Galatians 1:10-24

[00:00:00] Galatians chapter one, let's read our whole passage together. This is Paul telling his story.

[00:00:05] Just a reminder last week, I told you that our theme for Galatians is the word fly.

[00:00:10] We want to fly into the life that Paul describes at the end of the book of Galatians.

[00:00:16] But in order to do that, we have to understand the gospel correctly.

[00:00:19] We can't add to the gospel. We can't subtract from the gospel either.

[00:00:22] But the Galatians were being attempted to add to the gospel.

[00:00:26] Add all these Old Testament ceremonial customs, legalism basically,

[00:00:31] in order to be approved by Jesus.

[00:00:33] Paul is going to build the case for why you shouldn't do that

[00:00:36] and that you should embrace the real true gospel.

[00:00:39] But today he's going to tell his story, kind of defending his apostleship.

[00:00:43] So let's read it together starting in verse 10.

[00:00:46] He says,

[00:00:47] He says,

[00:01:18] And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.

[00:01:24] So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

[00:01:28] But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace

[00:01:34] was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

[00:01:39] I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.

[00:01:45] But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

[00:01:49] Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, that's Peter,

[00:01:54] and remained with him 15 days.

[00:01:57] But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

[00:02:01] And when I'm writing to you before God, I do not lie.

[00:02:04] Then I went into the regions of Syria and Selecia

[00:02:07] and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

[00:02:11] They only were hearing it said,

[00:02:13] He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.

[00:02:19] And they glorified God because of me.

[00:02:22] Let's pray together.

[00:02:23] Lord, we want to thank you for this passage of scripture.

[00:02:27] We pray that you'd use it in our lives today in the way that you intended it to be used.

[00:02:33] Inspire us by Paul's story, absolutely.

[00:02:36] But we pray, Lord, deeper than that, that we would be convinced

[00:02:39] that Paul's gospel that he preaches is a legitimate gospel, the legitimate gospel.

[00:02:46] And the theology that flowed from this gospel that he wrote to us in his 13 New Testament letters

[00:02:52] is theology that we should receive today.

[00:02:55] Help us, Lord, by your spirit to understand the logic that Paul is using here

[00:03:01] and to apply it into our lives.

[00:03:03] In Jesus' name, we pray together.

[00:03:05] Amen.

[00:03:06] Well, if you've read the book of Acts, you know that Paul's story of his conversion is a radical story.

[00:03:13] He alludes to it here in these 15 verses that we just read together.

[00:03:19] In Acts chapter nine, Paul, who by his Jewish name was referred to as Saul,

[00:03:25] was on a road traveling from Jerusalem to a city in Syria called Damascus

[00:03:32] so that he could imprison Christians who were preaching Christ there in Damascus.

[00:03:40] He'd overseen the murder of Christians.

[00:03:43] He'd been standing there when Stephen was martyred and became the first martyr in the early church.

[00:03:50] He was standing there holding the coats of those who were throwing rocks at Stephen.

[00:03:55] Paul, or Saul at that point, was in a bad place in his life.

[00:04:00] As he traveled on that road to Damascus so firm in his conviction that the gospel message

[00:04:06] that the early church was preaching was actually anathema and a poison among God's people.

[00:04:13] A bright light shown from heaven, the Lord spoke in a thunderous voice

[00:04:18] and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

[00:04:22] He said, who are you, Lord?

[00:04:24] And he said, I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting.

[00:04:28] And at that point, Saul gave his life to Christ.

[00:04:31] He submitted to Jesus.

[00:04:32] He began to believe in the gospel.

[00:04:36] And if you've read the book of Acts, you know that that record is told three separate times.

[00:04:41] First in Acts chapter nine, when it occurred in the timeline,

[00:04:45] but two other times when Paul is sharing his testimony,

[00:04:48] once with a crowd of people and once with Roman officials who are about to decide his fate.

[00:04:55] And here we have it a fourth time at the beginning of the book of Galatians.

[00:04:59] Because it's been repeated so often in the New Testament

[00:05:04] and because many of us have heard Paul's story over and over again,

[00:05:08] the danger that we might enter into is that we grow a little tired of this story.

[00:05:14] Okay, we've heard the story.

[00:05:16] It's amazing.

[00:05:17] It's powerful.

[00:05:18] It's beautiful.

[00:05:19] But what are we really going to glean from it today?

[00:05:23] We might ask.

[00:05:24] But this passage that we just read this morning,

[00:05:28] it is of great and vital significance and importance because what it does is it throws us into a consideration again

[00:05:36] of who Paul is and the gospel that Paul preached.

[00:05:40] And here's the thing.

[00:05:41] The gospel that Paul preached and the theology that flows from it,

[00:05:45] it impacts literally everything in the Christian life.

[00:05:49] The stakes are very high.

[00:05:51] Should we believe that Paul and the gospel that he preached were legitimate?

[00:05:56] Should we believe that the 13 letters that Paul wrote are legitimate?

[00:06:01] Should we believe that the doctrines and the conclusions that he came to are legitimate or should we not?

[00:06:09] I mean, I don't think it's hyperbole at all to say that Paul's theology and Paul's doctrine affects everything in the Christian faith.

[00:06:17] His writings, his teachings, his exhortations,

[00:06:19] they permeate every sermon I preach.

[00:06:21] I know that much.

[00:06:23] They permeate every song that we sing as a church.

[00:06:27] They permeate and influence the structure and organization of this church and many local churches.

