A Chosen Generation

00:00 - Speaker 1 A change in heart and the cry was rend your heart, not your garments, and any Christian has rent their heart. If you remember, when you came to the Lord, you didn't do it in a blasé way. There was if you're saved and you're really saved. There was a moment at some point when you realized you were a lost and miserable, wretched sinner that couldn't save themselves. And your heart was rent and you cried out for a Savior and he saw you and he rescued you Hallelujah. 00:31 - Speaker 2 Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightNYC.com. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you that he has a real hope and a future for you. 01:10 - Speaker 1 I want to minister to you today. If you're a guest, I'm just going to. I don't know how else to say it. It's a strange service today. It's going to be a weird service Because there's different kinds of services with different purposes and most of the time the Lord will say I want you to preach the word and the purpose of this service is to ignite their faith. 01:28 That's important. I'll give you the word to ignite your faith so you can receive the victory that's promised to you by God. Sometimes there's a service where the Lord says open up the spirit realm and minister the Holy Spirit to them and preach the power of God, and the purpose of that is to get more of the anointing on you. All sorts of services. Today's service is kind of like a recalibration service, an alignment service. I want you to get aligned with what I believe is the Word of God and statistically speaking just statistically, and the way you may have been brought up you're probably, just statistically speaking, down in New York, especially in Astoria. All the stats are thrown out anyway. But just in general. You will find this controversial and you may not like it, which whenever I don't like something I'm hearing, I lean into it. Which, whenever I don't like something I'm hearing, I lean into it. Yeah, because I want to know why don't I like it and let me explore myself. And so I encourage you not to respond emotionally but be like the wise Bereans in the Book of Acts who went back home after they heard the apostles preach and they searched the scriptures for themselves to see whether or not these things were true, sound good. So my heart goes out to guests on Sundays like this, because you know, if you're a guest, probably you're really hungry and you need God to meet you, and he's going to do that. I believe he can do that through anything, but it's not like the service was designed for that, for the guest in mind. So, if you're a guest, I'm so glad you're here, but also come back next Sunday, will you Just come back? You'll see, you may not like me at the end of today, but next Sunday you'll be like oh wow, look at that. His twin came and he's much more chill, much gentler, and I like what he's saying. 03:19 Let's go to 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 9. 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 9. This is the Apostle Peter. He's talking to Christians, believers in Jesus, and he says you are a chosen generation. Now that word generation in the Greek is genos, which means people, nation or race. In fact, just go to that ESV version of that. A lot of the newer translations of the Bible use the term nation or race. But you are a chosen race and you know what? Go back to New King James. I just wanted them to see that. But Peter is invoking this Old Testament verse. It's found in Exodus 19.6. The same verse is spoken to the children of Israel, and now Peter is speaking it to believers in Christ. 04:27 Who were the first century believers in Christ? Well, they were Jewish people and Gentile people, except they were told no longer to identify as Jews or Gentiles. Paul said the middle wall of partition has been torn down and out of two he has made one. So we shouldn't take pride in being a Gentile, shouldn't take pride in being a Jew. Well, what should we take pride in? Being in him, in Christ, and the Bible calls that a new creation. So Peter is saying you're a chosen race. 05:03 By the way, talking about race, God only sees race in one way saved, unsaved In Christ, outside of Christ. When you're in Christ. Well, you're a race supremacist, you're chosen, you're special and you're unique. You can say what happened in church today? Well, it's a real weird place. There's over 80 nations represented every color under the rainbow and it was like a race supremacist meeting Really wild. What happens in a story. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. See, God used those terms under the old covenant specifically for Israel and Israel only. You're my special, chosen people. You're the apple of my eye. You're the ones that I will fight for, you're the ones that I will protect. But now, because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, that's been opened up to others. Thank God for that. And any Gentile. They're not proud or arrogant about that. We have been grafted in and we humbly say hallelujah and thank you that now we get to. 06:14 Even though we have no direct physical lineage to Abraham, we get all of the benefits of being God's covenant people. God's covenant people, hallelujah. I want to read you some benefits to being God's covenant people. Let's go to that list. 06:34 It's very important to know who we are in Christ and it's important to know our identity. Israel Houghton sang that song 15 years ago. I Know who I Am. Remember that anybody, all right, thank you. How quickly musical tastes change and we forget the generals that went ahead of us. But knowing who you are in Christ is vital. So many times backslidings happen and slipping away has happened because the enemy causes us to forget who we are. And we have an identity and it's rooted in the covenant that God first established with Israel. Here's five benefits of being God's chosen people. 07:22 Under the old covenant, all of which and I'll show you scriptures all of which apply now to you through faith in Jesus, there used to be a physical wall of partition at the temple. It was actually a physical wall where Jews were on one side and then converts to Judaism proselytes, but they were still Gentiles. They were accepted, but not really, because they were still on that other side of the wall. And Paul says that middle wall of partition has been raised, it's been torn down and out of two groups he's made one. This is important, by the way, this actually has a very practical, real-life application. I know I'm only like three minutes in and it seems like I've waxed very theological and I may lose some of you, but just hang on because this is important with modern events and what's happening. Five benefits of being God's chosen people under the old covenant. 