How Should Christians View Present Day Israel? Various Texts

So as I mentioned in the intro, the question we're going to ask today is how should

Christians view present -day Israel? So if you watch the news on a regular basis, this sermon will be helpful, hopefully, for you to be able to look at that and say, okay, this is a biblical approach for how

Christians should view present -day Israel. At the end of last week's sermon, I actually told you that today's sermon would be focused on the two angels traveling to Sodom and Gomorrah on a mission to rescue the righteous and destroy the wicked.

My plan this past week was to write a pastor's page, actually, in light of current events about how Christians should view present -day

Israel. And as I was writing, it occurred to me that the pastor's page was going to be way too long.

The entire newsletter, I think, would have been this topic. I noticed that as I'm getting older,

I'm getting more long -winded, so you can try to pray for me in that area. So it seemed best to preach on the topic instead.

So next week, what we're going to do is we're going to continue with Genesis 19, but today we're going to focus on Israel, specifically, how should

Christians view present -day Israel. And this sermon fits in well with our sermon series through Genesis, because we have seen over the last few months how

Israel got started, and we have seen all the promises that the Lord made to them through the

Abrahamic covenant. In this sermon, we'll be tying together what we have already learned, and then bring the application to the present day of how this affects how we view present -day

Israel. And by the way, there's a spiritual application to this. This isn't just a way that we should think this way, because the

Lord wants you to think a certain way toward Israel. And if we don't think that way, and if we don't behave in a certain way toward them, we're actually not being obedient to the

Lord. That's why this is so significant for us to look at today. Israel has been at the center of the news lately because of the

United States moving their embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

Israel has boldly declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and the United States government has done the same.

The Palestinian peoples who live in and around Israel have protested since they believe that East Jerusalem belongs to them.

Palestinians are Arabs that descend from Ishmael, and this might ring a bell to you as we've gone through Genesis.

We just saw this not too long ago. And what we have seen is the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine that was already intense, and it's heated up even more in the recent past month or so.

And the question that we need to address in this sermon is, do the people of God in the plan?

Or should we not think of them in a special way anymore? Because in the

Christian community right now, there's people kind of on both sides of this, and of course the goal here is we want to be biblical.

We want to do what God is telling us to do. We don't want to go with where our emotions are taking us, or where our faulty opinions might be taking us.

We want to go where the Bible goes, and so that's my goal here. Israel started out about 4 ,000 years ago when

God called Abraham to leave his homeland and travel to the land of Canaan. We saw that in Genesis 12, 1, when the

Lord said, leave your homeland and go to the place you've never been to. And the land he was going to go to was the place that we would call

Israel, ancient Israel, and even where modern -day Israel is. The Lord promised him that he would give him that land and establish a nation through him.

That's Genesis 12, 2. And the Lord would fulfill this promise to Abraham's descendants.

So everybody who would come from Abraham, that family line, would be considered

Israelites, or what we would call them modern -day, we'd call them Jews. And this land the

Lord promised to Abraham would stretch from the Nile River in Egypt to the

Euphrates River in present -day Iraq. That's Genesis 15, 18. So it's this land all the way from Egypt all the way to present -day

Iraq. And after the Lord delivered the Israelites from Egyptian oppression through Moses, the

Lord raised up Joshua to lead the Israelites into this land. And in the days of Joshua, Israel finally attained the land that was promised centuries before.

Later in the history of Israel, a monarchy was started. And the most notable king, of course, was

King David. The Lord promised to establish his throne forever. And his throne would culminate in the

Messiah. We would call him the Christ, right? Jesus Christ. That's why we call him Christ.

That's his title. He's the Messiah. And this monarchy would come to an end because of Israel's disobedience.

What happened is that Israel, they plunged into idolatry. They worshiped gods that were not the one true

God. And the Lord punished them. Israel held onto the land of Canaan until the 8th and 7th centuries

BC, when the Lord judged Israel by allowing the Assyrians and the Babylonians to destroy their temple, take them captive, and bring them out of their land.

