John Hagee - Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem
The Bible says of Jerusalem, "It is the city of God". God has placed his name there: that it should be remembered forever. That's in the Bible. Jerusalem is the epicenter of the universe. Jerusalem is the shoreline of eternity. That means everything of significance that's going to happen in the future of the world begins and ends in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is where Isaiah and Jeremiah penned the principles of righteousness that became the moral foundations for western civilization. Our forefathers looked at the prophets of Israel and took from them the wisdom that made America a democracy. Let me tell you this, ladies and gentlemen of America: if America is to survive, we must have a revival of righteousness in this nation. Let's read the text in Psalm 122:6. David writes: pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces".
Father God, we gather here today to look into the sacred scripture to determine your love for Jerusalem and the message of Jerusalem that has been forgotten in a society that has lost its way. Let the Word of God bring light and truth to our lives today. In Jesus' name, we pray. And all of God's children said, amen.
You may be seated. Jerusalem is called, by the prophet Zechariah, in chapter 12, "The cup of trembling". The vast majority of Christians don't have the foggiest idea what "The cup of trembling" means. Why? Because every nation that attacks Jerusalem and the Jewish people are going to be crushed by the hand of God. God is saying to the nations of the earth, if you go after Israel and Jerusalem, I am going to destroy you. You will see me coming, and knowing that I am coming, you're hand that holds the cup will tremble and shake with fear, and you can't stop it. I refer you to Psalm 2:9. David writes: "You," meaning God Almighty, "Shall break them with a rod of iron".
I want you to understand that when God Almighty lines up the enemies of Israel, he is going to crush them like a steel rod that hits an imperfect potter's vessel. And they are going to splatter in the pages of history. So let me say that a little plainer. Beware, Russia. Beware, Iran. Beware, China. In the future, God Almighty is going to crush you like a potter's vessel. The prophet Ezekiel declares, in the 39th chapter, verse 2, that God Almighty is going to kill five out of six of every soldier that you send to Israel in the Gog/Magog war. God's word says that. And God's going to do that. China, king of the east, listen up. Your army of 200 million people is going to March down the dry riverbed of the Euphrates in the future. And you're going to launch an attack against Israel. It's called "The Battle of Armageddon".
Coming from the other side will be the antichrist and the armies of the west, which will be Europe and what's left of the U.S. Military. Jesus Christ is then going to come from heaven instantly, when you arrive on that battlefield. And he is going to crush that army until the blood flows to the bridle of a horse, the length and breath of the Battle of Armageddon. I want you to understand, when Jesus Christ comes, your hands are going to tremble in terror. Your global dreams are going to be crushed by Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of all Lords. Never forget God's love for Jerusalem and the Jewish people.
Listen to that very closely. God has never broken covenant with Israel or the Jewish people. God's commitment to Israel begins in Genesis 1:1, not may 14, 1948. Exodus 4:22, God told Moses to give this message to Pharaoh. Moses had just returned from the backside of the wilderness. The Jewish people have now been in bondage for 400 years to this lunatic. "Israel is my firstborn son," God says. So you, Moses, you say to Pharaoh, "Let my son go". But this is straight out of the Bible. Don't look at me like you're listening to the God Father here. Some of you, it's in the Bible, dude. "Israel is my firstborn son... So I say to you, 'let my son go.' but you refuse to let my son go", he's talking about the Jewish people who are slaves. Listen to these words: "I will kill your son, your firstborn".
Let me tell you something. God knows how to play hardball. You come against Israel and the Jewish people, and you have got his attention. Pharaoh did not let the Jewish people go from captivity, so God Almighty sent the death angel to Egypt and killed the firstborn child in every Egyptian home that did not have lamb's blood over the door. God can get your attention. Consider the Assyrians in their attack against the City of Jerusalem. The ancient nation was a major world power for a thousand years. That's as long as the Roman Empire. They had a military that no one could match. The Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem, and Sennacherib boasted the fact that no one, not even the God of Israel, could prevent him from capturing Jerusalem.
Isaiah prophesied that God himself would defend Jerusalem. So this was the battle of God's. The Assyrian army of 185,000 soldiers camped around the walls of Jerusalem. That night, while they slept, the death angel went through the camp and he killed 185,000 Assyrians while they were asleep. And the next morning, when Hezekiah looked over the wall, he said: "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us bless his name together for he has done great things"! Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!
To all of you warlords taking notes, write this scripture down. "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps". "Keepeth" is a military term. He that takes force against Israel, wake up, because they have a defender you've never met. It's God Almighty. Listen to God's vow to the nations of the world and America. "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you". Let me say this clearly. The day America stops blessing Israel will be the day God stops blessing the United States of America. Zechariah 2. Remember God's love for the Jewish people in this word. "For he who touches you touches the apple of his eye".
