Throughout the New Testament there is a little guy who doesn't get a whole lot of press. His name is Barnabas. He was a Levite, meaning he was from the line of Israelites who served the priests in the temple. He probably grew up learning how to serve others. He was also from Cyprus - an Island in the Mediterranean, yet the Levites still had particular responsibilities in Jewish worship, no matter the locale. Though things changed by the time Barnabas was living compared to the time when the Levites were first assigned duties in worship, the line was still responsible in religious affairs.
But Barnabas was a believer. His real name was Joseph but he was called Barnabas by the Apostles. Joseph means "may he add" and Barnabas means "son of encouragement." It's interesting, this little name play, because the first we hear of Barnabas, he has sold a field [things changed, originally the Levites weren't given any land] and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. Not necessarily an action indicative of a man known as "may he add." Better to call him an encourager.
He was an encourager: he saw the potential in people and sought to lead them in God's way. He mentored Paul, encouraged the early church, and was highly trusted. He vouched for Paul - pretty important at the time because the first leaders of Christianity weren't about to accept Paul [aren't we glad Barnabas stood up for his friend!]. He was so trusted by the early church that they sent him around investigating, to see if the reports of Greeks believing on Jesus were true. He went to Antioch and "saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts." [Acts 11:23]. He was described as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. He co-taught the church at Antioch with Paul, this is where the disciples were first called Christians. Even though prominent in the church, they weren't called Pauline's or Barnabasians {okay, I'm making that one up} but Christians. His focus was christ. His life wasn't about himself - he sold his land and gave the money to be given to the poor. He wasn't obsessed with material or money or power or fame, but Christ. Because of his obsession Paul was accepted, and the disicples were knows as Christians 'little Christ's'.
The church in Antioch sent a gift to the Jerusalem church, and they sent Barnabas and Paul to take it. Barnabas saw the potential in people, and raised up leaders, so the church wasn't "his" but God's. It didn't need him or Paul to survive, but Christ. And they had leaders to take them further and deeper with Christ. Most of us today, we'd stick with Paul. We'd work to keep Paul as our Pastor. Some would even move to where Paul went. That's called cultish. Paul and Barnabas - they were Christians, and people who followed them knew they were only pointers - pointing to Christ.
Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, and the Spirit told the church to set them apart. They took what became Paul's first missionary journey. They went first to Cyprus - Barnabas' home. An encourager isn't scared to encourage his hometown in the way of Christ. No matter how close the friendship, an encourager seeks to speak truth. Along the journey there was a huge response to God's word and God worked miracles through Paul and Barnabas. At one Greek town, Barnabas was called Zeus and Paul was called Hermes, because he did all the talking. Encouragement is more about action than talking, doing than saying, and being than doing. The Greeks also recognized the leader of the two was the encourager. Barnabas was, in our terms, the "older, more mature" Christian [doesn't feel right saying that compared to Paul]. Anyway, the priest to Zeus brought them a bull and wreaths. Normally, when people pay me for religious services, like a wedding, a prayer, a memorial service, for preaching at a church - I'm pretty happy to take the money. The worker does deserve their wages. However, Zeus and Hermes weren't working for Zeus, they were working for Jesus. So Barnabas and Paul didn't take the bull. If you're hungry, a bull is a pretty attractive thing. If you want fame, a wreath is great to wear around town because people look at you. But if you want to glorify Jesus, don't take the bull. They went a step further - Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes and yelled at people to turn from their worthless things to the living God. Some Jews showed up and turned the crowed against Paul - stoning him and dragging him out of the city thing he was dead. But the disciples gathered around him and he got up and went back to the city. whew. that was close. Anyway, the next day Barnabas and Paul left - encouragers aren't afraid to help out in the worst of circumstances. Encouragers are also team players.
They took along a friend - John Mark, who would later cause them some problems. He left for Jerusalem, leaving Paul and Barnabas to complete the journey. The next time around Paul wanted nothing to do with him, but Barnabas, ever the encourager, did. And he took John Mark and went a different way. That's pretty much where the close attention to Barnabas ends. John Mark was later an encouragement to Paul, in prison at the time - Barnabas rubbed off. Later in Antioch Barnabas was pulled astray, along with Peter, and followed some Judaizers - he stopped eating with Gentiles. This is the big weakness of encouragers: being a people pleaser. The big lure: encourage people: affirm them, don't confront them. That's why Paul and Barnabas were a great team. Paul: he could confront. Barnabas: he could encourage. And neither of them cared about things, they cared about people. Our strengths, together, when we all say "count us in" grow stronger. God calls us to join Him and join His church and do our part. It doesn't have to be done alone. Life doesn't have to be lived alone. We all need some encouragement, and we need to encourage.
