People of the world are often accused of living for the moment and not thinking about the future or eternity.
Generally speaking, this is an accurate assessment.
We know that if an ancient Soviet satellite fell from the sky through the roof of this building that we would instantly be with the Lord.
And I would hope that everyone here would actually be exited about that opportunity.
And the Lord has not yet translated His saints.
Realistically, the rapture might not take place until our grand-children’s day, rather than ours.
For example, do you ever worry about what you would do, if your pastor decided to move to another church?
Or have you ever considered the question: who will pastor your children and grand-children?
Perhaps you haven’t given that much thought, but there are a lot of grey-headed pastors who have.
They look at their churches and they don’t see men, willing or qualified to take up the reins of leadership.
They look at other churches and they see their friends retiring, and not many young men to fill their shoes.
And what about the not so great churches of history?
Does the Bible tell us how old he was?
Did he worry about the future of the First Baptist Church of Antioch?
Probably not, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t looking in that direction.
Barnabas wanted to find some help for the great work in Antioch.
Perhaps he was thinking about someone to pastor that work when it was organized or after he left.
“Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul.”
You might say that Barnabas enlisted Saul as an apprentice.
He was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia; making him a Roman citizen by birth, as well as an Hebrew.
We know that he wasn’t an only child; at the very least he had a married sister.
I would like to think that there were others in his family by that time who were children of God.
And his father was just about as stalwart a Pharisee as any man on earth – a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Then at some point in time, Saul moved or was sent to Jerusalem. Did the whole family go?
While there his junior high school classes were taken at the feet of Gamaliel.
As we’ve said before, this young man received a very capable Old Testament education.
Ah, but his secondary education was special and one for which he received a full scholarship.
It occurred on the road to Damascus when the Lord Jesus sovereignly interrupted Saul’s original plans.
The student changed majors in a hurry and started down a new and narrow road.
Then came graduate school.
The first course took place in Damascus, learning from God’s saints there.
And then there were special classes in the deserts of Arabia, probably down near Sinai.
After coming back to Damascus he spent a very short time in Jerusalem.
What do you suppose Saul was doing when he was in Tarsus?
Remember that he had already had well over 3 years of seminary training.
Do you think that he spent the next few months or years, tending sheep or dressing vineyards?
I think that there is reason to believe that Saul was traveling around Cilicia preaching the gospel.
Correctly, or incorrectly, you might say that he was playing in minor-leagues, hoping to be called up.
He was honing his skills, picking up some new pitches and training hard every day.
But he was still not quite ready yet for the ultimate work to which the Lord had called him.
The Lord our General Manager, knows when we are ready.
Before the missionary ever arrived “a great number believed and turned unto the Lord” – verse 21.
And then under the preaching of Barnabas “much people was added unto the Lord.”
It’s important to remember that Antioch was the third most important city in the Roman Empire at that time.
Only Rome and Alexandria exceeded it in size and prosperity.
Most of the Jews who resided there were Hellenists, Grecian Jews.
As the Christian refugees started spreading the gospel, it was primarily among those Greek-speaking Jews.
But it was only a matter of time before the Hellenists started telling the Hellenes about Christ.
And now, Barnabas was surrounded by Gentiles, and some of them were asking about Christ.
He not only needed help, but he needed someone who was more familiar with evangelizing these non-Jews.
Not only that but the membership was reaching unmanageable proportions for just one man.
There was a considerable need for more teachers, preachers and workers.
And as a result there was a great opportunity for someone like Saul.
Did Barnabas think back on the great potential that he had seen in Saul?
Do you suppose that he recognized his own limitations and could see that Saul might make up some of what he lacked?
Was he even willing to be eclipsed so that the Name of the Lord could be magnified?
What do you suppose was Barnabas’ relationship to Saul was during this time?
Do you suppose that he was one of the people in Jerusalem who urged Saul to escape to Tarsus?
Do you suppose that they had kept in touch somehow during the intervening months?
Had they been hearing rumors about one another’s ministries?
“Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: & when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch.”
When Luke said that Barnabas went “seeking” Saul, he used the same word that he used in Luke 2:44 when he described Mary and Joseph’s search for the 12-year-old Jesus, missing after the Passover.
Neither Jesus nor Saul were trying NOT to be found.
Actually, they were probably BOTH about their master’s business.
Barnabas went to Tarsus and was told that Saul had gone to some other community to tell them about his adventures in Damascus and Jerusalem.
It may have taken a few days for Barnabas to track down his young friend.
Both Barnabas and Saul began preaching and teaching regularly.
Soon there were others that joined them: “Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen.”
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that while Barnabas was exhorting the saints to cleave unto the Lord, Saul was telling the Gentiles that Christ is the Saviour of all nations.
And together they were exhorting the Jews to “repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”
According to John Kitto and John Gill, around the turn of the first century the population of Antioch was about 200,000 and they say that as many as half that number were Christians.
Putting various sources together historians have compiled the names of the pastors of that church into the third century.
In other words, the work that the Lord did through Barnabas was highly successful.
But that man wasn’t looking for ministerial fame and fortune.
He wanted a mission-minded church.
Where would Christianity be today, if this verse wasn’t true?
Without worrying about the future, it is important that even pre-trib rapturists prepare for the future.