We are finishing up today on our look at the Eastern Gate. As we've seen, so much is related to the Eastern Gate. And we haven't touched everything, but we've covered some of the more well-known experiences that we see in the Bible. Some very, very important events have occurred directly related to and around the Eastern Gate. Today we're going to begin by looking on page 10 at some talk about the second coming of Jesus. We'll start with a look at Matthew 23, which is on the screen and in your handout, beginning with verse 37. And here's what it says. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. I have below that a commentary by Matthew Henry. I wasn't going to necessarily get into it too much, but I think it has some value. Not everything that Henry says is something that I would necessarily want to share, but I think this is worthwhile. And, excuse me, I really apologize for my voice this morning. Matthew, Henry starts out in regard to the second coming specifically talking about the passage we just read. And he says, lastly, here is the final farewell that Christ took of them and their temple. And he repeats, of course, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh. This speaks of his departure from them. The time was at hand when he should leave the world to go to his father and be seen no more. After his resurrection, he was seen only by a few chosen witnesses. That's Henry's evaluation. I can't speak to what Matthew Henry thought of when he said a few. It was more than just a few, as we know a few. Hundreds would not be considered a few, but if Henry is thinking of a more global view, then I guess a few is okay. So I can't quarrel with his evaluation in that regard. And they saw him not long, and that was true. but he soon removed to the invisible world, and there will be till the time of the restitution of all things, when his welcome at his first coming will be repeated with loud acclamations. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Christ will not be seen again till he come in the clouds, and every eye shall see him." Reference to Revelation 1-7. And then even they who, when time was rejected and pierced him, will be glad to come in among his adorers. Then every knee shall bow to him, even those that had bowed to Baal. And even the workers of iniquity will then cry, Lord, Lord, and will own when his wrath is kindled, that blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Would we have our lot in that day with those that say, blessed is he that cometh? Let us be with them now, with them that truly worship and truly welcome Jesus Christ. Matthew continues on the next page. Let me get down there and then we'll move on. their continued blindness and obstinacy, ye shall not see me, that is, not see me to be the Messiah. For otherwise they did see him upon the cross, not see the light of the truth concerning me, nor the things that belong to your peace, to ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh. They will never be convinced till Christ's second coming convince them, when it will be too late to make an interest in him and nothing will remain but a fearful looking for a judgment. That's pretty powerful and so true. Salvation must happen before that day. It must. We know that Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives And in Acts 1, 11 to 12, which is on page 1148, you probably can't get there fast enough, unless you're really speedy. It says, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you in heaven, shall come in like manner, shall come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem for the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey. So he leaves from the Mount of Olives, he ascends, and he returns to the very same place. That's what that passage is about. The interesting thing I think about, not that, but about the little comment about a Sabbath day's journey, if you think in terms of where the Mount of Olives is versus the Eastern Gate, they're opposite each other on the Kidron Valley. We've talked about that before. The valley itself is not very wide. We've mentioned that before. It is rather steep. So the walk down is probably, I won't say necessarily treacherous, but it takes some work. It's, you know, it's more than a half a mile high. So if you think in terms of a, rocky approach down the mountain, down the eastern side of the Kidron Valley, down into the valley and then back up into Jerusalem, you know, a Sabbath day, a Sabbath day, a portion of a day, the Sabbath day. It could take a while to walk a half a mile in that kind of terrain. Okay. Let me take us to one more place before we move a bit on. And let's see if this is going to be good. $10.34. OK. $10.34. OK. $27.31. Matthew 24 on page 1034 in the Church Bible, if you'd like to read along. You don't have it on your handout. And it says the following. This is Jesus speaking. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Wow. That's just wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I am looking forward to this day. I hope all of you out there are looking forward to it also. Okay. Let's move down here a little bit. OK, we talked about Jesus' ascent and his descent. And here, very specifically, in Zechariah 14, 4 to 5 on page 978 in your church Bible, Schofield, it says, in verse 4, and his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south. And he shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach into Azal. Yea, he shall flee like as he fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. And the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee. I am coming. How many of you are? Good, good. Show of hands. It's wonderful. Well, we'll all be together. Wow. The greatest ride in the history of our lives, right? Nothing will compare. I can't even imagine. I'm not even going to try. So you can see in your mind's eye the Kidron Valley, which runs north to south at that point. And when Jesus descends to the Mount of Olives where he ascended, and when he touches down, the earth will split. It'll split east-west. So it'll cross the Kidron Valley. It won't follow the Kidron Valley, which is north-south. It'll split across the Kidron Valley. Now, I don't think that this has any significant meaning, except it's a visual. And it's the visual that I saw when I first read this passage a very, very long time ago. I don't think, again, it's just in my mind's eye, and my mind's eye isn't yours. So I see the valley, very distinct valley, running north-south, and I see the split going east and west. Now, don't ask me why I thought of that, but I did, because the east-west split crosses the north-south valley. It's a cross. Now, I have never heard anybody talk about that. Maybe it doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's just something in my mind's eye, so I leave that with you, and if it sticks with you forever, then, you know, that's cool. So there we have Jesus touching down. How wonderful is that? Again, these are the things that relate to the Eastern Gate and its environs. The Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, so much is there. It's such a rich, relatively small place. It really is. You can see it all from either side. If you're looking out from the eastern gate, right on the edge there, you can see the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane, and likewise the other way. It really seems quite close. We have talked before about the shutting of the gate under Suleiman. These three bullets speak a little bit more about the shutting of the gate. We'll just look at them. The shutting of the eastern gate, symbolic of the fact that Israel shut the gate to God by the folly of their pursuit of other gods. One interpretation. I think it has merit. Absolutely, the second bullet, the rejection of the Messiah symbolized by the shutting of the gate in Old Jerusalem. It's still physically and mentally shut by the Jews. It's an extraordinary stumbling block. Stubbornness. refusal to listen. I've talked to many Jewish people since I was saved, and it's a very difficult proposition. Some Jewish people have looked at me like, are you crazy? How could you as a Jew possibly believe this story about Jesus Christ? And it doesn't matter what I say. It doesn't matter what scripture I show. It doesn't matter that I go to Isaiah 53, which is the instant fallback position when a Jew is trying to witness to another Jew. It's met with great resistance. So this rejection is a powerful rejection, and it's a very sad rejection. Very, very sad rejection. Because we know that there is not one of us that's good. No, not one. And with all of our flaws and with all of our sinful nature showing constantly in some cases, some people are just good people in a humanistic way. We look at, we know some wonderful people that have been in our lives. They are now and they have been and they will be. And there is the sadness of it all. Some beautiful, wonderful, caring, loving people have gone to and will go to hell. It's, I have family members. I have family members who I will never see again. That is very sad. And there's not a thing I can do about it. And there's not a thing that they can do about it. It's too late. So, if you have an opportunity, and we're not talking about Jewish people, we're talking about anybody, anybody who's lost needs your help, needs your witness. Please, when you have a chance, Please, please, try. Don't be afraid. Any contact, any attempt is going to be valuable. The mere fact that you try is valuable. There will be somebody who will not know all of the little nuances that you may stumble over when you're witnessing. And that is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to approach people, to speak to people, to show them that you care about this and that you care about them. That's what it's about. It's caring about them. Okay? The satisfaction that you get from knowing that someone someone has trusted in the finished work of Christ on the cross and the gospel. That is just such a great blessing. It's so rewarding to you and so critical and eternally changing for them. So please, please try. Okay, the third bullet says, Jesus prophesied to Israel about the desolation of their temple, and that desolation continues to this very day. Well, that's just in line with the second bullet. I want to read from Ezekiel 43, which is on, if I can find it on page 889. I'm almost there. Ezekiel 8 to 89 versus 1 to 5, that's Ezekiel 43. And it says, and it says, sorry, this is what it says. Remember, Ezekiel has a vision, and this is part of that vision. It is, as Schofield says, the description of the temple, which continues in 43, and it says, afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east. Huh, I wonder which gate that is. I'm thinking it's probably the eastern gate, it's a guess. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and his voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city, and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chabar, and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by way of the gate, whose prospect is toward the east. I think there's an emphasis on the east, don't you think? This is the third time that east has been mentioned? So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house, and the man stood by me." Whoa. Wow. That was great. How fortunate is Ezekiel to have experienced that? Wow. That would be nice. Okay. Let's see. Here we go. Back to pictures. We go from Ezekiel taking a vision tour to the cemeteries. Sorry for the, there's no segue here. We're just going to the cemeteries. The cemeteries. The cemetery situation around Jerusalem is very interesting. This is actually a pretty good picture. I don't think that I, let me see if I can get, let me see if I can get the cursor to actually do something. Well, you can't really see it. Let me get out here in the margin and see if I can bring it down. I don't think you can see it very well. No. But in the foreground, closest to us where the camera is, you can see crypts and graves all over the place. Down here on the bottom. So there are tourists standing there observing. Well, they may not be tourists. They might even be mourners, visitors to gravesites. So this particular area, which is on the slope that comes down from the Mount of Olives and faces the Eastern Gate, faces the city of Jerusalem, the walls of Jerusalem, is the Jewish cemetery. It is two things. It is, number one, it is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world. Number two, it is the largest Jewish cemetery in the world. Now I've been to lots of Jewish cemeteries, unfortunately. And some of them are huge. I'm from New York, and on Long Island there are a whole series of enormous cemeteries of all different types, including Jewish cemeteries. And they stretch for a vast number of acres. But there is space. It's not so tight. The oldest cemeteries in this country and around the world, the gravesites are very, very, very, very tightly positioned. Very, very tightly positioned. As is the case here. You can see how close everything is. It's packed in. Now this is only one part of the picture. The entire hillside below the Mount of Olives is filled with gravesites. This is a Jewish cemetery. If you look across to the other side, we've already talked about this, the Muslims have put gravesites just outside the Eastern Gate. if you remember, to ward off the Jewish priests and to ward off Jesus, because they got that completely wrong, if you remember. They got him in the wrong tribe, OK? They got Jesus in the wrong tribe because they were given bad information, OK? But so anyway, so you see they're facing each other. They're not adversaries, of course. It almost looks like it, you know. Muslims on the left, Jews on the right. So that's the story with the cemeteries. And as it says in the text below the picture, let me bring this down a little bit. Look like a nice day too, sunny day. It gives you some idea also of the height that the Mount of Olives sits at. Because the photographer's taking it from the top, of course. And while it looks like it slopes almost gradually, it's fairly steep. And there's the valley in between. And you can see the valley is not really that large. The green area is really not that big. It really isn't. You can walk across the Kidron Valley in a very short amount of time. The climb is another matter. But so there's the Eastern Gate. It looks a little small. And then there's the city behind it. And then the more modern part of Jerusalem to the west of the old city. You can see those tall buildings, obviously, in the distance. That's the new area. The old city is right here around the dome. OK. So what do we got down here? Reading some more about the Messiah and where he would be coming from, it says, since the Messiah was to come from the East, it was concluded that his judgment would be at the Eastern Gate. There are Muslim, Christian, and Jewish graves on the eastern slopes of the Temple Mount, in the Kidron Valley, and the western slopes of the Mount of Olives. While the Jewish cemetery is on the eastern side, below the Mount of Olives, that's the majority of where the Jews are buried. And as it says here, there are Jewish grave sites on the other side, too, below the eastern gate. Not nearly as many as there are on the Mount of Olives side. The Jews who elected to be buried below the Eastern Gate did that for a reason. Judaism believes in the resurrection, not the resurrection of Jesus, but they believe in resurrection. And they thought that if they were close to the Eastern Gate, where the Messiah was going to be coming, that they would have first dibs on being resurrected. they would get there first. So they want to be very close to the Eastern Gate. And that's why there are graves that exist in that place, as do the other people from the Muslim and Christian beliefs. Back to the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives side, the large cemetery, there are some famous people that have been buried there. Most of them are rabbis. which frankly the names don't ring very well with me because I don't have, historically I can't speak to all of the, what are considered the great and learned rabbis that have lived in Israel. I looked at a list of the names and I didn't recognize, I didn't recognize them, but I did recognize one name and that is Menachem Begin. the former Prime Minister of Israel, he is buried below the Mount of Olives. He's on that side in the Jewish cemetery. The third bullet says, unlike the grass associated with many cemeteries, the Mount of Olives is a mountainside of stones. And then the fourth bullet says, Jewish tradition holds that the entire Temple Mount, as well as the Temple itself, is set aside in a special way for the service of the Holy One of Israel. No graves can be present. So there will