One New Man Asia

13 October 2020

Shalom,

I pray that you are keeping well in these trying times and pray an added measure of God’s grace upon you and your loved ones.

The other day I received a Youtube video of someone preaching about the parable of the wedding clothes which is found in Matthew 22:11-13.

Matthew 22:11-13

11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. 13 "Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' NIV

Yeshua (Jesus) told this parable as part of His teachings on the Kingdom of God. In the preceding verses He talks of how the King had sent out invitations to many people but they refused to come, finally He sent His servants to bring people from all corners i.e. the masses and these came.

When the banquet was about to begin the King came in and looked around at the guests and He found one man who wasn’t wearing the right clothes, He had the servants tie the man up and expel him.

We understand that this parable is about  people entering the Kingdom of God i.e. salvation. This man tried to get into the kingdom in his own way and was expelled. The preacher concerned explained that the wedding clothes here represented good works of compassion, mercy, helping the poor etc. In fact therefore, he was teaching salvation by works, which is inconsistent with scripture that tells us that salvation is by grace through faith, so that nobody can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9), that they were good enough and deserve to enter heaven.

What that brother failed to do is one of the most elements of good Bible study, he failed to consider the cultural and historical implications of these verses. In the days of Yeshua and before when a man was getting married it was customary for the groom’s family to provide special clothes for the guests, this would be a simple garment thrown over their normal clothes. This is so that everyone would be equal at the banquet and the “stars” of the wedding would be the couple. Similarly today in western weddings the bride and groom and their families are responsible for providing the clothes for the bridesmaids and groomsmen. In ancient Israel, the wedding clothes were a gift from the family of the groom.

“The custom in those days was for the one hosting the wedding feast—in this case, the king—to provide garments for the wedding guests. These wedding garments were simple, nondescript robes that all attendees wore. In this way, rank or station was covered, so everyone at the feast could mingle as equals.” (https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/21206/Providing-Wedding-Garments-for-Guests.htm)

“For every guest at the feast there had been provided a wedding garment. This garment was a gift from the king.” (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Christ%27s_Object_Lessons/Without_a_Wedding_Garment)

This then tells us that we can only enter heaven wearing the clothes given to us by the King, which refers to the blood of Yeshua our Messiah. The man’s own clothes which he was wearing represented his own good works whereas the clothes given by the King represented righteousness given as a gift from God, because of the blood of Yeshua.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NIV

No amount of good works we do on earth can gain us entry into the kingdom of God because we are all sinners in fact Isaiah tells us that our righteous works are merely filthy rags in God’s eyes. (Isaiah 64:6) Even the Apostle Paul himself declared that there was nothing good in him (Romans 7). This after he said at the end of Romans 6 that salvation was a gift from God.

The writer of Hebrews makes reference to the Day of Atonement when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and said this:

Hebews 9:13-15

3 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? NKJV

The lesson that Yeshua was giving when He told this parable was a simple one; we cannot enter heaven on our own merit, but only by the free gift that He obtained for us by His sacrifice on the cross. If we could work our way into heaven, the cross would be meaningless. His blood is the only way in.

Shalom beloved of God, I pray that you are well and wherever you are, and at what stage of “lockdown” your nation is going through at the moment; may the strength and peace of God be upon you. We have been in Circuit Breaker/Lockdown mode for the past two and a half months, and the church has gone through tremendous change in the way we function. As I pondered this situation, I feel compelled to share some of my thoughts regarding the future of the church.

About a year ago, the church community that I am a part of, was preparing to move to a new location and as is the case with most churches, there were differing opinions about it. One night we had a prayer meeting and of course this move was the main agenda, now, I am not one who is prone to seeing visions but, that night I saw one. The vision was of Yeshua standing at a table with a blueprint spread out on it. Later as I thought about it I remembered it was like a scene from the movie The Ten Commandments, where Moses was with Pharaoh, looking at the plans for the new city they were building. Anyway, the Lord asked a question of us that night; “are you going to build it according to my blueprint or your own?” This is a question church leaders have to grapple with today.

