Messiah Mitzvot Part 1
Messiah Mitzvot • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Precept One
Precept One
I heard Prophet Kevin Leal ask the following questions:
Was Yeshua, the Son of God, Jewish?
So, is the Father Jewish?
When Jesus returns will He still be Jewish?
Let me ask you these questions:
If indeed Jesus Christ was the Jewish Messiah, was He also the Christian Messiah? The word “Christian” found in the New Testament (Brit Chadasha) is christianos Χριστιανός meaning “Follower of the Christ”.
Keep in mind that there is no equivalent word for “Christian” in the Tanakh (Old Testament). The closest is that referring to “The Messiah”. And what we call Christianity has become more cultural than spiritual. Most people in the church are more culturally Christian than they are spiritually Christian. Again, Prophet Leal states, “The most spiritually prophetic thing Christians do on Sunday is decide which restaurant to go to.”
The truth is, if He was one or the other, He was indeed both. He was Messiah to the Jew and Gentile. He was Messiah for all mankind. If He was Messiah, then He indeed was the Son (bar בַּר in Aramaic meaning only begotten son of old) of Adonai because there is not another Creator. There is only one Creator. And because there is only one Creator there could be only one mediator between God and man for the reconciliation and propitiation of our sin.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Therefore, the Christ brought salvation to both the Jew and Gentile. If this be true, what was the salvation He brought? Was it that the Jew could renounce his Judaism? Was it that the Gentile must find salvation in Judaism? Was it that the “Christian” might find justification for continuing to live ethically lawless never knowing true righteousness?
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Further more, what is “The Gospel”?
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,
The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
To answer some of these questions and validate some of these statements, in this series we will look at four foundational precepts of Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha Mashiach ישוע המשיח). Embracing these precepts will strengthen our understanding of what it means to follow the Christ; deepen our relational walk with Christ; and assist you in fulfilling your ministry (serving; work עֲבֹדָה ‘avodah) anointing (assignment מִשְׁחָה mishhah).
Before we can look at these precepts we must bring Biblical clarity to the definition of a “precept”.
The Hebrew word for “precept” is actually piqqudim פִּקּוּדִים meaning a charge, commandment, mandate, statute or law, instruction and procedures. (Psalm 19:8; Psalm 103:18; Psalms 119)
There is another word used in conjunction which is mitzvah מִצְוָה meaning commandment, obligation or prescribed terms. It may also refer to traditions. (Genesis 26:5; Exodus 15:26; Leviticus 22:31)
Many of you have already shut down on me because it does not matter if I give you the word in Greek, Hebrew, Latin or English, our flesh does not like to be commanded by anyone or anything. But the entire Kingdom of God functions by the commands of God. Until you are able to receive instruction and correction to the commands of God, you will never fully understand being a follower of the Christ and you will fail in the fulfillment of your ordained destiny.
So, let’s look at the first precept of Jesus we see spoken by Yeshua Himself.
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”
The first command we see Yeshua give is to “Follow Him.” But what did He really mean?
We see the word “follow” in translation in Leviticus 18:4
You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God.
The word used here is asa עָשָׂה meaning to perform; to observe; to do; to be made; to be used; to commit; to be pressed and squeezed. In the context of the Law of God, we are to do them, observe them, commit to them, be molded, shaped, pressed and squeezed by them. But there is another word used here and it is “walk” or halak הָלַךְ.
Another word for “follow” is found in 1 Samuel 12:14 and it is ahar אָחַר meaning to stand behind or go after like being guarded.
However, the word used by Yeshua, in Matthew 16:24 and Matthew 10:38
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Jesus uses the word Halak הָלַךְ meaning to live; a manner of life. How you live is a form of worship from the beginning (Genesis 2:7).
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Man became a “living soul” (לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה le-nephesh chayah). This was the breath or Spirit (ruach רוּחַ) of God quickening alive the soul of man breathing the life of God (The Christ; the way, truth and life; John 14:6) within him.
Genesis 2:7 says God “formed” man from the dust. “Dust” is the word apar עָפָר meaning more than just dirt but also mortar or ore. It is said that there are at least 60 detectable chemical elements of the human body makeup. At least ten of them are metals. This means there was that which all things were created from but only you were formed by His hands and His breath. This was original substance (tohu - that which is spoken and created from nothing) was created by His spoken Words.
“Formed” here implies more than making pottery with some water and dirt. Dr. Wheeler states, “it is וַיִּיצֶר vayetzar.” The vav means “and”. The first yod means He, the root is created. Dr. Wheeler states, “The daghesh inside the yod means there is a doubling of the “y” sound. This historically means the Father and the Son as found in John 1:1.” The letter yod means “hand” but also means “Jew”. And in this word “form” there are two yods. One represents the Father and the other the Messiah. The fullness of God formed you as He told Jeremiah and Jacob. God did not half way form you, He fully formed you in His likeness and image. But sin, changed your form and took away your breath.
So, the first precept of Christ is to “Follow”. This means more than just trailing behind someone. It is more than just saying you are affiliated with them. It means you must contain the breath that He breathed. It means you must take on His form of nature and character. Anyone can have good character but it does not mean they have the Christ. You must live the way He lived. You must worship in Spirit as He worshipped. You must love as He loved.
Let me show you something about the word “born” in Hebrew. In context, it is the word va-ye-valed וַיִּוָּלֵד meaning to be born, bring forth, brought up or delivered. The root is valed meaning “boy” as in “unto us a child was born and unto us a son is given (Is. 9:6).” Here you see two vavs. Vav is a picture of man. Again, Dr. Wheeler states, “Here we see once again the daghesh representing the Father and the Son. But we have two vavs, one is the Son of Man given for man. The lamed means “to” or “moving toward” and the dalet represents the door, the only way to the Father is through the Son.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Look here what He says. You were separated from the Christ and in the world without God. But Christ came to you and destroyed the hostility, the enmity, within your flesh that you once had towards the commandments of God. But through Christ, there is no longer Jew and Gentile but we are one in Christ. And now, through the blood of Christ, you can be born of the Spirit of God and love the Law of God, the way, that is it written and shapes your heart, the essence of who you are in your inner most being.
As you abide in Christ you are newly formed as a new creation, a new conception takes place in the covenant of the blood of the Christ. You are “Born Again”. Some of you may feel spiritually dead. You feel this way because the cares, the weight, the heaviness of living life in this world has deformed you again. You need to be “Born Again”.
I believe the power of the Holy Spirit can reveal to you a deeper understanding to awaken and deepen your connection with Christ when you grab hold of what it truly means to be born again and follow. You cannot follow without being born again, born of the Spirit.
