The sermon, 'Many are the Plans of Man but God Directs his Steps' by Trent Moody, focuses on Acts 15:36-41, where Paul and Barnabas experience a sharp disagreement over taking John Mark on their missionary journey. The conflict arises because John Mark had previously abandoned the mission in Pamphylia. Despite their strong disagreement, which could have led to bitterness, division, or a loss of focus on their mission, both Paul and Barnabas remained committed to spreading the Gospel. The sermon underscores the theme of God's sovereignty and how He can work through human disagreements to advance His kingdom. Paul, accompanied by Silas, and Barnabas, with John Mark, went separate ways, resulting in the Gospel being spread more widely. The sermon also highlights the importance of patience, reconciliation, and understanding that failure is not final, as seen in John Mark's later usefulness in ministry. Ultimately, the narrative demonstrates that God's providence can turn human conflicts into opportunities for Gospel advancement and church strengthening.

Acts chapter 15 and we will finish out this chapter this morning. Verses 36 through 41 will be where our attention is set. Acts 15 and beginning with verse 36. And thus says the word of the Lord. Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, let us go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.

Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark but Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God and he went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches. Now let's pray. Our heavenly Father we want to thank you for your word that instructs us and Lord we pray today that you would give us wisdom and insight into your word that you would help us Lord as we are on our journey we so desire Lord to live in obedience to you we so desire desire to see this church strengthened and all churches strengthened Lord and so our desire is that of what Paul and Barnabas had to see how the churches are doing and to see that they are strengthened and so father I pray today that you would do just that, strengthen this church, and we ask it in Christ's name.

Amen. You may be seated. Just a little bit of transparency this morning. I've struggled with getting a clear title of my message. I don't know that it's that terribly important but for me sometimes it helps me to set my mind in a good solid direction.

You'll see there in your outline many are the plans of man but God directs his steps. Another thought that I had regarding this passage of Scripture was ministry pitfalls in God's providence. How does this work out? You know we see difficulties in ministry. If you've ever been in ministry or been in church very long you know that there are certain things that can cause trouble when you're in the midst of wanting to minister to God's people.

Another one would be how God turns disagreements into kingdom advancement. How about that? We can see how disagreements are not sovereign. God is. God can still work over and above all of these things.

A mission gets off track, God secures the victory. God is the one and that's really where I want to point your attention this morning, is that God is the one that is sovereign, and it is important to note that He's dealing and working with all of us here who are not. All of us here who are in ministry or just people of God, we love God, we want to see the kingdom advance and we see it throughout the world and other churches and other ministries and all of these things and we see that so often there can be disagreements, there can be differences, Thus we see all the different denominations, all the different things going on in this world that can sometimes be discouraging. We we have the Word of God here before us that I hope will be, I believe and I know will be a great help to us as we walk through these things. Can you imagine someone writing a biography of your own life while you're still alive and you do not get a say in what is included and not included?

Oh and by the way they have all the details. That would be a little nervous, wouldn't it? That would not be exactly something that would make all of us comfortable. It's not a comforting thought to think about this. You know, I'm sure that we are all in agreement that there are some parts of our life and maybe even our ministry that we wish we could leave out of the story.

And it's interesting as we look at this passage this morning we come to a narrative that really from a human standpoint it seems like it should have been left out. It's not really unnecessary. We don't see any commands here. We're not looking at imperatives of things. You must do these things or you must know these things.

We are looking at a narrative passage of a story and it seems that it would have flown, you know, the storyline would flow just nicely if we would have gone from verse 36 to 41. Let's look at that just for a moment. Verse 36, And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing. And in verse 41, And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. See how nice that flows?

Isn't that nice? That'd just be so clean. But our God is all wise. He recognizes that we actually need to read verses 37 through 40 when we actually see that brothers in Christ can disagree and continue for the work of the Lord. I think it's really important that we understand this.

So our sovereign God did not see that we should leave these verses out. In fact, he tells us it's not our story. Guess what? It's his story. This is his work.

