TD Jakes - Then Cometh Jesus
In Matthew 3:13–17, at Jesus' baptism, the phrase «Then cometh Jesus» powerfully declares that no matter the past troubles or current crises, Jesus arrives to fulfill righteousness, revealing God’s eternal plan and bringing victory, deliverance, and resurrection power into our lives.
Happy Resurrection!
Oh, you can do better than that! Come on and give the Lord some praise. Oh, you can do better than that! Come on and give the Lord some praise. Give me some monitor! Come on and give the Lord some praise—some real praise, not a hand clap, not just an applaud; give Him some real praise. I was blind, but now, now, now, now, now I see.
Grab your Bibles and bring them up with you as we begin to enter into some understanding of God’s Word and His significance, His power, His grace, His glory, His anointing. Amen! Happy Resurrection! Happy Resurrection! I am not just talking about Jesus; I am talking about you. Happy Resurrection! I do not know what kind of ground you had to come out of to get to where you are, but happy Resurrection!
People would not believe the dirt you were under, but happy Resurrection for what God has done for you. Shout «Yes!» somebody! Let me hear it! I am excited. We are going to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13-17, and we are going to share the Word of God, all three of us, in sermonettes. So I am going to be brief, but, uh, Matthew, the Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13-17. When you have it, say «Amen.» Amen!
In the interest of time, I may only read the first verse. When you have it, say «Amen.» «Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him.» But John forbade him, saying, «I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?» There, there, there are only three words I want: «Then cometh Jesus.» Look at your neighbor and say, «Then cometh Jesus.» Jesus!
It does not matter what happened before; it does not matter what happened yesterday. It does not matter what the doctor says; it does not matter what the accountant says. It does not matter the tumor, the lump, the disease, the affliction, the haters. It does not matter, just «Then cometh Jesus.» Tell somebody else, «Then cometh Jesus.»
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us today as we open up the book of life to hear the Word of God. We thank You for Your coming; we thank You for Your presence; we thank You for Your unveiling, Your apocalypse, Your exposure, Your sharing Yourself, Your revealing Yourself. We thank You for Your journey—the journey that You made, that You came to us when we could not come to You. We thank You, Lord, for bridging the distance between us and You. Our arms were too short; our sins were too heavy, but You came to rescue us. You came to see about us. «Then cometh Jesus.» Bless the Word of God as it is shared today in Jesus' name. With all your voice, like you are yelling at your kids, shout «Amen!»
Poor kids, poor kids. Sit down.
A Hinged Scripture
This is probably one of the most profound, prolific, powerful scriptures in the New Testament. It is a hinged scripture because it is through this scripture that we look both backward and forward. We look at where He came from; we look at where He came to. It is one of the few scriptures—you are going to have to catch me—it is one of the few scriptures that is a shadow in the New Testament.
Most scriptures that are considered shadows or sneak peeks into the future or prophetic profundities are given to us in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, this significant moment—and we did not read the whole story about Jesus being baptized by John—is significant because it is prophetic, it is profound, it is powerful. But before we look at the significance of what it is, let us look at the power of the prophetic value of what it was.
For the Bible said in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would rise up and bruise the head of the seed of the serpent, and the serpent would bruise his heel. And so it prophesied; it lets you know that Jesus is not an afterthought. He is not God in a panic, racing toward a decision, coming up with something to solve an immediate problem.
This is foreknown in the mind of God—that God had the answer before hell had the question; that God had the healing before Satan had the disease; that God had the cure before hell came up with the affliction. The Bible says that the Lord was slain from the foundations of the world, meaning that in eternity, God already had it fixed before it ever became a problem. It was only time that He used to usher and reveal what He had predestined and predetermined from the foundations of the world. He had already worked it out.
God’s Sovereign Plan
And if we can begin to understand that about God, it will help us with the problems we are dealing with right now. It is not the power of your prayer or the anointing on your lips, but it is the sovereign plan of God that God has your problem already worked out. The thing you are worried about right now, God already has it fixed. Right now, He is not a God that reacts; He acts. He does not just respond; He has predetermined everything—the end from the beginning.
