For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Shalom and welcome to the Everlasting Nation broadcast, a radio ministry of International Board of Jewish Missions in Hickson, Tennessee. Now here's your host, IBJM Ministries Director, John Lawrence. Greetings, friends, and thank you for joining us today. I'm John Lawrence, the Director of Ministries at IBJM, your host for the program. We were talking in our last program about the anti-Semitic attacks that are on the rise in Europe, and particularly in France, related to the Gaza conflict between Israel and the Hamas. And the reaction of particularly Muslim groups in places like France where they are a rather sizable part of the population, about 10% in France. So, there have been these incidents in France which are on the rise. and, of course, have been on the rise for some years. But whenever you have this kind of eruption in the world between Israel and some other foe over there in the Middle East, it often aggravates the situation in these countries in Europe, and that's exactly what has happened in France. One young Muslim man who was interviewed, Ibrahim, and along with his friends who were out on the streets in front of a kind of an ugly tenement building on the north side of Paris, was talking about what his feelings were toward Israel. All of them were born in Paris, but they were born to Algerian parents, that is, parents who had immigrated from Algeria, but they told the reporters that they didn't feel French. That's an interesting observation. And there's a lot of that all over Europe where Muslim populations are not really integrated into the society for one reason or another. And he and his friends say that they did not participate in the recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations that kind of rocked Paris a short time back, but they resent what they describe as discrimination towards them. And of course, they then blame others, and therein lies the problem. And particularly, they blame the Jews for the resulting lack of opportunities that they seem to have. Now, keep in mind that France has a 12% or thereabouts unemployment rate, and that rate is much higher among the youth of the country, and particularly among the Arab youth. When it comes to jobs, these young people say, it's the whites first, then the Jews, and we're the last, along with the blacks, one of them said. Another puts it more bluntly and says, we're Arabs, and Arabs do not like Jews. And of course, there's a lot of truth in that statement as well. More generally in France, academics and a lot of policymakers are starting to worry about what they describe as the gradual creep of Holocaust denial at the same time as this eruption in anti-Semitism has arisen. And there's kind of an obscure conspiracy theory known as negationism that's becoming more mainstream now in the country. that particularly denies the Holocaust, and it's particularly spreading in the rather depressed suburbs, that that kind of thing never really happened. Mr. Samuels, the man we talked about who's the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, believes that anti-Semitism is becoming more ingrained in France, and that's dangerous. This week he wrote a letter to the Interior Minister asking him to change the name of a hamlet near Paris because he and other Jews found it offensive. You know what the name of the hamlet or the town is? It's called La Mort aux Juifs, which means death to the Jews. That's actually the name of the town. So when questioned about this request from the Jewish community, the deputy mayor of the area said, well, why should we change a name that goes back to the Middle Ages or even further? We should respect these old names. So there you see a little bit of the attitude even among certain of the leadership in France. There's all these attitudes floating around, and there's a lot of Jews in France, 600,000, but they're still a minority. Many have started to talk with the Jewish Agency for Israel. That's an agency that encourages immigration to Israel, and more than 1,400 French Jews immigrated to Israel between January of this year and the end of March. That's four times the number than during the first quarter of last year, 2013. So you see where all that is headed. Thank you for listening today. Pray for the Jewish community in Europe, France in particular, for their safety, and that the Lord will provide opportunities to also share the gospel with them. We have several missionaries there as well. Thank you for listening, and let's now tune in to Brother Mark Oshman with today's Bible message. Thank you for joining our radio Bible study. Some people have questions why Christians need to witness to the Jewish people. Over the course of the next several minutes, we will examine the underlying reason behind evangelizing the Jews. According to the 16th chapter of Mark's gospel, the resurrected Jesus Christ appeared to his inner circles of disciples. He told them to, quote, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, unquote. His words comprise the mandate, not a suggestion. In other words, reaching the entire world with the gospel is not optional for Christians. It's required. In fact, the scriptures specifically mandate that Christians ought to evangelize the Jewish people they encounter. Here are major reasons for Christians to do so. In the first place, God regards the Jewish people as spiritually dead. In the 10th chapter of Romans, Paul expounded upon this subject, writing, quote, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, unquote. In the 8th chapter of the book of Amos, God spoke through that prophet, declaring, quote, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." In the fourth chapter of Hosea, God stated what the result of that spiritual dearth would be. