Local Pastor Shares Why He Loves & Supports Israel - Interview with Rev. Jason Cleugh

Rev. Jason Cleugh of Maple Community Church in Vaughan Ontario Canada joins Jeff on the podcast today to share his passion for Israel. Jason has traveled to Israel on multiple occasions and has made it a priority to give his congregation the opportunity to join a tour to Israel every couple of years since his first experience in 2008. He shares his reasons why that is important for his congregation and also why every Christian believer should stand with and support Israel. You can also connect with Maple Community Church on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) @maplecommchurch.

Resources mentioned in this podcast:
Miraculous Victories of Israel Documentary Series
Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem, by Jeff Futers. Ebook also available on Amazon

Transcript

Chris Atkins, One Media : 0:02

Welcome to the keeping it Israel podcast with Jeff Futers, where Jeff and his guests talk. Everything Israel as it relates to Christian faith and the church. If you are a Christian and you stand with Israel, you will be encouraged and challenged by this podcast. And if you're not so sure about the whole Israel thing, you need to learn how your faith connects with Israel, and why standing with Israel matters. Now here's Jeff with today's guest.

Jeff Futers : 0:30

My name is Jeff and I'll be your host again today for the Keeping it Israel podcast. Thanks for tuning in. My guest today is Reverend Jason Cleugh now, calling Jason Reverend, seems odd to me because we've been friends for so long, but he definitely is an ordained minister. He's a pastor of a local church here in the Toronto, Ontario area Maple Community Church actually just north of Toronto in the city of Vaughan and Jason also has has a deep love and heart and passion for the Land of Israel, the people of Israel and has taken a number of trips to Israel himself. And I asked Jason to come on today and just share with us about why he feels it's so important that we as Christians connect with Israel. And this is what our podcast is all about. And so, Jason is going to share today, and I trust that you enjoy this interview. Well, welcome to the keeping Israel podcast today. And my guest today is Reverend Jason Cleugh. Jason, we've known each other for quite some time, but rather than me explain to our listeners who you are, why don't you tell us who is Jason Cleugh?

Jason Cleugh : 1:48

Sure. So as you said, my name is...I guess it depends on who you ask... But my name is Jason Cleugh. I'm the lead pastor at Maple Community Church in Vaughan, Ontario. If you don't know where that is, it's just a little bit above Toronto right where Canada's Wonderland is the largest theme park in our country and the lead pastor of a church here. I've been here for 13 years was just this past June and love our city love what we do love our church and just love doing what I get to do with my life and my family and the team we work with here.

Jeff Futers : 2:23

That's great. Now if our viewers want to know a little bit more about your church, give us a website we'll make sure that we include it in the in the post as well.

Jason Cleugh : 2:33

Sure. maplecommunitychurch.com really simple maplecommunitychurch.com We're also on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all the social media areas you can find this at @maplecommchurch, maplecomm c o m m like community church, and you'll find us there social media and love to have you stop by and visit us online.

Jeff Futers : 2:55

That's great. Now you said the last 13 years you've been at Maple Community. Give me sort of the overview of your ministry career before that. And then what what have been your roles at at Maple?

Jason Cleugh : 3:12

Sure. I graduated from Eastern Pentecostal Bible College, which is now Masters College & Seminary in Peterborough, Ontario in spring of 96. And I went from there to Brantford and pastored in a church there called New Life assembly, which is where Jeff and I worked briefly together on staff there before I left to help start planting this church in the summer of 2001 is when we started the journey before we actually planted the church in 2002. And I did that for about a year and a half. And then just as we were kind of getting things going, sensed the Lord shifting us in a bit of a different direction for a few years and we ended up going to Brockville, Ontario, which is down by in between Kingston and Ottawa... was there for five years as the Associate Pastor. I did youth and worship, and pretty much everything else and and then came back here after five years to Maple with our good friends Mark and Andrea Giancola who were the partners with us when we actually began the church in its early stages, and they kind of pioneered and launched it for the first five years. And then we came back here, and I was the Associate Pastor with Mark for eight and a half. And, and then just it'll be five years this coming November in the fall of 2020, that they thought God's leading to head over to Braeside camp, which is a campground here in Western Ontario, on the other side of the Hamilton area, and they are the executive directors of Braeside camp, and I became the lead pastor right after that, and I've been here in that capacity for almost five years now.

