Barnabas, Paul and Mark

And as I already mentioned, we already had Pentecost weekend last week, and God is always encouraging us by making us fix our eyes on the goal which these feast days represent and what they mean in the past, in the present, and in the future. So God is a great encourager, and the Bible is also a great encourager and is described as such in one scripture, Romans 15, verse 4. Romans 15, verse 4 tells us a bit about why the Bible was written and the way it was. It says, Romans 15, verse 4, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So reading the scriptures gives us hope. That's why Bible study is so important. I'd like to read this verse in the God's Word version. It's a little more accurate. It says, Everything written long ago was written to teach us that we would have confidence through the endurance. That's what the term patience here, upomony, means, and encouragement, which the New King James uses comfort, but actually it's closer to the word encouragement, which the scriptures give us. So it's there to help us persevere when times are tough, just like De Marche mention. We have ups and downs throughout our lives, and God created His Word in such a way that reading it will encourage us because we see people that went through similar things as we are going through, and also to give us encouragement because it's the same God yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. He's not a respecter of persons. So we can trust God that He's going to take care of us and things are going to work out for good to those who love Him. That's the one qualifier. It's not for everybody that's going to work out for good, but for those who love Him, who are following Him, who are obeying Him. Now, encouragement is an attribute God wants us to have and to develop. It is one of God's gifts that He provides for us. Notice in Romans 12, just a couple of chapters back, Romans 12, in verse 6-8, talking about the different gifts of the Spirit. It says, Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. In other words, let us put them to practice. If prophecy, which is here speaking God's message, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry. Let us use it in our ministering. Again, some of these terms might not be as understandable as a bit more modern terms. I'd like to read this in the Good News Bible. These verses, it says, So we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God's message, we should do it according to the faith that we have. Doesn't do any good if you're talking about God and not having faith and trust and commitment to God. If you're not putting it into practice, then that preaching is not going to really be inspired by God. If it is to serve, we should serve. If it is to teach, we should teach. If it is to encourage others, again, the word used before was exhortation, which we don't use very much, but it's encourage is the word more appropriate. If it is to encourage others, we should do so.

Whoever shares with others should do it generously. Whoever has authority should work hard, not have others work hard for him.

Whoever shows kindness to others should do it cheerfully.

So the word encourage comes from parakaleo in the Greek, similar to parakletas, but it means to come alongside, to help. When a person comes to encourage you, he comes alongside, grabs your shoulder, encourages you. And that's where the word came from, that somebody's there having your back, wanting the best for you. And in the English, the term simply means to give courage. And which means to give and courage and courage.

Now, the opposite of encourage is this courage, which means take away courage. So we can either be an encourager or a discouraged. Now, I understand there are times in life when you have to discourage somebody to do something that's going to be foolish. So there is a place for discouraging somebody. Sometimes as kids, they do crazy things. They want to jump out of a tree, and you have to say, no, I'm discouraging you. I might break a leg. But also throughout life, sometimes a person wants to do a foolish thing, make a foolish decision, and you should discourage them. But the term here that we want to give is to help the person feel better, feel backed, feel supported, instead of removing the support from them.

Scientific studies have shown that if a person is just focusing on negative thoughts, negative attitudes, that it produces the wrong type of hormones. And the body, because it all of a sudden feels the stress, releases these wrong stress hormones. Also, it inhibits concentration. It can't concentrate when you're in a negative state of mind. Sometimes people get into accidents because they're just in a wrong state of mind. They drive dangerously. I'm sure Wolf knows a lot about driving trucks. He's seen a lot of people that don't have the right attitudes when they're driving. And that happens. You get the stress hormones that are negative, and all of a sudden people can't concentrate on what they're doing. It diminishes the brain's executive function. So many times you can't make right decisions because you're just under all of this negativity. And I remember reading a book on General Douglas MacArthur, who certainly is one of my heroes, a great leader. But that same day, December 8th, 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he was in charge of the Philippines. And he had his army, and he had his planes, and they notified him. But he just thought, well, they're over there in Japan. There's no problem. We got time. And guess what? The Japanese showed up shortly after that, and he had not sent his planes out of the fields. So the Japanese came and destroyed the entire U.S. Air Force in one stroke. And maybe he just was just worried about Pearl Harbor so much, he didn't think, well, this can happen to us. And so at that time, the Japanese invaded the Philippines. They really didn't have any planes to defend him. Now, let's also give him credit that this was a surprise move. Japan hadn't even declared war until after Pearl Harbor, so it caught people by surprise. But it just reminds me here that when you're under a lot of stress, sometimes you just can't think straight very much. It also tends to create anger instead of having a calm and rational way of thinking.

