Grace Received, Grace Invested: The Radical Leadership of Barnabas (Part 2) | Chris Howles

Well, good morning, and I'm very pleased to be

able to bring to you the readings for this morning.

We're going to carry on looking at some of the

key events in the life of us. We'll begin with

Acts chapter 11. This one actually we did have

Acts 11 · chapter mention

last week, but we're going to read a little bit

further. So some of these verses will be familiar

to you from last week, but not all of them. Acts

Acts 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11, starting in verse 19. Now those who

had been scattered by the persecution that broke

out when Stephen was killed, travelled as far

as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the

word only among Jews. Some of them, however,

men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and

began to speak to Greeks also. telling them the

good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand

was with them and a great number of people believed

and turned to the Lord. News of this reached

the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas

to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the

grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged

them all to remain true to the Lord with all

their hearts. He was a good man, full of the

Holy Spirit and faith. And a great number of

people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas

went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he

found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for

a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the

church and taught great numbers of people. The

disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

During this time, some prophets came down from

Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus

stood up and through the Spirit predicted that

a severe famine would spread over the entire

Roman world. This happened during the reign of

Claudius. The disciples, as each one was able,

decided to provide help for the brothers and

sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending

their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

We'll continue at the very end of chapter 12,

verse 25 and continuing into chapter 13. The

story continues. When Barnabas and Saul had finished

their mission, they returned from Jerusalem,

taking with them John, also called Mark. Now,

in the church at Antioch, there were prophets

and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, called Niger,

Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, who had been brought

up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they

were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy

Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul

for the work to which I have called them. So

after they had fasted and prayed, they placed

their hands on them and sent them off. And if

you turn forward for our third and final reading

this morning, that will be in chapter 15, Acts

Acts 15:36

chapter 15, verses 36 to the end. Sometime later,

Paul said to Barnabas, let us go back and visit

the believers in all the towns where we preach

the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.

Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark,

with them, but Paul did not think it wise to

take him because he had deserted them in Pamphylia

and had not continued with them in the work.

They had such a sharp disagreement that they

parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed

for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended

by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He

went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening

If you'd kindly turn back to chapter 11 as we

pray together. Lord, thank you for these words

recorded by Luke of Barnabas, a good man full

of the Holy Spirit and of faith. Please, through

his story, by your words, in your spirit and

by your grace, may we also walk with the wise

that we might see in him the work that you did

and that we in turn might have hearts and minds

open to the goodness of the lord jesus christ

that he would work similarly in us we ask in

jesus's name amen so this is the second of two

talks about barnabas i hope you remember last

week we began with Proverbs chapter 13, which

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

says, walk with the wise and become wise, but

a companion of fools suffers harm. And we thought

about how the people we walk with will always

leave a mark on us for good or for ill. And in

these readings and talks, We're focusing, of

course, on Barnabas. We're tracing through his

character and his convictions. And we want to

see in him what happens when the grace of Christ

works powerfully in and through a real person.

And we're walking with him with the aim that

we too might be wise, that we might be marked

or moulded by that same transforming gospel grace

that was so powerfully and evidently at work

in Barnabas. Our aim, as I said last week, is

not to lionize him. Luke's center is always the

Lord Jesus Christ and ours should be too. Last

week, a quick recap. We looked at chapter four.

You don't need to turn there, but we saw that

wonderful description of the church where Luke

tells us that God's grace was powerfully at work

in them all. Barnabas sells a field and lays

the proceeds of that at the apostles' feet. And

because he had received from Christ what he could

never earn and could never lose, it does seem

that he is freed to release his grip even on

his possessions. That powerful grace at work

in him, that costly grace. We then looked at

Acts 9 and we saw this new convert, Saul, who

comes into Jerusalem. And we saw how the Christians

there and the apostles were afraid of him. After

all, this was, or in their minds might still

be, the high priest hatchet man, persecuting

and imprisoning and killing Christians. So they

don't easily accept him. But along comes the

grace -filled Barnabas. who doesn't naively overlook

Saul's past, but because he knows grace, he can

recognize it and he stakes his entire credibility,

his life even, you might say, on Saul, trusting

that through the powerful work of grace in Saul,

the old has gone and the new has come. And of

course, he was right. And then again, last week,

we saw in chapter 11 how the apostles were apparently

bemused and confused by all that was taking place

up in Antioch, where a large number of Gentiles

were coming to Christ. And this unprecedented

intercultural church was forming all of it outside

the control and leadership and direction of the

church in Jerusalem. Humanly speaking, this was

a moment of enormous significance. Will the church

remain funded? centered on Jerusalem and bound

by Jewish cultural identity? Or will it be released

to become a multicultural, polycentric, decentralized

global people of God? The apostles needed someone

with grace -filled eyes and grace -filled heart

to see God's bigger purposes, so they sent Barnabas.

