Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I am so thankful to be able to bring this revelatory series to you called Who is the Father? I want you to know this revelation, beloved one, has changed my life. I’m getting rewired spiritually by entering into a deeper dimension and understanding of the Father’s love for me. So I’m excited and blessed to be able to share with you what God’s doing in my life because I know that this is going to revolutionize your life as well.

We’re talking about knowing the Father’s love. I’m calling this series Who is the Father?, but even more than that, I’m talking about getting a revelation that will allow you to know God as your Father and to know the intense love that He has for you.

I want to talk with you now about what are the roles of a father? As we’re developing this relationship with our God and Father, I want to help us to understand what does this relationship mean to us? In other words, many of us grew up without fathers. Many of us grew up that either our father wasn’t in the home physically at all, or perhaps we had a father that was in the home and he was emotionally disconnected.

Some of us had fathers that abused us. There are all types of father problems in the culture that we have today. And because there are so many father problems, we’re dealing with a society today that is without identity, because one of the primary roles of fathers is to give identity. And when we don’t have a father that nurtures us, that we can look up to, that protects us, that guides us and leads us, what ends up happening is there’s a great hole in our life.

So what I want to talk about is when we have a Father that’s all-powerful and whose love is all-focused on us, what can we expect from our Father to do for us? How can we begin to trust Him to be a father to us? What are the roles that God as our Father will provide over our lives? Let’s just begin to kind of take this apart a bit. I want to encourage you to believe Father God to do these things for you.

First of all, fathers give life. In the Bible, biblically, the child always comes through the seed of the father. That’s why, as I was saying earlier, when you look at the genealogies in Scripture, we always say that so-and-so was the son of so-and-so, and so-and-so begat so-and-so, and they always trace the child’s lineage, not by the mother, but through the father biblically speaking.

Of course, throughout history we have a few variations of this, but the predominant model is that the child is born through the seed of the father. For those of you that may be familiar with Judaism, according to Jewish tradition today, a child is identified as to whether they’re considered Jewish or not by the mother.

But the reason for this is because there was a time in Israel’s history where Israel was at war, and for fear of the father dying at war, they said, if the woman’s pregnant and the father dies at war, how can we ensure that the child is numbered as one of the homes of Israel? And so they said, to make allowance for that, if the child’s mother is Jewish, if she’s a Hebrew, then the child will be considered a Hebrew or a Jew or an Israelite.

But that was not the general pattern. That was an exception to the pattern. The predominant pattern once again is that the identity of the child is determined through the father. It’s through the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs, that the Messiah eventually came.

And so knowing that the Father is the one that provides the identity in a home, and through the Father life comes because we said it was through the seed of the Father, let’s try to understand this for our own life. The Bible says concerning Jesus that Jesus, in John chapter 5, had life in Himself because the Father gave Him life.

And Jesus now is the vine through which we get life. In other words, the life flows from the Father to the Son, and now as you and I come to the Father through the Son, the life of the Father flows to us through the Son. Jesus is the vine, we’re the branches. So the first function of a father is that the father is a source of life.

This is why, when we grow up in homes without a father present, or without a father being emotionally there for us, there’s a big hole. In fact, in the ancient world, if you were living in a home and you had a mother, but there was no father, you were considered an orphan. Think about that. In the ancient biblical world, if you were living in a home where your mother was living, but you had no father, you were considered an orphan.

This is really interesting. What does it say? It says to us that when there’s not a father present in a home, that there’s life that’s not being given, and as a result of that, the child has a huge empty space. We’re going to talk about this whole spirit of orphanage in a little bit, because Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans. But for now, I just want to say, beloved, that the first role of the father is the father gives life.

He gives us something that only a father can give us. That it starts out with the actual sperm of the father, but this translates, this concept translates into our entire existence all the days of our life. Now let me say for our beautiful women and daughters of God today, in no way am I minimizing the role of our beautiful mothers, because within the Father is also the female.

In other words, God created them in His own image. Male and female He created he them. So in God, in the Father Himself, is the feminine. When Moses said to the Father, show me Your glory, the Father said to Moses, I am Rachum, which is translated in our Bibles as compassionate or gracious. The interesting thing is when the Lord reveals Himself to Moses, when Father reveals Himself to Moses, the first thing that God said was, I am compassionate and gracious.

And the Hebrew word that the Father used there for that was the Hebrew word Rachum, which is a feminine word. And so I’m just simply saying that within our Father, there’s a tenderness and there’s a nurturing element which is traditionally associated with the female side. Mothers are considered the nurturers.

So to kind of wrap this full circle, I’m simply saying that I’m not minimizing here the role of our ladies and our beautiful mothers that carry the child and nurture the child in those infant stages and through those earlier years of life. The mother’s role is a primary role. But I’m simply saying that at the end of the day, it’s the father’s seed that gives life.

And so I’m saying that the first role of the father is the father gives life. And this is what Jesus said, that He had life in Himself because of the Father. And so we’re depending on the Father even as Jesus depended on the Father every day, we’re depending on the Father for life. Jesus said, even as the Father has given to the Son to have life in Himself, so too we can have life in ourselves from the Father by depending on the Son for the Father’s life.

