Messianic Viewpoint

Guest (Male): Welcome to Shalom Ariel as we are studying the book of Revelation with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. The first church mentioned in the list of seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three o is Ephesus. And Ephesus sets a precedence in how she, leading that list, should by behavior influence the others. What was that one thing that she displayed that was so significant? Something that all believers should be seeking to keep. It was that first love for the Lord that must never wax cold. How important is love? Do you remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13?

If I have a faith that can move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing. According to the order of commandments, it is love for the Lord that has ultimate priority. But let's not forget the quality of love that is determined upon us. He who loves only to get a reward in return demonstrates a self-seeking love. But as 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us, this is the quality of God's love. Love is patient, kind, doesn't envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It doesn't insist on its own way. It isn't irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things. Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love believes all things. That means you and I would consider the best in the other person. We expect the best out of them. Is there someone that we can think who needs to receive that kind of love? That kind of love overlooks the offenses and believes in that person even though they have failed many times before. This is the kind of challenge that can be won when we trust God because our trust of him will then allow us to trust others.

So join us for today's program in Revelation with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Shalom. Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: Shalom. Shalom. It's always a privilege to be behind this pulpit and share with you the portion of the scriptures, especially in these exceptional times of confinement. But one thing that cannot be confined is, of course, the word of God's. I think of all the ministries that are still going on despite the distances we need to keep the ministry of prayer, of teaching, of translating, and even the ministry of encouragement. All this brings out the bright side of the restrictions. And as we go on day after day, news, actually news pop up, you know, here and there in the world, and each report and broadcast reminds us that our great and wonderful Lord is in control and at the door that is at hand, okay, as the Bible will put it.

Let me share with you this one piece of news which is rather exceptional. This past week, Pope Francis indicated his support of same-sex civil unions. We could not have received this news at a better time as we are studying the seven churches. This declaration, I want to tell you, is a significant departure from the Vatican laws and from his predecessors. Times are changing for the Catholic Church and are 1.2 billion followers. But this was to be expected for when the word of God is not foundational in a denomination, that sector group will eventually move further and further away from the base.

Sadly, whatever biblical truth is left in this denomination, it too will continue to peel off. Looking more and more like the last church of our age, that is Laodicea. As it is written, the spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith. This word the part of his stem is of the same root as apostasy, which itself speaks of a divorcement that is when one divorces God after knowing him and when he's compelled to remove himself from even the church. What I'm saying by the way is not an attack on the LGBT community.

They are citizens of our countries and they have the same rights as we citizens do. However, the Bible's definition of a marriage brings into union a man and a woman and the Bible is very clear on this point. Today everyone is allowed to be just about anything they want as the laws of these countries permit. But the scriptures cannot be broken as Jesus says. It is however disturbing to see how more and more the world are heading to polar extremes. As we couple this piece of news with the next item I will mention, we could more clearly starting to hear the offbeats of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Yesterday, by the way, Trump announced an Israel and Sudan peace deal. That is the third one along United Arab Emirate and Bahrain. Trump promises many more to come, he says. But why so much interest in Sudan? Oil. Oil. Sudan has enormous oil reserves, over 6 billion barrels discovered so far. Furthermore, its geographical location. Sudan is the largest country in Africa and borders nine other countries from Egypt, Libya down to Central African Republic along with Sudan, by the way. Lebanon is now speaking to Israel. While they are still formally at war with each other, for the first time in 30 years, this past week both countries held the first round of talks.

These included settling a long running dispute over their maritime borders, involving a territory in the sea which may contain a lot of natural gas which could bring billions of dollars in revenue to Lebanon. But economy is not the only reason Lebanon is turning to Israel. This country must be very comfortable with Turkey in the north whose presence is already in Syria and are looking to expand. Then in the south, we have the Iran backed Hezbollah. So like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, these also are looking for security and maybe very well turned to the US and Israel for this security.

