Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Yeshua, Jesus is Israel's divine representative. Yeshua is Israel's divine head. That's why he was crucified with the sign above his head that said, "Yeshua of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."

Yeshua said that he came to fulfill the law and the prophets in Matthew 5:17. Sometimes when we look at Messianic prophecy, we see how Yeshua fulfilled them so specifically and so exactly. Some prophecies contained in the Hebrew Bible give us an indication that there's going to be a future event that we should be looking for. When this future event that we're looking for happens, we'll know that the Messiah is born.

For example, in Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, we read about the supernatural virgin birth of the Messiah. "Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel." Isaiah 7:14 told us that we should be looking for this future event, that something was going to happen in the future. When this event took place in the future, when this virgin supernaturally conceived and bore a son, we would know that this was God with us. This was the Messiah.

What's interesting is sometimes when we study the New Testament, particularly in the book of Matthew, we read about certain events in the life of Jesus and how it says that because he did this thing, it accomplished the fulfillment of scripture. One example of this is in relationship to Yeshua being born and how at this point, Joseph is instructed to take Jesus to Egypt. An angel comes to him in a dream and says that Herod is going to kill the male children because he knows that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, is born.

He's going to try to eliminate that threat by killing male Hebrew babies. He says, "I want you to take Yeshua to Egypt to escape that threat." Joseph takes Jesus to Egypt. Later, after Herod had died, it says that the angel again appeared to Joseph and said, "Now I want you to take Jesus back to Israel that the scripture might be fulfilled." Matthew says there in Matthew 2:13-15, "Out of Egypt did I call my son."

We look at that, "That the scripture might be fulfilled, out of Egypt did I call my son." When we think about that, we look for the reference of that in the Old Testament. We think that we would go to someplace in the Tanakh, in the Old Testament, that it would say something like, "The Messiah will be born and he will go to Egypt and then I will call him out of Egypt."

When we go to the actual references in the Old Testament associated with God's word, "Out of Egypt did I call my son," we see nothing that would give us a sense that something future was going to happen connected to the Messiah. For example, in Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, we see the Lord says there through Hosea, "Out of Egypt did I call my son." When the Lord says that through the prophet Hosea, he's referring specifically to calling Israel out of Egypt and delivering them there. There's no indication that he's speaking to some type of future prophetic happening or event that's to take place.

How do we understand that the scripture might be fulfilled when it does not appear that there was any type of fulfillment that we should be looking for? Here's the key, and once again we find this phenomenon particularly taking place in the book of Matthew. There are several examples in Matthew that Yeshua does something and then Matthew records that the scripture might be fulfilled. Yet, when we check the Old Testament reference, it doesn't appear to be Messianic prophecy in the sense that we're looking for future fulfillment of it.

Here's what's happening. Yeshua, Jesus, is Israel's divine representative. Yeshua is Israel's divine head. That's why he was crucified with the sign above his head that said, "Yeshua of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." What Jesus does is he fills Israel's history up with meaning by repeating in his own life some of the same things that Israel went through as a nation previously.

In Matthew chapter five, verse 17, Yeshua said, "Do not think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets, for I've not come to abolish, but to..." listen now, "...fulfill." That word "fulfill," one of the meanings of it, listen now, is to "fill full." You just reverse it. Fill full. What Yeshua does is he fills full Israel's history.

Even as Israel was in Egypt and God called Israel out of Egypt, so too Jesus goes to Egypt in Matthew chapter two and the Lord calls him out of Egypt. We see several types and shadows like this in the Old Testament that are reflections of Yeshua. For example, we think about Joseph and the story of Joseph and how the Lord appeared to Joseph and said that he was going to be the one that would be the center of attention and how God would use him in a great way.

Of course, we know what happens as Joseph shares this with his brothers. His brothers reject him, even as Yeshua's brothers rejected him. Joseph ends up being the savior of his family and of the nation of Israel. He is first rejected by his family and by the nation of Israel. We know the story. Joseph's brothers throw him in a pit and he's sold as a slave. He's taken to Egypt, raised as an Egyptian, and then later in life when there was a severe famine in the land, Joseph's brothers went down to Egypt and Joseph saves them. He provides them a place in Goshen. The one that was rejected becomes their redeemer and their savior. It was a type of Yeshua. It was a type of Jesus.

We also see Moses. The Lord says to Moses, "I'm going to raise up from amongst your people, from amongst Israel," the Lord said to Moses, "somebody like yourself." Yeshua was like Moses. He was a prophet. He was a deliverer. He was functioning as the leader of the people of the Lord.

What does Yeshua do? He fulfills many of the characteristics in Moses's life in his own life. Even as Moses was in the wilderness 40 years, so Yeshua, before he begins his ministry, is in the wilderness for 40 days. The same thing we could say is true with Abraham, the father of our faith.

God says to Abraham, "I want you to take your son, your only son, and I want you to sacrifice him to me." Of course, this was multidimensional, but one of the dimensions of this was the fact that it was a reflection of the Father himself giving his only son, Yeshua the Messiah.

