Messianic Audio Teachings

Why was John on the Island of Patmos? The tribulation was already underway in 95 AD. This teaching tells the story behind the book of Revelation from Roman histories, Church legend, and the Chronicles of the Apostles. The story of the Domitian persecution provides clues to unlock the meaning of the book of Revelation.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Revelation 1:9)

Beth Immanuel reveals the Come Home to Hudson campaign, the first of three aggressive campaigns for the new year 5776.

The first campaign invites believers from outside of the local area to pray about relocating to Hudson, WI in order to be part of a Messianic Jewish community and contribute to the work of the kingdom within the congregation of Beth Immanuel.

Exile yourself to a place of Torah, and do not assume that it will come after you, for it is your companions who will cause it to remain with you. (m.Avot 4:18)

In the first chapter of the book of Revelation, the risen Yeshua appears and declares that he holds in his hand "the keys to death and Hades." What are these keys and from where did he acquire them? What do they unlock?

This teaching, presented on Erev Rosh HaShanah 5776, discusses the resurrection of the dead in relationship to the shofar of Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Yochanah said: The Holy One blessed be He has retained three keys in his own hands and not entrusted them into the hand of any messenger: the Key of Rain, the Key of the Womb, and the Key of the Resurrection of the Dead.” (b.Taanit 2a–b)

The last blood moon in a series of four lunar eclipses, each falling on significant holy days, occurs on the first day of Sukkot 5776. Is it a sign from heaven? In this teaching from Beth Immanuel Plugged In, Pastor Lancaster sketches out an overview of the blood moon phenomenon and offers his own interpretation of the astronomical event.

Do we have eternal security or eternal insecurity? Do apostates lose their eligibility for the world to come? A few verses in Hebrews 6 have been a theological battleground for these questions since the earliest days of Christianity.

The things that belong to salvation include the gift of the Spirit, the goodness of the word of God, and the power of the age to come. This sermon deals with the difficult and controversial material in Hebrews 6:4-12.

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

One for the black bird, one for the crow, one for the cutworm, and one to grow.

Is the God of the New Covenant a lot friendlier than the God of the Old Covenant? Conventional Christian teaching depicts the revelation of New Covenant in terms that contradict the image of a stern and fearsome God speaking from Mount Sinai. Was that the intention behind the comparison between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion in Hebrews 12?

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them ... but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." (Hebrews 12:18-24)

Bible teachers often use Hebrews 9 as proof that the disciples of Yeshua abandoned the Old Testament rituals of Temple worship and sacrifices as vestiges of an old covenant that had been replaced by a new covenant. A closer look reveals an entirely different message. Hebrews 9 uses the layout of the Temple to present  a mystical illustration of the passage from this world to the World to Come.

For more on sacrifices and the New Testament, see the First Fruits of Zion audio-teaching What About the New Covenant?.

Are "dead works" the "works of the Law"? Does the book of Hebrews tell us to repent from Torah observance when it speaks of "repentance from dead works."

What are the basic teachings of Messiah mentioned in Hebrews 6:1-3? Discover the meaning of repentance from dead works in this eighteenth installment of sermons on the epistle to the Hebrews.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. (Hebrews 6:1-3)

Where did the first Christians go to church? Our third teaching on the book of Hebrews takes a look at the Jewish believers and their relationship to the Temple and Levitical worship system in the first century and looks for the possible occasion that inspired the writing of the epistle. Learn about the sacred place of assembly where the Jerusalem community of disciples used to gather daily for prayer.

And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. (Act 5:12)