This is his word. And we know that 2 Timothy 3, 16, and 17, many children memorize this passage, and it's a good one to memorize. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So this morning we know that this passage is here. We come with this presupposition.

This passage is what we need. It is actually going to instruct us. It's going to help us to be what God wants us to be. It's going to help us to be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work that God has for us. We need to learn from this little disagreement between Paul and Barnabas and by God's grace we will learn what he has for us today.

So let us jump right in. In the first two verses here we see this idea sometimes noble desires lead to unforeseen difficulties. You know I just I can't help but imagine here that when Paul looked over to his good friend Barnabas and he says, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. In his mind were flooding back all of these circumstances, all of these relationships that they had made, all of the travels, all of the difficulty, all of the persecution, all of the hymns that they sang, all of the pain that they had experienced bodily. And he's thinking about these things when he says, Barnabas, my brother, let's go back and let's visit all of these churches and see how they're doing.

And he had no idea what was getting ready to happen. Have you ever been in that situation? You have a good plan, it's a noble desire. Look at what he's wanting to do. He's wanting to go back and shepherd these people.

He's wanting to go back and bring them along and see how they are doing. He wanted to see the state of their soul. What a great desire this is that Paul and Barnabas had. They were really true shepherds at heart. They had a desire for the well-being of God's people.

They had risked their lives for the sake of the Gospel. And now, nearly a year later, in relative peace that they had in their life. They had been there preaching the Word of the Lord. In verse 35, Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord with many others. What a great time.

A whole bunch of preachers get together and they're at this church together and they're just preaching the Word of the Lord. They're being encouraged by one another And then they say, hey, I have this great idea. Let's go back and check on these brothers that we've ministered to. What a great object. What a great goal to go back and to know the state of the flock.

And so they're preaching and they're going and they had gone all over the place, they had preached the gospel, and they wanted to see how they're doing. And Paul, I can't press this enough, he wanted to know how the churches were doing. You know this is a good question even for ourselves this morning here at Hope Baptist Church. And it's really, it's a question that Scott and I often ask ourselves on Tuesday mornings when we meet after men's meeting for our elders meeting. We ask this question, how is the church doing?

What conversations did you have on Sunday? Are there any problem areas? Is there anyone in distress? Is there anyone going through a difficulty? And we pray for you.

It's something that's important to the heart of a pastor. How are you doing? How is this church doing? If you were to kind of give our church an examination, you would think about the different people within this church and you're considering how they're doing. If there was a grade, what would the grade be?

Are there problem areas? Are there areas that we need to grow in? Are there areas that we need to forgive? Are there areas that we need to repent? You see, we want to know each week who was not here.

That tells us something, that maybe they were sick. Maybe they were traveling, or maybe they're upset. So we want to know the state of the flock. You see, We want to know if there are any conversations that we need to address, any sins. And this was the desire of Paul and Barnabas.

They're wondering this challenge that they had that we don't have. Guess what? We have cell phones and emails and we can instantly email another friend at another church in another location. How's it going? But these brothers, when they thought about, let's go and check on them, they're checking out their shoes and their shoelaces, and they want to make sure that they can have well enough leather there that they can travel the many hundreds of miles to check on these brothers and sisters.

And their heart was in this. Think about this, most pastors today and many people in ministry, if they don't have a jet to take them where they need to go, they're not going. But these brothers, These were serious men of God and they were willing to put shoe leather to it. They were willing to walk and to find out how it was that they were doing a strenuous and no doubt dangerous travel. But it was a journey worth taking.

Brothers and sisters, I want you to know something. To know the state of this flock and to know the state of other brothers and sisters is a journey worth taking. And I want to have that pastor's heart and I want all of us really to have that kind of heart. One commentator noted the proposal was characteristic of one whose heart was ever full of the cares of the church. Ever making mention of them in his prayers night and day, may we believe that it was a desire to know not only the general condition of the church, but the spiritual growth of each individual member." This was the heart of Paul and Barnabas.

