Weird by David Brickner, executive director Photos Jews for Jesus/Rachel Friedlander You re weird! she blurted out to me. I was in the fifth grade and was trying to win a young girl s affection. Her remark assaulted my confidence, so I slunk away hot-faced with embarrassment. I thought about this incident recently when I participated in a special Jews for Jesus outreach in New York City. One of the slogans our team came up with caught my attention as well as that of many New Yorkers: Keeping Jewish weird since 32 a.d. We focused our efforts primarily on three college campuses: New York University, Baruch College and Brooklyn College. We wore it on T-shirts, used it in literature and in social media. So I certainly needed to have the meaning of this particular slogan explained to me and perhaps you do as well. What I discovered is that for young people today, weird has a positive, not a negative, connotation. To be called weird is considered a badge of honor. Weird now means different and unique qualities which younger audiences value and identify with. They want a break from the expected, standard conventions of society. We adapted our slogan from a movement in the more hipster cities of Portland and Austin. They employed the expressions, Keeping Austin Weird and Keeping Portland Weird as positive statements for younger For young people today, weird is considered a badge of honor. residents. I witnessed first-hand how our Keeping Jewish Weird slogan made a favorable impression on many Jewish college students in New York. People who were curious about our statement would stop and ask us for an explanation. One Jewish student came up to me and said, I just love this. I have one of your cards on my bulletin board in my dorm room. Over and over again, our catchphrase became a prompt for indepth gospel conversations (see pages 6 7 of this newsletter). I became intrigued by this evolving concept of weird. I discovered that this newer definition is actually more in keeping with the original old English meaning of the word, initially spelled wird, but always pronounced as we do today. The meaning not only described something as unique and different, but it also intimated an element of the supernatural something to do with a special act of God. As I reflected on this and considered the meaning of our Advent season, at the risk of sounding irreverent, it seems appropriate for us to say that the incarnation of our Messiah Jesus was weird. Stop and think about it. The fact that the Creator of all heaven and In this edition December 2016 (continued on page 2) The uniqueness of the incarnation. 1 Announcements, prayer prompters and cartoon... 3 Bits from our branches in Moscow, the Israeli Massah team and Toronto... 4 News from our New York outreach... 6 Celebration of Light chart... 8
(continued from page 1) earth was willing to humble Himself and take upon Himself the form of sinful humanity, that He entered this world uninvited and mostly unwelcomed in order to save us from our sin this is astounding, unique and supernatural. Only God could do something so unexpected and different and loving and yes weird and we should be praising and thanking Him for it every day. Unfortunately, most people do not see, nor do they understand, the wonder of the incarnation. If they do acknowledge the season, they are caught up in the more mundane, banal, non-weird elements of the holidays. We have a powerful opportunity to communicate God s story this month. Now I am not suggesting we print up T-shirts and literature with a slogan, Making Advent Weird since 3 b.c. give or take a year, * but I would like to think we could convey in a fresh sense the wonder, the unique and awesome truths of God s grace in the birth of Christ. It seems to me that those who hear the claims of Scripture concerning the incarnation have a choice as to whether they believe it is weird, or truly weird. Many people believe the incarnation to be weird in the sense of my elementary school understanding of the word. I remember one time several years ago, while handing out literature, I was approached by a Jewish skeptic who challenged me, Do you really believe Jesus was God? Yes, I do, I responded. Well, he smirked, don t you think it strange that God had to have his mother change His diapers? I was initially taken aback by the irreverent tone and manner in which his challenge was put to me and I simply answered, No, I don t have a problem with it. I wish I could have that moment back, because this man didn t realize that in his sarcasm he was actually approaching the unique truth behind the glory of the incarnation and the wonder of the gospel. I Unfortunately, most people do not see, nor do they understand, the wonder of the incarnation. would have liked to have told my cynical passerby, You have touched on the most phenomenal part of this story, something the Jewish Scriptures actually foretold. The prophets indicated that the Messiah Himself would be born a human being, and that He would experience every aspect of human flesh all in order that God might lovingly rescue His lost creation, people like you and me. More than the normal indignities of diapers, through this incredible event Messiah became a man in order to suffer all the humiliations we humans