Sermon Archives (November 17, 2001):

Our God is One?

  How should we minister to the Jew?  Brethren, would you please rise for the reading of God’s Word.  Open your Bible’s to the book of Acts, as I speak to you on the theme, “Our God Is One?”   God’s inspired word gives us this example,

(Acts 17:1-3)  “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.’’

Heavenly, Father we pray this night that you give us the revelation knowledge through your word and your Holy Spirit how we may reach the hearts and minds of our Jewish people, to reconcile them to you through your Son Jesus Christ.  You may be seated.

Some believe we live in unusual times.  This last month we had our Presidential Election thrown into question by the Palm Beach Florida vote.   What you have to understand is there are a lot of Jewish people in Palm Beach County.   These are our people.  And what does the Jew do? Jews sends things back.   Deliver some pastrami sandwiches to a table of Jews.   “It’s to hot its to cold.  It’s too lean.  It’s to fat.  Take ‘em  back.”   We have George Bush and Al Gore running for President.  One’s too liberal. One’s too conservative.  One’s too smart.  One’s too dumb.  What do our people say? “Take’em back.”   The Jew looks for a deliver from Pharaoh.  God sends Moses, who leads them into the wilderness.   So they complain of how good the breadfruit was while they lived under Pharaoh.   What were they saying, “Take us back.”   Four thousand years, and nothing’s changed.   Can God satisfy the Jew?   For thousand’s of years, the Jew cries for a Messiah.  So God sends Jesus.   Miracles upon miracles, so then the Christ arrives in Jerusalem.   How does the Jew respond, “This is not the Messiah.  Take him back!”   The Jew has not changed.  

In truth, we live in a blessed country.   Look what we call news today.   Is it war?   Is it famine?  Is it crime?   No.   For the last forty days, it’s been old people yelling at each other in Palm Beach County.   Brethren, this is what we have to deal with.   The Jew sends things back.

How then must we minister to the Jew?   God, can we talk?  This is impossible.  We are in a ministry that makes no sense.  Possibly so, but as it is written (John 3:16) “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”   And so we are told, (Matthew 28:19-20)  “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”

Lord, how can we do this?   Tell us Lord.   Guide our steps.  How do we minister to a people who by nature send things back?  You know, God’s word actually says quite a lot about how to minister to the Jew.   Speaking adequately on this issue may well not be possible.  The scripture I just quoted, tells us that Paul reasoned for three Sabbaths.   The scriptural evidence is that substantial.   So here I am brethren, on a fools journey, attempting in one Sabbath when Paul the authority required three.

First, what is our message?  Paul tells us,  “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”   How are we to convey that message   Again the scriptures answer, as Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead.”   But how did Paul or Peter reason from the Scripture?   For if indeed the Jew is to be saved, what then are the reasons the Scripture offers?   How do we reason, that Jesus is the Messiah?   How can we say, that Jesus is Lord?   If God is one, explain for me the trinity.   So this is a sermon with many parts.   Where then should we begin?

The questions answer begins with the issue of annihilation:  Let us stay in the book of Acts.  A few days after Pentecost, Peter healed a lame man in the Temple.  He then spoke to those assembled encouraging the Jews to accept Jesus as Lord, by reasoning as such (in Acts 3:22-23).  Now I am going to use the King James for this, so there can be no question as to the authority of the translation.   Peter said, “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, ‘A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.  And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.”   

Peter was apparently quoting (Deuteronomy 18:18-20), but in fact he misquoted the scripture.   Deuteronomy 18 actually reads this way, “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto th,mnee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”    Notice, the Old covenant scripture states that God “will require it of him”.   Other translations may read that one who denies this prophecy “will have to account for himself to Me.”, but this is far milder than what Peter said.  Peter said, “Every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.”

Peter misquoted the scriptures.  He embellished.   He put words into God’s mouth, which had never been spoken.   So what was the result? We see then (in Acts 4:1-2) “The priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly angered that they taught the people.”  What were the priests angry about?  What was their justification?  Peter had preached something as scripture, when in fact it was not scripture.  He had embellished.   So what did they do with Peter?  The scripture continues in verse 3: “They laid hands on them, and put them (that is Peter and John) in custody until the next day.”  In other words, they put Peter and John in jail for adding to the word of God.

So are we then not to use this approach?   The scripture answers (Acts 4:4)  “However, many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.”   Yes, in ministering to the Jews there will be those offended, but the scriptures tell us that we should persevere and accept the persecution.  Why?   Because “many” by using these words of Moses will believe.   Beyond the fact that it is scripture, there is the realization that these are actually the words of Moses, and among the Jew there is no higher authority, no higher prophet, save God himself.

