Paul’s Address to the Jews at Rome
Bible Passage: Acts 28:23-28
In the last chapter of Acts, Paul was determined to go to Rome to preach the gospel even in chains. It is highly remarkable, that a person who was once a staunch Pharisee and scholar would be the enemy of what will be known as Judaism today.
According to Judaism information online, pillars of Judaism are the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud (oral law). The Talmud to them is the authoritative text that expounds and explains the teachings in the Bible. The Pharisees wrote the Talmud and thus Judaism today is the faith of the Pharisees.
During the time of Jesus and the apostles, there were three Jewish religious forces at play. The Pharisees, Sadducees and Christianity (mocked as the Sect of the Nazarenes). The Pharisees were at loggerheads with the Sadducees and with Christianity.
From what is written in the website, Judaism today do not believe the necessity of the temple and they like Christians believe that they can pray ‘directly’ to God but the big difference is that they do not acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah who died for their sins. They and the Sadducees do not believe in Jesus and cannot accept that the Messiah had to come in such humble background and have to be stricken for our sins.
The Sadducees on the other hand came from the order of the priest and to them temple worship was key in their faith. They on the other hand do not believe in resurrection like the Pharisees and Christianity. Christianity is in the ‘middle ground’; or rather Christianity embraces the complete Truth.
The key tenants of Christianity is having faith in resurrection and having faith in Jesus the Messiah who was the sacrificial lamb. Jesus came to be the once and for all sacrificial lamb and through faith in Him, we can have forgiveness of sins. It is now not necessary to have a physical temple for our sins to be atoned for Jesus is our High Priest in heaven.
Not surprisingly, the sect of the Sadducees became extinct after the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD. More surprisingly, Judaism now believes that it is not necessary for atonement of sins through the blood of animals and that it is possible to have sins forgiven by God without faith in Jesus.
Therefore it becomes very hard to preach Jesus to them as the Talmud says otherwise regarding to the Law in the Bible.
Paul with all his heart and the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated from the Hebrew Bible that Jesus was the Messiah. Using the prophetic books the the law of Moses,
Paul was able to prove to these Jews that Jesus was the Messiah and that He came to redeem not a physical Israel but a spiritual kingdom of Israel. Some of the Jews believed while others could not agree to it. Paul then told them that salvation would go to the gentiles.
Such proclamation is very true today as there are hardly any Jewish Christians today and Christianity is a religion of the ‘gentiles’.
Today, we would have to thank God tremendously for such Grace. The Bible says that we as wild olives were grafted to the natural olives and today become spiritual Jews. The physical Jews have rejected Jesus, whom God has sent for their salvation and atonement for sins and given this salvation to us.
Likewise, we have to be like Paul, to courageously preach the gospel of salvation to the ends of the world regardless of race or religion. Paul’s great love for Jesus, his people and ‘us’ are admirable. He paid the ultimate price in doing so.
“Because of unbelief they (Jews) were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Rom 11:20-24)
In conclusion,
“For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16)
Such is the mentality of Paul that drives him to preach everywhere, in all conditions and in utmost perseverance!