Allen Jackson - Israel, God's People, and The Nations (02/08/2026)
On this somber yet triumphant commemoration of October 7th—the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust—the pastor honors Israel's miraculous flourishing as God's faithful fulfillment of promises to Abraham's descendants. Amid ongoing threats and rising antisemitism, he calls the church to reject hatred, focus on God's good works, pray earnestly for Israel's salvation and peace (Romans 10:1), and stand in solidarity through practical love, mercy, and public blessing.
Commemorating October 7th: Somber and Triumphant
I thank you for being here today. You know, there's a bit of a somber note, I suppose, to this day, commemorating October 7th, and it was a horrific day. More Jewish people killed on that single day than any day since the Holocaust. A repetition of history.
The Jewish people had no imagination that could happen in the land of Israel. But I also think it's a triumphant day, and I don't want to miss that.
You know, I visited Israel. My parents took my brother and I when we were boys, which, it's been a day or two. And Israel was very much a developing country. It was a very different place.
Today, they're one of the world leaders in tech startups. One of the most technically sophisticated places in the world. They're desalination plants. I mean, they have an abundance of water. It's a flourishing nation, an island of productivity in the midst of really a boiling pot of many other things.
And if we miss what God is doing in the land of Israel, there's no way to understate in the modern nation of Israel other than a miracle of biblical proportions. The God who keeps his promises to a people. Not without a cost, not without a price.
They're some of the most diligent, faithful, vigilant people I've ever known. When I visit Israel, I always come home with a greater determination to be faithful in my own assignments in the earth.
But when you hear the news about Israel, or you hear the renunciations of Israel, you understand that God is moving in the midst of that nation. It truly is a celebration. There's nothing quite like it anywhere in the world.
In the million of a sea of tens and hundreds of millions of people sworn to their destruction, tiny Israel flourishes. It's the most remarkable thing I've seen.
My Israeli friends will go to the coffee shop, and the sirens will go off, and they'll run from the coffee shop to the shelters. And the sirens will stop, and they'll go back and finish their cup of coffee.
We close our world if we get a quarter of an inch of snow. I'm just saying.
So we are honored today to celebrate what God is doing in the land of Israel.
Post-October 7th Miracles and Focus on God's Goodness
October the 7th was a step too far. You know, it's not the point of my message, and don't take it off my time, but since October the 7th, as horrific as the day was, and the hostages that are still not released, since that day, Iran's authority over the Middle East has been totally diminished.
Hezbollah in the north. A threat that had loomed over the Israelis for two decades has lost almost all threat. Hamas is hanging on but by a thread.
God has moved in the most remarkable way. And one of our challenges is to be sure we keep our attentions focused on the good things that God is doing, and not allow evil to form a place in the center of our thoughts, and certainly not in the center of our hearts.
We can't afford to choose hatred. It will poison your soul. We have a different assignment. It doesn't mean we're tolerant of evil. It doesn't mean we embrace wickedness. It doesn't mean there's no boundaries.
When God said, thou shalt not, he didn't offer it as a suggestion. But in the midst of the sovereignty of God, we can reject hate. And it's an important season for us.
Addressing Rising Antisemitism and Bad Theology
If you were with us in the previous session, I want to complete what we began. The title is Israel, God's People, and the Nations. It's a topic over which there's a great deal of debate these days.
Since October the 7th, anti-Semitism has been expressed in this nation in ways I never imagined possible. It was one of the unanticipated consequences of that day.
From places that we thought were elite, I no longer refer to them in that way. I think they're temporary. I think their influence will diminish with each passing day.
But then I've seen that same anti-Semitism expressed from voices on the conservative side of the spectrum and frequently from people within the church or Christian community. It surprised me. I know better.
Throughout history, for more than 1,700 years, the Christian community have been the primary sponsors of anti-Semitism. We don't know our history well enough to be aware of that, but it is the truth.
