Messianic Viewpoint

Guest (Male): Welcome to Shalom Ariel and to this ninth sermon in the book of Revelation with Messianic leader, Jacques Isaac Garabedian. Today we are going to hear about the fullness of the Gentiles. We're going to hear about the wonderful responsibility the church has to provoke Jewish people to jealousy. When that fullness of their work is completed at tribulation's end, then all Jews will be saved. Then we will have echoed that Romans 11 passage. Now, if Jewish failure to believe is riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? That day when all Jews will believe, Messiah comes and the world will be redeemed.

What kind of personal meaning does the fullness have for us today? When Yeshua is our center, then we can be filled with the fullness of God, completing our task and honoring him. Making God the center is like grace being poured into our hearts, filling us with his tender love, with his wisdom. That love, knowledge, and wisdom is the wind in our sails, driving us to do God's will. That is his fullness in us. Lord, we exalt you. Please fill the sanctuary of our hearts full with more and more of the spirit of all your perfect attributes.

Stay tuned for the message in the book of Revelation with Messianic leader, Jacques Isaac Garabedian and Shalom Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: Shalom Shalom and welcome to Betaril congregation where we meet to learn more of our great and wonderful God by studying his word, by worshiping him, by fellowshipping one with another, and applying his wisdom in our daily lives. Now, let us not forget that we are in the midst of a second wave of COVID-19 and we need to be careful. It is real. We know people who got it and it's not pleasant experience. You know that, but careful we are to be, but not anxious about it, for the Lord is sovereign in all things. Amen. You know, last week in our studies on Philadelphia and Laodicea, we looked into the church of the end times and mentioned one major player in church history, one whose influence extends even to our times today, this being the Catholic church.

And then sedently, this past week a new book came out titled Jesuits Kaddish, written by a Catholic priest who brought out the role of the Jesuits, the role that they played in history and spoke about their deep anti-semitism for the last 1,700 years or so. He first wrote about those Jesuits who helped the Jews in the Holocaust and he mentioned 15 of them by name. These were given the title of righteous Gentiles or righteous among the nation but Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel, for their heroism in saving many Jewish lives. However, this description of the hatred which reigned among this group during the last hundreds of years is, to say the least, very surprising.

I did not realize it was that bad and his main reason for writing this book was to call for, and I quote, repentance and remorse for historical wrongs towards Israel. But it is in this one word that he uses to describe the depth of this hatred that is an eye opener. The word is anti-semitism. Anti-semitism speaks of standing against an already existing body of Jews, while anti-semitism speaks of the desire to completely annihilate the Jewish people. When you place letter A in front of a word, it changes the meaning to not or without, just like a millionism.

Here was the powerful group existing within the Catholic church whose dream, and I quote the author, was for Jewish disappearance. The author himself is a Jesuit and while he's very sincere by the way, very sincere in his desire to repair a huge wrong done, his optimism barely stands on a single stand of hope. While he believes and professes that policies in the Catholic church are and will be even better, right? And while they are many godly people within this denomination, this church's doctrines relating to Israel has not changed one iota. It may say good things about Jews and about Israel, but at the core it still holds on to the doctrine of replacements which ultimately ends bars Israel from any claim to her land and eventually to her very survival.

And what struck me the most in this book is that the word anti-semitism is so closely associated to Jacob's troubles as Jeremiah calls the prophecy in Israel in the end times. And this information, by the way, comes from them. And because these Jesuits also carry the name of our Lord, they are also known by the name the Society of Jesus. And so we have a great difficulty right from the outset to first explain and believers why Messiah of the Bible is not the same as their Messiah. It cannot be the same. This is why we're working and praying hard that the word of God would be declared and professed everywhere and throughout the land of Israel and also, of course, to all the Jewish people and all the nations, of course.

Let's remember this word anti-semitism. It will become clearer when we reach especially chapter 12 of Revelation and chapter 16 about Armageddon and so on. Now, today we will be looking at a great section of the book of Revelation. We will begin with Philadelphia, that great church of God which started venturing through these open doors and of evangelism that Yeshua opened, reaching out not only to the nations, but to the Jewish people confirming her place in the Bible and also in the Ecclesia, in the Ecclesia and exposing her need, her need that is for a Jewish Messiah Yeshua.

