Those disobedient Jewish people... is there a way forward?

Book of Romans: A Bible study series in 17 parts

The general theme of Romans: How to be right with God.

Lesson eleven:  What about those disobedient Jews? (Romans 10)

[To watch this on YouTube as it was given live on Zoom, click https://youtu.be/6eL11Hg7cgo ].  [The whole biblical text and the bibliography Bob used are at the end of this blog] 

Introduction

Last week we ended with God calling all people to faith in His promises. We said that this is the needed human response by all people (9.30-.33) If you didn’t watch our lesson last week, hopefully by this time next week, you will have done so. Each of our previous 10 classes are all on our YouTube playlist of Romans. Remember Paul is dealing with the issue of the confidence he is hoping to engender in the believers who are reading his letter. He assured them in chapter eight that nothing could separate them from God’s love. 

Here in chapter 10 he will deal with Israel’s failure to respond to God’s righteousness, ending with the announcement that they are “a disobedient and obstinate people” (10:21). 

So, the question today is “On what basis does the apostle say that Israel has failed in finding right standing with God?” And if that is true, then a follow-up question may be “Do the Jewish people have a hope at all?” This chapter continues the study on the Jewish people and the theme of our book, “Getting right with God”   

Welcome to those of you who are new to our class in this the 11^th lesson, as we take up Paul’s comments recorded in chapter 10 of The Book of Romans. If you are watching this video on YouTube long after our class ended today, then please pause the recording and read the 10^th chapter. It will only take 3 minutes, or maybe 4 if you get a wee bit confused, then push play again, and come back as we will try to bring meaning to it all. OK, welcome back.  For those of you on the Zoom call just now, have your Bible open, will you? And next week, please read the chapter before you come to ‘class.’ Thanks.

 Today’s outline is as follows:

A.    Israel’s failure and Paul’s prayer (verses 1-5)

B.    Moses and Joel testify (6-13) of faith as the answer

C.    Faith speaks (14-21) and so do Isaiah, and so should you!

A.     Israel’s failure and Paul’s prayer (.1-5) 

First, let me recognize one of Paul’s favourite words. Paul loved the word ‘brethren.’ He used this term 13 times in this letter alone. And dozens more times through the rest of his letters. He used the word to describe his relationship with the former slave Onesimus and wants Philemon the slaveowner to treat him “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” (Philemon 16)

Paul saw the newly-born-again former slave, who ran away, as a brother both to Philemon and to himself. What a word of endearment, hardly one which we might say characterized the hostility or caste-system-measure we see later in history.

Remember the first word Rabbi Saul actually heard from anyone after the episode on the road to Damascus? He had been struck by God with blindness and was led to a house in town where he sat for days. Three days in fact, without food, water or ability to see. And he was praying. Just then God spoke to a believer named Ananias to go to the house of Judas, who lived on Straight Street. After a bit of negotiations, Ananias went to the house, walked in, laid his hands on Saul, and said, “Brother Saul…” and prophesied what God wanted for the future apostle. In one moment, all the pent-up emotions of hatred and threats were dispelled. And Saul was born again. The first word he heard in his blindness, from someone who knew the dangers of this welcome, was ‘brother.’^[1]

Paul’s use of the term here, in the plural to the Romans, is a similar endearing word. He already introduced this section with the plaintive cry similar to Moses--aching for the Jewish people to come to Messiah. And as he continues to show the rebellion of Israel, he calls the believers in Rome to similar tenderness. 

Paul’s care for Israel then fades into the proclamation that Israel has fallen, failed, not gotten to the telos, the goal of the instruction, the goal of all our lives, eternity with Yeshua. He is the end / goal of all God’s instructions.  He’s the alpha and the omega. How did Israel do this? Remember the way to be right with God? IF you remember that, you will also know the way not to be right with God. “they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” (verse 3)

Subjecting yourself to God’s right standard simply means letting God be God in your life. Disallowing yourself from ruling in your daily circumstances. You have to trust the Lord and believe him. That is ‘subjecting yourself.’ Making yourself the servant, the very word by which Paul self-introduced in chapter 1. 

And just in case you missed it, verse 4 is the summary of all of chapter 9 and these few verses here. “Messiah is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” The Torah’s arrow is Messiah himself.

Verse 5: If you want to live in the standard of Torah, you will be judged by that. And don’t be too confident in how you would do in that examination. 

