Tag: Scripture

The Three Israels – Part 3: Modern Israel

The Three Israels – Part 3: Modern Israel

In light of current events, it seems pertinent to share a set of three sermons I preached during the Autumn of 2023, on the Biblical, Historical, and Modern meanings of the name “Israel.”

This is the third and final message dealing with “Modern Israel.”

Part 1: Biblical Israel, can be found HERE.

Part 2: Historical Israel, can be found HERE.

If you prefer – the audio of this sermon can be found at the following SoundCloud link:

This audio version was originally written and preached for Dailey Chapel Christian Church, on October 29, 2023. The following transcript has been minimally updated since then.

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Our message for today, begins with a story. It’s a story that I never knew about, until almost a year ago, so I’ve been waiting to tell it for a while. Almost two years ago, after church one morning, Mike Lunsford handed me a really thick book. It was a thousand-pager. And he challenged me to read it before I got done preaching through the Book of Romans.

I said, “Challenge accepted.”

I was probably only in Chapter 2 or 3 of Romans at the time, so I don’t know if Mike realized this then, but it was easy for me to accept his challenge, because I knew it was going to be a few years before we would even be close to getting all the way through Romans. I had some time to procrastinate, so the book sat on my shelf for quite a while before I cracked it open.

Then, when Nelly and I were dating, we read it together. I would read a chapter and record it on my phone, and then email her the file, so she could listen to the audio on her earbuds while she was at work. And sometimes she would do that on her off time as well – read and send me the audio.

We’ve been doing that ever since. And we’ve gone through several books this way, including, eventually, this thousand-pager that Lunsford provided. So, anyway, I have to give credit where it is due – if it wasn’t for Mike, we probably would have never picked this particular book to read, and we wouldn’t have discovered this amazing story that it contains.

It’s a story about a 33-year-old farmer from Missouri – a Baptist, born in the grain belt, who would one day change the whole world. That was the hook that got me past the first 20-30 pages of this book. Some of my favorite stories are ones about farmers that change the world, or even save the galaxy – that’s what Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and even Superman are all about you know – they’re all about farmers that do amazing things. And that’s what this story is about as well. Except this story is a true one, about a true man.

Now, this particular farmer from Missouri was born way back in 1884. So, by the time he was 33 it was 1917. And, if you didn’t sleep through your High School history class, then you know that 1917 was a pivotal year on planet Earth – it was a difficult time. So that Summer, this farmer left the fields behind, and reported for duty at the National Guard. Like many Americans at the time, he was answering the call of President Woodrow Wilson, to go fight in Europe – to win “the war to end all wars,” and make the world safe for democracy.

But, before this farmer went off to France, he had to go through training first, so they sent him to Camp Doniphan, on the wind-swept plains of Oklahoma. Back in those days, officers were elected by the men in their companies, and he was very popular, and well liked, so as soon as he enlisted, he was elected to be first lieutenant. The farmer had become a soldier 

He was Harry S. Truman of the 129th Field Artillery of the 60th Brigade attached to the 35th Division of the United States Army.

And at camp Doniphan, his commanding officer put this bright young man, with an aptitude for organization and detail – in charge of the canteen. 

Now, army canteens back then were ways for the troops to purchase items that were not part of their standard issued supplies – things like paper, and smokes, and soda, and candy and that kind of stuff – non-essential items that troops could buy if they had someone in charge of the canteen who was good at keeping it stocked and organized and running smoothly.

And this is the kind of thing that Truman excelled at. He was great at looking at things that were in a state of disorder, or not running as efficiently as they could be, sizing them up accurately, and implementing plans to improve them, or put them in order. And he was also good at finding the right people to help him execute his plans.

So, he utilized all his innate talent in running the army canteen. It was, by no means a prestigious position – but it’s what he was assigned to, so he gave it everything he had. He quickly discovered, that army canteens could actually be quite profitable if the right person was running them, because it was like being a middle man between the civilian suppliers of goods, and the soldiers who had money to spend. The guy running the canteen could buy things cheap, mark things up a little, and make some profit.

To do this, Lieutenant Truman brought on a partner to help with the finances. He was Sergeant Edward Jacobson. Jacobson, you can probably tell from his last name, was a Jew. He was from New York, but his family had moved to Missouri in 1905 – that’s how he ended up in the same army camp as Truman.

I hope no one takes this as racist, but Truman recognized what all of us know – that Jews tend to be pretty good at making money. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. In fact, I’m of the opinion that it’s one of the gifts that God bestowed on them as a people, so that they would be able to survive and thrive as foreigners and strangers among the nations of the world.

So anyway, Truman appreciated this quality, and he partnered up with Jacobson, and the two not only became extremely successful business partners, but life-long friends as well. By all accounts, Jacobson was Truman’s best friend, they were like brothers, and they remained so until Jacobson’s death in 1955.

It’s this deep bond of friendship, between the Baptist Farmer and the Jewish Businessman, and more specifically, the respect and trust they had for one another, that lies at the center of this story, and which would eventually have an impact on world history about 30 years after it had an impact on the quality of canteen supplies at Camp Doniphan.

Now, we’re going to come back to Truman and Jacobson in just a bit, but for now, we need to talk about something else that was happening, in the meantime, as 1917 progressed into 1918 and WWI began grinding to a halt. But before we talk about that, so we can get back to Truman and Jacobson, we need to briefly address why we’re talking about this subject at all.

The last couple of weeks, as we’ve been working through Romans Chapter 11, we’ve been talking about the name Israel a lot. Israel being the main subject matter of Romans 9, 10, and 11. And so, as we’ve been working our way toward the end of this middle section of Romans, we’ve been examining what exactly the name Israel means. This name Israel is used in three different ways – I call them the Three Israels: Biblical Israel, Historical Israel, and Modern Israel. Two weeks ago, we started this topic by defining the name Israel from a purely Biblical perspective.

What’s Israel mean in the Bible?

In the Old Testament, it was the people that God chose for Himself out of all nations on the Earth, to lead into the Promised Land through Moses. God built a physical kingdom and named it Israel, after the name He gave to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham.

When Jesus arrived, centuries later, and made a New Covenant. His death and resurrection re-defined the name Israel to include people of all nations who put their faith in him. His sacrifice tore the veil in the Temple apart, and made access to God available to all people who believe in Jesus – and ONLY to people who put their faith and trust in him and follow him.

That’s Biblical Israel – the Israel that we have been transplanted into as citizens of God’s Kingdom, the Israel that will never end and extend into eternity.

But what about those from the people of Israel who didn’t accept Jesus as the Christ? What about them? This is what Paul is addressing in this whole section of Romans – what about the Jews who reject Christ? This is the Israel that we talked about last week, in part two of this three-part sub-series. This is what I call Historical Israel.

They are the Israel that Paul says, was pruned out of the Olive Tree. They took a different path through history, but have none-the-less kept their racial identity, kept their loyalty to the Old Testament (to varying degrees, depending on which specific Jewish denomination they belong to), and they are the Israel that has survived being hunted, corralled, persecuted, and nearly made extinct throughout the last 2,000 years, beginning with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. It’s Historical Israel whose history we surveyed, and I summarized very briefly last week, even though, that was kind of a long sermon.

It’s historical Israel that Jesus prophesied about in Luke 21:20-24:

“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

That’s Jesus prophesying about the path of Historical Israel – from the Roman destruction of Jerusalem onward, down through the ages. This prophesy has been repeating itself over and over throughout the history of the Jews. The Romans did terrible things to them and trampled on Jerusalem 30 or 40 years after Jesus said this, but many other countries have done these things as well in the intervening centuries. Just as Jesus said, Jerusalem was given over to the Gentiles…

It was given over to the Gentiles, until recently in world history. Now, we’re treading on shaky ground here, because the Jews are in charge of Jerusalem again, but even though they technically have the city, there is still a mosque and a Muslim shrine sitting on the Temple Mount. So, the Gentiles still have a little bit of a foothold, but it’s a close call.

And this brings us to what I call the third manifestation of Israel – the Israel we are talking about today in part three – the modern State of Israel which exists on the Earth today, and which we hear about in the news on a daily basis. Where did it come from? Between the year 70, and the year 1948 there was, technically speaking, no country on the world map called Israel. So, how did it re-appear after so many centuries?

