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series: God's Servant in the World previous message: Life Together

Jesus said at the end of his life, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). The supreme test of Christian discipleship is love.

Andy Burnham has described his experience in another church some years ago as seeing sheep become carnivorous over time. And out of all the sheep in the world, it seems that carnivorous sheep reproduce most quickly. I am guessing that the vast majority of us at some time or another have had our hearts broken in a Christian setting when love failed.

In the text we are going to study, the second half of Acts 15, the issues of love and struggle in the church are front and center. Lessons from this text will help us to avoid the kind of placidness that sometimes is mistaken for love. A lukewarm church that doesn’t care about anything or attempt anything can have a degree of harmony or perhaps emotional equilibrium, but that’s not love. Real love expressed in churches in which the gospel is taken seriously will often include struggles and questions, but we will find that Christ is in them and we can love one another in spite of it all.

That clearly is the experience that we have been reading about so far in Acts 15. There are two references to tension among believers in this chapter. The first is the one that we looked at in verses 1-11 (see Discovery Paper 4763), where it says a sharp dispute occurred. Teachers had come from Judea and declared to the Gentile believers in Antioch that they had to be circumcised according to the customs of Moses. Paul and Barnabas publicly disputed with them. Great dissension arose, and the church sent a delegation to the apostles and the senior leadership of the church in Jerusalem to ask for a resolution.

The second clash of Christians that needed to be resolved by love is recorded in verses 37-39, which we will consider in this message. There we are told a sharp disagreement arose between two old friends and comrades in Christian service, Paul and Barnabas.

Let’s review the first disagreement and what we have learned so far. The argument that led to the Jerusalem council centered on issues that are obscure for most of us, issues of Jewish laws, including circumcision. With Peter and James as leading spokesmen, the council determined that God looks on the heart (not bodily markings) and that Gentile believers should restrict exercise of their freedoms out of love for their Jewish brothers and sisters.

Now let’s observe as the delegation returned to Antioch. We pick up the story in verses 22-35:

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to
Antioch with Paul and Barnabas--Judas called
Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, and they sent this letter by them, “The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in
Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the
Gentiles, greetings.
Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved
Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth.
For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication;
if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well.
Farewell.”
So when they were sent away, they went down to
Antioch;
and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.
When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.
Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message.
After they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out.
[But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.]
But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also, the word of the Lord.

(Verse 34, in brackets, probably wasn’t in Luke’s original writing, but was added later to answer the question of why Silas was still in Antioch in the paragraph to follow.)

Note that at least in this context, those who were calling for Gentiles to adopt the patterns of Jews were fellow Christians. There would come a time in the life of the church when advocates of Jewish ritual for Gentile Christians would clearly not be fellow believers--indeed would be regarded as enemies. But these folks were credited as being brothers and sisters in Christ. They believed that what they were saying was from the Lord. When the council took place, their point of view was rejected for a number of good reasons, including James’ argument from the Bible, Peter’s declaration of his own experience, and the apostolic word that Peter and others had to offer. This was a struggle between genuine Christians trying to understand God’s will.

The outcome was that the leaders in Jerusalem wrote a letter and sent Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch with two men who could help them with explanations. We can make a few observations about the result of the Jerusalem council and the journey back to Antioch.

A triumph of love

Some observations about the letter: It says in verse 22 that the apostles, the elders, and the whole church had come to settled agreement as to what word they would offer in the letter. It even says that it seemed good to the Holy Spirit. They concluded from their unity and from the impression of the Spirit among them that God himself had endorsed what they were doing. They started out with tension and struggle and disunity, and they ended up being of one mind.

Second, we can observe that the senior leaders in Jerusalem sent both a letter and a delegation to Antioch. They could have just sent Paul and Barnabas back with the letter, but they went farther. They sent them back with a couple of their own leading men who also had prophetic gifts and servant hearts. Both the letter and the letter-carriers helped resolve the conflict: articulate declaration in writing; and somebody sent along who could express the love language that was behind it, bring a word of encouragement, and embrace those who had been at odds with each other. God cares that we tell the truth and that we tell it in love.

Third, there is something subtle we can note here: some of the people who were part of the disagreement are named, and some are not. I believe Luke was a thoughtful enough historian to have done that on purpose. In verse 24 it says, “Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls….” Those folks aren’t named anywhere in this text. Two of the people who are named in these paragraphs are Judas who was called Barsabbas and Silas, who had come with an irenic purpose and to bring a blessing. The letter also refers to “our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The folks who were making a positive contribution are named here. The ones who were wrongheaded and managed to cause trouble aren’t named. I believe this was a subtle way of reminding folks whom to listen to: it was Paul and Barnabas, and now Judas and Silas, who were telling them what they ought to hear. The others should not be listened to.

