Messianic Viewpoint

Guest (Male): Welcome to Shalom Ariel and welcome to our fifth sermon in the book of Revelation with Messianic leader, Jacques Isaac Epizon. We're going to assume here how the world out there is anything but rest and Shalom. Instead, we have viruses, social unrest, and prejudices that lead to needless wars. And in the midst of this 2,000 year old battle, we as believers have not fared all that well in our deeds and actions, but we are nevertheless still accountable each day. He clothes us and equips us in power and righteousness so that we may fight and overcome the temptations from within and from without.

We are the body of Messiah, members of the Ecclesia. We are the overcomers. Yeshua's invitation to each one of us was at first come, come to me all you who labor. And then he said become, renew your minds and then overcome that we may be crowned as a victor. Yes, come, become and overcome. And how might we do that? By doing it the way Yeshua did. He set the joy before him and walked to the top. We are going to set the Lord before us so that we will not be moved because his right hand will protect us for in Messiah we are overcomers.

So stay tuned to today's message with Messianic leader, Jacques Isaac Epizon. Shalom, Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: Shalom. And welcome to Beth Ariel Messianic congregation. It's a blessed it's a place that is of Shabbat. It's a place of rest where we are always striving to discover more of our great and wonderful God and always looking to uplift his name. It's indeed important to meet under the umbrella of his sovereignty and his presence seeing the unrest around the world. I think we can all feel this commotion and these disturbances around us. I don't know if you are following the daily number of new cases of COVID-19 and the daily number of deaths here in Quebec.

Okay, stats range from about 1,000 new cases a day as well as 10 deaths a day. That it's a lot and I feel for those people who lose a member of their family elsewhere, elsewhere. The number is much higher and the the World Health Organization said on Monday that it's best estimate indicate that roughly 10% of the world population may have been infected. That means that it is really 20 times more than the number confirmed cases and they are warning us of difficult periods ahead. So these statistics coupled with other world events, okay, make me glad that I believe in God.

Amen. Just yesterday as I was watching the international news, I could feel the deep unrest just hearing about these situations. For instance, riots in Thailand where the people, the young one especially are rising against the government and against the monarchy. While these are peaceful manifestation in Belarus against the president who has ruled for over 26 years and had most likely lost the last election and is refusing to acknowledge defeat and step down. There are violent arrests and tortures of civil people by the state forces. There's also the sad war over the land between Armenia and Azerbaijan bombing each others cities.

This is sad. The other war in Yemen, I don't know if you heard about it. It's between the Houthis supported by Iran against the Yemen military. This war has been going on since 2004 and it's often unreported. These are only a few of the spots of unrest that one picks up even in a day. And without even mentioning the nuclear powers who are always flexing their muscles and creating new weapons for what? To kill more people. And signs in the Middle East are drawing us even closer to see the reality of these end times. For instance, just want to give you one information.

You know, at the beginning of this month, Turkey's president came out with a startling statement. You know what he said? Jerusalem is ours, he says. You know, how can Jerusalem belong to him? He was referring by the way to the Ottoman Empire's control over Jerusalem between the years 1516 to 1917. And so today he's planning to take control of the city. You know, little does he know that the name of his own country, of his own territory is mentioned in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 to 39 and that his thoughts and action were prophesied back then.

And according to the Israel Hayom, Hebrew language newspaper, the Turkish government already provides tens of thousands of millions of dollars for the upkeep upkeep and security of the Temple Mount which is under the jurisdiction of the Jordanians. They're planning to go there. Okay, exactly like Zakaria says, all the nations are going to come against Jerusalem. Let us remember how Yeshua, Jesus characterized our present time and this is important to remember. He says, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. There will be great earthquakes in various places and famines and pestilences. Wars and rumors of wars, these are the daily news today.

And notice the word pestilence, right? Viruses like the COVID-19, okay, falls enter this prophecy, this category. The Greek word for this is it is used to describe plagues and pests. Its presence remind us that left to men, left to men, men is not able to save his neighbor. Okay, all these years science can barely keep up with these new viruses. But the prophecy in the prophecy Yeshua adds all these things are the beginning of sorrows, right? It's not yet the time that the beginning of sorrows. Sorrows were always here since the dawn of history. However, we are today witnessing the increase as we are approaching the rupture and the beginning of the seven year tribulation.

