This tape contains the thirteenth of a series of teachings on the Book of Acts by the Rev. John W. Howe of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The teaching is entitled, "Barnabas, Son of Encouragement," and covers the ninth chapter of Acts, verses 19 through 31. We're continuing in the book of Acts chapter 9. Last time we read about the conversion of Saul, who was to become eventually the great apostle to the Gentiles. Today I want to read a little bit more about that, and actually I want you to understand at the beginning of this meditation that we're going to be deliberately skipping ahead of ourselves in order to draw some things together so that you see a pattern emerging, And then we're going to have to drop back and pick up the story again next time because there's another critical element in Peter's ministry that I don't want us to lose sight of.

It's quite interesting to note. We saw that when the gospel first went into Samaria, they needed to go back and send for Peter and John to come down and in essence confirm the breakthrough. The first time there was a breakthrough and the church became something more than Jewish.

and the Samaritans were welcomed into the church, it had to be confirmed at the leadership and the ministry of Peter. We'll see exactly the same thing happens when the first major breakthrough is opened with ministry to the Gentiles. And I just want you to sort of put that somewhere on a shelf in your mind, that even though Paul is going to be the apostle to the Gentiles, the real breakthrough comes in the ministry of Peter.

Even though Peter is basically the apostle to the Jews, he has this critical role of opening doors, not only to the Jews, not only to the Samaritans, but also to the Gentiles as well. God respects the order that he's established. And I want you just to sort of log that away, and we'll come back to it next time.

What we're seeing now is the shaping of a man, Saul, for a ministry that he is going to have that is absolutely unique in the foundation laying of the church. And so I'm going to telescope that a little bit. We're going to run ahead of ourselves to see what God is doing in the life of Saul who becomes Paul.

We're already aware of three very significant people in Saul's life, three people who have already shaped his understanding and his development. The first one is Gamaliel. Remember that Saul was a student at the feet of Gamaliel.

Gamaliel, one of the great teachers, one of the great Pharisaic teachers. And Gamaliel was in a relationship with the Sanhedrin and he spoke some very important words in the debate that centered around that first trial in Acts chapter 5. It's a pity that Saul did not partake of the spirit of Gamaliel.

You see that even though he was Gamaliel's student, his attitude was quite different. Gamaliel was the one who said, keep away from these men. Remember, he cautioned the Sanhedrin, keep away from these men.

If what they're up to is simply a human enterprise, it's going to fall apart anyway. If it's of God, you don't want to resist it. because you will find yourselves opposing God, and that's a battle you can't possibly win.

What a different story we would read if Saul had taken his cue from Gamaliel's attitude in that regard. But he did not. Though he was a student of Gamaliel, and though much of his understanding of the world was shaped by Gamaliel's teaching, his attitude became diametrically opposed to that.

He was going to stamp out the church if he possibly could. Well, the second person who influenced him was Stephen by his bold defense of the gospel, by the way in which even in death he forgave his persecutors and his murderers. And I've suggested to you that that picture of Stephen reflecting the Lord Jesus himself in forgiving his enemies and in radiating the beauty, the anointing of God, haunted Saul, haunted Paul all the way down through the rest of his ministry. He couldn't get away from it.

Though Saul's first response was to rise up and try to destroy it, and in a very real way that touched off the persecution that we've been tracing, he later had Stephen's own theology, Stephen's own bold enunciation of the gospel, echoing and re-echoing through his own letters and epistles on down into his mature ministry. And then thirdly, we saw last time Ananias, this little, otherwise relatively insignificant Christian in the city of Damascus, who received a vision and a commission from God, I want you to go and pray for this man, Saul. And Ananias is terrified.

He's horrified to do that. Lord, we've heard what terrible things he's done. Surely you can't want me to go and pray for him.

But the Lord says, yes, that's exactly what I want you to do. And Ananias is obedient to that. He lays hands on Saul, prays for his healing, and Saul is healed.

Not just physically is he given sight, but through and through. He's given spiritual site. His conversion is complete.

He's baptized, which is the sign of repentance. He is incorporated into the very church that he was trying to destroy, and immediately, it says, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And so these three, Gamaliel, Stephen, and Ananias, have already had a major impact, each of them in their own way, on Saul.

