Real People, Real Faith Series
Barnabas: “Behind the Scenes” Faith
Ron Fast
[email protected] Copyright 2007 by Ron Fast
Intro
Imagine that you were in a dream. You had gone to bed on a full stomach. In fact, you had just had a mondo bamana split - you know, those yellow bamanas that hang on trees in big bunches and get eaten by big hairy monkeys. Anyway, before you hit the sack, you take a bamana and peel it (because the peeling tastes really bad, unless you are a monkey of course because monkeys eat the peeling too). Anyway, after you slice it, you lay it nicely in a long dish made especially for bamana splits. You get your fave ice-cream, dig out a scoop of it and slap it down on the bamana. Next you get out the can of whip cream. You shake it up and stick it up your nose and . . .oh. . . wait, you stick it in your mouth and press the trigger and ta-da, you get a mouth full of sweet whipped cream. You needed to sample it to make sure that it hadn't spoiled because you didn't want to ruin the bamana. You squirt some on the ice-cream. Next you get out the chocolate syrup and pour it over the whipped cream. Your masterpiece is ready for mass consumption. You grab a spoon, dig into the mountain of whipped-cream and ice-cream and of course, the bamana on the bottom. You shove it in your mouth. The spoonful is so huge that you barely get the whole thing in your mouth. Your mouth is so full that you almost gag but it tastes so good that you just start chewing and swallowing. After about 15 minutes of eating this most coolest dessert, you head to bed. You know what happens to you when you eat really super mondo really rich foods before you go to sleep????? You get really bizarre dreams, like dreams aren't bizarre anyway.
Anyway, you eventually fall asleep and you start to dream. You dream that you are a body part. Not like a head or a foot or a nose or something that you can see. You dream that you are. . . uh. oh-my-goodness, you dream that you are a stomach. Yuk with a capitol "Y". And the person that you are attached to is you. I know this is pretty weird but remember, you are dreaming, and not very much makes sense when you are dreaming. Anyway, you are dreaming that you just ate a huge bamana split. Next thing you know, you are now the stomach and you are watching the chewed ice-cream and smushed bamana, that now look like baby food, drop into you (since you are now the stomach). As soon as the dessert hits you, you start to squirt out some stomach acid and start to digest the food because that is what stomachs do. It takes you a while to digest the food because you just ate such a huge dessert and because it was sooooo good you take extra time eating it. After you finish digesting the food, you pass on the digested food (gross!) to the other parts of your digestive system which we won't even mention in this story.
Okay, you can wake up now.
So how could you get anything spiritual or even anything worthwhile out of this gross, bizarre story? Well, I'm glad you asked. You'll have to do this G-TRAX to find the answer.
Monday
Gross Body Parts
Read 1 Cor 12:12-31 – God talks about something that we all are very familiar with and uses it as an illustration of what all Christians should be like. What does He use as an illustration? HINT: Remember, we all have one of these.
Verses 22 and 23 are talking about what the Intro was about, the stomach and other gross body parts that we can’t see. What does it say about them?
Read verse 21 - Can you live without those parts? (I know this is an obvious answer but it’s not so obvious when you are relating it to your part in the Body of Christ.)
God used our bodies as an illustration of how all of us Christians are to view ourselves. God created each and every one of us. I feel sometimes like an unseen body part, like a stomach or a hair in someone’s nose. But as these verses say, no matter what part you are, you are an important part and without you the body would be incomplete. Think about that. How does that make you feel, knowing that without you the body of Christ would be incomplete?
Next time you think that you are unimportant to God, think about these verses.
Tuesday
Spiritual Gifts
Yesterday we saw that God used the human body to illustrate the "Body of Christ". The body of Christ is us, all followers of Christ, past, present and future. When God created each of us, He gave each of us gifts. Make a list of what you think are some of the spiritual gifts that God gave believers.
For what are these gifts to be used?
Does God give these gifts to all believers?
Let's take a look at what some of these gifts are and what they are used for. Read 1 Cor. 12:1-11.
First of all, who is the giver of these gifts?
In verses 4-7 it talks about "same Spirit", " same Lord", "same God". These are like really important verses about spiritual gifts. Why do you suppose these verses say, "same Spirit", "same Lord", etc? What is so important about these phrases when it comes to spiritual gifts?
Make a list of the spiritual gifts mentioned in verses 27-29.
