Beauty For Ashes

Sunday a.m. - January 20, 2008

“Beauty For Ashes”

(NOTE: This message was the first one I gave to a church that had just gone through a split and the congregation was hurting and confused how such a thing could happen)

I. Background: The church in Antioch has gathered together. A word of prophecy comes forth and the Holy Spirit calls Paul and Barnabas to the mission field. Paul and Barnabas leave Antioch and sail to the port of Salamis on the island of Cyprus.

I'm reading from the New Living Translation.

Acts 13:5, "And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant."

a. This was actually John Mark or Mark who wrote the Book of Mark.

b. He was probably just a young man and went with Paul and Barnabas to look after them.

II. Verse: 13, "Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, (or Mark) departing from them, returned to Jerusalem."

a. For some reason Mark decided to leave Paul and Barnabas.

b. Looking at a map they had traveled by boat through the Mediterranean Sea for about 500 miles.

c. This could have been Mark's first time away from home & he may have been homesick.

d. It doesn't say how Paul reacted when Mark left but it stuck in his mind, which we'll see in a little bit.

III. Paul and Barnabas have finished the mission trip and returned to Antioch. They report to the church and tell them all about their trip. Then they spend some time in the city teaching and preaching.

Acts 15:36-41

"Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing."

a. Paul and Barnabas had become very close friends and they worked as a team.

b. After Paul got saved and started preaching the Gospel he tried to join the Christians in Jerusalem but they remembered how Paul devoted his life to hunting down Christians.

c. They remembered how the people laid their coats at the feet of Paul while they stoned Stephen.

d. Acts 8:1-4, "Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. (Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison. (New Living Translation)

e. But one day when Paul was on his way to Damascus the Lord got a hold of him.

f. Paul got saved and later when he tried to join the church in Jerusalem, he was rejected.

IV. Acts 9:27, "But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus."

a. Barnabas was the only man that stood up for Paul.

b. The people remembered Paul's past but Barnabas knew Paul was a new creature in Christ and God had a purpose for his life.

c. Barnabas wasn't his real name. His real name was Joses. (Acts. 4:36)

d. The apostles changed his name to Barnabas which means "the encourager".

e. Acts 11:25-26 says Barnabas was a "good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith"

f. The same verses also tell how Paul/Barnabas worked together at Antioch for a year teaching and preaching.

g. Those two men loved and respected each other.

h. A special bond developed between them.

V. Look back to Acts 15:36-41, "Then after some clays Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing." Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. 39 Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches."

A. Paul wanted to return to the cities they had ministered in to see how the churches were doing.