Allen Jackson - God Is Watching Over Us - Part 3
Our topic this weekend has to do with prophecy, specifically in discerning what is next from the scripture. Is it possible to anticipate the season that we're living in, to anticipate what God is about so that we might cooperate with him? I believe the answer to that is yes. The idea that I pray you take away from these 3 weeks together above all the others is that God is watching over us, that God is watching over his people in the earth. We're living in a season of unprecedented change, global change, cataclysmic change, often violent change. It seems that everything that can be shaken is being shaken.
The psalmist said it perhaps most eloquently that even if the mountains fall into the sea, I will not fear. And the notion is that God is watching over his people. You can trust him. What we're learning to do is transfer our trust from the things of this world that are invested in temporal temporary things and to put our trust more fully and more completely in God. None of us have arrived there as a fait accompli. It's something, it's a work in progress in all of us. But we want to learn to increasingly trust God to know that he watches over our lives, body, soul and spirit. Easily said, but not always easily done. I have suggested to you that we can understand the season in which we live.
You know Jesus is coming back to the earth? Just as certainly as he was born in Bethlehem, he is coming back to the earth. This time, not to Bethlehem, but to the Mount of Olives. It's a hill just to the east of the city of Jerusalem. Our Lord and King is coming back, and the Bible tells us a great deal about the season before his return. In the same way there was a great deal of information about his first visit to Earth, there's a great deal of information about his Second Coming. But Jesus said this: that no man knows the day or the hour. I tell you that because if you meet somebody that tells you they know the day when Jesus is coming back, I would encourage you not to argue with him.
I wouldn't engage in a biblical debate. I would simply smile, turn around and sprint in the other direction, because you can know for certain, they don't know. It's okay. It's not worth the argument. But the Bible does say we can understand the season in which we live. Seasons come with characteristics, unique opportunities, things to protect ourselves against, in preparation for. In fact, in Jesus's own generation, he chastised the religious leaders because they did not recognize the season they were living in. In spite of hundreds of prophecies pointing to the Messiah and the circumstances of his birth in Israel, the religious leaders of Jesus's generation missed their season.
And in the same way, it's possible for you and I to consider ourselves people of the book, people of faith, people committed to God, and be totally unaware of the season in which we're living. That's not helpful. Seasons change and opportunities change with that. We don't live any longer under the burden of an agricultural cycle. We're not depending upon seed time and harvest for our wellbeing, we depend more upon Kroger and Publix. But if you lived under that cycle, the seasons were far more significant. If you missed the springtime and the planting opportunity, one thing was for certain, you would be hungry. Doesn't have anything to do with your sincerity or the quality of your character, you simply missed the season of opportunity.
And if you're remorseful and you wanna plant and it's the middle of winter, you're still gonna be hungry because it's not the right season. Well, just as that's true with seed time and harvest, it's true with spiritual principles as well. So, understanding the season in which we live. You may not like it, the fact that it's springtime, you may prefer the autumn, but you need to understand the season because there are behaviors appropriate to that season. That's our goal in these weeks, at least to a limited extent. I have suggested to you that there are two primary agendas that God is focusing on in the Earth in these days. They're both happening simultaneously.
Each week of this series, I'm gonna try to add another layer to those two things, at least briefly, as a part of the introduction. One thing I told you that God was doing in this season is he's gathering the Jewish people to the land of Israel. That may not seem remarkable to you if you're just a casual observer of what's happening. But for 2000 years, the Jewish people had no national homeland. They were just scattered to the nations of the world. The remarkable part of that is they weren't lost from the historical record as you would have expected them to be. If you take their contemporary people groups from the biblical times, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Philistines, they have disappeared from the historical record.
But the Jewish people, in spite of being scattered to the nations of the world, persisted. It's inexplicable apart from the power of Almighty God. And then in 1948 a decision was made by the United Nations and the modern nation of Israel was reborn and the Jewish people began to immigrate back there from nations all over the world. It continues until today. I've shared with you my little map that I'm quite certain by now you're very tired of, but one more week will be okay. Israel, if you don't know, is a tiny little country, right at the end of the Mediterranean, it's a little bitty place. Only about 6 million Jews live in modern Israel.
