The Jewish roots of Christianity

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Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

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Episode: “Jewish Context”
As a boy, Yeshua came to the Temple to offer sacrifices. Later, after being tempted by Satan, He became the sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Interview: Karen Davis, Worship Director of Kehilat HaCarmel (Carmel Congregation).
Series: “Close Encounters with Yeshua”
This ten-program series focuses on how Jesus/Yeshua supernaturally came and ministered on Earth, and today calls all mortals to draw near to Him. David and Kirsten Hart introduce each episode from the studio, while Myles and Katharine Weiss teach in Israel, using dramatic re-enactments and interviews with Believers about their journeys to faith in Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah.

Caption transcript for Close Encounters with Yeshua: “Jewish Context” (3/10)

  • 00:01 I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 00:02 Welcome to Zola Levitt Presents
  • 00:04 And I'm David Hart.
  • 00:05 Today, on "Close Encounters with Yeshua"
  • 00:07 Myles is teaching at the Southern Steps in Jerusalem.
  • 00:10 And we have another wonderful reenactment using an Israeli actor
  • 00:15 who is a Priest who has an encounter with the young Yeshua.
  • 00:19 Plus, we have an interview
  • 00:21 with the Carmel Congregation Worship Leader.
  • 00:24 Stay with us.
  • 00:35 It was not long ago our first encounter
  • 00:36 on the waters of the Galilee.
  • 00:38 My hand is completely restored.
  • 00:41 He said, Your faith has saved you.
  • 00:44 I've heard Yeshua speak in our synagogue.
  • 00:48 He talked about the Kingdom of God.
  • 00:51 Then He showed us His wounds in His hands and His feet.
  • 00:54 I believe He really is a King.
  • 01:09 Shalom Havarim,
  • 01:10 Hello Friends.
  • 01:11 And welcome to our program.
  • 01:12 I'm Myles Weiss
  • 01:13 And I'm Katharine Weiss.
  • 01:15 And we want to welcome you to our series,
  • 01:16 "Close Encounters with Yeshua"
  • 01:18 Yeshua is the Hebrew way of saying Jesus.
  • 01:20 And it is our desire to present Jesus in His Jewish identity.
  • 01:25 Yeah, all the prophecies from the Hebrew Bible,
  • 01:27 all the stories in a Jewish context.
  • 01:29 He was born into a Jewish community
  • 01:32 and now in our day people are confronting that.
  • 01:34 It's beginning to become a reality around the world.
  • 01:36 Right, right.
  • 01:37 I mean, I love it.
  • 01:39 He came to a low place because He doesn't
  • 01:41 want anyone to every say that Jesus can't identify with us
  • 01:45 in the most humble beginnings that we have.
  • 01:47 He was born in Bethlehem,
  • 01:49 grew up in Nazareth.
  • 01:50 And it was said that nothing good could come out of Nazareth.
  • 01:53 But yet in that time and in that place
  • 01:56 He grew with God in wisdom and in stature
  • 01:59 and in favor with God it says in Luke 2:52
  • 02:02 That's true.
  • 02:03 And we see that the names, the context, the places,
  • 02:06 if you put them all back in their Hebrew context
  • 02:08 you see, for example, His mother's name is Miriam,
  • 02:11 His brothers Yokov, Yosef, Shimon, Yehuda...
  • 02:14 I mean that's a Jewish family.
  • 02:16 So let's go now to a drama.
  • 02:17 We're going to look at what it would be like
  • 02:20 for the doctors of the law, the priests, the rabbis, the wisdom guys;
  • 02:23 what would it be like for them to confront this young man and to
  • 02:27 try to understand who He is.
  • 02:29 Let's go there now.
  • 02:40 I've seen him before on occasion.
  • 02:45 At least once a year He comes here
  • 02:47 to Jerusalem with His family at Pesach, as do I.
  • 03:04 Such was the case this year.
  • 03:09 He was here in the Temple every day,
  • 03:11 for 4 or 5 days listening closely to what we had to say.
  • 03:19 We don't see children his age confronting our precepts with such...spirit.
  • 03:28 He has such keen insight,
  • 03:32 asking us questions that left us speechless.
  • 03:36 His name is "Yeshua"... "Salvation".
