Barnabas

Intro

As Christians we are to grow to be more like Christ every day. One of the beautiful things that we see in scripture are those who have went on this journey before us, providing examples of things that we should or should not do, even traits that we should keep, or those that are bad to throw away.

Today, let us look to the example of Barnabas, he was a man that was a good man, not by the world’s standard, but by God’s. His life was rooted in his faith and he was led by the Holy Spirit.

1. His Heart

Why is the heart important?

Our society is obsessed with physical appearance. That's why many people spend time at health clubs, why one of the fastest growing industries in this country is plastic surgery, and why people are continually on diets and joining Weight Watchers. Billions of dollars are spent each year in the health and fitness industries.

Don't misunderstand me, I am all for physical fitness and being in shape. But God has another standard. When Samuel was looking for a man to succeed Saul as King of Israel, God said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the LORD sees, for man sees what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart" (). Whereas man places a high price on the externals God examines deep within that man for something more. Man judges one on the basis of one's appearance, but God critiques the heart.

With Barnabas’ heart, you automatically see two thing, one, he has a heart for God, and two, his heart for God allows him to have a proper heart for those around him.

You see an example of his heart in , this is after Saul, who became Paul on the road to Damascus after the Lord had revealed Himself to Saul, you see his heart after Paul came to the apostles to join in their mission with them, and they refused because they were scared of him due to the fact that he had been the biggest persecutor of the church up to that point, they didn’t believe that he was an actual disciple of Christ.

So when everything may have seemed lost, one man reached out to Paul, who was it? Barnabas. And Barnabas brought him back to the apostles and declared to them about how the Lord had revealed Himself to Paul, and that he had boldly been proclaiming the Gospel to those around him. Then they went on about their mission together. You can clearly see the heart of Barnabas, that he paid attention to what the Lord was doing and that the Lord can change any heart. He stuck his neck out for the one whom no one else would even give a chance to.

An Encourager (Vs. 23)

This is probably the trait that you think about when you hear the name Barnabas, this was so evident in his life that the apostles gave him this name which means “son of encouragement.”

One of the first things we see here in these verses is Barnabas encouraging, or exhorting those around him to remain faithful to Christ. Barnabas looked for those who needed encouraging and encouraged them, pushed them in the Lord, to find their strength in Christ, to seek Him to be more like Him.

As we grow in our faith, we need to remember that this faith is not mean to keep to ourselves, but we are called to live out our faith for others as well.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

1 thessalonians

Do not live for yourself, live for the Lord, and live to be a Barnabas to others. Let us be a Barnabas to one another, to continually encourage one another to keep on growing in the Lord.

A man of Faith (Vs. 24)

Barnabas knew that everything that He did in this ministry was completely by God’s grace. Barnabas knew that nothing done apart from God is worth doing, therefore what he did he did do to give God the glory.

We can see with the example of Barnabas that having a right faith is essential, but also just as essential is living out that faith daily. In our own lives, we have to live out our faith in Christ.

A Teacher (Vs. 26)

Barnabas was a man who sought for others to grow in the Lord. he wasn’t a guy who said, “Hey, grow in Jesus” and then left it at that, he also personally invested in those that he was encouraging to grow in Jesus, by discipling them.

What do you see in each of these verses that we can apply to our own lives? They are all outward focused, it wasn’t about what was comfortable for him, it wasn’t about staying to themselves, it was about living out their faith for others so that fellow believers may be encouraged and motivated to live for Christ.

2. His Leadership

He Stood for Truth

This is shown in two different areas:

Vs. 25-26 of

1. Things were going well for him at the church of Antioch, in every worldly standard, or fleshly standard as a preacher, he was rocking it. He could have easily kept it where he was the head guy, where no one would get in his way and he could be the pastor for this church. But instead of maneuvering himself into a position where it could just be him at the “top” he sought out someone who could come and help teach, someone who could teach the truth with him. The one that he sought out was Saul, he brought him back and they met with and taught the church together for over a year, placing himself in a “secondary” status, and that is awesome.

You see, for Barnabas, it wasn’t about having the spotlight, it wasn’t about getting the glory for what was done, it was about the truth of God being taught and God getting all of the glory. Barnabas was humble, he didn’t want the credit, he just wanted lives transformed in Christ. This is how he stood for the truth, that it doesn’t matter who it comes from, as long as the people are being taught the Gospel.

2. We also see that even in the face of adversity, he still stood for the truth. In Antioch, some of the Jews contradicted and was blaspheming and Himself and Paul spoke out boldly for the truth (.) Even over in we read that they stood against those who were contradicting the teachings of Christ.

When you stand on the truth of God’s word, there will be those who will try to stand against you for it. Stand on the truth of God’s word, as we said last week, here at epiphany, our methods may change over the next weeks, months, and years, but our message stays anchored in the truth of God’s word. Stand firm epiphany.

He Sacrificed to Help Others

We see that he didn’t love money, but he loved people.

In , we see where Barnabas sold his field and brought it to the apostle’s feet. Why would he do something like this? Vs. 34 says that it was to meet the needs of the poor in the Christian community. So with this alone it is easy to conclude that he didn’t love money, but he did love people. He could have easily sold the land and kept the money for himself, but the first thought that came to him was to help others with it.

This demonstrates a freedom that he had, a freedom from being held down by the things of this world, this is the example we can look to for this. This is a freedom that comes with faith in Christ.

So what now?

In light of Barnabas' example, I'd like us to think about the opportunity we have—even the responsibility we have—to comfort, console, implore, urge, and challenge each other. In short, to encourage one another. It is clear from Scripture that encouragement is highly valued and celebrated by God. In Hebrews, we are told to "encourage one another to love and good deeds." In his letters to Timothy and Titus, Paul repeatedly writes not only to encourage them, but also to encourage them to encourage others.