God's Chosen People Part 2
The Israel Debate • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
A few weeks ago we started this mini-series by asking the question, “Are Christians required to support modern Israel?”
We began answering that by looking at Israel and it’s history.
Isreal, the nation, was chosen by God to be his special people and nation that he would raise up, watch over, and use to bring about the Messiah.
This nation was first promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 and then continually promised generation after generation until God fulfilled his first promise to make Abraham’s lineage a “great nation.”
6 “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. 8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.
That promise came with a condition as we discussed.
Joshua 23:15–16 (ESV)
15 But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”
Jeremiah 11:10 (ESV)
10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.
The question before us today asks…
Is Israel still God’s chosen people?
The New Covenant
The New Covenant
A Promised Covenant.
A Promised Covenant.
The reality is, the old covenant that God made with the Israelites was not meant to stay forever.
Jeremiah 31:31–32 (ESV)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:33–34 (ESV)
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Did this come true, was this promise by God fulfilled?
Let’s take a look at…
A Promised Fulfilled Covenant.
A Promised Fulfilled Covenant.
When the Messiah, Jesus, started his ministry he preached that “the kingdom was at hand.”
John the Baptist prepared Jesus’ way with this message.
1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus, after his baptism and temptation in the wilderness began to preach what John said he would preach.
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
This kingdom that was at hand had been prophesied about as one that would be set up by God and never destroyed.
Daniel 2:44 (ESV)
44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever
This kingdom, for which Jesus is king, is the one church which Christ would establish and be head over.
Matthew 16:18 (ESV)
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.
Hebrews 12:28 (ESV)
28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe
Colossians 1:13 (ESV)
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son
This kingdom, the church, is only made up of those that have had their sins washed away by the blood of Christ.
Romans 5:6–9 (ESV)
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Acts 2:47 (NKJV)
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
The blood of Christ is the mark of the new covenant.
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Summary
Summary
All of this comes to one conclusion, today we are under this new covenant that was promised by God under the old covenant.
That means today, God’s chosen people, are not nation of Israel or those that practice Judaism but…
Christians
Christians
God’s Chosen Ones.
God’s Chosen Ones.
The inspired “New Testament” is clear, Christians are God’s chosen people today.
Colossians 3:12 (ESV)
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience
1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Christians are God’s chosen people today.
And the only way for an Jew or Gentile to become a Christian is to give up one’s past and become part of the Christ’s kingdom, the church.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Galatians 3:26–28 (ESV)
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Summary
Summary
So, if Jesus brought about a “new covenant” and therefore a “new chosen people” that is made up of everyone that obey’s the gospel, will there be a point in time when Jews will be elevated back to being God’s chosen people again?
Conclusion
Conclusion
If God’s chosen people today are Christians, who are in the kingdom of Christ which is the Lord’s church, will there be a time in the future when modern Israel becomes God’s chosen people again?
This is the thrust of the debate going on now as many, claiming to be Christians, are seeking to prove and thus demand that Christians today support modern Israel.
Next week we will answer that question, will Israel become God’s chosen people again one day.
For now, let us strive and be thankful that God chose us from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) to be is chosen people, his royal, priesthood, his holy nation, his own possession.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.