Without Faith the Vision PerishesWithout Faith, the Vision Perishes Shabbat, March 14, 2020
Rabbi Jim Appel was going to give a message, “Without a Vision, the People Perish.” Rabbi Jim couldn’t make it, so I will give a message called, “Without Faith, the Vision Perishes.” God gives vision in order to give purpose and direction to His people. In order to attain the goal, God’s people must persevere and grow in faith—the substance of things hoped for. God’s word teaches us that the journey of persevering faith is as important as fulfilling the vision. V’eemru? (And let us say? Lord willing, Rabbi Jim will visit another time. Meanwhile, he was gracious to share his notes with me, from which I will share some excerpts, then apply it our situation at Beit Simcha and the Lehigh Valley. Jim and I have been keeping up with each other on our building projects. Most Messianic congregations have been meeting in churches or other rented space, on Shabbat. In recent years, many Messianic congregations are taking up the challenge of acquiring buildings. (In the MJAA, congregations in Atlanta and Buffalo have built or acquired buildings; in Tikkun America, El Shaddai Congregation in Frederick and the congregations in Memphis and Knoxville, Tennessee have been inspiring examples of persevering faith to acquire and/or improve facilities.) In Rochester, Shema Yisrael had their own building for 31 years. Rabbi Jonathan Bernis led that effort and as you may know, Rabbi Bernis organized revival festivals in the former Soviet Union and is an inspiring visionary at Jewish Voice! However, that building no longer worked for Shema Yisrael. Most vibrant (and even some not so vibrant) non-Messianic congregations have their own buildings. To most American Jews, a synagogue is not a synagogue, unless it has a decent building. So it is time, Rabbi Jim (and other Messianic Rabbis) believe, for our congregations to take that step. (I note that it’s more than a step: it’s a journey which requires persevering faith. V’eemru?) Jim understands that our own building site is in a neighborhood where the Jewish Federation projected growth in the Jewish population. (Indeed, since we’ve been here, several Jewish families who live nearby have joined us. Imagine what would happen if we were more visible and could offer more to the surrounding area?) Building in a Jewish neighborhood, Jim says, increases visibility and greater effectiveness in reaching the Jewish community with the Good News. Bringing revival to the Jewish Community is urgent. People are bound by sin and hasatan. They need to see a vibrant, strong alternative. V’eemru? The Bible predicts there will be a great revival among Jewish people that will precede Yeshua’s return. (Romans 11:11-12 says, “Salvation has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke Israel to jealousy. Now if their transgression leads to riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles, then how much more their fullness!” How many of know that the message of salvation is expanding among Gentiles and Jews all around the world? How many of you believe the Holy Spirit is preparing the way for the salvation of Israel and the return of Messiah?)
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In the last 50 years a growing remnant of faithful Jewish & Gentile believers have been praying, working, longing to see this great end time revival among Jewish people. At Messiah 2018, Lou Engle, co-founder of The Call, a worldwide prayer and fasting movement, spoke about this Biblical prophecy. (It was a powerful word for us—you can find it on YouTube.) You can read Bible prophesies and find yourself participating in fulfilling them! God’s predictions are in lines of print on the pages of the Bible; between the lines you can write what God has called you to do, us to do, to be part of fulfilling of the Biblical vision. Rabbi Jim and others believe the revival must happen here before Yeshua returns. Do you? To be part of that revival, we must be effective in reaching our local Jewish community. Rabbi Bernis saw that revival happening in the former Soviet Union, when thousands of Jews accepted Yeshua and planted thriving Messianic Jewish congregations—one in Kiev has over 1500 Jews. Pamela and I participated in the 1995 Hear O Israel festival in Odessa, leading Jews to faith in Yeshua. (I still have my t-shirt!) It was the greatest move of the Spirit God on Jewish people since Book of Acts. Rabbi Bernis was called by God to plant Shema Yisrael in order to bring revival in Rochester. He planted very well. Shema Yisrael has been here for 35 years. But they have not seen that great revival, though Rabbis Bernis & Appel have prayed, labored and planted an enduring congregation. We have also prayed, worked & longed for revival here in the Lehigh Valley. I believe it’s coming! Shema Yisrael has developed significant outreaches to fulfill the calling in their community: Grocery distribution ministry (14 Russian Jewish immigrants prayed to receive the Lord), Community Passover Seders, High Holiday services, web-based outreach and much more… About six years ago, Rabbi Jim was talking with a congregant. She and her husband own a European delicatessen in town. So their customers are mostly Jewish people They give out tracts and try to share the good news with their Jewish customers. They always ask, “What synagogue do you attend?” When deli-owners answer Shema Yisrael, the response is almost always, “I never heard of that synagogue.” From this Jim and his elders concluded that “most Jews in Greater Rochester don’t know Shema Yisrael exist; we’re not visible.” Their building was not in a location where it would be seen by many Jews. So they began to pray: “Lord, make us known. Make what we believe and do known!” Soon after that prayer Rabbi Jim was contacted by Pastor Doug Langford. Jim thought Doug would ask him to teach about a Jewish holiday. “Instead he shocked me by asking if Shema Yisrael would be interested in buying a church building. In five years this church was planning on moving out of their building. Because the Pastor lived near that church and had Jewish neighbors, he believed that the Lord had shown him they were to sell their building to us. “Their leadership decided to do what they could to enable us to buy it. It’s a nice modern building, with a 300-seat sanctuary, lobby, fellowship hall. Many classrooms, parking lot, playground, and it’s just down the street from the JCC (Jewish Community Center). Owning this facility and putting up a sign will solve our visibility problem.”
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So that was how Rabbi Jim caught the vision to buy this facility and relocate. That was the beginning of a 6-year journey that he hopes and believes will end this December, when they close on this facility. They went through several trials of their faith. They prayed, persevered, and saw breakthroughs. After an appraisal, the church increased their price from $1.5M to $2M. “When we heard about the change to $2M they were ready to give up. I was sharing this change with our congregation at a business meeting and we prayed for God to move. Later that night I got a call from Pastor Doug. He told me during the time we were having our business meeting. He received a pledge for $.5M for us to buy the church’s building.” Jim still doesn’t know who made that pledge! “Then an Orthodox Jewish organization heard that we were trying to buy building and made a cash offer for $2.2M. We thought, that’s it, we’re going to be outbid. But God did another miracle: the church turned the offer because they believed we were supposed to buy their building!” Shema had their old building up for sale for years with no success. “But after committing ourselves to the purchase, we put it back on the market and it sold for cash in 2 months” They now have an amazing $488,857 pledged & donated, including donations of $100k, $50k, $25k, $20k. From a congregation 85 pledgers, an average of over $5400 per donor. (Beit Simcha has also had many faith-filled donors!) Not only will their relocation help them reach the Jewish community, it will glorify God, it will be more effective in connecting non-Jewish believers to Jewish roots through larger & more creative Moadim celebrations (like our own Purim spiels and community Seders) and clear up confusion among Gentiles about hyper-grace downplaying the importance of obeying God’s commandments, as well as confusion about their relationship to Torah and Israel. The move will help Shema take clear Biblical stands on moral issues and encourage support of Israel and against anti-Semitism.
Taking care of a building contributes to a community’s spiritual growth. “We will continue to follow the Amud – the pillar of cloud and fire.” Through this journey Jim has come to the realization that having a concrete vision is very empowering for a congregation. Shema had a serious split a few years ago, not over the question of relocating but over other things. Having a clear concrete vision to pursue was instrumental in getting us through those hard times. They had a prophetic word that it was time for our congregation to unite around this vision. That word was fulfilled in membership’s unanimous vote to proceed. But first HaShem has taken Rabbi Jim and his flock on a journey of faith through a temporary space. Their purchase agreement was signed 2.5 years in the future, at the end of 2020. It included provision for to lease from the church if Shema sold their building, before they were ready to move out. Except, when they met to discuss the terms of the lease,
the church was unwilling to give Shema any storage space. Basically Shema would have been a "carry in, carry out" congregation without even a place to store usher or children's ministry supplies. So, the leaders of Shema concluded renting was not going to work. But they had sold their building!
