Off to the Races on Christmas Day

CHANUKAH

e    Chanukah Celebration We will be celebrating Chanukah slightly early this year, this Friday night the 20th of December. Our final meeting for 2019. We will remember what God has done. Please invite your friends. “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12) Shalom Friends, As we will be celebrating Chanukah soon, I thought it would be good to do a little study on this festival. We first read about Chanukah in John 10:22-39, where we see that Yeshua celebrated Chanukah. The feast is not mentioned in the Older Testament, for it, was instituted by Judah Maccabee in 164 B.C.E. It marks the rededication (chanukah) of the temple, after it had been defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes, when pigs were sacrificed on the temple’s altar. We note that this feast celebrates the deliverance from evil and a dedication to God. John 10:22-24 “At that time the Feast of Dedication (Chanukah) took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Yeshua was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.” I find the way that John records this rather interesting, for Chanukah is always in winter and Solomon’s colonnade was a part of the temple which was only in Jerusalem. Why does John emphasise the fact that it is winter and that Yeshua is in the temple, and specifically in Solomon’s colonnade? I believe he highlights that it is winter in order to emphasize that Yeshua is the Light of the world (John 1:9; John 8:12; John 9:5). This feast is also called the Festival of Lights for in each Jewish home, then and now, candles are lit. Today we use a special 9-branched menorah on each of the eight nights of Chanukah. Light and darkness are recurring themes in John’s Gospel, as he compares Yeshua as the Light, in contrast to the darkness of unbelief. This comes out plainly in John 10:24 “So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Yeshua had demonstrated that He was the Messiah and had told them plainly time and time again, yet most of the Jews,(John means the Jewish leadership), did not believe Him. Sadly this is still true today. The majority of Jewish people do not believe. And that is why we pray that God may open their eyes and that they may turn to the Light. We, like John the baptist, need to be witnesses to the true light, Yeshua, who can gives light to everyone who believes. Now the location comes into play. It is interesting that they are in Solomon’s Colonnade, given the name Solomon means “peace” or “man of peace.” And here is the Prince of Peace before them. After the Maccabees had cleansed the Temple they removed the defiled altar. While the story recorded in 1 Maccabees 4 is not part of the Biblical story, it does tell us about the history. In 1 Maccabees 4:43-47 we see that “they cleansed the sanctuary and removed the defiled stones to an unclean place. They deliberated what to do about the altar of burnt offering, which had been profaned. And they thought it best to tear it down, lest it bring reproach upon them, for the Gentiles had defiled it. So they tore down the altar, and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple mount until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them. Then they took unhewn stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar like the former one.” They were waiting for a prophet to tell them what to do with the defiled stones and now walking amongst them was Yeshua, the Prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). We who are in Messiah are compared to living stones. 1 Peter 2:5 says “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua.” You and I are now dedicated by Yeshua to serve in holiness in His Temple because He has cleansed and purified us. In Acts 3:1-11 we read that Peter and Paul healed a lame man while walking in Solomon’s colonnade. Also, the early believers met in Solomon's colonnade (Acts 5:12). This is where they started to spread the True Light to the world. Similarly, we should let our light shine before men, and that is a serious challenge. The Jewish leaders asked Yeshua if He was the Messiah. Will you help in sharing the Gospel to the Jewish people? Please pray that we are walking in the Light of the Lord, so that the things we plan, and that we may have His seal of approval. Shalom & Blessings in Messiah Yeshua, the True Light Paul   Previous sermons recorded at Brit Chadashah Next Meeting:  Paul will be teaching on Chanukah this Friday the 20th of December We will be meeting at our venue at 32 Horace Street St Ives at 7:30 pm. Please don't bring something to eat for after the discussion. We are being blessed with catering for the evening! Thank you again to all who support our ministry in prayer and financially, electronically or directly at our meetings. May the LORD bless you all for your generosity.     Donate Looking forward to seeing you all. Blessings Harry and Paul  www.BritChadashah.com.au www.celebratemessiah.com.au m +61 423967184 e  Harry@celebratemessiah.com.au

