Chris Katulka: The whole story of God's redemption as we're going to look at is a story of taking us from Eden to Eden. You're in the middle of it right now. This world is in the middle of God's story of taking us from Eden in Genesis 1 and 2, to Eden in Revelation 22.

Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for the Friends of Israel Today. I'm Steve. With me is Chris.

Chris Katulka: Hey, Steve.

Steve Conover: If you were with us last week we heard the first part of a message Chris presented at a Past Prophecy conference and was recorded at Grace College & Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. We're going to continue that message today and incidentally if you're interested in joining us for this year's conference, July 14 through 18 at Grace College, both Chris and I will be there, and we'd love to see you. Our topic this year is a study of the kingdom of God. You can find out more information about this or our other annual prophecy conferences by going to FOIRadio.org. That's FOIRadio.O-R-G.

Chris Katulka: Now, one of the reasons that we're actually airing a Past Prophecy conference message is because I'm currently in Israel, actually. While I'm there, our video team will be working on a new project that we're very excited to talk about in the future, but today's message, you're going to be hearing about God's global plan to use Israel and the Jewish people to redeem the world.

Steve Conover: We're glad you're with us, we hope you enjoy.

Chris Katulka: If you are a believer in Jesus the Messiah, you have been indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God. You have been sealed, it says in Ephesians 1:14-15, sealed. He uses the same phrase Paul uses here in Romans 8. You've been sealed until the day of the revealing. In Ephesians 4, you've been revealed until the day of redemption, of resurrection. You can't get rid of it. If you are a true believer in Jesus the Messiah, you have been locked in. You've been sealed. You have the beginning of the kingdom in you. You're kingdom people. Did you know that? The very promise of the Holy Spirit was the promise of a kingdom and it's dwelling in you with anticipation of the future kingdom that's coming, but you're citizens of it today. You're supposed to act. We are supposed to act as citizens of the kingdom now.

That's going to help us as we look at Psalm 122 in a moment. But you have the first fruits of the Spirit, you and I. That spirit within us that understands the kingdom coming, it groans. It groans inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Folks, that's the moment that the dead will rise and come back to life, the redemption of our bodies. When we talk about being redeemed, the hope we have in redemption is that one day, just as Jesus came bursting out of the grave, our bodies, too, will come bursting out of the grave. They will be redeemed. I will be taller. Just remember that. Write that down. When you meet me in the kingdom, I have that written in my Bible. 6'1", Lord.

"For in this hope, we were saved." You know, when we use this term, "saved," we throw it around. "Oh, are you saved? Are you saved?" What are you saved from? Oh, I'm saved from my sins. Technically you've not been saved from your sins. You've been saved from something greater than that. You've been saved from the judgment of God because of your sins. Your sins lead us to judgment. Paul, when he writes Romans, he's just looking forward the entire time. He's looking at your life now and throwing it like, "Hey, lookit, there's judgment coming. Judgment is coming. World, you're in sin. Judgment is coming. Believer, remember, you've been saved because judgment is coming. What have you been saved from? When you stand before God, you are found" what? "Blameless."

You know how relieving that is to stand before a judge? You ever watch a trial on television and the guy looks at you and says, "Innocent?" Could you imagine the weight lifted off the shoulders of that person? Innocent. Blameless. You can go home now. I've always found that interesting. A person could sit in a courtroom for months and months and there's cops around them and they're watching them, and the moment that the judge says, "Innocent," what happens? They get up and they walk right out that door. Blameless. In Christ, despite all of our wrongdoings, despite the sin that has corrupted us, we have been saved from God's judgment. Amen? Amen, people. When we resurrect, we stand with Him. That's our hope. That's part of the repairing of the world, for in this hope, we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope. Just remember that.

We all love to see the future. People love the future. They love to see the future. We love the future. We want to know the future all the time. What does this mean? What does that mean? You know what Paul is saying? Hope is things you just can't see. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Are you patient people? I know I'm not patient. I'll be honest. I'm learning patience. But I want to show you. This is the big picture of how the Redeemer is repairing the world. When He steps down on the Mount of Olives, there is resurrection that happens. There's a great resurrection that happens. In that process of judgment at the same time, He brings wholeness and He brings shalom and peace. He brings peace to the nations, peace to the world, stability. I want to show you that really quick in the remaining time that we have.

Jump with me really quickly to Psalm 122, a psalm that you all might be very familiar with, a psalm that you might have said a verse from that over and over again. Psalm 122:6, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the city of peace." But I want you to see this really quickly. Psalm 122, "I was glad," this is David writing, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.' Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, built as a city that is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord. There, thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those be secure who love you. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers, for my brothers' and companions' sake. I will say peace be with you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good."

