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Caption transcript for In The Footsteps of The Rabbi From Tarsus (2020): “Persecutor to Advocate” (1/8)

• 00:03 male announcer: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots" with insightful Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif. This week, we begin our series on the apostle Paul, "In the Footsteps of
• 00:16 the Rabbi from Tarsus." ♪♪♪
• 00:32 [horse neighing]
• 00:34 ♪♪♪
• 01:17 David Hart: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 01:19 I'm David Hart.
• 01:21 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:22 Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey Seif and I'm really
• 01:24 excited.
• 01:25 This is going to be TV worth watching.
• 01:29 Guys, gals, this series, bar none, my favorite.
• 01:34 Kirsten: Mine too.
• 01:35 Jeffrey: The dramas all over the Mediterranean
• 01:37 Greco-Roman world.
• 01:38 It is just TV at its best in my opinion.
• 01:41 Kirsten: We're going on an adventure.
• 01:44 David: Right, so Kirsten and I, as Gentiles,
• 01:45 has always thought of Paul as an apostle.
• 01:49 He's a rabbi.
• 01:51 Jeffrey: Yeah, I liked, you know,
• 01:53 "The Rabbi from Tarsus" is a little engaging.
• 01:54 It's edgy, but he was a member of the Perushim, a Pharisee,
• 01:58 and the rest were farmers and fishermen.
• 02:00 He was trained as a theologian.
• 02:03 "The Rabbi from Tarsus," it's a little engaging and I love it.
• 02:09 Jeffrey: He could be described as something of an
• 02:11 angry man, to put it mildly, actually.
• 02:15 Luke tells us that he was breathing threats and not just
• 02:17 idle threats: murder on top.
• 02:19 Didn't wanna just hurt him, he wanted to destroy him.
• 02:22 Who's the "he" and who's the "them"?
• 02:24 The "he" is a fellow named Shaul,
• 02:27 a member of the Perushim.
• 02:30 Perushim comes from parash in Hebrew,
• 02:32 a verb meaning to be separate.
• 02:34 It was a party, 6000 or so individuals in Jesus' day,
• 02:37 one of whom was this fellow named Shaul, or Paul,
• 02:39 and there was this movement that was getting up and going in
• 02:43 Yerushalayim, in Jerusalem, and he was not a happy camper.
• 02:47 In fact, his biographer, Luke, tells us in this book called
• 02:50 Acts of the Apostles that when Stephen, a Greek-speaking Jew,
• 02:59 was martyred that Saul was particularly proactive in
• 03:01 facilitating his demise.
• 03:03 So Paul's not just a disgruntled teacher who's verbally giving
• 03:06 voice to his angst, but rather he's the kind of fellow that's
• 03:10 given to action, not just speech.
• 03:12 Luke tells us as well in the 9th chapter that this fellow, Shaul,
• 03:17 was walking on a road like this, here in the Middle East.
• 03:21 He wasn't just out for a casual stroll.
• 03:23 Actually, he tells us that he had secured bench warrants.
• 03:26 Luke tells us that chagrined as he was by the movement that this
• 03:30 fellow Shaul went to the zechanim, the leaders of the
• 03:35 synagogue and secured arrest warrants to bring these people
• 03:39 to justice.
• 03:41 And what was just for these believers in Jesus was death.
• 03:43 That's the way Paul saw it.
• 03:46 Paul was a black and white kind of guy.
• 03:47 And he looked at this movement of Jewish people who believed
• 03:50 in Yeshua, he looked at this as acne on the face of first
• 03:53 century Judaism, better to be without it and he was gonna
• 03:55 take care of the job.
• 03:57 Well, in Acts chapter 9, we're told in verse 1 that he's still
• 04:01 breathing threats and murder against the disciples of
• 04:04 the Lord.
• 04:05 In verse 2 we're told, of course,
• 04:07 as I'd said that he had secured the warrants but then in verse
• 04:09 3, something strange happened to him and that strange thing
• 04:14 happens to a lot of others.