Why does God give believers these gifts?
There are some gifts that are more visible than others. Brainstorm for a couple of minutes and write down some of the less visible gifts.
Are those believers with gifts that are more visible more important than those with the "behind the scenes" gifts?
Tomorrow we'll look more closely at Barnabas' gift and how important it was to the early church.
Wednesday
Barnabas
There are people in the Bible who are well known, like Paul, and Peter, and John. We all know that they were a very important part of the early church. There are others who were just as important to the church but are not that well known. Barnabas is one of those people. But as we will find out, he had a very important role in the early church. Let’s see who he is and why God included him in the Bible. I was trying to think of a nickname for Barnabas, like “Dave” for David or “Zak” for Zacharias but “Barn” or “Bas” or “Nabas” don’t work very well. We’ll just call him “The B-ster” . . . naw, that doesn’t sound too great either.
Read Act 4:36—What does Barnabas’ (I always thought it was kinda weird to put an apostrophe after an “s” all by itself. I think it’s like a dangling participle, it just hangs off the “s”.) name mean?
So I looked my name up on a web site and it said that my name meant “Judgment”. Okay, that’s a little scary. So am I supposed to be the next Terminator or someone that flame broils people? Well, that was a little depressing so I did another search and turned up this meaning: ”Rules with Counsel”. Okay that’s a little better. Another search turned up “Song”. So am I just a note on the page or am I an entire song or maybe just the chorus. Do I get to pick what song I want to be? In India, my name meant. . .uh. . .”queen”, now there’s a manly meaning. Makes me feel really special. Anyway, some people have names that mean really cool stuff. Barnabas’ name has a cool meaning and he actually lived up to his name. Actually, Barnabas wasn’t his real name. Read Acts 4:36—What was his real name?
Barnabas had lots of things going for him. Acts 4:37 and Acts 11:23-24 tells us what kind of heart he had. What do these verses tell us about him?
Thursday
Barnabas
Sometimes when people give stuff like money to a church, they make sure that everyone knows about it. Was Barnabas like that? Look at Acts 4:37 again.
What does that say about him?
Let’s go back to Acts 4:36 to see something else about him. What tribe was he from?
So what?? Who cares what tribe he was from? What’s so important about his tribe? Well, God had given this particular tribe a very important job. Read Deut 10:8 and Deut 18:1.
What was their job?
What does this say about him?
Barnabas was a true encourager. He devoted a lot of time to it. I’m sure he saw how much the people needed to be encouraged and he understood how encouragement could help the early church. He was a true servant. It seems that he was always thinking of others. Encouragers do that, you know, always putting others first and focusing on them rather than yourself. This is the attitude we all need to have.
Read Phil 2:1-12—What kind of attitude should we have?
Why is it so important to put others first?
Think about what Jesus said in His “Sermon on the Mount” in Matt 5:13 about being Salt and Light to the world. How does putting others first accomplish this or does it?
There are so many ways that you and I can make a huge difference in this world. Even though this world is huge and there are so many people, you and I can make a difference. All we have to do is put others first and start encouraging each other.
Friday
So What????
We've studied about Barnabas and his gift of encouragement. In fact, he was so into this encouragement thing that the people who knew him gave him a nickname that reflected his gift. Encouragement is one of those gifts that is not quite as visible as others, like teaching. But it's just as important. Some of us have gifts that are like the gift of encouragement and not very many people see them.
When a person starts thinking about his or her position in the body of Christ the church, it sometimes can be overwhelming. I think about this all the time. If I think about whom God is and how huge He is, I sometimes think to myself, "Who am I in God's huge plan? Do I even count?" Then I start thinking of the body of Christ, the millions of believers all over the world. Then I think about those followers of Christ who are very visible to the rest of the body, like Billy Graham and other men and women of God who have done huge things for God. Then I look at myself, being so small and not very important compared to those other great Christians, and sometimes wonder if God even knows I'm alive. Have you ever thought that you don't seem to be a very important part of the body of Christ?
Have you ever thought that you aren't the only one in the world that feels that way? Have you ever considered that maybe even great Christians once thought that they weren't very important to God's plan? I think that it happens more than we think it does. Maybe even Barnabas once thought that he wasn't very important.
Read Eph. 2:10 - What does this verse tell us about ourselves and how God views us?
Why do you and I exist?
