Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): 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 Levitan.

Gideon Levytam: The study of Acts chapter 1 in our reading today also when we read in the opening of the meeting today and we light the seven fold candles, we do mention that. We do speak about the time when the kingdom will be established where there will be a time of peace where it says here and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and the branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. We are talking about the person the Messiah, the stem that's going to come out of the family of Jesse and the branch that's going to come out of his roots.

And the Holy Spirit of God will dwell upon him. And as it says here, he will have the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of the fear of the Lord. And how he will rule this world. It says here that his delight will be in the fear of the Lord. And then it says here that he will rule in righteousness. And that he will reprove with equity. And that it says here he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reign. He will reign, the Messiah will reign. The kingdom will be established where the Messiah will have his rightful reign over the face of this world and the kingdom of God will be established here upon the face of this earth. And those disciples longed for that. They were waiting for the establishing of the kingdom. That's why they ask him, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel right now, Lord? And you notice that he didn't he didn't criticize him. He didn't tell them for a moment, oh, forget about that kingdom.

It's not going to be established. He didn't tell them that. In fact, we read here in verse 3 B that he was speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He was telling them about the kingdom. His was sharing with them. Remember they didn't have New Testament. They only had the Tanakh, the Old Testament. So he was opening to them the scriptures. And he was showing to them things that will happen when God's rule is going to be upon the face of this earth. When Israel is going to be restored, when God's kingdom is going to be established and it must have warmed their hearts.

And it ought to warm our hearts. Yes, there is a coming kingdom. There is a coming establishment of the kingdom in a future day. And even though you and I look around today and we see everything is in disarray, everything is in disorder, everything is out of right, everything is messed up around us. We have to hold on to the truth that yes, there is a kingdom that is going to be established one day upon the face of this earth. He is going to establish the Messianic kingdom in the coming days. There will be peace, there will be shalom here in this world.

There will be blessing here in this world. and we are to hold on to this truth. And to wait for that. And in the meanwhile, brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God takes a different form. While we don't see the king here, while the king is not ruling over the face of this earth, he is ruling over the hearts of those that believe on Yeshua the Messiah. He is the one that is the kingdom of those that their hearts are subject to his own will. He has a rule over the lives of those that trusted in him.

Over your life and of mine. He is the ruler, he is the king and he is the one that is going to rule over our life. It takes like a mystery form. A form that is not seen. We don't see the king, but we see his subjects love him and follow after him and subject themselves to him. There are many verses that we can read, but I think a verse that you are very well aware of concerning the future kingdom where it is mentioned in the Bible in the book of Daniel in chapter 2 and verse 44 it says this.

So we'll have this expression. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. And it shall stand forever. The kingdom when the Messiah will rule and the kingdom which will be not left to other nations or other people of this world, the kingdom that will be given to the Messiah and to the nation of Israel, this is the kingdom that shall never be destroyed and it will stand forever.

What a beautiful thought it must have been when the disciples were sitting around Yeshua the Messiah and hearing what he had to say about the kingdom of God. And so they believed in that. They believed in the resurrection of the Messiah, but they also believed in the coming establishing of the kingdom of God upon the face of this earth. And you and I need to believe it and to hope for that day to come back to this world. Thy kingdom come, we read in the Gospel of Matthew. Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come. This is the prayer that we need to pray for as well for coming day.

So this one is mentioned in verse 3 B. Now here's the next thing that the Lord Jesus taught these believers and that they did believe is they also believed that the spirit of God will lead them and empower them in the preaching of God's word. Now I know that we talk a lot about the Holy Spirit of God. But we have to realize that the Holy Spirit of God is a real person. The Holy Spirit of God is a divine person. Just the same like we have God the Father, we have God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is a divine person.

He's being grieved when we grieve him. He's being quenched when we do not give him liberty, but he also using the people of God for the proclamation of the word of God. And you know, it had been said by someone that if we don't present the message of the gospel in the power of the spirit of God, it is all in vain because the spirit of God will empower the people of God to proclaim the message of the word of God. And so notice that in this verses verse 4 being assembled together with them, he commended them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father which he says, ye have heard of me.

John truly baptized you with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. You see in verses 4 and 5 we learned that Yeshua told them, look, you go back to the city of Jerusalem and you will wait for the promise of the Father. What did the Father promise? The Father have already promised which we read it in the Gospels that he will give the believers the Holy Spirit of God. You know, the Holy Spirit of God is a real person. It's not merely feeling or wind. It is a real divine person, God, one of the persons of the Godhead.

