One of my favorite things about the gospel is the way that the identity of who we are in Christ gets underneath all other identities — in culture, in society, and in history. Christ transforms everything from the bottom up. And my favorite location to demonstrate where that happened, and why it matters, is the city of Antioch.
Antioch was the place where Jews and Gentiles began worshiping together. It was so radical that when Barnabas was sent there by the Jerusalem church, he eventually went to find Saul in Tarsus to bring him — to show him: here are Jews and Gentiles worshiping together. It was so radical that the city of Antioch didn't know what to do with these people. Like most cities in the ancient Near East, the city was segregated into various divisions based upon ethnicities. And here was an assembly of people that the society around them didn't know what to call. Are they Jews? Are they Gentiles? Yes. Yes. But no — there's something else.
And it's in Antioch where the name "Christian" emerges — a name that seeks to reconcile both Jews and Gentiles under the beautiful banner of the lordship of Jesus Christ. And it's from this Antioch location that the gospel spreads to the rest of the world.
It's also the location in Galatians 2 where Paul records a confrontation with Peter. Peter, in a moment of weakness, out of the fear of man, negates the reality of the gospel — begins to shift around the tables in the church in Antioch. And Paul confronts him, because his behavior was not in step with the gospel. How was it not in step with the gospel? Because the reality of who Jesus is gets underneath every other identity known to mankind. And when that happens, the world sits up and asks an important question: how is this even possible?
The reality of who Jesus is gets underneath every other identity known to mankind.
The answer is because of the person and the work of Jesus. Because of the power of faith alone, through grace alone, through Christ alone — that transforms everything. That's what the gospel was meant to do. It's what it did in the city of Antioch, and what it's still meant to do today.
The Apostle Paul writes to the church at Colossae: "Here in the church, there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free." And then he says this: "But Christ is all and in all." What's he saying? He's saying that underneath all other categories — the significant categories that divide society in so many ways — Christ gets underneath all of those and transforms them for the glory of God and for the advancement of God's mission around the world.
That's why I love the city of Antioch. That's why I love the story of Antioch — because it tells the story that eventually ends in the book of Revelation, where we see people from every tribe, nation, and language gathered before the throne of our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This great group of people proclaims the majesty of the King of Kings, who redeems people from all walks of life. It's the way that the gospel gets underneath all other categories to transform society and people and churches. And it's why the activity of the church — trying to find ways to express our identity in Jesus — really matters. It mattered in Antioch, and it still matters today.