A Biblical Theology of Mission

 This sermon was given at Cross Points church in suburban Kansas City (Shawnee, Kansas) on Sunday 17 November.  For the video, click on this YouTube https://www.youtube.com/live/BzOA3g5d_HM?si=JfqmbmzRM10nmjtI&t=3517  

 

Shalom. Thank you, Pastor David and Pastor Mark, for this privilege to address Cross Points Church this morning on a very significant day in the church calendar. 

Today I want to give each of you, as Brother Ernie used to say, some machine gun Bible texts in a rapid-fire manner that together tell a story, the story of God’s heart for the peoples of the earth. A story that began in the beginning and ends, in a world that doesn’t end. His story is our commission, that is, we are part of his story that is told this year in 2024 and each day of our lives. We are actors; we are participants in the Great Story of God’s love and redemption of all mankind.

Let’s listen to these, and I hope you will stay with me.

1)         Genesis 12.1-3,  Abraham receives the call of God to leave his family and go to a place he doesn’t know, and God promises him a three-fold blessing of seed, bounty and a land and what did he do as a result? Gen 12.5 He took his wife and possessions which would have included slaves and all his household goods, and the Bible says he took “the souls” he gathered. The rabbis teach that those ‘souls’ were converts to the Abrahamic religion. Abraham heard from God and immediately gathered others to follow this God. Being a disciple includes gathering souls.

2)         Exodus 19.5-6  The scene is at Mt Sinai, 3 million Jewish people have just left slavery in Egypt. We are about to receive the Ten Commandments. God tells Moses that the people of Israel are special. Called to be a Kingdom of priests. Great. Wait a minute; Whom do priests serve? Themselves? Not at all. Priests serve others. If Israel is to be priests, the nations must be in God’s view.

3)         Lev. 19:9-10   ‘^aNow when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.”  Corners of the field are for others. Don’t be selfish; let others gain from your prosperity. Lev. 19.27 You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.

4)         Numbers 15.37-40  Wear tassels, fringes on the Corners of your garments. God is reminding the Jewish people saying Don’t forget the four corners of the earth. It’s not a private religion I’m creating; the garments you wear are to remind you to extend. The beard you grow is to remind you. Extend. Look beyond your borders. Four is the biblical number of universalism in contrast to particularism. Particular is about Israel; universal is about the world. It’s not about you, Israel, it’s for everyone. Abraham understood that and gathered folks.

For time’s sake, let’s jump ahead…

5)         Jonah… You might remember him. A prophet, but a failure, dismal failure. He goes to Ninevah, the capital of the Assyrian empire, to tell the pagans of God’s love and it works.  Jonah 3.7-9    The mayor (Bible says, “King”) of Ninevah repents, and demands the entire country to join him in proclaiming Yahweh their king. Jonah is a successful missionary, at least for Ninevah, but Jonah is not happy.  But, backup in the story, Jonah 1.3  Jonah left a little seaside village named Joppa, skipped town, tried to avoid the whole God thing, and that didn’t work out so well for him. He ended up being successful in his preaching to “those people’, the dreaded enemies of the Jewish people, so that they repented and became followers of the God of Israel, but his end is dismal. Jonah 4.1 He was angry. Can you imagine the And Jonah 4.3, Jonah 4.8, Jonah 4.9 three times in the final chapter he said he would rather be dead than to live if that’s the way God was going to treat those evil and foreign Gentiles. 

6)         If I may, two more scenes, and for many of you, the more comfortable side of the Bible. Look at the Newer Testament, in the book of Acts chapter 10, the scene with Cornelius, the Roman centurion who was a good guy, and we will see the apostle Peter. Cornelius is a military leader and had donated to the Jewish people under his charge. (Acts 10.5) In a dream God told Cornelius to dispatch men to Joppa, to find Peter, and to invite him back to his place.  OK, no problem.  At about the same time, Peter is down in Joppa (which, by the way, is wrapped around by modern-day Tel Aviv) and has a noon-time dream. Acts 10.11 A vision with a four-cornered sheet filled with unclean foods for Jewish people. Four-footed animals, and things we can find on Metcalf, like Red Lobster shrimp and bacon double cheeseburgers and such.            Acts 10.13 A voice tells Peter to “Rise, kill and eat” Peter reminds God that he’s Jewish and so doesn’t eat such things. God answers him Acts 10.15 saying “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unclean.” 

