Page 920. Acts 11, 920.
We're going to look at the Barnabas facts tonight.
I'm sure we can all think of someone of whom we'd say,
where would we be without that person?
In your family, you've probably got someone like that.
Where would we be without them?
Or certainly in church life, where would we be without that person?
And so where would we be without Barnabas?
Well, humanly speaking,
we'd be without half of the New Testament.
Because it's Barnabas in Acts chapter 9
who introduced Paul or Saul of Tarsus
as he was then to the others.
They're very suspicious of him.
They don't want to borrow him.
But Barnabas recognised what God was doing
in Paul's life and he introduces him.
He vouches for him to the other apostles.
So can you imagine Christianity without the letters of Paul?
And if it were not for Barnabas,
John Mark would have gone down in church history
as a backslider.
That's the guy that wrote Mark's Gospel.
Depending on what you think of the synoptic problem,
there would be other gaps in the other Gospels.
We won't go into that now.
But it was Barnabas who stood up for John Mark to Paul.
When Paul wanted to ditch him and say,
he's not going to stick with us,
if it were not for Barnabas, humanly speaking,
John Mark, well, wouldn't have written his Gospel.
Without Barnabas, humanly speaking,
Christianity would not have become
the great world movement that it is today
because something really significant happened
in the passage that we read.
Look at what it says in Acts 11, verse 26.
For a whole year, they met with the church
and they taught a great many people
and it was in Antioch
that the disciples were first called Christians.
Up until then,
Christianity had been thought of a Jewish sect, really.
But now at Antioch,
the door is opening for the Gentiles to come in.
Christianity is going to become the world movement
that we know today
and it's happening in Antioch.
It's why church historians have called Antioch
the cradle of Christianity.
It's no exaggeration, is it,
that this church at Antioch
became a hub of missionary activity.
It planted churches all around the Mediterranean
and humanly speaking,
it's thanks to this man Barnabas
because Barnabas was the guy
that was sent down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
And the Barnabas factor is crucially important
to the growth and development of the Christian church.
The Barnabas factor is crucial
for the development of any Christian church.
And so let's try and understand
what that might look like for us in IPC.
First of all, Barnabas the man.
And then we want to look at the difference it makes
when you have a man like Barnabas
in your church and in your team.
So first of all, who is this man?
Barnabas is not his name, his real name.
His real name is Joseph.
Barnabas is his nickname.
We know that from Acts chapter 4.
And we're told that his name was Joseph
and he was a Levite, a Cypriot by birth.
And he is the one that the apostles call Barnabas.
It's a nickname.
It means literally a tower of strength
or son of encouragement.
I quite like that.
I quite like that the early church gave themselves nicknames.
Next weekend, I'm preaching at a church weekend
in Northern Ireland
from a minister called James Blair.
But when I preached at the Reformed Presbyterian Conference
a couple of years ago,
I was being introduced
and then they said,
and now Cream Bun is going to come and lead in prayer.
And when you walked to the front,
there was this man with a very small head
and a very, very large body.
And all the ministers called him Cream Bun.
It's an amazing thing, isn't it?
I quite like that though.
And so it's not the equivalent of Cream Bun, is it?
But in the New Testament,
they had nicknames for each other.
We mustn't romanticize them.
Cephas, isn't it?
What does that mean?
It means Peter's nickname.
Rock.
We often think, don't we,
of St. Barnabas or some stained glass window.
But we think of the early church
far too formally,
too institutionally.
The people that you read of in Acts,
they're just like us.
And they loved each other
and they hung out with each other
and they gave each other nicknames.
So, son of encouragement.
So Barnabas comes into the meeting
and they say,
well, here he is, Mr. Encouragement.
And if you look at Acts 4,
it says that Barnabas,
he was a field owner.
He sold a field that he owned.
He bought it and then he sold it
and he laid it at the apostles' feet.
He didn't put the proceeds of that field
into a superannuation fund.
He didn't put it into the bank.
He brought the money
and he laid it at the apostles' feet.