Jeff Futers : 4:49

Wow, five years, that's hard to believe. Hard to believe that it's been that long already. Although in some ways, it seems like you've been the senior pastor for a lot longer. So ah, I golfed with Mark actually yesterday, so it's good to connect...Yeah.

Jason Cleugh : 5:04

I'm golfing with him in a few weeks.

Jeff Futers : 5:07

Fantastic. Very good. Well listen, I know that as part of your your pastoral career, there came a moment when you made a pilgrimage, you took a trip to Israel. Tell me what that did in your life and ministry.

Jason Cleugh : 5:26

Well, ever since I was a little kid, I've been fascinated with the Land of Israel. From the time I remember being five and six years old, I wanted to be in Israel and travel in the footsteps of David and his mighty men and Joshua and be at the place where Moses looked on the promised land and be down to where the story of lot took place, and to walk the footsteps of Jesus and be in the Sea of Galilee and I had all these images in my head of, of what it all looked like. And I just I remember saying in a sermon in the in the fall of 2002, as I preached in a Church once that I said, you know, I've already told the Lord, if you'll let me go to Israel once I'll never ask to leave Canada ever again, I just want to go to Israel. And you know, I'm really glad that, that God doesn't hold us to everything we say at all moments. So in 2008, as we were here by then, in the city of Vaughan, I was privileged to lead a group from our church to Israel for the very first time. And those 10 days pretty much revolutionized my faith in a way that only two or three experiences in my life beforehand had ever done. Spending time in the footsteps of Jesus in the footsteps of all the patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith. Just revolutionized how I read the Bible, how I saw my faith, it trans... transformed how I see Israel, even though I was already all things Israel, it just took everything to a different height and a new place, and caused me to be much more aware of what that means in my life and why it matters. And since that is translated in our church in a huge way, and just thank the Lord for all that.

Jeff Futers : 7:07

Now, that obviously isn't the only time you've been, you have done some follow up trips with your church, why is it important to you to, you know, have your church experience this, to give them that opportunity?

Jason Cleugh : 7:23

I think it's incredibly important for any Christian to go to Israel. And I know it's easy to say that when you already have a passion for Israel, and when I say that to people, they always say, yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone who's been to Israel says that to me. When I what I always say to them, because they'll say so pastor, why do I need to go? What's the big deal? I don't see the difference. I have a wonderful country here in Canada. I don't need to go to Israel to have my faith, be real to me. And I always say that's true. The problem is so many of us forget that the Bible is actually fact not just faith. And so when you go to Israel, what changes in your mind is it takes the stories from being something that you imagine in your mind that your whole life about the story of David and Goliath the story of picking up the stones, of Gideon and his army and transforms the story of Lot. And it takes them from things that you've just imagined in your mind. And you've created this scene of what it must have looked like, and what Bethlehem looked like, and what Galilee looked like and, and the Mount of Transfiguration and what Jerusalem even looked like even so you see pictures of me here above the screen on my wall. You have an image you get there, it turns it from faith only, to fact fully, and it moves you into this place of now I get to marry facts with my faith. And all of a sudden, I now have a platform to speak to others about my faith, right? It's much more factual than just faith filled. And that does that every time you go there because what it did for me was I knew that Jesus had found me when I was a little boy and given my heart to Him. I knew that the Holy Spirit had drawn me to Him. And I know that the God the God, the Father knows my name, but going to the land of Israel takes all of those pieces and ties them all together in this incredible moment. And seeing all those places makes it all undeniably real.

