Berean Community Church Wednesday Bible Study Galatians 2:6-10

Oh, shoot.

Good evening, everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started with Bible study. So why don't we just take a couple minutes just to quiet our hearts and pray as we head into a time of praise.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity to worship you, to study your word. Thank you for Christ and what Christ has done for us and continues to do in our lives, Lord. And as we continue to study through Galatians, would we be reminded of this gospel truth that the only way to attain salvation is not anything that we do, but everything that you've given to us, Lord. We pray that we wouldn't try to add to it, that we recognize who we are before a holy God. Tonight, we pray for strength, for focus after a long day. We just pray during this time of praise you be honored. We love you, Lord. We pray all this in your name. Amen.

I was an orphan. I was an orphan lost at the fore, running away when I'd hear you calling. Oh, Father, you were still there. I had no righteousness of my own. I had no right to draw near your throne. Oh, Father, you loved me still. And in love before you laid the world's foundation, you predestined to atop me as your heir. You have raised me up so high above my station. I'm a child of God by grace and grace alone. You left your home to seek out the lost.

You knew the great and terrible cost. But Jesus, your face was set. I worked my fingers down to the bone. But nothing I did could ever atone. But Jesus, you paid my debt. By your blood, I have redemption and salvation. Lord, you died that I might reap what you have sown. And you rose that I might be a new creation. I am born again by grace and grace alone. I was in darkness all of my life. I never knew the day from the night. But, Spirit, you made me see. I swore I knew the way on my own.

Head full of rocks, a heart made of stone. But, Spirit, you moved in me. At your touch, my sleeping spirit was now vacant. On my darkened heart, the light of Christ I shine. Called into a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Heaven's citizen by grace and grace alone. So I'll stand and faith by grace and grace alone. I will run the race by grace and grace alone. I will slay my sin by grace and grace alone. I will reach the end by grace and grace alone.

One church. One church, one faith, one anthem raised. God and God alone. One cross, one grace, one name that saves. All praise to you, God. All praise to you belongs. We lift you high, high. God and God alone. And we'll be louder, louder than any other song. You are forever seated on your throne. You are forever God and God alone.

Who else? Who else can wash our sin away?

God and God alone. Who else can raise us from the grave? All praise to you belongs. Jesus, all praise to you belongs. We lift you high, high. God and God alone. And we'll be louder, louder than any other song. You are forever seated on your throne. You are forever God and God alone. Oh, what can separate us from this amazing love? What can say it's greater than our God? Every knee will bow down.

What can separate us from this amazing love? What can say it's greater than our God? Every knee will bow down. Oh, every knee will bow down. We lift you high, high. God and God alone. And we'll be louder, louder than any other song. You are forever seated on your throne. We lift you high, high. God and God alone. And we'll be louder, louder than any other song. You are forever seated on your throne.

You are forever God and God alone. You are forever seated on your throne. You are forever God and God alone.

Oh, what can separate us from this amazing love? What can say it's greater than our God? Every knee will bow down. Oh, every knee will bow down.

Yes, every knee will bow down. Oh, every knee will bow down. All right, hello. I want to start us off by reading the passage, Galatians chapter 2, verses 6 through 10. And this is just as an FYI, all five of these verses are just one sentence in the Greek. So in the original language, it's a little choppy. But it is-- we are looking at one sentence in these five verses tonight. And I want to read this for us. But from those who were of high reputation, what they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.

But on the contrary, seeing that I have been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised, for he who effectually worked for Peter and his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for 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 the right hand of fellowship so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. And they only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do. So in your groups, go ahead and share the observations and the questions. And as we've mentioned in the past, if you haven't really prepared, just listen more than you share.

But if you have prepared, we don't want any awkward silences in your group, so please do volunteer a lot of the things that you've shared and prepared. And in the process, I would like you guys to hit these questions. Number two, what does Paul mean when he says that the reputed apostles contributed nothing to him? Judging from the context, is this tone negative or neutral? Third, basically, what is an apostleship to the circumcised, and then what is an apostleship to the uncircumcised? If we just read through it, we might not really think anything of it. But is that significant? And lastly, in context, not just your preference or not what you think of as like, oh, this is the cause of the church.

In the context, what does it mean to remember the poor? And then we'll get back together at 810. But let me pray for us, and then we'll break up into our small groups.

Father, give us insight into your word so that we would interpret it correctly. And help us not to just interpret it correctly, but help us, Lord, to do our best to submit our lives, our thoughts, our affections to your truth. So Lord, we pray for your help, that our discussions will be absolutely centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that our fellowship really would be rooted not in just being excited about learning new things, but rather just as a reminder that we serve the same God, that that would humble us, and that would cause us to yearn for more. So would you protect and lead each table as we just prepare our hearts to feed. So we thank you, Lord, and would you be honored through our study tonight.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. See you guys at 810.

OK, if I can just call your attention up here. I would like to just open this up just in a word of prayer.

