Talent Scout

02.04.13

Acts 11.25 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul... (ESV)

We can really only speculate because we don’t know exactly what was in Barnabas’ heart, but he had the ability to see something really special in Paul, and went off to Tarsus to find him and bring him to Antioch where something really special was happening. Special circumstances often call for special people.

Paul (formerly named Saul) was the same guy who’d persecuted the church in Jerusalem and the surrounding area and one day found himself on the receiving end of God’s offer in Jesus Christ. Paul was converted and commissioned by God to take the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles. And Barnabas knew that and saw the gift that was in him – so he brought him from Tarsus to Antioch to be a part of the new church there.

Paul was deeply steeped in Judaism and when he was converted to the Way he saw what true belief was really all about. Judaism, in itself, is incomplete. Judaism only finds its true meaning through the Person of Jesus Christ and when Paul came to know Jesus, he really came to know Judaism with all of its laws and structure coming into exact focus of what it was really all about: the Lord Jesus Christ. Part of Paul’s calling was to add the Missing Ingredient in Judaism: the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Jews have always been God’s chosen people but their understanding of God was incomplete because they didn’t recognize God’s Messiah: the true and only Key to relationship with God. It’s one thing to be religious and try and impress God with how well one lives religiously, but it’s quite another when one becomes God’s friend and lives in relationship with Him where all of humanity’s rules and regulations pale in comparison to the bounty of Heaven’s King and all that He has for the one who accepts Him. And Barnabas knew that, and Barnabas knew Paul knew that. It had all come into complete focus for Paul and Barnabas knew he’d be a tremendous resource to the Church in Antioch.

Barnabas’ gift was being able to recognize talent when he saw it… and it really isn’t about talent, but gifting and the presence of God in one’s life. Barnabas himself had a gift of encouragement and mentoring and knew how to get people to come out of their shell and into full bloom as tools and instruments in God’s might hand. The gift Barnabas was to the church then, and is to us the church today, is he knew God in someone when he saw it; and we can thank him for going to Tarsus to find Paul and to get him engaged in the work in Antioch where Paul could be seen for who he was, not, like in Jerusalem, for what he had been.

Paul of Tarsus wasn’t the only one Barnabas took a chance with and rolled the dice on; in the coming days as we follow the story of Acts we’ll see another that this Talent Scout for God recognized the Gift in, and for what it was, and what it would do for God’s people…then and now.

Father, may I truly believe in what You do to the lives of people You touch and may I have some of what Barnabas had in encouraging others to blossom and grow into who You’ve called them to be… Amen.