The question may well be asked why should we even study the Hebrew roots of Christianity, anyway?  Often times people will come up to me and asked, "What is it with you and that "Jewish thing", why do you do that?"

When we begin to understand that the church that we have today is NOT what it was in the first century we have to ask ourselves some serious questions.  When we realize that Yeshua (the Hebrew name of Jesus) was a Jew (Mat. 1:1), that the Apostles were Jews, that 24 (if not all 26) of the 26 books of the New Testament were penned by Jews it should begin to give us an idea that the first century church was primarily Jewish.

In Romans 11:18 the scriptures tell us to "Remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root that supports you". To properly understand the importance of this fact we must understand the Hebrew mindset.

The church has been under a mindset that primarily comes from a Greek perspective for over 1,700 years.  That mindset looks at life from a structure based viewpoint.  If things look right on the outside, they must be right on the inside.  Our education system in the west is based on this system of structure and form.

The Hebrew mindset is far more relational in perspective than the Greek mindset.  Plato had students that he lectured, Rabbi Yeshua had a minion of twelve that He poured Himself into for three and one half years. 

Studying Scripture from our Western/American/Greek view is like looking for gold in a dark mine with a dim pen light--you can see enough to stumble around but you need more light to see clearly. A good grasp of the ancient Hebraic customs and terminology allows us to re-examine Scripture in this powerful flood light, exposing intricate details and treasures.

What we now consider "The Church" is almost nothing like the Early New Testament Church. Author/speaker Richard Booker once explained this, by giving the example of an archeologist digging through layers to find out what life was like in ancient times.

To understand the Early Church we must dig through layers of a mountain of man's influences shoveling off and discarding man's traditions, theories, interpretations, and philosophies from Greek and Roman civilizations, Constantine, Marcion, Catholicism, etc., to be able to examine the Early Church. During the Reformation, men such as Wycliffe and Calvin were digging in the right spot. They dug up and discarded many theological errors and found a view of God's plan of salvation by grace, but anti-Semitic layers remain and now there are new layers of tradition, interpretations, western thought (a return to the Greek and Roman thought) and conditioning that need removal. Only then can we have a clear view of the Early Church worship.

There are a group of people that by all human standards should not significantly affect the rest of the world.  These people comprise less than 1 per cent of the world's population.  They have survived the extermination efforts of many nations and kingdoms: Pharoah, Assyria, Haman, the Philistines, Rome, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and Hitler who killed six million of them.

Why and how have they survived?  One reason alone: God set them apart to testify of His faithfulness, of His integrity, and substantiate the absolute authenticity of His Word.  We call these people the Jews.  "He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps..." Psalm 121:4.

For us to truly understand God's ultimate purpose in the earth it is imperative that we understand that God is serious about Israel.  We must also understand that the church was not created to replace Israel but rather to enlarge her. "Therefore, remember that formerly you Gentiles (Goyim) in the flesh...remember that you were at that time separate from the Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in this world." Ephesians 2:11-12

The church is not an independent creation.  It has been...we have been grafted into Israel (Rom. 11:17-19), to the people God uniquely made covenant with.  It is through Israel God has imparted to the world His love, His truth and His grace by His written and Living Word.  Therefore, "remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you."  Please realize that you can never have a flourishing branch if it is grafted into a withering root.  Is Judaism withered or dead?  As Paul said...Never!  It is living and essential to our true biblical identity!