  • 03:43 An astonishing young man.
  • 03:47 I honestly was concerned about him after a few days
  • 03:50 because he was no longer with his parents.
  • 03:52 It turns out that caravan was on it's way back to Nazareth
  • 03:57 then they suddenly realized he was not among their friends.
  • 04:01 Upon their return here I overheard his mother scold him,
  • 04:05 only to hear him say that he was simply concerned about his father's affairs.
  • 04:14 I believe he was referring to Adonai, his Heavenly Father.
  • 04:23 His parents didn't seem to understand, nor do I.
  • 04:35 But it does make me wonder.
  • 04:56 Even from a young age
  • 04:58 the authority that Yeshua walked in
  • 04:59 caused many to wonder about him.
  • 05:01 Could he be who he seemed to be?
  • 05:03 In Luke 2:42 we see him coming up with His family
  • 05:07 to keep the Feast of Passover.
  • 05:09 And again, this for us puts such
  • 05:12 a Jewish cultural context around His life.
  • 05:15 It seems odd that through the centuries
  • 05:18 that was stripped away
  • 05:20 and that this religion became such an other
  • 05:23 when it's so obviously a Jewish context.
  • 05:25 I mean, we're here on the Southern Steps of the Temple.
  • 05:28 Behind me you can see the Holy Gates,
  • 05:31 the gates through which the pilgrims would enter.
  • 05:33 They would come up from the South and enter
  • 05:35 to go in to bring the sacrifice into the Temple itself.
  • 05:39 The Jewishness of Jesus is on the horizon.
  • 05:42 It is being known and noised abroad throughout the world right now.
  • 05:46 In fact, many of the archaeological
  • 05:48 discoveries that are coming up right now
  • 05:50 are 1st century discoveries verifying the reality
  • 05:54 of Jesus as a Jewish person.
  • 05:56 We must understand that.
  • 05:58 The pilgrims would come up 3 times a year
  • 06:01 for the Shalosh Regulim, the Pilgrim Feasts.
  • 06:04 They would come for Passover.
  • 06:06 Then again, for Shavuot and
  • 06:07 finally at the 7th Feast of the year,
  • 06:09 the 3rd biggest one,
  • 06:11 and that is Tabernacles, or Succoth.
  • 06:14 His parents were keeping those Feasts.
  • 06:17 Yeshua was with them because they were an observant family.
  • 06:21 The Temple was the center of all Jewish life at the time.
  • 06:24 And so they were keeping the faithfulness of what they had learned from
  • 06:28 Leviticus 23, where it's mandated that we come up 3 times a year
  • 06:33 to bring sacrifices before the Lord.
  • 06:36 Yeshua as a young person, 12 years old when he was here,
  • 06:41 In Luke 2:42 we read,
  • 06:46 Now some people would like to say
  • 06:47 that was a bar mitzvah
  • 06:49 but we believe the actual form of bar mitzvah
  • 06:51 developed later in the centuries.
  • 06:53 But there was a time of dedication,
  • 06:55 a time of coming to majority.
  • 06:58 As a young person the sacrifice would be a turtle dove.
  • 07:01 But when he became a man it would be a lamb.
  • 07:05 and so that all took place right within these walls.
  • 07:08 The money was exchanged.
  • 07:10 The shekelim were changed for Temple tax
  • 07:13 and they would go up and sacrifice.
  • 07:15 And here's the irony and the beauty of this story.
  • 07:19 This place which eventually after His death, burial and resurrection
  • 07:23 would become the place where the Church would be born,
  • 07:26 the community of faith would be born.
  • 07:28 Now think about this, 12 year old Yeshua
  • 07:30 interacting with the doctors of the Law,
  • 07:33 with the wise men in the Temple.
  • 07:35 And who was he?
  • 07:37 As a 12 year old He came up with a turtle dove.
  • 07:39 But he would soon be coming up with a lamb.
  • 07:42 And he would eventually become the Lamb of God.
  • 07:53 The steps to the Temple are purposefully uneven.
  • 07:56 You can't just run up here in your own strength.
  • 07:58 It takes a thoughtful glance and a time to
  • 08:02 contemplate the ways of God, the holiness of God.