This dream came to Peter three times and you would think that Peter got it. After all, he had walked with Yeshua, with Jesus, for years. He had preached for 9 chapters and probably about 10 years by this time. Acts 10.17 “Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be”  That means, even though he understood so much of God, the Bible says he didn’t get it. But overnight, God answered his query, and Peter answered the invitation, really a subpoena by the military Roman, and went to Caesarea. He travels the 54 kilometres north to tell Cornelius about the Lord, and Cornelius has gathered many in his home to hear God’s word. Some of the missionaries here in church today will tell you that in some Latino or Asian villages where they travel, a person will do just that, invite neighbours and others to hear the missionary speak about God. Those are awesome moments for each of us.  Acts 10.28 may be a Bible verse you want to memorise if you are not Jewish, as it’s a significant reminder of who got you into this. There in his sermon, Peter tells the gathered, “God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.” The four-cornered sheet vision was not about lunch for Peter, about those unclean foods. It was about people like folks in Rome or in Shawnee who eat those foods. The vision was about Gentiles being made clean in the same way Jews can be made clean. Titus 3.5-6 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. 1 John 1.7  It’s the blood of Jesus that cleanses us and makes us right with God.  God has done it all for each of us. Every Jew in this sanctuary ought to praise him; every Gentile in the sanctuary ought to shout Hallelujah! Amen!

7)         Revelation 5.9-10 In the final book of the Bible, and we could find many of these themes in so many of the books, but again, for time’s sake, we narrow our focus. We read, “Worthy are You to take the ¹book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation .(Four again) You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.” God is saying that the redeemed are to be a kingdom and priests. A repeat of the call to Israel in Exodus. A reminder that the four corners of our robes or even of the facial hair, of the fields we harvest, everything about God is the extension of his rule over the planet. He wants us, as participants in this drama, to be kings and priests, to take his message, his love, his care to Lackman Road, to the 30,000 folks in our radius, to the ends of the earth. And to be happy about doing so. 

Remember Jonah, although he was a success he was a racist, and didn’t want those undeserving Gentiles to hear about God. Oh, did you notice that Jonah and Peter were both in the village named Joppa. Both received the call to take the message of God to others. And the others were the dreaded enemies of the Jewish people? For Jonah is was Assyria. For Peter it was Rome. Both were military occupiers of the land of Israel. Both were enemies of the Jews. To each God wanted to share his love and care. And God chose a person to go to them. Jonah was reluctant but eventually went, and won them over, but failed due to his hatred of the Assyrians. Peter won the folks at Cornelius’ house, and won Romans 5.5 because the love of Jesus has been poured out into his life, and we can say, into our lives. 

Abraham gathered foreigners and went to the Promised Land. Each missionary in this sanctuary and the others whom you will support today, and all year by your donations, gather souls to the Lord. That includes my work among the Jewish people of Australia and in Middle Tennessee, or Curtis and Mei Lin of Hong Kong and around Asia, or Bill and so many in Latin America, and each of the teams of YWAM around the globe, and all the unnamed but powerful emissaries you send. 

I’m thinking of Adam in Western Australia, of another Andy in Sydney, both about 40 years old, both Jews, now both followers of Yeshua because we were there when God called them. We had the funds. We had the spiritual energy. God opened their eyes to the Gospel. I’m thinking of Michael, a very observant Jew in Sydney who found us on LiveChat and gave his life to the Lord with me a couple of years ago. He is now married, has a new baby, and loves his new life in the Lord. And Philip, my former dentist, now retired, for whom I was there at his time of spiritual hunger, so that now he’s following our Messiah. The list goes on and on. And we’re not done. The work is ever-expanding and ever-replicating, as God’s mission is our mission.

Dear saints at Cross Points, we missionaries thank you. We owe you. We honour you for the lavish grace you pour out on us. May I mention specifically the teams that care for us on the field, the prayer nets like the one that Wolfgang and Betty Jo lead in their home and on Zoom? Those nets are deep and powerful and keep us on the field and in the Spirit. 

I’ve tried to show you that this drama, this story of God and the people of the earth began in the beginning and won’t end until Jesus returns and puts his foot down in Jerusalem, establishing his kingdom and rulership. Revelation 11.15 The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His messiah. Until that day we missionaries work. Until that day, each of us watching online or here in the sanctuary, who are disciples, want three things. We want 1) to be with Jesus, 2) to become like him, and 3) to do what he did.  

God’s mission is our mission. 

