Israel And The Millennium

Isaiah 9:6-7

Message #36

Israel & The Millennium - Isaiah 9:6-7
Calvary Chapel Nuevo, Pastor Dave, 4/21/24

MILLENNIUM: A 1,000 year period when Jesus Christ will Reign on this Earth. It occurs just after the 2nd coming. In fulfillment of God’s promises, the redeemed nation of Israel will return to the promised land, where they, and all Gentile believers, will experience the personal presence of Jesus Christ in a real, restored Jerusalem. From Jerusalem, Jesus will rule the earth with all his saints, in perfect justice and righteousness. While Satan is bound and removed for these 1,000 years.

A foundational truth about Israel and the Millenium
Romans 11:28–29
Numbers 23:19

The Abrahamic Covenant
Genesis 15:7–8
Genesis 15:17-20

The Power of the Promise
Genesis 28:15
Jeremiah 31:36-37

The Davidic Covenant
2 Samuel 7:9-16
Isaiah 9:6–7
 
The New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:33-34
Ezekiel 36:24–28

It’s April of 2024, and it’s the most incredible time to be supporting Israel that I’ve seen in my forty-five years of following Jesus.

The last time God was at work at this level in the Nation of Israel was 1967. So, we are in it right now. What is going on in Israel right now is absolutely God-sized, and what is going on in the world against Israel right now is absolutely Satan-sized.

God’s protection of Israel in these past weeks has been super miraculous, and so much of the world’s hate of Israel has been super Satanic. And so, that makes a perfect time for us to talk about Israel And The Millennium.

We will talk more about our role in the Millennium next week. But today, especially in light of what’s happening in Israel right now, it is critical that we talk about Israel and the Millennium.

My prayer today is that you would see two things.
1). The Millennium is about Jesus Christ ruling and reigning on this earth for 1,000 years
2). The Millennium is about God absolutely fulfilling all of his Covenant Promises to Israel

Every single promise God has made to Israel will be fulfilled, some of them ultimately in the Millennium – that’s good news for you because if God will fulfill his promises to Israel he will fulfill his promises to you.

So, let’s start by defining the word “Millennium.”

MILLENNIUM: A 1,000-year period when Jesus Christ will Reign on this earth. It occurs just after the 2nd coming. In fulfillment of God’s promises, the redeemed nation of Israel will return to the promised land, where they, and all Gentile believers, will experience the personal presence of Jesus Christ in a real, restored Jerusalem. From Jerusalem, Jesus will rule the earth with all his saints in perfect justice and righteousness. While Satan is bound and removed for this period of time.

That is the Millennium in a nutshell. And since we’re talking today about Israel’s place in the Millennium, we are going to be reading mostly Old Testament scriptures about the Millennium.

Let me just say one other thing. If you have ever been exposed to any church or doctrine that in any way outright says or implies that God has rejected Israel and replaced Israel with the New Testament Church, I hope you will see today that the Bible clearly, completely, and one hundred percent refutes that unbiblical doctrine. Honestly, it stems from the Reformation period, from the reformers, who were horrible anti-Semites (that means people that hate the Jews). God’s Covenant Promises to Israel will always remain – God’s Covenant Promises to Israel. And again, the good news is that means God’s Covenant Promises to us, the Gentiles, will always be God’s Covenant Promises to you.

Listen. We do not take over God’s Covenant Promises to Israel. We partake OF God’s promises to Israel. So, we are grafted in. We are partakers of the Covenant that God began with Israel, that he finalized through Israel with Jesus Christ, and that he will carry into the Millennium. And we are eternally blessed to be grafted in as partakers of those Covenant Promises. Don’t let anybody change clear biblical truth.

So, let’s just address this foundational truth about Israel and the Millennium first.

Romans 11:28–29 (NLT)
28 Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29 For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.


Why? Because God is immutable. It means God cannot change. God CANNOT change. It’s against his nature. He doesn’t have it in him to change. So, because he is immutable his gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.

Numbers 23:19 (NLT)
19 God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?


God and his Word are very serious about the fact that God and his covenant promises will never change, and every single one of them will come to pass, and that is great news for us and for Israel.

And we are seeing God’s Covenant Promise with Israel being proven right now, right before our eyes in April 2024, in this current war between Israel and Iran (and Iran’s proxies). The liberal, anti-Semitic media refuse to acknowledge how miraculous it was that over three hundred simultaneous air attacks (almost half of which were ballistic missiles) on Israel were completely thwarted – in the air – with zero Israeli deaths. But we know God was involved, and God will always be involved in the Nation of Israel.

So, there are three covenants God has made with Israel that will all be ultimately fulfilled in the Millennium.

The Abrahamic Covenant
The Davidic Covenant
The New Covenant

Some aspects of each of these three covenants have been partially fulfilled but in the Millennium, they will be completely and forever fulfilled.

Here’s the good news. We (as Gentile believers) will be “partakers” of God fulfilling all of his earthly promises in the Millennium. We will be forever blessed to be “grafted in” to the Covenants God has made with Israel.

So, let’s look at these three covenants that will all be ultimately fulfilled in the Millennium.

