Barnabas- The Apostle of Consolation

I want to cover something today that I hope can be helpful to all of us. All of us realize that we base our beliefs, we base how we act and how we are to think on what we see written in the Word of God. And you can very clearly state, because Paul does in 1 Corinthians 3, that Jesus Christ is the rock-solid foundation of the Church of God. It says, 1 Corinthians 3, I believe, verse 11, Jesus is the foundation that Paul said he built on. But he also said and wrote in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20, he wrote that we are to be built, we as the Church, we are built upon the foundation, not only of Christ, but of the inspired writings that Christ caused to be written by whom? The prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles as we read about them here in the New Testament. And so I'd like for us to think about that a little bit. You could say, well, what prophets was Jesus or was Paul in that case writing about in that case? That's a part of the foundation. See, whenever I base what I believe and what I do on what is written in the Word of God, well, it's probably either, you know, a prophet or an apostle, for the most part. Of course, Christ inspired others to write certain parts of the Bible. But you can look back. Well, the prophets like Moses or David or Daniel or Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, those are all major prophets that we read about in the Old Testament.

And what about the apostles? The apostles who proclaimed a belief in Jesus Christ and who He was as the Son of God, but who proclaimed the gospel message of the kingdom of God.

See, these apostles, I think most of us could find if we easily looked it up, there's listing of the 12 apostles that Jesus initially called and appointed to be His followers, appointed to be His servants in order to make up not only the beginning of the Church of God, but then to continue to teach and to proclaim and to give the message of the good news of the kingdom of God. But I want to point out that some of the apostles, like I said, you could easily name the 12. Of course, Judas was disqualified and Matthias was the name of an apostle that was added in order to help do the job. But see, some of the apostles that you see written about in the Bible even have scriptural descriptions. See, what would be the scriptural description for the apostle Paul? Well, we'll read later. He was called the apostle to the Gentiles.

That was what God called him for. He brought him, God brought, in that case, Saul before his name was changed to Paul, He brought him to an awareness of his need for Jesus Christ and that he was to serve Jesus Christ, but his role was to be an apostle to the Gentiles. What about the apostle Peter? How does the Bible describe him? Well, it describes him as an apostle that was sent primarily to Israel, to the house of Judah, to the Jewish community that he basically dealt with in and around Jerusalem and then in other areas as he would travel. What do we find the description in regard to the apostle John? See, John, of course, was the longest living of all of the apostles, the original apostles, and what was he called? Well, he actually makes note of himself several times as the apostle. He doesn't just say John. He says the apostle that Jesus loved. It appears he had a very close relationship with the apostle John and even entrusted Mary to John to take care of her, help her as she would grow older and then die. So, you see different descriptions there. Of course, I think most people are familiar with Thomas, and yet he kind of gets a bad rap with a designation of not believing, doubting, calling doubting Thomas sometimes, and yet you find that he turned that around whenever he realized I'm wrong, I need to repent, I am dead wrong because clearly this is the Son of God. God has brought him back to life. And so, you know, he's the way that that's the way that Thomas is described. Luke was not one of the original apostles, of course, and doesn't appear to be designated as an apostle later on. But what was he called? Well, by Paul, he was called the beloved physician. You know, he was a doctor. He was, had a different profession. He was actually a historian, and he wrote the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts. And you see in the book of Acts, him actually traveling with Paul and others of the apostles in the New Testament error. What was the designation for the apostle named Barnabas? Barnabas was called by the other apostles and those in the church as the Son of Encouragement. And I will point out, and we're going to read that, of course, but I will point out that in the King James version, not in the New King James or in most of the other versions that we tend to use today, you see Barnabas described as the Son of Consolation. Not just encouragement, but of consolation.

He apparently was a really optimistic, uplifting, encouraging, not just personality, but individual who was blessed by God with the gift of being able to encourage, of being able to console. When I say Son of Consolation, it's different or a little more than just being an encourager.

