Understanding Israel's Election, Persecution, and Partnership as Christians: Staff Teaching by David Blease

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What I wanted to talk about today was really kind of talk about what’s been going on in Israel, kind of putting it in perspective biblically where we are, and then explain how we fit into the story of Israel. Many Christians understand that Israel is important, but we don’t really know what to do about that and we don’t really understand how we fit into that story. And what I often tell people is we are in the Bible and it confuses people, but I say the acts happen. Revelation right there. We’re here. And it’s always hard for you to see yourself in the midst of God’s plan. It’s easier to see what God might do in the future revelation, what God did do in the past acts or even the Old Testament, but it’s always hard for you to see it happening kind of under your own nose.
And I think that’s what the disciples experienced. They all felt like We’ve been doing this Jewish thing for a really long time, and if you wanted to be a child of God, then you were born into the Son as a son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and you’re in the covenant. And then all of a sudden all these gentiles start getting saved and their mindset is like, well, this isn’t what we’ve been doing for 6,000 years. This doesn’t fit in with that. Even though they knew in Genesis 12, God said, the Gentiles are going to come in to the family, but it’s always hard to think that that’s happening today in your day. It’s like Jesus coming back. Absolutely. In my lifetime, probably not, but definitely at some point. But it’s like, what if it’s happening right now? And that’s the question we kind of always have to ask ourselves.
So where are we right now in the biblical timeline? And I’m not talking about revelation when Jesus is coming back, although that’s important, just what is happening right now. I think it’s crazy to think about in our generation. You can talk to people alive today that were there when the nation of Israel became a nation again, and it wasn’t a nation for almost 2000 years. That doesn’t happen if you talk to any Bible believing Jesus, loving Christian from AD 1 25 to 1948. Israel was just an idea. It was something we read about in the Old Testament and it was something that maybe will happen again in Revelation when Jesus comes back. But then again, it was really hard for most Christians from AD 1 25 to 1948 to have a place in their theology for Israel. There’s a place in the Middle East called Philistia, Palestina, Palestine, but it’s ravaged, it’s desert.
No one’s living there, nothing’s growing there. I mean, the Jewish people are scattered amongst the nations. So their understanding of Israel was, oh, it’s spiritual now. So God used to do this thing with the nation of Israel and the people of Israel, but you look at the land of Israel and you’re like, well, that place was clearly judged and is now a wasteland and the Jews aren’t even really there. Maybe we’re the new is Israel and they were the people of God, but now the church, the people of God. So maybe now we are the spiritual Israel. And I think that’s kind of where our theology live for 1700 years was we’re the new Israel and the Jewish people rejected Jesus and that’s why there’s no Israel anymore. And then all of these prophecies started coming true. My favorite one that says, can a land be born in a day?
Can a nation be brought forth in one moment you read that scripture and think about reading that when Israel doesn’t exist, can a nation be born in a day? Can a lamb be brought forth in one moment? The only way to understand that is figuratively speaking spiritually. Could this happen kind of ethereally in our mind? If I’m the new Jerusalem and I’m the new temple and I’m the new people of God, and then in 1948 on May 14th in one day, Israel jumps on the map again and you’re like, oh, wait, maybe this isn’t just a spiritual truth. Maybe God’s still doing something on the ground that we’re a part of. So I want to talk about the land of Israel, the people of Israel and where we fit in. So first and foremost, I want to talk about all the attacks on Israel. We just saw Iran launch 200 missiles at Israel, which think about any other nation, if Canada just launched 200 missiles at us and the entire world was like, Hey guys, it’s done. Just go back to your lives. Nothing happened. You’re like, what do you mean? Nothing happened, we just got attacked. But with Israel, we’re like, Israel don’t do anything.
And it’s like, wait, what kind of double standard do we have on Israel? I want to show some stats and I want you to think about them. I know statistics and percentages can become white noise. The Jewish people make up 2.4% of the religious community in the world, 2.4%. So 2.4% of the world’s religion is Jewish. They make up 55 to 60% of hate crimes. That’s interesting. When I was driving in this morning praying, I was thinking, okay, I have three girls, but let’s say two of them were at school and the school said, okay, there’s a hundred students and every day we’re going to randomly pick one student to clean out the toilets and we’re going to do it for a hundred days. And my two girls got picked 60 days out of the a hundred I’d question that lottery system. I’d probably start questioning, do you have something against my kids?
