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Are Jews_ Hebrews_ and Israelites the Same_ _ What the Bible Really Says · truthunedited

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Picture this, three ancient names carved into the dust of history, Hebrews, Israelites, Jews.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: For thousands of years, these words have echoed through temples, scrolls,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and sacred prayers. Most people believe they mean the same thing.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Most Christians use them interchangeably. But what if everything we've
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: been taught is wrong? What if the Bible itself draws clear,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: undeniable lines between these three identities, lines that were never
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: meant to be blurred. Hidden within the Hebrew text, buried
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: beneath centuries of mistranslation and cultural confusion, lies a mystery
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that changes everything we thought we knew about God's chosen people.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Who were the Hebrews really? When did Israel begin? And
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: how did the Jews emerge from the ashes of a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: broken kingdom? Before we step into this ancient mystery, make
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  Speaker 1: sure to subscribe and activate notifications, because what you're about
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to discover will challenge doctrines, reshape theology, and reveal a
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  Speaker 1: truth that most believers have never heard from the pulpit.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: The answer is not what you expect, and it starts
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: with a single man who dared to cross the desert.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Wind carries whispers of forgotten names in the shadows of
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: ancient Mesopotamia. Beneath the weight of Babel's pride and the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: silence of Eden's exile, a lineage begins to form, not
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  Speaker 1: of kings or conquerors, but of wanderers, men who move
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  Speaker 1: not by sight but by faith, Men who crossed rivers, borders,
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  Speaker 1: and the boundaries of pagan nations to follow a voice
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  Speaker 1: that promised something impossible, a land, a blessing, a people eternal.
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  Speaker 1: This is where the story begins, not in a temple,
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  Speaker 1: not in a palace, but in the dust of er,
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  Speaker 1: in the tents of nomads, in the covenant made under
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: stars too numerous to count. The Bible does not use
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: these three names carelessly. Scripture is precise, intentional. Every word
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  Speaker 1: in Hebrew carries weight, history, and divine purpose. To call
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: someone a Hebrew is not the same as calling them
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: an Israelite, and to be an Israelite is not the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: same as being a Jew. These are not synonyms. They
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  Speaker 1: are chapters. They are stages in a divine narrative that
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  Speaker 1: stretches from Genesis to revelation, from the call of one
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  Speaker 1: man to the redemption of all nations. And yet, somewhere
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  Speaker 1: along the centuries, the Church forgot theology, blurred the lines,
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  Speaker 1: tradition mixed the terms, and now most believers stand confused
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: before the very identity God himself established. But tonight we
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  Speaker 1: peel back the layers, we return to the text, we
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  Speaker 1: uncover the truth. Let's begin with the first name, Hebrew.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: It's a word so old, so primal, that it predates
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  Speaker 1: Israel itself, long before there was a nation, before there
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  Speaker 1: were twelve tribes, before the law was given on Sinai,
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  Speaker 1: there was a people called Hebrews. But who were they
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and why did God choose this specific term. The answer
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  Speaker 1: takes us back to Genesis ten, to a man named Eber.
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  Speaker 1: His name in Hebrew is eber Ever, and it means
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to cross over or one who passes through. Eber was
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  Speaker 1: a descendant of shem Noah's son, and from his line
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  Speaker 1: came a peculiar people, those who would not settle, who
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: would not bow to the empires of their day, who
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: would cross boundaries both physical and spiritual, to follow a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: god most of the world had forgotten. This is the
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  Speaker 1: origin of the Hebrew identity. It is not about blood alone.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It is about movement, It is about crossing, and it
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  Speaker 1: is about separation. From the pagan systems of Babylon, Egypt,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and Canaan. The term Hebrew appears for the first time
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: in Genesis fourteen thirteen, where Abram is called Abram the Hebrew,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: not Abram the Israelite, not Abram the Jew, but Abram
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the Hebrew. Why because Abraham had crossed, He had left er,
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  Speaker 1: He had rejected the idolatry of his father Terra. He
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: had walked away from security, family, and culture to pursue
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  Speaker 1: a promise that existed only in the voice of God.
