One For Israel

Sissi Soref: That is what the resurrection means to us, completely a new creation.

Guest (Male): The resurrection is the proof that his radical claims about his identity and work were true.

Guest (Male): But there seems to be a paradox in the prophets. It was the mystery of the Messiah.

Guest (Male): It's the resurrection that holds the key.

Dr. Erez Soref: I am Dr. Erez Soref. I was born and raised in the heart of Israel, but I never heard the gospel message until, on a journey abroad, my eyes were opened to the Jewish Messiah. From that point, my life has been dedicated to bringing this gospel back to my people Israel, equipping them to reach Israel and the world. Together, as Jews and Gentiles, we are one in Messiah, One For Israel.

The most pivotal event in human history happened around 2,000 years ago. In a garden in Jerusalem, a Jewish rabbi, a prophet, rose from the dead, proving he was more than just a teacher or prophet. He is King, God himself, coming to bring freedom. This resurrection occurred three days after the biblical day of Passover.

Passover, or the Feast of Freedom, is the foundational feast of the Jewish people. In it, we remember God's loving kindness in saving his people from bondage in Egypt and creating Israel as a nation. All that so that God himself would dwell among his people and give us his word in order to bless all nations. But could it be that this feast actually alludes to an even greater salvation yet to come?

Guest (Male): In the story of the crossing of the Red Sea, Moses encourages his nation to trust God: "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." Then, after God saves them from the Egyptians, it says: "When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses."

Dr. Erez Soref: But this would not be the last time at which God would be gracious towards his people. God spoke to the prophet Isaiah in chapter 52 about a totally new Exodus. "Be cheerful, shout joyfully together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all nations so that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God."

Isaiah prophesied that God would restore the nation of Israel, that he would save them from their enemies, grant them peace and security. However, this time, the salvation will not only include a physical redemption. Rather, it will include a spiritual redemption reaching the whole world. And this is what Isaiah talks about in the next chapter, chapter 53.

Guest (Male): "All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on him." Just like the Passover lamb, Isaiah prophesied that the servant of the Lord would give his life to save his people.

In chapter 53, the salvation that the servant of the Lord brings to Israel is not from Egypt or from the plague of the firstborn. Rather, it is the salvation from our personal sinfulness. The salvation God offers to us is from our guilt.

Dr. Erez Soref: But there seems to be a paradox in the prophets. It was the mystery of the Messiah. You see, scripture often described a savior who would suffer for our salvation, but it also described that same savior reigning and ruling forever. How could both of these things be true? It's the resurrection that holds the key.

After Isaiah describes the death of the servant, he continues to prophesy that he would prolong his days. How can it be? The only way the servant of the Lord can prolong his days after his death is through his resurrection. No wonder that when we quote these verses to our Jewish brethren, they think we quote from the New Testament.

But the Hebrew Bible states clearly that Messiah had to suffer and die to redeem his people. But he doesn't remain in the grave. He rises and grants forgiveness of sins and justifies the sinner. "By the knowledge of the righteous one, my servant will justify the many."

Guest (Male): In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul boldly declares that if the Messiah has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; your faith also is in vain. If the Messiah has not been raised, in other words, since the beginning of the faith in Yeshua the Messiah, his resurrection stood as the cornerstone, the very foundation upon which the truth of Yeshua stands or falls.

If Yeshua did not rise up from the dead, then his death is meaningless. We are still in Egypt, without a savior, guilty before God and slaves to sin's bondage.

Dr. Erez Soref: The disciples did not expect the resurrection of Yeshua. They thought and hoped that he would free Israel from the Egyptians of that time, the Romans. They thought he would strike them and drive them out of the land. They missed part of the message of the prophets.

They thought that the idea of a crucified Messiah is a failing Messiah at best, or worse, a false Messiah whom they would need to replace with another Moses who would deliver them from the Romans. Against all odds and in contrast to their initial expectations, after Yeshua's death, something happened.

The disciples began to insist that Yeshua, in fact, rose from the dead and conquered death. They began to proclaim their message in Jerusalem in the very place where Yeshua was crucified and buried, where everyone could go and check if the tomb was in fact empty. Not only did they proclaim the message boldly, but they were ready and willing to suffer and even die for it, and most of them did.

