The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem -More Jewishness in the New Testament

[0:00] to Romans chapter 8. And in Romans chapter 8, we'll be looking at verses 18 through 23.

[0:21] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

[0:36] For the anxious longings of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

[0:57] That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

[1:11] For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

[1:41] And as this passage states, we are a work in progress.

[1:51] We are not a finished product by any manner of means. When one believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior and receives salvation, the redemption that is in Christ, by being made new on the inside.

[2:08] We call that regeneration, by being made over. He is a process that has begun. And we continue in process. We are not a finished product.

[2:20] And as the text goes on to say, we are waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our bodies. Our bodies, as well as our spirits, were completely and totally paid for in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ when He died on that cross.

[2:39] But it has not been fully applied, only partially. And that which has been applied is the work of the Spirit of God in the human heart. When Christ comes in, in His Spirit, and regenerates us, makes us a new person on the inside, so that Paul was able to say, if any person, any man, be in Christ, he's a new creation.

[3:05] Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But at the same time, we are a new creation internally. We remain the old creation externally.

[3:18] We still have a body that is far from perfect. Our aches and pains only intensify with age.

[3:29] Everything tends to break down and work out. Everything sags and bags and drags as we age. And we spend all kinds of money with lifts and tucks and here not, and trying to make things repaired and look better.

[3:45] But the problem is, we've got too much age on us. And age takes its toll. Time is coming when that which has begun in us will be completed for the rest of us.

[4:03] And this corruptible body will put on incorruption. That means it will no longer be able to be corrupted. It will no longer be subject to disease or death.

[4:16] Because this mortal body, which we know very well is capable of dying, will become an immortal body, no longer subject to death.

[4:29] It will be a body fashioned like under the body of Jesus Christ. But for now, we're not there, and that's why we're still going to die. Even though you are redeemed inwardly in your spirit, you have been a changed person on the inside, so that you are a new creation in Christ, the outside has not been repaired at all.

[4:52] That awaits the coming of Christ when this body will be fashioned like unto his body. This passage in Romans chapter 8 explains a great deal about that, and we will elaborate on it as we go through our message.

[5:08] But now, let me remind you, we are talking about the Jewishness of the New Testament. And for some people, that is somewhat surprising because they think in terms of the Old Testament being Jewish, the New Testament being Christian.

[5:24] That is not the way it works. In fact, it isn't until well into the book of Acts that the term Christian even arose, and they were called Christians first at Antioch.

[5:36] You must understand that all of the regenerate people, all who were what we would consider or what the Bible would consider believers or saints or whatever, however you want to designate them, they were exclusively Jewish.

[5:54] There were no non-Jews who were believers in Christ for several years after the resurrection. And that is a difficult concept for a lot of people to get their minds around because they tend to think that when Christ died on the cross, people just lined up to believe on him and these people were designated as Christians.

[6:14] That is not the case at all. Not at all. In fact, the first individual who was admitted to this body of newfound believers of which we have any record was a Roman army officer who was a centurion, and that means he had 100 men under his authority, and this centurion was a Roman pagan.

[6:39] He had come to believe in the God of Israel, and he was thus designated as a God-fearer. But when Peter went to him and preached to him the gospel of Christ and told him about salvation through Jesus Christ, he became a believer.

[6:54] And as Cornelius, we might even designate as perhaps the first legitimate kind of Christian. But it really raised the eyebrows of all of the Jews because as far as they were concerned, God wasn't interested in anyone who wasn't a Jew.

[7:10] He was only interested in Jewish people, the seed of Abraham, and all of the Gentiles, which comprised 99% of the world's population, were nothing more than fodder for the fuel fires of hell.

[7:21] God didn't care anything about them, but he did. In fact, when he raised up the Jewish people, one of the principal reasons he raised them up through Abraham and his seed was that they were to be a light to the Gentiles.

[7:37] That means to everybody else. So what we have is a tiny, tiny number of people who comprise less than 1% of the world's population being the spiritual and moral light to the 99% of the remaining people in the world.

[7:58] And the principal way that that light was to shine was through the one who is designated as the light of the world. God's name is the God.

[8:10] Jesus was a Jew. He was born a Jew and he came to the Jewish people and he died as a Jew on a Roman cross and he was resurrected as a Jew and glorified as a Jew.