Paul uses two texts from the Torah to substantiate his claims—Leviticus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 30:11–14. Dunn says, “Paul seems to understand the passage in its most obvious sense—that keeping the statutes and ordinances of the law was the way of living appropriate to the covenant, which the covenant required. Moses did not say, and Paul does not understand him to say, that keeping the law was a means of earning or gaining life (in the future;”

B.     Moses and Joel testify (6-13) of faith as the answer

Then in verse 6, Paul begins a new section with a personification. He says that ‘righteousness’ speaks, and he quotes Moses in Deut. 30.11-14. And the citation stops short. Look at the text, “to do it” is missing in Paul. And some note that Paul is saying that in the past no one was saved, until Messiah came, which is dead wrong. 

Again, from Dunn: “What Paul is objecting to throughout this letter is not the law or the commandment as such, but the law and the commandment understood in terms of works (9:32), in terms of national righteousness (10:3). To put the same point another way. Deut 30 can be taken as referring to both epochs of God’s saving purpose, to the epoch of Israel before Christ and the epoch of all the nations brought in by Christ. The contrast between Lev 18 and Deut 30 therefore is not that the former is to be wholly referred to the old epoch while the latter solely to the new. Rather it is that the Leviticus passage emphasizes the discontinuity between the epochs, whereas the Deuteronomy passage can bring out the continuity between the epochs, the continuity precisely between the law and the obedience of faith. In this sense too it can be seen that “the word of God” has not failed (9:6).”

I define ‘law’ in this understanding that Dunn helps us to get as “the system by the which the practitioner attempts to gain God’s favour. Grace, or in this context, righteousness by faith may well be defined as the system of receiving God’s favour without earning it. On the one hand we earn, on the other hand we do not earn but receive. Think of it this way, Americans, for no apparent reason each of you received $1,200 a few weeks ago. You didn’t earn it; you simply received it into your account. You didn’t beg for it; you didn’t send notes to the president, you didn’t have to send a self-addressed postage-paid envelope … it simply arrived. You receive the benefits of it in spending. It’s yours. You did nothing to earn it. And any earning you tried would have been without success. Paul said earlier “the wages of sin is death.” That was what we earned. 

So, Deuteronomy 30 is Moses being called to the witness stand again. He says the word is near us. The law has not failed. God has not failed, but WE HAVE. This is very hard to admit. But that admission is our entry pass. I like the word ‘admit’ like “admit one’ on the ticket stub as you enter the movie theatre. If I pay my entry fee, I am admitted into the benefits of that payment. By agreeing with the condemnation of our people (which sounds horrible, but stay with me), we are admitted into the HOSPITAL of God’s favour and grace. Some people use the term ‘confess’ in this regard. I like both images of admission and confession. 

Here's what I mean. Admission, as I’ve said, allows me entrée into the theatre or the university course or the museum. I can go in. And I can see, learn, experience all that the owner of the establishment wants me to have. 

So, if we say ‘we have failed’ today, and stop trying to earn the favour of God, and stop showcasing our good behaviour… if we do all that, and admit our failures, we are admitted into the waiting room of the Kingdom of God. 

The other term in use here is the word ‘confess.’ Verse 9 says ‘if we confess’ things, something happens. Confession may sound very Catholic or very legal but let me tell you what I think it means. “Confess” means to “agree together with” something. Let’s say I commit a major crime. I kill a guy. The photos and videos are on television nightly, and finally I turn myself in at the police station. My confession of the murder doesn’t make the crime happen. It doesn’t negate the crime. I simply ‘agree together with’ the police, with the evidence, and with myself that I’m the guilty party. 

The Bible here says for us to be saved, we have to confess Jesus as Lord. My confession does not make this happen. Jesus has been Lord for a very long time. My confession of his lordship simply allows me the benefits of that reality. My confession is not the genesis of the reality; it gives me the entrée into the reality. I agree together with God that Jesus, the Jewish messiah, is Lord of all, and that includes me. 

And confession is not the only requirement. Otherwise simple ‘read this prayer’ commands would be enough to get everyone on the planet to be saved. A person has to believe as well. 

Now think about the verb to believe. Some will remember Tinker Bell and Peter Pan. There the little fairy was losing her power and the characters of the story invite the audience, that’s you and me, ‘to believe’ and then Tink will reignite and substantially become strong again. 

