Why do you seek to tell Jewish people about Jesus?
Christians believe Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. We are told: "I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is the power of God for salvation to the Jew first and also to the gentile." (Romans 1:16) Since the only way of forgiveness for sin before a holy God is for there to be a payment satisfying his justice, and God provided that payment through faith in the substitutionary sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, it would be outright anti-Semitic to withhold this message of God's love and forgiveness from the Jewish people. We love Jewish people and so we want them to know about God's love. We also renounce any deception and do not seek to pressure people to believe.
But don't the Jewish people have their own covenant with God?
Paul said: "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Messiah, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen." (Romans 9:4-5) God made a New Covenant with Israel. (See Jeremiah 31:31-34) That is the covenant God requires the Jewish people to embrace. It fulfills and supersedes all others. All the promises of God have their "Yes" in the Messiah (2 Corinthians 1:20). Messiah alone is the one true heir to the promises given to Abraham and they are received and experienced through faith in Him alone (Galatians 3:16 and 3:29).
What about modern nation of Israel? How do you see it?
God has providentially preserved the Jewish people. Jonathan Edwards said this is a great evidence for the reality and faithfulness of God. While many go overboard in speculating about modern Israel in terms of end times prophecy (and we don't), that does not mean it has no significance at all. John Owen spoke of the return of the Jewish people to the land 500 years ago. Perhaps it is a precursor to the revival of the Jewish people spoken of in Romans chapters 9-11. See our article on a Reformed Israelogy. We do not focus on the State of Israel and believe all who belong to Messiah are spiritually citizens of the "Commonwealth of Israel," as stated clearly in Ephesians chapter 2. But that being said, modern Israel has the most freedom of religion of any country in the Middle East and is a great ally of the USA. We absolutely must stand against those who seek to destroy Israel and murder the Jewish people.
What do you think about Messianic Judaism?
We have many good friends in that movement and there are a lot of variations. It is legitimate to have Jewish themes in worship such as music, prayers, Hebrew blessings, and teaching on Jewish holidays. It is fine and even desirable for Jewish believers in Jesus (or Yeshua as his mother Miriam referred to him) to celebrate and maintain their Jewish cultural heritage. However, there is always the danger of syncretism. The rabbis have absolutely no authority over New Covenant believers. Yes, they have some wise insights, to be sure, but no authority, and we must be careful not to imply in any way that they do. So a culturally contextualized New Covenant expression is valuable, but the word Judaism itself implies the religion of the rabbis. We do not use that term to describe ourselves. We also believe the ceremonial laws have a deeper and more spiritual meaning and that the external observation of them is not required.