Another man notes this, that after they had continued a considerable number of days at Antioch, Paul, whose active spirit was ever forming some new scheme for the advancement of Christianity, said to Barnabas, his former associate, let us go again and visit our brethren, the churches we have planted in every city, wherever we have preached the Word of the Lord. Let us go and water the seed that has been sown. Those who have preached the Gospel should visit those from whom they have preached it to, that they may see what effect their ministry has had, and whether any real and lasting fruit has been produced by it and see how they do, how their souls prosper, how they grow in faith and hope and love, and what is the state of religion among them, and what else ought to be the grand and constant inquiry of every ecclesiastical visitation. He says the Apostle could not but be sensible of the great danger in which the Gentile converts in distant countries were in. You see we just came off the Jerusalem Council where They had to make this determination.

They knew the Judaizers were going around and telling them that if they had not been circumcised and obeyed the law of Moses, that they could not be saved. And so Paul and Barnabas had this weight upon their heart to know the well-being of the flock of God. They felt a sense of responsibility and they had an urging to go. We get an idea of this, a motivating factor if you will. In chapter 16 if you look down to verse 4 he says this, And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

They were from the Jerusalem council. This was on their mind. They were concerned about the flock of God. They were concerned that they were doing okay. They also had, here what we see is an unforeseen problem as I mentioned earlier it was not something that they were like oh boy I'm gonna have to go with Barnabas I know how Barnabas is he's contrary but for the sake of the gospel we will go this was not his attitude this was a dear beloved brother I want you to think about your dearly beloved brothers in this room right now and then imagine something comes up you say hey let's go and let's visit let's go do some ministry work together.

And Barnabas was determined, I think that's a key word, he was determined to take with them John, called Mark. What's the problem with that? John Mark had gone with them before. You know expectations are often part of ministry planning. Not knowing these expectations because you'd have not verbalized them.

Barnabas we read he was determined to take with him John Mark. Paul didn't know this. It doesn't seem that he knew this. Who was John Mark? Well, John Mark was no stranger to Paul.

We have other scriptures that give us some insight. I'm just going to walk down through a few of these to help us understand John Mark and what he was and who he was and what the circumstances were. In Acts chapter 12 we read, And when Peter had come to him, so this was when Peter was in prison and had been released from prison, He said, I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. So this was a well-known, beloved disciple.

His mother was well-known and beloved. He was known by Peter. This was the place Peter was going. She was the woman who had prayer meetings at her house. This was who John Mark was.

He and his mother had prayer meetings at their house. Prayer meetings that were effectual, by the way. Things that were accomplished when they prayed. And God worked mighty things. Acts 12, 25, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry.

And they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark. Here he is again. Also in chapter 13, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. And from there they sailed to Cyprus and when they had arrived in Salamis they preached the Word of God and the synagogue of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

So this was a young man who was with them in their travels. We know also that this Mark here in Colossians 4.10, we're told, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas. So not only a friend, not only a faithful brother, but a family relation. He was a brother in Christ and to Barnabas he was his cousin. So we see some history here with John Mark not to mention that he had a family relation but we are now coming to the flashpoint of the previously unforeseen problem which is now becoming clearly seen and the narrative here presents us with this, a preferential disagreement filled with danger.

Now when I use the word preferential here, I use that in the sense that it is not a doctrinal disagreement but one that I would consider to be of preference. Some degree of disagreement here between brothers that did not make either a heretic, did not make one departing from the faith, but something that was a preference. Maybe some wisdom in this, maybe some hard-heartedness, or maybe some soft-heartedness. We hopefully will see and gain some insight into this. But in verses 38 and 39, after Barnabas has made it known that he was determined to take John Mark with him, he says in verse 38, but Paul insisted, so wait a minute, we have Barnabas determined and we have Paul insisting.