So you see Barnabas described as the Son of Encouragement or the Son of Consolation, and he is described as being very engaged, very involved in helping a number of people in the New Testament Church. And I'd like for us to think about, because I'll be talking about Barnabas here this afternoon, have you ever known anyone like Barnabas? I mean, somebody who was encouraging, uplifting, consoling, comforting.

I hope that you do. I hope you could think back through your life and even think of. I think of, I believe that Barnabas had been given gifts from God to be able to be that way. And of course, that would come from the Holy Spirit to be able to help him to have that outlook, that attitude. As I think of trying to answer the question myself, have I ever known anyone? I've known several people that I think I would categorize as being a real encourager. And of course, the first one was actually my mom, because she was incredibly encouraging to me. Now, I say my mom because my mother, I never knew. She died when I was born, and so I never knew of my real, my birth mother, and I will in the future. But the lady I know as mom, you know, she came into dad's life a few months after I was born and was married to dad about six months after I was born, and then got to take care of a little snot-nosed brat. A little boy. Actually, I had another cousin that my dad's sister had, who was, Brenda, was a few months older than I was, a couple of months, so she just had twins for a while. But my mom, I don't know whether she thought I was just probably never going to mount anything or never, you know, feel like I was accepting, you know, I'd feel bad. Of course, I didn't know anything about whether or not my mother was dead or alive. I had no idea. It made no difference to me. Mom took care of me incredibly well, and she even would try to make up. Again, she would, and of course the whole community knew, you know, relatives and neighbors and everybody around the small community where I grew up, you know, they knew the circumstances around my birth. And again, I could say I was kind of a rut. I wasn't very big right when I was born. I wasn't premature, I don't guess, but I was small. And I think mom really just never wanted me to feel bad about, you know, having lost my real mother. And of course, that wasn't in my thinking at all, because it wasn't even something I knew anything about. But as I grew up, she always, mom was always encouraging. She was always going to promote and help and uplift me to where I never felt bad about hardly even stuff I should have felt bad about. She was always trying to get me engaged in things, and I was the oldest of now then later four children. So I was blessed in incredible ways just by her encouraging an uplifting outlook and attitude toward me. And I think about that when I think about Barnabas, as far as the type of personality or the type of individual that, you know, we're going to read about here in the pages of the Bible. I also think I recall a deacon up in the church in Oregon when we were there. It's been about 50 years ago now. But I remember him being just amazingly optimistic, amazingly helpful. He was able to do a lot of stuff. He was quite an accomplished man.

He had resources to be able to do what he wanted or needed. And yet, as a young minister, and really my wife and I both being barely out of college and then into the ministry, you know, we needed a lot of help. We needed about everything. We didn't have too much to begin with at all. And so, you know, this man was incredibly helpful. And I think of, when I think of the way that we read about Barnabas, I think that he had some of the gifts that Barnabas had. So I want to talk about Barnabas, and I'm going to title this the Apostle of Consolation, because it's important for us if we're going to be built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the prophets and the apostles, not only what they wrote, but how they lived, what they did, how they acted.

