The Jewish roots of Christianity

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Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

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Episode: “Empty Tomb”
Myles and Katharine remind us that the Crucifixion and the Cross led to the empty tomb, and thus removed the curse on mankind. Interview: Samuel Smadja, leader of Messianic Assembly in Jerusalem and owner of Sar-El Tours.
Series: “Close Encounters with Yeshua”
This ten-program series focuses on how Jesus/Yeshua supernaturally came and ministered on Earth, and today calls all mortals to draw near to Him. David and Kirsten Hart introduce each episode from the studio, while Myles and Katharine Weiss teach in Israel, using dramatic re-enactments and interviews with Believers about their journeys to faith in Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah.

Caption transcript for Close Encounters with Yeshua: “Empty Tomb” (9/10)

  • 00:01 Welcome to Zola Levitt Presents
  • 00:03 I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 00:04 And I'm David Hart.
  • 00:05 On today's program Myles is on location at the Garden Tomb
  • 00:09 teaching about the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
  • 00:12 And we have another wonderful dramatic presentation
  • 00:14 by an Israeli actor.
  • 00:16 And an interview with an IDF Soldier
  • 00:18 who was searching for peace.
  • 00:20 Stay with us.
  • 00:30 It was not long ago our first encounter
  • 00:32 on the waters of the Galilee.
  • 00:34 My hand is completely restored.
  • 00:37 He said, Your faith has saved you.
  • 00:40 I've heard Yeshua speak in our synagogue.
  • 00:43 He talked about the Kingdom of God.
  • 00:46 Then He showed us His wounds in His hands and His feet.
  • 00:50 I believe He really is a King.
  • 01:05 Shalom Havarim, Hello friends.
  • 01:07 Welcome to our program.
  • 01:08 I'm Myles Weiss.
  • 01:09 And I'm Katharine Weiss.
  • 01:11 And welcome to our series
  • 01:12 "Close Encounters with Yeshua"
  • 01:14 where we have shown you the identity
  • 01:16 of Jesus as a Jewish man and Savior.
  • 01:19 Jewish Messiah, Savior of the World.
  • 01:21 And what a thrill to bring this context for him.
  • 01:24 To realize that all these things were prophesied.
  • 01:26 Right.
  • 01:27 This is the last program in the series.
  • 01:28 It's a bang up ending.
  • 01:30 It's a happy ending because you have to
  • 01:32 go through the suffering,
  • 01:33 go through the difficulty,
  • 01:35 but the Good News is that the tomb is empty!
  • 01:37 One thing to remember is that when we see
  • 01:40 the brutality of the death of Jesus
  • 01:41 it's so painful, so difficult to look at.
  • 01:44 But this was prophesied.
  • 01:45 This is all in the Bible.
  • 01:47 It's all in the Hebrew Scriptures.
  • 01:48 And generations talked about these events, that they were coming.
  • 01:51 All the prophets spoke about it
  • 01:53 and so we'll get into that as we go on.
  • 01:54 But the idea is that no one "took" his life.
  • 01:57 I know my people have been blamed.
  • 01:59 Some people think it's the Romans,
  • 02:00 the Jewish leadership.
  • 02:01 The reality is he "laid down" His life
  • 02:04 for you and for me.
  • 02:05 So let's go to our drama.
  • 02:06 We've been doing these dramatic vignettes
  • 02:08 to illustrate the times and life of Yeshua.
  • 02:11 Let's go to our drama right now.
  • 02:22 Why so brutal?
  • 02:27 There was no need for the Romans to have killed him this way,
  • 02:32 piercing his hands and his feet with nails,
  • 02:35 then hanging him on a tree between two thieves,
  • 02:40 offering him vinegar to drink
  • 02:43 and then casting lots for his garments.
  • 02:47 It was mockery.
  • 02:50 Six hours of agonizing torture.
  • 02:59 It seems like only yesterday
  • 03:02 when I first saw him.
  • 03:06 Just a babe in Bethlehem.
  • 03:10 I watched him grow to become a fine young man.
  • 03:15 Yeshua brought hope to our people.
  • 03:23 He died at the ninth hour.
  • 03:30 The sky darkened.
  • 03:30 The earth shook.
  • 03:33 And graves were opened.
