Be the Encourager

Thank you, Mrs. Wells. I really appreciate that. See, Mr. Porter was right. The room filled up even more than I realized. So thank you all for coming and not going this afternoon, or perhaps for coming here and still going this afternoon. I was going to say thank you for coming to help us stack up the chairs and set up for class. But I imagine you came for a different reason.

But I'm glad to be here. It doesn't seem that long ago since I spoke in the morning service, and yet it does. I was thinking on my way here, I feel like someone who's reaching the end of a marathon, partly because the first four weeks of class at ABC, I had the extra morning session that we call the module. So in addition to my normal couple of hours in the afternoon, I had a morning class. And I think I've also had a sermon three out of the four Sabbaths. And so right now I'm approaching the finish line, and I'll be crossing, and I'm going to breathe a deep sigh of relief tomorrow and sit and watch the Bengals play. But I'm not going to breathe that sigh of relief yet. I did want to talk to you about something I think fairly important today. And I'm pleased with how God works things out. I think the sermonette leads into my message today very well. I want to start off with talking about nicknames. They're an interesting phenomenon, because when you have a good one, it can seem really cool. Looking back in history, Charles Lindbergh was called the lone eagle. That's pretty neat. More recently, Richard Petty was called the king. The thing is about nicknames. You can't give one to yourself. How many kids, when they were younger, were called shorty or stinky, and really wish they had some control over that? And nickname's all about how other people see you. It's often related to a physical trait or personality trait. And they could be opposites. There have been bald men who everyone called curly.

But they can relate. I've heard of young ladies with really happy personalities that people started calling sunny. Sometimes it's based on your action, how people perceive your character. Have you ever heard someone walk in the room and people jokingly say, well, here comes trouble? But some people do seem to be known as trouble. And the criminal element, I'm thinking of a TV movie from the 1930s, perhaps, where someone's nickname is Light Fingers. But looking the other direction, knowing people might give you a name or think of you based on what you do, might lead you to do or not do certain things. I'm thinking how sometimes you might, let me say this clearly, might decide to not do something because you don't want to be known as that guy. Have you heard that phrase? That guy. It's often followed by a sort of implied ellipsis, which, for my love of grammar, that means those three dots, that something else is filling in the blank, could be that guy, who says out loud what everyone else had the sense to keep inside. That guy, who's always showing up a half hour late from something scheduled. If in our current slang, that guy has a negative connotation, we've sort of built up a positive connotation for the one that we call the man. The slang is, you da man. Always think, yeah, some people aren't comfortable with that. So a more proper English would be to say, you sir, are the man. You might be the man, who's always willing to help out your friends. You're the man if you always give a compliment instead of a put down. Don't you want to be the man? The reason I'm talking about this today is I want to spend some time looking at the example of someone in the Bible who we know by his nickname. And I know this isn't a new message in a sense. We've explored this before, but I think it's worth looking at again. Now, his nickname was not the man, but he was the man who always had a good word for others. He even played a huge role in helping another person in the church go from being that guy, as in that guy who persecuted the church and harmed people, into becoming the man, the man who did preach the gospel, who ended up writing much of the Bible. The person I'm talking about, his real name was Joseph. Although that's probably what he was called in his home where they might have spoke Hebrew. The Aramaic of the day was Joseph, but he became known by his nickname of Barnabas, meaning Son of Encouragement, the Encourager. If you'll join me in Acts 4, that's where we first meet this man.

Now, I want to make the point that we're joining the story a little after that fateful Pentecost when God had poured out the Holy Spirit, working this great miracle, to where people from various nations far away were able to hear the gospel preached in their own language. It's often referred to as the miracle of tongues, but it's more appropriately called the miracle of the hearing, because everyone could hear others as though it were in their own language. And at any rate, it shows us people were gathered from all these different nations.

Now they understood the truth. And so guess what? They stayed put. They understood that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. He had come. He paid the price for human sin. He was coming back. And they decided they were going to wait right there until he did. They had the right idea, but a misconception about the timing. In their mind, Christ was going to show up any day now, not in a couple thousand years.

Thus, they were waiting and waiting, and unless they were independently wealthy, you might guess a lot of them were starting to run out of supplies. They only had so much means to take care of themselves. Now, God's Spirit builds generosity in people. So if you look in Acts 4, verse 32, we note, Now, I want to make the point. They weren't communists, but they did believe in sharing. They wanted to help other people. We don't know how many people did this.

