Messianic Viewpoint

Guest (Female): Shalom and welcome to Shalom Ariel, as we are in the book of Revelation with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Today we're going to hear about our beloved John who witnessed not only the transfiguration when those three disciples were going to build booths, but he also received an incredible foretaste of heaven. And seeing Yeshua in all his glory, it caused him to fall down as if dead. That is a genuine understanding of the one who we are truly worshiping, who is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. And we ask ourselves, in what way are we affected by the divine presence who is even with us now?

Are we overwhelmed by his glory like Daniel and Joshua were? Yet are we calmed and strengthened by the touch of the master's right hand as he did for John? Yeshua is in our midst. He is in the midst of our storms and he calms us. He came in the midst of the disciples in the upper room and he showed them his wounds, telling them peace unto you. If Yeshua stands in the midst of our thoughts, we will have his peace and his rejoicing. This is the promise to every generation. God is not far off. He is in the midst of us and he will quiet us with his love.

So stay tuned as we begin this message in Revelation with Messianic leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Be blessed and shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: Shabbat shalom. It's always a privilege for me to come here. I was really really looking forward to share the word of God with you. And shalom again to those who are listening through Facebook and YouTube and you are present. I've got to leave we're only 25. It really looks empty, but I know you're here of course, which is nice. So we're still within the feast of Sukkot, today being the eighth day. The day is called that is the sacred assembly before the Lord. And today today I want to tell you seeing what is happening in this world, we need more of this moment with the Lord.

In these days when the world is grappling with a surge in virus cases, I just read yesterday that many European countries and also elsewhere and especially in the US, they are experiencing a sharp rise in cases and restrictions are again tightening. The effect I want to tell that this affect all walks of life, you know, psychological state of people, the economy and many more areas, even the spiritual condition of many. We are living in a fast changing world and we need to adapt, you know, as we go forward. A good news I read this morning in the Jerusalem Post that India and Israel are working on the 32nd coronavirus test that should be ready in matters of days.

This will help stop the virus, right, or the spread of the virus. Also in less than a month, there will be an election in the US. And this is another subject for prayer because this election may indicate a major turning point in this country. If there's a major turning point in the US, there will be in the world as well. In his recent written book, How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps, the well-known author Ben Shapiro reports some startling statistics showing the great divide in the US. A 2019 survey from the American Enterprise Institute found that about half of Americans believe the other party doesn't want what's best for the country.

In another poll done not long ago in 2018, 54% of Republicans believe that the Democratic Party is malicious, while 61% of Democrats believe that Republican Party is racist and intolerant. The author concludes, and I quote, Americans don't like each other. They don't want to associate one another. They don't want to live next door to one another. More and more they don't want to share the same country anymore. Now I tell you this may be exaggerated, but there is much truth in this statement. We have seen the disturbing riots and unrest in different cities and should President Trump lose the election on November 4th, the Republicans are likely to panic.

And it is the same with the Democrats if he wins. It is a major election and we should pray that things will go smoothly in this country and that both parties and all those supporting these parties will respect the decision of the people. While there are talks of peace treaties in the Middle East, let's not forget that the US may be the only true friend that Israel has and America has been a blessing to all and many other countries in the world. On the other hand, we hear so many predictions. I don't know if you heard these people talking about predictions concerning the collapse of the US and of the world.

Some predictor should say these prophets say that there will be an economic collapse, food food shortages, governments will take over and the like, right? I don't know if you did hear this. And this is not how the Bible describes the time preceding the rapture. Jesus says in Matthew 24, and this is important, verses 28 to 39, it says, for isn't the days of the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. And also will the coming of the Son of Man be?

So before the end times, the world will see some kind of peace and prosperity. People will eat and drink and get married as Yeshua says. While the rapture is imminent and not predicted according to times or circumstances, it is also possible that we the believers may undergo some unrest and even wars. But we have come very close now to the end times. All the actors are on the stage. I think we're coming towards this rapture very soon and perhaps a better economy around. But we believers, I want to tell you as it was throughout the scriptures, our task is to proclaim the good news of salvation and also proclaim the Bible's prophecies concerning the end times.

