The law of gravity is everywhere and affects everything. When a power stronger than gravity grips something, though, gravity’s power ceases to function. Gravity is still there but it is unable to exert its influence. If I pull a 200-pound weight off a shelf it is coming down at the acceleration of gravity even if I’m holding onto it. However, if I want to write something and I pick up a pen and hold it in my hand it will be there to use as long as I grip it. As I reflected on the story of the church at Antioch several things about it brought this picture to mind.

Luke credited the Lord’s hand with the successful results the believers witnessed there. In telling the story of the Antioch church’s beginning Luke makes an important observation. When he wrote that some “began to speak to Greeks also,” he didn’t use the word that normally referred to preaching. It was a word used for ordinary conversation. The church at Antioch wasn’t like any other local church to this point in the Church’s history. It wasn’t founded by apostles, as Jerusalem’s church had been, and it consisted of Gentile converts. It was such an unusual church that the apostles in Jerusalem sent a representative from Jerusalem to check it out. That representative was Barnabas.

This is how Luke described the beginning of that unique church:

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (Acts 11:19-23).

Two things were clear to Barnabas, the results in Antioch were produced by the hand of God and His hand had gripped the believers in Antioch with His grace.

Barnabas was an encourager. His friends called him Barnabas because it meant “son of encouragement.” It was what he was called and it was what he did. When he arrived in Antioch and saw this strange, new kind of church he was glad and encouraged the Gentile believers. Barnabas had the enviable capacity to look at something that was a bit outside the box and recognize that it was the result of the grace of God. It’s difficult for some of us to value something that is different. Yet, if we understand it, we can readily affirm it. Barnabas was flexible enough to recognize that this was something God had done.

The church at Antioch became the center for the church’s missionary activity. Its influence would reach all the way to Rome. It would be Paul’s base of operations from Acts 13 to the end of the book. In many ways that is because Barnabas saw in it something God was doing and was an encourager in that church’s infancy.

Barnabas wanted someone to help him lead this new kind of church and he remembered the conversion of Paul. When Paul was converted and Ananias was sent to lay hands on him God had said to Ananias, about Paul, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15). It is interesting to note that Paul had remained in obscurity for at least ten years since his conversion. Yet, he was ready when his time came and Barnabas went to look for him.

“Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:25-26).

When Luke wrote the book of Acts and described Barnabas as looking for Paul, he used a word that implies difficulty in finding the object of the search. Paul had gone back to Tarsus and fallen virtually out of sight.

At Antioch Barnabas found himself pastoring a congregation mostly consisting of Gentiles. The overriding lesson of this account for me is that God’s hand moved outside the box of Church history and gripped this new congregation with His grace. That is still God’s plan for everyone, whatever his or her family background. It is still so inspiring to see God reach out with His hand and continue to surprise us with His grip of grace. He stretches beyond our limitations to touch ones we might not even be prepared for with His amazing grace. He did it in Antioch and He’s still doing it everywhere.