This series of posts is an edited transcript of  a sermon you can watch or listen to right here on my site.

Esther, is divided into seven acts and the first act gives us my first key point of the sermon. We can title the first portion of the book, “A new queen is chosen.”

Vashti says, “I’m not going in to see the King,” and she’s deposed. Esther is instead chosen to be queen. We see here a contrast between two attitudes. Some have said that the book of Esther is all about power, getting power and what people do with power once they’ve got it. So it’s pretty much like the modern workplace then isn’t it?

1:12 says, “Queen Vashti refused to come at the King’s command.” In contrast to that we see Esther, of whom it says, “Esther obeyed Mordecai, just as she had when she was brought up by him”(1:20). Esther was an orphan and he’d taken her in.

There is a sharp contrast between two approaches. Vashti would have probably said she was just ‘asserting my rights.’ Some people talk about her as a feminist icon. We could instead conceive of this as rebellion.’  There second approach could be defined as “knowing my place” or, perhaps, what might be a better way of putting it  is ‘humble submission’. This is an attitude much needed in all workplaces and should be displayed by both genders.

The old queen stubbornly refuses to fulfil the role that she has whereas the future queen learns at the feet of a wise old bird. And despite being an orphan – so hard things had happened to her – she had been well-trained, she had been discipled for obedience, she had been taught how to live. She was in a difficult situation – I don’t think she had any choice, she was taken to the palace.  But once she was there, she wanted to do the best she could. It’s important that whatever your situation, you’re willing to turn it around and make the best of it.

Esther had been discipled. It’s not enough to be a convert. It really isn’t! We MUST be a disciple. No doubt many of you attend churches like Jubilee where they have a discipleship course, and that would no doubt help. But more importantly than attending a course, there needs to be an openness of heart, a submissiveness of heart that says, “Teach me, I want people to speak into my life.”

In terms of your workplace, who is your Mordecai? Who has brought you up and trained you? Who has taught you how to be submissive, how to be winsome? Who has given you advice, who has helped you to succeed? We all need a Mordecai. They don’t necessarily have to be in the same field although that can help. The lawyers can help each other. The doctors can help each other. The teachers can help each other. But often the lessons we’ve learned in one field can help and apply across other fields.

Esther could have said to Mordecai “What do you know? You’re an old man! You know nothing about success as a beauty-queen!” But Esther played her role and Mordecai played his. Esther could do things that Mordecai never did and yet they needed each other. God wants to place us in community. We’re meant to be part of a team, we’re meant to be inter-dependent on each other. The strengths of different team members will balance each other out and cover the weaknesses. But Mordecai is directing Esther throughout this book.

Some of us don’t like the thought of submission. Yet do you know who was the best model of godly submission? Jesus. He submitted to his parents. He submitted to his Father. He did what he saw his Father doing. And he had a submissive attitude. Do you have a submissive attitude? I want to say to you: If you want to succeed at work – get your attitude right.

It is not about ‘what can the job do for me?’ It’s not about my rights. It’s about my responsibilities. You know the human rights movement is great in some ways, but we should really talk about human responsibilities. What’s your responsibility? How should you be? We should be working in such a way that we make a difference in the work place – that we fulfil the call of God on our life to be different.

It’s very easy to think, “If only my work was better. If only I had a different job. If only I had a better boss.” God doesn’t call you to think like that.  Esther was in the midst of a very difficult situation – it is not easy to be taken from your home and brought into the palace and told you have to perform and look beautiful. Yet she chose to make the best of it. We should also choose to make the best of our situations at work.

All this applies whether your job is to be at home looking after children, or to be a businessman, or whether your job is to be a cleaner as I once was. Do it all for the glory of God.

Do it with a godly attitude, not clock-watching.

As we begin the second part in this series based on an edited transcript of a sermon I preached at Jubilee, we must remind ourselves that each of us has a vocation. We have a role, we have a job to do. It doesn’t really matter whether you are a top businessman or whether you are a home-maker, you have a role to do. What can Esther teach us about this? We saw yesterday that the book of Esther is about how God can bring deliverance through ordinary people working together and playing their part well

There are lots of different kinds of jobs people do. It’s a funny old thing but one of the characteristics of my career has been that I’ve had a remarkable range of things that I’ve done. Some of these were very short-term but nonetheless I’ve had a bit of a taster, let me give you a heads-up of what my career looks like.

My career began when I was still a child, actually I am not even sure I was technically old enough to work, there so I am not going to say how old I was. But I remember washing cars for the neighbours. It was like I had my own little business. I remember that I got these little leaflets done, and invested in a washing-up bucket and what I needed. And that raised the money I needed to buy my first computer. It’s a measure of how old I am that that first computer was called an ‘Oric 1’ Not the ZX81, which was far inferior, not the Sinclair Spectrum, which was the PC of its time. I like to think I had the Apple of its time – the Oric 1.

There are lots of different kinds of jobs. That was my first job and then of course, like many people in my day, I did a newspaper round. Not many people do that these days, do they? But I did. I very quickly graduated to collecting money from people’s homes to pay for their newspaper delivery. I just want to point out – I was not a debt collector, okay? The service was that I would go around and collect their money to save them having to go into the newsagents. I wasn’t chasing up bad debtors, although some weeks people were conveniently not in and I’d come back and I was like “Errm.. you’ve got two weeks to pay.” If it got to a month then we started to get worried!

I also remember washing dishes in a restaurant. I worked in factories as well. I worked in a plastic manufacturing company where we poured molten plastic into certain moulds and made stuff. I think I only did that for about a week or so. One of the things that put me off was when my machine stopped working, and I asked for help from one of the supervisors. Unfortunately molten plastic poured all over his hands as he was trying to fix the thing. I learned a bit about health and safety at work. Perhaps that led to some of my later direction, I’m not sure. But I got out of that job pretty quickly!

Then I remember actually working for what I call a “banana factory.” You might well ask, “what do you mean a ‘banana factory’ Adrian? They don’t make bananas in a factory.” I understand that much biology, you know!” My job was this: I had to open boxes, take the bananas out of the boxes, put them on a conveyor belt and they would go down the conveyor belt and somebody else would put them in another box. And I remember thinking at the time, “What was this about?” But it was only as I reflected on this that I realised the reason why the new boy was put on the ‘taking the bananas out of the boxes’ job. I was front-line for the tarantulas, I’m sure of it now! They never told me to look out for them. I suppose they thought I’d notice them pretty quick! And I don’t know what would have happened if one would have been there and bitten me. It was my job to stop you from being confronted by a spider when you bought your bananas. It was a very important role!

