Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement

My English is alright but not awesome. So if you don't understand some words. Am I being tongues?

No, no. It might be wrong but I think I have something from the Lord to share with you today. Well, a few weeks ago I was reading the book of Acts and Barnabas popped out in my reading and I started to studying a little bit about his life and his legacy. And I believe there's something in here for us to sit around the word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and have this bread from heaven into our hearts. Amen.

You ready for this? So let's open in the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 36 and 37. And as you find let's stand for the word of God as it's done in this house and in some bento du su as well to honor the word of God.

Okay, Acts 4, 36, 37.

It says Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it all at the apostles feet. Okay, let's make this declaration as well that it's done in this house every Sunday. Let's say it together. I would hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones.

I will be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And I am confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it. Amen. You may be seated. Wow.

Well I believe that in the life of Barnabas there are things that we can learn and receive from the Lord. So some aspects in his life, which means his name means son of encouragement. And the word encouragement here is paraklesis. So it's Julios paraklesis which is the same attribute given to the Holy Spirit as an encourager, as the one that is put aside of the one to walk together. And as we lean towards Barnabas lifestyle and these three aspects, I believe that the Holy Spirit will talk to us from inside out because all of us are homes for the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Do you believe in this? Are you home for the Holy Spirit? Hallelujah. So this first moment, this first citation that Barnabas is shown on the book of Acts talks about someone who is called to fulfill a need.

Barnabas shows up in this need of moment. Lots of people were giving their lives to Jerusalem. The Bible talks about 3,000 or more. And these people were receiving the Holy Spirit. They were living this revival momentum, the beginning of the church, the early days Lots of people that came to Jerusalem, that were not from Jerusalem, were there gathering and then the money was kind of missing in the middle of these people that would stay, that they didn't have money to eat, didn't have money to stay in that revival moment.

And then suddenly we see here Barnabas being called from Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, that he sell his land, a land that he has, we don't know where exactly he gets this money and put in the feet of the apostles for the apostles to decide how to use it and where to use it, whom to give the money to, the need. And we see this as such encouraging attitude to fulfill God's need. And what we learn from this, right in this moment is that when we start to walk this faith life, when we start to listen to the Holy Spirit, when we start to understand his calling, because when we give our lives to Jesus, he becomes our Lord and Savior. Amen. And if he's Lord, he is Lord.

If he speaks, we obey. Amen. So we understand with Barnabas that there was a need, God's need, and he were there to fulfill God's needs. This means to us that God's needs are way more important than the needs we think God has. Does it make sense?

You know, sometimes we think we know God's needs and when we do that, sometimes we shut our ears to hear what are his needs. And it's interesting because Barnabas was the wealthy man here shown to come and share some of his richness to the, to the needs of the church. But he could have said, you know, I've done my part, I'm good now. I'm gonna sit and watch what's going to happen. But he doesn't do that.

He's always available to the apostles. He's always somebody accountable for something that God was doing. And this is amazing. So when we talk about getting involved in to God's work, we need to understand that we have to try a lifestyle that it's not a lifestyle of this or that. It's a lifestyle of hearing God and obeying.

And that's so impressive because when we do that, we watch miracles, we watch amazing things that God can happen. Because God is the only one that will turn a butler into a rebuilder of God's city. God is the only one that can turn a prostitute into a protector of God's plans. God is the only one that can turn a fisherman into a church planter. God is the only one that can turn a doctor into a storyteller.

And you Know what's interesting about this is that it's easier to find God in a nonsense story than in an obvious story. It's easier to find God in places and stories that we hear of revival and miracles and wonders that would not make sense at all than in things that we usually prepare and plan. Because, you know, I've learned something that God loves to leave his fingerprints in what he does. And sometimes when we plan so much and we get into that tight schedule and hey, listen to me, Brazilians are not good on schedules. Brazilians are not good in plans.

