Israel and the Church

What Israel did was throw a wrench in God's program. Dr. Tony Evans talks about how the chosen people fail to recognize the Messiah and what the Lord plans to do about it. God says to Israel, you've rejected the cornerstone.

So I have another plan. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. When Israel rejected Jesus, did God unchoose His chosen people? We'll find out today as Dr. Evans talks about the relationship between Israel and the church.

Let's join him. You cannot understand history, His story, without the backstory. Just to give a quick, brief summary. God created angels. The star angel, Lucifer, rebelled, took one third of the angels with him.

He was found guilty of cosmic treason. Hell was prepared for Satan and his angels. But God decided rather than carry out the sentence right away, He would use the rebellion of Satan for his greater glory. What God decided to do in the garden was place a lesser creature, constitutionally inferior, to demonstrate if he could work out this lesser creature right, it would overcome the creature that rebelled against him. The problem occurred, however, when Satan tricked Adam and Adam fell, producing the angelic conflict or the battle of the seeds. Because Genesis 3.15 says that it would be the seed of the woman who would destroy the head of the serpent while the seed of the serpent would hinder the heel of the woman.

That's a battle of seeds. So when the Bible talks about seeds, it's talking about offspring. Now to catch us up today, this battle of offsprings, which is why Cain killed Abel, Satan wanted to get rid of the divine seed, emerged into nations. In Genesis chapter 11, all the nations of the world gathered together in rebellion against God at the Tower of Babel. And the seed of the serpent was multiplying rapidly. That's when God went to Ur of the Chaldees and found a man named Abraham.

And he did something awesome. He made a covenant with Abraham. The covenant is recorded in Genesis 12, Genesis 15, and Genesis 17. A covenant is a divinely created agreement. God told Abraham, leave Ur of the Chaldees, and here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to make of you a great nation. He had already split up the nations of the world at the Tower of Babel by confusing their ability to communicate. And now he was establishing a nation that would be called Israel. You cannot understand world history from God's point of view without understanding Israel. And so today I want you to understand the relationship of Israel to the church if you want to understand what's happening in the world that you are reading about in the newspaper and the world in which you are living in today, even your own personal life.

It's all tied up into this. God created a nation, he called it Israel, and he gave them a job. He says, through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And through you, the Messiah will come that will redeem humanity. Your job, Israel, is to be a light to the nations. Your job is to send the word out about your great God, his coming Messiah, and the fact that you, as a nation, represent him. If you obey me, I will make you the greatest nation on earth.

If you disobey me, I will scatter you around the world. And so if you were to read the history of Israel, you read the history of gathering and scattering. It's also why the Middle East is the center of the world. That's also why God deposited the oil in the Middle East. That explains the rise of Iran, which is Persia, the conflict in Iraq, which is Babylon.

It pulls all of that together. All of this is spoken of in the Scripture because it all revolves around Israel. So you read your Bible, and all of this is continuing, and finally, Messiah comes. The seed of the woman, because there is no man involved, no human person, born of a virgin, Jesus Christ now enters the scene. The first thing Jesus says at 30 years old, when he begins his preaching ministry, is the Kingdom of God is at hand.

That's his first message. Once he got baptized by John, and he stepped out on the podium, he says, the Kingdom of God has arrived. I'm the king, I'm bringing the kingdom, and I'm here.

What you've been waiting for, praying for, looking for, expecting has arrived. In Matthew 21, he tells them in verse 42, Jesus said to them, Did you never read the Scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected? This stone became the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people producing the fruit of it. God's kingdom is God's rule.

The word kingdom, basilia, means rule. So he says, I'm going to remove the kingdom from Israel, and I'm going to hand it over to somebody else. So what Israel did was throw a wrench in God's program, so to speak. Because Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand. I'm ready to hand over the world through you to everybody else. And Messiah is here. All you've got to do is accept me as your Messiah.

No! Crucify Him. Because of your rejection, the Kingdom of God is removed, and it will be transferred.

In Matthew 16, verses 18 and 19, Jesus is asked, Who do men say that I am? And Jesus says to you, verse 16, I also say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven to the church, and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Guess what he gave the church?

The keys to the kingdom. In other words, he didn't give up his kingdom plan just because the original play didn't work. He just transferred the plan to the church. Stay with me here. That raises a question. I'm going to come back to the church in a moment.

Is God no longer going to worry about Israel because they blew it? Romans chapter 11, he says in verse 25, For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery. I want to unfold this mystery. He goes on to say, so that you will not be wise in your own understanding. So you don't make up stuff on your own. Let me help you understand this mystery. Watch this. That a partial hardening has happened to Israel.

Okay? So now we're back to Israel, even though we're in the New Testament. He says a partial hardening, a hardening is when God shuts you down. But it's partial.

It's not full. They still believe in God. They still believe in God in the Old Testament. A partial hardening to Israel, but watch this next word, until.