Now although many in Peter’s day were convinced, many more were not convinced.   The average Jew as people today then as now discounted God’s word.   “Surely,” they reasoned, “God will not allow his people to be destroyed.”   They forgot Moses words, and Peter’s warning!   1900 years passed and the Holocaust fell upon the Jews of our day.  How then would God respond to a people in their darkest hour that had rejected his son?   Again we turn to Moses this time the Song of Moses, (Deuteronomy 32:24-25)  “Fatigued by hunger, they will be consumed by fever and bitter defeat; I will send them the fangs of wild beasts, and the poison of reptiles crawling in the dust.  Outside, the sword makes parents childless; inside, there is panic, as young men and girls alike are slain, sucklings and graybeards together.”   In Hitler’s death camps, were not the Jews “fatigued by hunger”?  Were not the Nazis every bit the “wild beasts” with “fangs”?  Did not our people die by the millions in the gas chambers with “poison” in a state of “panic”, while outside parents lost their families by the “sword” of the machine gun?   When their bodies were burned in the crematoriums, were not the Jews reduced to “dust”?

(Hosea 4:6)  “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  Self-preservation for the Jew or any people is a powerful argument, which does affect behavior. This “fear of the Lord” much as Protestants would preach Hell is a powerful argument for the Jew to accept Jesus Christ as Messiah.

If our God is one, how can He be three?  The “Sh’ma”, which we say from (Deuteronomy 6:4) reads “Sh’ma, Yisrael, Adonia Elohenu Adonia echad.”, meaning “Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God is one Lord.”   Our critics within the Jewish community say, “Our God is one! He is not two.  He is not three!  He has not a son!  Our God is not divided.  He is one God!”   Let us consider their complaint in light of the Jewish scriptures.  The Hebrew “echad” is translated in some areas of scripture as an absolute one, and in other areas as a compound unity.   An example of this compound unity is Genesis 2:24 speaking of a man and a woman uniting in marriage, is says “and they shall be one (echad) flesh.”  Two people - a man and a woman - becoming one.  By analogy, water has three states: steam, water, and ice and yet it is one substance.  Describing the congregation, Ezra 2:64 states, “The whole congregation together (echad) was forty and two thousand, three hundred and threescore.”  The same Hebrew word “echad” is translated “together” to represent 42,360 people in one congregation as a compound unity.   

Christians do not worship three gods, but rather the whole of scripture – old covenant and new covenant - infers a plurality in the Godhead.  The word for God in (Genesis 1:1) is “elohim”, which in English is translated “God”.  However, in Exodus 20:3, the same word “elohim” when used to describe false deities is translated “gods”.   Genesis 1:26 and Isaiah 6:8 use plural pronouns for God, and Isaiah 48:16 implies plurality.

Had the Sh’ma been intended to communicate an absolute singularity, the word “yachid”, not “echad” would have been used.   (In Genesis 22:2), God commanded Abraham, “Take now your son, your only (“yachid”) son Isaac.”   “Yachid” speaks to Isaac as being exclusive to all others.

In another area, (Genesis 1:5) God said, “And the evening and the morning were the (“echad”) first day.”   Two things – evening and morning – making up a compound unity of a single day.

God said, “Let us make man in our own image.”  The Hebrew words “us” and “our” both express the concept of God as a compound unity.

God is represented as a plurality of unity (in Psalm 110:1), “The Lord said unto my Lord, sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”   The first Lord is translated from the word YAHWEH, while the second Hebrew word “Adonai” means master.   Both YAHWEH and Adonai are taken as God, and yet in this verse there are two representing the one Godhead.   Thus, the scriptures shows that God reveals himself in three persons, but as one God.

Should we use this argument?  Again, I turn to the book of Acts, Chapter 2, versus 34-35. Here we see Peter, the world’s first Messianic Priest, arguing in the Synagogue this precise same verse.   And what was the result? (Acts 2:41) “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”   God is telling us, use these verses when ministering to the Jew.

Has God a Son?  But where is it written that God could have a son?  The old Covenant scriptures speak to this issue.  Let us examine Proverbs 30:4 phrase by phrase:  “Who has gone up to heaven and come down?”  The answer is God.  “Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands?”  The answer is God.  “Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?”  The answer is God.  “Who established all the ends of the earth?”  The answer is God.  “What is his name...”  Again, the answer is God, and the verse continues:  “and what is his son’s name?”   This scripture tells us that God has a son.   Psalms 2:12 speaks in concurrence:  “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust“  in this son.  The Jewish scriptures tell us therefore to “trust …the Son”.   Worship other than to God is condemned by the Commandments.  Thus, instruction to worship (by a kiss) the Son, reveals the Messiah as the God of Israel.

