You were My Brother

Introduction

Luke clearly has a theme in Acts 15. At the beginning of the chapter, it seems as if Satan is trying to destroy the Church by bringing conflict into the Church over doctrinal and practical issues. We saw last week, that the issue of Jewish Gentile relations within the church was settled by the Jerusalem Council, but the end of the chapter we see another attempt by Satan to disrupt the work of God in reaching the rest of the world with the gospel.

After returning to Antioch for some time, Paul decides it would be a good idea to retrace their steps on the first missionary journey to check up on the believers they left behind. Barnabas thinks its a good idea but wants to take John Mark with them. If you remember, John Mark had left them in Acts 13:13 “Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.” This led to a conflict because Paul did not want to take John Mark with them.

This was not just a small issue. Luke uses the word contention here to describe the fall out between these two great missionary leaders in the Church. The word means a sharp disagreement, a state of intense, emotional turmoil usually expressed in words. This was a heated argument. It wasn’t a passive aggressive tiff where they just stopped talking to one another. They didn’t play the silent treatment on each other. It was loud, angry and public. This fallout was so public that Luke was firsthand aware of the circumstances. We even get glimpses in the text that Luke was taking sides on who he thought was right and who he thought was wrong because of how he related the story.

One of Satan’s best tactics to hurt the church is to get brothers and fellow preachers to be at odds with one another. If he can get them focused on fighting each other, they won’t do what they should be doing. The anger can settle into bitterness and hurt their relationship with God; thus, making them unusable in the ministry.

In literature, we have similiar tropes to that which we find in this story. Recently Levi was watching the Fox and the Hound in my office while I worked and I was reminded of this story.

Illustration: The Fox and The Hound

The Fox and the Hound tells the story of an orphaned fox cub named Tod, who becomes clandestine friends with a hound dog named Copper. Obviously, this doesn’t have a happy ending. As Copper and Tod grow up, a series of events gradually tear them apart, until they eventually end up on opposite sides of the hunter’s gun.

This story shows that even the best of preachers can get into a tiff or have problems, but in spite of it all God can use the unfortunate circumstances to further his glory and the gospel.

Disputes may begin with good intentions vs 36

Paul and Barnabas start out with good intentions. Their plan was to visit, check up on and strengthen the churches that they had visited on the first missionary visit. Some of those churches were still merely baby Christians. But in spite of their good intentions, a fight arises that messes things up.

I have been taking a 210 hour class in the spiritual gifts and one thing that it has reminded me of and opened my eyes to are the different types of people that God has put into the church. So far I have just begun studying the gift of mercy and the gift of prophecy which are completely opposites of one another. One sees emotional need and tries to minister to that need. The other sees spiritual discernment needs and sin and deals with that need. These two often bump heads when they are walking in the flesh and I believe this is exactly what we see in Acts 15. Barnabas had the spiritual gift of mercy and wanted to nurture John Mark while Paul had the gift of prophecy and saw things as black and white. So who was right?

The Case for Barnabas

1. The first time we are ever introduced to Barnabas, he is called the Son of Consolation. He was an encourager. Acts 4:36 “And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,” Having the gift of Mercy, Barnabas would have been excited to extend grace and seek restoration in Mark’s life. Barnabas was not quick to write people off. This was one of the things that brought Paul and Barnabas together. If you remember, the church in Jerusalem did not want to let Paul into the church, but Barnabas reached out to someone who had a bad reputation. He saw the need in Paul and here he saw the need in Mark.

2. John Mark was family- This issue was personal to Barnabas because Mark was his cousin. We are always going to be more merciful to those we love.

The Case for Paul

1. Paul’s spiritual gift on the other hand was that of being a prophet. Prophets see the world in very black and white ways. They call out wrong when they see it and are aware of the spiritual danger of letting compromise and sin in our midst.

2. From the perspective of a prophet what John Mark did was not an insignificant act. We kinda pick up on the fact that Luke takes Paul’s side on this issue because he relates Paul’s reasons. In doing so, he uses some serious words to describe John Mark. The phrase thought not good literally means he didn’t consider him worthy. To Paul, Mark had disqualified himself from service. We don’t know the circumstances for why he left but we do know that Paul’s opinion of the matter is not very high. The phrase who departed is literally the word apostacy. To Paul, Mark had apostatized, gone back and forsaken the Lord. This is some very serious language.

