Galatians 2:11-21

One of the all-time Christian memory verses, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (v. 20) This verse is so often quoted and more often alluded to, as in “You have been crucified with Christ…”! And it is a powerful verse. We who have accepted Jesus are no longer the same persons as in our former lives.

It’s unfortunate that verse 20 so quickly catches our eye that we can easily miss the next verse: I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly. (v. 21) This verse is also a powerful verse, but so easily overlooked! Jesus dying needlessly…??!! Through all that suffering…??!! What a horrible thought!! That thought alone ought to propel us to grab onto the Gospel of grace – it’s not by our works that we are saved!! Folks, this verse is an evangelism tool. When someone says something like, “I think I’ll go to heaven; I’m basically a good person…”, then you can respond with “So Jesus wasted His time dying on the cross…?”

There’s more in today’s reading, but I’ll leave it at that!

Slava Bohu!

Galatians 2:1-10

One quick comment – Paul will frustrate you with his parenthetical expressions (vv. 2, 4, 6, 8; occasionally comments set off by dashes instead of parentheses). These side comments can easily distract you from his main point in the rest of the sentence. So my advice to you is to jump over these parenthetical expressions and read the full sentence by itself; it will be much more clear. Then go back to what he has said in the parenthetical expressions – what he has said there is relevant and worthwhile. [BTW, different translations may or may not set those comments off by themselves. The ESV clearly sets them off.]

I was confused in verse 2, Paul talking about a trip to Jerusalem: I went up because of a revelation… I didn’t recall any revelation for Paul other than his initial encounter with Jesus and his time in the Arabian desert. So I went back to Acts 15. Verse 2 reports that Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem…, followed immediately by the beginning of verse 3, So, being sent on their way by the church… So I imagine that the “revelation” that Paul mentions could have been a corporate Holy Spirit witness to Paul, Barnabas, and the Antioch leaders rather than a personal revelation to Paul.

In an earlier post about the Jerusalem Council, in the context of the much-debated circumcision issue, I had said that I imagined that Barnabas and Paul and the Jerusalem leaders had taken time to discuss this item among themselves. Paul’s parenthetical expression in verse 2 seems to confirm this: (though privately before those who seemed influential). A small item, but worthy of note.

It is troubling to see dissension being sown in this early church: Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in… (v. 4). In Acts 15:1 these “Judaizers” had come to Antioch, openly expressing (maybe demanding) their position: 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.” Theirs was a very different approach than the one mentioned in verse 4, “secretly brought in”. Troubling…

I guess I could go on and on, but enough is enough!

Slava Bohu!

Galatians 1:11-24

Paul again defends his apostleship here, in three parts. First, …the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (vv. 11-12) Here Paul is claiming “divine revelation”, not human transmission. He follows up that first statement with a second: I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. (vv. 16-17) Again, he dismisses any human intervention. He makes special mention of “…apostles before me”, very subtly acknowledging his own apostleship. Finally, his third defense is easy to miss: But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. (v. 19) Here Paul includes James among the “other apostles” – even though James was also not of the original twelve or the eleven-plus-one, Paul includes him as an apostle, the same claim he is making for himself.

Theologically, none of this is crucial – whether or not today we refer to Paul as an apostle. However, I think it gives us a window into Paul’s personality. I see him as quite defensive, maybe even a bit insecure – in spite of his own extreme confidence in who he is. It might help us to understand some of Paul’s later writings if we see where he is coming from.

Slava Bohu!

Galations 1:1-10

Epistles…! Here we are! We have arrived. We are more than halfway through Acts and only 1/6 of the way through the year. So the remaining ten months will be mostly readings from the Epistles. Letters from apostles to churches with a bit of history and a lot of theology! It’ll be a tougher grind for most of us – but that just means that we’ve got a lot to learn!!

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father… (v. 1). I can’t say how I know it or how many places I’ve read it, but it has long been in my mind that Paul often labored to defend his apostleship. He needed to exert his authority, since he was not one of the original twelve or of the eleven-plus-one. However, he considered himself fully an apostle, having received his gift of faith directly from Jesus as he was on his way to Damascus, then was further nurtured in the Lord through his three years in the Arabian desert. We will see this defense of his apostleship in more of his writings and in much greater detail in II Corinthians 10-13.

…but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (v. 7) Here is another continuing thread that we will see in Paul’s letters – false gospels! Somehow he gets word of some bad preaching and he needs to counter that teaching. Today we laud him for that, but back then it must have been a terrible burden for him and his teaching to be challenged by others. Unfortunately for him, he knew from where he had come – and he knew that others knew – and I doubt that he could ever forgive himself his past life. I’ve always felt sorry for him in this regard.

Slava Bohu!

Acts 15:30-35

Depending on the translation that you are reading, the following verse may be absent: But it seemed good to Silas to remain there. (v. 34) [NOTE: The ESV has it in a footnote.] But it’s a key verse, as we will see in a few weeks when Silas becomes Paul’s missionary companion.

“Encouragement” shows up twice in these few verses – first in verse 31 when the letter from the apostles and elders is read and second, when Judas and Silas strengthen and encourage the congregation. And it’s not the first time in Acts that we’ve seen “encouragement”, first and foremost with Barnabas himself, whose name means “Son of Encouragement”. We could learn from them!

Slava Bohu!

