Israel’s Salvation & the Hope of the Jewish People
For if [Israel’s] rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? … I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. –Romans 11:15, 25–26 (NIV)
“I believe we are living in very special times. Today, there are about one million Jewish believers in the world. That means there are more Jewish disciples of Jesus today than there were in the days of Jesus Himself. For me, that is a prophetic sign.
“Throughout the Bible, the prophets of Israel and the apostles—especially the Apostle Paul—speak about a time when Israel will recognize her Messiah. That recognition and redemption will bring blessing to the whole world. Paul writes about this in Romans 11: If Israel’s rejection of Jesus resulted in blessing to the nations, what will happen when our people accept Jesus? That is the ‘life from the dead’ we are working for (v. 15).
“I believe Jewish people are opening their hearts to the Messiah and to the gospel. I also believe we are seeing a time of reconciliation between the Church and Israel after many centuries of persecution and misunderstanding. As that reconciliation grows, I believe the anointing over the Church will grow as well.”
From Humble Beginnings
“Today, our congregation in Brazil has more than 500 people, the largest Messianic Jewish congregation in Latin America. Many wonder how a Messianic Jewish congregation ended up in Brazil. My family and many others immigrated to Brazil from northern Italy at the beginning of the last century. My father’s mother was Jewish, and when her family arrived in Brazil, they became farmers and kept many Jewish traditions, but there was no synagogue where they lived. My grandparents eventually moved to the capital city of our state, Belo Horizonte, where some members of our family formally joined the established Jewish community while others remained secular.
“The turning point came when my grandmother was in her late twenties. She was experiencing a crisis in her marriage, and a friend invited her to attend a service at a Baptist church. She became a believer in the late 1950s, and she was advised to abandon the little Jewish culture and traditions she had. My grandmother was told she was no longer Jewish; she was now a Christian.
“My grandfather was Catholic, so my father was raised in both worlds—the Jewish and Catholic worlds—and eventually, the Protestant world because of my grandmother’s conversion. It was a rich upbringing. When I was ten years old, my father also experienced problems in his marriage and had a born-again experience. That year, our whole family became disciples of Christ and joined a Spirit-filled Baptist church in Belo Horizonte.
“That is where I met my wife, Tatiane. My father was also a volunteer pastor there, and the church organized its first trip to Israel. The senior pastor invited my father because he remembered my father’s Jewish heritage and thought he might enjoy going. Reluctant, my father thought it was a waste of time and money because he had been taught that he was no longer Jewish since he’d become a Christian.”
A Turning Point
“But while my father was in Israel in 1993, someone gave him a Newsweek magazine containing an article about Jewish believers in Jerusalem. It shocked him because the concept of a Jew remaining Jewish while believing in Jesus simply did not exist in our theology. We had never thought it was possible.
“My father asked to meet these Messianic Jews in Jerusalem and was received by Joseph Shulam, the leader of the congregation. After hearing my father’s story, Joseph told him that believing in Jesus did not mean he had to stop being Jewish. Jesus Himself was Jewish, and He wanted my father to work with his own people. He told him that God would give him a special anointing to work with the Jewish people in Brazil.
“That was the beginning of our involvement in Messianic Judaism. Three years later, in 1996, my father founded a ministry called Teaching from Zion. It was dedicated to studying the Bible in its Jewish context, helping the Church understand its Jewish background and fighting antisemitism. In 1997, he established one of the first Messianic Jewish congregations in Brazil.”
A Messianic Connection in Texas
“My connection to Messianic Judaism grew from there. I became very interested in the Bible and in studying Hebrew, so I convinced my father to send me to Israel in 1998. Once I finished my time in the Brazilian Army as a lieutenant, I left to live in Israel. I studied Hebrew and biblical archaeology with Messianic Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and other cities. While I was there, a representative of Shady Grove Church in Texas, Dr. Wayne Wilkes, presented to Joseph Shulam a project involving Bible schools for Jewish believers in the former Soviet Union. I became so interested in the conversation that I invited myself to go with Joseph to Ukraine to learn more about the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute.
“When I was still in Israel, Wayne called me and said they had been praying for a school in South America. He asked if I would pray about opening a Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Brazil. I agreed. We invited Wayne to Brazil, and he fell in love with our congregation. We started the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Brazil, with Shady Grove as one of its main supporters. Wayne invited my wife and I to study at Christ for the Nations in Dallas and helped arrange full scholarships for us. We stayed for a year, attended a local Messianic Jewish congregation, and then returned to Brazil to continue the work.
“Gateway Church has been a partner with our ministry since the late 1990s. In fact, Gateway provided another scholarship for me. I graduated last May with a Master’s degree in Messianic Jewish Studies from The King’s University. It is a very special program. Dr. David Rudolph prepared a unique curriculum with courses taught by Messianic Jewish professors from throughout the United States and even from abroad.”
Preserving History & Sharing the Gospel
“Our partnership with the Gateway Center for Israel has been a huge blessing to our community. One important part of our work is helping descendants of Jews who were forced to convert during the Inquisition. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Portugal and Spain and ended up in Brazil, where they were forced to convert to Catholicism. Many families secretly preserved their Jewish identity. In the last fifty years, many descendants have begun seeking to reconnect with the faith of their Jewish ancestors.
“Gateway is one of the sponsors of our museum project and seminary. We founded a museum in Brazil dedicated to the history of the Inquisition, the first of its kind. The museum collects artifacts connected to Jews from Portugal and Spain and their history in Brazil. We have a library where people can research their ancestry. It's important for people to know where they came from. Our school is a Bible college focused on training Jewish believers to become leaders and establish congregations. To impact the next generation, my father and I hope to start an elementary school that our congregation will sponsor.
“Our congregation also partners with the local Jewish community to provide social work and food distribution. When people see us serving in this way, it creates an opportunity for us to testify about our faith. Jesus is the one who fills our hearts to speak about God and do His works. That is where we practice the gospel. That practical work, along with the museum and our weekly teaching about Yeshua—Jesus, as the Jewish Messiah—gives us powerful tools for evangelism, especially among Jewish people.”
A Vision for Israel & the Church
“I am excited to see more Jewish people recognizing Jesus as their Messiah, but I am also excited to see the Church recognizing her roots in Israel and understanding that Gentile believers have been grafted into the olive tree. It is one new man—one family, Jews and Gentiles together in Christ.
“That is what motivates me to continue helping the Church and my own people see our Messiah. He has been there the whole time, but the Lord has allowed a veil to remain over the eyes of my people so that we could not see Him. That veil is beginning to lift.
“The rabbis say that whatever comes from the mind reaches other minds, but whatever comes from the heart reaches other hearts. What I speak, I speak from my heart. It is not something I simply have in my mind; it is something I have in my heart.
“That is the vision God has given me. I believe that's why the connection between our ministry and Gateway Church has been so strong from the beginning. We share a love for Israel and an honor for Israel as God’s chosen people. They still need Jesus, just like anybody else, but honoring that election is something the church has sometimes missed.
“I have always seen Gateway Church honoring Israel, and it has been a testimony of how God is still mightily using this community to build His kingdom!”
–Rabbi Matheus, partner with the Gateway family
Additional Resources
Learn More About Gateway Center for Israel.
Learn More About The King’s University.