• 04:17 That is, we're going down life's highway and we get knocked off
• 04:19 of our horse.
• 04:21 Luke tells the story about him once in Acts.
• 04:23 Paul tells the story about it twice.
• 04:25 Three times in this text, Acts of the Apostles, three times,
• 04:29 Paul harks back to that moment when his life was
• 04:33 radically transformed.
• 04:35 He gets knocked off his horse, he falls to the ground in
• 04:36 verse 4.
• 04:38 He hears a voice: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
• 04:42 Well, Paul is gonna be spellbound by all of this.
• 04:45 He's knocked off from his horse with a flash of light.
• 04:48 He's left blinded for three days,
• 04:51 then he's going to go to a home, right immediately after this,
• 04:56 he's gonna go to a home and spend some time there,
• 04:58 and then in verse 17, the Lord directs someone to go to the
• 05:03 home to lay hands on this guy and it's an interesting
• 05:05 story here.
• 05:07 People are so nervous about Paul because his reputation
• 05:10 preceded him.
• 05:12 They knew, they're early followers of Yeshua, of Jesus,
• 05:14 knew that this was a guy bent on their demise.
• 05:18 What happens, all of a sudden, one of them gets a vision and is
• 05:20 told, "Listen, you need to go and lay hands on this fella,"
• 05:23 and he's nervous about doing it.
• 05:25 But finally, in verse 17, we're told that "Ananias went and
• 05:28 entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said,
• 05:31 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you in the road
• 05:35 as you came, has sent me that you might receive your sight and
• 05:38 be filled with the Ruach Ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit.'"
• 05:43 Fascinating story.
• 05:45 Paul walks away from this a new man, a converted individual.
• 05:48 Mind you, however, he was a converted person.
• 05:52 People come up to me and they say, "Well, you know, Mr. Seif,
• 05:54 how long have you been a converted Jew?"
• 05:56 And I'm very fond of saying, "Personally,
• 05:58 I'm not a converted Jew, I'm a converted sinner.
• 06:01 It's not a sin to be a Jew."
• 06:02 Paul didn't understand that he used to be Jewish but now he's
• 06:05 become something else.
• 06:07 No, Paul has come to appreciate what it means to be fully Jewish
• 06:10 in the wake of his encounter with the Messiah who epitomizes
• 06:13 Jewish faith, virtue, hopes, and aspirations.
• 06:17 ♪♪♪
• 06:28 Jeffrey: He's led to Damascus by the hand.
• 06:31 He's blind, can't see--can't see anything.
• 06:34 His blindness aside, there's a disciple that has a vision from
• 06:37 the Lord: "Go see this fella named Shaul."
• 06:40 'Course, he has an aversion to doing so.
• 06:42 Paul's reputation precedes him.
• 06:44 People knew that Paul was principally engaged in
• 06:48 eradicating the movement.
• 06:50 He was involved in the persecution so asking Ananias to
• 06:54 go see Paul was like asking a mouse to go visit a cat.
• 06:56 He wasn't interested in it, quite frankly.
• 06:58 But he went anyway and we're told that he came,
• 07:03 in verse 17 of the 9th chapter, and that "he entered the house
• 07:07 where Shaul was and he laid his hands on him and said,
• 07:10 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus told me to come to you.'"
• 07:14 And what happens?
• 07:16 He prays for him and then we're told in the text that Saul
• 07:18 recovers his vision.
• 07:20 And then, interestingly, we're told that immediately Paul makes
• 07:25 haste to go to the synagogue.
• 07:27 You know, synagogues came in various shapes, sizes,
• 07:29 and colors.
• 07:31 Paul went into the synagogue and he was given therein to
• 07:34 advocating for this Yeshua, for this Jesus,
• 07:38 being the hope of Israel.
• 07:40 It's a fascinating story.