Father, help us to just understand this passage well and apply it well. And I pray, Father God, as your word is living and active, and it's sharper than a two-edged sword, I pray that you would not just cut us up, but fill us with so much joy as we look into just the unity that existed among the apostles. So we pray for your help to understand, guide us in our thoughts for the next few minutes. In Jesus' name, we pray. So as we've mentioned in the past few weeks, chapters 1 and 2, it really is Paul's defense of his apostleship, that he is at the same level as the other apostles. And he goes into this long autobiographical account. So remember, the main point at the beginning of this was this gospel is not of man.

It's 100% of God. We looked at Paul's testimony in verses 13 to 17. Verses 18 to 24, we actually see Paul's quick description of how he came to meet the apostles. And then chapters 2, verses 1 through 10, it's about his time with the other apostles and hammering out what the gospel is and what it isn't. Last week, we looked at the first five verses. Paul's gospel ministry was not in vain, despite opposition from the false brothers. Today, we're looking at Paul and the other apostles of Christ were actually all in one accord. They're all in agreement. So in our group discussion, it was like, "Oh, man, Paul sounds angry." Did you guys all come to that same conclusion? He is angry, but he's not angry at the apostles, okay?

Well, until next week, right? But he is -- he's upset at the foolish Galatians. We're going to look at it in chapter 3, verse 1. But today's passage, we're going to see that the apostles of Christ, whether they were part of the original 12 disciples or whether he's a Jerusalem church leader or he's a later addition like the Apostle Paul, they're all one, okay? So we're going to be looking at that today. So this was the outline I threw up last week, and I'm looking at this again. And the only thing I want to call your attention to is you see the words "circumcised, circumcised, circumcised." He never says "Jews." But if you notice, he'll say the Gentiles twice, but one of them, he actually calls it the uncircumcised.

Did you guys pick up on that? Anybody? If actually you look at the Greek, "circumcised," and then he calls the uncircumcised people the foreskins. So he's using strong words, and he's going to use strong words throughout this whole letter. Later, he's going to see, like, I wish they would just mutilate themselves completely. So he's going to use these strong words, but these are, he keeps saying, "We've been entrusted. I've been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter was entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised." And so you see this ministry happening, right? So here's an important question. When he talks about the people who are of high reputation, he says, "God shows no partiality.

Did any of your groups get stuck on, like, what that means? Like, what does it mean for God not to show any partiality? Anybody? Nobody? All right, then, we won't cover that. I'm just kidding. We will cover that. But I wanted to just show you in what areas and how Paul and the other apostles of Christ were in one accord, okay? So just track along with me. They had the exact same position on circumcising Gentile converts. Did they want to circumcise Gentile converts, or did they think, "Unnecessary? Unnecessary." Chapter two, verse three. "But even Titus, who was with me, although he was a Greek, was never forced to be circumcised." He wasn't compelled. So the other apostles didn't ever make it an issue.

So all the apostles' position of circumcising the Gentiles, none of them were like, "You don't need to do that," okay? Chapter two, verse six. They had the exact same gospel message, and I wanna read verse six. "They contributed nothing to him." Now, if you read just the English, it sounds very disrespectful. I don't care about them. I don't care about their position. What have they done for me lately? That's not the tome, right? Their position matters not to me, but they were in position. They are in position. I conferred with them in secret because of their position, and I presented to them the gospel that I've been preaching. They didn't need to touch it 'cause it was the exact same one that they had.

They contributed nothing to me. They didn't add anything. There was no need to do that. Okay, so they had the same gospel message. They had the exact same ministerial goals. In chapter two, verse seven and nine, actually should be viewed all in one. All of their desires collectively were to proclaim the gospel, whether it be to the circumcised or the uncircumcised. Now, obviously, if you're looking through the book of Acts, did Peter preach ever to the Gentiles? He did. Did Paul preach to the Jews? Absolutely he did. Did Paul have a heart for the Jews? Yes, but there were specific assignments in the early church that God had given all the apostles, and they were united, and they were strategic, and they were obedient to the call, but their goal was exactly the same, to proclaim this truth.

And they also had the same source of strength for the work. Chapter two, verse eight, for he who worked in Peter, or Cephas, I forget which one he uses, unto his apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me unto the Gentiles. Who's the he? The Holy Spirit, God. So their source of strength, and then the word in the Greek is actually, it just means just flood with energy. That's why the NASB, if you've noticed, it says effectually work, where the other ones don't. He literally just shot through Peter. The Holy Spirit just shot through Paul with spiritual juice to proclaim the gospel in accuracy and in totality. So they had the same source of strength for work. And verse 10, they had the same heart of compassion for the poor.

You guys notice that? The apostles are like, all right, dude, our gospels are aligned. There's nothing to add. And our gospels preclude, you don't need to do any work to get saved. But hey, Paul, I know that helping the poor doesn't get you extra access to God or to salvation, but you care about the poor, right? And Paul's saying, I was also spudazzo, very eager, obsessed, zealous. You don't think of Paul as a passionate worker for the poor. You just think of him as a missionary. But Peter, James, and John, and Paul all had a lot of compassion for the poor. And especially in Jerusalem, there were a lot of them. There were a lot of widows, a lot of orphans. My guess is probably because of a lot of the persecution wiped out a lot of the men.

