I’ve been watching Frank Capra’s 1946 film “It's a Wonderful Life” for as long as I’ve been watching any movie. As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the 10 best movies ever made.

Even though I’ve seen it a conservative estimate of 150 times, as hard as I try, I cannot keep myself from doing this weird thing at the end. I can only describe this thing that I do as a crying laugh. Every time I get to the end of “It's a Wonderful Life”, I do the crying laugh. Today, we shall call it “the Craugh”.

Now, while you all should have watched “It's a Wonderful Life” and reflected on its beauty and transcendent truth, I’ll just pretend like none of you have seen it. So, let me give you the plot.

George Bailey grew up in the small town of Bedford Falls in the 1920s and 30s. Over the course of the movie, we get glimpses into the selflessness of George Bailey. As a kid, he saves his little brother from drowning, he saves a pharmacy patient from being poisoned and his boss from going to prison, all before he’s 13 years old.

As he grows, it’s clear that George has huge potential. He’s smart, charismatic, tender-hearted, and funny but because he keeps making sacrifices for others, he never really becomes the successful world traveler he aspires to be. His friends find success all over the world, but he keeps letting others move in front of him.

He gives money he was saving to go to college to his little brother Harry, so Harry can go to school, then Harry eventually goes on to win the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving 100’s of lives in WWII.

When his father dies, George stays in Bedford Falls to run the Bailey Building and Loan, to keep it from closing so the people of Bedford Falls won’t be enslaved in debt to the evil Mr. Potter.

Then, when he marries his high school sweetheart, instead of going to Europe on their honeymoon, he uses the money (at his wife’s insistence, by the way) to keep people from losing their money when the stock market crashes in the Great Depression.

Constantly through the movie, George is making sacrifices for his family, for his friends, for the people of Bedford Falls so they can live “Wonderful lives” even as his own dreams take a backseat.

But eventually, George loses $8,000 of the banks money, which is the equivalent of $800,000 today. Suddenly, there is a warrant for his arrest. Now, George stands to lose everything. He feels like he’s a loser and like he’s let everyone down.

He feels like other people have gone on to do things that matter, but he’s only become a bankrupt Bedford Falls townie, a bad father, a terrible husband, and well, he thinks all of his friends and family would be better off without him. In fact, he wishes that he’d never been born.

So God, through an angel, allows George to get his wish. He allows George to see the world as if he’d never been born. He gets to see what the world would be like without him.

His wife never marries. Never has kids. His brother died as a kid because George wasn’t there to save him. As a result, Harry Bailey never flew a plane in WWII and so hundreds of other people died. Mr. Potter owned the town keeping most people living in the slums, because George was never there to be his only competition in the housing market and because of that, Bedford Falls had turned into a veritable Gotham City. Prostitution and Crime were everywhere.

Many of the people that George helped to make successful, were now hopeless drunks or dead. In the end, George realizes his life wasn’t a waste. He realizes that if he hadn’t been who he was and done the things he did, that the world would indeed be worse off. Then, in those famous final scenes, George is running down the middle of the snow covered streets of Bedford Falls...screaming “MERRY CHRISTMAS” and craughing all the way.

This week in the book of Acts, I want to show you someone who was a lot like George Bailey. Well, at least in his selflessness. His name is Barnabas. He’s one of the leaders of the early church, but he’s one of these guys that always plays a supporting role to someone else’s success.

We don’t know if Barnabas ever lost $8,000 of the church’s money, or if he ever had an identity crisis where he wondered if his life was really beneficial to anyone at all, but I suppose if he ever did, God might just show him what the world would be like without him, and it’s not a pretty a picture.

So, lets look at the life of Barnabas through,

Acts 11:19-30.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

I call Barnabas the George Bailey of the book of Acts, because if he’d never been born, well, there is no early church, there is no book of Acts and honestly, you and I aren’t sitting here today.

But it’s odd. If you were to list the most prominent voices in the book of Acts, Barnabas isn’t even on the radar. He isn’t quoted a single time. But see,

1) It’s better to make things happen with sacrifice, than draw attention with sermons.

