Sermon: Positivity

Acts 9:26-27

             The title of this sermon, Positivity, is not a real word.  If you put it in a word processor program it would show a red squiggly line under it.  Positivity is one of the 34 themes used by the Gallup in their Strengths Finders work.  Gallup has  found that people are much more engaged in their work when they are allowed to work from their strengths.  Positivity is one of the themes that the Gallup corporation uses to describe people to have it in your top 5 themes is rare.  I married a person who has Positivity as her number 2 strength.  Let me share with you how Gallup defines positivity….

             “People who are especially talented in Positivity have an enthusiasm that is contagious.  They             are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.”

I like the word contagious because a great deal of work has been done recently demonstrating that moods of leaders are contagious and can spread to everyone in the organization even though they may never see the leader who is spreading the mood.  Positivity definitely describes the person of Barnabas who was mentioned in our scripture reading this morning.

           Barnabas was part of the early church and most of the details of his life we gain are from the book of Acts.  He was born a Jew, a Levite, and was raised on the Island of Cyprus and apparently by the time of the early Christian Church’s beginning was fairly wealthy.   When he first joins the early church he is known as Joseph or some bibles may have the Greek version of his name, Joses.  Joseph was a strong believer in the early church, so much so that he sold a field and gave the proceeds to the apostles.  He was such a positive person that the apostles changed his name and called him Barnabas or “son of encouragement” or in our terms Mr. Encourager, I like to refer to him as Mr. Positivity.  Imagine, if you can, that CCB’s Church Council called you and said that you new name was “Mr./Ms. Son/Daughter of Encouragement” or Mr. or Ms. Positivity.  How would you look with that new name on your lanyard that you wear to church?

          Barnabas always saw the good in people or the situation.  In what seemed like quite a controversy (Gentiles being converted to Christianity) the early church at Jerusalem made a wise decision to send Barnabas to investigate this situation as we will see. This controversy could have easily divided the church; this is where Mr. Positivity, Barnabas, lived and actually excelled.  I have seen some church disputes over the most trivial matters.    My list of the top reasons that I can remember are:

1)  One church had two hymnals-the red and the green book and some members would only sing                  from their preferred hymnal.  The origin of the red and green hymnal preference depended upon your “charismatic” leanings; the red book had more movement oriented songs which the green hymnal crowd did not appreciate.

2)  The color of the carpet-some members wanted a green carpet and some wanted the burgundy carpet-the burgundy carpet crowd won but the controversy existed for years after the carpet had worn out.

3)  The history of our own church has a controversy regarding the color of the church door which was painted a different color than the traditional white.  Didn’t they know our church door had always been white?  The red door was soon painted over with the traditional white but the story is still told some 40 years later.

4)       The preacher is either too boring, too long winded not inspiring…etc.  Nothing is new here, the New Testament In Acts 20:9 tells the story of a man falling asleep while Paul was preaching and fell out of third story window.

Those are the top reasons that I have experienced in church disunity.  The early church faced some real challenges just for survival.  Hymnals and carpeting had not yet been invented, but things were happening which could have split the early church and forever ceased its existence.  Gentiles were being added to the congregation and a persecutor of the church was about to become her greatest evangelist.  This is where Barnabas came into the story.  Without his knack for Positivity and encouragement the Church might have remained a small subset of Judaism and Saul might have become better known for making tents than evangelizing a large portion of his know world.

Barnabas had three great attributes that every church needs.  He had a great ability to discern and see the true value in a movement and in a person.  Barnabas was also a great developer of people or what we would call a mentor.    Finally, Mr. Encourager was humble and let others take the limelight at the appropriate time.  First let’s talk about his ability to discern or determine genuine people and movements.

           In Acts 9:26-27 we hear that Saul, the great persecutor of the church, has done an about face and wants to be a preacher and evangelist for the cause of Christ.  This was all well and good, but at the time who could really trust him?  He had been so zealous in his pursuit of the Christians.  He was a fanatical Pharisee who was so pious and religious that he earnestly wanted to stamp out the early Christian Church.  Along comes Mr. Positivity, and guess who his old seminary buddy was?  Yes, Barnabas was a classmate of Saul’s when they both studied under Gamaliel.  Barnabas spent some time with Paul and recognized the genuineness in both Saul’s conversion and his message.  Brother Saul the Pharisee had become Paul the preacher.  It took Barnabas to discern and see the genuineness in Paul conversion and message.  Barnabas could see what many could not. I like the Webster definition of discernment…”means a power to see what is not evident to the average mind.”  That is what Barnabas had a great ability to do see what so many others could not see.  He could see the diamond in the rough.  Many saw and heard Paul and thought "persecutor," Barnabas saw and heard Paul and saw a great evangelist in the making.  Without a Barnabas there might not have been a Paul -- and oh what would we be missing today if Paul’s message in the Bible were missing from our New Testament?

Barnabas also discerned the voice of God working in a young preacher by the name of John Mark.  John Mark was a cousin of Barnabas’ who had been on a missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas and apparently got homesick and abandoned the mission field to return home.  We read in Acts 15 that Paul did not want John Mark to accompany them on the second trip.  He felt that since he abandoned them on the first trip that he was not cut from the right material to make a missionary and denied him travel with them on this trip.  Barnabas saw real potential in John Mark and they set out together without Paul.  Some years later John Mark would write his own gospel account which you have in your bibles.  You know this as the gospel of Mark.  How fortunate are we that Barnabas saw the potential in this young preacher and gave him another chance.

