Acts 11:22-24\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.\u00a023\u00a0When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.\u00a024\u00a0He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit\u00a0and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cNews of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch<\/i>.<\/span>\u201d The leaders, who were the Apostles and James (1 Corinthians 15:7, Galatians 2:9<\/b>) the half-brother of Jesus through Joseph and Mary (Matthew 13:55, Acts 1:14, Galatians 1:19<\/b>) the mother of Jesus, sent Barnabas to check out the explosion of growth that was happening in Antioch.\u00a0 As we have noted, Antioch was a city full of gentile non-believers who lived in the midst of much idol worship.\u00a0 Yet, in the midst of this, God brought believers from Cyprus and Cyrene to ignite the dynamite message of the Gospel.\u00a0 So Barnabas, the encourager, was sent to find out if indeed the Gentiles were truly becoming born again and if they were, to encourage them to grow in the right teachings of Jesus.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 Barnabas arrived and saw what the grace of God had done.\u00a0 He saw what God had done.\u00a0 Yes, God chooses to use human believers to spread His Word, but no human believer ever caused any other human to believe.\u00a0 Only the love of God, offered through unmerited favor known as grace (that comes only through Jesus) saves. \u00a0People share the Truth of God, but God is the one that prepares the hearts of mankind and calls those hearts to the foot of The Cross and saves them.\u00a0 All this is of God.\u00a0 If a carpenter uses a saw or an axe to cut wood, either way the credit for the work goes to the carpenter.\u00a0 In the same way we, the tool, takes no credit for the work.\u00a0 Without the hand of God we are like a saw laying on a table waiting to be used.\u00a0 A saw cannot get itself off the table and without a human hand cut lumber.\u00a0 In the same way we can do no work unless the hand of God is using us as a tool.\u00a0 Family, as we know, to God be the glory (Romans 11:36, Galatians 1:3-5<\/b>).\u00a0 Let us never appropriate any, not even one little part of God\u2019s glory, to ourselves.\u00a0 That is unacceptable to God (Isaiah 42:8<\/b>).\u00a0 All the glory belongs to God and even the slightest effort, or desire on our part to claim glory that belongs to God has its roots in the darkest of places (Isaiah 14:12-17<\/b>).\u00a0 To God alone be all glory!\u00a0 Only God does the work and only He gets the credit.<\/p>\n When Barnabas saw God\u2019s handiwork then joy filled his heart and he was eager to encourage the new converts to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.\u00a0 Here is all we need to become \u201csaved.\u201d\u00a0 We must declare with our mouth that Jesus is our Lord and truly believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10<\/b>).\u00a0 Family and Friends, God has truly made it simple for us to be saved.\u00a0 Know that Jesus is the Son of God, who came to be God in the flesh, so that He could save every person (who would believe in Him), that He died for our sins and was risen from the dead and now calls us all to believe in Him and follow Him to Heaven.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 Jesus calls all to believe in Him, to love Him, and to follow (obey) Him.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 Very uncomplicated.\u00a0 It is men that complicate things.\u00a0 Just like some in the early church, with right intentions, tried to convolute the simplicity by which God has given to men to be saved.\u00a0 Jesus broke down what a person needed to do to two commandments and He said that everything else that a man does as homage to God is encapsulated in those two verses.\u00a0 Those two commandments are to first, foremost, and far above anything else, love God with all that we are.\u00a0 The second is to love each other as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40<\/b>).\u00a0 If we truly love our Father God then we will love and honor His son.\u00a0 No good man welcomes another into his home who dishonors his wife and children.\u00a0 Neither does God allow anyone into His house who does not love and honor His son.\u00a0 It is part of loving God.\u00a0 Jesus is the door to Heaven (John 14:6<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0 Barnabas, though he surely taught them from scripture, did not tell them to memorize scripture to continue enter into the love of God through Jesus.\u00a0 He told them to remain true, to be faithful to Jesus and to do so with all their hearts.\u00a0 All who receive salvation from God have loved Jesus and were excited to meet and know Him.\u00a0 Keep that fervor for Jesus.\u00a0 Stay on fire.\u00a0 Stay excited.\u00a0 If we are on fire, if we are excited, then that will produce a hunger for Word of God that will grow us closer to God and grow us in the truths of His Word.\u00a0 But love of and for God is the root of our relationship with Him.\u00a0 Let\u2019s stay honeymoon-in-love with God and never let that fade, but instead grow into a mature love that can never be broken.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit\u00a0and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Notice that, as is often done, God pointed out that Barnabas was filled with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Again, it is important to understand, that all who love Jesus have the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Every believer is filled with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Then why is it important to note that Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 It is clear to all who have not allowed the mud of wrong doctrine to blur their vision, that there is the further happening of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 When we come to the Lord, the Holy Spirit comes and makes His home within us and He stays with us forever.\u00a0 But the scriptures, and certainly in the book of Acts, it is clear that there is also the dynamic empowering of the Holy Spirit that is different than the receiving of the Holy Spirit at new life.\u00a0 Not different in kind, but different with cause.\u00a0 So it is noted that Barnabas was \u201cfull<\/i>\u201d of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Something powerful.\u00a0 Something Pentecost-like, that was different, and above, than what happens at spiritual awakening.\u00a0 Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith and so, a great number of people were brought to the Lord.\u00a0 Tools used by the Lord do not set up self-idols within those who are brought to the Lord.\u00a0 No, unbelievers are brought to foot of cross to gaze up at Jesus.\u00a0 It is there the evangelist tells the non-believer to look up and behold his Savior.\u00a0 The evangelist says don\u2019t look at me or anyone else, look up and see what Jesus has done.\u00a0 Then the non-believer is taken to the empty tomb to see that the crucified Lord is no longer there.\u00a0 Next the non-believer\u2019s eyes are pointed up to the sky, that Jesus ascended into, and told Him that Jesus ascended to be with the Father and that He is coming back so that all of His people can forever be with the Father and He throughout eternity.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we tools do!\u00a0 And we are blessed to be used.\u00a0 To God be the Glory!\u00a0 To Him and only Him!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 11:22-24\u00a0\u2013\u00a0News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.\u00a023\u00a0When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.\u00a024\u00a0He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit\u00a0and faith, and a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,129,1969,103,100,101,94,17,10],"class_list":["post-1655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-corinthians","tag-galatians","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1656,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions\/1656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}