Rabbi Schneider - Is Jesus Coming Back?
When we truly recognize in a conscious way that Jesus is coming back, that we're gonna stand before him, that we're gonna have to give an account of our lives, it causes us, beloved ones, to become more like him. And that's what we want, because the more we become like him, as I said, the more fellowship, hallelujah, we have with him. I want to begin just setting the stage on this first broadcast in this series, "Contemporary Signs of the Lord", by just showing you the Lord's return as it was first prophesied in the Old Testament. As the time goes on, we're gonna move into what are, what's happening today. What signs do we see happening on planet Earth right now that show us that Jesus's return is close?
But before I do that I just want to build faith and I just want to create a historical, prophetic foundation to move from, to consider the Lord's return from because the reality is, is that the Christian faith from its inception has always held as a doctrine that Jesus is coming back. But in reality, probably even most that are watching the broadcast today, we don't consciously often times think about Jesus's return. And the reason for this is several fold. Primarily it's because he hasn't returned yet. In other words, he didn't return in our parents' lifetime. He didn't return in our great parents' lifetime. He hasn't returned yet in our lifetime and so the natural mind gets programmed into not thinking about it, not looking for it because they've never heard, you know, heard that it's happened. It hasn't happened and it hasn't happened yet.
So we seem to be more focus on what is truly presenting itself in the present reality. But I want you to know, Jesus is about to break in to your reality. I want you to put your hand over your heart right now. I want to just encourage you if you trust me right now, put your hand over your heart. I want you just to make this confession with me because Christianity is the great confession. We'll never rise in our faith above our confession. So I want you just to confess this out loud before God. "Say, Jesus is coming back for me". Just do that with me. Let's just put our hand over our hearts and let's say together, "Jesus is coming back for me". Yes, Jesus is coming back for you and for me. He's coming back, beloved ones, for his church.
And so we're gonna be focusing on this and meditating on it because the Scripture tells us that if we keep our heart focused on this, if we keep this in front of us in our life, if we consciously remember that Jesus is going to come back, that he's gonna reward to each one according to what he's done, it's gonna shape the way that we live. It's gonna make a difference in what we choose to do, what we choose to think, what we choose to say. So, I want you to first of all pause with me and consider the fact that the return of Jesus was prophesied and foreshadowed in the Old Testament in the Hebrew Bible, in what Jewish people call the Tanakh. I want you to go with me now as we go to the Hebrew Bible.
I want to look first of all together with you today, beloved ones, at the Book of Exodus, chapter 19. I'm gonna be reading today from Exodus, 19, verse 10, 11 and 16 through 20. Hear the Word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fade but the Word of God abides for you and for me forever. Hear his Word: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down...'" Get it, we're thinking about the Lord's return. This is a shadow of the Lord's return, God coming down on Mount Sinai, 3,500 years ago and then Moses going up the mountain to meet him. This is a shadow of Jesus's return and the church going up to meet him in what we commonly call the rapture.
So once again in Exodus, 19, we said that the Lord told his people first of all to get ready, to wash themselves. And that's what you and I need to be doing. We need to be getting ready for Jesus's return. We need to be washing ourselves by his Word. Jesus said that as we take in his Word we're washed by it. By confessing our sin, Jesus said if we confess our sin he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness by obedience and fellowship. So we are doing now what the Lord told the children of Israel to do in preparation of meeting him. We're getting ready to meet the Lord by washing ourselves and preparing our hearts. So let me read that again. I want you to think about this as an Old Testament shadow of a present day reality of Jesus's return that we're waiting for.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready'". Jesus said to us, "be ready. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is the one who's obedient at the time of my coming". So the Lord told Moses to tell the children of Israel to "be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai", just as King Jesus is coming down to planet Earth. "Come down on Mount Sinai", and listen to this now, "in this sight of all the people". The Bible says that when Jesus returns, every eye will see him. The Lord told Moses here that he's gonna come down on Mount Sinai. And then he said, get it now, "in the sight of all the people".
