Messianic Viewpoint

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: As he speaks to the church, these gifts, I believe, were selected because these are used in interaction between believers. While all spiritual gifts are for the edifying of the body of the Messiah, these especially show the bond between believers.

Guest (Female): One of the spiritual gifts we read about is the gift of exhortation, a gift easily identifiable as one which works to truly build the backbone of the body. Exhorting someone is a privilege, and as with all spiritual gifts, it must be done in love.

Rebuking is also exhorting or encouraging since you are actually bringing the person back to realize his or her sin. What a gift it is to be able to come up to somebody in love with patience and rebuke them for the ultimate purpose of building them in the Messiah.

On the other side, the word has you come to a person exhorting and building them up and encouraging them in the path that they are already walking and telling them, "Yes, you are doing well."

When you exhort, you come alongside. You come alongside parallel with that person. In Latin, the word is "advocate." That means that you are an advocate or a lawyer for them. You want to defend them. You want to take up their case for that person.

What a blessing to be able to bless others in your spiritual community. Get to know your gift and start building. Welcome to Shalom Ariel and to the third part of our series on Fruitfulness with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Be blessed as you listen in, and Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: This is the application of the knowledge and of doctrine. Love each other, take care of each other, give preference to one another. That is Paul's gauge of true knowledge. Paul himself loved his brothers and sisters so much, and he shows it all over his writings.

Let me give you an example, an example that always touches my heart when I open chapter 16 of Romans. I want to go there just to show you one verse. Did you know that in this last chapter of this book, there are 28 names of men and women who are mentioned, and the thing is we don't know them? We have no idea where they come from.

The Bible is not such a big book. Whatever we are told there is of great importance, otherwise, we would have had hundreds and hundreds of books. I think there's a tremendous lesson for us here. This, I believe, shows how important each believer is to God, and so he allowed their names to be written in His holy scriptures.

While some believers may appear insignificant to many of us, Romans 16 here tells us that they have a great place in the heart of God. Look at verse 14. Paul says, "Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them." Who is Asyncritus? I don't know. Phlegon? Don't know. Hermas? Don't know.

And Patrobas, Hermes, and the other individuals in verse 15. Who are they? Philologus, Julia, Nereus, and Olympas. We do not know who they are, but the message of God here, I think, is very clear because He's telling us He loves them and He knows them. So much He wants them and loves them that He had their names in the scriptures.

What this passage is showing us is not to judge by the appearance, not to judge by the different gifts, but to love and consider these other believers because they are God's possession. Do not despise what God loves, who God loves.

If maybe you feel disappointed that you didn't live in the time of Paul so maybe your name would have been mentioned by Paul and written down for eternity, don't be jealous because your name is written in a great book called the Lamb's Book of Life, where the name of every single believer is mentioned.

This is the Book of Life where each person that lives is written down, but you have also the Lamb's Book of Life where all the names will be engraved for eternity. Now concerning the love, and I'm going to put a stress on it that we ought to have for each other, we remember that three times the Lord commanded us to love one another.

John 13:34: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." John 15:12: "This is my commandment," the Messiah says, "that you love one another." John 15:17: "These things I command you," it's a commandment, "that you love one another."

The first question is, what is so new here, by the way? What is so new? Because we're told already in the Old Testament in Leviticus 19 to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Even Jesus brought back this passage in Matthew 22. So what is new here in John 13?

I just want to tell you that what is new here is linked to what Jesus just did. You know what He did just before? He washed His disciples' feet. So what is new in Him is Him on earth in the examples He gave us because He was love in action.

This is what's new. Now we have an example to follow, a schema to follow. By coming to earth, He gave a new meaning to that commandment, and so now it is completely new so that we can put on Christ. Nine times He inspired the writers of the New Testament to say it again and again: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

The believers are called to live within a community that we call the congregation of God. In this congregation of believers, each one of those believers is given a special spiritual gift in order to help the congregation grow. Of these gifts, Paul is about to mention many of them.

Have you found out, by the way, what you ought to do for the Lord or what the Lord wants you to do for His own body? Have you found out your niche yet in the congregation? I just want to tell you there's so much work to do. He will show you if you pray to Him.

