We spent 8 hours on the road in order to spend 2 hours on the ground in a place called Pisidian Antioch. Pisidian Antioch (or Antioch in Pisidia as it is referred to in the Bible) was the first place Paul went on his first missionary journty after he had saild from Cyprus and landed at Perga in Anatolia (present day Turkey). It was here that he preached is first sermon, or at least the first recorded sermon at the synagogue in Antioch (see Acts 13).I would surmise that for one who lives in or near such historical and spiritually significant places, it feels less "special" than it does for one who will probably only spend two hours of his life there. Granted, I walk on dirt that is just as old as the dirt in Antioch, but the Apostle Paul never preached on the dirt where I live. Something rather sobering takes place when you walk on Antiochian dirt. Especially when (as it is believed by archaeologists) that I was standing on the exact location where Paul preached. Below are the remains of the "Central Church" (one of three in Pisidian Antioch) which is believed to have been built on the site of the synagogue where Paul went to first proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead. (Acts 13:1617) It also happens to be his longest recorded sermon.
Ron and I sat on the semi-circular stone structure in the center of the picture (called the apse) and took turns reading the story of Paul in Antioch, and his sermon in particular. It struck me that in the simple proclamation of the gospel, there was a response. People wanted to hear more. In this age of skepticism and cynicism and relativism and all the 'isms that accompany a post-modern world, it is easy to lose confidence in the inherent power of the gospel...and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring truth to bear in the hearts and minds of even those most hostile to the gospel. Not that we don't bring every tool we have available to the task of mission, whether at home or around the world, but in the end, it is NOT about our cleverness or our strategies but about "...the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation..." (Rom. 1.16) And it is THIS gospel about which Paul says he is NOT ASHAMED.
It was not lost on me that there were three churches in Antioch...and no mosques. Again, I could not help but come back to the hope and vision that God is about re-planting his Church in the land where it was first preached. It was also not lost on me that I live in a land that is losing its grip on a faith that once undergirded the very freedoms that define us. So I found myself in this intersection of time and space in which I was two thousand years removed and seven thousand miles away from home, and yet one in Christ with both Paul and the church built on the spot where he first proclaimed the gospel, and Hans (and Erkan and Metin and Pam and Eda, etc.) and the Antalya Evangelical Church. Their mission was and is my mission.
Charlie
The three of us on standing between the Temple of Augustus (behind the person taking our picture) and the Central Church of Antioch (in the far background).
