Acts 11:23

Act_11:23

Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad.

The grace of God

I. Its source.

1. God is the God of all grace (1Pe_5:10).

2. God is the giver of (Psa_84:11).

3. Gods throne is the throne of (Heb_4:16).

4. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of (Zec_12:10; Heb_10:29).

5. Christ was full of (Joh_1:14).

6. Came by Christ (Joh_1:17; Rom_5:15).

7. Given by Christ (1Co_1:4).

II. How described.

1. As great (Act_4:33).

2. Abundant (Rom_5:20-21).

3. Rich (Eph_1:7; Eph_2:7).

4. Exceeding (2Co_9:14).

5. Manifold (1Pe_4:10).

6. All-sufficient (2Co_12:9).

7. True (1Pe_5:12).

8. Glorious (Eph_1:6; Eph_1:9).

III. Its necessity.

1. Necessary to Gods service (Heb_12:28).

2. Necessary that Jesus may be glorified in the saints (2Th_1:11-12).

3. Necessary to prevent pride (Rom_4:4-5; Rom_11:6; Gal_5:6; Ephesians if. 7-9).

4. Saints are what they are by (1Co_15:10; 2Co_1:12).

IV. Its recipients. Saints--

1. Are heirs of (1Pe_3:7).

2. Receive from Christ (Joh_1:16).

3. Abound in gifts of (Act_4:33; 2Co_8:1; 2Co_9:8; 2Co_9:14).

4. Should be established in (Heb_13:9).

5. Should be strong in (2Ti_2:1).

6. Should grow in (2Pe_3:18).

7. Should speak with (Eph_4:29; Col_4:6). (S. S. Times.)

The grace of God

I. What are we to understand by the grace of God?

1. His free love or favour (Eph_2:5), by which believers are delivered from the curse of a broken law, from wrath, from the guilt, love, and dominion of sin.

2. A Divine principle in the heart (2Pe_3:18; Col_3:16).

II. How this grace may be seen.

1. In spiritual quickening (Eph_2:1).

2. In the work of conversion.

3. In the outward deportment (Mat_7:17; Mat_12:35).

4. By the company kept.

5. By the places of resort frequented (Psa_84:1-2).

III. The effect the sight had on Barnabas.

1. He was glad--

(1) That sinners were called,

(2) That their lives were reformed.

(3) That Christ was believed on.

(4) That the gospel was received.

(5) That God was glorified thereby.

2. He exhorted them to cleave unto the Lord.

(1) Unto His Person.

(2) To His blood for pardon.

(3) His righteousness for acceptance.

(4) His fulness for supplies of grace. (S. Barnard.)

A glorious sight and a good man

1. That persecution, instead of silencing, has spread the gospel. Tidings of these things. What things? The persecution which had Saul for its instigator, Stephen for its martyr, and the widespread distribution of Christians for its effect.

2. That God can render any pious agency in His Church soul saving and successful. The founders of this Church at Antioch, which was destined to play a most conspicuous and commanding part in the history of the Church, do not appear to have been apostles, or regular ministers.

3. That whenever God extends His Church, the Church should add to her concernment and care. The Church at Jerusalem does not appear to have taken umbrage at what was going on at Antioch. They did not say, This is irregular, we must interdict it; this has not had our sanction, it must receive our condemnation. They would not pronounce a judgment until they had investigated the cause. They selected a true and trusty messenger; they sent him, as far as I can see, not as a spy, or a critic, or a censor, but as a friend, an inquirer, a counsellor. The eye of Barnabas filled his heart. He was glad.

I. What he saw. He saw the grace which (is) of God (τὴν χάριν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ), i.e., the grace which is manifestly, unmistakably, of God. But how could he see that which in itself is invisible? The grace of God is as viewless as the wind, as impalpable as gravitation. It is a life, and it grows; a leaven, and it leavens the lump; but we might look in vain to see the growth of life, or the influence of leaven. How then did Barnabas see the grace of God? He saw it, as other invisible things are seen, by its effects. We cannot see the wind; but when the trees rustle and their leaves wave, we know that it is because the wind blows. We cannot see gravitation; but when the earth rotates, producing day and night, and revolves, producing the seasons of the year, with their characteristic varieties and attractive beauties, we see by these effects that gravitation is at work. We cannot see the tree grow; but we know from its foliage and its fruit that it must have grown. It is thus the invisible puts on visibility; and the invisible things--even of God Himself--are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. Where the grace of God is, ignorance of God, both shameful and baneful, gives place to a knowledge of Him which is as wondrous as glorious. Virtue supersedes vice, holiness displaces wickedness, the liar becomes truthful, the blasphemer reverent, the cruel merciful, the selfish beneficent; in fine, Gods grace transforms the lion of violence and vice into the lamb of innocence and uprightness. Now, Barnabas saw the wondrous effects of Gods grace upon the Grecian believers at Antioch. He saw idolaters discarding their gods, and turning to the Living God. Is not this the finger of God?

II. what he felt. Great sights always produce inappreciative observers, powerful emotions. The stupendous works of God, the splendid productions of art, and the manifold inventions of genius, in this way fascinate the eye and stimulate the mind of those who study them. But for a devout mind no sight is so pleasing, and no work so glorious, as the progress and peace of Gods Church. Of what character was his gladness?

1. Sympathetic. We are sometimes glad, and sometimes sad, we know not why. Now, it was holy unction, associated with a holy gathering, and admitted by a holy sympathy, that led Barnabas, when he saw the grace of God, to be glad.

2. Intelligent. Sympathy is a distinguished power in man, but it is not a distinctive prerogative. It exists, often in a larger degree, in the inferior creatures around him. But if they feel, if they love, if they rejoice like him in virtue of a sympathetic nature, they are not like him endowed with the powers of reason and the appliances of ratiocination. So here, Barnabas not only felt when be saw this sight, but he thought; and whether he looked upon it with a sympathetic eye, or reflected with an intelligent mind, he saw equal cause for gladness. For what did this work imply? It implied the presence and the propitiousness of God. It implied the triumph of truth over falsehood, and of Christs beneficent rule over the devils foul usurpation. If, then, Barnabas had looked upon this spiritual phenomenon as a Christian philosopher only, he might well have been, as he was, glad.

3. Religious. If, however, as a social and an intellectual man, Barnabas found gladness in the contemplation of this scene, how much more as a religious man and a gospel minister? It was his religion, indeed, that gave complexion and character to the whole case. It was his goodness that gave to him his gladness. Hence Act_11:23, declaring his gladness, is conjoined with Act_11:24, describing his goodness. For he was a good man, etc.

III. What he did. Barnabas was called Paraclesis (a name similar to that given to the Holy Ghost), and, in harmony with his name, he exhorted them (παρεκάλει)--encouraged them, comforted them. Now, his exhortation related to three distinct objects.

1. To God. In fine, God alone is the great Guide, the Almighty Guard, the impregnable Fortress, and the everlasting Friend of His people; and to cleave unto Him is at once their duty, their safety, and their glory. Then think how suggestive this word cleave is. To cleave to anything is to grasp it firmly, to hold it tenaciously, and to prefer to be torn in pieces rather than to be torn from it. It is thus the ivy cleaves to the oak, the sailor hangs to the rope that is to rescue him from a furious sea and a watery grave, and thus Ruth clave unto Naomi. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her; and the incident teaches how much more there is in cleaving than in kissing. So let young converts, and even aged saints, cleave unto or continue to abide with the Lord; then they will avoid every by-path.

2. To their own hearts. With purpose of heart. There is tremendous force in these words. Without a purpose a man in this world will never become a power--never! Abraham and Moses, Paul and Peter, Augustine and Peter the Hermit, Luther and Knox, Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer, wielded great powers because they were swayed by great purposes. But of all purposes, that of the heart is this most thorough. It quails in presence of no danger. The eye may fail to see the shore from which we sail; the hand may fail to hold its grasp, or may be severed from its object; but when the eye is lost in distance, and the hand is no longer capable of grasping, the heart clings to a land it cannot see, and to a person or cause it cannot grasp--clings with infinite longing and undying love.

3. To their entire number. He exhorted them all. This shows--

(1) His impartiality. He did not select for special regard the rich, the learned, and the Hellenist, to the exclusion of the poor, the unlearned, and the Hebrew.

(2) His discrimination, He knew full well there were duties which were not common to all Christians. (John Stokoe.)

Apostolic generosity in encouraging goodness

The character in which St. Barnabas is here presented to us is that of a person greatly rejoicing in other mens goodness. He was glad when he saw the grace of God in his brethren. Of his doing so, there are several other instances; indeed, almost the whole of his conduct towards St. Paul is full, from the beginning, of such generous and affectionate joy. Now, concerning this disposition to rejoice in other mens goodness, it is much easier to see how amiable it looks in others than to practise it ones self in good earnest. Do not men envy others, not merely for their outward advantages, but for their goodness itself; especially for those parts of goodness which they themselves have not the heart to imitate? It is an ancient story, told of a virtuous heathen, that when a loud outcry was once raised against him, and he was to be banished from his country, a person of whom he asked a reason why he gave his vote against him, replied, I have no objection to you, but I am quite tired of hearing everyone call you the Just. And so throughout life, there is a disposition in the unrenewed heart to grudge all those graces which go too far beyond itself; a disposition the very opposite to that which the Holy Ghost wrought in St. Barnabas by faith. He rejoiced, but these are sorry, on beholding the grace of God. It certainly must require no small faith to believe that it is better on the whole for others to do the good which you desire than for it to be done by yourself. St. Barnabas must have his heart steadily fixed on the unseen rewards prepared on high, to make him acquiesce thus joyfully in his companion, St. Paul, receiving so much more of the encouragement provided for apostolical men in this life. Such self-denial, when regularly kept up, and not only indulged now and then, out of laziness or partial affection, is one of the clearest tokens that Gods Holy Spirit is with men, preparing them for eternal glory. And it is seen in nothing so much as in making persons continually watchful, to cherish and confirm one another in every good purpose of heart; in which respect the Spirit of the gospel is most directly opposed to the evil and selfish spirit of this age. For I know not how it is, but people, under pretence of liberty of one sort or another, are come to be, very generally, quite indifferent about the grace and salvation of others. Surely the hard, indifferent way in which too many of us treat the thought of our neighbours condition towards God is sadly like Cains way: sadly like the temper which led to a brothers murder. The Christian, Catholic, renewed heart is altogether different from this; it is not at all satisfied, as men of the world are, with persons going on decently and quietly; it wants them to be inwardly sound and pure; first of all to have a good purpose of heart, and then to persevere in that purpose, cleaving to our Lord and Saviour continually. That anxiety about your neighbours soul, which Christian love causes you to feel, will be a continual, a watchful, a self-denying, but, for the most part, a silent principle. It will show itself in deeds rather than in words, in timely prevention of mischief rather than in late and loud remonstrance. It will not be very sanguine, nor reckon too much of any good which appears to be done, knowing that we are all by nature unstable as water. Nor yet will it be too soon disheartened or disconcerted, knowing that there is hope even of the worst, and that constant efforts and prayers, with the Church of God to your aid, will, by the aid of His good Spirit, prevail against everything but hardened obstinacy. Above all, this care of others good purposes, to be at all like that of St. Barnabas, must be accompanied with scrupulously good example; even as it is here said of this holy apostle, very emphatically, that he was a good man. Finally, the good advice of St. Barnabas, here given to the people of Antioch, may well serve as a kind of watchword for all Christians of every station, in times when the Faith and the Church are being violently assailed by their enemies. Then is the time to practise a holy obstinacy; not to mind if you be not able to give reasons, and talk knowingly about things, but with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord; that is, to abide by what the Church has taught you let people say what they will. This will be called bigotry and stubbornness; and they who are wise in their own conceit will insist on your giving a reason for everything. Well, then, let your reason be given, not in words, but in a holy life. (Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times.)

