Rabbi Schneider - Yeshua, Crafted Within Scripture
As we're continuing beloved one now down our journey in messianic prophecy, we've looked at the family line, the tribe, that Yeshua would come through. Now we're going to look at how He would enter the world. Specifically, I'm focusing on the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures pointed to the fact that the Messiah would be born into the world supernaturally. I have a lot to say about this, but for the purpose of our message right now, I want to just go to two points. Number one, the patriarch of the Hebrew faith, Abraham and his wife Sarah, they conceived Isaac through whom Messiah would proceed through, listen, supernaturally. Because when Abraham and Sarah gave Isaac birth, they were in the natural past the age of childbearing. Sarah was 90 years old, Abraham was 100 years old.
Scripture tells us that both of them were physically no longer able to produce children. In fact, when Sarah heard about God's promise that they would conceive and produce a child at their age, the Bible says Sarah laughed. And the Lord said, "Why did she laugh? Is anything too difficult for the Lord"? In other words, Isaac was going to be born into the world supernaturally. This was a hint and a foreshadow that Messiah would come into the world supernaturally. This specific train of thought became even more clearly revealed in the Hebrew Bible, where we read the words of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14. Many of you are familiar with the Scripture.
Here's what we read there. "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign". It's a sign. It's something that is going to be supernatural, that can be observed. "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she shall call His name Immanuel". You see, the Lord was saying that you're going to know because I'm going to give you a sign. The sign is the Messiah is going to come into the world through a virgin. Of course, the Gospels are very clear about this, that Miriam, which is the Hebrew way to say Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit. And so we read in the book of Matthew chapter 1, verse 18, as well as verses 22 and 23, these words. "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit".
Do you see how specifically the Hebrew prophecy here is being fulfilled? I mean, I want you to think about this. The distance between the Hebrew Scriptures writing and the New Testament, all these years go by, and yet God is faithful to precisely fulfill His word. We continue there in Matthew 1 and read this: "Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means, 'God with us.'"
I'm getting like more and more excited as I go through each one of these prophecies to see the incredible seeability that these Hebrew prophets received from the Lord to see Messiah's coming into the world from His family, to the tribes, to now the supernatural birth. And now it gets even more specific, where the Lord revealed in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures the place on earth that Messiah would be born into. And so we come now to the Hebrew Bible's revelation that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. We're going now to the book of Micah, once again, chapter 5, verse 2. We looked at this verse earlier when we saw that the Messiah would come into the world and that He would be from eternity. That Messiah's going forths are from eternity.
But in the same scripture, Micah reveals that this one from eternity would come into the earth in flesh and blood in a place called Bethlehem. Hear the Word of God. "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His going forths are from long ago, from the days of eternity". Of course, we see this fulfilled in the New Testament very specifically and precisely where Messiah comes into the world. We read in Matthew 2:1-6, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea..". And I could go on and read the rest of that scripture that ends in verse 6 of Matthew 2 there, but we all know the story. God told us specifically and exactly that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.
As we continue to messianic prophecy revealed number 11... For those of you that weren't with me last time, I'm going through 21 rapid-fire messianic prophecies. I'm just touching the surface. I'm doing this in correlation with a book that I just released, it goes into much greater detail, called "Messianic Prophecy Revealed". So once again, I'm moving forward now to messianic prophecy 11, which is this: Messiah will be preceded by a messenger. Let me say it again. Messiah's coming into the world will be foreannounced or preceded by a messenger. We're looking in the Hebrew Bible, and I'm going now to the book of Malachi, and I'm looking at chapter 3, verse 1. Here's what we read. The Lord is speaking and He says, "Behold, I'm going to send My messenger and he will clear the way before Me".
In the same book, in the fourth chapter, in the fifth verse, we read this: "Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD". And so the Lord is going to prepare His entrance into the world through a messenger that will go before Him and prepare the way. And this one that's coming is Elijah. In the Brit Chadashah, the New Testament, chapter 1, verse 23, we hear the voice of Elijah as recorded for us by the writer John. And this is what we read. "Make straight the way of the Lord". John says this, "I am the voice..". I'm not talking about John the writer of the Gospel of John. I'm talking about John the Baptist. And John is recorded and he's saying this: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord".
John the Baptist is the one that Malachi was speaking of. We read further about this in the Gospels where they came to Jesus and they said, "If You're the Messiah, where's Elijah"? Because Malachi told us that a messenger would come that is Elijah. But where's Elijah? And Yeshua's answer to those that questioned Him was this, "If you can receive it, John the Baptist is the one to come. He is Elijah". An incredible thing that Yeshua is very carefully showing us how He's fulfilling the ancient prophecies and the ancient writings. Again, I talk more about this in my book. Point number 12, messianic prophecy number 12, Messiah will preach, I love this now, good news. Messiah will preach good news.
Did you know that the term "gospel" means good news? I love this point. Because we're living in a world today that there are so many bad things happening. There's so much bad news, right? I mean, we can't even count how many things that we're hearing on a weekly basis that are bad news, from the climate change that's taking place, from the crime rate, from all the division that we're constantly hearing about every day on the news, in politics, to the epidemics that people are having and the pandemics that people are having, to the food shortages, to the famines, to all these things that are happening all around us. We all can feel it. The news just keeps getting worse. But you know what? Jesus said, "In the world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world".
