into it, and by the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst the people of God.  And so Peter has that privilege.  The apostle brings the Kingdom message and the Kingdom reality, because the new Israel is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  Is this coming together?  This is what this message is about.  It’s great stuff.  This is what the Bible tells us.  How God moves this thing forward.  It’s that Acts of the Apostles it’s called.  But it’s well called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, the Acts of God. 

And then you have that wonderful story of the Ethiopian.  But in chapter 9 a miracle happens.  “Saul, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples goes to the high priests and asks them for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, Syria, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.  And as he neared Damascus on his journey suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’  ‘Who are you, Lord?’  ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.  Now, get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’  The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless.  They heard the sound, but they did not see anyone.  Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing, so that those who are blind may see, and those who claim they see may become blind.”  The very reversal of Joh 9 happens in the life of Saul.  He can see.  Jesus makes him blind because he was the epitome of the Jewish prejudice, the Israelite, the Benjamite, the very definition of a Jew, who’s good for nothing until Jesus makes him useful.  “Saul got up.  They led him by the hand to Damascus, and for three days he was blind and did not eat or drink.  In Damascus a disciple named Ananias was called by the Lord in a vision, ‘Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.  He is praying.  In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.’”  Ananias is also from Brooklyn.  “He says, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, Lord.’  And Jesus says, ‘Why do you call me “Lord” but do not…’  No, “He said, ‘I have heard many reports about this guy, and he’s done a lot of harm to your people in Jerusalem.  And he came here with authority from the chief priests to arrest anybody calls on your name.’  But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘We are not discussing this any further.  This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings, and before the people of Israel as well.’”  He’s my chosen instrument to carry my name.  My name is me.  He is Christ who is bringing himself to the Gentiles in order that those who confess him, believe, are baptized, filled with the Spirit may be the new Israel all over the earth.  “ ‘And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’  Ananias says, ‘Well, as long as he’s going to suffer, then I’m willing to go.’”  No, he didn’t have that attitude.  “And he found him, placed hands on him, and said, ‘Brother, Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me to you so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’  And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes.”  Could this be something that Paul had in mind when he writes, “To this day a veil covers their hearts so they can’t see as they look into the Word of God, just like me when God converted me, I had been blind, and then those scales fell from my eyes, and suddenly everything in the Scriptures stated to speak of Christ.  I saw nothing before.  And now I saw it.”  “He got up and was baptized, and ate and regained his strength.”  And then things really start to cook.  I guess we’re going to have to wait until tomorrow to see where they go.  Let’s pray.       

The Goyim Are Coming (5A)

The Goyim Are Coming

5a

We have been considering the structure of book of Acts so that we can see what it is that God was doing in it.  And we had noticed that it is the story of how the gospel went from Jerusalem to Rome.  It is a pretty good story, I think, overall.  And it took 2,000 years of covenant working and development for God to bring about what he called the fullness of time so that Messiah would be born under the law, born of a virgin.  And then after his atoning death and burial and resurrection and ascent all systems were go to begin the process of moving the gospel out from Jerusalem.  It was imperative that the gospel get out of town before the destruction of Jerusalem.  So consider that you’re working with a forty year time frame taking a message that had been confined to one people more or less for 2,000 years, and now it is ready for the world.  Can it get out in time?  How would things play out to bring it out?  How would Jesus choose to move this message that required a land, a law with significant specification and high detail, a priesthood, a temple, a sacrificial system, a calendar, required attendance at various feasts and special days?  How would that entire elaborate worship network system that had begun with Abraham, then codified under Moses, and developed further under David, and then built a temple with Solomon, then rebuilt it later after the captivity, how would this system be made universal?  That’s what we’re going to find out in the book of Acts.  So to help us, let’s ask God. [Prayer]

How do you get the gospel out?  Well, one of the things I’d like you to know about this is that Jesus was busy preparing things during his earthly ministry.  Yesterday I had mentioned to you that the Lord Jesus Christ was terribly dismayed by the Jewish practices of adding significant requirements to the Word of God so that the fence that they built around the Torah….  You understand that concept, right?  In order not to violate a law, you build another law outside it.  So then the worst that can happen is you violate that extra law, you’ll trip and notice that you fell on the way to the law, so the law is protected. 

