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: The study of Acts chapter two. If you remember we find them many times that there was a ministry of the Holy Spirit in the history of the nation of Israel. The Holy Spirit of God took part in creation, Genesis chapter one verses one and two. The Holy Spirit of God came upon King Saul for ministry, came upon King David for ministry. The Holy Spirit of God came upon Gideon in Judges chapter six for ministry. But he came and he have gone. He came for special ministry, for special service and he have gone. But never before the spirit of God indwelt every individual believer and never to leave that individual, never to depart from this individual.

It's right here in the book of Acts. That's where we find out the beginning of the spirit of God not only coming upon a believer but indwelling a believer. Never to depart from a child of God. So if the Holy Spirit of God going to come down to this world, if the Holy Spirit of God the first time is coming to this earth to form the body of Messiah, there are certain things that are evident. There was something to hear, there was something to see and there was something to say. You can see in these three verses that there are some things that they have heard and there are some things that they have seen and there are some things that they have said and spoken.

Verse two says suddenly he says there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Here we see the thing that they have heard. They have heard a sound. You know we see the effects of the wind but we never see the wind. The same word for the Holy Spirit or the spirit in the Hebrew is the same word for wind in the Hebrew. and The wind we don't see but the consequence or the result or the effect that is left from the movement of the wind we can see.

Well what happened here they didn't see the spirit coming but what did they see? What did they hear? They heard a sound that came. It says that suddenly they came a sound. It came from heaven and as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting. This house must have experienced such a sound when the Holy Spirit of God came. The house it may have been next door to the temple, maybe even portion of the temple at that time. We read here about the upper room in the earlier chapter but nevertheless brothers and sisters the Holy Spirit of God came.

And the Holy Spirit of God came there was a sound that it says here like a mighty rushing wind and it's filled all the house when they were dwelling. The Holy Spirit of God was descending and coming down to this world to form the body of Messiah. Secondly we read in the next verse not only that what they have heard but look what they have seen. It says in verse three and they appeared unto them cloven tongues. In the Greek that word for cloven tongues is parted tongue. It says cloven tongue is like as of fire and it set upon each of them.

In other word the way that the spirit of God reveal himself at that particular time when he came down on earth it's like a flame of fire that is parted in the middle and it was resting upon each and everyone of them. It was a special revelation from God that had been given at that present time for this unique experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit of God to form the body of Messiah. So they have heard verse two, they have seen in verse three and here's the third thing and they have spoken in verse four.

It says and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. You notice how many time the word spirit is mentioned here in these verses. It's mentioned that in verse four it's mentioned that the Holy Spirit they were filled with the Holy Spirit and then it says that the spirit gave them utterance to speak. And you notice that it says here that they spoke with other tongues. Now let's be clear brothers and sisters. The Greek word here for tongue is glossa. It's the simple word it can apply actually to the member of the body that we have that is tongue which the Lord had given us to speak with or it can refer to a language simply a known and recognized language that God enabled these early believers to speak.

They never gone to school for that, they never took a course for that, they never had to go through some sort of time in Bible school for that. It was a gift that was given for that moment to reveal to the nation of Israel that a new era has begun. So we see how that their Holy Spirit of God, the noise that they have heard, the cloven tongues as of fire that they have seen and the language that they began to speak. What really happened here brothers and sisters is that here the Holy Spirit of God form them together and put them together into one body, one goof as we say in Hebrew, one body united together belong to Yeshua.

He is the head in heaven, they are the body here on earth. And as we read in first Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13 that by one spirit we all have been baptized or put into the body of Messiah, the body of Christ. The same way they have been placed into the body of Messiah, you and I today have been placed into the body of Messiah, the body of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit of God that worked in our lives and in our hearts. After we have accepted the Lord Jesus the Messiah as our Lord and Savior he placed us into that body.

There's no need of repetition of what happened in Acts chapter two because it is one time that happened in the city of Jerusalem but automatically when you and I accepting Yeshua the Messiah he places us into this body. We are members of this body. Yeshua Jesus is the head, he's our Lord, he's our head. We are members of this body. Composition of Jews and Gentiles in the body of Messiah. By the way in this case they were totally Jewish. All of the people that were here were Jewish Israelites, Hebrews who have accepted the Messiah. There were some proselytes who came from elsewhere but they believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But now he begins something that is totally different and new. Now every person that accept Yeshua the Messiah does not need to come into the nation of Israel like Rahab did, like Ruth did, like many others did but they are automatically wherever they are located they are part of the body of Yeshua the Messiah. And this is beautiful. You remember that when Rahab they have accepted the God of Israel she said we have heard about the God, your God. We have heard about him and what he have done to the nations and she believed in the God of Israel and she enter into the house of Israel by accepting the God of Israel.