So if you're encouraging people, they're going to feel better. The hormones are not going to be these negative stress ones. They're going to feel relaxed. They're feeling supported. It's so important. In Colossians chapter 4, let's go there for a second. Colossians chapter 4, that's why Paul brings up this point.

It says in verse 6, Colossians 4 verse 6, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. And so we should always think, if what I'm saying, is it going to be cutting? Is it going to be negative? Is it going to be something that brings the person down or not? As you know, salt was very precious in Paul's day. It was very scarce, so much so that they actually paid many times the Roman soldiers with a portion of salt. And that's the word. Sal in Latin is the same one as in Spanish. Salario comes from getting paid by salt. That's where we get the word salary from. And so it says here that we should have an agreeable type of speech, and knowing how to answer each person in the appropriate way.

And so for the remainder of this message, I'd like to focus on one biblical personage that can teach us so much about encouragement. Now there are a lot of fine men and women in the Bible who were encouragers, but one of them actually had his name changed from Joseph to Barnabas. Barnabas means son of consolation or son of encouragement, and actually just means that he became the encourager. I'd like to have somebody say, hey, you know what? Next Sabbath, the encourager is coming. I wonder how many people say, oh no, I don't want encouragement. No, I'm not going to show up on the Sabbath. I think everybody and their uncle would show up, because we all need to have these attributes that Joseph, son of encouragement, showed in the Scriptures. So let's see here seven lessons we can learn from the life of Barnabas. Let's go to Acts chapter four. We've got a lot to learn today. I just love where there are biblical insights, where you learn something new. I fall in love with just trying to come up with these little nuggets in the Bible that many times they just aren't seen, but I just show them in the light of the sun, just these beautiful golden nuggets that are in the Bible, these insights to His Word. In Acts chapter four, verse 32, it mentions here when, as you know, Acts chapter three is when the church really gets going. Peter had given a sermon on Pentecost, and then the church just got started. But there was one big problem, and that is that all of these people, and there were like 3,000 that were baptized in just very quick order. And of course, that meant children and families along with them, and the apostles didn't have hardly any money because they weren't collecting. They didn't even think that a church was going to get started just during the time when Christ was resurrected. Peter was already back in his fishing business, and all of them had sort of gone the way, and Christ had to gather them and say, hey, no, fellows, this is the start of something. Be in Jerusalem for Pentecost, because that's when I'm going to have the Holy Spirit come down. God the Father is going to send it. But here they are, all these baptized people, and of course, there is this hostility from the Jewish authorities, from the family, and all the brethren are gathered together, but who's going to provide the food? Some of them had been kicked out of their homes because they accepted Christ as their Lord and Master. And so what did they do? Did Christ tell them what to do? No. Christ said, you're going to work it out. If you have the right attitude, if you have the fruits of the Spirit, you will resolve these things. And so what did they do? Verse 32 of Acts 4 says, Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Everybody was deeply converted. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. See, there were a lot of poor people there. They had widows. This wasn't the cream of the crop as it was brought out in the first message. These are little sparrows of the society. They weren't the powerful. They weren't the high priest and all the powerful family of the Herod's and all the others. They could have said, well, I've got money. Don't worry. Just come over to our palace. We'll feed people. No, it wasn't that way. So there was a problem with food. And so everybody said, hey, I'm going to give whatever is needed to provide, to support the apostles. They have to get the gospel out to the world. We have to gather. We want to learn more about what Jesus Christ taught them. They were full of energy and zeal. And so, of course, they not only said it with their lips, but they also acted with their deeds.

