What Is Your Good News? (Part 2)

0:01 At this time, as he makes his way to the stage, I want to pray for Rabbi Ari as he brings forth the message today. Got you. Father, we thank you for your goodness and your mercy. We thank you for your loving kindness, even as we see from generation to generation that you continue to strengthen the Walman family. Father, I pray that your favorite would be upon him this morning, all that he has studied, all that you have put on his heart, that you would give him the clarity of speech and of thought to proclaim your good news. Father, I pray that you would use him mightily as you have done in the past and as you promised to do in the mighty name of Yeshua.

0:48 Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Marcus. As I've done for 491 days, I'll continue to give hopefully a brief update. Uh, if, if you haven't been paying to the paying attention to any news this week, you have been blessed. Uh, if you have been paying attention, uh, you perhaps heard an announcement that President Trump said the United States of America was going to take responsibility, uh, for clearing the land of Gaza and making Gaza the Riviera of the Middle East.

1:37 You can have mixed reactions. It's totally, it's a permissible thing to have mixed reactions, by the way. Uh, some of you should be going, oh, no, and some of you should be going, well, that's an interesting thought, by the way. I use the term interesting in a variety of ways. Interesting. I use the word interesting almost like it's a Hebrew word, and that you have to understand the context that is being said to understand the way I'm using Interesting at the moment. Anyways, what an interesting thought. I do think I, I, I recently subscribed, uh,

2:24 to a a, a new to me news report that that sends me news updates twice a week. And they included in this, uh, in this report, uh, this request for prayer, which I think is a valid request, uh, concerning the future of the Middle East. Join us in prayer for wise leadership and long-term peace, trusting no matter how complex the conflict that God is able to spread across, across the globe, the peace that he has given to those who trust in him, you can find that's rooted in Isaiah chapter 26, verse three.

3:13 You can continue to pray all day every day for the wisdom of the Lord to be poured out upon the leaders of political nations in the world. Because the reality is, the situation in Gaza is not simple. It's not easy to solve. If it was easy to solve, somebody would've done it already. 491 days today, three more hostages were released. Three men.

4:01 This brings the count to, if my, if my memory is serving me correct to 21, have been released as a part of this phase one deal. Uh, the, the total number that we're going to be re released are 33, and we have been informed that eight of those 33 are not living. And so that means there are 12, just this is simple math. There are 12 left to be released. Eight of them are not alive. Uh, but there will still be, uh, an exchange of prisoners for those. Uh, I just thought, I haven't done this before, but I thought I would give you just a brief snippet of each

4:48 of these hostages who were released today. Uh, Ohad bin Ami, uh, was kidnapped on October 7th. He's 56 years old. He was at Kibbutz Ri. His wife Raz was also kidnapped on October 7th, and she was released in the brief ceasefire back in November, 2023. Ellie Sharabi was also from Kibbutz Berry, uh, and he's 52 years old. His wife and daughters were brutally murdered by Hamas on October 7th. He and his brother Yossi were kidnapped on October 7th. Yossi is confirmed dead, but his body is being held hostage.

5:36 The third or Levy was kidnapped from I, I got two different, two different, uh, reports from near the Nova Festival or from the Nova Festival. So in either regard, he was, some was somewhere nearby, whether he was at the Nova Festival or not. Uh, his wife, a nav was murdered on October 7th, uh, oh, by the way, or is 34 years old. Their 3-year-old son has been cared for by his grandparents for the last 491 days. There is still no, uh, confirmation concerning the, uh, status of Sheri Ariel or Kafi Bibas.

6:24 As I said last week, my concern is that there's no outcry in the world for this innocent family. The husband slash father was released last week. This innocent family was brutally kidnapped and held without their consent for 15 months. Again, they're no different than anybody else who's been held except Arielle and Kafi are children. In fact, these are the only three remaining who are not men, uh, that are being held as hostages. Kafi has lived more of his life as a captive than as a free person.

7:11 Ariel probably doesn't remember what life was like before October 7th. I'm saying that because Ariel is about four years old, and I have a 4-year-old, and he has difficulty remembering his last birthday, which was a year ago, almost a year ago. So to remember, 491 days more than a year is actually probably quite difficult. Maybe some of you. I I I, this is how, partly how I tell time now that I'm a parent. We went for a time period in, in Texas here at Em and around the world where everybody wore a mask, uh, because of Covid.

7:58 My middle daughter doesn't remember life before masks again. She was in that age bracket of about five, five to four to six years old. And that's the same age bracket that Ariel is now. Phase two is still in negotiation there. Beyond the 33 of which 21 have been released, and there are 12 remaining, there are still 76 hostages in captivity being held. By the way, the taking of hostages is a war crime.

8:44 The Article eight of the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court defines hostage taking as a war crime. Furthermore, in accordance with Article seven, the taking of hostages as part of an armed conflict may be also considered a crime against humanity. And in this case, these hostages are both, or the perpetrators are both war criminals and have committed crimes against humanity. And the international criminal court had the gall to sanction and to issue arrest warrants for crimes against humanity and for war crimes against the Prime Minister of Israel, and against, uh, what was he, the former defense minister of Israel.

9:34 And in that same action, so they could be justified in doing it, they issued, uh, if my memory serves me correct, uh, a warrant against Cir, uh, who was already dead. And so it seems as if to me, the international criminal Court as no care for these Jewish lives and non-Jewish lives that continue to be threatened as they remain in captivity. We're going to continue. It's always difficult making the bridge from the, from the news to, uh, the scripture.

