Bible Fellowship Teaching Plans

Bible Fellowship Teaching Plans

Paul and Barnabas Go Separate Ways

Acts 15:36-41

May 6, 2018

PREPARATION

> Spend the week reading through and studying Acts 15:36-41. Consult the commentary provided and any additional study tools (such as a concordance or Bible dictionary) to enhance your preparation.

> Determine which discussion points and questions will work best with your group.

> Pray for the upcoming group meeting, your teaching, your group members, and their receptivity to the study.

HIGHLIGHTS

> Series Theme Aim: The Holy Spirit empowers flawed people to overcome obstacles, establish His church, and take risks to bring the gospel to the whole world.

> Biblical Emphasis: Paul and Barnabas have a sharp disagreement over whether or not Mark should go with them on their second missionary journey. The disagreement could not be resolved so they split up, doubling the number of mission teams being sent out.

> Teaching Aim: It’s OK to disagree as long as we don’t disengage. Don’t let disagreements with other believers stop the work God is doing through you.

> Memorize: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14, ESV).

INTRODUCTION

As your group time begins, use this section to help get the conversation going.

• Have you ever had a serious disagreement with another Christian? What was the issue? Was it ever resolved?
• Were there ever any disagreements in the early church? Should there ever be disagreements among believers?
• What does the Bible mean when it calls Christians to live in unity? Does that mean we should never disagree?

As disciples of Jesus, we are to be unified. In John 17:11, Jesus prayed, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Later in the New Testament, Paul encouraged Christians to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).

However, disagreements are going to come. Whether it’s the style of music we should use in church or where we should send our mission teams this coming year, there will be Christians who will disagree on the best course of action. How should we handle those situations? The early church faced the same problem. In fact, even close friends such as Paul and Barnabas were not exempt from having a serious disagreement. And yet, how they handled that disagreement provides a lesson we need to learn.

UNDERSTANDING

Unpack the biblical text to discover what Scripture says or means about a particular topic.

> Have a volunteer read Acts 15:36-38.

• Why do disagreements develop between believers?
• What was Paul’s suggestion to Barnabas? What was the cause of their disagreement?
• What could have been some of Barnabas’s arguments for his position? What reasons did Paul give for his position?

The first thing to note in this story is that Paul’s idea was a good one. Acts 13 and 14 record Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey. On this journey they traveled across the island of Cyprus and then passed through some cities in Asia Minor. They did not spend a significant amount of time in any one place, but instead focused their energies in sharing the gospel. Naturally, Paul was later concerned about the spiritual growth of these vulnerable new believers. This led him to suggest to Barnabas that they retrace their steps and “visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are” (v. 36). This was a worthy project to which Barnabas did not object.

The problem began when Barnabas made a suggestion: “Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark” (v. 37). John Mark had accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first journey, but only part of the way. He was with them as an assistant as they traveled through Cyprus (Acts 12:25: 13:5), but then “John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:13). He did not follow them into Asia Minor, but instead went home (Acts 12:12 tells us that his mother lived in Jerusalem).

Barnabas had always been inclined to give people a second chance. In fact, Paul had experienced this firsthand. Barnabas was the one who first welcomed Paul into the fellowship of believers in Jerusalem while everyone else was still afraid of him (Acts 9:26-27). So it is not surprising that Barnabas would want to give John Mark another chance. In fact, Barnabas would be especially inclined to be gracious in this instance because John Mark was his cousin (Col. 4:10). He could easily have argued that people are more important than projects.

But Paul was unwilling since John Mark “had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work” (v. 38). Paul may have argued that the work was too important for them to take such a risk. Souls were on the line, and Paul only wanted people on his mission team whom he knew he could trust. Paul’s focus was on the people they needed to reach, while Barnabas’s focus was on developing John Mark as a mature disciple.

> Have a volunteer read Acts 15:39-41.

• Who was right? Paul or Barnabas?
• What was the solution that Paul and Barnabas decided on?
• Is it possible for two Christians to have differing opinions that are both valid but can’t be reconciled?

Verse 39 tells us “there arose a sharp disagreement” between Paul and Barnabas over this issue. The phrase “sharp disagreement” can also be translated as “irritation.” Paul was exasperated at Barnabas for being so soft, and Barnabas was frustrated with Paul for being so rigid. Neither would yield. Who was right? The Bible doesn’t say. But notice what happened next.

Paul and Barnabas both had a choice. They could continue to lock horns together and fight over this issue, or they could each move forward in their own way. If they had continued fighting, then Paul’s second missionary journey may have never occurred. But they both knew that the new believers in Cyprus and Asia Minor needed to be strengthened, “so they separated from each other” (v. 39). The work progressed. In fact, their solution doubled their impact! Instead of just one missionary team being sent from the church at Antioch, now there were two. Barnabas took John Mark with him to Cyprus, and Paul took Silas with him to Asia Minor (vv. 39-40).

Sometimes differences between Christians cannot be worked out. Sometimes two individuals (or groups) cannot continue to work together because the differences are too significant. One person sees the issue one way, while the other person sees it another way—and neither one is wrong. Such a situation can be emotionally painful. Paul and Barnabas both were probably angry and sad as they walked away from each other. But instead of stopping the work entirely, they found a way to move forward. When you reach an impasse with a fellow believer, options should be explored to continue the work in a new way.