See, that's a killer word. It's for a time. Israel has been hardened because of their rejection that continues to today, but there's coming a day when that's going to change. When is it going to change? When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Okay, watch this. Israel is hardened to me right now, but there is coming a time when they will no longer be hardened to me. And he says in the next verse, and all of Israel shall be saved. The whole nation is going to become Christian.

Okay? Now that's, we're going to be talking about that. That comes up in the tribulation period. But for right now, he says, they're hardened until the Gentiles are finished. Everybody in here who's not Jewish is a Gentile. You may be a black Gentile, a white Gentile, a Hispanic Gentile, an Indian Gentile, but if you're not Jewish, you're Gentile. He says Israel will be hardened until the final Gentile is saved.

Okay, watch this now. When the last Gentile becomes a Christian, God is going to re-establish his program with Israel. The rapture is when he removes Christians so he can get back to the original play.

Okay? When will the last Gentile get saved? When the number of Gentiles equals the number of angels that rebelled. Because it's all about the rebellion of angels.

All this is about the rebellion of angels. So God is matching on earth. See, that's why when God created Adam, he named the place where Adam lived Eden.

Well, where did that name came from? The Bible says the place that Lucifer used to live in was Eden. So God is replicating in history what was happening with the angels, which is why we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against principalities, powers, and world forces in heavenly places, angels.

So your battles are all angel-driven, although unseen. So he says when the last Gentile comes in— This is why the book of Daniel is so fascinating. Just to summarize, in Daniel chapter 2, the king has a nightmare on Elm Street dream, and the king is terrified at this dream. He calls Daniel.

He says, what's his dream mean? Daniel says, O king, what God wants to tell you are the nations that will rule Israel during the times of the Gentiles. And he walks through what secular history knows to be true before it happened.

He walks through Babylon will be first, the Medo-Persian Empire will be second, Greece will be third, and Rome with ten toes will be fourth. That's why the clock is going tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, because all this is coming together in God's prophetic plan. He says, and then the kingdom will come. Jesus will come and rule.

When the ten toes have come together, and then he will come. We'll hear more from Dr. Evans in a moment on what happens when that clock of history winds down. First, I want to tell you how you can receive our current double resource offer. Tony's book, Prayers for Victory in Spiritual Warfare, will teach you how to call out to heaven and get the help you've been needing, whether you're dealing with everyday issues, serious strongholds like addiction, or anything in between. This luxury edition, with a cover that looks and feels like leather, is a proven resource that's already being used by over 100,000 readers. Along with the book, we'll also send you a copy of Tony's current two-volume series, Prophecy and Our World. These 12 full-length messages on both downloadable MP3s and CDs dig deep into what the Bible says about the rapture, the tribulation, the second coming, the judgment seat of Christ, and many more, terms often mentioned in the church but not always explained. To get your copy, just visit tonyevans.org, make a contribution, and we'll say thanks by sending these two powerful resources your way. Again, that's the 12-part teaching series, Prophecy and Our World, and Tony's popular book, Prayers for Victory in Spiritual Warfare. Just visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements, or call 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our resource team members help you. I'll have our contact information for you again later on, but right now let's get back to today's lesson.

Here's Dr. Evans. Well, Daniel had a question in Daniel 9, verses 24 to 27. Daniel says, when will these things be? He had a timing question because he was hearing all this stuff and getting all this stuff and getting him a headache.

When is all this stuff going to be? And then God tells him about the 70 weeks of years, the 70 weeks of years. And he tells Daniel, in the 70 weeks of years, Messiah will be cut off.

Now, without getting into all the mathematical equations, if you break those down to the years, it will bring you to Jesus Christ, because God is precise on the dates, but God does something very interesting. He says there will be a break between the 69th and 70th week of years. There will be a split. There'll be 69. We're going to get to 69, and then we're going to pause. And then go to 70, because 70 are the seven years of tribulation. But there's a gap.

He stops at 69 before we get to 70. Why is there a gap? Because God anticipated the blitz. So having anticipated the blitz, even though it was a mystery, they didn't know it was going to be a blitz, because they didn't know anything about a church. But God anticipated the blitz, so he split the week after 69, creating a gap before God begins with Israel in the 70th week, the week of tribulation, because God knew that there would be a parenthesis called the church, because Satan was going to blitz the plague. Messiah would be killed, delaying the implementation of the kingdom. You and I, today, are the parenthesis.

We are the gap between week 69 and week 70. I will take the kingdom from you, I will give it to another, but I'm coming back to you, because it is until the Gentile time is fulfilled, the last Gentile becomes saved. You and I are not waiting for the tribulation, we're waiting for the rapture. I will build my church. Now, what's the job of the church, you and me? Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, any church, okay, watch this, is to operate the kingdom.

