5 - Matthew 24 - Standing with Israel

We have been grafted into the faith.  The story of God unfolds in every lifetime…He has orchestrated a redemption, and we have a place in that continuum.  We have a role in the story of God redeeming the earth. Israel is about God making a choice.  Israel is about God making a covenant.  The issue of Israel is the very issue of God.

 

I. ISRAEL IS THE CENTER PIECE

 

Matthew 24

15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.

 

A.   As we look into the scriptures, it’s so important that we always look for the context for fulfillment.  During the 7 year tribulation, specifically at the 3.5 year check point the antichrist be revealed and set himself in the Temple (Jerusalem) and declare himself to be God.  The Jerusalem Temple will be the site of the abomination of desolation.  The good news is that we won’t have to guess anymore!

 

Matthew 24

32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

 

B.    Jesus wants us to know the times and seasons.  He points to the prophetic picture of Israel as the interpretive key.  Our boss is probably not the antichrist!  Again, America is not the center of the story.  Israel is the very issue of God being God.  He has chosen a people and made a covenant.  This is the issue of His name. 

 

Jeremiah 24

3 And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

4 Then the word of the Lord came to me: … 6 I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

 

C.    The purpose of God is eternally linked to His choice and salvation of Israel.  The purpose of God must be fulfilled…His Word must come to pass. 

 

Romans 11

29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

 

D.   To comprehend the end, we have to go back to the beginning.  The end was declared in the very beginning, and every part will be fulfilled.  Every detail will come to pass just as the Lord declared it.

 

II. THE BEGINNING

 

A.   Genesis 1 — six days of creation … man being the crown jewel of all creation. Genesis 2 — God gives man clear boundaries. Gen. 3 — Man yields to Satan’s temptation … violates God’s clear command. Immediately when this occurs the Bible says: (1) “Their eyes were opened” and (2) “They hid themselves from God.”  [“Eyes being opened” means that they were suddenly aware of things God never intended them to be aware of. They became distracted. Prior to their act of disobedience they were single-minded – possessed “doves eyes” – once distracted they became ashamed and hid from God’s presence. 

 

B.    Even in this first account, the end-time drama is unfolded. God releases His strategy to redeem man at the very beginning.  Salvation is not an afterthought.  The details have been decided upon from the very beginning. 

 

Genesis 3

15 And I (The Father) will put enmity (definition: extreme ill will or hatred that exists between enemies) between you (Satan) and the woman (Israel), and between your seed (the Antichrist) and her (Israel) Seed (Jesus); He (Jesus) shall bruise your head (the Cross), and you (Satan) shall bruise His (Jesus) heel.

 

C.    This is a remarkable statement – in fact – it’s actually a prophetic word that has critical end-time implications. It’s a companion verse to Revelation 12. Here’s the interesting point: from the very moment man stepped over the line in disobedience – God began to formulate a plan to repair the damage. This was divine damage control at its finest.

 

D.   Jesus bruising Satan’s head started at the cross (1 Cor. 2:7-8) and will find its ultimate fulfillment at the conclusion of the Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 20:10).

                       

III. GOD MAKES A COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM

 

A.   Genesis 12:1-3, biblical scholars have stated, is one of the great transitional verses in scripture. Why?  After all the damage that was done in the garden and the ground that was lost – we now see God Himself initiating a plan to repair the damage. This verse describes both the methodology and the stated intentions of God to (1) repair the fall and (2) redeem mankind. This is really great news for mankind.

 

Genesis 12

1Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

 

B.    Malcolm Hedding (President of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem) – “A Jew is simply a Gentile whom God has set apart for the purpose of world redemption. 

 

C.    Remember God prophesied in Gen. 3:15 that the “Seed of the woman” would ultimately serve as Satan’s undoing and bring final judgment to the “serpent.” In order for that to happen their had to be a starting point. Israel’s starting point began when God appeared to a man named Abram (“the father is exalted” – later changed to Abraham – “the father of a multitude”) and called him to father a great nation that would touch the ends of the earth.

 

At least 179 Jews and persons of half- or three-quarters-Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize,1 accounting for 22% of all individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and 2009, and constituting 36% of all US recipients during the same period. 

·      The invention of local anesthesia by Carl Koller and the discovery of Novocaine by Alfred Einhorn.

·      The isolation and development of penicillin by Sir Ernst Chain. 

·      The invention of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) by Charles Gerhardt. 

·      The invention of cancer chemotherapy by Louis Goodman, Alfred Gilman, and Sidney Farber

·      The development of AZT, protease inhibitors, and other drugs used in the treatment of AIDS by Jerome Horwitz, Samuel Broder, and Irving Sigal. 

·      The breaking of the genetic code by Marshall Nirenberg. 

·      The invention of the sonogram by Robert Rines.

·      The co-invention of LASIK eye surgery by Samuel Blum (together with Rangaswamy Srinivasan+ and James Wynne+).  

·      The invention of the Heimlich Maneuver by Henry Heimlich.

