Archbishop Mark’s podcast series “The Birth of the Church: Why the loser won” continues with Episode 4 focusing on the role that St Paul played in a critical moment that helped spread the Good News.

Episode 4 – Spreading the Good News:

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• Episode 4: Spreading the Good News - Transcript

  Episode 4: Spreading the Good News - Transcript

  Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane

  
  In the last podcast we had Paul out in the desert of what he calls in the letter to the Galatians, Arabia. And we saw that Arabia isn’t what we know as Arabia, Saudi. But was that desert country east of the River Jordan. So, he goes off into the desert for quite some time. It’s hard to know exactly for how long, but it seems it was a time of retreat almost, where he’s seeking to unpack the meaning of this extraordinary experience of encounter on the road to Damascus. And he will spend the rest of his life unpacking that pivotal moment of encounter with the risen Christ.

  And this will become critical for Paul in the story that lies ahead of us. Because one of the things that will be said of Paul consistently is that you are a false apostle. Because you didn’t see or meet the risen Christ, which was a fundamental qualification for being an apostle. But Paul always claimed or made the counterclaim that this encounter on the road to Damascus was exactly the same, in all kinds of ways, as those encounters with the risen Christ that the first disciples had and that are recorded at the end of the Gospels. So, it was a critical moment for him in establishing his apostolic credentials, which were consistently questioned or rejected.

  Now, he tells us then in Galatians and again, we rely, first of all, upon his letters to try and reconstruct his story. And where the letters are silent, we look to the Acts. Keeping in mind that the Acts of the Apostles isn’t a ball-by-ball account of what actually happened. It’s not just the facts, the whole facts and nothing but the facts. It’s an interpretive account of the story of the birth of the church. But is history, in the understanding of that term in the ancient world.

  Now, Paul says that he emerges eventually from Arabia. And then he goes back to Damascus, but doesn’t tell us what he did there. And then he says after three years. That’s quite a time. So again, what was Paul doing in those three years? How much of the three years was in the desert? How much of it was in Damascus? We’re not told. But what we are told then is this. After three years, I went up to Jerusalem.

  So, he finally makes it to back to Jerusalem. The last time he was there, he’d set off thundering up the road to Damascus with credentials from the Sanhedrin to terrorise the Christians, although they weren’t called that at this point. So here he is back in Jerusalem and he says, I go to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, he calls him. Well, this is Peter. Peter was Simon’s nickname, meaning rock. But the Aramaic form of the same nickname is Cephas. So, he goes up to visit Peter, he says. And remained there for fifteen days.

  So, two weeks he’s in Jerusalem. And what we know is that Barnabas. Here he is, that critical figure again, who tends to get overlooked. But that Barnabas was the diplomatic bridge across which Paul comes to meet the church in Jerusalem, and in particular, Cephas or Peter.

  Now, that Peter had a unique position and role in the early church is certain. It’s very hard to know exactly what the institutional profile of the role was. We speak about him as the first Pope. Well, there’s a touch of anachronism about that. But no one, least of all Paul, disputed that Peter had a unique role and function in the early church.

  So, he wasn’t the residential leader of the Jerusalem church, the mother church, that title belonged really to James, the brother of the Lord, as he’s called. But Peter had a unique position and role that went back to that extraordinary moment of encounter and commission at Caesarea Philippi, that is recorded in the Gospels.

  So, it says here that he goes to visit Peter. Now the Greek word that is translated ‘visit’ there really has a second meaning. The word itself is ‘istoríasis’. Istoríasis, I went up to Jerusalem to Istoríasis Peter. Even the sound of the word suggests our word ‘history’. And it can mean ‘visit’, but it can also have the meaning ‘to exchange information with’. And I tend to read it in those terms here. I went up to Jerusalem to exchange information with Peter. Now, if you think, what kind of information would they want to exchange?

  Well, first of all, Paul would want to tell Peter from his own mouth the story of his Damascus Road experience and what had flowed from it. Keeping in mind that Paul would have been regarded by many and perhaps all in the Jerusalem church with great suspicion. Here he was, the great persecutor. Approaching them, and that’s one of the reasons why he needed someone like Barnabas, who was a trusted member of the Jerusalem Church. To introduce him, as it were, to Peter and the other leaders of the mother church. So that’s what I mean when I say Barnabas was the diplomatic bridge that Paul needed. Because of the suspicion that attached to the figure of Paul.

  So, by the good graces of Barnabas, he’s introduced to Peter. And sits down with him and exchanges information, tells his story. Because Peter would have heard all kinds of other stories and rumours. That this was a conversion, that this was a prophetic commissioning perhaps, or that this is just another ruse by a known persecutor of the Christian community and so on.