I don't know if Barnabas was a part of the, maybe the original grouping of 70 that Jesus would have sent out. There's very little information in the Bible directly about Barnabas, but we can read most of the verses and see what they're about. And, of course, Barnabas was not one of the original 12 apostles. We can see them named, and we can see one replaced. But then you find, obviously, others. The Apostle Paul, Barnabas, the half-brother of Jesus named James. You see, other apostles listed throughout the New Testament that were not, frankly, those who were right there with Jesus as his disciples, as he called them to be. So, I do want to just point out here, if we turn to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Faith is verse 36. Acts 4 verse 36. This is where you first see some information written about this man named Barnabas, who actually, I guess his name was Joseph, but they called him Barnabas. They called him the son of encouragement. That's what this is going to say. But you later see that he will be designated as an apostle. Here in chapter 4, it talks about the New Testament Church, the Church of God, a church that was obeying Jesus Christ that had been taught directly by him or by his apostles. He had lived his life. He had, of course, died and was resurrected again in a very short period of time. And then, at the day of Pentecost, the Church began. It started to blossom. It was blessed with the Holy Spirit and then expanded. And it says that they met together, and it says they even, you know, used some of the money that was contributed by the members to care for each other. Verse 34, there was not a needy person among them for as many as owned land or houses. Broth sold them, brought the proceeds to the disciples' feet. They laid it at the apostles' feet there in verse 35, and it was distributed to each as he had need. Now, that's not talking about say a socialist system, as people might think of it, but that was because of, you know, the type of devotion, the type of commitment, the type of generosity that people initially, you know, as they were taking on an entirely new way of life, they were willing to help each other out in that way. And it says in verse 36, there was a Levite. And so here we have a little background on Barnabas. There was a Levite who was a native of Cyprus, and of course Cyprus is a kind of large island in the eastern Mediterranean, not really that far off to the coast of what we would know of as Israel or Syria today up in that area. But this man was a Levite, and so he was obviously an Israelite, and he grew up in Cyprus. Now whether, you know, that he is going to be an area that he will later return to and later proclaim the gospel to. But it says a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement, or the son of consolation. So that actually is what Barnabas was meaning. And I think we can say about Barnabas. That's just a little bit of the introductory information we can read in the Bible.

You can say that he was an extraordinary worker in the early church. He became familiar with many of the well-known names here in the New Testament, the people that he would interact with, Luke and Paul and others of the apostles. And I think you see from the example that he set that he had a Christ-like serving attitude toward other people. And not only in and around Jerusalem, but up in Antioch and then in other areas that he would also travel to. So the questions that I ask of you today, not just learning about Barnabas, which I hope will help us in knowing more about what he was like and what that foundation for us is, but to say, you know, should we not try to model the example that Barnabas set? Are we, are you, an encouraging person?

Because that's really the way that Barnabas is going to be described. A very excellent encourager.

I will say each one of us certainly can grow in this aspect of serving others, because I think that's what Barnabas was doing. He was, he says, I know I have been drawn to live a different way of life and I want to do that. I want to do that with my whole heart. And that's certainly the type of attitude that we want. Whenever you look at the word encourage, which is what his name meant, that means to give courage, to encourage, to give courage, to give support, to boost somebody else up.

And actually, as we'll see about Barnabas, he was someone who was willing to even stand beside others and lift them up. Even when it doesn't look like very many other people are supporting them, he's able to help. So I'll break this down into four sections, per se. The first one, and again, these are attributes that Barnabas, that he has, that we should desire to have, desire to acquire. First of all, I want to continue reading here in Acts chapter 4, and this is the first thing that we notice about Barnabas, because we read here in verse 37.

We're already there in Acts 4. It says, Barnabas sold a field. Now, it doesn't directly say it was in Cyprus, but maybe it was. He sold a field that belonged to him, and he brought the money and laid it at the Apostles' feet. He was doing what the others were doing. He was completely devoted, and it wasn't just a matter of simply giving this offering or making a sacrifice of this type. It's displaying that he was wholeheartedly, zealously a servant of Jesus Christ.

See, he had come to not only be aware of who the Messiah was, but of completely being committed to that ruler that all of us have as a personal Savior and Redeemer. And so, Barnabas, you can say, if you read on down in chapter 5 for several verses, you'll see others, you know, were only half-hearted in their commitment. That's what you find. I'm not going to read through that section because Peter, you know, finds a couple who are not really entirely committed. And, of course, you know, it ends up very badly for them.

But that's in contrast to what it says about Barnabas being wholeheartedly committed and devoted to God. He had given his life to Jesus Christ. He had not just given a sacrifice of some money from the sale of whatever property he had, but he had given his life to Jesus Christ. And so, obviously, that is the first place that all of us should start. The second thing I want to point out is simply that, and this is the case with many of the biblical characters that we read about, and often that we even want to model.