This is what the Lord asked us to do in Isaiah 41, if you remember, verse 22, go and challenge the other religions with the prophecies that we have in the scriptures. Know your Bible prophecy and go and work. As the Lord says in Isaiah 41, ask for the former events, declare what they were. He asked the other nations that we may consider them and know their outcome or announce us what is coming. This is what we ought to do. This is what the Lord asked us in the midst of so many religion and idea new ideas coming up.

Get your prophecies right and bless your neighbors with them. I believe this is why we're still here. And it is precisely these two mandates which are found in the subject of today's study. A study that brings us to look into the seven churches of Revelation, words from Jesus directly to us. And he has so much to tell us about what he expects from us, especially in these times before his coming. Before we do this as it is a tradition, let us bless our children whom the Lord has put in our hands and also all the children in the world.

If you have your children next to you, put your hand upon them, get them closer to you. Let's pray. Blessed be his name whose glorious kingdom is coming and is forever and ever. Our heavenly Father, we have who has given us these precious children and committed them to our charge to bring them up for you and to prepare them for eternal life. Help us with your so we may be able to fulfill this most sacred duty. Teach us both to know what to give and what to withhold. Make us consider it and watchful and grant that both by word and example, we may be careful to lead them in the ways of wisdom and truth.

We pray they will increase in grace and in the knowledge of Yeshua and that they learn to live a life that is pleasing to you. Amen and amen. So let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter one and begin our study where we have left off. This chapter and the two following ones are written specifically for us, for the believers, to the congregations of God, the Ecclesia, like a letter from Yeshua to us. In verse four, John is told to write to the seven churches and while in verse 11 they are individually named, we know they were many more than seven churches existing at that time.

These seven congregation were specifically chosen to represent all possibility of what a church could be or become, regardless of when they existed in church history. These chapters are for us. They are there to prepare us for our soon meeting with the Lord. We remember that seven is the number of spiritual perfection or completeness. In Hebrew, if you remember, seven is sheva from the word sava meaning to be full, satisfied. And this number seven is the most popular in Revelation. It is one we're going to encounter at least 54 times in this book. We have read about the seven candlesticks, the seven stars, the seven spirits represents the Holy Spirit.

Soon we're going to look at the seven seals, the seven trumpets or the seven bowls of judgment. And so in the description of these Ecclesias, the seven Ecclesias, we will find the wealth of information about living the right spiritual life in these days. We will see what he requires from us, what brings joy to God's heart. And among many other things, what disturbs God. But these directives for godly living are not given to us until the reader is first told who God is, who Jesus really is. It is only when we consider his true and much less identity that we can appreciate and take to heart all his demands.

This is where chapter one puts the emphasis as we begin to see. From verse five, John describes himself as the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth. From verse seven, we're told that he's coming very soon and every eye shall see him. We're reminded that he's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And this is important. Verse 12 to 13, we see him. He walks in the midst of the seven lampstands which represents the seven churches. This is how the description of the seven churches begins in chapter two.

Verse one from Ephesus, which is the first of the seven churches listed, the one which opens up the way to the other churches were told in verse one that he walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Yeshua moves among the churches. He does not only visit them, but he's present in their midst. Here we see the incredible blessing which bring the congregations of God at the same level as the holy place in the tabernacle. And in all the facets of these small consecrated and sacred place, Jesus, Yeshua walks in our midst. In his description for us, John sees him wearing a priestly robe with a golden sash.

For this is his actual function in the midst of the seven congregation. He is our priest. He is our mediator. He is our lawyer. But then again, we are thrown off guard when we are told that his head and hair were like white, like wool, as white as snow. But is in this the description of the ancient of days in the Hebrew scriptures where is God, the God of the scriptures? Yeshua then is much more than the high priest. He is here revealed as divine and he walks in our midst. And we're told that he works with all those who work with him.

In verse 16 we're told that he holds in his hands the seven stars. Seven stars, where are they? This he explains in verse 20 are being the seven messengers. You may have in your translation seven angels, but I want to tell you this word is used of men as well as angels. However, angels do not direct or shepherd the congregations of God. He's addressing the leaders of the congregation. And I believe all those who hold the leadership role or any kind of ministry. And this is how he appears to the church of Ephesus as well where he says he is with her leaders to direct and comfort also the sheep.

