THE FOUNDATION
FOR JEWISH EVANGELISM
I want to speak first of the foundation for Jewish evangelism.
We need to know why it is so urgent and non-negotiable that
we preach the gospel to the Jews. Here, we confront face to face
the great truth claim of the gospel—that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One of Israel. The great dividing
line running throughout humanity is not between Jew and Gentile,
or between cultures, or between those of one socioeconomic
status or another. It is not geopolitical, educational, cultural, but it
is theological. The great dividing line that separates all humanity,
one from the other, comes down to the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul understood this. The great truth claim of the gospel
is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. It is an audacious claim.
It was established by Jesus Himself. It was authenticated by His
words. It was demonstrated in His deeds. It was the foundation of
His substitutionary death.
His Messiahship was vindicated by the Father in His resurrection.
The claim that Jesus is the Messiah is not only based on a clear
understanding of what, in the Old Testament, we were told by the
patriarchs and the prophets to expect. It was also what the angels
declared in Bethlehem when they spoke to the shepherds saying,
“For unto you a Child is born, a Son is given” (Isaiah 9:6), and the
words used by the angels on that night, we remember, were that
He was identified as “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
I got involved in an interesting theological dispute with a liberal a
few years ago. It was in Washington, D.C., and was at a conference
on the theological integrity of Baptist life. A man on the far left
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