Rabbi Schneider - The Nearing of Jesus' Return

TOPICS: Yahweh's Fall Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah, Second Coming

All these holy days had application in their original historical context for Israel, but they also have prophetic application for you and I as believers in Yeshua, whether we're Jew or Gentile. You see, the church is called in the Brit Chadashah (the New Testament), the Israel of God. We haven't replaced national Israel but yet the church is now grafted in to the commonwealth of Israel. And so these appointed days of Yahweh are not only days that are sacred for national Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they also have relevancy, beloved ones, and application for you and I, for all of us that have placed our faith in the God of Israel's Messiah Yeshua the Savior of the world.

Again, every one of these holy days finds its ultimate climax in King Jesus. So what is the fulfillment of The Feast of Trumpets? I mentioned last time that when the children of Israel were commanded to blow a trumpet on this day, "You should have a reminder," the Lord said in verse 24 of Leviticus 23, "by the blowing of trumpets," we have to ask ourselves, what would the blowing of the trumpet remind them of? It reminds us of the time that the shofar sounded from heaven. In the book of Shemot, in the book of Exodus 19, and the Lord caused that shofar from heaven to blow louder and louder and louder and louder so the people buckle that their knees, they were so terrified, and then the Lord spoke from heaven, and all of Israel was marked forever. So the blowing of the shofar from heaven in Exodus 19 was the introduction to the kingdom of God breaking into the earth. Three million Jews at the base of Mount Sinai heard God's voice which was preceded by the blowing of the shofar.

So I want you to take this key thought. The blowing of the shofar proceeds the break in of the glory and the kingdom of God into the earth. We read in the book of Revelation that when the last trumpet sounds the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of God and of His Christ. And so the shofar announces the breaking in of God's kingdom to the world when the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of God. The last thing that Jesus said in the book of Revelation is, "Behold, I come quickly". And when is Jesus going to come? He's going to come when the last trumpet sounds. When the last trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ shall rise, we will meet Him in the air, and we will forever be with the Lord. The trumpet announces, beloved ones, the return of King Jesus.

Now, at the end of last time's broadcast in this series, I said to you that I'm going to be talking today about the most fundamental and critical truth that you could be hearing. And that truth is this. Jesus is coming back for you and for me. Revelation Chapter 22, you want to mark this in your Bible, "Behold, I come quickly..." But the truth is many of us live as if His kingdom is not near. We don't live in a supernatural awakened state to the fact that Jesus could break in any time. That the return of Jesus is soon. Jesus said, "Behold, I come soon, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give to each one according to what he's done".

So what I want to do today, beloved one, is wake us up to how near Christ's return really is because Jesus gave us signs that would cause us to know that the time is at hand. We read about many of these signs in Matthew 24, but all throughout the pages of the Word of God, both old and new. I want to go now with you through some of the signs that we are seeing happen in present time that should cause us to know how close we are.

Number one, moral absolutes based on the written word of God and the ten commandments have been removed from our society. We remove the ten commandments from public-owned property, I should say, from government property. We know all the restrictions now about bringing any type of religion into any type of politics, the division between church and state. And beyond that, the culture that we're living in today has pushed biblical morality out. And I know I'm preaching to the choir now. So now that if you and I are standing on the absolute morals that are outlined for us in the ten commandments in the Word of God, we are now looked at like dinosaurs. We're looked at like being irrelevant. We are looked at as being inferior and lesser, old-fashioned, out of touch, out of date. We are pushed out because God has been taken out of our culture.

This is a predominant sign that Jesus' approach is soon. Yeshua talked in Matthew 24 about the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel. The abomination of desolation is when the Lord's sanctuary is profaned. And there's multi different levels of this happening. One of the ways that this is happening in a general spiritual sense is that that which was once dedicated to God-United States of America was dedicated to God at the birth of our nation-now has been pushed out. And instead of being a nation in whom God We Trust, we're now a nation that stands for everything but God. And for those people that would even bring God into the picture, they are frozen out, they are blocked out, they are censored. Evil has begun to ascend and the light is being driven out. But this is not because God's not in control. This is actually part of God's plan.

See, the Bible tells us that Jesus will not return until the anti-Christ is first revealed. And the only way the anti-Christ beloved ones can arise is if the Holy Spirit begins to pull back. There's a mysterious scripture, and it says this, "He that restrains," speaking of the Holy Spirit, "will no longer restrain". In other words, Paul was communicating here that the Holy Spirit that's been restraining evil is going to begin to loosen his grip, he's going to begin to step back, he's going to begin to take his hands off so that evil could begin to rise so that an ascendancy of evil can take place, which will create an atmosphere for the anti-Christ to arise. And God's purpose in all this is ultimately to let evil run its course to reach a climax and then for God to step in at Jesus' return and extinguish it and eliminate it and destroy it once and for all. once and for all. It's all part of God's plan.

