Series

Three weeks ago we began a series on the book of Galatians. If you’re just joining us today, a quick review will help get you up to speed.

The main character in the book of Galatians is Paul. Paul was a convert to Christianity. He was Jewish, he was intelligent, well spoken, highly regarded in Judaism. He was also a persecutor of Jesus and those who followed him. One day, though, Jesus Christ himself miraculously saved Paul from his sinful life. And he sent Paul to preach the message of grace—the gospel—to the Gentile world.

On one of Paul’s missionary journeys, he spent time in

Galatia

. While he was in

Galatia

, he taught the people there about Jesus. He told them the good news—the Gospel—that Jesus died on the cross for the sin of the world. And that the only way a person could be made right with God was by believing, by faith, in Jesus. He told them that the only way a person could live a holy life and obey God was through the power of the Holy Spirit of God, poured into one’s life the moment they become a Christian. In other words, Paul’s message was simple: Saved by the Cross, Life by the Spirit.

Later, after Paul left, some people, Bad Guys, started messing with the young Galatian Christian’s heads. They taught that though the gospel was good, necessary, it wasn’t enough. To be saved, to be made right before God, you needed Jesus plus Jewish practices and laws. They taught Jesus plus really good behavior, Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus a whole lot of rules.

By now you know that when Paul got wind of what these deceivers were teaching, he was irate, fuming mad! His response to their bad teaching is what we have in front of us today in the book of Galatians (which is really the letter that Paul wrote to the Galatian church).

The Big Meeting

One of the tactics employed by the Judaizers was to discredit Paul. If they could get the Galatians to doubt Paul, they’d surely doubt the message he preached. A big part of the first chapter of Galatians is Paul’s defense of himself and the way he came to get the message of the gospel. In Chapter 2, he goes a step further in defense of his message.

Look at Chapter 2 verse 1: “Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem , this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. [2] I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.” (Paul’s laying it all on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher!)

What’s happening here is Paul is telling how he went to Jerusalem , the hub of the Church in those days, to have his message tested by the leaders of the church. Paul’s saying, “I am not a loose cannon. My message has to be the message that Jesus himself taught, the message that the whole church is teaching. If it isn’t then I need to be corrected, to be silenced, otherwise I’m doing this in vain.” He goes on to say, “Why am I doing this? Why am I so concerned about the integrity of my message? I’m doing this because there are a bunch of rotten liars among you who are trying to trick you into believing something that makes the gospel no gospel at all. They want to make us slaves—the very thing Jesus died to save us from! I’m doing this, therefore, ‘so that the truth of the gospel might remain in you’”(vs. 5).

So Paul goes to Jerusalem for this big meeting for the purpose of preserving the truth of the Gospel, because he knew that the gospel was worth fighting for. Let’s look at the rest of the characters in the story; I call them Paul’s teammates.

Barnabas—Paul took two friends with him on his trip to Jerusalem . The first is Barnabas. Barnabas is a significant part of the team because, first of all, he was Jewish. He believed the gospel that Paul had been preaching, the message that one is saved by grace, not by works (a very anti-Jewish idea).

Barnabas was also not intimidated by power. He’d become friends with Paul, a powerful, charismatic, compelling figure. He knew of Paul before Paul became a Christian, when he was a high-ranking Pharisee.

When Paul became a Christian, most didn’t want to have anything to do with him because they were intimidated. Barnabas, however, became his friend. The fact that he wasn’t intimidated by power would come in very handy when supporting Paul before the Big Kahunas in Jerusalem ! He’d keep a cool head; he wouldn’t be shaken by all the pomp and ceremony.

Finally, Barnabas is an important piece of the team because he was an encourager! This is what Barnabas is most known for, his encouragement. He’d keep the team’s spirits up, he’d be able to say to Paul, “You can do this, you are being faithful to God, and to His message, I’m proud of you…”

Titus—Titus was also along for the trip to Jerusalem . Titus was Paul’s “Exhibit A”. Titus was there to show the Big Kahunas in Jerusalem that the gospel message was not just for Jews anymore, it was also for Gentiles (anyone at the time who was not Jewish). Titus was Greek, yet he heard the gospel message, and made a personal step of faith to believe in Jesus, and became a Christian.

The question on the minds of Paul, Barnabas and Titus himself had to be, “would Titus be accepted by the Jewish Apostles, the Big Kahunas, in Jerusalem ?”

(If you remember, Paul came to be converted to Christianity, and received the gospel through Divine Revelation—God told him directly. Notice in our text that the reason Paul, Barnabas and Titus went to Jerusalem was “in response to a revelation”(2:2). God was still talking to them, still leading them. They were obedient!

It’s also likely that Paul, Barnabas and Titus were sent out from their community of faith, commissioned by their church, if you will, to go to Jerusalem . In other words, this was a matter of community! The whole church got behind them, heard the revelation from God, and sent the brothers to Jerusalem .)