God initiated an everlasting covenant with Abraham.  This covenant is at the very foundation of the nation of people known as Israel.
Genesis 17:7 through Genesis 17:8 (NKJV)
7And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
This covenant between God and Abraham has never changed.  It was and is binding, unconditional, everlasting and literal.  The Abrahamic covenant is threefold including the provision of land, establishment as a nation and supernatural blessings.
Genesis 15:18 (NKJV)
18On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:"To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
Genesis 35:10 through Genesis 35:12 (NKJV)
10And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." So He called his name Israel. 11Also God said to him: "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land."
Jeremiah 31:31 through Jeremiah 31:34 (NKJV)
31"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Since the fourth century the Church, under Constantine, was separated and divested of her Jewish heritage.  Consequently, as a result, significant issues of Biblical interpretation, theology and doctrine have been misunderstood.  Edward H. Flannery, a Catholic scholar,  rightly declared, "An over-Hellenized, over-Latinized Christianity needs a re-Judaising process to bring it back to its founding Jewish roots and renew it more in keeping with its own inherent ideals."
On Shavuot, the Day of Pentecost, in an upper room in Jerusalem, the community of believers that we now commonly call the Church, was born by the outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit.  As Yashuah promised prior to His ascension, so it was fulfilled at this very special time and place.  This community was inherently Jewish, its members steeped in the teaching, the traditions and the culture of the Judaism that Yahshua Himself followed while He walked on this earth, the Judaism created by His Father.  Even though there are numerous religions on earth besides Christianity, there is only one created by the same God we worship as Christians.  Judaism was born in the heart of God and given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  Having been birthed from the root of Judaism Christianity is therefore, essentially  Jewish.
The Bible is not about things Christian or Jewish.  It is about things universal, divine and eternal, which, therefore, are applicable to us all.  However correctly understanding it demands of us an awareness and comprehension the nation, land and people through whom God chose to reveal His Word and His ways.  Therefore, as some have said, the more biblical you become, the more Jewish you will appear. 

Let us realize that the study of the Jewish Roots of Christianity is not some divergent trail from the heart of biblical theology. It is not just a new fad; but rather it is a major step in the restoration of all things which Peter prophesied in his sermon in Acts 3 that would happen in the last days.

Why study the Jewish Roots of Christianity?

1. Jesus was a Jew.  His true Hebrew name is Yahshua which means "salvation of God."  He was born, raised, lived and ministered as an observant Jew.  Yashua was obedient to the commandments of the Father given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  He dlilgently observed every instruction given to the nation of Israel.  Without an understanding of the people, nation and culture among whom Yahshua lived, we will never fully comprehend all that the New Testament teaches.  In fact, as evidenced by history, if we don't have this understanding we will seriously misinterpret major parts of the New Testament.

In revealing these truths God wants to bring us to a greater humility and deal with our "Christian" arrogance. (Romans 8:28-29 "...to be conformed into the image and likeness of His son..." and Romans 11:18 "...but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root that supports you".)

2. The Church was born in Jerusalem and from there the Messiah will rule and reign.  Yeshua is coming back to rule from Jerusalem, not from Rome, Paris, London or Washington, D.C.  The Apostolic leaders and first members of the community of believers were Jewish.  They continued to attend synagogue and live a Jewish lifestyle.  We do not find anywhere in scripture where they abandoned their unique identity as the chosen people of God or the lifestyle which set them apart, as God commanded, from other nations.  The church was uniquely Jewish for the first three hundred years of its life.  It was under Constantine in the fourth century that the "great divorce" brought about a separation of the church from its Jewish roots and the celebration of the "Feasts of the Lord".  This is the day spoken of repeatedly in scripture as the time of "the restoration of all things".  The day of restoration is here!

Acts 3:19-21 (NKJV)
^{19Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.}

 Zechariah 14:4 (NKJV)
And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olive which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west...

Zechariah 14:9 (NKJV)
9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
"The LORD is one,"
And His name one.

Revelation 21:10 (NKJV)
10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Revelation 21:22 through Revelation 21:24 (NKJV)
22But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

3. To properly understand the Word of Truth.  If the Apostle Paul considered it necessary to exhort Timothy, his disciple, to study in order to properly understand and teach the Word of God there must be a tremendous potential to improperly teach the Word of God.  One cannot take the scriptures out of context and then correctly teach the Word of God.  As we journey through this course of study we will abundantly demonstrate this principle.  A simple example of this...