The people of Shawnee, of Johnson County, of Missouri and Kansas, of the US, and the people of the world await God’s mission. 

Will you join him? 

If you are not yet a believer in and follower of the Lord, I invite you to hear these words and to receive them. I’m speaking to you, perhaps a visitor for the first time to this building today, or even watching much later on the internet. God wants you to know him and to follow him, to bring others along with you to him, to be with him and to do what he does. He is reaching out among the peoples of the earth to share his care and peace in a turbulent and troubled world. Even your world. 

I implore you to say ‘yes’ to Yeshua, to Jesus, and to become his disciple and follower. Learn of him. He is gentle and lowly and loves each of us. Thank God his arms are open to you, today, just now. Be forgiven of your sins, repent, and turn from them, be baptised and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and yours and all who are far off. Thanks be to God for his immeasurable gift.

Thanks to the pastors, the staff, the elders, the musicians, all the volunteers, and each of you, members of Cross Points, who make this place a City on a Hill, a light, a beacon of hope for the area. Let’s keep being about God’s business until Jesus returns. From me personally, after receiving 45 years of continued care and love, please hear my sincerest gratitude.

Shalom.

A New Day: Message given at Aglow

 

Some Conference takeaways: A New Day

 

Given at Aglow National Conference

Sunday 10 November 2024

Dallas, Texas, USA

By Bob Mendelsohn

 

Shalom to the sisters and brothers here in the Hyatt this morning, and to those of you watching on the Livestream or later in one of the options to share at home or abroad. Shalom means hello, it also means goodbye, and ‘complete’. I suppose the old line still works, we say ‘shalom’ on coming or going because we don’t know if we are coming or going. Listen, if you understand the long history of the Jewish people being chased from one country or another, exiled in biblical times and in the last Millenium from England, Spain, Italy, and in Europe’s most complete attempted annihilation of my people in the Holocaust, then you will understand that we often don’t know if we are coming or going. 

All that to say, you at Aglow International have forged a weapon of love and care for my people that is without equal on the planet. Your weekly prayers and lavish grace extended on tours of Israel are not only seen and noted, but also heralded across the Jewish community as a ‘new thing.’ Ask Jewish people 100 years ago what they think Christians think of Jews and with one voice they would say ‘enemy.’ Christians blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus; Christians had regular prayers for the perfidious Jews, lost in their decay. On certain days of the year, on the streets of Berlin and New York City, of Boston and Buenos Aires, Jews were often beaten and mocked, simply for being Jews. That’s the world of Jewish and Christian relations only 100 years ago. 

But you are making a massive difference in such relations. Jews know they are loved by Aglow. After 1800 years of wrong interrelations, to change this takes a massive turnaround, and you are doing just that. For that new thing, I say thank you.

My friend Jane asked me last night if I could share some thoughts, some takeaways with you from the conference and how could I say no to our general?

First, a couple of correctives. And by that, I am not a naysayer to the way things are going. In fact, I’ve had a fantastic few days with y’all. But as a missionary for 45 years with Jews for Jesus, first in the US in New York and DC and other cities, and the last 26 years serving in Sydney, Australia, I’ve learned a few things from the Bible that when I hear them explained, dare I say, wrongly, it causes me to wince and if I get a chance to amend it for the hearer, I usually try to do so.

ISSUE NUMBER ONE: New Wineskins

With that understanding, let me say that the phrase Jesus used about new wine in old wineskins is a simple and direct way of saying something in particular. Luke places the teaching in his gospel account between the healing of the paralytic dropped down through the roof, the call of Matthew or Levi and the challenge by some religious leaders of Jesus not complying with the standards the leadership had set. 

In that context in Luke 5, Jesus says,

“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise, he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. ³⁸ “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹ “And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”

What does that mean? Jesus is looking for people who will receive his teachings. It means that those who want to critique and set his words to the side are old wineskins and Jesus is looking for teachable people, and he has found them in the 12 and in scenes throughout the land of Israel and Judea. New wineskins are for the fresh wine of the Gospel, and you and I and the multitudes who have said, “YES” to the Lord are the wineskins who receive the fresh new wine. 

I appreciate some try to make the imagery useful in explaining new situations and new things, but in context, the term refers only to people. 

ISSUE NUMBER TWO: Traditions

OK, here’s another one. You may not know this, but I’m a musician and play several instruments. My last name is Mendelsohn, after all. And I love rhythm. The keys and guitars and drums of our musos have delighted me this whole conference in that regard. The band has taken me to new heights in my own rejoicing before God, and that’s not an easy task. Thanks to each of you who lead us. 

