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The Signs of Jesus’ Return Most Christians Are Missing | The Jesus People Podcast Ep 73 with John Bevere
00:55:05
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- [00:00]
A
You believe Jesus is coming back before 2075?
- [00:04]
B
Yes. Eschatology, when it's properly presented, should not create fear. Don't be troubled.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Because we're about to see the greatest move of God. Tribulation will intensify. Persecution will intensify. You can't stop the church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. I would have ended up separated from God forever in the lake of fire. So all of a sudden, now he's got my attention. Because they lacked the holy fear. You've got the early church, Jewish fathers. They wrote about the fact that mankind's time on the earth would be 7,000 years. Adam to Abraham, Jesus till our time, Abraham To Jesus, 2000 years from that would be 2075.
- [00:44]
A
Guys, welcome to the Jesus People Podcast. We have the great honor of having John Bevere on the podcast in your studio. You're hosting the Jesus People Podcast.
- [00:52]
B
I'm supposed to tell that that's supposed to be our secret.
- [00:54]
A
It's a dead giveaway with how nice this looks. I was telling him, I'm like, dude,
- [00:57]
B
it's nothing to do with me. It's all our team.
- [00:59]
A
Okay, well, that's what I mean. You've got, like, the full team here. I'm like, if you would have come to Dallas, we'd be hanging in the kitchen, and then we just, you know, throw a couple lights up and we'd sit down and we'd rock. But this is. This is next level. So very honored. Thank you so much for having us. And I'm so excited about this conversation. My wife has been binging the King is coming. And she's, like, talking my ear off about it. And I'm like, okay, after I finish the Awe of God, I'm moving to the King is coming. So thank you for. For the work you've put into that. I was talking to your wife the other night, and she was like, John is just like, he'll come home. He's just talking end times. He's just, like, obsessing about this. He just, like, gets on these things. And so you've done a deep dive into the scriptures, and you have some pretty, I don't know, radical claims about the return of Christ that are founded in the word of God and in the timelines, and. And you've really done your homework. So one thing I've heard you say is you believe Jesus is coming back before 2075.
- [01:56]
B
Yes.
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A
Can you tell me why?
- [01:58]
B
Well, there is a reason. If you look at the early church, Jewish fathers, they wrote about the fact that mankind's time on the earth would be 7,000 years. 6,000 years would be broken up into three ages. The first age was called the Age of Chaos or the Age of creation. That was 2,000 years. And it just so happens it goes from Adam to Abraham. The next 2,000 years, they called it the Age of Torah or the Age of the Law. And that was Abraham to Jesus. The next 2,000 years, they actually called the early Jewish fathers the Age of Grace. And that would go from the time of, of Jesus till our time, 2,000 years. Now if you look at that, that six days, it reflects creation. On the seventh day, God rested. So the fourth age is a thousand year age, which is called the Kingdom age. Now it's interesting guys that are much smarter than me, okay? They have found out that Adam was created by looking at the Book of Jasher. I think it is by, because they found that in the Dead Sea Scrolls. They've looked at Genesis numbers and all of them and they discovered that, that Adam was created right around 3925 AD or excuse me, BC if you add 2,000 years to that, you get 1925. You add 2,000 years to THAT, you get 75. Now it's interesting, the Essenes, who we can talk about in a minute, the Essenes are people we really didn't know until we discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. These were the people that 150 years before Jesus was born, they saw the corruption in the Jewish leadership and they broke off, went out to the wilderness, started a community called Qumran. We've heard the caves of Qumran. That's where all the Dead Sea scrolls, these people really valued the word of God and the traditions, the godly traditions that were passed down that the Pharisees and Sadducees were going away from.
- [03:56]
A
Yes.
- [03:57]
B
If you look at them, they predicted that most prophecies in their study, most prophecies were fulfilled in the final 50 years of an age. They called that final 50 years the final Jubilee because they broke up the 2,000 years into ONAs. An ONAH is 500 years and each ONA was 10 Jubilees. All right, I hope this is not too much geeking right up top, but you asked this really important question.
- [04:29]
A
I'm tracking, I'm tracking.
- [04:31]
B
So 150 years before Jesus was born, they actually predicted to the week that Messiah would be executed. I mean, it's mind blowing. From the prophet Zechariah and from the prophet Daniel. If you look at the end of the age of Torah, it's right around 75 AD. Now it's interesting. Jesus was crucified 32, 33 AD and you look at the Romans, they just, they destroyed the, the temple in 70 AD and then again the second temple that was built in 72 AD. So all the law, all sacrifices stopped by 72 AD. That was the end of the age of the law. Now if you look at where we're at today, we're 2,000 years. I mean, 2033 is 2,000 years. The temple being destroyed would be 2,000 years from that would be 2075. So we're in that season. And Jesus said we would know the season. Yes, but we wouldn't know the day or the hour. So I'm okay with talking about seasons. Yes, we are. The generation no generation has ever seen before. Ever seen before. The Jewish people returned to the land. They came back to Israel in 1948, re established the nation first time in over 1800 years. And then they took Jerusalem in 67. And Jesus said that generation would not pass. Now if you look at the word generation, generation also means this. A time period in which people all live together. We still have people that were alive today during World War II. All right, they were 15 years old when they fought in World War II, at least. So if you look at it, a generation is right around 100 years. So generation can be 40, can be 70, it can be 100. But we're living in that time. Both looking at it through the ages and looking at it through the words of Jesus, we have both coinciding because Hosea makes this startling statement that God was going to rend and tear Jerusalem and his people, and after two days he would revive them. And Peter says, a day with the Lord is a thousand years. So if you look at that, they were totally completely rended in 70 A.D. if you add 2,000 years, a day with the Lord is 1,000 years, you come to 20. So all indicators point that we're in that final, final Jubilee, 50 year period before the return of Jesus. That was a big question for the first question.