Over the past few months church life has changed tremendously and we don’t really know when, or if, we can ever get back to “normal”. Personally I really dislike the phrase “new normal” when it comes to our life situation, especially since it means being distanced from friends and family and cooped up in our homes. I believe this season will pass, yet I also believe that more such seasons will come and with greater severity, this has been predicted in the Bible. They are indications of the Lord’s impending return. God has used this COVID19 situation to awaken the church and remind us that we need not be restricted to buildings or even denominational boundaries. Today, Christians can attend services from any number of churches without leaving home. I believe God has begun to blur the lines that have separated us for centuries and is bringing us together. The Father is beginning to answer the prayer that Yeshua prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane – to make us one. This is a major key for Revival. In His prayer, Yeshua said that when His people are united the world would believe that the Father had sent Him. Psalms 133 declares that God commands blessings when brothers are united, and in Acts 2 we see that the Holy Spirit was poured out when the disciples were in once accord. There is a great revival that God wants to send upon the world; not a city-wide or even nation-wide revival but a world-wide revival, but this can only happen if His people are united.

The church today has entered a time of transition and transformation into the church that Yeshua has designed; His original design.

Acts 3:20-21

20 Then times of refreshment (revival) will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. 21 For He must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. (NLT)

In this passage Shimon Kefar (Simon Peter) told the crowds in Jerusalem that heaven must keep Yeshua until the time when things are restored, that indicates that prior to the return of The Lord, there will be a restoration process. Restoration is necessary because somewhere after the first century AD the church began to lose her way and identity. She was born as a Jewish entity on a Feast day that Jews had been celebrating for over a thousand years, the Feast of Weeks; Shavuot in Hebrew and Pentecost in English. The second generation of church leaders slowly began to drift away from the Jewish roots, partly because there was no longer a nation called Israel or Judah and Jerusalem was destroyed. We took on a more Gentile face, finally in 324 AD at the council of Nicea, Emperor Constantine officially cut us off for the Olive Tree of Israel by saying that we should have nothing in common with the murderers of Christ i.e. the Jews.

The book of Joel tells us in the second chapter that although God will destroy for a time, He is also a restorer and it is His purpose to restore both the church and Israel. The restoration process began in 1517 with Martin Luther and the restoration of Israel began in the 1890s with people like Captain Alfred Dreyfuss and Theodore Hertzel. The world has seen various revivals breaking out which changed the nature of the church and also the formation of Israel and the birth of Jewish believers in Yeshua who live as Jews while believing in Yeshua (Messianic Jews), just as in the book of Acts.

The restored church will look very similar to the original church. I have been involved in the “One New Man” ministry for over twenty years, in the early 2000s very few churches were interested to know about Israel, today this number has grown tremendously, granted, churches are at different levels of understanding but still the interest is there.

As we go forward and face much more difficult situations such as new viruses or economic collapse or even wars, which have been predicted, the church would have to return to her original form; meeting in home groups. There would actually be benefits to this.

The first and most obvious benefit is the freedom from costs incurred to rent or maintain large meeting facilities.

The second is what I believe is in God’s heart the most; discipleship. The Great commission says that we are to go and make disciples of the nations. Today for the most part, discipleship is understood as a class that a church member can take which runs for a specific period of time. True discipleship is the process of transferring a biblical value system to another person, this happens primarily through sharing by demonstration. The Apostle Paul told the church in Corinth to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). It has been said that discipleship is more caught than taught. 

Back in 1999 when I was still the pastor of a church, I had an experience that changed my outlook of church. I was waiting for a bus at a terminal and while waiting I was asking Him, “how do I build this church Lord, how do I make it grow?” His answer took me totally by surprise, firstly it felt as if He was right next to me; it was almost an audible voice. Second was what He said; “where in scripture did I tell you to build the church? I said I will build MY church, I told you to make disciples. You make disciples and I will build my church.” This released me from the concern of gaining numbers and focus on building lives.

This means that church leaders must now start preparing for the future by making and empowering disciples who would lead small home churches. Not cell groups, but actual churches where weekly services are conducted in homes, sacraments are celebrated led by these leaders and sermons do not necessarily come for a centralized source but rather each leader of a home church would hear the Lord him/her self and share accordingly.

The second benefit I see is that there will be a release of gifts and a rising of the five-fold ministry spoken of in Ephesians 4. People are often reluctant to share their gifts in large groups but in smaller groups where they have a sense of ownership it is much easier for them to operate in their gifts. One reason being that it is less intimidating. Second; when there is only a small number say 20 or 30 people the need for the gifts is more visible and if they feel sense of responsibility they will exercise their gifts, whether they are spiritual gifts or otherwise.

