Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Father has blessed you and I with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it's love and joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

We begin in Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 2. Paul greets us by saying, "Grace to you and Shalom." And it's interesting that whenever Paul writes, he always begins his letters the same way. He says, "Grace to you and peace." The Hebrew word there is Shalom. Grace to you and peace, Paul says, from who? From God the Father.

What does this mean, beloved? This means the Father loves you. Some of you are walking around right now, there's a stronghold of darkness on you from the enemy. You're thinking God hates you. You're thinking God's mad at you. You're thinking God's wrath is on you.

I want you to know, beloved, if you're a child of God, God's word to you is always the same: "Do not be afraid." Grace to you and peace today from God the Father and Yeshua HaMashiach. God loves you, beloved. He's a good Heavenly Father. He's already paid the penalty for your sin by taking it out on His own Son.

That's why in Ephesians chapter 1, we read there that Yeshua in verse number 7, in Him, in Yeshua, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. And so you see, when God comes to you, He's already forgiven you. That's already been taken care of. Your sin's already been dealt with. And so He comes to you, grace to you today. Peace today from God, "I'm your Father," and from Yeshua HaMashiach.

So, I want you to draw near now. I want you not to be afraid. I want you to open your heart and position yourself in a place to receive because Yeshua said, "The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life." He continues on there, Paul, in the third verse, he said, "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The Father has blessed you and I with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In another portion of Scripture, we read this, that the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it's love and joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. My point is, is that many people are looking to God and they think walking in God's blessing is predominantly a material blessing. But I want you to know, beloved, the message that's being preached today, lifting up God as some magic genie that we can use to help achieve the American dream is not the God that Paul reveals and preaches.

The God that Paul reveals to us and preaches is the resurrected Yeshua HaMashiach, the God-man, the Heavenly man, the Lord Jesus that has been raised into the heavenly places, is seated with God in the heavenly places, and has called us to be there with Him. The Lord may bless us with material things, but there's no promise of that. The promise is, beloved, a heavenly placing, and that all your needs will be met on this earth.

Because listen what I say this. If the Gospel that I'm preaching, or anybody else's preaching, does not work in impoverished nations, if it doesn't work in poverty-stricken nations, if it doesn't work in situations where there's no economic employment, where there's no means of significant financial gain, if the Gospel that I'm preaching or anybody else's preaching doesn't work in those environments, then it's not the real Gospel. And so, the message, beloved, that God is going to make us all rich cannot be the real Gospel because it doesn't work in impoverished countries.

Now, I'm not saying that God can't take somebody in an impoverished country and do something supernatural and bless them. But I'm talking about the vast multitudes of people that would believe in some poverty-stricken places in Africa or India. God certainly, I don't think, is going to make all those people multimillionaires in this generation. But what He can do is give those people peace, and give them power, and give them joy, and give them the ability to live, beloved, over their circumstances, like Paul who said he had learned the secret of being able to be content in any and every situation.

He said he had learned how to be content with a lot, and he had learned how to be content with a little. The point is, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You see, Heaven is where God is. Psalm 115 tells us that the earth is made for the sons of men. But God possesses Heaven. You see, God calls us to a heavenly blessing. He calls us to where He is. Our blessing isn't necessarily on this earth.

Jesus said, "Don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in Heaven, for where your heart is, there your heart will also be." Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, Ephesians 1:3, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Get this, in the heavenly places. God hasn't called His people to a mountain of money. He's called them, beloved, to Mount Sinai. Hallelujah and Amen.

There's nothing wrong with being financially blessed, beloved. Praise God. I thank the Lord, beloved, for His provision. I thank the Lord, beloved, that we have a God of abundance and a God of grace. I bless the Lord for that. But, beloved, it's not the primary message or theme of the Gospel. Jesus, Hallelujah, is the center of the Gospel. And let me tell you this, the only people that think money's the answer are people that don't have money.

Because everybody that has money knows that money's not the answer. Now, it is important to have a roof over our head, to not be in debt. I understand that. God bless you. But to think that money is the source of happiness, Jesus said, "Life consisteth not in the abundance of things." I'm making the point, beloved, that the blessing that God has blessed us with, it's a heavenly blessing. It's not, beloved, to achieve the American dream.

