Thinking Rightly About Israel

About this sermon

Introduction: There is a mystery that God wants His people to be informed about. He especially wants Gentile believers to be informed about it. And he tells us that he wants us “not to be ignorant” of it, because he does not want us to be proud. What God has revealed, guards the hearts and minds of Gentile Christians against being wise in our own eyes. There is an arrogance that Gentile Christians can be prone to. That arrogance amounts to the idea that what God has done in our case takes the place of what God said He would do with Israel. The mystery, the truth once hidden now revealed, is that there will be a time of mercy — a great outpouring of salvation upon ethnic Israel — that FOLLOWS a time of extended mercy to Gentiles. After the fulness of the Gentiles has come in — after this time of Gentiles is finished, according to the predetermined plan of God — all Israel will be saved. There will be a mass conversion of Jews. The tribulation period will a time when God turns His attention to Israel again. There will be a Jewish focused evangelism that takes place during that time of the great tribulation (the book of Revelation describes this). But the culmination of that witness will be a mass conversion of Jews when Christ returns from heaven. Zechariah describes this: ESV Zechariah 12:1 The oracle of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: 2 "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.' 6 "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. 7 "And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 8 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves. 13:1 "On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. So, we’ve seen A humbling mystery A purposeful hardening A powerful deliverance We finish this section looking at A RESULTING PERSPECTIVE (vs.28-32) These truths should mean something for how we think. It should mean something for how we think about God, how we think about Israel, and how we think about Gentile salvation, how we think about the world, history, current events, and the future of the world. We sometimes long for practical sermons, and I fully understand why, but there is never anything more practical than our need to think truthful thoughts. I REALLY LONG FOR GOD’S PEOPLE TO TAKE HOLD OF THAT IDEA. I long for God’s people to find a sense of satisfaction in knowing that God is teaching them truth! There is nothing more important than how we think!

Topics

• Prophecy & End Times
• Spiritual Growth