Because it’s weird that they’re two out of a hundred, and yet 60 of those times they got picked for this terrible task in Israel, they are 0.2% of the landmass of the Middle East, and they’re the only Jewish nation that exists. There’s about 30 officially Islamic nations, and there’s one Jewish nation that’s too many. They have 0.2% of the landmass. And what’s the number one claim? They have too much land. What? It’s a nation the size of New Jersey. And here’s another fact that I was just kind of mulling around in my brain. As of right now, in 20 24, 32 countries are currently at war, whether a civil war or a war with another nation, 32. How many do you hear about the one that’s the size of New Jersey? Let’s look at some Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Central African Republic, democratic, Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Columbia, Mali.
Where are those on the news? We’re fixated with a nation that’s 0.2% of the Middle East and it’s a size of New Jersey. So you have all of these kind of just weird occurrences. Why are we so fixated on this? Now, there might be some logical reasons. It’s the birthplace of Christianity and Judaism and Islam. So it’s obviously a focal point for many religions. But now take your eyes off of Israel for a second. And just on the Jewish people, the Jewish people are by far the most persecuted people group in the history of the world. It’s not uncommon for a people group to be persecuted, especially for a generation or multiple generations or a century. But you can trace back Jewish persecution from the Bible to modern day. I don’t have time to go through all of them, but here’s some of the major ones.
So obviously you start Bible slavery and Egypt captivity and Babylon Assyrians taking them captivity, the Romans taking the captivity. The temple was burned by the Babylonians. It was burned again by the Romans. But let’s get kind of more current. In the year six 13, the Jewish people were given a choice to either leave Spain or convert to Christianity. So many of the Jewish people, they wouldn’t convert to Christianity because that meant changing their Jewish identity. And we’ll talk about this in a little bit, but the Jew and Gentile identity is as to God as male and female. It’s a distinction. God made male, female, Jew, Gentile. And it’s a distinction that continues. But Christians have for centuries thought, if you receive Jesus, you can’t be Jewish anymore. I know Jesus was Jewish.
I know US disciples were Jewish, but then they all converted somehow. I don’t have the scripture for it, but it happened. So we’ve been telling the Jewish people, if you want to receive Jesus, you can’t be Jewish, which that’s like for us. If someone said, I know you’re a female, but if you want to receive Jesus, you have to be a male, would that be hard for you? You’d be like, ah, I think this is important to me. Okay, so you don’t care about Jesus and you’re like, no, that’s not it. But that’s the decision that we’ve put on Jewish people for centuries, really 1700 years. So that happened in Spain. So they said, convert to Christianity or you have to leave Spain. So most of them left Spain and went to Portugal. And then Portugal gave them the same decision, but they said, you have to either convert to Christianity or we’re going to kill you.
And 300,000 Jews were murdered in Portugal for not converting to Spain or not converting to Christianity. 10 96, the first crusade broke out. The goal of the crusades was to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim control, but 12,000 Jewish people were killed in the crossfire because they were the ones that killed Jesus. And so we have to take care of the Jews. It’s Christian land. So 12,000 Jews were murdered in the Crusades, 10 99 Jewish people in Jerusalem. They were in the synagogue and the crusaders put them in the synagogue and then set it on fire. 1348, the black plague happened. It sweeped through Europe and they needed a scapegoat. So who do you think they blamed Jewish people? So Jewish people were blamed for creating the black plague. Thousands were murdered in Europe, 1648 over tens of thousands of Jewish people were killed in Ukraine and 300 communities were destroyed.
1940, the government of France collaborated with Nazi Germany before the war and deported 76,000 Jewish people to death camps. And then of course, 1939 to 45 World War ii, 6 million Jews are murdered. So these are just a few of the kind of big times and they’ve been kicked out of Britain, they’ve been kicked out of Germany, they’ve been kicked out of Russia. And I just think logically why we went from BC all the way to the early founding of the church to Europe, and yet it seems like every couple centuries people are like, we need to get rid of the Jews. What’s the logical reason for that? I don’t think there is one. So my question, it’s actually one of the reasons why I think one of the most compelling evidences for our God being the true God is try to give me a reason why the Jewish people have been persecuted throughout history.
What’s the reason? Because they were also in France, they were blamed for poisoning wells and hundreds were killed because they poisoned the wells. It was later came out that wasn’t true. Thousands were killed at the black plague. They started the black plague. Obviously it came out it wasn’t true. So where’s the logic? Because we’re constantly realizing, oh, I guess it wasn’t their fault, but then you get to the Holocaust. So why are the Jewish people always persecuted? I don’t think there’s a logical explanation, but there is a spiritual one. The reason that the Jewish people are the most persecuted people group in the world throughout history is because Deuteronomy seven, six, God says, you are a holy nation to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the nations of the earth to be his own. Do you think Satan read that?