You might remember Cher and her hit song titled “Believe” with some of the simplest and most redundant lyrics ever, 

“Do you believe in life after love?
Do you remember love?
Do you believe in life after love?
Do you remember love?

Do you believe in life after love?”

At every football match being played this weekend, the crowd is urged along by radio personalities and the teams on the bench to ‘believe’ that our team can bring home the victory. 

Those examples are NOT what is in view here. Here we see particularized faith, that is, the reader is not only to believe, but to believe something in particular. Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. What does that include?

1)     The fact of history that there was a Jesus

2)     The fact of history that Jesus really died (in context, on a Roman cross at the crucifixion) and

3)     The fact of history that Jesus rose from the dead

Without those facts, your faith is merely Tinker Bell faith and is illusory and a fable. But if you want the ‘word of God to be near you’, if you want the righteousness that is by faith, then it’s particularized faith. Three facts. Do you believe those? 

1)     The fact of history that there was a Jesus

2)     The fact of history that Jesus really died (in context, on a Roman cross at the crucifixion) and

3)     The fact of history that Jesus rose from the dead

Moses has testified, Joel now is called to the witness stand and his verse is “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That is, rescued, delivered, have a change of life. Brought into the presence of God. Or as we have said, ‘made right with God.’

C.     Faith speaks (14-21) and so do Isaiah, and so should you!

Paul ponders in the final section today how this message is going to get to the people. His series of rhetorical questions helps us think this issue through. 

1)     How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? 

2)     How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?

3)     And how will they hear without a preacher? 

4)     How will they preach unless they are sent?

He is saying simply that some folks need to be sent, so that people can hear, and if they hear they might believe and thus call on Jesus.

Think about how you heard about this Bible study group. Think how you learned the phrase, “Oh what a feeling!” Think how you finish the statement, “When you care enough to send the very best.” If you ponder this for only a moment you will get what the apostle is saying. He says that people need to have open ears, and thus be able to hear what someone is saying. We need help on many levels, but the power of advertising, the power of communicating to others, is in our mouths. 

If we open our mouths (Psalm 81.10), God will fill them with good information. We are those who are being sent. We have to declare the good works of God to others. Otherwise, how will they ever know? 

Some intermarried people will tell me that they will give their children the option to choose which religion they want to be when they grow up. On investigation I find out often the parents have given no information at all to the kids, saying they will make up their own minds later. But without information, there really is no option at all. 

Thus, Paul says our feet can be beautiful. I’ve never really seen beautiful feet; I find them mostly functional and not stunning like a face or eyes. But Isaiah says that the one who brings good news (remember that’s Gospel in Greek) has beautiful feet. It’s in the GOING that the word gets out. It’s not in our ‘come to me’ philosophy; it’s in our ‘go and tell’ that people can then hear and then believe and then be saved.

I believe the indictment of Israel is not only about our inability to hear and believe and receive Messiah. I believe Paul is indicting the people of Israel for not going to the nations and sharing this good news. 

In context, the people not believing is a function of the not going of Israel. Many today will say that Israel was never to be a missionary nation. I think that’s exactly what caused our failure again and again. 

The evidence is there in verse 21. Verse 21 is the terminus of the condemnation of Israel. We are without hope, or… are we? If chapter 10 is the last word, then we are hopeless. That’s where chapter 11 comes in.

But what about the triangle of verse 17? Faith comes. That’s good news for each of us. IF we don’t have much faith today, hang in there, faith can come!

How does it come? It comes by hearing. Are you listening to this talk today? Are you listening to what God might be saying to you just now about Yeshua, our Messiah? Opening our ears to the living one, to the one who was killed but rose from the dead; that’s where real life comes. 

Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God. Here is this triangle. God spoke, and now others speak in his name. We hear that and it goes into our heart and we follow up with faith. Then we speak / confess the faith we have (remember, that doesn’t make things happen, it’s simply an agreement with what has happened already) and our own faith grows because faith comes by hearing ourselves speak faith!

So, this triangle of faith works regularly. Speaking, hearing, believing. Faith leads to confession which leads to more faith which leads to more hearing and increased right living with God.

Does that make sense to you?

Dear friends on Facebook and on this zoom call, if you are not yet a believer in Yeshua, I urge you today, call on him while he is near. If you know your Torah, and you know yourself, you know you need help, you need salvation, you need a Saviour. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be rescued, will be saved will be made to be in right relationship with God. It’s worth all the social distancing people will give you when you tell them about God. It’s worth all the rejection of others who don’t want to know about God’s love in Messiah Yeshua. 