I think most of us will side with Paul or Barnabas based on our own personalities and gifting of God, but what is clear is that both Barnabas and Paul had good reasons for why they thought the way that they did.

How many times have we entered into an argument with someone and both of us had a point? Just to make us an illustration, imagine a husband and a wife who get into a tiff because husband invited the new couple in church over to dinner on a Friday night. He has a desire to get to know new people and build bridges with them, but in her mind, she is upset because Friday is family night and he didn’t ask her opinion first. Both have a point. You could say both of them are right, but they still ended up in a fight.

They both set out to do something good, but got lost in the details.

Disputes will occur when people are set in their opinions vs 37-38

Many fights are resolved because one person in the fight is willing to show humility and deference to the other. But not all fights end on good terms. You can tell that the fight has taken a wrong turn when:

the volume keeps getting louder and louder

Someone says, “I said what I said and that is it. End of discussion.”

they just walk away.

Paul and Barnabas’ argument was not taking a good turn. Notice in vs 37 that Barnabas determined to take John Mark. This doesn’t mean he just thought it was a good idea. Barnabas was resolved, settled that he was going to take him, but Paul wasn’t seeing it his way. We have already looked at some of the thinking behind Paul’s decision.

I think it is interesting that Paul would later change his opinion of John Mark.

2 Tim 4:11 “Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” Paul had determined John Mark was Not worthy, but later he would say he is profitable.

1 Peter 5:13 “The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.”

Philemon 24 “Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.”

Later, he would describe him as his son. This term show endearment and a close relationship. He is also called his fellow laborer.

But here is the thing Paul didn’t know any of that at the time. He operated off the information he had. The contention grew because they both knew they were right and they were not going to budge.

Though both of them were factually right to do what they did, they stubbornly dug in and refused to budge. It is here that sin enters the picture.

Proverbs 13:10 “Only by pride cometh contention: But with the well advised is wisdom.”

Pride blinds us to the bigger picture. The real issue is that neither Paul nor Barnabas could see the issue from the other person’s perspective. They took pride in their own way. Notice even the kind compassionate Barnabas is acting in pride.

I spoke of the different spiritual gifts that these two men had. When we walk in the flesh, those same spiritual gifts that are intended to build the body of Christ will cause damage to the body of Christ.

Disputes may be unsettled and still further the gospel vs 39-41

Their contention was so bad and so unsolvable that it caused to great men to have to split up their ministry. They could not find a resolution to their problems as the continued to walk in the flesh. Our desire as brothers and sisters in Christ ought to be to live in harmony. Satan is actively trying to destroy the work of God by bringing disharmony into the Church and by bringing disharmony between individuals.

Psalm 133:1 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!”

The unrevealed blessing in all of this is that no matter what Satan throws at us” God still wins. Splitting up Paul and Barnabas hurt. In the end, they find a solution, but it isn’t the good and harmonious solution we would have hoped for. The solution was to go their separate ways and split the missionary journey between the two of them.

Paul and Barnabas didn’t know it then, but God was going to use this unfortunate situation to bring glory to Himself in regions that had not been reached. Barnabas and John Mark go to Cyprus their home country while Paul takes the Southern Parts of Galatia that they had visited on their first visit. From here God would call Paul to unreached regions and the gospel would be spread.

Conclusion

Most of us here are not full-time ministers, but the truths here are often seen in how we relate to one another even in our local church ministries. There are times when two volunteer workers in a ministry butt heads because of a difference in opinions. More often than not, they are both right in their own way, but as long as they refuse to see things from the other persons perspective there is going to be conflict.

The Church has all kinds of necessary people and personalities. God has placed them there for a reason because none of us are gifted to meet the entire need of the body of Christ. Even as your pastor I cannot meet all the needs of the Church. We need the different members of the church to use their spiritual gifts, but when we walk in the flesh, those differences can lead to conflict.

The challenge this morning is that when those conflicts arise, we need to find a way to work together so the church does not get split spiritually, emotionally or even physically.