Okay, I admit it. I am pro-Israel and I also happen to love the Jewish people. I have been to Israel on two occasions. I would return in a heartbeat. I am fascinated by the rich history of the nation, the friendliness of the people, and the heart of God for the land and its populace.
Do you recognize these places?
1. Jerusalem
2. Armageddon
3. The Dead Sea
4. The Jordan River
5. The Dome of the Rock
6. Mount Calvary
7. The Wailing Wall
8. Bethlehem
9. The Garden Tomb
10. The Sea of Galilee
They are all in present day Israel – although Bethlehem is under Palestinian control.
Israel is located in the Middle East, along the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. It lies at the junction of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa.
Since I am talking to your about geography, let me give you a little quiz. I want you to rank in your head the following as to their size — largest to smallest.
1. Hawaii
2. Lake Erie
3. Israel
4. New Hampshire
5. Vermont
And the correct order is:
1. Hawaii (10,931 sq mi)
2. Lake Erie (9,940 square miles)
3. Vermont (9,615 sq mi)
4. New Hampshire (9,350 sq mi)
5. Israel (8,019 sq mi)
I find it amazing that you could put the entire nation of Israel in Lake Erie and still have
plenty of room for the Janesville Aqua Jays to perform their ski shows. Or to put it
another way, Israel could fit into Florida 8 times. Actually, only three states in the US are smaller than Israel: Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island
Do you recognize these names?
1. Jesus
2. Abraham
3. Moses
4. King David
5. The prophet Daniel
6. The twelve apostles
7. The Apostle Paul
8. Albert Einstein
9. Leonard Bernstein
10. Alan Greenspan
11. Elizabeth Taylor
12. Woody Allen
13. Barbara Streisand
14. Harrison Ford
15. William Shatner
16. Winona Ryder
17. Jerry Seinfeld
18. Steven Spielberg
19. Sarah Jessica Parker
20. Seth Green
21. Robert Downey, Jr.
22. Senator Joseph Liberman
23. Jonas Salk
24. Carl Sagan
25. Michael Dell
26. Calvin Klein
27. Ralph Lauren
28. Levi Strauss
29. Kenneth Cole
Each and every one of these people are Jewish.
Speaking of people, Israel has 7.7 million inhabitants. That is a mere 0.11% of the world’s population. If Israel were a city in the US, it would rank in size behind the metro areas of New York, Los Angles, and Chicago.
Today Jews comprise some 75% of Israel’s population, while the country’s non-Jewish
citizens, mostly Arabs make up the rest. Israel is the world’s only Jewish-majority state.
And yet, in spite of its being only the 97th largest county in terms of population, Israel
- Has the 24th largest economy in the world,
- Is fourth in the world in scientific activity,
- Ranks second in importance only to the Silicon Valley in California in software and technology development,
- Is one of the world’s three major centers for polished diamonds,
- And as of as of 2010, Israel ranked second among foreign countries in the number of its companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
In almost every category, Israel is disproportionally successful. Personally, I see their success being due to the favor of God as well as due to the values that they hold as a people.
Israel is old – very, very old. As you go into the city, you are greeted with a variety of signs that herald it as the “oldest city in the world.” Archaeologists date the city anywhere from 9,000 B.C. to 7,500 B.C., making Jericho not only the oldest city in the world, but arguably, the world’s oldest civilization. Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, on the other hand has stood at the center of the Jewish people’s national and spiritual life since King David made it the capital of his kingdom some 3000 years ago. Its history, though, dates all the way back to Abraham – between 3500 and 4000 years before Christ.
For your information, during its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. That is a lot of attention for a city that is smaller than the population of Milwaukee County.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A JEW AND A GENTILE?
Notice now Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
Here the Apostle Paul divides the world’s population into two distinct groups: Jews and
Gentiles. Which group do you fall into? I would assume that nearly everyone in this room
is non-Jewish – a Gentile, in other words.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the Bible talks a lot about the Jews. So what is a Jew? How is he or she any different that a non-Jew? In brief, a Jew is anyone who is descended from Jacob of the Old Testament. A gentile is any person who is not a Jew (the rest of us).
Let me give you a little history here. To do so, I want to direct your attention to Genesis 12:1-3. “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” This passage is called the Abrahamic Covenant.
Notice this chart. Although Abraham was childless at the time, God promised Abraham that he would have descendants through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In time, Abraham had one child by Hagar (Hagar was Sarah’s Egyptian servant girl), he then had Isaac (his promised heir) through Sarah — his first wife, and finally he had another six sons by Keturah, his wife following the death of Sarah.