After that, we'll move into Revelation's wonderful chapter four where the spirit gives us a glimpse of heaven and I want to tell you I can't wait to get there. Not in heaven, but chapter four, heaven later. Now, before this, it is our tradition to bless our children whom God has entrusted in our care. So if you have your children with you, put your hand upon them, you know, or put your hand on their head as well in order to bless them. Blessed is his name whose glorious kingdom is coming and is forever and ever. Heavenly Father, creating our children with a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within them.

As Moses prayed, may our sons and daughters walk after you and fear you and keep your word and obey your voice. May they serve you and hold fast to you. May our children be strong and courageous and not fear or be in dread, for it is you, Lord our God, who goes with them. You will never leave them nor forsake them. As Solomon prayed, may our children walk before you, God. As King David walked with integrity of heart and uprightness doing according to all that you have commanded him in keeping your word. And like Timothy, may our children be an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and purity.

Amen and amen. Let us now open our Bibles to Revelation chapter three and further we will further look into the congregation of Laodicea. Let's begin by reading verses seven to eight, not Laodicea by the way. We're going to look at the church of Philadelphia. Verses seven to eight. And the angel of the church of Philadelphia writes, he who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens, says this, I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut because you have a little power and have kept my word and have not denied my name.

You know, last week we began to see how this term, the key of David, was speaking of Israel and her return to the world scene and especially in the church. After an absence of about 1,700 years with the help of people of God from the church of Philadelphia, but where does the term the key of David comes from? So far, if you notice, Jesus has been drawing much from the Hebrew scriptures, from the book of Numbers with Balaam, from First Kings with Jezebel, and from many other passages in the Hebrew scriptures. And with this term today, he brings us into the heart of the book of Isaiah.

The key of the house of David prophesied in Isaiah chapter 22 speaks of authority of the key holder in that they can control what door would be open or shut when it comes to Israel and the temple. And one door which was open at the time of Philadelphia is Israel's door. As Isaiah 22, Isaiah 22 speaks of the time when this nation will be ultimately reestablished as the priestly nation. But before this, before this, Isaiah 22 speaks of a great battle and hostility between man-made religion and God. This is, by the way, as you read the passage and compare what's happening in Revelation, it is so similar to what we know about the other church whom Jesus spews out, Laodicea, who became so rich and to whom Yeshua is quoted as saying, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, when in fact they were nothing but wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked just as Jesus described it.

And on the other side with Philadelphia, the godly church to whom Yeshua says at the end of verse eight, for you have a little strength, you have kept my word and have not denied my name. The word power here, dynamis, speaks of possession and influence in a worldly context. But it is to this church that Yeshua gave the key of David to open Israel's door. These two congregation could be seen featured through two main actors in Isaiah 22, Shebna and Eliakim. Let me tell you a bit about them. You will recognize them. Shebna was the treasurer of the temple and became so rich and so full of pride that he even built himself a sumptuous burial place so that the people will always remember him.

This is when God comes to him and ask him what in the world is he doing? In this passage, by the way, we can see God's sense of humor. In verses 15 of Isaiah 22, he says, what right do you have here? And whom do you have here that you have hewn a tomb for yourself here, you who hewn a tomb on the heights and who carved a resting place for yourself in the rock? And this is when the prophet Isaiah goes on to tell Shebna that the Lord, he says, I'm going to Lord says to to him, he says, I'm going to roll you like a ball and throw you out.

That's by the way, that's funny. What was this man thinking that his riches would last forever? God laughs at these things. Later in Jewish history, the name or title Shebna became synonymous for love of money. In the Talmud, there's a story about Hillel who was considered a great rabbi who had a brother named Shebna. Perhaps this was a fictitious story, but it goes like this in the Talmud. It says Hillel occupied himself in the study of the Torah and Shebna did business. Ultimately, Shebna said to Hillel, come and let us mingle our assets and divide them equally.

The point was that Shebna wanted to make profit from the study of the Torah and of course Hillel refused. This is characteristic. I want to tell you of man-made religion and this is why Laodicea became so rich. The name Shebna comes from the root hashev which means to count, to calculate. And in the case of Shebna, that would mean counting money and mixing it with religion. But there is one other individual in this Isaiah 22 passage, Eliakim, whose name actually means God will rise. Because of great religious corruption in Israel, God chose this man Eliakim and see what he says to him in Isaiah 22:22.

Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder and he opens, no one will shut. When he shuts, no one will open. This is where Yeshua leads us to compare what he says to Philadelphia in Revelation 3:8 with Isaiah's passage. When he says, he who has the keys of David, he who opens, no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. Eliakim will be given the authority of the temple and the house of David. This man who without any genealogical record is part of the remnant of the believer like those in Philadelphia who rose up from out of the chaos of a dark history and stood on a sure foundation of the word of God.

They, as the remnant of the Ecclesia, opened the doors of evangelism to the whole world, also to Israel. Doors that had been shut since the time of Smyrna. The open door metaphor is using the New Testament as an opportunity to share the good news in the scriptures. As Paul says in Acts 14, when some disciples reported all that God has done with them is that he opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And as we have mentioned, 250,000 Jews came to believe in Yeshua during the time covering Philadelphia. And again, as Peter was giving the key to open the kingdom to the Gentiles, now the remnant of the Gentile is given the great opportunity of the key of David to open up the door to Israel.

And so far, starting with the late 1800s, they did a great job and I thank God for this. You know, Paul spoke, even prophesied about believers from the Gentile world sharing the word with Israel. As Israel was and still is responsible to bring the word to the nation, so according to him today, the remnant of the nation today that is the church is also accountable in bringing the word to all the nation and not exclude Israel because they are excluding Israel. Paul says in Romans 11:11, I said then, they, that is the Jews, did not stumble so as to fall, did they?

May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the nations, to the Gentiles to make them jealous. They brought the word to you. Now, you bring the word to them. Fair exchange, isn't it? And this verse works so well. It worked with me as I mentioned in my testimony when I read a book which explains so well the end time prophecy and who the Messiah of Israel is and could not believe that a Gentile knew the Hebrew scriptures. I thought they knew only the New Testament. This brought me to jealousy and it greatly blessed me when I wanted to find out what he was talking about in the scriptures.

This then is what the key of David represents in Isaiah. The return of Israel and it was at the time of Philadelphia, a time which surely began with the first true reformers of if you remember and why Cliff. We can think of so many others like EW Bullinger, Blackstone, or those more recent ones like Darby, Moody, Spurgeon, Schaeffer, Pentecost, and others whose writings led many to see Yeshua in the scriptures. I personally came to believe through these Gentiles, believers, and I am still finding out that many other Jews like me have been blessed by their own works.

And the fruit produced by these men and women gave opportunity for many Jews to produce also so much work in history, recent history. Jews like Alfred Edersheim living in the mid 1800s whose knowledge of the Hebrew and rabbinical writings are today a major source of information. Of William Booth who who founded the Salvation Army in the late 1800s or David Byron, not so well known by the way, David Byron, but in late 1800s he wrote some excellent commentaries. And many others such as Solomon Ginsberg, Felix Mendelssohn and so on. And it was during this time that many rabbis came to believe like it was in the time of the first century with Paul and Nicodemus.

There's a list of at least 24 of them and one of them came to believe right here in Montreal from a synagogue that is not too far from here. Philadelphia then, as it walked through that open door toward the Jewish people must be the beginning what Paul prophesied in Romans 11:25 with the fullness of the Gentiles. See what he says. Says, for I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentile has come in.

What is the fullness? You know, the word fullness, pleroma, speaks of what is complete. It is a state of having every necessary part together. The Bible speaks of the fullness of the Messiah in John 1:16 when he finally came down there's so many prophecies of his first coming. The Bible speaks of the fullness of the law in Romans 13:10 where it finds its completeness in Yeshua. We also read of the fullness of times to come in Ephesians 1:10, the fullness of God in Ephesians 3:19 that is found when we know Yeshua. And here in Romans 11:25 this fullness includes Israel as we see the veil over the nation of Israel gradually being lifted up.

First by seeing Jews coming to believe and coming in the Ecclesia, coming in the church. See how Paul associate the two. That blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentile has come in. While the nation of Israel will come later in its fullness at the moment of the second coming it will. The fullness of the Gentile must have begun when Jews from Israel entered the Ecclesia in Numbers after an absence of about 1,700 years. The fullness must then come at the second coming. Perhaps see what Paul says as he continues to speak in verse 26.

