Apostolic Foundations (11 of 12)
Art Katz

Arthur "Art" Katz (1929 - 2007). American preacher, author, and founder of Ben Israel Fellowship, born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. Raised amid the Depression, he adopted Marxism and atheism, serving in the Merchant Marines and Army before earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from UCLA and UC Berkeley, and an M.A. in theology from Luther Seminary. Teaching high school in Oakland, he took a 1963 sabbatical, hitchhiking across Europe and the Middle East, where Christian encounters led to his conversion, recounted in Ben Israel: Odyssey of a Modern Jew (1970). In 1975, he founded Ben Israel Fellowship in Laporte, Minnesota, hosting a summer “prophet school” for communal discipleship. Katz wrote books like Apostolic Foundations and preached worldwide for nearly four decades, stressing the Cross, Israel’s role, and prophetic Christianity. Married to Inger, met in Denmark in 1963, they had three children. His bold teachings challenged shallow faith, earning him a spot on Kathryn Kuhlman’s I Believe in Miracles. Despite polarizing views, including on Jewish history, his influence endures through online sermons. He ministered until his final years, leaving a legacy of radical faith.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of finding grace in times of extreme need. He discusses the urgency of being prepared to offer counsel and wisdom to others in life and death situations. The speaker shares his personal experience of studying the speech of Stephen in Acts 7 and how it revealed the need for believers to confront their own rebellion against God. He encourages the audience to have a deeper understanding of the promises of God and to persevere in faith and patience to inherit those promises.
Scriptures
Sermon Transcription
There's a book called the Apostolic Imperative. Don't get scared, I'm not going to read it, probably just hold it up. It was partially an inspiration for these days, although I disagree with this eminent Lutheran theologian in a few places, but considering all, the very title itself is worth the price, and that it's written by a Lutheran theologian called Bratton is a statement that something is indeed stirring. On a chapter entitled The Apostolic Foundations of Ministry, here's how he begins. The precarious state of the ministry today. The promise of renewal of the Church's mission depends on the recovery of the apostolic ministry in the Church today. Can you believe that? And then every Church denomination and sect has laid claim to a ministry which in all essentials is apostolic. They all profess that their ministries stand in apostolic succession. That is because every kind of Christian community lives or dies by its ability to transmit the true apostolic stuff, whatever that is. So whatever that is, is what we have been seeking to speak about in these weeks, but that this kind of acknowledgment is impinging and touching upon the consciousness of men in ivy-towered places is a remarkable statement of the recognition that is coming to them of their great need. So the apostolic imperative is what we've been talking about. For example, what is the apostolic imperative of the Church toward Israel? To move them to jealousy and that by your mercy they might know mercy. What's the apostolic imperative of the Church toward the principalities and the powers? To unseat them and to reveal the fraudulent thing that they are and one day to displace them in the governmental realm. Hey, we've got quite an agenda, no light task on the things that are apostolic. So if that's the apostolic imperative, what is the apostolic fulfillment? That's what your pastor is going to speak about for three weeks. And I want to take a little shot at it tonight. I want to begin by taking a look at a statement in the book of Hebrews in the third chapter and maybe going through Hebrews a little bit to express what the Lord has put on my heart. The authorship of Hebrews is disputed by the scholars. I like to believe that Paul is that author. If it proves to be another, it's a man of the same apostolic timber, the same apprehension and awareness of all that was in Paul's deepest spirit. I like to believe that Paul is the essential apostle and what is apostolic is the picture of the foundation that God intends for the Church and the totality of the Church. Chapter 3 of Hebrews begins, Therefore, holy brethren who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. So I want to speak tonight about the conjunction of two words, apostolic and priestly. Jesus is the apostle and the high priest of our confession and we are to consider him in both things. I want to say by faith that these two terms are inextricably linked. You can no more attain to the thing that is apostolic independent of what is priestly than you can be priestly without touching the thing that is apostolic. They are forever linked in the wisdom of God. These two great things, whatever they mean or whatever that stuff is that Carl Brattain refers to that I've quoted, this priestliness is a lost thing to the consciousness of modern saints. The only time we ever think of it or hear of it is somehow when we hear a teaching about Aaronic priesthood or Old Testament priesthood or the nomenclature of priesthood or what they wore or what they did or the tabernacle in some kind of historic description. It's like a piece of antiquity. It's something ancient and somehow unrelated to the things that make up our life. But there's a sense in which priestliness can be understood that is remarkably relevant. It's unchanging and it's eternal and it's