Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: 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: The study of First John chapter five. And then Yeshua appeals. And John the Baptizer, Yochanan Hammabdil, saying to Yeshua the Messiah, he said to him, you coming to be baptized of me? I should be baptized of you. And Yeshua said to him, suffer me to be baptized. It is the right thing for me to be baptized. Why? Because he identified with the repentance of these Hebrews, these Jewish people who came to Yochanan Hammabdil, to John the Baptizer, to be baptized.

So when he came to the water baptism, there, you remember, heaven was open, and God the Father said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And that is the beginning of the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah. He began his public ministry when he was baptized by Yochanan Hammabdil, by John the Baptizer, and he ended his ministry when he died for us on the cross, on the tree.

And he shed his precious blood. He came by water as a reference to his very own water baptism, which God had declared, this is my beloved son. And he ended up when he died on the cross, and there on the cross, you remember he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There he concluded his ministry here, where he finished for us the work on the cross, the work of salvation.

So this is one of the views that is most likely taken by the Bible teachers who teach today the word of God. And we appreciate to learn from those things because we are all in the school of God, beloved brothers and sisters. Every one of us, it does not matter how many years you are a believer or I am a believer in Yeshua the Messiah, we are in the school of God. We are learning, we are growing, we are marching forward, and we learn to appreciate, but we want to be biblical and scriptural because it is the best thing to be basing what we believe upon the written word of God.

And so, here is the fourth view, which is also very important, and most Bible teachers take this position. Turn with me to the Gospel of John, the Besor, the gospel. And in chapter 19, we see Yeshua the Messiah on the cross. Notice in verse 25 of John chapter 19, there stood by the cross of Yeshua, his mother, and his mother's sister, Miriam, the wife of Kelofas, and Miriam Magdalene.

When Yeshua therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, this disciple, beloved brothers and sisters, is John. Is Yochanan, the one who writing to us this letter. He actually never liked to speak about himself. And you notice what he called himself? The disciple whom he loved. You notice John, Yochanan never say, I am the disciple who loved Jesus.

He says, I am the disciple whom Yeshua loved. You know why? Because he knew that his love for Yeshua is many times changing. Our love is often times very shallow. But the love of Yeshua is without measure, without limitation. He loved his own which were in the world. He loved them all the way to the cross, to the end, to the uttermost.

He gave his life for us. And so Yeshua seeing the disciple whom he loved, and he said to his mother, Woman, this is to Miriam, his mother, behold your son. And he says to the disciple, this is Yochanan, behold your mother. In other words, he gave the responsibility to Yochanan, the apostle, to care for his mother, because he was going to give his life on the tree for a ransom, for the salvation of mankind.

But notice now what we read here in verse 28. After this, Jesus, Yeshua, knowing that all things were accomplished, and that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and they put it upon hisp, and they put it to his mouth. And when Yeshua therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. Nigmar, it has been done. The work of redemption has been complete. And notice it says here, and he bowed his head and he gave up the spirit.

Here now, by the cross, by the tree, John stood and he watched Yeshua there on the cross. But John noticed one more thing that was very important, beloved brothers, that he kept it in memory. And he's writing this to us now later on, when we are now receiving this letter. It says in verse 31, because it was the preparation for Pesach, for the Shabbat that is, and Pesach, Passover, then the Jewish people, the leaders of Israel, wanted to remove Yeshua from the cross.

And so what happened? It says here in verse 31, the Jewish leaders that is, therefore, because it was a preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross, on the Shabbat day, for that Shabbat was a high day. That was the Pesach that was approaching. They besought Pilot that their legs might be broken and that they will be taken away. Now in other words, there were two malefactors plus the Lord on the crosses.

They were crucified there, hanging on the Roman crosses. And you know, the only way to keep them from the pain of being crucified is their legs to kind of push up, up a little bit to keep themselves from experiencing greater torture. So the legs will be broken and they will die sooner, so they will remove them from the crosses. Well, it says in verse 32, then came the soldiers to break the legs of the first, and of the other which were crucified with him. But it says, verse 33, when they came to Yeshua, and they saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs.

And it is interesting that they didn't even know that they were fulfilling the Scripture. Already in Exodus chapter 12, God gave instruction to our people Israel in connection with the Messiah and the lamb that is a type of the Messiah, they were called not to break his legs. And you notice it says, but one of the soldiers took a spear in his hand in verse 34, and he pierced his side.

And notice what John saw, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he saw, notice what John is saying, and he that saw it, this is Yochanan, he bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that whatever he's saying is true that ye might believe. Can you imagine? John was so close to Yeshua the Messiah, who was already dead on that Roman cross.

You remember he said, it is finished. He gave up the spirit. Nobody took it away from him. He laid it down willingly, because he wanted to accomplish redemption that sinners can be forgiven. He gave himself over. But now when that soldier saw that Yeshua was dead already, he doesn't break his leg to fulfill the prophets. He's piercing him through with a sword.

