13:1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,1 Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus
4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia
13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
Footnotes
[1]13:1Niger is a Latin word meaning black, or dark
13:1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,1 Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus
4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia
13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
Footnotes
[1]13:1Niger is a Latin word meaning black, or dark
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
If you would, open your bibles to the book of Acts chapter 13. And the book of Acts chapter 13. We've been working through Acts, I think, since last April, maybe May. And we're about halfway through. Things are gonna speed up.
Joel Brooks:
Things are gonna speed up. Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Mana and a member of the court of Herod, the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia.
Joel Brooks:
And from there, they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogue to the Jews, And they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, There they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of the Lord, word of God. But Saul who was also called Paul filled with the Holy Spirit looked intently at him and said, You son of the devil, Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him.
Joel Brooks:
And when he he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga and Pamphylia. Pray with me. God is as we were praying earlier before the service, God, I really don't care what happens tonight as far as, organization.
Joel Brooks:
I I don't care if, if the band is terrible, if there's distractions. I don't, care if, if, if my words are muddled, if I bomb. I don't care about that, lord, as long as we get to hear from you. That is why we are here. We're not here to put on a show.
Joel Brooks:
We're not here to put on the perfect worship service. We're here because we want to meet with you and we want to worship you, Jesus. And so through the power of your spirit, I pray that he would come, he would descend in this place, and he would open up calloused hearts, hardened hearts, closed minds. And that through this proclamation of your word, we would we would hear Jesus, and we would meet and encounter Jesus and be changed by him. That's our desire.
Joel Brooks:
However you wanna do that. And so now in this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:
A major shift happens here in Acts 13, in the text we just read. But it's it's so subtle that you can miss it. Yet it's it's a really big shift throughout this book of Acts. It's certainly there. It's it's hugely important.
Joel Brooks:
This shift happens in 13 verse 13. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga and Pamphylia. So did did you get it? Did he get the shift there? Did he get the, the big event that happened there?
Joel Brooks:
It's not that Paul is going by Paul now and no longer saw. A lot of people think that he changed his name at conversion. He really didn't. Paul was just his Roman name. And now that he's ministering to a Gentile world, he's going by his Roman name, Paul.
Joel Brooks:
That's not the shift here that What's happening here is up to this point Barnabas has been the leader. When the Jerusalem church wanted to know what was going on in Antioch, they sent Barnabas. Barnabas quickly became the leader of that church. Notice in the list of teachers and prophets that we just read at the beginning of the chapter, Barnabas is the one who's listed first. Saul is listed last.
Joel Brooks:
Up to this point, every time you have Barnabas and Saul mentioned together, Barnabas is always mentioned first. It's always Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul. And so, in chapter 11 verse 30, the elders sent out Barnabas and Saul. 12/25, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem.
Joel Brooks:
13/2, the holy spirit says, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I've called them. 137, the proconsul summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God from them. So Barnabas is always listed first. But here at verse 13, there's this shift in which it says Paul and his companions set sail. His companion, Barnabas, is not even listed here.
Joel Brooks:
He just kinda fades into the background. He's not even mentioned. He's he's now just a nameless companion. And then later when the 2 of them are mentioned together, when you get to verse 46, the order is now reversed. And it will be from this point on with just two exceptions.
Joel Brooks:
It's always gonna now be Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas. In which Barnabas or Paul becomes the leader and Barnabas takes the back burner. And I think that's how Barnabas wanted it. I think Barnabas, he became to Paul, what John the Baptist was to Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
You know, when John the Baptist said, He must increase, but I must decrease. You have Barnabas saying the same thing when he saw the giftedness and the calling of Paul. He's saying he must increase and I need to fade into the background. But the reality is without Barnabas we don't really get the Apostle Paul that we we know and that we love. We we wouldn't get those 13 letters to the New Testament.
Joel Brooks:
Without Barnabas, there also would not have been a gospel of Mark, because Barnabas came alongside John Mark and encouraged him when nobody else would And later take someone a missionary journey. And so I, as I began to study this text, I began to realize how important and how rare Barnabas's are, and how we need people like Barnabas in our church. Of his life in the book of Acts. The reason we're doing this is Hebrews 13:7 says this, it says, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. So it's good for us to, to pull out certain leaders and to try and imitate their faith and learn from their example.
Joel Brooks:
And so that's what we're going to do here. This is one of the reasons I love biographies so much. I I can just dig into biographies and I actually love the biographies of certain theologians more than I like actually reading the theologians works. For instance, I love Saint Augustine. I love reading as he describes sovereign joy, but I actually love reading biographies about him more.