08:21 Number one divine protection. Anything I read, you can say to yourself that's me, that's for me. This applies to me. Deuteronomy 32.10,. He kept him as the apple of his eye. Deuteronomy 24, the Lord, your God, goes with you to fight for you. It means you're never alone. God shielded his people from danger, defended them against enemies and watched over them with deep personal care. Not that, bette Midler, God is watching us from a distance, but up close and personal. Shout, that's for me. Two supernatural protection, excuse me, provision. Deuteronomy 8.4,. 09:04 Your garments did not wear out. That actually was a miracle of provision. Their garments didn't grow old. Some of us would get sad if that happened. We want to get old upgrade for better ones. But God actually kept. For all those years traveling throughout the wilderness, God kept their garments in mint condition. Your garments did not wear out, nor did your foot swell. He fed you with manna. He provided for you. God met every physical need food, water, clothing and health miraculously and consistently. That's part of the covenant for you. 09:40 Today, you as the chosen people of God, you as God's peculiar possession, the apple of his eye, his holy nation. These benefits come upon you Three clear identity and purpose. This is what they had under the old covenant. They knew who they were. They knew that they were chosen. They had an assignment. Today, you know who you are. They knew that they were chosen. They had an assignment. Today, you know who you are. 10:05 The Bible says you're a royal priesthood. What is a priest? It's an ambassador, it's a representative, it's a bridge builder. That's what the word priest actually means a bridge maker who bridges the gap. So you don't have to wonder what on earth am I here for? You're here to glorify God. You're here to expand his kingdom, share the gospel of Jesus, win souls. You have an identity. Four God's presence. He said my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Exodus 33, 14. God didn't stay distant. He dwelt among them, leading, comforting and resting them. Just shout, that's for me. 10:51 Don't read these old covenant promises and just say, oh, that was so long ago and did something get lost in translation. No, this is who he is today and this is who he is to the believer the believer in who, in Jesus. The one who went to the cross and died in your place, the one who took all of your sins and received them in his own body and then he received the wrath that those sins deserved. So you can now be free from wrath, free from guilt, free from condemnation, and the Bible calls the new covenant a better covenant. Why is it a better covenant? 11:26 Well, under the old covenant, it depended on the people to keep their end of the bargain. They often failed and consequently, they were often cursed. That's why have you ever noticed, when you need a quick pick-me-up, you don't read like Deuteronomy. You never go. You know, I'm really feeling down in the dumps. Let me read some Leviticus and then, after that, a little Second Kings. I'll salt and pepper on top. That's really going to get. No, you see, it's sometimes very difficult to read. Why? Because they were supposed to keep their end of the bargain, but they couldn't. 11:59 Under the new covenant, the person who's keeping your end of the deal in place is Jesus himself, and he doesn't slip up, he doesn't mess up, he's perpetually and perfectly holding the covenant together in your stead. What a relief that is. That's why Jesus said come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden religiously, laboring, trying to cross every T and dot every I. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, religiously laboring, trying to cross every T and dot every. I Come to me. I'll give you rest because I've already done it. It is done, it is finished. Hallelujah Five Inheritance and stability To a land flowing with milk and honey. Exodus 3.8. God promised and delivered a secure and fruitful home and of course it was a physical land. Back then, everything under the old covenant was a type and a shadow. It pointed to not something but someone. It pointed to Jesus, but someone. It pointed to Jesus. 13:07 A phenomenal passage after the resurrection is when Jesus is walking down the road to Emmaus and he says he comes upon two disciples and they're kind of confused and they're sad and they heard about Jesus. And it says he opened up the Bible. Then it was just the Old Testament, the Torah, and he said, beginning from Genesis, he revealed himself to them. Because you will see Jesus Christ on every single page of the Old Testament, every single page of the Torah. The promised land, back then physical land. It was pointing to Jesus, pointing to you. Because you are now in Christ, let's go to 2 Corinthians. Because you are now in Christ, let's go to 2 Corinthians. 13:51 2 Corinthians, chapter one, and verse 20. It says for all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him amen to the glory of God through us. What does that verse mean? That verse means that in Jesus you find the fulfillment of every Old Testament promise. He is the fulfillment of Israel. He is the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. I'll give you an example of some of those. 14:32 In the old covenant we had a physical temple. In the old covenant we had a physical temple. Under the new, Jesus is the true temple where God dwells and we, his people, are also that temple. Under the old covenant there was a human high priest. Under the new covenant, he's your eternal high priest. Under the old covenant they had animal sacrifices. Under the new covenant, he is the once and forever sacrifice that took away all the sins of the world. 