Was the nation of Israel created in 1948 or was it re-created?

Is this Israel the same Israel that was there before, or is it something different?

Was it brought about by the will of God, or the decisions and actions of human beings, or both?

Does the fact that the Jews are almost completely in charge of Jerusalem mean that the times of the Gentiles are almost fulfilled?

The answers to these questions are an endless topic of debate, even among Christian scholars. They’re ultimately a matter of belief.

Many Jews would say that this Israel today is the same one that existed when Joshua led the Israelites over the Jordan River three or four thousand years ago. Many Christians would agree with them. However, many other Christians would not agree with them. It’s a matter of debate and belief, and whatever one believes about this specific topic, it should not be something to ever break fellowship over. The Church has, over the centuries, become too divided already over opinions that are non-essential to the truth of the Gospel. So, it’s OK to have different opinions and convictions about this particular subject, because there is still an element of mystery to it.

But whatever we believe about it – we still have to deal with the fact that there is a very real country on this globe, with the name Israel, and it is governed by, and primarily populated with, Jewish people.

It’s populated with Jewish people who can trace their collective ancestry, back through history, back to the people who once lived in the land of Judea when Jesus walked the Earth, and further back to their ancestors like King David who ruled in Jerusalem, and further back to those who crossed the Jordan River, and further back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So, how did this modern nation, this political entity baring the name Israel – a name that conjures up all this rich Biblical and extra-biblical history – come to exist?

Well, it goes back to what happened at the end of WWI. At the end of WWI, the British, having defeated the Ottoman Empire (if you want to know how that happened you can watch Lawrence of Arabia). But the British defeated the Ottoman Turks, who had been allied with Germany. And that brought to an end, 400 years of Turkish Muslim rule over the land that had been known as Israel at one time. 

It wasn’t called Israel anymore, and hadn’t been for almost 2,000 years. The Romans had renamed it Syria-Palestine, when they drove the Jews out in the second century. And the name stuck. By the way, if you’ve ever wondered where they got the name Palestine, it’s just the Latin for Philistine.

There were Jews and “Philistinians” fighting in Gaza 3,000 years ago. David killed Goliath on the border of Israel and Gaza. The people living there today are not the same people that lived back then, and we can’t lump all Palestinians together, or all Israelis together either. There are Christian Palestinians, and Christian Israelis, just like there are Christian Texans and Christian Mexicans (for example). The conflict is much more complicated than just cowboys and Indians – good guys and bad guys. But still, the fighting over that particular piece of land is nothing new. As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

In any case, back to WWI…

By that time, Israel/Palestine had been through the hands of several Muslim empires, known as caliphates, ever since about A.D. 635. During which time, smaller communities of Jews had been slowly migrating back into the region, and back to Jerusalem, just as there were other groups of Jews migrating to other places, and settling in other countries across the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Europe.

The Jews who migrated back to Palestine, and those living under Islamic caliphates, were generally well treated by the Muslim kingdoms they lived in, and that was no different with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire rose to power in 1299, took over rule of Palestine in the early 1500s, and they had controlled it ever since, until the end of WWI.

By 1900, the Ottoman Empire was huge, and it controlled a vast area of the Middle East. And when it was defeated along with the rest of the Central Powers in WWI, the British and the French took control of all that territory, and with the help of Woodrow Wilson, they carved up the Middle East like a Thanksgiving turkey without any regard for the local inhabitants of places like Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.

All the tribes in these places, had lived in relative peace for centuries under Ottoman rule. That was no longer the case when Britian, France, and the U.S started running the ballgame.

Most of the problems that exist in the Middle East today, can be traced directly to the creation of all these artificial state boundaries that never existed before, and which completely disregarded the culture of the people living in those places.

Imagine it like this. Say that we have a chili-cook off here at church, and every family brings in their own pot of chili…

I use chili for this analogy because, when it comes to chili, everyone has their own recipes and individual styles. If 20 people make chili, we’ll have 21 different kinds of chili. So, say we have 20 pots of chili simmering in crock-pots all nice and neat, in the social room here at church.

And then, while we’re all having church, Big Bad Dom Nepote wanders off into the social room, pulls out a huge hundred-gallon pot, and proceeds to dump everyone’s chili into that, stir it all together, and then put it all back into the crock-pots, and come back and sit down as if nothing happened.

That’s what our government, along with the British and the French did to the Middle East after WWI. They were trying to make everything equal, and they were trying to create order out of a cultural situation that they didn’t understand – that looked like chaos, but it wasn’t. That caused them to rip apart the centuries of order and structure that were already there. So, they ended up creating disorder and chaos instead.

They couldn’t fathom the idea, that some people don’t like corn in their chili.

Some people don’t like beans in it.

Some like it spicy, and some don’t.

Texas makes chili one way, and Cincinnati makes it another.

So, the British and the French, thinking that all chili was the same thing, made a big chaotic stew that the people living in the Middle East – whether they happen to be Christian, Muslim, or Jew – have been trying to pick through ever since.

Now, what about the Jews? That’s the group we’re primarily concerned with at present. Well, the Jews, or Historical Israel as I refer to them, and as we surveyed last week, had been persecuted in just about every country of Eastern and Western Europe and Russia for almost 2,000 years.

So, in the late 1800s they were finally fed up, and they formed a peaceful, political movement, called the World Zionist Organization, whose stated intention was “to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.”[1]

They wanted to go back to the land of Israel, and form it into a modern nation. But they needed help to do this.

And after WWI, they had the British to help them. The British government was sympathetic to the Zionist movement, so after they took control of the land previously ruled by the Ottomans, including Palestine, they began laying the foundation for the establishment of a Jewish State.

But if this was going to happen, it was going to happen slowly. They weren’t very careful with the creation of the other Middle Eastern states, but they knew with this one, they had to be precise, and there was a lot of disagreement about it, even within Parliament. The British wanted to help, but they dragged their feet on it.

Then WWII happened, and when the whole world saw what the Nazis had done to the Jews, the process of creating a Jewish state was expedited. But by that time, it wasn’t solely a British decision any longer. After WWII it was in the hands of the newly formed United Nations. And the United Nations, at that time, looked to the United States for guidance and leadership.

So, that meant, that the creation of a Jewish state, was in the hands of an international organization that was looking, not just to the United States, but to the Executive Branch of the United States government for guidance and direction about what to do, and about whether or not to do it at all. If this new country was going to be formed, it couldn’t survive without support from the United States, and the President in particular.

Back to the story I started at the beginning of all this.

In all the intervening years between 1917 and 1947, when the U.N. was set to decide this matter – farmer, soldier, Harry S. Truman, had become President Truman. And President Truman wanted nothing to do with being involved in a such a monumental, world-altering decision. He believed it was right for the Jews to have their own country, but there was too much pressure on him to make a decision, in terms of he being the main guy to make it a reality.

He had pressure on him from the Arabs in the region who didn’t want a Jewish State, he had pressure from his own State Department that didn’t want us involved in creating a Jewish State. He had pressure from the British, pressure from the Jews, and pressure from the Christians in our country who supported the Jews.

By late 1947, Truman had been lobbied so vigorously and rudely by all these different groups, including prominent Jewish leaders, that he basically washed his hands of the whole thing, and told the U.N. to do whatever they wanted. He had become completely unapproachable on the issue of a Jewish homeland, and he would not take a single meeting with anyone who wanted to talk about it. Which meant, without U.S. leadership, it probably wouldn’t happen. 

And so, knowing they were nearly doomed, in a last-ditch effort, the most prominent Jewish leader alive at the time, the man with the most influence, who would become Israel’s first President – his name was Dr. Chaim Weizmann – he flew to America to talk to the President.

And Truman knew this man really well, and respected him, but he refused to talk, even to him.

There was only one person in the world that could talk to Harry Truman about this, in that crucial moment of all moments for the Jews, and it was his old friend Eddie Jacobson.

So, one morning, Jacobson flew in from Kansas City, and as the story goes, he walked into the Oval Office, completely unannounced – as only he could – and he had an honest chat with his friend.

