Paul's History - Your History II

Good morning. Before we move into the passage for this morning, I'd like to take care of a couple of important things. One, we'd like to have Marianne Epps and Davis Hemingway step the way up here. Did we not end up with Davis here? Somebody go get him. Well, we'll have to get it to him otherwise. Why don't you come on up here? Just that's quite a step there. All right. Now, you don't have to stand in the light unless you like that. OK.

Now, so we're I guess there's already been a party to celebrate, but we want to acknowledge your graduation here. And so to do that, we'd like to give you some tools to help you and your further study of God's Word and urge that you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

And we'd also like to pray for you. Let's do that together. Lord we do pray for Mary Ann, and we just look to you to work in her heart and life and to grant her wisdom in the course ahead. And we do thank you for the wisdom that you've made available to us in and through your Word. And we thank you for your Holy Spirit's presence with us and comfort in guiding and leading as well. We give you thanks and we do hold up Mary Ann before you in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.

Okay, now, now it's time. Okay, we've been giving you little sneak peeks and lifting the curtain, things like that. Now it's time to sign up for the electives for next quarter. So there's a sign up sheet, assuming that everyone in Romans will stay in Romans. Okay, we encourage that. Principle and Principles of Grace is one that you may sign up for on the bulletin board in the lobby. And by the way, there's a pin right above that bulletin board, so if you need that. And then the other is the Sermon on the Mount. So those two will be available for the July through September quarter. And you can feel free to take advantage of those.

Okay, now, last week we started in the section of Scripture in Galatians 1. 11 and 12, and in Galatians 1, 11 and 12, a key point that he made there, Paul wrote to the believers at Galatia, for I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul made this point emphatically, and he's going to continue on the support for that point as we go through the passage here this morning. Furthermore, Verses 13 through 17, there's a key point in there, starting at verse 15.

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. I didn't go to other people. 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." Paul has made the point here that the Lord Jesus Christ directly gave him the gospel and directly assigned him the authority. He didn't need to go to the apostles in Jerusalem to get that authority or to get the information that he needed to pass on.

One of the things we pointed out last week, remember there's reference here to Arabia. Arabia is not the Arabia we think of now. It's rather a different reference in what was also then called Nabatea. And it was the area to the east and to the south of the area of Judea and around Jerusalem. And so Damascus, which he also makes reference to, is just to the north of this area known as Arabia or Nabatea. Petra was the capital city of this area that Paul refers to as Arabia. We pointed here in a sort of a larger satellite map to give you an idea, south of the Dead Sea.

We also pointed out that you may well have seen pictures of Petra before. if you have seen the third Indiana Jones movie. Paul was either in this very city or in that general area when the Lord appeared directly with him to convey to him the gospel and to give him the authority to preach the gospel. This is another view of that city of Petra to give you an idea of what Paul may have been around and in during that three-year period of time. There's another shot of Petra.

All right, now we're stepping into Galatians 1, 18 through 21 here, starting into the passage that Gene read for us. And looking at that passage, There's this word, then, that appears twice. We're not going to let that pass by unnoticed. Then this Greek word, epēta, conveys next or after that.

It has the idea of sequence. We pointed out after these things that John said repeatedly in the book of Revelation and actually appears in the Old Testament as well. And it has that same similar idea. The idea is that it is in sequence. There is a historical sequence that is involved. There is also a historical reality involved. Paul was describing real events. These are things that really happen. This is no Mother Goose tale. Next he says, three years later I went up to Jerusalem. Now, Paul wasn't in a hurry if he took three years to get there, right? Not in a hurry if he says, I'll get there eventually. Three years later, he went up and he didn't go to Jerusalem.

He wasn't in a big hurry because he was gaining knowledge directly from the Lord. He didn't have to go to the apostles to either get the knowledge of, you know, how did this Jesus fellow come about? He didn't have to go there. to get authority from the other apostles. The other apostles were not the ones to give him the authority. In fact, the other apostles had gotten their authority from the Lord, and he had gotten his authority the same way. So why was he in no hurry?