  • 03:35 And out of all that horror
  • 03:38 it was Centurion who finally understood.
  • 03:44 It was a Roman Centurion who said it so well.
  • 03:49 "Truly this man was the Son of God."
  • 03:56 I guess we should have known this day would come.
  • 04:00 The prophets foretold it long ago.
  • 04:03 But still, it all seems so tragic.
  • 04:16 He was just an innocent lamb.
  • 04:22 A Passover Sacrifice.
  • 04:27 I will miss him
  • 04:30 but I know, one day
  • 04:34 I'll see him again in a better place.
  • 04:39 I can only imagine.
  • 04:58 It had to have been gut wrenching for the Believers
  • 05:01 to witness the crucifixion.
  • 05:03 But it didn't just there.
  • 05:05 It was way back in Antonia's fortress
  • 05:07 where the scourging began,
  • 05:09 where the gambling over his garments began,
  • 05:11 where the incredible torture that we can't really understand.
  • 05:17 See, the Romans were not limited to 39 stripes.
  • 05:20 They had no limit on themselves as the Jewish people did.
  • 05:23 They would lacerate someone to death or near death
  • 05:27 and then take them out to be crucified.
  • 05:33 It's important to remember
  • 05:35 that every single event in this trial,
  • 05:39 this scourging, the torture,
  • 05:41 the crucifixion, the death,
  • 05:43 the burial, the resurrection,
  • 05:45 all of it is prophesied in the Bible.
  • 05:48 There's no way that these events
  • 05:50 could have happened in the life of one man
  • 05:53 unless God was in charge of it all.
  • 05:56 In fact, the numbers are so astronomical
  • 06:00 that it's been calculated
  • 06:03 you could fill the entire State of Texas
  • 06:06 with silver dollars to two feet high
  • 06:08 to approximate the number of possibilities
  • 06:11 that would have to come together
  • 06:13 for this fulfillment to take place in the life of one person.
  • 06:17 Hundreds of prophesies coming true in the life of Yeshua HaMashiach,
  • 06:21 Jesus, The Messiah.
  • 06:24 Now, the crown of thorns,
  • 06:27 the purple robe,
  • 06:28 the gambling over his garments,
  • 06:30 all prophesied.
  • 06:32 Just to take one of them, Isaiah 50:6
  • 06:43 And it goes on from there.
  • 06:44 Every single event that took place
  • 06:45 in the fortress of Antonia
  • 06:47 which is now underneath the City of Jerusalem
  • 06:51 may very likely be the real place where this took place.
  • 06:54 There is a gambling game etched into the stones there.
  • 06:58 Because the Romans would play the "King's Game"
  • 07:01 and they would gamble over the articles
  • 07:03 that were left by prisoners or belonged to prisoners.
  • 07:06 The entire story just completely fulfilling
  • 07:11 the promises of God that He Himself
  • 07:14 would become the Passover Lamb.
  • 07:17 Yeshua, even from the Cross is living out what he taught
  • 07:21 in Matthew 5, on the Mount of Beatitudes.
  • 07:30 In the midst of being tortured to death
  • 07:32 he's living out the verses that he said,
  • 07:39 It's unfathomable for us.
  • 07:41 This story is so real, so true.
  • 07:44 And it was a real Cross
  • 07:45 and a real death and real blood
  • 07:47 that led to our salvation,
  • 07:49 the possibility of our salvation.
  • 07:51 When he says on the cross,
  • 07:53 "Father why have You forsaken me?"
  • 07:56 Not long after that the veil in the Temple is rent from top to bottom.
  • 08:00 It's split in half
  • 08:03 as the Father receives him back.
  • 08:05 And, in fact, he was not forsaken.
  • 08:08 And you are not forsaken
  • 08:09 because Yeshua said himself,
  • 08:11 I will never leave you nor forsake you.
  • 08:13 I urge you to consider the claims of Jesus of Nazareth
  • 08:18 because his promise is for
  • 08:20 life abundant here and eternal life.
  • 08:35 Our resource this week...
  • 08:37 The Series "Close Encounters with Yeshua" on DVD
  • 08:40 This 10 program series
  • 08:42 focuses on how Jesus, Yeshua
  • 08:44 supernaturally came,
  • 08:46 ministered on earth
  • 08:47 and today calls people to draw near to Him.
