An earthquake will play prominently in today’s lesson. If you’ve never been in one, you’ve missed out. Alaskans are sort of connoisseurs of earthquakes. We try to guess what they were on the Richter scale. Some of us are pretty accurate. Some of us have been known to make bets with one another while the ground was still shaking. Don’t we sound blasé?

I’ve been in a lot of earthquakes. Our homes and buildings are built for it, so after a while, we get used to them. Most of the ones in Interior Alaska are somewhere less than 7 on the Richter scale and I can just barely remember the 9.2 that hit Anchorage and rocked the Interior as well, so normally, I don’t get really excited. The last earthquake I was in, however, was a 7.9 on the Denali fault, which is just a couple hundred miles south of my home.  I was making lunch, frying burgers on the stove when I heard all the dogs in the neighborhood suddenly start howling. Then our Lab-Husky mix, who usually has little to say even during a major howl-fest, began yodeling, so I looked out the kitchen window to see what Black Dog was singing about. No sooner than I looked, she cut off her serenade to dive into her dog house. Then the ground began to shake. Most quakes last a few seconds; barely enough time to even notice it. This one just felt like a train coming down the track, getting closer. I actually had time to react. I turned off the stove – no, I don’t know why (it’s electric)– and I walked to the doorway between the kitchen and the living room to shout to the family room, “Hey, kids, get in the doorway. I think this one’s a rattler.” About the time, the house began to buck like a fast-moving train.

We had just moved into that house a few months before, so I wasn’t absolutely sure how well it might hold up against another Anchorage quake and it hadn’t been built back in 1964, so was untested. My daughter was playing a video game that features a moon that falls and a rumble pack that shakes, so she hadn’t even realized we were having a quake. My son had been sitting beside her thinking “this game is so awesome it’s making the room shake!”, but now he came tearing up the stairs to join me, just as I realized that our hurricane lanterns (full of flammable lamp oil) were walking off the fireplace mantle. I peeled him off me to put them down on the hearth, then realized I was now in the fall zone for the masonry block chimney. I stepped back into the doorway as my daughter came tearing up the stairs to join us, screaming “Is it ever going to stop?!” Then abruptly, it did!

A minute and a half of actual fault movement and another half-minute of reactionary jiggling. It wasn’t the biggest quake I’d ever been in, but it was the longest and the one I will remember my whole life. There was no damage in our house and almost none in my town (we build for quakes), but the village of Mentasta which sits right on the fault line experienced houses slipping off their foundations and a trucker friend of mine blew two tires and jackknifed his rig trying to keep it on the pavement outside of Delta, where the fault line crosses the road. My brother was under his car at the time and just barely rolled free before the car slipped off the jack stands. My husband felt the quake in Washington State and saw a mini-tidal wave in Lake Union. Had this quake happened anywhere but the state devastated by the largest recorded earthquake in the northern hemisphere (Anchorage, 1964) there would have been widespread destruction. So now you know what an earthquake is like.

Two missionary teams departed Antioch for two missionary fields. Barnabas took Mark along, giving him a chance to grow in the Lord and get his feet wet in ministry, apparently eventually redeeming his earlier failure. They went to previously established churches, to work in edifying and encouraging these growing ventures.

Paul took Silas, already a mature Christian, to the more dangerous Asia Minor. While in Lystra, where Paul had previously been stoned, Paul made the decision to take Timothy with for the remainder of the journey.

I don’t think we should think of this as Paul “discipling” Timothy as Barnabas was discipling Mark. Timothy was already a disciple and he had already been proven. He was well-respected by the brethren in Lystra and Iconium (Acts 16:2). Timothy was ready to join the missionary team as a colleague, exercising similar gifts to his mentor.

Traveling north and being stalled in preaching the word at several venues, the missionaries weren’t sure of their next move, but the “Macedonian vision” made the answer clear. Paul alone, apparently, had the vision of a Macedonian man, pleading for him to “come over to Macedonia and help us” (16:9). The meaning of the vision was apparent; God wanted them to go immediately to Macedonia.

“Therefore putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.” Acts 16:11-15

Philippi was a Roman outpost (it’s where Caesar Augustus fought the battle that secured his empire) and fairly good-sized city that did not have a synagogue. The missionary group preached the gospel down by the riverside where the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles met for worship and a small group of people were saved. Lydia, a well-to-do merchant, accepted Christ along with her entire family and hosted the missionaries in her own home. While preaching, a demon-possessed slave-girl with a talent for fortune-telling annoyed Paul into binding the spirits from her. The loss of her profit-potential angered her owners, who had Paul and Silas thrown in jail.

