Millennialism, End Times, and the Reign of Christ (Part 03) – The Church is the True Israel

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1. The church is the true Israel.

   1. The nation of Israel was a chosen people whom God had singled out from all the nations of the earth (Amo 3:1-2; Psa 147:19-20).
   2. As long as they were obedient and kept His covenant, they were to him a peculiar people, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation (Exo 19:5-6).
   3. Israel was God’s church/congregation (Act 7:38 c/w Exo 16:2).
      • Israel was a congregation of people who assembled at specified times and places to worship God according to the law He gave them.
      • If that’s not a church, what is?
   4. When Christ came, He reformed the OT church (Heb 9:10) and built His NT church (Mat 16:18).
   5. The NT church began as a Jewish church, but didn’t remain so very long.
   6. Prior to the gospel going to the Gentiles, they were outside of the commonwealth of Israel and of the covenants God made with them (Eph 2:11-12).
   7. The blood of Christ brought the Gentile near to God, and Christ made both Jews and Gentiles one and broke down the middle wall of partition between them (Eph 2:13-14).
   8. Jesus abolished the law of Moses and made the Jews and Gentiles one new man, making peace between them, and reconciled them both unto God in one body (Eph 2:15-16).
   9. The Gentiles then ceased to be strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with Israel and of the household of God (Eph 2:19), being part of the church which is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone (Eph 2:20 c/w Mat 16:18).
   10. The church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles, then became referred to by the identical terminology as Israel was in the OT: a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, and a peculiar people (1Pe 2:5,9 c/w Exo 19:5-6).
   11. True Jews are all those who are in Christ, whether they be racially Jews or Gentiles (Gal 3:7,29).
       • True Jews are those (Jew or Gentile) who are circumcised in the heart and spirit, not merely in the flesh (Rom 2:28-29).
       • True Jews are those who worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh (Phi 3:3).
   12. It no longer matters whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, but whether one is a new creature in Christ, and those who walk according to that rule are the Israel of God (Gal 6:15-16).
2. The kingdom of God, the church, was taken from the nation of Israel as a whole and was given to the Gentiles.
   1. The nation of Israel was God’s kingdom (1Ch 28:5; 2Ch 13:8; 1Sa 12:12; 1Ch 29:23).
   2. Israel was God’s church/congregation (Act 7:38 c/w Exo 16:2).
   3. Israel was God’s olive tree, which is symbolic of the church/kingdom.
      • Israel was called an olive tree by God in the OT (Jer 11:16-17).
      • Israel was elsewhere likened to an olive tree (Hos 14:5-6).
      • David spoke of an olive tree in connection with the house of God (Psa 52:8).
      • In Rom 11:16-24, Paul spoke of Israel as the good and original olive tree of which some of the branches were broken off because of unbelief (Rom 11:17,20).
      • Paul explained to the Roman Gentiles, to whom he was writing, that they, being branches of a wild olive tree, were graffed into the holy olive tree (God’s church/kingdom which was originally the nation of Israel) (Rom 11:17,24).
      • The Gentiles being graffed into the olive tree was them being brought into the church, the house of God, with the believing Jews who made it up originally (Eph 2:11-22).
   4. The gospel went to the Jews first and they rejected it (Joh 1:11).
   5. Their rejection of Christ and the apostles was the end of long train of abuses and usurpations of God’s prophets (Mat 23:34-35).
   6. Most of the generation of Jews (those who rejected Him) living during Christ’s ministry would be destroyed in the destruction of Jerusalem and they would be left desolate (Mat 23:36-38).
   7. The kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Mat 21:42-44).
      • That nation would be the predominately Gentile church (1Pe 2:5,9).
      • This transition of the kingdom of God from the Jews to the Gentiles was fully accomplished with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD (Luk 21:20-24 c/w Luk 21:31-32).
   8. After the cross of Christ, there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles to God (Act 15:7-11).
      • After the cross, God no longer has a special plan for Jews, nor shows them any favoritism; all that matters is if one is in Christ, whether he be Jew or Gentile (Gal 3:28-29; 1Co 7:19; Gal 5:6; Gal 6:15; Col 3:11).
      • This doesn’t mean that there are no longer Jews and Gentiles, any more than it means that there are no longer males or females; it just means that those distinctions don’t change how God views us all in Christ (Gal 3:28).
      • Jews get into the church and worship God the same way the Gentiles do: by faith, repentance, and baptism (Rom 11:23-24 c/w Act 2:38,41 c/w 1Co 12:13).