The book of Esther is an end-time book for the church, says Sid Roth, author of The Incomplete Church, a book that calls Christians and Jews to come together as “one new man” in Messiah Jesus.
Just as Esther took a stand to save her people from extinction, Roth says the church has been called to stand “for such a time as this” for Israel and the Jewish people (Esther 4:14).
“Tragically, about 70 percent of evangelical churches teach that God is finished with Israel and the Jews,” says Paul McGuire, former host of the nationally-syndicated talk radio show, “The Paul McGuire Show,” and the author of 23 books, including A Prophecy of the Future of America and Mass Awakening.
“God’s purpose is, and always has been, to bring together His two covenant peoples—Jews and Gentiles—under one King Jesus,” Roth says. “The Bible says the purpose of the Gentile is to provoke the Jew to jealousy; and the purpose of the Jew is to be a light to the Gentiles (Rom. 10).”
When the Jew and Gentile become one new man, Roth says, “it will trigger a major release of power to evangelize the world, and the harvest of souls will be so massive there will not be enough churches to contain them.”
Many Christians in the church today don’t share the gospel with Jewish people because they don’t feel equipped to do so. In his pamphlet, The Mystery Law of Evangelism Revealed, Roth shares some tips on how to witness to a Jewish person:
- Use the word Messiah instead of Christ when sharing with a Jewish person. (Christ has a negative connotation because they have been called “Christ-killers” for 2,000 years.)
- Use the phrase “believer in the Messiah” rather than Christian.
- Use the word repent or the phrase “turn to the Messiah” rather than convert, which has a negative connotation to the Jew.
- You may use the word Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus, interchangeably, although most Jews do not know the name Yeshua.
- The Jewish Bible, called the Tenach, is virtually the same as the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. It’s appropriate to refer to passages from the Old Testament when sharing with a Jewish person.
- Share biblical prophecies from the Old Testament that point to Jesus as the Messiah. (There are more than 300 specific prophecies of the Messiah that were fulfilled by Jesus. According to the law of compound probabilities, there is only one chance in 33,554,432 that even 25 of these prophecies could be fulfilled by a single person.)
- Share your personal testimony of any miracles or healings that you have experienced or witnessed.
An appropriate opener to sharing Jesus might be: “I have come to love the greatest Jew that ever lived.” Share printed literature that is specifically written to reach a Jewish person. The book, They Thought for Themselves, and a booklet titled, Eyewitness: The Final Day on Earth, are two examples available at sidroth.org/store. —Paul McGuire