Jesus is coming back for you. The whole earth will see his glory. The Bible tells us that every eye will see him. Everyone on planet Earth will see him when he comes. Jesus said it's like lightning when it flashes from the sky. Everybody sees it from the east to the west. But this lightning, the lightning of King Jesus himself returning, will encompass, beloved one, the whole earth. The Lord continues here in verse 16: "So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain", and get this now, "a very loud trumpet sound". So what announced God's descending on top of Mount Sinai? A very loud, the Scripture just said, trumpet sound. In the say way the Bible says concerning Jesus, he'll be revealed from heaven with the voice of the angels, get it now, and the trump. Just like in Exodus, 19, Jesus will be revealed with the trump of God.
Let's continue on: "so that all the people who were in the camp trembled". When Moses was revealing this, and it says, "and Moses brought the people out of the camp", and I love this next phrase. "Moses brought the people out of the camp", get this now, beloved one, "to meet God". You're gonna meet God. You are gonna meet the Maker. You are gonna meet the one that created the heavens and the earth. You're gonna meet the one, and the Scripture says about this one you're gonna meet, that the whole earth is full of his glory. It's crazy the way people deny that God exists. I mean, this is just a bit of a tangent for a second.
I'm just focusing on this concept here that we're gonna meet God. And yet what the world today says there's no God. This was just created from some big bang. This can be explained by chemicals. This can be explained by some type of cosmic reaction that happened in outer space. This is so preposterous, that is so ridiculous. The Bible says professing to be wise they became fools. And that's exactly what happened. How do you explain the big bang? Where did the big bang come from? It had to start somewhere and the only explanation is Genesis, 1:1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. There had to be a first cause. The first cause is God, the one that exists that has no cause.
You know, I was recently in Africa and I was in the African wild late at night. And everywhere I looked, I mean I was surrounded by eyes, all the animals, the gazelle, the giraffe, the lions, the cheetahs, the wildebeests, the jackals, I mean, thousands and thousands of eyes were all over the jungle. And then I looked up into the sky and the stars, beloved ones, they were literally flashing, literally flashing. The whole sky was lit with the brilliant glory of God. And I thought, this is just amazing. This is the most spectacular picture I've ever seen of what the Bible says when the Scripture tells us that the whole earth is full of his glory. The whole earth was full of his glory, all the animals, the wild life, beloved, the cheetahs, the zebras, the, all of it, and the sky just shining, and illuminating, and twinkling with the stars and the luminaries.
And I thought to myself, no wonder almost everybody I've ever met in Africa knows there's a God. Almost everybody that I met in Africa fears God. They might not all have a personal relationship with Jesus, but they know there's a God because they're surrounded by his glory. We're gonna meet him. And so the Scripture continues, that Moses brought them to the base of the mountain, get it now, to meet God. You're gonna meet him. Every thought you've ever thunk, he knows. Jesus said, every idle word that's been spoken from our mouth, we'll have to give an account for. Every accusation we've brought against people, every judgment, every thought of hatred, every thought of bitterness, every though of unforgiveness, it's all gonna be exposed. Jesus said, what was hidden in the darkness, he said, it's gonna be exposed and shouted from the rooftops. Nothing beloved, God, beloved ones, is gonna be left un, un, you know, it's all gonna be brought into his light. Jesus is coming back. We're gonna meet him just like we see the children of Israel were brought to the base of the mountain to meet him.
Notice what happens next. "They stood at the base of the mountain". Continuing in verse 18 now: "Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. The Lord", get this now, "came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the Lord called to Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up".
Get it, God comes down. All the Israelites see him. God calls Moses and Moses ascends up the mountain to meet God. That's what's gonna happen, beloved, when Jesus comes back. We're all gonna see him and his own are gonna be called up to be with him just as Moses was called up to be with him at the top of the mountain. I want you to know, Jesus is coming back for you. I want you to put your hand over your heart with me again. I want you to confess this. If we believe in our heart and confess it with our mouth, something happens in our lives. Say it with me, "Jesus is coming back for me".
