Caption transcript for In The Footsteps of The Rabbi From Tarsus (2020): “Galatians and Thessalonians” (5/8)

• 00:03 male announcer: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots" with
• 00:06 insightful Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:09 This week Paul writes his first three letters to the early
• 00:12 churches as we follow "In the Footsteps of the Rabbi
• 00:15 from Tarsus."
• 00:18 ♪♪♪
• 01:17 David Hart: Thank you for joining us today.
• 01:18 I'm David Hart.
• 01:20 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:21 Jeffrey Seif: Jeffrey Seif here, glad you're out there.
• 01:23 We are climbing into Paul's head and heart through his letters.
• 01:26 He wrote, and we get a window into divine truths, don't we?
• 01:29 David: We do, it's fascinating, his story.
• 01:31 Kirsten: Well, we're halfway through in our series, and this
• 01:34 kind of hits me.
• 01:36 I've written letters before, but I would never think that any of
• 01:38 my letters would end up in the Bible.
• 01:40 I mean, I might write 'em a little bit more carefully if I
• 01:43 knew that.
• 01:45 Jeffrey: I don't think Paul knew it either, but let's see what
• 01:48 he knows.
• 01:50 David: That's right, let's go right now to Ephesus with
• 01:52 Dr. Seif's teaching on location.
• 01:54 ♪♪♪
• 02:09 Jeffrey: Paul argued forcefully when working in
• 02:13 Ephesus, and he argued forcefully when writing
• 02:18 from Ephesus.
• 02:20 Paul had a vision, a mystery that was revealed to him.
• 02:24 In fact, the word that's used for the revealing is
• 02:26 "apocalypse," where we get the word "revelation."
• 02:29 Well, it wasn't so much a vision for the end of time as much as a
• 02:32 vision for the present time.
• 02:34 Paul believed that through Abraham, all the nations of the
• 02:39 world will be blessed, and that's just not the physical
• 02:42 descendants of Abraham but those who spiritually enjoin
• 02:46 themselves to Abraham through faith.
• 02:49 Paul wasn't happy when he learned that his egalitarian
• 02:53 vision of all people being the people of God was interrupted.
• 02:58 Paul had come to Asia to minister on his first missionary
• 03:02 journey and establish a number of churches in and around the
• 03:04 area of Galatia, and when he learned that in the wake of his
• 03:08 departure that some had come in and preached another Gospel,
• 03:11 Paul was not a happy camper.
• 03:14 And so from here in Ephesus, he made his understanding known in
• 03:21 what is arguably the first document written in the
• 03:25 New Testament.
• 03:27 The New Testament, as we have it, begins with Matthew and ends
• 03:30 in Revelation, but Matisyahu wasn't the first author to put
• 03:34 pen to paper.
• 03:35 Paul wrote first, and he was not the least bit happy, and you can
• 03:41 really feel the tone and tenure of the man in Galatians
• 03:45 chapter 1.
• 03:48 And on, he starts off, you know, professionally so: "Paul, an
• 03:51 apostle, not from men nor through man, but through
• 03:55 Jesus Christ."
• 03:58 You know, there were people that advocated they have
• 04:00 better pedigree than Paul because they studied
• 04:01 in Jerusalem.
• 04:03 Paul didn't.
• 04:05 Paul said, "No man made me an apostle, but God himself called
• 04:07 me," and then in verse 6, you can feel the tension as he
• 04:11 argued, "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him
• 04:17 who called you."
• 04:19 He goes, "My God, what's up with you people?
• 04:21 You're like a bunch of backsliders."
• 04:24 In fact, he says as much.
• 04:25 It seems at one level so very uncharacteristic.
• 04:28 In chapter 3, verse 1, Paul will say, "O you foolish Galatians.
• 04:35 Who has bewitched you?"
• 04:36 Now, isn't that an interesting way to write a letter to a
• 04:39 church to say, "Listen, what devil put a spell on you?"
• 04:44 Paul is ramping up.
• 04:46 He's intense, in part, because Paul's authorization
• 04:50 is undermined.
• 04:52 There were people that came to the region of Galatia, came to
• 04:54 the people that he preached to, and they knocked the legs out
• 04:57 from underneath him, saying that "That Paul didn't know what he
• 05:00 was talking about."
• 05:02 They argued they had a better telling of the nature and the
• 05:05 structure of Christian life, and so it is they advocated that
• 05:08 these non-Jewish people who have come to faith, that they now
• 05:11 come to be more Jewish in their practice.
