One of my favourite films is the war epic, Saving Private Ryan.
Beginning with the Normandy invasion of World War II, it tells the story of Captain John Miller who is assigned the task of searching for Private James Ryan who is somewhere in enemy-occupied France. Private Ryan’s three brothers have already been killed in action so the US generals are desperate to get him back home to his mother. He is eventually found but in reality Captain Miller and the small platoon searching for him end up sacrificing their lives in the process.
The closing scene in the film moves to the modern day with Private Ryan standing by the grave of Captain Miller. His children are behind him and his wife is beside him. He turns to her and says, “Tell me I’ve lived a good life…Tell me I’m a good man.”
Those words had made a deep impression on me. “Tell me I’m a good man.”
In Acts chapter 11 we meet one of the first disciples of Jesus of whom it's said, “…he was a good man.”
Over recents weeks I have been asking myself what Barnabas has to teach us about the marks of a good man or woman.
➡️ His heart was sensitive to the ways and works and character of God?
Barnabas arrives in a season of great blessing for the church in Antioch. “A great number of people who believed turned to the Lord” (verse 21). On his arrival in the city it says, “When Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he was glad…”
The cynics might have looked on and put all of this fervour down to emotional manipulation. Not Barnabas. He saw clearly that this was a work of God.
This good man reflected the character of the God he served. When it comes to the guiding truth of God’s people the north star has always been, “the Lord is good and his love endures forever” (Psalm 100:5). Barnabas lived by that truth. Barnabas reflected God’s character and will because God is good.
➡️ He was motivated by a concern for God’s honour among God’s people.
Barnabas’s actions and attitudes sprang from the person he was in Christ…”full of the Holy Spirit and faith…” (Galatians 5:22).
I listened to a song called “The Cause of Christ" the other day which concludes with these lyrics:
It is not fame that I desire
Nor stature in my brother's eye
I pray it's said about my life
That I lived more to build
Your name than mine
There is no question that Barnabas lived more to build God’s name than his own. How do I stand up to that challenge?
➡️ He was burdened by a desire to see God’s people grow and mature in faith.
The King James Version of the Bible describes Barnabas’s heart for the Christians of Antioch in this way:
“Who when he came, and had seen the grace of God was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (verse 23).
To my mind there is a weight and a depth in that word cleave. He longed that God’s people would be faithful to him with steadfast purpose.
We will have lived well if at the end of the day others say of us, as the did about Barnabas,
→He was a good man.
→She was a good woman.
→Full of the Holy Spirit and faith.
(Picture - Kilnave Church, Islay)
