You, The Gospel & Jewish People Ii Series

When I first became convinced that Jewish outreach was to be a priority, I made a point of meeting some Jewish people at a Christians United for Israel dinner here in Israel. I met a relatively young Jewish medical doctor there and then a week or so later, boldly called him up at his practice to see if I could schedule a time to come and pray with him. Of course, his receptionist had no idea what to do with that kind of request, and the doctor apparently was standing next to her as she took the call. And he, with surprising good cheer, scheduled me for an appointment early one afternoon on a Monday in June.

So, I showed up at his clinic wondering how our discussion might go only to find that it wouldn’t. As I stood at the counter and told the receptionist I had an appointment with Dr. so and so, she looked very puzzled. The Dr. wasn’t in. In fact, the Doctor hadn’t been in for several days and wouldn’t be in for several more. He had taken the entire week off for the celebration of the Jewish holiday Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Law to Israel. And it suddenly began to dawn on me that I had had my first experience of the difficulties involved with Jewish evangelism. Often, you will not be welcomed, and in fact, if there’s opportunity, you may well be abused. This doctor had chosen to make clear his attitude toward “Christian missionaries” by deceiving me and wasting my time in coming for an appointment that didn’t exist, I’m sure, just to teach me a lesson. I found it odd that here was a devout Jew celebrating the giving of the Law who had no qualms about breaking the Law—lying, and not loving his neighbor as himself—in order to punish any Christian who might even think about bringing the Good News to him.

So, it was on to my next appointment—lunch at a diner owned by another Jewish person I had met at the conference. This one went much better. A good relationship developed and lasted for about a year—I even got him and his wife and kids to show up at church one Sunday. But it ended suddenly when he abruptly told me in a text simply to leave him alone.

And, so it goes for those who venture into Jewish evangelism. No, not all end this way, But it’s a tough ministry. A tough ministry because you’re dealing with the very hardened hearts of Jewish people predicted by their own Scriptures thousands of years ago and quoted in Romans 10 and 11 as we have seen last week and this. My experience was mild compared to the Apostle Paul’s, who, even as a Jew himself, admitted as much when he wrote the church at Thessalonica, Greece in the first century—I Thessalonians 2:14-17: “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and ]drove us out. ]They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, 16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them ]to the utmost.”

Now it’s a dangerous thing to generalize about any group of people. And Paul’s experience with Jewish people and the Gospel might cause us to be prejudiced against them. And, of course, it raises the whole question about how we should relate to Jewish people, especially in light of their aversion to the Gospel. We continue to address this subject as Paul does in Romans 11 this week. And what we’re going to learn is that it is extremely important not to return their hostility, or to persecute them as they might persecute us. Rather, he tells us to be humble and to fear, because God can be gracious or severe to Jew or Gentile—based on our humble faith in Him, or the lack thereof.

Now I want to take a moment to remind you of God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants as we found it last week in Genesis 12:3. This is what makes this topic very relevant to all of us. When God called Abraham He gave Him this promise: “And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who [a]curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

This tells us that our/your blessing to some degree depends on your relationship to Jewish people—If you bless them, you will be blessed, but if you curse them, you will be cursed. And it also tells us that all of us who have come to salvation through faith in Jesus have already been blessed because of the Jews. We are among all the families, or nations, or Gentiles of the earth who have been blessed through Abraham’s seed, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, our Savior.