·      The co-invention of the basic technique used worldwide for the controlled chlorination of drinking water supplies by Abel Wolman. 

 

The population of the world is a little under 7 billion people. Of these, about 0.2% (two tenths of one percent) are Jewish.

 

Genesis 15

9So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; … 11And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram …

           

D.   The vultures here are a prophetic picture of the difficulty and harassment that Israel could expect to deal with as long as she was God’s chosen vessel to bring salvation to a fallen world. The Pharaoh of Egypt’s attempted genocide left him a destroyed nation and a dead heir to his throne. Haman’s murderous decree to slaughter all the Jews living in Persia earned him the very gallows that he had hoped to murder an innocent Jewish man named Mordecai. Throughout Israel’s 4,000 year history many have arrived on the seen with the intention of utterly destroying the Jewish people and had it not been for God’s promise to preserve this people they would have disappeared many centuries ago. God is faithful to perform His Word.

 

7And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. (Genesis 17:7 – Also see  Genesis 17:8; Jeremiah 32:40; Ezekiel 37:26-28)

 

IV. GOD MAKES A COVENANT WITH THE LAND

 

A.   Jerusalem is as much in the heart of God as the Jewish people.  He will come and reconcile the very land. 

 

Zechariah 8

2 I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; with great fervor (burning desire) I am zealous for her…

 

Isaiah 62

4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,  but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; 
for the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.

 

B.    The centerpiece of God’s eternal purpose is for Jesus to come back to fully establish His Kingdom rule over all the earth as He joins the heavenly and earthly realms together (Eph 1:9).  He will come and marry the land.  He will come and rejoice over the land.

 

C.    Scripture is clear when the Messiah reigns – he will reign from the City of David – Jerusalem, the Messianic Kingdom/Millennial reign will be from Jerusalem.

 

Matthew 23

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

 

D.   Because Jesus has committed himself to returning as King of the Jews to rule the earth from Jerusalem, Satan has committed himself to destroying the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. If Satan can annihilate the Jews, or keep them offended at Jesus he can prove God a liar and ensure his own survival. Satan is not cast into prison until after the battle for Jerusalem is won and under Jesus’ leadership (Rev. 19:11-20)

 

Isaiah 49

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.

 

V. HERESY AND REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY

 

A.   Most Believers in the western church have been influenced to minimize Israel’s redemptive role by buying into a false teaching know as “Replacement Theology.”

 

B.    REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY: This view teaches that because of Israel’s refusal to walk in God’s call and redemptive purposes (i.e. rejection of their Messiah) – God decided to cancel all the covenants and promises and has transferred those over to the (predominately) Gentile Church. Thus the Church has effectively replaced Israel and become the beneficiary of all her promises and blessings.

 

C.    This false doctrine has done much harm as it either minimizes or in some cases negates Israel’s key redemptive role assignment. The attempt to spiritualize scriptures and transfer the Jewish covenants to a predominately Gentile Church has been disastrous and brought great division to the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul was adamant that God had not replace Israel.

 

Romans 11:1-2

I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! … God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.

 

D.   Paul’s cry for the Gentile Church to acknowledge Israel’s future destiny in God was rooted in strong biblical fact not just Paul’s religious or personal sentiment for the Jewish people. The word “Israel” is mentioned 2567 times in scripture. With one debatable exception–everywhere that term is mentioned it is referring to the Jewish people.

 

E.    Replacement Theology does violence to: (1) Word of God (2) the Jewish people (3) Gentile believers (4) the character of God.

 

Romans 11

11 I (Paul) say then, have they (Jewish people) stumbled that they should fall (the inference here is the false accusation that the Jewish people because of past failures have been spiritually disqualified)? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. 13For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

 

F.    Our role, our reconciliation is to provoke Israel to jealousy.  Our charismatica will never provoke them to jealousy.  Our hot dog rallies will never provoke Israel to jealousy.  Our sentimental services will never awaken a Nation.  I wonder what it will take?  I wonder what kind of demonstration the church must make to provoke Israel to jealousy?

 

VI. ISRAEL’S END TIME CRISIS

 

A.   Israel’s future is sobering.  There has never been a time, and never will be again, of such distress on the nation. Over and over again, this is prophesied.  Over and over again, this is decreed. 

 

Jeremiah 30

5“For thus says the Lord: ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask now, and see whether a man is ever in labor with child?  So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor and all faces turned pale. 7 Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it (to be “saved out” is not the same reality of being “saved from”).

 

B.    The prophetic church…the church that stands in agreement with God’s end-time purpose for Israel, will also have trouble.  This will be the demonstration required to provoke a people to their God.