Here Paul is about to enumerate seven spiritual gifts. What are spiritual gifts to begin with? Spiritual gifts are sovereign abilities given by the Spirit of God, at least one to every believer, for the purpose of edifying the whole congregation and glorifying God. This is why we have spiritual gifts, not to glorify ourselves, not to edify ourselves. It's for the benefit of others.

We all have one or more. Here in this chapter, Paul mentions seven gifts. Let's read about them and see if you recognize yourself in any of them, or perhaps you may recognize someone in these gifts. If you do, tell that person because there's something special in this selection of seven gifts.

Let's read verses 6 to 8: "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness."

Now, this is not a complete list of gifts. Other gifts are mentioned in other parts of the New Testament, but there's something special about the choice of these seven gifts. As He speaks to the church, these gifts, I believe, were selected because these are used in interaction between believers. While all spiritual gifts are for the edifying of the body of the Messiah, these especially show the bonds between believers.

Let's briefly look at each one of them. Prophecy. We need to understand this gift. It's a great gift if you understand exactly what it is. The sense we give today is very unfortunate. It is almost esoteric. When we speak of prophecy, one will automatically think of words concerning future events. This is not what the Hebrew and the Greek word for prophecy first conveys.

While prophecy of the future may be included, the primary work of a prophet was to speak the word of God. "Propheteuo" has a literal meaning of speaking forth the word. Think of the first prophet. Do you know who was the first prophet? In Acts 3:22, it was Samuel.

Now let me ask you, how many prophecies can you recall of Samuel? His prophecies in time were not numerous at all, and they were very limited. They were all directed to David and Saul. They were all local ones. Yet he stands as a great prophet. Why is that? Because his main task was to speak the word of God.

And so he did, and so it is in this light that he comes to us. Think of Obadiah, for instance. He must have been a prophet only for an hour because this is how much it would take to read only his prophecy, which is only one chapter. What did he do the rest of the time? What he did was speak the word of God.

He spoke the word for edification, exhortation, and consolation. This is Paul's definition of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14:3: "Edification, exhortation, and consolation." Consider the ultimate prophet. Who is our ultimate prophet? Yeshua HaMashiach. How do you know Him as a prophet? As one understands prophets today, how many of His prophecies can you recall?

He did give the greatest of prophecies in time, yet we know Him as one who came to speak the word of His Father. That is a true prophet. So a true prophet today is one who has the ability to understand the word and apply it to the lives of others. These are the ones who have a timely word or an example from the scriptures to you.

Prophecy could be summed up in what Peter says: "Whoever speaks, let him speak according to the word." Whatever you teach and preach and prophesy, let it be from the utterances of God. So the first one is prophecy, which brings the prominence of the word of God. Like the first item in the armor of God, which is the belt, Paul said if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion of our faith. The belt, if you remember, was also the word of God.

The second one Paul brings out is ministry, verse 7. Ministry, which literally means deaconing or serving, refers to the manifold work from making the coffee downstairs and setting up the tables before the people come, to setting the sound system, and so on. We start at 11. Do you know when the people start coming to set up the place here? 7 a.m.

They're here, I see them. These are the ones who have the gift of ministry. They prepare everything for you. Then you have teaching, which is the careful exposition of the doctrines and of the word of God. Like prophecy, there's a very unfortunate misunderstanding of this ministry, and one will find a true dichotomy about this gift, which amazes me time over and over.

I notice that those who have this gift are afraid to use it, yet those who think they have it are so loud in wanting to actually teach it. It's always the same thing. I respect so much those who actually understand the implication of transmitting the word of God and are afraid to come up to the pulpit to say it.

The word requires one to be so careful, not only in how he brings the word of God but also in how he lives it, because our house is made of windows. You can come and go around and see how we live. This is 1 Timothy 3; this is the requirement of it.

Next we have the exhorting, the exhortation. He who exhorts, in exhortation. The Greek word is "paraklesis," literally a calling near, a walking alongside. The first part of the word comes from the word "parallel," and the other half comes from the word "to call," which is the same word that is found in the original word for church, "ekklesia." This is the gift of encouragement. That's an important gift.

Guest (Female): Don't go away, we'll be right back with the second half of our program coming up just after this message.

As we wind up for the second part of our program today, we would like to remind our listeners how blessed and privileged we feel to be part of your radio day. We pray that the messages you hear will instruct you, edify you, and encourage you to love the Lord more and follow Him into obedience in even greater ways.

