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Jason Sobel- A Testament to Faith and Healing - Signs & Secrets of the Messiah
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00:00Last week, we began our journey into the healing at the Pool of Bethesda.
00:04Right now, we're going to uncover more of the secrets Yeshua unveiled.
00:09Echoing from the powerful moments at Mount Sinai, challenging tradition,
00:14Yeshua stirred the pot with actions that resonated hope and questioned the expected.
00:21Discovered connections between Yeshua's miracles and ancient scripture revealing profound truths.
00:28From life-altering healings to freedom's promises, we're discovering where the past meets the present.
00:36Unearth hidden symbols and delve into mysteries that will redefine your understanding of Yeshua and this miracle in particular.
00:45This is Signs and Secrets of the Messiah.
01:26Shavuot
01:27or Pentecost.
01:28It's when God gave us the Torah, which is a really big deal.
01:33The Torah and Ten Commandments were the first big tool
01:36to help the Israelites build the foundation of a nation.
01:41God was showing his people what it looked like
01:44to live out his will.
01:46In a lot of ways, Shavuot is celebrating
01:49how God gave us wisdom and a tool to get closer to him.
01:54In order to build a relationship with God,
01:57the Israelites in the desert needed wisdom and direction,
02:02tangibly expressed through mitzvot commandments and practices.
02:06This would allow them to live out God's covenant
02:08in concrete ways.
02:10They needed structure.
02:12These are a group of people freshly freed from slavery.
02:15In Egypt, life was bad, but it was predictable.
02:19Now, in the wilderness, life doesn't seem
02:22to have really improved much.
02:24And to top it all off, everything is kind of up in the air.
02:28They were worried about getting their next meal,
02:31questioning if they'd even made the right decision
02:34by leaving Egypt.
02:36When God gave the Torah, he showed the Israelites a plan.
02:40He revealed things that could help them in their lives right now.
02:44But in order for the Israelites to receive the message,
02:48they had to first be healed.
02:50I mean, think of it this way.
02:52If someone came to you after you had just broken your arm
02:56and tried to explain something to you,
02:59would you be able to pay attention?
03:00Probably not.
03:02You would be focused on the pain in your arm.
03:05In order for the Israelites to receive the Torah,
03:08to hear this message from God, they needed healing first.
03:12When the Israelites were in the wilderness,
03:14they had their physical needs met.
03:16The Lord fed his people mana and quail.
03:19They had food to sustain them.
03:21They received water from the rock to keep them hydrated.
03:25This was like a holy rehabilitation,
03:28not just physically, but spiritually too.
03:31The people went through a process of learning
03:33to trust God for all their needs,
03:36to lean on him for their daily bread.
03:39And this is where healing comes in.
03:40According to the rabbis in Jewish tradition,
03:44God didn't just provide sustenance for his people.
03:46He also healed so many of their sicknesses.
03:50Healing and health had to come before God gave the Torah.
03:55Third century Talmud scholar,
03:58Rabbi Yoshua Ben Levi said,
04:00When Israel left Egypt,
04:02there were among them men who were crippled by heavy labor.
04:06For as they worked in clay and bricks,
04:08now and then a stone dropping from the structure,
04:10would break a man's arm or sever his leg.
04:13Hence the Holy One said,
04:15It's not right for me to give my Torah to those that are broken invalids.
04:21What did he do?
04:22He beckoned to the ministering angels and they came down and healed them.
04:27This angel appearing is amazing because it's another Easter egg connecting back to the pool of Bethesda.
04:35In some versions of John 5, there was an angel that came down and literally stirred the water of the
04:42pool of Bethesda before the crippled man would go in.
04:45And in Jewish tradition, an angel came down on Mount Sinai and healed all the people.
04:52This might all be new information to you.
04:55You may not have known about the healing at Mount Sinai.
04:58These are the things we can miss if we don't investigate the scripture on a deeper level.
05:04Let me show you how we know that healing happened.
05:08God healed the deaf.
05:10We know that because Exodus tells us that everyone heard the voice of God.
05:15Everyone heard.
05:17He healed those who couldn't walk because we know everyone stood at Sinai according to the scripture.
05:23They all had to be able to stand.
05:26They all had to be able to hear the voice of God.
05:28These were broken people with broken bodies who had just also experienced broken spirits after hundreds of years in Egypt.
