Sermon Transcript
Thank you for joining us today. I sure hope your holidays were great, and now that Christmas is behind us and the new year is ahead of us, I’d like to focus today on a subject that I think could be a big encouragement to you and also to Dan Stockum, who’s going to be installed next Sunday as your new lead pastor, which is something I am very excited about. But before next Sunday comes, before January 10th arrives— and by the way, it’s going to be my honor on that day to pass the leadership pastor baton on to Dan. And anyway, that’s coming. But today what I want to do is just encourage you, the people of Bridges Community Church.
I want to encourage you to be a Barnabas to your new lead pastor because every pastor needs a Barnabas. Actually, it’s not just pastors that need a Barnabas. Everybody needs a Barnabas, including Pastor Steve and Nate and our entire BCC staff. All of us need people who will come alongside us and bring encouragement and hope in the midst of trying and difficult times like the times we’re living in right now. In fact, one of the things that we need in the midst of these trying times is we just need encouragement, which is why you’re going to find verses in the Bible like this one found in Hebrews 10:25.
It says, let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. That’s saying we need encouragement in the days especially leading up to the day of Jesus coming. Now, why would he point that out? Well, because Because those days, those last days they’re called in the Scriptures, they’re going to get harder and harder, which means we’re going to need more and more encouragement to deal with the difficulties that come our way. You might think of it this way: encouragement is like ice cream.
It’s one of those things you just can’t get enough of. And around the Gudgel house, chocolate is one of the staples that we can’t get enough of. The point is, everybody needs encouragement. I know that from firsthand experience. I’ve needed a lot of encouragement.
Lead pastor over the past 40 years. And by the way, 39 of them were without COVID-19 and a worldwide pandemic. Now with all of that, it has all the more elevated the need for encouragement in the midst of the circumstances that people are living in today, circumstances that can easily discourage us. And in case you haven’t heard, there are a bunch of people around the world and right around us locally that are really discouraged right now. COVID-19 has hit people hard mentally, emotionally, financially, physically, spiritually.
Tons of people right now are discouraged and they need encouragement. They need other people to inspire them with courage, to be bringers of hope, to come alongside and to lift their spirits. In other words, they need somebody like a Barnabas. Now, are you familiar with the Barnabas story? Barnabas is the guy that’s spoken of in the book of Acts that I’ll tell you we would love to have Barnabas as a friend because Barnabas was an encourager.
And here’s my question for you as we begin to think about that. Do you have anybody in your life like that? Someone that you could count on to encourage you especially in the year ahead in 2021? Barnabas was just constantly encouraging people, so much so that he was actually nicknamed Barnabas. His real name was Joseph.
This is how we’re introduced to him in Acts 4:36. It says, Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. Barnabas wasn’t his real name. His real name was Joseph, but he got the name Barnabas because he went around encouraging people Which is why Jesus’ apostles, Peter, James, John, Matthew, Thomas, Andrew, the rest of them, they gave Joseph the name or the nickname Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. How about that for a nickname?
Have you ever had anybody give you a nickname? What did they call you? What did they nickname you? Cootie, Teacup, Clown, Joker, Rambo, Tiny, Speedy, Tank, There are all kinds of nicknames. But has anybody ever said to you, from here on out, you know what I’m going to do?
I’m going to call you Barnabas because you’re just such an encourager. You lift people’s spirits. You restore hope. You bring good cheer. You see the cup half full rather than half empty.
You encourage people everywhere you go. Well, I believe everyone needs a Barnabas-like person in their life. We need many Barnabas-like people in our lives. People who will come along in 2021 and they’ll encourage us. They’ll lift our spirits.
They’ll help us stay in the race. People that can bring hope into our lives. And I believe that we all would do better if we have one or more Barnabas-like people in our life and at our side. By the way, I also believe that anyone can be a Barnabas to someone, to someone who needs a word of encouragement, right now. You could be that one.
There got to be thousands of people around us who need a Barnabas in their life right now. Couples who are on the brink of giving up. Parents who are down to their last few drops of patience wondering how in the world they’re going to keep going when the well is dry and they have left nothing more to give. There’s just nothing more there. Or kids, they’re tired of online learning.
And being locked up in a house for what seems like forever. Employers, they’re on the brink of disaster. So many of them, they keep on trying to make their business work, but one thing after another has knocked them down. And they’re just not sure if they’re going to be able to get up and keep going this time. Many think they may be done for good.
And of course, if employers aren’t doing good, then that means employees are hurting too. And they’re also wondering how are they going to survive? So, the point is everywhere we look right now, everywhere we go, people are in need of encouragement. So today, at the outset of this brand-new year, I just like to encourage you to become more of an encourager than you are right now. And as I encourage you, I’m encouraging myself in the same way.