We see two strong characters coming together here, don't we? Barnabas determined and Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. This now is the flashpoint. We have a disagreement among brethren. We have a determined Barnabas and an insistent Paul.

And this usually, brothers, unfortunately, and sisters, is how church splits begin. You have a determined man and an insistent man who cannot and will not get along And now you have a faction. Two parties, two different opinions, usually about preferences, not doctrine. But what are the details? Well in this passage we have some details here.

They are somewhat uncertain though, so I don't want to read into the text what's not there, but I think historically and throughout the Scriptures we could pull some things out of this that will hopefully help fill out this picture a little bit. But they're a bit uncertain. I call this preferential dispute because, Again, it doesn't seem to be doctrinal in nature, but rather based upon this preference that Barnabas has to take his cousin with him, and the insistence that Paul says, no, he's not going with me. We have here two brothers, strong disagreement over whether or not to take with them this man who at one time went back home. Acts 13 13 is where we have this happening.

Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos they came to Perga in Pamphylia and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. That sounds pretty benign. Paul had not forgotten it. That's all we know really of the surrounding instance here until we get to our passage that there was a little bit more to the story. You know, if we didn't have this little section here that seems as if we could have left it out, we wouldn't know this.

We would have read Acts 13, 13 and just said, hey, he went back home. He departed and went back home. But this passage states this as just a matter of fact and if it wasn't again for our passage we wouldn't even know what the problem was. John simply departed from them and went back to Jerusalem back to his home. We really don't know the circumstances of what calls John Mark to leave.

We only know that he did and now we know that Paul's not happy about it and in fact so unhappy with it and felt so strongly about it he says he's not going with me. I'm going to the work. He left the work. Ellicott notes this in his commentary, We are left to conjecture the motives of his departure. He may have shrunk from the perils of hardship of the journey into the interior country.

He may have been drawn by affection for his mother. Remember Mary? The lady whose house held the prayer meetings that released Peter from prison. That was a mother who was due affection. She lived in Jerusalem.

It's not clear from this case. From St. Paul's subsequent conduct that he looked on the reason as insufficient. In other words, to Paul it wasn't a good reason that he left. However, to Barnabas it seems at least there was enough to admit the plea of extenuating circumstances.

The pressure of the famine, perhaps, at Jerusalem may have seen to Barnabas a good excuse that the desires of a son to return to minister to his mother's wants. These are conjectures. We don't know. These are some of the history points that we do know that are taking place in the midst of this. What we do know is Barnabas thought There was not reason enough to say no.

Paul says there's plenty of reason to say no. And now we have these two brothers at odds. You know, as I said, we don't know and apparently we don't need to know. Or else we would know because God would have written it down and told us exactly the reasoning behind it. So I want to be satisfied with that.

What we do know again is that this difference of opinion between these two close friends, These two brothers in Christ, these two men who both desperately loved the Lord, these two men who had had skin in the game literally, these men who had poured out their life for the work of Jesus Christ. I believe that Myers has a good take on this situation and he says this, the decisive rejection which Paul founded on his falling away, even in opposition to the highly esteemed Barnabas, who did not wish to discard his cousin, proves that the matter was not without grave fault on the part of Mark. I don't know that anyone would say there was nothing there. However, He goes on and he says, Fickelness in the sight of Christ was to Paul's bold and decided strength of character and firmness in his vocation, the foreign element. That was foreign to Paul.

Fickelness. That was not an attribute by which you would describe Paul. Paul was a, as one man says, hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle kind of guy. He was like, he was going after it and he did not have room for fickleness. In the service of Christ, He was firm of character.

He goes on and he says, In his vocation that was the foreign element with which he could not enter into any union either abstractly or for the sake of public example. He was concerned about what picture this would paint. He was concerned that he would be slowed down in his gospel ministry and he was not willing to take that chance. And so what we have here is a difference of opinion. The church, by the way, is full of people with differences of opinion.

