The Gospel To The Jew (Part 2)
"Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen...
...He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus — (Acts 13:16, 22-23)
Paul knew his audience when he began to speak to the Jews about the gospel of grace. How important it is that we study the people we aim to teach. Regardless of the fact that Paul grew up as a Jew, he understood that he had to build a bridge to their hearts in order to share the truth of Christ Jesus with them.
If we truly desire to reach the hearts of different groups of people, we need to make sure that the truth is rightly reigning in our own hearts first and that we genuinely love those we are speaking to. We need to OBSERVE the people we are trying to reach and be willing to SERVE them if we are to DESERVE the right to be heard by them.
Many people will simply not give time to listen or dialogue with someone that is not prepared to truly hear them or understand their present context or personal needs.
As the old adage says, "People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care."
As Paul walked through their Jewish history, he drew attention to how David was called "a man after God's own heart" and qualified what that meant by stating how David was willing to do all that God wanted him to do. O how important this is! There are too many people who are content in agreeing about the right way in their heads but they are not willing to walk in the right way with their feet because they don't really believe it in their hearts.
However, TRUE FAITH is always displayed in TRUE OBEDIENCE.
As Paul continued, he masterfully weaves the Hebrew Scriptures together in his sermon to show how all of it pointed to JESUS. He emphasizes what God had faithfully done for Israel throughout history and then He shows them how Jesus fulfilled various prophecies to reveal Him as the Savior of the world.
We now know that Jesus fulfilled well over 300 prophecies from the Scriptures if you count all of the specific details and ramifications within those prophecies. The only prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled are those that pertain to Christ's second coming.
As Paul unveiled Christ from the Jewish Scriptures, he brings up how John the Baptist knew his identity and role, which was to let the identity of Christ rule over his life. Just as John the Baptist's role was to prepare the way of the Lord for the first coming of Jesus, we as the Church should know our role as God's ambassadors to prepare the way of the Lord for Jesus' second coming.
So how can we prepare the way of the Lord for Christ's second coming?
First, by allowing Christ to increase and being willing to decrease in every area of our lives. We must be willing to count the cost and to die to self daily in all the ways that God is leading us to align our lives with His will. When the world sees us, they should always see something of HIM. When Jewish people see the light that we are shining and our love for the Scriptures and for one another, they will be provoked to jealousy in a good way and this may cause the veil over their eyes to be removed.
When Paul concluded his sermon, we see that the Jews were divided over what to believe concerning Jesus but the Gentiles were eager to hear more and "glorified the word of the Lord". God had appointed many Gentiles to believe in Him and to be added to the Church, which has always been God's ultimate plan for the nations, as Psalm 22:27-28 says, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’S, and He rules over the nations."
Let us remember this glorious truth during this Christmas season, that Christ is THE HOPE OF THE NATIONS and that JOY HAS TRULY COME TO THE WORLD!
Acts in Action Challenge Points:
Observe and understand how a Jew or any person thinks.
Learn to serve them and preach Jesus from the O.T. Scriptures.
Pray for the veil to be removed from Jewish people and all those who are lost.
...He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus — (Acts 13:16, 22-23)
Paul knew his audience when he began to speak to the Jews about the gospel of grace. How important it is that we study the people we aim to teach. Regardless of the fact that Paul grew up as a Jew, he understood that he had to build a bridge to their hearts in order to share the truth of Christ Jesus with them.
If we truly desire to reach the hearts of different groups of people, we need to make sure that the truth is rightly reigning in our own hearts first and that we genuinely love those we are speaking to. We need to OBSERVE the people we are trying to reach and be willing to SERVE them if we are to DESERVE the right to be heard by them.
Many people will simply not give time to listen or dialogue with someone that is not prepared to truly hear them or understand their present context or personal needs.
As the old adage says, "People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care."
As Paul walked through their Jewish history, he drew attention to how David was called "a man after God's own heart" and qualified what that meant by stating how David was willing to do all that God wanted him to do. O how important this is! There are too many people who are content in agreeing about the right way in their heads but they are not willing to walk in the right way with their feet because they don't really believe it in their hearts.
However, TRUE FAITH is always displayed in TRUE OBEDIENCE.
As Paul continued, he masterfully weaves the Hebrew Scriptures together in his sermon to show how all of it pointed to JESUS. He emphasizes what God had faithfully done for Israel throughout history and then He shows them how Jesus fulfilled various prophecies to reveal Him as the Savior of the world.
We now know that Jesus fulfilled well over 300 prophecies from the Scriptures if you count all of the specific details and ramifications within those prophecies. The only prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled are those that pertain to Christ's second coming.
As Paul unveiled Christ from the Jewish Scriptures, he brings up how John the Baptist knew his identity and role, which was to let the identity of Christ rule over his life. Just as John the Baptist's role was to prepare the way of the Lord for the first coming of Jesus, we as the Church should know our role as God's ambassadors to prepare the way of the Lord for Jesus' second coming.
So how can we prepare the way of the Lord for Christ's second coming?
First, by allowing Christ to increase and being willing to decrease in every area of our lives. We must be willing to count the cost and to die to self daily in all the ways that God is leading us to align our lives with His will. When the world sees us, they should always see something of HIM. When Jewish people see the light that we are shining and our love for the Scriptures and for one another, they will be provoked to jealousy in a good way and this may cause the veil over their eyes to be removed.
When Paul concluded his sermon, we see that the Jews were divided over what to believe concerning Jesus but the Gentiles were eager to hear more and "glorified the word of the Lord". God had appointed many Gentiles to believe in Him and to be added to the Church, which has always been God's ultimate plan for the nations, as Psalm 22:27-28 says, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’S, and He rules over the nations."
Let us remember this glorious truth during this Christmas season, that Christ is THE HOPE OF THE NATIONS and that JOY HAS TRULY COME TO THE WORLD!
Acts in Action Challenge Points:
Observe and understand how a Jew or any person thinks.
Learn to serve them and preach Jesus from the O.T. Scriptures.
Pray for the veil to be removed from Jewish people and all those who are lost.
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