We saw last time the world-historical transition of the gospel message breaking out of the ghetto and going to the Gentiles. Cornelius demonstrated once and for all that you could become a Christian without becoming a Jew first. And now, Luke immediately fleshes out that picture by sketching for us a very diverse, Jewish-Gentile congregation in the "third city" of the Roman Empire, Antioch. Just as Chicago is the third-largest city in the contemporary USA (with NYC and Los Angeles taking the top two spots), so Antioch was the third city of the Roman Empire. It was kind of a big deal — not as big a deal as the top two, but big enough. And it was here that the first church Luke is going to sketch outside Jerusalem flourished. What we'll see is that this church was full of diversity — diverse places/travelers, diverse people, and diverse power. All these are signs of a healthy church that is fully submitted to the rule of Christ; thus, they are things that our church and every church ought to imitate in order to honor Christ.
