Barnabas — A Model Christian
’ For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” — Acts xi. 24,
Peter’s vision at Joppa introduced a new era in human history. To the fishernian-apostle, as he kneeled at his noontide hour of devotion, was revealed the glorious truth that God is no respecter of persons. This was not only the “gospel of democracy” for every land, leveling up all castes and classes into a common brotherhood before God; it was a gospel of foreign missions which proclaimed that the Gentile had as good a right to the offer of eternal life as the children of Abraham. That vision of Peter’s opened the way to the evangelization of western Asia as Paul’s vision at Troas opened the way to the evangelization of Europe.
The persecution which arose on account of the heroic martyr Stephen “scattered abroad” manynew converts from Jerusalem, even as a sturdy blow of the blacksmith’s sledge scatters the fiery sparks from the anvil. Some of them enter the maritime coast of Phoenicia; some of them cross over to the luxurious and licentious island of Cyprus; others move northward to the superb city of Antioch. These early pioneers of the cross were not commissioned by “boards” or other missionary organizations. The book of The Acts is mainly the record of individual efforts for the conversion of individual souls. The souls thus evangelized were in great centers of influence like Jerusalem, Ephesus, Rome, and Antioch.
The American tourist who visits now the shrunken and miserable hamlet called Antdkia can form but a poor conception of what Antioch was in the days of its flashing splendor. It was the queen of the Orient, the capital of Syria, the third city in influence on the globe. Its population was about equal to that of Chicago to-day. Its natural situation was commanding, with the river Orontes flowing past it and the magnificent mountains of Lebanon towering above its walls. Grecian art and Roman wealth had enriched it with gorgeous temples of heathen deities, with sumptuous baths and theaters, with elegant villas upon its hillsides, and with expensive aqueducts carried across its adjacent plains. No capital outside of Rome was more imperial in its splendor or more corrupted by wealth and sensuality.
Among the mixed population of this Oriental mart of commerce were many Greeks. Some commentators insist that the word “Grecian” in the twentieth verse describes Hellenistic Jews. But as we are told in the previous verse that some of the gospel itinerants “preached the word to none but the Jews only,” it is probable that this verse announces that the good news of salvation had begun to be offered to the Gentiles.
An immediate blessing followed. The omnipotent “hand of the Lord was with” these earnest preachers of the truth. The instruments were human, the power was divine. We pastors and Sunday-school teachers can do nothing without God, and it is equally true that in our departments God will do nothing without us. When God’s hand and man’s hand combine, then comes the spiritual harvest. The results which followed this pioneer preaching work at Antioch were of an admirable type, and a model of the best modern revivals. We are told that “a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.” Observe this process: the inward must precede the outward — the root must be planted before we can expect the tree. The root here is heart-faith in the crucified Jesus. As the result of this internal acceptance of Christ there was a conversion or “turning” from a life of sin to a life of serving Christ. When the hand of the Holy Spirit is laid on the helm the whole vessel swings round on its keel and “heads” in the opposite direction. We have no doubt that this fleet of new converts bore the colors of an open confession of Christ at the mast-head, and were all ready to go into action for Him at once. True conversion demands prompt confession and union with the church. As soon as a lamp is lighted let it straightway shine.
Good news flies fast. Jerusalem was the headquarters of Christianity, and what was going on at Antioch could not be kept long from the mother church. According to the literal rendering of the twenty-second verse, “the tidings concerning these things” (or converts) “was heard with the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem.” In the judgment of that parent church the important work that had opened at Antioch demanded a master workman.
The man whom the Jerusalem church selected to be the city missionary at Antioch, and afterwards the foreign missionary to Cyprus, has never received the high honor through after ages to which he is fairly entitled. In our humble judgment he stands next to Paul, as the second most remarkable character who is presented to us in the roll of converts after the days of Pentecost. A gratuitous slur has been cast upon him because he afterwards had a “contention” with Paul about certain matters; but may it not be possible that in that contention Paul was as much in the wrong as Barnabas? Good men may easily differ and often dispute warmly about the best method of prosecuting God’s work.