10:22 But that being said, it is quite fascinating to me that the news today actually reflects scripture that is more than 2000 years old. And we're beginning to see what it mean, what, what the prophetic writings meant when they were written, what they actually look like in our case today. Uh, it's quite interesting. So I have entitled this message like I did last week. What is your good news? Part two,

11:10 as a recap, last week, we talked about Barnabas and Paul being commissioned by the, the congregation in Antioch and then sent out, and they, uh, in that process, they, they, they sailed across a little bit of part of the Mediterranean. Do you guys mind popping, uh, my mirror screen up for me? Thank you. They, they sailed across. Here we go. They sailed here across a little bit of the Mediterranean. They sailed to Cyprus. They walked around, uh, or walked through Cyprus. In this process, they came into conflict with a false profit, uh, is what Luke tells us, uh, named Barr,

11:57 Yeshua, uh, or also known as Elmos. And then they made a connection with Serius Paulis, who was the pro consul, uh, in of the island. He was basically, if I can call it the governor. He was the governor of, uh, the governor of Cyprus, and he was located in fuss. And so there in fuss, we have an interesting discussion going on. He calls up Paul and Barnabas, uh, and says, uh, I want to hear about this good news that you have. And Paul starts to share with him. And, and Bar Yeshua or Elmi is, is on the other side of Sergio. Uh, Paul is arguing, going back

12:42 and forth saying, this is, this is not true in, in presenting a different opinion. So we know what happened in the text last week, and, and we'll continue, uh, in this week's text. By the way, I'm gonna leave the map up there because we're gonna keep going through. This week also contains a travel log. So we are here in Acts chapter 13 this week we'll be covering verses 13 through 25. I'll read the, the full text, and then, uh, we'll come back and, and go section by section. But I, I also want to prepare you that what we have arbitrarily divided at at verse 25 is actually not the end of the story. In fact, it's not even the end of Paul's speech.

13:30 I cut it right in the middle because last week I had difficulty making it in under an hour. Maybe I didn't make it in under an hour, and I only had 12 verses. Can you imagine what 25 verses would do? So we cut it and we'll, we will finish. We'll finish Paul's speech next week. Uh, just so you understand that when we go week by week, we have to make arbitrary decisions on where to split the text, even though the text doesn't stop. Okay? So here we are in, in Acts 13, starting in verse 13, setting sale from Paphos. Paul's company came to Perga in Paraphilia. John left them and returned to Jerusalem,

14:15 but they passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia entering the synagogue on the Shabbat. They sat down after the reading of the Torah in the prophets, the synagogue leaders sent to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people speak. So Paul standing up and motioning with his hand said, men of Israel and God fearers, listen, the God of this people, Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt and with an outstretched arm. He led them out from there for about 40 years. He put up with them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave their land as an inheritance.

15:01 All of this took about 450 years after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. After removing him, he raised up David to be their king. He also testified about him and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart who will do my will from this man seed and keeping with his promise, God brought to Israel a savior. Yeshua, before his coming, John had proclaimed an immersion of repentance to all the people of Israel. As John was completing his service, he said, what do you, who do you, what do you suppose me to be? I am not he. But behold, one is coming

15:47 after me whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. And that's where we're gonna pause in the speech of Paul. So let's start in this first section. They're continuing their journey from Paphos to Perga. So let's hold on. Let me grab my right pin here. We're here on the island of Cyprus. PAOs, again is here on the western side of the island. And they catch a, a boat up to Perga of Paraphilia, which is, you follow this line up here. And then the text says that John left them and went back to Jerusalem.

16:34 So you'll see there's a, there's a green line that just goes like this and goes back to Jerusalem. So there's a, there's a couple questions that we should ask. First of all, why did John leave? We're not, we're not told in this text why John left. We're told later that there was a disagreement that arose, or, or, or that there was something that was going on. And, and, and John just said, I'm out. And he left. Barnabas takes one side, and Paul takes another. We'll get to that point probably this summer, uh, that text,

17:20 it's toward the end of Acts 15, uh, or beginning of 16, somewhere right in there. But John goes back to Jerusalem. Well, it's interesting. So either you come up with two, two different ways of what, uh, of something that happened. Either there was no shipping vessel from Paphos to Jerusalem, which would've stopped in Caesarea, which then made him go up to Perga and come back. Or something happened on the trip from fuss to Perga that caused John to go back to Jerusalem. Those are about about your only two options, because if he could have caught a boat from fuss, and that's where he felt like he needed to leave,

18:05 then he would've caught a boat and left instead of going up to Perga and then leaving from Perga. But the question even beyond this is why did they go to Perga? And then actually, Perga is just an, it's a stop over. It doesn't even say, the text here doesn't even tell us that they stopped and went into the synagogue in Perga. It just said that they continued on to Antioch of Pisidia. By the way, they do stop and perga on the way back, uh, in the synagogue. So why Antioch Pisidia? So Antioch Pisidia is, is right up here. So it's Antioch. And the reason it's called, it's Antioch Sidia, it's the same reason why you have Simon Peter,