The covenant was carried out through Isaac, to whom God repeated the covenant and through Jacob, Isaac’s son, to whom God also gave the covenant. Jacob later was given the name “Israel.” His descendants became known as the Israelites, the Children of Israel, and later on, they became known as the Jews.
Somewhere around 930 B.C., the Israelites split into two separate kingdoms. The northern kingdom was called Israel and the southern kingdom was called Judah. As you can see on the chart, Samaria was Israel’s capitol while Jerusalem was Judah’s capitol. Israel was made up of ten tribes (now called the lost tribes of Israel) while Judah was made up of only two (probably Judah and Benjamin) of the twelve tribes.
The northern kingdom of Israel was captured and taken into exile in 722 B.C. This left only the southern country of Judah. The country of Judah continued until around 586 B.C., when it was destroyed by the Babylonians. Because of the predominance of the people from Judah, slowly all Israelites began to be known as Jews.
Esther 2:5 gives us the first passage in Scripture where the term “Jew” is used, “Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai….” The term is used a total of eight times in the book of Esther.
- The wise men from the East were looking for the King of the Jews in Matthew 2.
- The woman at the well called Jesus a Jew.
- Pilate noted that Jesus was the King of the Jews.
- And the Apostle Paul called himself a Jew.
SO, LET ME REPEAT. A JEW IS A DESCENDANT OF JACOB – OTHERWISE KNOWN AS ISRAEL. EVERYONE ELSE IS A GENTILE.
I WANT TO NOW GIVE YOU SEVERAL REASONS WHY I LOVE THE JEWISH PEOPLE
- God loves the Jews. I will come back to this point in a few minutes.
- The Bible is of Jewish origin. The ancient Jewish scribes painstakingly wrote by hand the words of the sacred text letter by letter, word by word, book by book. They then guarded the books of the Bible at times with their very lives.
- The prophets were Jews.
- The first Christians were Jews.
- Jesus in John 4:22 clearly stated that “salvation is from the Jews.”
- Then, again, Jesus was a Jew. He was not a blue-eyed, fair-skinned, brown-¬haired European Christian as He has so often been portrayed in art.
o He wore the clothing common to the Jewish people of His day.
o He obeyed the Law of Moses,
o The God whom He addressed as Father was Yahweh, the God of Israel;
o The Bible that He used was the Hebrew Scriptures;
o The places that He traveled were all in Israel, the land of the Jews.
o The people who were His family, friends, associates, and even His detractors were nearly all Jews.
The Apostle Paul says of the Jews, “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!” (Romans 9:4-5).
- Finally, I love the Jewish people because it is obvious that the devil hates the Jews with a passion. He has tried every which way to wipe them off of the face of the earth – without success. And he continues to try. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that many of the nations of the world obviously share in Satan’s hatred of Israel.
GOD ALSO LOVES THE JEWISH PEOPLE. HE CALLS THEM HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE.
I want to establish that statement on a number of passages of Scripture.
- Exodus 19:5, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”
- Deuteronomy 7:6, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”
- Deuteronomy 32:9-14 (New Century Version), “The LORD took his people as his share, the people of Jacob as his very own. He found them in a desert, a windy, empty land. He surrounded them and brought them up, guarding them as those he loved very much. He was like an eagle building its nest that flutters over its young. It spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its feathers. The LORD alone led them, and there was no foreign god helping him.
The LORD brought them to the heights of the land and fed them the fruit of the fields. He gave them honey from the rocks, bringing oil from the solid rock. There were milk curds from the cows and milk from the flock; there were fat sheep and goats. There were sheep and goats from Bashan and the best of the wheat. You drank the juice of grapes.”
- Zechariah 2:8 confirms, “…for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye.”
God gave the people a good land – one in which nothing was lacking. God watched over them carefully and attentively.
- God was a shepherd to them,
- A father to them,
- A friend to them,
- A deliver,
- Savior,
- Redeemer,
- Protector,
and more. In short, He was Israel’s God; they were His people.
In spite of God’s goodness, in time the people of Israel forsook the Lord. They went after the false gods of the pagans. They murdered the prophets. They ignored His commands. They shut their ears to God’s Word.
