The Guy with a Great Nickname

       Charles Plum was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam . After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a Communist prison. He survived that ordeal and now lectures about lessons learned from that experience.

       One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew fighters from the Kitty Hawk . You were shot down!"

       "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.

        "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"

        Plumb assured him, "It sure did - if your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

        Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform - a Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wondered how many times I might have passed him on the Kitty Hawk . I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you,' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

       Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

       Plumb now asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute? Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day."

       We all need help to make it.

       Think about your own life. How many times do you feel discouraged?  Have you had a fellow commuter sit on the horn because you didn't catch the light fast enough for his or her tastes? Has your boss given you a hard time for some trivial reason?  When you pay the bills, does it make you feel discouraged -- thinking you'll never get ahead?  We have all experienced discouraging days and we all know how bad they make us feel.     

       The pain of discouragement is prevalent in our world.  So, as Christians, it is vital that we learn how to practice, encouragement. In fact Hebrews 10:24-25 says that we must...”consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. We must not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but we must encourage one another and all the more as we see the Day approaching. I Thessalonians 5:11 puts it this way:  “Encourage one another and build each other up.”

       The word encouragement literally means to put courage into someone. In has the idea of giving someone the emotional strength to go on.

       Now there are lots of ways to do this.  But the simplest form of encouragement is verbal -- using our words to speak courage into someone. I think we each have a minimum daily requirement of uplifting words from others that we must hear if we are to endure the discouragement that comes from living in a fallen world. As Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death.” And as Proverbs 15:4 puts it, “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life.”

       I read about a man who was kicked out of his profession for an indiscretion.  He ended up taking work as a laborer to put bread on the table. He was suddenly plunged into a drastically different world.  Instead of going to an office each day, he was hauling loads of concrete block up to the fifth level of a construction site. Gone was the piped-in music in the corridors.  Now he had to endure blaring transistors. Any girl who walked by was subject to rude remarks and whistles. Profanity shot through the air, especially from the foreman, whose primary tactics were whining and intimidation; "For---sake, you---, can't you do anything right? I never worked with such a bunch of --- in all my life..." 

       Near the end of the third week, the man was done. "I'll work till break time this morning," he told himself, "and then that's it. I'm going home." He'd already been the butt of more than one joke when his lack of experience caused him to do something dumb. The stories were retold constantly. "I just can't handle any more of this." A while later, he decided to finish out the morning and then leave at lunchtime. 

       Shortly before noon, the foreman came around with paychecks. As he handed the man his envelope, he made his first civil comment to him in three weeks. "Hey, there's a woman working in the front office who knows you. Says she takes care of your kids sometimes." "Who?" He named the woman, who sometimes helped in the church nursery. The foreman then went on with his rounds. When the man opened his envelope, he found, along with his check, a handwritten note from the payroll clerk: "When one part of the body of Christ suffers, we all suffer with it. Just wanted you to know that I'm praying for you these days." He stared at the note, astonished at God's timing. He hadn't even known the woman worked for this company. Here at his lowest hour, she had given him the courage to go on, to push another wheelbarrow of mortar up that ramp. 

       Verbal encouragement is a very important art  for Christians to learn to practice.  We should look for opportunities to speak life into others.

       But, there are other ways to practice encouragement.  By looking at the life of Barnabas through the Book of Acts we can see three of them.  His real name is Joseph but everyone calls him Barnabas. That’s the nickname he was given by the disciples.  It literally means, Son of Encouragement.  What a great nickname.

        In Acts 4:32-37, Barnabas demonstrates that a second way we can encourage each other is with our material resources.  He gives a gift to the church at a time of great need.  Gifts are a way for us to fulfill the biblical mandate to encourage one another. The example we set for each other is crucial.

       I’ve shared before how the Plains Indians of the old West knew this. They engaged in constant inter-tribal warfare. The Crows and the Pawnees fought the Sioux and Cheyenne while the Comanches fought everyone. Often, when a tribe had experienced a series of military setbacks, a noted warrior would announce that he intended to "stake himself" at the next battle. He would take a wooden stake and attach it to his waist with a long rawhide cord. When he arrived at the battleground he would take the stake and drive it into the ground as a pledge that he would not retreat. This public promise encouraged the other warriors to fight more bravely and to see the battle through to the end.

       That’s what Barnabas does.  Barnabas' life shows that you don’t even have to be able to speak to be an encourager. You can put courage into someone who needs it by simply sharing your material possessions with them.   You don’t have to be wealthy to encourage in this way. Any kind of material offering can have incredible lifting power.

       Sometimes words alone aren't enough.  I mean when people are hungry or in physical need, telling them “I'll be thinking about you” isn't enough. As James 2:15-16 says, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well-fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? So-if you want to encourage someone, look for ways to do so by giving to meet their material needs.

      In Acts 9 and Acts 11, we see a third way we can practice the art of encouragement.  Here Barnabas comes alongside Paul and brings him into a place of leadership. 

       Remember that before Paul was Paul the apostle, he was the persecutor of Christians. We saw last Sunday how Paul ran head on into the risen Christ Himself on the Damascus Road .  He discovered to his great astonishment that those he'd been persecuting were telling the truth -- that Jesus is in fact the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah.

