Feast of St. Barnabas - Acts 11:19-30; 13:1-3

 

St. Barnabas

                                                                           Acts 11:19-30; 13:1-3

                                                                           6/11/23

 

 

          Today is the Feast of St. Barnabas.  I think a strong case can be made that Barnabas is the most overlooked figure of the New Testament. Barnabas was not one of the twelve apostles.  He was not an apostle in the sense that he was directly called by the Lord like Paul.  He didn’t write any of the books of the New Testament.  Yet outside of the apostles, you can’t find a person who was more important in the early Church than Barnabas.  He appears again and again in the Book of Acts carrying out important work on behalf of the Gospel.

          In spite of this, how many Christians do you know who are named Barnabas?  I don’t think I have ever known a person who bears this name.  Likewise, how many churches do you know that are named St. Barnabas?  There are a few, but it’s not particularly common.  Barnabas is largely overlooked in the life of the Church.  And that is a shame because he was a very great blessing to the Church, and he has much to teach us about how to live as Christians.

          Because the day assigned for St. Barnabas falls on a Sunday, today we are observing the Feast of St. Barnabas. The Lutheran church retained the catholic – the universal - practice of observing the feasts of the saints that existed at the time of the Reformation.  They modified the practice in that they limited these observations to biblical figures.  In doing so, they focused the Church back on Scripture.

          As described in the bulletin, Lutherans retained this practice for three reasons.  First, we thank God for giving these faithful servants to the Church.  We recognize the great blessing that they have been and how God has worked through them. Second, we believe that through this remembrance our faith is strengthened as we see the mercy God extended to these saints.  We see that God helped them, and this reminds us that God’s helps us as well. Finally, we believe that these saints are examples in their faith and life that we can imitate. They are models for us of what the Christian faith looks like.

          Today, we will do something a little different. We will use these three reasons as the outline for our sermon.  As we walk through them, we will learn about the blessing that Barnabas was to the church.  We will see the grace and mercy that were shown to Barnabas.  And we will find in Barnabas important traits that we need to emulate as Christians.

          The first thing we need to recognize is that Barnabas was not really the name of this saint.  It was actually a kind of nick name that was given to him by the apostles.  His name was actually Joseph.  He was from tribe of Levi, but had been born on the island of Cyprus.  Barnabas means “Son of Encouragement.”  The fact that Barnaba was given this name tells us a lot about him.  We will see that he was regularly an encourager who brought people together for the sake of the Gospel.

          We first meet Barnabas in Acts chapter 4 when we learn that he sold a piece of land and set the money at the apostles’ feet. This was part of the practice of the early Jerusalem church in caring for the poor Christians.  Barnabas was generous in sharing of his possessions. We will return to this action later in the sermon.

          The next time we hear about Barnabas is in Acts chapter 9.  The risen Lord appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, and called him to be an apostle.  Paul began to preach the Gospel powerfully in Damascus, and this caused opposition.  There was a plot to kill Paul and the Christians got him out of the city by lowering him through the wall in a basket. 

          Paul then came to Jerusalem.  He wanted to join the disciples and be part of the Church there. However, the Christians were afraid of Paul because he had been a persecutor and they did not believe he was truly a disciple.  Luke tells us, “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.”  Eventually, there was a plot to kill Paul, and so the Church sent him away to Tarsus, in what is today southern Turkey.

In our text we learn that when the persecution that started with the martyrdom of Stephen scattered the Church, men of Cyprus and Cyrene came to Antioch and preached the Lord Jesus to Hellenists – to non-Jews.  They preached Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord blessed this work and a large number of people believed.  When the church in Jerusalem learned about this, they sent Barnabas to assess the situation. When he saw the grace of God at work, true to his name, he encouraged them to remain faithful.

He also did more than that.  Barnabas saw the opportunity in Antioch, so he went to Tarsus to get Paul.  He brought Paul to Antioch and together they taught for a whole year building up the Church.  During that time the prophet Agabus declared that there would be a famine which took place during the reign of Emperor Claudius. The Antioch Christians took up a collection to help the Christians in Jerusalem, and sent it through Barnabas and Paul.

Finally, in the second part of our text, we learn how the Holy Spirit set apart Barnabas and Paul for a missionary journey.  They went through Cyprus and Asia Minor preaching the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In particular, this work brough many Gentiles into the Church. In this work, Barnabas took back seat to the preaching of Paul. He was content to see the gifts God had given to Paul at work.

When they returned to Antioch, some people came down from Judea and said, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul and Barnabas opposed this vigorously because it was a denial of the Gospel – the free gift of salvation in Christ.  The dispute caused the Church to meet in Jerusalem. There Paul and Barnabas bore witness to what God was doing among the Gentiles, and the final conclusion was that faith in Christ was sufficient.  Gentiles did not have to be circumcised to be part of the Church.

God used Barnabas to carry out much work for the Gospel. We also see God’s grace present in Barnabas’ life, because he called Barnabas to faith.  By all accounts it was the missionary work of the Jerusalem Church that brought the Gospel to him.  In the same way God has graciously called you to faith.  Through the Word and Baptism you have received the Gospel.  Neither Barnabas nor you deserved this.  It was God’s gift.

Barnabas was a forgiven sinner, just like you.  Despite all the great work he carried out, Barnabas was not perfect.  We learn in Galatians that when Peter was in Antioch, at first he ate with Gentiles.  Yet later, when some came who were saying that Gentiles needed to circumcised he separated himself from the Gentiles.  Paul tells us, “And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.”  Barnabas failed dramatically in this event.  Yet despite the fact he was a sinner, Barnabas was also someone who continued to receive forgiveness because of Christ.  The same assurance is true for you, because you have been baptized into Christ.

Our text describes Barnabas as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”  His life was particularly characterized by the presence of the Spirit and faith in Christ.  We should pray that the Spirit would be at work in us so that we too may grow in faith.  Forgiven and saved, we should not want to remain stagnate.  Instead, we should always be seeking God’s grace by which he makes us to be a blessing to others. 

Barnabas was generous.  He chose to sell his property and give it to the Church.  His generosity leads us to consider how we are using the material blessings God has given to us.  Do we seek to hold on to them as our own, or do we view them as the means by which God enables us to support the work of the Gospel and help others? 

Barnabas was an encourager.  We see this in our text as he encourages the new Christians at Antioch to remain faithful.  In his interaction with Paul we see that he helped to bring people together.  He brought Paul to the apostles in Jerusalem.  He sought Paul and brought him to Antioch.  He encouraged others and brought Christians into contact with one another for their own good and for the sake of the Gospel.  We need to be people who encourage others.  We seek to build up our brothers and sisters in Christ by what we say and what we do. 

Finally, Barnabas was zealous for the Gospel.  He spoke about Jesus Christ with others.  He shared Christ with them.  His life leads us to consider the opportunities that God has given to us to speak about the Lord Jesus with others.  Who is in your life who does know believe in Christ?  How can you speak about Jesus to them as you share the good news of his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins?

God worked through Barnabas to bring the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins to both Jew and Gentile. His efforts played a key role in the growth of the early Church, and we give thanks to God for this.  At the same time, Baranbas was a sinner saved by God’s grace just like you are.  He lived by the forgiveness received in his baptism.  And in his faith, generosity, encouragement and eagerness for the Gospel he is a model for to follow as we live our lives in Christ.