15:02 Under the old covenant there was a sabbath, a physical day of rest. Under the new covenant, every day is sabbath day. Now, that's good news, isn't it? Every day you say I don't have to go to work. Well, you might get fired. But here's what that means you don't have to try and work for God. See, now it's a spiritual rest. You don't have to try to work to impress God, to score points with God. You don't have to try to work to be accepted by him. Jesus has already past tense done that for you and now you can rest in the finished work of the cross. Monday you can rest. Tuesday you can rest Wednesday, you got it. Sabbath day, thursday. Sabbath day Friday believe it or not. Sabbath day, hallelujah. I knew this would come out different in the second service, because this sermon really it could either be a six-week sermon you know a series which I don't want to do that, so I have to preach it in one. 16:27 The question in 2023, 2024, controversial question was what is a woman? What is a woman? What is a woman? You know people were being asked that. Extreme progressives couldn't answer that because they didn't want to offend somebody. Like five minutes ago we all knew what a woman was. Now we don't know what a woman is. But you know, I mean you guys can call yourselves women. I mean technically you could, but I don't believe you. And someone says well, believe them because they say so. You know, respect their feelings. No, I don't want to enter into their delusion and support their delusion. I mean I can see the whiskers from here. They're not a woman. 17:21 So God defines what a woman is and God defines what a man is. It's the same way with marriage. You don't get to define marriage. I love this microphone. It amplifies my voice. Oh well, if you love it, why don't you marry it Today? Someone will go okay, it amplifies my voice. Oh well, if you love it, why don't you marry it Today? Some will go okay. You don't get to marry whoever you want and call it marriages between a man and a woman. 17:46 God defined the institution of marriage, but the 2025 question is what is Israel? Have you ever asked yourself that question what is Israel? And we can't define Israel. You have to let the Bible define Israel and God has to define Israel, and so before you answer what is Israel, you better come with a lot of scripture. Now I know scripturally what Israel is, but is the government and the nation that was established in 1948 akin to biblical Israel? Because you get the two conflated all the time, and so there's a lot of evangelical guilt that's thrust upon people. 18:33 People ask do you stand with Israel? Well, if you don't stand with Israel, you're anti-Semitic. No, I'm not. I just I personally, I just don't want to support yet another foreign war. But you got people chanting, making it the topic of the day, and frankly, I just want to ask, with respect, why do I even care? I know this is very hard for you to. That sounds so cruel. 19:00 There's stuff that's happening in the world right now. You don't even know it's happening because the media didn't tell you to care about it. Do you know how many slaves there are right now in the world? Anybody know More than at any previous time in history. Right now there's 50 million slaves on planet Earth that will be categorized as slaves. Some of them are indentured servants, but there's 50. You didn't know that, did you? So you didn't know to be mad about that. You didn't know that a few years ago in Armenia, tens of thousands of Armenians were being genocided. I didn't even know because it wasn't in our news. But remember when we're meeting on 34th Street and Pastor Clegg he was from Armenia and he was on social media all the time telling people and we just didn't know because we weren't told to care. But all of a sudden we're told to really, really care about a country the size of New Jersey on the other side of the earth and we're supposed to care as much as we care about America and frankly, I just feel like we have enough of our own problems. 20:03 But because it has the name Israel, I have to care. I mean, on the way through one of those taco stands I met Jesus, but I didn't pray to him. You know, I didn't give my tithe to Jesus. He gave me two nice tacos. But Because his name is Jesus doesn't mean he's Jesus, king of kings and lord of lords. And just because something is called Israel doesn't mean it's Yisrael, the Israel of God, amen. 20:35 Oh, you're sounding anti. I am not anti-Semitic, I'm Jewish. This, I am NOT anti-semitic, I'm Jewish. How could I be anti-semitic? I'm the Israel of God. You someone's that you're anti-semitic. You know what's the medic means? It means you're from the, the, the lineage of Shem, one of Noah's sons. You're Middle Eastern. So there's some guy from Russia or Poland with blonde hair and blue eyes, and if I say that I don't agree with the government of Israel and everything they say, I'm an anti-Semite. Yet they're blonde-haired, blue-eyed, from Russia. You didn't get that Fighting with Semites in the Middle East. 21:21 By the way, this isn't about the war. I honestly I'm concerned about my mandate. My mandate is to win souls in America, specifically in New York City. What happened last week, though just last week. A lot can happen in a week. Remember, last week we were wondering if a suitcase nuke was going to go off in Times Square and we were wondering how much of a war are we going to get pulled into? 21:45 And a good question to ask, if you're a Christian, because there's such a pressure on Christians is why am I being pressured into having to support every single decision of modern-day Israel? So you support the Palestinians? No, not them either. The Palestinians, by the way, any one of those two groups. If they could smash a button that would make you disappear, they would smash you without thinking. And that's the truth. And if you think otherwise, you're very, very naive. You're very, very naive. 