Rabbi Schneider - Signs of Jesus' Return
I'm standing on the Mount of Olives right outside Jerusalem. You can see all around me all these grave stones. The reason, beloved ones, there are so many grave stones up here is because Jewish people and Christians alike believe that when Messiah's glory is first manifest on earth and Messiah's coming, of course as Christians we believe it's the second coming. Jewish people that don't believe in Jesus are still waiting for the first coming. But what we share together is that when Messiah's glory is manifest on earth again, it's gonna first come right here on the Mount of Olives. Listen now to Zechariah, chapter number 14. Hear the Word of God: Behold a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil will be taken from you and will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
This is talking about Armageddon and how the nations of the earth are gonna be gathered against Israel and against the city in Jerusalem, and the destruction that's gonna come here. But God is gonna save a remnant of the city. So let's continue on: Then the Lord, in verse 3, will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, where I am presently standing. So what happens, Israel and Jerusalem are under siege. They're being taken captive. They're being plundered. But at the last minute Messiah's glory breaks on to planet earth. He defeats the enemies of Israel. Right at this spot is where his manifest glory first breaks in. Listen again: Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.
In that day His feet will stand where? On the Mount of Olives, right where I'm standing; which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half the mountain will move toward the north and the other half towards the south. And then it just continues on about how the glory of God is gonna cover the earth. So the reason that you see all these grave stones around me is because people want to be the first ones to meet Messiah when he comes. And so they want to be buried here because this is where Messiah's glory is gonna first hit the earth at his coming. The Bible tells us in the Book of Acts, chapter 1, that it was here at the Mount of Olives that Yeshua rose from the earth and was received into the clouds as the disciples watched him before, beloved, his departure from earth to heaven during his first coming.
Listen now as I read from the Book of Acts. Here we go: Gathering them together, in Acts, 1:4, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, Which, He said, you heard of from Me, for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the outermost parts of the earth.
And after He had said these things, listen now, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky, right from this place, beloved ones, right from the Mount of Olives, which I'm now standing on and you're watching via television. And after He said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. And they said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet.
The Bible tells us that the Lord is literally married to the land of Israel. And when I'm Israel, I often times feel, beloved, something very unique. Not only is the Lord married to the land of Israel; in other words, his presence is connected to Israel geographically above all the other spots on the face of the earth. Not only is that true, but consider this, our faith in Jesus is unique among faiths in the world because we believe that in Jesus the God of eternity entered into space and time, entered into human history by taking upon himself flesh and blood and walking amongst us. Those that lived 2,000 years ago saw him ascending to heaven visibly. And those, beloved, that are alive at his return will also see him visibly return to the Mount of Olives. Join me as we continue on in the second half of the program.
Behind me you can see the Temple Mount and the old city of Jerusalem. I want to read a portion of Scripture for you that's gonna put what you see behind me into some perspective. I'm going now to the Book of Matthew, chapter number 23, beginning in verse 37. These are the words of Yeshua. These are the words of Jesus. He said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now you will not see Me until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Now I'm gonna go back to the Scripture in just a second, but I want you to focus on this one phrase that Jesus said that I just read for you. He told Israel that because they didn't recognize the time of his visitation that their house and the house, beloved, was the temple was gonna be left to them desolate. He said in verse 38: Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!
Let's continue on in chapter 24: Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, Do you not see all these things? He was talking about the glory of the temple that once stood behind me. All you're seeing behind me now, beloved, is the wall that once surrounded the temple, and only the bottom portion of that wall is the actual retaining wall that once surrounded the temple. Where the temple actually stood during Jesus's time, now all you see, beloved, is the dome of the rock which is for Muslims not Jews. What happened, the house of God, the house of Israel, the temple, was destroyed in 70 AD. Jesus's prophecy that I just read for you happened just 30 years after his death, 40 years after his death. It became desolate. The Romans came in and destroyed it.
So let's continue on now with that understanding in Matthew, chapter 24: Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point outside the temple building to Him. And He said to them, Do you not see all these things? He was pointing at the beauty and the glory of the temple. He said this: Truly I say to you, not one stone here, meaning the temple stones, meaning the stones that the temple was built with. Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down. He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, which is where I'm standing right now. And the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? And so Jesus, from the Mount of Olives where I'm standing right now, began to talk about the sign of his second coming.
Let's review once again. Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he's from the Mount of Olives. He's talking to them that not one of the stones that the temple was built on, that was once right behind me but it's no longer there, it's destroyed, because he said to the Jewish people, it's destroyed because you didn't recognize the time of my visitation with you, the time of Messiah's coming. And then Jesus began to speak about the end of the age. And they said, tell us, Lord, when will the end of the age be and what will be the signs of your second coming? And so Jesus said this as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, which is, once again, where I'm standing right now. He said this: See to it no one misleads you. For many will come in My name saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many. I believe, beloved, this today speaks of false denominations, religious movements that are no longer preaching the Gospel. They read the Scriptures but they don't really teach that Jesus is the only way. They hold the value of political correctness over the Word of God. But Jesus said straight and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it.
