Thanks so much for joining us today on the Line of Fire on this special Jewish Roots series all this month. I hope you've been enjoying it. I hope you've been helped by it. If you missed any parts of it, everything we cover on the air, we've got in book form.
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That light comes through you. Rather than you being part of the problem and me being part of the problem, we can turn around and say, hey, we've got answers through the gospel. We've got answers through the good news. We can tell you about a God who is always there.
We can tell you about a word that is always true as we point them to the scriptures. If you're not getting my equipping newsletter, the Frontline newsletter, our second edition, just started it earlier this year. Second newsletter is about to go out. So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org and sign up for our emails today.
Sign up for the Frontline newsletter. Romans 11, beginning in verse 11. Listen to what Paul wrote. He's asking about the Jewish people rejecting the gospel as a whole.
Now, here's something really fascinating. In the in the book of Romans, Paul often talks about Jews, circumcision, right? But he only talks about Israel in chapters 9, 10, and 11.
Remember, there were not chapter divisions originally. But as you divide it, chapters 9, 10, and 11 is the only time in Romans that he speaks of Israel. Elsewhere, it's all Jews, circumstances, speaking about the same people. But the only time he uses the word Israel or Israelite is in Romans 9, 10, and 11. Why? Because he's speaking about God's purposes for the nation, for the nation, for the nation, for the nation.
All right? And he says this, Romans 11, 11. So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? At the end of it, he says, fall beyond recovery.
In other words, stumble and took a fall where you're not getting up. Right? God's done with Israel. The Jewish people have fallen beyond recovery. He says, by no means. Now, earlier, he said, by no means, because there's a remnant according to grace. In other words, in every generation, there are Jews who believe like Paul and Peter in their day, or people like me and many other Jewish believers today. There's always a remnant in every generation.
But there's more. Rather, he says, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. This is God's purpose. So salvation comes to the Gentiles. Israel gets things wrong. This opens the door for the message now to go to the Gentiles. And this now has the goal of provoking Israel to jealousy. When they see God's blessing on his people in Jesus and say, hey, that's our God. Those are that's his spirit that used to be ours.
We're jealous. Now, if their trespass means riches for the world. So Israel getting it wrong now has brought the riches of the gospel to the world. And if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? So if the Jewish rejection of the Messiah has brought about the gospel going to the world and salvation to the nations, how much more? What's going to happen when the Jewish people turn back and get things right and are fully restored?
It's mind boggling. And we're going to be going there in these days talking about this. He says, now I'm speaking to Gentiles. Notice he doesn't call them spiritual Israelites or spiritual Jews. No, I'm speaking to Gentiles, meaning people of the nations in as much then as I'm an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean? But life from the dead.
In other words, the Jewish embrace of Jesus brings about life from the dead spiritually through the body, but ultimately meaning the return of the Messiah and the resurrection of the dead. This is big. This is major.
This is as big as it gets. And that's why Israel's salvation should matter to you. That's why it should be important to you. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean? But life from the dead. If the doe offered his firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches. In other words, the promises that God made to Israel remain that these are national promises that will come to pass. Jeremiah 31 one, speaking of this time, said God says, at that time, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel.
Zechariah 12 speaks of the promise of the dead. Zechariah 12 speaks of of massive repentance in Judah and Jerusalem among the Jewish people as they recognize the pierced one, their Messiah. And Paul speaks of it later in Romans 11 26 as all Israel will be safe. Speaking of non-believing Jews, the ones that are hardened in part now, the hardening will be lifted. The veil will be lifted to take the image of Second Corinthians three. The veil will be lifted and and eyes will be opened to recognize the Messiah.
And this will be the culminating act as the Jewish people say, Baruch haba b'shem Adonai, blessed to see who comes in the name of the Lord. Let me illustrate this for you. Forgive the caricatures, OK? This is all meant to be caricatured.