            Discernment is truly a spiritual gift and is listed with the other spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians.  Many times I have seen discernment used in a negative way. Someone does not like the minister or the music and begins to find fault, they describe this as “discerning the spirits”. We ought to look more at the example of Barnabas and follow his example of discerning.   He looked at someone and saw the potential that no others could see.  Barnabas saw the preacher in the persecutor and he saw the gospel writer in the homesick boy.

            Secondly Barnabas was a great mentor of people he touched.  Mentoring is another great gift that the church needs; she cannot survive and grow without strong mentors.  Barnabas took Paul under his wing and helped guide him during the early days of his ministry.  He also took the young preacher/evangelist John Mark and guided him on the mission trips which helped John Mark eventually become the great gospel writer.  Mentorship has strong roots in the New Testament.  At our church here Brookfield we still continue this tradition.  New confirmands are assigned a mentor who guides them in the faith and prepares them to enter the church as full participants.  In business it is a normal practice to assign someone one or several mentors who have more experience in the business world and guide them in the early part of their careers.  Mentors and mentees both benefit from the experience.  Mentees gain valuable insight and knowledge from the more experienced mentors.  Think of Timothy’s life as a new pastor and how he was able to grow mightily under the tutelage of Paul.  Mentors also gain from helping their mentees by sharing their experience they feel encouraged and validated by sharing their experience.   Dr. Howard Hendricks once said that every Christian should have three individuals in their life: a Paul, a Barnabas and Timothy.  A Paul who is older and more experienced to act as your mentor, a Barnabas who is your soul friend who keeps you honest and can see things in your life that no one else can, and a Timothy whose life you are helping to build.  We would all benefit from having a Paul, a Barnabas and a Timothy in our lives.  Finally let’s explore the third characteristic of Barnabas: his humility.

           Barnabas was a person of great humility.  If you trace the mention of his name in Acts it appears that Barnabas is mentioned as the lead character until chapter 14.  Luke lists the characters as Barnabas and Saul until chapter 14 then the listing becomes Paul and Barnabas.  Barnabas had lost his top billing and the focus switches from Barnabas to the ministry and work of Paul.  I don’t think that bothered Barnabas in the least.  He was letting God work out his plan for Paul’s life and Barnabas gladly stepped aside to let Paul bask in limelight.  Barnabas saw early on that God was going to work in a mighty way to send salvation to the Gentiles and that his seminary friend Paul was the man for the job.

           Speaking of humility, it is one of the surprising leadership traits that Jim Collins found in researching his book Good to Great, a follow up of Built to Last.  If you are not familiar with the book it is a research project on what makes good companies move to become great companies.   He researched a number of companies that had made the transition from solid performers to outstanding performers year after year.  When studying the leaders of these companies he found something surprising and unexpected.  The top leaders or CEOs of these companies were self-effacing and modest.   When Collins and his group interviewed the people who reported to these top leaders they heard common words such as humble, quiet, shy, reserved and self-effacing to describe their behavior.  This was a surprise to the researchers and shocks us that great business leader of companies who made it from good to great display such humility.  This exactly describes Barnabas, he was not a larger than life hero figure.  He is barely mentioned in Bible, yet his impact on Christianity has been significant as we look at how he influenced Paul and Mark.

 So where does that leave us today?  What lessons can we draw from looking at the life of Barnabas? 

 1)       Don’t let the magnitude of the problem cloud your vision.  Sometimes the problem seems overwhelming and unsolvable.  I am sure that some in the early church saw the salvation of Gentiles as a real threat to the church and something that needed be stopped.  Paul and Barnabas saw God at work and responded accordingly.  They got on board early with the movement of God’s hand and welcomed the Gentiles into the church.  Be involved in the solution and not constantly focused on the problem.  Pray and open your heart to God’s will and His willingness.

2)       Sometimes Barnabas is not so easy to recognize.  He or she may not be the most vocal person in your congregation.  You may have to seek them out.  Look for Mr. /Ms. Positivity and you will find them.  I know of several Barnabas in our church and they are not always the most vocal in a crowd, but when you get them alone they are the one most encouraging thoughtful people you would ever know.  It may require that I get to church function earlier to catch Barnabas, but the wisdom that I gain from that person is more valuable than the 30 minutes I have invested.  Seek Barnabas out; sometimes he or she comes in unexpected ways.

 3)      Demonstrate Positivity yourself.  Always be in an attitude of gratefulness.  I can never express enough gratitude for the few people who have encouraged me after a lesson or message that I have delivered.  Look for opportunities to praise or encourage someone.  You will be surprised how many you will find.

I will close with the first verse and chorus of an old gospel song, “Keep on the Sunny Side of Life”.  

There's a dark & a troubled side of life
There's a bright, there's a sunny side, too
Tho' we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view

[cho:] Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us ev'ry day, it will brighten all the way
If we'll keep on the sunny side of life.

My wish is that I continue to become a bit more like Barnabas each day.

Thanks be to God for this good news.  Amen.