Sign #1: Israel Is Reborn

So, why should we study prophecy? Well, the answer, of course, is both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles, along with Christ Himself, predicted His return. As a matter of fact, in the New Testament alone there are more than 300 references to the fact that Jesus Christ is going to come again. The Bible is filled with warnings about those who are unprepared for His coming, recognizing we should be alert and awake spiritually speaking lest He come in our generation. Of course, even if He doesn’t come, we are still accountable to God. There is still a judgment. Imagine being a part of that generation that the Christian Church has looked forward to for two thousand years, becoming a part of that generation when Jesus Christ appears in wonder and in glory.

If you were with us last time you know the reason we should study prophecy is because the Scripture is clear. We ought to live holy lives. We emphasized in light of the fact that all these things will be burned up. Eventually, what manner of people we should be because people and the Word of God survive the fire.

But today we come to the first sign of Christ’s return, and it is that Israel is reborn. Let me read what was read on May 14, 1948, when Zionist leader, David Ben-Gurion, read this official proclamation in Jerusalem. “By virtue of the natural historical right of the Jewish people and the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations, we hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine to be called Israel.”

Moments later President Truman issued a statement granting official recognition to the new state. The next day war breaks out. Five nations that surround Israel fight against this tiny country that was very unprotected, and somehow Israel was able to retain its existence. Since that time, it suffered through four other wars, or three other wars I believe I should say, and Israel continues to exist.

Now the question is what possible connection could there be between this and the return of Jesus Christ? I mean here you have a historical fact that took place many years ago, and yet we’re talking about the possibility that this is somehow related to the return of Jesus Christ. What’s the connection?

Well, let me tell you the connection is this. I believe the Bible teaches that the Jewish people—the descendants of Abraham through Isaac—those people are going to be in the land we call today Israel, though its borders will be much larger. They will be in the land when Jesus Christ returns in glory. He’s going to come to the Mount of Olives, as we shall explain in another message. He will rule over them, and they will accept Him as their Messiah. To fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament.

Now, you say, “Well, that’s very interesting but how do you know?” This I believe is what the Bible expressly teaches as we shall learn in the next few moments. But before we turn to the Bible, let me tell you we have to discuss this question with a great deal of sensitivity. To realize there are also Arabs, and they have many good arguments and many good claims, shall we say, for the land. We can argue historically and politically and say the Jews were there first, and that’s true. But the Arabs have residency rights as well, and therefore the conflict.

We need to treat this with a sense of evenhandedness because you remember a few years ago, we had a man speak here who was a Palestinian Christian, an Arab Christian, who lives in Bethlehem. He told me over lunch, as we were discussing this, “One person’s prophecy is another’s personal tragedy.” He and his family lived close to Haifa in the land of Israel, and when the state was formed, they were forced to become part of a refugee camp. They lived there for many, many years, and their land was confiscated, taken from them. So let us recognize no matter what we say, we need to recognize the legitimacy, the legitimate rights of those Arab communities.

But there’s another reason why peace will never be brought to the Middle East apart from the reappearing of Christ. I’ll tell you because it is not just historical and political, interesting though that is. The real issue is religious. You see, when Mohammad was born in AD 570 and when he went into those trances, and the words he said were written down and they became the Qur’an. Mohammad rewrote biblical history. What he said is the promises do not come through Isaac, but through Ishmael, and he believed his descendancy was from Ishmael. Really it is not Sarah who bears the child that will inherit the promises, but rather it is Hagar. Therefore, millions believe, the promises are to be fulfilled to the Arabs and not the Jews. What you really have going on in the Middle East is this. It is a conflict between Jehovah and Allah, between Isaac and Ishmael, between Sarah and Hagar, and between the Bible and the Qur’an. That’s why the roots go so deep, and the antagonism seems to be so unrelenting.

