Encouraging Others To Succeed

In a world where people are often quick to judge and criticize, we’re all in need of some encouragement, wouldn’t you agree? I am going to be preaching about encouragement this morning. So, what is encouragement? Well, it’s defined as “the act of giving courage, or confidence of success.”(1) I prefer the part about encouragement being the act of giving confidence of success, because whenever we encourage people we actually instill a confidence within those individuals to go for the gold and to never accept defeat. And I have found that there are a number of individuals who have difficulty in life because they have never been encouraged – or even worse; they have always been on the receiving end of criticism.

Our message this morning is entitled “Encouraging Others to Succeed.” What we’re going to discover from the Scripture is our need for both receiving encouragement and extending encouragement to others. As we look at the account of how encouragement was extended to one young man who made a mistake, we will discover that encouragement is greatly beneficial in our endeavors at expanding the Lord’s kingdom, as encouragement helped this young man in our passage aspire to do greater things for Christ. Please stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word, as we examine Acts 15:36-41.

Acts 15:36-41

36 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.” 37 Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. 38 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.

We often think of Paul as a great man of God and one of the greatest missionaries in the world (which he was), but Paul was also a person just like you and me, and he wasn’t always such a nice guy. There were days, as Paul gave testimony in Romans 7:15-24, that he too operated in the flesh just like us. And we see in this passage that Paul became judgmental of a young man named John Mark.

Paul didn’t want him to go with he and Barnabas on a missionary journey because, as we see back in Acts 13:13, John Mark had left one of their previous mission trips early in order to go back home. Paul must have reasoned that Mark was a deserter, and was probably a mama’s boy who would run home crying whenever things got tough. You see, John Mark was just a teenager and Paul was likely judging him based on his age, and also on how he went home early on one of their mission trips.

If Paul had been fair, he might have inquired of John Mark as to why he had gone home early, instead of just assuming he was incompetent. There could have been an illness in the family that he had to tend to, or perhaps Mark doubted his own abilities and needed a little encouragement. Whatever happened that made him go home early, we don’t know. What we do know is that God had enough faith in Mark that He opened Barnabas’ eyes to the potential that was in him.

We discover here that Barnabas stood up for John Mark and defended him to the point that he and Paul got into an argument and split up. We see that Barnabas also had enough confidence in Mark that he took him along on his own missionary journey. So, why might Barnabas have stood up for Mark the way he did? I believe we can answer this question through a little background investigation.

One probable reason why Barnabas supported John Mark was that Mark was his cousin, according to Colossians 4:10. However, there is a little more to it than that. The name of Barnabas means “one who encourages,” “one who exhorts,” or “son of encouragement.”(2) Barnabas stood up for John Mark and gave him a second chance because it was his nature to encourage others and help them to succeed. For example, in Acts 11:23, we find Barnabas engaged in the action of encouraging the new churches in Antioch. The Scripture says, “When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.”