Shalom Friends,
Join us as we revisit Messiah's last prophetic sermon on the Mount of Olives before He was crucified for our sins to warn us what would occur at the end of the age. Are we witnessing the "birth pains" that will occur at that climatic time in history? We will explore His words in this masterpiece and correlate it with current days events and conditions of the Middle East, and the entire world.
Many Blessings,
Chadwick
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Shalom, friends. my name is Chadwick Harvey, and you have reached Faithful Performance. Thank you so much for joining us tonight as we go through the Olivet Discourse — Messiah's final prophetic sermon, given in Matthew 24 before he went to the cross for our sins and was resurrected. This is what I call the prophecy chapter. He gave it roughly four days before his crucifixion, and it is one of the most important passages of scripture we have.
The Olivet Discourse does not begin in isolation. There is a buildup from Matthew 21, Luke 19, and Mark 13 — four days of events that explain why Yeshua said what he said in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25. Tonight we will cover the first portion of the discourse, up through the abomination of desolation. The three parallel accounts — Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13 — share a great deal of repetition, so rather than going through all three in full, we will take the portions unique to each and incorporate them into Matthew 24 as our primary text.
It is important to understand that Matthew 24 is a chronological account of the end of the age. Luke's version in Luke 21 is equally chronological, because Luke told Theophilus at the outset that he was writing an orderly account — his entire book follows that order. So if we are going to take Luke 21 as orderly, then Matthew 24 must be treated as orderly as well, since they are parallel accounts of the same teaching. There are those who believe this discourse was entirely fulfilled at AD 70, and we will go through that position tonight and show why it has not been fully fulfilled.
What Messiah is giving us is a timeline — a set of signs and seasons that will converge at one specific moment at the end of the age. Earthquakes, famines, pestilences, plagues, and wars have occurred throughout all of history. That is not the point. What Messiah is saying is that when all of these signs occur simultaneously, alongside the full weight of biblical prophecy and the completion of the six thousand years, then we are to pay close attention to what is unfolding.
Before we enter Matthew 24, we need to establish the four-day trajectory that led to it. The Olivet Discourse does not come out of nowhere. It emerges from judgment, confrontation, covenant lawsuit, and temple rejection. Yeshua went into Jerusalem on a mission — not only to be crucified and resurrected for our sins, but also to warn the leadership, the religious leaders, and all of us who would live in the days to come.
The relevant passages for this buildup are Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19.
**Day One — Nissan 10: The Triumphal Entry**
This is four days before the crucifixion. Yeshua enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey, and the timing is not incidental. Nissan 10 was the very day that Israel was commanded to select the Passover lambs from Bethlehem. He had to fulfill every jot and tittle of the Torah, and this was one of them — the Lamb of God entered Jerusalem on lamb selection day, through the eastern gate, as the lambs from Bethlehem entered through another gate. Perfect, purposeful timing.
The remnant — those who understood what was happening — made an open messianic declaration. They were singing the Hallel, specifically Psalm 118, which is the hymnal for the feast days. "Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Son of David, save now!" They understood that the king had arrived in Jerusalem. That was King David's crucifixion hymn, written one thousand years before the event. The remnant knew. Unfortunately, the religious leaders and the majority of the population did not.
Josephus, the great first-century historian, records that there were approximately two to two and a half million people in Jerusalem at the time of Messiah's first coming. That tells us something: the remnant knew the time, but the multitude did not.
**Luke 19:41–44 — Weeping Over Jerusalem**
As Yeshua rode into the city, he wept. This was not sentimental grief. It was prophetic judgment. He was not weeping the way we weep over a lost loved one — he was weeping because the people were rejecting him as King of Kings, as the Jewish Messiah, and he was mourning the judgment that rejection would bring upon them. He said, "If you had only known what was for your shalom — but now it is hidden from your eyes." He then spoke of the destruction that would come upon the city, which was fulfilled in AD 70 at the hands of Rome.
He closed that passage with a penetrating reason: "Because you did not know the time of your visitation." That is the hinge. They did not recognize the appointed time, and judgment followed.
This carries a direct lesson for us. If we do not understand the feast days, the calendar, the times and the seasons — which Paul explicitly says we are to understand — we will be in the same position. We will be caught as a thief in the night. We will not know what time it is. Yeshua wanted the Jewish people to recognize the signs of his first coming, which means he equally wants us to recognize the signs of his second coming. He does not change; there is no shadow of turning with him. He wants us to watch, to pay attention, to know what is unfolding.
So when he rode in on Nissan 10, four days before the crucifixion, he spoke to those who had missed the moment: "If you had only known what was for your peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes."
