How to Reach Jewish People with the Good News By Rabbi Jack Zimmerman
Table of Contents Why bother sharing with Jewish People?... 2 Terminology: What to say and what not to say.... 3 Perception is reality: The Cross... 4 Friendship Evangelism... 5 5 Things you may not know about Jewish people:... 8 Orthodox Jews... 9 Conservative Jews... 11 Reform Judaism... 12 Messianic Prophecies in the Tanach... 15 Crucifixion... 15 Virgin Birth... 17 Messiah suffering on our behalf... 18 Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem... 20 Messiah pierced... 20 Time of His Coming... 21 Birth in Bethlehem... 22 Jewish Objections to Jesus... 23 Objection 1:... 23 Objection 2:... 24 Objection 3:... 25 Objection 4:... 27 Objection 5:... 27 Objection 6:... 28 Objection 7:... 29 The Kosher Road to Salvation... 31 1
Why bother sharing with Jewish People? There is a Godly calling specifically for this. Romans 11:11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their false step salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke Israel to jealousy. (TLV) You have a role in God s end time plan of salvation and return of Jesus. Romans 11:25-26 For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be ignorant of this mystery lest you be wise in your own eyes that a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer shall come out of Zion. He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob (TLV) 2
Terminology: What to say and what not to say. Instead of Jesus Christ* Convert Baptize Trinity Old Testament Say Yeshua Messiah (or Mashiach) Messianic Jew Immerse Echad Tanach * Christ-killer is an all too common charge leveled against Jewish people. 3
Perception is reality: The Cross Christian view: Symbol of the atonement and God s love in sacrificing his own son for us. It represents Jesus victory over sin and death. Jewish view: Symbol of oppression and persecution. 4
Friendship Evangelism Most who come to Yeshua are won through the ministry of friends or relatives. Pitfall 1: Don't befriend a Jewish person just to "get them saved". The person will sense this and feel you are only interested in them as a conquest. Let your friendship be genuine. It must not be dependent on your friend's response to the Gospel. Pitfall 2: We ve been friends for years. I haven t shared the Good News with them yet, but they see Yeshua through my friendship and love and they will eventually accept Yeshua as their Messiah. Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on the One in whom they have not trusted? And how shall they trust in the One they have not heard of? And how shall they hear without someone proclaiming? (TLV) 5
Pitfall 3: I don t know enough of the Bible to adequately witness; I have to be better equipped first. Isaiah 55:11 so My word will be that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to Me in vain, but will accomplish what I intend, and will succeed in what I sent it for. (TLV) Pitfall 4: I can t stand rejection; what if they say no? Rejoice! A Barna Research Group survey from the 90 s showed that on average, the Gospel needs to be presented to a person about 25 times before they accept it. Their no does not lead them further from salvation, but closer to it. 6
Invite your Jewish friend to Church but first: Find out what the worship team is singing. For example, the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy by Reginald Heber contains lyrics that speak specifically of the Holy Trinity. Certain Christian doctrines may need to be established with your Jewish friend beforehand or at least discussed afterwards, to avoid confusion or misconception. Find out what the Pastor is preaching. Sermons revolving around the Old Testament may provide relatable material and a positive overall experience for your Jewish friend. 7
5 Things you may not know about Jewish people: 1. Jewish people believe that if they accept Jesus they will no longer be Jewish. 2. Most Jewish people are not particularly religious, and instead live out their Jewishness through culture and tradition. Only 1 out of 10 Jewish people regularly attend their own synagogue. 3. Most Jewish people don t accept the divine authority of their own Old Testament. (Tanach) 4. Most don t know that Yeshua was Jewish and the New Testament was written by Jews. They view the New Testament as a Christian book about another religion. Some think Jesus was a Jew who converted to Christianity! 5. Jewish people know that if they were to consider Yeshua, their families and friends would not understand them, and some might even disown them. 8
Orthodox Jews Beliefs - 6% of Jews. Emphasis on tradition and strict observance of the Law of Moses as interpreted by the rabbis. The greatest prophet was Moses and no other prophet can come later and change his words. The "Messiah" has not yet come. Jesus has no place in Orthodox Judaism. No original sin. Jewish people are chosen ; they don t need salvation. God taught the Oral Torah to Moses, and Moses taught it to others, down to the present day, but did not write all of it down. This tradition was maintained only in oral form until about the 2nd century, when it was written down in a document called the Mishnah. Over the next few centuries, additional commentaries on the Mishnah were written. These commentaries are known as the Gemara. The Gemara and the Mishnah together are known as the Talmud. 9
Exodus 24:4 So Moses wrote down all the words of Adonai, then rose up early in the morning, and built an altar below the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. (TLV) 13 Principles of faith 1. God alone is creator. 2. God is unique and one. 3. God is Spirit and does not have a body. 4. God existed prior to everything else. 5. We are to pray to God alone. 6. The words of the Hebrew prophets are true. 7. Moses is the greatest prophet. 8. The Torah is from God. 9. Torah can t be added to or taken away. 10. God knows all things. 11. God rewards the righteous. 12. The Messiah will come. 13. The dead will be resurrected. 10
Conservative Jews Beliefs - 35% of Jews. Conserve Jewish tradition while allowing Torah to evolve to meet the individual s needs today. Middle ground between Orthodox and Reform. God is impersonal. No original sin. Sin is committing immoral or anti-social acts. Not necessarily belief in a Messiah, but in a Messianic Age to come. The Messiah is a human being who is not divine. He will restore the Jewish kingdom and extend his righteous rule over the earth. He will execute judgment and right all wrongs. No concept of life after death. No certainty in heaven or hell. 11
