Sharing the Gospel with a Jewish Friend
It doesn’t matter where I go. I can be in Wichita or Washington D.C., Miami or Minneapolis, London or Los Angeles; I have fellow believers ask me what the best way to share Yeshua with their Jewish friend might be. Frankly, I love and loathe this question all at the same time. I love it because it shows me that the person is interested in sharing the Jewish messiah with a Jewish person. I hate it because they are expecting me to give them a formulaic response of how to communicate Jesus in a Jewish way, akin to the Romans Road or the 4 Spiritual Laws. The fact is that sharing is not that simple with a Jewish person or with someone who is not Jewish. It is all about your witness and their need for peace and desire for truth. However I would like to offer you some Biblical understanding about sharing with a Jewish person and some tools, not formulas to help you share with a Jewish person.
First, we must understand that it is imperative that we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters. If anybody displayed that well, it was Paul. Paul was trained as a religious Jew under one of the most renown rabbis of his day Gamaliel. Yet when he was commissioned by Jesus to share the gospel, he was told that he would bring the gospel, which at the time had just been available to Jewish people, to the non-Jewish people of the Roman empire (Acts 22). That is just what he did; all throughout the Mediterranean, he shared with everybody he found. Paul had an incredible impact for the Lord and yet he never lost a love for his people, the Jewish people. In Romans 10 he begs the believers to share the gospel with the Jewish people because if nobody tells them, how will they have an opportunity to respond. In Romans 11, he says that by the non-Jewish people receiving Jesus, they now have the responsibility to make the Jewish people jealous. That is what I wish to help you with today. I don’t want to help you convince anybody because we do not save anybody but rather that is the Lord’s job. We simply present the evidence and live a redeemed life worth living to make the people around us jealous.
The following are some ideas and tools to help you share with your Jewish friend:
1) After your conversations about God and the Messiah, you could always invite them to a church or small group you think they would feel comfortable in. It would be good to do this on a special occasion or can also be done during a regular service.
2) You could invite them to a social outing of fellow believers and friends. If they have pre-conceived notions about believers like they are dull, boring, or have no fun, this could show them that believers are in fact, normal, fun-loving people like anybody else. This could also bring a more defensive Jewish non-believer into a good community but slowly so he or she has time to get used to the idea of hanging out with believers.
3) Introduce your Jewish friend to another Jewish friend who believes in Jesus.
4) Ask if you could attend Passover with your friend at their family’s house or wherever they are celebrating it. It would not be good to bring up Jesus during Passover but your friend will be intrigued at your interest and may open up conversations later.
5) Have your church or similar group hold a Passover Seder, and invite your non-believing Jewish friends.
6) Throw a party with like-minded and discerning believers who know that you wish to share with your Jewish friend. Also invite Jewish non-believing friends and let the conversations flow.
7) Bring your Jewish friends to a Messianic Jewish Congregation near you. This is a place of Jewish and Gentile believers who usually worship on Friday nights and/or Saturday mornings and typically conduct the service in a relatively traditional Jewish way. Important: Go to the congregation first to make sure that you are comfortable with the service and they way it is conducted.
8) Contact a Jewish Missions organization to see if there are any events going on in your area like: special speakers, concerts, debates, movie showings, Holiday services and parties, etc.
9) Offer to study the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) with them, like a one on one Bible study.
10) Once again, the most important thing is to maintain regular contact with your friend whether that means getting together for coffee, or parties, or dinner. The relationship is the most important way to assure that your friend takes you and your faith seriously.
Road to Jerusalem
1.Jeremiah 17:9 Heart is deceitful
2.Isaiah 64:6 Righteous deeds=Filthy rags
3.Isaiah 59:1-2 Sins separate from God
4.Ezekiel 18:20 You are responsible for your sin
5.Leviticus 17:11 Blood is needed for atonement
6.Isaiah 53:1-12 Sufferer taking sin which heals
7.Daniel 9:26 Messiah comes before 2nd temple destroyed
8.Genesis 15:6 Believe=Righteousness
9.Habakkuk 2:4 The Just shall live by faith
10.Micah 5:2 Messiah born in Bethlehem
11.Psalm 22:16 Depiction of Crucifixion
First, we must understand that it is imperative that we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters. If anybody displayed that well, it was Paul. Paul was trained as a religious Jew under one of the most renown rabbis of his day Gamaliel. Yet when he was commissioned by Jesus to share the gospel, he was told that he would bring the gospel, which at the time had just been available to Jewish people, to the non-Jewish people of the Roman empire (Acts 22). That is just what he did; all throughout the Mediterranean, he shared with everybody he found. Paul had an incredible impact for the Lord and yet he never lost a love for his people, the Jewish people. In Romans 10 he begs the believers to share the gospel with the Jewish people because if nobody tells them, how will they have an opportunity to respond. In Romans 11, he says that by the non-Jewish people receiving Jesus, they now have the responsibility to make the Jewish people jealous. That is what I wish to help you with today. I don’t want to help you convince anybody because we do not save anybody but rather that is the Lord’s job. We simply present the evidence and live a redeemed life worth living to make the people around us jealous.
The following are some ideas and tools to help you share with your Jewish friend:
1) After your conversations about God and the Messiah, you could always invite them to a church or small group you think they would feel comfortable in. It would be good to do this on a special occasion or can also be done during a regular service.
2) You could invite them to a social outing of fellow believers and friends. If they have pre-conceived notions about believers like they are dull, boring, or have no fun, this could show them that believers are in fact, normal, fun-loving people like anybody else. This could also bring a more defensive Jewish non-believer into a good community but slowly so he or she has time to get used to the idea of hanging out with believers.
3) Introduce your Jewish friend to another Jewish friend who believes in Jesus.
4) Ask if you could attend Passover with your friend at their family’s house or wherever they are celebrating it. It would not be good to bring up Jesus during Passover but your friend will be intrigued at your interest and may open up conversations later.
5) Have your church or similar group hold a Passover Seder, and invite your non-believing Jewish friends.
6) Throw a party with like-minded and discerning believers who know that you wish to share with your Jewish friend. Also invite Jewish non-believing friends and let the conversations flow.
7) Bring your Jewish friends to a Messianic Jewish Congregation near you. This is a place of Jewish and Gentile believers who usually worship on Friday nights and/or Saturday mornings and typically conduct the service in a relatively traditional Jewish way. Important: Go to the congregation first to make sure that you are comfortable with the service and they way it is conducted.
8) Contact a Jewish Missions organization to see if there are any events going on in your area like: special speakers, concerts, debates, movie showings, Holiday services and parties, etc.
9) Offer to study the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) with them, like a one on one Bible study.
10) Once again, the most important thing is to maintain regular contact with your friend whether that means getting together for coffee, or parties, or dinner. The relationship is the most important way to assure that your friend takes you and your faith seriously.
Road to Jerusalem
1.Jeremiah 17:9 Heart is deceitful
2.Isaiah 64:6 Righteous deeds=Filthy rags
3.Isaiah 59:1-2 Sins separate from God
4.Ezekiel 18:20 You are responsible for your sin
5.Leviticus 17:11 Blood is needed for atonement
6.Isaiah 53:1-12 Sufferer taking sin which heals
7.Daniel 9:26 Messiah comes before 2nd temple destroyed
8.Genesis 15:6 Believe=Righteousness
9.Habakkuk 2:4 The Just shall live by faith
10.Micah 5:2 Messiah born in Bethlehem
11.Psalm 22:16 Depiction of Crucifixion