• 05:14 Paul was not of that particular understanding.
• 05:18 Paul believed that individuals who came to the Messiah of
• 05:22 Israel didn't need to conform to all the conventions of Israel.
• 05:27 And so it is that individuals of non-Jewish extract could come
• 05:31 and participate in this body life without picking up all the
• 05:34 accoutrements of Jewish culture and the requirements in biblical
• 05:39 literature for Jews.
• 05:40 In fact, in chapter 3, verse 26, he makes a point that he's going
• 05:44 to make over and again in his writings, and it's his own way
• 05:48 of giving an accounting for core value.
• 05:50 He says, "For you are all sons of God through faith in
• 05:53 Christ Jesus.
• 05:55 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put
• 05:58 on Christ."
• 05:59 And then, in verse 28, he says what he's famous for:
• 06:02 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
• 06:05 there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in
• 06:09 Messiah Yeshua, in Christ Jesus.
• 06:12 And if you were Christ's, then you are Abraham's seeds, and
• 06:15 heirs according to the promise."
• 06:18 See, Paul had a vision.
• 06:20 Paul himself, as we know, was the apostle to the Gentiles, but
• 06:24 if we think for a minute, the Gentiles that he spoke to
• 06:27 weren't your garden variety of everyday people on the street.
• 06:29 Paul went into synagogues, and in synagogues, he met
• 06:33 individuals of non-Jewish extract who were impressed by
• 06:36 his teachings, who followed him as the Jewish people leave the
• 06:39 synagogue with these Gentiles, and together they form the
• 06:42 nucleus of new congregations.
• 06:44 Paul's gentiles were themselves half-baked Jews, individuals who
• 06:50 love Jewish people, they love Jewish Scripture, and now Paul
• 06:53 helped them understand that the Messiah of the Jews have come,
• 06:57 and they can participate in what it means to be with the people
• 07:00 of Israel without conforming to all the conventions of Israel.
• 07:04 Again, that was radical in his day and time.
• 07:07 Paul had a vision for a world without borders.
• 07:09 You know, behind me here, different people would argue
• 07:12 different perspectives, they'd kind of hack it out.
• 07:15 They'd work through issues, they'd debate the prevailing
• 07:18 problems of the day here in the parliament in Ephesus.
• 07:22 Well, here from Ephesus and from this ancient world, Paul, who
• 07:26 himself was a citizen of the world, who himself appreciated
• 07:30 diversity and wasn't himself given to imposing some monolith
• 07:34 on the church, some one way of being and one way of being only,
• 07:38 this Paul envisioned a broader world, a church without borders,
• 07:41 that made room for all people and its environs.
• 07:45 And if you look at the Galatians epistle, therein he's on record
• 07:49 contending boldly for broader horizons.
• 07:53 What a message, radical in its day in time, from the heart and
• 07:58 the mind and the inspiration of Paul, and we'll be learning more
• 08:01 about him as we continue to look at his movements and his
• 08:04 parchments as we follow in the footsteps of the rabbi
• 08:08 from Tarsus.
• 08:11 ♪♪♪
• 08:17 Jeffrey: He was known as Hephaestus to the Greeks,
• 08:19 Vulcan to the Romans.
• 08:23 He was the patron god of metalworking.
• 08:27 Seems at one level to be a very interesting patron to have, but
• 08:30 the Greeks and the Romans, as well, were very indebted to the
• 08:34 development of metalworking skills, as were the
• 08:37 ancients generally.
• 08:39 It's something that we take for granted in modernity, I think.
• 08:41 And why is that?
• 08:44 Well, metal implements were employed in the manufacture of
• 08:48 farming with a net result that it contributed toward wealth and
• 08:52 prosperity and an empire.
• 08:55 In like manner, metalworking was used to forge instruments of
• 08:59 war, and then that result is that they were able to fortify
• 09:03 and expand empire.
• 09:05 Beyond that, of course, metalworking was instrumental in
• 09:08 the manufacture of temples like this, this one sitting prominent
• 09:13 here in the ancient city of Athens, this one dedicated to
• 09:18 the patron god of metalworkers, silversmiths, and the like, and
• 09:23 here, this reflects the developments of technologies
• 09:26 with people being able to come to terms with pulling ore from
• 09:29 the earth and smelting it and putting it in the furnace and
• 09:33 manufacturing new things that can be used.
• 09:36 Well, speaking of putting things in a furnace, Paul thought that
• 09:41 something that came from a furnace brought something new as
• 09:43 well that could be used.
