An obscure Midrash about Moses is concealed behind Paul's cryptic allusion to Psalm 68 in Ephesians 4:9-10. Here's an apostolic teaching about the ascension of the Messiah which likens it to Moses ascended Mount Sinai. 

"Why being born a Gentile is the most fantastic and amazing thing that ever happened to you." Yisroel Amic draws together themes from several different recent Beth Immanuel teachings to offer counsel for the non-Jews struggling to find their place in the Messianic Jewish synagogue.

How does a disciple of Yeshua live? Here's a quick introduction to the rules of mussar for the disciples of Yeshua as presented in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. In this teaching, we do a quick read-thru of the entire chapter, commenting along the way about the difference between the old life and the new life in Messiah. 

There's deep Jewish mysticism at work in apostolic theology. In this teaching from Ephesians 3, Paul invites us for a swim in deep waters  as he attempts to persuade the Gentile disciples in Ephesus to see themselves as more than "just Gentiles." 

What does it mean to be a "fellow heir" with Israel and part of "the commonwealth of Israel"? There's a right way and a wrong way to interpret Paul's analogies. We've tried the wrong way before. Let's try the right way. Take a trip through Ephesians 3:1-13 to uncover the "Mystery of Christ" which was "hidden in God" for ages past. 

What is God's purpose in saving you? Turns out that God had a plan all along. The Passover story and the good news of the kingdom contain God's plan for universal domination, a plan in which the nations play a critical part. The "mystery of the gospel" and the "eternal purpose of God" presented in Ephesians 3 reveal the meaning of the redemption and the significance of the Gentile disciples in the whole plan. 

Christ has "abolished in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" and "the law of commandments expressed in ordinances" in order to make Jew and Gentile into "one new man" built together into a "holy temple ... a dwelling place for God." There's a lot of room for misunderstanding Ephesians 2:14-15. Here's a teaching to clear it up and make sense of the passage without falling into the predictable patterns of Replacement Theology.

Lesson two in our read-thru of Ephesians. If we understood the full implication of our salvation through Yeshua, we would not be concerned with status, prestige, social class or caste, nationality or ancestry, because the exaltatio of Messiah transcends all of that.

A  reading of Ephesians 1 focusing on the pronouns reveals a new persepctive on Paul's message to the Gentile community of Ephesus. 

If salvation is not intended to get us into heaven, what's the point? This teaching introduces the concept of the exile of God' Dwelling Presence, and the objective of the commandment to build a sanctuary.