Rhythm touches my soul. And you have it as well, don’t you? This is November. Beyond elections and autumn’s colours, now we move to the calendar with Thanksgiving and its commensurate turkeys and celebrations. Macy’s parades and football games. Even Aglow National US conference. It’s part of the rhythm of US fall. 

Then comes Christmas and Advent and parties and family and church gatherings. They are part of our rhythm. And January brings the bills and invoices for all the presents and that ache is part of our rhythm of life. 

I grew up an Orthodox Jew in Kansas City, and the calendar of the Jewish people, most notably listed in Leviticus chapter 23, lays out the weekly and annual cycle of appointments with the Almighty that give me a circadian sense, a way to negotiate life and to embrace time with God and my people, that gives me a way to move forward. 

From what I’ve read, they say that women who live in the same household often begin having their monthly periods in the same week as each other. 

Rhythm, whether with holidays or weekly Sabbath thinking and reading and resting, all give us a sense of peace and calm. And it’s God’s idea. If you look at the world, most visibly in Asia, you will see that no day stands out in their work week. 7 days’ work is normal. The normal is that no one observes a day of rest in China or Thailand. African tribal peoples take no such Sabbath.  God’s new thing, God’s new day idea is different. Nothing in nature says 1 in 7. We have 10 fingers. A month observed in lunar cycles is 29 or 30 days or so, and that doesn’t divide to 7 at all naturally. Only God established the 6 days on, 1 day off rhythm. And it’s long ago set, and it works. 

That’s my tradition; that’s my religion. 

So, when I hear us sing the phrases, “shake up the ground of all my tradition, break down the walls of all my religion, your way is better” I don’t know whether I agree with that. Each of us has many traditions and religion. And I guess it’s that some of us have found Jesus and the baptism in the Holy Spirit outside the ordinary church and religion in which we grew up, so it’s only natural to take a punch at the words, and perhaps at the institutions that gave us less than we found at Aglow or at the conference in New Orleans in 1987 or at a neighbourhood revival gathering last year. When we say “God’s way is better” I’m 100% in agreement that His ways are not our ways. That said, if he established his ways and I’m honouring and observing those, whether Passover or Shabbat, or the traditions of turkey on Thanksgiving or singing “Hark the Herald angels sing” on Christmas Eve, I’m not so keen to dump the tradition for what the song might say “is better.” 

You do know that the Old Testament is over 2,000 years old, and some would point to its being old and thus to be dumped. But the Newer Testament is about 1,900 years old, and that sounds old to me. 

I guess I’m saying, please be careful that in your desire for newness, we don’t dump the very thing that God gave us which for eternity is a new thing.

Here’s another one. 

ISSUE NUMBER THREE: Pray without ceasing

In Exodus 30, God tells Moses information about the incense in the Tabernacle. 

Ex. 30:1   “You shall make an altar as a place for burning incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. ⁶ “You shall put ¹this in front of the ^3amercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony, where I will meet with you. ⁷ “Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. ⁸ “When Aaron ¹trims the lamps at ²twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.”

Morning and evening, two times each day, Aaron is to trim the lamps. What’s the purpose? So that the incense is perpetual, in Hebrew TAMID.  In modern Judaism you will see the ‘eternal light’ above a part of the sanctuary, that is ever burning or electronically continuous. It is the perpetual of the Tabernacle in modern days. The ‘ner tamid.’

I tell you that because you are told in Thessalonians that you are to pray without ceasing. And for most of us, that’s a bridge too far. How do we accomplish this? I recommend the traditional practice of trimming the lamps in the morning and the evening so that it is perpetual. That is, pray in the morning and pray in the evening so that your life is continually in prayer. Does that make sense? It is our communion with the almighty that is in view, so touch base, check in with Heavenly headquarters at least twice a day so that your communion is substantial all day and dare I say, all night.

That’s part of my traditional biblical rhythm in today’s ‘new day’ practice. 

The Big Idea: Newness itself

You see, what makes today a ‘new day’ is not anything necessarily brand new. We are still going to carry on the traditions of calling singing ‘praise and worship’ even though worship is lifelong, and praise happened already when we saw the sunrise today. We will have some songs and then a word or two and then Jane will speak and then we will dismiss and … well you get it. A new day is not a brand-new day. It’s often the repeated day. BUT It’s the freshness and presence of the Almighty that makes a day new. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies are perpetual, they never come to an end. They are new every morning. (Lam. 3.22-23) Mercies are new every morning. What are mercies?