22:17 And this message you know I risk offending everybody. This is not a popular message I promise there's people who may never come back because they're going to get emotional, they're going to get hurt. Rather than search the scriptures themselves, they're going to get up in their head, and I run a lot of risk. And my only motive here is just getting you to question some narratives and maybe do a little bit of digging and research yourself. So, with that, let's allow the Bible to define the Bible, shall we? And I'll give you a list, since I'm so fond of lists today. All right, here is a list that shows that Christians, that's, both Jews and Gentiles, are now Israel, and Israel is the true people of God. We already did. 23:13 1 Peter 2.9, your chosen generation. It's talking about you, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Number two Galatians 3.7. Therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Abraham was special, one true Jew, the first Jew. And God came to him and he said you are blessed, I bless you this day, and out of your loins there is a holy seed. Messiah will come out of your loins. And then in Hebrews it says that Abraham prophetically, he saw into the future and he saw Jesus. He saw the one who would come and redeem people back unto God. And Jews hail from Abraham, ethnically, genetically. But the Bible says that the true Israel are those who aren't just ethnically or genetically, genealogically, linked to Abraham, but they're the people of faith. Therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Faith, not bloodline, determines who belongs to Abraham. This completely redefines God's people under the new covenant. Who is Israel? Who is God's precious possession, israel, who is God's precious possession, those who believe in Messiah, those who believe in Christ. 24:44 So you're Chinese. You're like wow, I never knew. I'm going to go get a latke right now. Someone Indian here is like man. I feel like I'm craving a knish. You didn't know you were Jewish, did you? You didn't know that you were Israel. And in Israel there are Jews and there are Gentiles, except they don't identify as that anymore. They have a new identity Christian in Christ. 25:12 Hallelujah, can you imagine? All right, some of you, I don't feel like you're getting why I'm saying all this. I'm going to have to be very blunt. I believe, and you can disagree, but at least do the research and don't believe what your Sunday school teacher may have told you, because your Sunday school teacher may have gotten it from a late night televangelist. Maybe in your early years you binged out on TBN. Maybe you were scared of the blood moons that John Hagee was talking about and you sent a bunch of money to him and you really got into Zionism and dispensationalism. But why don't we all, since this is so important, go back to the drawing board? 25:49 Hallelujah, what happened to the Jewish people? Jesus said I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He's preaching to them. And then you see in the upper room 120 people. What were those 120 people? Every single one of them, jewish. And God pours out his spirit. And then Peter goes out and preaches. 26:15 That day, 3,000 get saved. What were the vast majority of those people? Jewish. In fact, it was very, very rare for a Gentile dog to be saved. That's what they thought of Gentiles. That's actually what God told them to think, because they weren't covenant people. When David came against the Philistine, he was saying who is this non-covenant, uncircumcised Philistine? I'm special, I have a covenant with God and between Acts, chapter 2 and Acts, chapter 10, when Peter has the vision of the blanket with the unclean animals coming down and he gets the apostolic mandate that now the gospel is open to both Jews and non-Jews, there's seven to ten years that have passed. So mainly it was Jewish people who were getting saved. Because I find that modern day Christians don't understand that the base, the majority of the first century church in the beginning was all Jewish people. Because almost people make it seem like, well, jews rejected the Messiah. People make it seem like, well, jews rejected the Messiah. But many, many, many did not. 27:26 And then then came the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. That was a big deal and most people don't even know what happened. No Jew ever thought it would happen. But Jesus spoke about it and he prophesied it, and he spoke about it at length in Matthew 24. Of course then came bad theology preachers on TBN. A lot of it honestly has to do with money and manipulating for money and the way they will emotionally try to guilt trip modern day Americans into sending money over to Israel but for us to come in through their ministry where they take 87 cents on the dollar. That's another story for another time. 27:56 But in 70 AD the Romans came in and they ransacked and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and many of the Jews said whoa. You know, I remember that prophet guy a few decades back, the one who started his own cult and he was warning that this would happen. He even said when this happens, flee into the mountains. And he even told us what to look out for. He wasn't just a prophet, he was who he said he was, he was the son of God, I believe. And there was another mass conversion of Jews who believed in Jesus and then some, many also were slaughtered by the Romans then. And then some were dispersed in the diaspora and went off to different nations. 28:40 But I just want to address that many Jewish people received Jesus Galatians 3.7, now Galatians 3.29. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So everybody in here, no matter what country you come from, if you believe in Jesus you are one true Jew. And what about if someone says, well, I'm more of a Jew than you because I'm physically Jewish? That's not how God sees it. Maybe it's a point of pride for you, a badge of honor for you. 29:17 Paul actually addressed that. He said if anybody has the right to boast, I can boast. He called himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews and then listed his immaculate pedigree of the tribe of Benjamin blah, blah, blah he was. I mean, you don't get more Jew-y than the Apostle Paul. And then, after listing his impeccable pedigree, he said I count it all as dung. It's a pile of refuse, it's trash, because that doesn't matter. What matters is a heart that's born again, the circumcision of the heart and faith in Christ. And now you are adopted into the church, the Israel, the people of God, hallelujah. Could you imagine if this is one of the greater deceptions of our time. Could you imagine? 30:07 I live in Roslyn, long Island. Like I've only lived. I spent over 20 years in Forest Hills, queens More temples and synagogues than churches. Then I moved to Williamsburg for 15 years. Now I'm in. Look what God's doing in my life. Now I'm in Roslyn, long Island and all my colleagues all Jewish. 30:34 But one thing I noticed. For example, I go around every single house has the Star of David and the American flag like this together. Why? Where does that Star of David come from? You think David had one of those. That Star of David was created around the ninth century. 