Why Israel Matters ((music playing)) ((music playing)) [applause and cheering] >> British Will you stand for the reading of God's word? Turn to Psalms chapter 122 verses 6 through 9. We bring greetings to our television audience and those of you who are watching around the world. We continue our prophetic sermon series with this message for the theme from here to eternity with the topic to America, the church and the world must fully comprehend. Today our Bible teaching is Israel and the church. Read Psalms 122 6 through 9. Ready? Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, "Peace be within you because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good." Can we pray? Father God, we gather here today in your house to obey the word of God to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May the anointing of the Holy Spirit show us today the history of the church and the future all believers will have in the holy city. In Jesus' name we pray and ask these things and all of God's children said, "Amen." You may be seated. Jerusalem is the city of God. He has placed his name there. That's in the Bible. Jesus Christ will rule the world from there for a thousand years during the millennial reign. Isaiah 40:1, God's command to Christian is this, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." There are two elements in this verse. One one group is being comforted and the second group is doing the comforting. It is the mission of the church to comfort and to bless the Jewish people. That's that simple. Isaiah 62:1 says, "For Zion's sake," that's Jerusalem, "I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest." This is God's promise to never stop working while the restoration and peace of Jerusalem are at risk. The most terrorizing headlines that Satan will ever read is that Jesus Christ has returned to Jerusalem. What do Christians and Jews have in common? One, both of us serve the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Some of you have other gods. The god you serve is the face you see in the mirror. But the real God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Both Christians and Jews get their spiritual roots from Abraham. In Romans 11 concerning the Jewish people in Genesis 17, "And I will establish my covenant between me and you, Abraham, and your descendants after you." Listen. "And in their generations," plural, "for an everlasting covenant." Everlasting covenant means forever. The covenant that God made with Israel for the land still stands. It has never been revoked. It has never been changed. The Jewish people do not occupy the land. God says they own the land forever and forever and forever. Do I hear an amen? >> ((applause)) >> Saint Paul writes concerning the church in Colossians chapter 3 verses 6 through 9, "Just as Abraham believed God, it was accounted to him for righteousness." It was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. "Now and know therefore that only those which are of faith are the children of Abraham and the scripture," listen to this, "foreseeing that God would justify the heathen by faith," the heathen would be us, the Gentiles, "preached the gospel to Abraham saying, You shall in all the nations be blessed." So those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. That's the word of God. The point is faith did not begin with the New Testament. It began with Abraham. He is the father of faith. Consider what Christians have received from the Jewish people. Jesus to the Samaritan woman she he said salvation is of the Jews. It's a shocking statement. Not that he was talking to a woman which was unusual, but it was shocking to say that salvation was of the Jews. Think about it. The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are all Jewish people. The prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, all Jews, not a Baptist in the bunch. The first family of Christianity, Mary, Joseph and Jesus Jewish. Jesus kept the law of Moses. Jesus said, "Do not think that I've come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law." He celebrated his bar mitzvah at the age of 13. He wore a prayer shawl from that day until the day he died. He was buried in that prayer shawl. He's going to return to the earth in the second coming as a Jew. How do you know that? Because the book of Revelation says, "Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah." Judah is the root word for the word Jew. Jesus Christ is coming back a Jewish rabbi. He's going to rule and reign over this earth and God bless his holy name. It's going to happen. >> ((applause)) >> Everything we cherish as Christians came to us from Jewish people. Some people live under God's curse for the sin of anti-Semitism. Genesis 12, God said concerning the Jewish people, "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you." That is God's promise to America and to everybody in this audience. If you bless the Jewish people, God will bless you and if you curse them, God help you. You have an enemy in heaven and he will not forget it. Listen to the book of Matthew. Jesus says, "Quote, inasmuch as you did it to the least of these my brethren." He's talking about the Jews. He never called Gentiles his brethren. "Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these