The Jesus of the Gentiles: Charting the History of how God Brought Salvation to the Rest of the World

The Jesus of the Gentiles
Acts 6-10
Ephesians 3:5-10 says, “5which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 7of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things 10so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” When Jesus came to earth, He opened the Gospel to everyone, Jew and Gentile. Although this window was immediately opened, it took time for the church (composed by people of Jewish descent) to overcome the entrenched traditions and notions they mentally depended on, and to accept these Gentiles as brothers in Christ. In describing Jewish sentiment towards Gentiles during the time period Acts was written, Barclay writes that, “at their worst, they (Jewish People) declared that God had created Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of hell; at their mildest they believed that someday the Gentiles would become their servants.” (Barclay 53) Chapters six through ten in The Book of Acts can be viewed as a history of the construction of the bridge that God directed built between Heaven, and all corners of the earth.

Acts chapters six through ten illustrate God’s complete understanding of man by the gentle way in which He primes the Jewish church to accept Christians of all different ethnicities. Toward this end, there are three major cornerstones within the five chapters: Stephen, who articulates a God of all cultures; Saul, who is converted to Paul and raised to be the Gentile’s greatest missionary and advocate; and Peter, who breaks ground at the house of Cornelius, and represents God’s first wave of assault on Satan’s stronghold, the Gentiles.

Stephen was selected among a group of seven (considered to be the church’s first deacons) to resolve a dispute between Hellenist Jews and Hebrew Jews. [i] The Hebrew Jews considered themselves “purebred” and took great pride in their heritage, which led to the discrimination of the Hellenist Jews who spoke mainly Greek and were looked at as half Jews. This is extremely important to understand, because God confronts Judaism’s pride slowly, essentially stating “Hebrews and Hellenists are equal.[ii]” Stephen’s character emerges through the settling of this dispute and he becomes viewed as a leader, teaching and preaching Jesus in the Synagogues, even performing miracles. (Acts 6:8) His emphatic teaching leads to him being setup, arrested and sent to trial by the Sanhedrin. Many theologians consider Acts seven to be “Stephen’s defense,” but it reads nothing like a defense. While he was speaking, he knew that his words could only result in his death. His speech was not in defense of himself for whom he apparently had no regard, but in his God that he followed and for whom he desired to die rather than to have people misunderstand. He used Abraham[iii], Joseph[iv], Moses[v], and The Tabernacle[vi] (God) to construct his argument and condemn their mindset. His three main points to the Jewish religious leaders were: they were resisting the Holy Spirit as they had always done; they were persecuting and killing prophets as they had always done; and they were breaking the laws of Moses as they had always done. (Boice 125) Using Jewish heroes like the father of their race, and the savior of their people to incriminate them, they went berserk and murdered Stephen. Barclay notes that the Sanhedrin had no authority to put someone to death, so this was a lynching, not a legal death sentence. (Barclay 61) The gist of what Stephen was trying to communicate was simple. He advocated a God so big, that he could not be confined to one nation, one people, or one building. His ideology seems a little more progressive then that of his companions, and he should definitely be viewed as “the voice in the wilderness” for open Christianity.

Stephen’s death elicits massive persecution of the Church, presumably led by Saul. The Christian community was comfortable, and had no reason to disperse and spread the gospel. These events show the hand of God, as He merely sends His people out on missions to all corners of the globe.[vii] Among those to disperse was a man named Philip, who was selected along with Stephen as one of the seven to absolve the issue between the Hellenist and Hebrew Jews. He travels to the Samaritans to perform miracles and preach Jesus in what the scripture indicates as a massive revival.[viii] (Acts 8:5-8) This marks another example of Jesus reaching out to people who the Jews considered abominable. They were “half Jews” as well, but because of religious affiliation more than heritage. God is still busy preparing the world for His radical change, and puts one more piece into play here. After starting a revival, the Holy Spirit transports Philip to go talk to an Ethiopian Eunich. Blaiklock points out that Philip was obviously very bold and in tune with God to be getting rides around the universe like that, and compares him to an Old Testament prophet. (Blaiklock 79) He baptizes the eunich (another Gentile) and again gets carried away by the Holy Spirit.

Next, God picks out the man to pioneer His agenda to the world. A massive and daunting expedition, His representative would have to be ambitious, ideologically stubborn, and extremely passionate. Who better then Saul? God waits until Saul is on the tail end of a long journey implying too much time to think, then confronts him. Immediately, he is obedient, almost as if God literally lifted a veil off of Paul’s heart. God audibly tells him, in what Boice declares the summation of all Christianity, to “go into the city and be told what to do.” (Boice 107, Acts 9:6) By combining Acts chapter nine with Galatians chapter one, we can surmise the events of Paul’s conversion and sanctification. From the Damascus Road where he met God, he was taken in by Ananias, recovered, learned, then started preaching in Damascus. The recipients of his message tried to kill him, and he went off to Arabia by himself[ix] to study God. Three to five years later he returns and continues teaching in Damascus. Newly converted and immediately out on his first preaching mission evoking the crowds to attempt to kill him… God found his guy. (Acts 9:20-23)

