MARK AND TIM

Acts 15-16

This week's lesson is about fighting and training – no, not training to fight! Although he lesson begins with a fight between two friends, both dedicated Christians who had worked together fairly constantly for a couple of years. Barnabas, in fact, was the guy who got excited about what was happening at Antioch and went to find Paul to bring him back and get him involved. They worked together, and it looks like Barney was Paul's mentor for awhile. In fact, at the beginning of the first missionary journey, Barnabas was always mentioned first and then Paul, as if Barney was the leader. Somewhere along the way, the order switches, as they seem gradually to shift the leadership as they gained experience. Remember on the first journey they were learning what it meant to “do missions” and how to do it.

The fight was over John Mark. That young man had accompanied them on the first trip, but he turned around and went home before half the journey was completed. Some have suggested he got homesick. Others that he was afraid of the opposition. Still others noted Paul was about to become the leader, and Mark didn't like the way Paul was bossing around his cousin Barnabas. We don't know. The scripture doesn't tell us. But Paul was unhappy with him and was opposed to taking him on another trip.

It was Paul's idea to take another trip and revisit the churches they had begun and see how all the new Christians were doing. But Paul didn't trust Mark and didn't want him with them. Barnaabas wanted to give the kid a second chance. The dispute became sharp enough that the two split. Barney would take the kid and go one way, breaking new ground, while Paul enlisted Silas as his companion. So they each went their own way.

Lessons that can be learned and explored further.

1 – Even mature Christian leaders can disagree. Sometimes there is honest disagreement. When I was at Southern Seminary in 1958-59, 13 professors left the school in conflict with the administration. It was not at all doctrinal, but like here in Acts, it was administrative. The school at one time had been run primarily by the faculty, and the president was seen as head of the faculty. Now the president and his administration were making more decisions and the 13 didn't like it. (That same arguments surfaces from time to time in other universities.)

2 – The Lord used the split for good. We have only the record of Paul's trip. I'd love to find a set of Barnabas's notes on his trip. What other churches might they have established and adventure they must have had.

3 – There is more than one way to do something. Often churches are locked in arguments as if the motion before it would be for all eternity. I have several times eased debate by pointing out, “If we pass it and don't like it, we can go back and do it another way.” Of course some issues are more permanent than others. If you build a half million dollar building, you can't just go back and do THAT another way.

At the second stop, Lystra, they met a man, probably a young man, whose name was Timothy. He was of mixed race, a Jewish mother and a Gentile father. To avoid unnecessary disputes, he circumcised Tim, so the Jews would accept him. Remember Paul first entered synagogues everywhere he went as long as they would let him teach there.

4 – Notice both Paul and Silas mentored apparently younger men. These men would be able in a year or so to do what their mentors were now doing. Learning by example is an excellent way to learn. Almost certainly both Mark and Tim in their travels came across one or more of Jesus's original Twelve and hear the message from their mouths.

Who are YOU training?