Paul and the Apostles Stand
United on the Gospel
Galatians 2:1-10
Two initial comments:
Valuing Exposition
I want to clarify our expectations as we study
Galatians. For some of us, this study of
Galatians may not be the most immediately inspiring, relevant, addressing our “felt-needs.” It’s not directly about relationships or
loneliness or dealing with the troubles of life. We’re not starting with our needs or our situation.
Instead, we’re going back to the first century and seeing
if we can understand exactly what Paul was saying to his original audience, to these
churches in
We want to learn how to dig a little deeper, press our
ears a little more tightly on these pages and “feed” our souls, not on stories
and illustrations, but on the voice of the Bible itself. We believe part of renewing lives in Christ
involves learning how to study and be nourished by God’s word. I trust we’ll embrace this study together,
that we are eager students of God’s word, wanting to hear it more deeply and
clearly.
And because Galatians is about the gospel, I hope
we’ll come to a better understanding of the gospel.
Reading in context, Recognizing the Whole
One of the advantages of expositional series is that
we get to study passages in context.
These letters were not meant to be read a verse here or a paragraph
there. This letter was written as a unit.
If I took an email and lift out a few sentences or a
paragraph, the message would probably get distorted or it may not make any
sense. Each verse or paragraph is part
of a larger letter.
If all you had was this sentence: “I long to see
you.” What does that mean? Well it depends.
Exposition means we understand who the author
was and who the original listeners were.
It also means we read the sentence in the larger context.
Hi
Sweetheart,
The
nights are cold, the days are long, and war is hell. I don’t know when this will all be over, but I long to see you. I long to be with you and be married to you. I pray for our sweet reunion. (1776)
Hi Honey,
Japan has been exciting
and ministry has been great, but I can’t wait to get back home to be with you
and the boys. I long to see you. I miss
you lots and lots. (August, 2007)
To Timothy, my dear son,
I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers
did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my
prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be
filled with joy. (1st
century, 2 Tim 1:3-4)
It
makes a difference who the author was, to whom it was written, and the context
of the letter/situation.
Our
study allows us to read the whole letter, and by doing so, each
paragraph/sections builds on the prior one.
In
fact, these books of the Bible did not originally have chapter and verse
divisions. Chapters divisions were not
added until the 1200’s and verses weren’t added until the 1500’s. Paul did not write Galatians in
chapters. It was one letter.
And so you’ll notice that our passage today is a
continuation of the section before. This
is another piece of a larger whole.
So far in Galatians we’ve
seen Paul’s defense against attacks.
He says
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man,
but by Jesus Christ and God the Father (1:1)
the gospel I preached is not something that man
made up. 12 I did not receive
it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from
Jesus Christ. (2:11-12)
Independence from Apostles
Against
those who were saying otherwise, Paul asserts that he did not get his
gospel/apostleship from the other apostles.
It was not second-hand. He
received these directly from Jesus Christ, independent of the apostles. Paul is not less than any of the other
apostles because he received his apostleship and gospel directly from Christ
Himself.
As
Paul continues his defense, he continues to assert his independence from the
other Apostles, but he adds another important assertion. Even though he did not receive the gospel
from the apostles, the apostles have the same gospel as Paul. They are in agreement.
Unity with Apostles
And
so Paul walks a fine line between saying he did not get his gospel from the
apostles (distancing himself) but he and the apostles are in agreement
(associating himself).
v. 1
We had seen last week how Paul met Jesus on the
Damascus road, went to Arabia then back to Damascus. Then 3 years later he went to Jerusalem for
15 days and “got acquainted with” Peter and James. Then he went to Syria and Cilicia. Then, after 14 years, he returned to
Jerusalem. Prior to this visit, for the
last 14 years, he had been with the apostles 15 days.
As we mentioned last week, Paul has been giving his
itinerary/history to point out, he didn’t receive his gospel from the
apostles. He didn’t have much
interaction with them [independence].
v. 2
Paul returns to Jerusalem because of a vision. God leads Paul back to Jerusalem and Paul
“sets before them the gospel that he preached among the Gentiles.” The idea is that in the first visit Paul’s
purpose was to get to know Peter, now
his purpose was to share with them the
gospel he’s been preaching.
Paul didn’t go to learn from the apostles or to make
sure he got it right. Rather, he went to
let them know what he has been preaching.