- [07:05]
A
Well, let's get into it, man. And that's. So you bring up Jubilee. That was going to be my next question. So there's something significant about Jubilee because it's the first scripture Jesus quotes, is I've come to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, which is the year of Jubilee. Can you take us into the significance of jubilee in the Old Testament? And why did Jesus quote that? And how does that relate to end times.
- [07:25]
B
Well, if you look at Leviticus, the jubilee was the 50th year. And that is when any slaves were set free. Debts were canceled, everything. And Jesus is saying, I'm the jubilee. Yes. And so him coming debts are canceled. And it really dealt with the fact that God eradicated our sins. We were no more slaves of sins. We were no more destined for death. But Jesus is our jubilee.
- [07:51]
A
Yes.
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B
So jubilee can be seen as spiritually as the release of all debts. It can also see as the number of years that it is. There's seven years. There's seven groups of seven years, which makes 49. And then the 50th is the Jubilee year. But he is our jubilee. He is our freedom.
- [08:09]
A
And what does that prophetically and eschatologically? What, what is the significance of jubilee?
- [08:15]
B
The significance is freedom. We, we were delivered from the powers of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. If you look at the other, you know the fact that the Essims say most prophecies are fulfilled in the final jubilee of Anonna, we hit that final year just this year. Now if you look at, okay, I'm really geeking out on you here, Ryan, and I hope you guys are able to follow us. But if you look at the modern Jewish new year, it's Rosh Hashanah, which is in September. If you read In Exodus chapter 12, God said this is the first month of the year that was Passover. Passover usually occurs March, April. So as you can see, the Pharisees actually kind of messed up the calendar. They made it a lunar based calendar, whereas the ancient Jewish calendar was always a solar based calendar. 360 days, 4 solace days, which means your equinox days. And then they would have a leap week every three to four years. So you know, if you look at a Jewish calendar, it's 360 days is the way they count it. Those four solace days, they don't even count as days. Okay, it just like skip days. But if you, if you, if you look at that, they lived by that calendar. The Pharisees changed the calendar. And so March of this year was really, I believe, spiritually the beginning of the new year, which would be the beginning of the final jubilee. We even did it with the Gregorian calendar. I mean, think about it. Julius, I think it was Julius Caesar, about 40 B.C. somewhere around there, changed our Gregorian calendar. Our Gregorian calendar, if you look at it, Sep means September. Sep is 7. October, October's 8th, Nove 9 deck, December okay. January is the 10th, 11th month, and February is the 12th month.
- [10:15]
A
Interesting.
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B
Okay, let me ask you a question. On our Gregorian calendar, when it's a leap year, where do we put our extra day? Isn't it the 29th of February?
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A
Yeah.
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B
Why do we put it there? Why don't we put it at the end of December?
- [10:29]
A
Because it's the end of the year. Right.
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B
Because it was before Julius Caesar. Yeah. Changed it.
- [10:35]
A
Got it.
- [10:36]
B
So always in the mind of God, March is like the first month of the year. Interesting. It's called Nissan Nisan. Yeah. Okay. March. So the reason I'm saying this, we're in. We're in the spring of 2026. We just started that final jubilee. Here's what I believe. Prophetically, we're going to see in the next couple of decades. We're going to see the greatest outpouring of God's spirit that the world has ever seen. Ever seen. Because God spoke to me back in 1990. I was in prayer one morning, and he said, son, what I'm about to do before you leave this earth will make the Book of Acts look like child's play. And I was like, wait a minute. I can't believe that. Because I'm thinking, Book of Acts, okay? They're laying people on the streets, the streets of Jerusalem, and Peter's just walking by, and his shadow touching them heals him. That's like walking through a hospital and emptying a hospital just by walking by the rooms. Let's just put. Let's put an equivalent, okay? They would pray and the building would shake. They. The whole region, not country, region of Asia heard the word of the Lord in two years. No social media, no YouTube. I mean, crazy. Everyone in Asia heard the word of the Lord in two years. You're seeing people crippled instantly walk, and thousands get saved, and there's not even a scheduled meeting. And I said, God, I need scripture on this. I'm having a hard time fathoming that Acts is going to look like child's play.
- [12:15]
A
Yeah.
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B
And the Lord said, he immediately brought me to the glory of the latter house will be greater than the former. Well, the house of God is the church. The church is the temple of the living God. The glory will be greater. The latter glory. If you look at Joel, Joel writes in the King James version, he gave you the former rain moderately. So, in other words, what we're coming into makes Acts look moderate. If you look at Isaiah 30 or 31, it says that the church, God's people, I'm going to Say this. God's people will say, get out of here, idols. I don't want you anymore. And he said on that day, he said, I will cause it to rain. And he said on that very same day, the sun will shine seven times brighter. Now, when it rains outside, the sun is not seven times brighter. He's not talking about the natural sun. He's talking about the Son of God. So Jesus glory in his church, according to what I'm seeing here in Isaiah, will be seven times greater than what it was in the book of Acts. And you look at Ecclesiastes, the end of a thing is better than the beginning. So what we're heading into, see, people are so fearful and so afraid. But I believe Jesus said, when you see all these signs, these wars and rumors of the world, don't be troubled.
- [13:35]
A
Yeah.
