TO THE JEW FIRST!

True freedom for God’s chosen people can only come from the gospel

Earlier this year, when we marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz, I felt it was a good time to ponder the spiritual liberation
that will truly set God’s chosen people free. And it’s worth recalling that
it wasn’t Moses who set them free from slavery in Egypt, but the blood
of a lamb!

The merciless slaughter of six million Jews by one of the most advanced,
‘civilised’ nations on earth, should remind us of the depth of depravity
of which man is capable. Any thoughts of his inherent goodness are
surely shattered by the Nazis’ ethnic cleansing that wiped out a third of
worldwide Jewry.

The truth is that man is born with a corrupt, sinful nature which can
only be rectified by the gospel: the sacrifice for sin of the Jewish Messiah
that restores our relationship with the living God.
With this in mind, the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust is exacerbated by
the negative effect it has had on Jewish evangelism. Christians, for the
most part, have put Jewish mission on the back-burner, or ditched it
altogether.

Because the common perception among many Jews today is still that
they were sent to the gas chambers by ‘Christian’ nations (and there is
undoubtedly some truth in this), it has understandably hardened their
hearts against the message of hope they so desperately need. At the
same time, ‘the Church’ at large has backed off, regarding Jewish
mission as a ‘no-go’ area – whether out of guilt, wrong theology or a
misunderstanding of history.

Some believe Jews forfeited their right as God’s chosen people by their
national rejection of Jesus and have thus been replaced by the church.
Others believe Jews have their own covenant through which a right
standing with God can be obtained. But the gospel “is the power of God
unto salvation for all who believe; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile”.
(Rom 1.16)

Denying the gospel to the Jews is the height of anti-Semitism because we
are thus withholding the liberating message of their own Messiah from
the very people for whom he came. (John 1.11)

Ensuring that the Shoah is never repeated is a noble pursuit, but our
desire for the salvation of the Jews should be paramount, as it was for
the Apostle Paul, who wrote: “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and
prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” (Rom 10.1) Yet in
many churches, it is hard to find any evidence for such concern.

A lesson from history: Christian mission to the Jews was hugely
successful in both the 19th and early 20th centuries. Records show that
over 200,000 Jews became believers in Yeshua during the 19th century
while various Jewish missions including CMJ reported that as many as
229,000 Jews had become followers of Jesus by the outbreak of World
War II in 1939. Many of the latter would have perished in the
concentration camps, though surely not without sharing the comfort of
Messiah with their fellow sufferers.

Such a spiritual harvest was a direct result of the great evangelical
awakening heralded by the likes of John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon and
Bishop J C Ryle, all of whom made much of the vital need for Jewish
evangelism in particular and for blessing the Jews in general.
This in turn had the world-changing knock-on effect of supporting
Zionist aspirations which led to the British government’s Balfour
Declaration of 1917 and ultimately to the re-birth of Israel as a nation in
their ancient land.

Yet despite the slackening of evangelical focus on God’s chosen people
along with the emotional obstacles of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust
to which I have referred, we are now witnessing Jewish disciples of
Jesus making an impact out of all proportion to their still relatively low
numbers. As one of them told our 2017 tour group in Galilee, 90 percent
of Jewish believers come to faith through the witness of Gentiles. So
imagine what a harvest we could reap if we were all pulling our weight!
It seems that the best way of spreading the gospel around the world is to
make the Jews our priority, which is how it all began with Jesus himself.

The Apostle Paul, though called primarily to the Gentiles, practiced
what he preached by first sharing the gospel message with the Jews in
the various synagogues of his missionary journeys including Cyprus,
Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth. He
wasn’t always well received, but it’s interesting to note that in Berea,
where the Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica
in that they “received the message with great eagerness and examined the
Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17.11f), there
would seem to have been a rich harvest among both Jews and Gentiles!
Would our gospel harvest be greater if we once more prioritised Jewish
mission?

