Heralds of the Gospel
117
“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the
word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life be-
lieved.” They rejoiced exceedingly that Christ recognized them as the
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children of God, and with grateful hearts they listened to the word
preached. Those who believed were zealous in communicating the
gospel message to others, and thus “the word of the Lord was published
throughout all the region.”
Centuries before, the pen of inspiration had traced this ingathering
of the Gentiles; but those prophetic utterances had been but dimly
understood. Hosea had said: “Yet the number of the children of
Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor
numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was
said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them,
Ye are the sons of the living God.” And again: “I will sow her unto
Me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained
mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My
people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.”
Hosea 1:10
;
2:23
.
The Saviour Himself, during His earthly ministry, foretold the
spread of the gospel among the Gentiles. In the parable of the vineyard
He declared to the impenitent Jews, “The kingdom of God shall be
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
Matthew 21:43
. And after His resurrection He commissioned His
disciples to go “into all the world” and “teach all nations.” They were
to leave none unwarned, but were to “preach the gospel to every
creature.”
Matthew 28:19
;
Mark 16:15
.
In turning to the Gentiles in Antioch of Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas
did not cease laboring for the Jews elsewhere, wherever there was
a favorable opportunity to gain a hearing. Later, in Thessalonica, in
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Corinth, in Ephesus, and in other important centers, Paul and his
companions in labor preached the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles.
But their chief energies were henceforth directed toward the building
up of the kingdom of God in heathen territory, among peoples who
had but little or no knowledge of the true God and of His Son.
The hearts of Paul and his associate workers were drawn out in
behalf of those who were “without Christ, being aliens from the com-
monwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God in the world.” Through the untiring
ministrations of the apostles to the Gentiles, the “strangers and foreign-