Israel would not return to the land again for several hundred years when the Lord allowed their captors, which would now be

Persia at this point in history, to let them rebuild their temple and return to their land. And Israel would be in their land for centuries, until the first century, but it would never be under their control.

As Israel was in the land, they were under the control. First it was the

Babylonians, then it was the Persians, then it was Greco -Macedonia with Alexander the

Great, and then it was the Roman Empire, which was the powerful Roman Empire. All these places ruled over them as they lived in the land.

So they didn't really have any power, but these peoples let them function in that place, what's called the land of Canaan, the land of promise.

And while the Jews had a kind of a temporary and unstable existence, the Lord kept these people alive.

In the Old Testament, the Jews longed that their Messiah would come and deliver them from their enemies.

Many prophecies said he would come. Their Messiah did come in the first century,

Jesus Christ, but most of the nation rejected him. Matthew chapter 23, verse 37, this is what

Jesus said about the nation of Israel. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often

I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

So he's saying, I came to you, I offered myself to you, I offered the kingdom to you, and you wanted none of it.

Only a small fraction of Jews in the first century actually embraced Jesus Christ as their

Messiah and as their Savior. This is when God's relationship with the Jews or Israel shifted.

For 2 ,000 years, Israel was God's people. The Lord accomplished his plans for the world through them.

But now things had changed because for the most part, they rejected their Messiah. But to say that God was done with Israel or is even done with Israel today would be a great mistake.

He is not. To this day, the Jews still are the people of God, but they are his people at arm's length.

That might be a helpful way to say it. They're his people at arm's length. The Apostle Paul explained that most

Jews over the last 2 ,000 years have rejected Jesus. And there's a reason for this. A hardening has come over them.

Romans 11 .25 says this, Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the

Gentiles has come in. So the reason this hardening happened was for God to start a new people of God known as the church.

The focus would go away from Israel to the nations. When Jesus was talking to his disciples, he said in the future tense that I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The church would be a people mostly made up of Gentiles. A Gentile is a non -Jew.

That would be the nations. Now there were some Jews, actually the first people in the church were

Jews, but down through history, most of the people in the church are the

Gentiles and not the Jews. And God's plan has always been to save a remnant from every nation that would be his people.

Genesis 12 .3, the Lord promised to Abraham that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

And Revelation 5 .9 gives a picture of heaven in the future and it says that there's going to be people from every tribe and tongue and nation in heaven.

Israel was God's vehicle to reach the world and then after Israel rejected their

Messiah, that vehicle became the church. That's us. The church of Jesus Christ.

Israel's Messiah is the head of this people known as the church,

Colossians 1 .18. He is the savior of the world. And once Christ started the church, everyone who believed in him would enter the people of God known as the church.

And you might say, well isn't a church a building, right? We have a beautiful church.

It's not a building. It's a people. If this building were to go down in flames this next week and people like Shane and Jeremy came and poured water on it to save it, we could meet in KJ's bar next week.

We could meet at town hall. We would still be in a church. We would still be a church because the church is not a place or a building.

It is a people. So ever since Christ ascended to heaven after his resurrection,

God has accomplished his purposes in the world through the church. However, the church does not replace

Israel. This is a false teaching that has come into the church mostly in recent decades.

The church has not replaced Israel. The Lord has preserved the Jews over the last 2 ,000 years because he has big plans for them in the future.

Actually, I said the last few decades. That actually goes back to about 500 years probably during the

Reformation. People like John Kelvin and Martin Luther, we should be oh so grateful to these people because what they did is they rediscovered the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the salvation is by grace through faith alone.

However, for whatever reason, they had kind of an animosity toward the Jewish people.

And that got its way into the church. And I think that's why a lot of people have kind of an animosity toward the

Jewish people even to this day. So the church does not replace Israel. Lord has preserved the

Jews because he has big plans for them. To this day, there are 14 million Jews who live in the world and God's not done with them.

The Apostle Paul explained that a day is coming when there will be a mass conversion of Jews. The Bible is a book that tells the future.

In Romans 11, 26 says, all Israel will be saved.