• 07:42 I want you to look at a text please in the 9th chapter of the
• 07:44 book of Acts 'cause there's something I wanna underscore
• 07:47 that, to me, is just so important and it's so
• 07:52 underdeveloped and it's so descriptive of Paul.
• 07:56 In verse 20, as I'd said, we're told that "immediately he
• 07:59 preached the Christ."
• 08:01 You know, immediately is used--eutheós, the Greek term,
• 08:04 is used 42 times in Mark's Gospel.
• 08:07 Jesus immediately.
• 08:09 Sometimes, people think and feel too much.
• 08:11 You've gotta just go after it.
• 08:13 We're told here that Paul immediately went into
• 08:15 the synagogue.
• 08:17 Of course, Paul could get in there.
• 08:19 He could make his way into a synagogue and get a speaking
• 08:21 engagement.
• 08:23 He was a member of the Perushim, he was a scholar,
• 08:25 trained, studied in Jerusalem, and synagogues would give him a
• 08:29 hearing.
• 08:31 But then, of course, when he started talking they realized,
• 08:33 "Well, this really isn't quite what we expected,"
• 08:35 particularly these people because inasmuch as the Jewish
• 08:37 followers of Yeshua knew that Paul had come to faith,
• 08:40 the synagogue itself hasn't yet discovered it.
• 08:44 But here, Paul's coming out of the closet, if you will,
• 08:46 and making his vision known.
• 08:49 We're told in verse 20 that "he preaches the Mashiach in the
• 08:51 synagogue, that he, in fact, is the Son of God."
• 08:56 I want you to note in verse 21 there's some disconsternation
• 09:00 along with that.
• 09:02 It was a rocky road, it wasn't what people were expected,
• 09:05 and they weren't expecting that from Paul but he is what he is.
• 09:08 He's not trying to win a popularity contest,
• 09:10 he's trying to tell the truth.
• 09:12 We're told in verse 22 then, that difficulties
• 09:15 notwithstanding, and I really want you to hear me on this.
• 09:17 We're told that "Saul increased all the more in strength,
• 09:21 and that he confounded Judeans in Damascus,
• 09:25 and he proved that Jesus was the Mashiach."
• 09:29 Now, to describe this man as a man of strength, oomph,
• 09:33 he's got some moxie, a lot of times people like their
• 09:36 religious leaders sweet and docile and forever sheepish
• 09:40 and compliant.
• 09:42 That's not Paul.
• 09:44 Those people don't change the world.
• 09:47 Paul here is proactive.
• 09:49 He's engaged and he's strong.
• 09:52 When we read Paul in the New Testament,
• 09:54 this isn't some religious philosopher.
• 09:57 This is a man who's had a radical encounter with Yeshua
• 10:00 and he's bent on advocating for him,
• 10:03 much as he was bent on destroying him previously in
• 10:06 his life.
• 10:08 Paul was a man on a mission.
• 10:09 Paul was an intense man, he was a focused man.
• 10:11 He was a man with vision.
• 10:14 Not everybody loved him but they came to respect him.
• 10:16 This is a man that said what he thought and these apparently
• 10:19 weren't just his thoughts but, rather,
• 10:21 other--under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
• 10:23 he went forth and changed the world and off into the world we
• 10:27 go as we walk in the footsteps of this rabbi from Tarsus.
• 10:33 ♪♪♪
• 10:39 Jeffrey: In his own world, Paul had a vision.
• 10:41 Oh, yes, like others, he was indelibly marked,
• 10:44 impressed by his experience with Jesus.
• 10:49 But his experience was different than the earlier disciples,
• 10:51 for Paul himself never drank any water turned to wine,
• 10:55 never ate any fish on any mountainside that had been
• 10:58 multiplied miraculously.
• 11:01 He never heard a single parable roll off of Jesus' lips.
• 11:05 Paul had no firsthand experience and he was bent initially on
• 11:09 destroying those who did.
