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Caption transcript for In The Footsteps of The Rabbi From Tarsus (2020): “A Message for All Peoples” (2/8)

• 00:01 ...
• 00:02 male announcer: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots,"
• 00:05 with insightful Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffery Seif.
• 00:08 This week, the church in Antioch commissions Paul and Barnabas,
• 00:12 as we follow in the footsteps of the rabbi from Tarsus.
• 00:15 ♪♪♪
• 00:25 ♪♪♪
• 00:35 ♪♪♪
• 00:45 ♪♪♪
• 00:55 ♪♪♪
• 01:05 ♪♪♪
• 01:15 ♪♪♪
• 01:17 David Hart: We are so glad you've joined us today,
• 01:18 I'm David Hart.
• 01:19 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:21 Dr. Jeffery Seif: And I am Jeffery Seif,
• 01:22 and we are on a journey together with Rabbi Paul.
• 01:26 Kirsten: And his journey is interesting.
• 01:28 We know about the conversion, but then he goes back home
• 01:31 and is kind of quiet for a little bit.
• 01:32 Jeffery: Ten years we don't know anything about him, really.
• 01:35 There's very little said about Paul, but like you lighted up,
• 01:38 ten years in the darkness, and he's called out
• 01:41 fortuitously, providentially.
• 01:43 Kirsten: He found a friend.
• 01:45 He had a friend, a confidant there.
• 01:46 Jeffery: Yes, Barnabas believed in him.
• 01:48 Many didn't, as you know, and the rest is history.
• 01:52 Jeffery: Luke tells us there was a great persecution,
• 01:55 that Paul was part of it.
• 01:57 Luke tells us as well that good things happen as these disciples
• 02:00 had to hit the road, strange as that might sound.
• 02:04 They were dispossessed, they had to move on, they lost property,
• 02:07 friendship networks, and off they went to points, east, and
• 02:12 west, and north, and the question is, can God bring
• 02:15 something marvelous out of the miseries?
• 02:17 The answer is yes.
• 02:19 Luke tells us that up in a northern city called Antioch,
• 02:24 the gospel spread with the movement of these believers.
• 02:26 There were difficulties notwithstanding talking about
• 02:28 what God was doing in the world, beginning in Jerusalem.
• 02:31 The net result is that their revival fires get started and
• 02:35 they get flamed, and something special is happening, so much so
• 02:39 that word gets back to Jerusalem of the good news amongst the
• 02:43 Jews and non-Jews in Antioch Proper.
• 02:46 They send someone to go check it out,
• 02:48 and that person's name was Barnabas.
• 02:50 And that man was amazed what God was doing.
• 02:54 He knew of someone not far away in Tarsus named Paul.
• 02:57 He'd been there the better part of ten years now, seemed to have
• 03:00 been on the backwaters, if you will, but God was just using him
• 03:04 out there and preparing him for his future.
• 03:07 Well, his future was going to arrive alright,
• 03:09 when he arrived in Antioch.
• 03:11 And he came, and he ministered, and this is gonna be the
• 03:14 beginning of new days for Paul, and there'll be a new dawn
• 03:18 for the church.
• 03:19 As we walk in the footsteps of the rabbi from Tarsus, we see
• 03:22 how it's from Antioch Proper where he starts to get sent out,
• 03:27 and that sending is a story certainly worth tending to,
• 03:30 is it not?
• 03:33 It's a good story.
• 03:35 Rather than just talk about the Bible,
• 03:36 let's hear from the Bible.
• 03:38 If you'll look please in Acts chapter 11 verse 26, we're told,
• 03:45 "And when he," that is Barnabas, "Found him," that is Saul or
• 03:49 Paul, that, "He brought him to Antioch.
• 03:53 So, it was that for a whole year that they assembled with the
• 03:57 church, and they taught a great many people."
• 04:00 And then he says something interesting
• 04:02 that's very revealing.
• 04:03 He said, "And the disciples were first called Christians
• 04:07 in Antioch."
• 04:09 That, for me, is interesting for a few reasons.
• 04:11 One, the Jewish believers in Yeshua and Jesus
• 04:14 weren't called Christians initially.
