In this enlightening episode, Rabbi Schneider delves deep into the mystical realm of Messianic prophecy, exploring the profound connections between ancient scriptures and their fulfillment in the New Testament. Through a comprehensive comparison of Isaiah and Luke, Rabbi Schneider unravels the deeper meanings of the Messiah’s role and his ministry’s manifestation in Galilee. By doing so, he challenges traditional rabbinic conceptions of the Messiah, presenting a view where the Messiah is not just a charismatic leader but God incarnate, bringing holistic healing to humankind.
You and I need to enlarge our hearts and begin to love people in the name of Messiah that we formerly in the natural would not feel inclined to love. Shalom uvracha, beloved ones. Peace and blessings to you. Baruch Hashem. Bless the name of the Lord. We’re continuing our study today in Messianic prophecy. I left off by looking at Isaiah chapter 61 and comparing it to Luke chapter 4, which described the type of ministry that Messiah would bring. Jesus stood in the synagogue in Luke 4, and He opened up the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, to Isaiah 61, and He declared that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. And then He declared, as He continued to read the prophetic writing, that He would bring recovery and deliverance and freedom to people. And then He said, today, this scripture is being fulfilled in your midst. He was announcing that He was the Messiah, and He had come to do what the ancient prophet Isaiah said the Messiah would do. And in fact, he went into all the world, brought freedom and deliverance to people throughout the entire earth, even to this day. I want to move forward now, however, and I want to point out something that is good for you to understand in relationship to this episode recorded in Isaiah 61 and Luke 4 that describes the type of ministry that Mashiach, which is a Hebrew word for Messiah, would have. You see, today, the traditional rabbinic concept of the Messiah is that he would restore Israel to Torah study, and in restoring Israel to Torah study, and in the rebuilding of the temple, so we would have the third temple, that that would usher in the messianic age. But in rabbinic Judaism today, the Mashiach, the Messiah, is not somebody that’s divine. He’s just a human being that has great charisma that’s able to restore Israel back to the Torah. In fact, according to traditional rabbinic mindset, there is a potential Messiah in every age And it just depends on whether the citizens of Israel, the Jewish people, are worthy enough for the Messiah to be manifest. But the fact is that we read in the Hebrew Scriptures that the ministry of Messiah is far superior and is far greater than simply a man that’s a human being restoring Jewish people back to the Torah. Moshiach, or Messiah, is actually God incarnate. He’s God clothed in humanity that has the ability to heal humankind. That’s why Isaiah, in quoting the Messiah from the first person, said that the Messiah would be able to restore people, that He’d bring recovery of sight to the blind, that He’d free the oppressed, that He would free people from prison. that He would personally make people whole again. This is not something that one man can do simply by turning someone back to Torah. This is a work of the Spirit of God. This is the work of Elohim Himself operating by His Spirit and His Word through the Moshiach Himself. And so Messiah is a very personal being that is intricately involved in the repairing of the human soul. And that’s what you and I today are hoping in, that as we continue to look to Yeshua, as we continue to set our eyes on Him, even as the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they were bit by the serpent, were commanded to look at the bronze serpent that Moses had put on the staff and lifted up and told the children of Israel that were bitten, look upon the serpent on the staff that I’m holding up and you will recover and be made whole. So too, Yeshua compared that scripture to himself and he said, everybody that looks on me will be made whole. And so I dwelled into that. I encourage you again, go back and get the teaching. I just wanted to point out the particular today before moving on of the different concept that we have of the working of Moshiach, being a man that is not just a man, but is the God-man that is able to do spiritual surgery on our souls and make us whole. compared to a more rabbinic understanding of Messiah that simply is a human being that returns Israel to the Torah. Well, let’s move on today. I want to talk about the fact that in the ancient writings, we have prophecy that revealed to us that Mashiach’s ministry would be predominantly in Galilee. So let’s go now to the book of Isaiah, chapter number 9, verse 1. But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish in earlier times. He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt. But later on, he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan. Listen, Galilee of the Gentiles. So once again, this is a messianic prophecy. And Isaiah is revealing that Messiah is going to be ministering in Galilee. And as a result of his ministry there, it’s going to be glorious. Now, let’s look at the corresponding Brit Hadashah or New Testament fulfillment of this verse in the book of Matthew, chapter number 4. I’m going to begin reading here in verse number 12. Now, when Yeshua or Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he withdrew to Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and settled in Capernaum. Skip down now to verse 14. This is an exact quote of the book that we just read from, Isaiah in chapter 9, verse 1. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. And then he goes on to quote, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. And then he continues there in verse 16, speaking of those Gentiles and the Jews that were living in Galilee. The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land in the shadow of death, upon them a light dawned. And so Yeshua’s ministry was predominantly to the Jewish people living in the Galilee region. Now, one point that I’d like to bring to our conscious bearing on for a second here is many of us that love Israel, and especially we love Jerusalem. And Jerusalem, it’s such an incredibly beautiful city. And we know that so much of our future is bound up in Jerusalem, and Israel’s history is bound up in Jerusalem. The temple was there, the Mount Moriah is there, etc. But I want you to consider this. that most of Yeshua’s ministry was not in Jerusalem. It was in Galilee. In fact, Yeshua was predominantly in Jerusalem to be crucified. Yeshua said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that stone and kill the prophets. And so I’m just pointing out that many of us have this glamorized view of Jerusalem, and we kind of condescendingly look at every place other than Jerusalem as, you know, being not so much. But I want you to consider that most of Jesus’s ministry did not take place in Jerusalem. It took place in Galilee and in small villages around that area. What’s an application? An application is, beloved, that even as Yeshua did most of His ministry, not in the central capital city of Jerusalem, but in outlying areas like Galilee, so you and I need to consider that our ministry, it may not be in the spectacular, but it’s in the small places that we can reach.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. He’s going to be right back. But first, I want to let you know that you can watch full episodes of Discovering the Jewish Jesus on Roku Television. We have episodes that are filmed in the Holy Land and outreach events from Nigeria and Gulu, Uganda, all sorts of places. Every episode is available to help deepen your understanding of Scripture and the Jewish roots of your faith. So search for Discovering the Jewish Jesus on Roku 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 800-777-7000. Now here’s Rabbi Schneider.
SPEAKER 03 :
I just had a situation where I have a small engine. I was trying to get this engine started in a tractor to mow my lawn. Couldn’t get the thing started there two days in a row. Couldn’t get it started. Started looking online for someone that does small engine repair. So I found somebody that did small engine repair. So the guy answers the phone. And I said, listen, I said, you do house calls. I’ve got this tractor. I can’t get it started. And the guy said, well, sometimes I do. He said, I’m driving a tow truck right now. But if I get done early enough, I can come over tonight. I said, great. We kind of left it at that. And then I reached out to another friend. And he said that he had a friend that worked on small engines. He said he could bring him by tomorrow. So when my friend told me that he could bring his friend over tomorrow to take a look at it, I called back the guy that said he could possibly come over later tonight. I said, no need to come over anymore. I found another solution. Well, about a half hour later, my phone rings. And I saw it was that guy that I said that I wouldn’t need him anymore. And I just didn’t answer the phone because I was doing something else. And then all of a sudden, I heard noise in my driveway. So I looked out my front window and sure enough, there was this tow truck. And so I realized that this guy was at my house already. He was pulling out. So I really quickly called the guy back on the phone. I thought, well, maybe the Lord wants me to meet this guy. Because always in the back of my head, I’m thinking maybe the Lord wants me to share his good news with someone. And so I called the guy back. I said, listen, I saw that you had just turned around in my driveway. I said, you know, I’m here. Why don’t you turn back around and come over? So the guy came right back over. We walked over to my tractor. He started telling me a little bit about his life. He basically had had some pretty bumpy things that he had encountered recently with just some bad things I wouldn’t even go into. He was trying to recover. He was trying to get his feet back on the ground. He had just a lot of brokenness. He and I together were able to get my tractor started. Afterwards, I asked him a