David Reagan - Revised Marty Goetz Program
When the Six Day War occurred in 1967 there was not one Messianic Jewish congregation on planet earth. Today, there are more than 500, with more than 100 in Israel. It is obvious that God is pouring out his Spirit upon the Jewish people, and their eyes are opening to the reality that Jesus is their Messiah. For an introduction to the life and music of one of the foremost Messianic musicians, stay tuned.
David Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our blessed hope! And welcome to Christ in Prophecy. In Joel chapter 2 is it prophesied that in the end times the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all peoples, male and female, young and old, Jew and Gentile. And it further prophesies that this will occur after the Jews are re-established in their homeland.
The nation of Israel was reestablished in May of 1948 and since that time we have been experiencing a great end time anointing of God’s Spirit. It has been manifested in many ways such as the preaching of the Gospel all over the world. The revival of Davidic praise worship, the understanding of Bible prophecy, and the opening of the eyes of the Jewish people to the truth that Yeshua, Jesus, is their Messiah.
The Bible says a great remnant of the Jews will be saved at the end of the tribulation period, by what is happening today is that God is saving the first fruits of that remnant by opening the hearts of many Jewish people to Yeshua as their Messiah.
One of those is a very, anointed Jewish musician by the name of Marty Goetz. Marty is known as a modern day psalmist. That’s because most of his songs use the words of the Psalms. In fact, he calls King David is “musical collaborator.”
I first heard Marty about two years ago at a messianic congregation in the Dallas, Texas area. He immediately won my heart because he is not a performer rather, he is a worshiper. And as he worships with passion, he draws the audience into worshiping with him. Let me show you an example. Here is Marty singing one of his best known songs O Lord, Our Lord. The setting is a Messianic congregation in Toronto, Canada.
I think you understand now what I meant by when I said that Marty is a worshiper and a modern day psalmist. He is obviously a very gifted song writer, pianist, and singer. He also has a very interesting and inspiring testimony about how he came to know the Lord Jesus as Yeshua, his Messiah. Here is his testimony in his own words, woven together with two songs.
Marty Goetz: Many years ago, I was trying for fame and fortune in New York City with my partner Burt Lloyd, from Altoona, Pennsylvania, he was a Methodist. I of course a Jewish boy from Cleveland Ohio as I mentioned before. My folks, Albert and Florence Goetz raised me to be a good Jewish person and to appreciate my heritage and I really do. My grandparents on one side were from Poland, the other side from Russia. Who knew? I thought one day I’d make them all proud. I was a pretty smart guy, good grades in school, they looked at me, and they thought one day they might be able to say, especially my mother, “My son the doctor, my son the lawyer.” They weren’t prepared for “My son, the gospel singer.” But bless their hearts, that’s what they got, so you might pray for them. I’ll tell you a little story.
Prince of Peace
Grandpa studied Torah
From the time he was a boy
And until the day he passed away
It was his highest joy
And sometimes I think about what Grandpa would have said
Had he heard how I interpreted these Words?
I’m sure he read
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given.
And the increase of His peace shall have no end
And His name is Wonderful,
Counselor, Almighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
As a young man
I would meet some people who would claim
The Prince of Peace already came, Yeshua was His name
But that is not what I’d been taught
I thought “How could that be?”
‘Til one day by grace
He found a place for His peace to reign in me
Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given
And the increase of His peace shall have no end
And His name is Wonderful,
Counselor, Almighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
What He has spoken
He has done
When the fullness of the time had come
A virgin girl brought forth a Son called Emmanuel
He’s with us now as He was then
Bringing peace on earth good will to men
For Unto us in Bethlehem has come a King
Who will come again
Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given
And the increase of His peace shall have no end
And His name is Wonderful, Counselor,
Almighty God, Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father,
Prince the Prince of Peace.
From the time he was a boy
And until the day he passed away
It was his highest joy
And sometimes I think about what Grandpa would have said
Had he heard how I interpreted these Words?
I’m sure he read
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given.
And the increase of His peace shall have no end
And His name is Wonderful,
Counselor, Almighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
As a young man
I would meet some people who would claim
The Prince of Peace already came, Yeshua was His name
But that is not what I’d been taught
I thought “How could that be?”
‘Til one day by grace
He found a place for His peace to reign in me
Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given
And the increase of His peace shall have no end
And His name is Wonderful,
Counselor, Almighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
What He has spoken
He has done
When the fullness of the time had come
A virgin girl brought forth a Son called Emmanuel
He’s with us now as He was then
Bringing peace on earth good will to men
For Unto us in Bethlehem has come a King
Who will come again
Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given
And the increase of His peace shall have no end
And His name is Wonderful, Counselor,
Almighty God, Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father,
Prince the Prince of Peace.
