♪♪♪ David Hart: Welcome to "Our
Jewish Roots," with insightful Bible teaching by
Dr. Jeffrey Seif. This week, we look at the final
letters written by Paul, as we follow "In the Footsteps
of the Rabbi from Tarsus." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [horse whinnying] ♪♪♪ David: Thank you so much
for joining us today. I'm David Hart. Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart. Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey
Seif, and we are collectively looking at the
last days of Paul. Kirsten: Yes. David: This is the last
program in our series. Jeffrey: Yes. David: Tell us kind of where
we're at now in this program. Jeffrey: We have followed him
all over the place, through abysmal circumstance, through
agonies and ecstasies. David: Through a
lot of travels too. Jeffrey: A lot of travels but
he's not moving around so much. He's jacked up by the
police and he's in trouble. He still cares
about his friends. He reaches out to those
whom he mentors, great guy. Kirsten: So we're looking at
Timothy and Titus today, is that correct? Jeffrey: Yes, yes, Paul cared
about these individuals. Paul writes to communities,
the Corinthians and everything, but he writes to
individuals too. Kirsten: More about that,
right, coming up. Jeffrey: That personal touch. David: Dr. Seif is in Ephesus
right now on location. Let's go there. ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: His name is
Flavius Furius Aptheos. I've renamed him, however. I call him Flavius Luxurious
Aptheos and the reason why is because he lived in the lap of
luxury and here we are in his atrium right now, a home right
off the major thoroughfare in ancient Ephesus. There's a market outside and a
road that goes to the harbor. Paul would have frequented these
places as would have others. Beyond that then, we have in
proximity here, we have the proconsular residence,
just adjacent to this home. Here, this atrium had rooms
round about, bedrooms, dens, dining rooms, used
for other reasons. It was a magnificent
structure in its day. And in its day, that is
rewinding the tape back to the ancient world, it was in that
day when the rabbi from Tarsus said, "Listen, I'm heading to
Macedonia," which is northern Greece, but he said to Timothy,
"Listen, I'm urging you, stay in Ephesus, and help the qahal
there, help the congregation there, to get the
story straight." You know, before you get the
story out, you gotta get the story straight. So Paul commended individuals
to the task of teaching. And his writings were commended
for posterity in written form, hence you have the gathering
of the New Testament corpus. I want you to look please with
me in chapter 1, verse 3, of 1 Timothy where he tells him,
"As I urged you when I went into Macedonia--remain in Ephesus
that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine." In fact, there were some that
really had Paul disconcerted. He mentions in verse 19, "There
were some that have rejected a good faith and conscience,"
and he says they have, quote, "suffered shipwreck
of their faith." And it's interesting, there's
a harbor right down the street here, so the analogy of a boat
that crashes against the rocks and falls, this for him is
analogous to a Christian that lets their hull be breached
with poor understandings. And how ought we to live? What ought we to do if one
names the name of the Lord? He says in chapter 2, verse 1--
and this is, I think, a fitting place to make this point. He says, "I exhort first that
supplications and prayers et cetera be made for all men,"
and then he notes, "kings and all who are in authority, that
we might lead a quiet and peaceable life." So in effect, when Paul writes
Timothy who stayed in Ephesus, he says, "Listen, encourage
these people to pray for the people that live in
this house right here." I can assure you Timothy
didn't live here. But this house and this
ruin is built atop. This is the ancient
administrative center of the ancient world. And he says, "Listen, pray for
peace," and a reason why he does that in part is because if
you'll go to Luke's testimony, the 19th chapter, when Paul came
to Ephesus, there was an uproar. There was a riot because people
were coming to faith, they were changing the lifestyle that was
threatening the economy, and the merchants got together who were
manufacturing idols and various religious paraphernalia to
another religious persuasion. They got upset because people
were disavowing all of that. And they filled up the theater
right down the street here and there was a big uproar. And the thing swelled out of
control and then a fella gets up and says, "Listen, we are
guilty of disorder here. There are proconsuls." He says the courts are open,
the proconsuls sit. They adjudicate and it's
interesting, this is where the proconsul was. Here we are in ancient Ephesus,
and here Paul is encouraging, "Pray for the leaders." Well, Paul would encourage
prayers for civil authorities. Truth be known that Paul had
no influence over the juridical authorities and the