 

Revelation 12

1Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman (Israel) clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars (Gen. 37:9). 2Then being with child (Jesus) …3And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon (Satan) … And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child (Jesus) as soon as it was born (Herod’s wicked decree). 5She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron (Ps. 2). And her Child was caught up to God and His throne (Satan bruises Jesus’ heel – crucifixion – Jesus bruises Satan’s head – resurrection) — (2,000 year time gap) — 6Then the woman (Jewish remnant) fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days (this number always represents the period from the Abomination of Desolation to the rapture of the Church)… 15So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16But the earth helped the woman…17And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, (the church) who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

C.    God prophetically sets the stage for a 6,000-year drama that will eventually draw the full attention of every human alive on the planet. There will be no innocent bystanders in this drama. Every single person will declare their allegiance, will have a strategic role to play, and will be fully engaged in either promoting righteousness or wickedness.

 

VII.  5 KEY EVENTS

 

A.   Five of the most significant, prophetic, political events happen suddenly in the last 2,000 years. Four of five of these events I have listed on the handout are happening right now in this generation. For 2,000 years, zero of five of these events happened. Then suddenly in one generation, four of the five events come to pass; undoubtedly, the fifth one will come to pass as well. 

 

FIRST AND SECOND EVENTS: REBIRTH OF ISRAEL AND RECAPTURING OF JERUSALEM                   

The first event is the rebirth of the nation of Israel (May 15, 1948). Event number two is the recapturing of

Jerusalem during the Six Day War (June, 1967). For the Jews to have control of the city of Jerusalem is a critical part of prophecy because a lot of the Old Testament prophets said the Jews had to be in the city, and that they would be surrounded by the nations. One of the famous prophecies is that the nations of the world would surround the city of Jerusalem to wipe out the Jews. The Jews have to be in Jerusalem to be surrounded by the nations.

 

THIRD EVENT: JERUSALEM WILL BE THE CENTER OF WORLD CONTROVERSY         

The third event is that Jerusalem would be at the center of world controversy (Zech. 12:1-3; 14:1-3). In 70 AD when they were disbanded, Jerusalem became a very second-class city. In 1850 or 1860, Mark Twain visited Jerusalem and wrote a famous report, which is referred to often in commentaries. He said that Jerusalem was beaten down, dirty, and poor; it was a third-world city. There was very little population in the city. However, the prophets said that the city of Jerusalem would be the number one city; it would be the greatest source of controversy, and Israel would be in the news. There is no city in the news like Jerusalem. For 2,000 years, you could not get any news report on Jerusalem. Suddenly, Jerusalem is in the center of world controversy. You cannot just be the number one most controversial city on the earth because you choose it to be. Who would choose it? But, you cannot make the nations of the world be galvanized in their thinking and concern about Jerusalem—a particularly small city that for over 2,000 years had almost no population in it. There was no economic base; nothing was in the city that was of interest to most people except for some holy sites. 

 

FOURTH EVENT: ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION                                                         

The fourth significant political event that must happen is the establishment of the European Union in the same territory as the ancient Roman Empire. The book of Daniel is clear about the Roman Empire. But from 500 to 1,000 years, the Roman Empire existed (depending upon how you defined it). What Daniel said was the Roman Empire was going to go away, which was basically the Mediterranean area and Europe. In the generation that the Messiah would come, the Roman Empire would come together as an empire. They would be gathered together as a unified empire. Beloved, that is happening right now as we are talking. 

The next thing that has to happen is that an international leader (the Antichrist) will be in the unique position to establish a peace treaty with Israel and the Middle East in order to bring world peace. Four of these five events have occurred, so Europe will soon be unified. Thus, the most significant, political, prophetic events in the last 2,000 years are occurring in this generation. 

 

FIFTH EVENT: EUROPE WILL SOON BE UNIFIED                                                                                

The fifth one: Europe will be unified, and that is the one we are waiting for. These five events are very hard to imagine happening, especially after we experienced almost 2,000 years of a national political drought. The Roman Empire has not existed; they have tried to conquer Europe for 2,000 to 1,500 years. They have tried to revive the Roman Empire. No leader has ever been able to pull it off. 

 

VIII. AGREEING WITH HEAVEN NOW

 

A.   So now what?  How do we stand with Israel?  How do we love her?  How do we provoke her?  Is  this for a special, elite kind of Christian?  By no means is this for the elite… Standing with Israel is for all of us who think upon the Lord.  We are simply called to love what He loves.  We are called to cooperate with Him.

 

Isaiah 62

6 On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance,
take no rest,
7 and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem
and makes it a praise in the earth.

 

B.    What are we to pray? 

 

Psalm 122:6-9

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “may they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.” For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, “Peace be within you.” Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good.

 

C.    Spiritual Peace

This is the ultimate goal of our prayers. (Romans 5:1).We must understand that none in Israel will find true and lasting peace until they turn to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Our greatest prayer should be for the spiritual peace of the nation of Israel knowing that they are beloved because of the fathers (Rom 11:28) yet are right now, enemies for our sake.

 

D.   Political Peace

We should also pray for peace in the political arena. Ultimate political peace will only come when Jesus is the political leader of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom. For the time being, we should pray for the safety of believers from the threat of terrorism and the protection of the people from political aggressors who are seeking to “wipe them off the face of the earth.”  We do not promote the political agenda of secular politicians but we do not agree with politics that seeks to destroy the Jewish nation.