Christmas Season

1. Christmas Season

2. “Jesus” is Universal • Good: Many people from many countries are saved through Him. • Not so good: Our “Jesus” is most often reflective of our image.

3. American Indian

4. Pre-Renaissance Europe Hans Memling – 1400’s

5. Modern Europe http://www.poppydesigns.co.uk/

6. Africa

7. But, A Jewish Jesus?

8. Whose Parents were careful to observe the Law of Moses? 21 And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. 22 And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "EVERY firstborn MALE THAT OPENS THE WOMB SHALL BE CALLED HOLY TO THE LORD"), 24and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A PAIR OF TURTLEDOVES OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS.“ 39 When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. 40 The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.Luke 2

9. “Jesus” the Jew • For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. Hebrews 7:14

10. “Jesus” – Lion from the tribe of Judah • and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." Revelation 5:5

11. Would the world accept a Jewish Jesus as readily? Leviticus 21:5 They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard…

12. A Jesus who wore tzit-tzit (fringes)? Numbers 15:38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:

13. Who makes us after His image? Instead of the other way around??? Image source: http://kehilat.org/Rabbi.asp

14. If we make Him in our image, then we don’t have to change…

15. Worldviews in Conflict Greek vs. Hebrew: Which Jesus is Yours?

16. “Church” History • Originally, that body of believers in Yeshua (Hebrew name for “Jesus”) were Jewish.

17. Acts 2 7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs--we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God."

18. Acts 10 • It was not until roughly 10 years after Pentecost (Shavuot – Weeks) that the first non-Jew/non-proselyte came to faith in Yeshua: Cornelius and his household!

19. Acts 21:20-22 • By 57-58 CE., there were “myriads” (10’s of thousands) of Jewish believers “zealous for the Torah.”

20. Concerning Jewish Followers of Yeshua in 2nd Century C.E. • Irenaeus, a student of one of the Apostle’s students, wrote in the 2nd century C.E. the following words: “They themselves (the Apostles) continued in the ancient observances: the Apostles acted scrupulously in accord with the dispensation of the Law of Moses.” • Writings of The Ante-Nicene Church Fathers; Against Heresies III:23:15

21. Epiphaneus, 3rd Century Church Historian regarding Jewish believers in his time • “They are mainly Jews and nothing else. They make use not only of the New Testament, but of the Old Testament of the Jews; they do not forbid the books of the Torah, the Writings, or the Prophets. So they are approved by the Jews, from whom the Nazarenes differ in nothing, except they believe (Yeshua of Nazareth is the) Messiah.” • Writings of The Post-Nicene Church Fathers; Panarion XXX:10, XXXIV:7

22. Church “zealous” for the Torah, until when??? • What happened to begin to cause the “church” to move from a Torah observant group of believers to a non-Torah observant group of believers?

23. Church History • The study of the early Christian Church is crucial to our understanding of how and why Christians parted ways from their Messianic Jewish brothers and ultimately separated from their Hebraic roots.

24. Non-Jewish Leaders • After the Jewish apostles died out, non-Jewish believers came to fill their shoes. • Many were anti-Law and anti-Semitic. • Most were Greek-thinking: platonicism, gnosticism

25. Transition Period of World-views • “Church” moved from Hebrew mindset and practice to that of Greek mindset and practice.

26. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch (98-117A.D.) – Epistle to the Magnesians • For if we are still practicing Judaism, we admit that we have not received God’s favor…it is wrong to talk about Jesus Christ and live like Jews. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity.

27. Justin Martyr - Dialogue with Trypho Chap. XVIII(Between 138A.D. and 161 A.D.) • We too, would observe your circumcision of the flesh, your Sabbath days, and in a word, all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely, because of your sins and the hardness of heart.

28. Dialogue of Justin Martyr, Philosopher and Martyr with Trypho, A Jew, Chap. XI • For the law [Torah] promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this [new covenant] is for all universally. Now,law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal, and final law - namely Christ has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance.

29. Saint John Chrysostom HOMILY I (c.347-407) • I(5) What is this disease? The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: the feast of Trumpets, the feast of Tabernacles, the fasts. There are many in our ranks who say they think as we do. Yet some of these are going to watch the festivals and others will join the Jews in keeping their feasts and observing their fasts. I wish to drive this perverse custom from the Church right now.

30. Saint John Chrysostom HOMILY I  • II(3) Nothing is more miserable than those people who never failed to attack their own salvation. When there was need to observe the Law, they trampled it under foot. Now that the Law has ceased to bind, they obstinately strive to observe it.What could be more pitiable that those who provoke God not only by transgressing the Law but also by keeping it? On this account Stephen said: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit", not only by transgressing the Law but also by wishing to observe it at the wrong time.

31. Saint John Chrysostom HOMILY I  • III(1)Many, I know, respect the Jews and think that their present way of life is a venerable one. This is why I hasten to uproot and tear out this deadly opinion. I said that the synagogue is no better than a theater and I bring forward a prophet as my witness. Surely the Jews are not more deserving of belief than their prophets. "You had a harlot's brow; you became shameless before all". Where a harlot has set herself up, that place is a brothel. But the synagogue is not only a brothel and a theater; it also is a den of robbers and a lodging for wild beasts. Jeremiah said: "Your house has become for me the den of a hyena". He does not simply say "of wild beast", but "of a filthy wild beast", and again: "I have abandoned my house, I have cast off my inheritance". But when God forsakes a people, what hope of salvation is left? When God forsakes a place, that place becomes the dwelling of demons.

