Rabbi Schneider - The Gospel In Primitive Form
God bless you and Shalom, beloved ones. My name's Rabbi Schneider. Welcome today to this edition of Discovering the Jewish Jesus. We're in the Passover season right now and I've got a word that's important and I'm excited to bring it to you. We're looking today at the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt at that Passover story. And what I'm going to show you is the Passover that took place in ancient Israel, 3,500 years ago as God delivered them out of Egypt, that is actually the same gospel that we believe in through the Lord Jesus in its very primitive form. In other words, the same great truths of our salvation in Yeshua HaMashiach, the Messiah, these same truths and graces, beloved, were the truths and graces that God used to deliver his children out of Egypt 3,500 years ago.
So again, the Passover of ancient Israel 3,500 years ago is actually the story of the Gospel of Jesus in its very primitive first form. I'm gonna show you how the great truths of salvation and the foundations of their deliverance 3,500 years ago are the same truths and foundations that are operating in our lives today as we're being delivered from sin, being delivered out of darkness into God's marvelous light, because Passover is the season of deliverance and freedom. And this is the same journey, beloved, that you and I are in our walk with Jesus. We're being delivered from sin. We're being delivered out of darkness into the freedom of King Jesus. King Jesus is the Great Deliverer.
So let's begin today just by setting the stage a little bit. Many of you know the Passover story. Perhaps there are some that are watching today that do not. The Passover story is told primarily in Exodus, 12, although it's also spoken about many other places in Scripture. Again, most know the story. Israel, 3,500 years ago, was in Egypt as slaves. Pharaoh was a cruel Egyptian task master, forcing the Israelites to do hard labor, doing all his building projects for him. They were treated very cruelly and unjustly. But after being in bondage for approximately 430 years, God raised up a deliverer. He raised up the great Moses.
The Lord met Moses at the burning bush, appearing to Moses and confirming to Moses that he had a special assignment for him. When the time was right, God sent Moses into Egypt and began to perform supernatural signs and wonders through the hands of Moses and Aaron. Eventually what happened is Pharaoh got so overwhelmed with these signs and these miracles that became plagues on Egypt, the rivers turning to blood, the land becoming covered with frogs, flies all over, deaths in Egypt, etc. etc. Eventually Pharaoh got so overwhelmed that he released the children of Israel only to change his mind afterward and he began to pursue them to the Red Sea where God drowned all the Egyptians after the Israelites had safely passed through.
And I'm gonna be talking about that whole experience later in this series because I'm going to be showing you, beloved ones, how the things that happened to ancient Egypt and the deliverance of Israel from them is actually a blueprint for understanding the end times; the plagues that will come upon the world in the last days before Jesus's return. It's gonna help you to understand the timing of these things, so stay tuned to all the broadcasts in this series. But I want to focus more today just on the general principles.
So let's think about this once again. God raises up Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. And from this deliverance we get what's called the Passover story. At the center of the Passover story is God telling Israel to have every family take a lamb, an unblemished lamb, and every family was to take their own lamb. And the Bible tells us that each family was to take part in putting the lamb to death. And everybody in the community had a part in putting the lamb to death.
In other words, the way that the ancient Passover lamb was killed, beloved, wasn't in such a way that the father of the household just, you know, slipped behind the back of the house with the lamb where no one could see, where the children couldn't see, and the women couldn't see. And then he just, you know, very quickly put the lamb to death and brought the lamb back out. No, that's not how it happened at all. But rather everybody had to play a role in putting that lamb to death.
Let me actually read it for you in the actual Book of Exodus. We're gonna look now at Exodus, 12, and I'm gonna show you specifically how the lamb of ancient Israel 3,500 years ago was a shadow of Jesus and was fulfilled in him. First of all in Exodus, 12:5, notice that the lamb had to be unblemished. It had to be a pure, unblemished lamb. Of course, this speaks to us of the fact that Jesus was without sin. So listen to Exodus, chapter 12, verse number 5. The Lord said, you shall take an unblemished lamb, a year old.
So first of all we see that even as the lamb of ancient Israel was pure, unblemished, without sin, without defect, so Jesus is the sinless Lamb of God. And notice in the 6th verse of Exodus, 12, that as I was saying, everybody of Israel had to take part in putting the lamb to death. Listen, Exodus, 12:6, the Lord said. You shall keep the lamb, you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. This is called the Hebrew month of Nissan. Then, get it now, here we go, beloved ones, then the whole assembly, everybody, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.
I want you to really understand this. Again as I was saying, it wasn't just that the head of the household, you know, took the lamb behind the house where no one could see, you know, kind of so that it wasn't messy. On the contrary, the whole assembly had to put the lamb to death. Why? It speaks to us, beloved, of the fact that it was your sin and my sin, all of our sin, that put Jesus to death. Who put Jesus to death? Was it the Romans? No. Was it the Jews? No. I mean they had a part practically to play in putting Jesus to death. But at the end of the day, it was your sin and my sin that put Jesus to death. It was our sin that nailed his hands to the cross. It was our sin, beloved one, that nailed his feet to the cross. It was our sin that caused the spear to be placed in his side. It was your sin and my sin that caused his hair to be plucked out and his beard to be plucked out.
