Spiritual Reflections

1. Spiritual Reflections Our Trip to Israel and Rome From April 2013

2. Reflections • Our redemptive story is real, set in actual time, and history. • A picture is indeed worthy a thousand words. • Geography and topography do affect Biblical understanding and interpretation. • God’s whole scheme of redemption is planted in the decaying compost of human depravity. • Architecture reflects heart and spirituality. • Seeing history allows us to learn its lessons. • Obeying God always costs everything—no partial payments are accepted.

3. 1. Our redemptive story is real, set in actual time, and history. • 2 Pet. – 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

4. We saw real places we have read about. • It was laid out the way it was written—directions, distances, elevations, topography, etc. • We saw real descendants of the people it was written about. • The dividing wall of hostility (Eph. 2:14) is just as high and wide today as it ever was.

5. 2. A picture is indeed worthy a thousand words. • 1 John – 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

6. We saw the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum. • We saw the Dead Sea and the wilderness. • We saw the Great Sea and Caesarea. • We saw the Jordan River and what Moses saw. • We saw the Mount of Olives. • We saw the the temple mount. • We saw Jerusalem and Bethlehem. • We saw the skull and a tomb. • We saw the hate.

7. 3. Geography and topography do affect Biblical understanding. • Gen. 12: 1 – “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” • Micah 5:2 – “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Beth. – 44Xs in OT; 8Xs in NT)

8. Distances that may sound short are long, and visa versa, and can affect meaning. • The country they went through can be more barren than you can imagine, or it can be lush. • Up may mean to the north or it may mean in elevation. • Wilderness is not necessarily a jungle, but in most cases is just a barren wasteland. • Where a person was position and thus looking at can add a lot of meaning to the incident.

9. 4. God’s whole scheme of redemption is planted in the decaying compost of human depravity. • Gen. 6 – 5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. • Rom. 11 – 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

10. Eph. 2 – 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

11. We saw unmitigated hatred—both in the history of the places and in the present day hostilities as it all continues even to today. • Jews reject and even hate Christians. • Arabs hate Jews. • Muslims are filled with hate and sin. • Jews are secular and filled with sin. • Religion is relegated to “human’s” rights and politics rather than to worship to God. • There was only one temple to God and there were countless pagan temples

12. In Rome we saw how when the church and its leadership gained power, power gained control of the church. • We heard spoken in the most casual way the intrigue and corruption that was common and expected by the ones who were supposedly closest to God and the leaders of western Christianity!

13. 5. Architecture reflects heart and spirituality. • Acts 17 – 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. • Matt. 24 – 1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

14. Luke 21 – 5 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”

15. The ancients were big on buildings! So are the moderns! • There are no identifiable churches in the early foundations of Christianity. • The houses early leaders lived in were average at best. • The bigger the “houses” of God man built, the weaker the “House of God” that God built—the assembly of the people of God—was. • If ostentatiousness is forbidden in our personal behavior, it must be forbidden in our collective behavior.

16. We saw the remains of the temple Herod built for the Jews. • We saw the two Muslim mosques built on top of where the temple was. • We saw the Jewish cemeteries on one side and the Muslim cemeteries on the other. • We saw remains of synagogues and pagan temples. • We saw what seems to be to be the outrageous museum of the legacy apostasy at the Vatican. • But mostly we saw ruins…

17. 6. “Seeing” history allows us to better learn its lessons. • 1 Cor. 10 – For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

18. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. • 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

19. We saw the results of the apostasy of Israel. • We saw the results of the apostasy of Christianity. • We saw and heard how the early Christians failed to learn the lessons Paul wanted them to learn from Israel. • We saw the battlegrounds of defeat and the battlegrounds of victory. • We saw the Valley of Armageddon where John envision the final battle to be fought. • We now have visuals to punctuate the message.

20. 7. Obeying God always costs everything—no partial payments are accepted. • 1 Sam. 15:9, 22 – These they were unwilling to destroy completely…To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. • Luke 14:33 – In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

21. We saw how when Israel obeyed in everything they succeeded; when they partially obeyed or did not obey, they failed. • We saw how when Christians obeyed in everything they succeeded; when they partially obeyed or did not obey, they failed. • History tells the stories and the legacies lie in the ruins.

22. Conclusion • Our trip was tremendously enriching and I hope its impact on us will allow us to do a better job of teaching and preaching. • Our trip was tremendously challenging because it has given me much more information to process. • Our trip was tremendously disturbing because it gave visuals to so many tragedies of Israel and the church. • Our trip was tremendously impacting because it has given me greater conviction about things we need to do and things we must NOT do. • Our trip as a huge blessing in every way—most of all because it was a daily reminder of the love God has blessed us with daily all around us in all of you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

23. Matt. 23:37 – “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” • Pray for Israel. Pray for Rome. Pray for the world. Pray the Lord of harvest to send forth reapers into the harvest.