The Psalmist of Israel, David, David, Melech Israel, the king of Israel, said, long time ago, prophetically about the Messiah, they pierced my hands and my feet. And so he pierced him. And what happened, what Yochanan is seeing here, and therefore came there blood and water. Now again, this is the fourth way in which Bible teachers look at this expression that we find in First John 5:6.

This is he that came by water and blood, even Yeshua the Messiah, not by water only, but by water and blood. That's how he came. In other words, he entered to this world as a man, but ultimately on the cross, when the spear pierced him, and it is really in the heart that really blood and water flowed out.

And again, I am not a doctor. I don't have much knowledge of the doctor. But the fourth way that most Bible teachers look at this is the water which flowed out of Yeshua's side, that there is a sack that surrounded the heart. That the water were raptured, the sack of water that was surrounding the heart for protection when the spear came through, that sack was raptured, and water flowed out just alongside the blood.

Now, beloved brothers and sisters, this is very important to realize this. Now, John would write to the believers, to the family of God, in his epistle these words for reason. Why? Because already at the time when Yochanan 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. And again, I would like to suggest to you that today many deny either or both. Our own Jewish people have a problem with the deity of the Messiah. Our families might say he was a good man, he was a good rabbi, he was a kind man, he was a genius, he was a great leader that the Gentile world follow after.

But what Yochanan, this Jewish fisherman, who became a believer in Yeshua the Messiah, who accepted the Messiah already in the Galilee when he was there, fishing for fish on the Sea of Galilee, he followed Yeshua the Messiah. He understood that he was a real man and yet divine. And then he's saying here, this is he that came by water and by blood.

Not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that bears witness because the spirit is truth. And look at this, brothers and sisters, what he is emphasizing there that Yeshua the Messiah was a real man, spirit, soul, and body. He was born of a woman, Miriam. He was born under the law as God had promised to our people of old.

He was a real man, yet sin apart. And just like you and I as a human being, we have this sack of water surrounding our hearts. If our sack going to be rapture, dying of a broken heart, dying this death that is caused by the spear that pierced through, he died just like you and I would die in the same way, if we would experience this.

He was a real man. This is the emphasis. John is adding here, and I think this is very important. These two elements of water and blood really serve here to teach us certain important things that help us in our lives as we follow Yeshua the Messiah. These two elements become for us that which is an element of cleansing for you and I.

You see, these two elements that we have here, the water and the blood. The blood that Yeshua the Messiah shed on the cross for us, purify us judicially. It purifies us from a guilty conscience. You remember what we read in First John chapter 1 and verse 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Yeshua the Messiah cleanses us from all sin.

The element of the blood cleanses us judicially, positionally. Once and for all, when we have accepted Yeshua the Messiah, we are judicially have been cleansed and our sins have been washed away. But what about the water? Here's another thing that is very important to grasp. You see, the water that came forth out of the body of Yeshua has to do with a practical cleansing.

It is so interesting how the Bible teaches us that the water really speak to us of the water of the washing by the word of God. Now turn with me for a moment to Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 25 and verse 26. This is Paul, Shaul. He is now speaking to the believers at Ephesus, and he is encouraging them to understand how important the work of the Messiah.

So he's telling them in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 27 and 26. He's speaking to the husbands. And he says, husbands, love your wives. How? Look, he says, even as the Messiah also loved the church, the assembly, and have given himself for the assembly, for it, for the church. And then he adds, that he might sanctified and cleanse it with the washing of the water. And he add by the word.

So what we really learn here, Paul is connecting here the washing of the water to the word of God. And really it is important to realize when John is emphasizing both in the gospel and the epistle of Yeshua the Messiah that came not by water only, but by water and by blood, he's making a reference to the two elements that came forth out of the body of Yeshua the Messiah.

The blood cleaning us positionally, judicially, and the water pointing to Yeshua's cleansing us through his word. We are cleansed by the washing of the water by the word. Now, I did not make this water apply to the word, but Paul mentioned this in Ephesians chapter 5.

And so, beloved brothers and sisters, whichever position one might take out of these four views that I presented before you, I would suggest that number two, number three, and number four combine together may really represent what Yochanan really wanted to say here to the mishpachah, to the family of God. Yeshua was born of a woman.

When a woman's water breaks, she's ready to deliver. Yeshua was baptized, nitbal in the Jordan River by Yochanan Hammabdil, John the Baptizer. There he began his ministry which began with the water baptism and ended with his bloodshed on the cross. And the last one is Yeshua when he was pierced through out of his side, came that water and blood, these two elements of cleansing, cleansing us judicially once and for all, cleansing us practically ongoing in the life of the believer, because we quickly find ourselves failing.

