Reaching our Jewish friends with the gospel

I work with the charity Jews for Jesus. I live in a Jewish area. My neighbours are Jewish, the clubs I attend draw many Jewish people, and those I meet along the way are Jewish. However, all this said, most Jewish people hear the gospel from a gentile.

So, the first thing I encourage you to think about is, how do I go about meeting Jewish people? Do you meet Jewish people in your neighbourhood, or at work or on holiday?

What you'll discover

Once you meet Jewish people, even every week building relationship of care and trust and friendship, you will discover that Jewish people are people. They have issues, just like everyone else.

But in addition to this you will meet varying degrees of belief and tribalism: some are committed to keeping the commandments, others not at all. Some are happy to say they are Jewish and admit that God is not part of their thinking, as one woman shared with me recently, 'How can I believe in God, when every nation believes their God is the true God?' Others are traditional, following every observance, and, on the Sabbath, never turning on a light switch, keeping the doorbell turned off, and having the oven on a timer, yet don’t think long and hard about why they do such things - they just know they need to obey God. And some Jewish people have one Jewish parent, others two, and this can make a difference. But we cannot know such things until they are willing to share their heart and their lives with us.

But as well as considering their attitude towards spiritual things, we'd do well to consider our own. Am I kind, respectful, compassionate, empathetic? Or do I come across as judgemental, impatient, and cold? We can certainly pray for our Jewish friends to engage with the gospel, but we would also do well to pray for our spiritual maturity.

A work of the Spirit

Finally, we cannot persuade people of the gospel, not one bit. If the Holy Spirit is not working on them there will be no spiritual engagement. Only the Holy Spirit can open blind eyes and bring people to life. I would say that in my humble experience it is impossible to persuade anyone of the truth of the gospel until they are open to being persuaded. If I bring a conversation to a spiritual plane, but they don’t engage, the conversation will either end there or they will change the conversation.

The more skilled we are at broaching matters of heaven and hell the more adept one will be at keeping a conversation going. But when no one engages with us we must respect their choice. What I will not do is unload a 'monologue of belief.' That doesn’t build a relationship, it doesn’t make a relationship. In all our efforts we rejoice in the privilege of seeking to share the saviour, and if we are allowed to, we rejoice. If they accept our invitation to read a gospel with them, even more so.