Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of Yahweh and their faith in Yeshua. (Revelation 14:12)
The first century Christians viewed scripture and worshiped quite differently that modern Christians. These messages will address key parts of first century Christianity from the original point of view.
Christian Rituals: We must examine ourselves before taking the bread and wine. Take a step back and examine what just happened with Easter Sunday. Look at the rituals and match them against what the Bible really says to do. Did your Easter services mention anything about examining yourselves? Did you take the bread and wine?
Explaining the basic series of crossroads we encounter in the faith on the road to the real truth of first century Christianity.
Historical Proof of the Messiah: The principal historical source outside the bible showing the Jesus the Christ, aka Yeshua the Messiah, existed and was resurrected.
A message about putting in the work to learn Christianity for real and the differences between coming to the faith today versus 20 years ago.
Nobody lights a lamp and puts it under a basket means that you matter. Jesus Christ, aka Yeshua, died for you because you have worth and can be righteous. The mainstream Christian doctrines surrounding works being somehow bad force a conclusion that believers are worthless. If there are none righteous, and you are going to stay unrighteous, then the Messiah died for nothing.
This teaching unravels these destructive and evil doctrines. These wrong teachings, called the doctrines of men, must be refuted because you matter. Yeshua taught expressly against these concepts, and I explain why people believe the opposite of plain scripture in the message. Nearly every page of the Gospels contains parables, teachings, or stories about righteous deeds versus unrighteous deeds. Christ clearly expressed that the disciples, prior to His death and resurrection, were the light of the world. They needed to live so that their righteous deeds could be seen by men and thus draw men closer to Yahweh.
The book after the Gospels is not called Acts because it is fashioned after a play. It’s called Acts because it records the righteous deeds of the first century believers. Their righteousness was based upon the Torah and they lived their lives precisely so mankind could follow their lead and learn righteousness. This teaching is provided in pdf and video format because you matter and it is Yahweh’s desire that you be saved and learn to be righteous.
‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the Tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
(Rev 2:7)
Adam and Eve had one commandment in the Garden of Eden and that was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were created immortal and given dominion over the earth with just this one rule, that they broke. After the fall, they were expelled from the Garden which separated them from the Tree of Life. This also separated all mankind from that tree which means we have been fallen, mortal beings ever since.
In the New Testament we learn about eternal life. God, who’s Name is Yahweh, has provided a mechanism for bridging the gap between mankind and eternal life through His Son, Yeshua. We know that the path to eternal life is to repent, accept Yeshua as the Messiah, be baptized, and then live a life of obedience. This lifestyle is outlined from Genesis to Revelation but is best illustrated through the life of Jesus the Christ, Yeshua the Messiah. He lived Torah perfectly and showed us how to keep the commandments, having died a sinless death for the sins of all who accept Him. He was resurrected by God and is now seated at His Right Hand. Yeshua is the Mediator between us and God and will return to judge the living and the dead.
The Tree of Life and the scripture verse that tells us plainly how to overcome is our logo. The recipe for attaining eternal life is comprised in one simple statement: Keep the Torah while believing in Yeshua. This represents the mission of this ministry. We strive to reach as many as possible with this simple message and help guide people into a walk that will lead us all to the Tree of Life.
A deeper understanding how the faith was received and practiced by the First Century Christians focusing on a couple big changes in the New Covenant.
The real meaning of the resurrection of judgment, identifying two false prophets, and showing how the KJV misrepresents Jesus’ own words.
What can a prostitute teach us about the Kingdom of God?
Audio only below
What can a prostitute teach us about the Kingdom of God?
If you’re just picking up a bible for the first time or you are just now considering Christianity, you might wonder why to follow a Messianic ministry instead of mainstream Christianity or some other faith. Well, there are many answers to why and I’m going to give you three easy ones. The first is a question: Where do you want to spend eternity? Saving our own hides is not a bad motivator for deciding to learn the truth. Christianity has a lot of fanciful notions about the afterlife and how to get there, but if you follow this ministry, you will get a much better understanding of the events that are coming, what you are supposed to be doing, and what that afterlife really looks like. Hint, it’s not floating around on clouds.