30:51 I know some of you are emotional. See some of you. I know Christians they've come in here. They don't last long. They like took a 23 in me and they found out they were one 16th Jewish. Next thing, you know, they come with the shawl. They have the shofar. They got a tambourine because they want to bang it, like Miriam banged it on the other side, and they're so proud, like they're more special. I'm one-sixteenth Jewish, really Well, I'm a hundred percent Jewish. You're only one-sixteenth. I've been grafted in. God sees me as his own, as his holy nation. 31:25 Paul the apostle ends the book of Galatians saying and blessed be the Israel of our God. He's talking to Gentiles and he's saying blessed be the Israel of God. Who is he talking about? Hallelujah, could you imagine Now? Now, where did this whole thing start? Because what I'm preaching may be new for you, but it's actually what the church believed for 1900 years, until this thing called the Scofield bible came about. I have one. The Scofield bible came around in 1906 and it was the first Bible ever with footnotes. It was the King James Bible, but it had footnotes which were Scofield interpretations of verses. Now it would appear that Scofield was funded by an outside agency and Scofield Bible spanned through all denominations. It was the premier Bible at Dallas Theological Seminary which trained tens of thousands of pastors, tens of thousands of Baptist pastors, methodist pastors, pentecostal pastors. They all had the Scofield Bible and they believed in this thing called Zionism. 32:42 And then, of course, israel is formed in 1948. And if I had more time I would get into that. But again, just because it's called Israel doesn't mean it's God's Israel. We have to separate spiritual Israel from ethnic Israel. I'm looking at spiritual Israel right now. 33:06 Actually, I thought there would be more of a war this morning, but I feel like there's like a collective sigh of relief, almost Like if I were to ask how many of you suspected something was up this whole time, how many of you just like you wanted to do the right thing but you always suspected huh, I feel like I'm being messed with. Kind of like month three of COVID suspected. Huh, I feel like I'm being messed with, kind of like month three of COVID. You were like I wonder if I'm being messed with here. It's not all really connecting the dots, but you mentioned this and the reason why I probably can preach this so freely is because I'm in New York. 33:42 If I preach this in Texas, if I preach this in Florida, why? Because they all grew up. Their pastors pastors from the 1940s, 1950s, grew up with the Scofield Bible. They don't even know that the church for 1900 years saw things differently. Some of them don't even. They get frothing at the mouth and so passionate about this new country that is called Israel. 34:09 That is completely, in its purest definition, anti-christ. It's anti-the gospel. It's anti-the Christian message. You don't go and you'll see. They're spitting at Christians. Do you know? It's illegal. It used to be. We'd have groups that went over into Israel to evangelize. That's illegal. Now, you can't evangelize on this. You'll get locked up. 34:31 And, by the way, speaking of getting locked up, why are we told that Israel is our greatest ally this whole time? How many of you heard Israel's our greatest ally, or how? What have you done for me lately? Or how? What have you done for me lately? Listen, I just wonder if you're getting funny ideas. We have security and they're strapped. I'm telling you, I'm not kidding, they're strapped, legal, everything. And he's watching me very close today. What have you? Well, they're the only democracy in the Middle East. 35:04 Really, netanyahu's been prime minister for 17 years. That sound like a democracy to you, pastor? Are you a Palestinian sympathizer? No, I just want God's people to be set free and realize who they are and not to be led astray chanting and hooping and hollering, because when you get down to Zionism, it's this real weird transactional relationship that Christians have with Israel. They will send money and gifts to Israel, not because they care, but they're like. Well, if I bless you, God will bless me, and also I need you just to hang around this land right here and keep the lights on before my Messiah comes back and the Israelis see right through that. I've spoken to them. Have you ever met an Israeli that comes up to a Christian and goes you know the Catholics I don't know about, they were a little cruel to us, but you evangelicals, you've sent hundreds of millions to us and we're really appreciated. You're not going to hear that. They know why you're doing it and they say no, it's a selfish motive, it's transactional in nature. There's no real love there. Is this making sense to anybody here? Man, if you could see the looks that I'm seeing right now, all different kinds of faces and looks. I'm deviating from my notes a little. Maybe it's for the best. 36:21 On that note, also, living for the end times the reason why I grew up before I was even saved my parents atheist parents. I remember seeing this book as a kid and it was something like Israel, syria and Iran in the last days. We were born in a unique time in Christian history where it's all we talk about is the end times and we know it has something to do with the middle east and it's like end times, end times, end times. For 1900 years christians were not obsessed with the end times. Today, somebody gets saved at city light church. The first thing I have to tell them is start with the gospel of mark, don't start with the book of revelation, because the first thing they do is they want to go into the Gospel of Mark. Don't start with the book of Revelation, because the first thing they do is they want to go into the book of Revelation because they picked up on it. 37:07 Christians weren't obsessed with the end times. They understood that Jesus was coming back, but this was obscure, allegorical, prophetic language and they weren't too sure what they thought and they didn't live for the end times. But starting with that Scofield Bible, all the talk was about the end times. In fact, in the 80s I would come before I was saved. I would come across how many of you know what I'm talking about TV preachers and all they would be doing was talking about the end times, end times, end times. It actually turned me off. It was depressing. 