• 04:17 The term "Nazarene" was employed, you know, just Jewish
• 04:21 believers would have worked, they were referred
• 04:22 to as The Way.
• 04:24 There were different names, but the title name Christian was
• 04:28 imposed upon them by outsiders who saw the movement beyond
• 04:33 Judea and said these are Christ-like people, individuals
• 04:36 that are trying to imitate this Messiah, and so they called them
• 04:40 Christians first there.
• 04:44 What, for me, is amazing is what the first Christians did, and
• 04:50 would those who walked the road in subsequent generations did
• 04:55 the same, I would indeed be a happy camper.
• 04:58 Do you know what the first followers of Jesus did,
• 05:02 those named Christians here in the literature?
• 05:05 Let's consider the story as it moves on.
• 05:09 In verse 27, we're told that, "In those days prophets came
• 05:13 from Jerusalem to Antioch."
• 05:16 By the way, this shows a linkage between the Messianic movement
• 05:20 headquartered in Jerusalem and this daughter movement
• 05:24 in Antioch Proper.
• 05:26 There's some kind of relationship.
• 05:27 Today, were there relationships between the church at large and
• 05:31 the Messianic work in Jerusalem, I would be thrilled by that.
• 05:35 Well, here you see there was, there's connectedness.
• 05:38 "Then one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the
• 05:41 Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout the
• 05:43 world," appended to which Luke says, "And this also happened in
• 05:47 the days of Claudius Caesar."
• 05:50 Interestingly, it was this same Claudius who kicked
• 05:53 all the Jews out of Rome.
• 05:55 We know this from the historical records as well as Acts 18 in
• 05:59 the very beginning, that Claudius kicked all the Jews
• 06:02 out, and it seems that, you know, he is unkind toward the
• 06:05 Jews, and then God sends famine in his realm.
• 06:09 Wonder if there isn't a subtle point here that if you bless
• 06:12 those people, you'll be blessed, you curse those people,
• 06:16 you'll be cursed.
• 06:18 I think it is a little subtle, actually, not so subtle, because
• 06:20 in conjunction with this, in the wake of there being news about
• 06:26 trouble dawning in Judea, these individuals referred to as
• 06:33 Christians are beckoned to marshal their resources together
• 06:37 to help the Jewish believers, to help Jews in Judea.
• 06:43 Now, my question is, where on God's earth
• 06:47 is that spirit today?
• 06:49 Trouble in Israel, Christians marshaling resources
• 06:53 to be of assistance.
• 06:55 It seems to me that we get the direct opposite today.
• 06:59 There's trouble in Israel, and it seems that Christians,
• 07:03 certainly mainline denominations, just get in line.
• 07:06 They jockey for position to see who can condemn
• 07:09 the Jews the most, who can make it as difficult
• 07:13 for the Jews as possible.
• 07:15 They seem to compete for that prize.
• 07:17 That's not the spirit here.
• 07:18 It seems that those who were first called Christians in
• 07:22 Antioch, that they were instructed to be of assistance
• 07:26 to the Jewish folk in Jerusalem.
• 07:29 It's a great story, isn't it?
• 07:31 Well, Paul and Barnabas go down there with aid that was gathered
• 07:36 together in Antioch, and they make their way to Jerusalem.
• 07:39 They deliver that package, and then they make their way back to
• 07:42 Antioch, and it's from there then that God's going to bless
• 07:45 them and send them to points.
• 07:49 As we follow on Paul, we see how he makes his way out
• 07:51 into the Greco-Roman world.
• 07:53 And we'll follow him, of course, as we walk in the footsteps
• 07:56 of this rabbi from Tarsus.
• 08:03 male announcer: Our resource this week, the Hebrew Names
• 08:06 of God Cards.
• 08:08 This collection includes 12 vibrant, high-quality art cards,
• 08:12 each with Old and New Testament connections on the back, with
• 08:15 Scripture and beautifully written devotionals.
• 08:18 These art cards can be used for personal reflection, group
• 08:22 discussion, or as a beautiful gift for your friend or pastor.
• 08:26 For this resource and more, call 1-800-WONDERS
• 08:30 or visit us at levitt.com.
