Doesn't Jake do a wonderful job? He really does. We are very blessed to have such a talented worship leader with us. Today's sermon is going to be entitled, What We Can Learn from Barnabas. I learned a whole lot, and that's usually the case when I'm studying for a sermon, when I'm preparing a sermon. I learn a whole lot of stuff that I thought I knew or may have known, and then it just comes clear as crystal. And I praise the Lord for allowing me to understand his word better. But what can we learn? I want you to be thinking about that. What can we learn from Barnabas today as we read through the Word of God? A couple things here, as we already mentioned in the scripture reading, Barnabas was devoted to the apostles' teaching. The fundamental, the foundational content for the believer's spiritual growth and maturity is the scripture. Barnabas was devoted to fellowship. Barnabas became partners with Jesus and all other believers. It is our duty as believers to stimulate one another to righteousness and obedience. Barnabas was devoted to practicing the Lord's Supper. This is mandatory for all believers to observe. Barnabas was devoted to prayer. Barnabas had a healthy prayer life with the Lord and with others. Barnabas was devoted to selling whatever was needed to provide for his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Barnabas was devoted to meeting daily with his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, both in God's house and in their fellow believers' houses. They joyfully fellowshiped and worshiped God together, sharing in the unity of Christ their Lord. Barnabas learned a lot by listening, listening to the apostles and watching how they lived out their faith, especially during times of persecution. It was going to come in handy and it was going to help mold him into who God was molding him to be. I want to read, and we're going to read portions of the book of Acts today, but I want to read to you one account of what Barnabas would have learned from, and that's from Acts 4, 7 through 12. Acts 4, 7 through 12. The Sanhedrin had just set Peter and John in front of them. and they're threatening them, telling them to never preach in the name of Jesus ever again. And verse 7 says this, "...and when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power, by what name did you do these things? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit..." That's going to be crucial here. filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This, Jesus, is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Okay, verse eight tells us Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was being led or controlled by the Holy Spirit. He went from a scaredy cat to a bold man of God, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being led by the Holy Spirit, and he would preach the gospel with great confidence and power. And verse 12, we see that it shows the importance of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Many of the Sanhedrin and many of Israel, anyone who rejects or continues to reject this truth, no matter how hard they work, if they die in this condition, will end up in hell. And thus, for all the years they spent rejecting Jesus, Jesus will then reject them for all their good works, will not be able to save them. After Peter's second powerful sermon, The church was on fire for the Lord. And this will bring us to Acts chapter 4 verses 32-37 and our introduction to our man of the hour, Mr. Barnabas. Let's read Acts 4, 32-37. I'm in the right place today. You guys don't mind a whole bunch of scripture. Verse 32, Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any who had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, or the one who encourages, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostle's feet. All right, verse 36 says, Joseph, who the apostles, in case you were wondering, that involves Peter, John, Andrew, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddeus, Simon, and Matthias, they are the ones, and I want you to catch this, they are the ones that called Joseph Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement, or the one who encourages. The apostles are the ones who saw this man and took note at how he carried his life, what his character qualities were like. He was constantly encouraging one another. And all this will come into play often in Barnabas' life as an encourager, as one who stands up for the men and women of God, and for the gospel. But Barnabas was also known as a Levite. So go with me to Numbers 18. We're gonna check two small passages of Numbers, because I want us to understand a little bit more about the Levites. I for one am sometimes ashamed that I don't know more of the scripture, especially the things that are found in Leviticus or Numbers, because I used to read those if I couldn't fall asleep. But there's some really good details found in those books, and one of them, or a couple of them, are what we're going to be looking at today. Chapter 18 of Numbers, verse six says this. And behold, I have taken your brothers, the Levites, among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you given to the Lord to do the service of the tent meetings. Okay. The Levites first and foremost, were a gift from God for this genuine service of all the tent meetings, all the worship, all the times that they would gather together for worshiping God above. God gave them people to take care of serving the people of God. But go with me to Numbers 35. Just a few pages over. And I want to read verses two through eight. The Lord speaking to Moses saying this, command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance of their possession as cities from them to dwell in. and you shall give to the Levites pasture lands around the cities. The cities shall be theirs to dwell in and their pasture land shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all the beast. The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward 1,000 cubits all around, and you shall measure outside the city on the east side 2,000 cubits, and on the south side 2,000 cubits, on the west side 2,000 cubits, and on the north side 2,000 cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall belong to them as pasture land for their cities. The cities that you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee. And in addition to them, you shall give 42 cities All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be 48 with their pasture lands, and as for the cities that you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few, each in proportion of the inheritance that it inherits shall give of its cities to the Levites. Okay? So, verse 2-4, the Levites were busy working these fields day in and day out. Thus, when they weren't worshiping with their fellow believers or getting ready for worship, they were working hard in the fields, taking care of animals. And also, verse 6 tells us, these cities of refuge were havens giving protection to any person who accidentally killed another person. So the Levites had a lot of work to do, which evidently included keeping people safe and protecting them from any harm that may come their way. Now back to Acts 4, verse 36. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus. Barnabas was an encouraging Levite who happened to be a native of Cyprus, Cyprus being the third largest island in the Mediterranean. I had no idea about that before I started studying, just like many of these things. But this brings up an interesting inquiry because verse 37 says, Barnabas sold a field that belonged to him and gave it to the apostles. How did Barnabas have a field to sell? Although the Old Testament prohibited Levites from owning land, this law was clearly no longer enforced, or Barnabas would not have been able to do what he did, as Barnabas nonetheless showed he had the heart to give to his brothers and sisters who were in need. He didn't hesitate. He sold the field that belonged to him, and he brought the money and gave it to the apostles. So Barnabas is already showing that he has a heart to serve, he has a heart for God's people, and he will do whatever he needs to to make sure nobody is in want. So this hardworking, dedicated man is already starting to do extraordinary things for God's glory. Go with me to Acts 9. I want to read verses 26 through 27 as we continue looking at Barnabas and the amazing things that God did through him. We'll kick off verse 26, we're talking about Paul. Verse 26 says this, and when he had come to Jerusalem, Paul, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. All right, but check this out. 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. Paul came to Jerusalem wanting to join in with the serving and worshiping with the disciples who were there. We know from Paul's experience of when he became saved, he just got up and wanted to worship. He got up and wanted to serve. He had that heart. He had changed his life forever. He had truly repented of his sins. He turned away from his sinfulness and turned to God and was sold out for God and his glory. But this is a natural and real response that the disciples in Jerusalem would have had because what was Paul doing before he got saved? He was making their lives miserable. Not only that, he was torturing them. He had letters that he had permission to go get anyone who believed in Jesus and beat them and throw them in prisons. And so yes, they would have been scared to see him. walking back in. He's here to take us. He's here to take us to prison. He's here to beat us. Their first response when they saw Paul was not, oh joy, it's Paul everybody, or it's Saul. It would have been, grab your wife and children, hit the back door, we're leaving. even though Paul was sincere in wanting to worship with them, they were scared. They were afraid of him. They did not believe that Paul had changed his ways, that what they saw originally was that monster coming back in to persecute them. But verse 27, who came to Paul's side? Barnabas. Barnabas took Paul to the apostles, and he stuck up for Paul. He saw, we're all known for our fruit, you'll know the tree by their fruit, he saw the fruit coming out of Paul already, and he stuck up for Paul, and how Paul was now a preacher in the name of Jesus. defending the name of Jesus instead of persecuting the name of Jesus. And Paul was dedicated to sharing this gospel with the well-known world. As I'm studying this, I asked myself this very question. Without Barnabas standing up for Paul and encouraging the apostles that Paul had truly changed and was different, Would Paul have had the ministry he had? God could have worked it out in several different ways. But God chose Barnabas to stand up for his friend, for his colleague, and say, hey, guys, no need to be scared. This guy's legit. This guy's the real deal. Even Barnabas wouldn't have known how much God was going to use Paul. But what Barnabas did know was he was taking Paul at his word. He saw a difference in his life. And he stood up for what was right. He stood up for what was right. Go with me to Acts chapter 11. Barnabas is constantly encouraging his brethren to do what is right and to do it not solely for their good, but to bring God glory. Acts chapter 11, let's read 19 through 26. Beautiful, another beautiful piece of scripture. and forgive me as I stumble over some words. But now these were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who when coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, also preaching the Lord Jesus. and the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came, he saw the grace of God. He was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. and great many people were being added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they met there, the church, and taught a great many a people. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. All right, verses 19 through 21, persecution didn't stop. It didn't stop the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and it typically doesn't. The enemy of God, for as long as I can remember, has been trying to persecute Christians and crush Christians to get them to stop preaching in the name of God, and it does not work ever. Christians just have a way of picking up those moments and carrying on. Onward, Christian soldiers! We march to a different beat because we are unified in Christ Jesus and we don't want to offend our Lord and Savior. So we don't let anything stop us from preaching the Word of God, from getting that gospel message out there. Or at least, that is the plan. I'm not saying we don't fail. We fail all the time. I'm going to fail you constantly. And praise the Lord that I'm able to go back to God and say, Father, forgive me for I have sinned again. And he forgives me and