Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, and Peter, Did Not Preach the Resurrection of Their Bodies into Heaven

The distinction between prophecy and the mystery clarifies a common confusion about resurrection hope. The apostles of the Lord’s earthly ministry, sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, did not preach the resurrection of their own glorified bodies into heavenly places. Their message concerned the restoration of Israel as a nation, the promised kingdom on earth, and the bodily resurrection necessary to inhabit that earthly kingdom under Messiah’s reign. Their preaching looked to the times of refreshing and the restitution of all things spoken by the prophets since the world began, not to a heavenly position in Christ revealed later to Paul. When this right division is honored, the Scriptures harmonize and the separate hopes of Israel and the Body of Christ remain pure and powerful.

The prophetic hope entrusted to the twelve was earthly in scope. The Lord promised them thrones in an earthly kingdom, not seats in heavenly places. He said, “Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” in Matthew nineteen verse twenty eight. Near the Lord’s ascension the apostles asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel” in Acts one verse six. Their expectation was restoration, land, tribes, and David’s throne on earth, which agrees with promises throughout the prophets. Peter preached that Jesus was raised to sit on David’s throne and that God would send Jesus Christ again to bring the promised seasons, saying that heaven must receive Him “until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” in Acts two verses thirty to thirty six and Acts three verses nineteen to twenty one. This is the prophetic program. It includes resurrection, yet that resurrection furnishes Israel for her promised earthly inheritance.

The prophets spoke of resurrection in connection with Israel’s national restoration and kingdom blessing. Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones portrays Israel raised and planted in her land under one king, not saints transported to heavenly places. Read Ezekiel thirty seven. Daniel foretold that many who sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt, and the scene belongs to Israel’s last days and kingdom judgments in Daniel twelve verses one and two. The meek shall inherit the earth, Psalm thirty seven and Matthew five verse five, and that is precisely what the apostles anticipated. When Peter writes of an inheritance “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” in First Peter one verse four, he is not shifting their hope to a heavenly location. He is affirming that Israel’s inheritance is kept by God and will be revealed in due time, which accords with the sending of Christ from heaven to bring the promised earthly salvation at His revelation, First Peter one verses five to seven and Acts three verses nineteen to twenty one. None of this is the heavenly position revealed later to Paul.

The apostles to Israel certainly preached Christ’s resurrection, but always as proof that the promised Davidic King lives, that Israel must repent, and that the kingdom will come as the prophets declared. Peter’s Pentecost sermon proves the point. God raised up Jesus to sit on David’s throne, God made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ, and Israel must change their mind about the rejected Messiah, Acts two verses thirty to thirty six. In Solomon’s porch Peter again connects the resurrection to the covenants and to the sending of Jesus back to earth for kingdom restoration, Acts three verses thirteen to twenty six. Stephen rehearses Israel’s history and sees the Son of man standing in heaven ready to return if the nation will receive Him, Acts seven. In every case the resurrection energizes Israel’s earthly program, it does not unveil a heavenly destiny for the apostles’ own glorified bodies.

The revelation of a different kind of resurrection glory, a heavenly body and a heavenly position, belongs to the mystery committed to Paul. Only in Paul do we learn that our conversation is in heaven and that we look for the Saviour from heaven who shall change our vile body to be fashioned like unto His glorious body, Philippians three verses twenty and twenty one. Only in Paul do we read of bearing the image of the heavenly and of a change in a moment at the last trump for members of the Body of Christ, First Corinthians fifteen verses forty nine to fifty three. Only in Paul do we learn that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, that we are seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and that Christ as Head is far above all principality and power for the sake of His Body, Ephesians one verses twenty to twenty three and Ephesians two verse six. This is not prophecy. This was kept secret since the world began and revealed to Paul for a new creature, the Body of Christ.

Therefore the apostles to Israel did not preach the resurrection of their own bodies into heaven. They preached Christ’s resurrection as the sure pledge of Israel’s kingdom on earth, the restoration of all things, and the fulfillment of covenants to the fathers. Their thrones are on earth and their hope concerns the twelve tribes in their land under Messiah’s rule. The heavenly resurrection body and the seated position in Christ belong to the mystery revealed to Paul. Confusing these programs robs Israel of her promised kingdom and diminishes the glory of the Body of Christ in heavenly places. Keeping them distinct preserves both the earthly hope of prophecy and the heavenly hope of the mystery, magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ as King of Israel and Head of the Body, and secures the believer today in a destiny that was unsearchable by the prophets but is now made known through Paul’s gospel.