“The Big Kahunas”, Peter, James and John—Sitting across the table from Paul, Barnabas and Titus were none other than the Jerusalem Apostles themselves, the Big Kahunas! These guys were really important to Paul’s plan because they were Jewish. Now what was happening in

Galatia

was that the Judaizers were making ‘Super Saints’ out of Peter, James and John. The Judaizers were going around telling the Galatian Christians that the only people worth listening to were these “real” Jewish Apostles, Peter, James and John. They’d been with Jesus; they’d heard his message. They weren’t like this imposter, this ‘Johnny-come-lately’, Paul.

It would be like someone coming into the sanctuary right now and saying to you “Don’t listen to what Shaun has to say. He’s only 30; he’s only been a ‘real’ pastor for a year-and-a-bit. The people you really need to listen to, the ones with the right message is the Area Minister or the Executive Minister of the Baptist Union. They’ve got it all right, they’re older, and more experienced, listen to them!”

So Peter, James and John were really important. Though Paul knew the message he was preaching was given to him by Jesus himself, and didn’t need the approval of Peter, James and John.

His purpose in laying his cards on the table with them was to refute the Judaizers, affirm God’s work, preserve the truth of the Gospel, and the unity of the church.

Paul, Barnabas and Titus arrive in Jerusalem and sit down at the table with Peter, James and John. Whatever you do, don’t race over this group. Here on one side is Peter (whom Jesus said, “through you I will build my church”), James (the half brother of Jesus), and John (the ‘beloved’ disciple of Jesus). And on the other side of the table sits Paul (one-time hater of Jesus), Barnabas (Jewish Christian), and Titus (Gentile—Greek—Christian).

Paul begins (though we don’t get the blow-by-blow description in the text, I think it went something like this):

“For the last 14 years, I’ve been building the church and teaching people what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Many have come to put their faith in Jesus. Now we’re facing a challenge from fellow Jews who think that the gospel I’m preaching is false, that Jesus requires good behavior, rituals and circumcision to be made right before God. I think this is the very depth of deception and false teaching. I’ve been preaching that the only way a person can be made right before God is through faith in Jesus and life through the Holy Spirit.

I’ve come here today to lay it all on the table. If I’m preaching a different gospel than the one you’re preaching, then confront me! If the Judaizers are right, and the story is Jesus plus…then tell me now. I don’t want to run this race in vain.

People have been asking me, ‘Paul, what do I need to do to be saved?’ And it’s a good question, but not a great question. The idea there is what must we do, do, do? The better question is ‘What has God done that we can be saved?’ What has God done, done, done?

They say to me, ‘Paul, what then do we do with the law, the Ten Commandments? Aren’t we supposed to obey them, aren’t we in good with God when we obey them?’

I tell them the law cannot save you! The Ten Commandments cannot save you! The Law was given to you so that you’d know something of the character of God. The Ten Commandments were set up to expose our sin, for if there is no law, we don’t know when we break it!

But the truth is, the law cannot save us! Further, we cannot obey the law on our own! We need help!

In my letter to the Romans I wrote about this. I said, ‘What the law was powerless to do (save us), God did by sending his son to pay for our sins and give us the Holy Spirit by which to live” (Paraphrase, Romans 8:3-4, parenthesis added).

And then in my letter to the Ephesians I wrote, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—this is God’s free gift—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Peter, James, John, in other words, what I’ve been preaching all this time, all these 14 years, is that a person is saved because they accept by faith the free gift of God in Jesus Christ. That salvation is by Jesus alone, grace alone, faith alone! And as a result, God gets all the credit, all the glory! It is all about what God has done, done, done. Is this what you have been preaching also? Is this the story you’ve been telling?

By this time I imagine that Peter, James and John have huge smiles on their faces. They look at one another, and then at Paul and say, “Yes!”

“Yes, Paul, brothers, this is indeed the story we’ve been telling; may the Lord be praised!”

And they all stood up and embraced, giving the “right hand of fellowship”(2:9). As a result of this meeting, several things happened—and I’ll list them quickly so that we can get to the application.

1. Titus remains a Greek—Nobody is more relieved that the apostles affirmed Paul’s message than Titus. It meant that he could remain a Greek and still be a Christian. He didn’t need to become a Jew and go through that most unfortunate procedure called circumcision!

The challenge in a message like this, looking at a text of scripture like this one, is applying it to our present situation. How do we take an event like this one that happened two thousand years ago and apply it to our lives today? And everywhere in our society today, the gospel is being watered down. Paul’s meeting in Jerusalem has direct application for us in this church, in this part of the world, today.

In the late 16^th Century, some 1500 years after the meeting of Paul and the Apostles in Jerusalem , Martin Luther set the church ablaze with his bold rejection of salvation by works. It was

Galatia

all over again. The “Judaizers” were the Pope and the Cardinals in the Catholic Church. They taught that a person is right with God depending on the number of ‘hail Mary’s’ they spoke, or ‘Our Fathers’; their salvation depended on paying to have their sins forgiven! (This is not meant to bash Catholics)

Martin Luther stood in the face of the Pope and the Catholic Church and declared the Gospel truth that a person is made right by God and God alone! He risked his life in doing so. His confrontation with the Catholic Church began the Protestant Reformation of which our very own Baptist church is a result.