I remember years ago, the Lord revealed a situation to me in a dream one night, and I was preaching to this congregation. And in the middle of my message, the people stand up while I'm preaching, and they put their hand over their heart, and they start saying the pledge of allegiance. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America." They drowned out my preaching. They were saying it so loud, I couldn't even hear myself preach anymore.

I was so humiliated in this dream that this happened. I walked off the pulpit where I was preaching, we call it in Hebrew the Bema. I walked away from it. In the dream, I went into the bathroom. I was so humiliated. Felt so humiliated in this dream. I said to the Lord, I, "Do I have to go back in?" And the Lord said to me, "Go back in and finish." So I went back into the sanctuary to finish in this dream. And as I walked back into the sanctuary, somebody stood up and said, "They don't want to listen to you anymore." But I kept on preaching.

And when I was done preaching, the Holy Spirit said to me in the dream, "You did a good job while you were here." And then He said to me, "If people aren't waking up every morning and asking Me to cleanse them, the best preacher in the world is not going to be able to help them." And then the dream was over. And that dream deeply concerned me, and it deeply grieved me, and I thought to myself, "God, what did I do wrong? Where am I weak as a leader that people would stand up in the middle of the preaching of the Word of God and drown out the preaching of the Word of God with the pledge of allegiance?" I said, "Lord, what am I doing wrong? Where is my weakness?"

And I was praying about this for several days. And about three days later, I was in a hotel room one night, getting ready to go preach the next morning, and the Holy Spirit very vividly spoke to me. And He said to me this. He said, "It wasn't your weakness that caused those people to rise up and say the pledge of allegiance and drown out your preaching. It had nothing to do with you," the Holy Spirit told me. "It had to do with the fact that I was showing you that people's allegiance today is not to Me, it's to the American dream."

Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, here's a testimony from a listener who's been touched by Rabbi's teachings.

Guest (Female): Yahweh has led me to your ministry. Where else can I find such anointed teaching on the truths and links between the Old and New Testament?

Dustin Roberts: Amen. Thank you, Lord. And to submit your testimony, go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Just click on Ministry and submit your testimony today. Your support can change lives. Every day, people around the world are coming to know Jesus as their Messiah through this ministry. Whether you give a one-time donation or commit to a monthly partnership, your contribution, it helps us to keep spreading the Gospel and reaching hearts in need. To donate or become a monthly partner, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. Now here's Rabbi Schneider.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: People are hearing a message that basically is promising them wealth in this world and making that really the end, and it's not the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus, beloved, is the Heavenly man, and He's blessed us with a Heavenly blessing, and we have, Hallelujah, a Heavenly calling. Remember Jesus said, "The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

I'm not saying that God doesn't bless some of us sometimes with financial blessings, and praise God that we have a good God that loves His children and blesses them. But, beloved, let me tell you, it's not the Gospel message. Jesus, Hallelujah, is the Gospel message. We must pick up our cross daily, beloved, deny ourselves, Hallelujah, and follow Him. And if you look at the lives, beloved, of the New Testament writers, in my view, their lives were not easy, pampered lives. Paul, as I indicated on last broadcast, was writing this letter from the book of Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1 and chapter 4 verse 1, from prison.

It wasn't a pampered life. We know that the apostles were martyred, burned in oil, hung upside down, etc. No. God has called us to follow Jesus. We read in the book of Revelation of the martyrs and how they're before the throne of God and how God is going to bless the martyrs. You see, beloved, we have a Heavenly calling, blessed with Heavenly blessings. So let's continue on. Ephesians 1 verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, of Yeshua HaMashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah in Christ."

This blessing, beloved, it's not just a future blessing because it says, "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, who has blessed us." When were you blessed? Paul tells us when we were blessed in the very next verse, verse number 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." When were you blessed? You were blessed, beloved, when God chose you to be His, Hallelujah, before the foundation of the world. What greater blessing could we have than that? Amen. Hallelujah, and we praise you, Father Yahweh God.

Paul continues on and he says in verse number 5, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Yeshua HaMashiach to Himself according to the kind intention of His will." We stand before Father God now, beloved, holy and blameless in the fourth verse. When you look in the mirror, you're in Messiah Jesus. Your sins have been forgiven, beloved. The seventh verse here says, "In Him we have forgiveness of our sins through His blood." You are now in Him as an adopted son, and Yeshua, beloved, owns God as His Father.

