Introduction by Pastor Hirota:
Most of you should know much about Rev.Eiko Stevens, for I've been talking about her and her blessed work in Israel. And today, finally, we can meet her face to face.

When I first met Eiko in Israel, I had a serious cold and couldn't talk with my own voice. And, again yesterday, when I welcomed her exactly the same thing happened: she couldn't recognize my voice. I hope, and I am sure that we will, receive lots of blessings through her message today...

Rev.Eiko Stevens:
Well, I am blessed to be here this morning. Please don't mistake that Pastor Hirota's cold has anything to do with me (every time I see him he has a cold).

I'm not sure if I will be able to finish my talk before noon, because of all I wish to share with you, but I will try. Please turn with me to Matthew 23: 37-39. We are going to look at several verses from here:

Matthew 23:37-39. Here, in this passage, there is a prophecy that there will be a ruin in this land.

Verse 13. After saying the words of this verse, Jesus condemned the Pharisees. When Jesus was living among them, in spite of leaders of the Law, the Pharisees rejected Christ. If they had only changed their hearts to ones of acceptance, all of Israel would have accepted Jesus as their Messiah.

Verse 39. Here, we read that when the Pharisees finally accept Jesus the end of the present world will be near!

Le.26:33

Commentary

In 1917, England took possession of Palestine in the Middle East. And after winning the war in that district, they proceeded to survey life there in detail; the population, type of land, etc. The interesting thing was that they could find only handfuls of people there. The lands known as Jordan, and Israel were barren and desolate. So, you can see that by the end of the 19th Century, the words of the Bible had been fulfilled: the location was a ruin.

Around 1880, England had proclaimed that it would make that land once more the land of Israel, and truly, some Jewish people had started returning to that place. However, England did not keep their word at that time. They didn't give the land back to the Jewish people. If they had been faithful to the Jewish people, over 6 million people would not have been inhumanly slaughtered by Germany.

Isaiah 11:11,12. God forced Israel to wander all over the world for as many as 1900 years. He took them back a few times during that history. And, at the present time, Israel is again returning to that place, for Jesus' return is near (long ago, God used Babylon as well).

Luke 21:24. This is the famous place that most of us know as the definite scene of the last day. God made the Israelites wander all over the world for 1900 years until His time.

In 1967, there was a war in the Middle East that we call the third of the Middle War. Israel was being attacked by as many as five nations around it. Israel is such a small country and the rate was something like 60 to 1. Of course, this small 1 is Israel. There was no hope that Israel would win. [Bob Dylan's song "Jokerman" comes to mind here] Everyone thought Israel would be beaten up. But that was not the case. Israel won the Golan Plain, Sinai, and other regions of land. It was such an amazing thing to discover! This is a true story- when the Egyptians were trying to attack the Israeli Army, a fog suddenly came down, fog is a rare thing in the Sinai region. But the truly surprising thing was that when the fog receded, the Egyptian Army claimed to have seen thousands of soldiers standing ready to attack them with long, sharp swords!! These were angels as revealed in the Bible of course. The Egyptians didn't dare to attack or even move at all. This is how Israel was able to win Sinai. Not so much as by their own power but by the power of the Lord of Hosts! (This is really true! And there are lots of similar stories besides this one.)

Now after all of this anguish had come to pass, the time finally came for Israel to return. In history, Israelites have just hated Christians, and their faith, Christianity. They strongly think of Christians as their enemy. (Germans, in the Second World War were thought to be Christians, and most of the people [according to Eiko's account of Jewish thinking] who killed or tried to get rid of Israel were Christians!) Yet through God's miraculous ways, they are beginning to see that Christ is the Saviour. In dreams, Jews see Christ as their Saviour, and when they finally open the New Testament, the first thing that confronts them is the geneology of Christ descending from Abraham! They have long believed that this Christian god didn't have anything to do with them at all. But the first page of Matthew tells them that Christ was indeed among them! Now there are quite a few Israelis who call themselves Messianic Jews. (They still do not like to be called Christians because of the bitter history of their people.)

Romans 11:12-16. The time of fulfillment is when the Gospel has reached out to every nation. This is the time when Israel will finish being stubborn and their own salvation will be fulfilled.

Now let's turn to Zechariah.
Zech. 12:2,3. Here we see that more time is needed to be fulfilled. We mistakenly think that the Gulf War was between Iraq and America. But the truth is that the United Nations sent the soldiers. To Kosovo, Nato was sent by the United Nations. -- So this organization is not what is needed for the fulfillment of prophecy.

Zech. 13:8,9. If the leaders of the Law earnestly shout for the coming of Christ, the people will follow them and their collective voice will reach to Heaven. See Isaiah 10:21,22 [about a remnant returning to Israel, relying not on themselves but on God].

Zech. 14:2-5. This is the exact scene of the very last day when Jesus actually comes back. With repentance and tears Israel, and in particular the leaders of the Law, will call and Jesus will return.

Over their history terrible persecution has occurred to the nation of Israel. Here is one of those stories: lots and lots of people had been buried alive. Under the ground, people were struggling to get out so much that the earth could be felt moving under people's feet! One lady was buried among many dead bodies. She was finally rescued by a man who says that when he was trying to rescue her he had to move several dead bodies first. Finally, he was able to save her. This woman later married a Jewish man and had a child. However, her nightmare was not over. She dreamed of her horrible experiences night after night until the time came that she was put into a mental hospital. After staying there for a long time, she is finally beginning to resume a normal life -- but her anguish continues. Her son is now struggling with mental illness. As it happens, there are so many cases in Israel of mental illness that the hospitals for such care are free! There are so many suffering and many of them are children who have suffered persecution.

In the Bible, there is a verse which reads "pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may those who love you prosper." Ps.122:6 [Indeed, let us pray.]

All Sermons were translated by Junko Okamoto - Edited for the Net by Shido
For the last official sermon to this index -- see: Oita Evangelical Christ Church
For all sermon indicies see: cHaPeL nOaH sErMoN iNdEx