And so that's kind of the first lesson we're going to learn about Barnabas. He began encouraging the apostles and not only with words, but with deeds.

And so it goes on to say in verse 33, and with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them. They were inspired. They were receiving that Holy Spirit with knowledge and gifts. And notice there wasn't just one. There were all 12 of them. Christ said, you have my spirit. You know what I did? Now you figure things out. He didn't take them by the hand. He didn't put one on top so there'd be this kind of a pecking order. No, he said, you figure out how each is going to do it. I want you to have the right servant attitude and things will work out. Verse 34, nor was there anyone among them who lacked. For all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold. It showed here that these weren't very rich people because they didn't say they brought money. But everybody had a little property. Everybody had something they could chip in and help the church start this way. You know, Christ could have worked it out with a couple of angels and said, well, here's this gold mine that you can have to begin the church with. No, he didn't. He said, let's see what people do. Are they going to really change? Are they going to put their heart and put their deeds where their mouth is? And they did. And verse 35, and laid them at the apostles' feet. Notice all 12 of them. They were the ones in charge and they distributed to each as anyone had need. So the widows or people that had been kicked out of their homes. Because just remember, just less than two months ago, Christ had been crucified. And the priests and the rabbis in the synagogues had said Christ was a false messiah. And so this took a lot of courage because this was a closed society. These were Jews. And so when you said, no, I'm going to follow Christ, boy, all of a sudden hostility set in. And so there are a lot of people who lost their jobs. You think you could work for the high priest if you said, I'm going to follow Christ? A lot of people lost their jobs, lost their homes. This wasn't a real happy time as far as economic situation is concerned. It was a happy time because of God's Spirit. But boy, the persecution set in. Here in these chapters, you see Peter and John were arrested in chapter four here, verses one through four. And then the apostles, they were beaten. So none of this was a happy time, but it was because of what they had. And so they said, don't worry. We have your back to the apostles. We'll give you what you need to get this work done. Verse 36, and who is here focused on? And Joseph, which the term means Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles. So this wasn't a name that his father had given him. This wasn't a name that he had. But when he came among the apostles, he was so encouraging. He was the one that was there saying, don't worry, Peter. We have your back. Don't worry, John. We're with you. We're going to be here with you. And so they said, boy, this guy, we're going to change his name, because this is what he is. This is how he is. And they called him son of encouragement.

He was a Levite, so he came from a Levitical ministry. He was part of the Levitical family of ministers and priests of the country of Cyprus. And having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. Apparently, he was a well-to-do person, had a good background, had some land. And he just said, don't worry, I know there's a lot of necessities. Went out, said, how much you give me for this land? And sold it all and came and said, here. And equivalent of probably nowadays dozens of thousands of dollars, even more.

So he didn't only encourage them, he did it with his deeds.

Unfortunately, because of the favor that he received for the way he was, the spirit of zeal, encouragement, and also generosity. Then we have chapter five with Ananias and Sapphira that try to gain a position by selling their properties and lying about the proceeds. And they actually said, well, we did the same thing as Joseph. We turned everything in. And they lied to the apostles and died because they weren't part of the truly converted people. So one of the problems that we see here was the difficulty in raising money and funds. Remember, Christ told the disciples and his apostles, go into all the world preaching the gospel. And the apostles would train ministries. But how do you pay for them? Could people give them their tithes? Because people tithed at that time. Historical records show the Jews tithe at that time. Josephus brings it up. No, they couldn't bring their tithes to the apostles because the Levitical system was still enforced. It was still you had Levites. You had priests that depended on the tithing system. You had the huge temple and all the sacrifices and all of this had to be funded through tithes and offerings. So Christ didn't tell his disciples, well, when you start the church, I'm going to give you authority to pick up the tithes from the brethren. It would have made it very convenient. Maybe a lot of people wouldn't have had to sell their homes at that time. But Christ said the same thing. You work it out. I want to see the attitude. I want to see the spirit of service. I am not going to take you by the hand and answer every question. You're going to have to figure it out. And so people say, okay, this is what we have to do. We have to pool our resources. And that's the way it was starting. So the temple was still standing.