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As Jim was praying about where Shema could go, he was led to ask another church about leasing. They offered a great deal and included significant storage space. However, Shema had to change their meeting time from 10am to 11:30am and couldn't get in to set up or rehearse until 11am. Moving out of their old building was a major project because they 30 years of accumulated stuff. Sound familiar? (I hope you all know there’s a lot of Beit Simcha stuff in my attic and the Levys’ basement.) Once in there were lots of glitches in the Wi-fi, air conditioning, heat and conflicts with seven other groups using the facility, especially for special events like previously planned weddings and concerts. Nevertheless, they have been able to be effective in their ministry. The biggest issue has been to get their landlords to take action when there was a problem that they need to fix. (Good news: Paul Kofchock reports that folks at Trexlertown Grange have been much easier to work with lately!) Mark Dayan recently shared with me about Congregation Beth Yeshua and their journey of faith to a new facility. They bought property but that didn’t work out because of zoning board resistance. Then they bought another church (zoned for religious use), but the facility has a capacity of about half of Beth Yeshua. So they are planning to build a new worship center on the land. But Rabbi David Chernoff insists that they pay for it without debt. Meanwhile, they’ve sold their old facility in Overbrook Park. (It once was a Jewish neighborhood—I once lived there and worked in in a clothing store right across the street—but now it’s not a Jewish neighborhood.) So now Beth Yeshua is another community of wandering Jews and Gentiles! For their Erev Shabbat services they manage to squeeze into the old church. For their Shabbat morning services they rent a school and do a lot of set up and tear down. But Mark praises God because the school is in a Jewish neighborhood and many Jewish families are hearing about Beth Yeshua and checking it out. Baruch HaShem! How many of believe there are principles for our community to learn from these examples? What should we learn? The journey of faith can be as important as reaching the promised land. V’eemru? Check it out. Moses (my hero) wanted to lead the children of Israel down the direct route—Google says it’s just 92 hours by foot! But God redirected them back to the Sea of Reeds, where they met Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, bent on bloody revenge. Does anyone know why God did that? Did Moses? In Exodus 14:14, he tells Bnei-Yisrael, “ADONAI will fight for you, while you hold your peace.” Apparently, he was stalling a bit with this speech, because HaShem said to Moses, “Why are you crying to Me? Tell Bnei-Yisrael to go forward. Lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it.” I’m pretty sure, Moses didn’t say to himself, “Well why didn’t I think of that?”
