Acts 15:22-41 - Paul and Barnabas Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

It is great to be back with you in Tabernacle Talk. And today, we are going to be in Acts 15.

And yesterday, we learned about the Jerusalem Council, and some people had gone up from the church at Jerusalem and went around telling many of the Gentile believers, you've got to be circumcised and adopt a whole bunch of Jewish practices in order

to have real salvation. What you have now, it's okay. It got you the Holy Spirit. It's, you know, grown you in Christ.

It's produced churches, but that will only get you so far. What you really need is to be more like us.

And Paul and Barnabas, who had gone around planting these churches of Gentile speaking Christians, along with some of the Jews that accepted Christ, they said there is no way that is not how this works.

So they all together went down to Jerusalem and the pastors at the church at Jerusalem deliberated about it. And they heard testimony from Peter who said, listen, God gave the Holy Ghost to the Gentiles for believing.

It was by grace through faith, just like He did with us that no matter how much we kept the law or didn't keep the law, it didn't give us the Holy Spirit. It didn't give us a relationship with God. Faith did.

And that's exactly what the Gentiles are doing. They are believing in Christ. And because of that, God has given them the Holy Spirit.

And then they listened to testimony from Paul and from Barnabas and heard what God had done, the miracles that He had worked, the incredible accounts that we've gone over the past few days of what happened with Paul and Barnabas.

And James, many people think, one of the more preeminent pastors in the Church at Jerusalem, this would be Jesus' half-brother, so Mary and Joseph's son James. He stands up and says, okay, this is what the Scripture said.

The Scripture said the Gentiles were going to be saved. All of humanity, not just Israel, was going to profess Jesus, and this is how it's coming about. So that's where we are now in verse number 22, is they've come to that conclusion altogether.

They say everything agrees with this. It is by grace, through faith. It's not a bunch of actions that you do.

It's not by adopting a particular religious code that you get saved. It is by grace, through faith, verse 22.

Then the apostles and the elders with the whole church decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.

Judas, called Barsibus and Silas, both leading men among the brothers, they wrote this letter to be delivered by them.

And the letter said this, from the apostles and the elders, your brothers, to the brothers and sisters among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings.

Because we have heard that some, without our authorization, went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts, we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul,

who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we have sent Judas and Silas, who will personally report the same things by word of mouth, for it was the Holy Spirit's decision, and ours, to put no greater burden on you

than these things, that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.

So they say, okay, these guys that are saying, you got to observe all the Law of Moses, you have to be circumcised. That's not it. Stay away from idolatry.

Stay away from immorality. Stay away from some kind of pagan practices that with eating things that have been strangled, from consuming blood, some kind of pagan things that would take place. They say, stay away from that.

You guys are going to do great. Verse 30. Then being sent off, they went down to Antioch.

This is not down as in north, south, east and west. It's not that down. It's down in elevation from Jerusalem to where Antioch would be.

And after gathering the assembly, they delivered the letter. When they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. Both Judas and Silas, who were also prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and strengthened them with a long message.

I'm going to give one short aside in here. Sometimes a long message is good. Lord willing, I don't ever intend to have a long message.

Sometimes God works it out that way. Sometimes if I'm not paying close enough attention to the Spirit, maybe I can go long in the flesh. But sometimes we need a long message, and I've been encouraged by some of those through the years.

One of the messages that sticks out the most to me, I think it was in the section in 1 Corinthians 14, was from my pastor back in Moses Lake. And I think that one, I uploaded the sermon podcast for our church.

I think that one was an hour and three minutes, an hour and five minutes of a message. It was wonderful and amazing. I needed some of the truths.

Some of the things that he laid out was very practical, very helpful in understanding that passage. Sometimes there is a long message, and sometimes there's a short message. And I think of some of the ones that are preached here in the book of Acts.

Some of them are just a couple of sentences. Other ones here where it's a long message, we'll read a few chapters later where Paul gives, he's preaching and teaching, and he does it all night long, and a young man actually falls asleep.

During that message.

So whatever the content of the message, whether it's something a little bit shorter here like a podcast, or maybe a little bit longer like a message, be grateful that God is speaking to you, and it's always a good thing to hear from the Lord.

Verse 33, after spending some time there, they were sent back in peace by the brothers and sisters to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas, along with many others, remained in Antioch teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord.

Verse 36, after some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, Let's go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we have preached the message of the Lord and see how they're doing.

Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark, that's his nephew. But Paul did not think it appropriate to take along this man who had deserted them in Pymphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.

When we read this account a few days ago, in the text, it just kind of skims over it. It doesn't highlight it. But here we read a couple more details that he had deserted them when it came to a specific time that he got homesick and he left them.

And so Barnabas this time says, hey, we're going to take them along again. You know, he's family. I'd love to take this family member with me.

Paul says, no, no, no, he deserted us once. He'll desert us again. I don't want deserters on my missionary team.

Verse number 39. There was such a sharp disagreement that they parted company and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus. Then Paul chose Silas and departed after being commended to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters.

