Rabbi Schneider - The Prophecy of Jesus' Death
Today we're looking at Messianic prophecy. I began this series weeks ago, but last week, I covered many Messianic prophecies. We're going to continue today by turning to the book of Isaiah, chapter number 53. So if you have your Bible, go to Isaiah 53 with me. I want to encourage you to get this entire teaching. It's available on our web site, discoveringthejewishjesus.com or by calling us at the 800 number at the end of the broadcast today. Beloved, the grass withers, and the flowers fade, but the Word of the Lord, hallelujah, abides forever. Hear the Word of God now as we turn to perhaps the most specific long section of Messianic prophecy in the entire Tanakh. I'm going to begin there reading in verse number 1. Isaiah says, Who has believed our message?
And so right away, what Isaiah is revealing to us about the Messiah is that he will come, listen, but many will not believe. What does the Scripture say about Jesus? It says he came unto his own, but his own received him not. And much of this 53rd chapter, Yadid, beloved one, of the book of Isaiah relates to how Israel related to the Messiah when he came, how they related to Jesus at his first coming. And so the first thing that we learn is that Isaiah is prophesying to us that when Jesus comes, that when Yeshua comes, that when Messiah comes, the majority of Israel will not believe. They won't recognize him. And that of course, is exactly what happened.
Let's continue on. He continues on, Who has believed our report, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? It's interesting there that he uses that word revealed. He says, To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Do you know that that's the only way that you or I can really know Messiah, is through the revelation that comes to us from the Father? The Scripture says all that hear and learn from the Father come to Jesus. Remember what Yeshua said to Peter? Yeshua said to Peter, Peter, who do they say that I am? And Peter said some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah. And then Yeshua looked at Peter and said, but who do you say that I am? And Peter said you're the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Remember what Yeshua said? He said blessed art thou, Simon son of John, for flesh and blood has not, listen now, revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So Yeshua looked at Peter and said you're blessed because my Father has revealed the truth to you. And so right away, Isaiah says, you know, most people are not going to see who Yeshua is. They're going to miss it. But some will have the revelation. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Let's continue on there. Verse number 2, For he, speaking of Yeshua, speaking of Jesus, For he grew up before him. Isn't that interesting? We're seeing now the mystery of the Godhead, the relationship between the Father and the Son. And let me be very specific, beloved, that we should not expect to understand, listen now, the mystery of what we call the Trinity. We should not expect to be able to put it all together. People have come up with all types of analogies to try to understand the mystery of the Godhead, the mystery of the relationship between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And some have said well, it's comparable to an egg.
You know, you have three sections to an egg. You have the outer shell, the hard shell, and then you have the egg whites, and then you have the yellow section of the egg, the egg yolk. And they say that helps us understand the mystery of the Godhead, the mystery of the Trinity. Well, Yadid, that doesn't help me understand it real well. I've come to the conclusion and to the peace in my life to be able to say I'm not going to understand it, and I shouldn't expect to understand it. Can we understand, beloved, how God has always been? Can you understand how we have a God, beloved, that's created everything, and he's always been, and he's uncreated? He's just always been? We can't even begin to understand that. We say well, where did you come from? How did you get here? And if we can't understand, beloved, this fundamental question of how an invisible God could have always been, he didn't come from anywhere, then how should we expect to understand the mystery of the relationship of the Trinity or of the Godhead?
So the Scripture says here, For he, speaking of Yeshua, grew up before him, speaking of the Father, like a tender shoot. And it's a mystery, beloved, but Yeshua, listen, he is God, he is God's essence. The Bible says he's the bosom of the Father. He's uncreated. He's always been. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Yeshua is God in the flesh. He's the visible manifestation of the invisible God. And somehow, listen to this now, there is relationship, listen to what I'm saying, there is relationship within God. So the Father has a relationship with the Son. You are my beloved Son, the Father says to Yeshua. You are my beloved Son, and in you I'm well pleased. There's relationship, beloved, between the Father and the Son. That's why we have relationship on earth. We have relationship on earth because there's relationship in God. See, the Bible says as God was about to create man, the Lord said we read in Bereshit, in Genesis, he said let us, the Lord speaking to himself, he says let us make man in our image. Who was he speaking to when he said let us?
