by Keith Bassham
Just days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when the first church was being established in Jerusalem, and the Apostles of Jesus were just feeling their way around in this very new world where Jesus was Lord, and they were so very dependent on the Spirit of God to know what to do, the Apostles discovered a man, Joseph of Cyprus, who would become very important to them, and then later to the whole church.
First, they noted his generosity. Acts 4:36-37 says this man had land holdings, and he sold the land, and gave the money to the Apostles to use the best way they knew how in this new enterprise. Because of this and other qualities Joseph displayed, the Apostles gave Joseph a new name. They called him Barnabas, the son of encouragement.
And so Barnabas became close to the center of the church activities, very nearly an apostle himself, and you would think they would put him in charge of something. But that did not happen. Just one or two pages later in the Book of Acts, we read about the first deacons in the church, yet in that list given in Acts 6:5, the name of Barnabas is missing, passed over — but we know he’s still there, because a few pages over, we find him mentioned again, and yet again after that. Why was he being passed over, I wonder? For we read in Acts 11:19-21 that Barnabas is a “good man, full of faith, and full of the Holy Spirit.”
It’s a funny thing, this being passed over, because later a man named Paul, the Apostle Paul, becomes the central figure in the early church, but it was Barnabas who vouched for Paul at the first when the rest of the Christians didn’t want anything to do with him. And it was Barnabas who went to minister to Gentile believers, people the others in the Jerusalem church considered suspect at best. And it was Barnabas who was pastoring the group of people who were first called Christians — it happened on his watch.
How is it that this very important person, almost an apostle, doesn’t occupy a more prominent place in our thinking? What made such a person tick? What can we learn from him today? And finally, why is this important for today’s special occasion?
First of all, he’s not more prominent because he didn’t want to be prominent. I can’t show Barnabas knew everything about God’s plans and purposes, but he knew enough about them to realize that in the overall scheme of things, life is not about Barnabas, or about me, or about you — it’s about bringing glory to God. The Father sending His Son Jesus into the world to take care of the sin problem and to set the world right again — these are the things that matter, and eternal life doesn’t just mean you go to heaven when you die. It also means we learn to model heaven right now and right here — we live and behave as citizens of heaven ahead of time.
You start thinking that way, and it changes your perspective on just about everything. That’s why Barnabas sells his land and gives the money away. That’s why he doesn’t care so much when he gets passed over for the office of deacon. That’s why he will vouch for someone others are suspicious of. That’s why he will go where others won’t. That’s why he leads a church to be so different that others call them a name like “Christian,” a name he and that church will wear proudly. Barnabas loved the church and the people of God, and he was an encourager to others, and it was obvious to all.
And that’s what makes Barnabas tick. He loves for a living. There is an ancient document, not included in our Bible, called the Epistle of Barnabas. I only mention it because of something in the first chapter of that epistle where the writer says he is writing to encourage and to exhort, but he’s doing it as a friend rather than as an authoritative teacher. I don’t know whether the letter is authentic or not — I’ll let scholars debate it — but it sure sounds like something Barnabas would write.
What do we learn from a person like Barnabas?
- Be guided by the big perspective of what God is doing and what He will do. Among other things, this gets your eyes off yourself and on to other things and people.
- Be generous to God’s work.
- Be an encourager. When the Bible says Barnabas was full of faith, that means he had faith in God and in people, and what God could do with people. When you saw Barnabas coming, you knew you were going to get a pep talk, an arm on your shoulder, a big “’Atta boy, you can do this,” a friend who would always be there. You might have felt like road kill and ready to give up, but Barnabas would somehow lift you up and get you to do things you didn’t think you could do.
But I want to caution you… Barnabas was able to do this not because he had some magic touch. Barnabas was able to do these great things because he hitched himself to a great God.