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Harry Reeder: We look at Silas. Now, what do we know about him? And what can we know about him? And what is it that we can walk away and learn from him? Now, remember, biographies are in the Bible. There are 349 of them that by one count, 67 finish strong. And we are told that everything in the scripture is for our profit. All scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction. That would include these biographies.

Harry Reeder: Putting life in biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is In Perspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Harry Reeder: We all know fictional heroes and their loyal sidekicks, Batman and Robin, Lone Ranger and Tonto, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. But a real life biblical hero, the Apostle Paul, had a faithful sidekick who is often overlooked.

Harry Reeder: Yet, one might wonder if Paul's ministry would have been so effective without the steadfast faithfulness and support of godly companions like Silas. Stay with us now as Dr. Reeder continues our series Biblical Biographies. Who, why, how? Let's turn to Acts chapter 15 for today's teaching. Part one of the message, Portrait Number Three, Silas.

Harry Reeder: Turn with me to Acts chapter 15. Looking at biographies, but not just any biographies. I'm kind of asking folks to kind of hang with me to look at some of the background characters. You know, you wouldn't understand Noah, 10th generation, without Enoch, seventh generation. So we took a look at Enoch and studied his life.

Harry Reeder: You wouldn't understand David unless you understood that prophet Nathan. And so we took a look at Nathan. We're not looking at the headliners. We're looking at, well, in movies, they called them the character actors. They're the people that are the sinews of the story. They're the people that connect some things and bring some meaning that highlight what those people that we're all familiar with, like the Daniels and the Josephs and the Davids and the Pauls and the James and the John and Peter and all of them. But these are the guys behind the scenes. And tonight we look at one that connected across the board with a number of those headliners.

Harry Reeder: Barnabas, Paul, Peter, and his name is Silas. Now, what do we know about him? And what can we know about him? And what is it that we can walk away and learn from him? Now, remember, biographies are in the Bible. There are 349 of them that by one count, 67 finish strong. And we are told that everything in the scripture is for our profit. All scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction. That would include these biographies.

Harry Reeder: And God has put them there for a purpose. Number one, is for us to see what God's grace does in the lives of men and women, and for us to also see the shortcomings. Because God's Word is honest about everybody. It shows us not only their beauty marks, but their warts and their pimples. And we can see where they made mistakes in their walk with the Lord that we can learn from and where they were by God's grace able to do what was appropriate and focused upon the Lord.

Harry Reeder: Secondly, they point us to the history of redemption so that we see Christ at work in the metanarrative of the Bible through the smaller narratives in the Bible. And then thirdly, many of them are part of narratives that are what we call types of Christ, prophetic statements of Christ. They are pointing to Christ in a very significant way, and that's how we can grow by looking at them, fixing our eyes on Jesus and learning from them.

Harry Reeder: And the Bible wants us to do that. I mean, even the negatives. Why does the Bible say, "Remember Lot's wife?" Now there's one to learn some negative lessons from. Why does Paul say, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ?" Why do we have that Hall of Faith chapter, chapter 11 in the Book of Hebrews, where these snippets of biographies are given to us of what we can learn and what we can see in their lives.

Harry Reeder: So tonight, Silas. Here's what I want to do. I want you to look with me at a couple of text of scriptures, and then I'd like to string together some thoughts from those passages around the basic three headings that I've already used with Enoch and with Nathan. His origin, his calling, and his legacy. Look with me in some texts. Go with me first of all to Acts chapter 15, where Silas appears on the pages of scripture. Acts chapter 15 and if you would, slip back to verse 22.

Harry Reeder: Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. Now, what are we talking about? Well, here's what's happened. You need to back up just for a moment. Let me put this in context for you. Paul and Barnabas have been on the first missionary journey with a man by the name of John Mark. John Mark, as they got up to Galatia, John Mark washed out. He left. He left even before they got into the work at Pamphylia.

