Jesus is Jewish
Sometimes we Western Christians forget our Jewish roots. Christianity was not originally a religion like it is today. Christianity was a personal experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The twelve disciples didn’t convert to a religion. Neither did the 120 on the Day of Pentecost, nor the 3000, nor the 5000, nor the multitudes soon thereafter. Rather, faithful Jews understood they had found the Messiah promised in the Torah (The first five books of the Law), and written about by the Old Testament Prophets.
Consider the following facts about Christ:
- Jesus had Jewish parents.
- He was born in Galilee, a Jewish land.
- He was dedicated as a baby at a Jewish Temple.
- He learned carpentry from a Jewish father.
- He studied at a Jewish synagogue.
- He studied the Torah, the Writings, and the Prophets, or the Old Testament books.
- He went through the Jewish rite of passage around the age of twelve or thirteen.
- He traveled to Jewish Feasts.
- He kept the three main Jewish Feasts commanded by God for all Jewish men: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).
- He worshipped at the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, which was originally Solomon’s Temple, that was rebuilt by a remnant of Judah, under Ezra and Nehemiah, after the Babylonian Captivity. The destruction of this temple was foretold by Jesus, and took place in A.D. 70 by the Romans.
- He worshipped with His family at the local synagogue each Shabbat (Saturday or Sabbath).
- He listened to his father, Joseph, recite traditional prayers over the Shabbat meal, asking blessing for the bread and wine, and giving thanks for God’s bountiful provisions.
- He lived in a small town called Nazareth, with a population of a few hundred people.
- He lived with His family in a small house made of clay and stone, set in a small courtyard, with furniture He had helped His father make.
- He slept on a thin straw mat on a dirt floor, and if it was too hot, He would sleep on the roof.
- Jewish families owned few items of clothing. He had a pair of sandals, an undergarment called a tunic, a robe, and a mantle or shawl.
Philippians 2:6-8 says, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Jesus humbled Himself as a man, behaving like a servant, with no right for respect or honor as the master of an earthly house, let alone as Almighty God manifested in a fleshly body! He lived as a Jewish carpenter’s son and followed a Jewish lifestyle. Then, when He was 30 years of age, He began His public ministry as the Son of Man, and as the Son of God.
Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer, as a Jewish prayer. When we are praying for His Kingdom to come, we are asking God to fulfill all the promises made to Abraham for the Jews and for the Gentile nations of the world. We are asking that He make all nations to come to Jerusalem to worship Him as the son of David and as King of kings and Lord of lords!
Now consider His Name –
- Jesus is a Jewish name, and is from Yeshua, which means salvation. Christ is from Christos, which means the anointed one, or Messiah. The correct Hebrew translation is Yeshua Hamashiach or Yeshua the Messiah!
- Jewish people did not give names because they sounded pleasant, but because they had a meaning regarding the destiny of their future.
- Abram had his name changed to Abraham, or father of many nations.
- Sarai had her name changed to Sarah, or mother of nations.
- Jacob had his name changed to Israel, after wrestling with an angel of God all night. Jacob meant ‘heel’ or ‘deceiver’, and Israel means one who has striven with God and has overcome.
- Jesus was given His Name because He had a destiny. He was to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was to be the Jewish Messiah that Moses and the Prophets foretold about, who would come to save His people from their sins, and restore their land for eternity.
- Matthew 1:21 “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
- Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”
- Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
- John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
- Acts 4:30 “While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
- John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
- Luke 10:17 “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”
- I Corinthians 6:11 “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
- Romans 10:13 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
- Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
- Mark 16:17 “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;”
Western Christians are wild olive branches
We Western Christians need to lay aside our love for denominations, and for pastoral personalities, and seek a renewed personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. He didn’t come to establish a religion. He came to make Himself known to your heart, so that you might choose to follow Him and obey His teachings, so that when He returns you may, by His Grace, live with Him for eternity and be part of what He has planned for the Jewish people as he rules, from New Jerusalem, all nations of the New Earth. Remember, most of the New Testament was written by Jewish authors.
We have been grafted into the Jewish olive tree. We, as Gentile Christians, are not the natural branches. Paul warned us that we are not to consider ourselves superior to the Jewish people, because the Jewish people actually are the root of Christianity that gives us our hope of a Jewish Messiah! (Romans 11:11-32)
Pray for Peace of Jerusalem
With all the anti-Semitism going on today, and with all the nations of the world demanding that Israel give up the land promised to her by God to Abraham, you and I as Christians need to be reminded that Jesus is indeed a Jewish Messiah, and we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Psalm 122:6, “Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper.”
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they couldn’t see that He was their Messiah. We should be making intercessory prayer with tears for the peace of Jerusalem, as well.
You desire to prosper? Pray for Jerusalem’s peace, and protection, and deliverance from her enemies, and for her spiritual eyes to be opened to the writings of the Torah and the Prophets, so they may understand with their hearts that Jesus Christ is their Yeshua Hamashiach!