You remember Ruth the Moabite woman. She said to Naomi your people are my people. Your God is my God. Where you go I will go, where you bury there will I be buried also. But she had to enter to become like a proselyte, enter into the nation of Israel to come part of the nation of Israel accepting the God of Israel. But beloved listen, this is very precious here. It is of course the same God of Israel. It's not a different God but forming the body of Christ, the body of Messiah is a new beginning, is a new thing that just started here.

And now every believer in the world today including Sudan, including Jerusalem, including Toronto, including every nation in this world, Canada, America, every believer in Yeshua the Messiah become part of the body of the Messiah. The different between this body and the nation of Israel that the church is a heavenly company. Israel is a nation is an earthly company. The church was chosen in the Messiah before the foundation of the world, Ephesians chapter one. Israel was chosen by God from the foundation of the world. Yeshua said it in Matthew chapter 25. So here they were all filled, they were baptized into that one body.

And now there's the beginning of the new entity called the assembly, the church, the ecclesia. And so beloved brothers and sisters we find out that the spirit of God came and he baptized those individual believers and filled them and united them into one body. And so they heard, they saw and they spoke. Now when they spoke notice what they spoke. You notice that in the next verses we see now the Holy Spirit of God not only that he baptized them and united them into one body. Now in these less verses here verses five to 13 the spirit of God was speaking and through the believers glorifying or speaking of the greatness of the works of God.

And look at this in this beautiful thing it says here in verse five they were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews. Now again why Jews? Why Jewish? Because Jerusalem is the home of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem is the place where the Jewish people were called to three times a year to come the mail men to come to celebrate those feast. They had to be there in a feast of Passover, in a feast of Pentecost, in the feast of Tabernacles. They had to come. And so here we find out there were Jews there devout men out of every nation under heaven.

They came to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Shavuot, the feast of Pentecost, the feast of 50th. And then it says when this was noise abroad verse six the multitude came together and they were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own dialect. This time the word here is dialektos in the Greek. It's not glossa. In verse six it's dialektos. You see the multitudes that came. Now by the way how these multitudes have heard about what's happened? That's why some suggest that the house that we read about in the verse two of this chapter may very well be connected with the temple, with the Beit HaMikdash where the temple was and there were multitude there.

And when they have heard the sound that filled this house they gathered and they came forward and they wanted to know what is that. She says what is going on here? You see what it says in verse six. It says because every man heard them speak in their own dialect. In other word they heard the early Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah speaking and glorifying God in various languages. Now let me tell you it was not gibberish, it was not something that they could not understand. It was clearly a language that was given to these people to be able to speak so their rest of those Jewish people who were gathered that could listen to what they were telling them about the great greatness and works of God.

And so they heard and they said how come? He says what's going on? They were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own dialect. Now somebody asked the question what is the miracle here? Is the miracle is in the speaking or the miracle is in the hearing? You notice not only that they have spoke in all kind of languages and we can see we can hear about these languages in a moment but they also heard the others heard it in their own dialect. The miracle here is that the Holy Spirit of God descended form the body of Messiah here and the spirit of God used those believers to minister to share or to praise God in languages that they have never never learned before.

On the other hands the multitude, the unbelieving multitude who were still there they have heard the proclamation of the greatness of God in their very own language and dialect. I think it's very precious. You know when I heard for the first time about Jesus the Messiah in my Hebrew mother's tongue it did so good to my soul. I remember that because I've heard of Christians speaking their own language or they say cross and Christ and Jesus and crucified and this language was very foreign to me. But when I heard somebody say Mashiach and Yeshua and presenting the message of the gospel in my mother's tongue, in my Hebrew tongue, it really left an impression upon me and I am sure brothers and sisters all of us here that come from various countries when you hear the message of the gospel or in this case when you hear the praises of God in your own language, in your own dialect it does something because God in his grace provided now the languages of all the nations of the world that the message of the love of God and the grace of God can be proclaimed in every language upon the face of this earth.

What a contrast by the way with what happened in Genesis chapter 11 in the tower of Babel. Genesis chapter 11 you remember there God confounded their language that they would not be able to understand each other. And you know why? Because there in the tower of Babel the people there sought to have name for themselves. They set aside God and they wanted to get to heaven with their own merit. And God says no I'm going to judge you. And he gave them different languages not to unite them but to divide them. But what happened here brothers and sisters?

The many languages that were given here is not to divide them but to unite them. What a beautiful truth we learn here in Acts chapter two. And so this is so precious because they've heard them speaking in their own dialect and they were all amazed in verse seven and they marveled and they send one to another. She says look are not all these that speak Galileans? See apparently the people who came to the city of Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the father. Remember most of the disciples were from Galilee, from the north of Israel.

