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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
We'd to welcome you to the Florida School of Preaching Harvester podcast.
Season one, episode number 10.
I am Brian Kenyon along with Steven Ford and Forest Antemesaris.
And we're going to continue our discussion on unity and we're look at the next three
episodes about Bible examples in the New Testament of people who had potential and even
real conflict but yet worked it out and came out on the side of unity.
and we've had been having a great time with this season so far and we're going to continue
today and this is kinda my favorite parts of it are looking at these bible examples and so
we're looking really forward to this and we're gonna start out today's episode we're gonna
be dealing with paul and barbara this and the conflict that they had in and acts fifteen
but before we get to act fifteen want to take a look at some things
and uh...
barnabas is a great individual great character in the bible uh...
son of exhortation but i'm always impressed with him and acts chapter eleven and uh...
action for level of course in verse twenty six is where the disciples were first called
christians and the and any art and uh...
but in behind that you look at the actual eleven nineteen now those who were scattered at
the persecution that arose over steven
as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.
And of course this happened in Acts chapter 8 verse 4.
After that persecution they all went everywhere preaching the word.
But some of them, verse 20, were men from Cyprus and Cyrene who when they had come to
Antioch spoke to the Hellenists preaching the Lord Jesus.
And so the gospel was to the Jew first and then to the Greek.
cornelia's in his house for the first when i say full-fledged gentiles did have the
ethiopian unit we obviously was a proselyte as he was in jerusalem coming back but and so
but here summer preaching to the jews still and now s some traveled here to preach to the
helenists or the greeks and the hand of the lord was with them and a great number believed
in turn to the lord first twenty two then news of these things came
to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch
and when he had seen the grace of God and that expression has always impressed me.
You know, how do you see grace?
Grace is one of those abstract nouns but yet here he saw the grace of God.
But when he saw it he was glad and of course it involves the Gentiles hearing the gospel
and believing the gospel and obeying the gospel.
and the word mystery makes you think the word mystery in the all new testament you always
refers to something that's been revealed and most the time where you find the word mystery
especially in paul he's talking about jews and gentiles coming together into one and so it
barbara saw this he was glad and encourage them all with purpose of fart that they should
continue with with the lord
For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were
added to the Lord.
Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.
And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch, so that for whole year they
assembled with the church and taught a great many people.
And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
And we see this with Barnabas.
He rejoiced in God's grace.
We need to do that.
He reflected God's character and he by seeing the grace of God and rejoicing in it and he
reinforced God's people by going to find Paul.
But you know Paul seemed like as the first one that came to his mind that this is more
than I can handle by myself and so he wanted to get some another teacher there and Paul
was the one he found for that and I think that shows a great relationship already
pre-existing between Barnabas and Paul.
Yeah, I think that that I think you see that too in Acts chapter 9 because when you see it
says, you know when Saul first comes to Jerusalem verses 26 and 27 That they were all
afraid of him verse 26 They did not believe that he was a disciple but Barnabas took him
and brought him to the apostles and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the
road and What he had said to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of
Jesus.
So Barnabas really you see him
both in Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter 11, he's kind of like a bridge builder, I guess you
could say, you know, and especially in Acts chapter 9.
I mean, everybody's scared of Saul and Barnabas brings them in, introduces them to the
apostles, hey, can vouch for this guy.
He's, he's legit.
You know, he really did see Jesus.
He is a Christian now, yada, yada, yada.
So you can see Barnabas, you know, obviously that's an encouraging thing.
He's the son of encouragement, but he's willing.
So you see him seeking unity.
Already in Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter 11 trying to get Paul involved and get uh, let him
meet those other apostles and all those things
The other part of this is absolutely he is the one that seeks unity.
But you brought out a point, Brother Brian, in Acts chapter 11, in verse number 23, it
says, when he came and had seen the grace of God and was glad.
So he seems to have some sort of, he's spiritually astute, and I'll say that.
