More than 15 years ago, I first became aware of the importance of the Gentecost account in Acts 10. Since then, I have spent much time over the years studying that passage, including many hours in my dissertation work.
Recently, God showed me some more truth about that passage that I had never seen before. It is amazing to me that after so many years of what has often been very intense study, I am still discovering additional significance of that account!
In Psalm 2, David records the Messiah’s declaration:
I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel (2:7-9).
At the Jerusalem Council, James urged the people to listen to him and said, “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name” (Acts 15:14). Although there had been Gentiles saved prior to Gentecost, this statement informs us that what took place then was the first instance of God’s in an official manner taking out from the Gentiles a people for His name.
Comparing Psalm 2:8 with Acts 15:14, we learn that it was at Gentecost that the Father first began officially to give His Christ the heathen for His inheritance! Gentecost thus was a fulfillment of the Father’s promise to the Son that the Son had declared many centuries earlier!
Truly, the riches of God’s Word are inexhaustible!
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