We're about to read in just a moment of a fourth person who has yet another kind of influence on him. I want to pick up, we left off in the middle of verse 19, Acts chapter 9 and verse 19. For several days he, that is Saul, was with the disciples at Damascus, and in the synagogues immediately he proclaimed Jesus, saying, He is the Son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called on this name? And he's come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests. But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, But their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket. And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

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. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord, and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him. And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

And then there's one of those little summaries that I called to your attention a while ago, a sort of a breathing of a great sigh as the cycle comes to an end, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it was multiplied. Now, if you had only that particular section to read, I think you'd get a very, very distorted view of how the time frame is unfolding. It sounds like he was just a few days in Damascus and then spent a major chunk of time in Jerusalem before he pushed on.

In fact, exactly the opposite is the case. He spent a relatively extended period in Damascus and a very brief period in Jerusalem. And what you need to do is hold your finger here and turn over to Galatians chapter 1.

And I'm not going to read our way through this. I'm going to invite you to study this with some care, I'm just going to call your attention to a couple of specific verses in Galatians chapter 1. You need to read these two passages together and see how they fit.

He was converted in Damascus, and immediately, it says, he went out and began to proclaim that Jesus was the Son of God. Now, mind you, word has preceded him to Damascus. They expected his coming.

In particular, the followers of the way anticipated his coming, and they knew he was coming to persecute even further, to drag them off bound to trial, to persecution, perhaps to beating, perhaps to imprisonment, perhaps to assassination, to death, to murder. Now, what an incredible reversal. He's come to destroy the followers of the way, and virtually he becomes the chief spokesman for it.

They're absolutely shocked, amazed. They don't know what has happened. They don't know how to cope with this.

The other Jews, you know, the not converted Jews, the Jewish Jews, don't know what to make of it either. They thought he was going to come and get rid of this nuisance. And instead he becomes, as I said, the chief promoter of it.

He's in Damascus for an unspecified period of time. And then in chapter 1 of Galatians, it says that he went down to Arabia. He goes all the way past what we would know as Israel down into the southern territory of Arabia, the Arabian desert.

And again, we don't know for how long. He mentions that in verse 17. Nor did I go immediately to Jerusalem, to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia.

And then I returned back to Damascus. Now, I don't know how long he was in Arabia, but that is a very critical period in Saul's life. and he just alludes to it in a couple of ways.

You sort of have to read between the lines as to what's going on. I sketched out for you some of the head knowledge that a Pharisee of the Pharisees would have of the Scripture. You can just imagine Saul going back and re-reading, re-studying, re-thinking his way through the Old Testament.

It's been unlocked now. with a new key. It's a completely new book to him.

And he goes back and understands every passage in it in a different way. What he was trying to stamp out as a perversion of the message of the Scripture, now he understands to be its fulfillment. But more than that, he alludes repeatedly to the fact that this was a time of unique revelation direct from God to Saul.

and this becomes terribly important in our understanding of his later ministry look at verse 12 well verse 11 and 12 for i would have you know brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel for i did not receive it from man nor was i taught it let that register but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to describe the unfolding of this period of time. Now, obviously, he had something of an awareness of the gospel because he's been arguing against it.

He argued against Stephen back there in Jerusalem in public debate in the synagogue amongst the Hellenists. So he has a general idea of it, but what he's saying here is, I did not go to Jerusalem and sit down at the feet of the eyewitnesses, the apostles, and learn, you know, in the way that you study our history lesson. He says, I was given a direct revelation by Jesus Christ.

And as you work your way through, for instance, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, it's terribly important that you understand that he is laying claim to an apostleship that is unique. Now, we can talk about apostles today in the general sense of small letter A, apostle. Anyone who is sent out, a missionary, is an apostle in a small case A. Today we have apostles in that sense of the word.

But apostles with a capital A, the ones who were given a foundation revelation by which all the rest of the church is to judge its revelation, was something unique. But what Paul is saying is that he became an apostle of that order. Now you can argue it's a nice point whether he was to be included in the twelve or not.

We touched on that very early on in this series. Leave that question aside, whether he was to be one of the twelve taking the place of Judas. Leave that aside.

