Grace Emmanuel Church

Pastor Sam Chess

Prophetic Steps From Here To Eternity 4

(Don't buy real estate in Jerusalem!)

I'm going to do something I have never done before. I have written a whole sermon around a place in the Bible. Normally that should bore you (and me) to tears but I don't think this one will. There is a single city in the Bible that God himself is fascinated by…. He mentions the name of this city more than 800 times…. There is almost no other subject in all of Scripture mentioned 800 times.

You, yourself, may never have the slightest opportunity, or desire, to set foot in this city… but it has, already, influenced your life dramatically…

Within it's present day city limits Abraham… prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice 4200 years ago. King David looked down the hill at Bathsheba and started off a chain of Bible events 3000 years ago. Our Lord Jesus visited in the temple, there, as a boy, taught a good portion of our Gospels as a man there, was brought to trial there… then led outside this city to be crucified 2000 years ago. Jesus ascended to heaven within modern day's city limits and the promised Holy Spirit came upon all mankind right there in that town…

The name of the city is: Jerusalem

Still…Why should you care? The place is still kind of a backwater little town. It has no natural resources… it has no real industry except tourism… It's certainly not a financial center. It's the only capital city of any open country in the world that the United States does not have an embassy in.

So, again, why should you care? You appreciate the cities history and it's role in bringing the Savior into the world, but that was then and this is now…. and they don't call us "Westerners" for nothing.

Here's the thing: That city, Jerusalem, is not finished influencing your life.

The Bible says that as time winds down, and the prophesied end of the present world approaches, all the eyes of the world will turn increasingly in the direction of those few square miles of real estate in the middle East.

The "end of the world", as we know it, will happen in the same, exact place where our Savior died for the sins of all mankind. The Biblical End times center around Jerusalem. It's the epicenter of future prophecy.

It struck me this week that all the prophesies we have been looking at are like a funnel. They start out not very intense and spaced far apart. We saw on Wednesday Evening that the Bible likens it to a woman in labor… As delivery draws near the birth pains get more frequent and more intense… Same with the idea of this funnel. As things get closer to the end they get faster and faster and more focused. You see that hole at the bottom…. Biblical prophesy puts Jerusalem right in the center of the hole.

First there will be an increasing dislike for Israel and Jerusalem. We see that in the news every day. "Israel will soon be destroyed, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday during a meeting with Syria's foreign minister…. The Zionist regime of Israel will soon come to the end of their lives… (Y-Net news.com 1/23/07)

Don't be shocked… God predicted that this stuff would be happening 2500 years before Mohmoud was born.

Zechariah 12:2-3 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. (How many nations?)

Before anybody gets on the Ahmadinejad band wagon they need to read the rest of the story. It's all in black and white, inspired by the God of the universe. 522 Biblical predictions already have happened exactly as God said they would… 215 remaining predictions will happen exactly as God predicts in Scripture.

Ezekiel 38:15 You will come from your homeland in the distant north with your vast cavalry and your mighty army, 16 and you will attack my people Israel, covering their land like a cloud. At that time in the distant future, I will bring you against my land as everyone watches, and my holiness will be displayed by what happens to you, Gog. Then all the nations will know that I am the Lord. 19… this is what the Sovereign Lord says: When Gog invades the land of Israel, my fury will boil over! 19 In my jealousy and blazing anger, I promise a mighty shaking in the land of Israel on that day. 20 All living things—the fish in the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people on earth— will quake in terror at my presence. Mountains will be thrown down; cliffs will crumble; walls will fall to the earth. 21 I will summon the sword against you on all the hills of Israel, says the Sovereign Lord. Your men will turn their swords against each other. 22 I will punish you and your armies with disease and bloodshed; I will send torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and burning sulfur!

……………….BOOM…………………

This has not yet happened. We looked at the section in our handout on Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction… and the description of what is prophesied during the Tribulation period and I would strongly advise you today… Don't buy real estate in Jerusalem!

Let me pause there and rewind… this is part of what has fascinated me about this subject this week and why I wanted to preach a whole sermon about a city.

Jerusalem should one of your favorite five cities…. After all, it's the one city, in all the earth, that God chose for Himself:

1 Kings 11:13 However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

Ancient maps put Jerusalem in the center of the world, and Biblically they were right. Even though it's elevation is not all that high…much of the world spoke of going "up to Jerusalem"

Ezekiel 5: 5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says… I placed her at the center of the nations…

If you go there today you will actually not walk where Jesus walked that is underground …buried under piles of debris from all the times Jerusalem has been destroyed…then rebuilt again.

Before King David we read of Abraham giving tithes to Melchisedek king of Salem (Jerusalem) and Abraham sacrifices Isaac on Mt. Moriah which is the real estate under the city.

King David is the one who decided to make the little Caananite village into his Capital City. Even though he was a "warmonger" he called his cute little capital, "Jeru-shalom" (Founded in Peace) His son Solomon kept it peaceful long enough to build it into a great city and build a temple to God. But from that point on…all hell (literally) broke loose in that city and it has never been a "city of peace since nor… will it ever be right up to the fiery end. It's interesting that the city God chose "as his own" is the place the evil one has turned all his efforts against for the last 3000 years.

Let me give you a brief history… I have discovered by your questions, the last couple of weeks, that these facts are not well known and knowing them is an exciting part of understanding where God is headed prophetically.

David established Jerusalem 1000 years before Jesus came… His son Solomon's reign is described in the Bible in glowing terms…. But Solomon is not even cold in his grave until there is a civil war. The Kingdom of Israel splits in two…ten tribes to the north…two tribes to the south… in which sets Jerusalem.