37:38 As a kid I remember that emotion. Like they're constantly talking about the end of the world. That's not how Christians were. They were sharing the gospel, loving each other, expanding the kingdom of God and told to live ready, not trying to read the paper and scroll on their phones and trying to relate it to modern-day Israel and wondering when we'll all get wrapped up and maybe even some cheering for a nuclear apocalypse, because then God is coming back and taking us all home for a nuclear apocalypse, because then God is coming back and taking us all home. You really think about some of the stuff we're told to think about and it's just bizarro land. It's no wonder why unbelievers are like you are weird, and sometimes we really really are. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Number four Romans, chapter 9, 6 through 8. But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel. 38:43 Listen to this anti-Semite, paul, formerly known as Saul, who's also a Pharisee and a Hebrew's Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin, concerning the law blameless. I'm making a joke there because he sounds a lot like what I just said. So if you got upset at me, you have to get upset at him too, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. This is exactly what Jesus told those Pharisees. He said you trust in your lineage, you trust in your bloodline. And he said don't do that. 39:19 God is able, from these stones, to raise up children unto Abraham. These stones to raise up children unto Abraham, the cry back. Then you know they would rend their garments to represent a change in heart and the cry was rend your heart, not your garments. And any Christian has rent their heart. If you remember, when you came to the Lord, you didn't do it in a blasé way. If you're saved, and you're really saved, there was a moment at some point when you realized you were a lost and miserable, wretched sinner that couldn't save themselves and your heart was rent and you cried out for a savior and he saw you and he rescued you. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. 40:02 In Isaac your seed shall be called. What's the importance there? Because Isaac means laughter and Isaac is a child of the promise and Isaac is pointing to you, and that's why the Holy Spirit sometimes touches people to laugh, because Isaac speaks of prophetic fulfillment and the fulfillment of the promise. A laughing Christian is a biblical, happy Christian. When a promise is fulfilled, you don't boo-hoo-hoo, you ha-ha-ho-ho-hee-hee. That is, those who are children of the flesh. These are not the children of God. That is, those who are children of the flesh. These are not the children of God who are the children of God Gentiles and Jews who put their faith in the Messiah, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. There's a distinction between ethnic Israel and spiritual Israel. God's covenant people are those born of the promise, those in Christ. 41:07 Chapter 2 of Ephesians this is point 5, verse 12, speaking to Gentiles Hallelujah. Hallelujah that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. That's us. We were without Christ and we didn't have the benefit of the covenant, and we were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. That was a depressing time, having no hope and without God in this world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were afar off have been brought near. How? By the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace. Who has made both one, both what, both Jew and Gentile. He has made one. What's that? One thing called the church. It's by grace, good one by grace. But now you're the church, israel. Thank you at the body of Christ being in. It's also called new creation out of two, because before the resurrection and the cross, God only saw two kinds of people my people Jew and not my people Gentile. But now it's the church, and not the church saved, unsaved in Christ, outside of Christ. Who's in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. Who's outside of Christ? Both Jews and Gentiles. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. 42:46 By the way, there's all different kinds of Jews. There's Israeli Jews. They're different than Seinfeld Jews. No, all my Jews See how uneasy you get. No, all my Jewish friends are Seinfeld Jews. New York Jews. That's a different kind of Jew. 90% of my Jewish friends are Seinfeld Jews. New York Jews. That's a different kind of Jew. 90% of my Jewish friends actually. Do you think I'm just saying that? No, really, I have Jewish friends, lots. 90% of them are atheists. Do you have Jewish friends? Ask them do you believe in Hashem, do you believe in God? Well, you know they're nice stories. Yeah, woody Allen Jews, seinfeld Jews, new York Jews. 43:29 I actually had a point to this and now, because you're laughing so much, I don't know what my point was. But don't let anybody on that note, don't let anybody weaponize the term anti-Semitic. If there was a Jew who was hurting, I would rush to them to help them, to bless them, to love them, and I pray you would too. If there was a Hindu, a Muslim, I would do the same thing. Amen, but do not let anyone weaponize that term. 44:03 There's Christians who aren't even allowed to ask questions because they're afraid. Oh, maybe I'm asking the wrong question and I'm going to get God upset and I'm not blessing Abraham. And now God's going to curse me. What you are the seed of Abraham. You sang that song in Sunday school. 44:26 Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father. Come on, sing it church. I am one of them, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord Rah rah, ephesians 2,. We're continuing, for he himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of See. You were a stranger, you were a foreigner, but now you're members of the very household of God, gentiles. Most of us here have full covenant inclusion through Christ. The dividing wall is gone. The church is now the new commonwealth or the new Israel. Philippians 3.3. 45:25 This is necessary. If for anything, it's necessary for me to preach this into the spirit realm. Some of you may. You just at least don't get pulled aside, don't get led astray. Next week I'll have a real Holy Ghost filled message that'll minister to your felt needs. 