That’s the only reason. It makes no sense throughout history that the Jewish people have always been in the crosshairs. We need to get rid of the Jewish people. We need to annihilate the Jewish people other than, well, there’s an enemy at play and he knows that God declared these are mine, and if the enemy is the enemy of God, he’s going to go after what God said is mine. So that’s why the enemy cares so much because God put his name on them. Let’s think about it for a second. The Bible’s pretty niche. When God the creator of the universe, when he self proclaims his identity, what title does he choose? I am the God of Israel. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That’s pretty niche.
I mean, think about if you were writing the Bible and you were the one and you were just making this up, and Moses has this moment where he says, God, who do I say you are? Who do you say that you are? I’d be like, I’m the God that created the galaxies. I’m the God of the universe. I created all living things. But instead he’s like, I’m the God of your dad, your granddad and your great-granddad. And you’re like, that’s pretty niche. He’s like, I’m the God of New Jersey. And you’re like, not even the whole us. He’s like, I’m the God of Israel. You’re like, that’s a really niche. Why would he do that? It’s because he’s trying to communicate something. One of the things he’s trying to communicate is he’s a family God and he chose Israel and he chose the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And we struggle with this. The enemy struggles with this. He tries to attack it. Christians struggle with this because we don’t know where we fit in there. So we have to either make everything spiritual or we just want to live in the New Testament. Jesus came for the world, but what does that mean for Israel? Most Christians today either knowingly, unknowingly believe replacement theology and replacement theology is basically the belief that God chose Israel, but it was really just a precursor to the church. And he chose Israel through the Old Testament, and then Jesus came and Jesus came for the whole world. And John three 16, for God so love the world, we kind of avoid scriptures that don’t make sense when the angel Joseph says, name the baby Yeshua for he will be a savior of his people. And we’re like, well, the world.
And then when the so Venetian woman says, heal my daughter, please. And what’s Jesus’ response? I came only for the la sheep of the house of Israel and we’re like someone tell Jesus that he came for the world please, but Jesus is fulfilling. Genesis 12. God told Abraham, I’m choosing you and your people and your family and through you, all nations will be blessed. So for God so loved the world, all nations, he had to first fulfill Genesis 12, I have to save my family. So Jesus had a very specific mission that would then go to the whole world. And because we live post resurrection, we’re a part of the family now and now we struggle with where to fit Israel in. And so most Christians have a very kind of shallow understanding because you kind of really have to get into the weeds. What does that mean for me?
What does that mean for Israel? So how we’ve typically understood it is God chose Israel as a precursor to the church, but then they rejected Jesus. And he said in the parable, I’m going to find people that are worthy, that are more faithful. I’m going to give it to them and give the kingdom to them. And we think that’s me. And then now it’s the church. And the church is the bride of Christ. The church is the new people of Israel, the spiritual Israel, and the Jews rejected Jesus. The problem with that is the whole notion of a covenant. God made a covenant with Israel and he said, I will never leave you or forsake you. And a covenant is only broken if someone in the covenant breaks the covenant. You remember with Abraham when God makes this covenant and he puts the dead animals in a row and we’re like, what the heck is going on?
Well, yeah. What you’re supposed to do in a covenant, a vassal covenant with a king is I’m going to walk through these pieces. And if either one of us break the covenant, then may we be like these animals, we’ll be killed like these animals. If it was a vassal treaty with a king, maybe the king wouldn’t walk through, but the vassal would. And he’s saying, I’ll be faithful to you. And if I break the covenant, then may I be like these animals. But who walked through the pieces with Abraham? God did. He didn’t let Abraham go through because he said, I know you’re going to break this covenant and if this covenant is based on you, we’re not going to have a covenant tomorrow. But he walked through the covenant because he knew he would never break it. And how many scriptures say, I’m establishing you as my people forever.
I’m making a covenant for you from generation to generation, an eternal covenant. I looked up eternal in Hebrew. Guess what? It means eternal forever. It is crazy. I’m making an eternal covenant with you, my people, Israel. So how does that fit into our theology? If God made a covenant with Israel, they broke it and then he chose us because in Isaiah 51, God calls Israel his bride. Okay? So are we saying that our theology is that God chose a bride? She was unfaithful, so he divorced her to marry us, and so now we are the better bride. And does that sound like good theology? Does that sound like a covenantal faithful God who will never break his promises and never leave her forsake them? No. So now we kind of have a interesting wrestle with our theology. Where do we fit into this family of God?
