So, what is a Messianic Congregation exactly? This is a
question often asked even by brothers and sisters in the Messiah. Not many
people know what Messianic Judaism is nor do they understand what its purpose
in the Body of Messiah is. The fact is not many pastors are really all that
sure either. An example of this uncertainty is found in the following quote
from a Hebrew Roots congregational website:
“Messianic Judaism is a very specific movement of
believers in Yeshua that is focused primarily on evangelism of and ministry to
Jewish people by Jewish people. Non-Jewish participants in the Messianic Jewish
movement play a secondary, supportive role. While we do share many things in common
with Messianic Jewish congregations,
the primary goal of…name omitted…is to see all of God's redeemed (Jewish and
non-Jewish alike) 'living holy and godly lives'."
While making these incorrect statements that
undoubtedly make non-Jewish readers feel they have no real place in Messianic
Judaism, the author shows his lack of understanding of Messianic Judaism. None of the above
statements are true of Messianic Congregations. But rather than correct these
erroneous statements one by one, let’s look at what a Messianic Congregation
actually is within Messianic Judaism.
The first mistake people make when searching for an answer
to this question is that they often become entangled in a variety of past or
current movements that have tried to pattern themselves after Messianic Judaism
– people and places who call themselves “Messianic” but who are really “Hebrew
Roots” or “Ephramite” or
“Lost Tribes” congregations. You can even go into a
congregation that is aligned with one of the main Messianic Jewish
organizations and not get an answer to your question because the answer to what
Messianic Judaism is lies in the history of the Church.
Modern Messianic Judaism was re-born in the 1960’s during a
time when many Jewish people were coming to faith in the Messiah. The word
re-born is not intended to be a pun but is used to emphasize and to illustrate
that Messianic Judaism is a movement that is two thousand years old.
The first Messianic Jews were the twelve Apostles of Rabbi
Yeshua. The first Messianic Congregations were established by these twelve
along with a thirteenth Apostle Rav Shaul, or Paul, as we know him.
If one is to understand what a
Messianic Congregation is, one has
to begin in the book of Acts – where we find
the first Messianic Communities and where we see Messianic Judaism in its purest
form. This has to be the standard by which we measure the movement and it is
the standard that we have endeavored to use
at our Congregations.
The congregations that we find
in the book of Acts were based on
the very teaching of Yeshua – their existence
was a direct result of Yeshua’s living example. The Son of God worked
personally with twelve men, fashioning and molding them to go out and begin
these congregations. He spent three and a half years living with, shaping, and
training these men to go out, spread the good news, and establish congregations
in the world. The fact is that the church
has never been closer to what Yeshua
intended his Assemblies to
be than they were in those congregations that we
find in the book
of Acts.
These twelve men were the
Messiah’s trail blazers. They went out into the world and they cut a path
through the error that existed within Judaism and through the paganism of the
nations. They established communities of people that lived and breathed Yeshua
and the standards that he taught.
And, not only did they cut a
path, but in their writings, they left us a model to follow. Just as explorers
make maps and put markers on the land to mark where they have been – these
disciples left us markers. If we want to worship as Yeshua intended, then we
must follow the markers left by these men – markers that make up what Messianic
Judaism is.
An example, we have a sister at Kehilat Sar Shalom who makes
the most wonderful cheesecake that you will ever eat and, if you ask, she will share
the recipe with you. Now, if you follow the recipe exactly as it is written,
you will make the most wonderful cheesecake that you have ever tasted. However,
if you change
the recipe, if you alter it or vary it in any way, you will end
up with something a little less than the perfection that she makes. The same is
true of our faith. Twelve men came and established the perfect congregations,
but then along came some other men with “better ideas” and they changed the
recipe. Messianic Judaism is the realization that there is no better recipe.
The title “Messianic” is the next thing to note about these congregations.
Messianic Judaism has its
foundation in the Messiah. Its congregations have to be Messiah-oriented,
Yeshua-loving, Yeshua-focused, and Yeshua-preaching.
Yes, Messianic Congregations are Torah observant, but Torah is not their foundation. Yeshua
must be the foundation stone of any Messianic Congregation. Yes, Messianic
Congregations love the Torah and they follow the Torah, but Torah is not their
foundation –
it is not the rock on which they stand. The rock on which they
stand, and the rock on which the building is raised, is Yeshua.
