The context for this sermon is that Alma is speaking to a group of poor, despised Zoramite people. The Zoramites were an apostate, offshoot group of the Nephites who had perverted Nephite religion and declared that belief in Christ was foolish. (To be fair, Christ’s birth was still a future event, so they were rejecting something they had not seen and which therefore required the exercise of faith.) In their pride, the Zoramites also banished the poor from worshiping in their synagogues, and it is these same downtrodden individuals who were receptive to Alma’s message. It is likely that he was the first priest or person of spiritual stature to care for them at all, and they humbly responded to his teachings.