The flow of thought jumps.
v. 6
When he did present his gospel, Paul specifically says
they didn’t change his message, they didn’t add anything. All of this stresses that Paul did not get it
from them [independence].
Rather they affirmed Paul’s message and his mission. They recognized God’s hand on Paul’s ministry
and “gave him the right hand of fellowship.”
They affirmed their unity, brotherhood, partnership.
Paul is stressing here the agreement, unity he had with Peter, James and
John. Paul was not less than Peter. Rather, Paul & Peter both had the gospel
but were had different targets, different callings: Peter to the Jews, Paul to
the Gentiles.
Paul wanted to make sure they were on the same page
for “fear that he had run his race in vain” (v. 2). The idea is not that perhaps he got the
gospel wrong. Paul is convinced to his
bones that what he has is the true gospel and is willing to condemn men and
angels who would preach anything else.
Rather, the fear was that of a divided church. If Paul was preaching a law-free gospel and the
Jerusalem apostles were preaching circumcision and the law, then there would
conflicting messages. There would be confusion
and division, and the ministry of the gospel would have been severely
compromised. For many, the gospel itself
would have been lost.
Paul recognized the church needed to be united. There must be no confusion or variations on
the gospel.
Let me rewind and pick up vv.
3-5. The main flow of thought goes from
v. 2 to v. 6, and vv. 3-5 seems to be something of a side note, a parenthesis.
Titus was a Gentile believer [a common Roman name, an
obvious Gentile], but no one said anything about how he should be
circumcised. The apostles were not
preaching that Gentile believers needed to be circumcised. If they did, they would have told Titus that
he needed to be circumcised, but they didn’t.
This circumcision question didn’t come until
later. It was these “false brothers” who
were preaching circumcision. They were
saying that faith in Jesus is not enough; you need to add the Mosaic Law, add
circumcision, you need to add something more.
This is what Paul preaches against.
A theme that we looked at before and one we’ll develop
more later is this contrast between slavery and freedom. Living by the law, living by self-effort is
slavery; living by the gospel is freedom.
But Paul doesn’t give in at all. There is a fight for purity in the gospel,
both in teaching and in practice.
The big point here is that the
apostles did not disagree with Paul.
Rather Paul, Peter, John and James all stand together. Paul didn’t get the gospel wrong. It was these Judaizers
who opposed Paul who had gotten the gospel wrong. These Judaizers probably
claimed that they got their gospel from the Jerusalem apostles, the other
apostles backed them up. But Paul now
shows that’s not true; the Jerusalem apostles stood with Paul, not them.
Main lesson: This Gospel is Divine
As we’ve mentioned, in this
section, Paul is not defining the
gospel but defending the validity of
his Gospel. This gospel is from
God. It is not from man.
Yes, this was the main point of last week’s passage
too.
Paul is spending a lot of time defending himself. It is critical for him to gain credibility,
to establish his credentials, to defend the credibility of his gospel before
the Galatian churches would really listen
to what this gospel is.
The question for some of us is, Are we convinced that
Paul has it right? Are we ready to
listen to his gospel?
Paul claims he did not get this gospel from people,
not even from the other apostles. He
received it directly from God. Look at
the change in his life, look at his itinerary (he barely met the apostles).
And he says that the pillars of the church were in
agreement with him. He is not alone in
this. He stands side by side with the
other apostles on what this gospel is.
He’s saying, you need to listen, take this seriously,
this is the real gospel. Are you willing
to listen?
For those of us who are Christians, Are we willing to
take our stand beside Paul and say that there is only one true gospel and this
is it?
It is one thing to passively agree to a sermon. On this side of the NT, we take this for
granted. But it is another think to take
a stand in a pluralistic world, where relativism seems to rule the day. It is another thing to have the deep confidence that Paul has to stand
against opposition and make such bold claims: there is only one gospel and I have it.
I
saw a clip of Oprah saying there are many ways to God; different people may
call the paths different things, but there isn’t just one way. Do we have the boldness and conviction to
stand and say, “Oprah, I disagree. There
is only one gospel and I have it.”
Do we share Paul’s confidence? Are we similarly persuaded that this really
is the one, true, Divine gospel? As we
mentioned last week, do you have evidence of the truth of the gospel: is there
radical transformation, have you had a divine encounter?