The original name of the gospel preacher who was delegated from Jerusalem was Joses or Joseph. As the brightest light is kindled on a point that comes out of a bed of charcoal, so this light-bearer of the gospel came out of one of the darkest regions of debauchery and idolatry. He was a native of the island of Cyprus. He was of a Levitical descent, but his country was proverbial for its licentiousness, and the name of “Cyprian” is to this day applied to one who has sinned away the purity of her womanhood. But as the sun can attract heavenward pure particles of moisture from a slimy pool, so God’s grace elevates many human souls from very filthy surroundings. One of the earliest converts to the gospel of Calvary was Joseph the Cyprian; and what a thorough out-and-out work was his conversion! In our times we discover conversions of the head without a change of heart; again, we see both head and heart renovated without much perceptible influence on the purse. But Joses was the subject of a spiritual revolution that reached to the bottom of his pocket.
Make way for him as the pioneer of the noble army of generous givers for the gospel. He may be called the father of Christian beneficence, for he is the first one specifically named who, “having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” The whole host of Christian givers — the Thorntons, the Peabodys, the Lenoxes, the Dodges, the Tappans, the Stuarts, and the Baldwins — are all the successors of this “son of consolation.” In modern days we do not often hear of Christians who sell their real estate in order to fill Christ’s treasury. The reason why there are so many stingy professors in our churches is that their hearts are not warm enough to thaw out their purses.
With his new nature Joseph receives a new name. He is christened “Barnabas,” which in our Authorized Version is translated a “son of consolation.” This would bespeak a fine character. “He who has consolation gives it, and he that gives consolation has it.”
This were an enviable cognomen for every pastor and Sunday-school teacher, whose offices are not only to instruct in the truth, but to visit their flocks and to heal the broken-hearted. The later Westminster revisers give to the name of Barnabas the more literal meaning, “son of exhortation,” or of persuasion. This would describe him very happily as a zealous and successful exhorter and preacher of the word. Being familiar with his gifts and his graces, the mother church at Jerusalem appointed him to “go as far as Antioch.”
On his arrival there he found himself in the midst of what we now designate a “work of grace.” So visible and impressive was this mighty work that Luke tells us that Barnabas “saw the grace of God” — /. e., the manifest effects of the Holy Spirit’s power in the conversion of heathen idolaters. This gladdened his heart with an unselfish and inspiring joy. Nothing quickens the hungry soul of a true minister or Sabbath-school laborer like visible results.
The spiritual atmosphere is charged with a sort of Divine electricity. It is a luxury to fish when the gospel net incloses a great multitude of fishes, yet he is not worthy of the name of Christ’s servant who is not wilHng to spend the labor of a life to win even one precious soul from the pains of hell.
Barnabas comes in no jealous or fault-finding temper to criticise the labors of others; he rejoiced in the rich results already achieved, and “exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.” Some ancient authorities read, “that they would cleave unto the purpose of their heart in the Lord.” He directed them immediately to Christ, and bade them cleave fast to Him. He taught those awakened souls that faith was a transaction by which they joined their own weakness unto Christ’s strength, their unworthiness to His merits, and their guiltiness to His full, pardoning grace. The atoning blood not only cleansed — it cemented. This is the secret of the only religion that holds out; and it holds out because it holds on to Him who declares that “none shall be able to pluck them out of My hand.”
