Gospel

Matthew 9:37 Then He says to His students: “Great is the harvest, but the workers are few! 38 Therefore it is necessary for the lord of the harvest, that he send out workers into his harvest!”

Matthew records Christ as saying this shortly before sending out the apostles. Christ needed His apostles to share in the labor of spreading the Word of God, and He was about to send them out to do so.

Reconciliation

Matthew 10:5 These twelve Yahshua sent out, commanding to them saying: “You should not depart into the way of the heathens [or nations], and you should not enter into a city of Samaritans. 6 But rather you must go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

This is one of the most misunderstood verses in Scripture, even among Christian Identity pastors. Many think that the command not to go unto the nations conflicts with the idea that the nations of the oikoumenê descended mostly from ancient Israel. But it does not. Firstly, Christ was not yet crucified, and therefore He was not yet reconciled to a “divorced” Israel, so the message of the Gospel was not yet prepared for them. This is the ministry of reconciliation which Paul describes in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and elsewhere.

Secondly, Yahshua is talking to the apostles on terms that they would understand, and at this time they understood “Israel” to include the circumcision only. The proof of that lies in Acts Chapter 10 and Peter's need for the vision which he later received from God. The apostles, being unlearned in literature, were not aware of the identity of the long-ago-dispersed Israelites, which was the entire reason for the later ministry of Paul of Tarsus.

Rejecting the Gospel and False Pleads of "Ignorance"

Matthew 10:12 But going into the house you shall greet it, 13 and indeed if the house should be worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it should not be worthy, your peace must return to you. 14 And whoever would not receive you nor hear your words, going out of that house or city shake off the dust from your feet. 15 Truly I say to you, it shall be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorra in the day of judgment than for that city!

This does not mean that the Canaanites of Sodom and Gomorra are going to be resurrected and judged. Firstly, it cannot even be established that the residents of those cities at the time of Abraham and Lot were even all Canaanites. Rather, it states that for those who reject the Gospel of the Kingdom, it will be worse for them in the judgement than it was for Sodom and Gommora.

Matthew 10:32 Therefore each who shall agree with Me before men, I shall also agree with him before My Father who is in the heavens. 33 But he who should deny Me before men, I shall also deny him before My Father who is in the heavens.

We can never deny the truth of the gospel before men – or we shall indeed suffer for it in the much greater judgement to come. Many take this to mean denying Christ Himself outright. I would think that it means something much deeper – for while many of us profess Christ with our lips, we deny Him in one word or another, because we pick-and-choose which Scriptures we want to accept, and which we want to reject. In essence, denying any part of the Gospel, is a denial of Him. At 1 Samuel 2:30 Yahweh said “... them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”.

Subtle Profound Prophecies

Matthew 10:17 But take heed on account of men, for they shall hand you over to councils and they shall whip you in their assembly halls 18 and you shall be brought before governors and even kings because of Me for a testimony to them and to the Nations.

This was fulfilled with the early Christian martyrs. For 300 years Christians were persecuted at the instigation of the jews. They were indeed dragged before kings, governors, and judges. Little things like this in the gospels, which are hardly noticed or which are taken for granted by nearly all Christians, indeed prove that Christianity is true – how could Christ make such a statement, and we see that it all came true, with such bold confidence? How was He so confident that thousands would follow Him to their death, for a mere profession of their faith? Only because He knew that it was true – and only God could know such things so far ahead of time.