All right, let's begin our class, Galatians For Beginners. This is Lesson number four in
the series entitled, Paul's Conversion and Commission. And we'll be
covering Galatians chapter one, verse 10 to Chapter 2, Verse 10 in
the Epistle to the Galatians. As we have noted before, in
this epistle, Paul is rebuking those who are teaching a
gospel different than the gospel that he and the other Apostles originally
delivered to these churches, in the province of
Galitia. The people who had entered into these
churches that were causing the problem taught that the true
Gospel included not only faith in Jesus Christ and baptism as an
expression of that faith, but also full adherence to the Jewish law and
custom, fully accepted in the right of
circumcision. And so these false teachers were accusing
Paul of toning down the demands of what they call the true
Gospel, which included circumcision in their view, that
Paul was doing this in order to gain favor with Gentiles, in order to make the
gospel more palatable to Gentiles. The argument, their
argument was that in his zeal and ambition to build churches among the
Gentiles Paul had stripped the gospel of some of its
basic teachings. And they were contending that one of the teachings of the gospel
was that a person had to be circumcised before being baptized.
And they said that their teachings were in accord with what was actually taught
in Jerusalem. The original church, the First Church. It wasn't exactly the
headquarters, but certainly it was a church that had a lot of influence, where the Apostles were. That was
their claim. We've got the true Gospel. So the
Judaizers came to Galatia, in that region, in
order to restore the gospel to its true content. They were like
Restorationists, if you wish, of that era. Their plan was first
to discredit Paul and then to substitute what they taught
for what he had originally taught to these
churches. Now their plan was succeeding. That's the problem. And
so Paul writes this urgent letter, this epistle to the Galatians,
denouncing the Judaizers, that's these teachers, they were called the
Judaizers. And in his letter reconfirming that the
gospel that he gave them was the only true gospel and that anyone who
taught anything else should be cursed. So very strong language that he uses
to denounce these teachers. Now this background explains why
he says, and we'll be reading that in verse 10, that he's not trying to please men.
In other words, his Gospel, his message of the gospel was not designed to please
men. And his language concerning the Judaizers in this letter
was not the kind of language used to please men, but he was speaking as a servant of
Christ. I'm not here to please anyone, he's saying, certainly not trying to please the
Gentiles by toning down the gospel. Certainly not trying to win favor with the
Judaizers. No. I'm standing up to them and I'm cursing them for what they're
doing. So Paul responds to accusations that his
gospel is not the same as the other Apostles. He gives three
replies to this. First of all, he says, the fact that he
received the gospel from Christ, Himself, and not second-hand from
other Apostles. So he's not teaching the Gospel taught by another apostle. He's
saying, hey when I'm teaching I received from Christ, Himself.
Secondly, that the other Apostles fully acknowledged Paul's gospel. In
other words, they agreed that what he was teaching was actually true and correct.
And then thirdly, that on one occasion he was obliged to correct Peter, the
Apostle himself, regarding this very point of
liberty from the law and that Peter accepted the correction. And again, we'll
will be reading this. As far as the Galatians and Judaizers were concerned
if Paul and Peter agreed on the substance of the Gospel, that should have
settled it. So all the replies
are tied in, if you wish, with his meeting with
Peter. That's why it was important we went over this last time.
The three meetings that he had with Peter. The message between the lines,
all the time I met with Peter, and Peter is an apostle that you have high regard for, Peter
never challenged my gospel. Peter never said anything about what I was teaching that it was
incorrect or that it was false. That's the point that Paul is getting
across as he talks about his meetings with Peter.
We'll read the text now a little more closely in chapter one, beginning in
verse 11. So in here Paul begins by explaining that
the gospel that he preached to them was originally received by him
from Jesus, Himself, and then later confirmed by Peter, Jesus's
chosen apostle, at their first meeting in Jerusalem. So let's read
chapter 1, verse 11 and 12. He says "For I would have you know, brethren, that the
Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it
from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."
So here Paul refers to the gospel, the content of the
gospel, the response to the gospel, that he originally preached to them,
was not taught to him by man, but came to him as a revelation from
God, Himself. He knew about Jesus. I mean Paul
knew about Jesus, because he was a Jew in Jerusalem and you couldn't avoid knowing about Jesus.