He will come and will indwell every believer and will unite them together. And so he's telling them, you shall receive that power of the Holy Spirit of God. And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the time or the seasons, verse 7, which the Father had put in his own power, but ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Spirit is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and in the uttermost parts of the earth. You notice this expression power.

It said sometime when we think of the spirit of God as someone to be for us as a person that we can use him as we please in our own way, in our own will and we don't recognize that the spirit of God is a divine person and he has the power to work in lives, the power to change individuals, the power to redeem a soul that was doomed to eternal separation from God, a power to make a switch, a change in the life of a person. Now if the spirit of God will not work, what's the use?

What's the use for us to just talk in the energy of our own flesh without to be led by the Holy Spirit of God? There's no value in that. Everything that we do that is not in the power of the spirit of God, actually it's the power of the flesh. It's a human power. And a human power not getting it will never get us anywhere. It must be the power of the spirit of God. You remember Romans 1:16 when Paul was writing to the Romans believers at Rome, he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of the Messiah for it is not as you would say with the power.

It is the power, the dynamite of God unto salvation to everyone that believe. In the gospel message presented by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, it enabled for a sinful individual to turn about and come to faith in Yeshua the Messiah and their destiny will change. Instead of heading into eternal separation from God, a person who are redeemed, who the spirit of God worked in his or her soul, his or her destiny is changing because of the work that the Holy Spirit of God would do. And that's what we should trust in. Beloved brothers and sisters, these early believers did not believe in their own power to change life, but they believed in the power of the spirit of God.

Most of us have family members and we sometime wonder, why aren't they seeing what we see? Why they don't believe in Yeshua? Why they don't recognize that they are sinners? Why they don't realize that God loves them and he sent the Messiah for them? Why is it? Well, you know the reason why? It is because they need the work, the power of the spirit of God to work in their hearts. We cannot change them. We cannot doesn't matter what we say and how much we shove verses into their hearts and to their mind, it does not matter.

A person need the work of the spirit of God in their soul in order for that person to come to faith in Yeshua the Messiah. And so he's telling them, you will receive power after that the Holy Spirit of God will come upon you. And then he said, and you are going to be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. The spirit of God will enable you to witness for me, to be a testimony for me, to be a witnesses of the fact that God loved you so much, loved us so much and given his son gave us a way whereby we can receive forgiveness of sins.

You are going to be witnessing. You notice it's not witnessing about the church, it's not witnessing about Israel, it's not witnessing about ourselves, but it says ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and uttermost part of the earth. The witness of the Holy Spirit is concerning the person of the Lord Jesus the Messiah. That's what we should witness about. We should witness about the person of Yeshua the Messiah, who he was, what did he do? The price that he paid in order that we will receive forgiveness of sins.

That's what we are to witness and it is the spirit of God that is going to work in the lives of people to bring them to the knowledge of the Messiah, to convict them, to bring about a work in their hearts towards the Lord Jesus the Messiah. Well, you see this brothers and sisters that they believe in the resurrection of the Messiah. And then they believe in a future kingdom to be restored one day to the nation of Israel. But they also believed that if they are going to preach to be witnesses, faithful witnesses to the Lord, they are going to need the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

It was the prophet of Israel who said many years ago to Israel not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. It is the spirit of God. He's the one that convict individuals. Nobody is yet a child of God unless the spirit of God doesn't work in his or her soul. And we should trust it. And we should allow the Holy Spirit of God to be the one that is working in the lives of individuals. It is the power, it is the dynamite. That's what we want. I tell you when a person is being exposed to the spirit of God, that person as the spirit of God working in his or her soul will ultimately turn to the Lord and receive the gift of salvation.

And so we are exalted to preach the word, to share the word in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. We should really examine ourselves sometime. Do we share the message of the gospel in the energy of the flesh? Do we pride ourselves in our ability? Do we pride ourselves in our intellect or in a mental knowledge or physical capabilities? You know, there is no value. It does not speak to souls if it is being done in the power of a human energy. We need to do it in the power of the spirit of God.

And that's wonderful when the spirit of God works, a person will ultimately turn to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah as their Lord and Savior. And so they believe in the resurrection. They believed as well in the coming kingdom, but they also believed in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And now fourthly and lastly notice here in the same verses in verses 9, 10 and 11 they also believed in his return, the Messiah returned back to this earth. You notice it says here, and when he had spoken these things, verse 9, while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.