You see, Yeshua has brought good news and Yeshua has overcome the world. And in Him, regardless of what's going on around us, our report is good because we have victory in the light, regardless of what's going on in the world around us. So the Hebrew prophets told us that when Messiah would come, He would bring good news. So we read in the book of Isaiah chapter 61, verse 1 these words. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news". This is a messianic prophecy of the role of Messiah. Now consider that when Jesus began His ministry, He went into His local synagogue, as He did every Shabbat, as He did every Sabbath. And it was a very democratic type of a gathering where different ones who would participate in reading the scriptures.
And so Yeshua went up to the platform, He went up to the bema and He opened up to the prophet Isaiah and He read this exact scripture from Isaiah 61 that I just read for you. And when He got done reading the Scripture about "the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, to bring good news, to preach the gospel," Yeshua then, very calmly, looked at everyone seated there, everyone present and He slowly closed the book and He said, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your midst". He was taking a step forward in His role as the Messiah, declaring that He was the one that the ancient prophets had spoken of. And so I'm reading now from the book of Luke.
"...and He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel," the good news. And then we continue on there later in this section. And Yeshua said, "...today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing". I don't know, I love it. I love this stuff. It makes me happy. I preach myself happy today. The story continues to unfold. And as the role of Messiah as prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures comes to the surface, we find that not only would messiah be born in Bethlehem, which Hebrew prophets told us, but they furthermore revealed to us, beloved ones, that the primary place of Yeshua's ministry would take place in Galilee.
You know, we love Jerusalem. I mean, Jerusalem is the city of the great King. Jerusalem is where David's throne was, where His castle was. Jerusalem is where the temple was and will potentially be rebuilt. But think about it, Yeshua didn't spend most of His time ministering in Jerusalem. In fact, He really went to Jerusalem to be crucified. Yeshua spent almost all His time ministering in Galilee. And amazingly enough, the Hebrew prophets foretold this as well. And so we go to the book of Isaiah 9:1 and we read this: "But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; and 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, Galilee of the Gentiles".
So the Messiah is going to come and He's going to make this land that was really not considered to be much, He is going to make it glorious. Matthew in the Brit Chadashah, the New Testament picks up on this, and he tells us in chapter 4, verses 12 through 14 this. "Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He would drew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet," which is the scripture that I just read to you before reading this one.
Very precisely, Messiah is walking down the steps that the Hebrew prophets had left for us to look in. Jesus is fulfilling the prophecies and completing the puzzle. I hope you're starting to see that this is no haphazard thing that Jesus specifically came to fulfill the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible. And what this should tell us, beloved ones, is that it's important to have our faith rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Because God went out of His way, the Lord went out of His way to show us how Jesus fulfilled the Hebrew prophecies. And He did this so that your faith and my faith would be rock solid.
Now I'm looking at some of you right now through the lens, through television, YouTube, etc., and the truth is that many of you, you believe in Jesus, you love Jesus. But you know what? You're not sold out to Jesus only. You love Jesus but subconsciously you think, "Well, you know what? My friend believes this religion and my other friend doesn't believe in Jesus but she's a really good person". And I know that other people in different parts of the world seem to be as fully convinced that they're right, although they might be Buddhist, or Hindus, or Muslims, and they seem really sincere, they seem really passionate, they seem like good people. So who am I to insist that my Jesus is right for them?
You see, some of you have a feeling that Jesus is good for you, but you want to let the rest of the people take whatever spiritual path they're on and bless them. But beloved, that is completely unbiblical thinking. And not only is it unbiblical thinking, it's not the truth. You see, there's one God and there's one mediator between God and man. And that's the God-man, Christ Jesus, who is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. When you look upon the anointing of Jewish people today and see the remarkable way that God has used them, it is convincing that their God, the God of Israel, is the one and only true God.
And the God of Israel told us in the Hebrew Bible that Messiah would come. He told us how He would come, what He would look like, what line He would come through, what tribe He would come through, what family He would come through, where He would be born, that He would be born supernaturally, that He would minister in the land of Galilee, that He would be born in Bethlehem. You see, there's one specific and particular pathway to God, and that is only through the King of the Jews, Jesus the Messiah.
I want to embolden you today in your faith in Yeshua. You see, Jesus said, "Unless you believe that I am He, that I am the Messiah and the only Messiah, unless you believe that I am He," Jesus said, "You will die in your sins". If you need to repent today because you have not been walking down this pathway that I'm proclaiming to you right now, I want you to know that God will accept your repentance. He wants you to strengthen you to stand up in being a bold witness and for King Jesus on the earth and declare what Jesus declared. Jesus said, "I Am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man come to the Father but through Me". I want to strengthen you today to become a bold and uncompromising witness for Jesus, to not bow to political correctness, and to not bow to a lie. Jesus is the way. He's the only way, and He loves you.