We are approaching a time when our minds should be centered on the words and deeds of the Messiah. We are called upon to examine our lives in preparation for the Passover. Are we living the way the Lord want us to live? In most Passover celebrations, we ignore or give brief mention to Yeshua’s betrayal at the hands of Judas Iscariot, one of His own Apostles. The bible tells us that Yeshua was glorified by this act, yet many in the Christian church heap lots of condemnation on Judas for what he did.
Category: Apostolic Writings
These studies cover the writings by the closest shelakhim (apostles) of Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ). Commonly called the “New Testament,” this standard canon includes the four Gospels, the letters and the Apocalypse (Revelation).
This section of 2nd Samuel is the “second witness” of the veracity of the gospel authors and their testimony of Yeshua’s life, death and resurrection. As Yeshua told the pharisees in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” These Scriptures Yeshua calls the Pharisees to re-examine are the TaNaKh (Torah, Prophets and Writings). He tells them — and us — that the entire TaNaKh give us His story.
Yeshua proclaims from the Scriptures that He is the fulfillment of messianic prophecy in Isa. 61:1-2. Yet the people of His hometown demand more signs and reject His proclamation.
A medieval polemic against Christianity faulted Luke for a “garbled,” deceptively shortened quotation of Isaiah 61. How valid is that claim?
In this next chapter, Yeshua travels away from His anointing at His baptism and is sent “by the Spirit” to the wilderness to suffer temptation at the hands of the Adversary. These temptations, His reaction to them and how He overcame them were a crucial training ground to prepare Him for His final mission of crucifixion and resurrection.
The importance of linking the last Adam to the “first Adam” is emphasized through the two genealogies of Yeshua (Luke 3:23–38). Some skeptics try to use the “telescoping” nature of Matthew’s genealogy for Yeshua, which skips generations to emphasize three groups of 14 generations, as the basis for saying that the genealogies of the first people in Genesis 5 and 11 also are telescoped, thus allowing for many, many more generations and vast amounts of time in history. However, unlike the genealogies in Genesis, these do not have specific ages when one generation “begat,” or “fathered,” the next, with Luke linking each name with just the Greek equivalent for “of.” And the three groups of generations in Matthew seem to represent four periods in God’s working in history to correct the sin of the first Adam with the obedience, sacrifice and deliverance of the last Adam.
Those of us in the Messianic community have excitedly embraced the Passover and “gone back to our roots” as a commemoration of the Exodus. However, many Messianics forget that Yeshua did ask us to add something new to the celebration in commemoration of Him: foot washing. Richard explains why Yeshua insituted this ceremony and how it turned the disciples hearts away from themselves and closer to Him.
https://hallel.info/wp-content/uploads/file/110212-Luke-3vv21-22-baptism-of-Yeshua.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:17 — 7.9MB)Subscribe: RSSWe are looking Yeshua’s baptism experience with Yochanan the Immerser as recalled in all four gospels. The fact that this story is repeated in all four gospels tells us that this part of Yeshua’s biography was of utmost importance to the Apostles. The Holy […]