18:53 and you have, uh, Simon, the sorcerer. You have all of these different designators to distinguish between two different places. This is now the second time Antioch is mentioned, but this is a different Antioch. This is an Antioch in the region, or county or state, however you want to call it, of, of Pisidia. And it's right up there, and you have to make this trek. Let's see, I think I have a, yeah, you have to make this trek right here through these mountains. Uh, it, it's, it's about a weak travel, from what I understand, going up and down in and out of the mountains, uh, on foot probably. But why are they going to Antioch Sidia? It seems like they're, they're going pretty directly from

19:40 Paphos to Antioch Pisidia. So I mentioned last week that the records of the pro consoles of Cyprus are incomplete. In fact, it's, they have one for every six that served. And Serius polls is never mentioned in, in the rec in the records of pro consoles. However, there is a record of a Lucius Serius polls. Don't worry, I'm, I'm going somewhere with this. Uh, who was a curator of the Tyers Banks. So the Tiber River is a river that's in Rome, and a curator is simply the person who's in charge of making sure the banks are clean. Uh, uh, it's the, it's the chief janitor of the river. And, but it's a, it, it's a,

20:29 it's a reasonable promotion that he would've gone from that to the pro cure, uh, the ProCon of Cyprus. It's a reasonable jump in terms of promotion. But what's interesting about this Lucius Serius paulus is that his family, guess where they're from? Antioch Pisidia. And they are one of the top three wealthiest families in Antioch Pisidia. So if Serius Pollis is the same, Sergio, now this is, I'm, I'm, I'm now letting you know, I'm making a jump of theory. If they're the same Serius Paul, it stands to reason that he's gonna have connections in Antioch Sidia. And he says, why don't you go tell my family everything

21:15 that I now believe you see, because someone who comes to this understanding, they don't wanna hold it to themselves. By and large, you find any new believer, and new believers are fantastic. New believers are like, let me at 'em. And it, it, it's, it's kinda like you just point and like let go. And they just, they just go. Some of us who have been believers longer, we like to just mole on things. And, and, and both are, both are good. Neither one is bad, neither one is great. Uh, but the two together work great together. So just think about that. He's excited. He's like, I found this great news.

22:01 I need you to tell my family because I'm here in a governing cypher. So Paul says, sure, we're going that way. Anyways, we might as well, we might as well go to, uh, Antioch. So what is the pattern here in the text? And, and, and I, I pointed the pattern out last week, but before I get to the pattern again, I, I'm gonna hit this pattern basically for the rest of Acts. So you just better get used to hearing the same thing every week for the next year. I don't know how, how much longer we're gonna be in acts, something like that, maybe a little bit more than a year. But who is Paul the Emissary

22:49 or the apostle to, he proclaims himself. This all throughout all of his letters, he is considered. And really anybody who ever teaches church history calls Paul this. Also, he is the apostle to the Gentiles, is quite fascinating to me, actually. He's really the only one who carries that title. There are 12 who are the apostles for Israel, and there is one who is the apostle for the Gentiles. Now, I just, just bear with me for just a minute, Israel,

23:35 the population today, uh, of, of Jewish people compared to the world is something like 0.005% of the world's population or something like that. Like, we're not even 1% of the world, but it takes 12 apostles for us and only one for all of the nations. You can view that in one of two ways. Well, you can view that in several ways. One of them is Jewish people. We're a lot more stubborn, uh, to come to follow the Lord than the nations.

24:23 I don't know, maybe I, I, I think I can speak from, from familial experience. We tend to run, uh, as the Bible. What does the Bible say? We're stiff necked a little bit. So I don't know. Maybe we just need some more, or maybe the mission hasn't grown to the point of the nations yet, which is why there's only one. We're not, no, we're not told in the text. Uh, but maybe this is just the beginning of the growth. So here we have Paul, who's the apostle to the Gentiles, and where does he go first to the synagogue? I just wanna point out, if you're the apostle

25:10 to the Gentiles, the synagogue is probably not the place to start. Like if you're the, if I was trying to think of an equivalency today, and I didn't, couldn't really think of one of, of an appropriate one. But just think about that. If you're the apostle for all of the nations, where are you gonna start? You're probably not gonna start where there's a bunch of Jewish people who are gonna combat you on it anyways. You're probably gonna go start somewhere else. Unless Paul is actually living out a paradigm that he teaches also in Romans chapter one, which is,

25:59 uh, he teaches in Romans one and, and later also. But the gospel is the good news of salvation for the Jews. And then to the Greeks, later we find out, Paul says, uh, I think it's in Romans nine, 10 or 11, I think it's in 11. He says, uh, I magnify my ministry when I go to the Jewish people. You're like, Paul, I don't think you understand the way math works. Like if you're going to a Jewish person, you're getting a Jewish person, not a Gentile. But Paul understood something that is inherent within scripture. And it's not just in the New Testament. It's throughout scripture that the, the Jewish people are called to be a light to the nations.

26:46 This is part of the, the essence of the Jewish people. And when you can win a Jewish person, all of a sudden the the, the reach of the good news is exponentially increased, because now there's two. But you're not just doing one-to-one ministry because there's some math. And y'all bear with me. Math is embedded. Do you know this math is embedded in the Tanah math. I'm a, i I I love math. Some of you're going, I'm just, I'm out now. Math is embedded in the Tanakh. You know how I know this? Because it says that in the days to come,

27:35 there will be how many Gentiles who grab onto the fringe of a Jew to come up and praise the Lord. It's in the book of Zechariah 10. So think about this just mathematically. I'm not talking about, I don't, don't get your head outta the theological clouds for a moment. Just mathematically, bear with me if you have one Jewish person. Now, when that Jewish person comes to faith, it means that there's room, if you can put it that way, for 10 to grab a hold of the, some of your text says, uh, the corners or the, the fringe of the, it's the seats seat. It's this, it's the, it's the corner.