It's always encouraging
when people are generous, isn't it?
When they're generous
in support of the Lord's work.
It's a sign of blessing in the church
when giving begins to increase
because people are committed,
not to the elders,
not because the elders are
kind of putting a guilt trip on you
or there's a big thermometer
like they do put outside some churches.
But when people start to give,
they are confident in their vision
and they're committed to the cause.
That's what's happening here.
It's a supreme act of generosity
on Barnabas' part,
but it's much more than that.
Notice we're told two things about Barnabas
back in Acts chapter 4.
We're told that he was a Levite
and a landowner.
And in the Old Testament,
those two things were exclusive.
They shouldn't have happened.
So when Moses is dividing up the land
in the Old Testament
and he's giving the tribes
their inheritance,
we're told there in Joshua
that he didn't give a portion
to the tribe of Levi
and we're given the reason for that
because the Lord God of Israel
was the Levite's inheritance.
They weren't to be landowners
because God was their inheritance
just as he had promised.
So how can a man who's a Levite
and a landowner,
how can he be that?
Well, in the Old Testament
that couldn't be.
But look what it says about this man
who was a Levite and a landowner.
It says he sold the field
that belonged to him,
he brought the money
and he laid it,
not on the temple treasury,
he didn't go to the Jews with it,
but he laid it at the feet
of the apostles.
As if to say,
Jesus,
the Jesus the apostle preached,
Jesus is now my inheritance.
That's what's going on.
And that's why he's such an encouragement.
He's totally sold out
on the Lord Jesus.
He's not just donating
to a good cause here.
He's devoting himself to Jesus.
Do you see that?
It's the exact opposite of Judas.
So Barnabas is Judas in reverse.
Remember what we're told about Judas.
Judas abandoned his commitment to Jesus.
He walked out on Jesus
and with the proceeds of that treasury,
do you remember what he did?
He bought the 30 pieces of silver.
He bought a field.
He went into that field
and he committed suicide.
It's a tragically sad, sad story.
Barnabas had a field
and it was his by right.
He owns it.
He's got a holiday home in Cyprus,
a timeshare property,
and he sells it
and with the proceeds of the sale
of his land,
he commits himself to Jesus
as Lord of his life.
That's the kind of people
we should aspire to be.
If God's work is to flourish amongst us,
generous,
committed,
Christ ones,
totally sold out on the Lord Jesus.
Now let's take a look secondly
at the difference this man makes
to the cause of Christ.
So come with me to chapter 11
and look at verse 23 in particular
because that's the key verse
that we need to look at.
And in that verse,
we're told three things about Barnabas.
We're told, first of all,
what he saw.
That's the first thing.
And then we're told
how he felt about what he saw
and then we're told
what he did about what he saw.
So let me read the verse to you.
Verse 23.
When he came
and saw the grace of God,
he was glad
and he exhorted them all
to remain faithful
to the Lord
with steadfast purpose.
For he was a good man,
followed the Holy Spirit
in faith,
and a great many people
were added to the Lord.
He was glad.
Let me unpack that verse.
And what did he see?
He saw the grace of God.
Now not everybody does, do they?
Do you remember in Luke 15
the elder brother
in the parable of the prodigal son?
There are lots of elder brothers
in churches
and elder sisters.
What you see depends
on a large extent
on what you're looking for.
Two men
looked out
through prison bars.
One saw
mud,
the other saw
stars.
Imagine what might have happened
if they'd sent someone else
other than Barnabas
down to Antioch.
A church bureaucrat,
perhaps.
Wearing his
ecclesiastical spectacles
and his book of church order.
Not wearing his book of church order,
but carrying it.
What would he have seen
in Antioch?
He might well have seen
the thin end of the wedge.
If Barnabas had gone down to Antioch
looking for trouble,
he'd have found it.
Because something quite unprecedented
was happening in Antioch.
Look at verses 19 to 21.
It all began with the persecution
in Acts chapter 8
that broke out
and we're told that Stephen was killed.