He met Jesus in a miraculous way on the road to Damascus. He
obeyed Jesus just like everybody else by being baptized. And he
received the ability to know and teach accurately all the things that Christ taught in the
same way that the Apostles did, through the power of the Holy Spirit given to him by
Christ. John talks about that in John Chapter 16, Verse 13.
So let's continue reading chapter 1, verse 13 and 14.
He says, "For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to
persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was
advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more
extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions." Paul explains
his own conversion here. He persecuted the church he says and he did so
beyond measure. In other words he was fanatical about this
persecution. He was an extremist, not only limiting the growth of the church,
he wanted to destroy the church. He wanted to destroy this Christianity thing.
The reason for this fanaticism is that he was raised to be a
strict Pharisee. He was zealous for the tradition. Let me
explain to you a little bit about the tradition, here. The rabbis had
created a series of 613 human commandments which
they built around the law as a kind of a hedge, if you wish, to
protect the purity of the law. And the Pharisees, they were the
guardians of these human commandments or these traditions.
For example, the law said, no work on the Sabbath. That's what the law
said. The rabbis created a number of rules to
protect this command. Rules such as a prohibition against
walking a certain distance. So on the Sabbath, if you walked a certain distance,
beyond that certain distance you were breaking
the law. Or the prohibition of a scribe. A scribe,
one who copied the law, a lawyer, couldn't carry his pens, his
tools on the Sabbath, that was considered work.
So these were the kind of rules, man-made rules, that were built
around the law to protect people from actually breaking the law.
Right. So Paul, the zealous Pharisee, was so against
Christianity, because the church meant death to Phariseeism.
Paul saw the crown of Judaism in the traditions which he fought to
preserve. And he knew that if Jews became Christians they might
keep parts of the Mosaic law, against adultery or murder or
stealing, which were confirmed by Jesus, but they would quickly
do away with the burdensome traditions which Christianity freed them from.
So the Judaizers were merely Jewish Pharisees who had become
Christians who wanted to impose things on Christianity in the same
way that they were imposed on Judaism. So it was just a new form
of traditions if you wish. So their starting point was
circumcision, but they would have added from there.
The kind of the breaking point, the contact point, the tipping point, if you want to use
a more modern term, the tipping point was if they could convince Christians to be
circumcised,
they could then add all kinds of other things to the tradition and build
that same wall, build that same hedge around the
gospel. So Paul reminds them that he was the worst
of these Pharisees, but now he preaches freedom from these things
in Christ. And why? Because of the revelation received from
Jesus Christ, since no man could have convinced him. No man could have convinced him
that he was wrong. He was such a fanatic. But Jesus appearing to him,
and being blinded, and then being healed miraculously, and hearing the Gospel, and so on and so forth. This
changed his mind.
Let's keep reading verses 15 to 17, it says, "But when God, who had
set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was
pleased to reveal His son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did
not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to
Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia,
and returned once more to Damascus." So in this passage here
Paul refers to both his conversion and his commission
in the same context. He is saying, God knew from the very beginning of
Paul's life that when he was called, he would respond. He didn't force Paul to
respond. He just knew because God knows the future if you wish. He just
knew that when Paul would be called, He knew that Paul would respond.
Paul says it was the grace of God expressed in the death of Jesus for sin that
Paul responded to. This is what melted his heart. God's
purpose for him was to demonstrate the living Christ in the dramatically
changed life of Paul. What better way to reach out to the
Gentiles than through the transformed life of a fanatical
Jew who formerly despised Gentiles. I
mean he was fanatic about destroying the church, but he despised
Gentiles. You can imagine it, converting the guy who
hates Christianity and wants to destroy it and who also despises
Gentiles. Imagine taking this guy converting him and sending
him to the Gentiles to preach the Gospel. So Paul says that when this
transformation happened to him, he did not consult with the other Apostles
first, but rather went off to Arabia, to the desert and then returned
to Damascus for some time. And we know about that, because last time remember we studied a bit of a
chronological history of Paul's life and ministry. All right let's keep reading
verse 18, he says, "Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem," three years later than
what? Well, after he was converted, after he was in the desert, he went back to his home town.
"Three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas,
and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the Apostles
except James, the Lord's brother. (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God
that I am not lying.)" So only after three years did he actually
go to Jerusalem and meet with Peter and James for several weeks.
No repudiation or rejection came from them; and if he were not genuine he
would have been revealed as a false apostle right at this time. Remember what he is doing, he's trying to
reestablish, or establish, his credibility before the church
in the face of attacks by these Judaizing. So he says, hey, this is how I was
converted. I received the gospel from Jesus, Himself. I went away for a
time of learning and meditation and maturation. When I met with the
Apostles they didn't reject me. They didn't repudiate me. They saw me for who I was and
they accepted me for who I was. All right, verse 21 to 24,
he says, "Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown by
sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, "He who
once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy." And they
were glorifying God because of me." People didn't know him, he says, by sight. He wasn't
well-known, but they heard of him, his reputation, what had taken place
in his life. This was known. This had spread throughout the Brotherhood. So he
says on the contrary, he went into the northern regions of Syria and Cilicia to preach
and other places kept hearing of his success and preaching the gospel in these
areas. Now, note that all were glorifying God because of his
ministry. There was no disapproval by the Apostles. And this is his
point. From the very beginning his gospel has not been rejected but
rather encouraged by Peter and the other Apostles. So
his first reply to their accusations is to refer to the divine source of his
gospel. I received the gospel from Jesus. I didn't get a polluted gospel. I
didn't get a perverted gospel. I got, I received the true Gospel from the true
source. Now during the interval between his time in Syria
we know, because of the history, that Paul
was brought to Antioch by Barnabas to teach.
He gathered funds for a relief mission to Jerusalem. He returned
with Barnabas and John Mark to the church in Antioch. And the Church of Antioch, of
course, was the jumping off place for the missionary journeys. But it was also a place where
there were Jews and Gentiles who had converted to Christianity. And it was the first place
where these two groups were merged into one body, in one
congregation. And, of course, as I say, in Antioch, when they
return there with John Mark, they had their first, they left for their
first missionary journey. And it was during this first missionary journey that these
churches in Galitia were established. So he reminds them a little bit of the
history, his history and what took place in his life before he actually came to
them to preach the Gospel. So the Judaizers begin to
cause trouble in these and other churches with their false doctrines and
attacks against Paul. Now these events go by in a period, as
I said, of fourteen years. And now Paul finds himself back in
Jerusalem with all of the Apostles and the church. So we see what's happened,
right? He's been converted. He's had a vision.
He receives the gospel and his calling from God.
He disappears, well disappears is a hard word, but he goes into seclusion
into the desert. He goes back home, he's preaching in his region. Then he
is involved in teaching in Antioch. He does some benevolence work
to Jerusalem. He meets with Peter, all these things are happening and
then he goes on his first missionary journey, establishes these churches in
Galitia and then after that the trouble begins. The Judaizers
say, hey, wait a minute, what's going on here. This guy's preaching things and
these people are not being circumcised. Remember what
I told you last time. The Judaizers, they wanted, they were Jews.
The Messiah was a Jew. He was their messiah.
And they saw themselves losing influence in the church. They
saw that their cultural heritage did not matter as
far as Christianity was concerned. If a Gentile could be a Christian
without any relationship, without any reference to their cultural
history. Their idea of, well just anybody can become a Christian. That's not
right. You see what I'm saying. See what is driving this. We understand the theological
idea: circumcision, baptism; but the cultural and emotional
thing that was driving this has to be considered as well.
So Paul, in Galatians chapter two, verses 1 - 10,
is describing what Luke talks about in Acts chapter 15.
And that's what they call the Jerusalem Council. So all these things have
happened, he's planted the churches, the Judaizing are causing problems, and now
Paul finds himself back in Jerusalem. He returns from his first missionary
journey and he's reporting in Antioch the things that have been done. Then the
Judaizers begin to debate with them at that place. And so
the church sends them down to Jerusalem to get an opinion from the
Apostles and the elders at the church in Jerusalem. And so Paul and Barnabas and
Titus and others they go down to Jerusalem to settle the matter. They report
their work to the church in Jerusalem and during that time
the Judaizers again challenge them openly, in front of
the Apostles. The Apostles and elders then gather together with Paul and
Barnabas and the Judaizers to examine this matter, to discuss it. The
outcome was that the Apostles and elders supported Paul and they
confirmed his gospel and his work and they wrote a letter to all
the churches proclaiming this and thus repudiating the
Judaizers and their doctrine. That's how it was settled.