He is already set it in place, and all He is using is the dates on the calendar to mark the revelation of revealing the answer that He already foreknew in your life. So what are you worried about? I do not understand it. What are you upset about? I do not understand it. Why are you pacing back and forth at 2:00 in the morning? I do not understand it. God has already got the cure before the problem ever started.
And when you pray about it, you just release what God has already set in place from the foundation of the world. In fact, the battle is already won! The enemy is already defeated! Hell is already upset! Satan is already apprehended! Satan is already apprehended right now, and you have got the victory over every hex, every spell, every satanic attack, every disease, every affliction! God has determined the end from the beginning, and that is why the Bible said, «Do not wait until the battle is over.»
Y’all did not get that! Do not wait until the battle is over, but just go ahead and shout now! Shout on credit! Shout on MasterCard! Shout on Visa! Shout on American Express! Because you already know that God is good for it. If you believe that God is good for what you are going through, give Him praise right now!
Previews of Coming Attractions
And what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love, what I love about God is every now and then He will give you a preview of a coming attraction. He is not ready to give you the whole movie yet, but He will give you a glimpse. So all through the Old Testament, we see theophanies.
Theophanies are glimpses of the plan of God that He shows us in the Old Testament that cause us to catch a glimpse of Jesus Christ. For instance, when the Hebrew boys were in the fiery furnace and King Nebuchadnezzar was confused because he said, «I know we put in three, but there is one in there that we did not put in there; there is a fourth man walking around in the fire.» Y’all do not hear me! In the furnace, He is already there!
Who do you think that fourth man was? Who do you think that fourth man was walking around in the fire? So if you are walking around in the fire, you are not walking around by yourself. The fire was so hot that it burned up the men that threw them in the fire. The fire was so hot! So it was not that He took the heat out of the fire. The heat was still there; it burned the ropes that held them. It burned the men that threw them in.
But there they are, walking around in the fire. There is some stuff you are walking around in right now that has burned up everything around you. It is not that it is not hot; it is not that it is not traumatic; it is not that it is not painful; it is not that it is not hard; it is not that it is not difficult. But there you are, walking around in the flame. I know you would rather be at the beach, but you ought to praise Him because you are walking around in the flame.
I know you are upset because they are talking about you, but you ought to praise Him because you are walking around in the flame. I know you are upset because somebody is looking funny, talking about you, writing notes, texting about you. It does not matter; you are walking around in the flame. And every now and then, you need to just take a walk just to let hell know, «I am still here! I am still moving! I am still walking! I am still going!» Come on, talk to me, somebody!
You threw me in the fire. By the way, it cost you your life to throw me in the fire because everything that threw you in the fire is going to get burned up, and you are still going to have Jesus walking around in the middle of the fire! Are you hearing what I am saying to you?
Theophanies in the Old Testament
Or then you could understand that there was a glimpse of Him when Jacob came to Peniel, and he goes up on the mountaintop, and there he has an encounter with God. He wrestled with a man to the breaking of day. The text shows us that he wrestled with a man is a theophany. It is God making a house call. It is God coming by to see you. It is God having a meeting place with you. It is God meeting you on the mountaintop of your confusion when you do not know who you are, when you think you are whatever they call you.
When you think you are whatever they said about you, as if they had that much power. Jacob thought he was what they called him, because they called him Jacob all his life. But the real name of who he was was hidden in the pursuit of God. You will never know who you are until you pursue God. That is why you got to stop worrying about how high your heels are, how cute your dress is, how much you paid to get your hair done, and come in here and start pursuing God.
Because God is the only one who knows who you really are—not your mama, not your daddy, not your sister, not your brother, not your aunt, not your uncle. God knows your name. He knows your purpose. He knows your plan. He knows what He has in store for you. And what I am showing you is how He has been coming up through time. He did not just come through Galilee; He came through Peniel. He came through situations; He came through surfaces.
