There are things that we will encounter in our lives that God will use to spur us on to godly living. However, there are few that will have a greater impact on us than simply seeing a man who embodies godliness in the way he lives his life. In our text tonight, we have that privilege of being able to look at such a man, and I pray that as we look at the evidence of grace in his life it will push us on toward holy living.
I think that this is timely in our study through Acts because many of us will have opportunities to be this person for others as we visit family and friends around the holidays. And even if you are not traveling this season, we all need to understand how we are to make ourselves vessels fit for such good works.
Therefore, tonight as we look at Barnabas and the church at Antioch, I want to give us a few exhortations that will enable us to become vessels through whom God can minister in a powerful manner.
What I mean by that is, do not have your focus merely on God's work in your life or even in the life of this local church. Instead, place your focus on the whole body of Christ and God's work everywhere. For unless you develop this focus, you will not be able to rejoice when God is working through others to advance his kingdom.
Look at Barnabas in this story. What has happened is that when persecution broke out and the believers scattered, they went about preaching Jesus wherever they went. And they were preaching to Jews alone (v. 19). However, there were a certain group of them from Cyprus and Cyrene who were no doubt thinking to themselves, "If this gospel is good for the Jews, it would probably be good for the Gentiles as well." And so they began to preach to the Gentiles.
The experiment was a success. Soon a large number of Gentiles were believing in the gospel and yielding their allegiance to Jesus as Lord. And Luke says that, "the hand of the Lord was with them" (v. 21).
Well, soon this news reached the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to go and see what exactly was going on. He was an obvious choice, being a man of godly character and being from Cyprus.
As Barnabas arrives, Luke writes, "Then when he had come and seen the grace of God, he rejoiced" (v. 23). He rejoiced at the work of God and the advancement of the kingdom of God. Had he been "involved" in this work? No. Was he able to take credit for this? No. But he was not a man who was excited simply by God's work through him. He was a man who was excited by the work of God, period.
He did not have his self-esteem or status threatened. He rejoiced. His mentality was one that focused on the whole body of Christ.
And this is the kind of mentality that we must develop. If we only get excited about God working in us and not in other churches, then we are far from imitating the godliness that we see in Barnabas.
And it is not simply displayed in him. It is also shown in the church there at Antioch.
For in verses 27-30, Luke tells us that some prophets came down to the church, and one of them named Agabus predicted that a severe famine would spread throughout the Roman world. Therefore, the church gathered together a contribution to send to the church at Jerusalem so that they could have relief in this time of hardship.
Again, these Gentile believers could have stood up and said, "Hey, the Jewish believers were hesitant to accept us. And God has blessed us to prepare for this famine, so now let's see how they like being on the outside." Luke hints at nothing of the sort, though. They were anxious and ready to help one another because they were believers in Christ. They were one body. And because these believers rejoiced at the building up of the body of Christ (and not just of themselves) they aided them.
They knew that they were laboring in the same purpose. They knew that if one part of the body of Christ suffers, then you must comfort it. For as you love one another in the body of Christ, you are loving yourself. There is no room for divisive competition. It is utterly unnatural. My head has never thought of rejoicing when I have hurt my knee, because of jealousy.
Our thoughts of being that way within the body of Christ need to appear to us as absurd as such a thought. But that will only happen when we develop a mentality that focuses on the work of God, period, as he builds up his church and advances his kingdom.
This fits in with what we have seen thus far because when you focus simply on the work of God and not merely his work in you, then you do not need the praise of men to find your joy. You simply want the kingdom to be advanced and the church to be built up. However, if you simply rejoice at God's work in you, your standard to see if such is occurring will most likely become the praise of men.
To show you how much it does not matter for us to receive praise, take note of who the men were who were involved in one of the greatest missionary works of all time-taking the gospel to Gentiles when there was no one encouraging them to do so. Luke tells us that it was men from Cyprus and Cyrene, and nothing esle. In other words, we do not know who they were.
And it does not matter, for what we rejoice in is the work that occurred. For the work of God is greater than any person. It rises above all of us. Of these men, we simply know that the Lord granted them boldness and placed his hand upon them as they shared the gospel. And many were added to the church. We do not even know the names of the ones continuing the evangelistic efforts as Barnabas was encouraging and teaching the flock.
This should serve as a reminder to us that our goal is not to make a name for ourselves, as is the mentality that is easy to get caught up in, in today's society.
And what a better man to pastor a flock of these kind of people than Barnabas, for he did not care about his status in anything either. This is not only apparent in his rejoicing at the work of God, but in his calling of Paul.
