Holy Scriptures and Israel

Announcer: Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: The study of Acts chapter 9. We have a problem with taking the time to spend alone with the Lord so he will refresh our hearts and encourage us and minister to our own hearts. I'm sure you feel the same way, and that's why God wants his own people to spend some time alone with him so they can be used later on when the opportunity arises for them in ministry.

And so Sha'ul, after he had gloriously accepted Yeshua the Messiah, went to preach in the many synagogues in Damascus. All were amazed at the change that happened in the life of Sha'ul. He was increased in spiritual strength. He confounded the Jewish people there in Damascus, proving to them that Yeshua was the Messiah. In between there, for those three years, he went from Damascus to Arabia. There he spent this time as the Lord had ministered to him.

And now notice that it says here in verse 23 that they took counsel to kill him. You see, now the very Jewish community in Damascus to whom he was sent by the community in Jerusalem—he was coming as an unbeliever in Yeshua the Messiah with a letter against the believers—now those who did not believe turn up against him because he became a believer in Yeshua the Messiah.

And so now, instead of him seeking to kill someone, the others sought to kill Sha'ul. You know what happened? It says here in the next two verses, they were laying in wait for Sha'ul. They watched the gates night and day in order to kill him. Can you imagine that at night they were watching to see will he pass by? We're going to catch him, grab him, and kill him because he has now become a believer in Yeshua the Messiah. Day and night they were watching to see how we are going to catch this man and we are going to kill him. We're going to finish with him.

But by the grace of God, his brethren, the disciples there in verse 25, took him by night and they let him down by the wall in a basket. What a humiliating experience it must have been that here's this great man, Pharisee of Pharisees, who was the one that had the authority and the power earlier, is now hiding in a sense. Taken by the disciples, let down with a basket by the wall at night so that nobody can see him, so he will be able to flee away from those who sought to kill him.

I think the apostle himself must have felt it was a memory in his life that he mentioned in another passage in the scripture, in the book of Corinthians, in 2nd Corinthians. Sha'ul had mentioned this experience in 2nd Corinthians 11, verses 32 and 33, where he mentioned that in the record about the experiences that he had as a persecuted believer in Yeshua the Messiah. Notice what he says in verses 32 and 33 of this chapter. He said, "In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas the king kept the city of Damascus with garrisons, desirous to apprehend me."

And then verse 33, "And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and I escaped his hand." Apparently, there was a connection between the king and the community because here it says that the King Aretas and those with a garrison were desirous to kill him. In Acts chapter 9, it was the Jewish people. So apparently, either there was a connection between the community and the king, or much more than just the Jewish community, also the king of this city of Damascus sought to kill him.

And so, can you imagine, he mentioned that in 2nd Corinthians 11 because he must have felt it. It was very humiliating to be let down by the window and fleeing away to the very same city to which he came with strength and power and authority that he had from the leaders in Jerusalem. You know, there are three experiences in the Bible that we read about those that have been taken down by the window. We are studying in the book of Joshua. If you remember in Joshua chapter 2, the spies that went to Rahab and spent time with Rahab, if you remember, she hid them because the king of Jericho wanted to kill them.

So Rahab helped them to go down by the window and to flee away lest the king and his people would catch them, the two Israeli spies. There's another experience that we have in scripture in the story of David. In 1st Samuel chapter 19, you remember which King Saul wanted to kill David? And you remember what King Saul did? He wanted to kill him. So Michal, the daughter of Sha'ul—this is a different Sha'ul, the King Sha'ul—she let David down by a window as well so he could escape from that other Sha'ul, the first king of Israel.

I mean, it is amazing to think about it. What an experience these people have gone through their lives to be preserved. God had preserved the spies, God had preserved David, and God had preserved Sha'ul, everyone for his ministry that God had intended to give him. Well, here is these verses 20 to 25 where we have the first experience of opposition in Damascus that Sha'ul has experienced.

Now it is interesting that he has experienced opposition in the city to which he came, and now we're going to read from verse 26 to 31, he's going to experience opposition from the city from which he came: the city of Jerusalem. And so in verse 26, we read that when Sha'ul came to Jerusalem—this is, by the way, after the three years that he was in Arabia and Damascus there—then we read when Sha'ul came to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples. But they were all afraid of him and they believed not that he was a disciple.

Now you see, here we find out not only that the Jewish believers in Damascus were afraid of him, but the Jewish believers in Jerusalem were afraid of him. Well, what do you think? Just three years earlier or so, he was persecuting those people. He had havoc against them. So now he's coming back to Jerusalem and he wants to be among the brethren. And he is perhaps coming there, and it says here in verse 26, you know, they were all afraid of him. Maybe they thought he came to spy on them, to give reports to the religious leaders because they believe in the Messiah.

