The Messiah King of Israel and Messiah's Community

 A friend posted this quote

 

“It is the duty of every minister of Christ to explain the mystery of Israel. It is a part of our holy religion. It belongs to the counsel of God. It is inseparably connected with the truth as it is in Jesus.”

—Adolph Saphir

A person replied ““The duty of every minister is to explain the mystery of Israel”. While certainly Israel had a big part to play, and seems to have a place in eschatology, I can find no Apostolic command for future ministers to emphasize such a thing. The duty of every minister, according to Apostolic doctrine, is to preach Jesus Christ.”

It is important to realize that , that response flows from literally hundreds of years of teaching that tries to create a new category called “church” with a new head called “Christ” and followers called “Christians”.  This new thing that was birthed at Pentecost has as its goal, individual salvation.  That salvation has Jesus as your helper in this life and an opportunity to connect to other believers in a not too binding way.   Mainly you are saved and can look forward to heaven where everything is good.

Jesus/Yeshua is actually the long-awaited, long-prophesied, Messiah  King of Israel.  Both Mary and John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah emphasize this truth in the early chapters of Luke.  Paul always made it a point to go into synagogues when he went into new towns to preach this Messiah  King to the Jews who had thousands of years of the Law and the prophets built into their lives.  Jesus said to go to the Jew first because they would be best able to tie all this together for the gentiles so that they would have  the perspective of all the works that God had been doing through Abraham and His descendants.  Paul does make it clear that you don’t have to be Jewish to be saved from the wrath to come by the saving work of Jesus on the cross, all who believe are saved, but Paul never converts from being a Jew who is teaching and displaying this message to the Jews and the gentiles.

Did you notice how all the examples of faith in Hebrews 11 are Jewish believers?  Did you notice how “church” is used in Acts  7:38 “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:”  

Messiah’s community would be the very best translation for ekklesia from the Greek.  Messiah’s community would keep us connected to our Jewish heritage.  As followers of the crucified Messiah we would know that our home is not in this age, we are not to get comfortable here, we live knowing that there is a final reckoning coming for this age, when all the evil, disease, and death will be eliminated.  Our lives joined intimately with other disciples of the Lamb, point to a future Kingdom ruled by the Messiah King.  Death and the trials of this age do not define or control us, we are free. 

The self-sacrificial love within Messiah’s community is a powerful draw to those around us.  Ultimately our debt to Israel as gentile followers of the Messiah flows out of us as a willingness to pay whatever cost to see them come to a place where they can see the One whom they have pierced and turn to Him with their whole heart.  We are so connected to the heart of the Messiah King that we count it a privilege to be used in any way to reconnect Him to His chosen people.  

Isaiah 35:3 “Strengthen the limp hands,

make firm the wobbly knees.

4 

Say to those with anxious heart,

“Be strong, have no fear!”

Behold, your God!

Vengeance is coming!

God’s recompense—it is coming!

Then He will save you.

5 

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6 

Then the lame will leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute will sing.

For water will burst forth in the desert

    and streams in the wilderness.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-10

 Paul starts his second letter to the Thessalonians with a quick summary of the basic foundational view of this evil age, the day of the Lord and the coming kingdom.  

2 Thes. 1:3-10 "3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you."

The disciples in Thessalonica are enduring persecution, growing in love for each other and persevering in the faith.  They do all this knowing on the Day of the Lord, God will judge everything exactly right, and He will make everything right.  Then the glory of the Kingdom follows.  

This view, this understanding, enables a life of faithful discipleship.  We are not disappointed in this age or its many instances of over-promising and under-delivering, our hope is not in this age or in any of the powers of this age. Our hope is in The Lord of the coming Kingdom, and it is one day closer.

Kingdom Power is to Persevere Through "this Evil Age"

 Often times the correct interpretation of a verse is found in its context.  1 Corinthians 4:20 is popular in the "kingdom now" perspective, but in its context the POWER is the power to persevere in love, faith and trust during the trials and tribulations of this evil age.  Paul reminds the gentile believers in Corinth that the power of God has not come to make them rich and rulers in this age.  The apostolic call and therefore the call on all believers is to endure, to persevere to the end of this evil age.  To hold to and cling to the promise and the hope of the age to come.  The death of Yeshua on the cross covers our sins and purchases our pardon on the day of the Lord that allows us to go into the age to come in the same resurrection life that Yeshua now has.  Glory to God for the mercy He extends to us.  1 Cor. 4:8 "Already you are full! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish you were kings, so we also might be kings with you! 9 For it seems to me that God has put us, the emissaries, on display last of all—like men sentenced to death. For we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. 10 We are fools for Messiah’s sake, but you are wise in Messiah! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are dishonored! 11 To this very hour we are both hungry and thirsty, dressed in rags and mistreated and homeless. 12 We toil, working with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. 13 When we are slandered, we speak kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the dregs of all things—even to this moment.

14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to warn you as my dearly loved children. 15 For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Messiah, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Messiah Yeshua, I became your father through the Good News. 16 I urge you therefore—be imitators of me. 17 For this reason I have sent you Timothy, my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways in Messiah, just as I teach everywhere in every community.

18 Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing; and I will find out not the talk of those who are puffed up, but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist of talk but of power."

How to Overcome Sin

 Put this out there as my answer to the battle with sin.   So the first step as you have said, is recognizing the truth of our condition. We cannot change, turn over a new leaf, try harder, set boundaries or in any way "will" ourselves to an overcoming of sin. In baptism, if we truly understand rightly what is happening (Romans 6 is helpful) we die, the life inside of us that drives us to sin, dies. 

From there we need to get out of the habit of sinning by focusing on the Lamb who was slain and His resurrection life inside of us, calling us home, calling us up and out of Babylon.

 Changing our focus results in the overcoming of the habit and desire of sin, (2 Cor. 3:18) and remembering to express gratitude for the truth that at baptism that person died. EVEN WHEN HE STILL APPEARS TO BE ALIVE. 

Lastly as the end of Romans 7 and the beginning of 8 say, we need to step out from under all condemnation and run to the God who loves to show mercy. (Micah 7:18).

 That is the path to victory over sin, moment by moment day by day. Marantha! 

This evil age is coming to a close, 

our hope is in the age to come, 

let's show each other the way home!