Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.46UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.63LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.8LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.75LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.83LIKELY
Extraversion
0.32UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.84LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.69LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
Good morning!
We’ve spent the last few weeks on the theme of Easter, since it was Easter season.
Today we continue from so long ago to the story of the early church as found in the book of Acts.
The passage that was read for us is the first leg of Paul’s second missionary journey.
This is a large passage to cover in one morning, but we will do it anyway.
We want to take a look at the ups and downs in ministry that Luke recorded for us in Paul’s Second Missionary Journey.
As we heard in today’s passage, there are a lot of things that both help and hinder missions, and there are many different people that we encounter.
Background information
To start, we’ll take a quick peek at the verses right before today’s passage starts.
In chapter 15:22 we find that Paul, Barnabas, Silas and Judas are sent from Jerusalem to Antioch to deliver a letter to the believers there, so these four made the 700 km journey.
Silas and Judas stay for a while and then return to Jerusalem, while Paul and Barnabas stay to teach and preach the word of the Lord, verse 35.
This is where we enter with today’s topic.
Paul and Barnabas have been in Antioch for some time now.
While this seems good and Barnabas is on board with the idea, they disagree on something; or rather, someone.
Acts 15:37-
Here we see the first of the many people Paul encounters that we will talk about today, and the first down in ministry.
Down 1: Christians Don’t Always Agree On What To Do
Paul and Barnabas are both good godly men.
They have worked together, preached and taught together, and faced many difficulties together on the road, ranging from a false Jewish prophet to rioting crowds, even including a plot to kill them!
In we read that Barnabas is actually the man who brought Paul to the disciples after his conversion.
Throughout Acts Barnabas is portrayed as a respected and godly man.
Paul is of the same reputation.
They have both shown their commitment to Christ and the sincerity of their faith and work.
But here they disagree.
Barnabas wants to take John Mark along with them on this new missions trip, but Paul will have none of it.
Acts 15:
If you remember John Mark, he is first mentioned in .
After Peter gets broken out of prison by the Angel, he goes to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark.
Paul and Barnabas had gone to Jerusalem in chapter 11: 30 to bring gifts to the Jerusalem church from Antioch.
When they finished their mission, they went back to Antioch and took John Mark with them ().
He goes with them on part of their first missionary journey, but leaves early to go back to Jerusalem.
Now it doesn’t say why he left early, only that he did.
Obviously this didn’t impress Paul very much, because Paul doesn’t want him to come along for a second time.
Barnabas, on the other hand, thinks that he should come along, maybe give him a second chance.
After this, Acts does not record Paul and Barnabas working together again, although Paul mentions Barnabas in several of his epistles.
So who was right and who was wrong?
It’s impossible to tell.
Maybe they were both right, Paul was maybe right that John Mark was ready to come along, and Barnabas was right to let him try again.
Or maybe they were both wrong.
Instead of working this out in a good manner, they allowed the disagreement to get the better of them and parted company.
Short Story
I heard a story several years ago that I believe is similar to this one.
At a church conference gathering a number of years ago, several leaders in different church ministries met together to discuss church direction and budget.
One man, a gifted youth pastor at one of the churches, believed strongly that most of the available resources should be spent on youth ministry, since the youth of today are the church leaders of tomorrow.
This was a good area to focus on.
Others in the group disagreed.
While they agreed that youth work was important, they thought that there was not enough focus on international missions, and that more money should be spent developing the missions program that these churches shared.
The youth pastor was not impressed.
There was sharp disagreement and some heated words were said.
I forget what the final decision was by the people in charge, but it goes to show that people with equally good intentions can find themselves in opposite corners of the boxing ring.
The same is true for Paul and Barnabas.
One writer states that for Paul, “nothing could eclipse the mission of preaching the gospel and building churches.
If John Mark jeopardized that mission, he should minister elsewhere.
For Barnabas, whose name means “son of encouragement” (4:36), the restoration of one sincere Christian worker justified the risk.”
They split up and went their separate ways.
Up 1: Blessings Can Come From These Disagreements
This leads me to ‘Up 1,’ and that is that blessings can come from these disagreements.
Just because two or more Christians get into a fight doesn’t mean that God’s mission comes to a complete halt.
Disagreements are not always desirable, but they are still beneficial.
Let’s study that a bit more closely.
In it says that Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement, so sharp that they parted company.
But in the very next verse it already shows us something good that came out of it!
At first Paul and Barnabas were planning on going together on this journey.
But because of their spat, they each took someone else along and went their separate ways.
Barnabas and John Mark went to Cyprus (a place they had visited earlier in ), and Paul takes Silas with him on his way ‘through Syria and Cilicia.’
There are now twice as many mission teams as there were before, and that means (approximately) twice as much ground covered.
Reconciliation Among Believers
As commendable and effective as Paul and the other early Christians were, they were not perfect.
We read a story like this and we realize our humanness.
Even the best leaders can be wrong, and the best, most well-intentioned Christians can make mistakes.
Or disagree.
Or do something they later regret.
In the story that I mentioned earlier, the youth pastor and some of the other people present clearly and strongly disagreed on what should be done.
However much they disagreed then, both of these parties are still involved in their respective ministries and building up the church.
Something else to remember in church disagreements such as this is that reconciliation also happens.
Just because two people have a fight once doesn’t mean that they are enemies for the rest of their lives!
Paul and Barnabas disagreed, and split directions.
But what about John Mark?
Later in the New Testament, we find several passages that mention him.
In it says:
And in Colossians Paul writes:
Col 4:
Both of these passages come from New Testament letters that Paul wrote.
John Mark has become one of Paul’s coworkers.
What!?
The same guy who would rather split with his mission partner than bring this guy along is now praising John Mark!
How does this kind of turnaround happen?
The Bible doesn’t say how it happened.
All we know is that somehow Paul’s doubts subsided, and it also seems like John Mark developed from the young man in Acts that left them on their journey into a solid, respected and effective church leader.
We could assume that Barnabas saw something good in John Mark, even after he left them the first time, and kept encouraging and helping him develop into the man he later became.
In any case, people are not static.
People change over time, we can see this in both John Mark and in Paul in this story.
Remember, this is the Mark - also called John - that tradition tells us wrote the Gospel of Mark.
Conflict in ministry happens: this should not surprise us.
Conflict is a normal part of life, it will happen in my ministry, and it will happen in your ministry.
But we can rest assured that God’s mission does not jolt to a halt when His servants have a fight.
He works through us even still.
Better yet, He works through these conflicts and uses them to further His advance of the Gospel and to glorify His name.
Application 1
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9