There's another million Israelis who are Arabic and of other ethnicities. There's almost 6 million Jews in the United States. So the global population of the Jewish population resides primarily in the US and in Israel. But it's a tiny little place, insignificant. It's not really remarkable in geography. It doesn't have towering peaks. I mean, it has a coastline, but a beach city is a beach city almost anywhere in the world. What makes it remarkable is God's affinity with that land and the people that are there. In the book of Genesis, God swore to Abraham that he would give him a geographical territory, a part of terra firma to his descendants forever. And until this day, God has honored that promise for the land of Israel.
Now, what's remarkable is that they are surrounded by a group of people who by their religious affiliation are sworn to the annihilation of the state of Israel. Israel exists in the midst of a cauldron, a seething cauldron, of hatred and violence. At the moment, most of that violence has turned inward on these nations. But the one unifying factor is, to come, someone will emerge that will unify all of this part of the world in their hatred of Israel. That is ahead. It's irrational. Israel is a tiny, tiny, little place. If you look at the land area of Israel in comparison just to the land area of the Lower 48 United States, it's a tiny place, not much larger than Middle Tennessee.
And if you listen to the global discussion about peace in the Middle East, this region of the world that keeps the whole Earth in trauma, the talking point is consistent across the globe that there can be no peace in the Middle East until Israel gives up land. It's comical. I mean, if you just look at the map, all of these nations with this enormous mass and hundreds of millions of people surrounding tiny little Israel. And they said, "We will not make peace with Israel until Israel gives us some territory," because at the end of the day, it isn't about giving some territory. They want the Jewish people expelled and they wanna occupy the whole territory.
And so if the negotiating point is we get some territory, it's a step towards their ultimate objective. The objective isn't peace. The objective is the removal of the Jewish people from the land of Israel. And the only way to understand Israel's ability to thrive, not just survive, but thrive in the midst of that environment is God. God is doing that. He promised he would through the prophets. And you and I are living in a day when the daily headlines and the daily reports online underscore the faithfulness of God. There's an idea that you can see playing out in the media responses every day that is a part of this discussion. It has to do with the hatred of the Jewish people. It's been so persistent through the centuries that we have a special word for it.
We call it antisemitism. It means simply a hatred of the Jewish people, not because of what they've done or who they are or the accent with which they speak or where they live or the resources they've accumulated; simply because they're Jewish. In a broader category, it's just racism. We think of racism in terms of black and white and it's because of the culture in which we live predominantly. But racism isn't limited to that narrow discussion. Racism is when you hate somebody simply because of their ethnicity or the color of their skin, something they have no power to change. And one of the things that we have seen expressed towards the Jewish people for century after century after century is this racist hatred. It's so persistent, we've given it its own word. It's antisemitism. God's not surprised by it.
In Isaiah 60, in verse 15, God said, "Although you", He's speaking to the Jewish people: "Although you've been forsaken and hated, with no one traveling through, I will make you the everlasting pride and a joy for all generations". God said you're gonna be hated by everybody. He told them that. But he said in spite of their hatred, I'm gonna use you to bring joy to every generation. That's a wonderful promise because if God can do it in the lives of the Jewish people, he can do it in your life and mine. Those places that feel painful, that feel unfair and unjust, God can use them to be points of triumph for us, hallelujah.
One of the reasons that antisemitism has been so persistent across such a lengthy period of time in so many places on our globe is one of the greatest incubators and carriers of antisemitism has been the Church of Jesus Christ. That's just an unmistakable fact of history. I'm not gonna take the time to give you all the expressions of that, but I can tell you that it begins as early as the period of our New Testament. In fact, it's addressed in our New Testament. In Romans chapter 11, in verse 1, the apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome, the most influential city of its day. The church has begun in that city. And Paul writes to that church: "I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I'm an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew".
Now, we have learned some principles of biblical interpretation together. One of them is when there's a question that's asked, it's not asked from an empty place, it's asked because it's a persistent problem. If the Bible tells you what to do when your ox gores your neighbor, it's because somebody had an ox that kept goring neighbors. When the Bible says to you not to grow weary in doing good, it's because some days we get tired of doing good, right? Don't you feel like that? Some days I'm standing in the Express line in the grocery, a big sign, "10 items or less," and the person in front of you has 36 items.