So he's paying attention, he's watching, he's looking, he's observing, and then he
responds appropriately based on what he saw.
And you see that in action as Forrest is talking about in Acts chapter nine.
So while Ananias was like, know, hey Lord, are you sure, you know, that this guy was
supposed to talk to, Barnabas is like, hey, I'm a witness to who this man is, whether he
has demonstrated the life he has, and so I'm gonna speak on his behalf.
And so his heart is such that when he sees something right, he's gonna do something with
it.
yeah that's a good point i see both in internal and acts eleven twenty three barbara says
an internal reaction to sing the grace of god and external reaction the internal as he was
glad right in the external he encouraged them with purpose of heart that they should
continue with the lord and i know sometimes like take for example the prophet jona you
know was he glad at the repentance and well see i well temporary salvation of nino
No, was not.
And he wasn't thinking spiritually either, but here part of us is he was glad and then he
encouraged the brethren.
But I thought about this too is that probably all three of us here, and I know those
listening, in fact every preacher who's been in the work for any number of years, we have
been through thick and thin with some people.
And so some people we just feel a lot closer to.
Maybe we've been on a campaign with them or maybe we've been attacked by.
you know false teachers or whatever and and we just been been in the trenches with them
and so we come out of that you know really close to one another and that's kinda how i see
paul and barnes going all the way back to chapter nine of course and then we see in
chapter eleven but then something happened along the way
Yeah, it starts with Barnabas getting his cousin involved, right?
John, Mark joining Paul and Barnabas on what I guess, you know, is called the first
missionary journey.
think that first round, know, John, who's also called Mark joins them and they're sent off
by the elders there.
To do the work of that first missionary journey But when you come to that's an Antioch
that they're sent off to start and they start preaching Cyprus and then they go to Antioch
of Pisidia and then you can read there though in Acts 13 13 how John departed from Paul
and Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem where he's from so he kind of goes back home and
that kind of sets up
the contention or the dissension that comes up later in actual for fifteen so i really
give a lot of details i'm sure you guys have there is about that are breads of about that
why john goes ever maybe just like it was too much for him or he was homesick or don't
know missus moms cooking or something you know but for whatever reason he goes back home
and we're gonna see later next fifteen paul kind of feels like he deserted them a little
bit and is hesitant to bring them with him again
Yes, and so we are missing a lot of details that God didn't see fit to give us.
But then we do come up into verse chapter 15 and verse 36.
Then after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us now go back and visit our brethren in
every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.
And so this is the beginning of the second mission, what we often call the second
missionary journey.
And just as a side note, that's a really good thing to do is to go back and reinforce
brethren.
And I just want to make it now, many of us have been on mission trips and you can go back
and baptize a whole bunch of people.
Then when you go back, no one's there, remaining faithful.
And so it's always good to go back and encourage the brethren.
Even the work of a preacher not to cut in, but even the work of the preacher, you know,
you might look at and say, well, I haven't baptized anybody in a year or whatever.
And it's like, well, what about the brethren that you've encouraged and helped?
know, and it's hard to sometimes we put more worth or value on a new soul added and not as
much value on a soul that's encouraged to stay, you know, but that's something, something
obviously Paul was concerned with.
Yeah, I'm completely fired up about the resurgence of evangelism in the last couple years,
three years, four years since COVID, Ron Whitaker's work and some others out West.
But sometimes there's a danger of getting that out of balance because if you, all you do
is evangelize and you don't encourage and strengthen the brethren, you're going to have a
potential mess on your hands.
But that's for another lesson.
But, and so that was a good idea.
Then verse 37, Barnabas was determined to take with them John Mark,
John called Mark, but Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had
departed from them and Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.
And then it says a contention became so sharp, and I'm reading from the New King James
translation, that they parted from one another and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to
Cyprus.
But Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by the brethren to the grace of God.
there's that grace of God again, and he went through serious, salacious strength and
salacious strengthening the churches.
And so they had this strong contention over whether to take John Mark.