[00:06:33] They permeate and influence what we believe about all matters pertaining to salvation.

[00:06:38] I mean, to put it bluntly, what we think about God,

[00:06:42] what we feel about God is influenced by what Paul said and what Paul wrote.

[00:06:48] So why should we listen to this man?

[00:06:52] And beyond his influence in the church and on the church,

[00:06:58] because the church for the last 2000 years has gone out into all of the world

[00:07:03] and has impacted the world deeply and greatly,

[00:07:06] Paul's words have also affected a ton of things in modern society.

[00:07:11] In fact, many people in modern society are arguing about things that Paul communicated,

[00:07:16] things that Paul wrote, things that Paul the apostle taught.

[00:07:20] His teachings on subjects like human depravity that were broken as human beings in and under sin,

[00:07:27] things that he taught about human sexuality or that he taught about gender roles

[00:07:32] or the role of government or marriage and family or behavioral ethics,

[00:07:37] what's right and wrong, racism and classism, what leads to a successful life.

[00:07:43] Countless of other things. Paul the apostle weighed in on and impacted the church

[00:07:49] and the church then impacted culture and society,

[00:07:52] so our world has been influenced by Paul.

[00:07:55] You know we talk about influencers today.

[00:07:58] Paul has had more influence on the history of humanity than any modern influencer

[00:08:06] and he still today has more of an influence upon society.

[00:08:11] Thousands of years after he lived, then anyone else could hope to have.

[00:08:17] And here's the thing, sometimes Paul's influence is brought into question.

[00:08:22] It's not at all uncommon for someone in our modern age,

[00:08:26] maybe a Christian, maybe not a Christian, to read something in Paul's New Testament letters.

[00:08:33] I think I mentioned this already. He wrote 13 of them,

[00:08:36] maybe 14 if he's the author of the book of Hebrews

[00:08:40] and at times when you're reading Paul's words, I mean there's a quote from Peter in one of his letters.

[00:08:46] He says, and Paul wrote many things that are hard to understand.

[00:08:50] Apostle Peter, he's like Paul's deep man.

[00:08:54] And there are times when you're reading Paul, you're studying one of his letters.

[00:08:58] There are bound to be moments where you read something that confronts a belief that you had,

[00:09:03] a thought that you have or a belief that society holds.

[00:09:09] And as you're confused or perhaps angered or flustered,

[00:09:13] you might begin to wonder why do I need to listen to Paul?

[00:09:19] He was not one of Jesus' original disciples, so why do I have to listen to this man?

[00:09:25] Why does he get to be such a significant voice in Christianity?

[00:09:29] You might say to yourself, when I read the Gospels, when I read the life of Jesus,

[00:09:34] I don't see Paul's theology. It's not obvious to me.

[00:09:39] And maybe what I should do is embrace a Jesus-only version of Christianity.

[00:09:47] You might say to yourself, Paul is too complex or Paul is too confrontational.

[00:09:53] Paul is too argumentative or abrasive. Paul is too narrow.

[00:09:58] But you might also say, and Jesus, well, he's just simple.

[00:10:01] And he's loving and he's kind and he's accepting.

[00:10:06] He's the one that I'll listen to.

[00:10:08] And as for Paul, I think I'll dispense of him.

[00:10:12] But if you know me, you know that I think that's a grave error, a major mistake.

[00:10:17] And this passage helps us understand why.

[00:10:20] It is a challenge and a question that Paul was dealing with in this letter.

[00:10:26] The Galatian believers had begun to think that Paul did not have the credentials

[00:10:31] to communicate to them as an apostle what was true and what was not true.

[00:10:37] And Paul's teachers had come into Galatia and basically said to these brand new Galatian Christians

[00:10:43] who had heard Paul say, Jesus came, Jesus died, Jesus was buried,

[00:10:47] and Jesus rose from the dead for you.

[00:10:49] And if you believe and trust in him, then you can be brought from death into life.

[00:10:55] And that's it.

[00:10:57] When these false teachers came into Galatia, they said, Paul's fine,

[00:11:02] but you need to add to Paul's gospel things like circumcision

[00:11:07] or the religious festivals that they used to keep back in the Old Testament era.

[00:11:11] You need to add all this religiosity to that gospel message.

[00:11:16] You can't truly be saved.

[00:11:18] You can't truly know Jesus unless this is added to that gospel message.

[00:11:23] And what they were saying is Paul, he's not qualified to speak about these things.

[00:11:29] The church back in Jerusalem, the apostles, the OG apostles back in Jerusalem,

[00:11:34] they don't agree with Paul.

[00:11:37] His message is a different message, so you need to reject this man.

[00:11:43] All right, so today we're going to ask a couple of questions

[00:11:47] because Paul tells his story as a way to say,

[00:11:51] my gospel, the gospel is the legitimate gospel.

[00:11:56] He's not defending himself because he just wants to defend himself.

[00:12:01] He's defending himself because he always wants to defend the gospel.

[00:12:05] And as long as they were attacking his authority, they were attacking the gospel.

[00:12:10] So he had to defend himself as a way to defend the precious jewel of the gospel itself.

[00:12:16] So we're going to ask two questions today.

[00:12:18] One is doctrinal philosophical theological, so you'll have to bear with me,

[00:12:23] but it's just the question that the text is asking, is Paul's gospel legitimate?

[00:12:28] That's the first question we're going to ask.

[00:12:30] And the second question that we're going to ask is what did the gospel produce in Paul?

