Jesus Yeshua is coming back to a Jewish Jerusalem. A Jewish Jerusalem will welcome him back.
This is Michael Brown. Welcome to the line of fire where we are here five days a week to infuse you with faith and truth and courage. We are in a battle. We are, all of us, on the front lines together in the line of fire. Young, old, whoever we are, single, married, in school, in the workplace, in the home, in our church buildings, we are in a battle. It is the reality of spiritual war, but we're not alone. And it is Jesus Yeshua who says to us, I'm with you always to the end of the age. And in him, friends, we are overcomers.
What does scripture say? We are more than conquerors. So I'm not here looking for an escape from the battle because that's not going to happen until the Lord returns or until we die. I'm looking for victory in the midst of the battle. I'm looking to see truth triumph.
And I know it can be discouraging because there's so much negative stuff happening around this. But what if, instead of concentrating on all the bad news every day, so we stay informed, we stay alert, all that, but what if we focused instead on who God is? What if we focused instead on the promises of God? What if we focus instead on the goodness of God?
What if we focus instead of reading about what he's done through history and hearing about what he's doing today? Wouldn't that produce a lot more faith and a lot less fear, a lot more peace and a lot less anxiety? So hopefully, as you tune in every single day, your faith will be built. And when we talk on some of our shows, when we get to culture wars and difficult issues and how we talk these through as believers is we want to do our best to equip you so you can engage on the front lines.
I've said this for many years. We will not get your blood boiling without getting your faith rising. We will not get you in a state of panic. We'll say here's the reality, here's what's happening, and here's how we respond in God. One way that we can do this on a regular basis is through our emails to you. First and foremost, our frontline newsletter coming out once a month. If you're not getting our emails, sign up today. Thelineoffire.org.
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Here are the latest resources available so you will not miss a single thing. Also, for those in the state, well even around the world, when I come and speak in your area, if you're getting our emails, we'll tell you I'm coming into your area. Maybe we'll get to meet face to face or at least be in a meeting together. All right, so why do I say that Yeshua, Jesus, is coming back to a Jewish Jerusalem? Why do I even talk about a Jewish Jerusalem?
Now, please understand, and you'll hear me say this as a broken record, there is no favoritism in God. Jews and Gentiles are saved the same way, or we lost the same way. Does Paul write that all have sinned, meaning Jew and Gentile, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?
Is that true? Yes, we've all fallen short. Do we all need mercy?
Yes. Is there one way of mercy for the Jew and one way of mercy for the Gentile? No, it's all the same way of mercy, the cross of the Messiah, the blood of the Messiah. Outside of him, there is no forgiveness. Outside of him, there is no mercy. Outside of him, there is no salvation for Jew and Gentile alike. I believe that, I preach that, I live by it, I'll die by it, by God's grace.
No compromise there. And there is no favoritism in God. God does not work harder to save a Jew because it's a Jew and he'll neglect a Gentile because it's a Gentile.
No. Romans 10 12, in terms of salvation, there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, the Jew and the Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all, richly blessing all who call upon him. Romans 10 13, for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
All right, so there's no question about that in terms of what the Word says. At the same time, God keeps his promises. Now, he may keep his promises in judgment, he's promised to judge, but he'll keep his promises. He's promised to have mercy, he'll keep his promises. And he has a role for the Jewish people to play in the earth. Now, it doesn't mean that every individual Jew is necessarily saved, but we have been divinely called, we have been divinely elected, we have been divinely selected for a purpose. And as it says in Amos chapter 3 verse 2, God says to Israel, you only have I known. The Hebrew verb Yadah can mean to know in an intimate way, like Adam knew his wife Eve. So it's not just I knew about you, but I knew, I singled you out, out of all the nations of the earth.
And then what comes next? Therefore, I will judge you, I will hold you to account, I will visit you for all your iniquities. So chosenness comes with a price. At the same time, God has determined certain things in advance and they are written in the word. So I want to read to you from Zechariah chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. I have read attempts and listened to attempts of people trying to say that this passage has already been fulfilled, but absolutely categorically has not.
