Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the Gospel of John, chapter number four, Yeshua gets into a discussion with the woman from Samaria. She begins to dialogue with Him and Yeshua says, “Woman, go call your husband.” She says, “Sir, I have no husband.” Yeshua said, “You have said rightly, for you’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re now living with is not your husband.” Of course, He revealed to her intimate details of her life that no way He could have known in the natural. When He did this, she realized that He was a prophet. She said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet.”

Then she begins to dialogue with Him about spiritual things. She says, “You Jews worship in Jerusalem. We Samaritans worship over here in this mountain.” Yeshua said to her in John 4:22, “Woman, you don't know what you worship. We know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews.” Listen again to what He said to this woman. He didn't say that she was not sincere. He didn't say that she wasn't trying hard. What He said is that she didn't know what she was worshipping. He said, “Woman, you don't know what you worship. We know what we worship. Salvation is from the Jews.”

Unless you and I, as believers in Jesus, understand our faith from a Judaic perspective, we don't really know what we're worshipping. That's why the first verse in the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, says, “This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The first verse in the New Testament takes us all the way back to the first book in the Hebrew Bible. God doesn't want us to understand our faith in Jesus out of a vacuum. He wants us to understand it foundationally, and foundationally, Jesus has emerged out of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Unless we have an understanding of the revelation of God contained in the Old Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures, our knowledge of who Yeshua is is going to be askew. So, we are now seeking to help you understand how the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and the New Testament fit together to enhance your appreciation of Jesus and to grow in your understanding of God and His ways.

The Lord is, above all else, holy. There is only one threefold repetition of any of God's attributes in the Hebrew Bible. It's in Isaiah 6, where Isaiah sees the Lord in the vision. When he sees the Lord, Isaiah sees these divine beings around the throne of God. The divine beings Isaiah reveals to us in Isaiah 6 don't cease crying out day and night, “Holy, holy, holy.” In Hebrew, “Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh.” This is the only time in the Hebrew Bible where any of God's attributes are repeated like that three times in a row for emphasis.

Three is a fundamental number in the Scriptures. In both the Hebrew Bible, we have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Three is foundational. We have the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we could go on. Only one time in the Hebrew Bible where any of God's attributes are repeated three times in a row for supreme emphasis, and that is in Isaiah 6, referring to the holiness of God. He is, above all else, holy, completely unique, completely separate. He is the Creator, everything else is created. God has always been. He's without cause. Everything else has come into being at a point in time. God is utterly unique and separate from His creation, and that's what the word holiness fundamentally means—Holy Other.

In the New Testament, we saw that there's only one threefold repetition of God's attribute, and that is found in Revelation 4, where John sees the Lord on the throne. He sees the Lord on the throne, and there are the same beings that Isaiah saw, crying out day and night, “Holy, holy, holy.” So, we saw in the Hebrew Bible that God is, above all else, holy. That same theme is repeated in the New Testament.

Then we looked at the plan of salvation and showed you that God's means of saving human beings and of bringing individuals to Himself has always been the same. It's by grace, first of all. It's undeserved. The Lord appeared to Abraham in a vision three times. When God appears and the Lord shows Himself to you, God is so powerful you can't help but believe. In the day of God's power, the Scripture teaches, man is made willing.

Abraham is brought to faith because God, in His grace, chooses to reveal Himself to Abraham. The same thing was true with Peter in the New Testament. Remember, Jesus said to Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter said, “You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” What did Jesus say to Peter? “Peter, blessed art thou, Simon son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Through that initiative on God's part of revealing Himself to us, faith is produced. Faith is the gift of God. That's what Ephesians 2 teaches. By grace you've been saved through faith.

Both in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, we find that man is brought into a relationship with God through the initiative of God's grace, which produces faith. Then when God brings somebody to Himself by grace through faith, He calls them to holiness. He did it first of all with the children of Israel when He brought them to Mount Sinai. God didn't save Israel out of Egypt just to set them free. He set them free to bring them to Himself.

So, we see that God delivers Israel out of Egypt to bring them to Mount Sinai, where He reveals Himself and calls them to live for Him. The same thing is true in the New Testament. God saves us by grace through faith, and then what does He do? He doesn't just save us and say we're going to heaven, but He calls us to holiness. The Scripture says, “Without holiness no man will see God.” That's in the New Testament. God saves us to walk with Him. We've been bought with a price, so we're therefore to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord.

