The Barnabas Effect - Part 3

Amen.

All right, so we're going to be in the

final part of a study on my favorite

character in the Bible not named Jesus,

a man by the name of Barnabas who I

believe does not get nearly enough shine

for all the stuff that he has been a

part of. So, in part one of this study,

we talked about how Barnabas is an

encourager and he's got the secret

formula for encouraging people. He sees

the spark of God's grace in your life,

then he starts to fan that flame of

faith a little bit, and then he steps

back and allows you to grow. He allows

that fire to breathe. And then in part

two, we talked about how

Barnabas is able to see a pattern in

people's lives of God's grace being

distributed upon them. And so, what he

does is he comes alongside them to help

just kind of encourage them toward what

God is doing in their life. So, instead

of building a platform for himself where

he would be as famous as the Apostle

Paul, he decided to actually come

alongside Saul and help him become the

Apostle Paul whose ministry then

eclipsed Barnabas' ministry

um in church history. And today we're

going to talk about the true test of an

encourager. Like, this is going to

separate people today because it's one

thing when you're encouraging someone

and they're succeeding, it's a whole

'nother thing when you're encouraging

someone and they're failing. So, when

you're an encourager and you're faced

with the situation and that person's not

living up to your expectations,

do you continue to encourage them?

That's basically the question that we're

going to be wrestling with today as we

end this series. So,

um discouragement or encouragement can

get difficult. For weeks, Barnabas has

been easy to love. I mean, this dude

comes alongside the most unlovable

people on Earth and he encourages them

and they become success stories.

But, in Acts chapter 15, the opposite is

Acts 15 · chapter mention

happening. He is actually encouraging

someone who has failed pretty publicly.

And so, we got to see what does he do?

What does What does good old Barnabas do

when he's faced with a failure

as some people see it. So, encouragement

is easy when the person person you are

encouraging is succeeding. So, what do

you do when they disappoint you? Now, I

love Miss Minnie Arnold. I love her so

much. She is my hero. She has saved me

from many things like mice and ants and

grease stains on my tie.

One morning, I was here early doing some

stuff under this communion table and I

bent over and I split my pants. I'm just

going to be honest.

I just completely ripped the back out of

my pants on a Sunday morning right

before worship service. You know what

she did? She fixed it. She sewed them

right back together. So, I love Miss

Minnie and one of the things I love

about her that you may not know is that

she just doesn't give up on people and

she doesn't give up on things.

She was our long time custodian 50-plus

years cleaning this church and

she had this vacuum cleaner that she

loved and adored.

The rest of us, not not so. This thing

looked like R2-D2's grumpier cousin. All

right.

Now, when I say vacuum, I'm not talking

about one of those beautiful like Dyson

vacuums or those handy dandy Shark vacs.

Like this thing is, well, it looked like

it belonged in the Smithsonian. I'll

just put it that way. And the reason

being, I think you know it actually used

it on the ark to clean up after the

animals. But

every now and then it would break and

we'd have the gall to go tell Miss

Minnie, "Hey, why don't we buy a new

one?"

And she'd look at us like we were insane

people. She's like, "Absolutely not.

This one's just fine." I'm like, "Okay,

but just fine do you mean it doesn't

work currently? Or

but then she'd call Melvin or she would

call Mike or she would call Brad or she

would call Lynn or she would call

somebody and they would come and they

would like duct tape the thing together.

I think it was 50% duct tape by the end

of its life cycle. But

or they'd go to the vacuum graveyard and

they'd find another replacement part and

she'd keep right on I'm Man, this thing,

I promise you it used up all of its nine

lives. And And the last time it died,

I'm pronouncing its time of death. I'm

like, it's October 4th about 3:14 p.m.

in the afternoon, and this thing's gone.

And she's over there like doing CPR on

the thing. She's like, "Don't leave me.

Don't leave [laughter] me." You know, um

she just doesn't give up. And

Okay, so I get that people aren't vacuum

cleaners, but um people do fail. And And

people do break. And people do make a

mess of things. And it's just so nice

for me to know that there's somebody

like Miss Minnie out there that that

just doesn't give up on people. Doesn't

give up on people when they mess up. She

believes that everything could be

restored, whether it's a vacuum the

cleaner or a person. And that's the same

mentality that Barnabas brought to life.

So, the question is,

when people mess up, do we toss them out

and replace them, or do we Do we become

a Barnabas to them and try to restore

them? See,

most people don't have a problem with

believing that God can change people in

theory, okay? But it's difficult in

believing that same thing after that

person has disappointed you personally.

