An Ideal Constellation of Friends

Here's another installment from the Robinson Church of Christ's recent study based loosely on Darryl Tippens' book, Pilgrim Heart.

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After Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus, his baptism by Ananias, and his preaching in Damascus, the Christians in Jerusalem were still afraid to accept him into their community. And for good reason! As Paul himself tells us, “I intensely persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it” before being called by God’s grace (Gal 1:13-15). But God provided Paul an advocate: “Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord has spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord” (Acts 9:27-28).

Have you ever “taken up for someone” like Barnabas did for Saul? Were you rewarded or burned?
Has anyone ever vouched for you when your abilities or character were in doubt? How did you respond? Did you reward their faith in you?

Barnabas didn’t stop at merely vouching for Saul. When the church in Antioch begins to grow, the leaders in Jerusalem send Barnabas to nurture the young Christians. After encouraging the believers in Antioch for a short while, he takes a brief detour: “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” (Acts 11:25-26). Saul’s preaching in Jerusalem had made some dangerous enemies, and the church had sent him back to his home town of Tarsus to hide out. But Barnabas isn’t satisfied to leave him there. Presented with a growing and encouraging work in Antioch, he seeks out Saul and invites him to join in his ministry.

Do you have “yoke-fellows” in the areas in which you serve? How did you come to work together? Did one of you seek out the other?
How does having a co-worker affect the success of your ministry? How does it affect your satisfaction with the ministry?
In what areas are you trying to go it alone? In what areas are you hording the encouragement and blessings of ministry? Whom can you invite to join you?

Barnabas and Saul continue to allow their ministry team to grow. When the church in Antioch sends them on a mission to Jerusalem to relieve those suffering from a famine, they come back with a helper, John Mark. And when the church sends them on missionary journey to the west, they bring John along. At this point, Saul enjoys an ideal constellation of friends. He has an advocate/mentor in Barnabas and a helper/mentee in John Mark. He has both someone to raise him up higher and someone for him to lift up. Can you identify these same types of friends in your life?

One last point about mentoring: As a mentor, you should long for your student to surpass you one day. Mentoring should not be an “ego trip” that inflates your sense of self-importance. You cannot feel threatened by the success of your student and be a good mentor. Mentoring is an act of humility in which you recognize gifts in another that you want to help develop in order that he may surpass what you have accomplished.

Barnabas is again an excellent example. At the beginning of their ministry together, the pair is always called “Barnabas and Saul,” clearly placing Barnabas in the position of importance. He leads the team. A transition takes place in Acts 13:9, however, and it corresponds with the alteration of Saul’s name. Saul, filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly confronts a Roman official and blinds him. The proconsul is convicted by the powerful demonstration, and the ministry team is never the same. What was once always “Barnabas and Saul” becomes in 13:13, “Paul and his companions.” Barnabas isn’t even named! Thereafter, with only a couple of explainable exceptions (14:14; 15:12, 25), the ministry team is always called “Paul and Barnabas.” Paul has gone from being the student to the “chief speaker” (14:12), but their ministry continues to flourish. Barnabas must have been an exceptional man.

How many preachers do you know who would stick around after being supplanted by a young up-and-comer? Probably only those that embraced the green preacher as a mentor and hoped and prayed that “he must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).