John Hagee - Israel and The Church
We conclude our sermon series "The Battle for Jerusalem", recognizing that the cease fire between Israel and the terrorist army of Hamas appears to be holding, no one in their right mind believes this is the end of the conflict. In a few months, as soon as Iran gives the green light to one of these terrorist organizations, they will attack Israel again for some shotty reason that they fabricate. Rockets will be launched into Israel and blood will flow. I want to say this to the people of Israel and to the Jewish people in America: you are not alone. The Christians of America stand with you. We've got your back.
I say that, because America's support of Israel is going soft in the media and soft in Washington, D.C. There are four, radical, anti-semitic feminists, who call themselves "The Squad," who want support for Israel to stop. Shame on you! You do not represent the American people! The truth is anti-semitic violence is exploding in this country from New York and California to Illinois and Utah. This conflict has generated a vicious backlash against American Jews. They're finding themselves the targets of death threats, hate speech, and violent physical attacks. People are attacking their businesses. Let me tell you something. You want to know how the holocaust in Nazi Germany started? It started just like this. Words became actions and actions became violent. And they started attacking the people. And before you know it, the judgment of God came to that nation.
I want to say this, ladies and gentlemen of America: anti-semitism is not a Jewish problem: it's every American's problem. Why? Because the day America turns its back on Israel will be the day that God turns his back on the United States of America. "I will curse those who curse you" is God's promise to every nation including America. Today, let us explore the unsearchable riches of God to discover God's love for the Jewish people, and more importantly, Christians' responsibility in the Bible to the Jewish people. Read with me Isaiah 62:1, please. "For Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns".
Father God, we've come to your house today to hear from your word your love for the Jewish people and Christianity's Bible responsibility to the Jewish people. Holy Spirit of God, lead us, guide us into all truth, in Jesus' name. Amen.
You may be seated. Let's explore God's love for Israel and the Jewish people. The Bible says that Israel was God's first-born son, Exodus 4:22. The first-born son in a Jewish family was highly favored. He got two-thirds of the father's inheritance, because it was his responsibility to help the other children in the family to prosper in business and for the girls to marry the right kind of guy. God Almighty says that Israel shall be a special treasure. Listen to these next three words, "Above all the people on the face of the earth," Exodus 19:5 and 6. It's enough to make you jealous, for heaven's sake.
Saint Paul writes in Romans 9:4 and 5 that the Jewish people were adopted by God as his very own. You need to remember that Romans was after the cross. And they were adopted by the Lord as his very own. The Bible says that the Jewish people are cherished people. They are the apple of his eye: that they are a chosen people: that they are a covenant people. They own the land of Israel by a blood covenant from God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. They do not occupy that land as the media is saying: they own that land!
Why do we stand with Israel? Because God Almighty stands with Israel. The Bible says, "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps". The word "Keepeth" is a military term meaning "Defender". Israel's secret military defense is God Almighty. That's a fact. Why do we stand with Israel? Because the Bible, from Genesis 1:1 to the last jot and tittle of the Book of Revelation, stands with Israel. Why do we stand with Israel? God's foreign policy is, was, and always will be, "I will bless those who bless you". And I believe one of the reasons God has blessed this congregation is that for 40 years, we have blessed the Jewish people. "And I will curse those who curse you" is still just as true as John 3:16. Here is world history in one sentence: every nation that has tried to destroy Israel and the Jewish people has been destroyed by the hand of God.
The next in line to be destroyed, according to Ezekiel 38, will be Russia, Iran, and turkey, and the nations in Ezekiel 38. There's a payday some day and that payday is coming for every anti-semitic nation. Ezekiel said, "God is going to put a hook in your jaw and drag you down there". Why? Because you're going to get back all the suffering you have ever extended to the Jewish people. Hello, Russians. Are you listening this morning? Your army is going to be buried in Israel. Jesus made one of the most profound statements recorded in scripture in John 4:22. He was talking to the Samaritan woman, which in itself was a controversial thing. He said to the Samaritan woman, "You Samaritans worship you don't know what". He said, "But salvation is from the Jews". Jesus said that. Why? Because we are Judeo-Christians. The Jews do not need Christianity to explain their existence. But Christianity cannot explain its existence without the Jewish people.