He traveled through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches.

Do you know that though the apostles were, they were men that had known Christ, here Paul had had less interaction with Christ, but he had seen the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.

Though the apostles had seen Christ, had interacted with him, knew much of Scripture, they were not perfect people.

And here is one of those instances in which Paul and Barnabas didn't act in a way that said, hey, the Holy Spirit has made us one, He has made us one with all believers in Christ, and so we can go together.

This was something where there was some separation that occurred because there was such sharp disagreement.

And what a sad thing it is when churches, when individuals, when pastors, when family members, when they separate from one another over things that are not God ordained. It's not, hey, I think Jesus is God, and I think Jesus is just a man.

It's not that kind of separation. It's over something that here isn't even doctrinal. It's Paul's inability to forgive and Barnabas saying, I want to forgive him.

And sometimes it can be easier to forgive a family member, someone that you know well versus someone that's maybe just a work acquaintance. It might be more difficult to forgive.

And I'm sure many of us would understand where Paul is coming from here.

Depending on your personality, you might be one that identifies a little bit more with Barnabas in this situation of, okay, yeah, it might not work out super great, but let's just do it anyway. Like, this will be great.

I see here we could be either one of these people. Let's not allow disagreements over petty things to break us apart.

Jesus, when he prayed to the Father before Gethsemane, he prayed that we would all be one, just like the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are one.

He says the unity that we have, that we are on the same mission, we are on the same team, though he would later pray in Gethsemane, Father, if it's your will, let this cup of judgment pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

So we know there that Christ, in his humanist, didn't have a burning desire to suffer, but he wanted what God wanted. He wanted what the plan of redemption always was to redeem the people of the world.

And here, Barnabas and Paul, instead of working together to say, okay, maybe it was Paul saying, okay, I wouldn't bring along John Mark, but for the sake of unity, for the sake of the Gospel, I'll go along too, and we'll do this all together.

I will choose to bear that wrong. I will choose to forgive, and I'll go forward.

Maybe it would have been Barnabas that would say, okay, I know I'm going to be back here again, and I can take John Mark on another trip, but for the sake of the Gospel, I'm not going to put the stumbling block in front of Paul that he's not able to

do what he needs to do because he's so worried about, okay, is John Mark going to betray us again? Is he going to book it? John Mark, you stay, and both of them could have chosen that course of action.

However, we can see even in our failures, even in our disagreements, how God is still at work. That God sent not just one missionary pair out of Saul and Barnabas. Instead, now he's sending out two missionary pairs.

That Barnabas and John Mark are going to Cyprus to spread the Gospel. And then you see Paul and Silas going to all of the other churches, and we'll see some more places where they preach the Gospel.

So God, even in our failures, is still working everything out according to his plan. And that can give us comfort, that even if we mess up, we can know we haven't messed up God's will. His will is unstoppable.

So with some of those thoughts in mind today, I want to summarize with a few things here.

Number one, from the letter that the Jerusalem Church sent to some of the other churches, even though the apostles themselves, the church at Jerusalem itself didn't sanction what had happened with these men that had gone out and had preached another

gospel, even though they themselves had not done the wrong, they apologized for it. They made clear that this is not what Jesus teaches. This is not what the Holy Spirit has told us. We are not for this.

And sometimes as people, we need to get out of our individualistic mindset and say, I'm part of something bigger. I think of the verses that say with the members of a church that if one weeps, if one's crying, everyone's crying with them.

If one is rejoicing, if they're happy, then everyone is happy with them.

I think in the Old Testament of some of the times when you have Daniel and where you have Nehemiah, that even though they themselves had not engaged in idolatry and worshiping false gods, when they thought back to what their people had done, what

their nation had done, they prayed for forgiveness before God, that there is a corporate element to our faith. We're not going through this alone. So let's do it together.

The decisions that people make when people are hurt by maybe a person in the church, we need to bear with them. We need to help them along. And there are many instances like that in our world today.

And so I would encourage us, let's be ones that would go out of our way, like these pastors and leaders in the church at Jerusalem, to say, we are sorry for what happened. We do not condone this. This is not what the gospel is.

Secondly, we can see over and over again all the encouragement that is brought through the gospel. The law kills, but the spirit makes alive. And you could read about that in 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

And then lastly, have a goal, have a desire, have a heart for unity and for loving and bearing with other people so that there's not this separation that happened with Paul and Barnabas.

But then also realize God can work even through our failures, and that gives us courage to be able to go on. We don't always have to live with, oh, what if I had? Well, no, no, no, God had a new plan.

He is working even through our failure. Hope that would be an encouragement to you. And I put a little bit of a clickbaity title given today's Super Bowl Sunday.

Paul and Barnabas are never ever getting back together.

And hope that today would be a day where you would determine, you will get back together with someone maybe that you've kind of split from for reasons that aren't doctrine, that aren't gospel, but more petty things.

Choose to forgive, choose to love, choose to reunite to have that unity that Christ has with God. Hope that would be an encouragement to you today. Bye-bye!