10.27.2005
10.13.2005
Running on empty minus one
Working through a theme called "count me in" [a response to god's love in Christ]; I've been challenged to sum up my life purpose and goal in a sentence. What would it be? It's a hard question to answer, especially at times when I feel like my life is going in 30 different directions and the demands are increasing on every side. But for a purpose - how about - loving God with everything. That sounds good, but can I do it. What about now, right now, I'm tired, frustrated, feel like I'm not connecting with others in conversation. What about now, I'm running on empty, and God is all about fullness.
Ephesians 6:10 is an odd kind of challenge: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Or better, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. Or, as some put it, be empowered in the Lord and in His mighty power. It all starts with one word of conclusion: finally.
After 6 chapters of ephesians Paul has just dealt with some of the hardest relationships we will ever encounter in life: marriage, children, and employers. Each one causes stress in unique ways, and the overarching call to the Christian in all of these relationships is: submint one to another. There is stress in relating to the opposite sex, whether boyfriend/girlfriend or husband and wife of 50 years. There's a beautiful mystery always inside the opposite, and loving them exposes that mystery. But sometimes life happens and it gets hard. Their affections stray, our eyes stray. We build emotional walls as boyfriends and girlfriends to protect us from hurt, and then they have to come down or else marriage doesn't have the intimacy it deserves and requires. And then there's divorce... it just hurts. How can we survive? be strong in the Lord.
An after thought of divorce is children. I've talked with a lot of adult kids whose parents broke the news at the worst possbile time, though there is never a good time for news like that. So instead of escaping the stress of a relationship all the anger and hurt is poured onto the kid's shoulders, and the parents do their best, but one usually ends up doing everything while the other becomes just like a child, shirking responsibility. Not just the financial sort, but the emotional, spiritual type of responsibility that only comes by journeying through life with your child, not on the phone or email. Kids also do things that make parents unhappy - we all have. We probably enjoyed it. I remember one time hiding a... well, that doesn't matter. Family life is hard.
And then, on top of all that, is work. Work usually drains some energy, if it doesn't you might find yourself without it very soon. And there are always other people to work with and sometimes they are all kinds of annoying, we'd rather lock ourselves in a cublicle and hide under the desk than spends 5 minutes talking to them. It can be draining, but there must be more than just trying to appease a co-worker or a boss. How does the toll-collector get motivated to go to the booth every morning? How does the janitor find joy in cleaning up a middle school locker room? How does a hospice nurse find hope? There can only be one place... Finally, be strong in the Lord. Faith in the Lord is the only place to find strength in difficulties. I've never been powerful enough on my own to overcome difficult times, especially relationship difficulties. It's required faith and humility and strength in the Lord. But being strong in the Lord is also about shining for God, who alone fills me enough to carry on when I'm empty. In many ways being empty is good - God's strength is that much more evident, all praise to Him.
Ephesians 6:10 is an odd kind of challenge: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Or better, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. Or, as some put it, be empowered in the Lord and in His mighty power. It all starts with one word of conclusion: finally.
After 6 chapters of ephesians Paul has just dealt with some of the hardest relationships we will ever encounter in life: marriage, children, and employers. Each one causes stress in unique ways, and the overarching call to the Christian in all of these relationships is: submint one to another. There is stress in relating to the opposite sex, whether boyfriend/girlfriend or husband and wife of 50 years. There's a beautiful mystery always inside the opposite, and loving them exposes that mystery. But sometimes life happens and it gets hard. Their affections stray, our eyes stray. We build emotional walls as boyfriends and girlfriends to protect us from hurt, and then they have to come down or else marriage doesn't have the intimacy it deserves and requires. And then there's divorce... it just hurts. How can we survive? be strong in the Lord.
An after thought of divorce is children. I've talked with a lot of adult kids whose parents broke the news at the worst possbile time, though there is never a good time for news like that. So instead of escaping the stress of a relationship all the anger and hurt is poured onto the kid's shoulders, and the parents do their best, but one usually ends up doing everything while the other becomes just like a child, shirking responsibility. Not just the financial sort, but the emotional, spiritual type of responsibility that only comes by journeying through life with your child, not on the phone or email. Kids also do things that make parents unhappy - we all have. We probably enjoyed it. I remember one time hiding a... well, that doesn't matter. Family life is hard.