I want to say that the Christian faith is a Jewish thing. This is, of course, the nature of this whole broadcast. I'm helping you to understand that you've been grafted in according to Ephesians 2 to the commonwealth of Israel. You're not a Jew, but you've become part of the spiritual family of God, the Israel of God. If you're a Gentile, you're still a Gentile. If you're born a Jew, you're still a Jew, but all of us together have become the Israel of God. It's important for us to understand our faith in Jesus from a Jewish perspective because Jesus said in John 4:22, "Salvation is from the Jews."

Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider and he'll be right back. But first, did you know that this program is available in Hebrew, Russian, and Spanish? If you know somebody who speaks one of these languages, now's your chance to share the blessing. To access the language version that's right for them, just go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click the "Watch/Listen" tab and choose an available alternate language channel right there.

Israel and Iran are at war and there's no better time than right now to share the gospel with Israel. That's why Discovering The Jewish Jesus has put up billboards and will continue to put up billboards in the land of Israel, telling them that Jesus is the Messiah. We're also sharing digital ads on their mobile phones. If you want to help support this vision and reach Jewish people with the gospel all over the world, give at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now, back to Rabbi.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Where did this great split come from? I want you to think about this as we go back in time, 2,000 years. Yeshua comes, he ministers only to the house of Israel when he comes. But after Yeshua's crucified, remember that Gentiles began to come into the faith. The Lord appeared to Peter and he said, "Listen, someone's going to come to your door. It's going to be a Gentile."

Remember the sheet that was lowered when Peter went into a trance in the book of Acts and there were these un-kosher animals and the Lord said, "Take and eat." Peter said, "I've never eaten anything unclean." The Lord said, "What God says is holy, let no man call unholy." God wasn't telling Peter to eat un-kosher food. He was telling Peter not to regard the Gentile as unclean.

Peter wakes up from the trance and as soon as he wakes up, Cornelius's servant comes to the door. Cornelius is a Gentile and he says, "My master wants to see you." Peter recognized then that the meaning of the vision was that he was not to consider Cornelius, who was a Gentile, as unclean. Peter goes to his house, he shares the message of the kingdom, the gospel, with Cornelius. The Spirit of God falls on them and Peter sees that God is accepting Gentiles.

The mystery was that God was receiving Gentiles into relationship without them converting to Judaism. Before this, the Rabbinic mindset was the only way a Gentile could have a place in the world to come was by converting to Judaism, by getting circumcised and becoming obedient to the law. Now we know that Cornelius had not become circumcised and yet God had received him, which was evidenced by the giving of His Spirit. It was obvious to Peter that the Spirit had fallen upon Cornelius.

This phenomenon of Gentiles coming into relationship with the God of Israel, with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, without becoming Jews, without getting circumcised and without becoming Torah observant, this was a brand new phenomenon. Soon what is happening is the spreading of the gospel is going much, much slower amongst Israel, amongst the Jewish people, as opposed to amongst the Gentile community.

Besides that, we know there are many more Gentiles in the world than there are Jewish people in the world. It wasn't long after Yeshua rose from the grave and ascended to heaven that there were more Gentiles that believed in him than Jewish people that believed in him. The more Gentiles that believed in him, because 99% of the earth is Gentile, the more Gentiles that believed in him, the more the demographics, the more the culture of the church started changing. It began to take on more of a Gentile culture.

Paul would go preach. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul would go to different cities, Gentile cities, he'd preach the gospel, people would believe, Gentiles would believe. They were accepting the gospel readily. Then Paul would establish elders in those churches in these Gentile communities and then Paul would move on to the next city.

But these leaders that were being established by Paul in the cities, in these Gentile congregations, they weren't trained in Jewish thought. They weren't trained in the Torah. They didn't know the writings of the Hebrew prophets. Right away what we find is churches beginning to be formed that had no Jewish identity and no Jewish connection. They were not knowledgeable about the Jewish scriptures. They were not knowledgeable about the ways of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible. Right away we see this disconnect beginning to form between Gentile Christian congregations and the Hebrew scriptures and Hebrew culture.

Things are beginning to change. You compound that with the fact that around 300, 306 to 337, Constantine, who's the leader of the Roman Empire, he has a vision. In his vision, he claims that he sees Jesus and he makes Christianity, as a result of this vision, the state religion.

Constantine viewed the Jews as a pesky people because of the fact that they wouldn't conform to Greek culture. We carried with his understanding of Christian faith an anti-Semitic mindset. He allowed the Jews that wouldn't conform to faith in Messiah to survive, but he made anti-Semitic edicts against them.

For example, one of the things that Constantine did was he prohibited a Christian from working for a Jew that did not put their faith in Jesus. Now there's this anti-Semitic mindset that's growing in the church. Constantine, remember, is leading this whole thing and he has tremendous influence. This is growing and growing and by the year 380, a famous church leader, a famous church father arrives on the scene. His name is John Chrysostom.

He's appointed to a tremendous place of influence as the Bishop of Antioch. He has tremendous influence in the Christian world. John Chrysostom is a tremendous anti-Semite and he writes these sermons called the "Ten Sermons Against the Jews." In these famous sermons, John Chrysostom condemns Jews, he calls them servants of the devil, he makes attending any Jewish rite or service prohibited. Now there's this total rift between those that are following Jesus and the Jewish community.

