Messianic Audio Teachings

Have you ever heard of faith versus works? The theological argument about whether God saves a person by grace alone or if a person's obedience and good works are a necessary part of the equation is old as the New Testament itself. This teaching offers a resolution of the classic faith-versus-works debate through exploring Paul's theology of justification for the circumcised and the uncircumcised. 

Order the book, Holy Epistle to the Galatians.

Paul says, "Through the Law I Died to the Law." What is that supposed to mean? Take a look at the mystical implications of Paul's death to the law as a death to relying on Jewish identity for salvation. 

Did Paul really rebuke Peter "to his face"? In Galatians 2:11-14, Paul recounts how Peter, on his visit to Antioch, separated from the God-fearing Gentile believers and incurred Paul's sound rebuke. Get the story behind the story. 

For the last eighteen hundred years, the church has triumphantly declared that the gospel has cancelled the Torah and that Gentile Christians have replaced the Jewish people. Those dogmas stem from a failture to understand the distinction between Peter's apostleship and Paul's apostleship. As the apostles endorse Paul and send him out as the "apostle to the Gentiles," they do so with one caveat: "Remember the poor ones!" Find out the surprising meaning behind that single instruction. 

Was Paul a  Lone Ranger and John Wayne type of apostle who heard directly from God, or did he honor higher authorities? In this episode, Paul goes up to Jerusalem to submit his gospel of Gentile inclusion to the authority of the apostles, fearing that he may have been running his race in vain. 

"I set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running or had run in vain." (Galatians 2:2)

What is "Paul's Gospel" and what makes it different than everyone else's Gospel? This third installment offers a summary of Paul's autobiography as presented in Galatians 1:11-24, in which he describes his revelation from Heaven and his divine commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

An introduction of Paul's epistle to the Galatians, identifying the author, the addrees, and the situation that occasioned its composition. This teaching is the first in a series of 26 sermons prepared and delivered to Beth Immanuel Messianic Synagogue in 2009 which First Fruits of Zion edited together into the book The Holy Epistle to the Galatians: Sermons on a Messianic Jewish Approach. 

People who keep the Sabbath and eat kosher are weak in faith, but the strong in faith treat every day alike and eat anything. That's the conventional interpretation of Romans 14. Take a second look at this passage from Paul's Epistle to the Romans and consider a Messianic Jewish intepretation that turns the conventional one upside down. 

The Bible says, "Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint." But what is the vision? Here's a talk on the vision behind Messianic Judaism for All Nations and how it differs from other forms of Judaism and Christianity. This teaching presents "the big picture" in the context of a discussion on Jacob's blessings over his sons at the end of the book of Genesis.