can undergo in this life, even that He would be despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53). Think about the rejection and pain Jesus endured and all that eventually led Him to the cross. He knows our pain because He carried it. He knows our rejection because He endured it. It was because Jesus was rejected that we can now be accepted by God. His humiliation and rejection purchased our salvation, our forgiveness of sin and our welcome into God s presence. Because of this we can have the hope of spending forever in His presence where there will be no more tears, no more pain and no more rejection. So diapers are the least challenging part of the story for me to believe about Jesus. It is just a very small detail in the demonstration of the deep, abiding love of God for you and for me. I don t know that this man would have stuck around to hear my answer, but I am praying the Lord will give each one of us many opportunities to tell this weird and wonderful story in the days to come. Let s pray that He does and that many hearts would be open to receive God s greatest gift to humanity Yeshua His salvation. Find out more about David Brickner, his writings, speaking schedule and possible availability to speak at your church at jewsforjesus.org/david-brickner. *Historians and calendar experts originally got it wrong and now most believe Jesus was actually born 3 or 4 b.c. We exist to make the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide. Jews for Jesus international headquarters: 60 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94102-5895; phone: (415) 864-2600; email: jfj@jewsforjesus.org; web: jewsforjesus.org; also working in: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom; guest editor: Laura Barron; art director: Paige Saunders; design and illustration: David Yapp; ISSN 0740-5901 Volume 3:5777, December 2016; 2016
Wish someone a Happy Hanukkah! Hanukkah is an eight-day holiday and this year the first night of Hanukkah begins on Christmas Eve! This has only happened four times in the last 100 years. It is a good reminder to wish your Jewish friends and acquaintances a Happy Hanukkah during this season of light. Look for more about Hanukkah at jewsforjesus.org/judaica/hanukkah and don t miss our chart on page 8 of this newsletter. For your convenience The enclosed envelope is not a request, but a convenience for those who want to give. For those who want to give online, this URL makes it easy and secure! j4j.co/nl1612 Get online news of Jews for Jesus around the world! Check out this month s RealTime for timely prayer requests and stories from the field at: jewsforjesus.org/ publications/realtime. Or subscribe to RealTime and receive great content directly: j4j.co/subemail Please pray for: more opportunities for all of us to explain the unique message of salvation to people we encounter during this holiday season God s blessing on our special holiday outreaches around the world salvation for Alex and the other contacts from our campaign in Moscow, Rinat and the other Massah contacts in India and in Israel and for Terry in Toronto continued grace for our ministry in Russia under the new antiterrorism laws salvation for Samuel, Josiah, Andy, Donald and Isaiah from the New York outreach continued ministry to the Jewish students on campuses in New York and for our missionaries as they connect with the Jewish people they met during their special outreach God s light to shine through us during the celebrations of Christmas and of Hanukkah Did you know that black squirrels are predominant in Canada? A new year a new look! We are restyling our newsletter beginning in 2017. You will be getting an eight-page quarterly newsletter in March, June, September and December and four-page editions the rest of the year. This month s banner photo features Susan Perlman, First Assistant to the Executive Director, serving on the 2016 New York outreach. Photo by Rachel Friedlander 3
Ilya Dmitry From Moscow, Ilya Khaimovich reports: The Jews for Jesus staff has been prayerfully concerned about the impact on our ministry of the new anti-terrorism law that was passed in Russia. We were especially concerned by how it could affect our bold public proclamation of the gospel. Recently while I was on a sortie, I was stopped by the police and I spent about 40 minutes in their office. They looked through all of my documents, looked at my permit for missionary activity and they found that everything was correct and legal. They didn t charge me with any penalty and they let me go. It was a unique incident that was an answer to prayer and showed us that we are doing everything in the right way. Several volunteers with our ministry have also reported positive interactions with the police and fruitful gospel encounters. From Moscow, staffer Dmitry reports: I was calling people whom we met during our recent campaign and I introduced myself to one man letting him know I was from Jews for Jesus. He replied, Finally! I was waiting for your call! He told me his mother was Jewish and that he realizes God wants us all to come back to Him. He continued, I don t understand some things yet, but I want to learn more and I want my cousin to learn more too! He gave me his cousin s contact information. When I suggested