Furthermore, we have seen that his eyes were like a flame of fire and his feet were like fine brass as it refined in a furnace. This speaks of fierce judgment, but this is not meant for the judgment of the nations of the world. This is how he's depicted when he visits a congregation that has gone into sin and accepted evil in their midst. This is how the Lord Yeshua appears to the church of Thyatira in chapter two, verse 18. His words to this church is this thing says the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.

You don't want to meet Yeshua like this. He comes to her in this manner because this congregation tolerated the false prophetess whom he calls Jezebel. Again, Jezebel. And this Jezebel was in the midst of them who was misguiding God's sheep and no one lifted up a finger. No one pronounced a word. So Jesus takes these things very seriously. And how does he correct the church? He begins with the scriptures. In verse 16 we're told that out of his mouth comes out a sharp double-edged sword. This we know is a symbol of the word of God and this is how he appears to the church of Pergamos.

Pergamos forgot the scriptures and not only mingled with the world, but this is what Pergamos means actually married married with what? With the world. And this is what it means. They got married with the world. Jesus confronts her with the word of God, with the sword, the same sword he will use against the nations of the world. This he tells us how low a supposed godly congregation can fall. This church had, as Jesus calls it, the doctrine of Balaam in their midst. Balaam, he wanted to destroy Israel. This is a tear in the churches who want to destroy the churches, right, with their false doctrines.

And this is when we reach verse 17, chapter one, verse 17, first section. And this is when John says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid. I want to tell you this is an important statement which says so much about the person of the Messiah and how we perceive him. This is the second time that John had a vision of Jesus in his heavenly nature, so to speak. The first time was the month of transfiguration. There with Peter and James, we read that when they saw him, his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as that white as the light.

Matthew 17:2 very much like the description we have in Revelation 1:16. But notice again that John falls second time like he did at the transfiguration. Why twice? The difference is that we have here a progressive revelation of Jesus. In Revelation one, John realized even more his power and his divinity. The point is that the more one meets Yeshua, the more one spends time with him, the more one will discover more and more of him. It is a quest, a quest that will go on, I believe, for eternity, for one could never fully grasp the immensity of the divinity.

It is always an ongoing blessing to discover one small facet all the time of his nature. Angels remembering heaven cannot stop saying holy holy holy is the Lord Almighty because we are continually undergoing a learning process, a discovering process. And this process begins here on earth where we read and when we read and we read our Bibles and discover more of these great riches of our Messiah. You know, when I said that I've been reading the same book for 42 years, okay, people think I'm crazy until I tell them this is the Bible. It is God's revelation to man and it is unceasing profound at its core.

The most striking phenomenon is that the more you read this book, the more you discover how little you know. This is the consequence of progressive revelation of God. Has your perspective of Jesus changed in your sight since, let's say, last month, last week or even perhaps since yesterday? Have you experienced his progressive revelation to you? If you haven't, I want to tell you you're missing out on great revelation about his person. He's ready to reveal himself to you if you open up your heart to him. And have you noticed the last word of verse 17?

These are so comforting after all these mighty description and after needing to lay his reassuring hand on John like he did for sinking Peter, Yeshua tells John, don't be afraid. Have you ever seen the scene of a mother tiger? This is what I think, a mother tiger using her powerful teeth, lifting up her young one by grabbing into the skin of its neck, so delicate yet with those powerful jaws. You know, perhaps God created this animal for us to realize he's powerful yet so gentle strength. Here we have it with Yeshua to John. And it is at this point in the text where we're giving yet yet and this is so important, yet one more vision of the Lord that encompasses the whole history of redemption in the Bible before we approach the study of the seven churches.

Let us read from the second part of verse 17 to 18 where we have the final but most relevant description of the Messiah. I am the first and the last, he says. I am he who lives and was dead and behold I am alive forever more. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death. This is for the believer, by the way. This is the redemptive history shown in five easy steps. The first, I am first and the last. This one speaks of the eternity of the divinity. This is then similar to the other terms, the Alpha and the Omega, the Aleph and the Tav.