Jeff Futers : 9:25

Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, you know, I, my experience was unlike yours. I was I was one of those people from your church who always said, What do I need to go to Israel for? I believe in Jesus, I believe God is real. I have faith that everything that I read in the Bible happened that that was me. And you know, my story my my dad, you know, finally dragged me to Israel in '06. I got to go a couple years before you and again, total, like total flip I I went from the apathetic, you know, person with regard to Israel to well, look what I'm doing now. So God has a way of grabbing our hearts. And it's, I tell people all the time, this is a spiritual journey, you're not taking a trip, you're not going on vacation, you are, you are finding out the real roots of your faith. And it really is like going home in a lot of ways. And it's great to hear you talk about that experience and why that's important for your church members to be able to have the opportunity to experience as well i just i think that's so key. And, you know, we do tours to Israel, we invite people to come with us as often as possible. Right now, this is a strange season that we're all in. You and I were supposed to be in Israel together this past May actually. But anyhow, it is very interesting and I loved what you said about the Bible stories, you know, coming to life, about about fact sort of factoring in when you when you get there, and we're working on this great project right now, I'll just do a little commercial of my own, called Miraculous Victories of Israel. And we've got the first three episodes pretty well in the can, can't wait to show these to you. The first one is, is, you know, the conquest, the victory over the promised land. The second one is David and Goliath, as you mentioned, and the third one is Hezekiah and Sennacherib, and the siege on Jerusalem. And it's amazing to talk to the archaeologists to listen to the experts, some of the theologians and pastors that we interviewed, and really discover that there's not just sort of a story here. There is actual archaeological discovery that puts the story in a factual light. And I just think that's amazing. And of course, the whole idea of, of miraculous victories of God being on Israel's side is going to be just a great great series and so miraculousvictories.com if you're listening you can go there and and reserve your copy the first three episodes will be out in the next couple of weeks. And we're, we're kind of ramping that up right now.Anyway, that's...

Jason Cleugh : 12:13

Jeff, just to, just to say something there. My daughter is eight years old. And she already keeps asking me Daddy, when are you going to take me to Israel? Because at night when I tuck her in, and I tell her the stories and we read the Bible, so I say, Honey, Daddy's been right where this happened. You mean it's real daddy? Yes, honey. It's not just a Bible story. It's a factual story. Daddy's been right there. That's it. Can I go there someday? Yes, honey, I'll take you there someday. So already in my daughter's heart and life. She is learning from my experience being in the land when it matters and it's impacting her faith already and giving her something to look forward to.

Jeff Futers : 12:52

Fantastic. That's amazing. What would you say to Christians who have never been Israel about why they should go. What are your top? I don't know, three, four reasons.

Jason Cleugh : 13:06

Sure. Yeah, that's super easy. The first one for me is it'll totally transform how you read the Bible. If you're already a Christ follower, it will change. Because I alluded to it earlier. One of the things that, you know, my mind is very imaginative. So as I would read the Bible growing up, and even in my adult years, you would create these scenes of what's happening. And all of a sudden you get to Jerusalem and you can picture Jesus, meeting Nicodemus, in one of the small street ways of Jerusalem and having this confrontation with him, or conversation with Nicodemus, and you can, you can picture what was happening in the journey to Bethlehem. It will take how you read the Bible, and make it not just an imagination, it'll make it a picture. And so when you read it about Jesus meeting the disciples on the shore of Galilee, all of a sudden you can see the shore you can see the sea, You can see the mountains on the on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and where they would have where they would have been looking and you can see it. The second thing is it also transforms your prayer life. Because how you pray changes when you see what God did with what was there on the land. When you see what God did with David, in the valley of Elah, against Goliath, it transforms how you see your every day, when you realize, huh, God defeated Goliath through David, with small little stones in this nondescript place. How much more can God do great things in my nondescript place where I live, because it changes how you pray, because you see how God did great things with such little stuff. Because you saw it with your own eyes. And then the last thing I think, is it'll just transform how you see your life here in Canada. Because you'll see if there's just something about being in the land of Israel that transforms the way you think about life. It'll take how you thought before, and it will transform how you see faith. And ideally, biblically, faith should inform everything we do. It will transform how you think about life, because you will just see things different after you've been there. Those are the simple things. I would say there's a million things I could say. But those are the rather simple ones.

