Citizens of Heaven
Unbelief in Messiah
Law Fulfilled
Ambassadors From Heaven
Building Walls
The Temple Metaphor
One Spirit In Zion
Images of Zion
Citizens of Heaven
The Kingdom of God is the place where heaven and earth meet; and that place is in YOU.
The souls of believers are a spiritual Zion whose spirits live in heaven, even though their bodies are alive on earth.
For the Lord has chosen Zion,
He has desired it for His
dwelling place
~Psalm 132:13
Zion means “fortification” and has the idea of being “raised up” as a “monument.” That physical monument is in Jerusalem. It is described as the city of David.
Believers in Yeshua, however, are Zion. They are spiritual beings fortified with the Word of Messiah in their hearts and minds.
Zion is also described as the city of God. Obedient believers are cities of God, and each one of us born-again believers are a member of the body of Christ with a job to do on earth.
Philippians 3:20-21:
“But our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body,
by the power that enables him even to subdue all things to himself.”
Although our bodies are on earth, our spirits are citizens of heaven.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness towards us who are in Christ Jesus.
Unbelief In Messiah
The Son of God came to earth once as a humble servant who paid God’s price for sin. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that there is a second coming of the Messiah yet to come.
It will be a future, physical reality when Jesus Christ returns to earth and establishes Himself as King. Every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Messiah Yeshua,
6 Who, though existing in the form of God,
did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped.
7 But He emptied Himself—
taking on the form of a slave,
becoming the likeness of men
and being found in appearance as a man.
8 He humbled Himself—
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
9 For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow,
in heaven and on the earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue profess that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord—
to the glory of God the Father.
Unfortunately, the Jews do not believe that Yeshua was the messiah. Thus they do not hold that the messiah has come to earth once. All the signs and wonders their fellow Jewish brother performed while He was on earth, they discounted. They do not believe He came from God in heaven. They refuse to believe He is the Son of God. Their lack of belief creates discord amongst the people of God.
But God in His sovereignty has left the Jews a sign, if they would behold it. The sign is the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, which Yeshua, Himself, prophesied.
The conquest and destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 CE had a tremendous impact on the Jewish people and on Jewish life. Both in national and religious terms, it appeared that Jewish life might come to an end.
For today’s generation, it is difficult to comprehend. Yet, in the minds of Jewish leaders of that era, the Rabbis, it was the worst tragedy ever in the history of the Jewish people.
Without the Temple sacrifices, what would hold the Jewish people together? They already lived as a people without a land. They felt like strangers in other people’s countries.
Rather than embrace their Messiah, Yeshua, the rabbis founded a new Judaism. This new Judaism has the focal point of Abraham, Moses, and the writings of the Rabbis throughout the centuries.
The Temple also remains a focal point for their veneration. They promote walls between themselves and the outside world.
For Jews, Zion means the right for Jews to be self-governing in their own land, the land their Bible says God gave to Abraham and his seed.
Christians also promote walls. Some of them disregard the Old Testament completely in preference to the New Testament. They try to replace Judaism with a religion that has no roots, if it is not founded upon the scriptures and prophecies of the Old Testament prophets and writings. Yeshua said He came to fulfill the law, not abolish it.
Their centuries of persecution and anti-semitism towards the Jewish people has led to mistrust in the community of God’s people. That community is all of the people who believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jocob. It includes all of Israel, and Gentile believers. Their obedience and unity is key to bringing back Yeshua for His kingly reign.
The End of An Era – The Law Fulfilled
The Temple, the physical link between God and the Jewish people, ended abruptly. This included all the rituals and rites from the Torah. The city of Jerusalem lay in ruins, and Jews were forbidden to live within its walls. The loss of the Temple is still mourned and grieved and memorialized in Jewish culture today.
Why would a loving God allow this to happen? Because . . .
This ritual of animal sacrifice
has been fulfilled !
It is no longer necessary
in God’s plan!
The Isaiah 53 prophecy of the coming Messiah
had come to pass !
The slaughtering of innocent life was fulfilled in Yeshua. He is the lamb of God who was slain for the sins of the world.
The prophet Isaiah prophesied that Almighty God will reward His Son for His faithfulness and obedience and willingness to die for the sins of humankind.
The children of your oppressors will come bowing before you.
All who despise you will bow down at your feet
and will call you the City of the Lord,
Zion of the Holy One of Israel. ~Isaiah 60:14
The Violence Must Stop !
Why would a just God allow the slaughtering of innocent animals to go on forever?
Humankind did not seem to get the point. They had not stopped transgressing each other. In fact, evil, wrong-doing, and bad behavior was escalating.
Even with the coming of the Messiah, the One who gave His perfect life to save humankind from destruction, humanity refuses to love one another.
In your environment, are people getting along? Listen to the story, “Ambassadors From Heaven”.
Building Walls
Human beings seem to like building walls to divide and separate. It goes back a long way.
For centuries, the Temple in Jerusalem was the “physical link” between God and the Jewish people. It was the one place where heaven and earth met.
When that connection was lost, there was a deep sense of “mourning and grieving” because it felt like the door to God had been shut.