Barnabas

I. His history and character.

1. His ancestors had settled in Cyprus, for what purposes we know not. There Barnabas was born. He was called at first Joses, but after his conversion to Christianity, Barnabas, perhaps because of his estate--he was a wealthy man, and relieved the necessities of the poor--or because by his preaching he consoled the people of God, and encouraged sinners to come to Christ.

2. Ministers often differ considerably. Some are sons of thunder, others have the tongue of the learned. Now, never oppose ministers to each other. Their situation, natural complexion, gifts, graces, are different; but the Church needs them, and can well employ them all. Let Paul therefore plant, and Apollos water; let one comfort the feeble-minded, and another be set for the defence of the gospel; let one lay the foundation, and another build thereon. Each has his own work, and each shall have his own reward.

3. Much of the dispositions of persons may be discovered by the objects which awaken their attention and desire when they first enter a country or a town. Some are immediately looking about for scenery, some for curiosities, some for trade, some for buildings, some for libraries, some for pictures. Barnabas was alive to something else--it was the one thing needful. He immediately looked after the cause of God.

II. His discovery.

1. The grace of God is a principle. Seen it must be to God, to whom all hearts are open; and known, it may be, by the individuals themselves. But how can it be seen by others? I know only one way: by its effects. You cannot see life, but you can see the man alive. You cannot see health, but you can see the freshness and vigour of the healthy man. You do not break a tree to examine the rind, or open it to examine the wood, to know of what sort it is; a tree is known by its fruits. God says, I will put My Spirit within them. But who is to know this? Read on--and cause them to walk in My statutes. James says to the professor of religion, Show me thy faith without thy works. I will show thee my faith by my works: I will show thee the spring by the stream; the sun in the shining; the creed by the conduct.

2. When may we be said to see the grace of God? I expect to find in a man in whom there is a work of grace--

(1) A change in his outward conduct. If he has been vicious before, he learns to be virtuous; the drunkard becomes sober, etc.

(2) A love of good men; for like not only begets, but also attracts, like. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.

(3) A peculiar attachment to the Scriptures.

(4) A regard for the Sabbath. I am sure that the righteous man always calls the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord, honourable. The grace of God, therefore, will lead a man to regard the means of grace.

(5) Speech seasoned with grace. Physicians look at the tongues of their patients. Ministers should always examine the tongues of their patients. If these are disordered, they may be assured something else is disordered; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

(6) A temper conformed to the spirit of Christ. Some, in exculpation of their fretful or fierce tempers, say, that the grace of God is sometimes grafted on a crab tree; yes, but when the tree is so grafted, we expect that it will bring forth fruit, not according to the stock, but according to the scion.

(7) Family piety.

(8) Consistency.

3. With regard to the visibility of Divine grace, there are three things which I must remark.

(1) We may, after all, be deceived with regard to it. The imitation may be so nice and fine as to impose upon the most judicious observers. None of the disciples suspected Judas; and Peter, after baptizing Simon Magus, was careful to write of Stephanas, A faithful brother, as I suppose.

(2) You are not to consider persons as destitute of the grace of God, when their lives are blameless, and they are regular at the means of grace, and in their discharge of the duties of religion. When things are fair in character, you are not to go motive hunting. It is better to be occasionally deceived, than to live always in a temperature of suspicion.

(3) Divine grace is compatible with infirmities; otherwise we should exclude all from the possession of it. Our Saviour does not despise the day of small things. Let us follow His example.

III. His pleasure. What he saw was not a pleasing sight to all men. It was a hell to Satan to see how things were now going on; and there are those who too much resemble him. The elder brother did not rejoice when he saw the prodigal received, and there are Pharisees now who are ready to say, Go to heaven with publicans and harlots! But the salvation of the sinner is the pleasure of the Lord. The Saviour here sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. The angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. And every convert may say, They that fear thee will be glad when they see me. We may consider Barnabas as a partaker of this pleasure.

1. As a man of piety. Whenever a man is converted, God has a subject born. Here is one in whom He is then glorified passively, because he displays traces of His perfections, actively, as he is now made willing in the day of His power. Can a man of piety see this and not rejoice?

2. As a man of benevolence. Barnabas was pleased when he saw the poor healed, the hungry fed, etc. But he knew that the body was nothing to the soul, or the time to eternity. What is every other attainment compared with that godliness which is profitable unto all things! Besides, every subject of Divine grace is not only blessed in himself, but he is made a blessing to others. Can a man of benevolence look on such, and not rejoice?

3. As a minister who had come here from preaching. There are some who cannot rejoice to see things done by others, especially, if they do not belong to their own communion. But if a man has the spirit of Barnabas, he will be able to say, Let God employ what instruments He pleases, therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

IV. His concern. Exhorted them. Observe--

1. The importance of his admonition--that they would cleave unto the Lord, i.e., the Lord Jesus. Him they had received; in Him they were to walk. Had we heard Barnabas, it would have been something to this effect: Cleave to Him as your Teacher, as your Redeemer, as your Support in all your duties and in all your conflicts, as your Comforter, as your Master, as your Example.

2. The nature of it. He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord. Now this impulse--not only conviction, but resolution--always issues out of the heart; and what is religion, unless the heart is engaged from the beginning to the end? Where the man can say with David, My heart is fixed, he will push on notwithstanding difficulties, and will convert hindrances into furtherances.

3. Its extensiveness. He exhorted them all; not only those who were weak in the faith, but those who were strong; not only the young, but the old. When was Solomons heart led away? In his old age. And does not Paul even say to that fine young man Timothy, Flee youthful lusts? (W. Jay.)

The experience and work of Barnabas

I. The fact which he observed. The grace of God operating in the converts. Note--

1. That conversion is always the result of Divine grace--that is, Gods free and sovereign favour. For by grace are ye saved, through faith, etc. True conversion thus resulting from Divine grace always becomes apparent and manifest by its effects. In place of the works of the flesh there will be the fruits of the Spirit, in place of carelessness, impenitence, unbelief, worldliness, and, peradventure, open and flagrant crime, there will be seriousness, there will be contrition, faith, holiness, love to God and to man.

II. The emotion with which, in the contemplation of the fact, he became inspired. He was glad. This gladness is justly excited because of--

1. The personal happiness which the operation of Divine grace in conversion secures to those who feel it.

2. The honour which the operation of Divine grace in conversion secures to the Godhead In every conversion there is a display of the Father; for by His purpose the conversion was accomplished, the conversion was directed. There is a display of the Son; for by His sacrifice the conversion was purchased. There is a display of the Spirit; for by His agency the conversion was effected.

III. The exhortation which, in connection with the emotion, he expressed and urged. Mark--

1. Its nature. Purpose signifies firm and resolute determination. Cleave to the Lord is an expression of Hebrew origin, and it occurs two or three times in the earlier part of the Old Testament Scriptures in a striking manner. To cleave to an individual seems to imply the act of a man anxious to obtain a blessing from another--a man who lays fast hold on his person, being resolved not to permit his departure until the blessing has been obtained; and this is the spirit in which we are exhorted with purpose and determination of heart to cleave unto the Lord. We ought to be steadfast in cleaving to the principles of the Lord; in obeying the commandments of the Lord; in promoting the praise and the glory of the Lord. And each one in whom Divine grace has operated must have it as a constant desire, that in the spirit of steadfastness he may be preserved till death. For this purpose, use the means which God has been pleased to appoint--meditation, the study of His Word with prayer, social conversation with those who are established in the faith and hope of the gospel, diligent and devout attendance on the public ordinances and means of grace, and then the result will be accomplished, and you will cleave unto the Lord. You will emphatically be kept from falling, and be presented faultless before the presence of the Divine glory with great and exceeding joy.

2. The reasons by which this exhortation may be enforced. Cleave to the Lord--

(1) That you may not produce disgrace to the gospel you have professed.

(2) That you may continue and complete the joy of those who have rejoiced over your conversion.

(3) That you may partake of the highest joy in this world which Christianity can impart.

(4) That you may become endowed with capacities of usefulness to the hearts of others.

(5) That you may prepare for that final recompense which will be your portion throughout the eternity of heaven. (J. Parsons.)

The experience and work of Barnabas

I. The grace that Barnabas saw.

1. What a man sees depends on what he looks for. An architect would have seen buildings, a merchant wares, a soldier fortifications. And Barnabas had an eye to business. He saw a temple built of living stones; to win souls was the gain he coveted; and like a good soldier he calculated how these teeming thousands might be made subjects of His King. True, he saw sights that made him weep, but he does not mention them any more than a navigator reports the vast tracts of water over which he travels. The business of the latter is to report the discovery of islands standing out of the waste of waters, of the former the state of the Church which stood out amidst the waste of sin.

2. Barnabas had this grace in himself, or he would never have seen it in others. Philosophers saw the same people and pronounced them vile fanatics, and many today would have done the same. Gods grace is only to be spiritually discerned.

3. But this grace is nothing less than the free pardon of sin, bestowed by God and accepted by man.

II. The gladness he experienced. Incidentally it throws light on his own character. Tell me what gladdens or grieves a man and I will tell you what he is. The prosperity that made him glad was--

1. Spiritual. Men with an eye and a taste like his are wanted now. We are carried away in a mighty tide of material progress; but the gospel is a more precious treasure than all our inventions.