I would have liked to see that sight. You know, he was on Mount of Olives, Har HaZeitim in Jerusalem. And they were looking and he was taken up and up and up. He was taken away from them. He was disappearing from them. Now you have left in a sense, you have gone into the presence of the Father. He was taken up and they literally saw him taken up. And they were looking up. And imagine most of them, if not all of them, were Galileans. And so it says here that while they were looking steadfastly towards heaven as he went up in verse 10 two men stood by them with a white apparel which also said and they told them, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

And then notice this expression, this same Jesus, this same Yeshua which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come again in the same or in the like manner as he have seen him go into heaven. That's beautiful as well, brothers and sisters. You know, today a lot of people do not believe in the return of the Lord. They don't believe that the Lord is going to return. They think that all what we have here in the scripture is only a story. It's just a story that we have. We can read a nice book, but there is no return according to them.

There is no return of the Lord back to this world. I would like to say today, brothers and sisters, on the basis of what we read here in the word of God that the Lord Jesus is going to come again. He's coming back. He's coming back in a twofold way. Number one, he is coming. It's not he, of course. He's going to come to take his church in a rapture to meet the believers in the air. First Thessalonians chapter 4. But he also coming back to this earth. This same one that was rejected by men is going to come back to this world.

By the way, we don't have here yet the truth of the rapture of the church. That's with this information we learned later on. Those Jewish believers did not know about the church as yet. They did not know about the rapture as yet. That was given information a little bit later, but they were occupied with the Lord's coming again to establish the kingdom, to have his rightful place here in this earth. And you see they were even told by these two men, angels appearance and they saying to them, why do you look up steadfastly unto heaven?

Why? And it says this same Jesus. Have you thought for a moment when you read such a thing, this same Yeshua? You know, the same Yeshua that 2,000 years ago was walking here. The same Yeshua that men reject him and say, I do not want to hear about you. The same Yeshua that was once taken by wicked hands and hung upon a cross, a Roman cross where people spit at him, where they mocked him, where they laughed at him, where he was scourged by the Roman soldiers, when he was beaten by the Jewish leaders, where he was hanging on a cross and men says, crucify him, crucify him.

The same Jesus that was once rejected and spit at upon is the same Yeshua that is going to come again. The very same one, not another, not a different one. The one that was despised is the one that is going to come. The one that was rejected is the one that will have to be accepted. The one that people laughed at is the same one that is going to come that every knee will have to bow before him. Everyone will have to acknowledge him that he is the one that came to this world to pay for the penalty of our sins.

In the book of Philippians I just want to read these verses that come to my mind. It says here, listen to these verses. Let this mind be in you, Philippians 2:5 which was also in the Messiah Yeshua who being in the form of God he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation and he took upon himself the form of a servant and he was made in the likeness of men and being found in a fashion as men, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death and death, the death of the cross.

Therefore God have highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth. And that every tongue would confess that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Guest (Male): Amen.

Gideon Levytam: You know, it's precious, isn't it? The one that was despised is the one that will be acknowledged by men one day. This same Jesus, this same Yeshua which was taken up from you into heaven, he will come. I use here the word like manner. He going to come in the same way. You remember again, brothers and sisters, Revelation chapter 1 where John see the revelation of the Messiah. He says, behold, he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all the kindles of the earth shall wail because of him.

Even so, amen. Every eye will see him. He's coming in power and in glory, the same Jesus. The same Yeshua, brothers and sisters, is going to come again. Do we believe in the coming again of our blessed Lord? Everyone of us just says, I surely believe. Just the same like the first disciples believed in the coming of the Lord. The first Jewish disciples, I want to emphasize why? Because it is those in the city of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago early, even before the church was formed, they believed that he's coming. They believed that no other but the same Yeshua is going to come back to this earth.

And how it does good to the heart when he's going to come and have his rightful place here in this world, the same Jesus that you and I believe on him today. We never seen him whom having not seen ye love. Peter said that. We never seen him, but we are going to see him one day face to face when he's going to come to take his rightful place here in this world. May the Lord hasten this day. May Yeshua come very soon and take his rightful place here upon the face of this earth. Brothers and sisters, that just came to my mind because I will just came from Jerusalem and these things were part of our conference where we were dealing with the work of the Lord among the Jewish people.

What did they believe? They believe exactly what you and I are exalted to believe in the resurrection. He died, he was buried, he rose. In the future kingdom that is going to come is going to be established one day. And we are today in a mystery form, in a kingdom where he's ruling over our own life. We believed also in the power of the spirit of God that salvation will come about as the Holy Spirit of God working in lives of people. And they also and we also believe in the coming of the Lord, in the second coming as well as in the rapture of the church when he is going to meet the church in the cloud.

Well, this is a thought that I want to share with you today and I trust that you and I will be encourage to continue to follow after Yeshua our Messiah. Can we say amen to that? Amen.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levitan. 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 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. 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.