Joseph Prince - The Mount Of Olives Where Jesus Wept
— My view, Joseph, past you, is to mount Mariah.
— Mm hm.
— It’s a pretty famous location here in Israel.
— Yeah.
— And what’s on your heart as you’re standing here today in relation to «Expedition Promised Land»? We’re kind of right here at the Mount of Olives. We’re looking at this scene here. What’s on your heart as you stand here today?
— Well, just when you mentioned mount Mariah, which is behind us, of course, now you have to visualize all that happened. Used to just be a mountain, just nothing here but just a mountain, which God told Abraham, «A mountain that I will show you oft, and take your son, your only son, the son that you love and bring him to the mountain». Why that mountain? Why can’t he just sacrifice one of the mountains of Hebron? He was in Hebron. Why didn’t he just, because there’s three days journey, «And I’ll show you the mountain,» and the word Moriah in Hebrew as well is seeing, seeing the provision of God, or God sees Moriah. And when he saw this mountain, he brought his son up here. This is where it happened. He was about to plunge that knife into his son. The Lord stopped him. And the Lord says, «Now I know you love me. You fear me because you have not withheld your son, your only son, the son that you loved». So all the while God’s mind was he’s gonna send his son, the son that he love to this place. He didn’t want Abraham’s son because there’s sin in the blood. He wouldn’t a perfect sacrifice. And all the while the father had in mind the ram that was caught behind, when he was about to plunge that knife into Isaac, God says, «Offer that lamb». And the ram was caught by his horns. You see? And that there’s, you know, when a ram is caught by his horns and he pulls out of the bush, what do you have?
— Hmm.
— A crown of thorns. And that’s the ram that he offered instead of Isaac, here on this mountain. And I believe that when you look back, Abraham, when you look back on this mountain, he saw Calvary in a vision. How do I know that? Because Jesus says to the pharisees, «Before Abraham, Abraham rejoiced to see my day». And they say that, «You’re not yet 50 years old. You have seen Abraham»? He says, «Before Abraham was, I am». The name of the God of the burning bush. I am. Not I was, I am. So, it is here that the Son of God gave his life for us outside the gates of Jerusalem. It is here the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. You can see the mount Zion, that location over there, with that blue pyramidical top and structure, somewhere here also, we know that Nebuchadnezzar later search around this area, right? For 70 years, Israel was in captivity, but their heart was always longing to…
— See this.
— Yeah.
— And you and I are standing here. We shall not never take this for granted. You know, Jews all over the world down through history, will be saying, «Next year in Jerusalem».
— Next year.
— «Next year in Jerusalem». But the land wasn’t ready yet, all right? And now I believe we’re in the end times. I really believe that. 2023, I really believe that a lot of things are gonna happen. We are seeing things happen around the world. We’ve never seen a pandemic in recent years, like that of COVID. It is global, totally the whole world’s affected by. And here in this mountain, I’m just trying to imagine. You would think of him, a carpenter, with four men around him. Peter, James, and John and Andrew came and asked him, «Tell me, Lord, when will these things be»? The signs. Imagine Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, telling them about the history of Europe, and what was gonna happen in the end times, all right down here. He says, «Plagues, there’ll be plagues and great earthquakes in diverse places». We are seeing that happen in our generation. Never before, back to back, great earthquakes and now plagues. But then he said something. «See that you be not troubled. These are just the beginning of the birth pangs. These are the beginning of the birth pangs. So the end is not yet». And I believe the Christian posture is not to look to the grave, but to look to the sky. The Bible says to wait for his Son from heaven, amen? And in twinkling of an eye, you and i, there’s hope for you, Matt. Gonna be young forever. Strong and healthy.
— Love that.
— Forever, forever is quite a long time.
— I love that.
— So when I look at this, this is eternal City of Jerusalem. Everything happened here.
— The opportunity to walk the Promised Land, «Expedition Promised Land,» walk where Jesus walked. When you open up at day seven, Mount of Olives, we’re basically standing here looking at this exact location here. And it makes me think of everything that happened here. The city of David is just here. The southern steps that have been excavated
— The southern steps, yeah.
— As the, you know, 1st century Jews would’ve been, you know, cleansing in the pool of Siloam, and then walking up and entering this. I mean, this is not kind of where it happened.
— Yeah.
— We’re looking at it. And this is one of the best vantage points. It’s a beautiful, peaceful day, 2023. We’re getting to talk about the things of God, the things of the Lord, the things of Jesus. And all I have to do is mention a word here and there, and then all of a sudden you’re grabbing a story from the Old Testament and bringing grace in. You were mentioning the closed gate.
— Yes.
— The Western Wall. Eastern gate.
— The Eastern gate.
— Yeah, the Eastern gate.
— In Ezekiel 44, it says, «The gate will be shut, because the Lord God has entered into it».
— Wow.