my brethren, the Jews, you did it unto me." How did Christian anti-Semitism get started? Why does it exist in the church today? Christians in the American church are totally ignorant. The Bible says, "My people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge." That's a kind way of saying it. Stupid is a great word. Let's begin at the beginning and walk through 2,000 years of world and church history, one bloody, brutal page at a time. Point, Jesus Christ was the founder of Christianity. All of his followers were Jewish. They were called believers. Nothing is impossible to those that believe. Those people were believers. God did a shocking thing in Acts 10. He gave Peter a vision of a sheet filled with unclean animals. The unclean animals represented Gentiles. That would be us. God told him to go to the house of Cornelius who was a Gentile and preach the gospel. Why did God choose Cornelius among all the people on the face of the earth? He was a Roman centurion. But the Bible says he chose Cornelius, quote, "because he was of good report among the Jewish people." That's in Acts 10:22 for those of you who are searching for it. Why did he choose him? He was good to the Jewish people. Shock, when Peter preached the people in the house of Cornelius were saved and spirit-filled instantly and Gentiles began to flood into the church with the Jewish people. The Jewish people were amazed that the ungodly Gentiles could be saved. So they called a board meeting. The Bible calls it the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. The Jerusalem Council met. The question is, "What to do with these Gentile converts? Shall they be circumcised to be saved?" Ouch. And James said, "No. They don't need to be circumcised, but they do need to to abstain from sexual immorality and from things polluted by animals." That means meat that needs to be kosher. Listen closely. Here's where Jews and Christians get separated. The Roman army attacked Jerusalem in 70 AD. Titus laid siege to the city. There was horrible starvation. There was horrible massacre. The Jerusalem and the temple were demolished. The massive stones were pulled down just like Jesus prophesied they would be. 97,000 Jewish men were taken prisoner. 17,000 were sent to Egypt. 70,000 were taken to Rome to build the Roman Colosseum. Designed by Jewish architect where Christians were later slaughtered and fed to the lions. The point is Gentile believers saw the Roman army coming. Horror, starvation. This fight over the city of Jerusalem is not our fight. We're not Jews. So they left and they went to Antioch. Acts 11:26, they were first called Christians at Antioch. Jesus said in Matthew 24, let those on the house tops not come down. Let those in the field flee. The point is Titus and the Roman army returned to Rome seething with hatred toward the Jewish people. This is church history you need to know. When the political government of Rome merged with the church of Rome under Constantine, Christianity in one day was saturated with idols, images, the great of Revelation 17 was born and so was Christian anti-Semitism. The resurrection ((music playing)) of Jesus Christ changed everything. In my new book from the tomb to triumph, I take ((music playing)) you through this resurrection truth from the suffering of the cross to the empty tomb and into the authority every believer ((music playing)) is called to live in today. This month for your gift of any ((music playing)) amount to support the work of Hagee Ministries, we want to send you Pastor John ((music playing)) Hagee's new book from tomb to triumph, claim the victory of the resurrection. And with your love ((music playing)) gift of $125 or more, we'll send you our handcrafted Genesis 12:3 ((music playing)) olive wood anointing oil set box from Israel. And with your gift of ((music playing)) $500 or more, in addition, you'll also receive the prophecy study Bible and his glory revealed. The risen king reigns now and his power is at work in you. Call ((music playing)) the number on your screen, use the QR code, or go to jhm.org/spring. Then came the Crusaders by the Roman church called by various popes. There were seven major crusades. The first crusade left Germany in 1096 and 12,000 Jews were slaughtered. As the knights of the cross screamed, the Jews have killed our savior. Remember, these people are carrying a cross and a sword and they're killing everything that looks Jewish. From Germany to Jerusalem, they raped, they robbed, and they slaughtered the Jews. The Crusaders were not holy men, they were thugs carrying a cross and a sword. There was a river of Jewish blood running from Europe to Jerusalem. Three years later, they entered Jerusalem in 1099 under Godfrey. 