Why Jerusalem
About this sermon
In “Why Jerusalem,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about Jerusalem, Israel in prophecy, faith. Drawing especially from Ezekiel 38, Zechariah 14, Zechariah 12, Luke 21, the teaching emphasizes that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that the sermon relates Israel’s place in Scripture to the unfolding prophetic picture.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on Jerusalem while working through Ezekiel 38. The message argues that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. It connects this with the conviction that thankfulness remembers God’s mercy and guards the heart from entitlement and complaint. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on Jerusalem while working through Zechariah 14. The message argues that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. It connects this with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on Jerusalem while working through Zechariah 12, Luke 21, Matthew 24. The message argues that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. It connects this with the conviction that Islamic claims and biblical revelation present incompatible accounts of God and salvation. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on Israel in prophecy while working through Revelation 11. The message argues that the sermon relates Israel’s place in Scripture to the unfolding prophetic picture. It connects this with the conviction that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on Israel in prophecy. The message argues that the sermon relates Israel’s place in Scripture to the unfolding prophetic picture. It connects this with the conviction that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on Jerusalem while working through Psalm 125. The message argues that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. It connects this with the conviction that the sermon relates Israel’s place in Scripture to the unfolding prophetic picture. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on faith while working through Hebrews 7. The message argues that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. It connects this with the conviction that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on David’s example while working through Genesis 14, Psalm 110. The message argues that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on the gospel while working through John 8. The message argues that the gospel announces Christ’s saving work and calls every hearer to repent, believe, and obey. It connects this with the conviction that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on prayer. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that the sermon relates Israel’s place in Scripture to the unfolding prophetic picture. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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- 0:00:00
hallelujah yes lord we love your presence lord hallelujah we praise you this morning we thank you lord for your presence lord your anointing god the times that you manifest your presence in our lives in our hearts where we feel your peace your warmth your love your power lord there's nothing like your manifest presence or nothing in this world like your presence god thank you for the times you give us peace in the midst of storms thank you for the times lord that you overpower our emotions and our thoughts and speak to us and confirm that with the witness of your holy spirit the witness of your presence in our lives father i praise you nothing more precious lord than when you manifest yourself to your people lord we thank you we thank you that you made the way through the blood of jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead so that we could enter boldly into the holy of holies by the blood of jesus christ thank you lord hallelujah jesus name hallelujah amen and amen i tell you i feel a little bit of a tug of war going on this morning just a little bit i mean i sensed the lord's presence but i also have sensed a bit of war back and forth with whatever the forces of darkness are wanting to hinder you don't have to record this just yet because all right you got your bibles this morning i hope all right i want you to turn to the book of zechariah this morning i think we're going to start off in zechariah chapter 14. i think i'm going to continue the message from last week because i think there's some things that we we need to know but the message today is entitled why jerusalem why jerusalem and if you remember last week i talked about world war three that's coming world war three and the things that will follow this war and who the players would be and talked about how that iran or persia as it's talked about in ezekiel 38 persia would would gather with a group of people like russia we showed where gog and magog really really uh are russia and that country north of israel north of the the black sea there and we talked about the other nations
- 0:03:00
about libya and the ethiopian region and all those those enemies around israel syria lebanon how they're going to come together and they're going to attack israel and what god's going to do and i believe that what's coming i read an article yesterday or the day before but it is just a matter of time now most even of our own experts our secretary of defense believes israel will attack iran within sometime between april and june it's that near when that happens now could this like i said last week could this end up just being a small skirmish and later on you know no one knows the exact timing of these things but it just seems that all the players are lining up to be involved and we'll know once it gets started who jumps into the mix and how bad it gets and how long it goes but anyway it's definitely going to happen but the questions got to be answered is why jerusalem in jerusalem jerusalem is an issue that um really is what's going to it's going to the jeru the fight over jerusalem is what's propelling this or pushing us into world war three but we need to know why and we need to know also that it's significant in prophecy because jesus said some things about it almost all the prophets of old said things about jerusalem but why why is jerusalem so important so special both to god and the devil why why is this war over this one little piece of real estate here why all this focus on this well i think we need to look at it a little closer but this will answer some of those questions i think this morning but it also show you some prophecies and let you know that see none of these things could have come to pass until 1967. 