Two Visions

The passage before us develops God's supernatural preparation for a radical shift in His kingdom development. Up until this time, God has worked exclusively with the nation of Israel.

Now He is working in a new context—the church, which has been Jewish in nature. However, the church was not meant to be exclusively Jewish. The mystery revealed to Paul in Ephesians is that the church is to be composed of Jews and Gentile on the same basis. Gentiles no longer have to be proselytes of Judaism. Both will be saved and added to the Lord's church in the same way and have equal standing before God.

To accomplish this shift, God gives two visions; one to a reluctant Jew who would not think of going to a Gentile home and one to a God-fearing Gentile who needs to hear about Jesus from a Jewish apostle.
The outline for this message is in the PDF document above.