Our Lord said before He was taken back to heaven, 'You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem,and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth' Acts 1 v 8.These words indicate a steady progression outward to the ends of earth,in other words the church would longer be a Jewish church.It is significant fot there were those who felt that the Gentiles should have to be circumcised and obey the law,and this caused a lot of problems.(Acts 15 v 5 )In Galatians 2 v 11ff Paul had to challenge Peter and Barnabas who sided with these people,and thankfully they retuned to the fold. Many Jews wanted to keep the status quo to accept the fact that old convenant was now null and void,like circumcision,temple worship,food laws ,clothing laws, tithing laws,and so many other things.the Christian is not under any of these laws,The gospel liberated us from the Jewish swaddling clothes,and points us away from Jerusalem to a church where Jew and Gentile are one,a people saved only by the grace of God.Under Peter we have an ingathering of Jews 3-4v5, under Philip we have ingathering of Samaraitans (Acts 8) ,and then we have Peter who opened the door for the Gentiles (Acts 10) Then we have the conversion of Paul who became the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11 v13),and it is interesting that Peter is not mentioned after Acts 15 v 7, from then on he disappears,and as John Stott mentions Paul replaces Peter,and Paul who pushes on beyond Asia and into Europe.One the reasons that this happened was , Paul who was born inTarsus a Roman city, was very familiar with Gentiles,God places us where we are best suited to serve Him.
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