“But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.” And the crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them, and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were unfastened. And when the jailer had been roused out of sleep and had seen the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!” And he called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.” Acts 16:19-34

While in jail, rather than protesting that they were Roman citizens and shouldn’t be treated this way, Paul and Silas began to sing hymns of praise. We don’t know if the jailer heard the songs, but Paul’s fellow prisoners did. There is no Biblical evidence that the jailer had spoken to Paul or Silas about their beliefs or that he had overheard the gospel in any fashion. It was late at night and all the lamps were out, but Paul and Silas were singing of hope in a dark place. The song was shattered by an earthquake. As the building rocked and the stone walls groaned and bucked, the prisoners were released from their shackled and the doors were set ajar. Escape had never been easier.

But God’s purpose was not escape. It may be that the prisoners stayed behind to hear more of what Paul and Silas had to say or the darkness of that place hid that the doors were open. The earthquake shook the jailer out of bed, so he rushed to the main gate of the prison (his house was probably on the grounds) and, seeing an open door, assumed the prisoners had escape.

I don’t know how Paul knew that the jailer was about to kill himself. I suspect it was divine revelation, although this was also a Roman garrison town, so the jailer and Paul may well have known the penalty the Romans exacted for allowing prisoners to escape. Death by one’s own hand might have been quicker. Loosing an entire prison population is a grave professional error for a jailer. When Paul called out to him, the jailer recognized that he had authority beyond the usual. When they spoke, men listened. When they praised God, things happened. The prisoners were still in their cells mainly because of the authority which these men had. The jailer trusted Paul when he said all was well, even before he inspected the building by lamp light.

In an act of reverence, the jailer fell at the feet of the missionaries. He knew that these men possessed power and that they had come to proclaim the way of salvation. We don’t know where he heard this from. I suspect a lot of people heard the slave-girl babbling on about it. Nevertheless, the jailer led these two outside the prison and asked them what he must do to be saved. They told him and his family, and all believed, were saved, and were baptized.

The changes in that jailer, a crusty and cruel man no doubt, began immediately. The one who had at least played a part in the beating of these men now cleansed and dressed their wounds, his cruelty converted to compassion. From the darkest hole of that prison, he took them into his own home and fed them a good meal. 

“Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, “Release those men.” And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Now therefore come out and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.” And the policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. And they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. And they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.” Acts 16:35-40

Dressed, doctored and fed, with perhaps some time of fellowship and prayer with their new brothers, it would appear Paul and Silas returned to the jail. Why? As well ask why the magistrates decided to order the release of Paul and Silas. Maybe Lydia pressured them. Maybe the earthquake scared them. Paul’s response wasn’t what they expected. Instead of gratefully accepting his release and slipping out of town never to return, Paul refused to leave his cell until those responsible for his illegal treatment acknowledged their wrong and made a somewhat public apology.

Why was Paul so indignant? The laws of Rome, which Paul had wrongly been accused of breaking, were the very laws which the magistrates had violated. The Christian who looks forward to the coming of Messiah and for the establishment of justice on the earth (Matthew 6:10), is one who also desires to see justice done now. Paul’s continued freedom to preach the gospel was somewhat on the line, as was the freedom of the church in Philippi to conduct its worship and ministry. What Paul did, he did for the cause of justice, and for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. By demanding justice from the magistrates, he was also providing some protection for the new Philippian church. It would be a while before they risked Paul’s report of their actions by persecuting Christians in their town.

With great chagrin, the magistrates complied with Paul’s demands, and pled with he and Silas to go quietly. They did leave Philippi, though they first visited at Lydia’s home and encouraged the church. Apparently there had been a good number of people saved in addition to the jailer and Lydia. Philippi would never be the same and it goes down in history as one of the great Christian centers.

God can speak through a myriad of ways. Was it a still small voice that told Paul he couldn’t share the gospel in Asia? He had a vision in Troas. The natural occurrence of an earthquake certainly spoke to the jailer.  God moves in many ways and His messages are available for Christians to understand with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We should be open for God to speak as much through mundane activities as miraculous events because He is everywhere and can speak to us at anytime. Knowing this, do we have our ears open for His guidance?

Some people view unity in Christianity to a degree that they cannot tolerate any disagreements. They assert that differences whether of style worship, minor doctrine or even method of selecting clergy are violations of God’s plans for the church. Some would assert that differences on a personal level are signs of sin in the parties to the disagreement. I submit that Biblical example shows that disagreement is used by God and may be a function of different callings rather than personality conflicts or doctrinal error.

