Look at what Jesus says in Acts 1:8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Why is Samaria mentioned? Because in the Old Testament, Samaria was the Northern Kingdom of the 10 tribes, who were taken into captivity and scattered. They never returned. There’s this thing called the 10 lost tribes and a lot of Christians think they’re only going to return in the millennium. That isn’t true, because they return in Acts chapter 2 for Pentecost.
God is going to get his people from every nation. They’re going to come back to where they belong, and they’re going to get God’s Spirit. This means that when Jesus is around preaching, Jews saw themselves as still in exile, even though they’re living in the land. Why? Because 10 of the tribes haven’t come back. Only Judah came back, the rest of the tribes were scattered everywhere and they’re waiting. They know about Ezekiel. They know about Jeremiah. They’re waiting for these prophecies to happen, when the two sticks are made into one. When the House of Israel and the House of Judah are made into one House.
Even during Jesus day, they’re still in exile, because when Acts chapter 2 starts to happen, that initiates the regathering of all the tribes back into Yahweh’s family as his people. With the coming of the Spirit, everyone who belongs to Christ gets the Spirit. Later on in Acts, Paul will meet believers saying, do you have the Holy Spirit? He would get answers like, we just heard about John, we were baptized in John’s baptism. The reason that Paul needs to lay hands on them and give them the Spirit, that was his part of his commissioning as an Apostle. It needs to be clearly telegraphed, and they need to receive the Spirit, because they are living out the fulfillment now.
The Gentiles with Paul, they need to be living testimony to the fact that Yahweh is recreating his own family. He is reconstituting it from all of the Jewish tribes and from the Gentiles to reclaim the nations. The reclamation of the nations, this message starts getting evangelized even before Paul gets there to those places. Now that every one of these believers now are in Christ, they are in the body of Christ which is the Temple. Everyone who is called a person of God, is a believer and has the Spirit. It’s a remade, reconstituted family of Yahweh, beginning in Jerusalem where it should begin, because that’s where God lives.
Paul is living out his life specifically for the purpose of reaching the last nation on earth. The last nation named in the table of nations, Tarsus, so that he can complete the task of bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles. Paul’s thinking was, it’s not going to take too long to pull this off. It’s not going to take too long to go out and gather from both the Jews and the Gentiles, those who are God’s people, this has an expected finish line. This is why the Apostles had this sense that Jesus was going to come back really soon. We got to get the job done.
God knew that the world is a lot bigger than the table of nations. God knows in the giving of the great commission that the task is much larger than Paul realizes. There’s a whole other world beyond Tarsus. There are other nations out there that are not under God’s dominion, that are not part of the Kingdom of Yahweh. So we inherit that task, we’re the ones that pick up the task where they had presumed it would end. We should live like we have a job to do. We inherited the task of the Apostles, whether you like it or not and it’s by design. They didn’t fumble the ball and now we pick it up, because they didn’t complete it. We need to live like we’re members of one family. We are fit for the task, because we have the Spirit.
God is going to get his people from every nation. They’re going to come back to where they belong, and they’re going to get God’s Spirit. This means that when Jesus is around preaching, Jews saw themselves as still in exile, even though they’re living in the land. Why? Because 10 of the tribes haven’t come back. Only Judah came back, the rest of the tribes were scattered everywhere and they’re waiting. They know about Ezekiel. They know about Jeremiah. They’re waiting for these prophecies to happen, when the two sticks are made into one. When the House of Israel and the House of Judah are made into one House.
Even during Jesus day, they’re still in exile, because when Acts chapter 2 starts to happen, that initiates the regathering of all the tribes back into Yahweh’s family as his people. With the coming of the Spirit, everyone who belongs to Christ gets the Spirit. Later on in Acts, Paul will meet believers saying, do you have the Holy Spirit? He would get answers like, we just heard about John, we were baptized in John’s baptism. The reason that Paul needs to lay hands on them and give them the Spirit, that was his part of his commissioning as an Apostle. It needs to be clearly telegraphed, and they need to receive the Spirit, because they are living out the fulfillment now.
The Gentiles with Paul, they need to be living testimony to the fact that Yahweh is recreating his own family. He is reconstituting it from all of the Jewish tribes and from the Gentiles to reclaim the nations. The reclamation of the nations, this message starts getting evangelized even before Paul gets there to those places. Now that every one of these believers now are in Christ, they are in the body of Christ which is the Temple. Everyone who is called a person of God, is a believer and has the Spirit. It’s a remade, reconstituted family of Yahweh, beginning in Jerusalem where it should begin, because that’s where God lives.
Paul is living out his life specifically for the purpose of reaching the last nation on earth. The last nation named in the table of nations, Tarsus, so that he can complete the task of bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles. Paul’s thinking was, it’s not going to take too long to pull this off. It’s not going to take too long to go out and gather from both the Jews and the Gentiles, those who are God’s people, this has an expected finish line. This is why the Apostles had this sense that Jesus was going to come back really soon. We got to get the job done.
God knew that the world is a lot bigger than the table of nations. God knows in the giving of the great commission that the task is much larger than Paul realizes. There’s a whole other world beyond Tarsus. There are other nations out there that are not under God’s dominion, that are not part of the Kingdom of Yahweh. So we inherit that task, we’re the ones that pick up the task where they had presumed it would end. We should live like we have a job to do. We inherited the task of the Apostles, whether you like it or not and it’s by design. They didn’t fumble the ball and now we pick it up, because they didn’t complete it. We need to live like we’re members of one family. We are fit for the task, because we have the Spirit.