[00:12:35] This will be more of an application part of the teaching.

[00:12:38] What happened to Paul as a result of Jesus' gospel?

[00:12:41] All right, so first question.

[00:12:43] Why is Paul's gospel legitimate?

[00:12:46] I mean, is it something that I can build my life on?

[00:12:50] I mean, you think about what the gospel message is.

[00:12:52] It's something that we are staking our eternal life on.

[00:12:55] It's a belief system on which we're saying, if this is true

[00:13:00] and if I believe it, then I can know God eternally.

[00:13:03] And if it is all, and if it is true and I do not believe it,

[00:13:07] then we separated from God eternally.

[00:13:09] The stakes as we saw last week are so high.

[00:13:12] So what is the reason that Paul gives for the legitimacy of his gospel message?

[00:13:18] All right, well, in this story, as we read through it,

[00:13:21] all these different places and names,

[00:13:24] it might have gotten a little confusing to you,

[00:13:26] but there are two big things that Paul points out in this story.

[00:13:30] And the first one is this.

[00:13:32] The gospel that Paul preached is legit

[00:13:35] because he received it directly from Jesus.

[00:13:38] All right, that's the argument that he's going to flesh out in this passage.

[00:13:43] The gospel that I preached to you is legit

[00:13:46] because I received it, he said, directly from Jesus.

[00:13:49] Look at verse 11.

[00:13:51] He said, I'm not preaching man's gospel.

[00:13:55] You see that there in verse 11?

[00:13:57] I'm not preaching man's gospel.

[00:13:59] And then he fleshes out what he means by that in verse 12

[00:14:02] when he says that he did not receive the gospel that he preached from any man, no person.

[00:14:08] He said, but I, and I wasn't even taught this gospel from anybody else,

[00:14:13] but he says I received it directly through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

[00:14:19] So again, Paul's story, how was he saved?

[00:14:21] Did anybody come to him and share the gospel message to him?

[00:14:24] I'm not saying that he never heard it.

[00:14:26] He probably did.

[00:14:27] But nobody came directly to him and said, Paul, here's the gospel message.

[00:14:32] Do you believe it?

[00:14:33] It was Jesus himself who communicated that message to him.

[00:14:37] But I don't need to miss what Paul is saying.

[00:14:39] He's not only saying that in Acts 9 on the road to Damascus

[00:14:44] when the bright light shone and Jesus spoke,

[00:14:47] he revealed himself to me and that's it.

[00:14:50] That's when the revelation stopped.

[00:14:52] Now what Paul is saying is that after that, in fact,

[00:14:56] we'll see in the passage for three years after that,

[00:15:00] Jesus continued to personally reveal himself to Paul.

[00:15:06] Jesus was teaching Paul, training Paul, communicating to Paul, beautiful things.

[00:15:12] The other apostles, how long did they get with Jesus?

[00:15:16] They got three years walking around Galilee and Judea with Jesus.

[00:15:21] And what Paul is saying is, I got my three years too.

[00:15:25] They were out in Arabia and they weren't with the physical Jesus

[00:15:28] but the resurrected Jesus.

[00:15:29] But I was not only saved directly by a revelation from Christ,

[00:15:35] but I walked with Jesus for those three years.

[00:15:37] And he is the one who put the Bible together for me

[00:15:41] and informed me and taught me his gospel message.

[00:15:47] Another clue that Paul received his message directly from Jesus

[00:15:52] is that he did impregnate a message that humans would ever come up with.

[00:15:57] They would never design it themselves.

[00:15:59] Look at what he said in verse 10, our very first verse actually.

[00:16:02] He said, am I now seeking the approval of man or of God

[00:16:05] or am I trying to please man?

[00:16:07] If I was still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

[00:16:11] With these rhetorical questions, what Paul is saying

[00:16:15] is that his gospel message was not a message that humans would approve of

[00:16:21] or that humans would find pleasing.

[00:16:24] In other words, the gospel message, it's a confrontational message

[00:16:28] in the sense that it first condemns us as dead in trespasses and sins

[00:16:34] and then it demands that only the blood of Jesus can make us pure in the sight of God.

[00:16:41] In other words, a human message is figure it out and be good

[00:16:47] and there's good inside of you and you can be approved in God's sight

[00:16:52] by being something better than you are today.

[00:16:56] But the gospel message doesn't say that.

[00:16:58] It says you're dead.

[00:17:00] You're spiritually dead.

[00:17:02] You have no life.

[00:17:04] There's no energy.

[00:17:05] You can't even get up in front of God

[00:17:08] but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son

[00:17:11] and if you believe in him, then he will make you alive.

[00:17:15] That's the message and so what Paul is saying is,

[00:17:18] look, listen to what I preached.

[00:17:20] I received this from Jesus.

[00:17:22] It's a divine message.

[00:17:25] No human being would ever come up with the stuff that I've been saying.

[00:17:30] You see humans like to make messages that cater to extremes on one side or the other

[00:17:35] or we like to make messages that are right in the middle

[00:17:39] that are moderations, they're moderate in comparison to the extremes on either side.

[00:17:45] You know what they say about people who are moderate, right?

[00:17:48] People that are moderate think that people on both sides of them are crazy.

[00:17:53] And Paul though did not preach one extreme or the other extreme

[00:17:59] or something moderate.

[00:18:01] The Gospel is extreme on both poles.

[00:18:05] The Gospel says that we're dead in trespasses and sins

[00:18:11] but that we can be made alive in God.