  • 08:04 Because the Psalms of Ascent were sung as the pilgrims would come up to the Temple.
  • 08:09 And so it's just an odd feeling.
  • 08:12 You're checked, you're out of balance,
  • 08:14 your aware of your own frailty before a Holy God.
  • 08:17 And it's on purpose built that way.
  • 08:20 This whole scene, this whole picture of the Temple
  • 08:23 back in the day.
  • 08:25 If you could picture the pilgrims thronging up
  • 08:27 through the Holy Gates
  • 08:29 and the amazing press of people ready to
  • 08:33 come for the sacrifices in the Temple.
  • 08:37 Yeshua was a controversial character from 12 years old on.
  • 08:42 And the idea that He might be the prophet
  • 08:47 that Moses spoke of was always in the background.
  • 08:55 And there had to be parallels between Moses and Yeshua.
  • 08:57 And there were many.
  • 08:59 One of the things that is so incredible to me is that
  • 09:02 the New Agers who are looking at the
  • 09:04 18 silent years between 12 and 30,
  • 09:07 imagining that Yeshua went off to study in the East or something.
  • 09:11 That's totally inconsistent with the Jewish way of life.
  • 09:15 Remember, the cultural context,
  • 09:17 the historical context,
  • 09:19 the family context,
  • 09:21 the Torah based context,
  • 09:22 is completely Jewish.
  • 09:24 Those 12 years, those 18 years
  • 09:27 when Yeshua was not spoken of
  • 09:29 between age 12 and age 30
  • 09:31 when He began His ministry,
  • 09:33 were the years where He grew in stature,
  • 09:35 in favor with wisdom from God
  • 09:38 and He was growing as a person,
  • 09:40 as a business person,
  • 09:41 as a carpenter, stonemason working in His Dad's business
  • 09:44 and preparing for the release into ministry.
  • 09:47 And that's why when He would come up as a man
  • 09:51 He would bring a lamb with Him.
  • 09:53 Picture this...
  • 09:54 The Lamb of God bringing a lamb up for sacrifice
  • 09:58 knowing where He would be going one day.
  • 10:02 And that's what Yeshua would do,
  • 10:04 Jesus Himself.
  • 10:05 And then we see Him going out to the desert
  • 10:08 down south from here to be baptized, immersed
  • 10:12 by [speaking Hebrew], His cousin, John the Immerser, the Baptister.
  • 10:16 John the Immerser saw Him; he said,
  • 10:19 [Speaking Hebrew]
  • 10:27 John had the revelation that the One who previously
  • 10:30 would take a lamb up to the Temple
  • 10:33 was become, had become and will forever be
  • 10:36 the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
  • 10:39 That call went out 2,000 years ago but
  • 10:42 the call is still going out today.
  • 10:44 Even here in modern busy Jerusalem
  • 10:47 the call is going out to all who would believe
  • 10:50 that Jesus is the Lamb of God.
  • 11:04 Our offer on this program,
  • 11:06 "Sons of Israel"
  • 11:08 3 DVDs featuring the teaching of
  • 11:10 Zola Levitt on location in Israel.
  • 11:14 This 9 part series chronicles the
  • 11:16 fascinating lives of
  • 11:18 some of God's key men
  • 11:20 from Abraham, Moses and David
  • 11:23 to the Messiah and the Apostles.
  • 11:25 An informative and stunningly beautiful history
  • 11:28 of the people God chose
  • 11:30 and the special men among them
  • 11:33 that He used for His purposes.
  • 11:35 A 9 part series on 3 DVDs,
  • 11:38 "Sons of Israel".
  • 11:42 Hi, my name is Belinda Moon
  • 11:44 and I'm a 2nd generation contributor to Zola Levitt Ministries.
  • 11:48 My parents supported the ministry and
  • 11:50 I found it when Myles and Katharine came on board.
  • 11:53 Through their teaching I have learned a lot
  • 11:55 about the Bible and why it's important
  • 11:58 for me to stand with Israel.
  • 11:59 Please join me in supporting this ministry.
  • 12:09 If you're thinking about visiting the Holy Land
  • 12:12 come on a Zola Tour
  • 12:14 where the Scriptures come to life
  • 12:16 as you get teaching from a Messianic perspective.