28:21 Uh, the word that's used is, if I remember right, is kav. Uh, it's the corner of the garment. Okay? Y'all want some real hard math. How many corners are there? So if the text says that 10 will grab the corner, then actually, how many are possible? 40. Now y'all are like, oh, man, we're doing real math. I didn't come for a math lesson today. I'm just telling you this. Paul inherently understands that there is a protocol that happens. And when the protocol is followed, the doors open wide for his ministry, and his ministry is to the gentiles, to the nations.

29:11 Here he is at synagogue. When is he at synagogue? On the Shabbat. He's there just like us here. He goes to, he finds to the, the local synagogue, wherever he is. And he's like, lemme go into the synagogue on Shabbat and see what's going on. When Brittany and I, when, when we went on our, on our, on our, uh, sabbatical trip, we tried to find Messianic congregations that we could go into, uh, along our trip every week. One week we, we couldn't find one, but we made it to Zion. Anyways, Zion National Park. But, uh, we went up to Zion on that Shabbat. But anyways, it's this idea of going

29:59 and finding a connection point in a place where you have no connections. There is immediately a connection point in the synagogue. Now, here's the fascinating thing, is we go on in the text, and here it says in the text, let's see, they went to this, the, let's see, hold on. Paul standing up and motioning his hand said, men of Israel and God fears. So now what we have, what Paul has communicated to us, or Luke is communicating to us in the text, is that at the synagogue, it's not just Jews. In fact, it, it would be perhaps something reflective of today, maybe not quite, uh, the same percentages,

30:45 but there were God fears, people from the nations who had come and surrounded, uh, or brought themselves near and believed and followed the God of Israel. But they, the, this is the term God fear. They hadn't made the, the final leap. And, and this is a leap for men. Maybe not so much for women in, in conversion, uh, to Judaism. Because in the conversion to Judaism, men have to undergo a certain procedure that's usually done at eight days, uh, in order to become a part of the Jewish community. So if they didn't do that, they remained on the periphery. And were called God fearers.

31:31 By the way, this is the issue that's going to become more and more prominent and more and more embedded, uh, until we get to Acts 15 and Acts 15. It, it's, we, it, it just changes the paradigm, uh, a little bit. But we're not there yet. We're still in 13. Gotta stand 13. So here we are. Paul's in the synagogue on Shabbat, after reading the Torah and the prophets, the leader asked him, uh, sent word to Paul and Barnabas, if they have a word of encouragement for people, for the people, it seems like a typical service flow. By the way, I just am noting here, they read the Torah, then they read the prophets, and then now there's a time for a word of encouragement.

32:16 Sounds like a pretty typical service. Why did they ask Paul? Could it be, could it be that the synagogue was smaller? And it, and when you go into a smaller synagogue, it is very obvious when someone new walks in, could it be that they recognize someone new? Could it be be that Paul's reputation has preceded him? And what I mean by that is Paul is the number one student of Gamliel who is the head or the head teacher of the school of Hillel, which is one of two primary schools, rabbinic schools and Judaism in that, in, in the first century.

33:01 And if he's the number one student, you, you have to believe that he ro rose to prominence. That he became recognizable, that he conducted himself in a particular way. Could it be that? Well, the text doesn't tell us. Paul also tells us, uh, in, in one of his letters, that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. By the way. He doesn't say I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees in the past tense. He says, I am. Which means that Paul never changed his lifestyle in his ministry, even though his ministry was to the nations.

33:46 I I know that some people get into the, well, Paul says, you know, to so and so be like so and so, and to this, to this, be like so and so, and, and you think, was Paul a chameleon? Does he like change everywhere he goes, he changes a little bit, but he doesn't sacrifice, or he doesn't, he doesn't leave his Jewish heritage and Jewish practice. Could it be that there's connections from Serius paulis in the synagogue? Could be. We're not, we're not told. So here Paul is, Paul stands up and motioning with his hands says, by the way, just think about how Jewish this is. Paul stands up. What's he do? He talks with his hands. Like, I'll tell you, one of the greatest gifts

34:33 to mankind is the fact that I can wear a, a microphone that straps to my head so I don't have to hold it. 'cause you know what happens when I hold a microphone? I can't talk 'cause I gotta use my hands. Like, this is how we talk. Paul stands up motioning with his hands and says, men of Israel, and God fears, listen, the God of this people, Israel chose our fathers. And again, I I just wanna note the language. Paul hasn't separated himself from Israel. He says, the God of his, the God of this people. Israel chose our fathers whose father, our fathers. He's, he's within the lump

35:19 and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt and with an outstretched arm. He led them out from there for about 40 years. He put up with them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave their land as an inheritance. All of this took about 450 years after that. He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. After removing him, he raised up David to be their king. He also testified about him and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart who will do my will. So Paul stands up. He's been asked to give a word of encouragement.