Reform Judaism Beliefs - 38% of Jews. Jewish religious Law is not binding. Progressive revelation and greater openness to external influences. Emphasizes ethics. Varied interpretation of the God concept. No original sin. Sin is viewed as the ills of society. Salvation is betterment of self; social improvement. Not necessarily belief in a Messiah, but in a Messianic Age to come. No concept of life after death. No certainty of heaven or hell. 12
Varying Viewpoints All three types of Jews can interpret the same scripture to varying degrees. For example: Exodus 23:19 Bring the choicest firstfruits of your land into the House of Adonai your God. Do not boil a kid in its mother s milk. (TLV) Orthodox: Separate sets of dishes, silverware and even kitchens for meat and dairy. Conservative: Should I eat a cheeseburger? Reform: I love Five Guys! 13
If Jewish people no longer sacrifice animals, how do they receive atonement for sin? Most Jews celebrate the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur to atone for sin. Leviticus 23:26-32 Adonai spoke to Moses, saying: However, the tenth day of this seventh month is Yom Kippur, a holy convocation to you, so you are to afflict yourselves. You are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai. You are not to do any kind of work on that set day, for it is Yom Kippur, to make atonement for you before Adonai your God. For anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. Anyone who does any kind of work on that day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You should do no kind of work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It is to be a Shabbat of solemn rest for you, and you are to humble your souls. On the ninth day of the month in the evening from evening until evening you are to keep your Shabbat. (TLV) 14
Messianic Prophecies in the Tanach Crucifixion Psalm 22 For the music director, on The Doe of the Dawn, a psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Distant from my salvation are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cried out by day, but You did not answer, by night, but there was no rest for me. Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our fathers put their trust. They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered. In You they trusted, and were not disappointed. Am I a worm, and not a man? Am I a scorn of men, despised by people? All who see me mock me. They curl their lips, shaking their heads: Rely on Adonai! Let Him deliver him! Let Him rescue him since he delights in Him! Yet You brought me out of the womb, made me secure at my mother s breasts. From the womb I was cast on You from my mother s womb You have been my God. Be not far from me! For trouble is near 15
there is no one to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan encircled me. They open wide their mouths against me, like a tearing, roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax melting within my innards. My strength is dried up like a clay pot, my tongue clings to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has closed in on me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They stare, they gape at me. They divide my clothes among them, and cast lots for my garment. But You, Adonai, be not far off! O my strength! Come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword my only one from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion s mouth. From the horns of the wild oxen rescue me. I will declare Your Name to my brothers. I will praise You amid the congregation. You who fear Adonai, praise Him! All Jacob s descendants, glorify Him! Revere Him, all you seed of Israel. For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the lowly one. Nor has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard. 16
From You is my praise in the great assembly. I will fulfill my vows before those who fear Him. Let the poor eat and be satisfied. Let them who seek after Him praise Adonai. May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Adonai. All the families of the nations will bow down before You. For the kingdom belongs to Adonai, and He rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship. Everyone who goes down to the dust will kneel before Him even the one who could not keep his own soul alive. His posterity will serve him, telling the next generation about my Lord. They will come and declare His righteousness to a people yet to be born because He has done it! (TLV) Virgin Birth Isaiah 7:14 Therefore Adonai Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive. When she is giving birth to a son, she will call his name Immanuel. (TLV) 17
Messiah suffering on our behalf Isaiah 53 Who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of ADONAI revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, nor beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, One from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our pains. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, struck by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us turned to his own way. So ADONAI has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He did not open His mouth. 18
Like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. Because of oppression and judgment He was taken away. As for His generation, who considered? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people the stroke was theirs His grave was given with the wicked, and by a rich man in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased ADONAI to bruise Him. He caused Him to suffer. If He makes His soul a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the will of ADONAI will succeed by His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul He will see it and be satisfied by His knowledge. The Righteous One, My Servant will make many righteous and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoil with the mighty because He poured out His soul to death, and was counted with transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. (TLV) 19
Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, a righteous one bringing salvation. He is lowly, riding on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (TLV) Messiah pierced Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, when they will look toward Me whom they pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for a firstborn. (TLV) 20