Yeah, so Barnabas obviously wants to take him verse 37, you know, he's determined new King
James is a footnote or resolved so it seems like Barnabas is kind of already made up his
mind like hey, and you know, we again, we're spared some details.
Maybe he's trying to give his cousin a second chance.
Maybe he's like, hey, I know this guy, it was a fluke.
Maybe Barnabas is vouching for him, you know, kind of the way he earlier he vouched for
Paul, but he's of the opinion that maybe he's matured or whatever, but this time it's
going to be different.
But Paul obviously disagrees there in verse number 38 and says, hey, maybe we should take
somebody with us who didn't leave us last time, which I can, you know, that's a fair
perspective.
The Barnabas demonstrates something that I think that we could all maybe benefit from and
learn from.
Of course, as we've mentioned several times, we don't know all the details of why John
chose not to go.
However, if it was a thing where it was wrong for him to not go, you know, he went back
for selfish motivation.
that still doesn't rob him of his potential value.
It doesn't rob him of his future value.
And so what Barnabas seems to demonstrate is acknowledging that, you know, whatever the
past was, you still have some value as you alluded to for us.
It's the same thing he did with Saul, with Paul.
You know, hey, whatever your past was, there's a future for you.
But on the other side of that coin, you know, well, what is Paul thinking?
You know, perhaps there was a great deal of work.
know, potential out there that now you've left us in lurches.
know, there was 50 Bible studies and having you there would have helped to lift that load
and now he's not there to help to encourage those brethren.
And so, know, both have a, I guess a valid perspective if we're viewing it, you know, way
we are.
But I can see why Barnabas maybe wanted to bring him on again.
Yeah.
Right.
And it could be that, you know, Barnabas didn't discuss it with Paul.
mean, Paul seems he's open for discussion.
let us go back in verse 36 and visit our brethren in every city, see how they're doing.
And Barnabas was determined.
And so maybe if Barmas would have said, how about let's take, know, maybe some
communication, I guess, what I'm getting at some communication about who the team should
be.
and it seems like Paul is kind of the leader of these missionary journeys.
And so it's almost like.
salinski i mean uh...
you know barbis is demanding you know that the cultural thing here demanding that you know
uh...
i want this this in this so maybe that's that's part of it i don't know
I think you kind of see, know, that old and every conflict has us at some point, but it's
it's two people who are set on opposite ends, unwilling to compromise.
Right.
So Barnabas is determined verse 37, but verse 38, Paul insists.
you're determined on one thing and I'm insisting on another.
Right.
So what are our options here?
Either one of us has to change our mind or and here we see, you know, and there's a
gracious way to do this.
As we see, we're going to go our separate ways.
And I think, know, obviously an important thing here is this degree, this or this
disagreements not over a doctrinal matter.
This is, I don't want to call it inside baseball, but this is, I think elders have these
kinds of conversations all the time, right?
Here's our goal.
We're going on the second missionary journey.
Okay.
How are we going to do it?
Who are we going to take?
How are we going to get there?
You know, all those things are details that kind of need to be worked out.
And there is room for disagreement.
know, hopefully the solution isn't always to go separate ways.
But here I think you see the providence of God because now instead of one missionary team
you got two.
Right.
You've got Barnabas and John Mark on one way and then you got Paul and Silas go in
another.
But they they decide to go their separate ways.
And that's not sinful.
And it's an important thing to where it's like hey the conflict isn't it's resolved but
it's not resolved.
It's not lingering.
But they don't have to stay together.
Right.
Right.
And that's the thing.
Hey we don't have to do this on the same
trip we can we can split up and we have that right and that liberty as Christians to we're
working toward the same objective but we're not necessarily working on the same team right
now in this detailed way
That's good to remember too.
Who knows if that could not have been a benefit, you know, splitting up the teams.
Now you have two people going into different areas and sometimes I guess we don't
necessarily want it to be born from strife but who knows if we can't accomplish the will
of God in a way to still save more souls.