At this point, there’s a lot more details that I don’t have time to tell, but when it was all said and done, his friend had convinced him to meet the Jewish leader Chaim Weizmann, and afterwards, the President made it known to the entire world, with all the authority of his office, that he would support the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine, and that it would have the full backing of the United States.

The U.N. voted, and passed the resolution in November of 1947, and on May 14, 1948, Israel declared its sovereignty. 12 minutes later, the United States became the first nation to recognize them, and a few minutes after that, the other world superpower – the Soviet Union – recognized them as well. At that point, it was a done deal, at least for the Jews.

The modern State of Israel, though primarily populated with “historical Israel,” cannot be exactly the same, because there are non-Jewish people also living within its borders. And it’s definitely not the same thing as Biblical Israel – as part one of this series outlines very carefully.

Unfortunately, this modern manifestation of Israel has had nothing but war and terrorism ever since it’s formation.

And, if we take the prophecies in the Bible seriously, then the indication from Scripture, is that, that particular piece of land will continue to have war, and terrorism until the day, when a remnant of the Jewish people living there, will choose to call on the Son of God, the one whom their ancestors pierced on the hill of Golgotha outside of Jerusalem.

Those aren’t my words.

That’s not my prediction.

That comes from the prophet Zechariah, who wrote of a time, long in his future, a time that the world has still never seen – a time when the armies of the whole world would surround Jerusalem to finally see it destroyed. And when they do, he says:

“Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. It will be a unique day—a day known only to the LORD—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light. On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name” (Zechariah 14:3-9, NIV).

There will be peace one day in Jerusalem. But only when the King Returns. That’s how Zechariah puts it.

Paul says it like this, in Romans 11:25-29:

“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

Now, as we close this topic today, and as we close this section of Romans out, I’m not going to pretend that I understand what all this means. I don’t. Paul calls it a “mystery,” and seems to indicate that when our time is over – when there are no more Gentile Christians left on the earth – when we’ve all been hunted down and killed by the Beast… then, somehow, God will bring the survivors of Historical Israel, and the inhabitants of Modern Israel at that time, back into the Olive Tree of Biblical Israel.

There’s all manner of theories about that, but we don’t know for sure.

That seems to be what Paul is saying, in Romans 11. But, full disclosure, I don’t know for sure what he means. I’m patching together a series of different verses to come to that conclusion, but I don’t know for sure. I want to be clear about that. This is a really difficult topic to understand, even with Paul talking about it so much. And even so, I wish he’d given us just a little bit more. But I guess he said what he was supposed to say, and what God wanted him to say.

What we can be sure of, is what Zechariah boils down for us in verse 9 of that 14th Chapter:

“The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.”

As important as the name Israel is – as important as it is for us to understand what it means and how it’s used and what it really refers to… As much as we, as the Church, cannot escape our connection to the name Israel – Israel is not the name we revere above all other names.

Jesus Christ is the one we give that honor to.

To him, and him alone, be all the glory in Heaven, and on Earth.

I think that’s how we conclude this topic the best – by saying, whatever happens, however it goes down, whatever God has in mind for the Jews… Jesus is still the King. And that’s how Paul closes this subject as well – with a doxology, a praise to God, in the final verses of Chapter 11…

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?’ For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:33-36, NIV).

[1] See, “Zionism: World Zionist Organization (WZO),” at Jewish Virtual Library –

(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/world-zionist-organization-wzo)

All three of these chapters can be found in the second volume of Totally Righteous: 150 Sermons from Paul’s Letter to the Romans…

The Three Israels – Part 2: Historical Israel

The Three Israels – Part 2: Historical Israel

In light of current events, it seems pertinent to share a set of three sermons I preached during the Autumn of 2023, on the Biblical, Historical, and Modern meanings of the name “Israel.”

As the title suggests, this second message deals with “Historical Israel.”

Part 1: Biblical Israel, can be found HERE.

If you prefer – the audio of this sermon can be found at the following SoundCloud link:

This audio version was originally written and preached for Dailey Chapel Christian Church, on October 22, 2023. The following transcript has been minimally updated since then.

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Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been working through Romans Chapter 11 together. Chapter 11 is the last of the three middle chapters of Romans, where the Apostle Paul engages in an emotional discussion concerning the tragedy of the majority of the people of Israel rejecting and condemning the Messiah, who God had promised to them and their ancestors.

Because Israel is the main subject matter of this middle section of Romans, and because the name Israel is so important in the Bible, I actually decided several months ago when I was loosely outlining the sermons for this section, that I would devote some time to unpacking what the name Israel means – both how it is used within the Bible, as well as in history outside of Scripture, and how it’s used in the context of our modern world.

I had planned the overall topics of these messages well in advance of the tragic circumstances that occurred in the country of Israel, over the last couple of weeks. And, even though I would have been preaching about this subject anyway, if those terrible things had not occurred, I can still definitely say, that these events, even as they continue to unfold in front of the whole world, have certainly underscored the importance of talking about this subject, and reminded me of the necessity for us Christians to understand what the name Israel means.

I said this last week a couple of times – as Christians, we cannot escape our connection to the name Israel. One of the main points of New Testament theology, is that the Church has been spiritually grafted into the “Olive Tree,” which is Paul’s metaphor for Israel in Romans Chapter 11. 

Even though Israel was the name of God’s Kingdom in the Old Testament period that applied specifically to the Jewish people, the New Testament redefines the name Israel to include people of all nations and races who follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And it also redefines the name Israel to exclude all the Jews who rejected Christ as the Messiah. This is what Paul discusses in Romans Chapter 11, but this idea is not limited to just Paul’s writings. 

This is why, for instance, when James opens his letter to the Church, he addresses it: “To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations…” 

This is why Peter addresses the Church in his 1st Letter, by applying to us the same blessing that God spoke to the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai – telling the Church that we are:

“a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1st Peter 2:9, NIV).

As Christians, we cannot escape our connection to the name Israel, because through Christ, we have become a part of what the New Testament defines as the people of Israel.

So, the Biblical definition of Israel, as I said last week, has been narrowed in one sense, to include only those who are saved through Jesus Christ, but also, in another way, widened to include people of all tribes, nations, and languages who accept him. 

This narrowing and widening, together, have made God’s grace and mercy more accessible to people – and whoever does accept it, is part of what we call Biblical Israel. Now, I also said last week, that Biblical Israel is only one definition of the name Israel, and that there are actually three definitions of what constitutes Israel. 

I refer to them as Biblical Israel, Historical Israel, and Modern Israel. These are three different manifestations of Israel, each of them a separate entity, and yet, inescapably tied together in some very real ways that cannot be denied.

Last week, I spent the majority of time discussing Biblical Israel – which is what I just briefly summarized. Biblical Israel was the physical kingdom of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, that was ultimately fulfilled through the death and resurrection of Jesus – and now includes anyone who has put their faith him as Lord and Savior. 

Biblical Israel are the people who inhabit God’s Kingdom, which is a spiritual reality that exists in the world today. On this side of the grave, the Kingdom is invisible. But it becomes visible and tangible through the people of God, through Biblical Israel, when we live according to the example and teachings of Christ and the Apostles. 

But that’s not the only definition of Israel. Paul talks about another Israel in Romans 9, 10, and 11. This is what I call, for the purposes of our discussion, Historical Israel. Paul doesn’t label them the same way; he calls both Biblical and Historical Israel – Israel. Which makes his whole discourse in Romans 9, 10, and 11 a little confusing for us if we’re not paying close attention to what he’s saying. But what he’s saying constitutes a description of two Israels. 

There is a vast majority of unfaithful Jews who rejected Christ, and then there is the Church which includes a minority of faithful Jews which are referred to as the remnant. These are the two Israels that Paul talks about in this middle section of the letter, even though he calls them both Israel. So, the unfaithful majority that Paul describes, is what I call Historical Israel. 

This is what we’re going to talk about for most of this message. It’s this Israel, the people who rejected Christ, that Paul is so torn up about in this middle section of Romans. In 9:3-5 he says:

“I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; 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 the Messiah…”

In the first verse of Chapter 10, Paul goes on to say that his:

“heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” In 11:23 he says, that even though they have been broken off of the Olive Tree, “if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”

So, Paul has some hope for his people, even though in the first century, by rejecting Christ, many of them were pruned off from Biblical Israel, and began a long dark journey down another road, through history. And as we survey their history down that dark road, we should try to do so, with Paul’s attitude in mind – with hope, that there is a light at the end of their darkness.

