In Romans 16, the apostle Paul sends his greetings to dozens of his associates and fellow staff in Rome. Some, like Prisca and Aquila, are acquainted names. Others, like Epaenetus, seem nowhere else within the Bible. They performed a task in Paul’s monumental ministry, but we all know subsequent to nothing about them. Even so, God is aware of them. They share Christ’s reward, and so they’ve added their voices to the refrain of heavenly reward.
As a result of the Scriptures (to our profit) flip our consideration so typically to distinguished heroes of the religion like Paul, it may be simple to overlook that the church in each technology has been sustained and enriched predominantly by unsung heroes—these whose names might by no means have even been written down, who have been identified solely to their instant acquaintances, and who have been maybe tempted to imagine they’d lived and died insignificantly. But nobody is insignificant within the functions of God.
Nobody is insignificant within the functions of God.
Practically all of us who’re in Christ by means of religion will likely be such individuals—forgotten by the world at massive but remembered by God. We might be inspired by one of many “minor” characters within the biblical narrative: a modest man named Joseph whose very modesty allowed him to make an unbelievable influence for the Gospel.
The Encourager
We first meet Joseph—higher identified to us by his nickname, Barnabas—in Acts 4, simply because the early days of the church are unfolding:
Joseph, who was additionally referred to as by the apostles Barnabas (which suggests son of encouragement), a Levite, a local of Cyprus, offered a discipline that belonged to him and introduced the cash and laid it on the apostles’ toes. (Acts 4:36–37)
Among the many many who had been touched by the Spirit and remodeled consequently was this man Joseph. He was not one of many Twelve, and his identify isn’t practically as recognizable as many different New Testomony people. The factor that was most notable about him was not his spiritual pedigree (as a Levite) nor his nation of origin (Cyprus) however the reward that God had given him, which impressed his nickname.
Occasionally, someone will get a nickname so good that it replaces their identify. That was the case with Joseph. The apostles referred to as him Barnabas, “son of encouragement,” as a result of he was an encourager. And it was this issue about Barnabas that made him influential. He was capable of consolation and to exhort those that have been in his firm, and it appears that evidently in every single place he went, he made an influence for the dominion.
It’s nicely stated that if you wish to see into a person’s coronary heart, you possibly can have a look at his checkbook. If we may look into Barnabas’s checkbook, we might see a person who had given himself, inside and outside, to God. He was beneficiant together with his belongings, together with his phrases, and together with his life—and all of this was potential as a result of he had given himself first to God.
The Welcomer
The subsequent time we see Barnabas in Acts, it’s as he performs a pivotal position in welcoming the previous persecutor Saul to the church shortly after his sudden conversion:
When [Saul] had come to Jerusalem, he tried to hitch the disciples. And so they have been all afraid of him, for they didn’t imagine that he was a disciple. However Barnabas took him and introduced him to the apostles and declared to them how on the street he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and the way at Damascus he had preached boldly within the identify of Jesus. (Acts 9:26–27)
Saul—that’s, Paul the apostle—had hated Christians. Even initially of Acts 9, we discover him “nonetheless respiratory threats and homicide towards the disciples of the Lord” (v. 1). So it’s not laborious to sympathize with the disciples in Jerusalem. The change that overcame Saul because of his encounter with the risen Christ (vv. 3–5) actually was unbelievable. But it’s the form of transformation that the Holy Spirit is within the behavior of creating. And amongst all of the believers in Jerusalem, it was Barnabas who had the knowledge and braveness to acknowledge this.
One story from the US West Coast within the heyday of the ’60s tells of a really positive church the place everybody got here correctly dressed and nicely groomed. The congregation was aghast when a barefooted, long-haired hippie walked within the door. He walked previous pew after pew, nobody budging to make room for him. Lastly, he discovered himself on the entrance of the church, the place he precipitated additional scandal by sitting cross-legged on the ground. To everybody’s reduction, one of many deacons stepped into motion, marching on to the unwelcome visitor—and sitting down, cross-legged, proper beside him!