One of the great messages of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is that sometimes it’s hard to see exactly who your life is impacting. It’s hard to see if your sacrifice is making any difference at all. Barnabas is definitely a guy who sacrificed for the sake of others. You certainly see it here.

One of the “good to have” problems of the early church, is they were growing so fast and among so many different cultures in so many countries, that the apostles couldn’t keep up with the work of verifying that what was happening in those countries was actually the work of God and not some superstitious religious cult. Antioch certainly had their fair share of cults. There was a major cult there for the Greek goddess Daphne (a few towns over they worshipped, Velma, Freddy, Shaggy and Scooby.)

Anyway, the primary way to worship Daphne was prostitution. Which of course, made Antioch famous for its immorality. As the ancient saying went, “What happens in Antioch, stays in Antioch.” But Barnabas was willing to go right into the middle of that.

This isn’t the first time Barnabas sticks his neck out for someone else. He was the first guy to sell his property and donate the proceeds to the church, that started a culture of generosity and caring for the poor. Then, he stuck his neck out for Saul, when nobody believed Saul was changed by the gospel, when everybody thought he was still murderer, Barnabas said, “This guy is the real deal.”

Here, in Acts 11, the diversity of the church hinges on Barnabas’ report of what is happening in Antioch and of course, this church outside of Jerusalem never grows if Barnabas doesn’t give up a year of his life. In fact, the reasons the followers of Jesus are called “Christians” is because Barnabas took the time to speak up for and then develop these diverse Gentiles’ relationship with Jesus. And so, the church needed a name that wasn’t bound by race, like “Jews”, so they named them Christians.

Then, when a famine hits Jerusalem, who did the elders at the church at Antioch elect to take the relief offering? Barnabas again. Later, it’s Barnabas who becomes Paul’s right hand man on his first missionary journey. So, if we are looking at how important Barnabas is to the early church, on a scale of 1-10, Barnabas is a 12. If we are looking at how much Barnabas sacrifices for the mission of God, it’s hard to even measure. If Barnabas was never born, in George Bailey style, the church never makes it out of Jerusalem, the apostles never let Saul into the church, so we are missing 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament. There is no Antioch. When the famine hits Jerusalem, there is no one to send relief, which means the church in Jerusalem dies. That means the entire movement of Christianity dies before the 1st century ends.

Essentially, without Barnabas, we are living in Mr. Potter’s version of Bedford Falls, where everyone worships the goddess Daphne. I realize that’s a bit of over speak, but I want you to clearly see the point. Barnabas is among the most important people, not just in Acts, not just in the Bible, but in the history of the world.

And yet, not a single quote. We don’t hear a single sermon Barnabas ever preaches. We hear from Stephen, from Peter, from Paul, from Philipp but not a word from Barnabas. The only time Barnabas is ever quoted is when it says that Barnabas and Paul said something together. But we all know Paul was the one talking and Barnabas was quietly nodding his head in the background.

In fact, in Acts 14:12, Paul and Barnabas get mistaken for Greek gods (which happens to my wife when she’s at the gym all the time) and look what the people say about them. They think Barnabas is Zeus and Paul is Hermes, because Paul is the chief speaker. See Hermes is Zeus’ messenger, so they think, well, the guy who talks all the time must just be talking for the guy who doesn’t say very much.

So now we come to the question at hand. If Barnabas is so important, why don’t we ever hear one of his sermons? I mean, if I was Barnabas and somehow I got a pre- released copy of Acts, I’d thumb through it and be a little miffed at Luke. “Hey Luke, did you not hear that awesome thing I said during my year of teaching at Antioch?” “I mean, you didn’t even include an excerpt from my series on the Beatitudes!” If I’m Barnabas, I might think, “Well, Paul certainly matters, and Peter made it out of Bedford Falls, but I got stuck at this miserable old Building & Loan”

So here’s what I think we should take away from that fact. The church is called the body of Christ. Later, Paul would write about the metaphor of the church as a body in 1 Corinthians 12:21-22; 26. And he said that even when one part seems more important than another, there is not a single part that isn’t necessary. And when one of us hurts, we all hurt. When one of us is honored, we aren’t jealous, we rejoice.