Looking at all these events in the news, they are in line with the coming end time prophecies. While they slowly appear by the way, okay, as time goes on, this is why I don't report them every week, right? But at some point, perhaps before the first reference approaching the first reference of the Antichrist in Revelation 6, maybe we should go back and make a survey of what happened between perhaps four or five years ago. And then we'll see these things these things together. We will better understand how prophecies are moving towards the end time. So I'm excited to study the book of Revelation which today has become the book to study for it reveals to us events that are now and will shortly take place in our planet.

Now before we get into Revelation as it is a tradition, let us bless our precious children. If you have any children with you, put your hand upon them, get them close to you. And let us pray. Blessed is his name whose glorious kingdom is coming and is forever and ever. And now heavenly Father, we ask for your strong arms of protection to be around our children that they may be held safely within your love, especially during these times when so many are calling good what you despise and are even encouraging the youth to partake in their ways.

Protect our children, Lord, and fill their hearts with your presence, fill their days and nights with hope and joy, fill their minds with your truth and light. Let them know through the presence of what is right, what is true and teach them to shy away from evil. And I ask that you bless the parents with the mighty presence of your Holy Spirit and show them the way to love and to teach our children. Now let's open our Bible to Revelation chapter 2 where we have Yeshua's last words to us, the believers, before the description of the wars and tribulation which begin in chapter four.

Jesus gives these words through these letters written to the seven churches which together represents the many possibility of what a congregation could be. Some churches are good, some aren't, and others are no place for God to be at all. When we think of a church, we tend to think of a building with one kind of people, of the same faith, of the same belief. But this is not how the Bible describes a church. Through these letters, we're going to learn something very different. A church is rarely homogeneous, but made up of many diverse and often opposite components so much so that many of them become a place of strife and conflict.

However, it's not supposed to be this way. We're going to learn that once the word of God is ignored, once different and opposite doctrines are introduced and false teachers are left unchecked, the church may become a free for all, a spiritual chaotic place. And the problem is that while these things are happening, a congregation may appear so good from the outside. While there is strife and spiritual chaos inside, in these letters Yeshua speaks to many on the inside who thought that they were doing so well, being self-sufficient and rich and were looking great like the last church Laodicea.

But to these he says, but you are wretched and miserable, poor and naked. They were surely surprised by these words. To another church Sardis, he says, you have a name that you are alive, that is they look great from the outside. But Jesus says you are dead. How can a church be dead? Does not the the term church, at least in its original form, depicts what it's supposed to be alive, dynamic, and what is true. But these things are in accordance to what Yeshua told us before that there will be the wheat and the tares, then the tares living side by side.

And it seems that the tare did take over the nominal church. Out of the seven churches, only two are good, not receiving any condemnation at all. And that is the way it should have been for the seven of them. These two churches are Smyrna and Philadelphia. Jesus loves them. He loves them and he has some good words for them. But the others five, the five of the seven churches are are are congregation of rivalry and warfare. These people you know, they invite Balaam and they invite Jezebel. They rule in these churches and they cause havoc around them.

We're going to meet them very soon. These seven churches will bring us to think differently of Christianity and will uncover reality we often not consider. Their story could be summed up by the second of the seven parable of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13. Yeshua describes the farmer who planted good seed, if you remember. But upon waking the next day, he goes out and finds the tares growing among the wheat. The workers ask if they could go and remove the tares from the field, but the farmer told them not to do such a thing in case they would uproot the good seed as well.

So they're together, they're together. What is the meaning then of this parable? Jesus explains it. In Matthew 13, he says, the field is the world. The good seed that the sons of the kingdom are the tares and the sons of the wicked ones. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels. This then is a prophecy and a picture of the history of the church in this world. The tares come and invade at first appearing just like the wheat by the because they look like each other and then blending in.

But then toward the end, it grows taller and overtake the wheat. But the congregation of God would not be this way if it stays close to Jesus and to his teaching. The church then is a sort of a mixed society. In there you will find all kinds of faith, some true and superior in substance and action. But then you have the false faith also. And you have no faith at all for some cases. This is how the church is described in Revelation. And so these warnings and praises which we find in these letters invite us to assess our congregation and even examine ourselves as Yeshua would for these letters also describe all kinds of individuals.

So what we will do today is to look at the seven churches as a group. We will first notice what Yeshua repeats to them, what he expects from them, what gives them sadness and what gives them joy. Again, this will help us to cast our eyes on our own work so that we may change and grow to be better disciples, better soldiers for God. Now before we go further, I want to bring you an important Jewish connection between the seven churches and that is seven synagogues that were in Jerusalem at the time of John. You know, back in around 380 Epiphanius, the pastor of in Salamis, a city in Cyprus, spoke of the existence of seven synagogues which were present very near the Temple Mount after the destruction actually of the Temple in 780.