He argues that his apostleship was foundational and normative for all the church, for all history. That he had the marks of a true apostle is the way that he expresses it in 2 Corinthians. And what he's saying here is that I was visited by direct revelation from Jesus Christ, So that after the fact, I became an eyewitness.

Do you follow what I'm saying? He never knew the Lord Jesus in Jesus' earthly ministry. But God did something unprecedented and unparalleled in the life of this particular apostle.

He gave him a direct eyewitness revelation of the facts of his gospel. So that, as you read through Galatians chapter 1, you'll see that it's 14 years later. He goes back and checks out his gospel with those who were eyewitnesses and finds out it's identical.

That is remarkable. Do you remember in 1 Corinthians 15 when he's recounting the resurrection appearances of Jesus? He talks about he appeared to Cephas, he appeared to the Twelve, he appeared to James, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time.

And then he says, and last of all, to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. Now, I don't think that that refers just to the appearance on the road to Damascus, just to the blinding light. He's referring to it.

He appeared to me. He made himself known to me, and I became an eyewitness after the fact. I'll give you another interesting correlation.

Do you remember in 1 Corinthians 11, when he's giving us the words of institution regarding the Lord's Supper. Do you remember how that goes? He says, for I delivered to you what I also received from who?

From the Lord. How? On the night before he was betrayed, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and so on.

We quote part of that every time we have the Lord's Supper. That's Paul's version we're quoting. And he says, I delivered unto you what I received from Peter, from John, no, from the Lord.

Do you follow what I'm saying? It's like the Lord played the whole thing in instant replay for Saul's benefit because he occupies a unique place in the church. It's very important that we see that.

Well, he goes back to Damascus then and specifies that he was there for three years. verse 18 of Galatians 1. He was there for three years.

And then finally he goes back to Jerusalem, and that's where we pick up in Acts chapter 1. So what he says for many days in Acts chapter 9, rather, when he says, I was there for many days, it's really at least a three-year period, part of which was spent down in Arabia. We're not sure how long in Arabia, then back to Damascus for another three years, and only then to Jerusalem.

The heat was on in Damascus. He's proclaiming the Christ, he's confounding the Jews, but they're not altogether thrilled with it. And so they're rising up, they're plotting to kill him, and if you return to Acts chapter 9 at this point, verse 23 and 24, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and led him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket. I want you to see the picture of this proud Pharisee who comes stomping into Damascus with his little train of temple guards ready to do battle with the Christians, right, being lowered over the wall by night in a laundry basket.

I mean, God really has a sense of humor, doesn't he? He returns to Jerusalem, and again, I'll let you interweave this, but if you read Acts 9 and Galatians 1, you'll see that he's there for just two weeks' time, just a brief meeting with Peter and James, and then he moves on because the heat is on in Jerusalem as well. Saul, in short, is getting exactly the same treatment as he was dishing out.

Notice that when he goes back to Jerusalem, even though it's just a very brief experience there, just a fortnight, if you will, he goes back to the very same synagogue where he has previously disputed with Stephen. And you know that because it says he's preaching among the Hellenists. Okay?

The very same synagogue of the dispersion where he was arguing against Stephen. Now he goes back and tries to plead the same case Stephen was making, and they're no more receptive all pleading that than they were to Stephen. And so it says he went from there to Caesarea, which is on the coast, and from there he goes up to Syria, presumably to the port city of Sidon.

He went by boat, and just a short stay from there on to his hometown of Tarsus, which is on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey, Cilicia in New Testament days. And he's there in Tarsus for the next 11 years. Okay?

Again, that's all from Galatians 1. A total of 14 years elapsed before Saul begins to really have a significant ministry. I want that to register in your minds.

Because I think too often we get the picture that Saul is converted and immediately he's out there winning the world for Christ. That is not the case. He stirs up a hornet's nest in Damascus.

There is no evidence that he has a successful ministry in Damascus. They just get enraged and try to kill him. He goes to Jerusalem. There is no evidence that he won anybody in Jerusalem.

They just want to kill him. And he goes home, back to Tarsus, and there is no evidence that he has a successful ministry in Tarsus for the next 11 years. Saul was obviously a man of high breeding and came from a family that was well-to-do. You can tell that by the kind of education that he's been privileged to have, the kind of training, the fact that he has Roman citizenship whilst being a Jew.