We’re looking to the Father and Jesus is the channel through which the Father transmits His life to us. But if you want to be strong in the Lord, if you want to be strong in the spirit, if you want to be strong in the presence and carry the presence of God in your life, you need to be dependent and I need to be dependent on the Father because life comes from the Father. The first role of the father, beloved, is to give life. He’s the genesis of life.

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Rabbi K.A. Schneider: So the first role of the father, beloved ones, is that the father gives life. And I want you to know, even as Jesus will never stop needing His Father, Jesus never gets to a point in life where He goes on on His own and becomes independent. That never happens. But Jesus will always be dependent on the Father.

Jesus said it was the Father that was working in Him, it was the Father that was doing the works, it was the Father’s words that He was speaking. Jesus was forever and will always be dependent on the Father for life. And so if you and I want to enter into power, we need to always be depending on the Father for life. The first role of the father, beloved, is to give life. He’s the genesis of life.

Secondly, a father protects. Now, I don’t know about you, but for me, outside of God’s love, the world is a very scary place. I mean, anybody that is thinking rationally and soundly would have to be afraid of what’s going on in the world and of the realities of life without the love of Father God.

I don’t understand how some people are so numb, people that live outside of God, that don’t know God, that don’t have a relationship with God, that say they’re not afraid of anything. I don’t understand that, because if the Bible’s real, which obviously most of us believe that it is, if Hell’s real, how could you not be afraid of dying outside of the grace of God? You’re going to go to Hell. It’s a place of separation from God where there’s darkness and torment forever and ever.

Not to mention all the things that can happen while we’re on the earth that can cause pain and suffering and hardship. The diseases, the accidents, the catastrophes, concern for our children’s lives and our loved ones’ lives. How can anybody not be afraid when there’s so much that we’re not in control of outside of walking with God?

But when we know God as Father, we can trust Him to do for us what Psalm 91 says He will do for us. I love Psalm 91. It’s one of my favorite scriptures in the entire Word of God. Let me just read Psalm 91 to you because Psalm 91, beloved one, it’s all about protection.

And I don’t know again about you, but I know for me, when I started advancing in age in life, when I started getting older and began to discern all the dangerous realities that existed in the world, when I started realizing that mom and dad really couldn’t protect me from these things, that the things that I was being exposed to, whether it was car wrecks, cancer, all these other things, that mom and dad really had no control over those things, that I was vulnerable.

And I thought to myself, if these things are happening to other people, how can I be sure they won’t happen to me? And you know what happened? It made me afraid. And if that doesn’t make you afraid outside of the Lord, I don’t get it. I just think you’re somehow numb to understanding what’s real in life.

But when I found Father God through Jesus, and He began to build faith into my life by His Spirit and by the Word through Jesus, beloved, it changed everything for me. Fathers protect. When children grow up in homes where there’s a strong father, they feel protected. When children grow up in homes where there are moral boundaries, the child’s interior life is protected.

But when children grow up in homes where there is no father, they’re exposed and they become vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. But I want you to know, beloved child of God in Jesus, you’re protected by the Father. Listen to what the Lord tells us in Psalm 91. You can make this yours. Here’s what the Lord says:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. And that original there, I will say to the Lord, that’s the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Whenever you see that in your Hebrew Bible, the translators are substituting the capital Lord for what is the original Hebrew, which are the four Hebrew letters, Yud Heh Vav Heh, which is actually God’s sacred name, Yahweh.

So this is actually saying, this God who’s personal, this personal God who actually has a name, He’s going to do all these things for me. God’s going to do these things. Father God, Yahweh, your Father in Jesus is going to do this for you. Verse 2: I will say to the Lord, I will say to my Father, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper. In other words, someone has an assignment against you, the Devil has an assignment against you, Father’s going to deliver you from that. He’s watching over your life. Jesus taught us don’t be afraid because not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from your Heavenly Father, so don’t be afraid little flock, be of good courage.

The author continues: And from the deadly pestilence. Is there a disease going around? Don’t be a hypochondriac, don’t be afraid of everything, Father will deliver you from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge. In other words, you can get confident and secure and comfortable knowing that you’re protected by your Father.

His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. God’s not going to fail you. He’s watching over you, Father’s watching over you, beloved, 24/7, every second of every day. His faithfulness will not fail you. This is what He says here: His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. You can count on Him. Why is He faithful to you? Because He’s your Father and He loves you.

You can count on His promises because your Father loves you, and because He loves you, He’s going to fulfill His promises to you. He’s going to protect you because He loves you. His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid. This is a command. You will not be afraid of the terror by night. Some need to sleep with the television on. Father says, you’re not going to be afraid. Don’t be afraid of the terror by night, or the arrow that flies by day.

Maybe there’s something in the day that makes you—no, don’t be afraid of that either. Or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that lays waste at noon. In other words, no matter what your fear is, no matter what it is, this covers every class of fear. What the author is doing here, and I believe it’s really interesting that in Psalm 91 we don’t know who the author is.