Now, you know, you see a lot of positive things written about Jesus. You see him, you know, doing a great job of leading Israel under God's direction out of the land of Egypt. But you also see several things that were flaws with Moses, and those are recorded for us to realize, well, you know, we need to be able to take a look at our own flaws. We need to take a look at our own sins, and yet we can still be a servant of God.

You can say the same thing about King David, the most prominent king in the Old Testament, the one that God clearly favored and one God said has a heart like mine. Well, David did a lot of good things. He also did some bad things that he, in a sense, bitterly repented of. He was repentant, and that's, of course, what we're going to find out here about Barnabas as well. We can read good things about Barnabas, but we can also read bad things. I want us to look in Galatians chapter 2, the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 2, starting in verse 7. Galatians 2 verse 7.

See, this is as Paul was writing to the Galatians, he was recounting his trip to Jerusalem to meet with other elders. He was recounting going up to Jerusalem and meeting together with other elders and for them to resolve an issue there that had become quite divisive among the people making up the church at that time. And so, as Paul recounts this in the book of Galatians, he's writing about it in verse 3. He writes about Titus.

Even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised. So this was actually the problem that was needing to be resolved. But if we drop down to verse 7, he said, I had talked to the acknowledged leaders. And we had agreed what should be done in verse 7, on the contrary, when they saw, and again these acknowledged leaders were Peter and James and John, those in Jerusalem, that God had designated to be an authority.

On the contrary, when they saw that I'd been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, for the Gentiles, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcision, for the Israelites, the people of Judah. Verse 8, For he who worked through Peter, making him an apostle to the circumcised, also worked through me, sending me to the Gentiles. So some of the descriptions that I mentioned earlier are reinforced in what we read here as the way Paul even describes himself, or Peter.

And in verse 9, when James and Cephas, or Peter and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and to me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they should go to the circumcision. And they ask only one thing that we remember.

The poor was actually what we wanted to do. And so Paul was describing how that he and Barnabas were both there. They were both, in a sense, working with the Gentile world. And that had been their direction from God. And so he describes a very cooperative, a very meaningful discussion, and then going forth into different areas to proclaim the message of the kingdom of God. But in verse 11, verse 11, you find Paul pointing out something that in this case Peter was doing wrong, and you also find that Barnabas was wrong as well.

Here in verse 11, when Peter came to Antioch, and so this was obviously outside of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a primary area where a lot of the Jewish converts were initially. But it says, when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was self-condemned. For until certain people came from James, again from Jerusalem, these Jews had come there, and he said, Peter used to eat with the Gentiles, but after they came he drew back and kept himself separate because of the fear of the circumcision.

See, he was, in a sense, being influenced by the people who were making up that particular group. And Paul realized, well, that's not right. That's not what you're supposed to do. You don't do that when they're gone. They show up, and then you change your tune.

And in verse 13, the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was led astray by this hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you, though a Jew lived like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? So, I was pointing out that what Peter was doing was hypocritical. And what Barnabas was following Peter doing was also wrong. Now, you see that issue continuing to be discussed, and again, I'm not going to go on that. I'm just pointing out that clearly, you know, Barnabas was not without flaws. And I'm pretty sure from everything we read in the remainder of the book of Acts and what little we have regarding Barnabas, that he realized after a short period of time, I'm sure as Peter did, that, well, what we're doing is wrong. You know, we should stop doing this. We should repent. We should change. And of course, you see Paul and Barnabas and Peter working together throughout the remainder of the New Testament to continue to proclaim the Gospel. And so, the second point is that Barnabas had great compassion for others because he saw his own sins and his own flaws.