2. Possessed and exercised by others. There is no finer feature in a mans character than the tendency to rejoice in a neighbours good. Charity envieth not.

3. Produced by others. It is easy for a minister to be glad when he sees his own work prospering; but it requires no little piety to rejoice over anothers. But God teaches us that converting power does not reside in an arm of flesh. Unknown refugees founded a Church in Antioch while gifted apostles seemed to be spending their strength in vain.

4. Heightened by the contrasted masses of moral misery around.

5. No sentimental or selfish emotion. He brought Saul to share it.

III. The exhortation that he gave. That they should cleave to the Lord. There is nothing here about sacramental grace, the true Church, or a consecrated priesthood. In primitive Christianity everything was made to depend on personal union to a personal Saviour. There is mystery here. Yes, and I have seen a huge piece of iron hanging on another not welded or glued, but clinging with such a tenacity that it could bear my weight and its own. A wire charged with an electric current was in contact with its mass, and hence the adhesion. What that wire is to it, love is to us. We love Him, for He first loved us. Those who would keep a man close to God by brandishing the terrors of judgment before him, turn the wrong pole of the magnet to the steel and thereby repel instead of attract. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The exhortation of Barnabas

I. What he saw. The grace of God, and wherever that grace is made visible there we are to recognise a brother. Augustine said, Where Christ is there is the Church. True! but where is Christ? Wherever Christlike men manifest a life drawn from, and kindred with, His life. And so we say where the grace of Christ is visible, there is the Church. That great truth is sinned against by the successors of the more Jewish portion of that Church who sent Barnabas to Antioch, who exalt sacraments and priests to the same place as the Judaizers did the rite of the old covenant. The attempt is about as wise as to try to measure a network fine enough to keep back a stream. The true answer to all that assumption which confines the free flow of the water of life to the conduits of sacraments and orders, and will only allow the wind that bloweth where it listeth to make music in the pipes of their organs, is simply the homely one which shivered a corresponding theory in the fair open mind of Barnabas. It used to be an axiom that there was no life in the sea beyond a certain limit of a few hundred feet. And then when that was settled, the Challenger put down her dredge five miles, and brought up healthy and good-sized living things. We have all been too much accustomed to draw arbitrary limits to the diffusion of the life of Christ among men.

II. What he felt. It was a triumph of Christian principle to recognise the grace of God under new forms, and in so strange a place. It was a still greater triumph to haft it with rejoicing. We are apt to forget the strength of the convictions which these Jewish Christians had to overcome. Hence the context seems to consider that Barnabass gladness needs explanation, and so it adds, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And there is much to overcome if we would know this Christlike gladness. Our natural interest in the well-being of our own Churches makes our sympathies flow most deeply in denominational channels. And then come in abundance of less worthy motives, and we have but a very tepid joy in anybody elses prosperity. Let us set a jealous watch over our hearts that self-absorption, or denominationalism, or envy do not make the sight a pain instead of a joy; and let us remember that the eye salve which will purge our dim sight to behold the grace of God in all its forms is that grace itself.

III. What he said.

1. The exhortation itself, The sum of all objective religion is Christ--the sum of all subjective religion is cleaving to Him. From, whatever point we approach Christianity, it all resolves itself into the person of Christ. He is the revelation of God; theology properly so called is but the formulating of the facts which He gives us. He is the perfect exemplar of humanity! Wrenched away from Him, Christian morality has no being. He is the sacrifice for the world, the salvation of which flows from what He does, and not merely from what He taught, or was. There is a constant tendency to separate the results of Christs life and death, and unconsciously to make these the sum of our religion and faith. Therefore it is well to mark how vividly these early Christians apprehended a living Lord as the sum and substance of all which they had to grasp. We begin to be Christians, as this context tells us, when we turn to the Lord. We continue to be Christians, as Barnabas reminded these beginners, by cleaving to the Lord. Let us cleave to Him--

(1) By continual renewal of our first faith in Him. The longest line may be conceived of as produced simply by the motion of its initial point. So our progress should not consist in leaving our early acts of faith behind us, but in repeating them over and over again till the points coalesce in one unbroken line which goes straight to the throne and heart of Jesus. As in some great symphony the theme which was given out in low notes on one poor instrument recurs over and over again embroidered with varying harmonies, and unfolding a richer music till it swells into all the grandeur of the triumphant close, so our lives should be bound into a unity, and in their unity bound to Christ by the constant renewal of our early faith. Each moment must be united to Christ by its own act of faith, or it will be separated from Him. So living in the Lord, dying in the Lord, sleeping in Jesus, we shall at the last be found in Him at that day, and shall be raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

(2) By habitual contemplation. There can be no real continuous closeness of intercourse with Him, except by thought ever recurring to Him amidst all the tumult of our busy days. The Church has forgotten how to meditate. Many of us are so busy thinking about Christianity that we have lost our hold of Christ. Cleave to the Lord by habitual play of meditative thought on the treasures hidden in His name, and waiting like gold in the quartz, to be the prize of our patient sifting. And when the great truths embodied in Him stand clear before us, next must come into exercise the moral side of faith, the voluntary act of trust, the making our own of the blessings which He holds out to us.

(3) By constant outgoings of our love to Him. The same love which is the bond of perfectness between man and man, is the bond between us and Christ. Cold natures may carp, but love is justified of her children, and Christ accepts the homage that has a heart in it. The order is faith, love, obedience, that threefold cord knits men to Christ and Christ to men. For the understanding a continuous grasp of Him as the object of thought. For the heart a continuous out-going to Him as the object of our love. For the will a continuous submission to Him as the Lord of our obedience. For the whole nature a continuous cleaving to Him as the object of our faith and worship.

2. Its sufficiency. If Barnabas had been like some of us, he would have said, This irregular work has been well done, but there are no authorised teachers here. The first thing is to give these people the blessing of bishops and priests. Some of us would have said, A good work has been done, but these people are terribly ignorant. The best thing would be to get ready as soon as possible some manual of Christian doctrine. Some of us would have said, No doubt they have been converted, but we fear there has been too much of the emotional in the preaching. Plain practical instruction in Christian duty is the one thing they want. Barnabas knew better. He did not despise organisation, nor orthodoxy, nor practical righteousness, but he knew that all three, and everything else that any man needed for his perfecting, would come, if only they kept near to Christ, and that nothing else was of any use if they did not.

(1) We spend much effort in perfecting our organisations, and I have not a word to say against it. But heavier machinery needs more power in the engine, and that means greater capacity in your boilers and more fire in your furnace.

(2). A definite theology is needful, but the basis of all theology is the personal possession of Him who is the wisdom of God, and the light of the world.

(3) Plain straightforward righteousness and everyday morality come most surely when a man is keeping close to Christ. The same life is strength in the arm, pliancy in the fingers, swiftness in the foot, light in the eye, music on the lips; so the same grace is Protean in its forms, and to His servants who trust Him, Christ ever says, What would ye that I should do unto you? Be it even as thou wilt. The same mysterious power lives in the swaying branch, and in the veined leaf, and in the blushing clusters. With like wondrous transformations of the one grace, the Lord pours Himself into our spirits, filling all needs and fitting for all circumstances. Therefore for us all, individuals and Churches, this remains the prime command, With purpose of heart cleave unto the Lord. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Visible grace

Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Not only be honest, but let your honesty be seen. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Show forth the praises of Him who hath called you. As Bengel remarks in connection with our text: A gem should not merely be a gem; it should be properly set in a ring, that its splendour may meet the eye.

Exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.

Cleaving unto the Lord

The only rational religious belief is that goodness is almighty, and the great Being, who comprehends all goodness in Himself, our Father. We owe Him everything, for He hath both made and redeemed us, and we should cherish towards Him the devoted affection of a son to his father, such as was shown in the following story. A little boy, the son of Sir George Staunton, was with his father, during his return to England, on the deck of the ship Lion. The father, imagining that a French man-of-war was going to attack them, desired his son to go below. My father, I will never forsake you, was the youths spirited and affectionate reply. So, when Gods way seems the path of danger, we should resolve to stand to it at all cost.

Determined purpose of heart

The Pastor Jacob of Oroomiah, Persia, writing to his son, in Manchester, narrates the following: I have a young Mohammedan friend whose name is Koola Bak. For nearly a year and a half he has been coming to my house to hear the Word of God. On account of his being so Christ-like, some wicked people went and complained to their Great Moshtahed, or priest. He was taken to the Moshtaheds house and asked what was his faith. He replied, In Jesus Christ. Upon hearing this the Moshtahed rose up in great rage and beat him with his stick on the head. He again asked him the same question three times. The young man gave the same reply each time. He was then bound upon a beam and beaten by three servants with switches until the blood gushed out of his back and feet. Shortly afterwards the young man came to my house with his bleeding body and told me all about it. He said to me: Pastor, I will not give up Christ, even if I am to be killed. I believe that He is my Saviour, and is able to deliver me from these wicked people, who try to torment me because of my belief in Jesus. A few days after this incident took place, the Moshtahed sent a gift to the young man and asked his pardon. The next day the Moshtahed with his brother visited the young mans house, and they still try to win his heart, but he boldly said, No, it is impossible for me to forsake Jesus, in whom I have believed as my Redeemer. So they left him and went their way.

Religious persistency

Barnabas was the Son of Consolation. But exhortation is as needful as consolation, and he could stir up as well as comfort. He knew that it was not sufficient to begin well; it is the end that proves and crowns the whole.

I. The aim of the exhortation. Barnabas urges his hearers to cleave unto the Lord. The exhortation is urgently needed--

1. Because there is a natural tendency in the human heart to cleave to inferior things.

2. Because He is the only one worthy of our regard. He is the only Teacher, Saviour, Helper, Protector. The only Comforter, for He is the God of all comfort.

II. The character of the duty. With full purpose of heart. This implies thoroughness and persistency.

1. Without the heart religion is a poor business. So in anything else. Unless the affections and purpose are enlisted a man enters upon his business concerns with listlessness and apathy.

2. Without the heart nothing else can be given. It is principle God looks at. Outward actions weigh but little with Him. But it is here full purpose of heart. The whole soul is thrown into the work. It is not a divided heart. (Homilist.)