We're going to talk about Israel and God's people and the nations. Israel, the covenant people of God. God's people, all those peoples in covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the nations, everybody else.
The Bible is pretty clear in the way it looks at the world and the people that are in it.
Historical Jewish Roots in the Land
If you'll allow me just a bit of history briefly. David was king in Jerusalem 1,000 years, plus or minus, before the birth of Christ. A Jewish king on the throne in the city of Jerusalem more than 1,500 years before the birth of Muhammad.
Long before there was discussion about Islam. So the Jewish presence in the land of Israel, Jerusalem is the capital city of the Jewish people. It really isn't a question for historical debate. And there's a great deal of confusion around that.
It's impossible to understand our Bible, either the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, or our New Testament, without understanding the role of the Jewish people. The covenant that God made with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it was very specific, if you know the text.
He made the covenant with Abraham, with his son Isaac, and his son Jacob. Without that understanding, without that context, the Bible makes no sense. In fact, the Bible tells us without that context, we have no Savior and we have no redemption.
So it's troubling to me to find ourselves in a place where there are prominent voices that seek to convince us that the modern nation of Israel and biblical Israel are not connected. And you hear that more frequently than I would like.
That we have little or no responsibility to the modern nation of Israel. Often the people that make statements that are that naive or biblically ill-informed will make statements like, we have no responsibility to the culture in which we live.
I don't accept either of them.
Salvation Originates from the Jews
I want to start there with just a few simple verses of Scripture that perhaps will help you begin to imagine the role that the Jewish people have in our faith.
In John chapter 4 and verse 22, Jesus is speaking. That would be authoritative for those of you taking notes at home. He said, you Samaritans worship what you do not know, but we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Really, there's nothing to be said after that. Apart from the Jewish people, we would have no redemptive story. We are in their debt. They have paid an enormous price through centuries of history.
They have been hunted and hated and persecuted. They have been accused. And as much as we would like to separate ourselves from that narrative, it informs our story and we see it emerging in the 21st century again.
In Romans chapter 1 and verse 16, the Apostle Paul wrote, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Human beings having a fallen nature, a carnal nature, an Adamic nature, the basest part of ourselves, and we share this in common, does not honor God. So it should be no surprise to us that very early in the emerging story of Jesus' people, the church, that there was conflict between the Jewish community where our faith started.
The church that we meet in the opening chapters of the book of Acts was a Jewish church. They didn't think of themselves as a church. They thought of themselves as a Jewish community who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was Messiah.
Labels would come later. But it didn't take long. By the time the message had spread to Rome and the Jewish community was driven out of Rome and another expression of the hatred of the Jews, the non-Jews stepped into those places of authority.
And one of the first recorded conflicts between Gentile believers and Jewish believers emerged. So Paul writes in his letter to Rome some corrections. He said, I believe in the gospel of salvation to the Jew first.
He's speaking to the non-Jewish community. We'll look at that in a bit more detail in a moment.
Jesus Identified as Lion of the Tribe of Judah
Then in Revelation chapter 5, last book of our New Testament, a scene from the throne room of God, familiar to many of you. John has this amazing vision of the culmination of the age, and he sees the book that holds the narrative, the scroll that holds the narrative.
But he's given the message that there's no one worthy to open the scroll, and he begins to weep. I look forward to the time when we care enough about God's unfolding purposes, that when they're not clear to us, we are moved to emotion.
Most of us just go on vacation. We have to have a new Cadence, church. Our cities are on fire. Our schools are more about propaganda than they are education. We have set aside the rule of law, and the church is still dithering on whether or not we should engage the culture in which we live and lead with our faith.
We have to make a change. We do. As much as I want to look through the windows of the church and point accusing fingers at whoever it is we don't like on the other end of the ideological spectrum, the reality is it's been the diminished expression of faith from the people of God that has given place to evil in the world.
We're introduced to that story early in our Bibles, and it carries right through. John's weeping because there's no one found to open the scroll.