So this partial hardening has come upon them. And in the future, a day is coming when all

Israel will be saved. At that time, Jews will receive

Jesus as their Messiah, their sins will be forgiven, and they will reign with him along with the church.

So the church will still be the people of God too. But Israel will go from being at arm's length to being brought near to the

Lord as he saves many of them. The Lord takes very seriously how the world treats

Jews. He's not done with his people. God told

Abraham in Genesis 12, 3 that he would bless those who blessed him, that would be his descendants,

Israel, and he would curse those who dishonor him. The history of Israel shows this.

Look at what happened to Egypt. The Lord sent many plagues in order to deliver his people from their oppression in Exodus chapters 7 through 11.

And down through history, the Lord always judged the nations who mistreated Israel. In the present day, a hardening has indeed come upon Israel.

And you can see this, most Jews do not believe in Jesus. We see this in our world.

You could go anywhere. There's lots of Jews in America. Of course, there's lots of Jews in Israel. And a lot of them do not believe in Jesus Christ.

But the promise the Lord made to Abraham still holds true. They have a future.

There are Jews scattered all over the world. And of course, Christians should treat everyone well. And Jesus said, told us to love all people, even to love our enemies.

But there should be a deep love for the people of Israel, a love similar to the love that we have for the church.

In scripture, that's what it tells us, that yes, we should love every person.

Love your neighbor as yourself. But the people of God should have a special love for each other, a deeper love.

And I say this because our God was their God, and in the future, our

God will be their God. To dishonor the Jews today makes

God very angry, because Genesis 12 -3 tells us, those who dishonor them will be cursed.

And that's a very strong language that the Lord gives. And so, what about the point of this sermon?

Should Christians honor present -day Israel? And my answer to that would be yes, based on scripture.

Again, I'm not offering you my opinion here. I'm following the text of scripture from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the

Bible, and I stand here as one who preaches on behalf of the Lord. I'm going to have to give an account one day that says, did you preach my words, or did you do something else?

And so here today, I tell you, Christians should honor present -day Israel. The nation of Israel is a

Jewish state with mostly Jews living in it. 6 .5 of the 8 .5 million people who live in Israel are

Jews. In 1948, many Jews returned to their ancient land, and their nation was established.

This was the first time they were their own sovereign nation in over 2 ,500 years.

Think about that. Has that happened to any other nation in history? You can see the supernatural work of God.

You can see how significant the Jews returning to their homeland was. And some see this as a fulfillment of prophecy.

In Ezekiel 36, I'm going to read one verse here. Actually, verses 1 through 15 describe these people coming home to their land.

After being scattered all over the earth, these people are coming home. And this is what Ezekiel 36, verse 8 says.

It says, So this is a prophecy.

They were going to be scattered all over the world, and then they're going to come back. And many people believe that 1948 was that fulfillment.

At the very least, 1948, the Jews coming home, Christians should see this as the setting of the table for God's future plans for the

Jews. We can't see that as an insignificant moment in history. It was a very significant moment that God sovereignly brought these people home.

And when Jesus returns to the earth, and a large number of Jews believe in him, the Lord is going to establish this people in their land for 1 ,000 years.

And that shows up in Revelation 20. This is the 1 ,000 -year reign of Christ. The Old Testament promises of land from the river of Egypt to the

Euphrates, and that they would have this land forever, were never fully attained. Remember those promises we saw in our sermon series through Genesis?

They never had the land from the Nile all the way to the Euphrates River.

And they never had that much land, and they were kicked out for a long period of time. And those promises will be fulfilled completely when the

Lord returns and establishes what's called the Millennial Kingdom. It's a 1 ,000 -year reign of Christ, and that comes at the end of the age when

Jesus returns to the earth. And by the way, we're going to talk about this a lot more during our End Times class starting in September.

So I would love for many of you to come to that class. It would be great to have a good group where we can really dive deep into this.

Ever since Israel became a nation in 1948, Palestinians have claimed that Israel's land is their land, because, of course, they had this land before Israel came in.

