Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Luke 16:10-13, Acts 15:36-41

“…he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit” Acts 11:24

Paul’s conversion is the most dramatic, famous conversion story in the history of our faith. This man went from a persecutor of Christians to an Apostle. Some scholars argue that without the Apostle Paul there would be no Christian religion in the modern world. Paul organized the followers of Jesus into a major world religion. The majority of the New Testament consists of the writings and theology of this Apostle.

Would it surprise you if I said that without another man of God behind the scenes, there would have been no Apostle Paul? I am talking about Barnabas.

A part of the Apostle Paul story that we sometimes skim over occurs in Acts 9 when Paul first tried to meet with the church leaders in Jerusalem. These leaders did not trust Paul’s story of conversion. They suspected he was trying to infiltrate their ranks in order to have them arrested. It was Barnabas who risked his reputation, befriended Paul, and welcomed him. In fact, Paul had pretty much dropped off the map of Christianity until Barnabas went looking for him to help with a new church in Antioch. When everybody else had given up on Paul, Barnabas saw the potential and reached out to offer encouragement. History was changed by Barnabas’s encouragement of young Paul.

How often do we forget the names of those who served behind the scenes in roles of encouragement? History records names like Paul but forgets the Barnabas factor.

In two years Kate and I are taking a group to see the Oberammergau Passion play in Germany. It has been happening every decade since the Black Plague. The villagers made a promise to God that if their villages were spared from the disease that was wiping out much of their neighboring villages they would perform a play about the life and passion of Jesus. More than five hundred years later, they still continue keeping their promise.

History records an amazing story from the days of the Black Plague in Germany. Families had to protect themselves from infection by avoiding any strangers or beggars out on the streets. Local authorities regularly rounded up vagrants and sent them to the Black Forest on the other side of the Rhine River. It was not a time for families to risk the health of their children by showing hospitality.

A German family looked out their window one evening to see an eighteen-year-old young man shivering in the winter cold. He was begging down the block from their house. Obviously starving and cold, he appeared to come from common peasant stock. They took the risk of inviting him to dinner.

At the table, they learned that he came from a mining family. His father had scrimped and saved to get him into the University. His mother’s family encouraged him to pursue a degree in law. But he had run out of funds. If he could not collect enough to stay in school he would have to return home and go to work in the mines with his dad.

The family saw this young man’s potential for studies. They opened their home to him and let him reside in their house while he remained in school. He studied hard and completed his law degree in the shortest time allowed. On graduation, he was immediately invited onto the University faculty. Four years later, he left his prestigious faculty position to become a monk. With his sharp mind, he began reflecting on the needs for change in the Catholic Church. History would record his famous 95 Theses as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. We know his name: Martin Luther. But we’ve forgotten the name of the family that encouraged him and helped him stay in school.

Historians can’t find the names of most of the people who impacted others from behind the scenes. Fortunately, we know the name of Barnabas in the Bible. In fact, maybe a review of his life could help us understand how a person like Barnabas grows a ministry of encouragement. Let’s see what we can learn from Barnabas.

Second Missionary Journey

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are."

Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also.

But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord.

And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Acts 15:36-41

The young woman sat on the deck of the cruise ship. She kept staring at a man in a deck chair across the way. Eventually he became uncomfortable with her constantly watching him, so he approached her.

“Excuse me, but why are you watching me?” he asked.

“I was struck by how much you look like my first husband,” she said.

He relaxed and asked, “How many times have you been married?”

“I haven’t … yet.”

Barnabas, like that young woman, not only saw potential, but knew how to encourage it. He was the key person behind the scenes who nurtured Paul into ministry leadership. The Book of Acts tells the story of the amazing first century missionary movement. Barnabas recruited Paul onto the first mission team

We notice an interesting dynamic between these two Christian leaders. At the start of their mission trip Barnabas is clearly the leader and young Paul is his disciple. Their mission team is referred to as “Barnabas and Paul.” By the end of that trip, however, the roles have changed. Barnabas has stepped back into a supporting role while Paul is emerging as the better evangelist and preacher. When they return to their home church in Antioch they have become the mission team of “Paul and Barnabas.”

