![\"\"](\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/OT.jpg\" "\\"OT\\"")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“But if a\u00a0revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.\u00a0For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be\u00a0exhorted.”<\/em> (1Co14:30,31)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n J<\/span>ournal,<\/p>\n In the above Scripture, Paul explains how prophetic exhortations were to take place in the assembly of the early believers. What many don\u2019t realize is that the apostle has the Scriptures in view. It should be understood in this sense:<\/p>\n \u2018If a revelation from the Scriptures is made to another, let the first one listen. For all of you can prophesy (share a revelation from the Scriptures), so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.\u2019<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The early believers were well-instructed in that all true revelations from God, must have their resting place in the sacred writings.<\/p>\n Jesus said,<\/p>\n “‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.<\/span><\/strong>” <\/em>(Luk 24:44-45)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This helps us understand what Paul had in mind when he said that Bible teachers must never exceed what had been written by the prophets. \u201cNow these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written<\/span><\/strong>, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.\u201d<\/em> (1Co 4:6)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Bible of the early Church was the same Bible used by the nation of Israel. The earliest believers\u00a0simply studied Moses and the prophets. They did this in light of the new\u00a0covenant.<\/p>\n You can imagine the activity of the Holy Spirit among the early believers\u00a0in helping them draw from the sacred writings of Moses and the prophets.<\/p>\n Thus you have the adage, ‘The new is hidden in the old, and\u00a0the old is revealed in the new.’ <\/span><\/em>The theology of the early Church did not have the complexities that\u00a0later came to dominate the Christian faith. Neither the apostles or the early Hebrew believers ever departed from the\u00a0ancient creed of Israel.<\/p>\n Paul said,<\/p>\n “Yet for us there is but\u00a0one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for\u00a0Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we\u00a0exist through Him.” <\/em>(1Co8:6. Paul is reflecting on the Schema of Israel.<\/span> Cf. Deu6:4)<\/span><\/p>\n The Church has long grappled with the issue of her relationship to a people known as Jews.\u00a0The\u00a0issue is not put to rest by quoting a Scripture such as,<\/p>\n “There is\u00a0neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendents, heirs according to promise.”<\/em> (Gal. 3:28,29)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This particular Scripture has to do with our salvation in Christ. It was never intended as an answer for the issue of the relationship of the Church and the Jewish people.<\/p>\n To properly address the question of the Church and the Jew, we\u00a0must also couple redemption history with another statement found in the New Testament:<\/p>\n “For\u00a0God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever\u00a0believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”<\/em> (John 3:16)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Any study of redemption that ignores God’s love for\u00a0the world will result in a distorted view of our salvation in Christ, and a distorted view of the Church’s relationship with the Jewish people.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here we leap across history and find a man called Abraham. Abraham\u00a0is so important to the work of redemption that new covenant\u00a0believers are called \u2018the children of Abraham\u2019<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.\u201d<\/em> (Gal 3:29)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Through Abraham we have the history of a people who will include Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel,\u00a0David, Peter, James, John, Paul, and so on. (Yes, our very apostles were from the stock of Abraham.)<\/p>\n But God did not set aside the Abraham people because they were superior to any other people. Moses addressed this:<\/p>\n “It is not because\u00a0your righteousness that the Lord our God is giving you this good\u00a0land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n He went on to\u00a0say,<\/p>\n “You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I\u00a0knew you.”<\/em> (Cf. Deu8,9)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, why did the Lord choose this people? The answer is, “For God so\u00a0loved the world.”<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n From this people would come the Messiah. From this people would come a fledgling Church that would fill the earth with righteous fruit.<\/p>\n Everything God did in former times had the fall of Adam in view. Everything God does in redemptive history has the cross of Jesus Christ in view.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paul asks the question;<\/p>\n “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?”<\/em> (Rom3:1)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n He then says,<\/p>\n “Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Being entrusted with the oracles of God meant that to the Abraham family\u00a0alone God entrusted the writing of His sacred oracles. (This is one reason that the Koran cannot have been of God.)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n These divine oracles were intended\u00a0for all\u00a0of humanity. In fact no other people group could ever produce such a book. The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the only book under heaven that can give a record of history before it happens.<\/p>\n The world would not have known where and when the Messiah would be born had it not been for the prophet Micah\u00a0and Daniel. Men from the east would not have journeyed so far to find\u00a0the infant Jesus, had they not studied these ancient oracles.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The book spoke of the Lamb of God who would take away the sin\u00a0of the world.<\/p>\n The prophet said,<\/p>\n “On that day the deaf will hear the words of a\u00a0book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind\u00a0will see. The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the Lord, and the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”<\/em> (Isa29:18,19)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “For God so loved the world.”<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Someone asked Paul that since that the Jews\u00a0had largely rejected Jesus as the Messiah, does that not place the\u00a0Gentiles before the Jews. After all the Gentiles were entering the\u00a0Church in a large measure.<\/p>\n His response was,<\/p>\n “Not at all; for we have already charged that\u00a0both the Jews and the Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,\u00a0`There is none righteous, not even one, etc.”<\/em> (Rom3:9,10)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Moses had much to say about this people who would take up the name \u2018Jew\u2019. For example he said,<\/p>\n “Would that they\u00a0were wise, that they understood this, that they would discern their\u00a0future!”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Moses reaches across history, and speaks of their\u00a0scorning the Rock of their salvation; that they would be scattered\u00a0among the nations. Then he says,<\/p>\n “In the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.”