does not bring up any record of wrongs, but cleanses me of all my unrighteousness and stands me back up and allows me to keep going all for his glory. And this is the type of things that were happening. The persecution wasn't stopping, but it did not stop the preaching of the gospel. But what does happen in verse 22, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. The apostles heard these things and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. because they saw already what this man was capable of, how he was called by God to serve God's people, and they were confident to send him to Antioch. And Antioch was the capital of Syria, and which was administrated as a Roman district. It was also, was a major pagan metropolis, being the third largest in the Roman Empire, behind Rome and Alexandria. And this is where they were sending Barnabas to preach, and Barnabas was willing to go preach. He was always willing to go forth and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And being from Cyprus, he was a Cypriotic Jew, he came from a similar background to the founders of the Antioch Church. Verse 24, Barnabas was known as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, just like Peter was before him. Barnabas is being led by the Spirit as he serves the church with great power and boldness, knowing that standing on the word of God and preaching, proclaiming that gospel message of Jesus was the only thing that was going to help these people. Barnabas, verse 25, Barnabas also knew it was not wise to serve alone as he was preaching the word of God and proclaiming the word of God and exhorting them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. A great many people were hearing the word of God and God was adding to their church those that were believing in the Lord and he realized cannot do this on my own." So who did he think of? That's right, I knew you would get it. He thought of Paul. He said, I better go find my friend and colleague Paul. Now to be fair, to find Paul was not going to be an easy task. For several years had elapsed since Paul fled Jerusalem. Nonetheless, Barnabas must have known where to look, for verse 26 tells us, when he had found him. So he found him, and he successfully brought him. He was able to convince Paul to come back with him. That's no easy task on its own. But he found him, and he talked Paul into coming back with him to Antioch, and they preached there for one whole year. One whole year they were preaching and teaching the people there the ways of the Lord, training them in the ways of the Lord, training them in how to do things that would be pleasing unto God, training them the gospel message, memorizing pieces of scripture, equipping them with the Word so that they would be able to go forth and preach and proclaim the Word of God to the entire world, to the entire known world. As Jake said earlier, singing acapella, that might be the only thing we have when we are being persecuted, when things are taken away from us, when the Bible is taken away, when songbooks are all put in a fire pit. We'll have those songs that we memorized, but we'll also have the Word of God that we memorized, that we hid in our hearts. and we'll be able to continue to preach, to proclaim, to worship with one another as the case may be. Acts 13 verses 1 and 2, extraordinary piece of scripture. It tells us, now there were in the church of Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas and Simeon, Luscius and Cyrene, Manane, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them to do. Chapter 13 will mark a turning point in the book of Acts. The first 12 chapters will primarily focus on Peter and the remaining chapters will focus with Paul. While with Peter the emphasis was with the Jewish Church, with Paul the Gospel will spread to the Gentiles throughout the Roman which began at Antioch. And we can see from verse 1 that Antioch, the church of Antioch is growing very well. It's becoming bigger and bigger and more populated. And yet verse 2 tells us, How cool is that? What work does the Holy Spirit call us to do? The same work that Jesus calls us to do. Go forth, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded or taught you. And the best part, I am with you always. We never, ever have to serve the Lord alone. But we are to go forth. We are to proclaim his word. We are to teach people what God has taught us through his word, through the teaching of his word. And we shall do so with boldness, teaching people the truth and love as the ones who did before us have done so. I wanna go to Acts 13, just probably a page or two over. And we'll be wrapping up soon. But Acts 13, starting with verse 44 and reading through verse 48. Or I'm sorry, reading through verse 51. The next Sabbath, almost a whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many were appointed to eternal life, believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the entire region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Ichaim. Okay? Verse 44, the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. That would be awesome. If the entire city of Fredericksburg gathered at Emmanuel Baptist Church, we'd have to add to our building project. But the entire city gathering to hear the word of the Lord. What should have been a very exciting moment in church history took a turn with sinful flesh driving the wheel. Because verse 45 told us the Jews saw this and reviled Paul, contradicting what was being taught. They were heckling him. as they reviled Jesus while on the cross Jesus did not revile them in return. But verse 46 says this, Paul and Barnabas stopped that right away by rebuking their behavior as it did not match those who were truly saved. They were not acting like Christians. They were not acting and following after God's ways. No, they were reviling Paul and Barnabas, and they would ultimately drive them out of their district. Every time I see something like this in the Scriptures, I scratch my head and I praise God. Because men and women of God who take the Scriptures with them and live out what they believe. The world hates them because they hated God first. And so they persecute them. As it was promised, if you follow me, persecution will come. And it happens many times throughout the scriptures. And yet, instead of when the scriptures are being preached and more people are coming in to hear the