Mercy is not getting what we deserve.

Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.

Mercy keeps us from hell; grace opens heaven to us. 

Mercies are God’s kindnesses, from his heart, his bowels (as KJV once said), from the innermost being. Mercies are new every morning, why?

Because if we are honest with God, with another human being and certainly with ourselves, we will know that we fall short of God’s standards in life, even yesterday. 

We sinned. 

And yet. Oh, how I love that phrase. And yet. I have a pastor friend down in Houston who loves a similar one: But God. It’s the same. 

No matter what we deserve, due to our failures to act or our failures not to act, God makes a way. He extends mercy, and mercy upon mercy.

Those are the mercies of the Lord. Hallelujah! Great is thy faithfulness!

Jews for Jesus Update for encouragement

Now a quick update from my work in ministry. This last week I was in London with 70 of the leaders of Jews for Jesus International at our annual summit. I heard story after story of God’s mercies being extended in Israel among our 50 staff, in Budapest in the midst of serious antisemitism and hostility, and in Sydney where our Jewish engagement numbers are off the charts. So many Jewish people are finding Messiah, I’m wondering if we aren’t that much closer to the return of our King Messiah. Come on Lord!

One by one Jewish people are listening and engaging with our workers around the world: it’s humbling and exciting. If you want, feel free to find Jews for Jesus on our website and sign up to hear from us; it’s our joy to share his mercies to encourage you in our mutual faith. Click this link: Bob page

You might watch the YouTube video channel named “So Be It” with Jeff Morgan in Israel where millions of folks have watched him evangelise man-on-the-street style in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and listen to the testimonies of the Jewish doctor in New York City or folks in other cities around the globe. So Be It is the name of the channel, and it will bless you. (https://www.youtube.com/@SOBEIT32AD ) 

Yes, Jewish people since the 7^th of October are fearful; they are exposed as we saw in Amsterdam over the weekend; they are disturbed and scared. And into that situation, our teams in France and Russia, even in Ukraine3 are speaking and finding open hearted folks. PLEASE pray for them to find eternity, to find God’s mercies, new to them, new to each of us every morning. 

Even this morning?

Last night, may I commend each of you who responded to Jen’s message with finances? I had not seen such an explosion of generosity since 1987. On that day at the messianic Jewish conference over which I presided, we had upwards of 1,000 folks in the ballroom at our hotel and the room only held about 700. When the offering buckets began to be distributed, I thought it would take about 5 minutes. 20 minutes later the buckets were full and finally returned, as people kept popping up to add to the offering. It was just like that last night. Awesome response.

Friends, the men of Issachar prayed this morning together; we shared healing stories and prayed for healing in Israel and in each other and took communion together. 

This has been an enormously powerful weekend for me and hopefully for you as well. 

If you are still waiting for God to make today new, right where you are, please close your eyes, and open your heart. Consider Jesus and his love. 

Consider his care for you and the mercies he wants to extend to you. They are new this morning. And each day until he returns. 

 

Jane, you know, we have known each other for 39 years, and I’m the better for that knowing. You live what you believe and beyond all the public statements, your faithfulness to our awesome God and his plans for you and Aglow are substantial. I never tire of reading your weekly emails and watching the regular videos from headquarters. The ladies of Aglow and the Men of Issachar are a tribute to your tireless and humble acceptance of future leaders in Generations and allowing them to guide this organization, this movement, this weapon of the Lord into the next day, the next year, the next station of life. 

May the Lord Yeshua continue to give you favour. May his grace be yours in celebrating this conference long after the return to Washington. May you rest in his power and kindness. May you know shalom in your coming and in your going. I’m a better man for knowing you, and since this is Texas, I’m a better man for knowing y’all. 

Shalom!

The results are in, or are they?

It was last Monday night, 4 November, my birthday. The Kansas City Chiefs football team was playing at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The rain had been falling in Kansas City all day. I had flown that morning from Sydney, and now, on arrival in England, I began to spend time with some of the other folks at the conference we were attending. Seventy Jews for Jesus leaders had gathered from around the globe. 