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  Speaker 1: This is what it meant to be Hebrew. It was
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a spiritual identity before it was ever a national one.
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  Speaker 1: It was a call to leave the familiar and step
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: into the unknown. It was a declaration that you belonged
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  Speaker 1: not to the system of this world, but to the
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  Speaker 1: covenant of the Almighty. The Hebrews were migrants of faith.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: They were boundary crosses. They were those who heard God's
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: voice and obeyed even when it made no sense. And
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: this identity would continue through Isaac, through Jacob, and through
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the patriarchs who lived as strangers in a land that
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: was not yet theirs. But here's where it gets profound.
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  Speaker 1: Being a Hebrew was never about ethnicity in the modern sense.
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  Speaker 1: It was about allegiance. It was about covenant. It was
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  Speaker 1: about choosing to walk with God, even when the whole
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  Speaker 1: world walked another way. The Egyptians saw the Hebrews as outsiders,
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  Speaker 1: as shepherds, as wanderers who didn't belong to the empire,
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  Speaker 1: and they were right. The Hebrews didn't belong to Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: They belonged to God. This is why Joseph in Genesis
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: thirty nine is called the Hebrew. This is why Moses
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: is identified as a Hebrew in Exodus III. This is
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  Speaker 1: why the midwives who defied Pharaoh's genocide are called Hebrew
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: midwives in Exodus IE. The term was not just a label,
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  Speaker 1: It was a theology. It was a declaration of identity
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  Speaker 1: rooted not in geography but in obedience. And this is
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  Speaker 1: where most modern teaching gets it wrong. We treat Hebrew
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  Speaker 1: as a synonym for Jew or Israelite, but the Bible
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  Speaker 1: never does. To be Hebrew was to be part of
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  Speaker 1: the lineage of iber Yes. But more importantly, it was
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  Speaker 1: to be part of the spiritual crossing, the movement from
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  Speaker 1: idolatry to covenant, from slavery, to promise, from death to life,
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  Speaker 1: and this crossing culminates in one man, Abraham. Now we
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  Speaker 1: arrive at the second identity, Israelite, and here everything changes,
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  Speaker 1: because while the Hebrews were a people of faith and movement,
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites became a nation, a kingdom, a covenant people
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  Speaker 1: with laws, land and a divine mission. The transition happens
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: in Genesis thirty two. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, is
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  Speaker 1: returning home after twenty years in exile. He has wives, children, flocks,
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  Speaker 1: and servants, but he also has fear because he's about
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  Speaker 1: to face Esau, the brother he deceived, the brother who
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  Speaker 1: once swore to kill him. And on the night before
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  Speaker 1: that reunion, something extraordinary happens. Jacob is alone by the
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  Speaker 1: Jabbok river, and there in the darkness, a man appears
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  Speaker 1: and wrestles with him until dawn. The text is cryptic,
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  Speaker 1: almost mythical. Some say it was an angel, others say
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  Speaker 1: it was the pre incarnate Christ. But whoever it was,
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  Speaker 1: this being could not overpower Jacob, and when the dawn
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  Speaker 1: began to break, the mysterious figure struck Jacob's hip, dislocating it. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: even in pain, Jacob refused to let go. I will
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  Speaker 1: not let you go unless you bless me, he declared,
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  Speaker 1: And then the stranger asked, what is your name? Jacob
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  Speaker 1: answered Jacob, which means deceiver or supplanter. And the stranger replied,
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  Speaker 1: your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for
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  Speaker 1: you have struggled with God and with men, and you
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  Speaker 1: have prevailed. Israel bai shaal Israel. The name means he
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  Speaker 1: who strives with God or God prevails. It was not
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  Speaker 1: just a new name, it was a new identity. It
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  Speaker 1: was a covenant marker. From that moment forward, Jacob was Israel,
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  Speaker 1: and his descendants would no longer be known simply as Hebrews.
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  Speaker 1: They would be known as the children of Israel beney Israel,
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites. This is a seismic shift in biblical history,
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  Speaker 1: because now God is no longer dealing with a wandering family.