[00:18:14] The Bible says that we're irreparably separated from God

[00:18:18] but that God so loved us that if we believe in him

[00:18:21] in the Gospel, the cross of Christ, we can be saved.

[00:18:26] The Gospel tears us down to the studs

[00:18:30] and tells us that we are reprobate and dead in sin

[00:18:33] but it also says at the same time and in the same breath

[00:18:35] that we're the crown jewel of God's creation.

[00:18:38] It's not a message, in other words, that people would construct.

[00:18:42] And so Paul said that's another evidence that I received it from Jesus.

[00:18:46] But a third evidence that he received it from Jesus has found

[00:18:49] in verse 13 and 14 he kind of tells a story of his past

[00:18:52] and basically what he's trying to say is, guys, I wasn't prone at all

[00:18:56] to receive the Gospel message.

[00:18:58] Think about who I was before I became a Christian.

[00:19:02] He's like, in my former life of Judaism, I was persecuting the church

[00:19:08] and he was, he was witnessing the death of Christians later in his life

[00:19:12] when he told his testimony he said that he felt he was guilty

[00:19:15] for the death of Christians, the blood of Christians on his hands.

[00:19:19] He says extreme zeal for the tradition of his fathers.

[00:19:23] He said, and I even advanced above anybody else my age.

[00:19:26] I was at the head of my class when it came to Judaism.

[00:19:30] In a sense you could ask the question who in the early church

[00:19:34] even stood a chance evangelizing Paul?

[00:19:37] I mean Paul was smarter than everybody in the early church.

[00:19:41] There was nobody that was his intellectual superior

[00:19:46] in those early days and probably ever really.

[00:19:50] And he was so clearly and concretely and decidedly

[00:19:57] against the Gospel message.

[00:20:00] It's like you would just look at Paul and for one you'd be terrified

[00:20:03] as an early Christian like Ananias remember when Paul got saved

[00:20:07] and the Lord spoke to Ananias and he's like, hey go pray for Paul.

[00:20:11] You know he's coming to your city go pray for Paul

[00:20:13] and Ananias says, Lord he's arresting us.

[00:20:17] He's killing us.

[00:20:18] I'm afraid of him.

[00:20:19] I don't want to pray for him.

[00:20:21] So for one like what Christian would even have the guts to share

[00:20:25] with Paul before he became a Christian but two who would

[00:20:29] even think that there was a window sliver a door of opportunity.

[00:20:32] He seemed so decided until Jesus broke through.

[00:20:37] It's like Paul is saying who else could have reached me?

[00:20:42] Peter could have come.

[00:20:43] Angels could have come and it wouldn't have done it for me.

[00:20:47] I had to have a direct revelation from Jesus himself

[00:20:51] knocking me on my butt and showing me his glory in order

[00:20:55] for me to believe.

[00:20:57] And one last clue that Paul received the gospel directly

[00:21:00] from Jesus, it's found in what he said happened to him

[00:21:03] right after he became a Christian.

[00:21:06] It's interesting.

[00:21:07] He's on a road from Jerusalem to Damascus this way to Damascus

[00:21:13] to persecute Christians.

[00:21:15] And instead of getting saved and going straight back to Jerusalem

[00:21:19] to tell like all the apostles like you're never gonna believe

[00:21:22] this you guys I know I've been your biggest enemy

[00:21:25] but now I believe in Jesus and I want to be on your team

[00:21:29] instead of doing that the Lord just tells him to go up to

[00:21:33] Damascus and then he says here I left Damascus

[00:21:36] and I went further into the wilderness.

[00:21:40] I went further away into Arabia and I was there for three years.

[00:21:45] I wasn't getting instructed by the apostles.

[00:21:48] They weren't teaching me.

[00:21:50] They weren't pouring into me.

[00:21:52] I was being discipled by nobody man but Jesus himself.

[00:21:56] And I came out of that time in the wilderness,

[00:21:59] equipped, built up because all the scripture that I'd been

[00:22:02] learning as a Pharisee the Lord had enlivened.

[00:22:05] He had shown me what it was really all about out there

[00:22:08] in the wilderness.

[00:22:10] There were times of incredible revelation from Jesus to Paul.

[00:22:15] Like I said to me in my mind these are the three years

[00:22:18] that the other disciples got with Jesus on earth.

[00:22:23] These are those three years made up for Paul.

[00:22:26] He got to spend that time with the Lord.

[00:22:30] When Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their gospels,

[00:22:34] the accounts of Jesus' life, Paul seems to have complimented them

[00:22:40] by writing of the implications of Jesus' life

[00:22:45] and teaching and death and resurrection.

[00:22:48] And he got all of that stuff out there in the wilderness

[00:22:51] directly from Jesus.

[00:22:53] Okay now at this point some of you might be saying,

[00:22:55] okay so the big argument that his gospel is legitimate

[00:23:01] is that he got it directly from Jesus.

[00:23:03] What if some loony bin comes up to church today

[00:23:05] and is like hey I got another gospel.

[00:23:07] I got it straight from Jesus.

[00:23:09] I swear are we supposed to believe that too?

[00:23:12] Well there's a second and complimentary reason

[00:23:15] why we should believe that Paul's gospel is legit

[00:23:18] and it's this.

[00:23:21] According to this passage, not only did Paul receive

[00:23:24] the message directly from Jesus,

[00:23:26] but he goes on to detail that Jesus' people

[00:23:30] then in turn received him.

[00:23:33] And I'll explain to you why that's important.