broader culture. He did, however, have influence
about what happened in his own house, the qahal, the
congregation, the church. When he wrote the Ephesians
he had developed for them the doctrine of the church. It's why ecclesiology, the
doctrine of the church, is so very much developed in Bible
colleges and seminaries using the Ephesians text. Well, when Paul writes to
Timothy here, he exhorts for there to be good magistrates
within the church house and, to that end, I want you to look
please in chapter 3 of 1 Timothy, verses 1 and on and I
want you to see what the rabbi of Tarsus says about
organization within the Messianic synagogues, that is
these congregations that are very Jewish in their nature. They believed that the Messiah
has come and you'll see in a moment how they're organized
along Jewish lines. The reason why I say that, if
you look in chapter 3, verse 1, he says, "This is a faithful
saying: If a man desires to be a bishop, he desires
a good work. And a bishop must be blameless
and sober, not given to wine, hospitable, et cetera." He goes on. There's a list there of virtues
that he says are incumbent upon a bishop. Now, conceptually, let me say
there's a problem here given to the distance and culture. When today we think of a bishop,
we think of someone wearing a purple shirt and a white collar,
someone with--donning a big vestment, a crown, in a
cathedral, walking around with a shepherd's crook. This is a bishop. We understand the expression
"bishop," you get it from the Greek "episcopus." But it really comes from a
pre-Christian employment. The bishop in the New Testament
sense here is comparable to the zequnim in the synagogue. Paul was a synagogue man. And synagogues had elders
that were called zequnim. Zequnim comes from the Hebrew,
zequn which means bearded one or the wise. There's an assembly of the
elders and in Judaism it was incumbent upon elders to be the
husband of one wife, not given to wine, just, hospitable, able
to manage his own house, et cetera. Now, what's interesting, in
looking to find stable leaders for the church, Paul employs
the same list of criteria that's employed in the synagogue. Paul was a member of the
parushim, the pharisees. He was a synagogue man. So Paul's drawing from his
own inventory of structural mechanisms for organizing
synagogue life and employing them here into the new economy. He then goes on to describe
deacons, and he gives a list of character requirements for
deacons, a tad bit more abbreviated than the previous. And here again, deacons, you
know, today people think of deacons and it means different
things to different people but in Paul's day, synagogues
had shamishim. It comes from the Hebrew
word for a servant. I said all that to say this:
that if you look at Paul, Paul writes Timothy and he says,
"Listen, I don't want things to get out of control." What happens is the waters were
getting a little murky and here I am in the residence of
Flavius Furius Aptheos. And this is a den here. There was a fountain here. Now, you know, if the waters
are mixed and the fountain's brackish, no one wants
to drink from it. What happens is the
understanding amongst the early believers was getting murky
'cause there was divergent tellings and Paul told
Timothy, "Clean out the water. We've got to get this thing
right, get it straight. We need good leaders." And what's interesting is the
rabbi from Tarsus, in looking to set up leaders for the church,
employed the criteria for leaders in Jewish synagogues. ♪♪♪ male announcer: Our resource
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"Grafted-In Package," and thank you for your support. Dr. Jeffrey Seif: I've gone
all around the biblical world to teach the Bible from
a Jewish perspective. Thank you for sending me there. After I go there,
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and thank you for going with me on the journey down
life's highway. ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: As I walk along this
ancient Roman road, I come here by my right hand to a memorial
to a famous Roman citizen of the 1st century B.C. In my left hand, I have a
memorial to another famous Roman citizen from the
1st century A.D. and that citizen is Paul. Before Paul went the way of all
the earth, he wrote a few late letters, one of which was the
document to Titus that I wanna consider with you, if you'll
open up please to chapter 1, verse 5, he says, "I left you in
Crete, in order that you could bring some stability to
the congregations there." He's looking for leaders. He says in verse 6,
"We're looking for someone who's blameless." Doesn't mean perfect as much as
it underscores the importance of someone with sterling
resolution, someone who can manage his household well, Paul
says, doesn't seem unreasonable that if a person can't manage
himself well or his household well, it raises questions to
the extent to which he can be of service to officiating
in the church of God. Paul goes on then to underscore