Finally, God sent them His Son; His only begotten Son. He would be God in flesh. Surely they would listen to Him; to His words. But no. The Apostle Paul noted in Romans 11 that they had become hardened and blind to the appeals of the Lord. A better translation here would be, they had become “callused” to God. No doubt, a number of you have a callus on your hands from hard work. When a callus grows on any part of the body that part loses feeling. It becomes insensitive. The minds of the Jewish people had become callused, insensitive.
As a result…
- When Jesus would heal a sick person, the Jews would reject His love.
- When He would forgive a sinner, they would reject His grace.
- When He would raise the dead, they would reject His power.
- When He would deliver those bound by demons, they would reject His authority.
- It didn’t matter what Jesus did! They rejected it. Finally, they rejected Him by putting on a tree and crucifying Him.
- Then when on the third day He arose from the dead, they rejected that too. They claimed that His scaredy-cat disciples had come and stolen His body.
Way back in the early chapters of Exodus Egypt’s Pharaoh hardened his heart against
God. Now Israel was suffering from the same spiritual disease. Their consciences had become seared. Their sins no longer mattered.
Back to Romans 11. In verse 9 the writer warns of their table becoming a snare to them.
The idea is that the Israelites had become so blessed, so comfortable, so secure that they no longer saw their need of God. I have had people tell me that they didn’t need God. They had all they needed without Him:
- They had position,
- Pleasure,
- Power,
- Plenty,
- Protection
Why did they need God to tell them what they could or could not do? Their table – blessings – had become a scare to them; their very sense of safety had become their ruin. That, again, was the plight of the Jews.
SO, THE QUESTION BEGS TO BE ASKED, HAS GOD COMPLETELY REJECTED HIS PEOPLE – THE JEWS?
How does that question strike you?
- I have known people who have hated the Jews. These folks feel that Hitler didn’t go far enough. It is hard to believe the depth of their hatred.
- There are others who are apathetic toward the question. Frankly, they never give the spiritual condition of the Jews a moment’s thought.
- Next there are some who care, who pray, who give – but that is the extent of their passion.
- Then there is the Apostle Paul. He put some skin in the game. Listen to how he begins both Romans 9 and Romans 10:
Romans 9:1-3 (New Living Translation), “With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.”
Romans 10:1 (Contemporary English Version), “Dear friends, my greatest wish and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.”
Do you love the Jewish people that much? Do you love anyone that much?
So back to the question Paul posed in Romans 11:1-2 (The Voice), “Now I ask you, has God rejected His people? Put another way: does our God discard His own like yesterday’s rubbish? Absolutely not! I’m living proof that God is faithful. …. God has not, and will not, abandon His covenant people. He always knew they belonged to Him.”
PAUL THEN ANSWERS THE QUESTION WITH THREE ARGUMENTS.
1. HE POINTS OUT THAT HE IS A JEW, “A DESCENDANT OF ABRAHAM, FROM THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN”.
Paul had gone so far as to persecute Christians before he became a believer. Surely if God was going to reject someone, Paul would have been a good choice. But God, in his sovereignty, called Paul and appointed him to be an apostle. Paul was saying, if God could and would save him, He would and could save anyone.
2. NEXT HE APPEALS TO THE FACT THAT THE JEWS ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
Psalm 94:14 promises, “For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance.” While the children of Israel would reject God and walk away from Him, their rejection would not be neither total nor final.
Earlier in this message I alluded to the Abrahamic Covenant. When God spoke that promise to Abraham, the Lord knew what was in Israel’s future. He knew all the cruddy stuff that waiting to happen in Israel’s future. And yet, nothing could alter the fact that they were God’s chosen people and had a special place in his plan. No matter what they did, God could never go back upon his word. His promise had been made to the fathers, and it must be fulfilled.
Listen now to these passages:
- Samuel told Israel, “For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own” (1 Samuel 12:22).
- The psalmist wrote, “For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance” (Psalm 94:14).
- Hosea 14:4 (King James Version), “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.”
- And Jeremiah prophesied, “‘Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,’ declares the LORD, ‘will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.’ This is what the LORD says: ‘Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,’ declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:36-37).
So, again, the people have fallen, but they have not fallen beyond the reach of grace. They are blind, however, their blindness is not permanent. They have stumbled, but not to the point that they are past recovery.
3. THE LORD PRESERVED FOR HIMSELF A REMNANT.
Back now to Romans 11:2-4, “ … you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah–how he appealed to God against Israel: ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me’? And what was God’s answer to him? ‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’”
No doubt, one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament was the Prophet Elijah. The brother had some kind of power with God. Anyway, even prophets can have a bad day. In one of the accounts of his life, we find him on the run from the wrath of the wicked Queen of the east — Jezebel. She had put a contract out on the fellow’s life. He was wanted dead or alive.