<\/em> (Deu4:30)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now listen to Jesus:<\/p>\n \u201cHe saw the city and wept over it, saying, \u2018If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.<\/span><\/strong>” <\/em>(Luk 19:41-44)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n The Jewish people need a Savior just as\u00a0does all of humanity. Moses knew this. Peter knew this.<\/p>\n One day the Jewish people are going to look at the nail pierced\u00a0hands of Jesus and ask,<\/p>\n “What are those wounds\u00a0between your arms [hands]?”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Lord will respond,<\/p>\n “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my\u00a0friends.”<\/em> (Zech. 13:6)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The prophet Isaiah lays out how Israel would reject her Savior. In Isaiah 53, we hear,<\/p>\n “But He was pierced through for our transgressions,\u00a0He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell on Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Isaiah goes on to say,<\/p>\n “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our\u00a0sorrows He carried. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of\u00a0us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity\u00a0of. He us all to fall on Him.” <\/em>(Isa53)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n The gospel began in the temple complex in Jerusalem. The Jews were given first rights. Yet through the years, Gentiles have\u00a0entered the Church by droves and the Jews by trickles.<\/p>\n Is this\u00a0how salvation history was purposed to work?<\/p>\n Paul said to the Gentiles believers,<\/p>\n “I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery so that you will not be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe Deliver will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”<\/em><\/span><\/strong> (Rom11:25,26)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paul says, after the gospel has penetrated all the nations and the full measure of salvation has been preached among the Gentiles, an interesting thing will happen.\u00a0The nation of Israel will turn to Jesus with a full heart.\u00a0Thus he says,<\/p>\n “[Then] all Israel will be saved.”\u00a0[When Paul uses the term \u2018Israel\u2019, he speaks of a nation group.]<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “From now on you will not see Me until you say, `Blessed is He who comes in the name\u00a0of the Lord.'”<\/em> (Mat23:39)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jesus was weeping over a physical\u00a0Jerusalem. This can only be fulfilled in a physical Jerusalem.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n God speaks through Hosea in saying,<\/p>\n “I will go away and return to My place until the acknowledge their\u00a0guilt and seek My face.”<\/em> (Hosea 5:15)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What guilt must they\u00a0acknowledge? They must acknowledge that the Man of the cross\u00a0was and is the true Messiah of Israel.<\/p>\n At some near point in redemption history the nations are going to\u00a0make a collective stand against Jerusalem. It is in this time frame that the\u00a0Spirit of grace will once again be poured out on Jerusalem.<\/p>\n “And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.” <\/em>(Zech12:9)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Listen further – Zechariah 12:10 says,<\/p>\n “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of\u00a0grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they\u00a0have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an\u00a0only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter\u00a0weeping over a firstborn.”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The greatest revelation of all is that they will know that Jesus Christ is Yahweh incarnate.<\/p>\n The Lord spoke through the prophet:<\/p>\n “They will look on Me whom they have pierced.”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hosea also lays out the great substitution doctrine of Christ:<\/p>\n “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will\u00a0heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive\u00a0us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His goings forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth”<\/em> (Hosea6:1-3)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n So again, what relationship does the Church have with the physical\u00a0race of Abraham? Paul said,<\/p>\n “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”<\/em> (Rom11:28)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But how can we the Church have a beloved enemy? Strange isn’t it.<\/p>\n What other reason can there be for this strange attraction\u00a0Christians have for the Jews? And I might add, vice versa. Did you\u00a0know that more Jews have converted to Christianity in the last half of this past century than in all the former nineteen centuries put\u00a0together?<\/p>\n What did Moses say in this regard?<\/p>\n “When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter\u00a0days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.\u00a0For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you\u00a0nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He\u00a0swore to them.” <\/em>(Deu4:30,31)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paul gets very specific in saying that the Jews will be given a\u00a0covenant of forgiveness at the second coming. He says their acceptance will be life from the dead.<\/p>\n “They did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it\u00a0never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the\u00a0Gentiles [all the nations], to make them jealous.”<\/em> (Rom 11:11)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Such a mystery. And to think that we are at this moment seeing redemption prophecy fulfilled.<\/p>\n Oh yes, it began in Jerusalem and it will end in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Listen to Mark Lowery as he sings, ‘Mary did you know’<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Synagogue.jpg\" "\\"Synagogue\\"")
<\/p>\nThe Bible of the early Christians<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe tale of two people<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Abraham.jpg\" "\\"Abraham\\"")
Regardless of how little we may understand this, the record is\u00a0clear.\u00a0Adam’s life and nature became corrupted when he forsook God\u2019s word. Sin is not simply something that men do. Sin is a principle of evil at work in the fallen race. This principle of evil passed from the generations of Adam until now. Sin includes every human on planet earth.<\/p>\nThe man called Abraham<\/span><\/h4>\n
The sacred oracles
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/oracles.jpg\" "\\"oracles\\"")
<\/span><\/h4>\nA book of deliverance and salvation<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/gospel.jpg\" "\\"gospel\\"")
Notice that it is the needy of mankind who will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. This reaches back to the truth we must not forget;<\/p>\nIsrael missed her appointment<\/span><\/h4>\n
Israel coming to faith
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Jesus3.jpg\" "\\"Jesus3\\"")
<\/span><\/h4>\nThe mystery solved<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Jesus4.jpg\" "\\"Jesus4\\"")
Keep in mind what Jesus said as He wept over Jerusalem,<\/p>\nWith this the prophets agree<\/span><\/h4>\n
A beloved enemy<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n