So it's easy for me to preach this moment in the message. But hey, when we get into these plans and we are tied up into the things that we think needs to be accomplished, sometimes it's hard to listen to the Holy Spirit because if we have control of it, all the things that we do are going to be filled with human fingerprints, not God's fingerprints. But then if we try to listen to the Lord and try to move as he moves, when we go as he goes, when we stop at his stops, then we'll. We'll be able to watch God's fingerprints everywhere around. You know, and that's how.

That's how God plans us to be in his work. That's how he means for us to be involved, to have ears to hear what the Spirit is telling the church. Especially in days like this. You know, sometimes what God is wanting to tell the church will not find in the news. We will not find the news.

We'll find when we gather together, we pray together, we listen to his voice, and then we start by faith to walk by faith and obey his ways. You know, if we focus more on his needs than in our desires to do this or that, sometimes we think that ministry is to do what we are good at. It might not be it, you know, it might not be it. I'm not. My best talent is not being a communicator at all, especially in English.

But here I am. I'm trying to obey him and you as well, all of us, we're all trying to obey Him. But we need to understand sometimes he will try to do the crazy things instead of the wise things. So his fingerprints will be all over. But we need to listen carefully.

We need to understand his moves. So then when he moves, we move, you know, so if we focus more on his needs, I believe we'll see a church that will turn into a more effective organism. I believe that our love and his love will be revealed with more grace. You know, sometimes we try to help someone. And our way of helping someone usually is to help on what we know, right?

We see a need, we think, I know how to fix that. And then we go and try to fix it. Usually in Brazil, there's a saying that we are the ultima bolacha do Pacoch. It means we are the last cracker of the package. You know, when you're eating the cracker and you have this package and you have the last cracker there, and they're like, man, this is the most weighted cracker for me to eat and rejoice in the cracker, you know, and we sometimes we think we're the last cracker in the package.

We think that we are the problems. Solve the solving problems guy. You know, we're gonna be there, we're gonna go there, we're gonna fix it, because we know what to do, we know how to do it. But sometimes it's not about that. Actually.

It's. Most of the time is not like that. Most of the time, God is willing to work with someone that says, here I am. Send me. Instead of the one who says, I know how to solve that problem, you know?

And so this is how Barnabas teaches us to get involved in the work of God. He sees a need and he runs towards the need. It's simple, but sometimes really hard to do it. The second aspect of Barnabas life we'll find in Acts, chapter 9, verses 26 and 27. It says this.

This is. This is the presentation of the Apostle Paul. Has anyone heard from Apostle Paul? I mean, does anybody know the Apostle Paul in the Bible? Yeah, if you.

I think that if you have a week of. In the faith, you know, you have heard from Apostle Paul. You know, in the New Testament, most of the New Testament, it's written by him. So this is. This is his moment, getting to meet the apostles.

And it says like this. When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But who. Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul or Paul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

You know, the second aspect that Barnabas teaches us with his life, that we have to believe in people's change. We have to believe in people's change. And when we understand and we believe in people's change, we believe in God's power. You know, people don't change because they want to. People change because the power of God touched them.

And they can be changed, just like Paul here. Praise God. You know, and sometimes we are tied up into our own experiences. You know, we've had someone that did something wrong to us in the past. Something happened in our journey.

Somebody told us something that we. We didn't have to listen. Somebody deceived us in the past. You know, and then we find ourselves two, three, five, ten years later on the same moment with another person. And something, a trigger in your mind comes out and you think, oh, hold on.

I've lived this before enough to know that this is going to be like this. It's not going to change. So you know what? I'm gonna shut the doors of my heart. I'm gonna step aside and I'm not gonna have anything to do with that.

And sometimes that's exactly the momentum that God created to heal you and to use you for that person, to be used for God. And we are so binded with the past that we cannot see what's in front of us, the miracle and the work of God. So Barnabas, Barnabas saw Paul, heard of what happened, believed in his testimonial and presented him to the apostles. Now imagine with me how the New Testament would be without the person of Paul.

