Jerusalem Council Conclusion

Well, this morning we're going to continue on in Galatians chapter 2. Actually, we're going to finish up what's been called the Jerusalem Conference. And this will be the third message we've had on this. J.D. did it two weeks ago. He did a great job. I'd like to kind of try to tie it together.

And then actually Mike's going to follow this with the events that happened after the conference. where Peter goes back to Antioch from Jerusalem, and things kind of fall apart. But what's amazing about this conference is that there is an agreement between Peter, James, and John, and Paul, and Barnabas. And they shake hands, so to speak. And that actually has quite a bit of significance.

And remember what kind of kicked this off, back in Acts, Chapter 15, verse 1 it says, some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Then later they said, it is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the law of Moses. Well, when the brethren at Antioch heard of that, they said, boy, we've got a problem here. That can't be part of the good news. That can't be part of being saved by grace. So they went to Jerusalem, and they met with the apostles, Peter, James, and John, and had this conference or meeting.

And the question really was, Is salvation by faith alone? Is there anything else we need to add to salvation? The Jewish mindset was, well, we ought to hang on to the law and hang on to baptism. It seems reasonable to us that we should hang on to that. But that goes contrary to what the gospel is all about.

So let's just kind of look here. So that was the impetus for this conference. So let's just look at this outline. which we looked at before here. So basically, in the conference, Paul, in verses 1 and 2 of Galatians chapter 2, we see he brings along Titus with him. He has a plan for that. And actually, during that time period, they accept Titus in verse 3. And we're going to go a little bit deeper with this as we get going here. And then the opponents arise here that want to bring back the law.

And Paul defends it. He says, we won't even submit to them for an hour. And then what's kind of cool is the last two, F and G there in this outline, Paul makes a strong point, and Jay did a good job on this, that the apostles didn't contribute anything to Paul's ministry or his gospel, the gospel of grace. They didn't contribute anything.

But what's amazing is they confirmed his ministry. They agreed with his ministry. So that's hopefully what I can show you today, that there was an agreement which was significant that occurred at this conference. Okay, so let's just, we'll kind of start, we'll kind of walk through this slowly.

In verse 1, then after an interval of 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem. Remember, the way it seems like they counted time, Paul was in his writings there. He was counting from the time of his conversion. So there actually was an 11-year gap between the time he had been in Jerusalem before until this time. So 11 years had passed from the last time he was in Jerusalem.

And actually, previously in Jerusalem, he had met with Peter and with James. And so they had an interchange there. But this interchange they had at this conference was much more significant. And he brought Barnabas along. Paul did. And that was part of his plan.

And basically, he points out that his whole motivation for going to Jerusalem again the second time was by a revelation. And I kind of give a definition. A revelation is according to something especially revealed by God. So his point was, This wasn't something he just kind of thought up, hey, it'd be a good idea to go back to Jerusalem and hang out with the apostles and find out what they're talking about and we'll kind of have, no. God directed him. It also says that if we look back in Acts, that he was encouraged to go too. But I believe the revelation, as Paul declares here, is the main motivation to go to Jerusalem to settle this problem.

And he talks about submitting to them. And I think them, it talks about the brethren in Jerusalem. So he's going to submit to them the gospel, which I preached, he continually preached. He did it in a two-pronged attack. With the brethren, he did it kind of, it seems like, in public, so to speak. But with the apostles, with Peter, James, and John, he did it in private. He wanted to kind of have a face-to-face, if you will, to make sure that they understood what he was saying.

There was no misunderstanding. And as we go on to verse 3, so I covered part of it and JD finished the rest of it here in the past weeks. So basically one of his early victories here at this conference was that Titus was accepted, even though he's a Gentile, he was accepted as a believer. He wasn't required to be circumcised. And that was a victory for Paul and for the fact that circumcision isn't required.

Actually, there's a correlation here. Some body of believers, if you aren't baptized, then you can't be in the body of Christ. Whereas there was kind of a parallel back then. If you weren't circumcised in their mind, well, you can't be part of the body of Christ. Interesting, and that's the whole message unto itself.

