The Road to Jerusalem

Being here, for me, has been a lifelong dream to be able to come and see these biblical sites. I like traveling but just haven't had a lot of opportunities, and those I have, I have enjoyed so much. So this is a 40-year-old dream for me to be here. And to give a sermon here is just amazing. So, you know, I've talked to so many people that said, you're going to like Turkey because one thing you will not like are the people. And it's true, everybody's friendly and nice, and it's, of course, the food. So what I want to cover today, we're going to go through some history of ancient Israel. We're going to go through a little secular history. Then we're going to talk about a little bit of the history of the Church. Yes, I'm going to do all that in 40 minutes. But in the end, it's a very simple concept. And in this concept, we're going to be able to hopefully take something back with us as we leave here that focuses on what God is doing, what God is doing in history and in your life, what God is willing to do in our lives if we just sort of get out of the way and let Him do it. Let's go back to what we were doing a week ago when we were celebrating the Passover and the beginning of the Days of the Lemon Bread. And one of the things that we look at at that time, now the main emphasis obviously is Jesus is the Passover, but we go back and look at the first Passover. Because something special was happening that had not happened any place in the world at any time. God was coming down to save a people. They were trapped in slavery, they couldn't get out of it. And what He did to bring them out of it was destroy the greatest superpower of the day, peace by peace by peace. Until Pharaoh, who saw himself as a God, realized he was overmatched. But we looked at those events and we talked about how, I know you did, all you were studying it, looking at it, how amazing that was. That God came down to these people who couldn't get out of where they were. There was no way they could get out of it. There's no way they could save themselves. There's no way they could free themselves. He came along and He did that to them, for them, because of the promises He made to Abraham. And He brought them out. Now as He was bringing them out, something else happened that's unique. Now the first thing you think of is the opening of the Red Sea. But this is real important, what I'm going to talk about in the context of what we're covering today. They were led out by a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night. And we all know that. But understand what that really means. You know, oh, just another miracle. No, it's not just another miracle. Let's go to Exodus 13. We're just going to be, a lot of sermons I give I stay in one passage and really tear it apart. But we're going to be jumping around to these bits and pieces and how they fit together and what it means for us today. Exodus 13, and let's look at verse 21. And the Lord went before them by day and a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night and a pillar of fire to give them light as to go by day and night, and did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night before the people. That pillar, visible pillar, I've often wondered if it had a noise to it. You know, it'd be like swirling fire. You wonder if it had a noise, but they could see it. This is the special presence of the Lord.

You know, when the sea opened, God did that, but they didn't see anything that represented God. This is literally the special presence of God on the earth. Now, we know that God is on the present. We know that we can't get away from God. That's what David said, right? I can go to the top of this mountain. I can't get away from you. You're everywhere. But this is something special. The very presence of the Lord, visible in this pillar of fire and pillar of cloud.

And this led them, it saved them from the Egyptians, and led them out into the wilderness where He said, I'm doing something with you that's very unique. So let's go to Exodus 19.

Just putting the pieces together here. God had told Abraham, you know the story, that He was going to take His descendants into captivity and then take them out of captivity. He had told them that. And He was going to take them to the promised land. There's a very specific, unique place on earth in which God was going to take those people to. And there was a reason He was going to take them there. You think, wow, it was nice. He was fulfilling His promise to Abraham. No, there is something else happening here. When He gave them the Ten Commandments, it was by covenant. In other words, there was an agreement between God and them. Like all agreements between us and God, it's not like we initiate it. We're going to go before God and say, hey, can I make an agreement with you? You know, my lawyers will call your lawyers and we'll just work it out, right? No, this is not an agreement between equals. And God says, I'm making an agreement with you and here's what I'm going to do. So He says in verse 3, so this is just before He gives the Ten Commandments. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to Him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel. So He goes up to Mount Sinai and God talks to him. Now therefore, oh, I'm sorry, verse 4, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. He said, you understand, you know, you've just seen what I did to the world's greatest nation, tore it down to bring you here for me. That was the purpose. He had a purpose for it.