[8:22] And one of these days he's going to return and he'll still be a Jew. So a Gentile, in order to be saved, has to place his faith in a Jewish Savior.

[8:33] And one would almost think automatically that fellow Jews would line up behind this one to believe on him. After all, he is one of their own. He is the seed of Abraham. But no, that is not to be.

[8:45] So despite the fact that we have a great deal of Jewishness involved in the New Testament as well as the Old, yet we find that there is a dramatic turn that will take place in the book of Acts under the ministry of the Apostle Paul when on one occasion he delivers his message as Jesus being God's sent Messiah.

[9:14] And you need to put your faith in him. And these rejected him. And the Apostle Paul, who himself was a Jew, said to his fellow countrymen, seeing as how you set this aside and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, you're not interested in salvation in Christ.

[9:36] Lo, we turn to the Gentiles and they will hear it. Israel as a nation already had twelve apostles.

[9:50] They are numbered in Matthew 10 and in other portions of the Gospels. But the Gentiles, all the rest of the world, didn't have an apostle. An apostle is a sent one, a messenger, to communicate a message with the authority of the one who sent it.

[10:06] The rest of the world didn't have one. Only tiny little nation of Israel had twelve apostles. angels. And then one day, on the road to Damascus, as Saul of Tarsus was en route to Damascus for the express purpose of putting Jews in chains, Jews who had believed in Jesus and had fled persecution in Jerusalem, went all the way to Damascus in Syria.

[10:35] They got clear out of the country, over a hundred miles to the north. and they were hiding out there. And Saul was going to go after them, put them in chains, and drag them back to Jerusalem for punishment, possibly even execution.

[10:52] And he was dramatically interrupted by the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. And he was raised up right then and there, chosen of God to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

[11:09] And it is as if God raised up this one man to be a witness and preach the gospel to all the rest of the world that wasn't covered by Israel. And Israel covered only Israel.

[11:22] And Paul was supposed to go to all the rest of the world. And that became the basis for his missionary journeys, of which he made three. The world at that time consisted of the Mediterranean basin and those surrounding, those nations surrounding it, and Paul went all over the Mediterranean, into Europe, into Asia Minor, proclaiming this gospel.

[11:47] And Paul was a Jew preaching to Gentiles. So God's message to all the rest of the world is what he is accomplishing through a Jew who provided the basis for it, Jesus of Nazareth, dying on the cross for the sins of the world.

[12:05] And then another Jew who is charged with the responsibility of educating all the rest of the world regarding who Jesus Christ is, who sent him, why he came, what he did, and why it matters.

[12:18] So, we are very much given to the, shall I say, to the great involvement of Jews and Jewish people, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament.

[12:33] And you know, as you scour the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which almost all of Christendom regards as Christian Gospels, they aren't that at all.

[12:46] They're Jewish. And everything that took place, everything that took place in the life of Jesus in three and a half years that is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John involved primarily the Jewish people.

[13:02] Only occasionally do you find one like the Syrophoenician woman whom Jesus healed in the mix. Only occasionally do you find a non-Jew involved in the Gospels anywhere.

[13:19] It's all Jewish. And when the book of Acts opens and we are talking about the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, which was a real landmark type thing in church history or in the history of the church, which was at that time an exclusively Jewish clientele.

[13:43] It was a Jewish assembly. And when those people met on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, and they were from all over the world, they had but one thing in common. Spoke many different languages but they had one thing in common.

[13:59] That was their religion. That's why they were there. It was a Jewish holiday, a Jewish feast day. And they were all gathered there to celebrate this feast of Pentecost which took place 50 days after the sacrifice of the Lamb.

[14:13] And that Lamb, of course, was Jesus Christ and Pentecost followed 50 days after and the Spirit of God came in a way that He had never manifested Himself before. And these people were all speaking in languages that they had not learned.

[14:26] It was a dramatic time. I mean, it was incredible. What God did was He actually reversed the language barrier that He imposed at the Tower of Babel and made it so everybody could communicate in a language that they could understand even though they couldn't normally speak those languages.

[14:44] And they were all Jews. And the 3,000 who were saved on that day of Pentecost and were baptized by the Holy Spirit, they were all Jews.

