Rabbi Schneider - Jesus is Lord
Well, what better place to celebrate the birth of Mashiach Messiah into the world than from the land of Israel? That's where we are today. As you can see, the great city of Jerusalem behind me. Now, this direction is Bethlehem, Yeshua's birthplace. Today, Bethlehem is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. But in Yeshua's day? Not so. Bethlehem, the place that Yeshua was birthed into the world, I don't know. It's so beautiful to me when I say it. Especially saying it from Israel. You know, Jewish people had been looking for the Messiah when Yeshua was birthed in the world. It was a time of great messianic expectation.
And when Yeshua came into the world, most of the people that were looking for the Messiah missed Him because He didn't come into the world in a way that they were expecting. He didn't look like what they thought He would look like. And so they missed Him. He became the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense. That didn't recognize Him. Think about it. Here's the great Mashiach, the Messiah they've been waiting for. And He's birthed into the world through Bethlehem, in a little manger. He looked like any other little baby. And then Yeshua grew up, of course, in Nazareth. And He was a carpenter's son. And when He began to do great things, the miracles, and began to say, "Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in yourself".
And the people around Him said, Who does He think He is? Who is this guy? We know His mom and dad. He's a carpenter's son. They missed Him. But you see, beloved, those that have eyes to see, those in whom the veil has been removed, and we can see through the darkness, we can penetrate into the light to see that this one that came into the world, meek and lowly, riding on a donkey before His crucifixion, we can see Him for who He is and then begin to emulate Him. We begin to emulate Him in our own lives. We enter in to a peace and a divine satisfaction that only those that have been brought into the sacred place can experience. He that has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches.
Even as Yeshua was born into this world in an obscure place called Bethlehem, and raised in a not so great place called Nazareth, as a carpenter's son, seemingly just a common person that no one would recognize, so, too, when you and I recognize that the way to go up is down, and that walking in a spirit of gentleness and humility is the way to create peace; The sooner we can have eyes to understand that mystery, the sooner it is that we'll be brought in to the rest and the shalom of the King of the city of great peace.