But now let us take our Bibles and turn to Genesis 12. Today I need to tell you we are going to be reading a lot of passages of Scripture. If you wish to follow, you may. If you wish to simply listen, you may. But Genesis 12:1–3 is where it all begins, where God says to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

What did God promise Abraham? First of all, that he would be a great man. Both Jews and Arabs today admit to that. You can go to Jerusalem, and you can still see and think about the wonder of where Abraham lived, and the honor that is given to him.

Secondly, God said, “You’re going to be a great nation, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Certainly, that was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ. Christ blesses the families of the earth because on His human side He was from the seed of Abraham. But God continues to talk to Abraham, and He continues to make a promise to Abraham, and always adds some more details.

For example, in Genesis 15:5, the Lord takes Abraham outside and says, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” That’s a challenge for the naked eye. Abraham, in effect, I am sure said, “God, I give up; I can’t do that.” God says, “You know, in the very same way your descendants will not be able to be counted.” It doesn’t mean there are going to be the same number of descendants as there are stars. It just means that God says, “Both are going to be uncountable.”

Genesis 15:6, “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” When do you think Abraham was saved in the Old Testament sense of the word? Right here. Now he was not yet receiving the righteousness of Christ, but God credited Abraham’s sin to Christ. Knowing Jesus would come hundreds of years later, die on the cross so even Abraham is saved because of the death of Christ. No one can be saved without the death of Christ as the basis of acceptance before God.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and the Lord said [Genesis 15:7], “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” The rest of the chapter is taking animals and cutting them in two, and this was an old way that was used back then to make a treaty. Normally the two people making the treaty would walk through those pieces of meat together. But if you read the text, and we don’t have time to, Abraham falls asleep and God alone walks through those symmetrical pieces of meat. Why? Because God says, “I am making a covenant with you, Abraham, and I am going to be the one to fulfill it, and it isn’t even dependent upon you. It’s important that you be faithful, and if you aren’t I’ll discipline you. But at the end of the day this is something I’m going to do.” The book of Hebrews confirms where God says, “There’s nobody else to swear by. I will swear by myself I am going to give this land to Abraham and his descendants” [See Hebrews 6:13].

You’ll notice how it ends in Genesis 15:18–20, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” Then it lists the Canaanites that are in there, and I won’t list them all, but it says in verse 21, “the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” As I am fond of saying, if you are into computers, the Megabyte [laughter]. God says, “I am going to give you all of that land” and He even delineates the borders of it.

Notice what He says in Genesis 17 to Abraham, the Lord is speaking again. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, you know, if God came to you every other day and you could have a conversation with Him? That’s what Abraham was doing. “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan”—now catch this—“for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:7-8)

Throughout the Old Testament God keeps confirming this to different people who are in the line of descent from Abraham. For example, let’s look at 2 Samuel 7, where God says this to David. You know, one day God was talking to David, and said, “David, I’ve got a couple of things to tell you.” I pick this up in 2 Samuel 7:12 where the Lord says, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you.” That’s a reference to Solomon because God says, “Solomon is going to build the temple, David, that you weren’t able to build. And if Solomon is disobedient, I will correct him.”

But then God says in 2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house,” that is, your lineage, “and your kingdom,” that is your sphere of rule where you are reigning over there in Jerusalem and the territory adjacent to it, “and your throne,” that is your royalty, your right to rule, “shall be established forever.” Wow. No wonder David said at the end, “Who am I and what is my house that Thou has led me hitherto? Who could I be to whom you would give such a marvelous unbelievable promise?”

By the way, isn’t it interesting that when Jesus is in the womb of Mary, the Lord comes and sends an angel and says regarding the one who is to be born, “He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David, and He shall rule over the House of Jacob forever and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33). When God made this promise to David, God was thinking of Christ who would fulfill it.

Let’s not lose sight of the premise I have made today. That in the Bible, in the Old Testament, God predicts a day is coming when Israel is going to be gathered in the land, and Jesus is going to be the Messiah whom they are going to accept. That’s why we have this connection to prophecy.