What’s the point? Many people have risked everything for the gospel we have before us today. We must not allow their sacrifice, their obedience to God, to fall. The Gospel is worth fighting for!

At stake in Paul’s journey to Jerusalem , as we’ve already learned, was the purity of the gospel. Paul put himself in the middle of a conflict in order that the truth is upheld. If Paul had feared confrontation, he would never have obeyed God’s call to go to Jerusalem . He’d never have tested his message with Peter, James and John. Had he feared confrontation, there would be no unity in the church, the gospel would have been watered down, the Judaizers would have been allowed to run amok.

What’s the point? Confrontation is healthy, especially for the purpose of preserving biblical truth, and preserving unity in the church. A biblical people will be a confronting people.

People, we must bring concerns about the teaching we hear to those teaching it. If you have a problem with something I’m preaching, you need to come and tell me! You are the checks and balances of the church! I am not infallible, nor are any of those in positions to teach in this church.

It is easy to make error when it comes to biblical truth; it’s easier still to allow error to become part of our thinking! Unchallenged bad teaching becomes a cancer in the church. Look at the Anglican Church in

Canada

. They have gone so far down the road of bad teaching that they don’t believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God anymore.

If you doubt something you’ve heard, you have to bring it to my attention. We’ll sit down together; we’ll pray about it, we’ll look to the Bible to guide us.

Fear of confrontation is not of the Holy Spirit, it is of the flesh! Fear of confrontation protects ourselves when really what we’re out to guard is the integrity of the Bible, the truth of the gospel.

The Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul mind and strength. The church today is so heavily weighted toward experience, that it has stopped thinking critically. We must be studying the Bible. We must be reading, going to Bible study. We cannot just get together for a good time (though good times are essential!). It is not just about experiencing God.

One of the things that were happening in the Galatian church was the Judaizers were imposing circumcision on the new Christian converts there. They were making something that was largely a social norm, a prerequisite to salvation. That wasn’t the only thing. The Judaizers tried to convince the Galatian Christians that they had to follow a whole bunch of guidelines and behaviors if they wanted to be saved. Many of the things they were pushing were merely social! They were Jewish customs, things that Jews had done for hundreds of years. If they had said, “you know, these aren’t keys to salvation, they’re just traditions we’d like to introduce”, things wouldn’t have been so bad. But they weren’t doing that. They were making their social traditions, their personal preferences, keys to salvation. They were adding to the gospel!

In the modern church we do it too. We allow traditions and personal preferences to become theological truths, almost prerequisites to salvation. Can you think of any?

Music—The debate between hymns and choruses! This is largely a social issue not a theological! I like hymns because parents who like hymns raised me. I think we should sing hymns!

I like contemporary because I grew up in the age of Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant. I like to sing contemporary choruses because I like rock and roll! One is not better than the other on any theological level this debate is mostly social. It is about preferences! We cannot place one over the other and suggest one is godlier than the other, more pleasing to God than the other. If we do that, we’re adding to the gospel!

Friends, we must distinguish between what is theological/biblical and what is social. For when we make social/preferences keys to salvation, we’ve added to the gospel.

The second application we get from this message is this: the gospel demands a personal response of faith. Titus was exhibit A, you could be exhibit B. At some point, Titus heard the message of the gospel—that a person is saved by faith in Jesus, and lives by the Holy Spirit—and made a personal response of faith.

He said, “Lord Jesus, I don’t fully comprehend what you did for me, but I believe by faith that you died so that I might be free from sin. I’m a sinner, and I need your forgiveness. I’m going to continue to struggle with sin, so I need your help. Please fill me with your Spirit so that I might obey you and live a holy life.”

Martin Luther once said, “Good works do not make a man good, but a good man does good works.” This is the essence of the last verse in our text today. In verse 10 Paul says, “All the Apostles asked us to do, after they affirmed our ministry to the Gentiles, was care for the poor. And I thought, excellent, we agree again! Caring for the poor is the thing I am most eager to do!”( 2:10 , paraphrase mine)

What’s Paul’s point? He’s saying that when someone believes in the gospel, puts their faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ, and lives by the Holy Spirit, their behavior changes. They want to do good works, they’re motivated by the freedom they have in Christ, to love others with similar freedom.

One’s acts of love describe their faith. James says, “Without works (of love), faith is dead.” Does works save us? Are we saved by good behavior? No! But when we are saved, when we live by faith, and are filled with the Holy Spirit we perform works of love!

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6).

Notes

[i] Much of the outline for this message is taken from a similar message preached by Pastor Brian Buhler of North Shore Alliance Church , North Vancouver , British Columbia . Brian is a spirit-led defender of the Gospel message. I am grateful to God for both Brian’s teaching, and his graciousness in allowing me to borrow his outline!

Fighting For the Gospel [i]

Galatians 2:1-10

The Big Meeting

Notes