Thesis
This Bible College paper will seek to demonstrate that the conversion of Gentiles in the book of Acts was according to the preordained plan of God. It examines OT prophecies of Gentile inclusion in the kingdom as part of God’s plan, Christ’s preemptive messages of the Gentile inclusion in the kingdom, a few representative samples of the gospel validating OT Scriptures to the Gentiles, and Paul’s motivation to reach the Gentiles to fulfill God’s plan. We will note the agreement between all these sections, which reflect the Jewish heritage underpinning the spread of the gospel. So now “the sphere in which we must look for God at work in salvation is no longer the nation of Israel but another nation. This is not the Gentiles as such … but a people of God derived from all nations, Jew and Gentile.”[1]
[1] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 1, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 313.
Prophecies for Gentile Inclusion in the Old Testament
What was God’s plan for Gentiles in the OT[1]? Were they ever intended to be part of God’s eternal plan for recovery when sin entered the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve were neither Jew nor Gentile, so the protoevangelium promise of deliverance in Gen. 3:15[2] is extended to their offspring, which included all peoples (for we were all “in Adam” when he sinned, 1 Cor. 15:22). Although God desires all peoples to be saved, He has nevertheless established the deciding factor of faith: the “just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4 NKJV). This idea builds upon the promise of faith in Gen. 15:6[3] for righteousness, when Abraham was neither Jew nor Gentile but rather “ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). By God’s grace, the wisdom of righteousness by faith opens the door to all peoples to enter the kingdom (Rom. 4:16).
Though the Lord had called Israel out from among the nations to be His people, yet His plan was never to be limited to the Jews: “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you” (Zech. 2:11 NKJV). Remember, these are the words of the OT, not of Acts, where “many nations” would fit comfortably. Anglican scholar and missiologist Christiopher J. H. Wright states, “First, the nations will join themselves to YHVH—not merely to national Israel. In other words, they do not join merely as subordinates of Israel, in some second-class citizenship. They will belong to YHVH just as Israel does.”[4] There are many OT passages where Gentiles are belittled (Lev. 18:24, Deut. 9:4) as defiling and wicked nations. Yet through the gospel they would become white as snow and be brought into the fold.
Jesus and the Gentiles
How did Jesus connect with the Gentiles? Before the apostles went out to the Gentiles in Acts, Jesus interacted with them in the gospels. Were these interactions a precursor to the Gentile conversions to come? We will look at several examples of how Jesus responds to Gentile encounters in Matthew[5], Luke[6], and John[7]. “When the following incidents and sayings are compiled, they show that it is simply false to say that Jesus had no interest in the world beyond his own Jewish people.”[8]
Matthew. Did Jesus intend for faith to be a deciding factor for who enters the kingdom? Jesus’ response to the Gentile centurion’s great faith in Matt. 8:5–13 puts the Jews on notice. He said, “And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (vv. 11–12 NKJV). In commenting on this passage, NT scholar R. T. France wrote, “ ‘It was the current belief that no descendant of Abraham could be lost.’ But Jesus says that they will be; not all of them presumably, since Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at least will be there, but the point is that membership in the kingdom of heaven will not be on the basis of race, that believing Gentiles will take the place of unbelieving Jews.”[9] As the story of Abraham testifies, faith wins the day.
In the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers in 21:33–46 (also found in Mark 12:1ff and Luke 20:9ff), we find the kingdom being removed from Israel and given to the Gentiles. “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it” (Matt. 21:43 NKJV). Since the majority of the Jews were not accepting the kingdom by faith, as seen in the book of Acts, the gospel spread to the Gentiles, many of whom were eager to embrace it and its King. R. T. France comments, “there is to be a new people of God in place of Old Testament Israel. It is expressed in terms of the transfer of the kingdom of God; … the presence of God in his people’s history and his gracious saving work’: i.e. the sphere in which we must look for God at work in salvation is no longer the nation of Israel but another nation. … a people of God derived from all nations, Jew and Gentile. … it is a nation which produces fruits, not one whose membership is automatic.”[10]
Luke. When Jesus was invited to a supper with one of the rulers of the Pharisees (Luke 14:1), Jesus responded to a well-wisher who said, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15 NKJV). Jesus then did a riff on the feasting theme with the story of a master who gave a great supper and invited many. But people refused the offer, making excuses. “Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind’ ” (Luke 14:21 NKJV). The servant said there was still room after his command was followed. “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ” (Luke 14:23–24 NKJV).
NT scholar and theologian Leon Morris commented, “God’s invitation had gone out to the people through the prophets. Now in Jesus the second invitation was given. When the religious élite refused it, the church was to bring in both those within the city (the Jews) and those outside (the Gentiles). The slave is not said to have fulfilled the commission to those outside. Bringing in the Gentiles was still future when Jesus spoke, and for that matter for the most part when Luke wrote.”[11] The plan was to share the gospel with the Jews first, and when they made excuses, rejecting the offer, to the Gentiles.