05:38Like Rabbi Yahshua Ben Levi said, these men were crippled from years of intense labor.
05:46They were subjected to all sorts of horrible working conditions when they were enslaved.
05:51Just the simple fact that all of them could stand at Mount Sinai is a miracle.
05:57So there they all were at Har Sinai, Mount Sinai, seeing the fire, the lightning, hearing the thunder.
06:06The way it's told in Exodus, it's like they could see God's words as if they were something you could
06:12touch.
06:13Kind of like seeing supernatural sound waves.
06:17Now, why did God do all this healing?
06:19Because he was about to make a promise to them, a bleep, a covenant.
06:24And this covenant wasn't just for the people standing there at the foot of Mount Sinai.
06:29It was for everyone, for all generations to come.
06:34God didn't want anyone to feel left out because their ancestor couldn't hear or see or stand at Mount Sinai.
06:41You see, standing is kind of like shaking hands on a deal, giving your word or witnessing something important.
06:48We stand when we stand when we take an oath or make an agreement.
06:51So everyone had to be healed before the Torah was given.
06:55They were about to enter into this amazing, holy relationship with God.
07:02And God wanted them to be well for it.
07:21We've been looking at the sign and secret of healing at the pool of Bethesda, but there is some controversy
07:29and disagreement surrounding the pool itself.
07:32You know, for many years, critics and skeptics said there was no actual pool of Bethesda.
07:39They thought John had made it up.
07:41It had symbolic purpose.
07:43But then in 1888, as they were doing excavations, they actually found the pool and put all of the haters
07:51to shame, just like the Bible always does.
07:54You can trust it. It is accurate.
07:57But then there's also another controversy surrounding it.
08:02You know, the pool of Bethesda is located on the northeast corner of the temple, close to the Antonio Fortress.
08:10They actually believe that it was a pagan site known as an Asclepion, which is a ritual shrine for healing
08:20found throughout the Roman world.
08:23But I actually don't agree with that at all.
08:25I think it's wrong.
08:26I know there's debate among scholars, but I think that it's so close to the temple that there is no
08:32possible way that the Jewish community, that the religious leaders of the day were going to let that fly and
08:38have a pagan shrine.
08:39So close to the holiest site for the Jewish people.
08:44What do I think it was?
08:45I believe it was actually what is known as a mikveh or a mikveh, which is a ritual pool for
08:52immersion.
08:53They were absolutely essential, and there were many of them here in Jerusalem.
08:59And the two biggest would have been the Pool of Siloam, which is to the south.
09:06And then the other biggest one would have been the Pool of Bethesda.
09:09Why were such big pools needed?
09:11Because every single individual, all of the pilgrims that came up here to Jerusalem to worship in the Beit HaMikdash,
09:19to worship in God's house, had to immerse in a body of water.
09:24They're again known as a mikveh because the water would spiritually purify and cleanse the individual.
09:32So they would go from the state of being tamay, impure, to a state of being tahor, ritually clean.
09:38Because when you come into God's house, you have to be clean, spiritually and ritually speaking.
09:46And the mikveh represented not only a cleansing and a purification, but also an elevation to a new status.
09:55And literally, when you go up to Jerusalem and up the steps into the temple, you're making aliyah, you're making
10:02a spiritual ascent.
10:04And so it's significant.
10:06The mikveh was washing away the spiritual dirt, but it was washing away, in a sense, the shame and the
10:14pain for the man at the Pool of Bethesda.
10:17Such rich biblical and spiritual significance here.
10:21And this forms the background for what John the Baptist or John the mikveh man was doing out in the
10:28wilderness.
10:28And also forms the background for believers' baptism found in the New Testament.
10:34What Yeshua did for this man, he wants to do for you.
10:38He wants to wash away your pain and shame and make you new, a new creation and Messiah.
10:48The healing at Mount Sinai was a miracle to behold.
10:52Like we've already discussed, Yeshua Jesus had a big task.
10:57He was prophesied to be a prophet greater than Moses.
11:00That meant we needed to see Yeshua pulling off miracles that were even greater than the ones God used Moses
11:08to perform.
11:09But he also had to bring the events of the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, full circle.
11:15In the act of healing the man at Bethesda, Yeshua reveals himself as far more than a simple prophet.
11:24He's greater than Moses.
11:26He's the promised Messiah.