Cambridge-based Rev Charles Simeon, one of the leading evangelical
figures of the 19th century, certainly believed so. The story goes that
while preaching passionately of the Jews’ future spiritual restoration
ushering in a worldwide revival, he was passed a note by a friend,
stating: “Six million Jews and 600 million Gentiles – which is more
important?” (This was a reference to Jews representing 1% of the world’s
population at the time. The figure today is 0.1%)

Simeon apparently scribbled back, “If the conversion of the six is to be life
from the dead of the 600, what then?” (He was referring to Roman 11.15
where Paul asks: “…If their rejection brought reconciliation to the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”). The Jews were the
key, he was saying. The gospel is for the Jew first!

It’s also a more powerful way of presenting the gospel – even to
Gentiles! For example, I recently found myself engaged in deep
conversation with two lady hairdressers (I was having my haircut) about
Passover, and how it was fulfilled by Jesus dying on the cross. I have
never felt such freedom in proclaiming the gospel.

Romans 1.16 is really an extension of one of the most fundamental truths
in all the Bible – that if you bless the seed of Abraham, you will be
blessed, but if you curse them, you will come under judgment (Gen
12.3). And there is no better way of blessing anyone than sharing the
gospel with them. Besides, we owe it to them, as Paul also tells the
Romans, though in the context of offering material help because we have
shared in their spiritual blessings. (Rom 15.27) For they gave us the
patriarchs, the prophets, the Scriptures – and Jesus himself!

In this respect, it’s important to emphasise that there is not a dichotomy
between the spiritual and political with regard to Israel. They are
intertwined with each other. They have inherited both a land and
everlasting love from the Lord! Why all the fuss over Israel? some
Christians ask. Because Jesus has a special interest in their restoration –
both physically and spiritually. He is looking to that time when the body
and spirit come together as one, as it were. As individuals, we are born
of the flesh, then of the Spirit (John 3.3). As a nation, Israel is restored to
their land, and will then recognise Messiah and follow him (Ezekiel
36.24-26).

As with the confession of Nathanael at the start of Messiah’s ministry –
“You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel” – the second coming of
Jesus also has a significance for both heaven (Son of God) and earth
(King of Israel).

So why was it that the secular media (particularly the BBC) gave
widespread coverage to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz while there was a deafening silence from the church in
general? (Apart from the Christians of High Wycombe, who publicly
confessed their mistreatment of Jews over the centuries).

Why does it take para-church organisations like Christian Friends of
Israel to stand up for the truth? And why were Christians not dancing in
the streets following last December’s election – not over Brexit, but
because we had somewhat miraculously been spared a Jew-hating,
Marxist regime? If we Christians are not standing up for the Jews, there
is something seriously wrong with our theology.

Almost four decades ago, the Lord gave me clear direction for an
evangelistic project through Isaiah 52.7: “How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him who brings good news…” But it was only much
more recently that I realised the context of that particular passage was
over those who bring good news to Zion…to the Jewish people, telling
them: “Your God reigns!”

I had the tremendous privilege of doing just that on my second visit to
Israel in 2014 when I volunteered for an open mic performance at a
nightspot called Mike’s Place on the Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. The bar
manager lent me his guitar and I sang a couple of songs in front of a
roomful of twenty-somethings, including You raise me up, effectively a
worship song although not mentioning God by name. When I returned
to my seat, a young Jewish man thanked me for my songs and asked, or
rather declared: “You were singing about Jesus, weren’t you?”

That sparked a long conversation about why I follow the Jewish
Messiah, and why there was nothing to stop him doing the same. As it
happens, his name was Moshe, translated Moses in English! I explained
how, just as his ancestors were freed from slavery in Egypt by the blood
of the lamb daubed on the lintels and doorposts of their houses, so the
blood of Jesus gives us true freedom when we mark it on our hearts, as it
were, in acknowledgement of our trust in its saving power. It was an
awesome privilege to share how Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of
Passover with a modern Moses!

So if you wish to make an impact on our troubled world, preach the
gospel – to the Jew first if you can!