  So, Paul wants to speak to Peter face to face and tell his own story. So that’s possibly, probably what Paul wanted to tell Peter. But what did Paul want to hear from Peter? What information did he need? See Peter was unquestionably one of those who was with Jesus from the very beginning of the public ministry.

  So, Paul, if he had not met Jesus, one of the things that he would want to do is to hear from Peter with the unique authority that Peter had, and the length of experience. To hear the story of being with Jesus from the beginning. And then the whole thing of Jesus’s death, the resurrection, the extraordinary encounters with the risen Christ that are recorded at the end of the Gospels and all of that.

  So, Paul had a lot to hear from Peter. And that’s why I say that word Istoríasis seems to me to mean something more than just visit. You know, go and have a cup of tea with Peter, I don’t think it means that. But it does mean something stronger and more specific, like to exchange information with.

  So, at the end of this exchange of information. There is an agreement, we are told by Paul himself. That he should withdraw strategically. Again, he was still a very, very controversial figure. We saw that in Damascus. And we’ll see it again and again and again. Controversy and indeed persecution surround Paul from the beginning of his apostolic ministry on the road to Damascus. To the moment where he loses his head, finally, in Rome.

  So, he says, I went into the region of Syria and Cilicia. Now this means he’s going home. So, it seems that the kind of strategic decision taken by Peter and Paul together. Was that for the time being, at least he should go home to Tarsus. For his own safety, I presume, among other things. But to withdraw from the fray, just for a time. Until things were clearer and more settled.

  So, he goes home to Tarsus. And as far as we can work out, he seems to have been back in Tarsus for quite some time. It might have even been some years. Now, what was he doing there? Again, we’re not told. We’d love to know. One of the questions that often is asked is whether Paul was married. It would have been very unusual for a pharisaic Jew like Paul not to marry. It was regarded almost as a religious duty.

  And there are those who have claimed, I’m not sure on the basis of what evidence, but those who have claimed that Paul was possibly a widower. In other words, that he had married back in Tarsus, perhaps. And that his wife had died. We could never know this sort of thing. But mortality rates, particularly for women, say, in childbirth, were very high. And it’s not at all impossible that Paul was a widower. He does say later in his life in one of his letters that he is not married at that time. Doesn’t mean to say he wasn’t ever married.

  And again, it would have been most unusual for a pharisaic Jew not to have to have been married as a kind of religious duty. I sometimes think to myself that, you know, there must be little, or perhaps there are little Pauls running around southern Turkey to this day. Who knows? But he goes back to Tarsus for quite some years. And the question then becomes, how does Paul emerge from the black hole of history into which he’s now gone? What was it that actually brought Paul back onto the stage to become the historically fateful figure that he does become?

  And to answer that question, we need to turn to the story of, again, persecution that drove the first disciples out of Jerusalem. It was the persecution in which Stephen was swept away, according to Acts Chapter 7. And we’re told that in that persecution or as a result of it, the disciples go north to escape persecution in Jerusalem. They go through Samaria, the hills to the north of Jerusalem. And it’s there that Philip first preaches the gospel to those who are not really Jews. The Samaritans were kind of half Jews. And the Acts give us the account of Philip preaching the gospel to the Samaritans. Who respond with great enthusiasm.

  So, that’s the first glimmer of the gospel moving beyond the embrace of Judaism, understood in the strict sense. But the action really takes off, not so much in the hills of Samaria, north of Jerusalem. But in the great city, the third city of the Empire, which is much further north on the coast. In what is modern day Lebanon, really.

  The city known as Antioch. Now Antioch, there’s very little of it left these days, but it was a big and important urban centre in the Roman Empire, the third city of the empire. The first city was obviously Rome. The second city was Alexandria, on the coast in Egypt. And the third city of the Empire was Antioch. Now, if you want to escape from persecution and hide somewhere, what’s the best place in the world to hide, a big city?

  So, they go to Antioch to escape persecution. But in their hiding, as it were, something quite extraordinary happens. Because they don’t cringe behind locked doors, they get out there. As it were, into the streets of the big city. And they start to preach the gospel to Gentiles. Not just half Jews like the Samaritans, but those who are completely other. The Gentiles, the pagans. And again, the gospel that they preach, the good news that they bring is received with great enthusiasm by the pagans in Antioch. Now, this stirs up the great controversy at the heart of the early church. And this is absolutely central to the story that we’re telling in these podcasts.

  Was it right for these Jewish Christians, these Jewish disciples, to preach the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles? There were many, many people in the early church or the early community of disciples who thought that this was the wrong way, go back. In other words, what they were saying was that the Christian community of disciples was a Jewish sect. It was part of Judaism and absolutely fundamental to the religious world of Judaism was the sense of separation from the Gentile world.