The apple of your eye is the pupil of your eye. God says, when you start attacking Jerusalem or the Jewish people, it's like someone sticking their finger right in the middle of your eyeball. I assure you that gets somebody's attention. In the Bible, the Jewish people are chosen people, they are cherished people, they are a blood-covenant people. And that covenant has never been broken. Exodus 19, God calls Israel, "You shall be a special treasure to me above all the people on the earth". That includes America, by the way. "You shall be a special treasure... You shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation". Israel is to God those three things, "A special treasure. A kingdom of priests. A holy nation". And that position has not changed.
Romans 9:4, saint Paul states that the Jewish people are adopted by God. They have experienced the glory of God. They have experienced his presence. God came down at mount Sinai and gave Moses the Word of God. And they have received his covenants. "Covenants" is plural, meaning that their favor does not stop at the end of Malachi: it goes into the New Testament. Paul writes in Romans, the 9th, 10th and 11th chapter: he says, "All Israel shall be saved". That's favor. Israel proves God totally controls the future of many nations. Fact: the whole history of the nation of Israel is foretold in Bible history. If you're an atheist, listen up. The Bible proof that there is a God is found in the prophetic scripture who told the future hundreds of years in advance, and it came true exactly.
I give you the first illustration of Genesis 15:13. When Abraham is going to God, and he said, "I want to know the future of my children, the future of the Jewish people". And God gave it to him 400 years in advance. He said, Genesis 15:13, Abraham's children, Israel, would be slaves in Egypt for 400 years. That happened. That they would be delivered from Egypt with great wealth. That happened. How? Because the Jewish people took cartloads of gold and silver and precious fabrics from the terrified Egyptian people, whose first-born child had just been taken by the death angel. It was payday for 400 years of not being paid. Let me tell you something. When you work for God, you will have a payday.
When did God build up Jerusalem? In 1967, Jerusalem was reconnected to the state of Israel for the first time in 2,000 years. Since 1967, we have been rapture ready. Listen to Hosea's amazing prophecy concerning the birth of Israel. Hosea 6:1 and 2, "Let us return to the Lord: for he has torn us". The Jewish people experienced great judgment for their sin. But then he says, "But God will heal us. He has stricken us, but he is going to bind us up". Follow. "After two days he will revive us: and on the third day he will raise us up, and we will live in his sight". Now that's all a mystery until you understand this one principle of God's mathematics.
Listen, "A day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day". I'll put this on the chart for you, so you can see that. If you will, from Genesis is 1:1 to the birth of Christ is b.C. Forget that. This is the first day of 1,000 years. The crusades start about 800 and go for the next few hundred years. But that's a thousand years into the first day. The second thousand years begins right here and continues until the afternoon, 1948 of the second day. Hosea said, "God will bind us up at the second day". And then he says the shocker of shockers, give me the third day. On the third day, we will see him face to face. We are 23 years into the third day. Jesus Christ is coming soon.
Remember God's command to the church of Jesus Christ. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," said the Lord. There are two groups of people here: one group of people being comforted and the other doing the comforting. The "My people" here are the Jewish people. Believe me, Jesus never called a gentile "His people" because they never were until after the cross. Let that settle in for just a minute. The message of the cross is absolutely essential to every gentile. But comfort from what? Why did he want Christians to comfort the Jewish people? Because the crusades of the middle ages that sent a hundred thousand crusaders from Europe to Jerusalem.
And on the way, those crusaders murdered, they raped, they robbed the Jewish people going to Jerusalem and while they were going back from Jerusalem to Europe. During the Spanish Inquisition, 32,000 Jews were executed. 150,000 were expelled from their homeland of a thousand years, because the Jews would not denounce Judaism. The Jews were given 14 days to leave Spain, and they're earthly possessions were sold and placed into the coffers of the Roman Church. Comforted from the holocaust of six million people, who were systematically slaughtered. God's judgment is coming to every person or nation that abuses the Jewish people. It's called "The judgment of the nations," and it will happen when Christ returns to earth.
Now let's quickly give you a snapshot picture of where we are. Let's say today, in the next five minutes, we are raptured from this earth suddenly. We're gone. Your last breath here is your first breath there. You come before the Lord and present your life, because this is the Judgment Seat of Christ to the righteous. What you did and didn't do in life will be evaluated. God will give you a crown commensurate to your accomplishments on earth. He will give you a dazzling white robe of righteousness, because he has cleansed you from all sin. Then will begin a seven-year fiesta, the marriage supper of the lamb. It is going to be one joyous escapade.