And an elder says, there's one who can open the scroll. And that's the verse you have in your notes. The elder said, don't weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, and he's able to open the scroll and its seven seals.
It's Jesus. And when we see him in the book of Revelation at the culmination of the end of the age, I think it's beyond significant to understand how he's identified to us.
He's the lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah, one of the 12 tribes, the contraction of which is where we get the word Jew today. Jesus is identified to us with a complete affiliation, alignment with the Jewish people.
No separation from them. He's not identified as the head of the church, although he's identified that way in the New Testament. That's not how we see him at the end of the age.
In the throne room of God, at the culmination of the ages, he's identified as the lion of the tribe of Judah. At the conclusion of this age, there's not in any way diminished Jesus' association with the Jewish people. And neither should we.
Biblical Language: Israel Refers to Jews, Not Church
I'll give you just a bit of linguistics. Forgive me. If you hate word studies, just hold your breath for a minute. It'll pass.
But there's no other nation like Israel. There just isn't. In the history of all the nations, and particularly for those of us who are people of the book, the word Israel or Israelites used 79 times in the New Testament, but never is the word Israel used as a name for the church.
Not once in 79 expressions. In all but two of those occasions, it's used in exactly the same way as it is in the Old Testament. In fact, nine passages are direct quotations from the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible.
And in every one of them, the usage in the New Testament is the same as the usage in the Old. There are two passages, Romans 9, 6, and Galatians 6, 16, where Israel is used in a restricted sense. Paul applies it only to those Israelites who, by faith, have received Jesus as their Messiah.
But in the New Testament, Israel is never extended beyond the natural meaning of the word Israel. Israel is never extended to include believers from other backgrounds. And it's a total error from a biblical perspective to make use of the word Israel in that way.
A bit further, the word Jew occurs 75 times in the Old Testament, 180 times in the New. On the other hand, just for reference sake, the word Christian occurs three times in the New Testament.
The numbers do seem to suggest the significance the Lord has placed on the people and the nation of Israel.
How have we moved so far from that biblical perspective? To frame it in a personal way, I'm a Gentile. And I will freely declare that my whole spiritual inheritance and every spiritual blessing that I have ever enjoyed, I owe to one people, the Jewish people.
Without them, there are no patriarchs, no prophets, no apostles, no Bible, and no Savior. Jesus said, and I believe salvation is of the Jews. We had better remember that truth and conduct ourselves accordingly.
It's not complicated. And those who seek to make it complicated aren't paying attention to Scripture.
Israel as God's Unique Treasured Possession
Israel is unique. In 1 Chronicles 17, in verse 21, it says, Who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whose God went out to redeem a people for himself and to make a name for yourself and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations from before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt.
If we pray for the nation of Israel like we pray for all the other nations, I don't believe we would be praying in line with Scripture. It's a unique people with a unique destiny. expressing of the uniqueness of the God who made a covenant with them. from which all of us have benefited.
This notion of a chosen people that some are so willing to set aside to imagine that the Jewish people have been rejected or replaced.
Deuteronomy 7, in verse 6, As you're a people holy to the Lord God, the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
I mentioned already that the battle in Rome had broken out when the Jews were expelled and the Gentiles stepped into places of authority in the church. Paul addresses it in Romans 11.
He said, I ask then, did God reject his people? This is some theoretical question I'm putting to you. It's a question that was in place already early in the unfolding story of the people of God.
And Paul asked it as a Pharisee, no simple question to him. Did God reject his people? And the answer in the Greek language is far more impactful than it is in English. It's the strongest declarative tense that could be used.
He says, by no means, God forbid, absolutely not. I'm an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people.
There's nothing we add to that.
Now, I would add a bit of caution. As I've mentioned, I've been in and out of the land of Israel since I was a boy. I had the privilege of studying at the university there. I've been with Christians in a variety of perspectives.
On a typical weekend in this place, we have people from more than 50 Christian traditions. Peacefully. So I haven't seen everything, but I've seen enough to have an informed opinion.