Listen, this is a beautiful, beautiful psalm. David is extremely excited, number one, to go to Jerusalem. My young adults and I just were in Jerusalem and we went from Jerusalem and we trekked all the way down to the Dead Sea. It's about 2800 feet from Jerusalem to sea level. Jerusalem's about 2800 feet above sea level. We went all the way down in about 15 minutes. You can get to the bottom there. Now, we went on a bus, as David said. Hopefully the bus doesn't break down last night, but we were on a bus and I reminded the young adults, "Could you imagine being Jesus? This is a psalm they would sing as they would go up to Jerusalem." Could you imagine walking 2800 feet up just to get to Jerusalem? You're singing this psalm and David, as he's there in Jerusalem, he is excited to be in the city of peace.

The reason he's excited to be in Jerusalem is because he understands something amazing. He understands that the God of Heaven and Earth is dwelling in this city, Jerusalem. He is happy to be there because the God of Heaven and Earth, not the God of Jerusalem only, not the God of Israel only, the God of Heaven and Earth, the God of all creation, is dwelling in Jerusalem. He's chosen that place to dwell and David is excited to be there. "Let us go to the house of the Lord, the temple. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem." How excited David is! The peace of God's presence is completely surrounding David that he's excited to be there. "Jerusalem, built as a city that is bound firmly together to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord. There, thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David."

This is incredibly important and we often overlook this whole section, that Jerusalem was not just a place for the capital of Israel and the Jewish people, done, finished, over. The prophets give us a bigger picture of what Jerusalem was supposed to be in the broad scheme of God repairing the world. Remember, it's God's presence that dwelt in Jerusalem. I love what the prophet Micah says here. Listen to this, Micah 4:1-2. "It shall come to pass in the latter days, in the future, that the mountain of the house of the Lord," just as what David was talking about here, the temple, "shall be established as the highest of mountains." Now, how high was Jerusalem, everybody? 2800 feet. Okay, is that the highest mountain the world? No. Does it even compare to places like Mount Everest? 

I used to get in an argument with a guy from seminary because I used to go skiing in the Poconos in Pennsylvania and I'd talk about the Pocono Mountains, and he would yell at me and say, "Those aren't mountains. You know what real mountains are? You come to Colorado and I'll show you some real mountains." I'm like, "They're called mountains, man. It says mountains." "No, they're not mountains." He's right, they're higher in Colorado. They're beautiful. But do you know what's so amazing here? It's not about the height of the mountain. God's not going to just make Jerusalem, you know, 18,000 feet in the air. No, it's not about the height of the mountain, it's about the significance of who rules from that mountain. Watch this. "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills, and peoples, peoples, shall flow to it."

Not Israelites only. Not Levites only. Not Jewish people only. What? Peoples. Me, you, peoples shall flow to it. "And many nations shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the house of the Lord, to the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from'" where? From Jerusalem. See, David understood something about Jerusalem. Jerusalem isn't just his capital of his little country. He understood that from Jerusalem, the whole world would come to what? Know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the process of how God repairs the world, that when His Son comes and establishes His kingdom in the future and He reigns through His Son, and the nations that will come to Him, there will be peace and stability and righteousness and justice.

Think about that. He was excited to come to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a place, lookit, “built as a city that is firmly bound together to which the tribes of Israel to go up to give thanks to the name of the Lord. The thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.” Where is law? Where is God's law given from and law decreed from? From, as David says, “the thrones of David” in where? Jerusalem. What a beautiful picture of what God is doing. It's not just about the one, the city. It's about the one who rules from the city, that there's a wellspring of peace that is coming up. Look with me in Psalm 122:6. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they be secure who love you. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers. For my brothers' and companions' sake, I will say peace, shalom, be with you. For the sake of the house of Lord our God, I will seek your good."

You know, David understands. Notice, it's not just the Jewish people who are supposed to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Who else is supposed to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem? Everybody. Why? Because when we look at the one location of Israel as supporters of Israel today, folks, we're not supposed to just be thinking only about Israel because that's not the way God thinks. God uses Israel for what? The global picture of His redemptive plan. Do you hear what I'm saying? Through Israel, He is reaching out into the world. When you say, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," you're not just praying for Jerusalem. You're praying for the King of Heaven and Earth to come back to bring peace, justice, and righteousness to a very broken and corrupt world. That's what you're praying for. 

That's why I love Israel so much, because I know it's not just about this little, tiny, itty-bitty plot of land in the Middle East, or a people that make up less than 1% of the world's population. It's not about them, it's about the fact that God chose them to bring His message of redemption to everyone and to enact His plan of redemption and the way He would repair the world through His people and through His land. That's why I love Israel and the Jewish people so much, because of what He's doing globally. Look what it says here in Psalm 72:1-4. This is what the King will do. Listen to this. When we talk about repairing the world, this is what the Messiah will do. "Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son. May He judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people and the hills in righteousness. May He defend the cause of the poor of the people and give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush the oppressor."