Everything is in place for God to start his mission. Peter has been traveling around preaching, healing, and raising the dead through the Holy Spirit when he is led to settle down in Joppa is the residence of a man named Simon, who is a tanner by trade. (Acts 9:31-43) A tanner would be considered permanently unclean by the Jewish because of the constant presence of dead animals that the trade requires. (Numbers 19:11-13) Peter’s decision to stay at his house shows the progressiveness in which Peter is growing in the Lord. (Barclay 82) While abiding here, God sends Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, a vision that results in him sending messengers to Simon the Tanner’s door to retrieve Peter. While the Centurion’s messengers are on their way, Peter has three consecutive dreams of God telling him to eat what can simply be described as Gentile foods. (See Leviticus 11) Peter objects, stating to God that he has never eaten anything unclean, to which God replies “What I have cleansed, no man can call unclean.” Peter gets the message; no man is common or unclean. Peter’s understanding and application of this is imminent. When the centurions men arrive they stop at the door because they know its forbidden for a Jew to have unclean men in his house, but peter invites them to enter. (Barclay 82) The men bring Peter back to their master’s house. While Peter is preaching, the Holy Spirit descends on the Roman people. The significance here is vivid. Throughout the book of Acts to this point, the Holy Spirit was bestowed on men by God through the apostles and baptism. In this case, there was no baptism or laying on of hands as of yet for these Gentiles. God simply reached out and visually chose them.

The heart of God is exposed through these five chapters by the methods He used to evoke His will. The Creator of the universe could have easily shook things up and obliterated traditions and cultures in order to get His message to the Gentiles, but He chose to work slowly, tweaking the heart of man, and carefully navigating around cultural boundaries to achieve His will. This demonstrated both His indefinite knowledge of man, and His patient love for man. In chapter six, He shows the Jewish people (the chosen people) that people born of a different heritage that share their faith should be equally accepted; not as Hellenistic Christian Jews and Hebrew Christian Jews, but as fellow believers. Then for the first time in history, chapter seven displays the first recorded speech derived from the notion that God is too big to limit to one group of people. Their pride still remaining perfectly intact, the Christian Jews must then accept the Samaritans, who shared their heritage but not their customs. God was slowly leading His people through this radical change sensitively, in baby steps. While simmering the hearts of His people, He chooses Paul to represent Him and spearhead His message to the Gentiles. While Paul is being trained, God initiates a skirmish at a Roman centurion’s house, and the spiritual war that had been raging for thousands of years was suddenly opened to all corners of the earth. If this cannot portray the love and intricacy of God, then nothing can.

[i] Every Friday two collectors would go house to house to receive a collection of both money and goods for the poor to be distributed later in the day. This was called the “kuppah” meaning “basket.” Also, a daily collection was taken at the synagogue called the “tamhui,” meaning “tray” for families too poor to wait for the weekend. (Barclay 51) The Jewish people understood this as their natural civic duty, but were often chastised by Old Testament prophets for neglecting this. (Boice 112) In this case, the complaint was that the Hellenist widows and poor were getting left out when these goods were distributed.
[ii] Note that at this time, many priests were being converted to Christianity. (Acts 6:7) One cannot help but wonder what role this played later on in the book of Acts as the tension between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians increases. Few Jewish people would be more fundamental and traditional in their beliefs then a Jewish priest.
[iii] Stephen points out that god visited Abraham before He lived in Haran. This is a similar argument to the one he makes about Moses, both illustrated that God has worked and appeared in places other than the “holy land.” Wherever God is present, the land is holy. This point Stephen makes informs us about and event that the Old Testament does not depict. (Boice 121) He also points out that Abraham always considered himself a pilgrim. (Hebrews 11:10) This analogy was meant as a slap in the face to the religious officials that were so comfortable and settled in on earth that they had allowed God’s temporal blessings to eclipse their sense of God’s presence. (Boice 122)
[iv] Joseph was mistreated, sent into a foreign land, and became the Savior of his people. Possibly an inference to Jesus.
[v] Moses was the sacred lawgiver and cornerstone to Judaism, but Stephen points out how he was twice rejected by his people. He also talks about how God personally goes to talk to Moses in Midian, another indication that Jerusalem was not the only “Holy Land.” (Acts 7:30-31)
[vi] The Jewish tabernacle was both the source of, and pet of the immense Jewish pride prevalent in that time period. He compares this magnificent gold-plated building to wilderness tabernacle, which was basically a mobile tent, and states that there is no significant difference between them. He quotes Isaiah 66:1-2 where God asks, “what kind of house can man build for God?” Essentially, the time of the temple had passed, and what they worshipped was nothing more then a few walls and building materials.
[vii] Noteworthy for reflection: The passage talks about a mass exodus of Christians fleeing for their lives, but Jesus’ apostles stayed and preached unharmed. They deserted Him once at Gethsemane but learned their lesson and courageously held fast. These were clearly very changed men.
[viii] Acts 8:13-25 Is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It tells of how the church receives news of the revival amongst the Samaritans, and quickly sends Peter and John to give out the Holy Spirit and minister to the new Christians. They call in the “big guns”
[ix] Paul went to be alone with God. A man of intense Old Testament knowledge, Paul learned about God from God. Not from others explaining God to them. This is a facet of our faith we often overlook.

*I have more of an expositional commentary written about these events and this time period if anyone is curious, or questioning the validity of what is written.