  • 08:50 Each programs includes
  • 08:52 location teaching from Israel
  • 08:54 a dramatic reenactment
  • 08:56 plus interviews with believers
  • 08:57 about their journey of faith
  • 08:58 in the Jewish Messiah.
  • 09:00 Contact us for the DVD Series
  • 09:03 "Close Encounters with Yeshua"
  • 09:10 Hi, you know so much is happening in the world today
  • 09:12 regarding Bible prophecy.
  • 09:14 And especially in Israel too.
  • 09:16 This is the lens through which
  • 09:18 everything has to be told.
  • 09:19 And that's what we're doing
  • 09:21 here at Zola Levitt Presents.
  • 09:23 We're only able to do it
  • 09:24 as you're able to give.
  • 09:26 Your generous donations
  • 09:27 keep our program going.
  • 09:29 So please continue to give as you are able.
  • 09:31 And we will continue to bring you the news
  • 09:34 through this Word.
  • 09:53 Scholars argue about whether this is the place,
  • 09:56 whether the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the place.
  • 09:58 We're here at the Garden Tomb.
  • 10:00 One thing is for certain
  • 10:02 that there's been 125 years of prayer in this place.
  • 10:05 Because when the British found it and bought it
  • 10:09 they made it a sanctuary.
  • 10:11 All the elements of the Gospel are here.
  • 10:14 And people have been coming here,
  • 10:16 pilgrims have been coming here for 125 years and praying.
  • 10:19 And so it's really a respite, a Garden spot
  • 10:22 in the midst of tumultuous east Jerusalem.
  • 10:26 Yeshua's death was caused by collusion
  • 10:28 between religious and political forces.
  • 10:30 Both, threatened by the acclaim, by the accolades that he was receiving,
  • 10:35 by the miracles,
  • 10:36 by the reality of who he is as Messiah.
  • 10:39 Pontius Pilot would live in Caesarea
  • 10:42 and come up to Jerusalem for the Feasts.
  • 10:44 He was much more accustomed to the style of living
  • 10:49 that Herod the Great built in Caesarea.
  • 10:51 It was palace by the sea
  • 10:53 and luxurious
  • 10:54 and very fitting to a Roman leader.
  • 10:57 We know that Pontius Pilot was a real person
  • 10:59 because in Caesarea we found a stone
  • 11:01 in 1961 with his name on it.
  • 11:04 That was a "taken name".
  • 11:06 No one knows his real name.
  • 11:07 But he was a commander in "Pontius"
  • 11:10 the city he came from in Italy.
  • 11:12 And "Pilot" had to do with the helmet or the javelin,
  • 11:15 a "military name" that he took
  • 11:16 as someone who was raised up in the military of Rome
  • 11:19 and given the leadership of this area.
  • 11:23 He did not like being here
  • 11:24 but he kept the custom of
  • 11:26 releasing a prisoner every Passover
  • 11:29 in order to keep the crowds quiet
  • 11:31 and keep insurrection from taking place.
  • 11:34 Pilot was not a sympathetic character
  • 11:37 as he's often portrayed in the movies.
  • 11:39 The movies are so anti-Semitic that
  • 11:41 they have the religious Jewish leaders
  • 11:43 being representative of the entire Jewish nation
  • 11:46 and pilot is kind of the innocent who washed his hands.
  • 11:50 He was a cruel tyrant.
  • 11:52 And the Jewish leaders who colluded with him
  • 11:55 were a small group that were threatened by Yeshua.
  • 11:59 They were not the same people who
  • 12:01 days before had welcomed Yeshua as King when he
  • 12:04 came down the Mount of Olives on a donkey
  • 12:07 as prophesied by Zechariah.
  • 12:10 And those prophesies are throughout this story.
  • 12:12 This story is a story for the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy.
  • 12:17 That's what makes it such a heart rending
  • 12:20 story for us as Jewish people who believe
  • 12:23 to see that most of our neighbors and friends
  • 12:25 in the Jewish community in Israel
  • 12:26 do not understand or do not believe.
  • 12:29 And that's partly because of the
  • 12:31 anti-Semitism in the church.