Notice one thing here, the thing was settled with
discussion. The Apostles and the elders
discussed it together, came to a conclusion, kind of put their
conclusion in a letter and sent it out to the churches. And the Judaizers were
were repudiated here. One thing that didn't happen, you didn't see the Judaizers go off and start
their own church. That didn't happen. They, at this point at
least, accept the decision of
the Apostles and the elders. They submitted to that. So Paul is
now commenting on these events that took place and he
comments on them in Galatians chapter two, verses 1 - 10, as he tells this
story to the Galatians. Let's go to chapter two,
beginning in verse 1 and 2 says, "Then after an interval of fourteen years I
went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a
revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the
Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were reputation, for fear that I might be
running, or had run, in vain." He's telling the story. What I've
explained to you point by point. This is Paul's version of this in Galatians chapter two.
So he's guided by the Lord to go and lay his case before the other
Apostles. The fear raised by the Judaizers in the minds of the
Galatians was that all of Paul's work had been for nothing. He had run in vain,
because his gospel was not true, but Paul was laying it before the Apostles
themselves to show that his work was not for nothing.
So we keep reading in verse three, it says "But not even Titus, who is with me,
though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." Just one verse, but
very important. He quickly demonstrates to the Apostles that his work
was not in vain because Titus, a Greek, was not required to be
circumcised, even by the Apostles in Jerusalem.
So if the Judaizers were correct, and if the Apostles sided with them,
then the first one to be circumcised on that day would have been Titus, because he was
a Greek. This was proof positive that the Judaizers claims
were groundless. In verses four and five he continues, "But it was because of the false
brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we
have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But we did not yield in
subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the Gospel would remain
with you." So Paul did this, report to the Apostles, he did
this because of the challenge of the Judaizers who wanted to restrict their
freedom in Christ. They were the false brethren. Their
purpose was to imprison the brethren with the law again. Paul did
not give in to their demands so that they might remain free in Christ.
Their demand was that Titus be circumcised as a test case for their
position. And Paul refused and he stood his ground,
because if Titus wasn't circumcised in Jerusalem, well then nobody
in Galitia would be circumcised either. That's the connection.
So Paul summarizes the outcome of the confrontation with the Judaizers and the
meeting with the Apostles and leaders in Jerusalem. In verse 6 he says, "But
from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God
shows no partiality) - well, those who are of reputation contributed
nothing to me." Sometimes you read that and you think, well that sounds awfully arrogant, but
that's not arrogance, he's just reporting what took place. Those who were reported
to be of high reputation, in comparison to Paul, by the
Judaizers. You've got to fill in the blanks there. They did not object to
or add or subtract from the Gospel that I presented. It wasn't Paul who is
saying I'm better than you. Or it wasn't Peter that was saying, oh we're better than you, Paul. The
Apostles in Jerusalem are higher than you, Paul. That's what the Judiazers
were saying. They were saying well, we're with the
headquarters in Jerusalem, and the Apostles, and the - they agree with us. Who's this?
Who's this Paul guy?
So Paul is responding, he says those who are of high reputation, that's not
him who's saying that. According to the Judaizers, he says,
who they are makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. All the Apostles are all the
Apostles. Well, those who are of reputation have contributed nothing to me. He's not saying they
didn't help me. No, they did not add to my message. They did not add to
my gospel. They didn't see things the way the Judaizers did.
See Paul considered himself and the other Apostles as equal in the Lord's service. It was the
Judaizers who tried to elevate one against the other. In God's sight,
God makes no partiality between brethren based on name, or reputation, position,
and so on and so forth. The Apostles didn't do this. Paul didn't do this. It was the Judaizers
who were sowing division. Isn't that how you create division? You tell one to
all you're great, you're up there. That guy. he's lower than you. I'll follow you,
because you're better than the others. That's how you create division in any
organization, especially in the church. In verse nine he says, "But on the
contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised just as
Peter had been to the circumcised, for he who effectively worked for Peter in his
Apostleship to the circumcised effectively worked for me also to the
Gentiles." So Peter and James and John gave Paul and Barnabas the
right hand of fellowship as a public witness of their solidarity of purpose
and content of message. Isn't that what we do? When we encourage people, if
they want to place memberships, just the way of saying that. What are we doing? We're extending the right hand
of fellowship. They're saying we're new in town or we're new in this area, we're Christians, we were
having fellowship with this other congregation, now we live here. We'd like to have fellowship with this
congregation. We extend the hand of fellowship with them. And we can say
these brethren, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their two kids, they extend the hand of fellowship
to us and we receive these brethren as our brethren. As
equal brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. And all of us under the
oversight of our elders. That's what's happening when people place membership.