Religious steadfastness

I. We exhort you to this decision and manifestation of character. Cleave unto the Lord, consecrate yourselves to Him.

II. We exhort you to adhere to the fundamental truths of the gospel. Cleave unto the Lord in His personal character as revealed in the sacred Scriptures.

III. We exhort you to cherish a spirit of charity to all who differ. The difference of Christians on minor points proves the truth of the great ones on which they are agreed.

IV. We exhort you to promote the worship of God. Attend to private, to family, and to public worship.

V. We exhort you to vigorous attempts to recover sinners. (J. Liefchild, D. D.)

Cleaving to the Lord

I. The exhortation.

1. It supposes those to whom it is directed to be already entered upon a religious course of life.

2. It requires the habitual exercise of all the graces of the Christian life; the constant performance of every commanded duty.

3. It requires that we make an open and honest profession of our adherence to the Lord.

4. It requires that we persevere in our adherence to the Lord to the end of our lives. We must hold on our way, and wax stronger and stronger as we proceed.

II. Some motives and arguments.

1. That the same reasons which at first determined you to choose the ways of God, are equally forcible for inciting you to persevere in them to the end.

2. That all the bribes which can be offered, in order to seduce you from your adherence to the Lord, are vain, precarious, and unsatisfying.

3. What obligations you lie under to this Lord to whom you are exhorted in the text, to cleave with purpose of heart.

4. That this duty, although difficult, is by no means impracticable. All necessary aid is provided for you, and ready to be conveyed to you as often as you shall ask it.

III. Some directions.

1. Labour to have your minds as richly furnished as possible with true Christian knowledge.

2. Besides the speculative knowledge of Divine truths, you must also labour to acquire an inward experience and relish of them.

3. If you would cleave with steadfastness unto the Lord, attend constantly to the inward frame and temper of your hearts. Make conscience of watching over your most secret thoughts.

4. Be not high-minded, but fear. Remember what our blessed Lord said to His disciples, Without Me ye can do nothing. A holy diffidence of ourselves is the true temper of a Christian, and will both serve to keep us out of the way of temptation, and teach us to act with the caution of men who perceive their danger and are careful to shun it.

5. Avoid, as much as possible, the fellowship of wicked men.

6. Beware of neglecting the instrumental duties of religion. (R. Walker.)

The subjects of Divine grace exhorted to cleave unto the Lord

I. That the conversion of sinners to the Lord is justly ascribable to His grace.

II. That where the grace of God is enjoyed it will be seen in its effects.

1. All who profess to enjoy the grace of God should be careful thus to show it--On principles of prudence; that their own eternal salvation may be secured (2Pe_1:5-10). On principles of piety; that God may hereby be glorified (Mat_5:16; 1Pe_4:11-12). On principles of benevolence; that their weak brethren may be strengthened (Heb_13:13), and that their pastors may hereby be comforted (1Th_3:8; 3Jn_1:4). As an incitement to holy diligence, on this generous principle, our text teaches us--

III. That when the grace of God is seen it affords pleasure to well-disposed minds. When he saw the grace of God, he was glad; and his joy was both pious and pure.

1. His joy on this occasion was pious. It was the joy of a saint excited by seeing the grace of God manifested, and sinners saved. He was glad, as a good man, or a lover of mankind; because hereby many were benefited, being raised to a state of safety, happiness, and honour (Rom_5:1; Eph_2:1-6); and the welfare of the civil state was also promoted (Pro_14:32). He was glad, as a holy man; for he was full of the Holy Ghost. Hence he was glad, because the felicity of angels was hereby augmented (Luk_15:10). Christ was hereby most pleasingly satisfied (Isa_53:10-11); and God was hereby glorified (Isa_61:1-3). He was glad, as a faithful man; for he was full of faith. Hence, he confidently expected the fulfilment of Gods Word (Psa_2:8). He beheld in these converted Gentiles the earnest of Christs universal dominion, and could exclaim with David (Psa_72:19-20).

2. His joy on this occasion was pure. He was glad, though the subjects of this grace were Gentile strangers; it was not the joy of bigotry: and though he was not the instrument of their conversion, it was not the joy of self-complacency.

3. His joy on this occasion was exemplary; worthy of our imitation. Wherever the grace of God is seen we should rejoice: without bigotry, this is unchristian (Eph_5:24), and without envy, for this is devilish (Jam_3:14-16). Our text teaches us--

IV. That cleaving unto the Lord is the indispensable duty of all Christian converts.

1. By the Lord is meant our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Guide (Psa_48:14), our Sovereign (Mat_23:8), our Strength (Psa_46:1), and our Foundation (Isa_28:16).

2. It is the duty of Christian converts to cleave, unto the Lord. Cleave unto Him--By habitual attention (Act_3:22-23), by persevering obedience (Heb_5:9; Psa_106:3), by importunate prayer (Heb_4:16), and by entire dependence (1Pe_2:5-6; Jud_1:21-22).

3. All Christian converts should thus cleave unto Him. All, of every age, of every religious attainment, and of every station in the Church (Joh_15:5; Heb_3:12).

4. We should thus cleave unto the Lord with purpose of heart. This should and must be the object of our deliberate choice (Deu_30:19-20), of our steadfast resolution (Jos_24:15), and of our incessant care (1Jn_2:28; Php_3:16). Our test teaches us--

V. That affectionate exhortation is conductive to the steadfast perseverance of believers in Christ. He exhorted them, etc. Here we may observe--

1. To whom this exhortation should be addressed. As cleaving unto the Lord is a duty required of all Christians, so we find all of every description exhorted in the oracles of God. Private Christians are urged to this (Joh_15:4; Col_2:6); and public characters are also thus stimulated to exertion (1Ti_4:16).

2. By whom this exhortation should be employed. It should be given--By all those to whom the care of souls is committed (1Co_14:3; Col_1:28), and by all private Christians in their mutual communications (Heb_3:13; Heb_10:24-25).

3. How this exhortation should be enforced. It should be urged by the consideration of our own total insufficiency (Jer_10:23; 2Co_3:5), of Christs all-sufficiency (Heb_7:25), of Satans malice, who purposes and seeks to destroy us (1Pe_5:8-9), of the dreadful evils to which apostacy would expose us (Heb_10:38; Rev_3:11; 1Ch_28:9), and of the blessings with which God is engaged to crown unfainting perseverance (Gal_6:9; 2Pe_1:10-11).

Converts exhorted

Barnabas knew that it required quite as much grace to go on as it does to begin. And he knew how only they could secure it, by cleaving unto the Lord.

I. The importance of a purpose. When there are religious feelings, and convictions, the great thing is to gather them all up to some distinct object. This purpose must not be only of the deliberate intention of the mind, but a purpose of the heart. But then feeling needs a focus. If you wish to keep a thought, turn that thought into action, else it would all evaporate. Give it an object, and it will live. The question then is, what fixed purpose of heart can we make for ourselves today? I advise you to determine--

1. That henceforth it shall appear to all men whose you are and whom you serve.

2. That your besetting sin--temper, or selfishness, or indolence shall be conquered.

3. That you will be more real and earnest in your private devotions.

4. That you will throw more love into daily life, and be more attentive to all home duties.

5. That you will exercise greater care, and more regularity, in your religious duties.

6. That you will undertake some new work for God; become a Sunday school teacher, or a district visitor, etc. Now if you would live for any such purpose, you must be much in prayer. Put less trust in your own good intentions. Be looking up for sustaining grace, for the great gift of perseverance.

II. The great purpose of Christian life is to cleave unto the Lord.

1. This means to be feeling that He is your very life; and to be always trying to make Him closer, and closer. It is Gods word for marriage: A man shall cleave unto his wife.

2. Only remember the power of this cleaving comes not from you who cleave, but from Him who all the while draws and holds you to the cleaving. He has apprehended, i.e., laid hold of you, that you may lay hold on Him.

3. Meanwhile, be very jealous of anything coming in to separate you for a moment, for that moment that you are separated from Christ your soul dies!

4. But do not be content even with mere nearness. There must be oneness. If you are really a believer, you are one with the Christ, just as any member in your body is at this moment one with your head. And, oh! what life, strength, safety, heaven is here. Your life is in Him. Where you are, at this moment, He is. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

New disciples admonished

To cleave to the Lord is--

1. To adhere to Him as the Revealer of the Truth, and to the Truth as revealed by Him.

2. To make Him the object of our constant faith.

3. To abide in His commandments.

4. To follow His example, who went about doing good and bore His Cross.

5. To abide in Him who is the fountain of grace and the Giver of the Spirit.

6. To cling to Him as our Portion and Happiness. (J. W. Alexander, D. D.)

Cleaving to the Lord

At the oceanside, where cliffs jut out to the waves, certain molluscs may be found sticking tightly to the rocks. Each mollusc clings so tenaciously that the concussion of the waves cannot smite it off. The secret of its hold is that the mollusc is empty. If it were filled either with flesh or with air, it would drop off immediately. This beautifully illustrates the condition of every sincere, humble, conscientious believer, who has been emptied of self, and therefore clings, by a Divine law of adhesion, closely to the Rock of Ages. If he should become puffed with pride and self-conceit, or gorged with fleshly indulgence, he would yield to the waves of temptation and be swept away.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Acts

THE EXHORTATION OF BARNABAS 1

Act 11:23.

The first purely heathen converts had been brought into the Church by the nameless men of Cyprus and Cyrene, private persons with no office or commission to preach, who, in simple obedience to the instincts of a Christian heart, leaped the barrier which seemed impassable to the Church in Jerusalem, and solved the problem over which Apostles were hesitating. Barnabas is sent down to see into this surprising new phenomenon, and his mission, though probably not hostile, was, at all events, one of inquiry and doubt. But like a true man, he yielded to facts, and widened his theory to suit them. He saw the tokens of Christian life in these Gentile converts, and that compelled him to admit that the Church was wider than some of his friends in Jerusalem thought. A pregnant lesson for modern theorists who, on one ground or another of doctrine or of orders, narrow the great conception of Christ’s Church! Can you see ‘the grace of God’ in the people? Then they are in the Church, whatever becomes of your theories, and the sooner you let them out so as to fit the facts, the better for you and for them.

Satisfied as to their true Christian character, Barnabas sets himself to help them to grow. Now, remember how recently they had been converted; how, from their Gentile origin, they can have had next to no systematic instruction; how the taint of heathen morals, such as were common in that luxurious, corrupt Antioch, must have clung to them; how unformed must have been their loose Church organisation- and remembering all this, think of this one exhortation as summing up all that Barnabas had to say to them. He does not say, Do this, or Believe that, or Organise the other; but he says, Stick to Jesus Christ the Lord. On this commandment hangs all the law; it is the one all-inclusive summary of the duties of the Christian life.

