Another great question asked after the service.
Again, Romans 10:11-13 will help us. After Jesus goes back into heaven and the message of Jesus spreads through the world in Acts, we get a different flavor of a message. The main message of Jesus was for his Jewish audience, and now the message was spreading to include Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). Jesus wanted to show his own people that he was the one they were longing for and now the whole world would be included.
Paul explains that Jesus is Lord of all, Jew and Gentile alike. Their will be no difference. If you are a Jew who comes to Christ, or a Gentile who comes to Christ we are all part of the same family. The word Christian is only used 3 times in scripture and was made up by non-Christians during the 1st century. It was a reference to being "little Christ-ones". The people were so impressed by the lives of disciples of Jesus they called them Christians. The word disciples is used 260+ times in scripture. It means to be a learner, apprentice, follower of Jesus. That is a better definition for anyone who follows Jesus. Christian has too much political and religious baggage to be helpful. Many of the early Jews who believed in Jesus were considered Jewish Christians. See Acts 15 for an early debate over this issue, in the early 1st century church.
If we came from Jewish stock, we could be said to be Messianic Jews, but most people that come to faith in Jesus are considered Gentiles. The heart of the message of Jesus is a relationship with God through a person, namely, Jesus (See Hebrews). That is why I like to say we are followers of Christ, disciples of Jesus, or part of the Jesus movement. It gets at the heart of being in a relationship with God and confessing Jesus is Lord! Jesus was not interested in starting a world religion, he was interested in starting a movement by the Spirit, in the lives of people, and his church. Jesus main message was the kingdom of God, not sign up to a religion, club, or philosophy. Jesus came to show the Jew and the Gentile that God has come, he is showing us how to be truly human, how to live, how to be rescued from sin and death, and that God is putting the world back together through his Son. Amen!!!
Hope this makes sense. Correct me where I need correcting and respond with any questions you may have for me.
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5 comments:
Thanks Ryan; the answers to both questions make sense. Cheryl
Jesus brings out many hard and uncomfortable questions. we all hope that the people we love go to heaven and it's not a happy thought to imagine our loved ones not choosing christ and not living eternity in heaven with him. like you wrote, it's not up to us to decipher who will be with him for eternity, however, if we have doubts about the ones we love, we can pray as often as possible for them, for the hope of salvation, and pray for opportunities to share the love of christ with them.
I hope I didn't sound like we shouldn't pray for our loved ones or friends that don't know Christ. Of course we need to, and I do. I know we all need to do more praying!!!
What up yo? Love the blog and the spirit behind it. I think the rememberance and celebration of the Jewish history and aspect of our faith is important. One of our ideas for small group this year is to do a Passover dinner before Easter....
I found a website regarding celebrating Jewish feasts and sabboaths:
http://www.wcg.org/lit/law/SCT/SCT19.htm
I thought about following the feasts as a great way to teach our kids how Christ fulfills the Law. I really like the part of the article about how "Christianity is a continuous festival, a celebration of the salvation we have in Christ."
This is good news for me!
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