Messianic Viewpoint

Guest (Female): Shalom and welcome to Shalom Ariel and to this our 72nd sermon from the Gospel of Mark with Messianic Leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. About 3,000 years ago, Nathan the prophet came to David and gave him a parable, a story of a sheep stealer. This infuriated David. So much so that he condemned the sheep stealer to death and said that he must repay fourfold for what he stole. How fast are we ready to condemn another when we ourselves can be the culprit?

Fast-forward 1,000 years later. Same thing. The Lord again uses parables to teach, but this time to the leadership of Israel. And the story was made so simple for them, yet they did not recognize their guilt. Our covenant relationship with God is based on two factors: God's forgiveness and our godly remorse, which leads to repentance. We play a big part. We can overtly refuse God's invitation and decline despite overwhelming evidence of our guilt.

When God calls each one of us, He expects an answer from us. God wants us to see the condition of our heart, and our answers, our obedience, our willingness to go and do is so important. Our response can change the direction of our lives. When kids say no to drugs, they can change the direction of their lives. Decisions and actions count.

When adults say no to idolatry, to lying, to stealing, and to cheating, we are answering the call of righteousness, and we can change the course of our lives. And God calls us to do even more than that. He calls us to unconditional love and forgiveness, to a willing outpouring of mercy and compassion upon others, and then that will change the lives of others around us.

God is always calling us to repentance so that He may have the good pleasure to forgive us and to restore us in our eternal relationship with Him. He waits patiently each time for us that we may see our mistakes and His righteousness and His faithfulness in all of that. And we praise the Lord because He will keep us as His own forever. Be blessed as you listen in to today's program and shalom, shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: And so shalom again, everyone. One more time, shalom and welcome to Beth Ariel Congregation, where today we're coming to a very, very precious section of the Bible. We are within these last four days of the Lamb of God, where Yeshua is tested before His death and resurrection. During these very intense days, the forces of evil will and increasingly so try to prevent Him from doing what was prophesied since the beginning, that is to redeem man from his sins.

From the pronouncement of the very first Messianic prophecy in Genesis chapter three and throughout history, the devil continually went first against the carrier of the seed of the woman, who is Israel. Through constant unrest and wars, he tried to stop the seed of the woman, and while so many times one may have thought that the nation would be decimated, annihilated, the Lord did not allow it for our salvation. And then when the seed, Yeshua, was born on Earth, these attacks increased all the more.

Plots of killing Him began from His birth with Herod, if you remember, with the killing of the babies two years and under in Bethlehem. And then with the many attempts on His life, especially after His baptism. And consider the sudden rise of the number of demons in the land of Israel. They went to disturb, to bring chaos around every place where Yeshua went. But the Messiah prevailed through His might and power over them and from every attempt to stop Him to die and then resurrect for us. That is the good news.

Today we're getting closer to the moment of the ultimate sacrifice. It is the religious leaders themselves who are trying every possible way to trap Him in order to have Him executed before the Passover and before He would climb on the tav. They will come in using their best arguments and reason through well-thought-out plots. All of them—the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, all kinds of scribes—but they all fail.

And what is most beautiful in this part of the Bible is to see the power of grace in Yeshua's words, in Yeshua's answers to them. How He turns the table around and uses great wisdom not to humiliate them, not to belittle them—for He will completely master the debate—but and again to bring them back to the truth, always with the intent that maybe some, maybe one, will come to a saving knowledge of God.

This section could be titled the second temptation, which will culminate in the Garden of Gethsemane where Yeshua would literally sweat blood, so fierce will the attacks be. But again, what is strange and very peculiar is that these last attacks on the person of the Messiah will begin with the very people who were supposed to announce, protect, and promote the Messiah's coming and anoint Him: the religious and also the civil authorities. This is when Yeshua Himself says it is marvelous, citing the Hallel itself, which they used to usher the Messiah.

It ends with the incomprehensible and surprising words that we find when He says in the Hallel, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." It is strange, peculiar, unexpected, and thank God that it is the Lord's doing. For without Him, without Yeshua's willingness to undergo such persecution and death, we would all not be here today praising His name and rejoicing in the fact that very soon we'll be with Him for eternity. Amen.