So, brethren and fathers, I venture to take these words now, as containing large lessons for us all, appropriate at all times, and especially in a sermon on such an occasion as the present.

We may deal with the thoughts suggested by these words very simply, just looking at the points as they lie-what Barnabas saw, what he felt, what he said.

I. What Barnabas saw.

The grace of God here has very probably the specific meaning of the miracle-working gift of the Holy Spirit. That is rendered probable by the analogy of other instances recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, such as Peter’s experience at Caesarea, where all his hesitations and reluctance were swept away when ‘the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning, and they spake with tongues.’ If so, what convinced Barnabas that these uncircumcised Gentiles were Christians like himself, may have been their similar possession of the visible and audible effects of that gift of God. But the language does not compel this interpretation; and the absence of all distinct reference to these extraordinary powers as existing there, among the new converts at Antioch, may be intended to mark a difference in the nature of the evidence. At any rate, the possibly intentional generality of the expression is significant and fairly points to an extension of the spiritual gifts much beyond the limits of miraculous powers. There are other ways by which the grace of God may be seen and heard, thank God! than by speaking with tongues and working miracles; and the first lesson of our text is that wherever that grace is made visible by its appropriate manifestations, there we are to recognise a brother.

Augustine said, ‘Where Christ is there is the Church,’ and that is true, but vague; for the question still remains, ‘And where is Christ?’ The only satisfying answer is, Christ is wherever Christlike men manifest a life drawn from, and kindred with, His life. And so the true form of the dictum for practical purposes comes to be: ‘Where the grace of Christ is visible, there is the Church.’

That great truth is sinned against and denied in many ways. Most chiefly, perhaps, by the successors in modern garb of the more Jewish portion of that Church at Jerusalem who sent Barnabas to Antioch. They had no objection to Gentiles entering the Church, but they must come in by the way of circumcision; they quite believed that it was Christ who saved, and His grace which sanctified, but they thought that His grace would only flow in a given channel; and so do their modern representatives, who exalt sacraments, and consequently priests, to the same place as the Judaizers in the early Church did the rite of the old Covenant. Such teachers have much to say about the notes of the Church, and have elaborated a complicated system of identification by which you may know the genuine article, and unmask impostors. The attempt is about as wise as to try to weave a network fine enough to keep back a stream. The water will flow through the closest meshes, and when Christ pours out the Spirit, He is apt to do it in utter disregard of notes of the Church, and of channels of sacramental grace.

We Congregationalists, who have no orders, no sacraments, no Apostolic succession; who in order not to break loose from Christ and conscience have had to break loose from ‘Catholic tradition,’ and have been driven to separation by the true schismatics, who have insisted on another bond of Church unity than union to Christ, are denied nowadays a place in His Church.

The true answer to all that arrogant assumption and narrow pedantry which confine the free flow of the water of life to the conduits of sacraments and orders, and will only allow the wind that bloweth where it listeth to make music in the pipes of their organs, is simply the homely one which shivered a corresponding theory to atoms in the fair open mind of Barnabas.

The Spirit of Christ at work in men’s hearts, making them pure and gentle, simple and unworldly, refining their characters, elevating their aims, toning their whole being into accord with the music of His life, is the true proof that men are Christians, and that communities of such men are Churches of His. Mysterious efficacy is claimed for Christian ordinances. Well, the question is a fair one: Is the type of Christian character produced within these sacred limits, which we are hopelessly outside, conspicuously higher and more manifestly Christlike than that nourished by no sacraments, and grown not under glass, but in the unsheltered open? Has not God set His seal on these communities to which we belong? With many faults for which we have to be, and are, humble before Him, we can point to the lineaments of the family likeness, and say, ‘Are they Hebrews? so are we. Are they Israelites? so are we. Are they the seed of Abraham? so are we.’

Once get that truth wrought into men’s minds, that the true test of Christianity is the visible presence of a grace in character which is evidently God’s, and whole mountains of prejudice and error melt away. We are just as much in danger of narrowing the Church in accordance with our narrowness as any ‘sacramentarian’ of them all. We are tempted to think that no good thing can grow up under the baleful shadow of that tree, a sacerdotal Christianity. We are tempted to think that all the good people are Dissenters, just as Churchmen are to think that nobody can be a Christian who prays without a prayer-book. Our own type of denominational character-and there is such a thing-comes to be accepted by us as the all but exclusive ideal of a devout man; and we have not imagination enough to conceive, nor charity enough to believe in, the goodness which does not speak our dialect, nor see with our eyes. Dogmatical narrowness has built as high walls as ceremonial Christianity has reared round the fold of Christ, And the one deliverance for us all from the transformed selfishness, which has so much to do with shaping all these wretched narrow theories of the Church, is to do as this man did-open our eyes with sympathetic eagerness to see God’s grace in many an unexpected place, and square our theories with His dealings.

It used to be an axiom that there was no life in the sea beyond a certain limit of a few hundred feet. It was learnedly and conclusively demonstrated that pressure and absence of light, and I know not what beside, made life at greater depths impossible. It was proved that in such conditions creatures could not live. And then, when that was settled, the Challenger put down her dredge five miles, and brought up healthy and good-sized living things, with eyes in their heads, from that enormous depth. So, then, the savant had to ask, How can there be life? instead of asserting that there cannot be; and, no doubt, the answer will be forth coming some day.

We have all been too much accustomed to set arbitrary limits to the diffusion of the life of Christ among men. Let us rather rejoice when we see forms of beauty, which bear the mark of His hand, drawn from depths that we deemed waste, and thankfully confess that the bounds of our expectation, and the framework of our institutions, do not confine the breadth of His working, nor the sweep of His grace.

II. What Barnabas felt.

‘He was glad.’ It was a triumph of Christian principle to recognise the grace of God under new forms, and in so strange a place. It was a still greater triumph to hail it with rejoicing. One need not have wondered if the acknowledgment of a fact, dead in the teeth of all his prejudices, and seemingly destructive of some profound convictions, had been somewhat grudging. Even a good, true man might have been bewildered and reluctant to let go so much as was destroyed by the admission-’Then hath God granted to the Gentiles also repentance unto life,’-and might have been pardoned if he had not been able to do more than acquiesce and hold his peace. We are scarcely just to these early Jewish Christians when we wonder at their hesitation on this matter, and are apt to forget the enormous strength of the prejudices and sacred conviction which they had to overcome. Hence the context seems to consider that the quick recognition of Christian character on the part of Barnabas, and his gladness at the discovery, need explanation, and so it adds, with special reference to these, as it would seem, ‘for he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,’ as if nothing short of such characteristics could have sufficiently emancipated him from the narrowness that would have refused to discern the good, or the bitterness that would have been offended at it.

So, dear brethren, we may well test ourselves with this question: Does the discovery of the working of the grace of God outside the limits of our own Churches and communions excite a quick, spontaneous emotion of gladness in our hearts? It may upset some of our theories; it may teach us that things which we thought very important, ‘distinctive principles’ and the like, are not altogether as precious as we thought them; it may require us to give up some pleasant ideas of our superiority, and of the necessary conformity of all good people to our type. Are we willing to let them all go, and without a twinge of envy or a hanging back from prejudice, to welcome the discovery that ‘God fulfils Himself in many ways’? Have we schooled ourselves to say honestly, ‘Therein I do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice’?

There is much to overcome if we would know this Christlike gladness. The good and the bad in us may both oppose it. The natural deeper interest in the well-being of the Churches of our own faith and order, the legitimate ties which unite us with these, our conscientious convictions, our friendships, the esprit de corps born of fighting shoulder to shoulder, will, of course, make our sympathies flow most quickly and deeply in denominational channels. And then come in abundance of less worthy motives, some altogether bad and some the exaggeration of what is good, and we get swallowed up in our own individual work, or in that of our ‘denomination,’ and have but a very tepid joy in anybody else’s prosperity.

In almost every town of England, your Churches, and those to which I belong, with Presbyterians and Wesleyans, stand side by side. The conditions of our work make some rivalry inevitable, and none of us, I suppose, object to that. It helps to keep us all diligent: a sturdy adherence to our several ‘distinctive principles’ and an occasional hard blow in fair fight on their behalf we shall all insist upon. Our brotherhood is all the more real for frank speech, and ‘the animated No!’ is an essential in all intercourse which is not stagnant or mawkish. There is much true fellowship and much good feeling among all these. But we want far more of an honest rejoicing in each other’s success, a quicker and truer manly sympathy with each other’s work, a fuller consciousness of our solidarity in Christ, and a clearer exhibition of it before the world.

And on a wider view, as our eyes travel over the wide field of Christendom, and our memories go back over the long ages of the story of the Church, let gladness, and not wonder or reluctance, be the temper with which we see the graces of Christian character lifting their meek blossoms in corners strange to us, and breathing their fragrance over the pastures of the wilderness. In many a cloister, in many a hermit’s cell, from amidst the smoke of incense, through the dust of controversies, we should see, and be glad to see, faces bright with the radiance caught from Christ. Let us set a jealous watch over our hearts that self-absorption, or denominationalism, or envy do not make the sight a pain instead of a joy; and let us remember that the eye-salve which will purge our dim sight to behold the grace of God in all its forms is that grace itself, which ever recognises its own kindred, and lives in the gladness of charity, and the joy of beholding a brother’s good. If we are to have eyes to know the grace of God when we see it, and a heart to rejoice when we know it, we must get them as Barnabas got his, and be good men, because we are full of the Holy Ghost, and full of the Holy Ghost because we are full of faith.

III. What Barnabas said.

‘He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.’ The first thing that strikes one about this all-sufficient directory for Christian life is the emphasis with which it sets forth ‘the Lord’ as the one object to be grasped and held. The sum of all objective Religion is Christ-the sum of all subjective Religion is cleaving to Him. A living Person to be laid hold of, and a personal relation to that Person, such is the conception of Religion, whether considered as revelation or as inward life, which underlies this exhortation. Whether we listen to His own words about Himself, and mark the altogether unprecedented way in which He was His own theme, and the unique decisiveness and plainness with which He puts His own personality before us as the Incarnate Truth, the pattern for all human conduct, the refuge and the rest for the world of weary ones; or whether we give ear to the teaching of His Apostles; from whatever point of view we approach Christianity, it all resolves itself into the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Revelation of God; theology, properly so called, is but the formulating of the facts which He gives us; and for the modern world the alternative is, Christ the manifested God, or no God at all, other than the shadow of a name. He is the perfect Exemplar of humanity! The law of life and the power to fulfil the law are both in Him; and the superiority of Christian morality consists not in this or that isolated precept, but in the embodiment of all goodness in His life, and in the new motive which He supplies for keeping the commandment. Wrenched away from Him, Christian morality has no being. He is the sacrifice for the world, the salvation of which flows from what He does, and not merely from what He taught or was. His personality is the foundation of His work, and the gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation is all contained in the name of Jesus.

