redeemed – Penuel Baptist Chapel, Roch

Acts 9:10-29.

The ministry of encouragement is one of the most important ministries in the Christian Church. Everyone finds themselves at one time or another in need of encouragement. It is not just pastors, preachers, or Church officers who can exercise this work, for all Christians ought to be encouragers. Some may have a natural ability of enthusing others. For many this is not part of their natural makeup, but every Christian can develop this gift of encouragement. Perhaps you can look back over your Christian experience and point to others who have encouraged you along the way?

God is described as “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” by Paul (2Corinthians 1:3). The Holy Spirit is the One who ministers encouragement for He is described as the “Comforter” (John 14:216,26; 15:26; 16:7 – KJV), and He exercises this ministry of comfort or encouragement to believers (Acts 9:31). The gospel or good news is, of course, a comfort to needy sinners, If we want to be like the Lord then we ought to be encouragers. If we want to be godly people and Christlike, then it is imperative that we engage in a life of encouraging others, especially when there are great difficulties to be faced.

We shall look at this ministry of encouragement under three headings.

[1] God’s high value on those whom He has redeemed.

The Lord highly values His own people and their welfare. This is evident throughout Scripture, but perhaps supremely in the coming of Christ Jesus to save sinners. If God so values those whom He has saved, we too ought to set the same high value on believers.

By nature the sinful man is proud, boastful, arrogant, idolatrous, selfish, greedy and so on, but with all of these characteristics we discover that God still sent His Son to die for us (Romans 5:8). In Romans 14 the apostle Paul speaks of how we ought to treat those who are “weak in the faith” (Romans 14:1). Towards the end of the chapter Paul wrote:

Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. (Romans 14:15).

If Christ gave up His life for the Church, even when each individual was still a sinner, we ought to hold our brethren “for whom Christ died” in high esteem. The basis for our ministry of encouragement, then, is the high value God placed on believers in sending His Son to die in their place.

Let us seek to reproduce the love of God towards the brethren, not as a duty but on account of the love we have for God who first loved us. Are we willing to overlook past offences and forgive one another as Christ forgave us? Christ never asked: ‘are these for whom I am dying worthy of me’? Is Christ’s love for me transforming me to be a useful, loving, and kind believer? God has highly valued His people.

[2] The importance of Scripture in the ministry of encouragement.

Paul wrote these words to the Romans:

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4).

Of course Paul was referring to the Old Testament here but we are justified in applying them to the New Testament too. The Scriptures are given to us as a gift, but it does require us to put some effort into grasping them. Amongst many other themes and subjects, the Scriptures give as lessons about:

Christ, His person and work.
The unspeakable love of God.
The Kingdom of God and how we enter this and live within it.
The life of a disciple of Christ Jesus.

These eternal truths are the same for all ages and all cultures the world over. There are two points we need to make here concerning the importance of the Bible.

[a] The entire Bible is important.

The text we quoted from Romans 15 tells us that “whatever things were written,” and this leads us to the idea that all of Scripture is important for us. There are ‘less well know’ parts of Scripture that are often neglected. But all of the Bible is the inspired word, and every word that comes from God’s mouth is needed. In some of these ‘less well know’ parts are to be found great gems and pearls. A study of the temple and the tabernacle in its imagery is well worth making even if it takes time, for these speak supremely of Christ and His work. The history of Israel and her failures are worth the effort of study too, for in these we see our failure and rejoice in the One true Israelite who succeeded in keeping the Old Covenant on our behalf, (i.e. Christ Jesus). Some parts of the Bible are less clear than others. Undoubtedly some parts may be ‘weightier’ than others. The Lord Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees because in the zeal for detail, they had “neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23). Whilst some parts need more time to study and digest, we dare not neglect these!

I remember a communist man who was converted in his 90s. He was in a care home and often had visitors, but he was in the habit of asking them to leave him because they were taking up his valuable time in reading and studying Scripture! He was desperate to ensure he missed nothing and wanted to go through the whole Bible before he ran out of time! I also remember a Buddhist who was converted and began to read the Bible from Genesis, but we convinced Him to start at John’s gospel so he could discover the love of God in Christ first. These examples teach us that we need to be wise in our approach to Scripture, but we do need to consider it in its entirety. We need to change our attitude from ‘duty,’ to ‘delight’ for the Scriptures are God’s very word to us. Do we love Him? Then why would we not want to read all that He has said and written down?

[b] There is a practical purpose.

We ought to have some pattern and policy to our reading and study. Make a plan to read and study all of Scripture. We need to be able to receive encouragement from others and we need to grow in dispensing encouragement too. The Scriptures will show us how. For example there are many places where we are taught to look beyond the current difficulties we face towards the glory to be revealed. We are exhorted by Paul to “comfort one another” with the words concerning Christ’s return (1Thessalonians 4:18).

[3] Barnabas – the ‘son of encouragement.’

In Acts chapter 4 we come across a man named “Joseph” (he is called “Joses” in the NKJV but is the same name), who was a native of Cyprus and a Levite. This man sold some land he owned and gave the proceeds to the apostles so that those in need could be looked after (Acts 4:36,37). He was “named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement)” (Acts 4:36). It is perhaps speculation, but it would seem that Barnabas’ action was not something done out of duty or simply through necessity, but was rather done from a heart full of love towards God. Barnabas gave freely not because he had to, but because of his love for the Lord. And this action motivated the apostles to give the name “Son of Encouragement.” Everything Barnabas owned was the Lord’s. Perhaps his Levitical upbringing helped here?

