A paradigm shift

 In order to set the context, I think I need to establish some understanding of what was going on in the minds and emotions of the community of Jewish believers -- because right at first the ONLY real accepted believers were Jewish believers. My theory is that at its base, the book of Acts ~

 beyond it being a well written story account of the establishment and growth of the early church and the birth and growth of the ministry and missions of Paul and his teams

  ~ is a view of God's work to bring about a paradigm shift in the hearts, minds and spirits, and thereby into the life and ministry, of His people. "Paradigm shift" -- what is that? Definitions are sometimes a helpful discussion beginner so :

Paradigm and paradigm shift from American Heritage Dictionary (Yahoo version) :

Paradigm: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes
            a way of viewing reality
 for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

Definition of paradigm and paradigm shift from The Paradigm Web:  

Paradigm: The word "paradigm" was originally one of those obscure academic terms that has undergone many changes of meaning over the centuries. The classical Greeks used it to refer to an original archetype or ideal. Later it came to refer to a grammatical term. In the early 1960s Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) wrote a ground breaking book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in which he showed that science does not progress in an orderly fashion from lesser to greater truth, but rather remains fixated on a particular dogma or explanation - a paradigm - which is only overthrown with great difficulty and a new paradigm established. Thus the Copernican system (the sun at the center of the universe) overthrew the Ptolemaic (the earth at the center) one, and Newtonian physics was replaced by Relativity and Quantum Physics. Science thus consists of periods of conservatism ("Normal" Science) punctuated by periods of "Revolutionary" Science.

      Paradigm Shift : When anomalies or inconsistencies arise within a given paradigm and present problems that we are unable to solve within a given paradigm, our view of reality must change, as must the way we perceive, think, and value the world. We take on new assumptions and expectations that will transform our theories, traditions, rules, and standards of practice. We must create a new paradigm in whichwe are able to solve the insolvable problems of the old paradigm.

http://ag.arizona.edu/futures/era/paradigmsmain.html 

The emphasis established, in the above quotes, with underlining  and italics is mine. So ~ a paradigm, for the sake of my argument (since this is a word with a linked chain of meaning), is a way of thinking and a view of reality with all the decisions and actions that ensue from that view.

Don't let your brain switch off: paradigms are basic and obvious. We all have them and we all are controlled by our paradigms of life. Paradigms are a bit like glasses that you put on, and from then on you view all of life through the lenses of these glasses. It takes very little time to become so accustomed to the glasses that you are unaware that they are on your face . . . you become "blind" to the lenses through which you see all of life. It seems to me that in that same way more often than not, we are BLIND to our own paradigms, and consequently our paradigms are HARD to change. Before I ever heard the word "paradigm" I encountered one -- racism. When I was growing up, for a time I lived in a foster family. My foster father had been born in the South and he did NOT think he was a racist -- but he really thought that if your skin was white you WERE better and smarter and more cultured and capable than if your skin was brown or black. In his view of reality, he really thought that the smartest, most capable person who was African American in ANY measure could not ever be as smart or capable as an average Caucasian. It was as true for him as the law of gravity or the second law of thermodynamics. The proof for him that he was not a racist was that he would sit at a table with an African American, or work with them, etc. He saw all people and all of life through the "lenses" of his view regarding people and the color of their skin. How he lived, where he lived, all the judgements he made, all his work and friendship decisions were made thought and because of this paradigm. As a teenager I was baffled by him and his view of life. No amount of logic or science or genetics, no examples from real life ~ NOTHING changed his mind.

I think that the Book of Acts is a story where we see God trying very patiently, and with only limited success, to change a paradigm. What was the paradigm of the Jewish community at the time of Jesus' life  : to be in relationship with God and receive eternal salvation you MUST be Jewish, either by birth or by conversion. Israel and ONLY Israel = God's people.  At the beginning of the book of Acts the paradigm in place said "God is the God of Israel" not "God is Lord of all the earth".