the importance of him having a good family. Here, he turns to the
ladies of the house. Here, he says that women do well
if they're sober and reverent and chaste and they possess with
these various good skills. He says in verse 3, "We're
fortunate if the older women will likewise be reverent in
behavior, not slanderers, not given to wine." And he says that "let these
women admonish the younger ones to love their husbands and their
own children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good,
obedient to their husbands, that the Word of God may
not be blasphemed." As noted, we see that the rabbi
from Tarsus is interested in establishing good living. For as much as the church is
given to giving instructions about getting into the next
life, it seems that Paul was given to giving instructions
on how to live this one. I believe it's important that as
we walk in the footsteps of the rabbi from Tarsus, we understand
that here's someone who's a rabbi who's giving instruction
for the living of life and he wants to establish communities
where people can be raised up to maturity and that is with the
older men, the younger men, you know, the older men serve
the younger men, the older women serve the younger women,
et cetera. He goes on to say in verse 11
that "the grace of God that brings salvation to all men has
appeared, teaching us that we'd do well to deny ungodliness and
to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age." Again, let me underscore that
the rabbi from Tarsus was very worldly in the sense he was
concerned with people living right in this age, not just
explaining the rite of passage to the world to come. And as a rabbi, he was practical
'cause he was interested in his constituents having
good success in life. We would do well to remember
that God cares about our life. He came to give us an abundant
life and a good life and we see in the Titus document, the rabbi
from Tarsus is underscoring how important that is and so,
as a rabbi does, he gives instructions that we all do
well to pay attention to. ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: It has been said that
the long arm of the pen reaches beyond the grave, and the reason
why that is because if someone commends their thoughts to
writing, that even when that person dies, their persona
lives on in the next generation. The reason why I mention that is
that here the rabbi from Tarsus is putting pen to paper to write
at the ragged edge of his own grave, from a prison. Now, he's been
prisoned--imprisoned on more than one occasion and typically
he gives voice to an expectation of a release but here, he has
no such expectation because he knows that the time
of his end has come. Resist it though we may, I
understand it that sometimes we know when this really is the
season when it's time to give up the ghost. Well, when Paul writes this
letter to 2 Timothy, this is where he is at in life. Again, at the ragged edge of
life and what does he say? He informs as much
in chapter 4, verse 6. He says, "I'm already
at the point of death, to be poured out." And then he goes on to say,
and I love the language, he said, "I fought the fight,
I've finished the race, I've kept the faith." The imagery is striking for a
variety of reasons and, as I follow in the footsteps of the
rabbi from Tarsus, out here in the Greco-Roman world, I'm
reminded of how his imagery resonates with
Greco-Roman themes. When Paul speaks of fighting the
fight, remember previously he had spoke of him not boxing
aimlessly at the wind. Previously he wrote, "We do not
wrestle with flesh and blood." Again, he uses that
imagery of the Olympics. Beyond that, here he speaks of
running the race, again going back to a favorite sport of
the Greeks and then the Romans. It's where we get the term, "to
run a marathon," from an ancient Greek race. And here Paul has gone the
distance and he finishes well. One of the things that I've
learned when it comes to the Christian life is that a lot
of people who begin the race, don't finish it. But here, Paul has a steady and
strong finish as he crosses the line. But before he crosses, for a
number of years he belongs to humankind and then he fades
away and belongs to history but before he goes he writes to
someone he knows and he shares with him some things that
he thinks to be very, very, very important. ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: His back was against
the wall but he was still moving forward. We read in 2 Timothy, chapter 2,
that as he's right up against his own demise, he tells Timothy
how to get the rise, how to move forward, and let's look
please in chapter 2. See if we can get to the
essence of what he's all about. He says in chapter 2, verse 1,
to Timothy, "You, my son, must be strong in the Lord." Timothy didn't have a father or,
well, obviously, biologically he did but he faded away shortly
thereafter and Paul took the young fella under his wing and
now, with Paul's about to go, Timothy would be particularly
disconcerted but he encouraged him to be strong,
