7:1-10  The Gentile Who Had More Faith Than Most Jews

Rabbi Glenn, with the help of Moishe Rosen, did a great job a couple of weeks ago telling us about Yeshua’s interaction with the Roman Centurion who was stationed in Capernaum. This Gentile leader of 100 soldiers loved our people whom the Romans conquered and ruled. He respected our customs. He honored our religion and our God. From his resources, he built the synagogue in Capernaum for the Jewish people. That kind of love and sympathy and generosity for our people from one of the conquerors was very unusual and amazing.

This non-Jew knew that Rabbi Yeshua was a man who possessed real authority – spiritual authority – and that if the young Rabbi from Nazareth prayed, God would hear His prayers, and the Centurion’s slave, who was sick and about to die, would be healed. He knew that Yeshua was close to God, and God was working with Yeshua to do miracles, and that God and Yeshua could overcome a very serious sickness that would result in death.

Yeshua’s conclusion about this Jewish-people-loving Gentile: Not even in Israel have I found such great faith. This non-Jew had greater faith and confidence in the God of Israel and in the Messiah that He sent than almost everyone in Israel. He had greater faith than most of the common people. He even had greater knowledge, confidence and trust in God than most of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Priests, Rabbis, sages, scholars and Israel’s Torah-teachers!

The faith of this wise and humble Centurion foreshadows the faith of and the salvation of the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit, working through Yeshua, and writing through Luke, is letting us know that something wonderfully new was about to happen with the other nations. Even though Yeshua worked almost exclusively among the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the Messiah’s mission would reach beyond the Jewish people to the other nations of the world. Messianic Jewish salvation would soon begin to reach the nations! That was new and exciting and fantastic! That was and is great news for the world!

To me, this wonderful Roman Centurion, who had such great faith and humility and love for God’s people, and love for God Himself, is a symbol of the true Church, which today primarily is found in the Evangelical Church. This Roman Centurion had faith that was greater than virtually everyone in Israel. That tells me that Jewish Believers should have an attitude of humility toward our Gentile brothers and sisters. We should understand that they often have greater knowledge and faith and wisdom and experience than we do. They have thought through and prayed through many matters of the Faith. The have great institutions and colleges and seminaries. We have much to learn from our Gentile Christian brothers. Yes, the Gentiles can learn some things from us in the Messianic Jewish community, but we have much to learn from them.

I grow weary of the arrogance and the disrespect that many who are part of the Messianic Jewish movement have toward the Church. I am tired of those who try to distance themselves from the Church, who don’t want to identify with Christians and Christianity, who refuse to say that they are Christians – which means a follower of the Messiah.

Messianic Jews are members of two communities. We have dual citizenship. We are part of the Jewish People (in fact we are the true Israel, the faithful remnant of Israel) and we are part of the Church, and we must identify 100 percent with both.

I am Jewish. I identify with my people, and with the God of Israel, and with the land of Israel, and the Hebrew language, and Jewish history and culture. I identify with many of the good Jewish traditions. I identify with the covenants and with the Torah and with the rest of the Holy Writings. I identify with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with Moses and the prophets, with the kings of Israel. I am 100 percent Jewish and proud of it. I am also a I am a Messianic Jew. I am a follower of the Jewish Messiah, who is the Christ. I am 100 percent Christian.

There are not two distinct Churches – a Messianic Jewish movement and the Church. There are not two bodies. There are not two faith communities – a Messianic Jewish movement and a Gentile Church. Ultimately there is only one Community that belongs to Messiah; there is only one body made up of Jews and Gentiles. Through faith, salvation, baptism and the indwelling of the Spirit we become part of a united new humanity. This one new man, made up of Jews and Gentiles, has an amazing unity that unites us into one body, one family, one new and living organism, one holy community that belongs to the Messiah.

Our unity is based on the reality that all of us have one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. All of us have the same Lord. All of us have received the same Spirit who lives in us and is transforming us into the same image. All of us participate in the same initiation by which we show our commitment to and faith in the same God. All of us share the same core beliefs and adherence to the truth. All of us enjoy the same hope of eternal life in the New Jerusalem. All of us are members of the same community. All of us are part of the same body that works together.

To be faithful to the Lord and the united new humanity, Messianic Jews must identify with the faithful remnant of our Gentile Christian brothers and sisters. Today, that faithful remnant is primarily found in the Evangelical Church. Evangelicals, Evangelicalism, Evangelical Christianity, represents the visible, identifiable faithful remnant of the true Church.