Well, some people say he was speaking to angels. I don't believe he was speaking to angels. I believe, beloved, he was speaking to the Son. And when he says us, he's speaking, beloved, to the relationship God has in himself. He's self-sufficient. And in the relationships we enjoy on earth, whether it's a family relationship or whether it's a relationship between husband and wife, these relationships exist because it's a manifestation of the fact, beloved, that there's relationship within God. You could not come up with a proper definition or a full definition of who God is without including in that definition, beloved, the word relationship, because God is relationship. And so we see this revealed here in Isaiah 53 verse 2, where it describes this relationship between the Father and the Son. Isaiah says there, For he, speaking of Yeshua, grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground.
Now, listen to the next phrase. He says, He has no stately form or majesty, that we should look at him. In other words, Isaiah is revealing to us Yeshua didn't come looking like a superstar. He wasn't 10 feet tall. He looked like an ordinary person. In other words, to just look at him, you'd miss it. You wouldn't recognize that this was the Son of God manifest, beloved, in the flesh. That's why so many people missed him. They said who is this guy? He claims he's the Son of God. He claims he's come down from heaven. Who is this guy? We know his mom and dad, they said. How is he now claiming he's come down from heaven? You see, they missed it. Yeshua's own brothers, the Scripture says, didn't believe in him. Yeshua said a prophet's not without honor except in his own town. So the people that knew him, they looked at him, they didn't see anything special about him. He has no stately form, Isaiah says there in the second verse, that we should look upon him, nor appearance, that we should be attracted to him, Isaiah continues on in the second verse.
Now in verse number 3, listen to this. He was despised, Isaiah says, and forsaken of men. This was not a man, beloved, Yeshua in the flesh as the God man, beloved, he was rejected by people. He was forsaken. Isn't that what happened? He came, his brothers didn't believe in him, people laughed at him, people mocked him, the Pharisees made up lies about him. He was despised and forsaken of men. Judas himself, Judas, the one that spent all this time with Yeshua forsook him at the very last minute. He was a man of sorrows, Isaiah says, and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face. Even the disciples, when Yeshua was crucified, remember the disciples got so afraid, the disciples were watching all this from a distance, they were trying to go under cover, they didn't want to be associated with him after he was crucified because they were afraid for their own lives.
And remember what happened? It says that some of them came up to the disciples and they said, we remember you. You were with him. And remember what the disciples said? They said we don't know him. Remember Yeshua said, he said before a cock crows, Peter, three times you'll deny me. That's exactly what was happening. They said to Peter, we know you. We recognize you. You were with him. Peter said I don't know the man. He was forsaken, beloved, even by his best friends. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. He was like one from whom men, he was like one from whom men hid their face. Even his best friends, beloved, at the moment of his weakest hour hid their face from him.
Isn't this an awesome thing how Isaiah was able to bring this into view so much earlier than it ever was manifest in physical reality? I'm picking up now, Yadid, beloved one, in verse number 4. But surely, Isaiah says, our grief's he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquity, and the chastisement of our well being fell upon him. By his scourging we are healed. This was the purpose, Yadid, beloved one, that Yeshua came, to die for you and to die for me. He that knew no sin, the Scripture says, speaking of Jesus, he that knew no sin, listen now, became sin on our behalf, that you and I could become the righteousness of God. This is what Isaiah's saying here.
Let me read it again. Surely our griefs he himself bore. In other words, he took our pain into his own body. Our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God. But he was, listen now, pierced through for our transgressions. A lot of times, we think about the pain and we hear about the pain that Yeshua went through when he went to the cross. And of course, some of you saw the movie The Passion of the Christ, and they showed how he was beaten and whipped and how they put the nails through his hands and his feet. But you know what, beloved? I personally believe that, that was not the greater pain that Yeshua bore. I believe that the greater pain that he bore was when the sinless one, that when Yeshua Ha'Mashiach, the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, listen now, became sin for us, he took our sin into himself. He that knew no sin, the Scripture says, became sin. That's why the Father put him to death and turned away and Yeshua said why have you forsaken me.