And where does Israel fit into the family of God? I wish I had a whiteboard right here, but they said it wasn’t going to be aesthetic. So you’re going to have to imagine with me as I draw a lot of Christians, we have a theology that’s a little bit, as Paul would say, we have a milk-based theology. It feels very good. It’s easy to go down. It’s love, it’s grace, it’s forgiveness. We don’t like to talk about God’s judgment, God’s justice, God’s anger, fear of the Lord. We want to kind of stay. That’s kind of chewy. Where do I fit judgment into this? This doesn’t feel good. So we like kind of a milk-based diet. The problem is we kind of have good theology up until a point and we don’t bring it to its final conclusion. Many Christians say, I’m in the family of God. Praise the Lord. A hundred percent true. What family is that?
God’s family. Are you a son and a daughter? Yeah. And whose family? God’s family? Who does God always say, you are my family. It’s Israel. But I mean we’re not an Israel’s fan, are we? So now let’s look at Romans eight. In Romans 11, Paul uses this analogy. You have received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba. Father, we’ve received the spirit of adoption. So how did we Gentiles come into the family of God? Who’s the family of God? Israel, how do you get into the family of God? You were born into the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or you’re adopted into it. So we’re adopted into the family of God. We’re the adopted kids. But there’s a problem if we’re the adopted kids. Now we have a complex because God chose people before us. Or in that analogy, God had biological kids before he had the adopted kids.
And all throughout scripture, can you think of stories where God chose one of the sons and what the other sons tried to do to that one? God chose Isaac. How did Ishmael respond? God chose Jacob. How did Esau respond? God chose Joseph. How did his brothers respond? God chose David. How did his brothers respond? Jesus tells the prodigal son story. How did the other brother respond? So there’s this narrative in scripture that God has a family, but there’s a distinction just like there’s male and female, just like there’s Jew and Gentile, just like there’s biological and adoption. You’re both part of the family, but you’re different. And the only decision that we have to make is whether we’re going to back up what God chose or whether we’re going to oppose what God chose. Notice we don’t get a vote. God wasn’t like you guys, Jacob or Esau, who are you picking? I don’t know if I’d pick Jacob, right? But God says I’m choosing Jacob and now we have to chew on this meat because Jacob stole his brother’s birthright. It was pretty deceptive. Then he lied to his blind father and pulled the God card. He was like, the Lord gave me a favor.
And he was like, the voice sounds like Jacob. And he was like, I’m sorry. And we can wrestle with that and say, that’s not good. That’s not right. But then we always have to take a step back and say, but God chose him. Does it mean everything he did was right? Fast forward to modern day, Israel is everything they do, right? No, they stole this. They broke the door down here. They lied to their father. But we take a step back and say God chose him. And that’s a hard tension to live in. But what does Issa want to do? He wants to kill Jacob. What did Joseph’s brothers want to do If God chose Joseph, if we get rid of Joseph, maybe we’ll be the chosen ones. Maybe our father will look at us with favor but had a different choice. They could have blessed Joseph.
And we have that same choice as the adopted Gentiles of the family of God. We’re adopted in. I was talking to GME. We got GME people here today. Philip Hunter adopted Jubilee into his family. Does he love Jubilee as much as his other kids? Absolutely. Does that make her not adopted? No. As I was praying this morning, so many of us as Gentiles who’ve been adopted into the family of God, we don’t view ourselves as adopted, but being adopted is a really cool story. Your parents loved you so much, they flew halfway across the world, bought you and brought you back into their family. That’s pretty cool. Being a biological son or daughter, that’s pretty cool. You came out of your mother’s womb. That’s amazing. You both have unique stories that both show the love unless you’re envious of the other.
And sadly, as Christians, we’ve been telling the Jewish community for 1700 years, you need to be adopted. Do they adopted into what? Their family. They are in the family of God. Now they may have left their parents’ home. Which brings me to the next analogy Paul uses in Romans 11, Romans eight. He says, Gentiles, you were adopted in the family of God. Romans 11, he says, there’s this tree and the roots of this tree. Imagine that we have a whiteboard. The roots of this tree are the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then it says, the tree has these natural branches. Who would the natural branches be of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jewish people. He says, and you, Gentiles, you were wild. Olive shoots on the ground. You weren’t even a part of this tree. You read about where the Gentiles are at in the Old Testament.