The second is another question: How is your life now? Are you at peace with your neighbors? Do you have anxiety about the future? Are you stressed? Are you questioning how to respond to situations that make you uncomfortable in this fallen world? The bible defines morality. It establishes boundaries and lets us know how to love God and how to love our neighbor. A great many of the values our society used to hold dear, values our country has strayed from, come straight from the Bible. The concept of having a justice system that treats everyone the same regardless of status or wealth is from the Torah, for instance. The concept of building safe buildings is from the Torah. The concepts of manslaughter and how to make people whole after an injury are also from the Torah. These are the more subtle things. The definition of marriage and sexual sins are also defined in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, which are things our nation needs badly today. The Bible also speaks of running our houses well, financially, and otherwise. If we follow these and other tenets of the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, we will have a better and more peaceful life today.
The third point I want to hit on is dealing with our own sins and shortcomings. Of course, everybody wants to make it into the afterlife and have a good life today. But how do you deal with the day-to-day ups and downs? How do you make it right when you offend or do someone wrong? And how do you deal with the guilt for the problems you have created with bad behavior, which the Bible calls sin? When you accept Yeshua as the Messiah, Jesus as the Christ, you realize that He bore our iniquities. He absorbed them, yes even in advance. He provides a way out of the depression and guilt we incur for being the fallen humans that we are.
This brings me to why we study the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The theme of redemption is not established in the New Testament, it’s displayed in the New Testament through the sacrifice of Yeshua. Redemption, forgiveness, and having a way out of the messes we’ve created begins in Genesis at the fall where Yahweh makes garments to cover the shame of Adam and Eve. Then these things are built upon throughout the Old Testament, culminating in the ultimate sacrifice Yeshua, the Son of God, whose death pays the penalty for the sins of all who accept Him as the Messiah.
A great example of the Gospel in the Old Testament in Joshua 2 where the Israelites send spies to the land of Canaan before the invasion. These guys do their spying and end up hiding out at a prostitute’s house who lives on the wall in Jericho. The Israelites were to destroy everything and everyone when they invaded Canaan. Some find this to be problematic, but these people were destroyed because of their sins and their sinful culture. Jericho was an enormous walled city that was scheduled to be destroyed. Rahab is the name of this prostitute who hides the spies. This is the beginning of the Gospel story because she decides to welcome the children of God and she makes a choice to ally with them. She says that she’s heard of the mighty deeds of Yahweh and knows He is the real God. She makes the spies swear to spare her and her family at the invasion, which they do, and the family is saved miraculously.
The word gospel means “The Good News” and, by extension, The Good News of the Kingdom of God. Israel was coming into Canaan to establish the Kingdom of God. Rahab realizes this and wants in. She allies with the people of God and is miraculously saved in the turmoil.
Rahab wants to save her family from the tribulation as well. Don’t we all want to save our family from the wrath to come? And there’s something else, she likely doesn’t want to be a harlot anymore. She wants to leave that life behind. The destruction of her world provides for that. She lived on the wall, which hints that she didn’t actually want to be there. It hints at her yearning for a new life, looking for a way out. Somebody who wants to be in that city lives in the middle of it, but she lives on the edge.
This is the same as us. We have to live in this fallen world but we don’t have to like it. We yearn to be in a peaceful and righteous world. And we long to leave our sins and bad pasts behind.
How long do you think it was between Rahab helping the spies and her redemption? From Jericho to the Jordan river is about 10 miles, not that far. But for two million people, it probably took a couple weeks to get there. They had to cross the Jordan, circumcise themselves, recover, and keep Passover. So it took a little bit of time. Rahab had to trust the spies to keep their word. She had to watch as Israel’s huge army march right up to Jericho and then march in a circle for 6 days. Was she scared? Probably. Did she worry about the spies keeping their bargain? Probably. But this is analogous to faith, which is unseen. We have to have faith that Yeshua died for our sins and is holding up His end of the bargain. As the world gets crazier, more violent, and more sinful, we have to be strong in our faith that we, too, will be saved in the midst of the chaos. We also know our world is ultimately going to be destroyed and we will need to keep our faith until the end, through tribulation the world has never seen. And everybody in Jericho was destroyed except a sinner and her family, saved in the storm.
You see, the Kingdom of God is coming. If you want to be in it, it’s not too late. But it will be at some point. Don’t put it off. And if you want to have a more peaceful life with a strong sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, then read your Bible from cover to cover. And then join us as we wait patiently for the return of the Messiah, who is bringing the Kingdom of God, where we will experience true peace. Would you like to know something else that’s very interesting? Rahab the harlot is in the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah. In Joshua 6 at verse 25, it says that Rahab and her family remained in Israel “to this day” after they were saved. They joined the family of God, just like we do when we are baptized. And with her being in Yeshua’s line, that means not only can we relate to Rahab, we are related to her, too.
What did the early Christian faith look like, what were their beliefs, and how are we supposed to be worshiping today?
Audio only below
There a point where believers, for whatever reason, get a feeling that mainstream Christianity isn’t quite lining up with scripture and decide to read the bible for themselves from Genesis to Revelation. This is also true of people who have never been believers and decide to do the same thing, just read the Bible. It makes a lot of sense for people to be searching for God and truth today because western society, which is founded heavily on the Christian faith, appears to be on the brink of crumbling. It’s an unfortunate reality that people don’t tend to look for God in good times, but that there are no unbelievers in fox holes (meaning during wartime or hard times people turn to God). For whatever reason a person decides to investigate the faith, they often come to some conclusions that they were not looking for. Many of the key doctrines of mainstream Christianity simply aren’t biblical. I’m not talking about loving your neighbor, being charitable, or any of the basic behaviors, I’m talking about the form of worship. I went down this path over twenty years ago and was astonished to discover the things I was taught to hold dear were derived from non-biblical religions. In fact, they come from religions that the bible condemns and instructs believers to have nothing in common with. When I learned of the pagan origins of mainstream Christian practices, I had to make a choice. The big sin Israel was smote for, repeatedly, was worshiping false gods or blending the true worship with false god worship. Once this happens to a person, that person realizes they must change. In many cases, mine included, we start chopping the false, pagan stuff out of our lives because the Bible commands this over and over. So we chop. And we chop.
At some point, though, we need to find the way to worship. Getting rid of paganism and huge doctrinal errors is great, but can leave one with, well, nothing. I had to learn what the early church really looked like and what practices they had for worship so we could add back in after we cleared the deck of the pagan stuff. That’s the beginning of this ministry. What did First Century Christianity look like and how did they worship? The answers are shocking to mainstream Christians, but pretty easy to realize once you think about it. In fact, if you’ve been in church or read the New Testament at all, once you see how they worshiped, you’ll realize you knew it all along. Just by simply reading the bible the picture becomes clear and easy to see. Over these past 20 some odd years, the picture that became clear to me in the beginning is even clearer now that I know a lot more of the details. So I’m sharing with the world.
Theologically, we are in the same place today as the world was after the fall of the second temple. This would be 70 AD. Follow with me now, this will make sense. Christianity departed from the faith once delivered starting at the end of the first century and into the second. This is when the pagan stuff started to be mixed in. In the 4th century, the corrupted Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. That gave birth to the Catholic church which had a split with the eastern church, then we had the reformation which has resulted in a lot of strange beliefs. All that said, though, we are effectively in the same place with respect to the faith once delivered to the saints as the first century believers after the temple fell. Sure, world history has progressed, kingdoms have risen and fallen, great things have been invented, and awful things have occurred, but there hasn’t been a significant progression in the faith once delivered since the close of scripture, aside from billions of people learning some form of Christianity. The next stop in the plan of salvation is the return of the Messiah, which is exactly where the first century Christians were. So what I am trying to say is that our faith and worship should look as much like it did when the knowledge of the Messiah went forth from Zion. The time period we need to focus on for how to worship and believe is recorded in the New Testament, mostly between Yeshua’s ascension and the close of scripture. We do not have any scripture written after the fall of the temple, as the oldest New Testament books or letters were written in the 60s AD and the temple came down in 70 AD.