We are all changed by the challenges and transformed by the trials of life, and as we walk them together, we keep looking up to Him who is mighty to break down the walls of Jericho that stand before us and to hand over to us the spiritual victories in life. Yeshua has broken down the greatest barrier, the greatest wall that has separated us from God the Father.

Thank you, listeners, for joining us in prayer and in financial support for this ministry. If you have it on your heart to give to this ministry, then you can by logging onto our congregation website at BethAriel.ca. That's B-E-T-H-A-R-I-E-L.ca. And if God leads you to contribute from the treasures that God has blessed you with for the continuation of this radio ministry, Shalom Shalom as we begin part two of today's program.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: And did you notice what the first ingredient is? Love. What is love? I don't know. This is not easy to define. You know why? Because this is the nature of God. God is love. Twice we are told in 1 John that God is love. Love is not an attribute; it is His very nature.

Guest (Female): I like to think of love as salt. I love salt. I salt everything because it gives taste. If I would only use love as liberally as I use salt, I would be dispensing my love everywhere. Love is the spice of life. It's what makes life worth living, and love preserves life. Love is something that we need to exercise day in and day out.

And like C.S. Lewis illustrated for us, if we put away our heart and protect it, leave it hidden and don't dispense love out of it, that heart will get hard. It will become motionless and, yes, unbreakable, but irredeemable.

If you're not allowed to salt your food, don't worry. Use some cinnamon, another fantastic spice, a spice that is mentioned in the Bible and in the Talmud by rabbis who said that cinnamon trees will be present in heaven. Something wonderful to think about as we consider that love will be the basic ingredient, no matter what is being served at all the heavenly banquets that we will be attending.

Welcome to Shalom Ariel and welcome to part four of our series on Fruitfulness with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Be blessed as you listen in, and Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: You know, the Romans translated this Greek word in their Latin for advocate. The French kept the same word with some variation and have "avocat," which is lawyer or attorney. You know, when you're in trouble, you call on someone to help you, and if you have this gift, you are blessed because you are the one they will call and you'll be a blessing to others.

The Lord, the Creator of the world, has so created the animal world so that we may learn so much from them. The book of Proverbs encourages us to go to the ant and to consider how wise they are. Now let me give you a result of a research that was done about the ants because I think they have that gift.

According to this research back in 2006, they found out that worker ants sacrifice time and efficiency to teach other ants how to find food, which benefits, by the way, their whole society. So when a female ant of a certain species goes out to find food, she will often choose another ant to accompany her.

If the second ant doesn't know the way to the food source, the leader will teach her through a process called tandem running. As the teacher runs along the path to food, the student follows behind, often stopping to locate landmarks. That creates a gap between the leader and the student. When ready, the student will run forward and tap the teacher on the back of the leg.

However, the process is detrimental to the teacher. Research indicates that the lead ants traveled up to four times faster when not accompanied by a student and find food much faster. But they sacrifice themselves in order to help, in order to teach the other ant. These two ants, the teacher and the student, worked for the best of the congregation. This works in unity as one, and this, I believe, is God's doing, and here we can learn from the wisdom of these ants.

The fifth gift is giving. He who gives with liberality, verse 8. Giving not only money but time for the others, time for the congregation. Lately, there were people who had to move, and I hear that some of you gave so much time and effort to help your brothers and sisters to move, so much so that they didn't have to call anybody else. This is great. And I admire those who have this gift because it does require, by the way, much faith and special relationship with the Lord because we usually do not notice them.

The sixth: leadership. He who leads with diligence, verse 8. Those who rule have to do it with diligence. It's interesting that Paul uses this word in connection with ruling because diligence means with haste, fast, do it fast. One primary requirement for rulers in the body of the Messiah is that when there's a problem, go to it fast. Don't let it grow.

We've seen in the book of Acts how when they had a problem, they went to fix it right away. So like teaching, many anoint themselves with this gift, and if it is not from God, they fall and draw many with them to their fall.

The last one, the seventh, brings us back to the first argument. It is mercy. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness, verse 8. How fitting to have this gift as God is the God of mercies. Those who have this gift are those who see and understand the misery of life and act on it. These are the ones who share what they have with the others.