Acts 15:22-29

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us… (v. 28). This verse has always struck me positively every time I read it – “…to the Holy Spirit and to us…”. The apostles and elders clearly had the Holy Spirit first in their lives – individually and corporately. And with that they were able to come to (what seems to be) unanimous agreement on the message that they were sending to Gentile believers. They had already used Scripture to support their resolution of the main issue (vv. 16-18, earlier, quoting Amos 9:11-12) and now Holy Spirit guidance in putting forth their message.

But there was one other item in their message – reality: the reality of life in the Gentile world and the reality of Jewish history and customs. The prohibition on sexual immorality and on sacrifices to idols struck directly at the Gentile world, where idol worship and cult prostitution were common. The apostles and elders wanted to make a strong statement to non-believing Gentiles that these Gentile believers were different, that they recognized only the one true God. The restriction on blood and strangling were targeted to Jewish believers, so that the Gentile believers would not offend their Jewish brethren. Both of these restrictions come from Leviticus 17:11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Eating/drinking blood was clearly prohibited. And since there is no blood shed when an animal is strangled, the blood remains within and falls under the same restriction.

Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and reality – a good combination for us to live by.

Slava Bohu!

Acts 15:6-21

Four names are mentioned in today’s reading: Peter/Simeon, James, Barnabas and Paul. [Notice that Barnabas is mentioned first here (v. 12); this is common when the two of them are in Jerusalem.] So of these four, Peter had trips to Samaria and Caesarea; Barnabas and Paul went to Cyprus and Asia Minor; and James stayed behind in Jerusalem. Yet James comes out as the leader, the spokesman, if you will. After all the others have spoken, his is the final say. But his final words come after much listening: And after there had been much debate… (v. 7); And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened… (v. 12).

I had said yesterday that this Jerusalem Council offers lessons for unity and church leadership. These few verses describe that perfectly. I have no doubt that during the “much debate” in verse 7 (I imagine that as a free-for-all discussion) that James and Peter were discussing the circumcision issue with the other church leaders – The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. (v. 6). Then they took the time to hear from the major parties who had been at the forefront of the Gentile missions. Then I’m sure the leaders gathered again and presented their recommendation. We’ll see tomorrow that the matter was resolved.

These few verses (1-21) provide a lesson for all of us. Where there are church “issues” we need to listen to one another; our church leadership needs to listen to the body; then in the end we need to defer to our church leadership (with prayer and fasting), trusting that they are being led by the Holy Spirit. Just that…!

Slava Bohu!

Acts 15:1-5

First, a couple of brief geographical items… Paul and Barnabas (and a large contingent of Christians) are based in “Antioch”. This “Antioch” is Syrian Antioch, about 300 miles north of Jerusalem, on the northeast coast of the Mediterranean, as opposed to Pisidian Antioch, which Paul and Barnabas had visited in chapters 13 and 14, in the heart of modern-day Turkey. So most mentions of Antioch, with no context or qualifier, refer to Syrian Antioch, the “secondary head” of the church outside of Jerusalem.

Second, when verse 1 says that “…some men came down from Judea…”, their coming “down” relates to the elevation of Jerusalem, which was built on Mount Moriah, the mountain where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac. So “coming down” from Jerusalem does not mean going south like we would refer today. Instead, it’s an elevation thing.

This Jerusalem Council, most of chapter 15, is a good lesson in church unity and leadership, often referred to when divisive issues arise within the church. We’ll see more of how that works out in the next two days. Today all we have is Paul and Barnabas reporting the results of their missionary activity to believers in Phoenicia (Tyre, Sidon), Samaria, and Jerusalem – where for the most part their reports were well received: they “brought great joy to all the brothers” (v. 3) and in Jerusalem they “were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders” (v. 4).

The divisive issue is raised in verse 5: But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” And while circumcision is the divisive issue, it is worth noting that we see a number of Pharisees as believers! Some of them have come a long way, no doubt influenced by Peter and John before their Council (Acts 3-4), Saul’s conversion and testimony (Acts 9, ff.), and other events in and around Jerusalem and Judea. Pharisees as believers is a huge step forward for the Jerusalem church!! Glory!

Slava Bohu!

Acts 14:19-28

It’s so strange that Jews from Antioch would come all the way to Lystra (130 miles) just to harass Paul and Barnabas. Iconium was only 20 miles from Lystra, so some Jews from Antioch had probably followed Paul and Barnabas to Iconium and been part of the rabble that drove them out of Iconium. And then that harassment becomes deadly!! I’m trying to understand that Jewish mindset. Was it jealousy? Or was it fear? Why did they have such hatred for Paul and Barnabas that they would want them stoned and left for dead? The Jews could only stone people for blasphemy, so Paul and Barnabas talking about Jesus as that Messiah that the Jews had long expected must have set them off. It was a positive message that somehow got fully twisted in their minds.

So Paul and Barnabas flee a short distance to Derbe where they make more disciples. Then they re-trace their steps to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch strengthening the believers there. That is, Paul and Barnabas were not willing to leave their new converts (presumably, mostly Gentiles) without further encouragement and guidance. Theirs is a strong message of discipleship. And in the very next chapter we will see Paul and Barnabas desiring to return to these same cities, again to strengthen and encourage them (15:36). I truly admire their dedication to those new converts. Glory!

Slava Bohu!