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Introduction
This morning
I have the privilege of delivering a message that is all by itself.;
it isn’t the first of a series. I’m going to try it
and see what it’s like.
As
you know, I don’t usually deliver nice bite-size snacks
for you to sample. I usually end up delivering a high protein
& carb feast with 5 of 6 courses to it. Even then, with the
guest speakers and schedule interruptions, it takes me 7 or 8
weeks to actually deliver them.
As your head waiter, I appreciate your patience with me, but there
are more and more tables being filled up these days. You have
been so very accommodating allowing other waiters to serve you
and treating them well. I thank you for that.
In the coming days I anticipate that many of you regular patrons
will notice that this restaurant is beginning to fill up with
new hungry guests. It would be good if you would make them feel
at home here; and while you’re at it, feel free to get them
familiar with the menu (HOLD UP BIBLE). I certainly wouldn’t
mind it if you got up from your table and began to serve as a
waiter. Don’t worry about the cook keeping up to the orders
that are coming in, He is fully capable of meeting everyone’s
needs.
The only thing you really need to know about being a waiter is
that everything that our patrons will ever need is found on the
menu. The better you get to know the menu, the better you’re
able to serve our patrons.
This morning, however, it’s snack time. So sit back and
enjoy what the cook has prepared for today … hopefully,
I won’t drop it before it gets to your table.
The
Book of Acts
In the Scripture
there is a unique book called the Book of Acts. In the longer
title, it is actually called The Acts of the Apostles. Acts is
an historical book which records the growth of the church as it
begins in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.
In the four Gospels, which precede the book of Acts, the life
of Jesus is recorded. They end with accounts of his torturous
death, his burial for 3 days, his being brought back to life,
and some accounts of the 40 days he spent with his disciples following
his resurrection from the dead.
The book of Acts starts off with a brief account of those 40 days
noting that Jesus:
Acts
1:3-5,8 appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke
about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating
with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem,
but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard
me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days
you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit… you will receive
power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth."
With that as the introduction, the Book of Acts then spends 28
chapters giving an account of how the kingdom of God was spread
throughout the world under the influence of men filled with the
Holy Spirit.
It’s within pages of this historical account that I want
to draw your attention to one very interesting relationship. The
Barnabas and Paul duo has some very interesting dynamics to it,
that if you are just reading the book of Acts for the sake of
history, you may skip right over this story.
The
Story of Barnabas & Paul
Take away
the modern conveniences and the knowledge gained from 2000 yrs
of additional history. Take away the industrial age, the printing
press, the discovery of things like electricity, aircraft &
automobiles, mass production, and the spinning jenny. Take away
all that we’ve become accustomed to that defines the modern
man, and you’ll recognize these two individuals as very
much like any of us.
Paul & Barnabas had personalities; they had opinions, strengths
and weaknesses. They were both Jewish so they almost certainly
had olive skin, brown eyes and black hair. They were probably
shorter than the average North American man and wore robes instead
of jeans and had different customs from a different culture; but
make no mistake about it, they were just like you or I.
As we look through the book of Acts at the relationship between
these two early Christians, I want us to notice the historical
account of their actions; but far more importantly, I want us
to look at them as people … and them as friends and brothers
in the Christian faith.
To start out with, I want to mention some of the obvious signs
pointing to the strength of this kinship.
If you scan through Scripture with a computer and do a search
for the name Barnabas you’ll come up with 34 times that
the name Barnabas is named.
Of those 34 times, 29 are in the book of Acts;
Of those 29 times, here’s how the Book of Acts mentions
Barnabas’ name in order of appearance through the book.
1. The
first time we hear his name it tells us that his real name is
Joseph, but the apostles called him Barnabas which means “Son
of Encouragement”.
2. The second
time we hear his name he is introducing Saul (whose name would
later be changed to Paul) to the apostles. You see Saul had
been a persecutor of Christians before he became one himself;
so the Christian community was suspicious of his motives when
he converted to Christianity from the Jewish faith. But God
specifically told Paul that he was preparing him to be a light
to the Gentiles … the non-Jews.