[14:55] No Gentiles involved. All seed of Abraham. So as you go through the Old Testament, it is undisputably Jewish. You come into the Gospels, it is Jewish, Jewish, Jewish. Even up into the early chapters of the book of Acts, it's all Jewish.

[15:09] And it isn't until God raises up Paul with an emphasis on the Gentiles. He is the only one in all of Scripture who is called the Apostle to the Gentiles.

[15:25] And he had some really super dramatic things to reveal that upset everything. And it brought a flood of persecution down upon him and down upon all who believed like him until finally it got involved with Rome and the political process and the tremendous persecution that resulted in feeding the Christians to the lions and playing sport with them in the arena with the gladiators and Christians were persecuted and murdered by the train load.

[16:00] And that went on until 325, 330 A.D. when Constantine, the emperor, decided we can't fight them anymore.

[16:12] They just keep growing and multiplying. We're going to have to join them. And he issued an edict called the Edict of Constantine. And what it demanded was that everyone in his realm, everyone under Roman authority, would have to endorse and subscribe to Christianity.

[16:36] Made it a law. You have to be a Christian. Before, it was illegal. Now it's a law that you have to be. And some have wisely said, I think, that Christianity has never recovered from that.

[16:49] Because Christianity is something that cannot be imposed upon people. It is something that has to be voluntarily embraced with the individual's will. No government can make you a Christian regardless of what laws they pass.

[17:03] So, we find an enormous emphasis placed upon Judaism and the Jew and the carrying out of the plan and program of God.

[17:16] The Jew is smack dab right in the middle of it. And the nation of Israel is as well. And this is why, as I've said in the past, there is only one nation.

[17:30] There is only one nation in the whole world that has more foreign press correspondence situated in it than Jerusalem.

[17:41] And that's Washington, D.C. Second, it's not London, it's not Paris, not Moscow, it's Jerusalem. Because even they who are so out of it spiritually know in their heart of hearts that Israel is a key player.

[18:02] God designed them to be a key player. They are not only a key player, nationally speaking, they are the key player. And I don't mind telling you, it doesn't make me feel terribly, what shall I say, terribly proud to recognize that it is not the USA that is the key player.

[18:19] We see ourselves today as having a finger in about every pie. America and its greatness has a worldwide influence in so many ways. We are a world shaker and mover and have been ever since World War I.

[18:34] But our influence does not begin to compare with the influence that Israel has had and will have in the future. And we'll see how that plays out as we move along in our studies.

[18:46] So now, let me clarify the theme that we are pursuing. We are calling this the Jewish final solution to the world's problem. First, what is the world's problem?

[19:01] Do you mean it isn't obvious to you? Do you not see the world problem all around you wherever you look? Do you not see it reflected on television and in the news?

[19:18] You just about have to be from another planet not to recognize what the world's problem is. It's dysfunctional. the world is broken. It's not supposed to be this way.

[19:32] This is not the way it was when God looked upon the planet and said, after six days of creation, behold, it was very good.

[19:46] No, it isn't. Was. not now. It's broken. It's dysfunctional.

[19:58] It's riddled with crime, corruption, disease, death, poverty, ignorance. Everywhere you look, it's part and parcel of what the world has become.

[20:10] That's not the way it started, but that's where it is now. And the Jew has a solution for the world's problem. problem. A broken world is nothing more than the aggregate or compilation or grand total of individual lives that are broken.

[20:34] And if you think you have a life as a human being living in this world today that is not broken, you wait.

[20:45] You may not know it now, but you are badly bent. And you will be broken physically and in other ways as the aging process advances upon you.

[20:56] We are all broken. We are individually, personally, and morally broken in all our being. And all our being consists of our spiritual nature and our physical nature.

[21:10] I would venture to say, and I'm not asking for a show of hands, but I would venture to say that there is not a single one among us, and I can certainly say that of me, beginning with me, who would be willing to say, you know what, I am not only a okay, I am perfect.

[21:30] I am as good as good gets. There isn't a thing wrong with me. I've even got straight teeth. And I've got curly hair because I want curly hair.

[21:44] Or I've got straight hair because I want straight hair. Or I don't have to think of one single thing I have ever thought of that I wouldn't want everybody to know publicly.

[22:03] Everything that has ever taken place in my mind or heart, I wouldn't have any qualms at all about it being flashed on a super jumbo screen so everybody could see it. I would okay that in a minute.

