Download Questions for the Jewish Convert

Especially for those who are here for the first time, please take note of the insert in your
worship flier. It gives you an outline of today’s message so you can follow along. On the back
is a daily guide to help you in your personal study of the Bible. Each day you get a verse and a
few questions to help you better understand what you’re reading.
Will you read this together with me? (1 John 4:17-18a) – This is how love is made complete
among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like
Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…
This passage gets at what we’ve been doing this fall. We’ve been looking at some of the major
theological strains within Christianity and this month, we’re looking at the belief systems of
other religions. My hope is that by looking at what others believe, we will better understand
what we believe … so that in this world, we can be like Jesus in the way we respond to others
… more confidently, more lovingly … without fear.
It is impossible to do justice to Judaism in twenty-five minutes, so I’m going to give you the
punchline now: God keeps his promises. If you get nothing else out of this message, I hope
you get that. Paul says this about the Jewish people in Romans, chapter 9 (vv. 3-5) -- I wish
that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own
race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption, theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the
receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from
them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!
It is such a rich heritage. Jews play a huge part in God’s story … which begins with Abraham
…who received a promise from God when he was 75 years old. Genesis 12 tells us that God
would raise up out of Abraham a holy and blessed nation of people. Genesis 15:1-6 says - …
the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield,
your very great reward." 2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I
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remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram
said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." 4 Then
the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from
your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and
count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring
be." 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Abram learned that even when things look hopeless, God keeps his promises. In Abraham’s old
age, his wife had a baby and they named him Isaac. Isaac’s birth was the fulfillment of God’s
promise and the beginning of the people of Israel … who would be an example on earth of
God’s plan for humanity. Today there are about fourteen million Jews around the world.
Orthodox Jews are the most conservative and generally the most observant of the laws given
through Moses. About six percent of the Jewish population is Orthodox. About forty percent
are called Conservative Jews. They also follow the laws of Moses, but they believe that
Judaism’s values can shift with the culture. The biggest branch of American Judaism is called
Reform Judaism. Reform Jews are the most liberal and the least likely to keep the traditional
customs.
Since Reform Jews are the majority in the U.S. … for this message, I interviewed Robert
Klensin, rabbi of the reform Congregation Children of Israel on Walton Way. In this clip, he’ll
introduce us to three themes in the Jewish faith: how Jews understand themselves, how they
view their Bible and how they celebrate Sabbath. Watch this:
(VIEW CLIP #1)
So … Judaism is a way of life expressed in rituals and family celebrations prescribed for them
in the Torah. The Jewish Bible is basically our Old Testament, and the Torah is the first five
books … Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Orthodox Jews believe the
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Torah was given to Moses by God. In a synagogue, the Torah is kept on huge scrolls that are
stored in what’s called an ark. That’s like a holy cabinet at the front of the sanctuary. Every
week during the Sabbath service, the Torah is brought out and unrolled and they read from it.
It’s written in Hebrew. The most important passage in the Torah is the Shema, from
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (read this with me) - 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is
one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress
them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the
road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind
them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
For an observant Jew, to love the Lord is to love His Word. For us, also, to love God is to love
His Word … and for us, the pinnacle of that Word is Jesus … the Word Made Flesh. So this
passage challenges us to show our love for God by impressing the Living Word on our children,
talking about Him when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down
and when we get up. This is what it means to love the Lord with heart, soul and strength … to
make it so much a part of you that everything … every moment … is saturated with it. Paul
says in the New Testament that we’re to take every thought captive, and I think this passage in
Deuteronomy teaches us how to do that. To love God is to put him in the middle of everything.
Rabbi Klensin mentioned Shabbat or Sabbath, which for a Jew runs from sundown Friday to
sundown Saturday. I like the way he describes the Sabbath … as a Day of joy, day of rest, day
of holiness. The Sabbath is the only holy day listed in the Ten Commandments. And it is the
only one of the commandments that’s explained. It is a day to acknowledge that God is our
creator and just as he rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he will rescue us from the
drudgery of work if we trust in him by giving him a Sabbath every week … because God keeps
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his promises. Do you have a day of joy, day of rest, day of holiness in your week? A day to let
God be God for you?
So what do Jews believe about the Messiah and about salvation? Let’s watch another clip.
(VIDEO CLIP #2)
This surprised me, to hear that Reform Jews are not looking so much for a Messiah … a person
… as for a “messianic age” … which is more about a time when God’s purposes begin to draw
together on earth. Reform Jews are looking for a time when the world shows signs of healing.