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B
Because we're about to see the greatest move of God I believe any generation has ever seen. And if you look at all other revivals, they have all happened in. In locations. You had to go to Brownsville to experience it. Right. You had to go to the Welsh Revival in 1905 to experience it. Right. Well, if you look at the early rain, it covered the earth wherever they went. The same miracles were happening everywhere. I believe the early rain. James makes this statement. He says, hey, the coming of the Lord is near. But remember, the farmer is patient. He waits until the fruit gets the former and the latter rain. The fruit of the earth being people. The former rain happened. It began on the day of Pentecost. It was an absolute storm. He came in with the sound of a mighty wind. Right. Without even a planned meeting. All the disciples are hiding in an upper room. 3,000 people get saved.
- [14:32]
A
Yeah.
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B
I mean, wouldn't you love to have meetings like that? You don't even advertise. You're hiding in a room, and you end up before the day's out, seeing 3,000 people get saved. I mean, that's a day. That's a great day. Okay? And so I really believe the latter rain. This is me personally, this is conjecture. This is John Bevere after studying scriptures for years. I believe it's going to start out with a sprinkle, but it's going to end with a bang. So the early rain started out with a bang, and it kind of faded out by the time we got to the 3rd, 4th century. The latter rain is going to start out as a sprinkle, I believe. And it's going to keep intensifying. And so while the world continues to go darker and darker and Crazier and crazier. You're going to see the world absolutely cry out like never before to understand truth and those who are destined, those who fear God and God is called to salvation, those who. He wants everyone to be saved. But there are just. Let's face it, there's people that no matter if God gives them a thousand years, they're not going to turn to him. But the ones that are in the valley of decision, multitudes are gonna come in. It's gonna be a great time of harvest. Wow.
- [15:40]
A
I wanna get into the fear of the Lord, because that's what I'm feeling right now as you're talking. I'm feeling this fear of the Lord. I'm feeling this call to make myself ready, to make myself pure, to be watchful, to be like the virgins that had the oil in their lamp. I wanna get to that in a minute, but I wanna ask some specific questions first, because what you're talking about is an outpouring of the spirit. That doesn't sound like tribulation to me. That sounds to me like revival. That sounds to me like the Lord.
- [16:07]
B
You can have both going on at the same time.
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A
Okay.
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B
I mean, it's going on, the early rain's going on. Paul's in a dungeon. James is getting his head cut off by Herod.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So in the midst of all this, I believe tribulation will intensify. I believe persecution will intensify. Okay. But at the same time, you can't stop the church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. The more they persecuted, Stephen was stoned, the more God moved. I mean, the entire city heard the word of God because of a guy who waited on tables, went down there and started preaching. If you look at Lydda and Sharon and Joppa, all of them, the entire cities got saved, but yet there's tremendous persecution. The Bible says the persecution was so bad they had to leave Jerusalem and they. And they were scattered. So you're going to see intense. An intensity. Excuse me. You're going to see tribulation, persecution intensify, but you're also at the same time going to see an outpouring of God's spirit and a revival like the world's never seen.
- [17:06]
A
Yeah, Yeah. I just had Philip Anthony Mitchell on that podcast, just dropped yesterday. And the one thing he talked about is that in the end times there will be an ideology that cuts off the heads of men. And he believes that that is Islam. He believes that the end times persecution, that the spirit of The Antichrist is actually the spirit of Islam that is making its way to the West. What do you think about that?
- [17:28]
B
I do believe that what scripture shows us is there will be a one world religion. And I don't know if it's Islam and the, the religious church combining along with other religions. I don't know how it's going to happen. But it almost seems like under the Antichrist rule there is a unification of religion. So I'm not going to say I disagree with him because it is true. Infidels get their heads taken off and that's exactly the way the Antichrist is operating. So I don't know how it's going to play out, but I do believe he's correct. Islam has a long goal, whereas we tend to in the church a lot of times have more of a short term goal. We don't do the long play like they do. They come in, have babies and bring their culture in. Start, Start, you know, manifesting it as they see their numbers growing.
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A
Right.
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B
And we're seeing that like in New York City and Minneapolis, we're seeing it in other places. Michigan, it's already happened in Paris, it's happened in London. And so they're playing the long game. And the church unfortunately doesn't have the foresight to see that. See in regard to the second coming of Jesus, we're to live, and this is what I'd love to talk about more. Live like he's coming back today, but we're supposed to plan like he's not coming back for 200 years. So we should have plans that go 200 years out like Islam is doing. Unfortunately, that's the way the church should be planning.
- [19:07]
A
Right. What I'm hearing you say is personally we need to be in preparation that he's coming like a thief in the night to have that oil ready in our hands constantly. However, we need a plan in terms of setting up systems, setting up ministries, setting up our government, even in such a way where his kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
- [19:27]
B
Correct.
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A
So that when he comes here, he
- [19:29]
B
said, occupy until I come.
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A
Yes.
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B
Which to occupy, you have to plan. Leadership always plans. We always foresee things coming. We pray, we get the mind of God and we say, how are we? And that's the way we should live. And that's the thing that kept me from talking about the Second Coming for so long, is that I saw people who talked about the Second Coming as people that got lazy, lethargic, and they argued a lot about Pre, mid or post and all that kind of stuff. So for four decades people would ask me, don't you preach on the Second Coming? I was like, no. And God started drawing me in in 2020. Now I'm thinking it's just for me. I had no idea I'd be writing a book on this and preaching on it. But yes, we should be planning as if he's not coming back for 200 years.
