As we approach God's word tonight, let's just begin with the word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you tonight for your rich blessings upon us. We thank you for our salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have made him known unto us, that we are aware of his ministry, of his life, of his great sacrifice on our behalf. And we recognize him as the Savior of the world, as the Messiah who was promised in the Old Testament and as the Savior who came and gave his life and lived again. And we thank you that he reigns in heaven today. And so we just want to exalt him in our hearts and in our minds tonight. And Lord, we pray as we open your word and as we talk about how we can get the gospel out. is good news about Jesus, how we can get this message out to the unsaved world around us. I pray, Lord, that you would fill our hearts with love for the lost and prepare us that we might be able to share the truth in love. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you'd like to, you can open your Bible to Luke chapter 24, verse 26, but we won't get to that. Right away, just take a few minutes to kind of work our way into that passage. Tonight's message is part of our series on the gospel for all. And so we've been talking about how we can be prepared to share the truth of the gospel with people that are coming from a different perspective, a different religion of the world, a different understanding even of the Bible. And so, we've talked about Jehovah Witnesses, we've talked about Mormons. Tonight, I want to move on to one of the major religions of the world, and that's Judaism. So, tonight's message is the gospel for our Jewish friends. Now, we know the gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel for all. This is the premise of our series. And so, the gospel of Jesus Christ is, in fact, the gospel for the Jewish people as well. But of course, they're they're going to have a difficult time accepting that message because they do not see Jesus as the Messiah. They do not understand the good news concerning Christ, the good news of the gospel that we've been talking about, his identification as the son of God, his vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind, his bodily resurrection from the tomb and his power to save men from sin. These are the precious truths concerning Christ. We accept them, we hold them dear to our hearts. But of course, those of the Jewish faith would reject every one of those. But we're going to proclaim Christ. This is our mission. This is the great commission that our Lord has given to us. And we are not to shy away from proclaiming Christ to those who are of the Jewish faith. And so tonight, what we're going to do is talk about how we can adapt our evangelistic methods without altering the message of the gospel and make contact with Jewish people, share our faith with our Jewish friends, and by God's grace, show them how they can be saved. I'm going to follow the same outline I've been following all along in this series. We're going to start with a brief sketch of the history of the Jewish faith, and then we're going to talk about what they believe and then what they need to hear. Well, unlike the Jehovah Witness and Mormon faith, we understand that the Jewish faith is an ancient religion. It spans millennia, and we Christians and those of us who have studied our Bibles actually have a good understanding of the early history of Judaism, don't we? It's detailed in our Old Testament. So three fourths of our Bible is really covering the early history of Judaism. So if we study our Old Testaments, we're studying the history of the Jewish people. So if you want to learn the history of Judaism, read your Bible. And so tonight, I'm going to assume that you have a pretty good understanding of that. We're not going to go into great detail. I do want to give you kind of a quick flyover just to jog your memory. How about the founder of Judaism? This is a trick question. Who is the founder of Judaism? God, I heard it. That's correct. God, not a man. What a difference this is versus Jehovah Witness or Mormons, right? God is the founder of the Jewish religion. The true God, the God of the Jewish scriptures, the God of the Christian Bible, the same God, of course, that we worship. And so we don't consider Abraham to be the founder. He was a man chosen by God. to be the patriarch, the great patriarch and progenitor of the Jewish people. But he's not the founder. God is the founder. And so let's just kind of do a quick flyover of the history. We start with the age of promise. The promise was given to Abraham. And so we have Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, the patriarchs of the Jewish people. And of course, in the time span of Joseph, The Jewish people ended up in Egypt and then they were enslaved in Egypt for 400 over 400 years. And finally, God heard their cries and sent a deliverer who was who Moses, the great deliverer. And he led the people out of captivity, out of Egypt, into the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where they received God's law. And so we have the covenant of law that is instituted. during the time of Moses on Mount Sinai. Well, of course, following Moses, we have Joshua, who led the conquest of the promised land. And then after him, the period of the judges leading up to the United Kingdom under Saul and David and Solomon. And