It made it sound like quite a few did. And if this were an Old Testament book, we'd probably have a chapter full of a list of names. So I'm going through some of the Old Testament books and classes where we have that. Genealogies and lists.

Luke, we believe, is the author of Acts, a good historian. And so, as a good historian often does, he picks and chooses examples. So of all the people that sold possessions and gave the money to the apostles, he only mentions two. The next chapter gives an example of someone who doesn't do it very well. But first, he's going to choose one example of all those who did it right. A fellow by the name of Joseph.

Or, as I said, the Hebrew form would be Joseph. Why did he choose him? I'll pick up with the narrative in a bit. Was it because his gift was the largest? That's possible. But many scholars say Luke wanted to introduce this particular man because he's going to be important in the story as it progresses.

And I think that's the case. So let's read verse 36. Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles. Notice, he didn't call himself Barnabas. They called him that. Which is translated, Son of Encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus. Having land, he sold it, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. I'm not going to read the next chapter. Many of you know what happens. Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, saw the praise that came on those who donated money from what they'd sold. So they said, I want that praise. Ananias was that guy.

That guy who sold his land and then came and lied about the price so he could get more praise. And of course, it was found out. He was deceptive. He only gave part of the money and then lied about it. I don't want to go through that. But Joseph, who we know as Barnabas, was not that guy. He was the man. He was generous. He sold his land, gave all of it to the church.

And he was honest about it. The man who donated all the proceeds didn't do so to be noticed. He did it to fill a real need. And that's where I want to pause just to think about it. Remember, the apostles gave him a nickname. And Son of was an idiom in that time, meaning this is his most prominent characteristic. Just like when Jesus called James and John the sons of thunder, because perhaps we think they were loud and boisterous and powerful.

That was their really noticeable characteristic. And that's where Barnabas comes from. It's not from the Greek, probably from the Aramaic or Hebrew. I believe bar means son of, and Nabos means to exhort or to encourage by strong affirmation. Interestingly, though, they didn't name him son of generosity, even though he gave all that money. No, he was called son of encouragement. Or I said exhortation. What kind of exhortation do we give that's encouraging?

Well, those of you who have been to summer camp have probably heard it a lot. You'll be out in an event and you're saying, Come on! You can do it! Keep on going! Don't give up! Hang in there! Be strong! Way to go! Good job! I think I'm the only one that's really being boisterous here. That's okay. If you all jumped up and started doing that, I think I was in the wrong church. But these are ways of encouraging someone. They're words of exhortation.

But again, how does that fit with Barnabas being so generous and honest?

Well, I'm spending some time on this because I want to make the point Barnabas was generous. He was honest. That's not what he was most known for.

You know, he was from Cyprus. At that time, Cyprus was a thriving area where trade flourished.

So we get the idea perhaps Barnabas's family had made a lot of money buying and selling, engaging in commerce. We're not sure where this piece of land was that he sold. Since he was in Jerusalem, perhaps the family owned land in Jerusalem, and he was able to arrange a sale. He might have owned quite a bit of land back in Cyprus. Maybe he was pretty wealthy.

So it would have been appropriate to call him Son of Wealth.

Or we might say the rich guy. That's not what he was known for.

Barnabas was the encourager. He was not known for the stuff he owned.

He wasn't known for how he supported the church with money.

Rather, he was known for how he supported people with words.

Think of it. Barnabas had money. He used it for the good.

But what people really noticed and remembered about him didn't depend at all on his wealth.

It didn't matter that he was wealthy. Or for that matter, he didn't have to have a special talent, education.

You know, we don't know if he could sing or play sports.

He was known for using words to lift up other people, to encourage them.

And the reason I thought it worth noting is, huh, all of us could do that.

I could do it. I could do it, honestly, much better than I do.

You don't have to have a lot of money. You don't have to have a special talent to use words to help people.

There's where I'm looking at myself. I put in my notes. I wish I could say, I'm that guy.

Well, I'm not that guy, the man. But we all can strive for that.

If we look back to Proverbs, we see some indication from Solomon about what these words can do.

These are familiar scriptures, so don't feel that you have to keep up with me, but I'm using that new Bible that slows me down again.

Proverbs 12, verse 25, Proverbs 12, in verse 25, Proverbs 12, and this Chronicles 12, verse 25, Proverbs 12, verse 25 tells us, Have you ever said that good word to someone and you saw their face lift up?