Up to then,
they'd been stockpiling Christians
in Jerusalem
and God from there
scattered them.
And those who were scattered
travelled as far
as Phoenicia
and Cyprus
and Antioch,
spreading the word
amongst the Jews.
And at first,
some of them,
however,
went from Cyprus
and Cyrene
and they went to Antioch
to speak to the Greeks
telling them the good news
of the Lord Jesus.
These aren't professional
church evangelists.
They're not
church planters
that have been fully trained
and equipped.
These are grassroot
grassroot Christians
telling others.
I was reading this week,
somebody called this
the great gospel sneeze.
That what happens in Antioch
is there's a super spreader event.
And now in Antioch,
there's community transmission.
It's like a flashback to COVID.
And there are new cases every day
and we're told
what it says in verse 21.
And the hand of the Lord
was with them.
And a great number
who believed
turned to the Lord.
It's a spontaneous work
of the Holy Spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit moves,
often the rules
go out the window.
It broke all the rules.
It's never been done
like this before.
And no doubt
in a situation like this,
there would have been
irregularities
and there would have been
anomalies to sort out.
And they would have been
needed to be sorted out
in the long term.
But God was at work
in Antioch.
And Barnabas saw it.
And he saw it.
Others might talk
about the problems there.
Others might talk
about the Jew-Gentile problem.
Lots of people up there
in HQ, Jerusalem,
they were worried about that.
But he didn't see it
that way, did he?
He saw it as an opportunity.
So years later
at the Jerusalem Council,
when there's a lot
of Jew-Gentile tension
and it's threatening
to split the church,
he didn't see it
as a door to slam shut.
He saw what God was doing.
And he saw a door
opening wide
for the Gentiles
to be brought in.
He saw the grace of God,
the generosity of God
to all the nations.
The God of all the earth,
he saw what he was doing.
That God was opening
a door wide
for all the people
to come in.
He saw the grace of God.
And when we come here
Sunday by Sunday,
is that what we see?
In the faces of each other,
in the conversations
that we have,
in the different issues
of our lives,
God is at work.
And the grace of God.
And notice Luke tells us
how he felt.
I love this.
He saw the grace of God
and how did he feel about it?
He was glad.
How do you know
someone's glad?
How do you know
someone's glad?
They show it,
don't they?
We struggle a little bit
with that as Presbyterians,
don't we?
Luke might well have seen
this with his own eyes
because according to tradition,
Luke was a native Antioch.
There's some kind of evidence
that he might well
have been there
at the time.
If you look at
the Western tradition,
it introduces the words
when we were gathered.
Luke includes himself.
Be that as it may,
whether it's right or not,
I'm not sure.
But Luke tells us
that Barnabas saw
the grace of God
and he was glad.
Why does he bother
to tell us that?
He tells us that
because feelings matter.
We need to be better
at this, don't we?
It's not very British
to show our feelings,
but it is very Christian.
I can remember when
I started here
and 20 years ago
and we would meet
on a Sunday night.
That first Sunday night
there were eight people
and in the early days
we'd meet in the church lounge,
you remember it,
and it gradually grew.
Claire or Katie
would be banging
on the piano.
We'd be in this little room.
We were all sitting on seats
that were really low
to the ground
and when somebody came in
everyone would turn around
and see what it was.
But occasionally
people would turn up
and some would come
and they would just be delighted
that there was a
kind of Sunday evening service
where the Bible
was being taught
and the Gospel
was being preached
and they'd rejoice.
But there were others
who came from
well-known churches
and you could see them
as they came in
thinking,
what on earth
is this funny little cult?
And they'd turn up their nose.
It doesn't look very impressive.
But those who came
and were so encouraged,
it was such a real encouragement,
wasn't it?
What a difference it is
when people are glad
at the grace of God.
Barnabas came down,
they must have been thinking
instead,
they must have thought,
what is he going to make of us?
These Gentiles,
we used to be in thought
of as second class citizens
and now the big church
in Jerusalem
sends down an emissary.