• 09:46 I might say in that regard that the very spikes that were put in
• 09:50 Jesus' hands and feet represent the kind of technology here,
• 09:54 that is to say, working with iron implements, fashioning
• 09:57 them, and using them.
• 09:59 Well, I don't wanna be morose here by underscoring crucifixion
• 10:02 too much, but I do wanna say that Paul's churches emerged out
• 10:08 of the furnace of affliction, that they were manufactured
• 10:12 amidst the turbulence of trying times.
• 10:15 In fact, Paul left Asia Minor because of difficulties there,
• 10:19 and he comes here to Greece, starting first at Philippi,
• 10:23 hugging the coast, making his way through Amphipolis,
• 10:27 Apollonia, Thessalonica, and then, finally, after
• 10:30 Thessalonica, coming to this great city of Athens.
• 10:36 In Acts chapter 17:1-3, we're informed that, when he was in
• 10:40 Thessalonica, that many were persuaded as he visits the
• 10:43 synagogues, as he reasons from the Scripture that this Yeshua
• 10:47 is the Mashiach that, as he did all this, there were Jews and
• 10:51 non-Jews alike that were persuaded to his way
• 10:53 of thinking.
• 10:55 Not all were, however, a riot ensued, and Paul had to be
• 10:58 escorted out of the city, and then he made his way here
• 11:01 to Athens.
• 11:03 Well, he got to Athens, but a good part of his heart still
• 11:06 belonged in Thessalonica because he knew that brethren were
• 11:10 suffering there, and so what does he do?
• 11:12 He puts pen to paper to write the Thessalonican
• 11:15 correspondences 1st and 2nd, and with Galatians, then, we have
• 11:18 the very beginnings of New Testament writ.
• 11:22 If you look at it chronologically, this is the
• 11:24 first and you can feel his affection for
• 11:26 the Thessalonicans.
• 11:27 He says in chapter 3, verse 1, of 1 Thessalonians, "We could no
• 11:31 longer endure it, we thought it good to be left alone in Athens,
• 11:35 but then we sent Timothy."
• 11:37 Timothy was sent to them, and Timothy came back with a word
• 11:39 from them.
• 11:41 "But now," in verse 6, "that Timothy has come to us from you,
• 11:44 and brought us good news--"
• 11:46 Timothy shared how they were bearing up under their
• 11:48 afflictions graciously, but Paul was still concerned.
• 11:52 ♪♪♪
• 12:03 Jeffrey: Luke said that a riot ensued in Thessalonica.
• 12:07 Paul haply got away, but not all were so fortunate.
• 12:10 Jason, whose only crime was that he gave him quarter,
• 12:14 he housed them, he said that they went and got Jason by the
• 12:17 throat and drug him before the magistrates, complaining that
• 12:21 "This fellow gave housing to this man who's turned the
• 12:24 world upside down."
• 12:26 They were so disconcerted.
• 12:28 They were so angry, so upset because Jews and non-Jews alike
• 12:34 were coming to faith in Yeshua.
• 12:36 Paul was spirited away, and he made his way here to Athens.
• 12:41 He was here, all right, but his heart belonged elsewhere.
• 12:43 He was thinkin' about the ones that he loved, and he was
• 12:46 concerned because, though he got out of the furnace of
• 12:48 affliction, he knew they were still there, so what does he do?
• 12:52 He writes 'em.
• 12:54 You ever write a letter to someone you love?
• 12:55 That's what Paul did.
• 12:56 Paul never thought he was writing the Bible.
• 12:58 Paul was just loving.
• 13:00 Simple as that.
• 13:02 In fact, I doubt, when Paul picked up pen to write, he ever
• 13:05 thought he was gonna be writing stuff that would make its way in
• 13:08 a book that would be given the same level of authorization as
• 13:13 the writings of Moses and the prophets and the like.
• 13:15 Paul is just responding to stuff, and here, from Athens,
• 13:20 he's responding to the fact that people he loved were suffering,
• 13:25 and they were suffering in part because of something he
• 13:27 instigated, and what he instigated, in part, was
• 13:31 stimulated by someone else's suffering, Jesus.
• 13:35 Suffering seems to me to be part and parcel of
• 13:37 Christian experience.
• 13:40 Paul here seems to say as much in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, he
• 13:45 says, "For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you
• 13:50 was not in vain," difficulties notwithstanding.
• 13:53 "But even after we suffered before and were spitefully
• 13:57 treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to
• 14:02 speak to you the gospel in much conflict."