- [20:15]
A
I want to take a quick moment and tell you about a ministry that me and my family are very passionate about, one that we personally support. It's called Global Christian Relief. And I've seen the work they're doing in persecuted countries all around the world. I've seen what they're doing in China, I've seen what they're doing in Nigeria. Personally, I've seen how they're rebuilding homes that have been burned down by terrorists, how they're smuggling Bibles into countries. I'm not even allowed to say. And I would urge you to heed Jesus. Call that whatever you did for the least of these brothers, you did for him. So click the link in the show notes, support the persecuted church and know you're not just doing it for them, you're doing it for him. Wow. Yeah. That brings me to kind of where I want to land the plane here. Because if people can go to other John Bevere videos and find out the pre trib mid trip, all of that stuff, what I want to get is really practical because what you mentioned there is a proper fear of the Lord. And what we've seen when people discuss end times, which is this, it's this frantic, it's this fear of like, oh my gosh, I just want to get married first or I just want to have sex first. I remember thinking that like Jesus, don't come back till I get to have sex. You know what I mean? Like just like as, you know, 15 year old Ryan. But my thought is this, like there needs to be a holy fear of him coming back and us making ourselves pure. But we don't often take that approach as Christians. We take this approach when thinking about end times of like, oh my gosh, like that's the, like the beast is coming and the 666 and the mark and all that stuff and it kind of freaks people out, kind of like,
- [21:42]
B
I can understand that.
- [21:43]
A
Yeah. And I do think there needs to be a bit of that. There do needs to be like an understanding of what the book of Revelation is talking about, what the book of Daniel is talking about. But what is a proper fear of the Lord as it relates to the end times?
- [21:56]
B
Okay, I'm going to answer that, but I want to preface something.
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A
Okay.
- [22:00]
B
Eschatology, when it's properly presented, should not create fear. It should create faith.
- [22:05]
A
Yes.
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B
Eschatology, when it's properly presented, should not create laziness. It should create urgency.
- [22:13]
A
Yeah.
- [22:14]
B
The fastest a runner runs in a 5K race is the last hundred meters. When he sees the finish line, he's running faster. So this should produce a more urgency in us, not a laziness. Now, you asked a very good question. The fear of the Lord. First of all, what is the fear of the Lord? Can I preface it with the fact that God tells us in Isaiah 33:6 that the fear of the Lord is actually his treasure?
- [22:43]
A
Hmm.
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B
Think about that treasure. If you look at Isaiah 11, verse 3, it says that Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord. Now, it mentioned wisdom, counsel, might, understanding, knowledge, but his delight was in the fear of the Lord. In other words, I see. He delighted in that over all of those, because that is the beginning of all of those.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Paul tells us that our salvation is matured through fear and trembling, not through loving kindness.
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A
Yeah.
- [23:19]
B
Wow. What is the fear of the Lord? It's not to be scared of God, because God's number one goal for all of us is to be intimate with us. He loves us so much that his thoughts about us outnumber every granule of sand that's on this planet. I adore my wife. I think I am married to the most magnificent woman that walks the face of the Earth.
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A
She's pretty rad.
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B
She's amazing. But I put all my thoughts together in 44 years of marriage. I don't have a shoebox full of sand because scientists tell us there are anywhere from 500 million to a billion grains of sand in one cubic foot of square beach. Okay? God can't lie, which means God can't exaggerate. So when God says in Psalm 139, my thoughts about you as an individual outnumber every grain of sand and sand on this planet. Do you understand, Ryan, how much he thinks about each of us? Okay, That's. You don't. You don't think about somebody that much if you don't want to be intimate with them. So his number one goal, if you look at what he said to Moses when he pulled Israel out of Egypt, when he delivered them, he. In Exodus 19, he says, Tell all 3 million. The whole reason I pulled you out of Egypt was to bring you to me, I want you all to be priests. I want you all to be able to approach me directly. They're the ones that ran away from God and said, we can't handle him. Okay, so why did they run away? Because they lacked the holy fear of God. So the fear of God can't be to be afraid of him because you can't be intimate with somebody you're afraid of. It is actually this. It is to be terrified of being away from him. So the fear of the Lord is what causes us to depart from evil, not the love of God. So many people. I remember sitting with a minister in federal penitentiary. He was on CNN news every single night. His trial, one of the most infamous human beings on the planet. He had the largest television ministry on planet earth in the 1980s, 1994. He asked me to come visit him in prison because a book I wrote really touched him in prison. And I remember him looking at me and I'm going to be honest, I'm going to show my immaturity. I was like, he deserves this. I mean, you know, I was like, he's getting what he deserves. When the trial was going on and he got sentenced for five years, I was such, so wrong, so, so wrong. Because I walk into that prison and the first thing he said to me is, he said, john, this prison wasn't God's judgment on my life, it was his mercy. I said, excuse me. He said, if I would have kept living the way I was living, I would have ended up separated from God forever in the lake of fire. So all of a sudden, now he's got my attention.
- [26:16]
A
Yeah.
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B
Because I've never met this man. This is the first time I've met him. He's 25 years older than me. And he goes through the whole story. He said, God sent a man in here into this prison my first year of prison and got me completely delivered and got all the wickedness out of my life. And he said, john, there was a lot of wickedness in my life. So then he tells how he's spending three hours a day in the Word. They have a church in the prison. They spend three hours a day in the Gospels primarily. And so I have one question. Ryan. I drove up there. Yeah, I wanted to see him. He asked me to come visit him. But I, I want to know, how do I not end up like that? Because here I am, a 35 year old minister, he's 55, he's in prison. I've seen a lot of other people fall because of sexual immorality and other things, affairs and substance abuse. And I'm like, I don't want to end up like that. So I looked at him, and when he told his whole story, it took about 20 minutes. I said, okay, I've got a big question. He said, sure, anything. I said, when did you fall out of love with Jesus? At what point? He looked at me so quickly and confidently and humbly said, I didn't. I said, excuse me. What do you. Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean you didn't? He said, john, I didn't fall out of love with him. I loved him the whole time. I said, you committed adultery seven years ago or seven years before you were arrested? You did all this. This criminal acts. You're in prison. What do you mean you didn't fall out of love with Jes. He said, john, I didn't fear God. I went, what? He said, there are millions of American Christians just like me. They love Jesus. They have no fear of God. I remember around this time period, early 90s, I was praying one morning, and I was frustrated. I said, God, I pray two hours every morning. I spend time in your Word, yet when I stand up to preach, my words are hollow and empty.
