Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: We have a hope, beloved. We have a future. We're not like those in this world that life begins to die at whatever age and hope begins to diminish. We have a hope, beloved. It's a sure thing.

In my view, this is one of the most important portions in the entire Word of God. In this section of scripture, yididim beloved ones, Paul reveals to us that those of us that know Jesus were chosen by God before the foundation of the world, that we were blessed in Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, that our identity is sons that have been adopted, and that we're going to heaven.

Hear the Word of God as I read now Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 3 through 5, as we set the stage for the preaching, beloved, of the Word of God. Hear the Word of God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—I'm in Ephesians 1:3—of Yeshua HaMashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in him, in Messiah. So where were we blessed with every spiritual blessing? In Messiah. Messiah Jesus is blessed with every spiritual blessing. We are in Messiah, so we now have been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and neither has it ever entered into the heart of man, the things that the Father God has prepared for those that love him and know him, those that are chosen in Messiah Jesus. In the fourth verse, Paul reveals that this identity was given us in Messiah before the foundation of the world, that the Father beloved actually chose us to be his children before we were born.

And so Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse 4, "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love." You see, beloved, God loved you before you were born. He accomplished it by the Holy Spirit.

Verse number 5 says this, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Yeshua HaMashiach, through Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the kind intention of his will." And because, beloved, we've been forgiven for all our sins, in verse 7, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses," we are not condemned in any way, shape, or form. We are only loved by the Father in Messiah Jesus. God has become our Father. We've been adopted by Father God. Hallelujah as his children.

After Paul reveals these deep mysteries about being chosen in Messiah in eternity before the foundation of the world, he then prays for us, beginning in verse number 17, that the Father would open our heart and our eyes through wisdom and revelation by the Holy Spirit to comprehend these mysteries. And that's what we're going to talk about today.

But before we do, I want to make one final comment about something that was in Paul's heart in relationship, beloved, to you and I, Jew and Gentile becoming one in Messiah Jesus. You see, before Yeshua came, beloved, there was no communion between Jewish people and Gentile people. The Israelites were separated from all the other peoples of the world, and they were the only ones that had revelation about who the one God was.

But remember the Father predicted and he prophesied to Abraham. He said, "Abraham, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." And the seed that the Father was referring to when he made that promise to Abraham, beloved, is Jesus. And so now that Jesus has come, beloved, the blessing of Abraham has come upon the Gentiles as well, that now the Jewish people aren't the only people that know God, but rather Jew and Gentile, beloved, have been brought into relationship with God through Messiah Jesus. Jew and Gentile have become one in Messiah.

Now, I know that this information that I'm sharing with you may not seem that stimulating, but you have to understand once again the heart and the mind of Paul when he wrote the book of Ephesians. This was big news for the Jews of Paul's day because up until this point, they had no fellowship with Gentiles. In fact, they thought Gentiles were unclean.

Remember the story in the book of Acts when Peter went to sleep on the roof as they were preparing a meal? In the trance, he saw a sheet being lowered and all types of un-kosher animals were on the sheet. And he heard a voice saying, "Peter, take, kill and eat." And remember Peter said, "Lord, I've never eaten anything unholy or unclean." And then he woke up.

And the scripture says while he was pondering what that could have meant, somebody knocked on the door. And it was a messenger of the Gentile Cornelius. And Peter understood the meaning of the vision—that he wasn't to consider Cornelius, a Gentile, as unclean, but was to go and share the gospel with them.

So now, beloved, God has brought Gentiles into communion with him, even as he revealed himself originally to just the Jewish people. And so with that introduction to the concept, I'm going to read now Ephesians chapter 1, verse 12 and 13. Remember, this was a big deal to Paul.

So in verse number 12, Paul says, "To the end, we who were the first to hope in Messiah should be able to be to the praise of his glory." So he says, "Now us," he said, "we who were the first to hope in Messiah is to the praise of his glory." Who is he speaking to when he said, "We who were the first to hope in Messiah"? Who were the first to hope in Messiah? They were the Israelites, because remember Jesus said, "I've come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And the first church was all Jewish.

It wasn't until Peter's vision on the roof that I just spoke of that people began to understand that now God was bringing Gentiles in. Now in verse 13, he says this, "In him, in Messiah Yeshua, you also." Who is he speaking to when he said, "You also"? He was speaking to the Gentiles. So he says, "In him, you also after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, were sealed in the Holy Spirit." Jew and Gentile now sealed in the Holy Spirit of God.

Paul picks this up in the second chapter of Ephesians, verse number 15, where he calls Jew and Gentile now, get this, one in Messiah. He says Jew and Gentile are now, listen now, one new man. See, this is a big deal to Paul. He spoke about it in Ephesians chapter 1. Now he speaks about it in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 13 through 15.

He's not done yet. He speaks about it again, beloved, in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 6. Listen to verse 6 of Ephesians 3. Paul says, "To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Messiah Yeshua, in Christ Jesus, through the gospel of which I was made a minister."

So this is an awesome thing, beloved, that you and I, Jew and Gentile, are one in Messiah, that we would rejoice together. Praise the name of the Lord. With that being said, I'm going to launch forward now, beloved, and we're going to be talking about the mystery, beloved, that Jesus is in us and the hope of our calling, that we're going, beloved, to a heavenly kingdom. Bless the name of the Lord.

And so I'm going to read in the book of Ephesians chapter 1, verse 17. Hear the Word of God, yidid. Paul is praying and he prays this, "That the God of Yeshua HaMashiach, that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, may give to you," Paul saying, "I'm praying that the Father will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."

So the first thing that Paul is praying for is he's praying that the Father would give you and I a spirit—that's the Holy Spirit—of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. So the first thing that Sha'ul—that's his Hebrew name—that Paul prays for, beloved, is that you and I, get this, would know God.

Now, you might be thinking, "Well, I know God," but let me ask you this question, yidid beloved one. Do you know God or do you know about God? There's a big difference. And many of us know about God, but we don't know God. We can go to different verses in the Bible, and we can quote different portions of scripture, and we have our doctrine right—we know about God, but do we know him?

Paul prays that the Father would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him. When he says, "I pray that the Father of glory, I pray that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him," the type of knowledge he's talking about, beloved, it's real intimate acquaintance. It's the difference between reading in a book about fire versus actually being burned by it and experiencing it.

So Father, right now, we ask you to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know you. We want to know you, Father God. Father, we say like the person of old recorded in the Gospels that said, "Sir, I wish to see Jesus." Father, I pray that you will introduce us to Jesus in a brand new way, Father God, that we will encounter you, Father, and that we'll encounter your Son, Father God, having known that we've met you. Father, that we'll have a firsthand experience with you. So we pray that you'll give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, Father, in the knowledge of God, according to the prayer, Father, that your apostle asked you.

Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be right back in just a moment. First though, I want to invite you to explore our Messianic content on our website. You can dive deeper into topics like the feast of the Lord, the prophetic significance of Israel, and how Yeshua fulfills prophecy. Visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click on our ministry and Messianic content tabs, helping you understand the roots of your faith today.

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Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Look what else the Apostle prays for as we continue this prayer in the 18th verse. Hear the Word of God. He says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened so that you might know what is the hope of his calling." So now Paul's praying for the hope of the calling. First he prayed that we would know God. He says, "I pray that the Father would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." Number one, he asks that we would know God, that God would introduce himself to us by his spirit.

Now he's praying that we would understand the hope of our calling, that we would understand our destiny and our future, because hope is always connected to something in the future. So now Paul is causing us to reach out to get a grip of the fact that we're going to heaven and what that means. And lastly, he prays, beloved, that we would understand the riches of God's glory that's inside us.

So listen again exactly what he says, Ephesians 1:18. "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you might know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." Now, when he speaks about this prayer being answered, he says that it's going to be answered by the Spirit through the form of wisdom and revelation. So he starts out in verse number 17 that the Father would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know these things.

