Sid: My guest by way of telephone… I mean have you felt like there’s got to be something more and there’s something missing in what we call church or Sunday Service and it it… I mean it just doesn’t seem it may be in some churches it’s wonderful but it’s just doesn’t seem to hold a candle to what we read about in the Book of Acts there’s sort of something missing. And I believe that Dr. John Garr has the answer in the book “Restoring the Lost Legacy” on yesterday’s broadcast Dr. Garr we were talking about 3 ingredients in Judaica worship in the synagogue. They had meetings they studied and they had prayer and I said to you “But I wait a second that’s exactly what the Church does today.” And you said “Oh no because that was done in a community setting versus a theater setting.” What did you mean by that?
John: Well again Judaism is an exercise in a sense of family and basically it all starts in family and goes beyond that with this Mishpochah idea that the family is not only the nuclear family but it’s the extended family. And even goes to include all of Israel that’s part of this family. So the context of family is very important in this environment of family with the whole exercise of the faith and the religion that Jesus Himself and the apostles practiced in the first century. So when you get back to analyzing those things you realize that the purest way for which the Christian faith to operate is in this context of family or community. This is one of the ingredients that’s missing so much of our experience as Christians has people going to a church rather than being the church going to watch a performance that last for an hour or hour and a half two hours as the case maybe and then they leave and then the feel like they’ve fulfill all of their spiritual and religious duty of the week and it’s not a on ongoing exercise. Well first of all this experience has to begin in the home father and mothers have to take responsibility in their homes for leading their own families in study first of all teaching their children first of all the things of God and then engaging in worship exercises in their home. Now the problem with this is from the history of the church we have gotten this idea that the only people that can do these functions are professional clergy persons. These are people who have been designated and set apart because of certain skills that they manifest and they have become “professionals” as in some cases almost just performers and they’re put before us and they are the ones that are the stars of the show I’ve even seen Marques practiced in churches saying we’re having a seminar this week starring “Dr. So and So.” I find that very repugnant it’s almost like a Hollywood mentality. But the reality when we have these exercises going on in the context of family then we come to a worship corporate worship exercise just doing the same thing but just on a bigger scale. So in that exercise in the earlier church it was open to all the people to be involved in the worship. It’s interesting in the synagogue any person can come to the bema and read the Torah and expound on it it doesn’t have to be the Rabbi. He is the one that appointed…
Sid: Yes but the average person hasn’t spent a life time studying the scriptures like the average minister or Rabbi.
John: That’s right that’s why we need teachers and we need pastors and we need people with giftings in ministry to equip us but one of the reasons why so many people are not equipped to any degree at all is because they never believed that they needed to be equipped. And they’ve never been encouraged inside of this area of study and preparation.
Sid: You mean we’ve just been… you mean we’ve remained babies?
John: I think we have we have been continent with being immature; it’s been pretty much at fault fostered upon us and fostered by the idea of the Christian Church. The Christian Church by establishing this professional clergy and viewing it as an elevated state of holiness and a separate calling it has emasculated particularly the males in the church. For they don’t see they have any role of spiritual leadership.
Sid: Now I’m an evangelist and sometimes I’m introduced the man of God and I am a man of God, but it’s almost as if I’m the man of God and the people in the congregation they’re the peons.
John: And that is so sad and you know that I find that to be so repulsive because I just was preaching a couple of weekends in a congregation on a weekend meeting and I basically told the people that any man that has been born again by grace and faith in Jesus is a man of God. He should be the man of God in his home and a woman should be a woman of God in her home. And this idea that the only person that’s a man of God is the one that is the man of the cloth or the one who stands in front of a congregation and has all of these speaking skills and all of that. That’s totally ridiculous because any man that has been saved is a man of God and every man that is called is called of God to do something and whatever work he’s doing is God’s work. Now that’s another idea we’ve got this idea that the only way that you can do God’s work if you’re doing church work. Baloney! Boy that’s a good Hebrew word, ba-lo-ney…
Sid: Well John basically if you will, the church divorced itself from its Jewish roots what is this concept that Paul has of the Commonwealth of Israel. What should a non-Jewish believer in the Messiah attitude be towards the Judea roots? What should it be towards the Biblical Festivals? What should it be towards the Sabbaths? What is the difference between someone from a Jewish background that’s a believer in Jesus and a Gentile who’s a believer in Jesus once there in the church? Now I’ve given you enough to write a book as far as questions but give it a try.