Look around. Here we are all gathered together this morning and there are many opinions here. There are some here this morning who have already made a case against Paul. Some against Barnabas. And maybe all of us against Mark, I don't know.

We have difference of opinion here. So I don't want to proclaim as doctrine the wrongness of any of these men, except maybe Mark. I think we have good case for that. But the church is full of people with differences of personalities. But here's something that we all need to understand, every one of us here this morning, we need to understand something, that God uses people with different personalities for His purpose.

He accomplishes His will in spite of your personality, And in spite of that other person's personality that might get on your nerves. Or you think it's fickle. You see, inevitably there are going to be people in the church that you do not see eye to eye with. And in fact your personality has a lot to do with that. Paul was of strong character.

He was a man firm in his zeal for the gospel ministry. He was not a man who who troubled himself much with being stoned or beaten or shipwrecked or hungry or out in the sea. Was he out in the sea wondering if a shark was getting ready to get him from beneath? He didn't seem to mind these things. Oh yeah, remember what he said and other things.

He didn't even mention the other things. But here he is, strong character. Perhaps Paul's thought was this, Proverbs 25, 19 says confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint. Paul probably knew what it was like to have a bad tooth and a foot out of joint. Paul probably knew what it was like to have a bad tooth and a foot out of joint after what he went through.

And a man that is not a man of confidence, an unfaithful man, is foolish to put confidence in a man like that. That is a good proverb. There's nothing wrong with that proverb. You see, he didn't have room for the half-hearted devotion that Barnabas was willing to put up with. Barnabas, as we know, everybody knows him like this.

He was the son of encouragement. Aren't you glad that the church is not only full of Paul's? But I'm also glad it's not only full of Barnabas's. God actually brings people into this church with Paul-like characteristics and Barnabas-like characteristics. And I praise God for both of them because they're both needful for the gospel.

You see, Barnabas, as the son of encouragement, and let me say this, often the very point of our greatest strength is also the point of our greatest weakness. I want you to consider your strengths and then I want you to consider you better be really guarded in that point because if you if you don't guard that point of strength it can become your greatest handicap all of our strengths must be brought to yield to the submission of Jesus Christ and let Christ rule over them. I find it interesting too that this passage here about this and I'm thankful for our brother reading Ephesians 4 this morning but we see this balance here. God, you know there's a little song, Christian song that kids sing sometimes you may have heard of it God's still working on me to make me what I ought to be you've heard this and so I think we can see this even and we will see this even in the life of Paul and Barnabas and Peter yeah we all see it in Peter right Do you see it in yourself that God is still working on your character? And we have here in the early parts of the book of Acts, this situation taking place, and yet later on we're going to see that there are good things coming out of this.

And that's where we're aiming for, okay? So you can imagine that when Paul preached you may have felt like you just got hit by a Mack truck. You see Paul again was a man that the church needed. He was straight doctrinally, he was very clear-minded, he understood the gospel, and this type of personality was greatly needed. But man, when he preached, you knew it.

It was straight for the heart. Now, Barnabas, I could imagine, who also did preaching and was called a prophet and even an apostle, he may have been the type to let his family affections get in the way a little bit of past failures, thinking about what Mark had done, but I know Mark. He's a good brother. He was tempted. He was at a weak point.

He had compassion. Maybe too much. I don't know. We don't know the answer to that. Paul's resolve and Barnabas's determination presented though a dangerous situation.

And I think we need to at least acknowledge this. You see, it says in verse 39, the first part, then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. This is a dangerous point. I call this dangerous because anytime two believers, especially leaders in the church, when they so sharply disagree over gospel ministry, the gospel itself is at danger of coming into disrepute. A couple of things that could have resulted from this would have been detrimental.

I want you to think about, I listed just four, you might think of more. The first thing that could have happened would be hard feelings towards another believer, bitterness or just a sense of, you know, you don't want to really see each other. Maybe in the same church and one comes in and sits over here, the other one comes in and sits over here. That's not a healthy relationship. That could have happened.

