6:30pm Service
Sunday 29th May
St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds
Preacher: Duncan MacInnes

Galatians 2:1-10

At the moment here at St Mary's we are looking at the book of Galatians. What a fantastic book it is for the church and for Christians, for in a world of division and difference, Paul emphasises again and again, the one true gospel – freedom through trust in Jesus' atoning death on the cross – and that anyone, from any nation, race, culture, ethnic group – you name it – can be friends again with their creator through Jesus.

It's important because this message – of God's free gift of forgiveness of sins through the complete work of Jesus on the cross - was severely challenged in Paul's day. Throughout Paul's ministry we read that he was challenged, and challenged on various different occasions and challenged from different angles. It was sometimes the message that was attacked – the gospel itself. At other times during Paul's ministry it was the messenger – Paul himself – that was attacked.

Galatians is Paul's response. A full throttle, full frontal, multi angled defence and championing of the one true unchanging, and unchangeable gospel.

So if you keep open page 1168 and 1169 in your Bibles, we will be following this passage of Galatians 2 verses 1 to 10.

Galatians 2 verses 1 and 2:

Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabus. I took Titus along also. 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.

It had been fourteen years since Paul had been in Jerusalem, and remember that Paul, before his conversion was a Pharisee, a top Jewish scholar, so Jerusalem would have been a place central to his religion and life. Jews, especially observant Jews, would aspire to visit the city as often as they could to visit the site of the temple. But here was Paul, fourteen years had passed since he had returned to Jerusalem. Paul was too busy fulfilling his God given duty to reach the nations, to reach non-Jews – Gentiles – to be travelling back and forwards to Jerusalem. That task – reaching the Jews - was a task for the other apostles to do.

Verse 2:

I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.

Paul wasn't summoned by the church leaders, or the other apostles to come to Jerusalem and report back, but it was in response to a revelation – in other words, God told Paul to go to Jerusalem – it was through God's initiative that he travelled. And Paul: set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles – it would be the same message Paul was preaching at Jerusalem – the heart of the Jewish world – as it was to the Gentiles of Paul's travels through what is today Turkey, Greece and beyond.

We saw in chapter 1 of Galatians, of Paul writing in astonishment at the rapid way in which the churches in Galatia were turning away from the gospel and replacing it with a 'newer' one. Which Paul says in chapter 1 verse 7, is really no gospel at all. Gospel truth is so important that Paul in chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 emphasises his point by repeating it – if someone – even an angel – preaches anything other than the gospel – adds to it, or takes it away – they are to be eternally condemned. This is serious, serious business.

The context of chapter 2 is that the Galatian church was being influenced by what Paul calls 'false brothers' who had infiltrated the church. These false teachers were the Judiazers. These were people who said: 'Yes, Jesus died for forgivness of sins, but, to be a true follower of Jesus, people need to follow and adhere to Jewish customs as well', therefore Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised. So in reality, these 'false brothers' were teaching that being a 'true' Christian was to do works and rituals – Jewish work and rituals, instead of simply accepting, trusting and following Jesus. Paul was strong and called this (verse 4) slavery – it went against the core of the gospel.

Paul's travelling companions to Jerusalem were Barnabus, who, like Paul, was a Jewish background Christian, and Titus, a Gentile convert. Many commentators suggest that Titus went with Paul to Jerusalem, as an example – a test case – to show that the gospel message breaks down barriers and is penetrating into the Gentile world. John Stott in his commentary says that:

“It was to overthrow [the Judiazers] influence, not to strengthen his own conviction, that [Paul] laid his gospel before the Jerusalem apostles”.

Indeed, reading from Galatians chapter 1, you don't get the sense that Paul is unsure and lukewarm about the message, as if he is going through the motions half-heartedly. No, there is real 'fire in the belly' conviction – one of an apostle, who had a meeting and direct commisioning from Jesus himself, to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles, to the nations.

Paul was aggrieved that the gospel he helped to plant was being attacked, and so he was here out to overthrow the influence of the false teachers.

It seems that one of the false teachers lines of attack was to attack Paul and cause a chink, to drive a wedge between the apostles, in saying something like this:

'you need to listen to Peter, James and John – they were the ones who shared Jesus' life and ministry, don't listen to Paul, he came afterwards'.

Paul answered this line of attack in chapter 1 of Galatians, by giving his testimony – that he was commissioned by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. And his life, from persecuting Christians and dispising Gentiles, to loving, caring and reaching Gentiles for Christ, was a clear statement that God had been at work in Paul.