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  Speaker 1: He is building a nation, a people with structure, with tribes,
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  Speaker 1: with inheritance, with destiny, the twelve Sons of Jacob. Because
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  Speaker 1: the twelve tribes of Israel Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naftali,
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  Speaker 1: gad Asher, Isakar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin, each tribe had
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  Speaker 1: a role each tribe had a territory, each tribe had
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  Speaker 1: a calling, and together they formed the nation of Israel,
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  Speaker 1: the people chosen by God to carry his name, his law,
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  Speaker 1: and his presence into the world. The Israelites were not
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: just believers. They were not just followers of God. They
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  Speaker 1: were a covenant nation bound by the Law of Moses,
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  Speaker 1: marked by circumcision, set apart by dietary laws, festivals and sacrifices.
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  Speaker 1: They had a priesthood, they had a tabernacle, they had
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  Speaker 1: a land promised to them by divine oath, and most importantly,
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  Speaker 1: they had a mission to be a light to the nations,
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  Speaker 1: to reveal the character of the One True God, and
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  Speaker 1: to prepare the way for the Messiah. This identity as
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  Speaker 1: Israelites was corporate, it was national, it was theological, and
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  Speaker 1: it was exclusive. Not every one could be an Israelite.
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  Speaker 1: You had to be borne into the tribes of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: You had to be part of the covenant community. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: there were provisions for foreigners to join through circumcision, through
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  Speaker 1: commitment through covenant, but the core identity of Israel was
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  Speaker 1: rooted in dissent from Jacob and this identity endured for centuries.
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  Speaker 1: From Egypt to Sinai, from the wilderness to Canaan, from
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  Speaker 1: the judges to the kings. Israel was a unified people
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  Speaker 1: under God. They conquered the Promised Land under Joshua. They
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  Speaker 1: established a monarchy under Saul, David and Solomon, and for
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: a brief golden moment, the Kingdom of Israel was whole.
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  Speaker 1: But then everything fractured, and from that fracture a third
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  Speaker 1: identity emerged, the Jews. The year is nine thirty b C.
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  Speaker 1: King Solomon is dead, his reign marked by wisdom, wealth,
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  Speaker 1: and the construction of the First Temple has ended. And
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  Speaker 1: now his son, Rehoboam ascends to the throne. But Rehoboam
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  Speaker 1: makes a catastrophic mistake. The people of Israel come to
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  Speaker 1: him with a simple request. Lighten the heavy burdens your
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  Speaker 1: father placed on us. Solomon's projects, the temple, the palaces,
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  Speaker 1: the fortifications had required immense labor and taxation. The people
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  Speaker 1: are exhausted. They want relief. Ri Hooboam consults the elders
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  Speaker 1: and they advise him wisely, serve the people, be kind
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  Speaker 1: to them, win their loyalty. But Rahobum rejects their counsel. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: he listens to his young advisers, who tell him to
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  Speaker 1: assert dominance, to show strength, to make the people submit,
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  Speaker 1: and so Rehoboam responds with arrogance. My father made your
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  Speaker 1: yoke heavy, but I will make it even heavier. My
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  Speaker 1: father scourged you with whips, but I will scourge you
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  Speaker 1: with scorpions. The reaction is immediate. Ten of the twelve
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  Speaker 1: tribes rebel. They reject Rio Boam, they reject the house
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  Speaker 1: of David, and they crown Jeroboam and Ephrimite as their king.
