Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Beloved, if you know Jesus, it's because he chose you before the foundation of the world. He pre-loved you, beloved, and he planned in advance that he was going to save you and bring you to himself.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Yeshua Hamashiach. I want you to know, those of you that are listening right now, that's God's heart to you. Listen: Grace to you and peace to you from God our Father and from Yeshua Hamashiach. Jesus died for your sin, and now God is reaching out to you. He's looking past your sin because Jesus died for it, and he's coming to you in love and he's coming in friendship and he's coming into your room right now and he's saying, "Grace to you and peace. Do not be afraid. I love you."

So Paul begins by putting God's people at ease so they can receive from the heart of God. Some of you are having a hard time receiving from the Lord because you think God's mad at you. You think God's rejected you. You think God doesn't love you. You feel condemned, but beloved, the devil is the accuser of the brethren. If you have truly turned your life over to Jesus, if you've repented and are in the process of repenting—and what I mean by that, beloved, we don't become perfect at once.

Paul said not that he'd attained it or that he had become perfect, but that he kept on pressing on. If you're truly seeking to love the Lord, if your heart is crying out to him, "God, I want to be right with you. I want to live for you. I don't want to sin against you." If you're trapped in a sin, you're saying, "God, deliver me, deliver me." You're crying out to him day and night to deliver you. I want you to know, beloved, God loves you and he's saying to you, "Grace to you, my child, and peace to you. Just be at peace. God's there for you. God loves you, and God wants to be with you."

Paul continues on and he says in verse number three, "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach." And we begin our Hebrew prayers by saying "Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam," which means "Blessed are thou, O Lord, our God." Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, blessed are thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe.

This is what Paul is doing here: "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach." It's a very Jewish blessing. Even as we begin the prayer Baruch atah Adonai, blessed are thou, Lord, what's Paul doing? He's saying, "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshuah the Messiah." So he's beginning the book of Ephesians, beloved, in a very traditional Jewish way.

He continues on there and he says, "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." First he says of the Lord that he's blessed. He says, "Blessed be the God and Father." First of all, he's saying that God is the blessed one. In other words, he is the one that is blessed.

And if you and I want to be blessed, we have to be blessed from the one that has the power to bless us, and that is the blessed one, the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach. So with that in mind, let me read it again. Paul said, "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah." And so we're going to see that we've been raised with Messiah and seated with him in the heavenly places.

Listen, the Scripture tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto us. In other words, the Father is saying if you seek first the one that has the power to bless you, he's going to bless you, because he's the rewarder of those that diligently seek him. The blessing may not come to you in the way you think it's going to come.

Some people are looking to become really wealthy, but you know what? God hasn't called us to a mountain of money; he's called us to Mount Sinai; he's called us, beloved, to himself. You'll be blessed, though, beyond your wildest belief when you're blessed by the blessed one. You might not experience it fully in this world; none of us will. But the Bible tells us, "Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and neither has it ever even entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love him."

So listen to this again. "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach, who has blessed us, beloved, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." What type of a blessing do we have? A spiritual blessing. But beloved, some people are looking to the Lord not for a spiritual blessing, they're looking to the Lord, beloved, for worldly blessings.

Listen: Don't use God to fulfill the American dream. Seek God, beloved, for his own presence. He said to Abraham, "I am your exceedingly great reward." And so the blessing that we have, beloved, it's a heavenly blessing, it's a spiritual blessing. It's love, it's power, it's joy, it's peace, it's self-control, it's being in victory in the spirit realm.

And beloved, we have these things, and it's going to become more evident to you as we proceed through this study in the book of Ephesians. I'm continuing on now in the fourth verse: "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world." Let me read the verses together now. "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah, get this now, just as he chose us, get it now, who did he choose?

If you know him, beloved, if you love him, who did he choose? He chose, listen now, you. God chose you. Let me say it again. "Just as he chose us in him," verse four, "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love." Do you know what an awesome blessing that is, yedidim, beloved ones, to understand that God chose you?

Listen, you didn't choose him; he chose you. Jesus said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." Jesus also said, "If you were of the world, the world would love you, but because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." You need to understand, beloved, that God chose you. First by sending his Son, but then by drawing you to himself through the Holy Spirit, beloved, and through divine providence.

When you understand that God chose you before the foundation of the world to be his, beloved, that will revolutionize your life and it will become the foundation of much of your Christian doctrine. Listen to what Paul said: "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Listen now: Just as he chose you, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world."

Now, you may say to yourself, "Well, he chose me, but I chose him." No, he chose you. Jesus specifically said, "You did not choose me." Did you know that Jesus said you did not choose me? You did not choose him; he chose you. Hallelujah and amen. And when did he choose you, beloved? Before the foundation of the world. Not by deeds of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy.

Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus and Rabbi will be right back in a moment. But first, I want you to know that our desire is to see God move powerfully in your life. And if you have a prayer request, we invite you to submit it online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Our team will prayerfully lift up your request to the Lord, believing with you for God's guidance and love in your life. Submit your request today.

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Friends, this verse in Romans shows us that when the Jewish people come to Christ, we too will be blessed. The church will experience a spiritual awakening. Help us fulfill this calling to reach Israel. We can't do it without your faithful support, so partner with us today by visiting us online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And now, back to Rabbi Schneider.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Let's continue on. "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love." Listening to the next verse now, Ephesians 1:5: "He chose you." Now verse five says, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Yeshua Hamashiach to himself, according to the kind intention of his will."

Now, sometimes when you bring up predestination, people say, "I don't believe in predestination." Let me tell you, if you accept the Bible, you believe in predestination because predestination is in the Bible. Get your Bible out, beloved, and look at Ephesians chapter one, verse number five. And this is not the only place that the Holy Spirit speaks about predestination in the Bible. Read it for yourself.

Ephesians 1:5: "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ." Paul said he chose you in him before the foundation of the world, and he predestined you to adoption as a son. That is something, beloved, to get excited about when you realize your salvation rest in God. You had to yield, beloved, but man is made willing in the day of God's power.

See, the Bible tells us we're going to see in a second that we were dead in our transgressions and sins. We didn't have the ability to respond spiritually, but God saved you, beloved. He made you alive in Messiah through a sovereign act of his will. And if you'll bear with me on this, I think you'll find it so powerful and so anointed, and if you'll receive it, it will bless you.

Because when you know that God chose you, beloved, when you know that it wasn't you that chose him, but that it was he that chose you, that will give you such a love for God, that'll make you so excited about being Jesus's beloved, and you'll be willing to bear the reproach of being rejected when you witness for him because you'll know what a privilege it is, beloved, to be chosen by him.

Jesus said, "If you were chosen by me," he said, "you're going to bear the same thing that I bore." Jesus said, "If you're of the world, the world would love you, but because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." We lift up the name of Jesus today. Hallelujah and amen. Now, some people say, "Well, the reason that the Lord chose me was because he knew that I would choose him."

But beloved, that negates the Scriptures. That's not what Paul is saying. In fact, if we go to the book of Romans now, chapter number eight, I want to show you a Scripture that many people will use to try to refute what I'm teaching here. Romans chapter number eight, beginning in verse number 29: "For whom he foreknew"—and this is where they get it from, the word "foreknew."

They say God foreknew that I would choose him, and because God foreknew that I would choose him, they say, he chose me. And this is where they get it from. "From whom he foreknew, he also predestinated." There's that word "predestinated" again. Remember, you can't say the Rabbi's teaching predestination and turn me off because, beloved, I'm just reading what the Bible says.

The Bible uses the word "predestination." So don't reject me, because if you reject me, beloved, I'm just reading what the word of God says to you. Verse 29, Romans chapter eight: "For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to become conformed to the image of his Son"—there's that same language again—"that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, and whom he predestinated these he called, whom he called he justified, whom he justified he glorified."

But here's what you need to understand. When Paul says here, "whom he foreknew," Paul's not saying he foreknew that we would choose him; Paul's saying he foreknew us. There's a big difference. Paul's not saying God foreknew that you would choose him; that's not what the Scripture says at all there in Romans 8:29. Rather, what Paul's saying is: God foreknew you. He fore-loved you.

He loved you and chose you before the foundation of the world and already planned it in advance that you were going to be an object, beloved, of his mercy, that he was going to adopt and bring to himself as a son. And so you see this concept that God chose us because he foreknew that we would choose him—the Bible doesn't teach that. Not at all.

The Bible doesn't teach that God chooses one over another because he would know what they would do. Rather, the Bible teaches that God is sovereign, beloved, and he does what he wants to do. That's why Paul says in Romans nine, you will say to me then, "There must be injustice with God if God chooses some." But Paul answers back: "Who are you, O man, that answers back to God?

Doesn't the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and one for dishonor?" And Paul teaches this very, very strongly. So let me back up again. We're in the very beginning of the book of Ephesians. Paul begins his book by blessing the Father: "Baruch atah Adonai." And then he speaks about how God the Father, the blessed one, that he has blessed us—those that are his, he's writing to believers, he's writing to the church at Ephesus—that the blessed one has chosen us before the foundation of the world and that he predestined us to adoption as sons.

Now, as we look at the words of Jesus, what is very plain is that Jesus did not choose everybody. Jesus, for example, in John chapter six, began to talk about who he was, and they began to grumble against him. And Jesus said, "Don't grumble among yourselves; no one can come to me unless it's been granted from the Father."

So as we turn to the Gospel of John, chapter six, we read these words. Jesus said in verse 35, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe." But then he says in verse 37, "All that the Father gives me shall come to me."