If you want, you can pray a prayer with me just now to solidify your choice. Something like this, “Father in Yeshua’s name, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Yeshua to save me from myself, from my selfishness, from my despair and the harm I cause so many. Thank you for making me right with God by your sacrifice. I receive Yeshua (Jesus) as my saviour and the lover of my soul. He frees me to love others. I repent of my sins and ask for God’s forgiveness to be my portion. I receive the free gift of God, eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord. Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, will you let us know via the messages or write me directly. I would appreciate that.

NEXT WEEK we will look at the 11^th chapter and watch how the apostle combines chapter 9 (Sovereignty) and chapter 10 (Israel’s rejection) and showcases God’s choice of the remnant as the perfect solution to the question of God’s sure love to the community of faith. Make sure you join us live if you can.

I’m delighted to be able to read and help us understand this book each Friday here from my home in Sydney.  Shabbat shalom!

The actual text:

Rom. 10:1   Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. ² For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. ³ For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Rom. 10:5   For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. ⁶ But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), ⁷ or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” ⁸ But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus asLord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 

¹¹ For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; ¹³for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

Rom. 10:14   How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”

Rom. 10:16   However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word ¹of Christ.

Rom. 10:18 But I say, surely, they have never heard, have they? Indeed, they have; “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE ¹WORLD.” ¹⁹ But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, “I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.”

²⁰  And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.” ²¹ But as for Israel He says, “ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.”

Bibliography

Briscoe, Stuart. The Communicator’s Commentary (Romans), Word Books, Waco Texas.1982.

Dunn, James D.G., Word Biblical Commentary, Romans, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1988.

Murray, John, The Epistle to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1965.

Prince, Derek, The Destiny of Israel And the Church, DVD series, Derek Prince Ministries, 1990.

Robinson, Donald. Selected Works (Volume I) edit by Bolt and Thompson, Australian Church Record, Camperdown, 2008.

Wright, Tom, Paul for Everyone, SPCK, Westminster John Knox Press, London, 2004

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[1] The first word was actually “Saul” --by his name he was called, but of course that’s proper, to get Saul’s attention. The first word, not used to get his personal attention, was ‘brother.’

Shalom: What is it? Who gets it?

Given at Wintonbury Church

15 September 2019

Introduction

Shalom. That’s my usual greeting when I begin a sermon, but unusually today that’s actually the theme of my sermon. Peace. Thank you to Andre and Tom, Felicia, and all those involved in my coming today, and Ruth and Tim and so many over the years who have cheered me on, either as a champion or as faithful supporters of my work with Jews for Jesus. I’ve been with the organization for 40 years serving in NYC and DC, and then in 1998 moved to launch our work in Sydney Australia. 

What is Shalom?

Shalom. It can mean ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ because often we Jews don’t know if we are coming or going. But the main translation of Shalom is ‘wholeness’ and ‘peace.’ Two days from now in Israel another election will take place with almost as many candidates as the Democrats are running here in the US for the 2020 national election. And peace is a major issue to the Israelis. You cannot imagine, unless you have lived through a war, or served in one, or been part of visiting Belfast in the 1970s or Bosnia in 1990, or as I’ve done for many years in a row, standing in Israel when the sound of a siren brings quick responses and worry to tourists. The siren goes off and we rush to panic or safe rooms or down the stairwells until the Iron Dome anti-missile system catches yet one more scud missile.

What is that feeling in the pit of your stomach, that can be titled worry or angst, stress or utter fear… what is that? It’s an admission of being out of control, that is, I’m not the one holding a grenade or sending pilots overhead with a missile. I’m not the one who can prevent such a missile from landing. We are powerless. That is our admission. And it’s the admission ticket to much more. 

Back in the 1960s, our fingers in the air in the shape of a “V” was a different symbol than it had been 20 years before. When Churchill raised his hand with the “V” sign, it had to do with a military victory over the Nazis. Victory in the “V” sign. 

But when all good hippies raised their “V” sign it was a declaration of “Peace” and almost in direct opposition to the Allies in WW2, it was a symbol of pacifism.  Peace, man. 