And there's sometimes when the topic of Israel comes up or the Jewish people come up that Christians and people of the Christian faith get a bit, shall we say, enthusiastic. And I'm an advocate.
But I think there is a note of caution. Just because it's stamped made in Israel doesn't mean it's godly. And I don't say that in any way to denigrate my Israeli friends or my Jewish friends, but not everything in Israel should be supported or celebrated.
In the same way, I would submit to you that everything that emerges from places called churches should not be celebrated or supported. Israel is a secular society with secular leaders that they elect. And they make choices that are good and they make choices that are bad.
And it doesn't take great discernment always, sometimes it does, but it doesn't take great discernment always to know that they're making choices that are ungodly against the counsel of the Hebrew Bible.
When you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, it's not a political peace you're primarily praying for, but that the people of the land would have peace with their God. The same way we pray for our own nation.
We have politicians and political parties and ideas and ideologies and policies that are put forth that we don't agree with. It's not simple and neat. But Christians often confuse it.
Requirements for Proper Understanding of Israel
And I would submit there's three things required of us. An awareness, we actually need some information. It takes a bit of work and effort.
You'll need to add to that a knowledge of Scripture because apart from the framework of Scripture, you won't have a grid work for understanding what you see.
And thirdly, you need discernment. That takes a dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Because at the end of the day, the Spirit of God is present in the earth to lead in God.
Without that, you'll be easily manipulated. You'll be frequently deceived. I don't have a simple way through that.
If you haven't been in a church that gave you any biblical perspective, if you're not familiar with the prophetic passages, if all of that is a mystery to you, some effort will be required.
We don't live in a simple world.
Best Prayer for Israel: Romans 10:1
If you'll allow me just some personal observations for a moment. I have a tremendous respect for the Jewish traditions, but I don't imagine that following them will make me more spiritual or holy.
I understand them as my friends and as my fellow journeyers. We share a worldview together and we're connected by the pages of Scripture.
But again, sometimes I shake my head a bit at my Christian friends referring to Jesus as Yeshua. It's okay with me, but it doesn't seem appropriate unless Hebrew is your native tongue.
Unless you're going to refer to Jesus in all the other languages that you have some baseline familiarity with. Keeping Jewish holidays. I believe we need to understand them. I think it's respectful.
I have celebrated those holidays with friends in Israel and beyond. I'm not opposed to that. recognize them as a part of our biblical tradition and the story of the Jewish people is appropriate.
Imagining them as essential to our Christian faith. can be confusing. The kosher diet. I think would be wonderful for your physical health. But I don't know that it would serve your spiritual formation.
Not opposed to it. There's a lot of confusion in the Christian church. Co-opting Jewish traditions. Or Jewish holidays. And imagining following them without giving attention to the other instructions God has given us.
Doesn't bring heightened spirituality.
So how do we pray for Israel? I've spent my whole life hearing Christians say we should pray for Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It's almost like a toy. You pull the string and that's the phrase that comes out of us.
I thought a good bit about it and I knew my time would be limited because I have a hard time being quiet. So I brought you my reduced version of the best prayer for Israel.
It's Romans chapter 10 and verse 1. Paul said, My heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
I don't know a better prayer. I don't know a better prayer. Don't add to it. Don't embellish it.
It seems to me the presentation is very clear. It's coming from a Pharisee. Someone whose entire life had been spent in rabbinic studies. He knew the word of God better than all of us do collectively. I'm quite confident.
And he said his heart's desire for the Israelites is that they might be saved. If a person is not saved, the person is lost. In a biblical perspective, there is no third option. There's nothing between the two.
The most important step in the life of any person, Jew or Gentile, is to be saved, to know they're saved. Now we interpret that based upon the perspective from where we stand.
If we grew up Southern Baptist, we think, well, that surely would require just as I am. If we grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition, it would surely require a priest. If we grew up in the Pentecostal, tradition, it would require some running probably. Oh, I've been there. It's okay.