Jeff Futers : 15:32

Yeah. You know, I think the timing of of the Miraculous Victory series coming out, you talked about about the faith building part of understanding the facts behind these stories. I think with COVID-19 and everything people have been going through understanding this year in particular, that, that, you know, God is with us to help us fight our battles, I think is just a key message for people in in 2020 it's it's always a key message for people but especially this year with what everybody's been going through. And I'm really excited, praying that God will use this as a tool not just to inform people, but to encourage their hearts. You know, God is with me, the God of Israel, who, you know, who fought the battle for David and who helped the Israelites conquest, you know, the promised land. That same God, you know, helps me fight my battles, I think I think it's a great message and always has been, but especially today with what everybody's going through. And so we're excited about that. You alluded to the fact you know, when we go to Israel, we're actually supporting Israel, economically. touring in the land going to these places. It's one way that we support Israel. What are other important ways that we can support Israel today the Jewish people?

Jason Cleugh : 16:57

But you know, I think you've written a book on it Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, I think there's a powerful way you can support the Jewish people, the Land of Israel and God's promise to the world through Israel by praying for Israel. That's a powerful thing Psalm 122 tells us to do that says that we need to spend time doing that. But what I think is interesting is, it's not just about Israel. When you support Israel, God says that there is a supernatural blessing to those who bless Israel. And so you don't bless Israel to get blessed. You bless you bless Israel to be obedient to God but when you bless Israel and you're being obedient to God, God will bless you in supernatural ways that you never thought were possible. He will bless your job, your your schooling career, he'll bless your family. Bless your relationships, he'll bless your finances. He'll bless your your ministry. He'll bless the church you're a part of. He'll bless your street. He'll bless your community. Because he says, I will prosper those, I will bless those who bless Israel. And I think one of the ways we can do that is to pray, of course another way that we do as a family. And then I, and I'm not doing this because it's you I tell people all the time, if you were to go in our office to our common area, just around the corner here, you find the list from First Century Foundations of all the ministries that First Century Foundations supports, and you can buy into one of those in the sense of not financially buy in, you can support them financially, but you can buy into the purpose of supporting people in Israel and doing the mission of what God has for his people, which is also God's mission for us. And you can do that. Another way that you can support God's people for me is I've always been a student of history and biblical history and believed in the people of Israel, the Land of Israel, the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, but you can speak well of Israel when you're home in your native country, yeah, because that isn't something you hear very often. Now, interestingly, I would say this, and I know that there's probably some some Jewish brothers and sisters who watch this, but God Himself calls his own people, a stiff necked people. And he says, hey, but they're my people. If God turned his back on me and my family and my friends turned their backs on me, when I showed myself to be stiff necked, I'd have nobody either. So we can speak well of the Jewish people speak well to them. And when I find someone who I know is Jewish, and many times you can see because of the head coverings or what they're wearing, man, I'm the first person to make sure I open the door for them. I pay for them. If they if some of them ever go through any kind of a drive thru, and I see a star of David symbol on their car or something, and I do everything I can to bless the Jewish people because they are people who have more than than any people in history been persecuted everywhere they've gone. And so I do my very best to bless them and do everything I can many times I get weird looks like who is this guy? Why do you care about all those things, but I do that because I honor them. And I pray for them. And I bless them not just with my prayers, and not just by going to Israel and supporting the nation, but here at home. Here in my country. My whole nation. Whenever I find a Jewish person, I honor them.

Jeff Futers : 20:31

Yeah, you know, it's interesting. The Bible speaks of Israel as God's firstborn, God's firstborn son. And you know, as believers as as Christians, we believe that through Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, that because of his death, his resurrection that you know, we have been grafted into the family not just grafted into the family of God though grafted into the house of Israel, the the firstborn son, right? And so in a very real way, we don't support Israel, just as Christians because we want to bless them and and receive a blessing we do it because they're their distant sort of relatives, their brothers and sisters, just who have not acknowledged Yeshua yet. And of course many of them have and we work with many of those, those Messianic believers in the land of Israel. But yeah, I, I believe like you that we want to bless the Jewish people because we're connected to them on a very, very deep, deep level through the Jewish Messiah. And God wants to show his love to Israel. And he wants to do it by making them jealous of the Gentiles when when when they see what Yeshua, what Christ has done in our lives. We believe that they're going to come to no Yeshua as their own Messiah. And I guess I wanted to get around to that because I think that the the plans and purposes that God has for Israel are more than just, you know, prophetic. There's a lot of prophetic implications when it comes to the land of Israel, as you and I both know. But talk a little bit about that. What what are God's plans and purposes and how is he going to accomplish those?