45:52 But some things we just have to say, for we are the circumcision. He's talking to Gentiles. We are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, rejoiced in Christ Jesus, and have no, he's saying, we have no confidence in whether we actually have a circumcision. We keep the Sabbath. We're half Jewish, a quarter Jewish, fully Jewish. Whatever amount, it doesn't matter. If you have faith in Christ, you are of Abraham, you are Israel and you are of the circumcision. Ladies, you didn't know you were of the circumcision, did you? Well, you are. It basically means that when you see the benefits of covenant, you can say that's for me. Romans 2.28. 46:43 Boy, it's nice to have the Apostle Paul agree with me. You know he must have been listening to my podcasts and now I say it first and look, he's backing me up. I'm just saying because when it comes up, I'm like wow, people are getting upset with me. But you can't get upset, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. You actually come up to your average evangelical and say that they go, hey, and then not a Jew who is one outwardly. You actually come up to your average evangelical and say that they go, and then you wonder why? What happened to you? You don't even have a passport. You never left Texas. 47:14 Why are you so invested in this? Oh, because that preacher came on at 3 am, told you to be, because he got you all riled up about the end times and got you all scurred that if you don't bless Israel, God not going to bless you. And now you're just rah, rah, rahing what's happening over there? You don't even know what's happening over there. I know what's happening over there. They've been fighting for so long. They don't know what they're doing. They're doing, whew. 47:48 That was cathartic, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not for men but from God. Being God's covenant people is now inward, and spiritual Ethnicity is not what makes someone God's people. Regeneration does Matthew 21, 43,. I got about another five to seven minutes. Can you hack it? Amen. Therefore, I say to you the kingdom of God will be taken from you. 48:30 This is Jesus rebuking the Jewish leaders of the day. Do you know what was so messed up about the Pharisees? Why they were. If you just read, they were very messed up why? Because of something called Talmudic Judaism, the Pharisees had a mixture of the inspired word of God, the Torah, but when they were led into captivity in Babylon, they didn't have their Torah and they didn't have certain sacred elements, and many of them started to write other books and that got crisscrossed and mishmashed up, and so that's why Jesus had to correct so many things that they did, and he called them whitewashed sepulchers, nice and clean on the outside, but inwardly you were full of dead man's bones, he said. And then he rebuked them and he said the kingdom of God will be taken from you, you who take so much pride in being Jewish but you have no faith. I mean talk about not having faith. I am he that all your scriptures have spoken of. I'm in your midst and you can't recognize me. Can you imagine, being that religiously blind, that Messiah is there, healing blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears and all you're doing is getting riled up because he did it on the Sabbath? That's religious blindness. It'll be taken from you. The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. That nation has a name, and the name of that nation is Israel, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the born-again new covenant, believer, it was taken. And who's in that nation? Jews and Gentiles, hallelujah. Do you know? 50:14 If you took a Jewish person from the first century, did I already say this and brought him today? I think I said in a second, but it's worth saying again, because in order to have Judaism, you have to have two things. In order to have Judaism, you have to, you have to have a temple and you have to have the Levitical priesthood. Without that, with the animal sacrifices, without that, there is no Judaism. And God demolished that, putting an end to it. Why? Because he's mean. No, because it's no longer necessary. About 30 to 40 years after Jesus' resurrection, he said I said it is finished, and now all my words concerning how finished it actually is are going to come to pass. And what else was destroyed then was the genealogical record. So nobody knows who is Jewish today. You can say you are, but you can't show me the records. God made sure of that because he didn't want you to boast in your lineage. 51:23 If you took a Jew from the first century and brought him today and just said go check out some of the temples and synagogues around Long Island and New York, he would go oi vey, what kind of a weird, strange pagan religion is this? This has nothing to do with the Judaism of the first century, or 500 BC or 800 BC or anywhere in between Completely different. So what do we got here? I don't know, but we got to let God define Judaism. Israel. A man, a woman, marriage. Jesus warns the Jewish leaders that stewardship of the kingdom would be transferred. That nation is the church, the new spiritual people of God Worship team. 52:05 You can come on up Hebrews, chapter 8, verse 6. But now he has obtained, talking about Jesus, a more excellent ministry, in as much as he's also mediator of a better covenant, the new covenant, which was established on better promises. In that he says a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. There are people living under the new covenant who also mix with the old covenant. Read the book of Galatians. 52:39 If you're wondering whether you should do that or not. The answer is no. There is no mixture. The old covenant is akin to Hagar. What does the spirit say? Put away, cast out the bond, woman and her son. No more mixture. No more old covenant. There is a new one. The old covenant didn't help you anyway, you kept breaking it, try the new one. All right, I have this whole thing on Romans 11 because eventually, if you're into this, you're going to go into what does Romans 11 say? 53:19 And may I suggest to you go to Romans 11, verse 1, that a lot of the stuff we read in the Bible we always put it in the future. I mean that's how arrogant and self-centered we are. We don't read it thinking, wow, this has already been fulfilled. For a people group other than me, we always think, oh, this is still going to happen and preachers don't help. But there are evangelicals who believe that God is going to miraculously save every Jewish person all at once. If that happens, wonderful. But I don't see it in the scriptures, I don't see it in Romans 11, and it also sounds weird that you should rejoice about that. It's like for 2,000 years, 99% of you didn't believe in Christ. You died, you went to hell and then you experienced all these wars and battles in the prophetic times. But don't worry, at the end there'll be a little remnant of you left and all of you will get saved. Zing, that sounds more depressing than hopeful. 