• 11:12 Interestingly, when he has a radical encounter with Jesus,
• 11:15 he doesn't run to the school to learn to sit at the feet of
• 11:20 the originals.
• 11:22 No, he retreats.
• 11:24 He's in Damascus, he tells us in his own autobiography that we'll
• 11:26 get to, that from Damascus he then goes to Arabia.
• 11:30 This is not the Arabia of the Saudi Peninsula of today.
• 11:35 Rather, this is the Nabataean community in what would be
• 11:39 Jordan, just east of the Holy Land in modern Jordan,
• 11:43 trans-Jordania.
• 11:45 And there he learned, there he developed,
• 11:48 there he grew and he emerged from it as this striking apostle
• 11:53 that we know who then went on to leave an indelible mark on the
• 11:56 pages of a holy writ.
• 11:59 And speaking of holy writ, when we look at the Galatian
• 12:01 correspondence and this was arguably the first New Testament
• 12:05 text written, here Paul waxes eloquent as he gives some
• 12:10 autobiography to make a point.
• 12:13 He notes in verse 15, he says, "And when it pleased God,
• 12:17 who separated me from my mother's womb and called me
• 12:21 through his grace," now hear me on this.
• 12:23 If you have the kind of intensity that Paul had,
• 12:26 you need to feel called, some sense of the Lord beckoning you
• 12:30 into this.
• 12:32 There are individuals today that have a call of God on
• 12:34 their life.
• 12:36 There's something inside of you, the Ruach Elohim,
• 12:39 the Spirit of God, comes into someone and then moves them and
• 12:42 the Lord moved Paul.
• 12:45 But he didn't move Paul to sit at the feet of those who were in
• 12:49 the know.
• 12:51 He moved Paul away to a season of solace where he could speak
• 12:55 to him personally.
• 12:57 Paul's mind, he was already filled up with theological
• 13:00 education as a member of the Perushim.
• 13:02 He needed the school of the Spirit,
• 13:04 and the Lord took him away.
• 13:06 He says that "the Lord pleased," in verse 16, "to reveal his Son.
• 13:12 He separated me from my mother's womb," in verse 15, 16,
• 13:15 "and then he revealed his Son to me that I might preach him among
• 13:19 the goyim," among the people of non-Jewish extract.
• 13:23 Paul had a vision.
• 13:25 The rabbi from Tarsus had a broader vision than just
• 13:28 Judea proper.
• 13:30 He believed that God was for [speaking Hebrew]
• 13:32 goyim, for all of the peoples, [speaking Hebrew],
• 13:35 and he was minded to carry the burden and carry it he did.
• 13:40 We're told in verse 16 that he "didn't immediately go to confer
• 13:44 with flesh and blood."
• 13:47 Paul didn't run off to Jerusalem to get a master of divinity
• 13:49 degree from those who were in the know.
• 13:52 No, he went off to a barren place, to a desolate place.
• 13:56 But he didn't just go into a cave and study,
• 13:59 though there's plenty--there's many places for privacy to go if
• 14:03 you want an arid dry environment you can find it around,
• 14:06 you know, the Arabian desert, there where Paul was.
• 14:10 The reason why we know he didn't just go away and meditate is
• 14:14 later on when he writes 2 Corinthians 11:32,
• 14:18 he's gonna give voice to the fact that when he returns to
• 14:20 Damascus after some years in the area of the Nabataeans,
• 14:25 what's referred to here as Arabia, when he goes back,
• 14:28 he mentions how King Aretas of the Damascans,
• 14:32 how he's hell-bent on destroying him with the net result that
• 14:36 Paul has to sneak out of the city, get lowered in a basket.
• 14:40 Arguably, somehow when he's out and about in the region,
• 14:43 he's not just meditating privately,
• 14:45 but he's confuting or rather he's debating,
• 14:48 he's weighing in on issues, discussing, growing,
• 14:51 going to synagogues and he's known as something of a
• 14:53 troublemaker, and already the king of the area has warrants
• 14:56 out for him.