Now therefore, if you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all of the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And these are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. They were told, my presence is with you here because I chose you to represent me as a nation, as a kingdom. They were to be a theocracy. When you look at the book of Judges, they didn't have a legislature. They didn't have a king. They had priests and a judge, and the elders in the gates. That's all they had because God was to be ruling over them. So they were supposed to be a theocracy where God ruled on earth through this nation, through these people. So He takes them out into the wilderness and He tells them that they need to build a place for Him so that His special presence could be seen. And they built a tabernacle. So let's go to Exodus 40. I'm going to do a lot of things real quick here, but because I don't want Mr. McNeely to only have 10 minutes. So they build a tabernacle, which God gives a very specific instruction. It's amazing how many instructions there are in the book of Exodus on how to build this place and why. So the very presence of God could be there. This special glory of God could be there and everybody could see it. You know, they weren't the only ones who could see it. I'm so surprised that the tribes that were following them and kept attacking them along the way couldn't see the pillar. Well, they could, but they didn't get it. That just isn't some special type of cloud. He was there, visibly there in a way that's unique, unique on the face of the earth. So they build a tabernacle.

In verse 34, then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled their tabernacle. Understand, it didn't say, and just the cloud, the glory of the Lord filled that tabernacle. That was this very special presence of God. Moses couldn't even stay there. He had to leave.

Wherever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward on all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, and in the sight of the house of Israel through all their journeys. There's a place in Numbers where Moses talks about this, and you can tell it's frustrated. Because this is very succinct. And in Numbers he says, and it moved sometimes for a day, and then it stopped, and we moved for a day, and then it stopped, and then it stayed there for a long period of time, and we stayed there. Then it moved, and then it stayed. He goes on and on and on. It's like, okay, we get the point, Moses, but it must be, we're just going on and back and forth all over the place here. But he's following the glory of God. But when we read what happened to Israel, they got to the Promised Land, right? Not that first generation. They got there, and God gave them, not all the land. They didn't do entirely what they were supposed to do, but they got part of the land. And Jerusalem became the capital. So there's all kinds of reasons that Jerusalem became the capital. We'd have to go back to Abraham and Melchizedek and all kinds of things. But this is where the capital is going to be. Now he showed them, you are my nation. This is my theocracy. All of their nations I interact with, but you I live with you. I live with you. So you built a temple for me, a permanent structure. So Solomon did. And what happened? Well, you know what happened. Let's go to 2 Chronicles because as we read all this, it lays the groundwork for understanding who we are. 2 Chronicles 7.

1 And when Solomon had finished praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. The glory of the Lord, the very special presence of God on earth was there saying, this temple is where I visit my nation, my people. It's unique. You can't find any other case of this in all of history. And it's this place, Jerusalem.

Well, we know the story. Israel went back and forth and back and forth. Sometimes they obeyed God. Sometimes they kept the covenant. Many times they did not. And they just kept struggling. You know, there'd be a generation that did, a generation that didn't, and it kept getting worse and worse. So God finally said, if you do not repent, the Northern Terrean tribes, I'm going, just take them into captivity and scatter them. And they would repent, and He did.

And then He kept telling the Jews. He kept sending them all kinds of prophets. And they did listen. And in 586, a Babylonian army came into Jerusalem, conquered Jerusalem, and kicked down those doors into that temple. And there were all kinds of gold utensils, and there was an altar, but you know what wasn't there? The presence of God. It wasn't there.

The Babylonians, like most ancient pagans, are very superstitious people. You know, you go sack somebody's temple, you better make sure your gods are stronger. Well, this God never even showed up. They went into His temple, took everything. And of course, for the Jewish people specifically, there's a lot of belief that God was so angry with us, He abandoned us, but He did bring us back like He promised, right? But that's a very important thing. That's the reason why so many of the Jewish communities, they want to build a temple. They can't practice their religion entirely unless they have a temple, because that's where the presence of God comes to.

And they can go there and worship God. What's interesting is Solomon didn't say it was just for Israel. When Solomon built a temple, he said, this is for everyone on earth that wants to come and worship this God. There was no concept, there isn't a New Testament, the Gentiles can't go, you know, into the, close to the temple.

That's not there in Solomon's side. Anybody that comes to worship this God can come here. And His presence is there. And His presence in that special way hasn't been in Jerusalem since. Now He did, well, that's not entirely true. We're going to say in a minute, we'll show where it was. But in the lifetime of the people that lived in that Old Testament time, that presence wasn't there.