But there had to be a Barnabas in Paul's life. And you know what? Sometimes our experiences are so bad that we cannot open up our hearts anymore to new stories. You know, we look at Paul's life. We admire Paul's faith.

Amen. I admire Paul's faith. Do you admire Paul's faith? It's unbelievable. But even Paul dismissed someone on his path.

And it's written on Acts, chapter 15 from verse 36 to 40.

This is now 17 or so years later. Barnabas and Paul had traveled many times. They've been persecuted. They've planted churches in many places. And they are in this city called Antioch doing church.

And then Paul decides to go back to the cities and the places and the churches that they've planted. So Paul called Barnabas and says, let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, his cousin, 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. Listen to this.

Verse 39. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and Sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, commanded by the believers to the grace of the Lord. They went through Syria and Cilicia, straightening the churches.

Even Paul, that had to have Barnabas in his life to be presented to the apostle.

When he had the opportunity to give another chance to John, Mark, he couldn't make it. He simply couldn't make it. He told Barnabas, this guy doesn't match with us. This guy is not good enough for our trip. He abandoned us in the trip before.

He's no good.

He's not going to be useful.

And you know Barnabas, I imagine, as the word says, he was so mad at Paul, he couldn't believe he was listening. That from Paul, the guy that he gave credit for was there, right there saying, no, he can go. So Barnabas had to stand on his beliefs. He had to understand that he somehow somewhen he was going to teach a lesson to Paul. He was like, I can imagine him inside of him.

Like, I will show Paul how to believe that people change. I will show Paul that he is wrong. And you know, in the book of Acts it doesn't say anything else. This actually is the last moment that Barnabas shows. His name is shown on the book.

But when we read Paul's letters, we get surprised from what we find. Listen to this. Colossians, chapter 4, verse 10. It says, My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings. As does who?

Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. You have received instructions about him. If he comes to you, say what? Welcome him? Paul changed.

He changed. Barnabas taught Paul how to believe that people change. And this is not the only one. There's more. There's two more places that we find unfold.

Philemon, chapter one, verse 23 and 24. It says, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus sends your greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers. Mark wasn't not just with Paul, but he was working with Paul. You know there's this last letter that Paul writes to Timothy.

This is, this is chronologically his last moment, his last historical document that we have in the Bible that Paul's right, it's on second Timothy, chapter four, verse 11. Listen to this church only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me and my ministry. This is super cool guys. When I found this out few weeks ago, I could not believe that Barnabas taught this lesson to Paul.

You know, Paul one day will believe that people change. And not only that, imagine God Thinking in the middle of this story. And not only that, he will need John Mark beside him. This is unbelievable. You know, we have to understand and remember our own stories.

We have stories. We had people in our journey that had to believe that we someday would change. I remember when I was living in Alabama, this gringo showed up in the worst moment in my life in my faith called Nathan Smith. Do you know this guy? He showed up and he paid the price to listen to my crisis, to my words, to the things that I had to say, to my struggles.

And he had to believe that I would change. And I honor you today, my friend. I love you so much for that.

Yes. You know, people change by God's power. And if we've changed. Have you changed in the, in the, in the process of your stories? We gotta believe that people change.

Imagine the revival that the church would live if all of us would get out of here today, believing that people that harmed us in the past, that did wrong things to us in the past, that can change by the power of God. Imagine the faith that God can build inside of each and every one, every heart of us, that people can be changed if we think in our own stories and we believe in God's power for that. Imagine that. Imagine that. I will leave you with that today.

So we believe that with Barnabas life, the son of encouragement, he can teach us how to get involved in the work of God. Not by our own ways, but God's way that we believe that people can change. We can also learn the third aspect of this message today is that Barnabas connected people to purpose. And this is huge. Listen to this.

In the middle of their story, in the middle of right after Barnabas presented Paul to the apostles, something was going. This great thing was going on in the church in Jerusalem. This revival that reached this city called Antioch. And then people started to listen. The revival that was going from this city up north, people were giving their lives to Jesus.