We always know what manner of spirit a man is of when we ascertain what gladdens him the most or what grieves him the most deeply. Barnabas “was glad” to see these early fruits of the gospel of the cross. “For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” The Bible is chary of personal eulogies, and leaves us to form our estimate of men’s character by their conduct. I do not now recall any laudations of Paul or Peter or the beloved John such as surviving partiality often inscribes on the tombs of the departed. But here is an encomium, uttered by the Holy Spirit, that would outshine burnished gold if it were carved on the monument of any servant of God. Brethren, how sweetly might you and I sleep in our last narrow bed if over our dust the Divine hand could write, “A good man, and full of the Holy Ghost.” This description does not imply miraculous inspiration; it simply describes what is attainable by the humblest Christian here, for we are all commanded to be filled with the Spirit. In proportion as we are emptied of pride and self-seeking may we be filled to the brim with the Divine indwelling — yes, filled unto all the fullness of God.
The harvest soon becomes too great in Antioch for any one man to gather, for “much people was added unto the Lord.” Please to mark this expression well. The narrative does not say that many people joined the church, but that many people joined Christ. When a soul has joined itself to Jesus then union with His church is the most natural step imaginable. Barnabas finds that the gospel net is becoming so full that he requires a partner to assist him in drawing it to land. He has in his eye a new convert who is not very far away — one who is in the prime of his powerful manhood, and one who has a prodigious driving-wheel in his mental machinery. Once before he had introduced this same extraordinary convert to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. So he departs from Antioch to Tarsus to look for Saul. When Sir Humphry Davy was asked what was the greatest discovery he had ever made, he replied, “It was young Michael Faraday.” To the quick eye of Barnabas was due the honor of first recognizing the fiery vigor, the intrepid couracfe. and the indomitable zeal of him who was yet to be the very chiefest of the apostles.
Since Saul — who had not yet received the familiar name of Paul — had left Caesarea we have lost track of him. He seems to have returned to his native city of Tarsus in Cilicia. How long he had been residing there, or what occupation he was pursuing there, the inspired history does not Acts ix. 27.
inform us. He may have been intent upon his sacred studies in preparation for his after-work, or he may have been undergoing a portion of that discipHne to which he refers in his subsequent Epistle to the Corinthians. Quite likely it is that he was not idle among his neighbors, for we are informed afterwards that there were churches in Cilicia, and he may have had a hand in planting them.
I am incHned to think that Saul was not in Tarsus when Barnabas reached there, because the Greek word translated “seek “signifies a sharp search, as though Barnabas had some trouble to find him. When he did capture the prize he” brought him unto Antioch “with the happy feeling of one who has found great spoil. At once they enter upon their work, Barnabas and Saul, in holy and loving partnership, ‘’ assembling themselves with the church” for worship and for work. Their chief business was spiritual instruction in the elementary truths of Christianity. Not with sensational claptrap or curiosity-seeking devices did they aim to attract popular attention. They simply “taught” their auditors, but taught them with such winsome skill and affectionate zeal that they had “much people” to listen to them. Literally translated, they had a “sufficient crowd.” The word implies a miscellaneous congregation of rich and poor, cultured and ignorant, from the various classes of society. No splendid sanctuary gave them shelter; no costly music baited their aesthetic appetites; no luxurious pews invited the rich while the poor were kept standing at the gates; none of the ecclesiastical pomps and pageantries of modern worship had yet intruded into the sweet, primitive simplicity of apostolic Christianity. Two anointed preachers, filled with the heavenly unction, stood up and proclaimed Christ crucified and Christ risen from the dead. If any of the assembly were troubled with difficulties, they asked questions and the two teachers answered them. Psalms and spiritual songs were sung, fervent prayers were offered, and alms were distributed to the poor. On every first day of the week those Antioch disciples gathered for an “agape,” or love feast, and with simple fragments of bread and cups filled with the fruit of the vine they commemorated the dying love of their blessed Lord. From beginning to end their Sabbath services, their week-day work, their preaching, their prayers and their social fellowship, all tasted of Christ. The aroma of Christ pervaded everything. They knew nothing of theological systems
—they knew only one divine Person; they just believed, and preached, and loved, and lived out the Lord Jesus Christ.