There are some steps that we can take to move in that direction. And one of the areas I’d like to just encourage you to specifically focus on is please put your new lead pastor Dan on your list of people that I’m going to encourage in the year and the years ahead. Be a Barnabas to Pastor Dan, and of course include Steve and Nate. Every ounce of encouragement you pour into their lives is going to be good for them and for their families and for the church So do for your pastors and others what Barnabas did for Saul before he became Paul. So what did Barnabas do?
Well, let’s look together at the book of Acts. If you have your Bible, you might want to turn there with me to Acts 9. We’re going to look at verses 26 to 28. If you didn’t bring along a Bible, you know, open up your app on your phone or your device of some kind, or you could use our message notes that are there at our website right alongside this message. However you get there, I think you’ll find that it could be a help to you just to take a look at God’s Word.
So Acts 9:26-28, this is what it says. And when he had come to Jerusalem, and the he that we’re talking about here is Saul. When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples. And they were afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had talked to them— talked to the God— that Jesus had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
And he was with them moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. Now, right off the top, what you see here is Barnabas expressing his support for Saul and for who Saul was and for his ministry. And one of the ways that we can be an encouragement to others is by expressing our support, expressing your support. So what you have here is Saul comes to Jerusalem. He’s trying to associate, you know, with the disciples, to be a part of their ministry, to share in the work that was being done there.
There. And the verb that’s used here, trying, in verse 26 suggests that Paul had made repeated attempts. He was trying over and over to join up with Jesus’ disciples, but the disciples didn’t want to have anything to do with him. They rejected him. They rebuffed him.
So what happened? Well, Barnabas, he stepped forward. Verse 27, it says that he took hold of him, took hold of Saul, and he brought him to the apostles. So Barnabas stepped in and he expressed his support for God’s calling on Paul’s life. He went on record.
He vouched for Saul. He told others Saul was, you know, the real deal. He was a true Christ follower. He wasn’t an imposter. He was not a mole, you know, looking for a way to sneak in and destroy the good work that God was doing in Jerusalem.
Barnabas truly believed Saul had come to faith in Jesus and God’s hand was on Saul’s life and ministry, and for that reason he told them, you guys should support his work. Now, why did Saul need someone like Barnabas to do that? Well, because if you know his past record, it wasn’t good. Saul’s record was littered with antichrist actions and attitudes. He was absolutely one of the worst when it came to persecuting believers and even consenting to their deaths.
He was in on Stephen’s death, the first martyr’s death. That would make somebody shy away from Saul, wouldn’t you say? But not with Barnabas. He gave Saul his approval and his consent, which means he must have taken some time to get to know Saul. Maybe he shared a cup of coffee with Saul at the bagel and lox shop.
I think that was called Bagel King, wasn’t it? And there on the patio, perhaps, he heard Saul’s story and he knew as he heard that story he needed to throw in his support so that everybody could see that. But also in supporting Saul, he was supporting God’s calling and commission on Saul’s life. Don’t miss that. He was supporting the authenticity of Paul’s conversion and reality of God’s calling on Saul to preach the gospel to others with a special focus focus on Gentiles.
So Barnabas took hold of Saul and he brought him to the apostles. And then it tells us, verse 27, that he described to them Saul’s conversion story and how Jesus had met Saul on the road to Damascus. And Saul went from being a zealous persecutor of Christ to a devoted preacher for Jesus Christ. And Barnabas also spoke of Saul’s evangelism and teaching work in Damascus. Where he proved that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah.
So Barnabas hears about all that and he believes it. You know, when I look at Barnabas, I think of Barnabas as a pastor maker. It’s kind of like a disciple maker, but something more specific. Do you want to be a pastor maker? One of the ways that you can be a pastor maker is be like Barnabas.
Be an advocate. Be an advocate. Be an advocate for your pastor. Get to know Dan, hear his heart, his conversion and calling story, his passion for the gospel, his longing to see people be saved. And you know what you’re gonna find?
You’re gonna find like what I found, it’s gonna be very easy to support him as a lead pastor. In fact, the more time that I’ve spent with Dan, the more convinced that God is calling him I am. The more I am convinced that God is calling, not me, but calling Dan to this role. And from what I can tell, you are too. And I just think it’s fantastic.
I think it’s great. So, do this. Continue to encourage him to continue to express your support. Send him notes, send him a text, affirm him in the good work he’s hoping to do. And as he does that work, continue to encourage him.
Encourage him often and frequently after Dan hits a home run or after Dan strikes out. Yeah, that can happen. And if it happens, please, you be among the first to say, hey, Dan, hang in there. We need you. Thank God for your life and your ministry.