Think about that. There is no nation on the face of the earth like Israel. Israel is the only nation in the earth whose boundaries are in the Word of God. Genesis 15:18 through 20, it's a royal land grant that's ten times the size of the national Israel right now. Whenever king Jesus comes back, Israel is going to be the dominant nation in the world! Why have they been hated from the gates of Egypt until today? Because they are the ones who brought the Word of God, the light of truth, the hope of Jesus Christ: and the prince of darkness hates those people because it has brought the message of liberation to the rest of us. Therefore, we have a duty before God to defend them now in their hour of need. Listen to David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 17. "O Lord, there is none like you", listen, "And who is like your people Israel," the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for himself! Israel is unique to God. 1 Chronicles 17:22, "For you have made your people Israel your very own people forever".
"Forever," that means right now. That means as long as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, forever. Christians, who say God has broken covenant with Israel. Are simply wrong. God has never broken covenant with the Jewish people. Paul says in Romans 11:1, "Hath God cast away his people? Absolutely not". Romans 11:11, in the strongest Greek expression possible, he repeats it again for the slow learners. "Has God cast away his people? Absolutely not". And this is post Calvary. Don't ever say that God has cast them aside, because it's simply not true. The Bible said, he, that is the Lord, who keeps covenant for a thousand generations. The real translation is the Lord keeps covenant for longer than forever. "A thousand generations," technically, would be a hundred thousand years, because Genesis says a generation is a hundred years. A hundred times a thousand is a hundred thousand, meaning there's 98.000 more years to go on the contract. The complete history of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel is in the Bible. But it's told prophetically.
Prophecy is history told before it happens. God took Abraham, and he said, "Abraham," prophecy one, "Your children are going to go into slavery". Israel's enslavement in Egypt was prophesied in Genesis 15:13. Israel's deliverance from Egypt with ox carts loaded down with gold and silver. Why? Because they hadn't been paid for working for 430 years, and God makes sure his children has a payday. "The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous". They needed that gold and silver: that when they got out in the wilderness and they were told to put gold over all of the implements of the temple: and that the posts that went around the tabernacle were going to be silver. Partner, when you can use silver posts to go around your ranch, you've made it. You're really doing good. The possession of the land of Israel was prophesied in Genesis 13. The prophecies of four through twelve predict the captivity of northern and southern kingdoms, the destruction of the temple and the scattering of the Jewish people also known as the diaspora.
The 13th prophecy is the regathering of the Jewish people when Israel was reborn in 1948. Let me assure you: I was eight years old, listening to the radio with my father when the United Nations announced that was going to happen. And my father said, "This is the greatest miracle since the resurrection of Jesus Christ," because it confirms the Word of God is absolutely true: that every one of the prophets who said this was going to happen were telling the absolute truth. The fact was that many, most Christians believed Israel is never going to survive. They won't be here in 90 days, because there were five arab armies in the month of may 1948, who were promising to destroy them. They had organized armies. Israel had absolutely nothing, but God, and they prevailed. Miraculously, they prevailed.
The 14th prophecy: the 14th prophecy: it is logical to say that if a book, the Bible, can predict 13 events with absolute authority and accuracy, which I've just given to you, wouldn't it be intellectually honest to pay attention to the last three prophecies that are yet to happen? If you're 13 out of 13 absolutely right, why isn't 14, 15, and 16 right? So let me give them to you. The 14th prophecy was the gathering of all the nations against Jerusalem to war in Luke 21:20 and Ezekiel 38 and 39. This is the Gog/Magog war that will involve Russia, Iran, and turkey, and radical Islamic nations in the future. The long story, short: God Almighty, the defender of Israel, will gather these historically anti-semitic nations to destroy them, because he has a debt he wants to make them pay. Ezekiel 39:2, "I will put a hook in your jaw and a sixth part of you will be survivors".
The 15th prophecy, the supernatural revelation of Messiah to the Jewish people predicted in Zechariah 12:10. Elijah will return to Jerusalem. He's been in heaven for 3.000 years. He's going to come back to earth as a witness to the Jewish people that the Messiah is coming. I think Elijah is getting in that golden chariot that took him there, because he's getting ready to come. The last thing the Torah tells the Jewish people in Malachi 4:5, the Bible says, "Behold, I send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming and great dreadful day of the Lord". That's the tribulation. Elijah is coming for the purpose of telling the Jewish people, "Messiah is coming". Where is the church? We'll be gone. The observant Jewish people are looking for Messiah. The secular Jewish people, who've given themselves to secular humanism, they have abandoned Judaism for secular humanism: they're looking for nothing. They have no feeling for Israel. They have no feeling for the Jewish people in that nation. It is the observant Jewish people who are looking for Messiah. Back to Israel. God will also send 144.000 messengers that will be 12.000 from each of the 12 tribes to tell the Jewish people, "Messiah is coming". This is Revelation 7.