They’re not in the family of God. God doesn’t say, I’m the God of Assyria. I’m the God of Egypt. I’m the God of Babylon. He’s God of Israel. And if you wanted to be in that family, you had to convert to Judaism. You’d have to be circumcised and yoke yourself to Israel like a Rahab or like a Ruth. I’m part of Israel now and I will obey the Torah. But then when Jesus comes, all these gentiles can come in. And here’s what Paul says in Romans 11. And God, by his miraculous power somehow grabbed you off of the ground and grafted you into a tree that was not your own. And now you are supported by the same root, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and now you’re a part of that tree. And that’s why we can sing Father Abraham, Hey, many sons, many sons, father, I am one of them. How are you a descendant of Abraham adoption? That’s the way it works. But sometimes we don’t think about that. Now, Romans 11 continues and he says, I’m just going to pull it up. I want to read this.
He says that many of the branches were cut off because they didn’t receive Jesus. And so in the adoption analogy, they left the house. Are they still children? If you have kids, if your kids leave your home even in rebellion, are they still your children? Do they need to get adopted to come back home? No. Do you want them back home? Absolutely. Does that mean you don’t want the adopted ones anymore? No. This is an easy analogy, but I think the enemy confused us for years and it comes out of an orphan spirit. Why are they the chosen ones? We are the new chosen ones. No, we’re just all in the family of God. And so Romans 11 starts and says, so I say then has God rejected his people? Who’s he talking about? The Jews, the branches. May it never be right there. I talk to people all the time. Well, God rejected Israel. Read the first sentence of Romans 11. Has he rejected me? May it never be said for I too am an Israelite of the seat of Abraham, tribe of Benjamin. People are like Paul converted. Read the second sentence. Converted to what? Christianity. Okay, soapbox for a second. Christian means follower of Jesus. There are male followers of Jesus and there are female followers of Jesus. There are Jewish followers of Jesus and there are gentile followers of Jesus. Part of the confusion is we don’t think we’re gentiles, we’re Christians.
Okay? Yeah, you’re a Christian Gentile. Gentile is not a bad word. It means not Jewish and female means not male, and male means not female. It’s really easy when there’s just two distinctions. But we still got confused because we thought there was this third thing. He says, I’m an Israelite. God has not rejected his people whom he knew beforehand. Or do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they’ve killed your prophet. They’ve destroyed your altars. I alone am left and they’re seeking my life. But what is his divine response? I have kept myself 7,000 men who have not out Anita Bale. That’s what we’ve talked about. There’s a remnant here. So many people say Jewish people rejected Jesus. Let me get my friend Ilia on the phone. He’s Jewish. Maybe there is a remnant still in Israel.
And again, lemme get on a soapbox again. So many people just lump the Jews into statements. The Jews rejected Jesus. Really? The Jews, the disciples were Jews. So I could technically say by your logic, the Jews loved Jesus. The Jews followed Jesus. The Jews gave their lies for Jesus. And then people would probably say, well, not all the Jews. Oh, you’re right. And not all the Jews killed him either or called for his death. So maybe the Jews is maybe a little bit too broad. Some of the Jewish people persecuted him and some of the Jewish people followed him. So there’s a remnant. So in the same way, this is verse five, also at this present time, there has come to be a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
So what do we say then? What Israel is seeking, it is not obtained, but the elect obtained it, the remnant attained it, and the rest were hardened just as it is written. God gave them the spirit of stupor eyes not to see and ears not to hear until this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so they do not see and bend their back continually. Verse 11, I say, then they did not stumble as so far to fall. Did they? Some translations say, did they stumble so much that they can never come back again? What does he say by no means, but by their false step, salvation has come to the Gentiles, hallelujah. To provoke Israel to jealousy. We’re going to come back to that.
And if their transgression leads to riches for the world and their loss riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? I’m speaking to you Gentiles. This is for us. It is so far, as much as I am an emissary to the Gentiles, I spotlight my ministry. If somehow I might provoke to jealousy my own flesh and blood to save some of them for if their rejection leads to reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be? But life from the dead. If the first fruit is holy, the whole batch of dough, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive chute, were grafted in among them as partakers of the root of the olive tree. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in its richness do not boast against the branches who are the branches do not boast against the branches.
But if you do boast, it is not you that supports the root, but the root supports, you will say, well, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. We have a very self-centered Christianity. What’s God saying to you? What’s he doing to you and how’s you and what’s your purpose? Again, that’s not wrong in and of itself, but if that is the only focus, we should be a little bit more fearful because he’s singing our tune right now. God loved us so much, he made room for us on the tree. Maybe that was why Jesus came in the first place He wanted to get the Gentiles in.