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• 09:00 Greece and Ephesus.
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• 09:09 David: If you're not connected with us on social
• 09:10 media, we have to say that you're missing out
• 09:13 on a lot with this ministry.
• 09:16 Kirsten: We are so thankful to all of you for your support,
• 09:19 both on social media and following us, but also your
• 09:22 support of this program.
• 09:24 In Hebrew, thank you is "toda," so we would like to personally
• 09:27 say toda to all of you for making all of this possible, and
• 09:32 Dr. Seif's teaching in Israel and across the Mediterranean
• 09:36 because of you and your helping us financially, we are able to
• 09:41 bring teaching from the Holy Land and actually in the
• 09:45 Mediterranean itself, right?
• 09:47 David: Right now, Dr. Seif is literally standing in the
• 09:51 Mediterranean Sea.
• 09:52 Let's go there now.
• 09:55 Jeffery: Enthusiasm comes from the Greek "entheos,"
• 09:59 and it means in God.
• 10:00 And you can bet that the rabbi from Tarsus was bristling with
• 10:05 enthusiasm, and he'd need it, too.
• 10:08 He'd call upon that in God, that sense of inspiration.
• 10:12 Inspiritus means to breathe the spirit in.
• 10:15 He needed it, too, because trials awaited him as this man
• 10:19 traveled over land, as he went by sea, as he endured shipwreck,
• 10:25 as the hazards of the journey impinged upon him
• 10:28 many ways, many days.
• 10:30 But onward he went, braving all the difficulties associated with
• 10:35 the journey, and why is that?
• 10:37 Because the rabbi from Tarsus was a man with a mission, that
• 10:42 they may know the Messiah of Israel
• 10:46 in the world beyond Israel.
• 10:48 He was called, destined from the womb, to be proactive in telling
• 10:54 the greatest story ever told to the people that never heard the
• 10:57 story, and off he went, commissioned from Antioch
• 11:02 with his road buddy, Barnabas.
• 11:04 He ventures westward.
• 11:06 He will go from Antioch to Seleucia, and there, he'll hop
• 11:10 on the waters of the Holy Land, and he will ride atop the waves
• 11:14 and make his way to Cyprus.
• 11:17 First Salamis, and then over land from Salamis, he will make
• 11:21 his way to Paphos, and from there, he will make his way
• 11:24 onto the Asia Minor mainland and go north.
• 11:29 He'll go up to Antioch of Pisidia, he'll leave there
• 11:32 and he will turn east.
• 11:34 He will go to Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, turn around.
• 11:38 This was a man that was not to be stopped.
• 11:42 He had a story to tell.
• 11:45 I want to look at his story in a moment, but I want you to
• 11:47 consider something of the storyteller.
• 11:49 For Luke tells us in Acts in the 13th chapter that Paul,
• 11:54 who had a vision for the world, came from a church
• 11:58 that was constituted by people from the world.
• 12:01 If you'll look in chapter 13 verse 1, you'll see there were
• 12:04 prophets and teachers in Antioch Proper.
• 12:07 We learn of certainly Barnabas was there.
• 12:10 There's a fellow, Simeon, who was called Niger.
• 12:14 Why was he called Niger?
• 12:16 It's a Latin term for black, he was a black brother.
• 12:18 He was there.
• 12:20 We're told that Lucius of Cyrene was there.
• 12:22 Cyrene was a major city in northern Africa.
• 12:25 These weren't all Messianic Jews from Judea.
• 12:28 Paul was in a church that was made up of different people from
• 12:30 different parts of the world.
• 12:32 And it's not coincidental that Paul's going to get a vision.
• 12:36 Hey, you know, maybe we can take this story of a multi-cultural
• 12:40 church and export this thing.
• 12:43 See, he got it.
• 12:45 He developed in that personally, socially, spiritually.
• 12:48 We see here there was a fellow, "Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who
• 12:52 had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch."
• 12:54 He was a rich guy.
• 12:55 In this church, there were rich and not so rich.
• 12:58 There were black, there was white, if you will.
• 13:00 It's a cosmopolitan group.