couple questions, had him open up a little bit more. was able to pray for him, give him a devotional book that I had written, and then blessed him when he left. And I said to him after I got done praying for him, I said, you know, I’m always paying attention to relationships that might cross my path because I don’t just take them as coincidences or random things that happen, because sometimes they’re the Lord himself bringing me into contact with somebody to share with that person that he loves them. And so I just want to say to you today that I don’t believe that you and I met today for no reason. I believe that it was God’s plan as you’re searching for your identity and looking to get yourself back on the ground. I bless you in the name of the Lord. Again, I prayed for him, then he walked away. Why am I sharing that with you in reference to the Messianic prophecy that we’re looking at right now from Isaiah chapter 9 and Matthew 4? I’m making the point that most of Jesus’ ministry did not take place in the spectacular city of Jerusalem. It took place in the backwoods of Galilee. And many of our ministries will not take place on huge public platforms. I don’t know, we have these glamorized ideas of the spiritual gifts we have and how we want to use our spiritual gifts and reaching the nations and all these things. And that’s great if God’s called you to that. But let’s not forget that most of Yeshua’s ministry did not take place in a great arena like Jerusalem. It took place in little backwoods villages just like, for example, beloved, the places that you are and the place that I was able to minister to that young man that I met yesterday that helped me fix my small engine. I didn’t meet that man preaching in a large crusade somewhere. It was a one-on-one relationship in my driveway. So let’s not despise the small things. Jesus, again, ministered to small groups of people sometimes in backwards places. Pay attention to where you’re at. Minister to the people, beloved ones, where you’re at. Don’t look for the glamorous thing all the time. Just apply yourself and your spiritual gifting where you are. Baruch Hashem. And sometimes the ministry that we’re being called to might not exactly be what we had in mind. And I’m wanting to relate that, this concept of sometimes ministering to people that might not be the type of people that we had wanted to minister to or might not be in the environment that we wanted to minister in. I want to relate that to the ministry of Messiah and the fact that his ministry is was not just to Jewish people, but to Gentile people, whom the Jewish people during the time of Jesus considered to be unclean. Remember when Peter fell into the trance on the roof of his house, and when he fell into the trance, suddenly he saw appear before him unkosher animals, animals that were not clean for Jewish people to eat. And when he saw the unkosher animals, some of you may remember in the book of Acts, He heard the voice, Peter, take, kill and eat. And Peter said, Lord. I’ve never eaten anything unholy or unclean. And then the spirit spoke to Peter and said, what God has said is clean. Let no man consider to be unclean. And while Peter was pondering what it all meant, suddenly there was a knock on his door and it was a Gentile. And he said, come and minister to my master, who was a Gentile that believed in the God of Israel. And then Peter realized that the meaning of the vision, was that he wasn’t to consider Gentiles as unclean. And Peter went with the man, and the ministry of the gospel entered into the Gentile world. And so, hear the word of God in the book of Isaiah, chapter 42, verse 6. Speaking of the Messiah, it says, “…and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people…” as a light to the nations. And in Isaiah chapter 60 verse 3, nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Now who are the nations that Isaiah is describing here? The nations are Gentiles. Because scripturally speaking, there’s only two classes of people. There’s Jews and Gentiles. So if you weren’t part of Israel, you were a Gentile, you were part of the nations. So the point is that the ministry of Messiah would go to the nations, go to the Gentiles. And so we read in the book of Acts chapter 13, verse 47 and 48 about the ministry of Paul. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you might bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And it says, when the Gentiles heard this, in other words, Paul was proclaiming the good news to the Gentiles. And he was relaying to the Gentiles that which formerly had been considered by Israel unclean. He was sharing with them how God sent him to the Gentiles. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And in the book of Luke, we actually see Isaiah chapter 42 and 60 being quoted where Luke records concerning the Messiah, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. So we’re looking at messianic prophecy. And one of the things that we’re unearthing from the Hebrew scriptures is the revelation that Messiah would not be the Messiah of the Jews only, but He would be the Messiah of all people, from the highest to the lowest, from the lowest to the highest. And that should help you and I, beloved, do what the Scripture commands us to do, And the scripture tells us to condescend to the lowly, meaning that even as Peter had to condescend to all this unembracing, that which he formerly considered unclean, you and I need to enlarge our hearts and begin to love people in the name of Messiah that we formerly in the natural would not feel inclined to love. For such is the heart of God. How big, how deep, how wide is the love of the Lord? And finally, let me say this to you that reflects on what we’re saying today. that when we speak of the Messiah and His call to minister to the whole world, to the nations, to Jew and Gentile alike, it helps us to understand why God chose the Jewish people, whom Yeshua is the fulfillment of. He didn’t choose the Jewish people to simply be a special people that was unique unto themselves. He chose us as Jewish people to be the servant of the world, to be the priest of God to the earth, to bring the love of God to the entire world. And it’s important for us Jewish people to realize that our chosenness was not given to us to make us feel superior, but rather our chosenness was the marking of the Lord to make us a servant to the entire earth. And this is still valid. This is why Paul said in the book of Romans that if the Gentiles were blessed when the Jews rejected the gospel, he said, how much will the Gentile church be blessed when Jews receive the gospel? It will be life from the dead. God has still anointed the Jewish people to bring life to the entire world. And beloved, it began with Abraham, continued and climaxed with Yeshua. And it’s still going on today. In the name of the God of Israel, I speak over you the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob today in Yeshua HaMashiach. I know that if you have an open heart and you just sat through me preaching, you’ve been strengthened. God’s Word is life-giving. It’s living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. I’m going now as we close today, beloved ones, to the book of 3 John. I’m going there to the first chapter and the eighth verse. Hear the Word of God. John says, “…therefore we ought to support such men that we might be fellow workers with the truth.” What was going on here is John was encouraging God’s people to support those that were faithfully preaching the gospel. Because you know what? The gospel can’t be spread without God’s people supporting it financially. I want to ask you, beloved, if you believe in me, if you’re being blessed by discovering the Jewish Jesus, would you support us financially so that we can continue to feed you and in fact preach the gospel all over the world? Beloved, there’s always a blessing when we put God first in our life. And when we put in first with our finances, it opens our heart to receive more. This is Rabbi Schneider saying, I love you. Thank you for your financial support and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you, Rabbi Schneider. And friends, if the Lord is leading you to financially support discovering the Jewish Jesus with the gift of any amount, please call us. Our number is 800-777-7835. or you can also give online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. We would love for you to join with us in our mission to share the good news around the world, especially in places like Nigeria. And guess what? As you’re listening to me right now, we’re recording ahead, but that’s where we are. Rabbi Schneider and the team, we’re in Nigeria right now. And tonight is our first outreach in the area. Rabbi’s going to be ministering the gospel of Jesus to a crowd of thousands of people. So you can join with us and you can pray right now, knowing that God is about to touch people’s lives. So I encourage you, would you join with us and would you pray for this mission? Pray that people would be saved. Pray that people would repent and pray that God would draw the people of Nigeria closer to him and pray for Rabbi. Pray that God would use him in such a special way in the earth tonight. Thank you so much for listening today. We’re going to be in Nigeria for the next three days after tonight ministering the gospel as well. God’s going to do some amazing things. Thank you for supporting this ministry and enabling us to do things like this. Know that God is going to bless you for your gifts because of the difference you’re making. And now here’s Rabbi Schneider to close with the Aaronic blessing.
SPEAKER 03 :
What I love about the Aaronic blessing is that it did not originate with man. The words actually proceeded from the very essence of God himself. The blessing comes from the book of Numbers, chapter six. So listen to these words and receive the blessing of the Lord into your life today.
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.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Join us again tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider shares God’s plan for the Jewish people. That’s coming up Friday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