[22:15] I wouldn't be embarrassed. I wouldn't be ashamed. Like I said, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands because there might be somebody here who is really off their rocker and would put their hand up.

[22:27] But this is where we are. You know, we are far from what we need to be. Someone has said, not only do I not measure up to God's standards, there are lots of times when I don't even measure up to my standard.

[22:41] And hey, all I can say is welcome to the club. We're all broken. We're all in that position. And this is why we all need a redeemer. We are broken, ruined, in despair, in our immaterial human spirit, and in our material human body.

[23:00] Our brokenness of spirit, our brokenness of spirit, this is on the inside where the real you lives.

[23:12] That is addressed by the first coming of Christ that resulted in the redemption of the human spirit. This payment Christ made in his death on the cross opened the way of access to God so that man might be spiritually and morally regenerated or made anew in our inner being.

[23:37] And when that happens, and this is, folks, this is, this is incredible. This is absolutely amazing. When that happens, when we are born again, born anew, regenerated in our human spirit, what actually takes place, spiritually speaking, is that God takes all of our sin, past, present, even future, even sins you haven't even thought of yet, takes them all, and he places them on the person of Christ.

[24:22] He took all of the sins of all of the ages, of all of the past, of all of the present, of all of the future, and he heaped them on the person of Jesus Christ when he was on that cross.

[24:37] that's what it means when it says Christ died for the sins of the world, and he was able to do that only because of who he was.

[24:51] He wasn't just a man. He was a man, but he was more than a man. He was the God man. He was able to pay that price, so that when you believe on Christ, all that Christ accomplished on that cross to put on our sin debt was put on Christ and we are given instead Christ's righteousness.

[25:22] We are imbued with the perfection, the moral spiritual perfection of Christ himself, so that you become just as righteous as Jesus Christ is positionally.

[25:40] Now, we know we don't even come close to that, practically, because we still deal with this thing called the human will and sin and wrongful behavior that we're all capable of on a daily basis, but legally judicially, in the eyes of God, that is our official status.

[26:04] That's because you are in Christ, and when you are in Christ, you are in his position. You have his position before the Father, which is one of complete perfection and sinlessness.

[26:17] We all know that there is an enormous difference between real guilt and legal guilt. we know that when someone is brought to trial and they are accused of a crime, and they are really, really, truly guilty of it, and the jury hears all of the evidence and comes in, and they pronounce the man not guilty.

[26:49] We've had some cases like that in our own lifetime, haven't we? And the whole nation may be shocked and say, are you kidding me? Not guilty?

[27:00] Why, he was as guilty as sin, and everybody knows it. Yeah, maybe, maybe he was. But what counts is what the official verdict is.

[27:14] Public opinion doesn't count for anything. It's when the judge says, case dismissed. That's it.

[27:26] That's the official ruling. So when we stand before God Almighty, there is no question as to your guilt or undeservedness.

[27:37] That is a real slam dunk. The only question is, are you in Christ and his righteousness, or are you in yourself and your righteousness?

[27:50] righteousness? Because to be in Christ means to be found, not guilty, by the king of the universe. But aren't you really truly guilty after all?

[28:04] Yes, yes, you are. But you are set free, because Jesus Christ paid your penalty for you, and God has nothing more to demand from you, because Jesus paid it in your place.

[28:22] That's why everything hinges upon being in Christ. You have his legal judicial righteousness imputed to your account, and there is not a one of us that ever deserved that.

[28:39] What do you call that? You call that the grace of God. The grace of God is God's riches at Christ's expense.

[28:54] G-R-A-C-E. God's riches at Christ's expense. That's what the cross is all about.

[29:05] And you know something? The world doesn't begin to understand that. Oh, they know Jesus died on a cross on a Judean hillside 2,000 years ago.

[29:16] Oh, they know that. But they don't connect the dots. They don't understand the significance. And many people in our churches don't either. Sunday after Sunday they just go through repeated ritual, just quoting and saying things over and over and over again, and they don't really understand what took place on that cross or how it directly impacts you, not only for now, but for eternity, because you're going to leave this earth.

[29:47] And you're going somewhere. Death isn't going to end at all. Death will just provide a new beginning. Where? What? With who?