that we meet the following day to talk more about God, he agreed right away! I went to visit another Jewish man named Alex, whom we met through our campaign as well. He would not let me inside the apartment, but then he came downstairs and spoke with me for a while. At first he explained to me that he was too busy for religious stuff. Alex is a space scientist and an engineer. But I could tell he wanted to ask me a question and he seemed reluctant. So I asked him, Alex, being a scientist, observing the stars and the universe, did you ever suppose there is God? Of course I have! said Alex. I am concerned about the Jesus part though... I took out the Bible and read from Isaiah. Alex was attentive and listened carefully as I read the Scriptures. I explained that our relationship with God was broken and that He sent Jesus to reconcile with us. Alex said that he had to process my words and bits from the BRANCHES he promised to come to our Shabbat meeting. Israeli Massah team leader, Chaim Birnbaum reports: Our Massah teams regularly volunteer at Dylan s coffee shop in Manali, India (which is owned by believers). During my first shift at the café, nearly every time I served a table, I was able to explain the gospel to five or six people. This happened about ten times that day and I was amazed by how hungry people are to hear about God in a personal way. I got to talk about Yeshua with almost sixty people during one shift! One of the conversations I had was with Rinat. She had met many other believers before and had even attended some congregations. We talked for a long time about Yeshua Chaim in conversation at Dylan's coffee shop in Manali and then she told me that she passes by our center in Israel and that she has often thought about coming in, but she was too shy. I formally invited The Massah team leaving Tel Aviv for India her to our meetings in Tel Aviv and she was so excited. Rinat mentioned over and over that she would see me at our meetings; I pray that she will come to faith soon. Daria, Massah participant reports: On the first day in India, we had a seventeen-hour bus ride from Delhi to Manali. The bus was full of Israelis who discovered that there were twelve Messianic Jews riding with them on the trip; this gave us opportunities for so many conversations. As I was speaking with two guys who asked me dozens of questions, I could see that lots of other people on the bus were listening to us talking about God. So many gospel seeds were planted during that long journey! Elyakim, Massah participant reports: I met an Israeli girl when we were in Daramkot and we talked about my faith in God. Two other girls joined our conversation after a few minutes. They told me that they had just been discussing the purpose of life when they overheard us. They asked me so many questions about the Messiah. It was one of the best experiences I ve had in evangelism I saw how God orchestrated the situation for these girls who were traveling to hear the gospel and it gave me such confidence and joy in my faith. From Toronto, Andrew Barron reports: I met with a Jewish man named Terry who was a contact from our 2015 Pan Am outreach in Toronto. He told me that he has been spiritually hungry for most of his life. He told me about his boyhood in Eastern Europe and his parents conversations about their survival during World War II. His family immigrated to Canada in 1968 looking for a better life, which they found, but the questions in his heart would not go away. He asked me one question that has haunted him his entire life: Why do the Jews suffer? In turn, I asked him why he felt the Jewish people suffered and he told me, Jesus. Our Massah team in India gathering together I said, Terry, I don t excuse persons who caused our people to suffer in the name of Jesus. My concern at the moment is you. How do you know that your sins are forgiven? I don t think that anyone had ever asked him this and I don t think he ever thought about sin. His response to me was that if Jesus were the Messiah, He would have redeemed the world and we would all be forgiven. I opened my Bible and went through several passages to explain the gospel to Terry. I asked him if he believed that Jesus could be the Messiah even in a broken world, that Jesus redeemed us through His death and resurrection, but that there would be a time when He would come and enforce peace. I asked Terry if he thought he could have personal redemption even now. He told me he would have to think about it and we agreed to meet again. Names of many people that our staff meet are changed to protect privacy. Andrew 4 5