Okay, remember? I'll give you the keys to the kingdom, because that was what Israel's job was. But I'm pausing with Israel, and now I can't work through them right now, because they've rejected me, but the group that has accepted me is the church. But the job of the church is the same job, because I'm giving the church the kingdom that I'm taking away from Israel. So the church is not supposed to be about the church. The church is supposed to be about the kingdom. And therein is the problem of the church, because the church is more concerned with the church than the kingdom. So the problem is, we can go to church and skip the rule. God's not looking for church members.

He's looking for kingdom people in church. America has embassies all around the world, all around the world. Every country in the world has an American embassy.

It's a recognized nation. An embassy is a little bit of America a long way from home. All embassies are sovereign territory. They do not belong to the country they're in.

They belong to the country they're from. So wherever you see an American embassy, it belongs to America, even though it's located in a foreign land. When you get in trouble, if you're overseas, you want to get across that embassy gate. Because once you cross that embassy gate, you're in America now. You're no longer in the country in which the compound or embassy is located.

Guess what? In an American embassy, the laws of America rule, not the laws of the country in which the embassy is located. It's headed by an American, the ambassador, because all embassies belong to the homeland.

They don't belong to the country they're in. What you and I are supposed to be, individually and collectively, is the representation of the kingdom. That's why Jesus' prayer was, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Guess what they do in heaven? Whatever God says. So you are not a kingdom person unless you do whatever God says. That is, he has the final decision-making power over your life, and you have to understand, that will often contradict the land in which you are located.

See, because embassies' commitment is to the laws of America, not the laws of the culture in which it is located. The tragedy in the church is that we've let the world into the church. We have taken the wolves out there, brought them in here while we praise God. That's a contradiction. That's why it's a problem when churches are endorsing same-sex marriage. That's why it's a problem when churches are endorsing abortion. That's why it's a problem when churches are endorsing things that are clearly stated that are outside of the will of God, because now you have adopted the laws of the country you're in, not the laws of the country you're from.

And here's the tragedy of it. The tragedy of it is, when we stop being kingdom citizens in our lives and corporately, as a church, when we stop being kingdom citizens, we lose the support of the king. Israel lost the support of God because of their rejection. And we have people worshipping God every Sunday who have no king support, because they're worshipping God in worldliness. They are not disciples, they're not kingdom citizens, and they wonder why prayers aren't being answered, why there's no power, because you're operating from the laws of the homeland while giving God a two-hour visit on Sunday. That's why God says—there's a whole other sermon. When we get to the judgment seat of Christ, you're going to stand before the Lord, and He's going to show you your tape.

And the tape will reveal whether you are a kingdom citizen or merely a churchgoer. So, you see, you matter. That's why He says the job of Christians is to be light to the world. You're not just a banker, you're God's representative in banking. So the banking world sees what God looks like when God is a bank teller or a bank loan officer. You're not just a teacher, you're God's representative in the educational field. So the educational field sees what God looks like when God teaches a lesson. You're not just a lawyer, you're God's representative in the Bar Association. So the Bar Association sees what God looks like when God tries a case. You're not just a doctor, you're God's representative in the medical field. So the medical field sees what God looks like when God helps hurting people. You're not just a homemaker, you're God's representative in the home.

So the home sees what God looks like when God raises the next generation. You're representative of the kingdom. You're king's kid, you represent something bigger.

bigger. You don't just go to church. You belong to the King, and it's king. It's been handed to you. Dr. Evans will come back in just a moment with a final thought to wrap up this message called Israel and the Church. Just ask us about that title if you'd like to get a copy on CD or digital download to review on your own or share with someone else. Better yet, check with us for details on getting a copy of this entire two-volume, 12-message series called Prophecy and Our World. And don't forget, you'll get both volumes of this collection as our thank you gift when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. You can call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Or, visit us online at tonyevans.org, where all the details are waiting for you. And if you make a contribution right away, we'll also include a special bonus, the high-quality keepsake edition of Tony's book, Prayers for Victory in Spiritual Warfare. But remember, this is a special limited-time offer, so don't wait. Visit tonyevans.org or reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are always on hand to help you.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Christians have been arguing about the rapture for centuries. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will take an in-depth look at what the Bible has to say about this event, which may not be as far off as we think. Right now, though, he's back with these final comments. So in closing, Jesus said in John 13 verse 33, He said, Guys, I gotta go away now.

I gotta go away, and you can't come with me now. But then He went on to tell them in John 14 verses 1-3, He says, I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am you will be also. That's the rapture.

I am going to come and get you, and then continue with Israel. You know, the best way to live your Christian life is to live in light of His coming. None of us does that perfectly.

All of us have faults, but you got to get up and get at it. In other words, you got to change our focus and our priorities, because the clock is going tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Everybody wanted to know, how will the whole world know when Jesus returns? Well, everybody got a cell phone. All you've got to do is loop around the sun in a 24-hour period. Everybody, everybody will know when Jesus Christ makes His appearance. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative, and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.