• 14:58 Reminds me of John Wesley who comes to the state initially as
• 15:01 a missionary but then has to flee back to Europe because the
• 15:04 constable's after him because he stirred it up over here.
• 15:07 You know, some people are troublemakers when they advocate
• 15:10 for the kingdom.
• 15:11 They're not just sheepish religious philosophers.
• 15:13 And Paul was of that ilk where he wanted to confront the world
• 15:17 with the truth of Jesus and there was some backlash to that.
• 15:21 Inasmuch as he pushed for Jesus, people tried to push him back.
• 15:25 Difficulties notwithstanding, when we follow in the footsteps
• 15:28 of the rabbi from Tarsus, we encounter someone who is not
• 15:31 going to be bested by his troubles or his despair.
• 15:34 He didn't care.
• 15:36 He went everywhere to advance the Messiah's kingdom and that's
• 15:39 what he was all about.
• 15:41 And that's what we're gonna be all about as we continue to
• 15:43 explore Paul as we walk "In the Footsteps of the Rabbi
• 15:47 from Tarsus."
• 15:50 ♪♪♪
• 16:00 announcer: Our resource this week: the series, "Joshua: More
• 16:03 Than a Conqueror," on DVD.
• 16:05 This eight-program series reveals how Joshua went from spy
• 16:09 to Moses' apprentice and then became the faithful leader of
• 16:12 the Israelites during the conquest of the land of Canaan.
• 16:16 With dramatic reenactments, Bible teaching from Dr. Seif,
• 16:19 insight from Chaim Malespin, music, and much more.
• 16:23 Contact us and ask for your copy of the DVD series,
• 16:27 "Joshua: More Than a Conqueror."
• 16:30 announcer: If you're thinking about visiting the Holy Land,
• 16:33 come on a Zola Tour where the Scriptures come to life as you
• 16:37 get teaching from a Messianic perspective.
• 16:40 Our Spring Tour goes to Israel and Petra.
• 16:43 In the fall, you can add a cruise of Greece and Ephesus.
• 16:47 Come to Israel, see the Jewish roots of your faith.
• 16:51 Call us at 1-800-WONDERS or click on the
• 16:55 levitt.com/tourinfo.
• 17:02 David: Dr. Seif will be teaching at one of our favorite
• 17:04 places we go on tour which is Ephesus.
• 17:07 We go to Greece, Israel, Ephesus.
• 17:10 It's amazing. You're gonna see it in this series.
• 17:13 We would love for you to join us on a Zola Tour.
• 17:16 Kirsten: The backdrop for this whole series is gonna take
• 17:19 you throughout the Mediterranean and, of course, Israel.
• 17:22 We go two times a year.
• 17:24 We go in the fall which is when you can add the Greece land tour
• 17:27 and also the Greek Islands cruise.
• 17:31 And we also go in the spring in March.
• 17:34 We have many, many ways to sign up.
• 17:37 The best way is to go to levitt.com, find our tour page,
• 17:40 the info.
• 17:42 It's easy, I promise you.
• 17:44 Now, let's go back to Israel to hear more from Dr. Seif.
• 17:48 ♪♪♪
• 18:39 Jeffrey: Trouble seemed to follow the rabbi from Tarsus
• 18:43 wherever he went.
• 18:45 He's in Damascus and things deteriorate to the point where
• 18:48 he's so much up against the wall that, for fear of his life,
• 18:52 the brethren sneak him out of the city.
• 18:56 They lower him in a basket and he makes haste to get out of
• 19:01 Dodge and where does he go?
• 19:03 He goes to Jerusalem where he's then confronted with another set
• 19:07 of difficulties.
• 19:10 [speaking Hebrew] is the Jewish expression,
• 19:12 difficulties, trials.
• 19:14 Not just for Paul in this case, but because of Paul in
• 19:18 this case.
