Where did God first begin to generate interest among the Gentiles in Acts?
In Acts, God first began to generate interest among the Gentiles at Antioch. After Jewish believers scattered from Jerusalem reached Antioch in Syria, Gentiles there became interested in the God of Israel for the first time. This marked a transition as God turned from dealing with Israel to going to the Gentiles.
Les explains that in Acts chapter 11, many Jewish believers who had been chased out of Jerusalem by Saul's horrible persecution got as far as Antioch, up in what is then Syria, near the upper corner of the Mediterranean Sea. There, God began to generate interest among Gentiles for the first time. Les points out that you don't catch any of that in the earlier chapters of Acts—Gentiles were not coming and asking about the God of Israel. But at Antioch, Gentiles were getting interested. When the Jerusalem church heard this, they got shook up and sent Barnabas to check out what was going on. This was part of the transition out of Judaism, as God turned from dealing with the nation of Israel to going to the Gentiles.