Dear all at IPC,

As we come to the end of this year, I’ve been thinking about one of my favourite characters in the Bible: Barnabas. This wasn’t his real name. His real name was Joseph, Barnabas was the nickname that I assume other Christians gave him.  It means ‘son of encouragement’ or  ‘Mr Encouragement’. He’s the kind of person you want in church life. 

He was a generous man. In Acts 4, he sold a field and gave the proceeds willingly to God’s work. Barnabas was a Levite and strictly shouldn’t have owned land, but Barnabas is from Cypress. It is possible he owned a property there. In any case, he sells the land. But what is interesting is that he didn’t take his gift to the temple in Jerusalem but he brought it and laid it at the Apostle’s feet. He’s a Levite and he’s keeping that ancient Levitical law from the Old Testament that for the Levites the Lord God of Israel should be their inheritance.  He’s saying, that in Jesus and his church, he finds the fulfilment of the Old Testament. In taking the proceeds from the sale and laying them at the Apostles feet, he is saying Jesus ‘you are my inheritance, you are my security, you are my all in all’. The Jesus whom the apostles preach is the Lord God of Israel and is Barnabas’ inheritance. He is committed to Christ.

One of the high points of Barnabas’ life and ministry is when he is sent by the Jerusalem Church to Antioch to investigate this new church. When he arrives, we are told what he saw. ‘When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord rwith steadfast purpose,’ Acts 11:23.

How you look at things is very important. ‘Two men look out through prison bars, one saw mud the other stars’. Barnabas comes into this situation and if he was looking for something to worry about, there was plenty to worry about. It was a new and unprecedented situation in Antioch. God was at work and large numbers of the Gentiles were being converted in this great city. There seems to be no link at all with the mother church in Jerusalem. Headquarters, so to speak, had nothing to do with it! There would be lots to be concerned about, but when Barnabas comes into the situation, it was the grace of God at work which he saw.

Barnabas had the sense to see that when God is at work there will be problems. There would be very real issues, but the key thing is that God was at work. Seeing growth in Christ’s church brought him gladness, and he showed it. Quite literally he was delighted at what was going on in Antioch. The text tells us not only what Barnabas saw and how he felt but how he reacted. He was glad and he showed his gladness. Some of us are very good at criticising one another, damning one another with faint praise. But Barnabas is glad, and he shows it. I suspect you like me could probably do with more gladness.

In Acts 11 verse 23, ‘he exhorts them all to remain true to the Lord’. In verses 25 and 26, this is at considerable cost. He recruits Paul, brings him to Antioch and together they spend a year teaching the many disciples at Antioch. It was here that the disciples were first called Christians, which wasn’t a compliment. The work of God took a quantum leap forward in Antioch. God by his Spirit did something tremendous through this man. Maybe for the first time the Christian Church began to be the worldwide movement that it is today.

It is said that there are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happening, and those who haven’t got a clue what is happening. Barnabas was in that first category. He was positive, encouraging and took initiative.

If you think of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, he needed encouragement. In Isaiah 53 we are told that the Lord upholds his servant. We read in the gospels the Father crying out from heaven, “this is my Son with whom I’m well pleased”. As he steps out into public ministry after years of obscurity; as he identifies with sinners in his baptism; taking that first step to the cross, the heavens open and the father tells him I’m pleased with what you are doing. The words of the Father put courage into the son.

Every single one of us needs encouragement. As we look around our church family, it is easy to see the frustrations, become frustrated, and then show that frustration. In every church there are problems, difficulties, and personality conflicts. It can happen even more so in a growing church like in Antioch. In a true church where there is life, with people from different cultures with different temperaments rubbing against each other,  there will aways be the need to bear with one another. Even the nature of church life and the slowness of the work in sowing the seed in various ministries can be discouraging. Then there are parents who have to bear with the slow work of discipling their children, people bearing with difficult families and marriages. We could go on and on about the need for encouragement in the face of frustrations. If anything, the whole of the church in the UK in a hostile culture desperately needs encouragement.

I’m not arguing for an “always look on the bright side of life” attitude, but I am wanting us to look as Barnabas did, for evidence of the grace of God at work amongst us, to recognise it and be glad in it. We are not the people we should be and we fail and let each other down in countless ways. And yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, the grace of God has been, and is, at work in our church. We need to finish this year and start the new one by recognising this, rejoicing in this, and committing ourselves to the ministry of encouraging one another.

Your Minister and Friend,