Jason Cleugh : 22:34

Oh, you know, I think we all know that Israel is the, as you said, it's the apple of God's eye. You know, one of my favorite lines is just because they're his favored people doesn't mean they're his favorite. There his favorite. There the people... or just because there His chosen people sorry, doesn't mean they're his favorite. There His chosen people, he had in his sovereign will said I'm going to choose the Jewish people, I'm going to make them the apple of my eye for the purpose of redeeming and bringing redemption to the whole world. And I just love that I love the Jewish people. I love their nation. I love the Land of Israel. And I believe that Israel is God's street sign for the world. It's the street sign of your life, that it points you to God to Jewish people, the Land of Israel, the nation of Israel, points humanity to Jehovah God, that's God's street sign is the nation and people, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, and I believe when we watch what God's doing the formation of the modern nation of Israel in one day in May 1948, the regathering of the Diaspora over the last 80 or so years, bringing people flocking back to Israel, the way the physical land has responded to the Jewish people. That is a supernatural, miraculous thing. You know, of course, many people have heard it. But Mark Twain visits Israel in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and calls it just a desolation, a place of barrenness. And just in a few short decades, it's exploding and teeming with life. Because God has blessed and favored highly favored the Jewish people, because they are His chosen people to bring through Yeshua, as you've said, redemption to the world. And there's just a prophetic timeline on the nation of Israel. And so I watch them very closely. And what happens in Israel speaks to me deeply. I'll never forget the first moment I touched down in Israel on the plane, I began to cry in the airplane. I was looking forward to it so much, but when we touched down on the airplane, everyone else cheered. I had tears rolling down my my cheeks, and I just walked around, blessing all of the Jewish people as I could find with my prayers and my I just thought, you know, Jesus, you're coming back here again someday, physically, to the Mount of Olives and they're everything about the world. The culmination of the plan of God is resting in the physical nation of Israel, not just the spiritual understanding the supernatural understanding but the salvation of the world culminates in Israel. And it's just an incredible thing. It's the timeline of the world. It's the signpost, it's the street sign of God for the world today.

Jeff Futers : 25:23

Well, and and I like to just remind people that there are millions still of the Jews and others who live in the land of Israel who don't know Yeshua yet as their as their own Messiah. And that's kind of the task that I believe is in front of us is to is to equip and and resource those believers that are in the land of Israel to reach their brothers to reach their sisters with the hope of the gospel. And, you know, you have agreed graciously in the last year or so to come on our board and be a part of First Century Foundation's board we appreciate you serving in that way. And and I know that it's it's your heart as well. And so as a not just somebody who loves Israel, but as a pastor who believes that, you know, we should we should support Israel and what God's purposes and plans are for that nation. I believe his number one purpose as it is for the entire world, is that every man, woman, boy and girl would come to know Yeshua as their Messiah, and be welcomed into the family of God through through him. And, you know, I know you believe that too. But I just, you know, I'm so passionate about that. That's what I'm doing all the time is trying to tell people here in Canada, hey, we need to get on board. We need to support the Land of Israel. We need to go Of course we need to experience that but we also need to pray. We need to give we need to do what we can in our part of the the world to see the gospel get to the Jewish people. And so I, you know, I just wanted to throw that out there because that's just so important to us. And we, you know, everything that we do even this video series that we'll be putting out, we're doing that to help educate people, but we're also doing it to raise finances to send to the ministries in Israel so they can keep reaching out to the people there. And that's just so important to us that we want to make sure that that message gets out there. So yeah. I guess that's probably most of my questions. Did you want to...did you want to share your thoughts on EndTime Prophecy and explain when Jesus was coming back? Do you have a date? No?

