Dear friend in the Messiah,
Shalom in His grace!
Your Mission to the Jewish People recently enjoyed a fruitful Passover season. The last few weeks have been filled with opportunities to share the message about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Thousands attended our Messiah in the Passover digital event on March 30.
We have also been in the midst of a Messiah in the Passover online campaign and have met tens of thousands of people interested in Jewish evangelism. Hundreds upon hundreds of Jewish people requested our free booklet, Passover: A Time for Redemption.
We have also created an online series of small-group evangelistic Bible studies, which are going well. By God’s grace, we have seen Jewish people come to faith through these studies.
We could not do any of this without your faithful prayers and generous support. On behalf of our staff family across North America and in nineteen countries worldwide—THANK YOU!
You are such an important part of our mission to bring Jewish people to Jesus.
WHY PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE?
I know that some of you are new to Chosen People Ministries. It is important to me to make sure you understand why we share the gospel with Jewish people day in and day out.
The Apostle Paul recounted his struggle to understand why his fellow Jewish people did not embrace Jesus as their Messiah. For example, in Romans 9, we learn of Paul’s burden for the Jewish people:
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever, Amen. (Romans 9:1–5)
Paul said that he was, in essence, willing to go to hell so that Jewish people might go to heaven. He had an immense burden for his own people. In Romans 10:1, we learn about Paul’s desire to pray for the Jewish people. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”
In chapter eleven, Paul concluded that God had not rejected the Jewish people. There is hope for their salvation in the present age and in the age to come. Paul declared in Romans 11:1 that he himself was a Jew. Paul was living evidence of a faithful remnant!
Paul reminded his readers that God did not reject Israel and that there is a remnant of Jewish people who believe and will believe in Jesus. God preserves a remnant in every generation. This remnant doctrine is fundamental in Scripture and is mentioned from Genesis through Revelation.
The idea of a remnant reaches back to the Hebrew Scriptures. Noah is a biblical type of remnant when God preserved him and his family from the flood. Also, in the negotiations between God and Abraham, we learn that God was willing to preserve a city, Sodom, for the sake of the remnant.
When Elijah thought he was the last man to stand up for righteousness, God showed Elijah that he was not alone because God had preserved a remnant, 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Ba’al.
This remnant theology is still true today! I, too, am a Jewish believer in Jesus, and there is a remnant of Jews today who are accepting the gift of salvation through our various ministries.
Jewish believers in Jesus are the modern-day remnant.
Here are five key ideas drawn from Romans chapters nine through eleven:
1. God will be faithful to the Jewish people who have been given the gifts of the law, the covenants, the promises, and from whom came the Messiah (Romans 9:1–5).
2. There is no way of salvation outside of accepting Jesus the Messiah for either Jew or Gentile (Romans 10:1–4).
3. God will save a remnant of Jewish people in every age who will be faithful to His Word. Jewish followers of God and His Messiah will always be in the minority until the very end of the age (Romans 11:1–5).
4. The turning of the Jewish people to Jesus will be a sign of His imminent return (Romans 11:25).
5. Israel’s future is bright as God will keep His promises to Abraham and save His people, establish His kingdom in the land of promise, and reveal the Messiah to Israel (Romans 11:28–29).
The Apostle Paul looked toward a future remnant and added, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:25–27).
Sharing Messiah with Jewish people ought to be an evangelistic priority today, just as it was for Paul, not a second thought.
Jewish evangelism must never become the great omission of the Great Commission.
WHAT DID PAUL MEAN WHEN HE SAID: “MAKE JEWISH PEOPLE JEALOUS?”
Paul calls upon the Church to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy:
I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. (Romans 11:11)
Believers, and especially Gentile followers of Jesus, are called by God to bring the good news of the Jewish Messiah to the Jewish people.
Paul affirmed that, through Israel’s national rejection of her Messiah, salvation had come to the Gentiles to make Jewish people jealous. This is true today as God wants to use the faithful witness of everyday Gentile believers to lead Jewish people to faith in Jesus the Messiah.
So, dear friend in the Messiah, how can a Gentile believer make a Jewish person jealous? There are several ways to do this, but I believe that the most powerful testimony a believer can have to a Jewish person is by demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit.
When Gentile believers display a combination of the fruit of the Spirit and an understanding of God’s covenant love for Israel, Jewish people will be more likely to become jealous of the relationship Gentile believers have with God through Jesus the Messiah.
PUTTING ROMANS 1:16 INTO PRACTICE
For many Christians, the keystone verse about Jewish evangelism is Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” It is the clarion call for Jewish evangelism. This passage is clear!
As followers of the Jewish Messiah, we should intentionally seek out Jewish people to befriend and reach for Jesus. This is for the benefit of our Jewish family and friends and because we want to participate in God’s plan for the ages.
After all, the Bible teaches that when Jewish people turn to Jesus, then Jesus will return (Matthew 23:37–39, Zechariah 12:10)!
Chosen People Ministries—Your Mission to the Jewish People—can help you reach the Jewish people:
1. We can visit your church and speak on topics related to Jewish people and Jewish evangelism. Please tell your pastor about us.
2. We can provide books, tracts, and online materials to help train and inspire you to reach Jewish people for Jesus and for you to pass along to your Jewish friends and coworkers.
3. We can meet your Jewish friends through Zoom, in person, and by email, if you wish.
4. You can pray for us as we share the gospel in Israel, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other cities across our great country.
May the Lord fill you with joy and the hope of His coming when we will hear the blowing of the trumpet and cry of the Jewish remnant, “Blessed is He who comes in the name the Lord” (Matthew 23:37–39).
Your brother in the Messiah,
Mitch
Dr. Mitch Glaser 