• 14:08 If I understand Paul correctly, the way he is oriented toward
• 14:12 these folk, he says, "Listen, guys, you know--"
• 14:15 When he says a few times, "you know," "you know," what they
• 14:18 know is something that we don't wanna hear.
• 14:20 We don't wanna know.
• 14:22 He says, "Guys, look, wake up and smell the coffee.
• 14:23 Remember that, when I was in Philippi before I got to you,
• 14:26 things got rather unraveled.
• 14:28 When I came to Thessalonica, things got unraveled."
• 14:31 And you know what?
• 14:33 Unraveling happens.
• 14:35 Bad things happen to good people.
• 14:38 Today, there's many a preacher that advocates, "Oh, no, you
• 14:41 accept Jesus, baby, it's all good, and what it is, is you're
• 14:44 just going to prosper and have boundless success in life."
• 14:47 Listen, I believe that the Lord does lead us onward toward
• 14:50 success in life, but I think the point is grossly overstated in
• 14:55 the interest of tickling people's ears and making
• 14:58 promises that the Christian life just means all things good.
• 15:02 I believe there are things good, but I believe too that there's
• 15:04 trouble in River City.
• 15:06 I believe that, if God has a call on our life, that Satan
• 15:08 will have an assignment against us, and we must--needs then bear
• 15:14 up, develop an aptitude to resist, to stand, to not be
• 15:19 bested by despair, depressions, and exigent circumstances,
• 15:24 trials that beset us and try and overwhelm us.
• 15:28 We must need stand up, speak up, and rise up for biblical truth.
• 15:32 It seems to me that people are too depressed, pushed down, but
• 15:36 there's a triumphant God who leaves us in triumph
• 15:39 through difficulties.
• 15:42 That was the rabbi from Tarsus' message to the Thessalonians.
• 15:47 Sure, he said things beyond that, but principally it was
• 15:50 driven by a love for them.
• 15:53 It was driven by wanting to encourage them to bear up and
• 15:57 let them know that help is coming from heaven to deal with
• 16:00 vexing troubles on earth because of days, and we have a
• 16:06 winning God.
• 16:09 ♪♪♪
• 16:10 announcer: Our resource this week, the "Grafted-In
• 16:12 Package," which includes the series "Called Together" on two
• 16:16 DVDs, a "Grafted-In" necklace, two "Stand with Israel" koozies,
• 16:22 a "Grafted-In" decal, a "Grafted-In" pin, our "Things to
• 16:27 Come" bookmark, and "The Prophesied Messiah" bookmark.
• 16:32 Contact us and ask for the "Grafted-In" package, and thank
• 16:37 you for your support.
• 16:42 announcer: If you're thinking about visiting the Holy
• 16:44 Land, come on a Zola tour, where the Scriptures come to life as
• 16:48 you get teaching from a Messianic perspective.
• 16:51 Our spring tour goes to Israel and Petra.
• 16:54 In the fall, you can add a cruise of Greece and Ephesus.
• 16:58 Come to Israel.
• 17:00 See the Jewish roots of your faith.
• 17:02 Call us at 1-800-WONDERS, or click on the
• 17:06 levitt.com/tourinfo.
• 17:13 David: We would love to take you on a tour with us to
• 17:15 some of the beautiful country that Dr. Seif has been
• 17:17 teaching from.
• 17:19 We love going to Athens, Greece is amazing.
• 17:22 We go to Patmos, Mykonos--
• 17:25 Kirsten: We do a whole Greek cruise.
• 17:27 David: Santorini, Ephesus, it's beautiful, join us.
• 17:30 Kirsten: An incredible trip.
• 17:32 We would love for you to go along with us.
• 17:34 Levitt.com is the website for our tours, and if you've enjoyed
• 17:38 watching Dr. Seif teach from those locations, you can go
• 17:42 there yourself.
• 17:44 And we'd also like to say a quick thank you to you for
• 17:46 making all of this possible.
• 17:48 It's not cheap to send our whole crew over to another country to
• 17:52 film, but we're bringin' the good news through the eyes of
• 17:55 the Jews to the world because of all of you, so thank you.
• 17:59 Now let's go to Dr. Seif in Athens.
• 18:05 Jeffrey: Paul the apostle had citizenship in two worlds.
• 18:11 We know that he has roots in biblical Israelite culture on
• 18:15 the one hand.
• 18:17 On the other hand, he belonged to Rome, and he was proud of it,
• 18:22 and Rome was the grandchild of Greece.
