Happy Chanukah - from our Messianic Friends

[Archbishop Michael-John]

Brian B Michael John, can you pass this Exciting Newsletter onto your Christian and Messianic friends, this last day of Chanukah?

------Original Message------
December 2009 - Cheshvan/Kislev 5770

This month let us truly rejoice, remembering that Yeshua (Jesus) was born in order to die for our sins, giving us eternal life!

Both Chanukuh and Christmas are known as the “Festivals of Lights;” they are celebrated in December; and they both remind us of God’s salvation.

Yeshua celebrated Chanukah in John 10:22, when He went to the Temple in Jerusalem during the winter to celebrate the “Feast of Dedication.”

Christmas 0 BC*
Christmas is about our Messiah’s birth (even though we know that He was born in the fall** and not in the winter) and Chanukah is about the nation of Israel being saved from the Syrian/Greek armies, 165 years before Yeshua’s birth.

Christmas 165 BC
Chanukah fulfills God’s Prophetic Word in Jeremiah 31:35, 36 as it says that the Jewish people will never be wiped out as long as the stars and the sun exist. It is also the miraculous story of the oil burning for eight days in the Jerusalem Temple.

Prophet Isaiah 2800 BC
Yeshua’s miraculous birth took place to fulfill Isaiah’s Messianic Prophecies:

(1) “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The young woman will be with child and will give birth to a son, and she will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

(2) “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6, 7

Can you imagine what it must have been like for the prophet Isaiah when he supernaturally received the Messianic Prophecies? I wonder how the Lord revealed to him the words he was to write down. Did Isaiah receive them in a dream or a vision? Did he audibly hear the voice of God instructing him what to write down?

One thing I do know is that Isaiah clearly knew who the Messiah would be 800 years before He was born! And I believe Isaiah’s heart leapt for joy when he began writing those words of the coming Savior …

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6, 7

Isaiah was a Jew who lived in Jerusalem almost 800 years before Yeshua’s birth. He was just an ordinary man. Isaiah was married, had two sons, and worked as an official for King Uzziah during his early years. However, later he was called by God to be a prophet, and he obeyed that calling!

On a Shabbat (Saturday morning) 2000 years ago, one of Isaiah’s Messianic Prophecies was read aloud by the Messiah himself, to the other Jewish men in the local synagogue.

Luke 4:16-21 says: Yeshua went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read the scroll of the prophet Isaiah which was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Yeshua said to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in you hearing it.”

God used ordinary people like Isaiah 2800 years ago; and today God wants to use people like you and me to proclaim His Word and His Prophecies about the Messiah to the unsaved Jewish people.

Did you know that the book of Isaiah has 66 chapters? And, did you know that your Bible has exactly 66 books in it? The Old Testament (First Covenant) has 39 books in it and the New Testament (New Covenant) is comprised of 27 books.

The book of Isaiah is like a miniature version of the Bible. The first 39 chapters focus on humanity’s failure, and then chapters 40-66 emphasize the hope of the coming Messiah! I do not believe that this is a coincidence, because God is so precise in what He does and His Word is so perfect!

I recently met with Rabbi Skobac, an anti-missionary, orthodox rabbi. We opened up the Jewish Scriptures and looked at the Prophecy of Isaiah 9:6. He harshly responded, “Zev, this is not a Messianic Prophecy and it is not speaking about Jesus. No child could be called ‘Mighty God!’”

But it is clear that Isaiah is speaking about a person who would be called God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Although this rabbi refuses to acknowledge the Messianic prophecies, I know hundreds of Jewish Believers like Avi, Sarah, Eyal, Rachelit, Jacob, Ofir, Laura and Samuel, who recently have all received eternal life from reading this prophecy in Isaiah, or other Messianic prophecies!

It is through these prophecies that most Jewish people accept Yeshua as their Messiah.

Here is what Samuel, a Jewish Believer said: “During the Chanukah/Christmas season, when my Christian friend opened up his Bible, and showed me Isaiah 9, I couldn’t accept it at first. I was told my whole life that as a Jew we can not believe in Jesus because he is the God of the Gentiles. Jesus started his own religion and he was a traitor to Judaism. But two weeks later I opened up the Bible my Christian friend gave to me, and I read the prophecy in Isaiah 9, over and over again. As I read the prophecy God supernaturally revealed things to me, and I instantly knew that this was speaking about Yeshua. I accepted Him as my Messiah, and I was born again! This was the best Chanukah gift I could ever receive,” exclaimed Samuel.

On December 25, millions of Christians around the world will celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus. However, 99% of the Jewish people do not believe in Yeshua, and they will spend eternity separated from God because no one has taken the Gospel to them.

I believe that just as God used Isaiah to proclaim some of the original Messianic Prophecies, God wants to use you and me today to tell people about Yeshua.

Your brother in Messiah’s love,
Zev Isaacs.

[Archbishop Michael-John]

NB Chanukah is optional to Messianic Jewish members although it is not a principle feast in the Arian Catholic Church.

* There was no such date as "0 BC", the Romans had no concept of the value "0".

** The Messianic Jewish belief in an Autumn birth of Yeshua was based on a confusion over the word "Tabernacle" (to dwell), relating the prophesy of: "Immanuel" (God with us) and the autumn feast of Tabernacles, with John 1:14 "...and lived among us..." - Yet here, it is the Word of God being made flesh, through Yeshua's teaching as Yeshua lived on earth; and Paul's: heavenly and worldly sanctuaries (Hebrews 9:1-22) - which actually are references to the Church not Yeshua's human and divine states. There is no relationship to the feast of Tabernacles.

However the early Church used the feast of the Epiphany to celebrate the birth of Yeshua along side his Baptism and the coming of the Magi (astronomy being the key (Genesis 1:14 "and let them be for signs")). While Astronomical evidence points to a mid June 2 BC birth!