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HopeLives365

Amazing Discoveries Reveal the Future

Mark Finley

Jesus, Jerusalem and the Final Signs

My topic tonight is Jesus, Jerusalem, and startling end time prophecies.

As we look at the city of Jerusalem, and as we look at Israel, Palestine, the Middle East, We are concerned as we see rising tensions there in the heart of the Middle East in Jerusalem.

Will Earth's final war break out in Jerusalem?

Many Christians believe that the tension that we see today between the Arabs and the Israelis, that that tension will explode into a conflagration there in the Middle East.

Is the invasion of Jerusalem by enemy armies a sign of the end?

Will enemy armies 1 day invade Jerusalem?

Why is it that there's so much tension in Jerusalem?

What's the root cause of the tension between our Jewish friends and our Muslim friends?

Any place you are in Jerusalem and you look toward East Jerusalem, you see the Golden Dome Temple of the Rock that dominates the landscape.

That golden dome temple was built in the 7th century and it is the second most holy place, the second holiest place after Mecca for our Muslim friends.

It was here that they believe that Abraham offered up not Isaac but Ishmael and it's here as well that they believe that God gave them the right to Palestine.

But right below this, if you look at our map of Jerusalem, Jerusalem is divided into 4 quarters, there's 8 gates going into Jerusalem.

It's divided into the Armenian quarter, the Christian quarter, the Muslim quarter, and the Jewish quarter.

The Muslim and Jewish quarter both border Temple Mount.

When you look at the Jewish quarter, look at the wall right here.

If you look at that wall, it is this wall.

It is the last vestige of the Temple that Herod built for the Jews and that Temple was destroyed in 70 AD.

Right above that wall is Temple Mount and thereupon Temple Mount, the Muslims have built their temple, the Dome of the Rock.

As the Jews look up from the Wailing Wall that reminds them there at the Western Wall of the glory and splendor that they used to have, they see the holy shrine of our Muslim friends upon the very mount where they had the Jewish temple.

They believe that that mount belongs to them.

The Jews believe that their temple should be built there.

And so there is often tension that erupts between the 2 groups.

What did Jesus say about end time events?

Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives with his disciples and as he did, they looked over the Kidron Valley down to Jerusalem.

And as Jesus sat there with his disciples, he looked down upon Herod's temple, the temple that Herod had built for the Jews.

And Jesus said this to his disciples, not 1 stone of that temple would be left upon another.

Jesus predicted that the temple at Jerusalem would be destroyed.

As he made that prediction, the disciples were stunned.

They thought that an event as cataclysmic as the destruction of the Temple must be the end of the world.

Jesus was talking though about Titus in the Roman armies that in about 35 years from his time, 37 years, would come down in 70 AD and destroy the temple.

So Jesus' prediction that not 1 stone would be left upon another in the temple.

Jesus' prediction that the temple would be destroyed was fulfilled in the first century in 70 AD.

In fact, the destruction of that temple was so fierce that the Roman soldiers surrounded Jerusalem, the Jews were starved, the temple was destroyed.

The destruction of Jerusalem was barbaric.

Thousands and thousands died, many died of starvation.

Here you have an archaeological dig that has taken place not too many years ago in Jerusalem and it is the remains of a house of a nobleman that was burned to the ground 2, 000 years before in 70 AD and it's called the burnt house.

It's the vestige or remnants of the destruction of Jerusalem.

70, 000 Roman troops surrounded Jerusalem.

They laid siege to the city which means nobody could go out to get food, nobody could come in to bring in food.

The siege of Jerusalem lasted for months.

Josephus was a Jewish historian and he described the devastating effects of the siege this way.

He said, the best of friends would often come to blows over a small piece of bread.

Children would often rip up fruit food from their parents' mouths.

Neither brother nor sister had mercy on 1 another.

A bushel of corn was more precious than gold." Now listen to what the historian goes on to say, driven by hunger, some ate manure, some the cinches of their saddles, Some the leather stripped from their shields.

