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Grace-based biblical teaching and sermons with Pastor Jason White. Messages that focus on Life in Christ and practical application as New Covenant believers.
So when Eli was in the 5th grade, we and all of the other parents of students in his class were contacted by his teacher to let us know about something that was coming up at the end of the semester. She said I want you as parents to each write an encouraging letter to your child and find 3 other people in their lives that you can reach out to about doing the same thing. She said to just write about how much you love them, how proud you are of them, what characteristics you notice about their personalities, personal stories that were impactful, just anything that would speak to their hearts and be an encouragement to them as they get ready to go into middle school next year.
And so, Natalie and I each wrote a letter, each set of grandparents wrote one, and we asked a Children’s Ministry volunteer to write one as well. And we put them all in an envelope and sent them to his teacher.
Then, she invited us as parents to come to class on the day that they were going to read them. And I had no idea what to really expect. We got there and she wasn’t quite ready for us to come in yet, so all of the parents continued to arrive and we just waited outside the door until it was time, and then she invited us all to come in and join the students.
When we walked in, the lights were turned down, there were lamps on by their desks, there was soft, instrumental music playing, and their letters were all out on their desks and they had been reading them.
And as I began to glance around, I noticed one by one that there wasn’t one kid in that classroom who hadn’t been crying. It was obvious that these letters had really impacted them in a powerful way. And then we as parents got to be there in person to give hugs and continue to speak words of affirmation to them face to face.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment, and I don’t think any of those kids will ever forget that moment either.
The words we say, can have a powerful impact on one another. I can’t think of too many other things that are more impactful than a sincere word of encouragement
I think that's why the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says this in 1 Thessalonians 5:11…
11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
The Greek word translated “encourage” is PARAKALEO.
Para means “to the side,” or “to come alongside.”
Kaleo means “to call.”
And together it means to come alongside of someone and call out something in them…
To encourage them, to strengthen them, to console or comfort them, to exhort or to instruct them
It’s coming alongside of someone to give support to them and inspire them.
And I think we get an even better picture of what Paul is saying here when we see the other word that he mentions alongside of parakaleo and that is…
Oikodomeo – to increase the potential of someone, to make more able, to build up, edify.
So…you kind of begin to see what Paul is talking about here when he says to encourage one another and build each other up. We are to come alongside each other and support, inspire, comfort, and edify one another.
But we need to go a bit deeper to really appreciate this and see more fully what Paul is talking about b/c we see this word parakelo or forms of this word in other places.
Look at John 14 with me…
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Okay, so Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit here, and how the Spirit would come and dwell in them…which of course did happen at Pentecost and you can read about that in Acts 2.
But here is what I want you to see. Guess what the word translated “Helper” is in Greek?
Parakletos – one who helps by mediating on behalf of, by consoling, by encouraging.
Now, I will say that this is a complex term that has a depth of meaning, but at the very least, one of the things that Jesus is saying here is that God, the Holy Spirit is an Encourager.
We even see Paul refer to God this way in Romans 15…
5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Guess what the Greek word translated “encouragement here is?
PARAKLESIS…Paul refers to God as the God of Encouragement. It’s who God is…An Encourager.
And Jesus tells us that The Encourager is going to come dwell in us (John 14:17)
And then, when He dwells in us, The Encourager will encourage us in our relationship with Him, and He will use us to encourage others, and He will use others that He dwells in to encourage us.
So, once again as we’ve been saying since we started this series, this is much more than just learning to try and get better and relating to one another in various ways…
This is the Spirit coming to dwell in us, uniting Himself to us, and making these things part of us to where they are manifested through us. (an outworking of the Spirit being manifested through us)
But let’s talk about what this looks like more practically for the Spirit to work through us and use us to encourage one another.
And what better example could there be than someone whose name literally meant, son of Encouragement…and that of course, is Barnabas. Look at Acts 4:36…
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
So Barnabas was not his original name. His name was Joseph. BUT because he was such an encouragement to the disciples and others, they gave him the nickname, Barnabas, which we are told means, “son of encouragement”…son of PARAKLESIS.
And so, if someone is nicknamed the “son of encouragement,” then that is a pretty good person to get some examples from of what it might look like to “encourage one another.”
And again, keep in mind that the Holy Spirit came to dwell in Joseph when he put his faith in Jesus for salvation… And so the Holy Spirit, who remember is referred to as The PARAKLETOS in John 14, comes to live in Joseph, and all of a sudden he gets nicknamed the son of PARAKLESIS…
So this is a reflection of the outworking of the Holy Spirit through Him as a new creation in Christ.
So I want us to look at 3 of the ways that we see the Spirit leading Barnabas to practically encourage others so that we can look for the same kind of activity from the Spirit in our own lives…
So here are 3 ways we see Barnabas encouraging others…
1. BARNABAS ENCOURAGED OTHERS THROUGH GIVING
We saw this just a second ago as Luke was introducing us to Him in Acts 4.
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
And here is what we need to keep in mind… ownership of land was the principal source of wealth and social standing in the Greco-Roman world.
In other words, for Barnabas to sell this land was a big deal. It was no small thing.
And so what we see is that the Spirit lays it on Barnabas’ heart to sell this land and to use the money from the proceeds for God’s Kingdom work in this world.