John: Yeah well you know there’ve been all kinds of differences positive peoples in different communities some within certain Jewish elements have said that Gentiles should leave all these Jewish things alone and have nothing to do with them and a large part of the church has said the same thing. But the reality is that we have to look at who we are and what we are; those that are Gentiles who have come to faith in Messiah have been birthed into another kingdom and basically what has happened as Paul said “If you belong to Messiah then you are Abraham’s children and you are heirs according to God’s promises.” And then Paul takes that metaphor a little farther by saying we have who are aliens at one time from the commonwealth of Israel and we were separated from God without God in the world. These Gentiles now have come to faith in the Messiah and as a result are fellow citizens with the saints and with the household of God.” This is a powerful statement when you look at it that says that “Gentiles who have come to faith in the Messiah have now become fellow citizens with the same in the same body and have come into the family of God.” Now when you take that metaphor to Romans 11 Paul says that these Gentiles have been grafted in to what in affect is God’s family tree. God’s family tree of salvation and covenant relationships, so we have become part of the same family. Now the problem with the church in history is the church has thought that the Gentiles replaced the Jewish people as God’s family tree and they replaced God’s Jewish people as God’s nation. And being the truth what has happened according to Paul’s statement is that we have come along side we’ve become a part of that family not to replace that family. But if we become fellow citizens with the saints and we are now in the commonwealth of Israel we’re a part of that nation then we are citizens of that nation and we have the same entitlements of native born citizens have. Now I use an example of the process of naturalized citizens. It doesn’t matter if you’re a native born citizen or a naturalized citizen of the United States you still have the same entitlements, the same rights that you have if you were a native born citizen. The same is true of Israel and even more so because God specifically said in the Torah that if one who is an alien, outsider or a stranger, from the nations comes in and becomes a part of God’s people by the process that he had ordained and the requirements that he had ordained for that then that person was to be treated exactly as one who was native born, or in some cases in Isaiah particularly it says that he would have a position that is better than sons and daughters so it’s almost an amazing statement so. If we are citizens and we have these entitlements then it should be a natural thing for us to recognize Israel’s history as being our history and Israel’s covenant as being our covenant. As in effect the new covenant is basically the covenant that God had made with Abraham that renewed at Sinai being renewed again on the basis of a better promise and a better sacrifice. But we’re a part of that and if a part of it then all of the thing that apply to that people apply to us. So we have every right to observe the Sabbath, we have every right to assume our exercises and immortalizing the festival times and these things are part of our heritage and part of our experiences of worshipping the Living God. Do we have to do those things or are they required of us or are we under legal contract or obligation to do those things? Not necessarily but we are we do have the opportunity. It’s like the entitlements that I have as a citizen of the United States of America. I don’t have to exercise all of those things but I certainly have those right and they’re available to me as a citizen. And so the thing that’s happened with the Christian Church is so astounding is that we have discarded all of these wonderful rich meaningful elements of our inheritance in the faith of Jesus and the apostles. And the question I ask people is if you want to be a Christian why would you not want to do the things that Jesus did? So if you look back and see what Jesus did the things that He was doing He was observing the Sabbath, He was observing the festivals. As a matter of fact in John 10 he was in Jerusalem to observe the Festival of Chanukah, or a post Tanah Festival. So all of these things Jesus was doing so if we want to be like Jesus why wouldn’t we want to do those things too. I think it should be an obvious answer and yet the answer from the Church has been just the opposite.
Sid: Okay okay we should want to do it but what’s the advantage of doing these things?
John: Well the advantage is as Paul said is as much every way Roman’s 3. What is the advantage of doing Jewish things he says there’s much advantage every way because to the Jew belong first of all the word of God. And these are essential elements in God’s word that for instance we’ve been talking about the Festival times and Sabbath but these are times that God has set apart and as His appointed calendar. And in fact they’re not even really, it’s not really even accurate to say they’re Jewish festivals or they’re Jewish Sabbath because God specifically says in Leviticus 23 that these are My feasts.
Sid: Now you know there are many people that have pondered these things and have not come to conclusions well Dr. John Garr has thought this things out in an excellent fashion…