It’s with this attitude in mind, that Paul encourages the Gentiles he’s writing to in Romans 11 to not be arrogant about their acceptance of Christ, and to not have an attitude of superiority toward the Jews who rejected Christ. He says in 11:30-31 that:

“Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.”

This is the kind of attitude we should have, as we survey Jewish history. The proper Christian attitude toward the Jews has always been, and should always remain, an attitude of humility and mercy. Unfortunately, it took the Church some time to learn this, historically speaking.

For much of Jewish history, sadly, they did not have the mercy and humility of the Church on their side. Many times, they had the opposite. Many times, they badly needed the mercy of Christians, and it was nowhere to be found. That’s something to keep in mind as well. The Jews have a deep memory, and they are well aware of the terrible things that were done to them in the past, by so-called “Christians.” 

As Christians today – we should know the darkness of Church history, and how that history has often been antagonistic to the Jews, rather than sympathetic. We need to be aware of that, so that we can separate Christian history, from so-called “Christian” history. Both for ourselves, and for other people who don’t understand these distinctions.

Now, the history that we’re going to survey today is just a short summary, but it’s the best I can do, with the amount of time we have together. And I’m going to start with the history of the Jews after the events recorded in the Gospels, and after the birth of the Church.

Judea as the land of Israel was known at the time of Jesus, was still under Roman occupation while the New Testament was being written, and it would remain that way for about 600 years until the first Muslim armies conquered the area.

But during that 600-year period, and in particular the first 200 years after the birth of the Church, the Jews had an extremely tumultuous relationship with Rome. They fought three wars with the Romans in the first two centuries.

The first war began in A.D. 66, and lasted for eight years. There was a corrupt governor in charge of the region of Judea, who was way out of his league, didn’t understand the precarious nature of the relationship between the Jews and Romans, thought the Romans were superior to the Jews, and because of this he made some terrible blunders in his governance of the Jews.

His name was Gessius Florus, and he is one of the great political idiots of history. Definitely not the last. He levied unjust taxes, he seized money from the Temple treasury, and he arrested any Jewish leaders who he considered to be political opponents. Herod Agrippa II was the puppet king in charge of the Jewish monarchy at the time, but he wasn’t thought of as a political opponent, because he didn’t do anything except sit by and watch all the corruption, while stuffing his own pockets with whatever fell out of the coin purses of the Romans.

Incidentally, this is the same Herod that Paul shared the Gospel with in Acts chapters 25 and 26. But in any case, Agrippa didn’t intervene against Roman corruption which had gotten so bad by 66, that the Jews formed an armed resistance, stormed the Roman garrison in Jerusalem, and defeated them, causing Agrippa, the Roman governor, and the other officials to flee the city.

After that, the Romans tried to quell the rebellion by sending one of their top generals down from Syria with his army, which included the Roman 12th Legion, and they were all ambushed and completely annihilated. The Jews killed 6,000 Romans, and took the Roman Eagle – the Aquila— and destroyed it. This was a huge embarrassment to Rome. The 12th Legion was an elite unit, they had a very prestigious history and reputation, and were founded originally by Julius Caesar. The 12th Legion was like Seal Team Six. Getting destroyed by Jewish rebels would have been like Seal Team Six getting wrecked by a tribe of aborigines in the outback. So, when word got back to the emperor (who happened to be the infamous Nero at the time) that the 12th Legion was destroyed and the Eagle taken, he took it very personal.

In response to the uprising, Nero sent General Vespasian into Judea with four more legions, and even though Nero died before the conquest was completed, Vespasian and his son carried on the war, and by the end of it, Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple was in ruins, and the persecution of both Jews and Christians had become completely acceptable in the Empire. As far as we know, both Peter and Paul were executed by the Romans during this time.

So then, after the destruction of the Temple, in the next 60 years, there were two more revolts by the Jews. Both of them were more widespread, throughout the Empire, both ended badly for the Jews, and by the time those were put down, there was virtually nothing left of Jerusalem at all.

Emperor Hadrian who was emperor during the third revolt known as the Bar Kokba Revolt, basically bulldozed Jerusalem, renamed it, and started a new colony there. At least half a million Jews were killed under Hadrian’s rule, and those who survived were forced to completely leave all the larger cities and towns. Hadrian also had the entire Sanhedrin crucified, along with many prominent rabbis. He outlawed the Torah, made circumcision illegal, and did everything he could possibly do to erase the Jews from existence.

He obviously failed. But in the wake of his genocide, which is often considered to be the first holocaust – the Jews were almost completely, but not entirely pushed out of the land of Israel. They migrated toward the edges of the country, as well as to neighboring countries, and even to places like Persia (which is modern day Iraq and part of Iran) where there had been a sizeable Jewish community for hundreds of years – since the Babylonian Exile.

But, long story short, the Jews spread out – they went North, South, East, and West. As they had already learned to do for centuries, having been a displaced people for the majority of their history, they established thriving communities everywhere they went, they kept their racial identity together with very strict cultural guidelines based on the Old Testament Law, and they made the religion of Judaism extremely portable by establishing synagogues.

As the centuries progressed, and the western Roman empire disintegrated, there were various Jewish communities all around the Mediterranean and North Africa, all over Europe, and into Asia. And by the early Middle Ages, these communities, depending on exactly where they were located, fell under the dominion of two large civilizations – one controlled by Christendom, and the other by Islam.

I use the term “Christendom” here instead of Christianity, because much of what has been recorded in the history books about Christianity in the Middle Ages is not very Christian at all. It’s Christendom – which is the name for Christianity when it is completely disconnected from the spiritual reality of God’s Kingdom, and gets so intertwined with earthly government that it becomes just another type of empire. That’s what started happening to Christianity in the fourth century, when it was grafted into the Roman Empire as the official state religion.

And by the Middle Ages, Christendom was fully developed, and it was extremely destructive. We’re talking about forced conversions, outlawing of Scripture that wasn’t written in Latin, complete imperial hegemony by the Roman Catholic Church – and corruption of all varieties from the top down. Anyone who wasn’t Christian, living under that authority, didn’t have much of a choice.

The Church’s position was to kill or convert anyone who didn’t go with the flow, even if they were just smaller groups of Christians who believed different things about the Lord’s Supper, or the Bible, or Baptism.

That kind of power and corruption by Roman Catholicism wasn’t really checked sufficiently until the 1500s and 1600s, when individual European states began to get powerful enough to push back.

Anyway, that’s Christendom. What about the Islamic empires that existed at the time? Well, the Muslims were pretty destructive in the Middle Ages as well, but here’s the irony – Jewish communities living under Islamic rule, aside from just a few exceptions, were treated extremely well. They were considered to be second class citizens, but there was no genocide carried out against them by the Islamic states they were living under.

That was not the case for Jewish communities of Western Europe living under Christendom. As the Roman Catholic Church became more and more powerful, it also became increasingly hostile toward the Jews, and the false teaching that Jews were dirty, filthy, Christ-killers worthy of extinction – spread like a virus across Europe.

By the time the Crusades began to unfold in 1095, Jews were viewed predominantly as enemies of Christianity. So, as the Crusader armies were marching across Europe to the Middle East to kill Muslims, they used any Jewish village they encountered along the way as practice. 

None of the historians know for sure how many Jews died at the hands of the Crusaders, but there are some well documented mass genocides that took place in areas where there were larger communities of Jews, especially in France. By the time the Crusaders reached the Holy Land, Jews were actually fighting alongside Muslims because it was better to fight than just be executed.

It’s hard for us to imagine this, but people who professed to be Christians were being led astray, in vast numbers, by the leaders of the organized Church at the time. And, in the midst of that poisonous stew of power, the teaching that Jews were the enemies of Christianity, proliferated. And it spread all over the European world.

The Jews became the scapegoats of anything bad that happened that couldn’t be logically or scientifically explained. And the Dark Ages are called the Dark Ages, because logic and science and rational human thought processes were hard to come by. So, when things like the Black Plague came along in the 1300s – the Jews were blamed for it.