We may talk about the Jewish and Gentile wings of the Church. We may talk about the Messianic Jewish movement and the Gentile Church (and Messianic Jews can and should maintain our distinct Jewish identity culture, heritage and traditions; and it is important, and I would say, necessary, to have our own wonderful Messianic Jewish communities); but we must always keep in mind that ultimately there is only one community.

If we do not publically and unashamedly identify as Jews we do wrong. We do a disservice to God, and our covenants with Him, and our people and to ourselves and our children. If we do not publically and unashamedly identify with the other true followers of the Messiah, we sin against the New Covenant, and the new united humanity, and the Lord of the Ekklesia, the Called Out Ones.

I am a Christian. Yes, I know that the term Christian is sometimes misunderstood. Most of my Jewish people think that Christian means Gentile. And so, if a Jewish person says they are a Christian, many will think that we are no longer Jewish. But, this came be overcome by more communication – clarifying that Christian means a follower of the Jewish Messiah, and that a Jew who follows the King of the Jews is more Jewish than ever, and that one can be a Christian and a Jew at the same time, and one can be a Christian and a Messianic Jew at the same time. This difficulty in communication is an issue we can deal with. But, it is very important to identify with the Christian community, and one way I do so is by declaring that I am a Christian.

If we do not publically and unashamedly and clearly identify with the other true followers of the Messiah, we are hypocrites and stupid, because we are part of the Called Out Ones, and everyone – believers and non-believers – know who we are part of. The world will still identify us with the Nazarene, and as followers of the Messiah, and as part of the Ekklesia, and as Christians. We will fool no one – just as the Jewish people in German, who identified themselves as Germans of Mosaic Persuasion – convinced no one that they weren’t Jews.

I am a part of the Church. I am part of Christianity. I am a Christian. But, not all of Christianity is Christianity. There is wheat and there are tares. I identify with the Evangelical Church. Evangelicalism is the purest, truest-to-the-Bible form of Christianity. They are my Gentile brothers and sisters who share the one Faith.

It is right not to identify with parts of nominal, historical Christianity who have perverted the Faith, who have added to the Word of God or taken away from the Word of God, who preach another Gospel, who proclaim a false salvation message that will not save. I dis-identify with Roman Catholic Christianities and Liberal Christianities. For many reasons, they are unfaithful to the Word of God. They are in serious error and are dangerous. It is good to point that out and avoid them. But, we must not dis-identify with Evangelical Christianity. That is inappropriate and wrong.

Within historic Christianity I am a Protestant. That means I am part of the protestors who continue to protest the theological errors of the Roman Catholic Church. Within Protestantism I do not identify with the Liberals who have gone astray. I am part of Evangelical Christianity. I am an Evangelical. Evangelicals are my brothers and sisters. They are my fellow saints and fellow citizens of the New Jerusalem.

Those of us who are Messianic Jews are part of the community of Israel, and we are part of the true Church. We must identify with both. I unashamedly identify as a Jew and as a part of the Evangelical Church. I declare that I am 100 percent Jewish, and 100 percent Christian.

Some within the Messianic Jewish community want the rest of the Church to see the Messianic Jewish movement as the rightful leaders of the Church. This is based on the ideas that Israel has a special place among the other nations; that we are a kind of priesthood among of the nations, bringing the nations closer to God, and bringing God closer to the nations; that we are the first-born son and the elder brother, that the prophets and apostles and Lord came from us; that we started the Church, and that God will bring things back to Jerusalem. I don’t know if Messianic Jews should be the leaders of the Church. But, if you believe that and want that, then be worthy of leadership by fully identifying with the rest of the Evangelical Church!

From now on, for the well-being of our movement, and for the unity of the Body of the Messiah, and the blessing of the true Church and the world, I call upon all Messianic Jews to publically identify with the Evangelical Church. If you don’t, you will be missing the mark; you will be sinning against the Lord, sinning against your brothers and sisters, sinning against the unity of the one New Man, the united new humanity that the Lord has suffered so much for and that is so precious to Him. If you don’t you are small-minded; parochial; limited in vision; and unfit to be a genuine leader in Messiah’s United Community made up of a relatively small number of Jews and a large number of Gentiles.

