Matthew 10: Jesus Restores the Nation of Israel

There is so much going on here in Matthew 10.

This is an unbelievably important chapter for understanding the story that the Bible tells.

And in order to understand what’s going on here in Matthew 10, we’re going to have to lay down a little bit of context.

Up to this point, Jesus has been born miraculously of a virgin, fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7 that says:

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
—Isaiah 7:14 (WEB)

He has fulfilled so many of the other prophecies that all point to this one thing.

The Old Testament continually tells the story and prophesies for the future about how God is going to send a Savior who is going to redeem humanity and restore the world.

He’s going to destroy the devil, crush the head of the serpent.

He is going to destroy the forces of darkness.

He is going to put an end to the fall.

He’s going to fix everything that humanity broke when we rebelled against God in the garden in the beginning.

He is going to raise us up from the pit.

He is going to fix the world and put everything right again.

And He is going to redeem us from our sins so that we can be forgiven fully and freely and forever and be adopted into God’s family, made into citizens of God’s kingdom, be covenanted to God as His people, and so on and so forth.

All throughout the Old Testament, one prophet after another was given the message from God that this Savior is coming, and they tell us exactly what to look for.

And as Matthew goes through his Gospel, again and again and again, in almost every chapter he says, “And this fulfills the prophecy that said blank. This fulfills the prophecy that said that. This fulfills the prophecy that said these things.”

Again and again, he points to the way that Jesus fulfills all of those prophecies.

God is putting a neon sign above this man named Jesus and saying, “This is the Savior I have been promising you. This is the Savior you have been waiting for.”

Jesus Is the Savior King

And because Jesus is that Savior that God promised to us, He bears God’s kingly authority.

He has the power to heal the sick because He has God’s kingly authority over sickness and health.

He has the power to raise the dead because He has God’s kingly authority over life and death.

He has the power to quiet the winds and the waves during a storm because He has God’s kingly authority over the weather.

He has the power to cast out demons by His word because He has God’s kingly authority even over demons and the forces of darkness.

He has the power to do all of these things.

He even has the power to forgive sin because He has God’s kingly authority over sin and forgiveness.

He has the authority to pardon us of our sin and transgressions.

Jesus is the Savior King.

That is what the word Messiah means.

It is the Anointed One who is anointed to be our glorious Savior King.

But above even all of that, Jesus is God Himself in human flesh.

The God of the universe came down from heaven so that He could dwell with us, so that He could live out a perfect life, so that He could go to the cross and take our sin onto His own shoulders.

God Himself came down from heaven so that He could be punished for our sin, so that we could be redeemed and restored.

That is what Jesus is doing here.

Jesus Is the God of the Old Testament

And because that is true, this is very important.

Jesus is the God of the Old Testament.

We cannot understand the story that the Bible tells if we don’t understand this.

Jesus is the God who created us in Genesis 1.

Jesus is the God we sinned against in Genesis 3.

Jesus is the God who created the nation of Israel when He called Abraham out of his homeland and sent him to the Promised Land in Genesis 12.

Jesus is the God who freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery in the book of Exodus.

Jesus is the God who gave the Law of Moses in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Jesus is the God who carried the nation of Israel through everything and who told the nation of Israel:

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
—Exodus 19:5–6 (WEB)

And Jesus is the God who exiled the nation of Israel out of their land at the end of the Old Testament because they continually rejected Him.

They continually rebelled against Him.

They continually left Him behind to serve other gods.

They continually made a mockery of His good commands and His good rule by pursuing wickedness and injustice.

So Jesus is the God of the Old Testament.

Jesus is the God of Israel.

When Jesus comes to earth and ministers throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it is the God of Israel in human flesh reaching out to the people of Israel.

It is the God of Israel coming in human flesh to the Israelites and saying, “Are you ready to be restored? Are you ready to be brought back to My covenant? Are you ready to be brought back into My family? Are you ready to be brought back into My kingdom? Are you ready to fulfill your destiny that I spoke to Abraham?”

The God of Israel is reaching out to the people of Israel.

And we see that more clearly here in chapter 10 than anywhere else in all of Scripture.

Jesus Begins Restoring Israel

As Matthew chapter 10 begins, Jesus is picking up right where He left off in Matthew chapter 9.

At the end of Matthew chapter 9, Jesus looked out, and He saw the people of Israel, sheep without a shepherd.

And He said:

“The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
—Matthew 9:37 (WEB)

We need to gather more laborers for the harvest.

He says we need to go find the lost and the broken and the hurting and the struggling among these Israelites and restore them through Me, through Jesus.

So as Matthew chapter 10 begins, Jesus gathers up His disciples so that He can send them out to restore the people of Israel.

