In my neighborhood, there are almost thirty Jewish synagogues. These congregations include Reformed, Orthodox, and Hasidic Judaism, and of course our city is full of secular Jews who have long since abandoned any traditional form of their faith. Thus, every Sunday, it is possible that some people identify with one of the Jewish traditions mentioned above present in our church worship.
Just as the presence of divorced persons affects the way you preach a marriage sermon, having Jews at your service affects the way you preach the gospel; in fact, it will probably make it more biblical.
- First.
- Like those offended by Paul or Peter’s preaching.
- You will likely see people offended by using their scriptures to show that Jesus is the Messiah and the true king of Israel.
I don’t know how she handles it, but the apostles seemed to expect this offense, so we should probably expect it too. After all, the gospel is offensive. However, the Apostles give us examples that protect us from being more offensive than the gospel and help us make explicit what the gospel offense is.
So here are some points that will help us preach the gospel to Old Testament Jews.
Knowing the Old Testament
There is no substitute for knowledge of the Old Testament, nor are there shortcuts. To understand how the New Testament Apostles preached and how we should preach today, we need to know the Old Testament, we need to know not only the stories, but also how they relate to each other organically. What is the Old Testament?hyphen?What are the themes that cross the plot (for example, the Son of God, the covenant, the presence of God, the earth, etc. )?Once you begin to see these things more clearly, you will also see the many tensions in the Old Testament that are waiting to be resolved in Jesus Christ.
Follow closely and learn examples of the Apostles in Acts
Luke’s account of the Apostles’ first ministry is of immense importance; it is the only substantial account of apostolic sermons in which Christ of the Old Testament is explicitly preached. Here are three examples:
Peter, after Pentecost, argued that David was talking about someone superior to him when he said, in Psalm 16. 10, “Well, don’t you allow your Saint to see corruption?”(See Acts 2. 25-40).
Stephen, before the Sanedrín, argued that throughout Israel’s history, the people maintained the standard of rejecting God when he was condescending to them, spoke to them, and even lived with them; the rejection of the Son of God was no different (Acts 7. 1-53).
Paul in Antioch showed that Jesus was not only a descendant of David, but that his resurrection fulfilled all the hopes of David’s royal lineage that God had promised (Acts 13:16-41).
These men did not use strange tricks of hermeneutic magic to take Jesus where they wanted, but they showed that Jesus fulfilled hope and calmed the tensions of the Old Testament, which is the next point.
Show how Jesus fulfills hope and relieves tensions in the Old Testament
The gospel of Jesus Christ fills all hope and relieves all tension in the Old Testament: the hope of forgiveness of sins and the tensions of an inadequate priesthood; the hope of rest and tensions of a people who have never had peace with their enemies; God’s promise to live with his people and the tension of a village without a temple.
For example, remember God’s promise to David that he would always have a son on the throne. God said to David in 2 Samuel 7. 14, “I will be his father, and he will be my son. “
As D. A. Carson explains, or would David have a son on the throne who would have another son on the throne?And so on, forever and ever, or would have a special Son, who would remain on the throne forever.
If we look at David’s lineage, unfortunately we will see that his descendants rebelled against God, following other nations and trusting in his false idols (this was true even with Solomon, the son to whom David first transferred the kingdom). then the nations dominated Israel, leading them to slavery and exile, and no king sat on the throne. God’s promises seemed to have been completely broken. If you read the end of the Old Testament, you can almost hear the cry of anguish: “We need a child. “
Certainly, the good news is that in Luke 3:22 we find someone from whom God says, “You are my beloved Son, in you I rejoice. “In fact, God says the same thing about anyone who submits to his owner and enters his kingdom.
Although it is offensive to the Jews and to all of us, this is the best news in the world.
This article is part of the October 2012 edition of Tabletalk magazine.
Translation: Vin-cius Silva Pimentel. Review: Vin-cius Musselman Pimentel. © 2015 Faithful Ministérium. All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: 3 tips for evangelizing Old Testament Jews.