Now before we get into the word itself, let's bless the word. Let's pray this ancient prayer together. Let's do it in English. Blessed are you, oh Lord our God, King of the universe, who has given us the word of truth and has planted everlasting life in our midst. Blessed are you, oh Lord, who gives the scripture. Amen. So let's open our Bible to Mark chapter 12.

Incidentally, chapter 12 in many books of the Bible often represents a mark of division in the history of Israel. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. I will name just a few cases. Remember in Genesis, the history of Israel begins in chapter 12 with the calling of Abraham. In Exodus, the history of Israel as a nation begins in chapter 12 with the Passover and the new calendar leading to the Exodus from Egypt to the entering of the land with milk and honey.

In Joshua, after chapter 12, we see the starts of Israel taking possession and dwelling in her God-given land. Up to the gospels, both Matthew and Mark, chapter 12 represents the mark division of the book leading to the last moment of the life of the Messiah here on Earth. These are good markers in the Bible that help us to be alerted to important landmarks in the scriptures. And it is here in Mark 12 where we begin to read about the parable of the vineyard.

It is here where Yeshua sums up all the past history of Israel in just a few words. A parable could reveal or conceal the truth. It depends who is on the receiving end, and this parable so clearly discloses a truth which followed Israel since her very beginning, a truth which is so clear that the leadership fully understood what Jesus was talking about. Let's begin with the last verse so we can appreciate the power of the words of this parable, verse 12.

Verse 12 tells us that after the leadership heard the parable, they were seeking to seize Him. And yet they feared the people, for they understood what He spoke, the parable against them. They fully grasped the meaning of the parable, so much so that they wanted to seize Him even more, for they had already decided to destroy Him a while back. But now it reached a high point. They were trying all they could to gag Him. But how clear this parable was to them.

Let us see how well it is designed, beginning with verse one. Then He began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat, and built a tower. And he leased it to the vinedressers and went to a far country. From the fig tree, which symbolized the national Israel with the religious leaders at its head, now the vine tree is mentioned, which symbolized spiritual Israel, and both these trees show us the sad state into which some have dragged the country into.

And it opens in a grandiose way. Just listening to the first words of this verse, they must have known where Yeshua was heading with this parable because the first words are a quotation of another parable of a vineyard that you find in the book of Isaiah, chapter five. They knew it. Through this parable, Isaiah predicted the destruction of the first temple and of Jerusalem and also because of the religious leaders. The very same situation we find in Mark 12, the same scenario.

After the parable, Isaiah also spoke of six severe woes, or ois. Six times the paragraphs begin with woe unto them. So fierce are the prophecies of this chapter of Isaiah five that even later in the 1400s, a well-known rabbi, Abarbanel, wrote that Isaiah five is not a prophecy. It's a song since it begins by saying that it is a song. But it is clearly a prophecy as interpreted by other rabbis. Abarbanel tried to divert to lessen the prophecy because these words are severe and so condemning to the religious leaders.

But this is the passage Yeshua chose to start with his own parable of the vineyard. And they must have understood it right away at the start. Isaiah five helps us to understand the parable for in both Isaiah five and in Mark 12, the vineyard is the nation of Israel. That the vineyard represents Israel is not only seen in Isaiah but throughout the Hebrew scriptures. In Psalm chapter 80, we read that the Lord had brought a vine out of Egypt.

It was Solomon who spoke of Israel as his personal vineyard in the Book of Songs. So while the vineyard is Israel, the winegrowers are the religious leaders, the priests and the others. And the owner of the vineyard is God Himself. The parable then represents a condemnation of man-made religion against the word of God. This is what it is. Now let us see how the story unfolds. We also readily recognize a history. Look at verse two to five.

At the harvest time, he sent a slave to the winegrowers in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the winegrowers. They took him and they beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed, and so many others, beating and killing others. Is this not the history of Israel just in a few words?

