Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua [Jesus] the Messiah! In His great mercy He caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3, TLV
An Unexpected Purpose. Context. Today we hear from Peter. He writes to the Jewish believers outside Israel in and around Asia and Turkey.
“To be born again.” John wrote of the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). After Yeshua’s resurrection, the remaining disciples fully understood who they had been following for years. The long-awaited Messiah had finally come! Truly they experienced a profound spiritual birth.
Not conversion to Christianity, by the way. Because a Jewish soul will always be a Jewish person. Just like an Asian doesn’t convert into a Caucasian because they believe in Jesus.
The people Peter writes to may have been those who experienced the spiritual birth while in Jerusalem for that auspicious Shavuot [Pentecost]. They then traveled back home—back to the countries their ancestors were taken to, or they escaped to during enemy invasions of Israel. These newly reborn Jewish believers returned as enthusiastic emissaries.
Luke does write that the apostles and disciples were teaching emissaries after that day. Perhaps a few stayed behind to be taught.
So those who received his message were immersed, and that day about three thousand souls were added. [Peter and the other disciples] were devoting themselves to the teaching of the emissaries and to fellowship, to breaking bread and to prayers. (Acts 2:41-42, TLV, Emphasis Mine)
I was thinking, those new believers who returned home to these different countries, they were the FIRST to go out to the nations. The FIRST who fulfilled the great commission.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh [the Holy Spirit], teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, TLV)
For hundreds of years these faithful followers of Torah must have felt a certain amount of shame to not live in Israel—the Land of Promise. That they lived among the “pagans.”
A Prophetic Purpose
For behold, darkness covers the earth,
and deep darkness the peoples.
But ADONAI [the LORD] will arise upon you,
and His glory will appear over you.
Nations will come to your light,
kings to the brilliance of your rising. (Isaiah 60:2-3, TLV)
But now, living within the Gentiles of the nations, had purpose—a prophetic purpose. They could share the Good News that Messiah had come. First to their Jewish brothers and sisters, then to their Gentile neighbors. People they had known for years. For such a time as this.
Would these neighbors have seen the change in their Jewish neighbors and colleagues? Want to know more? Surely they would be surprised that these Jewish neighbors were not as stand-offish. Were more welcoming.
Think about it. These new Jewish believers would know how to talk to their Gentile neighbors. They had lived and worked together all their lives. These emissaries could share this new revelation that this Jewish Messiah wasn’t just the Savior for the Jewish people but the world, too. To be light and salt to nations who had long lived in darkness.
What About Us?
So, if we’re in a place we wish we weren’t, maybe we are here for a purpose. An important purpose. And perhaps the set time has come for that purpose. Are you ready?