• 18:29 And here we are in Athens.
• 18:32 Athens was a city in its glory when Paul walked atop these
• 18:37 rocks some 2,000 years ago during which time his heart was
• 18:42 stirred within him.
• 18:44 In fact, his heart was stirred before he got here because of
• 18:46 the fact that he was, in effect, kicked out of Thessalonica.
• 18:50 He left in haste, and there was unfinished business.
• 18:54 His heart remained there, and so when he heard word there about
• 18:57 difficulties, he wrote back.
• 19:00 He wrote 1 Thessalonians to encourage the church, in part,
• 19:04 because they were suffering, and not just suffering in general,
• 19:07 but there's an argument that some even died in persecution.
• 19:12 In fact, Paul addressed that issue when he wrote them the
• 19:15 first letter in 1 Thessalonians, which he arguably wrote from
• 19:19 here, from Athens.
• 19:22 Paul wrote them and encouraged them in their faith, and he
• 19:24 noted those who had fallen asleep in Christ, those who
• 19:28 had died.
• 19:30 He says in verse 13 of the 4th chapter, "I don't want you to be
• 19:33 ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep."
• 19:37 He goes on to say that the dead in Christ will rise and that
• 19:40 those who are alive will be caught up together with them in
• 19:43 the air.
• 19:45 It seems, however, that after writing the first letter, that
• 19:48 there was some unfinished business.
• 19:51 There seemed to have been some confusion as well, prompting
• 19:54 Paul to write back a second letter from here, and if not
• 19:59 from here in Athens, specifically, he at least wrote
• 20:02 from proximity to here in order to clear up some confusion that
• 20:07 was left over from his first letter.
• 20:09 It seemed to me that the Thessalonians were concerned.
• 20:14 Paul spoke about death.
• 20:15 Paul spoke about the coming of the Lord, and there was
• 20:18 confusion about what it all meant, prompting him to write in
• 20:22 the 2nd chapter, in the 1st verse, he says, "Now, brethren,
• 20:27 concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and our gathering
• 20:30 together, that we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or
• 20:34 troubled, either by spirit or word or by letter from us to the
• 20:38 effect of the day the Lord had come."
• 20:40 It's striking at one level that, as Paul is in and around Athens
• 20:44 and he's thinking about the church in Thessalonica, he's
• 20:47 concerned because they're concerned why there's confusion
• 20:51 about how history is gonna play itself out, prompting Paul to
• 20:55 spell it out the more so.
• 20:57 And here he talks to them about issues germane to Christ's
• 20:59 second coming.
• 21:01 And it's interesting, even as much as there's confusion today,
• 21:03 it seems that yesterday, in fact, at the very beginning of
• 21:06 the church, there was confusion about how the end game was gonna
• 21:09 play itself out, prompting Paul to spell it out for them, which
• 21:13 he does here when he writes to the Thessalonians here
• 21:15 in 2 Thessalonians.
• 21:18 ♪♪♪
• 21:25 Jeffrey: It's called the Erechtheion.
• 21:27 It's arguably the place, well, according to mythology, where
• 21:30 Athena fought Poseidon for Athens, and there's a temple
• 21:36 built over the spot to commemorate that victory.
• 21:41 Paul writes from Athens to the Thessalonians, and in his second
• 21:46 correspondence to the Thessalonians, he writes them
• 21:50 about another temple--not this one.
• 21:54 He writes them about a desecration of a temple.
• 21:56 Why?
• 21:58 Because the Thessalonians are concerned about life on the
• 22:01 other side of the grave and what will be transacted at the end of
• 22:05 time as Christians are transported away to their
• 22:08 eternal home, right at the edge of history.
• 22:12 He is talking about evil things at days end in 2 Thessalonians.
• 22:19 He exhorts them in chapter 2, verse 3, "Let no one deceive you
• 22:23 by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away
• 22:28 comes first."
• 22:30 Paul envisions a world where things go bad.
• 22:34 He sees defilement in the world.
• 22:36 This may, to a certain extent, have been stimulated the more so
• 22:39 by virtue of his recent experiences in Athens where he's
• 22:43 seen all kinds of pagan worship.
• 22:47 Luke already tells us that he's troubled in spirit because of
• 22:49 it all.
• 22:51 Does he see that biblical worship's gonna be overrun by
• 22:54 pagan and evil things?
• 22:57 It seems that he does.