Some still had hay in their mouths when their bodies were found.

Some sought to escape starvation by means of their own filth.

So many died of starvation that 115, 000 corpses were found in the city and buried.

As the Jews were starving to death, because 70, 000 Romans surrounded the city, as they were not able to have enough strength or might to put up any fight at all.

The Romans attacked the city and the Romans burned it.

Jesus predicted that 37, 38 years before as he talked to his disciples on the Mount of Olives.

The disciples thought that an event as cataclysmic as the destruction of the temple must be the end of the world.

It must be Jerusalem is going to be destroyed when Jesus comes again.

So they said, Jesus, When will these things be?

That is, when will Jerusalem be destroyed?

And what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the world?

In a masterful prophecy, Jesus blended signs that would lead up to the destruction of the temple in the first century.

Signs that would take place on a grander, larger, universal scale before his coming.

And in Matthew chapter 24, we read the signs that Jesus gave Himself.

Signs that would take place before the destruction of Jerusalem and signs that would take place before His coming.

The disciples said, Matthew 24, verse 3, what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus outlines more than 20 signs of His return.

Signs that would take place in miniature before Jerusalem was destroyed, but signs that would be warnings, signs that would point to the second coming of Christ.

Now as we look at these signs, we see them all around us today.

We see them in the newspaper, we hear about them on CNN or on Fox News, we turn on our televisions.

These signs that frighten many, these signs that bring anxiety and fear.

For us as Christians, we see the same signs, but we are not looking at the trouble around us, we recognize that there are signs of the coming King.

There are signs of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible talks about signs in the area of religion, and it tells us exactly what would happen there.

The Bible tells us about signs in the world of politics, what would be going on.

The Bible tells us, Jesus talks about signs in the world of nature, the upheavals in nature.

The Bible talks about signs in the world of morality and signs in society.

Tonight we're going to look at Jesus' predictions.

We're going to look at what he says in Matthew chapter 24.

Our hearts will thrill that these prophecies have been and are being fulfilled.

Our hearts will thrill that the events we see taking place in the 21st century are events that Jesus Christ himself predicted.

As we see these events occurring, we can be certain that Jesus Christ is on His way.

The Bible talks first about science and the area of religion.

It talks about false Christ and false prophets.

The Bible talks about a drift and a departure from the Word of God.

It talks about an explosion of interest in the occult and spiritualism in the last days.

It talks about those that would rise and claim to be Christ.

Let me give you just a very few examples.

The Bible says, Matthew 24, verse 24, let's read it together from the screen.

For a false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders.

Ancient Discoveries Prove the Bible is True

I'm so delighted that you've joined us for this series titled Amazing Discoveries Reveal the Future.

Our auditorium is absolutely packed tonight.

There's a hunger in the hearts of men and women a desire to know God's Word, a desire to make sense out of the confusing future that seems for many to be so foggy, so obscure, night after night, here in Amazing Discoveries.

We're going to look at some of the prophecies of the Bible and reveal exactly what God's plan is for the future.

Tonight as we go to our Bible lecture titled Amazing Discoveries in the lost cities of the dead.

Father in Heaven, thank you that you have a plan for this world.

And thank you that although the future seems confusing to many, your word points out very clear light on the road ahead.

Tonight, during our presentation, grant us your hope, grant us your courage, and grant us a new sense of direction.

Where can we find reliable information about the future?

Where can we find confidence as we look toward the future?

Does anybody have any certain information about what's going to happen in the Middle East?

What's going to happen in our world in the future, how can we know for sure?

You see, many people have dismissed the Bible.

They've dismissed it without seriously reading it.

They've looked at the Bible as a book of myths and a book of fables.

They've looked at the Bible as a book for people who were intellectually ignorant and not really astute.

But maybe these people are looking for hope, but they have neglected the very book that can bring them hope.