Constantine and then followed by John Chrysostom brought Gentile Christians to the place that to believe in Jesus meant to utterly reject anything Jewish. You can see how it is that we've gotten to this place in the church that Christians have become disconnected from their identity with the God of Israel and the revelation that he gave us in the Hebrew Bible.

According to Ephesians 2, you are now part of the commonwealth of Israel. This is a Jewish thing and God is calling his church back out of paganism to get back into her Jewish roots as revealed in Romans chapter 11. It's these roots, the covenants of Israel, the scriptures of Israel, the promises of Israel, and the Messiah of Israel that support our faith.

This anti-Semitic mindset continues to filter through the church and now the church is referring to the Hebrew Bible as the "Old Testament." Where did we get the term "Old Testament"? It's a reflection of anti-Semitism. Do you want an old house or a new house? Most people want a new house. Do you want an old car or a new car?

I recognize there's values in antiques and things of this nature, but the word "old," the reason that the people started referring to the Hebrew Bible as the Old Testament was to diminish its importance as a result of anti-Semitism. The reality is there's only one Bible and it's progressive revelation. There's not an Old Testament and a New Testament. There's one Bible and the Bible continues to make God's revelation and his purposes clearer and clearer as time goes on, culminating in the fullness of time with the sending of his son, Yeshua HaMashiach.

Now I know for our purposes of communication today, we refer to it as the Old and New Testaments for the reasons that I've described, but the Lord never meant to have these two things separate. Jesus is the fulfillment of this. He never came to start a new religion called Christianity.

The word "Christianity" is nowhere used in the Bible. Jesus came to fulfill the scriptures that are written in the Hebrew Bible. He's the fulfillment of Judaism. Let me qualify by saying the word "Christian" is in the Bible three times and it means a follower of the Christ, which means the anointed one, coming from the Hebrew Mashiach. I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of the anointed one. I'm a follower of Jesus the Messiah.

Being a Christian doesn't speak of the fact of whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. Someone says, "How can you be a Jew and be a Christian?" like the two don't go together. But that's apples and oranges. Being a Christian simply means, once again, you're following the anointed one, the Messiah, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. Both Jews and Gentiles follow Jesus.

Finally, things continue on with Martin Luther, who started out friendly towards the Jews, and then when he couldn't bring them to conversion, he also began to lambaste them, saying that their synagogues should be burned down. Then of course, Hitler, there were pictures of Hitler in the churches when he was killing millions of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust. There's tremendous rift now between the church and the Jewish people, but I praise God that he's healing this. He's healing this today. He's healing it in the part of Christians and he's healing it also in the part of the traditional Jewish community. There's reconciliation that's taken place.

Many are familiar with the story of the widow that the Lord appointed to feed Elijah during a time of famine. When Elijah approached the widow, he said, "Give me something to eat." She said, "Well, all I have is a little bit of bread and a little bit of oil, and it's enough just for my son and I to eat it, then we'll have nothing and die." Elijah said, "Just do as I say and go prepare it for me."

She obeyed and not only did Elijah have a meal, but it sustained the widow and her son until it was no longer necessary to do so. The point I'm making is something supernatural happened when she entrusted her possessions to the Lord. I believe that the same thing happens in your life and my life when we honor the Lord with our possessions and trust him with them. I want to encourage you, if the Lord is using this ministry to bless you and feed you, honor him with your possessions through it. I'm confident that you're going to receive a supernatural blessing back. This is Rabbi Schneider. Thank you. I love you and shalom.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. And if God is calling you to give to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, a gift of any amount, give today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or give us a call. Our number is 800-777-7835. Or, if it's better for you, send your donation in the mail. Our address is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228.

I really hope you've enjoyed this series on discovering how the Old and New Testaments connect. It really is a foundational series for this ministry. I want to encourage you, share things like this. If you're listening on the podcast or you're listening on YouTube, share this with others so they can gain the special insights you're gaining. Speaking of sharing something, I was just looking at some statistics today and I want to share a special website. It's called whoami.com. We have hundreds of people each week coming to this website. We really don't actively advertise it anymore, but we did this huge billboard campaign in New York City over five years ago where we put up billboards that said, "Who am I?" It's all about identity.

Rabbi is inviting people on this website to understand in a logical way that Jesus is Messiah, that God is the answer to the universe. I want to encourage you, if you know someone who's seeking Jesus or seeking the answers to life, send them to whoami.com. Now here's Rabbi with the Aaronic blessing, first sung in Hebrew and then spoken in English. Rabbi.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the Old Testament book of Numbers, we find a blessing God speaks over his children through Moses and Aaron. It carries the idea of favor and expression. Open your heart to the Spirit and the Word today and receive Father's goodness into your life with confidence.

(Singing in Hebrew)

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. God bless you and shalom.

Dustin Roberts: This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus and I'm your host, Dustin Roberts. Be sure to come back next week when Rabbi Schneider reveals a baptism of love. That's Monday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.