I’m going to continue to read. There’s an Old Testament prophet by the name of Jeremiah. The Jews were unfaithful. They turned to idols. They turned away from God, and God had the Assyrians come and take the northern tribes into captivity. Then later on He had the Babylonians come, and they surrounded the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC. They took the Jews off, and Jerusalem was ruled by pagans. You have those periods of time when the Jews are out of the land.

If God was saying their obedience or disobedience was dependent on whether or not He’d keep His side of the bargain, He could have cast them off long ago and said, “I’m not going to put up with these people. I’ve had it up to here. Let it be. I’m going to give my blessings to somebody else if this is the way they’re going to act.” The remarkable thing is He hangs in there with them.

Now listen to Jeremiah’s words in chapter 23. When I read this I want all of you to be thinking of one question. Has this ever been fulfilled; has this happened yet?

Jeremiah 23:3–6, “Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’” That’s a reference to Christ, ruling over the territory in the land.

Jeremiah 23:7–8, “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

What a promise. It’s not been fulfilled. Jews have been scattered. They’ve been brought back, but they’re not accepting Christ as righteousness, and they’re not living securely in the land. Just go to Israel today. There’s a soldier on every street corner.

I have to pause here because you’ve been so kind to listen to all I have to say, and do you know what? I’ve still not finished all that I’m going to say. There are some folks, and many of them are very fine Bible scholars, who believe God is finished with the Jews as a nation because all of those promises of the Old Testament now are applied to us, the church. These fine people, I believe, are wrong. I just needed to throw that in [laughter].

Listen to this. Listen to Jeremiah 31. Now listen up all those of you who think Israel does not have a future because God is finished with them. I think He wrote this text for people who might think of things like that. You’ll notice what He says in Jeremiah 31:35–37, “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of hosts is his name: ‘If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.’”

God says, “I’m hanging in with the nation. I will not cast them off at the end of time. I will fulfill my promises to them.” The prophets keep saying the same thing. In the evening service I’m doing a series on the book of Amos. But before we get to Amos let me just read some words from Ezekiel. And I’ll give you the reference after I have read it so you just listen carefully to what the prophet, Ezekiel, says.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezekial 36:22–27).

Well, the text goes on but notice what God is saying. “I’m going to bring you back in your land, and then you’re going to be converted. You are going to accept the Messiah and the power of the Holy Spirit of God in your life.”

I mentioned the prophet such as Amos. They all say essentially the same thing. By the way, that passage of Scripture was Ezekiel 36. But Amos says in Amos 9:14–15, “‘I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,’ says the Lord your God.”

Well, we’ve talked about the Old Testament covenants. We’ve talked about the prophets. What about the New Testament? Jesus said in the book of Luke that “Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled.” The key word there is until. Until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. Clearly, I believe, in His mind, He was thinking that then again, the Jewish era will begin in the city of Jerusalem.

The Apostle Paul was confronted by people who said, “Well, you know the Jews rejected Jesus, and because they rejected Jesus, God is finished with them. God is taking the promises of the Old Testament and just giving them to the Church.” Paul meets that opposition directly in Romans 11. He says, “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin: (Romans 11:1).

He goes on to say not all Israelites are going to believe, most assuredly, but he’s saying there’s going to be a remnant. There are going to be some people who are going to be alive at the return of Jesus Christ, some people from that nation, and they will believe on Jesus. He says in Romans 11:26–27, “And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob’; ‘and this will be my covenant with them.’”

That means there’s going to be a generation of descendants of Abraham who are going to be saved because they recognized Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises.

What are some conclusions we must hurriedly come to in light of all that I’ve read? Of course, there are many, many other passages. Isaiah devotes chapters to Christ’s rule in Jerusalem.

First, God promised the nation, Israel, the land as an everlasting possession. God says, “I’m giving you this land and it is going to be yours.” That promise was unconditional. God says, “I’m going to do it. You are going to be disciplined. When you are disobedient there are going to be times when you’re going to be out of the land. You are going to be scattered all over the place, but I will bring you back from all of the different countries where I’ve scattered you. The time is coming when you are going to dwell securely and accept the righteous rule of Messiah. The time is going to come when that is going to take place.” That’s number one.