Those sent by the Lord are the prophets who, as the parable says, were beaten up, wounded, treated shamefully, and even killed, as history and Jewish tradition testifies. One recurring question is, how come the religious ones at the time of Jesus did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah? I say to them, look at the history of Israel, read the parables of Isaiah chapter five, which shows us that these very people who were called to usher the prophets of God and the Messiah, instead they worked against them.

And it gets worse as the story goes, if you notice. In verse three, they beat the servant. In verse four, they wound him in the head. They tried to kill him, and they treated him shamefully. Verse five, as another is sent, they kill him. From beating them to killing these Jewish prophets. And in verse six, we're told that many of them actually came and were killed as well. But as you read these verses, do you see God's patience?

He sends the first one and again in verse four. He sends another and again in verse five. He sends yet another and again we read that he sends many more. The history of Israel testifies that God's patience and suffering is actually amazing. He always gives ample time to repent. He gave it to the Amorites. He gave 400 years to repent. This is why the Lord did not give the land to Abraham. He had to buy the lands where he was in.

He only gave it to Moses 400 years later. Unfortunately, at the time of Yeshua and even today, many mistake His patience for His approval. They brag and say, look how ancient our religion is. But the history itself of Israel tells us that if it is old, it is because it is expired. If it is old, it is because God is giving us time to repent and return to Him as He reveals Himself in the word. But this is not the whole story, and thank God for it.

After sending His last servant, instead of vengeance, instead of anger, the Lord sends His best. Look at verse six. He had one more to send, a beloved son. He sent them last of all to them, saying, they will respect my son. See how beautiful that is. This is the great news. God sent His son to save the nation of Israel and the world. This also is the history of Israel. See how He is called, how He calls Him: a beloved son.

This is the third time that Yeshua is called beloved in Mark. At the baptism, at the transfiguration, and here, so that there's no mistaking His identity. It is Jesus Himself. And consider the word beloved, agapētos in the Greek. It is rich in meaning. First, the word comes from the word agapē, which is the highest level of love, the love of God He has for us. In secular Greek, this word was used to describe not only the one who is very special, but also an only, one unique individual.

Do you know into which Hebrew word the Greek word beloved was translated by those 70 or so rabbis who translated the Hebrew Bible into the Greek? According to the Septuagint, these rabbis translated the word agapētos to the Hebrew word yachid, which is found in Genesis 22:2. When God told Abraham, "Take now your son, your only son, yachid, agapētos, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you."

See how the word brought them right to Isaac, who was a type also of the Messiah when he was offered on the altar but instead a ram was sacrificed. Let us remember that the Lord specifically told Abraham to go to the Mount of Moriah. But this is where Jesus was in Mark chapter 12. And all these things must have played in the mind of those who heard this parable for they were familiar with these words and passages.

Yachid and agapētos is also the very same word the Septuagint used for Zechariah 12:10, where we read that the Messiah comes back. They will look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one who mourns for the beloved and only son. So Jesus is the beloved son of God they were about to deliver to death. It is not only the Septuagint that translated and understood this word describing one and only son, we find this also in different writings in classical Greek.

So clear it is that even the Greek-speaking Jews and Gentiles present should have understood what Jesus was talking about. Notice that in the parable, the beloved son actually comes as a fourth attempt to call the people to repentance. This is significant. You remember the rule of four? Three plus one when it comes to judgment. In the book of Amos, the Lord eight times over repeats this phrase: for three transgression and for four I will forgive.

He pronounced these words for every nation around Israel: Syria, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Jordan, and even Israel herself. He forgives three times, but at the refusal of the fourth attempt, there is no fifth one. There is no other. Then the judgment comes. Yeshua then is the last of God's attempt to forgive, for after Jesus, there is nothing. No other way to get to God. That is the message of the scriptures.

Today He is right at the edge of the fourth offer with open arms for all people to come to Him for forgiveness and redemption. The Bible is clear: there won't be another chance after this life. There won't be another chance after death. We're all going to die one day, and who knows if today is your day? So go then to Yeshua and accept Him as your personal Savior. You don't know when you will be called to go to heaven to your Creator.