The third benefit I can see is that the church will become a multi-generational church. One problem in church today is that after a young people outgrow the youth ministry they often have trouble assimilating into the adult congregation, the whole culture is different from what they were used to. The church today has separated the children, youth and even young adults giving them their own “church” as it were, so when they grow older and no long officially fit into any of those categories they feel lost. Some move on to start churches that are more attuned to what they like but often this causes a rift and hurt feelings. Others might attend the adult service but remain inactive while others stop going to church completely.

In these last days much reference has been made of Malachi’s prophecy that God would turn the heart of the Fathers towards the children and vice versa (Malachi 4:6). To enable this to happen; churches must become multi-generational. That was the way it was with the first church where whole families worshipped together; children, young people, adults and even the elderly. The young must be allowed to minister, even sharing the Word or prophecy; this gives them a voice and a sense that they are not just spectators. We can take a page out of Jewish culture; during Shabbat (Sabbath) the whole family sits together, fathers bless their wives and children and the Word is not just preached by discussed and everyone can speak. The first church broke bread from house to house, that is exactly what Jewish people do on Shabbat.

I see this as the future of the church but a not too distant future, and I pray that we will begin preparing today.

God bless you.

27 May 2020

If you are a Christian lover of Israel and keep up with the news in Israel, you are probably aware of the controversy surrounding Shelanu TV. Just in case you have not heard about it; some people in the Messianic community had decided to set up a Hebrew channel with God TV to spread the gospel to the Jewish people in Israel. This idea has come under tremendous attack from the religious authorities and one minister is trying to shut it down. The situation is now being fought in the courts although legally, freedom of religion and speech is protected by the legislature in Israel.

Some religious leaders in Israel have sought the support of Christian leaders overseas, particularly in the United States and some of these leaders have come out to say that believers should not preach the gospel to the Jews. They may have different reasons for doing this; some probably want to maintain their relationships with Jewish religious and government leaders, or out of fear of opening age old wounds inflicted by the church upon the Jews, while others may subscribe to what is called “dual covenant theology”, which is the idea that Jewish people do not need to believe in Yeshua (Jesus) to be saved; that they are saved under a separate covenant.

What does the Bible say about the salvation of the Jews? Are they saved by a different covenant? Let’s go through some scriptures to see.

Yeshua spoke primarily to Jews

When a Gentile woman came and pleaded with Yeshua to heal her daughter, He said that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24). After hearing her faith response, He had compassion and healed her daughter, but His priority was the people of Israel, the Jews.

In John chapter three, Yeshua was having a conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the ruling council, the Sanhedrin. It was to this man that Yeshua said “unless a person is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:3).

In John 14, Yeshua was speaking to His disciples, bear in mind that they were all Jewish, and He told them – "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6). Thus saying there is no other way for a person, Jewish or not, to enter the Kingdom of God.

So in both these cases we see that Yeshua was speaking to Jews and telling them that they could not be saved apart from Him.

The Church was born as a Jewish entity.

In the first chapter of Acts, Yeshua told His Jewish disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, He said that after they received this promise they would become His witnesses starting from Jerusalem i.e. with the Jewish people. In other words they were commanded by Yeshua Himself to preach to the Jews.

We are all aware that the church was born on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, what many Christians are unaware of is that Israel had been celebrating this feast since the days of Moses. It is one of the Biblical feasts that God commanded them to observe in Leviticus 23. It was a pilgrimage feast wherein Jews were commanded to return to Jerusalem to celebrate.

Acts 2:5 says “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.” NIV

These were Jews from the Diaspora who had come to Jerusalem for the feast which is called Shavuot in Hebrew or, in English Pentecost. So when we read of the different nations gathered there in verses 8 and 9 we must understand that although they were from different nations they were all Jewish.

So when Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, rose to speak all those who heard him were Jewish. In fact in verse 22 he addresses the crowd as “men of Israel” and we know the result that day, three thousand people came to faith and were baptised, then again in chapter 3 after the crippled man at the temple was healed, Peter and John were clearly addressing the people of Israel, Peter said “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you?” (Acts 3:12) he then proceeds to give glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to tell them that Yeshua was the prophet Moses had spoken of. The result of this was that two thousand more (Jews) were added to the number of the church (Acts 4:4).

Following this he and John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin and told not to preach the name of Yeshua anymore. It was to the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Jewish leaders that they said “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). They were telling Jewish religious leaders that the only name by which they could find salvation was the name of Yeshua.