Then there was the chicken factory and I think I left that after a chicken fell on my head. It was dead, I should say. I wasn’t so good in that factory either. But in all these different jobs that I was doing while I was still at school, there were lessons that you learn that you then apply to other work.

I think that we sometimes get so caught up in our own career that we think we can only learn from people in the same line of work. We’ll see a bit more about that later in this series. But very quickly I decided that factory work was clearly not the role for me. One of the remarkable things was meeting some people there who said things like, “Oh I’ve worked here for 15 years.” It seemed like a long time, but they often said, “I love this job, it’s great.” It was quote interesting to see, because I to be honest, I haven’t always seen that level of contentment in some of my later colleagues.

I later worked as a cleaner in a hospital. I really wasn’t very good at that job. Ask my wife and she will say, “How did you do that?” It took me hours to Hoover one corridor – and I didn’t do it very well! So I think I lasted in that one about two days.

I was a bit better at being a hospital kitchen porter. So my job was to move things – lots of baby food I remember – from the hospital kitchen to the wards. Then I graduated to being a kitchen chef. So I actually cooked the vegetables for the hospital. Why are you laughing? I was actually quite good at that! I discovered that the real secret was to actually under-cook the vegetables because when they were slightly undercooked, they would still cook in the trolley and hopefully by the time people ate them, they weren’t completely mushy.

Then I became an auxiliary nurse. I did that for a little while. Again this was during holiday times. My career was to actually become a doctor and I worked as a junior doctor. I would see people in A&E. Both surgery and medical, treating people as they came in with heart attacks, or appendicitis, and working throughut the night. Let me just say, I know there are many people who think they’ve got a tough job, but until you’ve gone to work at 9am on a Saturday morning and not finished until 6pm on a Monday evening, and then had to come back to work on the Tuesday you don’t know what tough work is. I’ve got it very easy now, I have to say. If you know a junior doctor, just tap them on the shoulder one day and say, “Well done.” What’s scary though is that when we go in a plane, we limit the number of hours an airline pilot can do because we think it’s important they’re awake when they’re flying the plane. Next time at 3am and you’re in hospital and you’re very sick, ask yourself this: “Am I glad this doctor is treating me?” Perhaps you should listen carefully to the nurse, because they tend to “only” do 12-hour shifts – not quite so long!

I then specialised in psychiatry, taking another qualification. At those times, I did a bit of work in schools, as well as assessing people who were going to be on trial. So I understand a little bit about what that those environments involve.

My next step, by a set of so-called “co-incidences” was to work in the head office of a large international company, working very closely with sales and marketing, dealing with the media, the regulators and coping with all the office politics.

And now I work from home. I work from a converted bedroom, but travel the world. I recently got my silver card with BA. You can actually travel quite a lot without getting one of those. So it gives you an indication of just how much travel I have been doing recently. Sometimes I don’t mention my trips on my blog here. I often pre-program blog posts to appear.

I told you all of that because it is a slightly odd career and yet it does kind of hold together. And maybe some of you feel as if you have reached a kind of block in your career. Perhaps God’s going to unlock a change in direction for you that you’ve never even considered.

Tomorrow we will return to Esther.

Today I begin a new series which is taken from an edited transcript of a recent sermon I preached at Jubilee Church.  Here is the video of that sermon:

Downloads:  audio,  video,  HD

I have referred quite a bit to two sources while preparing this. We’ve often said that at Jubilee, it’s as though we live between the ESV Study Bible and the Spirit-Filled Life Bible. I’ve found both of those resources incredibly useful in my preparation. The Spirit-filled Life Bible summarises this book in seven acts, and I’ll refer to that. I will focus more on some of the earlier acts in this list. I can’t cover everything.  But I am focussing on what this book can teach us about how we can respond to Jesus in our vocation, in our work and in all that God has called us to do.

The book of Esther is a remarkable book.  It is an unusual book in the Bible because it is the only book in the Bible that doesn’t actually mention God, which is interesting. It almost reminds of when Alastair Campbell famously said to Tony Blair, “We don’t do God.” And maybe some of you are in workplaces that are a bit like that.  In this book there is also no obvious appearance of God, there’s no dramatic, remarkable miracle. There’s no new doctrine that gets revealed. And it’s not focussed around the spiritual leaders of God’s people. However, God is everywhere in this book. And my ESV Study-Bible says, and I love this phrase – it says this: “Even while God is most hidden, He is still present and working to protect and deliver His chosen people.”

What we see in this book is a remarkable string of coincidences that at the time seem incredibly ordinary but were actually God working in the lives of these people. Nothing would have happened in this book if the king hadn’t got drunk one night at the beginning! It’s a ridiculous thought, isn’t it? And yet there’s this string of coincidences without which none of this would have happened. And what we see here is God using ordinary people, working together. It’s about how God can bring deliverance to His people; can bring salvation to His people; can bring remarkable affects to His people without actually them almost even knowing, at least initially, that that’s what’s happening. Remarkable things were happening. God was preparing His plans among a string of slightly strange experiences, but nonetheless not particularly dramatic. There was no writing in the sky, there was no ‘God spoke.’ Esther didn’t become Queen because God told her one day she was going to become Queen. Some Christians worry about not having heard from God. I do believe it’s right for us to pray, it’s right for us to seek God, it’s right for us to believe that God can speak to us today, but sometimes God will guide us in very ordinary, very normal ways.

As I look back on my own career, I’ve had some remarkable direction from God. But I have to say, I’m not sure if God has ever really said, “Adrian, this is the way, walk in it,” in that sense. What has happened is, I’ve found my steps being led by God. And I’ve found opportunities arise that surprised me and astonished me really. But they were so-called coincidences that God used. In fact, there were various points in my career where I thought I knew where God was heading me along – what pathway he wanted me to go along. I was pretty sure, I had decided where I thought I would spend my career and spend my life. And yet, actually, a massive roadblock appeared in my face. And I butted my head against that roadblock and it didn’t move. And I butted my head again against the roadblock and it still didn’t move. And then I’m like “Now what do I do?” And so I just took whatever it was that presented itself before me. But the remarkable thing is that God then opened some other doors that led me to the job that I do now, which I’m very pleased to have. It’s a very helpful job for me in many, many ways. But you know, none of that would have happened if I hadn’t have had those roadblocks. So I think we have to realise sometimes that God guides us in a normal way.