Guest (Male): The significance of the resurrection is that it validates Yeshua's message. His gospel is true. Yeshua claimed to be God himself who came to free us from sin, to cleanse us from our guilt and justify us. The resurrection is the proof that his radical claims about his identity and work were true.

Moreover, his resurrection gives us hope and assurance that this life is not all that there is, that death is not the end. On the basis of Yeshua's resurrection, the New Testament proclaims that anyone who puts his faith in him will rise up from the dead to everlasting life.

But the fact is, Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who are asleep. For since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive.

The gift of salvation is given freely. We receive it through faith, through putting our trust in the Savior of Israel, Yeshua. Notice that in the story of the Exodus, or more specifically in the crossing of the Red Sea, the nation of Israel did not need to do anything to merit their salvation from the Egyptians.

Their own power could not stop the Egyptian army. God alone granted them freedom and salvation. They only needed to step in faith towards the water. As the author of Hebrews puts it, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land.

Dr. Erez Soref: All people, Jews and Gentiles, are guilty before God and find themselves separated from him due to their personal sinfulness. In Hebrew, the word "sin" comes from the same root as "missing the mark." In our inherent sinfulness as humans, we miss God's mark.

But through Yeshua's death and resurrection, he opened a new way to enter into an eternal relationship with God through faith. Yeshua was delivered over because of our wrongdoings and was raised for our justification.

This relationship cannot be broken since it is established upon the perfect sacrifice of the ultimate Passover Lamb, the sacrifice of Yeshua. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."

The resurrection is more than just proof that Yeshua was who he claimed to be. The resurrection is hope for our lives. When it seems like it's all over, God still has the final word. And when we become children of God, that same spirit that raised Messiah from the dead now lives and works in us. We are transformed by the resurrection power.

Marty Goetz: So where I grew up, it was a, I would say, 90% Jewish neighborhood. We knew because my grandparents had come over from Europe. We knew about this thing called the Holocaust. We knew that Hitler had done these horrible things to the Jews.

I didn't know one Christian from another, but I knew that there were Christians and Jews, Gentiles and Jews, and that it was all different. We had one little Methodist church in our neighborhood. You never went in that place. So you didn't think about it. You just knew that there was us and there was them.

From Cleveland, I went away to college, Carnegie Mellon University, and I auditioned for a show. All through college, Burt and Marty played in local clubs and local cabaret. Everything was good. We were up in the Catskill Mountains, the Borscht Belt. We won the best new act up there when we were up there the first year.

We thought we were on our way. And then Burt, who was a Methodist, decided he wanted a little deeper faith. So he went to this church and when he came back, it was called the Rock Church, he said, "I'm born again." I had no idea what that was. I did know that Jimmy Carter was born again, but Burt now was a born-again Christian.

After that, it just got terrible because he was telling me all the time about Jesus. He didn't care about Burt and Marty anymore. He only cared about Jesus. He began to preach to me, and life got very irritating because Jews do not believe in Jesus.

I cared about him, but he freaked me out. I didn't want to know about all those things. But it bothered me so much that I bought myself a Bible. I said, "I'm going to have to crack this code." And I started reading about it. I didn't want to have anything to do with it, but I need to know who is this Jesus and why do all these people believe in him?

The more I thought about them, the angrier I got and the more frustrated I got. I said, "I've got to get away from them." So I said, "I've got to get out of New York. I've got to go where people are normal." So I moved to Los Angeles, California, of course.

I got to Los Angeles, still bothered by all this, but on the way, I had picked up a big family Bible in my parents' house in Cleveland. I would go in the morning to try to pedal my songs that I was writing, and in the afternoon, I'd open up that big Bible.

I finally got the courage to open up to what's called the New Testament. It says, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." I thought, "That's strange. That's Jewish. I know about those people."

Then I kept reading and the more I read, the more I realized Jesus is Jewish. As a matter of fact, the more I read about him, he turned out to be more Jewish than I was. He seemed to come alive off of those pages. He wasn't like that dead Jesus on a cross at my friend Kevin's house or in the church. He was alive and he was Jewish.