heavenly. It's the kind of priest that Jesus is that makes him the high apostle, the high priest and the apostle of our confession. And if it makes him to the same degree, it makes us. If we have an apostolic intention, we need also to have a priestly consideration. So I just want to review some things that pertain to the priesthood of Jesus because it pertains also to us who have a heavenly calling, holy brethren. How do you like them apples? I like that kind of talk. And it's not just apostolic rhetoric. It's not just a kind of fanciful coining of words. Every single syllable of the word holy, of the word calling, of the word heavenly is fully intentioned by God. And we need to receive that into our deepest consciousness. We have a heavenly calling, holy brethren, to be apostolic and to be priestly. And for that, we're going to receive heavenly assistance. So I could take you on an excursion through Hebrews just to develop that a bit. And I'm just concerned about the time, about entering the rest of God. Chapter 4, verse 3, For we who have believed enter that rest. There's a whole discussion here about the failure of Israel to enter the rest of God because of their disobedience and because of their unbelief. But we are enjoined and warned by their failure, ourselves, to enter by faith into the rest that God has promised to the people of God. So verse 9 says, So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. And that's why the pastor had to say tonight, I don't know what these three weeks are going to be. I've been touched by this evident waiting on God, coming up weak and not laden with notes and feeling your way through by the presence of God for the thing that he wants delivered. To enter that rest, it's an ironic thing, but I can say with certitude and with authority that the tumultuous conditions that the church will face at the end of the age where our acts will be as significant as was the book of Acts that described the church in its inception, our acts in the conclusion will be every bit as fraught with significance as it was at the beginning, if not more so. And yet as hectic and tumultuous as that action is going to be, it needs to flow out of the rest of God, not out of our anxiety, not out of our apprehensiveness or nervousness, or what should we do, or should we be doing, or we have an obligation, but out, it's a paradox, it's an apostolic paradox that out of the rest of God alone and only will come the most potent and dynamic apostolic acts at the conclusion of the age. So entering the rest in which Israel failed is an enormous mandate that is before us. Or else we come unglued. Or else we're jerked by every kind of cause, every kind of seeming good thing in which we ought to participate. But to be able to rest and to be moved only by the Spirit of God in his time and for his purpose is the place where a whole church must come. For whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. Let us therefore, in verse 11, strive to enter that rest in that remarkable play on words. Somehow it's not going to come by itself. That kind of rest is not just leaning back in some kind of passivity. There's an apostolic fervency and a passion of concern to come into it or else we'll not obtain it. And verse 14, since then we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses and so on, but who is tempted in every way yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And I would do flip-flops. I don't know what I would do right now. Turn myself inside out. If I could convince you that that is not some kind of formula, that that's not kind of a sleepy incantation, that's not just a familiar verse that we've heard, but it's a prescription for life-and-death necessity in ultimate moments of extremity to find grace to help in time of need. Where am I going to find it when I walk the five flights up to that brother's door on December 14th and 15th and knock and open and have a word for him and counsel and wisdom and direction that involves this man's life and the congregation that is joined with him, where the issues of life and death are actually at stake, where men can disappear and not be seen again, where they can be thrown into a dungeon and be lost, or be beaten or what? What kind of wisdom? How shall I prepare? What shall I say? And how shall we receive it? If you feel that you have a problem, how do we walk out these 12 weeks? What shall he think in terms of the radical things that God might have to say, living on the razor's edge as they do? We need to be able to draw near the throne of grace, that we might receive mercy, because if we don't receive it, how shall we obtain it from us and find grace to help in time of need? And these times will be increased and become more radically urgent as we go on. So if we don't know how to enter, if we don't know how to draw near, if we don't have a faith that enters and a faith that can draw near and into the heavenly place, if this for us is just a kind of palaver, a rhetoric, an empty kind of talk that is not for us a specific key that can be actualized, and there's an actual entry by faith, we're not going to find help. So there's so many words about confidence, about assurance, in verse 11 of chapter 6, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Our problem is that we've heard so much that we've not heard. Our problem is that these words have become so familiar that their value has been lost to us, that there's something actual to be inherited, that there's something to be endured unto the end, that there's a holding fast, there's having a full assurance that God really means, but for us has been only, what