And when we do, though our society may not agree, we
want to stand in unity with Paul, with the apostles, and with the historic
church. We don’t want a divided church,
a divided witness; we don’t want to compromise the ministry of the gospel.
Are we sure we’ve understood
this gospel?
As we mentioned earlier, in Galatians Paul is
correcting people in the church. It was to
those who thought they knew the gospel that Paul is saying they’ve turn away
from the gospel. It’s not that hard to
get it wrong. Again, let’s listen
carefully as we move in our study of Galatians.
A few other lessons
At risk of cluttering the main point or giving too
many points, there are a few side lessons that I felt were important to
mention.
Paul is not impressed by external things, but see people
from God’s perspective (2:6)
Notice v. 6.
Paul is saying these apostles (Peter, James, John), these pillars of the
church, they don’t impress him. They
don’t seem overly important to him.
I don’t think Paul is being disrespectful. Paul just recognizes that to God, being an
apostle or being his biological brother, these aren’t that important. From our human perspectives, there are many
things that can impress us, make us feel that the other person is important. But from God’s perspective, it’s not that big
a deal. Paul has learned to see things from God’s perspective.
So
from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once
regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (2 Cor
God
is not impressed with whether we’re pastors or missionaries, apostles or
prophets, God is not impressed with whether we’re elders or deacons. God is not impressed with our degrees,
careers, wealth, physical attractiveness, athleticism, intelligence, etc. These external things are things people care
about. But to God, God is not impressed,
and besides, God’s the one who gave us those very things.
May
it be that we can walk into the mansion of a billionaire, or into the home of
John Piper/Tim Keller, and see that from God’s perspective, they’re not really
any more impressive or important than anyone else.
I don’t have time to develop this, but let me throw
this out there.
That Paul is not impressed with the apostles may be
the other side of him not wanting to please man, to seek the approval of man
(1:10).
Paul is focused on God’s perspective, his aim is to
serve his Lord.
If we learn to see things from God’s perspective then:
we wouldn’t worry so much about what people think of us, we wouldn’t have to seek
people’s approval or admiration, we wouldn’t be impressed with external
qualities. We wouldn’t too easily look
up at people, nor look down on people.
In fact, understanding the gospel means looking at
ourselves from God’s perspective.
Paul and the Apostles
share a concern for the poor (2:10).
It seems noteworthy that the only request the apostles
made of Paul was that he remember the poor.
It certainly would have been fine for them to have affirmed Paul’s
gospel and his ministry to the Gentiles.
“Remembering the poor” has nothing to do with the main flow of this
passage. It sticks out. But that points to its significance. The apostles go out of their way to ask Paul
to remember the poor. And Paul
wholeheartedly agrees.
We don’t have time to develop this here, but we
recognize that throughout Scripture as well as in Jesus’ own ministry, God
shows concern for the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, the marginalized.
In all this zeal for the purity of the gospel, in all
this doctrinal, theological stuff, there is a very practical, tangible,
real-life aspect to their ministry: to care for the poor.
And for us as well, in the midst of this heady study
of this passage, we can make very tangible applications in regard to this last
verse, that we remember the poor. Pray
for various needs (Mexico), our QV ministry; consider a financial gift to some
ministry that serves the poor.
Paul’s context was that of
missions. This Gospel is meant to be
spread.
We want to remember Paul’s broader context. He is an apostle to the Gentiles, preaching
this gospel and planting churches all over the Roman world.
Galatians is Paul’s letter to the churches in Southern
Galatia that he himself planted. This is
Paul urgently fighting for these young church plants to have the right gospel.
And we sense already Paul’s concern for the spread of
this gospel.
The Apostles request that Paul remember the poor was
in the context of Paul’s missionary journeys and church planting efforts.
For Paul, this gospel issue was not an academic or
theological exercise. It was a missions
issue. It was about advancing the gospel
among the Gentiles, protecting the purity of that gospel in the churches he
planted.
Our study of the gospel is both for our own spiritual
growth and Christian living. But it must
also be for our proclamation, for spreading the gospel both here in Philly and
around the world. We must take our
stand.
We have our missions conference next weekend. Please come out as we stay reminded and
excited about carrying this gospel throughout the Philadelphia area to the ends
of the earth.