Romans 15:8a
"Now I say (Paul writes) that Jesus Christ was (past tense, in His earthly ministry) a minister of the circumcision. (who’s the circumcision? Israel, the Jew! And He was definitively the minister of Israel, not the whole world, during His earthly ministry.) for the truth of God,…" He’s the one that was responsible for everything that’s been taking place, and so, Jesus Christ was the Minister of the Nation of Israel based on the Truth of a Sovereign, Holy, Omnipotent God, now read on.
Romans 15:8b
"…to confirm the promises made to the fathers:" For goodness sakes, who were the fathers? Gentiles? No! Of Israel! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And what were those promises? That one day they would become a nation of people set a part as priests and kings. God would put them in a homeland, and God would be their King in the person of the Messiah. All of the promises were provisional and there end was predetermined by God but this end was obscured from their understanding until the day of there end or the last days.
Now, isn’t that plain? And so, Paul reminds us that this was the purpose of Christ’s appearing to the Nation of Israel. Now the big picture, of course, is He’s going to go to the Cross and become the means of redemption and then salvation for every human being. But, He came to Israel to fulfill the promises made to the fathers, and they should have known Who He was.
They should have recognized Him as that promised Messiah. But, here again, and we’re going to see this in another later verse almost a repeat performance by the Nation of Israel of when they rejected the Promised Land. A repeat performance of abject disobedience, brought about by what? Unbelief! Are you with use?
Alright, now come back to Matthew, and here we’ve got this Jesus to confirm the promises made to the fathers. Who now goes into the synagogue on every Sabbath day and what did He do? He preached the good news of the Kingdom. Well, where was the whole idea of a Kingdom originated? Well, back in the Covenants. That was the whole idea of bringing about the Nation of Israel to give them this glorious Kingdom, on earth. Heaven on earth, if you please. And so that’s why it’s called the Gospel of the Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. As a nation they've rejected the spiritual kingdom but as an individual each has a right to it by accepting His terms and conditions for entry on the same playing-field as the Gentiles.
Now then, in response to the ministry, of Jesus of Nazareth among the Jews, we have an example of one who hit the nail on the head with Peter in Matthew 16, and we’ll start at verse 13. Now again, so that we don’t lose anyone. We’re showing how that all the way up through human history good news was proclaimed to the human race in one way or another, and not always the whole race. Back in Genesis, of course it still was. But by the time we get to Genesis chapter 12, now God is dealing with only the Nation of Israel. And here as well in Christ’s earthly ministry. This good news was proclaimed only to the Nation of Israel. For the sole purpose of being the ones through whom He would come.
The Gentiles couldn’t partake of this. They didn’t have any Covenant promises to be fulfilled, because that was Israel’s sole role. Alright now, Peter then becomes the epitome of what the ordinary Jew on the street should have believed. This is Peter’s confession of faith. Alright, let’s start at verse 13, toward the end of His, Jesus', three years of earthly ministry. They are up in northern Israel and when Jesus came to the borders of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His Disciples saying:
Matthew 16:13b
"…Whom do men say that I the Son of man, am?"
What was He driving at? What does He mean when He said, "whom do people say that I am." Well, according to all the promises since Abraham, what was Israel looking for? Their Messiah! Their King! And now He’s there in fulfillment of those promises. He has been showing them who He was by the signs, wonders and yes miracles all were the manifestation of the first Adams authority as given him in Genesis chapter one verse 28: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” This was the proof of who Jesus was as He did and said as God instructed Him daily if not hourly by the Holy Spirit in Him. This He did as their and our example.
If they’d had an ounce of faith, as Peter and the ten did, what should they have known? Who He was! He is that promised King. He’s ready to give us the Kingdom, and they should have been just a elated as their forefathers should have been at the gates of Canaan at Kadesh-barnea, when they were ready to go in and take the land. So you see it’s almost a repeat performance. In fact, I’ve used this over and over to prove that God was not playing games with Israel when I say that Jesus offered the King and the Kingdom to Israel. A lot of people don’t buy into that, and they’ll say, "Well He couldn’t have, because He had to go to the Cross." That’s moot. The important part is that when He appeared to the Nation of Israel, He appeared to fulfill or close out the hidden period of time, the everlasting portion of those Old Testament promises and it was a valid offer. Oh they'd still have the lands of promise but and Here comes the problem. Israel was looking for two different people because the priest's misunderstood the scriptures and therefore taught a wrong message.
Just as valid as when He told Moses and Aaron and the children of Israel to go into the Promised Land. We don’t think anybody argues that that was not a valid offer. We’ve never had anyone argue with us and say, "Now Bill, God never intended Israel to go in and take Canaan." We’ve never had anybody say that, because they can’t buy that and so we’ll turn around and ask them, "Alright then, when God told Israel that they could have it, that He would drive the Canaanites out with hornets was He playing games or was He making a valid offer?" A valid offer. They could have had the land right then. It was theirs!
It’s the same way here. But see, we’re always blocked by the things that stand in our way, but nothing is impossible with God. He could have brought about that sacrificial death, one way or another. Now, all we can look at is, it had to go the way it went, which so far as we’re concerned is true. But, on the other hand, God being God, He could make a valid offer. "Alright, Israel, I’m here as your King, I’m going to give you the Kingdom, if you’ll just believe it." But, they didn’t believe Him and so that valid offer, just like Kadesh-barnea, fell through the cracks. Do you see that? Alright, now here’s what every Jew on the street should have been able to say as Peter did when the Lord asked him that question concerning the Son of Man. Dropping in at verse 13.
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