• 22:59 He says there's a falling away, and then he says that there's
• 23:01 this personality who emerges, who, according to Paul, "opposes
• 23:06 and exalts himself above all that is called God or worships,
• 23:12 that he sits as God in the temple of God, and he proclaims
• 23:15 himself that he is God."
• 23:18 For me, it's striking, in part, that Paul would be speaking this
• 23:20 way, in part, because the landscape around Athens is
• 23:24 dotted by temples that are seats to various deities, and for him,
• 23:28 this epitomizes what the anti-Messiah
• 23:31 will do at days' end,
• 23:33 come and claim that he's God, but here he has in mind, not so
• 23:37 much the worship facilities behind me--and by the way,
• 23:41 I'm coming to you from the Acropolis, and the Parthenon is
• 23:45 close to me.
• 23:47 This is the major site of Greek influence and philosophy
• 23:51 in the world.
• 23:53 When Paul talks about a temple going bad, he's not speaking
• 23:55 about sites here.
• 23:57 His sights are set in the Jewish world where the temple stands,
• 24:00 and he sees a great defilement at day's end, and he warns the
• 24:04 Thessalonians to be ever in the ready to be walking with the
• 24:09 Lord such that, as history unfolds, they might not
• 24:13 conceivably get swept away in delusion and deception.
• 24:16 It seems to me it's a good word for today as well.
• 24:20 Paul said this and other things as well, and, of course, we're
• 24:22 well served to pay attention to the teachings of this man as we
• 24:25 walk in his footsteps, the footsteps of the rabbi
• 24:30 from Tarsus.
• 24:31 ♪♪♪
• 24:41 Kirsten: Paul wrote with gusto in his letter,
• 24:45 2 Thessalonians.
• 24:47 I mean, we're talking end-time prophecies.
• 24:50 He was, kind of, tryin' to help figure out and write to them,
• 24:54 saying, "Here's what's really happening," right?
• 24:56 Jeffrey: To your point about his nature, he was a man with gusto.
• 25:01 It takes a little bit of that "umph" to press forward 'cause
• 25:04 you're going against the grain.
• 25:06 And certainly, he's writing here about this wicked person who's
• 25:10 going against the grain with a lot of gusto himself.
• 25:13 David: And a lot of those people didn't like Paul at all because
• 25:16 they were losing business.
• 25:18 Jeffrey: There were occasions where people were disconcerted
• 25:20 by Paul, more times than not.
• 25:23 This guy was beaten to a pulp on more than one occasion.
• 25:26 Kirsten: I gotta hand it to him.
• 25:27 He had the guts to be beaten down and then continue writing
• 25:33 and telling the truth.
• 25:34 He was a truth teller.
• 25:35 Jeffrey: He didn't stop, but he was driven by something more
• 25:37 than just Energizer batteries.
• 25:41 You know, he was a man on a mission, with a call.
• 25:44 It took a lot of guts for Paul to be Paul, and it takes a lot
• 25:47 of guts for you to be you, and for me to be me, and for us to
• 25:52 be us.
• 25:53 At the end of the day, not everybody approves.
• 25:56 I have family members that don't approve that I accepted Jesus.
• 25:59 There are Christian people that don't approve that I'm Jewish
• 26:02 and still retain some of that, but what are you gonna do?
• 26:04 We have to be authentic to who we are, correct?
• 26:06 Kirsten: True.
• 26:08 Jeffrey: And to the point in chapter 2, verse 7, Paul gives
• 26:13 voice to this spirit that's at work against the advancement of
• 26:18 the kingdom of "the mystery of lawlessness that's operating."
• 26:23 And that's what we give voice to when we come against opposition.
• 26:26 That's the bad news.
• 26:28 The good news is not only is lawlessness operating, but the
• 26:32 grace of God is operating too through people like us and
• 26:36 like you.
• 26:38 Thank you for joining the army and getting behind us and
• 26:40 helping us displace the darkness.
• 26:43 Being Christian is counterintuitive.
• 26:46 We're teaching and preaching the Bible.
• 26:49 We're looking at the good news through the eyes of the Jews.
• 26:52 It's a little different.
• 26:54 Thank you for supporting us.
• 26:56 Continue to do so, so we can stave off the darkness and bring
• 26:59 light to a darkened world.
• 27:01 David: Amen, Dr. Seif, fantastic teaching today.
• 27:04 Kirsten: Yes, thank you.
• 27:06 David: So much more next week.
• 27:08 We would love for you to join us.
• 27:09 Jeffrey: Join us in the Mediterranean world, and as you
• 27:11 go now, shaalu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:13 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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