11:28The disciples of John the Baptist once asked him directly,
11:32Are you the coming one or do we look for another?
11:35Yeshua didn't answer with a simple yes or no.
11:56You see, Jesus knew that anyone could make a claim to be the promised Messiah.
12:03But actions speak louder than words.
12:06These miracles were a calling card and made sure everyone knew who he truly was.
12:13These signs weren't just performed on a whim.
12:17In the Old Testament, specifically in the book of Isaiah,
12:20we see various prophecies about the healing abilities of the Mashiach, the Messiah.
12:26Yeshua's actions were a live demonstration of these prophecies being fulfilled.
12:33His healing showed that he wasn't just another healer, but the ultimate physician,
12:40ready and able to heal not just physical ailments, but spiritual ones as well.
12:46In John 5, Yeshua healed a man on Shabbat, the Sabbath.
12:50And this got the religious leaders of his time pretty upset.
12:53On the Sabbath, Jewish people aren't supposed to do any labor at all.
12:59It's a day of complete and holy rest.
13:01This is a really bad look in the eyes of some of the very powerful religious people.
13:07But Yeshua was unfazed.
13:10He was clear about his purpose.
13:12He was there to do his father's work.
13:15On the Sabbath or any other day,
13:17this is his way of saying that there's never a wrong time to help someone in need.
13:22Why is healing on the Shabbat, the Sabbath, so significant?
13:27It's not just to ruffle the feathers of religious elite.
13:30There's more to it.
13:32It ties back to when God gave the Torah at Mount Sinai.
13:39Just as God healed on the Sabbath at Mount Sinai,
13:43Yeshua did the same.
13:45He was only doing what he'd seen his father do.
13:55When Yeshua spoke throughout the Gospels,
13:57it was as if God was speaking at Mount Sinai.
14:01His voice carried the same authority, the same power.
14:05It's the very same voice that thundered at Har Sinai, Mount Sinai,
14:09and echoed through the words of Yeshua.
14:12In an amazing declaration, Yeshua proclaims,
14:17Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,
14:20so also the Son gives life to whomever he wants, John 5, 21.
14:26Next, Yeshua drops this line,
14:29Whoever hears my words and trusts the one who sent me has eternal life.
14:35Those who hear will live.
14:37He's saying, I'm initiating a new agreement here.
14:41Just like the one at Sinai, you've got to believe in my words.
14:46Follow them, and then you'll find eternal life.
14:50The ultimate goal of the Torah,
14:52it's about building a bridge between us and the Lord
14:56so that we can find life, Chaim.
14:59We're called to latch onto God, to grip his word tightly.
15:03The Lord invites us to embrace Yeshua,
15:07who embodies both God and his living word.
15:10This new covenant Yeshua speaks about isn't simply a contract,
15:15but a more profound, heartfelt commitment,
15:19deeply interwoven with a concept integral to Jewish tradition, chesed.
15:25It is often translated as loving kindness or mercy,
15:29but it goes so much deeper than that.
15:32It's about a steadfast, unconditional, covenantal type of love,
15:38the kind that's ready to give without expecting anything in return.
15:42It's an enduring love that persists even in the face of betrayal.
15:48So here's how it fits in.
15:50When God gave the Torah at Mount Sinai,
15:53it wasn't a list of do's and don'ts to be followed blindly.
15:57Instead, it was more like an offer of relationship,
16:01an invitation to a commitment rooted in chesed, loving kindness.
16:07And it's this very covenant of chesed that Yeshua was echoing
16:11when he healed the man on the Shabbat, the Sabbath.
16:15Yeshua's healing, including the one at Bethesda,
16:18were an embodiment of this chesed,
16:21a testament to the overflowing kindness of God
16:25and his desire for our well-being.
16:27By saying, whoever hears my words and trusts in the one who sent me
16:32has eternal life,
16:34Yeshua was inviting us into this renewed covenant.
16:38Just as the people of Israel committed to trust
16:42and obey God's mitzvot commandments given at Mount Sinai,
16:46Yeshua was asking us to believe in his words
16:49and obey them to enter into the renewed covenant.
16:52But of course, there is more.
16:56This very moment was a fulfillment of prophecy in Deuteronomy 18.
17:01God tells Moses,
17:27Yeshua by saying that those who hear him will live
17:31directly links to this prophecy.
