The Church’s Responsibility To Israel:
Do Not Boast Against The Branches
“...Do not boast against the branches...remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” –Romans 11:18
Early Church: Jewish
What responsibility does the Church have toward Israel and the Jewish people? Romans 11:12 tells us, “Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”
All the knowledge of God that the Church enjoys today originally came through the Jewish people. The Gospel was taken to the whole world by Jewish bodies and Jewish lips. There would not be a single born-again believer but for the original Jewish apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers who laid down their lives. They saw something. They saw that this Gospel was the fulfillment of Jewish history. They viewed it as the consummation of all that God had given to the fathers and the prophets. They believed it was the fulfillment of this age-long aspiration that Israel would become a vessel by which the light and salvation of God was to come to the ends of the earth.
The early Church was totally Jewish—its origin, thinking, background; everything was Hebrew. They saw it as their responsibility to bring the knowledge of the God of Israel to the Gentiles—moreover, the revelation of His Son, Jesus the Messiah. It thrust them into terrible controversy, not only from outside, but antagonism toward them from within the Jewish establishment, even from within their own fold.
Now it has happened. Today we are seeing what the prophets longed to see. From every tongue and kindred, people and nation, Gentiles have been joined to God through the Jewish Messiah—the Lord Jesus Himself. They have come from every corner of the earth to be joined to the people of God, to become members of the commonwealth of Israel. Through their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles.
With that in mind we might ask ourselves once again: Does the Church have any obligation toward the Jewish people? Paul wrote: “I tell the truth in Christ. . .I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites...” (Roman 9:1, 3, 4). How then can any true Christian take up an anti-Jewish stand? Surely it is impossible. The Jewish fall has become the glorious means by which God has fulfilled the age-old Jewish dream that all nations of the earth shall come into blessing through them.
One Body
The early apostles knew their solemn responsibility and saw the middle wall of partition as gone. At that time the shoe was on the other foot, so to speak. They did not think of Jews becoming Gentiles. They saw Gentiles becoming spiritual Jews. All the epistles talk about it. The book of Ephesians says that Messiah broke down “the middle wall of separation . . .that He might reconcile them both [Jew and Gentile] in one body through the cross” (2:14, 16). But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (2:13).
Branches Born By the Root
As the Church we must not be high-minded, because all the branches are born by the root. To the Jews belong the fathers, the prophets. The root bears us all. The root is Messiah Himself, the root and stock of Jesse. Jesus said, “…before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58).
A Solemn Responsibility
God’s purpose is to graft them in again. “…[D]o not boast against the branches ...remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:18). We are living in the time when the veil will be taken away. For centuries there has been a veil over the Jewish eyes in regard to the Messiah; however, there has also been a veil over the Church in regard to His People. In these last days when the Spirit of the Lord is moving mightily we might ask ourselves as the Church: “What Bride does not take time to get to know the Bridegroom’s family?” It is time now for the true Church to begin to see how much richness has been lost in spiritual things by ignoring the Jewish people, the very people who first brought the love of God to us! This generation of the Church, more than any other, has a solemn responsibility toward Israel and the Jewish people. It is a time when the Spirit of the Lord is bringing us together and a time when we are to humble ourselves, acknowledge that God is NOT finished with Israel and begin to be a blessing to her according to Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless My People.” Anyone who hears what the Spirit is saying here will never be ashamed.
[Note: Message adapted by Sharon Spicka from the original teaching of LANCE LAMBERT, one of the most distinguished Bible scholars and speakers about Israel today.
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