Rabbi Schneider - A Child of the Father
We beginning once again Ephesians 1 verse 3. Paul says, "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 him, in Messiah Jesus". And on last week's broadcast, I left off with the concept of: the one that has blessed us, the one that has chosen us, the one that has adopted us is the Father. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. The Father beloved, is the instrument of blessing and we now have been adopted as sons beloved, Ephesians 1, 3 and 5, 3 through 5: we've been adopted as sons in Jesus. And so God is our Father now, just as he's Yeshua's Father. Yeshua said in John 20:17, I ascend to my Father and your Father, I want you to grasp this.
Now we find as we study the Hebrew Bible, that the Father is always revealed as the instrument of blessing. Now we know that mothers are totally a blessing too, but we're just talking about order of creation. The Father we find is the instrument of impartation, and blessing, and identity. And so we go back for example, and we read in the life of Isaac, that Isaac got called to his son, he said come here, let me bless you. We read in the life of Joseph, that when Joseph's father heard of Joseph's sons, he said to Joseph, bring them here that I might bless you, bless them, bless the sons. And so here we have the same thing, in Ephesians 1:3, the Hebraic tradition: Blessed be the God and Father. It's the Father that's blessing us; blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach that has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
In fact, Paul begins this letter to us in Ephesians 1 verse 3 with the Hebraic phrase, when he says blessed be the God; that's how we begin all the Hebrew prayers in our prayer books. Baruch Ata Adonai Eloheinu: blessed be the Lord our God. Why are we blessing the Lord? Because he's the fountain beloved, of all blessing. Paul says: blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The Father is the fountain of blessing, and so we start saying: blessed be the God and Father; he is the Blessed One and he's the fountain of blessings. And because he loves us, and shows us, and has grace towards us; he has adopted us as sons and he's blessed us beloved, with the same blessing that's in him; he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing, hallelujah, in the heavenly places in Messiah.
You see, not only do we see this scripturally, that is the Father that's the instrument of blessing, and it's your Father God that has blessed you. That's why Yeshua said if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those that ask. Your Father God loves you, and he's blessed you with every spiritual blessing. Some of you that are watching right now, you didn't have fathers, you had fathers that abused you, you had fathers that told you you'd never amount to anything, you had fathers that were yelling and screaming all the time, you had fathers that didn't assume the role of leadership and provide security and protection for you in you home. But I've got good news for you today beloved; it's not over, because you've got another Father that's adopted you.
Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world and predestined us, Ephesians 1:5, to adoption, hallelujah, as sons. You've got a new Father now, hallelujah. Old things have passed away, all things have become new; that's why Jesus said, call no man father. Don't identify with your earthly father, even if you had a great earthly father; don't make your primary identification to be with your earthly father. You've got another Father, a heavenly Father. Why is he the heavenly Father? Cause there's no other Father like him beloved, and he's the one that we need to be identifying with and he has blessed us with all good things.
You see even in the Hebrew Siddur on Shabbat in the Jewish home in the beautiful Jewish tradition; the father will lay his hands on his shoulder and he will bless them, even as we see the Father right here in Ephesians 1:3, laying his hands in the Spirit upon us and blessing us with every spiritual blessing. And so we read from the Siddur every Shabbat: And the Father will call his children over, he'll call his sons over and will say this over his sons: Ye'simcha Elohim ke-Ephraim ve'chi Menashe; May God make you as Ephraim and Menashe. And then the father will lay his hands on his daughters and will say: Ye'simech Elohim ke-Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, ve-Leah. May God make you a Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. The father is blessing his children, he's speaking strength into his sons, and he's speaking the beauty of God into his daughters, and Father God loves us so much more.
If earthly fathers know how to bless their children Yeshua said, how much more is your heavenly Father, hallelujah, going to bless you? And so we're celebrating today the Fatherhood of God, and the Father wants us to know that he's a good Father, that he loves us, and he wants to teach you and I to own him as our Father, to own him as God, to know that he loves us, to own him beloved, as a good God, hallelujah, that desires to bless us. And when did he bless us? He blessed us beloved, listen now, before the foundation of the world. The Lord chose you beloved; to be his before you were born. So Paul says, 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. Verse 4: Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
When did he bless us? When he chose us in Messiah, hallelujah, before the foundation of the world. Paul speaks of the same thing in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 when he says this: That the Father saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, listen to this now: which was granted us in Christ Jesus, in Yeshua, listen to this now, from all eternity. God chose us in him beloved, before hallelujah, the foundation of the world. And who's the one that executes this blessing in our lives? Who's the one that brings us into the state of experiencing what it means to be adopted as a son? It's the ministry beloved, of the Holy Spirit.
