Here is how to be identified as a child of God.
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The Sign of God’s People
Slide 2 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)
While we do not condemn mainstream Christianity by any means, we have discovered some fundamental flaws in those systems and have moved as close to the early Christian beliefs as possible. The general feeling we get from the mainstream churches is that a new religion was established in the New Testament. That the Old Testament was effectively nullified with the New Covenant and how we worship was fundamentally changed. Some go so far as to say the church replaces Israel. This is just not the case. While the New Covenant is definitely new and different, the author of Hebrews tells us it’s a change in the law, not an abolition of the law. We can see in the New Testament that it was mostly Jewish people and proselytes (like the centurion who made the synagogue) for the first ten or so years after Yeshua’s ascension. Then significant numbers of gentiles, people like us, started coming to the faith all over the world. Paul is telling us here that was the intent all along. This is another step in the plan of salvation, that now people can join the family of God through accepting Yeshua as the Messiah and being baptized. Paul is saying here that gentiles who accept Yeshua join the family of God. We join Israel and come alongside those from Israel who accepted the Messiah as well. The text of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31, which Yeshua quoted the night He was betrayed, shows that the New Covenant is with Judah and Israel. It’s not with gentiles. In order for us to matter, for the New Covenant to even apply to us, we have to have a mechanism for joining Judah or Israel. Paul explains this right here. This is why we call each other brother and sister, because we are adopted family now, and heirs according to the promise Yahweh made with Abraham to make his descendants more numerous than the stars.
Slide 3 “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)
This passage of Acts 15 is almost always cited without verse 21, that I have in bold here. Paul had traveled throughout the Roman Empire spreading the news of the Messiah primarily in the synagogues. Over time, significant amounts of gentile start joining in. The meeting in Acts 15 is estimated to be about 45-50 AD, fifteen years or so after Yeshua ascended. These dates are significant because it means for about ten years, there weren’t enough gentiles joining in for this to be an issue. What happened here is that many gentiles were showing up at synagogue, hearing of Yeshua, learning Torah, etc. that the Jewish believers wanted them to be circumcised. The response was to limit them to a few things right out of the gate, to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication as a start. They were already attending synagogue and hearing Moses each week, they would continue to do that and learn as they went. This is the same pattern we follow today, isn’t it? We learn of the Messiah, then we start attending somewhere, and grow as we learn.
When you are adopted into a family, you learn the family’s rules and customs and adopt them. First century gentile converts had to do this, hence attending synagogue to learn Moses.
Slide 4 YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YHVH who sanctifies you.” (Exo 31:12-13)
Now we arrive at the sign. The sabbaths. You’ll notice this is plural, not singular. It means the weekly Sabbath and the Holy Days. But it starts with the weekly. Those who learned about the Messiah were keeping the weekly Sabbath to learn Moses. They adopted the sign, well one of them. We know the Shema also tells us the Torah is to be a sign as well. But this is specifically about observing Yahweh’s appointed times. This is addressed to the “sons of Israel”. That benim Yisrael. It means children, not just men or sons. And the children of Israel is synonymous with the children of Abraham. One we are adopted into the family, we take the signs of the family, which means a change in behavior. We keep the Sabbaths.
Slide 5 Yeshua said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mar 2:27)
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Gen 2:1-3)
The word for man in Mark 2:27 is Anthropos, which is Greek for mankind. It’s interesting that the word adam, which means the guy, also means mankind. The LXX actually uses Anthropos for adam in some places. Without getting to much into the word-weeds, the Sabbath was made for all of mankind to observe. It began as a sign for all of the people and was meant to be that for all of this era. In our western reckoning, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, we are to rest and enjoy creation. Yahweh rested on the 7th day of creation as did Adam. This pattern is here for us to emulate because we are made in the image of God. That means more than just photocopying. We are made to work, to labor, to enjoy creation, and then on Shabbat to take a break and commune with our Creator.
