Gary answers a listener question about the difference between sending the disciples out to the “lost sheep of Israel” in Matthew 10 and the “Great Commission” in Matthew 28.
There is a continuity of the people of God—called the ekklēsia in the Greek translation of the Old and New Testament—as well as Old Testament images that were first applied to Israel but in the New Testament are applied to the assembly of Israelite and non-Israelite believers in the New Testament. This is summed up very well in the epistle to the Hebrews: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church [ekklēsia] 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, which speaks better than the blood of Abel” (12:22–23).
Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem are equated with the ekklēsia that is enrolled in heaven, that great “cloud of witnesses” that the author spoke of in the previous chapter (12:1). The author of Hebrews is hardly describing an Israel-Church distinction with two, one earthly (Israel) and one heavenly (Church), redemptive programs. You can see how, like Paul in Galatians 4:24–31, the author of Hebrews meshes Israel’s promise of land and place into elements of a “better covenant” that has no individual limits or geographical boundaries.
“The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” is in essence the same city to which Abraham in faith looked forward, that is, “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (11:10), as it is “the city which is to come,” sought in this age by the people of God, who have no lasting city here (Heb. 13:14), and whose true citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). It is the “the holy city, new Jerusalem,” the capital city of the new heaven and the new earth, in which, in fulfillment of his covenant promise, God dwells with men, and they are eternally his people, and all the former things with their sorrows and imperfections have passed away (Rev. 21:1–4). Indeed, the citizens themselves are the citizens, because, as Peter Lombard suggests, God, who gives them life, dwells in them. The presence of God is what constitutes the new Jerusalem.[1]
These heavenly citizens are Israelites and non-Israelites. There is no redemptive dualism. This “assembly” (ekklēsia) is a gathering of “the first born,” “the counterpart of the congregation or ‘church’ of the Israelites assembled under the leadership of Moses at Sinai. Thus Stephen says of Moses: ‘This is he who was in the congregation (ecclesia) in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai’ (Acts 7:38).”[2] This gathering of Israel “is referred to in Deuteronomy (4:10; 9:10; 18:16) as ‘the day of the ecclesia’ (Septuagint).”[3] The idea of New Testament believers being in the congregation of the “first-born” is another indicator that the promises made to Israel are possessed by the New Testament ekklēsia made up of Israelites and non-Israelites. Israel is God’s “son,” His “first born” (Ex. 4:22). The New Testament ekklēsia is also treated like God’s firstborn (Heb. 12:23) because it has attained membership in the pre-existing ekklēsia.
Ten Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed
As a result of many failed predictions, many Christians are beginning to take a second look at a prophetic system that they were told is the only one that takes the literal interpretation of the Bible seriously. Gary DeMar has taken on the task of exposing some of the popular myths foisted upon the public by prophetic speculators.
Buy NowGary answers a listener question about the difference between sending the disciples out to the “lost sheep of Israel” in Matthew 10 and the “Great Commission” in Matthew 28. Are they the same thing? Are they different? How?
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[1] Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977), 546.
[2] Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 547.
[3] Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 547.