They must have thought,
what is he going to think of us?
But they didn't have to worry
because as soon as he came
through the door,
it was written across his face.
He was glad,
he was glad
to be amongst them,
glad that God
was at work amongst them.
And that is an understatement.
It's much,
it's much stronger.
But literally,
he's thrilled,
he's overjoyed,
he's literally jumping for joy.
So excited to see God
at work in people's lives
and I'm not very good at this.
I am very good
at concealing my gladness.
Churches like ours
often curb our gladness.
Tragically,
often I am
more prone
to put people down
than to build people up.
instinctively,
we can speak
the angry
and dismissive word
and damn people
with faint praise
and pour cold water
on things
far ready to criticise
and rebuke
than to encourage.
Instead of rejoicing
with the angels
in heaven
over one sinner
who repents.
What do we do?
Well,
we put him on probation.
Let's see if it's for real.
Let's see how he turns out
or she turns out.
If Barnabas
got on the Elizabeth line
tomorrow morning
and saw someone
reading his Bible,
I would think,
it's one of the JWs.
It's one of the cults.
But not Barnabas.
Barnabas would be glad
someone was reading the Bible.
He saw the grace of God
and he was glad.
There is almost,
there is something,
isn't there,
God-like
in his gladness.
I talk about this often.
Do you remember
that voice from heaven
that came down
in our Lord's baptism?
He spent 30 years
in obscurity
and at the age of 30
he is about
to take the public roads
to the cross
and there he is
at the River Jordan
and John the Baptist
is baptising
sinful men and women
in the Jordan
and what does Jesus do?
Jesus stands
in the line of sinners.
He doesn't stand aghast.
He joins the queue
of sinners
even though
he is without a sin,
even though
he is not a sinner.
He is numbered
with the transgressors
because he is stepping
on the road
to the cross
and at that very moment
at his baptism
he sets his face
towards Jerusalem
to go to the cross
to die for people
like you and I
and heaven is opened
and a voice is heard
from heaven
that's my boy.
This is my beloved son.
I'm so pleased
with you.
When did you last
tap someone
on the shoulder
and say something
like that?
When did you last
send a text message
or an email
to encourage a believer?
How many missionaries,
how many pastors,
how many elders,
how many Sunday school teachers,
how many youth group leaders
are languishing
ready to give up
just for want
of a word of encouragement?
He saw the grace of God
and he was glad.
But it's not only
what he sees
and what he feels about it,
it's what he does,
that's what I want you to see.
Look at verse 23.
When he came
and saw the grace of God
he was glad
and he exhorted them all
to remain faithful
to the denomination.
No, that's not right,
isn't it?
When he came
and saw the grace of God
he was glad
and he exhorted them all
to remain faithful
to the church in Jerusalem.
It doesn't say that.
When he came
and he saw the grace of God
he was glad
and he exhorted them all
to remain faithful
to remain true
to themselves.
That's not what he says.
Remain faithful to the Lord
with steadfast purpose.
How did,
how does he do that?
How did he build
this church
of baby believers
into the church
which changed the world,
the cradle of Christianity?
How did he do that?
He did two things
and Barnabas went
looking for help.
He realized
he couldn't do it
on his own
so he
recruited a team.
He knew he couldn't
do it on his own
so verse 25
he went to Tarsus
to look for his
old friend Saul.
And we found him,
he brought him to Antioch.
It's so reminiscent,
isn't it,
of what happened in Geneva
at the time of the Reformation
if you know that story.
John Calvin was an intellectual
and he was on his way
to Germany
with his books
because he wanted to study
and he happened
to pass through Geneva
and William Farrell
at that time
was the reformer
in Geneva.
And William Farrell
lays hold of John Calvin
and says,
Calvin may God curse you
in your studies
if you don't join me
in the work
that he's called you to do.
It's a great word
of encouragement,
isn't it?
I found it worked
a treat on Reuben Hunter.
And the rest is history,
isn't it?
It's great risk
putting the team together.
It's super risky.
