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but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah 14:2)
Back and forth – such beautiful and terrifying imagery, such promise and
destruction.
Then we come to the New Testament. On the one hand Jerusalem is the
place where Jesus was presented as an infant in the temple and where, as a
12-year-old, He impressed the scholars with His knowledge and questions.
(Luke 2) But mostly Jerusalem was the stronghold of the enemies of Jesus.
He rode into Jerusalem as a king on Palm Sunday. He went to the temple
and drove out the people who were buying and selling there. (Mark 11:15) He
preached there. He healed there. He was put on trial there and crucified just
outside of Jerusalem. One of the most poignant moments was when Jesus wept
over Jerusalem:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are
sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Matthew 23:37)
And another poignant moment:
If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for
your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you
when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close
you in on every side, and level you, and your
children within you, to the ground; and they
will not leave in you one stone upon another,
because you did not know the time of your
visitation. (Luke 19:42-44)
The Greek word and the
Latin word (for church)
is ecclesia. It doesn’t
have anything to do with
a building or really even
a formal organization.
It means an assembly
of people, a gathered
group – literally those
called out. So the church
means the group of
people called out by the
Lord to follow Him.
Just like the prophets, He
prophesied another destruction of
Jerusalem. After He was crucified
and rose on the third day He told
His disciples “that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached
in His name to all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem.” (Ibid. 24:47) And He told
them to wait in the city of Jerusalem
until they were given power from on
high. (Ibid. 24:49) And then Jerusalem
is mentioned a number of times in the
Acts and Epistles of the Apostles, as a
location where they were working.
Finally we come to the vision of
the New Jerusalem:
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