This is why the Lord said in Exodus, 12, that the whole assembly had to put the lamb to death. God was showing that it was all of our sin, your sin and my sin, and the sin of the whole world, for whom Jesus died, that ultimately put him to death. Notice as we continue on here, in the 7th verse, that the key of this is the blood. The Lord said: Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts of their home. The key was the blood, right. The put they to death and then they took the blood of that lamb and put it on the doorpost. The blood is the key. We read about the importance of the blood all through the entire Bible.
Why is blood so important? Because blood, beloved one, is a symbol, get this now, the blood spilled out is a symbol of the fact that the life had been given. See the Torah says in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 17, verse 11, that the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it to you on the altar, saith the Lord, to make an atonement for your soul. For it's the blood by reason of its life, the Lord said, that makes atonement. And so the reason the blood is so important is that it symbolizes the life. And so the blood of the lamb had to be put on the doorposts symbolizing that the lamb's life had been given.
And it's interesting, the Bible says that when the angel of death, get this now, when the angel of judgment, of God's judgment moved over the land of Egypt that great night of deliverance, every, everybody, beloved, that was in a home that had the blood on its doorpost, when that angel of death, when that angel of judgment passed over the land of Egypt, everyone that was in a home where the blood was over the doorpost, that angel of death and that angel of judgment, get it now, passed it over. In other words, the blood protected them from the judgment. When the angel of judgment moved over the land of Egypt, whenever someone was in a home with blood on the doorpost, the judgment, the angel of death, passed them over. Everybody that was in a home that didn't have the blood on their doorpost, the angel of judgment, the angel of death, struck and killed the first born.
Why is this so important? It speaks to us, beloved, of the foundation of the Gospel. You see, at the end of the day, the Bible says, it's not by deeds of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy through the blood that he saved us. We have redemption, forgiveness of our sins through the Blood. So in ancient Egypt, it didn't matter how good a person was or how bad a person was. Fundamentally what mattered was, were they in a home that was covered by the blood, for it's the blood, by reason of its life that makes atonement. And the same thing is true today.
Again, the Passover is the Gospel in its primitive form. How were the Israelites saved? When an innocent lamb was put to death in their place, Jesus who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, right, that we could become the righteousness of God. And then they took the blood of that Passover lamb and they put it on their doorpost. And when they were under the blood, beloved, judgment and death passed them over. And isn't this what the Gospel is all about? Do you see, beloved one, the Passover really is the Gospel in its primitive form. This is why in the Book of Revelation, Jesus is referred to 29 times as the Lamb. Why the Lamb? It's going back to the Passover, because the Passover is the Gospel of Jesus in its primitive form. In fact, 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians, 5:7, says that Christ, get this now, Jesus Christ has become our Passover.
Now one bridge that I like to cross over right now is to help you realize that your faith in Jesus, it's the fulfillment of Judaism. Your faith in Jesus is the fulfillment of Judaism. Christianity is not a separate religion from Judaism. It's the fulfillment of Judaism. This is why Jesus said in the Book of Matthew, chapter 5: Do not think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. For I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets, Jesus said, but get it now, but to fulfill. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, if you believed Moses, you'd believe me, for Moses wrote of me. And so Moses is writing here, in the Book of Exodus, and Jesus is saying, Moses wrote of me. And so when Moses was writing about the Passover, he was actually writing about Jesus who brought it to its ultimate climax.
You see, the Passover had application in its initial historical context. In other words, Moses was real. God really raised him up. That first Passover lamb was real and God used the Passover lamb, and he used Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt. But even more than that, beloved ones, it was a shadow pointing to the ultimate deliverer that would come, and that is King Jesus himself. And so you see Judaism, beloved, is a foreshadow of everything that Jesus did. So again, Christianity is not a separate religion from Judaism, but it's actually the fulfillment of Judaism, and it's the point to which Judaism aims.
Well let's continue on and talk about the fact that Passover is actually the Gospel in its primitive form. Did you know that the judgments that fell upon Egypt locally are gonna be repeated during the Great Tribulation, when God's judgments fall upon the world globally? Again, the Gospel of Jesus is revealed in the Passover. We sometimes don't understand that when we're celebrating the Lord's Supper, when we're celebrating what the church calls communion, we're actually celebrating Passover. Did you know that? The Lord told the children of Israel during that Exodus experience 3,500 years ago when they celebrated Passover, he said, take the lamb, he said, and eat the lamb. What did Jesus say? Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in yourself.