Do not boast against the branches. It is not you who support the root, but the root supports. You will say, then branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in true enough. They were broken off because of unbelief. And you stand by faith, but do not be arrogant. Instead, fear for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare. You. Notice the kindness and severity of God. A milk-based diet focuses on only the kindness, but when we start getting into the meatier topics, we have to be aware of the severity of God. And sadly, if you look at Christian history, we’ve done exactly this. We’re the new Israel. We’re the spiritual Israel where the temple, you rejected Jesus, you killed Jesus. You need to convert to Christianity. It’s the most prideful statement that we were literally warned about. It’s right here. Don’t bo against the branches. They support you. And so now I talked a little bit with GME about this.
We have a purpose as Gentiles, and if you ask 90% of Christians, what’s your purpose as a gentile? They’d be like, I what? I don’t have one. I don’t think one exists. But if you ask most husbands, what’s your purpose as a husband? Now we’re talking, okay, Ephesians. Husbands, love your wise as Christ loved the church and gave his life for her. And if you ask wives, what’s your purpose, wives honor your husbands and submit to your husbands the same way that the church submits to Christ. Notice their purpose is not about themselves. It’s about the other husbands, your wife, your wife, your wife, wives, your husband, your husband, your husband. In a toxic relationship, one person gives and one person receives. God’s design was for both to give towards each other. Because if that happens, I know we live in a fallen world, but if a husband and a wife truly honor Ephesians five and love one another, serve one another, then both of them have their needs met and neither are being selfish.
That’s the most beautiful covenant that it could exist. If you go to Israel right now and you ask any religious Jewish person, what is the purpose of the Jews? You’re going to get the same answer, be a light to the nations, be a light to the nations. Genesis 12, God chose us to be a light to the nations. I have Jewish friends that aren’t believers in Jesus and they’re building these buildings for Christians and Muslims to come and pray to Hashem their God, because they’re like, we got to teach the Gentiles. We’re a light to the nations. Everybody knows it. But then you ask any Gentile, what’s your purpose of a Gentile? We’re like, I don’t even know what you’re talking. I’m not a gentile Christian, but we read our purpose in Romans 11. It says, I’m speaking to you Gentiles. This is Romans 11, verse 13. As I am the emissary or the apostle to the Gentiles, I spotlight my ministry that I might somehow provoke to jealousy my own flesh. He’s saying I’m Jewish and I’m trying to provoke my people to come back home to receive Yeshua. Lemme see. Where am I?
You’re at the
End of, oh yeah, for, sorry, 11, 11. I say, then did they stumble so far that they could not get up again? May it never be by their false steps. Salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. That word to can also be translated for or because. So he says, Gentiles, you were led into the family so that you’d provoke Israel back to jealousy to come back home. We don’t really talk about this scripture because if that’s true, we’re not the main characters of the story.
We don’t like that. In fact, we Israel’s the main character of the story. Unless you put Genesis 12 and Romans 11 next to each other and we serve one another. Why did God choose the Jewish people? Because he loved the Gentiles. In fact, n Nt Wright, who’s an amazing theologian, way smarter than me in every respect, he says, see, the Jewish people were chosen to be a messenger to the Gentiles. But then they got confused and thought the message was for them. They’re just the errand boy. This is what God says about Israel. Exodus four twenty two, you are my firstborn, Zacharia two, the apple of my eye, Deuteronomy seven, six, my special treasure, Isaiah 54, 8, my wife, Isaiah 46, 13. My glory, Romans 1128. My beloved Isaiah 51, 4 Nation, the messenger boy, I don’t know. I love my mailman, but I’m not calling him my beloved. The apple of my eye, my special treasure.
Those are things I call my wife. I’m sorry too, right? Those are his beloved. But the truth of his statement is the only reason he chose them was because he loved the Gentiles. I’m choosing you so that the Gentiles will be saved. Okay? So I guess the Gentiles are the main character. Unless you read Roman’s 11. He says, Hey, Gentiles, come over here. The only reason y’all are here is because I want them back. And then you realize, oh, this is a husband wife thing. Both are supposed to serve one another. Both. Both are supposed to love one another, serve one another, and like male and female, they’re different. Male and female value different things, and they’re going to have friction when they come into a relationship and a covenant. So let’s talk about covenant. When male and female come into a covenant, we call that marriage and the two shall become one or one flesh is what Genesis says.
