Chain of Command
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” John 13:20 NASB
Receives – Have you received the Father through the authorized chain of command? If you receive one sent by the Messiah then you have effectively welcomed the Messiah and if you welcome the Messiah then you have effectively received the One who sent the Messiah.
That seems pretty clear, doesn’t it? But what does it mean “to receive” someone sent? And how do we know that this one has been sent by the Messiah? Without answers to these two questions, the verse remains opaque.
“To Receive” is the translation of the Greek verb lambano. Originally the verb meant something like “to take,” but over time its meaning changed. In the first century, this Greek verb would have meant, “to take for oneself, to receive, to collect” or “to seize.” In its passive voice, it would mean “to acquire” or “to grasp something or someone.” It’s a bit stronger than our usual idea of receiving something. After all, I don’t have to do anything at all for UPS to deliver a package to my door. I just wait and eventually I will receive it. But the Greek lambano suggests that I am actively involved. I “take up” my cross (Luke 9:23). I accept someone’s witness (John 3:11). I receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:47). I pray and ask in order to receive (John 16:24). In this verse, I welcome the one sent. I act with hospitality. I make room for the visitor. I am more than the hotel receptionist. I am the personal concierge.
Now that I know what to do, I must be able to identify who warrants such treatment. How will I know that the Messiah sends this one? Some clear indicators (there may be ones that are not so clear) seem to be the following:
- Anyone who comes as representative of the Messiah must act like the Messiah. This is a direct inference from Yeshua’s claim that if we have seen him we have seen the Father. Obviously, we can’t see the Father in Yeshua unless he acts like the Father, so anyone who comes in the name of the Messiah must act as the Messiah acts. From the biblical perspective, that means the messenger does what the Master does. Torah obedience seems appropriate here. Someone who claims to be a representative of the Messiah but does not follow the same code of practice certainly cannot demonstrate the character of the Father.
- Anyone who claims relationship with the Messiah must also have the heart of the Messiah. That must at least include compassion, mercy, faithfulness, hesed, oversight in corrective action, watchfulness of the Word. A messenger from the Messiah is a person in pursuit of righteousness, devoted to YHVH and open-hearted toward others. Zeal for God seems essential. Commitment to the Kingdom is irreplaceable.
Are there other factors? Probably. God has a way of working with unusual circumstances and odd people. But anyone who comes and does not embrace these two must certainly be carefully examined.
And that raises an interesting question for the rest of us, the ones who are on the receiving end. Who are you accepting as a messenger of the Messiah right now? How closely do they meet these basic criteria?
Topical Index: receive, lambano, messenger, John 13:20
Welcome the Word
~ He came unto His own, and his own received Him not.. ~ (John 1.11)
This causes me no end of wonder! I have to wonder, -“why?” Why would anyone, anywhere reject such an One as this? Maybe I have too much of an advantage?- or privilege? Am -“too privileged?” How long have I known Him? How long have I known my Deliverer? For decades, and Yes, (it does) grow sweeter every single day! This is NOT (contrary to popular belief) – my “religion!” No. No. And No. This is a relationship! A relationship with “the God who now is!” – sponsored by (bought and paid for by) the resurrected and now reigning Messiah, our LORD Jesus (who is the) Christ!
~ But those that received Him, to them He gave authority to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name.. ~
There are only two responses to the Redeemer of all humankind.. Receive (the right one) or reject- (not only wrong, – but “so wrong!”) When it comes to Christ, – there is no “middle ground!” We have the (imperative-not optional!) command: ~ Choose you (Mr.) this day, – Who you will serve!! ~ (And again, the only right-response is?) ~ As for me and my house? – We will serve the LORD! ~ (Service is not optional!)
~ Behold, I stand at the door and knock.. ~ This verse reveals much. Someone (we know Who this is!) is standing (outside) and waiting to be invited in! (This amazes me!) LORD, -this is Your house!! Of course You are welcome here!! (I’m inviting-welcoming Him?) “Enter in!!”