• 19:20 And why do I say that?
• 19:22 Paul has come to faith in Yeshua, but he hasn't come to
• 19:25 Jerusalem yet.
• 19:28 Here he comes but his reputation has been around before him.
• 19:33 You might recall that the last time he was there in Jerusalem,
• 19:37 he created quite a stir and why is that?
• 19:42 Because he was there not to advocate for the movement but,
• 19:47 rather, to advocate for the movement's demise.
• 19:52 Luke is very specific that Paul wasn't just a casual participant
• 19:58 in the plunder, in the carnage, of the movement and in the death
• 20:03 of its first martyr, Stephen.
• 20:05 No, it wasn't a casual participation.
• 20:07 Paul was proactive, a spirited sort.
• 20:11 Not satisfied with the death of Stephen alone,
• 20:14 he went on to facilitate a general persecution and so it
• 20:17 was that the believers in Judea, they felt Paul's weight already.
• 20:24 And so, hearing that he's coming to town,
• 20:27 they were not happy campers.
• 20:29 It's like the way the mice feel when they hear that a cat has
• 20:34 moved into the house.
• 20:36 They are on red alert.
• 20:39 Luke tells us in Acts chapter 9, verse 26,
• 20:44 that "when Saul came to Jerusalem,
• 20:47 he tried to join the disciples."
• 20:51 He'd try and get close.
• 20:53 They'd back away.
• 20:55 They weren't comfortable with the man.
• 20:57 And it's understandable, given the nature of the thing.
• 21:00 It says--well, Luke says, "They were afraid."
• 21:04 What happens is a friend comes to Paul's aid who's able to give
• 21:10 testimony to the fact that with Paul,
• 21:13 we're seeing a man with a transformed life.
• 21:18 His name was Yoseph or Joseph.
• 21:20 He was named Barnabas as well.
• 21:23 He was a man of repute, noted previously in Luke.
• 21:26 He gave a large sum of money to the apostles to help facilitate
• 21:29 the gospel's advancement, to help the Judeans who were
• 21:33 vanquished; difficulties, poverties, and the like,
• 21:36 he liquidated assets to participate with them.
• 21:39 And so he was a man of good reputation and this fellow,
• 21:43 Barnabas, who was known positively to the Judean
• 21:46 brethren, he's able to help offset the negative and so it is
• 21:51 he gets in there and he tells the congregation about Paul,
• 21:56 how he was converted, not a converted Jew but a converted
• 21:59 sinner, how his disposition was rewired in the wake of his
• 22:03 experience on the Damascus road.
• 22:07 He goes on to note as well that this same Paul then,
• 22:10 was fiery in his advocation for the gospel in the synagogues
• 22:15 in Damascus.
• 22:17 The net result is that the disciples take all this at face
• 22:20 value and come to terms with the fact that Paul was a new fellow.
• 22:26 We see in verse 29 that "he boldly spoke in the name of the
• 22:29 Lord Yeshua and disputed against the Hellenists so much so that
• 22:33 they attempted to kill him."
• 22:37 This is the testimony: Paul, wherever he went,
• 22:40 trouble went with him.
• 22:42 And why is this?
• 22:44 Because we have this inbreaking kingdom.
• 22:46 The forces of hell are bent on stopping this man's
• 22:49 forward momentum.
• 22:52 Here in Jerusalem, by virtue of being a people and being on pins
• 22:54 and needles around him, and then in Damascus beforehand,
• 22:57 evidenced by the fact they wanna kill him.
• 23:00 We're told here that he spent some time in Jerusalem.
• 23:03 In his first correspondence, the first document he penned,
• 23:07 Galatians, Paul tells as much in his own words.
• 23:11 In Luke, here Luke is explaining Paul.
• 23:16 We hear from Paul in his own words.
• 23:18 So he says in chapter 1, verse 18, he's in Arabia,
• 23:22 returns to Damascus, and then in 18,
• 23:24 "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and
• 23:28 remained with him 15 days."