36:04 He starts his word of encouragement by doing a brief recap of the history of Israel. It's remarkably similar by the way, to what Peter does in Acts chapter two. Peter stands up. I mean, but there's, there's one glaring difference. Peter stands up and says, men of Israel. Paul stands up and says, men of Israel. And those who fear God. You see there's a difference because Peter's in Jerusalem at the temple, only the Jewish people would've been gathered on, on Shavuot for a, for a Jewish festival. Peter stands up. I I say that I, I just, in this case, you have to break your own mental mold

36:52 because today there are far more people who are not Jewish, who love Israel and love, uh, the festivals and, and, and celebrate than there ever have been before. It was Israel was, was relatively set apart. And so you can't take the paradigm of, of coming here and being like, yeah, all of Dallas loves Israel. Like you go to any church. And they're like, yeah, we support Israel. We pray for Israel. That's not the case in the first century. So Peter stands up and says, men of Israel, Paul now stands up and says, men of Israel, and those among you who fear God. So he's, he's in the diaspora. He's not in Jerusalem. And the more you get into the diaspora,

37:38 the more Jewish people interact in greater society. In that regard, it's the same principle as today. You go to Israel and, and everybody, basically, everybody you interact with is Jewish. Like the country shuts down on Shabbat, uh, uh, kind of, at least when I was young, even if you wanted to do something on Shabbat, you couldn't, uh, other than go to the beach, which that is a good Shabbat, by the way. That's a real Shabbat going to the beach anyways, talking with my hands.

38:23 Even today in the diaspora, Jewish people have to interact with the rest of the world. Jewish people have diamond businesses. You think they only sell diamonds to Jewish people? No. They interact with the rest of the world. They, the Jewish people have all sorts of businesses. All I think of diamond because I have a friend who has a diamond business. But, uh, anyways, all sorts of businesses and, and, and Jewish people. You have to interact. Jewish people are lawyers, doctors, uh, all sorts of things. And you interact with greater society. Uh, I don't mean greater in terms of better than, but I mean larger. The rest of society. You have to interact with the rest of society when you live in a country where you are like the smallest minority of minorities.

39:15 So here we are. There's, there's this connection. Paul starts off his good news, his word of encouragement, but I want you to note his word of encouragement for yes, Israel, but also those who fear The Lord is his word of encouragement is inherently connected to the history of Israel and the ongoing election of Israel in God's, in God's plan. So here he, he stands up and says, God, the God of Israel chose our fathers and made the people great while they were in Egypt. He, the outstretched arm of God led the people out from there from their bondage. All right, I'm going to, I'm kind of filling in some clarifying language from their bondage in the land of Egypt. And then God put up with the people for 40 years in the wilderness.

40:02 I, this is such a fantastic phrase. God put up with the people. He put up with them. If you read the King James version, I love the King James version in this one. He suffered their manners. I say this because for those of us who have children, I feel like that's true. Sometimes we suffer their manners. And now I'm thinking back into my history. I'm probably owe my mom an apology. Uh, but anyways, he put up with them. In other words, God had to endure through their issues, through their lack of character or the circumstances where they're supposed to be building character. God endured through that time.

40:50 This view that focuses on God's forbearance in the, this, this is a view, excuse me, this is a view that focuses on God's forbearance in the face of the people's in gratitude. Now, I'm, I'm gonna give you an alternate reading. If one letter is changed in the Greek, it changes the word in the meeting from put up or endure to carry. Now you're like, well, rabbi, you can't change the letter in the Greek. You're right, I can't change the letter. Sometimes scribes make an accidental, uh, miscopy when they're writing. But let's just put the Greek aside for a moment. It's actually alluding back to Deuteronomy chapter 1 31 verse 31,

41:40 and the Hebrew word used in this text has the flexibility of meaning to carry or to endure. So in other words, to carry, like you would carry a baby who is full of needs, you would carry that baby until they're big enough to walk on their own. In the text in Deuteronomy 1 31 talks about the God of Israel carrying Israel through the wilderness, yeah, you can make a case of enduring because it's a both, it's not an either or, it's a both. And there's an enduring, but there's also a caring. And, and also by the way, both of these traditions exist in other biblical texts.

42:29 Let's move on. He destroyed seven nations in Canaan, gave the land his inheritance. All of this took about 450 years after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then the people asked for a king, and God gave them Saul for 40 years. By the way, I want you to note, Paul doesn't, doesn't introduce any commentary here on whether or not Saul was a good or bad king. If Saul we're often taught, Saul was a horrible king. And and you can read the text, and there are plenty of reasons why he could be considered a horrible king, but Paul doesn't introduce that. Why? Because it's not a part of where he's going.

43:17 He doesn't want them to get stuck on, ah, they had a bad king. People complained. People were in the wilderness. They complained. All they could did is complain. What that does is encourages people to complain. Paul moves on. He's really quick, by the way, God put up with them in the wilderness. Then they had judges, then they had Samuel, then they had Saul as a king for about 40 years. By the way, I, I found something out new to me last night. And this morning Paul tells us that Saul was king. For 40 years. I was reading a commentator who said, Paul can take this view because there's no text that says how long King Saul reigned.

44:02 And I thought, yes, there is. I know that text. I've read the text myself, went and read for Samuel, and, uh, and it says, yeah, Saul reigned for 42 years. Then I started doing a little bit more looking into it, and there's some ambiguity in the text as to what it actually means, the number. And, and so Paul here could actually be telling us 40, not to say that it was exactly 40 years, years, but to say that that generation passed because there's 40 year chunks. You'll notice the number 40 often occurs. But that, that generation passed, and then God removed Saul. That time was done. God removed Saul

44:48 and raised up David to be their king. God testified about David, that he found David to be a man after his own heart, who would do his own will, uh, do due to the Lord's will. By the way, I want to, I wanna point out, this is where Paul's been trying to get to up until this point. This is, this is the crux of the text. This is the, uh, Marcus and I were talking this week studying this passage. This is the jab right before the hook. Okay? The, the jab is, you get to King David, the hook will be next week, but you have to get to the jab first and you gotta get the people rolling with you.

