I. Ordering Paul's Epistles 1 - Hope of the Glory

4. In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas reprimanded the unbelieving Jews in Anticoh. This was
Paul's first recorded sermon in the Bible, in which he also emphasized his ministry to the
Gentiles, in Acts 13:46-47 -
46: 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.
47: 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.
5. After the Jews in Corinth rejected his message, Paul again stressed his Gentile
ministry, in Acts 18:6 -
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.
6. Paul's Gentile apostleship is also obvious throughout his written epistles. For instance,
Paul specifically claims to be "the" apostle of the Gentiles in Ro. 11:13 -
For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine
office:
7. Paul again emphasizes his calling as "the" minister of Christ to the Gentiles in Ro.
15:15-16 –
15: Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting
you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God,
16: That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of
God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy
Ghost.
By contrast, it is interesting to note that in this same chapter, Paul states that Christ's ministered to "the
circumcision" (Israel), in Ro. 15:8 –
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to
confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
8. Another passage that demonstrates Paul's unique apostleship to the Gentiles, in which
he distinguishes between the gospel he was preaching and the gospel the other apostles
were preaching, is Gal. 2:7-9 -
7: But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed
unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;
8: (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same
was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)
9: And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that
was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we
should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
9. Even in his prison epistles (written after the events recorded in the book of Acts), Paul
continues to emphasize his ministry to the Gentiles, as in Eph. 3:1-2 -
1: For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
2: If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
10. Paul states that he preached the "unsearchable riches of Christ" among the Gentiles,
in Eph. 3:8-9 -
8: Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9: And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Galatians Page 44 November 22, 2008 10:05