  • 12:33 Over the centuries that phrase,
  • 12:35 "let this blood be on us and our children"
  • 12:37 has been used as a way of blaming the Jews
  • 12:40 for Yeshua's death.
  • 12:41 But no man "took" his life.
  • 12:43 He "laid down" his life
  • 12:45 as a ransom for all.
  • 12:47 He said to Pilate,
  • 12:48 you could have no authority
  • 12:49 unless it was given to you from above.
  • 12:51 He knew where he came from.
  • 12:53 But that particular phrase "His blood be on us" is actually
  • 12:57 if you know the Hebrew life
  • 12:58 and you understand the way
  • 13:00 they understood the Bible
  • 13:01 it goes back to Cain and Abel.
  • 13:03 And when Cain killed Abel
  • 13:05 it's been said that he killed
  • 13:07 all of the seed that would have come from Abel.
  • 13:10 So it was a multiple murder.
  • 13:13 And it was understood as being a way of saying
  • 13:15 that not only is this murder
  • 13:18 taking this one's life but
  • 13:21 also taking the life of those that would have come from him.
  • 13:24 And so there's a context for that.
  • 13:27 But the truth is that Pilot released Barabbas.
  • 13:31 And "barabbas" means "son of the father".
  • 13:34 He released a murderer and an insurrectionist
  • 13:37 who was not qualified as the son of the father;
  • 13:40 It was a false son of a false father,
  • 13:44 and took to crucifixion the one who was
  • 13:47 the True Son of the True Father.
  • 13:49 And again, it had to happen that way
  • 13:52 because Yeshua came for my sin and for yours.
  • 13:56 He's in fact, the "Second Adam" it says in the New Testament.
  • 13:59 He reverses the curse.
  • 14:01 Because tucked into the Torah
  • 14:03 is a phrase that says,
  • 14:07 That's not a Jewish way of killing people.
  • 14:09 It was a Roman developed way.
  • 14:11 They didn't invent it
  • 14:12 but they perfected it.
  • 14:13 Crucifixion means "excruciating" out of the cross.
  • 14:17 And that's what it was.
  • 14:19 An excruciating death that he
  • 14:21 voluntarily went to so that you and I
  • 14:24 could be free for eternity
  • 14:26 and have an abundant life here.
  • 14:28 When we see that,
  • 14:29 when we understand that it was a voluntary act
  • 14:31 we recognize that the most heinous death
  • 14:34 ever done on planet earth
  • 14:36 was, in fact, orchestrated
  • 14:38 by a gracious and loving God
  • 14:41 who desires relationship with us.
  • 15:00 He was in a tomb for three days.
  • 15:05 Dead.
  • 15:15 Mary was the first one to tell us.
  • 15:18 Then Simon Peter.
  • 15:20 He too went to the grave and found it
  • 15:23 ...empty.
  • 15:26 And then the rest of us saw him here in Jerusalem
  • 15:29 ...alive.
  • 15:31 We saw Yeshua with our own eyes.
  • 15:33 At first, we thought it was a spirit.
  • 15:36 Then he showed us his wounds in his hands and his feet.
  • 15:40 He told us it would happen.
  • 15:45 It was there the whole time
  • 15:48 in the Torah...
  • 15:49 in the Prophets...
  • 15:51 in the Psalms.
  • 15:54 He said he'd suffer
  • 15:57 and then rise from the dead on the third day.
  • 16:01 It's all clear now.
  • 16:03 What were we thinking?
  • 16:07 And then he says to proclaim the message to all nations
  • 16:11 [Speaking Hebrew]
  • 16:14 starting here in Jerusalem.
  • 16:18 He then lifted his hands up
  • 16:20 said a "berakah" [a blessing]
  • 16:23 and he was gone.
  • 16:28 We saw him ascend up into the heavens.
  • 16:35 It wasn't long ago our first encounter
  • 16:38 on the waters of the Galilee.
  • 16:40 He told us he would make us fisher's of men.
  • 16:43 Made no sense at the time.
  • 16:45 But now it does.
  • 16:48 I tell you my sails are hoisted,
  • 16:50 my nets are set.
  • 16:52 My Lord, may I ever be ready.
