The Church Doesn’t “Get It”

 There is an old saying that is very popular within the 12-Step groups.  It says that “the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result”!  This can be applied in our own lives in various ways, but at the end of the day, it boils down to this; “there is a right way to do things, and if we insist on doing things the wrong way, we will always get a bad result”!  This is a lesson the church needs to learn!

 The state of the church today is a far cry from the first century church, which is a picture of what the church was always intended by God to be.  They were united in spirit! Regardless of their geographic or national differences, they preached the same gospel and supported one another materially and in prayer. On the rare occasion that a body of Believers strayed from pure doctrine, there were strong, outspoken authorities, such as Paul, Peter, Timothy and others to provide correction and reproof.

 The church today is a fragmented, watered down version of itself, with every denomination and body espousing different doctrine and tradition, some to the point of preaching pure heresy from the pulpit.  Many today, who name the name of Messiah, are nothing more than cults.  Is it any wonder that unbelievers are confused and skeptical of the gospel message, and that the church has become fair game for late night talk shows and a liberal, atheistic media? This begs the question “how did we get to this place, and how do we change it”!

 There is one truth that forms the foundation upon which the faith is built, that being that “God does not lie”! He keeps His word!  If God said it, you can “take it to the bank”!  It will happen! That being said, let us consider a promise that God made to Abram many thousands of years ago. We read in Genesis 12:2-3, “ And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless they that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

 Recorded history will bear out that God has indeed kept his word concerning His promise to Abram. The promise of God was made, of course, to the descendents of Abram, the first Hebrew, who are the Jews and the nation of Israel. Every nation and people that have cursed Israel and the Jews have, in turn, been cursed themselves.  When is the last time you met an Amorite or a Midianite or an Amalekite? The number of nations that have sought to curse the Jews is too long to mention here, but nevertheless, they have ceased to exist upon the face of the earth.  Yet, Israel remains! But what, you may ask, has this to do with the state of the church today!

 As Believers, we worship the God of Israel, we bend the knee to Jesus, Israel’s Messiah,  our faith is based upon the Word of God, the Hebrew scriptures and the New Covenant, written by Jewish writers about the Jewish Messiah. Doesn’t it seem strange that the church today is predominately Gentile, and almost every semblence of it’s Jewish roots have all but disappeared?  Unlike the first century church, the church today is the most uncomfortable, foreign and offensive place for a Jew to be. What went wrong! What was meant by God to be a blessing to the Jew, has become instead a stumblingblock in their path.  By not blessing the Jew with their own gospel, the Gentile church has indeed cursed itself, and is now suffering the result of violating the Abrahamic covenant!     There are some exceptions of course, but they are few and far between. God is true to His word! The state of the church today is the direct result of their failure to bless the Jews!

 In Romans 1:16 we read, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Messiah for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Gentile).  God has a plan for the outreach of the Gospel! It is the same plan He had under the dispensation of the Law.  The oracles of God were committed to the Jew first, and any Gentile that wished to embrace the God of Israel was not only permitted to do so, but was welcomed into the household of Israel.  Nothing changed with the New Covenant!  It also was committed to Israel first, with the intent that Gentiles also could embrace it and be welcomed into the household of faith.  Eph. 2:14 tells us that when Jew & Gentile unite in Messiah, the “middle wall of partition is broken down” and the two become one.  By all but excluding the Jew from the church, we have rebuilt up that “middle wall of partition” that Messiah came to tear down!

 One might wonder how the Gentile church can ignore what is clearly God’s directive and will in this regard. One rationalization from Pastor’s is that Romans 1:16 is merely a description of how the gospel originally was presented, to the Jew first, but is not intended to be descriptive of how it was intended to be for the future. If this were indeed what Paul’s intent was, why then did the apostle to the Gentiles preach the gospel to the Jew first wherever he went on his missionary journeys. Whenever he arrived in a new town or city, his first stop was the local synagogue to share Messiah. Then, and only then, did he go to the gentiles.  This can also be said of Peter, Tomothy, Silas, Barnabus, and all the other early disciples of Yeshua.  Let us also consider that Paul’s writings were written to address issues of the day, and not with the expectation of having impact 2,000 years into the future. As far as Paul was concerned, the gospel was to go to the Jew first . . . period!

 The very last thing that Jesus said before he ascended into heaven, as recorded in Acts 1:8 was this, “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth”.  This was the heaviest thing upon the Lord’s heart as he departed, and did you notice the direction that he left concerning the order in which the gospel message was to be spread? Was this coincidence or did Messiah carefully choose his words to indicate His heart’s intent?

 Babylon, Rome and all the great empires have passed away, but tiny Israel still remains, because God kept His word.  And because God still keeps His word, the church today can choose blessing instead of cursing by getting back to it’s Jewish roots and reaching out to Gods people, Israel. It’s not too late!

 Even if your church Pastors and leaders chose to ignore their scriptural obligation to evangelize the Jews, we, as Believers, have an obligation to, and indeed MUST obey in this regard.  Paul also wrote this; “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their (the Jews) unbelief; Even so, have these also now not believed, that through your mercy, they also may obtain mercy”, Romans 11:30   And this, “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?  God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy”!

 For the church to stop the curse of the Abrahamic covenant, and start reaping the blessings, we need to start obeying the Word of God by “provoking the Jews to jealousy” with the Jewish gospel, from a Jewish perspective. This will not start with your pastor; it must start with you!

 I encourage you to look to sound messianic groups like Beth Yeshua in East Northport, or  the Olive Tree Congregation in Nassau County to get a firm understanding about Jewish evangelism, and how to win Jewish souls to Yeshua.  Perhaps then, you can bring this knowledge and understanding back to your congregation that will result in change and blessing. Please feel free to contact this writer for additional information on this subject, by calling 631 864-0814

Ron Cusano
Shiloh-Ministries