Yes, it does “take two!” One to invite and one to respond to the invitation? Relationships are developed over time. We must take time or make time to know Him. A wonderful way to begin is to listen to His words! (It is true!) ~ Never a man spoke like this Man! ~
Now friends, ( I gotta ask) – Why would this be? ~ Who is this King of glory?
~ The LORD of Heaven’s armies – He is the King of glory ~ “Selah.”
Isaiah had this to say about Him: ~ But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our sins; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.
Are there are too many (?) testimonies about Him? What did John the Immerser have to say? What did His own mother testify? – And (rejectors) what about that Voice from Above? ~ ” This is My beloved Son, with whom I AM well-pleased; – (Listen!) Listen to Him!”
Chain of Command? – “Shema” the Savior!
“Who are you accepting as a messenger of the Messiah right now?”
This question speaks to where I am at right now. About 3 years ago, my eyes were opened to the reality of truly walking in God’s ways. My wife and I began celebrating Shabbat, the Feasts, eating what God says is good, and finding the joy in obedience. I had been leading worship in my “church” for about 12 years, but an emptiness had overtaken my heart, to where I was just going through the motions. During this time, I tried many times to share my newfound joy and excitement, only to get the heartfelt response, “ohhh that’s interesting”. But nobody wanted to know anything more or to discuss deeper. (I’m sure this is familiar to most of you). My wife and I began a slow withdrawal from our fellowship, eventually leading to me stepping down completely from my responsibilities this past May. I reached the point where I could not continue to listen to messages that were contradictory to what I see in Scripture. We have found a oneness as a couple that we have never had before and that is priceless, but the feeling of aloneness when it comes to fellowship has been so difficult and frustrating. I said all that to explain that the above question Skip posed is so important to answer for oneself. For me, it is one big reason why I had to withdraw from where I was.
Btw, I have been so blessed by this community already. Trying to undo my big fat Greek mindset, but I love the journey. Thanks for making this possible, Skip and all!
We have a prayer request and I hardly know how to begin. Since June we (in our family) have been hearing from many directions the need to focus on righteousness and justice, that we as “Messianics” are to be living out the heart of Messiah (instead of majoring on/arguing over details that divide us), caring for orphans and widows, taking in the stranger etc. I read it here in recent TW’s and hear it from other sources as well.
In my “former life” for some reason it seemed easier to do these kinds of things. Whatever I thought He was leading me to do, I just did it. Now I worry a LOT about if it’s really Him or not. So after a series of events that could have been His leading, we began looking seriously into adoption, something we have always thought we might pursue and now seems a good time in our life to do so. We found a sibling group we were/are very drawn to but since we have only begun the process (and in large part because we were dragging our feet in fear of doing the wrong thing) we might not be considered because we won’t have all the preliminaries done in time (home study etc.) Anyway, it is difficult to explain, but through this process we are confronting many issues and we would just like to ask some of you to pray with us.
I personally feel like He is teaching me to trust Him again. After the excesses we experienced/participated in at a charismatic church it has been quite difficult to do anything without second guessing. We want to live a life that represents Him well and yes, this may seem like a silly problem but it’s where we are at, and it has been quite a struggle for us so I believe it’s right and good to share this request. We do want to live a life that represents Him well and it is humbling to feel so inept. Specifically I would ask for prayer 1.That these particular kids get a home/family that will encourage them to know our Father and His ways, that they will know the joy of His appointed times and will grow up with wonderful memories of the Scriptural holidays in a family that truly loves them. 2. That if we are to be that family for these kids, miracles will happen (with the timing and interview/selection process) and we will be allowed to adopt them, that all our current children will be blessed and in agreement and if we don’t adopt them that we will be at peace with the outcome. 3. That if there are other children for our family to adopt we will find each other and be equipped to raise them as we should.