The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas before they were to set out on their second missionary journey(s) is often viewed as two friends squabbling over a trivial matter and God used it to fulfill His purposes. On one level, that is true. People often note that the squabble resulted in two missionary teams rather than one and this seems like a good thing. I agree. On a more profound level, however, this squabble may have resulted in the continuation of missionary efforts into the long-term future.

Upon returning from Jerusalem with Silas and Judas and the letter clarifying the Christian understanding of Gentile conversions, Paul and Barnabas settled down in Antioch for a while. We don’t know how long, but it was probably a matter of weeks before Paul approached Barnabas with a proposal to return to all the churches they had established on the previous trip. Barnabas was enthusiastic for the task, but wanted to bring his nephew, John Mark, along. Paul opposed this because John Mark had left the first missionary journey not long after leaving Cyprus, his home territory. Paul felt that John Mark would only fail them again. Barnabas wanted to give the boy another chance.

Nobody else has to agree with me on this, but I think John Mark left the first missionary journey in part because Paul was an overbearing intellectual who made the boy feel small. That’s just my take on the situation. I like Paul’s theology and I admire his ability to explain doctrine and confront heresy, but I don’t think I would like him personally, at least not at the beginning of his ministry. I think he made John Mark miserable and, already homesick, the boy opted out. I also think Paul was right and John Mark would have ditched them again. However, I don’t think he ditched Barnabas, because Barnabas was a very different sort of personality from Paul. Also, the Bible doesn’t record it, so I’m thinking it didn’t happen.

What did happen was that two missionary teams were formed and Barnabas and John Mark revisited the churches that Barnabas and Paul had started on the first missionary journey, while Paul and Silas covered mostly new territory. One wonders what might have happened if there’d been no squabble. They would have returned to edify the churches they had established, but not really to evangelize new territory. Maybe there would have been no second missionary journey if Paul and Barnabas had not disagreed over John Mark.

“And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.” Acts 15:36-39

I don’t think this was a personal rift. I don’t imagine Barnabas and Paul shouting curses at one another as they separated. I know of commentators who would disagree, but a strong disagreement between friends and co-laborers over methods is very different from a personal falling out. This disagreement was not rooted in pride, ambition or offended feelings. These two men had different spirit gifts, different outlooks and, perhaps, different callings. The outcome of their separation was very positive overall. There are certain characteristics of their disagreement that we could all learn from for harmony within our churches.

Paul and Barnabas kept their disagreement on a personal level. They don’t seem to have involved others in it; hence Luke’s rather banal dealing with the separation. There was apparently not a lot of gossip floating about and it seems Paul and Barnabas remembered it as a sharp disagreement that they didn’t allow to alienate them as friends and brothers. While both men stuck to their convictions, they resolved the disagreement by separating into two teams. The Corinthian letters suggest they worked together again. There’s no hint they were acting out of self-interest or ambition and they didn’t try to make it into a Biblical issue whereby one of them was right and the other must be wrong.  How often, when two Christians differ, we try to sanction our actions with texts of Scripture. Each party gathers up a collection of proof texts, and the one with the longest list wins. This was not a Biblical issue, in the sense that one of the two was doing the Biblical thing and the other was being disobedient. Both Paul and Barnabas were “right” to do what they did, and would have denied their convictions and calling to do what the other felt compelled to do. They were acting in accordance with their respective spiritual gifts and calling. Of course Barnabas would encourage John Mark to a higher standard while Paul would come down hard on failure to complete a mission. This was their personalities, but it was also their callings. Both ministered to John Mark by what they did. I suspect Paul’s refusal to take him with had a huge impact on Mark as did knowing that Barnabas was willing to invest his life and ministry in him. Paul’s negative response combined with Barnabas’ positive response would encourage Mark to take his problems seriously and strive to prove himself faithful.

All too often, when partners in ministry have separated in an unhealthy way, they have both pursued the same ministry, in the same place, requiring the involvement and support of the same people. Division or separation has not solved a problem, it has expanded it, resulting in competition rather than cooperation. Barnabas took Mark, and went to Cyprus. Paul took Silas and went in the opposite direction. The itinerary which they had planned was, in effect, cut in two, so that their initial purposes were met, but in a way that created no problems for the ministry of either. The result of this separation was two missionary ventures, not just one. Barnabas turned, at least temporarily, from a ministry of evangelism in dangerous areas to a ministry of edification (we’d call that discipleship now) to existing churches. Paul seems to have grown from the experience and his later relationship with Timothy shows that he softened toward young people. Others were involved in ministry, including Silas, Timothy, and Luke. The Book of Mark was partially the result of Barnabas’ ministry while Paul’s ministry planted many new churches. Neither Paul nor Barnabas later needed to repent of any wrongdoing in the matter of Mark, and Paul would later say Mark was of profit to his own ministry (2 Timothy 4:9).  