  The whole religious cosmos of Judaism was based upon that sense that God had separated his people, the chosen people, from the pagan world. And therefore, for these Jewish Christians to preach the gospel to the pagans was a fundamental betrayal of Jewish identity and of Judaism and its religious cosmos. So, the question wasn’t trivial or in any sense marginal, it was fundamental.

  But at the heart of it, there is the key question of, what is the church? Is it just a Jewish sect? And if it is a Jewish sect, of course you don’t talk to Gentiles or pagans. You talk to Jews. Jews talk to Jews.

  But if the church is not just another Jewish messianic sect. Then of course you come up with a series of different conclusions and you do preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And what you see or what you claim is that in the church, God is doing something new. Obviously deeply related to Judaism in that sense. The church was born from the womb of the synagogue. But this is something new. God is reaching out through this proclamation of the good news of Jesus to all people, not just the Jewish people, but to everybody. That’s the new thing that is emerging in the birth of this thing called the church.

  Now, this created such a controversy in the early community of disciples. That the mother church in Jerusalem decided that they needed, let’s call it an apostolic visitation. They need, first of all, to find out what the fact, what the heck is going on in Antioch? And what does it mean? In other words, they need a fact-finding mission. And they need a powerful discernment. Is this of God or is it not? Because the mother church, or at least many in the mother church in Jerusalem, were rattled by what was going on.

  Now they decide very carefully to send one of their most trusted members to Antioch from Jerusalem in order to find out the facts and make that key discernment. And the person they choose is, again, our old friend Barnabas. You see again what a critical figure he was in the story of the early church and its coming to birth.

  So, Barnabas, nickname that is, meaning son of encouragement. He is sent from Jerusalem to Antioch. So, he gets to Antioch, and he has a look at the whole scene. He talks to people. Thinks and prays about it. Assembles the facts. And then finally, he makes a critical discernment. And I say critical not just for the story of the early church, but for the story of the church through the centuries since then. But also a fateful discernment for the history of the world.

  Barnabas decides that this extraordinary thing that’s happening in Antioch is of God. Now, remember, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. So, he’s no Gentile. But he decides that this revolutionary thing that’s happening in Antioch is of God.

  Now, he makes another crucial discernment. Sitting down late one night with the oil lamp flickering in the corner. He thinks to himself, now, this whole scene here in Antioch, it’s full of a kind of volcanic energy that could get out of hand, it needs the right kind of leadership to lead it in the right direction. You know, there are risks in this, enormous energies. But also, great risks. And what is critical in such a moment is the quality of leadership.

  So, Barnabas wants a leadership team in Antioch who can, as it were, marshal the energy and lead it in the right direction. And he thinks to himself, well, who do we need as part of this leadership team? And then late at night, with the flickering lamp, the penny drops, and Barnabas thinks, Paul, perfect.

  This extraordinary personality. Jewish, but born and in the diaspora, the Gentile world. He knows Jewish culture and Hellenistic culture, got both in his bones. Perfect, with all of his gifts and background. So much is he convinced that Paul is one of those needed in Antioch, he actually goes to Tarsus, we’re told.

  So, Barnabas sets off up the coast and around into what we call Turkey, southern Turkey. He goes to Tarsus looking for Saul, as he would have known him. And eventually he finds Paul’s house. So, you knock on the door. Come in. And Barnabas stands at the door, face to face with Paul after some years. And Paul says, Barnabas, what are you doing here? And Barnabas says, I have a proposal to put to you.

  So, they go in and sit down. And Barnabas says to Paul, a lot’s been going on since we last met, particularly in Antioch. And he tells him the story of all that’s happened, all that God has done, according to Barnabas. And says, we need the right kind of leaders in the church at Antioch. And I happen to think you are one of those who is critically important as a member of that leadership team. Why don’t you come back with me to Antioch and work as part of the leadership in this extraordinary community? And Paul thinks for a moment and again, listening to the voice of God says, okay, let’s go.

  So together, Barnabas and Paul set off back to Antioch. And there we’re told Paul becomes part of the leadership team. And the story’s given to us in Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 13. So, we are told. In the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. Here’s the leadership team. Barnabas. Now, notice he’s mentioned first. So obviously Barnabas decides to stay in Antioch. He doesn’t bustle off back to Jerusalem. He stays in Antioch. And he’s the leader of the leadership team.