Now I'm going to skip over to a little bit of secular history that tied these two things together, so you have to stay with me. Okay. In 1095, Pope Urban in Clermont, France, got up and said all of the nations that have converted to Christianity in Western Europe and Eastern Europe, the Byzantines, we are Christ-kingdom. We are Christ-kingdom on earth. We are the new Israel, and He's with us. Now He didn't say all that, but there was theologians building that up.

So when He got up and said this, everybody knew what He was saying. So for about a hundred years, there had been a belief that Jesus Christ was coming back. And they knew He was coming back to His capital, Jerusalem. So what they decided was we have to go take Jerusalem to prepare the way for Jesus Christ to come. Itinerant preachers, bishops, priests just preached this throughout Europe. They don't know. Historians don't know. And usually numbers from the Middle Ages are always exaggerated.

But there's somewhere between 60 and 100,000 people who came together to go on this crusade. They were going to take Jerusalem back from the Muslims so that Christ could come back. The very special presence of God would be there. People got so excited. The first group didn't even get organized. It was mainly peasants. They're mainly people. There were very few soldiers with them.

And they took their wives and their children. They abandoned their houses. And they went, and they gathered, and they went on. And of course Pope Urban would say, no, no, no, we have to go together. But they went. And they marched when they got to the edge of what is, was Francia, was France. When they got there, they murdered every Jew they could find.

Then they went into Germany and murdered every Jew they could find. And then they marched over and crossed over at Constantinople. And the Emperor of Constantinople basically said, these people are barbarians. He gave them some food and passed them on. He treated them nice, but after a while I was like, I don't want you people. We already passed them on. And so they don't know but tens of thousands of men and women and children, priests, few soldiers marched down into not far, you know, east of here, and marched through here. And they came across the Turkish tribes who had converted to Islam. Well, they're an invading force, right? They've come into their country. They murdered, or not murdered, it wasn't a battle.

It was a one-sided battle. But they thought they could fight them and they just killed most of them. The children just became slaves.

Behind them came the real crusade with tens of thousands of soldiers. And they got to Constantinople and of course the Emperor there said, oh, these people, okay, supported them a little more, but they have to go on. They can't stay there. They would just drain all the resources. So they marched toward Jerusalem. The next couple of years of what they did is almost unbelievable in their experiences. Disease epidemics came through, killed them by the hundreds. Starvation, there were numerous times they were starving, died by the hundreds. All the time having to fight the Turks and the Nisarehtsens when they get down into, closer to Jerusalem. Fighting, sometimes getting defeated, sometimes fighting battles where they were so starved they could hardly stand up. But they kept pushing and they kept winning. They became very, they became professional soldiers is what they became. When they reached Jerusalem in 1099, they besieged the city. And when the walls were breached, they rushed in and they killed everybody they could find. They were here to take it back. Jesus was going to come back. And they killed everybody they could find, both Muslim and Jew. And covered with blood, I mean, I won't get too gruesome. Some of the Muslim people in Jerusalem swallowed their rings and their coins and stuff, hoping to be able to get them later. And so when they found that out, they just went over to all the dead people and got in them. Covered with blood, they are there. They've taken Jerusalem. And what was on Mount of Olives? Nothing. You know what was in the Temple Mount? Nothing. They arrived, Christendom had arrived and it wasn't any different than the Babylonians arriving. There was nothing there. The presence of God, Jesus didn't come back. Now, I'm going to go back to some New Testament history and add a few extra points in the time that we have. So let's go to John 2. Let me say something here about the people here, whether we've looked at Laodicea, Colossae, there were churches there, right? There were people there that were trying to follow what Jesus had taught. Many of them had never met Jesus. They were Gentiles. They were Jewish. Although there's a lot of Jewish people there. The church, predominantly like in Ephesus, is predominantly Gentile. Just what you read what Paul says to them. You know, he says, this is the great mystery. You're the people of God also. You're part of this nation of what God is doing on earth. But they did not believe, they did not believe they were a country, a kingdom. They did not believe they were like the Jews where they needed all moved to Jerusalem, build a temple, and wait for the presence of God. They didn't believe that. They didn't move that direction. Neither were they like Christendom. We got to grab our swords and go take Jerusalem as the people of God. They didn't do either of those things. And it's a very simple premise why you know all this. There's nothing new today, sorry, unless you didn't know anything about Pope Urban, but you haven't missed much.