And then, on top of all that, is work. Work usually drains some energy, if it doesn't you might find yourself without it very soon. And there are always other people to work with and sometimes they are all kinds of annoying, we'd rather lock ourselves in a cublicle and hide under the desk than spends 5 minutes talking to them. It can be draining, but there must be more than just trying to appease a co-worker or a boss. How does the toll-collector get motivated to go to the booth every morning? How does the janitor find joy in cleaning up a middle school locker room? How does a hospice nurse find hope? There can only be one place... Finally, be strong in the Lord. Faith in the Lord is the only place to find strength in difficulties. I've never been powerful enough on my own to overcome difficult times, especially relationship difficulties. It's required faith and humility and strength in the Lord. But being strong in the Lord is also about shining for God, who alone fills me enough to carry on when I'm empty. In many ways being empty is good - God's strength is that much more evident, all praise to Him.
10.12.2005
What's the deal with bread and wine?
I've grown up in a specific Christian heritage that views the elements of the Lord's Supper [or Communion] as physical symbols of a spiritual reality. I wholeheartedly agree with that view, and believe it to be Biblical. I live in a place where most disagree with me. They view the elements [bread and juice or wine] as physically the body and blood of Jesus. Coupled with this is a belief that taking communion is accepting the body and blood [the sacrifice] of Jesus and assures salvation. Dangerous ground to be treadding? Why?
1. Ephesians 2:8: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Salvation, then, is only by God's grace - which is represented in the Lord's supper - through faith. Faith in what? Faith in Christ: back up to Ephesians 2:6-7 and we see that we are seated with God in Christ Jesus in the heavenly realms, which is totally gracious. And ultimately this grace is in Christ Jesus: v. 7 reads "in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. The grace is expressed in Christ, the means of Grace is Christ, the object of faith, then, is Christ.
2. Okay, so Jesus is our salvation, He brings us to God, by His death and ressurection [I Peter 3:18]. So what is the Lord's Supper? Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have written record of the Last Supper, which is the model for the Lord's supper. Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, and breaks it - passing it out - saying "this is my body, given for you." and with the wine he says "this is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." The bread and the wine represent the sacrifice Jesus would [and now has] complete[d]. The Passover, which they were celebrating, was the time when the Passover lamb was sacrificed. The religious people all celebrated the passover, but they did not eat THE passover lamb, but representations of the lamb. They celebrated God's forgiveness and looked forward to the completion of the the sacrifice, which was completed in Jesus. So now, we look back in the Lord's supper to what Jesus has completed on the cross and in resurrection. Hence, Luke records Jesus saying "do this in remembrance of me." [22:19] The Lord's Supper, then, is a visual picture to remind the believer of what Jesus has done. The Bible does handle the subject in the Epistles as well. See "The Fundamental Significance of the Lord's Supper" by B.B. Warfield for more info. Check it at google.com.
3. Is the bread body and the wine blood? Jesus gives a hint of this himself: Matt. 26:29, and Luke 22:18 - He, Jesus, will not drink the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. So Jesus saw the wine as wine. Moreover, would Jesus need His own blood to enter the kingdom? Is He not God incarnate? Why would Jesus need blood, he lived perfectly and it's only by His blood that we have entrance. Jesus' view was that the bread and wine were representations. In Luke 22:16 he says "I will not eat it [bread] again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." Jesus, again, does not need His own body for salvation. He purchases and gives salvation because it's His. So he must be saying that the bread is physically bread, representing His body.
4. The Epistles reiterate that the Lord's Supper is in remembrance: I Corin. 11:24. There is a serious tone regarding the Lord's supper in Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthians, but it is about the spiritual nature. Taking the Lord's supper without thinking on Christ is judgment - there are no benefits without the requirements. The requirement is Christ and the benefit is the spiritual blessings, eternal life, God Himself, and the joy of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a physical picture of a spiritual reality [and the physical reality of the death of Christ - I Corin. 11:26, but it is a proclaimation of His death, not participation in it by eating the body or by eating the bread. It is proclaimed in the Lord's supper, and Christ's death is participated in by faith, just as His resurrection is joined by faith.]