Verses 6 to 8:

As for those who seemed to be important – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external apperance – those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul, here was addressing the argument that the false teachers made, that status in apostleship mattered. No, the apostles had equal status but different tasks – Paul to reach the Gentiles, and Peter to reach the Jews. God favours gospel partnership, not rivalry.

Leon Morris in his commentary says:

“In no sense was Peter a rival of Paul; they simply had two different fields in which to preach the gospel...They preached the same gospel, even though Paul recognised that the different backgrounds of their hearers meant that there were different ways in which the two groups lived out their commitment to Christ”.

And we read in verse 9 that James, Peter and John, accepted and approved of Paul's minsitry.

In verse 9 Paul is emphasising two things:

1. That Paul's ministry was recognised as God given and legitimate – from the very one who shared in Jesus' life and ministry – a big accolade.
2. By using the rather belligerent tone of ' those reputed to be pillars', and earlier in verse 6 of: 'those who seemed to be important', Paul was emphasising to his readers that even the apostles are human beings capable of getting it wrong and sinning. Again, it wasn't status, but subsatnce, the message, that was important to Paul, and important to God.

So there we are. Here was Paul strongly facing up to people inside the church peddling a false gospel. It needed to be tackled for if it hadn't, the church would have slid into factionalism and rivalry – the gospel would have been lost, and the fruits of the spirit would have been absent.

What has been the situation since Galatians was written?

Many people have challenged and changed, added or subtracted from the Bible's message throughout the centuries.

People still have sinful hearts, and the devil still prowls, especially wanting to infiltrate and pick off churches and church leaders, wanting to sow confusion and division. We must pray for our churches and especially our church leaders that the Holy Spirit will protect them against attack.

Gospel truth is attacked today from both outside and inside the church. The most damaging, is when gospel truth is attacked from within the church – sadly, the Church of England has been no stranger to heresy through the years.

Perhaps the most critical point in the history of the church, where it teetered on the brink of truth or heresy, was the Arian controversy of the fourth century. Arius was an important church leader in Alexandria in Egypt and taught that Jesus was not God, but 'had a beginning and end' – Jesus according to Arius was therefore created, which is the view today of the Jehovah's Witnesses. As Arius was an important church leader many in the church at the time were tempted to follow him, and it was so controversial that the church could well have fallen into heresy. Arius' teachings were challenged by Athanasius who was also an Alexandrian church leader, who re-stated that Jesus was God and part of the Trinity. The Nicene creed, a version of which we read at church services, is what was written in response to Arius' teachings, and the official condemnation of Arius as a heretic. That Jesus was 'begotten not made' as it says in the creed, was the specific response to the specific attack on gospel truth that Arius in the fourth century had made. In other words, Jesus is eternal with the father, and not created – by saying this in the creed, we are publicly declaring that Jesus is divine, creator God himself, and we are upholding the Trinity by declaring this. We must give thanks to God for Athanasius, and the Council of Nicea for challenging heresy and confirming and upholding gospel truth.

In our passage of Galatians 2, Paul speaks against reliance on status in church leadership, and instead emphasises being true to the message.

Those in church leadership positions should always stive to be humble, to be servant hearted and not to seek out position and power.

A good pastor friend of mine a few years ago went through a very troubling and testing time when his elders seeking status, postion and power plotted to unseat him. Thankfully God overuled in this situation and the elders had to leave and my friend carried on, supported, with a church that came closer together through the difficulty.

In conclusion, then, we should, first and foremost:

• Seek gospel truth – we come with nothing, and bring nothing with us, we are poor sinners who look to, and cling to the cross and only the cross. Salvation is found nowhere else.
• Be humble, caring and loving towards others inside and outside church. The Judiazers and false teachers sowed division and emnity – that's what false teaching does (however 'loving' it's packaged up today). Gospel unity, is just that, unity around the gospel – humble before the cross. Loving others because Jesus loved us.
• We mustn't be afraid today to question people within the church, and challenge them in a loving and humble way, if they are consistently saying things that deny gospel truth. We don't have the apostolic commission Paul had to tackle people who peddle a false gospel, but we can and should take a friend to one side and lovingly challenge them, if we feel the Spirit calls us to. It's the same spirit with us as Christians today as Paul had!

PAUSE

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for Paul's letter to the Galatian church. Thank you that it shows us how to build our lives and to build our churches on the one true gospel.

Help us to seek gospel truth, only relying on the cross and nothing else, and to be humble, caring and loving towards others in church and outside church.

Amen