Time of His Coming Daniel 9:24-27 Seventy weeks are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to put an end to transgression to bring sin to an end, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. So know and understand: From the issuing of the decree to restore and to build Jerusalem until the time Mashiach, the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It will be rebuilt, with plaza and moat, but it will be in times of distress. Then after the 62 weeks Mashiach will be cut off and have nothing. Then the people of a prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. But his end will come like a flood. Until the end of the war that is decreed there will be destruction. Then he will make a firm covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. 21
And on a wing of abominations will come one who destroys, until the decreed annihilation is poured out on the one who destroys. (TLV) Birth in Bethlehem Micah 5:2 Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the remnant of His brothers will return to Bnei-Yisrael. (TLV) 22
Objection 1: Jewish Objections to Jesus When the Messiah comes, he s supposed to bring peace. Yeshua can t be the Messiah, because he didn t bring peace when he came. Response: The Messiah will bring peace when he returns in the Last Days, not his first coming. Isaiah 2:2,4 It will come to pass in the last days that the mountain of Adonai s House will stand firm as head of the mountains and will be exalted above the hills. So all nations will flow to it. Then many peoples will go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the House of the God of Jacob! Then He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of Adonai from Jerusalem. 23
He will judge between the nations and decide for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war any more. (TLV) Objection 2: Isaiah 7:14 is not a prophecy of the virgin birth. The Hebrew says young woman, not virgin. Isaiah 7:14 Therefore Adonai Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive. When she is giving birth to a son, she will call his name Immanuel. (TLV) Response: It is understood that the young woman is a virgin. The words for young woman and virgin do not contradict, but only support each other. They are often used interchangeably. 24
ע ל מ ה (Almah) Young woman ב ת ול ה (Betulah) Virgin Isaiah 7:14 Therefore Adonai Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the young woman (almah) ע ל מ ה will conceive. When she is giving birth to a son, she will call his name Immanuel. (TLV) Genesis 24:16 Now the young woman was very good looking, a girl of.ב ת ול ה (Betulah) marriageable age, and she was a virgin She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. (TLV) Objection 3: If God the Father is God, and Yeshua is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, that s three Gods! We Jews believe only in One God. We follow Monotheism; you Christians follow Polytheism. That s idolatry, and against our beliefs. 25
Response: There are multiple versions of the word one in Hebrew and God identifies himself as echad, not yachid, in the Shemah the centerpiece of Jewish prayer and belief: Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one (echad) (TLV).א ח ד One (Yachid) י ח יד only, solitary Genesis 22:2 Then He said, Take your son, your only (yachid) י ח יד son whom you love Isaac and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains about which I will tell you. (TLV) One (Echad) א ח ד plural one, one in unity Genesis 2:24 This is why a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife; and they become one (echad) א ח ד flesh. (TLV) 26
Objection 4: Jews do not believe in original sin. Response: Original sin was confirmed by David in his 51 st Psalm. Psalm 51:7 Behold, I was born in iniquity and in sin when my mother conceived me. (TLV) Objection 5: If God hates human sacrifice, how could He accept Yeshua s sacrifice as atonement for our sins? Response: Yeshua s sacrifice does not violate the prohibition on human sacrifice, as He was not merely a human, like us, but sent by God directly for this purpose. 27
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased Adonai to bruise Him. He caused Him to suffer. If He makes His soul a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the will of Adonai will succeed by His hand. (TLV) Objection 6: We Jews don t believe that a man can become God. Response: That is true, but God can take the form of a man. Genesis 32:25-30 So Jacob remained all by himself. Then a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When He saw that He had not overcome him, He struck the socket of his hip, so He dislocated the socket of Jacob s hip when He wrestled with him. Then He said, Let Me go, for the dawn has broken. But he said, I won t let You go unless You bless me. Then He said to him, What is your name? 28
Jacob, he said. Then He said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but rather Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and you have overcome. Then Jacob asked and said, Please tell me Your name. But He said, What s this you are asking My name? Then He blessed him there. (TLV) Objection 7: The Messiah has to be in the line of David. Yeshua is not, because while Joseph may be a descendant of David, Joseph is not Yeshua s blood father. Response: While Jewish people accounted family through the father, Jewishness was passed on through the mother. Mary was also a descendant of David 29
Also, in the eyes of the Law of the time, Joseph was the Father. By taking Mary as his wife, he could lawfully claim Yeshua as his son. John 6:41-42 Some of the Judeans started to grumble about Him, because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They were saying, Isn t this Yeshua the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, I have come down from heaven? (TLV) 30
The Kosher Road to Salvation 1. Heaven and Hell are real 2 Kings 2:1 Now it came to pass, when Adonai was about to take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. (TLV) Psalm 9:18 The wicked will turn to Sheol, as will all the nations that forget God. (TLV) 2. Good deeds aren t enough Isaiah 64:5 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a filthy garment, and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away, like the wind. (TLV) 31
3. Sacrifice is still necessary Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life. (TLV) 4. Who is that Sacrifice? Isaiah 53:5 But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (TLV) The Road leads to Yeshua (literally Hebrew for salvation )! 32