With the new nature came a new name. Hitherto the followers of Jesus had been known as His “disciples.” Sometimes they were sneered at as “Nazarenes” or “GaHLneans,” but they always spoke of each other as “the brethren” or as “the saints” or as “the faithful in Christ Jesus.” A new word was coined at Antioch; for there, we are told, the disciples were first called Christians. The coinage is not their own; it was a nickname invented by their enemies and flung at them as a reproach. The Jews did not invent it, for they would not admit that the crucified Gahlaean had been the Christ, the anointed Prophet of God. The word has a Roman ending, and probably came from those who used the Latin tongue. Just as the name of Puritan or of Methodist was first bestowed in ridicule and afterwards worn as a title of nobility, so the name Christian was scornfully applied to the new sect as a term of ignommy. As Farrar finely remarks, “An hybrid and insulting designation was invented in the frivolous streets of Antioch, and round it have clustered forever the deepest faith and the purest glory of mankind.” Scoffer of
Antioch, we thank thee for that word “Christian.” The prophecies of the ancient seers, the light of Bethlehem’s star, the precious power of Calvary’s blood, the dawn of the resurrection morn, the devotion of the early martyrs, the civilizations of the best peoples of the globe, the mission schemes of all times, and the redemption of the race — are all linked with that glorious name. It is the enduring witness that our salvation stands not in a system, but in a Person the ineffable and almighty Christ Jesus. Whoever V would be saved must be Christ’s man.
Having narrated the signal services of Barnabas and Paul at Antioch, the chapter concludes with an account of a visit made by certain prophets, or inspired teachers, from Jerusalem. They come to warn the church at Antioch that a famine is approaching. The chief object of narrating this prophecy would seem to be its beautiful illustration of Christian beneficence. A relief fund is raised by the Antioch brethren, and the rule of giving was the golden rule for all right giving to the end of time. Here it is: “Every man gave according to his ability.” The measure of his purse was the measure of his charity, and nobody robbed himself of the luxury of contributing. When the Antioch rule is thoroughly practiced by Christians in America there will be a speedy end of raising money for the Lord’s treasury ‘* by hook and by crook “— a system which often practices petty larceny and then varnishes it with the sacred name of charity. Promptly was the money raised and put into the hands of Barnabas and Paul; they, in turn, delivered it to the presbyters or elders of the church at Jerusalem. This is the first time that the New Testament mentions the important office of “elder” — an office which was essential in the Jewish Church, and has been and will be a permanent office in the church of Christ as long as it endures. From the name of that office comes our venerable and honored name of Presbyterians. Having now walked round this goodly and fruit-laden tree of Antioch, let us give it one hearty shake, and the following truths will drop like ripe apples into our laps: —
1. The devil always outwits himself when he persecutes God’s people. The blood of Stephen the martyr was the seed of the churches of Syria.
2. The only preaching that ever saves a sinner from hell is that which wrought such wonders at Antioch; it is simply and faithfully “preaching the Lord Jesus.”
3. Spiritual success is secured only when God and man work together in partnership. If the “hand of the Lord” is withheld, the hand of the strongest man is paralyzed.
4. The only title worthy your ambition or mine is this: “He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” It is a great thing to have a church of men modeled after such a pattern as Barnabas.
5. “Cleaving unto the Lord Jesus” is the true secret of the higher life. When my weak, wicked heart is grafted, by faith, into His bleeding heart, then doth the blood of the Vine flow into the branch.
6. The only name that you or I can ever carry in through the gate of heaven will be the name
l’ of Christian. If we are not willing to bear it as
a cross, we never can wear it as a crown.
7. The golden word that shines through the whole passage we have studied is the word give. The master-spirit of the Antioch church was a bountiful giver; he gave his real estate, and then gave himself The first recorded act of that church was that “every man gave according to his ability.” Never could there have been a Christian in Antioch or a Christian here had not God given His only begotten Son, and had not that Son given His life a ransom for us all.
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