Actually, he was a very smart man. He created Christendom. Because no matter what, it didn't matter whether you were German or French or English. It didn't matter whether you were Italian, when the Pope called for you to fight, you went because your greater alliance was to God, not your king. Now that would fall apart later because then everybody would be... the Popes literally had armies fighting each other and fighting the different nations. But at that point, he had created Christendom. All countries had to be loyal to what God was doing.

Now let's go to John 2. Now the Passover, it's interesting, this happened at events. This event took place in the beginning of the Passover season. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those who had sold auction and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. And when he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the auction and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tablets. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Well-known story. Then his disciples remembered what is written, and this is actually a quote from an Old Testament prophet, "'Zeal for your house,' says, "'Eat me up.' So the Jews answered and said to him, "'What sign do you show us since you do these things?'" In other words, what authority do you come in here and start changing the way we worship in the temple? You know, we know you're a prophet, we know you're a rabbi, but what authority do you have to do this? They would have been appalled by it.

"'Jesus has answered and said to them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'" Now, where is he? He's in Herod's temple, the remodeling of Zarebovino's temple, on the foundation of Solomon's temple. He's in the place that the presence of God goes to. And they say, and he says, destroy this temple, I'll raise it up. I'll build it back up in three days. The Deut. said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you'll raise it up in three days. But notice what John has to put in here. But he was speaking of the temple of his body. "'Therefore when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said to them, and they believed the Scripture, and the word was Jesus and said, they did not understand it.' So his own disciples, so after he died." What do you mean he's going to tear down the temple?

I mean, this is the temple. This is the special place where the presence of God comes. And he says, I am the temple. The very special presence of God was there. They just didn't see it. They didn't know it was there. But after he died, his followers began to understand who he was. And you see that principle. That concept is through the entire New Testament. Paul, Peter, John, they all write about how Christians are the temple with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone, or sometimes he's the foundation. In other words, it's all built on him. He is the temple, the special presence of God. And then the church comes into to join him in a temple. But we're not Jerusalem.

But we are, as the people of God, wherever they are, we don't all know each other scattered, you know, all over the world. The people who are trying to truly follow God become the place where God's special presence is in us. That pillar of cloud and pillar of fire represented the glory of God. Jesus said, I'm it, I'm the glory of God, and here I am inside this temple. And then he talks about how they're going to build a temple, at least John and Peter and Paul do. God is building a temple, not a temple made of hands, right? You see, when we look back at what happened with ancient Israel, they failed because they never truly submitted with their heart and mind because the special presence of God, His Spirit, was visible but outside of them. Christendom failed under urban because it never was God's intent for the church to take up the sword and go take Jerusalem. So that couldn't have worked out no matter what. It was a total failure. The Saracens eventually just kicked them out, drove them out. So a hundreds of years of fighting and many, many people suffered, many died. But eventually, they drove the Christians out because it never was God's intention to take the sword up and do that. So both of the first two stories we talked about failed. But God doesn't fail because He knew they would fail. That's why all the prophecies ancient Israel is about when the Messiah comes, I'll gather you again. You're going to be scattered all over the place and I'll gather you again. That's the prophecies. So let's go to Ephesians 2. The theocracy can only work when the presence of God is in a person. Remember Moses said, I wish all of them had your spirit? And talking of Israel, some did, but the majority did not. I wish they all had your spirit. He had it. He understood. The presence of God. Now that doesn't mean when I say the presence of God. We're not talking about Hinduism or something here. You become God. That's not the point. The point is this is what He says about the Holy Spirit, the mind of God, the love of God, which is directed into that pillar that could be seen, which was ignored and misunderstood by the Crusaders. Those things all teach us what God's doing today. Simple statement in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. I know a lot of the ministers in our fellowship have been covering Ephesians a lot over the last year.

Look what He writes to this church in Ephesus, which we're going to go see where they were. He gives them three mysteries. The mystery of Christ, the mystery that they as non-Jews could be the special dwelling place of God. And a third mystery is that marriage is important because it teaches us about the relationship between the church and Christ. Those are incredible mysteries. There's three of them. And He starts with, you know, if you don't understand Jesus Christ, He can teach you all the truth of the world, and it's not going to do what needs to be done. And if you don't have Christ living in you through that special presence of God, you can have all the knowledge you can obtain, and you still won't be what you're supposed to be.