But what we have to understand is what the Bible said about this land in the first place. This is not the case that this is the

Palestinians' land, since the Lord has always said that this land belongs to Abraham and his descendants, and it always will, as Genesis 17 .8.

Christians should side with Israel over land disputes. I find it interesting, if you look at Genesis, with Abraham, even before Abraham had the land himself, the land was full of Canaanites.

It was just Abraham, and Abraham and his people, and Lot, and his nephew Lot and his people.

He offered to Lot either the north part of the land of Canaan or the south part of the land of Canaan.

And he didn't even have the land yet, but he already treated it as his land, because the

Lord promised that this land would be his, even before he had it. So even though Israel didn't have their land in their possession for a couple thousand years, as far as the

Lord was concerned, that land was still their land. And so the

United States moving their embassy to Jerusalem and proclaiming with the Jews that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel is something we should support as Christians.

Jerusalem has belonged to Israel ever since the Lord promised this land to Abraham, and the

Lord promised that this land would be theirs forever. Now that being said, we have to balance this out here, okay?

Balance is very important. I am concerned that some Christians can go overboard in their support for Israel. A Palestinian Christian is a true brother or sister in the

Lord, while an unbelieving Jew is not for now. In that case, one's relationship with a

Palestinian Christian should be stronger than that of an unbelieving Jew. I think we need to understand the balance here of all this.

And if you know a Palestinian Christian, their temptation will be to hate the

Jews. The Palestinians' hatred for Jews goes all the way back to Isaac and Ishmael in Genesis.

This is prophesied. Isaac was the promised child born through Sarah, while Ishmael was born through the servant woman,

Hagar, and therefore not a part of God's blessed line. So because of Abraham and Sarah's sin of not trusting the

Lord to provide a son in their old age, they tried to do it their own way by having a child through the servant woman,

Hagar. And the son that would come from Hagar, Ishmael, would be a thorn in the side of Abraham's offspring.

They would experience the consequence of their sin down through the millennia. And this indeed has happened.

Look at history. Look at the present day. The scripture says that Ishmael's offspring shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.

So this would be the Arabs that surround Israel. There would be this conflict between them and between Isaac, which would be the line of Israel.

And that comes from Genesis 16 -12 and Genesis 25 -18. And the last 4 ,000 years has been a nonstop conflict between Israel and the

Ishmaelites. Abraham and Sarah's sin has consequences, and we see that playing out to this day.

All Christians all over the world have certain sins that they can be blind to because of their culture. Every culture is different.

We all have certain sins that we think are acceptable because we're blind to them.

In America, that sin is materialism and worldliness. We need to realize that we live in a wealthy country.

And we might say, well, I'm not wealthy. I know somebody who's richer than I am. But when everybody has a lot, of course you're not going to think you're wealthy.

And the desires of the world tempt us to turn our hearts from God. So that would be our temptation as Americans.

A temptation for a Palestinian Christian will be to hate Israel because they have for millennia.

So even if they come to Christ, they're still going to have that animosity toward these people. And this is where it is wise for someone who doesn't have a dog in the fight, per se, to come beside a

Palestinian Christian, to lovingly come beside them, and to show their brother and sister in the

Lord what the Bible says about Israel, the people of God, that the

Palestinians may not sin in this way by having this dishonor for the Jews and this hatred towards them.

Because to dishonor a Jew, according to Scripture, is sinful. That's what Genesis 12 -3 says.

Those who dishonor them will be cursed. You're only cursed if you're sinning. So it's clear that that's what the

Bible says. And this sin must be turned from. I was motivated to write on this and then to preach a sermon on this because I was on Facebook, and one of my friends, who

I love dearly, who's a Christian who loves the Lord, he's been a missionary in Afghanistan.

So he's been around a lot of Arabs who, again, have this natural bent towards hating the

Jews. And he posted something about how in the

Gaza Strip, which is the southern part of Israel, when the embassy was officially announced to be in Jerusalem, the

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which is where Hamas is, by the way, that's a terrorist group, that's a Palestinian terrorist group, they were sending balloons over the fence with bombs.