Jewish communities were very clean places. They followed the cleanliness and hygiene laws of the Old Testament, so diseases didn’t spread and devastate their communities as much as in non-Jewish communities. But the superstitious thinking of the European population led them to view this as evidence that the Jews were causing things like the Black Plague – and that just led to more wholesale slaughtering of Jewish communities.

Anyway, we could go on and on about this. The suffering of the Jews throughout history has been unimaginable. They were persecuted, in some way, everywhere they went throughout the Middle Ages, and into the Renaissance era. 

There were massacres and expulsions of Jews in almost every Western European country, including England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and so on. Through the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s large numbers of Jews were driven into Eastern Europe and Russia, looking for safe havens, which they never found. They were persecuted, driven out, or corralled into tiny slums, and massacred in Eastern Europe and Russia as well.

None of this stopped until the late 1940s. It took WWII, and the aftermath of it, to end state sponsored genocide of Jewish communities. One of the big takeaways from all this history, is that the anti-Semitism of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and 40s actually began almost two thousand years earlier, and just kept repeating itself. Nazi Germany was the culmination of it.

What Hitler did to the Jews was not a new thing in their history – it was the largest and most devastating holocaust, but there were many holocausts before that – going all the way back to the first century with the Romans.

Despite this; despite this two-thousand-year attempt by Satan to influence the thinking of human beings and to wield the authority of human empires in his attempt to destroy the Jewish people, he has failed. No matter how many millions he has killed, there have always been survivors who’ve slipped out of his grasp. And they have continued to thrive.

Why?

Paul says it right there in Romans 11:29 – “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

Even though they rejected eternal saving grace in Jesus Christ, none-the-less, the residual favor, and some form of God’s grace has remained on them as a people. That cannot be denied. They are loved on account of God’s relationship thousands of years ago, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The path of Historical Israel down through the ages, is a story of remarkable and miraculous resilience and survival. And even though they’ve been persecuted at various times in history by nearly all the nations they’ve migrated to in the last two-thousand years, there is, most curiously, one nation – one empire – on this Earth, that has not followed that pattern.

And believe me, I looked. I scoured the histories for any example of violence against, or the condoning of violence against Jews by the United States government, and there was nothing. Nothing of state sponsored persecution against Jews. Maybe it’s because our country was born so late in the game, after Christendom had been put in check. It’s not as though our country wasn’t capable of it. We have committed mass genocide in our history.

It is documented that Hitler himself, found inspiration and guidance from the American decimation of the Native American population, when he was trying to plan his destruction of the Jews. I just bring that up, so we don’t get too high on our own sense of self-righteousness as Americans. We have some darkness in our past that has never been fully reconciled, and it still lives on the open-air prison camps (called reservations) that our government designed in the 1800s.

And, likewise, there has been plenty of anti-Semitism in the United States, as well as some violence – such as the shooting that occurred in a synagogue in Pittsburgh a few years back. But, even so, tragedies like that have all been done by individuals, and there haven’t been a lot of them – nothing like what we find in other countries going back through history. We are an anomaly in the history of the Jewish people.

The United States has a special relationship with the historical people of Israel. That cannot be denied any more than their miraculous resilience as a people can be ignored or dismissed. In fact, it was largely due to the decision of one individual Christian American, and his best friend – a Jew – that helped pave the way for the third manifestation of Israel – the Modern State of Israel. More on that story, next week.

For now, in closing, we should ask the question: What can we take away from this? What’s this have to do with us? 

Well, even though we are not a part of physical, historical Israel – we are a part of God’s chosen people. We are a part of spiritual Israel, and we are linked to them. As Paul says in verse 18 of this chapter – “we don’t support the root; the root supports us.” The Law of Moses, the Prophets, the history and the heritage that all led to our Savior, that’s the root – Jesus is the vine, we’re the branches. So, I’ll say it again, we cannot escape our connection to the name Israel, and we also cannot escape our connection to the history of Israel. 

The Jewish people have a very specific legacy. We see it in their history, even back in the Old Testament. It’s the legacy of wandering through this world as foreigners and strangers, always trying to get back to their home, and never giving up their way of life in the process, no matter what has happened to them.

And that’s our legacy too, just in a different way. Peter says as much, in 1st Peter 2:11-12:

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

That legacy of physical Israel, has been passed on to us, in a spiritual way. As the Church, we are the foreigners and strangers in this world, making our way to our heavenly home. And until we get there, we have to keep that home in sight, and live here in a way that reflects the reality of the Kingdom that we’re a part of.

And we do that, as Peter says, by abstaining from sinful desires, by living a good life with integrity, and, as Paul says – by passing along the mercy that God has given to us.

We looked at those verses really quickly a bit earlier, but we’ll wrap this up with that thought again, from Romans 11:30-32. And just a side note, if you’re paying close attention, you’ll notice that I’ve skipped over some verses here in Romans 11, but don’t worry, we’ll get to those. For now, Romans 11:30-32:

“Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”

That’s the other big idea to take away from this, as we close today: God’s mercy. We are the inheritors of God’s great mercy, and it is our obligation, our calling, to pass that mercy along to others, no matter who they are. And not just His mercy, but the truth of where it comes from.

Sympathy, compassion, forgiveness, truth, love.

These are things that change people’s hearts. These are the things that change people’s lives. These are the things that truly dispel the darkness that this world creates and celebrates and worships. And these are things we have to leave behind us, as we make our way home.

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Part 3: Modern Israel – next time.

The Three Israels – Part 1: Biblical Israel

The Three Israels – Part 1: Biblical Israel

In light of current events, (and the overwhelming ignorance of certain politicians in our country who claim to be Bible-believing Christians) it seems pertinent to share a set of three sermons I preached during the Autumn of 2023, on the Biblical, Historical, and Modern meanings of the name “Israel.”

As the title suggests, this first message deals with “Biblical Israel.”

If you prefer – the audio of this sermon can be found at the following SoundCloud link:

This audio version was originally written and preached for Dailey Chapel Christian Church, on October 15, 2023. The following transcript has been minimally updated since then.

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Last week when Nelly and I arrived at church, we were not aware of the horrific situation that had been unfolding in Israel since the day before – October the 7th. And that’s my fault. Over the past few years, I have intentionally cultivated the habit of not watching the news very often.

And that’s just been a personal decision for me, since I discovered a few years ago that listening to, or watching the news, on a regular basis, was adding more anxiety to my life than I wanted to manage. But we do watch the news, at times, if we really want to.

We don’t have network television or satellite TV in our house. We get everything we watch through streaming services, so that makes it really easy to not even accidentally watch the news – because we’re not flipping through channels. And last Saturday night, we had gone to the music festival out at the Wheat Ranch, and then we came home and ended up watching Back to the Future III before going to bed. So, we didn’t know what happened in Israel until it was mentioned during prayer request time here in church the next morning.

And even then, we didn’t know the scope of it, until we left church and looked it up online. We only knew what was said – that there was a terrorist attack in Israel.

And, not to be callous, but I just figured it was business as usual, before we looked it up. Terrorist attacks are part of the cultural environment over in that part of the world – they happen all the time, and they are always terrible, but we weren’t expecting it to be anything as bad as it actually was and is.

So anyway, I bring all this up, for a couple reasons. The first one, is that when this kind of violence occurs in the Middle East, and brings the State of Israel into the forefront of the news cycle, it tends to generate some questions and maybe even a little apprehension among us – and rightly so. A handful of us were already talking about it in Bible Study this past Wednesday.

As Christians who study the word of God, and believe the history that we have in the Bible, we know and recognize that just the name “Israel,” itself, is an important name. So, when the whole world is talking about Israel, we’re going to be talking about it, or at least thinking about it as well. As followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot escape our connection to the name Israel.

Secondly, the reason I bring this up, is because the particular section of Romans that we’ve been working through these past few months, mentions the name Israel repeatedly. The name Israel appears twelve times in chapters 9, 10, and 11 – and if we include pronouns referring to Israel, or related terms and synonyms as Paul uses them – such as “Israelite” and “Jew” – then it’s more like 30 times, or more, that Israel is mentioned. As we already know by now, Israel is the main subject of this middle section of Romans.