— And we know he rode the donkey, right? Right into the gate, Eastern gate. And that was the day of this presentation. If you calculate even the years, it’s exactly from the Daniel 70th week, it’s exactly to the very day. That’s why he says, «If only you have eyes to see, you knew not the day of your visitation». It was also here that he wept before he went to the Eastern gate. Somewhere in the slopes here, our Lord Jesus wept. But why do you reckon he wept? And those tears in the Greek, it’s not like the tears when he wept at Lazarus' tomb. That was soft tears. He just wept silently. But this was strong, strong.
— Crying, literally sobbing, body shaking sobs over Jerusalem. What do you think he saw? He saw the future. He saw how that, and this is a language of our Lord. He says, «I would’ve gathered you like a mother hen would’ve gathered her chicks and you would not». So protection was offered, but you can’t reject him who is the protection and expect to be protected. For 2,000 years, the story of the Jewish people suffering, you ask the question, if you think about the sin that caused Israel to go into captivity when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came here and brought them. They lived there for 70 years only, but now since ad 70, they’ve been out of the land for 2,000 years. What was the sin?
— Wow.
— They never committed idolatry again whey they came back. What was the sin? Jesus says «You will not see me anymore until you say 'Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai, ' 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'» and he says something to them. When he was crying over them, he said this. «How I wish I would’ve gathered you like a mother hen would gather her chicks and you would not. Behold, your house». You know, just a few days ago, he says, «Don’t make my father’s house a house of merchandise».
— Yeah.
— Right? But he’s here, he says, «Your house is become their house». It’s no more the father’s house. Your house has left you desolate until you say «Blessed is he who comes»…
— My goodness.
— «In the name of the Lord».
— Wow.
— Right here.
— It feels like I can kind of just throw anything at you and you’re gonna teach. This is a really good spot to do it in. The idea that Jesus, many times in the gospels, would come touch somebody, heal them, and then say, «Don’t say anything».
— Right.
— Don’t mention this to anybody. Of course, the Bible tells us they ignored that, they went and told everybody and all of that. So there was this characteristic that Jesus didn’t want to be exalted until the day that he rode in. It would’ve been from right here where we’re standing down through the Kidron Valley and in through that gate that’s just over your shoulder. And so, explain the difference of telling people not to say anything about the miraculous acts of the Messiah, and then allowing the celebration of the King of kings. What’s going on there?
— Well, I believe that during that time, even when the Lord was operating, it was still under, it’s like a transition between the old into the new. Some people say the gospels begin with Matthew 1. It doesn’t. He has not yet died. He’s not raised from the dead. His blood has not been shed, so how can there be the new covenant be inaugurated? So in a way, you can say that Jesus was still operating based on the law. He came to bring in the kingdom, but the kingdom was rejected, so he said the law was until John, so there’s this period of time, for example, he was saying, «Go not to the way of gentiles». That’s strange. Doesn’t he want the gospel to be preached everywhere? But he told his disciples, «Don’t go into the way of gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel». So his first calling was to Israel and he knew that if they are gonna publicize the Israeli, the Jews that were here, if they will publicize his miracles and all that, the people will come for the miracles and fail to see him, his assignment as their Messiah, as their Savior. Just like, for example, when they came to Jesus in Luke 14, they came to him, multitudes were thronging him. He turned around. Now this is how you think the crowd, Matt, by saying this, «If any of you…»
— I already know how to do that, go ahead.
— You can just turn around and do it. Jesus turned around, there’s a crowd. Look, we all want that, right? There was a crowd. Any rabbi would love to have that. But he turned around and told them, «If any of you come after me, you don’t hate your father, your mother, your wife, your children and forsake all that you have, you cannot be my disciple». Now you think about it, we turn the whole thing to a discipleship teaching, but actually what was he saying? He’s saying, «You sure you wanna come after me? Like a rabbi teacher kind of thing? No, you don’t realize you gotta forsake everything that you have».
— Wow.
— It’s almost like you feel like he’s not comfortable.
— In his response, he didn’t want that. And the whole chapter begins with him entering the house where the pharisees were jockeying for position and then he shared a parable about how when you are asked and invited to a party, find the lowest seat and then you’ll be exalted. You find honor in others' eyes, but he didn’t feel comfortable in their world, but let me show you right the end after he told them, that’s the way to thin a crowd. Then the very next verse is Luke 15, «Then drew near the sinners».
— Wow.
— Now the sinners came. Look at him. Now he’s bringing them into his world, his will of grace. And look at the joy. He starts sharing about the parable of the lost sheep, how the shepherd will leave every one of them and just find the one that’s lost, and how he rejoices over that one that’s lost. He puts him on his shoulders and even invites his friend for a party. That’s unheard of, just over one lost sheep. And then the lost coin, that woman, all the triune God, the triune God, I should say the triune God, three divine persons in one is involved in that parable…
— Wow.