Harry Reeder: But when he comes back, it seems as if he starts giving some reports that concerns the Christians at Jerusalem. What exactly is Paul preaching? And so they sent off some people with concerns about what Paul was preaching. And so what they decided to do was to solve this issue with a general assembly so that the various churches, local churches, sent representatives, commissioners of their elders to meet at Jerusalem for the first general assembly of the church.

Harry Reeder: And they solved a couple of things, a couple of issues. Number one was this: you don't have to become a Jew to become a Christian. You don't have to be circumcised to be saved. You have to simply come to Christ, and Christ is your circumcision. Secondly, they taught the believers, how do you deal with the Old Testament ceremonial laws as they are fulfilled in Christ? And then thirdly, they taught them now, how should you be sensitive to the sensibilities of the Jewish people that you're reaching in the synagogues as the Gospel message goes to the world? And how can believers, Jew and Gentile together, unite in the Lord?

Harry Reeder: In other words, the apostles, now please listen to this carefully. Don't say more than what I say. Don't say less than what I say perhaps. But here's while the apostles would understand Jewish evangelism and would understand Gentile evangelism, and how one, you go to the marketplace, the other to the synagogue. One, you realize, here's the sensibilities. The other one, you realize those sensibilities as you do bring the Gospel to those two basic entities of society. They wouldn't have had a Jewish church or a Gentile church. On the contrary, they would expect them to live as one in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ.

Harry Reeder: But they understood the sensibilities of Jewish evangelism and Gentile evangelism. So this council sends out a letter with exhortations. Well, a letter, I mean, you know, they didn't have Facebook. They didn't have social media. They couldn't tweet it. They couldn't attach it to an email. They had to send some people out with it and those people had to be of the caliber to be able to explain it. So what do they do? Now, I'll pick back up with me in chapter 15. In verse 22, then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch. That was a key church outside of Jerusalem. Send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas were the commissioners from Antioch. So they wanted to send men back with them. And who did they send? They sent Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas.

Harry Reeder: Who are these two men? They're leading men among the brothers. With the following letter. And then they give the letter. I won't read the letter. Now, slip down if you would, down to verse 30. And so after they delivered the letter in Antioch, they were sent off. Who's that? Barnabas and Paul will stay at Antioch. They are elders in that church. But they sent off Silas and Judas. So they were sent off, they went down to Antioch and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter and when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words, many words. That would be synonymous with a sermon. With many words.

Harry Reeder: Why? Because Judas and Silas were not only leaders, they were preachers. And so they then, after their letters were given, they then did a number of sermons. And after they had spent some time, in other words, they had maybe some meetings, a week of meetings with them. They were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. So in other words, they were sent back to Jerusalem. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord with many others also.

Harry Reeder: And after some days, now some time later after this, I don't know how long, some times later, Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are." Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them the one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Harry Reeder: So now, Paul, after all of this is done, Paul comes to Barnabas. He says, "You know, Barnabas, you know that first missionary journey we went on? Let's come do that again." Now, what did they do on the first missionary journey? They did four things. They did gospel evangelism and discipleship. Remember? On mission, on message. Secondly, they did gospel church planting. Thirdly, they did gospel deeds of love and mercy. Fourthly, they developed gospel leaders in the churches.

Harry Reeder: And so now he says, "Let's go do that again." And he said, "But I want to add something else. Let's not only go back and do what we did. Let's go back and add something else. We'll do gospel evangelism and discipleship. We'll do gospel church planting and revitalization. We need to strengthen the churches we planted. We need to revitalize them. And gospel leaders, and gospel deeds." Well, Barnabas says, "Great idea." You know, Barnabas must be one of those guys, it may be hard for him not to turn down an opportunity. There's a reason they changed his name to Barnabas, meaning Son of Encouragement.

Harry Reeder: And so he says, "Yeah, let's go do that. And I'll go get my cousin John Mark. You remember the guy we took the first time?" Paul said, "Oh, no, we're not taking him." Why? Well, I'd suggest to you there's two reasons. There's two reasons he doesn't take him. One is obvious. He didn't stay the course the first time. Paul is always for developing leaders, but right now we're going behind enemy lines. I don't need possibility leaders. I need a proven leader. We're going behind enemy lines. In other words, I'm not getting an officer's platoon of potential leaders.