  And then the other names are these; Simeon, who was called Niger. Now, again, Niger is the Latin word for black. So why would Simeon have been called Niger? Because he was dark skinned. Lucius of Cyrene. Cyrene is that part of northern Africa that we know as Libya. So, he’s come from elsewhere as well. Manahen, who was a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch. So, he was obviously upper class if he’s working at the Royal Court. And his name is Greek. And then the last mentioned of the leadership team is Saul. So, he’s the last mention, not the first. That’s Barnabas.

  So, you can see that the leadership team was as cosmopolitan as the city itself was. And what a mixed bunch the early Christians were. Sometimes people give the impression that all the first disciples of the Lord were kind of poor people. That’s not true. Christianity was always a phenomenon that the cut through the various strata of Hellenistic or Roman society. And you see it here, rich and poor together. And it was precisely that capacity that Christian communities had to bring together people who in other circumstances wouldn’t have mixed or mingled at all. That gave it its power and its appeal.

  So, Paul, then for quite some time, is one of those, the leadership team. Then another critical moment comes. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, we’re told. The Holy Spirit said, now this is, in other words, this is not just a political ploy or human strategy, according to Luke, in Acts. This is the Holy Spirit intervening.

  So, it’s God’s work. The Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I’ve called them. And what is the work? The work, in fact, is the first ever Christian mission outside Palestine.

  So, you are seeing another step in the direction of Christianity developing in ways that were not evident in its beginnings. Christianity began as a phenomenon in rural Palestine. In other words, Jesus gathering around himself a group of wandering preachers of the Kingdom of God. We’ve seen how it goes from rural Palestine, the countryside, into cities like Jerusalem and then Antioch. And now we’re about to see the gospel leave the shores of Palestine and enter the Mediterranean world.

  And again, the symbolic import of that is hard to overstate. That the gospel is leaving Palestine. And once it leaves the shores of Palestine, it’s on its way to, well, dare I say, places like my own homeland, Australia. It begins its great journey out into every corner of the globe.

  So, Paul is part of that first ever missionary team. He’s not the leader, though. The leader is again Barnabas. So, I underscore again the fact that Barnabas is the critical figure at this point. Barnabas is, as it were, the captain of the team. Paul is the vice-captain. And then the third member of the missionary team is the man we know as John Mark. Now he will become controversial. So, stay tuned on that.

  Now, what they do is they simply go from Antioch across to Cyprus, which is Barnabas’ home territory. So, Barnabas, as it were, is going home. So, they’re playing it fairly safe. And from Antioch, just across the border to Cyprus is not far at all. But symbolically, this is one huge leap.

  So, they go on a mission, missionary tour, around Cyprus, and they cross into southern Turkey, as we would say. And again, they have it’s a story of great success with their missionary preaching. But also from the start to the finish. There are stories of persecution, all of which you can read in the Acts of the Apostles. So, this first Christian mission is in many ways extraordinarily successful. Again, the Gentiles, they’re speaking not to the Jews, although they may start in the synagogues. But this is a Gentile mission. It’s big picture. They’re no longer functioning as missionaries of a Jewish messianic sect. They’re functioning as missionaries of something new that God is doing.

  So, the combination of enthusiastic reception on the one hand and persecution on the other. Persecution often from the Jews. But that combination of success and persecution is typical of the Pauline mission from this first experience until the end, when he is executed.

  John Mark, I might add, he abandons them. We’re not told why. But it wasn’t forgotten because it’s mentioned again later in the New Testament. So, they lose their third member. And it’s Barnabas and Paul who return to Antioch. And when they get back to Antioch, obviously they have to make a report to the community there, the church in Antioch. Of what happened on their mission. They didn’t have internet and all that kind of stuff. So, the community in Antioch was very keen to hear news of what had actually happened. Because they would have heard of John Mark abandoning the show. But they need to hear from Barnabas and Paul. So, they gather the community.

  We’re told at the end of Acts 14. They gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them. So again, it’s God’s work and how this is the key point, how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Now, the language is absolutely critical here.

  God has opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. In other words, Gentiles don’t have to walk through the door of the synagogue to enter the church. They walk through a door of faith straight into the church. In other words, they don’t have to become Jews in order to become Christians. Now, that might seem obvious to us, but it was not obvious to the first disciples.

  So, God has opened a door of faith. If you have faith, that’s enough. Walk through the door of faith, into the church, into the new life that God is offering. You don’t have to become a Jew in order to be a Christian. And this was another way of saying that Christianity wasn’t just another Jewish sect. If it were, of course you had to become Jewish. But if Christianity isn’t just another Jewish sect and is something new that God is doing, the only door you need to walk through is the door of faith.

  So, we’ll rest it there for this podcast. And then we’ll pick up the story of this controversy. About Jews and Gentiles and the nature of the church, which is really at the heart of the whole story of the church’s birth in the first century.