So, for example, here’s a violation of Jewish law.  What I just did is a violation of Jewish law.  This is how you would write God in Jewish practice.  And the reason for it is that that name is going to be erased, and God’s name is such that the reverence required for it mitigates against that sort of treatment.  So you should not erase God’s name.  You should not throw God’s name into a trash can, or a garbage dump.  Therefore when it’s handwritten you put a dash in the middle so that everyone knows what you’re talking about, but you haven’t technically written even his title or name.  And you can see, then, how if this is the law, then certainly in practice you’re not going to be using God’s name in vain, verbally, right?  Because you’re always training yourself that this name is special and to be honored.  The same thing, by the way, with Lord.  It’s L-rd and in a book you would write out the name God because a book is to be kept, preserved, and honored.  If a book that has God’s name in it drops, if a Jewish person dropped his Sidder, his prayer book, he’ll pick it up and kiss it, an act of obeisance and repentance for having dropped it.  Their reverence for written materials is very significant.  They take it seriously.  So these things are fences around the law.  God never made this law.  But when you understand the law it doesn’t seem as ridiculous. 

But those Sabbath laws – well.  In one way they can be understood.  If God said you’re going to rest, then it seems as if you’re going to have to define what labor is.  And then they have categories of work, something like thirty-six categories of work.  And then what amounts to work in each category, like lifting something.  How much weight is it you can lift?  Can you carry money in your pocket on Sabbath?  You know, all those things I was talking about yesterday, I’m not making it up, they really have those kind of details.  You can consult a number of sources to discover what these are.  And on the internet there is no limit to what you can learn about their practices and beliefs. 

But this fence around the Torah became a source of deep disturbance for our Lord because they had so misconstrued God’s intentions as to misunderstand him entirely and to even misread what God had given them so that the Torah in the narrative portion of the Bible were missed by them.  I’m going to say that again.  The Torah in the narrative portions somehow escaped their notice.  That is to say that God not only told Israel what to do with the do’s and the don’ts, but he also told them what to do in the story itself.  And so the story of David eating the showbread had a lesson in it, had a moral imperative in it, that his people should have resonated with and understood.  But instead they dismissed these sorts of things and favored their own additions to the law of God so much so that they had forgotten the very purpose of the Sabbath to some extent.  Now remember, all of these statements I’m making are qualifiable.  They don’t pertain to all Jews.  You should not get the notion that every Pharisee was a hooknose bigot with long fingernails ready to scratch and claw.  And there were great Pharisees.  There were very godly believing Pharisees.  Many of the first Christians were Pharisees, and Sadducees believed in Jesus Christ.  But we’re talking after the fashion of our Lord.  He’s the one who taught us that as a group they got it wrong.  And so we’re not mistaken to say that this is characteristic of them, unlike some modern scholars who try to let the Jewish people entirely off the hook in first generation.  It’s inappropriate.  The Bible says otherwise.  They were culpable.  They should have known better.   And we should know better also.  So we should read the Bible carefully. 