Now read something King David wrote about who we are in God's eyes. Read Psalm 139:13-18. What do these verses tell us about our worth to God?
We need to remember that each of us are a part of God's huge master plan. He is the master chess player and we are the pieces on the chess board. If you and I didn't have a purpose in God's plan, then you and I wouldn't exist.
Let's step back in time, before the world was created, before the universe or even time or space were created. You are a fly on the wall in God's huge design room. In this room He keeps all of the blueprints for each and every believer that will ever be created. You see, before time even started up, God designed you and me. Every detail of who we are and what we are going to accomplish in this life has been designed by God Himself, by hand. Think of the body of believers as a huge puzzle and each one of the pieces represents one believer. Some believers are the edge pieces, some are the corner pieces and the rest are the inside pieces. If any of the pieces are missing, then the puzzle is incomplete. And of course, each piece fits into a unique place in the puzzle. It won't fit in any other spot. It will only fit in the place that the puzzle designer created for it. Each piece has those innie and outie thingies that only fit into certain other pieces. You can try to fit it in another part of the puzzle but it doesn't work. God created you and me as a puzzle piece that fits just exactly one spot in the puzzle. You can only be what God wants you to be and the coolest thing about God is that in order to fit you into the big puzzle, He had to design you just right. So that means that you had to be designed. God didn't let angels design you because they don't know the master plan. Besides He wouldn't leave such an important task to anyone else.
Just like Eph 2:8-10 says, we were designed to do good works. Imagine trying to use something that it wasn’t designed for. Back when I was growing up in India, I lived in a boarding school. This means that I lived with a bunch of other missionary kids and had house parents, people who were given the responsibility to be my parents because they were 700 miles away. One time I got the bright idea to use a toothbrush to clean something, I can’t remember what it was but I just happened to use someone else’s toothbrush to do some cleaning. I put soap on the toothbrush - not a very bright thing to do. A toothbrush was designed to clean teeth but not with soap. I can imagine the look on the person’s face when they tried to brush their teeth the next morning, not a pretty sight. Well, my house parents busted me, big time. My punishment was to brush my own teeth with soap using my own toothbrush. I never again used a toothbrush to clean anything except my teeth. In the same way, we should be doing the things that God designed us to do, doing good works. Encouragement is one of these “good works” because it builds up the body of believers. Think about the things that you do on a daily basis. Is encouraging someone else part of that?
Saturday
--Wrap-up Time – Are you a Barnabas
Barnabas figured out that God created Him to be an encourager. You know, one of those people who takes those five-pound weights off of other people by encouraging them. He isn't the only one who has been created to encourage. As important as Barnabas' gift was to the early church, I believe that it is just as important or even more important today than ever before. There are so many things that happen all around us each day that can bring us down emotionally. There is scary stuff happening all over the world. We need those who encourage more than ever. There are students in your youth group who need to be encouraged. There are students in your youth group who live very difficult lives because of the circumstances that they are in. But it's not easy being an encourager, especially when you need encouragement just as much as the next person.
Some people use the excuse, "Well God didn't give me the gift of encouragement." They use that as an excuse to not encourage others. That's the wrong attitude to have about gifts. Each of us have the responsibility to encourage those around us. Imagine what your youth group would be like if each person took the time to encourage one or two people each week.
Read 1 Thess 5:11, Heb 3:13, Heb 10:25 - All of these verses talk about encouraging others. Are these suggestions or are they commands to us?
Each one of us should be in the business of encouraging people. Is there someone that you hang with that you know needs encouraging? I'll bet there are several people who could use a good dose of encouragement. Write down the name of the person that you are thinking about right now. They are on your mind for a reason.
In what ways could you encourage this person this week?
You don't have to know the details in a person's life in order to be able to encourage them. You can encourage someone by just saying "Hi" or ask them how their day went or ask them if you can pray for them.
Remember God knows the details of the lives of those you hang with. If you pray and ask God for the names of those who need encouragement, He will let you know who those people are. Then it's your responsibility to act on that information. Be a Barnabas this week to someone.
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Ron Fast is the author of G-TRAX Devos, Biblical devotionals for youth. G-TRAX Devo’s are now available online at www.youthministrydevotionals.com in an interactive form. He has over 9 years of experience working with Junior High and Middle School students. His personal mission is “to make the Bible relevant to today’s youth”.