shall I say, ceremonial, sermonizing words rather than an injunction that spurs us to believe for that in reality. Verse 17 talks about the promise, the heirs of promise, and verse 19, we have thus this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Here's where we freak out. Here's where we flip out. Here's where it becomes so abstract, so obtuse, the references seem so remote that we drift away. I hope that's not happening to you tonight because before this night is over, I'm going to put before you a charge and a challenge to actually enter into a place that has been prepared for us beforehand by a high priest who has gone before and who has made a way of entry through his own blood and by the rending of the veil, by the tearing of his own flesh, once and for all. Does that mean us? And that this place is the place of faith, that it is the place out of which God would have his end-time saints to live and move and have their being. It is the place of apostolic authority. It is the place from which we will draw our inspiration and find grace to help in time of need. But it's a place in the heavenlies and yet we have a heavenly calling and yet we're told that we can enter by faith, that we can have a confidence in this hope and an assurance until the end. Either God is playing a game with us and is just verbalizing and titillating us with abstract terminology or he is meaning something so actual and so obtainable only by faith that if we verbalize this away, we have lost the key to the fulfillment of the apostolic imperative. Namely, to move and live and have our being out of that heavenly place by faith within the veil. It's a hope that enters into the inner place. So do you have a faith that takes hold? Do you have a faith that's confident? Do you have a hope that can enter? They did not enter the rest. When God says enter, he means something very actual. It's not just an illusion. It's not a metaphor. It's not just a suggestion. He's talking about a concrete, actual entry in a spiritual place by faith. And the issue for us tonight is have we moved from faith to faith by the ministries that have come to us, by the five-fold ministries, through the word, through our obedience to God and the things that he's shown us and our walk thus far, that we can actually enter by that faith into the place that God has prepared for us and, in fact, in which he bids us enter, as Jesus himself did by virtue of his own blood and by the rending of the veil through the piercing of his own flesh. And he entered as the Melchizedek High Priest, a new priesthood, a change. The Aaronic Order was abolished when that veil was rent in the crucifixion of Jesus. It was not just God just drawing something to the attention of a religious system that had a poet and crucified the one whom he sent, but he was marking an end, finish, to a whole ecclesiastical and political thing that had moved so far from God as to fail to recognize him whom he had sent and had crucified him. But in the moment that he had given up the ghost, the veil was rent from top to bottom. It was God's work. And it was the veil that had covered the holiest place of all, behind which only the High Priest was allowed in but once a year, and that was the blood of calves and bulls. And when that veil was rent, God was saying, that priesthood is finished. That blood is no longer valid with the shedding of this blood and with the rending of this flesh. Another veil has been parted of which the earthly type is finished for it was only a shadow ever and to begin with, to point to the one that is eternal and in the heavens and which this one whom you have crucified is now going to enter, not with the blood of calves and bulls, but with his own blood as a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek forever, once and for all. My God! If God is not speaking by his Spirit, if these are just words, if this is not finding a place in our spirit, if we're not laying hold of this, we're missing, I don't have a word to describe what we're missing, we're missing the consummation. If we're just majoring on the atonement for forgiveness of sins and think that that's the whole of what was served in the crucifixion of Jesus and the shedding of his blood and his ascension on high, we're missing the most powerful and eternal continuing thing that has been made available to us who believe and who can enter that reality by faith. There's no other way to fulfill the apostolic imperative except from that place. You're doomed to frustration and to defeat and maybe even to the rejection of the faith that you say cannot work, that God has put before us, apostolic charge and mandate of the most radical kind and when we sought to walk it out, we collapsed and we failed because we didn't walk it out from the place from which God alone intended that we should, from within the veil, from the holiest place of all, from the holiest of holy, from the mercy seat, from between the wings of the cherubim, from where his shechina, glory and presence is. Guys, I'm not a whooping. If you believe me for ten weeks, believe me tonight, I'm almost willing to forsake the ten previous weeks if you but believe this. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I want to see your incredulity dissipate away, like your eyes begin to get more intense, like, hey, is God really meaning this? That this is not metaphor, this is not some just liberal use of words, that there's an actual heavenly place that I might enter in the realm of spirit by faith which is the locus and source of my life, my animation, my energy, my wisdom, my instruction, my power, even while I'm yet on the earth? Yes, there is. I just finished an assignment for one of my classes and blew the lid off. I was low man on the totem pole. I didn't have the advantages of Greek and Hebrew and had to sit there with very bright seminarians whose Hebrew was better than mine, being Jewish. And remarkable word studies week after week of such an esoteric kind where every nuance was weighed and calculated. And so finally I had to give my piece on the final week of that class, and my assignment was a critique and an examination of the speech of Stephen that culminated in his martyrdom. And I relished the opportunity, not because I have the tools to do an analytical word study, but I wanted to probe by the Spirit of God, why is it that this historic recitation, you're all familiar with Acts 7, where he reviews from Abraham the whole history of Israel going into Egypt and Joseph and so on. And then at a certain point he breaks off and he says, as your father did so do you also. You do always grieve the Holy Spirit. And at a certain statement, at a certain moment, they rush upon him. They put their fingers in their ears. They couldn't hear it. They didn't hear it when he said, oh, he said I see the heavens opened. And Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. And when they heard that, they fell into such a rage and fury and fell upon him and dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death. And I never understood why, with that statement, men should be moved to such a fury until now. And I'll tell you why. Because the powers of the air that had ruled through a corrupt priesthood to jerk and to manipulate a whole nation through the corruption of men who were self-seeking and found it necessary that one man should die for the nation that is to say for their system were in a certain moment brought to realize that the one whom they crucified and saw as the greatest threat to their religious and political power had now gone from the grave up into the heavens and was at the right hand of the Father in the high priestly place which in one fell swoop forever marked a termination to their corrupt earthly priestly rule. And when they heard that they rushed upon him and could not bear to hear the revelation of Jesus in the heavenly place. The powers were moved to a fury and reacted in their characteristic violence because they knew that their cause was lost and their priesthood and their corrupt rule through it was terminated for a new priesthood had been initiated through the blood of Jesus and through that eternal sacrifice Melchizedek, high priestliness that would be forever thou art a priest forever it says in Psalm 110 after the order of Melchizedek which means for us a better hope through which we draw near to God in verse 18 the Lord has sworn it says and will not change his mind thou art a priest forever and this makes Jesus the surety of a better covenant so in verse 25 consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them for it was fitting that we should have such a high priest holy, blameless unstained, separate from sinners exalted above the heavens he has no need like those high priest to offer sacrifices daily. He has no need. I could almost stop right there he's a heavenly priest, he has no need it says in another place if he were on the earth he would not be a priest at all and I'm saying these things not only to note the distinction of Jesus but to denote our distinction because if we are in him if we are if he has brought many sons to glory and that he has attained his priestly role by virtue of his sonship, what does that mean for us? That we have entered into that heavenly place through him and with him also in the character of this Melchizedek priesthood. So we have it says in chapter 8 the first verse such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord and then it goes on to say in verse 4 now if you are on earth you would not be a priest at all and yet is that to say that that heavenly priestliness has no consequence for the earth it has every consequence and significance in chapter 9 verse 11 but when Christ appears a high priest of the good things to come then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is not of this creation he entered once and for all into the holy place not taking the blood of goats and calves but his own blood he entered once and for all. You say that's Jesus what right have I to enter and yet the scripture says enter and find help in time of need how can I enter I don't have the qualifications of Jesus I'm not that blameless and unstained and separated from sinners but God did you enter not on the basis of your own virtue or even your own track record or qualification but on the basis of his shed blood he entered once and for all and one of the questions that's before us tonight is do we have the faith to believe in the value of that blood as the father esteems it because that blood was so precious in the father's sight it made an entry once and for all into the holiest place of all in the heavens behind the veil and we are invited to enter also not on the basis of our virtue but on the basis of his blood. You see how the blood has an application and meaning beyond the issue of atonement that few saints have seen or understood chapter 10 verse 19 therefore brethren since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus not our own virtue by the new and living way which he opened for us through the veil that is through his flesh and since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful can you enter on the basis of that promise on the basis of that invitation on the basis of that blood which opened