We know to look to Acts chapter 2. I want to suggest to you that
we ought also to look to Acts chapter 13. Beginning in verse 16
and following, we have not just the witness of Peter but we also
have the witness of Paul. Paul, of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul as
of training, a Pharisee; Paul, not an unlettered Galilean fisherman,
but a student and theological son of Gamaliel. What will Paul say?
This is the Paul who was struck by a blinding light on the road to
Damascus when he went out to persecute the Church. This is the
Paul who later said he was of all least worthy to be an apostle
as one untimely born but one who nonetheless, by the grace of
God, became the great apostle to the Gentiles. He wasn’t just the
apostle to the Gentiles. Look at what happens in Acts chapter 13,
verses 16-22:
Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hands said,
“Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of
this great people Israel, chose our fathers and made the
people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with
an uplifted arm, He led them out from it. For a period of
about forty years, He put up with them in the wilderness.
When He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan,
He distributed their land as an inheritance, all of which took
about four hundred and fifty years. After these things, He
gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then when
they asked for a king, God gave them Saul, the son of
Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for forty years. After
He had removed him, He raised up David to be their King.
Concerning him, He also testified and said, ‘I have found
David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all
of my will.”
Let me ask you a question. Is Paul speaking primarily here to the
Jews or to the God-fearing Gentiles? He is speaking to both. He is
speaking to the God-fearing Gentiles who didn’t know this history
and needed to know it. Otherwise they wouldn’t understand the
background of the gospel itself. But, he is also speaking to the
18 | To the Jew First