What we don't seem to realize is - the Church and Israel are mirror images of each other - all that happened to Israel in the natural, has happened to the Church spiritually. Israel represents God's dealings with mankind in the natural realm, after the flesh, while the Church represents God's dealings with mankind in the spirit realm, after the spirit - which is why He declares of them "He hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace", for the destiny of Israel and the destiny of the Church are one and the same, forever intertwined, with both together making up His bride - and we see that they are indeed reflected in each other, so much so that we see that as Israel was taken away out of her promised land and led into captivity in Babylon (except for a small remnant) so has the Church spiritually been brought into captivity to the spirit of Babylon (except for a small remnant). We all agree - Jesus came to save the lost, but when gentiles hear this they arrogantly assume He meant He came to save them, when Jesus Himself said "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (MT:15:24). Even when He sent forth His Apostles he commanded them - "Go not in the way of the gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel".
Now we know through Paul that the gospel of the Christ is to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We know God has always had it in His heart to save gentiles by inviting them into the house of Israel - to become spiritual Jews alongside natural Jews but for this discussion I wish to point out this fact - Israel, His people, "The people of the Book", from Genesis onward, were lost, lost sheep, and Jesus' first priority was His brethren after the flesh - the ones He entrusted with His sacred, holy Word and the ones He chose to become a part of when He was born of the flesh. Yes, His very people had become totally lost, estranged from Him - and so it is today. Today, His people after his Spirit, born of His Spirit, primarily gentiles, have become as lost to God as Israel was when Jesus first appeared. They've been lost to a religion called "Christianity" as surely as the Jews were lost to a religion called "Judaism". Just as the religious leaders of Jesus' day, the Pharisees, used the Word of God and knew His name, so do "Christian" leaders of today use His Word and His name - both then and now "they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch". If you choose to follow Christ you must take His advice to "let them alone" (MT:15:14)
In His day, Jesus' disciples were concerned about the religious leaders of their world - they did not want to offend them. They were concerned because Jesus didn't seem to care at all that He was offending them - Jesus' disciples came to Him saying "knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended?", after they'd heard what Jesus said. The Pharisees teachings were far from what God intended the scriptures to mean. The Pharisees had not the "wisdom that is from above", which is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy". No, of the Pharisees, Jesus said "do not ye after their works: for they say and do not". Our churches today are full of leaders who "say and do not", who teach all about the gifts of the Spirit but never operate in them, who preach sermons they've never obeyed themselves - these come from the spirit of the age, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil....these are hearers only, who use knowledge for selfish gain, who make commerce out of the precious word of God, who desire only to speak about wisdom, never actually becoming wise. These words of Jesus' about the Pharisees hold true for today's religious leadership - "They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all of they works they do for to be seen of men"....."and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the Synagogues (churches) and greetings in the markets and to be called of men Rabbi, Rabbi" (Pastor, Pastor). He ascribed woe to them and I ascribe woe to the religious leaders of our present day who walk in the same arrogant, prideful spirit the Pharisees walked in. Just as they were offended with Jesus' words, so too are today's religious leadership offended with Jesus' words, offended by His Spirit and offended with all who are born of Him who follow Him and not them.

Part two coming soon.....

I heard a sinner lament. He said - You Christians walk around with a holier-than-thou attitude, as if you're better than everyone else. Anyone who does this has missed Christ. We may be better off than everyone else but we aren't  better. Real Christians don't proclaim how good they are - they proclaim how good Christ is. They profess the opposite i.e. how bad they are. The point of the Cross is - I cannot, ever, be good enough to qualify for Heaven's glory. I cannot save myself, much less maintain a level of goodness acceptable to the standard Jesus set for us. Only God can judge us, only He can deem us good, not we ourselves, for we cannot judge between good and evil without Him. No, I am merely a sinner who admits it, honestly to myself and anyone I wrong and I freely admit my constant need for Jesus to cleanse and cover me, so when the Father sees me, he sees Jesus (clothing my nakedness and shame with robes of righteousness). When Jesus sees me, he sees the Holy Spirit. No Christian should ever exalt themselves in their heart, over another. Though we are kings we must give up the throne of our hearts for God to sit on, and leave our thrones far behind in order to go forth into the world to serve - just as Jesus did. Like the elders in Revelation 4, we must cast our crowns before the Throne of our heart and fall down before Him with whom we have to do and worship him that lives forever and ever. We must declare with the elders "Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created".
Worldly sinners should sense our love for them which is God's love shining through us "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us". Lost souls should see us humbling ourselves in service to them, not lording it over them, proclaiming our goodness and superiority. Not teaching them to follow us or our religion because we are better than them but teaching them to follow our Christ because He alone is better than us all. 

We are just like the Bread and the Wine Jesus offered in the Passover meal. We are earthy things declared sacred because Jesus touched us and held us and broke us. We are living epistles of God's grace, for the whole world to taste - when we take His flesh and blood - His sacred, Holy flesh and blood, He takes our flesh and blood and makes us Holy, acceptable for his use. When we partake of Him, He partakes of us. We become talking, talking bread and wine - full of the Word of Life, given to one another to consume - in this way, we find our life - for it is only truly ours when it's given away - then returned to us, pressed down (all carnality squeezed out of it), and shaken together - When we endure tribulation together, it solidifies our faith and binds us together through shared suffering and eternal life results....

