Rabbi Schneider - Foundations of the End Times: Preparation
Welcome beloved ones. My name's Rabbi Schneider. Welcome today to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. I'm gonna take you to the congregation that I shepherd today, Lion of Judah World Outreach Center, where I preached a message that I'm calling Foundations of the End Times. I pray that this series beloved, encourages you and strengthens you as we move deeper into the end of the age. Father in Jesus' name I bless everyone right now that's watching today. Strengthen us and prepare us Father I pray for King Jesus' return. Beloved let's go right now to Lion of Judah. I love you in Jesus' name.
As we celebrate tonight the soon return of Jesus it's not gonna be long till we meet Him. I'm gonna be fifty nine in a few months. I don't think I'm gonna live till one twenty. I mean even if Jesus didn't return this year, or next year, or in the next few years, I've already lived over half my life. It's not gonna be long for us. We're gonna meet Him. It's gonna be over just like that. We should remember that and we should remember that the decisions that we make now, every one of them matters. All the little decisions that we make every day mean something and you know what? Decisions over time determine your direction in life and many of you have heard that a repeated decision becomes a habit and habits frame and create our character.
So these moments that we're in right now, these are important moments. Every day counts and we're so close to meeting Him and the Bible says that when we meet Him, He's gonna reward each one according to what he's done. That one of the unique gifts that we've been given as human beings, those who are created in God's image, is the ability to choose. Robots don't have choices. Machines don't have choices, but as human beings we've been given a will to choose. We don't have to choose something because we feel it, because the will is greater than your feeling. Jesus didn't say, "Whosoever feels". He said, "Whosoever will". And we have to make a difference beloved while we can, because soon it's gonna be too late and we don't want to die with a bunch of regret in our life, relationships shattered, family members hurt because of wrong decisions and selfish actions. And there's just a sense of foreboding all over the world right now.
I remember last time I was in Israel I asked our tour guide as I always do, "What's it like now? What's the feeling like in Israel today"? Summer tonight, my daughter with me, remember last time we were there I bought you and your sister a the ring and we went to the jeweler there and I asked the man that had been living in Israel his whole life, "What's it feel like today living in Israel"? He expressed a hopelessness. He said, "There was such faith in the Israelis when Israel was born again in 1948. They all had such hope, but after years and years and years of conflict nothing that they have done has made anything any easier, any better and now with countries surrounding them, getting their hands on nuclear weapons". He said, "The hope is gone. There's a sense of doom. We don't even think about tomorrow", he said, "anymore. We're just trying to survive today, that a terrorist bomber doesn't walk into our neighborhood, that Iran doesn't launch a nuclear missile and blow us up".
And we know that Israel is God's prophetic time table for the whole world and so Father right now we pray for You to reveal Yourself to the chosen ones in the land of Israel and not only Israel, but from Israel, Samaria, even to the outermost parts of the earth. We're feeling this sense of foreboding in the atmosphere. We think about the world's economy teeter tottering. Great Britain, England, pulling out of the union economically. America billions and billions and trillions of dollars in debt. People are predicting that just like the housing market crash soon the banks are gonna collapse.
I mean how long can a country keep borrowing money, spending more than they're making, putting themselves in a position where they're not gonna be able to fund people's retirement? How long can a country like this survive before it collapses and what's gonna happen? No one's talking about it. But what's gonna happen with everybody today that's fifty years old and younger that hasn't saved any money for retirement? Where are they gonna be when they retire? Social security is not gonna be able to keep them safe and alive economically, even if there's something still given out. It's not enough money and yet no one today is saving any money. I'm telling you beloved, just like Jesus said, we're entering in to difficult days and very difficult times. It seems like too many preachers all they want to do is tell people that things are gonna get better, tell people that God's gonna bless, but the Bible gives us a different picture.