So being the fourth and last rescue confirms that He is the way, the truth, and the life and that in Him only is salvation. Let us now see the rest of the parable. Once the winegrowers understood that it was the son of the owner who actually came, they devised something. Look at verse seven and eight. But these winegrowers said to one another, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours." They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

They knew it was the son, the heir, and so they decided to kill him in order to keep the inheritance. I want to tell you, this is so too bad because in reality, the son came to make them co-heirs with him. They miss out so much. Jesus did not come to take away what we have but to give us so much more. The Bible says that at the end, whoever makes Yeshua his or her Savior will become co-heirs with Him. Everything He owns will actually become yours.

This is a prophecy that we find in Romans chapter eight, 15 to 17. It says the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with the Messiah. What kind of inheritance are we speaking about here? We're told that the whole creation belongs to Him. This is how big a blessing it will be for us. There are no words which can explain the immensity of this great gift.

To get a taste of this gift, just go out tonight and look at the sky. There you will see millions of stars. God knows them all by name. They all belong to Him, and they all belong to you also. Can you figure this one out? This is how far this gift goes. And besides Isaac, which they must have understood with the words beloved son, the heir also reminds us of another man in the Hebrew scriptures who was a type of the Messiah and whose brothers also wanted to get rid of him because they could not stand his love, the love that his father had for him.

Joseph. The man was Joseph. His story actually looks so much like that of the Messiah. This is what his brothers wanted to do when they saw him at some point they couldn't take it anymore. Genesis 37:20, "Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him out into one of the pits, and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him,'" and so on. He also was the heir of Jacob. His story looks so much like that of the Messiah.

As time went on after the rejection, Joseph grew to be at the head of the state of Egypt and saved his brothers from starvation and saved the entire world around from starvation. In the same way, in the end, when Yeshua, who also was sold to the Gentiles as He was given to the Romans, will come back, He will save the remnant of Israel and also the Romans and also the Gentiles who would repent at the time.

From using the first words of this powerful parable of Isaiah five where God is the owner and where the vineyard is Israel and the workers at the religious leadership, we have this most dynamic word emerging: agapētos, to describe God's only son, pointing back to Isaac and then Joseph. Yet in spite of all the warnings, they nevertheless sent Yeshua to the tav. This is when He Himself asks a question. Look at verse nine.

What will the owner of the vineyard do? Now pay attention to the well-formulated answer after that, for many extrapolated from it. He will come and destroy the winegrowers and will give the vineyards to others. From these words, many jump to the conclusion that Yeshua here will do away with the vineyard. But it is not the vineyard, which is Israel, that He does away with.

The usual interpretation of this verse nine throughout the last 2,000 years sanctioned the replacement of Israel by the church. For the commentators, the others have been understood to be the church. This view brought so much antisemitism throughout history. For if the church swallowed up Israel, where are the Jews still around then today? With this interpretation, the Jewish people have become a nuisance, and so they needed to be annihilated.

But listen to Jesus' words. He will not do away with the vineyard, but with the winegrowers. Israel stays the same and keeps her place in God's heart yesterday and according to the Book of Revelation for eternity to come. See that those who adopt this interpretation have become like the winegrowers in the gospels, who are mistreating and abusing and persecuting the vineyard, who is Israel. They are doing the same thing.

More than that, since Israel is also seen as the heir of so many promises from God, those who are in the church and despise Israel are also despising God's heir in their attempt to steal away what belongs to Israel. The story is the same. This is what is also marvelous. Anti-Jewish sentiments have no place in the scriptures. Who are the others then? Matthew gives us a good hint.

There in Matthew 21:43, we read, "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and give it to a nation bearing the fruit of it." Who is this nation? Not the church. For the church is not a nation. It is really a people from different nations coming together to worship the Lord. In fact, the church was always to be distinct from any nation or state. A major problem in church history is when she became Pergamum, that is married to the state. And once that happened, she lost her spiritual value.

This happened with Constantine when the church became its national religion, the Roman religion. Who then could be the others to whom the vineyards were given? None else than the nation of Israel headed by the remnant of Israel as it will be in the Messianic times. Again, the story about the parable of the vineyard presents the argument against the winegrowers, not against the vineyard, not against Israel.