I believe that was greater than the physical pain, beloved, he endured. And yet even though he did this, beloved, because he loved us so much, because it was the only solution to our finding forgiveness and finding a place into God's fellowship, he had to take our sin away, he had to die in our place, the innocent one dying in the place of the guilty so that the guilty one could be restored to innocence and into a relationship with God, even though, beloved, he loved us so much and did this for us, the result of what he did with many was they looked at him and thought that God was punishing him for his own sin. And so Isaiah says yet we esteemed him stricken of God. And that's true. And I know even today as followers of Yeshua, people look at us, I know people look at me sometimes as a Jewish a person, and they say you're stricken of God because they you're an apostate, a Jewish person that believes in Jesus. And they think that I'm accursed by God for my faith in Jesus.
Well, that's the same thing that Jesus endured. And you know what? You should expect to carry some of the same suffering in your own body, because the Bible tells us that even as Yeshua was rejected by people and even as he was crucified, the Bible says, outside the city gate, in other words, when he was crucified, he wasn't crucified inside the city of Jerusalem, because Jerusalem was a holy city. Because they looked at him as a criminal, they crucified him outside the city. The Bible says even as he suffered that shame of having to be crucified as a criminal, it says you and I that believe in him must suffer outside the city gates. We should expect to experience some of the same rejection and some of the same suffering, Yadid, beloved one, that he experienced. It's part of the price that we pay for being a follower of his. Because the Scripture says we've been called and chosen, not just to reign with him, hallelujah, but to suffer with him as well. That's why Yeshua said blessed are you when you suffer and are persecuted for my sake. Amen. Hallelujah.
We thank you, Jesus, for being able to suffer with you because we love you and we want to identify with you not only in your resurrection, but also we want to identify with you, Lord Jesus, because we love you in your sufferings.
As we continue on, verse number 5, He was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed, Yadid, beloved one, for our iniquities, the chastisement of our well being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. And this speaks to us, beloved, of the ministry of supernatural healing. I'm talking about healing of the soul and healing of the body. Sometimes when we think of healing, we only think of healing that's associated with the body, you know, I need a touch from the Lord in my body. But you know, when Yeshua first announced his ministry, when he went into the synagogue and opened the scroll and he began to read and he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, what's the first thing he said? To bind up the broken hearted.
Beloved, the healing that is ours through the atonement, the healing that's ours in Jesus, it's not just for bodily healing, beloved, but it's also for healing of our soul. It's healing of our heart, it's healing of our emotions. Hallelujah. You know, everybody here has probably suffered some damage in their soul, some emotional damage. Isn't it an awesome thing to know that whatever you've been through in life, if you've had a mom and dad that's been divorced, if you've had a spouse that's left you, if you've had children that have turned on you, whatever you've gone through in life that is hurting you now, do you know, beloved, you're not bound in that state forever, because through Jesus you can be made whole, hallelujah.
And I thank you, Lord Jesus, for bringing wholeness and healing to my soul and my mind and my heart and my restorations. I thank you, Lord Jesus, for restoring me.
You know, time doesn't heal all things. We hear in the world that time heals all wounds. Well, that's not true. Time can help, beloved, but there are some wounds that are so deep that time alone can't heal. Some of you are still struggling and suffering from something that happened in your life 5, 10, 15, 20, and even longer years ago. But you know what, beloved? Jesus, hallelujah, can heal you.
And I ask you to release healing right now, Jesus, to those that are looking to you in faith and in love. Receive it right now in Jesus' name. I release healing to the disciples, Father, of Jesus right now through the atonement. Hallelujah.
And also beloved, healing in our physical bodies. By his stripes, Yadid, Isaiah says, we are healed. Verse number 6, All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him. And of course, the most common position that we hear in America of people that don't believe in Jesus, it's generally something like you know what? I'm a good person. I don't believe that I need Jesus. I'm not a Christian. I don't go to church. I believe I'm a good person. But you know, the Scripture says all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We don't measure ourselves by other people. Yeah, you might be good compared to this person, but we're not being measured, beloved, by other people. We're being measured by God's perfect standard, beloved. And each one of us needs forgiveness. If we didn't need forgiveness, beloved, Jesus wouldn't have had to come and die for us. If you're watching right now and have never received Jesus, I encourage you to open your heart and ask him into your life, ask him to forgive you and heal you and bring you into fellowship with God. Right now, Jesus, I ask you to do it. Hallelujah and amen. Verse number 7, as we continue, He was oppressed and he was afflicted. He did not open his mouth. Remember, he was brought before Pilate, and it says right here, Isaiah says he didn't open his mouth. He was oppressed and he was afflicted.