I think this is the kind of guy Barnabas was. He was a finger getting messy to feed a mouth. He was a the big toe that had to eat the dirt of the road between Jerusalem and Antioch, but without him, the church has no balance. And he could have beat his chest, demanding more attention or he could have gotten down in the dumps about how un-useful he felt, or he could choose to celebrate the thousands of people coming to know Jesus through the preaching of Paul.

Based on everything we know about Barnabas, I’m willing to bet he never wished to be un-born. He didn’t spend his time worrying about how visible his role was. He’s not a guy that drew attention with his sermons, but he sure made things happen with his sacrifice.

I want to confess something to you. I’ve had some tough days lately comparing myself to other pastors. In a lot of ways, I’ve felt like a failure. In the meantime, the Spirit of God is working in Murfreesboro and all around the world while I’m Charlie Browning around.

But, I don’t want to be George Bailey. I want to be Barnabas. You know, Teddy Roosevelt said “Comparison is the thief of Joy”. He’s right. So, if this particular point of the sermon totally has zero application in your life today, maybe God had me preach this sermon to myself this morning.

This church is not going to affect this community, we’re not going to overcome race and culture and economic class barriers through me preaching better sermons. It’s going to happen when an army of Barnabas’ start to lay aside our preferences, our schedules, our personal agendas to go out to Antioch. It’s going to happen through sacrifice as much as or maybe more than , it happens through sermons.

If you want to find out how Barnabas had the kind of sacrificing attitude he had, you need look only to the meaning of his nickname- the “Son of Encouragement”. See,

2) Truth needs love, love needs truth, and the church needs both.

I don't know if you noticed what kind of people this church in Antioch was becoming, but it's a pretty ideal picture of a church. They cared about the truth, I mean, they are willing to sit under Saul and Barnabas’ teaching for a year. They were eager to get a solid foundation of doctrinal truth under them before they let Saul and Barnabas go.

Additionally, when a famine hit Jerusalem, they gave. They were generous. They gave their money. They didn't even hold onto their best people. In Acts 13:2-3, God tells them to send away their best leaders, Saul and Barnabas to go plant churches, and they gladly sent them off. The church in Acts has become what Barnabas was. They were deeply committed to having right theological convictions, but also deeply committed to giving themselves away for the sake of others.

This was a church of truth and love because Barnabas was a man of truth and love. See, back in Acts 5 when the church had just begun, do you remember that Barnabas is actually a nickname. His real name is Joseph, but the apostles called him Barnabas, because it meant “Son of Encouragement”. But when they named Joseph “son of encouragement” it actually is a pretty weak translation of the word. It sounds like Barnabas was just walking around commenting on the nice things he thought about people’s Christmas Sweaters.

This is much stronger than that. Let me show you. Take a look in verse 23. When Barnabas went to Antioch, it says “he exhorted them.” That word “exhorted” is the verb form of Barnabas’ nickname. The word in greek is ParaKaleo. It's a combo word, kind of like “craughing”

The first word is “para” which means to come alongside. The second word is “Kaleo” which means to call to something. So Barnabas’ nickname means he’s the guy that comes alongside you while he calls you to something. Do you feel the tension in that?

On one hand to come alongside someone is very empathetic. It oozes compassion. Its crawling down in someone’s mess, in their hurt, in their sin and putting your arm around them. It’s comfort. It’s love.

On the other hand to call someone to something demands that you tell them the truth. It demands that you tell them they have to move forward. You have to tell them it’s not ok to stay where they are. You don’t simply coddle them, you call them to something better, something higher. Honestly, it’s what Clarence the Angel did with George Bailey. See, right before George is about to jump off a bridge to kill himself, when he’s at his lowest point, he prays this desperate prayer, “Dear Father in heaven, if you're up there and you can hear me show me the way”

In other words, he asks God to show him the truth in love. Clarence is the answer to that prayer. Clarence the angel jumps in the water knowing that George Bailey is the kind of guy who would never let a man drown. Sure enough, George jumps in and fishes Clarence out. As they dry off in the guard shack, Clarence comforts George. He’s already jumped into George’s messy life, and he gently tells Clarence that his life is worth living. He is coming alongside in love. But George won’t listen. So Clarence gives him the confrontational truth. He lets him see what the world would be like if he’d never been born. And that changes everything about the way George sees his present circumstance.