If you want to pay attention to just one thing form this whole series,  the take-home message, the key message is this: God can use YOU in remarkable ways without necessarily turning you into a full-time church worker. Too many Christians believe that they will only have “arrived” as a Christian on the day that they begin working for a Church and give up the career that God has given them.  But God  can use you in remarkable ways at work! As Scripture says in Col 3:23, “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, because it is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

3. Future glory

I am deliberately going to break every rule of exegesis and take a verse wholly out of context hear because I believe the balance of scripture tells us that God always keeps the best wine till last

Its a Glory that improves with age…its like wine we can taste.

Jesus first miracle water to wine. That wine speaks of joy. One way tap into joy=== holys spirit peace and joy in the Spirit

George Whitefield as he preached on this miracle. “Whilst I am thinking, and only speaking of those things unto you, I am almost carried beyond myself. Methinks, I now receive some little foretastes of that new wine which I hope to drink with you in the heavenly kingdom for ever and ever.”

Why be nostalgic for the days of Whitefield? Why not drink the same spiritual wine he did and see the glory of God right here right now? BE not Drunk with wine be FILLED with the Spirit!

John 7:37-39 “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Jesus glorification in John is shorthanded for his death. resurrection and ascension. Because Jesus has now been glorified, the Spirit has now been given, and will never be taken away!

If you will walk with God, he isn’t finished with you yet.

The world seems to offer young people a better ride…tho even in the short term the consequences hurt. But the older we get the bigger gap there is. Many Christian speak of a sweeter more intimate sense of Gods presence as they get older.

God wants to take you to the next level today. And take you today from one degree of glory to another there is more than you have know so far!

2 Corinthians 3:8 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

What level are you at?
—–>Have you believed in this Jesus as the disciples did? If not you can today
——>Having believed have you tasted of his goodness experientially and Been overwhelmed by been immersed in his Spirit?

——->As we heard a few weeks back, are you ankle deep, in which case you can come in deeper to the river of Gods blessing

Have you been facing difficulties? Or feel God is distant. Maybe your joy, like the wine in this story has run out! He is here. He has now been glorified so his Spirit HAS been poured out, and we can ALL receive a fresh touch from him this morning.

But is also a future glory because at the end it is an eternal glory

This glory is always works not just in past or present. It is drawing us to our eternal home. Then there will be no more hidden glory, only revealed glory, but we will never exhaust the depths of Jesus glory!

We must always have the future in mind. The end goal is not in this earth its to be with the Father the Son and the Spirit. The mystery is we will experience a Glorification. This world is not everything. There is a Better place. No matter what you go thru Jesus saves the best to last. Therefore don’t give up. In the meantime one degree to another but it can be seasons of much pain

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but qbecause of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God

Goes on to promise that those who God has saved he also glorified! We are already and will be glorified!

Just as Jesus was glorified only thru death and then resurrection, so our glory comes through our being emptied “they have no wine” then filled through suffering then healing, through pain then deliverance, through persecution then the acceptance of Jesus, and ultimately also for us through death and resurrection.

Because of this glorious future, we can expect more of him today hope for tomorrow truth joy to explore

When we see heaven it should fill us with hope so we are able to live with joy now so we see what is ahead. this world is not heaven now. If God is going to bless us so wonderfully in the future, why shouldn’t he bless us now?

Something of Heaven’s glory and power breaking thru in the here and now!

More you connect with Spirit more you walk in and enjoy the glory of the one, and the more you experience the deposit which guarantees the glory which is to come.

John 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world”

If you need Gods glory in your life this story tells us how… In reverse, we need the hope for an optimistic future, instead of looking back to a golden age, looking forward to née blessings God will bring us even in this life, We need to determine to just do what he tells us, and we must pray the glorious future into our present.

Let the powers of the age to come, break through today! may Jesus hidden kingdom be made manifest.

In this part of the sermon, I was focused on the third aspect of what happened when Jesus’ glory was revealed. There was

…. A POWER

With the command of Jesus going forth there comes a power.

As they obeyed the wine came.  Power from God

To some of us as we hear  ”stop sinning” the power of the gospel is here and you will find within yourself the power to stop. Paul says it “Let him who steals, steal no more” STOP IT. Do what he says. Some of you say but I cant stop. I would ask you, are you doing it now? No? You aren’t committing that sin in this room? Then you CAN stop, and in Jesus name I say, receive the power of God, receive the liberating glory of God and just STOP! Go on stopping! Just don’t do it for the rest of today. Then don’t do it for the rest of tomorrow!

What can we learn?

We must do what we can do and Trust in Jesus to do the rest. You can fill the pot with water but you cant make wine. You can tell the gospel to someone but you cant make them a christian. You can lay hands on the sick and pray but you cant heal them.

And if you are not a Christian today, dare I say it you can’t actually make yourself one. But you can keep coming back to hear God’s word. You can pray “God show yourself real to me” You can even pray “show me if this is true” and then suddenly within your heart, and for some of you it is happening right now you will find yourself thinking “ITs real”

I remember guy who came to a debate on the resurrection I ran at school, I was talking about why Christians believe JEsus raised from the dead. It felt like I was getting nowhere as the non christians there had all kinds of arguments, which I answered as best I could but the christians just sat there silently watching! This guy at the back was not a christian but found himself thinking “thats strange, I find myself agreeing with him, but surely I should be agreeing with the others” he only had a couple of months before God got him!
The truth is many people today are wondering why they churches are not growing, why their friends are not becoming Christians. We can go on all kinds of courses to learn how to be good at putting water into pots. It has it’s place. But we need the WINE!

2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul describes himself as a jar of clay with glory inside: “We have this treasure [ Which he earlier says is the gospel of the glory of Christ] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

THE WONDERFUIL TRUTH IS THAT Glory is both hidden and revealed in us!