This is what he wrote and I want to quote that to you. He says, the emperor Hadrian found the temple of God trodden down and the whole city of Jerusalem devastated save for a few houses and the church of God. For there had been built that is in that portion of Zion which escaped destruction, seven synagogues which alone remained standing in Zion. It's interesting that after the diaspora, we find these seven synagogues built, rebuilt somehow in Jerusalem apparently on or next to the Temple Mount. Perhaps these synagogues were built there for those Jews who remain as a memorial of the temple.

These seven synagogues were there at the time when John penned the book of Revelation and the connection between the two surely served as a sign to Jews and also to Jewish believers at the time in Jerusalem indicating that Jesus will not return so fast on the Mount of Olives like he said in Acts. And that now the word of God is going to all the nations of the world. Soon after the writing of Revelation, the city was almost completely deserted by Jews and by also believers. It was much later on in the year 1263 when one Rabbi Nachmanides, also known as the Radak, was expelled from Spain after the famous dispute of Barcelona where he defended Judaism against Catholicism and went to Jerusalem but founded all devastated with one resident, one Jew, he says, and one barely functioning synagogue.

This is what he wrote. I want to quote this to you. He says, a mournful sight I have perceived in the Jerusalem. Only one Jew is there, a dire, persecuted, oppressed, and despised. And his house gathered great and small when they can get to the 10 men. This is a letter he wrote to his son. The synagogue stood as a symbol of hope and despair kept only by one Jew. Imagine for so many hundreds of years and so on. Okay, being visited by Jews from the diaspora who came from Syria and Lebanon to mourn the destruction of the temple.

At this point in time, it was Nachmanides who built two other synagogues and established a permanent community of Jews in Jerusalem. Today we find an unusual dilemma in counting the number of synagogues present in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post claims that they are at least 1,000 synagogues and sometimes up to 6,000 depending on the time, I guess, right? So what we see here is that we're coming towards the end time. Synagogues are coming back into the land. Yeshua is coming back on the Mount of Olives. Amen. Let us go back now to Revelation. We have in the midst of these seven lampstand, one like the son of man who begin to see Yeshua strong involvement in the congregation which carries his name.

Did you remember that in his first appearance in Revelation 1:13 he is seen in the midst of the congregation of God, right? In the midst of the lampstand which are the congregation of God. Okay, this is how it is introduced to us in Revelation. He is present and very involved in our affairs, in our congregation. In our last session together, we also notice what Yeshua first pointed to in the seven churches. The things which he laid emphasis on as the works of the believers, something he repeats to other churches, their deeds, their actions. For this translate into either a higher or lower level of commitment of faith and belief.

Yeshua does put an emphasis on these mitzvahs or deeds for these are actually what the world sees outside. This then is the forefront as we pick up on our journey through the seven churches. What then are these other things that Jesus puts emphasis on as we look at the overall seven churches. There are a few things he actually repeats seven times, one for each church, something which seems so important to him. And I want to bring you one important point. The first I want to bring are the words to him who overcomes. And there follows some of the greatest rewards for those who overcome.

Now I want to ask you who is the one who overcomes? Is he a believer or maybe some of them are believers? Who is he addressing his words to? The first thing we notice is that while the congregations of God are made out of many people, this overcomer stands out. He or she is marked by the singular to him, Jesus says who overcomes. He noticed that person. Jesus seeks the individual within the whole who works, who overcomes. The overcomer then is the way Yeshua describes all believers. This is the life of a progressively growing believer.

This is how it is described, the overcomer. While we may be under constant conflict, we are at the same time recipient of immeasurable blessings going from victory to victory. The word to overcome in Greek in secular Greek it describes one who is victorious, one who is superior. It is the one who rises after a conflict physical or moral. Julius Caesar, by the way, is often remembered by his famous phrase, I came, I saw, and I conquered. The same word to conquer and overcome is here brought back to describe the one whose faith is greatly growing amidst of great opportunities and conflicts the believers faces.

The life of one who made Yeshua his savior is then far from being stagnant or unmoving, but it is always flowing, fresh, maturing. This is the picture of a genuine believer that is portrayed here for us. There is no such thing as the word stagnant, right? When it comes to spiritual things, it is either growing or decaying. This is another truth about our lives as believers. We see this tendency in these five other churches. It begins with Ephesus. Do you remember Jesus tells her you forgot your first love, that is you forgot me. And it seems to progress until the last one in Laodicea where where he says that they are loveless.

