In this Bible study I want to consider the teaching ministry of Jesus Christ because his target ministry was to those who had ears to hear and eyes to see. Jesus did not reach out to all of the nations of the earth with the message of the kingdom of heaven, so Gentiles were not included in his teaching ministry. Gentiles were blessed by Jesus’ physical ministry to them in healing. An interesting observation in Christ physical ministry is that when he healed any one of the nation of Israel he had physical contact with them. When he healed a Gentile he made no physical contact with them.

In this Bible study I want to consider the teaching ministry of Jesus Christ because his target ministry was to those who had ears to hear and eyes to see. Jesus did not reach out to all of the nations of the earth with the message of the kingdom of heaven, so Gentiles were not included in his teaching ministry. Gentiles were blessed by Jesus’ physical ministry to them in healing. An interesting observation in Christ physical ministry is that when he healed any one of the nation of Israel he had physical contact with them. When he healed a Gentile he made no physical contact with them.

In Matthew 10:5-6 we can see the restrictions placed upon his disciples as to who they would go to. They were not to go to the Gentiles and only the suburbs of the cities of the Samaritans. They were to go to the lost or straying sheep that had left the fold. This was not the whole house of Israel. The message that they were to give pertained to the kingdom of heaven and not the kingdom on earth. He told the disciples to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The word “lost” is also translated “stray”. For a sheep to stray it had to be in the fold with the other sheep, so ownership is not the question as far as the sheep are concerned. Even the house of Israel are called “the people of God” in Luke 1:68  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, In Matthew 15:24 Jesus further affirms that he is not sent to Gentiles but to  the straying sheep of the house of Israel. In Matthew 15:26 further light is provided when he told the Canaanite woman that was not right to give the children’s food to Gentile dogs. The woman affirms this but taking the illustration Jesus gave, she said that there would be crumbs from the table. The Lord told Abram in Genesis 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, … and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

In Matthew 10:5-6 we can see the restrictions placed upon his disciples as to who they would go to. They were not to go to the Gentiles and only the suburbs of the cities of the Samaritans. They were to go to the lost or straying sheep that had left the fold. This was not the whole house of Israel. The message that they were to give pertained to the kingdom of heaven and not the kingdom on earth. He told the disciples to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The word “lost” is also translated “stray”. For a sheep to stray it had to be in the fold with the other sheep, so ownership is not the question as far as the sheep are concerned. Even the house of Israel are called “the people of God” in Luke 1:68  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, In Matthew 15:24 Jesus further affirms that he is not sent to Gentiles but to  the straying sheep of the house of Israel. In Matthew 15:26 further light is provided when he told the Canaanite woman that was not right to give the children’s food to Gentile dogs. The woman affirms this but taking the illustration Jesus gave, she said that there would be crumbs from the table. The Lord told Abram in Genesis 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, … and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Jesus teaching ministry was to those who had ears that could hear. This is not from a physical point of view but from a spiritual point of view. He taught in parables so that those who did have ears to hear would be stimulated to ask questions about what he was teach. They would want to know the meaning of the parable. Jesus was teaching the word of God in his parables. The word of God was the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. You can see this from Luke 8:10-11. Jew understood that one day there would be an earthly kingdom and they were looking for their king.  They did not know and understand that Jesus was offering a heavenly kingdom to the many that were called and the few that were chosen. If he was offering this heavenly kingdom to the whole nation of Israel, then the first covenant would be cancelled. That covenant has not been cancelled.

I am persuaded that the word “World” is not a reference to the nations of the world but the nation of Israel. Jesus did not move beyond the boundary of the nation of Israel. Even beyond the Jordan river was part of the inheritance Moses gave three tribes, Manasseh, Rueben, and Gad. Jesus ministry was not to the nations but to the nation of Israel. God the Father sent Jesus only to the perishing sheep of the house of Israel as noted in Matthew 15:24. It must be shown that there are times when the word “World” does reference the nations that include the Gentiles as in Luke 12:30 and Romans 11:12 for example. His ministry did extend to the Gentiles, but only in the physical realm and not the spiritual. He healed and possibly fed them but did not open the scriptures to them.

