Sentence
Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. Acts 11:24
Collect
Generous God, whose Son Jesus Christ has taught us that it is more blessed to give than to receive:
help us by the example of your apostle Barnabas, a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, to be generous in our judgements and unselfish in our service;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives, and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Readings
This week:
- Job 29:11-16
- Psalm 98
- Acts 11:22-30
- Matthew 10:7-13
- Next week:
- Genesis 18:1-15
- Psalm 116:1-2, 11-18
- Romans 5:1-11
- Matthew 9:35-10:8
A Thought to Ponder
Barnabas – Matthew 10:7-13
The name Barnabas means “son of encouragement” or “son of consolation”.
Born Salamis, Roman Cyprus
Died Salamis, Roman Cyprus
Alma mater School of Gamaliel
Barnabas appears mainly in the Acts of the Apostles, a book in the bible that covers the early history of the emerging Christian church. He also appears in several of Paul’s epistles/letters.
Barnabas, was a native of Cyprus and a Levite, he is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. It is told he sold the land he owned and gave the proceeds from the sale to the community from them to use as they saw fit. When Paul the Apostle, who had been known as Saul, returned to Jerusalem after his conversion on the road to Damascus, Barnabas introduced him to the apostles. Easton, in his Bible Dictionary, thinks they had both been students in the school of Gamaliel at the same time.
The successful preaching of Christianity at Antioch to non-Jews led the church at Jerusalem to send Barnabas there to oversee the movement. He found the work so extensive and weighty he went to Tarsus in search of Paul, “an admirable colleague”, to assist him. Paul returned with him to Antioch and laboured with him for a whole year. It was at Antioch that the followers of Christ were first called Christians. At the end of this period, Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem (44 AD) with contributions from the church at Antioch for the relief of the poorer Christians in Judea.
They returned to Antioch taking John Mark with them, the cousin or nephew of Barnabas. Later, they went to Cyprus and some of the principal cities of Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia. After recounting what the governor of Cyprus Sergius Paulus believed, Acts 13:9 speaks of Barnabas’s spiritual brother no longer being known as Saul, but as Paul, his Roman name, and generally refers to the two no longer as “Barnabas and Saul”, but as “Paul and Barnabas”. Only in Acts 14:14 and Acts 15:12–25 does Barnabas again occupy first place when they’re being spoken about. This may be because Barnabas had a closer connection to the Jerusalem church than Paul. Paul eventually became the greater missionary as he took the Christian faith as far as Rome. The Lystrans regarded Paul as Hermes and Barnabas as Zeus.
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Sermon
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