But we tend to interpret that in light of the perspective from which we stand. The fundamental of that, as I understand it, is to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.
The labels that follow that have far more to do with your traditions and your perspectives than they do the reality of Scripture.
Jesus' Warning and Paul's Deep Desire
Listen to Jesus' words in John chapter 8 in verse 24. This was Jesus speaking to a Jewish community in Jerusalem. He said, I told you that you would die in your sins if you don't believe that I am the one I claim to be. You will indeed die in your sins.
It's a Jew speaking to Jews. This predates anything that you could use or confuse with the church. It's Jesus speaking to the Jewish people, asking them to consider who he is.
that's my prayer for my friends in Israel. They would have a revelation of Jesus that it wouldn't be muddied by the poor behavior of people who say they're his followers.
That our bad history would not influence the decisions they have to make for themselves and their families. It's an uncomfortable history. I've sat in classrooms filled with Jewish students and we'd walk through the history and they would turn and look at me and say, why do you hate us so much?
There's no simple answer.
In John 10 and verse 9, Jesus said, I'm the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. If you want to pray with a bit more specificity for your friends in the land of Israel and the nation, pray they'll have a revelation of Jesus.
Not to change faiths. Stop with your labels. Ask them to have a revelation of Jesus.
I believe we have a debt to Israel and the Jewish people. It's not just my opinion and it's derived from scripture in Romans chapter 9 and verse 3.
Again, the apostle Paul, he said, I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons. Theirs is 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 Christ. who is God over all forever praised.
Without the Jewish people, folks, we have no story. We would have no covenants. We would have no prophets. We would have no scripture. We would have no Messiah.
The New Testament in the book of Revelation describes a heavenly Jerusalem, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. And at the center of that new Jerusalem. is seated on the throne at the center of the city an observant Jewish rabbi.
The gates entering the city all have the names of Hebrew men inscribed above them. It will be a very awkward place for anti-Semites.
Romans 11, Paul's carrying out this discussion. And to frame the context in verse 13, he says, I'm talking to you Gentiles inasmuch as I'm an apostle to the Gentiles.
Do you ever smile at God's sense of humor? I don't very often because his sense of humor and mine are very different. You know, the Bible tells me God says that a minute is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.
And I'm urgently asking God for something and he says, wait a minute. And that does not feel funny to me.
And I find it more than ironic that God would recruit personally, that Jesus would come recruit personally one Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a rising star amongst the rabbinic community with a flawless education and a zeal to match.
And he recruits him to be a messenger not to the Jewish community, but a messenger to the non-Jewish community. I have to imagine, Paul thought, I sure spent a lot of hours. poring over a lot of texts to talk to these knuckleheads that don't know any of them.
But in Romans chapter 11 and verse 30, I put in parentheses the groups that are being referenced. It simplified the verse a bit. Just as you Gentiles who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy. as a result of Israel's disobedience, so they, Israel, too, have now become disobedient in order that they, too, may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you Gentiles.
That we were blessed and they will be blessed.
Same chapter, verse 25. I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Gee, you don't think the non-Jewish part of the people of God would get conceited, do you?
And imagine things that like we were uppermost or we had the first place or that the modern expression of God keeping his covenant to the Jewish people wasn't relevant. Well, I guess that could happen to us, couldn't it?
I don't want you to be ignorant and 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 so all Israel will be saved.
It is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He'll 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're enemies on your account. But as far as the election is concerned, they're loved on account of the patriarchs. For God's gifts and his call. are irrevocable.
Not a word we use a lot. It means it won't be reversed. It won't be canceled. It can't be rejected because it didn't begin with us. It began with God.
Just a casual analysis of that 11th chapter of Romans shows us that Paul uses the name Israel to refer to those who are Jews by natural descent and to distinguish them from Christians of Gentile descent.
In other words, and this is important, he doesn't use Israel as a synonym for the church. And neither should we.
