Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom! Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: Shabbat Shalom. Let's open our Bibles please everyone. We are in the Epistle of John, 1 John chapter 5. We are drawing near towards the end of the letter that Yohanan wrote to the family of God, to the mishpachat Elohim. We are just drawing towards the end of this letter. This is a very important letter, and beloved brothers and sisters, I would like to suggest that this passage today that we are reading from the Epistle of John chapter 5, verses 6 to 13, is a very important portion for us to study. Every one of us who became a believer in Yeshua the Messiah becomes a part of a family, a mishpacha.

Mishpachat Elohim, the family of God, we all belong to God. Every one of us is a member of the body of Messiah and we all need to learn certain things that are very important. Some of us just became believers just lately, not too long ago, and they need to grow, just like a new baby that is born to parents. He or she needs to grow. The natural baby needs to grow naturally, but the spiritual baby needs to grow spiritually. Listen to those words from 1 John chapter 5, verses 6 to 13. I'm reading beginning from verse 6.

"This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son.

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record: that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

This is the end of the reading for today's ministry meeting. I intended to finish the Epistle of John today, but this portion is a very important portion for every one of us who are believers in Yeshua the Messiah to grasp. Those of us who are Jewish who came to faith in Yeshua the Messiah, historically we never read the Brit Chadashah, the New Covenant. We only read the Tanakh, the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, we didn't get as much unfolding information as we have in the New Covenant, the Brit Chadashah.

God had given to us much more enlightenment concerning the person of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who He is, what He has done, why He came to this world, and why every sinner in this world needs Him in his or her life. The New Covenant, the Brit Chadashah that God has made with His people Israel, is for us today to enjoy in the present-day dispensation as those of us that belong to the body of Messiah, to the church of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

Our own nation Israel today is still blinded to this New Covenant, to this Brit Chadashah that God has made with the household of Judah and the house of Israel. You and I are enjoying it today because we belong to the body of Messiah by faith, while Israel is still waiting. So now for us, we have so much more information in the scriptures, in the Brit Chadashah, in the writing that the apostle wrote to aid us and assist us in appreciation of what Yeshua the Messiah has done for us.

Prior to verse 6 of this fifth chapter, the apostle Yohanan already mentioned to these believers in the family of God the importance of verse 1: everyone that believeth that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of God. Every one of us here, including those ones of us that have just accepted Yeshua the Messiah a day ago, a month ago, three months ago, five months ago, or a year ago, he or she is born of God. They receive new life. The Holy Spirit of God came to indwell in them and they have entered to be part of the family of God.

In verse 2, he says we know that we love the children of God when we love other ones that have already accepted Him by keeping God's commandment. When we love the brethren, it is proof that we obey the word of God and we love the other members of this mishpachat Elohim by loving them as well. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. Now he is showing to us that we are to obey His commandments. One of these commandments is to love the brethren.

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples," Yeshua said in the upper room, "if you love one another." In other words, we are to love the brotherhood, the family of God. In verses 4 and 5, he said overcoming the world is simply by faith in Yeshua the Messiah. When we believe in Yeshua, we become positionally an overcomer. When we trust Him and believe on Him on a day-by-day basis, we overcome all the world and its influence upon the people of God.

Yohanan continues and shares with us the importance of understanding that Yeshua is divine, that He is God who became a man, a human being. He is the one that has the union between the divine nature and the human nature in one. He gives us here three witnesses to this truth. In verses 6 through 10, he emphasized the assurance that we need to realize and know that Yeshua is divine, that Yeshua is God. Notice that Yeshua the Messiah came by water and by blood. That is complicated.

"This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth." I have mused over this verse quite a lot. I've listened to various speakers who taught about this verse. I've read commentaries about those who teach the word of God whom we respect very much, and we appreciate their ministry. I found out that there is no one opinion about these two expressions.

I was wondering when I was searching this passage, what does John mean when he said, "This is He that came by water and by blood"? Notice that he used the word "came" because He already came. John was writing this epistle at about the year 90 AD. He had been an old man. Yohanan was giving these truths to the family of God to encourage the believer to be grounded on the truth that Yeshua is not only a man but He is God who became a man. He's God and man in one.

There are four views that Bible teachers have today about this expression. One of the views is that this expression "that came by water and by blood" has to do with every believer's water baptism and also every believer when he remembers the Lord Jesus the Messiah in His death in what we call the communion, drinking the cup of wine. One view is that when a person becomes a believer in Yeshua and goes through water baptism, then Yeshua comes to him. Then when he remembers the Lord in His death by drinking the wine, Yeshua comes to him.

One of the reasons why not everyone looks at this and believes it is because it doesn't say that Yeshua comes when we do that. It said that Yeshua came already. He had already come when John was writing the epistle. Yeshua already came, have entered into this world, was born of the virgin Miriam, and lived 33 years among our own people of Israel in the land. Then He died on a Roman cross, He was buried, and then He was resurrected and ultimately ascended into heaven.

By the time that Yeshua had gone, it was probably at least somewhere about 55 to 60 years when John was writing this letter. Most likely it has not so much link with the fact that He comes to us every time a person becomes a believer and gets baptized. The second view that Yeshua came by water and by blood has to do with the fact that the Messiah was born of a woman. In the womb, there is a sac of water that protects the baby. When the water breaks, she gives birth to her newborn baby.