But what happens? He gets back home and he has to go back to tent making. Read between the lines, friends.

What's going on? He gets home. He doesn't even convert his own family.

They disinherit him. There are those who would speculate, I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight on this, but I just mention it in passing, that the probability is there that Saul was originally a married man by virtue of his association with the Sanhedrin. You had to be a married man to be part of the Sanhedrin.

If married, he clearly wasn't afterward, and the speculation is that his wife either just left him or divorced him. He's not able to win his own life, if all that should turn out to be the case. I just mentioned that in passing.

And Saul drops out of the story for the next 14 years total, 11 years specifically. All right? So, be patient with yourself.

you know I mean if you're not winning the world for Christ and it's only been three or four or five years since you've been converted that's just fine you're right on schedule if you've got your family angry at you you're probably doing something right okay don't you feel better aren't you glad you came today Now, the man, and again, if you need to leave, feel free to do so, but I want us to collapse a little bit of history here and jump way ahead of ourselves and pick up on the ministry of this fourth very influential person in Saul's life, and his name is Barnabas. Barnabas we meet in verse 27. Barnabas is a nickname, and it means the son of encouragement.

What a lovely name to be given. Wouldn't you love to have somebody call you an encourager? That's who Barnabas was. He was an encourager.

You first meet Barnabas back in chapter 4 when we were reading about Christian community, and it said in verse 36, thus Joseph, who was surnamed or nicknamed by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field which belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. Already, see, already long before Saul comes into the picture, Barnabas has been an encourager. So much so that they nickname him that and they never again call him Joseph.

Call him Barnabas, encourager. So what happens here? When Saul has stirred up the Jews in Damascus, he's had three years of stirring up fires and persecution and has to escape in a basket over the wall, comes back to Jerusalem, and nobody believes that it's genuine.

He's become insane, or this is all a ploy. We don't know what to make of him, but we don't want that guy to get anywhere near us. Who is it that steps forward and champions his cause?

It's Barnabas. Barnabas, it says, verse 27, took him, brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he, Saul, had seen the Lord who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. And it's on the strength of Barnabas' testimony that Saul is endorsed as the genuine article by Peter and John.

Barnabas must be a pretty solid citizen to change their mind that thoroughly. Now, as a result of the persecution that broke out following Stephen's death, we've seen that the church was scattered all over the place. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem, but others went in every direction, taking their new faith with them wherever they went.

That's why Saul was going to Damascus to do something about it. One of the other places that the church spread, just by the process of Christians being scattered, was to Antioch. And we read in chapter 11, verse 19.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word to none except Jews. But there were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord.

Now, understand we're jumping ahead of ourselves. We see here the gospel crossing the line between Jew and Gentile. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas, who is himself one of the dispersion.

He goes to Antioch, and he came and saw the grace of God, and 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 of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. So they've sent Barnabas to Antioch to be a pastor to what is happening there sort of by spontaneous combustion, if you will.

The church is spreading, and it needs a pastor, and who should they send but Barnabas? Only he goes, and he not only pastors, he enlarges the scope of the revival that's going on. He evangelizes, and a large number is added to the church.

And Barnabas realizes he needs some help. And it says, verse 25, so Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. Now, 11 years have gone by in the interim.

Saul went back to Tarsus, dragging his tail between his legs, was a whipped puppy, and he sits around Tarsus making tents, doing the best he can, mind you, but we hear nothing of that ministry until Barnabas gets himself in Antioch, which is just sort of around the corner from Tarsus, and he says, who can I get to help me? Yeah, there was a guy. He was a persecutor, but he got converted.

I bet you he's still in Tarsus. I'll go get him to help. And he goes and gets Saul to help him.

And it says that under their ministry, the church was built up. It says when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch, and for a whole year they met with the church and taught a large company of people. And in Antioch, the disciples were for the first time called Christians.

Now, I want to skip through this very, very quickly. Look at the last phrase of that 11th chapter. There was a prophecy of famine.

We've already read about that several weeks ago. And the church in Antioch took up a collection to help the saints back in Jerusalem to send relief down to Judea. And verse 30 says they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul, their pastors, Barnabas and Saul.