• 13:02 Paul learned to appreciate different people.
• 13:05 He learned what a fellowship looked like when it was made up
• 13:07 of people that didn't look alike.
• 13:09 And so, what he does is, he leaves the land, he goes to the
• 13:12 sea, he gets off the sea, he goes up on dry land,
• 13:16 and he tells the story of a Messiah who came for all,
• 13:21 and indeed what a story it is.
• 13:23 We're gonna look at it in a second.
• 13:24 Paul had a vision for a fellowship.
• 13:28 A bunch of fellows in the same ship rowing together,
• 13:30 all sorts of people.
• 13:32 No one had that vision, but Paul did, and he exported it
• 13:36 everywhere that he went.
• 13:39 The image of a ship.
• 13:41 Today in language we think of fellowship,
• 13:43 partnership, relationship.
• 13:45 There's a lot of shipping going on.
• 13:47 People working together to get the better of the waves,
• 13:50 to move on top of it.
• 13:52 Paul saw that's what God was up to in the world,
• 13:54 and he broadcast that story.
• 13:56 In the 13th chapter of Acts, Paul makes his way
• 14:00 to Antioch of Pisidia.
• 14:02 As his custom was, he goes into the synagogue.
• 14:05 We'll see in verse 14, he went there and he sat down.
• 14:10 The rulers of the house, the leaders of the house saw that he
• 14:13 was a man of renowned, a Jewish scholar, and they asked him to
• 14:16 come up and share, and he does.
• 14:18 We're told in verse 16 that, you know, in the wake of his
• 14:21 invitation, he stands up, he motions, "Men of Israel, and you
• 14:25 who fear God listen."
• 14:26 Now, when he says, "You who fear God," he's not talking just
• 14:29 generally about individuals who were reverential toward God.
• 14:33 God fearers is a term for individuals of non-Jewish
• 14:36 extract who want to participate with the Jewish people.
• 14:40 It's interesting, the apostle to the Gentiles found his Gentiles
• 14:43 in synagogues.
• 14:45 They were half-baked Jews.
• 14:46 Paul says, "Men of Israel, and you grafted in sorts,
• 14:50 listen to me," and he goes on and tells a story.
• 14:52 He preaches the Biblical story, the Old Testament story
• 14:56 with a Christological gloss, with an emphasis on Messiah.
• 15:01 The net result is, there's a stir.
• 15:04 People say, "Well, the Jews kicked him out."
• 15:05 Yeah, but that's a little overstated.
• 15:07 Yes, Jewish authorities got angry, but the reason why they
• 15:10 got angry is because a lot of the Jewish folk were following.
• 15:13 It's overly simplistic to say all the Jews rejected him,
• 15:15 they didn't.
• 15:16 If you'll look in verse 42, same chapter, we're told, "The Jews
• 15:20 went out of the synagogue, and the Gentiles begged that these
• 15:23 words might be preached to them the next Sabbath."
• 15:26 Hey, the Jews and the Gentiles likely said, "Come on back,
• 15:29 Paul, we're hungry, we wanna hear this."
• 15:33 But in the meantime, Luke tells us, "When the congregation had
• 15:36 broken, many of the Judeans, devout proselytes,
• 15:39 followed Paul and Barnabas."
• 15:42 And their so doing invoked the ire of the powers that be who
• 15:45 would then stir it up.
• 15:47 What Luke shows in Paul's journeys is that the apostle to
• 15:50 the Gentiles always went to the Jews first.
• 15:55 What happens then?
• 15:57 He ministers, there are some Jews that accept,
• 15:59 some Jews don't.
• 16:00 There's a stirring up, there's an upset, and he moves on.
• 16:03 The apostle to the Gentiles always went to the Jews.
• 16:06 That's why he says in Romans, "I am not ashamed of the gospel,
• 16:08 it is the power of God for salvation to all men, to the Jew
• 16:11 first, and also to the Greek."
• 16:12 Tell me, where is that Jew first today?
• 16:16 What we wanna do is look at the Bible from a Jewish perspective
• 16:18 and let the Jewish people know that the Messiah has come, and
• 16:21 let the Christian people develop a love for the Jews.