And in Israel as well. In Israel, things are shaping up for the very end as the prophecies predicted according to the Jerusalem Post, which quotes the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz. Saudi Arabia and Israel are conducting negotiations to allow Saudi's representatives to join the Jordanions in overseeing the Temple Mount. Now we can see the start, the possibility that is of the construction of the third temple. It is becoming more and more of a reality. The Saudis will not object to the the construction of the Jewish temple next to the Dome of the Rock. On the contrary, seeing these movements, you know, one journalist from the Jerusalem Post quoted the prophet Isaiah saying that the Temple Mount in the future will be called the house of prayer of all nations.

They can already feel in the air the coming of this peace and this third temple. In fact, Kushner, the US President's son-in-law helping to to engineer the peace process that we are now witnessing in the Middle East said that this is the beginning, and I quote, the beginning of the end of the Israel-Arab conflict. Actually, it could be the beginning of the wars that are coming. Perhaps that is the start of the false peace process that will be sealed by the Antichrist as Daniel tells us. This sign peace treaty will be the Antichrist's first action that will confirm with absolute certainty that he is in fact the Antichrist.

It is as the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 3. While people are seeing peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains of a pregnant woman and they will not escape. In the meantime and before the Lord comes for his bride, I believe it is good for us to know what is going on and to realize that even though things may seem so confusing and messing out there, there's an older and direction behind everything. This is what the book of the Revelation is revealing to us. Our God is sovereign and master of over all these events.

This is something very comforting to know for us, the believers. Now before we get into the great book of Revelation, it is a tradition to bless our children. So if you have your children with you, bring them close to you. I know that there are no children in the room at this point, but those who are watching, bring them close, put your hand upon them. Blessed be his name, whose glorious kingdom is coming and is forever and ever. Lord, soften we are anxious for our children. We worry about their safety, health and spiritual condition. Yet you love them so much more than we do.

Yet we know you are with them protecting them. This morning we offer this prayer for our children and our families. We thank you for your love for them. We thank you for your understanding of our anxieties and we know that you are eager to meet us in the midst of it. And so Lord, we come to you and pray that our children become knowledgeable and skillful in all wisdom, discernment and understanding that we know is a gift from you. Amen and amen. Now let us turn our Bibles to Revelation chapter two where we are looking at the seven churches of Revelation and how as one unit they prophesy the evolution of the church even until our time today.

Therefore, we should not be surprised about the news I spoke of earlier concerning the largest denomination of Christianity today. As Yeshua taught in the parables of the kingdom, the church will be part tears and part wheat, with the tears being increasingly influential in power and number until they find themselves as the only occupant of the church as the last church of Laodicea is now also is growing in our days. The title of this study is the invasion of the tears. Sounds like a horror movie for Halloween. And in many ways it is, and it's an ongoing one.

Let us divide these churches according to what we learn from them. While each church has a remnant of believer in them, it seems according to Yeshua's complaint that the majority of them were made of tears, that is of being of non-believers as we go on. The first one, Ephesus. Ephesus begins so well, but it does not last for long. We will spend a little more time on this congregation because being the first, it set a precedence much in the way like the Ten Commandments relates to the rest of the 603 directives in the Mosaic law.

Ephesus is like an abstract of a book where we find keywords and those things that set up for learning about the rest of the churches. We will see that the other churches either follow or not at all follow to the design. It is all prophetic by the way in itself. Ephesus is the church which boasts great statistics of much fruit. However, they drifted away because Yeshua began to take a less and less prominent place in their lives. Smyrna and Philadelphia are set apart. These are very good congregations of God. Yeshua has only good words for them.

However, we're going to see that these two congregation have a common enemy. Those who pretend to be Jews or the new Israel but were lying. We will find out who they are. Then we have the trio of churches which covers the dark ages of our history. Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis. We're going to see a marked decoration and a departure from the word of God by allowing false teachers, false prophets in their midst. And then the last one, Laodicea, a place of idolatry with the name church. It is possible and it seems we ought to begin to get used to this.

If Sardis was deemed dead by the Yeshua, this one is heading toward the second death, spiritual death. She completely is devoid of the spirit of God. Now let us now begin to look at the church of Ephesus. There is a lot to learn from this one, especially in our days. The others will be studied as a group with this one. Let us begin to read the first three verses and see what we can learn. To the messenger of the church of Ephesus, write, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this.

