From Luke chapter one, the chapter that recounts the story of Yeshua's birth, we learn why the Messiah came into the world. Based on the words of the archangel Gabriel, the priest Zechariah, and Miriam, Yeshua's mother, the following purposes for His coming become evident:

1. To save the people of Israel from their sins.
2. To establish His kingdom over all Israel for all eternity.
3. To save Israel from all of their enemies.

Additional confirmations can also be found in Luke chapter 2. For example, we read the following words of the righteous Shimon (Simeon), who encountered Yeshua with His parents in the Temple:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss[a] your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32, NIV)

We understand that Simeon didn’t speak Russian or even Greek, but most likely spoke Hebrew or maybe Aramaic. And he said: "For my eyes have seen Your Yeshua." There is a play on words here, which we can find in many places in the Tanakh, where it talks about the Salvation that is to come to Israel and then to all people. Because it is both the Salvation and, at the same time, the Saviour’s name. In the words of Simeon, we see a reference to the prophet Isaiah. If we read his prophetic proclamation carefully, we will notice some interesting things. He was waiting for the comfort of Israel. And the Holy Spirit came upon him and led him to the Temple, showed him the Comforter who alone could bring the true comfort to God's people, and he realized that his earthly life had come to an end.

What Simeon had been waiting for, finally came. And what was it? First of all, Israel's Comforter - the Saviour, Yeshua. God had prepared Him to be the Saviour in the sight of all nations. The Saviour of whom in the sight of all nations? First of all, the Saviour of Israel, and then as a light to enlighten the Gentiles. And when that light shines for all the nations, He will eventually return to His people, the people who are God's forever, to Israel, and He will become their glory. This is my understanding of these words of Simeon. Simeon’s words to Miriam are also interesting:

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This Child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against (Luke 2:34, NIV)

In our mind, and in fact, the clear majority of Jews have always either rejected or not accepted the Messianism of Yeshua, not accepted Him as their Saviour, much less their Lord. But what is interesting is that Simeon says, "on the fall and on the rebellion of many in Israel. The word "many" refers to both those who will fall and those who will rise, be lifted up, be restored.

So, the purposes of the Lord's coming into the world are clear. First of all, the salvation of Israel from sin. All that is required of Him was accomplished at His first coming. He ministered to Israel for three years, He taught Israel, all who would listen, He showed great signs and wonders to His people, and He prepared disciples who would then when the main objective of His first coming was accomplished, continue to minister to Israel and take this good news to other nations.
Then He accomplished the redemption, the salvation, first of all, of Israel. How can we confirm this? The most famous passage is the same 53rd chapter of Isaiah, which says:

“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed”. (Isaiah 53:4-5, NIV).

When Isaiah uses the pronoun “we” he is referring specifically to the Jewish people. The redemption, the deliverance, the salvation that Yeshua accomplished were primarily for the Jewish people, and then for all people on earth, but again, primarily for the Jewish people.

What about the resurrection and His ascension?

What was the next thing the Lord accomplished? He rose from the dead. Let's read an important text on this subject from the book of Acts. After the apparent miracles performed through the apostles, after the miraculous deliverance from prison, it says:

“Then someone came and said, ‘Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people’. At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them”. (Acts 5:25-26, NIV).

It turns out that a long time after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord, after the outpouring of Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit), after the formation of that amazing first New Covenant Messianic community in Jerusalem, when many thousands of Jews had already repented, performed teshuvah and fully became the children of God, most of the Jews assembled in Jerusalem still continued to be, so to say, “for” them. And the rulers, the spiritual leaders, their guards were afraid in certain situations to grab the apostles by force, lest the Jews stone them - not the apostles, but the rulers.
“The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin for questioning by the high priest. ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,’ he said. ‘Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this Man’s blood.” (Acts 5:27-28,NIV).

The expression “this Man” is something that later entered into the rabbinic tradition, where for generations the spiritual leaders of Israel have refused and continue to refuse to call Him by His name, either by using certain nicknames or simply by calling Him "crucified" or "this man”.

