We looked at the story of Joseph recently and our house. One of the hardest things about that story is it shows detrimental effects of having a favourite if you are parent. It is something that’s joked about in many households but it’s serious, parents should not have favourites amongst their children because God does not have favourites among the children he has adopted into his church.
Do you believe God, in the same way as we should not call any food common or unclean, that we should not call any person common or unclean?
This impartiality has already been a principle in the Old Testament, throughout the Old Testament narrative, that God does not show favouritism. But now, it’s really driven home, since the people of the Old Testament did not ever fully realise the scope of the impartiality of God.
It was to Israel that the good news of Jesus came, and Jesus Himself came as the Jewish Messiah. But the apostles spread this news, and they’ve been commissioned with this worldwide task.
It had always been a worldwide promise—even the prophets declared that it would be—but now it was fully being realised.
So, another little Pentecost happens in order to confirm that the Gentiles are included, not just Jewish people, as was with the Pentecost in Acts 2. And they’re baptised—it’s the most appropriate expression for welcome into the new covenant people of God.