"I ascend," He said in John 20:17, "to My Father and your Father." He's first Yeshua's Father, that's why Yeshua says, "I ascend to My Father." He's first Yeshua's Father, and now because we're chosen in Messiah, He's our Father too. So Yeshua says, "I ascend to My Father and your Father." Isn't that an awesome thing, beloved, to know that you are in Messiah, that you're a son, and that the Father loves you and me with the same love that He loves Jesus with?

And, beloved, He predestined this to happen in our lives. Some people don't like that word, predestined. Many Christians say, "I don't believe in predestination." Well, if you're saying, "I don't believe in predestination," let me ask you, what do you do with this? I'm reading Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5. "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, through Yeshua HaMashiach to Himself." How can you say you don't believe in predestination when God tells us flat out that He predestined us? Those of us that know Him, beloved, have been predestined. And He didn't predestine you, beloved, because He knew you would choose Him. He predestined you because He foreloved you.

"You did not choose Me," Jesus said. He didn't predestine us because He knew that we would choose Him. Jesus said in John 15, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." Romans 8:29 and 30 says, "Whom He did foreknow, whom He foreknew." That foreknow there, beloved, that foreknowing, whom He foreknew, it doesn't mean He foreknew what you were going to do. He didn't choose us based on the deeds of righteousness which we have done. The Scripture's very clear about this. He didn't foreknow your deeds. It wasn't the foreknowledge of your deeds that made Him choose you, it was His love for you.

That's why God said to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6, "You alone have I chosen to be My people out of all the peoples on the face of the earth." And yet He also called them a stiff-necked and rebellious people. Jesus said about them, "Which one of the fathers, the prophets did they not kill?" Moses called them a stiff-necked people. So God certainly didn't choose Israel because He saw something good in them or because He saw that they would choose Him because they didn't, they rebelled constantly. And so God's choice of us, beloved, is based in Him, not in us.

The Bible says, "whom He foreknew," Romans 8:29, "He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." And so, beloved, this is what Paul is referring to here. You can't say that you don't believe this because the Word of God teaches it. You might not like it. Paul knows that some won't like it. That's why he says in Romans chapter 9 about this same theme, "You will say to me, 'Man, is there injustice with God?'" In other words, he knows that people are going to rise up and call God unjust when He teaches this.

Paul knows that people are going to stand up and say, "Well, how can He blame anybody if He's God and He chooses one?" No, Paul says, "Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Doesn't the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one for honor and one for dishonor, a common use?" Paul recognizes, beloved, that even as God chose Israel out of all the peoples of the earth in the Hebrew Bible, Paul teaches in Romans 11, "So too at the present time, right now in the dispensation of Messiah Jesus, there's a remnant chosen according to grace."

That's why Jesus said in John chapter 10, "I know My sheep. My Father has given them to Me." But then He said to others that didn't believe, He said, "But you believe not because you're not My sheep." This is why Jesus said to the few that followed Him and stuck with Him in John 6, everyone else left. Jesus looked at the few that remained and He said, "Do you want to leave too?" And they said, "Well, where are we going? You have the words of life." And then Jesus said, "This is why I said to you that no man can come to Me unless it's been granted from the Father."

Paul is writing here to the chosen of God. And so he says, "The Father has chosen us in Him," 1:4 of Ephesians, "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons, Hallelujah, through Jesus Christ, Hallelujah, to Himself." Now, I just want to take a second here and go to Romans chapter 9 once again. I know we've covered this, but I really need you to understand this. If you're rebelling against this, you need to understand, you're not rebelling against me. You're not rebelling against my preaching. All I'm doing is reading the Word of God. Get it for yourself. You can't rebel against the Word of God and call it me. It's the Word of God that I'm reading, beloved. Listen to what I'm saying here.

Paul is arguing the same thing in Romans chapter 9. He's saying, "If Israel is God's chosen people, and Jesus is really the Messiah, and most of Israel is not believing, what went wrong?" It doesn't make sense. If Israel's God's chosen people and Yeshua is the Messiah and most of Israel's not believing, where has the plan failed? And this is what Paul's addressing, and he says, "It's not as though," in verse number 6 of Romans 9, "but it is not as though the Word of God has failed, for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel." So now Paul is saying that just because someone was born from the 12 tribes of Israel, it doesn't mean they're a child of the promise.

