Transcription of the Video: Learning to Walk Like Jesus

"Come. Follow me," Jesus said like a rabbi. They did. They learned to live like him, interpret the text like he did. They learned to love their neighbor like he did. And then he said, "Go. Make disciples." And they did. Just like a rabbi would.

None of those disciples was more like Jesus than Paul - Saul in Hebrew. Let's walk in his footsteps just a bit, on his early trip, to an unexpected place I think Galatia. So come. Let's walk where Paul walked. 

Okay. Right here on this hillside, archaeologists began to uncover this relatively small ruin, and they think it's the temple to Caesar built in the northern part of the country by Herod (the Herod of the Christmas story). 

Well if this turns out to be the temple of Caesar Augustus, you can be sure that that was one of the main roads right out there. And if that's one of the main roads, that would be the road called the Damascus Road, which of course, enters our story because that's where Paul met Jesus.

So the Via Maris, the main road from Egypt to Persia is down here. Somewhere, it turns right. And I say they're suggesting if Herod's temple to Caesar is here, where does the main road have to be? 

Right here, we can at least say this much, is a main branch of the Via Maris going east. Damascus is that way, not all that far. So listen to the story a minute. "I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests." In Acts, it says, "He was on the Damascus road nearing Damascus." So I would guess it's a few miles beyond here.

"About noon came. As I was on the road, I saw a light from Heaven brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew. "Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?' 

"I said, 'Who are you, Lord?'"

"'I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting. Now get up. Get on your feet and go to Damascus.'"

That's so powerful to me because of where it is. Here's a man claiming to be the Son of God, Lord of Heaven and earth. Saul comes, a faithful Jew. Please understand this. He's doing what he does because he believes that's what God wants him to do. He comes up the road. What did he say when he walked by here?

I hear him going like this with his companions. "Geez. That idolatry of those pagans." And all of a sudden, down on the ground he goes. "Who are you?"

So who's Lord? Him? Or him? Somewhere not far from here, Paul met Jesus either while or right after he walked by this. And his life changed. He went off into the desert like an ancient Jew. He got a new rabbi - apparently Barnabas. We don't know much about him. But he became a student of a new rabbi because he had to learn to interpret the Hebrew Bible in a new way as taught by Rabbi Jesus. 

And then it was his turn. So he comes here to Galatia on his first missionary tour. It's about 200 miles north to south, about 150 miles east to west right in the center of Asia Minor. Its capital is Antioch, and that's where Paul went. Imagine the dust on his feet by the time he walked across Galatia all the way to Antioch. 

Now after all that walking in the countryside, imagine Paul showing up here. He's just walked a couple hundred miles through these beautiful mountains and really hasn't walked through anything more than a small village. 

And all of a sudden, he shows up here. Now imagine him walking up here. Just look. Up a paved street to this gate. Look at it. Giant podium here made of great big square stones. It maybe stood three or four stories high. A pedestal. Maybe a statue of the emperor standing here in its glory. Then a paved street which is largely gone today. And then another giant pillar and an arch overhead. And then the street. And then another pillar and another arch and another pillar on the outside and a giant three-part gate that declared that this is really a strong place.

Feel how you would have walked through here and the glory and the power of Rome would have been declared. The name of this city was Antioch of Pisidia. Caesar Augustus wanted to Romanize this world. Remember Galatia is the home of untamed, wild, barbaric people. So he created 13 military colonies, populated by the veterans of the fifth and the seventh legion - Italians, Romans. And this, he turned into his capital. It's not large. Maybe 20,000 or 25,000 people at its largest point. But a city that's here to declare the authority and the power of Rome, founded or re-founded in the days of Caesar Augustus.

So what on earth brings Paul to this Roman city? Out of all the cities in the world he could have gone to, why here? What's his point? Come. Let's go see. Come.

Look at the street. Isn't that amazing? Just look at the street. Now picture 57,000 miles of roads like this. 

Imagine if it was all white like that. The only thing to me that may have been dark was the floor. Everything else would have been white. Look at the columns. Yeah. 

Not only was Antioch built by Caesar Augustus to Romanize, but it was built like Rome. As you've walked, you've noticed different hills, districts of the city. Rome was built on seven hills. Each area had a name. This city covers seven different districts, each sort of on its own hill as if the emperor not only wanted to say, "We're Romans." But, "This is what Rome is." 

That's really compelling. Now we've come to the highest hill, which in Rome is called Capitoline Hill, meaning Head Hill. I don't know that that was exactly the name of this one, but this too is the highest hill in the city so correlate to that. 

Now look around you. Out here, a huge open plaza. Picture beautiful pavers like the ones you see here in the corner, a row of columns with an archway of frieze going across the top all the way out to the front, maybe even across the front, creating this enormous wall of colonnaded plaza right in the middle. Just huge. And then when they came to the hill, look what they did. They actually carved the hill. Step this way. They actually carved the hill in a semi-circle pattern-- look at it-- all the way around a complete semi-circle. And on this end, they made the colonnade two stories high.

Now in the center, look what they did here. They left some of the natural rock, carved it, shaped it, and then covered it with stones. Do you see? Come. See how they covered it with a line of stones. Most of them are gone. And here stood a temple, up again as high as that two-story colonnade. In front, four columns. It was called a tetrastyle temple. It was a certain kind of design. There were four huge columns, probably four or five stories high and then a white marble-- you see some of it yet-- temple behind it.