For what happens as God is continuing to add believers to the church is that Barnabas begins to realize that it is too much for him to handle. One man cannot pastor these people. Therefore, he goes out to get another, a man named Paul. Years had gone by since he had seen Paul, escorted him into the presence of the apostles, and shared with them the story of his conversion. But he no doubt remembered how gifted Paul had been in teaching and the zeal that was apparent in his life. And after traveling a hundred miles to retrieve him, Barnabas brings Paul to the church at Antioch, and they remain there a year teaching.
The point that I want you to see in this move by Barnabas is that it would not have been done by someone who was wanting the recognition and praise of men. For Barnabas was no doubt soon to be in the shadow of one who was intelligent, courageous, and probably very dynamic. Soon the believers would be saying to one another, "Man, Paul can teach. He was trained under Gamaliel. Have you heard his testimony? It is incredible."
Barnabas would have had their praise before this, so why go get Paul and risk losing the spotlight? The reason he could do that is because he did not care about the spotlight, he cared about the church. He was not interested in making a name for himself. He was a true leader. And a true leader will lay down his life for the good of his followers.
Barnabas laid down his glory for the good of his flock. And as he saw the growth in them and the evidence of the grace of God, he rejoiced.
We need to imitate such character in our lives. Are we longing for honor or to honor Christ? Are we living for the sake of his name or to make a name for ourselves? Do we really want him to receive glory more than we want to receive glory ourselves? These questions need to be asked to our hearts often. Only when we lay down our lives will we begin to know what life is to be like in the body of Christ. Leave it to Christ to honor us, and let's simply focus on honoring Christ.
I say "then" because I think that you will begin to encourage others in the body of Christ only after you have set your focus on advancing the kingdom and not on drawing the praise of men. For if you are not doing these, you are not free to encourage others in the body. One, you will not necessarily want to see God work in them unless he is working in you, and two, you will risk men praising them at the expense of yourself. But when you are free from these things, you are free to encourage others.
Luke says that Barnabas encouraged the believers (literally) "to continue with the Lord in the purpose of their hearts" (v. 23). He was encouraging the new believers to persevere in the faith. And he was encouraging them to continue to line up the purpose of their hearts with the Lord. He was encouraging them to delight in what God delights in, namely, drawing attention to God himself, as he builds his church.
When this is the purpose of your heart, then you have the same purpose that God has. And because his plans cannot be thwarted, you have laid a solid foundation for joy. And yet it is all rooted in the goal to rejoice in the work of God and draw attention to him alone.
Men with this kind of goal will rarely have a critical spirit, but will constantly be looking to build up others and enable them to be laborers in the kingdom. These men know that their greatness is not wrapped up in showing themselves to be better than others but in pointing others to a clear picture of Jesus Christ.
We need to be a people whose goals are to build up the kingdom and draw attention to God. And if these are going to take place among us, we need to encourage one another. Watch each other for opportunities to encourage. Exhort one another constantly to delight in God. For only by inviting them to join in the delight that is in God are you truly loving them even as Christ has loved us.
Luke shows this as he points us to Barnabas' character as the reason why Barnabas was encouraging these new believers ("For he was a good man …" (v. 24)).
In other words, to say that we need to be people whose hearts are focused on the things I have mentioned tonight is not in competition with God's purpose of conforming us into the image of his Son. For only by having the mind of Christ will we live like I have described. For this is not something that we will find the power for in our flesh. This goes utterly and totally against our flesh.
The example of such a Christ-like character in Barnabas is something that we should pray for daily. For God is more concerned about developing a godly character in us than he is that men speak highly of us, because the kingdom will be advanced and the church will be built up out of the lives of men who reflect the nature of Christ. And we all know that we want that more than our flesh tells us we want these other things.
We all have known people who are not about themselves; they are not about making a name for themselves. They are simply about advancing and building up the body of Christ. They are constantly encouraging. And we do not speak badly about them. We love them. We love to be around them. We are drawn to them, and we are encouraged by them.
And we want the character of Christ to show forth in our lives as well because that is the purpose for which God called us to himself (Romans 8:29). Our heart cries out to delight in God and his work that we might find our glory in him alone.
Therefore strive, long, and pray that God would make you more and more like Jesus. Beg him to wrap you in the character of his Son. Set your focus on the work of God. Then settle in your heart that as you focus on God's work, you will delight in God receiving praise and will not strive for such praise yourself. Finally, as God works this within you, encourage others in the body, and you will know joy, for you will be striving for that which is the very purpose of God. And you will begin to taste the joy that is in his presence and the pleasures that are at his right hand. Though no man may speak your praises, you will be honored in the eyes of the only one who matters-our Lord.
May God bless us as he continues to mold us into the image of his Son for the sake of his kingdom. Amen.