My purpose in writing this text is to draw attention to the ministry of encouragement that should be the highest calling of any Christian towards a sister or brother!
In this respect I see Barnabas as a ROLE MODEL!
THE EARLY CHURCH
In Luke´s history of the Early Church – the Acts of the Apostles – Barnabas appears for the first time in chapter 4. From then on, there are scattered references to him up until chapter 15.
References to Barnabas are also found in 3 of Paul’s letters, 1 Corinthians, Galatians and Colossians.
Barnabas was a Jew from Cyrprus, from a priestly family. There were relatives in Jerusalem; John Mark, whose mother Mary had a house there (Acts 12:12), was his cousin.
BARNABAS AMONG THE APOSTLES
Of course there is much to say about Barnabas:
He was highly regarded and trusted among the first apostles and disciples, as his role at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 shows. Significantly, it is he, and not Paul, who stands first in the account of those proceedings (15:12) and in the Council’s letter (15:25). Both Luke and Paul regard Barnabas as ‘among the apostles’! (Acts 14:4 and 1 Cor. 9,6)
BEHIND PETER AND PAUL
Luke’s intention in Acts is to show Peter as the apostle to the Jews (up until chapter 10), to show Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles, and to chronicle the spread of the Gospel through the Empire to Rome – Rome, the heart of the civilised world, the place to which all roads lead.
Luke´s intention was also to document the transition from faith in a Jewish Messiah for Jews, to a Saviour for all men and women, regardless of ethnicity!
Other characters in Acts play a supporting role in this dual enterprise – Barnabas is one of these!
That Peter and Paul were preeminent leaders of the Early Church is not in contention. I am convinced that John must also have been a towering figure (witness his gospel and letters). However, I think it is also clear that had Luke had a different agenda, other stores could have been told, eg. that of Barnabas. His great contribution in the Early Church is hinted at in Acts, but is understood only indirectly
THE NAME BARNABAS!
Luke interprets his name as ‘son of encouragement’ (Acts 4:36). The prefix ‘Bar-’ means ‘son of’ in Aramaic. For the last part, ‘nabas’, Luke uses the Greek word paraklesis = encouragement! However, the latter is uncertain. It may be that ‘nabas’ is derived from an Aramaic word meaning prophet (a prophet exhorts, and exhortation is not far off encouragement). In which case, Barnabas would mean ‘son of a prophet’
Nevertheless, Luke has Barnabas to mean ‘son of encouragement’
That this is so, shows that Luke is not interested in strict etymology, but rather to indicate the character of the man! Everyone who knew Barnabas, knew him to be just that, ‘a son of encouragement’. Hence Luke’s take!
PAUL´S MINISTRY
It is clear, I think, that Paul’s ministry, from Asia Minor to Rome, in the late 40s to early 60s, would likely have looked much different but for the interventions of Barnabas. When Paul arrived in Jerusalem for the first time following his conversion, the disciples there were fearful of his presence; remembering well how he before had persecuted the Church. It was Barnabas who brought him to the apostles, assuring them that he had now become a follower of Christ (Acts 9:23-30). Later, when the work of the Lord was established in multicultural Antioch, also among non-Jews, again it is Barnabas who goes to Tarsus to find Paul.
REJECTION?
A moments reflection on Paul’s situation, that first time in Jerusalem, reveals the contribution of Barnabas. Paul cannot speak with his one-time colleagues among the Pharisees. He has betrayed them! The disciples and the apostles were as already noted apprehensive at having anything to do with him. And after having escaped Damascus in a basket (Acts 9:25), now the second time, Paul has created such a stir that the Church in Jerusalem must send him away; to Tarsus via Caesarea! Doubtless for his own safety!
Was it also so that he could ‘cool down’, and the Church have some respite from the trouble he was stirring?
Was he rejected?
It is difficult to know exactly what the situation is with Paul when he is sent back home to Tarsus. We are not told! (But read Paul’s own version of the event in Acts 22:17-21)
BARNABAS AGAIN!
Reading a little bit between the lines, it is not difficult to imagine that it was just such a man as Barnabas that Paul needed to get him back on track with regard to his ministry and calling! However it was, Acts says that Barnabas went to Tarsus TO LOOK FOR PAUL! And when he had FOUND HIM, he brought him to Antioch. (Acts 11:25-26)
So, several years have now passed since Paul was escorted by his new found friends in Jerusalem to Caesarea, and from the thence by ship to Tarsus. Doubtless Barnabas needed help in Antioch, and doubtless, he thought Paul was the man for the task. Might Paul have sunk into oblivion, but for Barnabas? We shall never know!
The Lord knows!
The Spirit knows how he was leading Barnabas!
Whatever the truth, it seems a bond had formed between these two, those years before, and Barnabas had not forgotten his friend. I for one, see not only that it was expedient for Barnabas to go and fetch Paul, I also read into this a LOVE and a CARE for Paul in the heart of the former! Don’t you know that Barnabas had long wanted to get his friend back; that here was an opportunity?
This is the glue that keeps the Church together; that builds the Church!
In truth Barnabas was as Luke says, ‘A good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith!’ (Acts 11:24)
In truth he was a ‘son of encouragement’
THE FALLING OUT!
It is possible to have different views on the disagreement between Barnabas and Paul over John Mark, as related in Acts 15:36-41. Having read the letters of Paul, and knowing that man’s zeal for his ministry and for the Gospel, I see Barnabas as the more conciliatory of the two!
Paul had felt that John Mark had let them down on their first missionary journey, when he had turned back. Was it Barnabas that now wanted to give him a second chance?
Barnabas had been on the same page as Paul in matters of faith and of the Gentile mission! When Peter had come to Antioch, and when Paul had confronted him because he ‘feared the circumcision party’ (you remember that ‘certain men had come from James’ and that Peter and those with him had withdrawn from table fellowship with the Gentiles) – then in Paul’s eyes, ‘also Barnabas was led astray’.
In Paul’s eyes!
But is another way of looking at it that Barnabas was just less confrontational than Paul (see Gal. 2:11-14)? I think at least that this is a fair assumption!
Nevertheless, it was a man with the mind and strength of Paul that God had chosen preeminently to take the message of Jesus into the Graeco-Roman world! (Acts 9:15-16)
THE MINISTRY OF ENCOURAGEMENT!
The Holy Spirit is par excellence the Spirit of encouragement; the Spirit of paraklesis/παράκληςις! See 1 Cor. 14,3, where the verb (not the noun) is used in the Greek
And all his gifts have that common factor, that they are for the building up of the Church! We need to use our gifts to that end! And there has never been a time in my lifetime when that was more needful in the West than now!
The Church is facing, as in the beginning of its history, pressure and persecution from without, and even worse, heresy from within.
The call to the Church today is as it was in the beginning:
“Depart from sin, and I will receive you!” (2 Cor. 6:17)
And again, “ Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity! (2 Tim. 2:19)
It is time to strengthen the weak knees; make straight the paths for our feet, that we may be healed. For without holiness shall no one see the Lord! (Heb. 12:12-14)
I submit that alongside Paul it was Barnabas, and people like him, who were necessary to build the Church in the first century!
Even so today!
BE BLESSED!😊