The Torah alone is not sufficient. Many congregations in the world have a foudation of Torah. Orthodox Jewish
congregations have a foundation of Torah. But, in making the Torah their foundation, these
congregations have missed the very goal of the Torah – Messiah Yeshua. For,
“Messiah is the
goal of the Torah so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
Romans 10:4
The Torah – as we are able to understand it, the Torah – as we
are able to follow it,
the Torah – as we are able to conform to its principles, is woefully lacking. The Torah is perfect
but our understanding of it and our conformity to it is often self-centered
and
woefully lacking. The Torah without Yeshua is incomplete.
Messianic Congregations devote part of their service to the reading of the Torah because the Torah,
though not the foundation, is foundational.
During this portion of the service they take the Torah Scroll out
of the Ark and they walk it around the congregation. They sing
and they dance and they joyfully celebrate the Torah. Often times people
comment that they make too much fuss over, what is to them, simply a scroll.
But to those celebrating, that is not the case. The Torah is special to them
because they realize that the Torah is the revelation of the Messiah – that the
Torah is a book about Him.
Then I said,
‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God.’”
Hebrews 10:7
It is not the Torah that made Yeshua special to the
Congregation. It is Yeshua that made the Torah special in the Congregation.
And, it was the same way in the original congregations of the first century.
For we read in Acts chapter 21 that:
“Then they said to Paul: ‘You see, brother,
how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the
law.’” Acts 21:20
These men became zealous for the Torah because it helped them to build upon the
foundation of Yeshua. It is Messiah who made them zealous for the Torah,
not the Torah that made them zealous for Messiah. Messianic Judaism is
Messiah-Rooted.
Hebrew roots was not the
message of the first Messianic Jewish believers, although their roots were
clearly in Judaism. The message that they went forth and preached was Messiah’s
Resurrection.
(See Witnessing Yeshua)
They preached that Messiah is alive
and that
He is the chief cornerstone. They proclaimed that He is the stone the builders rejected,
that He is at the right hand of God, and that He can be at the center of your being.
It was the power of the message that He is alive – not the Torah – that made
the Jewish believers zealous for the Torah. It was the power
of the message that He is the cornerstone – not rabbinic edicts and traditions
– that won non-Jews to the God of Israel. It was the power of the message that
He is at the right hand of God – not midrashim and Hebrew roots – that formed
the congregations of Yeshua into centers of praise and worship of the Holy One
of Israel, Blessed be He, forever and ever. Amen.
Messianic Judaism, at its
roots, was not concerned with “evangelism of and ministry to Jewish people by
Jewish people” alone, as suggested. Messianic Judaism was a faith that
fulfilled the call of the Jewish people to be a light to the nations. If that
were not the case, there would be no church. Messianic Judaism carried the
burden of the Holy One of Israel for the nations, to the nations. Messianic
Judaism did not have, “Non-Jewish participants in the Messianic Jewish movement
play a secondary, supportive role” as suggested, but they had non-Jewish
brothers in the Messiah. This was the message to the non-Jew:
“For he himself is our peace,
who has made the two one and
has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his
flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create
in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body
to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death
their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace
to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by
one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow
citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief
cornerstone.
In him the whole building is
joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
And in him you too are being built together
to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:14-22
This is the Messianic Judaism
that you will find at Kehilat Sar Shalom and at Beth Yeshua. We build on the
foundation of Yeshua and His Apostles. A foundation of love for the Holy One of
Israel and His Messiah that leads us to conform our lives to a Holy
Spirit-filled and a Holy Spirit-led Torah observance. A love so firmly rooted
in Messiah that it causes us to reach out to all peoples, both Jew and non-Jew,
with the love of Messiah. A love so great that we support all who are in our
communities, both Jew and non-Jew, in whatever call that Yeshua has placed on
their lives.
Do not allow your understanding
of Messianic Judaism to come from a church trying to define itself. And, do not
allow your understanding of what a church is to come through their
misgivings about Messianic Judaism. Messianic Judaism must be defined and
observed by the foundational principles brought forth in the book of Acts. When
you find a congregation with those principles and with those goals then you
have found a Messianic Congregation and Messianic Judaism.
With so much misunderstanding
concerning Messianic Judaism this will not be the last, but the first, in a
series of articles about Messianic Judaism.
Kehilat Sar Shalom
