Be a Barnabas

Delivered June 17, 2012  Video

Acts 11:19-30

On this Father’s Day I want to talk about one of the men in the New Testament. I don’t know if he was a father or not, but he was a godly man. His name was Barnabas. Barnabas may not the first person you think of when you start naming famous men of the Bible. He was not one of the apostles. He did not write any of the gospels or letters in the New Testament… probably. I had a theology professor in seminary who thought Barnabas was the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, but there is no solid evidence for that conclusion. You won’t find many churches named after Barnabas. Parents don’t name their children after him. When you think of Barney (short for Barnabas) you think of a purple dinosaur on the children’s show or a character on the Flintstones. But I am preaching on the biblical character of Barnabas today because he is a good role model to ponder on this Father’s Day. And also a man in our congregation asked me to preach about him as a Summer Sermon Suggestions request. In any case I thought that Father’s Day was a good time to preach on a man of faith and integrity. We could do worse than to be a Barnabas.

Barnabas first appears in scripture Acts 4; Acts 4:36 gives us some basic information about him. It tells us that Barnabas was not his real name. That was a nickname given to him by the apostles. His birth name was Joses or Joseph, but people called him Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement.” That immediately gives us an insight into his character. He was an encourager, and I will say more about that later in this message. The verse also tells us that he was a Levite, which means that he was a Jew from the priestly tribe of Levi. It also tells us that he was from Cyprus, which is an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, northwest of Israel.

Barnabas was a traveling companion of the apostle Paul. His name appears over twenty times in the Book of Acts and several times in the letters of the apostle Paul. I think he was probably an impressive looking guy. I will tell you why. There is a scene in Acts 14 where Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary journey in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. The apostle Paul does a miracle of healing a crippled man in Lystra, and the people of the town respond by assuming the two missionaries are Greek gods who have come to earth with supernatural powers. Let me read you the verse: “¹¹ Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” ¹² And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³ Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.”  They thought Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus! They could have speculated that he was any of the many Greek gods, but they chose Zeus. Zeus was the ruler of the Olympian gods, and he is always pictured as a very impressive figure. So I assume that Barnabas was likewise a pretty impressive looking guy.

With this background information, let’s get into our text for today. There are four things I want to say about Barnabas this morning. All four points can be found in our NT reading for today from the Book of Acts. The first three are listed in Acts 11:24, which describes Barnabas with these words: “²⁴ For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”

1. First, Barnabas was a good man. This is a general statement of character. Let’s get specific. The first time Barnabas appears in scripture is in Acts 4. It was the early days of the church. People were caught up in the enthusiasm of the new Christian movement. People shared of their material possessions freely with one another. The church was so generous with each other that it says that there was no one in need as a result. In this context the passage specifically mentions Barnabas, “And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

He was known as a generous man. A good way to tell the character of a person by how they spend their money. Talk is cheap. Many can talk a good game when it comes to faith, but you can tell if people are serious about God by how they spend their money. I am not just talking about how much they give to the church, even those I obviously think this is important. You can also tell by how attached they are to their money, and how willing they are to give to others in need. Jesus said that you can’t serve both God and money. The apostle John says, “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” Barnabas heart was not closed to those in need; he had a loving heart. He cared about people. At the end of our scripture passage for today it refers to Paul and Barnabas going around to the churches collecting an offering for the poor in Judea. It does not surprise me that Barnabas would be a leader in this relief effort. He was a good man.

2. Second, it says that Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit. This tells us the source of his character.  There are lots of good people in the world. I am not so close-minded as to think that you have to be a Christian to be a good person. I have known a lot of good people of other faiths and good people of no faith. I read a book a couple of years ago (I actually borrowed it from one of the church members here) by Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University. It is entitled “Good Without God.” It makes a case for what most of us already know, that morality is not the monopoly of religious people.

Although statistics seem to show that religious people are more generous to charitable causes than secular people. The 2011 book  American Grace: How Religion Unites and Divides Us, Robert Putnam, professor of public policy at Harvard (and by the way is not a religious believer) and coauthor David Campbell unpack two massive and comprehensive surveys into religion and public life in America. The authors found “On every measurable scale, religious Americans are more generous, more altruistic and more involved in civic life than their secular counterparts. They are more likely to give blood, money to a homeless person, financial aid to family or friends, a seat to a stranger and to spend time with someone who is ''a bit down''.  I see this as the Holy Spirit inspiring us beyond our natural generosity. In the same way we can say that the source of Barnabas’ generosity was his spirituality. He was full of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is God. In Christian theology the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, the one who indwells believers. Christians understand morality as coming from God and coming through us. Even though the Scriptures talk about God-given law and an innate human conscience, when it comes to spiritual living it is understood that God is living his life through us. The Holy Spirit indwells us and guides us and leads us. Our morality is not a matter of obeying rules out of guilt or fear; it is a matter of allowing God the freedom in our lives to do what he wants. It is a spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit working through our lives. So it is not so much a matter of rules, laws, or even ethical principles; it is a matter of the Holy Spirit of God having control of our lives. That is the type of person Barnabas was; he was full of the Holy Spirit.