The 16th prophecy, the last prophecy, that Messiah will come in glory and power to the City of Jerusalem to establish his eternal kingdom on the earth. There will be 1.000 years of perfect peace. Just think about that for a minute. I have all of the details in my latest book, "Earth's last empire". But the lion is going to lay down with the lamb. And I had a guy tell me one time, "We're in the millennial reign". I said, "Fine: go down to the zoo. Throw a lamb in there with a lion, and see what happens".
Poof! His revelation went up in the air. Old Testament and tribulation saints are resurrected and rewarded. Righteous Jews are going to be there. There will be no more wars. There will be no more armies. There will be no more hospitals. There will be no more jails. There will be no more screaming sirens running down the street. There'll be no more funeral homes. There will be no more abortion clinics. There will be no more Covid-19. Thank you, God. There will be no more mass shootings in churches or in synagogues. There will be no more fake news. There will be no more lunacy from Washington. All the news is good news and it's coming out of Jerusalem. And the news is, "Jesus Christ, the Messiah, has returned to earth"! Give the Lord praise in the house of God!
Jesus, when talking of Herod in Luke 13:32, he said, "Go tell that fox that today and tomorrow I'm doing cures and working miracles. And on the third day, I shall be glorified". Now get these verses in your mind. Prophetically, "A day with as the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day". That's God's measuring stick. So Jesus is saying to Herod, "For the next 2.000 years, I am going to be performing miracles". And we're going to ask him to do that at the end of this service. "And I'm going to be casting out demons". I'll assure you: they still need to be cast out. "After 2.000 years, on the third day, I'll be glorified".
The third day in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a day of major miracles. Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. How does this apply to Israel and to the rapture of the church? Hosea prophesied in chapter 6 that "God would bind us up". He's talking about the Jewish people. "And afterwards," meaning toward the end of the second day, "He's going to revive us. And in the third day", I'm quoting Hosea here, "In the third day, he will raise us up, and we will live in his sight". If we live in his sight, he's here.
So let's explain this. Let's say that this podium represents the separation between B.C. and S.D. This is before Christ. This is from Adam to Jesus in the manger. This is from the birth of Jesus until late last night and into eternity. This is A.D. we're talking about a day being a thousand years and a thousand years, a day. From zero to a thousand years A.D., not enough happened for me to stop and talk about it. The second day began at the 1.000th year into 1948. What was 1948? It was the evening of the second day, because that second day only had until the year 2000. Hosea was exactly right. On the second day, he's going to bind us up and bring us in. And on the third day, he's going to raise us up and we will live before him. When did the third day start? It started midnight year 2000. We are now 21 years into the third day. In the third day, Jesus Christ is coming in the clouds of glory to take us home.
Church, we're getting ready to leave this world! What can I do to receive the blessings and the favor of God? One, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. When you pray, what we do in prayer on this earth controls what heaven does and controls what happens on the earth. You're not really accomplishing your mission until you're praying about your mission.
Secondly, we can stand up against anti-semitism, to stand up, and speak up, and shut down anti-semitism. When you hear someone castigating the Jewish people, eat their lunch. In love, of course.
Lastly, take action. Acts of kindness toward the Jewish people produces the miracle-working power of God. And this is evidenced in the book of Matthew. There was a Roman centurion that had a sick servant. He was a gentile. Jesus was coming down the road with a healing ministry. But Jesus kept the law of Moses, and it would be against the law of Moses for Jesus to come into this house. The centurion went to the Jewish elders and said, "What can I do to get this healing rabbi to come into my house"? And the elders went out and intercepted Jesus and said, "This man has built a synagogue for us. He's done something special to bless us and you owe it to him to go into his house and to pray for that sick servant".
Jesus broke the law of Moses, went in, and prayed for the sick servant. The sick servant was miraculously healed because a gentile did something to bless the house of Israel. Point: this church, for 40 years, has been doing things to bless the house of Israel. Every one of you, who sit in this room, are scripturally qualified to receive a miracle in your life. If only you will ask for it, God will grant it. Stand. You're in this room and you want God to do a miracle in your life, in your business, in your health, in your marriage. There's some place in your life where you want the miracle-working power of God to happen, let me see your hands right where you are. Keep your hand up and let's pray this prayer. Those of you, who are watching by television, you can pray this prayer with us.
Heavenly Father, in the authority of Jesus' name, I come to you today, in faith believing, knowing that those who bless the house of Israel are qualified to receive the miracle-working power of God in their life. The thing that I need for you to accomplish in my life, the miracle that I need is... (now you fill out the blank). It's in my marriage. It's in my health. It's with my children. It's in my finances. (whatever it happens to be, ask God for it right now).