A little bit what Paul is saying here, we received the right hand of
fellowship from the Apostles. They recognize that Paul's
Apostleship and gospel had the very same source as their own.
Paul's ministry to the Gentiles was encouraged and confirmed publicly
as was Peter and James and John - Peter and the other
Apostles, not James, Peter and the other Apostles. They
had a confirmation for their ministry. They concentrated
on the Jews. Paul concentrated on the Gentiles. And
then in the final verse of our section today he says, "And recognizing the
grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be
pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. So that we might go to
the Gentiles and they to the circumcised." Paul is saying here that they
even agreed to share the work among the poor with the churches.
And in verse 10 we read, he says, "They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I
also was eager to do." So not only did they give us the right hand of fellowship and accept us
as equal Apostles, with the same message. They even agreed to
share the work among the poor within the churches. In
this way Paul demonstrates how his ministry and his message was
confirmed by all the Apostles and how the false gospel of the Judaizers had been
rejected by the Apostles in Jerusalem. All
right. So this is how he explains to the Galatians. Remember no TV,
no phone. Communication was very slow. So
something - you could go to a region and spread the word on something.
And unless there's someone else there to refute it, it stays. It
becomes the truth.
So this is why Paul is going to great pains to describe the process
that he went through to receive confirmation from the other Apostles.
That his Apostleship was genuine and that his gospel was the same
gospel that Peter was preaching in Jerusalem and not the message
that was being brought to them by the Judaizers. All right. So next time
we're going to see how Paul stood his ground on this principle even when Peter,
himself, violated the principle of freedom in the Gospel. Couple
of lessons here. Kind of simple lessons that I'd like to share with you on this particular
section of Galatians. First one is, it's
not who you know, it's what you preach.
It's not who you know and who you are and how educated or how not educated you are,
it's what you preach and teach that's important.
God can raise up preachers from any race or social position and put the
zeal of ministry into that person's heart. That's
why, I mean, we're not in this situation now, right here in our congregation, but I tell
churches I've had to preach for churches that were kind of looking for ministers, if you wish,
and I'd go in there and kind of help out. This is why I tell churches looking for
ministers the most important qualification is knowledge of, and faithfulness
to, and zeal for God's word.
That's the number one qualification. A lot of times people will hire a
preacher after only hearing one of his sermons.
Well, there's this thing among preachers that we know, if you've been preaching for any
amount of time, you've got at least one good sermon in the file. There's got to be at least
one that's good, right.
Now the best way to judge the preacher, the teacher, listen to his teaching.
The content of this teaching. Extremely important. Extremely important for those
who are hiring a minister, because once you've hired him, you plan to have that minister for many,
many years. So it's worth taking the time to review his
body of work, not just to look for mistakes or things like that, but to see if he
can go deep into the word, if he has a grasp and understanding of
God's Word. How to study it, how to share it.
And certainly, that he has a grasp of the Gospel itself.
So it's not who you know, it's what you preach. And then secondly,
you can't grow as a church
if we're more involved in arguing over the word, than proclaiming it.
Preaching is more important and fruitful than debating. We need to stay
focused on spreading the gospel and teaching what we know are sure of, than
wasting time and energy debating and dividing over issues that don't
affect salvation, don't affect our souls. Whether it's to clap or not to
clap when you're singing. Certainly
there are arguments for both sides of that issue,
but I've seen churches divide over such things. That's insanity.
A lot of times churches kind of lose their way and they start to -
all of their emotional and spiritual energy goes into debating these
kinds of issues. And the preaching of the Gospel, and the teaching, in order to
edify and build up the church,
that just kind of goes by the wayside, because it's more exciting to get into a fist fight over a
particular issue.
And I won't mention the issues, you know what I'm talking about.
Jesus said, go into all the world and do what? Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to all creation. He didn't say, go and debate the brethren at the lectureships.
At the seminars. And I'm not against
lectureship, seminars. They're good. They are times that we can be fed and encouraged and
build up one another and fellowship, but a lot of times we use
those venues to come in, just argue with each other, and create
animosity. I think a healthy church is usually a church that's busy
preaching the gospel to its community and
helping the brethren in the church to remain faithful and to grow in Christ.
Well, that's the lesson for now. We're going to continue with our series on Galatians next time.