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Join Wayne Burger each week as he explores various topics and scriptures and challenges listeners to meditate on God's Word more deeply.
It's a sad fact that very few Jews accept Jesus as the Messiah and Savior of mankind. I want to point out scripture that shows the effort that God put forth to try to save the Jews.
God wanted them to be saved. God did choose them for a reason, and we'll talk about that. God put forth a lot of effort to try to get the Jews to believe that Jesus Christ, his Son, was the Savior, but unfortunately, most have not accepted that.
So that's what I'm going to do in this lesson. I want to point out about 10 things that God did to try to reach the Jewish people. First, he chose them to bring Jesus into the world as the Savior.
He made that promise beginning with Abraham in Genesis 12, 1-3, called Abraham and said, The Lord had sent an Abram to get thee up out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I shall thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless him that bless thee and curse him that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. There was a promise of the coming Messiah in Abraham, and he was called him, and it's going to be through him, through Abraham's seed. And the rest of the Bible shows God working through Abraham's descendants to bring Jesus into the world.
Second, he chose John the Baptist to preach to the Jews to bring them to repentance. You see, John 1, verse 6 says that there was a man sent from God named John. John's work was to prepare the way for Jesus Christ.
He was preaching to the Jewish people. He must have been a powerful man. He must have been a kind of unique-looking fellow.
He lived in the desert and ate locusts and wild honey and wore camo's hair with a belt around him, and it probably looked strange, but he must have been able to preach, because all the Jews did turned out for him. He was to get the Jews ready to receive Jesus Christ their Messiah. So again, what is God doing? He's reaching out to do his best to bring the Jewish people to salvation.
Now, he gave them the special law, and they followed that law. They were his people through whom the Messiah would come. They had been his people from Exodus 19.6 when God brought them out of the land of Egypt, and he gave them his law, and he said, I'm going to make you my people.
He chose them, not to show partiality, but Jesus had to come through somebody, and so he chose Abraham's descendants. And from them, of course, there were those 12 tribes, and they came together as the nation of God's people. But God was working with them.
They should have recognized the blessings they had in that close relationship with God, that he was their God, that they were his people, that he had given them his law to keep them close to himself. God was reaching out from the very beginning to try to save the Jewish people. John the Baptist was sent because they really had gotten away from God's word.
The Pharisees and Sadducees had divided up the law and twisted the law and made it so hard and cumbersome. But John was calling people back to the simple gospel saying, the kingdom is near. I'm here to make straight the path, and I'm leading people to Jesus Christ, who's going to be their Savior.
Three, Jesus spent three years and maybe a little more in his personal ministry to the Jews in the country of Israel. Jesus really did not go to the Gentile people. He spent his time dealing with and talking with the Jewish people.
Here again, it was his effort to try to save the Jewish people, to get them ready. Three years, a little over three years. He was preaching daily in around their temple and in their places of abode and trying to persuade them that he was the Messiah.
God verified it by the miracles that Jesus did. He taught, and those who were honest said that nobody else ever taught like this. He speaks as one with authority.
You see what they had been hearing with the rabbis. The best rabbi was the one who provoked the most rabbis. And Jesus didn't quote rabbis.
He spoke God's word. And so Jesus spent time trying to get these people to see, I am your Messiah. I am here to die for your sins.
We see also that Jesus, God, reached out to the Jews through what was called the limited commission. The limited commission is recorded in Matthew 10, and I'll read it, verses five through seven. It's called the limited commission because they were sent just to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
That's raised in Matthew 28 and Mark 16 and Luke 24 are called the great commission. The great commission was for the Jews and the Gentiles. The limited commission was Jesus sending out these 12 apostles to go to the children of Israel to bring them to God.
We read Matthew 10 and I'll begin in verse five. These 12, Jesus sent out after instructing them, do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Again, not only was Jesus reaching out to the Jewish people, he has selected 12 men with a special mission.
And on this particular mission, they are to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is even during the time of Jesus' personal ministry. And so they needed to go to those people.
It's God's effort in a very special way to bring these Jewish people into God's family, which was going to be established, the church, and that Jesus would die for them. God reached out to the Jews. Not only did he reach out by sending the apostles out, Luke 10 tells us that he sent out 70 people at one time, sent them in pairs to go.
Let me read about that in Luke 10, one through three. Now, after this, the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of him to every city in place where he himself was going to come. And he was saying to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore, beseech the Lord of harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest. Go, behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. So not only did Christ send the 12 apostles out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he selected 70 others and sent them out in pairs, 35 pairs to go to all the cities where Jesus was about to go.