45:35 So he, he says here, God testified about David, and David was found to be a man after his own heart. Who would do the Lord's will? It's such a fascinating thing to me because David, pardon me, y'all, pardon me if this sounds crass. David was a screw up. Like David had an adulterous affair. He murdered the man who he had an adulterous affair with the wi the, the husband of the woman. He murdered that man because there was a baby that was coming. He wasn't a great dad. Like there's so many problems with King David. I still to this day go, man, it, the Lord

46:24 is really willing to forgive and to bring redemption because a screw up like King David, y'all don't, don't, don't think I'm being blasphemous like the dude made major bad decisions. But what it does for us is it should actually encourage us. Because if you're not an adulterer, and if you're not a murderer, it means, or even if you are, it means there's still a way back. And not even just a way back, but a way back to then be called a man after God's own heart. Like that's like, that's some powerful, that's some powerful texts there. So he gets to this point, gets to David,

47:14 and he's led the synagogue attendees, both Jews and God fearers through this brief history to use it as a springboard for his very next statement. His very next statement is this, by the way, this is the jab from this man's seed in keeping with his promise, God brought to Israel a savior, Yeshua. That's the jab. It's not the hook or the uppercut or the knockout punch. You'll get that one next week. This is the one that gets your attention. You know, it's the what. This is the point. The savior, Yeshua, before his coming, John had proclaimed an immersion

48:01 of repentance to all the people of Israel. As John was completing his service, he said, what do you suppose? Who, what do you suppose me to be? I'm not he, but behold one is coming after me who sandal I'm not worthy to untie. Okay? I'm gonna unpack this for just a moment. So bear with me. God made a covenant with David in Second Samuel, chapter seven, where he promised that king David's descendants would rule upon the throne forever. In fact, he says, king, David's seed will rule forever in keeping with this covenant. This is what, this is what Paul's doing. You see, Paul, by the way, is jumping from covenant to covenant because he's proving

48:46 God's faithfulness to the people and also the fact that God has a plan and that the plan is coming out. Now, the plan has been all along to have Yeshua, the promised seed of David. By the way, the, the covenant that was cut with David was that there was a promised seed, uh, that would rule the kingdom forever. What Paul is now saying is the promised kingdom that was to be ruled by David's seed is now upon us. Why is it upon us? Because King David's seed just came. His seed is here, and how do I know his seed is here? Because now we're, I, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to jump

49:34 through a couple scriptures real quick. So bear with me. We just talked about Samuel. Samuel, you had to get King David, and it had to be King David's seed that would come, and you can even go back and you can go look through, it's through the tribe of Judah. You find it in, in Genesis chapter 49. You go further back and you find it with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that there's this promised seed that is going to come, that will rule the kingdom. And, and he makes the jump to David and says, it's David's seed. And when David's seed comes, the kingdom will be forever And now here comes the support text. He says, before his coming, John proclaimed an immersion

50:19 of repentance to all of Israel. And as John was completing his service, he said, what are you supposed me to be? I'm not he, but, but behold one is coming after me whose sandal I am unworthy to. Uh, I'm not worthy to tie untie. Paul explains, or Paul is connecting this. And, and this is not just Paul, but, but John and Peter and Yeshua and all of them, that the kingdom is to be heralded by Elijah. And that Elijah in Malachi chapter three at the end of Malachi chapter three, or if you aren't reading a, a, a Jewish translation, it's the end of chapter four. Uh, at the end of Malachi chapter three, the her, the kingdom will be heralded by Elijah,

51:04 and he would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. What is turning the hearts of one another to one another when you turn? What is that? It's repentance. So here, John, who's proclaiming an immersion of repentance, is talking about turning, repenting and turning to one another and drawing near, turning the hearts toward one another. And this is exactly how Luke describes what John does in Luke one 17 when he goes out and he preaches repentance, and you have to turn from your sins. When John is completing his service, service, he asks, who does everyone suppose me to be?

51:51 What does that, I I I just want to point out the asking of the question means that the question exists or that the statement is, is happening or being passed around John's the Messiah. You wouldn't ask the question if it wasn't being passed around. John says, who do you suppose me to be? I'm not him. Which means, if the question is being passed around and the assumption that John is the Messiah, it actually tells us that, that the, the Judaism of the second Temple era, first century Judaism was expecting a messiah to come.

52:39 Otherwise you wouldn't be asking the question. You wouldn't be looking, is it this one? Is it that one? You're only looking if you're expecting, otherwise you're off doing what? Watching the Super Bowl. Sorry, I just couldn't resist. John says, I'm not him, but he is coming and I'm not even worthy to untie his sandal, the promised Messiah of Israel, the one coming after John, though in other words, the one John is preparing the way for that the promised Messiah of Israel would be a son of David

53:26 because the kingdom rulership was promised to David's seed forever. This is the crux of Paul's argument. And then he says, let me, I just wanna read this again. Then he says, from this man's seed, from this man, David King David seed, in keeping with his promise, God brought to Israel a savior Yeshua, by the way, it doesn't come out in the English, but there's some, there's some like, uh, word play going on because Yeshua means my salvation. So for him to, he, he's, he's drawing them in.

