A Word in Season: Encouraged to Continue (Acts 11:23-24)

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It's never easy to be a faithful and a fruitful Christian, but there may be some situations in which it's harder than others.

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One such time and place might have been Antioch in the first century, in the first few years of the

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Christian's church, a bustling cosmopolitan place in which there had been an inflow of the gospel and some people had been converted, and the early church, as it was centred then in Jerusalem, sent out a man called

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Barnabas to Antioch to see what was going on, and this is how he is described.

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When Barnabas came to Antioch and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the

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Lord, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

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Those words are found in Acts and chapter 11 verses 23 and 24.

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What a beautiful example of how a Christian can think of other believers under these circumstances.

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It may be particularly that it's younger Christians who are now in the same kind of danger as they were in Antioch.

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They're facing unusual circumstances. Many of the people that we know are now cut off from the ordinary means of grace, and if they are younger

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Christians, perhaps they're still in environments where there are particular challenges.

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There may be people around them who will draw them to sin rather than push them toward godliness and help them toward righteousness.

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There may be some particular battles that they're facing in their hearts. There may be, if you like, some skills in righteous living that they haven't yet developed, some matters that perhaps for a more mature

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Christian who's been well instructed over years might have become almost second nature, but to them are still relatively novel and difficult.

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But moving on from just that situation, there may be other believers in whom grace is living who are finding these days particularly difficult.

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There may be distinct measures of isolation. There might be saints who are living with ungodly family members who make their life difficult as Christians distinctly.

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There may be some who face particular challenges of body or of mind, some whose environment poses a particular challenge, some who are going out to work and there are particular difficulties and needs that they have.

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Well, notice the spirit then of Barnabas. What was it that Barnabas noticed?

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He saw the grace of God in God's people. He wasn't foolish, he wanted to see a genuine work of the

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Holy Spirit producing love for God and holiness and affection for the saints, but he wasn't cynical either.

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He was keen eyed, but he was also tender eyed.

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He was ready to see God's grace at work and where he did, he was swift to encourage it.

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He wanted to instruct and to exhort and to comfort and to stir up God's people so that that grace that was in them would abound more and more.

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Particularly, he wanted them with purpose of heart to continue with the

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Lord. What he said to others of God's people was designed to work in them and to encourage in them a resolute and a steadfast loyalty toward the

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Lord Jesus Christ, toward his person, to love him and to cling to him, toward his word, to listen to what he has to say, to delight in his truth, to be committed to his cause, to do what we can to speak of him and to serve him and to be committed to his people, to love the others of God's saints, to serve them as we can, to take care of them and to love them.

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So if God has given to you today some measure of opportunity, if he's equipped you as one of his people to do so, might

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I encourage you to think of someone who could do with encouraging, someone who could do with a brother or sister in Christ to draw alongside whose grace is there,

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God's mercy is at work in them, but they need a hand around the shoulder, they need a slap on the back, they need a friendly voice to call them up and to call them on and to press on in following after Christ.

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If you can be an encourager to such a man or woman today, then it will be a blessing to them and I trust, a blessing to you.