See, if we don't see our own sins, we tend not to have much compassion for others, and yet I'm going to say again from the examples that we'll go through that Barnabas did see what he had done that was wrong, and he repented. And you see Jesus explaining in Matthew chapter 7, in the very familiar sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 7 in verse 1, he says, Don't judge so that you may not be judged for with the judgment you make. You'll be judged the measure you give. You'll be measured that back to you. Here he's talking about making judgments about others, and he's saying you need to be careful doing that because, you know, whatever type of condemnation you might extend to others, and that may be what's extended back to you. And so he says that's not very wise. That's actually wrong. And then Jesus tells it up with a great deal of clarity because in verse 3, he says, Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye? Like you don't happen to notice the log in your own eye. You know, that's a pretty good description. How, why is it so very easy to see the flaws or the sins of everybody else except me? Why is that the case? He goes on to say, verse 4, How can you say to your neighbor, Let me take the speck out of your eye? Well, the log is in your own.

He says, You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye. He points out that if we truly examine ourselves first, then our ability to help and serve and have compassion for others is greatly enhanced. We are able to provide assistance or help. Maybe we'd even provide assistance that they could even accept instead of immediately being rejected because, well, you know, who are you to tell me what to do? That's what Jesus is talking about. But of course, I think this applies to the way Barnabas appears to have been. He had compassion for others because he could see his own sins. He realized he needed to be repentant, and he needed to be able to give others the benefit of the doubt. So that's number two. Number three, I want to go through a couple of examples of Barnabas being willing to stand beside others to lift them up. Being willing to stand beside others to lift them up. He wasn't condemning them. He wasn't judging them. He was actually very much accepting them in these cases. So I want to begin here in Acts chapter 9.

Now, Acts chapter 9 is a notable chapter in the New Testament because it describes the conversion or initial conversion, at least the confrontation, of Jesus Christ and the one at that time was named Saul. Now, Saul in chapter 9, verse 1, Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, and he went to the high priest and asked for letters to go to the synagogues in Damascus, and if he found anyone who belonged to the way, anyone who was following Jesus Christ, again described as the way right here, anyone who believed that, men or women, he might bring them down to Jerusalem. He was going along and approaching Damascus, and so here the encounter of Jesus Christ with the later the apostle Paul, but his name was Saul at that time. But what was Saul doing? Well, he was killing the church, or he was enslaving or bringing into captivity members who were obeying God, members who were honoring God in their belief of Jesus Christ.

So I want to drop down because of time here, not wanting to go, you know, too long. I know all of you are hungry. You read through this whole chapter and you see that well, Saul was actually struck down blind, and after a little while, God sent Ananias to relieve that blindness, and then Paul realized, you know, I've been opposing God. I've been disobeying God. I've been ignoring God. I've actually been hurting what God is doing, and so he eventually became, he was baptized, received the Holy Spirit, understood. Let's see in verse 15.

The Lord said to him, Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel. So God had told Ananias that I've chosen this individual to serve me in an extraordinary way, and he needs to understand that.

And so you see in verse 18 that Paul was baptized. He began to regain his strength. He was able to receive his sight, and in verse 19, for several days, he was with the disciples in Damascus.

Though this was quite a turnaround. He'd come to Damascus to try to wipe out the church, to try to bring anyone who believed back to Jerusalem in captivity or to kill them in one way or the other.

But it says, verse 20, Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying that he is the Son of God, and all who heard him were amazed and said, isn't this the guy who created havoc in Jerusalem? They couldn't believe their eyes. They couldn't believe what God had done in Saul's life. And later it says that the Jews there, who were plotting to kill Paul, he needed to be able to escape from them. And so the disciples, verse 25, took him by night, let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Now that'd be a difficult way, perhaps, to get away, get down over the wall in a basket, and then have to be hauled off or sent away. You see, it appears that after this happened that Saul would be taught by Christ in Arabia, he says. This is not right here in the book of Acts, but over in Galatians he talks about being taught directly by Christ for several years, for three years, in Arabia. And again, we're going to have a lot of information about that, but that's what he said happened. And yet in verse 26, when Saul came back to Jerusalem, see now, this great transformation had taken place in Saul's life. And he was no longer trying to kill the church. He was promoting belief in Jesus Christ. Verse 26, when he came to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And yet, what was wrong? Nobody liked him. Everybody hated him. Everybody thought he was trying to get in to deceive them, trying to confuse and confound. They couldn't believe their eyes. You know, this was the guy who was killing the church. He goes on here in verse 26, they were afraid of him and they did not believe that he was a disciple. They just couldn't accept that here, the man who may have killed some of my relatives for believing now claims to be a... But what was going on here? Well, Saul was not accepted by the people in the church. And in many ways, you'd think, well, they've got good reason to really wonder about him because he has a background that's fully Jewish. He has, you know, he's an important, he's an impressive, he's a well-respected scholar.

