God's Story Is Our Story: From Acts to New CreationSample

Acts 13 and 14 begins a dramatic new phase in the story of what God is doing in the world. This is what is often referred to as Paul's First Missionary Journey. He and Barnabas are commissioned by a church to travel through Cyprus and much of what is modern day Turkey. It's difficult to know what the original plan was, but it seems that the focus was on visiting Jewish synagogues in various cities to announce Jesus as the Messiah. Many Jewish people did come to believe, but many more rejected this message and worked to squelch this new movement. Surprisingly, what did happen was that many Gentiles (non-Jews) were open to hearing about Jesus and came to faith in him.

This was always God's plan in the Old Testament. The first 11 chapters of Genesis describe God working among all nations. But, after the tower of Babel, God divided the nations into various languages. Amongst those nations, God chose one: Abraham's descendants. But, when God chooses that one nation, he told Abraham that he chose them in order to bless all nations. We see small pictures of Gentiles being joined to God's people in the Old Testament: Rahab, the Gibeonites, Ruth, many of David's best soldiers, the Ninevites in the book of Jonah, Nebuchadnezzar, and more.

But, after Christ's resurrection and ascension, a new phase to bless the nations begins to unfold. The language barrier is overcome miraculously at the speech during Pentecost in Acts 2. Jewish believers are beginning to cross more and more barriers with the gospel. But, Paul, the former oppressor of the early Christians with Barnabas are the first ones to see large numbers of Gentiles become Christians.

This is our story. We fit into the story that God has been telling throughout the Old Testament. God's story of redemption is still happening as the message of Jesus is spreading to more and more people who have never heard before.