then after Solomon, the kingdom split into two. We have the divided kingdom, the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah. And the northern kingdom ended up going into the Assyrian captivity and then the southern kingdom into the Babylonian captivity for 70 years. And after those 70 years, there was a remnant that returned to Jerusalem. Remember that? And this would be in the time of of Ezra and Nehemiah. And of course, all during this span of time, from the time even of the United Kingdom, the divided kingdom and all through this period of time, we have the prophets writing as well. And so the prophets are speaking. The word of God. The biblical history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament ends with Malachi. He's the final prophet to write about 435 B.C. and after he finished writing. God ceased giving revelation that was written down anyway. And so we have these 400 and some odd years of what we call silence where God is not speaking. It's the intertestamental period. Now, what we know about that period comes from secular history. We know that about 330 B.C., that begins the Hellenistic period. Alexander the Great, when he conquered the world following his death, his kingdom divided into four and fractured. And there were all these power plays that went on. And I'm summarizing a lot of history there. But ultimately, the Jewish people were able to regain some independence under the Maccabees and the Hasmonean dynasty. An important event happens in 63 B.C. when Pompey of Rome begins to conquer and takes over the Holy Land and puts all of Judea under Roman control. And so when Christ comes in the New Testament era, we have the domination of Rome. Everything is under the iron fist of Rome. And that's the period of Christ in the New Testament era. Now, you may know that around 70 A.D., we had the destruction of the temple. And so that's a significant event, and it really signals the crumbling of Judaism as it's being crushed under the iron fist of Rome. And so Jews and Christians both went through a period of intense persecution. and were dispersed throughout the known world. Well, what happens in the early centuries after Christ? I would say the most important development in the Jewish religion was that of Jewish scholarship, the Talmudic academies were formed and these great Jewish scholars would get together and and study the the holy scriptures and discuss and argue and debate all of the oral traditions. And you had the exposition of the Hebrew scriptures and what's called the Midrash. You had the recording of the oral traditions in the Mishnah. And then you had commentaries on the oral tradition and the Gemara. And all of these were kind of collected together in the Talmud. And so you have the great development of Jewish scholarship in the early centuries during this Talmudic period. And as you kind of zoom over time and over the centuries since the New Testament era, what you see are several great massacres of the Jewish people, times of great persecution where many were killed. certainly under the Roman emperors in the first several centuries A.D., under the Islamic caliphates from the 7th century to the 11th century A.D., also under the Christian crusaders in the 11th through 13th century, and certainly and most memorably in recent decades under the Nazis in the 20th century. So the Jewish people are used to being persecuted. They're used to suffering. They're used to being ostracized. And mistreated and even killed. But they are God's people. And God miraculously has preserved a remnant of his people. You cannot exterminate the Jewish race because they are God's people. And so a significant event took place in 1948 when Israel as a nation was reborn and they were they had their own land. They became a nation. And in 1967 another important development took place when they retook Jerusalem and now had the holy city back in their possession holding it as a free people for the first time since 586 B.C. Now, can you not see the hand of God in all of this amazing thing? Well, because of repeated conquests and persecutions, the Jewish people, as I said, have been scattered throughout the world. And so you'll find Jews in pretty much any country of the world. Let me list some of them. France, Canada, United Kingdom, Russia, Argentina, Germany, Australia, Hungary and many other nations. And it may surprise you to know that there are pretty much as many Jews living in the United States as live in the land of Israel. Did you know that many Jews here in America. And so we may have opportunities to share the gospel with Jewish people because they are here right here among us. Well, because they're spread around the world, it's very difficult to come up with an exact number of how many people adhere to Judaism around the world. But you'll see a wide range of estimates somewhere between 13 to 18 million Jews worldwide. Now, one thing that we have to really keep in our minds as we think about sharing the gospel with Jewish people. is they're not all the same, you know, just like we're not all the same. And somebody might look at us as Baptists and think of the Baptists are all the same, but we're not all the same. Right. There's varieties of Baptist churches. Some are conservative, some are liberal. And so in Judaism, there's there's there's a lot of variety and we have to start with the question, you know, what do we