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.”
Barnabas was an encourager at heart, and he had even been an encourager of the apostle Paul.(3) When Paul was formerly called Saul, he was a persecutor of the church, but when God called him to preach it was Barnabas who overlooked his former life and gave him a chance and encouraged him in ministry. It seems rather odd that in this passage Paul had apparently forgotten the grace that he had been shown, and that he didn’t seem to extend that grace to John Mark. Barnabas did, however, extend grace and encouragement toward Mark; and as a result, it proved to be a very wise decision, as we will see in a just moment.
Is encouragement important to people? Why, yes it is! So, just how important is it? Well, let me share with you a true story, and then let you decide:
Sister Helen Mrosla taught at St. Mary’s School in Morris, Minnesota. After several years of teaching, she found herself in a strange predicament one day. Her class of junior-high students was struggling to grasp a new concept in math. By the end of the week, their frustration was becoming very evident, as they were getting edgy with each other. In a moment of inspiration, she had the students clear their desks and take out two sheets of paper. She instructed them to write the names of every student in the class with a space after the names. In the space, they were to write down the nicest thing they could say about each classmate.
Sister Mrosla used her weekend to put each student’s name on a separate sheet of paper and then wrote all of the classmates’ remarks on that page. On Monday, she gave each student his or her page of positive remarks. Before long, the whole class was beaming and she could hear whispers of excitement. The papers of encouragement had accomplished their task, so the class was able to resume their normal routine.
Sister Mrosla never again heard about the papers until years later when she learned that one of her favorite students, Mark Eklund, had been killed in Vietnam. After the funeral, Mark’s parents gathered with Sister Mrosla and many of Mark’s former classmates. His father pulled something from Mark’s wallet and said, “We want to show you something. They found this on Mark when he was killed.” When Sister Mrosla saw the two pieces of notebook paper she knew exactly what they were. These pages had been folded and refolded many times. Several strands of tape held the worn pieces together. Mark’s mother said, “Thank you so much for doing that. As you can see, Mark treasured it.”
Mark’s classmates then started talking about their lists. One kept it in the top drawer of his desk. Another had the list in her diary. One lady reached into her purse and said, “I carry this with me at all times.” She then added, “I think we all saved our lists.” Long after the frustrations of that week in math had been forgotten, the words of encouragement were still being savored. The writing was worn, but the meaning still sparkled like new.(4)
After hearing this story, do you believe that encouragement is important to people? It is so important that it can actually help people succeed in life. Allow me to share one more true story to illustrate this fact:
A poverty-stricken boy in Kenya was blessed to not only receive some financial support from a British schoolteacher, but encouragement as well. When John Ngugi was young, he exchanged letters with a schoolteacher from Great Britain. This teacher was part of an organization that sought to provide financial relief through the sponsorship of children.
John’s letters to the teacher reflected a low opinion of himself. He described himself with phrases like, “I’m not smart, I’m not handsome, and I don’t have many friends.” He did include one positive phrase though. He said, “But I am the fastest runner in my class.” The teacher keyed in on that phrase and wrote back, “I’m proud of you. If you’re a good runner, be the best runner you can be.”
He took her counsel to heart and in 1988 it paid off. As a member of Kenya’s Olympic team, John Ngugi won the five thousand-meter run in Seoul, Korea. On his return trip to Kenya, he was routed through England and made his way to that caring teacher’s house and gave her his gold medal. He told her, “I never would have run if you hadn’t believed in me as a child.”(5)
If people are to succeed in life, they need encouragement. As a pastor, I want to see people succeed in ministry and impact this world for Jesus Christ, and I have found that people need to be encouraged in ministry; and they need to be encouraged in living a Christian life. God knows this better than anyone; therefore, let’s keep in mind that if we receive compassion and encouragement from someone else, then it’s because God spoke to that person to show us some encouragement.
As I stated earlier, the Lord had enough faith in John Mark that He opened Barnabas’ eyes to the potential that was in him. Because God spoke to Barnabas about Mark’s potential, he was given a second chance and he was encouraged to succeed in ministry. People need encouragement; therefore, we need to be like Barnabas and become “sons” and “daughters of encouragement.”
Earlier, I said that Barnabas extended grace and encouragement toward John Mark, and as a result it proved to be a very wise decision. So, how was it a wise decision? We find that because Mark was given a second chance that he later became a very important missionary, and eventually Paul came to respect him and trust him with mission work.
In Colossians 4:10 Paul stated, “Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him).” Paul said that John Mark was to be welcomed. In 2 Timothy 4:11 Paul said, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.” And in Philemon 24, John Mark is said to be Paul’s fellow laborer. Not only did Mark become a respected and useful missionary to the apostle Paul, but if he had never been encouraged then we would not have in our Bibles the Gospel of Mark.
John Mark had been shown grace by Barnabas, and ultimately by God, and his first name “John” declares this to us, for it comes from the Hebrew name Yohanan, which means “Yahweh (or God) has shown grace.”(6) Mark never forgot the second chance that was extended to him.
So, what can we learn from this biblical account? Matthew Henry says, “Those whom we [judge] . . . we know not but afterwards we may see cause to think better of them, and both to make use of them and make friendship with them; and we should so regulate our resentments that if it should prove so, we may not afterwards be ashamed . . . [and] if afterwards they prove more faithful, we should cheerfully receive, forgive and forget, and put confidence in, and, as there is occasion, give a good word to.”(7)
The bottom line is that we shouldn’t condemn people or prejudge them. People make mistakes. Instead of condemning them, discrediting them before others, and refusing to give them another chance, we need to encourage those who mess up and then push them to succeed. Someone might appear to us as being incompetent, or going nowhere in life or even in ministry, but Jesus is the only one who truly knows a person’s heart and the plans He has for them. Our task is to look at people and find their strengths, and then encourage them to succeed.
In 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, Paul reminds us how God sees people much differently than we do. He said, “From now on, we regard no one according to the flesh . . . If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Time of Reflection
We may look at someone and doubt they can ever change. We sometimes say, “People never change,” but God doesn’t doubt that a person can change; and because God doesn’t doubt it, neither should we.
You might be here this morning feeling as though you’ve messed up in life, or that you will never accomplish anything. But you know what? God sees potential in you. He wants to give you a second chance. No matter what you have done, if you will ask God’s forgiveness and ask Him for another chance, He will forgive you and give you a brand new lease on life.
If you’re sitting here today having denied Jesus as Savior and Lord, I am here to tell you that according to the Bible you have messed up big time, for without Jesus you can’t make it to heaven. However, if you will ask God’s forgiveness for not believing in His Son, and ask forgiveness of your sins, and confess Jesus as Savior and Lord, you can move ahead in life confidently knowing you are forgiven (1 John 1:9), and knowing you are now a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and you are saved and heaven-bound.
NOTES
(1) Noah Webster, 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2002).
(2) “Barnabas,” New Bible Dictionary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1962), taken from Logos 2.1E on CD-ROM; Dietrich Gruen, ed., Who’s Who in the Bible, Publications International, 1998), p. 45.
(3) “Barnabas,” New Bible Dictionary.
(4) Alice Gray, Stories for the Heart, 1996, pp. 50–53.
(5) Houston Chronicle, John Lopez; Compassion International Newsletter; Positive Living, Sept./Oct. 1995, p. 13.
(6) “Mark, John,” The New Bible Dictionary, taken from Logos 2.1E on CD-ROM.
(7) Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997), take from Logos 2.1E on CD-ROM.