SILENCES

Shalom Valentin We praise God We praise the Lord for an excellent fund raising dinner for the new Messianic Centre in Melbourne on Friday evening. This wonderful opportunity to reach out to His people will be finished well before the end of next year. Prayer Requests A special request for comfort and prayer for Rita Ivenskis family and friends and for Celebrate Messiah’s whole Russian Ministry. Rita was talking in front of 200 people at the Melbourne Simcha on Saturday when she said “I feel like the Holy Spirit is upon me … I feel like I am going to fall”. She then collapsed and literally went to be with the Lord.   Upcoming Events: Chanukah Celebration We will be celebrating Chanukah slightly early this year, on Friday night the 20th of December our final meeting we will remember what God has done. Please invite your friends.   Silences Three extraordinary silences are recorded in this week’s parashah. They start right after the binding of Isaac (his near sacrifice), which is one of the most significant passages in Torah. Abraham was asked to sacrifice the promised and long awaited son, the son of the covenant. Because of that event we must ask ourselves what happened to Isaac after the near sacrifice? Please read the text Genesis 22-25 and you will see that as soon as the Angel of the LORD stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, Isaac drops out of the picture completely. In Genesis 22:19 we read that “Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and they went together to Beer-Sheva; and Abraham dwelt at Beer- Sheva.” Abraham returned to the two servants without the son of promise, Isaac. From that moment on they walked apart. This is the first silence in our text. A second silence in connection with Isaac is after the death of his mother Sarah. In Judaism the mourning is traditionally led by the oldest son, however in Genesis 23 it is not Isaac but Abraham who makes all the arrangements for the burial. Isaac does not appear once in the chapter indicating that he was not there. In one Jewish tradition it is the near sacrifice that brings about the death of Sarah, as if to say that these two stories are intertwined and one caused the other. A third silence comes in chapter 24 where Abraham instructed his chief servant to find a wife for his son. Did Isaac know what Abraham had organised and did he even agree to have an arranged marriage? Since his brother Ishmael had taken a wife (s) from the local women, why would he not do the same? There is no verse indicating that Abraham checked in with his son or asked for his opinion. There is not even a hint in any verse that Abraham informed Isaac of the plan. These silences ‘speak loudly.’ It is only after the chief servant brings the woman, Rebecca,that we read about Isaac. Genesis 24:63 states that ‘he meditated’ שׂוח (shuach). The precise meaning of the word is unclear. Rashi says the word means ‘prayer,’ while Strack and Billerbeck think it means to ‘to wail’ or ‘lament.’ The same word is used twice in Psalm 55 in verses 2 and 17 where it means to ‘moan,’ while in Psalm 142:2 it is translated as ‘complain.’ These differences help us understand that the meditation was a prayer of lament. With this understanding Genesis 24:67 makes more sense, for there we read that Rebecca “became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” The pain caused by his near death experience, the death of his mother and the separation from his father now start to ease because his wife comforted him. These three silences help us frame the story. The near sacrifice, the death of his mother and the choice of a wife for him, all suggest a great separation between Isaac and his father, but once Isaac had Rebecca by his side a restoration took place. The biblical text also tells us that both Isaac and Ishmael stood together at Abraham’s grave (Genesis 25:9). This restoration foreshadows what is happening today between Jews and Arabs. Just as the near death of Isaac foreshadowed the death of Messiah, so too their reconciliation was not only foreshadowed but also accomplished by Messiah (2 Corinthians 5:18). One lesson I draw from all this is that silences are ok. Let the comforter (John 14:26) comfort us and let us be like Isaac. Let us meditate and pour out a lament before the Lord about those things in our life that seem to have died so that He might restore all things. Shalom in Yeshua’s grace Paul   Recordings of Previous Sermons