Harry Reeder: I got to get the Navy SEALs. I got to get the Recon. I got to get the Marine Corps Recon. I got to get the Air Force Commandos. I got to get the Green Beret. I've got to get those who are tested and tried to go with me. We're going behind enemy lines. He's not there yet. I believe there's a second reason why. John Mark, it looks like, came back to Jerusalem from the work with a report that caused Paul and everyone a lot of trouble that could only be addressed by that general assembly. In other words, the trust factor probably wasn't there either. But if I'm going, I'll need someone I can trust.

Harry Reeder: And he says, "Let me send back." Now, I don't know whether Silas had had time to get back to Jerusalem or not. Judas had been sent back to Jerusalem. But he calls for Silas to come and join him, which he does. So now you end up with two missionary teams. You got Paul and Silas going out, and you got John Mark and you've got Barnabas going out. Now I propose to you to be able to deal with that, one of my character studies is going to be John Mark. So we'll take a look at him and Barnabas later.

Harry Reeder: But right now, I want to follow like Luke does, who writes Acts. I want to follow, because now Luke doesn't give any more attention to Barnabas and John Mark in the Book of Acts. He follows this team, Silas, and he follows Paul. And I want you to follow with me what happens to them. But a couple of other passages of scripture might be helpful. If you would, go on with me in chapter 16. Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy. So he picks up Timothy. So now you've got a team of three. A team of three that go out. Now I know a lot of people say, "You know, Pastor, you're just kind of skipping over this division." Listen, I've tried to explain to you why I think Paul and Silas went one way and John Mark and Barnabas went another way.

Harry Reeder: I'm going to try to show you at the end that even with disagreements they found a way to have unity. I'm going to try to show you that. And I want to try to show you that Silas was a piece of that. But folks, you see it happen. That's why a lot of times you pull into a city and see first and second Baptist Church. And first and second Presbyterian Church. Or the guy that went out sailing one day and the storm carried his little boat away. And he landed on an uncharted island. And when he landed on the uncharted island, nobody came by that island. So he was there 30 years by himself. Nobody came by.

Harry Reeder: Finally, one day a ship came by. They put out a boat and the boat landed. And the crew stepped off the boat and saw the man by himself. And they said, "We didn't think anybody was here." He said, "I know, I've been here 30 years by myself." "This is an uncharted island." "I know, I've been here 30 years by myself." And then all of a sudden, the guy in the boat looked at the man and looked behind him, and there were three buildings. And he said, "What is that building?" He said, "Well, that's my home. I've been here 30 years. You got to have a home." He said, "What's that building?" He said, "That's my church." "I've been here 30 years. You got to have a church." "Well, what's the other building?" "Oh, that's where I used to go to church."

Harry Reeder: So folks, it happens in a broken world. But what's going to be interesting is what happens in the final analysis as we work our way through these 30-plus years that are represented in the Book of Acts. So look if you would. I want you to go with me just to another couple of other passages of scripture with me. I want you to go with me and slip over with me to Second Corinthians chapter 1. I want you to see something else that Paul writes about Silas. So if you'll go to your right, go to Second Corinthians chapter 1, and then slip down in Second Corinthians chapter 1 to verse 18. "As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom" -- notice the plural -- "whom we proclaimed among you."

Harry Reeder: Who are the we? Paul, he's writing. Silas or Silvanus, and -- that's another word for Silas, that's his formal name -- Silvanus and Timothy and I. In other words, "We preached Christ." Who preached Christ? Paul. Who preached Christ? Timothy. Who preached Christ at Corinth? It was also Silas.

Harry Reeder: And then if you would, go with me to a passage that I know many of you are already anticipating, because it was about the 46th sermon that we covered this in our 49 sermons on First Peter. So go with me to First Peter. Slip over to chapter 5. First Peter, chapter 5. And when you get there to First Peter chapter 5, look down to verse 12. "By" -- again, formal name for Silas, Silvanus -- First Peter 5:12, "By Silvanus, a faithful brother" -- as I regard him -- "I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God." In other words, Peter writes this epistle. Who is his amanuensis? Who is his secretary? Who is taking the letter for him? Silvanus, Silas. For whom? Peter. How does that happen?