We see in this miracle what kind of glory Jesus has: not terribly religious! What would organised religion have made of a man of God who’s first miracle was making wine? What would they think today?

This is the second part of my notes from which I preached the above sermon.

2. Glory revealed / Active Glory: When the glory is present and powerful. A moment comes. A crisis in their lives. They know Jesus. And yet does something amazing. Provides wine. Takes away their shame before it really happens. Powerful thing when glory is active. Doing signs and wonders Still does them today.

How does it happen? How do we connect to glory? Lets see how it happened this time, and we will see a pattern.

… A REQUEST Glory prayed forward It is not his time now, but Mary gets the miracle she wants!
Mary simply asks him. There is a push back but she doesn’t give up. We need prayer that persists even when it seems God is not answering us. Mary didn’t give up! Not my time he says, and I am sure it is a test rather than a rebuke.

Prayer, sees the future, brings into present

Do today Lord what we know you will one day do

Healing is in the atonement, we just can’t guarantee Gods timing.

But it seems in some mysterious purpose of God, our requests can appear to us to reach into the time to come and bring it into the here and now.

We are both waiting for and “hastening the coming of the day of the Lord” 2 Peter 3:12

I have faith Lord that one day I will be made whole never to experience pain, now please heal me today Lord!

For us, time is precious, everything is urgent.

To God a day is like a thousand years

What promises of God are you holding onto? If you are sure they are truly promises of God don’t despair! Keep telling him about it! If you need help discerning whether they are truly of God speak to one of the leaders.

Notice how simple Mary’s request to Jesus is. It is good to pray for prolonged periods sometimes. But it is also good to pray simple prayers that are full of faith and expectancy. Mary just spoke to him about her concern for the embarrassment of her friends

There is something else that happens and leads up to the glory being revealed:

….A COMMAND

Spurgeon said “when he is about to give a blessing, as a general rule he first gives a command”

Obedience is key if you want to see the glory of Jesus revealed

No better motto for life than this: “Do whatever he tells you”! Many worry about how will they know Gods will. The far more important question is are you determined to obey. Proverbs 3:5 is inscribed in my wedding ring and a verse that has been handed down in my family since at least when on his deathbed my great grandfather told my grandfather to live by this verse. Gives us three conditions for being guided by God which basically amount to the same thing

“trust in the lord with all your heart”. Our love for him makes us Want to follow him as passionately and wholeheartedly as these first disciples do. It’s not a ritualistic obedience Jesus is after but a heartfelt confidence that his way is best. Following him is no sacrifice as the things that we give up he gives far more in return. Jesus is no ones debtor!
“lean not on your own understanding” when human wisdom seems to conflict with What Jesus tells us to do, we need to realize we are not as smart as we think we are!
“in all your ways acknowledge him” realise that he. Is interested even in the mundane matters of life. Christian maturity is the product of many hundreds of small decisions made on a daily basis. We will get some of them wrong. But we will not mature unless we then repent even of the so called small sins, go back to him, and resolve to follow him with the very next step.
There is a reason the christian life is described as a walk– it is because we must do it one step at a time.

These conditions lead to a promise: and he will DIRECT your paths.

How does he do this today? Well first notice that the promise is not dependent on how well we can hear him…if we desire to obey him he is committed to guide us!
1. The Scripture. Don’t go asking him to tell you what to do if the answer is already in this book!

2. Wise counsellors / leaders

3. Circumstances

4. Prophetic impulses: but be wise and careful here!

If we will resolve to Obey even when it seems silly, or when others tell us we are foolish, great glory can be unlocked as it was here. Imagine if they had said “no way” they would have missed their miracle.

If want to see the glory of Jesus then you have to follow him… will you resolve today to follow Mary’s advice? “whatever he says to you do it” there is no substitute for obedience in the christian life…there is none.

But there is another ingredient in the mix before the glory comes. There is a prayer, there is a command but there is also a third element we will see tomorrow.

Here is the first part of the notes I preached from, lightly edited:

This story ends with the idea “Jesus showing his glory” It’s the goal of the story and the goal of this message!

I want us today to catch just a glimpse of the glory of Jesus. If we can lift our eyes from the mundane lives we live and see his glory, just for a moment, this morning, our lives will never be the same again. This could be a life-transforming moment for each of us.

When Bible talks of it comes in different forms… essentially only GOD has glory (tho the word is used of the glory of the kingdoms of earth and the glory of Solomon and the plants, and also includes the response to that glory ie praise.)

Ultimately, glory is the manifestation of God’s person.  When glory is there, something happens whether you perceive it or not.

Not always the high dramatics, can be calm but powerful. But God’s glory can also be absent though his omnipresence never is. So for example when the ark was captured a child was named “icabod” which meant “the glory has departed”

GLORY is most seen in person of Jesus. Wherever he went they said “we beheld his glory full of grace ” (From John 1) “No one has seen God but Jesus makes him known” could have said manifests his glory! The word here is “exegetes” him (ie explains and demonstrates or paints a picture as you do in a sermon)

Jesus was always the one to show God’s glory. Who was it that appeared to God’s people in the OT was it God the Father? NO it was God the son because you cannot see the father as a fallen human and live, as John tells us.  Talking about Jesus, John 12:41 tells us “Isaiah said these things because the saw his glory and uspoke of him.” The most dramatic manifestation of God in the OT is actually a description of Jesus. Isaish was talking about HIM!

Jesus “showed his glory” and his disciples believed, and towards the end of his gospel John tells us the reason why he wrote a series of signs culminating in Jesus death and resurrection, the greatest sign of all: John: written “so that you may believe.  and have life.” (20:30)  John 10:10 tells us that thus is meant to be “life to the full” we can experience that right now!

When you see the glory you WILL believe! And your LIFE will be transformed. SHOW US THE GLORY LORD

“Nothing in the universe is more valuable than the glory of God.” Piper, What Jesus Demands From the World p 351

• Nature shows God’s glory
• But Jesus shows it better.
• And his glory is shown today through the church!

Johns Gospel tells us the GLORY IS HERE and it is STILL HERE TODAY.

We want the glory. Why don’t christians talk much these days about the GLORY? We want to feel the glory. We want to see the effects of the glory. We want to SMELL the glory.