So are they no longer male and female? No. Obviously, right? They stay male and female, but there’s a new unity there that wasn’t there before. And they’re supposed to serve one another, love one another, honor one another, bless one another. Husbands love your wives. Wives love your husbands. Okay, so let’s take a different covenant. Put that over here. Jew and Gentile, come into a new covenant. You know what scripture says? Ephesians three, two, the mystery of God that was not made known to the prophets of old, but have been revealed to me in the apostles. This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel members together of one body shares together of one promise. Ephesians, he has brought the two to become one flesh, one new man. So when the whole covenant of Jesus was to take Jew and Gentile and make them one new man, what should we be thinking when we hear that? Oh, wait, a distinction that God’s bringing into a covenant to become one marriage. I know this. So when Jew and Gentile come into a covenant together and the Bible says, now they become one. We say, ah. Now they’re one new thing. Christian, no. Are you still male? Are you still female? Of course, but now I got to share the scripture that people scream in our YouTube comments. Galatians 3 28, it’s usually prefaced with like, Hey, idiots,
Galatians 3 28, there is no longer Jew and Gentile. Why are we talking about this? Why are you bringing back a distinction that God tried to destroy? Well, we don’t like to finish the verse. It says, there’s no longer Jew and Gentile, no longer slavery free, no longer male or female. We don’t talk about that one. We love the first one. We don’t want to talk about the latter. Why? Because the culture right now is trying to say there is no male and female. And what are the Christians saying? Absolutely not. It is a God-given distinction. They should scream Galatians 3 28 at us.
But if they did, what would our response be? Here’s what I think Paul’s trying to say. God’s not breaking down a distinction. He’s breaking down a barrier. In a world that was patriarchy where male was more important than female and free was more important than slave, and Jew was more important than Gentile because the Jews had the covenant. He says, now, by the blood of Jesus, there is no longer any dividing wall. Remember that scripture? He’s broken down the dividing wall of hostility between the two. Who are the two Jew and Gentile? There’s no longer a dividing wall between male and female, slave free, Jew, Gentile. He has broken that. And now we can all come into the presence of God by the blood of Jesus. As Peter says, when the Gentile Cornelius gets saved, he says, God is breaking down these barriers. He no longer shows any partiality. I know now God has no partiality. So we’re all one. He wasn’t breaking down a distinction. He was breaking down a barrier. And lemme tell you a scripture that I always misunderstood. If you’re in GME, you know this one. Romans eight, verse 15, let me pull it up.
You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall into fear, but rather you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry. Abba, father, the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that now we are children of God. If children heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, I always thought that meant I’m a joint heir with Christ. It’s me and Christ. We’re doing this thing together. That’s so cool. Now I’m made in the righteousness of God because of what Jesus did for me. So it’s me and Jesus and we’re walking through this life. If that’s what Paul’s trying to say, he doesn’t need the word joint. I would just be an heir with God, an heir with Messiah, an heir with Christ. A joint means two or more being joined together. When I perform a wedding, I will tell them, you’re just not making a covenant between you two. You’re making a covenant under God. So there’s actually a court of three strands here. You two are joint under the Messiah. So who are we joint heirs with? Because you’re talking to the Gentiles because you are joint heirs. I already read this, but maybe you didn’t pick it up. Ephesians, where is it? The mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel. We’re joint heirs with the Jewish people under Messiah. What does that remind us of? A covenant marriage. So this was the longest way to answer the question,
Why should we care about Israel? Because we’re in covenant with him. We are joint heirs with Israel. No, I’m joint air with Christ. No, you’re a joint heir of Israel under Christ, just like I am in covenant with my wife, but we are in covenant under God. That was the ceremony. Yet most Christians don’t know a Jewish person, never talked to a Jewish person, have never prayed for Israel and the Jewish people. You’re still married. You just have no contact with your spouse. How great is your marriage? It’s not completely fulfilled. We’re asking Jesus to come back. We’re trying to worship as hard as we can and be as pure as we can. All of that’s important. But if he’s coming back for a spotless bride who’s his bride, I had a question when I spoke at GMEA week ago. The question was I thought we were the bride. But then Isaiah says, Israel’s the bride. So how do we understand being the bride of Christ now as the church? And I said, that’s great. Let me use my imaginary whiteboard. So I drew this tree that has the natural branches, which would be the Messianic Jewish community. It has the grafted in wild olive shoots, which are the Gentiles, which now is predominantly Gentile. God never planted a second tree. Who is his bride? That tree is his bride. The covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that sprouted forth with these natural branches that then you have been grafted into. This is the bride of Christ, people say, but that’s the church. The church is the Ecclesia, which is the covenant of Jews and Gentiles. That’s the church.