So the more I read about this Jesus, the more I kind of liked him. I was still not wanting to be one of those born-again Christian people, but I thought, "Well, maybe you can read about him, admire him, like him," because I was really liking reading the Bible.

I remember thinking to myself, I'd learn to look up. So I remember one day looking up and I said, "God, if Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, then it might be okay to believe in him. So show me, show me if he is my Messiah, because there's no way I'm going to believe in him if he's not the Messiah and if he's not fully for the Jewish people."

Living in Los Angeles at the same time I had just moved there was Annie, Burt's friend from the church he attended in New York. She was a born-again Christian. She'd been praying for me for years. We became friendly and one day I was visiting her.

She had to go to a Bible study, so she said, "Stay here, watch my apartment while I go to this Bible study." I said okay. I'm thinking about all this stuff that's going on and I look out over her balcony overlooking the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

There, shining with this bright, bright white light, was a cross right through the window. I just ended up staring at it and thinking to myself, "Is Jesus after me?" The phone rings and a guy gets on the phone and says, "Is Annie there?"

I said, "No, she went to a Bible study, but I think I'm having a religious experience." He said, "Oh, good. Well, have her call me back when she gets home." I hung up the phone. Annie returned and tries to explain to me, "Yes, God is calling you, Marty," and it was all too much for me.

But Annie was persistent, so she said, "We're going to go to the beach on Sunday and we're going to hear this guy preach." I said okay. So the guy's name was Hal Lindsey. He preached a message. People were sitting there on the beach, hands raised, singing songs to Jesus.

At the end of the message, Hal Lindsey says, "Brother Gideon, come on up here. We're going to take communion together." So Gideon gets up there and he takes the bread and he says, "Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz."

He says over the wine, "Borei peri ha-gafen." He says the Hebrew prayer over the bread and the wine. I said to Annie, "I've got to get out of here. Please take me home." She said, "Okay, I'll take you home," because I was really unsettled by the whole thing.

I remember I'm almost like in a fetal position curled up in the back of her car, freaking out, so shaken up by what I'm experiencing. She says, "Marty, I'm sorry to tell you this, I can't take you home because I've got to go to this other church. It's called the Vineyard. If I don't go now, I'm going to be late."

I said, "Okay, okay." By this time, I didn't know what to think, so I said, "Take me, take me." So she takes me there and they do another service and people are singing, hands raised, just like at the beach. At the end of the service, I remember thinking, "You know what? I really believe that whoever this Jesus is, he is after me."

Because they gave the invitation and I just said, "I give up. I surrender. I'm a sinner. I need a savior. I need Jesus."

Dr. Erez Soref: Behold on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace. Celebrate your feasts, O Judah, pay your vows, for never again will the wicked one pass through you. We want to help you discover how the Jewish holidays can deepen your relationship with God.

This enlightening book uncovers the profound connection between each biblical feast or holy day and God's grand plan of salvation through our Messiah, Yeshua. These sacred appointed days not only commemorate past events, they also unveil insights into future promises to come. It's a double revelation, both immediate and prophetic, waiting for you to explore. Get your free book and discover Yeshua in the biblical calendar.

The day Yeshua rose from the dead, he met two travelers on the road to Emmaus. These two were followers of Yeshua that were saddened and disappointed by his death. When he began walking with them, he didn't reveal himself right away. He acted as a stranger.

The two disciples told this stranger about everything that had happened, even their doubts in a report that Yeshua had risen from the dead. Yeshua himself strengthened their faith. Still concealed, he began taking them through the Hebrew scriptures, explaining and showing them that the promised Messiah had to suffer and then rise from the dead.

Later, after Yeshua revealed that it was actually him, they said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" God's plan was written in eternity and is revealed to us today. At the center of that plan is a God who loves us, who sent his son as Messiah to suffer and die for us as a demonstration of his love, and who raised him up from the dead as a demonstration of his power.

Shalom everyone, I'm excited to discuss together the meaning of the resurrection from burial to life. And I'm also excited to be joined by my wife, Sissi, who is the director of the Eve Center Women's Studies here at One For Israel. Shalom Sissi and welcome. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Sissi Soref: Great being here.