I wanna hand them a card says this: "Today, I'm tired of being good," and then beat them about the head and shoulders with a stalk of celery. Wouldn't it feel better? "Can't you count to ten"? Pray for me. Well, I promise you this, if Paul is writing to the church in Rome and he honors this question, "Did God reject his people," that in the church in Rome, an idea has gained significant traction that God has rejected the Jewish people. And so Paul addresses it. He said, "Could this be"? And then he says, in the strongest language, "By no means". In English, actually, it's a little weaker than it, actually the verb tense is in Greek. It says, "Absolutely not. God forbid," he says. "I'm an Israelite myself. God didn't reject his people".
It's a little stark. It's unsettling that within just a few years of Jesus's ascension back to heaven, there's already a debate in Christendom that God has rejected the Jewish people. Our Messiah is Jewish, the first disciples, they're still alive. Peter and James and John are still working. Paul is helping this church and there's leadership in the church in Rome that's saying the Jewish people have been set aside, and Paul says, "God forbid. It's not true". And yet that idea has persisted in the Christian church until today. It's been institutionalized and disseminated and far too often has been used as the incubator for violence and expressions of hatred, antisemitism.
There were reasons it happened in Rome. There was a Roman emperor that came along that hated the Jewish people. He was an antisemite, he had 'em expelled from Rome. It left a power vacuum in the fledgling church there. So the non-Jews stepped into those roles of leadership. That emperor was replaced by an emperor more favorable to the Jewish people. The Jews were invited back to Rome. And when the Jewish believers came back to Rome, guess what? They didn't want them in the church any longer. They'd filled their places. There was a power struggle. And so we began to formulate theology that said, "Well, God set you aside, you missed the opportunity that God put before you. Therefore, God has rejected you".
And that's exactly what Paul is addressing. He said, "Did God reject the Jewish people"? "God forbid," he says. You understand the arrogance in that, right? That those of us who were non-Jewish that would say to the Jewish people, "You missed a God opportunity. Therefore, God broke his covenant with you and set you aside". Anybody here that's never missed a God opportunity? Do you understand the problem? If you hold the theological position that God would reject you because you missed an opportunity? None of us would be included.
It's startling and it's persistent. It has persisted across the centuries in many different nations with many different motivations, with this common link being this unreasoning hatred of the Jewish people. It can only be understood with a spiritual motivation. It has worn many labels: Russian pogroms, the Spanish Inquisition. In Germany, it was called the Final Solution. Eliminate the Jewish people from the face of Europe. More than 6 million died. Today, it's alive and well on planet Earth. In Iran, the Iranian leadership, the mullahs publicly, repeatedly for many years, have declared their intent to annihilate the Jewish people. They celebrate the fact that this nation of Israel has been reborn. They say publicly, it will be easier to destroy the Jewish people because more of them are in one place.
What's been startling about that expression of racism and hatred is that in recent years, the USA has taken the lead in helping Iran secure their nuclear ambition. It's really unimaginable. It's inexplicable apart from spiritual forces. Antisemitism is not some idea from antiquity. It's an expression... it's not some expression from a time of far less enlightenment. It is front and center in our world today. I'll give you another example. The city of Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem was the capital of the nation of Israel more than 1000 years before Jesus was born. More than 1000 years. King David sat on the throne in Jerusalem about 1000 years, not exactly, but about 1000 years before Jesus was born.
That's more than 1500 years before Muhammad was even born. And yet the accepted talking point in our world today, not in a singular nation, in our world today is that Jerusalem should not be the capital of the Jewish state. There's not a single embassy from any nation of the world in Jerusalem today. They moved them all after 1967. They moved them all to Tel Aviv. It's a more politically correct city. And the global talking point from our own State Department to the Kremlin in Russia to Beijing, the talking point internationally is that Jerusalem should be a divided city, perhaps a city put under international control, but it certainly should not be under the authority of the Jewish people.