Last September, our New York branch consolidated their efforts in reaching out to college students. In the past, we have typically held our large campaigns in July, but our missionaries in the city year-round noticed that many city-dwellers and students were away. Our staff wanted to reach out more effectively to the locals and have more regular, ongoing ministry with them, so for the past few years, our New York branch has concentrated evangelistic efforts in the fall. This year, missionaries Eryn Black and Isaac Brickner led the team and I asked them some questions about their vision for this special outreach and their philosophy behind their unusual theme which David Brickner introduced to you in his lead article. Eryn (right) 6 How did the idea for the outreach theme happen? Isaac: We brainstormed and focused on the theme of identity. Right now, our culture is consumed with the idea of an individual s absolute ownership when it comes to their identity and they expect society to validate whatever choice they make. We can leverage that expectation for our own evangelistic purposes. If people can be vocal about their choices, the burden of proof is on those who say Jews can t believe in Jesus. The choice to center the fall outreach on the theme of identity was fairly easy. The hard part was figuring out exactly how we could effectively communicate heady concepts to the people of New York without abandoning approachability and accessibility. What part of your outreach was effective in getting a response from people? Eryn: First of all, we decided to continue giving away free coldbrewed coffee and iced tea. This has been a great way to connect with people on the streets and subvert their expectations about what an encounter might look like with Jews for Jesus. Then, every afternoon, our teams would mostly stay in the same locations and use some of our new signs to talk with people about identity. As it turned out, some of the best evangelistic tools we developed were our T-shirts. One of our shirts said, We are Jews who are for Jesus and people instantly recognized us as Jews for Jesus. We had another shirt that said, Keeping Jewish Weird since 32 a.d., which also started many great, direct conversations. People were really curious to know what we meant, what kind of Jews we were, and how we kept Jewish weird. We wanted to make a statement with our signs, our shirts, and our presence on the streets of New York. If believing in Jesus makes us weird, that s fine; we re still Jews, we re still going to start conversations about God, and we re still going to insist there s nothing non-jewish about believing in Jesus, the Messiah of our people and of the world. Did you have a witnessing encounter that stands out in your mind as you think about this outreach? Isaac: Early in the second week of the outreach, I spoke with a young Jewish man, Samuel, in Union Square. On Friday, Eryn saw him standing outside of the branch, looking at our window. He told Eryn that he had already (continued on bottom of page 7) Isaac (right)
Melissa Moskowitz reports: My conversation with Josiah initially took place while I was filling cup after cup of coffee on the NYU campus. He grabbed my attention through his careful questions and comments. We talked about his attempts to live as an observant Jew in the worldly NYU culture. I especially appreciated that he was honest about trying to live as God wanted him to, but that he knew he didn t totally measure up. I think his humility gave him the courage to spend a long time talking to me about faith in Yeshua. I asked Josiah if he would read something about the Messiah and he replied that he would if I agreed to do the same about something he d like me to read. I later discovered that he is a leader of a Jewish student group on campus. Although we initially met over a cup of coffee, I know that something is brewing in his heart that could change his life. Melissa Weinisch reports: After the explosion in Chelsea, we went and ministered in the neighborhood through prayer and free coffee. One young man rushed up to our table saying, Wait what is this?! It s you! I follow you on Facebook! Isaiah explained to me that he had been raised in a Christian home, but several years ago, his family discovered that his grandparents had hidden their Jewish identity after fleeing Spain. Since that discovery, Isaiah had been on a personal spiritual journey, which is how he found us online. Isaiah and I talked about his search for God and some of the issues he was still wrestling through. He eagerly shared his information with me and was excited to be able to join us for Shabbat and Bible studies. It seems like God is pursuing Isaiah! Elizabeth Black (missionary and Eryn s wife) reports: I was with our team in Washington Square Park when I met Andy. He was happy to interact with our Hello I Am board and was even more interested in asking questions. Andy told me that he is Jewish, that he is doing undergraduate studies in religion which focuses specifically on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Andy told me that he sees why Jewish people could believe that Jesus was Messiah and that believing in Jesus does not make someone not Jewish. He talked with our team for half an hour, asking questions about our beliefs and how we came to faith in Jesus. During the conversation he said, Well, I don t think I could ever believe in Jesus..., but maybe I Elizabeth could one day, who knows? He then gave me his phone number and said he would love to chat more about our faith and Jesus. Susan Perlman reports: I was at Union Square, offering our coldbrew coffee to those who passed our booth, when Donald stopped to talk. This 36-year-old Jewish musician told me that his dad (who lives out west) is a Jew for Jesus. Really? I responded, So what do you think about all this? Donald explained that he was not convinced at this point about Jesus, but was curious to hear