  • 17:08 Yeshua was ever clear
  • 17:09 to proclaim this message around the world.
  • 17:11 And that's what happened.
  • 17:12 A friend of ours calls it
  • 17:13 "God's Tsunami",
  • 17:15 The Gospel going around the world.
  • 17:16 And now the End of the Age
  • 17:18 arising in the East
  • 17:20 and coming back to Jerusalem.
  • 17:21 But the Word went forth from Jerusalem
  • 17:23 and has gone around the world.
  • 17:25 And what the place is where he resurrected from
  • 17:27 is less important than the fact
  • 17:29 that the tomb is empty!
  • 17:31 Yeah, the tomb is empty and
  • 17:33 no man "took" his life
  • 17:35 but he "laid" his life down for our sake.
  • 17:38 You know, no amount of money, no amount of bribes,
  • 17:41 no Judas, no man, no government
  • 17:45 could take away the plan that God has.
  • 17:48 You might be facing things in your own life
  • 17:51 that you think that man has triumphed
  • 17:53 or that man has trumped the plan of God.
  • 17:55 But God has a plan for you.
  • 17:57 He has a supernatural way of deliverance for you
  • 18:00 even when you think that man has had his upper hand
  • 18:04 God triumphs always Myles.
  • 18:07 The tomb is empty.
  • 18:08 He has risen.
  • 18:10 He came to the women
  • 18:11 and he revealed himself that he was truly alive.
  • 18:14 He spoke of these things
  • 18:16 but their faith was lacking
  • 18:18 like all of ours does when we face
  • 18:20 trials and tribulations.
  • 18:21 When we face things that
  • 18:23 we don't understand in our natural being
  • 18:25 he comes and reminds us that
  • 18:27 he has a plan that's eternal for us.
  • 18:29 That's good.
  • 18:30 I think about the Jewishness of the this story.
  • 18:32 It's always contested by my people
  • 18:34 but the fact is his face and his Name
  • 18:37 are on every page of the Bible.
  • 18:38 Think about this.
  • 18:40 Look back at the Torah.
  • 18:41 Think about the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24:15
  • 18:44 and he had just been crucified
  • 18:46 and they were mourning over him.
  • 18:47 And then he appears to them.
  • 18:49 In his ascension in his resurrection, in his "awake" Life
  • 18:53 he appears to these two disciples on the Road to Emmaus.
  • 18:55 And I love the way he says to them,
  • 19:07 Think about it this way,
  • 19:08 In Genesis
  • 19:09 He's the seed of the woman.
  • 19:11 In Exodus
  • 19:12 He's the Passover Lamb
  • 19:14 In Leviticus
  • 19:15 He's our great High Priest.
  • 19:17 In Numbers
  • 19:18 He's with as the Glory
  • 19:20 through our Wilderness.
  • 19:21 And in Deuteronomy
  • 19:22 He is Living Word.
  • 19:24 Five Books of Moses
  • 19:25 Five the number of "Grace"
  • 19:28 Yeshua is in the Torah.
  • 19:29 He's spoken of over again.
  • 19:31 I'm so grateful that the Lord appeared to the women
  • 19:34 because God Himself elevated women and
  • 19:37 he brought them into the ability to be his spokesmen.
  • 19:41 You know, the Angel appeared, rolled away the stone
  • 19:44 but God Himself came to the women.
  • 19:46 And he knew that God was going to reveal a plan for
  • 19:51 both women and men to co-labor together.
  • 19:55 Just like over his head
  • 19:57 was both in Greek and in Hebrew
  • 19:59 "Jesus, King of the Jews".
  • 20:01 He was starting a new dimension.
  • 20:03 And we need to remember that he is calling
  • 20:05 all of us to stand fast
  • 20:08 and to proclaim the liberty.
  • 20:09 We've seen many Jewish people come to faith.
  • 20:12 And we want to remind you that
  • 20:13 they need to hear your testimony so
  • 20:15 that they can come to know the Living Savior themself.
  • 20:19 Let this Word burn in you
  • 20:20 just like it did to the disciples
  • 20:22 on the Road to Emmaus.
  • 20:33 For insightful perspectives on Israel and Bible Prophecy
  • 20:37 ask for our free monthly newsletter
  • 20:40 the Levitt Letter.