Joel Brooks:
I actually see sovereign joy at display more than when I read the works of Augustine or it'd be similar to Martin Luther. I benefit when I read Martin Luther and I love, as he preaches about sovereignty and he preaches about grace and those things resonate me with me. But I actually learn more when I just read a biography about him and I see those things at work in his life. Whenever I, I see those things on display before me, I want to imitate those things. Imitation is a great teaching tool.
Joel Brooks:
And the other day, one of the fun things about being a parent is you get to eavesdrop on your kids. And I'm going by Natalie and George's room, and they're playing. And it's just so fun to kinda, you know, put your ear up to the door and just listen to your kids play. And, so they're in there and they're pretending to be parents, Natalie and Georgia are, to their baby dolls. And so they've, they always do this.
Joel Brooks:
They set up their whole baby dolls and have their little baby doll family and they're the parents to it. And I'm listening to the conversation. The conversation goes something like this. Brenda. All right.
Joel Brooks:
Brenda is one of the names of the kids.
Speaker 2:
All
Joel Brooks:
right. Brenda, it is time to eat. Will you come here right now? No. Put the toy down.
Joel Brooks:
Come right now. A baby right now. Here's her dinner. Brenda, quit complaining and eat. Brenda, you get what you get, and you don't get upset.
Joel Brooks:
Or I wonder where they heard that. Chuck. That's the other child there. Chuck has a lot of hair. Chuck, quit that.
Joel Brooks:
Stop. Chuck, it's been a long day, and I am just tired, and I need you to work with me. Please please just can you just help me out a little? And so I hear this going on. And what they're doing is they're imitating my wife.
Joel Brooks:
They're they're they're imitating both of us, Because that's a powerful way of learning. Now far more than me ever just teaching them things when they see it, when they see it displayed in front of them, they they wanna become like that. And I've heard them imitate other good things as well. But adults, we do the same thing. If if we see something displayed before us, we want to imitate it.
Joel Brooks:
And so when we have an example of something good, something really good, I want to put that on display before you. Like, Barnabas is a great example, and I want you to to imitate this. Imitate this. Go in and go in your bibles back a couple of chapters to Acts chapter 11 verse 22. As we consider the outcome of Barnabas's life and we try to imitate him.
Joel Brooks:
11/22, this is the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad. And he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. For he was a good man, full of the holy spirit and of faith. And I, as I was preaching in that funeral yesterday, I was thinking, you know what?
Joel Brooks:
I would love for that to be said of me at the end of my life. I'd love for that to be on my tombstone. Joel Brooks, a good man, full of the holy spirit and of faith. I I think Luke, Luke puts that for us. It's almost a parenthetical note that he kind of puts out there.
Joel Brooks:
It's like when he mentions Barnabas, he wants you to know now Barnabas. Barnabas. He's a good man, full of the holy spirit and a faith. Look at him. It's his way of just saying you need to study the life of Barnabas.
Joel Brooks:
If you want to know what it means to be a good person and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, look at him. And so I want to point out just 5 things about the life of Barnabas that he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and a faith. First is this, and we just read it. Barnabas rejoiced when he saw grace in the life of others. He rejoiced in the grace of God at work in others.
Joel Brooks:
You see this in verse 23 when it says, When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad. To put that into context, when when Peter came and saw saw what happened at Antioch and saw the grace given to there, they were also pretty confused. And they sent Barnabas to go check out what was going on there. And then they decided, well, we need to have a conference, see if God's allowed to do what God just did. But then you get Barnabas, and he sees it, and he's just glad.
Joel Brooks:
When he sees grace, it ignites something in him. He's like, yes. He rejoices in that. He would rejoice when he saw even the slightest embers of grace at work in people's lives. And that's the that's the difference between me and Barnabas because I would walk into the church of Antioch I'd be like, woah.
We we gotta iron out a doctrinal statement before this thing gets out of hand. Alright? So we we need to we need to work on that because what you're doing there, wrong. It's wrong. You'll learn.
Joel Brooks:
Hey, you're still bringing your concubines into church. We gotta stop that. I mean, I would just start pointing out all these things about this imperfect new church. And Barnabas comes in and he sees it. It's like, the grace of God is here.
Joel Brooks:
I'm glad. He rejoices. I need I need a little more Barnabas in me. Barnabas's first reaction was not man. These guys have a lot to learn.