That’s the spirit of a Barnabas. Barnabas knew that what God had performed in his life He may do in Saul’s. Whereas others shut the door in Saul’s face, Barnabas reached out a hand of fellowship. And since Barnabas was there for him, Saul “went out and in amongst them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly within the identify of the Lord” (Acts 9:28). The nice welcome from an unsung hero made the apostle’s nice ministry potential.
This was a easy gesture, but it wasn’t an affordable one. To “take” someone like Barnabas did includes time, includes effort, includes a rearrangement of plans. As a lot as we need to be Barnabas, dedicated to the Lord inside and outside, we’re extra typically able to be those shutting the door.
Let that be a reminder that there aren’t any meaningless moments in our days. There aren’t any probability encounters, irrelevant individuals, or inconsequential duties. The church carries on from one technology to the following due to women and men whose names we’ll by no means know who, like Barnabas, will take the time and take the danger to increase a hand of welcome.
The Gracious, Blissful Apostle
Two chapters later, Barnabas once more seems within the pages of Scripture, this time as he’s chosen to be despatched as a consultant of the believers in Jerusalem to new believers in one other metropolis:
The hand of the Lord was with them, and an excellent quantity who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this got here to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and so they despatched Barnabas to Antioch. When he got here and noticed the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted all of them to stay devoted to the Lord with steadfast objective, for he was a great man, filled with the Holy Spirit and of religion. And an excellent many individuals have been added to the Lord. (Acts 11:21–24)
There aren’t any meaningless moments in our days. There aren’t any probability encounters, irrelevant individuals, or inconsequential duties.
When the Gospel got here to Antioch for the primary time, the missionaries there “spoke to the Hellenists additionally”—that’s, to Greek-speaking gentiles along with Jews—“preaching the Lord Jesus” (v. 20), and the Gospel took root. The reception of the excellent news of Jesus among the many gentiles was nonetheless new within the historical past of the church, and never everybody was able to welcome it. Who may the apostles ship for an encounter equivalent to this? It’s no shock: “They despatched Barnabas”!
Not all people in a church can address new issues. Not everybody is ready to see God’s Spirit at work in sudden methods. It’s actually not everybody who can see God’s grace at work like this and be “glad.” Are we glad for the evidences of God’s grace?
Barnabas was a person given to the Lord—and when he noticed the Lord glorified among the many gentiles, it was not a matter of concern for him however a matter for rejoicing. When he noticed new issues occurring to God’s glory, he didn’t hit the brakes on the Gospel. Nor was Barnabas jealous for his personal standing within the ministry. In actual fact, we learn that he “went to Tarsus to search for Saul, and when he had discovered him, he introduced him to Antioch” (vv. 25–26). Once more the unsung hero put ahead the nice apostle—and solely heaven will inform of the influence of this humility. The church wants women and men who’re comfortable to take second place for the work of the Gospel.
Are we glad for the evidences of God’s grace?
Dare to Be a Barnabas
Barnabas would ultimately be a part of Paul on his missionary journeys, and he performed a significant position standing aspect by aspect with Paul within the frontline work of the Gospel. But we shouldn’t overlook the important position he performed by means of his encouraging, his welcoming, and his pleasure to see women and men flip to Christ in religion.
The previous kids’s refrain exhorts us,
Dare to be a Daniel!
Dare to face alone!
Dare to have a objective agency!
Dare to make it identified!
As a lot as we have to be taught from Daniel, we will overemphasize the form of stark, solitary, heroic stances he took. In our on a regular basis stroll, we had higher remind ourselves, too, that we must always
Dare to be a Barnabas!
Dare not go alone!
Collect somebody in your arm,
And make the Gospel identified!
We want not be heroes. Whether or not the world remembers us is a small factor in gentle of the dominion of God. All over the place round us are individuals who want encouragement, who want a welcoming hand, who want the Gospel that we’ve obtained. Within the humble self-giving that Barnabas modeled for us, allow us to serve them with the love of Christ.
This text was tailored from the sermon “Son of Encouragement” by Alistair Begg.
