Barnabas: Stories of God’s People
May 21, 2006
Intro:
How many of you can think of someone who, at some point in your life, believed in you when you weren’t sure you believed in yourself? Someone probably a little older, a little wiser, more experienced, who looked at you and the situation you were in and pulled you aside and said, “You can do this! I know that you can.”
On Friday I was watching the hockey game with some friends, and in between periods we were chatting and I mentioned that I was working on building a sidewalk down the side of my house, that I’d spent the later part of the afternoon building the forms, and I said “I don’t really know what I’m doing – have any of you ever done concrete? I’m especially wondering about doing the finishing.” They all shook their heads, and then one of them said, “aah, you can do it. Get the right tools, you’ll be fine.” Then, perhaps the most encouraging comment, “it’s between the two houses… no one will ever see it…” But it worked! That one bit of encouragement did it.
Introducing Barnabas:
In our series entitled “Stories of God’s People”, I want to introduce you to a man from the New Testament. We first meet him in Acts 4. It is very, very early in the story of the Christians. It is not long ago that the Holy Spirit fell on the believers at Pentecost, and Peter has been leading the new Christians. In Acts 2:42ff, we read that “42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
One of those whom “the Lord added to their number” is introduced to us at the end of Acts 4: “36Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.”
A Man of Generosity and Encouragement:
In this quick introduction, we get our first glimpse into who is Barnabas. We see he is a man of generosity. He is a giver. By his actions, we can see that he is one who loves God, not one who loves money. We don’t know much more – we don’t know if he was a man of wealth who gave out of his abundance, or if he gave at a great sacrifice, but we do know that it was a significant gift – he sold land to bring finances to the work of the ministry that was started.
Barnabas was not like a certain Baptist preacher, who one day received a phone call from a woman wanting to arrange a funeral for her beloved dog. She said, “I’ve called several Churches, and everybody just laughed at my request. The Baptist preacher said, "Ma’am, we don’t really do that but I’d be interested in knowing why you want that done." She said, "Well, I just loved that dog and I want a funeral for him." "Well," the preacher said, "that’s nice but we just can’t." She then said, "I sure loved him, I’d be willing to give $10 000 to any church who would hold the funeral." "Oh," said the preacher, “why didn’t you tell me your dog was a Baptist? Of course we’ll do it."...
We also see something of Barnabas’ character from the new name he is given by the apostles, “Son of Encouragement.” We’ll see more of that as we continue.
Barnabas The Risk Taker:
The next time we meet Barnabas is in Acts 9. It is quite a while later – the Gospel has gone to Samaria with success, and is on its way to Ethiopia with the newly baptized Ethiopian Eunuch, and there has been a lot of persecution that has scattered most of the believers out of Jerusalem. Chapter 9 begins with this: “1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” It continues, telling the great story of how Saul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, is blinded, meets Ananias and has his sight restored, is baptized and “At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.” (vs. 20).
Now, if you are a believer in Jesus in Damascus, you had either run from the persecution in Jerusalem or had been led to faith by someone who had. Now it has followed you, the “murderous threats” (which were not idle threats, you saw them carried out when Stephen was stoned to death for believing in Jesus) are back. You would have a right to be skeptical. You would have a right to be cautious. Most of us, in that situation, would expect this was just a trick of Saul’s to try to infiltrate the believing community.
Things get dangerous in Damascus, so Saul leaves and returns to Jerusalem and “tries to join the disciples” (vs. 26). Here they don’t even have the benefit of hearing Saul preach in Damascus, watching from the edge of the crowd, trying to see if it is a trick. They respond out of the same skepticism, the same caution, and “don’t believe he was really a disciple” (vs. 26).
Until Barnabas takes action. “27But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.”
There is a risk-taker. Barnabas puts absolutely everything on the line here – his very life is on the line if Saul really is faking it. His reputation in the church is on the line if he brings Saul back to the other disciples and Saul is still intent on killing them all. His relationships with the other disciples is on the line as he takes action that they oppose.
The story doesn’t tell us the details, but obviously Barnabas went and listened to Saul – it is Barnabas who tells the other disciples Saul’s story. He investigated, he gave Saul a hearing, and undoubtedly listened to the Holy Spirit in him affirm the truth.