Paul, this man,
had been persecuted.
He persecuted the church.
There were people
in the church in Jerusalem
who would have questioned
Barnabas' judgment
at this point
but it was a strategically
brilliant thing to do.
To bring Paul alongside him
to share the load
for one thing
but at the same time
for Paul to be discipled
and that is because
that's what Barnabas
was all about.
He's very intentional
about it.
So if you read
the next chapters of Acts
you can see this
discipleship relationship
developing and growing.
It's on the first
missionary journey
out of Antioch
it's Barnabas and Paul,
Barnabas and Paul,
Barnabas and Paul
but very soon
it flips, doesn't it?
And it becomes
Paul and Barnabas,
Paul and Barnabas.
And in the end
Barnabas slips
from the seed.
And what Barnabas
is doing is
he's making way
for Paul
to enter into the ministry
and he's releasing him
into his role
as the great apostle
to the Gentiles.
That's no small thing.
So someone has said,
isn't it,
it takes more grace
than I can tell
to play the second fiddle
well.
And Barnabas was content
to play second fiddle
to Paul
for the advance
of the gospel.
He's not hungry
for the limelight.
He doesn't want to start
Barnabas International Ministries.
He's willing to fade out
of the picture altogether
if someone better
comes along.
And his all-consuming passion
is not that he would
make a name for himself
but that the name
of Jesus would be known.
And that is what he's about.
And he saw the potential
in Paul from day one.
It's Barnabas
that introduces Paul
to the others
who vouched for him
when others treated him
with suspicion.
It was Barnabas
who recruited him
for ministry
and mentored him
on his first missionary journey
and eventually
stepped back
out of the way
and released him
into his role
as an apostle
of the Gentiles.
And he saw Paul
as a bloke worth watching.
He recognized him
as a brilliant scholar
steeped in scripture,
a Roman citizen,
fluent in Greek,
totally familiar
with contemporary culture,
just the man
for the job.
So he recruited a team.
And for a whole year,
Paul and Barnabas,
they meet with the church
and do you see what it says
there in verse 26?
This is the other thing they did.
They taught.
They taught a great many people.
And so can you just see
the vital, vital link
there is between encouragement
and the word of God?
Just don't miss that link.
How do you encourage people
to remain true to the Lord?
You teach them the word of God.
Let me just show you
that in a few places, okay?
So early letter of Paul's,
one of the earliest
is Thessalonians.
The Christians are dying
and Jesus has not returned
and the Thessalonians
are confused
and they're bewildered.
And their grief
is compounded
by a wrong thinking
about Jesus' return.
They're worried
that their loved ones
might miss out
because Jesus didn't come back.
So what does Paul do?
Paul spells out for them
the doctrine
of the second coming.
He teaches them
sound doctrine,
healthy doctrine.
And when you grasp
sound doctrine,
it puts strength into you.
It makes you healthy.
And when Paul teaches them
about the doctrine
of the second coming,
then in verse 18
of chapter 4
of 1 Thessalonians,
he says,
now encourage each other
with these words.
Are words all we've got?
No, of course not.
You can be there
for one another
in a situation like this
when people are grieving.
We cook meals
for one another.
We give practical help
to one another.
We phone.
We text.
You're doing that here,
aren't you?
But understand this.
In the end,
God's comfort
comes to God's people
through God's Word.
And we need to
understand that
so that we need
to be in the Word.
We need to know
sound doctrine
because that is how
we'll build one another up.
Think of the letter
to Hebrews.
Hebrews 13,
verse 22,
whoever wrote it,
some people actually
think Barnabas wrote it,
I don't know about that,
but the writer
in Hebrews 13
calls it a word
of encouragement.
Thirteen chapters,
chock full of doctrine,
full of Jesus,
full of how Jesus
fulfills the Old Testament.
It's a word
of encouragement.
So it encourages
Christians who are
tempted to slip back
into Judaism,
to go on with the Lord.
And so,
the word of encouragement
is you teach them
about Jesus
and how much better
than he is,
how much better
he is than angels,
he's better than Moses.