Remember what Luke says happened? He arrived

there and saw what the grace of God had done

and he was glad. So today we're going to take

some more steps on our journey with Barnabas,

walking with the wise. Some are characteristically

encouraging for us. Some will feel sadder, even

painful. We'll begin with Acts 11. We left the

story last week in 24 with that grace -filled

gladness of Barnabas arriving in Antioch. See

what happens next. Chapter 11, verse 25. So Barnabas

went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he

found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for

a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the

church and taught great numbers of people. The

disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

Barnabas is apparently heading up this rapidly

growing new international multicultural church

in the Roman Empire's third largest city. And

it seems that his instinct is not to embed and

establish himself as its sole front man and figurehead,

but rather to seek out Saul and bring in this

newer leader. For a whole year, they teach together.

It's intentional. Barnabas is not just defending

Saul now like he did in Jerusalem back in chapter

9. He's developing him. Barnabas is spending

his own social capital and leadership influence

on all that he believes God can and will do through

Saul. Barnabas is the one with the platform and

the opportunities and the experience and the

status and the connections and the authority.

He's the gatekeeper. wide open for others rather

than slamming it shut and defending it for his

own privileges and so that year in or after that

year in Antioch they then head down to Jerusalem

at the end of chapter 11 a second visit together

to Jerusalem this time they're entrusted with

money for famine relief for the brothers and

sisters who are suffering in Judea. And then

after Luke gives us a sort of interlude in Barnabas'

story with Peter in chapter 12, we then get to

chapter 13. Famously, the Holy Spirit directs

the church to set apart Barnabas and Saul for

the work to which he's called them. And the church

prophets and teachers, they fast and they pray

and they lay hands on this pair and send them

out. And so Barnabas and Saul begin that first

missionary journey together. And of course, many

of us are so used to calling it Paul's first

missionary journey that we sometimes miss Luke's

deliberate ordering. They set out repeatedly

as Barnabas and Saul. Does seem to be intentional.

Barnabas as the established leader, Saul as the

younger convert. But as that story of that missionary

journey unfolds throughout chapters 13 and 14,

that ordering starts to get reversed. Have you

ever noticed that? Increasingly, Luke uses the

phrase Saul and Barnabas or Paul, later Paul

and Barnabas. And even later the phrase Paul

and his companions. Barnabas is still there,

but Paul and his companions. Luke does seem to

be indicating that the dynamic is shifting with

Paul increasingly growing into the leading role.

At Lystra in chapter 14, the crowd calls Barnabas

Zeus and Paul Hermes. And Luke tells us that's

because Paul was the chief speaker. So Barnabas

is senior, but Paul is speaking. And as Acts

moves on and as that journey moves on, it is

hard to escape the conclusion that Barnabas is

willingly and consistently investing deeply in

training and raising a co -leader whose influence

and standing is eclipsing his own. Let's think

about that for a moment. So often the metric

we use when we're measuring a leader. is evaluating

what they have done or what they have achieved.

But maybe another criteria we can and should

use is to ask, who have they enabled? By that

measure, Barnabas is flying. He's minimizing

his own platform and prominence to see that the

grace of God is multiplied and magnified in others.

particularly through Saul. And in this way, and

we can assume with God's smile upon him, his

success secures in history and memory his own

lesser status. I don't know about you, that makes

me ponder my journey, leadership journey. We

all have leadership journeys to reflect on, ongoing,

I assume, for all of us. Maybe we look back in

our past and Recognize gatekeepers in our lives

who have released their grip to empower us to

move forward in leadership? I've certainly got

people in my life like that. Or maybe we're wondering

if we will be, like Barnabas, leader makers in

the future. Not just leaders, but leader makers.