Let me stop by Genesis for a minute and give Him a little recognition because when Abraham brought Isaac to the top of the mountain and raised his hand and got ready to slay his son, the Bible said that God spoke from heaven and said, «Abram! Abraham!» Whenever God says something twice, it is covenant! The Bible said, «Once has He spoken; twice have I heard it.» Power belongs to God!
So whenever you hear God say twice, «Abraham! Abraham!» or «Moses! Moses! Take off your shoes! The ground you stand on is holy ground!» to the thief, He said, «Verily, verily, I say unto you, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise.» That is the echo from heaven to earth; it is God’s voice echoing. He only said it one time, but twice have I heard it! That means it is settled in heaven, and it is settled in earth. It is already done! «Abraham! Abraham! Stay your hand! Behold, I got a ram tied up in the thicket.»
You do not see Jesus; I do! Jesus is a ram that was tied up in the thicket, waiting on the fullness of time to reveal Himself and to show who He really is.
The Fullness of Time
Oh, but when God got ready to manifest Him, to reveal Him, He found the virgin and told the virgin, saying, «The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and you shall bring forth a son, and His name shall be called Jesus.» His name shall be called Jesus, and He shall save His people from their sins. She said, «How can these things be, seeing as I know not a man?» See, the problem with most of us with faith is we only believe when people confirm.
But God does not need a witness for His Word to be true. The Bible says, «Your unbelief does not make the Word of God of no effect.» So you can tell me what you believe, but it does not affect what God is going to do because the Word of the Lord is going to prevail over the words of men every time in your life. Woo! My God! I do not know who I am talking to, but God has spoken a word over your life, and it shall come to pass. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of the Lord shall stand forever.
If I am talking to you, give Him just three seconds of praise! Come on, real quick! Give Him three seconds of praise! That word was for me! That word was for me! That word was for me! They tried to kill me and I made it! They tried to slay me and I survived! They put me in the fire and I came out! The fire! I paid a price to be here!
When you pay a price for a praise, you do not care who looks at you funny; you do not care who acts funny; you do not care who turns up their nose because you know. You paid a price to be where you are! To God be the glory for the things He has done! And so, in the fullness of time, the Bible said He brought forth His son to destroy the works of the enemy—not to scratch at it, not to cut it, not to bruise it, not to hurt it, but to destroy it.
There are some things in your life that God is going to completely destroy out of your life! You will never be that as it may, you might go through something else, but you will never be that again. Oh my God, I have good news for somebody! I have some resurrection news for somebody! I have a praise for somebody in this room right now. Something is about to happen!
Isolation Before Revelation
When Jesus comes down, we see Him being born of the virgin, we see Him in the manger, we see Him in the temple being circumcised. You say that He shed His blood on the cross, but the truth of the matter is, the first drop of blood was shed in the temple when they circumcised Him. The first drop began to fall, and it was just a foretaste, a preview of what His blood was able to do. His blood, His blood, His blood, His blood, His blood, His blood, His blood, His blood has never lost its power.
He did not lose a thing, but He shed His first drop of blood being circumcised at 12. He showed up in the temple and confounded the doctors and the lawyers, letting them know that it was not His schooling that made Him, it was not His education that made Him, it was not His age that made Him. He was just as smart at 12 as He was at 30, as He is at 300, as He is at 3,000, because He is omniscient. He is a powerful God; He is an all-knowing God; He is an all-seeing God; He is an all-fixing God; He is an all-moving God. Somebody talk to me! I feel the Holy Ghost in this room!
And so He comes down to the Jordan. He comes down to the Jordan, and this is a moment of revelation because nobody is looking at Jesus. Jesus is doing all of this stuff, and nobody is paying Him any attention. You must go through a period of isolation before you have a period of revelation. Until you can serve God in obscurity, you cannot serve God in notoriety.
If you do not have a dance you can do in your kitchen, you do not have a real dance. If the only time you can dance is when you can run around in front of the church, you are nothing but a faker. But a real praiser—a real praiser—can praise Him in the car, can praise Him in the living room, can praise Him at the mailbox, can praise Him at the post office, can praise Him on the back porch. Are there any real praisers in here? Are there any real praisers in here?