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  Speaker 1: The kingdom splits. The Northern Kingdom, composed of ten tribes,
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  Speaker 1: keeps the name Israel. The Southern Kingdom, composed of Judah
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  Speaker 1: and Benjamin, becomes known as Judah. And here, for the
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  Speaker 1: first time, the term Jew begins to emerge. The word
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  Speaker 1: Jew comes from the Hebrew yevdi Yehudi, which means of
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  Speaker 1: Judah or from the tribe of Judah. It was a
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  Speaker 1: geographic and tribal designation if you were from the Southern Kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: if you were of the tribe of Judah, you were
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  Speaker 1: a Jew. But here's the critical point. Not all Israelites
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: were Jews. The ten northern tribes Reuben Simeon, Dan Naftali,
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  Speaker 1: gad Asha, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, and Manassa were still Israelites,
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  Speaker 1: but they were not Jews. They were part of the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Kingdom of Israel, which eventually fell into idolatry, syncretism,
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  Speaker 1: and apostasy. In seven hun twenty two b C. The
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  Speaker 1: Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom. The Ten tribes were
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  Speaker 1: carried into exile, scattered across the Assyrian territories, and largely
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  Speaker 1: disappeared from history. This is the origin of the Lost
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Tribes of Israel, a mystery that has fascinated theologians, historians,
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  Speaker 1: and archaeologists for millennia. But the Southern Kingdom Judah survived,
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  Speaker 1: and though they too struggled with idolatry, they maintained the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Davidic line, the temple worship, and the hope of the Messiah.
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  Speaker 1: Yet even Judah eventually fell. In five eighty six b C.
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  Speaker 1: The Babylonian Empire under King nebucad Neza besieged Jerusalem, destroyed
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  Speaker 1: the temple, and carried the people of Judah into exile.
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  Speaker 1: For seventy years, the Jews lived in Babylon. They were
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  Speaker 1: no longer in the promised land. They were no longer
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: a sovereign nation, but they held on to their identity.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: They held on to the Torah. They held on to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the hope that one day God would restore them, and
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  Speaker 1: he did. In five thirty eight b C. King Cyrus
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  Speaker 1: of Persia issued a decree allowing the Jews to return
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  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Not all returned, many
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  Speaker 1: stayed in Babylon. But those who did return carried with
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: them a purified identity. They were Jews, descendants of Judah,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: keepers of the Covenant, preservers of the Messianic promise. And
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: from this point forward, the term Jew became the dominant
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: identifier for the Covenant people. By the time of Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Kingdom was long gone. The name Israel was
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: used theologically and prophetically, but practically the people were called Jews.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Jesus was called the King of the Jews. The apostles
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: were Jews. The early Church was Jewish. But here's the mystery.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Being a Jew was not the same as being an Israelite,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and being an Israelite was not the same as being
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a Hebrew. These were stages, These were identities forged in
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: different moments of redemptive history, and now in the New Testament,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a final transformation was about to occur. Enter the first century,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the world is under Roman occupation. The Jewish people are
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: waiting for the Messiah, the promised King, who would restore
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Israel, defeat their enemies, and establish God's
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: reign on earth. But when the Messiah comes, he doesn't
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: look like they expected. He's born in a manger, not
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: a palace carpenter from Nazareth, not a warrior from Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 1: He teaches about the Kingdom of God, but he doesn't
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  Speaker 1: raise an army. He heals the sick, casts out demons,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and speaks with authority, but he also eats with sinners,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: challenges the religious elite, and redefines everything they thought they
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: knew about God's Covenant. And then Jesus says something that
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: changes everything. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: No one comes to the Father except through me, not
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: through the Law, not through the temple, not through circumcision
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: or sacrifice or tribal descent. Through him. This was revolutionary.