Zechariah 12 one, a pronouncement, the word of the Lord concerning Israel, the utterance of the Lord, who stretched out the skies and made firm the earth and created man's breath within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a bowl of reeling for the peoples all around. Judah shall be caught up in the siege upon Jerusalem when all the nations of the earth gather against her. In that day, I will make Jerusalem a stone for all the peoples to lift.
All who lift it shall injure themselves. Has it ever happened in history where all the nations of the world gathered against Jerusalem? No, not even close. Not even close that there was a world war with all the nations of the earth gathering to attack Jerusalem. It has not happened. In that day declares, Lord, I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness, but I will watch over the house of Judah while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Now there have been times in Israel's past where Jerusalem was attacked by surrounding nations or the Babylonians and Assyrians and it fell and it was destroyed or the people went into exile.
That's happened, but it's never happened that they were defended on this level when there was an international coalition coming against them. The clans of Judah will say to themselves, the dwellers of Jerusalem are a task set for us by their God, the Lord of hosts. In that day, I will make the clans of Judah like a flaming brazier among sticks and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They shall devour all the besieging peoples right and left in Jerusalem so continue on its site in Jerusalem.
That's not happened yet. All the nations attacking Jerusalem and Jerusalem surviving hasn't happened yet. The Lord will give victory to the tents of Judah first so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be too great.
And it goes on. Verse 10, in that day, I will all but annihilate all the nations that came up against Jerusalem, but I will fill the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem with a spirit of pity and compassion or grace and supplication and they will look on me whom they've pierced and will mourn for him as the mourning or the wailing over a favorite son and showing bitter grief is over a firstborn. And that day the wailing in Jerusalem shall be as great as the wailing and hadad rimon in the plain of Megiddo. Has this happened yet? Has there been this outpouring on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the house of David, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, where as a nation or as a people in Jerusalem, the Jewish people turn to God and mourn over the Messiah and recognize we crucified the Messiah. Recognize the one that we thought was the cause of our problems through the centuries, this Jesus, this head of the church who persecuted us and hated us and drove us out, that this Jesus is actually Yeshua, our Messiah? And it'll be great mourning and agony of heart and repentance. That has not happened yet, but it will happen.
It will happen. And what is presupposed here? A Jewish Jerusalem. A Jerusalem that is in the control of the Jewish people. Now we go down to Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14.
Here you go. Lo, a day is coming when your spoil shall be divided in your very midst, for I will gather, God speaking, all the nations to Jerusalem for war. The city shall be captured, the houses plundered, and the women violated, and a part of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the population shall not be uprooted from the city. So a time of future calamity in which God will then act and deliver. Then the Lord will come forth and make war on those nations as he is wont to make war on a day of battle. On that day he will set his feet on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall split across from east to west, and one part of the mount shall shift to the north and the other to the south.
A huge gorge. What do we know from Acts 1? That Jesus ascends, Yeshua ascends to heaven from where the Mount of Olives. And where will he come back?
The Lord God. He will come back and put his feet right there on the Mount of Olives, which will then split wide open. So it is a Jewish Jerusalem to which the Messiah returns as all the nations of the earth surround Jerusalem to do war. And there's some destruction, but in the midst of it, God comes and rescues his people who welcome back the Messiah, who recognize that he beat to Eli to shed the car, and they will look to meet him, look to me whom they've pierced.
And they will mourn over him. This wonderful, beautiful promise. It will happen. It is written.
It will happen. So it's telling us friends that you're reading this hundreds of years ago that there will be a Jewish Jerusalem at the end of the age. It has to be a Jewish controlled Jerusalem. In fact, the nations of the earth are attacking this place. And so it is a place of international hostility, international controversy. Does it take much of a leap of faith to say, wow, I could see how that could happen when you see worldwide anti-Semitism and only a few nations and only one superpower really standing up for Israel, America? You know how easily things could turn? You know, if if we experience some famine or some epidemic and America generally believe that Israel was behind it or the Jewish people were behind it, you know, behind it and and these lies got out and people could turn in a moment.
We watch people turn over over covid with something far more severe. And we see the hostility of the nations towards Israel. We see that almost no nations will recognize Jerusalem as the capital. So, yeah, there's going to be a final war. The final war against God will be a final war against Israel.