That's a danger. The second thing is Bad examples to others who are watching. Young believers. There's young believers in this church at Antioch. In fact, almost all of them are young believers.

It's a new church. It can be a bad example for two brothers to be at odds to the point where they separate from one another because of their disagreements. The third thing I jotted down was losing sight of the greater mission. Well fine then I'm going home. I'm done.

Ministry's too hard. I can't even get along with Paul. That could have happened. A schism. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.

He was concerned about those. What if it would have been said, I am of Paul and I am of Barnabas? And there was a division within the church. Thankfully, we do not see that any of these things happened. And in fact, time brought some healing to this relationship.

We do see that throughout history many believers have sharp disagreements and part ways and the result is like a nuclear bomb goes off in the church. And it brings much disrespect and disrepute upon the name of Jesus Christ and upon his church so I just I want to offer this as a way of a warning There is no doubt that there will be disagreements in ministry, in church, in life, but let us be very careful in our disagreements not to write each other off over preferences. Danger. Warning. Be very careful.

Jameson Fawcett Brown says, In these circumstances it seems quite possible that they might have just agreed to differ, each taking his own companion as they actually did. But the exacerbation which is expressly given as the cause of their parting shows, but too plainly, that human infirmity amidst the great labors of the church at Antioch at length, sundered those who had sweetly and lovingly borne together the heat and burden of the day during a protracted tour in the service of Christ." And he quotes 1st Corinthians 321, therefore let no man glory in men." I also want to give a warning, do not put faith in any flesh. Put faith in Jesus Christ alone. Your faith is not dependent upon me or Scott or anybody else. Your faith is between you and the Lord Jesus Christ.

All men err. All men. All men are given to weaknesses and in fact we are told in the Scriptures that it's the nature of all men. Even Paul and Barnabas said that back earlier in Acts, that we are men of like nature as you. They understood what the problems were even within their own flesh.

To one, the situation may seem clear, but to another it may be foggy and not clear. So here's the point, I want us to have grace with one another. And if you ever have to part ways with another believer or even with this church make sure that it is done in an honorable way. A way in which it would still bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ, it would maintain friendship and relationship. In other words, do not leave in a blaze of fury.

Don't burn bridges. Be careful not to finalize your understanding of this situation here as we're looking at it this morning. Don't finalize your understanding of what is going on with Paul and Barnabas and Mark based solely upon this passage of Scripture. I believe that we have in this text before us that we are looking into a narrative that is not yet finished. Can I say that with each of us too?

There have been times in my life where I see certain people and I think, man, they're done for. They're gone. And I was dead wrong. As you're watching your brothers and sisters and people within this church or maybe even people outside this church, don't be too quick to write them off. Because guess what?

Their story is not yet finished. It's kind of like where we are today. This story with Paul and Barnabas And Mark, it's not finished. We actually have the privilege of reading the rest of the Scriptures and we actually get to see that God was doing something here. There's more to the story.

And I'm going to come back to that later at the end. And I hope it will help us wrap things up for us to give us wisdom into the wonders of God's providence and how he works not only in the life of people but in the life of the gospel going forth. But for now I believe we see if you will this might be a side note but a proof of the genuine nature of the Scriptures. You know, whenever you read something in the Bible and you think, man, I would have wanted that left out if that was talking about me. Think about poor Peter when Paul rebukes him, and that is written for all eternity for everybody to read about.

It's in there. This situation here with Paul and Barnabas parting ways because of Mark. One of the things that I love about the Bible is that it does not hide the sins and mistakes and character flaws of the people of faith. It's all there for you to read about. It's all there for you to see.

And this actually gives us hope, does it not? When you look at your own life and you see the flaws and the mistakes and the sins that you've committed, you recognize that the gospel of grace does not give up on you. It actually is there to help you and to build you up. It shows us that though we fail, God is not finished with us. He still uses us.