So they were afraid of him. They had so much fear from him and it says, "and believed not that he was a disciple," one of them, a follower of Yeshua the Messiah. They didn't believe it in the beginning when he came. The question immediately comes to mind is perhaps, how come he didn't come right away? If he became a believer in Yeshua the Messiah in Damascus, how come he didn't come back to Jerusalem right away and expose himself and say, "Listen, I've trusted in the Messiah"? But for three years, he was away.

Nobody heard of him in a sense, or at least he was not exposed in such a way. He was away. He was in Arabia. He was not coming and proclaiming to the community in Jerusalem that he became a follower of Yeshua the Messiah. So they were afraid of him, and it is very well you can understand that. And so it says in verse 27, look how beautiful, there was a man by the name of Barnabas. This is in the English; the Hebrew is Bar-Nabba. It says in verse 27, "But Bar-Nabba took him and brought him to the apostles."

Now this man by the name of Bar-Nabba, it's two Hebrew words. Well, the word "Bar" means "son" in Aramaic or Aramean. It's very similar to the Hebrew. In Hebrew, we say "Ben." In Aramaic, we say "Bar." You know when a person has his Bar Mitzvah, he's a son of the commandment, son of the law. And here's a man by the name of Bar-Nabba. Now don't mix this name with another man, Barabbas, that we have in John chapter 19, who was a robber. Barabbas, the name means "son of the father." Bar-Nabba means "the son of consolation" or "the son of a prophet." "Nabba" means to prophesy, a man by the name of prophet.

So this man, if you remember, Bar-Nabba was the man that we have already studied about him in the book of Acts in chapter 4 and verse 36. His actual name is not Barnabas; his actual name was Joseph. But it says his name was Joseph, but the apostles were surnaming him Bar-Nabba. He may have been a son, Bar, of a man whose father's name was called Nabba. So this man, he was such a gracious man, Bar-Nabba. If you remember in Acts chapter 4, he sold all his possession and he brought the money of his possession and he gave it to the apostles for the benefit of the assembly in Jerusalem, for the poor, for the needy. He was a very gracious man, Bar-Nabba.

This same man by the name of Bar-Nabba has risen above the fear of the brethren in Jerusalem, and he took Sha'ul. It says here that he took him in verse 27, and he brought him to the apostles and he declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly in Damascus in the name of Yeshua. You see, this Bar-Nabba took Sha'ul and brought him to the disciples and said to them, "Listen, he had experienced—he came to faith in Yeshua the Messiah on the way to Damascus. There was a change in his life."

It was so nice to see Bar-Nabba doing that because Bar-Nabba was a man that wanted to encourage. He was a man of comfort. He was a man of giving rest and encouragement among the believers in Jerusalem. And so he came, he took Sha'ul, he brought him to the first apostles in Jerusalem and he was telling them, "Listen, this is the one that met the Messiah on the way to Damascus. His life was changed. He became a believer in the Messiah. He preached boldly in Damascus concerning the name of Yeshua."

And you and I, dear friends, brothers and sisters, know very well that the name of Yeshua is often times not being accepted and not being understood even by our own people, by our own brethren whom we love dearly. And yet we wish them to understand what the Lord had enlightened us to understand through the word of God. And so he brought him and he told the apostles that he was preaching in the name of the Messiah of Israel, of Yeshua.

So you know what happened? It says in the next verse 28, it said that he, this is Sha'ul, was with them coming in and going out in Jerusalem. So apparently, after Bar-Nabba brought him to be in the midst of the disciples in Jerusalem, they cooled down, they relaxed, they accepted him that he had become a believer, a disciple of Yeshua the Messiah, and he was in their midst. The expression here in verse 28, "coming in and going out," is an expression that speaks of him having fellowship, having freedom to come in, go out, come in, go out.

It was King Solomon, the King of Israel, who prayed to the God of our fathers and said to him, "God, I want you to give me the wisdom and the ability to come in and go out among this great people, the nation of Israel." Why? Because he wanted to have liberty to serve the nation. Liberty to be in the midst of the nation, to have the freedom and the concern and the care among the people of God. That's what Solomon wanted many years ago, and that's what Sha'ul did when he was among the disciples. It's such a wonderful expression to come in and out, to be free to come in, free to go out with a good relationship.

You know, it's just like when we say the word "Shalom" in Hebrew. We say Shalom when we greet each other; we say Shalom when we leave each other. Why do we say Shalom? Because the word Shalom means "peace," and we want to be at peace with each other when we come to see each other, but when we leave each other, we also want to leave in Shalom, in peace. Going in and coming out. Having the liberty, the freedom without friction, just simply seeking to be a blessing among the people of God.

