Barnabas: The Son of Encouragement
September 22, 2026
Some people change names because they have done something wrong. Some change names because they have done something right.
The apostles started calling him Barnabas. His real name was Joseph. But “Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement)” (Acts 4:36, NKJV). They re-named him for the way he showed up in a room.
Son of Encouragement.
Can you imagine being known by a name like that? Not “son of strength.” Not “son of brilliance.” Not “son of position.” Son of the thing the church most desperately needs and most rarely gets — somebody who lifts the head of the broken brother instead of dragging it lower.
Barnabas is the one who put it all on the line for a man nobody else trusted. When Saul of Tarsus rolled into Jerusalem fresh from the Damascus road, every disciple in the city was terrified of him. He had hunted them. He had cast votes for their deaths. And here he was claiming to be one of them. The apostles would not see him.
“But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27, NKJV).
Took him. Brought him. Vouched for him.
That one act of risky encouragement is the reason we have most of the New Testament. Without Barnabas, Paul does not get traction in Jerusalem. Without Paul, no Romans. No Corinthians. No Ephesians. The man who walked Saul through that door changed the trajectory of the gospel.
And he did it again at Antioch — went to Tarsus, hunted Paul down, brought him into ministry, and stood beside him on the first missionary journey. He even released Paul to the front and stepped back when the platform got bigger than his role required.
Friend, hear me.
You may not be called to preach to thousands. You may not be called to write epistles that shape the church for two thousand years. But you can be a Barnabas. You can be the one who sees what God is doing in somebody before anybody else sees it. You can be the voice that says, “Bring him in. I’ll vouch for him. I’ll walk him into the room.”
Encouragement is not a personality trait. It is a ministry. And the Holy Spirit is still pouring it out on those willing to carry it.
Be a son — or a daughter — of encouragement today.
The church desperately needs you.