32. Saint John Chrysostom HOMILY II • I(6) But someone might say: "Is there so much harm in circumcision that it makes Christ's whole plan of redemption useless?” Yes, the harm of circumcision is as great as that, not because of its own but because of your obstinacy. There was a time when the law was useful and necessary, but now it has ceased and is fruitless.

33. Saint John Chrysostom HOMILY II • II(4) Do not tell me that circumcision is just a single command; it is that very command which imposes on you the entire yoke of the Law. When you subject yourself to the rule of the Law in one part, you must also obey its commands in all other things. If you do not fulfill it, you must be punished and draw its curse upon yourself. When a sparrow has fallen into the hunter's net, even if only its foot is caught, all the rest of its body is caught as well. So, too, the man who fulfills a single commandment of the Law, be it circumcision or fasting, through that one commandment, has given the Law full power over himself; as long as he is willing, and if he is willing to obey a part of the Law, he cannot avoid obeying the whole Law.

34. Saint John Chrysostom HOMILY III • VI(12) The Church does not recognize the exact observance of dates. In the beginning the Fathers decided to come together from widely separated places and to flux the Easter date; the Church paid respect to the harmony of their thinking. loved their oneness of mind, and accepted the date they enjoined.My earlier remarks have proved adequately that it is impossible for us or you or any other man to arrive at the exact date of the Lord's day. So let us stop fighting with shadows, let us stop hurting ourselves in the big things while we are indulging our rivalry over the small.

35. John Chrysostom: Eight Homilies Against the Jews [Adversus Judeaus], Patrologia Greaca, Vol 98

36. The following three canons are from the Council of Laodicea (364 CE):    Canon 29. "Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ." Canon 37. "It is not lawful to receive portions sent from the feasts of Jews or heretics, nor to feast together with them."    Canon 38. "It is not lawful to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety."

37. The previous quotations and historical facts have not been cited to condemn these men, but to show that soon after the deaths of the apostles, there was a deliberate separation from anything Jewish, resulting ultimately in the suppression of the Hebraic nature of the Scriptures and faith in the Messiah Yeshua. Furthermore, this separation manifested itself in an overt disdain for the Torah.

38. History records the unfortunate result that the disciples of these early Church fathers learned and practiced their anti-Semitism, disdain for the Tanakh, and spiritualization of Scripture.

39. The Church Today • Though many in the Church today have repudiated the anti-Semitism that has plagued it for nearly two millennia, there lingers still the anti-nomian (anti-Law) position it has held for so long.

40. Anti-Nomianism = anti Law • A.W. Tozer defined it this way.  "Fundamental Christianity in our times is deeply influenced by that ancient enemy of righteousness, Antinomianism.  The creed of the Antinomian is easily stated: We are saved by faith alone; works have no place in salvation; conduct is works, and is therefore of no importance.What we do cannot matter as long as we believe rightly.  The divorce between creed and conduct is absolute and final.  The question of sin is settled by the Cross; conduct is outside the circle of faith and cannot come between the believer and God.  Such in brief, is the teaching of the Antinomian.  And so fully has it permeated the Fundamental element in modern Christianity that it is accepted by the religious masses as the very truth of God.  Antinomianism is the doctrine of grace carried by uncorrected logic to the point of absurdity.  It takes the teaching of justification by faith and twists it into deformity."Paths to Power, A.W. Tozer

41. Charles Finney • Charles Finney spoke of it "as the opposite extreme to legalism. Legalist are all work, Antinomians no work…Professing to have yielded up their whole agency to Christ, they throw all responsibility upon Him and do nothing.  Under pretense of being led by the Spirit and of waiting for God to reveal His will to them, they give themselves up very much to spiritual indolence (idleness)…The manner in which they expect and profess to be led by the Spirit, seems to be that of impulse rather than divine illumination through the word. They sometimes seem to suppose that the Spirit leads the people of God by impressions upon their sensibility or feelings, rather than by enlightening their intelligence, and leading them to act rationally, and in accordance with the written word. ” The Oberlin Evangelist, March 12, 1845, Letters On Revival--No. 4.

42. Many Antinomians come to believe that they are "free in Christ" - free to do whatever they want, whether it is the will of the flesh or God's.  ‘A taking' of the Scripture which says, "All things are lawful unto me" (1Cor. 6:12; 10:23) out of context, effectively makes them a law unto themselves. 

43. Consequently, whatever happens to be the day's conviction or lack thereof, is the way they live.  Instead of basing their lives on God’s entire Word, they base everything on whether their motives are right.  Instead of God's will, if they can rationalize something, according to either their own or some respected "believers" example or teaching, they usually feel perfectly at liberty to do whatever they want.  You can hear them say how God "told them" it was okay to do this or that, no matter what the Bible teaches. 

44. True Biblical Faith = Faith & Works • Abraham Was Abraham justified by faith or works? YES!!!

45. Genesis 15:6 • Then he believed [faith] in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

46. Genesis 26 • 3 "Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4"I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws."

47. Halacha - Faith & Works • True Biblical faith walks out [halacha] what God has said in His entire Word. • No distinctive made between faith (what one believes) and how one walks.

48. The walk should be congruent (corresponding in character or kind) with the faith!

49. The Walk of Yeshua – Tempted, but Sinless • 14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4

50. Sin is Transgression of the Law • Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.   1 John 3:4