[29:59] That's the issue. This life, this world, is a drop in the bucket compared to that which lies ahead. Many of you, if you were going to take a vacation, you would get the travel brochures, you would get the prices, you would get the quotes, you would get the itinerary, you'd get all the calendars, you'd get the schedule and everything.

[30:17] You'd plan it all out meticulously, where you're going to be on what day and what clothes you're going to wear and which shoes you're going to pack. For a two-week vacation. But how many people give the time of day to where you're going to be for the rest of your existence once you leave this earth?

[30:37] It's going to be somewhere. So our broken spirit is addressed by the first coming of Christ and this is reflected by Paul when he said to the Philippians, I love this verse, Paul said, being confident of this very thing.

[30:54] In other words, folks, this is something you don't have to worry and wonder about. You don't have to guess. You don't have to hope. Being confident. We know what we're talking about.

[31:06] Being confident of this very thing that he, Christ, who has begun a good work in you. He has just begun it.

[31:17] He hasn't finished it. He's begun it. But the promise is and the confidence is he who has begun a good work in you.

[31:27] That is the regeneration of your internal being, where the real you lives, the human spirit. That he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ.

[31:44] And what is that? He'll finish what he started in you. He'll renew your body and make it an immoral body, an incorruptible body, not like the bodies that we now possess, the body that will not be subject to death.

[31:59] So the good work begun is our spiritual regeneration based upon the death of Christ and his first coming. That work he began based upon his first coming resulted in the personal salvation of all who place their faith in Christ from the first century to the present day.

[32:19] This work of redemption is that which he began in you. The completion of that application will be realized at Christ's second coming and will result in the redemption of our physical body.

[32:34] The redemption of our human spirit is made possible by the spiritual death of Christ because Jesus died two deaths on the cross. He died spiritually before he died physically.

[32:48] What does that mean? What is spiritual death anyway? Spiritual death is when you in your human spirit is separated from God and separated from God.

[33:07] That's spiritual death. Physical death is when your human spirit is separated from your body. That's physical death. Unless Christ comes first, we're all going to experience that.

[33:22] It is a breaking up of our personhood where the body goes to the ground, the crematorium, the ocean for water burial, or wherever, and the spirit regenerated goes to be with God, absent from the body, present with the Lord.

[33:43] That's the spiritual. So, when your human spirit is not regenerated, is just as you were born with, separated and alienated from God, that is unregenerate or unsaved.

[34:00] And when you believe on Christ, that spirit in you is made new. We don't know how that happens. We don't know how God does it. We just know that he does it.

[34:11] That's the good work that he begins in us, and then he will complete it when he returns again. And these bodies will be fashioned like unto the body of Jesus Christ.

[34:24] So, when Jesus was on that cross, he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[34:45] God, the Father, forsaking God, the Son, God, that's exactly what happened. What did that consist of?

[34:56] We'll know. We'll know. Because we're talking about the infinite being of the triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[35:08] We don't understand that connection between them. But we do know that something unspeakably horrible happened when the Father turned away from the Son.

[35:23] Because there had never been an estrangement of any kind between them. They had enjoyed a perfect kind of fellowship in all eternity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[35:35] And when God turned away from him, it was simply because those eyes of his Father could not look and would not look upon the sin that was laden on the backs of his Son.

[35:50] And he forsook him. The Father took a walk. And he left his Son there on that cross.

[36:04] And for what we estimate must have been in connection with the three hours, the scriptures tell us there were three hours of abject darkness.

[36:21] Couldn't see the sun. The earth rumbled and rolled. There was an earthquake. It must have been a really scary, eerie time.

[36:33] And for three hours, he hung upon that cross. In some way we don't understand, absented by his Father. father. That was Jesus dying spiritually.

[36:50] He was still physically alive. He was talking. He was screaming out, I thirst. Father, forgive them.

[37:01] They don't know what they're doing. God. He was dying. He was dying. And then he cried, why have you forsaken me? And this is in the Psalms, and it's all prophesied that this is exactly what would take place.

[37:17] And for those three hours, father and son were separated in some way we cannot begin to understand. In some way they had never, ever been separated before.

[37:30] And Jesus was dying spiritually, because spiritual death is separation from God. That's what spiritual death is, separation from God.

