POSTED 19 MAY, 2009

Offer Them Messiah

by Mark Huey
mark@outreachisrael.net

reproduced from the McHuey Blog

Please forgive a proud parental unit for expressing some admiration in the recent achievements of a member of our household.

Over the weekend, our family had the privilege to attend the commencement ceremony of the Asbury Theological Seminary Class of 2009. John McKee was officially conferred his Master of Arts in Biblical Studies degree. As a family dedicated to serving Yeshua in the Messianic movement, we were all delighted with John’s accomplishment—knowing the amount of work, dedication, and financial investment required to achieve his goal. Sadly over the years, we have watched John receive unwarranted verbal abuse and ridicule from both jealous leaders and uninformed lay people in the Messianic world, who inappropriately claimed that attending an evangelical seminary was not only unwise, but it was going to “ruin” him. On the contrary, John’s critics were not only patently wrong—but as they came out with various false and sensationalistic teachings during his tenure of study—they were actually used by the Lord to embolden him for the unique call that is upon his life to write and assist with Messianic theology.

As I sat in the auditorium with Margaret, a great deal of emotion was welling up in our hearts. Margaret, in particular, had to contend with the memories of her maternal grandfather, Marvin Franklin, who had once served as the presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church—and certainly one ancestor whose blessings have descended upon John! Earlier in Margaret’s Christian walk, she had been intimately involved in leadership positions within the Methodist programs of the Walk to Emmaus and Chrysalis, both being dedicated to evangelism and discipleship. Additionally, John’s late father Kimball McKee, was an active lay minister in the United Methodist Church and a team leader of the Walk to Emmaus. Prior to being diagnosed with cancer, he had been approved for the ministry, and was preparing to take classes at both Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, as well as Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, KY. In many regards, we could all recognize that what John had accomplished was the completion of a great deal of work that had been passed down to him from the previous generations.

Looking through my program throughout the ceremony, the educational mission for Asbury is one that today’s Messianic Believers should embrace without any reservations:

Asbury Theological Seminary is a community called to prepare theologically educated, sanctified, Spirit-filled men and women to evangelize and to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world through the love of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father.

So as I sat through the ceremony and listened to the order of service that commissioned a wide variety of graduates that represented multiple races, ethnic and social backgrounds, and both genders for the Lord’s work—I marveled at how the Lord prepares different people for service in His Kingdom on Earth. The commencement sermon, delivered by Dr. Steve Harper, continually repeated words that John Wesley gave to the first two leaders of the early Methodist movement in colonial America: “Offer them Christ.” The sermon found its inspiration from John 12, where Yeshua told His Disciples, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32, NRSV).

Listening to Harper’s message—designed to emphasize “serving” in the ministry over “success” in the ministry—the word “hijacked” began to resonate in my spirit and mind many times. By relating this commissioning to much of what we as a family have experienced in the Messianic community since 1995, I realized that the current Messianic movement had very much been hijacked. This is, of course, not anything new to religion. Asbury President J. Ellsworth Kalas would relate to the graduates how they would need to learn to become servants of the Messiah, rather than charlatans, and men and women who would need to learn that financial success does not at all mean spiritual success. Perceived success or notoriety in ministry is the motive of many people, rather than functioning in the great call of God and self-sacrificial service, so that others might know the transforming power of the gospel.

Harper also spoke incessantly on the need for the graduates to boldly preach “Jesus is Lord!” This certainly took on some new dimensions for us as many of today’s Messianics, now holding to a low Christology, want to reduce the salvation confession “Yeshua is Lord” (Romans 10:9) to just “Yeshua is master.” While not graduating myself, I was certainly encouraged by what was spoken to the Class of 2009—and I know that our ministry is moving ahead in the right direction!

It was difficult not to relate both Harper’s and Kalas’ words to what our household has been called to do. Instead of finding men and women dedicated to offering the Messiah to the world at large, and encouraging people in practical holiness—today’s Messianic movement is too widely littered with self-professed spokespersons who have exploited people with all sorts of things that do not place Messiah Yeshua at the center. Yet, if our Heavenly Father has truly chosen this movement to accomplish some important things prior to the End of the Age, then some big changes are up ahead.

We need to be a Messianic movement that takes seriously what it means to be Messianic—meaning that if all we do is, “Offer them Messiah!”, then we have done our job well. If we can embrace a Yeshua-centered approach to the unique mission that Messianics have, then today’s often disunited and unfocused Messianic movement can be transformed into a force that is united and focused. We will be properly equipped to prepare men and women for the restoration of all Israel and the return of Yeshua.

Young people like John McKee represent a generation that believes in these things, who are not going to quit the Messianic movement simply because of the charlatans out there right now (who will not be around forever). More and more are being inspired to making “Offer them Messiah!” the focus of their Messianic ministry, and seeing us transformed into mature men and women of proper holiness and piety, being filled with Yeshua’s love. As we do this, we are not setting a new precedent, but are repeating a time-tested and reliable pattern that has been modeled to us throughout Holy Writ:

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Yeshua, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Until the restoration of all things…

Mark Huey (B.A., Vanderbilt University in History and Graduate Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) is the Director of Outreach Israel Ministries (www.outreachisrael.net). He is the author of several books, including: TorahScope, Volumes I & II, and Counting the Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward Shavuot. He is also co-author of Hebraic Roots: An Introductory Study.