And as we do, we discover that Jesus had made preparation for his departure.  He had made a portable mechanism by which the message of God and covenant can be communicated to the world and preserved.  Let me discuss with you now a couple of items where I see this.  First, look in Joh 9.  This was a great story that…. And you know that John in his Gospel writes on several levels.  He’s certainly at one and the same time the most Jewish author of a Gospel and the most universal.  And he’s telling the story about how a man who was blind from birth.  The Lord crossed his path.  And the disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  And our Lord’s answer was that, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.”  Of course, that doesn’t mean they weren’t sinners, it means that this blindness did not result of sin on either party.  “ ‘But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  As long as it is day we must do the work of him who sent me.  Night is coming when no one can work.  While I am in the world I am the light of the world.’  And having said this he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.  ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the pool or Siloam’ (this word means Sent.  So the man went and washed and came home seeing.  Well, his neighbors who had formerly seen him begging said, ‘Isn’t that the guy who used to sit and beg?’  And some said he was.  But others said, ‘Nah, he just looks the guy.’  But he himself said, ‘Yeah, that’s me!  I’m the guy. That’s me.  I was blind.  Now I see.’  ‘Well, how were your eyes opened?’ the demanded.  He replied, ‘The man the call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash.  And so I went and washed and then I could see.’  ‘Where is this man?’ they asked.  ‘I don’t know.  I was blind the last time I saw him.’  So they brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.  Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.  Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.  ‘He put mud on my eyes,’ the man replied, ‘and I washed, and now I see.’”  He seems cooperative, right?  He’s repeating the story every time he’s required.  “Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God.  He does not keep the Sabbath.’”  Now, you should know, you must know, Jesus kept the Sabbath most certainly.  He did not keep it as they required.  He kept it as the Lord who created it for man required.  “But others asked, ‘How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?’  So they were divided.  Finally they turned again to the blind man.  ‘What have you to say about him?  It was your eyes he opened.’  The man said, ‘He’s a prophet.  It’s obvious.  I was blind.’  The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents.  ‘Is this your son?  Is this the one you say was born blind?  How is it that he can now see?’”  And here comes the important part of this story for our purposes.  “ ‘We know he is our son,’ the parents answered, ‘and we know he was born blind.  But how he can see now or who opened his eyes, we don’t know.  Ask him.  He is of age.  He’ll speak for himself.’  His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.  That was why his parents said, ‘He is of age, ask him.’”  And then the story continues, but we’re going to leave it because for our purposes we’ve gotten to that part that I want to show was a foundational issue for Jesus Christ. The man in the end of the story shows himself to have been a Brooklyn native.  He just really told these guys off, and found Jesus Christ, and worshipped him, and it became sort of the lower point climax of the story just shy of the Lazarus event.  This is one of the great instances of faith in John’s narrative. 

Now, Jesus sees that the synagogue has determined that anyone who confesses him as the Messiah is put out.  The synagogue is not simply a place where people went to worship.  It was the community assembly, the institution of the Jews.  It was what kept the Jews as a people identifiable in Diaspora, in the dispersion outside of Israel, and there were numerous synagogues in Israel, in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.  They stood after the pattern of the temple to a large extent in its liturgical elements.  That is to say, an order of service, a calendar observance.  But it was very distinct from the temple, and most particularly in this:  It was not sacrificial in orientation.  There was no sacrifice at the center of synagogue service.  There was no blood.  That was restricted to the temple.  In Deu 12 on the way into the land, just as God prepared Israel to go into the land to have the normative worship in Israel, so Jesus prepared his people to have a new normative worship anywhere on earth.  And he did it in Mat 16.  If we could turn there. 

Now, you know this story.  “13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’  14 They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’”  Now, this is going to remind us of what we saw yesterday, of this antithesis, that it is Christ and the identification of Christ that is the critical issue that will be the determining factor in who is in the covenant and who is considered a covenant-breaker and outside of it.  Right?  It is not any soteriological system.  It is the person and work of Christ himself.  Christ himself.  His person.  Touchable.  Incarnate.  Then crucified, dead, and buried, and raised from the dead eventually.  But he is saying, “Who do men say that I am?”  So they replied, “Various speculations occur.”  “But what about you?  Who do you say I am?”  “16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the [Messiah], the Son of the living God.’  17 Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.’”  Now, Paul says the same thing.  No one can say, Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.  This is the first confession of faith of the church of Jesus Christ.  Later in time additional confessional information would become necessary to distinguish us from heretics.  But at the beginning this was the confessional statement that distinguished the new Israel from the old Israel.  Please, understand this or the whole thing is indecipherable.  The person of Christ to be confessed as the Messiah was what the issue was.  Remember when that centurion sent a messenger to Jesus and said, “I’m not worthy that you should come to my house, but just say the word, and I know my servant will be healed.”?  And Jesus said, “I tell you, I have not seen such faith in Israel.”  Because the man acknowledged by the request that Jesus is Lord, by saying that you can heal this servant of mine without even coming to my house, shows what I think of you.  When people confessed him, not elevated him beyond what was real, but when they simply recognized who he actually was he said, “You are blessed.”  So when Simon son of Jonah, when Simon Peter said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “That is it. And this was not a revelation by men, but rather this, Peter is a result of my Father in heaven telling you what my identity really, really is. No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.”  That’s the way Paul put it.  In this case Jesus says, “by my Father,” but it’s the same thing.  This is the confession from God that makes a distinction between the old Israel and the new Israel.  “So Jesus says, ‘And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.  I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever your loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’  And then he warned his disciples, not just Peter, not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.”  

