S3E6: Everyone Needs a Barnabas – Walking with a Peer

Well, welcome out. I know session one, which we had last month, really dealt with this idea that everyone needs a Paul. And so if you missed that, go back and watch that because we're going to be building on that ⁓ for session two this summer, which is everyone needs a barnabas. And if I can be honest with you, I think one of the things as ministry leaders that we often struggle with is that we feel like we carry an immense weight, right? There's always something to do. ⁓ if you're leading a church or if you're about to plan a church, whatever the case may be, if you're serving in some sort of context in the ministry, there's always a weight of ministry. And oftentimes what we find is that when leaders kind of get to the point where that weight becomes too heavy and they don't have someone walking alongside them in their life, they begin to lead in what we call silence. And that's where danger comes in, right? We never want to be alone, we don't want to be isolated, and we certainly don't want to lead from a place of silence. And so when we look at a couple of things today, we're gonna see that Paul, who I think many of us would look up to in the ministry, right? He's one of the giants of our faith. But even Paul needed someone to walk with him. He had someone that walked with him, and his name was Barnabas. And when you think about kind of that idea of a Barnabas and how Barnabas walked with Paul alongside Paul, as we're gonna see here in a few minutes in some scripture, it's really kind of this idea of a spiritual peer, someone who is beside you, not just a peer, someone you do life with, that's important, but a spiritual peer, someone that you do spiritual life with. And it's a person that can offer encouragement, a person that can offer truth and companionship and all those seasons of life in ministry. And so I'm gonna be looking at two blocks of scripture here. We're gonna dive into, I think, some some application and then we're gonna break into ⁓ our group time. But the first block of scripture is from Acts chapter nine verses 26 through 27. And we're going to see here in this block of scripture how ⁓ Barnabas advocates for Paul when others are really skeptical. Let me read this to you in verses ⁓ twenty-six and twenty-seven. It says, And when Paul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him, and they did not believe that he was a disciple. Moving on to verse 27, it says, But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And so here we got this beautiful picture of Paul. ⁓ and when we think of this whole thing, he had a a pretty pretty amazing story, right? You know, here he attempts to join the disciples in Jerusalem. Saul had come to to join them in Jerusalem. ⁓ and this was after his radical conversion. But the believers there, ⁓ they knew that he was a persecutor of the the Christians and and persecutors of those who followed Christ. And they were very skeptical of him. They they didn't they didn't trust him. And you can get this sense of, like, hey, we you could do great things, but we don't trust you because you got this past. But here Barnabas steps in as this mediator and he begins to vouch for Paul on a couple of different levels. He first vouches for his transformation, his Life transformation. So from Saul to Paul, that's where we get his name from, obviously. But he vouches for that transformation in his life, a real encounter with Christ. And then he also continues, as we saw in the scripture, to begin to share about the bold preaching that he saw in Damascus. And so here, Barnabas is kind of this mediator. He's hoping to bridge the gap. He's hoping for others to be able to see how. Paul had had a changed life. And so Barnabas was advocating for him. He gave Paul credibility where he didn't have it before. And he gave Paul access to the fellowship of believers, which is all important. Because without a Barnabas in his life, Paul wouldn't have been able to do this, right? I mean, God may have had some other way, but this is God's way of doing it. He used a Barnabas in Paul's life to be able to advocate for him, give him credibility. And it's an amazing thing when we see this. And really, when you think about it, he affirm the work of God in someone's life. That's exactly what Barnabas did. He was affirming the work of God in his life, Paul's life, so that the apostles and the other believers would be able to see it. And so as we kind of look at this first block of scripture, it makes me think, well, gosh, who do you have in your life? Who do I have in my life that's affirming the work of God in my life? a spiritual peer, if you will, not just a friend, but a spiritual peer that can come alongside me and says, Man, I can see God moving in their in in your life. I can and and telling others, I can see God moving in their life. So you get like this this peer relationship that's affirming in so many ways. And likewise, whose life are you a part of where you can affirm the work of God in their life, where you are being the Barnabas to them. And so I think it's an amazing concept when you think about How God brought Barnabas to Paul's life at the right time to accomplish some pretty amazing things. Another block of scripture that we can look at is Acts chapter 11, verses 22 to 26. And we're gonna see Barnabas here. He seeks out Paul and brings him into a ministry partnership. It's a pretty amazing story. Starting in verse 22, it says The news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. And when he came and he had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and he encouraged them all that with with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. And so it says in verse 24, For he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. Then it says Barnabas departed. He goes to get Saul. And it says, And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that ⁓ for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians and Antioch. And so here, the church in Jerusalem, they heard of this amazing thing happening and that they're happening, and there was a growing number of Gentile believers in Antioch. So Gentiles professing their faith in Christ, and they were growing in Antioch. And so they respond by sending Barnabas. Now, what did Barnabas do when he got there? He began to encourage them, right? and support them. But then we see he does something else. He goes and gets Paul. And he says, and he and he basically