There will come a time when Israel will rise again in the millennium and be what it always was called to be and was never in history, that is a priestly nation in Exodus 19. At this present time, things are the same as they were in the first century. The winegrowers are the same: same generation, same book, same teaching. We still have religious leadership in place.

However, when the Messiah comes back, the vineyard Israel will then be ruled by the remnant of Israel. This is again what is marvelous. As Yeshua promised the 12 disciples in Matthew 19:28, and He said to them, "Truly I say to you that you who have followed Me, in the generation when the Son of Man will sit in the glorious kingdom—that is in the Messianic times—you also will sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel." The greatest time is yet to come.

It is at this point in the parable where Yeshua spoke words that could apply to both those in Israel who refuse to see Yeshua as the Messiah and those in the Gentile world who refuse to see Israel as the heir of the vineyard. Look at verse 10 and 11. Simple words. "Have you not even read the scriptures?" Jesus says. Have you opened your Bible lately? "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

Here the Messiah brings them to the core of the problem: have you not read the scriptures lately? Here again, Yeshua tries to bring them back to the word. From the very beginning, this was His strategy. When He was tempted, He answered three times, "It is written, it is written, it is written." He did not debate with the devil. When they challenge Him about the marriage and divorce laws in Mark, His opponent appealed to Deuteronomy, but Yeshua brought them earlier in the Torah to the very creation of marriage.

He appealed to Micah. He appealed to Jeremiah, to Isaiah, and also called on the prophecies connected with Jacob, with Zechariah, with David. All found in the scripture He brought them back to the scripture. Here He began His parable with God's words in Isaiah showing that He is thoroughly and so closely biblical, ending with this marvelous prophecy of David about the cornerstone.

How wonderful it is that in the passage He referred to in Isaiah five, the prophet actually also said after the parable of the vineyard, after accusing those responsible for the fall of Israel, he said it is because you don't know the word. Look at verse 13 of Isaiah five. "Therefore," he says, "my people go into exile for their lack of knowledge." Isaiah attributes the diaspora, even the actual one, to the lack of reading the scriptures and abiding by it.

So does Yeshua in the gospel. This is why Isaiah describes them as being famished and their multitude dried up with thirst because the Spirit is not there. Famished of the word of God. Look at the word exile. Galut in Hebrew is the same word that was used to describe the beginning of the diaspora when the Jewish people were carried away in Babylon in Jeremiah 13. In the same way, this lack of knowledge of the scriptures brought about the second diaspora in 70 AD, which is really the same continuation of the first.

It is due to a disregard of the word of God in our Bible. This is why we have and for the last 17 years and even more given Bibles to Jewish people and to Gentiles as well and keep on doing it door to door week after week for once they will read the scriptures. It is our prayer that they will see the truth, and God will guide them to seeing the Messiah. This is what is lacking in man-made religion: the power of the word of God.

Guest (Female): Shalom Ariel is a daily radio program emphasizing the Jewish perspective of scripture. God is not through dealing with Israel, nor will He renege any of the promises He has made to her. Our teacher for this program, Jacques Isaac Gabizon, is a Messianic Jewish believer and Messianic leader at Beth Ariel Congregation right here in Montreal.

If you've been encouraged by the messages, we'd love to hear from you. Give us a call at 1-888-685-5902, or you may write us at info@bethariel.ca, B-E-T-H-A-R-I-E-L all one word, .ca. You are also welcome to join us for our Saturday morning services. We are located at 6297 Monckland Avenue, corner of Madison in NDG.

The message is given in English, but we do offer simultaneous translation into French and Russian. Services begin at 11:00 AM. We have Shabbat school for children of all ages up to and including teens. You may also download audio messages from our website at bethariel.ca and enjoy other in-depth teaching from Jacques Isaac.

If you would like to sign up for informative newsletters, log on to our website and add your name to our email list. Shalom Ariel is a listener-supported program. If you have it on your heart to donate, it will be a great blessing for the continuing ministry and outreach of Beth Ariel. Thank you and shalom, shalom.