Thursday, 26 February 2015

Renewal of Messianic Judaism and the Church Part Two

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I am in the middle of answering the question ...

Question: Many Christians believe that there will be a powerful end-time renewal of the Church before the return of Jesus. Can you explain how the regathering and renewal of Israel is intertwined with the renewal of the church? For example, why is the renewal of Israel as a nation - and within that the emergence of Messianic Judaism - of vital importance to every pastor who wants to see a true renewal in his congregation?

I found that the Puritans thought this, that there would be a great revival leading to unity, and leading to great evangelistic success before the Lord returns. You also see that in Ephesians 4 - that the leaders equip the saints, the believers, for the work of the ministry until we all come to unity and the knowledge of the Son of God and become complete.

Then in Romans 11:14 it says that we're to magnify the ministry, and I think that means the ministry of the Holy Spirit, until we provoke Israel to jealousy. And he says, What will their acceptance be but life from the dead. Now if you connect John 17 with Ephesians 2 in terms of "one new man", the unity of Jew and Gentile in Messiah have also to be included in that.

And no less a person than the great Puritan commentator, maybe the most famous historic commentator of all times after Calvin, Matthew Henry, wrote that Ephesians 2 when it talks about "one new man", if connected to John 17 when Jesus prayed for unity - it must be the unity of Jew and Gentile in Messiah.

So we see in all of these ways an end time revival, we see a completion of the harvest - because Yeshua said this gospel of the kingdom must be preached into all the world as a witness and then the end shall come. We believe as we see more and more Jews come to the Lord it brings great riches to the world resulting in more and more people from the nations coming to the Lord.