the way for us a new and living way and if I took a poll tonight to ask us how many of us feel that our life now is essentially being lived from that place that your decisions, your inspiration your leadings, your strength your encouragement, your boldness your spirituality, your discernment your sensitivity your knowledge of and the love of God stems from that place how many of us would be able to say yes that's where I essentially and consistently live my life and draw my inspiration in Exodus 25 where the picture of the tabernacle that was given Moses on the mount which is the shadow of the heavenly one speaks about the holiest place of all and in it, in the holiest place is only one piece of architecture it's the mercy seat there's no lamp, there's no candelabra there's no seven armed candelabra as is to be found in the court that precedes it there's only one thing and it's covered it's not like the outer court that was open to the sunlight where you could see even naturally and discern certain things pertaining to sacrifice and the issues of atonement, that was basic stuff as you entered into the court compound you could see the brazen altar and the place of washing and you could see by the light that was natural even the issues pertaining to salvation but the issue is how many believers have never gone beyond that place are still fixed in the outer court, they're outer court Christians who only know the issue of salvation and that's what they talk about, they never go beyond salvation and they have no effectual consequence for the church or for God in their generation and in the world, they're still fixated at the issue of salvation, fundamentalists to a great degree are described by that but there's another court beyond that's called the holy place and there there was an incense burning which is a picture of the Holy Spirit and the table of showbread and the seven branched menorah to give a new kind of light because now you're inside and you're cut off from the natural light but you had the light that was burning to show you the issues of the kingdom and the issues of the body of Christ, the issues of the church and the incense altar was a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which you entered through that veil and how many charismatics are fixed there and never go beyond and the whole issue for them is incense, is worship, is praises choruses, satisfied with the terminology of the body of Christ and the issues of church government as if that's the ultimate end and if we got that straight we got the whole thing and not realizing there's yet one more court there's yet one more court and it's the holiest place of all and there only one could enter in the year a high priest for the other places there was much scurrying of priestly activity, daily but in the holiest place of all only the high priest and that was blood of a blemishless sacrifice taken into the holiest place of all behind the veil no illumination no candle burning and yet the place was ablaze with the most brilliant light and illumination from what source? From the presence of God himself who is to be found between the wings of the cherubim and by the mercy seat because he said to Moses and there I will meet with you above the place of mercy and between the wings of the cherubim I will meet with you and I will give you all that pertains in command to the children of Israel. You know what I want to say tonight? That's still God's prescription. How do we fulfill the apostolic imperative? How do we find the stratagems? What do we do? There's only one place where we're going to find it. It's going to be where he will meet with us. Behind the veil in the holiest place of all in the place of his presence in the place of his shekinah glory for those who have entered in by faith by the blood of Jesus once and for all and who consciously live there consciously have their being there consciously wait on God there are not distracted by jarring invisible things wait for the presence of God wait for the inspiration meet him there there I will meet with you. I want to say the apostolic imperative okay what's the apostolic fulfillment? Fellowship with God in the holiest place of all communion with him there I will meet with you it's not that we just get together and I give you a few things that you can say and do but out of union out of loving fellowship out of intimacy in the holiest place of all where my presence is I will meet with you and I will give you all. That's the difference between the demonstrations of power that will be the marks of false apostles and false prophets and false miracles and lying signs and wonders all kinds of demonstrations by those who do not know him depart from me you workers of iniquity for I never knew you didn't we do great things in your name? but I never knew you what you did was by the employment of my name or by a more yet devious source but it did not flow out of the union with me out of communion out of the knowledge of me in the intimate place behind the veil in the holiest place of all guys God didn't give us a mandate that we were going to fulfill outside of him he is the high priest and the apostle of our confession he's entered a very precious and heavenly place and he wants his church to have his whole life its conduct its acts emanate from that place and he's entered before us once and for all don't let a spiritual inferiority complex keep you out that you don't that you're not qualified God is not looking at your qualification he's looking only at his son's blood therefore don't throw away your confidence he who is promised is faithful