Boy, it feels good to be the one that said the word.

It also feels good to be the one that hears that words. Matthew 16, 23 says, Again, you don't have to be rich to do that. But I will stop and think about something, because I want to move on and look at the actually surprisingly little that the Bible tells us about Barnabas. He doesn't have a lengthy, elaborate story, but boy, he shows us some things. My thought is to be a good encourager of people, you have to get to know those people. To do it effectively, at least. If a word so fitly spoken is so effective, you have to perceive what word will be fitly spoken for that person in that situation.

So an encourager needs to perhaps be a student of people, be able to see the good in people or the potential in a person, and know how to encourage it. Be willing and able to point out the good to that person. The next time we'll see Barnabas in Scripture, I think we see him doing that.

It's in Acts 9, if you want to start turning there. But I'll mention, between Acts 4 and Acts 9, various things happen that I'm not going to discuss because we don't see Barnabas involved in them. But one of the most significant is that this new character comes in the story.

At first, he's called Saul. We see him there when Stephen is martyred. And then the story picks up, he's raising havoc in the church. He's persecuting Christians. He's a well-trained, devoted, probably young rabbi. He's living life as a Pharisee. And he doesn't like this Christianity stuff. He's destroying it as much as he can. He gets letters from the Sanhedrin so he can go to Damascus and persecute Christians there.

You know, and bring them back and put them in prison. But on the way there, all that changes, right? We remember the story. He's going to Damascus and there's this blinding light. He's knocked down. He hears a voice. Turns out he's been persecuting Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ has to talk with him about it. And he changes Paul. As I said, I want to focus on Barnabas, but Barnabas' story and Paul's are going to become intertwined.

Paul begins preaching the truth there in Damascus, draws persecution. He has to sneak out of the city. They lower him down the city walls in a basket. He goes out and he's gone for some time. And there's some question. At some point, it seems he goes into the wilderness and is even taught directly by Jesus Christ. Perhaps that's before he comes to Jerusalem or afterwards.

But eventually he comes to Jerusalem and he wants to meet up with the disciples. He wants to be a part of the church. But they remember his story. And they're not so sure about him. Acts 9 and verse 26. Acts 9 and verse 26 tells us, When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples.

They were all afraid of him. They did not believe that he was a disciple. He's pulling a scam. He's trying to lead us out. So he can, you know, tie us up and take us to jail, have us put to death. Who could blame them? One person was different, though, as we see in verse 27. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles.

This gave him a chance to declare to them how he'd seen the Lord on the road and how he had spoken to him, how he'd preached boldly at Damascus in the name of the Jews. And he was with them at Jerusalem coming in and going out. He spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists. But they attempted to kill him.

Let me just finish this part of the story. When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. So Paul gets involved, and boy, it seems wherever he goes, Paul gets in trouble. Not that he's doing something wrong, but he did seem to have a way of rubbing people the wrong way if they didn't want to accept the truth.

He spoke boldly and pointedly. And God later is going to use him very powerfully. But for now, the disciples say, Okay, Paul, we believe you're with us. We love you, but you've got to get out of here. Where did they send him? Tarsus. That's where he was born and raised. They send him back home.

And we're not going to see him again for a while. But we might wonder, when all the others were afraid of Paul, didn't believe he was a disciple, someone stepped up and gave him a chance, looked into it. Why was Barnabas so different? The Bible doesn't really tell us here. But if we think again, that he was the encourager. He was the exhorter. And if what I said is true, that to be able to do that effectively, we have to look for traits worthy of encouraging in other people.

And you have to be willing, perhaps, to step out and take a risk. I think of that in myself. How many times could I have said something that might have been encouraging to someone, but I was afraid that I would look dumb, I'd be embarrassed, and so I held back? It's been too many times. For me, many of you are less shy and introverted than I am.

Perhaps you've stepped forward. But I'll tell you what, Barnabas, he was willing to take that risk. He must have had a chance to meet Paul, and he listened to him. He looked for the good in Paul. He saw truth in Paul. That's something we can emulate. I want to put a disclaimer, of course. Looking for the good in a person doesn't mean we have to go spend a lot of time examining everyone, because there are some bad people out there in the world.

You know, Jesus Christ said, you'll know them by their fruits. If someone obviously has bad fruits, we shouldn't keep trying to find good and examine everything they say and do, because it might start to affect us. But looking for something that's worth encouraging is a good trait. I want to move on in Barnabas' life. We've seen him so far as a man of generosity, of encouragement, one who helped other people to get along.