Right here in Matthew chapter 10, God is restoring the nation of Israel, but it doesn’t look like what we might have expected.

So a lot of preachers and teachers out there, they point to the year 1948, and they say, “In 1948, God restored the nation of Israel.”

Actually, He restored the nation of Israel almost 2,000 years before that.

He restored the nation of Israel in about A.D. 31, right here in Matthew chapter 10.

I’ll tell you what I’m talking about.

The Twelve Disciples and the Twelve Tribes

Jesus gathers up His disciples, and He has a very specific number of disciples.

Most of the time in the Bible, numbers are representational.

Most of the time in the Bible, numbers are really not precise.

They’re not meant to be precise counts or measurements.

But there’s a few exceptions to that, and this is one of them.

There were exactly 12 tribes of Israel.

Israel consisted of 12 tribes descended from Jacob’s 12 sons.

And here Jesus gathers 12 disciples.

Why is that?

It’s because these disciples represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

It doesn’t mean that they were all literally from the 12 tribes of Israel, but what it does mean is that there are 12 disciples just like there are 12 tribes.

Why?

It’s because the disciples of Jesus are the true Israel.

This is not the new Israel.

Jesus is not replacing Israel with His disciples.

Jesus is not replacing Israel with the church.

This has always been the true Israel.

What is Israel?

Israel is a people who are covenanted to the Lord.

Israel is a people who walk with the Lord.

Israel is a people who have faith in the Lord.

Israel is a people who follow the Lord.

And so the true Israel is not and has never been just people who were ethnically descended from Abraham.

Remember, we talked about early in Matthew the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

They believed that they were saved because they were physical descendants of Abraham.

They believed they were saved because they were Jewish.

But that is never how it worked.

All throughout the Old Testament, when there is a faithless Israelite, God destroys them and condemns them.

But when there is a faithful Gentile who is not descended from Abraham, the Lord redeems them and restores them, and He brings them into His covenant.

The faithful Gentile Rahab the prostitute placed her faith in the God of Israel, and she became a true Israelite.

The sons of Korah rejected the Lord, and they rebelled against the Lord, so the Lord opened up the ground, and it ate them.

They were ethnically descended from Abraham, but the Lord judged and condemned them for their faithlessness.

The faithful Gentile Ruth, she was from Moab.

She is from literally what used to be Sodom and Gomorrah.

But she places her faith in the God of Israel, and so the Lord redeems her and restores her, and He brings her into His community.

She becomes a true Israelite.

But so many of the faithless Israelites are judged and condemned.

The true Israel consists of people who follow the God of Israel.

And that has been true all the way back to Genesis 12, when He called Abraham out of his land and created the people of Israel.

And we see that coming into full view here in Matthew 10 because Jesus gathers His 12 disciples.

He gathers the 12 tribes of Israel, so to speak, together, and He says, “Now we are going to restore Israel.”

What does this mean?

It means that the true Israel consists of Jesus and everyone who follows Him.

If you follow Jesus, you are part of the true Israel.

In the book of Galatians, Paul says:

“Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham.”
—Galatians 3:7 (WEB)

The true Israel is standing in a circle around Jesus.

It is 12 dudes.

And Jesus sends them out, and He says, “Go and gather the lost sheep of Israel. Introduce them to Me. Proclaim My message to them so that they can be restored.”

Jesus is restoring the nation of Israel.

Gathering the Remnant of Israel

So as they go out on this Israel-restoring quest in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus gives them a very specific instruction.

He says:

“Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans. Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
—Matthew 10:5–6 (WEB)

Is Jesus discriminating against Gentiles?

No.

They’re going to go to the Gentiles later.

But right now, they’re focusing on Israelites because Jesus is restoring the nation of Israel.

And He says that the Israelites who embrace the message of Jesus will be restored to God’s covenant, but the Israelites who reject Jesus will be banished from God’s covenant.

The Old Testament prophets looked forward to something called a remnant.

They said that the remnant of Israel will be saved.

What is the remnant of Israel?

It is the true Israelites.

It is the Israelites who follow the God of Israel.

It is the Israelites who embrace the God of Israel.

It’s the Israelites who submit to the God of Israel.

It is not Israelites who are just ethnically descended from Abraham but have no interest in Abraham’s God.

It is the Israelites who place their faith in the God of Israel and follow faithfully after Him.

That is the remnant.

Jesus is gathering the remnant of Israel in Matthew chapter 10.

He says, “Go out to the lost sheep of Israel and proclaim the truth about Me, and the Israelites who believe My message will become gathered into My remnant. They will be restored to My covenant. But the Israelites who reject Me will be banished from the covenant.”

Two chapters earlier, in Matthew chapter 8, Jesus tells that story.