“The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Lord and Saviour that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins”. (Acts 5:30-31,NIV).
In the phrase “God exalted Him with his right hand to be the Lord and the Saviour” the Holy Spirit through the apostles unites both the resurrection from the dead and the Lord's ascension to the heavenly glory as He sat down at the right hand of the Father. And then the first purpose of these great events is stated here: "to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel." It turns out that, according to the New Testament, we clearly see that the predominant purpose of not only the Lord's incarnation and His birth into this world, of not only the redemption He guaranteed on earth and in hell, but also of His own resurrection from the dead and ascension into the heavenly glory, remains the salvation of Israel.

How antisemitism of the Church affects our understanding of Scripture

Once again, I was reading this verse from Acts chapter 5, and suddenly it just lit up for me. "No way!" I was so confused. I had been leading the Jewish Messianic congregation for a number of years by then. I knew exactly that the primary purpose of His birth, the primary purpose of His incarnation, the primary purpose of His agony, the primary purpose of His death, the primary purpose of His descent into hell was the redemption, the salvation of Israel, and then all people. But it turns out that His very resurrection from the dead and His very ascension to glory, when He fully became "Lord and Saviour," had the same goal - specifically the salvation of Israel through repentance, through the forgiveness of their sins.

I wondered why I had not seen this when I read this passage dozens or hundreds of times, and why it surprised me so much when it lit up for me in such an obvious way. And I realized that even in my Jewish ministry, I had not fully rid myself of a number of anti-Semitic prejudices that controlled my mind and influenced my perception of God's Word.
What prejudices are we talking about? I am talking about the fact that, yes, while Jesus Christ lived on earth, He preached to the Jews and even to His disciples and said, "You shall not go up to the Gentiles, nor enter into the city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 10:5-6). But when the people of Israel rejected Him, gave Him up for crucifixion, denied Him, from that moment on His purpose supposedly changed. His one and the only goal became to form God’s church out of all the nations. The church that was to emerge. Even though the first church was Jewish and there was not a single non-Jew there, this is irrelevant, because the Jews as God's chosen people were done away with at that time. (An Orthodox scholar in Greece once proved to me that on the day of the first New Covenant Shavuot there were many non-Jews. I was amazed by the veil that lay over his eyes, and by the way, he took out of context the words about the Jews who came from different nations and said that they were already non-Jews).

And it turns out that even though I knew it was an antisemitic myth, that it was a false replacement theory, some rudiments of that theory subconsciously influenced my perception of God's Word. Therefore, I simply didn't notice the 31st verse of Acts chapter 5. After all, how could it be that Yeshua – who was rejected by His people, who no longer looked to Israel as God's chosen people – rose from the dead, ascended to glory, and sat down at His Father's right hand? All of that also was done for Israel's sake as a special people in the first place! How could it be? But by the grace of God, nevertheless, the Holy Spirit broke through the rudiments of that antisemitic perception and revealed this truth to me.

The Truth as Testified Not by Man, but by the Holy Spirit

Let's read the following words of Peter and the apostles:

"We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him" (Acts 5:32, NIV).

Hence, even if someone might with such near-blasphemous boldness say, "Well, it must have been the apostles, because of their excessive love and affection for their people, who proclaimed this before the Sanhedrin," it turns out that the chief witness here is not even the apostles themselves, but the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies to all Bible believers, all New Covenant believers, to all those who take the Word of God seriously, that not only the birth, not only the death, but also the resurrection from the dead and the ascension of the Lord, first and foremost, were for the sake of the people of Israel as forever, forever God's chosen people and no one can undo this in any way.

What was going on at that time? The spiritual leaders of Israel believed that Israel was chosen by God, but they did not believe that God had resurrected, exalted to glory, and made "That man" the Saviour and the Head.

What has been going on in the church since the second century? They believed that God was incarnate, that God had worked through Yeshua, that He was the Son of God, the true God. They believed He accomplished the redemption of all mankind. They believed that He died, that He rose from the dead, that He ascended to glory, that He is the Head and the Saviour for the salvation and forgiveness of the sins of all who would believe in Him. However, it has been suggested He is no longer the Head and Saviour specifically for Israel or for Israel in the first place.

This is how things have changed. First, the negative emphasis was placed on the Holy Spirit's witness about Yeshua and then - on the Holy Spirit's witness to the Jewish people and the eternal nature of Israel's chosenness and all the promises to Israel.

©Boris Grisenko, senior rabbi of KJMC (Kyiv Jewish Messianic Congregation)