Was the Messiah to be born of a Virgin?  There are those, both Jewish and of other backgrounds who question the claim that Christ was born by a virgin.  Again let us look to the Jewish scriptures.  The Jewish scriptures teach that Messiah would be born by a virgin.  (in Isaiah 7:14)  “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”   The Hebrew word used to translate the English word “virgin” was “almah”.   This Hebrew word may however be translated either “virgin” or “young woman”.   Critics of the “virgin” translation claim that if the intent was to mean a virgin, the word “bethulah” would have been used.   However, the word “almah” is used meaning a virgin likewise in many of the Hebrew Scriptures: Genesis 24:43, Exodus 2:8, Psalms 68:26, Proverbs 30:19, and Song of Soloman 1:3 and 6:8.   If “almah” was not to mean virgin in Isaiah, one must fairly ask why the same word referring to a virgin is used in all these other places of scripture always to mean virgin?  

Moreover one must question the apparent self-serving interpretation the critics claimed.  Interesting, when the accepted Jewish scholars during the 3^rd and 2^nd century before the birth of Christ translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, these Jewish scholars translated the Jewish word “almah” within Isaiah 7:14 to the Greek word “parthenos”, which in Greek always means virgin.   Because certain Jews were not prepared to accept Jesus for their own reasons, they appear to have been willing to abandon the very scholarship of their own religion.  Moshe Kohen ibn Crispin, a 14^th century Spanish rabbi typically commented in rebuttal to the critics of the virgin birth:  “This prophecy was delivered by Isaiah at the divine command for the purpose of making known to us something about the nature of the future Messiah … in order that if anyone should arise claiming to be himself the Messiah, we may reflect and look to see whether we can observe in him any resemblance to the traits described here.”

The extraordinary nature of the birth is brought out by the word “sign:”  “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.”   A sign in Scripture is something out of the ordinary that attests and confirms a word from God.   There are eight occurrences of this word “sign" refer to a miraculous event in scripture (Examples of this are to be found in Exodus 7:3, Deuteronomy 4:34, and Isaiah 20:3).  On must fairly ask, what would be so miraculous and out of the ordinary that it should constitute a “sign” for a young woman to conceive and bear a child?   Would not a virgin to conceive be out of the ordinary?

Where was the Messiah to be born?  The Jewish scriptures help to validate Christ as Messiah by declaring the exact place and time of his birth.  (Micah 5:2-3)  "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me  the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."  There were two Bethlehems in ancient Israel:  One in Judah (1 Samuel 16:4), and a second in Galilee (Joshua 19:15).   Micah makes it clear, that the Bethlehem in Judea was to be the place from which the Messiah would come, where in fact Jesus was born.

When was the Messiah to first appear? The time of the Messiah’s birth is also clearly revealed by the prophet Daniel.  (Daniel 9:25-26)  "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command  to restore and build Jerusalem  Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.  And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.”   This foretells three successive periods of time till Messiah will return:  70 weeks, 62 weeks, and then a single week

In each of these prophetic periods, a day of each week represented a single year.  Thus, the first 70 weeks of Jeremiah’s prophecy was to be 490 years, and the 62 weeks 434 years, and the last week 7 years.   The first 490 years occurred between the destruction of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar, and the exile of Israel to Babylon.   The second 434 years or 62 weeks occurred from the return of Nehemiah and Israel from Babylon to Israel in 454 BC and the rebuilding of the temple, Jerusalem, and its walls in 408 BC till the first “desolation of abomination” by Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanies when he conquered Jerusalem and set up idol worship on the temple grounds.   Following this desolation of the temple, the Messiah, defined in Hebrew here as the “Holy of Holies” was to come and be killed followed by yet another destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Roman “prince” Titus in 70 AD.  The purpose for Messiah’s first coming was defined in verse 24, “to restrain transgressions”, “to seal up sins”, “to cover over iniquity”, “to bring in everlasting righteousness”

Verse 27 of Daniel 9 reads this way, “Then he (the Messiah, our Christ) shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice.”  Christ’s ministry could last no longer than a week or seven years, but Daniel prophecies here that Christ would be “cut off”, that is killed in mid-week or after three-and-a-half years, the exact duration of his ministry.