You’re in our prayers. So one of the ways that you can simply support your pastor, you can be a Barnabas to him, is by expressing your support. Secondly, you can see this in Barnabas, meet a need. Now, what need did Barnabas meet? Well, actually several.
The leaders of the church needed to be convinced that Saul was the real deal. The apostles needed to be convinced of that. Well, Barnabas met that need. Somebody in the church who was respected by the church needed to step up and vouch for Saul. Otherwise, his ministry could have been dead in the water in Jerusalem.
Well, Barnabas met that need. Saul needed to be able to fulfill his calling. Jesus had called him to preach the gospel. He needed to be able to freely move about Jerusalem and speak out boldly in the name of the Lord, as verse 28 suggests. Barnabas made that possible.
So here’s a thought: Is there something that you can do that could move the work of the gospel forward through a pastor and others? Said differently, Is there a hurdle that you could remove that would clear the way for Pastor Dan to give more time and focus to preaching and teaching and reaching more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Is that a need that you in some way could help with? Could you take off of his to-do list something that would free up more time for him to focus on those matters which are of priority importance In fact, if you think of it in light of Acts 6, you remember there that the apostles were focusing on prayer and the study and teaching of the Word of God. But there was a need in the church that needed to be met.
It was a need that concerned the distribution of food. And certainly, that’s an important need to take care of. But the apostles who were being asked to take care of it would’ve had at that time to the priority of prayer and the studying of the Word of God. So what did they do? They raised up some others.
Some others volunteered and they commended them to that work. They prayed over them. In other words, they met the need, but they met it in a different way so that the apostles and the teachers in the church could continue to focus on that which was a priority focus for them. So ask yourself, What does a pastor need? I mean, certainly basic things like prayer.
Early in the ministry, I didn’t know how much prayer I needed, how much prayer I needed from others. But others did. They would come to me and say, Dave, I want to be praying for you. Marianne said that to me. Wilma said that to me.
Rod said that to me. Peter said that to me. Different times. But you know what? They were right.
You could pray for Dan. Ask him how you can pray for him. Meet a need. He needs wisdom and insight and direction. He needs people that he can bounce ideas off of.
He needs to be able to just sort things out. I mean, now, when do you start meeting in person or not? All of these are challenging decisions and important decisions that are going to come his way. How can you help with that need? How about friendship?
People that will stick close to him no matter what. They’ll hang out and have fun and they’ll just be there for him. Be a part of his life. Take him out for coffee, whatever it might be. In fact, call him up and tell him that you’d like to drop him off at the golf course so he can have just some fun playing golf while you take his car to get it washed or better yet to get it detailed.
How about that? There’s a neat— or how about just time on Help him get the time off that he needs and his family needs to have time with him. You know, when it comes to that matter of time off, sometimes, and especially right now for us as pastors, it’s just hard to take time off. We could be busy all the time, and we need to be out at times from under the pressure and under the demands of ministry. So help him get that time off.
And when he has the time, respect his time off. Don’t be calling him and texting him and all the other stuff. Give him that time that he needs just to be alone and get away. Send him gifts, gift cards. You know, hey, use this to go get dinner for you and Beth, or whatever it might be.
Coffee, you name it. If you want to be an encouragement to your pastor, meet a need. Find a need and meet it. And if you’re not sure, you know, what needs he might have, then ask his wife, ask Beth. She can let you in on a couple of needs, I promise you.
Well, there’s a third way you can be a Barnabas. You can share the mission. You can share the work of the gospel. The next time that we read about Barnabas is in Acts 11 after a great number of people believed and they turned to the Lord in the city of Antioch. And you read about that, Acts 11:19-21.
And then we read this in verses 22 and 23 and 25 and 26 of Acts 11. We’re told, news of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem. The news is all these people in Antioch are coming to faith in Jesus Christ. I mean, just large numbers of people. Well, that news reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem.
And of course, that would be good news and news that people would celebrate. And so what does the church do? Well, they sent Barnabas. To Antioch. And when he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and he encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
And then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. What did the church at Jerusalem do after they heard the good news that many people were coming to faith in Christ? They sent Barnabas.
Why Barnabas? Because he was the what? He was the encourager. He was sent as the encourager to Antioch, which was a big deal. First of all, because it was 300 miles away.
I mean, that doesn’t seem like anything now, but at that time, that’d be like a 12 to 14 day trip. And secondly, because of what Barnabas did when he got there. What did he do? I mean, you can see it in the passage. One, he expressed his support He expressed his support for the work that was being done there because he saw evidence of the work of the gospel, the work of the grace of God that was saving people through Jesus Christ.
People were being saved and he celebrated that. He said, this is wonderful. He also met a need, many needs. He encouraged them. You can see in verse 23, he encouraged them to all remain true to the with all of their hearts, not some of their hearts, but with all of their hearts, to keep on loving God with all of their heart and soul and mind and strength.
