The Privileged People – Acts 28:28

 

Monday night I turned on the Discovery Channel and caught the end of a very interesting program.

It was about a physical condition called “Gigantism.”

Perhaps you know of families which carry a gene which makes them relatively tall.

These people may be 6′ 4″ or 6′ 8″.

There is nothing particularly unusual about these people, and they are fairly common.

They grow to the height they were meant to be, and then they stop growing.

Judy says that they grow to the proper size according to the length of their feet, and then they stop.

But about 1 in a million people are true giants growing to 7′, 8′ and even higher.

The people with this rare condition are born with a non-cancerous tumor on their Pituitary gland.

This gland at the base of the brain is about the size of a cherry in most adults,

but for these people, beginning in childhood it can be the size of a golf ball or larger,

and it produces the hormone which induces the body, and particularly the bones, to grow and grow.

Gigantism causes these people grow rapidly and to keep growing until they die or the Pituitary gland is somehow treated.

The producers of the show interviewed the mother of a 6-year-old who looked like he was 10 or 12.

He was normal in every way for his age-group except for his size,

but when he’d meet new kids his own age on a playground or somewhere else,

their parents would often not let them play together, thinking that he was much older.

There was a interview and school class picture of an 10-year-old girl who was over 6′ tall.

There was a young lady who was about 7′ tall

who had been having a really difficult time until she met a man her own age and her own height.

Together they were literally, head and shoulders above everyone else.

They showed a woman who was 7′ 6″ tall as she was trying to find a pair of size 22 shoes.

And it showed the eyes of people in crowds who saw some of these people for the first time.

It was an interesting program, but one of the best parts was the sense of humor that most of them had.

When one man nearly 8′ tall was crowned the “Tallest Man in Britain,”

he told a reporter that he was really, really happy.

He said that he felt like he was 10′ tall.

And the woman buying the shoes said that other than the fact she only owned two pairs of shoes,

she was proud of her height.

Then she added that she really didn’t look down on any of the little people – 6′ 2″ and 6′ 4″.

What has this got to do with Acts 28:28?

Well, those people were all just a little different, while being very much the same as everyone else.

In the same sort of way there are differences – and similarities – between Gentiles and Jews.

As most of you know the word “Gentile” is very common throughout the Bible.

And in either Testament, in either language, the word is a noun, not an adjective.

By that I mean that it describes the ETHNICITY of a group of people, not their CHARACTER.

The Hebrew word is “gowy” (go’- ee) or “goyim, and about one-third of the time it is translated “nations.”

It is referring to those people who were not of the nation of Israel.

Another 25% of the time it is translated “heathen” or “peoples,”

But only a few times in the Old Testament is it translated “gentiles.”

In the New Testament Greek the word is “ethnos.”

About 65% of the time it is translated “gentiles,” and only 3% of the time is it translated “heathen.”

In both testaments and in both languages, the word merely refers to a group of people who were not Jews.

And in neither language does it speak about the quality, the nature, or the character of those people.

As the years passed and the prosperity of Israel waxed and waned, the children of Jacob began to think of themselves as much, much better than everyone else.

They possessed the scriptures and the covenants; to them were the best of God’s prophets sent.

They had the promises of the Messiah’s Kingdom; they had Moses, David and Solomon.

They were the elect nation; the chosen people, “princes with God” – “Israel.”

And the natural result of their undeserved pride was self-superiority and disdain towards the other nations.

As eventually, especially by the days of the New Testament, the word “gentile” had evolved and came to be a DEROGATORY TERM rather than a DESCRIPTIVE TERM.

It not only denoted someone who was DIFFERENT, but someone who was definitely INFERIOR.

But that is the perspective of only one group of people – the children of Israel.

Certainly neither the Greeks nor the Romans thought that they were inferior to Israel.

Nearly every culture and nation develops racial slurs and nicknames for others.

Sometimes these nicknames don’t mean very much, or they aren’t meant to be cruel:

The British are often called Limeys.