       And-as a result of that experience, Paul becomes a committed follower of Christ.  He changes sides.

       But Jesus' followers are understandably terrified of Paul.   When   Ananias is told by Jesus to go to Paul and restore his sight, Ananias argues:  “Lord, I have heard from many about this man – what hew has done in Jerusalem and what he wants to do here.”  You have the wrong guy.  But Jesus says go and Ananias goes.  Then, in a wonderfully healing act he comes to the blinded Paul and addresses him as brother – “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road sent me to you.”  Bother Saul.  That’s encouragement! 

          But when Paul walks down the aisle, asking to join the First Presbyterian Church of Jerusalem, he isn’t welcomed with open arms. Those Christians don’t trust him. And, I can understand their feelings. I mean, they think this might be a subtle trick that Paul is playing, a ploy on his part to enable him to infiltrate the ranks of the church so that he might find out who is part of the movement so he can destroy it from the inside.

       The old adage from Jeremiah about a leopard not being able to change his spots must have entered the Apostles' minds when Paul shows up, claiming to be a Christian. But just as they are about to kick him out-at that crucial moment in Paul's life, who should step in but Barnabas the Son of Encouragement.  He says, “You are wrong about Paul. He met our Lord on the Damascus road. He has placed his faith in Him. Paul has changed! I can vouch for him!”  At the risk of his own good reputation, Barnabas takes this former persecutor and goes around to all the Christians in Jerusalem and put the weight of his influence behind the credibility of this new convert.

       A couple chapters later we read that the church is growing very quickly -- so fast in fact that it is too big for the leaders to handle. They need other leadership to rely on.  Again Barnabas does his thing. He goes to Tasrsus and searches for Saul and brings him back to Antioch . He must have said something like, “Saul, you have what it takes to be a leader in the church. In fact it is obvious to me that God has designed you and gifted you for this task.”

       Barnabas sees Paul's God-given potential and urges him to pursue it! And all you have to do to see what a far-reaching act this is, is to read the rest of the New Testament.  The church came within a hair's breath of losing the gifts of it's finest missionary.  Even with all his determination, Paul couldn't have done what he did, without the acceptance of the rest of the church.  That acceptance would not have come if Barnabas hadn't been willing to take a chance on what everybody else considered a risky possibility. He sees potential in Paul and acts on it.  And as Christians we are called to see God’s best in all people and urge them to pursue it.

       Finally, in Acts 15:36-41 we see one other form of encouragement that Barnabas teaches us.  Another way to encourage others is by helping them to understand that God gives us second chances.  Even if we sin-when we repent God forgives us and helps us to start over.

       Acts 15 records a time when Paul and Barnabas are preparing for another missionary journey. And Barnabas suggested that they take John Mark with them. Well, Paul disagrees. You see, on their first missionary journey, Mark had found the going too rough, and had turned back and deserted Paul and Barnabas. Because of this Paul feels that Mark isn't dependable.

       Well, the result of this sharp disagreement is that Paul and Barnabas decide to part company. Barnabas takes John Mark himself and sets out for Cyprus . This is the last we hear of Barnabas in the Book of Acts.  But it is not the last we hear of the results of his encouraging actions here in chapter 15. You see, years later, when Paul was old and in prison, and feeling somewhat discouraged himself, he writes Timothy and says, “When you come, please bring John Mark with you, for he is useful to me.”  John Mark gets the message and goes to Rome . He becomes his former critic's colleague.  Then John Mark worked alongside of the Apostle Peter, whom he used as the oral source of his gospel. 

        Think of it! How many countless millions have been led to follow Jesus because they read of His footsteps in Mark’s Gospel?  John Mark was able to do all this because Barnabas encouraged him by helping him to see that God does give us second chances. The amazing fruit of John Mark's life is the result of the power of this form of encouragement, expressed through a Christian who believes that with God's help we can start over.

       Have you ever wished you could have another chance-that the slate could be wiped clean? Have you ever daydreamed and thought, “If I could go back in time and re-live my life again, I wouldn't do this and I wouldn't do this or this.”  I think we all have because sin is never as good as it seems it will be.

      Now karma would say, “You can't begin again. You sin...you pay. That's the law. But the good news of the Gospel is someone else has paid. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He took the punishment for all our sins on Himself. Jesus made it possible for God to forgive us...to wipe the slate clean and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In fact God waits-yearns for us to turn from our sin and ask for His forgiveness and restoration.

       I like how John Ortberg puts it. He says, “If there is one way that human beings consistently underestimate God's love, it is perhaps His loving longing to forgive.”  And. that is encouraging! God does allow U-turns in life. This is what Barnabas must have told young John Mark. You failed, but if you ask Him, God will forgive you and give you another chance. He'll help you to start over.

       It is not enough for us as a congregation to be a home on the range “where seldom is heard a discouraging word.”   We need to be a home where often is heard an encouraging word.  

       So God's word doesn't say “Oh by the way, if you are a Christian it might be nice to throw in a little encouragement now and then. No.  It is His will that we practice the art of encouragement.  Our congregation and tens of thousands of other communities like it around the world are called by God to be islands of encouragement where people can come and find help to deal with the pain that comes from living in this difficult world. This needs to be a place where we find others who believe in us and urge us on toward godliness.