April 9, 2008
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MINISTRY OF JESUS
ONLY TO THE SAVED
Matthew 10:5-6  These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:  6  But go rather to the lost (straying) sheep of the house of Israel.
FEED THE SHEEP
Matthew 15:24  But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost (straying) sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15:26  But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Limitation of ministry
Gentiles Excluded
In teaching ministry
Samaritans, limited
John 4
A teaching ministry To them
Sheep, a part of the House of Israel
Go rather to sheep
Food for sheep not for …
Gentiles
Ordered, instructed, charged
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.