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A
Hmm.
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B
And I said, I didn't even want to go into ministry. I wanted to go to corporate America. I have an engineering degree. I wanted to go to Harvard and get an mba. I didn't even want to go into ministry. Now I stand, I pray for two hours. I stand up and preach, and my words are empty. I said, why isn't there a stronger anointing on my life? And the Holy Spirit said, because you tolerate sin. Ooh. What? Not only in your own life, but in the lives of other people. And I'm shaken, like, to the core. And he said, go read Hebrews 1. So I go over to Hebrews 1, Ryan, and this is where God the Father is inaugurating Jesus as king of the universe. This is the day of his resurrection. Hebrews chapter one. Right? Let all the angels of God worship him. Right? To the Son, he says, you are my Son forever. Right? Read Hebrews 1. So I started reading Hebrews 1. I get to the ninth verse, and you know what the Father says to Jesus in the ninth verse? Because you have loved righteousness. The Holy Spirit said, stop right there. You love righteousness. So do all other Christians. But that's not all. I said, because you've loved righteousness and hated sin, lawlessness. Therefore God, even your God, has anointed you beyond your companions. He said, you learned to hate sin the way I hate sin. And you'll see the anointing of God increase upon your life. That changed my life forever. Now you ever see a religious person? I'm going to calm your guys fears. Most of your listeners are young enough where they didn't see a lot of this. But I saw it. I saw legalism with so many ministers, right? And a legalistic minister would say, I fear God, that's why I hate those sinners. And I'm like, that bothered me. That bothered me because I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't articulate why it was wrong.
- [30:06]
A
He said a quarter turn off.
- [30:10]
B
So I start discovering the fear of the Lord. And I understand that the fear of the Lord is to absolutely loathe hate sin. The fear of the Lord is when we love what God loves and we hate what he hates. Okay? When somebody says I fear God, that's why I hate those sinners. They don't fear God at all because they actually love. They hate who he loves. He loves those sinners so much he sent Jesus to die for them. That's how much he loves them. So don't you dare tell me you fear God and you hate people. The fear of the Lord causes you to love what he loves. That means I passionately, deeply love people. I'll never use people. I'll never look at people as to take advantage of them to get what I want from them. The fear of the Lord protects me from those motives that are selfish and immature and helps me to keep those motives to where I'm doing things for people. Because I really love them. Well now that's what I saw in green rooms. I started seeing people that were jaded and cynical. Or if you look at Solomon, Solomon started out with the fear of the Lord, but he loses it. Remember the fear of the Lord, the manifestation, the evidence that I really truly fear God is I'm going to obey God whether I understand or not. Somebody says I'll obey God if I understand. Well what if you don't understand? Does it make sense that God tells Abraham to go sacrifice the baby he waited for for 25 years?
- [31:39]
A
Right?
- [31:40]
B
That makes no sense. But he obeyed God because he feared God. And the angel actually said, don't put the knife in him, because now I know you fear God. So the fear of the Lord causes me to love obedience, which obedience means I love the people he loves. So Jesus said, you've done it to the least of these my brethren, you've done it to me. Well, I would hear things in green rooms that I'd be like, you're different in here than you are on that platform. You've become a little cynical. Why? They lost the fear of God. The fear of God and humility are what keep us in a place of receiving. So what happens is people say, well, I love Jesus, but they love an image of Jesus because they lose the reality of who Jesus really is. Because the beginning of knowing God intimately is the fear of the Lord. In other words, you don't even really know who he is until you fear him. Remember, fear doesn't mean to be scared of him. It means to be terrified of being away from him. Yeah. Wow.
- [32:45]
A
Take me to that word, Yairah. Fear of the Lord. Can you explain that to me a bit, Yaira?
- [32:52]
B
I. I got to make sure you and I are on the same page.
- [32:54]
A
The. The word for fear in the Old Testament, Right.
- [32:57]
B
Is. Okay. That word there is a trembling. There is a terror associated with it.
- [33:05]
A
Yeah.
- [33:07]
B
Okay. Isaiah is the most godly man in all of Israel. There's no question about it. Right. For his entire generation, there's nobody more godly than Isaiah.
- [33:19]
A
Yeah.
- [33:19]
B
He's actually a preacher of righteousness. If you look at Isaiah 5, he says, Woe to the wicked. Woe to those who call evil good, good, evil. Woe to those that are drunkards. But he sees God on his throne. In Isaiah 6, it's no longer woe is the sinner. It's woe is me. He's terrified, but in a good way.
- [33:38]
A
Yeah.
- [33:39]
B
All right. If you look at Job, God said about Job, there wasn't a more godly man on planet earth than Job. Job sees the Lord, and he says, and go read it. Job 44, I believe it is. Or 43. Job said, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear. I heard about you in church. I heard about you on my podcast. Heard about you on so and so's podcast. But now my eye sees you. I utterly abhor myself, which means strong hatred.
- [34:07]
A
Yeah.
- [34:08]
B
What is going on with Isaiah and Job? For the first time in their lives, they realize who this holy God is that they're really serving. And for the first time in their lives, they realize who I am before this holy God. What the church did in the 80s and 90s is we reduced the glory of Jesus down to make him more like a buddy. Yes, he's my buddy. He's my friend. Now we lose godly fear. Isaiah, even though he was very intimate with God, very close, God never lost the place of the awesomeness of who he is in Isaiah's heart. If you look at Moses, Moses was the most godly man. He sees the Lord, and he said, I trembled with fear. If you look at John the apostle, he's the closest disciple to Jesus. But yet when he sees him on the idol of Patmos, he falls down like a dead man. When God's glory manifests on the mount of transfiguration. He was terrified with fear. There's good fears.
