Messianic Praise and Worship – Untapped Treasures

The Jewish people have a rich heritage full of “treasures,” according to Paul Wilbur in this Worship Sound Bite, that most Christians also have access to, but don’t realize is there for them. He brings up the Shabbat, or the Sabbath, as his first example and the gift of the law as the second.

Jesus calls himself ‘the Lord of the Sabbath.’ What did he mean by that?

Paul and his team (family) have been throwing a “First Friday” Shabbat service for his community in Florida for years. They also live stream the event and it’s worth it for all worshippers and those who lead worship services to watch and soak in this centuries old tradition.

The event is the first Friday of each month at 7:00 pm EST at the Celebration Midtown Campus. It includes dynamic worship alongside effective biblical teaching centered on the Kingdom of God as taught by Yeshua (Jesus) and His disciples; the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets.

More from Paul Wilbur

Transcription

One of the treasures that I’ve discovered in being a Jew is this rich heritage, of embracing some of these treasures that some of my Christian brothers and sisters have either not seen, not understood, not been taught, or taught wrongly about- that there is a vast wealth and a huge treasure hidden in things like the Shabbat.

Actually, Jesus calls himself Lord of the Sabbath. What did he mean by that? When Jesus spoke on the Sermon on the Mount and he said, “don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets, but I came to fulfill that”. If we understand that word fulfill, not as passed away, but as the Greek says, to raise to its highest expression, then we see that the law, the precepts, the ways of God are good and they are intentional.

They point us to something. They build a fence around our property and say, you have total freedom within these boundaries, have at it. But to go outside these boundaries is not good for you. And if we want more explanation about that, lest someone might think I’m a judaizer, or I’m trying to put someone back under the law, which is fascinating to me. Because Jeremiah 31 31 says that if we are a new covenant believer, but that law of God has been inscribed, written on our hearts.

So how can I, through my words, put someone under something that’s already been inscribed on their heart? And then Jesus goes on, on the Sermon on the Mount- it’s written, but I say to you, and it’s fascinating to me. He digs into these things. Thou shalt not kill. But I tell you, as just as everybody’s feeling good about, okay, I didn’t kill anybody today.

I felt like it yesterday. And He says, Aha, that’s the problem. If you hate your brother in your heart, you have already killed him. You already broke the law. Guilty as stands. Or if you commit adultery. And half of the men who were listening to him speak these words are saying, okay, pretty good. I’ve got one wife. I’m doing good.

I haven’t- but have you, has your eye followed after another? You’ve already broken the law. So he shows us what it means to raise this all up to a whole different level, so that the law becomes our teacher. And these things that he’s teaching us are good for us. So what am I saying? So we- we have once a month- called first Friday, where we have a Shabbat service and we invite our city to come.

We’ve done this for decades now. And we invite the city to come and we worship the Lord and we teach and share the Scriptures. And we enjoy, I believe, as we invite the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus the Messiah. There comes a deeper revelation and understanding of these things that connects us to our rootedness. It connects us to our Jewish Messiah.

It doesn’t cut us off from Him. It doesn’t cause us to believe that what we do now is so much higher than those poor people thousands of years ago who didn’t understand. So when we read in Leviticus Chapter 23, that Passover is important, that the Feast of Tabernacles is important- I’ve got them all out of order. It starts with with the Sabbath.