Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 11, 2023
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras

Feast of St. Barnabas
A Saint To Imitate

When he came and saw the grace of God he was filled with joy, and he urged them all to remain resolute and true to the Lord; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith; and a great many people were added to the Lord. So he went to Tarsus to find Saul, and when he found him he brought him to Antioch; and for a whole year they assembled in the church where they taught and instructed a great many people. And it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:23-26)

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Saints Days are rarely celebrated among Lutherans; the practice is seen as too Catholic and there is still a strong visceral reaction against such things even 500 years after the Reformation. That is unfortunate because remembrance of the Saints has great provenance in the church. Indeed our own Lutheran Confessions teach us that we should thank God for the lives of all faithful and just people, imitate their faith, and learn how to live holy lives from their example.

Our Confessions are very clear, however, that while we venerate the Great Christians of the past such as St. Barnabas, that we do not worship them, pray to them, or ask them to pray for us. We pray exclusively to our God, in the name of our Savior who commands his church to pray to the Father, in his name, and promises that the Father will hear us.

Now that said let us turn our attention to this great saint of the church, even as we thank God for him, imitate his faith, and model our lives after his.

We hear in the Acts of the Apostles 11:24 that Barnabas was, “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” And though his birth name was Joseph, the Apostles renamed him “Barnabas” which means “son of consolation.”

He was a man who understood people’s souls, and was able to cure their spiritual illness with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a bedside manner rarely seen; so that everyone who was fortunate enough to encounter St. Barnabas, was the better for it. Barnabas taught them about the forgiveness of their sins, the love of God in Christ, the peace that surpasses understanding, and they were always stronger, calmer and more confident in their faith for having encountered this good man.

Barnabas was a Jew born on the Island of Cypress, and a man of some means, because when he heard Peter’s preaching at Pentecost he left his old religion behind, dedicated his life to the gospel; then sold his land and gave the proceeds to the fledgling church. May we all be so generous in supporting the church of Jesus Christ, “the ground and pillar of the truth.”

Later, when an offering was gathered in Antioch for the saints in Jerusalem where there was a famine – it was Barnabas who was entrusted to deliver a great deal of cash to relieve their empty bellies. May we all be so trustworthy when it comes to financial matters.

And so this man who was “full of faith and the Holy Spirit” very quickly became a pillar of the church. When Saul the Persecutor was converted to Paul the Apostle no one believed that his conversion was real; and the original apostles were afraid of him, because he was a blood-thirsty persecutor of the church. And so it took a good man like Barnabas to introduce Paul to the other Apostles – Paul who then went on to be the church’s greatest teacher, missionary and author of nearly half the New Testament. Inspired writings that are still heard in the church today.

But the story doesn’t end there. We learn in Acts 11:22 that a contingent of missionaries from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch preaching the gospel of Jesus not only the Jews, but also to Gentiles! This news was an eleven on the ecclesiastical Richter Scale because the first Christians thought that Jesus had only come to redeem the Jews, and no one else.

But, thank God, that was not the case. But the gospel of salvation from sin, death and devil is for the whole world. For every man, woman and child including those who are not sure whether they are men or women. For they are especially grievous sinners, captives of the devil, in need of strong, strong salvation. And they are welcome here. Welcome to repent like the rest of us, and believe the same glorious gospel that cleanses us from the otherwise indelible stain and stink of sin, and teaches us to live pure lives to the glory of our God..

Yes. This occurrence, preaching to the Gentiles, was so far out of the orbit of the earliest Jewish converts that they sent Barnabas to Antioch to see what was happening there; because if the reports were true, then the Gentiles were receiving the “Lord and Giver of life,” even as were the Jewish converts to Christ. And this meant that the cross of Jesus truly did “take away” the sin not only of Jews, but of the whole world. Of all who would repent and be baptized.

It was not for nothing that our Saint who started life as Joseph was renamed Barnabas, which means the Great Encourager. Because when Barnabas arrived in Antioch and saw the grace of God at work in the lives of otherwise lost souls, the Bible tells us that “he was glad!” Gratified to see God’s mercy at work and rejoiced with the angels in heaven. And moreover that he urged them all to remain faithful to the Lord with a steadfast heart; demonstrating once again that he was “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”

The next thing Barnabas did was go to Tarsus, which was Paul’s home town. There he searched for Paul and when he found him returned to Antioch with him, and there they stayed, Sts. Barnabas and Paul, for a whole year. And so it is no wonder that Antioch very early on became one of the greatest Christian centers; and it was there, we read in Acts 11:26 that the “disciples were first called Christians.”

What did our saints do for that year in Antioch. Scripture informs us that they “met with the church and taught a great many people.” But to hear 11:26 in English does not do it justice. They did not just “meet” as if our Great Saints Barnabas and Paul were conducting Bible studies, conferences or seminars Rather the word Scripture uses is (the verbal form of) the word “synaxis” which is the Greek name for the early part of Christian Worship. What we call the “Service of the Word” Everything from the Invocation to the blessing after the sermon.

So for a whole year they carefully taught the church of Antioch how to worship God. They taught Divine Liturgy, the Sacraments, the right interpretation of Scripture. They provided them prayers to offer and doctrines to believe. They taught them the Christian way of life; ordained clergy and taught church polity, and they did such a superb job of it that a young man named Ignatius who grew up in this church, later became its bishop, a martyr for the faith, and a church Father so great that he is still read and revered today.

They also did what the Disciples did in today’s gospel. They expelled demons form people’s lives, freed them from their addictions and woke them up from their demonically-induced coma’s; and they healed their diseases by anointing them with holy oil even as the church still does today.

There is much more to say but let us close by recognizing the red paraments and vestments today. Red is the color the church uses to remember the blood of the Holy Martyrs. The blood that St. Barnabas shed for the sake of the gospel. From this we too should learn that anyone who loves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake, and the gospel’s sake, will find life.

Which St. Barnabas did.

So will we.