more. We spoke for about twenty minutes about his spiritual journey and then he gave me his phone number and told me he d like to continue the discussion about Jesus. Our local branch will be in touch with him. I m sure his dad is praying for him regularly and I hope our readers will too! (continued from page 6) met some of us and that he was going to come to our Shabbat dinner that evening! At dinner, Eryn and I spoke with him for at least an hour. Samuel told us his story, and how he was very familiar with Christianity from his childhood and we were able to have an indepth conversation and explain God s plan of redemption. He agreed to continue the conversation with Eryn. This encounter encapsulated the effectiveness of our teamwork during the outreach and encouraged me that we were effective in getting the gospel message to Jewish people. How will this outreach affect your ongoing ministry in New York? Eryn: More than 70 Jewish people gave us their contact information, so we will be in touch with them to continue the conversation about Jesus. During the outreach, more than 55% of our significant gospel interactions were with young Jewish people! We will have ongoing ministry with these people we met during the outreach and we will continue to use the strategies that were effective in September throughout the year and into 2017. Names of many people that our staff meet are changed to protect privacy. Campaign photos Jews for Jesus/Rachel Friedlander 7
CELEBRATION OF LIGHT by Rich Robinson, senior researcher Even though we don t know exactly when Jesus was born, it is always joyful to celebrate His birth, and it s especially meaningful for believers to see Hanukkah celebrated at the same time as Christ s nativity. We thought you would appreciate having some holiday facts at your fingertips this season. HANUKKAH BIRTH OF JESUS NAMES Hanukkah means dedication. The holiday is therefore known as the Feast of Dedication or the Festival of Lights. The celebration of Jesus birth is known as Christmas, or among some Jewish believers in Jesus, Messiahmas. THEME OF LIGHT PROPHECY THE STORY In the second century b.c.,the wicked king Antiochus Epiphanes sought to destroy the Jewish faith. (Epiphanes means something like the appearance of a god, but behind his back people called him Epimanes, meaning, madman. ) When he sacrificed a pig to Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem, a band of freedom fighters known as the Maccabees arose and reclaimed the temple after three years of guerilla warfare. The Maccabees relit the lampstand or menorah in the temple and reconsecrated it to the service of God. The story is found in the books of First Maccabees and Second Maccabees, written between the time of the Old and New Testaments. Daniel 8 contains several references to Antiochus Epiphanes, especially in the little horn (v. 9) and in the description of verses 23 25. Furthermore, in the victory of the Maccabees we can see one fulfillment in history of God s promises to preserve the Jewish people, such as are found in Jeremiah 31:35 36. A key part of the Hanukkah story is the rededication of the temple, which included relighting the seven-branched menorah. A later legend relates that there was only enough oil found to last one day, and while it would take eight days to procure fresh supplies, the menorah miraculously burned for a week until the new oil could be obtained. To celebrate that legendary miracle, Jewish people light a ninebranched menorah or hanukkiah eight branches plus a ninth that is the shamas or servant candle with which to light the others one additional light each night until all eight burn. While many secular Jews celebrate Hanukkah as a military victory or just as a festive time, the underlying reality is that it speaks of God: the victory of light over darkness, and God s power over human power ( Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORd of hosts Zechariah 4:6). The rekindling of the menorah in the temple symbolized the continuing presence of God among His people. For over a thousand years, the Hebrew Scriptures had spoken of a redeemer to come who would rescue Israel from oppression and sin and who would be a descendant of King David. In fulfillment of God s promises, the Messiah was born around or before 4 b.c. The story is found in Matthew 1 2 and Luke 1 2 and is alluded to elsewhere in the New Testament. Matthew cites Isaiah 7:14 as a prophecy of the virgin birth (Matthew 1:21 23) and Micah 5:2 (Hebrew, v. 1) as prophesying His birthplace of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:3 6). Luke sees the big picture rather than the details in the praises voiced by Mary (Luke 1:31 33, 46 55), Zechariah (Luke 1:67 79), and Simeon (Luke 2:29 32), who praise God for the salvation of the Jewish people and also the Gentiles,... as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever (Luke 1:55). As the lit menorah symbolized God s presence among His people, Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12, 9:5, 12:46). Matthew 4:16 quotes Isaiah 9:2 (9:1 in Hebrew) to refer to the light Jesus brings to those in darkness, while Luke 1:79, 2:32; John 1:4, 5, 7 9; 3:19 21 refer to Jesus as the Light. For a digital version of this chart go to j4j.co/lightchart