You know what I find interesting….Acts 28:28,
now you may be asking yourself why is that interesting?
or actually probably not, because I mean it does state that the salvation of God(keywords salvation of God)
has been sent to the gentiles and they will hear it!
Amen..right? Gentile of course meaning anyone not jewish. But this is not why I bring up the verse, you see Paul being the apostle of the gentiles(a jew himself) is speaking about salvation to the gentiles has come, and he is saying this to jewish leaders in Rome. I want you to go read Acts 28, the whole chapter, I want you to notice this, these jewish leaders listened to Paul, some agreed with what he was saying about Jesus, and others disagreed but they all departed after Paul said one thing.
Now they had a disagreement amongst themselves about this Jesus Paul was speaking of but they didn't all leave until Paul said "Salvation of God has been sent to the gentiles" that was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back. You see back in that time the jews didn't understand how or why God would want to give salvation to gentiles, to them, they were very unclean ungodly people..heck they were not even circumcised. This is even a dispute in Acts where certain gentile believers are troubled by certain jewish believers telling them they must be circumcised and keep the law:
Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"*—to whom we gave no such commandment—
Acts 15:24
My point is this, certain jewish believers were disgusted with the thought of Gentiles being brought into God's good graces, they would force their laws and traditions on a converted gentile believer, or at least try to. It seems today however, things have flipped…I mean obviously back then the majority of real believers in Yeshua(Jesus) were Jewish, all the apostles were. But now in 2012…would you say that's true? of course not…the majority of believers in Christ are gentiles, and I'm not saying anything is wrong with that. But you see, like the certain jewish people who were trying to force gentiles into being jewish to earn salvation, now we as gentiles have forced ourselves on the jew's saying they must become like us for salvation. Don't get it twisted…YES
a jewish person(or gentile for that matter) must recognize Jesus Christ(Yeshua Hamashiach) as LORD and savior to be saved..
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Romans 1:16
HOWEVER, we don't then say they must become as gentiles too. Just like a believing jew doesn't tell a believing gentile he must adopt his customs. What we as gentiles have done through the years is curse the natural branches..
And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Romans 11:17-18
Us being the unnatural branches(gentiles) we have taken promises that God has given to His chosen people, we even dare say things like we are the real Israel or we are the real chosen, like God has taken His hand away from those He promised to bless and, His chosen, and He has cast them aside all for our glory.
We get puffed up against jewish believers and we ridicule them, some even going as far as despising and cursing them. Then we wonder why they refuse to hear about Yeshua(Jesus)?
I wrote the following a month ago after reading
"Our Hands are stained with blood" by Michael Brown.
It has everything to do with this subject.
Abba forgive me, I apologize for what has been
done against your chosen people in your Holy
name. Those who claim to follow Yeshua(Jesus)
The Son, have risen up to destroy your first love…
As gentiles you grafted us into the tree, like a poison
we have decided to destroy the roots of the seed.
Gentiles stealing your promises for your chosen,
and making it all about them. As if Israel and your Jewish people you no longer love, in the name of Christ we've trampled them down, instead of asking for your love in them to abound.
From people like Luther who wanted to see Jews burn, to Christians today claiming to be your new chosen. So much injustice we have brought into the church.
In your Holy name we reject them, say that you yourself have rejected them, and not even Jesus can save them.
in effect we curse the natural branches, the ones to whom you have made promises! Lord forgive us of this treason, and let us instead proclaim Yeshua to them our roots of our faith, our brothers and sisters who were never taken from the covenant to never return again.
O LORD fulfill the promises you made them, bring them into Your glorious Kingdom recognizing Yeshua Hamashiach for who He is, and as gentiles and jews let us stand together as your sons and daughters.