Because it was purposeful and far better to gain knowledge and authority directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that the way you would want it, if you were in that position? directly from the Lord Himself. The Lord Himself revealed these things, including truths, as we pointed out, that the other apostles weren't even given directly. That they had to learn it from Paul, interestingly enough. As we look here, just a reminder, this verse 12 of this chapter keeps coming back. I neither received it from man, that is, not even any of the apostles, nor was I taught it, Nobody handed it off to me, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Directly from the Lord himself.

Now, he went up to Jerusalem, and this is a slide not immediately in your handout. But just the point, going up to Jerusalem is a phrase you see from the Old Testament into the New. And guess why? If you're going to Jerusalem, you're probably going to go up. Whether you came from the west side or from the east side, it was up. And if you came from the east side, it was really up, because it was steep, quite steep.

Okay, get into the next part of verse 18, and it says, to become acquainted with Cephas. That was why he went there after three years. To become acquainted with him, certainly that would be a good thing. And to stay with him for a touch more than two weeks. So this Cephas, and it's actually in the original pronounced Cephas, was the Aramaic equivalent of Peter. Both of them mean rock.

And when Paul stayed with Peter, it was so that he could become acquainted with him, not for the purpose of, oh, I need to find out what the gospel is. I need to find out what actually happened. I need to find out what the essential truth is. Not for that purpose. It wasn't so that Peter could say, I, Peter, bestow upon you the authority. No, it wasn't for that. Paul had the authority directly from the Lord.

Verse 19, but I did not see any other of the apostles except James. And we'll talk about that in a minute. Paul didn't see the other apostles, it's interesting, he couldn't just call on his cell phone and say, hey are the other guys going to be there? So he showed up at a time when only Peter was there, of the twelve apparently, and the others must have been away on either teaching, which they were prone to do, or evangelism.

One of the things that we know that took place is that after the initial salvation of people in the area around Jerusalem, it moved out, didn't it? Moved out into the area of Judea. And so now there were more and more churches being established and they needed to be taught. And who better to have do that than the apostles to go out. So they had one there in Jerusalem when Paul was there.

And that's Peter, one of the 12 anyway. So we got to ask the question here because this passage begins to raise the question. Does Paul mean Apostles, which I somewhat in jest put with a capital A, or Apostles with a lowercase a? Which one is it? Now, the New Testament uses this word Apostle in a few different ways. It always has the general meaning of special messenger. That's always conveyed. But, even Christ is called the Apostle of our confession.

That's in Hebrews 1.3. And think about it, was the Lord Jesus sent as a special messenger? Certainly, the Lord Jesus was sent from God Himself, sent from Heaven as a special messenger, and I would say He was sent in a special way. And we observe that traditionally every December, right? That special way in which He was sent.

Later on in Galatians, here's another slide that's not in your handout, but later on in Galatians, Galatians 4, 4-7, and we'll not go through all of that. But, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

This word, sent forth, here, is ex apostello. It's the verb form of apostle. Christ was sent forth as a special messenger from the Lord. So Paul even underscores that point, but he was also sent not just in the sense of what we celebrate and observe around Christmas time, but he was sent also to convey a message and he spent three years with the disciples doing exactly that up until the very day that he ascended.

The Twelve. As a matter of fact, that term is used several times in the New Testament as a reference to these Twelve Apostles. They're listed in Acts 1, and also we see the selection of Matthias there as a replacement for Judas. So, completing still the Twelve.

And then, Paul is also an official Apostle, capital A. But he only saw Christ after his resurrection. It was by special arrangement, if you will, that Paul was made an apostle as well. Now, here's the point we wish to make and something that we see in this very passage. Sometimes others were called apostles when they acted alongside an official apostle. They were grouped in with them and called apostles as well.

Barnabas, for example, in the book of Acts was called an apostle. and Acts 14.4, but the people of the city were divided and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. Well, the only official apostle was Paul. But guess what? When one would act alongside an official apostle, they were sometimes grouped together called apostles in that sense.

