Elder Goh Kee Tai

Paul’s ministry to the Jews

Romans 1:16: ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek’

Paul was an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, born and bred in Tarsus (Rm 11:1;Act 21:39). His father was a Pharisee and he himself also a Pharisee taught by the highly eminent rabbi, Gamaliel (Act 22:3;23:6). His zeal in attempting to keep the Mosaic law and to destroy the church of Christ was unprecedented (Gal 1:13; Phil 3:6 ). With authority from the chief priests, he ruthlessly persecuted the church beyond measure, ‘breathing out threatenings and slaughter’ (Act 9:1) and took part in the martyrdom of Stephen (Act 22:20). He was a blasphemer (1 Tim 1:13) and created havoc to the church (Act 8:3). He hounded Christians, beat them, threw them into prison and compelled them to blaspheme through torture (Act 8:3;22:4; 26:11).

Paul was miraculously converted by the risen Christ on his way to persecute the Jewish believers in Damascus (Act 9:3-6). The Lord sent Ananias, a devout Christian Jew to restore his eyesight, conduct water baptism and convey the Lord’s commission for him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel (Act 9:15).

Early ministry to the Jews
In his early ministry at Damascus, Paul identified himself with other fellow Jewish believers whom he persecuted and imprisoned. They were fearful of him and not convinced that he had been radically changed. Even Ananias was suspicious and very fearful (Act 9:13,14).
After spending a few days with the believers in the city, he began to preach the gospel to his fellow Jews in the synagogue. He went to Arabia to be alone with God before returning again to Damascus where he continued to preach boldly in the synagogue (Act 9:22; Gal 1:17 ). The unbelieving Jews rejected his preaching and teaching that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. When Paul knew of a plot of these unbelievers who sought to kill him, the disciples helped him to escape by night (Act 9:23-25; 2 Cor 11:32,33).

Paul went to Jerusalem where the believers were also afraid of him. It was Barnabas who introduced Paul to the apostles and convinced them of Paul’s genuine conversion (Act 9:27). Paul spoke boldly in the synagogue and debated with the Greek-speaking Jews who actively sought to kill him (Act 9:29). Christ appeared to Paul when he was praying in the Temple and directed him to leave Jerusalem quickly and reaffirmed His commission for him to evangelise to the Gentiles afar (Act 22:17, 18,21). Paul returned to his home city in Tarsus (Act 9:30).

When the first Gentile church was established and flourished in Antioch-Syria, Barnabas invited Paul to co-labour with him in this city and the Lord blessed their ministry with many repented of their sins and baptised into the church of Christ (Act 11:26). Both of them were sent forth by the Holy Spirit to Cyprus and Asia Minor in their first missionary journey (Act 13:3).

First missionary journey
Paul was commissioned by the Lord to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. However, the priority in his ministry was to the Jews first. He would enter the synagogue on the Sabbath day, participated in their worship service and expounded from the scriptures to show them that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Paul taught them that salvation, forgiveness of sin and justification could only be wrought by faith alone in Christ and not by the law of Moses through works: ‘through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses’ (Act 13: 38,39).

At Antioch-Pisidia, some Jews and many religious proselytes believed and glorified God. However, the unbelieving Jews opposed, contradicted and blasphemed what Paul had preached to them. They stirred up important people in the civil authority to persecute Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of the city (Act 13:50). At Iconium, the same situation was repeated. The wicked Jews stirred up troubles and the apostles had to flee to Lystra when they came to know of a plot to stone them. Certain malicious fanatical Jews from Antioch-Pisidia and Iconium relentlessly pursued the apostles and instigated the people at Lystra to join them in stoning Paul. He was dragged out of the city, presumed dead (Act 14:19).

Second missionary journey

In his second missionary journey with Silas, Paul taught and debated in the synagogue at Thessalonica. The unbelieving Jews were upset that a great multitude of Gentiles believed. Some of them instigated a group of wicked men to incite the citizens to riot and the apostles were forced to leave the city by night (Act 17:10).These Jewish troublemakers pursued the apostles to Berea to stir up the people there and Paul had to depart immediately by sea (Act 17:14). At Corinth, the unbelieving Jews were angry that Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue and his family had accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. They brought Paul before the magistrate and charged him for teaching the Jews to worship God contrary to the Mosaic law. The magistrate hastily drove out the accusers (Act 18:16). Paul rebuked the Jews who opposed and blasphemed the name of Jesus and the gospel of everlasting life: ‘Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles’ (Act 18:6).