I feel like there are some praisers in here. There are some folks that did not just come to church because it is Easter Sunday. There are some people who have had a resurrection in your life, and you are serious about praising God. So, I have to hurry, I have to hurry, I have to hurry! But I feel something creeping up my back; I feel something creeping up my spine. I feel something in my fingertips; I feel something in my toes; I feel something in my hair follicles. God is about to do something! Hallelujah!
Here Comes Jesus!
Touch three people and say, «Here He comes! Here He comes! Here He comes! Here He comes! Here He comes! The answer to all of your questions! Here He comes! The healer of all of your diseases! Here He comes! The mountain mover! The water walker! Here He comes! The master physician! Here He comes! Alpha and Omega! Here He comes! The beginning and the end! Here He comes! The first and the last! Here comes Jesus! Hallelujah to God!»
And the Bible said, the Bible said—oh, the Bible said—warn every devil, «Here comes Jesus!» Tell Satan, «Here comes Jesus!» Tell depression, «Here comes Jesus!» Then cometh Jesus! Slap your neighbor and say, «Here He comes!» Why are you sitting around depressed? He is coming! He is coming! He is coming! He is coming! He is coming! He is coming! He is coming to rescue you! He is coming to pay that mortgage! He is coming to fix that situation! He is coming to heal your family! He is coming to open up a door! He is coming to make a way! Here He comes! Hallelujah!
Here He comes! Here comes Jesus! And I almost—I was a little bit confused about what to call it because I like «Then Comes Jesus, » but I also like «Dress Rehearsal.» Because when Jesus came down into the Jordan that flows into the Dead Sea—oh, you did not get that! The Jordan flows down into the Dead Sea, representing our sins flowing into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered again in this world or the world to come.
John said, «Oh no, I cannot baptize You; I need to be baptized by You myself.» Jesus says, «Suffer it to be so that it might fulfill all righteousness.» It means this is a dress rehearsal; it signifies something in righteousness, it signifies something in the spirit world. And the Bible says He went down into the water, and you saw those folks being baptized. They went down into the water, which typifies the death, the burial, and the resurrection.
Oh, did not you hear me? The death, the burial, and the—oh, you did not hear what I said! The death, the burial, and the resurrection! Everybody in here is in one of those places—either you are in your dying place, your burying place, or your resurrection place. But sooner or later, you are going to go through death, through burial, and through resurrection.
And the Bible said that when He came up out of the water, the Spirit of God descended like a dove and fell on Him, and the Father spoke from Heaven and said, «This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.» Well, what Jesus did on the water is just a dress rehearsal of what He did on the cross. He died until the sun refused to shine; He died until the ground began to tremble; He died until hell backed up and got nervous; He died till the veil was ripped from the top to the bottom.
But He said, «Let us practice this thing so that the enemy can know that no weapon formed against me shall be able to prosper, and every tongue that rises against me, God will condemn.» And I do not know what you are going through today, and I do not know what you are facing, and I do not know how hard it is, whether you are in your dying place, your burial place, or your resurrection place. All I know is, then comes Jesus!
Every time you get a bad report, then comes Jesus! Every time the test comes positive, then comes Jesus! Every time you are about to be evicted, then comes Jesus! Every time the enemy tries to curse you, then comes Jesus! Every time it looks like everybody is against you, then comes Jesus! Every time the mountains of bills are standing up in your face, here comes Jesus! And when I say here comes Jesus, you need to meet Him with a praise! You need to let hell know that I know that I am not in this fire by myself, but I know my Jesus is going to show up! And wherever I am at, whatever I am going through, He is going to deliver me!
I need about a hundred people to give Him a crazy, ridiculous, spontaneous, devil-chasing, Satan-rebuking praise out of your mouth! I wish I had about a hundred, maybe 150 people that did not care what you had on but would praise Him until the devil knows Jesus is coming to my house! Jesus is coming into my situation! I wish I had about 200 people that would break loose and praise Him like you lost your mind! I have to take my seat; my time is up. My message is not over, but my time is up. But I need you to help me preach! Touch 10 people and say, «Here He comes! Here He comes!»