In front is the holy place where the priest was. It's called [00:12:45 pronas?]. And it back, the Holy of Holies, called naos where the statue of Caesar stood. So when Paul got here, standing in this temple was a statue of Caesar Augustus, the one of the birth of Jesus who called himself God and Lord of Heaven and earth.

Do you remember the day we visited Omrit, a small temple? It's exactly like this one. It's got four columns, almost exactly the same size, an outer court, an inner court, even a hold. Do you remember? What do you think Paul thought when he got to this place and here was a temple just like the one he saw, just before he met Jesus? "Wow! This is where I'm supposed to be."

Now stop with me for a moment. Paul starts his first missionary trip. He leaves Antioch of Syria, and he sails to Cyprus. He teaches, and a man named Sergius Paulus believes. Now Sergius Paulus was a high ranking-Roman official - you might say the secretary of state. He believed. One of Paul's very first converts. Maybe the very first one. Now think about that. Paul goes out. He knows in his heart, the Bible says, the Gentiles will believe. But do you think he really expected the secretary of state of the Roman Empire to believe? I don't know, but that's an amazing story.

Then Paul does an unusual thing. Instead of continuing on the sea route which Cyprus was in and going to a place like Corinth or Ephesus or even Rome, Paul diverts, comes ashore, and walks through this Galatian countryside to this miniature Rome where Caesar Augustus stood. In the process, he changes his name or takes another name. Instead of Saul, he calls himself Paulus. We say Paul. He takes the name of his first convert and comes here. And what makes that even more intriguing is that from history and inscription-- they found inscriptions here-- Sergius Paulus comes from this Roman city.

So why would Paul, this Jewish rabbi type, come cross country to a miniature Rome, change his name to the name Paulus, the Roman secretary of state, his first convert? Why would he do that? I'd like to suggest something. In Paul's writings, he repeatedly says, "I've always wanted to go to Rome. I've always wanted to go to Rome. I've been anxious to come to you."

And then he says, "But I've been prevented. God wouldn't let me." I think Paul came here thinking, "Do you know what? If these are the people who are going to believe, I want to stand in front of the emperor and tell him." Doesn't that sound like the fire that Jesus would have had? 

And I think God said, "Good idea, Paul. No. I've got some other things for you first." Because he doesn't get to go to Rome until some other things happen. And then God will appear to him and say, "Now go."

So what is it that God wants to happen before Paul is allowed to go to Rome? Come.

Here. Let's sit right here. Paul came here to this very Roman city with its temple of Augustus up there on the hill, powerful Roman gate, everything about it Roman. But being Jewish, where do you go first? The synagogue where the community gathers and where the Torah is read. Now it's a fascinating story. Because he comes in here and he sits with the community. He's not a member of the community, so even though he studied with the Albert Einstein of Jewish rabbis, Gamliel, he can't be involved in the worship.

Afterwards, some of the leaders of the synagogue come up to him and say, "We hear that you're Paul? Would you be willing to talk to us and teach us something?"

Now whether they knew that he was a Gamliel student and they said, "There's an all-star here," or whether his fame was already here, which seems a little less likely to me, they ask him to speak. It's in the Book of Acts. And it's a delightful story. It's in Acts 13. 

He stands up in the synagogue and he begins to outline the history of the Jewish people. And he simply walks through their whole history. But if you read it carefully, what he's doing is he's reframing history in a sense. He's re-interpreting history to say, "It all points to Jesus." He mentions Saul, king of Israel, his own relative, of course. He mentions David, mentions Abraham. And he leads the whole community of Jewish people through the history of God's people right up to Jesus. 

They all sit. They're fascinated, just fascinated by what he has to say. And then he says, "And God wants Jew and Gentile to come to know this Jesus." That was fascinating to them. "The Gentiles come too? We've got to hear more." So when he's finished, they gather around him and they say, "We'd like to hear more. Would you come back?" 

And Paul says, "Sure. I'll be back on Shabbat (Sabbath) next week." Then the text says, on the following Sabbath-- now I don't know what he did in between-- on the following Sabbath, the whole city gathered - Jewish people, God-fearing Gentiles who are already in the synagogue because they had learned to love and honor the God of Israel. And Gentiles who weren't before. But think of where we are. Who was in that crowd? This is mini Rome. This is the nobility, the powerful, the famous of the Roman-- the whole city wants to hear the story.

So he teaches them again in text, Scripture, Jesus. And then he says again, "And the Gentiles may join us." 

Now it says, the God-fearing Gentiles rejoiced when they heard this. "We're in too! Without having to become fully Jewish, we're in."

But not everybody was happy with that. And some among the Jewish leadership resented not what he said about Jesus apparently, but that he suggested the Gentiles can join us. And so they stirred up some trouble, the Bible says, with some of the leading women of the city. Now it's unlikely the Jewish people had enough pull to get Paul thrown out of town. But those important women did. And so Paul gets thrown out of the synagogue, kicked out of town. And he heads off to Iconium.

So let's ask a question. Paul comes here, mini Rome, maybe because he says, "I want to see the emperor." Maybe because Sergius Paulus has given him some in with somebody. He goes to the synagogue, he teaches. What happens? All kinds of people love what he has to say including Romans. Yes. 

Then God says, "But that's not why you're here. So I'm going to send you somewhere else." God has something that he wants to show Paul. Come. Let's go see.