He wants all men to be safe so who knows if we can't get out and find that one soul who's
out there if we happen to have a separation with one from another.
Yeah, and for sure, it all worked out for the better with, as mentioned, two missionary
teams going out instead of one.
And so that all definitely worked out for the better.
of course, and as Forrest said, I want to reiterate, this wasn't over a doctoral matter.
It's not like they were making a written, based upon some of our earlier episodes, it's
not like they were making an obligation or prohibition or anything like that, but they're
dealing with a strictly an optional matter that
john mark does not have to go he can go he doesn't have to go and so there there's
disagreement there and if you take that you know the umbrella generic requirement we're
gonna go on a mission mission journey and then you have those specifics underneath it like
we talked about a few episodes ago well taking john mark is one of the options right and
not taking john mark is one of the options and so that's very important for us to realize
if it were a doctor matter something like that and of course there would be
you there's only one answer for that but this is not not that same thing
there's not really a right and wrong here.
Right.
know, they're both moral options.
Yeah, there's a good and a better, to use the words of 1 Corinthians 7.
And I think too, know, it's not like, I think obviously we're not given this isn't like a
soap opera, you know, but it's not like Barnabas was like, let's say I don't think so.
It's not like Barnabas was like, Hey, let's take John Mark.
And then Paul was like, I don't think so.
And then they're like, all right, see you later.
Let's part ways.
You know, that in verse 39, that contention became so sharp.
And I looked that word up in B dag to state of irritation expressed in argument.
So they're having
maybe a lively ish debate about the merits of taking John Mark or not, right?
So, and I think that's the thing where when we see conflict resolved, sometimes we rush to
undermine that it was a real conflict.
Like this is a real conflict.
This could have gone a different way.
This could have ended ugly.
This could have been a source of disunity, right?
But instead,
They still do the work.
They're still brothers.
They go their separate ways.
But there was a real conflict here.
And the resolution was, well, I'm going to take Silas and we'll go over here.
you obviously, Barnabas and John Mark can go another place.
But you could see in, and I think when you look throughout the rest of the scripture, it's
not like Barnabas and Saul had grudges after this.
It's not like, you know, they weren't in competition.
It's not like they were this.
Festered into a sort of a sort of sticking point in a battle and of course later on we
have Paul say that John Mark's useful for ministry and asks for him to be sent to him
while he's in prison You know what I mean?
So obviously this isn't you know people change and there was There was an acceptance from
Paul's perspective of John Mark But here there is a real conflict and it's able to be
resolved without lingering
you know, competition, conflict, etc.
I could wish that we would highlight that point a little bit more.
When you look at...
what Paul's habit was just in general, it was argumentation and debate.
So he would go and by those words, you know, it's not like how we use them now, they don't
have the negative connotation.
It's a, it's an exchange of information.
I, I assert something and then I defend that assertion and then you respond or you have an
assertion and you defend it.
And so we go back and forth with exchanging ideas.
And so that's what he would do when he would go into synagogues.
And that's what he seems he's doing here.
They were both, you know, here's why we should take John Mark with
No, here's why we should not take them with us and they seem to both have an exchange of
ideas that you know, like we're saying both are Neither one of them is a sinful.
They're I guess a moral or they're both moral.
Yeah, whether or not they Yeah but it's one of those things that They have the opportunity
to do but
It's okay to exchange information with each other.
It's okay to have disagreements.
As long as those things don't lead us into sin, it's okay to have a difference of opinion
and verbalize it.
think today we want to extinguish conversation so much because of the potential for it to
get out of hand, and I appreciate that, but we still have to kind of talk it out at some
point in exchanging information.
Yeah, it's not a sin to have an argument, for lack of a better term, over these kinds of
things.
Paul could have pulled the apostle card, hey, I'm an apostle.
Barnabas could have pulled the card, hey, you wouldn't even know the apostles if it wasn't
for me.
You know what I mean?
So they both had a card they could have pulled, but it doesn't seem like they did that.
