The Heart of God being Understood by His People Today

by John B. Metzger

What is the heart of God’s focused as it relates to us in the body of Messiah?  What is the mission of the Church?  What is the purpose of the Church?  If we under-stand those two points as God intended it to be understood in the Church we would be half way to restoring the spiritual vitality of the church as exhibited by the 1st century Church.  How was that exhibited by the apostles and disciples of Yeshua?

The Mission of the Church is to go and in your going teach and baptize and include in that teaching all that Yeshua has commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).  The mission of the Church is to go throughout the world and teach the Gospel of Messiah.  Simple enough

The Purpose of the Church is laid out by Paul.  Let me quote Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:11-12:

And He [God] gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelist; and some, pastors and teachers.  For the perfecting [maturing]
off the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ.

The Scriptures teach us that God gave us the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors and teachers.  Other gifts were given to the body, but these gifts are given for a specific purpose, please notice:

• For the maturing of the saints in their walk with the Lord.
• For the edifying or the spiritual building up of the body of Messiah.

What does that mean?  It is God desire now to be conforming us to the image of His Son which translates in our growing in spiritual maturity.  Humanly we come into the world as babes and grow into mature adults.  The same is true with our spiritual new birth, we come into the body of Messiah as new borns and we grow in our spiritual walk with the Lord as we mature spiritual in the Lord.  

Now with that foundation behind us, are we evangelizing both Jew and Gentile world for Messiah?  Or has our mission been abdicated and our Faith is not being regularly shared with others.  That is something that each one of us has to answer individually.  Remember it was said that these early Christian turned the world upside down, there are far more of us today, can it still be said?

In dealing with the purpose of the Church we will be looking at two distinct aspects.  It is the what and how that we will briefly discuss.  What is the purpose of the Church and in particular the local church?  Think of the contrast of the modern church and the 1st century church.  Is the purpose of the Church to:

• To save the world for Christ?  No, that is the mission of the church.
• To make it appealing to get sinners to come and be saved. No, the church is not for the unbelievers, but for the believers!
• Worship with all the different styles that are promoted today?  No
• To make people feel good and have a good religious experience?  No
• To give devotional or superficial messages?  No
• To have services depending on our generational preference?  No
• To do drama, skits or musicals with high tech amplification?  No
• To have 1000’s in attendance to satisfy their felt needs.  No

I could go on and on.  Some may have a place but they are not the purpose of the Church.  Go back and read Ephesians 4:11-12 again, its purpose is to bring a believer in Christ to spiritual maturity in their walk with God.  It is also to edify or to build up the body of Christ spiritually, to be conformed to the image of the Son.  Is that what is happening today in the Church?  No, there is lots of activity and millions of dollars spent but there is no spiritual growth being evidenced in the church today.  America is in total spiritual, moral and ethical decay.   All that the Church is doing today are secondary things and not primary, almost known of it is consistently living and walking in obedience to the God given purpose of the Church.  We today are in spiritual emergency and radical spiritual surgery must take place today by putting ourselves under the power of God’s spirit and the authority of God’s Word.

The second half of the above statement is the How.  We need to go back to the authority of the Scriptures and the proven results of Ephesians 4:11-12 that the apostles and disciples laid out before us in turning the world upside down for Christ.    Look at II Timothy 2:15and 3:16

Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness

At Ariel’s Camp Shoshanah we have a theme at the camp “Study hard, Grow strong” so that we can know the Messiah and grow before our Saviour.

I have said all this to say what is at the heart of God as He wrote the Scriptures through faithful men.  There are capable godly pastors who faithfully open the word of life Sunday after Sunday for which I praise the Living God.  Sadly, these men are few in the Church today and usually in smaller churches.  However, there is one critical aspect that is lacking in our churches as the Scriptures are opened.  I repeat this everywhere I go in speaking for Ariel Ministries to pastors, teachers and in people in the pew.  Namely:

• The Scriptures are Jewish
• The Culture of the Scriptures is Jewish
• The Customs in the Scriptures are Jewish
• The Authors of Scripture were Jewish
• Our Saviour was a Jew

Do we understand the ramifications of those five points above?  The Bible is a Jewish book written by Jewish men from a Jewish culture and from a Jewish frame of reference.  They were not Westerner Europeans or American’s; they were Jewish men from the Middle-East over 20 centuries ago.  Have we really taken the time to understand and to contemplate the ramification of those points?  

Historical we have been taught from a Gentile western perspective the Jewish Scriptures which went this thought is considered is completely paradoxical.  The Scriptures a Jewish!  Do we understand the Scriptures as God wrote them through the Jewish perspective?  But even conservative pastors when you speak of the Jewish perspective usually only show a surface interest, usually never taking it seriously.  I would love to ask a question in this article but I am afraid it would be met with objection.  There will always be difference of opinion among believers, but if the Scriptures were studied from a Jewish perspective there would not be the radical diversity of doctrines and theologies.  If the Church would study and present the Scriptures from a Jewish perspective using the literal interpretation there would not be Covenant Replacement theology, or Amillennial theology.  Yet these theologies [and others] have rooted themselves in the church and have taken the heart of God and His focus right out of the Scriptures and replaced it with their own theological bias.  Think about this for a moment:

• Who is the Creator of the Universe?  God
• Who is the Creator of Language?  God
• Who is the Author of Grammar?  God
• Who is Al-knowing?  God
• Who is completely Sovereign?  God
• Who is Al-sufficient? God

Now let me ask a final question, if the above are true, and they are, how is it that religious scholars who are over 2000 years removed from the events of the Hebrew Scriptures can say to the Creator of the Universe, Language and Grammar who is completely sovereign, Al-knowing and Al-sufficient that He has not communicated His Word correctly to man.  

Pause and think about that for a few minutes.   Reread it if necessary.

Here is man, the dust of the earth telling his Creator that He needs their inferior help in understanding and interpreting His word because they have rejected God’s Jewish frame of reference and have to re-interpret His Word so that it coincides with their theology which was developed hundreds of years ago to fit their theological bias.  

When the Scriptures are studied from the Jewish perspective that He wrote it in, it becomes exciting even spiritually thrilling as we begin to grasp from a Jewish perspective Who our God is from a depth that we have never saw before.  To understand with a new freshness His plan of redemption, the fulfillment of His promises [covenants] to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the background of all that is involved in His Love for us.  His word ceases to be dry, old, and irrelevant into being the most breath taking experience as we see the very heart of God in His love letter to mankind.