Acts 11:19-30 “The
Voice of Encouragement”
There is a Christian radio
station in
that calls itself the “Voice of Encouragement.”
I was glad to hear there is
actually a radio station
that considers encouragement a good thing.
These days, it’s a lot more
popular for radio stations to have shows
which bash people rather than build them up, as we all
know.
There is an endless list of
radio talk shows
whose popular hosts stay popular because they interrupt,
hang up on people,
call people names, and generally act like
know-it-alls.
Maybe this is entertainment,
but it doesn’t make our world a better place.
If you’re looking for lessons
on how to do that,
secular culture doesn’t have the answers. This does.
2000 plus years after most of
this was written, we can go to the Bible for answers.
Today we’re exploring Barnabas,
who might seem like a minor character,
but actually has some major lessons to
teach us about encouragement.
Our reading today came from
chapter 11 in the Book of Acts,
but he first shows up in Acts several chapters before --
in
“There was a Levite, a native
of
to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means
“son of encouragement”).
The story we heard from
chapter 11 demonstrates how Barnabas lived out his name.
The kind of encouragement Barnabas demonstrated is a
spiritual gift.
But it is also a Christian practice that we can
develop.
It is a practice that affects our churches, our
communities, our families.
Today on Father’s Day many of us can celebrate fathers
who encouraged us.
Others of us may not have had that gift.
In order to better understand
what encouragement is, we need to know what it’s NOT.
Encouragement is NOT just
cheerleading.
It’s not just shouts to the
team from the sidelines
while we sit in the bleachers and the team does all the
work.
Any parent knows this.
If you want your child to
learn how to do the dishes,
you stand next to them and work together.
Any dad who is trying to
teach his son or daughter how to ride a bike
doesn’t just hand out an instruction manual. NO.
Usually there’s some kind of
conversation first -
“Dad, I want to try riding my
bike w/o training wheels.”
Or “How
about me teaching you to ride that bike w/o training wheels.”
Then you go out to the
garage, and take off the training wheels.
You hold on to the bike while
your child gets on.
You start up together, and then dad is
usually running alongside the child on the bike, until a magic moment when you
let go and he or she is on their own.
But not totally on their own,
because they’re being powered by those encouraging words -
Come on, you can do it.
Encouragement is NOT
false.
It doesn’t give out fake
positive affirmations just to be nice.
Ultimately it is not
encouragement to tell the child
who has been taking piano lessons for 2 years and won’t
practice,
“Honey, I can see that you
are going to be a great concert pianist some day.”
So what IS encouragement?
If we turn to the scripture
we heard today,
there are several things we notice about
encouragement.
Encouragement is seeing what God is already doing, and
building it up. Read v. 23
Barnabas saw the evidence of
the grace of God in this new movement in the church. God was already present as God so often is --
what we need to do is learn to notice God’s presence.
When Barnabas shows up in
It’s not with the good Jews
who are following Jesus, but with the gentiles.
But because he is filled with
the Holy Spirit,
he realizes this is God’s work among them.
He does his part to encourage
something that God is already doing.
Encouragement is also a way of giving.
Sometimes it’s with
words. Words are important.
One place we learn that
fairly quickly is when we’re with people
who don’t speak the same language.
Several of us were at the
Norcross Cooperative Ministry last Wednesday
with a project I’ve been calling
That day we brought Bible
stories, crafts, snacks, and God’s love to about 25 children, most of whom were
Hispanic.
My son James, who was part of
the team that day,
wanted to learn how to encourage the little children in their
own language
as they were coloring and working at the craft
table.
So we found the translator
and she gave us the words in Spanish:
Que Bonito! Que Bonito!
But there is also
encouragement w/o words.
Cameron and Grace, who were
there with their mom, Pat,
were a marvelous source of encouragement just because they
are children themselves, and colored and read and ate snacks right alongside
the children at the ministry.
In today’s reading, first we
notice that Barnabas uses words.
In v. 23, we read that he
exhorted them.
Some translations use the
word encouraged.
The word in the Greek is
actually parakalei.
(Don’t let your eyes glaze
over and think that’s Greek to me. This is very exciting.)
