Why Jewish Ministry?

Jewish ministry is not an easy calling: barriers to the gospel are abundant and professions of faith are few. Many ask why we would devote ourselves to Jewish ministry, when there are so many other people groups who need the gospel – and who are more open to receiving it.

The short answer is that Jewish ministry is important because the Jewish people are important to God. We see this demonstrated in Scripture in two primary ways: in the origins of the Messiah, and the biblical emphasis on God’s heart for the Jewish people.

Jewish Origins of the Messiah

Romans 9:4–5 sums up the first point well: “To [Israel] belongs the adoption as sons and daughters, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the temple service, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”

Jesus the Messiah came to us in the flesh as a Jewish man, descended through His mother, Mary, from a long line of Jewish men and women. Our Savior’s genealogy traces back to Abraham, to whom God first made a promise to bless all the nations through Abraham’s descendants. Not only was Jesus a Jewish man, His earthly ministry was first and foremost to other Jewish people. He told the Canaanite woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24).

After Jesus’ ascension, the gospel spread to the Gentile world through His Jewish disciples’ efforts, particularly through Paul (the book of Acts details Paul’s conversion and subsequent ministry). The early church was a Jewish phenomenon – so much so that its Jewish leaders called a special council to determine how Gentiles who were coming to faith should fit into the church (Acts 15).

It is true that Israel as a whole has never embraced Jesus as their Messiah. As Paul says, “But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make [Israel] jealous” (Romans 11:11). Paul points out that, if the world was blessed through Israel’s hardening, the blessing will be even greater when Israel at last turns back to God (Romans 11:12)!

This brings us to the second point drawing us to Jewish ministry: the biblical emphasis on God’s love and calling for the Jewish people and their eventual restoration.

Biblical Emphasis on the Jewish People

Romans 1:16 is just one of many passages that place a special emphasis on Jewish salvation. Paul, who devoted his ministry to preaching the gospel to Gentiles, always appealed first to the Jewish inhabitants wherever he traveled. He had a deep passion to see his Jewish brothers bow the knee to the Messiah (Romans 9:1–3).

Romans 10:1, a prayer for the Jewish people, is the only instance of prayer for a specific people group’s salvation! This is not to say that Jewish people are more important than other people groups, but it does reveal the prominence of Israel – and Jerusalem – in God’s plans for the world.

This prominence is prevalent, of course, throughout the Old Testament. In Genesis 12:3, God promises that those who bless the Jewish people will themselves be blessed and the one who curses them will be cursed (Genesis 12:3). Psalm 122:6 calls its readers to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and Isaiah writes, “You who profess the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem an object of praise on earth” (Isaiah 62:6b–7).

This theme of a longed-for redemption of Israel and Jerusalem continues in the New Testament. Jesus Himself said,

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, and you were unwilling! Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until you say, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!”
(Luke 13:34–35)

Nowhere in these impassioned cries do we get the impression that Israel’s rejection of Jesus and His messengers invalidates God’s covenant with the Jewish people. In Romans 11:25–32, Paul emphasizes that God’s promises and plans for Israel still stand, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Scripture is clear that God has loved the Jewish people in the past and has promised their repentance in the future. Let us not forget that God also loves the Jewish people in the times between. There are thousands of Jewish people living now who need to hear the Good News.

Conclusion

There are countless individuals whom God is preparing to recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah – and often He uses believers like you and me to plant the seeds of the gospel in Jewish hearts.

When Jesus ascended into heaven after His earthly ministry, He left the church this command: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

The events of history have caused the Jewish people to be scattered through countless nations across the earth. As we, the church, go into all the nations to baptize and teach, let us place a biblical priority on reaching the Jewish people within those nations!