We're looking here, beloved, at the signs of the times and how the days that we're living in are speaking so loudly about Yeshua's return. Even people that don't believe that don't believe in Jesus know that something is way different in the culture today. I mean, suppose we were a culture that's more tolerant, a culture that's more loving? Well, let me ask you a question. Are you finding that people are more tolerant and more loving today than they were five years ago? Supposedly, the culture is more inclusive, we're more peaceful. I don't know about what you're experiencing, but I'm experiencing more division, I'm experiencing more stress, I'm experiencing more hatred. Society is getting to the place where we're seeing the words of the scriptwriter being fulfilled, where he says that in the last days difficult days will come and things will go from bad to worse.

Let me take a step back and take you in a slightly different direction but all pointing towards the same end. We're talking about the signs of the times that should wake you and I up, that should cause a bell to ring in your heart that Jesus is coming back soon, that He told us these things were gonna happen so that we be prepared when they do. And Jesus said, "When you see these things happen, look up". He said, "Don't be afraid, but look up," he said, "for your redemption draweth nigh". What we're seeing happen today in fulfillment of biblical prophecy is the confusion that is taking place regarding sexual identity.

In the beginning, the Lord created them male and female. He didn't create us with all these pronouns that are blurred together that means something other than either male or female. And yet today there's such confusion in society. People are no longer determining their identity by how they were created. They're choosing what identity they want to be sexually, regardless of their biological characteristics. This, of course, creates very, very disastrous consequences and is leading to such brokenness and such a confusion. And confusion and chaos is the primary manifestation of the realm of darkness. The confusion that we're seeing in society today, beloved ones, is a result of the fact that Jesus is getting ready to return, that the Holy Spirit is beginning to step back, so that the enemy can begin to reap havoc in the world, so that the antichrist can arise, preparing the way for Yeshua HaMashiach to return.

One of the most interesting Hebrew prophets contained in our Old Testament is the Prophet Daniel. Daniel talked to us about the signs of the times before the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of God. He talked to us about what would happen at the very end of the age. And one of the things that Daniel saw was that information and knowledge had completely covered the earth. Think about it. When Daniel was alive things moved so slowly. I mean, people had been living the same way year after year after year after year after year for hundreds and thousands of years. They made fires. They ate their food over a fire. They got their food from their livestock and from their vegetables and the fruit they grew.

Okay, of course, during Daniel time there was no mail systems. All the letters could be sent personally through a carrier. But I mean, knowledge traveled very, very slowly. The great scientific breakthroughs that have happened have generally happened in the last 200 years. But Daniel saw that the very end of the age there'll be a tremendous change in the amount of information and knowledge that was covering the earth. And of course today you can look up on your phone by doing a search on your phone right through the internet, you can find an answer to almost anything. You don't know an answer to something? How do you work this? How do you do that? All you got to do is Google it on your phone, right? Knowledge is right at the tip of our fingertip. And this knowledge for all the knowledge that we have today it's made life easier in so many ways. But let me ask you this question. Is society really happier? It might be easier in a lot of ways, but are we any happier? I don't think so.

Daniel saw that before the kingdom of God took possession of the world fully, knowledge will have covered the earth. And we are living, beloved ones, in the information age. I mean, it is happening so quickly. Many of us that are following what's going on in technology, we see that the artificial intelligence that is being created right now how dangerous it is. They're concerned about mankind creating computer systems with artificial intelligence where the artificial intelligence becomes smarter than human beings, and about the possibility of these machines taking over humanity-outwitting and outsmarting humanity. And those that are leading the way are the ones that are most terrified about it.

How you, for example, would have artificial intelligence in charge of, let's say, disposing of nuclear weapons. I mean, I'm just thinking out loud right now. And some of the artificial intelligence decides that its way of thinking about the situation is superior to a human's way of thinking about a situation. And they decide to release nuclear weapons on the world. I mean, anything's possible. As crazy as it sounds, the things that you and I are doing today sounded completely crazy and like science fiction to those that were living 200 years ago before our time. What we're seeing today, the acceleration of knowledge as quickly, beloved one, as things have changed in the last 10 years, and as drastically as things have changed in the last 10 years, in the next 10 years, things are going to change even more drastically and more significantly.

I don't have time to cover too many more signs right now, but one of the predominant signs that we're seeing today is the fact that Jesus warned us in Matthew 24 that in the last days, there'd be many false Christs and false teachers that would lead many away. And Jesus said if it was possible they would even deceive the elect. I want you to know today the Scripture truths that we need to be buying into are those that are contained in the written word of God. And the written word of God talks about repentance, salvation from sin, and giving our lives wholly to King Jesus. Why? Because He's coming back soon. He loves you, beloved one, and He deserves it. Let's be ready for the soon return of Messiah Jesus this Rosh Hashanah, Yom Teruah.