British journalist W.N. Ewer wrote: “How odd of God to choose the Jews” and in response are the words: “But not as odd as those who choose a Jewish God and hate the Jew.”
Christian antisemitism is confounding. It is a terrible self-harm on the part of the church. In Genesis 12 the Lord chose Abraham and cut a covenant with him (Gen. 15) so that “through your offspring all the nations on earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 22:18) What does God’s intended blessing to the nations via the Jewish people look like? It looks like the days of the early church!
When we read Acts 2 we see the birth of the church at Pentecost. The church was exclusively Jewish. But the Great Commission, which was given to a Jewish group of followers, was for the gospel to go out to the whole world. We know from the narrative in Acts that the gospel got stuck in Jerusalem and Judea. So God gave the apostle Peter a dream in Acts 11 where he was told to eat unclean animals lowered down in a sheet from heaven. The point was not that bacon sandwiches taste great (even though they do!) but that the Good News was for everyone – Jew and gentile alike. After the dream Peter had a knock on his door and left to visit to the house of Cornelius … and many gentiles were added to the faith that day!
Jewish people still come to Jesus
There is something undeniably powerful about a personal testimony. It’s real, it’s living, and it carries the undeniable mark of …