And the washing of the water by the word cleanse us on a regular basis, keep on cleansing us. So this is important. That's why I wanted to take the time to speak here about verse 6. And notice at the end of verse 6, Yochanan is saying, and it is the spirit that bears witness because the spirit is truth. Now how do we know all these things?

Because Ruach Hakodesh, Elohim, the Holy Spirit of God is enlightened us. You see, before we became believers, we didn't see those things. And the natural man, First Corinthians 2:14, receives not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness unto him. He cannot or she cannot, the natural man by nature cannot grasp this.

But the Holy Spirit of God can awaken us and enlighten us. And notice he used that expression because the spirit is truth. The Holy Spirit of God is truth. What he say, it is the truth of the word of God. Please bear with me. Go to John 14, verse 16 and 17. Yeshua the Messiah in the upper room said to these Hebrew disciples there, long before he died, anticipating his death, he said to them in chapter 14, verse 16 and verse 17, notice what he says about the Holy Spirit of God.

I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even, and notice what he's saying, even the spirit of truth. Ruach HaEmet, the spirit of truth. Whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not, neither knoweth him. But you know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.

Chapter 15, verse 26. There he says, but when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth. Ruach HaEmet. Again, he's calling the Holy Spirit of God, the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. Notice chapter 16, one more verse.

Verse 12 and 13. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. However, when he, the spirit of truth, Ruach HaEmet, when he is come, he will guide you into all truth. And he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak, he will show you things to come.

He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and will show it unto you, beloved brothers and sisters. The spirit of truth, Ruach HaEmet, the Holy Spirit of God is the spirit of truth. And he's the one that bear witness, he have enlightened us. He have revealed Yeshua the Messiah to us. Why is it that you and I sitting here today and listening to the word of God altogether?

See, we could have gone to do something else today. Why come and listen to the word of God and hear about this Yeshua that died sometime 2000 years ago? We could have done so many other things, but we have chosen to come to sit here and to be under the sound of the word because the Spirit of God wooed us, drawn us, pulled us closer and enlightened us and open our eyes to see the lover of our souls, even Yeshua Jesus the Messiah.

And so back please to First John chapter 5. We are here in these verses, verses 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, that Yochanan present the sure knowledge that Yeshua is divine, that he is God the Son, God and man in one. He continued about witnesses. This is also, brothers and sisters, very interesting verses. Because in verse 7 and 8, it says this, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.

Verse 8, and there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. Now, let's pause here for a moment. Again, I want you to understand, most Bible teachers tell us that part of verse 7 and verse 8 are really not in the original Greek manuscript. That's why those of you who have a different translation than the King James, you would read verses 7 and 8 in this way.

And I'm reading now 7 and 8, and I'm eliminating that which was not in the original Greek manuscript. Look what it's saying. For there are three that bear record. The spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. You notice that I didn't read some of verse 7 and some of verse 8. Why? Because in the original Greek manuscript, it was not there.

And apparently, later on, in about 1200, when the King James was copied from the Greek into the what is known today as the King James, someone have seen in one of the manuscripts these expression that it said, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one, and there are three that bear witness on earth and so on.

And they saw it in the margin of the manuscript. Now remember, beloved brothers and sisters, in old time, when the people who received the word of God, they were copying manuscripts from one to another. They did not have the privilege that you and I have today. We have the word of God in our hands. We have thousands and thousands and thousands of Bibles, complete Bibles in our hands in every translation, in every language, that we have in our own hands today.

But in past days of old, in the early church age, the manuscripts that were written in Greek were passed from one to another. And the scribes were passing it and adding to it as time were going on. They were copying it. Apparently, one was putting in the margin these words that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one, and there are three that bear witness on earth.

In other words, someone have kind of put it in the margin because he felt that this is maybe should be inserted. And the next scribe perhaps took it and saw it there and he added and placed in the scripture. Now, this is also important for us to bear in mind. So, can we trust the word of God? How do we know that there are not other things that have been inserted or added or subtracted?

Now, again, I would like to say that teachers of the Bible, those who read those manuscripts, read it and they have seen it was not there in the first 500 years or 700 years or 1000 years, it was not there in the early manuscript. It was simply added by someone in one of the margins that have been placed into the word of God.

So when you read some, let's say New American Standard or NIV, you might find that it's not there at all, because they have received their translation with much earlier manuscripts and it was not there. And it's really show us that why also it was not necessary, because it says that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.

Now, we do not know what's happening, you might say in heaven. But what we know here and what is needed for us is the testimony here on earth. That you and I will hear the word on earth and believe what God says to us here on earth. Now, we could use this second half of verse 7 and the first half of verse 8 to show the testimony of the Trinity of God.

We could use it, but it's not necessary because we have other passages. So, if the reading of the text should be this way of verse 7 and 8 together, as you might say one verse, and I'm reading this again for the benefit of all of us. For there are three that bear record. The spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one.

Gideon Levytam: 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.