In Jesus’ final charge to His disciples, He made it clear as to the kingdom’s world-wide scope, though it took time for the enormity of the gospel reach to sink in because of the Jews’ entrenched tradition and prejudice. Jesus told them that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47 NKJV). “This Evangelist’s universalism comes out in his reference to all nations. It is no petty forgiveness available for a few pious or nationalistic souls, but for all people.”[12]
John. The word world is used often to refer to nations, including and beyond Israel: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 NKJV). Bible commentator and lecturer Colin G. Kruse writes, “In 1:29 Jesus is the one who takes away the sins of the world (i.e. humanity). There are a couple of other places in the Gospel of John where Jesus’ significance for ‘the world’ is implied. In 3:16–17 God’s love leads him to give his only Son for ‘the world’ so that those who believe might have eternal life, and in 4:42 the Samaritans come to recognize that Jesus really is ‘the Saviour of the world’, not just of the Jewish people.”[13] In John 3:16 we again get the link of faith between the OT and NT (“whoever believes in Him”), and the inclusion of the whole world (“whoever”).
In chapter 10, Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd (John 10:14), which hyperlinks to the OT passages where Yahweh describes Himself as the shepherd of Israel (Isa. 40:11, Ezek. 34:12). Jesus, speaking to the false shepherds of the Pharisees (John 9:40–41) about the way of the true shepherd, makes reference to Gentiles when He tells them, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16 NKJV).
Colin G. Kruse again elaborates: “In the Old Testament, God is depicted as the true shepherd of Israel, and Jesus’ own ministry was predominantly to Israel also (Matt. 15:24; cf. Matt. 10:5–6). However, Jesus widened his role as the good shepherd when he said: I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold. I must bring them also. The allusion is to Gentile people, those who are not part of Israel. They too must hear the message of the gospel. Of these Jesus said: They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be [lit. ‘they shall become’] one flock and one shepherd. Jesus was foreshadowing apostolic times when his gospel would be taken to non-Jews—to Samaritans and Gentiles: something that would take place through the preaching of his disciples.”[14] So the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile will finally come down through the preaching of Christ, and they will become one people, as foretold.
The Gospel Shared to the Gentiles
What are the elements of the gospel messages preached to the Gentiles in the book of Acts[15]? Did Peter and Paul preach different gospel messages to the Jews and Gentiles? Philip, guided by an angel, went up to the chariot of an Ethiopian eunuch. The Gentile eunuch’s faith was aptly summed up by his response to Philip’s message: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (8:37 NKJV). In Caesarea, Peter preaches to the crowd accompanying a centurion, acknowledging, “I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.” He then preaches Christ who was crucified then raised up on the third day. He ends his message with, “whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (10:43). (Note that his reference to “every nation” and “whoever believes” coincides with the Lord’s mission of reaching the world.) Paul preached to the Thessalonians, “explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ’ ” (17:3 NKJV).
Also, he told the Ephesians, he was “testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (20:21 NKJV). His message to the Jews was the same as the message given by Philip and Peter. He preached the same message to Jew and Gentile. “As there are different types of Jews, there are different types of Gentiles. All peoples are welcomed: island dwellers, the rustic, the intellectual, the religious, and the political.”[16] The peoples had been scattered at the tower of Babel. In Christ, they are being joined to a greater nation-city, not made by hands, but through the gospel.
Paul’s Motivation for Reaching the Gentiles
Why was Paul so zealous to reach out to Gentiles? Paul provides an answer. In his own words, he writes, “I say then, have they [Israelites] stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:11 NKJV). So Paul worked earnestly to be an instrument of God that shares the gospel to the Gentiles to produce this prophesied jealousy. “Paul’s point is that Jews, when they see Gentiles experiencing the blessing of God as they accept the gospel, might become jealous and then hopefully repent and become recipients of the gospel blessings themselves.”[17]
One of the OT passages that might have convinced Paul of this pursuit was, “They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation” (Deut. 32:21 NKJV). This verse is artfully arranged as a Hebrew parallelism, where the first half has God jealous over the people’s choice of false idols, and the second half has the people jealous over God’s preference for a foolish nation. The “foolish nation” are the Gentiles; and the anger and jealousy are accompanying those who rejected the gospel and those who believed. Paul was working to bring in the fullness of the Gentiles, then all Israel will be saved, that is, their blindness will be removed (Rom. 11:25–26a).[18] Obviously, Paul did not see this prophesied unity between Jew and Gentile occur in his lifetime. Based on the last verses of Acts, though, Paul never wavered from preaching the OT kingdom motif in order to bring Jew and Gentile into the fold by faith.