Joel Brooks:
His first reaction was just simple delight. And this is the work of the gospel in his heart. And you see this, those who truly come to understand grace, those who've been changed by grace, those who truly understand the work of Christ on the cross, and that that grace has been lavished onto us. Those who have experienced that are quick to recognize that in others. They're they they just kinda zero in like a like a tractor beam, you know, into those when they see that grace in the life of others.
Joel Brooks:
They go right to it. I realized I just use a star trek reference, in that tractor beam, you know. Right. For those of you who don't know aren't truckies. I mean, the the church of Jerusalem, they send Barnabas out there probably because they know these things in him.
Joel Brooks:
He's gonna be an encouragement, and he's gonna love to see those embers of grace at work. We need people like this. People who don't foresee someone's problems, doesn't foresee their sins, somebody who first doesn't see their faults, but somebody who's like, looks right in there like, oh, there's a number of grace and delights in it. Second thing we see from this good man full of the holy spirit and of faith goes along with the first. And that's that Barnabas not only rejoiced in seeing the grace of God at work, but he would then flame those embers of grace into flame.
Joel Brooks:
Another way of saying that is he helped people reach their potential in Christ. And you see this over and over in his life. Do you know what Barnabas's nickname was? Trick question. Barnabas is his nickname.
Joel Brooks:
His real name, we know from Acts chapter 4, his real name is Joseph. And when he's introduced, he's introduced as Joseph whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. Man, I wonder what my nickname would be. You know, it it when the apostle saw him, they're like, that's who he Joseph. Alright.
Joel Brooks:
I know you're born with that name. I know you were given with that name, but you're Barnabas. You are the son of encouragement. He would come alongside people. He would encourage them to reach their potential full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. So Barnabas is in Antioch and things are just exploding, things are just growing. I mean, right when he gets there.
Joel Brooks:
And the first thing he thinks of is, you know what? Because as I look at the need here and I see all the Gentiles here and I see this, it's a perfect match for Saul. And so the first thing he does after he gets that and he's like, I'm glad. I see grace. I gotta go get Saul.
Joel Brooks:
And he goes and he gets Saul and he says, I just found the perfect place where you could get plugged into ministry, where you can grow in your giftedness and these people can benefit from your giftedness. And so he pulls them together. It's the first thing he does. You get this feeling that Barnabas was the kind of guy who would lay awake at night just thinking of how he can match people with different ministries. How how how he could get people to, to grow in their giftedness.
Joel Brooks:
I think that's what really delighted him. And we need that in this church. People who stay awake at night thinking, how can I encourage somebody else to really grow in grace? This can be risky. Earlier in acts, right after Paul was converted on the road to Damascus to Damascus, nobody wanted to get near the man.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, he was, you know, archvillain of Christianity. He goes around killing Christians. And so people were really suspicious. Like, no, there's no way I'm getting near him. That's just, that's just some scheme he's doing to infiltrate the church and to kill people.
Joel Brooks:
And so the disciples would not have anything to do with Paul after his conversion. Thankfully, there was Barnabas. Let me read to you from Acts 9. It says, And when Paul had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him. For they did not believe that he was a disciple, and his But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
And so Barnabas takes this risk and goes to him and says, I see I see those embers of grace. I wanna fan it to flame. And he takes a risk, and he takes Paul, and he takes him to the apostles, and he says, I'll vouch for him. And right after that, it says, Paul went out through Jerusalem and he preached boldly in the name of the lord. He helped people reach their potential in Christ.
Joel Brooks:
I think another way you could say this is that Barnabas blessed people. He blessed people. Not in the sense of, you know, when you go through Walmart or you're going to the bank and you're told to have a blessed day, that that that's not a blessing. I'm talking about what we looked at when we were going through Genesis, a couple years back, I guess. A blessing that the most common blessing that you would see in Genesis is when a father would lay hands on their child and look them in the eyes, and with deep love and affection would affirm God's calling for their life.
Joel Brooks:
That was a blessing. My old preaching professor blessed me one time. It was years, 4 or 5 years at least, that I'd already graduated from seminary or already was in ministry. And my old preaching professor called me up at about 2 in the morning and said, brother Brooks, don't you ever call me brother Brooks, by the way. Brother Brooks, you need to come to my office right now.