In Acts 21 we see the account of the time when Paul returned to Jerusalem and met with the church leaders, he testified about all that God was doing among the Gentiles, then the Jewish church leaders testified of what God was doing among the Jews: "And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law" (Acts 21:20 NKJV)

The word myriad in Greek is “murias” which means ten thousand, so myriads would indicate at least twenty thousand. That tells us that there were at least twenty thousand believers in Jerusalem at that time. Historians estimate that in the first century the population was around six hundred thousand, which would have made it nearly 6% of the population. What is more interesting is that “they were all zealous for the law (Torah)” which would make them religious Jews who had come to faith in Messiah Yeshua.

So the gospel was growing in Jerusalem in the first century, it could not have happened if the early disciples had not been preaching to the Jews.

Paul’s Burden for the Jews

Finally let us look at the Apostle Paul; whilst he was called primarily to the Gentiles, he was also deeply burdened for his own people, the Jews. Over and over again in the book of Acts we see him going first to the synagogue in every city he visited, there he preached about Yeshua.

In the book of Romans he clearly states that the gospel of Yeshua is to the Jew first then the Gentiles (Romans 1:16). Furthermore in chapters 9 and 10 he clearly expresses his heart’s desire to see his people (Jews) be saved i.e. through Messiah Yeshua. In 9:1-3 we see that he is so burdened for their salvation that he would have been willing to lose his own salvation if it meant that some Jews would be saved. If this was only Paul’s heart for his own people, then why did God allow it to be included in the Bible? I believe these are not merely the sentiments of Paul, but the heart of God Himself, for His own people whom He had chosen, to come to faith in His Son.

Having said all this, we have to balance it with a right understanding of Jewish salvation. In the past, the church made some terrible mistakes by forcing Jews to "convert to Christianity”. By “conversion” they meant that when a Jewish person converts he/she has to renounce all Jewish practices including keeping the dietary laws, worshipping on Saturday, keeping the Biblical feasts etc. Sadly the church forced these things upon the Jews to the point where their they could not believe that Yeshua could possibly be Jewish, let alone their Messiah.

The gospel allows us to keep our ethnic identities particularly the Jewish people. They do not have to become Christian, i.e. worship on Sunday and keep the Christian festivals and eat non-kosher food. The early Jewish church kept their identity, so we must allow the Jewish people to keep their identities as Jews, while embracing their Jewish Messiah Yeshua. By this we honour them as our older brother.

So, ultimately the gospel is for all people, Jews as well as Gentiles. Our duty as Gentile believers in Yeshua is to provoke the Jews and make them jealous (Romans 11:11), but we must do it in a gentle loving fashion so that they will know and accept Yeshua is their own Messiah. We must also support the work of the Messianic body in Israel who are bringing the message of Yeshua in a totally Jewish context to His own people. Galatians 6:10 tells us to do good to all especially the household of faith, in Israel this means the Messianic Jews, who are our brothers and sisters in Messiah.

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22 April 2020

Shalom beloved of God,

Once again I pray that you are keeping strong in the Lord during this very trying time. If you or a family member happen to be one of those working on the “front lines” such as medical staff, cleaners or immigration officers etc. I salute you, thank you very much for your selfless service and please extend my thanks to your family and friends who may be doing such jobs.

Before I proceed, I want to reiterate that what I am about to share are my own thoughts and reflections, I do not claim it to be “thus says the Lord”, I ask you to read it and seek discernment from the Holy Spirit, if you feel it is right be my guest to share, if not you are free to delete it.

With this article I would like to share my thoughts derived from my observation of what is going on in the world. As I pondered these things I was reminded of this verse from the book of Ecclesiastes- “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NKJV). So how are the things we are experiencing today similar to that happened in the past?

As I pondered I was reminded of the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. To better understand that story we need to backtrack to chapter 9 verse 7 God said: "As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it." (Genesis 9:7 NIV)

After the flood, God desired that mankind would populate the earth; instead they decided to stay in one place and build a huge tower that would reach the heavens. Basically they were defying God, and by building that tower they were telling Him that they could now escape a flood if He should ever do it again, we could say they were giving God the middle finger. Many scholars say that this project was led by Nimrod, a grandson of Ham the son of Noah. Whoever it was, he united the entire population of the world at that time to go against the plan of God. We know how that ended; the project was abandoned because God came down and confused the people making them speak different languages so that they could not understand each other.