969 Jewish men, women, and children ran for the synagogue. The doors were locked. The Crusaders carrying a cross and a sword set the synagogue on fire and sang Christ, we adore thee while 969 men, women, and children were burned alive. Then came the Spanish Inquisition sponsored by the Roman church. The Roman church dug up the bones of dead Jews and put them on trial. And when the bones were convicted of being a heretic, can you think of something so stupid? All money of that Jewish family was then put in the treasury of the Roman church. I'm not making this up. This is history. Torture was the order of the day. The church put out leaflets on how to spot heretics. Your neighbor, if he turns you in, was given a reward. And the torture began. The Jews were pulled in half on a rack. Some of them had their heads put in a vise and the screws turned until their head was crushed. There were other forms of death, but if I told you, it would turn your stomach. Listen, Pope John Paul recognized this sin against the Jewish people and in the year 2000 asked forgiveness for what the church had done in the past. It was a courageous act on his part. May God bless Pope John Paul. >> ((applause)) >> It takes courage to say we were wrong. And John Paul was one of those men with courage. The theology of the Roman church led to the Holocaust. How? The fourth letter in Council of 1215 declared that the Jews should wear distinctive clothing. Distinctive clothing. So Hitler's Nazi said the Jews to wear a yellow star. The Roman church says Jews cannot own property. Hitler passed the legislation taking property away from all of the Jews. The Roman church forced the Jews to live in ghetto. Hitler did the very same thing. The Roman church killed the Jews in mass. Extermination as heretics in the Inquisition. Hitler had the final solution. 6 million Jews were systematically slaughtered in the death camps of Europe. I have walked through the death camp of Auschwitz. It's a horror that you never forget. Martin Luther wrote a book titled Concerning the Jews and their lies. Take a deep breath because this is all true. He said, know this, Christian, that next to the devil you have no more hated enemy than a Jew. Their synagogues should be burned. Their tongues should be cut out through the back of their neck. End of quote. Hitler Hitler loved Luther. Hitler invaded Poland on Luther's birthday to start the Second World War to celebrate Luther's contribution to the Third Reich. The point is for 2,000 years the Jewish people have been hated. They have been brutally murdered. They have been raped. They have been robbed in the name of God. If God is love, surely that God is not the God of the Christians. When a Christian sees a cross, he sees salvation. When a Jewish person sees the cross, he sees the murder of his relatives and friends for 2,000 years. He sees the emblem under which they have been slaughtered as recently as 1933 to 1945. It's called the Holocaust. It's still very real in the minds of Jewish people. Has God cast away Israel? Absolutely not. Romans 11:1 and 11:11, St. Paul writes, has God cast away his people? Certainly not. Romans 11 is a text is a chapter that they told me in Bible school to skip over. It is too deep for the human mind to understand. Shh. God the Holy Spirit did put nothing in the scripture that you can't understand. >> ((applause)) >> You may not like it and you may not want to obey it, but I promise you you will face it in the judgment. Romans 11:11, St. Paul writes, has God cast away his people, the Jews? He says, certainly not. Two places, certainly not. Certainly not. Romans 11:11, I say then, have the Jewish people stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Hear that? But through their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Listen, 74 times Israel is mentioned in the New Testament. Certainly in 71 of those references, it speaks of the nation of Israel 96% of the time. I'm saying this because people are saying Israel is not in the New Testament. Perhaps you're reading the wrong book. But in this book, it's there. >> ((applause)) >> When something is cast away in the Bible, you never hear from it again. In the book of Revelation 7, there are 12 tribes and 144 sealed. Cast away? Not hardly. Has God broken covenant with Abraham? God's two covenants with Abraham are in Genesis 15 and Genesis 17. The God that we serve is a God of covenant. He keeps covenant for a thousand generations. Actually, that's 50,000 years. If you keep a covenant for 50,000 years, it's going to it's got a ways to run. It technically means forever. He keeps the covenant for a tenth a thousand years of those that love him. He has not and could never break covenant with Abraham. I repeat, God's unconditional covenant with the Jewish people for the land of Israel has never been revoked, revised, or replaced? Never. They own it. >> ((applause)) >> I say to my ministerial brethren, if God would break the covenant with Abraham, he could break the covenant with us. If God is a covenant breaker, what confidence do we have that he's going to keep it with us? You don't. Israel's destiny is based on God's sovereign election. Listen closely. Romans 9, 10, and 11 is a codicil. How many of you do not know what a codicil is? Raise your hand. Some of you. A codicil is when a lawyer is writing a document and he wants to add something to it and so he writes it and puts it in the original doc- document. Romans 1 through 9 and 12 through 16 is on one topic. But eight but 9, 10, and 11 are all about God and the Jewish people. The Jewish destiny based upon the sovereign election. Romans 9 and 10. The birth of Jacob and Esau. Listen to this. And not only this, but when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, listen, for