mean when we say Judaism? What does it mean to be a Jew? Because you could be speaking in an ethnic sense. In terms of the Hebrew race, you know, somebody is born a Jew. They're descended from Abraham and they can trace their lineage back at least some generations and recognize that they are among the Jewish people ethnically. You could be speaking nationally, national Judaism, those who live in the nation, the country of Israel. And so they can be we could we would consider them to be Jewish people. just by nature of where they live. But of course, we're really talking tonight about religious Judaism. We're talking about what people believe and practice, their faith, the tenets of the Jewish faith. That's really what we're talking about. But even as we talk spiritually and about Jewish faith, we have to understand there's a wide variety of people. There's the ultra orthodox. the Hardee as they're called. And these are ones that you can tell just by looking at them that they're orthodox. They're wearing dark suits and hats and they have beards and their sideburns like this and so on. And so you can tell by the way they dress and by the way they conduct themselves and the way they cut their hair that they have rejected modern culture. And so they're way out there on I would say the extreme right end of the spectrum. You also have the Hasidic Jews. Now, these are also ultra Orthodox, but they kind of get into Jewish mysticism more. And so they're not so much in the studying of the scriptures as they are experiencing the mystical aspects of Judaism. Then you kind of have those in the middle, and I'm just going to broadly call them the mainline Judaism. They're actually Orthodox. In terms of the fact that they are observing and preserving the traditional Jewish faith, they're devoting themselves to the Jewish practices. They're devoted to the one true God and they're worshiping him. They attend synagogue. They respect the Hebrew scriptures. They keep the laws and ethics of the Torah as best as they can. They train their children. They bring them up in Judaism. They have bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs for their children. So these would be the mainline or orthodox Jews. But then we're going to move a little to the to the left of the spectrum. There's what I would call the cultural Jews or the reformed Jews as they're sometimes called. Now these would be people who are not so active in their faith but they do want to preserve The Jewish traditions, tradition. Right. And so they will keep the festivals, the holy days. They will learn some Hebrew prayers and recite them on special occasions. They will probably still bar mitzvah their sons. But that's it. I mean, there's no active practicing of their faith, there's no real studying of the scriptures. And so when you meet someone who's a Jew who's like this and you're assuming they know their scriptures, but in fact, they do not. And then way out on the left end of the spectrum would be secular Judaism or liberal Judaism. It's really not Judaism at all, except in a ethnic or heritage sense. These are Jewish people who are pluralistic and And they appreciate their Judaism in an abstract sense and a cultural sense in terms of their heritage. But they're not religious at all. And very often these are the ones who have gone to university in Tel Aviv and they have studied in a secular sense the Jewish religion from a distance. And so that gives us a sense really of the history of the Jewish faith and where we stand today with so many varieties of Jews spread throughout the whole world. Let's go on to talk about what Jewish people believe. I just want to say the Jewish faith is non creedal. That means that they don't go by certain creeds. They have no equivalent to the Westminster Confession of Faith or the London Baptist Confession. But the closest you can come to this would be a concise confession of faith developed by Rabbi Moshe bin Maimon. And he goes by the nickname Ramban. They call him Ramban. He developed the 13 principles of faith. And let me just read these to you. And I want you to kind of mentally analyze each one, figure out if you would agree with that tenet of faith or not. OK, number one, God exists. Number two, God is one and unique. Number three, God is incorporeal, that is, he's immaterial, he doesn't have a body, he's a spirit. Number four, God is eternal. Number five, prayer is to be directed to God alone and to no other. Number six, the words of the prophets are true. Number seven, Moses prophecies are true and Moses was the greatest of the prophets. Number eight, the written Torah and oral Torah were given to Moses. Number nine, There will be no other Torah. You understand Torah means law. That's the Hebrew for law. The teachings. Number 10. God knows the thoughts and deeds of men. Number 11. God will reward the good and punish the wicked. Number 12. The Messiah will come. Number 13. The dead will be resurrected. All right. So what do you think? 