In the next part of the story, we'll see that there's more to him than that. And there's more to teaching God's people and being a leader of them than merely upbeat words and smiles. There is a need for instruction, for guidance in God's way of life, for living by God's law. And evidently, Barnabas was quite capable in those things as well, as the leadership of the church was comfortable sending him to pastor some new converts. We see that in Acts 11. And Acts 11 will begin in verse 19. Now, after those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.

So, remember all those people that stayed at Jerusalem because they thought Christ was going to show up anytime now? Well, the persecution that arose encouraged them to go somewhere else. Plus, they probably noticed, well, he doesn't seem to be coming anytime now. Maybe it's going to be a little while. I've got to go back and get to business. But in the meantime, we're going to share the good news. Hey, the creator of all mankind is fulfilling his promises. We want to teach people. And it was natural for them to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, keeping the Sabbath as we do, and share that with them.

But we'll notice some others. In verse 20, some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they had come to Antioch— Antioch was a pretty major city in the area of Syria— they spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. The Hellenists were those living a Greek lifestyle. There were some Jews who did this and didn't go to the synagogue on the Sabbath anymore. But it's also likely this is Gentiles. I don't think it's a coincidence that this is the next chapter after Acts 10. Well, and you probably figured, of course, 11 does come after 10 every time.

But the content of chapter 10 is significant. That's when God gave Peter a vision of those— the sheep coming down full of unclean animals. And he showed—I'm not telling you to eat unclean animals, but I am telling you, call no man common or unclean. And he sent him to Cornelius and poured out the Spirit on Cornelius and his family to show that the way was open to Gentiles to be called into the Church.

And so what we saw these people doing here in Acts 11 was nothing wrong— preaching the Gospel to anybody who would listen to it.

And here we're at a pivot point in the book of Acts.

I'm glad Mr. McNeely's not here. He might think I'm taking away from his teaching the class, but I'm not even close to that. But the book of Acts in its early chapters focuses on the founding of the Church and its early development in Jerusalem. And then there's going to be a big pivot to going out and preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.

The Apostle Paul will be in the middle of that.

And just as Barnabas played a vital—I can't say that word—vital, Barnabas played a vital role introducing Paul to the Church in Jerusalem.

He'll also end up playing a vital role introducing Paul to what would be his great life's work.

We'll see him do that, though, after Barnabas becomes established as the pastor of this new congregation that's arisen. Let's read in Acts 11 starting in verse 22.

Well, actually, I didn't read verse 21. After they're preaching the Gospel to these Hellenists, says, The hand of the Lord was with them, a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.

Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch.

When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them.

Seems funny. Well, he's the encourager, so he wouldn't encourage them. Remember, that also can mean exhortation. So you could say, he exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord. So he came and started exhorting them. Exhort can be done in a number of ways. It can be that giving the word fitly spoken to lift someone up.

But I'm guessing in this case, it also included what I'm trying to do right now, what every minister does when he comes to the lectern, to talk about God's way of life and His Word, and exhort us all to live by it and be improved by it. It says, yeah, sorry, I lost my place here. Yes, in verse 24, For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, And a great many people were added to the Lord.

Again, this is telling us a bit more about Barnabas, although it fits with what we've already seen. And saying he was a good man, it doesn't mean he was perfect. You know, Jesus said, there's none good but one, that is God.

But in the general way, we use the term, Barnabas had good character. He was living this godly lifestyle.

Moreover, he was full of the Holy Spirit.

In my mind, I jump to Acts 5.32, which I won't turn there, but it says, the Spirit is given to those who obey God.

This tells me if Barnabas was full of the Spirit, he obeyed God. But he also is teaching people.

If he was full of faith, I'm looking at this, he was full of faith. Romans 10.17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Well, I'm making the point that Barnabas knew his stuff.

He knew the Word of God.

Earlier, I didn't make a point of it, but it says that he was a Levite. He perhaps had advanced training in God's Word.

So we should see him as teaching people God's Word, living by it, in an encouraging way. But he wasn't somebody who just talked about sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns.

He could be down to earth, nitty-gritty, saying, we've got to live God's way, we've got to understand it. As we well know, sometimes conforming to God's Word is a little bit painful. It involves changing, giving up some of our old ways. Barnabas encouraged people to do this, to encourage, to continue in the Lord. He taught God's Word.