Acts 2 is where we see an enormous change. The New Testament contains quite a bit of progression on the path of salvation, meaning explaining the past, fulfilling significant prophecy, and showing us hints at what is to come. Acts 2 is where I want to start the focus of this message. Mainstream Christianity absolutely recognizes Pentecost Sunday as a huge event but misses a lot of stuff that’s going on there. First is they don’t realize that the Day of Pentecost is actually an ancient holiday. They think the apostles were randomly together the day they got the Holy Spirit and that the day was then called Pentecost. But there’s a lot more than meets the eye here because the day of Pentecost is from the Torah. It’s a commanded Sabbath from Leviticus 23. The apostles were together on the day of Pentecost because they were still keeping the Torah. This is hard to fathom if Yeshua had told them the law was done away with after Yahweh resurrected Him.
Slide 2 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. [Luk 24:27 NASB95]
Brothers and sisters, this is a significant verse. And, yes, I may overuse the word “significant” and its synonyms today because I’m talking about the easy to see verses that have caused hundreds of thousands of us to change to a biblical form of worship away from how we were taught in mainstream Christianity. After the resurrection, the Messiah, the Son of God, explained everything beginning with Moses and all the prophets. In order for us to understand the Messiah and the New Testament scriptures, we have to understand Moses and the prophets. I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s absurd to say the law was done away with at the cross when the law defines the Messiah and identifies Yeshua as that Messiah.
So understand they were still keeping the Torah by having a holy convocation, aka church, on the day of Pentecost after Yeshua explained everything to them. This means he did NOT tell them to stop keeping Torah! Pentecost which is also known as Shavuot (both meaning count 50, one from Greek, the other from Hebrew) is a day from Torah that is exactly 50 days from the offering of first fruits. Yeshua was resurrected as the first fruits of the dead as Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:20, which means He was resurrected on that annual observance. Exactly fifty days later is another holy day where the priests would offer leavened bread as the first fruit offering and the nation would have a sabbath. This is a big piece of information that mainstream Christianity misses, and even teaches against. The holy days of Leviticus 23 are prophetic, they continued to be kept by the early church, they show a fulfillment of some prophecy, and allude to more to come. These days are very often dismissed as meaningless rituals, which is blasphemy, but they have deeper meanings including prophetic meanings. They aren’t just days to observe, but they show us the pattern for the plan of salvation. And the first Christians, who were Jews, and those who converted, kept these days the rest of their lives. In fact, we have evidence from the church councils that Christians continued to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days for hundreds of years after the close of scripture, stopping only by force and law.
Let’s get to Acts 2 because it gets even better. There is so much there that we miss because mainstream Christianity is conditioned to look at scripture with the wrong foundation. So let me show you a bit more:
Slide 3 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]
Folks normally look at Acts 2 to focus on the Spirit coming down and the miracle of speaking in tongues. Well, the miracle is really hearing in tongues here, but why are all these people there? Have you ever wondered? Were these international believers in the God of Abraham just randomly present at that moment in time? No! They were there because Pentecost is an ancient pilgrimage festival from the Torah. There are three holy days in Leviticus 23 which are pilgrimage festivals. Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). The nation of Israel was meant to stay within its borders and go to the tent of meeting or the temple three times a year. The Jews were scattered after the first destruction of Israel/Judea. Nehemiah and Ezra returned, but many stayed wherever they were in the world. The synagogue system began around the time of the rebuilding of the temple, which is referred to as the second temple era. The Pentecost in Acts 2 is roughly 500 years after the synagogue system began, which is where Jews and proselytes all over the world were worshiping and learning. These people would then make Aliyah, i.e., pilgrimage, to Jerusalem during their lives.
Every single person present when Peter and the apostles received the Holy Spirit were there on purpose. Because Yahweh wanted them there. And He wanted them to witness the miracle and then hear it in their own languages so they could take that information back to their home synagogues and spread the word. The gospel went forth from Zion in Acts 2 through active Jewish believers returning to their homes.
Slide 4 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to [the] courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” [Mat 10:16-18 NASB95]
Brothers and sisters, we’re taught that the law was done away with and that Christianity is some new religion that breaks from the Old Testament, but that’s hogwash. The Messiah told the apostles they would be scourged in the synagogues during His ministry. He told them to go to the synagogues to spread the news of His first coming. See, these are easy to see scriptures that you already knew!
Slide 5 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. [Act 19:6-8 NASB95]
Those synagogues were all over the known world, so that people who knew the Old Testament and knew to expect the Messiah would be prime to hear the gospel and understand it. Having their own faithful return from Jerusalem to tell them of the Messiah and of the miracles of Acts 2 is how Yahweh spread the knowledge of the Messiah to the known world. I wonder how many of those who returned to their homes were baptized and then baptized others? For curiosity, do a search on the word synagogue in the book of Acts in your electronic bibles and see how often Paul was in one preaching about Yeshua. It’s pretty often! In this case, he preached for three entire months!
Slide 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear [them] in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our [own] tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]
I’ve put Acts 2:6-11 back on the screen. A big change in mindset from what almost all Christians are taught is that the first converts were almost exclusively Jews who attended synagogues all over the known world. We’re talking about ten years of time before the gentiles start converting in significant numbers. When it is written that thousands were baptized in a day early in Acts, they were Jews and those converting to Judaism. These Jews and proselytes stayed Jews the rest of their lives. The difference was that they accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. In the New Testament, the term Jew refers to anybody who followed Torah and were from any of the tribes or converts. Something to keep in mind when studying is that language is not static, meaning words can change over time. Those who kept Torah after the temple was rebuilt gradually became known as Jews all over the earth. The book of 2 Maccabees, an apocryphal book written to tell Jews how Judea purged the Greeks from its land, uses the word in that context as does the entire New Testament.
Slide 7 “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” [Act 15:19-21 NASB95]
How often have we read this and just thought the four things were kind of random and all that the gentile converts would ever have to do? I know that’s what I used to think. And then I studied Torah and discovered all four of those instructions are from the book of Leviticus. Yes, deep within the Torah.
Leviticus 17: 12 prohibits eating blood. Leviticus 17:15 prohibits eating things that that just die, which added with verse 12 would cover everything that died without being bled (strangled), Lev 18 defines fornication, Lev 19 and others talk about idolatry. The apostles are telling the gentiles that are converting that they must start by obeying a few Torah principles. But the next line is the one I like to focus on. Moses is read in the synagogue on Shabbat. Why is that line there? Because the gentile converts are keeping the Sabbath and going to the synagogues all over the world. They were hearing about Yeshua and either were already attending synagogue or they were starting, where they would hear the Torah read each week and then learn to follow the commandments! The Jews had a huge problem with in influx of gentiles in their synagogues, which is the crux of the problem for the Jerusalem council. What to do with all those gentiles keeping Shabbat? This letter didn’t make the gentiles convert because they would hear Torah, learn in the synagogue, and then make that decision later, if at all.
Slide 8 5 “For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. … 14 “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; [Act 24:5, 14 NASB95]
If Christianity broke off from Judaism to become a new religion at Acts 2, or anywhere in the New Testament, why would the Jews care what Paul did decades later with the Gentiles? My friends, as strange as this may sound, Christianity started in the synagogues and stayed there a long time. Paul was a pest to Jews throughout the world because The Way, or the sect of the Nazarenes, was considered a sect of the Jews. The book of Acts was written in the 60s AD, somewhere around 30 years after the ascension of Yeshua. Our faith was still considered part of the Jews to both the Jews and the Romans! Paul still believed everything in accordance with the law and the prophets. So what does this mean for us? The recipe is clear and on the screen. We follow the law and the prophets and the new testament.
Slide 9 So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua. [Rev 12:17 NASB95]
The rest of her children are those who keep Yahweh’s commandments while also holding to Yeshua’s testimony. This is the same message that we see throughout the New Testament and Paul’s missionary work. To worship and believe as the first century Christians, we are to keep the Sabbath, study Moses, avoid the four things in Acts 15, but then as we study Moses we start changing. We keep the Holy Days of Leviticus 23. We stop eating unclean food and adopt Yahweh’s diet from Leviticus 11. We cease any forms of worship or beliefs that come from paganism. Sunday, Easter, Christmas, the Trinity, praying to dead people, any form of astrology, anything connected to idolatry has to go. And we copy Yeshua in his application and teachings on the Torah. We need to be loving and patient, trying to help everyone we can come to the knowledge of the truth.
For more messages on early Christianity, please visit firstcenturychristianity.net. Thanks so much for listening and may Yahweh bless you and keep you, in the Name of His Son, Yeshua.