There is a constant tendency to separate the results of Christ’s life and death, whether considered as revelation, atonement, or ethics, from Him, and unconsciously to make these the sum of our Religion, and the object of our faith. Especially is this the case in times of restless thought and eager canvassing of the very foundations of religious belief, like the present. Therefore it is wholesome for us all to be brought back to the pregnant simplicity of the thought which underlies this text, and to mark how vividly these early Christians apprehended a living Lord as the sum and substance of all which they had to grasp.

There is a whole world between the man to whom God’s revelation consists in certain doctrines given to us by Jesus Christ, and the man to whom it consists in that Christ Himself. Grasping a living person is not the same as accepting a proposition. True, the propositions are about Him, and we do not know Him without them. But equally true, we need to be reminded that He is our Saviour and not they, and that God has revealed Himself to us not in words and sentences but in a life.

For, alas! the doctrinal element has overborne the personal among all Churches and all schools of thought, and in the necessary process of formulating and systematising the riches which are in Jesus, we are all apt to confound the creeds with the Christ, and so to manipulate Christianity until, instead of being the revelation of a Person and a gospel, it has become a system of divinity. Simple, devout souls have to complain that they cannot find even a dead Christ, to say nothing of a living one, for the theologians have ‘taken away their Lord, and they know not where they have laid Him.’

It is, therefore, to be reckoned as a distinct gain that one result of the course of more recent thought, both among friends and foes, has been to make all men feel more than before, that all revelation is contained in the living person of Jesus Christ. So did the Church believe before creeds were. So it is coming to feel again, with a consciousness enriched and defined by the whole body of doctrine, which has flowed from Him during all the ages. That solemn, gracious Figure rises day by day more clearly before men, whether they love Him or no, as the vital centre of this great whole of doctrines, laws, institutions, which we call Christianity. Round the story of His life the final struggle is to be waged. The foe feels that, so long as that remains, all other victories count for nothing. We feel that if that goes, there is nothing to keep. The principles and the precepts will perish alike, as the fair palace of the old legend, that crumbled to dust when its builder died. But so long as He stands before mankind as He is painted in the Gospel, it will endure. If all else were annihilated, Churches, creeds and all, leave us these four Gospels, and all else would be evolved again. The world knows now, and the Church has always known, though it has not always been true to the significance of the fact, that Jesus Christ is Christianity, and that because He lives, it will live also.

And consequently the sum of all personal religion is this simple act described here as cleaving to Him.

Need I do more than refer to the rich variety of symbols and forms of expression under which that thought is put alike by the Master and by His servants? Deepest of all are His own great words, of which our text is but a feeble echo, ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’ Fairest of all is that lovely emblem of the vine, setting forth the sweet mystery of our union with Him. Far as it is from the outmost pliant tendril to the root, one life passes to the very extremities, and every cluster swells and reddens and mellows because of its mysterious flow. ‘So also is Christ.’ We remember how often the invitation flowed from His lips, Come unto Me; how He was wont to beckon men away from self and the world with the great command, Follow Me; how He explained the secret of all true life to consist in eating Him. We may recall, too, the emphasis and perpetual reiteration with which Paul speaks of being ‘in Jesus’ as the condition of all blessedness, power, and righteousness; and the emblems which he so often employs of the building bound into a whole on the foundation from which it derives its stability, of the body compacted and organised into a whole by the head from which it derives its life.

We begin to be Christians, as this context tells us, when we ‘turn to the Lord.’ We continue to be Christians, as Barnabas reminded these ignorant beginners, by ‘cleaving to the Lord.’ Seeing, then, that our great task is to preserve that which we have as the very foundation of our Christian life, clearly the truest method of so keeping it will be the constant repetition of the act by which we got it at first. In other words, faith joined us to Christ, and continuously reiterated acts of faith keep us united to Him. So, if I may venture, fathers and brethren, to cast my words into the form of exhortation, even to such an audience as the present, I would earnestly say, Let us cleave to Christ by continual renewal of our first faith in Him.

The longest line may be conceived of as produced simply by the motion of its initial point. So should our lives be, our progress not consisting in leaving our early acts of faith behind us, but in repeating them over and over again till the points coalesce in one unbroken line which goes straight to the Throne and Heart of Jesus. True, the repetition should be accompanied with fuller knowledge, with calmer certitude, and should come from a heart ennobled and encircled by a Christ-possessing past. As in some great symphony the theme which was given out in low notes on one poor instrument recurs over and over again, embroidered with varying harmonies, and unfolding a richer music, till it swells into all the grandeur of the triumphant close, so our lives should be bound into a unity, and in their unity bound to Christ by the constant renewal of our early faith, and the fathers should come round again to the place which they occupied when as children they first knew Him that is ‘from the beginning’ to the end one and the same.

Such constant reiteration is needed, too, because yesterday’s trust has no more power to secure to-day’s union than the shreds of cloth and nails which hold last year’s growth to the wall will fasten this year’s shoots. Each moment must be united to Christ by its own act of faith, or it will be separated from Him. So living in the Lord we shall be strong and wise, happy and holy. So dying in the Lord we shall be of the dead who are blessed. So sleeping in Jesus we shall at the last be found in Him at that day, and shall be raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

But more specially let us cleave to Christ by habitual contemplation. There can be no real continuous closeness of intercourse with Him, except by thought ever recurring to Him amidst all the tumult of our busy days. I do not mean professional thinking or controversial thinking, of which we ministers have more than enough. There is another mood of mind in which to approach our Lord than these, a mood sadly unfamiliar, I am afraid, in these days: when poor Mary has hardly a chance of a reputation for ‘usefulness’ by the side of busy, bustling Martha-that still contemplation of the truth which we possess, not with the view of discovering its foundations, or investigating its applications, or even of increasing our knowledge of its contents, but of bringing our own souls more completely under its influence, and saturating our being with its fragrance. The Church has forgotten how to meditate. We are all so occupied arguing and deducing and elaborating, that we have no time for retired, still contemplation, and therefore lose the finest aroma of the truth we profess to believe. Many of us are so busy thinking about Christianity that we have lost our hold of Christ. Sure I am that there are few things more needed by our modern religion than the old exhortation, ‘Come, My people, enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee.’ Cleave to the Lord by habitual play of meditative thought on the treasures hidden in His name, and waiting like gold in the quartz, to be the prize of our patient sifting and close gaze.

And when the great truths embodied in Him stand clear before us, then let us remember that we have not done with them when we have seen them. Next must come into exercise the moral side of faith, the voluntary act of trust, the casting ourselves on Him whom we behold, the making our own of the blessings which He holds out to us. Flee to Christ as to our strong habitation to which we may continually resort. Hold tightly by Christ with a grasp which nothing can slacken {that whitens your very knuckles as you clutch Him}, lean on Christ all your weight and all your burdens. Cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart.

Let us cleave to the Lord by constant outgoings of our love to Him. That is the bond which unites human spirits together in the only real union, and Scripture teaches us to see in the sweetest, sacredest, closest tie that men and women can know, a real, though faint, shadow of the far deeper and truer union between Christ and us. The same love which is the bond of perfectness between man and man, is the bond between us and Christ. In no dreamy, semi-pantheistic fusion of the believer with his Lord do we find the true conception of the unity of Christ and His Church, but in a union which preserves the individualities lest it should slay the love. Faith knits us to Christ, and faith is the mother of love, which maintains the blessed union. So let us not be ashamed of the emotional side of our religion, nor deem that we can cleave to Christ unless our hearts twine their tendrils round Him, and our love pours its odorous treasures on His sacred feet, not without weeping and embraces. Cold natures may carp, but Love is justified of her children, and Christ accepts the homage that has a heart in it. Cleaving to the Lord is not merely love, but it is impossible without it. The order is Faith, Love, Obedience-that threefold cord knits men to Christ, and Christ to men. For the understanding, a continuous grasp of Him as the object of thought. For the heart, a continuous outgoing to Him as the object of our love. For the will, a continuous submission to Him as the Lord of our obedience. For the whole nature, a continuous cleaving to Him as the object of our faith and worship.

Such is the true discipline of the Christian life. Such is the all-sufficient command; as for the newest convert from heathenism, with little knowledge and the taint of his old vices in his soul, so for the saint fullest of wisdom and nearest the Light.

It is all-sufficient. If Barnabas had been like some of us, he would have had a very different style of exhortation. He would have said, ‘This irregular work has been well done, but there are no authorised teachers here, and no provision has been made for the due administration of the sacraments of the Church. The very first thing of all is to give these people the blessing of bishops and priests.’ Some of us would have said, ‘Valuable work has been done, but these good people are terribly ignorant. The best thing would be to get ready as soon as possible some manual of Christian doctrine, and in the meantime provide for their systematic instruction in at least the elements of the faith.’ Some of us would have said, ‘No doubt they have been converted, but we fear there has been too much of the emotional in the preaching. The moral side of Christianity has not been pressed home, and what they chiefly need is to be taught that it is not feeling, but righteousness. Plain, practical instruction in Christian duty is the one thing they want.’

Barnabas knew better. He did not despise organisation, nor orthodoxy, nor practical righteousness, but he knew that all three, and everything else that any man needed for his perfecting would come, if only the converts kept near to Christ, and that nothing else was of any use if they did not. That same conviction should for us settle the relative importance which we attach to these subordinate and derivative things, and to the primary and primitive duty. Obedience to it will secure them. They, without it, are not worth securing.

We spend much pains and effort nowadays in perfecting our organisations and consolidating our resources, and I have not a word to say against that. But heavier machinery needs more power in the engine, and that means greater capacity in your boilers and more fire in your furnace. The more complete our organisation, the more do we need a firm hold of Christ, or we shall be overweighted by it, shall be in danger of burning incense to our own net, shall be tempted to trust in drill rather than in courage, in mechanism rather than in the life drawn from Christ. On the other hand, if we put as our first care the preservation of the closeness of our union with Christ, that life will shape a body for itself, and ‘to every seed its own body.’

