Acts 22 (NIV)
²¹"Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' "
²²The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!"

I guess that I’ll never cease to be amazed at the things that set people off.  I will also never cease to be amazed at the things that soothe people’s feelings.  In this passage it seems that both things were accomplished by elements that seem so small in comparison to the salvation that was being offered.  Paul, who had been falsely accused of bringing Gentiles into the temple, when given an opportunity to address the angry mob, is able to calm them with one simple kindness.  He speaks to them in their common language, Aramaic or Hebrew depending on your translation, instead of Greek (Acts 21: 40).

Because he is speaking their language, they listen quietly as he tells them of his own conversion to Christianity.  There were no objections to the vision of the resurrected Christ.  No objections to his baptism for the forgiveness of sins.  No objections to his miraculous healing.  All in all it would seem as though Paul was about to make some converts.  Then he tells the crowd that the Lord sent him away to preach the Gospel to Gentiles.  This was one step over the line.  This was a teaching that the crowd could not bear.  And this was a teaching that Paul had no choice but to teach.  Paul was always careful to declare the whole counsel of God.  He knew that it was diligence to this that kept him innocent of the blood of all men (Acts 20: 26&27).

So what’s that mean to us today?  First if we are to win souls to Christ, we need to speak in the language of the souls to be won.  I don’t mean that we need to adopt profanity or other inappropriate types of speech.  I mean that the message must be clear and easy to understand.  We should never talk down to someone that we’re attempting to lift up.  Nor should we lord knowledge over the lost, but gently instruct.

Secondly, just as much as we need to be careful not to offend by our presentation of the Gospel.  We need also to be careful not to omit any information contained in the Gospel, simply because it might offend.  Paul surely knew that his preaching to the Gentiles would offend this Jewish audience.  Paul also knew that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek…..(Gal 3: 28).  To be saved, one must come to God on His terms.  As God’s agents in the world, we have no liberty to change the terms, even if we believe that the world will find the terms offensive.

Finally, it is important to not let small things keep us from salvation.  When matched up to the glory of salvation, even racial prejudice becomes a small thing.  This Jewish audience might have been saved had salvation not been offered to Gentiles as well.  God’s people must love the people that God loves (1 John 4: 20&21).  The brother of the Prodigal Son, lost fellowship with the Father because he would not welcome his brother as his father did (Luke 15: 27-29).  Racial prejudice is not the only prejudice.  There is economic prejudice (James 2: 1-9), intellectual prejudice (1 Corinthians 8: 1&2), even the perception of our own righteousness can cause prejudice (Luke 15: 27-29). All prejudice is sin (James 2: 9).  Prejudice in any form should not be part of the life in Christ.  As the apostle said, “but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (2 Corinthians 10: 12).