Jesus being love, he's outside actually knocking at the door. And we will move as we move from Pergamum to Thyatira to Sardis that you will see a destructive change okay, happening. And consequently Yeshua again appears in judgment for each one of them. The first of these group of three Pergamum, okay, he comes what as one who has a sharp edged sword. This is what what they forsook the word of God. He comes to fight. The second Thyatira, he he has eyes like flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. He's identified you know, as a fighter again.

He's not happy at all. He comes to judge. To the third one Sardis, he comes along the Holy Spirit and just pronounced it as dead church. I saw what you did, he says. And reading these seven letters, the overcomer would seem like a rare fixture in the church. And this is for us. It looks like as the parables of the kingdom also demonstrate that the tare takes over the congregation. We shouldn't let this go. We can also see this in a way the rewards are given. Those overcomers from Smyrna, he says, he who overcomes he will not be heard by the second death.

The second death is a spiritual death as opposed to eternal life with God. Only the overcomers will not be hurt by the second death. To Pergamum, he says, to him who overcomes, I will give him a white stone that is he or she will not be condemned. Only the overcomers are not condemned for they believe in the saving work and the resurrection of Yeshua. And Sardis, he says, he who overcomes will thus be clothed with white garments and I will not erase his name from the book of life. These white garments are a sign of salvation.

We're going to see them very soon in chapter four. And having his name not removed from the book of life is a confirmation of was eternal and and conditional salvation. All these are now are to those who overcome. And this is the Yeshua's definition of a believer that is. Now I want to tell you I was struggling with the way I would bring this to you. For on the one hand, I surely didn't want anyone to doubt his or her salvation. But on the other hand, I surely would not want anyone to rely on the support salvation.

So far, what we learn here is that salvation is seen through the deeds and a great life of sanctification and study and prayer and rising over conflicts. However, failing to do a work again, even falling falling some believers fall, it's part of the life of a believer. Let's not forget this, okay? Let me bring you back to that powerful verse in Proverbs 24:16 for a righteous man, right? No one is righteous, right? They're only righteous by Yeshua, right? For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again. There's struggle. There will be some backsliding, but the believer always rises again.

But this teaching is not new in the scriptures. It is practically all over the law of the Messiah. See what John already told the church in 1 John 5:4 to 5 he says, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the son of God. That implies his deity, by the way. Notice how the word overcome is mentioned three times in this verse, even four times for the word victory that has the same root as these words.

Jesus has given much and he expects much in return. And he gives so much, by the way. John's three letters and the book of Revelation were the last documents of the Bible. It was obvious by then that the Messianic times were far from being established and set of a wolf eating with the lamb. This letter warns the flock of God, of those many wolves that begin to infiltrate in and eat the lambs. Instead of finding the Messiah ruling in the world and all men coming to a saving knowledge of Yeshua, we find many men working hard to attack God's authority and the very nature of his son and his body, the church.

It did not take long for all for that is some to come and attack the church. He began with John when John was alive. This is why I believe his words are so powerful. Evil could not wait and this is why John put so much emphasis on the growth of the believer, especially also in his letters. Let me tell you a true story about someone who did not do the word when they were assigned to and the consequences were terrible. It was back in March 22, 1992 an airplane USA Air flight 405 waited in line to take off from New York's LaGuardia Airport destined to Cleveland.

There was a snowstorm blowing. After the plane set in line for nearly 30 minutes, the control tower gave clearance for takeoff. While heading down the highway, the plane lifted into the air and then the left wing dipped and scraped against the runway. The landing gear struck a set of navigational lights and the plane touched back down to the left and the runway splitting along in the mud for 100 feet. The plane then nosed briefly back into the air, but the left wing hit antennas on the side of the runway and the fuselage began to break apart.

Finally, the plane bounced into a bay. 27 people were killed in the crash. But I want to tell you about this one man in the plane, this one man. There was one man in there who survived and harmed. Surviving a plane crash is a traumatic experience. No one would blame this man if he chose never to fly again. No one would think twice if he decided to the next day to drive home to Cleveland or take a bus or train. But on Monday, the day after the crash, Bart Simon climbed aboard another plane and flew safely home to Cleveland.

This man is an overcomer. See fear will ground many people. Fear, conflicts, apprehension, paralyzes ministries, relationships, dreams, churches, careers. These things must never prevent us from overcoming. This man Bart Simon overcame a fear of flying and overcame it very quickly, very quickly. But each one of us may have a different set of fears and for different reasons or occupations, so to speak. Our task as overcomers is to examine our hearts before the Lord and see which fear stagnates us and causes us to remain grounded.

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 Epizon, 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 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 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.