And so he’s basically saying, you guys got to just keep on growing and keep on going in this new Christian life that you found. And he also thirdly shared the mission, didn’t he? He did what he could do to help with the good work that was being done in Antioch. He evangelized the law lost. And he built up the believers who were there.
And because the number of people just continued to grow, the number that were coming to faith in Jesus Christ, well, the needs grew. And the need for the teaching of the Word of God to more and more people grew. So, what did Barnabas end up doing? Well, he made another trip. This time he went to Tarsus.
Tarsus, 125 miles away. So, that’s another 4 to 6 day where he looked for and he found Saul. Now, why would Barnabas go looking for Saul? Because he knew that he needed Saul’s help. He knew that those believers and those people that ultimately could be believers in Antioch needed more than what Barnabas could give.
So he went looking for Saul and he invited Saul to come to Antioch and to share in the mission. Did Saul end up doing that? Absolutely. Saul said, yes, just like Barnabas said yes. And for the next year, the 2 of them teamed up and they taught considerable numbers of people, verse 26, who had come to faith or in time came to faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, let me ask you a question. Do you think Saul’s work like Barnabas’ work encouraged anyone? I mean, do you think the 2 of them encouraged anybody? I absolutely believe that You see, what this is describing is it’s describing a couple of people that a door opened and they said yes to going through this door. And the result was they began to share the mission of getting the gospel out to the people in Antioch.
And the result of that was people were encouraged. In fact, anytime we share the mission the mission that God has called the church to, people are encouraged, and pastors are encouraged. And that kind of encouragement is contagious so that it spreads and it draws others to Christ and to Christlike living, and it’s noticed so that perhaps in the same way as in Antioch, the residents of Antioch started calling those who began following Jesus Christians. Now, that would not have happened had it not been for Barnabas and Saul joining together and sharing in the work of the gospel in Antioch. And you know, one of the best ways you can encourage your pastor is by sharing in the mission, in the work of the gospel, intentionally joining in and embodying the gospel in how you live and sharing the gospel wherever you go.
By the way, that’s, that’s not just a mission for Barnabas and Saul. That’s a mission for all of us. And when everyone steps into that mission, everyone is encouraged. So, if you want to encourage your pastor in 2021, do what Barnabas did. Express your support.
Meet a need. Share the mission. Help others come to faith and come to know it. And help others grow in faith and come to show it. And when you do that Barnabas-like ways, your lead pastor or pastors and our other will be encouraged.
And that would be a good thing, especially now in these difficult last days. You know, years ago when Bernice and I were considering going into full-time vocational ministry, we were told, don’t, don’t do that. It will kill you, people said, and it will destroy your family. Well, I’m happy to report, as you can see, it hasn’t killed me yet, and it didn’t destroy our family. The fact is we are better because of the ministry and people who who were Barnabas-like that came along and they encouraged us throughout our ministry, often by sharing the mission, by expressing their support, by meeting a need.
And I want to just say, if you’ve been among that group that’s been so encouraging to us, we just want to say thank you. We would not have made it without God’s work in and through encouraging people like you. Does a pastor need encouragement? Yes. Do you need encouragement?
Yes. Do others need encouragement? Of course. Well, that being the case, let’s elevate encouragement in 2021. Let’s be a Barnabas.
Let’s do what the writer of Hebrews said. Let’s encourage one another and all the more as we live in light of Jesus’ promised return. Well, let’s pray together. Father, help us live like Barnabas. Help us come alongside others that need to be encouraged, that need an advocate, that need to be supported.
People that have needs that we could do something about. Lord, help us share the gospel above all else because we know that the gospel is the ultimate remedy that every person needs. Talk about encouragement coming. We know that ultimately the greatest encouragement is found in knowing you as our personal Savior and having the hope that we will spend eternity with you. And so, Lord, we pray we would be actively about this mission.
People would see a difference in our lives because of the work that you’re doing in us and how you’re changing us so that we look more and more like Jesus Christ. And let me just pause for a minute. If you’ve never received Jesus Christ, you’ve never been adopted into his family, become one of his children, today could be that day. And I just urge you to do what the scripture says, to confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You’ll be saved.
Jesus came to give us life so that we might have life. And our prayer would be that if you’ve not yet received that life through Christ, that you would believe in Christ. You would receive the gift of life. It’s a gift. You can’t earn or deserve it.
He graciously gives it to us.
And as a result, we’re forgiven of our sins and we begin a brand new life in Christ. I pray that if you’ve not yet received that life, today would be that day. Father, thank you for life. May the life ahead be filled with encouragement that comes from you and comes from others. We pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