[00:23:35] Paul's gospel in other words is legit

[00:23:37] because first he got it from Christ

[00:23:39] but also because Christ's people acknowledged Paul.

[00:23:43] Okay and the reason or the way that he describes that

[00:23:46] here in this passage or in his story

[00:23:48] is he says in verse 18 he says you know there did come

[00:23:51] a point where I did finally go to Jerusalem.

[00:23:53] He gets saved, he goes to Arabia and Damascus for three years

[00:23:56] but then he finally does take a trip to Jerusalem.

[00:23:59] You might imagine that that trip is like a trip for him

[00:24:02] to get his like apostle certificate from Peter

[00:24:05] and all the other apostles.

[00:24:06] Like I'm here, I'm here to report for duty.

[00:24:08] I have like a theological exam that I go through

[00:24:11] and they're like wow you passed with flying colors.

[00:24:14] You are an apostle.

[00:24:16] You are an apostle.

[00:24:17] Here's your certificate, here's your badge.

[00:24:19] Go out and do it but that's not at all what happened.

[00:24:22] It says in verse 18 that he went to visit Cephas.

[00:24:25] That word visit, Cephas is Peter.

[00:24:28] That word visit is a word that means

[00:24:31] to relationally get to know.

[00:24:34] He's like you know I met Jesus.

[00:24:38] I've got this theology that's developed now

[00:24:42] and I'm starting to preach it.

[00:24:45] I should probably go meet the number one apostle

[00:24:49] just to get to know each other.

[00:24:51] You know, just to spend some relational time with each other

[00:24:54] and then he says and while I was there

[00:24:56] I met only one other apostle on that trip.

[00:24:59] Eventually he met all the guys

[00:25:01] but on this trip he says I met one other apostle.

[00:25:04] It was James, the brother of Jesus.

[00:25:06] Now when we read that some of you might start freaking out

[00:25:08] like what Jesus had brothers?

[00:25:10] I did not know this.

[00:25:12] Well he did, Mary and Joseph went on to have a normal

[00:25:15] little family after Jesus' miraculous birth

[00:25:18] so obviously James was Jesus' younger brother

[00:25:22] and James was a skeptic during Jesus' public ministry

[00:25:26] but after Jesus rose from the dead he became a believer

[00:25:29] and the book of Acts teaches us that he became a pillar

[00:25:32] in the church in Jerusalem

[00:25:34] and he became known as an apostle

[00:25:36] because he fit all the apostolic requirements.

[00:25:38] You had to have seen Jesus

[00:25:40] during his earthly life and ministry

[00:25:42] and who had seen him more than his brother

[00:25:46] he'd seen Jesus and then you had to be a witness

[00:25:48] to his resurrection.

[00:25:50] He'd seen him in his resurrected form

[00:25:52] so he was able to testify of these things

[00:25:54] so he fit the apostolic requirement

[00:25:56] and God was raising him up in that early church

[00:25:58] and what Paul is saying is

[00:26:00] when I went to Jerusalem for those 15 days

[00:26:02] to hang out with Peter

[00:26:04] and I also met James

[00:26:06] notice what's totally absent.

[00:26:08] There's no confrontation.

[00:26:10] There's no correction.

[00:26:12] There's no hey man, you know what you're saying

[00:26:14] what you're starting to say, this gospel that you're preaching

[00:26:17] that doesn't have this addition to it

[00:26:19] of keeping the Old Testament law

[00:26:21] the things that you're communicating

[00:26:23] not cool for you to be saying that Paul.

[00:26:25] You need to change what you're saying.

[00:26:27] No they received him.

[00:26:30] They embraced him.

[00:26:32] That's the first part of this reality

[00:26:34] that Paul is trying to highlight

[00:26:36] but then he says and then I left.

[00:26:38] He says in verse 21 he says

[00:26:40] then I went to the regions of Syria

[00:26:42] and Solicia and I know there's a lot of place names

[00:26:44] that are going on here so we can get a little bit

[00:26:46] overwhelming but basically

[00:26:48] he went far away from

[00:26:50] Jerusalem. He went into

[00:26:52] what is modern day Turkey.

[00:26:54] He went to the book of Acts tells us

[00:26:56] his hometown of Tarsus

[00:26:58] and there he spent about

[00:27:00] another decade

[00:27:02] teaching, preaching

[00:27:04] walking with Jesus

[00:27:06] before then Barnabas came

[00:27:08] and brought him back into

[00:27:10] not Israel but just north of Israel

[00:27:12] a town called Antioch where Paul's public ministry

[00:27:14] began and then he went on his first

[00:27:16] missionary journey with Barnabas

[00:27:18] so before he wrote any letters

[00:27:20] he went back and was doing all this stuff

[00:27:22] in his hometown area and what he says here is

[00:27:24] the churches in Judea

[00:27:26] that's the region of Jerusalem

[00:27:28] they were all hearing about what I was doing

[00:27:30] and they were rejoicing

[00:27:32] that he who formerly persecuted them

[00:27:35] was preaching the very faith

[00:27:38] that he tried to in the past

[00:27:40] destroy.

[00:27:42] He says and they glorify

[00:27:44] I love the last line and they glorified

[00:27:46] God in me.

[00:27:48] What Paul is saying is that not only did the

[00:27:50] apostles like Peter and James say

[00:27:52] Paul you're cool so did the

[00:27:54] early church. All these people said

[00:27:56] we received this guy. His message

[00:27:58] is totally legitimate.