OK. Then he talks about these false brethren that kind of were smuggled in and they wanted law versus grace and they sneaked in despite our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. And I thought about that, you know, the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus is grace. That's a wonderful liberty that we have.

And I kind of have a paraphrase here, they stole in, they slipped in with a purpose to bring us into bondage. If you think about it, You know, living under the law system is bondage. Because it says, do this, don't do that, do this. And so you're constantly thinking, did I do that right? Did I do this wrong? That's not grace. That's not what God has in mind.

That points back to the old Mosaic system, which is bondage. And Galatians is all about that. We're going to learn a lot about the bondage of the law. So going on, but we did not yield in subjection. And the idea is to line up under. It's a military term.

They didn't line up under for even an hour. They didn't give credence to what they were talking about in terms of the law so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. But from those who were of high reputation, and that's James, Cephas, and John, What they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. So Paul makes the point, and maybe it sounds a little bit harsh maybe here, that these men didn't add anything. And that's going to be a real interesting contrast. They didn't add something to what Paul already was preaching, or already was saying. They didn't add anything to the truth. And he basically says that. They added nothing to Paul's authority or his gospel.

So now, So that's through verse six. So now we're going to kind of look at this section here. And you'll notice, if I had my, let's see, there's a pointer. Well, anyway, I think there's a pointer here. I don't know. Anyway, I got all kinds of brackets in this chart. This is an engineer's chart. Courtney would love this chart. But what I've done here, and actually some of the translators have already done, verse eight is like a parenthetical statement. But there's actually another parenthetical statement with the double red brackets, if you will. So the main thrust of this, now I'm going to read the whole thing, the main thrust is really the part outside the brackets.

Paul had a, well you've noticed, in Paul's writing, he will start down a line of thought, and all of a sudden he'll say, oh, I didn't tell you about God's grace. Oh, I didn't tell you about God's love. He'll start down a line of thought, and then he'll jump, and that's what he does here. So let me just read it here, verse 7 through 9.

But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. And then here's a parenthetical within a parenthetical. And he says, for he who effectually worked in Peter and his apostleship to the circumcised, effectually worked in me also to the Gentiles. And recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas a right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised."

So what can we say about that? Maybe kind of a summary. So it's one sentence. It has a period at the end of verse 9. So that's one sentence. There's multiple parenthetical expressions in there. And actually, they're going to tell us why they were able to have the handshake, the symbolic handshake, which is a lot more than just symbolism. And there's actually a contrast between 7 and 9 in verse 6. And the contrast is this.

Paul makes a big deal that the apostles, Peter, James, and John, added nothing to his gospel or his authority. On the contrary, they gave to him the right hand of fellowship. They didn't add anything, but they agreed that God was working in him. Just as they worked in Peter, James, and John, they agreed that it was working in Paul's life. And that was a huge step, the fact that they saw that Paul was God's instrument. And what Paul was preaching was the true gospel, and he had the authority to preach it. And that was a huge agreement that they came to. OK, so this part here, I've taken out the parenthetical statements, and here's just the thrust of 7 through 9.

But on the contrary, James, Cephas, and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. So they also saw there was a division of labor, if you will, and that didn't didn't give them a problem. They, Peter, James, and John, they were the apostles to the Jews. And they saw that Paul was the apostle, and Barnabas were the apostles to the Gentiles. And that was OK. That was fine. OK, so let's just kind of go through this and look at the.

So the main thrust here is that they gave to them the right hand of fellowship. And this is a word to give a one's own accord. And it has a purpose. They gave that so that this could happen, this division of resources, if you will, could happen. They would go to the Gentiles, and Peter, James, and John would go to the circumcised. So that's the first point. And it's in the Aorist tense, which is a statement of fact. This is a fact that it happened. So what's the significance of the right hand in scripture?