Remember, on his way to the cross they whipped him, they pulled out his beard, they pulled out his hair, they laughed at him, they spit on him. And yet the Scripture says he just kept on forward, and he didn't open his mouth. And now he's standing before Pilate, he'd been beaten, he'd been spit on, he'd been whipped, and he's standing before Pilate. And Pilate is asking him questions, and Jesus is not responding to Pilate's questions. And finally, Pilate says don't you know that I have the authority to crucify you? And the Bible says that Jesus did not open his mouth. Unbelievable. The power he had to be silent because he knew that Pilate had no authority over him except that which had been given him from above, and Jesus knew that the cross was the purpose for which he was born into this world.
We continue on. Verse 8, By oppression and judgment he was taken away. We've just looked at that. They accused him of conspiracy and of rising up against the Roman government. It says by oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people? In other words, the multitude, they what do they do? They say crucify him, crucify him. When they gave them the choice, remember, of Barabbas or Jesus, they chose to crucify Jesus. Crucify him. And so the Lord says here, as for my generation, they didn't realize what they were doing. They thought he was one, beloved, that was stricken of God. He was assigned with wicked men.
Remember, next to him on the cross are thieves. Yet he was with a rich man in his death. Why was he with the rich man in his death? The Scripture tells us he was buried in the rich man's grave. Joseph of Arimathea. Because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth, but the Lord was pleased to crush him because the Father knew that through Yeshua's death, that many would be made righteous and there would be a great harvest, multitudes and multitudes, hallelujah, from every tribe, tongue, and nation. There's many other Scriptures, beloved. Psalm number 22 describes the crucifixion process of Jesus. And as we wind up this section on Messianic prophecy, I want to talk to you about types and shadows in the Hebrew Bible, which are a form of Messianic prophecy.
For example, Yadid, beloved one, in the book of Matthew, chapter number 2 verse number 13 through 15, we find there that Yeshua's Father Joseph took him to Egypt because there was a plot to kill all the Hebrew babies that were being born because the ruler in Israel had heard that a Messiah was born. And so the Scripture tells us that Joseph, Yeshua's Father, was warned in a dream, Matthew chapter 2, to take Jesus to Egypt that his life might be spared. And then it goes on to say there in the 15th verse of Matthew 2 that the Scripture might be fulfilled, out of Egypt did I call my Son. But when you look at the cross reference in Matthew chapter 2 verse number 13 through 15, for out of Egypt did I call my Son, which Joseph was fulfilling by bringing Yeshua to Egypt, you go to the book of Hosea chapter 11 verse number 1, and all you read there is that the Lord called Israel out of Egypt.
And you read it, and you say well, I don't understand how Yeshua fulfilled this, because when I go to Hosea chapter 11 verse 1, it doesn't really lead me to believe that there's going to be some type of Messianic expectation. In other words, there doesn't seem to be a future prophecy. It just seems to be saying that God called Israel out of Egypt. That's the whole point. But nothing that God's going to bring the Messiah into the world and call him out of Egypt or bring him into Egypt. And so I don't understand how this is a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. But here's what you need to understand. That it's prophecy in the sense, listen now, that Yeshua fills Israel's history up with meaning. So that what we see God did to Israel, Yeshua lives out those same experiences, and he fills those experiences up with meaning, because Yeshua, listen, beloved, is Israel's divine representative.
So even as Moses was in the wilderness for 40 years, Yeshua goes into the wilderness for 40 days. Even as Joseph was raised up to deliver his people and yet rejected at first, so Yeshua was raised up to deliver God's people, but was what? Rejected at first. And so this same theme continues. Abraham what? The father goes to sacrifice his only begotten son. Or not his only begotten son, but his only Son Isaac. It's a type and shadow, beloved, of Yeshua, who's the Father's only son. So we also see Messianic prophecy in types and shadows in the sense that Yeshua fills Israel's history up with meaning as their divine representative by repeating in his own life many of the same experiences that Israel had lived through together as a nation. Well, beloved, God bless you. I hope that you'll tune in next week and tell a friend. And I want to thank you for supporting this broadcast, making it possible for me to broadcast around the globe in Yeshua's name.