Joel Brooks:
I need to talk to you right now. Like, oh, oh, okay. And so I go there, as fast as I can get there. And he has me sit down across from him, and he's
Speaker 3:
just totally silent. And he's
Speaker 2:
just totally silent. And he's
Joel Brooks:
just, totally silent. And Closes his eyes for about, I'm thinking 10 minutes. It's awkward. I mean, there's no way around. It's awkward.
Joel Brooks:
I'm thinking I'm actually going through any sin that he might possibly know or something that I've done. What am I about to get busted on? And I'm just going through, what what in the world is it? And I'm getting scared. And I'm like, but I don't think I've done any but I'm I'm scared.
Joel Brooks:
And then tears start rolling down his his cheek, and he looks at me. And with the deepest love and affection, he affirmed God's calling in my life in a way that I have never been affirmed before. Absolutely changed me. It it was a blessing. You know what he could have done?
Joel Brooks:
He could have ripped me to shreds. Pulled out all of my faults, all of my mistakes, all of my sins, and he could have just blasted me. He certainly could have criticized my preaching. He he he could have done that, but instead he didn't do any of that. He looked at me with deep love and affection.
Joel Brooks:
He affirmed, he said, this is God's calling on your life. That's a blessing. Have you ever been blessed like that or blessed someone like that? Or are you just really quick to point out the faults? I mean, can you imagine, you know, the kids here at Cornerstone, if you're tutoring one of these kids at Cornerstone and and you took the time to get to know that child, and then at one point you would just looked at them.
Joel Brooks:
Maybe put your hand on their shoulder and look them in the eye and with deep love and affection, you affirm God's calling on their life. Can you imagine the difference that might make in their life? Or if you did that with your spouse or your children, or if you did that with somebody else in this room, what an encouragement. We need more Barnabuses. Barnabas helped Paul become the apostle Paul who changed the world.
Joel Brooks:
3rd third thing I wanna point out about the life of Barnabas, or I guess I could say the 3rd evidence that Barnabas was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, was that he was patient with the failure of others. Pretty much I'm describing in this the opposite of me, just so you know. It was it was actually a fairly easy sermon to write. I just I know who I am and I wrote the opposite here. He he was patient with the failure of others.
Joel Brooks:
We're gonna see a couple chapters from now in Acts 15 how Paul and Barnabas actually get in a heated argument. Scripture says it was a sharp dispute. And we know Christians aren't supposed to have sharp disputes. We just have, lively discussions. But but but they had a sharp dispute.
Joel Brooks:
And it was over this. Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them on their next missionary journey. And Paul says, no. Absolutely not. Because because John Mark abandoned us last time.
Joel Brooks:
John Mark made a huge mistake. He failed us last time. Absolutely, no. And Barnabas kept saying, come on, Give him a second chance. We can go.
Joel Brooks:
He's a better he deserves a second chance. Let's take him. I see those embers of grace in there. And Paul said, no. Absolutely not.
Joel Brooks:
And it got so heated that Paul just chose a man named Silas, and he went off without Barnabas. And Barnabas took John Mark, and they went on another missionary journey. Barnabas was so patient with that failure, and it was a real failure of John Mark. And the result is we see John Mark restored. We see later him and Paul's relationship restored.
Joel Brooks:
Paul actually partners with him again in ministry. John Mark goes on to write the book of or the gospel of Mark. I don't know if I would have had that patience. 4th thing I want to point out about the life of Barnabas was Barnabas's generosity. Go all the way back to Acts chapter 4 where we first meet Barnabas.
Joel Brooks:
Acts 4 verse 34. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them,
Speaker 2:
And
Joel Brooks:
Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostle's feet. So the first snapshot that we have of Barnabas is one who sold his property. He was so generous. He sold his property and he gave all the money, and he laid it at the apostles' feet so that they might give it to the poor. Money had absolutely zero hold on Barnabas.
Joel Brooks:
When the church of Antioch wanted to send money to Jerusalem, there was a famine in Jerusalem. The Christians there were suffering. They were dying, and they needed relief. So, the church of Antioch took an offering, and they said, we need to send it there. Who can we trust?
Joel Brooks:
Let's send it with Barnabas. Why? Because we can trust Barnabas with money. Later on, what we know from Paul's letters that, when churches, they're really skeptical about paying their teachers or paying their preachers because there are many charlatans around, Barnabas said, okay, just don't pay me anything. I'll just work on my own for money.
Joel Brooks:
Don't don't ever give me a thing. Money had money had no hold on this man. Finally, so we have to move on. Barnabas lived, and this is gonna be kinda hard to describe. This might actually be 2 or 3 points into 1 here.
