Jews Developed This Christlike Concept Long Before Jesus - DANIEL LANCASTER CHARISMA NEWS

Jesus did not develop the concept of discipleship. He simply perfected it. (YouTube )

Jews Developed This Christlike Concept Long Before Jesus

11/9/2016 DANIEL LANCASTER  CHARISMA NEWS

Large crowds followed our Master, but Jesus did not seek large numbers of followers. Instead, He wanted a few good men and women. He sought disciples.

The Gospel of Matthew says, "When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain." He went up on the mountain to escape the crowds so that He could teach His disciples. It says, "After He sat down, His disciples came to Him" (Matt. 5:1).

When His disciples saw Him sit down, they came near to Him because they knew He was about to start teaching. The rabbis always taught from a seated position. In the vernacular of first-century Judaism, a rabbi sitting down is the equivalent of a pastor stepping up to a pulpit. The phrase "he sat and taught" appears commonly in rabbinic literature to refer to a rabbi discoursing on a subject of Torah. That explains why His disciples gathered around him when they saw him sit down. It was their job.

Discipleship already existed as a well-established institution within Judaism long before the appearance of Jesus and His followers. All the great sages, the rabbis, the sages among the Pharisees, and the teachers of the Torah had disciples. The Hebrew word for disciple is talmid (תלמיד), a word that simply means "student." The plural is talmidim (תלמידים): students. A disciple's job was to learn everything that his master had to teach.

Disciples memorized their teacher's interpretations, explanations and exegesis of Scripture. They memorized the stories, parables, illustrations and anecdotes their teacher told. They learned to practice Torah by imitating their teacher and incorporating his manner of observance into their own. Disciples kept the Torah the way they learned to keep it from their teacher. A disciple endeavored to become like his or her teacher: "A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40).

After the disciple was fully trained, he became the teacher and passed on the teaching to disciples of his own, who, in turn, when fully trained, became teachers and raised up disciples of their own. They taught their disciples in the name of their own teacher, and his teacher, and his teacher's teacher, transmitting a body of oral tradition as vast as the sea. This was the method of higher, religious education in the days of Jesus.

When the disciples saw their teacher sit down, they knew what was expected of them. They had a job to do. So they stepped forward, and He began to teach.

As His disciples, we have the same job. The teacher is seated. Are you ready to learn? 

Daniel Thomas Lancaster is a writer, teacher, and the Director of Education at the Messianic ministry of First Fruits of Zion (ffoz.org), an international ministry with offices in Israel, Canada, and USA, bringing Messianic Jewish teaching to Christians and Jews. He is the author of several books about the Jewish roots of Christianity, the Jewishness of the New Testament, and he is the author of the Torah Club Bible study program (torahclub.org). He also serves as the teaching pastor at Beth Immanuel (bethimmanuel.org), a Messianic Jewish synagogue in Hudson, Wisconsin.  You are welcome to contact Daniel at outreach@ffoz.org.

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Confronting a Dangerous End-Time Mentality - Dr. Michael Brown

Dr. Michael Brown

February 29, 2016

Confronting a Dangerous End-Time Mentality

I hear it all the time, and as quickly as I hear it, I reject it.

It is a paralyzing, destructive mentality, and it is unbiblical—plain and simple.

I’m talking about the mindset that says, “Jesus told us everything will get worse, so why bother trying to bring about change?”

Can you imagine what church history would like if Paul and Peter felt that way in the first century or if Wesley and Wilberforce felt that way in the 18th and 19th centuries?

Why fight against infanticide in the early church? Jesus said things will only get worse.

Why fight against slavery in Great Britain and America? Jesus said things will only get worse.

Why fight against apartheid in South Africa? Jesus said things will only get worse.

Why even oppose the Nazis? Jesus said things will only get worse.

Do you see how paralyzing this mentality can be?

In response to my video message challenging the Charlotte City Council to vote against an extreme, LGBT activist bill—it was dubbed “the bathroom bill”—someone posted this on my YouTube channel:

“I admire your spirit Dr Brown … but you know this is fighting the Hand of God. Can you possibly win? Can you possibly even HOPE to win? He said that these days will come. So how is it that you, a man who serves that same God, fights against Him? He says it WILL happen, and you try to STOP it. Is that not fighting against God? No. Instead, praise Him because His Word IS Truth, and preach ENDURANCE and LONG SUFFERING and HOPE. Those are better messages. Trying to stop the Word of God, however, … is futile.”

With all respect to the person who posted the comment, this is absolute rubbish.

Fighting the Hand of God? Fighting against God? Trying to stop the Word of God? Nonsense!

Oh yes, I fully affirm the need to “preach ENDURANCE and LONG SUFFERING and HOPE,” and those themes go hand and hand with our actions in Charlotte.