In many circles of theological thinking Judaism is considered a synonym for legalism.  Romans chapter 4, however, makes it quite clear that Abraham came to God by FAITH four hundred years before the Torah (the Law) was given to Moses on Sinai.  Therefore, the foundation of Judaism is not law or legalism, but FAITH. Rather than being a legalistic set of rules to enslave, the Torah is actually a book of instruction that God gave His people to set them free and protect them.  

2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)
^{15Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.}

The Bible is the Word of God, divinely inspired and given to us in the form of a Jewish book.  It must be studied as such in order to properly understand it.  It is totally inappropriate, both spiritually and intellectually, to attempt to interpret it through a 21st century western mentality.  

4. To train and equip the body of Messiah to fulfill the end-time prophetic exhortation to “provoke to jealousy” (Romans 11:13-14).   The greatest gift God gave to the Israelites is the Torah, the revealing of His ways and His heart to His people.  It is such a precious gift that every year at Shavout (Pentecost) it’s giving is celebrated all across the world.  The Scriptures have been given as a sacred trust to be studied and obeyed.  In Jewish thinking, knowing is doing. Just having head knowledge of the Torah, the Prophets, the Psalms is not enough.  What matters most is the heart relationship with God that compels us to put into practice His Word into our lives. 

Evangelical Christians are prone to declare their allegiance to the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God.  Portions are quoted by heart and vehemently defended as to various doctrinal positions.  But how consistently are we living out what we have learned?  The Corinthian church was told “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” (1 Cor. 8:1)  What does it mean to “provoke to jealousy”?

When our lives become such a visible demonstration in word and practice of the truth’s of God’s living Word that our example provokes someone to come to us and ask, “Why do you live like you do?” And, “How can I find what you found?” then we have “provoked to jealousy”.

The context of this exhortation in Romans 11 is clearly with relationship to Israel, but not limited to them.  The bottom line is this:  My relationship to God should be of such a nature that my very life makes others hungry to know Him in a deeper way.  Where are the Pentecostals provoking the Baptists to a deeper love of God?  Where are the Baptists provoking the Methodists or the Methodists provoking the Presbyterians?  To bring it to where you live, whom are you provoking to good works, to a passion for the Lord by your peace and everyday life?

 The population of Israel is today largely secular. However, within her ranks are some of the most deeply spiritual and committed believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we have ever met, some of which provoke us to a deeper walk with God.  Each year thousands of Christians visit the land of Israel.  Yet tragically, most only see the sights and never interact personally with people of the land of Israel.  They never have the wonderful opportunity to express love and extend friendship to local Israelis.

The opportunity to be among those who are “the bridge”, who help heal the breach between Christians and Jews is one of the most important reasons for studying the Jewish roots of Christianity.  This is why in our local congregation we call ourselves a “Judeo-Christian bridge”.  We have witnessed time and time again God bridge the gap and open doors of favor to bring “Jew and Gentile” closer together because we have chosen to walk according to Torah from our hearts.

To major in the multitude of issues that unite us rather than the few that divide us is enlightening and inspiring.  It also equip us to become “provokers” not only to the Jew but equally to our fellow believers within the Christian community and to the world around us, no matter where we come from.

Understand this: To “provoke the Jew to jealousy” is to encourage and inspire him/her to rediscover and re-commit to their awesome identity, calling and relationship to the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  It is also to stir a hunger in them for a deeper relationship with the God who has kept and preserved them through the centuries. And it is to create a hunger for the truths of His Word which was first delivered to their forefathers.

It is not a license to get in their face or stuff their hands with tracts and attempt to “convert” them to a westernized, Hellenized Christianity!  With Jew and Gentile alike, our purpose should always be to let our lives exhibit the peace, joy and power of a living, growing relationship with the Lord that those who observe us are stirred to seek the same relationship.

The promise of Scripture is abundantly clear:  “If you seek Me with all your heart, you shall surely find Me”.  Yeshua declared, “You are the salt of the earth…”  Salt makes thirsty.

Blessed are you, O King of the universe, who helps our lives to be filled with Your salt and makes others thirsty for a deeper relationship with You by your peace and grace in our own lives. 

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