We see a similar example when Paul is writing a letter to the church at Thessalonica, the very first letter. and he wrote alongside Silvanus, or Silas as he was also known, and Timothy. And so what we see right there in that context is even though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted, well, the reality is Paul was the singular official apostle, the others were included. Why? Same principle. They acted alongside an official apostle and were referred to informally, if you will, unofficially. Yeah, I agree. Good point. OK. Informally or unofficially, they were called apostles as well. OK.

Now, he says, except James, the Lord's brother. Well, James, as we see, was not officially one of the twelve. He's not on the list. You'll find more than one James in the list of apostles, but it's not this one. It's not James, the Lord's brother. He was included among the apostles in the same sense we just saw in these two passages in Acts and 1 Thessalonians, because he worked alongside the other apostles there in Jerusalem for many years. until he was martyred in about 62 AD. That was recorded by Josephus. We have several references to James working alongside the apostles there in the book of Acts. Let's think about James, the Lord's brother here, the brother of the Lord Jesus.

He was apparently not a believer until after Christ had been resurrected. Isn't that interesting? Not a believer until after Christ was resurrected. Where did we get that? John 7, 5. For not even his brothers were believing in him. Very clearly said. And so that not only means James, but the author of the book of Jude. Jude, Jesus' brother, was also not a believer until afterwards. Now, you can imagine this. Nazareth. Here's this little town. Estimates about 80 people. I mean, we're talking little. A little tiny town. You can imagine living in a little tiny town like this, and you're the younger brother of Jesus.

It would be almost impossible for Mary and Joseph to not say something like, why aren't you as good as your older brother? Why don't you do like your older brother does? Boy, your older brother is good. Would it not be difficult if you were Mary and Joseph realizing that he'd given birth to the Messiah, right? The one promised for a thousand years and more. It would be real difficult not to treat him different. You can, at least from a human viewpoint, understand how these other brothers might not be persuaded until they see Christ resurrected from the dead. To say, yeah, my older brother is actually the Lord of Glory. My older brother, yeah, he actually is the creator of the heavens and the earth.

The one who died for my sins. Wouldn't that be something? But after Christ was resurrected, James was one of those who saw Christ. Imagine Jesus showing up, you know, and he's got some marks on his hands and his side. And James says, oh, hi brother. Yeah, this has got to grab him. As a matter of fact, it certainly seems like he did. We see him mentioned there in Acts chapter 1, gathered among the rest. He did come to believe at that time.

Now, in verse 20, now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying. Now, it would be easy to read a comment like this as an indication that Paul is just getting very defensive, right? But let's think about what Paul is actually doing here. What's he doing? It's likely, especially because what you have is not only Paul telling the account, but various messengers going back and forth, and certainly these Judaizers coming in and spreading their own rumor. There are several accounts out there. What Paul is actually doing is just assuring them, this is the account. This account, the one that I'm telling you, versus the various ones that you've heard, this is the true one. This is the true one.

He says, Then I went after a two-week visit, in which I saw Peter and James the brother of the Lord, I went back to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. These would take him back to the area of Antioch, where he had been sent on missionary journeys. It would take him back, possibly to include Damascus, back to the place where he'd first become a believer, where Ananias had first met him there on Straight Street. and to Tarsus, his home city, the place where he had been born and to whatever extent grown up. So all those places would be included in Syria and Cilicia and he'd have reasons for returning to these places. Interesting, the Jerusalem visit was purposeful, but he had other places to go and reasons to get back.

These are some of the areas we see in the bottom part there, Jerusalem. To the north of there is Syria, would include Damascus and Antioch. The next rectangle up there would include Cilicia that he mentions and his home city of Tarsus. And then right north of there would be the cities in Galatia that we have been talking about and pointing out to you.

So he says, I went down to Jerusalem. I had a reason for going there for a couple of weeks, but I had to get back. I've got things to do and people to see and messages to pass along. I've got to be doing what the Lord has for me. Now, in verses 22 through 24, he starts off with, I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ.