Perhaps God was giving the priests and the Levites a chance to accept Jesus Christ. After all the miracles they had seen, they had seen the church rise up. Would the men that God had chosen and trained as priests and Levites who were supposed to be the closest to God, would they see the evidence and change and become part of the church? That would have been great. But it was not to be. The priests, the Levites, in their great majority rejected Christ, rejected the church. And so it was just a matter of time before they would eventually topple with the temple and the whole Levitical system with the priesthoods, it would be destroyed in 70 AD, just about 40 years later. And so only donations were being received by the ministry, by the apostles. That's why they had to resort to a lot of this emergency funds. Now, later we see in Acts 15 that when the issue of circumcision and the ritual law came to be an issue with the Gentile converts, what were they to do? Were they to circumcise the Gentile converts so they could be members of the church or not? Did Christ give them an explanation during those 40 days that he was resurrected and they were there? No. What did he say? You fellows figure it out. Stay close to me. God's Spirit is in you and you will be guided in due time. And it was in Acts 15, almost 20 years later, that they finally get the answer what to do about it. And the Jerusalem conference would resolve the issue of the ceremonial law and the uncircumcised Gentiles, where they came to understand that it was no longer necessary to circumcise the Gentiles in order for them to be members of the church. And of course, that was a controversy. We got all the letters of Paul and others talking about it was difficult for people to have a flexible mind, be open-minded, and see that God was moving and that it was no longer necessary.

Well, how about tithing? That, in my opinion, even took longer that in Acts 15. Why? Why? If Acts 15 took place around 52 AD, almost 20 years later, the temple was still there. The Levitical system was there. You, as a Jewish Christian, still had a duty to turn your tithes into and support the sacrificial system. There wasn't anything here that was clear about it, and it was only probably around 15 years later when Paul, writing to the Hebrews, that's the Judean Christians. God said it is time to resolve the tithing system. In a sense, you can tell God's reasoning, as much as the principles in the Bible show us, where your treasure is, that is where your heart is going to be. So he says, look, you keep providing for the apostles, keep providing for the church, and in due time, I will show you what is needed to be done. As you know, our own church kept Pentecost on a Monday for several decades until we realized we had made a mistake in the calculation. And then Mr. Armstrong got up and said we had not calculated it properly. God has shown us through the scriptures and through more evidence what is the truth, and I was there when he announced it that Pentecost was going to be kept on Sunday. And everybody understood, looked at the scripture, said, okay, we were wrong, we corrected it, and we moved on. So it wasn't that different from this tithing issue. As long as the temple was there, the Levitical system, the priests were there, you had a loyalty to them. At the same time, you were attending your church, supplying the apostles with the needs and the widows and the others in the congregation. So it wasn't until probably around 64 AD, just four years before the invasion of the Romans, that would destroy... well, actually, it took four years, so around 66. So Paul died a little before, from the time of the invasion of Judea by the Romans, took four years to finally destroy Jerusalem. And God guided the apostle Paul about tithing. Look in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 19.

Here is the explanation. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 19, talking here about Christ and what He has done. It says, This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil. Talk about the presence of God.

Where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. And so now is introduced a new priesthood, a new ministry. Now, do you think the apostles all knew this back when they started? I don't think so. This is one of the revelations, just like in Acts 15 with the Jerusalem Council. This is something God revealed later.

And He goes on to say in chapter 7, verse 8, talking about the temple, He says, But mortal men, here mortal men receive tithes, talking about the priesthood. But there He receives them, of whom it is witnessed that He lives. Talking about Melchizedek, receiving the tithes from Abraham. So actually, the priesthood of Melchizedek is older than the Levitical system. It says, even Levi, the tribe, and this was the son of Jacob, one of the patriarchs, he says, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak.

For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, in other words, there's no change, unaltered, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron. If this was just going to perpetuate itself, why change the ministry and the priesthood?

