What is the first indication in the book of Acts that God would bring in the Gentiles?
The first indication is Saul’s conversion near Damascus, on Gentile ground, when God saves him by grace and immediately tells him He will send him to the Gentiles. This marks God’s purpose to bring Gentiles into the picture, though the Old Testament already foretold it through Israel.
Les explains that while Saul was on his way into Gentile territory toward Damascus, not to arrest Gentiles but Jews, God in grace reached down just outside that Gentile city and saved him. Immediately God informed Saul that He was going to send him to the Gentiles. Les says this is the first indication in the book of Acts that God is going to bring the Gentiles into the picture. He notes this was not something new, because the Old Testament was full of it: Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, and Israel’s Messiah was to be the light, but only through Israel. Since Israel had seven years of constantly rejecting Peter and the eleven and their appeal, God gives up on the nation of Israel and sets them aside. Les also connects this to the later Roman destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, the Jewish dispersion, their return since the early 1900s, and statehood in 1948. He emphasizes there is no prophecy directed to the church.