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Reflection for November 25

Last updated on November 16, 2024

Two days ago we heard Saul’s story, and that story ended with him meeting Barnabas, who became a sort of mentor to Saul. The two of them ended up going to Antioch, a large city in modern-day Turkey. Remember, after Stephen was killed the new followers of Jesus fled Jerusalem. Many went back to their homes, but some went to new cities, and while there they talked about what had happened to them in Jerusalem. One of those cities was Antioch. And just like in Jerusalem, many people believed what they said about this Jesus.

Word got back to the apostles in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch to encourage these new believers. He asked Saul to join him, and for an entire year they were a part of this new church, which was made up mostly of Gentiles.

After the year was up, Saul and Barnabas were ready to go to other cities in order to tell people about Jesus and to form together communities of people who wanted to follow Jesus. The key was that they wanted to go to Gentile cities where people had never heard of Jesus.

Thus begins the first missionary journey (Acts 13-14). This journey spanned two years, covered over 1000 miles, and resulted in new churches being started in cities like Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. And also of note…somewhere during this journey Saul changed his name to Paul.

Whenever Paul and Barnabas would arrive in a new city, their custom was to go to the Jewish synagogue. The synagogue in each city would be comprised primarily of Jewish people but also some God-fearing Gentiles. Here Paul would be allowed to share his story. It would always begin with stories that everyone there knew. Stories of Abraham, Moses and David. But they would end with Jesus. And it was here, like with Stephen, that the Jewish people would often get upset.

It actually had less to do with the good news of Jesus and more to do with the insufficiency of the law, which was handed down through Moses. Towards the end of Paul’s first recorded sermon (Acts 13:13-43) Paul remarked, “I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.”

This theme of Jesus doing what the law was incapable of doing will be seen over and over again in Paul’s writings. He believed in his core that the law was not enough to truly change the heart and lead to transformation. Only Jesus could do this.

This message of Jesus was well received by many, though there were always some who felt that it was a dangerous message since, at least to them, it was an attack on the law and their customs. There were also the Jewish leaders who once again were jealous of the crowds that were coming. This was the case after that first sermon of Paul’s. The next Sabbath almost the entire city of Antioch Pisidia came out to hear Paul and Barnabas. The synagogue leader was not used to that kind of crowd.

In most of these cities Paul and Barnabas would be run out of town at some point. In Lystra the people were so mad that they stoned Paul and then dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. He wasn’t.

On their way back to Antioch they went back through each city and visited each of the new churches that had been started. At that time they appointed elders (leaders) in each church.

They were not the only ones to go to Antioch, though. Some of the Jewish leaders who were very concerned about what Paul and Barnabas were doing arrived in Antioch. Their message to this mostly Gentile church was that in order to follow Jesus you also had to follow the customs taught by Moses. What this in part meant was that the Gentile men would need to be circumcised. In other words, they wanted these people to become Jewish.

Paul and Barnabas believed strongly that this was wrong. So they all went to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles. When they got there Paul shared all that God had done in these Gentile cities. He believed that Jesus was enough. These Gentiles could follow Jesus without becoming Jewish.

James, the brother of Jesus, was the first to speak up. He believed that God’s plan included more than just the Jewish people, and he felt that it was important not to make things more difficult for the Gentiles than it needed to be. Therefore, circumcision was not going to be required. Yay!

James, Peter, John and the other leaders in Jerusalem had seen enough to know that Jesus challenged their customs. “The way we’ve always done it” normally wouldn’t cut it, so they continued to open themselves up to the opportunity to change their minds.

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