- [35:02]
A
Yes.
- [35:02]
B
And that Hebrew word, that. That fear, that's the fear that you would experience that if you saw mother grizzly coming after you after you were messing with her cubs.
- [35:12]
A
Yeah.
- [35:13]
B
That's the kind of fear that that Hebrew word implies.
- [35:17]
A
How does that draw us to him, though?
- [35:20]
B
And that's a good question. We. It actually draws us closer because we understand who he really is and when we understand who he really is and that he would give his life and be brutally beaten to a p. Not even recognized as a man. Because he loved me that much. To die for me. So what you see is this awesome being the most awesome being in all the universe. Nothing even compares or comes close to him. Would come and die for me because he loves me that deeply.
- [35:49]
A
Yeah.
- [35:50]
B
So now we don't lose that respect, that awe, that terror, that fear. But the love is even deeper because we really know who it is we love. I saw all kinds of people who love Michael Jordan, but if Michael Jordan saw him on the streets, would even not give him an acknowledgement. Because they loved a figment of Michael. They loved an aspect of what he could do on the court. They had no relation. They even cried when his father was murdered that they had no relationship with him. To have a relationship with God, you have to walk in godly fear. That's why Jesus delighted in it.
- [36:25]
A
One of the coolest verses for me is in Hosea where it says, in the latter days, the children of the Lord shall seek the Lord and his face, and they shall come to fear his goodness.
- [36:34]
B
Yeah.
- [36:35]
A
That's such a weird phrase. You're gonna fear the goodness, but that's everything you're talking about, is to be like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm a dead man in front of you. My sin is ever before you. I am literally Zechariah. Chapter 3. I'm covered in poop. I'm covered in filthy robes, filthy rags in front of the holy of holies. And yet the judge gets off the judgment seat as Satan's rebuking me and puts a clean turban on my head and Clean linens on me.
- [37:02]
B
How, like how causes the awe? It's like the same thing. The psalmist writes, rejoice with trembling. Yeah, like what? Rejoice with trembling. It sounds like. Wait a minute, Oxymoron here. Rejoice with trembling and fear. His goodness. Yes. It's that dynamic. This generation totally wanted to eliminate.
- [37:25]
A
Yeah.
- [37:26]
B
The dynamic to make it more palatable. Right. Because we're trying to bring him down to our level.
- [37:31]
A
Yes.
- [37:31]
B
Instead of realizes he's trying to bring us up to his level.
- [37:34]
A
Yes. Amen.
- [37:35]
B
He wants us to be his children.
- [37:37]
A
Yeah.
- [37:38]
B
But as children, we don't lose sight. See, this is what God's trying to convey to Israel. Like, the son or daughter who insults his parents shall be stoned to death. That's in the law.
- [37:50]
A
Yeah.
- [37:51]
B
Because God is trying to protect his people from the poison of irreverence, of a lack of reverence. And if they have that towards their parents, that will translate over to God. Show me a person who truly fears the Lord. I'll show you a person that has tremendous respect for their parents. Because they see the authority of God on their parents. They will have a tremendous respect for policemen. Why? Because they see the authority of God on the policeman. They not only have a tremendous respect which protects them of God's direct authority, but of his delegated authority. That's a person that will walk in a tremendous amount of respect towards a president of the US that person won't say, he's not my president. That person will say, I don't agree with his policies, but I see the authority of God on him, therefore I'll respect him. If you look at Peter, Peter writes in 2nd Peter, 1st Peter 2:17, Fear God and honor the king. The king he's actually talking about is Herod Agrippa one who was the very king who cut James head off. He was the very king that was persecuting Christians because it was giving him political favors. How can you honor a king who's murdering Christians for his own selfish agenda? It's not easy. But you don't honor the man's behavior. You honor the authority that's on the man. See, God's word says, all authority is of God. It does not say all authority is godly. The behavior may not be of God, but the authority. So the fear of the Lord gives you the ability to judge not according to the seeing of the eye or the hearing of the ear. It gives you the ability to judge according to righteous judgment. The fear of the Lord seeds beyond the man's Behavior and sees the authority on the man. I remember when, okay, so my guy I struggled with because I was young, was younger than you was Bill Clinton. And, and I just, I was so depressed when he got elected. And after three days, the Lord said, nobody gets into office without me knowing about it because the authorities that exist are appointed. God said, I raised you up, Pharaoh. He didn't say, the devil raised you up. I raised you up. Yeah, okay. And I remember that day I realized how wrong I was and I started praying for President Clinton and a deep love grew in my heart. See, I have prayed for President Obama. I've prayed for. Who are the other Democrat? Well, Bush. You know, I prayed for all of them. And what it's done is create President Biden. It's created a love in my heart for the man and a respect in my heart for the position. Even though I don't agree with their policies of murdering children. I don't agree. And I'm strongly opposed to mutilating their bodies and giving them puberty blockers. I am so in disagreement with that, with same sex marriage. Because why? These are the things that destroy people in the long run. They say it's freedom, but it's actually destroying their lives. You know what God's laws are for? They protected us from ourselves. Because when a sin nature came into human beings, our nature then became to choose what is good for me outside of what God says, what actually I would gravitate, choosing which would bring death to me. So the laws of God were given to us to protect ourselves from ourselves. And it proved we couldn't keep them because we had a sin nature. When Jesus came, he changed our nature to now we desire to keep the law of God. Right. That's why Jesus said, go into all the world and teach them all things. I've commanded you, you now have the nature. Your nature's been changed. God has given you a new spirit. You now don't desire things that are going to destroy you, so I've got to restrict you from them. You now have it written in your heart. Because, you know, I don't want to answ anything to do with that. Well, I look at, you know, these, these people in leadership and government, they, they don't have a changed nature. So they're giving people what they want and they're giving the people the very things that's destroying their lives. Yeah, I mean, if our whole society went over to what they're propping, what they're promoting, we, we, we would be done. We wouldn't have children anymore, anymore, we would be done.