God had never asked men to build Him a temple. That was man’s idea. God always intended to live inside people. He wanted His spirit to be alive in their hearts and minds. He wanted humankind to embrace His morality and justice.
Instead people build walls to separate. These walls say:-
“Keep out !”
These walls are not positive boundaries; they exclude people to make them feel inferior. The walls are erected to claim rights to stolen land and God given resources.
They build walls to create artificial superiority in order to control and intimidate. They build walls of “enmity”—a word for deep-seated anger and division.
The giant walls don’t just separate people from God; they also create a “separation” between different groups of people, like the Jews and the Gentiles; blacks and whites; the rich and the poor. No human could climb over it or tear it down.
In biblical times people used “animal sacrifice” to pay for their “trespasses,” but those were just temporary fixes. They were waiting for the “Messiah” to appear as a warrior and conquering king, who would save them from oppression.
But the messiah has come; yet they refused to recognize Him.
Thus humanity keeps building walls.
The Temple Metaphor
The Temple, therefore, can be thought of as a metaphor for disunity. It represented separation from God. There were many walls and much opulence, but not a lot of love for God.
The Temple was the place where humanity asked God to forgive them for their transgressions. Priests were ritually cleansed and anointed for service to the community. Their purpose was to mediate between God and humanity. After all, someone had to slay the sacrifice, drain the blood, burn it on the altar, dispose of the ashes, hide the smell, etc.
There were lots of rules and the priests’ role was to ensure that every single one was followed to the letter. It became a ritual instead of love and devotion to stop disobeying the Will of a holy God.
Unfortunately, many priests did not live up to the standards of cleanliness and moral goodness. They became corrupted by the society surrounding them. The whole performance of sacrifice became blase. There was no reverence for the holy God. They were going through the motions without the substance of love for God and their fellow man.
Christ
(The Anointed One)
Is Our Unity
That’s why Yeshua, the Messiah, is so important. He didn’t come reinforcing the status quo. He did not come as a loud, angry king. He came as a “humble servant” to change the relationship between heaven and earth forever. He came to build the bridge between humankind and God.
He became the “Lamb of God,” which means He fulfilled all those old rituals once and for all.
How did one “humble servant” deal with those Temple walls of separation? He laid down His own life as a sacrifice to appease God’s wrath against human evil.
Yeshua prophesied that the Temple would be destroyed, and it was.
(Matthew 24:1-2)
Now that the Son of God had been resurrected from death, the temple was no longer needed.
The Savior, Yeshua, had conquered sin and death. The “middle wall of separation” between people, between groups, and between us and God had been crumbled and shattered.
How was the Wall of Separation shattered ?
(read more)
Ephesians 2
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
The Body of Messiah
Is One Spirit In Zion
So, instead of a stone temple run by men without the presence of a holy God, Yeshua’s Spirit lives within Zion.
Salvation comes from Zion, and Zion lives in the hearts and souls of the people who trust in God’s Word to conquer evil.
O, that salvation
for Israel
would come out of Zion!
When the Lord restores his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
Psalm 14:7
Jews And Gentiles in Unity
Because of Yeshua’s “great love,” He used the cross to “reconcile” everyone into “one body.” He created what is called “one new man.” Instead of two groups fighting, we are now “fitted together” like pieces of a puzzle. We aren’t just visiting a building of brick and stone anymore; people are becoming a “dwelling place for God.
~Revelation 21:2-3
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
In Zion, the ‘New Jerusalem’ Jew and Gentile will be united. They will know God. God’s words shall be written on their hearts. This will be the ultimate fulfillment of the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31-34
34 No longer will people have to teach each other or encourage their family members and say, “You must know the LORD.”
For all of them will know Me intimately themselves—from the least to the greatest of society.
I will be merciful when they fail and forgive their wrongs. I will never call to mind or mention their sins again.
Believers belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. Their earthly bodies may feel like strangers in a foreign country, but their spirits remains anchored in heaven. They are seated with the Messiah, The Anointed High Priest. They are the priests in God’s family with Yeshua’s identity and purpose.
How Do Believers Become One Spirit? (read more)
Ephesians 2
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the family of God,
20 having been built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets,
Yeshua haMashiach, Himself
being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place
of God in the Spirit.
The Messiah’s Zion must march forward in unity: Jews and Gentiles together.
As citizens of heaven, we must gather our identity from Yeshua, not our earthly racial ties.
This author believes that Yeshua will return to earth again when Jews and Gentiles are united in the Holy Spirit. Yeshua said:-
For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say,
“Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
the city that kills the prophets
and stones all those God sends to her!
38Your house is left to you, desolate.
39 For I tell you this,
you will never see me again
until you are ready to welcome
the one sent to you from God.
You will say,
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
Images of Zion
1 His foundation is in the holy mountains.
2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion–More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you,–
O city of God! Selah
16 And I have put My words
in your mouth;
I have covered you
with the shadow of My hand,
That I may plant the heavens,
Lay the foundations of the earth,
And say to Zion,
‘You are My people.’ ”
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,
23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.