I've got to say, that's great.

I'm trying to be like Barnabas in that respect.

As I said, the way he encouraged people or exhorted them might have concluded speaking, giving sermons and such. But it's not limited to that.

All of us as Christians can exhort others, and we can teach by an example. We want to be like Barnabas in that way.

But his story is not finished, because what he did next, I think, is one of the most amazing parts of his story. An amazing example of humility.

Doing his best to serve God's people, but also to help other people reach their full potential.

And verse 25 says, Then he departed to Tarsus to seek Saul.

And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

I get the feeling Barnabas had been there for a while. He was teaching the church in Antioch, and at some point it dawned on him.

This is a bigger job than I can do alone. He was humble enough to realize his limitations.

He didn't let his ego or his vanity stop him from asking for help.

And being a red-blooded American male, I know there are times when I have let my ego and vanity stop me from asking for help. No, I don't need any help. I'll figure it out.

You know, should I try reading the instructions? No, that's for wimps.

That wasn't Barnabas. He was smart enough. Well, this has nothing to do with reading instructions. But he realized he needed help, and he went to get it.

And he might have thought, hey, there's somebody who can also grow in his potential.

We know now that Paul is going to go on to be one of the greatest, most influential teachers of Christianity.

You know, that history is known.

But what was he doing right then?

The Bible doesn't tell us. Remember, last time we saw him in the story, he got into a lot of trouble at Jerusalem, so they sent him to Tarsus back home.

Now, it's possible he was preaching the Gospel.

I wonder, though, if he was, if he was having any effect, maybe Luke would have mentioned it. I sort of have the suspicion that he did what we learn in other parts of the New Testament tells us he did on the side. He was a tentmaker. He was trained, as most rabbis were, in a skilled trade.

So maybe he's there in Tarsus making tents and sails, and not much else.

If so, it wouldn't be the first time or the last that someone in God's Church has had their talents underused.

And Barnabas might have had a reason to want it to stay that way.

He could have thought, I know that Saul is up there, but man, he's so educated. He's so well trained. If I bring him in here, pretty soon he's going to push me out of the picture and he'll be the top guy.

You know, that is what ended up happening.

There's no indication that Barnabas had that concern, or that when it happened, it bothered him. We'll talk about that in a moment.

You know, I don't think Barnabas was worried about protecting his turf.

He went and got Paul and brought him in. And at first, maybe he had to oversee him quite a bit.

One thing I've learned, Darris McNeely likes to refer to Barnabas as the mentor of an apostle.

That's a pretty impressive thing to be, a mentor of an apostle.

What an example for us.

Especially those of us that are older. Maybe I should say those of you who are older, but I can't get away with that as much as I used to.

But if we see someone younger who we see, there's potential. This person could be guided, and they can really amount to something.

That's worth doing. Even if they have so much potential, eventually they might take over our job.

Speaking of Mr. McNeely, I think of years ago when he was a camp director, and I was this upstart college student, that he gave a chance to be a counselor working with him.

And then later he said, okay, I want this new activity at summer camp, and I want you to develop it and run it.

He brought me along and taught me a lot. And now we're colleagues. Not that I'm outshining him by any means. I don't necessarily expect that'll ever happen. But I'm pleased that he's helped me grow to where I can work alongside him. And I could say similar things for Gary Antion. Longtime leader of Ambassador Bible Center and then college, who brought me in from nowhere. You're going to be our substitute teacher and help me learn the job.

I'm thrilled that now I can work with him still. And I'm so thrilled that I still have him to work with.

He'll come in. He's coming in to teach class Monday morning. And I hope that he keeps doing that for a long time.

But like Barnabas, he didn't seem to worry about ego or turf. And I hope I can do that. But anyways, I don't need to make it about me.

But Barnabas and Saul worked together well for a while. At the end of chapter 11, it talks about there was a darth going on in Jerusalem. So the people up at Antioch wanted to send a gift. And verse 30 says, They did so in the senate to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. They were working as a team and well-trusted. Then at the end of chapter 12, they come back again. And in the meantime, a lot of other things happened. But it said, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they'd fulfilled the ministry. And they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark.

He's going to be important a little bit later.

And judging from what's written in Colossians 4 and verse 10, which we won't turn there, but he seems to have been Barnabas' nephew or perhaps cousin. So this younger John Mark was related to Barnabas. And they brought him along perhaps to start learning about the work and what they're doing.