Great things were happening. And this is in Acts, chapter 11, verse 21 to 26, that says 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.

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. First thing that we see here is that Barnabas was accounted to the movement of God. He was someone that the apostles thought when something needed to be done, something needed to be accomplished.

The apostles connected Barnabas into the purpose. But Barnabas, being connected into the purpose, could not stay alone. He knew that what the Lord was doing was greater than him. He knew that what the Lord was doing needed more people engaged to connect and to be a part of what the Lord was trying to accomplish. So listen to this verse 25 says.

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, Barnabas connected Paul to the kingdom's need.

Barnabas could not stay there thinking he was the last cracker of the package, thinking that he could accomplish everything. You know, oh, I have all my teachings ready, set up, lined up. You know, I'm good at this. I'm gonna get there to this new church. I'm gonna sit everybody around me and I'm gonna teach alone, and I'm gonna be the man.

And when I'm gone, I'll have this metal plate here, put it in the wall, and this is going to look beautiful. No? But Barnabas understood the size of his God. He understood that God was bigger than what he knew from God. So he had to gather more people around him so the way of the Lord could be accomplished, you know?

So he goes to Tarsus, find Paul, brings Paul, and I can imagine their conversation there. He comes to Paul and say, bro, you have no idea what's going on in Antioch. I need to take you with me. You cannot miss one more day. Let's go, man.

It's revival going on. People are flipping in the spirit. Great things are happening. It's an amazing environment. You know, as much as it's going on here.

I was here Friday night on the night watch, and I was sitting up there tired. I drove 12 hours. I was sitting up there praying as much as I could walk, watching this new generation coming to the altar and pouring out to the Lord. Praise God. We want to honor you as well.

The new generation, you know, we come to Ojefujo and we say all the time, you know, if. If one day we stop doing church or being church to the new generation, something will be wrong, you know, because they need to be empowered. And it's happening in this church. And we are being very so inspired for this. I'm gonna take this Pastor Jay to Saint Bento do Sul and inspire more and more the youth, they need this.

They need this space, they need this ambience to create and to listen to God and be empowered by the Holy Spirit and praise God. So if you missed the Night Watch, you missed it. You know, one thing about the type of people that connect people to purpose is the type of people that cannot do anything alone. You know, it's the type of people that will come to the Night Watch and then come to the pastor and say, hey, John was missing. This guy also was missing.

He couldn't come. You know, And I usually, when in Brazil, this happens a lot. They come to me and say so and so didn't come. And I say, you go get them, you know, go for them, you know, because when we understand, please listen to me, the greatness of the work of God, we automatically understand that we need more people engaged. We automatically understand that if we are sitting and watching, there's something wrong.

So we need to move towards God's purpose. We need to connect people, you know, who is connecting you to God's purpose and who are you connecting to God's purpose? We need to be engaged. You know, a Christian lifestyle is in the community. It's in the temple and from house to house in a daily basis.

You know, we do things together. We do family time together, we do business together, we make wise decisions together. It's all about being together. We pray one for another together. So be challenged to find people's purpose and connect them into God's purpose in the name of Jesus.

So I believe that the Lord is asking us to move forward. I believe that the Lord is asking us to engage as a church like never before. You've been watching the news, you've been seeing what's going on. And honestly, when I watch the news, I barely understand it. And I'm not saying because it's in English, in Portuguese, it's the same, you know, I don't know whom to trust.

I. I don't know what to watch. I don't know if you're the same, if you feel the same. But I believe more than ever, God is calling his church to unity. God is calling his church to walk together. So I pray in the name of Jesus that you are the one raised up to be the encourager, to be raised up to be the one who will miss someone that didn't come to service, that didn't come to the small group, that didn't come to the Night Watch.

And you give them a call and say, bro, you are missing. Come along. Let's do it together. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Hey, thanks so much for joining us for this message.

If God spoke to your heart in a special way, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out to us@testify. There.

I look forward to you joining us again, whether it's in person or online. God bless you.