Two Are Better Than One
Acts 11:19-26
2 We read in Mark 6:10-11
10Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you
leave that town. 11And if any place will not welcome you or listen
to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against
them."
“If they welcome
you, stay, and do a good job. If they reject you, leave the place.”
Do you see how
important is encouragement in such places? Jesus knows that the field will
not be an easy one. There will be some doors open and some closed. It is
important that we will have a Godly positive attitude towards the ministry, so
God can use us for His kingdom.
I learn from Barnabas, the “encourager”. His name means “son of encourager.” This was not
his real name; it was his nickname. No wonder he had this name, because he had
a wonderful role in the biblical story as encourager.
Barnabas is the one
who encouraged “Saul”, (Paul) to be introduced to the disciples as a new convert to
Christianity.
Barnabas is
the one who encouraged the people of
“When he arrived 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. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and
faith, and a great number of people were brought to
the Lord.
Then Barnabas went to
He saw new possibilities in Saul. Yes, Saul. When everyone was afraid of
Saul, the persecutor of Christians, Barnabas
risked his life to meet Saul. Everyone was reluctant about Saul. Yet Barnabas
obeyed God and went to search Saul. I wonder what would happen to Paul if there
was no Barnabas.
They worked together. Many came to the Lord through these two individuals. Two are
better than one; this was a reality in their life. When there were doors open
and they were ready to serve. When doors were closed
they changed their direction towards other places.
Barnabas knew how to work with Paul, then
with Mark. Mark joined them on the first missionary
journey. Mark was weak; in the middle of the trip he
left the missionary trip. Barnabas did not give up from Mark. Mark
joined Barnabas and the two separated from Paul. Paul went with Silas, while
Barnabas went with Mark. This doubled the effort of evangelism. The end is
interesting. Mark became a goof friend of Paul’s and joined Paul for the
mission. Barnabas, the encourager had a major role in doing God’s work in this
dark world.
“If
they welcome you stay, and do a good job. If they reject you leave the place.” We can learn from Paul and Barnabas. They did not get hooked up on intellectual and moral arguments.
We sometimes spend too much time on these issues and forget the main, the
essential. They told the Good News of Jesus Christ. They gave the news boldly
to the people. They did not waste their energy in reacting to people.
I learned this over the years. I learned that not
everyone will appreciate what I do. Therefore, I teach, preach, and
love the congregations that I serve. Some will love it, some will hate it,
some will not react, and some will leave the church. I need to be responsive to God’s call, and not
reactive. Because this work is, His work and we are just instruments. Jesus
is asking his disciples to move on. Be faithful to God, preach, sow, and move
on. Do your part, do not worry a bout the rest, do your part. If we stay, react
and argue the result is high blood pressure, health problems, and burnout!
I read an interesting illustration about how different
people react:
A story is told about a man who was on a
luxury liner and suddenly he falls overboard. He can't
swim and in desperation he begins calling for help. Now it just so happens that
there several would be rescuers on deck who witnessed the incident. The first
man was a MORALIST. When he saw the
man fall overboard he immediately reached into his
briefcase and pulled out a book on how to swim. He now tossed it to him and he yelled: “Now brother, you read that and just follow the
instructions and you will be all right.”
The man next to him happened to be an IDEALIST. When he saw the man fall overboard
he immediately jumped into the water and began swimming all around the drowning
man saying: “Now just watch me swim.
Do as I do and you will be all right.”
The person next to him happened to be a member of the INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH. He looked upon
the drowning man's plight with deep concern. He yelled out:
“Now, just hold on friend. Help is on
the way. We are going to establish a
committee and dialogue your problem.
And then, if we have come up with the proper financing, we will resolve your dilemma.”
The next man on the deck happened to be a representative of the
The next man on board happened to be a REVIVALIST. By this time the drowning man
was going down for the third time and desperately began waving his arm. Seeing
that, the revivalist yelled out: “Yes brother, I see that hand, is there another? Is there another?”
And finally,
the last man on deck was a REALIST.
He immediately plunged into the water, at the risk of his own life, and
pulled the victim to safety.1
One year ago I started
serving at CACC. It was a wonderful
year. I enjoyed your encouragement and your support in
many ways. We need to go further. We need to hear what God is asking us to do.
Jesus sent his disciples two by two for a mission. Jesus fed them spiritually,
and continued feeding them through the Holy Spirit. They were first encouraged
by Jesus, then they were encouraging each other. They
learned not have excess “luggage’. They responded to God’s calling. Today we
need more of you being available for growth and ministry: growth in Spiritual
journey and being available for different ministries. Sunday School,
Youth Ministries, Bible studies. I am mentioning these
because I see an emergency in these ministries. Pastor is alone. Pastor can not do miracles if we do not go two by two to our
ministries. It is time to act and not react. It is time to be like the realist,
who trusted in Jesus when he or she jumped into the water to rescue the person.
Therefore let us continue this wonderful ministry two-
by-two. That is today’s challenge.
1 Staff, www.eSermons.com.