You say, but but where does it say that a Jewish Jerusalem must welcome him back? Ah, that's where we go on the other side of the break. Listen to this important announcement. I'm Paul Burnett, a board certified doctor of holistic health. I have never met anyone deficient in caffeine or sugar, but I have met many people deficient in energy supporting vitamin B12. Unlike other oral B12 supplements, Alfred Libby's slow dissolve super B12 is fast acting because the formula is scientifically developed to dissolve under the tongue, bypassing the digestive process, making it immediately available for use in the body. Alfred Libby's slow dissolve super B12 is also formulated with other natural energy supporting ingredients such as folate ginseng root and other natural ingredients.
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It's all absolutely free. And we'll put you in our welcome tour, share more of my testimony from LSD to PhD. Yeah, heroin shooting, LSD using 16 year old hippie rock drummer when I got saved.
So make sure you take advantage of that. The climactic chapter in Our Hands Are Staying With Blood tells the story of how the Messiah will come back to Israel, to the land, to Jerusalem and how there'll be a massive turning of Jewish hearts. It's an incredible story because the book tells a whole lot of painful truth and boy, the encouragement at the end is so worth it and so needed. But I want to go over to that encouragement because it comes in an unexpected place. It comes in Matthew, the 23rd chapter. Matthew 23, if you're familiar with it, is the chapter where Yeshua pronounces seven woes. Jesus pronounces seven woes against the religious hypocrites. Woe to you Pharisees, scribes, hypocrites. And not all of them were hypocrites, but he's rebuking those who were, who were whitewashed walls, who were one thing outwardly and another thing inwardly.
And sadly, it was the case with many of the leaders. And after he pronounces his judgment, listen to what he says in verse 37, Matthew 23, 37. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often, this is Yeshua speaking, how often I long to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks and her wings, but you are not willing.
So he's not just talking about while he was on the earth. He's talking about through history as the God of Israel, how often he longed to gather them together, but, but they weren't willing. The leaders weren't willing. And he says this, he says, See, your house is left to you desolate. So you stone the prophets, kill those sent to you.
I long to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks and her wings, but you weren't willing. See, your house is left to you desolate. In other words, Jerusalem's soon going to be destroyed, soon going to be destruction, and you're going to be scattered. Luke 21, 24 says, you'll be scattered to the nations until the time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled. And then at that time, you're regathered, right? You're scattered until, what does that imply?
And then you're regathered. He says, but I tell you, I tell you this, I tell you this, you will not see me again until you say, the Hebrew words, Baruch haba b'shem Adonai from Psalm 118, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So Yeshua telling Israel, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, we welcome you King Messiah. Now you say, I heard those words earlier in the Gospels.
Exactly. The triumphal entry, for example, Matthew 21 or Mark 11, the triumphal entry as Yeshua is welcomed and he's riding on the donkey and the people put down palm branches and they're welcoming him. They're saying Baruch haba b'shem Adonai, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We welcome you King Messiah.
We welcome you. And then crying out Hoshiana, Hoshana, God save, God save, which becomes just a word of praise. He's saying, you won't see me again until you welcome me as the Messianic King.
Now I want you to think of something. In Revelation chapter one, verse seven, what does it say? It says that every eye will see him when he returns. Every eye will see him, but he tells Jerusalem, you will not see me until you welcome me.
What does that mean? That no one, if every eye will see him when he returns and Jerusalem won't see him until it welcomes him as the Messianic King, what's that telling you? No one will see him until Jerusalem welcomes him back.
Now let me give you an analogy here. Remember what happened with David. He fled from his son Absalom. Absalom had stolen the throne from him. David fled for his life with some of his faithful men. Then Absalom is killed by Joab, the general. But David's still in hiding. So some of the other tribal leaders, they start to write to David and say, David, you know, you're our king and please come back. We made a mistake in following Absalom. You've been our king.
You fought our battles. Please come back. So he comes right back.
No, no, no. He writes a letter to the elders of Judah because that's his tribe. Those are his people. And he says, why should you be the last to welcome back the king? Why should you be the last to welcome back the king? And in other words, I'm not coming home until my own home tribe welcomes me. I'm not coming back to Jerusalem until the people of Judah welcome me.
