At the church where I serve, we are spending this
election season in a sermon series entitled vote no on religion. We are looking
at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament in our Bibles today
called the Book of Galatians and are discovering that this election has been
going on for thousands of years. Every day, we cast a ballot in this election
for one of two candidates. Either you cast a ballot to vote to live your life
as a religious-centered person; or you cast a ballot to live your life as a
gospel-centered person.
This week, as we continue to look at this letter, we will
see Paul continue to defend himself against the accusations of those who proclaimed
the false gospel of religion and promoted a religious centered lifestyle. And
it is in his defense that we will see Paul reveal for us another timeless
reason why we are to vote no on religion. So let’s look together at Paul’s
defense, beginning in Galatians 2:1:
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
of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.
Paul begins this section of his
letter to the churches of Galatia by continuing the share the testimony of his
transformation from being a religious centered person to a gospel centered
person. Last week, in Galatians 1:11-24, Paul shared how his religious centered
life was turned upside down as a result of his encounter with Jesus Christ
after He had been raised from the dead on the road to Damascus, which is also
recorded for us in a letter that was recorded for us in the New Testament of
our Bibles today called the book of Acts, in Acts 9.
Paul reminded the Galatians
that early followers of Jesus were afraid of Paul and that only fifteen days
after arriving in Jerusalem, Jewish religious people who were Greek ethnically
responded to Paul’s presence by attempting to kill him. Paul wanted the
Galatians to clearly understand that he never had the time or opportunity to
learn and be taught a message that he had heard and learned from others.
Here we see Paul continue to
share his story by explaining that fourteen years after fleeing Jerusalem, in
what was now 47 A.D., that he and Barnabas returned again to Jerusalem. Now a
natural question that arises is “what was Paul doing those fourteen years?” In
Acts 11:25, we discover that Paul had been in Tarsus. Barnabas, who Paul
mentions in Galatians 2:1, was sent to bring Paul from Tarsus to the church at
Antioch. During those fourteen years, Paul had been sharing the claims of
Christ and the message of the gospel throughout the region of Tarsus, which is
located in Southeastern Turkey, to Antioch.
And after fourteen years of
spending time sharing the gospel and being discipled by Jesus, Paul received a
revelation from Jesus to go back to Jerusalem. So Paul, Barnabas, and Titus
proceeded to travel to Jerusalem. Paul’s point here is that he did not make
this visit on his own initiative, or at the request of the leaders of the
church at Jerusalem, or by the church at Antioch. Paul’s visit was independent
of any influence other than Jesus.
Paul then reveals the reason
for the visit to Jerusalem in verse 2: “and I submitted to them the gospel
which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who
were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.” Now this word submitted, in the language that
this letter was originally written in, literally means to lay something before
someone for consideration. Paul is literally saying “I laid my gospel before
them for consideration”.
However, he did so in private;
in other words, Paul had a special meeting with the influential leaders of the
church at Jerusalem. Paul then uses an athletic metaphor to paint a picture of
the concern that he had: “for fear that I might be running, or had run, in
vain.” The word vain here conveys the
sense of doing something that is without purpose or result.
You see, Paul was concerned
that the gospel that he was publicly proclaiming to the non-Jewish world would
cause division among those who were Jewish who were becoming followers of Jesus.
Paul’s fear was the there would be a Jewish Christian Church and a Gentile
Christian Church. Paul was concerned that the message of the gospel that he was
publicly proclaiming would divide the church and thus hinder God’s kingdom
mission. It was not that Paul thought that the message of the gospel that he
was proclaiming was wrong; I mean he had received that message from Jesus
Himself.
And Paul had been running; he
had been striving and exerting himself to spread that message. And now Jesus
had sent Paul down to the leaders of the church at Jerusalem to consider that
gospel message to ensure that there would be unity and not division when it
came to the message and mission of this new movement called the church.
Tomorrow, we will see Paul reveal
what happened after the leaders of the church at Jerusalem considered the
message of the gospel that he was proclaiming…
No comments:
Post a Comment