ArchivedThe Quran - Is pre-ordained sin mans responsibility?Greetings Alexei, To understand this verse, you must again look at it's context and ask yourself who are the "they" mentioned in these verses and why were they scattered, and then ask yourself why they preached to the Jews only. So let's do it now. 1. Who are the "they" of these verses. To find this out, you must return to Acts 6 and 7. This is the period of growth of the Jerusalem Church. The Church is only a few years old and chapters 5-9 discuss expansion of the church into Jerusalem and into Judea. Please remember, that at this stage, the new believers were very Jewish in their thinking and in light of this, they understood themselves to be in a covenant relationship with God that set them apart from the rest of the world. All their evangelism took place with Jews only, and not with the Gentiles around them. So much was Judaism engrained into them, that they "didn't remember" that at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the ability to speak in every language group represented in Jerusalem at that time.. right from the beginning of the history of the church, every nation on the earth had the chance to hear about Jesus in their own language . What happens now is a major reshuffling of this thinking. Who orchestrates it? On the surface it would appear it was from amongst the leaders of the synogogue, and other Jews from around the world who claimed that Stephen was blaspheming. Stephen uses it as an opportunity to take them through Jewish history and challenge their Judaistic narrowmindedness, and for this he is stoned to death, whilst Saul looked on. Now, notice what happens.. the church which had upto now been closeted in Jerusalem, finds itself persecuted and all the Christians thrust not only into Judea, but into the "hated Samaria" also. Now Acts 7:4 states Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went." One of those men was Phillip, who went down to a city in Samaria and preached the Gospel there. This was the first recorded example of cross cultural missionary work, as Phillip had to move from his own culture into the samaritan culture to share the Gospel. Later, this same Philip finds an Eithiopian and helps him to understand and become a Christian. Two examples of how by the persecution led to the expansion of the church. So Alexei, you are quite correct. The first christians did indeed refuse to take the Gospel to other cultures, but God allowed them to suffer persecution and in losing their "comfort zone" in Jerusalem, they shared their faith cross culturally. God always intended that all people in the world hear the gospel, and even when christians are disobedient, He doesn't leave them without consequences for disobedience. Do you remember in Dueteronomy29- 30 just prior to when Moses died, He gave the Jewish nation an ultimatum from God? Verse 1 speaks of the curses and blessings placed before the Jews. God has told them that they will be scattered amongst the nations because of their disobedience. This happened to the Jews, and it happened to the early Christians as well. Now, in Acts 10 you have Simon's personal revelation from God which he cannot deny is a clear message that Jesus came not only for the Jews, but for the whole world. He justifies himself to the still skeptical believers.. and notice where this skeptism is occuring. It's not out there where the persecution is occuring, it's in Jerusalem, in that same judaistic church, which still saw was having problems accepting others from outside Judaism. Finally in Verse 18 they came to full understanding that When they heard this, they had no furthur objections and praised God saying "So then God has granted even Gentiles repentance unto life." Acts 11:19 mentions that some of those who were spread out through persecution spoke only to Jews, but please now read Acts 11:20, the very next verse Some of them however, men from cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and begn to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord." So, we have seen the Christian Jews in Jerusalem were very reluctant to obey their Lord and take the Gospel even to the Gentiles. It was always God's intention, that through His people, the entire world would be blessed (remember Abraham in Genesis 12). and their reluctance did not stop Him achieving his purposes. Persecution sent them out to the nearby world, scattered they shared their faith wherever they went. Even when His people are reluctant and disobedient, God promises His plans will succeed. We will relook at the Council in Jerusalem in my next post to answer the next part of your question. |
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