Practical Mercy Toward Israel and Jewish People
Well, in the midst of the culture we find ourselves in and the confusion in the world and the confusion that's added by the fake news. The first time I heard that phrase, I cringed.
And I thought to myself, someone get to that man and teach him a better way to speak. I'm embarrassed that some 10 years later he was telling the truth and I wasn't wise enough to recognize it.
But the question I'm asked most frequently these days is what can we do? What do we do? How do we respond to this world we find ourselves in?
And on this topic of Israel and the Jewish people, I wanted to conclude this with some very practical ways that I believe we can show mercy to Israel and to the Jewish people.
And I believe these are available to all of us. Nan was here a moment ago and she gave us a presentation from the perspective of Corrie Ten Boom, the daughter of a Dutch watchmaker.
Many of you know the story. They opened their home after the German invasion and they created a secret room and they were a part of an underground system.
More than 800 Jewish people made their way through the Ten Boom home to safety through the underground. And as a result of that, as a respect for that, if you visit Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Holocaust Museum, around the perimeter of that campus, they have planted trees, each assigned a person, the righteous among the Gentiles.
Those people, non-Jews, that stood up or protected Jewish people. during the Holocaust. Oscar Schindler has a tree name for him. Corrie Ten Boom had a tree name for her.
When I stood there on more than one occasion with Israeli friends and they're telling that bit of the history of Yad Vashem, they've looked at the group I was with and say our only regret is that there are so few trees.
On the year that Corrie Ten Boom died, I'm told that the tree died. But I have a question for you and me. Are we willing to be a voice for the Jewish people in the nation of Israel. when it's popular and when it's not?
Because there'll be times and places it won't be popular to be included in the people of God. And increasingly, I believe that will be more about whether you are a Jew or a Christ follower. Not a person who sits in a church. There's a difference.
There are some practical ways we can show mercy to Israel. The first is to cultivate and express a sincere love for the Jewish people. Not a private one. Be willing to acknowledge it.
Let it be known in your circle of friends. Let it be known around your kitchen table. Let it be known around your holiday table.
I suspect the people who know you know the sports teams you advocate for, who your favorite chefs are on the Food Network, who your favorite home remodeler is on HGTV.
Whatever it is that is of interest to you, the people who know you even marginally probably know a good bit about that. Let them know that you're an advocate for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.
Secondly, I would invite you to be a living demonstration of the grace and the mercy of God. I'll borrow a verse from Romans 11. 11.
It says, did they stumble as far. .. did they stumble as so to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
Here's a wild thought. Live with enough joy and openness to the Jewish community with your life filled with the blessings of God sufficiently that they'll ask you about your faith. not to enact the conversion but to share with them the goodness of God as you know Him.
The reality of your faith. Not the traditions of the group to whom you belong. It's not a holiday exchange. It's a living faith in a person.
Let the blessings of God so fill our lives that we become a testimony in the earth to the goodness of God. And that's more than the balance in a bank account. That has to do with the moral perspectives we hold.
That our willingness to yield to the sovereignty of God and His will and His purposes for ourselves. There's a separation that comes with being the people of God.
The Jewish people understand that so much better than the people in the Christian community. We've done our best to blend in, to be undercover operatives, to be covert, to build Bridges to the ungodly and the immoral and the wicked that there's almost no distinguishable difference any longer.
Perhaps in a building where we sit for a few minutes on the weekend, we've even stopped gathering in those buildings. We just stream it now into the privacy of our own home. or our houseboat or the beach or wherever we may be that's most convenient because we don't want to be inconvenienced for the sake of our faith.
The Jewish people on the other hand. have maintained a uniqueness on purpose. And perhaps if we would choose God and His sovereignty and welcome the distinctiveness that He would bring to our lives and we would be willing to bear that in the midst of the cultures where we live.
If we would be willing to own biblical perspective, again, really strange ideas like God created as male and female. Marriage is between a man and a woman. If we would return to those values, it'll be a bridge of solidarity between us.