Verse 12, for the priesthood being changed from the Levitical to the Melchizedean of necessity, there is also a change of the law. So here is a change from the old Levitical system to the new Melchizedek system with Christ as the high priest. And by the way, he is the only one who is a priest today in the church. He is the high priest, and he has not appointed priests in the Melchizedek because there's no need for it.

He is the only mediator between God and man. For he of whom these things are spoken, talking about Jesus, belongs to another tribe, the tribe of Judah, from which no man has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident if in the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest who has come not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, the Old Testament ceremonial system, but according to the power of an endless life. The priests all die.

Christ has an endless life. And then it goes on to say in chapter 8, verse 1, now this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. Verse 6, talk about Christ, but now he has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also a mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. If you solved all the spiritual issues with the Old Testament system, why would you need a new one? But it didn't solve all the things. And then he says, because finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And so the new covenant has to do with also a tithing system that is through the ministry of Melchizedek. So now we give our tithes to Jesus Christ and the ministry that he uses to carry out his functions, to get out the gospel, get out the good news.

So I just thought Barnabas showed here that he had that generous heart, he encouraged the apostles, and then he not only spoke encouraging others with his deeds, he also showed it. So let's go to the second part of Barnabas. I know that was a little lengthy, but I did want to cover about the tithing law and how it was changed along with the different Levitical ministry to the Melchizedek ministry. Acts chapter 2 verse 26. Did I say, Acts chapter 9? I'm sorry, Acts 9, 9, 26.

This is the second principle. Barnabas thought the best of people. He was not envious. He was not guarding his position. It wasn't that, okay, he had been truly praised and supported apostles, but he didn't think highly of himself. He wasn't filled with his own importance at all. Notice in Acts chapter 9 verse 26, we see Barnabas again. It says, and when Saul had come to Jerusalem after his conversion, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple. They thought he was a spy. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.

So it looked like nobody wanted to back Paul up at that moment. Everybody was afraid. He'd been planted in the church so he would get all the people's names and addresses like he had done before. But Barnabas was just this type of a person he saw that Paul was really converted and it was genuine. And so he said, well, Paul, you'll never get to see the apostles with all the hostility going around, but hey, I'm gonna use my credibility and I'm gonna present you to the apostles.

And so he took him to the apostles and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord. This was what Paul said and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out, which means he was together with them. After Barnabas' introduction and backing, they accepted him and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, which are the Greek-speaking Jews. But they attempted to kill him when the brethren found out.

They brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. So in a sense, boy, Paul was causing so much trouble because he was just going out there straight to these synagogues. He knew all these rabbis. They knew him. He had been taught at the feet of Gamaliel II, which was one of the great historical rabbis. And so they said, hey, you know, we better take them out. And then what it says, and then everybody enjoyed peace. And poor Paul headed on a ship back to his hometown. Thank you, Paul. We'll let you know when we need you. Well, there were years that passed. Who brought Paul into the ministry and used him? Yes, Barnabas. So continuing on in the third point about Barnabas.

Barnabas was wholly committed to the task at hand. Again, this was a man fully committed. He had spent his money and his efforts to support the church as he could in Acts 11. In verse 1, here Barnabas appears again. Now, the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. Chapter 10 is where Cornelius, the first Gentile, uncircumcised member, receives God's Spirit and is baptized. And so the apostles and brethren were shocked at what had happened over there in the area of Caesarea. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him. Now, this is talking about the brethren that were members of the church. Most of them were of the Pharisee school, which is brought out later on in Acts 15, but these were kind of like the hardliners. And they were the ones that said, Paul, if a Gentile wants to be a member of the church, you've got to circumcise them, and he has to follow the ritual law. And so here they were pretty adamant about it. And they accused Peter, saying, you went into uncircumcised men and ate with them. Notice the accusation. It didn't say, oh, and guess what? You were eating pork with them. Don't you think that would have been even more serious than just going into a household and eating with them? So it wasn't about eating unclean food. It was that for the Jews, if you went inside a Gentile's house and they were uncircumcised, they were ritually impure, and you were not to eat with them. And so they were shocked at this.