And so, Acts 15, it gives us this story,

and it's not a tidy little story with

like boilerplate heroes and villains.

Now, as one commentator said, it gives

us a faithful people who disagree

sharply and a young man whose future

hangs in the space between caution and

grace. So, before we decide whether

Barnabas was right or whether the

Apostle Paul was right, we need to kind

of look at the story and break it down.

And so, in Acts chapter 15, verse 36,

Acts 15:36

we'll we'll catch up.

It says, "After some time had passed,

Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let's go back

and visit the brothers and sisters in

every town where we have preached the

word of the Lord and see how they're

doing.'" And Barnabas says

he wants to take along John who was

called Mark. But Paul insisted that they

should not take along this man who had

deserted them in Pamphylia and had not

gone with them to do the work. So Paul

proposes a a revisit to all the churches

that they had planted and Barnabas wants

to take this guy, we'll call him John

Mark. Um Paul did not think it was

advisable to take this guy with him

because, you know, he's not being petty.

Uh John Mark actually abandoned the

mission. He he walked off the the

battlefield. He was a a deserter in the

eyes of the Apostle Paul. And so John

Mark was called to help them with their

ministry work. We see that in Acts

Acts 13:5

chapter 13 verse 5. He was called to

help Paul and Barnabas as they went out

on that first missionary journey to

start planting churches. But then it

says in chapter 13 verse 13 that Paul

and his companions set sail for Paphos

and they came to Perga of Pamphylia, but

John left them and he went back to

Jerusalem. Uh

at Perga, he he's gone. He he leaves. He

deserts. Now, if you've ever heard a

sermon where the pastor has tried to say

why he deserted um the team, then that

pastor is speculating, okay? Cuz we have

no idea. Was it homesickness, illness,

fear, conflict? We We have no idea. To

So to assign blame a reason for uh him

leaving the team um is is beyond what

scripture gives us. So we're not going

to do that today. But what we will look

at is the fact that the text tells us

that Paul considered this departure a

serious failure of responsibility.

He's mad. He's upset. He's He's

harboring it. He's remembering this. And

this is where the disagreement gets

complicated because Paul is focused on

the mission. Any mission-minded people

in here? I'll raise my hand. That's me.

One-track mind, mission-minded. I get

focused on something, it's hard to see

everything else. Barnabas is not that

type of person. Barnabas cares about the

people involved in the mission.

Both groups are right. It is important

to care about the mission. It's

important to care about the people that

are going on the mission. So, neither of

them is is wrong. Uh sh- but showing

someone grace does not require us to

pretend like they're perfect. Like like

nothing happened. Like a second chance

is not the same thing is saying, "Well,

let's immediately restore this

relationship." or uh denying the

consequences, acting like it doesn't

matter what they've done in the past.

It's not ignoring safety. It's not

re-establishing trust where trust should

not be earned. So, don't don't hear that

wrong, okay? A second chance is not

saying all of those things. But Barnabas

does not de- deny that Mark's failed.

And and he doesn't try to downplay the

fa- the fact that that Mark failed. Uh

but what he's doing here is he's denying

failure the right to be Mark's legacy

forever.

He he's denying failure the right to be

Mark's legacy forever. So, I used to go

hunting with my dad. We went deer

hunting um during hunting season back in

West Virginia.

And uh this is the early '90s before

there's like GPS and cell phones. This

is before you could like send a pin to

your wife and say, "Here's where my body

will be." you know, like you can't We

couldn't do stuff like that. And um so,

my dad told me he said, "Look, don't go

over the ridge. Just stay here on this

piece of property. Don't go over the

ridge." So, of course, being a stupid

teenager, I didn't see any deer on the

ridge. And so, what did I do? I went

over the ridge. And the problem was when

I went over the ridge, every trail,

every tree, everything looked exactly

the same. And I got lost. And I did what

I was supposed to do when I got lost is

just kind of stay put and hope my dad

finds me. And he did. Um

He he found me. And well, he he wasn't

too happy. And I wasn't too happy either

cuz I'd eaten my last bit of honey. Um

so, I figured

you know, I I was out of food, so this

was going to be my final resting place.

So, we're both in a bad mood when we

finally find each other. And so, Gary

Buzzard comes over the ridge and he he

finds me and um

but one thing he didn't do is he he

wasn't like, "Hey, you're going to stay

in this holler forever." By the way,

holler um is hillbilly West Virginia for

a hollow or a narrow valley, okay? But

when I say it's holler. I was in the

holler and I was stuck and dad didn't

come and tell me, "You're going to live

in this holler forever." He said, "Let's

get you back to the truck and then we'll

try again next week." All right, so

he held me accountable.