So, for these reasons, and because of the terrible events that have occurred over the last week, and which I’m sure will continue to unfold into the foreseeable future – I think it would be prudent of me to spend some time defining exactly who and what we are talking about when we read about Israel in the Bible, as well as when we hear about Israel on the news, or when we bring up the name Israel in conversation.

It’s extremely important for us to understand. It’s a complicated name – it’s an emotional trigger word (both good and bad) for millions of people in the world, in the three big monotheistic religions – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And it’s important for us to understand how the name Israel is used in the context of the Bible, how it’s used in the context of history, and how it’s used in the context of current events that are taking place.

So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We will begin talking about it. It’s a little too large of a subject for just one Sunday morning. But over these next few weeks, we’re going to talk about what I call – the Three Israels.

I’m sure there are professional historians who would lambaste me for making these three distinctions, in this way. There’s a lot of Jews who would probably take issue with these labels as well. But this is how I think of them, based on what I’ve learned, and I think it’s an easy way to keep them categorized for the purposes of discussion – especially while we’re unpacking the conclusion of Paul’s discourse in Romans 9, 10, and 11.

The Three Israels are: Biblical Israel, Historical Israel, and Modern Israel.

Are they all the same? Are they all different? Can each of these manifestations of Israel be completely separated from the others, or are they inseparably tied together? That’s what we’re going to explore.

And, believe it or not, the text of Romans Chapter 11, just so happens to be, a great place to explore these questions. So, we’ll be working Romans 11 into this discussion of the Three Israels as well, which will have the added bonus of moving us along in our study of the letter, and concluding this second volume of Totally Righteous.

A hardback of Totally Righteous: Volume Two, can be purchased on Amazon by clicking on the picture below…

Let’s begin with Biblical Israel.

This is the Israel that we should all be pretty familiar with already. We talk about it every week in church. Anytime we read the Bible we’re dealing with Biblical Israel, because that’s who God revealed the Scriptures to – from beginning to end.

Biblical Israel is first mentioned in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 32, verse 28. Israel was originally the name of one man. His name was Jacob. He was the grandson of Abraham, a man defined by his faith, who God handpicked to be the father of many nations. God made an agreement with Abraham to bless him, to bless his descendants after him, and to one day, bless all the nations of the earth through his family bloodline.

That promise carried over to Abraham’s son Isaac, and then to his grandson Jacob. Each of these men, father, son, and grandson, all had defining moments in their lives, and Jacob’s defining moment was when God changed his name to Israel.

God came down to earth, took on the form of a man, wrestled with Jacob face to face, and then pronounced that his name was no longer Jacob, but Israel – which means: “he who struggles with God.” God seared this new name into this man’s mind by creating an experience for him whereby he actually physically struggled with God.

However, the name change was not just reflective of his immediate situation, but it was also an appropriate summary of Jacob’s whole life, and how he had spent years struggling with God relationally.

And that pattern that was characteristic of Jacob’s – now Israel’s – life, would also come to define the pattern of his descendants as well. God chose that name for His people, knowing that they would have an ongoing struggle with Him, relationally speaking. Every generation born from the house of Israel would have to struggle with their collective relationship to God. We’ve talked about this pattern before – it’s the cycle that we see unfold through the rest of the Old Testament, as one generation after another is born, takes their place in the history of God’s people, and is ultimately defined by their relationship to God.

They followed that revolving cycle of peace and prosperity in God’s grace, followed by idolatry and immorality and turning away from God, followed by God’s judgment and discipline, followed by humility and repentance, and then followed by God’s restoration and redemption for them. That’s their collective struggling with God happening over and over again, through the pages of the Old Testament and into the New.

Despite this struggle, or perhaps because they continued to struggle WITH HIM, rather than WITHOUT HIM – God blessed them, guided them, delivered them from slavery, and protected them as a nation of people. Even when they were almost completely wiped out, He preserved those who were faithful to Him. Even when they were forcibly ripped away from their homeland, He kept them alive, and He brought them back and re-planted them in their own piece of land.

Even in their darkest hours, when it seemed like there was no hope, God gave them hope. He sent them prophets to tell them that He had a plan. That there was always hope. Their suffering was only temporary. One day, He would send them a Son – the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords – to establish a perfectly just and righteous Kingdom for all eternity. One day, God would fulfill His promise to Abraham to bless all nations of the world through him and his descendants.

When the story of Biblical Israel transitions from the Old Testament into the New Testament, it’s because the King had finally arrived. And one of his closest disciples and friends – the Apostle John – writes this about him, and says, in that famous passage of John Chapter 1:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-5; 9-14, NIV).

He came to establish a Kingdom that would last forever. The story of Biblical Israel does not end when Jesus goes back to Heaven after his death and resurrection. The story of Biblical Israel doesn’t end, even when the credits roll in the Book of Revelation. The promises that God made to Israel extend for all eternity through those who believe in Jesus Christ, and will live forever. The promises that God made to Israel extend beyond the boundaries of this temporary life, and beyond the boundaries of Abraham’s bloodline.

This is what Paul says in Galatians 3:26-29:

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

It’s the same thing Paul says in Romans 9:6-9. To summarize and paraphrase – Not all those who are descended from Israel are Israel. Not all of Abraham’s descendants are his children. Abraham’s offspring, God’s chosen people, Israel, are those who have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So, what’s that mean for this particular discussion? Well, it means that ever since Christ came to Earth and inaugurated his Kingdom; ever since he died, and rose again, and ascended to heaven, ever since the time when the Apostles were writing the New Testament, the scope of who can be accurately called by the name “Israel,” as defined in the Bible, has been changed.

The definition of Biblical Israel has been, in some ways, narrowed to include only those who follow Jesus. But in another way, it has been widened to include all those who enter into God’s spiritual kingdom through Jesus, no matter what race they are from – Jew or non-Jew. That is the definition of Biblical Israel.

Biblical Israel was founded physically under the Old Covenant, fulfilled spiritually in the New Covenant, and when Christ returns, the physical and spiritual will come together into one, and ripple out into all eternity. This is the Israel made up of all Jews and non-Jews who put their faith in Christ.

But this brings us to the next manifestation of Israel. What I call “Historical Israel.” There may be a better name for it. Paul would probably call them Unfaithful Israel, but we’ll stick with Historical Israel. In any case, since the birth of the Church, there has been another Israel, made up of those who did not put their faith in the Messiah.

One of the things that makes Paul a little hard to follow at times, in Romans 9, 10, and 11, is that in the midst of his theological discussion about Israel, he is going back and forth between these two Israels. He doesn’t refer to them specifically as two different Israels, but that’s what he’s describing – the idea of a faithful, Biblical Israel, and an unfaithful Historical Israel.

Historical Israel is the nation of Jewish people that continued on after the birth of the Church, the vast majority of whom had rejected Christ. That’s the problem that Paul is unpacking in this section of Romans. So many of his fellow Israelites had failed to live up to their full potential because they rejected Jesus, and Paul, as an Israelite who had accepted Christ, was greatly disturbed by this tragedy.

In Romans Chapter 11, after addressing the root of the issue in the previous two chapters – which is faith verses unbelief to summarize it as concisely as possible – Paul then addresses both faithful and unfaithful (Biblical and Historical Israel) at the same time. And this is what he says to them, and about them, in Romans 11:7-10:

“What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day.’ And David says: ‘May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever’” (Romans 11:7-10, NIV).

So, this is Paul stating, by the use of Old Testament references, that there is a difference between Biblical Israel and Historical Israel. The elect that he mentions are those who we could call Biblical Israel – those who received salvation through faith in Christ.

The rest, are Historical Israel – those who rejected the New Covenant, and sought salvation through human effort, which is not possible. They rejected Christ, and because of that, they called down a curse upon themselves.

Paul references this curse by quoting Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Psalms here in Romans 11:8-10. He mixes three Old Testament verses together to refer to their collective blindness and suffering. But this idea of them receiving a curse for their rejection of Christ is, perhaps, a little more viscerally communicated in Matthew Chapter 27.

It was at the end of Jesus’ trials, just before he was crucified. Pontius Pilate was looking for any excuse he could find to release Jesus, without causing a riot in Jerusalem. Even his own wife told him to let Jesus go. But he was caught between a rock and hard place, so to speak.