Maybe that book that our mothers and fathers read, that we have some place around the house that's collecting dust.

Maybe it is reliable after all, and maybe it has a message for this generation of unusual hope.

Tonight I'm going to share with you that archaeology reveals the truthfulness of the Bible, history reveals the accuracy of the Bible, prophecy reveals the inspiration of the Bible, and changed lives reveal the power of the Bible.

Tonight we're going to look at archaeology, we're going to look at history, we're going to look at prophecy, We're going to look at changed lives.

Because in this series, amazing discoveries reveal the future.

Although we will look at prophecies from the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the book of Daniel that Jesus told us to study, and we'll look at those prophecies about the future.

If the Bible is not reliable about what it said would already happen, why can we have confidence in it regarding the future?

But if the Bible has made predictions that have come true for the last 2, 500 years, if the Bible can be archaeologically demonstrated as truthful, if we can look at the history and culture that surrounds the Bible and see that those events and places are accurate.

Then we can have confidence in what the Bible says about the future.

So I want to take you with me tonight on a fascinating journey.

We are going to go to the Middle East, and I must confess to you, the more I climb over the broken down ruins of the Middle East.

The more I tramp through the deserts of the Middle East, the more I go to ancient cities and the places of the Bible, the more my heart is stirred within me to have confidence in the living Word of God, that this book is more than a common book.

When I pick it up, I open it with reverence, sensing.

Not merely because it makes me feel more inspired when I read it, and more encouraged when I read it, more hopeful.

But as I take this book, it's a book that meets not only the needs of my heart, but it's a book that satisfies my longing to know truth and it satisfies my intellect because as I've studied the archaeology of the Bible, the history of the Bible, the prophecies in the Bible, as I've spoken to tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and seen their lives transformed by the Word of God, I sense that it's an unusual book.

So come with me tonight to the magnificent land of the Nile.

We're going across the Israeli border down into Egypt.

The Nile River flows through the center of Egypt, giving that center a swath of green in the middle of the desert, and that fertile crescent is just magnificent, growing figs and growing dates and growing all manner of fruits.

As we travel to the land of the Nile, we're traveling past fascinating pyramids that awe our, and give us awe and give us wonder.

We look at the fantastic treasures of Egypt and we marvel.

We come down to the awesome monuments of Egypt and we step back thinking about the glory of that past civilization and we wonder where that glory is today.

We look at the ancient temples of Egypt and We stand amazed at what these ancients were actually able to accomplish.

But we're looking tonight for something more than fantastic temples.

We're looking for something more than amazing treasures.

And tonight we're going to discover an amazing, an incredible, a fantastic, an unusual archaeological discovery that casts light on the Word of God.

Egyptian culture is just a magnificent culture.

The Egyptians are so hospitable, so warm, so friendly, invite you to sit for tea, give you some of their famous bread and chickpeas all ground up.

You know the pyramids at Giza required 2.5 million, 2.5 million blocks of stone.

The Great Pyramid Cheops at Giza towered 480 feet and it spread over 13 acres.

You know there's about 10 feet in a story.

So if you're downtown Chicago and you're looking up at a 48-story building, that's about the size of the top of the pyramid at Cheops.

So you're standing there looking up at this 48-story building and somebody comes by and says, what's up there?

You say, well, I'm just comparing that to the pyramid at Cheops.

Some of those blocks weighed between 1.5 and 3 tons.

How do you get a block weighing 3 tons up 48 stories?

Have we figured out how to do that today?

Sometime I'll tell you how they did that.

The Giza pyramids took 120, 000 slaves 20 years to build.

I wish we could, but we need to move further.

It was here that Howard Carter in 1922 discovered the famous tomb of King Tutankhamen.

That tomb yielded 5, 000 priceless works of art.

And incidentally, hundreds, thousands of people are coming in now to New York City because they are lining up.

There is a new Tutankhamen exhibit there.