And so Paul says in the 13 verse of Ephesians chapter 1, this: In him, meaning in Yeshua, you also after listening to the message of truth, the Gospel of salvation, having also believed, here we go now: you were sealed in him, in Messiah, with the Holy Spirit. So much of the Book of Ephesians beloved, is about listen now, being, get this, in him. We were chosen in him, we were adopted as sons in him, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit in him. When you stand before the mirror, know that God loves you. He loves you with the same love that he loves Jesus with. If the Father loves Jesus, he loves you, because you're in Jesus, and God doesn't look at you beloved, according to your sin. Neither does he save you according to your works. He's chosen you out of his own grace beloved; by grace you've been saved. And you're in him; your sins beloved, have been forgiven.
And so Paul says, in him, in verse 7, having, you have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of your trespasses. When you look in the mirror beloved, you're in Jesus. The Father loves you with the same love he loves Jesus with; that is an awesome thing. And the Father beloved, is bringing us into the realization of this by the Spirit. This is why Paul prays in verse 17 and 18 of Ephesians 1: I bow my knees before the Father; he's praying to the Father of glory. He says I pray to the Father of glory, he said. That he would give you a spirit, Paul's asking, that the Father of glory would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That you would understand the mystery of the glory of God that's in you, and of the destiny of your call.
In other words, Paul is saying, I want you to understand what God has done for you. I want you to understand that you're a predestined, chosen son of God, and that you're going to heaven, and that there's glory in you that is indescribable. I'm praying Paul said that the Holy Spirit will help you to comprehend this. That you're no longer gonna see yourself the way the employer sees you. Some of you go to work every day, and it seems like no matter what you do, you can't do anything right. Some of you go to work, people don't treat you right, your employer doesn't treat you right, it seems that people have no respect for you, it seems that people place no value on you, some of you, even in your own homes; I want you to understand beloved, God places value on you. And Paul prays, I pray that you will understand the glory of God's inheritance in you, and the mystery of the fact that you are a son of God.
When I speak of a son beloved, I'm not speaking of gender when I'm speaking to our women right now. When I speak about a son of God, I'm not speaking about gender; I'm speaking of an inheritance beloved. And so we continue on: that we've been chosen in him beloved, and it's the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:13: Who is bringing about this transforming process, cleansing us beloved, and transforming us into the image of Messiah Jesus. And this faith beloved, that Paul speaks of that brought us into a relationship with God; this also beloved, was the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. That the Holy Spirit beloved, is the one that is producing the faith in our life that has brought into relationship.
And so Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:13: That God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. In other words, Paul's saying that God chose you from the beginning, just like, just like in Thessalonians, Paul is saying the same thing he's saying in Ephesians, that God chose us from the beginning before the foundation of the world, and that the way that God is accomplishing his purpose for our life is through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and through the faith in the truth. And the faith that we exercise beloved; it's not of ourselves, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, but it also is the gift of God that's produced in our life by the Holy Spirit.
Are you getting the point? This whole thing beloved, is divine. This whole thing is God's sovereignty. God chose you. You weren't just walking around one day, and the Holy Spirit just landed on you, cause you were in the right place at the right time by chance. No beloved; God marked you and he sent the Holy Spirit into your life, because he marked you as a chosen child of his before the foundation of the world. And at the right time, the Father sent his Spirit into your life, revealed his Son in you, and began the sanctifying process of the Holy Spirit to bring you into the faith in the truth, and to bring you into intimacy with him, hallelujah, as a son of God.
And so we read then that we were sealed in Ephesians 1:13, with the Holy Spirit. And one of the things that we see from the Hebraic prospective as we read the Book of Ephesians in relationship to this destiny that we have together, and our identity is that you have to understand that when Paul wrote the Bible; the only people that had any kind of relationship or knowledge of God, with God, were the Jewish people, the Israelites. Because God said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6: You alone, he said, have I chosen to be a people for myself, out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. In other words, God only revealed himself to the Israelites. God didn't treat the Israelites the same way he treated the Jashubites, the Canaanites, the Amorites, or the Hittites. No, the Israelites alone possessed the revelation. But now the Bible says through Messiah Jesus, salvations come to the Gentiles, and the Jew and Gentile Paul says, have become one hallelujah.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13 through 15: we become one, hallelujah, in Messiah. And so I want you to just consider some to these things that we talked about, and consider what it is that Paul is desiring for us as a result of proclaiming these truths. First of all, Ephesians 1:3: Paul says that we have been blessed by God the Father with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah. Ephesians 1 verse 4: We were predestined as sons to the Father through Messiah Jesus.
Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 5, we were chosen in verse number 4 and we were predestined in verse number 5. So Paul, as he gets done proclaiming these eternal realities and these truths that are just total blessings; what he does when he gets done proclaiming these is he prays. And this is what he prays in Ephesians 1, beginning here in verse number 15, he says: For this reason, I having heard of the faith, of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and by the way, Paul was the one that planted the church in Ephesus, and now we he's in prison, we find in Ephesians 1:4, and he's hearing about what's going on, that these believers that he had preached to and had believed, and he's hearing how they're growing in the faith; he's rejoicing and he prays for them.
And so in verse number 16, he says: I do not cease giving thanks for you all, making mention of you in my prayers. And listen what he prays, beginning in verse number 17: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, there we go, the Father again, of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened, that you might know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. So Paul now is praying that you and I will grasp the mysteries that he's just got done proclaiming. God the Father wants you to know that you're his son; whether you're a man or a woman, from the standpoint of inheritance, and blessing, and intimacy, and relationship.
Paul prays, I pray that the Father will grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know that you're a son. That he chose you before the foundation of the world, not because of any good thing that you did, not because of some good that he saw in you, but simply because beloved one, beloved child of God, because he loved you, and not only did God choose you and adopt you to be his child, the whole manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God. Not only has God chosen us in his love beloved, but he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Messiah, in the heavenly places, and get this now, and we're going, hallelujah, to heaven.
So Father I pray today for these that are listening and watching, and some Father, that maybe they're hearing this for the first time, and they're a bit dumbfounded, they don't even know what to think of all this. Father God, I pray that you'll give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation, God. That Father, you'll do a sanctifying work by the fire of your Holy Spirit deep within their souls today, that they might gain a new confidence in you to own you as their Father. That they might realize Father, that their salvation is sure, that it doesn't rest in them, because you didn't call us Father, your Word says, based upon our works, but according to your purpose that was granted us in your Son, Messiah Jesus from all eternity.
So I pray Father God, that these that are watching might gain a new anchor of assurance in their salvation. That their salvation is rooted and grounded in you, that you chose them Father God, from the beginning and that you'll perfect the work that you started in them. Yeshua, I think of the Word that you said: of all the Father gives me, I'll lose nothing. So I pray for a new assurance of salvation for those that are watching.
Now Father, I also ask that you'll help each one that's watching right now, to apprehend you, not only as God, but as Father. And I pray Father God, that you'll give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know you as Father. Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit will begin to melt our hearts to be able to receive a Father's love. That we begin to own you as our Father, even as Messiah Yeshua owns you as his Father. Now Father, I pray for the strength that raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead, to activate faith in our souls, to take a hold of these truths, and to be transformed by them. And finally Father God, we wanna tell you today that we love you and we wanna tell you Lord Jesus how thankful we are for coming to earth, dying for sins, shedding your blood to adopt us as the Father's sons, Baruch HaShem.
So I pray Father God, that these that are watching might gain a new anchor of assurance in their salvation. That their salvation is rooted and grounded in you, that you chose them Father God, from the beginning and that you'll perfect the work that you started in them. Yeshua, I think of the Word that you said: of all the Father gives me, I'll lose nothing. So I pray for a new assurance of salvation for those that are watching.
Now Father, I also ask that you'll help each one that's watching right now, to apprehend you, not only as God, but as Father. And I pray Father God, that you'll give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know you as Father. Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit will begin to melt our hearts to be able to receive a Father's love. That we begin to own you as our Father, even as Messiah Yeshua owns you as his Father. Now Father, I pray for the strength that raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead, to activate faith in our souls, to take a hold of these truths, and to be transformed by them. And finally Father God, we wanna tell you today that we love you and we wanna tell you Lord Jesus how thankful we are for coming to earth, dying for sins, shedding your blood to adopt us as the Father's sons, Baruch HaShem.