We're going to look at that a little bit. And then why they had met, this is the second This is the second time they've met. They met 11 years before. And so why couldn't they have this handshake 11 years before? So that's one of the questions I want to try to answer.

And I think it's actually I didn't have to answer it. It's in it's in it's in the text, but maybe not as obvious. It's in those parentheses. It's in the you know, it's in the details. So it's there. And hopefully you'll agree with me and we'll have the right hand of fellowship. OK. All right, so here we go.

So let's first look at what's the significance of the right hand in scripture. And boy, this is actually a pretty big topic. If you look at scripture, you're going to see there are phrases like the right hand, God's right arm, God's right side. So that all speaks of a place of blessing, a place of honor, a place of privilege. And there's just a multitude of verses. This is just going to be a small snapshot. So here's a couple of verses.

In Psalm 1835 it says, you have also given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand upholds me. So at God's right hand, we see that he upholds us. In Psalm 1611 it says, in your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So we see a further revelation. His right hand is the place where everything is happening, so to speak. There's pleasures forevermore.

And then in the New Testament it says in Romans 8.34, Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God. So the Son is at God's right hand. In Ephesians, when he raised him from the dead, Christ, and seated him at the right hand of God in heavenly places. So this right hand is in heavenly places. Now we get involved. This is the wonderful news.

Where are we? This is something we say a lot here at Holly Hills. You know, keep looking down. Why do we say keep looking down? Well, this verse is going to tell us. Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

And we're seated there with him. So the right hand has tremendous importance. And then actually, I found this in Wiest, one of my favorite people, Bob Oysa, points that out. And I do like, he has a lot of cool things to say. I think Mike's, I'm getting Mike on board here these days. So, okay.

The custom of giving the hand of a pledge, a friendship or agreement has been found among both the Hebrews and the Greeks. On Roman coins, there's often two hands joined with various inscriptions, speaking of a concord of agreement. So it's a well, I guess the point is there's going to be two levels of this right hand I see. One level is the fact that it was common custom to do that, to give the right hand, to shake the right hand.

That said, we agree and we do it today. Isn't that what we see many times? You know, dignitaries, they will, in their conference or their meeting, and they'll shake hands and say, OK, something happened. Usually it's not good, but whatever, they shook hands. So anyway, so OK, so that's kind of on the world level, if you will. And actually, even more wonderful, on the scriptural level, the right hand has a lot of meaning in terms of us as believers.

OK, so now let's look at those parenthetical statements. So there's two cool. Segments here and it's on your handout. I so the two cool statements in the two parenthetical statements and actually it's in the outer one First of it, but on the contrary seeing That I had been entrusted with a gospel to the uncircumcised.

So first of all, they saw something They seeing and they saw something and then second if you jump past verse 8 they saw something and they recognized the grace that had been given to me and And then they could shake their hands. So two things happened. They saw something and they recognized something. So those are the two big... And this is kind of my little take on it. This was sort of their a-ha moment.

It doesn't really say it was an a-ha moment, but it says they saw something and they recognized something. So if you're going along in your life and you say, whoa, look at that. Or you're reading devotional and you say, whoa, look at that. I didn't see that before. This was their a-ha moment. They saw something in Paul, and they recognized something in Paul.

So now we're going to dive deeper into those two phrases there. But isn't it kind of interesting how this is to me, I think this is cool, how this one, 7 through 9, is one sentence, and there's kind of these parts in here, and they're saying this and that. I don't know. That's me. Anyway, OK, first statement. Those of reputation, James, Cephas, and John, gave the right hand of fellowship because, A, seeing that I, Paul, have been entrusted with the gospel of the uncircumcised. Now also, Peter also says that Peter was entrusted too.

So it's like that I recognize, I say, the Lord's speaking through Mike. When he speaks and he speaks God's word, I can see the Lord speaking through him. And I can say, well, you know, sometimes when I speak, I think the Lord is speaking through me, too.