Now the ministry of encouragement is much more than the passing on of words. It includes sharing our wealth, our time, our homes, and even our very lives. We next find reference to Barnabas in Acts 9 which we read earlier. He was the one who introduced Paul to the apostles in Jerusalem. Everyone else was suspicious of him because of his former reputation as a persecutor. The disciples at Jerusalem were afraid to welcome him because they thought he was going to revert to his persecuting ways. Many were not convinced of his genuineness. But Barnabas took him to the apostles and explained to them all about his conversion and the fact that he was now preaching Christ as the Son of God (Acts 9:27). Barnabas was bold enough to risk his own life and reputation by taking Paul, about whom many thought of still as a persecutor, and he recommended him to the apostles.

Was anyone praying for Paul during those years of persecution I wonder? Were they guilty of thinking that Paul was such a person beyond redemption? He was a fierce enemy of the gospel and hounded Christians mercilessly. But were any moved to pray for him to be converted? Now Barnabas had such a high view of Christ’s saving power that Paul’s conversion was something that he accepted readily. Others may have had their suspicions but Barnabas knew that Christ could save even Paul. Barnabas also had such a high view of the Church and Christian Fellowship that he couldn’t allow the newly converted Paul to be ignored or feared and so he brought Paul to the apostles so that he could be accepted into the fellowship of believers. I wonder how much weaker would the Church have been if Barnabas did not do this? Barnabas could not know that Paul would be so important to the Church, nor that Paul would be responsible for a large part of the New Testament. We do not know where our ministry of encouragement to another believer will ultimately lead. Are we encouraging others as we seek to bring men, women, boys, and girls to Christ and His word?

Psalm 107: The God who saves

I pray you can say, ‘The Lord has saved me.’ When I first came to Wales, I walked through the doors of Lonlas Mission in Swansea. On the way in, the man on the door asked me, ‘Are you saved?’ We come to worship a God who saves. Are you saved?

In this psalm, which was written following the Babylonian captivity, we see four groups of people and how God deals with His people. The four groups all have a problem, cry a prayer, God graciously makes provision and this all concludes with praise. There is a problem, prayer, promise and praise.

We are introduced to the first group in verse 4. They have nowhere to live. They find themselves in the desert, in the wilderness. What word springs into your mind when you hear of a wilderness? Dry. It can be an environment where everything is dry. Very little flourishes. A place of dryness is where there is little growth. If you are saved, you have a testimony of God’s saving grace in your life. If you are saved, praise God. But where are you today?

It is possible to be saved yet become spiritually dry. You can be in a place where you are not thriving. When we become dry spiritually, praying becomes hard. It becomes difficult. Reading and studying God’s word becomes hard. Our appetite for the things of God is not what it ought to be. You can say, ‘God has saved me, blessed by His Name,’ but you can be spiritually dry.

The apostle Paul says in his letters, ‘In Christ.’ You have been saved, redeemed, restored by Him. What do we do when we feel spiritually dry? We cry to God. When we find praying hard, pray scripture. Take a psalm, a portion of scripture and say, ‘Lord, this is really my prayer, my longing. This is me.’

In verse 10 we meet the second group who are in the dungeon. They feel bound, as if the freedom that they once enjoyed has gone. God has a word for all our needs and the trials and tribulations we experience. We are all addicts – this is not just referring to drugs and alcohol. We were designed to worship. Before we were saved, we were pursuing something to fill that gap. It might not be drink or drugs, it could be pursuing wealth, power, property – things we embrace and can become addicted to. But when we are saved, God breaks the bondage of sin.

We can be spiritually dry. Other things can replace the pre-eminence of Christ. It could be a person, or something else. Anything that takes the place of Christ is idolatry. There are often times in life when we want to know God’s Will, but when He speaks powerfully in His Word and it doesn’t match our hopes, we spurn the counsel of God.

In verse 17 we meet the third group of people, who are sick, facing death. We can be a Christian but be spiritually sick. This can lead to all sorts of problems. In this psalm, the people cry to God in their trouble (v.19). He delivers them; He pours lily water, by His Spirit, by His Word. He breaks those chains. He delivered them from their distress (v.20). The Lord provides. He continues to provide, even in our foolishness. He does not want us to sin, but He makes provision when we sin. There is a problem, followed by prayer, God’s provision, and praise from His people.

The fourth group of people we meet in verses 23 to 27. Maybe you were at your wits end this morning and no one knows. God knows. This group of people were labouring in the deep, tossed by the angry seas. In life we’re in a storm, going into a storm or coming out of a storm. ‘With Christ in the vessel, I can smile in the storm.’ When the disciples were in a boat in a storm, Christ was asleep, His head on a pillow. His response to their cries was, ‘Do you still have no faith?’ He didn’t mean they had no faith; they were His disciples. He meant, ‘Why are you responding as if you have no faith?’

Is that you – beginning to doubt the truthfulness of God’s Word? Our answer can be found in the words of the hymn writer,

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

Fix your eyes on Jesus. He will never disappoint or turn His back on you. He will say, ‘Come closer.’ Sometimes, there is more theology in a ‘cwtch’ and tears then anything you can say. Jesus knows you. He is with you in the storm and says, ‘Come closer.’

The God who saves has provided for our sin through the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He can save you. He is building His Church.

If you are dry, He can provide living water. If you are in bondage, He can break the chains. If you are spiritually sick, He will come and bring restoration. If you are in a storm, He is with you. Don’t respond as if you have no faith. Trust in God. The God who saves provides for our problems, hears our prayers, provides for us, and calls on us to acknowledge His goodness.

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!”
Psalm 107:1

Tag: redeemed

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