7:11-17  God working with and through Yeshua will overcome death itself

Yeshua helped the Centurion’s servant overcome illness that brought him very close to death. In this next incident, God working with and through Yeshua will overcome death itself! Humanity has some great enemies like Satan, sin and death. Death is a very powerful enemy. On our own, it is impossible to overcome this enemy. Every human being will die – die the First Death – Physical Death, followed by the even worse Second Death – which is Gehenna, Hell, the Lake of Fire.

There is something deep inside us that likes life, and desperately wants to live. If we could overcome death, and live forever in a perfect place, every normal human being would want to live, and not die. Life would be so sad, so frustrating, so depressing, so unfair, so empty, so ultimately meaningless – if there is no life after death. Life is so meaningful, so hopeful, so exciting, so much better able to endure well when we know that we can overcome death!

But we can’t overcome this awesome enemy on our own. Death is too powerful an adversary for us. And we are too sinful, too weak, too frail, too powerless to overcome death. Money and things and status among other humans and politics and education and science and technology and philosophy and other religions and being a good person can’t overcome death. But there is a way to have victory against this great enemy! God the Father, working with and through Yeshua His Son, can overcome death.

7:11-17: Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd. Note that a large crowd followed Rabbi Yeshua. He was very well-known, very popular among many of the Jewish people. Rabbi Yeshua and His crowd were about to meet another crowd.

Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. It is so sad, so tragic, for a woman to lose her husband, and then her only son. A sizeable crowd from her city tried to honor her and comfort her by going with her to bury her son. But, that was all the crowd could do – try to comfort her. But, there was Someone from another crowd who could do more than just try to comfort. He could bring real comfort by alleviating the cause of the sadness.

And, Luke tells us that these two crowds converged – Yeshua and His crowd heading toward the gate of the city, and the other crowd leaving the city to bury this only son of the widow. When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”  Because of His love and compassion, and because He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and close to God and sent by God to do good things to the Jewish people; and because He was being used by God to do the miraculous, to show us that Yeshua was Someone Very Special, and that we should believe in Him, Yeshua was able to do what no one else in those two crowds could do, that only a few in Israel had ever done.

And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Yeshua gave him back to his mother. Wow! The young man was brought back to life! The grieving mother truly had been given real and amazing and lasting comfort!

Someone dying and being raised back to life was an extremely rare event, even among the Chosen Nation. I think that something like this had only happened three times in Israel’s history – once by Elijah, once by Elisha, and once when a dead body came in contact with the grave and the bones of Elisha. But, nothing like that had happened in 800 years, since the time of like Elijah and Elisha. This puts Yeshua on the same level with Israel’s greatest miracle-working prophets; but He is more. He is far greater than Israel’s greatest prophets!

And the two crowds of people knew that something very unusual, very powerful, very significant had just happened. Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”  And, they were right. This miracle was evidence that God was present in a very powerful and special way. God the Father was working in a very powerful way through Yeshua of Nazareth. Yeshua was on a level with Israel’s greatest prophets like Elijah and Elisha whom God had used to bring the dead back to life.

What happened here – God using the Messiah to bring this young man back to life, and bring real comfort to a grieving mother, foreshadows what the Lord Yeshua will do in the future, and in a much greater and more permanent way, to all those who know Him and believe in Him.

He who is faithful and true, and the Amen, who is never wrong and cannot lie, promised: An hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. An hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. I am the way, the truth and the life.

Do you believe these promises? If we believe this, it will change our perspective. It will help us have a good attitude. It will bring us genuine comfort. It will help us patiently endure. It will give us happiness in the midst of life’s difficulties. It will make life meaningful. We will be people of peace and joy, able to focus on what is right and important – not things and money and power and status, but helping other human beings get close to God, and recognize who Yeshua is, and be enabled to live forever. We will get close and become part of and involved and building up the sons and daughters of God who share eternal life and will live forever in the New Heavens and the New Earth and the New Jerusalem, those who have overcome the great enemy of death.

God is faithful! What He promised to the Jewish people in the time of Isaiah we know will surely happen because He sent the Messiah who showed that He is able to overcome death!

Here is what God promised us in the time of Isaiah: The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord Adonai will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the Earth; for the Lord has spoken.

Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the Earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death. O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?

Thanks be to God for Messiah, our Passover Lamb who has come and died and risen and ascended and given His Spirit to those who believe, who likewise will surely rise and ascend!