Day 03 - Pisidian Antioch

Pastor Kent’s very first reflection considered the pregnant time of Jesus’ birth. Everything was ready for the coming of the Messiah. The time and the place were perfect! We continue to marvel at just how true that was as well for the spread of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus.

God’s use of Rome for this meant many things, but certainly important was the change in travel. Travel was done by millions before this, but Roman soldiers and Roman roads removed some of its danger. Paul’s walks were unbelievably hard, but he did arrive safely, in no small part because God used Rome.

Today was another exciting day exploring the Ancient City of Pisidian Antioch and leaning into Acts 13, where the Apostle Paul spoke in the Synagogue about the fulfillment of earlier prophecies and the salvation offered the Jews through their Messiah, Jesus. What an amazing experience to hear these words from Pastor Kent in the same place they were originally delivered! Pastor Kent stood among the ruins of likely the first Christian church there and it is believed that further excavation will reveal  the place of the synagogue underneath it.

But why Pisidian Antioch? Because here was a city of 60 to 70,000 situated on the major intersection of main east-west travel and main north-south travel; because this city had been made safe by Roman soldiers who were veterans and who lived here with their families; because this meant a full complement of Roman social progress and Imperial favor. The initial response to Paul, though hardly as he’d hoped, proved it to be a good starting point in his interior work.

We were able to talk today with the head archeologist who is leading the excavation. He let us enter the particular site of a later Christian church, quite near the first one, and have our picture taken with him. And he pointed out a cross carved into stone, which he thought originally had some kind of metal poured into it. We witnessed another group of worshippers celebrating the Mass and singing some familiar songs in a language other than our own. Theirs was the sound of true rejoicing and we added our own  by singing “He Is Lord.” Indeed, “the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region” (Acts 13:49).

Paul and Nancy