John 1:10 tell us that Jesus was in the world but we know that he did not travel outside the nation of Israel. In Matthew 15:24 he told a Gentile woman that she was not included in his ministry. In Matthew 10:5-6 Jesus sent his disciples to minister only to the nation of Israel.

When studying the Bible grammar should be used to determine what word should be associated with each other. Verbs tell us when the action takes place and whether action is an even or continuing event. In this study I want us to be aware of the parsing of words. This will help us to associate words and phrases that go with each other. We will be using gender, case, and number along with the tense of verbs. Nouns, pronouns, and participle have gender as well as case. The nominative case is the subject of the sentence. The Genitive, Dative cases are prepositional phrases. The accusative case is used as a direct object in the English language. Verbs have person number voice and mode. The person points to the one doing the action or receiving the action of the verb. The number indicates how many. The mode indicate the level of certainty to action of the verb will take place. If you do not have Bible software to look up the parsing of words on the Internet, at this link. You can get a Very Short Grammar at the link on this screen.

Be aware that we will be looking at the number and gender of words in the following verse. In John 1:10 we can see that is says that Jesus was in the world. Is the word “world” a reference to being in the earth or a people group? I believe the world is a reference to a people group, the nation of Israel, rather than all of the people groups on the earth. In Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. We see that the ministry of his disciples moved from the world to the uttermost part of the earth. He is telling them that they will be leaving the nation of Israel and going to other nations. They would begin in Jerusalem and move out  through Judaea, and Samaria then to the uttermost part of the earth. While Jesus was in the world, the nation of Israel, he spake openly to the Jews that congregated in the temple, synagogues and in their homes and not Gentiles

In John 10:1 I want us to see that the word “world” is masculine in gender. In Acts 1:8 we have a reference to the “uttermost part of the earth.” The word earth is feminine in gender where the word world is masculine in gender. In John 18:20 we see the word “world” used as well as the word “Jews”. Both of these words are in the masculine gender. They are said to be in agreement and the should be associated with each other. Jesus spake to the Jews and most of them did not understand his message. Jesus was calling the many and few and not the masses of Israel.

I want us to notice that the word “world” is masculine in gender, singular in number. Notice also that the word “was made” can be translated “caused to be” or “come into being”. Being made him did not mean that the world was created from nothing as when God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1. The word “world” is not a reference to the earth. People understand and it is people that populate the earth.

When did the nation of Israel come into being? The word “nation” occurs the first time in Genesis 10:5 and the context is when the Gentiles were divided by tongue, family, and nation, which carries the idea of culture. Deuteronomy 32:8 tells us that when the sons of Adam were divided they were divided according to the number of the children of Israel. This gives us some idea when the nation of Israel came into being. It seems to be that it was at the time of the flood of after the earth was populated with the descendents of Ham, Shem, and Japheth. When were the sons of Adam divided? It was in the days of Peleg. Genesis 10:25. This happened after God separated man by languages to different areas of the earth. This happened in Genesis 11 at the tower of Babel.

You can see in John 1:10-11 that the phrase “His own” is used twice. The first time it is neuter and the second one is masculine. In verse 10 the word “world” is masculine. Looking at Matthew 10:6 where Jesus defines for his disciples their target ministry is to be to  the sheep, neuter gender. These sheep are part of the house of Israel, masculine gender. These sheep are of the house of Israel and they are straying from the fold.

There were two audiences that were present when Jesus taught. Those that were given the ability to understand his parables or the desire to ask questions about the parable. There were those who could not understand the parable and did not have questions to ask about the meaning of the parable. There were those in his audience that perceived that he was talking about them, but did not ask questions.

These two people groups are seen in John 1:11. The groups are differentiated by their gender in this verse. Those that are “his own” that are neuter in gender and those that are “his own” masculine gender. I am persuaded that those of his own that are in the neuter gender are those who have ears to hear and those that are masculine are those who do not have ears to hear. They are referred to as those that are “without”. Mark 4:11  And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

In John 1:12 the verse begins with “as many as” which is a word that is masculine in gender. I believe this a reference to those of the masculine gender in verse 11. Those who receive him are able to grow in maturity. These are those who would not be able to receive him near but just receive him. His own, neuter, are referred to in the later part of this verse and the ones believing. It is also interesting and significant that the pronoun “as many as” is plural and in the nominative case. “His own” in verse 11 that is in the masculine gender is also plural and in the nominative case.

