Acts chapter 15 and verse 32. And Judas and Silas, being prophets
also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words and
confirmed them. And after they had tarried there
a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto
the apostles. Notwithstanding, it pleased Silas
to abide there still. Paul also and Barnabas continued
in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many
others also. And some days after, Paul said
unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every
city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how
they do. And Barnabas determined to take
with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not
good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia,
and went not with them to the work. And the contention was
so great between them that they departed asunder one from the
other. And so Barnabas took Mark and
sailed unto Cyprus. And Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he
went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. Well, this is an interesting
passage that we have at the end of this chapter, Acts 15, and
it comes at the conclusion of a period of time when it seems
that many things were going well in the church. There had been
a dispute about the religious worship and practice of the new
believers who were Gentiles and whether or not they were obliged
to come under the law of Moses and fulfill all of the ceremonial
and ritual obligations of the Jews. and Peter and John and
James together with Paul and Barnabas and a large number of
people had debated this issue in Jerusalem and come to the
conclusion that the Gentiles were free from these obligations. And we remember from last week
that a letter was sent back with a man called Judas and Silas
together with Paul and Barnabas and a number of others who had
travelled from Antioch to Jerusalem for the council of the conference. And these men all went back to
Antioch with this good news about the decision of the apostles
and the church at Jerusalem. and things seemed to be going
well. We are told in the opening verse
of our passage here, Luke tells us that Judas and Silas were
preachers, and so here were another two preachers, or they're called
prophets here, who were able to contribute to the growing
church at Antioch and were able to help and minister to the people
there. Just a little note about that
word prophets. Sometimes we think about a prophet
as one who foretells the future, but also a prophet is one who
foretells, not just foretells, but forth tells, declares and
speaks. And in the context here, what
it most likely means is that they were able interpreters of
the Old Testament prophets. So they were able to take the
Old Testament prophecies from Moses and from David and from
Isaiah and the messages that had been given in the Old Testament
times, which was the scriptures that the believers had at that
time and show how the Old Testament spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so for a period of time these
two men together with others stayed and preached in Antioch. And later on, the church at Antioch
said, well, you've done your job, you've served your purpose,
you've helped the church, you've brought this message and the
letter, you've supported our brethren here. If you would like,
it's now time for you to go back to Jerusalem. And Judas headed
back, perhaps to where his home was. But we discover that this
man Silas decided that he would stay in Antioch. And this is the beginning of
a period of time in which we come to know a little bit more
about this man Silas. And it's perhaps the work of
the Holy Spirit that showed him there was still work to be done
here and work that he would be able to contribute to. We're
told that Paul and Barnabas as well, they continued to preach
and that there were many others who were preaching there at Antioch
as well. Perhaps some of those who were
mentioned in chapter 13, verse 1, when Antioch began to be established
as a centre for Christianity. Men like Simeon and Lucius and
Menaen. It may well be that that Lucius
there is Luke, the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, and
so if that is correct then he too was at Antioch at this time. And in verse 36 we're told that
Paul desired to return and visit the churches that he had established
during his first missionary journey. Now, let me just, if I can... Oh, there's Mr. Thomas Binney. Did I show you
Thomas Binney's picture? I think I probably didn't, but
there he is anyway. And let me see if I can show... So that was where the early church
had been scattered to. And we see the Mediterranean
there with these different countries around about Asia and Silesia
where Paul had gone in his first missionary journey. And that
was the spread of the believers after the trouble in Jerusalem
with the Jews. And then we discover that, here
we are, I'm sorry. There we are, that's the one
I wanted. Then we discover that Paul and Barnabas went on what
was called their first missionary journey. So here's how they did
it. They went from Antioch, they went into Cyprus, they went up
into Pamphylia. It was at Pamphylia that John
Mark decided that He didn't want to go on the journey. Perhaps
it was going to be too difficult, too rough. Perhaps he was too
young. Perhaps he had some other issues that prevented him from
being committed to the task. So at Pamphylia, he returned
and went back to Jerusalem, which is just out of sight there down
in the bottom right. And Paul and Barnabas had made
that circular tour up around Antioch and Pisidia, Iconium,
Lystra and down to Derby. And then they went back through
those cities again on their way home and came back to Antioch. And now Paul says that he wants
to return again and he wants to go again to visit the churches. But there was a problem, because
Barnabas, he wanted to take John Mark. John Mark was his nephew,
of course, and Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with him again,
and Paul wasn't happy about this, because John Mark, having left
them once and returned home, could well let them down again,
and this appears to be the apostles' view. And we're told that the
contention was so sharp that Paul and Barnabas departed asunder. And that seems a very sad outcome
for a not very great matter. These are men who had walked
shoulder to shoulder for many years. They had laboured in Antioch
together for years. They had contended together against
troublemakers who sought to undermine the gospel. They had travelled
together in very dangerous places where they had been assaulted