13 principles of faith. from a great rabbi, medieval rabbi. Do you agree with those 13 things? Well, you know, in whole, we generally agree. I would say there's two that we need to modify a little bit. OK. We would say Moses was the greatest Old Testament prophet. Because there was a greater prophet who came in the New Testament and his name is Jesus Christ. Right. And number 12, they say Messiah will come. And we say Messiah has come and he will come again. And so we would adapt those two, but really pretty much the rest. I mean, we might argue about the oral Torah a little bit. See me afterwards if you want to have that debate. But really, on the whole, Jewish people believe what we believe. But we believe more. Because we have a whole New Testament that they have not accepted. In fact, that's where I want to begin to look at some of the specifics of the Jewish faith. What do they believe concerning the scriptures? They have their Hebrew Bible. They have the Hebrew writings which correspond to our Old Testament. And so the Hebrew Bible of the Jewish faith is the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Only they don't call it the Old Testament because they don't have the New Testament. So it's just the Hebrew Bible. They don't recognize the New Testament as being scripture or having any authority in their lives like the Hebrew scriptures do. And so obviously, when we go to witness to share our faith with a Jewish person, we need to understand that. And so you don't just pull out your Romans road, right, and try to persuade them. It's better to start on common ground. We have all of these pages of common ground in our Bible. And so, we would use something that they revere and believe in, the Hebrew Scriptures, to lead them to Christ. In fact, we will do what Jesus did with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And now, if you have turned to Luke 24, Here's what Jesus said to those disciples. Luke 24 and verse 25, then he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ, now that word Christ is a title, the Christ, the Messiah, the Messiah, the Messiah that connects with the Jew. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. You can find Christ in the Old Testament. Because there are many, many prophecies there that prophesy of a coming Messiah, and those are speaking of Christ. And so what Jesus did with these two disciples is he showed them from the Old Testament that he was the Christ. And so that's what we want to do with the Jewish people. Well, what do Jewish people believe concerning God and Jesus Christ? Well, they worship the same God we do. They affirm that there is one God. We affirm that there is one God, but he's not as simple as that. Of course, we believe in the triune God and most Jewish people are going to really have a difficult time with that. They're going to reject Jesus as the Messiah. He's not their Messiah. That's what a Jew thinks. Now, some Jews may go so far as to say, well, you know, he was the Messiah of the Gentiles, but he's not the Jewish Messiah. In fact, some Jews may go so far as to say Jesus was indeed a great prophet. But they don't see him as the son of God, that's the fundamental issue. They deny that he was the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior, the Deliverer, the Messiah and the King. And so there's a real gap in their understanding concerning Jesus Christ. Think back to the New Testament era. Why did the Jewish people in the New Testament era reject the Christ, Jesus Christ? Because he didn't match up to what they were expecting. That's the primary reason. They were looking for a different kind of Messiah. They were expecting a conquering Messiah instead of a suffering Messiah. They were expecting a national deliverer instead of a spiritual deliverer. They were expecting a mighty liberator and not one who is meek and lowly in heart. And so he wasn't what they were looking for. And they missed it. They missed God's Messiah for them. So, why can't Jewish people today see that Jesus is their Messiah? It's really that many of the same reasons, but there's also more. Turn over to Romans chapter 11. Romans 11 verse 1. Paul writes, I say, then have God cast away his people. Speaking of ethnic Jews, God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. So that's how he begins this whole chapter. Then skip down to verse twenty five. For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But it's touching the election, they are beloved. for the Father's sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. What we see here in this passage is that God is not done with his people, Israel. He has a plan for them. And though they are blinded now. We Gentiles are benefiting from that because we have heard of the Savior, the Messiah, and we are enjoying The benefits of the new covenant. But there is coming a day when all Israel will be saved. Then things will be made right and whole. God is preserving his remnant, his people, Israel, and we're told here that they are still beloved of God. God's people, the Jewish people, are still his chosen people. The Jews are still looking for their Messiah when in reality their Messiah has already come but they're blinded to the truth of this. What do Jewish people believe concerning salvation. Keep in mind Jewish people are still living under the old covenant the covenant of law from the old our Old Testament. And so they think that by keeping the law they are keeping the covenant of God and as long as they keep up their end of the bargain God will keep up his end of the bargain. What they have not come to realize is that no one can be saved by keeping the law because no one can perfectly keep the law. What are the Jewish people believe concerning the afterlife. Well pretty much what we do if they are mainline Jews in terms of heaven