Marty Goetz: Well, I told you about my partner, Burt, and I didn’t finish the story quite. We had this act that we, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard it, but we used to work in a place called the Borscht Belt. Do you know what the Borscht Belt is? Do you know what Borscht is? It’s a beet soup, it’s very nice, put a little sour cream on it. But it’s the area in New York where a lot of the Jewish comics and singers got their start, and some of them got their finish there. You don’t know when you go there which one you are. But Burt and I, I went to college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a place called Carnegie-Mellon after I left Cleveland, Ohio, and there I might this fellow Burt. And he also did some work with a fellow named Mr. Rogers, have you ever heard of Mr. Rogers here? He did some work with Mr. Rogers, because we met Mr. Rogers through a fellow named Don Brockett, who was Chef Brockett on Mr. Rogers. And I don’t know if you were watching when I was on but I played Smoky Bear on Mr. Rodgers once, maybe you recognize me, I don’t know.
But I was following Burt around because as I said, he was a nice, religious boy. But when he became born-again he became intolerable.
So, what has been called the “bummer in the borscht belt” which is a bunch of hotels that we used to play. And we got all around there and played everywhere up there. And we thought we were gonna be together forever, but then when this happened, I just had to get away from him because he had friends that were talking to me about this Jesus. And I used to tell them I’m Jewish I don’t believe in Jesus. I really couldn’t tell them why, but I knew I didn’t. So his friends would follow me around, I said, this is ridiculous, so I broke up the act, and I went and I played in piano bars. Like you know, saloons, and things like that, and his friends would come in after church and they would sit in the piano bar, they’d listen to me play, they’d order one coke and five straws and have a great old time. And after I’d finish they’d all come up to me and say, “We’re praying for you, God has a perfect wonderful plan for your life.” And I said “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” And it got too much so I said, I gotta get away from these crazy people, I gotta go somewhere where people are normal, people are not nuts like this. Meshugeneh, is the word for it, a little crazy, it’s a Yiddish word.
And so I went as far away as I could get to a sane place. I moved to California. And there, one of Burt’s friends had already moved out there and one day she said, “Would you like to go to the beach?” And I said, “That would be nice.” She said, “There’s some people gathered there at the beach, I’d like to take you there.” So I went to the beach. Well, I went there and there just happened to be a guy named Hal Lindsey there preaching on the beach. You’ve heard of him, I could tell. And he was preaching. He wrote a book called the Late Great Planet Earth, and he’s preaching on the beach, and I listened to it, and what I didn’t tell anybody was I had been reading the Bible. It was one of those little tiny Bibles the “O ye of little faith” Bibles that you can tuck in your pocket there. Because these people, even though I was very angry about what they were telling me, they did provoke me. They did get me thinking. And I thought, “I’m gonna read this Bible, I’m gonna find out for myself.” So I had been reading about Jesus, about what I found out later, He had a Hebrew name, Yeshua. His name actually means salvation. And of course, we had heard of Jesus Christ because Mr. and Mrs. Christ had a little boy named Jesus, you remember that story. But we found out that that’s his title that’s not his name at all. His name is Mashiach, his title is Mashiach, Messiah. So, I found this out later, but there on the beach I was just listening to all these people. And I was like this “This is very nice for them but I’m not gonna believe it even if I believe this stuff I’m not gonna believe like they do, because I don’t wanna be one of those born-again people. So I’m gonna sit here and I’m enjoy the music, enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the beach, and whatever.”
But he brought up a guy at the end and this guy did something called communion, and when he took the bread for the communion, he said “Baruch atah adonai, eloheynu melech ha-olam, boray, p’ri ha-adamah.” And I thought “Oy” Which being interpreted is, Oy. And then he did the wine, he said the words, “Baruch atah adonai, eloheynu melech ha-olam, borai p’ri hagafen”, who creates the fruit of the vine.” And I thought “Oy Vey!” which being interpreted is, “Get me outta here!” basically.
And so after that was over and I was thoroughly confused, they took me to this place, this place called, it’s called the Vineyard Christian fellowship. And it had a fellow there named Ken Gullikson, and he came from a place called Calvary Chapel, which had a rabbi named Chuck Smith. We used to say ‘Huck Smith, basically, and he wasn’t a rabbi he was a pastor. But this fellow Ken had rosy red cheeks, blonde hair, blue eyes, Gullikson. And I thought immediately I walked into this place where they took me and I thought, “He’s not Jewish” but he preached this message, and I don’t remember really even what he said, tell you the truth, but something stirred in my heart, something got to my kishkes. That means my guts.