Finally, depressed and exhausted, the prophet cried out to God, “Lord they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me” (1 Kings 19:18). Given the circumstances, the prophet concluded that he was the only person left in Israel who believed in God.
What did the Lord say? He told Elijah that he wasn’t the last of God’s people left on the earth. In fact, God had seven thousand believers who had not turned to idol worship. That may not have been a large number, but it was a faithful “remnant.”
Have you ever felt as if you were the only one left serving the Lord? You aren’t alone! When we think this way, we overestimate our importance and underestimate God’s power. God always has his remnant in places we might least expect.
- The Prophet Isaiah named his child, “a remnant will return” (Isaiah 7:3).
- Jeremiah wrote of God as one who “will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them” (Jeremiah 23:3).
- And the Prophet Micah recorded God saying, “I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people”(Micah 2:12).
The point? God will always have His people. Even today, as hard as it is to believe, God has a remnant of Jews who love Him and are intent on serving Him.
THIS IS MY ANNUAL MISSIONS MESSAGE. AND I HAVE SHARED WHAT I HAVE SHARED THIS MORNING TO GET TO THIS POINT: HOW CAN ONE LEAD A JEWISH PERSON TO FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST?
1. PRAY. Remember the passionate prayers of Paul for the people of Israel. Begin there. Pray.
2. SHARE YOUR FAITH. After Paul tells of his burden and prayers for the Jews in Romans 10, he goes on to say, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That promise applies to Jew and Gentile alike. Paul then continues, Romans 10:14 (Contemporary English Version), “How can people have faith in the Lord and ask him to save them, if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear, unless someone tells them?”
One of my best friends is a Jew. He is also an Assemblies of God pastor. Greg was an officer in the Air Force when he came to faith in Jesus Christ. A friend simply invited him to go to church with him. He eventually did and as a result, he got saved. Besides being a successful pastor, today Greg is working on his doctorate in Hebrew Studies.
Over the past two weeks, I have personally lead four people to receive Christ. People are hungry to hear about Jesus. You don’t have to be pushy, judgmental, argumentative, or obnoxious. As the Apostle Paul says, just tell them. Share your testimony. Love them. Invite them to church.
No doubt, some of you encounter Jewish people at work, maybe in college, or as my friend – in the military. Wherever, simply share your faith. It’s okay. Just do it.
3. MAKE THEM JEALOUS.
Romans 11:11 (Contemporary English Version) states, “Do I mean that the people of Israel fell, never to get up again? Certainly not! Their failure made it possible for the Gentiles to be saved, AND THIS WILL MAKE THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL JEALOUS.”
If an unsaved Jew visited the average church service, would he/she be provoked to jealousy and wish he/she had what we have—or would the person just be provoked?
Think about this. One of the reasons that the Lord gave you and me the Gospel as Gentiles was to make Jewish unbelievers jealous. He wants our Jewish friends to see our love, our joy, the peace that lives in our hearts, our passion for Jesus Christ, and to be envious of what we have! Do you have the sort of victorious life that others would be jealous of what you have?
There was a soldier who was severely wounded in battle. Seeing what had happened, a chaplain rushed over and began to care for the fellow. He stayed with him when the remainder of the troops retreated. In the heat of the day he gave him water from his own canteen. During the night, he covered the soldier with his coat, and eventually wrapped him in even more of his clothes to save him from the cold.
In the end the wounded man looked up at the chaplain and asked, “You’re a Christian, aren’t you?” “I try to be,” said the chaplain. “Then,” said the wounded man, “if Christianity makes a man do for another man what you have done for me, tell me about it, because I want it.” Christianity in action moved him to envy a faith which could produce a life like that.
AS I WRAP THIS UP, I WANT TO SAY, TODAY, ISRAEL IS IN A FALLEN STATE SPIRITUALLY.
However, the Jewish people are going to come to once again see and receive their Messiah – the Lord Jesus Christ. According to the Old testament Prophet Zechariah, Israel shall see Him as He returns, recognize Him as their Messiah, repent, and receive Him. Listen to Zechariah 12:10 (New Living Translation), “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.”
No matter how far Israel may stray from the truth of God, the roots are still good. God is still the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” He will keep His promises to these ancient fathers. Israel is going to be restored!
So, CAN ISRAEL BE SAVED? THE ANSWER IS YES!
