The Ancient Way

Our mission is to help connect people to the ancient roots of the Christian faith by embracing the Jewishness of Jesus.

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

Every Friday night, we join in with the family of God and pray Kiddush prayers to sanctify the Sabbath and usher in God's presence on this beautiful day.

If you've started exploring the Sabbath, this is a great addition to your rhythm!

https://t.co/cvtttatURA

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

In this week's Torah portion, Pinchas is rewarded for stopping the plague at Peor. A new census is taken, the daughters of Zelophehad win their inheritance, and Joshua is appointed Moses’ successor. The festival offerings for the whole year are detailed.

https://t.co/K3Ik5n9KnF

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

In this week's Torah portion, Korach and his followers challenge the leadership of Moses and Aaron and are swallowed by the earth. A plague follows, stopped by Aaron’s incense. Aaron’s staff blossoms as a sign, confirming the priesthood.

https://t.co/hGBBDargUs

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

Each week, we read through a set portion of the Torah, following the same ancient rhythm Yeshua and His disciples kept.

Join us as we read the Bible!

https://t.co/mUpKMloSvf

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

Want some fun activities for your kids during Shavuot? Revayah has you covered! Engage them in all three stories of God's covenant faithfulness!

https://t.co/SF3psLIPRF

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

Wait — is Pentecost the same as Shavuot?

Yes. Down to the morning. Down to the hour.

Pentecost (Greek for "fiftieth") and Shavuot (Hebrew for "weeks") were never two separate holidays sitting near each other on the calendar. They are one feast on the same date, same fiftieth day, same Jerusalem packed with first-century Jewish pilgrims who had walked up to celebrate.

When Luke writes "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place" (Acts 2:1), every Jewish reader in the first century heard one thing: Shavuot. The feast of the Torah. The wheat harvest. Two leavened loaves waved before the presence of God.

And that single fact rewrites the way Acts 2 reads.

The fire that fell on the disciples? The same fire that wrapped Mount Sinai when the Torah was first given. The Torah once written on stone tablets? Now written on hearts. The two leavened loaves, lifted up together? Jew and Gentile, one body.

And here's the quiet detail many families may have missed: Jewish tradition pairs the giving of the Torah at Sinai with the reading of Ruth — a Gentile Moabite who said "your people will be my people, your God my God" (Ruth 1:16). Grafted into Israel during the wheat harvest. Grandmother of David's line. Ancestor of the Messiah Himself. The grafting-in of the nations became woven into this feast over the years.

Pentecost didn't replace Shavuot. It is what Shavuot was pointing toward all along.

For a Christian or Messianic family, this changes how you celebrate. You don't have to choose between feasts. Bake two loaves. Read Exodus 19 and Acts 2 in the same evening. Read Ruth out loud with your children.

Join in with the family we are grafted into and celebrate God's incredible work of redemption and faithful covenant love. 🌾 🔥 🍞

https://t.co/3rFiCOJ1X4

[Jon Horton @jonhorton]

Our Messianic synagogue is celebrating Shavuot tomorrow and the family is looking forward to it.

To help my engage our kids, my wife put together a Messianic Shavuot activity bundle with coloring sheets, copywork, and more.

Proud of her work!
https://t.co/qaUGokzXRW

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you have likely heard of Pentecost—the time mentioned in Acts 2 where God poured out His Spirit on the early Jewish believers in Jesus.

But did you know this monumental event is directly connected to an ancient Jewish festival called the Feast of Weeks (or Shavuot in Hebrew) and that this feast is specifically mentioned in Leviticus 23?

Keep reading and we’ll unpack the amazing significance of what God did at Pentecost.

https://t.co/eMfDQMXqfZ

[Jon Horton @jonhorton]

Keeping the Sabbath has been such a foundational rhythm for us over the last 8 years.

Each week our kids look forward to lighting the candles, saying the blessings, and enjoying a day of rest.