Man got on a train to go visit a revival “you will know all right”

The truth is that Jesus glory is right here. If you come here each week, maybe you feel like this is like an island of glory in a difficult week.  If Jesus is in our lives there will be glory what does it look like? Is it always that glorious? Perhaps not, well not in my life anyway. But this story tells us 3 things about glory that I want us to focus on:

1. Glory hidden

- mild he laid his glory by

- maker of the universe at that most human of events a wedding and no one knew who he was there except Mary and perhaps his disciples just beginning to.

- often used to make the point that God invented marriage and honors and values it, but to me this shows the very humaness of Jesus. Quietly enjoying a party at which he is not the center of attention!

As he says to Mary my time has not yet come. God OFTEN hides his glory.

There is alway the hidden glory when it is hidden it is still working. Do not despise the fact that you are not seeing the dramatics. He is there the very present help in time of need

NB even this miracle is not done on a public stage as we would expect but in a private event…a wedding. Thus it is hidden. Every display of God’s glory on earth has this element to it. Even the most powerful manifestation of Jesus glory has this hidden nature to it.

Every person who is ever miraculously healed will also one day die. We live in that tension as Christians today. Times when we long for more of his glory to be revealed.

One aspect that we haven’t talked much about is this: Barnabas may well have single-handedly prevented a damaging split in the early church between Antioch and Jerusalem. If you go back and read it, you will see that he was the ‘go-between’ for Peter and Paul-between Antioch and Jerusalem. It wasn’t always easy in that relationship but Barnabas had a foot in both camps. He was a blessing and was described as the ‘chief-mediator’ between those two great centers of the early church by one commentator (Conzelmann) I read.

You have to ask, “Where would the church have been without Barnabas?” He is incidentally believed to have been martyred on Cyprus.

What can we conclude about his life today? When your heart is all for God, as I’ve already said, opportunities to serve Him are not far behind. Barnabas didn’t think “Well, I really don’t have a role here. I’ll just passively watch as others do the work.” He got stuck in to the work of encouraging.

He was secure in who he was in God, he wasn’t looking for position or praise from other people. He was easily led, a joy to lead. But sometimes he was too easily led. Don’t be like that.

He was equally happy in the background or serving in the foreground as the Lord led. Sometimes God will lead you into the foreground, other times He’ll lead you away from the foreground and into the background. The challenge is: will you serve? Some people say, “I only want to be in the background.” But if God puts His hand on you and pulls you to the front, it’s as much a sin to resist that as it is to be someone who yearns for it. We mustn’t be those who resist what God is calling us to do. We mustn’t be those who desire status and position and glory.

It seems Barnabas was also an example of someone who served God despite putting family first before the church and before his ministry opportunities. I think that’s quite liberating for us. I would urge you, and the leaders feel very strongly about this, we must get our priorities right in life. I think Barnabas is an example of a man who did just that.

There are four key elements of a balanced, godly life. First: your relationship with God. There seems no doubt to me that Barnabas was close to God. It did say he was full of the Spirit. It was that closeness to God that sustained him and that came first in his life. How else could he have been so effective and so faithful? I’m sure he put his relationship with God at the top of that list. It’s easy for us to sometimes let other things get in the way of God.

Some of you probably expect me to say, “And then he put church next.” I know many places it’s God first, then the church. Actually, no, he put his family next , his actions demonstrated that. He was prepared to risk his whole future in church ministry and church leadership over his cousin. I think God honored him for that. I think it’s right to put family above church. We serve our family because of our relationship with God. God calls us to our families first, to bless our families, to serve them. They’re your first church.

Actually, the best way to bless your family is to bring them to a godly church and so Barnabas did have a role in church and he saw that as very important.

Of course he knew something of how to order his finances, he had a field that he could sell. But we see by that act of selling, his work came in pretty poor fourth place. No one’s going to get to the end of their life and say they wish they’d spent more time at the office. It’s not going to happen. Work is important. But chances are, you’ll go through several jobs in your life. Hopefully, you’ll stick with one family. Hopefully you’ll be committed to one church for a long time. Sometimes you will move to a different church, that can be a godly thing to do. I am so thrilled to be in the church that I joined in 1995 and to see what God is doing here is a real joy and a delight.

Finally, it was Jesus who changed Barnabas’ life. It was Jesus that Barnabas had met. Jesus who made good all of Barnabas’ mistakes, who covered up for his disagreements. It was Jesus who helped Barnabas to be strong, robust and to be such an inspiration for others. It was Jesus that comforted Barnabas and encouraged Barnabas so that he could encourage others.

It says in the Scriptures: God is the God of all comfort and He comforts us so that we can comfort others. Brothers and Sisters, if you remember nothing else from this message, remember this: Jesus would say to you this morning, “Be encouraged!” And you, though you may never be a Paul (I don’t believe Barnabas was any less successful because he wasn’t Paul ). You may never be a Paul, I may never be a Paul, but we can all be a Barnabas.

Barnabas is an encouragement to us in another way: Like so many heroes of the Bible, he wasn’t perfect. Don’t you find that encouraging? God is in the business of using servants who are not perfect, people who blow it, people who make mistakes. Maybe you’re sitting here this morning and you’ve mentally disqualified yourself from being used by God because of mistakes you’ve made in the past, sins you’ve committed in the past. I want to say to you, “There’s another chance for you!” We see in Galatians 2 that Barnabas makes a clear mistake. The context of this is about food. I believe eating together is very important. As I was thinking about this talk, I was thinking about all the people who have been like Barnabas in my life and there were many of them, some do stand out, people who really shaped my life. I could list them, but don’t really have the time to do that. One thing suddenly struck me about all of them, there is one thing they all have in common. All of them have eaten together with me. There’s something about eating together that communicates acceptance, love, and that builds trust, that gives people the right to sometimes even rebuke me. There’s a love that comes from that. That’s an interesting point; don’t underestimate the importance of eating together.

Barnabas and Peter were eating with the Gentiles, showing their acceptance of them. When some people came from Jerusalem, they were frightened of what they would say and Barnabas’s strength became his very weakness. He didn’t want to cause trouble, and it led to him being led astray by Peter. In this example, he was too easily led. We must remember that no leader can be relied upon to always get it right. So he withdrew.