Wisdom, biblically, is sanctified information, godly information that comes to our mind, that is then orchestrated in our mind by the Holy Spirit so that we know how to apply it in any given situation. So wisdom is connected with information. That's why the book of Proverbs is called wisdom literature.

And so all through the book of Proverbs, we hear, "Hear my instruction, my son, and become wise." Over and over again, we find in Proverbs that by understanding the texts that are being written there, that by gaining the knowledge that is contained in the book of Proverbs, we would become wise. And so wisdom is associated with information that then the Holy Spirit teaches us how to apply to any given situation. That's wisdom.

But Paul says not only that we would know God through wisdom, but he also says that we would pray that we would know God through revelation. And so once again, he says, "I pray that the God of Yeshua HaMashiach of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, might give to you," listen now, "a spirit of wisdom and revelation." Wisdom pertains to the mind, it pertains to information. Revelation, beloved, pertains to a mystery that is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit that comes to us in the form of divine intuition.

And so, for example, remember Yeshua Jesus said to Peter, "Who do they say that I am?" And Cephas Peter said, "Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah." Yeshua said to him, "But who do you say that I am?" And remember Peter said back to Yeshua, "You are the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God."

In other words, Peter was able to perceive who Jesus really was. And remember what Yeshua said to him after Peter made that statement? Yeshua said to him, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you." He said, "But my Father who is in heaven." In other words, Cephas Peter was able to know Jesus who he was, beloved, listen now, through revelation.

And then Yeshua went on to say, "And upon this rock, I will build my church." And so the church is built, beloved, on the rock of revelation. In other words, we can only know God as God reveals himself to us. And when he reveals himself to us, we know, and the Lord builds on that. That's why Jesus said, "No one knows the Father but the Son, and no one knows the Son but the Father, and whomever we choose," listen now, "to reveal ourself to."

Another point scripturally Yeshua said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst reveal these things to the babes, but did hide them from the wise and prudent." And so we need, beloved, to become humbly dependent on the Holy Spirit for revelation. We can't find God with our minds. If we're going to find the Lord, beloved, we're going to have to find him inside in the heart, and this comes through revelation.

I remember, beloved, years ago, in this particular incident in my life, I was going through a real season of repentance, and I was sitting in a chair one day having a cup of tea. The tea had replaced the cigarettes that I'd been smoking; it was one of the things that the Lord led me to give up. And as I was going through this experience of repentance and sanctification in my life, suddenly, beloved, as I was sitting in this chair, the Holy Spirit appeared above my head. I couldn't see him with my eyes, but it was as if I did see him with my eyes. I mean, it was that real.

And he manifested himself above my head in all the colors of a rainbow—spiritual life in motion, similarly to what the apostles experienced in Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit came above their heads, but in Acts 2, it was a tongue of fire. In my experience, it was the Holy Spirit, all the colors of a rainbow. And all of a sudden, beloved, the Holy Spirit came through my head and took a hold of my inner man, my heart. And then he spoke to me inside. He didn't speak in my head; he spoke in my heart. And he said to me, "I am a servant." And it was over.

But the point is, beloved, when the Lord revealed himself to me, it wasn't in my head; it was in my heart. And so I just want to encourage you to become humble before the Holy Spirit and recognize that if he doesn't reveal it to you, you won't know it. And as we submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit and become dependent on him, beloved, we're going to grow in revelation. Remember Yeshua said, "I go away and I'm going to send you the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and he's going to reveal to you and speak to you concerning me."

And so this prayer that Paul's praying, he says, is going to be answered through the Holy Spirit's ministry to us in the form of wisdom and revelation. I want to continue on, verse number 18, Ephesians 1. "I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened that you might know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."

So Paul wants us to understand the hope of our calling that we're going to heaven, and he wants us to understand what's inside us. So let's think first of all about the hope, hallelujah beloved, of our calling. Do you know, it's amazing to me that there's so many Christian people, they say, "Yeah, I believe I'm going to heaven."

