Should Gentile Christians Support The Messianic Jewish Movement?

The following is based on a sermon by Pastor Darrell Stout to let us better understand God's will in supporting the Messianic Jewish Movement.

Israel's Special Place With God

God loves all nations and all the peoples of the world.  God offers salvation to all people.  But, God chose Israel and the people of Israel to be the vehicle through which He would bless all nations.  Abraham was the first man to be called Hebrew and he established the lineage of Israel according to God's wish.  He begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and the twelve sons of Jacob became the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel as God wished.  This was how the people of Israel were established according to God's wish.  This was the founding of his chosen people.  His people, the present Jewish nation, have survived the diaspora and every curse and wickedness of the ages.  They survive to this day and back in the land God set aside for them.

"...And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you, I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."  Genesis 12:3

At Mount Sinai God gave His law to Moses for the people of Israel.  At this time God made his covenant with the people of Israel.  Through this covenant, through these commandments the whole world has been blessed.  The principles of the ten commandments were adopted by every civilized nation on earth.  Down through the ages every nation that aspired to civility, law and order, justice and mercy have adopted these commandments from the almighty God to His people.

"...Now then if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall by My own possession among the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and holy nation - " Exodus 19:5-6

God chose Jerusalem as the location of His holy temple.  Jerusalem is a Jewish city in a Jewish land, That is how it is, that is how God deemed it to be.

• God's Law was in the Temple in Jerusalem, a Jewish city in a Jewish land.  
• God's presence was in the Temple in Jerusalem, a Jewish city in a Jewish land.  
• God's Atonement was in the Temple in Jerusalem, a Jewish city in a Jewish land.  Atonement, this is our greatest need.  This is the greatest need of all the peoples of this sad world.  We all stand in deep need of peace with God if we are to have peace with ourselves and with each other.  
• God's blessing was in the Temple in Jerusalem, a Jewish city in a Jewish land.

What We As Believers In The God Of Israel Have Received Through Israel

Nothing short of God himself.  God, time and again, identifies Himself to us as the God of Israel.  We receive:

• The Word Of God
  
  "Then what advantage has the Jew? -- First of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God."  Romans 3:1-2
   
• Our Lord, A Jewish Citizen
  
  "And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the father."  Ephesians 2: 17-18
   
• The Church, the christian church of our time was first given to the people of Israel in Israel.  That first Christian pentecost occurred at the time of the Jewish feast of the pentecost.  The first converts were Jews, the first christian church was Jewish.  The messianic Jewish movement is not really a new organization or movement, the first christian church was the Messianic Jewish church.  The modern Messianic Jewish movement is the contemporary effort of Jewish Christians to reach out and bring their Jewish brothers and sisters to Christ their Messiah so that they can become "Complete" Jews as they put it.
  
  "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you are also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit"  Ephesians 2:19-22
   
• The New Covenant, commonly assumed to be to us, Gentile Christians, was in reality a new covenant with Israel.  When we accept Christ as our Savior we are in effect no longer gentiles but Jewish in Christ.
  
  "For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming," says the lord, "When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them," Says the lord.  "For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the lord: "I will put my laws into their minds, and i will write them upon their hearts and I will be heir God, and they shall by My people."  "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying 'Know the lord'.  For all shall know me, from the least to greatest of them for I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."  When he said, "A new covenant", He has made the first obsolete.  But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."  Hebrews 8:8-13
   
• Our Salvation
  
  "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith."  Romans 1:16-17
   

The End Time Restoration Of Israel As A Nation

The end time will prove to the nations That God is God, by bringing back Jews to Israel.  The post WWII creation of modern day Israel in 1948 is the beginning of that prophecy; the end time is upon us.

• Because many of Israel would not accept Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, God removed them.
  
  "I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they?  May it never be!  But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous."  Romans 11:11
   
• He Foretold that the nation would be re-established again at the end of the ages.
  
  "...And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."  Luke 21:24
  
  "Therefore, say to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord God,"  It is not for your sake, o house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have made profane among the nations where you went.  "And I will vindicated the holiness of My great which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.  Then the nations will know  that I am the Lord," declares the Lord God,  "When I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.  "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land."  Ezekiel 36:22-34

An End Time Spiritual Renewal Is Also Foretold

• When they are back in their land God will call them back to him spiritually.
  
  "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanses you from your filthiness and from all your idols.  Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances.  And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be my people, and I will be your God."  Ezekiel 36:25-28
  
  "Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!"  Romans 11:12
  
  "And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel--After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitute, which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamd, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands--"  Revelation 7:4 & 9.
   
• The last seven books of the book of the prophet Zechariah is the chronology of the last days, the end time chronology:
  
  Chapter eight speaks of Israel's return to the land chosen for it of God, chapter nine predicts the contemporary relations with Syria, and ten, Israel's protection.  Chapter eleven tells of the self destruction of Lebanon, twelve, Israel opposed by the nations of the world, and under the Clinton administration America is fast joining other nations in opposing Israel.  Chapter thirteen foretells of the spiritual return of God's chosen people to him.  This process is now underway in the form and evangelism of the Messianic Jewish movement.  The end times are clearly upon us.  Zechariah in he last chapter, chapter fourteen, speaks of the return of Christ.
   
• In the context of these prophecies it is interesting to note:
  "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born."  Zecharia 12:10 / Revelation 1:7
   
  • The current situation in Jerusalem
    
    Twenty years ago there were few if any known Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel.  Today there are at least 50 with at total population of 4-5,000 believers.  There is a hunger growing amongst the people particularly in the large secular Jewish population and the huge influx of Russian Jews in recent years.  There is an openness to Christ by these thirsting people that has not been present since before the early Christian church.
     
  • Has revival started in Israel?
    
    The growth in the last twenty years from non-existent to the current movement has been exponential.  Christian observers there and in other parts believe revival has started.  First the seed then germination and growth, followed by the harvest.  It would seem that the Messianic revival is in the early harvest for God our father.
     
• It is now time to work in that field, to labor to ensure a great harvest.  We should observe what God is blessing, then put our hand to that same thing for God will bless all who help in his great purpose.

Conclusion

I think the history of God's chosen people has been accurately documented and their complete journey foretold in the scriptures.  An examination of recent Jewish history, (Last year, 1998, was their fiftieth year of Jubilee) should alert us to the very nature of our times.

We are clearly in the end time.  None of us knows or understands biblical time, God's time.  The second coming could be a decade away, a century or a millennium, we don't know.  What we do know is that we have entered that end time.  We also know from scripture that at the time of the flood Noah, having listened to God, had an ark built.  One day people of his time got up one morning and it started to rain, a rainy morning like countless others before.  My friends it just seemed just like another day, but it was God's appointed day and only those ho had heard and obeyed God's voice were prepared.

The end time is upon us.  The end day will start much like any other.  Only those attending to God's will will be ready.  The evidence strongly suggests that God's will at this time is to have his people Israel come back to him for his atonement and his blessing.  Surely we cannot find a better task at which to labor.

Support and Commitment

Commitment is needed for:

• Pray for revival
• To be an intercessor for the Messianic movement here and in Israel
• To be an intercessor for Israel
• Financial support

This was a capsule summary of a sermon by Pastor Darrel Stout in the Fall of 1999 after his last visit to many of the Messianic congregations in Israel.