And thirdly, I would submit that we would seek God's best for Israel with our prayers. The very familiar Psalm 122. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
But now you've got a bit more of information on how to pray. Not just an absence of conflict, but the peace with God.
And finally, I would submit we can seek to repay our debt to Israel with the practical acts of kindness and mercy.
I meet people frequently who say, well, I don't know any Jewish people. You haven't been very aware.
I told you that I traveled to Israel when I was a boy. I've been in out of the country many, many times. When I studied at the university there was a number of, there were hundreds of students there on a junior year abroad.
And that was the first time I stood in the group of young people my age that were predominantly Jewish. And I had a very limited imagination to how isolated they felt. It changed me.
It's not uncommon now when we uncommon now when we visit Israel we'll be in a hotel. Wasn't too long ago we were there for the high holy days this time of year.
We were in the hotel lobby Kathy and I were sitting waiting for some others in our group and we were just seated in the lobby and a couple came up who were visiting they sounded to me to be from New York.
They weren't from around here I can tell you that. Jewish family and they began to ask us questions and pretty quickly they discovered that we were Christians and that I was a pastor and they had a list of questions.
It's like playing Jeopardy. Christians for a thousand please Alex. And it wasn't but a few minutes and another American couple came up behind them from New York as well Jewish and they started asking questions and the couple that was there first turned around and said we found these leave us alone.
And it reinforced to me how little we actually often talk between communities. sometimes because of the hatred in the world and the fear of rejection. or criticism. or misunderstanding.
Again I'm not encouraging you to change your holidays. I'm just asking you to understand them. There are Jewish people in your spheres of influence in the places where you work that go to school with your children that live in our neighborhoods and a simple thing we can do is simply show kindness and mercy and respect.
We were brand new Christians. We lived in Miami, Florida it's been a day. when the six day war broke out and most of our neighbors were Jewish. and that's the first time I remember my family praying for the peace of Jerusalem.
they came and said that their. family and the women and their family in Israel had left their babies and gone to fight or gone to stand to watch. I didn't understand I was a boy. but from early in my life I've understood we've stood together and that one of the great privileges we have is showing kindness and respect and mercy for the Jewish people.
they're not all perfect folks. and if you'll do a casual check of the local church neither are we. it's time for the church to find a voice. it's time to ground it in scripture and understand with a bit of clarity who we are and what we've been called to be.
I believe we're at an inflection point. God is clearly shaking the earth. There's episode after episode. We saw one with COVID. We saw one on October 7th. We saw another with Charlie Kirk's assassination. There's a shaking taking place.
And every time it seems there's a group that steps back, but there's a group that steps forward, I want to go forward with the Lord.
Closing Video and Aaronic Blessing
I want to close our service with a video and then a prayer. So when the video's done, don't run for the exit. Deal? It's a short prayer.
But it's a blessing I would like you to make with me. But the president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews was gracious enough to make a video to share with us.
Yael couldn't travel. It's the High Holy Days. But she made a video with Tennessee in mind. She was with us here last year. And so I asked the crew, I'm giving them a minute, because last night I forgot the video.
Isn't that awful? Isn't that awful? You do a service to honor our Jewish friends and you forget the video they made? I'm pretty sure, like, if you take the numeric value of my name, it comes out the knucklehead.
But don't... If you got the video, they're good. Let's go.
[Video content summarized: Yael Eckstein from IFCJ speaks from Near Oz kibbutz, site of October 7th tragedy. She thanks Christians for Flags of Fellowship event, plants flags in solidarity, affirms covenant with Jews remains, rejects claims it expired. Emphasizes joint stand against darkness attacking civilization, hopes for future where Christians and Jews together show strength post-October 7th.]
Shalom, Pastor Allen and all of my friends at World Outreach Church. I'm here in near Oz. This is one of the most hard hit kibbutzim on October 7th, where one in four people who lived here were either killed or kidnapped.