  • 12:19 Our Spring Tour goes to Israel and Petra.
  • 12:22 In the fall you can add a cruise of Greece and Ephesus.
  • 12:26 Come to Israel.
  • 12:28 See the Jewish roots of your faith.
  • 12:30 Call us at 1-800-WONDERS
  • 12:33 or click on the levitt.com/tourinfo
  • 12:41 I know we are new faces to many of you today
  • 12:43 but we would love to host you
  • 12:46 on a Zola Levitt Tour.
  • 12:48 You can find all the information on levitt.com
  • 12:50 We have tours in the fall and the spring.
  • 12:53 We would love for you to join us.
  • 12:54 Every year we go on tour.
  • 12:56 We love going to the Land of Israel
  • 12:58 but I have to be honest,
  • 12:59 one of our favorite things
  • 13:00 is to see our son Ryan who lives in Jerusalem.
  • 13:04 He moved there this past August.
  • 13:06 We love seeing him there but we love God's Land.
  • 13:09 And now, let's go to our dramatic reenactment
  • 13:12 of a 1st Century encounter with Yeshua.
  • 13:26 I'm told that the words of the Prophet Isaiah
  • 13:28 were read today in our synagogue.
  • 13:33 [Speaking Hebrew]
  • 13:53 Apparently it was read perfectly by Yeshua Ben Yosef.
  • 13:58 I've known Yosef for years.
  • 14:00 He's a simple carpenter.
  • 14:02 And his son Yeshua seems to be a fine man,
  • 14:07 blessed with special wisdom.
  • 14:12 Reports are that Yeshua had a
  • 14:14 remarkable immersion in the River Jordan recently
  • 14:18 where the heavens opened up and the
  • 14:21 very voice of Adonai was heard.
  • 14:26 After His reading, Yeshua proclaimed
  • 14:28 that the Words of Isaiah had been fulfilled.
  • 14:33 Good News for the poor,
  • 14:35 the imprisoned,
  • 14:38 the blind.
  • 14:41 I want to believe it,
  • 14:44 I really do.
  • 14:46 But here in Nazareth
  • 14:48 we need to see it first.
  • 14:51 Then we believe.
  • 15:05 Katharine - You know, I love how archaeologists
  • 15:07 and how science are validating the Word of God.
  • 15:10 We as believers know that the Word is true.
  • 15:13 But it's so amazing how the stones are
  • 15:15 testifying of our Lord and of our Savior and
  • 15:18 of the time of His birth,
  • 15:20 and of His identity as a Jewish man.
  • 15:22 Myles - Yes, science and faith are finally coming together.
  • 15:25 I like to say that the headlines are
  • 15:27 catching up to the Bible.
  • 15:29 Right.
  • 15:30 Now Yeshua was 30 years old
  • 15:31 when He officially began His ministry.
  • 15:33 And it was after the baptism,
  • 15:34 south of here,
  • 15:36 when He the Ruach [Spirit] led Him into the wilderness.
  • 15:38 Right, well it was after the baptism with John
  • 15:40 that He was immersed and then when He came out
  • 15:43 it says that the Holy Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.
  • 15:46 God, Himself, allowed Himself to be tempted as a man so that
  • 15:51 He could take back everything that the devil stole in the Garden.
  • 15:54 He came to Eve and he said,
  • 15:56 "Hath God said"
  • 15:58 and he took the Word of God and he twisted it
  • 16:01 for his own advantage to get her to act out independent from God.
  • 16:06 God wants us to be in Him,
  • 16:09 dependent upon Him,
  • 16:11 and filled with the Holy Spirit
  • 16:13 enabled by the Word of God
  • 16:15 to continue to overcome with what He's already overcome for us.
  • 16:18 Exactly,and there was another parallel with Moses.
  • 16:20 Just as Moses went up to Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights,
  • 16:24 Yeshua was in the wilderness
  • 16:26 tempted by the Devil for 40 days and 40 nights.
  • 16:29 And He never broke.
  • 16:31 In fact, He spoke "It is written"
  • 16:33 back to the enemy
  • 16:35 in order to correct him.
  • 16:36 And it is our weapon as well.
  • 16:37 That's it, that's the weapon of our warfare.