Third missionary journey
In Ephesus, Paul spoke boldly in the synagogue and later in the school of Tyrannus. He also went from house to house testifying to the Jews and Gentiles (Act 20:20). While Paul’s preaching on ‘repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Act 20:21) had such great impact among the Gentiles, majority of the Jews hardened their hearts and publicly spoke evil of the gospel of grace (Act 19:9). The unbelieving vicious Jews hated Paul for his zeal for Christ and were awaiting to kill him. When Paul was about to sail from Corinth which he revisited, this plot was made known to him and he had to change his itinerary (Act 20:3).

Paul was aware that the hostile Jews were determined to seize him, and to destroy him and his ministry entrusted by the Lord (Act 20:19). He was repeatedly warned not to proceed to Jerusalem to participate in the Pentecost feast (Act 20:22,23;21:4,11). But he was undeterred: ‘But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of grace of God’ (Act 20:24); ‘I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus’ (Act 21:13).

At Jerusalem, certain Jews from Ephesus saw Paul in the Temple and accused him of desecrating the holy place by bringing the Gentiles into the inner court which was reserved for the Jews only. They also charged him for teaching the people everywhere against the Mosaic law, the Temple and the Jews (Act 21:28). This caused a great uproar and riot among the large crowd of people. They wanted their arch enemy dead: ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live’ (Act 22:22). Paul was divinely preserved from being beaten to death by the frenzied, hysterical, angry, unruly mob through the timely intervention by the Roman soldiers (Act 21:32).

The unbelieving Jews were provoked to jealousy and enraged by the conversion of a great multitude of Gentiles who ‘turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God’ (1 Th1:9). They called Paul ‘a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes’(Act 24:5).

The Christian Jews and Mosaic law
The Jews are a special peculiar people, chosen by God to be His holy and godly children, separated from the heathens (Deu 7:6) with promise of the Messiah and His future reign of an eternal kingdom through the Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7:13,16). The Mosaic law including the Levitical law were given to the people of Israel to protect her national witness for Christ. They must be holy and keep themselves pure from idolatry. To ensure that His children would not sin and defile themselves, they were to refrain from socialising with and embracing the practices and customs of the Gentiles through either business, political or marriage covenant.

Many thousands of Christian Jews in Jerusalem continued to be zealous of the laws of Moses (Act 21:20). Peter was accused by fellow believers of the Jerusalem church for breaking the Mosaic law by associating with and eating with Cornelius, a Gentile. These Jews were ignorant that after Christ’s redemptive work, God had repealed the dietary law (Act 10:6-10). These Christian Jews also accused Paul of teaching the Jews among the Gentiles to forsake circumcision and other Jewish customs (Act 21:21). Peter himself stumbled Barnabas by withdrawing from a meal fellowship with the Gentile Christians at Antioch-Syria (Gal 2:12).

With more and more Gentiles admitted to the church, certain Christian Jews who strictly adhered to the Mosaic law, were unhappy and insisted that the Gentiles must be circumcised and observed the Jewish law if they were to be full fledged members of the Christian community. This doctrinal controversy threatened the peace and harmony of the church and was resolved at the Jerusalem Council where it was decided that Gentile Christians are under no obligation to be circumcised, but to abstain from certain practices which are abhorrent to the Jews and a sin against God; i.e. consuming blood, meat of strangled animals and food offered to idols and fornication (Act 15:20). This should remove the social barrier of the Christian Jews with no more discrimination and prejudices against Gentile believers. There is no spiritual distinction between these Jews and Gentiles (Gal 3:26-29). They are fellow heirs and of the same body of Christ (Eph 3:6).

Despite the unanimous decision, this problem continued to surface in the recently established Gentiles churches and Paul had to resolve this serious attack on the sufficiency of the work of Christ on the cross. It was more than just a bondage of a legalistic practice of Judaism that might affect the unity of the newly established churches. Jesus had paid the penalty for sin which the law of God demanded: ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us’(Gal 3:13). The law was given to magnify the sin in the lives of sinners i.e. to show them how great sinners they are. It was never given to save sinners at all. The Jews misunderstood the purpose of the law of Moses and turned it into "salvation by works" albeit God ordained works. It is like a person trying to become a Christian today by attending church and doing all things Christian! There is only one way for a sinner to be justified in God’s sight: accept the salvation of God’s grace made available through Christ’s death and resurrection. Justification is by grace through faith in Christ alone, and of sanctification of the Holy Spirit but not by the Mosaic law (Gal 3:11): ‘a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified’ (Gal 2:16). Justification has always been by faith since the fall of man: ‘Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness’ (Gal 3:6).

