“You look like you could use some encouragement.” Has anyone ever said that to you? Maybe they didn’t have to say it out loud, because the look on your face said it all. It had been a long week at work, it had been a disappointing meeting, it had been a rough day at school, it had been another frustrating conversation with a son or daughter, the news from the doctor was not what you had hoped to receive. But then someone started talking to you. They began to remind you of some very simple Bible truths that you had heard many times before, but you really needed to hear again. That you’re never alone because God is right there with you, that you don’t need to be overwhelmed by worry because God’s got it under control, that God has a good plan, that God gives us fellow Christians to listen to you, to support you, and to help you through. Encouragement needed, encouragement given, encouragement received. What a great blessing that person is to you!
There was a man who lived in Jerusalem following Jesus’ ascension into heaven, right around the year 30 AD who was well known for encouraging his fellow Christians. He hung out with Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem although he was originally from the island of Cyprus. His name was Joseph. The Bible tells us that he had sold his personal property and brought it to Jesus’ disciples to support them and their ministry that they were carrying out. Now you might better know Joseph by the name that the Apostles had given to him. They called him “Barnabas,” a Hebrew name that literally means, “son of encouragement.” Obviously Barnabas must have been one of those people who could spot a person a mile away who needed encouragement and then made sure to provide it. And let’s face it, the Christians during this time really needed all the encouragement that they could possibly get.
The persecution of Christians was beginning to ramp up. It wasn’t all that long ago that a man by the name of Stephen had been killed because he was a Christian. At that point, Christians started leaving the city of Jerusalem in fear of their lives and travelling throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. A man by the name of Saul was actually travelling from town to town in search of Christians to imprison them and if necessary execute them. Many of these Christians lost nearly everything for confessing Jesus Christ as the Son of God and their Savior. They lost their homes, their possessions, their jobs, their social status, friends, family members and sometimes even their lives – for no other reason than that they were followers of Christ. Encouragement was needed, given and received among these fellow Christians.
While Barnabas was living in Jerusalem, he was one of the first Christians to come into contact with the infamous persecutor of Christians, that man named Saul. Now there had been rumors circulating that Saul had “defected” from Judaism and had become a Christian. There were stories that Saul no longer wanted to kill Christians, but that he wanted to be a Christian. Obviously, the Christians in Jerusalem were a bit skeptical of Saul’s sudden change of heart. Was this just some clever ploy on his part to infiltrate and identify Christians? Who was it that reached out to Saul the future Apostle Paul? The Bible tells us, “When he [Saul] came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But 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” (Acts 9:26,27). How encouraging it must have been for Saul to have someone stick up for him, believe him and defend him. This seems to be the beginning of a close friendship between Barnabas and Saul, later called Paul, that would be a great blessing to each of them, and to many others throughout the upcoming years. Encouragement needed, given and received among fellow Christians.
Shortly after Barnabas and Paul’s friendship began in Jerusalem, it was abruptly interrupted. Paul was forced to leave the city of Jerusalem in the middle of the night when he discovered a plot to kill him. Paul spent the next couple of years in his hometown of Tarsus, nearly 400 miles north of Jerusalem, growing in his Christian faith. A few years later, Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem, to the city of Antioch, about 300 miles north of Jerusalem to check out what was going on there. The city of Antioch had become what we might call the world mission headquarters of the Early Christian Church. There were both Jewish and non-Jewish Christians from all over the world worshipping and working together. And when Barnabas arrived in Antioch and needed help teaching and training these Christians, who did he get? We heard, “Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and 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” (Acts 11:25,26). Barnabas and Paul were reunited, and together they taught God’s people in Antioch the powerful and saving truths of God’s Word. It was also during this time that Paul and Barnabas got their first taste of mission work. They were selected by the Christians in Antioch to bring a special offering they had collected to help their fellow Christians in Jerusalem who were facing famine. Again, encouragement needed, given and received among fellow Christians.
Not long after this, the Christians in Antioch began to formerly send out missionaries, to carry out the Great Commission that Christ had given, to go and make disciples of all nations. It was the Holy Spirit who selected these two men, Paul and Barnabas, to serve as that first missionary team. We heard, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:3). Interestingly, what would be the first stop on this missionary journey? It was Barnabas’ hometown of Cyprus. This was the first of many places where these two men would tell people that the long-awaited and needed Savior of the world had arrived in Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus had lived, died and risen from the dead, to bring salvation to all those who believed in him. Paul and Barnabas, along with their fellow Christians needed, gave and received encouragement from one another.
When I think of Barnabas, he strikes me as one of those people who really understood the blessings of being with and serving along-side-of fellow Christians. After all, encouragement requires another person. You can’t rally receive encouragement from yourself, that would just be you talking to yourself. God knows that we need other people, each other, fellow Christians, to be with and to work with. The Great Commission of Christ “Go and make disciples of all nations” is GREAT for two reasons. It is great because it is a PRIVILEGE to think that God would ever select us, with all our frailties and faults for such an important job as taking his saving message to people. But it’s also great because it is a really BIG job! I mean “all nations” is a whole lot of people. Thank God that he doesn’t send us out alone, but that he gives us each other, fellow Christians to carry out that work together, to receive and to give encouragement.
Now does that mean that Christians always agree with one another? Absolutely! Alright, I was just checking to make sure that everyone was still paying attention. No, not always. There are naturally going to be times when selfishness gets in the way of serving others, when fellow Christians sadly see one another as competition, that we are more concerned about winning the argument than about winning souls for Christ. But here is the blessing of being with fellow Christians – we can and do admit our imperfections and sins and we know where to take them. Together we take our sins to a Savior who was more concerned about our eternal safety than about his own. We know a Savior who was willing to sacrifice himself in the most humiliating of ways at a cross, all so that we might share the riches of his heavenly home. The victory over sin, death and the devil that he announced as he rose from the dead, was not a victory for himself. It was a victory for us, given to us through faith. And he calls each of us not merely to celebrate that victory, but to share that victory with the world around us that more people may know the rescue that Christ has won for them.
You see, it is that Great Commission of Christ that connects us even when we might disagree in how exactly to carry it out. You might remember that even Paul and Barnabas disagreed on where to go and with whom to go. And the same can be said of Christians today. There is room for personal opinion and a latitude within the Great Commission on how exactly to carry it out. Where and when we start a new church, which programs to begin and which ones to phase out, where money and manpower should be directed. There can be room for debate among God’s people on those things. But when Jesus comes before self and when his Word is the final authority, those debates and opinions can be beneficial because it’s not about winning an argument. It’s about winning souls for Christ. It’s about strengthening more of Christ’s disciples. You see, we are one another’s Barnabases – people encouraging one another to work together, to reach more people and to grow stronger in faith.
As I look around at you this morning, and as you look around at one another, my prayer is that we grow in our appreciation of one another, of those whom God has placed in our lives to serve along-side-of. That you and I can be Barnabases to each other – sons and daughters of Christian encouragement. Amen.