When we began, we googled "Messianic Sabbath Prayers," made some challah bread, prepared some wine, and stumbled through the prayers.

At the time we didn't know all the right things to say, how integral it was to Jewish identity or even why the Sabbath could be important to a small family that worked at a local Christian church.

But we started anyway, and that first day was life changing.

I remember looking at my wife around 2pm with this immense feeling of peace. It was like time had slowed down and we had lived two days, and it wasn't barely the afternoon.

She looked at me and said "I don't think we've ever Sabbathed in our entire lives."

And she was right.

There's something about the Sabbath that transcends time and space. I love how Abraham Joshua Heschel describes it as "eternity in a day." because that is that what it has often felt like.

A preview of the world to come, and a day to practice what it would look like to fully live in God's presence.

As our family grew, so did the chaos of our Friday night Shabbat meal.

Voices were loud.
The table was messy.
We didn't always know if we were getting it quite right.

But we adapted and established a rhythm that has all five of our children get to participate in. Sometimes my oldest daughter helps light the candles.

My son has memorized the passage from Genesis 1:31–2:1 of God resting from His work of creation.

We all sing Shabbat Shalom and enjoy the warm challah bread that reminds us that God always provides.

This event has been so impactful for us we decided to launch a free Messianic Sabbath Starter Guide for families who have been contemplating starting a Sabbath rhythm, but don't know where to start.

We hope it's as impactful for you as it was for us 8 years ago. And that you can join in with a rhythm of rest and worship that God gave the Jewish people long ago. A gift that He also extends to all of us from the nations.

May you enjoy this day of rest and may it transform your family as enter into this sacred rhythm of God.

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

In case you need a reminder about whether or not Christians celebrate Passover: https://t.co/fN8gMShw4h

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

If you've been looking for resources to celebrate Biblical holidays with your children, check this out!

This is a printable coloring & activity book that you can purchase and use at home, in church, in synagogue, or in any homeschool setting!

https://t.co/tYqNK0erGc

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

In this article, we’ll dive into the 2026 dates of the Biblical Feasts and when the Jewish community and Messianic believers worldwide celebrate these incredible appointed times.

If you're discovering the Jewish roots of your faith, this is for you!

https://t.co/yuoVo5tbJM

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

A new year is a great time to introduce new rhythms that give you life!

Start your journey of understanding the importance of Sabbath, embracing a day of Sabbath rest, and finding shalom from a God who loves you and wants good things for you.

https://t.co/Mjca4BNSig

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

Shavuah Tov!

May your week be filled with an awareness that God is with you! 🙏

[Jon Horton @jonhorton]

In Genesis 12, God speaks to Abraham and tells him to leave the comfort of his hometown and to Go Forth into the land He would show him.

Abraham listened to the Lord and went.

Today we are living in the blessing of Abraham's obedience.

Today, may we hear our Fathers voice and listen. 🙏

Then Adonai said to Abram, “Get going out from your land, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.

My heart’s desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you, to make your name great so that you may be a blessing.

My desire is to bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

So Abram went, just as Adonai had spoken to him.

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

During Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, we remember God's faithfulness to the children of Israel after He delivered them from Egypt.

His faithfulness to His people is what allows us to trust Him still today as we celebrate with joy 🍋🌿🙌

https://t.co/aPJiXcvNik

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

Adonai spoke to Moses saying:

“Speak to Bnei-Yisrael, and say, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Sukkot, for seven days to Adonai.

It is a statute forever throughout your generations—you are to celebrate it in the seventh month.
—Leviticus 23:33-43

[Jon Horton @jonhorton]

We're just a few days away from Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Yeshua said that if you go to the altar, but your brother has something against you, you should go and reconcile the relationship before making your sacrifice.

Part of making peace with God is mending the relationships we have with others.

This week as part of our kids curriculum, we had them write two letters asking forgiveness of a wrong they had done. It was a great exercise that got them thinking about where they needed to repent.

And it struck me how much more we should do the same? Especially if we take these words of the Master to heart.