When Jesus instituted the Lords Supper at Passover, he said as often as you do this, what was he referring to? He was saying as often as you celebrate Passover. Jesus was celebrating Passover with his disciples. And then he said to them, as often as you do this. Do what? Celebrate Passover. Jesus said, as often as you do this, as often as you celebrate Passover, he said, do it in remembrance of me, because he's the fulfillment of Passover. And then he took the Matzah and he broke it. He said, this is my body, broken for you. Take and eat, just as the children of Israel ate the Passover lamb. And then he took the blood, I'm sorry, he took the wine and he said, this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins in the New Covenant, just like the children of Israel took the blood and put it on their doorpost.
So you see, beloved, every time you celebrate communion, you're actually celebrating the Passover. And when we look at the famous picture by Leonardo Da Vinci, right, Leonardo's famous picture of the Lord's Supper, and when we look at that picture, it's really kind of out of context, even though it's a beautiful picture. But there's something about the picture that really is culturally inaccurate because when you look at those celebrating the Lord's Supper, which was actually Passover in Leonardo's picture, they look like they're all Swedes. They all have blonde hair and blue eyes. But let's remember, Jesus was a Jew. He probably had brown hair and brown eyes. And all his disciples were Jews, and more than likely had brown hair and brown eyes.
And so let's put everything in its initial context. When you celebrate communion or the Lord's Supper, beloved, that doesn't come out of Rome. That comes out of Judaism. That comes out of Jerusalem. That comes out of the Jewish Jesus, the King, Amen, of the Jews. And so I want to encourage you to celebrate Passover. You're not obligated to. We're not under the law. But when we celebrate the feast of the Lord, what they actually do, beloved, is they remind us of the great truths and foundations of our salvation.
And so I want to encourage you this year, even if it's just taking the Lord's Supper, but doing it in such a way that you're cognizant of the fact that you're actually celebrating Passover. Read about it in the Gospels. Read about where Matthew, Mark, Luke and John talk about the Lord's Supper. Notice there, that it's in the context of Passover; that Jesus said, go and prepare the Passover meal for me. And then as they were eating it together, he instituted the Lord's Supper. And I want to help you get in touch with the Jewish roots of your faith because God wants you to worship him in spirit, but also in truth.
And as you understand the Jewish and Hebraic roots of your faith, beloved, you're gonna be connected to the root. You're gonna be connected, beloved, to the root from which our faith comes from. That's why we call our faith the what? The Judeo-Christian faith. So I want to encourage you this year, even if you're just gonna celebrate Passover by having communion, do it in the context, beloved one, of the Passover experience.
Now as I continue on this journey with you, I want to talk about the fact that when we look to Jesus as our Savior and we receive salvation, we do it because he became, get it now, our substitutionary sacrificial atonement. And what that means is that he became the substitute for our sin, just as that ancient Passover lamb became the substitute, beloved, for Israel's sin. And when they put the blood of the substitute on their doorpost, again, they were spared from God's judgment. This is why we talk about having our names written, get it now, in the Lamb's Book of Life. When our names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, it means that his blood covers our sin and that we will not be judged for it.
In fact, did you know that Jesus is called the Lamb as I said a second ago, 29 times in the Book of Revelation? And we see in the Passover story that all the foundations of our salvation experience are in that story. So for example, God chose Israel. That's election, just like you've been chosen by God. God said to Israel, I did not chose you or set my love upon you because you, because you were great. The Lord said, I chose you because I loved you. And in the same way, beloved, God has chosen his people today. He's chosen us, beloved, according to his grace; not by anything that we've done, but according to his mercy. Israel was chosen and if you know God, it's because you're chosen.
This is what Romans, 9 through 11 teaches. And God chose Israel not because of their works, but through his grace; just like you were chosen not because of works, but through grace, not by deeds of righteous which you have done, but according to God's mercy are you saved. And then how did Israel come out of Egypt? They came out of Egypt, get it now, beloved one, through faith, through faith in God's revelation that Moses said God has spoken to me. And if you'll believe and follow, you're gonna be saved.
And so they entered into salvation. They entered into deliverance by having faith. They were chosen election, right. They, it was by God's grace that it all took place. And they had to exercise faith to enter in to their deliverance. And then finally as I've been speaking about, when they finally got to that point of deliverance, it was through the blood of the lamb, just as you and I have been saved through the Blood, and it was through a deliverer. Moses was Jesus, beloved, in a shadow form.
As I close today, I want to read for you from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter number 18 today; Deuteronomy, chapter number 18, verse 15. What we find here is that the Lord said to Moses that Moses, I'm gonna raise up for you a prophet from amongst your brethren. And he that will not listen will be cut off. Listen, hear the Word of God: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, Moses said, from among you and from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.
This same Scripture is quoted in the Book of Acts as the writer points to Jesus and says, he, Jesus, is the one that Moses wrote of. Beloved ones, the Gospel that we see revealed in the Exodus experience, is actually the Gospel of King Jesus in its primitive form. God loves you today and you've been grafted in to the commonwealth of Israel. I love you today. God bless you and Chag Sameach, Happy Passover season to you in the love of God, from my heart to your heart, Shalom.