Hey, we got the same deals going on. It doesn't elevate me. It just says, hey, that's how God works. When you present his word, the Lord can use that to encourage other people. So Peter kind of identified with where Paul was at and what happened in his life, too. Then B, they recognized the grace that had been given to me, Paul. So I think that's really cool. They recognized grace. Boy, that's huge, I think. Because actually, the Jews were not much about grace. If you think about it, their whole system was not much about grace. It was all about, are you following that law? Even the believing ones, it seems like. And that was the big hurdle that had to be overcome here.

Okay, so A, seeing that I, Paul, have been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised. So actually we're going to see that seeing and recognizing are actually two forms of the word know in the original. Seeing is the word oia, to see not only with the eyes but also to perceive something with the mind and senses.

Okay, so I have an example from my my other duties during the week. Bonnie and I have the pleasure. It's not duties, it's a pleasure. We get a chance to go and visit the grandkids. And you know, we walk in sometimes, and it's like the King of England just arrived. They come screaming down, Oh, Nana and Papas! And they jump on us, and we have a great time, and all this kind of stuff. But sometimes we go, and it's quiet. Nothing's happening. And they're sitting on the couch, They're looking at some video, and they're quiet.

They're not feeling well, it looks like. Well, why are they not feeling well? Well, this idea of seeing or perceiving is like... So we asked their mother, well, how come they're... Well, they didn't sleep last night. They had a bad night. They ate this food, whatever it might be. Well, we had to look below the surface.

We had to perceive why were they acting the way they were. It was because there was something else going on. So this word perceiving is to see something with the mind and senses, to take it in. The term women's intuition, which I think is a lot of this, is this perceiving that just by the feel of things, just by what words are said, there's a lot that's communicated.

So this is what Peter saw in Paul. He perceived God is working in Paul's ministry. And then a scriptural example, this one always just blows my circuits here. So it starts off Romans 1 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen. Let's just stop right there. So how can we do that? His invisible attributes. How do I see invisible attributes? How do I see his eternal power? How do I see his divine nature? Well, the rest of the verse tells us that, but you just stop right there and you think, that's impossible.

No, it says, being understood through what has been made. So we look at his creation, we start looking at his creation, and we say, wow, you look at the macro level, the stars, you look at the microscope and you see all this, you see the human body, Bob spends his whole life studying. Wow, this is amazing, this is incredible. That's how I can see, that's how I can understand, I can perceive.

So that's just what this word is all about. They saw this having, they thought he had been entrusted. So he was given, Paul was given or entrusted with something, to someone. He was entrusted with the gospel, right? And it says this in 1 Thessalonians 2.24. But just as we, Paul, have been approved by God to be, same word, to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but as pleasing God. So they saw The apostles, they saw in Paul, they saw that he had been entrusted with, in his precious care, this gospel, to give it out to men.

That's what they saw. So that was the first thing. So the second thing, whoops, I didn't do the right point by point. They recognized the grace that had been given to me, Paul. So this word recognize is another form of the word know, it's gnosko. It's to know by experience. And I think one of the cool things here, here's John the Apostle. He says in 1 John, he says, we know. So he answers the question, how do we know love? So I can ask us, how do we know love? And Paul's answer to that is, John's answer to that is, we know love by this, that he, Christ, laid down his life for us.

So he saw that. He was eyewitness to that. The Apostle John saw that. So that's a know of experience. So that's the other part of that. They saw and they recognized. And Peter testifies that, I believe. He testifies and acts there that this know of experience, it says, but we believe that we are saved. This is Peter talking, but we believe that we are saved. through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the same way that they, the Gentiles, are also saved."

Well, that's a huge statement for a Jew. He's admitting that he's saved just as the Gentiles were saved, rather than the reverse. You Gentiles got to be saved like we're saved. You got to get some law in there, and you got to get some circumcision. He says that we're saved just like the Gentiles, a total flip around, which is just amazing.