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Why did HaShem lead them to the Sea of Reeds? So that they could grow up in their faith in Him. Recently I shared a dream, in which God led s through the wilderness between walls of water… Once they got to the other side, did Bnei-Yisrael head immediately to the Promised Land? Nope, there was another detour, to Mount Sinai, for the Ten Words. That was an important detour, wasn’t it? When they eventually got to the edge of the Promised Land, Moses sent out scouts for a report. Have you all heard about that report? 10 scouts told the whole congregation (in Numbers 13): “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey—this is some of its fruit. Except….” Their report went precipitously downhill with that “except”! Though Caleb tried to quiet the people, assuring them that they would definitely capture the land (with God’s help), those faithless scouts upped the ante of discouraging pessimism: “We seemed like grasshoppers in our eyes as well as theirs!” O boy! In Numbers 14:2-3, The whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron and said, “If only we had died in Egypt! If only we had died in this wilderness! Why is ADONAI bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be like plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” So what happened that generation of Bnei-Yisrael? They all died in the wilderness! God tested their faith in the journey. Alas, that generation failed. But God didn’t give up on Israel. The next generation grew up in the wilderness. After 40 years, God determined the next generation had matured enough in faith (though they still had weaknesses) to cross the Jordan and capture the land, but not all at once a little at a time. Deuteronomy 7:22 says, “ADONAI your God will drive away those nations before you little by little—you will not be able to put an end to them all at once, or else the beasts of the field will multiply on you.” The beasts may not have been just animals, but demons. To overcome them, Bnei-Yisrael would need to become more mature in the faith, little by little. Do any of believe there are principles for our community to learn from these examples? Again and again, the Scriptures urge us to learn how to trust Him, on the journey, through waiting. For 70 years, Jews waited, until Cyrus said they could go back to the land and rebuilt the Temple. Then another king of Persia, said, wait a minute, which turned about to be many years. Then another king said, OK now you can start…. So the finally built a Temple, but it was apparently a little one, so Zechariah had to encourage them, “Despise not the day of small beginnings.” Then the Jewish people waited for the promised Messiah to come to their House. They even got it fixed up nice for Him. After a few centuries, He finally arrives, and announces He doesn’t like the House so much and foretells it will soon be torn down! For a couple of millennia Jews—and now millions of Messianic believers—have been waiting for Him to come back! We are all waiting, Lord. To which He responds, trust Me, and wait!
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At One Voice meeting this week, Pastor Tony Adamo spoke about his experience in the Marines. All the enlisted would line up straight in uniform and wait. They had a saying, “Hurry up and wait!” (My Dad used to say the same thing—he learned it in the Coast Guard.) It was a bit frustrating. But the officers had a point. The men needed to be ready, always ready! The Levys know the Coast Guard motto is Semper Paratus! Always ready! Yeshua said the same thing to the disciples several times in His teaching about the last days: Be alert! Be ready! How many of you believe we are in the last days? Then we are like the Marines and Coast Guard. We must be ready. Hurry up and wait! V’eemru? Something is coming soon. Also at One Voice this week, we recalled prophetic words. Duane White prophesied to us that a major breakthrough would happen in the Lehigh Valley in 2½ years. Tzofiya Rogers came a year later and same something
like that would happen in 18 months. These two prophecies line up. I did the math: that would be this summer. We also remembered that another prophet had said many years ago that something like that happen--after something negative had swept through the country. (With all the fear about COVID-19, how many of you think that prophecy is being fulfilled right about now? How many of you think the enemy would like us all to respond in fear? How many of you think the Lord is calling us to respond with faith? Faith takes the long view.…) All of these prophecies indicated that what happened here would go on to affect things more widely. So our One Voice conversation turned to how we should be alert and prepare. OK, since Rabbi Jim did, now I’d like to give you a report about our own building project… First some good news: after playing a rather slow game of ping-pong with our architect and engineer, the Township code inspector finally sent a note assuring us we would soon have our building permit, which we can show to the banker. Also, our contractor Barry, who was feeling ill for a week, has recovered enough to finish up the package for the banker, which he expects to deliver this week. Barry has been in regular contact with the banker and expects we should get the green light to get started soon. Let’s pray that Barry’s faith will be well-founded and hasatan would keep his hands off him and the banker and everyone else associated with this project. V’eemru? Meanwhile, the elders discussed the possibility of a temporary move to Kingdom Life. At our congregational meeting, a non-binding vote was 16-10 in favor of a move. Two members who left just before the vote, voted nay, making it 16-12. Then several people who didn’t attend the meeting voted against. (Their votes aren’t as helpful since they didn’t hear what was said and prayed there.) Hmm… not a clear consensus, unlike the near unanimous votes we’ve had (somewhat miraculously) for every previous move from Bethlehem Baptist to Boulevard Church, from Boulevard Church to Wellspring and from Wellspring to the Grange. Once again, the Elders were divided too. So I recommended … that we do diligence, scout the territory and count the costs with Kingdom Life and the Grange.
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