And I think it's an awesome point as well.
how are we been mentioned?
I'd like to expand upon it.
How many times do we have sharp contentions with people or maybe not us personally, but
generally speaking, and then now, now one person in that contention wants nothing to with
you anymore.
Yeah.
And over, over something that was like, like this, it's not really a, you know,
violating scripture, it's, you know, one's more expedient than the other, whatever it
might be.
But a lot of times we think that we think that well, because you don't, and I know our
culture has a lot to do with this.
Wow.
Especially the last maybe 10, 20 years or something, but it's almost like conflict is you
got to avoid it.
And then if you get into it, you're my enemy now all of a sudden.
And you can't really, a lot of times rationally discuss these things.
And, and it's, and a lot of people like, I've discovered, like if I ask them questions and
really I'm just trying to
Satisfy my curiosity or knowledge being what the topic is, but some people will take
questions as challenges, you know and But we shouldn't do that when we're communicating
with one another and talking about these things and so I think that's a good point to
emphasize is that just because we disagree with somebody Over an optional matter like
whether to take John mark with us on a missionary journey Doesn't mean we have to ditch
each other now and I'm not gonna have anything to do with you anymore
Right.
There's a level of humility that has to be involved there too because if you take yourself
too seriously and think too highly of yourself, then when your opinion is challenged, you
will associate your ego and so much with your opinion that for your opinion to be
challenged, now you are challenged as a person.
You are somehow, you know, looked down upon because your opinion may not be favorable to
the other person.
That's a culture thing now where if you ask a person anything, well, why'd you turn the
light off?
You know, you're attacking me and everything isn't a personal attack.
It could be just a question.
Maybe I think the opinion that you have is invalid or not intelligent, but it's okay to
ask that.
And I say that because there are times that, you know, even I may feel like, wow, that,
you know, that question feels a little personal, but you know.
Maybe it's just a genuine question.
Maybe Paul's genuinely thinking like, why in the world would you want to take him with
you?
I mean, he left us last time.
It's logical to just leave him off the list this time.
Let's just go by ourselves.
Yeah, and I mean, especially, you know, back in Paul's context, I mean, it's kind of like
a matter of life and death, these missionary journeys, you know what I mean?
It's not like we're going to we're going to ride in our AC, you know, air conditioned van
50 miles up the road and knock on doors in a neighborhood we've been to before.
This is like I'm getting.
Yeah, like I'm getting chased from city to city and they're trying to kill me.
And you want to bring the duty flaked out on us last time, you know, so I could see it's
definitely a stressful environment.
But I think too, you know, I think not not not too few times do we have almost like this
third option of conflict resolution where instead of either you get your way or I get my
way, there's a kind of a third option.
Right.
And that's kind of what we see here where you know, you might have in a congregation where
You know, somebody says, we need you to do a door knocking campaign.
And the person says, Hey, we need to do house to house, heart to heart.
People don't answer the doors, but they check their mail, you know, whatever.
Usually they would just argue back and forth instead of saying, Hey, why don't you get a
team together and you can go do some door knocking with your team.
And then I'll raise the support for us to do house to house, heart to heart.
And then now we kind of both, you know, and we don't have to agree.
We don't have to see face to face.
And now we kind of.
We're able to do both because both of those are good things both of those are options and
now we can do both of them But hey, you've kind of have your little area.
I've got my little area nothing wrong with that and I think sometimes we were kind of
stuck in this idea of One of us has to be right and the other has to be wrong and unless
that's acknowledged we can't go forward Mm-hmm, right and this shows us well, wait a
second there and I don't think either of them neither of them really Compromise, but the
work is still able to be done, right?
Barnabas goes with John Mark, Paul goes with Silas, and they both are still preaching the
word.
And that's really what matters.
There's a lot there.
There's the humility too though, man.
It's all right.
Maybe mine isn't the best idea for you.
It's okay, maybe we're both right.
Yeah, that's all right.
