Acts 9:20-31 | It's All About God's SonSýnishorn

Three years later and the disciples were still suspicious of Saul’s motives. And who could blame them? Was his supposed faith in Jesus nothing more than a plot? Was he proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God in an attempt to befriend them in order to have them arrested? Three years and reports from Damascus of his conversion still couldn’t dispel his reputation.

Acts tells us that after he fled Damascus (being let down from the city wall in a basket by night), he came to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples. But they wouldn’t have it. How could this man actually be a disciple?

It was Barnabas who stepped in. Barnabas was the Levite we previously met in Acts 4 who sold his property to give to the apostles to help those in need. Barnabas, this leader in the early church, risked meeting Saul. He risked his reputation by bringing him to the apostles, vouching for him, and how the Son of God Jesus became the center of his being. It’s telling that Barnabas’s given name isn’t even Barnabas. It’s Joseph. They called him Barnabas as a nickname. It means “Encourager,” probably because of times like these.

God puts each of us into situations where we can be an encourager or step in to help bridge a relationship, especially when a person comes to make the Son of God their center in contrast to their former way of life which speaks to the contrary. Barnabas stepped up. The result was the ministry of the man we’ll come to know as Paul. And Acts tells us that “the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”

God worked mightily through Barnabas. Don’t underestimate what God can do through you.

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