be no graves around the Temple Mount, but those will all be in the other two places that we just talked about. Let me see if I have a mention of it later on. I wanted to mention one thing. And that is, some of you may know this. And because it says it's a mountainside of stones, you may know that when people come to visit the gravesite of a Jewish person, they bring stones with them. Stones, pebbles, small rocks, whatever they can find, sometimes they bring them with them. And they placed the stone on top of the marker or on top of the headstone, whatever the case may be. And that is the symbol of their visit, because stones are much more obviously permanent in nature than flowers. The flower will wither and die. The stone will stay. Weather, of course, can move stones off of the top of a headstone. But if they're large enough and there's enough surface area, they can be there for a very long time. I have visited grave sites. family gravesites, and noted that a stone that had been placed there a long time ago was still there. No one disturbs them. They fall off of their own accord, either heavy rains, wind and rain, things like that can actually slide them off of the top of a headstone. But you can note ones that have been there for years, literally years. Some people bring really big ones, really big stones. Others, just a little pebble. It doesn't really matter. It doesn't have to stay there. But if you see it again, it's kind of, wow. I left that here four years ago. It's still here. Pretty cool. OK. What time we got? See, I got ahead of myself, but I'm gonna... Okay. The first bullet speaks to what we just talked about. I'm sorry, the second bullet speaks to the permanence of the stones, but the first bullet says, the belief that it was necessary to mark grave sites so that the Kohanim, the priests, would not walk within four feet of the grave. Now, that's a reverence action. When you go to cemeteries, it doesn't matter what kind of a cemetery it is. It's not really relevant. There are people who really feel uncomfortable walking across what would be the grave to move from one place to another in a cemetery. They kind of, in their own mind's eye, they kind of walk around where the grave would be. They feel that they're uncomfortable with it. I do understand that. This is for a different reason. This is, a priestly function, or a priestly prohibition. So it's not to be confused with just a reverent action on the part of an individual. And here's the part that I left to the end. Let's read this one together. A belief. Is it up there? Yeah. A belief that the soul dwells for a while on earth and the stones can help prevent the soul from leaving. This is a belief that is within orthodox Jewry. The overwhelming majority of Jews in this country and probably around the world don't even know this as being something that is believed in and may not even think it's possible. The majority wouldn't think that would be the case. It's not the case. It's just not. Orthodox Jewry has a lot. We're not going to get into that. That's an entire different series of sessions on Orthodox Jewry. It's quite interesting. And maybe if I have another opportunity, maybe I'll speak about that one day. I did that in an Iron Session a long time ago. And while I knew some things, in doing the research for that class, I learned a lot more, including the Orthodox Jews thinking about heaven and hell, and they do believe in heaven and hell. But unlike those of us who were saved, the path to heaven is really much easier for Orthodox Jews in how they view what's necessary to get there. It's really a, pretty much, seriously, of a cakewalk. It doesn't take much, relatively speaking. But they're not right. They couldn't be further from the truth. That is not the truth. And that's the sadness of it. Okay. Let's go on to the last page. What I did here in the last page is I just And this is not everything. This is not everything that's out there. In addition to the verses that we looked at before, here are some others that you might want to read and consider. Some of them are very obviously what we've been talking about. In fact, we did read Matthew 24, 29 to 30, the very first one mentioned. in the first bullet, we just read that. And if you go down and just kind of glance through them, you will see other things that relate. And hopefully you'll get some value out of reading them. You would get value out of reading them just because they're from the Bible. As far as the study is concerned, that could be helpful to you. Let's see if there are a couple here that we can just mention quickly. Let's see. I like, let's go to Isaiah 24 down toward the bottom, because I just, Old Testament verses have a different kind of power and beauty. They just do. The language is all from God, of course. There's just something about it. There are pictures that are painted with Old Testament language that are, I think, really, really strongly presented in the Old Testament, okay? It's all beautiful, but there's a language that is a little, A little different, okay? I'm just going to read this. It has, there's a power in there. There's power throughout the Bible. There's a different way in which power is presented in many passages in the Old Testament, okay? So Isaiah 24, 21 to 23, it says, and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison. And after many days shall they be visited. This is beautiful, coming up. Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed. when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his ancients gloriously." That's just terrific. I love that. And with that, we're done.