getting ready for Acts 13

To become a Christian a Greek does not have to become a Jew, a plebeian does not have to become
patrician or vica versa. For Christianity is not the product of national and
cultural consciousness--rather it is the shaper of consciousness. Acts 7-12 then
was the second stage, in which the gospel spread across all cultures, and thus we
read at the end of this period (“But the word of God continued to increase and
spread” 12:24).
Now the stage is set for the final stage. “All the time the action has been limited to
the Palestinian and Syrian mainland. Nobody has yet caught the vision of taking
the good news to the nations overseas.” (Stott, p.215) The gospel has spread across
cultures, but now it is about to explode geographically.