  • 16:39 The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God and
  • 16:42 it's the thing that enables us
  • 16:44 to bring down the lies that come against our mind,
  • 16:47 the lies that the enemy brings
  • 16:49 against who we are,
  • 16:50 our position in God,
  • 16:52 our destiny, and
  • 16:53 even our security.
  • 16:55 God has so secured us in Himself.
  • 16:58 He took every test that we could ever face.
  • 17:01 And He's faced it for us.
  • 17:02 So if we go to Him
  • 17:04 He will overcome through His own life in us.
  • 17:08 Yeah, in fact, the last temptation was back up on the Temple
  • 17:12 when the Devil brought Him up to the pinnacle here.
  • 17:14 But I tell you, this testing soul, spirit, body
  • 17:18 was testing in everything that we are cause we're
  • 17:21 made in the likeness and image of God.
  • 17:23 And so that overcoming that Yeshua did there
  • 17:26 and then he would begin His ministry in the Galilee.
  • 17:29 He would go up and begin to enter the synagogues,
  • 17:31 and officially begin the work of God.
  • 17:35 I love how it says that when Satan came to Him
  • 17:38 and tried to get Him to cause these stones
  • 17:41 to become bread, it says,
  • 17:48 And that's the Foundation Stone for us as believers
  • 17:51 that we need to be in the Word.
  • 17:53 We need to know our security in Him
  • 17:55 and know where we're fed.
  • 17:57 We're fed in the Word.
  • 17:59 And after that last temptation Yeshua would arise to Galilee
  • 18:02 where He would begin to speak in the synagogues.
  • 18:06 Imagine - Luke 4:18
  • 18:07 He's reading Isaiah 61.
  • 18:09 The Living Word is
  • 18:11 reading the older Testament
  • 18:12 and creating the newer Testament
  • 18:14 He is bringing Life to all who would agree
  • 18:17 and would say "yes" to Him.
  • 18:19 He's offering that Life to you today.
  • 18:28 For insightful perspectives on Israel and Bible prophecy
  • 18:32 ask for our free monthly newsletter, the Levitt Letter.
  • 18:37 At levitt.com you can read the newsletter,
  • 18:39 watch the TV program
  • 18:41 or visit our online store.
  • 18:44 Stay current with us on social media via Face Book and Twitter
  • 18:48 Come with us on a tour of Israel or Petra,
  • 18:51 or a cruise to Greece and Ephesus.
  • 18:54 Please contact us for more information.
  • 18:59 Our offer on this program,
  • 19:01 "Sons of Israel"
  • 19:03 3 DVDs featuring the teaching of
  • 19:06 Zola Levitt on location in Israel.
  • 19:08 This 9 part series chronicles the
  • 19:11 fascinating lives of
  • 19:12 some of God's key men
  • 19:14 from Abraham, Moses and David
  • 19:17 to the Messiah and the Apostles.
  • 19:20 An informative and stunningly beautiful history
  • 19:23 of the people God chose
  • 19:25 and the special men among them
  • 19:27 that He used for His purposes.
  • 19:29 A 9 part series on 3 DVDs,
  • 19:33 "Sons of Israel".
  • 19:36 I love bringing you to the place
  • 19:39 where the Southern Wall is.
  • 19:41 Jesus would have come up that way
  • 19:44 and gone into the Temple.
  • 19:46 He came as a man and
  • 19:48 He came to restore all humanity to Himself.
  • 19:52 He came for the whole world it said.
  • 19:54 "God so loved the whole world."
  • 19:56 But He came through a line.
  • 19:58 He came through Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
  • 20:01 That's right.
  • 20:02 Jesus is David's greater Son.
  • 20:03 He had to be, according to Scripture.
  • 20:05 He had to come from the Tribe of Judah,
  • 20:06 from the House of David
  • 20:08 to sit on the throne of David forever.
  • 20:09 It's a Jewish story from start to finish.
  • 20:12 And that wrestling match that we see going on in the drama,
  • 20:15 as we see it going on today as well
  • 20:17 for believers, for Jewish people
  • 20:19 it's so important for us to understand
  • 20:23 that He belongs to us and we belong to Him.
