Paul 2.2

The next few months at Antioch were some of the most peaceful of my life. I was more certain than ever that God was sending me as an apostle to the Gentiles. The church at Antioch was completely behind our mission. Even the church in Jerusalem had given us the right hand of fellowship.

And when Peter first came to Antioch, the fellowship was sweet. I learned many things about Jesus' time before the resurrection. The most marvelous times were those weeks when Peter ate the Lord's Supper with the church in Manaen's house. It was a mix of both Jewish and Gentile believers, and we would all recline at even as one body--Barnabas, Jason, Peter, all of us together as the one people of God.

The first time Peter met with us is etched deeply on my memory. During supper, he told us about how Jesus broke bread that night he was betrayed. Jesus knew he was about to die and compared the bread they were eating to his body he was about to give for them and all Israel. Then after supper Jesus passed the cup--as we did. He said it was his blood he was about to shed as a sacrifice.

It was increasingly the custom of believers to share meals together in this way. Jesus had told the disciples that he would not eat and drink with them again until the kingdom of God had come. So each meal was a reminder both of his faithful death as a ransom for our sins and of his soon coming return. For me, it was also a strong sign of the unity of God's people and the reconciliation God was extending to the whole earth, not just to law-observant Jews alone. Rarely did we sense Jesus' presence more than when we were eating his meal together as one body.