Don't take any offense in a personal way if you fit one of the caricatures. But it's the streets of gold in the New Jerusalem. So the whole thing is a silly made up story to illustrate a point. And there is a guy who was a Texas evangelist and he's still got his cowboy boots and his cowboy hat and a big, tall, strong guy. And there's a little Jewish guy with the big nose and glasses. I know you're not going to have glasses and I get on. It's just a little joke to illustrate a point. All right.
All right. And they meet in the world to come. Both believers. Big, strong evangelist says, Hey, son, you know who I am? And he goes, No, I actually I've never met you. I don't know who you are.
It was my name, brother Smith. So powerful evangelist. I preach to crowds sometimes of 10,000, 20,000 people or more. So hundreds of thousands get saved. The other guy says, Oh, praise the Lord, that's wonderful. And he says, Yeah, one night, one night we prayed for the sick and we saw three people get out of their wheelchairs.
Exactly. I don't get your name. What's your name, son?
Because my name is Baruch Schwartz. What you done, son? It was all I was not an evangelist or anybody famous or anything like that. I just lived in Jerusalem and I just prayed daily for the salvation of my own people. And and as a result, one one day Jesus came back and millions of people got out of their graves. Oh, yes, I can forgive the caricatures as a Jewish person. Forgive the caricatures.
All my friends in Texas forgive the caricatures. But you get the point. We're not just talking about people getting out of wheelchairs. We're talking about the resurrection of the dead. And this happens when Israel is saved and Israel is saved on the on the heels of Romans 11, 25. The fullness of the Gentiles coming in. And we're going to go through Romans nine through 11, every single word before the series is out and answer the main questions you have about Israel and who is Israel and what is meant. We're going to go verse by verse and you'll see for yourself.
You'll see for yourself. It's crystal clear when Paul says all Israel will be saved. He's talking about the national turning of the Jewish people at the end of the age. And with that, the return of the Messiah. And with that. Yes, yes, yes. The resurrection of the dead. Talk about big talk about. Wow. So we've shared some of the tragic history of the church and the Jewish people.
Just just some little snippets to give you a picture. And we've shared some of the great Christian love for Israel and the Jewish people through the centuries. Sadly, that's been a much quieter voice.
That's been a much narrower stream than the flood tide of Jew hatred and anti-Semitism that's often manifested itself in church history. But can I give you a few personal anecdotes as I've had the privilege of traveling around the world? 1989, I went to Kenya, the one only time I went to Kenya, and I was with two Jewish believers, one of whom had lived in Israel for some years at that point.
The other traveled from the States with me. And we get to Mombasa, Kenya, and we meet a man named Shadrach. Remember his name?
He was Shadrach with a backpack. Easy to remember that. And he he's talking to us. We're the first Jews he's ever met. We are the first Jews he has ever met in his life. Right there in Mombasa, Kenya. Not a surprise.
And as we're talking, he's he's takes his backpack and he shows us it's just filled, filled with cassette tapes, filled with cassette tapes. And and it was teaching by a woman in America, a Christian teacher. And it was on why Christians should pray for and bless Israel. Why Christians should pray for and bless Israel. And it was his mission to go all over Kenya, circulating that message to make sure the church understood the church understood that it should be praying for and blessing Israel.
Kenya, what in the world? Preaching in Italy one time and a pastor came up to me. He said, I want you to know there is not a service we have in our church where we don't pray for Israel. There is not a meal we have in our home where we don't pray for Israel. And there is not a time that I get down on my knees in daily prayer where I don't pray for Israel.
It's the pastor in Italy. Extraordinary. I mean, I could go around the world and tell you stories. In fact, I'm going to take a quick break now. Got an important announcement for you on the other side of the break.
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Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com. Welcome back, friends, to the Line of Fire. I told you we're going to India in a moment. And that's exactly what we will do. And so if you're not getting my new idea, I don't want to forget, don't want to forget, remind you a couple of times every broadcast because you may tune in partway through. If you're not getting my frontline newsletter, equipping, upbuilding, faith building with it, Hebrew Word of the Month as well, make sure you go to thelineoffire.org right now if you're able to. Enough of your drivings. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Thelineoffire.org and sign up for our emails.