54:11 He's using double entendres. He's flipping back and forth, and he's, he's pulling the people in with him. Yeshua is the promised seed of David, and he's the savior or the redeemer, and that's where we're gonna pause until next week. So yeah, right, that was on purpose. So what does that mean for you and me? Well, let's just take this first section. What does this mean for you and me in today's, in our, in our context today? Number one, are you ready for when someone asks you to bring a word of encouragement?

54:58 Because Paul walked into the synagogue, sat down, they read the tour and the prophets, and then they said, can you bring us a word of encouragement? Are you that ready? Because I'm talking about the ready. When you hop on the elevator and someone looks at you and says, something looks different about you. Can you tell me, are you ready to share in the 12 seconds it takes to get to the fifth floor? I'm, I, I, you, you think I'm joking, but it happens all the time. You gotta be ready. You have to be ready with what is the good news that God has equipped you with to share with others?

55:49 I I can't remember who I, someone, was he, someone came here, I can't remember, or maybe I was at a conference or something. They said, you gotta have an elevator clip. You gotta be ready with what's your, what's your 15 second version? You gotta have a three minute version, and then you gotta have like an hour long version that you're gonna be ready to go into like the rest of the day. Wait. You also have to be willing to recognize and to let the spirit of God lead you into which one to use at that particular moment. When, when you look at your own life's history, hmm, has God had to endure you or carry you, and just how does that affect your own story

56:36 that then you share with someone else? Finally, this is the one I'm gonna spend just a few minutes on. What is your good news? Now, we talked about this a little bit on Wednesday night, And I don't want you to think that there's not the good news because there is the good news, but the good news gets filtered and interpreted and applied slightly differently in every one of our lives. So how is it that God has showed you and what is, so this is what people would call your testimony. What is it that that, that you can say, God has done this for me, and that's how I know it's true,

57:24 because that's the part you need to be sharing. But I'm gonna tell you something that's not the only part, because we talked about on Wednesday how good news for me may be slightly different than good news for Marcus, maybe slightly different than good news for Rabbi Sean. Like the what's good news for each one of us is, is a slightly different variation. But I'll tell you what's important, and this is true for all of it, is that God has been, is and will continue to be faithful to his covenants, that he has ratified for

58:11 the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be a blessing to the nations. It's a covenant that's, that part is, is, is true. Whether you see it now, whether you have seen it in the past or whether you will see it in the future, all of it is true. It's part of the covenant, it's part of the good news. If your good news is relegated, oh, I might step on some people's toes here. If your good news is, oh man, do I really wanna step, If your good news is relegated to Yeshua died for you, then your good news isn't enough.

59:00 Your good news. That is, that is not bad news. By the way. Yeshua did die for you, for, for the redemption of your, uh, sins. That is true singular. You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. But it's not enough because we have a Bible that tells us God cut covenants. And if God has left those covenants in the past, then Yeshua dying for you means nothing. It, it's, if, if they're not linked, then actually becomes counterproductive

59:46 because the reason, you know and can take to the bank every day that Yeshua died for you and that your sins have been forgiven. The reason you can take that to the bank and deposit it is because God has been faithful to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to the Jewish people for 4,000 years. If at any point God said, no, I think I've had enough of Israel, we're gonna put you off to the side. It's now time for everyone else. If that's where your theology lies, then your salvation is insecure. Your salvation is just as secure as the salvation

1:00:33 for the people of Israel. Up until the point, God said, let me put you by the wayside. That's why I'm telling you, if your good news is just about Jesus died for you, it's not enough. Because there's a whole history of God's faithfulness that plays into God's plan. That is part of what we have to share with people, because it's not enough. It's great for God to to be concerned about you individually, but what you always find is when God cares about the individual, that same organization talks about God caring for all of the world, which I agree with.

1:01:20 God cares for all of the world. Yeshua died on behalf of the sins of all, but conveniently forgotten are the people of Israel. I wanna point out Israel, the nation is in, uh, what is it called, is one of the most, uh, un they're called the unreached people groups in the world. They're in the, in the top 1% of the unreached. You know, people talk about, let's send missionaries to China, let's send 'em to the Africa, let's Indonesia, all

1:02:06 of which are good, by the way. I'm not saying no, but you very rarely say, let's, let's go share the good news with Israel. I say, you rarely we're in Dallas. You hear it all the time. But apart from Dallas, Dallas, Dallas is an oddity in the world, by the way, uh, apart from Dallas, it's not, it's not an item on most mission agencies agendas. In fact, to the point, uh, I don't want, yeah, I don't want, okay, let's, I'm just gonna shift for, for just my final point here. We know for certain that Yeshua will return one day

1:02:54 because God has preserved his people through every his people Israel, through every persecution in hardship to this point, and will continue to do it until the return of Yeshua. Why? Because God is a faithful God, and he will abide by his word and his covenant, and his covenant is with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their children, and therefore, he will never forget them. He will never put them to the wayside. In fact, Jeremiah says this on behalf of the Lord, thus says the Lord. Jeremiah 31, thus says the Lord who gives the sun as light by day in the fixed order of the moon and the stars as light by night, who stirs up to sea.