See, Paul didn't spend time with these churches, the churches around Jerusalem. He didn't say, I spent two weeks with Peter and then spent two weeks with the other churches around there. No, he didn't go there. He instead said, I'm done here at Jerusalem. I'm heading back to the places where the Lord has me, the places where the Lord has commissioned me. So the believers in Judea, certainly in the area around Jerusalem, they'd heard of Paul, a famous or infamous fellow like that. Certainly he heard. But, they wouldn't have recognized his face. They couldn't just send an email. They couldn't just give him a website link. So, they would not have recognized him to his face. But they just heard the story. They heard the account.

That certainly they would hear. Verse 23. This is what they would hear. They kept hearing, he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy. The word from the apostles and certainly other believers in Jerusalem and Damascus, all the places where he'd been and those people would travel through and visit with the churches in Judea. They kept hearing. That's a present active participle, which has the idea they kept continuing. And even present, or even now, they're continuing to hear. All they have is certainly a message, just a message passed along by voice and by hearing. But that's all it is.

They wouldn't recognize him. He didn't spend time there. He didn't spend time hanging around Jerusalem or in the neighborhood even, because he went back home. They would hear about this once infamous persecutor. Oh boy, Saul. Boy, that guy is venomous. That guy is rabid. What? He's turned to the Lord? What? He's preaching the Gospel? This is phenomenal news. You've got to tell people about this. Especially so you don't have email. And you've got to send people in the next town because we can't call them up on their cell phones. So they would pass the word along.

He not only believed, but he actually preached the faith himself. Now this word pair of the faith, in the Greek it's also a word pair, is in the New Testament, it's a specific set of teachings. And it's used in that way. The word faith is sometimes used other ways, but the faith is used that way repeatedly throughout the New Testament. We give on the left side of your slide there examples of ways that it was used in the writings of Dr. Luke and the writings of Paul, and continuing from the writings of Paul even into Jude and Revelation, additional examples.

And Galatians 1.23, that's where we're at right now, pointing it out. It's the use of the faith. He talks about Paul as preaching not just the gospel that you need to be saved, but the whole set of teachings, the whole set of teachings that constituted the gospel, the teachings of the New Testament.

And I would also point out Jude 3 as a key passage. I'll let you look at that at your own convenience. Jude 3 is a key passage. That's also Christ's brother, one of those who would be in Nazareth and have a tough time thinking of my older brother as the Messiah.

But Jude says, I urge that you contend, that's epi agonizami, and I'll put it in modern parlance, that is a super Olympic effort. I urge that you contend for the faith. That set of New Testament teachings that was once for all, hapax, once for all delivered to the saints. Once given, perpetually valid. That's the meaning of that word. To the saints. They did it. The apostles did it. They passed it along. It's perpetually valid. It's good. Go with it. Matter of fact, don't just go with it. Go with it with an all-out effort. That's what Jude urges. That's what Jesus' younger brother said. This is also not an exhaustive list, there are other passages, but there's plenty here to work with. Alright, now, you have in here, at the end of verse 23, this word destroy. And this is translated from a Greek word that sounds like portheo, okay? Portheo, alright? And so, is this what Paul meant by portheo? Probably not, okay? I don't think he was thinking of that. Here's what he was thinking of. It was a word that is used in Acts, and we'll see in one more place, and here, three places.

It was a word that was referred to when an enemy attacked, taking what they wanted, and then ruining and wasting everything else. Leaving nothing. What they didn't take, they wrecked. That's the word that he used himself, and was used of him. regarding the Christians. Isn't that something? The Apostle Paul didn't want to just irritate the Christians or limit their activity a bit.

He wanted to wreck it. Ruin it. Leave it in utter ruins. Not rebuildable. That's what he had in mind. Is this not He who in Jerusalem destroyed? Korthael. those who called on His name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests. That's what Paul wanted, was a wreck and a ruin.

Galatians 1.13 was the word that he had used before, portheo. 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 portheo, destroy it. And finally, in this passage here, He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith that he once tried to prevail. Totally wreck and destroy so that it's unbuildable.