So He says to them, verse 19, to the church in Ephesus, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. In the ancient world, a lot of times you see where God fears proselytes came into Judaism, and they were seen as second-class citizens. Paul is very specific in making sure he tells the church, there are no second-class citizens in this body that Christ is creating. None. There can't be. And so you see Paul, as he goes to these churches, tell them, no, no, no, you don't understand. You're not like, yeah, but we're not the special nation of God. Oh, you are. You're in a theocracy that's actually much greater than that theocracy, because this theocracy has an end point to it, a game to it, a game ending. It goes out and carries out, and it leads to something.

Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, He rebuilt that temple. The Father resurrected Him, right? And He didn't have, He wasn't the same body He had when He walked out around on earth. In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. The glory of God is in this temple. If we really grasp that, I know if I did all the time, I would be more submissive to God. Sometimes I forget this.

Sort of wonder away. And God always brings us back. He says in verse 22, And whom you also are being built together, for what? A dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The pillar of fire, the pillar, the cloud, those were just temporary manifestations of the presence of God. The special presence of God comes into this new temple of which we are, if we actually have, dedicated our lives to God the way we're supposed to. Through His grace, because none of us were chosen because we're better than anybody else. No Christian who says, yes, God chose me because I was better, they miss the point.

Anyone chosen by God is through His grace. God, we had to choose, we had to follow, yes.

But that's what the church is. These people who were here, that lived here in the first century, they weren't trying to become a physical nation with an army and with, you know, a temple and, and, you know, go down and take over Jerusalem because that, they knew that wasn't their purpose. So you will find that in the New Testament at all. They also weren't taking up the sword. Christendom is a false idea of what Christianity is.

We don't prepare the way for Christ to come back. Christ prepares us for His coming back. That's a huge difference. We don't prepare the way. He prepares the way for us to come into His kingdom. And there is a time after all this that the point in which God has done all this, from Adam and Eve to Abraham, through Israel, through the church, through Jesus Christ as the special presence of God on earth, is that when Christ comes back, He comes to Jerusalem.

And He stands at the Mount of Olives and nobody has to fight the people there to get it. He fights them. He fights them. And there are people throughout all of history who have been prepared for that moment. Everything in our lives is God preparing us for that moment. So we think it's for all these other things. And that's part of our lives. I mean, we're supposed to live this life with everything we have and following God. But the bottom line, everything that's happening in us is preparing for that moment when Jesus Christ comes back and His temple is there for Him to serve Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Of course, we do know the Father comes later, right? At the end of that thousand years, the Father comes and brings New Jerusalem with Him.

One of the reasons the Crusaders did not understand that is Augustine had told them a totally different explanation of Revelation. Revelation 20 and 21 and 22, he gave a totally different explanation. And Augustine, of course, had become the most important teacher within Christianity at that time. And it's actually very simple. He has a very complex. Since Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden, God's presence on this earth, carrying out His will because He never left His throne. Yes, He let Satan have some temporary time on here, but you know, even Satan can only do what He allows Him. God never gave up His kingdom. He's still the King. And Jesus Christ is the one who He is anointed to be literally the King at the beginning of the millennium. He never, so He's making sure this all takes happen. It takes place. There's a preparation of people. You were called to live in submission to that and take the life that God has given to us and serve Him. You were called to become the special dwelling place of God. That seems almost arrogant to even say it. But all through the New Testament, Christians had to receive God's Spirit to be Christians. So they had to have God living in them. Jesus said, I and my Father will abide in you. We will live in you. And we've been appointed to that resurrection. And Christ returns. He begins to establish an actual real theocracy. But it's not going to be easy. Humanity isn't going to accept Him right away, at least according to the Scriptures. He's going to have to do a lot. But He'll have a temple of beings who have been changed, who are there to do nothing more than to serve Him. That's it. We're just there to serve Him. I've had people say, oh, I can't wait until Jesus comes back and I get to have 10 cities.

I don't think He's going to give me 10 cities. I would like to be His butler. I really would like to be His butler. Can you imagine every day you just there standing beside Him and kings come into worship and He says, Gary, would you get us some tea? Oh, man.

That'd be the most incredible thing in the world.

We're being prepared for whatever purpose He has for us.