200 years later, after much turmoil, the Assyrians, modern day Iran… Ahmadinejad's ancestors…came and wiped out the top ten tribes of Israel and those tribes were dissolved. (It's all here in your Bible) For the next 2,600 years they are absorbed into the rest of the world. (Until just before I was born)

The two southern tribes held off the Assyrians and Jerusalem and the temple were saved… for 100 more years until the Babylonians…Saddam Hussein's ancestors defeated Judah and hauled off the best and the brightest into captivity. (That's the story of Daniel in the Bible, the guy who gives us great insight into the end times)

The remaining Jews keep fighting for there lives and finally Nebuchadnezzar comes back and destroys Jerusalem, the city walls, and Solomon's temple. In the last 600 years before Jesus arrived the Persians defeated the Babylonians, The Greeks (Alexander the Great) cleaned up on the Persians…and then the Syrians wiped out the Greeks… and then the romans wiped out the Syrians… each time tearing up Jack on Israel… and especially Jerusalem.

The Romans for all their faults chose a partly Jewish family named "the Herod's" to rule over Israel and Herod the Great has enough heritage in his blood to rebuild the city and to re-make a fabulous temple. I wish you could go see it…but it was destroyed by the Romans just 40 years after Jesus resurrection. (Lucky thing Jesus arrived on the earth when he did or he wouldn't have had a temple to preach in!)

An especially large course of stones is visible on the southern and western walls today.  On the west the "Master Course" consists of four stones, the largest of which weighs 570 tons and is 44 feet long, 10 feet high and 12-16 feet deep.  The next largest stone in the wall is a mere 40 feet long.  The largest stone in the Great Pyramid weighs 11 tons.

Let me show you one more picture from the air…

Notice the mosques on top of the temple mount… Notice the Eastern Gate.. notice the door is all bricked over… that was done by the Muslims to"keep out the Messiah" ..there is a Muslim graveyard right in front of the Eastern Gate. No good Jewish Messiah is going to stomp through a graveyard to come to his people.

I want you to stare at this picture and get a grasp on the irony here. These trees in the foreground, the Mount of Olives, was where Jesus ascended back to heaven. As He lifted off he is looking down at, not the mosques that sit there today, but at Herod's temple where he had preached. As Jesus is ascending he knows that in 40 years it's all going to be destroyed. He also knows what will happen for the next 2000 years, up until today that would change the face of the Temple Mount. The period of time after Jesus is much like the period before. The Romans are replaced by the Byzantines (Constantine) who are somewhat Christian… The Muslims arrives slaughtering everyone in sight and take control. Different Muslim groups fight each other and the Jews. The Christians arrive in the crusades to take back what is rightfully theirs and then the Muslims return to take back what is rightfully theirs and all the time the Jews are yelling in the background: "But it's really our… you all took it from us to start with!

And God's chosen city just keeps getting battered…rubble pile on top of rubble.

Jesus knows, as he's ascending, that one day he is going to descend right back to where he lifted off from! As he's ascending he may be thinking about the prophecies already in the Old Testament that says that just before he returns:

The whole world will have surrounded this city and it's surrounding valleys determined to wipe it off the map. This isn't something Ahmadinejad has planned (though he may be there) this is something God has planned.

This is the base of the funnel! This is the predicted "end of the age" and the beginning of the age to come. When Jesus returns the second time he's not coming as a meek Lamb with a crown of thorns on his head. When Jesus descends back toward the Mount of Olives the second time he's coming to make war!

Zechariah 14:1 Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! 2 I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.

 3 Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west… Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. 5 You will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal…. Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him.

(What's so amazing about these prophets writing this stuff is that when they are writing Jerusalem is lying in ruins. The Jewish people have been hauled off and scattered to the ends of the earth. And that's the way it stayed for the next 2500 years. Jesus couldn't return to Jerusalem to fight for the Jews when there was no Jewish Jerusalem… but all that changed nine years before I was born and since that time 6 millions Jews have found their way home just as God predicted.

So many of the other prophetic End Time happenings are poised to become reality as we have studied on these handouts. Sometime soon Jesus is going to return to Jerusalem. That Jerusalem will have become hated by the world to the point where vast armies finally gather for one last "blow 'em off the map" battle…. the battle the Bible calls Armageddon.

This is the very tip of the mouth of the funnel… imagine the insanity of blocking up the Eastern gate to stop the king of the universe from coming to regain what he has claimed for himself!

We don't read these prophecies much because we don't know what context to put them in. When you hear these words coming out of the returning Messiah's mouth as he woops up on the nations surrounding Israel it can get pretty exciting…

Joel 3: 9 Say to the nations far and wide: “Get ready for war! Call out your best warriors. Let all your fighting men advance for the attack. 10 Hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Train even your weaklings to be warriors. 11 Come quickly, all you nations everywhere. Gather together in the valley.” And now, O Lord, call out your warriors! 12 “Let the nations be called to arms. Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I, the Lord, will sit to pronounce judgment on them all. 13 Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the grapes, for the winepress is full. The storage vats are overflowing with the wickedness of these people.” 14 Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision. There the day of the Lord will soon arrive. 15 The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine. (Nuclear war?) 16 The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth will shake. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a strong fortress for the people of Israel. Blessings for God’s People 17 “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, live in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy forever, and foreign armies will never conquer her again. (NLT)

Conclusion: Lest you be too concerned…

 Luke 21: 20"When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near…… 25"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."