  • 20:25 We're going to go to Mount Carmel now
  • 20:27 and hear Karen Davis' story,
  • 20:28 some of our dearest friends,
  • 20:30 David and Karen Davis on Mount Carmel.
  • 20:32 And Karen's going to tell Katharine the story
  • 20:34 of her struggle, her wrestling with faith
  • 20:37 and then coming to know Yeshua as her Messiah.
  • 20:39 Let's go there now.
  • 20:42 I grew up in an upper middle class Jewish home,
  • 20:45 very typical Jewish home in the United States in Detroit, Michigan.
  • 20:49 And we were very much a part of the Jewish community,
  • 20:52 belonged to... actually it was the
  • 20:54 oldest reform synagogue in the United States.
  • 20:56 Temple Bethel.
  • 20:58 And we celebrated all of the holidays.
  • 21:01 But I remember going to the Synagogue every Shabbat.
  • 21:08 And just the reality of God...
  • 21:10 I did not experience the reality of God.
  • 21:14 But I began playing the piano when I was 4 years old and
  • 21:18 I was always moved by music and beauty, the beauty of nature
  • 21:23 and I knew there had to be...God.
  • 21:27 There had to be some kind of Creative Force that moved my soul.
  • 21:31 You know, I'm moved to tears by music.
  • 21:33 I'm moved to tears by the beauty of creation.
  • 21:36 So there began to be a real deep longing to know God...a search.
  • 21:42 Really a search for truth.
  • 21:44 Right.
  • 21:45 But of course also I came from a very scientific family.
  • 21:47 My grandfather and my father were automotive engineers.
  • 21:51 I kind of inherited a mathematical mind.
  • 21:54 Wonderful.
  • 21:55 And so I was very aware of science.
  • 21:58 And so God for me at that time,
  • 22:00 it made sense that God was some kind of energy force
  • 22:04 and the force behind things.
  • 22:06 So I began a very intensive search.
  • 22:10 It says God sets eternity in our hearts.
  • 22:13 Yes.
  • 22:14 And there's that place in every Jewish heart that is looking for God.
  • 22:18 That is so good.
  • 22:19 God has built eternity into everyone's heart, Jew or Gentile.
  • 22:23 But I think especially with the Jewish people
  • 22:25 we have a calling to know our God
  • 22:28 and then to share Him with the nations.
  • 22:30 Beautiful
  • 22:31 And so I began the search but as I said,
  • 22:34 I didn't find Him in the synagogue at that time.
  • 22:36 What was the turning point?
  • 22:38 So I ended up in New York City because of the arts.
  • 22:41 And one day I just...
  • 22:44 I woke up one day and I realized my life was not working.
  • 22:51 There was not one area of my life where I was feeling satisfaction.
  • 22:55 Nothing was working.
  • 22:58 And I had always prided myself on being an independent feministic woman
  • 23:02 that could just pick herself up and go on.
  • 23:04 But life creates disappointments.
  • 23:06 Right.
  • 23:07 And my mother had died of cancer
  • 23:09 and different things that had happened
  • 23:12 but I literally came to the end of myself.
  • 23:14 I had no answers.
  • 23:15 And so that morning I said...
  • 23:18 One person's name came to my mind.
  • 23:20 And I thought...
  • 23:21 Her name was Camille.
  • 23:23 And I thought, maybe she has some good advice for me.
  • 23:25 This young lady lived in my building in New York City.
  • 23:28 She was a...
  • 23:31 Occasionally I'd see her carrying a Bible.
  • 23:33 But she was a comedian and a singer who worked
  • 23:36 with Jim Henson and created Sesame Street characters.
  • 23:39 She defied every stereotype that I had as a Jew of a Christian.
  • 23:45 But the love of God streamed through her.
  • 23:49 And she just loved me unconditionally.
  • 23:52 So I went to her.
  • 23:53 I knocked on her door that day.
  • 23:55 And I just poured out my...she was there,
  • 23:57 just totally available.
  • 23:59 Turned out she had been praying all morning.
  • 24:02 And so I began to pour out my troubles.
  • 24:05 And she says to me, would you like to pray?
  • 24:10 And I said, Okay, I'll try it.
  • 24:13 I've done everything else.
  • 24:14 I didn't even know how we were going to pray.
