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as they do in the prophetic utterance of old Simeon (Luke 2: 32). The emphasis upon the
Gentiles in these passages, cannot be disassociated from the withdrawal of favour from
Israel.
"It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but
seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles" (Acts 13: 46).
From Acts 22: 6-15 we learn more fully the commission given to Paul following his
conversion on the road to Damascus:
"For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard" (15).
and referring to this first ministry which ends with the shadow of prison in Acts 20:, he
summed it up as "testifying (or witnessing) both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ" (21).
In his defence, the Apostle more than once linked the two sections of his ministry by
the word that is translated either "witness" or "testify".
"As thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome"
(Acts 23: 11).
In like manner, Paul's prison ministry, the ministry that unfolded the new dispensation
of the mystery, the ministry that finds its exposition in the "Prison Epistles", Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, Philemon and II Timothy, this too is a "witness" or a
"testimony". The first ministry comes to an end in Acts 20:, and the new ministry is
envisaged. Referring to the prophecies that spoke of "bonds and afflictions" Paul said:
"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I
might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord
Jesus, TO TESTIFY the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20: 24).
This implies something more than preaching the gospel as an "Evangelist", it includes
this, but it gives meaning to the emphasis which is laid on "the grace of God", for in the
Prison Epistles we read that "the dispensation" which had been given to the apostle as
"the Prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles" was "the dispensation of the grace of
God" (Eph. 3: 1, 2).
Again, in his defence before Agrippa the apostle spoke of his twofold ministry, again
using the word translated either "witness" or "testimony".
"I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a WITNESS
both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear
unto thee, delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send
thee" (Acts 26: 16, 17).
Some of these words were uttered by the Lord on the Damascus Road, but in Acts 9:
Paul was not delivered from "the people", neither was he "sent unto the Gentiles" at that
time. "Now I send thee", with these words the apostle intimates that the second