By reducing the number of churches Paul needed to visit, it opened doors to reaching new, unreached cities with the gospel. Paul seems to have learned a lesson in choosing to lay hands too quickly on a person, especially one who was not yet proven (1 Timothy 3:10; 5:22). He may have concluded that in the future he needed to commit himself to faithful, proven men, with gifts similar to his own, so that he could extend and reproduce his own ministry and gift (2 Timothy 2:2). Paul may also have learned to be more sensitive and tender toward those who are not as “thick skinned” as he. Paul seems to have grown in gentleness and understanding, as he dealt with Timothy, and I think that this experience with Mark was significant to his education.

One of the strongest gifts of Barnabas was his gift of encouragement (Acts 4:36). Barnabas first came alongside Paul at a time when he was a newly born believer, and when none of the apostles would associate with him, fearing him. Barnabas sought Paul to minister with him in Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). As of Acts 13:9 and following, the need for Barnabas diminished. Paul could stand on his own while Mark needed Barnabas’ gift of encouragement. This strong difference of opinion and of approach was the means by which God could separate these two “inseparable” friends, brothers, and servants.

The separation of Barnabas paved the way for the selection of Silas (and others, like Timothy and Luke). For the second missionary journey, Silas was a better partner than Barnabas. Like Paul, Silas appears to be a Roman citizen, while the Bible doesn’t record if Barnabas was. How difficult it would have been for Paul to protest against his unfair treatment as a Roman citizen in Philippi if Barnabas were not a Roman (Acts 16:37). Moreover, Silas was from the Jerusalem church, thus could add weight to the letter from the Jerusalem Council, as he had been sent to do. Taken as a whole, the gifts and ministries of Silas appear to have been better suited to the second journey than those of Barnabas, thus God orchestrated a change in personnel.

We also see the hand of God at work once again in Acts, providentially orchestrating and arranging circumstances in such a way that the gospel is advanced among the Gentiles. The Jerusalem Council, which defined and defended the gospel, prepared the way for a wider mission field into Gentile territory. The disagreement between these two leaders paved the way for reaching a larger territory.

Christians can disagree with each other and both can be right. Disagreements don’t necessarily result in sin, and are not evidence of some sin on the part of those who differ. Disagreements can serve very beneficial purposes.

If there is a prominent theme emerging in Acts it is UNITY IN THE MIDST OF DIVERSITY. The gospel which our Lord made possible for His apostles to proclaim was one gospel. Jewish believers and Gentile Christians were recognized as different in Acts, but the gospel they believed and the faith they held was a common one to both. Paul and Barnabas did have different gifts, different perspectives, even different callings, but they remained, to the end, one in the faith and bonds of love. Their parting was a division, not a divorce.

Paul and Barnabas differed in a way that led them in separate directions, but they did not allow their disagreement to become a controversy or a source of contention. They went their separate ways, respecting the other, but convinced about their own actions.

Whether by divine design or our own sinfulness, there are going to be differences among and between people in this life. Christian unity does not deny these differences and does not attempt to change all of them. If we are to live in unity, we must, as Christians, agree on those few things which are essential to salvation. For this reason, the Jerusalem Council gave a full airing of opinions and issues, and then the apostles, elders, and saints came to a unanimous decision. This “unity of the faith” must be preserved in the “bond of peace” and harmony (Ephesians 4:3). The “unity of the faith” is that which will only be attained in our glorified state (Ephesians 4:13).

If we are to preserve the “unity of the Spirit,” we must deal Biblically with those differences which arise between us, whether on individual, corporate or church universal level. From the example of Paul and Barnabas, let me suggest some of the principles which should guide and govern our differences so that the “unity of the Spirit” can be preserved.

Believers will disagree because we are human. We should note who it is who differs with us and why. We should seek to discern the source of our differences and the seriousness of the issues involved. We should determine if the difference is a matter affecting a clear Biblical teaching or doctrine that is central to the gospel or a matter of interpretation, personal conviction, or individual gift or calling. We should seek God’s guidance as to the appropriate response, relying on Scripture to guide our response. There may be times, as with the Jerusalem Council, when we will have to stand upon Biblical grounds and define our position. There may be times when God’s work will simply be multiplied by our division. Paul and Barnabas parted in ministry, but never in spirit or unity. We should strive to do the same.