What promise is he referring to? He's referring to the promise, beloved, that he speaks of in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. Those that are chosen before the foundation of the world and that have been predestined as a result of their being chosen by the Lord to adoption as sons. And then he goes on to say that even during all the biblical times of the past, you can see that not every child of Israel was walking in a covenant of intimate love with the Lord. And he gives the example, beloved, of Jacob and Esau. And so he says this, Romans chapter 9 verse 10, "But there was Rebecca also, when she had conceived twins by one man our father Isaac." So here's Rebecca, she's pregnant by Isaac, Jacob and Esau are in the womb.

And listen what Paul says in the 11th verse. "For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad." So in other words, God's going to make a choice here and it's not going to be based on anything that they've done. Paul says, "They're not born, neither had done anything yet." The point is not that God knew what they were going to do even before they did anything. The point is is that Paul is saying, "God's making a choice and it has nothing to do with anything that they're going to do, either good or bad."

He says, "For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, according to God's purpose that His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, the elder shall serve the younger, just as it is written." He continues on here, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." And then in verse 14, "What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there?" And then he says, "May it never be." He has mercy on whom He has mercy, He hardens whom He hardens.

This is what Paul's talking about here, that if you know Jesus today, beloved, you have reason to be filled with joy to know that He chose you in His love, to be His, to be with Him in Heaven, even before you were born. And He has a glorious future for you, and even now His glory is inside you. And Paul prays that you would understand the glory of God's inheritance in you. So Father God, we just want to thank you today for loving us. We're so thankful, Father God, to be Yours, and we want to be like Jesus, Father, and be willing to suffer with you, with you, Lord Jesus, outside the city gates, not to be ashamed of being a witness. But we want to lift up your name because you said to us, Jesus, "If you were of the world, the world would love you, but because I chose you out of the world, the world hates you." Jesus, I want to love you and be your witness.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Todah Rabah, that's Hebrew for thank you very much to everyone that is supporting this ministry, so that we can continue to teach and preach the Word of God all around the globe. I want you to know, those of you that are sowing into this ministry, we receive testimonies every single week. I mean hundreds of testimonies from people that are telling us that they felt like they heard the Word of the Lord for the first time. People that are coming to salvation, people that were falling that got lifted up by the power and encouragement that's in God's Word. And it's because of you that are sowing financially into this ministry that all those people are being helped. If you're being blessed by this ministry and you believe that could bless other people, I want to ask you to just open your heart, to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And if He's prompting you to sow an offering to the Lord through this ministry, I just want to encourage you to be obedient. And I want to thank you once again from the bottom of my heart for making it possible for God's Kingdom to spread through Discovering The Jewish Jesus.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. Discovering The Jewish Jesus is committed to exploring the depths of Scripture and sharing these messages with the world. And if God is calling you to support this ministry today, give online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call us at 800-777-7835. Or you can give by texting the keyword give to the phone number 88777. Just text the keyword give to the phone number 88777. At Discovering The Jewish Jesus, we don't just talk about Israel, we're actively engaged there. Our Hebrew YouTube channel reaches people all over Jerusalem, Ashdod, Ashkelon, the Galilee, and Petah Tikva, many more cities in Israel with the message of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. We've also placed billboards in the Holy Land, and we're running a digital ad campaign. These ads, they're designed to reach Jewish people right where they are, asking them, "What if He is right? What if Jesus is the Messiah?" We're challenging them to consider the truth about Jesus with clear biblical answers and resources online. And you know what? We have you to thank for this amazing opportunity. So, thank you. And if you haven't helped us or you'd like to continue helping us and continue to play a role in reaching Israel with the Gospel, call and give today, 800-777-7835. Thank you so much. We look forward to hearing from you. And now, here's Rabbi to speak God's sacred blessing over us.

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. 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.

Y'varekh'kha Adonai v'yishm'rekha. Ya'er Adonai panav eleikha v'yihuneka. Yissa Adonai panav eleikha v'yasem l'kha 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 explains the connection between your identity and responsibility. That's coming up Friday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.