- [42:14]
A
Right.
- [42:15]
B
We would not be very literally a death cult multiplying anymore.
- [42:19]
A
Yeah.
- [42:20]
B
And so I loved those men, President Obama, President Biden, but I did not agree, not even a little bit with those things that are against scripture. Now, when it comes to big government spending, it comes to borders, it comes to. I'm not going to speak out about that. But when it violates the word of God. John the Baptist spoke to Herod because he violated the word of God and he married his brother's wife. It cost him his head. And my concern right now is that we've got pastors and leaders, and I'm talking about all of us ministers. I'm including me. What we're saying is not going to get us in trouble. It's what we're not saying. Paul said, I, I am innocent of the blood of all men because I didn't withhold the whole counsel of God, that which is needed. And John the Baptist, he could have lived a lot longer by just not confronting the king of his behavior. Yeah, you know, I mean, and you know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer lost his life because he confronted government of what the government was doing that was ungodly with the Jewish people. So are we going to have leaders and pastors that are going to get quiet on the issues? They could get their heads cut off, or are they going to continue to speak the truth even if it causes them to fall out of favor?
- [43:50]
A
Well, it sounds to me like you're saying that there's going to be an outpouring of revival and there will be a remnant of pastors and leaders that do stand up and they do get their heads cut off. So I want to land the plane here. I'm thoroughly convinced by what you've just said in this podcast that Jesus is coming back before 2075. What do we do about it to make ourselves ready?
- [44:14]
B
That's the most important question of the entire podcast. The guys that got it right on his first coming were the people that pursued holiness. And I write about this in depth. There were people that got it right on his first coming, and there were people that got it wrong. People that pursued holiness, people that feared the Lord, and people that eagerly were looking forward to his coming. The same thing is true for second coming. Jesus said to stay dressed for service. Luke 12. Keep your lamps burning and you be like men who are eagerly awaiting their master's coming. Now, what does he mean, eagerly waiting? I was engaged to Lisa for four months. They were the four of the longest Months still, of my entire life.
- [44:56]
A
Yes.
- [44:57]
B
Especially the two months when she went to Indiana and I stayed in Dallas. And I was away from her for that two months while she was getting the wedding ready. Oh, my gosh. A day seemed like a week. A week seemed like a year. Right. Okay. Here's the biggest problem with the second coming. Most people view it and preach it as an event instead of preaching it and viewing it as the wedding of the ages. Hmm. Do you know what that is? You know what the second coming is? It is a groom who's so in love with his wife that he was brutally beaten so much that they didn't even recognize him as a human being any longer because he loves his wife so much. And he went to prepare a place for us, and he's waiting for dad to say, go get your girl. And it's about a bride that is so excited about her wedding day. We're the bride. Now, if you look at Revelation 19, it says, the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife, that's his bride, that's us. Has made herself ready. It doesn't say God made her ready. It said she made herself ready. How does she make herself ready? And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. If you look at the early Jewish weddings, all the disciples of Jesus understood this. Most Americans don't. The groom would agree with. The groom would agree with the bride's family of the bride price he would actually pay to marry her because she contributed to household duties. And he was going to pull her out of her home. So it could be in coins, it could be in animals. And then they would drink a glass of wine. They would sign the written contract of the bride price. He would pay it, drink the glass of wine, they're betrothed, which is so different than engagement. If I don't like you in the middle of the engagement, I can say, I'm done, and we're done. A betrothal. You're actually married. You have to go through divorce. That's why Joseph was going to divorce her privately. Okay. You're married. You just don't live together. Because that man would leave and go away for a year and prepare a room off his father's house.
- [47:11]
A
Yeah.
- [47:12]
B
And when the father said, it's time, the groom would come back and get her in a torchlight procession. Huh. Okay. Usually in the middle of the night.
- [47:20]
A
Interesting.
- [47:21]
B
All right, so here's Jesus so excited, coming. And here's us. What does the bride do? Because the groom leaves for about a year. Yeah. What does she do? She goes through a baptism immediately. That's like her saying, I am betrothed. You don't even approach me. Tells her whole community, I'm spoken for. Okay. The next thing she has to do is pack her trunk, and the most important thing she does is make her wedding dress. They didn't have bridal shops back in those days. There wasn't Vogue magazine, Glamour magazine showing all. A bridal magazine. They didn't buy the dress. They made the dress. Now, Lisa goes for two months to get ready for this wedding. Right?
- [48:03]
A
Yeah.
- [48:04]
B
44 years ago. And I walk into that church and I realize, oh, my gosh, this girl's been working so hard. Flowers down the. She took this Presbyterian church and made it look magnificent. The runner, the arch. Right. All the flowers, everything. But nothing was as beautiful as when she showed the back door to her dad. Oh, my gosh. I've never seen such beauty. I mean, everything else paled in comparison.
- [48:35]
A
Yeah.