And it adds with cheerfulness. The Greek word is "hilarotes," which I believe we get the word "hilarious." They're so happy about sharing what they have. They're so happy about the sharing due to mercy that they are hilarious about it. And see what the Spirit of God inspired Paul to write right after the enumeration of these seven gifts. We've seen these verses, and I want to read them again, verses 9 to 13.

There are many passages in the Bible that are difficult to understand, but this is so straightforward. Verse 9: "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good." Verse 10: "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another." We're still in chapter 12. "Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality."

As simple as these are, they each carry a great depth of application. This is our requirement. This is, by the way, the law of Christ. And did you notice what the first ingredient is? Love. What is love? I don't know. This is not easy to define. You know why? Because this is the nature of God. God is love. Twice we are told in 1 John that God is love. Love is not an attribute; it is His very nature.

How can we define it? I'm going to read for you a little letter that was written in the first century. One man called Aristides in the first century does it well for us in describing the first-century believers to Roman Emperor Hadrian. He said, "They love one another," as he looked at the Christians. "They never fail to help widows. They save orphans from those who will hurt them. If they have something, they give freely to the man who has nothing. If they see a stranger, they take him home and are happy, and though as he were his real brother. They don't consider themselves brothers and sisters in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the spirit in God."

He understood. This is how the first believers lived, and this is how many people, by the way, today come to believe. Again, like these many 900 Muslims that came to believe and they asked them, "How did you come to believe?" They said, "Because we saw Christian behavior. We were touched by it." And this is the outcome of knowing the scriptures: Christian behavior.

The remaining words of the book of Romans stress again and again the importance to love each other, to serve each other, to protect each other. Just look at Romans 14:7. There we are reminded of our close relationship together because Paul repeats over and over, he says, "For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself." We are a community. We are a body.

See the importance the scriptures put on our gathering together. And again in verse 19, we again are reminded that whatever spiritual gifts we were given, first and foremost for the benefit of the whole congregation. He says, "Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another," not himself.

God blesses us not to edify ourselves but to edify others. And it is in this last chapter, Romans 16, where we can again see in a beautiful way God's love and concern for every believer of the body of the Messiah. As we have noticed previously, most of these people that are named we do not know, but for almost each of them, there's a word, a sentence which described their work. I'm just going to read it for you.

In verse 2, whoever it was, he's called the helper of many. The other believer in verse 4, to whom I and all the churches give thanks, Paul says. Verse 6, one of them Paul says who works hard. Verse 7, who are outstanding. Verse 8, the beloved of the Lord. Verse 10, approved in Christ. Verse 12, working hard in the Lord. Verse 13, a choice man in the Lord.

Wow. You know what? This is for eternity. These people are going to have their names and their doings, whatever they do here on earth will be engraved for eternity. And all these things count so much for God.

I will conclude with one illustration which is for those who produce so much but are not always recognized. The story is about the perfect pot and the cracked pot. A house servant had two large pots, one hung on each end of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, so at the end of a long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived half full. The other pot was perfect and always delivered the full portion of water.

For two years, the servant delivered each day only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishment, but the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable over his accomplishment, only half of what he had been meant to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the servant one day by the stream. He says, "I'm ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you." "Why are you ashamed of?" asked the bearer. "For these past two years, I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak all the way to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you did not get full value of your work."

So the servant said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." As they went up the hill, the cracked pot noticed the beautiful white flowers on the side of the path. When they reached the house, the servant said to the pot, "Did you notice the flowers grew only on your side of the path and not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back to the stream, you've watered them. For two years, I've been able to pick beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table."

Each of us have flaws, but if we allowed it, if we allow the Lord, He will use us for grace over grace. Let's bow our head in prayer.

We thank you, Heavenly Father. We thank you for the power of your word. So simple at times, so difficult at other times, but when it is clear and simple, Lord, you have a message. You want us to be as you designed us. Lord, bless our church, bless our congregation, bless our members. We are all here to work for others and to work for your glory. And bless each and every one here, Lord. I pray that your Spirit will speak to the heart of those perhaps who want to do more work for you. And Lord, I pray that you make the path easy for them. As we pray in Yeshua HaMashiach, Amen. May the Lord bless you.

Guest (Male): 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 Monkland 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 a.m. 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.

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