And then Israel was responding by trying to keep this threat away.

And yet my friend posted that what Israel did was evil. And if you look at this objectively, you could say, well, that was self -defense.

And actually 50 of the 60 people who died from the Palestinians were actually a part of Hamas, the terrorist group.

And so there's always been this irrational hatred towards Jews. And history tells the story.

If we're honest, we have to see that. I mean, look at the Holocaust. Six million Jews are killed by Adolf Hitler.

So the Palestinians want the land that was promised to Israel forever. And to give you a little bit of understanding of the

Palestinians who surround Israel, they do not have a nation themselves, but they desire to have a nation.

These Palestinians live in what is called the West Bank in the eastern part of Israel. This area is controlled by Israel, but the

Palestinians rule some of the cities. For example, one of the cities that they rule is Jericho. Jerusalem is also on the west point of the

West Bank. And Israel controls Jerusalem also. And what the Palestinians want is they want half of Jerusalem, the eastern part, as their possession.

And they want all of the West Bank so that they can have their own Palestinian state. But as I already mentioned, we as Christians should not support this because this is

Israel's land. So Israel should treat these people well within the land, right? We support that.

We don't want there to be this constant friction between these two sides. But this is still, again,

Israel's land, according to Scripture, that these promises that the Lord made to Abraham 4 ,000 years ago.

Now, I already mentioned Hamas, the Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, which is in southern Israel where all this conflict has happened lately.

These are more radical Palestinians who live in the West Bank. The people who live near Jerusalem are much more moderate in their hatred of Jerusalem and the

Israelites. But in the south, the Hamas, they've actually been quoted as saying, and it's actually in their documents, that they want to wipe

Israel off of the face of the earth. So you see this animosity toward Israel by the far more moderates and the radicals.

Either way, this land that the Lord promised to Abraham belongs to Israel. It always has and it always will.

And so we as Christians should support their occupation of this land. And I realize that this may be controversial, and a lot of people will listen to this sermon and say,

I don't agree with you. But again, I'm trying to show you from Scripture. I keep going back to that, that this is what

Scripture says. And so we need to understand that. The Lord would not have brought 6 .5

million Jews back to the land and enabled them to establish a Jewish state for the first time in 2 ,500 years to have them all kicked out.

No, the table is being set for a day when Christ will reign in this land for the thousand year reign of Christ described in Revelation 20.

And this is also important to you because one day as a member of the church, the global church, you will reign in this land also.

Before the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ in the future is established, you will be raised from the dead and will reign in Christ's kingdom.

The Bible promises that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ will one day be raised from the dead and will be given a new body.

And then what's going to happen is that you are going to reign with Christ in this kingdom on the earth.

And once this 1 ,000 year reign of Christ ends, that is when the eternal kingdom will be ushered in.

That's a kingdom that never has an end. It goes on forever and ever and ever. And again, in September we'll talk a lot more about this on Wednesday nights during the

End Times class. So please come to that. But what you have seen during the sermon is how believers should view present day

Israel. We should honor them. Because this nation is made up of mostly Jews.

It is a Jewish state. Genesis 12 verse 3 says, Those who honor Abraham will be honored.

And sadly there have been many Christians in history, and even Christians today, who speak poorly of the Jews. And there is a reason there is a term to describe poor treatment of Jews.

That is anti -Semitism. It goes all over the world. The promise of Genesis 12 holds true to Jews.

The promise says those who dishonor Abraham will be cursed. But what's incredible about this is we think about what

Jesus Christ did for us at the cross. Christians, of course, can't be cursed by God once you've believed in Christ.

And your sins are forgiven. You never have to pay for those sins. And so that means that if you curse Israel, that's a sin.

But Jesus paid for that sin at the cross. Galatians 3 .13 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So every sin of mistreatment of Jews was paid for at the cross if you belong to Christ.

So my challenge to you is do not be someone who dishonors Jews. No matter where they are.

Whether it's present -day Israel or there's Jews in America as well, all over the place. We should be a people who honor them.

And to honor them does not mean we should agree with everything they do. Let me be clear on that. They will do things wrong.