  • 24:16 Right.
  • 24:17 And so she begins to lead me in a prayer
  • 24:20 and I repeat after her.
  • 24:22 And the pray starts with Jesus...ha
  • 24:25 The name that Jewish people don't say, right?
  • 24:28 So I said... I was so open, I said,
  • 24:30 Jesus is probably the only thing I hadn't tried at that point.
  • 24:33 Right, He's the last one.
  • 24:35 I was into Buddhism and even Sufism and every "ism" that there was.
  • 24:38 But not Christianity.
  • 24:41 Because of so many things
  • 24:43 that your viewers probably know
  • 24:45 about the history of Christian anti-Semitism.
  • 24:47 It's a big wall for Jewish people
  • 24:49 to even begin to say His Name.
  • 24:52 But I was willing to try it.
  • 24:54 I said, I have nothing to lose.
  • 24:55 So I said, "Jesus..."
  • 24:56 And the next line was, "I invite you into my heart."
  • 24:59 "I invite you into my heart."
  • 25:01 "I ask you to forgive me for my sins."
  • 25:04 I had no idea what my sins were but I said these words.
  • 25:08 Until you see the holiness of God you can't even recognize your sin.
  • 25:12 And so I said this, and then I said, "I ask you to save me."
  • 25:16 And that was it.
  • 25:18 And immediately I knew I was in the presence of truth.
  • 25:24 It was like the Spirit of truth was in the room.
  • 25:28 And it pierced my heart.
  • 25:29 It pierced beyond every intellectual objection
  • 25:34 I'd ever had to Christianity, the Name of Jesus.
  • 25:36 It defied all my preconceived ideas.
  • 25:40 And somehow I knew I had touched on the truth.
  • 25:46 Karen just shared that she was searching for peace and for answers.
  • 25:50 And I love that she just ran into her neighbor who brought her to faith in Yeshua.
  • 25:56 We need to be ready.
  • 25:58 We have people all around us that are searching for peace and for their answers.
  • 26:02 We need to be in prayer constantly
  • 26:05 and ready to share news and that we have peace to give.
  • 26:10 That's a great testimony and I love that.
  • 26:12 I also love Myles teaching at the Southern Steps today.
  • 26:15 I know for myself, one of my close encounters with Yeshua
  • 26:19 was at the Southern Steps not very long ago.
  • 26:22 Also, I read a story today about a man that you know by the name of Neil Armstrong.
  • 26:29 And the story is that he went to Israel back in 1994.
  • 26:34 And he asked his tour guide, he said would you take me to the steps where Jesus walked.
  • 26:39 And the first place that he took him was to the Southern Steps
  • 26:43 right where Jesus taught and where He healed.
  • 26:46 So when Neil got there he felt the presence of Yeshua.
  • 26:51 It said that he went to his knees and kissed the ground.
  • 26:55 I did the same thing when I was there.
  • 26:58 Neil said that moment was even more powerful than walking on the moon.
  • 27:03 I love that story.
  • 27:05 I hope that you've had a close encounter with Yeshua.
  • 27:08 We'd love to hear your stories.
  • 27:10 Write in to us and let us know about your close encounters with Yeshua.
  • 27:16 As we've always said on this program,
  • 27:17 Sha a'lu Shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 27:20 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:24 Our monthly newsletter the Levitt Letter is free
  • 27:27 and full of insightful articles and news commentary
  • 27:30 from a Messianic perspective.
  • 27:32 Visit levitt.com to find our newsletter along with
  • 27:35 current and past programs,
  • 27:37 our television schedule,
  • 27:39 and much more!
  • 27:41 Don't for get to order this week's resource
  • 27:43 by calling 1-800-WONDERS
  • 27:46 or you can purchase it from our store at levitt.com
  • 27:51 Your donations to Zola Levitt Ministries
  • 27:53 help these organizations bless Israel.

Episodes in this series

  1. God is Coming
  2. Humble Beginnings
  3. Jewish Context
  4. Miraculous Ministry
  5. Prophecy Fulfilled
  6. Living Water
  7. Mountaintop Experience
  8. Life Laid Down
  9. Empty Tomb
  10. Interview with Gary Bayer

Guest organizations and links

Bonus Material