Matthew Rudolph is a Messianic Jewish Leader of Gateways Beyond International, a family of messianic missional communities with ministry bases in Israel, Cyprus, Switzerland, Germany and the US. Messianic Jews are Jews who believe that Jesus was the Christ or the Messiah but who have retained their Jewish identity and heritage. Towards Jerusalem Council 2 is a movemnet working for the reconciliation of Jews and Christians. The movement in Ireland hosted Matthew in Dublin two years ago and he was a real blessing at all the meetings and churches he spoke at. One of these was All Nations Church in Dublin. Enclosed are his key points from All Nations - the theme was the Inspiration of Irish Celtic Christianity for today.
A Day Seminar entitled "Towards Revival in Ireland" will be held on Sat 26th Oct, led by Matthew. It is from 10am to 5pm in South Dublin in Johnstown Parish Hall, Churchview Rd Killiney, (not far off the M50 junction 16)
The cost for the Day Seminar on Sat 26th Oct is €20, which you can pay on the day.
Inspiration of Irish Celtic Christianity for today
The following are highlights from Matthew Rudolph’s talk in All Nations Church Dublin 13th Nov 17
Key Scripture: “Jesus said, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’” Mat 13:52 Mat said: “Scribe here includes the early Celtic monks who diligently studied, taught and copied the Scriptures “
1. Prayer Backup: Gateways team in Cyprus provided specific backup in prayer for each day of this trip to Ireland. Mat said “It is a privilege to see how the Lord is awaking the church in Ireland”
2. Family: Mat was born in California. His grandfathers were all rabbis but his dad was a secular Jew who had never heard the gospel. He was a successful businessman. One day he came into his house after a game of tennis. A ball of fire came and crashed into his chest and he felt unclean. He washed and showered but the feeling didn’t go away. He showered twice more but still felt unclean. In following weeks a person shared the gospel sensitively with him and led him to Yeshua. From then his dad wanted to be like his ancestor Abraham.
3. Mat’s Testimony: Mat’s has 7 siblings - all serving today as missionaries around the world – he could see from a young age the power of praying for the sick. At 5 years he was baptised in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues; at 10 he preached the gospel on outreach under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He has been mugged, held at gunpoint and barely escaped with his life
4. Missionary life has been a Wild Adventure eg Missions trip by Rudolph family to communist Romania: Family prayed in tongues – heard one word Brasov. Decided to drive there and found an old synagogue - car pulled up and window opened and a person says follow me. This incident connected them with the leader of underground church - ended up preaching there. Mat jokingly said that “As a family they have been like a Messianic Von Trap family”
5. Led to Cyprus 18 years ago: The whole family moved to Cyprus 18 years ago. From the start they senses the Lord saying to them to “build an altar of worship and praise” - principle is no ministry for first 3-6 months – give priority to his Presence. They started to ask where are the models they can look to of radical discipleship, radical devotion to worship and love of learning and the Scriptures in a PLACE OF HIDDENNESS.
6. Testimony: New Age festival - village next to them on the mountain. Prayed it off their mountain. In meantime trained a Church in Paphos of ex pats - all elderly –who wanted to learn to do street evangelism. This quite little retiree church led 17 people to give their hearts to the Lord.
7. Models of Community Life: Book of Acts AND also the Irish Celtic Monks - focus on
Worship and Prayer
Lifestyle of learning, training and equipping
Study of Scripture
Centers of hospitality – Glendalough was a place of refuge based on Levitical model
Had a SENSE OF ADVENTURE and missionary endeavour
8. First contact with Celtic church was when he was 10 years old. He was in a bad car accident in England and hospitalised in Germany. His dad read to him a book called the Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin and it deeply impacted his life. He saw how these missionary monks were incredible and how they were willing to go wherever the Holy Spirit led to share the gospel. Mat finds wonderful inspiration in St. Brendan’s Prayer:
'Help me to journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown. Give me the faith to leave old ways and break fresh ground with You. Christ of the mysteries, I trust You to be stronger than each storm within me. I will trust in the darkness and know that my times, even now, are in Your hand. Tune my spirit to the music of heaven, and somehow, make my obedience count for You.'
9. First time in Ireland: In Sept 2016 Mat led a team of 15 from their Missional Communities on a Prayer Journey around Ireland to give honour to the Lord for the Irish Celtic church spiritual heritage. The cry on his heart was: “Do it again Lord in our day”.
10. Wild Missionaries: Among the places they visited was Skellig Michael, a bleak wind swept island off the cost of Kerry in South West Ireland where the Celtic Monks prayed and worshipped for generations. Mat said “I had a thought what if my own coming to salvation was due to these men praying on the edge of a cliff in the darkness. We know that the Word of the Lord does not return empty. We are not to live in the shadow of the Celtic church history but in the shout of their testimony. The honour we give these wild missionaries is not in re-telling their stories but in living today in the victory that they worked out in their generation.”
Mat said “St. Columbanus was a wild missionary”. He went from his Monastery in Bangor taking 12 Monks with him. He confronted kings in Brittany just like St. Paul. He established monasteries/churches through the heart of Europe. One of the 12 was St. Gallus who founded a monastery in Switzerland.
11. Strategic positons of Ireland and Cyprus: Mat said “We are in an island that’s the furthest point south east in Europe and Ireland is the furthest point away on the North West of Europe. The gospel went first out to Cyprus by Paul and Barnabas and then to the rest of Europe”. In the fourth century it came to Ireland but Europe had lost its way and Irish monks re-evangelised most of Europe. “What if God wants to do it again!” The trust of the missions movement was from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Today the ends of the earth are experiencing amazing revival eg China 100 million Christians. The now trust of the missions movement is back to Jerusalem and along the way there are ancient wells that need to be dug. Before Jesus returns everyone needs to hear the gospel; the Jews need to be back in Israel and be ready to welcome their Messiah, Yeshua. Israel will be saved and a revived remnant will cry out “baruch haba b'shem Adonai”.
12. Mission Team: When Gateways do Outreach they seek to have the following:
Compassion for poor
Preach gospel on the street and prayer for healing
Be involved in encouraging local churches and serve local community:
Love Jews and Israel
Eg Team from Cyprus when on outreach to the Czech Republic, Matthew rang up the chief rabbi and asked him what the team could do to serve. He replied that an old graveyard needed to be cleaned – dirty work. Mat agreed. Subsequently the team went to Czech and worked in the old graveyard – during this time there was a big televised event beside the graveyard but only 8 men turned up for a minyan (needs 10 men) and so they asked Matthew and another Israeli (in their work clothes) to join them – all on national TV. Praise God.
13. Young Adults: The Gateways Beyond Cyprus Community (http://gbcy.org/ ) works with 18-30 year olds. Mat said young people today “need to come to faith and into intentional discipleship. We then create for them a transformational environment of the presence of God. We then seek to inspire them with a bigger vision than themselves.” Gateways is part of a loose initiative – Europe Shall Be Saved http://esbs.org/
14. God Purposes Revival in Ireland: Mat challenged us saying “You have an amazing heritage in Ireland. Value it, honour it, speak about it and call young people forth to be inspired by it to again be a light to the nations. Ireland is a nation full of wells. Lets believe for revival together. This is your inheritance. We want to provoke you to godly jealousy.” To see this Video click here: https://www.facebook.com/allnations.ie/posts/1917476968505472