  • 20:42 At levitt.com you can read the newsletter,
  • 20:44 watch the TV program
  • 20:46 or visit our online store.
  • 20:49 Stay current with us on social media via Facebook and Twitter.
  • 20:53 Come with us on a tour of Israel or Petra
  • 20:56 or a Cruise to Greece and Ephesus.
  • 20:59 Please contact us for more information.
  • 21:04 Dave and I would love to personally invite you
  • 21:06 to join us on a Zola Tour.
  • 21:09 They're the best tours.
  • 21:11 Once you get to Israel
  • 21:13 the Messianic teachers that we bring along
  • 21:15 on the buses every day
  • 21:17 will bring to life
  • 21:20 this wonderful Holy Land
  • 21:21 where Yeshua walked, taught and healed.
  • 21:25 levitt.com is the website
  • 21:27 Every Spring and Fall.
  • 21:28 I like to say it's where it all began.
  • 21:29 Where the Bible comes to life.
  • 21:31 We'd love for you to join us.
  • 21:33 And now to Myles and his interview
  • 21:35 with a Messianic believer
  • 21:37 who came to faith.
  • 21:40 You see Myles,
  • 21:41 I was very privileged
  • 21:43 to grow up in a Messianic family.
  • 21:45 Both my parents were Jewish believers
  • 21:47 who immigrated to Israel
  • 21:48 from Tunisia, North Africa.
  • 21:50 My father met Yeshua,
  • 21:52 an encounter with Yeshua in Tunisia as a young man.
  • 21:55 At the age of 16 somebody gave him a Bible and told him
  • 21:58 to read the Bible and he told him about Yeshua.
  • 22:00 And my father read it in secret for two years.
  • 22:03 And when he was 18 he came to his Mom.
  • 22:04 And he told his Mom, "Mom, I believe that Yeshua is the Messiah."
  • 22:08 For my Grandmother it was very hard because
  • 22:11 she lost her husband in the Holocaust.
  • 22:14 My Grandfather was captured and taken all the way to Auschwitz.
  • 22:17 Never came back.
  • 22:19 And for her now, Christians are taking her son.
  • 22:21 So she took him from one Rabbi to another.
  • 22:24 And one Rabbi told him,
  • 22:25 "You believe what you believe because you read the Bible in French."
  • 22:28 "If you would understand the Hebrew, if you would read the Bible in Hebrew"
  • 22:32 "You would see that Yeshua is not a Jewish option."
  • 22:36 My father took this Rabbi very literally and seriously.
  • 22:40 And he came to Israel in 1956 just to learn Hebrew,
  • 22:43 not because of a Zionistic idea, and so on.
  • 22:47 And after he came to Israel
  • 22:50 he immigrated to Israel
  • 22:51 not only he got to the conclusion
  • 22:53 that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah to the Jewish people,
  • 22:56 he also came to the conclusion
  • 22:58 that he has to bring a Jewish Messiah to the people of Israel.
  • 23:02 And that's where I grew up.
  • 23:05 But we all know that God has children.
  • 23:07 He doesn't have grandchildren.
  • 23:10 And for me it was when I was a young man in the military.
  • 23:13 I always knew that Yeshua was the option.
  • 23:15 I always knew that Yeshua was the truth.
  • 23:18 But in a way, I wasn't willing to pay the price.
  • 23:21 And it was when I was in the Army that really...
  • 23:24 We were in Lebanon
  • 23:26 and I'm not a brave soldier or anything.
  • 23:28 But I felt there when people were having concern
  • 23:33 and people were losing their peace,
  • 23:35 I felt that I had the peace that
  • 23:38 was really beyond my understanding.
  • 23:40 And I knew that it comes from God Himself
  • 23:43 because I knew that I'm not a brave soldier or anything like that.
  • 23:47 And then the verse came of Elijah,
  • 23:50 "[How long] are you going to jump between the two?"
  • 23:53 I don't know how you say it...
  • 23:54 "between the two things if you are with me"
  • 23:58 And I dedicated my life to Yeshua.
  • 24:02 And since then I'm a follower of the Messiah.
  • 24:07 So this is a great story because you're the first one
  • 24:12 we've spoken to who grew up in a Messianic family.
