Yes, the fist leaders of “the Way” were Jewish, the 1st 50 and it wasn't until a gentile took the position that all was changed by the throwing out of what Messiah spoke and gave to us through Moses. They lived out Mt 6:10, ‘His will be done on earth as it is in the heavens’
Why do I believe that the religious systems teach differently? That is very clear in ALL their doctrines when they say because we are spiritual we do not have to obey what Moses wrote. Everything Moses wrote was about Messiah. the entire bible is about the Son who from the beginning in the garden, has been pointing and directing mankind back to the Father.
So why does the ‘church’ not practice this? Yeshua was rebuking the unbelieving Judeans, not because they searched the Scriptures, but because they missed the foundation that is taught in them, that foundation being it has ‘always’ been the Son speaking to mankind on behalf of the Father. He was stating to them that they had missed the point of Moses all together because their hearts were not grounded in the Messiah that Moses took all his dictation from.
So the way I see it, as it is the way Messiah taught it, we have to choices. We can follow Him as He follows the Father or we can choose to disobey and follow another that is not of the Father. One is Hebrew, the other is Roman as the anti-messiah rises out of Rome. If one is following all things that were put in place by the religious elite in Rome, can one truly know the Messiah? Scripture says not.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son possesses everlasting life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of Elohim remains on him.
Those commands give us His calendar and all that defines how we are to walk out every aspect of our daily lives, including when and how we are to worship the Father.
The doctrines of the NT are not new, they have been since the beginning. Love, kindness, humility, etc, etc are the core foundation of all that was given through Moses and Moses is replete. Something most in the ‘church’ system do not know because they do not take the role of Berean seriously is that in Mt 19 when Yeshua is speaking to the rich man is the fact that when He cites the commands to follow, He is not citing them from Ex 20, He is citing them from Leviticus 19 & 20. How many even know that the commands are given again in Leviticus?
There is nothing new in the NT, it is all simply true of what was to be, was is, and what is yet to be. The Scriptures of the Messiah speak nothing of a ‘new’ religious system that is to be separate from Israel. that is to look and walk differently from Israel. But until one humbles themselves, that is to say repent and then begin walking in His ways, one will never gain the knowledge, understanding of that knowledge and the wisdom to implement it. That is what Messiah is speaking of in regards to John 5:39-40.
When we put man's ways above the Way of the Father, we are blinded in part by the stone of stumbling, the stone that came to remove the ways of man and to teach us the pure, unadulterated path to the Father. The stone that is Messiah that was with them throughout the entire journey in the wilderness. (1 Cor 10:1-14 (see specifically v. 4,6,9,11-12,14))
But the study of the Old Testament also shows how the Israelites would constantly disobey the teachings and commandments. The generation that died in the wilderness for their rebellous heart, their children who went in to conquer the territory carrying their idols, and it wasn't soon after they settled in that they ceased to obey God. The laws in Leviticus states that God's wrath would go forth against a people who would sacrifice to Molech. Solomon built temples for that specific purpose. This was not surprising to Moses who prophesized:
Deu 31:17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'
The true church, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, John the Baptist, Peter, James, John, Paul, etc., are all people who are cut from the same cloth. They are those who were led by faith. It isn't that there is a Hebrew church or a Rome church. There is only one church. These are people who had failings in obeying God's laws. Noah got drunk. Abraham lied. Moses, David, and one could even say Paul were murderers. Yet they are also people who knew God in a personal and real way-because God came to them and revealed Himself to them. And that's the way God wants it to the praise of His glory. To call us, to know Him and let Him lead us.
Israel is not the church. The church is Israel. It always has been. That includes those obedient Israelites who believed in the coming promise and those Christians who look back to the resurrected Savior. They all realized their sins at obeying the Law and a need for God to forgive them and redeem them. If we didn't understand the Law, we would not understand grace.