God Is Not Done With Israel Yet Series

- It’s easy to read this passage vaguely. There are some nice phrases in there that you could use as pegs to hang a sermon on. One obvious one is the glory of God returning - it would be easy to write an inspiring sermon off that idea.

- But there is another way to preach this passage and that is specifically. Really digging down into the context of this passage and what exactly it means in that moment for those to whom it was addressed. Now, sometimes preaching a sermon that way makes the sermon more boring, less relevant, because the specific details of this setting are not at all relevant to us. For instance, preaching a sermon on one of the Old Testament chapters concerning how God wanted the tabernacle to be set up could easily fall into that category.

- In this case, though, that's not at all the case. The deeper you get into the specifics of this passage and what exactly is happening here, the more interesting it gets. So we are going to get into the weeds tonight, if that's alright with you. But I think it’s a trip that you’ll enjoy and will find enlightening. This will require us to jump around in the Bible to a bunch of different passages, but I think it will be worth it.

“GOD IS NOT DONE WITH ISRAEL YET”: What exactly do we mean when we say that?

- Ezekiel 43:1-12.

- It’s a phrase we’ve all heard if we’ve been around church for a few years: “God is not done with Israel yet.” And we all say, “Amen.”

- But what does that mean exactly? This passage gives us some compelling details.

- The place for us to start is Romans 11: 1, 11-18, 25. Unpack verse by verse.

- What is the big picture here? (And let me note that this is crucial for understanding the larger picture of what we’re looking at tonight.) It is that we are currently in the church age, which is a great expansion of the Kingdom.

- But while that is all we have experienced during our lives, the Bible paints pictures both of what came before and what is to come. What came before is the long, agonizing up-and-down history of Israel’s covenant and disobedience, which all led to the advent of Christ the Messiah.

- So with that context we can now look at Ezekiel 43 and ask, “What exactly does this passage tell us about what’s ahead?”

DETAILS FROM THIS SCENE:

1. THIS IS MOST LIKELY A PROPHECY OF THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM.

- When you are dealing with a passage like this there are always going to be a variety of interpretations. Some might say it’s just a wild, incoherent fever dream from an ancient writer. Some will say it’s spiritual truths but nothing that is actually going to happen. Others believe this is a prophecy that is going to happen but might disagree about what it specifically refers to.

- What I think it’s pointing toward is the dominant view among conservative Christians.

- I think this refers to the Millennial Kingdom.

- Now for those who aren’t up to speed on their Revelation timeline, let’s put this in a larger context.

- First we have the Rapture.

- Next we have the Great Tribulation.

- That is concluded by the Second Coming.

- After that we have the Millennial Kingdom.

- Finally we have the Final Judgment and the new heaven, new earth, and New Jerusalem.

- (That, of course, is a very abbreviated version.)

- So what is the Millennial Kingdom? The Great Tribulation is the seven worst years in human history. It is brought to a dramatic close by the Second Coming of Christ. He physically returns to the earth to defeat the Antichrist. That inaugurates a 1,000-year reign of Christ on the earth. Jesus will literally rule on the earth over fallen people. During this time, the people of Israel, because of Jesus’ dramatic rescue of them at the end of the Great Tribulation when they were facing an utterly hopeless situation, will turn to Christ and worship Him.

- Remember we started with “God is not done with Israel yet”? Here we are. Israel plays a big part in the suffering of the Great Tribulation and the redemption that the Second Coming brings.

- At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, Satan is temporarily released from being bound and makes one last foray toward defeating God. Many of the people of the earth rally to him but he fails.

- So what is the point of the Millennial Kingdom? It is that even after 1,000 years of seeing the goodness and wisdom of Christ ruling, some people would still rebel against Him.