JESUS AND THE MIXED JEWISH RESPONSE
6. Questions buzzed in the air in those days about the identity of the Jews. Were they really the people of God? If God made them promises, had he been unfaithful to his word? How did Gentiles relate to the Jews as God's People? Did the Jewish rejection of the Messiah mean God had turned from his promises to Abraham? Luke deals with issues like these as develops his story.
7. In Luke 2:34 we have Simeon telling us that Christ would have a mixed response. Through Jesus, some of Israel would rise and some would fall. Isaiah 8:14-15 teaches us that the Messiah would be a rock of refuge for some of Israel and a stumbling stone for others. And Isa 53 spoke of the coming unbelief of many in Israel. Moses warned (as far back as Deut 18:15-18;, quoted by Peter in Acts 3:22-23) that those who rejected the Messiah (the Prophet) would be "cut off from among the people". It was no news to anyone well prepared that Jesus would be received by some and rejected by other Jews. This Deut 18 passage is especially significant.
8. Those Jews who refused Jesus Christ were "cut off". But cut off from what? Cut off "from among the people". Whoever "the people" are, the disbelievers were cut off from them. They had been part of "the people" but because they rejected the Messiah they were cut off and lost their place among the people of God. (Do see Acts 3:22-23 on this.) So, for Luke, "the People of God" are those Jews who heard the new offer, the new covenant which God offered them in Jesus the Christ, and said yes to him! Those Jews who rejected God's new offer in Jesus the Christ were cut off. They had Abraham's flesh but not his faith. (Paul develops this truth at length in Romans 4 and 9-11 and in Gal 3.) The good news went first to Jews and then Gentiles were invited to share in the blessings of the Messiah along with the Jewish Christians (Acts 1:8; 3:26; 13:46; Luke 24:47; Romans 1:16; 15:27and Eph 2:11-19.)
THE UNIVERSAL OFFER OF SALVATION
9. Luke makes it clear that life with God was never intended to be the privilege of a select few or a select nation. Even before Jesus, Jews didn't mind Gentiles sharing their blessings so long as the Gentiles became Jews! There were even Jewish Christians who felt that Gentiles had to become Jewish Christians in order to be blessed in the Christ (see Lesson 7). Luke tirelessly proves that salvation is independent of race, social, cultural, economic or religious background. Uncircumcised foreigners (even if a member of the occupational forces) could have life in Christ. Half-breeds and heretics like the Samaritans, women, eunuchs, the poor and the rich, the persecutors and the persecuted, slaves and free men—they all heard the offer of life with God in Jesus Christ. (We all have our prejudices and fears so we all have certain groups or individuals we are slow to allow in or actively keep out. We're all tempted to draw lines of our own inventing. Acts has a lot to teach us!)