Folks, what's the one thing that we hear over and over and over and over again when we open the newspaper and turn on the television? Justice. Justice. Justice. We have the greatest justice system in the world. I don't care what anybody says. It's a manmade justice system and it has failures and it has things that need to be worked on for sure. It is not perfect. But in the realm of human history, we have more justice in this country than any other country or empire in the world. But it doesn't compare to the justice that will come when the King of Kings sits on His throne. That's what this psalm is saying. That's how He repairs the world. Why? Because He provides justice not from a man's perspective, but from God's perspective, a righteous perspective. He thinks of the poor, the needy, and those that are often left behind. That's how He repairs all of these things.

He gives deliverance to the children of the needy and crushes, do you hear that? Crushes the oppressor. That brings peace. Psalm 72:8-11. This is so dynamic to understand the vision of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. Psalm 72:8-11. "May He rule from sea to sea, from the Euphrates River down to the ends of the Earth. Before Him the coastlands will bow down. His enemies will lick the dust. From the kings of Tarshish to the coastlands will offer gifts. The kings of Sheba and Seba will bring tribute. All kings," do you hear this? "All kings," Psalm 72, "will bow down to Him and all nations will serve Him." Why? Because Isaiah tells us He will be a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, an Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. Shalom. Completeness. The repairer of the world.

But folks, that doesn't mean that we sit down. Listen, this is important. That doesn't mean that we sit down and just wait. Okay, God's going to bring justice. I'm just going to sit here and wait. Nope. That's not who we've been called to be. That is not who we are as believers in Jesus. He has given us the commission to be people of peace. How do you create peace? You can't fix the world. It's not our job to fix the world. We can't do that. That's Yeshua. That's Jesus' job to fix the world. But He's given us the ability to be peace-givers, to make peace with the world by offering one thing and one thing only, the Prince of Peace. The only reconciliation that can create true reconciliation, true peace, true justice right now on this Earth as we know it is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. That's the one thing that we have to offer, and having an attitude like the Lord Himself. Those are the things that we can do today.

We're not supposed to sit idly by. We're not supposed to just sit down and wait for the Lord to come. That's not our job. Our job is to stay busy bringing peace to those around us, the message of peace. You know, I think of the late Zvi Kalisher. Here's a man that should have just said, "I'm done." He made it through the Holocaust, survives the Holocaust as a young boy. He makes it through the Independence War of Israel, he becomes a citizen of Israel. You know what? After that traumatic decade or so of his life, you would think, "I'm done." But he didn't. Why? Because the Lord touched His life and instead of feeling sorry for himself and sitting down and waiting, what did he do? He got busy bringing peace to the people of Jerusalem. He did it for decades. Let's not stand idly by just waiting for redemption. Let's get busy bringing the message of peace and redemption through the Lord Jesus our Messiah.

Steve Conover: We've been enjoying a message Chris delivered at a past conference. Chris, if our listeners are interested in attending one of this year's conferences, what can they do?

Chris Katulka: Yeah, we actually have three National Prophecy Conferences that give our listeners an opportunity to go and hear about God's prophetic word. The first is coming up in July, 14th through the 18th this year, 2019, at Grace College & Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. In September, in the fall, September 6th through the 10th, we'll be in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at the Eden Resorts & Suites. Then finally, for our Canadian listeners, up in Winnipeg we'll be at the Victoria Inn & Convention Center, September 19th through the 21st. Listen, this is going to be a fantastic study. We're going to be looking at the kingdom of God, a biblical view of the kingdom of God from Genesis to Revelation, what God did in the past and what He's doing today, and also in the future when it comes to His kingdom. This is such an important study.

If you are interested in coming, we would love to see you. I will be there speaking. Steve will be there. We'd love to see you. All you have to do is go to FOIRadio.O-R-G to find out more information. That's FOIRadio.O-R-G. For our Canadian listeners, you can call 888-664-2584. Again, that's 888-664-2584 to find out more information about our National Prophecy conference in Winnipeg. We hope to see you there.

Steve Conover: We do hope you'll join us later this year. The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry has been sharing the love of the Messiah and supporting Israel and the Jewish people since 1938. If you feel led to support our work or you simply want to reach out to us, visit FOIRadio.org. That's FOIRadio.O-R-G. You can call our listener line at 888-343-6940. That's 888-343-6940, or in the US, you can write to us at FOI Radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Again, that's FOI Radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099.

Our host and teacher is Chris Katulka. Today's program was produced by Tom Gallione, co-written by Sarah Fern. Our theme music was composed and performed by Jeremy Strong. I'm Steve Conover, executive producer. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. We are a worldwide Christian ministry communicating biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah while fostering solidarity with the Jewish people.