  • 24:15 And yet, you had to find Messiah for yourself and
  • 24:18 He had to find you.
  • 24:19 You found each other, which is a wonderful news for our people.
  • 24:23 I would love for you to
  • 24:24 look directly at the camera
  • 24:26 and tell our views just any message
  • 24:28 that's on your heart right now
  • 24:30 from Israel to the world, to the church at large.
  • 24:35 You see, if you're watching us and you
  • 24:37 believe in the Messiah - Yeshua
  • 24:39 the Bible commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 24:41 And I know that you've heard that verse
  • 24:43 again and again and again,
  • 24:46 especially on this program and many other programs.
  • 24:49 But I really believe that to pray for the peace of Jerusalem
  • 24:52 is to pray for the Salvation of Israel.
  • 24:54 And if you read again, this Psalm,
  • 24:57 you'll see that God is talking to the Tribe of God.
  • 25:01 And He says to the Tribe of God...
  • 25:03 and the "Tribe of God" are not the Tribes of Israel.
  • 25:05 It's people from the nations who believe
  • 25:07 in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
  • 25:09 And God commands you as the Believers of
  • 25:12 the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
  • 25:13 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 25:15 And it's not the peace between
  • 25:17 Israel and the Palestinian, and a [thing like that].
  • 25:18 It's a peace between the God of Israel and the people of Israel.
  • 25:22 It's a peace that the people of Israel are seeking so much
  • 25:26 and they don't know where to find it.
  • 25:29 And I really believe that if you'll pray,
  • 25:31 if you'll be a watchman on the wall,
  • 25:33 if you'll stand in prayer with us
  • 25:35 we will see Israel being transformed
  • 25:38 to the knowledge of the Messiah.
  • 25:40 Thank you and God bless you.
  • 25:57 I've never served in the military
  • 25:59 but Kirsten and I have been praying for our son who
  • 26:02 recently just returned from Iraq.
  • 26:05 And our prayer for him was for peace,
  • 26:07 that he would feel the presence of Yeshua
  • 26:09 every day that he was over in Iraq.
  • 26:11 I believe that this interview
  • 26:16 he was pleading for us as a church
  • 26:19 to continue to pray for people like him
  • 26:21 who are searching for Yeshua in his life.
  • 26:25 The interview was fantastic.
  • 26:27 Today, I especially loved the teaching
  • 26:29 that Myles and Katharine brought
  • 26:31 from the Garden Tomb on Crucifixion.
  • 26:34 The one line that stood out to me
  • 26:36 was that no one "took" the life of Yeshua,
  • 26:41 He freely "gave".
  • 26:43 He could have called Angels and they would
  • 26:45 have taken him right up to heaven
  • 26:47 and stopped what he was walking through.
  • 26:50 But he gave of his life freely for us
  • 26:53 so that we could have peace.
  • 26:56 The same peace that we pray for all of
  • 26:59 our friends Jewish and Believers in Israel.
  • 27:03 And we will continue
  • 27:04 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:06 And to have a "close encounter with Yeshua".
  • 27:10 Thank you so much for joining us.
  • 27:12 And we'd love for you to join us next week
  • 27:13 as we continue this series
  • 27:15 "Close Encounters with Yeshua".
  • 27:17 Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 27:20 Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:24 Our monthly newsletter the Levitt Letter is free
  • 27:27 and full of insightful articles and news commentary
  • 27:30 from a Messianic perspective.
  • 27:32 Visit levitt.com to find our newsletter,
  • 27:35 along with current and past programs,
  • 27:37 our television schedule and much more.
  • 27:41 Don't forget to order this weeks resource
  • 27:43 by calling 1-800-WONDERS
  • 27:46 or you can purchase it
  • 27:47 from our store at levitt.com
  • 27:51 Your donations to Zola Levitt Ministries
  • 27:53 help these organizations bless Israel.

Episodes in this series

  1. God is Coming
  2. Humble Beginnings
  3. Jewish Context
  4. Miraculous Ministry
  5. Prophecy Fulfilled
  6. Living Water
  7. Mountaintop Experience
  8. Life Laid Down
  9. Empty Tomb
  10. Interview with Gary Bayer

Guest organizations and links

Bonus Material