Father God, I ask you to release grace right now to everyone that's listening to my voice through this broadcast. Father, I ask that you would release a supernatural grace to each heart, that all of us, Father, would become aware in a way that's stronger than ever before, that you're coming back quickly and we're gonna face you.
Do you know that the last thing that Jesus said to us in the Bible? Do you know his last words to you in the Book of Revelation are "behold, I'm coming quickly. I'm coming soon". That's the last thing that Jesus says to us in the Word of God. It's the last word he spoke that's recorded in Scripture. He said, "behold, I come quickly". You see, God wants to wake you up today and he wants to wake me up to consciously live with a supernatural awareness that he's coming back soon. Do you know that the apostles lived with an expectation that he would come back in their life? The apostles that wrote the New Testament lived with the expectation that Jesus would return for them while they were still living on planet earth. Why? Because this is the type of mindset, it's the type of heart condition that the Lord wants his saints to have for all the ages to come.
Why has he not returned yet? The Bible tells us that the reason he's not returned yet is because there are still people that are his that he's gonna save that don't know him yet. See the Bible says God's not slack in fulfilling his promise but he's patient toward you, not willing for any to perish. The only reason he hasn't returned yet is because all those that are destined for salvation, beloved, have not yet come into a saving relationship with him. I want you to know Jesus is coming back soon for you and me and we only have a short time left to prepare for that and to earn a reward. You see, Jesus said in Revelation, he said, "behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to each one according to what he has done". Jesus said, not a cup of cold water that's given to someone because of him, will go unrewarded. Everything that you do for Jesus, is gonna be rewarded by him in his return. It's gonna be awesome.
And so this was just the introductory message today to set the stage for this series. In the next weeks I'm gonna be teaching on what is happening on planet Earth right now that tells us that Jesus's coming is nigh. You're gonna be amazed when I show you things that were written close to 3,000 years ago that have told us that these things when you see them happening on planet Earth, know that God's return is soon. Daniel gave us signs of the Lord's day, the return of the Lord. We're gonna look in the New Testament. We're gonna see that there are very specific signs.
I'm not just gonna be going over the signs that many of you have heard before. Many of us have heard about the earthquakes, and the Tsunamis, and the pestilence. We've heard about those things. Those are very real and very true. But I'm going to be going with you in the weeks ahead, beloved, I'm gonna show you some obscure signs that are happening on planet Earth today that no one has ever talked about, many of you have never heard, contemporary signs of Jesus's return. I want you to get your notebook out in the weeks ahead. I want you to get your pen out. I want you to tell other people about the broadcast. I want this to spread like wild fire because Jesus wants to prepare his church for his return.
Father God, we love you today. We need you today. We want to be ready for your return. Father God, we want to be those that reap from you a hundredfold at your coming. You said that some would bear fruit thirtyfold, some fiftyfold, some a hundredfold. Father, I know that I want to have a hundredfold fruit when you return. And Father, I pray that you would get me and get all of us to the place in our life where nothing matters to us more than you; Father God, that you would be first in everything that we think, everything that we say; Father God, that we would even bring our feelings into the subjection of your Holy Spirit.
I want to leave you with this challenge today, beloved one, you're saying to me, many of you, "yes, yes, I want to be ready for Jesus's return". You're saying "Jesus, I want to be prepared". I want to give you a specific application, beloved one, as we close this broadcast that will really help you move toward being ready for King Jesus's return. Here's what I'm asking you to do. Watch your words. Jesus said, "every idle word that you and I speak we're gonna give an account for". You know that our words control the destiny of our life? And when you choose to speak only those things that are healing, only those things that are edifying, when you refuse to get into criticism, when you refuse to get into judgment, when you refuse to get into accusation, keep your mouth shut and only speak words of life. It will change your heart and you'll be ready for what the Bible calls the day of the Lord.
So Father, as we close today, I just want to tell you, we love you, we bless you, and we're making a covenant with you today to only speak that which is pleasing to you and a fragrant aroma so that we can be ready for your return.