It seems to me that we are currently in a very interesting position as followers of Jesus, and corporately as the church. How do we navigate a crisis so profound that no one is untouched, and life’s pattern is so dramatically altered? What impact does it have on our faith as individuals and on how this is expressed as churches?

I have heard many people talking about the situation as though it is an attack on the church and the freedom that we have, but I really don’t see things that way. Though the situation is so tragic and difficult, I think the best thing we can do is ask God what he wants to say to us and what he wants to do in our hearts. Because in the midst of every crisis God wants us to shine brighter with his love.

It is here that I find the intersection of my journey as a Jewish follower of Jesus/Yeshua, the book I wrote called The Jewish Jesus, and what I feel God wants to say to the Church worldwide, specifically the Western Church.

I’ll start with my journey today. Then, over the following two weeks, I will explore the relevant parts from my book and how they relate to what I think God wants to do in the Church.

My search for meaning

I didn’t come to faith through apologetics or persuasion, but through a radical and unexpected encounter with the living God that marked and changed me forever.

I grew up in a very academic and successful Jewish family in north London. Both my parents had pursued careers that were a blessing to others (medicine and teaching) and were fully engaged culturally with the arts and sciences.

We attended a Masorti synagogue, particularly for the high holidays, and celebrated all the Jewish festivals at home. I had my bar mitzvah at 13, as all Jewish boys do, learning to sing a large portion of the Torah for the occasion.

Nonetheless, I felt no sense of genuine spirituality, and being both extremely curious and allowed the freedom to think for myself, I began to seek the truth in all manner of places, from Buddhism, to magic, and all sorts of ‘New Age’ philosophies and ideas.

After a search that I found ultimately left me still feeling empty and even more confused, I gave up and just tried to live a ‘normal’ life. It was then that God seemed to come looking for me, like Adam in the garden. I found myself buying The Life of St Theresa of Avila by Herself, and as I opened and read a page I noticed something drop into my heart: a peace I couldn’t understand, which remained with me.

Like most Jewish people, the idea of becoming a Christian was alien to me, akin to joining the enemy. Overcoming the Gentile picture of Jesus historically painted by the church, and the damage done in his name to the Jewish people, is a major obstacle for most Jews.

I think this is partly why so many stories of Jewish people coming to faith in Yeshua contain these very supernatural elements – as though God were doing something to overcome those extra obstacles that have accumulated over the centuries.

God found me

A little while later I was living in a flat in Brixton, London, when the Holy Spirit came to visit me for a week, although at the time I didn’t understand it was him, having no context in which to understand the experience. Each night I found myself awash with this incredible sense of peace and light that was infiltrating and changing my heart, speaking to me about Jesus and transforming me from the inside out.

Midway through that week I found myself singing in what sounded like Arabic or some other foreign language, not knowing what this was at all, only that it felt amazing and I had a sense that I was praying something. Only years later did I understand that this was the gift of praying in tongues!

Each night I found myself awash with this incredible sense of peace and light that was infiltrating and changing my heart, speaking to me about Jesus and transforming me from the inside out.

I found myself so transformed I barely recognised the person I had become. I felt peace instead of turmoil, and compassion instead of irritation. I found myself talking to people about Jesus, without fully understanding why. I just knew God had touched me somehow.

I was still without any idea of church, or my need for a community. To be honest I had no frame of reference that told me I had even ‘become a Christian’, ‘got saved’, or stepped into a new identity. So I tried to carry on living my old life, but with this new identity operating beneath the surface. It was a recipe for disaster, as though I were being pulled simultaneously in opposite directions.

And so it was that eventually, after much confusion, internal conflict, and external damage to myself and others, God one day woke me with visions of a nearby town and took me out there that night, to what turned out to be an outreach meeting of a church whose actual base was round the corner from my home! No one invited me, and the whole experience was true to some of what we see in the Bible, for instance Peter’s vision regarding Cornelius and the Gentile believers.

One interesting footnote is that the person speaking was a great lover of Israel and the Jewish people, with a wonderful revelation about God’s covenants and purposes. It was no coincidence that God spoke to him about me and took me to that meeting on that exact day, at that exact time. I had never been to that town before, despite living in Brighton for a year. I only went as a result of that vision and the tug on my spirit that I couldn’t explain or deny.

A Jewish follower of Jesus

Fast forward all these years and I have been a part of this very church ever since. I have been a worship leader, got married there, and my wife and I became first young adult pastors, then associate pastors. Alongside teaching on Jewish roots and Israel, and preaching, I have led a lot of ministry focusing on how God helps us to become emotionally whole. For the last few years, together with caring for our two children, now five and eighteen months old, my wife and I have been responsible for the spiritual oversight for the church, along with the previous pastors.

The benefits of restoring the Jewish lens and context for our faith is not simply a blessing for me, but of huge relevance and importance for every follower of Jesus, whoever they may be.

This church was the only big church in Brighton that passionately embraced all of God’s plans for the Jewish people, God’s plans for Israel, and the Church’s role in helping to facilitate this. Yet even so, I found that as a young believer I needed to discover for myself what it meant to be a Jewish follower of Jesus. How did I square my spiritual understanding and pursuit of God with the cultural and religious heritage I carried? Was it still relevant in any way? Was I now a ‘Christian’ through and through, disconnected from all things Jewish?

As I explored these matters I began to understand the truth about the Jewish context of Jesus’ life and ministry, and the continuing relevance and purposes of Israel in God’s plans. The more I read, prayed, and studied, the more convinced I became of two things: first, as a Jewish follower of Jesus there was still a distinct – not better or worse – identity for me, and a biblically Jewish expression of my faith. And second, that the benefits of restoring the Jewish lens and context for our faith was not simply a blessing for me, but of huge relevance and importance for every follower of Jesus, whoever they might be.

This is what I want to look at next week.

Notes

David and his wife form part of the team responsible for the spiritual oversight of Citycoast Church, Brighton.  In David’s weekly resource 52 Sabbaths he unwraps a different aspect of the Sabbath each week, and looks at how we can apply it to our lives. Anyone can sign up for free. His book The Jewish Jesus is available at www.thejewishjesusbook.com. You can also find our review of it here.