The church (Greek ekklesia) is the assembly
Messiah is preparing for His coming kingdom. Hebrews
2:12 quotes Psalm
22:22 with this meaning. In this appendix “us”
and “our” refer to the church. Emphasis is sometimes
added to quotations.

“This gospel [good news] of the kingdom will be preached
in the whole world” (Matthew
24:14).[note
1] That message should interest the nation of Israel,
because God is going to “restore the kingdom to Israel”
(Acts 1:6). He will fulfill all His promises to that nation.
But does the same message concern the church? Some interpreters
say no. They wrongly see too much difference between

1. the church as Messiah’s body and redeemed Israel of the
future

2. what they consider a “heavenly” hope for the church
and an “earthly” kingdom for Israel

These
two distinctions contradict the Gospel of Matthew—and the rest
of the New Testament.

1. Consider the first
wrong distinction—in regard to Messiah’s body. The
apostle Paul explains that Messiah forms His body by baptizing men
in/with the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). Yet, this great work of
Messiah was promised to Israel. In Matthew 3:11, as in all the
Gospels, it was to Israel that John the Baptist promised “He
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” This simply
restated such prophecies as Ezekiel 36:27 (“I will put my
Spirit within you”) and Joel 2:28 (“I will pour out my
Spirit”). Just as by His Spirit God changes us into His
children and heirs (Romans 8:16-17), so He promised for Israel.
Jesus alluded to such prophecies when talking to “Israel’s
teacher.” Nicodemus should have known from such prophecies
that no one can “enter the kingdom” without being
“born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-10). All of
Messiah’s future kingdom assembly will have been so
born/baptized.

To say the same thing
from the perspective of Hebrews 9:15: Israelites could never receive
their “eternal inheritance” if they remained under the
Old Covenant. They must be forgiven, then transformed by God’s
Spirit under the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6, 18).

Messiah began this work
at Pentecost (Acts 2). Both before and after that event, what
happened then was identified as His baptizing in/with the Spirit
(Acts 1:5; 11:15-17). However, on that day itself Peter
explained by using Joel’s terminology: “Messiah”
(Acts 2:31), he said, “received from the Father the promised
Holy Spirit and poured out” that heavenly Gift (2:33).
Thus, “pouring out the Spirit” is the same as “baptizing
in/with the Spirit.” And by this action Messiah began to build

His body, the church. When Israel finally repents (Zech. 12:10;
13:1; Romans 11:26-27), will He not, as promised, baptize them
too? On what basis should we doubt that Spirit-baptized Israel will
become part of Messiah’s body?

Therefore, redeemed
Israel will not be basically different from the ekklesia
(church) but part of it. Restored to God’s favor, they will
receive the eternal inheritance.

2. Consider the second
wrong distinction mentioned above: between an “earthly”
kingdom for Israel and a “heavenly” hope for the church.
There is no such distinction in Matthew. That book constantly refers
to the future kingdom as our hope (for example, Matthew 5:3, 10, 20;
7:21). When it records the Lord’s clear promises to come back
to earth in glory to reign, it always assumes that believers will
share in that rule. For whom did Matthew write these promises?
Certainly for members of the church, whether Jews or not. Books for
the church do not and cannot present distinct hopes for its members.
“In the church there is neither Jew nor Greek” (Gal.
3:28).

Furthermore, a
“heavenly” hope can be on earth. Right now our
inheritance is “kept in heaven for [us]” (1 Pet. 1:4) but
will be “given [to us] when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1
Pet. 1:13). As Jesus showed often in Matthew, that will be when He
comes to reign (Matthew 13:41-43; 16:27; 19:28; 25:31, 34). The
rock that Daniel saw coming from God “became a huge mountain
and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:35). That will be the
kingdom of heaven on earth, the same picture as in Revelation
21-22. A heavenly hope to be enjoyed on earth.

Jewish hopes were
heavenly in the same way. It was originally to Jews that Jesus said,
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.…But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20).
Why should we think that their heavenly treasures are any different
from ours? Passages like Hebrews 6:13-20 and 11:8-16
show that they are identical. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham’s
hope was both earthly and heavenly. Earthly: He “made his
home in the promised land like a stranger” (v. 9).
Yet, he “did not receive the things promised” (v. 13).
Why not? Because he was looking for a “heavenly”
country (v. 16) and “the city with foundations” (v.
10). That city is “the heavenly Jerusalem” (12:22), his
goal and ours.

After descending to the
renewed earth (Revelation 21:1-2, 10), that heavenly Jerusalem will
have “the throne of God and of the Lamb [Messiah]” (Revelation
22:3). It will be the capital city of the eternal kingdom. It will
be Abraham’s city, enabling him to inherit his promised land.
And saved Gentiles will “take their places at the feast
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew
8:11), not on a neighboring star. God’s “servants will
serve him….And they will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation
22:3, 5).

In other words, the
church and restored Israel have basically the same hope. It is both
heavenly and earthly—the coming rule of heaven on earth. This
does not erase the distinctions between saved nations, which will
persist even into the perfected form of the kingdom (Revelation 21:24, 26;
22:2). And Israel will finally be the head of the nations, rather
than the tail (Deut. 28:13).[note 2]

Accordingly, the Apostle Paul saw no contradiction in preaching to Gentiles
both God’s grace and the future kingdom. Far along in
his ministry, he summarized his message in Ephesus as “testifying
to the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24). In his
next sentence he summarized his message as “preaching
the kingdom.” Indeed, it is good news that by God’s
grace both Jews and Gentiles can participate in Messiah’s
coming kingdom “for ever and ever” (Daniel 7:18,
27).