Failure is not final. A disagreement does not have to end in disaster. God can and does work through the failures, our failures and our weaknesses of character. And even our disagreements. From the beginning, God shows us all the flaws of His people that He chooses to use.

Think of it. Abraham. Can you think of any flaws? Did he ever do anything wrong? How about Moses?

How about Elijah? How about David? We can just go right down the list, right? Think of all the flaws of the people that God chose to use, and then bring it right down into your day and look in the mirror. He chose to use you too, with all the flaws and sins and mistakes that he does, and yet God can bring beauty out of the ashes.

You know in 1 Corinthians 1, 26 he says, for you see your calling, brethren, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. Why? That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

He did not choose you because you were perfect. He is not using you because you are perfect. He uses you and chooses you because He is perfect and He is good. And He uses flawed vessels because guess what? That's all He has to work with.

He holds these treasures in earthen vessels. Praise God. No one in their right mind would have made up this story and said let me just make up a religion and oh yeah by the way I'll take two of the main guys and put them in an argument over something. How ridiculous would that be? God is not afraid to show you the truth.

Rather, as we will see, God shows us that He is bigger than the foolishness and frailties of His people. We hold these treasures, brothers and sisters, the treasure of the Gospel we hold in earthen vessels. The Gospel does not succeed because we are perfect. When you're evangelizing, they don't come to faith in Christ because you're perfect and your presentation was just so right. They believe because God opens their heart to believe.

He gives them light in life. That's why they believe. And He uses frail, faulty people like you and me because he is perfect and his power is able to accomplish all that he has designed despite our weaknesses. So lastly as we look at this passage and we come into the latter part of verse 39 and 40 I want us to understand that we have a sovereign God not hindered by the weaknesses of men. Let's look at this.

We see here and this is a little bit of a getting us there if you will. We see here a natural affection. I was studying this and it just kind of dawned on me it was interesting to me when we look at Paul and Barnabas and it says and Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. Why did he go there? You know it's interesting in my study as I was looking this up, Cyprus was actually the hometown of Barnabas.

We learned this in Acts 4.36. And Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated, son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus. I'm going home. I'm going to go minister to those who know me and know Mark. We also see Paul.

What did he do? But Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by the brethren to the grace of God and he went through Syria and Cilicia. That makes sense. Paul likewise goes to his own country. He was from Tarshish in Cilicia.

I don't know if there is significance in this. I just think it's interesting to me. They first went to where they had familiarity and a natural affection for the people that they knew and Paul takes with him a man not unfamiliar and also one with a proven character, Silas. We see this later in Acts 15-22. I don't believe anyone would be as suited.

You know, who takes the place of a Barnabas? Well, no one. But God does use a Silas. And he brought Silas along. We learn in Acts 15-22, we read this a few weeks back, then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own country to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Bar-sabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.

Another man, Paul saw that this man was a leading man. He was a man of seriousness and conviction and a willingness to go forward for the gospel. And so now they both could go forward. It's interesting as well, and noteworthy, I think it's important, that the church blessed this union, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. Now I'm not sure why it does not mention here regarding Barnabas and John Mark.

I don't want to make too much from silence. Where Scripture is silent, I find it very safe to remain silent myself. I don't want to give undue motives here. I've tried to do my best with this passage and parts that I don't know about and we're limited in our understanding. But I would say at the very least I think it's important to note that Paul was not a man unto himself.

In the gospel ministry he was still under the blessing of the local church. He had the grace and the blessing of the church at Antioch. But not only the blessing of the church, but we clearly see the blessing of God in verse 40 and the second part of verse 40. It says, but Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And then it says, and he went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches.

Matthew Poole says, they verified here what they had said at Lystra, saying, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of the same nature as you. And yet here's the point I want to make. Yet God overruled these very divisions between Paul and Barnabas for his own glory. Going back to the latter part of verse 41, strengthening the churches.