• 16:25 This we get from Paul.
• 16:26 We see it everywhere he goes, and we'll continue to explore it
• 16:30 as we walk in the footsteps of the rabbi from Tarsus.
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• 16:53 Jeffery: It seems that in Jerusalem Proper, and proximity
• 16:56 to the temple, there were porches round about, and one of
• 16:59 which we're told that the believers met.
• 17:01 It was a place called Solomon's Portico, and there they would
• 17:04 teach, and discuss the issues of the day, and there was a whole
• 17:07 lot of discussion going on about a lot of things.
• 17:10 Principle among them was the question what on God's earth is
• 17:15 the rabbi from Tarsus doing?
• 17:19 Word had spread of his ministry to individuals of non-Jewish
• 17:23 extract, and people were disconcerted.
• 17:27 Prior to this time, those who followed Jesus
• 17:29 were Jewish people.
• 17:31 They were women and men of Jewish extract who lived
• 17:33 and functioned as Jews.
• 17:35 They were Jewish people who were for Jesus, but what now?
• 17:39 Women and men of non-Jewish extract were coming in,
• 17:43 but the question is what do we do with them?
• 17:45 There was a large segment that said, "Well, they must need to
• 17:47 be assimilated into the community," and the way they do
• 17:50 that is they would become Jews, too, and this would entail
• 17:53 circumcision, Kosher dietary laws, and other things.
• 17:57 Well, Paul said, "Hey, listen, I didn't have them sign on the
• 18:01 dotted line for that."
• 18:03 Paul said, "That's not what I advocated for."
• 18:06 Paul was big enough and bold enough to cast a vision that
• 18:09 this Jesus was for-- all the people--
• 18:14 and women and men of non-Jewish extract who came into the
• 18:17 movement vis a vi the agency of the Ruach-- the Holy Spirit,
• 18:21 that they didn't need to become Jewish people
• 18:23 in order to be good Christians.
• 18:25 Well, no one had yet to advocate for this, and for Paul's doing
• 18:29 so, he got in trouble.
• 18:33 You know, good news moves fast, bad news can be supersonic, and
• 18:39 word got back to Jerusalem that Paul was up to no good,
• 18:44 and they cried foul.
• 18:48 What are we gonna do?
• 18:49 Did you know that there is confusion, typically, at the
• 18:53 borders of knowledge?
• 18:54 Did you know that people who innovate also confront in the
• 18:58 process of their so doing?
• 19:00 And so, the net result is that right at the borders
• 19:03 of knowledge there can be chaos and confusion.
• 19:07 It's all part of growing, and why is that?
• 19:10 Because people are forced to think new thoughts,
• 19:13 to expand their horizon, see things in new ways.
• 19:16 It's not always comfortable, but it is what the cost
• 19:20 of growth is all about.
• 19:22 I like to lift weights in a gym, and there's an old saying there,
• 19:25 "No pain, no gain."
• 19:28 When I'm running, I think of it.
• 19:30 When I get under the barbells, I think of it, that what it is, is
• 19:32 sometimes you have to struggle in order to get into the future.
• 19:37 Paul experienced that.
• 19:38 What happened is, Paul finishes that first missionary journey,
• 19:43 and he's in Antioch Proper, and then word is sent to their
• 19:47 brethren in Jerusalem, they're advocating that Paul is in big
• 19:51 trouble, and why is that?
• 19:54 Because he's teaching new things.
• 19:56 And Paul gets called to the carpet.
• 20:00 This issue, the issue of what to do with non-Jews who have become
• 20:04 followers of Jesus, this issue was so big, it took, in effect,
• 20:08 the full ecclesiastical counsel in order to deal with it.
• 20:11 It was not a petty issue, it was indeed significant.
• 20:15 Today, by the way, the shoe is on the other foot.
• 20:17 Back then, the church was all Jewish, and when non-Jews were
• 20:23 coming in, they're wondering, "Well, what do we do with them?"
• 20:24 Today, the church in many respects is not constituted by
• 20:27 Jewish people like yesterday, and now the question is,
• 20:30 "Well, what's incumbent upon these Jews who come in?"