Orthodox Jews are waiting … not just for an age … but for a Messiah. They are looking for the
fulfillment of prophecies like Isaiah 11:1-3 - A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of
wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD - 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
Jews would say this passage is pointing to a messiah who has not yet come. They would say
that Jesus was not the messiah … that he was not even a prophet … but simply a good Jewish
man who was trying to reform his people. They would say that he did not contribute
significantly to the repair of the world, which is one of the signs for them of a real messiah.
Christians would say that Jesus has made all the difference in the world … and that this passage
in Isaiah is talking about him, as are many other prophecies in the Jewish Bible that we believe
point directly to Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Prophecies written hundreds of years
before his arrival describe One who will be born in Bethlehem, who will be an agent of peace
and healing, who will suffer. Isaiah 53 reads like Jesus’ resume. These prophecies are all
promises that we believe God made good in Jesus. God promised a savior and a covenant built
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on grace, and we believe he’s done that in Jesus, and that he’s still transforming lives every day
through Christ … because (say it with me) God keeps his promises.
And while most modern Jews look for meaning in this life, we believe the best is yet to come.
We look for Jesus to come again and to bring with him the ultimate healing for the world. And
we believe that God the Father will usher that age in when the world is ready.
And when that happens, how will God deal with the people he birthed through Abraham?
History has not … in general … answered that question biblically. Within a few hundred years
of Jesus’ life on earth, people were already saying that God was finished with the Jews. That
was the rationale beneath the Crusades, which killed 300,000 Jews in the year 1000 A.D. … an
evil mass killing that opened the door for Islam to take over Jewish territories. In the year 1543,
Martin Luther … called for the Jews to be expelled from Germany … and Nazis later used his
words to justify the killing of 6 million Jews (not to mention 5 million others), while the Church
stood by. Jews have been rejected and often expelled from every country they’ve tried to live
in. Meanwhile, the land given to them when Moses brought them out of Egypt has been a
violent home. Why?
Is God through with Israel? Did God change his mind? Paul asks this very question in his
letter to the Romans (Romans 11:1-6) -- I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I
am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not
reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage
about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3"Lord, they have killed your prophets
and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? 4And what
was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the
knee to Baal." 5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace,
then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
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This is what Paul is saying: He’s saying that God is not done with his people, Israel. He may
not be saving every Jew any more than he’s saving every human, but he will save his people
Israel. Jesus Christ is still the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except
through him … and somehow (in a way I can’t understand or explain) God is working that truth
into his plan for Israel … because God keeps his promises.
Let me tell you why this is so important to you and me. Because everything we are and
everything we believe hinges on this one fundamental truth: that God keeps his word. If God
does not keep his promises to Israel, then how can we hope that he’ll keep his promises to us?
This is what Abram learned when he said to God, “I don’t understand how you are going to
make me a great nation if I don’t have any children. Frankly, I don’t see it.” And God said, “
“Abram, I am your shield and your very great reward. Even if it looks like impossible from
your chair, you will have children.” And Abram believed that, and God did not let him down.
And that’s huge for us. Maybe the most powerful promise of all is the promise of Romans 8,
that nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s a huge
promise. It’s our assurance … our promise that God has never given up on his people and he
never will. Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God … even
when it doesn’t feel like it … God will never give up on us. Does God give up on people who
reject him? Never! If your bank account is empty and your job is hanging by a thread, has God
given up on you? No! If you’re depressed and lonely, have you been separated somehow from
God? If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired … if your children are running you in
circles and every relationship you’ve got seems to be more complicated than its worth … does
that mean that God has somehow forgotten you? Left you for dead? No! If your faith is weary
and you have more questions than answers, is God done with you? Has he weighed you and
found you wanting? Absolutely not!
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I have to tell you … Last week, I hit a couple of pretty depressing days. That seems to happen
to me sometimes, and once I get into that darkness it can be hard to pull myself out. When it
happens I’ll find myself wondering where God is … questioning His plan for me … wondering
if he’s forgotten me or if somehow he’s moved on. Maybe that’s why this message this
morning means so much to me. I need to know … even when I can’t feel it … that God keeps
his promises. Listen: If he has called you by name, he will not forget you. The best news of all
is that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never extinguish it.
During the days of the holocaust, someone sat in a cellar in Cologne, Germany … someone who
was hiding from the Nazis. No one knows who it was or how long they were there or how
much they cried out to God in those horrific days. But at some point, having waited and cried
and searched and waited some more, that person came to an awesome conclusion. And they
scratched these words on the wall of that cellar where they hid:
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining
I believe in love even when I do not feel it.
I believe in God even when He is silent.
The one thing that must be true … before anything else about God can be true … is that God
keeps his word. And if God keeps his word, then there is no place you can go that’s too far
from him, no place he won’t go to bring you home. This is true for you, for me, for the Jews
and for the world. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, its true.
Will you stand and pray with me?
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