I am persuaded that there is a distinction and separation made here between those that receive him and those that receive him near. The word “even” has been added by the translators that provide not help. The question then would be “who are the ones believing”.

If we search the phrase “his own” 3588 and 2398 neuter we will find that there are only eight verses in the New Testament where this phrase is found. John 10:3 and 4 are significant in that they refer to “his own sheep” and in verse 26 we can see that it is the sheep that believe in the present tense. Jesus was sent by the Father to the sheep of the house of Israel and the sheep are the ones that can believe in the present tense and not those that were around him.

His own sheep are neuter in gender. This is in agreement with his own, neuter gender, of John 1:11 that he came to having been sent by the Father

I want to establish in our thinking that “His own” of John 1:11a is neuter gender and plural in number.

We see from the text of John 10:4 that “his own” is neuter plural and the phrase modified “the sheep” that are neuter plural.

We have the parsing of John 10:26 and we have identified each word with the words in our translation. The word “ye” identifies to whom he is addressing. He is address those that are around about him in verse 24. These were Jews that Jesus said they could not believe in the present tense. The reason they could not believe in the present tense was because they were not Sheep. The word “Jews” is masculine in gender which I believe is a reference to those who were his own, masculine, in John 1:11.

There is a transition between “as many as” and the “ones believing”. The ones believing can be shown to be sheep.

The later part of this verse tells us what these are believing in. They are believing in his name. Believing in his name is not the same as to believe, aorist, that Jesus died for their sins. At this point Jesus had not done that. If they were believing in his name what were they believing? These were believing in the doctrine found in Word of God which pertain to the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. The name of him is defined in Revelation 19:13 and the phrase in John 1:12 and Revelation 19:13 are the same three words. They are neuter singular.

The word of God is defined in Luke 8:10 and 11. The sower was sowing the seed and the seed is defined as the word of God in verse 11. The seed is further defined as the mysteries of the kingdom of God that only those that were his sheep could understand.

Believing in the present tense is shown to be the spirit of faith in 2 Corinthians 4:13 Faith gives substance to the things we hope for. The things that we hope for is an heavenly inheritance in the coming kingdom. The spirit of faith is believing in the present tense and the evidence of that spirit of faith is faithfully speaking of the hope of the inheritance in the coming kingdom.

We must have the spirit of faith for the Word of God to work. The word of God effectively works in the hearts of those who have the spirit of faith, believing in the present tense. Just believing in the present tense is just the beginning. We must share our spirit of faith.

Jesus and his disciples preached “at the first” the kingdom message. This so great salvation was the message of the Word of God. In Mark 10:25-26 where we see that enteringr into the kingdom of God is a salvation message. Who then can be saved. Who then can enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:3 Jesus tell Nichodimus that one must be born from above to see the kingdom. To enter into the kingdom ones life must change with obedience to his commandments. If we do not change we will be rewarded for disobedience which will not be good. We must look to ourselves if we are going to receive a full reward. To receive a full reward we must not depart from the faith, Pleasing God.

In Acts 16:30-31 we see the Philippian Jailor make an active discision to believe on the Lord Jesus. He was born from above. Again, it was the jailor’s will to be saved and he was active in being born from above. In John 1:13 man is not active in this birth. God is the one who is active in this birth for the ones believing. The verb “born” is aorist passive. Man is passive not active. Passive measn that subject is being acted upon. The ones believing were born out from God.

In Acts 16:30-31 we see the Philippian Jailor make an active discision to believe on the Lord Jesus. He was born from above. Again, it was the jailor’s will to be saved and he was active in being born from above. In John 1:13 man is not active in this birth. God is the one who is active in this birth for the ones believing. The verb “born” is aorist passive. Man is passive not active. Passive measn that subject is being acted upon. The ones believing were born out from God.

This birth out from God is found in 1 Peter 1:3, 23. In verse 23 we find that these were “begotten again” by the word of God the incorruptible seed. The phrase “begotten again” is not the same word as found in John 3:3.