— Of his world. And the prodigal son, the father waiting. So you have the shepherd, Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit, the woman sweeping for the lost image. You have the father waiting for the son come home to his love. Triune God is involved and you find that this is God’s world in Luke 15, but Luke 15, man’s world, he wasn’t too comfortable, the jockeying for position, coming to him, give me more lost. I wanna be your student. You wanna come after me? Foresee all you have. But to the sinner, he never said that. He told them about God’s love and how God is reaching out. He’s finding the lost. He will let you rest on his shoulder. Even your walk, your journey back home, is not your effort, you just have to rest on his strong shoulders. Grace has come, man.
— All you gotta do is just kind of poke, poke Joseph Prince. Just a little poke like that and then all of a sudden you get all this great teaching. Isn’t it great? What a great location.
— Your love for this place, your love for Jerusalem, for Israel, for the teaching and to find grace in everything that we’re experiencing is really an amazing, really an amazing day. «Expedition Promise Land: Walk Where Jesus Walked». Joseph, we’re kind of walking through your book. When you’re on the Mount of Olives and you’re looking across the Kidron Valley, you’re looking at mount Mariah, you’re looking at the entire City of Jerusalem, the city of David, there’s no better picture than being right here to kind of, to get the whole thing. I mean, Bethany is just here. The ascension, the, you know, I mean, a lot of the Bible, a lot of the New Testament, a lot of time spent right here. Jesus would’ve walked down this hill, back up that hill, up through these gates. The City of Jerusalem behind us. The reason you wrote this book is 'cause you love this land.
— Yes.
— You love walking here, you love teaching here. It feels like everything that, every time we’re together, I can just kind of open and point to something and touch you and then all of a sudden a teaching comes out. What do you want?
— And there are also sermons in between the pages. We have qr codes where the reader can just scan it and watch the sermon on site. Many a times it’s on site. Some of the ones that we did at TBN, you know, so on site, they can actually scan and they have an idea and a feel when they see those videos.
— So the the second best thing of some.
— Somebody calling Joseph Prince and booking him to come to Israel and grabbing him and walking around with him and doing teaching and doing all that is «Expedition Promised Land,» because basically you get a lot of the teaching, you get the qr code. You can then go to a sermon preached here in Israel.
— At different locations throughout Israel.
— Different locations. We wanted to get this to you. First of all, we want you to come to Israel. You know what I would say? This is the manual you get, even if you have a desire to come in person, this prepares you for what you’re gonna see. «Expedition Promised Land: walk where Jesus walked,» Joseph Prince, and thank you for putting this together. Your final thoughts on this location kind of looking at what we’re looking at here.
— It’s not a historical, just historical location, it’s the future location. When you are here and Jesus comes again, right, first of all, the rapture. That can come any time, right? The imminent return of our Lord. But then when he comes back for Israel, it’ll be this mountain here where we are at. That’s the future. And this mountain will split in two and he’ll come and he’ll judge the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat just down here. The whole topographic will change and there’ll be water coming out from below Mount of Olives and going right into the Dead Sea and a part of the Dead Sea will be healed. The other part is left, you know, unhealed just as it is. And already, right now the Dead Sea, in recent years, you can see there’s a division already. There’s a north and the south. Remember last time our Bible maps? There’s only one piece of Dead Sea and now it’s like preparing for that time so we are definitely in the end times, which is not something to cause fear or whatever. It is gonna be dark, the world is gonna get darker and darker, but the church of Jesus Christ is gonna get brighter and brighter. He’s gonna unveil more and we’ll see Jesus soon.
— You know, when you just said that, it’s an interesting thing that this doesn’t represent the past, it really represents the future.
— Yes, it’s not just looking here and learning about the past.
— This is where the angels said to the disciples, «Men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing»? I mean, look, Joseph and I and nobody else can tell you exactly where that happened, but it happened somewhere right here on this hillside because we’re on the Mount of Olives. There’s the Kidron Valley, there’s mount Mariah, there’s the city of David and this represents the future.
— Yeah, this is important because over here, when they’re looking up, just where we are right now is the same skies. As you go up, you can even just imagine the figure and he disappears and they kept on gazing. And then the Bible says, «Why do you gaze, you men of Galilee»? Supposedly disciples are from Galilee. «And the same Jesus that you saw go like this will come again».
— In same manner.
— Yeah, that destroys the teaching on those who teach preterism, like everything is fulfilled in ad 70, the Book of Revelation happened in ad 70 and all that, but how do you explain? And they say the coming of Jesus was a coming of judgment through the Romans, so he came spiritually. Yes, he did come, but he came spiritually. But then the angel says, «This same Jesus that you see go up will come in like manner bodily». He didn’t come spiritually, he’ll come back bodily just like he came bodily in his first coming, he’ll come back bodily. That puts a death null on the teaching of preterism that ad 70 when the judgment of God came are through the Romans, right. They say that that is the coming of the Lord in vengeance. No, it’s not. And by the way, the day of vengeance, what is the day of vengeance? This day, the acceptable year of the Lord. It’s a long time. It’s been 2,000 years now that grace is the dispensation for us.