Then we saw that even when we're seeking to live for the Lord, God saved us by grace through faith, He's brought us to Himself and called us to holiness, but we still are human beings. The Lord knows that we're just dust. So, what does He do? He makes a way for us to be forgiven when we fail and miss the mark, when we sin. How? Through a blood atonement, which was shown in the Hebrew Bible through the sacrificial system, when the blood of a bull and a goat covered the sins of the Israelites on Yom Kippur. The New Testament teaches us in the book of Hebrews that that was a shadow of Jesus, God Himself taking upon human nature and dying in our place. The Lord says, “I am your Savior and there is no other.”

As we continue to understand the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in regards to the plan of salvation, I want you to think about the theme of a mediator. Sometimes people say, “I don't need a mediator. I just go directly to God myself.” You see, that's not what the Israelites understood. In ancient Israel, the Israelites did have a mediator. It was the priesthood. There was a high priest and there was a Levitical priesthood. God anointed Aaron and his offspring to be the mediators between Himself and the children of Israel.

For example, when the Lord called the children of Israel to make a sacrifice, what did they do? They didn't just offer up their sacrifice to God as individuals by themselves in their own homes, on their own properties, but rather they brought their sacrifices to the priest, to those that were officiating in the office of the Levitical priesthood. So, the mediator in ancient Israel stood the gap between God and man. We find in the New Testament that Yeshua Himself has fulfilled the theme of priesthood. Isn't that an awesome thing that our God is able to relate to us because He Himself became one of us?

Finally, we see the role of the Jewish people. God said to the Jewish people in the book of Deuteronomy, “You alone have I chosen to be a people for myself out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.” Through the Hebrew people, the revelation of the Old Testament came and the Hebrew prophets came. God still has a role for the Jewish people. Now salvation has spread to the entire world. Jew and Gentile are one in Messiah. There's no second-class citizens in the Lord, but God still has a special role for the Jewish people.

We read about it in Romans chapter 11, where the Bible teaches that when Jewish people come to faith, it's going to be like life from the dead for the entire church. It's going to usher in the return of Jesus the Messiah.

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Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I hope that you're beginning to see how simple it is. A lot of times when we read the Hebrew Bible, we get so lost in some of the details that we lose sight of the big picture. So, what I'm endeavoring to do is to help you to see the big picture and to see how simple this truth fits together and how beautiful and how rich it is. What an incredible heritage you have in the Lord in the Hebrew Bible. The Scriptures teach that the Old Testament, the Tanakh, was not just written for the Israelites, but it was also written upon you, many of you as Gentile believers, the Scripture says, on whom the end of the ages has come.

As I continue on, I am going to be talking about the principle of baptism. We've looked at the plan of salvation, and now I want to continue on this theme as we look at baptism. Yeshua has come and what has He said? “He that believes in me and is baptized will be saved.” So, what I want to do is I want to look at the theme of baptism as revealed in the Hebrew Bible.

First of all, let me say that the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, is written obviously in Hebrew. But when Yeshua came, it was time for the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant to come to pass. The fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant was the seed of Abraham, through whom salvation would come to the entire world. Remember the Lord said to Abraham, “Through your seed, Abraham, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,” and the seed is Jesus.

So, when Jesus comes, it's time for salvation to go outside of just Israel, and it's supposed to cover the entire world. The most common language at that time, at the time of Jesus, around the world was the language of Greek. So, the New Testament is recorded in Greek because now God was just not speaking to the Israelites, He wasn't just speaking to the Jewish people, but now He wants everybody to hear. The common language of the earth was Greek.

The word that we use as a church for baptism is taken from the Greek word “Baptizmo.” That's what the ancient manuscripts of the New Testament speak of when they speak about baptism. The original Greek word is “Baptizmo.” But the Greek word “Baptizmo” is equivalent to the Hebrew word for “Mikvah.”

When we first read about the rite of baptism in the New Testament, it's clear that baptisms were already taking place in Israel before Jesus came. In other words, when we think of baptism, we think about something that is particularly a Christian rite. But what I need you to understand and hear now is that baptism was part of Israel's religious practices before it became a Christian rite. By understanding what the Israelites were doing when they went to the waters of the Mikvah, we can more appreciate what it means for us as believers in Jesus to go into the waters of the Mikvah, or to be baptized in Jesus' name or in Yeshua's name.

This is true with all of the New Testament. By understanding the roots of the New Testament in the Hebrew Bible, we get a fuller appreciation of what the New Testament is saying. Even when it comes to the death of Jesus, the death of Jesus means so much more to us when we understand the whole sacrificial system that was outlined in the Hebrew Bible.