let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering so I want to say tonight that there needs to be a new apprehension of the greatness of Christ a new understanding of the fullness of what was worth in his death and the shedding of his blood it needs to come to us as an inward revelation and something that needs to be held in our deepest consciousness that this is not some fanciful illusion but something glorious that God has made available for the saints and this is the kind of thing that will save us from our hang ups from our self consciousness its deliverance from everything in us that has been sickly in which we have looked to ourselves looked to our failures when you come into that presence when the high priest comes in he doesn't come in with the consciousness of himself he's melted in the consciousness of him before whom he stands there's a place for us that is so remarkable for those who can enter by faith there I will meet with you and give you all exodus the 25th chapter yet I want to say that I'm not describing some clinical thing or a technique or a method of how to do it this is for lovers this is for those who come into his presence this is meeting God intimately in the only place where he can be met in the holiest place this is devotional and I want to say just a word about devotion in conclusion because God is really dealing with me in this very area where I was deceived the Lord has shown me and where I thought that my zeal for his kingdom or my zeal for his purposes is tantamount to or the same as a love for and a devotion for him it's not you can be carried away by a religious zeal and have very little to do with the person of Jesus himself in fact what the Lord showed me was that in a way much more deeply than I recognized I was yet so inherently Jewish that there was something monotheistic in my soul that was repelling the son of God as being a kind of Johnny come lately I was acknowledging him technically but I was not making a place for him devotionally as the very incarnation of God in his humanity that was the basis for union and for relationship and I was conveying in my own household an abstract God a God of requirement or an ethical God but not the palpitating living God in his humaneness and my own humanity I've been majoring in the gospel since that time in these very weeks drawing close to the son of God coming to know him sensing his person this is a call for not clinical detachment this is not another methodology of panacea a key of how to do it the whole thing is predicated on union and fellowship and the intimate knowledge of him there I will meet with you and give you all that pertains to the sons of Israel so just to read a few things from a precious word on devotion which is described by this writer as the blending of vehement passionate zeal with love of abandonment and worship and adoration devotion to Christ is the basis upon which end time privileges are bestowed it's to these that God will grant power and authority in a way because they can be trusted because he knows them because it's not going to be abused or misused because this is to lovers who are jealous of his glory and for his honor there are things that are reserved for those who love him that will never be shown let alone given to those who barge in and think that by a formula or a technique or a method that they're going to have a key to the kingdom devotion means sacrifice consecration that is not cold and legal it's not the abandonment that comes through pressure or the yieldedness that follows severe chastening we've all experienced that but that does not in itself constitute devotion devotion is glad joyous delight in the will of God be it pain or pressure humbling or exulting it is the wealth of heart love poured out at the master's feet devotion to Christ is the basis upon which end time privilege is bestowed because God's nature is to give those who have moved him by the ardent quality of their love and their devotion so God has offered us a place by which we can fellowship with him in that way and it needs to come into our faith into our consciousness we need to see ourselves in that place entering it by faith, remaining there abiding, holding fast, being steadfast, confident, unwavering do you believe that? that there's a place it's the place where he will meet with us and there I will give you things that pertain to the sons of Israel, to the church commandments inspiration, encouragement strength that we might fulfill the apostolic imperative I want to end by giving you an invitation tonight to actually enter to enter by faith I remember how God showed us in the community a few years ago this critical thing I was listening to some brother's tapes in bed I had the tape recorder on my chest and my bible in my hand and I was clicking on and off watching the scriptures as he was going through it and something was building in my spirit. I had lived a Christian life of extraordinary zeal and intensity and I would go for God where angels fear to tread and yet I knew that it was a critical area in which something was missing in my life and my relationship with the Lord and this brother was speaking about entering behind the veil into the holiest place of all and at a certain point I just kind of clicked off the tape recorder and closed my bible and I said this is by the blood of Jesus. I thought in some Jewish way it had to be with my qualification I thought it had to wait until I reached a certain pinnacle of maturity. A certain track record of accomplishment that I would then be granted the honor that the Lord says enter. Enter freely he bids us enter because one has gone before us