The gospels say that there is no name under heaven by which men can be saved. But we have many religious movements today that call themselves the Christian movement. There are false Christs, just like Jesus said, leading many astray, teaching people that Jesus is just one path to religion; that other religious paths, they teach, also can lead to God. These are the false Christ's, beloved, that Jesus was speaking of here from the Mount of Olives that would mislead many in the last stage. Let's continue on: You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. Think about it. What are we hearing now? We just got done hearing about how Russia bombs Syria. I'm standing in Jerusalem right now. There's terrorist stabbings taking place all over the city. We're hearing of nuclear bombs being developed in Iran. We're hearing of North Korea testing their nuclear capabilities.
Jesus said, you're gonna be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. And there's such an unrest right now on planet, such a fear as all these rogue countries are getting their hands on nuclear weapons. And once these rogue countries get their hands on nuclear weapons, it's happening today, beloved ones. What's gonna happen is they're gonna hold the nations of the world hostage through blackmail. Jesus was speaking about this terrible time that's coming on planet earth that's leading up to his return. He said, once again: You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for these things must take place. Notice he said this, see that you're not frightened. Our response to the terrorism that's taking place around us, to the growing nuclear threat of countries that are hostile against America and against Israel, our response to these realities, beloved, should not be fear.
It's interesting Jesus tells us it's gonna happen but then he says this: See that you are not frightened. He continues on: for these things must take place, but that is not yet the end. This has to happen before Jesus's return. Daniel told us in the Book of Daniel that before Messiah could come, the anti-Christ or the anti-Messiah the son of lawlessness must first come. And he told us that the son of lawlessness couldn't come until sin had reached a climax. Jesus quoted from the Book of Daniel in Matthew, 24, testifying that Daniel's prophesies about the end of the age were accurate and came from his Father. Let's continue on here as Jesus talked from the Mount of Olives, where I'm now standing, about the end of the age and about the signs leading up to his second coming. Verse number 7, he said: For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.
Just a few weeks ago, beloved, we heard about how the hurricane hit many of the states on the East Coast in the United States, and it was declared an emergency zone. And by the way, it happened in correspondence with the fourth blood moon, and the end of the Shmeat. Let's continue in verse number 8: But all these things, Jesus said, are merely the beginning of the birth pangs. They're just the beginning. What's a birth pang? A birth pang is when a woman is about to deliver. But before she actually gives the delivery, the final delivery, a birth pang begins to happen. And notice how birth pangs go. Birth pangs will start out very slow. You might have one, and then it might not be several hours till the second one comes. And we have all types of military flying around and different surveillance happening. You can hear the helicopters and some of the planes that are flying by as Israel is seeking to protect their citizens here.
Notice though the birth pangs. Birth pangs start out, Jesus used the example of a woman in birth pangs getting ready to give labor. He used that as an analogy to tell us about these things that are happening on planet earth now, the wars, the hurricanes, the natural disasters, etc. He said they're like birth pangs. When a woman begins to have birth pangs, what happens? The pangs happen. You might have one. Then the next one might not come for another several hours. But slowly what happens is the birth pangs start happening in closer frequency to each other and they begin to get worse. That's what's happening on planet earth right now. The things that we're facing, beloved, they're happening quicker and quicker and they're getting worse, just like a woman's birth pangs intensify before she finally gives labor.
As we continue on in verse number 9: Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you. And we're hearing now about people that are standing for moral righteousness even in the United States, like that woman that was the clerk of courts and she had a conviction that marriage was to be between a man and a woman. And she wasn't willing to issue the certificate of marriage. What did they do? They threw her in jail. They eventually released her, but this is just the beginning. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at the time, Jesus said, many will fall away. I want to ask you, as things get tougher, are you gonna hang on to Jesus and seize his Word and not let anything else in, or are you gonna fear. This is why Jesus said, do not be frightened. Are you gonna fear and fall away?
Jesus said at the time of hardship that's coming on the planet, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because of lawlessness is increasing, most people's love will grow cold. But get this now, but Jesus said, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. And this Gospel, this Gospel that I'm preaching to you right now, beloved, the Gospel of the kingdom; what is the Gospel of the kingdom? The kingdom is when God reigns on earth. You see the earth's gonna get worse before it gets better. Things are gonna get harder before they get easier. But Jesus said, get it now, he that endures to the end shall be saved.
I want to encourage you, get ready, hang on. I want to strongly challenge you to be aware of the gospel of easy believism that's telling the church that before anything gets difficult on planet earth, God's gonna take out the Church. That's not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that his people would go through the tribulation but that he that endured to the end, Matthew, 24, would be saved. And then finally Jesus concludes by saying, this Gospel shall be preached to the end of the earth, and then the end shall come. This is Rabbi Schneider saying, I love you, from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. More importantly Jesus loves you and he's getting ready to come back for you. Put your hand over your heart right now and say, Jesus is coming back for me.