And then we know he was damaging the church and now he claims to be preaching Jesus Christ.

But verse 27 is important.

Barnabas took Saul and brought him to the apostles, and he described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord. Paul, Saul, had seen the Lord. And the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. And so in verse 28, he went in and out, among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of Jesus. And he spoke and argued with the Hellenists, and yet they were attempting to kill him. See, here was Barnabas in verse 27, vouching for Saul, saying, look, you know, he had had an experience of extraordinary proportion. He had been struck down. He was blinded. He was then relieved of that blindness, and he saw things completely differently. And so I think you all should accept him. That's what Barnabas was saying. And so Paul, as we can see from what happened, he was able to gain acceptance because of Barnabas' support. He verified Saul's conversion and the change of heart that God had brought about in his life. So this is one instance where it's obvious that he was willing to go along and help, in this case, Saul. Let's jump over to chapter 11 here. Acts 11.

We also find another situation where Barnabas was directly used to help people be accepted, in a sense, in this case, help a group of Gentiles to be accepted in the church, starting here in verse 19. Now, he's again kind of recounting, Luke is recounting this in the book of Acts, after Peter has given a report to a church in Jerusalem, and Paul is mentioned. In verse 19, now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. And so as people were dispersed from Jerusalem, they would initially go to the synagogues. They would initially go to the Jewish Israelite world. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, the Greeks, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number became believers in turn to the Lord. And news of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. And so in this case, we're talking about a city. It would be called Cyrene Antioch. It is north of Jerusalem, not a great distance, but up to the northeastern tip of where the Mediterranean Sea would go. Jerusalem was south of there. And yet people in Antioch began to believe. They began to be converted. And so when the church in Jerusalem heard about this, what did they do?

Verse 22, news of this progress in proclaiming the gospel came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. They sent someone who was a real reconciler, a real encourager, a real consoler, because that's what we see about Barnabas.

They sent Barnabas to Antioch, and when he came and when he saw what God had done, what the grace of God had done, he brought these Gentiles to be believers and to be a part of the church of God.

When he saw, in verse 23, the grace of God, he wasn't threatened, he wasn't upset, he wasn't concerned, he rejoiced, it says. He rejoiced, he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion, because in verse 24, Barnabas was a good man. He was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And so here we see a little more information about the type of a character that Barnabas had. He was trusted, he was a good man, he was led by God's Spirit, he had faith in God, he was rejoicing that God was bringing more people to be a part of the church. And it says in the last part of verse 24, a great many people were brought to the Lord. And so as he went, he was sent up to Antioch, he was able to nurture that church, console them to uplift them, and see also what he did in verse 25. Barnabas went over to Tarsus, which I believe is not too far away, but over to the west of where Antioch is. He went over to Tarsus to look for Saul.

And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And so it was that for an entire year, they met with the church and they taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. And so this is describing again, not just helping Paul initially, but going and greeting, in this case, the grouping of people who were in the church and now in Antioch, accepting them, rejoicing with them, and going and bringing Saul there so they could continue to teach them. And apparently they did that for over a year, and a great many people were benefiting from what Barnabas was teaching and from what Paul was teaching in this case. And then let's jump over to chapter 15, because another account also should be brought into this, because Barnabas was in some way related to the man-man called Mark, John Mark. He was either a cousin or relative of some type. And Barnabas, again, we saw was from Cyprus. And he was related, maybe a cousin, to Barnabas. And yet Mark, as we see in the Gospels, and this is talking about the author, the writer, he is not one of the apostles, but he is an author of a Gospel about the life of Jesus. Mark was a younger man. He describes himself as being younger. He describes himself in some funny ways of running off and losing all his clothes and streaking out of where Jesus and the others were. You see that in what he writes. We won't take time to go through all that.