54:20 Paul just starts off saying I say that this is too, I can tell you guys are tilt, the lights are on, but no one's home. I say then, has God cast away his people? Paul is saying hey, I've said all this stuff. I've said hey, he's not a Jew. Who's one outwardly, a Jew is one inwardly. Not everybody who says they're of Israel are actually Israel. So he's wondering, maybe they'll think I'm anti-Semitic. Let me correct them. I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not, for I am present, tense. He's not talking about 2000, this whole chapter of Romans. It's not talking about 2000 years later For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, and he basically goes on to paint a picture of this olive tree. 55:12 The olive tree is the new covenant of God's grace. The foundation of that is ethnic Israel. We non-ethnically Israel people, aka Gentiles, have been grafted in, and that's all he's saying. He's saying until the fullness of the time of the Gentiles. He was living in that time. And then he says this is where people get. All of Israel will be saved. So people say, oh well, that hasn't happened yet, it must be in the future. No, all of Israel has been saved. You're a part of that. All of Israel has been and is being saved, the true church of God, the called out ones, the ecclesia, the body of believers. Amen, hallelujah. 55:56 Let me just pray for you. Some of you are like I came on a funky Sunday and for you I pray you'd come back next week, and for you I pray you'd come back next week. If anything, I would just hope that this message has ministered some peace to you. And when it comes to the end times, I say this with love don't worry about it. Don't worry about it, live ready, live ready like he's coming tonight, but don't get obsessed about it and everything I just said. 56:27 I'm not actually that staunch about, other than what's very scripturally, very clear. But when it comes to the end times, I study this stuff in Bible school and Bible college and I came away with my head hurting and I felt guilty. I thought I was the only one Until I started talking to others and teachers and then I realized nobody really has cornered the market on this thing. So people ask me are you pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, are you a millennialist? I'm a pan-millennialist. It'll all pan out in the end At the end. And if you were right and you give me a big, I told you so in heaven I'll be like, yeah, you were right, praise God, that's awesome, I don't even feel bad about it. Great, we got important things to do here. 57:16 I pray that the Lord Jesus bless you. I pray he bless your home, you, his covenant people bless your home, you, his covenant people, his precious possession, the apple of his eye. To you he said I will make you the head and not the tail. I will cause you to lend and not borrow. Your enemies will come against you one way, but they'll flee from you seven different ways. That's God's promise to you, and may that blessing increase all the more on your lives. And may you have the boldness of David for the enemies that come up against you to say who is this uncircumcised, non-covenant Philistine coming at me? You have the victory because you're a covenant child, a covenant son and a covenant daughter of God. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Let's give the Lord a hallelujah. We're also going to worship the Lord with our tithes and offerings. 58:25 The giving information is on either screen, to my left and to my right. Give with a glad heart, give with joy, give in faith. Have we talked about I was on vacation? Have we talked about how text to give is no longer a thing. Okay, if you're used to texting to giving, you only now have like three other ways of giving. So that had to go for some reason that I currently forget, but it had to go. What was it? They were doing something funny. Anyway, no funny business here. It was four ways to give. Now it's three ways to give. It's amazing how awesome the Lord is. 59:02 Whenever I receive the tithes and offerings, I think, wow, we're going to be bankrupt by next week. Everyone's just looking at me, not moving, oh my Lord. And yet, you know, the tithes and offerings still come in. When do you all give? Everybody's just looking. You would think there's like two people keeping the church up. But Hallelujah, I will say, listen, there was, because giving is holy and the offering time is holy. 59:31 Before, everything was no contact. There was a holy time. You know the buckets would come by, you'd get the little envelope. You pray over it. It would be this intimate moment between you and the Lord where you were giving unto him. Don't be robbed of that, even if you give on your way to the church, or there are people you know giving now and it's just like three phone taps. But have that moment with God. 59:53 Why is that so important? Because you want to at least get to a place where you're releasing your faith. Be conscious that you're worshiping God with your gift and release faith. What are you releasing? Faith for A harvest? Your gift, and release faith. What are you releasing faith for A harvest? Amen. You're releasing faith that God is going to multiply it back to you. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Well, ministry team, won't you go to my left, your right? If you want prayer for anything, anything at all, we have a wonderful, anointed and blessed ministry team that will lay hands on you, marinate and soak you in prayer, get the glory and anointing of God on you and if you need to go, you can go. Let's all stand. We invite you to stay for this next song though he's worthy of one more song and go in peace and go rejoicing. Be blessed. City Light Church. 01:00:55 - Speaker 2 This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.