Harry Reeder: So let me back up and try to give you a little bit about Silas's origin. We've got a man that appears for us first in the Bible in Acts chapter 15. The first place we see him is Jerusalem. We are given no information about his father or his mother, nor of his place of birth. It may just as well have been Jerusalem for all we know. But he is there in the church at Jerusalem. He is well-known. He is selected for an important task. He's preaching. He's leading. He's a part of the team of leaders there. He obviously is well acquainted with the apostles who are the elders of that church. Very well acquainted with Peter.

Harry Reeder: And when this discussion comes about, and the church at Jerusalem holds this general assembly to solve this theological issue, when they're all done, he's such a leader and so trustworthy that they can entrust to him the letter to explain to the churches how and what they've done with this theological issue. He's not only trustworthy to deliver it. He is trustworthy to be able to explain it and in fact, preach sermons to explain it wherever he would take it. And so he goes up to Antioch. He gets to Antioch, and when he's there, he has some time of ministry there and he's preaching there along with Judas and along with Paul and along with Barnabas. And then he is sent back to Jerusalem. And so as far as we know, he gets all the way back to Jerusalem and gets back ensconced into his ministry there in Jerusalem. And then all of a sudden, a knock at the door and somebody comes and says, "Paul needs you on his next missionary journey. Get up to Antioch."

Harry Reeder: And so he is called to leave Jerusalem to go up and join the Apostle Paul in this second missionary journey, and he goes with him. He goes with the Apostle Paul, and he watches Paul. As soon as he gets to a city, he's right with him as he goes into the synagogue to do evangelism. And then he's right with him in the city as he goes from the synagogue into the marketplace to evangelize the Gentiles. And then he is with him while they plant churches. And he is also with him while they're revitalizing the churches that he planted on the first missionary journey. And he's with him all through Galatia, that place that had been disturbed by what was going on in Jerusalem.

Harry Reeder: And then as he is not only there with him, he makes his way all the way to the coast of the Aegean Sea. It's a place called Troas. Not only have they picked up Timothy in this ministry, so it's Paul, Timothy, and Silas, now at Troas they pick up another key person. Thank God for him. His name is Luke. They pick up Luke right there. And the Apostle Paul doesn't know where to go, but there comes to the Apostle Paul what is called the Macedonian call. "Come on over, Paul, you and your team. Help us." And so Paul goes across the Aegean Sea, and now the Gospel, less than 25 years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, goes to Europe.

Harry Reeder: And he lands in Europe. He stops off at a place called Samothrace, and then he goes to a place called Neapolis. He begins to do Gospel ministry. And then he goes to a large royal colony. I had the privilege of standing right in the ruins of this place. And while he is there, he plants a church. He and Silas begin to evangelize and disciple, and Luke and Timothy. And there they're doing their work at Philippi. And as they're doing their work at Philippi, there's a slave girl who is filled with demons. And the Apostle Paul cast the demons out, and she is converted by the grace of God.

Harry Reeder: Silas was a man who preached and declared the truth of God's Word, a trustworthy leader, a loyal and faithful companion to the Apostle Paul, and a pillar of support for the apostolic church. You are listening to In Perspective, featuring the teaching of Dr. Harry L. Reeder. For additional teaching by Dr. Reeder, visit inperspective.org.

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Harry Reeder: Thanks for listening to In Perspective. When you reach out to us, mention the call letters or dial position of the radio station you are hearing. If you listen online, take note of the website address. Knowing how you connect with us will make us better stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us. And again, if you would like to receive the series Seven Essentials for the Christian Family, call 1-800-488-1888. The New Testament never really singles out Silas for special attention. Join us again next time, as Dr. Reeder continues our look at Paul's faithful, indispensable companion, Silas. That's next time, as we turn back to the scriptures to put life in biblical perspective.