Judas, Silas, Paul and Barnabas bring the letter from the Jerusalem church back to Antioch and the surrounding region. Rather than tell them to keep the Jewish law, they encourage them to act morally, and they affirm the Gentile believers faith in Christ. Jesus is truly the Savior of the world!
And then reality sets in. A ministry disagreement that separates believers. Barnabas does what he continually does, living up to his name: “son of encouragement.” Who is right here? We can make suppositions, but maybe neither has to be wrong. Perhaps God allowed it to send them in different directions so that ministry could actually increase! We can’t know for sure, but can only hope and pray that such is the case when we see it happen today. And we should pray for one more thing – restoration in the future. We are blessed to see that restoration happen between Paul and John Mark.
2 Timothy 4:11 “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is a great help to me in ministry.”
Pastor Billington's Blog 