The Egyptian government has allowed some of these priceless art treasures, about 130 of them, to come to New York.

And Americans, again, are dazzled by this.

But we can't linger by King Tutankhamen too long because I'm headed to Rosetta.

Napoleon's armies invaded Egypt in 1799 and when they did he brought about a hundred linguists and scholars and intellectuals with him And they were digging in a place called Rosetta and they came across an unusual stone.

Now nobody in the world could understand hieroglyphics.

They had no idea what the Egyptian monuments were saying.

The hieroglyphics are a picture language of the Egyptians and it was a language that had long since been put aside.

The center language is a cursive Egyptian called Demotic.

Now some people misunderstand and say is that demonic?

No, it has nothing to do with demons, nothing to do with devils, it's just the name of a cursive language.

Now, every reputable scholar that Napoleon had with him understood the Greek language.

There was a very brilliant scholar, a French scholar, called Jean-Paul Champion.

And he began looking at this Greek and he figured out from the Greek that it was equivalent to what was on top in the Egyptian.

And so he took the Greek words, figured out the symbols of the hieroglyphics, and then the monuments began to talk.

Now you say, Mark, what does that have to do with the Bible?

The Bible speaks about a mighty nation, the Hittites.

Good God! Bad World! Why?

Tonight our topic is, Good God, Bad World, Why?

If God is so good, why is this world so bad?

If God is a God of love, Why does he allow human suffering?

And if he's all powerful, why doesn't he stop it?

As you look around the world tonight, it's a world of intense suffering.

War breaks out in various hot spots around the world.

And as it does, it's the innocent that suffer.

Often innocent people suffer as a result of war.

Often women and children are the victims of war.

Why does God allow those innocent children and babies who have nothing to do with political conflict to suffer in war?

Why is it that God allows such famine and heartache and suffering and poverty?

Little children born merely because of a geographical location, often suffer incredibly through no choice of their own.

And where's God in a place called Hinsdale, Illinois, when a teenager and his father go away for a weekend together and they get about a hundred miles from here on their special time together and a drunk driver hits them and the boy is killed instantly.

Why is it that a drunk driver hits a Christian car and the Christian boy dies and the drunk walks away?

Where's God in the natural disasters of life?

Where's God when there are cyclones and tornadoes?

Where is God when there are floods that sweep away cities?

And innocent people, poverty stricken people, see their houses collapse and they run and they cry out in horror and they put their hands over their face and they say, God, in this sorrow, God, in this disaster, God, when everything has been taken from me and tears are running down my face, God, where are you?

Have you ever asked those questions yourself?

Have you ever asked them deep in your heart when a child has died?

Have you ever asked them when a marriage has gone sour?

Have you ever asked them when you're up in debt because investments have gone bad and the economy was humming along?

Have you ever asked them, when it has been, when you've been the 1 that's gotten cancer, when you've been the 1 that's lost a husband from heart disease, have you ever said, God, God, if you're so good, why's the world so bad?

I wanna take you on a journey with me tonight, a fascinating journey to the island of Patmos, because I want to assure you tonight that there are answers to those questions.

And the answers reveal a God that's more loving than you can ever imagine.

So come with me on a journey, a journey to the island of Patmos.

Of all the places that I travel in the world, Patmos is 1 of my favorite places.

It's in the Aegean Sea and you can either reach it by Turkey, from Turkey or Greece by boat.

If you go from Greece to the island of Patmos, you have to take an overnight boat and sometimes the seas are rough and if you're not really seafaring, you may get a little nausea.

If you travel to Patmos from Turkey, from Kusadasi, the seaport, it takes you about 3 hours to get there.

The last time I was there was about a year and a half ago or so now.

We took a group out to Patmos to study the book of Revelation.

It's the island that John the Apostle was exiled on by Dionysian, the Roman Emperor.

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Amazing Discoveries Reveal the Future

Ancient Discoveries Live Q & A

Transcript

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