1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.Acts 13:1
Assembled in Antioch was an “A” team of saints, described as “prophets and teachers.” Without the aid of the Holy Spirit it would, in my mind, be near impossible selecting the first missionary team. I would have shipped out the whole lot of them given their diversity. Who better to take on unknown uncharted waters than this group. with Barnabas in the lead and Saul bringing up the rear. But the Spirit knew what “skill set” he needed in the field, and he did the selecting.
2While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 4So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucid and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper. Acts 13:2-5
In a new work, careful attention to the Spirit’s leading is vital. You might say adding John Mark to the team was blatant nepotism, but to have a “helper” of his pedigree and giftedness seemed to make sense on paper, but he did not continue on with them at Perga, but left for familiar environs in Jerusalem. I might speculate that Mark was not particularly gifted in service, but was a budding prophet and teacher himself. Paul needed him as a helper or attendant, so things didn’t end well, at least in the short term. Since the process of selecting Barnabas and Saul was so deliberate and Spirit led, are we to gain some insight from this account when we are assembling a team to venture out? Was his selection not subjected to the same rigors? In the grand scheme of things, the gospel was furthered, but not without pain. This matter clearly proves that “God causes all things to work together for good.”
With that out of the way, we see that the Holy Spirit saw in Barnabas and Saul a good blend of encouragement and exhortation. Certainly Barnabas would need to exhaust all of his patience with Saul now Paul because of his dogged determination and stubbornness. I am told that they want police officers and soldiers to run towards the fire, not away from it, and Paul demonstrated time and time again that he was of the former ilk. He typically rushed in and had to be forcibly drug out! For example, read this wild account from later on in Acts with its setting in Ephesus.
29The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia. 30And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. 31Also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater. Acts 19:29-31
As for Barnabas, when contemplating a second missionary journey with Paul, he again wished to take along John Mark, which was met with such strong opposition from the apostle they split to go their own separate ways. (Acts 15:36-41) I’m sure that Barnabas wanted to rehabilitate his cousin by giving him a second chance. Sons of Encouragement do things like this. Somehow, although we do not hear of Barnabas again in scripture, Mark was “rehabilitated” to the point he was with Paul in later years, and of course he penned his own gospel.
The encouragers of the world seem to only get a shout out in their eulogies, well after the fact.
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