OK, so now. So we've covered if you look at the text, you know, of basically eight through ten or I'm sorry, seven through ten. We've covered seven, basically seven and nine. We kind of left out the eight part that one of the parentheses here and the eight section talks about kind of a wonderful topic here.

And this is one of Paul's digressions. It talks about his working in Peter and Paul's life to reach both Jew and Gentile. So verse 8 says, for he who affectionately worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised affectionately worked for me also to the Gentiles. So for he who affectionately worked. Kind of maybe a more literal, easier way to say that would be God having worked effectively. So God worked effectively in Peter. And this working is this idea of energizing. And I always like the energizer bunny. Energeo is a word to put forth power. And we see that word, it kind of shows up in the Thessalonians passage here.

For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as a word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." So this digression that Paul's making here, he's saying God is working in Peter and he's working in Paul. He's doing both of that. And his apostasy to the circumcised effectually worked in me, Paul, also for the Gentiles. So he worked in Peter, he effectively worked in Peter, and he effectively worked in Paul.

So that's that little digression. Then we go on to verse 10. So at the end of the day, after they shook hands, there was only one additional thing that Paul was asked about. They only ask us, Paul's speaking here, they only ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

So Paul actually has quite a history in his concern for the poor. If you look in Corinthians and in Acts, you'll see that on quite a few occasions Paul will be involved in the collection of money for the poor. He speaks about, and he commends, in Corinthians, he commends certain body of believers for their giving to the poor that they gave out of their poverty. They were poor, but they still gave more than people who were, quote, rich. So Paul has a long history in that, and it's the idea that we should keep on remembering the poor. And the poor comes from the word, it's like a cower, like a beggar.

I thought we had another good comment here. This passage implies that there was a state of chronic poverty there, as does Paul's effort in collecting money on his missionary journeys. So there's a passage here that I'd like to just kind of work through here. So in Acts 11, this is on one of his journeys, I'm not sure.

Anyway, the statement is that basically, now at this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. So it seems like, remember the thing before? Jerusalem's up high, you know, it's 2,500 feet. So they come down from Jerusalem. They're always coming down or going up. So they came down to Antioch. And they came down because there was a certainty of a great famine over all the world, and it's during the reign of Claudius.

And then 29 kind of gets to the point. And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea. And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders." So Paul had no problem with agreeing to that. OK.

So just some final thoughts here. So I kind of gave you the significance of the right hand in the culture, and also the significance of the right hand in terms of what we see in scripture about our place with our Savior. But I think there's maybe some bottom line comments here about what the agreement really was. I believe there was a unity of mind between Paul and Peter. I actually didn't get the rest of that.

Unity in the mind was Christ. Christ was working. Christ was working in Paul's ministry. Christ was working in Peter's ministry. And they agreed to that. They saw that. And there was unity of message. It was the gospel of grace, not law. We saw what Peter said in Acts there. He says, men are saved by grace. That's a huge statement for Peter to make.

And then purpose. The unity of purpose was that Paul was to go to the Gentiles and Peter to the Jews. Think about that. That's the entire world. So they're fulfilling the Great Commission, if you will. You know, Paul to the Gentiles, Peter to the Jews.

So we see this right-handed fellowship was significant. And we're going to see next week when Mike gets into the... We're going to see how men can have the truth in their heads, and we the same way. We can know the truth, but sometimes when it gets down to the nitty-gritty things of life, and we see situations, we do what we shouldn't do. We do the opposite. Peter does what he shouldn't do, just like we do. We may know the truth, but we may not live the truth. And it's a good testimony to us to remember that. Just knowing the truth isn't what it's all about. It's living the truth, and believing the truth, and acting in truth.

So hopefully this is kind of summing up the first 10 verses. Chapter 2 of Galatians and then we're at the last part of Galatians gonna really get we're gonna really ramp up here We're gonna get into the the cool part cooler part of Galatians Okay, well, let's close in prayer then we thank you so much father. We thank you for our time today here Lord Thank you for your marvelous truths and Galatians father. We thank you for your love for us in Christ's name. Amen