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  Speaker 1: This was scandalous because Jesus was claiming that he himself
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: was the fulfillment of the covenant, that he was the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: true Israel, that in him all the promises made to Abraham,
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  Speaker 1: Isaac and Jacob were finding their completion, and after his death,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: resurrection and ascension, the apostles began to understand the full
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: weight of this revelation. The apostle Paul, a Pharisee trained
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: under Gamaliel, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, a
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Hebrew of Hebrews, as he called himself, wrote extensively about
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: this mystery. In his Letter to the Romans, he explained
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: that being a physical descendant of Abraham was no longer enough,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: for not all who are descended from Israel belonged to Israel,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: he wrote in Romans nine to six. In other words,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: ethnic Israel was not the same as spiritual Israel. God's
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: true people were not defined by bloodline, but by faith.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: In Romans two twenty eight twenty nine, Paul says, for
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: by the spirit, not by the letter. This was radical.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Paul was saying that the true Jew, the true child
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  Speaker 1: of Abraham was not someone born into the tribe of Judah,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: but someone who had been transformed by faith in Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And then in Galatians three twenty eight twenty nine, Paul
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: delivers the ultimate declaration. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
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  Speaker 1: There is neither slave nor free. There is no male
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  Speaker 1: and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: heirs according to promise. Do you see it? The identity
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: that once required tribal dissent, circumcision and Torah observance is
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: now open to all who believe in Jesus. Gentiles, non
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Jews are being grafted into the Covenant. They are becoming
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: part of the true Israel, not by ethnicity, but by
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: by faith. This was unthinkable to the religious establishment. The
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Pharisees had built walls around the law. They had created
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: a system that elevated Jewish ethnicity above all else. They
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: believed that to be part of God's people you had
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: to be born Jewish, keep the law perfectly, and maintain
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: ritual purity. But Jesus demolished those walls. He ate with
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: tax collectors and prostitutes, he touched Lepers, he spoke to Samaritans,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: he welcomed Roman centurions, and he declared that the Kingdom
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of God was open to anyone who would believe in him.
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  Speaker 1: This is why the religious leaders hated him. This is
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: why they accused him of blasphemy. This is why they
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: handed him over to Pilate to be crucified. Because Jesus
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: was dismantling their entire religious system and replacing it with
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: something far more profound grace, faith relationship, not work, not ancestry,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: not ritual, but trust in the finished work of the Messiah.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: And when Jesus died on the cross, something supernatural happened.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: The veil of the Temple was torn in two from
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: top to bottom. The barrier between God and humanity was removed.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Access to the Holy of Holies, once restricted to the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: high priest once a year, was now open to all
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: who would come through Christ. This was the new Covenant,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the covenant prophesied by Jeremiah. Behold, the days are coming,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: with the House of Israel and the House of Judah,
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  Speaker 1: not like the covenant that I made with their fathers.
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  Speaker 1: For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: their sin no more. And this New Covenant was not
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: written on tablets of stone. It was written on human hearts.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: It was not mediated by priests and sacrifices. It was
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: mediating by Jesus himself, the great High Priest, who offered
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: his own blood as the final, perfect sacrifice. And this
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: new Covenant was not limited to ethnic Jews. It was
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: extended to all nations, to every tribe, tongue, and people,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: to the ends of the earth. This is where the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: mystery deepens even further, because in Ephesians too, Paul describes
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: how Christ has broken down the dividing wall between Jews
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and Gentiles. He writes, for he himself is our peace,
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  Speaker 1: who has made us both one, and has broken down
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: create in himself one new man in place of the two,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: in one body through the Cross, thereby killing the hostility.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: One new man, not Jew, not Jew Gentile, but a
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: new creation in Christ. This is the Church, This is
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the body of Christ. This is the true Israel of God,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and Paul makes it even clearer in Romans eleven, where
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: he uses the metaphor of an olive tree. The olive
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: tree represents Israel, the covenant people of God. Some of
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the natural branches unbelieving Jews have been broken off because
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: of unbelief, and wild branches believing Gentiles have been grafted in,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: but the root remains the same. The root is the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: covenant made with Abraham. The root is the promise of redemption.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: The root is Jesus Christ. And all who are in Christ,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: whether Jew or Gentile, are part of that tree. They
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: are part of the true Israel. Paul warns the gentile
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: believers not to be arrogant. He tells them in Romans
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: eleven eighteen, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: you are, remember it is not you who support the route,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: but the route that supports you. In other words, gentile
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Christians should not look down on ethnic Jews or claim
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: that the Church has replaced Israel. Rather, they should recognize
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: that they have been graciously included in the covenant that
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: God made with Israel through Abraham. This doesn't mean God
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: has abandoned ethnic Israel. Paul is emphatic in Romans eleven
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: one to two. Has God rejected his people by no means?