And as this progresses, we're going to see Barnabas, one of his most admirable traits, come to the fore.

That's in the next chapter, chapter 13.

In the church there in Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, notice Barnabas is listed first. He's been the top guy.

And Simon, who was called Niger, Lucius, Cyrene, Manan, who was brought up with the here of the tetrarch, and Saul. Saul is last on the list at this point. They ministered the Lord and fasted, and the Holy Spirit said, Separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I've called them. And they fasted and prayed, laid hands, and sent them away.

This is called the beginning of Paul's first missionary journey.

We only call it Paul's missionary journey because of what happened later.

If nothing had changed, we'd be calling it Barnabas' first missionary journey.

It's easy to think of these two men on their own.

And that sort of fits.

A couple of times during Christ's ministry, he sent the disciples out by twos. Sold them, Don't worry about taking money or a staff. You know, you'll be provided. And I like that in the modern era of the church early on, we used to have baptizing tours that we sent out men by twos. So we're following this example, but it wasn't just two of them. In chapter 5, we see in the last part of the verse, they also had John as their assistant. This is that John Mark.

We don't know for sure if he wasn't just carrying their luggage, going out to get them a Coke when they needed it, things like that. Of course, he had a long ways to look because, you know, yeah, they didn't have Coke. It's too bad. Think of what Paul could have accomplished if he had more caffeine. That never crossed my mind before, and I don't want to go there, but... So they're going along, and in verse 13, I want to move ahead to see something that happens with John Mark, and something else. Verse 13, it says, When Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perg and Pamphylia, John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.

A little later, we're going to see that John leaving them was more significant than it seems here. But when I read this verse, before I even think about that, I get to thought, wait a minute.

Paul and his party?

When did it become Paul and his party?

And we're not certain exactly.

We can look at different things that happened earlier in the chapter and say, maybe it was this, maybe it was that.

Looking at the course of the story in the Bible, and looking at God's calling Paul, I think that's what he had in mind all along. But this is an obvious turning point.

Barnabas had acted as the mentor and leader.

He and this Saul, who is also called Paul, embarked on a missionary trip, seemingly with Paul in the lead, acting largely as equals. But at this point, it's become Paul and his company.

And I don't want to imply that Paul used any kind of subterfuge or, you know, did anything improper. I think it was according to God's plan and purpose.

But I think it also seems evident that Barnabas was able to very happily serve God's purpose.

And if that meant going from being a mentor to Paul, to working as a supporter of Paul, Barnabas seems to be comfortable with it.

He seems that he was able to very gracefully move from being the leader of the party to being someone who supported a different leader of that party.

Now, we go on down in chapter 13, verse 46. We'll just see, Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, you know, and they continue preaching.

Looking over in chapter 15 and verse 12.

Chapter 15, verse 12, all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul.

They're continuing to work together. Sometimes Paul's mentioned first, sometimes Barnabas.

I suspect, although it's not specifically stated, I think Barnabas' attitude perhaps was well expressed by what John the Baptist said back in chapter 3 of the Gospel of John. John chapter 3, I want to turn there and read this, because even though I don't know if Paul and Barnabas were aware of these specific words, I think the way Barnabas acted seems to fit this.

John 3, actually, I'll start in verse 26.

They came to John, and this is John the Baptist, said, He who is with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you testify, say, Behold, he's baptizing. All are coming to him. So, hey, John, all these people are going to Jesus now. John said, A man can receive nothing, lest it be given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness. I said, I'm not the Christ. I've been sent before him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom, the friend of the bridegroom who stands, and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this my joy is fulfilled. Barnabas, I'm satisfied. I'm playing my part. And then he says, He must increase, but I must decrease.

John the Baptist got it at that point. Later, he had a flicker of doubt when he was sitting in prison and Jesus didn't come and save him, but Jesus sent him a message to make sure he knew he was the Messiah.

And I thought, perhaps that's the way Barnabas was.

Paul must increase. I must decrease. I'm happy in the role that God gives me.

That's something I want to tell myself.

Right now, I'm the leading ambassador of Bible college.

Next month, I might be, I don't know, shining someone's shoes and hoping they'll give me a nickel.

Wherever God puts me, I hope I can be happy.

Of course, I'm not asking for that. I'm not good at shining my own shoes.

Let's go back to Acts 15.