People pleased to make ourselves smaller without

becoming bitter for the growth and benefit of

others. Because that's the way of Christ and

that's the way of Christ in Barnabas. And it

can be the way of Christ in us. It does require

a renewed gospel mind and a deep gospel identity.

Because after all, if my worth depends on my

influence, then I need to protect my platform.

And another person's growth becomes a threat

to that. But if the all -surpassing joy of knowing

Christ Jesus, my Lord, means that status and

significance is worth as nothing to me for the

sake of Christ, then I am free, wonderfully free,

to spend whatever significance I may have or

may have been gifted on someone else, on their

fruitfulness. I'm reminded of former Oak Hill

principal Mike Ovi. He preached the sermon at

an ordination service in 2015, two years before

he died, and said to that small group of new

Christian leaders these words, quote, we want

you to be better than us. We want you to be more

faithful than us. We want you, spiritually speaking,

to tower above us so that the cross of the Lord

Jesus Christ stands high in this land and that

men and women may know the blessings of eternal

life. That is our dream for you. That is our

prayer for you. Not that you are as we are, but

that you are better. Seems to me that is the

grace of God at work in a very Barnabasian way.

Those who have gone before us, investing themselves

in us, that we might even surpass them in faithfulness

and fruitfulness. Followed, of course, by our

doing the same for those who follow us. Grace

received becomes grace invested, generation after

generation. after generation. That is the grip

-loosening grace of God. We've seen that grace

of God at work in Barnabas that loosens his grip

on his possessions, that loosens his grip on

his assumptions, his suspicions, and now grace

that loosens his grip on his status and his significance.

And again, I don't know about you, but I find

myself crying out, That's who I want to be. Or

more specifically, that's what I long for the

grace of God to do in and through me. God, give

me, give each of us, as with Barnabas, an open

heart and willing spirit to turn grace received

into grace invested. This principle of grace

received, grace invested, we thought about it

there on a personal level for us, perhaps as

individuals, as leaders. But I am so supremely

not sorry to think again, like last week, about

applying this principle, not just on a micro

level to us as individuals, but on a macro level

to the global church. We talked last week about

how in recent decades, Christianity has become

a genuine global polycentric faith with a demographic

center of gravity now lying decisively in Africa,

Asia and Latin America. Yet. Institutional power,

money, accreditation, cultural influence and

public platforms remain. disproportionately concentrated

in Western centres. You know where this is going,

don't you? Are we, like Barnabas, willing to

recognise this moment, invest in others globally,

and see multiply what God is doing around the

world, even if this decentres or diminishes us

here in the Western church? Now, friends, I do

understand that increasingly and wonderfully,

not everyone sitting in Oak Hill College Chapel

this morning locates themselves ethnically or

culturally within Western Christianity. Some

of you I know have been formed principally in

churches within the majority world. But I don't

think any of us can stand outside of this challenge

because after all, we're all being formed in

a college located in the West. And the challenge

is this, again, are we in the Western church

willing to move from merely a welcome to others

and inclusion of others towards a genuine mutual

partnership with others? That's the challenge.

It's more than merely inviting others into the

church structures and ministry systems and assumptions

that we in the West have designed and continue

to manage. It is actually more than that. It

is empowering brothers and sisters from elsewhere,

not only to contribute to conversations, but

also to help determine what those conversations

are. Let's put it this way. I heard a story from

a U .S. missiologist, Todd Johnson. He tells

the story of sitting at a conference next to

an African Christian leader. And when the American

speaker talked about the goodness of sharing

a table together as representatives from every

continent, the African leader leaned over to

him and whispered, it's good if you invite us

to the table, but it's far better if you let

us into the kitchen. You see, the table is where

the meal has already been decided and delivered.

The kitchen is where the recipes are worked out

and the meal itself is made. And that's the challenge.

