by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Paul stood on the steps leading to the temple area and addressed the Jewish people. They had falsely accused him of bringing a gentile, Trophimus, into the temple area. The Roman army rescued him, and now he speaks to the angry mob. When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they fell silent and listened.<\/p>\n
He recounts his personal history and the events leading to his conversion to following Jesus. They didn’t freak out as he spoke of seeing Jesus, being baptized in the name of Jesus, or the death of Stephen. He then stated that Jesus had said to him: “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles<\/em>” (Acts 22:21).<\/p>\n Luke records that “up to this word they listened to him.<\/em>” That word was ‘Gentiles.’ At the mere mention of Gentiles and God, they lose control of themselves. They raise their voices and begin yelling. They agitate and demand that Paul should die for this<\/strong>. They throw off their cloaks and begin throwing dust in the air. One wonders what the Roman soldiers thought of this scene!<\/p>\nFor most people, there are certain ‘words’ that set us off. They are our ‘sacred cows’. They are off limits to even talk about. They are not negotiable. We will not even consider that such thoughts are wrong. We, like these in Acts 22, will listen to someone – up to this word. While we are never encouraged to believe everything we hear, we are challenged to examine even those things that at first hearing we disagree with. The Bereans were commended because they “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so<\/em>” (Acts 17:11). Paul wrote that we are “test everything; hold fast what is good<\/em>” (I Thessalonians 5:21). That means listening past our ‘buzz words’.<\/p>\n Concerning the acceptance of the Gentiles, Peter stated: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him<\/em>” (Acts 10:34-35 KJV). This truth began with the promise to Abraham that all nations<\/strong> would be blessed in his seed (Jesus). Jesus commissioned the apostles to preach to every nation and to the whole creation (Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 16:15). Paul wrote that the gospel “was the power of God to save all who believe, to the Jew first and also unto the Gentile<\/em>” (Romans 1:16). He stated that “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek…<\/em>” (Galatians 3:26-28).<\/p>\n I am sure there are people who read ‘up to this word’. To some, ‘this word’ may have been the word ‘Greek’. To many in our day, the word would have been ‘baptized’. What word causes you to quit listening?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Paul stood on the steps leading to the temple area and addressed the Jewish people. They had falsely accused him of bringing a gentile, Trophimus, into the temple area. The Roman army rescued him, and now he speaks to the angry mob. When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[522],"class_list":["post-95638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-listening"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-gentiles-allowed-to-go-into-the-synagogues\/","url_meta":{"origin":95638,"position":0},"title":"Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues? Answer: Gentiles were allowed to come to the temple complex, but they were restricted to remain in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles. The question is whether some similar restriction forbade Gentiles from entering synagogues. We know that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81558,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/salvation-light-and-glory\/","url_meta":{"origin":95638,"position":1},"title":"Salvation: Light and Glory","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Shortly after Jesus' birth, His parents took Him to the temple \"to present Him to the Lord.\" There was a righteous and devout man, Simeon, upon whom was the Holy Spirit and who was \"waiting for the consolation of Israel.\" The Holy Spirit had revealed to him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3576,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/in-mark-519-the-word-is-house-not-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":95638,"position":2},"title":"In Mark 5:19, the word is “house” not “people.”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the article \"How Do They Do That?\" you stated: One of these cities was Decapolis. Just outside the town, Jesus freed a man possessed by demons. The man wanted to follow Jesus, but instead, Jesus told him to go and preach what he had learned to his people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66014,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-the-divine-temple\/","url_meta":{"origin":95638,"position":3},"title":"Jesus the Divine Temple","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer John's gospel begins by affirming that Jesus is the divine logos, the Word through whom all things were made. In Him is life and light. Life comes from Him, and He, the light of the world, came to this earth to overpower the darkness so that all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-jesus-prayer-for-unity-be-about-the-jews-and-gentiles-and-not-about-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":95638,"position":4},"title":"Could Jesus’ prayer for unity be about the Jews and Gentiles and not about doctrine?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My question is about the Lord's prayer for unity in John 17. We generally view that as being a unity of doctrine but what in that passage determines that? 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\nThe sad part is that if such a concept is wrong<\/strong>, its holder will never be able to accept the truth. Things are not true just because we have believed them and held to them for a long time. They are not true just because our parents and grandparents held them.\n