the children Jacob and Esau being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to divine election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. What does that mean? That means when those two boys were born, God had a destiny for their lives that he was going to see to it for its fulfilled. When Jacob came out of the womb holding the heel of his brother, he was called the heel catcher and he lived and died a trickster because that's what God said he would be. Romans 11:5, Paul writes under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, "Even so then at this present time" This is post-Calvary now. This is after the cross. "There's a remnant according to the election of grace." There are Jewish people who are living now with the favor of God. Romans 11:5, Paul writes, "At this time" This is post-Calvary. "There's a remnant according to the election of grace." People say, "Well, I don't understand that." According to Romans 11:33, Paul didn't understand it, either. He said it's a mystery past understanding. It's God saying, "I'm sovereign. I can do what I want, when I want, if I want, as long as I want, without explanation. I decide." That's why he's God. >> ((applause)) >> God blinded the Jewish people to the identity of Jesus. Romans 8. Romans 11:10 and this is the New King James Version saying they had eyes that could not see. "Let their eyes be darkened that they might not see." Why? Romans 11:11, "That through their season of blindness salvation is come to the Jewish people." Paul is saying he's blinding them to salvation right now so that you and you and you and me and every Gentile watching this telecast would have the opportunity of salvation. >> ((applause)) >> That's Romans 11:25, "For God has blinded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Gentiles." This blindness is illustrated in the conversion of Saint Paul. Paul was spiritually blinded to the identity of Jesus as Messiah on the road to Damascus. God saw Paul. Paul was a brilliant theologian, but he was a hateful Pharisee monster who was causing Christians to be sent to jail and murdered. Paul was spiritually blinded to the identity of Jesus as Messiah on the road to Damascus. The Bible records immediately there fell from Paul's eyes scales and he received his sight instantly. He arose and was baptized. This is in Acts chapter 9. There's a warning to the Gentiles. "And if some of the branches are broken off, boast not against the branches." The attitude God has taken toward us. "Be not high-minded, but fear. If God spared not the natural branches, the Jewish people, he will not spare the Gentiles, the grafted-in branches." Christless Christianity that dodges tough issues, that cowers from controversy, retreats from righteousness, has the form of godliness, but denies the power thereof. Church, it is time to stand up, to speak up, and you are in God's battle acts in the war against anti-Semitism. Remember God's command to the church, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," saith God. DO SOMETHING about it. Give the Lord praise in the house. Stand to your feet. Are you a friend of the Jewish people? Do you pray for the peace of Jerusalem? If you do, God will prosper you. I want you to make it a habit of praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Why? So that you will prosper. I want you to pray for your family most cause King Jesus is coming soon in the clouds of heaven. Um brothers and sisters, when we get there, we are going to have a celebration that the minds of human beings cannot comprehend. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. >> [applause and music] >> You're watching Hagee Ministries. Stay tuned. Your blessing ((music playing)) is coming up after this short message. Israel is under attack. Missiles from Iran rain down. Sirens sound through the night and innocent families rush into bomb shelters praying they will see another sunrise. This is not a geopolitical conflict. This is a prophetic moment. The Bible ((music playing)) tells us that in the last days Jerusalem would become a cup of trembling to the nations. What we are witnessing today is history moving exactly as scripture predicted and in moments like this, the question is not what is happening. The question is, where do we stand? Right now, your support delivers life-saving care, emergency medical facilities, ((music playing)) and supplies and protection to families living under fire. When you stand with Israel, you stand on the side of God's ((music playing)) covenant promises. This is a prophetic hour. Stand with Israel. Give now. You've been watching Hagee Ministries. If you need prayer, call our prayer line or visit our website. And now, your blessing with Pastor John Hagee. Lift your hand for the blessing. Now, now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and may the Lord be gracious unto you and give you his peace. May you walk in the confidence that the grace of God will lead you to your divine destiny and you will become the vessel of honor that the King of kings, Lord of lords, has chosen for you to be. Receive this blessing in the authority of Jesus' name. Amen and amen. You've been watching Hagee Ministries. Be blessed and join ((music playing)) us tomorrow.