3. The third
time we hear of Barnabas, he is being sent to Antioch to see
if it’s true that the non-Jewish people were also receiving
the Holy Spirit as had happened at the beginning of the church
age.
4. The fourth
time that we hear the name of Barnabas, he is going to Tarsus
to get Saul in order that he could teach the Gentile people
of Antioch about Jesus… since Saul was given that mandate
by the Lord.
5. Now,
this is the interesting part to me. For the next 25 occurrences
of the name of Barnabas here’s how it mentions his name.
Barnabas & Saul, Barnabas & Saul, Barnabas & Saul,
Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, & Saul, Barnabas &
Saul, Barnabas & Saul, Paul & Barnabas, Paul & Barnabas,
Paul & Barnabas, Paul & Barnabas, Paul & Barnabas,
Paul & Barnabas, Barnabas & Paul, Barnabas & Paul,
he & Barnabas, Paul & Barnabas, Paul & Barnabas,
Paul & Barnabas, Barnabas & Paul, Paul & Barnabas,
Barnabas & Paul, Paul & Barnabas, Paul said to Barnabas,
Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them but Paul did not think
it wise, Barnabas to Mark and sailed to Cyprus but Paul chose
Silas and left.
There are
five references to Barnabas outside the book of Acts; every time
it is in Paul’s writing that he is mentioned.
The first
conclusion we can make from just this simple exercise is that
these two are joined at the hip. They appear inseparable.
Only once does Barnabas’ name appear in Scripture that it
is not mentioned in relationship with Paul or mentioned by Paul
in his own letters. And the time that it is mentioned without
Paul it is telling us what his real name is and why the apostles
changed his name. (More on that in a minute) So Barnabas is exclusively
linked to Paul.
But not so the name of Paul. Barnabas’ name is mentioned
29 times in Acts, but Paul’s is mentioned 204 times. In
the rest of Scripture, Barnabas’ name is mentioned 5 more
times and Paul’s name is mentioned 29 additional times (it
would be mentioned more except Paul wrote most of the rest of
the New Testament so he wouldn’t use his own name very often
in his letters)
Even with just this information we have about how the names are
referred to in the Scriptures we can hypothesize some factors
about their relationship.
1. They
obviously were very important together. The fact that while
Barnabas is in the picture, his name is not mentioned except
when he is with Paul and vice versa, leads me to conclude that
they were a very tight pair. They worked well together, and
from the time they started to work together to the time they
separated, it does not mention that they ever worked apart.
2. They
were equals. It isn’t much to go on, but of the 25 occurrences
that it mentions Barnabas and Paul together in Acts, Barnabas’
name appears first 13x and Paul’s appears first 12x.
3. Of the
two, Paul was eventually viewed overall as the more prominent
figure. At least by the writer of Acts.
The usage of Barnabas’ name almost exclusively in tandem
with Paul’s leads me to believe that, although Paul entered
the faith after Barnabas, he became the more prominent player
in the faith. It could be that Paul became the front man, and
Barnabas played more of a support role.
4. The usage
of Paul’s name frequently without the name of Barnabas
supports this, and leads me to believe that from the writers
view, Paul was Paul without Barnabas, but perhaps it could be
said that Barnabas was only Barnabas in relation to how he worked
with Paul.
5. And finally on this point, following the reference when the
two of them go their separate ways, Barnabas’ name is
never mentioned again, but Paul’s is mentioned in the
following 13 chapters a whopping 145 times.
Those are
some hypothesis that I would deduce just from the manner in which
their names were used in the Scripture. But let’s look more
directly at the relationship itself and see some of the dynamics.
Remember, this could be any two of us that it’s talking
about. These are two ordinary men … yet we know how God
used them to turn the Gentile world upside down for the kingdom
of God.
Barnabas’
Supporting Role
The meaning
of the name Barnabas actually supports some of the hypothesis
that I’ve already made just from the manner in which his
name is used in Acts.
Acts
4:36-37 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called
Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned
and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.
Barnabas means son of Encouragment, and would be more encouraging
to the apostles than for have one of their spiritual children
sell some property and give them the money to use in advancing
the kingdom. This was actually the mentality of most of the people
who were coming to Christ at that time, in droves they were being
saved and using all of their pooled resources to get the message
of the kingdom out.
