The Legacy Of Barnabas

Let me illustrate…

Illus: This makes me think of a man who was known to be the ugliest man in his town. This man would walk to work each day, and he had to walk by a pet shop each day. And the owner of the shop placed a parrot outside of the pet shop on a stand to greet the people who walked pass the pet shop each day.

• But when this ugly man walked by the parrot would say to him “Mister, you are the ugliest man I have ever seen!” The man would get mad and walk on to work!

• The next day he walked by and the parrot said, “Mister, you are one ugly man!” He got mad and walked on.

• The next day he walked by and the parrot said, “Mister, you are the ugliest man that walk by each day!” He got mad and walked on.

• One day he decided to do something about the insults, and he talked to the store manager. The manager said, “I promise you I will do something about it.”

• The next day, he walked by the pet shop and the parrot looked at him, he said, “Hey Mister!” He stopped to listen and the parrot said, “Hey Mister…you know!”

We are all known for something!!!

Illus: For example, Ted Bundy is known to be one of the ruthless serial killers in American history.

He was known for two things:

(1) His Good Looks.

He was a nice-looking young man. Many believe this is how he was able to attract ladies to himself to kill them.

But also, for his…

(2) His Evil deeds.

He was a clean-cut serial killer that confessed to 28 killings, but other estimates indicate that he brutally killed as many as 33 to 100 female victims during the 1970's.

I mention this serial killer only to let you know that when we hear the name of Ted Bundy, we think of a ruthless serial killer.

You do not have to say a lot about some people. You just mention their name, and we know WHO THY ARE AND WHAT THEY HAVE DONE!!!

But others we know when we hear their name have left a good legacy of themselves, such as…

• Michael Jordan,

• Abraham Lincoln,

• Martin Luther,

• Mark Twain,

What do all of these names have in common?

Well, the one thing that they all had in common is that they all left a good legacy of themselves.

What is a legacy?

It something that someone leaves behind to help future generations to remember them by.

Each of the names I said above left a legacy behind.

• Michael Jordan was one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game. And we know when you mention his name he is said to be THE greatest basketball player of all time.

• Abraham Lincoln was one of many presidents of the United States so what makes him special.

Well he was president during the time of the Civil War in the US and wrote one of the most quoted speeches of all time the Emancipation Proclamation.

He was known for helping turn this country around in a time where we were fighting each other and creating freedom for African Americans living in the USA.

• Martin Luther the reformer is known for posting his 95 theses on a church door.

Why is that significant?

He was challenging the way religion was doing things back in the 1500s. Specifically the Catholic Church. He knew what they were doing was not right and he stood up and challenged them for what they were doing and broke off which created a domino effect of later people following in his footsteps to form the protestant movement.

• Mark Twain left behind a legacy he wrote things that are required reading in most schools, He is known as the father of American literature.

Each of these people left a legacy behind. Something for future generations to remember them by.

The Bible tells us that Jesus had a different kind of legacy, HE WAS KNOWN FOR GOING ABOUT DOING GOOD!

Look at Acts 10: 38, we read, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

This is how every child of God is to live his life.

Look at Eph. 4:32, we read, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

The Word of God teaches that we are to be KIND in our behavior ONE TO ANOTHER.

But God’s Word not only commands us to do this, but God also gives us an example in the life of Barnabas to show us how to live such a life.