It certainly is a longing in the hearts of people, not only for us hippies 50 years ago gathered at Max Yasgur’s Farm in Woodstock for those three days; it’s a longing in the hearts of people in Connecticut and Sydney, in Tokyo and Buenos Aires. It’s one of those universals. It’s a deep-seated longing of all of us. Or so the sociologists declare. So Aristophanes wrote in Eirene, and since then the playwrights also declare. And I join in their declaration. 

I live in Australia and for the last few years international monitoring of the US certainly as relates to national politics and international relations, is taking up more of our news coverage. And the missing word in most conversations about Europe or Hong Kong just now is peace. People cannot speak kindly to each other; arguments and secondary boycotts are ever-present in government and civility is out the window. Why? Peace doesn’t exist. But I’m here to tell you that peace DOES exist and is available and it’s not about stomping in our neighbour’s rice paddock or keeping “those people” out of our neighbourhood. It’s not only the absence of war; it’s about something internal, and our messiah knew it well. Listen to what Yeshua said to Jewish people in his day. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14.27)

Peace is a matter of surrender. 

I have four grandsons, the latest born 2 months ago. And one by one, each will at times call me by title “saba” (at least that’s what I think they call me) and raise their hands for me to pick them up. That hand-raising is a symbol of surrender and of relationship. In the Torah, God told Moses“When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labour and shall serve you.  However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.” 

In other words, the offer of peace was an offer of surrender. If the Hittites or the Jebusites wanted to have peace, all they had to do was surrender to the Jewish people as they entered the Land. (Deut. 20:10-12)

In the same way today, if I want peace with God, if I want peace in my life, if I want peace in human situations, then surrender (or what many in the church call “trust”) is the key. I trust God; I believe in God; I leave things in God’s hands. We sing the old hymn “I surrender all…I will ever love and trust Him. I surrender all.”

When I meet up with Jewish men and women who are prompted by God to investigate the claims of Yeshua, who are motivated by something or someone to find out if Jesus really is the messiah, I’m ever amazed at their openness. I’m delighted that Jewish people in Jerusalem, in Sydney, in New York City, and maybe even here in Connecticut are considering our message. Maybe you are here and Jewish and considering what I’m saying. Or listening online. And they ask me what they will get if they believe this, or they might ask, what did I find missing in my life when I converted. By the way, that’s their term, not mine. Seriously I have pondered what was missing, and my answer is deep: I wanted forgiveness and as a result peace with God. And I never felt it. I left the late afternoon prayers of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, every autumn, after spending the evening before and the day in serious prayer and fasting. If you took an exit poll of the synagogue attendees that day, asking “Do you feel forgiven?” 99% would say something like, “I hope so; wouldn’t it be nice; not sure” and the like. There is always a Question Mark? But if you ask a messianic Jew, that is, a Jew like me who believes in Jesus, who has admitted his own powerlessness to amend all of life, and who has surrendered his life to the Living One, the question mark is eliminated and an exclamation mark stands in its place. Forgiven? We shout “FORGIVEN!!”

And as a result of forgiveness, we have peace with God. That’s how this works. 

I remember the story of David, a Jewish man in Australia whom I met a few months before Yom Kippur that year. His Asian-born wife was a born-again Christian and had wanted her husband to find Jesus. She brought him along to our meetings and his curiosity was heightened. When he came to our service he was listening and God opened his heart to the message. I prayed with him that evening to receive Yeshua as his Messiah and afterwards, one of us asked him, “How do you feel?” His answer: “I’m at peace.” Wow, that’s an immediate testimony to the reality about which I’m speaking. The world was the same outside that room. Their children still were whoever they were, same age in school, etc, but David’s perspective was radically changed. Why? Because he was forgiven.

Same thing two years ago in Sydney at another of our High holiday gatherings. Justin was raised in a Christian home but had walked away from it all. Then one day when he was about 23 he found out his birth father was Jewish. He was adopted. Now he had to find out what it meant to be a Jew. He moved quickly towards Orthodox Judaism, with official black and white garb, and thinking in black and white terms. Christianity was evil; Judaism was right. And on and on his determination grew to be the best Jew he could be. He listened to rabbinic podcasts and saturated himself with things and issues Jewish. 

Someone told Justin about Jews for Jesus and he wondered – could this be real? He came along to our book shop as so many do. 

In fact, since 2005, every week Jewish people who don’t believe in Jesus (yet) come into our shop, some to argue, some to ask questions, some to buy products. And we are available to them. So Justin came to a meeting we conducted and sat apart, in Orthodox garb, in borderline hostility, but still, he was present. And the welcome we extended was real. 

