Episode 63 - Barnabas ~ Radical Generosity

In previous episodes about discipleship we looked at what a disciple is and the committment necessary to be a follower of Jesus.  Now we will look at several different disciples from the early church to see how they are a model for us to follow.

In this episode we will look at Barnabas.  Many of us know Barnabas as the Son of Encouragement.  After all, that's what his name means.  We'll learn in this episode that he was indeed an encourager in many different ways.  We'll learn why I refer to him as radical generosity.  We'll see how he continually gave all to our Lord and to the early church.

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Transcript

Hello friends, I'm your host Dave Laton and welcome to the podcast, Walking With Our Master, an outreach of the Prattville Church of Christ designed to inform, encourage, and teach as we daily walk with our Master. 

 We are continuing our series on Applied Discipleship ~ More Than You Know.  We’re looking at different elements of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. 

 In earlier episodes we learned what discipleship is, its importance to us, and how we sustain our spiritual growth.  In the following episodes we will look at different disciples as the church began to grow and spread.  Words are great, but nothing beats a clear example.  We will see how they learned and applied the teachings of our Master.

 All through man’s history God brought up men and women to meet the needs of His people at the time most needed.  Even Jesus himself was sent to us on God’s time.  This is true in the New Testament as the Holy Spirit touched the hearts of men and women to help the young church continue to grow and take the gospel to others. 

 We might not fully appreciate the challenges the early Church faced as they were beginning the transition into Christianity.  They certainly faced spiritual challenges as they shared the gospel of Christ.  They also faced social and economic challenges.  It would have been easy for the early Christians to turn back to the security of their previous life, and sadly many did.  But as we noted, the Holy Spirit continued to work in the lives of the faithful.

 In this episode we will look at Barnabas.  He is known as an encourager, but we will look at a broader view of his strong influence for the Lord through his radical generosity that included all of who he was.

 This episode could also be called “Barnabas – One Man Makes a Difference”.  We see Barnabas making a difference in the lives of so many, including us today, as we look at him as an example of true discipleship.

Barnabas is a disciple worthy of imitation who, like Paul, his friend and companion, imitated Christ.  As we look at Barnabas, we will note the many forms of his generosity.

Barnabas was a very influential and effective Christian in the first century church.  He is mentioned in a range of settings performing a variety of services in the Christian community.

 The first mention of Barnabas is when he was introduced in Acts 4:36-37. His name was Joseph, but he was nicknamed by the apostles as Barnabas which means Son of Encouragement.  He obviously had a reputation as someone who encouraged others in their service.

 We also read that he was a Levite.  Levites were descendants of the Tribe of Levi, one of the 12 sons of Jacob.  They had the prestigious honor and influential responsibility of taking care of the Temple and performing various services associated with public worship.  They served as a sort of “gate keeper,” managing the entry to the temple.  It is likely that as a Levite, Barnabas would have been very faithful and careful to adhere to the laws and rules of Judaism to remain ceremonially clean.  Just a thought, he would also have been familiar with Jesus as he worshipped and taught at the Temple.

 Now we see him bringing that zeal and dedication as a Levite to serving Jesus.   We can note from this that he is giving of his status to encourage others to serve our Lord.

 As the introduction of Barnabas continues, we see where he sold some property and gave all the money to the apostles to provide for the needs of the Christians. Note here he is giving of his wealth.  This is perhaps how most of us remember Barnabas.   Barnabas was not the only one giving of their means to provide for the Christians.  The Holy Spirit chose to single out Barnabas for special mention as a specific example of generosity.  It has the effect of setting the stage for the contrast seen between Barnabas' generosity and the duplicity of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).  

 Barnabas is well known as a traveling companion and early mentor to Paul. What follows is not a complete list of the actions of Barnabas.  These activities were chosen because they directly demonstrate how he gave his wisdom, reputation, time, and other resources as he served with Paul.

 Barnabas was instrumental in introducing Saul (later to be known as Paul) as a brother in Christ (Acts 9:26-28).  Saul was known as a zealous persecutor of the church. Following his conversion in Acts 9, Saul begins to teach in the synagogues about Jesus.  The Christians in Jerusalem were understandably afraid of Saul, but Barnabas vouched for him as a disciple of Jesus.  In this we see Barnabas giving of his reputation.  As a result, the fears of the church were lessened, Saul was encouraged, and the church grew.

 Barnabas was sent to teach the believers in Syrian Antioch (Acts 11:22-26).  In this event we see Barnabas giving his time and wisdom.  Following the persecution and dispersion of the Christians following the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8), Christians found themselves in the city of Antioch in Syria.  The church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas and Saul to teach and encourage the Christians.

We don't necessarily know why Barnabas did so, but he went to Tarsus to bring Saul with him on this mission.  It is speculation on my part, but I feel it was a chance to further mentor Saul.  Again, we see Barnabas giving of his wisdom and skill as a disciple of Christ.

Also, during this period Barnabas and Saul brought relief to the Christians suffering from a famine (Acts 11:27-30).   There was a widespread famine described as all over the world.  The fellow Christians pooled their resources together and sent relief to the Christians in Judea.  They selected Barnabas and Saul to take it to the elders in the Church in Judea.  This shows Barnabas giving his time and influence, and possibly again, his wealth.   He is also giving of himself in the discipleship role of using benevolence to strengthen and encourage others.