Listen, the church has to have Parakaleo. We have to have Sons and Daughters of Encouragement. Without it we will either be all truth or all love. We’ll be the kind of people who say to each other “I need to be brutally honest with you, you’re a terrible person” or “No offense but you need to repent, quick.” That’s all truth. And no love. It’s calling people to a standard but not coming alongside them.

Or we’ll be the kind of people who only coddle one another and never really push one another to grow and change. Our community groups will become venting sessions where we all air our grievances and look at each other and say “You poor thing.” That kind of culture breeds entitlement and a victim mentality that never really pushes people grab a hold of the power of God that actually moves you to be somebody that changes the world because you’re in it.

If a church is all truth and no love, they’ll be dismissed. Everyone will always be on edge, defenses up, never willing to open up about sin or doubt because no one is ever willing to come along side and help, only to point out what’s wrong with you.

But if a church is all love and no truth, you’ll just have a group of people who feel constantly affirmed, but never challenged.

Here’s the problem. Nobody is naturally a parakaleo type of person. You aren’t born as a son of encouragement, parakaleo is a hard road. See most of us are either people that tend toward being really affirming & not very direct or we’re incredibly direct, but not very patient or kind. But the church will never be who she’s supposed to be if this kind of ministry isn’t happening among us. Because without the truth we’ll never see the sin that’s killing us and without love, we’ll feel like we’re alone in it. And that’s why when Jesus resurrected, he gave us the Holy Spirit.

Barnabas is described as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. See Barnabas is a perfect example of what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit. Do you know Jesus gave the Holy Spirit a nickname, too? Paraclete. In John 14, he calls the Spirit the Paraclete. He is the comforter and he’s also called the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is the Truth with Love, and when he comes into your life when you are attached to Jesus by faith, when you allow him to control you, to fill you and use you, you become a paraklete, because he is a paraclete.

See, when the Holy Spirit fills you, you don’t become the center of attention, you become like Barnabas. Telling the truth with love, coming alongside while you call people up to what God wants for them. You get Barnabas’ eyes. You can see the grace of God working in people. See, to show people the grace of God, on one hand you have to tell them that they need grace. That they are sinners who have separated themselves from God, but you also get to show them love, you get to come alongside them and say, “But God loved you so much died on a cross to bring you close. I’m here for you, because Jesus is.”

You are so bad Jesus had to die for you but you are so loved he was glad to do it. That’s the encouragement of the Paraclete. That is the the truth with love. That’s the gospel.

See,

3) The Church is a bunch of 3rd generation advocates.

In the final scene of “It's a Wonderful Life”, all the people that George Bailey helped over the years, all the folks he sacrificed for, all the folks that he stood up to Mr. Potter and defended, his brother that he saved and provided for, they are all at his house when we returns home after he realizes, with joy, that his life really counted for something. But there’s one guy who is there that is different than every one else. Uncle Billy.

See, what I didn’t tell you is that George Bailey didn’t actually lose that $8,000 that got the Bedford Falls Building & Loan in trouble. Uncle Billy lost it. But George was willing to prison for the debt that Uncle Billy owed. And in the last scene, all of the friends that George has helped over the years come bursting in the door, as the Sheriff stands watching ready to carry him to jail. And they bring in a huge basket of money. Well over the $8,000 that George needs. Do you know who’s the first in the door, carrying the basket? Well, it’s Uncle Billy.

See, Uncle Billy was the most eager to go all over town telling everyone about George’s innocence, and about his sacrifice, because he knew it was his fault that George was going to prison. He knew that it should be him. And in this last scene, there are 2 people crying and laughing. One is George, the other, is Uncle Billy. Because both of them realize, that through the sacrifice and generosity of someone else, they’ve been saved. The hard truth of the gospel is that you have sinned against God. You see it when you look at Jesus’ cross. You see what you deserve in his horrifying death. The gospel tells you the truth about how ugly your sin is to God.