- [48:37]
B
Can you imagine if she showed up at that back door with an ordinary dress on, with a bunch of stains and dirt and grime all over the dress? Her hair is unkept, and she has no makeup on. What would that say to me? This day is not very important to her. It might be important right now in the moment, but it was important two months ago. The bride has made herself ready. To her, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints, our acts of obedience. You making movies, you doing these podcasts. You're obeying God. Annie, your wife, taking care of your beautiful son, being right there with you, partnering with you. These are the righteous acts because you're doing it for the glory of Jesus. I'm concerned. We've got a lot of Christians in America. They attend church 90 minutes on a Sunday, and then they basically go build their lives for themselves for the rest of the week and their families. I don't know if they've got enough material to make a bikini, let alone a wedding dress. Now, John makes a statement. He said, remain in fellowship with him. Why do you remain in fellowship? Okay, let's do an example. If I'm playing in the super bowl and I'm one of the 11 guys on the field, if I'm out of fellowship with the quarterback, that means I'm outside the huddle, Everybody. All other 10 team members are going to know what to do because of what that quarterback Calls in that huddle except me, I've got to guess. So John says remain in fellowship with him, that when he appears. Now, this is amazing, we might have confidence and not be ashamed. He said, there's going to be two responses of Christians when Jesus returns. He says little children remain in fellowship. He's not talking to atheists. Yeah, there's going to be ashamed and there's going to be confidence. Okay, who's ashamed? If my wife shows up at that back door with a dress all wrinkled up and got dirt and grime on it, she's going to be ashamed at that moment in front of her groom, Is she going to be confident when she walks out there with that gorgeous dress on? She's done all the makeup and she's done her hair. She's going to be confident.
- [50:52]
A
Right? Right.
- [50:54]
B
Question I have for all of your listeners. Are you going to be ashamed or are you going to be confident? I'm going to give you an example. I'm going to give you an example. My dad never made more than $45,000 a year. Never made that more than that his entire life. He saved and invested like crazy so that we could go to the university of our choice. I chose an out of state school, Purdue University, and I studied engineering. He paid a lot of money for my education. First day in my freshman year, there's 3,000 of us sitting in the engineering big lecture hall, and the dean of engineering walks up and goes, look at the person to your right, look at the person to your left. They won't be there. At the end of this year, we will flunk 50% of you out. And he said, and then next year, we will flunk another 50% of you out. So there will only be 25% of you left in this building in engineering by your junior year. That put a healthy fear in me. Oh, my gosh. I started preparing for my finals that week, and I remember that first report card came. I was confident, and it actually ended up being better than I thought. I was on the dean's list at Purdue, but then Ryan and I remember, oh, my gosh, the delight in my dad's face when he saw that I made the dean's list. Oh, my gosh, it was amazing. Yeah. But then I joined a fraternity. Now I'm not saved. Okay, I joined a fraternity. Now I'm going to keggers four nights a week. Now I'm playing Frisbee football. Now I'm doing all this stuff. And I didn't apply myself that semester, and I Remember when that report card came? I wasn't confident. And I remember when it came by the mail, because this is 1980 or 79. My dad said, let me see it. And I showed it to him. And I'll never forget the look on his face. And the only words he said was, you could have done better. I was so ashamed. I wasn't necessarily thrown out of the family. Okay. But I was ashamed. And I remember I said to myself, I'll never let that happen again. And do you know that kept me from being distracted the rest of my college time. So I would rather you hear this from me. I would rather you not hear this from Jesus or experience this when he appears. I would like to see you keep yourself clean and bright. Remember, he's coming back for a holy church without spot or wrinkle. Holy means she's just set apart for him. She lives for him. I don't want your viewers to be ashamed. I want them to have confidence. I got a dad's heart and that's what I want for them.
- [53:29]
A
Amen. Amen. John, what an honor, man. Guys, the king is coming again. My wife will not stop talking about this book. I'm so excited to dive in once I get through your other book, the Awe of God, and I made it easy to read.
- [53:45]
B
People are busy.
- [53:47]
A
Yeah.
- [53:48]
B
And I remember praying. I said, holy Spirit, what do I do? And he said, write short chapters. So I actually did it for the awe of God, and it worked so well for the awe of God. I did it for this. So every day your chapter is only 15 minutes of reading. And that's if you're a slow reader and then there's a devotion for that day. So it's not a devotional, but it's a book. But I give you a devotion for the day and it's 28 chapters. So 28 days is four weeks. So it's a four week book.
- [54:11]
A
There you go.
- [54:11]
B
Yeah.
- [54:12]
A
Awesome.
- [54:12]
B
So I'm sorry I interrupted you.
- [54:14]
A
No, no, guys, the link is in the show notes or in the description. John, thank you, man. Such an honor. You are a hero of mine. I didn't say this at the beginning because I was nervous, but I was like, I haven't been nervous for a podcast like this in a while. But, man, you have meant so much to me.
- [54:28]
B
You don't need to be nervous. I'm your brother in Christ.
- [54:30]
A
You're my brother, but you're also. Dude, you're John Bevere. So, like, I'm just excited to be here with you. Thankful that you came on the podcast in your studio. What an honor. It's been such a blessing. Your wife's awesome, by the way. Dude, Lisa's hilarious.
- [54:43]
B
I way over married.
- [54:44]
A
She's one of the funniest women I've ever met in my life.
- [54:47]
B
Oh, she is. She is.
- [54:48]
A
She's got some zingers.
- [54:49]
B
I really, really got blessed. I always tell guys that when you fear God, you get to weigh over Mary.
- [54:54]
A
Yeah.
- [54:55]
B
And that's one of the blessings of fearing God.
- [54:56]
A
The favor. I feel the same way about Annie.
- [54:58]
B
Yeah.
- [54:59]
A
But guys, thank you for joining us for the Jesus People podcast at the Bevere Studio. Thank you, John, for being with us. We will see you guys next week.