Gal. 2:11-13 “And when Cephas(Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ”

In the past, Paul had needed Barnabas to encourage him and help him. Now, Barnabas needed Paul to rebuke him. This really was an example of the right boot of fellowship. Sometimes the most encouraging thing someone can do for you is tell you off, say “Come on, sort it out!” Real encouragers tell you off. The truth is this, in the church, we all need each other to sometimes cover our weaknesses, to look out for each other and sometimes to rebuke us, to correct us, to develop us. That’s what teamwork’s all about. We don’t have all the answers. So, Barnabas blew it, but was that the end of his ministry? No! It wasn’t at all!

A big row over a good principle
Next we see another thing that’s often described as a mistake in Barnabas’ life. He had a disagreement with Paul, you probably know the story. I wonder whether Barnabas had learned from his mistake of being too easily led and this time decided, “No, I am not going to allow Paul to make this mistake. I am going to stand up to him, to challenge him.” This argument almost becomes an argument about people versus mission and you see that sometimes in the church. Some people say, “Church is all about the people, we must care for them, we must look after them, we must encourage them, we must develop them.” Other people say, “No, it’s about the mission. We must get out there and get others.” What had happened was that John Mark had let them down in the mission. He was a leadership casualty. For fear he ran away, you know the story. Paul says, “He can’t come again.” But Barnabas says, “No, I am not prepared to discharge John Mark to the scrap-heap yet.”

If you’re an ex-pastor here this morning, God does not want to leave you on the scrap-heap. If you’re someone who feels like you’ve messed up your Christian walk, God does not want to leave you on the scrap-heap. Barnabas stands by John Mark partly because he’s a member of his family, a cousin, and he says, “I will put my family before my ministry. I will sacrifice ministering with Paul because I want to encourage this leadership casualty.”

There’s another lesson in this: God sovereignly directs our paths. What happened as a result of this strong argument? As a result of the argument, a number of things happen.

First of all, another apostolic team gets planted. Suddenly, we have 2 apostolic teams. Barnabas begins to lead his own team. But Barnabas is honored by Paul. It’s not that Barnabas becomes suddenly independent . Later on, in one of the letters, Paul speaks very specifically about Barnabas and what a blessing he was. As we’ve often said over the summer, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. Even here in this instance, their disagreement, God works it around for good.

But what about the others involved in this? John Mark gets to write the first Gospel. He’s the author of the book of Mark. No doubt, his Gospel inspired Matthew and Luke to write, because we know they used his Gospel and it would seem he probably inspired John as well. Perhaps without Barnabas, we’d have no Gospels. John Mark is actually described as ‘useful’ by Paul later on.

Barnabas gets to lead. Some people think Barnabas disciples wrote a major chunk of the New Testament! Some even think he wrote the book of Hebrews- it certainly would be like him not to sign his name, but we don’t know that. That was an early tradition, but he might or might not have done that. And Paul gets to be Paul. What we see here is God sovereignly ordaining even a big disagreement and turning it around for His glory.

The Gift of Encouragement from Jubilee Church on Vimeo.

In Acts 13 Barnabas himself was encouraged by others. Remember the purpose of prophecy is encouragement. Remember when we say encouragement, we’re not just talking about a warm fuzzy feeling. We’re talking about sometimes being thrust out, our passage begins “and in the church of Antioch, there were prophets and teachers.” (Barnabas is at the lead of this list, he seems to be the church leader there.) “Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manean, a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work which I have called them.’ And after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.“ (Acts 13:1-3)

So he was now on the receiving end of a prophecy. You must learn to receive and to give. I hate to say it, but there are some Christians who just like to receive all the time. How’s the worship leader doing this morning? Well, I’m not sure I like that keyboard player as much as the one we had last week. Hm, that preacher, I like him. Some people like to receive all the time and never give. But actually there are some who like to give all the time and never receive. The truth is this: God is calling you and me to be those who receive, so that we can give. Jesus said this: “Freely you have received, freely give.” Amen!

An encouragement here, in the form this prophecy, thrusts out Barnabas and Paul. It’s very interesting; they’re propelled now, into their next phase of ministry.

At this point neither of them are given a real title or an office as such. They’re not called apostles yet, they’re not even described as elders. I suppose they’re fulfilling that role, but it doesn’t say that in the Scriptures. They are fulfilling a function by now. Barnabas is a prophet or a teacher; remember as it said at the beginning of that verse “in the church there were prophets and teachers.” I’ve said that I suspect that he was a prophet, for all kinds of reasons, I think he has this functional role.

An apostolic ministry, interestingly, has an element of both the prophetic and the teaching coming together as well as obviously that kind of pioneering, overseeing type of role. Barnabas seems to be coming from the prophetic angle and it seems pretty clear that Paul was coming from the teaching angle. We know that Paul was the teacher “Par excellence” of the New Testament. We have so much of his teaching recorded for us. And so the two of them together formed this first apostolic team.

The apostles were doing things in Jerusalem. But here now, a team is being thrust out. The emphasis here is not on the title, the emphasis is not on whether they’ve got a ‘ministry’ or a ‘role’. The emphasis is on what they are doing. Now Barnabas moves on to another phase of his relationship with Paul. Up until this moment, he’s really led Paul. It’s been very clear, Barnabas was at the top of the list. Indeed, when they are sent out, it says “Barnabas and Saul”. He could have said later on, “Well, the Holy Spirit mentioned my name first.” But instead, he encouraged a leader who would then surpass him and he went through an amazing transition with Paul.

John Piper says this of this phase of Barnabas’ life: “With this strategic investment in Saul’s life and career, Barnabas secured forever his secondary status in church history and I love him for it.” It’s an interesting point isn’t it?

As Piper also puts it: “A Biblical leader is humble and self-effacing, he looks for people with greater gifts than his own and pushes them forward.”

So, Barnabas begins to fade into Paul’s shadow. It’s Barnabas and Saul at the beginning. Barnabas is even called Zeus, the king of the gods, he might have liked that, I don’t know, the powerful one. Pretty quickly, it becomes Paul and Barnabas. Even in this very chapter at one point it’s just Paul and his companions. What’s your heart like? Are you looking for position? Are you looking for a title? Would you rejoice if that baby Christian that you’ve been encouraging a little bit suddenly leapfrogs over you and becomes a small group leader before you do? Or perhaps you never do become a small group leader because that’s not what God is calling you to. Would you be disappointed? Would you be jealous? Or would you be thinking, “Go for it! I’m so proud of that young man and I’m so thrilled that I had a part to play in propelling him/her into the ministry that God called them to.”