To fulfill all righteousness, Paul observed the Mosaic law and walked according to Jewish customs. He was a Jew and he continued to live his Christian life as a Jew in order to reach the Jews for Christ. A believer does not lose his cultural identity after salvation. He respected the conscience of both believing and unbelieving Jews. He had young Timothy circumcised as his mother was a Jewess, but he did not permit Titus, a Gentile, to be circumcised (Act 16:3; Gal 2:3). He observed the feast of unleavened bread at Philippi (Act 20:6), prayed at the Temple (Act 22:17) and participated in the Passover and Pentecost feasts at Jerusalem (Act 18:21;20:16). He also observed the Nazaritevow at Corinth (Act 18:18 ) and he readily agreed to the suggestion of the church leaders to join four men who had taken the Nazarite vow in the ceremonial purification ritual and offerings required after completion of the vow at the Temple (Act 21:24). To avoid any misunderstanding and conflict, Paul was prepared to go at any length so that he might lead both the Jews and the Gentiles to repentance and faith in Christ. He ensured that he would not be a stumbling block in his testimony for Christ: ‘And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law’ (1 Cor 9:20,21).

The Jewish customs and practices have nothing to do with salvation but important to all Jewish Christians to obey and observe. All believers must observe their respective cultures in order to reach out to their own people. As long as their cultural practices do not conflict with Scriptures, they ought to observe them. Christianity is not a western religion even though it came from the west because God told Paul to go west when he wanted to go east. Christianity is a global faith for all sinners regardless of language or nationality. All are born in sin and all need Christ to save them from sin.

Paul’s concern for the unbelieving Jews
Paul had great affection for his countrymen whom he addressed as ‘my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh’ (Rom 9:3). His heart’s desire and prayers were that they might be saved. He would forsake everything in exchange for their salvation. In almost every city, he preached and taught the Word of God to the Jews first, yet he encountered persecution and opposition with vicious campaigns against him. He was solemnly concerned with great heaviness and continued sorrow in his heart that majority of his kinsmen rejected Jesus as the Son of God, and were enemies of the gospel of salvation (Act 13:46). He shed many tears of compassion for their spiritual blindness and hardened and perverse hearts.

God assured Paul that His salvation plan for Israel has not been abandoned by the inclusion of the Gentiles into the church (Act 15:15-17); a remnant of the Jews will be saved ‘according to the election of grace’ (Rom 11:5). His promise of eternal life to the descendents of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob was for a remnant of His children who are justified by grace through faith in Christ. God rejected and judged Israel for their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ i.e. the Messiah in Hebrew. But His rejection of Israel is not permanent. By God’s almighty power, grace, mercy and infinite wisdom, the covenant will be ratified and all Israel shall be saved when the fullness of the Gentiles has come; i.e. when the last Gentile whom God has elected is added to the church of Christ (Rm 11: 25,26; Is 59:20,21). This will occur when Christ returns on earth to establish His millennium kingdom (Rev 20:6).

Conclusion
God is absolutely sovereign and infinitely wise in supreme control over the affairs of man. Paul was a chosen vessel set apart from birth for the Lord’s work (Gal 1:15 ). Yet he turned out to be the most notorious blasphemer and cruel persecutor of the church before he was miraculously converted. By the grace of God, he was mightily used by the Lord to be the greatest preacher and defender of the gospel. The Jews are God’s peculiar people, specially chosen by Him to bear a godly testimony for Him to the Gentiles around them. Despite all the material and spiritual privileges accorded to His people, they disobeyed God and were judged accordingly (Rom 9:4).

The gospel of salvation was freely offered to the Jews first, but they kept on rejecting Him as the Messiah! By His active and passive obedience, death and resurrection, Christ has fulfilled all righteousness required by God to save sinners and opened the way of justification and salvation by grace through faith in Him. Unfortunately, the unbelieving Jews continue to hold to the false way of justification and salvation based on the merit of their works in obedience to the law instead of embracing the gospel of grace through faith in Christ Jesus. By the free grace and mercy of God, the gospel of salvation was entrusted to the redeemed Gentiles to be God’s witnesses on earth as the people of God in the New Testament. God has replaced the national witness of Israel with an ecclesiastical witness of both Jews and Gentiles. All these events are in accordance to the prophecies of the scriptures (Is 53; 65:1,2; Hab 1:5; Amos 9:11; Is 10:22; Is 59:20,21).

We can never comprehend the wise counsel of God’s will and His wondrous grace and love in calling wretched and depraved sinners like us from darkness unto His marvelous light: ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!’ (Rm 11:33). Amen.