Thank you for listening and praying as He brings this to mind. Now maybe I can go get some sleep 🙂
Hi Tonya,
I am praying and agreeing with you. May Our Father’s will be done and may you and your family find peace as He leads and guides you. We are all being trained to trust at a deeper level. May He find us faithful
Sister Tonya, As I read your prayer request this morning I was touched and 3rd John 1:3-6 immediately came to mind. ” I rejoiced greatly, when brothers came and testified about your truth, even as you walk in truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear about my children walking in truth. Beloved, you do a faithful work in whatever you accomplish for those who are brothers and strangers.” We are called by our Father and elder Brother to care for the widow and orphan. Thank you for your compassion. May YHWH give you and your husband guidance, wisdom, provision and chesed to walk in the path of Torah. Shalom, Michael
Tonya, praying continued wisdom, trust building and obedience. YHWH be glorified in what He purposes for your family.
Donna, Michael and Inetta thanks so much for your words of encouragement, the scripture you shared and of course for praying along with us/for us. Also to anyone else who prays without posting (many times I don’t know what to say so I do the same) thank you. It’s very encouraging to know you are out there and although possibly far away yet standing alongside us as we grow in Him.
Not 100% relevant to this TW, more in response to the other comments but…
It helps me (and it also makes me so sad) to hear how others on this path are lonely and without community. I am really struggling with this right now. We have moved to a small town in rural SC, and while I love the area and I love my new home, it could not be more traditionally Christian. There’s a Baptist/Methodist/Presbyterian church every five feet. There is a Reform Jewish congregation. But there’s nowhere I fit. I have a close friend who mentored me as a Christian, and she is adamant that what I am learning and have come to believe is, at best, completely unnecessary. At worst, it’s a dangerous heresy. All social things spring from church here, and I tried the church thing at first. I just… can’t stomach it. Some of my Christian friends have made remarks about how I should really keep trying to find a church I like, and how I really need to join myself to the body of Christ, but I have tried church after church after church and they all give me an icky feeling. It doesn’t feel relevant. The messages are incomplete. I walk away feeling empty and more alone than when I walked in.
I have been immersed in religion of one kind or another my entire life, but a little over a year ago, I had this awakening to an understanding of salvation, redemption, restoration, forgiveness, grace, and I felt like God, who had been pursuing my stubborn heart patiently for years, finally said “enough!” and overtook me. I guess some would call that “being saved”. For me it never involved a church or a call to come to the altar and pray the sinner’s prayer. God took me completely by surprise. It was the most all-consuming, glorious, and terrifying thing I have ever felt. It was a lot like being in love. I couldn’t think of anything but Him and had no desire but to eat, sleep, and breathe His word. I wanted to tell everyone, scream it from the mountaintops, but I didn’t really know anyone who cared to hear about it as much as I wanted to talk about it. I found myself realizing the impact of His redemptive plan and I would break down in tears. I would pray and cry and cry and pray, mostly tears of joy but many tears of this utterly overwhelming feeling of, “How did I not see this all these years? How can you still love me even when I hated you and defied you and ignored you? Why did you wait for me?”
I told a couple Christian friends and they congratulated me on my salvation and welcomed to the family. And the logical next step was to join a church. I searched and churched for six months or so and got disheartened. Something was missing but I didn’t know what it was. I just felt it. Then somehow, I stumbled upon this path, I found this treasure, I kept digging and found more, and though nothing has been more challenging to my belief, my neatly ordered theology, I can’t go back. I can’t un-know it. I wouldn’t want to. Months before I began to learn about “The Way”, I had prayed to God for three things: 1) I want as much of you as I can have, Father. I want as much as you’ll give me. I’m certain I don’t even know what I am asking for but I don’t want to stay on the surface. I want to plunge deep, no matter what it means. 2) I want to know how to worship you. I want to understand what worship is. You made me to worship and I crave it, but I need you to teach me how. 3) I want to hasten your kingdom
Continued from above… sorry. My iPhone was too eager to post that.
I prayed to God that I wanted to hasten the coming of His kingdom.
It was just months, maybe a few weeks later, that my studies took a different turn. I wasn’t satisfied with devotionals and feel-good theology, I began to research Hebrew words and eventually came upon Skip’s site and a few others.