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Contemporary Judaism differs greatly from Old Testament Judaism. Jews today bring no sacrificial offerings to God. They have neither a temple nor a tabernacle. They have neither a high priest nor a priesthood. They have neither an offering nor a sacrifice to give God. In other words, the Jewish people today lack a means of becoming reconciled to God. Therefore, they need to be reconciled to God. Peter stated the matter clearly when he stood before a Jewish council, as recorded in the fourth chapter of Acts. He told these Jews, quote, neither is there salvation in any other. for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Needless to say, Peter referred to Jesus Christ. The Savior evangelized the Jews himself, and he commanded his followers to do likewise. According to Matthew chapter 15, He told a Seraphim woman, quote, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, unquote. With rare exceptions, he interacted primarily with the Jewish people. As he told the woman of Samaria in John chapter 4, quote, Salvation is of the Jews." Thus, Christians who do not share the gospel with their Jewish acquaintances cannot truthfully claim to follow Jesus Christ. In the first chapter of Acts, the Lord informed his disciples that they would be witness unto him, beginning at Jerusalem and Judea, and ultimately going out into the uttermost parts of the earth. Those early followers exercised such diligence in performing that task that the Jewish high priest in Acts chapter 5 exclaimed to Peter and John, quote, He hath filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, unquote. The early Christians evangelized the Jews in their midst and commanded other Christians to do likewise. According to the 11th chapter of Acts, those early Christians originally evangelized, quote, none but the Jews only, unquote. Peter gave the first gospel message ever preached to the Jews of Judea and Jerusalem, an incident recorded in the second chapter of Acts. Even though Paul was called as an apostle to the Gentiles, he went into synagogues and evangelized the Jewish people everywhere he traveled. As Paul informed the Jews of Pisidian Antioch in Acts chapter 13, quote, by him, that is Jesus Christ, by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses, unquote. In the third chapter of his first epistle, Peter exalted his readers, quote, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, unquote. when the opportunity to share the gospel with a Jewish person presents itself. Will you respond to God's leading and take that opportunity? Some people might say that it's not necessary to preach the gospel to the Jewish people, or it's fruitless to preach the gospel to the Jewish people. An earlier series of broadcasts about objections to the gospel by Jews actually dealt with a few of these potential contentions. The following paragraphs present several of the major arguments advanced and suggested responses. A person might ask, for instance, wouldn't the covenant God made with Abraham be sufficient for the Jewish people so that they can maintain fellowship with God? The proper response to that question is no. In the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, God declared that he would make a new covenant with the Jewish people. unlike the agreement he previously had with them. A changed situation necessitated a different covenant. Suppose you were an Israelite at the foot of Mount Sinai, awaiting the return of Moses. When Moses brought down the Ten Commandments, would you have protested? Would you have said, we don't need any of that legalism. We already have an agreement with God and a covenant with God through Abraham. Not when you and your compatriots had already declared that, quote, all that the Lord had spoken we will do, unquote. On that occasion, in Exodus chapter 19, you would have explicitly acknowledged that a new relationship with God, namely Israel being God's peculiar people, a new relationship with God required a new covenant. What argument then would you have against another new relationship with God? Namely, save Jews and save Gentiles, both becoming a part of the body of Christ. Many Christians hesitate to evangelize the Jewish people because they believe that Jews are especially resistant to the gospel. Some Jews indeed believe that Christianity harbors an inner resentment toward Judaism and Jews. They might cite the Holocaust as the latest and largest of the anti-Jewish outrages perpetrated by Christians. In their arguments, they might include the Crusades and mob outbreaks in Europe as examples of lawlessness tolerated, if not promoted. by various Christian groups against the Jews in their midst. Noam Chomsky, a noted philologist and a Jew, recently stated that the apparent Christian support for Israel had its motivations in Christians wanting to see Jews slaughtered at Armageddon. Christians need to inform their Jewish friends that neither Jesus Christ nor the early Christians ever fostered hostilities toward Jews. Not everyone who calls himself a Christian necessarily follows Jesus Christ. To those who claim to be such yet do not do according to what Jesus Christ has commanded, Jesus Christ himself would say, quote, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity." A passage found in the seventh chapter of Matthew. Even though the Apostle Paul served as a focal point of Jewish hatred, he still loved the Jewish people. According to the ninth chapter of Romans, he even wished that God could curse him, if possible, if such an action would result in the salvation of his Jewish kinsmen. Some Christians might argue that evangelizing Jewish people is too costly, yielding sparse results. They might ask, quote, why spend time and effort evangelizing a group composed of over several millions, that is the Jews, while downplaying the importance of reaching larger numbers of people with the gospel, such as Hindus or Buddhists, unquote. There's another way to phrase that argument, quote, why present the gospel to someone who has heard it once, Jewish people, instead of witnessing to those who have never heard the gospel." What verse of the New Testament ever established a monetary priority regarding converts? Everyone, whether Jew or Gentile, everyone possesses an immortal soul of infinite value in God's sight. An unsaved Jew, therefore, has as much worth to God as an unsaved Hindu or an unsaved Buddhist? Do Testament Christians did not believe in or practice sowing the seeds of the gospel where they could get more bang for the buck, so to speak? Was Paul wrong for going to Asia Minor in Europe instead of going to, say, India to preach the gospel? Surely, James could have written to a larger audience than, quote, the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. in his epistle. But these men remained faithful stewards, laboring where God had placed them. God has put every believer in a special area of his harvest field. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, As stewards, Christians need to remain faithful to God's calling. Jewish people comprise part of the worldwide mission field. Don't neglect the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Thank you for listening to this radio program. Please come back and listen to future broadcasts. You've been listening to the Everlasting Nation Broadcast, a radio ministry of International Board of Jewish Missions. For more information, you can write us at P.O. Box 1386, Hickson, Tennessee, 37343. Or call us at 423-876-8150. Or you may also go online at ibjm.org. Until next time, may God bless and shalom.