1967 in the six-day war the jews took back jerusalem and ever since then their arab neighbors and the rest of the world have been furious listen i've been there there is nothing in particularly special about that piece of land in the natural sense okay but there's some very powerful things about it and you're going to see the attention of the whole world focused on this place the next day the next 7 8 9 10 years however long we got left you're going to see the focus of the world on this city okay let's read this this is another scripture about the war that would come in the last days in israel but where zechariah 14 everybody there zechariah chapter 14 powerful passage of scripture here all right this is talking about the
- 0:06:00
second coming of jesus that's an awesome event some people don't even think we should talk about this but i i want to say this about that there are the two most significant events of history of mankind the first one i would put in in this in this order the first one would be when jesus came the first time born of a virgin died on the cross for the sins of mankind rose from the dead and then ascended to heaven and began the church i believe that was one of the most that's the most significant event is the cross of jesus christ the blood he shed on the cross to to forgive us or to give us the potential to be forgiven of our sins and to be right with god and to go to heaven forever and then the fact that he rose from the dead and all of that wonderful all of those wonderful things that happened at the cross and what how we have to respond to that but if you ask me what the second most important event of mankind would be i would have to say the last days are the events leading up to the second coming of jesus christ and his second coming i don't know how anybody can play off that this is not a significant issue when about one-third of the bible did you know this about one-third of the bible is prophecy one-third of the bible is prophecy so i don't know why people would say it's not important i guess if it's not important then jesus was wasting his time and paul was wasting his time and micah was wasting his time in zachariah and isaiah and jeremiah and ezekiel and oh my gosh in the apostle john especially to write a whole book about it they were just wasting their time if it's not important anyway just a thought zechariah 14 this is what the lord says in the last days behold the day of the lord and that's the day of the lord's wrath and judgment in the last days he said behold the day of the lord cometh and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee look at verse 2 for i will gather all nations against jerusalem to battle and the city shall be taken it shall be taken nearly completely overrun by the antichrist in the end but it says the city shall be taken and the house is rifled and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and the residue of the people shall shall not be cut off from the city he says then shall the lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle so this is armageddon this is when god brings all the nations of the world against jerusalem i will gather all nations against jerusalem to battle now look it says the lord shall go forth this is his second coming verse 4 it says and his feet shall stand
- 0:09:01
in that day upon the mount of olives which is before jerusalem on the east and i've stood there myself and there's still olive trees on that mountain then his feet shall stand that day upon the mount of olives which is before jerusalem on the east and in the mount of olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west there shall be a very great valley and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and the half of it so the lord will come and look what it says let's let's drop on down we'll just keep reading verse 5 and ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains for the valley of the mountain shall reach unto azell that you shall flee like as you fled before the earthquake in the days of uzziah king of judah and the lord my god shall come now look at this and all the saints with thee so this is when jesus returns with all the saints who have been raptured i believe just moments before armageddon and all the saints are raptured and they come back with him and it shall come to pass that in that day the light shall not be cleared or dark but it shall be one day which shall be known to the lord nor day nor night but it shall come to pass that at even time it shall be light and then he talks about in that day their living waters will go forth from jerusalem so this is talking about the second coming of jesus right here but he says right before them will bring all nations against jerusalem to battle so the focus is going to be on jerusalem all right let's back up and look at chapter 12 zechariah chapter 12. this is what he says about jerusalem even further and if you don't think this is true then you don't you haven't been paying attention to the news in a while all right let's let's read this zechariah 12 and this verse one the burden of the word of the lord for israel saith the lord which stretcheth forth the heavens and lay at the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him behold i will make jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in siege both against judah and against jerusalem now what he's saying is when you see jerusalem surrounded a siege is when you surround a city it's when armies come against the city completely or surround it so he says when they come in siege against jerusalem he says that i will i will make jerusalem a cup of trembling you know what that means listen i want you to know this that most of the world right now is terrified that the dispute over this place called jerusalem is going to start a nuclear war that's what this is jerusalem is god's already made it a cup of trembling
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