He held me accountable. He he

he put some safeguards in place, we'll

just say, the next weekend when we went

out. Uh the safeguard was basically, I

have to be able to see you in your

bright orange hat and your bright orange

vest at all times. Like, you're not

wandering away from me. Um

and the next weekend we did. We went out

and uh this time he stayed a little bit

closer to me.

Friends, that that's grace. That's what

you read about in the Bible. That's

God's grace. God does not pretend that

you didn't wander. He doesn't pretend

like you didn't just walk over the

ridge. He doesn't pretend like you

didn't get lost. He doesn't pretend like

you didn't do something stupid. Okay, he

acknowledges all of those things, but in

the same in the same heart,

he doesn't say your bad decision's a

good decision, but what he does say is,

"I'll be there with you. I I'll help you

through this. I'll I'll help you grow.

We'll put some we'll put some guardrails

up so you don't do this again, but I

love you enough to make sure that you

you have another chance to get things

right."

See, Gary Buzzard, he paired grace with

accountability.

He didn't ignore my mistake. He put the

boundaries in place, the safeguards in

place, but he refused, get this, he

refused to let my mistake define me.

He took me back hunting again the very

next weekend.

That's exactly what Barnabas is trying

to do here for John Mark.

John Mark quit. He deserted the team for

whatever reason, and apparently he was a

very important part of that team, but he

he left them behind. And Barnabas never

once in scripture pretends like that

event did not happen. He's not sweeping

anything under the rug.

But what he's doing is he's separating

behavior from identity.

Some of y'all need to hear that this

morning.

Cuz you don't know how to separate these

two things. You need to be able to

separate behavior from identity.

Because you failed is not the same thing

as you are a failure.

You failed is not the same thing as you

are a failure.

So he doesn't pretend that that nothing

happened. He just refused to let what

happened be the end of John Mark's story

because he's an encourager.

Look at verse 37 again in chapter 15.

Barnabas wanted to take along John who

was called Mark, but Paul insisted they

should not take him along because he had

deserted them and had gone on with them

to the work. They had such, and get

this, verse 39, they had such a sharp

disagreement that they parted company

and Barnabas took Mark with him and

sailed off to Cyprus.

So in verse 37 it says Barnabas wanted

to take Mark. This is not a casual

suggestion. Barnabas is looking Paul in

the eye and saying, "Look, I want to do

this thing. I want to bring him along

with us."

And he held his position because

Barnabas had this unique ability to see

the the the spark of God's grace in

someone's life. He'd seen the fact that

Mark had had changed. That this this

failure that identified him to almost

everybody else was not what identified

him to Barnabas. And Barnabas has done

this before to the very man that he's in

an argument with. In Acts chapter 9, he

Acts 9 · chapter mention

saw Saul's dangerous past and Barnabas

saw Christ's transforming work in him.

He looked past all the things Saul had

done. He saw what Jesus was doing. In

Acts chapter 11, other people lost track

Acts 11 · chapter mention

of where Saul was, but not Barnabas. He

went and he sought him out and brought

him into the ministry work. And now in

Acts chapter 15, Paul sees Mark for who

Acts 15 · chapter mention

he was, and Barnabas is like, "No, let's

judge him for who he is and who he has

the potential to be."

Look, Barnabas' gift was not naive

optimism, all right? He was a factual

guy, but he was also able to see God's

grace in its early stages, before that

full transformation was available to

everyone else.

Paul saw a deserter,

but Barnabas saw an unfinished product.

And friends, that's a big part of the

Barnabas effect. If you want to be an

encourager,

encouragers do not freeze people in the

moment of their failure.

Let me say that again.

Encouragers do not freeze people in the

moments of their failure.

I mean, judging a Christian by their

failure is like taking a picture in the

middle of a home restoration and saying,

"Well, this is this is the finished

product. This is what it's going to look

like forever. You got the drywalls not

even up. You got cords and wires hanging

everywhere. There's dust all over the

place. There's no kitchen sink." It'd be

like coming into that that that

renovated house or that bit house that's

being built and just saying, "Hey, this

is it. It's done. Let's judge it right

now in this condition."

That's not what Barnabas does. And when

you're looking at somebody, you got to

understand that sometimes that's a

person who is a project that is still

under construction. It's what the Bible

calls progressive sanctification. We

become more and more like Christ every

single day. We're being remodeled every

day. So, to freeze somebody when they're

still under construction is just not

fair to that person.