We will see one time that Barnabas disagrees with Paul's leadership. But I don't think it's because he was jealous. I think it's because Barnabas continues to see the best in people and want to help them reach their full potential.

So we see in Acts 15, beginning in verse 36, after some days, they're back at Antioch, teaching in the congregation. Paul said, Barnabas, now let's go back and visit our brethren in every city where we've preached the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. It's like, hey, Barnabas, let's go out on a trip again and visit those people that we taught.

And it seems Barnabas agreed, but Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. I want to take John Mark with us again.

Now, Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

Okay.

Now, Paul doesn't want to give John Mark another chance. And Barnabas does. Barnabas sees the good in people. I'd like to say Paul was once bitten twice shy.

And so there's a dispute.

Verse 39, The contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the Spirit to the grace of God.

Some people might say, disaster!

Another split in the Church!

But if we put it in the context of all the New Testament story, it doesn't seem to be quite so disastrous. For one thing, there is no doctrinal dispute.

There was no disagreement even on the course of action to take. They just had a disagreement on personnel.

As I said, Barnabas wanted to give John Mark another chance.

Paul didn't think he was up to it. Maybe he doubted his work ethic, his toughness, his dedication.

And so they formed two different teams and went and did the same job that they planned to do originally.

The majority of Bible scholars, and from what I know, ministers in God's Church, think this ended up being good. Instead of one team of ministers teaching and preaching the Gospel, now two teams were going out, twice as effective.

And not very long after that, if you continue the story, which I'm not going to keep reading, Paul would find and meet a young man who he did feel comfortable working with. He soon after met Timothy.

Later he says, Timothy was with me like a son with his father, and he groomed and molded him.

Maybe he was thinking as he did that, hey, Barnabas had something good going, that being a mentor and teaching.

So if Paul had trouble working with John Mark, he realized the good in what he did.

And what about John Mark?

He does come up again in the story, if we turn to 2 Timothy, that same Timothy that I just mentioned, who Paul was very comfortable with, 2 Timothy 4 and verse 11.

We believe near the end of Paul's life, when he's imprisoned, he writes to Timothy and says, only Luke is with me. Get Mark, John Mark, and bring him with you. He's useful to me in the ministry.

Most scholars and ministers believe this is that same John Mark who'd left Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. Same one Paul didn't want to take on the second.

But Barnabas saw the good, the potential, in Mark.

He was willing to go to great trouble, to separate from his good friend Paul and go on a parallel journey to help John Mark.

And in this disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, it seems eventually Paul had to say, you know what? Barnabas was right and I was wrong.

Now, I don't know if they ever did have that communication.

I'd like to think that they did, but we could see Paul acknowledged, yeah, John Mark is all right after all.

Although the Bible doesn't tell us all of his story, tradition says that he went on to serve Paul for a while and then worked with Peter.

And very closely he worked with Peter so that he wrote the Gospel of Mark based on Peter's recollections.

And he was very effective.

And there's no reason to think that Paul and Barnabas didn't continue their friendship.

One of the reasons we don't know for sure is that Barnabas disappears from the story.

Legend and tradition says that he was martyred preaching the Gospel.

If that's true, then Barnabas ended his life the same way he'd lived it.

And devoted service to God and God's people.

Barnabas was a rare person.

He was willing and able to be a leader.

He was able and willing to step aside and follow someone else in the lead.

And if the need existed, he could step back in again and do it all it seems gracefully.

And that's an example to us. Hopefully all of us can do that. Step in when needed, take the lead, take the lead, step aside if that's what's best for God's people, and not get a crushed ego or hurt feelings.

We saw when he first gave away the money from his selling his land, Barnabas didn't need praise or admiration. He didn't seek personal aggrandizement.

Boy, that's a big word. It was easier to type than to say.

But he sought to serve God and the people of God.

It's a good example for us to follow. His motivation.

And that brings us back to where we started. Barnabas was the man.

He was the man who encouraged, the man who exhorted people to live by God's way, the man who lived and taught God's way of life, the man who helped bring out the best in others, the man who could sacrifice his own comfort, sacrifice his own prestige to help others reach their potential. It's good for us to honor his story. Remember his reputation.

But he's done for now. He did that long ago. His example lives on in the pages of the Bible.

But we're here and now. Who's going to be the man?

Or the woman who will encourage and exhort?

Can we be like Barnabas?

I want to encourage us to try. I want to exhort us all to be men and women who are like Barnabas. Let us be people who serve and encourage all those around us.