So, in verses 22-25 of Matthew 27, Pilate brings Jesus out in front of the crowd and lets them decide. He says:

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?’

They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’

“Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’

All the people answered, ‘Let his blood be on us and on our children!’”

That is one of the most chilling verses in the Bible. The Jewish people in Jerusalem, yelling for Jesus their Savior to be executed, and so sure of their righteousness in doing so, that they were willing to call a curse down upon themselves and their children in the process.

Now, this curse that they called on themselves has been used, throughout history, by some, as a justification for anti-Semitism. So, I just want to say, emphatically, that it should never be taken that way. There is no justification for anti-Semitism, and any so-called Christian who has ever condoned violence and persecution and discrimination against the Jewish people, is not a real Christian.

As Christians, it is our duty to show Christ to all people through love and service. God still desires the reconciliation, of the historical people of Israel – and this is what Paul communicates as Romans 11 continues.

In Romans 11:11-12 he says:

“Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!”

He’s saying that there is still hope for those who belong to the historical people of Israel descended from Abraham – even as there is hope for all nations of people; for every person who calls on the name of Christ. They did not stumble beyond recovery. 

Redemption is still available. Historical Israel can still be folded back into Biblical Israel, if they accept Christ. And many countless individual Jews throughout history have done so.

Then, in the next set of verses, Paul talks to the Gentile Christians that he was writing to in the city of Rome. As far as we know, the Gentiles outnumbered the Jews in the Roman church, and some scholars think that the Gentile Christians needed to be reminded, and encouraged to not view themselves as superior to the Jewish Christians. Some scholars surmise that the Gentiles were getting a bit of a chip on their shoulder, and that they needed to have any notion of anti-Semitism squashed completely, before it could grow into something destructive. Which is why Paul says what he says in verses 13-21:

“I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.”

He goes on in verses 22-24 to summarize his whole train of thought:

“Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!”

There is still a chance for them. But unless, and until, they accept Christ, then they remain under the curse of their ancestors. Christ is the only way out of the curse, not just for them, but for all people. So, until they accept him, Historical Israel is not the same as Biblical Israel.

Biblical Israel is any Jew or Gentile that has put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Historical Israel are the Jews who were cut out of the tree, but still exist, and for whom Paul had hope that some of them would still accept Christ and be saved as he had been.

So, there’s a branching off that occurred at that point in history when the Church was born. There were two Israels from that point on. So, the question is, what happened to Historical Israel after that time? What happened to the branches that were pruned off, and yet survived and carried on?

Well, we’ll talk about this more next week, and I mentioned it back at the beginning of this series, but just a handful of verses later, in Romans 11:28-29 Paul says about Historical Israel, that:

“As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

So, even though they rejected Christ in the first century, as a nation of people, they have persisted and thrived, despite being one of the most persecuted people to ever exist on planet Earth. Even though they may be enemies of the Gospel message, God loves them, on account of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He has not left them high and dry. So, what happened to them after the first century?

Well, to put it as simply as possible – they survived. They survived many hardships as a people group, in spite of incredible odds. Some of the history we know. Some of you have been around long enough to have seen some of the more recent history of the Jewish people. The rest of us learned about it in school when we were kids. But there’s a lot more than just what we know as the immediate history of the Jews. A lot happened in between the first century, and 1948 when a large portion of Historical Israel, coalesced into the third manifestation of Israel – the modern State of Israel.

I told you at the begging of this message we would talk about Biblical Israel, Historical Israel, and Modern Israel. And we will, but we just don’t have time to go into all of it today. Biblical Israel we’ve talked about, and I think everyone understands that this is the Israel we talk about every Sunday, or in every Bible study. This is the Israel that we are a part of – the olive tree that we’ve been grafted into as the Church.

Historical Israel, then, even though we’ve briefly defined it today, as Scripture defines it, as Paul defines it – there’s a lot more to say. As I said, there is a lot more history that many of us are not as familiar with, and I don’t want to brush over all that too quickly. It needs to be properly surveyed and discussed, because understanding Historical Israel, will help us understand how we get to Modern Israel, or the modern State of Israel.

And understanding how each of these three Israels are tied together, and how they diverge from one another, might help us make a little more sense out of the terrible things we see happening on the news – or at least help us understand what the name Israel means, and how different groups of people use this same name. The name Israel is important.

I said this at the beginning of the message, and I’ll say it again as I close: As followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot escape our connection to the name Israel. As those who have been grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel, we now carry with us the promise that God made to Abraham thousands of years ago. The Church is a part of what God views as His people Israel.

That means, that just as the name Israel was applicable to Jacob, and to his descendants, it’s also applicable to us as well. Who among us, can say with absolute honesty and certainty and sincerity that we NEVER struggle with God? I hope none of us say that.

We can still believe in Him, and remain faithful to Him, and still be obedient to Him, but also struggle with Him. He wants us to wrestle with Him. He wants us to go to Him with our problems and our anxieties, and our griefs and our confusion over things that happen in life. He wants us to go to Him with questions about why bad things happen.

He wants us to grab hold of Him and not let go until we get a blessing – the way Jacob did. Of course, Jacob’s blessing was a dislocated hip, but still, even that was a blessing that reminded him of his personal encounter with Almighty God. It reminded him of his name – HIS IDENTITY.

And we need to be reminded of our name, and our identity in Christ as well. Everyday. We’re all going to struggle. God wants us to struggle with Him, rather than struggling without Him.

If you’ve given up struggling with God. Now is the time to go back to Him.

The time is short. The days are evil.

But the Lord is reaching out and ready to receive all who call on his name.

If you’ve never believed in Jesus Christ, never put your faith in him, he is willing to meet you where you are.

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The Cost of Being a Disciple of Jesus

FeaturedThe Cost of Being a Disciple of Jesus

DISCLAIMER: I originally wrote this sermon four years ago, in August of 2020. If you want to listen to it, I’ll embed the audio version at the bottom of this post.

But I’m trying to publish more regularly on this blog because that’s what you’re apparently supposed to do…

So, I pulled this one out of the archives, because it’s a real humdinger. And you should read it. Seriously, it’s a good one, if I do say so myself.

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This morning, we’ll be reading through a passage from Luke 14:25-33.

But before we take a look at this passage in Luke, I want to tell you a story that’s a little bit closer to us in history. This isn’t something that happened 2,000 years ago, but much more recently.

It begins about a hundred years ago, in a city called Breslau. Breslau is in the southwest of Poland today, but a hundred years ago, and up until the end of World War II, it was still a part of Germany. And that’s where this story begins – in Breslau, Germany, a hundred years ago, in 1920, when a young man by the name of Dietrich gave his life to Christ, and decided that he wanted to study the Bible and become a teacher of God’s word.

Dietrich was a very intelligent young man, very devoted to his studies; by 1927 (when he was only 21 years old) he had graduated from the University of Berlin with a doctorate in Theology. Still young, and not quite sure where his place was in the world, he decided to come here to the U.S., and ended up as a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was only in the U.S. for one year, but while he was here, he was lovingly accepted into a Baptist church in Harlem, where he taught Sunday School classes, and where he began to encounter the societal injustices being experienced by Christian minorities – in particular, black Christians that he had become friends with. As a white man, but still an outsider, a foreigner from Germany, he had slipped in between these two segregated worlds of American Christians – black and white, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. Dietrich knew his Bible really well. In the Gospels, he read, as we have been reading, about the reality of God’s Kingdom in the here and now. And he wrestled with the contrast between what he was reading about the Church in the New Testament, and what he was seeing the Church do (and not do) in New York and other places.

How could the Church in the New Testament be so united in purpose, and the Church of modern day be so fractured and divided?

Why was the wealthy Church so pre-occupied with its own position on the highest levels of secular society, and so blind to the suffering of the poor Church just a few blocks North?

How does that happen among God’s people? How does one group of Christians become obsessed with finding a seat at the table of high society, while another group focuses on pulling people out of the gutters and giving them food, and clothing, and housing?

Why do the Christians with the most resources at their disposal, hoard their wealth, while those with just enough to get by give away everything they have? Why can’t they work together? Why can’t they find balance in the community of God’s Kingdom – the community of people saved by grace – the community that Jesus gave his life to bring into existence?