What claim do they have to it? Islam is not... I mean, Jerusalem is not the holiest city in Islam. It's not even the second holiest. It's the third holiest city. It's not even mentioned in the Qur'an. Mecca and Medina are at the forefront of holy places in Islam. And yet the world community looks at Jerusalem and says whatever happens, the Jewish people shouldn't control it. I don't know another way to understand that except antisemitism, an irrational, unrelenting hatred of the Jewish people. And yet God is watching over them. You're watching the prophecies of scripture be fulfilled in your generation, just as certainly as the shepherds were that gathered outside the stable in Bethlehem.
What's our response in this season? That's what we're working on. The second thing that God is doing is the preparation of the church. He is gathering his people from every nation, race, language, and tribe. In Matthew 24 and verse 9, it's Jesus's most lengthy prophetic discourse. He's describing the season before he returns to the Earth. And I've pulled just one verse from that passage. He says, "You'll be handed over to be persecuted and put to death. You'll be hated by all nations because of me".
The word that's translated "nations" there, is ethnos from which we get ethnic. It's not so much about nation states, but he said you'll be hated by every people group because of me. The hatred of the Jewish people, we call antisemitism. The hatred of the church, the hatred of Christ followers, we call an expression of the spirit of Antichrist. We shouldn't be surprised. Jesus said it would increase. He said, "Ultimately, before I come back, you'll be hated by all nations". It's irrational, and we find it to be true. In our own culture, a Christian nation, a nation with a Christian heritage, the one group that it's appropriate to make fun of and to mock is Christians.
We funded a national art study not too many years ago with public dollars. They took a crucifix and floated it in a vial of urine and put it on display as an expression of art. Can you imagine doing that with the Qur'an? I'm not suggesting it. I'm suggesting that the spirit of Antichrist is alive and well in the Earth. Antichrist, meaning both against and in place of. Many of you know that the book of Revelation describes an individual that will step on to the stage of human history, that the book of Revelation refers to as the Antichrist, an individual that will become a global leader. But when his true character is revealed, the New Testament describes him as a beastly individual, the most violent leader our world will have ever known.
But the spirit of Antichrist isn't waiting just for that individual. It is at work in the Earth today. It stands opposed to the church of Jesus Christ. You don't need a lot of discernment to get this. Some of our contemporary events are expressions, I believe, of that same spirit. Recently, our Supreme Court made a ruling regarding marriage and family. It is a direct repudiation of Christian values: values that have shaped our nation from its inception. Their ruling wasn't primarily about sexuality and the practices of sexual behavior. It was a repudiation of the biblical notion of marriage and family. It put the Christian church and our culture in a place we've never been.
We stand outside of this notion of legality in the US. Our Supreme court justices found something in the US Constitution this year. They found something in the Constitution that had previously not been discovered. They didn't find a new page, they didn't find a new amendment. They simply found something in the existing document that had been overlooked. George Washington missed it. Thomas Jefferson missed it. John Adams missed it. Abraham Lincoln missed it. John F. Kennedy missed it.
But thank God the justices found it. They found something that other Supreme Court chief justices overlooked, men of the status of John Marshall, of Earl Warren. They had missed it. But by their ruling this year, Christians who honor their faith, stand in opposition to US law. It is an expression of the spirit of Antichrist. Now, I'm not overly surprised that a secular justice could arrive at that conclusion. What has been startling to me has been the response of the Christian community. Christians have responded like sheep.
Now, I know the Bible says that we're the sheep of his pasture and I intend to co-operate in that. But I'm only willing to act like a sheep when the perceptible shepherd is the Lion of Judah. I do not intend to follow mutely if the directions aren't being given from the perspective of the Lion of Judah. Now, I don't point these things out to frighten you or to cause you anxiety. I don't think that's the objective. In Matthew 24, Jesus lists all of these signs that will precede his return to the Earth, and he says they're the beginning of birth pains.
I wanna take a minute to pray before we go:
Father, I thank you that you love us. I thank you that you, that in your great mercy and compassion, you have made a way for us to be at peace with the Creator of all things. That you're not angry with us, that you are not resentful of us, that you have welcomed us into your kingdom and made peace with us through Jesus Christ. I thank you for that today. Nothing's hidden from you, no part of our past, no thought within us, and yet you love us. May that love grow in us every day and bring a boldness and a courage within us to face the challenges before us. In Jesus's name, amen.