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Beginning at Jerusalem
A few days ago, as I
was preparing a talk, something in Luke’s account of the Lord’s Great
Commission suddenly hit me. In Luke 24:44-47, the Lord Jesus tells his
disciples: “Thus it is written… that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem.”
I have been
convinced of the principle that the Jewish mission is a priority
(“beginning at Jerusalem”) but here Jesus was underlining that
priority. The Hebrew Scriptures foretold not only the sufferings and
death of Messiah but also that repentance and remission of sins had to
be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
I realised
that I had overlooked the importance that Jerusalem occupies in the Old
Testament Scriptures, especially in the book of
Isaiah. In the “Book of Comfort”, the last 27 chapters of Isaiah, the
prophet foresees Jerusalem receiving the message of redemption and
then, in turn, being the messenger of salvation to the cities of Judah
and ultimately the nations.
Isaiah 59:20
states “The Redeemer will come to Zion”, while in
62:11, the Lord proclaims: “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Surely your salvation [your Yeshua] is coming.’”
In 52:7, the
prophet says: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who
brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good
things, who proclaims salvation [Yeshua], who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” In 40:9, Zion brings the
gospel to the cities of Judah: “O Jerusalem, you who bring good
tidings, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid;
say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’”
At the very beginning of his
prophecy, in Isaiah 2:3, the prophet sees a day coming when “Out of
Zion shall go forth the law [Torah], and the word of the LORD
from Jerusalem”.
Jerusalem was at the centre of
God’s purposes and it was from that city that God’s Word was to go
forth to the nations. According to Psalm 50:2, Zion is “the perfection
of beauty” and out of it “God will shine forth”. In Psalm 110:1-2, the LORD says of the Messiah, “The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion.”
Jerusalem
does not symbolise, as I was once taught, the Christian’s home town in
which he should commence his Christian service. For Jesus and the
apostles “Jerusalem” meant Jerusalem. Though the literal words used by
the Lord in Luke 24:47 are not found in the Old Testament writings, the
principle is clearly there in the Psalms and the Prophets. Jerusalem
was to be the first recipient of the gospel, as it was on the Day of
Pentecost, and from there the Lord sent forth his word and the rod of
Messiah’s strength. The priority of Jewish mission is a divine
principle in both Testaments.
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