I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil man and that you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not, but you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. Ephesus takes its name from a son of a river god, Caÿstrus, who was said to have built the temple of Artemis. It is also known as the temple of Diana. So Caÿstrus called the town after himself and so Ephesus became a very religious city rampant with idolatry and immorality.

The word Ephesus itself comes from the Greek word Ephesus, which means to hurl, to shoot, that is to drive forth. This was also also is a law term indicating an appeal both to individual and to a popular assembly and it's such a fitting name for the opening church, which is called to drive into the people the good news of the gospel. And it did a very good job, by the way, when it was just formed. Paul you know, had to work in this church and it is from there where the teaching spread out from the other churches.

In Acts 19 it relates his stay in Ephesus and in verse 10 we read, and they dwelt in Asia, heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles. From Ephesus, the rest of Asia and beyond got the word of God and there we read that the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. Acts 19:20. It was to Ephesus that the first and second Timothy were addressed. Timothy was a pastor of this church for a while and it is also believed that it has been the home church of John the Apostle. So it was a major center from where the word of God spread.

In fact, Paul's work was so effective that he brought on an economic downfall of the city. We learn in Acts 19 that the sale of idols of Diana took a dive because people were not interested in idolatry. It was diminishing and the vendors got together and caused a big riot against the believers there. It was already clear, by the way. It was already clear that the church was not going to change the world. But as we will see, the world will change much of it. But what made this church so successful at the beginning? What attracted God's attention?

Let us begin by considering some keywords in the three verses we just read. Some we have seen already, but let us look at them in their context. The first one we read of is the deed and labor. When Yeshua says, I know your deeds and labor, the second one, perseverance and endurance in verse three, as when Yeshua says you have persevered and endured. Deeds we have seen is from the Greek word ergon, which refers to action and work that comes out of a hard work. Now, why a synonym? What about the second word labor? The word goes further.

The Greek is kopos, which comes from the word kopto meaning to lament, to mourn, and speaks of the type of work that are not always pleasant. The types which people often shy away from. These didn't. And Jesus looked at them. This again tells us that the church will have difficulties and even persecution in this world. These synonyms set the tone for the history of the wheat in the church. These new believers were not afraid of persecution and continued in the words that are often so difficult and sometimes so unpleasant to preach. But again, Jesus noticed and commended them for their courage.

The other set of synonym is of the same kind, perseverance. As we have already studied, means to abide, to remain behind even in hardship or stress. But the second word of the couple is endurance, which goes further and means to bear, to carry, to endure something that is difficult and unpleasant. See how these early believers were so effective and how they taught us or teach us to be true biblical believers. Let's move on to another keyword, or other keywords, which explains part of the difficulties. These also set the mood for the history of the Ecclesia down to Laodicea, false apostles and testings.

Jesus told this good assembly of believers, you cannot tolerate evil men and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, but they are not. And you found them to be false. The word tolerate is the same as the word endurance for the presence of these false apostles in the congregation was like a thorn in the flesh for them. They realized their presence, but instead of joining them, which would be so easier, right, they fought them. They confronted them by testing them to see if they were true or false. Let us remember that these did not come as regular attendees.

See how they they sold themselves right at their arrival. They came claiming to be what? Apostles. That is the highest office in the church of the time. The Greek word apostolos describes a courier or an official representative. In their case, a direct envoy from heaven. Imagine, they're coming in. An apostle was often one who had met Jesus. They did not pretend to want to be elders or pastors because elders and pastors are subjected to the congregation to a board. But apostles were those who are directly working under God, so to speak. They do not come also as servant.

John, who was a true apostle of God, presents himself as a doulos, a slave, a true servant in verse one. But these comes out as kings. At this time, the moment one says he's an apostle, he pretends to speak directly from God. These are like the ones who said the Lord told me in the sense that it is the Lord who is speaking through them. And if you argue with them, you are arguing against God. To say such a thing, by the way, is very bold. Okay, that is some chutzpah, chutzpah. Chutzpah is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew chutzpah, meaning extreme confidence and arrogance and audacity.

