When Jesus Christ rose he told his disciples to be his witnesses in Jerusalem and in the whole of Judea as well as Samaria as seen in Acts 1:8. In fact, the book of Acts covers how the church carried out this commission and this included apostles Peter and Paul. In the first twelve chapters of the book Paul plays a key role in the preaching of the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles and as from chapter thirteen Paul takes over. These two apostles shifted from exclusively preaching to Jews to involve Gentiles because now they had to preach to the rest of the population regardless of their background because this was a decree given by Jesus.
Peter became actively involved in the spread of the gospel to other places because after the death of Stephen, believers were scattered and moved from Jerusalem for the fear of the lives and wherever they went they made new believers and the numbers increased (Elwell & Yarbrough 2005). The church was keen on expansion and, therefore, they had to take care of this mission in order to ensure that they did as they were instructed to do. Peter went ahead and told the people who complained about his style of preaching that God had indeed blessed their mission because he had given them the spirit to reach out to them (Acts 11: 15- 18, King James Version).
The conversion of Saul to Paul is evidence enough that there was no bias as to who was to become a believer. Paul embarks on missionary work and embarks on journeys to Cyprus and to Asia Minor. There was no boundary as to who needed to be preached to, and it is against this background that it becomes evident that Paul’s missions are evidence that he was not keen on exclusive preaching to Jews. Chapter 13 shows how Paul travels with Barnabas to talk to all people regardless of their backgrounds (King James Version). These two apostles, therefore, deviated from exclusive preaching to inclusive preaching whereby the reached out to both Jews and Gentiles.
Reference
Elwell, W. A. & Yarbrough, R. W. (2005). Encountering The New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
