Messianic Audio Teachings

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. 

In this lesson, we take a first look at the idea of Mussar and the overall message of Yeshua. What is our purpose as followers of Messiah, and how does Mussar help us accomplish this purpose?

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. 

Paul complains that "false brothers secretly brought in ... slipped in to spy out our freedom ... so that they might bring us into slavery" (Galatians 2:4). Who are these false brothers? In what sense are they false? In what sense had they been secretly brought in? What was the freedom in Messiah on which they were spying? These and more questions are answered as Paul brings Titus to a meeting with three top-ranking apostles to seek an endorsement for his gospel to the Gentiles.

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. 

Does Galatians 2 contain an alternate version of events at the Acts 15 Jerusalem Council. Many scholars think so, but a careful look at the story in the book of Acts suggests otherwise. After an absense of more than a decade, Paul journeys to jerusalem in the company of Barnabas and Titus with a collection for famine relief. 

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.

What was Paul writing against in the epistle to the Galatians? Against the Torah? Against Legalism? Against Judaism? This teaching offers an introduction to the circumcision agenda of "Influencers" through a retelling of the conversion of King Izates, his mother Queen Helena, and the royal house of Adiabene.

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. 

What's the purpose and intention behind the Book of Romans? Is it eternal security, predestination, or God's soveriegn choice? Try "None of the Above." Romans 15 summarizes Paul's intention for writing the epistle and sets the record straight. Romans 16 introduces us to the original recipients of the epistle. This final installment from the 2015 Beth Immanuel class "Paul's Epistle to the Romans" features a completely unedited and poor-quality audio recording made on a cell-phone voice recorder. Enjoy!