Dr. Erez Soref: Many people around the world at this time commemorate, celebrate the resurrection of the Messiah. It's called Easter in the Western world. I think the key question that many times people miss is: what does the resurrection of the Messiah have to do with our lives today?

Sissi Soref: So resurrection in Hebrew, techiyah, has the word "life" in it. And that is what the resurrection means to us. It means not only a new life but completely a new creation. So it says that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; the old has passed, behold, the new has come.

Dr. Erez Soref: It's a real challenge to understand what that means. This is the perfect time to talk about it because resurrection means that something was dead and then it became alive.

Sissi Soref: So you mentioned something interesting, death and resurrection. So who died and who was buried? We died and we were buried. But when Paul speaks about the figures of death and burial, he's talking about it in Romans 6.

And he says that in some way we were united to Jesus in his death, in his burial, and in his resurrection. From Adam, we inherited what he gave us: a sinful nature. That's why it says that we are sinners.

So everything that we were in Adam had to die. Jesus told Nicodemus and he said, "Everything that's from the flesh is flesh, and everything from the spirit is spirit. You must be born again. You must be born from above." Why do we bury people? Burial is an ending.

Dr. Erez Soref: Right, provides closure.

Sissi Soref: It's closure. It's an ending of who we are in Adam. So you're raised up to a completely new creation, and that's why the word is creation out of nothing. It's a completely new creation. We have a new heart, new desires that enable us to live for God.

And that's what the resurrection is. It is a new creation, a new heart, a new nature that wants to please God. But that's not all. We have a new citizenship. And in Ephesians, it says that we were being resurrected and seated with him in Christ in the heavenlies.

That citizenship is our major or the most important one that we can hold today because it means two things. In Hebrew, it means rest. We entered his rest. And in Ephesians, it talks about authority because we're seated above all principalities, all powers, all everything, above everything, and we are seated in him.

Dr. Erez Soref: That is truly amazing to think about that, that really when we celebrate the resurrection, we also remember who we are in the Messiah, as you say, that we are in his rest, that we are in this place of authority.

Sissi Soref: Exactly. And I think this is something we need to focus on. He finished everything, and all we do is actually we enter into everything he did.

Dr. Erez Soref: Sissi, I think a lot of people listening to us may ask the question, "I want that new life. I want that rest. I want that position of authority in my own life. But what must happen so that we will enjoy this resurrection that we've just discussed?"

Sissi Soref: Nothing. We must do nothing.

Dr. Erez Soref: That sounds easy.

Sissi Soref: It says in Christ, he already did bless us. He already gave us everything. He already forgave us. Everything that was possible to do, he did. I have nothing to add to what Jesus did. I don't have to earn God's blessings. All I have to do is believe, enter.

Dr. Erez Soref: Because he already gave it.

Sissi Soref: He gave it. It's there. I enter into his peace. I enter into his rest.

Dr. Erez Soref: Sissi, thank you so much. Is there something special you would like to say to our viewers, maybe pray for them and encourage them?

Sissi Soref: Some of you listening might be wanting that resurrection life, might be wanting to be able to have that rest. And it's for you that Jesus actually said in Matthew, he said, "Come to me, all that labor and need rest. All that labor and are weary and burdensome, and you shall find rest for your souls."

He was talking to people that were so tired of doing the right things, trying the right things, trying to find ways to please God, trying not to do this thing, yes to do that thing, and always having that guilt upon them, that heavy, heavy guilt that we're never good enough.

And for you, these are the words of Jesus: "Come to me. Come to me and find rest." And the rest is by believing. Do you believe that he did everything? That you do not have to do anything to receive that resurrection life? But come to him and rest.

Dr. Erez Soref: Thank you so much, Sissi. We pray that you will experience the power of the resurrection life in your life this year, this week, this day. So what about you? Have you put your faith in Yeshua?

If not, today is the day of salvation. If you want to receive forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and a living relationship with your loving Creator, simply talk to your heavenly Father in your own words. He listens, and that is the meaning of prayer. Rejoice with us, for he is risen. He is risen indeed.