He says:

“I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
—Matthew 8:11–12 (WEB)

He says those who follow Jesus are part of Israel’s remnant.

Those who reject Jesus stop being part of Israel.

Those who reject Jesus stop being part of God’s covenant.

He says, “Go out, proclaim the message, and the Israelites who embrace the message of Jesus are restored to the covenant, but those who reject Jesus are banished from the covenant.”

Whoever Welcomes Jesus Welcomes the Father

He says these famous words, but they’re frequently taken out of context.

He says:

“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.”
—Matthew 10:40 (WEB)

He says if you embrace Jesus, you are embracing the God of Israel.

But at the same time, He says if you reject Jesus, you are abandoning the God of Israel.

He says:

“Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.”
—Matthew 10:32–33 (WEB)

So Jesus says, “Any Israelite that you meet who embraces My message, I’m going to acknowledge him to My Father. I’m going to bring him into the remnant of Israel. I’m going to restore him into the covenant. But any Israelite who denies Me, I’m going to deny him before My Father on the final judgment. Any Israelite who denies Me will be banished from the covenant.”

And He tells His disciples, “Watch out, because a lot of the Israelites I’m sending you to are going to deny Me.”

They’re going to deny you, and they are going to oppose, reject, and even persecute you.

“I Didn’t Come to Send Peace, but a Sword”

He warns His disciples, “So many of the Israelites that you go and you tell about Me are going to cast you out of their lives and maybe cast you into prison.”

He says, “You are going to have family members who reject you.”

He’s talking about Israelite family members.

Remember, His disciples are all descended from Abraham.

They’re all Jews.

They’re all Israelites.

He says, “You are going to have family members descended from Abraham who are going to reject you.”

He actually talks about a prophecy from the book of Micah.

Micah said that when the Savior comes, when the Messiah comes, in Israel family members are going to turn on each other.

Family members are going to start to reject each other.

It’s going to tear families apart.

He says:

“Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword.”
—Matthew 10:34 (WEB)

That doesn’t mean that He’s literally trying to cause conflict and discord, but it means that His coming is going to cause conflict and discord.

Family members will reject each other.

Family members will reject people who follow Jesus.

He says, “Because of the fact that you are following Me, your family members who raised you, brought you to the synagogue every single week for your entire life, are going to reject you. They’re going to abandon you, and they’re going to persecute you. They’re going to turn you in to the police. They are going to drag you before the courts. They are going to kick you out of the synagogue. You are going to be persecuted by Israelite family members. You are going to be persecuted by Israelite religious leaders. You are going to be persecuted by Israelite rulers. They are going to reject and oppose and persecute you.”

He says, “Be ready for that.”

But it’s worth it because you are out to find the lost sheep of Israel and restore them to Me so they can become part of the remnant of Israel, so they can be gathered into My covenant again for all time.

Don’t Fear People

And He says even amidst all this persecution and everything else, you don’t have to worry because the Father is going to carry you through it.

He says, “Don’t be afraid of them.”

He says:

“Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.”
—Matthew 10:28 (WEB)

And that’s not talking about being literally afraid, right?

Fearing the Lord is this kind of overwhelming awe, this absolute submission, this absolute reveling in total amazement at the glory of God and the goodness of God and the power of God and the greatness of God and the authority of God, that you bend every single part of your life in submission to Him.

That is what the fear of the Lord is.

So essentially, don’t be afraid of them.

Be totally reverent and submitted to your Father because He is going to carry you through all this persecution, just like He carries the birds of the sky and the grass and the trees and so forth.

He says:

“Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.”
—Matthew 10:31 (WEB)

But the Lord watches over them.

In the same way, the Lord is going to watch over you as you go out to the lost sheep of Israel, proclaim the good news of how I am redeeming humanity and restoring the world.

He’s going to carry you through all of that.

Proclaim It From the Housetops

Boldly proclaim the message of Jesus, and then watch the Lord open hearts.

He says:

“What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.”
—Matthew 10:27 (WEB)

He says, “Go and boldly proclaim the message of Jesus with absolutely no fear of how people are going to react or what people are going to do to you.”

Now, we are not the original 12 disciples going out to restore the nation of Israel, but this still applies to us.

We can be bold in proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

We don’t have to be afraid of how people are going to react or what people are going to be doing.

We are called in exactly the same way to go out and find the lost and the hurting and the broken and the struggling and tell them about the God who wants to redeem and restore them.

Introduce them to the God who wants to raise them up from the pit.

We are called in exactly that same way.

And we may get negative reactions from people.

We may get negative reactions from family members.

We may get negative reactions from friends and people who used to be close to us.

And yet it is worth it to see people redeemed and restored.