But have you ever heard a statement like this? You think about the average person's life that, you know, is 40, 50, 70 years old. Is every day in our lives on this earth so exciting that we just can't, you know, wait to experience all the new adventures that every 24-hour period is going to bring, or is life many times a bit like get up in the morning, have a cup of coffee, get in your car, drive to work, come back home, make your dinner, watch the news, go to bed.

Next day, you wake up, you have your coffee, you go to work, you come back home, you watch the news, you eat your dinner, then you go to bed. And on and on and on it goes. And yet you talk to people that call themselves believers and this is pretty much their life, and you talk to them about going to heaven and they say, "Well, I want to go to heaven, but not yet."

And I'm thinking you don't get it. I mean, how could you say such a thing? I mean, look at your life. You get up in the morning, go to work, come back home, make your dinner, watch the news, and you're saying you want to go to heaven, but not yet. You don't understand it.

You see, Paul says, "I pray that you would know the hope of your calling." Beloved, we've got a destiny. We've got a future. We're going to heaven. The Bible says there's a treasure reserved for us in heaven, indescribable, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you.

Jesus said, "I go and prepare a place for you. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would not have told you so." Beloved, we have a heavenly calling. Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, the things that the Father has prepared for those that love him.

We have a hope, beloved. We have a future. We're not like those in this world that life begins to die at whatever age and hope begins to diminish. We have a hope, beloved. It's a sure thing. When the word "hope" is used in scripture, it's referred to the assurance of a sure destiny. I want you to know, beloved, keep on hanging on to Jesus. Keep on loving him. Keep on following him. You're going to his heaven.

All of us that are in relationship with God have within us the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of the living God. Jesus said in John 4 that his Spirit within us could become a well of eternal life springing up so that we would thirst no more. But the key is, how do we drink from his Spirit within us? In order to do this, beloved ones, we have to die to ourself.

I believe that through honoring the Lord with our tithes and our offerings, we go through an act of denying ourself whereby through that act of dying to ourself, we're better able to live from the life that's within us. Giving to the Lord with our finances has always been a principle that Father's taught for those that have been in relationship with him.

If Discovering The Jewish Jesus is being a blessing to you, I would encourage you to honor Father God through this ministry if you feel the Holy Spirit prompting you to do so. Beloved, I want to thank you in advance for your love and financial support. God bless you and shalom.

Dustin Roberts: Amen, and give online today. Just visit us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or give us a call. Our number is 800-777-7835. As a token of our appreciation for you, we want to send you a copy of Rabbi's latest newsletter, and we'll also send you Rabbi's exclusive monthly teaching booklet.

And you know, understanding your identity in God, it starts with understanding where you came from. And that's why we're passionate about sharing the Jewish roots of our faith with people all around the world. When people understand those roots, where Christianity comes from, it takes our faith to a whole new level.

That's why we're broadcasting this program on TV all around the world, in Russia, in Ukraine. And you know what? We're also reaching out to Jewish people who don't know Jesus, reaching 1.5 million Israeli households in Israel through television. We're also reaching them through mobile ads, telling them, asking them the question, "What if he is right? What if Jesus is the Messiah?" And you know what? It's your generosity that makes all of this happen. So if you'd like to learn more or become a monthly partner with this ministry, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Thank you so much, and now let's wrap up as Rabbi prays the Aaronic Blessing. And as he speaks this, I want to encourage you: remember you belong to the Father, and he's placing his name over you today.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the book of Numbers chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, "When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them." Receive the impartations of the Lord's blessing.

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.

Yevarekhekhā Yahweh veyishmerēkhā. Yā’ēr Yahweh pānāw ēleykhā vihunnekā. Yissā Yahweh pānāw ēleykhā veyāsēm lekhā shālōm.

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. Would you join us again when Rabbi Schneider gives an encouraging view of your identity as an overcomer? That's Wednesday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.