And I doubt Paul was like, well, you take John Mark, I'll take Silas.
Let's see who has more baptisms in eight months.
You know what mean?
It wasn't like it was like a pride thing.
It just was, well, we have to do the mission.
We have to do the work and we're still going to do it even if we can't agree on this part
of it.
Yeah, and I like what you said, Forrest, about, well, you didn't say it this way, but I'm
going to kind of condense it this way.
We don't work face to face, but we work together.
Exactly.
And so, and so you get more spread of the gospel that way.
And so it works out for good.
Now we did mention, in Paul's second Timothy chapter four, he does mention brain John
Mark.
And so it does show that, you know, he had no hard feelings against John Mark.
and Paul and Barnabas, you know, worked together after this, seems like.
But what are some things about then unity?
And of course we mentioned humility quite a bit throughout this podcast and we see that
both with Paul and Barnabas.
What are some other things from this particular incident that we can walk away with about
unity?
Like you know you mentioned humility is a big one.
think to just allowing disagreements to shape how we view other people and it's not like
Paul I don't think Paul was talking bad about Barnabas behind his back or saying you know
nepotism he just wants to take him because he's his cousin and that kind of like
mudslinging and slandering and all the things that could have happened obviously that all
the sin and
The ability to disagree with somebody on an optional matter and it not be the end of the
relationship I think is a huge takeaway here, you know where you and I can disagree on an
optional matter and still be brethren and still work on the same team and still and still
do our work and And really that I have got a love Christ and his bride and souls more than
I love proving you wrong, you know, and I think
That's a big part of it and part of what we see here at Paul and Barnabas.
Yeah, I would agree with that 100%.
Paul and Barnabas, when they separated from each other, the unity is they weren't working
side by side or face to face as you said, but they're still working on the same team.
Paul didn't say, you know what guys, I quit, you know, I'm going back to Judaism, what
have you, when you continue to read through the book of Acts.
He's steadfast on the mission to save souls.
He stays the course.
And so when we think of the unity, perhaps there is a period of time where we can separate
in our physical presence, but we never separate from our fellowship in Christ.
And so the unity there is always intact and we stay mission minded.
When I think of what they did, the real win there is in the column of Christ.
Neither one of them necessarily
got to best the other one in terms of that physical argument.
However, Christ wins because there more souls who are added.
Where would be this church of Thessalonica if Paul said, you know what, man, I'm out of
here, I'm done.
Where would the church of Corinth be if Paul says, I'm done, or Ephesus, or wherever.
So the unity there is absolutely underscored in Christ.
Yeah, that is a great point.
In fact, I'm going to look into that more.
Something you said there really was really good.
Christ wins.
Of course, now we know Christ wins anyway, but I think that's a good, and we have to put
that a different way, but if we can resolve conflict and Christ is still magnified and
people aren't saying, well, if that's a Christian, I don't want anything to do that.
if this is a Christian,
So if we can get through with conflict and still Christ is still, even those that look
onto that conflict and maybe see the results of it, they still see Christ where he needs
to be, that his body is still united and that there's not any destruction to the body of
Christ that way.
And then that not only does well for the church, the local church, wherever that conflict
is, but it also shows the world that
The church can disagree on things on optional matters.
can still have disagreements, but still be brethren, still get along.
Yeah, and I think for some reason, know, we and you know, pain with broad brushstrokes.
I don't mean, you know, I'm not trying to generalize too much, but sometimes we forget
that in.
In the context of the church, for some reason, you know what I mean?
Like if your wife disagrees with you on some like peripheral matter, you're not going to
divorce her, you know, or like your your mom or your brother, you're in the flesh or
something.
You guys don't disagree.
You know, you don't agree on something.
It's not the end of the world.
Like that relationship isn't severed.
But sometimes in Christ, where we have more reason for unity, you know, that relationship
will sever over those things.
And it's sad to see, like you said, you know, obviously God wins in the end, but kind of
riffing off of what Stephen said, you know, there are sometimes where Satan appears to be
the winner, you know, and there's some battles that Satan does with.