So the first argument ended in triumph for the cause of Christ. Great dissension and open arguments led to questions, and then to a council in Jerusalem in which people told their stories, listened to the Bible, listened long to each other, wrestled hard with God, and ended up in agreement. There was unity in Jerusalem in sending the letter, and there was joy in Antioch upon reading the letter. So we see the triumph of Jesus’ call to love one another.

Let’s look at the second dispute. This one is different, and we have much to learn from it as well.

Friends at cross-purposes

Verse 36:

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the
Lord, and see how they are.”

Paul wanted to retrace their first missionary journey, beginning in Cyprus and going on to the regions of Cilicia and Galatia (see Discovery Papers 4759-4762). He proposed a return trip to encourage these folks, and presumably they planned to disseminate the Jerusalem letter, although that is not mentioned here.

Verses 37-38:

Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also.
But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in
Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

Back in chapter 13, little was made of John Mark’s leaving the ministry team, but apparently he hadn’t simply decide to go back home. In the words of this text, he had deserted them. His courage had failed. He was Barnabas’ nephew, and he was clearly a generation younger than these two men. Paul remembered well the difficulties caused by young John Mark’s choice to leave.

Verses 39-41:

And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and
Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to
Cyprus.
But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord.
And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

The word translated “sharp disagreement” is a very strong word in Greek. We are intended to visualize Paul and Barnabas yelling at each other, perhaps swearing at each other. They were both rough-and-tumble guys, not exchanging blows, surely, but embroiled in real anger, real division, and real pain over travel plans and Mark’s future.

Consider what we know about the prior history of Barnabas and Paul. Barnabas had come to Christ in the earliest days of the church, following the descent of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. He was part of the first generation of those who believed mentioned in Acts 4. In the years that followed, Barnabas became a key figure. He was appreciated for his obedience and humility of heart. His given name was Joseph. Barnabas, or “Son of Encouragement,” was his nickname. In Acts 11:24 he was described as “a good man who was filled with the Holy Spirit.” If I were to pick one word to describe Barnabas, it would be depth. He was a man of deep conviction who had walked long with the Lord, who was unflappable in any circumstance.

Barnabas could see good in other people when they couldn’t see it in themselves. Twice he had been used to open doors to bring Paul into fellowship and service in the church. When Paul first returned to Jerusalem after his conversion, he was feared by those who remembered his days as a persecutor of Christians. Barnabas welcomed him. Years later it was Barnabas who brought Paul from Tarsus to Antioch as a teacher and church leader. Barnabas was patient enough to believe in good results that took a long time to achieve. God was at work and Barnabas had confidence that God would complete the good work he had begun.

Paul was different. He came late to the party. He started his Christian adventure by jailing Christians and assisting at their execution. Paul lived his whole life on fire. When he hated Christ, he hated him vigorously. When he loved him, no one ever loved him more. Paul was brilliant. The word I would use to describe him, in contrast to the depth of Barnabas, is passion. There was never a moment to lose. Paul knew what it was like to be saved by grace, and he was determined that, having experienced such grace, he would never stop speaking of it.

With patience and passion, Barnabas and Paul made a marvelous team. They had already been sent out together once by the Holy Spirit. They had traveled and founded believing communities together. Their complementary strengths in ministry served them well. So as they contemplated this return trip, why did they fall into an angry disagreement? These two were so well suited to minister together, so different, so long in their friendship. What were they fighting about?

Let me attempt to reproduce the problem for us.

Different callings, passionate commitments

First of all, Paul believed that the mission of the gospel was so important that nothing should be allowed to hinder the word of God from going places where it hadn’t yet gone.

A couple of months ago we got a dog from a dog rescue agency. I was amazed at the hoops you have to jump through to adopt a dog. It’s almost harder than adopting a child! You have to sign papers, prove that you are serious, have home interviews, make promises of how you will treat the dog, and so on. In talking to these people I realized that they take dogs very seriously. They love them very much. It’s very important for them to put a dog they have cared about into a setting where they can predict that it will thrive and be loved.

Now, Paul was passionate about something much more serious: the gospel of Christ. “We are going to go hard places, we are going to face tough things. And it’s unthinkable to me that we would jeopardize the success of something so important by including a young man who is not up to the challenge.”