Romans 12:3 says “But by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned to him.” What is your measure of faith? If you’re faithful in it, for sure, God may well increase it. But please don’t try to be something that God hasn’t gifted you to be. Sometimes in the world, people are promoted to the level of their incompetence. Have you heard that phrase? Someone who is a good deputy gets promoted to manager and you have to sometimes ask, even in the church, “Is it really all about Jesus?” I felt, as I was praying this morning, that there would be some here who would become a pastor. You’re an ex-pastor sitting here this morning because it didn’t work. Because actually God never wanted you to be out on your own in that way. He’s not finished with you, He’s got roles for you but you were never meant to do that and I would challenge you to please don’t hanker after position, don’t hanker after being like that person.

God doesn’t want you to be the next Terry Virgo or the next whoever. He just wants you to be you. You can fulfill a role that only you can fulfill. Barnabas was willing to be led as well as lead. Here at Jubilee, we have a need for many more leaders who will follow Barnabas’ example. We need many more leaders! People are coming to us; a crowd is being formed but that crowd must be shaped into a congregation, must be called to commitment, must be discipled, must be channeled into ministry. We need more leaders, brothers and sisters. We need leaders who will sign up first to be a follower. Who will be a servant and hence qualified to lead others? It’s about servant leadership, it’s not about self-fulfillment ‘I must have a role’. It’s about service of others, not about ‘my ministry’.

Interestingly, in the context of this switch that Barnabas has, finally he gets his title. He’s called an apostle in Acts 14. He does get his title but he doesn’t get to be the top dog. Barnabas is a real encouragement to us in this area. You and I can play a role without yearning for a position.

Very soon, Barnabas’ encouragement finds another outlet, another opportunity. We see, in Acts 11, that Barnabas begins to encourage a baby church. A few people don’t wait for the apostles to send them or tell them what to do, they run because of persecution and when they arrive in Antioch they begin to share the Gospel. They don’t wait for headquarters to instruct them, they get on with it. Then, in verse 22 the apostles hear of what’s been happening, people are becoming Christians and a church is beginning to form:

“The reports of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God he was glad. He exhorted them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. . .” (That’s the definition of encouragement) ” . . .for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.” (Acts 11:22-24.)

Barnabas here still has no job title, no position; but he is described as a trustworthy man. He also happens to be of the same nature, the same birth as this new group of believers. So the Jerusalem Apostles sent him to be their representative and to encourage this new church. Notice how he is described here: He is not full of himself like some people are, but he’s full of the Spirit and the Faith. Are you full of yourself, or are you full of Jesus?

What can we learn from this whole story, this whole episode? Well, first of all, we can learn not to always rely on our leaders to take the initiative. Sometimes people say “The church should be doing this”; “The church should be doing that”. But actually the Spirit guided these people through circumstances, and they just gossiped the gospel. People became Christians.

But here’s another thing, don’t assume that just because God’s hand is on you -Maybe God has begun to bless you, maybe a few people are becoming Christians – or some sort of fruit is happening in your ministry, don’t therefore assume that you’ve got it all sorted, that you don’t need any help. Seek out the help and advice of leaders.

When Barnabas came he added something into the mix. Barnabas came into this church and more blessing came. It said that many people came to know Jesus as a result. And that wasn’t just because Barnabas came and preached, it was because Barnabas encouraged that new church. Just one person with the gift of encouragement can dramatically change a whole church. What do these people do- these encouragers? They look for the evidence of the grace of God and they blow on it. When he saw the grace of God, he wasn’t jealous, he wasn’t a killjoy, he just blew on it. He inspired them to be faithful to the Lord. That’s what we need, isn’t it? We each need that, actually. And the truth is this: You and I need encouragement, but we can also give encouragement.

In the very next verse, what do we see? We see that Barnabas realizes there is an opportunity to encourage somebody else. And what does he do? It says he went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. And for a whole year they met with the church and taught to a great many people. What does he do? He encourages an emerging leader. Why does he get Paul? For two reasons: One, because he wants to develop Paul, he can see the gift in him, he sees that he needs an opportunity to learn how to serve but also because Barnabas recognizes he needs some help. He can’t do this on his own. He doesn’t think, “Oh great, this is my opportunity, I’ve got my own church now.” He thinks, “I need some help.”

If we believe Barnabas was a prophet, and I think he was, we now see that prophets help release other leaders. And if you have a role in church, maybe I’m speaking to some small group leaders here, you should be looking for someone who can fill that role. So perhaps you can do something else so that more ministry can happen. Or maybe your role is to encourage someone who will be able to do something that you never will be able to do. John Piper said “Barnabas was a maker of leaders.” You may never be a great leader. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could encourage someone who perhaps will do more than you ever will.

Barnabas will in fact from now on in his life, from this time on, will forever be defined by his relationship with Paul. And we can learn a lot from this relationship. It’s a remarkable relationship. Many so-called prophetic people are proud of being loners. They don’t connect with anyone. They feel “I’m an oddball; I don’t fit in.”. Not this one. Barnabas was not a loner. And I would ask you this morning, if you’re listening, who do you relate to? Who are you getting help from? Dare I say it, who are you offering help to? I would urge you, get involved in small groups. Don’t just sit here on a Sunday morning, week in, week out, and receive all this teaching, and enjoy the worship. No, get stuck into your small group life. Get stuck into the mid-week services, come for the prayer meetings. Learn how to be encouraged and how to encourage others.

To be continued

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Here is the continuation of an edited transcript of the above sermon which began yesterday:

Who did Barnabas Encourage?