and abused. And now over the head of this
issue, it seems as if they had a contention that could not be
resolved. And from this we learn that men,
even the best of men, are simply men. The great doctrinal principles
had been settled and yet the passions of men's temper ran
high and separation and division followed. And it's always sad
when there is unnecessary falling out and I don't know whether
there's blame on both sides or one side has to be blamed or
not, but we have no record that these two men, Paul and Barnabas,
ever made up again or even if they ever met again. And that
shows us, I think, that we must always be looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ and not putting too much trust in other things. Because even the best men make
mistakes and let their tempers cause trouble. But the Lord Jesus
Christ is always faithful, always true, and always kind to his
people. And so we see that if we look
at this map two again, we see that there was division. And
that little one there beside Antioch, down in the sort of
right hand side of the map there, shows that Barnabas and John
Mark headed for Cyprus, but the Apostle Paul and Silas, they
went north up into Cilicia and they went round. Do you remember
we talked about the Cilician gates and how that from Derbe
on his first missionary journey, Paul would have been able to
go back to Antioch very, very quickly, just perhaps, I think
we said a bit over 100 miles or so. but a relatively easy
journey to go from Derby to Antioch. But Paul and Barnabas had gone
all the way back round again and taken the long way home,
as it were. Well, now, instead of heading
to Cyprus, where John Mark and Barnabas were going, they went
north into Cilicia. and headed in to begin the missionary
journey, what's called the Second Missionary Journey. And we may
not be able to show this map again in future weeks. So let's
just take a moment and see where that went to. They went to Derby,
they headed up to Lystra, back into Antioch and Pisidia again,
Iconium's there. And that was the three little
towns, Iconium, Lystra and Derby, together at the head of that
arrow. And then they went up through Phrygia and to Troas. And then we'll discover as we
listen to the story that there was a change made. Instead of
dropping back down south and heading back, there was an extension
made. And Paul went over into Macedonia
and then down through Greece and to Corinth and then ultimately
back to Ephesus. before heading back to Jerusalem
again on that big arrow seven. So while the initial plan was
to go and visit the churches that had been established during
the first missionary journey, in fact, that had a little bit
of a dog leg in it and there were more churches visited during
this journey. This time, of course, with Silas
and not with Barnabas. But there we are, that's the
picture of the map as it were. But I just wanted to leave a
couple of thoughts with you. And it's this, that even although
these men had fallen out, I wonder if we can't draw some good things
from this argument as well. Because the Holy Spirit overruled
even the feelings of these men. in order to extend the work of
the gospel. For now, there were two missionary
endeavours underway. We don't know very much about
that one concerning Barnabas and John Mark because Luke went
with Paul. He was part of the group that
travelled with Paul and Silas. Perhaps not immediately, but
later in the journey, he comes and he meets up with them. and
also the Gospel is going forward in different places at that time,
despite the weaknesses of men and women. And I think we should
take great comfort in this, that even the problems and the difficulties
that afflict and affect, and even we could say damage the
Church, in the short term are used by God the Holy Spirit in
order to accomplish his greater purpose and the greater good
of his church and people. And there is a little postscript
to this, a little PS. If you see PS at the bottom of
a letter or a note, it's to say that, oh, there's something else
that I want to mention just at the very end. And there's a little
postscript to this story. Because while we do not hear
any more of Barnabas, Barnabas goes off the scene now and we
don't hear any more of this fine preacher of the gospel. We do
hear a little bit more about John Mark over whom this division
took place. He grew up as young people do
and perhaps Paul was a little bit too quick in dismissing John
Mark but we don't know exactly what his reasons were. But John
grew up and he matured into a faithful minister in his own right and
We do know that he and Paul became good friends in later years and
indeed co-workers together in later years. He was with Paul
during the Apostles' first imprisonment in Rome. Some of us who have
been listening to the Wednesday night sermons know about that
imprisonment and John Mark was there with the Apostle in Rome,
he was part of that entourage. And we read about that in Colossians
4, verse 10. And during another period of
imprisonment that Paul had, he wrote a letter to another young
man called Timothy. And he says in his letter to
Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, verse 11, only Luke is with me. We think that's the Lucius that
was at Antioch as well and who wrote the Acts of the Apostles.
He says, only Luke is with me. Take Mark, that's John Mark,
and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the
ministry. And I think that's lovely. That
reconciliation and the fact that the Apostle Paul could testify
in later years that John Mark was profitable to him for the
ministry is something worth knowing and noting. Sometimes when we
are young we make mistakes. We all make mistakes, old and
young. But sometimes when we are young
and we make those mistakes, we let people down and we cause
trouble and we cause offence and maybe we even cause division.
Division in family, division amongst friends. But sometimes
when you're young you don't have a perspective on these things
and this is true that time heals and forgiveness is always to
be sought and reconciliation is desirable. So we should seek
to have that experience of forgiveness and to be reconciled to those
whom we have hurt and perhaps who have hurt us. And to remember
this, that if the Lord Jesus Christ loved and has forgiven
us, then we ought to love and forgive one another. And so here's
a nice story, a good story that comes out of perhaps an unfortunate
incident of this division and the breakup of Saul or Paul and
Barnabas. So thank you very much for listening.