It is easy for those of us located in the Western

Church to celebrate African, Asian, Latin American

Christians and Christianity, describe them as

partners in mission, while still quietly assuming

that our theology is normative and theirs is

contextual. That our biblical exegesis is rigorous

and theirs is immature. That our ways of organizing

churches and ministries are default and theirs

is exotic. Like Barnabas, is the Western church

willing to recognize grace beyond our own familiar

world and then relinquish enough control to see

that grace flourish? And there are few questions,

I believe, that will determine the future of

the church in the 21st century more than that

one. Let's go back, though, directly to the story

of Barnabas. It continues. So he left him and

Saul on that missionary journey in Acts 13, sent

out by the church in Antioch. It takes about

two years, that missionary journey, and it involves

extensive travel around modern day Cyprus and

Turkey. It is anything but easy. They encounter

opposition and spiritual conflict. They are chased

away from some places. They are mistreated and

abused in others. In Lystra, the crowds mistake

them for gods and then with a kind of terrifying

volatility, then turn against them. Paul is stoned

and dragged out of the city and left for dead.

But brave Barnabas and courageous Paul continue.

They even returned to some of those places where

they had been previously attacked in order to

strengthen the churches there. Paul and Barnabas

are preaching, we must go, a quote from them

that Luke records, we must go through many hardships

to enter the kingdom of God. That's what they're

preaching. Barnabas, the son of encouragement

with Paul, is strengthening people through his

words and his example to remain faithful where

grace is costly. After that journey, they return

at the end of chapter 14 back to Antioch where

they started and they report back to the church

all that God has done and how he's opened a door

of faith to the Gentiles. And that question then

explodes into the great controversy of Acts chapter

Acts 15 · chapter mention

15. Must Gentile believers become Jewish? In

order to truly belong to the people of God. And

so, of course, the apostles convene a council

to discuss that question. Barnabas is right there

in the heart of it as he and the apostles reach

that wonderful conclusion that salvation is by

the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and Gentiles

belong fully to him without first becoming culturally.

That is the foundation stone. That decision is

the foundation stone on which the whole expansion

of the church since then to the ends of the earth

is built on. That's the moment that Christianity

becomes translatable, movable, migratory, contextual,

multicultural and ultimately universal. And Barnabas

is right there in the thick of it. Representing.

And again, advocating for voices of others, these

Gentiles in Antioch, from the margins who had

no voice there in Jerusalem, but his. I'd love

to end Barnabas' story there, because he's so

great, isn't he? I think so. And I'd love to

end it there. A man who has helped to recognize

and mature and nurture. and defend some of the

great gospel breakthroughs of the early church.

Let's end it there. But of course, Scripture

refuses to give us quite such a neat portrait

because there are two messier moments that remain.

And we must finally, albeit briefly, look at

those two incidents as they occur chronologically,

starting with the Jew -Gentile table fellowship

incident. of Galatians 2 and then we'll look

at Barnabas's parting from Paul that we read

in Acts chapter 15. As I say that those two incidents

Acts 15 · chapter mention

we're looking at them in that order Galatians

2 then Acts chapter 15 the parting that that

Acts 15 · chapter mention

chronology is debated the question revolves on

how Paul's visits to Jerusalem in Galatians line

up with how Luke records Paul's visits to Jerusalem

in the book of Acts and whether therefore the

Galatians 2 incident happens before or after

the Jerusalem council. We're not going to get

into that now. I'm following the more common

and I think more convincing view that the Galatians

2 incident happens before the council of Jerusalem

in Acts chapter 15 and therefore before the split

Acts 15 · chapter mention

between Paul and Barnabas. So Galatians 2, let's

turn to it. I didn't read it earlier. But let's

turn to it, Galatians chapter 2. This is one

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

of the most uncomfortable moments in the New

Testament, don't you think? Let's read from verse

11. Paul says this, when Cephas, Peter obviously,

came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because

he stood condemned. For before certain men came

from James, He used to, Peter, used to eat with

the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began

to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles

because he was afraid of those who belonged to

the circumcision group. The other Jews joined

him in his hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy,

even Barnabas was led astray. Do you feel the

heartache in that as I do? Even Barnabas, I think

you can even hear Paul's shock and sadness as

he writes. Barnabas. The man sent to Antioch

because he could recognize grace at work among

the Gentiles. Barnabas, who had rejoiced in the

culturally mixed church growing there. Barnabas,

who had led and nurtured a Gentile church and

suffered on mission to Gentiles and advocated

for Gentile inclusion. Even Barnabas is now allowing

pressure from Jewish background believers from

Jerusalem to pull him away from eating. It's

heartbreaking. The grace of God made him so open

-hearted and open -handed. What's happened here?