Barnabas had no problem with stepping aside in order to encourage another person’s gifts. In fact, as they prepared to leave for their second mission trip they had a debate over whether or not to include the young man, John Mark. Paul was still upset that John Mark had abandoned them during the first trip. Paul considered this young man to be a quitter. But Barnabas saw potential in John Mark. They had such a sharp disagreement over him that they separated and formed two mission teams, with Barnabas leading Mark while Paul chose Silas as his teammate. Eventually, under Barnabas’s tutelage, Mark became the author of the Gospel of Mark.

Barnabas had a wonderful ministry of discovering and encouraging individual potential that others had missed. How did he learn to see human resources that others missed?

Perhaps a key is to discover how he got that nick-name, Barnabas. He first shows up on the pages of our Bibles by another name, Joseph. Just as Saul the Rabbi became Paul the Apostle, so Joseph of Cyprus became Barnabas “the encourager.” He was given this nick-name because he used his property resources to encourage and bless others. For instance, Acts 4 tells us that he sold a piece of land he owned in Cyprus and used the income from it to encourage his church’s leaders. Suggest that resources can be used in different ways than merely for personal agendas and you get the world’s attention! In fact, this is the reason we know the name of the famous reformer Martin Luther.

Let’s go back to that story of the family who took in the young man and helped him through school.

Martin Luther became famous for influencing the entire Western world with his posting of the 95 Theses on All Saints Day 1517. It almost sounds like this young monk appeared out of nowhere to shake the Western church to its core. Did you know, however, that he also posted a theological treatise of 97 theses the year before with hardly any notice at all? His radical teachings that the Bible alone is the final authority for faith and practice, that we are saved entirely by God’s forgiveness and grace, not our own attempts to live good lives, were not new themes. He had posted these same things on the bog site of the day—the church’s front door. What shook Europe was that he dared to challenge the assumptions about resources of his day.

Martin Luther’s 97 These were merely seen as an academic debate among theologians and scholars. But his 95 Theses dared to address the issue of how the church raised financial resources. Debate salvation by faith versus salvation by works and the world yawns. Connect resources with salvation and people get upset!

Barnabas discovered that releasing resources was just like releasing people. He learned to see people and resources not as they were, but as they could become in God’s hand. He saw his piece of land in terms of a church taking care of its own needy members. He saw that piece of land as a resource to be developed for the benefit of those who need God’s love. He released that resource to bless others. Pretty soon he was nick-named an encourager.

Barnabas’ ability to see potential in resources and people made him usable by God. His home church sent him to the Antioch congregation to help them discover and release their leadership potential. When others had their doubts, Barnabas saw the potential in two young men, Paul and Mark.

I’m suspecting that God is asking our church to become a Barnabas congregation. Can we see our resources in fresh ways, through God’s eyes? What would that look like in the twenty-first century?

I came across an interesting statistic recently. This was a study that lasted over ten years and included 7th through 12th graders from schools across 80 communities.

Results? Listen to this: teenagers who are active in churches have better grade point averages, lower drop out rates, and greater academic success. The study compared an already known connection for academic success with the impact of regular church attendance. Studies had already shown that youth whose parents have completed a college degree have a higher grade point average than youth whose parents only completed high school. Probably that is not shocking to most of us. What was new and surprising was the discovery that youth who regularly attend churches rate even higher on their average grade point averages than those whose parents completed college.

The scholars who discovered this connection have theorized as to why church attendance helps a teenager’s grade point average. They suspect it is related to the fact that young people in churches tend to have regular contact and modeling with adults from other generations. Parents in churches tend to be better connected with other parents. The youth in church programs share similar values and norms with other high performing students and tend to engage in healthy extra-curricular activities.

Think of it. These kinds of studies are reminding us of something we already know as Christians. When people get connected in healthy support systems, they tend to do better in all kinds of arenas. We’ve known that this was true for our seniors, but now we have evidence that is also true for youth.

A Barnabas congregation, then, releases resources and people in ways that encourages us all. Can you see us as a Barnabas congregation?