Mt 10:1-16 starts out with Jesus sending the disciples out two by two on a mission in their time. He tells them to heal the sick, raise the dead ect..
However, there is a strange transition to what looks like the end times in vs 17-33. What is your view on this?
Matthew 10:16-23 (KJV) Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Matthew 16:24-28 (KJV) Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
It seems that Christ leaves nothing to be imagined for those who take the gospel of the Kingdom of God unto the world. The truth is that many/most in the world will hate and persecute those who faithfully proclaim the name of Christ and His Kingdom. Because the Kingdom of God that Christ came with is not a physical or visible Kingdom but a spiritual Kingdom that shall be within faithful saints.
The twelve disciples Christ was addressing could not understand the coming of the Son of man in His Kingdom before the cross and resurrection. The power Christ gave them was that they through preaching had the ability to cast out unclean spirits and heal all manner of sickness and disease, but that was not how they would know what Christ meant when He tells them He has come in the Kingdom of God that is not of this world because His Kingdom is spiritual and within them. Christ equipped them with this power to confirm the Word they were to preach of Christ and His Kingdom.
He warns them of impending death, but reminds them that they are His ambassadors, chosen to take His Word to man, that through them more disciples would follow in their footsteps and the spiritual Kingdom of God in heaven would be built. He tells them to flee rather than be killed, but still some of them will be killed even before preaching His Word to all the cities of Israel, which would be before the Son of man shall come. Clearly, Christ has already come in power, so what does He mean some would not taste death till the Son of man comes in His Kingdom?
Christ has come to man in physical form but that man of faith might know and through His Spirit enter the Kingdom of God in heaven, Christ must come to them is SPIRITUAL form through His Holy Spirit. That would not be until after He made atonement for sin and defeated death by His cross and resurrection.
These early disciples will not have gone unto all the cities of Israel before the Son of man came to them through His Spirit because they would be martyred before finishing the task. But that would not prevent them from knowing the Kingdom of God has come to them. Because not even death can keep faithful saints of Christ from inheriting eternal life with Christ in the Kingdom of God in heaven. Some of them who would not die will know before death that the Son of man has come in the SPIRITUAL Kingdom of God through the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ shall come to them in.
John 14:16-18 (KJV) And
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:
but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.