First of all, and it may seem like a slightly funny place to start, he encouraged his leaders. Have you ever thought about that, that leaders need encouragement too? I know one or two of you are sitting here this morning thinking: “I want to be a leader?” Are you so sure? Leadership can be a real challenge. People that you love turn on you; people that you help sometimes disappear. It’s not easy sometimes. It’s a great privilege and it’s a great blessing. Leaders need encouragement. It’s quite literally about putting courage back into them sometimes when it has drained away. Barnabas encouraged his leaders, in this case by bringing them the money. The important point is this, they were encouraged and that’s why the called him the “Son of Encouragement”. Hebrews 13:17 says: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Brothers and sisters it’s a real delight to be part of the leadership team here at Jubilee, and I know the four elders very well. I can tell you this; they don’t groan about their work here, they love their work here because you do respond to them so well. But be encouraged to keep doing that.

Barnabas was all in, he wasn’t on the fringes, he was comitted. He gave because he believed in the vision. His example still inspires people today just as it did then. It inspires people to genuine, sacrificial giving. Just as he gave his field to the purposes of God. Unfortunately sometimes, just like in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, it may encourage people to give out of wrong motives. ‘Show me’ giving or giving to impress others, or, giving to get something back from God. I don’t believe Barnabas gave in order to get back from God. He gave because he loved God. He loved the vision.

Encouraging the needy
Barnabas gave in a sense to encourage or strengthen the needy. Sometimes I think when we give money directly to the poor, it’s quite difficult. He wanted to do it via the apostles, he trusted the apostles to distribute. But he did know what the money was going to be used for. So he spent himself on behalf of those who could never repay him.

What do we learn from this episode? I think I already said, big people do not need a big role or big title or big office in order to make a big impact.

But also, when your heart is sold out for God, as we see Barnabas’ was and as we will see as we go through the story of his life, opportunities to serve God soon follow.

During this phase of his life John Piper says of Barnabas that “Barnabas earned a reputation for caring for the underdog.” Maybe you feel like an underdog this morning. Well, God cares for you and there are those of us here that can care for you and lift you. That’s what Barnabas did, he wanted to respect and lift and honor people rather than tread all over them.

Encouraging a new convert
In Acts 9, Saul the persecutor becomes a Christian. Barnabas’ attitude is very different from the rest of the believers. The rest are rejecting Paul, they want nothing to do with him. They think he is probably a spy and that he’s going to arrest them. Even if he’s not that, they see him as perhaps a brash young man. Paul caused trouble wherever he went. Barnabas’ attitude was very simple “if I have been accepted by God, why would I not accept somebody else?” Barnabas accepts him and advocates for him with the apostles as it says in Acts 9:27 “Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he preached boldly in the name of Jesus.” You have to ask “Where would Paul have been without this help, without this encouragement from Barnabas?”

To be continued…

I have not forgotten my series on Feelings and Faith and will be returning to it shortly. But in the meantime, I want to share with you a sermon I preached over the summer. Video is available to watch online here or you can download both video and audio.  But thanks to the work of Kristen Keating I can share an edited transcript with you over the next few days  http://kekeating.wordpress.com/

This sermon is one that meant a lot to me, and to a number of listeners. It addresses a very important concept for Christians today to get hold of.  In the days of large churches where you can easily hide, and in the day of many professing Christians rejecting church altogether, this truth must once more come to the fore.  You need biblical encouragement if you want to mature as a Christian.  You need to learn to dispense biblical encouragement to others if you want to be obedient to Jesus command to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.  I truly believe that Jesus will be much more interested in the deep lasting impact you have made in the lives of a few choice people that he gave you to care for and strengthen than in how big a crowd you managed to gather.

I encourage you to allow God to speak to you, challenge, and convict you through this message.

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A prophetic dream

The  Scripture tells us that young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams. I still like to think of myself as young although the beginnings of gray hairs tell me otherwise.  But I am the right side of 40 just, so I was a little disconcerted recently when God spoke to me in a dream.  But there you go, it’s happening.  It’s  a funny way to start a sermon, I know, but I would like to share this dream with you.  It was a very vivid dream.  I was sitting in a theatre a little bit like this, but instead of it being a cinema, there was a stage there and the curtain was down.  The curtain lifted and I saw a few people from our church on the stage.  We were meeting in this theatre (don’t worry, I’m not suggesting we are about to move,  we’re not).   But you’ll see the point of this dream in a minute.

The worship was just about to begin but then some more people started coming in from stage left and stage right.  And a few more people came, and a few more people came, and suddenly the stage was full.  I heard God say this: Aim for a church where there are more people on stage than watching.

It was a bit like Jubilee’s International Day.   Remember that?  When all the Nigerians flooded the stage?  Now we’re not going to have a big choir here but what I am saying is that everyone has a role, everyone has a job to do.  If you’re looking for your role one of the things you can do is go to the serving desk and sign up.  I believe that is one of the ways you may need to respond to this word this morning.

What is encouragement

In Acts 4 we see Barnabas’ first appearance in Scripture as an early disciple. We read from verse 36:  “Then Joseph who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

Barnabas was a big man who didn’t need a big role to make a big difference. He came, he gave his money, and he was an encouragement.  He did not look for a position or a title before he began to play his part. The apostles named him “Son of Encouragement,” but interestingly that word Barnabas can also mean “Son of the Prophet”.  You might say “Why is that?”   We see that the purpose of prophecy, according to 1 Cor. 14, is to encourage, to comfort, to console, and to build up.  Sometimes true encouragement is actually an exhortation or rebuke.  It’s actually about purpose and mission.  It’s coming alongside someone “parakalesis” coming alongside someone to help them to a purpose, to a cause, to a mission.  It’s catching someone up in what God is doing.  Now Barnabas it seems was probably a prophet but we don’t see a single prophecy that Barnabas spoke recorded in Scripture.  But his character and his personality embodied these functions of the Holy Spirit.  Some people ask “Why are you so interested in the gifts of the Holy Spirit?   Why do you want prophecy amongst you?  Why do you want the Holy Spirit’s activity amongst you?”  The reason is very simple, we need encouragement we need strengthening, we need emboldening; we need to have courage put into us.  That’s really what encouragement means.  We need sometimes the right boot of fellowship, the provocation.  It’s not so much comforting and consoling as rousing, and causing to rise up.

Mark Driscoll says of this:  “The gift of encouragement involves motivating, encouraging and consoling others so that they mature in their walk with Christ.”  There’s a sort of encouragement that says “there, there, you’ll be alright” but there’s a sort of encouragement that leaves a person stronger, better, more robust, more able to follow Jesus and, dare I say it, more able to help others.

To be continued…