Actually,
I had left over 30 hours before. The double flights (one to California and the other to London) take about 24 hours in the air alone. 30 hours includes counting travel to and from the airport and layover time. Imagine the normal jet lag which hits most folks who fly 16,000 km. I’m a normal guy, so a bit of jet lag makes sense. 

My usual style of beating that jet lag includes a lot of walking or even exercise during the daytime on arrival. This allows the sun’s rays to shine on my arms’ skin, and the resultant natural melatonin released causes an adjustment in my body clock.  

But this is England in November, and the amount of sunshine was a bit limited. Combine that with the delight I had in seeing so many of my colleagues with whom I had not spent time in months caused its own energy to be released. No real sunshine. No real melatonin. No conquest of jet lag. 

The Chiefs’ game was to air at London time 1:15 AM on Tuesday the 5^th, and any person who wanted to be alert and participate in the conference which was scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM on the 5^th would hope for some good sleep. But I couldn’t wait for the results in the morning. After all, I’m a fan, and a fan must wear the team’s colours and cheer the team to victory in the moment, live. 

Tuesday the 5^th of November saw a substantial election take place in the US. As an American citizen who had voted by mail weeks before and who cared much about the campaign and its results, I wanted to know who won in local and national contests. The conference was terrific, and the time with colleagues was rich, but at 9:00 PM I had to go to bed. Tiredness won. I would have to see the results on waking that Wednesday morning. Perhaps it was the jet lag or maybe the energy of wanting to know the winners, but about 2 AM I awoke and thought I should check my computer for any updates. Needless to say, that was a mistake. The news was full of some states’ results. That caused me to sit up and watch for more. I couldn’t wait. The results were coming in; I wanted the play-by-play. And about 5 AM I lay back down. 

Not wanting to miss out. 

Sense and sensibility didn’t win on either overnight. Sleep is a natural and normal part of an animal’s day, and I finally caught up on my normal sleep the night of the 6^th. 

Oh, the Chiefs won their football match in overtime, no doubt caused in part by my horizontal cheering.

But now you might be wondering why I’m sharing these two episodes of not wanting to miss out with you.

Let me take you back further than last Monday. To a Friday about 2,000 years ago. It was in Jerusalem. A group of Jewish men and women were almost in shock. Their candidate for rank had lost. He was their hero, their leader, their teacher. Many fancied him to be the messiah, and messiah meant something different then. The shock that  hit these close followers of his took place just after a final meal together the night before. It was an annual feast, the feast of Passover. The whole Jewish world made pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this event, some stayed on for 7 full weeks for the next holiday. The city was abuzz with multilayers of activity. Lambs bought and sold, slaughtered and eaten. 

The folks who had that meal with their guy were surprised in just a short time. They left the upper room where they had celebrated Passover, and went to a nearby garden. It was there their guy (his name was Yeshua) was arrested. What? What did he do wrong? 

They were disoriented and surprised and angry. One of the followers (later they call them disciples or even apostles) named Peter took a sword and whacked the ear of the servant of the high priest. Yeshua, even during his troubles, reached out and put the ear back on Malchus’ head, healing him at once. Who does that?

The disciples were in shock; their guy was taken into custody. What did they do? They hid and stayed in hiding for days. Yeshua was given a death sentence. Wait a minute! Messiahs don’t lose; they don’t die, at least not before taking out Rome or whoever is ruining our Jewish lives.

 The trial took place after the arrest. They declared him worthy of death and the sentence was issued. A man named Simon carried the execution wood for Yeshua. The Romans put nails in Yeshua’s wrists to secure him to the pole, between two other criminals. He died. They all three died. And were buried.

That must be the end of the story. Who would wait for any further results then? That’s the end. No more hope. No more wishing. It’s over. 

The executioners put a big stone in front of the cave in which Yeshua was buried. They sealed it with a caulk agent and set two Roman military guards to ensure no one disturbed the burial site. 

The results were in. Hopelessness. Failure. Dejection. Again our religion failed us. 

Then Saturday and then Sunday and some women went back to the tomb hoping to freshen up the area with spices. They ran back to the gathering of the followers and told what they had seen. Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it just as the women had reported, but they didn’t find Yeshua. More disorientation, and now what?

Just hours later Yeshua himself appeared with the followers back in the upper room where they had hidden themselves. He presented himself alive; he ate with them; he showed them his hands and feet; they knew it was he! Alive!

Now, new results were in. The play-by-play was being rewritten right before their eyes. Now a brand new overtime began! 

A New Episode. A New Life. If you receive it.