This prophecy, because of all its historical implications may appear complex to us.  However, the prophecy was so well known and defined by the Jewish scholars prior to Christ’s birth, that the expectation of the Messiah’s coming was at that time common knowledge.   At the time of Christ’s birth we read this story:  (Matthew 2:1-5, 16)  “Herod the king, beheld, wise men from the East who came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." The wise men expected the Messiah’s birth and were looking for him.  “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled.”  Why was King Herod troubled?  Because he feared that the Messiah, this King of the Jews would be a political opponent that would replace him.   So here was King Herod’s response:  He “gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together.  He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.   So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea   … Then Herod, … was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.”   The point is this: The expected coming of the Messiah was so commonly known and accepted by the Jewish scholars of Christ’s day, that the infants of a whole district were consequently slaughtered by a jealous king.   Just as Satan through Pharaoh had tried to kill Moses at birth, so to do we see Satan’s proxy, King Herod seeking to kill the Messiah at birth as well.

Could the Messiah be the nation Israel?  For the Jew, the most complete description of the Messiah’s first coming is (Isaiah 53).   If I had the time, I would read this chapter to you, but I don’t.   So I commend it to you as homework for your private reading.  Without question, Isaiah describes in detail Christ’s ministry and death.

A thousand years after Christ’s death, leading Jewish rabbis began to redefine what had been commonly accepted Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 53.  The Jewish leadership after Christ’s ministry now claimed that Isaiah 53 no longer described a man, the Messiah, but that Isaiah 53 represented Israel.  In other words, the Jews who had been historically supporters and defenders of literal interpretations of their own scriptures, now abandoned those scriptures and argued Replacement theology; that God’s word is in some respects a hidden lie; that God’s scripture does not mean what is written, but rather that the scriptures mean something that was not written.   Note the words of (Isaiah 53:5-6)  “But He was wounded for our transgressions.  He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.  …  And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.“   How can one honestly construe the pronoun “he” or “him” to mean anything other than an individual?   How does one practically or even reasonably lay “the iniquity of us all” on a nation, let alone Israel?  Again a self-serving argument, an abandonment of both scholarship and truth, denying all prior Jewish scholarship and the Jewish scriptures themselves, was brought forth in my judgment as a means to the ends to denying Jesus Christ.  Scholarship was replace with dogma, and truth with insincere self-serving positions.

Is the Messiah both man and God?  The Jewish position by those who deny Jesus is that Jesus was a good man, but not divinity.  The Hebrew Scriptures however say the very reverse:  (Isaiah 9:6)  “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given.”   Notice here again, we hear and read these words. “a Son is given.”  The mention of God’s Son is made.  The verse continues. “And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called  ‘Wonderful Counselor’, ‘Mighty God.’”  Note, the Messiah, this child, this son’s name would be called “Mighty God.” 

How then can man become a God?   The scriptures do not teach that a man became God, but rather that God became man so as to be able to communicate His love for His children. An all-powerful God certainly has the power to do anything to bring about His purposes, including becoming a man.  Recall our early examination of  (Micah 5:2-3)  "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."    The Jewish scriptures tell us that such an eternal entity is in fact God.  (Psalms 90:1-2)  “LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”   The prophet Jeremiah taught that the Messiah would be God,  (Jeremiah 23:5-6) "’Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.  In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.“   Within the Hebrew text, this title “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” is actually in larger type for emphasis.   The notion that Messiah was nothing more than a gifted man is contradicted by this plain statement declaring the Messiah’s eternal pre-existence – an attribute belonging only to the LORD God! (Habakkuk 1:12),    The Talmud (Persahim 54a) and the Rabbinic Commentary on Genesis (Genesis Rabbah 1:4) state that the name of Messiah is one of the things that existed before the creation of the world.

The voice of the Messiah speaks (in Isaiah 48:16-17)  "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there.”   The Messiah is presented as eternal, having existed from the beginning.  The Messiah declares who has commissioned him.  “And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me."   God in this commissioning is presented as having two persons; that of God Almighty but also as a Spirit.   The Godhead is then represented in its totality as three personas:  “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel”.   The first persona being Lord our God Almighty.   The second persona being our Redeemer or the Messiah.  And the third persona being the Holy One of Israel or God’s Spirit.

In the last 20 years, more Jews have accepted Jesus Christ then in the last 2,000 years.   Yes, there are still Jews who by nature will send him back.  But in certainty, we are approaching a time certain when all Israel will accept Jesus Christ as Messiah:  (Zechariah 12:9-10) “When that day comes, I will seek to destroy all nations attacking Jerusalem.  I will pour out on the house of David and on those living in Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer.   They will look to me, whom they pierced.   They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son.”