While on the earth, all hell is breaking loose with the antichrist. And if you don't take his Mark, he'll kill you. And if you do take his Mark, you won't go to heaven. So it's a lot better if you get to know Jesus and you make the party. Now follow. After the seven years is over, Jesus Christ is coming back with all of the Christians mounted on, millions of Christians, mounted on white horses. This is the Book of Revelation. Jesus is coming. He's riding through the clouds of heaven.
And there is blood on the edge of his tallit. Why? Because he is going to annihilate all of that army that has gathered at the Battle of Armageddon to attack Jerusalem. He is going to kill every person who is there. He is then going to liberate the righteous Jews who have been hiding out for three and a half years from the antichrist in Jordan at petra. They're going to come to Israel, and 1,000 years of perfect peace is going to come to this earth where you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and those of you on television who know Jesus Christ are going to rule and reign as royalty with Jesus Christ for a thousand years.
One of the things that's happening here when Jesus comes back is the judgment of the nations. And he will come, the Bible says, with his holy angels. And he will sit on the throne of his glory. And all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will make this statement to every anti-semitic person on the earth, "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels". This is God talking. This is the loving, compassionate God talking. "'For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take me in, I was naked and you did not clothe me, I was sick in prison and you didn't come see me'. Then the people will say, 'when did we see you hungry... Or naked'? And Jesus will say, 'inasmuch as you did it unto one of these, my brethren...'"
"My brethren" is the Jewish people. Jesus never called gentiles "His brethren". "Inasmuch as you did this to the Jewish people, you did it to me. And these will go away," this is the Bible. "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous will go into eternal life". You don't want to be at that judgment. You don't want to be on the wrong side of the Israel equation when God balances the books. Do you want the blessings of peace and prosperity? I say this, and listen closely. King David commands in the text, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love you". Say that with me. "They shall prosper that love you".
How many of you would really like for prosperity to run over you? Hmmm. Let me tell you something. Some of you are not getting any. If you don't expect God's blessing, you're not going to receive God's blessing. The centurion in Luke 7, a Roman centurion, he has a sick servant. And he wants this healing rabbi named Jesus coming down the road to go into his house and pray for the sick servant. And he, the centurion, sends a Jewish delegation down to meet Jesus and to tell him what this Roman centurion wants. Jesus went to the house, prayed for the sick servant, the sick servant was healed. Why? Because the Jewish people said, "You owe it to him, because he has built us a synagogue".
Here's the line: when gentile people start doing acts of kindness to the Jewish people, God starts doing miracles in the lives of those gentile people. Cornelius, in acts 10. Why did God choose Cornelius' house to be the first house to hear the gospel? Acts 10:22 says, "Cornelius, the centurion", he's a gentile and he's a Roman, "He's a just man, who fears God", and here's the catch. And the Bible says he was a man of good report among the Jewish people. The apostle Peter went to his house. He preached the gospel. His whole house was converted, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit before Peter got through preaching his sermon. What an awesome blessing that was. Why? Because he blessed the Jewish people.
Cornerstone Church, in 1978, our first trip to Israel followed by a night to honor Israel and Christians united for Israel that right now have approximately 12 million people, as a result of the blessings of God. This church is literally reaching the nations of the world with a magnitude that you will discover only when you get to heaven. When we, as a church in 1978, following our first trip to Israel, started doing things that would bless the Jewish people, miracles started happening in this church that changed our destiny. And I mean they happened back-to-back to back-to-back.
And they're still happening. I'm telling you something that God wants you to hear, so you can experience the abundance of God. First, do you know Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life? Have you ever in your life said, "Father, I want to receive eternal life"? Then you have to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Not this church, just accept Jesus. And in that moment of time, angels in heaven write your name in the lamb's book of life. But if you don't, and the Lord should come, you're going to face the antichrist with a suffering that I cannot describe. Secondly, expect the prosperity of God. Thirdly, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, as a Christian, on a regular basis.
Will you stand to your feet? How many of you in this room can say, "Pastor, I have never accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior"? If that describes you, would you slip your hand up right where you are? I want to have this prayer right now with those who have raised your hand. Say this prayer with me:
Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I receive Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life. From this day forward, he is my Lord and Savior. Amen.
How wonderful that is. How wonderful that is. How many of you in this building want to experience the prosperity of God that is above in anything you have ever experienced in your life? Let me see your hands right where you are. Pray this prayer with me.
Heavenly Father, in faith, I receive the prosperity that God has promised the righteous. From this day forward, open the windows of heaven and bless me with blessings I cannot contain, in Jesus' name. Amen.