What a great effort to try to reach out to the Jewish people to bring them to him. Fifth, or sixth point we're looking at, the gospel was first preached to the Jews in their beloved city of Jerusalem. You see, when Jesus Christ said that the kingdom is near, it's at hand, it was about ready to be established.
And 40 days after his resurrection, he rose and descended and the church was established in the city of Jerusalem. And there on that occasion, Peter preached the first what we would call the gospel sermon. The gospel sermon is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Where did he do this? In the city of Jerusalem at the time of the Pentecost feast, because that's when Jews came from everywhere. In fact, Acts two verse five says there were Jews, devout Jews from every nation under heaven. Then down in verses nine through 11, he named 16 different countries, whether they're from Parthenians and Medes and Elamites and so on.
What is God doing? Reaching out to the Jews, not only through his personal ministry, but as the church began, Jesus had his apostles preaching there on that occasion to bring those Jews to him. And not only on that occasion, but Jesus Christ had his apostles reach out to the Jews as recorded in Acts two through seven, to tell of the effort of reaching the Jewish people in their beloved city of Jerusalem. There's more information about what was done in the city of Jerusalem to save those Jews than any other city in the world.
The apostle Paul went all over the world, but we don't have him or any other person spending the time that was spent by these apostles in the beloved city of Jerusalem. We can read Acts chapters two through seven of all the signs that were done by the apostles, all the preaching that was done by the apostles. What was God doing? Trying his best to save the Jewish people.
In fact, another point is, God waited about eight years before the gospel was preached to the Gentile people. God was reaching out through those years only to Jewish people. So God is making all the effort he can to save the Jewish people.
It's not until we read in Acts 10 and 11 about the conversion of Cornelius, the first Gentile convert. Up until that time, it was simply to the Jews. All the congregations that were established were filled with Jewish people, no Gentile people, unless they had become a proselyte, tired of that time.
But after that, we're going to begin to see them establish Gentile congregations. But God sent forth eight years of effort trying to reach only the Jewish people. Then another effort to see that God was trying to save the Jewish people.
And that even when the gospel was beginning to be preached to the Gentile people, you remember what the message was? Paul said to the Jew first and also to the Greeks. That's what he wrote in Romans 1, verse 16. What was Paul's pattern? Every time, even though Paul was sent as a missionary and preacher and minister to the Gentile people, every place he went, he first went to the Jewish people.
Why? Why? God had used the Jewish people to bring in his Savior, Jesus Christ. But just because Jesus Christ the Messiah came from the Jewish people did not exempt them from having to obey the gospel that Jesus gave, the death, the burial, and the resurrection. But the every effort was made by these who went out.
They first went to the Jews, and then they went to the Gentile people. The Jews should have appreciated that. The Jews should have responded to that.
The Jews should have been the ones really taking the gospel. They should have been the leading people in that age. One last effort that I'm going to mention that God did to reach the Jews.
Paul, as you know, was a minister to the Gentiles. He was selected to be that person, but that did not mean that he didn't reach out to the Jewish people. As we pointed out, he reached out to them first in all situations.
But his last effort that we have recorded is found in Acts 28th chapter, when he was shipped to Rome by the government. When he got to Rome, he reached out to the Jewish people. And he said, I'm going to read Acts 28, beginning in verse 22.
The Jewish people came to Paul. They said, but we desire to hear from you what your views are for concerning this sect, Christianity. It is known to us that it is spoken against everywhere.
When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large number. And he was explaining to them, solemnly testifying about the King of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening. Now think about what we've read.
Paul comes to Rome, the Jews hear about him. They come to see him. And then they say, we want to know about this sect, which is what they referred to the church as.
And so they set a day when Paul would preach just to the Jewish people. And so let me read again. When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large number.
And he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the King of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets. And notice how long, from morning until evening. And then verse 24, some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe.
God reached out to the Jews throughout Paul's ministry. God, from the beginning of time, chose the Jewish people to bring in his Messiah and then reached out to try to save them. How sad it is that today there are very few Jewish people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior and have been obedient to the gospel that he preached.
But let it be known, God made every effort to try to save these people. Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God's Word. Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and Lightway Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible.
If you're ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we'd love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at four at the Senior Center. You're always welcome. For more information about this podcast, visit lightwaymedia.com/meditating-on-the-word and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study.
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Until next week, keep meditating on the Word.