Two Best Friends

Acts 15: 36-41

Two best friends have been in ministry for years, they have stayed in some nice places and they have spent nights out under the stars, cold and sometimes wishing they had a warm bed and could look forward to a hot breakfast.  They have been asked to stay longer in a few towns and they have been told to leave a few, in fact, the better known of the two has been drug out of the city and stoned, leaving him for dead.  They are very close friends, they may have watched the races and enjoyed the children playing jump rope or shooting marbles, but this is a surety, they had the deepest respect for the other.

Now, did I tell you they were very different personalities, one was the speaker and he was also the one best known of the two, the other was more of a people person?  The speaker wanted to see results, he wanted to see people follow his teaching and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, the other also desired the same, but was much more patient and had the ability to encourage the ones who had trouble, or who had dropped the ball, in what we call the Christian life.

It is amazing how often this story is repeated in a large local church, where an assistant has to patch-up the Senior Pastor’s oversights, or is just too busy trying to win the world to notice a younger staff member who is still very immature.  This is doctor Luke’s account of Paul and Barnabas separating, over such a young man named John Mark.

“And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”  (Acts 15:36-41 ESV)

And that one act became the model for the Baptist church; have a sharp disagreement, and split into two churches, one down the street call Harmony and the other the Open door.  Just trying to put a little humor into a sad event, but God, I love that statement, “But God” for He never sleeps nor slumbers, and yes, His desire is for unity but He used this to advance His kingdom on this earth.  And as we will see in later chapters, God brings about not only healing in these relationships, but Paul, sometime later, asked for John Mark to come to him because he valued him and his ministry.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice