Tag: New Testament

What’s New in the New Testament?

The doctrines necessary for salvation that are only found in the New Testament.

Audio only below

We spend a lot of time in our walk explaining how the Old Testament is more than relevant to our faith and worship, it’s the foundation. We know that salvation requires both the faith of Yeshua and keeping the Torah and that this was what the faith looked like until the second century AD. So this is what we talk about, because it’s what sets us apart from the rest of the believers in Yeshua. Bluntly, we spend most of our time pointing out how much of the Old Testament continues to be important and that the first century believers really didn’t change how or when they worshiped all that much.

Today we’re taking a different track. I’m going to talk about what is actually new in the New Testament. Today is day 49 in the count for Shavuot. Tomorrow is Shavuot, which is the beginning of something new. Folks who believe like us often minimize or even refute the new things in the New Testament, mainly to discredit the Sunday worshipers. They try to say there is nothing new in the New Testament at all. This is because our brothers and sisters in the Sunday churches have misused the scriptures to create a religion that is not scriptural. Because of the misuse, some go too far in refuting bad doctrine and come up with some new bad doctrine of their own. So let’s get started and take a look at some key doctrines that are indeed unique to the New Testament.

Slide 2 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. (Mar 1:4-5)

This is kind of shocking. John the Baptist was preaching something entirely new, that one could be forgiven through immersion. This is not to be found in the Torah. The immersion in the Torah was after a period of uncleanness, one would wash with water to become both literally and figuratively clean. That became a doctrine called mikvah. The word mikvah in this usage means a collection of water in its literal sense. In another usage, it can mean hope or abiding. So context is key. But in the context of a gathering of water, mikvah became a doctrine. That doctrine turned into pools of water that were managed by Rabbis where people would complete the cleansing cycles listed in Torah and some others. These pools have been useful in archeology to finding ancient synagogues. It’s wonderful to see evidence of people keeping Torah all throughout the known world in history, but the mikveh pools they were never intended or considered to be forgiveness baths.

While washing with water is a mitzvot, a commandment, and the mikvah a doctrine that sprung up from that is kind of cool, washing with water to be forgiven sins was totally new. And John was also circumventing the Rabbinic guardians of the pools. He was going straight into the water and preaching that people publicly confess their sins and be immersed for forgiveness. This a totally new to the NT and, interestingly enough, the people were rather accepting of the practice.

Slide 3 Now when all the people were baptized, Yeshua was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Ruach ha Kodesh descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Luk 3:21-22)

There are two things here that are new to the New Testament. The first is the Ruach descending on someone like a dove.

Slide 4 Then YHVH came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed it upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again. But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all YHVH’s people were prophets, that YHVH would put His Ruach upon them!” (Num 11:25-29)

The Ruach came off Moses to the 70 elders in the wilderness. And it was visible and known. But what happened with Yeshua was something very new and very visible. His anointing came directly from Yahweh and in public. The Ruach came down visibly and then Yahweh called Him His Son for all the people to hear.

In Exodus, YHVH came down in a pillar of fire and spoke to all the people the ten commandments. The people knew Moses was their leader because of the plagues. Moses had a long life before he became the leader of Israel. Yeshua started His ministry with a public anointing, which was also different. In the Exodus, YHVH did have to do some big things at times to tell the people to listen to Moses, here we only have the one time.

The last part of the verse is also a sod level prophecy. It’s a prophecy that nobody realized until Shavuot after Yeshua was resurrected. And is now just partially fulfilled. In Acts 2, which we talk about tomorrow, the Ruach did indeed come down directly on the Apostles. And then they had the ability to pass it to others through the laying on of hands. That was very new to the New Testament. Ezekiel 37:14 says that all of Yahweh’s people at the first resurrection will have His Ruach. After Pentecost, we see a foreshadowing of that in this time.

Slide 5 Now when all the people were baptized, Yeshua was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Ruach ha Kodesh descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Luk 3:21-22)

The second part of this verse that’s new to the New Testament is the identity of Yeshua as Yahweh’s Son. This is absolutely new to the New Testament and the dividing line for salvation.

Slide 6 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Isa 42:1)

Yahweh’s Son is alluded to in the Tanakh. Moses prophesies about one like Him being raised up from among the people. Psalm 2 talks directly about the Son. Peter knew the Messiah was the Son of Yahweh apparently from Psalm 2 but it was also revealed to him by Yahweh. They didn’t grasp what this really meant until after He was resurrected, but that Yahweh has a real, literal, Son that came and walked among us is new to the New Testament. And is the most important thing for us to know.

Slide 7 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (1Jn 5:11-12)

This is the dividing line. And we must have the Son of God to have life. While the Son was alluded to in the Tanakh, it was not known how important He was until He lived, died, was resurrected, and then told us.

Slide 8 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. (Eph 2:11-13)

Our being grafted in is new. Without the New Testament, we don’t make any sense at all. Sure, the Tanakh talks about the nations coming to Jerusalem and all nations praising Yahweh, but we are something different than what I see pictured in the Tanakh. What I see there is the period of time that hasn’t come yet, when the millennial kingdom is established and everyone comes to worship. We are called out of seemingly nowhere and grafted into Israel. We become fellow heirs of the promise. We become citizens of the commonwealth of Israel and are used directly by Yahweh to call others. Calling people from the nations, making us holy, and using us to spread the Gospel is new to the New Testament. And we are being called now so that after the resurrection we can be used to fulfill those future prophesies.