Okay, and this way you'll get the frontline newsletter next edition as soon as it comes out. So 1993 was my first trip to India. I had the privilege of going there 29 times.
I was there with my wife Nancy, who's also Jewish, and then another sister was traveling with us who's Jewish, and another couple, Italian couple, so Italian-American, so five of us, five of us. So we're out in, it's like a tribal village. I mean, to me it's the kind of stuff you read about National Geographic. I mean, it's just way out. And I'm talking to one of the Christians there, and he's telling me for 20 years they prayed for the Jewish people, and they celebrate the Jewish feasts and holidays. Like, are you kidding me?
Where'd you get that from? Then we're scheduled to have a meal, have lunch, at the home of a government worker there in India. He and his wife, Christians. And his wife was so excited that she had Jews coming over, because three out of the five of us were Jewish. She was so excited that Jews were coming to her home.
She was up all night and cooking, preparing, couldn't sleep. And we go over to the house, and the husband greets us at the door, and he says, you are the second Jew to come into my home. He said, the first Jew was Jesus Christ in India.
I thought, how absolutely beautiful is that? Korea. Korea. I make my first trip to South Korea in 1990. And a flight was delayed leaving, flew into Detroit, then out of Detroit with my translator, Dr. Yoo.
We get into Seoul, a 14-hour flight out of Detroit. I'm pretty zonked. Now I've got to wake up early in the morning. Come on, Dr. Brown, we've got to go. We've got to go. We're going to visit one giant church. I wanted to see what was happening there and the power of what God was doing there, be there.
And then I had to go preach the first meeting at another church. And I'm zonked. I'm zonked. We're sitting around having lunch afterwards, and they said to me, Reverend Brown, what are you discerning? I said, I'm not discerning anything. I'm too tired.
Let me take a nap, then I'll discern tomorrow. Anyway, we were staying in the suburbs of Seoul, and all the signs were Korean, Korean, Korean. But I just happened to notice one sign not too far from where we were. It said pizza in English. And in those days, pizza was like my staple diet when I was eating unhealthily.
Plus, I didn't like to try any new foods. So, you know, what am I going to eat in Korea, right? So my translator's trying to wake me up. It's late afternoon Sunday. Dr. Brown, Dr. Brown, we need to go get dinner. I said, let me just sleep a little more. Hourly, Dr. Brown, we better go. Finally, it's like eight something in the evening.
He manages to wake me up. And he says, where do you want to go? I said, well, I saw a place that said pizza. He says, okay, we go over there. So we walk over. And the guy said, no, no, we're close. We're closing. He said, but if you go down this block, turn this way, go this way, go over here, kind of like obscure, we never would have found it. You'll find another pizza place. They're still open. And he said to me, very unusual.
They normally don't help you like that. Very unusual. So we go into this other pizza place, which we never would have found if I didn't get up so late, now this place was closing. We just wouldn't have seen the other one, wouldn't have known where it was. We go in there, and there are only two other people there.
Just two people in the pizza place. But they're not Korean. And we sit down, and what? What? They're speaking Hebrew.
So I'm shocked. Two Israelis? I've been in Seoul 24 hours or less, and I meet two Israelis? And I said to him, my modern Hebrew is not that great.
My biblical Hebrew is strong, but modern is not so great. I said, what are you doing here? And he said, I'm reading pizza. Typical Israeli answer. So I asked him in Hebrew, are there many Jews, many Israelis here in Korea? He said, no, very few.
So I'm stunned. And right then, I felt God speak to my heart, that yes, he's raised up the Korean church to bless the nation, and yes, he's raised up the Korean church to send missionaries to the nations, but he's also raised up the Korean church to pray for Israel because the Korean church has an extraordinary prayer heritage. Over the decades, no one's prayed like the Koreans have prayed.
It's been extraordinary. And I really felt God was saying this to me. Well, later that week, I was actually asked to do a little teaching about Israel while I was there, and a couple comes up to me, Korean couple, speaking fluent Hebrew. Their modern Hebrew is much, much, much better than mine. Speaking fluent Hebrew. And they had lived in Israel for a long time.