This word is related to the
word paraclete, which means
the Holy Spirit, the comforter. So this
encouragement that Barnabas is doing here takes on a whole new flavor
when you mix it in with the Holy Spirit.
When we hear encourage in
this verse,
we must hear also all the nuances that are in the Greek:
he urges strongly, appeals, exhorts, makes a strong
request, implores, entreats,
instills with courage and cheer, comforts. Just
like the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is working
through him to be the encourager that he is.
Encouragement is a way the Holy Spirit pours out
through us into the world.
Encouragement includes teamwork.
It means we’re humble enough
to work in partnership with others,
and considers this way of working a gift.
Soon after Barnabas arrives
in
he leaves again to go and look for Saul.
He sees the evidence of God’s
grace and goes and calls in someone
who knows how to work with all these gentiles and Greeks.
Of course, Barnabas could
have done it himself.
But the outcome is greater
when we work together
than if we try to do things on our own.
Encouragement also takes energy and time and
effort.
Paul and Barnabas spend a
year together, teaching in this new church,
nurturing and growing these new disciples of Jesus.
Becoming disciples doesn’t
happen overnight in a church.
It is a long-term commitment
that takes energy and time and effort.
Here at our church we have
been in a process
I’ve been calling a Prayer
and think Tank for Christian education.
A group of us - 12 last
Tuesday - have been meeting each week to discern and decide directions for
expanded Christian education at our church.
We are functioning as a
discernment group.
The difference between
discernment and democracy is worth noting:
democracy is discovering the will of the people;
discernment is discovering the will of God.
That has been our guiding
principle for our work.
On Tuesday we engaged in what is called a
brainstorming session - every idea that anyone had was welcome. You couldn’t say “that won’t work” or “we’ve always
done it this way.” Or “We’ve never done it that way.”
Towards the end, Rod Dahl, who led the session, asked
“If we had CE available for every age group here at PCCC, what would it look
like on Sunday a.m.?”
The ideas that poured out were so encouraging! You could sense the Holy Spirit right there
with us as we shared our thoughts:
·
Energy,
purpose, connected with each other, relationships
·
“I
would want to get here because it’s that good”
·
“I
would look forward to coming every Sunday”
·
“If
you wanted to go to a Bible Study, there would be one for you and your kids”
·
“You
would feel the energy in the sanctuary as a kick-off to the Sunday School hour”
·
Fellowship
time/coffee/donut munchkins
·
“Singing!”
“Happy!” “Fun!”
What we are visioning is going
to take time and energy and effort.
But there is a sense that we
are not in this alone. Encouragement is
that way.
It is as if the Holy Spirit
is pouring out of us into everybody around us.
Encouragement also takes courage.
There are a couple of other stories about Barnabas in the Book of Acts
which I encourage you to go home and read.
In Ch. 9:26-27, we learn that
right after Paul goes thru his dramatic conversion,
when the rest of the apostles didn’t believe he was a
disciple, Barnabas took him in.
Then in Ch. 15:38-41, the
tables are turned and Paul doesn’t think John Mark
has what it takes to be a disciple, but again Barnabas
takes in the underdog.
Barnabas had this way of
standing up for someone who he thought
had some potential in God’s kingdom work, and that takes
courage.
If you’ve ever been there, you know also just how
encouraging this is.
Today is Father’s Day, and if
we’re lucky,
we’ve had fathers in our lives who have encouraged us.
Who have seen what God was
already doing in us and built it up.
Who gave selflessly, who took
the time and the energy to encourage us.
Who’ve been there, running
alongside the bike, being the voice of encouragement, saying, “Go on, you can
do it.”
Sometimes these fathers are
not our birth fathers, but are father figures, or mentors,
or other men in our lives who believed in us.
Today, I invite you to think
about someone who has been that father figure for you,
and if he is still living find a way to tell him that
today.
But even when we have not had
this gift,
each of us still has a Father in Heaven, whose Spirit is
with us still,
running along side the bike, so to speak, encouraging us,
urging us on, building us up, reminding us that we’re not
alone, that he is with us always.
May that Spirit hold you and
form you and shape you into disciples of Christ,
willing to be poured out into the lives of those around you who need to hear the voice of encouragement. Amen.