Meditations

”Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for me… also greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.” (Rom 16:3-5) “And when Saul/Paul came to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.” (Acts 9:26-27)

In the days of Paul, the cities of Ephesus and Laodicea and Colossae were all in the province of Asia, so we know that Paul spent a good deal of time establishing churches and followers in that area. He also spent a great deal of time in Macedonia (present day Europe) and some might recall that Lydia was his first convert in Europe, but not many could tell you who was the first convert in Asia. “Epaenetus and a number of other unsung friends were named by Paul in his epistle to the Romans, and it is as true today as it was in the very first century of Christianity, that the church has been sustained and blessed not by those who were prominent or heroic, but by those who were unsung meeters and greeters. There are no ‘mere mortals,’ no insignificant persons for the purposes of God.” (Sinclair Ferguson)

There’s a pretty good chance that even Barnabas was a fairly unknown person in the church during his lifetime. “Today by looking carefully at the book of Acts, we know that his real name was Joseph, but that the apostles nicknamed him Barnabas or ‘son of encouragement,’ and that he was a Levite from Cyprus. (Acts 4:36-37) In other words, he was a foreigner to the original apostles. But God had placed him in just the right situation to meet another foreigner who had no place to go and no one to take him in. Those are four of the greatest words in the Bible – ‘But Barnabas took him.’ Four great words. Suitable for a tombstone. Would it not be enough? ‘But Alistair took him.’ You see, Paul needed somebody at this juncture in his life – somebody to encourage him, to lead him, to introduce him. And God looked from heaven and picked an individual He had been preparing for a lifetime. There are no inconsequential moments in our days. There are no chance encounters. No ‘mere mortals.’ ” (Alistair Begg) Jesus said it first, and James Taylor made it a song: “Hey, ain’t it good to know, you got a friend?” (John 15:12-15)

David