Slide 6 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of YHVH your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days YHVH made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore YHVH blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exo 20:8-11)
The 4th commandment, in Yahweh’s voice, told them to remember. That can be taken two ways. The first is that they forgot it in Egypt and they needed to remember it, to get back to it. The second is to not forget about it. To keep doing it. The commandment is comprehensive. Nobody works, everybody gets the day off. Even the animals. Yahweh is big about his creation getting a break. He even built in land rests for the earth, meaning soil. This commandment reminds us about Creation as well. How honoring the Sabbath emulates our Creator in how He rested while also keeping us humble. Knowing that we are but dust. The one who made the heavens and the earth made each of us, which means we are special, that He would think of us. But also that we are feeble in need of our Creator and cannot provide for ourselves without His providence.
Slide 7 YHVH spoke again to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘YHVH’S appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these: ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to YHVH in all your dwellings.” (Lev 23:1-3)
This is where the entire earth gets the notion to come to church. The word holy convocations is miqra kodesh, a sacred or holy assembly. The idea of having a weekly assembly for the purpose of worship starts right here and it’s tied to the 7th day sabbath. Leviticus 23 outlines all the Sabbaths, more broadly all the appointed times. Appointed times are the word moedim, which is the same word translated seasons when the sun, moon, and stars are made in Genesis 1. The weekly sabbath is counted apart from the months by having an evening and a morning. Yahweh then added in the moon, the sun, and the stars for us to have annual observances. Our following these times shows the world that our God is Yahweh. Getting together on this day to have a set-apart assembly is a commandment, a blessing, and a sign. It gives us a pattern for our lives and keeps us grounded while we honor the creator. We look forward to seeing each other, sharing stories, a meal, and the Word of God. This is not a burden at all. Surrendering to Yahweh’s will and surrounding ourselves with those who do the same is a blessing. It shows our humility and our faith. You might even say it’s a sign 😊
Slide 8 After these things he (Paul) left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. (Act 18:1-4)
Here we are, three chapters after Acts 15, and Paul is reasoning with both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue on Shabbat. They were having holy convocations on the day the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob declared and that’s who Paul preached Yeshua to. Paul was working six days and resting, worshiping, and preaching on Shabbat. Just was it was in the beginning so it should be to this day. The Greeks had adopted the sign of Yahweh’s people by turning from their pagan holidays and practices and adopting the true worship commanded by Yahweh and exemplified by Yeshua, the Messiah, the Son of God. Paul preached to these people because they knew the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and would know about the Messiah.
I often give a message about how the holy days, if they had been kept properly by Israel, would have resulted in peace. Had the nation of Israel actually followed Torah as they were supposed to, there would have been a predictability to life through weekly and annual observances. They would have been blessed with an abundance to bring as offerings year after year and the society would have flourished. These things are components of Yahweh intends for us to have shalom like the peace of that first Sabbath in Eden. When sin entered the world, it spiraled out of control until Yahweh was sad He made mankind and He brought a violent end for all but Noah and his family. That violent end was the result of mankind defying Yahweh and being incredibly sinful. Brothers and sisters, we find ourselves in another time that looks very similar to then. And this all ties together with October 7, 2023. When Israelis and those from all over the earth were keeping both the weekly Sabbath and an annual Sabbath in Israel. They were observing Shemini Atzaret and make no mistake about it, American and all sorts of foreign Christians were they observing along with the Jewish people. They were trying to experience shalom, peace. And the evil ones came, Chamas, the violent ones. Their thoughts are evil continually. And they hate the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, and especially of Yeshua. So they attack on a day when they knew God’s people would be resting and they destroyed Yahweh’s rest.
Many have said there would be a Sunday law in the end times and that was the lawlessness of the end times. That never made sense to me because it isn’t “Sabbath-less-ness”, it’s comprehensive lawlessness. Today, though, I realize that keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days is indeed part of the present tribulation. I see lawlessness and a rejection of God entirely, like in the days of Noah. We see plainly how an enormous amount of people want to kill God’s people and bring pure lawlessness across the entire world. This isn’t limited to the middle east, as we have seen people protest in favor of the demons all over the world, even here in America. This makes no sense because those who killed Israelis and foreigners in Israel would absolutely love to kill us, too. But now we are seeing people go after Jews very publicly. Please realize that we look like Jews because we have been adopted into the family of God. We are God’s people and by adopting His signs, His Torah, His commandments, we are targets just like the Jews. However, we keep the Sabbath because it is the sign of God’s people. And it appears the world wants to kill God’s people. So maybe there was something to this commandment playing a role in the end times.
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