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Risen for the Nations
Greetings from the 'uttermost parts of the earth':What an awesome Easter Celebration. Between Good Friday and the weekend services, it was one of our highest attendances ever, which means Christ is being exalted in more and more lives—which I know thrills your hearts as it does mine. Our team shared tears of joy and longing to be with you in person as we watched the services online. The video of Mary at the tomb that closed our celebration is one of the most moving things I have seen in all my years of following Jesus. He is alive!
Yes, Jesus Christ is Risen for the Nations, and we are on the road for three more Sundays. Things in Jerusalem wrapped up in an awesome way. After we finished recording the message for back home, Pastor Jeff and I took Jacob Ross, an Israel rookie, to a number of locations in Jerusalem. As a final stop, we went to the historic location of Bethsaida. This is the place in the story from John 5:1-11, where Jesus heals a man who had been an invalid lying by one of those five pools for 38 years. Do you remember Jesus asking him, “Do you want to be healed?” We learned together that Jesus only does for us what we are willing to believe him for.
Well, before we left the hotel, we had prayed together for a chance to witness about Jesus to our driver, who, though Jewish, had been very tenderhearted in our previous attempts to share Christ with him. His name is Tal, and we asked the Lord to bring Tal to true repentance and faith in Jesus as Savior.
When we finished touring the pools at Bethsaida, we sat in the shade of a tall tree to escape the heat and read the passage in John 5 together. When I finished explaining the story, I asked Tal, “Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins so that you could be forgiven?” To our shock, he answered emphatically, “Yes, I do believe that.” Obviously it was recent, but we're not sure when, so we explained that faith is a gift from God and how heaven rejoiced at the news of his faith. I went on to explain that he needed to “confess” Jesus Christ “with his mouth,” according to Romans 10:9. I asked him if he wanted to pray and confess Christ right then, and he said he did not. But he then proceeded to tell us, “I believe that Jesus is God. I believe that He actually is God who came to earth to reach us.” We were so shocked and startled that all three of us fell silent as we headed back to the car for lunch. It is so rare for a Jewish person to find personal faith in Jesus, we could hardly comprehend his bold confession.
After this, we went to lunch and told Tal that based upon his faith and confession, we believed he was truly saved. His eyes filled with tears as a smile crossed his face, and he bowed thanking us for that assurance. At the airport, as we were unloading our bags, Tal gave me a strong hug around the shoulders, declaring, “You have inspired me greatly.” Tal promised to keep reading the New Testament and a large box of Walk in the Word biblical resources are already in the mail to Jerusalem. We look forward to seeing Tal again on our next trip, and he gave us the promise that he would attend a Messianic Congregation in Jerusalem, pastored by a dear friend of ours named Samuel Smadja. Please pray for Tal as he begins to walk with Christ.
As we head to Kuala Lumpur, it’s wonderful to know that the Lord is using our travels not just to bless our church family with God’s heart for the world, but to connect us to specific people so they too can know Jesus Christ personally, who is risen for the nations.