And then Peter explains all about how God ordered him to receive Cornelius, and that the Holy Spirit descended upon Cornelius. Again, just reading between the lines here, you could tell that probably Peter didn't feel comfortable baptizing Cornelius as being uncircumcised. You simply didn't do that. And so God just said, bloom, here's the Holy Spirit. And they started speaking in different tongues and everything else. And what are you going to do? This is what Peter says.

Verse 15, and as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning during Pentecost. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If therefore God, not me, gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? And say, God, you made a mistake. Here, I'm going to circumcise him first. No, God had not made a mistake. He didn't dare to question that. Verse 18, when they heard these things, they became silent. They couldn't argue against the facts. And they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. So this opens up now from a very narrow group of people, the Jews. Now all Gentiles have access to the same salvation through Jesus Christ. Christ was not just going to be a savior of the Jews, but of the entire world. And so then it goes on to say, now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. So you see, nobody thought you can go to the Gentiles. They're unclean, richly. We can't deal with them. So it was just basically the Jews in their vicinity. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists. These are the Greek-speaking Jews preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to God. Many of these also were part of the ones attending the synagogues. Notice verse 22, Then the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and who did they send? Well, I think these brethren need encouragement. Let's send Barnabas. They sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad. He didn't get turned off. And encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus. And that's the next point. So Barnabas here was wholly committed. He didn't turn them off. He saw God was working with them and told them to continue with the Lord with purpose. There's this scripture here when he says, encourage them at all with purpose of heart. That means fully committed.

The God's Word has verse 23 as, when he arrived there, he was pleased to see what God had done for them out of kindness. So he encouraged all the people to remain solidly committed to the Lord. Again, you can only do that when you yourself are. You know, the messages are just as strong as your own commitment is. Everything else is just fluff. And here was a Levite able to work out and iron out the problems.

So that takes us to the fourth point. Barnabas was a problem solver. Acts 11 verse 25. When he saw there was so much growth, God was using people that hadn't been used before. It says verse 25, then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Paul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year, they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. And of course, the Judean Jews looked down on the Hellenistic Jews. They didn't consider them in the same category, but here God was calling. And so Barnabas saw a need. He thought who was right for the job. He knew it was Paul. So he went to get him. It says he took him a while to find him in Tarsus. Paul was not out there preaching to everybody and establishing. He hadn't received that authority yet. Paul was studying God's Word. He was deepening his understanding. So if and when God called him, he would be ready. You can see with the life of David, how many years was he in the wilderness before God used them? It goes on. Then the fifth point is that Barnabas yielded to God's will and stepped in when needed. That's the next verse, Acts 11, verse 27. It says, And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, this is from Antioch, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. They were still there, generous as always. This they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of who? Barnabas and Saul. Yep, Barnabas was there, stepped in. I'll take it to Jerusalem. Let's organize ourselves. So he was a hands-on man and he brought his helper at that time, Saul.

Then the sixth point is that an encourager needs to have courage, too. You can't be encouraging others if you don't have and encourage yourself. You have to help yourself. We know we go through difficult times. God gives us his word to study, to be encouraged, gives us prayer, gives us fellowship, gives us the ministry to encourage you as well. Notice in Acts chapter 12 and verse 25.

Let's see here. I don't think I've got that one right.

Because, oh yes, yeah, it's right. It says, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem after they took the donations with them when they had fulfilled their ministry.

And they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark. So here's where Mark comes in to the picture. Now, he was Barnabas' younger cousin. The term sometimes can be used for uncle, but it seems like it's probably more that Barnabas was an older cousin of Mark. And so here's a young man. They wanted to encourage him.

But what happened? Let's go to chapter 13, verse 1. It says, now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, he's named first. He was one of the leading men that the apostles had used. Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manian, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch. So we had some upper-class people as well. And who was the last one? Saul, kind of a ministerial assistant at that time. Now, Saul had received all these prophecies about him that he would go, he would be a special instrument. But guess what? God sometimes has to tone a person down, give him a little bit of a humble pie, keep him that way before he is used powerfully. So at that time, they hadn't even changed the name to Saul, to Paul. He was just named Saul. And in verse 13, it says, now when Paul and his party, so here we begin to see the difference in names, Set sail.