• 20:33 Well, back then, the issue, as I had said, was what to do with
• 20:35 non-Jews, and it was tense, it was emotional, and Paul made his
• 20:39 way to Jerusalem, he faced the crowd, and he advocated at this
• 20:43 first counsel of Jerusalem where the early believers got together
• 20:47 to weigh in on the issue of what will be incumbent upon women and
• 20:51 men of non-Jewish extract who want to follow Jesus.
• 20:55 Let's see what he had to say.
• 21:00 Well, it was a mess all right.
• 21:02 The rabbi from Tarsus really stirred it up.
• 21:07 They all had to get together, and I love the way
• 21:10 that Luke describes.
• 21:12 He lists the premier characters.
• 21:16 In Acts chapter 15 verse 6, he says that the "Apostles
• 21:21 and the elders came together."
• 21:23 The apostles, these are the sent ones, these are the premier
• 21:27 leaders and advocates for the movement.
• 21:30 The elders comes from the Hebrew "zaqan," the bearded ones.
• 21:33 This is a gathering of the men of renowned, and they gather
• 21:37 together to slug it out.
• 21:40 We're told in verse 6, "They came together to consider,"
• 21:43 and in verse 7 that there was, "Much dispute."
• 21:49 They couldn't come to terms with the question
• 21:52 what to do with you.
• 21:56 This Jewish movement was wondering what should we require
• 22:00 of women and men of non-Jewish extract, and they slugged it
• 22:04 out, back and forth, back and forth.
• 22:07 And then we're told in verse 7 though that Peter rose up.
• 22:10 Now, that's good to see.
• 22:13 Peter had a problem with being a bit sheepish.
• 22:15 He tended to crater under pressure, but now he's got a
• 22:18 little bit of chutzpah, a little bit of umph, some guts,
• 22:21 and he should stand up, because Peter ought to know.
• 22:24 Because previously in Acts, the Lord led Peter to Cornelius,
• 22:29 someone from Italy.
• 22:30 He was a centurion who was there in Caesarea Maritima,
• 22:37 and Peter is sent to him, and he comes to faith.
• 22:40 So, Peter should know that God is on the move into hearts and
• 22:45 minds beyond Israel Proper.
• 22:48 Well, Peter gets up, and he weighs in on it, and he weighs
• 22:51 in on Paul's side, by the way.
• 22:53 Sometimes they didn't get along, but he's with Paul on this one.
• 22:58 We're told then in verse 12 that, "The multitude kept silent
• 23:01 and they listened now as Barnabas and Paul," it could
• 23:05 have said Paul and Barnabas, because Paul was principle, but
• 23:08 the truth is, is that Barnabas had equity with this group.
• 23:12 He had given them a sizable donation previously,
• 23:15 and he'd lived and dwelt among them, and so they respected
• 23:18 him the more so.
• 23:20 Paul was the big question mark.
• 23:21 He was the controversial figure.
• 23:23 Well, what happens here is, Barnabas and Paul talk about the
• 23:26 signs and wonders, all that God is doing, and then, finally, no
• 23:30 less than Jesus Christ's half-brother stands up.
• 23:36 We're told in verse 13 that Ya'akov, James, is the
• 23:42 anglicized equivalent for Ya'akov, Jesus's brother.
• 23:46 He stands up, he weighs in on the matter saying,
• 23:49 "Men and brethren, listen to me," and what does he advocate
• 23:52 for in verse 19?
• 23:53 He says that we should not put any burdens on these women and
• 23:57 men of non-Jewish extract, and this business tended to, the
• 24:01 church agreed that one needn't be a Jew in order to
• 24:05 be a good follower of Jesus.
• 24:13 David: We are in our second program of Paul's journey,
• 24:16 just the beginning.
• 24:18 There's so much more that's happening in his life,
• 24:19 but really interesting right now what's going on
• 24:22 in his life, where he's at.
• 24:24 Jeffrey: Well, a lot of controversy, and that old boy
• 24:25 certainly stirred it up.
• 24:28 There's always confusion at the borders of knowledge, and he's
• 24:31 doing something new where the Lord's working through him
• 24:33 to break some new ground.