[37:44] Your spirit is separated from God. Physical death was going to come next. And when Jesus said, last thing he uttered, very last thing he uttered, was, father, into thy hands I commend or I dismiss or I release my spirit.

[38:10] And we are told that Jesus breathed his last and he died physically. Spiritual death, physical death.

[38:25] He paid the price for both of them so that we could have spiritual life right now. And the application of the physical will be when he returns for the second coming.

[38:43] This, this that I have just explained to you, this is the Jewish final solution to the world's problem.

[38:55] world's problems, brokenness, dysfunction, ruin, corruption, death.

[39:06] That's the world's problem. Fallenness. And this is the Jewish final solution to the world's problem. And now I want to share with you what has to be the greatest irony of all.

[39:23] This is where this thing comes with a real twist. I mean, this, this, this is amazing. This is absolutely amazing. Because even though it is unquestionably, undoubtedly, undeniably, the Jewish final solution to the world's problem, the Jews want nothing to do with it.

[39:49] Now, what do you think of that? the Jews want nothing to do with it. They repudiate it. They reject it. It is, as Paul said when he wrote to the Corinthians, to them, a stumbling block.

[40:04] They just fall all over this. They cannot get into the idea at all that God, the supreme, infinite, being of the universe, could or would become a man, a human?

[40:28] Unthinkable. That's what it's all about. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

[40:40] The word was made flesh, became one of us, human being. and his name is Emmanuel, which means God with us.

[40:54] And this is splashed all throughout the Jewish scriptures in the Old Testament. And they just don't see it. And Isaiah 53 booms out with a clarion call.

[41:08] He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes we are healed. Man of sorrows.

[41:20] They just don't see it. The apostle Paul, who himself was a Jew, spoke of his countrymen and said that blindness, blindness, not physical blindness, there's nothing wrong with their eyes.

[41:36] If they don't have 20-20 vision, they can with corrective lenses. Nothing wrong with their eyes. Spiritual blindness. blindness has happened to Israel in part until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.

[41:57] And Paul was so glad that that blindness was only in part because if it would have been in full, it would have included him. He says, I'm a perfect object lesson of the fact that the blindness is not total.

[42:09] I, myself, and all of my Jewish brethren who have also come to embrace Jesus as the Messiah, we are included. We are not blinded.

[42:21] But those who have not believed are blinded. It is a stumbling block to them. Then, if that's the case, why are we presenting this and calling it the Jewish final solution to the world's problem when in fact, the Jews really want nothing to do with it.

[42:43] It's amazing. They are the ones that have provided this. And yet they repudiate it because they simply do not see it. They do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

[42:54] And for those Jews who do believe, and they are more of the orthodox stripe, that there will be a Messiah, they believe he is yet future. While we look forward to the second coming of Jesus as the Messiah, the Jewish people who are orthodox look forward to the first coming of the Messiah because they reject Jesus of Nazareth.

[43:16] So, it is solely due to God's use of Israel as a nation of Jews and Jesus the Messiah as an individual Jew, that they are, and he is, Christ, the solution to the world's problem of dysfunction, sin, and resulting death.

[43:39] And it's exactly what Jesus was speaking of when he talked to the woman at the well in John 4 and said, you Samaritans, you do not understand or know what you are worshipping.

[43:51] Salvation is of the Jews. Really significant statement for the Son of God to make. And so much is encompassed in that.

[44:02] So, we are transitioning through the Bible to see how this concept has moved through history, how it is moving right now through the present, and how it will move in the future as prophecy surely declares it.

[44:17] Because the prophetic future is just as certain as the historical past. Think of that. The prophetic future is just as certain as the historical past.

[44:32] And some may say, well, I don't understand how that can be because the historical past is, well, it's history, it's a fact. Well, so is the future. Because that's the way God views it.

[44:44] We look at the future kind of on pins and needles, not knowing what to expect or who to expect it from. But with God there are no surprises and he knows precisely what is coming in the future.

[44:56] History and prophecy both focus directly upon the tiny nation of Israel as being the crux of the entire subject of the restitution of all things spoken of by Peter in Acts chapter 3.

[45:12] And if you'll turn to that, I want to close with that passage because it's very, very poignant and pregnant. Acts chapter 3. This is a follow-up message to what Peter delivered on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

[45:29] And you might say that he is actually just kind of resuming his message and it is a very, very powerful message. Acts chapter 3 and let's begin reading with verse 17.