Sometimes we confuse a snapshot with the

whole story. Sometimes we say, "Well,

there's the addict." Or or there's the

the quitter. Or there's the guy that got

fired. Or there's the one who's always

causing the problems.

Barnabas had a very different effect on

people. He had a very different outlook

for people. Barnabas

looks for repentance, not perfection.

And that's a key.

He's looking for repentance, not

perfection. He walks into that house

that's under construction, and he's just

looking to make sure that there's some

work going on.

If there's no work being done in the

house, then maybe you do judge.

But when there's repentance, when

there's work being done, when someone is

turning their life toward Jesus, when we

see that that that God's grace is at

work, that's when we begin to redefine

them. We don't allow them to just be a a

snapshot. We let them be a story.

Barnabas number two, he also identifies

people by their potential.

He didn't introduce Saul as the church

killer to the apostles. He said, "This

is a man whose life Jesus has changed."

Acknowledging the past, but also telling

people where he's at right now. This is

a man whose life Jesus has changed. And

now he's doing the same thing for John

Mark. And number three, Barnabas stays

long enough to help.

Encouragement from a distance is simply

applause.

Real encouragers, they walk with people.

See, Barnabas didn't simply say, "I

believe in you, Mark."

He rearranged his entire schedule.

He changed his trip. He He traveled with

him. He invested in him. When Paul said,

"No, I'm not taking this guy along."

Barnabas says, "Fine, I'm going to go on

this boat and we're going to go to this

town and John will come with me and

he'll get to learn from a seasoned

believer.

See, Barnabas put his time, his

reputation, and his energy behind his

belief in people.

That's what real encouragers do. They

put their reputation, their time, and

their energy into their belief in

people.

They stay in the story. Let's pick up in

verse 39.

So, they had their sharp disagreement.

They parted company and Barnabas took

Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus.

But, Paul chose Silas and they departed.

After being commanded by the brothers

and sisters to the grace of the Lord, he

traveled through uh Syria and Cilicia

strengthening the churches.

The disagreement became sharp. They Paul

chose Silas to be his buddy and and they

kind of like formed teams and they went

off in different directions and they

went to different places and uh but so

but Luke, the author of Acts, is not

asking us to to pick team Barnabas or to

pick team Paul. That's not the

dissertation that's being done here. He

simply shows us that God's bigger than

our disagreements.

Because God used both of these teams to

do incredible things. God's kingdom work

was being done and now it's two missions

instead of one mission. All because

someone was willing to stay in the

story.

Barnabas didn't simply forgive Mark. He

invested in him. He He didn't give him

another another lecture. What he gave

him was a place in his boat.

A place on his mission. He

a place beside a mature believer by

Barnabas where he could learn. So, for

the next season of his life, Mark

learned about watching a seasoned mature

disciple. He got to see Barnabas preach.

He got to see Barnabas serve. He got to

see Barnabas handle oppression and and

opposition. He watched as Barnabas was

encouraging these churches and

encouraging the leaders in the churches.

He He watched Barnabas stay faithful in

seasons where it was difficult for him

to stay faithful. And Barnabas gave Mark

something that failure had taken away,

which was his spiritual confidence. Not

confidence in himself, but confidence to

know that God still had a purpose for

Mark's life.

See, Barnabas never lowered the standard

for John Mark. He just showed him how to

live up to that standard. He walked with

him in that journey

until he was strong enough to walk on

his own.

Because that's what encouragers do. They

stay in the story.

But, let me say something to the the

John Marks in this room. Maybe you're

identifying with Barnabas, but also know

there's some John Marks in the room that

have have have failed and have fallen

short of expectations. And what I want

you to understand is that God is sending

you Barnabas,

but some of you are not allowing him to

be a part of your life.

There There's probably someone that God

has sent your way that's saying, "Hey,

come over here. Get in the boat with me.

Let's do this together." But, you're

keeping them at arm's length.

See, Barnabas was only able to help Mark

because Mark chose to get in the boat.

Mark chose to humble himself,

to go and travel and listen and learn

and serve and do all the things that he

needed to do to grow in his walk with

Jesus. So, if you're serious about

discipleship and becoming more like

Jesus, then you need to let Barnabas

into your life.

I promise there's someone out there that

loves you

and wants to encourage you and wants to

serve with you. You just got to let down

those walls and get in the boat.

So,

over all these miles and conversation

and shared ministry and impatient

investment, um we we really don't get

into the story, not in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

We we don't know how this story ended.