• 23:31 Paul says that it was a reasonably short visit.
• 23:34 He gains access to the brethren.
• 23:37 Afterwards then, in verse 21, he goes to the regions of Syria
• 23:41 and Cilicia.
• 23:43 The text says in Acts chapter 9, verse 29,
• 23:46 that "the Hellenists sought to kill him."
• 23:48 With the net result in verse 30, "When the brethren found out,
• 23:52 they brought him down to Caesarea Maritima and sent him
• 23:55 out to Tarsus."
• 23:58 Paul makes a visit to Jerusalem because he's gotta get out
• 24:01 of Damascus.
• 24:04 He leaves Jerusalem because he's gotta get out and he makes his
• 24:06 way to Tarsus.
• 24:09 And he'll be in Tarsus for the better part of ten years.
• 24:15 It seems that things have settled down some in
• 24:18 Paul's life.
• 24:20 He's learning, he's growing, he's ministering.
• 24:22 He's in the great city of Tarsus, no mean city.
• 24:27 According to the New Testament writer, it's a famous city.
• 24:30 It's a university city.
• 24:33 He's there, plying his trade as an evangelist and pastor,
• 24:37 and he's networking.
• 24:39 Arguably, he cultivated a relationship with Luke or at
• 24:44 least Luke who's gonna join him later may well have shared with
• 24:48 Paul in common days in Tarsus and why is that?
• 24:52 Because Tarsus was known for its medical school,
• 24:56 as well as its university in general.
• 24:58 And so it is that Paul spends time in Tarsus until he's
• 25:02 beckoned later to Antioch to then begin his famous
• 25:06 missionary journeys.
• 25:09 ♪♪♪
• 25:20 David: It really is fascinating to see how Saul
• 25:22 was trying to stop the spread of the gospel.
• 25:24 Paul, on the other hand, the very opposite.
• 25:27 Jeffrey: Yes, and getting the story out is so important.
• 25:33 First, we get the story in and then it's all about getting the
• 25:36 story out.
• 25:38 That was the key.
• 25:40 Paul's biographer, Luke, you know,
• 25:42 the gospel begins in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and goes
• 25:45 global, yes?
• 25:47 Kirsten: It goes global, that's what our heartbeat is
• 25:49 also but it's not cheap.
• 25:52 There's always a cost, there's a price to pay.
• 25:54 Jeffrey: Back in Paul's day as well, you know?
• 25:56 It's--he relied on the support of others.
• 25:59 His Philippian correspondence, I get to this later on in the
• 26:02 series, was in effect a thank you letter.
• 26:06 Now, we give thank you letters all the time,
• 26:08 and let me give you one now for those that support us.
• 26:12 In writing the Philippians, Paul said thank you 'cause you have
• 26:15 stood with me, thick and thin, a lot abandoned.
• 26:18 But there were those that stood with the man, the message,
• 26:20 and the ministry, and for those of you that stand with us,
• 26:23 thank you, please keep on standing.
• 26:26 I wanna keep the old friends and make some new ones.
• 26:28 And why is that?
• 26:30 Because, like the nice lady said,
• 26:32 it's expensive to get the story out.
• 26:34 We work on various networks and there's expenses associated with
• 26:38 making it all happen.
• 26:40 I hope you love it, your kids love it too.
• 26:42 The next generation needs to be captured by the story and we
• 26:46 like doing it visually, not just materially with words.
• 26:49 Kirsten: And we will carry on with this program,
• 26:51 "Our Jewish Roots."
• 26:53 We have so much more to bring you in 2020.
• 26:56 Watch us here on your television program or on your computer.
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• 27:02 If nothing else, levitt.com, you can find more information.
• 27:06 Jeffrey: Yes, and when you watch us,
• 27:08 let's do it again next week.
• 27:10 As you go now, shaalu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:13 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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• 28:04 ♪♪♪
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