Barnabas and Saul then journey to Cyprus to preach and teach (Acts 13).  Note that Barnabas is counted among the influential Christians in Antioch (Acts 13:1).  He is listed first, indicating a significant level of influence.

Something else happened in this passage that should be noted.  We see Saul is now known as Paul.  During this period Luke makes a subtle change while referring to these two.  He now presents the order of names as Paul and Barnabas.  It is thought by biblical scholars that this shows the growing influence of Paul. 

A major part of their work was to teach the Jews in the region, but many rejected the message of our Lord. They then turn to the Gentiles (non-Jews) to teach them about Jesus. This resulted in many of them being converted to Christ as the gospel spread throughout the region.  It further set the stage for what would become a major source of division among the former Jews and Gentile Christians.  

Paul and Barabas now travel to Iconium and Lystra (Acts 14).   It was their practice to first teach the Jews about our Lord.  The Jews rejected the gospel, even stirring up problems with the Gentiles.  Paul and Barnabas were threatened, so they left the area and traveled to Lystra.  While there, they healed a man and were mistaken to be the gods Zeus and Hermes.  Paul and Barnabas forcefully reject any honors, especially false honors pointing instead to our Lord as the true God. We see Barnabas giving of himself, his reputation, and wisdom in our Lord's service.

Paul and Barnabas had a major role in settling a major dispute among the Christian community at what is referred to as the Jerusalem Council.  We read about this in Acts 15.  There was a major division among the Christians as many were teaching that before a Gentile could be a Christian, they must first convert to Judaism.  This was beginning to discourage the Gentile converts, causing disunity. Leaders throughout the early church came to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles to settle the issue. Among them were Paul and Barnabas.  After much discussion it was determined that the Gentiles did not have to become Jews first. They selected Paul, Barnabas, and others to carry a letter to the Gentiles, explaining the judgment of the apostles. The result is that the church is encouraged and strengthened.

Following the decision of the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Barnabas take the findings to the Gentiles throughout the region, especially the community of believers they had helped establish.  In this event we see Barnabas giving his time, wisdom, and influence to bring joy and encouragement that results in spiritual and numeric growth of the church.

Shortly after the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Barnabas disagreed on whether to take a young disciple named John Mark since he had withdrawn from an earlier mission trip.  The word used to express this disagreement was a “sharp disagreement”.  This could have resulted in the destruction of an effective team.  But we see Barnabus giving of his reputation, wisdom, and time to solve the dispute and increase the effectiveness of their work.  

Barnabas, as he did with Paul in his early introduction to the disciples, takes John Mark with him, and Paul goes with Silas.  As a result, there are now two strong teams in the mission field.  Also note that Luke doesn’t mention Barnabas again as focus now shifts clearly to Paul’s efforts in the Kingdom.  Paul later mentions Barnabas in 1 Corinthians and Galatians, showing that Barnabas remained an active and influential companion for our Lord.  

We’ve stated that Jesus said a disciple must be totally commitment.  Barnabas, a leader in the Jewish community, gave up all to submit to the will of his master, Jesus Christ.  He gave up his religious standing.  He gave from his personal wealth.  He continually gave his reputation, wisdom and time to teach and encourage.  Barnabas showed his total commitment through giving everything, especially himself, to serve as a disciple for Jesus.  

Barnabas demonstrated the characteristics needed to transform into a champion disciple.  He demonstrated staying connected to Christ and the body by his efforts to care for the church, defend Christians, and carry the gospel to all.  He applied the teachings of Jesus of love, compassion, encouragement, caring for others, and making disciples.  And he demonstrated faithfulness as he spent the rest of his life traveling to take the gospel to others.  

 Barnabas truly understood that to be a disciple of Jesus, he must put everything aside in his faithful service to our Lord.  Barnabas shows us that generosity does not end in a single act or interaction and goes well beyond physical service and wealth.  It extends from a mindset that continues through a lifetime of loving, sharing, and glorifying the Master.  That is the enduring legacy of Barnabas the radical giver where one man made a difference.         

Barnabas truly was a man of encouragement.  He expressed encouragement to all he could by totally giving of himself to the Master and sharing Him with others.  He was always giving in whatever way he could.  It began, of course, by giving himself completely to the Master.  Barnabas never pointed to himself for any honors for his work.  He always pointed others to Jesus.  When we do as our brother Barnabas did, we will grow and influence others more than we know.

The world needs more disciples like Barnabas.

As I begin to wrap up this episode, I offer some questions to help us better understand how to apply ourselves as our Lord’s disciples.

What would cause Barnabas to express his generosity in such a complete way and what does that teach us?

What do you think was the most important thing Barnabas gave and why?

Describe how being radically generous helped Barnabas be effective as a disciple.

Which of the attributes taught by Jesus in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11) describes Barnabas?

How was Barnabas a champion disciple?

What description of the generosity of Barnabas best describes the total commitment Jesus teaches we must have as His disciple? 

In our next episode we will look at another early disciple and how she used her knowledge and abilities to influence others for our Lord.

I'm your host Dave Laton.  Thank you for joining me in this podcast.  I hope you will continue to do so. If you wish to share with me something from your walk with our Master or you would like to learn more, please email me at: walkingwithourmaster@gmail.com.

I invite you to follow our podcast and share it with others as together we walk with our Master.  And until next time, remember, we give all glory to God the Father.