[00:28:00] Now why is that significant?

[00:28:02] Well Paul had an issue

[00:28:04] when they challenged him about his authority

[00:28:06] he had to both show

[00:28:08] that his gospel

[00:28:10] did not come from a human group

[00:28:12] but he had to also show

[00:28:14] that his fellow

[00:28:16] apostles and the church that they

[00:28:18] led received him

[00:28:20] because if they didn't

[00:28:22] then the Galatians could dismiss

[00:28:24] him as just a rogue operator

[00:28:26] that was doing his own thing but the early church

[00:28:28] did receive him.

[00:28:30] So listen to me

[00:28:32] about why this is significant.

[00:28:34] When someone today

[00:28:36] reads back into the life of Christ

[00:28:38] thinks back

[00:28:40] on the life of Jesus

[00:28:42] and decides that Paul's doctrine

[00:28:44] or Paul's gospel

[00:28:46] or Paul's theology doesn't

[00:28:48] jibe with isn't

[00:28:50] congruent with

[00:28:52] or contradicts

[00:28:54] Jesus' life and Jesus' words

[00:28:56] in any way

[00:28:58] they have to understand that they're in disagreement

[00:29:00] with the very people who lived

[00:29:02] with Jesus.

[00:29:04] The very people who watched Jesus

[00:29:06] the very people who heard Jesus

[00:29:08] the very people that enjoyed Jesus

[00:29:10] the very people that listened to his teachings

[00:29:12] the very people that wrote about Jesus

[00:29:14] the very people who were the first witnesses

[00:29:16] to his life and the witnesses of his

[00:29:18] resurrection those very people

[00:29:20] when they heard Paul they said that's right

[00:29:22] well your saying is right

[00:29:24] it sounds like Jesus that's the Jesus

[00:29:26] that we know

[00:29:28] to say that you cannot agree with Paul

[00:29:30] because you don't think he agrees with Jesus

[00:29:32] is to ignore the apostles

[00:29:34] and the witnesses in the first

[00:29:36] century who agreed with Jesus

[00:29:38] precisely agreed with

[00:29:40] Paul precisely because they thought he agreed with Jesus

[00:29:44] to reject Paul today on the grounds that you say

[00:29:46] I think he doesn't

[00:29:48] connect with Jesus

[00:29:50] is like looking at archived photographs

[00:29:52] of Abraham Lincoln

[00:29:54] that have been preserved by the library

[00:29:56] of congress

[00:29:58] and deciding that even though every photo

[00:30:00] that you're seeing he's sporting a beard

[00:30:02] you don't think

[00:30:04] Abraham Lincoln had a beard

[00:30:06] that's what it's like

[00:30:08] like who are you hundreds of years later

[00:30:10] with people

[00:30:12] who were there testifying to what

[00:30:14] they saw who are you to say no that's not

[00:30:16] what really happened

[00:30:18] Paul claimed to have received his

[00:30:20] gospel and even his training

[00:30:22] directly from Jesus and the apostles

[00:30:24] in the early church all believed those

[00:30:26] claims and received Paul as being

[00:30:28] consistent with the Jesus they knew

[00:30:30] so we should receive Paul in his theology

[00:30:32] as well.

[00:30:34] I told you that was a long doctrinal

[00:30:36] theological philosophical kind of point

[00:30:38] but that really is the point of this story

[00:30:40] it's the point of this passage

[00:30:42] but let's wrap it up today by thinking

[00:30:44] just for a moment about

[00:30:46] how the gospel impacted Paul

[00:30:48] what did it do to Paul?

[00:30:50] because he's also telling his story and there's just these cool things that