Does anyone know why?

Because back in the 18^th Century sailors on British Warships were required to eat limes to prevent scurvy.

If I was a Englishman I wouldn’t be upset to be called a Limey any more than I am to be called a Canuck.

But then there are hundreds of other terms which are not very friendly.

Some of them started innocently enough but then evolved to become something evil and derogatory.

For example, originally there was nothing wrong with the word “nigger,” because it was just a derivative of “Negro.”

Today, you’re dead meat if you call a black man nothing more than a “Negro.”

Then there are other words that started out meaning something detrimental, but they became a compliment.

The most prominent of those would have to be the word “Christian.”

As for the word “Gentile,” my cheeks don’t blush if someone uses that word to describe me,

and I don’t hesitate to use it when speaking about the people in our church.

It didn’t bother Paul to use it either, even though some of the people to whom he was speaking might have sneered or smirked when he said it.

So Paul points out that Gentiles are different from the Jews, but they are also a privileged people.

“Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”

What would be the greatest honor or privilege that you could imagine?

To be invited to marry and spend the rest of your life with the greatest person on earth?

To meet some important person like David, the son of Jesse, or Paul the Apostle?

To be asked by someone that you admire to join them on an important trip or expedition?

Perhaps everyone here might have a different idea about the greatest of all privileges.

But when the Christian in us kicks in, we’d all have to say that the greatest of all privileges is to be given the opportunity to spend eternity with the Son of God.

The greatest of all gifts was the presentation of the shed blood of Christ in our name and on our behalf.

The greatest thing in our lives so far was the presentation of the gospel that we might enjoy these other things.

The sons of Israel might look down their noses at the children of Japheth under ordinary conditions,

but when they are both invited to become equal citizens in the Kingdom of God, they had better change their perspective about each other.

You had better change your opinion about the saved Jew, as much as he better change his opinion about the saved Gentile.

If Jehovah loves someone, as a Father loves His child, then you and I better love them too.

And “greater love hath no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for his friend.”

As we pointed out last weekend, the Heavenly Husbandman has been busy grafting Gentile branches onto His Heavenly fig tree.

And the fact is: in order to get that done, He first broke some Hebrew branches off that tree.

So which is the better person: the saved person who is 4’10” inches tall, the one who is 6′ or the one 7’6″ tall?

In the sight of God there is no difference, because in a sense the Lord is infinitely taller than all of them.

Who is more Christian: the former prostitute who has been saved by the grace of God, the former college professor, or the former basketball player?

Who is more healed: the cured leper, the healed cancer patient, or the guy who once had a cold?

If they are all in perfect health by the grace of God, then they are all in perfect health.

However, one might love the Lord more because he or she has been blessed and healed of a more serious disease.

Gentiles are a people different from the Jews, but they are a privileged people never-the-less.

And they are a hungry people.

“For the heart of (Israel) is waxed gross, & their ears are dull of hearing, & their eyes have they closed;

lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,

and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”

How could Paul be so confident that the Gentiles would actually listen and spiritually hear the gospel?

First, because it had been prophesied in the Old Testament.

Second, because God had already been giving the gospel to the Gentiles through Peter and others.

And then because God had told Paul and had commissioned him to present the truth to the Gentiles.

When Ananias was first expressing his concerns about Saul of Tarsus …

“The Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.”

And then Paul was confident that the Gentiles would receive the Gospel,

because quite often when the gospel was given to them, it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was convicting them to receive it.

In Antioch in Pisidia Paul and Barnabas had been preaching to their fellow countrymen in the synagogue.

“And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”

In Corinth Paul “reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace.”

Apparently the Lord was telling Paul not to hold his peace especially among the lost Gentiles.

Everywhere Paul went there were non-Jews who were trusting the Hebrew Messiah as their Lord and Saviour.

So Paul could say to the Jews of Rome:

“Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”

And doesn’t that include you and me?

Gentiles may be different from the Jews, but they are a privileged people, and sometimes they are a people hungry for the gospel.