Revealing the Jewish Messiah

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And finally, Jesus had to be God because only God had the authority to forgive sin. Jesus made it very clear when he was on earth that he was God. Remember the incident where the four friends brought the paralyzed man to Jesus for healing? The Pharisees were there and witnessed Jesus tells the man that his "sins were forgiven." The paralyzed man got up and walked. The Pharisees are thinking that Jesus spoke blasphemy for they knew that neither they nor any regular man or leader could forgive sin but only God alone had that authority. So Jesus tells the Pharisees in Luke 5:24, "But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." The Son of Man is a reference from Daniel 7 where Daniel has a vision of the Son of Man, who has all authority, power, dominion and sovereignty and all nations and people worshipped him. We only worship God so since Jesus had authority over sin, death and was worshipped he had to be God.

None of the covenants of God ever promised forgiveness of sin until the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31. Abrahamic covenant was the promise of the Seed. Davidic Covenant was for the line of David to remain on the throne forever. Mosaic Covenant was for holy living where the blood of animals temporarily covered our sin but could not remove it. That is why we had to keep sacrificing over and over. Now consider that all the covenants of God required a blood sacrifice. But God also warns against eating any blood. God tells us in Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." But there is no longer an altar so how do we sacrifice? Well the truth is that Jesus was the final sacrifice and that is why Jesus said in Matthew 26:27-28, "Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'" God did not want us to misunderstand and drink the inferior blood of animals when the perfect blood of the Messiah was coming. Now Jesus gives us a new commandment about the blood of forgiveness.

Other ways to reach Jewish people are with Scripture. There is no space to share a lot but consider Jeremiah 31, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 12. Zechariah 12 has a pronoun change that is hard to dismiss. God is speaking in 12:10 and says, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son." That verse has so much truth. When did the people pierce God? Had to be Jesus on the cross. Then there is the pronoun change that they will look at him. God just said that we pierced God but they will look at him. Very hard to argue with what this verse is saying. Couple this with Genesis 18 where Abraham calls his visitor God by his holy name in the flesh, and you have very powerful evidence.

I will recommend a few more books for you to check out. Identity Theft by Ron Cantor, Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and Original Church by Dr. Ron Moseley, Introducing your Jewish Friend to Yeshua by Daniel Nessim and Mark Surey and Sharing Jesus in a Jewish Way by Doug Pyle.

Hope that this information was helpful. I pray for your success in witnessing to my people! Provoke them to faith in their Messiah by the love that you have for him.

Revealing the Jewish Messiah, The Series
The History of Jews, Jesus, and Christians
Revealing the Jewish Messiah

Image Credit: Microsoft Clipart

Tags: Biblical-Truth | History-Apologetics | Witnessing-Evangelism

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Published 11-5-2014