The Greek, by the way, Alpha finds its root in the Hebrew Aleph. This is why they sound similar. But there is something very deep about the Aleph. We often call the cross the Tav. For in ancient Hebrew, the Tav was written in the form of a cross and it even became the symbol of redemption in the Hebrew scriptures. You see it at Passover with the blood on the lintel and the doorpost. You see it also with Ezekiel just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, God says to a messenger, go to Jerusalem and make sure to find the believers and put a Tav across on their forehead.

The Aleph was in the form of the head of a cattle. This is what's so extraordinary. What actually the Tav was in the form of a cross. Here we can see the story of the Messiah, the sacrificial cattle, if you want, lamb, ox unto the Tav. This is how David in some chapter eight, verse seven calls the cattle the Aleph written in the same way as Aleph. And this is what this last description of his person is bringing us to consider. He is the first and the last, the Aleph and the Tav, the sacrificial lamb unto the Tav, the cross.

And secondly, he is the one who lives or he is, as the original text said, the living one, the living one. The one and only actually who can also impart life to others. Why? Because he's God. As we see in John 1:14, in him was life. He can impart it whoever asks him. And then we are told that he was dead. This is the third statement. This is a great mystery. How come the living one dies? Death was only a way for him to atone for our sins, to come down in the form of a man to live a sinless life and die so that his blood would be shed for us.

This is the story of the scriptures of redemption. And this is what happened when he came, but it was for a short time for we read, behold, I'm alive forever more. He says, amen. This is the fourth statement. Yeshua resurrected and now he's alive forever more and at work to invite all those who would want to have eternal life with God. And what an eternity it will be. For he has prepared so many gifts and blessings that we will describe when we see the account of the seven churches and see what he says at the end.

I have the keys of Hades and of death. They knew what he spoke about. Even the secular people knew what he was speaking about. Hades was a Greek God, so-called God, so to speak, who ruled over the realm of the dead, which they called the house of Hades. He has the key of this place. But as promised to Peter in Matthew 16:18, the gates of hell will not prevail against whomever believe that Yeshua is their personal savior. He subdued the last enemy, which is death. The ultimate punishment on man, whoever for those who are in Yeshua, death is no more an enemy for us.

It has become a passageway to our eternal abode. You know, toward the end of that great chapter that speaks of the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15 in verse 55, see what is written. Paul says, oh death, where's your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? For the resurrection of Yeshua has put an end to death's sting and transformed the cursing into a great blessing. Death does not anymore lead the believer into it into eternal separation from God, right? If you have Yeshua as your personal savior once again, you will spend eternity with God. You know, someone compared death to a checking out of a temporary hotel.

Peter says it better. He says that we are sojourners and pilgrims, that is literally tourists on this earth. The word sojourner is spoken of as those who are dwelling besides or near. That is those who do not belong to the place, right? We're not of the world. We're in this world, but not of this world. And for this, the word pilgrim, sometimes translated as stranger, it is one which does not belong to the place as well. This is how the Bible described the believer living in this world, something that is good to remember as we go on in this life.

And there's a story about the little girl whose baby brother had just died. She asked her mother where baby had gone and the mother told her that he went to be with God. A few days later, talking to a friend, the mother said, I am so grieved to have lost my baby. So the little girl heard her and remembering what her mother had told her, looked up into her face and asked he said she said, Mommy, is a thing lost when you know where it is? No, of course not, the mother answered. Well, then how can baby be lost when he had gone to be with God?

Her mother never forgot it. It was the truth. As simple as this story is, I want to tell you so easily we forget this great truth about the world we live in. Heaven is our eternal abode. When we grasp this truth, things will become easier.

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 at Beth Ariel 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 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 bethaerial.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): The Lord is my light and my salvation. Why should I be afraid? The Lord is my light and my salvation. Why should I be afraid? Woah woah woah woah woah woah woah woah woah The Lord is my strength and my strong tower. Why should I be afraid? The Lord is my strength and my strong tower. Why should I be afraid? Woah woah woah woah woah woah woah woah woah He will hide me in his sanctuary in the day of war. And I will start to see the victory for the battle is the Lord's. Woah woah woah woah woah woah woah