True conceptions of Him, and a definite theology, are good and needful. Let us cleave to Him with mind and heart, and we shall receive all the knowledge we need, and be guided into the deep things of God. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and the basis of all theology is the personal possession of Him who is ‘the wisdom of God’ and ‘the Light of the world.’ Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Pectus facit Theologum.

Plain, straightforward morality and everyday righteousness are better than all emotion and all dogmatism and all churchism, says the world, and Christianity says much the same; but plain, straightforward righteousness and everyday morality come most surely when a man is keeping close to Christ. In a word, everything that can adorn the character with beauty, and clothe the Church with glorious apparel, whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, all that the world or God calls virtue and crowns with praise, they are all in their fulness in Him, and all are most surely derived from Him by keeping fast hold of His hand, and preserving the channels clear through which His manifold grace may flow into our souls. The same life is strength in the arm, pliancy in the fingers, swiftness in the foot, light in the eye, music on the lips; so the same grace is Protean in its forms, and to His servants who trust Him Christ ever says, ‘What would ye that I should do unto you? Be it even as thou wilt.’ The same mysterious power lives in the swaying branch, and in the veined leaf, and in the blushing clusters. With like wondrous transformations of the one grace, the Lord pours Himself into our spirits, filling all needs and fitting for all circumstances. Therefore for us all, individuals and Churches, this remains the prime command, ‘With purpose of heart cleave unto the Lord.’ Dear brethren in the ministry, how sorely we need this exhortation! Our very professional occupation with Christ and His truth is full of danger for us; we are so accustomed to handle these sacred themes as a means of instructing or impressing others that we get to regard them as our weapons, even if we do not degrade them still further by thinking of them as our stock-in-trade and means of oratorical effect. We must keep very firm hold of Christ for ourselves by much solitary communion, and so retranslating into the nutriment of our own souls the message we bring to men, else when we have preached to others we ourselves may he cast away. All the ordinary tendencies which draw men from Him work on us, and a host of others peculiar to ourselves, and all around us run strong currents of thought which threaten to sweep many away. Let us tighten our grasp of Him in the face of modern doubt; and take heed to ourselves that neither vanity, nor worldliness, nor sloth; neither the gravitation earthward common to all, nor the temptations proper to our office; neither unbelieving voices without nor voices within, seduce us from His side. There only is our peace, there our wisdom, there our power.

Subtly and silently the separating forces are ever at work upon us, and all unconsciously to ourselves our hold may relax, and the flow of this grace into our spirits may cease, while yet we mechanically keep up the round of outward service, nor even suspect that our strength is departed from us. Many a stately elm that seems full of vigorous life, for all its spreading boughs and clouds of dancing leaves, is hollow at the heart, and when the storm comes goes down with a crash, and men wonder, as they look at the ruin, how such a mere shell of life with a core of corruption could stand so long. It rotted within, and fell at last, because its roots did not go deep down to the rich soil, where they would have found nourishment, but ran along near the surface among gravel and stones. If we would stand firm, be sound within, and bring forth much fruit, we must strike our roots deep in Him who is the anchorage of our souls, and the nourisher of all our being.

Hearken, beloved brethren, in this great work of the ministry, not to the exhortation of the servant, but to the solemn command of the Master, ‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.’ And let us, knowing our own weakness, take heed of the self-confidence that answers, ‘Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I,’ and turn the vows which spring to our lips into the lowly prayer, ‘My soul cleaveth unto the dust, quicken Thou me according to Thy word.’ Then, thinking rather of His cleaving to us than of our cleaving to Him, let us resolutely take as the motto of our lives the grand words: ‘I follow after, if that I may lay hold of that for which I am also laid hold of by Christ Jesus!’

1 Preached before the Congregational Union of England and Wales.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 11:23. Παρεκάλει, exhorted) The best kind of exhortation, which is stimulated by joy.—προθέσει, with stedfast purpose) ch. Act 27:13, “Supposing that they had obtained their purpose.” The contrary is in Heb 3:12, “An evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”—προσμένειν, to adhere to, cleave to) To be converted, is the act: to adhere, is the state.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 11:23 . τὴν χάριν : if we add τὴν , see critical notes, “the grace that was of God” Hort, Ecclesia , p. 60, so Alford. παρεκάλει : a true son of encouragement, exhortation see on Act 4:36 , imperfect because Barnabas remained at Antioch, and the result is indicated in Act 11:24 , προσετέθη . This mention of Barnabas and the part played by the primitive Church is referred by Clemen to his Redactor Antijudaicus, p. 109. If we read ἐν τῷ Κ . with R.V. margin we could render “to abide by the purpose of their heart in the Lord,” so Hort, u. s. , p. 60; Rendall; cf. 2Ti 3:10 ; and Symmachus, Psa 10:17 (Weiss). τῷ Κ ., i.e. , Christ; with this verse cf. Act 15:32 , where St. Luke similarly insists upon the due qualification of divine gifts; Ramsay, St. Paul , p. 45.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

when he . . . had seen the grace of God--in the new converts.

was glad--owned and rejoiced in it at once as divine, though they were uncircumcised.

exhorted them all that with purpose of heart--as opposed to a hasty and fickle discipleship.

they would cleave unto the Lord--the Lord Jesus.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. Had seen the grace of God] That is, had seen the effects produced by the grace of God. By the grace of God, we are to understand:

1. His favour.

2. The manifestations of that favour in the communication of spiritual blessings. And,

3. Principles of light, life, holiness, c., producing effects demonstrative of the causes from which they sprung.

Barnabas saw that these people were objects of the Divine approbation that they were abundantly blessed and edified together as a Christian Church; and that they had received especial influences from God, by his indwelling Spirit, which were to them incentives to faith, hope, and love, and also principles of conduct.

Was glad,] Not envious because God had blessed the labours of others of his Master's servants, but rejoiced to find that the work of salvation was carried on by such instruments as God chose, and condescended to use. They who cannot rejoice in the conversion of sinners, because they have not been the means of it, or because such converts or their ministers have not precisely the same views of certain doctrines which they have themselves, show that they have little, if any thing, of the mind that was in Christ, in them.

With purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.] These converts had begun well; they must continue and persevere: God gave them the grace, the principle of life and action; it was their business to use this. If they did not, the gift would be resumed. Barnabas well knew that they must have the grace of God in them to enable them to do any good; but he knew, also, that its being in them did not necessarily imply that it must continue there. God had taught him that if they were not workers together with that grace they would receive it in vain; i.e., the end for which it was given would not be answered. He therefore exhorted them, τηπροθεσειτηςκαρδιας, with determination of heart, with set, fixed purpose and resolution, that they would cleave unto the Lord, προσμενειντωκυριω, to remain with the Lord; to continue in union and fellowship with him; to be faithful in keeping his truth, and obedient in the practice of it. To be a Christian is to be united to Christ, to be of one spirit with him: to continue to be a Christian is to continue in that union. It is absurd to talk of being children of God, and of absolute, final perseverance, when the soul has lost its spiritual union. There is no perseverance but in cleaving to the Lord: he who in his works denies him does not cleave to him. Such a one is not of God; if he ever had the salvation of God, he has lost it; he is fallen from grace; nor is there a word in the book of God, fairly and honestly understood, that says such a person shall absolutely and unavoidably arise from his fall.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. When he had seen the grace of God. By these words Luke teacheth, first, that the gospel which they had received was true; secondly, that Barnabas sought nothing else but the glory of Christ. For, when he saith that he saw the grace of God, and that he exhorted them to go forward, hereby we gather that they were well taught. And the joy is a testimony of sincere godliness. Ambition is evermore envious and malicious; so that we see many seek for praise by reproving other men, because they are more desirous of their own glory than of the glory of Christ. But the faithful servants of Christ must rejoice (as did Barnabas) when they see the gospel increase, by whomsoever God shall make his name known. And assuredly those which help one another, so that they acknowledge that all the effect which springeth thence is the work of God, will never envy one another, neither will they seek to carp [at] one another, but will, with one mouth and mind, praise the power of God.

Again, this is worth the noting, that Luke doth attribute the faith of the men of Antioch, and whatsoever was worthy [of] praise there, to the grace of God. He might have reckoned up all those virtues which might make for the commendation of men; but he comprehendeth what excellence soever was in that Church under this word grace. Lastly, we must note Barnabas’ exhortation. We have already said that Barnabas did subscribe to the former doctrine which they had embraced; but lest doctrine fall away, it is most requisite that it be thoroughly imprinted in the minds of the faithful by continual exhortations. For seeing that we have to encounter continually with so many and such strong adversaries, and our minds are so slippery, unless every man arm himself diligently, it will by and by fall away, which thing infinite numbers do show to be true by their falling away. Whereas he setteth down this manner of perseverance, that they continue with purpose of heart we are hereby taught that faith hath taken deep root then when it hath a place in the heart. Wherefore it is no marvel, if scarce one of ten of those who profess faith do stand unto the end, seeing that very few know what the affection and purpose of heart meaneth.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(23) And exhorted them all.—The tense implies continuous action; and the verb in the Greek is that from which Barnabas took his name as the “Son of Comfort” or “Counsel.” (See Note on Act_4:36.)

With purpose of heart.—The preacher had seen the grace of God, and had rejoiced at it; but he knew, as all true teachers know, that it is possible for man’s will to frustrate that grace, and that its co-operation, as manifested in deliberate and firm resolve, was necessary to carry on the good work to its completion. The word for “purpose” meets us again in Act_27:13.

They would cleave unto the Lord.—The noun is probably used in its dominant New Testament sense, as pointing to the Lord Jesus as the new object of the faith and love of those who had turned to Him.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. and had seen the grace of God] exhibited in the faith, and consequent turning to Christ, of these Gentiles.

was glad] He saw nothing in the new movement which could call for disapproval, and that more members should be added to the Church was a source of joy.

and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart (in the purpose of their heart) they would cleave unto the Lord] Their determination was at present formed, and they had turned to the Lord; the purport of Barnabas’ exhortation was that continuing in the same determination they should hold fast their faith and allow nothing to shake their attachment to Christ. The heathen converts to Christianity had much to endure for Christ’s sake, and to the weak there were many temptations to relapse.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For he was a good man,.... He had the grace of God wrought in his soul, and did good works; he was very kind, and generous, and charitable; he sold what land he had, and gave the money to the apostles, for the use of the community, Act 4:37

and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith; he was full of the several graces of the Spirit, and particularly of faith; and he was full of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and of the faith of miracles; he was full of the doctrine of faith, and of spiritual gifts for the preaching of it: the same character is given of Stephen, Act 6:5

and much people was added unto the Lord; by the means of Barnabas, through his ministry, and the exercise of those gifts he was full of; so the Arabic version, "and he drew a large multitude to the Lord".

