CHRIST CHURCH

June 13, 2010

Galatians 1:11-24

We return to Galatians this morning and will now run with it for the rest of the summer.

Four weeks ago, I preached on verses 6 to 10 and it might be worth just highlighting the main points of that:

-The Galatian Christians who had received the Gospel from Paul and responded to it so gladly, were now being thrown into disarray, and were beginning to fall awy

-The reason for this was that they were being taught a 'different' gospel.

-This was that to be fully Christian they had to adhere to all the requirements of the Jewish Law and customs

-The Judaizers who taught them, would come under God's condemnation

-It is all to easy to rob the Gospel of its pure simplicity of faith in Jesus and his death and resurrection.

So now we come to this morning's passage.

Paul writes to establish his authority as an apostle. In doing this he adopts a three-prong approach

-He received his Gospel from God

-He uses his former life as a Jew, and a persecutor of the church

-He relates how he met Peter and other pillars of the church, and they had all praised God for what Paul had done.

The Judaizers naturally, but wronlgy, thought that because Christianity had its roots in Judaism (Jesus himself was a Jew), then all that went with their beliefs must be part-and-parcel of this new faith. So, it was, they thought, their 'duty' to put these people on the 'right' path: only they were right. This upstart, Paul, was the one leading people 'astray'. He had no authority to call himself an apostle.

There is no want today of people who have added bits on to the pure Gospel, and believe that THEY ALONE are RIGHT! They brook no doubting of their authority. Woe to them that they lead, or attempt to lead, others astray! They will receive their just judgment!

Paul, in this passage, seeks to assert his apostolic authority. In verses 13 and 14, he sets his Jewish faith-autobiography out. He reminds his readers of how he had been the arch-persecutor of this new religion. In Acts 8:3 we are reminded that Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Acts 9:1-2 then tell us that meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Then in verse 14 Paul tells that he was 'advancing in Judaism beyond many of [his] age. And this, really, was Paul's answer to those Jews who were questioning his authority to decide that the Galatians didn't require circumcision and that followed from that. He, Paul, knew as much as any other of what constituted Judaism and its laws and traditions.! He wasn't 'rocking the boat', for now, knowing Jesus was, not just for Paul, far more important than what he had known and had achieved as a Jew.

Paul, as Saul the Pharisee, took great pride in his roots. How easy it can be to do this- to take pride in our 'religious-standing'. But, of course, he goes on to tell how God 'set [him] apart' (v15). And he continues, as he had begun in verses 11-12, to show how his authority rested in God. His Gospel was not 'man-made' He didn't receive from man but from God-by revelation; a revelation which showed that a religion of rules and regulations is a dead-end.

This is a theme Paul now goes on to develop in verses 15 to 17. Herein lies the key to Paul's authority. In verse 15 he tells us that he had been 'set apart' from birth'. He would have been familiar with God's call to Jeremiah:

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (Jer 1:5)

Here he echoes what he was later to write to the church in Ephesus:

he chose us in him before the creation of the world (1:4)

Let's just remember this is true for us. God chose each of us, set each of us apart; that was his purpose and will. This is a cast-iron certainty to rest on and also a counter to our pride. Paul may have been an exceptional leader in the early church, but our calling by God, the fact that he has known us from birth is our authority too. When Jesus gave the apostles their commission before his ascension, he said “All authority in heaven and earth are mine. Go therefore...” (Matt 28:19). Our authority also rests in God's Spirit, who Jesus told his apostles, will reveal all truth.

V 16, and God 'revealed his Son' He tells us how he received the Gospel, and there are some important points to take on board here. Going back to verse 12 we read this:

I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Genuine reception of the Gospel is always by the following principles.

-'Receive. Speaking of himself, the word Paul uses is paralebon. This word could have described what he 'received' in his Judaism. Then he would have had passed on to him all the memorised interpretations of the Law, all its expansions. We might note that the Romans respected Judaism for it had two millennia of tradition. As Christians, we do not, or should not received crystallised human tradition. The idea that the 'Anglican faith' rests on Scripture and tradition sits very uncomortably with me. There are never wanting those who make traditions into their God, traditions their certainty. Let us be clear on this!

-'Taught' The Greek word edidachthen speaks of 'education'; that we should be brought up into Christianity. In our Sunday School, we are 'taught' Christianity; that used to happen too in our schools, but no longer so. We learn the facts, but we need more. The Jews had merely been taught facts, and these alone will make no real difference.

-'Revelation'. THIS IS KEY. The Greek apokalupsis is God communicating with us. Genuine faith is never just a matter of receiving what we are taught. There MUST be that element of 'revelation'- of God by his Spirit showing his truth to us. This was Paul's authority and the sure ground of his faith. And it was for Paul that he might preach to the Gentiles. Paul goes on to tell us of three years then spent in Arabia, where he received so so much more.

What Paul's statements here mean that, no, you don't become a Christain just by someone teaching you. We may receive the 'facts' about the faith,but there has also to be a personal revelation. That's may not mean quite the same way as for Paul, it doesn't necessarily mean flashes of light from heaven. What it does mean is that the Holy Spirit has to awaken our spirit and impact our hearts, be it maybe ever so gently.

From verse 18 on Paul deals with his first retirn to Jerusalem, his meeting with Peter.

Paul is not just recounting his spiritual journey, of his revelation, then after quite a period of his first visit to that infant church of which he was a member. He returns to Jerusalem, from whence he had set out as the arch-persecutor.

But now he returns. How will he be treated? News of his conversion had, of course, reached the Christians in Jerusalem. But did Peter, did James regard him now, as did the Jewish Christians in Galatia as an arch-heretic? No! Far from it! In the final verse and in view of his missionary exploits, we read in the final verse that 'they praised God because of me'

The ardent desire of Paul for the young Galatian Christains is for them to hold fast to the true Gospel, and now he has established his credentials. Do we not learn here that as Christains we must too have unquestionable credentials. It will not, usually have been our lot to receive a dramatic 'Damascus Road' experience, still less to have spent three years apart with God. But our credentials rest not on ourselves, our achiements, our self-worth, but on that simple, received Gospel of Jesus, crucified and risen.