See that even a Sephardic like me can speak a little Yiddish, right? Furthermore, these false apostles were a real plague for the early congregations. Do you remember the book the Didache? Okay, written in the second century, it is the oldest handbook ever found which pertains to the doctrines of biblical living and early believers. It's full of advice there. This book has so much to say about false prophets for the pride on the goodness of the people and winter on the churches causing havoc. The Didache, for example, and we've seen this before, set a limit on the amount of days a person who calls himself an apostle to stay at a congregation.

They say he cannot stay more than two days, otherwise he should be considered a false apostle. This is what they say. I quote, if he stays three days, he's a false prophet, out. Furthermore, they add, if he asks for money, he's a false apostle. You know, they had problems. They had a problem with these guys, but the church of Ephesus knew how to recognize these people and they were in the world. This is why they knew. The other churches did not test them. They allowed them to stay and join and as you move from one church to the other, you feel a takeover of these false apostles.

Like Paul said, a little leaven, if you put it there, will raise the whole lump. For these are never satisfied. They want to take over and this is what seems to have been done. See how the progression of external evil influences a congregation. It is there as you go from church to church until it dies. To Pergamos, we meet a member of their church which Jesus names Balaam. Balaam. But Balaam wanted to destroy all of Israel. And if Jesus brings back this individual, it is because these false apostles, if tolerated, have Balaam's aim to destroy the congregation of God.

Jesus said in 2:14, he says, but you, Pergamos, I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Imagine. This is why we ought to test the spirit, whoever they are. Those spirits who want to teach for fame and want to be kings. To the next church, Thyatira, we meet another member whom Jesus calls Jezebel. Jezebel. Now Jezebel, I want to tell you, is of another kind.

It is much much worse. In order for us to understand who this woman is, we have to consider her powers. It was the time when Elijah just by himself confronted 850 prophets and managed to have 450 of them killed. He was a very courageous prophet. However, when he heard of Jezebel, when he heard that he she wanted to kill him, he was gripped with great fear and fled. Here we see a turn about. How can such a courageous man be so suddenly gripped by fear? There is a great evil dimension in this woman and Yeshua mentions her for us to see the damages she can cause.

This is significant because Elijah is a type of the two witnesses we're going to meet very soon in Revelation 11. And Jezebel is a type of a woman, Babylon, that we're going to meet in Revelation 17 even before. The false religious system that is to come over this world. The battle begins in the congregations of God. And see what Jesus says to her. Nevertheless, I have a few thing against you because you allowed that woman Jezebel to call herself a prophetess to cheat and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

This is in 2:20. By then, the false doctrines which the spirit calls doctrines of demons to cover the congregation. Then what happens when we follow false prophets who become like Balaam and then they become like Jezebel in our midst? What happens? Death. The death of a congregation. The third church, Sardis, Jesus says, you are dead. This one had a long, a great worldly name, he says. It appears so good, so strong, so rich from the outside, but Jesus says, you are dead. From the false apostles to Balaam, to Jezebel, to death of a congregation. This is the historical progression of the church that we see, what we learn is here is at the moment we allow false teachers to be taught or false doctrines to be taught in our midst.

It will never stop. It will keep its course until it kills the church. When Paul was with Ephesus, you know, some 30 years before in Acts 20:28, he warned them. He says, for I know that that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And they did. And before Paul, Jesus, Yeshua himself alerted us in Matthew 7:15. He says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Wolves. What did they do? They eat lambs. And these are ravenous. This is a Greek word for those who grab, who rob, who swindle.

Here they were present in the congregation, faithful to their appointment. You know, I emphasize this point for in these days, I feel there is an increasing spiritual assault on the godly congregations of God and on believers who are working hard in their ministries. However, this is to be expected for we're moving towards the end as Laodicea is slowly taking over by accepting things and promoting things that are an abomination to God. And if you feel you're being attacked as a believer, let me tell you that this is very good news, by the way. It means that the Lord is looking onto you and he will never allow you to be tempted over what you can take, but will always provide a way out as the scripture says.

And besides all these things, wait, wait until you hear what he has prepared for us. It's all worth it. His rewards are out of this world.

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 at Beth Ariel, b e t h a r i e l all one word, dot c a.

You are also welcome to join us for our Saturday morning services. We are located at 6297 Monkland Boulevard, 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. If you would like to sign up for informative newsletters, log onto our website and add your name to our email list.

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