And so we read about Sha'ul here in verse 28 where it said he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And by the way, according to Galatians chapter 1 and verse 18, he was among them for 15 days. Galatians 1:18 shows us how many days he was with them. And it was so nice to see that they cooled down, they accepted Sha'ul, they recognized that he became a believer in Yeshua the Messiah, and they were no longer afraid of Sha'ul.

Well, in the next verses, as we are drawing on to the conclusion of this portion, in the next verses between verse 29 and on to verse 31, the next thing that we see that Sha'ul was speaking in Yeshua's name. Notice he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Yeshua and he disputed against the Grecians, and they went about to slay him. Now notice again those Grecians—they were Grecian Hebrews. You see, in the land of Israel, there were those from the diaspora, the dispersion. They were Jews; they came to the land. They were part of the nation of Israel at that time.

And they did not yet come to faith in the Messiah. So now he continued where Stephen stopped. When Stephen's ministry ended because of rejection, Sha'ul continued because now you find him disputing against the Grecian Hebrews because they did not accept yet Yeshua as the Messiah. Sha'ul, as a Hebrew, did accept him already, and now there was a disputing, a discussion. Is he the Messiah? Is he not? Why we say that he was the Messiah? There was a disputation there and there was a discussion. And of course, notice as it says here that they went about ultimately to slay him.

Let me just make a statement here that I think is very important. Over the years, and I'm speaking for myself as a Jewish believer, I hear this expression which I don't think is right to mention: that the Jews persecuted the Christians. I want to say this again: the Jewish people never persecuted Gentiles. Jewish religious people always persecuted their own brethren who believed in Yeshua the Messiah, never the Gentile world. In fact, the truth of the matter that even for a person to become Jewish per se, it's not an easy thing to do. He has to go through all the system of conversion and all whatever they expect from him to be.

And so the Jewish people say, "Just leave us alone. Don't influence us with your religion." And they never would persecute the Gentile believers' world, but if there was any persecution, it's always within the Jewish community. You know the expression, "12 Jews, 13 opinions"? We always have friction among ourselves. It's a Jewish story. It's the same thing in every place in the world, but we have this story within ourselves as a Jewish nation, as a nation of Israel. Some believe in that, some do not believe in that. Some are secular, some are religious, and there is a friction within our own nation.

Here what we see is exactly the same thing. Sha'ul was a believer. The Grecians—both of them were Jewish. He was a Jewish believer, they were Jewish unbelievers, and there was friction within each other. It's not a matter of persecution of the Christians, the Gentile believers, but it's the persecution of the Jewish believers, their own brethren. You will see that throughout the biblical history. The Jewish people will never force anybody to become Jewish. Many other religions are forcing others to become their system of religion, but never the Jewish people, never.

Because Israel as a nation was called to be a separate nation from all other nations, a distinct nation. Never by forcing others their religion, never. It is not found in scripture; it's not found in history. Only the conflict within the nation. That's what we see here as well. And so now in the conclusion, look at this. Let me just mention one more thing here before I'll forget. In verse 29, when there was a disputation against the Grecian Hebrews, they went about to slay him.

Sha'ul later on, in Acts chapter 22, speaking to the many in the city of Jerusalem when he went again to Jerusalem, and he told them what Yeshua had showed him in a vision. He told them how Yeshua warned him already where Yeshua himself said to him in Acts chapter 22 and verse 17, Yeshua said to Sha'ul: "And it came to pass that when I was come to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance." In other words, he received a vision from the Lord and Yeshua said to him—and I saw him saying unto me—"Make haste, get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive your testimony concerning me."

And then in verse 21, Yeshua said to him again, "Depart, for I will send you hence far unto the nations," to preach the gospel to the nations of the world. And you can see that Sha'ul was called to be the apostle to the Gentile world, while Peter was called to be the apostle to the Jewish world. And you have these two great apostles, one of them the apostle to the Gentiles, one of them the apostle to the Hebrews, to the Jewish people.

And so Sha'ul actually we should insert here Acts chapter 22, verses 17 to 21, the experience he told later on of how Yeshua the Messiah told him, "Listen, you've got to go out because they are not going to accept your message concerning the messiahship of mine," Yeshua told him. And so the brethren in Jerusalem, when they heard that—it says in verse 30—"which when the brethren knew," when they knew, they have received his testimony. It says here that they brought him down to Caesarea and they sent him forth to Tarsus. In Caesarea, if you will go to Israel, in Caesarea...