has Paul come back and he shows this humility and he shows this incredible envision by inviting Paul so that Paul and Barnabas could both join in the work together. And what I like about this picture is that you've got this relationship between these two, right? These this spiritual peer, so to speak. And and they come alongside Barnabas and Paul come alongside, they'll be able to do ministry together in an amazing way. And when we think about ministry, ministry begins to flourish when we lead with others, not just for others. I think oftentimes we think about the growing church and maybe the ministry that's your part of what God would do, but oftentimes ministry is going to flourish when we begin to lead with others. That there might be a Barnabas in your life, someone that you can do ministry with, someone that maybe is ⁓ in your life right now or maybe someone that God's gonna bring in your life or maybe you're a barnabus for someone. But when we begin to lead with them and they are in our lives and God is doing something, the ministry begins to flourish. It isn't just a one-way street where we're only ⁓ you know kind of leading other people, but when we're leading with others for the purpose that God put in our heart, ministry begins to flourish. And so a couple of ideas I want to share between these two blocks of scripture and really where I think We can kind of glean ⁓ some great wisdom from the scripture. Number one, Barnabas obviously represents a peer, someone who can walk with you, someone who can come alongside you, shoulder to shoulder, not above you, not below you, but someone who is a not a follower, not a superior, but someone who is equal, an equal partner in the journey. And I think oftentimes in a context like this, that's what a beautiful thing like this group is all about, right? We got a lot of people. That we're standing shoulder to shoulder with. And the thing about a Barnabas is a Barnabas sees your calling, and what they do is they walk beside you in it. And many of you I know probably walk beside other people in their calling. Maybe you are already being a Barnabas. But we're seeing that the ministry of Paul expanded because Barnabas did what? He stood with them. He came alongside him. Second thing I want to point out is that true peer relationships are marked by encouragement. That's right, encouragement. Barnabas believed in Paul when others didn't. There was this encouragement that he came along. And we saw that both Paul ⁓ Paul and Barnabas sharpened one another through their partnership. They sharpened one another by walking alongside each other. And then the last thing I want to share as we think about these two blocks of scripture here is that ministry without a Barnabas-type relationship often leads to isolation and or pride. That sometimes we can, you know, get so involved with ministry, we think, man, I'm okay. I don't need anybody to come alongside me. I'm just gonna do it myself, right? I'm gonna be the superhero. And then you become isolated, and there aren't a whole lot of great things that happen when you become isolated, become disconnected, pride-filled, and there's a lot of dangerous roads you can go down. But if when we do have a Barnabas type person in that relationship in our life, Then what that does is that leads us into community, someone that can walk side by side with, someone like we can do life with. And one of the things we got to be careful about in ministry is isolation. Because isolation leads to discouragement. Discouragement leads to burnout. Burnout leads to secrecy. The things that may happen behind closed doors, the things that may happen in your private life that no one knows about. There's a danger there. And pride is going to convince you and I that we don't need each other. That we don't need a Barnabas in our life. We're too pride-filled, right? That's what pride does. It comes alongside and tells us we don't need those relationships. But this is a dangerous area. And this is a very dangerous area for leadership. And more specifically, leadership and ministry, ministry. And so Barnabas type relationships protect your soul, they protect your family, and they strengthen your ministry. So why wouldn't you jump into a relationship? And have someone walk side by side with you. And so I want to give you a couple of thoughts here on some application, and then we'll let you talk about some of these things in our group time here. But I want to encourage you, maybe there's someone you need to reach out to. Maybe there's a trusted peer that you need to sit down with and kind of schedule some time and say, hey, I need a barnabas in my life. And maybe you need to, maybe you can both be the barnabas for each other where you're walking alongside one another in a season. Think that'd be a great thing, but maybe that's something you need to do, maybe today or this week. But I'm gonna encourage you that maybe if if you already have that person in your life, then reach out to someone that you don't think has a barnabas in their life and encourage them. Affirm what God is doing in their life and see if God would build a relationship there and build a ⁓ peer-to-peer relationship. And then lastly, I would say don't wait until the fall, don't wait until You know, next year to make this kind of the new year's resolution, start on this journey now. Begin praying with your Barnabas, if you will. Have accountability with your Barnabas. Have this one-on-one partnership so God can take the ministry that you're doing further and faster, but more importantly, with a healthier version of you. That's the whole idea that as we are coming alongside each other. We're going to be a healthier place spiritually. And that's what this group is all about. This is what we are striving for. And so I pray that you find that person in your life if you don't already have that person. I pray that you are that type of person for someone else. And I would pray that if you don't have a starting point, if you don't have that person in your life and you don't know what first step to take, reach out to us in this group because we'd love to help you take that step. Because this is one of the most important things you can do. for your own life, for your spiritual life. It's an investment in you and it's an investment that's gonna pay some huge dividends down the road. So I pray that you have an amazing time in your group. And I can't wait to see how God uses this lesson really in our lives to advance his kingdom.