And they had lived in Israel and so on, and out of that time there, a prayer group was raised up to pray for Israel's salvation and to pray for the protection of the Jewish people around the world, out of those meetings. And so I go home, and I get a request, Dr. Brown, can you come right back? Just a few months later, we're having this big gathering. It's an annual gathering.
It's after Christmas and runs through New Year. 1,800 people, 1,800 people packed into a gymnasium, three and a half days of prayer and fasting. And they said, Dr. Brown, could you come back and be part of that? I felt I was to do it. Nancy, my wife, the kids gave me, go ahead, yeah. All right, go right back.
That's okay. You can be here for New Year's and stuff. So I go back over there, and it is very intense. All the people there are just camped out in the gymnasium, sleeping on the floor in the hallway and all that, and just drinking water and pray, then preaching, then pray, then worship, then pray, then more prayer, then just all day, all night. And they put me in this tiny little hotel, I should say a tiny little room in a hotel. I almost felt like a sardine can kind of thing, just enough room to lay down.
And of course, I fasted while I was there and just had water and stuff. And so we're praying, it's now the final night, and the prayer's getting very intense, and suddenly it shifts to praying for Israel, overwhelmingly shifts to praying for Israel. And we start crying out for the salvation of the Jewish people, and then in particular for the salvation and protection of Russian Jews and the salvation and protection of Jews from New York. This is at a prayer meeting in Korea, and we get this overwhelming burden to pray for this. And next, you know, so after the meeting's over, I have a meal and everything, and I'm flying out. I'm at Kimpo International Airport. I'm on Korean Air. Almost everybody there on the flight is Korean. And I look up, and there at the same gate, getting on the same flight with me, which is going back to the States, stopping in Alaska and then going back to the rest of where we're going in the States, it's an Orthodox Jew. It's just a guy with the long beard and the black coats. It's like, what are you doing here in Seoul? What did you even eat? Where'd you get kosher food here in Seoul?
What are you doing at Kimpo International Airport in Korean Air? So I begin talking, immediately go up, begin talking to him, and of course, share that I'm a believer. So he pushes back, you know, and we actually spend an hour talking at Fairbanks, Alaska during the layover. He, you know, he pushes back, and he says, just go ahead, believe what you want to believe. You do the easy thing.
In other words, you don't have to keep the commandments of the Torah, all the traditions that we keep as traditional Jews. You just have your easy faith in Jesus thing. I said to him, you know, it's not always so easy. I said, I was just with 1,800 Korean Christians, and we were fasting and praying for three and a half days, just crying out, and we were praying for you, Jewish people. Now, I knew, I knew the moment I saw him.
I just sensed it the moment we started talking. He's a New York Jew, and we'd just been praying for New York Jews, and I said, by the way, where are you from? New York, I mean, I knew it.
I was just asking as a technicality. Well, I had on five, my first five trips to South Korea, every single trip involved an encounter with an Israeli and or Orthodox Jew, every single trip, and the last one being the most dramatic of all in 1993, there was one man on the planet that I knew, one man on the planet that I had met who was an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and a secret follower of Yeshua, living in Jerusalem. This is 1993. One man on the planet that I knew of. Right before that trip in 1993, right before that trip, I had met with a 17, 18-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew that was putting his faith in Jesus Yeshua, and we were trying to help him, and he got kidnapped by his own family, and while I was there on that trip, God gave me the assurance that he was going to make it. Today, he's on fire and serving God and doing great Jewish outreach. Amazing, amazing story.
But at that time, precarious. He just disappears. We can't find him anywhere.
We don't know what happened. I go to Korea, and God gives me the assurance he's going to make it. And as a token, as a sign, I land in Detroit, and there at the gate as I walk over is that one rabbi, the one man that I knew on the planet that had a similar story to this young ultra-Orthodox Jew. Here, he, what? We happened to meet there at that gate in Detroit, the one person on the planet, and it was God reassuring me, Israel shall be saved, and this young man shall be saved. Friends, God's faithful, and we're going to see it happen.
This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener-supported if we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word and prayer and your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org, and click Donate.
