It had been between 4 and 10 months since they left Antioch. Antioch, the place where the church submitted to the Spirit’s leading to “set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:1-2). They left in early or late spring, they returned in the fall.

And boy, did they have a story or two to tell concerning their missionary journey. Stories of the word proclaimed in synagogues and before governors (Acts 13:4-12). Of the word of God believed and belittled. Of encounters with demon-possessed magicians (Acts 13:10) and stone-throwing mobs (Acts 14:19). Of how the message of salvation had created division, with some becoming disciples of Jesus who were urged to continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:43), and of some, filled with jealousy, becoming detractors who thrust aside the gospel, judging themselves unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:44-46).

But, as Luke meticulously records, while Paul and Barnabas relayed their tales of trial and triumph, they made sure that what was known was that whatever had been accomplished for the kingdom of God over the previous few months had not been their own doing.

They sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

(Acts 14:26-27)

All that God had done . . . That’s what Paul & Co. talked about.

Sure, what had been done on their missionary journey had been with them, but what happened over the course of those months — the demons that were denounced, the bodies that were healed, the souls that were saved, the believers who were added — all that God had done. And all that could be summarized in a phrase that’s captured my thoughts this morning, He had opened a door of faith.

The preaching and proclaiming, the healing of the crippled and the hushing of the critical, the calling of disciples and the castigating of detractors, whether to Jew or to Gentile, it was all about opening a door. A door of faith.

A reminder this morning of how anyone, and how everyone, is saved. It’s by going through a door. A door opened not “of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:13). A door of faith, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

The door not only by which we were saved, but also the door by which we are being saved (1Cor. 15:1-2). Our sanctification not our work but His. Our desire to be disciples not stories of what we are doing, but of what God has done. Not tales exalting our efforts, but confessions of but walking through a door continually opened to us, a door of life-giving, life-sustaining faith.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

(2Corinthians 5:7 ESV)

It’s time to go through that door again today. Amen?

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.