Well, it seems to me that Barnabas' weakness

actually here may be a misdirection of his strength.

Those very instincts that made him generous,

have also made him vulnerable to this sort of

relational pressure. He's caught in the gravitational

pull of these people from Jerusalem whose fellowship

matters to him such that what he knows to be

true about Gentile inclusion is momentarily overridden

by the social cost of living that out in his

life. At the beginning of Paul's Christian life,

Paul needed someone with a willingness to advocate

for an outsider. Up stepped Barnabas. Now, years

later, Barnabas needs someone with a harder edge

of doctrinal clarity to correct him where his

relational instincts have led him astray. Up

steps Paul in return. What a kindness of the

Lord to bring the two of them. together. Wonderfully,

though, by the time of the Jerusalem Council

in Acts 15, Barnabas is once again, as we saw,

standing with Paul and indeed the gospel, testifying

to God's work among the Gentiles and defending

their full inclusion in Christ. God's grace remains

as evident in him as ever, this time through

his readiness to be rebuked by the gospel through

Paul and then realigned with the gospel. So there

is a happy ending after a painful incident. And

so we turn finally, and perhaps even more painfully,

to that second messy moment, I said, in Barnabas's

life. This is just going to be inappropriately

brief. Our time is almost done. But it is a troubling

moment. Acts chapter 15. Go back to that, if

Acts 15 · chapter mention

you would. The split from Paul after the Jerusalem

Council. Let's look at it again. Acts 15 from

verse 36. Oh, that stings as well, doesn't it?

Does that sting for you? This extraordinarily

beautiful and fruitful ministry partnership ends

in a disagreement sharp enough that Paul and

Barnabas can no longer continue together. Who's

to blame? Well, it seems, doesn't it, that Luke

is remarkably reluctant to direct us one way

or the other. on that question. Paul has a serious

point. Mark has left them on the previous journey

and taking someone back into a demanding pioneer

missionary journey again is not a trivial decision

and he doesn't want to do that with Mark who

he feels can't be trusted. Barnabas also has

a serious point. The man who once saw beyond

Saul's past It is unwilling to let someone's

previous failure become their final word. He's

unwilling to let Mark, his cousin, go. They cannot

agree. And so after 15 years of Christian friendship

and ministry partnership, they separate. Paul

takes Silas and Luke follows him in the story

of Acts. And Barnabas takes Mark and heads off

to Cyprus and effectively out of the biblical

narrative. Is there a gracious goodness in God's

providence here as one missionary team becomes

two? Maybe, maybe yes. But perhaps we shouldn't

rush too quickly to that happy, hopeful conclusion.

We cannot simply appeal to God's providence and

provision in a way that kind of simplifies the

hurt and loss. of this painful Christian division.

The fact that God can sovereignly work in and

through relational breakdown does not inherently

make that breakdown good. And ministry expansion

does not, of course, somehow cancel out the pain

of Christian brothers pulling away from one another

like this. And I think at this point in Acts

15, we're just being asked to sit uncomfortably

in lament and faith. As we read about this parting.

It is good to know, isn't it, that a few years

later, Paul does mention Barnabas in his epistle

to the church in Corinth. And he mentions Barnabas

in a complimentary and admiring way. And he's

also, Paul, many years later, is desperate to

have Mark come and join him in his ministry.

So the rupture does not appear to become permanent

or permanently hostile. The grace of Christ at

work in Barnabas and Paul, of course, keeps pressing

them towards repentance and restoration and reconciliation,

as it must, of course, in our own lives and relationships.

So let's end where we began in Proverbs 13, walk

with the wise and become wise. For two chapel

talks, we've walked with Barnabas. And I hope

we've seen the transforming grace of Christ in

a real person. Grace received, grace recognized,

grace relied on, grace rejoiced in, and grace

that radiates out to others. It is a grace that

loosens our grip on things of this world and

gives us something better to hold on to. Because

in Christ, of course, we, like Barnabas, have

received what we could never earn and never lose.

And so our standing before God is not secured

by our usefulness, our reputation, our possessions,

our success. It is secured by Christ alone. Let's

pray. Our Lord Jesus, may your grace, so present

and evident in Barnabas, both flourish and form

in us too. For the name, for your name and glory

we ask it. Amen.