Number two, and now listen carefully. The present regathering of Israel is in unbelief. That is to say, they are not accepting Messiah Jesus at all over in Israel. It is a scandal beyond irony that one can be an atheist and be a citizen in Israel today, but one cannot be a Messianic Jew. You cannot be a believer in Jesus as a Jewish person and be a citizen in Israel today.

In fact, because of some of the extremist groups, there is persecution in Israel today. The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be freely and openly proclaimed. Laws are being enacted to restrict it. You say, “Well, the Jews are still religious. They still pray at the Western Wall.” In fact, you can actually fax your prayers, and someone will put them into the stones of the Western Wall for you. You know that’s possible today. They are praying to God all the time, but they are not being accepted by God because they are not coming through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nobody can approach God on his own. That’s the great lie in America, not just a reference to the Jewish people. It’s of all different religions, and no matter what your denomination might be in terms of your Protestant upbringing or whatever, the fact is nobody can come to God without Christ because Jesus Christ died on the cross and it is His shed blood by which we must come. You can put all the prayers you want in a wall and still not have God’s acceptance. Jesus said, “He who honors me honors the father, but if you dishonor me, you dishonor the father.” So present Israel is in unbelief.

You know what that means. That means not everything Israel does today is right. It doesn’t mean they’re on the right side of every issue. The Arab believers, Christians, tell us what it is a great stumbling block it is for them to try to witness to other people about Jesus Christ. Then to have the Arabs, their friends, say to them, “I refuse to accept Jesus as your Messiah because your Messiah and you Christians are on the side of the Jews in the disputes.” Some of the Arabs have said Christians have gone to Israel, and they have put their hands on Jewish tanks and prayed for them that God might grant great victories in the battles. How would you like to be an Arab believer trying to witness to one of your friends about the wonders of Jesus and see that go on?

Folks, we must recognize here not everything Israel does today is right because they have rejected the Messiah. The promises that we have read, all of them have within them have the Messianic hope they will accept Christ as Messiah.

Third, the present regathering however might be preparation for the predictions and the conversion of the nation when the nation turns to Christ. You see, that’s the thing. Repeatedly God says, “I’m going to bring you into the land and I’m going to set the Messiah over you.” Well, they’re in the land but Messiah isn’t there yet.

Now keep in mind, when Jesus does return to the Mount of Olives to rule. He is going to rule over the earth for a period of time. Probably a thousand years before that kingdom is swallowed up into an eternal rule. When Jesus Christ returns, I believe those of us who know Christ as Savior we’ll already have been raptured years before that time. So, the coming of Jesus Christ could be at any moment. We don’t know when that is, but isn’t it interesting after centuries of struggle and grief all over the world, God should bring the Jews back in the land even if they haven’t believed on Messiah yet? But they are in the place where God said they would be when Messiah comes.

One day Jesus, as He was on the Mount of Olives, was going to ascend into heaven, and the disciples asked Jesus a very interesting question. They said, “Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). By the way, if their interpretation of the Old Testament was wrong, if it was not God’s intention to ever restore the kingdom to Israel again, Jesus had a marvelous opportunity to straighten them out, but He didn’t. He simply said, “Look, that’s not for you to know. The times and the seasons are in God’s hands.” That’s why it’s so important we not set dates, so we not say, “We know when Jesus is coming back.”

“[The] times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:7–8). We have the responsibility of being witnesses today to Jewish, to non-Jewish, no matter what religion or background people have, and to present the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the day is going to come when Christ is going to return to the Mount of Olives. The Bible says the Jewish nation shall look “on him whom they have pierced,” and they will recognize Him to be the Messiah (Zechariah 12:10). And they will say, “He is our brother. He is the Messiah for whom we have been watching.” So all Israel will be saved, and those who are living during that period of time, the bulk of them, the most of them will say, “Christ is Messiah and God.” The Old Testament scriptures will be fulfilled.