I wouldn’t go back. But the loneliness becomes almost unbearable at times. I wasn’t raised Jewish. I don’t even know any Jewish people. I don’t know HOW to keep a sabbath in the Jewish way. Everything I am learning about the Sabbath and feasts is so rich with meaning and symbolism when I read about it, but so clumsy and awkward when I attempt to practice it. There’s no one but my family with which to share it. Being the only person I know who is doing what I’m doing makes me question my own sanity. We long to be part of a crowd, I think. It’s a part of our nature that can be used against us. Sometimes I feel so absolutely certain, other times I question deeply why, if all this is true, is no one else I personally know doing it??
I never had the opportunity to be baptized and now I don’t know how or when that will happen. I have prayed to God to make the way for me to take that step, because apart from walking into a Baptist or Methodist church, I can’t see how such an opportunity would present itself. And yet I feel… incomplete until I can take that step.
This has been long… I will pray for each of us to remember that God is walking this path with us, and He would not put us on a path we could not walk, and Yeshua did say it would be a narrow path that few would find. Pray for me that my trust will deepen as I continue to walk ahead in faith. Pray that God will show me how and when I can be baptized. My understanding according to the scriptures is that this is important. Pray for all of us that He will, in his own way and in his own time, satisfy our need for community, and it will be all the more sweet after this wilderness of loneliness.
Hi Alicia:
I’m guessing that most of us have felt (and/or are currently feeling) that loneliness which comes from questioning traditional doctrine. I hope that you will feel encouraged, that you are not alone — though we sometimes seem to be spread thinly around the world. Nevertheless, I think we would be surprised at our numbers if we were actually all in one place. Something is changing, we just happen to be on the cusp.
As far as baptism goes, you don’t need a clergyman or anyone else to do the “baptizing” — just someone to be with you to see that you are safely and completely immersed in living water. The baptism (the mikveh) is between you and the Lord, no middleman needed. 🙂
Hi Alicia,
I would like to say I agree with all that Suzanne wrote. I chose to be baptized as a child then as an adult did a mikveh with a group/organized/institutional setting as we began to learn more, but the time that was most meaningful was when we were vacationing at the coast and I went into the water, just between the Lord and I. I don’t think it’s wrong to try to find an organized “group” to do for you or to lead you (sometimes we need the jump start so to speak), but with so many things in this walk it seems the better way is to puzzle through, seek and follow as He leads, and then take the necessary Detours as Skip wrote about recently.
That being said, one of the first things He did for me was show me I WAS part of a community. I was in the bookstore shortly after we left regular church, seeking. I found a Messianic Devotional that had the torah portion reading schedule in the back. That was it! That’s what I was a part of, every week, all over the world “my” community was focusing on these scriptures! Amazing how the loneliness washed away, I can’t explain it but it is still comforting, years later, to know “we” are all studying together though apart.
Another thing that was helpful was to realize Sabbath was like an appointment He made with us. Early on in my home the reality of the practice was that it was ONLY He and I, and it was good. Now we have settled into the practice of a Shabbat dinner with one other couple on Friday nights. My family then sleeps in on Shabbat morning and then in the afternoon my husband and the kids and I watch a dvd teaching together. We just finished the series Skip and Bob did in Israel and are now starting a series by Rico Cortes. Again, it is good and I rejoice that my family is united.
One more practice that has been very good for us is attending conferences and other larger gatherings. Look at Skips schedule, Bob Gorelik’s schedule, Rico Cortes or any other teacher you might be interested in. (It is fun to watch the kids as they meet the teachers they have been watching on dvd and is wonderful to meet other folks in person that are a part of this community.) We have attended a sukkot gathering here in Missouri twice now and the friendships the kids have made are invaluable. (I do have to say that some of the teachings of the leadership group we can’t accept, but still we are able to find folks to fellowship with there.) Also, another group we have found is planning a Family Hanukkah Gathering for December which will be held in Tennessee. I will include a link to the information. Anyway, I wanted to add my voice of encouragement, let you know I am praying for you to find someone in your area and like Suzanne already said, let you know you are not alone!
http://messianiccovenant.com/events/celebrate-hanukkah-dec-19-21-nashville-tn