All three of the uses of that word are exclusively used of Paul's activities towards Christians. All three uses in the New Testament. Paul, the persecutor, didn't want to just irritate Christians, didn't want to cause them a slight problem. He wanted to make a wreck of Christianity. Now he's preaching it. You have on the bottom of page 3 of your handout, Galatians 11-24.

So this now includes last week's passage all the way through this week's, all in one swell foop. And anyway, I'll let you go through that. We won't take the time to go through that this morning, but I'll let you go through that at your leisure. And Lockwoods are understandably gone here making visits elsewhere, but we'll follow through on their idea and include this in a collection of expanded and explained for the whole book as we've done for Philippians. Okay. Now, what I would like to have us take a look at is this.

And they were glorifying God because of me. Now, Paul wasn't bragging at all. It's possible to get that idea, I suppose. Oh, they're glorifying God because of me. No, this is not Paul's point. He had said twice in the first chapter of this letter, and Dr. Luke confirmed it in Acts, Paul had been the archenemy of the church, seeking to portheo it, destroy it, to wipe it out, to make a complete, unrebuildable wreck of Christianity. But the radical transformation of Paul's life and heart from Saul to Paul by God's grace caused them to glorify God. See that? The radical transformation of Paul's life and heart by God's grace caused them to glorify God. Let's look at this last part here of the passage we've been looking at. They were glorifying God because of me. The believers in the churches of Judea were not glorifying Paul. Oh, man, Paul is so cool. He is just the best. He is the bomb. Right?

No, that's not what they were doing. He probably intended to be the bomb, but that's not what he had in mind. The believers in the churches of Judea were not glorifying God because of how great a guy Paul was in himself. Oh, Paul, he has just turned around, and you should see the effort that Paul's putting out here. Paul's just one super dude. No, that's not what they were doing. The believers in the churches of Judea were glorifying God.

Why? Because of the phenomenal, radical transformation of Paul, who started from Saul, entirely and only by grace. Radically changed by God's grace. All by God's grace. Yesterday, Nancy and I were taking a look at 1 Timothy 1, verses 12-16. Paul just is astounded at God's grace. Amazed, well, amazing grace. He continuously speaks in that passage about God's mercy and God's grace, God's patience with him. That transforming grace is what caused the believers in Judea to praise God, to glorify God. Transforming, amazing grace. Paul went from destroyer to builder.

We passed out, and made available anyway, this supplement in which we showed the reaction of Jews to the gospel. And one of the things we pointed out then, and we'll point it out again now, this fellow Saul, who was maximum law all the time. It's kind of like a cable channel, you know, you turn it on and it's just nothing but law on this channel. It's the law channel, okay? That was Paul. And here, This fellow, Saul, was completely switched over to one entirely, entirely transformed by God's grace.

No law involved. As we look at this passage here, we've got a question. And they were glorifying God because of me. Think about that for a minute. They were glorifying God because of me. Is that the end of people glorifying God? Wow, that was really great. Almost 2,000 years ago, they glorified God because of Paul, but it hasn't happened since then. Is that the end of it? Well, I hope you've got something to say. I'm done. Oh, I'm sorry. Since Paul was saved, Are we all done glorifying God? Do we have a part in glorifying God now, right here, right now? The answer is resounding yes.

1 Corinthians 6, 18-20, you have it on page 4 of your handout there. This is one where he says, flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body." Now, under law, Paul would have just said, flee immorality and just leave it that way, right? That law would have just left that. But he doesn't do that. Look what he says.

This word immoral or immorality here was a word that comes boldly out of the Corinthian culture. That's the church that he was writing to. It was so immoral a culture, so immoral that even the rest of the rampantly immoral pagan culture of the time thought those guys are really immoral. They even made a verb out of Corinth. for being immoral. It was that bad. But when you look at it, these words which are porneia and porneio, the Greek words from which we get our terms pornography and porn, Paul is about to tell us, however, why we must flee. And it's something that the law did not offer. Two reasons. He's going to give us two. Two principles we can work from. First one, verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? First reason.