17:34It points to the truth again
17:36that he is the prophet greater than Moses.
17:49Now, let's explore something Yeshua once said.
17:53He said,
17:55whoever hears my words and trusts the one who sent me
17:58has eternal life.
18:00Basically, what he meant was,
18:02just like the promise God made at Sinai
18:05because he loved us,
18:07I'm making a new one.
18:09Like the Israelites hearing and following God's word at Sinai,
18:13Yeshua told the crippled man,
18:15you've got to believe in my words and follow them.
18:19Enter into this new covenant I'm offering
18:21and you'll get eternal life.
18:23But if you don't,
18:25it won't end well.
18:26This is Yeshua laying out his vision and purpose for all of us.
18:31It's a beautiful message.
18:33The whole world can enter into a covenant with God,
18:37but not everyone was a fan of his message.
18:40The religious leaders were holding on to a tradition
18:44that in this case wasn't aligned with the teaching of the Torah,
18:48the scripture.
18:49They didn't want Yeshua stirring the pot.
18:52They were upset that he healed a man on the Shabbat,
18:55the Sabbath.
18:56Don't forget about what Yeshua told the leaders
19:00who got upset when he healed the man in John 5.
19:03He said,
19:04Do not think that I will accuse you before the father.
19:07The one who accuses you is Moses in whom you have put your hope.
19:12For if you believe Moses,
19:15you would have believed me because he wrote about me.
19:18But since you don't believe his writings,
19:20how will you believe my words?
19:24Yeshua's words link right back to the words God spoke at Mount Sinai.
19:32Yeshua said the stuff the Israelites heard at Mount Sinai
19:36was all about him.
19:38Yeshua obviously has an infinite understanding of the Torah.
19:42He knows these words because he is the word.
19:45This is another moment of holy chutzpah.
19:48Yeshua is calling out the religious leaders
19:51because he knows the connection between him and Moses
19:55should be obvious to them.
19:56If they really believed in what Moses said,
20:00they would have no choice but to believe in him, Yeshua.
20:07Yeshua isn't contradicting scripture at all
20:11when he performed miracles on Shabbat.
20:13In fact, he is showing that he is scripture fulfilled.
20:17When the religious leaders focused on some of their traditions,
20:22instead of knowing the heart of the king,
20:24they were making the same mistake the Israelites made in the desert.
20:28The Israelites didn't trust God.
20:31They didn't believe in him
20:32because they needed to know what was happening.
20:35They wanted the plan laid out.
20:38In the desert, without food and water,
20:41they were ready to turn back to slavery
20:44because it at least meant that things would be predictable.
20:48They were willing to trade freedom for the familiar.
20:52This healing at Bethesda wasn't just for one man.
20:56Yeshua was extending a different kind of healing to the religious leaders.
21:01It's like he was saying,
21:03are you going to be like the generation who left Egypt?
21:06They saw all the miracles,
21:08but they still didn't believe and died in the wilderness.
21:11Are you going to trust and reap the benefits
21:14that comes from believing in the Messiah?
21:17This was an opportunity for them.
21:19Yeshua is showing us what freedom means in John 5
21:23with the healing at Bethesda.
21:25He's showing that he is the one who brings true freedom
21:29and it's a freedom even greater than escaping slavery.
21:33It's an eternal freedom.
21:36Scripture is an important piece of freedom.
21:38This goes all the way back to Exodus
21:41when God first gave the Torah on Shavuot.
21:44If we understand the original Hebrew,
21:47we can see an incredible detail
21:49in something as simple as the engraving of the Ten Commandments.
21:53Exodus 32, 16 says,
21:56the tablets, meaning the Ten Commandments,
21:59were the work of God
22:00and the writing was the writing of God,
22:03engraved on the tablets.
22:05Now the Hebrew word for engrave
22:07Cherut sounds like the Hebrew word for liberty,
22:11Cherut.
22:12So God's word brings freedom
22:15because there's no greater freedom
22:18and no one freer
22:19than one who studies the Torah,
22:22the word of God.
22:23And when you study the Torah,
22:25Lishma, for its own sake,
22:27you are lifted up.
22:29It's your map to freedom.
22:31The religious leaders studied the Torah,
22:33they knew the scripture,
22:35they had the map.
22:37And standing before them
22:39was the physical embodiment
22:41of everything that they had been waiting for.