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

23 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.

Ver. 23. That with purpose of heart] As it is recorded of Caleb, that he "fulfilled after God," Num 14:24. Caleb implevit post me. It stands men upon to see that their work, though it be but mean, yet it may be clean; though not fine, yet not foul, soiled and slubbered with the slur of a rotten heart. Let them consent to take whole Christ in all his offices and efficacies, and that pro termino interminabili, never to part more.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Had seen the grace of God - The favor, or mercy of God, in converting sinners to himself.

Was glad - Approved of what had been done in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, and rejoiced that God had poured down his Spirit on them. The effect of a revival is to produce joy in the hearts of all those who love the Saviour.

And exhorted them all - Entreated them. They would be exposed to many trials and temptations, and he sought to secure their firm adherence to the cause of religion.

That with purpose of heart - With a firm mind; with a fixed, settled resolution that they would make this their settled plan of life, their main object. A purpose, πρόθεσις prothesis, is a resolution of the mind, a plan, or intention, Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11; Eph 3:11; 2Ti 1:9; 2Ti 3:10. It is especially a resolution of the mind in regard to future conduct, and the doctrine of Barnabas here was, undoubtedly, that it should be a regular, fixed, determined plan or design in their minds that they would henceforward adhere to God. Such a plan should be formed by all Christians in the beginning of their Christian life, and without such a plan there can be no evidence of piety. We may also remark that such a plan is one of the heart. It is not simply of the understanding, but is of the entire mind, including the will and affections. It is the leading principle; the strongest affection; the guiding purpose of the will to adhere to God, and, unless this is the prevalent, governing desire of the heart, there can be no evidence of conversion.

They would cleave - Greek: that they would remain; that is, that they would adhere constantly and faithfully attached to the Lord.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The grace of God; which appeared in their conversion, being made manifest by their professions, and answered by their pious lives and conversations; for all which they might cry, Grace, grace.

By the grace of God, is also to be understood the increasing of the church, and adding to it such as should be saved.

Was glad; this is matter of joy in heaven, Luk 15:7, and of all such as are learning their lesson, and preparing for that blissful place.

With purpose of heart; firm and fixed resolution, that come what can come, tribulation or distress, life or death, they would keep close to the profession of the truth of Christ. This purpose of heart is the same with the whole heart elsewhere; which must cleave unto the Lord; be joined, or stick close, to God’s truth and ways.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. Came… seen… glad—Like Julius Cesar, He came, he saw, he triumphed; but triumphed in the conquests not of war, but of grace.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Was come for came, A.V.; he exhorted for exhorted., A.V. Had seen the grace of God; i.e. had seen the number and the truth of the conversions of Gentiles effected by God"s grace. He exhorted them all (parekalei pantav); thus showing himself a true uiJosewv, son of exhortation. (see Act_4:36, note) Cleave unto the Lord; prosmenein, to abide, continue, persevere in. (comp. Act_13:43; 1Ti_5:5) In 2Ti_3:14 it is simply me. The frequent exhortations to perseverance and steadfastness should warn us of the great danger of falling away from the faith, under the pressure of temptation.

Vers. 23, 24. The surprises of the grace of God.

Some six or seven years had passed since the martyrdom of Stephen, and "the persecution that arose about Stephen." The winds of persecution had now borne far and wide the seeds of Christian truth and faith. In the "ground" of Jewish hearts alone, however, for the greater part of this time had the seed "fallen," so far as men"s intentions and purposes had scattered it. In individual cases, however, it had inevitably fallen elsewhere; and besides, as carried by some "Grecians" of the number of the scattered," so it was freely given, by these at least, to Grecians again, who were not of the pure "Hebrews," and not of "the circumcised." Many "Grecians" thus "believed, and turned to the Lord" (ver. 21). The sacred history returns in some degree upon its steps to speak of these things, and to record, after the signal given of the fullness of the Gentiles being brought in, how it had meantime been faring with these more nondescript Grecians. There is a certain degree of the enigmatic in these two verses. To remove this will at the same time unfold the truth which the Spirit may have intended to teach in this place. We seem to see

I AN ELEMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. "Tidings" that presumably were of the best kind, and could mean nothing but good, are apparently not received as such, and are visited with some sort of scrutiny. The facts are exactly so. But it is to be noted that the authority that moved was one that moved itself, and is not an instance of an individual usurping ecclesiastical authority. The authority is not either arbitrary or that of an external hand. It is the Church itself. And it is the Church who delegates one evidently held in high honor, though not an apostle, to go to a long distance to inquire into the "tidings" that have reached itself at Jerusalem.

II AN INOPPORTUNE EXERCISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. If the tidings were on the face of them good, credible in the nature of things, or rather in the nature of what the Church now well knew to be the operation of the Divine Spirit, why need the Church assume the attitude of caution anti do the action of apparent suspicion?

1. It is most grateful to note the first dawning exercise of infant powers and discretion on the part of the Church. This it learnt partly "from above," partly also from bitter and humbled experience of its own. It had already had the faithless within it, and the attempts of the worst worldliness (as in the instance of Simon Magus) to enter within its sacred fold.

2. The real gist of anxiety and of the inquiry proposed turned, no doubt, upon this great new gospel that was now coming upon those who had themselves received the gospel in very deed, and which only shook their faith (if it did shake their faith) lest it be too great, too good, to be true. The "mighty works" of God are being wrought upon and among all, Gentiles and Grecians, as they had been on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem. Well may the Church stop and turn aside to see this great sight, and to find out for certain that it is not a vision and that they do not dream.

3. The Church, as results proved, did not act for the sake of mere caution or for the mere sake of enlightenment, least of all from love of cold and suspicious criticism, but, if things were real and true, also to give the right hand of fellowship to those who, like its own present members, were "called.

III ONE SPECIAL CRITERION LOOKED FOR BY BARNABAS, AND GUIDING HIM. No details lie on the page for us, no sealed instructions are mentioned, no open instructions, no parting suggestions even; and nothing is said of all the thoughts and feelings that chased one another or amid which the very soul of Barnabas mused as he traveled afar. No; but we are not left without the necessary clue. He reached his destination, and apparently does not hold or offer to hold any court, and call witnesses, and loftily and inquisitorially investigate the state of things. With a large and open eye he surveys the scene. He looks and sees the proofs of "the grace of God" given to them at Antioch, even "the uncircumcised." He listens, and hears the sounds that attest the grace of God" given to them. He mingles with them, and he sees the works that none could do unless the grace of God" were given to them. And he is satisfied. The tree is known by its fruits, and there can be no mistake what the fruits are now. Would that the same simplicity of method of judging one another were the one method known and followed now and ever! For this beautiful expression, "the grace of God," does not stand for mere feeling and experience or profession of the same, but rather for those "works" and "fruits of the Spirit" which only could come of the imparted grace of God.

IV THE VERY GLADNESS OF HEART ITSELF OF A HOLY MAN. It is emphatically said, "He was glad.

1. It was a relief to an anxious, inquiring mind, on a subject of thrilling interest. How it had weighed on the mind of Barnabas all his journey the question itself, and his responsibility as delegated to examine into it!

2. It was a relief to Barnabas to think he could speak with such thorough confidence, and in no halting tone at all, to those who had sent him, when he should render his account to them.

3. It was all joy to his heart to think how day dammed at last on the whole world. What startling, ravishing prospects must have sometimes been revealed by the Spirit to the apostles and the early disciples and brethren in those days!

V THE MINDFULNESS OF A HOLY MAN, EVEN WHEN EXCITED BY JOY.

1. Barnabas was mindful of his own duty, to speak the word of exhortation even in the midst of a scene full of present brightness, hope, confidence.

2. He was mindful of the ever-existing temptation to go back to the world, to love the world, to yield in enthusiasm"s hour, but to relapse in the long days of heat and toil and trial. And therefore the burden of his exhortation was that they should "cleave to the Lord," and that "with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord.

VI A SOMEWHAT INOPPORTUNE MIXTURE OF COMMENDATION OF BARNABAS AND HIS INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER WITH MUCH MORE SERIOUS MATTER. Let it seem so; let it be so. Yet this is the condescension of God. This is the sympathy of Jesus. This is the Spirit"s comforting aid and honor shown to those who are true. However, as the sacred and abiding page of Scripture inscribes these things to the honor and glory of Barnabas, in the midst of matter which all redounded only to the honor and glory of God, we may observe that the character here given to Barnabas:

1. Justified his selection for a new and delicate and important embassy.

2. Explains the very deep, full, genial joy of his heart, its openness to conviction, and its freedom from the least and last taint of Jewish envy and Jewish exclusiveness.

3. Proves withal that it was God"s Spirit who was in all," working within" him, when he came, when be saw, when he judged rightly, when he was profoundly impressed, when he was glad to the bottom of his heart, and also when he did not forget duty and solemn trying times to come amid the sympathies and congratulatings of bright hours. For he was full of the Holy Ghost. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. “Who, arriving and seeing the grace of God, rejoiced, and continued to exhort them all with steadfastness of heart to abide with the Lord,

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes one verse 22

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. καὶ ἰδὼν τὴν χάριν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ, and having seen the grace of God, i.e. as it was exhibited in the faith, and consequent turning to Christ, of these Gentiles.

ἐχάρη, was glad. Seeing nothing in the new movement which could call for disapproval, while the addition of new members to the Church was a source of joy.

καὶ παρεκάλει, and exhorted. He is called υἱὸς παρακλήσεως in Act 4:36.

τῇ προθέσει τῆς καρδίας, with purpose of heart. Lit. ‘in the purpose of their heart.’ Their determination was at present formed, and they had turned to the Lord; the purport of Barnabas’ exhortation was that continuing in the same determination they should hold fast their faith, and allow nothing to shake their attachment to Christ. The heathen converts to Christianity had much to endure for Christ’s sake, and to the weak there were many temptations to relapse.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. παρεκάλει] in accordance with his name, which (ch. 4:36) was interpreted υἱὸς παρακλήσεως.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Purpose [προθεσει] . Originally, placing in public; setting before. Hence of the shew - bread, the loaves set forth before the Lord (see on Mr 2:26). Something set before one as an object of attainment : a purpose.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.