I have the right one here.

Yeah. He set sail from Paphos. They came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. Just said, just said, John Mark, who we know as Mark, for some reason he left. He didn't continue.

And he went back to Jerusalem, probably wasn't mature enough to handle all the rigors of travel and persecutions like Paul and Barnabas were used to. And in verse 38, we see here what Paul preaches. It says, therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. Talk about Christ. And by him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. So again, changing from the ritual law that justified a person up to a point. But here, it could be fully forgiven, spiritual sin.

And in verse 46, notice the order of the people are changed. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said it is necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you rejected, talking about the Jews, they're in a synagogue, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. So now the door is truly open. To go to the Gentiles, verse 48. Now these were Gentiles that attended synagogue services. They were called, as it brings up here, in verse 42. So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles who had been in it begged that these words might be preached. And these Gentiles were known, as it says earlier, as God-fearers. So they understood God's Word, but they were not circumcised. In verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to enter to eternal life believed, and the word of the Lord was spread throughout all the region. And so we see God raising people, sometimes He'll lower people, but you see they have a converted attitude. They're thinking what is best for God, what is best for Christ, what is best for the church. Paul had a humbling period, but he didn't get down and bitter and sour. No, he waited for the right time to be used, and certainly he was.

This takes us to the last point. The seventh, Barnabas never gave up gave up on Mark. In Acts 15, in verse 36, after the Jerusalem Conference, here Paul and Barnabas were going to continue on. It says in verse 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. Many of our trips when we go to Guatemala, go to Bolivia, Chile, what do I do? I'm seeing how the brethren are doing. What are their needs? What can we help them with? Now Barnabas, again appears, was determined to take with them John called Mark, 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. So it wasn't because Mark just said, well I'm going to take a little vacation. No, he actually left and he just departed in a very wrong way. And so Paul was still hurting from that. And he said, no, this young man, he's not ready. But Barnabas thought, yes, he's learned his lesson. He wants to continue helping us. Verse 39, then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the church. So here they had a falling out between the two, but they didn't split the church over it. They were still part of the same church. They just separated their regions and districts. And so it's sad when things happen, and yet they were all preaching the same thing, teaching about God's commandments and the grace of God, just as we do today. So from there, the rest of the story is about Paul.

And Barnabas is in the background. He preaches, but he doesn't have the tremendous success that Paul has of establishing dozens of churches everywhere. So the book of Acts continues. But it's very interesting in 2 Timothy, the same apostle Paul, who had talked about not using Mark, actually used him again at the end of his life. 2 Timothy 4, verse 11. He tells Timothy about being tested here in Rome. He says, But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, talking about at that time the Roman emperor. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom, because God's kingdom is in heaven. It's coming down to the earth. To him be glory forever and ever. And then he says, continuing on, that's in verse 11, it says, Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. So you see, Paul finally recognized, you know what?

Mark has turned into a fine minister, and I want him to come and serve under me. And so we see that Barnabas was the one that never gave up on Mark, and was able to return and continue the ministry with Paul. Not only with Paul, but also with Peter. Notice in 1 Peter, chapter 5, and verse 13. 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 13. It says, She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you, and so does Mark, my son. And so Peter also used Mark as a traveling companion. Mark had a hiccup. He had a moment when his courage slipped. He wasn't ready, but Barnabas never gave up on him, until he turned out to be a fine, mature minister. And guess what? He actually wrote one of the Gospels, the Gospel of Mark, which is looking at it from the perspective of the Apostle Peter, because he traveled with him. So one of the four Gospels was written by this young man that deserted Paul and Barnabas, but Barnabas never gave up on him. Why? Because Mark had an encourager, just like Paul had an encourager when he needed him. And brethren, we all need to be encouragers. So let's ask ourselves, why not me?