word, instead of rejoicing, oftentimes the people, the crowds get angry and push the person who is preaching the word of God away. And so would be any of us if the Holy Spirit, if God Almighty did not save us. we would be acting just like they did, or just like the people that screamed out, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. We'd be no different. So don't shake your head at these people, because apart from God's grace, you would be acting just like them or worse. But verse 48 does tell us the Gentiles were rejoicing, and as many were appointed to eternal life, believed. I love this. appointed to eternal life, one of the scriptures most clear statements on the sovereignty of God and salvation. God chooses people out of his good pleasure period, end of story. Faith itself is a gift from God. We are saved by his grace through faith in him. It is not of our own works so that no man shall boast. It is a free gift of God to all those who believe in him. It is out of His goodwill, His good pleasure. He is sovereignly in control and He has written down the Lamb's book of life of all that will believe and no one that's not found in that book will ever come to believe in Him. But everyone who is in that book will come to believe in Him. I love that. I love that sovereignty. It rolls right with man's responsibility. We don't know exactly how they meet up and how they connect to each other, but we know God does know and will carry those things out as only God can. So of course they were rejoicing. God saved them and they were rejoicing over that. Drop down to verse 50 and 51. This is what I was talking about earlier. The Jews will drive Paul and Barnabas out of the district. They want no more. No more of Paul and Barnabas. We have had enough, leave us. And what does Paul and Barnabas do? They shook off their dust. They shook off their dust off against them. Quickly go to Matthew 10 because we can't leave this out. Matthew 10 verses 14 and 15 talking about sending out the 12 apostles. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house of town. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. All right, shaking off the dust from your feet was for the Jews an expression of disdain. And Sodom and Gomorrah were judged without warning with the uttermost severity. So to be worse than that, instead of saying amen, they should have been saying ouch. And there's one final piece of scripture I wanna bring you to. Hopefully I'm not like, Well, hopefully I am like Pastor Dennis and say I'm almost done and then keep going. But one final piece of scripture I want to bring you to is Acts 15. Because as we just saw, they just shook the dust off their sandals, bringing judgment, showing that God was going to judge those people. But it doesn't end there. Acts 15, we read verses 30 through 35. So when they were sent off, they went down, that's right, to Antioch. And having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. There's that word again. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. And after they spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also." Barnabas' historical account for me just gets better and better. Verse 30, they were back in Antioch and a letter had been delivered and a letter had been read. And when they, verse 31, when they read it, they all rejoiced. It was hard truths put down in that letter that needed to be said and needed to be heard. And the outcome of that letter was it was encouraging. It brought encouragement that God did not strike them down as they may well deserved, but kept bringing people to them so that they may keep hearing the word of God being preached." And down in verse 35, this is for me where it hits home, it gets remarkable. Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch where they ran out of the town and shook their dust off against this charged And what change? God. God was at work in both the people of Antioch and kept stirring up the hearts of Paul and Barnabas as well. Stirring up their hearts to keep preaching the Word of God to these people. Keep preaching the Word of the Lord to these people. The same people that had rejected you and said they didn't want any more to do with you and would run you out of the town itself to come back and to preach and to teach, to preach the Word of God and to continue teaching these people in love and in truth how to live out lives that would be pleasing unto the Lord. Time for a small confession. I couldn't go back to where I had been rejected. I haven't gone back. And to continue once again to preach to the people that any time I have had people reject me because they're rejecting the gospel, I know people that do go back, but I sadly am not one of them. Barnabas was one of them. And he and Paul did it with such grace, all by God's grace and all for God's glory. They went back where they met the utmost rejection and they kept preaching the word of God and kept teaching God's ways to those people. So I started off by asking a question, what can we learn from Barnabas today? One, trust in the Lord and you shall be saved. Two, once saved, you are to serve the Lord with all you got, following after him and his ways, no matter what. You are to pick up the gospel message and run with all you got until God calls you home. And three, never pass up a moment to stand up for God, His Word, and your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Be that person of encouragement that comes alongside. and lifts us up to keep running that race all for our good and for God's glory. And you will be blessed. Shall we pray? Dear Father, I do thank you so much for this time that we've had to gather together in your word. I thank you so much for sending people like Barnabas to stand up for you, stand up for your word. preach it with boldness, with love and truth, teaching people that would even reject you and reject him as your messenger and keep going back and out of the love that Barnabas had for you, he also shared that with the people of Antioch and would continue to teach them your ways. As remarkable as that was, I pray that you would raise up a whole bunch of Barnabases here at IBC and anybody watching this recording, that you would be raised up to encourage the people around you, point people to Christ, to the gospel, that it may be for our good, but it may bring God great glory, honor, and praise. In Jesus' name I do pray, amen.