Our flesh consistently desires to avoid Him and yet our souls know full well we need His blessing, His permission, to enter paradise when we breathe our last breath on this earth - so we concoct a religion that enables us to appear as if we are His people when all the while we are not. We are what Jesus referred to as "hypocrites". Hypocrite literally means "Actor". Is it any wonder actors are so highly exalted and honored in our present day society? We heap adoration and praise, not to mention millions of dollars, on people who make a living by pretending to be someone they're not. And our churches, our denominations, are full of hypocrites - actors pretending to be "followers of Christ" while all the time seeking their own will not God's. Yes, there are wheat among the tares, yes there are people who sincerely love the Lord, who love truth, in these types of churches....but if they do love and follow Him and not man, He will lead them out of religious bondage, out of Christianity as a religion and into the wilderness where He will personally feed them. Even today, when we take communion, each of us takes the bread and wine in our own hand and we feed ourselves (unless you're Catholic...let's not go there now). The disciples took the bread from Jesus' own hand and so must we. We must become close enough to Him that we are able to receive from Him for ourselves "ye need not that any man teach you, for the anointing which YE HAVE RECEIVED OF HIM abideth in you and teacheth you of all things, and is Truth". And may I say - His manna is delicious! Tastes like honey! And it's very healthy too...for your soul to prosper, you must eat of it. Your soul will prosper and be in good health by it. So start learning to feed yourself, hallelujah! You are not dependent on your pastor or any man for survival, for thy "Maker is thine husband"! And He will care for you from the womb to the tomb "which are borne by Me from the belly, which are carried from the womb; and even to your old age I am He: and even to hoar (gray or white) hairs will I carry you: I have made and I will bear, even I will carry, and will deliver you" (Is:46:3&4).....

Part Two : "The lesson of the manna"

Jesus will choose men to feed his sheep through them - but he will not choose men who care for or seek the praise of men - these men, like Paul, have learned not to care for the opinions or acceptance of men. This was the lesson God was trying to teach Peter when Peter esteemed men's opinions and honor - and denied Christ rather than men, and was heart broken because of it. This now was a man Jesus could use to feed his sheep. (though Peter did struggle with this throughout his life...Paul later had to rebuke him because he was honoring Jewish believers over gentiles).
Jesus said "I receive not honor from men" (Jn:5:41) "How can ye believe, which receive honor one from another and seeketh not the honor that comes from God only?"
The scriptural pattern of feeding God's sheep comes primarily through Apostles and Prophets - who do not desire to lord it over God's people or become their king. Teacher's give understanding of the revelation knowledge God brings forth but it is to ultimately teach the sheep to eat from the Good Shepherd's hand personally - to follow him and not themselves.
Remember now the lesson of the Manna (Exodus 16) - When God's people in the desert began to hunger, they cried out to God for sustenance (unfortunately, hardships are often the only way God can get his people to cry out to him)....And God himself personally provided for them with food from Heaven - "Manna", which literally means "what is it?". It was "The bread which the Lord hath given you to eat". "And the Lord commanded, gather of it, every man according to his eating." Everyone had to seek for, and gather, and eat God's food for themselves! God did not command Moses to gather it each day and then feed it to the people. He did not order the elders of each tribe to gather it and distribute it to the people. He did not order the people to gather it and bring it to Moses or the elders to redistribute it as they say fit. He even told them to "Let no man leave of it till morning", for if the did, it bred worms and stank. They were not to hoard it but gather it and eat of it each day. God is still feeding his people "manna" from heaven each day, each morning, if they will take the time to gather it. He wants us to seek him daily, he wants to feed us personally, on a daily basis.....with manna from heaven....in the form of words...spoken and revealed directly from his spirit to ours. "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God". "Give us this day our DAILY BREAD (manna)". Jesus told us to ask our Father - He wants each of us seeking him daily for ourselves, not depending on our Pastor to feed us once or twice a week. This is a burden Pastor's (or anyone else), were never meant to bear and this is a practice that will anger God.
And where did the manna come from? Where did God choose to feed them this manna? "Upon the face of the wilderness". And when? "in the morning". They found the Manna as the dew melted and was gone up - we don't find God in structures made by man - we don't seek to be fed by him there. He is found in the wilderness, away from the things of man....he is found in that glorious sunrise, in the morning mist upon that lazily flowing river, in the flap of a quails wings or the silent passing of a deer. He is found early in the morning "MY voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up". Of his bride he says "who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?". The wilderness is distinct for this reason alone - it is completely absent of anything man made It is pure...untouched and untainted by man....if you, as God's child, choose to dwell there spiritually, you will find yourself in a camp full of others who have chosen to go there too...yet you must still seek and gather what he has for you daily on your own....churches are never to replace this personal seeking, this personal gathering and being fed by God personally. We are to go to church full....not empty....already fed, not starving....for God, for his presence, for his manna. "