3. Third, this verse says Barnabas was “full of faith.” This verse tells us “²⁴ For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”  He had faith in God, but a unique characteristic of Barnabas faith is that he had faith in people. By that I mean that he had faith that God was working through other people and not just himself. I want to give a couple of examples of this, because it is important to understanding this man. One example was his support for Saul before he was the famous apostle Paul. You probably know Paul’s dramatic conversion on the Damascus Road. Paul was then known as the Pharisee Saul. He was a notorious persecutor of the church at that time. He had gone on a trip to Damascus, Syria, to arrest some Christians. But on the road to Damascus he had an experience of the risen Christ. By the time he got to Damascus he was a Christian. He was baptized in Damascus and immediately began to preach the gospel that he had opposed previously. He was so effective in converting Jews to the Christian faith that the Jewish leaders there plotted to kill him. Saul had to be secretly let down over the wall in a basket at night.

Saul then went to Jerusalem to see the apostles, but the Christians were not convinced that his conversion was real. They remembered him as the one who persecuted them. They thought his conversion was likely just a ruse to infiltrate the church and get the names of all the Christians to destroy the church completely. Acts 9: ^26 “And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.” This is where Barnabas steps in. This is the second time he appears in the Book of Acts. The next verse says, “²⁷ But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.” Barnabas was the only person who would stand up for Saul. This was the type of person he was. He believed in people; he believed that God was at work in people when no one else could see it.

There is another story like this. It has to do with the young man known as John Mark, who later would write the Gospel we know as the Gospel of Mark. Paul and Barnabas had brought this young man with them on their first missionary journey. But it was too much for the young man. He left them halfway through the trip and went home. Later when they were planning their second missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark with them again, and give him a second chance. But Paul would not hear of it. Let me read you what it says in Acts 15:37-40. “³⁷ Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. ³⁸ 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.³⁹ Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; ⁴⁰ but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. ⁴¹ And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”

Once again Barnabas stood up for the underdog. Paul should have known better. Barnabas had done this for him at the beginning of his ministry. But Paul was not like Barnabas; he could not see that Barnabas saw in Mark. Barnabas was special in this regard. He had faith in people – in God working in people. This is an important quality to have in ministry. Some pastors and church leaders think they have to do it all. If they don’t do it, then it won’t get done in the church. At least it won’t get done right. That is when the church gets in trouble – when too few leaders have too much control. I think that is what is wrong with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and what is wrong with Protestant megachurches centered on a strong central pastor. The church is by nature egalitarian, not authoritarian. We are all equal here. This is part of the Protestant principle of the priesthood of all believers. The church is all of us working together, and no part of the body can say to another that we don’t need them. Paul himself realized this later when he wrote those words about the Body of Christ to the Corinthian church, but he had not learned it yet. Barnabas had.

4. Fourth, Barnabas was an encourager. In our passage in Acts 11, news came to Jerusalem that some Gentiles had believed in Christ. This was very controversial at this time. Right before our passage the apostle Peter had to defend to the other apostles his action of baptizing the Roman centurion Cornelius and his family. Now some more Gentiles had believed in Christ in Antioch. They wanted to send someone to check it out. Who else would they send but Barnabas? Our passage says, “²² 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. ²³ When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.”

Do you see what he did? It says that he came and “saw the grace of God” in these people. Here is that same quality that we talked about before; Barnabas saw in Saul and then Mark. He could see the grace of God working in people’s lives as well. And it says that he was glad when he saw it. He rejoiced in the grace of God working in people’s lives. This is a wonderful quality to have. Some people are so self-centered and self-occupied. Their lives are all about them. Things have to be their way. It is their way or the highway; Paul was like that on many occasions. But Barnabas was open to see new things that God was doing. He could see the grace of God working in people’s lives, and he rejoiced. Barnabas was the type of person who tended to be in the background. He did not call attention to himself. It wasn’t all about him. It was about the grace of God working in other people.

He supported other people and encouraged them. Our text says, “When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.” He was an encourager. We might call him a mentor. This was so much a part of who he was that they gave him the nickname ‘Son of Encouragement.” “Son of” in Hebrew simply means to share the qualities of. The apostles James and John were called by Jesus “Boanerges,” which means the “sons of thunder” because of how loud they were in their zeal for the gospel. When they preached it sounded like a thunderstorm happening. Barnabas was a “son of encouragement.”

Specifically it says that he “encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.” Not only was Barnabas full of faith, but he encouraged people to persevere in their faith. That is much needed these days. A lot of people do not continue in their faith. They do not persevere in the spiritual life. They drop by the wayside. When the going gets tough, many people give up when it comes to faith. Like John Mark did on the missionary journey; he gave up and went home. But Barnabas sought him out and encouraged him to try again. The church needs encouragers like Barnabas. The church needs men to be encouragers to other men, especially young men. Women need to be encouragers of women as well, especially young women. There is a need for Barnabases. May we all in our sphere of influence be like Barnabas and “encourage them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.”