But notice two things that are very important.  The condition for exclusion from the synagogue or from the Jewish institution that maintained your identity on a day-to-day basis as a covenant person, to be excluded from that required one thing.  What was it?  Anyone who had confessed that Jesus is the Messiah was put out of the synagogue.  Jesus said anyone who confessed that Jesus is the Messiah is admitted into the church.  The church is Jesus’ synagogue.  The same confession, you come to the center of town and you say, “Jesus is the Messiah.”  As a result of that confession two things would happen.  You’d be excluded from the synagogue of the Jews, and admitted into the synagogue of Christ.  Is that clear?  One confession, two consequences.  So Jesus himself, now, takes the place of the antithesis and says, “By me the world will be divided.”  How graphically this was displayed at the cross, was it not?  When one man on one side looked to him and said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”  Is there a greater incident of faith that that?  To look at the guy next to you being crucified, and all you could see is flesh and blood pouring out, and you say to him, “When you receive your crown, remember me.”  When you receive your crown – that’s pretty big faith.  But the other guy was on the other side, and didn’t make that confession.  And Jesus is in the middle, dividing the world according to how people regard him.  Is he the Messiah the Son of God?  The Jews thought that this was enough to excommunicate.  Jesus though it was enough to make people recognizable as his own. 

Now, later on in the Bible there is an interesting pair of statements in the book of Revelation, and this is Jesus, now, speaking from heaven, and he says to the church in Smyrna, “9 ‘I know your afflictions and your poverty-- yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.’”  Well, who would say they are Jews but are not, and are a synagogue of Satan?  The Jews who claim to be the heirs of the covenant but reject the covenant itself in the person of Christ.  So the unbelieving Jews have now become the synagogue of Satan.  And this is repeated in chapter 3 of Rev.  “9 ‘I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars-- I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.’”  I, God, I, the God-man have chosen those who believe in me and who confess my name.  But the Jews of the old administration who regarded their Jewishness as sufficient to justify them in the sight of God and to make them accepted are now rejected by Jesus.  So this is a war for the covenant, and Jesus has made it clear where he stands.  And when he tells Peter, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” he’s using rabbinical language, language the Jews were very familiar with. I want you to also see this in chapter 18 of Matthew.  “15 ‘If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.  16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that “every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”  17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.  18 ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’”  This language of binding and loosing was rabbinical language for saying, decreeing, declaring what was permitted to the covenant people and what was forbidden to them.  Now, please just follow this one moment with me.  One of the things the Old Testament people had to abide by was the dietary laws.  Right?  They had a strict set of dietary laws.  Would these be applicable in the next generation?  Well, if Jesus didn’t make provision for this, how are we going to know?  As it turns out, in Mark there’s a passage that tells us in saying this, a certain comment, Jesus declared all foods clean.  But this was written after the fact at Peter’s instigation who was there and who was one of the people charged with this binding and loosing.  Binding and loosing is telling the people of God what they may do and what they may not do, and by association the persons who teach what you may do, what you may not do.  This person is bound, or you are bound to this requirement, or your loosed from this requirement.  This was on a day-to-day basis, how they lived their lives as Jews.  It was a scribal authority.  It was an authority that belonged to rabbis, to teachers.  Jesus now says to the apostles, “You have this authority.  You will have the authority to tell the covenant people what is imposed upon them from above, and I’ll back you up because I’m going to be guiding you by my Spirit, and what is not. 

Now, we all have this scene.  The Jews kicking people out for confessing Christ.  Jesus admitting them in for confessing Christ.  And Jesus giving binding and loosing authority.  And Jesus after his grief at seeing their Sabbath twisting coming down from the mountain after a night of prayer and appointing twelve of his disciples to be apostles to lay the foundation for a new Israel, then going into action and putting the mechanisms in place for this, giving Peter the keys of the Kingdom, which in the book of Acts would translate into a very simple and clear opening of the gates of the Kingdom in Jerusalem to the Jews, and in Samaria, and to the Gentiles, the nations of the world.  This will be Peter’s privilege.  Peter and John were best friends so you often find them together.