Go Only to the Lost Sheep of Israel
by Terry Wane Benton
Jesus' command to His apostles at the start of His ministry was strategic, not permanent. “Go to Israel” was the limited mission (Matthew 10:5-6), often called the “limited commission” because it was strategically set to get the lost sheep of the house of Israel into His kingdom first, and then after His death and resurrection, go to “all nations” (Matthew 28:19). After the resurrection of Jesus and His ascension, the good news was to start at Jerusalem and the larger area of Judea, on to Samaria, and then to every part of the world (Acts 1:8f). There was no more limitation on who to preach the gospel of the kingdom to.
Paul acknowledged that the strategy was “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). There was reluctance to go to the Gentiles, and God showed Peter visions that made him come to understand, “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (Acts 10:34-35). Then the Holy Spirit fell upon these Gentiles and confirmed to the Jews with Peter that God wanted these too to be baptized in the name of the Lord for remission of sins the same as the Israelites (Acts 10:47-48; 2:38). Peter had to further explain this move to other Jews in Acts 11 and brought the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem to understand that “God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life” (Acts 11:18). They were not hesitant about restoring Israelites who were scattered among the nations. They were hesitant about Gentiles who were never Israelites. The Holy Spirit helped the church to see that the blessing promised to “all families and nations of the earth” back in Genesis 12:1-3 were not promises just to descendants of Israel, but all the families and nations that connect back to Noah, which gets every human that came from Noah, and that gets every human being period. There was no partiality with God when He made that promise, and He did not become partial by strategically employing the Jews in His bigger plan to bless all the families of the earth. Strategy in using the stiff-necked nation of Israel to accomplish His larger world mission in Jesus is just that, strategy, not partiality.
There was no Israel when God made the promise of blessing “all nations” and “all families of the earth”. That blessing for “all families” would be Jesus and His provisions to deal with the curse of sin, condemnation, and death. Genesis 10-11 describes the nations and families that came from Noah and the ark. When God called Abram and spoke of the coming blessings to all families of the earth, there was no thought in Abram that this promise was limited to only one family or one nation to the exclusion of other families and nations. The promise of Genesis 12:1-3 was that God would develop a great nation (Israel) through which would come a blessing (Jesus) that would bless “all nations.” A strategy of developing one nation through which to bring the universal blessing seed, Jesus, was a strategy to save the world if anyone wanted it. So, when Jesus came and started His mission with the Israelites first, it was strategy, not partiality. After His death and resurrection, the means of blessing all families of the earth was now in place, and this is when the great commission was issued to go “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19) and “every creature” (Mark 16:15) and “all nations beginning in Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). Beginning in Jerusalem was strategy. Start where Jesus was murdered and arose. Make the case so strong that no one will be able to refute the testimony and then carry the well-confirmed case to “the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Thus, Jesus gave a temporary “limited commission” (Israel only) that would strategically set the stage for the great commission to all the world (beyond Israel only) to “all the families of the earth”. That means we Gentiles have always been included in God’s larger plan.
Ephesians 2:11-22 explains that though we Gentiles were “far off” from the covenants made with Israel, we are now in Christ Jesus “made near by the blood of Christ”, and that the common blessing creates one new man from both the circumcision (Israelites) and the uncircumcision (Gentiles of all other Noahic descent) in Christ. We have all have been reconciled in one body through the cross. There is no distinction now in Christ. There is no salvation God offers only to an Israelite in the flesh. For the body, or church, of Christ is the true spiritual Israel that God was staging through fleshly Israel, and this body is composed of all obedient believers in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:26-29). God shows no partiality, but in every nation He accepts all who believe in Jesus and are baptized into union with Him.
The limited commission was temporarily strategic. Don’t be deceived by those who take that limited commission out of context and try to make it a permanent command.