Conclusion
“God’s mission is to bless all the nations of the earth. But for that universal aim he chose the very particular means. Their uniqueness was for the sake of God’s universality”[19]—to bless all nations through the line of Israel from Abram: “And in you [Abram] all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). The OT prophecies, messages of Jesus, the gospels in Acts, and Paul’s evangelizing of the Gentiles all testify to God’s intentions to include the Gentiles into the kingdom by faith in Christ, not as a minor class, but fully integrated to make one people of God. Acts 1:8 was the catalyst that propelled the plan into motion.
The story unrolls to communicate the breathtaking, virulent refusal of the Jews to repent and believe the good news of the kingdom of God that came within reach. The kingdom arrived with its King, and the condition of entrance was faith in the Christ, the Son of David. As the apostles and unnamed believers traveled toward the ends of the earth with this message, Gentiles of every stripe in the highways and hedges were compelled to come in, that His house may be filled. By God’s grace, faith opens the door to all peoples, and those who take hold will produce fruit for the kingdom to everlasting life, as one fold with one Shepherd.
Bibliography
France, R.T. Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press 1985.
Kruse, Colin G. John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press 2017.
Kruse, Colin G. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Morris, Leon. Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press 1988.
Schreiner, Patrick. The Mission of the Triune God: A Theology of Acts. Wheaton, IL: Crossway 2022.
Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press 2006.
Copyright 2026 by Steve Husting. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Sample Gentile-related passages in the OT: Gen. 12:3 includes all the families, not Isarel only. Gen. 17:5. David was open to including Gentiles among his “mighty men” like Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. 23:39) Zelek the Ammonite (2 Sam. 23:37), the Gitites were of the Philistine regiment from Gath. 1 Kings 8:41–43. Ps. 22:27–28. Ps. 67:4 5, 7. Isa. 46:6; 60:3; 66:18–19, 23. Mal. 1:11. Zech. 2:11; 14:16. Ps. 117:1–2.
[2] “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15 NKJV).
[3] “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6 NKJV).
[4] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press 2006). loc 9,711.
[5] Jesus and Gentiles in Matthew’s gospel: Centurion’s servant in 8:5–13. Gergesenes in Matt. 8:28–34. “Gentiles will trust” in 12:21. Woman of Canaan of great faith in 15:21–28. Gentile king and unforgiven servant in 18:21–35. Gentiles veiled in 21:43; 22:9–10. Pontius Pilate in 27:11–26; crucifixion by Roman soldiers in 27:27–37, 54. “All nations” in 28:19–20.
[6] Jesus and Gentiles in Luke’s Gospel: Sidonian widow in 4:26. Naaman in 4:27. Tyre and Sidon in 6:17. Centurion’s servant in 7:2–10. Herod’s steward in 8:3. Ninevites and queen of the South in 11:29–32. Herod in 13:31–32. Great supper parable in 14:21–24. Taxes to Caesar in 20:22–26. Pontius Pilate in 23:1–4. Herod in 23:9–11. Soldiers in 23:33–36. Centurion in 23:47. “to all nations” in 24:47.
[7] Jesus and Gentiles in John’s gospel: “born not of [Jewish?] blood” in 1:13. “sins of the world” in 1:29. “whoever believes” in 3:16. “not condemn the world” in 3:17. The Samaritans in ch. 4. “Savior of the world” in 4:42. The nobleman in 4:46–54. “he who believes” will have everlasting life and be resurrected in 5:24–29. “Other sheep I have” in 10:16, 27–29. Greeks in 12:20–32. “That the world may know” in 14:31. “Will convict the world of sin” in 16:8. Prayer for future disciples in “the world” in 17:20–26. Pilate in 18:28–19:16. Soldiers in 19:23–24. Invitation to you to believe in 20:31.
[8] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, loc 9876.
[9] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary, 160–161.
[10] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary, 313.
[11] Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 252.
[12] Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, 361–362.
[13] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. Eckhard J. Schnabel (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2017), 80–81.
[14] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, 272–273.
[15] Gospels preached to Gentiles in Acts: Ethiopian in Acts 8:26–39. Cornelius in 10:24–48; 11:14–18. Proconsul in 13:7–12. Philippian Jailer in 16:29–34. Thessalonica in 17:1–3. Areopagus (“To the unknown God”) in 17:22–34. Ephesus in 20:21–32. Felix in 24:14–21, 25. Agrippa, Bernice, Festus in 26:18–23. Rome in 28:28–31.
[16] Patrick Schreiner. The Mission of the Triune God: A Theology of Acts. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), 120.
[17] Colin G. Kruse. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.), 428.
[18] “blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:25–26a).
[19] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God, loc 8,986.