[00:30:52] happen to him and I just want to

[00:30:54] quickly show you five things that happened to Paul

[00:30:56] and these are things that we want to have

[00:30:58] happen to us as a result of the gospel

[00:31:00] and the first one is this

[00:31:02] he was set free

[00:31:04] from people pleasing

[00:31:06] the gospel set Paul free

[00:31:08] from people pleasing

[00:31:10] that's what he said in verse 10

[00:31:12] he said I'm not seeking the approval of man

[00:31:14] I'm no longer trying to please man

[00:31:16] the gospel came into his life

[00:31:18] and it just set him free from a need

[00:31:20] to impress other people

[00:31:22] to be received by other people

[00:31:24] to have them

[00:31:26] give him their positive

[00:31:28] evaluate he was set free from that

[00:31:30] and I think a lot of us are really bound by the fear

[00:31:32] of man

[00:31:34] the bible says in

[00:31:36] Proverbs 29 verse 25

[00:31:38] the fear of man lays a snare

[00:31:40] but whoever trusts in the lord

[00:31:42] is safe

[00:31:44] and we make lots of crazy decisions based on

[00:31:46] what people think of how we look

[00:31:48] or what they might think of our lives

[00:31:50] or our success but the gospel

[00:31:52] it says to you you're

[00:31:54] approved you're righteous you're

[00:31:56] approved by God

[00:31:58] and so you're accepted by God

[00:32:00] and that sets you free

[00:32:02] from the performative

[00:32:04] nature of life where I've got to

[00:32:06] somehow gain the approval of others

[00:32:08] and when you have

[00:32:10] his approval it does beautiful stuff

[00:32:12] to you

[00:32:14] imagine a little girl

[00:32:16] who is

[00:32:18] playing in a softball game

[00:32:20] and her dad is the coach

[00:32:22] now we all know that there's

[00:32:24] certain guys out there where

[00:32:26] it's very clear if you perform well

[00:32:28] I'll give you my favor you perform well

[00:32:30] I'll love you but

[00:32:32] for this little girl let's say her dad's a really good guy

[00:32:34] he loves her she's

[00:32:36] confident in his

[00:32:38] love she knows my dad approves of me

[00:32:40] no matter how I do today

[00:32:42] he loves me

[00:32:44] I have a good standing

[00:32:46] with him I'm his daughter he cares

[00:32:48] about me what will that produce

[00:32:50] in her well unfortunately

[00:32:52] some Christians think well what that

[00:32:54] would produce in me with the gospel is

[00:32:56] I'll just kind of take the day

[00:32:58] off I'll be lazy

[00:33:00] I don't want to even try

[00:33:02] in my Christianity but

[00:33:04] a child who really understands

[00:33:06] the deep love of their father will say

[00:33:08] I want to do my very best

[00:33:10] for my dad who I already

[00:33:12] know loves me I want

[00:33:14] to perform well for him and imagine her hitting

[00:33:16] a home run or something and rounding

[00:33:18] the bases in victory

[00:33:20] she's not thinking to herself

[00:33:22] I've just earned

[00:33:24] my dad's pleasure I've just

[00:33:26] earned my dad's love she already knows she has it

[00:33:28] but she's also rejoicing because

[00:33:30] she thinks my dad's going to be so

[00:33:32] happy my dad's going to rejoice

[00:33:34] with me it's not earning it for

[00:33:36] the first time but it's saying

[00:33:38] because he loves me I want

[00:33:40] to do something that blesses him

[00:33:42] that's what happens when you

[00:33:44] receive the gospel of grace

[00:33:46] but a second thing that happened to Paul

[00:33:48] number two is that he got

[00:33:50] a better zeal

[00:33:52] he describes his former life as just

[00:33:54] incredibly zealous he was really

[00:33:56] aimed in a certain direction

[00:33:58] Judaism was his thing exceled above

[00:34:00] all his other classmates persecution

[00:34:02] became his

[00:34:04] he was fixating on, but the reality is that when

[00:34:10] the gospel came into his life,

[00:34:11] he was set free from a zeal for the wrong thing

[00:34:14] and he began to have zeal for the right thing.

[00:34:18] You know, many of us human beings, we have zeal,

[00:34:21] but it's for the wrong things.

[00:34:24] It's for the wrong things.

[00:34:26] You know, many of us have a zeal to become something.

[00:34:30] Many of us have a zeal to have something or some things.

[00:34:35] And many of us have a zeal to feel something.

[00:34:37] These are the desires that propel us forward in life,

[00:34:40] the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh

[00:34:42] and the pride of life to use the biblical terminology for it.

[00:34:46] But the zeal to be something or the zeal to have something

[00:34:50] or the zeal to feel something,

[00:34:51] it is a terrible foundation for life.

[00:34:57] But when you have the gospel,

[00:34:58] you have something to be zealous for

[00:35:01] that is good and pure will not disappoint.

[00:35:04] And I want you to know that the gospel really isn't a call

[00:35:06] to being moderate.

[00:35:09] It's actually a call to being extreme in certain ways,

[00:35:12] to die to self, to lay down your life,

[00:35:15] to become a servant, to love as Christ loves.

[00:35:20] These are exhortations from the New Testament

[00:35:22] that don't describe a moderate balanced life.

[00:35:25] It's not what Jesus was describing when he said,

[00:35:27] seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness

[00:35:29] and all these other things will be added unto you.

[00:35:32] Instead they're describing zeal in the right direction.

[00:35:37] So the gospel can give you a better zeal,

[00:35:39] a better thing to be about.

[00:35:42] Number three though, the gospel gave Paul

[00:35:44] a strong sense of God's calling.

[00:35:47] Notice in verse 15 and 16, he says,

[00:35:50] you know when Jesus came into my life,

[00:35:52] I realized I was set apart before I was born by him.

[00:35:56] And he called me by his grace

[00:35:59] and the purpose that he gave me was to preach Jesus

[00:36:02] among the Gentiles.

[00:36:04] Now when you think about Paul, it's like amazing

[00:36:06] how custom made he was to preach the gospel

[00:36:10] to the nations, to the Gentile world.

[00:36:13] I mean first of all, you think about where he was born.

[00:36:14] He was born in Tarsus.

[00:36:17] And then you think about his heritage.

[00:36:19] He says I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

[00:36:21] So he's a Jew of Jews he is saying,

[00:36:26] but he lived in Tarsus, a Gentile city.

[00:36:28] So even though he's embraced Jewish teachings

[00:36:31] and philosophies and customs,

[00:36:33] he's living around Gentiles his whole life.

[00:36:36] So he's being prepared for the future

[00:36:39] when he's gonna have to go into Gentile territory

[00:36:41] to preach the gospel.

[00:36:42] I mean you might remember the story

[00:36:43] when Peter was told to go to a Gentiles house

[00:36:46] to preach the gospel.

[00:36:47] He walked in the door and he basically said to them

[00:36:49] like you guys know I've never done this before.

[00:36:53] I've never been to a Gentiles house before.

[00:36:57] Paul was like pfft, I know what Gentiles are like.

[00:37:01] I've been living in Tarsus my whole life.

[00:37:04] He probably because of something his dad had done

[00:37:07] had a Roman citizenship that God gave him

[00:37:10] that gave him freedom to travel wherever he wanted to

[00:37:13] all throughout the Roman Empire.