and hell and the resurrection. But keep in mind that so many Jews now are marginal or secular and they actually no longer believe in eternity just like Pastor Milligan was saying tonight, he ran into a couple of men tonight and one who did not believe in eternity. And that same thing is true with secular Jews. So Judaism is correct in many things, they're correct in worshiping the one true God, the God of the Bible. They're correct in forbidding idolatry and endeavoring to live in obedience to God. These are all good things. But Judaism falls short. They think that by keeping the law, they can earn their salvation. And so their belief system is incomplete. They need to hear the good news of the gospel. So let's move on. We've talked about their history and their doctrine. What do Jewish people need to hear? This is the real important part. Now, I hope that you have a pen. You can take some of these things down. I'm going to move kind of quickly through this. First of all, concerning the scriptures. I think it's helpful for Jews to be told that the New Testament has historical value. You don't have to convince them that it's the word of God, but tell them that the four gospels in the New Testament record the history of the works of Christ in his earthly ministry. Tell them that the book of Acts is the historical record of what the early Christians taught and did. And then challenge him, say, you know, all good students of history will study the historical record. I really want to encourage you to read the historical record in the Bible and then point them to the gospel of Matthew. That is the gospel that's really written with a Jewish audience in mind, it has so many numerous Old Testament quotations in it, Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ. You can also encourage them to read the book of Hebrews, especially if they've studied Jewish theology. That book would really open their eyes to what happened in the New Testament era. So encourage your Jewish friends to read Matthew, the book of Acts, book of Hebrews, and then offer to meet with them to get together and discuss them in a non confrontational manner. What do they need to hear concerning Messiah? Well, here what you do is you start the conversation with a question and you just speak, you know, quite honestly with them. I understand that the Jewish people are looking for Messiah to come. Oh, yes. Well, tell me, how will you know him when he comes? Now, if they give a correct answer, here's the correct answer, because when Messiah comes, he will fulfill all the prophecies concerning him. That's the correct answer. And you look at them and you say, very good. I agree with you 100 percent. Let's look at some of the prophecies in the Hebrew Bible concerning Messiah. Now, John, start to jot these down. We'll just go right through them kind of quickly. Micah 5 to Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but now Bethlehem, Ephrathah. Though they'll be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of these shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And then you could take them at that time to Matthew 2.1 to see the fulfillment of that. Or another strategy is to show them all the Old Testament prophecies, all the Hebrew prophecies, and then at the end, go back to the New Testament and show all the fulfillments of all those prophecies. Isaiah 714, Messiah will be born of a virgin. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And then you focus on that word and you say, you know what that word means? It means God with us. Just plant that seed in their mind and then move on, that's fulfilled in Matthew 1 verses 18 through 23. Then move on to Zechariah 9 9. Messiah will enter Jerusalem on a donkey. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation. Lowly, you might stop on that word, lowly and riding upon an ass, upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And that's fulfilled, of course, in the New Testament in Matthew 21, verses 1 through 11. Ultimately, you're going to want to get to Isaiah 53. This is perhaps the greatest chapter speaking of the coming Messiah and the fact that he would be a suffering Messiah. Very few Jews have spent much time in that chapter, and you want to make sure that ultimately you find a way to get there. Isaiah 53, 3, Messiah will be despised and rejected. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. And this is fulfilled specifically in John 1 verse 11. Another passage you might go to is Psalm 22 verses 16 through 18. The Messiah will die by crucifixion. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture." That's Old Testament, folks. Psalm 22 fulfilled in the New Testament, Luke 23, verses 33 to 34. And then go back to Isaiah 53 again, verse 9. Messiah will be buried in a rich man's tomb. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth. This is fulfilled in the New Testament in John 19 verses 40 through 42. And then lastly, Isaiah 53 10, the next verse, Messiah will rise up from the grave. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him and he had put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands." And it's that phrase, prolong his days, that is a reference to the resurrection of the Lord. So it's fulfilled in Find the resurrection accounts in all four of the Gospels, but specifically Matthew 28, 5 through 7 would be a good cross reference. Again, focusing on Matthew's Gospel when you're talking to a Jew. And so you look at your friend and you say, consider that Jesus has fulfilled all of these prophecies that we've talked about. What do you think about that? Well, we would conclude that he is the promised Messiah. This is powerful with a Jew. Now, some Jews may say, yes, but Jesus did not fulfill all of the Messianic prophecies. Now, here's where you need to be careful. Did Jesus fulfill all of the Messianic prophecies? Trick question. Not yet. That's the answer. Not yet. And so you would look to him and say, you know, Christians agree with you on that point, because there are some prophecies that Jesus has not yet fulfilled, but he will. He will fulfill every one of them. And then concerning the resurrection and Jesus identity as the son of God, you kind of want to work your way into this, OK? But this is really where you want to go. This is where you want to confront your Jewish friend with the truth of the gospel. But start out in the Old Testament, take them to Psalm 2. Let's turn over to Psalm chapter 2. This is a messianic psalm. Finds fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 2 verses 1 through 7. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from under us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me. Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. So you read this to your Jewish friend from their Hebrew Bible. And then when they're ready, you take them to Acts chapter 13, turn over to Acts chapter 13. Now, this is part of a really great sermon. We don't have time for all of it. We're going to focus in on Acts 13, beginning in verse 29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, from the cross. and laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second psalm Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. That's a quotation from Isaiah 55, verse 3. And so we have here the fulfillment of what was spoken in Psalm 2. Isn't this marvelous? It's marvelous. And this goes on, the passage goes on to put emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And there's more proof here given that's appealing to the Jewish people. Verse 35, Wherefore, he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. That's Psalm 16. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption. What we're learning here is this wasn't about David. Verse thirty seven, but he whom God raised again saw no corruption being known unto you, therefore, men and brethren. That through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all the believer justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Does that not speak to a Jew? Quoting from the Old Testament scriptures, the Psalms and Isaiah, and interpreting them rightly and seeing how these are fulfilled in Christ. And then turn over to Romans chapter one. And this just really, again, emphasizes the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, fulfilling the prophecy, and he was declared to be the son of God with power. Romans chapter one. This is the greeting of the epistle. Verse one. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God. Which he had promised to for by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Ultimately, what you want to do is get your Jewish friend to be confronted with the truth and the powerful message of the resurrection. And in fact, this is something that has been lacking in our witness in recent years. We need to get the resurrection into our gospel witness. It is central to our faith. It is it is a central fact. of our faith, that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. We need to proclaim the resurrection. People have to be confronted with that fact of history. How do you explain the resurrection of Christ? Oh, I heard this theory and that theory, and then you can just get into an apologetic discussion with them, but bring them back to the scriptures. and show them how it was indisputable, he appeared to so many witnesses. And lives were changed and they're still being changed. So concerning Jesus' identity as the son of God and concerning salvation, you need to get to a gospel presentation, but again, starting the Old Testament, all have sinned. We have Old Testament on this. Psalm 53, verses two and three. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them has gone back. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. And this is quoted, of course, in the book of Romans in the New Testament. And then Isaiah 64, 6. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So we have Old Testament passages that you can use with a Jewish person to show them that all have sinned. And then you might want to connect with them in terms of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. And just, you know, might inquire a little bit, give them a chance to explain, you know, what is this all about? You know, why do you still celebrate this and so forth? How is it celebrated, recognized? What does it mean? And then at some point you're going to connect with them and say, yeah, it's a reminder to us that our sins need to be atoned for. And then you go to the Old Testament, Leviticus 17, verse 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. And stop and look at them and have them understand the gravity of that statement and then take them to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, let's turn over to their Hebrews 10. Now, Hebrews is, you know, it's the deep end of the pool, right? There's a lot of deep theology in Hebrews, but that's why it's important ultimately to get a Jew to read this book. Not right away, perhaps, but eventually you want to get them to this book, Hebrews chapter 10. Look how it starts out, verse one, for the law having a shadow of good things to come, the laws were referenced to the law of Moses, the covenant of law under the Old Testament. And not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers therein too perfect. For then they would not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. Yom Kippur. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. And then as you go on through this passage in this chapter, it's going to explain that Jesus is the one true sacrifice who really takes away sin. And so you're going to point them to Christ and make that connection based on their Jewish understanding, and then you're going to question them and ask, what did Abraham do? to obtain the righteousness of God that leads to salvation. And you can take them perhaps to Genesis, chapter 15, verses five through six, where we're told there that Abraham believed in the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousness. It was the faith of Abraham, not the works of Abraham. And then you take them to the New Testament, the book of Romans, chapter four. Turn over to the book of Romans, chapter four. which interprets those events. Romans 4 verses 1 through 5. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture, now here's the quotation, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness. This is what Jewish people need to hear. They need to hear that righteousness comes not by works but by faith. And it's the very same faith that Father Abraham had. And it may be at this point in your gospel witness that your Jewish friend might be ready to put their faith in Christ as their Messiah. We've talked about the history, the doctrine of the Jewish faith and what Jewish people need to hear. Let me just mention a couple of resources that you might find helpful. On your way out tonight, you might stop by the table in the foyer And notice some of the tracks that I put out there from Jewish awareness ministries of the tracks that they have published. The one that I would really highly recommend is identifying the Messiah. And many of those Old Testament prophecies that I ran through tonight are the very ones that they have in this little tract. And so this is very good for witnessing to Jewish people. There's another track they call Shalom Peace, also a very good track. And then there's a couple tracks that, you know, Jews are going to have all kinds of objections. And so this addresses a couple of their biggest objections. One God or three. Okay. Dealing with the doctrine of the Trinity. Another one. Can you be Jewish and Christian? We need to understand that Jews have many objections. In fact, Michael Brown, and I recommend this book to you, has written actually it's a three volume set. See how many objections Jews have? Answering Jewish objections to Jesus. Highly recommend that. Very helpful, especially if you are actively witnessing to a Jewish person. Let me give you a few ground rules when talking with a Jewish person. First of all, show respect for them. You're talking to someone who is a member of the chosen people of God. And you might even come out and say that, well, the Jewish people are the chosen people of God. They still are folks. So show respect for them. Use terminology familiar to them. They don't know all the Christian terminology, but they know their Old Testaments if they're mainline Jews. And so use terminology familiar to them. Use the word scripture instead of the word Bible. Use the word Messiah instead of the word Lord. Maybe you would say something like coming to faith instead of the word conversion. For a Jew to convert to Christianity has all kinds of implications. Of course, coming to faith does too, but it will just get them around those mental roadblocks that they have. Show interest in their scriptures. Let them know that you revere their scriptures and cherish them. and allow them to share from their scriptures, especially those passages that speak of Messiah, and then use those very same scriptures to show them Jesus in the Old Testament. And above all, be patient. It may take many, many months of building bridges and forging relationships and numerous encounters and discussions. And the person you're witnessing to may have many objections, but just be patient because there are answers for all of those objections. And just be patient with them and pray for them. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel for all. We need to share the gospel with Jewish people. And there are many Jews today who are coming to faith in Jesus Christ, because someone like you has shown love for them and has shown them from their own scriptures that Jesus is their Messiah. Our Father, I thank you for this message tonight that speaks to us and challenges us to fulfill the Great Commission. and to not limit it in any way in terms of the people that we witness to, in terms of the religions of the world, in terms of people's ethnic backgrounds. Lord, help us to see our responsibility to share the gospel with Jewish people and to point them to the true Messiah. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.