Barnabas, on the other hand, believed in people. He believed especially that young people fail a few times when they don’t know any better (and that older people fail when they ought to know better), but you can still believe in them. When he and Paul were yelling at each other, he might have said that to Paul. “Have you never failed? Didn’t I believe in you when no one else would? God doesn’t throw people away!”

They were both right.

Do we believe what Paul believed about the mission of the church and how important it is to go forward with the gospel? Brother Andrew was here in the spring, and one of the things he said about the dangerous things that he does is that it is not so important to go the first time into a Muslim stronghold. It’s whether you go the second and third time that they measure. It’s whether you will keep coming and expressing the same kind of love, whether you believe what you say, how you act.

Those who work with sick and dying people and abandoned children and those in places of real darkness in the world are going to be asked by these folks, “Are you going to be here next week, and the week after? Will you stick with us?” A lot of folks come in at Thanksgiving and give needy people food, but at the first of December they’re gone. The question for those with a calling to go to hard places is, are you going to keep going, and not quit when you are threatened or tired?

Paul’s point was, “If we go, we’ve got to go with a whole heart. We can’t go with reservations, uncertain of whether we can stick it out.” He was right. In 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a he wrote, “[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” In 1 Peter 5:8 Peter wrote, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We are in real war, and decisions with eternal consequences are being made. This is serious business. That’s what Paul yelled at his friend Barnabas.

And Barnabas was yelling back, “God loves this boy, and I will not abandon him! I have spent my life finding people no one else wanted and believing in them, and I am not going to give up on this guy.” And Barnabas was right, too.

So they parted ways. And that was exactly the right thing to do. Barnabas went to Cyprus. Going back to the easier place that was his home region, he could get Mark back on his feet.

Paul also made a great call: he chose Silas, who was going to be one of the greatest stalwarts in the history of the New Testament, to accompany him. They were going to face real dangers. Silas was the right man.

Sadly, what Paul and Barnabas couldn’t do was say, “I see your point of view. God bless you. I agree with you that your choice is right for you.” There is no record that when they split up, they were able to wish each other well.

But the end of the story is different. The mission that Paul and Silas took off on changed the world. They eventually took the gospel to Europe, closer to Rome, where the gospel would finally be preached at the end of Acts. They saw barriers broken before them and churches planted.

The young John Mark, once a deserter, ended up writing the first of the gospels, the book of Mark, on which the other synoptic gospels almost certainly were based. He had an important future in the cause of Christ. Paul and Barnabas each succeeded in what they attempted, to the glory of God. At the end of Paul’s life, he and John Mark were restored to close fellowship. In 2 Timothy, the final book Paul wrote, when he was about to die, of all the people he could have asked to come and visit him, he said, “Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service” (4:11). They were reconciled, and their love for one another was established again.

Real love isn’t easy

Love triumphed, but it wasn’t easy. It didn’t happen quickly. We aren’t given the resolution in Luke’s telling of the story in Acts. It says that the church blessed Paul and Silas and sent them on their way. I think they did the same for Barnabas and Mark. It doesn’t say that, but only because Luke was focused on telling Paul’s story, and not the journey to Cyprus. The church probably recognized that they were both doing the right thing and eventually they would recognize it themselves.

Jesus said we have to love each other. That’s the mark of our faith and the strength of the church in the world. We may stumble and fall and say hard things we have to repent of, and try to get it right the next time. I want to conclude with some points of application.

First, I worry sometimes that churches like ours don’t have enough disagreements, perhaps because we aren’t passionate enough about either truth or love. Honest disagreement (without anger) can be a sign of health in a congregation.

Second, we need to repent of division where it exists. Perhaps there is a brother or sister with whom you are actively at odds. Perhaps a chasm exists because of a prior argument that keeps you separated from a fellow believer. Asking for help and humbling ourselves honors Christ. Love covers a multitude of sins.

The last thing I would say about both the struggle at the beginning of chapter 15 and the one at the end of the chapter, is that they happened out in the open. The longer I live the clearer it is to me that the arguments that really destroy churches are the ones that happen in secret, politicking that goes on behind the scenes, in which no one ever admits anything is going wrong, but discord is sewn and sins and bad attitudes are covered up. Paul and Barnabas yelled at each other with people listening. The church had a public argument in Antioch, and they were able to go to Jerusalem and get it resolved, because they believed that God would work among them as long as they weren’t hiding what they were doing. Secret resentments and discord are poison.

Scripture quotations are taken from New American Standard Bible, ã 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Catalog No. 4765
Acts 15:29-41
25th Message
Steve Zeisler
June 8, 2003

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series: God's Servant in the World previous message: Life Together