[45:44] Paul is delivering his message and he's talking to an exclusively Jewish audience and he says, And now brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance.

[45:57] just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, oh, this is really something.

[46:13] And Peter is addressing this audience of Jews. And they are all gathered there because this man who had been lame from his mother's womb and had never walked a day in his life, because I think the scriptures say that he was in his 40s.

[46:30] And he had a select spot for begging. And the people that would come there to the temple every day were used to seeing that guy there as a permanent fixture. He had dibs on that spot.

[46:44] That was a choice spot. You catch people when they're about to do something religious and they're going to be more generous. So he was seated there begging. That's all he could do. That's all he could do.

[46:54] And Peter and John came by. And they looked at that man and they saw him. This guy's, this was his nine to five job. He was there every day. Everybody knew him.

[47:05] They all knew him. Never walked a day in his life. And he's holding out this little basket or cup. Alms, alms for the poor. And people go by and clink a coin in there once in a while.

[47:18] And Peter and John came by and the text says, and he fastened his eyes upon them. And every beggar knows, it's important to make contact, eye contact with the person that you're expecting something from because you have a greater chance of them coming across if you can just make eye contact with them.

[47:38] But you notice a lot of people just deliberately don't make eye contact. They just look away. But if you can make eye contact with, and the text says that he looked earnestly upon earnestly, he focused his eyes and made deliberate eye contact with Peter and John because he was expecting something from them.

[48:01] You know, some people learn the art of pleading with their eyes. They can communicate need, desperation, and the tendency is, oh, what's a buck or two and you drop it in the plate.

[48:22] And that's what they want. And he looked upon Peter and John expecting to receive something from them. And did he ever. Peter says, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto you.

[48:42] In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up. And Peter reached down to that guy, got a firm grip on his hand, and gave a yank.

[48:55] And the man came right up with him, standing on those weakened, emaciated ankles that had never held the weight of his body and his life.

[49:08] And he stands there, and he can't believe it, and he looks down, and he stomps this foot, and this foot, and he's elated. Am I dreaming? Somebody pinch me.

[49:19] Meanwhile, a crowd begins to gather. Everybody saying, hey, what's going on here? They hear all the commotion. They see this guy. Hey, isn't that old so-and-so, the beggar? Well, what's he doing, standing there walking around there?

[49:32] What's going on anyway? And the crowd grew and grew and grew. And then finally, Peter got their attention and said, Men of Israel, I know you are all wondering, what's going on here with this man who is walking now, has never walked before?

[49:48] And be it known unto you that it is through the name of Jesus of Nazareth that this man stands here before you whole. people. And these people, what?

[50:00] What? What is he saying? How did this happen? What's going on? Who are you? Who is this guy? And then Peter goes into his message, and it looks, verse 17, Brethren, I know you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also, but let me tell you something, the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that his Messiah should suffer, listen, this is in your books, it's in the Psalms, it's in Isaiah, it's in Jeremiah, it's in Ezekiel, it's in Daniel, it's in all the prophets have mentioned this.

[50:33] This is not anything you haven't heard. This is the one of whom the prophets were speaking from Genesis on, that his Christ would suffer, he, God, has thus fulfilled.

[50:53] God has done it. He did his part. What was his part? His part was, he so loved the world that he gave.

[51:05] That was God's part. His only begotten son, that whoso believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God has done his part. God has provided a Savior.

[51:16] Now, Israel, let me tell you something, you know where this leaves you? The ball is in your court. God has done his part. What is your response?

[51:29] What are you going to do about that? You need to change your mind. You need to repent. You need to reverse yourself and return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

[51:47] What are those times of refreshing? refreshing. That's when the broken world gets fixed. That's the time of refreshing and the time of restitution of all things.

[52:01] When everything that is now abnormal is reversed to the normality that God intended and originally created, the broken world gets fixed.

[52:13] and that he may send Jesus the Christ anointed for you, appointed for you, whom heaven must receive and has already received him until the period of restoration of all things, that's the brokenness gets fixed about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times.

[52:34] And it's nothing new. It's been in the Bible all along and you have been reading it as Jews for hundreds of years and God has finally fulfilled it. Now, what are you going to do about it?

