EPISODE 17 THE JEWS, JESUS, and A DIVIDED NATIOn

EPISODE 17 THE JEWS, JESUS, AND A DIVIDED NATION

Christianity is a Jewish religion. Less than two months after Jesus’ resurrection, Jerusalem was filled with Jewish worshipers from many parts of the Roman Empire.

They had come for the feast of Pentecost.

            Peter’s message to the Jews began this way.

The believers were together in one place. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed they asked: ‘Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!

They were speaking the good news of salvation and life after death. In the crowd each was hearing the message in their own language.

“Then Peter stood up, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Seeing what was ahead, King David had spoken of the resurrection of the Messiah, he would not be abandoned to the grave, nor his body see decay.

Peter concluded, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.”

As the message spread, the Jewish leaders who had put Jesus to death were determined to stop this teaching. They stoned a believer to death. It was the beginning of a violent persecution.

 Jesus’ first followers were Jews. Many fled from the persecution and took the message to Jews a distance away from Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah had said that the Jews would be a light to the Gentiles. Jews began to share the message with Gentiles. By the end of the century the Gentile followers far outnumbered the Jewish Christians. Other Jews attempted to stamp out this fulfillment of their scriptures.

Where Paul went, other Jews would follow to stir up the Jewish community and prevent them from hearing the evidence of what the Messiah had done for them. Paul was whipped, stoned and left for dead. But Gentiles responded to the Messiah’s message.

The Jews opposed to Paul’s message also remained hostile to Roman rule. In 70 A.D. they attempted to drive them out. This is what they had hoped the Messiah would do. Jesus’s purpose was to bring salvation to all Gentiles, not to start wars. When the Jews revolted the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The Jews were scattered. Their place of sacrifice was gone. As Moses had predicted, they were scattered worldwide, severely persecuted and in fear for their lives. For nearly nineteen centuries they were exiles without a homeland.