How does this apply today you might ask. Well with the advent of this current pandemic, what is the constant cry we are hearing? We are hearing the cry for mankind to work together to overcome the pandemic and for this effort to be led by the United Nations’ World Health Organisation. Just the other day celebrities held an online concert entitled “One World At Home”. I believe that at this time it is vital to have a combined effort of nations to find a cure for the virus, but that comes with apocalyptic implications. For decades now, Europe has become the prime example of a conglomeration of nations without borders. The goal was to make region one big nation with a common economy. I find it amazing that the headquarters of the EU in Strasbourg, France, uncannily resembles a painting of the Tower of Babel painted by a Belgian painter named Brugel. Not only that but at the entrance of this building is a statue of a woman riding a beast, the woman is called “Europa” see Revelation 17. Europa in Greek mythology is a goddess who was so beautiful that Zeus came to her in the form of a bull and took her away. So although world governments may appear and claim to be secular and non-religious, we see that there are spiritual forces behind them. The New Testament tells us that there is a warfare going on, not against people but against spiritual forces in heavenly (high) places, this would include rulers in this world.

As the calls are going out for a concerted global effort to find a cure or vaccine for this pandemic, we are simultaneously hearing a call for immunization of the world’s population and, the issuance of some kind of certification of immunization which would come in various forms, the old-fashioned paper method, which of course would be obsolete or a digital format which could go as far as to implant and RFID chip or something similar into the hands of people. Today we already see in China not just “cashless” payments but contactless payments by QR codes. I was told by a Singaporean businessman who has lived in Beijing for fourteen years that even beggars on the street receive money this way. This is not something in the future it is today. Imagine where this will lead to. This of course would eventually lead us to the “mark of the beast” in Revelation 13.

This call for “globalization” does not come simply from world governments but also from the Pope. Pope Francis is often heard speaking about the need for globalization and he is even calling for a "global compact on education", originally scheduled for May 14, 2020, but has since been moved to October 18, 2020. with government and youth leaders together. He speaks more about a human world government these days than of Jesus. His is the moral voice of the globalist agenda.

Satan’s agenda since he seduced Adam and Eve, has been to rule the world, he failed in his attempt to usurp God’s throne in heaven so he came after the throne on earth and took it by seduction. Yeshua came to destroy his work (1 John 3:8) yet while Yeshua’s death on the cross defeated him, the war still rages on. The Apostle Paul speaks about it in Ephesians 6 when he said that we are not fighting against people but against spiritual forces in high places (Ephesians 6:12). These forces that are in high places work through the world’s system and world leaders both government leaders as well as others who in one way or another have influence in the world, be they celebrities or corporate leaders.

In Revelation 12, John writes about a woman with a garland of twelve stars who gives birth to a son. This son ruled the nations with a rod of iron. This picture speaks of Israel, the twelve stars represent the twelve tribes, and the son is Yeshua who will rule the world (Psalm 45:6). Then he writes about the dragon i.e. Satan who would come after the woman, the last verse in this chapter says: And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:17 NKJV)

John mentions the offspring of the woman and seems to imply two groups here: those who keep the commandments of God (Torah) and those who have the testimony of Yeshua. The devil will come after Jews and Christians. This is testified clearly by groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS who have openly said that their targets are the Saturday people and the Sunday people.

I’m sure some of you will ask “but pastor won’t we be raptured by then?” My answer is I hope so. Beloved, please remember that whatever theology we may hold concerning the rapture, there is no solid conclusion. As many scriptures as the pre-tribulationists can furnish to prove their point, the post-tribulationists can do the same as well, my advice is to hold it all loosely. A dear brother once gave me some good advice “hope for the best but prepare for the worst”.

Ephesians 5:16 in the New King James Version says we must walk “circumspectly”, that word means to be aware of your surroundings, to know what is going on around you so that we will not be “caught with your pants down”, but rather to know how God wants us to live and what He wants us to do in this time.

As days get darker we need more and more the light of God, His Word and Spirit, to lead us. In this trying time we should not simply be praying for God to remove the virus from the world but asking Him for the strength and courage to do His will and to shine. God today is calling forth a people the likes of which is spoken of in Revelation 12:11 who overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb, The Word of their testimony and who were willing to lay down their lives. I pray that we will all be willing to be those people.

God bless you.

One of the dilemmas facing the Body of Christ today, is the relationship between law and grace. Are these two concepts diametrically opposed to each other or can we find a balance between the two? To find out read the article here.