difficulties aside. And then he gives a few
analogies that I think are worthy of commending. It's what Paul told Timothy at
the end of his days in prison and we'd do well to hear 'em. He says in verse 4 that "no one
engaged in warfare gets involved in civilian pursuits." Arguably, he's playing against
the mythic persona that the Roman infantryman commended in
ancient Greco-Roman culture. The Greeks and the Romans both
prided themselves with their warrior class and, in Paul's
day, the Roman legionnaire commanded respect all
over the Mediterranean. They called it Mare Nostrum
in Latin which means our sea because they conquered it. And the Roman infantrymen knew
about discipline, focus, not breaking rank, not fearing but
endeavoring to be calm and work together with the other soldiers
and, above all, follow orders and never ever,
ever, ever retreat. As Paul finishes his days, he
writes Timothy to not wince back in the face of adversity, and
he reminds him of soldiering. He goes on to say that no one
who competes in athletics wins unless they compete
according to the rules. And here again, there's a story
that is played out against the backdrop of Greco-Roman culture
where individuals prized athletic competition. When competing, it's not
good enough just to fight. One must need to play out
according to the rules. Paul doesn't want Timothy to
shortchange himself or his hearers, disappoint Paul
or disappoint his Savior. Play by the rules, Timothy. Thirdly, he goes on
to give an analogy. He says, "It's the hardworking
farmer who ought to get the first share of the crop." Paul wants Timothy to work hard,
to keep his focus, to not let his verve and vitality diminish
against life's troubles. And as Paul's life is right up
against the edge, he reminds him in kind. I think it's fascinating too
that Paul says, "Listen, it's the hardworking farmer
who gets paid well." You know, Paul himself, this
rabbi from Tarsus, didn't stay in Tarsus. He caught a vision when he
caught on to Yeshua with the net result that he turned around
and went beyond Tarsus to points north and west and he kept
pushing and pushing and pushing the borders. And now it's time to go. But before he goes, he says
to Timothy and to the world by association, "I want you
to know." What he wanted Timothy to know,
he wants you to know and me to know, that is "to work hard,
to be tough, to keep the faith, to not give in." This is the life and the message
of the rabbi from Tarsus. ♪♪♪ ♪ For Zion's sake I
will not keep silent ♪ ♪ For Zion's sake
I'll preach the Son ♪ ♪ Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God is one ♪ ♪ He gave to us his law ♪ ♪ He gave to us his Son ♪ ♪ Moriah, on Moriah,
he gave his only Son ♪ ♪ Moriah, on Moriah,
the sacrifice is done ♪ ♪ Messiah, our Messiah,
you came to us alone ♪ ♪ Messiah, our Messiah ♪ ♪ Make all of us your own ♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jeffrey: At the risk of being
misunderstood let me say I think this series is so important. I don't think that I'm important
or that we're important. I just think for covering Paul,
the essence and substance of the man and his message is so
important 'cause he gets so much to the core of what it means
to be Christian. Kirsten: Oh, to follow in
the steps, not always the easiest, though. Jeffrey: That is true, not
always easy, it's just so important, there's so much
diversity in thinking but Paul just grounds us and what does it
really mean to walk in the footsteps of
Israel's Messiah? And even more important than
what I say about him, is our viewers just opening up
his literature and reading him and hearing him afresh. I hope this series helps make
him more meaningful to people. David: Right, I think of maybe
you as a mentor to the police academy. You're mentoring these folks,
these guys and gals, but they're watching your life. Jeffrey: I've had
two careers in life. As a theologian, I have an
opportunity as a Bible college seminary professor, in my
police vocation, with that. Had an opportunity, have an
opportunity to mentor young officers. I just think it's so important
to help raise up a generation and we see that with Paul. Listen, speaking of what we see,
to me a highlight in this whole series are the dramatic
vignettes that come along with it. We open up the Bible but
we open up the Bible in the biblical world. Thank you for sending us there
and if you find value in what we do, let me tell you we're going
back to that world and back to that world. We go back to the world, we go
back to the Word to bring it forth fresh. Thank you for helping us.
Please support us financially. David: That's right,
it's been a great series. Thank you for your insight. Kirsten: It has, always makes
me a little sad when a good series--they're all good--ends,
But thank you. David: Brand new series
next week, can't wait. Jeffrey: Yes, off we go,
and as we go, shaalu shalom Yerushalayim. David: Pray for the peace
of Jerusalem. David: Join us right now for
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