You say, “Well, Pastor Lutzer, the Jews do not accept Christ. They consider Christ to be their enemy.” Yeah, that’s true. Many of them do, but thankfully even in our day, before the return of Christ, there are Jewish people receiving Christ as Savior. I’m sure we have many, many of them with us today who are examples of the fact that there are Jewish believers accepting Christ, and they become the prototype of the many, many that shall accept Him in the future.

One of those who has accepted Him as Messiah is Pastor Schwartz who is sitting here on the platform, and who is going to come and share with us a little bit about what it is for a Jewish person to believe on Jesus as Messiah.

Pastor Roy Schwartz: One of the things the Talmud writes about—the Talmud is the commentary on the Scriptures by the sages of Israel, the rabbis of Israel. As they looked at these prophecies they recognized there appeared to be two Messiahs described. One who would be king and lead Israel in all of her glory. The Messiah who will return and rule and reign. The Messiah [whom] Pastor just spoke of. But also, they recognize from prophecies like Isaiah 53 that there is going to be a Messiah who is going to suffer, who will be betrayed.

So in the Talmud, the rabbis, wrote about these two Messiahs. They named one Messiah Ben Joseph, and they called him Ben Joseph because he was like Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob. Do you remember the story? He was betrayed by his brothers, sold for the price of a slave. If he had been over 21 it would have been for 30 pieces of silver they betrayed their brother, but because he was underage it was 20 pieces of silver.

Through a chain of events, this one whom they betrayed, the rabbis go on to write about this Messiah, Ben Joseph, “Like Joseph he would become savior of the Jewish people.” First to Egypt, first to the Gentiles, and then ultimately to all of Israel. As it’s written in the last chapters of Genesis when the brothers come before Joseph, who they don’t recognize because he looks and acts like an Egyptian, very foreign to them. Then he reveals himself to them, and they weep and they cry, and they fear retaliation. They ask for forgiveness. They look upon him whom they betrayed, and he begins to weep and comfort them. He says, “Brothers, what you did, you did for evil, but God meant it for good to save us all, a multitude alive.”

The rabbis go on to see Messiah Ben Joseph, one who would be betrayed by our own people who would ultimately be our deliverer. I praise God in His grace He showed me that Messiah Ben Joseph is Jesus. Whom we, as Jewish people, betrayed, whom we sold for 30 pieces of silver. By His grace, He opened my eyes. Even as the day is coming, as Pastor spoke of, Zechariah the prophet wrote in Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him.”

That’s the day Paul wrote about when the Spirit of God will come upon Israel, a day yet to come. A day I believe is soon, when at the end of a great battle called the Great Tribulation—and Pastor is going to be talking about that—when we shall look upon Him whom we have pierced, and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son (See Zechariah 12:10).

I thank God in His grace He opened my eyes that I looked upon Him. I pray today as you hear and understand how prophecy is being fulfilled in our day the spirit of grace and prayer might come upon you. That you, too, might look upon Him whom we have pierced [applause].

Pastor Erwin Lutzer: Let’s bow together in prayer, shall we?

Father, we want to thank you today that your Holy Word says very clearly that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is neither bond nor free. But we are one. Thank you for Pastor Schwartz, brought up in a Jewish home, and came to accept the Messiah. Thank you that because of that we are one in Jesus. I pray today, Father, for those who are Jewish who may be listening. For those who are not Jewish help them to understand. There is no way to be saved apart from Christ.

Now before I close this prayer some of you listening to it may feel far from God, but at this moment you can say, “Lord Jesus, I want you to be my Savior.” If you desire that, you tell Him that.

Work mightily, Father, we pray in the hearts of all who have listened we ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Editor’s Note: In this transcript, the verbatim intelligent transcription process simplifies and enhances spoken content by eliminating redundant words, unnecessary sounds, fixing grammar errors, and clarifying meaning while preserving the author's original intent. All Scripture quotes are according to the biblical text, not as they were originally spoken.