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: rejected his people, whom he foreknew. There is still a
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: future for ethnic Israel in God's plan. There are still
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: promises to be fulfilled. Paul speaks of a partial hardening
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: that has come upon Israel until the fullness of the
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Gentiles has come in, and then he says all Israel
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: will be saved. But the identity of God's people is
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: no longer limited to one nation, one tribe, one ethnicity.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: In Christ, the promise made to Abraham that through his
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: seed all nations would be blessed is finally fully realized.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: The Hebrews were those who crossed over in faith. The
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Israelites were those who formed a covenant nation. The Jews
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: were the remnant who preserved the Messianic line. But the Church,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: the Body of Christ, is the culmer nation. It is
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: the fulfillment. It is the true people of God, made
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: up of every tribe, tongue, and nation. And this is
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: not replacement theology. This is fulfillment theology. God has not
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: replaced Israel, he has expanded it. He has opened the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Covenant to all who believe. And those who are in Christ,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: whether ethnically, Jewish or Gentile, are now the true children
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of Abraham. Peter Echoes this in Firs. Peter two nine
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to ten, writing to gentile believers. But you are a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: of Him who called you out of darkness into his
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: but now you have received mercy. Do you hear the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: language chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation. These are the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: exact terms used in Exodus nineteen to six to describe Israel.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: But now they are applied to the Church, to all believers,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to Jews and Gentiles united in Christ. This is the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: mystery hidden for ages, and now revealed, that gentiles are
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: same promise in Christ Jesus. And this mystery was so
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: profound that even the angels longed to look into it,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: even the prophets searched and inquired about it. Even the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: patriarch saw it from Afar and greeted it with faith. Now,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: let's bring this full circle, because understanding these distinctions is
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: not just an academic exercise. It's not just about definitions
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: or historical categories. It's about understanding the very nature of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: God's redemptive plan. When we conflate Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: we missed the progression of the story. We missed the
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: spiritual depth of what God was doing at each stage.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: The Hebrews were the pioneers of faith, the ones who
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: crossed over from the world system into covenant relationship with God.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: They were defined by their willingness to leave, to obey,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: to trust. They were sojourners and strangers in the land,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: living by faith and not by sight. The Israelites or
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the covenant nation, the people through whom God revealed his law,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: his holiness, and his presence. They were a kingdom of priests,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: a holy nation set apart to display the glory of
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: God to the world. Through them came the prophets, the psalms,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the wisdom, literature and the promise of the Messiah. The
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Jews were the remnant, the faithful few who preserved the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Davidic line, the temple worship, and the hope of the Messiah.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: They endured exile, persecution, and dispersion, yet held on to
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the promise. They carried the Torah through Babylon, through Roman occupation,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: through centuries of waiting, and the Church. The Body of
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Christ is the fulfillment. It is the in gathering of
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: all nations, the realization of the Abrahamic promise, the union
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: of jew and Gentile in one body through the blood
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: of Jesus. It is the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This means that every
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: believer to day, regardless of ethnicity, is part of this story.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: are a spiritual descendant of Abraham. You are grafted into
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the olive tree. You are part of the true Israel.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: You are an heir according to the promise. You are
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a child of God, not by blood or birth, but
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: by faith. But this also means we must handle these
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: terms with care. We cannot be careless with scripture. We
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: cannot treat these identities as interchangeable. Each one has a
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: specific meaning, a specific context, a specific role in the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: unfolding drama of redemption. And when we understand this, we
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: understand the Bible more clearly. We understand the Old Testament
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: not as a closed book about a distant people, but
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: as the foundation of our own faith. We understand the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: New Testament not as a rejection of Israel, but as
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the expansion of God's covenant to include all who believe.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: We understand that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: is the same God who calls us today, and we
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: understand that his plan has always been to redeem a
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: people for himself, not based on ethnicity, not based on nationality,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: but based on faith in his son Jesus Christ. This
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: is why Paul could say with such confidence in Galatians
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: six fifteen sixteen, for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: but a new creation. And as for all who walk