They were Galilean, they were coming from the north of Israel. They came down to the city of Jerusalem and they were waiting for the spirit of God to put them into that one body and they were waiting for him to come but they were Galilean and by the way the Galilean were not known to be eloquent. The Galilean were not known to be those that were spiritually in a sense that as if they know the word and so on. They were Galilean, they were in the north. You remember what we read about even about Yeshua.

Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Nazareth was in the north of Israel. The Galilean were not looked upon in a positive way and they look at them and they saw and they heard them speaking in their own tongue and they asked are not those Galilean? And then they said in verse eight how we hear every man in our own dialektos in the Greek where we were born. I was born in this place and he was born in that place and she was born in that city and everyone that was born and they could hear the presentation of the works of God in their own dialect, not only language but even in their languages, their various dialects.

My mother used to watch television in Jerusalem and she used to watch many of the Arabic speaking movies many years ago. And I remember she used to tell me all the time that she really loved the Arabic of the Egyptian because of the way that they were speaking. There was more melody to the language. There were other Arabic dialect of Arabic language but she loved that one particular, the Egyptian type of Arabic because of their dialect, because of the way it has been expressed. It's almost like music in the speaking. And it is amazing that everyone could hear the message concerning the works of God in their very own dialect.

And so it gives us here beloved brothers and sisters in verses nine, 10 and 11, the first part of verse 11 it give us a list of the languages in the dialect. It says here Parthians and Medes and Elamites, dwellers of Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt. Oh Egypt is here as well. Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians. There were Cretes and Arabians. All these languages that we have there, Jewish people who gathered from all the nations of the world to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, the feast of Shavuot. And those that were proselytes who believed in the God of Israel came into this area to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Shavuot and they were privileged to hear the message concerning the works of God in their own dialect.

And so beloved listen. At the end of these verses 12 and 13 we find out that the people that heard the message here, what did they hear? They hear about the wondrous works of God or the wonderful works of God. See those early church saints and now they became really part of what is known as the assembly, the church united together. Do you know what they did? This first ministry or first time that they have heard that the spirit of God came and united them into that one body they were speaking and letting everybody know their wonderful works of God.

They may have told everybody about the promises of God that the Messiah will come, about the promises of God that have been fulfilled. They have been speaking about Yeshua Jesus, the Lord, the Messiah who came about his love and his grace, about his willingness to go to the cross to die for the sin of this world, about the greatness and the promises that we have through him. They were praising God, they were speaking in these all these dialects, their wonderful works that God have done. They were not speaking about themselves, they were not saying look at me, I know to speak this language.

They not say oh look at me, I'm able to speak in many kind of thing. Look what I'm doing. No, they were not occupied with themselves. They were occupied with God, with the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, with the greatness of his person and the things that he have done. That's what they were occupied with. That's what they were mentioning all around the city there. Everybody heard those who came especially from the surrounding area and they were listening to the wonderful works of God. Well whenever you're going to speak about Yeshua the Messiah, whenever you're going to say some things about God to any place, anybody in this world you will have always more than one group.

There were those that were very happy to hear. And there are others who think that you are strange. You see it says here in verse 12 they were all amazed. And they were in doubt and they said one to another what does that mean? What does that mean? We never seen that before. And they were wondering, they were amazed at what happened there. And they were puzzled. And perhaps God began to touch their hearts and to began to plow their conscience, to show them that Yeshua truly is the Messiah. Later on we'll find out that 3,000 people came to faith.

But then there were others. And look at the others in verse 13. They were mocking. They were saying these people are drunk. These people are full of new wine. They were drunk. What do they do? Look at them. They're drunk. They're full of new wine. Well the Bible tells us that we are not to be drunk with wine, Ephesians chapter five but that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And you see they were not drunk with wine but they were filled with the Holy Spirit of God. But the estimation of the unbelievers who are mocking the believers were wrong, were down 100% wrong because these men and women who began the body of Messiah, the church of the living God, the first early Jewish believers, they were full of the Holy Spirit of God.

And they glorified God, they praised the Messiah Yeshua and they presented the wonderful works of God. You and I today when we presenting the gospel and I'm sure that our brother presenting the message in his country there people who say what you telling us? We don't want to hear about these Jesus, this Yeshua. But there are those brothers and sisters that have accept him and embrace him and recognize the price that Jesus the Messiah paid for them. They fall in love with him and they bow to him and says Lord, I want you to be the Lord of my life.

I want to invite you into my life. I want to accept you as my Messiah, my Lord, my Savior. And everyone that accepted Yeshua become part of the assembly of the church, of the Lord Jesus the Messiah. And here we are today some Jewish, some none. Everyone of us that believe in Yeshua the Messiah is part of this assembly, of this church, of this called out one. And how privileged you and I are to be part of this body. Can you say amen to that? Amen.

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 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.