And all these things that I had been reading about Jesus being a son of Abraham, a son of David, how He celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, and He celebrated Passover, pesach. He actually, he was a better Jew than I was, that was the problem. So I thought, I can’t reject him on the basis of not being Jewish, so I listened to this message and at the end something moved upon me. I’ve come to learn now it was the ruach ha-kodesh, the Holy Spirit. I found myself walking forward. They gave me a Bible. I confessed that I was a sinner, and they said congratulations, you’re born again! To which I said, “Oy-double-vey!” Which being interpreted is, “I can never go home and tell my family about this.” Well I eventually did and I told my family about it. And some of the words you’re gonna hear in this next song are their response to what I said. And when I sing this song, I hope no one will be offended by it, or put off by it. It sounds like I might be making fun of my heritage, but I’m not, I’m having fun with it. Because the truth is, my heritage, I found out, as a Jewish person, is to bring the message of Yeshua. And I found out that being born again is a very Jewish thing to do. They actually call it being born from above, or being born anew. So we’re gonna sing a little song here, you might recognize some of the rituals that we’re talking about, and I hope you’ll enjoy hearing it and I hope you’ll understand what we’re trying to covey to you.
A Jew Born Anew
I had a Bar Mitzvah when I was thirteen
Greatest Bar Mitzvah that you’ve ever seen.
The temple on the corner of Mayfield and Lee
Was filled with my friends and my family
All of them as proud can be,
With catering far as the eye could see,
Complete with a chopped liver statue of me.
Now they ask me how I can go so wrong
And why all of a sudden I’m singing this song,
They say “Son you’re deserting your fathers of old,
So why don’t you just come back to the fold,
You’re such a nice boy or weren’t you told
That when you were born they broke the mold
So whaddya need with this stuff ya been sold?”
But it’s a far, far better thing that I do,
Than I have ever done,
When I believed what they said was true
That Yeshua is God’s only son
Well I’ve done many things and I don’t do a few
But this one thing I do makes Me a Jew Born Anew,
Yes, through and through I’m a Jew Born Anew
So Hallelujah to Yeshua from a Jew, who never knew ya,
Could come to die for a schmo like I was,
Just so I could win the prize and be with my Messiah in the skies!
They say on Bar Mitzvah day I became a man,
I’ve tried to live that way, done the best that I can
But I’ve been worried since way back when
‘Cause I’ve never done anything great since then,
And though I could live ’til a hundred and ten
And never have need of a fountain pen,
I might never succeed in the sight of men,
And they won’t let me get Bar Mitzvah again!
But it’s a far, far better thing that I do,
Than I have ever done,
When I believed what they said was true
That Yeshua is God’s only Son
Well I’ve done many things
And I don’t do a few
But this one thing I do makes Me a Jew Born Anew,
Yes, through and through
I’m a Jew Born Anew
So Hallelujah to Yeshua
From a Jew who never knew ya’,
Could come to die for a real schlemiel
When I couldn’t tell you were the long awaited Holy One of Israel!
Greatest Bar Mitzvah that you’ve ever seen.
The temple on the corner of Mayfield and Lee
Was filled with my friends and my family
All of them as proud can be,
With catering far as the eye could see,
Complete with a chopped liver statue of me.
Now they ask me how I can go so wrong
And why all of a sudden I’m singing this song,
They say “Son you’re deserting your fathers of old,
So why don’t you just come back to the fold,
You’re such a nice boy or weren’t you told
That when you were born they broke the mold
So whaddya need with this stuff ya been sold?”
But it’s a far, far better thing that I do,
Than I have ever done,
When I believed what they said was true
That Yeshua is God’s only son
Well I’ve done many things and I don’t do a few
But this one thing I do makes Me a Jew Born Anew,
Yes, through and through I’m a Jew Born Anew
So Hallelujah to Yeshua from a Jew, who never knew ya,
Could come to die for a schmo like I was,
Just so I could win the prize and be with my Messiah in the skies!
They say on Bar Mitzvah day I became a man,
I’ve tried to live that way, done the best that I can
But I’ve been worried since way back when
‘Cause I’ve never done anything great since then,
And though I could live ’til a hundred and ten
And never have need of a fountain pen,
I might never succeed in the sight of men,
And they won’t let me get Bar Mitzvah again!
But it’s a far, far better thing that I do,
Than I have ever done,
When I believed what they said was true
That Yeshua is God’s only Son
Well I’ve done many things
And I don’t do a few
But this one thing I do makes Me a Jew Born Anew,
Yes, through and through
I’m a Jew Born Anew
So Hallelujah to Yeshua
From a Jew who never knew ya’,
Could come to die for a real schlemiel
When I couldn’t tell you were the long awaited Holy One of Israel!
David Reagan: Can there be any doubt that God is working wondrously among the Jewish people? Can there be any doubt that this is just one of the many signs that we are truly living in the end times? I want to conclude by expressing my appreciation to Marty Goetz and his wife, Jennifer, for allowing us to use video clips from their marvelous DVD album called “Marty Goetz Live in Concert.”
Well, that’s our program for this week. Until next week at this same time, the Lord willing, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb and Lion Ministries saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near!”