Slide 9 For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah the first fruits, after that those who are Messiah’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. (1Co 15:22-24)

The resurrection being literal and the order of resurrections is new. Ezekiel 37 and 38 read literal to me but I have always known of the resurrection. Some may have thought it to be metaphorical, some clearly didn’t believe in it at all. There are only hints of the afterlife in the Torah, hints that we all see since we all have been raised after Yeshua’s resurrection. The New Testament reveals so much more. 1 Cor 15 is the pattern for the rest of this age. Yeshua was resurrected, next come the saints at his coming – the first resurrection, then comes the second resurrection which is judgment time and the end of this age. Our ability to attain to the better resurrection through the blood of the Messiah is revealed through the New Testament only, and the pattern of there being two resurrections 1000 years apart, is also exclusive to the New Testament.

Equality

Let’s take a look at equality from the New Testament standpoint and explore some of the information that is new to the New Covenant!

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Society has struggled with equal rights for millennia. Nations have risen against nations, people have been held as slaves on huge scales, and even today there is mass oppression in many parts of the world. Let’s take a quick walk through the Bible and see what it has to say about equality.

Slide 2 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'” And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. (Luk 4:16-29)

This is the beginning of Yeshua’s ministry. There’s a theme He had running, kind of as an undercurrent, throughout His earthly ministry, that most of Christianity misses. This is a theme of equality. First Century Judea had a lot of problems with respect to equality. It was a world that those of us who have been born and raised in the west have no ability to comprehend. The Jews wanted to be left alone and were not interested much at all in others joining them, for lack of a better word. Granted, there were proselytes, but they were never accepted to the level of a native born Israelite. Their exclusivity was a problem because Judea was occupied by the Romans who had a pretty brutal view of society. If you had Roman citizenship, you had rights and were by all measures more of a human being than if you did not. This comes into play when Paul becomes the apostle to the Gentiles and uses his Roman citizenship to further the kingdom of God. Within the Roman life was a caste system as well, which is something we know nothing about, either. In a nutshell, some people were definitely more equal than others withing Roman citizenship but those who were not Roman at all were of much less value than those who were and attaining that citizenship was difficult.

So what does this all have to do with Yeshua in the synagogue? The Jews had a similar “us versus them” view of society. It’s part of the word goyim, or nations. The Jews believed, rightly so, that they were the chosen people and were special to Yahweh. But they also had a wall of separation, they did not care to mix with other nations. This is completely understandable because that’s what got them smote repeatedly. When Yahweh re-established Judea through Nehemiah and Ezra, the people read the Torah aloud. When they realized they had married those from forbidden nations, they sent them away and “purified” the land. They realized they had been sent into captivity for a few reasons, one of which was blending the worship of the nations with the worship of Yahweh. This is where the synagogue system began and where they started studying Torah weekly. This did a pretty good job of keeping them on the straight and narrow, particularly after the Maccabean revolt, but it also served to create an insular society. So what we had in first century Judea was a nation that did not care to mix with other nations being occupied by a nation that liked to gobble up other nations and destroy those who didn’t want to be gobbled up. That’s a lot of friction. And then, in the synagogue, Yeshua starts His ministry by reminding his fellow Jews that Yahweh worked miracles for gentiles in the days of Elijah and Elisha, miracles that were not performed for Jews at the time. And it really made them mad. To the point of wanting to do Him harm.

It’s very important to understand that He started His ministry with this message because the New Testament does have new information. The New Testament shows a shift in the way Yahweh interacts with the world with Yeshua’s sacrifice. Yeshua starts His ministry alluding to this.

Slide 3 “This Yeshua God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”‘ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Messiah—this Yeshua whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (Act 2:32-39)

Do you see the shift? “The promise” is for those present, their children, and those who are far off… as many as God will call to Himself. When you see the phrase “the promise” in NT scripture, it’s speaking of the promise made to Abraham to make his descendants more numerous than the stars. Peter is telling them that Yahweh is calling all people, not just Jews, here at Acts 2. It’s interesting these words come from Peter because he seemed to have a problem with this later in the New Testament, but let’s take a look at “the promise” in detail.

Slide 4 For you are all sons of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua. For all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:26-29)

These people still had to deal with the injustices of their day but within the congregation, they all had to come to the reality that they were equal with respect to salvation. They were still literally male and female and those who were slaves were still literally slaves, but they had to treat each other equally within the assembly.

Back in Acts 2, the Jews and proselytes who witnessed the results of the Ruach falling on the apostles were from all over the known world. They had come to Jerusalem to keep Passover and Pentecost. After they witnessed the miracles of that Pentecost, with many of those who crucified Yeshua repenting and being baptized, they took that information back to their home congregations. They sowed seeds ahead of the apostles coming with the Gospel. Here, ten or fifteen years later, Paul is re-affirming Peters words, that those who were far off were being called by God. Paul is making it clear that anyone who accepts Yeshua as the Messiah becomes a child of God, and an heir according to the promise. This, brothers and sisters, is equality. This is why we call each other brother and sister, because we are in the family of Yahweh. And we need to treat everyone we meet as if they are already family or potentially family, which is how we live in equality.