At the same time, the deep love and generosity of God is also there at the cross. You see God himself, descended, as a man, taking your place. Paying your debt for you. Rescuing you from your hell-bound race. And that’s why, in the Bible, Jesus has a nickname too. You know what it is? Paraklete. That's right. The same as Barnabas, the same as the Holy Spirit. But for Jesus, this word is translated as “Advocate” Take a look at what John calls Jesus and what Jesus calls the Holy Spirit in John 14:26 and 1 John 2:1.

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the helper (the greek word there is parakletos) Then, John later writing about Jesus calls Jesus the advocate...(Same word...parakletos) See, an advocate is like a lawyer. He stands in the gap between the defendant and the judge. Have you ever seen a defense lawyer work?

He’s doing 3 things. First, he’s telling the truth to the defendant about what his offense is, and the punishment he stands to face if he’s found guilty. Second, he’s always seated right next to the defendant. Right alongside. Third, he speaks for the defendant to the judge, telling the judge that the defendant is not guilty. That’s why Jesus is our advocate. He speaks to God the Father for us, on our behalf. And because he’s taken the punishment for our sins, and given us the record of his perfect life, he can say to the Father, “She’s not guilty. He’s not guilty.”

Jesus is the first advocate. He speaks for us to the Father. When we lost $8,000, and stood guilty, Jesus stepped in and said to the sheriff, I’ll go to jail for him. But the Holy Spirit is a different kind of advocate. He’s a helper. He doesn’t speak for us. He speaks to us.

See, like the first Advocate speaks for you to God, the second Advocate speaks to you for you. The second Advocate is talking to you about your first Advocate. He’s arguing with you about you. The Holy Spirit is convincing you of your true identity. The Holy Spirit is telling you when you begin to believe you don’t matter, “You are a child of the King of the Universe. Look what he’s done for you.” And when you turn to other saviors, other comforters, when you find your identity and your security in another person, or relationship, or money, or body image, or public notoriety, when you tell yourself you are only somebody if you get quoted in Social Media, or if you get a Congressional Medal of Honor or if you lead a big church.

The Holy Spirit speaks to you for you and says, “You already have a savior. Stop looking for something else to save you. Now go be an advocate for him!” The Holy Spirit says “If you will let me fill you up, you’ll be a 3rd generation paraclete.” You won’t be the first advocate, but you’ll speak the truth in love. You’ll sacrifice for the sake of others. You’ll defend the weak and care for the poor. You won’t be the second advocate, but you’ll come alongside sinners and saints alike and remind them of who they really are.

You’ll be a son of encouragement. You won’t be the first or second advocate but because of their work in your life, you’ll be a 3rd generation advocate. Like Uncle Billy, you’ll come busting in the doors of those who are at the end of their rope with baskets full of truth and love. When you realize how much you’ve been forgiven, when you come to abide in Christ, to dwell on what he’s done for you, it will always overflow in sacrificial generosity that changes the whole world and makes more 3rd generation advocates.

That means you’ll have to face the truth about sin. You’ll see the ugliness and pain in the world and in your own life and that will have you crying. But it also means, like Barnabas in Antioch, you’ll see the love and grace of God in the most unlikely places and that will have you laughing. In fact, being a paraclete, being a 3rd generation advocate, being a Christian is a lot like the last scene in “It's a wonderful life” You do a lot crying and laughing, a lot of craughing, but the whole time you can sing like George and Uncle Billy and the whole town in Bedford Falls, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Newborn King, Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild. God and Sinners Reconciled.”

You know, at the end of that movie, Clarence the angel leaves George a message inside of a book that shows up in the basket of money. It says “Remember, No man is a failure who has friends”. Clarence was close, but I’d like tweak that line a bit. “Remember, No man is a failure who has an Advocate” In fact, you don’t need a special message from an angel to tell you that. That's exactly what the Holy Spirit is telling you everyday.

Are you listening?