But we think Christian means gentile and church means Gentile because we look around and we’re like, the Jews are like a different religion. So we Christians and we kind of think Gentile is the church and we are the bride, the bride of Christ, the bride of Messiah, because Christ is just the Greek word Messiah. It wasn’t his last name. I hate to break it to
All
The beautiful people out here that is his bride. And we’ve forgotten our partner. In fact, no people group has killed more Jews than Christians, which is terrible. And think about how the enemy would do that. I’ll take the adopted kids to try to murder the biological kids. Why? Because having the biological kids reminds them they weren’t chosen. But I know we’re all in the aftermath of what Pastor Robert has done and where we are at Gateway Church, and I dunno about you, but I’m a big believer in not stripping people’s names from the Bible. I don’t ring read about the king of Israel that fell with Bathsheba.
I read about King David and we can talk about his affair with Bathsheba and his killing of Uriah. And we can talk about Goliath. We can talk about both those things, both. 100% true. And this one was 100% wicked, and this one was 100% amazing. One of the things that was a hundred percent amazing that Robert had in his heart was a love for Israel and the Jewish people. How did he get that vision that now we’re walking in a gateway church is because the Lord showed him a vision that he was the adopted kid that was right out of Romans eight. And he went to his father in this vision and said, I know that you had some biological kids and I know many of them left. I would like to see if I can bring some back. Do you think that that would touch the father’s heart?
Absolutely. It doesn’t mean that there’s not a place for us, but you can’t convince me that there’s not a place for them and to be Jewish, to be Israel, not to convert or to be adopted themselves. We’ve missed this partnership. So that’s why it’s important for us. It’s important to the enemy because God puts his name on it and it isn’t it interesting that every time there’s a distinction, God’s putting his name on it, male and female in covenant together. That’s the purest image of God on the earth. He said, you are my image. When he made, man, what did he say? Not good. Male and female together in covenant. That’s my image. Well, he did that again with Jew and Gentile. But the church has been primarily Gentile with no Jewish covenant in their understanding. That’s not his image. We’re still his kids. We’re still the church, but we’re missing something.
If you went to a men’s conference and you’re like, oh, this is a cool men’s conference. No, this is our church. I’d be like, I don’t see any women here. Are you sure this isn’t men’s something? No, this is our church. I’d be like, you’re missing something you’re doing is off because you’re missing the other gender. When you go to most churches, and again, I know different churches in different areas. Jewish population is 0.02%. So I realize it’s not as even as male and female, but that’s our covenanted partner. Does that make sense? And so I believe that we should walk in such a way that we are aware of our covenanted partner. We pray for our covenanted partner, and we talk about our God in a way that provokes them to jealousy. How do we do that? And this is my final point, and we’ll see if Ilea can jump on for a second. A lot of people, I’ll send a new lot of people don’t understand jealousy because it seems like a bad thing or you’re jealous. But God, I think it’s in Isaiah. It’s in the Old Testament. God says, my name is jealous. So if his name can be jealous, it clearly is not bad. How is his name jealous? Because jealousy is when you have something that belongs to me.
What happened?
Everyone was laughing at your password.
Oh yeah, it’s my pen. Don’t steal my credit card. If you have something that belongs to me. I’m jealous. If you have something that doesn’t belong to me and I want it, I’m envious and I’m coveting because if I want your wife, I’m coveting what doesn’t belong to me. That’s in the top 10 commandments. But if you’re trying to flirt with my wife, I’m jealous because she is my wife. We are supposed to worship God in such a way that they tell us that’s mine. Wait, wait. Who do you worship God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. You’re like, yeah, I’m adopted into the family of Israel. I’m a spiritual son of Abraham, but you are a physical descent of Abraham. Man. I’m so thankful for you. Romans eight in our New Testament, Romans 11, it says that the whole reason we’re here is because you guys so thankful for you guys and the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Every Jewish person is going to be like,
I’m sorry, I haven’t heard any Christian talk about this. What do we talk about Christ? Jesus our Lord, creator of the universe whose white has blue eyes and blonde hair, king of the Gentiles, and they’re like, yeah, yeah, we know about Jesus. We know he was Jewish, but then everyone else converted to Christianity. So we are not provoking them to jealousy because they don’t think that what we have is theirs. We’ve made Christianity so detached from Judaism. They think we have our own religion. And so it makes it, yeah, you guys be Christian, we’ll be Jewish. But when you get someone who understands this theology that goes to Israel, talks about their worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that they’ve been adopted in the spirit of that, you need to stay Jewish, just like male and female, Jew and Gentile. That’s a distinction that lasts forever. When Jesus comes back, he comes back as a Jewish man. There’s those two distinctions, baby. They stay forever. I’m so thankful for you. I’m here because of you. That’s how we should worship our God because he’s the same God. But we have to understand where we take place in the story of Israel.