There’s an old saying in the church that says, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.” In other words, as Christians we need to stay unified in the core truths of our faith, but we also need to allow for some diversity in how we live out our faith. When we disagree over non-essential issues, we should strive to continue loving one another. Paul and Barnabas still were unified theologically. They were both still disciples of Jesus Christ and were both working toward the same goals of glorifying God, strengthening the church, and spreading the gospel. But how they worked toward that goal was different. They could no longer serve together, but they both still served the Lord.

• If a disagreement between believers is due to sin, does that change how we should handle the situation?

At the same time, there are many cases where there are disagreements between believers because someone has acted sinfully. In those situations, we need to use the principles Jesus gave us in Matthew 18:15-20. The first step is to talk to that individual privately and confront them in a loving way about their sin. If that does not bring about repentance, the second step is to take one or two other people along to talk with that person again. And if even that does not work, then the third step is to get the church involved in confronting that person about their sin. Finally, if they still do not repent, then they are to be treated as an outsider because they have broken fellowship and are no longer acting like a Christian.

Sadly, the New Testament does not record Paul and Barnabas ever working closely together again. Paul mentions Barnabas in some of his epistles, but we don’t have any other stories from Barnabas’s life. However, it seems that Paul and John Mark eventually had a fruitful ministry together. John Mark would eventually serve alongside Peter (1 Pet. 5:13) and write the Gospel of Mark. Somewhere along the way, he and Paul made amends. Paul tells the church at Colossae to welcome John Mark (Col. 4:10), and at the end of his life, Paul writes that John Mark “is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11). So although it took some time, Paul came around to Barnabas’s way of thinking.

APPLICATION

Help your group identify how the truths from the Scripture passage apply directly to their lives.

• Are you currently encountering difficulties in your work for the Lord due to a disagreement with another believer? What should you do about that situation?
• Are there any issues in our church where Christians are disagreeing with one another? Can these issues be reconciled, or should new options be explored?
• Examine your own heart. Have you been struggling to love another Christian recently due to a disagreement? Will you pray for that person right now out of love?

PRAY

Close your time in prayer by asking God to help your church stay unified on the core issues of our faith, and to help you work through any disagreements in a way that honors Him.

For Next week

REMIND: Before you dismiss, remind group members to read Acts 16:6-40.

EMAIL: Midway through the week, send a reminder email with the following information

• Read Acts 16:6-40.
• Think through these questions before we get together again: 1) How are you going to be more aware of opportunities to share the gospel this week? 2) Who is one person God is calling you to reach out to this week?

COMMENTARY

Acts 15:36-41

15:36. We have observed the history of the early church to the year a.d. 50. Luke will now begin a new section in his account. He sets it off with the words metatinashemeras (“after some days”), used with some frequency to note a time division and transition to a new section of his work. Notice Paul does not intend a second journey for missionary evangelism, though that is precisely what God will do with this proposed trip. His initial motivation, however, was just to go back to towns where they had been to check on the believers and encourage them.

This verse marks the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey. Out of a sense of responsibility, Paul wanted to visit the converts in every town they had evangelized to see how they were progressing in the faith.

15:37-39a. Barnabas hesitates not a moment in welcoming Paul’s proposal and assumes they will also take Mark along. At first, it would seem, the difference is merely in discussion, Paul taking the position that he did not want “to have this one with them continually.” Luke doesn’t hesitate to tell us the reason for Paul’s concern—Mark had deserted them.

Here we have a classic confrontation: the choice between disqualifying a person who has made a major blunder or seeking to restore that person to a ministry role. Did Mark still seem unrepentant about his behavior earlier? Did Paul feel Mark might water down the new freedom of the Jerusalem Council decision? Was the anger of the Judaizers at Jerusalem aroused by Mark and his reports from Pamphylia? Luke does not tell us. He does tell us that this difference, this obvious disagreement, became a paroxysm, a blowup between these two dear friends. The only other New Testament use of this word appears in Hebrews 10:24, where the writer used it in the positive sense of provoking good behavior in others.

15:37-40 That Paul and Barnabas parted company over John Mark shows that even within the apostolic fellowship, perfect unity was not always obtainable. Sometimes God’s workers have to agree to go separate ways, but there is always hope for reunion (Col 4:10; 2Tim 4:11; Phm 24). Paul took with him Silas, one of the men who had carried the Jerusalem letter to Antioch (vv. 23-34). Barnabas is not mentioned in the book of Acts after this incident.

15:39b-41. Certainly these good men could have solved their problems by agreeing that one or both of them would stay in Antioch, maybe call off the whole idea as a bad plan. But God intended two missionary teams instead of one, and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus while Paul appointed Silas to replace Barnabas and headed north and west through Syria and into Asia Minor.

Why Silas? Certainly Paul must have recognized outstanding qualities in this young man at Jerusalem, on the way back to Antioch, and in his time at the Antioch church. Furthermore, it couldn’t hurt to have a leader from the Jerusalem congregation traveling through Gentile territory and affirming the Council’s decision. Unlike Barnabas, he was a Roman citizen which, as we shall see, could come in handy (16:37).

15:41 Rather than going to Cyprus to strengthen the believers there, Paul and Silas went to Syria and the region of Cilicia, entering the province of Asia Minor.