What's so special?????

“Therefore I want you to know

that’s God’s salvation

has been sent to the Gentiles,

and they will listen.”

So what’s so special about

Acts 28:28?????

There are certain events in history which are pivotal. What happened after them bears little relationship to what went on before. The words written by Luke at the end of his Acts of the Apostles describe such an event.

First he records Paul’s final words to the Jewish leadership in Rome. He quotes at them Isaiah 6:9-10 which, after all, has been quoted a number of times earlier, but this is the last time these words are recorded in the New Testament. Effectively because the Jewish nation continually hardened their hearts to the message that Jesus was the Christ (i.e. the Messiah) and the Son of God, they had become blind and deaf …. and therefore useless. So what was God going to do?

From Abraham’s time onwards God has blessed the Gentiles through the Jews, and this had continued not only during the Gospels but right throughout the Acts of the Apostles. During that time all the evangelism, all the teaching, all the leadership positions …. all was Jewish. Gentiles were being saved, but through the ministry of Jews.

But many of the unbelieving Jews not only opposed Christ and His Apostles, they also opposed Christian Gentiles, confused them and corrupted them. In doing this they heaped “up their sins to the limit” (1 Thessalonians 2:16). Their cup of iniquity was full and judgment fell.

Within a few short years of Acts 28:28 the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, and exiled the nation of Israel. There followed, from the Christian point of view, some years of silence, but when we get to the writings of the early Church fathers what do we find? They were all Gentiles! There was not one Jew amongst them. God was true to His word, “God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen.”

Paul’s later letters to Christians

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon

Paul’s earlier letters to Jewish and Gentile Christians

Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians

1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans

Letters to Jews

Hebrews, James, 1,2,3 Peter,

1,2 John, Jude, Revelation

Thus in our understanding of the New Testament we should expect events after Acts 28:28 to be significantly different from those before, and this is what we find. The letters of James, Peter, John and Jude were written to Christian Jews and were written before Acts 28:28. Paul also wrote letters before Acts 28:28, addressed to mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles – these were Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Corinthians and Romans. Hebrews, obviously, was written to Christian Jews. After Acts 28:28 Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. If we analyse the New Testament by considering:

The Gospels

The Acts

The Jewish Letters, including Revelation

Paul’s earlier letters

Paul’s later letters,

The Gospels 64
The Acts 19
The Jewish Letters 21
Paul’s Earlier Letters 24
Paul’s Later Letters 0

we will discover some interesting features.

Consider the number of references to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the New Testament. There are over 60 in the Gospels. Over 60 in the books written during the time covered by the Acts of the Apostle, but there is not one in the letters written after Acts 28.

And there are many other interesting features. Consider the words “Israel” and “Israelite”. How are these distributed?

The Gospels – 31

The Acts – 31

The Jewish Letters – 6

Paul’s Earlier Letters – 19

Paul’s Later Letters – 2

And those two references after Acts 28:28 are very different from anything before. The first is Ephesians 2:12 where we read that the Gentiles had be “excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.” However Paul then went on and wrote, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” Truly, God’s salvation had been sent to the Gentiles.

The only other reference is in Philippians 3:5 where Paul gave his ancestral line saying he was “of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin” but goes on to say that this no longer means anything (v 7).

We see something similar with the words “Jew”, “Jews” and “Jewish”.

The Gospels – 72

The Acts – 81

The Jewish Letters – 2

Paul’s Earlier Letters – 29

Paul’s Later Letters – 2

Again the two references after Acts 28:28 are quite different from those before. Colossians 3:11 states that “there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised” and in Colossians 4:11 Paul mentions Mark and Justus and wrote “These are the only Jews amongst my fellow workers.” How different from the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. What a change! God’s salvation had been sent to the Gentiles, and they did listen.

In Romans 9:4 we read that “the covenants” belong to the people of Israel. That being the case, how is this word “covenant” distributed?

The Gospels – 4

The Acts – 2

The Jewish Letters – 21

Paul’s Earlier Letters – 9

Paul’s Later Letters – 1

The only occurrence after Acts 28:28 we have already mentioned. It occurs in Ephesians 2:12 where the Gentiles were told that they were “foreigners to the covenants of promise.”

And we can extend this approach to a wide variety of subjects. Consider for example “healing”, “heal” and “healed”

The Gospels – 72

The Acts – 14

The Jewish Letters – 15

Paul’s Earlier Letters – 4

Paul’s Later Letters – 0

But not only are there no references to the instant, miraculous sign of healing after Acts 28, if we read those letters we see people not being healed. For example, Paul did not send a handkerchief to heal Timothy, as he did for some people during Acts. Rather he sent him advice: “Stop drinking water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (1 Timothy 5:23).

Then, when writing his last letter, he told Timothy that he had “left Trophimus sick in Miletus” (2 Timothy 4:23).

And even though Epaphroditus was “ill and almost died”, he recovered, for which Paul no doubt thanked the Lord. However, recovery is not miraculous healing.

To sum up:

Acts 28:28 is a pivotal point in God’s dealings with mankind. Here, I have just given a taste of what changes, but there is so much more.