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Jesus was preaching the gospel of the kingdom to Israel. John the Baptist also preached the gospel of the kingdom, which was, "..Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 3:2) This shows that before the cross, the content of the gospel that Paul taught and came to him through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12) was still a mystery.
Ephesians 3:1 - For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, 7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. 8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.
That was not the content of the gospel which the twelve, John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ were preaching before the cross, yet they were still preaching the gospel of the kingdom to Israel.
Jesus Christ sent the twelve to preach only to Israel. Matthew 10:5 - These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ The disciples were specifically told to go only to the people of Israel, and they were not yet preaching anything about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
In Matthew 16:15, Jesus Christ asked His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Now Peter had no clue that Jesus Christ would be crucified and resurrected, yet He did believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is obvious when, only moments later, Peter rebukes Jesus Christ for saying he will be killed, and be raised again the third day" (Matthew 16:21). In verse 22, "..Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
Before his death, Jesus told His 12 disciples that he had to die and that he would rise again on the third day. Looking back on passage we see it's unquestionable that the disciples were ignorant of its meaning.
“Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,…And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. – Luke 18:31-34.
Now that's strange if the content of the gospel that came through a revelation of Jesus Christ to Paul and was a mystery prior to that has the same content as the gospel of the kingdom before the cross. *This is where we need to RIGHTLY DIVIDE THE WORD OF TRUTH.
After his crucifixion, instead of anxiously waiting his resurrection, the disciples were still ignorant, disheartened at the death of their Messiah, and did not even believe the testimony at first of his resurrection (Mark 16:14, Luke 24:19-24).
It was not until after his resurrection that Jesus appeared to the apostles and opened their understanding (Luke 24:44-47).
In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, we see the gospel is the "good news" of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. In this age, there is a distinctive element to the content of the gospel which is called "the mystery of the gospel" (Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 1:26-27; 4:3). This new revelation that Paul received is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the same body, and fellow partakers of the promise through the gospel (Ephesians 3:6). Such equality, Jew and Gentile united together in one body (the body of Christ) was previously unknown. The distinctive message of the Church is that Jews and Gentiles alike may believe the gospel and be united together into ONE BODY (Ephesians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 12:13).
*Sigh* Please read Acts chapters 2-4. We see the apostles preach both the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
For they were witnesses of Christ's resurrection.
In Acts 11, Peter tells the other Jewish believers in Christ about how God sent him to Cornelius's house (Who was a Gentile) and this was the sign to the Jews from God of the inclusion of the Gentiles into God's salvation program. Paul did not preach to Cornelius. Peter told Cornelius of Christ's death and resurrection (Acts of the Apostles 10:39-40). So the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection was not revealed to Paul first. The 12 had it first. We see that they had it at Pentecost. So sometimes between Christ's return with the disciples for 40 days, and Pentecost, the disciples must have learned of the full entire gospel message from Jesus. This was not another gospel, but the same one they preached but with more details.
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