But we should support their occupation of the land. We should support their right to defend against those who hate them and desire to wipe them out.

That's a legitimate. Self -defense is legitimate in their case and in every case.

We should always defend ourselves from those who want to destroy us. We should honor them even when they do wrong because they are still

God's people. Right now at arm's length, but one day we'll be brought close. And as we wrap up this sermon,

I want to close by asking the question, the practical question, of how can we honor

Jews and specifically the present state of Israel in the Middle East.

And I've come up with several ways here. Here are some ways you can honor them. Number one is you can pray for them.

Pray that they would believe in their Messiah. Pray for their safety. Again, there are groups that want to wipe them out.

We should pray for their safety and pray that the Lord would protect them. Secondly, stick up for them.

When someone says something bad about them, defend them. If they sin, okay, don't defend that.

But again, there's this irrational hatred that people have toward them. And so defend them against this irrational hatred that is directed toward them.

Thirdly, praise the Lord for their bright future. If you see them doing something sinful, remember that the

Lord will one day soften their hearts and bring them to himself. And then fourthly, we need to recognize

Satan's designs. The evil one hates God's people.

He hates the church. He hates the people of Israel. Recognize Satan's designs and focus on the text of Scripture that these are

God's covenant people. Satan hates Jews. He hates all people, but he especially hates

Jews. He hates the people of God. He hates the church.

He hates Israel. And Satan succeeded. I mentioned the irrational hatred. He succeeded in putting an irrational hatred toward Jews in Hitler's heart in the 1940s, around World War II.

And what happened was Hitler actually came to believe that the Jews were an inferior race.

And so he said, these people are hurting society. And what we need to do is we need to destroy them and wipe them off the earth.

And what happened was the Holocaust, which we know all too well from history class, right? The horrible treatment of the

Jews. And these people were slaughtered. Six million Jews were killed. And I'm not saying, okay, a lot of people don't have that much hatred toward Jews.

But even a little bit of a dislike is very wrong. And so if you are tempted to dislike

Jews for some reason, turn from that. Again, this does not mean support everything they do.

We should feel sorrow over their sin and especially their rejection of Jesus right now. But when we realize that God still has a deep love for these people and that he is not done with them, we should rejoice over Israel, God's chosen people.

So as Christians, we should be a people who constantly thank God for Israel. Because look at the history.

Thirty -nine books of the Bible. It's all about Israel, from Genesis all the way to Malachi.

God has invested in these people. He's not done with them. They have a future.

And we should thank God for them. We should thank God that their Messiah came out of them. From Abraham comes

Jesus. And Jesus is the Savior of the world. We should thank the Lord for that. And so we need to be people who honor

Israel. Genesis 12 .3. Okay, so that wraps up this sermon here about how should

Christians view present -day Israel. And so I hope this was helpful. And if you have any questions, I'd love to answer them.

I know we covered a lot of ground here. I said a lot of things, a lot of history, a lot of current events and stuff.

And I know it's a lot of information. So if you have any questions, please talk to me, and I'd love to answer any of them.

But think about this. You might know a Jew. You might not know a Jew. But please think about how to treat these people.

These people hold a special place in God's heart. And so we need to, as his people, to do the same.

Now next week, we're going to continue our sermon series through Genesis in Genesis 19. As the two angels are sent to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue the righteous and destroy the wicked.

And so I look forward to opening that text with you next week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the clarity of your word. That what it says is true. And we need to believe what it says.

And we need to live by it. Lord, there are consequences for our sins.

And I thank you, Lord, that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Even a sin,

Lord, that we might be blind to the fact that to mock one of your people is a grave sin against you.

And I thank you, Lord, that Jesus paid for those sins. And I pray that we would not sin in that way.

That we would encourage others not to sin in that way. Lord, there's a lot of backwards thinking about Israel today.

And, Lord, your word needs to speak on this issue. Because a lot of opinions are put out there. And it's not based on the text of Scripture.

And so, Lord, may we be people who live by the word of God. And in that way, we are walking in step with you.