But the idea that we are fighting against the inevitable collapse of society in our day—even fighting against God—is an idea to be resisted and rejected.

If you don’t mind my asking, please tell me where Jesus said that from the year 2016 until His return, things will only get worse. Would you be kind enough to provide the chapter and verse?

You might reply, “In Matthew 24, Jesus predicted mass deception and mass apostasy,” but it appears you still miss the point.

Aside from asking which portions of Matthew 24 referred more directly to the events leading up to 70 A.D.—in other words, to events that took place almost 2,000 years ago—the obvious question is: How do you know that His words apply to today rather than to 100 years from today? Who gave you the insight that we were in the closing years of the era and that all we could expect was gloom and doom?

If Jonathan Edwards had believed this in the 1700s, he never would have called the churches together to pray for awakening.

The same could be said for every revival in history: If the believers in each generation thought that the apostasy and darkness and moral corruption they were witnessing indicated that Jesus was coming any minute and that positive change was impossible, they never would have sought God for revival and the world would be in massively worse shape today.

I came to faith in 1971 when Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth was all the rage, and we knew that any day now, Jesus was coming back. The signs of the times were all there!

I was 16 at that time. Next month, I turn 61. And Jesus still has not returned.

What makes you so sure that you have figured it all out and that we should simply capitulate and cave in? What makes you so sure that it’s time to throw in the towel and let the devil and the world take over? Is this even a remotely biblical mentality?

You might say, “But things have never been as bad as they are today.”

I suggest you study history more carefully before coming to that conclusion, but even if you’re right, that’s what other generations have said about their days as well, and the Lord moved mightily with great outpouring and harvest.

Who’s to say He hasn’t saved the best for last?

The fact is that a truly biblical mentality is a victorious, faith-filled, overcoming mentality, a mentality of hope and triumph and expectation.

Jesus is risen, and Jesus is Lord!

That’s all I need to know.

And Jesus told us that: 1) All authority is heaven and Earth is His; 2) in His name and authority, we are to go and make disciples of the nations; and 3) He is with us always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:18-20).

Where, then, is there room for discouragement? Where, then, is there room for a “throw in the towel” mentality?

And if we are successful in making disciples, won’t that mean that positive change will come?

The biblical mentality is expressed by John, who told us that “the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

Or in the words of Paul, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us take off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12).

That is how we must live, and that is the attitude we must have as we stand for what is right, regardless of how dire things look and regardless of cost or consequence.

And that means that, until our dying day—or until Jesus returns, whichever comes first—the salt must stay salty and the light must stay bright (Matt. 5:13-16).

How else could a disciple possibly live?

- See more at: Ask Dr. Brown

Messiah

As Messianic Jews and non-Jews, we look to the beautiful mosaic of love and guidance that God has laid out for us in the fullness of His word. From Genesis to Revelation, the Lord reveals a road-map to righteousness that with every hill, valley and turn points both Jew and non-Jew to the Annointed One, Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. 

The Holy Days, prophecies and wisdom of HIS word cry out with the message of Salvation for ALL nations. As Messianic Jews and non-Jews we invite all to join us in experiencing the incredible blessings that are found in fullness of God's plan of Salvation.

Welcome to the Messianic website that links the Jew and Gentile with their prophesied Messiah and opens up the mystery of the Redeemer of Israel. As the root of Christianity, Jewish worship styles are far more than mere culture and stem from a Biblical and historical relationship with God that has been the basis of their entire existence for over four thousand years. 

Jews and Gentiles today who believe in Yeshua and follow these Jewish historical and Biblical practices generally refer to themselves as Messianic.

"Messianic" comes from the Hebrew word, "mashiach," which means, "the anointed one." It was used of priests and kings of Israel, but took on a specialized meaning in reference to the coming Messiah, the supernatural Deliverer of Israel. 

In the first century, when Greek was the lingua franca, "mashiach" was translated into Greek as "christos" from which we have developed the English words, Christ and Christian. So "Messianic" and "Christian" mean the same thing--they refer to a disciple of Yeshua, though they are derived from Hebrew and Greek respectively. 

Since He is the Messiah of Israel and the One of whom the prophets have spoken, faith in Him, the Hope of Israel, for the atonement of sin is the most Jewish response a person can make. Of course, you don't have to be Jewish to become a disciple, but it couldn't hurt!

A Messianic Congregation is a fellowship of Jews and Gentiles who believe that Yeshua is the true Jewish Messiah promised by God through the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, and who worship within the framework of traditional Jewish patterns. Many of these groups exist in the United States, Israel, and other countries.

Names of God in Jewish

Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship - Full website