4a. The wine represents the new covenant more than the blood. "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." I Corin. 11:25. The new covenant supercedes the covenant of the passover. In the Last Supper, the passover was completed and the new covenant commenced, and we celebrate it in the Lord's Supper today. The new covenant commenced with the death and resurrection of Jesus. We look back to that historical point in faith for our salvation, and the Lord's Supper points us that way. It doesn't save us, but it points to the Savior.
5. Also in Corinthians, Paul remarked that the church was gathering for the Lord's supper, but weren't really taking it: their spirits were wrong before God. Evidence of this was in the church's fight to be first at the table and getting drunk at the Lord's supper. Wine causes drunkeness, not blood. Spiritually, the Corinthians were not examining themselves and confessing sins and trusting Christ on the cross and celebrating in the Lord's supper - they were missing it's purpose. They took it to excess, and made a mockery of it. The Lord's supper is a valuable tool toward sanctification in the Christian's life.
1. Ephesians 2:8: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Salvation, then, is only by God's grace - which is represented in the Lord's supper - through faith. Faith in what? Faith in Christ: back up to Ephesians 2:6-7 and we see that we are seated with God in Christ Jesus in the heavenly realms, which is totally gracious. And ultimately this grace is in Christ Jesus: v. 7 reads "in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. The grace is expressed in Christ, the means of Grace is Christ, the object of faith, then, is Christ.
2. Okay, so Jesus is our salvation, He brings us to God, by His death and ressurection [I Peter 3:18]. So what is the Lord's Supper? Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have written record of the Last Supper, which is the model for the Lord's supper. Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, and breaks it - passing it out - saying "this is my body, given for you." and with the wine he says "this is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." The bread and the wine represent the sacrifice Jesus would [and now has] complete[d]. The Passover, which they were celebrating, was the time when the Passover lamb was sacrificed. The religious people all celebrated the passover, but they did not eat THE passover lamb, but representations of the lamb. They celebrated God's forgiveness and looked forward to the completion of the the sacrifice, which was completed in Jesus. So now, we look back in the Lord's supper to what Jesus has completed on the cross and in resurrection. Hence, Luke records Jesus saying "do this in remembrance of me." [22:19] The Lord's Supper, then, is a visual picture to remind the believer of what Jesus has done. The Bible does handle the subject in the Epistles as well. See "The Fundamental Significance of the Lord's Supper" by B.B. Warfield for more info. Check it at google.com.
3. Is the bread body and the wine blood? Jesus gives a hint of this himself: Matt. 26:29, and Luke 22:18 - He, Jesus, will not drink the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. So Jesus saw the wine as wine. Moreover, would Jesus need His own blood to enter the kingdom? Is He not God incarnate? Why would Jesus need blood, he lived perfectly and it's only by His blood that we have entrance. Jesus' view was that the bread and wine were representations. In Luke 22:16 he says "I will not eat it [bread] again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." Jesus, again, does not need His own body for salvation. He purchases and gives salvation because it's His. So he must be saying that the bread is physically bread, representing His body.
4. The Epistles reiterate that the Lord's Supper is in remembrance: I Corin. 11:24. There is a serious tone regarding the Lord's supper in Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthians, but it is about the spiritual nature. Taking the Lord's supper without thinking on Christ is judgment - there are no benefits without the requirements. The requirement is Christ and the benefit is the spiritual blessings, eternal life, God Himself, and the joy of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a physical picture of a spiritual reality [and the physical reality of the death of Christ - I Corin. 11:26, but it is a proclaimation of His death, not participation in it by eating the body or by eating the bread. It is proclaimed in the Lord's supper, and Christ's death is participated in by faith, just as His resurrection is joined by faith.]
4a. The wine represents the new covenant more than the blood. "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." I Corin. 11:25. The new covenant supercedes the covenant of the passover. In the Last Supper, the passover was completed and the new covenant commenced, and we celebrate it in the Lord's Supper today. The new covenant commenced with the death and resurrection of Jesus. We look back to that historical point in faith for our salvation, and the Lord's Supper points us that way. It doesn't save us, but it points to the Savior.
5. Also in Corinthians, Paul remarked that the church was gathering for the Lord's supper, but weren't really taking it: their spirits were wrong before God. Evidence of this was in the church's fight to be first at the table and getting drunk at the Lord's supper. Wine causes drunkeness, not blood. Spiritually, the Corinthians were not examining themselves and confessing sins and trusting Christ on the cross and celebrating in the Lord's supper - they were missing it's purpose. They took it to excess, and made a mockery of it. The Lord's supper is a valuable tool toward sanctification in the Christian's life.
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