Chapter 12 and verse 25, after that mission is successful, it says, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, returning meaning back to Antioch, when they had fulfilled their mission, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. Chapter 13 and verse 2. When they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to this church in Antioch, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for what becomes the first of several missionary journeys.

Okay, they've had a successful local ministry, and now it's time to expand it and spread it around. The Holy Spirit says, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul. In verse 7, chapter 13, verse 7, it says, when they got to Cyprus, the proconsul summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God from them.

In the midst of that time, they were opposed by some occult leaders and a powerful supernatural anointing by the Holy Spirit came upon Saul and he confronted the powers of darkness, dramatically defeated them, and the proconsul was converted. And it's at that point that Saul abandons the use of his Jewish name, Saul, and begins to be known by his Roman name, Paul, because what's happening here is the Lord is confirming his ministry to the Gentiles. He'll be more acceptable to the Gentiles under a Roman name than he will under a Jewish name.

It's an interesting thing that happens in the midst of that interchange. Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, and in the midst of that interchange, God's Spirit moves in a dramatic way on Saul. Saul, who becomes Paul, is given his moment in the spotlight.

Occult powers rising up. He confronts them, rebukes them in the name of Jesus. Powerful ministry, all his.

And watch what happens afterward. Verse 13, now Paul and his company set sail from Paphros. Wait a minute, whose company?

I thought it was Barnabas and Saul. Paul and his company. Verse 16, so Paul stood up, motioning with his hand, and gives this dramatic speech over there.

Verse 43, And when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas. Verse 46, And Paul and Barnabas spoke out loudly. Verse 50, But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of that city and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas.

By the end of chapter 13, in short, the whole thing has shifted around and it's no longer Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul. It's Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas. And virtually, from this point on, the book of Acts is the story of the ministry of Paul.

now that just raises some interesting questions I just want you to meditate for a moment on the ministry of this son of encouragement are you willing am I willing to be the sort of person who would champion the cause of a known failure an enemy of the church and barnabas says take a chance on him i think it's genuine he's been up there all alone just getting it in the teeth for his ministry in damascus barnabas didn't need to do that he could have just shrunk away and said well let him fend for himself he was able to bring about persecution let him let him win those people for himself but Barnabas is willing to champion the cause of a known failure and an enemy of the church. Are you willing, and am I willing, to share my ministry with somebody else who's bound to make some mistakes as he goes along? To risk my ministry on somebody else's mistakes?

I mean, a tent maker. Hasn't won anybody in the last 14 years. But God's doing a work in him, and maybe he's ready.

Are you willing, and am I willing, to step aside as our partner's star begins to go into its ascendancy and our own ministry is overshadowed? Are you willing to stand on the sidelines and applaud as Saul becomes Paul and your ministry takes on relative insignificance? I've got to tell you, I know very, very, very few pastors who are willing to do that.

They are threatened to death by anybody else's success. Most pastors would be unprepared to have a really good speaker come into their pulpit, lest they be overshadowed. Well, how about it?

Barnabas is a son of encouragement. All he wants is for the Lord Jesus Christ to be uplifted, and I don't care who gets the glory in addition to Jesus, so long as Jesus gets it. Just contrast this with the story of that other Saul.

Saul has slain his thousands, and David has slain his ten thousands, and Saul can't stand it. And he's going to destroy David. But not Barnabas.

Barnabas stands on the sidelines and applauds as Saul becomes the mighty apostle to the Gentiles. They have a disagreement. We'll read about that later.

I believe it was healed before it was all done. But the basic pattern, am I willing to be a son of encouragement or am I going to be a son of a gun? Let's stand and pray together.

Father, thank you that you don't despise small beginnings. Thank you that when you begin a work in our life, you're so patient with us. We want to go out and be perfect yesterday.

And you take 14 years to ready us all to begin an apprenticeship ministry. Thank you, Father, for Barnabas. Thank you, Lord, for the willingness of this man to invest his life in bringing along one that you had selected to become the mighty apostle.

Lord, what would Saul have become? were it not for Barnabas. We thank you, Lord, for those who have touched our lives, who have given themselves away to us to help us become better equipped, more mature men and women of God.

And we pray that we might have that self-same spirit of giving ourselves away to those whom you are raising up, in some cases to tower above us. Lord let us be sons and daughters of encouragement for your great namesake Amen Amen.