• 24:34 And the question is, what do we do?
• 24:36 They were all Jews initially, but now there are non-Jews.
• 24:38 Do they need to become like us?
• 24:40 And they needed to--they sorted it out.
• 24:42 They needed to fuss, they did.
• 24:43 Kirsten: And they were kind of working on this manual,
• 24:46 so to speak.
• 24:47 What do they do, what do they not do?
• 24:49 What do we hold them accountable, what do we not hold
• 24:50 them accountable?
• 24:52 And I understand, because we're still dealing with that today.
• 24:55 Jeffery: Yeah, church folk fuss today.
• 24:56 They fight over what are the rules,
• 24:58 how are we to do this thing.
• 24:59 That was at play back then.
• 25:01 Paul came on the side of liberating
• 25:04 and freeing people up.
• 25:05 In other words, he didn't make Gentiles become Jewish,
• 25:08 he didn't make Jewish become Gentile, you know,
• 25:11 [foreign language]
• 25:13 we need a little liberty here to be who we are.
• 25:15 Kirsten: And, unfortunately, we see this in the church all
• 25:17 the time, where church people, you've been a minister of music
• 25:20 for so many years.
• 25:22 When someone new comes in, we want to change 'em up.
• 25:25 We almost don't like the package, so, you know, here are
• 25:28 these Jewish followers of Messiah, we don't almost want
• 25:31 the Gentiles in because they're so different
• 25:34 in what they believe.
• 25:35 Someone comes into our church, and they look different, or they
• 25:38 act different, or they talk different, and we're thinking,
• 25:41 "What do we do with them?"
• 25:42 We want to make them just like us.
• 25:44 Jeffery: You know, and that's what I appreciate about you,
• 25:47 that is to say we're different.
• 25:51 This isn't your garden-variety church program, you know.
• 25:53 We're all about the good news through the eyes of the Jews.
• 25:56 And people say, "You don't need to become like us, we want to
• 26:00 get behind you the way that you are," and it's different,
• 26:04 and I appreciate that.
• 26:06 But frankly, it's hard to find a friend sometimes, because we are
• 26:09 different, and it's doubly hard to find a dollar.
• 26:12 That's why I appreciate those of you that get behind us.
• 26:16 We are like everyone in the sense we've accepted the Lord.
• 26:18 I've accepted Jesus, but a little different because we
• 26:21 still have feet, and hearts, and heads in Jewish culture.
• 26:25 Thank you for finding value in what we do and helping us do it.
• 26:31 We go all over the world.
• 26:32 Paul's not the only one traveling, we're trying to keep
• 26:34 up with him as we travel around the Mediterranean world.
• 26:37 And thank you, it doesn't come on the cheap to go make these
• 26:40 stories, never mind tell 'em globally through the miracle
• 26:43 that is television.
• 26:45 Thanks for helping make the miracle come true and supporting
• 26:47 those of us that are a little different, like us.
• 26:50 David: Right, the stories that we bring our viewers,
• 26:53 they're olden-day Scripture out of the Bible,
• 26:57 but they're for us.
• 26:58 Kirsten: And they relate to today.
• 27:00 David: Right, so much more on Paul coming up.
• 27:02 I can't wait to hear about his life.
• 27:05 Jeffery: We'll have to hear about it next week,
• 27:07 unfortunately, time's up.
• 27:09 As you go now, Sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:13 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:17 announcer: Join us right now for additional content that is
• 27:19 only available on our social media sites, Facebook,
• 27:23 YouTube, and Twitter.
• 27:25 Visit our website, levitt.com, for the current and past
• 27:28 programs, the television schedule, tour information,
• 27:32 and our free, monthly newsletter which is full of insightful
• 27:35 articles and news commentary.
• 27:37 View it online or we can ship it directly
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• 27:42 Also on our website is the online store.
• 27:45 There, you can order this week's resource, or you can always give
• 27:48 us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
• 27:52 Your donations to "Our Jewish Roots" help us to support these
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• 27:58 Please remember we depend on tax-deductible donations
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• 28:25 announcer: This has been a paid program brought to you
• 28:27 by Zola Levitt Ministries.