The blood has to do with the fact that when Yeshua died on the cross, He literally shed His precious blood. So the water has to do with being born of a woman. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Yeshua the Messiah had to take the nature of man.

He had to become a human being like you and me because we were under the sentence of death. Satan had the power over death and Yeshua came to destroy Satan and his power. By becoming a man, He took the nature of the human race, but He was without sin because He was born of the virgin Miriam. That made Him qualified to become the Messiah of Israel and the savior of this world. That's the second view.

The third view is the Lord Yeshua the Messiah's very own baptism that happened in the gospel of Matthew in chapter 3. John the Baptist was going to baptize those Jewish people who came down from Judea to the Jordan. Then Yeshua appears. Yohanan HaMatbil says to Yeshua, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" Yeshua said to him, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." He identified with the repentance of these Jewish people.

When He came to the water baptism, heaven was open and God the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." That is the beginning of the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah. He began His public ministry when He was baptized and He ended His ministry when He died for us on the cross. He shed His precious blood. He came by water as a reference to His very own water baptism and He ended up when He died on the cross and concluded His work of salvation.

This is one of the views that is most likely taken by the Bible teachers who teach the word of God. We are all in the school of God. It doesn't matter how many years you or I have been a believer in Yeshua the Messiah, we are learning and growing. We want to be biblical and scriptural because it's the best thing to base what we believe upon the written word of God. Here is the fourth view, which is also very important and many Bible teachers take this position.

Turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 19. We see Yeshua the Messiah on the cross. In verse 25, there stood by the cross of Yeshua His mother and His mother's sister, Miriam the wife of Cleopas, and Miriam Magdalene. When Yeshua saw His mother and the disciple standing by whom He loved, that disciple is John, the one who is writing to us this letter. He actually never liked to speak about himself. He calls himself "the disciple whom He loved."

John never says, "I'm the disciple who loves Jesus." He says, "I'm the disciple whom Yeshua loved." He knew that his love for Yeshua is many times changing. Our love is oftentimes very shallow, but the love of Yeshua is without measure and without limitation. He loved His own which were in the world and He loved them all the way to the cross, to the end, to the uttermost. He gave His life for us. Yeshua seeing the disciple whom He loved said to His mother, "Woman, behold thy son!"

Then He says to the disciple, "Behold thy mother!" He gave the responsibility to Yohanan to care for His mother because He was going to give His life on the tree as a ransom for the salvation of mankind. Notice now what we read in verse 28: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, 'I thirst.'" There was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it to His mouth.

When Yeshua had received the vinegar, He said, "It is finished." Nighmar. It has been done. The work of redemption has been complete. He bowed His head and gave up the spirit. By the cross, John stood by and watched Yeshua. John noticed one more thing that was very important that he kept in memory and he is writing this to us now later on. In verse 31, it says because it was the preparation for Pesach and the Shabbat, then the Jewish leaders wanted to remove Yeshua from the cross.

Because it was the preparation, they did not want the bodies to remain upon the cross on the Shabbat day. They besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. There were two malefactors plus the Lord on the crosses. The only way to keep them from the pain of being crucified is for their legs to push up to keep themselves from experiencing greater torture. If their legs were broken, they would die sooner and they could be removed from the crosses.

The soldiers came to break the legs of the first and of the other which were crucified with Him. But when they came to Yeshua and saw that He was dead already, they broke not His legs. It is interesting that they didn't even know that they were fulfilling the scripture. In Exodus chapter 12, God gave instruction in connection with the Messiah and the lamb that is a type of the Messiah: they were called not to break His legs.

One of the soldiers took a spear and pierced His side. And notice what John saw: forthwith came there out blood and water. John says, "And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." Can you imagine? John was so close to Yeshua the Messiah who was already dead on that Roman cross. He said, "It is finished," and He gave up the spirit. Nobody took it away from Him; He laid it down willingly because He wanted to accomplish redemption.

When the soldier saw that Yeshua was dead already, he didn't break His legs to fulfill the prophet. He pierced Him through with a sword. The psalmist of Israel David said long time ago prophetically about the Messiah, "They pierced my hands and my feet." So he pierced Him and Yohanan saw blood and water. This is the fourth way in which Bible teachers look at this expression that we find in 1 John 5:6. That's how He came.

He entered this world as a man, but ultimately on the cross when the spear pierced Him, blood and water flowed out. I'm not a doctor, but the fourth way that most Bible teachers look at this is that there's a sac that surrounds the heart. When the spear came through, that sac was ruptured and water flew out just alongside the blood. This is very important to realize. John would write to the believers in his epistle these words for a reason.

At that time when Yohanan was speaking at the early church age, there were already those who did not believe that Yeshua was the Messiah. They did not believe that He is God and man in one. Some denied His deity, others denied His humanity. Today, many deny either or both. Our own Jewish people have a problem with the deity of the Messiah. We'll be back in just a moment. Please stay with us.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0, or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM and Saturdays at 1:00 PM at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, Shalom.