Just How Bold Should We Be When Witnessing to the Jews?
We Must Become Bolder
However, from a Messianic viewpoint being re-established into the vine (Rom. 11) as Jewish believers in Yeshua over these past 40-50 years, we have somewhat struggled with our true identity. Being totally rejected by our own Jewish family, who attempt to nullify any hold we rightfully have to the roots of our faith, but not being fully understood from our Gentile believing family either, in light of our love and association in wanting to act out from our rich heritage.
In my mind this has fostered insecurity in our Messianic family, which we need to be in search of healing for, so we are as free as the Jewish apostles were to proclaim our faith back to our own Jewish brethren with great boldness as well as with signs and wonders. To come into the fullness of our calling as Jewish believers to be a light back to Israel.
If Yeshua is who He said He is and did what He did, then belief in Him is the only true path for Israel and we should proclaim it with the utmost authority and love. If we are going to be successful for God in these days of transition in God’s family between Jew and Gentile, all of us must learn how to represent the gospel back to the Jewish people as if it is there very own, so that they may properly contemplate it (See Jer.31:31-34). After all, while we now have total equality in the Spirit in God’s spiritual family between Jew and Gentile, are not the nations of believers grafted into Israel’s promises and Covenants? And are not Jewish people to be grafted back into their own vine? (please read Rom.11:24).
This can make a huge difference in the way in which Jewish people understand the good news. Indeed, in my own return to faith, which you can read about in my first book The New Covenant Prophecy, I was drawn to jealousy by a Christian who had learned from the Holy Spirit to understand this concept and then built me a platform of belief that helped me to understand that Christianity was Jewish.
When I began to think about Yeshua, it was much more from a Jewish perspective and foundation, which helped me dramatically to consider who He actually was. Please try and understand that every Jew has inherent built in bloodline factors, NEVER to consider Jesus, because of how Christianity was used to persecute and kill them. We must learn to be more sensitive to the barriers by using the correct terminology, so the old buttons do not get pushed so easily.
Getting back to Peter’s boldness, may current Jewish believers of this day be as immersed in the presence of God as all of the apostles were in the first century; that all of us would be like living fountains of the eternal God with healed souls, boldly proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom of God upon the earth. This is my prayer, as it was written: “To preach good news to the poor. To bind up the broken hearted; to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isaiah 61 and Luke 4).
For as the Jeremiah text in the Drash proclaims that the New Covenant would not be like the old, but one that is full of intimacy and knowledge and depth of God that the Holy Spirit brings us when He circumcises our hearts with the law of God. Please try to understand that until the veil is lifted from Israel they like anyone else who has not received the Lord is still blinded by the curse of sin and we should have compassion, love and patience for all those who are still lost.
You might want to read the chapter in my second book The Ezekiel Generation on The Veils, which more fully explains the veil over Israel and the veil of sin.
Let us pray to God for more boldness; that Jewish believers would be a great light back to their own people and also for Gentile believers to bring the gospel to Jewish people with great wisdom and insight to aid them in their own re-grafting.
Grant Berry is a Jewish believer in Yeshua/Jesus and author of The New Covenant Prophecy and The Ezekiel Generation. He has founded Reconnecting Ministries with the specific focus to help the church reconnect spiritually to Israel and considers it vital to the kingdom of G-d in the last days. His message focuses on the unity, love and healing that the Father wants to bring between Jew and Gentile yet clearly points out the differences and misunderstandings between the two groups. Now is the time to look more carefully into this mystery to make way for healing and reconnection in the Spirit. For more information, please visit reconnectingministries.org.