58 Acts 11:25-26 BARNABAS GOES AFTER SAUL OF TARSUS Introduction: In our text last Sunday the church at Antioch of Syria became the first Christian church to preach the gospel to Gentiles. In particular, they preached the gospel to Greek Gentiles who lived in and around the city of Antioch. When the church at Jerusalem heard the news they sent Barnabas to help them. Barnabas was sent -- not only to help preach the gospel to the unsaved -- but especially to teach and train the membership of the church at Antioch. In our text today Barnabas decided that the church at Antioch was not the only one who needed help. He decided that he also needed some help. So Barnabas goes after Saul of Tarsus to get Saul to help him. It is somewhat ironic that Barnabas seeks the man who had once been the terror to Christians and asked him to come and help him the Christian work. I. Barnabas seeking after Saul V. 25, “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul.” It did not take Barnabas long to decide that the task that he had undertaken was too much for any one man. In his view Saul of Tarsus was the man he needed to help him. Barnabas had earlier helped Saul when Saul left Damascus and tried to find fellowship with the Christians at Jerusalem. When Saul arrived at the home where the Christians at Jerusalem had gathered, the Christians would not let him in. They were afraid of him. He told them that he was now a Christian, but they did not believe him. They thought that he was just trying to fool them so that he could get inside and arrest them. Barnabas, who had been at Damascus where Saul was converted and baptized was in Jerusalem at the time and he vouched for Saul and persuaded the Jerusalem Christians to accept Saul as a Christian brother. Now Barnabas, in turn, hopes to persuade Saul to help him. In fact the personally went after Saul to seek to persuade him to persuade Saul to come with him to Antioch to help him to teach and train the young Christians at Antioch. It appears that Barnabas did not really know where Saul was located at this time. He knew, of course, that Saul had been forced to flee from Jerusalem in much the same way that he had caused most of the Jerusalem Christians to flee from Jerusalem and he knew that Saul had left Jerusalem with the intent of going to Tarsus. Barnabas did not know for a certainty that Saul ever reached Tarsus and if he did, whether or not he was still there. But that seemed to be the best place to start looking for him. II. Reasons why Barnabas wanted Saul of Tarsus in particular This brings up a question: Why was Barnabas so set on getting Saul of Tarsus to help him? Why did he not just send a message to the Jerusalem church and ask them to send somebody else from Jerusalem to help him? But he didn’t. He seemed bent and determined to find Saul of Tarsus and he was willing to go to an awful lot of trouble to get him. Why? There are several things that may help to explain why Barnabas particularly wanted Saul of Tarsus. For one thing, Barnabas may have been aware that God had called Saul to be a special apostle to Gentiles. If Barnabas knew this, he would certainly prefer Saul to anybody else, because the church at Antioch was making a special effort to preach to the Gentiles in and around their city. Another thing that might explain why Barnabas preferred Saul was his past experience with Saul. Both at Damascus and at Jerusalem Saul had been a man of powerful persuasion when he discussed the fact that Jesus is the Christ with unconverted Jews. He was gifted with an exceptionable ability to prove beyond any reasonable doubt to his listeners that Jesus is the Christ of God. He had confidence that Saul would be just as persuasive with the Jews and Gentiles at Antioch. Furthermore, Barnabas may have been aware that Saul had been caught up to heaven and had been taught Biblical truth by the Lord Himself. In his desire to teach Bible truth to the young Christians at Antioch, such a man would be a great help to him. Last, but not at all least, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit had impressed upon his mind that Saul of Tarsus was the man whom he should get to help him at Antioch. Barnabas was a man who was, himself, full of the Holy Spirit (V. 24). I am sure that he sought the will of God in the matter and that he was very sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I am convinced that this was the major factor in his preference for Saul. He was just following the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit had chosen Saul of Tarsus to be his helper. So away Barnabas went all the way to Tarsus and once he was there, he began to inquire where he might find Saul. III. Saul brought to Antioch V. 26, “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch...” You can see that Saul did not take the initiative himself to go to Antioch. He went there under the persuasion of Barnabas. Now Barnabas was not trying to be Saul’s Holy Spirit. Rather, he was merely the tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit of God. It was really the Holy Spirit of God who was working through Barnabas persuading Saul to go to Antioch. We need to learn something right here. We need to learn that God can use the friends and acquaintances of a certain man to come to come to a certain church. God may use the friends of a preacher to lead him to a certain church or certain area to work for God. He is dead now, but God used Bro. Don Johnson of Athens, Texas to persuade a lot of East Texas preachers to go up into the north-east to do mission work. Bro. Johnson helped to influence Bro. Robert Myers, who served as our missionary in Maryland, to go up into that Washington, D. C. area to work. Bro. Johnson was not trying to be the Holy Spirit for anybody. Rather Bro. Johnson was the tool which the Holy Spirit used to persuade preachers to go up to that needed area. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit can use people right here in this church to help persuade someone to come here to this church to work for the Lord here in this church. The Holy Spirit might be working with some of you to place your membership in this church to work for God. Also, You might be the one who can help persuade someone to come into our church to help to reach out into the community to the unsaved and to win them to Christ. You just might be in the hands of the Holy Spirit to persuade someone to come into our church who would be an able and capable teacher of the word of God to help teach and train a younger generation of Christians here in this church. IV. A year of teaching and training at Antioch V. 26, “...And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people....” I want you to note that Luke does not say that Barnabas and Saul won much people to the Lord, although I am confident that they did. I am confident that both Barnabas and Saul were able to reach out to both the Jews and to the Greeks in that area and to effectively witness to them and to win many of them to Christ and that they both personally won people to Christ. But Luke does not here state that they spent a whole year witnessing to the unsaved and that they won many unsaved people to Christ. Rather, Luke says that they spent a whole year teaching and training the people of the church. They surely taught them in the basic doctrinal truths of God. They surely taught them to take the word of God and to study the word of God for themselves. Now I think it should be understood that they would not be able in just one year’s time to teach these people all of the fine points of doctrine and Bible prophecy. But they would be able in a year’s time to teach them the basic doctrines. Then at the end of the year when they themselves would leave and go out on the mission field, they would leave behind capable teachers who would be able to carry on the task of teaching and training other new converts. We are also able to see that this year of work at Antioch was great training for both Barnabas and Saul. It was a year of practical experience in preaching the gospel to Gentile people and then teaching and training the Gentile converts in the truths and ways of God. This was experience which would be valuable to them once they were out on the mission field working with both Jews and Gentiles, but mostly with Gentiles. What a field of training and practical experience God provided for these men who would both soon go out to preach the gospel in distant lands and whose work would be chiefly among the Gentiles. V. The disciples called Christians (V. 26), “...And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” Today those who believe in Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God and as the Savior of men very proudly wear the name “Christians.” But believers in Jesus were not at first called “Christians.” According to Webster’s Dictionary the word, Christian, is used chiefly to identify an individual as a believer in Jesus, or at least, as an individual who believes in the teachings of Jesus. In this verse it is worthy of note that the Christians at Antioch did not call themselves “Christians.” Rather they were called “Christians” by others. That is, they were called Christians” by people who were not Christians. It is commonly believed that those who called them “Christians” did no in mockery or ridicule and this may or may not be true. Luke does not say why they called the disciples “Christians.” We can be pretty certain that the unbelieving Jews did not call the disciples of Jesus “Christians.” To do so would have been a Public acknowledgment that Jesus is the Christ and this the Jews most certainly did not believe. We can be almost certain that the people who started calling them “Christians” were unbelieving Gentiles. We can also be almost certain that it was unbelieving Greeks. The Greeks were more prominent in Antioch than any other Gentile group and it was the Greeks to whom the Antioch church was preaching Jesus. This would add up. The unbelieving Greeks would not be reluctant to call the followers of Jesus by a name which would identify Jesus as the Jewish Christ even though these particular men did not accept the Jewish Christ as their own Christ. Whatever their motive in calling the disciples of Jesus by the term “Christians,” they unwittingly paid tribute to Jesus Him because the term acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ. If the disciples of Jesus are Christians, then this means that Jesus is the Christ. If believing in Jesus means that you are a Christian then this means that Jesus is the Christ. So whatever their motive may have been, the name, Christian, is a name that we can wear with honor. We can feel honored by the privilege of wearing the name Christian. VI. Something more important than being called “Christian” Yet what I would like to point out to you is that there is something more important than being called “Christian.” It is a great deal more important to be a Christian than it is to be called a Christian. In order to be a Christian one must be a disciple of Jesus. One must accept that Jesus is the Christ of God, whom the Old Testament prophets promised would come. One must believe that the person Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the virgin born Son of Mary, was and is the Christ of God, the Savior of men. Furthermore, one must not only believe that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Savior of men, but one must place his faith and trust in Jesus to save him from his sin. It is not enough to believe that a medicine can cure an illness. One must take the medicine in order for it to do any good. It is not enough to believe that a certain food is tasty and good for you. You must eat that food before it will do you any good. It is not enough to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ whom God sent into the world. One must place his own faith in Jesus to save him from his sins, to keep him out of the fires of torment, to take him to heaven in order for Jesus to save him. Listen to Romans 10:13. It says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In Acts 16:31 Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” You have to not only believe that Jesus is the Christ, but you must believe in Him to save you in order to be saved. In order for the bank to keep your money and make it available for you when you need it you must take your money and put it in the bank. In order for Jesus to save your soul, you must put your soul in His care. If you call on Him and trust Him to save you then He will save your soul. Otherwise you will never be saved. You can join a church and be baptized, but that will not make you a Christian. You can be called “A Christian” when you are not a Christian. But if you will call on Jesus and trust Him to save your soul, you will be saved. You will be born again. You will be a disciple of Christ. You will be a genuine Christian.