The Life of Paul Part 6 – Toward Antioch: The Day Paul Finally Saw the Gentile Church

“Well, I went to Antioch, Paul, and what I saw is not like anything anyone in this world has ever seen. And furthermore, Paul, it’s nicer. It’s more fun. It’s more beautiful, with more grace and void of all our Jewish traditions.

“Oh,” said Paul. That’s wonderful. Wonderful. Now, what are you doing here?”

“I’m not going to report back to Peter, not yet. I wanted to come up and talk to you. Would you come with me to Antioch? To the Gentile church, the first and only one.”

“It’s like taking a bath in water that’s simultaneously cold and hot,” Paul replied in disbelief. “I wouldn’t want to go to Antioch for anything in the world. Don’t you know that generations ago, it was the Syrians, and Antioch as their capital, who drove my people out to this very city of Tarsus?” “Paul, you’ve got to go see these people. There are only a handful of Jews there…”

“Did you say only a handful of Jews? Are you telling me that the overwhelming number of them are Gentiles?”

“Yes, Paul, but more than that, the Antioch Gentiles lead the church. It’s a Gentile church. And I want you to go with me. I want you to at least look.”

Paul paused for a moment. Shook his head no. Didn’t say a word. Just kept shaking his head. No. Barnabas was crushed. On and on. He shook his head. The more Barnabas looked at him, he realized it was not so much a “no” as it was a way of expressing wonder and awe.

Paul said, “It’s less than 300 miles, isn’t it?”

“That is true.”

“I’ll need two days to close what I’m doing here and turn this work back over to my family and to my sister. In the meantime, you can help me pack.

And so it was that the two men, full of excitement and glee, headed out for Antioch, Syria, in about the year 44 AD, late 43 or perhaps early 44. And you cannot believe what Paul saw with his very eyes, nor could he possibly know where he might be spending the night, nor could he possibly dream of what Agrippa would be doing, nor what he (Paul) would be doing. But the stun that fell upon Paul when he saw a gathering in Antioch was one of the great changing moments of his life.

And so, they entered the city of Antioch. Granite streets, north and south, east and west, were there, polished stone by Herod the Great. A great colonnade on both the east and west sides, where under each colonnade was a marketplace, and hiding the poverty behind those colonnades. Paul walked into this first meeting, and the very first thing he noticed was…and that’s where we’ll take up next time.