But see, Mark was kind of a helper or kind of a younger person who was going along and learning with Paul and with others, with Barnabas. And yet, at one point, Mark had deserted them.

He had been in a situation, maybe that was too difficult or too sticky. You know, you find Paul getting into situations that are really unreal. You know, people are about to choke him. You know, they're about to attack him. They later want to stone him. They even do stone him. And God raises him up from that. I don't think Mark had the stomach for that. He didn't want that. And so he fled. He left. And I'm sure went back home. Maybe he was homesick. You know, he was a little younger. Maybe he had other concerns. We don't really know why he left, but we do find that he had, in a sense, gone off. And you see here in chapter 15, starting in verse 36, after the conference here in Jerusalem, it says, and this is actually beginning a second trip that Paul is going to be taking to go back to some of the church areas where he had been before. Verse 36, after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let's return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. And so, you know, they were going to go back and check on the churches, check on the people, see if there are things they needed, encourage them, help them, you know, visit with them. In verse 37, Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.

Barnabas wanted Mark to go with them again. But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. See, apparently that irritated Paul more than it did Barnabas. It was something that Paul wasn't willing right then to extend his acceptance and encouragement to Mark. But what they decided to do, this disagreement became so sharp that they departed company and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. So in essence, he went back home for Barnabas. He took Mark with him, says, we'll work over there. And it says Paul chose Silas and set out the believers, commending them to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches. So they kind of went in different directions, but they continued to do the work of God. But what it shows about Barnabas is that he was willing to help Mark out as well. He had helped Paul earlier and he had helped the Gentile churches. And here he was helping Mark kind of get re-aligned with doing the work that God, I'm sure, wanted him to do. For whatever reason, he had pulled back a little bit, but Barnabas was willing to bring him in. He was willing to accept him. And so I think you see this as another attribute of Barnabas, that he was willing to be accepting and to be encouraging and to be forgiving, if need be, in order to help Mark be able to be once again engaged in the work. And you later find, if you read here in 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 4, that as Paul was concluding this letter to Timothy, which appears to be one of the last letters that he would be writing, he mentions in verse 6 of chapter 4, As for me, I already have been poured out as a libation. The time of my departure has come. I've fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I have kept the faith. See, Paul realized I'm pretty close to the end of my life. And he says down in verse 9, Do your best to come to me. He's talking, of course, to Timothy. Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. And Crescens is now in Galatia and Titus in Dalmatia. Only Luke in verse 11 is with me, but be sure to get Mark. See, even though Paul had resisted having Mark go with him, he let Barnabas take him, and he here shows a very positive comment and remark toward the man called Mark. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus, and when you come, bring that cloak that I left with Carpus and Troas, and bring the books, and above all, bring the parchments. See, I think at this point Paul realized he was writing things that could make up a part of the New Testament as we know it. And so, Mark, being a little younger, probably able to go back and forth, maybe able to travel more easily than some of the older apostles, Mark was able, and in this case he was shown to have favor once again with Paul.

The last thing I'll mention about Barnabas, and again, this is a part of the lesson that we want to learn regarding the attitude that Barnabas had. Here in Acts chapter 13, Acts 13, you actually see in Acts 13 and then in Acts 14, Barnabas called an apostle. He didn't appear to start out as one, but he was ordained as one in chapter 13. Now, in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. It names a number of them. Saul was one of them. While they were worshipping the Lord, verse 2, and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. And so after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. And so here in this case, it appears that through prayer, through fasting, through the laying on of hands, through what we would call an ordination service, these servants of God, Saul, who would then be called Paul, down in verse 9, Saul, known as Paul, they were sent off to do the work that God had commissioned them to do. And here in chapter 14, they go through Iconium and Lystra and in Derby. And in Lystra, in verse 8, we see there was a man, verse 8, sitting who could not use his feet, had never walked even from birth.

And he listened to Paul as Paul was speaking. And so here in this account, as Luke is recording it about what Paul and Barnabas are doing in Lystra, Paul's the one who's speaking. He's the one who, in a sense, seems to be forward in the work that they are doing. And so verse 9, he listens to Paul as he was speaking, and Paul looked at him intently, and seeing that he had faith to be healed, he said in a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet, and the men sprang up. Of course, God did that miracle, not Paul. And when the crowd saw that what Paul had done, they shouted in their own language, the gods have come down to us in human form. Of course, you know, they were not believers in the true God. They were believers in false gods, and they're going to relate that here.

Verse 12, Barnabas, they called Zeus and Paul, they called Hermes because Paul was the chief speaker. He was, in a sense, in a prominent role speaking, and Barnabas was more or less in the background.

And verse 13, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gate. The crowd wanted his offer of sacrifice, but when the apostles, verse 14, Barnabas and the apostle Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out, and the crowd sang, no, don't do that. Worship God, you know, don't worship us. We're not Zeus, we're not Hermes, we're not your false gods. We want you to worship the true God, the creator God, who, we're just mortal. We're just people. We are humble servants of God, and we want you to turn from your idols to worship the creator God. Again, this account just simply points out that, in this case, Paul was the chief speaker. As we know some about Paul, he was well-respected later on. Of course, initially he was not accepted, but with Barnabas' help he was. He was still a respected scholar and certainly knew a lot about the Jewish religion and was able to speak about that. We see, of course, that he's going to write a number of the books that we are knowing are in the New Testament today. He's very well known, very respected, and yet I would say that Paul was probably not. Just seeing what he went through and the many difficult situations he found himself in, he was not the type of nurturer or the type of encourager or someone who was as consoling as the son or apostle of consolation named Barnabas. See, Barnabas was even willing to go and be with Paul as he was many times, but he was willing to listen to Paul as the chief speaker.

He was what you might say he was willing to play second fiddle to Paul, realizing, you know, God has missioned him to do an incredible work to the gentile world, and in a sense he was content to work behind the scenes. And so would you say that Barnabas was filled with ego or he was highly competitive? I don't think so. I think you would have to say that, well, he was much more a nurturer and encourager, someone who comforted others. You actually don't find anything written by Barnabas in the Bible. You find him along with Luke and with Barnabas, or, excuse me, Paul, and with Silas and others, but you don't find him writing books in the Bible. But what he was doing was very important, and they signified that by the name that they called him, being the son of encouragement. So I think these things, you know, indicate how that, you know, Barnabas wanted to build others up, and from what we've read, you know, that's what the Bible reveals about him. And so should we take on some of those attributes? Should we seek to have those attributes? I think we clearly should. And certainly, you know, we can remain, or excuse me, refrain from being critical. It's, as we said earlier, it's really easy to see others' mistakes. We might ought to consider looking at our own and seek to be appreciative and to be encouraging like Barnabas was. You might say, whenever you think about these characters that we read about in the Bible, in this case Paul and Barnabas, primarily, you know, a lot of people might want to identify with the Apostle Paul. There are actually a lot of books that people have written about the Apostle Paul. I don't know if there are any about Barnabas, probably some. I've not seen them or read them, but there are a lot of writings about the Apostle Paul, and perhaps many people would want to be like the Apostle Paul. And yet, I ask us, are we willing to be a Barnabas? Willing to be an encourager of the brethren? Because that's what Barnabas clearly was. And he was, I think, we could say an example of being an Apostle of Consolation. And so, you know, as we take on that type of outlook, that type of attitude, I think we find that we can be uplifting, encouraging, and certainly beneficial to one another as we also strive to be like this Apostle named Barnabas.