This is what I love about this season. You might think "oh Jesus, has already made atonement for me, this day doesn't matter much any more."

And while it's true His death covers us and atones for our sins, it's also true that we still need to reconcile the wrong we've done to others. To make amends, and fix the relationships with those who may have something against us.

Kippur comes from the Hebrew word kippurim in Scripture, which means "to cover, or covering."

What a beautiful picture of what happens when we seek forgiveness and reconciliation. To "cover" the wrong done to us or that we have done to others.

As you go through this week, perhaps you would ask our Father to show you where you need to reconcile and practice the same atonement (covering) that He has so graciously poured out on us?

What would it look like to follow in His footsteps?

It might just look like the Kingdom of our Father and King. 🙏

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

We're in the middle of the 10 Days of Awe and yesterday was Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath day between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Teshuvah (תשובה) means to return.

What kind of God is this who forgives and makes a way?

https://t.co/Fx8dgjg2sP

[Yoḥanan @YahwehGraced]

I don’t understand the audacity of some people to make such an erroneous statement.

The Bible is a Jewish (Hebraic) book, both the TaNaKh (Old Testament) and the Brit Hadasha (New Testament). The Bible makes no sense when you strip away its Jewish context.

Yes, even the New Testament is very much a Jewish book: written by Jews, mostly about Jews, for Jews and for Gentiles who are willing to be part of their New Covenant prophesied by the Jewish prophet Jeremiah. All the traditions and practices of the New Covenant are Jewish in nature: the Passover, the Immersion, the Torah of the Spirit.

The New Testament is about the central figure, Yeshua the Messiah — a Jew, born to a Jewish family, who grew up among Jews, ministered to Jews, died, and resurrected in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem. Yeshua is still a Jew; nowhere in the Bible does it say He stopped being one. His twelve original and closest disciples were also Jews.

In fact, all the practices, laws, and festivals were given by Him — Yeshua millennia earlier to His people. The very concept of “Messiah” is exclusively Jewish. It was the Jewish Messiah Himself who taught that “salvation is from the Jews.”

The messenger of YAHWEH appeared to Joseph and told him to name the Son Yeshua, for He would save His people from their sins. Yeshua is a Hebraic name that makes sense only in the Jewish context. It makes no sense in English or Greek. “Iesous” has nothing to do with soter, and “Jesus” has nothing to do with save. But in Hebrew, Yeshua literally means “salvation,” derived from the name Y’hoshua meaning “YAHWEH is salvation.”

One of the early church’s struggles wasn’t whether Jews could enter the New Covenant, but whether Gentiles could enter it (Acts 15). Early church was considered to be a Jewish sect. NOT A DIFFERENT RELIGION.

But from the 2nd and 3rd centuries onward, antisemitism crept into Christianity. Many began misusing the New Testament to justify hostility toward “Judaizers” and to replace its Jewish foundations with Christianized theology. This eventually led translators, whether consciously or unconsciously to produce antisemitic renderings of the text. Readers absorbed this bias, and some of them became preachers who further reinforced the cycle.

This vicious cycle of Christian antisemitism that feeds on misreadings of the New Testament must be broken. As I said, the New Testament itself contains no antisemitism, but is a Jewish book through and through.

This is precisely why YAHWEH’s holy Sabbath and holy Feasts were replaced with pagan festivals, festivals that are abominable in His eyes. These Christians look at YAHWEH’s commandments and feasts as merely “Jewish,” and they brand anyone who desires to follow them rather than pagan Christmas or Easter as “evil Judaizers” or “anti-Christian.”

I don’t usually rant this much, but sometimes truth needs to be spoken

[The Ancient Way @TheAncientWay_]

Rosh Hashanah, also known as The Feast of Trumpets is nearly upon us!

This Jewish holiday is mentioned in Leviticus 23 and reminds us that the King is about to take His rightful place on the throne.

May His glorious Kingdom reign forever!

https://t.co/FyXfdDeDL1