We don't know if Barnabas' investment

actually paid off. Uh we're not given

any any conversation about, "Well, Paul

was right." or "Barnabas was right."

There's really no resolution to the

story in Luke's account, but thankfully,

we have another book of the Bible

written by Paul that lets us know how

this story ends. So, if you go to 2

2 Timothy 4:11

Timothy chapter 4,

verse 11.

So, so years later, Paul actually

mentions Mark. And in Colossians chapter

Colossians 4:10

4, verse 10, he says,

"If he comes to you." to the church in

Colossae, he says, "If Mark comes to

you, I want you to welcome him."

But it it it doesn't really say whether

they're cool again or not. We we really

don't know from that passage of

scripture. Uh what we do know from that

is that the door was open again. Uh we

do know that years have passed. We do

know that Paul has changed and Mark has

changed and relationships has have

healed. And then, tucked away, this is

so cool, tucked away Paul's final

letter, the the last letter that Paul

ever wrote before he was killed for his

faith, right at the very end of that

letter, at the end of his life, he

writes to his protege, Timothy, the one

who was going to carry the mantle that

Paul was getting ready to lay down. He

writes to his protege, Timothy, and he

says in chapter 4, verse 11,

"Only Luke is with me." So, Paul's by

himself. Luke is there.

Then he says,

"Bring Mark with you,

for he is useful

to me

in the ministry."

Think about that for a second.

The man that Paul once refused to let

get in his boat is now the man at the

end of his life that Paul asks for cuz

he wants to see him one more time.

He He wants to encourage him

one more time. So So what changed? Well,

Mark did, obviously.

Paul did, too.

Time changed, grace changed, Barnabas'

investment changed the entire story.

And the sad part is, I don't think

Barnabas, based on his timeline and his

lifespan, ever got to read Second

Timothy. Uh I don't think Barnabas, on

this side of heaven, ever got to know

the end of the story, but isn't it cool

to know that it he didn't care?

He didn't care. He's like, "I'm going to

be the encourager.

I'm going to do the right thing. I don't

even know how this story's going to end,

but I'm just going to pray and trust

that God's going to use my encouragement

to make something awesome happen." He

simply believed. He believed that God

was not finished with Paul, and he

believed that God was not finished with

John Mark, and he was right. And even

though he didn't get to see the end of

the story, he gets to know that he is

right.

See, sometimes, friends, we we invest.

And sometimes we get to see the

dividends.

Other times we don't.

But Barnabas invested in encouragement

in God's kingdom, got to reap the the

rewards.

But this story, like I've said the last

2 weeks, it's not about Barnabas, it's

not about Paul.

It's not about their their missions and

their stories. What this story is

actually about, this true story,

it it's about Jesus.

And aren't you glad that Jesus doesn't

quit on people?

You're not? Wow.

Let's try again. Aren't you glad

that Jesus does not quit on people?

>> Yes.

>> Yes, me too. Look,

Peter denied him.

Jesus didn't quit on Peter.

Before Jesus went back to heaven, they

had breakfast on the beach and Jesus

cooked for him. And he got to talk about

all of his failures and

get restored and forgiven.

Thomas

doubted Jesus.

Jesus restored Thomas.

They got to talk. He got to put his hand

in Jesus' side. He got to see the

wounds. He got to see the the

resurrected Jesus. Paul persecuted the

church of Jesus Christ, but Paul was

restored and became the greatest

missionary church planner of all time.

Mark deserted the mission.

But he was restored and became a great

advocate and leader in the church.

See, Jesus stayed in the story.

And Jesus kept writing their stories.

Jesus tells the truth about our failure.

He tells the truth about our sin. You

can't read the New Testament and not

read about the fact that we are sinners

in need of a savior. We are enemies of

God before we are Christians. We are we

are known and and locked in and slaves

to sin and guilt and shame. We are in a

bad situation and Jesus tells us bluntly

it's because of the choices that we have

made.

He holds that accountability out there

for us, but there are more chapters to

that story

because then he comes in and he offers

us grace. He offers us mercy. He stays

in your story until your story is

complete.

In Philippians chapter 1 verse 6, he

Philippians 1:6

says he, that's God, who started a good

work in you is going to carry it on to

completion. He's not going to abandon

you halfway.

If you fall off and you wander, he's

going to be right there with you. This

is the story of John Mark. This is the

story of the Apostle Paul. This is the

story of Barnabas, but this is also your

story.

So, if you would bow your heads for a

moment.