22:44All they had to do
22:45was make the decision to follow him.
22:52In Matthew,
22:53scripture tells us
22:55that God will separate us
22:56like a shepherd separates the sheep
22:59from the goats,
23:00Matthew 25.
23:02Yeshua is saying to the leaders,
23:04my sheep hear my voice.
23:06Are you going to hear my voice?
23:08Are you going to believe and obey?
23:10If you do,
23:11you will find life eternal.
23:13When Yeshua healed the man at the pool,
23:16it was a sort of demonstration.
23:18He was showing this man
23:19to be one of his true sheep,
23:21pure and innocent,
23:23a living testament of his mercy.
23:26But the leaders still accused him
23:28of breaking the Shabbat.
23:30They knew the cautionary tale
23:33of the Israelites' unbelief.
23:35They knew about the 38 years
23:37of wandering in the desert.
23:39So what would their choice be?
23:41Become a goat and die in the wilderness,
23:44wandering like the generation
23:46that didn't believe God?
23:48Or become a sheep
23:49like Joshua and Caleb?
23:51Only the sheep made it
23:53to the promised land.
23:55Most of the religious leaders
23:56couldn't see it.
23:58They weren't ready to accept
23:59the Brit Hadashah,
24:00the new covenant.
24:01They rejected freedom
24:03because it wasn't familiar.
24:05They aren't the only ones
24:06that have to choose a path.
24:08That's a decision
24:09that each one of us has to make.
24:12Will you be a sheep or a goat?
24:18As we wrap up this journey
24:20into the secrets
24:21within this miraculous healing,
24:23I want to leave you
24:24with one more connection.
24:26I believe this summarizes
24:28what you should take away
24:29from this exploration.
24:31Let's think back
24:32to the number 38.
24:33We've discovered
24:34how it was connected
24:35to the 38 years
24:37spent wandering in the desert
24:39because of unbelief.
24:40We saw how the numerical value
24:42of the phrase
24:43His Heart, Lebo,
24:45equals 38.
24:47Now, let's look
24:48at another connection
24:49in the numbers.
24:51Add the digits 3 and 8,
24:53you get 11.
24:54This is a very significant number
24:56throughout the Bible.
24:57The journey from Mount Sinai
24:59to the promised land
25:00was supposed to be 11 days.
25:03But because the people
25:05lacked faith,
25:06the 11-day journey
25:07turned into a 38-year
25:10wandering in the wilderness.
25:12The number 11
25:13can also symbolize
25:15divine intervention,
25:17spiritual breakthrough.
25:19For instance,
25:20the Israelites
25:21were finally free
25:22after the 11th miracle
25:23when they came out of Egypt
25:25when God split the Red Sea.
25:28Remember Joseph?
25:29He was the 11th son
25:31and in his dream,
25:3211 stars bowed down to him.
25:34His life centered
25:36around the number 11
25:37and God's favor.
25:39The man in John 5
25:41was by the water
25:42waiting for a miracle
25:43like the children of Israel
25:45waiting for the Red Sea to part.
25:47But he couldn't get in.
25:49This is where
25:50the breakthrough is found.
25:51It seems like Yeshua
25:53likes to pull through
25:54at the last minute,
25:56at the 11th hour,
25:58just like John 2
25:59with the water into wine.
26:01The miracle happened
26:03when all the wine
26:05was completely gone.
26:06sometimes we have to come
26:08to the end of our ropes
26:10and have no other option
26:11but to trust him.
26:13Oftentimes,
26:14we have to come
26:15to an end of ourselves
26:16before God can truly
26:18begin to work in us.
26:20Sometimes,
26:20in those dark moments
26:22when healing seems impossible,
26:26Yeshua reignites our hope
26:28and shows us
26:29that he is the ultimate healer
26:31and hope dealer.
26:32This is the end
26:34of our journey
26:34into healing.
26:35But next week,
26:36we're beginning to explore
26:38the signs and secrets
26:40of multiplication.
26:41There's so much more
26:43to explore
26:43from the ways
26:45that we can learn
26:45to trust God
26:46for provision
26:47to the mysteries
26:49of the number seven.
26:50You can't miss it.
26:51I'll see you here next time
26:53on Signs and Secrets
26:55of the Messiah.
27:00I'll see you next time.
27:01of the Messiah.
27:01I'll see you next time.
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