Joel Brooks:
We'll see how it goes. Barnabas lived what I would call a sent life. A sent life. If you remember after Stephen was killed, all the disciples fled the city of Jerusalem because of the ongoing persecution that hit. It says that they all scattered about.
Joel Brooks:
You can read that in Acts 8:1. It says that they all fled. Everyone except for the apostles and his. Because the apostles didn't fear anyone. The apostles were like, we're staying in Jerusalem while everybody else fled.
Joel Brooks:
But then we actually find out later that Barnabas had stayed in Jerusalem as well. And and I don't know if, you know, he was just so closely associated with the apostles that he's kind of like a quasi apostle or just that he was kind of The reason he left Jerusalem was because the apostles got him together and they sent him to go check out Antioch. Jerusalem was his hometown. It's where his family was. It's where his friends were.
Joel Brooks:
And they said, but we want you to go and check out what God is doing in Antioch. And so they sent him out and Barnabas never came back. He never comes back to live. Once he was in Antioch, he certainly could have stayed there. I mean, God's growing this amazing church.
Joel Brooks:
He he's the lead pastor there. You know, one of the the main teachers, the one who's listed first. He could have feathered his own nest, kind of become that that powerful preacher and the fastest growing church in the world. Pretty nice title to have, something good to put on your resume right there. He could have had all of that, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit through that time of worship and fasting, he was sent.
Joel Brooks:
And he left that too. And you, you can see that aspect of sentness all throughout Barnabas's life or related to that. There's also that, you can see this emptying of himself, I guess, or this humility and this emptying of himself throughout his whole life as well. You know, first thing he does, he sells all of his possessions. He empties his or not all of his possessions, but he empties himself of that land that he owned, and he laid it at the apostle's feet.
Joel Brooks:
Then he leaves his hometown where his friends and his family are, and then he goes to Antioch. When he's at Antioch, he he leaves the respect and the power and the prestige of being pastor of the largest growing church, you know, in in the land, to go on the mission field with Paul. And then when he's with Paul, he he empties himself even further because he sees that giftedness in Paul and he says, no longer really am I going to be the leader, but you're gonna be the leader. And he takes this lesser role so that Paul could start leading them. And so, I mean, even later when he has a chance to go on a missionary journey with the great apostle Paul, he gives that up to stick with a failure.
Joel Brooks:
He is he's constantly emptying himself. Over and over, he just empties himself, empties himself. And I think the results of that is that because he emptied himself, he was able to be filled with the holy spirit and with faith. Someone, asked me not long ago, because I mentioned a while ago, I was gonna do a study on Barnabas. And they said, why don't we ever hear biographies, read biographies from people like Barnabas and maybe some missionaries like Barnabas or preachers like Barnabas.
Joel Brooks:
And I said, well, you're certainly never going to get an autobiography because people like that don't write about themselves. And also people like that aren't noticed. They're not the ones that you initially think, man, I need to write a biography about that person, you know, because they're not the huge pastor of the fastest growing church. They're they're they're not they don't have all that respect, all that prestige. They're always the ones under the scenes lifting up those people so they can reach their potential in Christ.
Joel Brooks:
When I look at Barnabas, I see the gospel on display. I don't so much praise Barnabas. I praise the savior's work in Barnabas that's now on display because it reminds me also of Jesus who was equal with God. And he decided not to hold on to it, but he made himself a human. It reminds me of he who was rich, but he became poor for us.
Joel Brooks:
When I look at Varmus, I I see Jesus more clearly that enables me to worship him more dearly. It gives me a picture of what it means to be a good person, full of the holy spirit and full of faith. And I long to see more of that here in our midst. Pray with me. God, I thank you for servants like Barnabas who certainly was not perfect.
Joel Brooks:
But God, we could just see your grace on such beautiful display in his life. And he is a good person for us to look at and to try and imitate. Lord, this was a terribly convicting sermon for me to study because I'm the mirror image of this man who I just preached. I I do not proclaim this message because I've got it all under control, and I'm speaking from experience. God, I am quick to criticize.
Joel Brooks:
I'm quick to point out the failure in others. I don't really see the potential of Christ and people, not like Barnabas. So God, I pray for me and for all of us here that we would experience your mercy and your grace that you would just show us how much we have received. And then we would just delight in that and others. Raise up in our midst people like Barnas, people like Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
We pray this in the name of our lord and our savior. Amen.