1). The Abrahamic Covenant

In God’s Covenant with Abraham, God promised to Abraham and his descendants the entire land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. One count shows this Covenant Promise from God is referred to thirty-nine times in the Bible. The problem is neither Abraham nor his descendants ever possessed the entire Promised Land. But the good news is they will because God always makes good on his promises.

In Genesis Chapter 15 is a dramatic one-sided Covenant between God and Abraham.

Genesis 15:7–8 (NLT)
7 Then the Lord told [Abraham], “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
8 But Abram 
(Abraham) replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”

Then, what follows is an incredible Covenant Ceremony where animals are cut in half, and the parties to the Covenant pass through the cut in half animals, symbolizing the taking of an oath that says, “May I be cut in half like these animals if I ever break this Covenant.”

Now, it’s one thing for Man to do this to make this dramatic “Covenant Commitment.” But here in Genesis 15, God is the only one that passes through the animals that have been cut in half. God puts Abraham to sleep, and God makes this a one-sided covenant.

Genesis 15:17-20 (NLT)
17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.
(that’s God)
18 So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—
19 the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,


This “Land Covenant” (the Abrahamic Covenant) in Genesis 15 includes some or all of the following places. Parts of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, and ALL of Israel, including Gaza and the West Bank. That is the land that God has unconditionally promised to Abraham and his descendants, and that is the land that Israel will occupy in the Millennium! And they will occupy it in absolute peace.

Starting in Genesis 13:15, God says he is giving this land to Abraham and his descendants as a permanent possession.

Then, in Genesis 26:3, God says he is giving this land to Issac (Abraham’s son) and to his descendants just as he promised to Abraham.

Then, in Genesis 28:13, God says he is giving this land to Jacob (Abraham’s grandson) and his descendants (and his descendants are the Twelve Tribes of Israel.)

And then, look at the power of Genesis 28, verse 15.

Genesis 28:15 (NLT)
15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”


Read that again.

The problem is the descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob have never possessed the entire land God promised them, but . . . they will!! They will because God is the ultimate Promise Keeper. God cannot “vacate” a Covenant Promise, or he cannot be God, and he cannot replace the recipient of a Covenant Promise, especially when he says (as he does here in verse 15) I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.

The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will absolutely possess the entire land God promised them. They will possess all of it in the Millennium either in their resurrected bodies or by entering the Millennium alive, and either way, they will enter the Millennium the same way that you and I will, by putting their faith in Jesus AS their Lord and Savior.

And some would say, “Yeah, but Israel rebelled against God, so didn’t he replace them with us??” First of all, you might be thinking way too highly of yourself. And second of all, look at Jeremiah 31, verses 36-37.

Jeremiah 31:36-37 (NLT)
36 “I am as likely to reject my people Israel as I am to abolish the laws of nature!”
37 This is what the Lord says: “Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done. I, the Lord, have spoken!


God keeps his promises! Even though many of God’s promises to Israel will not be ultimately fulfilled until the Millennium.

2). The Davidic Covenant

The Abrahamic Covenant is about the land.
The Davidic Covenant is about a King and a Kingdom.

2 Samuel 7:9-16 (NLT)
(the Lord says to David) . . . Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth!
10 And I will provide a homeland 
(a kingdom) for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won’t oppress them as they’ve done in the past,
11 . . . “Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings!
12 . . . I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong.
13 . . . And I will secure his royal throne forever.
. . .
16 Your house
(your Dynasty) and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’ ”

Two questions here:
1). WHO is (ultimately) the KING referred to here?
This is King Jesus – the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (direct from the line of David)

2). When will this KINGDOM (ultimately) come to pass?
Ultimately, this Kingdom will come to pass in the Millennium.

And this is the same King and the same Kingdom that is prophesied in the most famous Christmas verse.

Isaiah 9:6–7 (NLT)
6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!


The government will rest upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ during the Millennium and his peace will never end from the Millennium through eternity. And he will rule from the throne of David from the Millennium through eternity.

So, we’ve looked at the Abrahamic Covenant and Davidic Covenant. And finally, number three.

3). The New Covenant

Read this carefully.

Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NLT)
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”


The New Covenant is about salvation and restored relationship between God and the Nation of Israel.

And this Covenant of Salvation and Restored relationship is the Covenant that we are partakers of.

And again, in Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 36:24–28 (NLT)
26 
(the Lord says to Israel) And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.


Guys, this will ultimately be fulfilled in the Millennium and we get to be part of it!! We (all Believers) will be there with them – which we will see next week.

If you belong to God today, if you have truly surrendered your life to him and become his son or daughter, then you are a partaker of the Covenant Promises – especially the New Covenant of Salvation and Restore Relationship with God. And God will not abandon you just like he will not abandon Israel.

Romans 8:39 (NLT)
39 . . .  nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.


That goes for you, and that goes for Israel.

Guys, Jesus Christ will rule and reign on this earth in perfect righteousness for 1,000 years in the Millennium and then on into eternity in the New Heavens and New Earth with all those who have put their faith in him. The majority of Israel has not yet recognized Jesus as their true Messiah and King.

Have you recognized your True Messiah yet?
Have you recognized Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and your Personal King?

Have you asked him to make you part of his eternal family?
If you haven’t – you can today.