Saturday: Barnabas, aGreat Man Because aGood Man
WEEK 19
SATURDAY
BARNABAS, A GREAT MAN BECAUSE A GOOD MAN
Acts 4:36-37
We note the fourth thing that went into the founding of the church at Antioch. It was Barnabas. “When the church in Jerusalem heard about this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw evidence God’s grace, he was overjoyed and encouraged everyone to remain fully committed to the Lord. Barnabas responded in this way because he was a good man, whom the Holy Spirit had endowed with exceptional faith” (Acts 11:22-24).
The church at Jerusalem did here what they did in Samaria, they sent down representatives to regularize what they could not produce. The lay group produced the spiritual movements, and the apostles attempted to regularize them. They were trying to keep up. Be that as it may, they could not have sent a better man than Barnabas, a man who was always taking hold of people whom no one else would take and making them over again. He took Paul when the disciples at Jerusalem were afraid of him, and introduced him. He took John Mark when Paul refused to have anything to do with him, and made him over again so that Paul was later glad to get him back.
When Barnabas “saw evidence of God’s grace”—saw it incarnate in a group—he rejoiced. He was big enough to rejoice in the work of another. Some of us are not. And when he saw the type of Christianity produced here, he conceived the idea of exposing the young man Saul to this type of Christianity. “Barnabas went to Tarsus in search of Saul. When he found him, he brought him to Antioch” (Acts 11:25-26). This simple statement was one of the most important things in history. For exposing Paul to the type of Christianity in Antioch determined the type of Christianity we would get in the West through his missionary work in founding the faith among us. Since through Paul our roots are in Antioch, then our faith has the stamp of Antioch on it. And there was not a better type found anywhere. This Christianity was the closest approximation to the Christianity of Christ that had emerged. It was a stroke of spiritual genius on the part of Barnabas to expose Paul to Antioch. We must remain forever grateful to him.
O Lord, let us be this day the instrument of your purposes in the world. For what we do and say may touch the ages. Help us to do and say it then in you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24 RSV)—my aim for this day.