Paul said, "Know this in the last days difficult times will come". Jesus in the book of Matthew chapter 24 said to us, "There'll be wars and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation. There'll be plagues. There'll be famines. There'll be earthquakes. Men will become lovers of self rather than lovers of God and many people will fall away". He said, "False prophets and false christs will arise". He said, "These are just the birth pains". It's gonna get worst. It's gonna intensify.
The book of Revelation gives us a series of twenty one judgments that are gonna fall upon the world beginning at the very beginning of the tribulation, each one progressively worst. So we need to get ready and get sober minded and prepare ourselves for this. Again this is a celebration from the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets is about the return of the Lord. Just as the Lord announced His glory on top of Mt. Sinai with the blowing of the trumpet, the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4:16 that, "The trump shall sound and Jesus will descend through the clouds". Just as the Lord communicated to Israel His glory at Sinai with the trumpet, Jesus is coming again soon with the blowing of the shofar. The Bible says that the last trump the dead will rise.
As we begin to think about the last stage and the Lord's return the first thing that we think about is what we call the tribulation, the great tribulation. But did you know that the great tribulation was written about in the Torah, in the Hebrew Bible? "For thus says the Lord, 'I heard a sound of terror, of dread, and there is no peace'. Ask now and see if a male can give birth. Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in child birth? And why have all the faces turned pale? Alas! for that day", and that phrase, "that day" is a phrase that is associated with the time of the Lord's return. That phrase, "that day". "Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; and it is a time of Jacob's distress, but he will be saved from it".
Of course again Israel is the time piece of the world and just as it looks like Israel's gonna be wiped off the face of the map, a third of Jerusalem destroyed, Jesus is gonna step in. This is what He's talking about here. He's talking about the end of the great tribulation. For then, this was from the book of Jeremiah chapter 30:5-7. We're looking at the New Testament corresponding, parallel verse here, Matthew 24:21,22. Jesus said, "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will". And He said, "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short".
The Bible says even the very elect would be deceived if God didn't hold on to them. That's the powerful delusion that this world is entering into and we already feel it. Already so many Christians are getting their backs broken and yielding to the mind of the world, compromising their faith. They're afraid to say Jesus is the only way anymore, yielding to the spirit of the age. God said unless those days were cut short not even the elect would be saved. Next we see as this great tribulation is taking place, as evil has become so rampant on the earth, as life on earth has become so difficult, as the world has lost it's moral sensitivity.
In this climate, listen, in a climate where the world no longer believes in absolute morality, which is the generation that we're entering into right now. In a culture where people no longer stand on absolute truth, that everything is based on political correctness and the culture, when absolute truth has been taken out of the picture, even as the Ten Commandments were removed from our public buildings, in that culture an environment will be created where the anti messiah will be able to arise. But you know when I was in Uganda sometime back in, I was ministering there one night and I got word that the United States had just legalized homosexual marriages. Michael you may remember that night. I preached a message on the Lord's return. Something just arose in me and in my mind's eye I said, "You know what? The Statue of Liberty has just been broken in half".
I saw the Statue of Liberty, that symbol of America's greatness and power, the symbol of such a blessed nation that in two hundred short years became the super power of the world. When I heard that we as a country had sanctioned homosexual marriages I saw that Statue of Liberty broken in half. And this is not an assault against people who are trapped in that lifestyle. This is simply a declaration against a type of sin that's a defilement of God's nature within humankind. And most of the people that are in that lifestyle are victims and need help. It's not an assault against them. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. But when we as a nation sanction that as a, as a acceptable lifestyle that should be applauded, something broke over our country. Just like when Sodom and Gomorrah reached a place of depravity regarding that particular type of lifestyle and got destroyed.
I believe beloved ones that when we sanctioned that the covering over America was removed and just like in ancient Israel sometimes God gave them the king they deserved. They had become so rebellious towards the Lord that the Lord allowed a king to rise up that would bring disaster upon them. I wonder if United States the great is in that same predicament right now. The rise of the anti messiah. Daniel 8:23-25, "In the latter period of their rule", get this now, "When the transgressors have run their course a king will arise".