Do not fear people.

Fear the Lord.

Revere the Lord.

Be in awe of the Lord.

Be so amazed at the glory of the Lord that nothing in the world can stop you.

Not fear, not embarrassment, not anything can stop you from proclaiming boldly the good news about Him.

So He says, “Do not worry about any of this because the Father is carrying you.”

The Spirit of the Lord will speak through you.

The Lord will work through your bold proclamation to open up the hearts of the people that you proclaim the good news of Jesus to.

He will.

He has sent you His Holy Spirit to dwell within you and speak through you to do it.

And the Spirit of God has the power of God to accomplish the work of God.

So you don’t need to be nervous or afraid or embarrassed or worried.

You just need to be faithful.

That’s it.

Shake the Dust Off Your Feet

So Jesus finishes out Matthew 10 by saying, “Therefore, because all of this is true, I want you to do a very specific thing. I want you to work in a very specific way.”

He says, “Whenever you go to an Israelite, you proclaim the good news of Jesus to them, and they reject you, oppose you, persecute you in response, I just want you to shake the dust off your feet and leave.”

Now, shaking the dust off your feet, that was a common Jewish term in the first century.

You would shake the dust off your feet when you left a Gentile’s house.

You would shake the dust off your feet when you left a Gentile town.

You would shake the dust off your feet when you left a Gentile part of the city or something like that, if you were in, like, a Gentile marketplace, stuff like that.

Jewish people, Israelites, would shake the dust off their feet because they didn’t even want the dust from a nonbeliever.

They didn’t even want the dust from someone who rejected the God of Israel to be attached to them when they went home.

It was a way of saying, “I am leaving the presence of unfaithful people.”

So Jesus says something that would have absolutely shocked and, frankly, pissed off a bunch of Matthew’s readers because Matthew’s readers would primarily have been Israelites.

A lot of people would literally have stopped reading at Matthew chapter 10.

When they were in some place where it would be publicly read, they would have walked angrily out right here.

Jesus said, “When an Israelite rejects Me, they become a Gentile. When an Israelite rejects Me, they stop being part of Israel.”

He says, “Shake the dust off your feet. Treat them like a Gentile. Move on.”

Invest in the People Who Are Open to Jesus

But when you go to a lost sheep of Israel and they are open to the message of Jesus, when you go to one of the lost sheep of Israel and their hearts are open, the Spirit has broken through their defenses, and they want to hear what you have to say, and they want to learn more, and they want to know more about Me, He says, “Stay with them. Don’t move on yet. Stick around.”

Stay there for several days, maybe several weeks, maybe several months.

Stay there.

Eat with them.

Live with them.

Get to know them.

Spend your time with them and keep teaching them.

He says, “Invest in them. Pour your time and your energy and your attention into them. Start discipling them.”

So Jesus’s disciples had disciples.

Have you noticed how there were 12 core disciples following Jesus, but there are, at any given time, maybe 100, maybe 200, sometimes 500 people who are part of the crowd that went from town to town with Jesus?

Who are the rest of those people?

Who are the rest of those 500 people?

They’re the disciples of His disciples.

Jesus has the 12, and among those 12, they have their own disciples that they are passing along the teachings of Jesus to.

Jesus is investing 90% of His energy in these 12, but then they are pouring into others as well.

He says, “When you go out into these Israelite towns and you proclaim the message of Jesus to them, there are going to be people who reject you. Shake the dust off your feet. They are basically Gentiles now. They are banished from the covenant. They missed the boat. They had their chance, and they left. But when you meet an Israelite who places their faith in Me, when you meet an Israelite who believes the message I have given you, stay in their home. Spend days or weeks or months pouring into them and investing in them and discipling them, and then bring them back here because these are the laborers for the harvest that I told you to be praying for.”

So Jesus is growing His following organically.

He’s growing His following through His disciples.

The True Israel Is Jesus and His Followers

Now again, in this specific chapter and situation, the point is Jesus is restoring the nation of Israel.

He’s sending His disciples out to go find the remnant of Israel, to go find the true Israel, because the true Israel is Jesus and His followers.

And just to be clear, I’m going to upset John Hagee when I say this, but that means you are part of God’s true Israel.

And so Matthew chapter 10, this is the beginning of Jesus gathering the true Israel together.

But this is applicable well beyond that because, in exactly the same way today, we are how Jesus grows His following.

He grows His following through you and through me.

He grows His following when you and I go and tell people about Him, when we go find the lost and the hurting and the broken and the struggling and we proclaim the good news of Jesus to them.

Go Out

So what is your calling today?

Your calling is to be like these disciples.

Go out.

Find the lost sheep that God is sending you to in your area and tell them the gloriously good news of Jesus.