Jason Cleugh : 27:53

No, I will not. speculate a date. I won't step into any one of those things. I just I would like to say this, that if you want to experience some incredible hospitality, go to Israel. They know how to be hospitable. I was I was with Jeff in 2018 in Israel for a week, and we went to some different festivals and man, they are just so wonderful. And it was not I wasn't a tourist at that point. Although I was a tourist. I wasn't leading a tour. It wasn't that they were, oh, you're bringing people to my restaurant. I was just with regular everyday Jewish folks, Israelis. And they would just warm and welcomed me into their businesses and welcomed me into their homes. And they just and they wanted to talk about life and they wanted to talk about faith. They wanted to hear about my life and my family and my church and what I've even though they didn't really have any frame of reference for it, you want to experience hospitality. Of course, the world The news is going to tell you a whole bunch of different stuff about Israel. There's a lot of those things and people can politicize everything. But if you want to get faith experience and a factual experience and historical experience and archaeological experience and a food experience, and a nice weather experience and a fun experience, and you want to get something that's hospitable, man, the Jewish people are wonderful people and they will serve you and love you and help you. And, and there have lots of passion to and I love that that's a favorite thing of mine and listening to Messianic Jewish believers worship is something powerful, and to see them worship Yeshua is a pretty it's a pretty stirring moving experience. And if you've never been, I encourage you to...with First Century Foundations with Jeff, if you're a student, if you're someone who's never been to Israel before, I'd encourage you to go with Jeff before you ever go with me and my church if you're ever interested in doing that, because Jeff, will get you in way better spots, but if you can't get with Jeff and you want to go with our church, we'd love to take you by It's just an amazing place you will not regret going at all.

Jeff Futers : 30:04

Yeah, amen. Well, we'll put both information you know, in the in the post, below the video and and on the podcast so that people want to connect with you they can. And of course, if they want to help First Century Foundations either with donating towards the ministries or finding out more about tours that we'll be doing in the future, we can make sure they get that information by the way, Victor Kalisher, I just was speaking with him the other day on on zoom, and he would want me to say hi to you. We were reminiscing about being at his house in Yadhashmona. Yeah, and you know, something he actually sent me I'm going to show this to you quick. I'm going to do a proper video on this for for our viewers, but he sent me the it's upside down the Jerusalem Bible. Oh, yeah. And this is their brand new family Bible that they've produced, and it's illustrated. So it's got some great pictures in it. And it starts. It's English, English on one side. And Hebrew on the other. Yeah. And of course, for those who aren't aware, you know, Hebrew is written right to left. So you start at the back of the book, not at the front. So, anyway, this is a beautiful piece. And we're going to be telling some people about that. And most people don't realize that in Israel, you can't just go down to the local bookstore and get, you know, a commentary in Hebrew...no those kind of resources aren't available and the Bible Society in Israel is doing great work with some of that, anyway, just wanted to throw that in there because you met Victor, and I thought you'd be interested in that. So hey, it's been great to have you on the podcast today. And we just appreciate you and pray blessing on you and Robin, and Bethany, your daughter and it's just always so great to be able to connect and I look forward to being able to do that in person hopefully in the not too distant future...yeah, that'll be good. All right. Blessings, Jason. Take care.

Jason Cleugh : 32:08

Thanks Jeff. Awesome. God bless everybody.

Jeff Futers : 32:13

Well, thank you for tuning into the podcast again today. And it was great being able to connect with Jason and catch up after not seeing him for a number of months due to COVID. But wonderful to hear him talk about His love and His passion for the Land of Israel. And I hope that you were encouraged today to consider where you stand in terms of Israel and how you connect as a believer as a Christian. I want to mention that you can connect with Jason on his website, maplecommunitychurch.com or on social media @maplecommchurch. That's comm with two M's maplecommchurch and also we talked a little bit about our Miraculous Victories of Israel project, the new documentary series that's coming out. The first three episodes will be released the end of this month, in the month of August 2020. And you can get information about that at miraculousvictories.com. And we would encourage you to check that out. If you want to order my book Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem, go to firstcenturyfoundations.com/shop. And if you want to donate, you can do so that is donate to help ministries in the land of Israel that we are partnered with and support. You can do that at firstcenturyfoundations.com/donate. Again, great to have you on the podcast today. Thanks for listening. And remember, as Christians, we stand with Israel