And as the disciples and others saw this playing out, it encouraged them so much.
It’s encouraging to see someone be so selfless. It’s encouraging to see someone give to benefit the work that God is doing to impact people’s lives. It’s encouraging to see God meet a need through someone else and to provide what was needed for the ministry they had been called to.
So, if this is one of the ways we see the Spirit (The God of Encouragement) working through the son of encouragement, then we can expect Him to do the same thing through us.
And I’ve already seen it and am still seeing in you. We were about to close out our fiscal year with a loss…we were projecting to miss our projected giving for this year by about $50K or more, but just a few weeks ago we had a $63K general budget offering. Isn’t that encouraging???
When God provides through His people, it just lifts our spirits SO much!
But again as we move on, these are just some of the ways the Spirit might use us to be an encouragement to one another in this area of giving.
The second way we see the Spirit working in Barnabas’ life to be an encourager is this…
2. BARNABAS ENCOURAGED OTHERS BY WELCOMING IN OUTSIDERS
We see this in a couple of places in Acts. The first one is in the life of Paul. Remember, Paul’s name before it was changed was Saul. And he was not a good guy. He persecuted Christians and gave orders to have many of them killed. But Jesus changed his life and he was named Paul. But the apostles were scared of him at first.
Look at Acts 9:26…
26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.
He was an outsider. They didn’t trust him. They weren’t sure if he was tricking them in order to get access to them and kill them. But watch in this next verse who comes to his aid…
27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
Barnabas, the son of encouragement, speaks up for Paul. He had welcomed him into his own circle of friendship and as part of the family of God, and now he was encouraging others to do the same.
And they did. And we know how much impact Paul had in spreading the good news of Jesus to others… and especially to another group of people who were considered outsiders…the Gentiles.
But it wasn’t through Paul originally that we began to see God reaching the Gentiles.
Look at Acts 11:19…
19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
Why? Why did they send Barnabas? Well, one of the things that we see in other places is that the Jewish Christians were very skeptical of the Gentiles becoming Christians. They were outsiders. They weren’t too accepting of this in the beginning.
And so, when they sent Barnabas to check this out, it wasn’t most likely because they were so excited about it and wanted to welcome them in.
But look how Barnabas reacts when he gets there...
23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged (PARAKALEO) them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. 25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught a great many people.
Barnabas, the son of encouragement, was used by the Spirit to encourage the Gentiles and to welcome these outsiders into the family of God.
This is the 2nd time we see the Spirit doing this through Barnabas.
And so once again, if we are told to “encourage one another” then one of the ways we ought to look for the Spirit to use us to be an encouragement to each other is in welcoming outsiders into our family.
It’s encouraging when those on the outside see someone truly welcoming them in.
I mean, we’ve all been on the outside looking in at some point in our lives. We know what that feels like.
And if you are here today and have felt like an outsider, please know that you are welcome here. We want to encourage you in that way.
But here’s the 2nd way it’s encouraging…it’s encouraging to one another to see the Lord adding people into our family.
We want our family to grow. We want other people to experience the grace of God. How encouraging is it to see people come in and begin to feel welcome and to have Jesus transform and change their lives in the same way He’s transformed and changed our lives.
So…we are to encourage one another by welcoming in those on the outside.
Here’s the final way we see Barnabas encouraging others…
3. BARNABAS ENCOURAGED OTHERS BY RESTORING THOSE WHO FAILED
Look at Acts 15:36…
36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus.
Okay so there’s so much that we don’t know about what exactly went on with John Mark, but whatever it was, was big enough for Paul to write him off as a failure.
And quite honestly, that meant that it could have been the end of his ministry as a missionary…
But Barnabas, the son of encouragement, would not let John Mark’s failure define him!
He took him with him and they continued to go and make disciples of all nations.
If we are going to encourage one another, one of the ways the Spirit will lead us to do so is to restore people who make mistakes, who fail and fall on their faces.
And let’s be honest, that’s been all of us at one time or another.
And one of the most powerful ways we can be encouraged is when someone comes alongside of us and puts their arm around us and reminds us that we are completely forgiven in Christ and speaks words of life into us in those moments.
And the Spirit wants to do the same thing through me and through you.
CONCLUSION: So, let’s be looking for how the Spirit is guiding us in all of these ways to encourage one another.
Let’s ask these questions:
Lord, how do you want to encourage others through my giving?
Lord, how do you want to encourage others by using me to invite outsiders to be a part of our church family?
Lord, how do you want to use me to encourage someone who has failed by restoring them? (maybe that’s even related to last week’s message of forgiving one another if the failure is something that they did to us personally)
So, I do want to encourage you to really think specifically in these 3 areas, but we all know that the Spirit can lead us in a number of other ways to encourage people in our lives…
So just be asking the Spirit in general how He wants to use you to encourage someone this week.
And I want to challenge you to look for at least 5 people you can encourage this week.
Write them a handwritten note, an email, text them, call them. Tell them in person.
And maybe it has something to do with giving, inviting outsiders, or restoring someone who has failed, but maybe it’s in some other way.
Just trust the God of Encouragement who dwells in you to lead you to encourage someone this week.