He says, and then all Israel shall be saved. When that fullness will be complete, this is when Yeshua will come back and when they will recognize the one they have pierced like as Zechariah tells us. Then all the remnant of Israel will be saved. But the removal of the veil over Israel has already begun with Philadelphia who opened the doors to of the scriptures to many Jews who I believe would lead the way to the 144,000 Jews who will then be an integral part of the greatest revival in history. This is yet to happen in the tribulation time.

Now, to sum up this important point, the doors that the key of David opened was that of a great evangelism, not only of the Jewish people, but of the whole world. And evangelism that is called the fullness of the Gentiles that is that had begun then. Israel is the missing link in the history of the church which barely barely mentions the presence of the Jews and why they have been absent in the church for the last 1,700 years. Why? This reminds us by the way of the judgment of the nation in Matthew 25. I believe this is when the fullness will be there and this is when Jesus will judge the Gentiles as to what they have done to Israel.

This is in Matthew 25. And there in Matthew 25 both groups, the sheep and the goats, have no idea what Jesus was talking about. Both said, when did we help our brethren? This is how little Israel is in the mind of people. And so this really shows us how in existent in her history and in the mind of the church Israel was, but we're back. We're back now and we're here to stay. And by the testimony of the word of God, we're back into eternity and beyond thanks to those many Eliakims from the Gentiles, remnant who walked in through the door and took the divine opportunity to preach the word to us.

But that is not all that Jesus says to this great congregation of Philadelphia. See what else he says to her. Something he already said to Smyrna and there's a reason why he repeats it. Notice chapter three verse nine. Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. As we have seen in our study of Smyrna, those who say they are Jews but are not Jews, but Gentiles who want to take the name of Israel or Jews for themselves by pushing the people of God away from the Ecclesia.

This is what happened for the last 1,700 years. A Jew is a people, not a title that one can earn. Like God said in Jeremiah 13:23, can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard his spots? While this was said in the context of evil heart, it is also true concerning the Jew. He himself cannot change his ancestry and one cannot switch into someone else. He cannot change the genetics of who he is just like a leopard. But it's quiet something. I want to tell you, it's quiet something that these words are found in both the church of Smyrna and Philadelphia.

In the prophetic calendar of the seven churches, it is with Smyrna which covers the time when the church began to turn to the world and live the literal meaning of the scriptures and when the Jews begin to disappear from the church. And with Philadelphia, they begin to reappear. To both Jesus gives a warning about that one main cause of their disappearance, replacement theology which bars Israel from the present statues and the opposition against her is today increasing. This is why it's so important to study the book of Revelation and to see the last words of Jesus for the churches.

And here again, Yeshua makes a strong illusion to the Hebrew scriptures and recalls the return of Israel in relation to her who sought to annihilate her completely. See the end of verse 3:9. It says, indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet to know what I have that I have loved you. By the way, do you know that this is the same language the Lord used in the Hebrew scriptures about the enemies of Israel at the second coming of Christ and to quote only one verse of Isaiah 64:14, all who despise you, God says, they shall bow down at your feet.

They shall call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the holy one of Israel. This is when they will realize all the wrong they have done to Israel. God went even as far as saying in Micah 7:16, nation will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will even put their hands in their mouth. You know, some may think that I'm making a big deal about Israel today, but the words I just read are from God's mouth as he prophesied of the second coming of Yeshua and besides which after 1,700 years of forced silence, I think it's okay to make a big deal about Israel.

And the very book we are studying, the book of Revelation speaks so much about Israel that some wanted it out of the Bible. You know that. It speaks of the 144,000 and lists the 12 tribes because they're going to be 12,000 from each tribe. It also speaks of the 12 gates of heaven engraved with the name of the 12 tribes of Israel. To these things Luther, the great reformer, said, in no way I can detect that the Holy Spirit produced the book of Revelation. No comment on this one today. And it is now when we come to consider the eschatological sides of the Jesus words to the churches, one that will bring us into a journey through what comes next in history.

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 Garabedian, 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 11:00 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 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.

Guest (Female): Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if any wicked way be in me. And lead me in the everlasting way I've sought. Oh Lord, you have searched me. You know me. From afar you understand my thoughts. Without my ways you are acquainted. You know it all my Lord and I did know it not. Where can I go to escape from your spirit? And where can I flee from your face? If I make my bed in Sheol, you still will find me. If in heaven, I'll still behold your grace.