What was the answer to these questions?

What could be done about it?

Dietrich wasn’t entirely sure, but he didn’t ignore these tough questions; he wrestled with them. And this unique perspective that he had, as an outsider and foreigner, influenced him a great deal. And he took that perspective with him, when he returned to his homeland in 1931.

When he returned to Germany, he began teaching theology at the University in Berlin where he had received his doctorate four years earlier, and not long after that, he was ordained as a pastor in the Lutheran Church.

And, it was less than two years later, on January 30, 1933, that the Nazis took control of his country.

As we all know now, with our 20/20 historical hindsight, Adolph Hitler’s rise to power would eventually culminate in the horrendous disaster that we call World War II, where millions of people would perish, and where terrible things had to be done in order to stop a man that was closer to an example of the Anti-Christ than almost anyone else in history.

Have there been others like Hitler?

Yes.

Joseph Stalin probably executed more people, for instance. But Hitler did three things that really single him out:

1. He lied to the Christians in Germany that were susceptible to deception.

2. He silenced, imprisoned, and killed the Christians who were not so easily deceived.

3. He waged genocide against the Jewish people.

If Hitler had succeeded in taking over the WHOLE WORLD, he would have been THE Anti-Christ.

As it turned out, he was only one of the many little antichrists like those the Apostle John warned us about in his first epistle (1st John 2:18).

Like I said, we all know this now. It’s more or less common knowledge. But to many of the Christians throughout Germany at the time Hitler took power it wasn’t as clear. Even though it SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

Hitler’s rise to power was hailed as an act of God by the majority of church leaders in Germany at the time. They threw their support behind him completely – telling their congregations that Hitler had been sent by God to lift them out of economic depression, and restore their honor on the world stage. Some went so far as to say that Hitler spoke on God’s behalf, and that the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom was embodied in the person of Adolph Hitler. Churches that had been firmly established and rooted in place for centuries, wasted no time in allowing Hitler to steam roll his way through them. In fact, they stepped aside as he removed Pastors, Bishops, and Elders who were not “pure-bloods” of Aryan descent. They remained silent when he demanded that he, the Fuhrer be recognized as head of the Church (rather than Jesus Christ), and they supported efforts made to remove the Old Testament from the Bible – because of its pro-Jewish agenda. These were not things that happened overnight. They were ideas that Hitler had been preaching for months BEFORE he was in power. There was plenty of opportunity for the churches in Germany to at least try to prevent his ascension to power – by speaking out against him. But those with the most influence in their society, remained silent. Or they openly supported him.

But not everyone.

There were small groupings of Christians in Germany, in the middle of all that madness, who refused to bow down and worship that man.

And the hero of this particular story – Dietrich – was among them.

Just a couple of days after Hitler became Chancellor, Dietrich was able to get onto a radio station in Berlin and sound the alarm.

Before they cut him off mid-sermon, he denounced Hitler and everything he stood for – and he rebuked every Christian who followed him for their idolatry to the “cult of the fuhrer.”

In the months and years that followed, he began organizing the minority groups of Christians who didn’t follow Hitler, by helping to create a network of churches dedicated to voicing opposition to him, as well as to rendering aid to their Jewish neighbors who were already under attack. He was putting into practice what he had learned when he was in New York – that he couldn’t just talk about the Gospel – he had to live in its reality. He couldn’t just stand around and do nothing while so much evil was taking place around him. He had to actually do something about it.

So, he did.

Between 1933 and 1939, he helped organize and lead an underground seminary where he taught his students that the cost of being a modern disciple of Jesus was complete loyalty to the King and His Kingdom, above all else. –Even if it meant losing your friends, losing your family, or losing your country.

And for this, Dietrich was branded an enemy of the state, his coalition of churches and his seminary were deemed illegal by Heinrich Himmler, and Dietrich himself was exiled from the city of Berlin.

Dietrich’s friends in New York City urged him to flee the country, and he did in the Summer of 1939. But he did not stay in the United States for very long. In a letter to one of his former professors at Union Seminary, this is what he wrote, shortly before returning to Germany:

“I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people … Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.”

It wasn’t long after his return home, that because of close trusted contacts within the German military, he first became aware of concentration camps where Jews were being systematically exterminated. And that put Dietrich in the position of finally having to choose, definitively, which of his two kingdoms he would betray.

Would he become a traitor to Germany? Or would he become a traitor to God’s Kingdom, by looking the other way as his neighbors were being murdered? He chose God’s Kingdom over the kingdom he had been born into.

When asked by a Dutch colleague of his at the time, “what he was praying for these days?” Dietrich told him, “If you want to know the truth, I pray for the defeat of my nation.”

And that’s when Dietrich became a spy.

He began working within the Abwehr – the German Military Intelligence network –which was not yet under the control of the SS. There were many German officers in the Abwehr, already functioning as allied spies against Hitler. They recruited Dietrich with the understanding that he would use his contacts in Europe and the United States to smuggle intelligence to the Allies, and to help Jews escape from Germany. And that’s what he did for the next few years…

Before he was eventually caught and arrested in the Spring of 1943.

Dietrich spent two years in prison for treason, during which time he was the pastor for his fellow prisoners, and even some of his prison guards.

On April 4, 1945 Hitler personally ordered Dietrich’s execution, and he was hung that same week at Flossenburg Concentration Camp.

Two weeks later, the U.S. 90th and 97th Infantry Divisions liberated that camp.

A week after that, the Soviets took Berlin.

Hitler committed suicide at the end of the month, and Germany surrendered on May 7th.

Dietrich’s prayers for the defeat of his nation came to pass. But he himself, had already gone home to his real country.

The doctor who saw Dietrich’s hanging described his final moments like this:

“I saw [the] Pastor … kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

And that brings, the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to a close.

Now… why am I telling you all of this? Why is this story an important one?

Well, let’s finally get to Luke 14:25-33, and you’ll see why…

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”

Now, those are some harsh sounding words, are they not?

There’s a huge crowd following Jesus, and instead of reveling in all of his many followers, it’s almost as if he’s trying to get rid of them. He tells them they can’t follow him unless they hate everyone else… that they even have to hate their own life! Now, he doesn’t mean this literally – that they have to hate. After all, this is Jesus – he teaches us to love everyone, even our enemies.

So, he’s not literally telling us we have to hate ourselves and our families. He’s saying that His Kingdom always comes first. The Kingdom always takes precedence. He’s saying that our love for Him has to be total. Our loyalty to Him has to be complete. He’s saying, if you really want to follow me, you might have to say goodbye to the people you care about. He’s saying: If you say ‘yes’ to me, you might have to say ‘no’ to the people you love.

Jesus is using this allegorical language about building towers and going to war, which might all sound a little strange to us. But he’s pointing out the natural human tendency to look ahead. If we’re being wise, then we think before we make a major decision about something; we think about what that decision is going to mean, and whether or not it’s going to be good or bad, and we think about what we’re going to have to give up, or let go of.

We have to estimate what it’s all going to cost.

How much money to build that building?

How many troops to win that war?

Well, we don’t have to estimate what it costs to follow Jesus; he tells us EXACTLY what it costs – it costs EVERYTHING.

Dietrich knew that. He knew it really well. He knew that we can’t just hide in the comforting glow of God’s grace – that to do so, cheapens the sacrifice that Jesus made. We have to go into the darkness with the light that we have.

We have to do something.

And whatever that is – it might cost us everything.

It MIGHT cost us family; It MIGHT cost us friends; It MIGHT cost us our country.

And if so, that’s ok.

That’s what it means to pick up YOUR CROSS and FOLLOW HIM.

In John 15:18-19, Jesus said quite clearly: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world…”

Let’s remember these words of Jesus in the coming months.

Let’s hold tightly to them, as the rhetoric in the world around us becomes louder, and the nonsense becomes overwhelming. Our job is still the same: To love our neighbors, to love our enemies, and to love God the most.

The kingdom we’re living in is temporary; it is crumbling. But the Kingdom we belong to is eternal, and it will never fall.

There won’t be any Democrats or Republicans in Heaven, my friends.

“Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.” – Daniel 7:27