What might have happened to Saul without Barnabas’ introduction? What might have happened to the history of the church, to the movement of the Gospel to the Gentiles? What might have happened to our Scriptures?
One more important note from this part of the story – Saul stays with the disciples in Jerusalem for a short while, but then things get dangerous again and Saul leaves and goes to his home town of Tarsus, quite a long distance away from Jerusalem, where he lives for six or seven years.
A Point About The Chronology:
I want to make a quick point about the chronology here – first, dates are notoriously difficult to pinpoint accurately when they are almost 2000 years ago. But second, and more importantly, when we read stories like Barnabas’ it is easy to think that these things happen quickly – that Saul meets the disciples in Jerusalem, flees to Tarsus, and then jumps quickly back into ministry in Acts 11. But in fact, there are large gaps of time in between these events – in this case, six or seven years. In relative obscurity.
Barnabas The Faithful:
We meet Barnabas again in Acts 11:19-26. “19Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. 20Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
22News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
25Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”
Several things to notice out of this part of the story, and then we’ll pick it up again next week.
First, Barnabas has remained faithful and growing in his Christian life, throughout the intervening years. He is obviously in a position of leadership, and of trust, for the church to commission him to go and check out the reports of non-Jewish people coming to believe in Jesus. I’m sure there were a lot of regular, ordinary days for the church – I’m sure they met to make sure that their ministries were balanced, that those in need were being cared for, that the Word of God was being taught accurately and convincingly. They certainly dealt with people unhappy with parts of the community, they had to make difficult decisions about resources, they had to figure out what it really means to love each other the way Jesus had told them to. And through all of this, it seems that Barnabas has remained open and growing, he has a discerning and encouraging heart that has earned the trust of the people in the church at Jerusalem, and so he is the one chosen to go and see about this new phenomenon.
That also tells me, by the way, that Barnabas was open to new things while remaining firmly rooted in his faith. This whole idea of the good news being for more than just the Jewish people is brand new – the first part of chapter 11 tells the story of the church wrestling with this very idea. No doubt many were still skeptical, though open to the idea. Barnabas was one of those who was open God working in new and unexpected ways.
The second thing I want to point out is Luke’s description of Barnabas. Now, Luke is pretty much a “just the facts” guy, and doesn’t usually include statements like the one he makes in vs. 24: “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.” That is a pretty good testimony, don’t you think? Something there for each of us to strive towards! - “a good man”; “full of the Holy Spirit and faith”; and fruitful in his work for God’s Kingdom.
The final part of the story for today – look at what Barnabas does after seeing the good things happening in Antioch: he goes to Tarsus and seeks out Saul. In my mind, I see Barnabas getting excited about all God is doing, and realizing that these people need help, they need someone who has the background, who can help them understand who Jesus was, who can teach and disciple and encourage. And he thinks of Saul, and he goes to Tarsus to try to find him. He remembers Saul’s story, and even though it has been a while he decides to go down the road, not terribly far, to try to find this guy who was incredibly well educated as a Jew, who met and was transformed by Jesus, who displayed some obvious skill in leading people and teaching, and who has lived among Gentiles and understands their culture and what the Gospel will mean to them. And he proactively seeks him out, convinces him to come back to Antioch (which meant leaving behind everything he had been doing in Tarsus for the past 6 or 7 years), and dive into ministry.
And Barnabas stays with him. For that whole year, ministering side by side – encouraging, debriefing, re-connecting Saul to the church from Jerusalem (which was still the main church).
The Point Of The Story:
There is more to the story, which we’ll look at next week. But for today, what does it mean to us? Well, Barnabas was generous – making personal financial sacrifices for the work of the Kingdom of God. That is certainly worthy of emulation. Second, we saw Barnabas willing to take risks to give a person another chance. That is also certainly worthy of emulation. Finally, we saw Barnabas faithfully living his faith, in his church community, growing and maturing and remaining open to the ideas that God can, and often does, work in surprising ways and with surprising people. I think that, also is worthy of emulation.
I’d like you, in this coming week, to begin to think of someone in your circles that you could take a risk on, that you could believe in and encourage when others are perhaps not as open and have written that person off. It may be a deeper relationship, or it may be some other simple way that you could encourage them in their growth and service in God’s Kingdom.
