By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage
Focal Passage: Acts 9:26-28; 11:21-26
Have you ever had a nickname? In my high school, one of the boys was nicknamed “Wrong Way” because he chose to run the wrong way with the ball in a football game. Sometimes a nickname lasts for years. For my friend, 40 years later, people cannot remember his given name but still refer to him as “Wrong Way.”
In the passage for today, we meet a man in the early church whose name was Joses. We commonly know him by his nickname Barnabas (Acts 4:36-37). Barnabas means “son of encouragement,” and that is exactly what this man was, an encourager to all. Borrowing from The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, let us consider five ways that Barnabas was an encouragement to others. [Read more…]