who has entered once and for all on the basis of his blood and I just prayed a little prayer. I said Lord on the basis of the blood of Jesus and what you say in your word I want to enter that place of rest. I want to come into that holy place. I want to live my life and serve you out of that place in Jesus name. Just a small click and a certain peace followed and I came that next morning to our community prayer meeting I could hardly contain myself and I shared that with our fellowship and I think like the spirit of God just swept us. We all stood and prayed I enter. Hold fast the concession of your faith. You know what I had them do? I had them confess I am entering behind the veil into the holiest place of all by the blood of Jesus and by the veil that was rent by his flesh and people entered and I want God wants to give us an opportunity tonight to enter I want you to take inventory of your faith and enter by faith this is not a metaphor, this is not a play on words God is wanting an actual entry and it's available tonight and it's only out of that place you're going to fulfill God's precious requirement and make his glory known so precious God I just thank you Jesus. Thank you my God for how far you'll go in order to obtain this how far you're going with me and so allowing my life to be moved upon in such a way as to threaten marriage and to and you're doing this with many, you're shaking families, you're shaking ministries you're shaking men and women whose marriages have been idolatrous whose eyes have not been filled fully upon you who have not been into that quality of devotion in their relationship with you and yet have used the word Lord Lord, you'll go that far to bring us into that place that devotion, that love that intimacy. Look upon us tonight Lord and even allow the word that has come as a word sent given to create faith, to believe that indeed there's a new way that has been opened to us that we don't have to live our life outside of that holiest place out of a mere mechanical and religious determination to be good or do good you put so much more before us in these days than we could than we could ever fulfill out of religious intention only from that place there where you will meet with us and so I ask you to hear my God and to receive into that place everyone tonight who desires it and who will enter it by faith confessing that by the blood of Jesus I enter in once and for all to the holiest place of all and there to abide, there to dwell, there to remain, there to live and have my being, there to meet with you, there to receive instruction encouragement, strength all that's needed to be an apostolic people this is your heart and this is your faith I just ask you to follow me in simple words Heavenly Father in Jesus holy name I believe your word I believe your provision you have not called us to apostolic challenge without providing an apostolic fulfillment, out of your power from the place of your presence the holiest place of all from within the veil in the heavenly sanctuary and right now in Jesus name by the power of his blood and not my own virtue I enter into that place and before your presence that you might meet with me there, continually help me to be ever conscious of living from that place, the place of rest that you have prepared for those who love you thank you Jesus just let's enjoy the Lord for a moment, just quietly dispense a peace that has come into your spirit hallelujah God hasn't called us to anxiety and breaking our heads and learning faith as a technique and a method he's called us to a relationship to a devotion to a God who is lovely who has done so much for us as even to invite us to grow with him in his high priestly place thank you Lord, we love you for that tonight Jesus and Lord from that place we intend to become fathers mothers, husbands and wives servants of the most high God there we intend to receive our wisdom and our instruction there we believe to receive our strength all that is needful out of your presence thank you Lord for this holy invitation we love you we meet you there Jesus, teach us to dwell to wait upon your presence there thank you for the rest for the peace, may your great acts at the conclusion of the age my God, issue from that place to you be all praise and glory and honor we love you Lord and we thank you
Apostolic Foundations (11 of 12)
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

Arthur "Art" Katz (1929 - 2007). American preacher, author, and founder of Ben Israel Fellowship, born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. Raised amid the Depression, he adopted Marxism and atheism, serving in the Merchant Marines and Army before earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from UCLA and UC Berkeley, and an M.A. in theology from Luther Seminary. Teaching high school in Oakland, he took a 1963 sabbatical, hitchhiking across Europe and the Middle East, where Christian encounters led to his conversion, recounted in Ben Israel: Odyssey of a Modern Jew (1970). In 1975, he founded Ben Israel Fellowship in Laporte, Minnesota, hosting a summer “prophet school” for communal discipleship. Katz wrote books like Apostolic Foundations and preached worldwide for nearly four decades, stressing the Cross, Israel’s role, and prophetic Christianity. Married to Inger, met in Denmark in 1963, they had three children. His bold teachings challenged shallow faith, earning him a spot on Kathryn Kuhlman’s I Believe in Miracles. Despite polarizing views, including on Jewish history, his influence endures through online sermons. He ministered until his final years, leaving a legacy of radical faith.