Let's continue on. First of all, we need to talk about that we're baptized or immersed in water. What is it about water? We see, for example, the beginning of this going to the book of Matthew chapter number three, beginning in verse number one. Now, in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea to repent and be baptized. Then it says in verse number five, “Then Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan and they were being baptized in the Jordan River.” Why? They were being baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

Obviously, the Jewish people were very familiar with this. In fact, some of you that have gone to Israel and have visited the holy sites there have gone to the early Mikvah pools. It's a large pool, usually hewn out into stone. They were all over at the time that Jesus walked upon the earth. So, this whole rite of going to the Jordan River and in the Mikvahs all around Israel during the time of Jesus was already very prevalent.

Why? What is it about this? Consider in the very beginning, all there was, listen to this very carefully, was the Spirit of God moving over the surface of the waters. Why water? Something very mystical about water. Do you know that it was out of water that the world was formed? In the beginning, the Scripture says, let me read for you the book of Bereishit, Genesis. It says in verse number one of chapter one, “In the beginning Elohim, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

So, at the very beginning, the first two verses of the Bible speak about God moving over the surface of the waters. That's all there was, the Spirit of God moving over the surface of the waters. Now think about this. We're called to be immersed in water in Jesus' name. We're going back to creation. We're going back to before the earth was formed. Now what we're going to see is the Lord speaks, and out of the water God pulls out the dry land. Water is the agent of creation and water is the womb of the earth.

Let me read it again, Bereishit, Genesis chapter one, verse one and two. “In the beginning Elohim, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void and darkness was moving over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of Elohim, the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” Then God separated the light from the darkness.

Then the Lord separated the waters in verse number six. “Then God, then Elohim said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters.’” God made the expanse and began to separate things. Notice everything's coming out of the water. Everything is being birthed and separated out of the water.

Then it says in verse number nine, “And Elohim said, ‘Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear,’ and it was so. And God called the dry land earth and the gathering of the waters He called the seas.”

When we beloved go to be immersed in Yeshua's name in water, we're going back to the agent of creation. That's why the Bible says we're born again. It's brand new. Nicodemus said, “Can a man go back in his mother's womb and be born a second time?” Jesus said, “No, you'll be born again. You'll receive my Spirit and now I want you to go get baptized in the water.” What you're doing is you're going back to the water that existed before anything was, before you were born, before the earth was made. You're going into that water, you're going under the water, your old life is passed away.

Now listen, you're coming out of that water. The water is the womb of creation. You're coming back out of that water in Jesus' name as a new creation. Isn't that an awesome thing? Jesus said, “Old things pass away, all things become new. I want you to go to be baptized in my name. Go immerse yourself in water. Go back to that water that existed at creation. I'm going to let you start all over. I'm going to wash your past away and I'm going to bring you out of that water and you're going to be created anew in my name.” No longer the son of Adam, but now a son of Yeshua HaMashiach. No longer a slave to sin, but now freed in Messiah Jesus. No longer under condemnation and sin, but now walking in forgiveness and liberty in Messiah Jesus. I've made you a new creation. I've become your Father and you become a child of mine. Go into that water and let it be proclaimed that your old life has passed away. Behold, all things have come new because you've been baptized and birthed in Messiah Jesus.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Shalom Aleichem, peace to you. We have an interesting verse in the book of Galatians, chapter number six, verse six. It says this, “The one who was taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.” In other words, the Lord ordained that those that are preaching the Gospel and teaching His word, those ministries should be supported by the ones who are receiving.

I want to thank all of you that have sown financial seed into Discovering the Jewish Jesus. What you're doing is a biblical thing and it's in alignment with God's plan. If there's those today that are being blessed by the ministry, that are being blessed by my teaching, I would simply ask you, would you open your heart and if you feel the Lord leading you, nudging you to make a financial offering to Him through Discovering the Jewish Jesus, to fulfill His word in Galatians 6:6, I would just encourage you to be obedient to Him. You'll be blessed. This is Rabbi Schneider. I love you.

Guest (Male): Amen. And to support this ministry with a gift of any amount today, visit us online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also call us at 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. Or purchase a copy at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now here's Rabbi with the Aaronic Blessing.

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 the Aaronic Blessing in Hebrew)

Yevarekhekha Yahweh veyishmerekha

Ya’er Yahweh panav elekha vikhunekha

Yisa Yahweh panav elekha veyasem lekha 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 His peace. God bless you and Shalom.

Guest (Male): This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus, and I'm your host, Dustin Roberts. Join us tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider explains how we can get rid of guilt and shame. That's Thursday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.