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: upon the Israel of God, the Israel of God, not
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: ethnic Israel alone, not gentiles alone, but all who walk
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: by the rule of the New Creation in Christ, all
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: who have been born again, all who have crossed over
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: from death to life, all who belong to Him by faith.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: This is the mystery, This is the revelation. This is
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: what the Bible really says, and it's a truth that
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: transforms everything. How we read scripture, how we understand salvation,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: how we view the people of God, and how we
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: live as citizens of the kingdom that has no end.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: And so we arrive at the moment where everything converges.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Three names, three identities, three stages. In the greatest story
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: ever told, the Hebrews crossed over. The Israelites became a nation.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: The Jews preserved the promise. But in Jesus Christ, the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: crossing is complete, the nation is fulfilled, the promise is
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: realized because Jesus is the ultimate Hebrew, the one who
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: crossed from heaven to earth, from divinity to humanity, from
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the throne of God to the cross of Calvary. He
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: is the true Israel, the one who perfectly obeyed the law,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: who bore the Covenant on his shoulders, who became the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: light to the nations. And he is the Hope of
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: the Jews, the Messiah. They longed for, the king, they awaited,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the savior who would redeem not only Israel, but the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: entire world, and hears the staggering truth. Every one who
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: believes in him becomes part of this identity. In Christ,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: there is no Jew or Gentile, no slave or free,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: no Hebrew, Israelite or Jew in the old sense. There
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: is only one people, the people of God, redeemed by
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the blood of the Lamb, united in faith and destined
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: for eternity. This is where the line ends and the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: circle closes. This is where history meets prophecy. This is
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: where the ancient names give way to a new name, Christian,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: follower of Christ, child of God, heir of the Promise.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: And this is what the Bible has been said saying
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: all along, not that these identities don't matter. They do.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: They reveal the faithfulness of God, the unfolding of his plan,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the precision of his word. But they all point to
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: one ultimate reality. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment, and in
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: him we are made one. And now, as we stand
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: at the end of this ancient mystery, one truth remains unshakable.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: God's plan has always been bigger than one nation, one tribe,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: one ethnicity. From the beginning, he was preparing a people
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: for himself, a people defined not by blood but by faith,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: not by descent but by devotion, Not by the flesh
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: but by the spirit. The Hebrews were called to cross over,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and so are we. We are called to leave behind
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the systems of this world, the idols of our culture,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: the comfortable lies we've been told, and step into the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: covenant of faith. Just as Abraham left er, we must
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: leave our own spiritual Babylon. The Israelites were called to
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: be a holy nation, and so are we. We are
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: called to live set apart, to reflect the character of God,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: to carry his presence into a broken world. Just as
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Israel was meant to be a light to the nations,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: so the Church is called to shine in the darkness.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: The Jews were called to preserve the promise, and so
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: are we. We are called to hold fast to the
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: word of God, to guard the truth of the Gospel,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: to proclaim the hope of Jesus Christ, even in the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: face of persecution, exile, and suffering. And in Christ we
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: are called to be one, one body, one family, one people,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: under one Lord. The dividing walls are gone, the ethnic
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: barriers are shattered. The old categories have given way to
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: a new creation. And if this story teaches us anything,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: it is that God is faithful. He keeps his promises,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: he completes what he starts, and He is still calling
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: people to day, people from every nation, every language, every background,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: to cross over to believe to be grafted into the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: eternal covenant made in the blood of His son. So
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the next time you read the Bible and encounter these
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: names Hebrew, Israelite, Jew, don't rush past them. Don't treat
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: them as synonyms. See them for what they are, markers
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: in a divine narrative that leads ultimately to you, to
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: your salvation, to your calling, to your inheritance. Because in
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: the end, the mystery was never just about three names.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: It was about one name, the name above all names, Jesus.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: And in him all things are made new. In him,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: all the promises of God find their yes and their amen.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: And in Him, we, whether Jew or Gentile, Hebrew or Grit,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: slave or free, become the true people of God. This
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: is what the Bible really says, and this is the
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: truth that changes everything.