We know that people fall away, people, you know, don't obey the gospel because of stuff
like this sometimes.
And that's what we're trying to avoid is, like you said, for Christ still to be magnified
and exalted and people to see, Christians can disagree and still be brethren.
you know, something that always boggles my mind, and you guys have probably seen this
before, you know, that list of the works of the flesh in Galatians five, like 80 % of
those words have to do with personal relationships, right?
Like envy, jealousy.
You know, all those kinds of dissensions, all those kinds of things where you can really
see how, you know, when we're, you know, walking according to the Spirit, according to
what the Spirit has said in the Word, and when we're bearing the fruit of the Spirit,
you're going to see that in our relationships and how we treat each other, especially, I
would say, people we disagree with.
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Paul's attitude as you follow him through the scriptures is always, seems, and I use the
term Christ wins, I guess Christ exalted would be the better way to say that.
The win is already set, but he's exalted.
I'm thinking of Philippians chapter one where Paul's like, look, these guys are preaching
the gospel for various reasons, but he says, no matter what, Christ is preached.
So I'm not gonna fight over it.
I'm grateful that Christ is preached.
When Christ is preached, God is glorified.
Souls can be saved.
The world can hear, the world can know.
And if more of us could have this attitude, mean, Paul was one who had every reason to
pull the apostle card.
I mean, I was one that he appeared to specifically after his ascension.
know, the other guys, you know, he saw them in the flesh while he was walking around.
But for me, he made this concession or for me, I'm this or that, you know, I have all
these visions, I heal people, I do all this kind of stuff.
But he didn't.
It's just like, hey, we're both co-laborers.
We both want souls to be one.
We have a difference in philosophy with who the team's gonna be, but it's all about God
being magnified.
And if we all could kinda take ourselves down a notch and remember, well, all right, who
am I?
Who's am I?
What's my purpose?
What is my goal?
Then I think that unity will be kind of at the forefront of our minds, I guess I wanna
say.
Yeah, and that doesn't mean you can't try to get somebody to see your side or like Paul
and one of us still had that That debate or argument or whatever you want to call it So,
you know, there's a healthy way conflict can be healthy and there's a healthy way to deal
with it And I think that's one of the main things we see here in X X 15
Yeah, and so to humility, just on what we've discussed, so to humility in helping resolve
that conflict to stay unified, we could add to that to be spiritually minded to look at
what the body of what what impact it would have on the body of christ and on outsiders who
observe the body of christ and like you said sometimes we take these things personal and
it's the worldliness part of us that comes out in the argument instead of what's best for
the kingdom what's best for that so to be spiritually minded and then also we'll get the
right terminology one these days but maybe it's the so that the gospel is still glorified
at the end so that you know so that
we resolve the conflict so that the gospel still wins, gospel is still, you know, nobody
looks at the gospel in a bad way or something like that, but we'll get that right, we'll
get that terminology right, but you know what we're trying to say there.
I also think of Jesus' prayer.
When Jesus is saying that they might be one, so that unity also is an answer to the Lord's
prayer.
It also demonstrates that he sent us, that he came.
So if we're fighting and contentious and we are having this real carnal sort of way of
thinking, what do we say about Christ and his mission and his kingdom and all those sorts
of things?
But if we can...
Demonstrate I guess exalted I guess which is exalted because even you know policy in the
Philippines one going back there He says whether I live or die, you know, yeah, he's gonna
exalt Christ in his body So I guess the goal would just be no matter what no matter who no
matter why it's all about God all about Christ and the other stuff has to just fall away
way second
Yes, very good.
All right, so we enjoyed this discussion here with about Paul and Barnabas and the
disagreement they have, but they still kept unity.
And so thank you for listening to this podcast and we would like to hear your ideas.
Just email them to us at fsop at fsop.net and we'd love to hear from you.
But until then, we'll see you at the next podcast.
The Florida School of Preaching.