After a few weeks of attending our weekly Bible studies, he attended the holiday service this time of year, and when I gave the invitation, inviting anyone to profess faith in Messiah Jesus, to be forgiven, to have real peace, Justin raised his hand. We prayed publicly. The service soon ended.  And Justin didn’t move from his seat. He sat and cried and cried. Reality had struck him, Jesus had become Lord of his life, and one of our ladies approached him. “What’s wrong?” she queried. “Nothing is wrong,” he said. He told her he was ‘at peace’ for the first time in a long time. 

Shalom is more than an idea or a philosophy. Shalom is a transaction and a state. Shalom begins with God making His way to us, and then finally into us in a real and positive way. 

I admit my need for Him.

I come to believe that He has something to say to me. 

I surrender my life to Him. 

That’s how this works. 

That’s how this worked for David, and for Justin, and for so many Jewish people. And some of you Gentiles as well. 

When Jesus said “My peace I leave with you, NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES” He meant that the peace we would experience is on another level. It’s not about treaties and handshakes. It’s not Chamberlain’s “peace in our time.” It’s deep peace, in knowing you are forgiven. 

Yesterday I was out on the streets in New York City. Our Jews for Jesus teams were going out to the park near NYU to evangelise. I met a pair of Jewish men, a father and son, walking in the neighbourhood. Mark, the son, lives in another nearby state and was the first to speak with me. After the initial answers to the “What is Jews for Jesus?” question, I asked him about his beliefs and who he thought Jesus was. We had quite a good 15-minute conversation, and at the end, he gave me his contact details so I could send him more literature and information. God is opening hearts. God wants to give His people peace. (Psalm 29.11)

The Psalmist and I both encourage you to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122). Yes, that might involve the putting down of scud missiles and real honest dialogue between the parties. Yes, it might involve the UN, although I don’t know how that might work. But I’ll tell you that the peace of Jerusalem must include the One whose title is Prince of Peace, Sar Shalom, the One who was predicted not only in the passage of Isaiah where that phrase is first used but in dozens of other biblical passages as well. Without Jesus, the Prince of Peace, there is no real peace. There is no lasting peace. There is no significant internal peace. 

In two weeks, the Jewish high holidays will begin and continue for 10 days, ending on Yom Kippur. This, dear friends at Wintonbury, is Prime Time to share this message with your Jewish mates and colleagues. If we Jews ever think about sin, now’s the time. If we ever think about God in any year, now’s the time. The time is now to share Messiah with them. They are desperate for real peace. They may not know it, but they are hoping to hear from you about eternity. About Yeshua. About eternal life in Him. 

I have some products up the back that might help you in sharing with them. I have a signup card I’d like you to pick up at the table to fill in and let me send you information including our regular newsletters that will help you in your sharing Messiah, not only with Jewish people but with all people. And yes, I have a credit card machine (square) which you can use for donations or purchasing. It’s pretty easy.

I’m a grateful man for those Christians who shared Messiah with me back in 1971. I’m grateful for God opening my eyes to see Jesus for who He really is. He has given me a new family in the Body of Messiah. 

No matter the struggles in my life, with family, with normal circumstances of life, with governments, with my own internal matters—God is faithful to continue to be the Prince of Peace and to give me peace ‘not as the world gives.’ 

You can trust Him.

Your neighbour can trust Him. 

Yes, there is terrorism. Yes, there are mass shootings. Yes, there is international financial angst.  But…

God is in His heaven; all’s right with the world. Thanks, Robert Browning for that reminder. Thanks, Jesus for being our Prince of Peace, when the world and the storms are raging around us. He calms some of the storms. Then, no matter what else is happening, He walks with us through our storms. Thanks be to God.

If you are not yet a believer, and you are here or listening online, let me ask you to consider what God is saying to you this morning. Who do you think Jesus is? Have you come to the point where you are ready to profess Him Lord of your life? If so, join me in this prayer.

 God, I offer myself to you today. I surrender to you. You are Lord. Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. I admit that I'm a sinner and I need your grace to save me. Forgive me and make me whole, in Yeshua's name. Amen.

 If you prayed that prayer, please let me know, won't you?

Thanks Andre and all. 

Thanks all on the Missions committee who keep me out there.

Thanks to each of you who donates to keep us out on the field.

Thanks be to God, amen?