He said, you're my flesh and my blood. And it's the same thing with Jesus Yeshua. He's not coming back until his own people welcome him.
So it's a two-fold thing we're waiting for. The gospel going to all the world. Matthew 24 14, this gospel of the kingdom preached as a witness to all nations, to the whole world, and then the end will come. So our hearts long and burn to see all the people of the earth hear the good news. And Revelation 7 tells us there's going to be a multitude that no one could number from every tribe and every tongue. All around the world there's going to be this massive, glorious, extraordinary harvest. Praise God. It's going to happen.
That's going to happen. And the nations of the world, the people of the earth saying, even so come Lord Jesus. Even so come. Or the Aramaic words which we know as maranatha. Maranatha, our Lord come. They're crying out. And Yeshua says that's wonderful.
But there's one more ingredient. And he says to his own people, his Jewish people, why should you be the last to welcome back the king? It's when his own people welcome him back to he'll return. I want to tell you a quick story.
It was October 1988. I was with my dear friends, Paul Wilbur, Renee Block, and Mark Trapinski, who formed Israel's Hope. Mark with the Lord now. This extraordinary Messianic Jewish worship band. And they were ministering in music.
And then I was preaching in Cleveland. It was a big auditorium that used to be a reform synagogue. It was now just a public convention place for meetings. And religious Jews were coming out to the meetings. Thursday night they came and watched the meetings and then debated with me and dialogued with me afterwards. And then it was the Shabbat evening meeting Saturday night. So later in the evening they started coming after their post-Shabbat meals and things like that.
And they started coming to the meeting and now they're filling in the back of the building and kind of watching as I preach and give a call. And then at the end of the night we go back to worship and some of them are dancing outside and they're lighting candles. I remember police were outside because they didn't know if there was going to be some kind of riot. And they didn't know when they were lighting candles. I said to the police, no, it's just a Jewish ceremony.
It's good. So they're holding their motza-e-Shabbat, the after Sabbath service and things like that and going on with their prayers. And then some of them are getting in a circle dancing. They said to me, come on, where are your people? You need to dance with us. Dance with us. Get with us.
Not those people in there. You need to dance with us. So I thought, well, of course, my own Jewish people. So I get in the circle. I'm dancing with them. And they're challenging me. What did this rabbi say about this?
What about this text? What does this mean in Hebrew? This literally is we're dancing. And I feel supernaturally energized. And I'm dancing more and saying to them, where's your zeal for God? Where's your passion for God as they're getting tired, you know? And then it disbands and they begin standing outside in the evening and crying out, God, send Mashiach. Send Mashiach. Send the Messiah.
We want Mashiach. So I stand right next to them and I start yelling out, God, show them. Show them that Yeshua is Mashiach. Show them that Jesus is Messiah. Show them Yeshua is Mashiach. And they start yelling out to God, no, not that Mashiach, the real Mashiach.
I mean, there's this unbelievable scene. And I remember I got back to my hotel room that night and just wept with a broken heart for my people. But the day will come, the day will come when my Jewish people will welcome back the Mashiach, will welcome back the Messiah. And it is the Jewish people welcoming him back in Jerusalem. That's the final event that as he is preparing to come, that is the welcome party.
That is the ultimate welcome committee. And that's why it's so important, friends, that you pray for the salvation of the Jewish people. Yes, we're engaged in outreach. I've been overseas and to other nations 10 times more than I've been to Israel. Our grads serving around the world is probably 50 or 100 times more outside of Israel than in Israel. And yet Israel remains a central concern to God and to me as well. And I pray to you that you'll really get a burden to pray for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. I can't think of a better book to get in your hands to help deepen that burden, give you an understanding of why Israel's salvation matters than this book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood.
I guarantee you it'll be one of the most eye-opening books you've ever read and perhaps a life-changing book as well, one that you'll never forget because it will impact not just your mind but your heart. This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener-supported. If we have been a blessing to you if you're being enriched in the Word and prayer and your own walk with God through this broadcast then stand with us so that we can reach many many more and bless many many more. Together friends we're making a difference. So go to thelineoffire.org thelineoffire.org and click donate.
