The Threefold Calling

Rev Colin Chow
12-05-2018

Israel's role, calling and historical mission is in God's redemption plan.

1) Vehicle of world redemption

John 4:22 New King James Version (NKJV)

22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

2) Custodian of the oracles of God

Romans 3:1-2 New King James Version (NKJV)

God’s Judgment Defended

3 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.

3) Mediator of the Great Covenant

Isaiah 42:6New King James Version (NKJV)

6 “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness,

And will hold Your hand;

I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,

As a light to the Gentiles,

4) Prophesied born in Bethlehem

Micah 5:2 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Coming Messiah

2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of you shall come forth to Me

The One to be Ruler in Israel,

Whose goings forth are from of old,

From everlasting.”

5) Shepherd of Israel

Matthew 10:5-6New King James Version (NKJV)

Sending Out the Twelve

5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Israel's unique role:

Israel has a special position before God because of Her chosenness. And through chosenness, suffering.

-Apple of God's eye.

Zechariah 2:8 New King James Version (NKJV)

8 For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.

Deuteronomy 32:10 New King James Version (NKJV)

10 “He found him in a desert land

And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;

He encircled him, He instructed him,

He kept him as the apple of His eye.

If you are against Israel, you are against God's way.

The coming of the Messiah:

1) She exists for the Messiah.

2) She provided the context for His arrival.

3) She brought Jesus into the world the first time. God has brought her back to her own land 70 years ago to use her to being Jesus back the second time.

4) In spite of her sin and rebellion, God will fulfill His plan through her.

God's covenant with Abraham:

Abraham would inherit the earth.

Romans 4:13New King James Version (NKJV)

The Promise Granted Through Faith

13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

The Covenant promises 3 things:

1) Nation

Genesis 12:1-3 New King James Version (NKJV)

Promises to Abram

12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

2 I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

2) Land (Genesis 12:7; 15:18; 17:7-8)

Genesis 12:7 New King James Version (NKJV)

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 15:18 New King James Version (NKJV)

18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:

“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—

Genesis 17:7-8New King James Version (NKJV)

7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

3) Blessing

Genesis 22:18 New King James Version (NKJV)

18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Galatians 3:9New King James Version (NKJV)

9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

We are blessed because we have the faith of Abraham.

Galatians 3:29 New King James Version (NKJV)

29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

We are Abraham's seed and heir.

Genesis 22:15-17New King James Version (NKJV)

15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.

We stand on the Abrahamic  covenant.

The call of Israel:

1) The Birthing Call

Eight spiritual assets through Israel:

Romans 9:1-5New King James Version (NKJV)

Israel’s Rejection of Christ

9 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen[a] according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

All these things belong to us but they lost it.

God wants us to pray for Israel to come back to Him.

We have to reconnect back to them.

Israel is God's firstborn son.

She gave the world - the written word - the Bible.

She gave the world the living word.

2) The Suffering Call

Genesis 15:9-16New King James Version (NKJV)

9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

The birds of prey came down on the carcasses but Abraham drove them away.

As the sun was setting, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

In his sleep, he was engulfed in a great horror.

The birds of prey (vulture) is a symbol of evil and demonic powers; powers of darkness.

The evil powers of darkness seek to destroy Israel to bring an end to God's redemptive purposes (i.e. salvation for all humanity).

Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, God rebirthed Israel in 1948.

God's purposes will never fail.

3) The Priestly Call

Genesis 22:2-5 New King James Version (NKJV)

2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad[a] and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

Hebrews 11:17-19 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Faith of the Patriarchs

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”[a] 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

John 8:56 New King James Version (NKJV)

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Galatians 3:8-9 New King James Version (NKJV)

8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”[a] 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

The gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The gospel began with Abraham.

Galatians 4:4 New King James Version (NKJV)

4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born[a] of a woman, born under the law,

It is the predestined counsel and purpose of God to give the death of Jesus to the world.

Jesus came in the "fullness of time."

Jesus' death alone saves us.

We the church have been called a kingdom of priests.

And Jesus will come again as prophet, priest and king.

Related:
Hebraic Perspective in Understanding the FATHER'S HEART in HIS WORD for HIS Children

Jesus the Jewish Messiah

Hebraic Root - Cultural Insights into words, action and saying of Jesus

Passover – A Sign of Israel; Preparation of Jesus for the Cross

Pentecost