And I believe that the Father specifically made it this way. In other words, most of the Psalms we know who the author is, it’s David or one of the others that are listed. But Psalm 91 there’s no author listed. And I believe that Father made it this way because this Psalm comes directly from Him to you. He said: A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you.

Now let’s take this and find out, but how does this work? Father just got done saying, whatever your fear is, break it, cast it down, don’t be afraid of it. You shall not be afraid of anything: the terror that comes in the night, the pestilence at noonday, you don’t be afraid of anything, nothing at all. He said, you’ll look around, you might see people falling all over, a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you.

So we ask ourselves the question, if no evil will befall me, how do I explain that sometimes we see crisis situations happen to God’s people? Two things. Number one: in order to fully dwell under the shelter of the Most High, we need to be depending on Him. Because if we’re not depending on Him, if we don’t have hearts of humility, if we’re just running out ahead of Him without depending on Him, then we place ourselves, beloved, in a dangerous position.

Notice it says, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. So we have to relate to God as Father, and we relate to God as Father, beloved one, by dwelling under His presence, by depending on Him, by carrying our hearts humbly before Him and by depending on Him to protect us. So that’s the first answer as to why sometimes crises come on God’s people.

The second thing that I want to say is this: that sometimes what looks like a tragedy from the outside is not really what’s going on in the interior life of the person. For example, in the Book of Acts, consider Stephen. Here was Stephen, he loved Father, he had a relationship with Father God, and what’s happening? He’s getting stoned to death. Now that looks like, well, Father didn’t protect him, because look at all those rocks. I mean, can you imagine him getting stoned to death?

I mean, he’s taking all these rocks, it looks terrifying, it looks horrifying. But the Bible says that while Stephen was being stoned to death, he looked up to the Father and he said, I see Jesus at the right hand of the Father. And the Bible says that while Stephen was being stoned to death, while he was seeing Jesus at the right hand of the Father as he was being stoned to death, the Scripture says his face shone like an angel.

So what was happening on the outside might have looked terrifying, but what Stephen was actually experiencing was the comfort and the glory of God. I want you to know, beloved one, Father will always be faithful to you. Father will always be faithful to you. I want you to know He is your Father, God is your Father. He will be faithful to you. He will continue to strengthen you and give you life and give you increase.

You’re going to get stronger and stronger and go from glory to glory as you depend on Him, and I want you to know, beloved child of His, you can depend on Him. Your Father will protect you. He wants you to come to know Him as Daddy, and He wants you and I, beloved one, to trust in His love. On behalf of Father, I’m telling you, Father loves you and He wants our hearts to be set free in the knowledge of that.

Beloved, Discovering the Jewish Jesus has some very specific strategies about how we’re going to be reaching Jewish people living in the land of Israel in the years ahead. I want to ask you to financially sow into this ministry so that I can accomplish all that God has given me to do. It’s always cost money, beloved one, to spread the Gospel.

When the Lord told Moses to build the Tabernacle, the first thing the Lord told Moses to do was to raise a contribution from among the people so that Moses would have the resources that he needed to build the Mishkan, which is the Hebrew word for Tabernacle. The same truth holds today. It costs money, beloved, to spread the Gospel.

Whether it’s through television, radio, even social media costs money. I can’t do it without you. I want to ask you, would you partner with God, would you partner with me, would you partner with Discovering the Jewish Jesus and make a significant—the best you can—financial contribution to this ministry? Through your financial help and prayers, we’re going to continue to reach Jewish people with the Gospel, both in Israel and all over the globe.

I’m asking you now, would you help us, beloved, continue to do what we’re doing and spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth?

Dustin Roberts: To become a partner today, visit us online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com where you can also support this ministry by giving, by calling us at 800-777-7835. You can send your gift in the mail as well. Our address to send it to is Discovering the Jewish Jesus, PO Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228.

And you know, we understand that we could never reach all the people around the world who are exploring the depths of Scripture with us each and every day if it wasn’t for your support. So thank you so much for your financial support and thank you for your faithful prayers, especially since we’ve kicked off a special outreach in Israel this month.

Through our Israel Awakening initiative, we’re witnessing a movement where Jewish people are discovering their role in the return of Yeshua. We’re supporting local Messianic congregations across the Holy Land, and we even have a Hebrew YouTube channel. It’s reaching people right where they live in Israel in their language. We’re connecting with Israeli residents, and you are a part of it. If you’d like to partner with us and you haven’t, give us a visit at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com today to partner.

And now here’s Rabbi to speak God’s sacred blessing over our lives today.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The words from the Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers, chapter 6, verses 22 through 27, helps us to realize how good God is to you and I personally. So receive His blessing into your life and then, beloved one, go bless somebody else in Jesus' name today.

Yevarechecha Yahweh veyishmerecha. Ya’er Yahweh panav elecha vichuneka. Yissa Yahweh panav elecha veyasem lecha shalom.

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: I’m your host Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Be sure to join us again when Rabbi Schneider explains the needs the Father fulfills for you. That’s Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.