This was an act of something that was being done. Paul and Silas were actually strengthening the churches. It wasn't just a desire, they were doing it. Churches were being strengthened by their ministry. Matthew Poole goes on and he says, God overruled this for His own glory and the enlargement of His kingdom, Several places being by this means blessed with the gospel and this reflection upon this John Mark is thought to have made him for the future more diligent and valiant in the cause of the gospel which occasioned that kind salutation from Saint Paul and 2nd Timothy.

So we have the more of the story here if you will. 2nd Timothy 411, Paul writes, only Lucas with me get Mark and bring him with you for he is useful for me for ministry." I just want to go back and help us to see this one more time. We have a sovereign God not hindered by the weaknesses of men. The weakness of Paul, the weakness of Barnabas, and the weakness of John Mark. Do you see how God was working so many things together, even in what seemed to be a disagreement that was going to cause trouble to the church?

God actually overrode that situation, his sovereignty over that situation, and he made it abound to the blessing of the church. We read in Philemon, he says, Apaprus, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark. Mark's there. He's with Paul. He made it.

What I want to take away from this narrative is that the overarching providence of God is working in the midst of all the relationships that are that we see in the Scriptures and in this church. And though you may see weakness in somebody, I want to encourage you to be like Barnabas and be a son of encouragement. As someone who's willing to take the time and the effort and have the faith that the gospel can produce, and even a weak believer, something that can become very useful for the kingdom of God. And I also want to encourage you to be like the apostle Paul and be steadfast in your approach to the gospel. Be diligent and zealous in your love for the gospel.

But don't let one out ride the other. Let us learn from this scripture to try to bring these things together so that we can have zeal for the gospel and patience for those who are not maybe where we are or we think we are. Maybe we need to work on the pride. I don't know. There might be an issue one place or another where we need to understand this.

So just a few points of application that I want to leave you with or just some thoughts as we close this out. The first thing is disagreements do not have to end in bitterness between friends or failures in ministry. It doesn't have to do that. You can choose to do that, but it doesn't have to be that way. Number two, be patient with one another.

Be patient. Number three, regarding John Mark, your failure does not have to define you. Failure is not final, but can actually be turned into a turning point in your life that leads to greater Christian growth and usefulness in ministry. We read also in 1 Peter 5.13. Peter writes, she who is in Babylon elect together with you, greets you, and so does Mark my son.

There he is. Mark is there. God actually used, I believe, this shunning, if you will, of John Mark by Paul to so encourage him and strengthen him to be more zealous and more diligent in gospel ministry. It was actually a help to him. But Barnabas was also a help to him.

Can you see that? Both of those things actually work together for good to bring about what God was doing in John Mark's life and in Paul's life. Number four, thank God for men like Paul. Men who are full steam ahead for the gospel. Number five, you can guess what it is.

Thank God for men like Barnabas, who are willing to take time to disciple men like John Mark and bring them along. Number six, Paul and Barnabas were later reconciled. We read this in 1st Corinthians 9, 6. He actually references Barnabas as one who works and is laboring for the gospel. Number seven and lastly I think lastly nope number seven and one more after that thank God for God.

I couldn't leave God out. Thank God for God for without the sovereignty of God we would make a mess of anything, wouldn't we? We would have made a mess. And then lastly, the results were two times the ministry. They went both ways, and they accomplished more.

John Mark was matured and strengthened for further ministry. The churches were strengthened for gospel ministry. The goal was accomplished. The gospel went forth and the great news is that the kingdom advanced because that's what God does even with our messes. Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father we just want to thank you for your Word. It is so wonderful. It is so instructive. I thank you oh God that you do not give up on us. I thank you Lord that you make beautiful things from the mess of your people.

I thank you that the gospel of grace is more powerful than the frailties of man. I thank you oh God that you're doing great things in this church and I pray Lord that this message this passage of Scripture would so strengthen this church that you would help us to be better prepared for gospel ministry. Forgive us Lord where we have failed you, strengthen us where we need to be strengthened, humble us Lord where we need to be humbled and Lord may all glory go to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.