In the temple in Jerusalem, they had in the middle part of the temple, the holiest part called the Naas. They had a curtain in front of the Holy of Holies to separate that off. That Holy of Holies was the place where the Jews viewed God as dwelling. What's the principle here? We glorify God in our bodies when we realize that the Holy Spirit of God dwells within us, just as they The Jews viewed the Holy of Holies as being the dwelling place of God.

That makes each believer, each one of us, a temple. In chapter 3 it said you as a church body together are a temple. Now in chapter 6 it says you, each one of you, is a temple. If you are a believer here this morning, I'm very glad for this facility that we have and I'm glad that the deacons do so much to take care of it. But this isn't the house of God. You are. If you're a believer here this morning, you are the house of God.

That's what Paul says. The Holy Spirit who dwells within us will direct our attention to and fill us with the person and life and word of Jesus Christ. We glorify God in our bodies when we view the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in His filling us with Christ as a priority claim. That's what Paul was trying to get them to see. He could have just ended it with flea immorality and it would have been fine and that would have just ended it all in law. He says there's two reasons. The first of which is you are a temple. First reason has to do with who you are. And it's not just you. It's the who that you hold.

Paul wrote, we have this treasure in 2 Corinthians, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. So we're a temple no matter where we happen to be, even if we're here. Each believer is a temple. We're a temple and something to consider when we have the ability to bring things out into our homes. You went into our church here. We're a temple. Something to be thought about then too. Some years back, and I'm getting to think this, three decades, a fellow that Nancy and I used to know wrote the first couple of parts of this song. And if you'll endure it, I'll try to sing it for you here.

We are the holy of holies. Don't veil the door, don't veil the door. We have a spirit controlling. Don't hide the source, don't hide the source. God wants to do a work in our lives. and to share His glory and fame. If we try to do it ourselves, we must wear veils of shame. Keep on beholding His glory. Don't veil the door. Don't veil the door. Growing from glory to glory, don't hide the source, don't hide the source.

You see, when our clothes are holy, others can see what's inside. When we're holy, others can see what or who is inside us. Now, for part two, second part. For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. The first issue is one of who dwells. The second issue is who owns. The Lord paid full price for every one of us. No bargain deals, no 20% off coupon. Full price for every single one of us.

So these are two truths about us glorifying the Lord. Glorify the Lord in your body. But we're not quite done. We have an insight into how God can use us to cause others to glorify God. How about that? 1 Peter 2, at the end of verse 12, Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers... Oh boy, that feels good. They may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation."

I'll tell once briefly about a fellow I knew whose name was Vince. Vince discovered that I believed in God and he immediately thereafter said, Vern, I'm an atheist. I said, that's good, let's have dinner together. And so I had dinner with him and he went off and I didn't see him again after that for a year. One day I looked over in church and there was Vince. I couldn't wait for the church service to be over. Church service is over, I go running over to Vince. Vince, what are you doing here? He says, oh, I'm a former atheist.

Now, here is on the day of visitation, literally a day of visitation, the Greek actually doesn't have the definite article. It's a day that Christ comes to a person in salvation. And we've had that confirmed by several passages in Luke and Acts and in Hebrews. Those are given on your handout there. They will glorify God in the day that they are saved, even though they may slander you now.

Live. How? Live because the Holy Spirit is in you, prior truth. Live because you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Live because you are a walking, rolling around on wheels, temple of God. Live because Jesus Christ paid full price for you. No bargain deal. Full price for you.

In such a way, not by your own doing, but by all of what God has done, live in such a way that those who may slander you now will one day come to know the Lord personally and glorify God in that day. Live that way. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, as we look at how you worked a miracle of transforming grace in Paul's life, we certainly look at our own lives and we're not Paul. And yet you have done no less a miracle of transforming grace in our lives. And we just pray that that would be daily more evident to us and more evident to those who would one day glorify you in that day of visitation, that day of salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.