What did Paul say in Ephesians chapter one? "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach that has blessed us and chosen us before the foundation of the world." Now in John 6, verse 37, Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me shall come to me." So there were these that were grumbling against him, these that were rejecting him. Jesus said, "I know that you don't believe."

But then he said in verse 37, "But all that the Father gives me shall come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out." He continues in verse 39: "And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all that he has given me I lose nothing." In John 10, Jesus said to those that were not believing, "You believe not," he said, "because you're not my sheep."

But Jesus said, "I know my sheep; my Father has given them to me." Now, some of you might not like this, but I challenge you to look up the Scripture references that I'm sharing with you for yourself because all I'm doing is I'm sharing what Jesus said. Jesus continues in John chapter six. They're not believing in him. They say in verse 42, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How does he now say I've come down out of heaven?" Jesus answered, "Do not grumble among yourselves; no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." He continues on and he begins to say you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, and this was too much; they couldn't handle it anymore. So I'm reading now in verse number 54.

Yeshua says, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I'll raise him up on the last day." And then he continues on, and these things he said in verse number 59 in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples when they heard this, when they heard him saying, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood," they couldn't handle it.

It sounded like protest to them; it was un-kosher. So it says in verse 60: Many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it?" Jesus in verse 61, but Jesus conscious that his disciples grumbled said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble?" And then he said what if you should behold—I'm just going to skip that and get right to the point.

Jesus said this: "But there are some of you in verse number 64 who do not believe." And in verse 65 he says this: "For this reason I said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted from the Father." So Paul says in Ephesians chapter one: "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua Hamashiach who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world and predestined us to adoption."

Do you know in John 17, beloved, when Jesus is praying what we call the high priestly prayer, listen what Jesus said in verse number six? Jesus said, "I manifested"—he's speaking to the Father—he said, "I manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world." So Jesus manifested himself to the ones that the Father gave him. He didn't manifest himself to everybody.

Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you revealed these to the babes but hid them from the wise and prudent." So Jesus says, "I manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world." And in verse number nine of John 17, listen to this striking statement. Jesus said, "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom thou hast given me."

Beloved, if you know Jesus, it's because he chose you before the foundation of the world. He pre-loved you, beloved, and he planned in advance that he was going to save you and bring you to himself. Your salvation, beloved, rests on the solid anchor and the solid foundation of the sovereignty of God. Jesus said all the Father gives me will come to me, and he said of all the sheep that the Father's given me in John 10, I will lose none.

When you understand, beloved, that God chose you before the foundation of the world, that that's how much the Father loves you, I'm going to tell you, you're going to get on fire for Jesus. God bless you and Shalom. Not only are thousands of people getting saved through this ministry, but oftentimes when I travel around the world, the Lord will open up doors for me to minister to political leaders and people in high places.

I want you to know, when you send me through television and on-the-ground crusades, there's fruit that's being won for the kingdom of God and you that are supporting me, beloved, are having a part to play. You're going to have a reward for all this fruit that's being wrought through this ministry. You see, beloved, Paul says: "How shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall the preacher go unless somebody sends them?" You're the ones that are sending me, and together, beloved, we're going to be rewarded. I want to encourage you right now, if the Lord is speaking to your heart about supporting me and supporting this ministry, just be obedient to him and you're going to be blessed.

Dustin Roberts: To support Discovering the Jewish Jesus with a gift of any amount, give us a call at 800-777-7835. You can also give online; our web address is discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And I want to take a moment right now and just say thank you. You know, your faithful support has opened doors that we never could have walked through alone.

We have a Spanish-language program and it's made possible in part by friends and monthly partners just like you. It's your generosity that now reaches Hispanic communities across North, Central, and South America, not just on TV, but online at our Spanish YouTube channel, and even on radio in some places. In fact, here's a testimony that we received on our channel from Hugo.

In translated into English, he says: "How exciting it is to hear a Jewish brother speak about the true Messiah of the nation of Israel. May God bless you and grant you great wisdom to be able to speak to them with the power of the Holy Spirit." So friends, thank you for helping us share the gospel across languages, cultures, and borders. You know, we're not just in Spanish; we're in Russian and we're in Hebrew as well.

And if this mission is speaking to your heart and you want to see people in communities around the world come to Christ, would you consider giving? There's a cost to all the editing, the recording equipment, and each and every donation helps. So give generously at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now, here's Rabbi with the Aaronic blessing.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter six is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person: Yahweh, God Almighty, our Creator and Maker. So receive God's blessing into your life right now.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. And now in Hebrew.

Yevarechecha Adonai v'yishmerecha. Ya'er Adonai panav elecha v'yichunecha. Yisa Adonai panav elecha v'yasem lecha shalom. God bless you and Shalom.

Dustin Roberts: I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Join us again when Rabbi Schneider helps us better understand predestination and God's will in our lives. That's Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.