Barnabas – “Son of Encouragement ” Grk. “paraklesis”–
supporter, encourager, backing, promoter, agent, sponsor …
this is the temperament and ministry that the apostles recognized
when they renamed him and this is the manner in which he seemed
to have operated in his association with Paul … an equal,
but a supporting equal. As I said, Paul was the front man and
Barnabas was the “paraklesis” supporting him, backing
him up.
Just for reference sake. Don’t think that a “paraklesis”
role is any less potent or any less important … the Holy
Spirit himself is referred to as the “parakletos”
… Comforter, Advocate.
So we get
the picture of this relationship unraveling and solidifying, Barnabas
enters the historical account of the church as an encouraging
supporter of the apostles and is viewed in the bulk of the other
references as Paul’s right hand man. Paul is the more prominent
front man and Barnabas the crucial loyal supporter backing him
up.
This, of course,
started as I said, when Barnabas is introducing Saul to the apostles
just after his conversion, when the apostles were still suspicious
that this persecutor may be playing a game of espionage to get
among them. (a wolf in sheep’s clothing) We see Barnabas
advocating for Saul and acting as a go between as he vouches for
the genuineness of Saul’s conversion.
Acts 9:26-27
When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but
they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was
a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.
He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that
the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached
fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
And then again
after the Gentiles in Antioch received the Holy Spirit and it
was confirmed that God didn’t want this Christianity thing
to be just a Jewish faith, we see that Barnabas immediately wanted
to get Saul in on this since God had called him to minister to
the Gentiles. Acts 11:25-26 Then Barnabas
went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought
him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with
the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were
called Christians first at Antioch.
In this way, Barnabas was like Saul’s promoter or agent;
linking him with those who needed him.
If I could
sum it up, I might put it this way. Paul was Paul, and Barnabas
was someone who helped Paul be a better Paul.
To the human
heart, and especially to the North American human hearth, this
kind of supportive role seems to be demeaning and lacking in self-respect.
But to the NT believer, it was very evident that the people backing
up the front men were no less important … indeed, I do believe
that Paul would not have reached Paul’s potential without
Barnabas.
It is around this understanding that so many Scriptures begin
to make sense.
Matt 20:26-28 Instead, whoever wants
to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants
to be first must be your slave- just as the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many."
Mark 10:30-31 But many who are first will be last, and the last
first."
Luke 9:48 For he who is least among you all-he is the greatest."
Matt 18:4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 6:3-4 do not let your left hand know what your right hand
is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father,
who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Conclusion
What can we
learn then from this dynamic duo? Is there anything we can take
home with us regarding our place in the kingdom of God?
1. Well,
the first is very obvious. It is what I’ve been alluding
to with Barnabas. I believe it was Og Mandino who said something
to the effect, “no man has ever acted with more nobility
than when he is making the name of another man great.”
Ultimately, of course, our greatest nobility is to make the
name of Jesus great; but in so doing, we must recognize the
advantageous opportunities of encouraging, supporting, and sometimes
promoting our brothers and sisters in the faith as they grow
in maturity and increase their influence for the kingdom.
2. The second
thing we must learn is to know the times and the seasons. Get
a keen sense for the situation. Because there are times when
each of us, to one degree or another, will also be called upon
to be Paul… to be the front man.
At first glance, being relegated to the position of a supporting
role seems demeaning; and it can be a temptation to promote
ourselves instead of another. But the other end of the spectrum
can be just as tempting … to never step into the frontline
and take your God-given opportunity to be the front man.
This may be in the coffee room when other people are discussing
the Bible or some particular thought regarding God. Do you step
out of the shadows and take the leading role in declaring the
truth; or do you just sit there and wait for Paul to come into
the room so you can intercede quietly for him? Sometimes playing
the role of intercessor for the Pauls in the group is the most
noble role to take, sometimes it is just a cowardly act.
Know the times … sometimes you must be Baranabas sometimes
you must be Paul … learn to know which is which.
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