June 07, 2026
• Rev. Dr. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
June 7, 2026
Communion
“Where Grace Becomes Real”
Acts 11:19-26
The Apostle Paul wrote most of the New Testament. While the Gospels occupy more pages, they were composed by different authors. So Paul composed more of the New Testament than any other single writer.
He wrote to churches he started all over Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. He launched as many as 20 communities of faith, perhaps many more not recorded. This was a result of his traveling some 8,000 miles on foot, horseback, and ship over four different journeys.
But what motivated this church-starting quest? Was it his encounter with the risen Christ on the way to Damascus? That’s when Paul was converted from a persecutor of the Christian faith. That was certainly dramatic, but Jesus didn’t say anything to Paul about starting churches. In fact all Jesus said was, “Get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” (Acts 9:6)
What Paul didn’t know was that God also spoke to a believer named Ananias and said, “Look for a man of Tarsus… for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel…” (Acts 9: 11,15) Clearly God intended for Paul to have a global impact, but as far as we know, Paul never had knowledge of those words.
In fact, Paul went from his life-changing conversion into isolation for the next 14-17 years! That surprising to many folks. We imagine Paul going immediately from his conversion to starting churches right away. But there was a gap of two-plus decades in which most of that time Paul spent in his hometown of Tarsus.
Now, park all that to the side for a moment. Let’s go back and fill in some gaps. Before his conversion Paul was an ambitious Pharisee climbing the political, spiritual ladder of his religion. Persecuting Christians scored him points. He oversaw the stoning of a follower of Christ named Stephen. Seeing the positive reaction this got from people, whom Paul wanted to impress, he doubled down. He began a widespread campaign of persecution against Christ-followers throughout Jerusalem.
Because of this, believers started fleeing the city. A good many went to Antioch (map) in Syria, about 300 miles north of Jerusalem. They formed a church there. They didn’t have a leader or anyone giving them permission. All they had to go by was the Holy Spirit’s direction.
A little aside here. This past Friday in my email devotion I included a writing by David Hughes who wrote about the history of our church. David’s parents gave the land for St. Luke’s when it was built in 1953. St. Luke’s had started without a pastor and anyone giving them permission. They just followed God’s direction. And those really committed to following God’s direction over their own ambitions, usually go in a direction of grace.
So back to the story. This somewhat renegade group of Christ-followers in Antioch started welcoming Gentiles into their fellowship. Up to this point, the church was a Jewish movement, which meant only men could speak in their assemblies, and circumcised men at that. Maybe because nobody wanted the job of doing that screening at the door, they just said, “Let’s let anybody in.” After all, they were following God’s direction and not human permission. So the word gets down to the apostles in Jerusalem, that there is a church in Antioch letting everyone into its fellowship.
They sent one of their group, a man named Barnabas to investigate. Now if the apostles’ purpose was to shut down this radical, inclusive activity, they sent the wrong guy. Barnabas’ name means, “son of encouragement.” He had already defended Paul before the apostles when they weren’t willing to believe that Paul had a change of heart and was now one of them. Barnabas looked for the good in people, and sought to offer them God’s blessing.
So Barnabas saw for himself that the Gentiles in Antioch were as full of the Holy Spirit as any of the Jewish members. He started helping the church, perhaps like a pastor, but the church grew so fast, he needed help. So he went to Tarsus to find his friend Paul and he brought him to Antioch.
Here’s where we need to go off-script and use our imaginations. This isn’t recorded in the Bible, but I believe it would have been a part of the reality. Barnabas tells the people, “Look, we are growing so fast, we need to add another pastor, and I know a guy. I’m going to go get him and be back in a month or so.”
So Barnabas returns and enters the gathering, and say, “Okay folks, I am excited to present our new leader,” and in walks Paul. How might the people have reacted?
Or how could they have reacted?
Many of the people in the church were there because of the persecutions orchestrated by Paul. He may have hurt, or perhaps been responsible for the deaths of, some of their own family and friends. What is for certain is they had to leave their homes and their livelihood in Jerusalem because of Paul. And now Barnabas brings Paul to Antioch and wants the people to welcome him?
Imagine being a family member of someone killed by a rioter at the Capitol building in 2021, and a person who participated in that and was arrested but then acquitted but then had a life-change and went into the ministry is brought is presented to you as a new pastor. You are being asked to welcome that person. Could you do it?
There’s no mention of any dissension in the Antioch Church over Paul’s arrival. No division. No one saying, “I can’t do it. I can’t get over how I feel about that man. Not after all he did. No way.” In fact, it says, “So it was that for an entire year (Paul and Barnabas) met with the church and taught a great many people…”(Acts 11:26)
It seems as though they fully embraced Paul and helped him cut his teeth as a teacher, a leader, an apostle.
Back in 2016 I had the incredible experience of being able to film a study companion to a book I wrote about Paul. We were able to go to Antioch, which is located just 6 miles from the Iraq border. This was during the height of ISIS activity. In fact, our guide explained how ISIS often came across the border to buy supplies in that town, so we didn’t hang around there long!
We got to go to the location that is believed to be the sight of the Antioch Church – 2 pictures-1. Rob outside church, 2. Wide view of outside of the church. After we recorded and the film crew was packing up, I took a moment to imagine what it must have felt like for Paul when he first entered that place (picture of inside of church). The apprehension. The worry about how he will be treated. But he was welcomed. And because that church believed in him, Grace became real to Paul. And after a year they blessed him and Barnabas to go out on a journey to share this faith.
Paul did not go out to start generic churches or some kind of nebulous Christian communities. Paul went out to start Antiochs, because that was the only experience of church he knew. A community that perhaps for the first time helped Paul feel forgiven. Without Antioch, there maybe would have never been an Apostle Paul. What a difference a community can make when it makes grace real.
I said a little prayer in that cave, thanking God for creating a community like this church that doesn’t even exist anymore, but may be the reason there is a Christian movement today.
Its not the Church that is supposed to last. It is God’s grace that lasts, and a community that doesn’t get so caught up in its own self-preservation, but focuses on how it can make God’s grace to others, is a community that changes the world.
Closing illustration.