That fact came as a total surprise to most Jews, who believed they were the only ones who could be considered God's people.
According to them, non Jewish people could not be regarded as God's people.
It is not very difficult to see why they came to think this way, as they generally followed a very strict religious discipline.
A young Jewish boy of six entered the synagogue school to learn literacy specifically for the purpose of gaining the ability to study the scriptures for himself.
At age twelve, he would be considered an adult in terms of competence and knowledge of the scriptures.
When they met for worship at the synagogue on the Sabbath, there was no scheduled speaker for the service.
Any individual from twelve years upwards could be called upon without notice, not only to expound the word of God at the gathering, but also to weave in the wisdom of the commentaries in the message.
That was a very advanced discipline, by any standards.
It is doubtful that any other culture at the time demanded so much from the individual in terms of religious exertion.
Therefore it is perhaps understandable how the Jewish people came to think that they were the only ones who qualified to become God's people.
But they really have no excuse for falling into this kind of error.
Their own scriptures showed how, as early as the times of Abraham, God had already indicated that the rapport He had created with Abraham was meant to eventually benefit the entire world.
"By you", God told Abraham, "all the families shall bless themselves" (Genesis 12:3).
This statement, "by you" looked forward to the coming of the Descendant of Abraham who would make all this possible, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When He finally arrived, the Lord Jesus Christ made it abundantly clear that the work He had come down here to accomplish was meant to benefit the whole of humankind.
"God so loved the world", He said, "that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
The term "the world" here refers to humankind as a whole.
He wasn't going into all the trouble of securing eternal safety and security to benefit just a section of humanity.
He meant it for everyone, the only limitation being personal choice at the level of the individual.
He made a point of emphasizing this fact to His Jewish audiences.
"I have other sheep", He would say, "that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice.
So there shall be one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16).
It is very doubtful that the Lord could have made it any clearer than that.
Unfortunately, this entire message washed off the Jewish psyche like water off a duck's back.
They just wouldn't click.
It was as if the Lord has not even said anything at all! I suppose it was far too much for them to take in at the time.
The Lord realized that even by the time He was ready to ascend back to heaven, this message simply had not sunk in, not even among His most trusted associates.
The ascension came and went, and the Lord had to leave the planet without getting this message across.
Therefore he waited patiently for an opportune moment, which came at the height of Peter's ministry.
He had just been summoned by the believers to the coastal town of Joppa, where God's power was manifested in such powerful ways in Peter's ministry that the woman Dorcas, also known as Tabitha, was raised from the dead.
He then stayed on in town with a certain tanner also known as Simon, at his beach residence in Joppa.
The Lord dealt with Peter there in very convincing ways, involving a timing of critical events that is hard to beat: First Peter went up to the cool, breezy rooftop of the residence to relax there while waiting for lunch to be prepared downstairs.
He must have dozed off up there, evidently with thoughts of food on his mind.
He saw a great sheet held by its four corners coming down to him.
When he looked in he saw that it contained a variety of animals, reptiles and birds.
A voice told him to go ahead and make a meal of them.
"Not a chance", he thought.
"Most of those animals are unclean to us Jews and I wouldn't even think of eating anything that God has forbidden us to eat!" Then the voice said "What God has cleansed, you must not call common" (Acts 10:15).
Just to make sure that Peter understood that this was a special message, God had it happen three times.
Each time the admonition that Peter must not regard as unclean anything God has cleansed was reiterated.
Peter was still trying to figure out what had just transpired when three visitors arrived at the gate of Simon's residence.
They said they were looking for Peter.
God then ordered Peter very clearly to accompany the men without any hesitation.
Things kept growing more interesting.
It transpired the men had been sent to bring Peter by Cornelius, a high ranking Roman military officer based at Caesarea.
Apparently God had spoken with this man and had given him clear instructions to send for Simon Peter at Joppa, giving amazingly specific instructions regarding how he was to be located.
This was not an easy matter for Peter, for Jewish people were not supposed to mingle with non Jewish people in their houses.
Cornelius was non Jewish.
It then began to dawn on Peter why God told him three times not to regard as unclean what He had cleansed.
So Peter traveled to Caesarea with the men and preached a simple message about the work of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ had come down here to accomplish.
It would appear that everyone present at Cornelius' house that day accepted Jesus as Saviour and Lord and obtained eternal life.
There were many in that number that were non Jewish, which is why the Jewish believers who had traveled with Peter was so amazed.
God had started something new and refreshing on the earth! And it came not a moment too soon.
I mean, where would we be if salvation were for Jewish people only? Practically the entire world would disqualify, when you consider that there are only about fifteen million Jews in the whole world today, out of a global population total in excess of six billion! Through this interesting story, God would have us develop an increasingly more positive attitude toward those in Christ that are from different backgrounds from our own.
We ought not to complain when other people obtain from the Lord the same benefits that have accrued to us through our association with Him.
In Matthew 20, the workers who entered the vineyard early in the day complained that those who only arrived for work in the vineyard in the cool of the evening got exactly the same pay as themselves.
"These last" they said, "worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat" (Matthew 20:12).
This is the same attitude that we see in the brother of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
He was bitter that the father had shown kindness to his brother when he returned home.
"These many years I have served you", he complained, "and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.
But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!" (Luke 15:29-30).
You might have become a Christian many years ago, yet a person who becomes a Christian today will obtain the same eternal life that you got when you became a Christian those many years ago.
You ought not to complain about that.
Instead you should rejoice that the feat accomplished by the Lord did on the cross is bearing more and more fruit with time.
You loose nothing when others obtain the same benefits that you are enjoying.
God likes variety.
He has made people in different shapes, sizes, backgrounds and colours.
This serves only to add to the beauty of human interactions.
If people were all the same, looking and acting in exactly the same way, life would become extremely boring.
This principle holds true in other realms of His creation as well.
Each finger on the hand, for example, is different.
It is those differences that make the hand such an elegant and effective tool capable of carrying out an amazingly wide array of tasks; it will drive a tent peg into the ground and also do something as delicate as holding an egg.
If the hand consisted of five identical thumbs, it wouldn't work.
That is why the expression "all thumbs" means clumsy.
When we read descriptions of heaven in the book of Revelation, we get a glimpse of the people populating the place.
It is a thorough mixture of many different sorts of people.
The writer says that he saw "a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands" (Revelation 7:9).
That's how you will find heaven when you get there.
Therefore you might as well start acclimatizing right here, by reaching out to God's people from backgrounds different from your own.