Here's what I want you to see, when does this king arise who's the Old Testament shadow of the anti messiah? When does this king arise? When the transgressors, or the transgression has run its course, when sin has kept rolling forward, increased its momentum, increased its shadow over the world, when sin upon the earth has reached a climax, when sin has penetrated all areas of societies then a king will arise. "Insolent and skilled in intrigue. His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; he will destroy mighty men and the holy people. And through his shrewdness he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; And he will magnify himself in his heart and he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency".
This is the Antichrist. This is the anti messiah. A king arises when sin has penetrated the world, when people no longer have the moral sensitivity to discern right from wrong so they let somebody like Adolf Hitler take over. Somebody, did you know that Adolf Hitler, listen to me. Did you know that Adolf Hitler did not take over all at once? Did you know that Adolf Hitler's rise to ascendancy, to almost taking over the whole world was very slow, that he started out small? He didn't preach his let's kill all the Jews doctrine right at first. No he kept gaining influence. He kept promising Germany success. Germany had been wounded because they had lost the last world war, so they were suffering in their pride.
Adolf Hitler came. He promised to restore Germany's national pride. He promised to make Germany great again and slowly but surely that which was inside him, the devil himself at work in his life found a way to take over. Are you starting to see a bit of the parallels here? Now let me show you in the New Testament a very intriguing verse. Revelation 22:11, before Jesus returns He says this, "Let the one who does wrong still do wrong, and let the one who is filthy still be filthy". You think He would say, "Let the one who is wrong, does wrong repent and let the one who is filthy turn to Me and recover". But that's not what it says here. It says, "Let the one who does wrong still do wrong and let the one who is filthy still be filthy and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness and the one who is holy still keep himself holy".
Why would He say let the one who is doing wrong and filthy still do wrong and be filthy? Why? Because the end can't come until the Antichrist arises and the Antichrist can't rise until there's a massive evil upon the earth, even the majority that would allow the Antichrist to take over. We're in that state right now. The church, did you know that Daniel says that during these days the power of the church will be broken? It doesn't mean that every individual believer is broken, but that "the power of the church will be broken", Daniel says.
That's what we're seeing happen right now. We're seeing the power of the church broken. There's not many people beloved in the church that will stand in a crowd that's antagonistic towards the gospel and stand up and say, "Yeshua is the only way to God". When we have a church that won't declare Jesus as Lord we have a church that's lost it's power. Beloved I want you to hear me now when I say this, we are not fully being the church and representing Jesus the way that we're supposed to represent Him in this world. If we don't have boldness in declaring to our friends and neighbors, even the strangers that we meet, that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
You see Jesus' last words to us as people were these in Matthew, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations". And at the end of the book of Mark He said, last words, "Go therefore and preach the gospel to all creation". I want to appeal to you today, because I know that there are so many people out there who call themselves Christians and yet they're not comfortable sharing their faith. And truthfully the only people that really know that they're Christians are the people in the churches they attend. Beloved this ought not to be. The Bible says we're to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. What does light do? Light beloved illuminates that around them. Jesus said, "I want you to be like lights on a hill where people can see you, not to be buried somewhere where people don't understand that you're mine".
I want to encourage you. I want you to know I love you. Most importantly Jesus loves you. I want to ask you to step out and be more courageous in declaring your faith. Don't be ashamed. Jesus said, "He who's ashamed of me and my words in this wicked and adulterous generation I will be ashamed of him when I come again in the glory of my Father with the holy angels". Beloved let's be the church. Let's not let the devil's fear and intimidation come upon us so that we keep our faith quiet. The Christian faith was not meant to be kept quiet. What would have happened if the apostles kept their faith quiet? No beloved they went out and preached the gospel everywhere and as a result God used them to turn the world upside down and He wants to use you and me as well. I love you. God bless you and shalom.