Well, think of Romans.
Romans 12,
I appeal to you,
the application part
of the letter,
I appeal to you,
therefore,
brothers,
by the mercies of God
to present your bodies
as living sacrifices,
holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
That's the pointy end
of Romans.
Romans.
That we are to be
living sacrifices.
And someone has said,
isn't it,
the problem with the living
sacrifice,
you're forever
climbing off the altar.
And Paul says,
I appeal to you,
therefore,
by the mercies of God.
What are they?
What are the mercies of God?
Well,
that's Romans 1 to 8.
Romans,
Hebrews,
they're the biggest books
in the New Testament.
We've got to get our heads
around them,
and we encourage one another
with these words.
So we're told,
aren't we,
for a whole year,
Barnabas and Paul,
they taught loads of people,
don't underestimate
what that is.
Antioch is the third largest city
in the world at that time.
Next to Rome and Alexandria,
it's 20 times the size of Jerusalem.
It's densely populated
and cosmopolitan.
It's far more multicultural
than you would think.
Greeks,
Romans,
Indians,
Chinese,
Jews,
Arabs,
and Persians
lived in Antioch.
There were 18 different
ethnic quarters
separated by high walls
to protect the inhabitants
from each other.
And now see what happens.
The gospel comes to town
and the walls come tumbling down.
And that's what needs to happen
in London,
isn't it?
And in every major city,
people leave their ghettos
and their old hostilities
and they become Christ ones.
That's what's happened here.
And that has come into their vocabulary,
Christ ones in Antioch
for the first time.
And if the gospel can do that
in Antioch,
it can do that here,
it can do that
wherever else it is preached.
But it won't happen overnight.
In Antioch,
it took 12 months
of week in,
week out
teaching the word of God.
And I hope
that's what you understand
that we're committed to here,
the regular systematic teaching
and preaching of the word of God.
The word of God
is spirit and life.
And it renews us.
It puts strength into us.
It encourages us.
When the people of God
come
to worship the living God
and hear the word of God,
God speaks.
There's nothing more important
in church life.
There's no better place
for any of us
than to be sitting
under the ministry of the word.
And we ought to be so thankful
to God that we're able
to do that.
Right in the center
of all of this
is this man
that the Lord raised up,
Mr. Encouragement.
This was his ministry.
I am thrilled to say
that there are lots
of Barnabases
and lots of
Barnabases
and IPC.
Barnalases.
And the ministry
of encouragement
and
encouragement
is not something
that you're born with.
Encouragement
is not in your genes.
It's not like the color
of your eyes
or the shape of your nose.
It's not something
that you can pick up
by reading
the right books
or attending a seminar.
It's not a skill.
It's not a technique
that you can learn.
It is something spiritual.
So see what it says
in verse 24
as we finish.
Barnabas was a good man
full of faith
and the Holy Spirit.
Barnabas was a good man
full of the Holy Spirit
and of faith.
That is not a bad epitaph
to put on your gravestone,
is it?
I wouldn't mind
having that on my tombstone.
Full of the Holy Spirit.
So think with me
for a moment
as we finish.
Barnabas is Mr. Encourager.
The Holy Spirit
is the encourager
par excellence.
In some translations
of the Bible
he's called the comforter.
Right in the middle
of that word comforter
is the word fort.
He is the fortifier.
He is the one
who puts strength into us.
The Greek word
is paraclete.
And so apparently
every army
had a paraclete
whose job
was to address
the troops
before going into battle.
To give them strength.
To give them
fortitude.
To make them feel invincible.
To give the team talk.
That was his job.
Isn't that what
the Holy Spirit
does in the heart
of the believer?
As the word of God
is preached
he points to Christ
and his finished work
on the cross
and he convinces us
that we are more
than conquerors
through him
who loved us.
And so tonight
you want to be a Barnabas
and I really hope you do.
Be filled
with the Holy Spirit
and point people
away from yourself
to Christ.
Let's pray.