Encouragement is one the greatest needs of the world. Encouragement has been described as ‘oxygen to the soul.’ Encouragement will lift you up when you are down. Encouragement will give you the strength to go on when you feel like quitting. Today in countless schools, colleges, homes, families and workplaces so many people are having to cope with discouraging words and discouraging circumstances. In such an aggressive and increasingly polarised world, Christians and local church communities need to be counter cultural people who build others up rather than pull others down (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
One of the greatest churches in the New Testament was the church at Antioch and it grew rapidly because of the power of encouragement (Acts 11:23). Antioch was the third biggest city in the Roman Empire with a population of around half a million people. It was a melting pot of Western and Eastern cultures, and a centre of the arts, superstition and immorality. Yet it was here that a few Christians started a very large church that was to become a new base for the rapid, global expansion of Christianity. This was a church that experienced great growth. They had exceptional leaders and really knew how to pray and fast. Yet it was the ministry of encouragement and the experience of encouragement that helped this great church to get established. In this story we can learn what it means to encourage people.
1. Encourage people by making the effort to connect with people (Acts 11:19-24; 4:36)
2. Encourage people by recognising what God is already doing (Acts 11:23; Galatians 5:6)
3. Encourage people by ministering to their hearts (Acts 11:23)
4. Encourage people by helping them look to beyond their past and release them into their future (Acts 9:27; Acts 11:25-26)
5. Encourage people by continually sharing God’s word with them (Acts 11:26)
Apply
1. Encourage people by making the effort to connect with people (Acts 11:19-24). In a very bad time of persecution, some very good things were happening, which put great responsibility on the leaders of the Jerusalem church to respond well. The leaders were very wise. They knew that the new believers in Christ would have much to learn, but that what they needed above all was to be encouraged in their faith. They needed established Christians who would lead them forward with kindness and love. This is a significant issue for every church today. Many people who decided to attend church for the first time never returned because of the lack of warmth shown to them. Yet the love and acceptance shown in a church to a group of hippies in the 1960s started the Jesus Movement impacting America and beyond. That kind of character was needed in Antioch, and the apostles knew Barnabas was the right man to send to represent them. Barnabas was well named (Acts 4:36) as Barnabas means “son of encouragement.” Although Jerusalem was 300 miles away from Antioch, the church leaders knew they needed to send an ambassador of encouragement to establish personal contact. If we also want to encourage people, we must draw close to them, visit them at home or in the hospital, or go for a coffee. In an age where we can text, make phone calls and Zoom, there’s nothing more encouraging than making direct contact with people and giving them the gift of your presence.
2. Encourage people by recognising what God is already doing (Acts 11:23). God’s grace had been seen in the numbers of people who had truly received the good news of Jesus as Saviour and Messiah. They had much to learn but they had already discovered a lot about God’s mercy and love. When Barnabas first arrived, he focussed on what God had already done, not on what was yet to be done. That’s a very big lesson to learn if you want to encourage people. Don’t focus on how far you still must go in your development as a Christian; recognise how far you have already come. Legalistic people always focus on what you still must achieve; you must pray more, do more, give more, always more…But grace people focus on what has already been done through Jesus at the Cross and in His dealings with you to date. New Christians especially need to hear this message. It’s so easy to be discouraged by failure and feelings of inadequacy. In the early church there were false teachers who said that to be a true Christian you had to keep all the Old Testament rules which were very heavy. But as Paul later wrote to, it’s all about relationship with God and one another, about real godly love and grace (Galatians 5:6). People were encouraged by Barnabas because he focussed on the positive not the negative.
3. Encourage people by ministering to their hearts (Acts 11:23). We must reach people’s hearts not just their heads. What’s the point in just knowing truths about God’s love and mercy, if you have never personally experienced this? John Wesley was an Oxford University don and a preacher, but it was only when ‘his heart was strangely moved’ within him that change came to his life. It’s only when our hearts have been touched that we can truly minister to the hearts of others and encourage them. Barnabas emphasised to these new Christians that Christianity is all about knowing more of the love of God in their hearts and to stay true to that love. Let’s be more concerned to touch the hearts of people rather than winning arguments with people.
4. Encourage people by helping them look to beyond their past and release them into their future (Acts 9:27; Acts 11:25-26). Barnabas played a major role in the development of the man who was to become the outstanding leader of the early church, the apostle Paul. As Saul he had led the persecution of the first Christians. He was a nasty man with a violent past and plenty to feel guilty about. He even described himself as the chief of sinners. No wonder that some Christians felt suspicious about him. But Barnabas was the man who believed that Saul had really changed. He saw great potential in him. Not only did he introduce him to the apostles, but he went looking for him to bring him as a main speaker to this big new church in Antioch. We too need to receive new Christians and encourage them that their past will not determine their future. No matter what mistakes you have made, no matter how colourful your past, God has a plan to bless you and to bless many people through you. God specialises in taking great opponents of the gospel and making them great ambassadors of the gospel.
5. Encourage people by continually sharing God’s word with them (Acts 11:26). Barnabas and Saul both knew the Scriptures and they spent a whole year making sure that the new Christians understood them too. If you also want to stand strong in life, you must become strong through daily reading and focus on the Word of God. We should give much more attention to God’s words than people’s words. There’s nothing more powerful to challenge your lifestyle and a contemporary, pride-centred worldview. There’s nothing like God’s word direct you, protect you, build you and comfort you. Encouragement can take many forms. Today you can be encouraged to know that God loves you and wants to bless you. And in turn you can become a blessing to many by becoming a great encourager like Barnabas.
