ACTS: ALIGNING WITH GOD'S SOVEREIGN WORK OF DISCIPLING

XXXVIII. Accepting The Need For Practical Separation

(Acts 15:36-40)

I. Introduction

A. The book of Acts explains "the orderly and sovereignly directed progress of the kingdom message from Jews to Gentiles, and from Jerusalem to Rome," Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 351. We can thus learn much about aligning our ministry efforts with God's sovereign work from studying the book of Acts.

B. Acts 15:36-40 records how human limitations required that a practical separation occur between Paul and Barnabas in their ministries, and we view the passage for our insight, application, and edification (as follows):

II. Accepting The Need For Practical Separation, Acts 15:36-40.

A. Following their first missionary journey, Paul urged Barnabas to come with him to revisit their brothers in Christ in every city where they had preached the Word of the Lord to see how they were doing, Acts 15:36.

B. Barnabas agreed, but he also wanted to take along with them John who was surnamed Mark, Acts 15:37.

C. Paul “thought it fitting” (axioo, “to deem fitting,” Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 77-78) that they not take John Mark along with them because he had departed from them at Pamphylia and had not continued with them on their first missionary journey, Acts 15:38.

D. This difference of opinion between Barnabas and Paul grew into a sharp disagreement: the Greek word paraxusmos meaning “sharp disagreement” appears after the verb ginomai, “come to be, originate” (Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 157-159), revealing that Paul and Barnabas developed a sharp disagreement over whether to take John Mark with them, Acts 15:39a. Considering the concerns of each man in this dispute reveals a deep interest that each had for the welfare of various people in the body of Christ:

1. Paul wanted to strengthen the new converts they had discipled on their first journey, Acts 15:36, 41. To achieve this, Paul and Barnabas could not afford to have a spiritually weak John Mark abandon them again this time in full view of new converts as that could unsettle those converts to their harm. After all, Paul in Titus 1:9-11 directed that elders had to be men who held fast to the faithful word that they might strongly counter false teachers, not men who would abandon the work if they encountered spiritual opposition!

2. On the other hand, Barnabas was concerned about John Mark and believers who were supportive of him:

a. John Mark was Barnabas’ cousin (Colossians 4:10 NIV), and John Mark’s mother Mary owned the house where the Church in Jerusalem gathered (Acts 12:12) where it was traditionally believed that the Last Supper occurred with Jesus and His disciples. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, footnote to Acts 12:12)

b. Furthermore, the Apostle Peter had discipled John Mark as his son in the Christian faith, 1 Peter 5:13.

c. Thus, to leave John Mark behind because he failed to go with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey could not only strain Barnabas’s relationship with his relatives but create friction between Barnabas and Paul and the Jerusalem Church for refusing to take along a beloved member of their body!

d. Accordingly, Barnabas felt it was in the best interests of all involved to take John Mark with them and to work out the spiritual problem that John Mark had as they proceeded on their second missionary journey!

E. In the end, what occurred was the only edifying step to take – a practical division between Paul and Barnabas:

1. Barnabas took John Mark and sailed to Cyprus where Paul and Barnabas had begun their first missionary journey, and where John Mark had not yet abandoned them (Acts 15:39b; 13:4-12, 13). In that way, John Mark could help strengthen the disciples there while Barnabas worked to disciple John Mark himself!

2. Conversely, Paul chose Silas who had been sent to Antioch by the Jerusalem Church and visited the churches of Syria, Cilicia, and Asia where John Mark had abandoned them (Acts 15:40a, 41; Acts 16:1).

F. Significantly, the believers at Antioch committed them all to God’s grace, Acts 15:40b, and God graciously blessed the result: after Barnabas had discipled John Mark on Cyprus, John Mark was given a probationary ministry at Colossae (Colossians 4:10) until, near Paul’s martyrdom, Paul wrote to Timothy and urged him to send John Mark to him since he was by them profitable to Paul in the ministry, 2 Timothy 4:11! Even greater, John Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, a remarkable achievement of God’s grace! (Ibid., Ryrie, “Introduction to the Gospel According to Mark: Authorship,” p. 1397)

Lesson: Considering all the relationships and circumstances involved, the only workable solution to the sharp disagreement Paul and Barnabas had over John Mark was for them to go their separate ways in God’s grace!

Application: May we realize that human limitations at times require practical divisions for the edification of all.