[00:37:15] He was born at the perfect moment

[00:37:19] so that when he got saved

[00:37:21] the Roman system was at its zenith

[00:37:23] so he could travel the Roman roads

[00:37:25] and go wherever he needed to.

[00:37:27] I mean he was custom designed for this gospel message.

[00:37:31] He had probably memorized most of the Old Testament

[00:37:33] so when Jesus starts speaking to him

[00:37:35] he's putting it all together.

[00:37:36] Like he is a weapon in God's hand

[00:37:40] and he started realizing that

[00:37:41] after the gospel came into his life.

[00:37:42] Look there are things in your life

[00:37:44] that are part of your past, your history,

[00:37:47] your makeup.

[00:37:48] You had no idea that they were for something

[00:37:52] until the gospel came into your life

[00:37:55] and those things are for something now.

[00:37:58] He is shaping you, he wants to use you.

[00:38:00] We might not be used to the level of Paul the apostle.

[00:38:03] I should probably take the word might out of there.

[00:38:05] None of us will be used like Paul the apostle

[00:38:08] but we might be used like he was

[00:38:11] in the life of a handful of people

[00:38:15] and God can take those things in our past

[00:38:17] and he can because of the gospel

[00:38:20] give us a strong sense of calling

[00:38:21] and then fourthly Paul had a deep hunger for growth.

[00:38:24] That came out of the gospel.

[00:38:27] He went to, he says Arabia and Damascus for three years

[00:38:31] like three years of having like a Bible study with Jesus

[00:38:34] and then another decade in Tarsus

[00:38:36] before he began his public ministry

[00:38:38] took him 14, 15 plus years

[00:38:41] before he wrote a New Testament epistle.

[00:38:45] So he had a desire to grow and to be prepared.

[00:38:49] I mean, he's the epitome of measuring twice

[00:38:53] and cutting once.

[00:38:54] God was like working in his life shaping him.

[00:38:58] You might remember the story where Mary and Martha

[00:39:01] are there with Jesus and Martha comes to him

[00:39:04] to Jesus and says, you know,

[00:39:06] tell my sister to stop listening to you

[00:39:08] and come help me in the kitchen.

[00:39:10] I have all of these chores that I'm doing all by myself

[00:39:14] and Jesus said, no, your sister's chosen the better part.

[00:39:19] It's good for her to sit here.

[00:39:21] It's good for her to learn from me.

[00:39:23] It's good for her to grow

[00:39:25] and the gospel can give you that hunger

[00:39:27] and that desire to say I want to grow

[00:39:32] because when the gospel comes into your life

[00:39:34] one of the things that becomes real to you is

[00:39:36] I was dead in trespasses and sin.

[00:39:39] So thank God I'm now new in Jesus

[00:39:42] but there's a lot of work for the Holy Spirit to do on me.

[00:39:46] For I knew him I was dead

[00:39:48] so I need his help to be changed and transformed.

[00:39:50] I want to grow.

[00:39:52] And then lastly, Paul because of the gospel

[00:39:56] he embraced hard work and service.

[00:39:59] Now he went about preaching the faith

[00:40:02] that he had previously tried to destroy.

[00:40:04] He glorified God, others glorified God

[00:40:08] because of what God was doing through Paul.

[00:40:11] He worked hard for many years for the gospel.

[00:40:14] And I found that the cross of Jesus Christ

[00:40:16] is the only lasting perpetual source

[00:40:21] of inspiration and motivation and energy

[00:40:25] that can help a person do the hard work

[00:40:28] of serving his church.

[00:40:30] So the gospel unleashed that for Paul.

[00:40:32] All right, so what have we seen today?

[00:40:33] We've seen that Paul's gospel and thus his theology

[00:40:39] they're legitimate.

[00:40:41] That's the case that he's built in this passage.

[00:40:45] And every one of us we have a decision to make today.

[00:40:48] And every day that we pick up the New Testament

[00:40:50] do I receive Paul's gospel and theology?

[00:40:55] Or do I reject Paul and his gospel and his theology?

[00:41:01] Do I go along with the people who actually saw Jesus?

[00:41:06] Or do I say, no, I'm gonna go with how I view the world?

[00:41:11] How I view the truth or how I view Jesus.

[00:41:15] But for those of us who have said, you know what?

[00:41:17] I do wanna receive the gospel message

[00:41:20] that Paul and others preached.

[00:41:22] This little passage also helps us consider

[00:41:25] the impact of our message on our own lives today.

[00:41:29] You know, like I've been saying, we're not apostles.

[00:41:32] Our story in our testimony does not have major implications

[00:41:39] for the underpinnings of Christianity.

[00:41:43] But an appreciation for Paul's story

[00:41:47] should help us appreciate our story.

[00:41:50] Now, Paul's past it turned on a dime

[00:41:52] because he met with Jesus.

[00:41:54] And I think for far too many of us

[00:41:56] the past defines who we are today.

[00:42:01] And while that's certainly a factor,

[00:42:02] it's not the only factor.

[00:42:05] Matthew Harmon said it this way,

[00:42:06] our past has a profound role in shaping who we are,

[00:42:10] but it does not determine who we are.

[00:42:13] One encounter with Jesus is enough to change

[00:42:17] the entire direction of a person's life.

[00:42:22] So let's be a people who say, praise God,

[00:42:25] this story that he told, I wanna tell my story

[00:42:29] with others because I've been changed by Jesus.