The ceremony is about to begin, where Israelis from all across Israel have come to plant flags to remember and to join with you in the Flags of Fellowship event.
Dear brothers and sisters of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. I'm the mother of Avinathan. The literal meaning of my son's name, Avinathan O, is profound. Our Father in Heaven has given us light.
Today, Avinathan is in the top elite unit of the light warriors. His mission is fighting in the depths of the darkest place on the planet Earth.
These days, we are witnessing a huge outbreak of hatred for Israel all over the world. All the demons are trying with all their might in this last round to defeat God.
They argue that our covenant has expired. But your solidarity today is repudiation of that false doctrine. Yes, Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 is also the Jews of today.
To our Christian friends who stand shoulder to shoulder with us with the Flags of Fellowship. Your partnership transforms this memorial. It declares the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is faithful in each and every generation to his people.
Myself as a Christian Zionist, I look up to you. I believe in your role in the world. You are the eternal people. And I want to speak to all those of the nations that are carrying this flag.
This blessed flag of Israel. I want to thank those communities, those Christians around the world. That are not just willing to talk, but that are willing to actually stand with you.
For all of you that are raising Israeli flags across the world, I say thank you as a Christian Zionist. And I know the Jewish nation appreciates and thanks you as well.
We will stand firmly with you in raising up an army of support from around the world until Israel defeats these enemies. Our dear Christian friends, thank you for being next to us.
Thank you for understanding that we have a common goal. Not to let these darkness forces take over our precious world. Because we understand that the attack on our communities on October 7 wasn't only an attack on our Israeli communities.
Not only an attack on the Jewish people. This attack was an attack on civilization. But we are determined to be better and stronger. With you, our dear friends, we will become better and stronger.
And in a few years from now, people who will come, not to see what has happened to us on October 7, but to see what Christians and Jews did together the day after.
Thank you, Yael.
These flags that are waving here and are waving in your church, these aren't political statements and this isn't a political story. The same evil that did this is the same evil that's going after your church.
And that's what Flags of Fellowship represents. It represents the silenced majority who recognizes this flag is spiritual. They burn the flags. We plant them.
We stand together in answering God's call to say, Hineni. Here I am. Use me in whatever way you can to bring more light to the world.
To our friends at the IFCJ, thank you for allowing us to be a part of those 1500 churches today. You're not alone.
Colonel Isaacs, thank you for making the trip here. He shared last night that he's able to be with us because he survived October 7 for one reason. The IFCJ had provided for him an armored vehicle.
Without that, he wouldn't have survived the multiple attacks that were made while he was reporting that morning. God provides.
Aaronic Blessing Pronounced Congregationally
I want us to close with a blessing. It's one of the oldest in scripture. It's in your notes. It's the Aaronic blessing. It's the instructions Moses gave to Aaron to bless the people.
I believe it's appropriate as a blessing from us today for the Jewish people, but I believe equally it's an appropriate blessing for one another.
It's a great blessing in your home. Teach it to your children. Let it become a part of your routine prayer life.
It's a historical day. I don't know what the outcome will be, but we're praying that there'll be a release of men and women who've been held hostage for two years. Amen.
Can we read together just the portion that's in bold? I gave you the context, but let's read the bold portion.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.
I think we can do better than that. Like I'm going to take those of you that are in the stadium seats and you're going to pronounce that blessing forward.
So the rest of you are going to be quiet. You're in the stadium seats. You're used to shouting at the referees. That's why you're in the stadium seats.
So can you use your outdoor voices? If you're in New Harvest and Genesis, I need you too. You're in on this one.
All right. Let's read it again. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
And the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.
Now, those of you on the floor, turn around and face those people. That's not exactly towards Jerusalem, but we're directionally challenged since we got Syria anyway.
So we're going to bless those people that just blessed you. And we're going to bless the nation of Israel as we do it.
All right. So in the back, you can receive this one. Ready?
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.
Amen.