1:03:40 So waves roar out nine oats is his name, and you see all of that is just the setup. Only if this fixed order depart from before me, okay? Before I keep going, did y'all wake up this morning? Was there a sun? Did y'all go to sleep last night? Could you see moon in stars? Kind of. You're in the metroplex, I get it. The the light pollutions covers it up a little bit, but they're still there. The sun, the moon, the stars are still there. Only if this fixed order depart from before me, it is a decor. Jeremiah just puts it in here again, it is a declaration of the Lord. Then also, might Israel's offspring cease from being a

1:04:29 nation before me for all time, thus says the Lord, only if heaven above can be measured. That's quite fascinating because we send out these outer space probes, they've been going for 30 years and we're still like, oh, there's still more. You imagine flying nonstop for 30 years in the distance that you travel and you haven't even begun to, to plumb the depths of the space. People think that space is our last unexplored place. You know, we've conquered the world. I just wanna point out the ocean is quite deep. There's a lot of the ocean

1:05:14 that we don't know about down there. Only if the heavens above can be measured in the foundations of the earth searched out beneath. Then also I'll cast off the offspring of Israel for all that they have done is the declaration of the Lord. I'm telling you all of that because God's faithfulness to Israel should inspire you about the steadfastness, the surety, the um, I don't know what other words to use, concern, the fidelity, the concerning your own salvation and where you belong.

1:06:00 All of that is safe because God has been faithful to Israel. You see, if, if, if you take Israel off, it kind of leaves you on an island, it, it, it kind of leaves you a little untethered. But with 4,000 years of history and with scripture that says forever, all of a sudden your experience becomes safe, and it's within reason that you can just look to God and say, here I am, use me. Otherwise, you should be concerned for the rest of your life. If you don't, maybe I'm stepping on too many toes. If you don't believe that God keeps his covenant

1:06:46 with Israel, you should be very concerned about your own salvation. It, it would be very concerning to me. I if God hadn't been faithful to Israel, but God is still faithful to Israel. The nation was reborn 76 years ago, uh, 70, almost 77 years ago. The nation was reborn. Jerusalem is, is now the capital I I'm telling you, I have utter confidence that Yeshua will return because he said he would. And secondly, because everything that's going on is showing me that God is continuing to be faithful to his word.

1:07:33 And if that's the case, then I can trust what Yeshua tells me, which is you will see me again. I'm gonna finish with this. Papa Don told me, when was that? Six years ago, I think when he was here for Sha something five, six years ago, something like that. I had a phone call with Papa Don leading up to that, and he on the phone, and then he reiterated it again with me later. He said, Ari, by, by the way, for those of you who don't know Papa Don, he is now, he's 94, 95 something right around there. So he, So he was right around 90, somewhere in that range. He goes, Ari, he goes, I believe I'm going

1:08:22 to see Yeshua return. It's one thing for me to say that as a 40-year-old, you know, middle of the life, but Don had such confidence in what he said. He kind of convinced me. I mean, think about that, the confidence. He goes, he goes, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna see Yeshua again. And, and I don't mean well, all of us are gonna see Yeshua at some point depending upon how we get there. But Don was talking about he was going to live to see the day that Yeshua came down

1:09:08 and stepped his foot upon the Mount and sat upon the throne of the kingdom of God that's based in Jerusalem. And I, I'm telling you, is so inspiring when someone older than you has that confidence, because at least by the numbers, his life remaining is less than my life remaining. If you're an what are they? Actuaries. If you're an actuary, that's the way it should be. But he said it was such confidence. I was like, man, this is, this is like real. And I don't know, maybe some of us don't have that moment or maybe we, we always like, yeah,

1:09:53 we believe Yeshua is coming, and I do this all the time. Yeshua said it, or Peter said, it was the last days. Paul said it was the last days. That was 2000 years ago. It's been the, it is been the last days for 2000 years. But the way Don said it to me makes me really, really believe that we're in the, we're in those days. We don't know how long we have. Two years, one year, 20 years. I don't know that. But it's not my job to know, it's my job to live a life expecting and to live that life as if I'm expecting.

1:10:41 So that's what you can, you can expect, you can hope. And I don't mean the hope where, oh, I hope it happens, like I hope the Cowboys go to another NFC championship game sometime, or I hope the Mavs can get over this trade still too fresh. I'm not talking about that kind of hope. I'm talking about the kind of hope that inspires Papa Don to believe he's going to see Yeshua sitting upon the throne in his lifetime. We can live a life expecting, and we should live a life expecting Yeshua to return tomorrow or today.

1:11:30 And we can be confident that he's coming because number one, he said he would. And number two, God has been faithful through all these years to the Jewish people to keep his covenants so we know what's gonna happen. Guess what The answers are in the back of the book, That's where the answers are. The answer is God will come justice. Justice will be had one day. We live in a difficult world, but Yeshua will come and sit upon the throne in Jerusalem and the kingdom, his kingdom will be here forever. A Venus Sham, our Father in heaven.

1:12:16 Lord, we thank you for this Shabbat. Lord, I thank you for this, uh, word from Paul. Lord, I pray that you would continue to give us faith, Lord, that faith expecting with a sure hope that Yeshu will return soon today, tomorrow, in the near future. Lord, help us to live our lives in a way that honor and glorify you and proclaim your name above all other names. We bless you in Yeshua's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

1:13:01 May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. You gotta choose which way you wanna face, dude, very

1:13:55 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.