[52:46] And I can say the same to you this morning. God has done his part. What are you going to do about it? The ball's in your court. We can walk away from it and say, ah, doesn't interest me.

[53:02] Frankly, I don't care. And you know there are people that feel that way. There are people that feel that way. I didn't ask him to die for me. I'm good enough on my own. I can make it.

[53:13] I'm not that bad. There are a lot of people worse than I am, and on and on. But as we established, I think, at the beginning, we all suffer from some kind of brokenness.

[53:26] God is God. God is the God. And heal what really needs to be healed. That's a really broken heart, a broken spirit.

[53:39] That's what we need. And that's what Jesus died to provide. God isvications. I have a time for questions and answers from you.

[53:54] Nothing new. I guess I'm starting the year off the same way. But, Marie, would you remind me of this? And next week you have my permission to give me this when I'm finished.

[54:07] So we'll have time for Q&A. All right. And just make sure that you don't give me this at a real strategic moment. You know, we've covered some concepts that I'm sure have generated a lot of questions in the minds of a lot of people.

[54:25] And you may be, you may not be inclined to ask a question publicly. It can be a little intimidating or embarrassing. But I'll tell you what, if you would like to write out a question, just scribble out a question.

[54:39] Feel free to do that and drop it in the offering box. I don't need to know who you are. It doesn't make any difference. We'll treat any honest questions with honest answers. And I'm going to have a word of prayer now, and I'll ask you to stand, if you will.

[54:53] And I would ask that you would, in this closing moment, that you would really consider opening your heart and mind to Jesus Christ and who he is and what he did and why it matters so much.

[55:14] That you might see your way clear to put your faith in this one who loved you in such a way that he was willing to die for you.

[55:25] The least we can do is respond to that. Father, there is so much that we have talked about this morning that just really skims the surface.

[55:37] Sometimes we feel like we don't even scratch the surface, we just scratch the scratch on the surface. Because we're talking about a subject that is so incredibly wonderful and so deep and so vast.

[55:51] And yet you've been pleased to express it in a simple enough term that we can understand. That we are lost and alienated from you because of our sin.

[56:02] And that's true of all of us. Not just some of us, but all of us. And yet your love was in such a manner that you were not content to leave us that way you wanted.

[56:15] And you did provide a way of escape. And we are so grateful. This escape is in the sin bearer who gave himself for us.

[56:26] And we don't understand at all how you place our sins on Christ and how you place his righteousness upon us. But we believe it because the scriptures teach it so very clearly.

[56:40] And we are amazed and we marvel at your willingness to do that. Indeed, you are a God of all grace. And Father, there may be someone here today.

[56:51] A young person, old person, man or woman. Who perhaps has understood something for the first time. And they want to do something about it. We know that your heart and mind is eager and willing to receive them.

[57:04] And dear friend, if you are here this morning and this describes you, you don't have to join a church. You don't have to be baptized. You don't have to give money.

[57:15] You don't have to. But you do. You do have to receive Jesus Christ as your substitute and payment for your sin.

[57:26] If you want a right standing with God. That's the only thing that will do it. And God has provided the wherewithal for you to do that. All that is required is you submit your will to him.

[57:41] Even now. And say, Lord Jesus, if you did that for me, I want to embrace you as my Savior.

[57:53] I want you to take this life of mine. I want to give it to you. And I want to ask you to take it and do with it what you will. I want to be your willing servant.

[58:04] The least I can do for you giving yourself for me is to give myself to you in gratitude. And that's what I do right now. Dear friend, if you have made that, your prayer, your year is off to something that is so wonderful.

[58:25] It will never be the same again. You become in Christ. It's the most wonderful place you can be.

[58:37] If you have further questions, you're considering this, you want to talk more about it or want more information, I want you to know I'm at your disposal. Feel free to let me know. Meet you in my office.

[58:48] Meet you in your home. Meet you any place you want to meet to talk about life's most important decision. Thank you, Father, for the time to share together. And thank you for what you have built in to the Jewish race, these incredibly unique people, blessed beyond words, yet devoid of much understanding of what you want to do through them.

[59:12] We are so grateful for the seed of Abraham and for your raising them up and especially for your providing Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus, our Messiah, in his name.

[59:27] Amen.