There were a lot of hungry people. And so Peter, James, and John wanna serve them, wanna preach the gospel to them. Same thing with Paul. So they had the same compassion. And God, the reason is God shows no partiality. Okay? And what does that mean? Okay, so I'm gonna take you through a little section of the book of Acts, which is also gonna be helpful for next two weeks from now. God shows no partiality. I would like to say he is no respecter of persons. God has his favorites in that he chooses to pour his love on some, and he chooses to leave others what we call reprobate. He chooses to pass them over. So he does choose. But he is not a respecter of persons. Nobody can add extra shine to make God more attracted to them.

That cannot be done. And whatever position they have is given by God anyway. So God is not impressed is how I would like to think of that word. Make sense? Okay? So Acts chapter 10, verses nine to 19, I'm hoping that this is gonna be helpful. This is a account that's familiar with you guys. On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat. But while they were making preparations, people were cooking, he fell asleep, or he kind of falls into a trance. He's so hungry, he falls into a trance. Okay, I'm just interpreting that. Don't take that literally. And then he saw the sky opened up and an object like a great sheet coming down lowered by four corners to the ground.

And there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. I actually Googled image. Some of them even had crabs. Jews didn't eat shellfish, okay? But they had a sack full of stuff that Jews were never allowed to eat. A voice, verse 13, came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat." But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, "for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." Again, a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." And this happened three times. The sheet is lowered, taken away. Sheet is lowered, taken away. Sheet is lowered, taken away. And immediately the object was taken up into the sky. And now while Peter was greatly perplexed in his mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon's house, they appeared at the gate.

And calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there.

While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you." My inductive question here is like, is this number three significant? Could be. Okay, I didn't look into it. "Behold, three men are looking for you. "But get up, go downstairs, "and accompany them without misgivings, "for I have sent them myself." Peter went down to the men and said, "Behold, I am the one you are looking for. "What is the reason for which you have come?" And these men, they said, "Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man, "well-spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, "was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you, "to come to his house and hear a message from you."

So he invited them in, gave them lodging, and on the next day, he got up, went away with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. On the following day, Peter, he entered Caesarea, and now Cornelius was waiting for them and called together his relatives and his close friends, and when Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, "Stand up. "I, too, am just a man." As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled, and Peter said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is "for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner "or to visit him in his house, "and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man "unholy or unclean.

"That is why I came without even raising any objection "when I was sent for, "so I ask, for what reason have you sent me?" And Cornelius said, "Four days ago, to this hour, "I was praying in my house during the ninth hour, "and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments, "and he said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, "'and your alms have been remembered before God. "'Therefore, send to Joppa and invite Simon, "'who is also called Peter, to come to you. "'He is staying at the house of Simon the Tiner by the sea. "'So I sent for you immediately, "'and you have been kind enough to come.'" And I'm thinking, dude, this guy must have been so nervous. Was this some weird vision that I saw?

Oh, Peter came, right? "Now then, we are all here, present before God, "to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. "Opening his mouth, Peter said, "I most certainly understand now "that God is not one to show partiality, "but in every nation, the man who fears him "and does what is right is welcome to him." That really enriches my understanding of the word partiality. I can't even quite articulate it, but it enriches it. And then the word which he said to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.

One thing, and I wanna just spend a little bit of time on, this seems out of place, right? They only asked, and the only is actually in the front, so it's emphasized. Only they asked us to remember the poor. Now, we have to be a little bit careful here. This passage, is it a description of what happened, or is it a prescription that we need to apply? Raise your hand if you say description. Raise your hand if you think prescription, oh, we have to apply this. Dude, 80% of you guys are super shy, okay? It's a description. What you see in this description is that Peter, James, and John, it's inferred that they're passionate about this, 'cause more than anything else, they're like, hey, Paul, but wherever you go, we just wanna check the poor, right?

And Paul's like, I'm very eager, spodazzo, I'm super zealous for that. So you actually see the heart of these men when it comes to the poor. And so I wanna show you Peter, James, and John, and little bits and pieces of their desire for the poor. James writes, which is the first book, Galatians, people say is the second book written in the New Testament, but James is the first one. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress. Verse six of chapter two, you've dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into the court? So James talks quite a bit in the beginning about not belittling the poor.

Chapter two, verse 14 to 17, what use is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed, and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. Paul would not disagree with this verse at all, right? So James clearly loves the poor, has an affection for the poor. First Peter, be hospitable to one another without complaint. There's a lot of persecution happening, and when there's a lot of persecution happening, people can't work, people can't eat, so there's poverty everywhere.

Peter is saying, be hospitable to one another without complaint. And then in Acts chapter two, who's the main leader of the church at that time? Peter, there's a lot of poor people, and they get organized and they feed the poor. People are selling stuff. You don't think Peter's leadership was involved there? In chapter three, Peter meets a lame man and he goes, silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I'll give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Peter always, and he goes, look at me, in chapter three. He did not ignore the poor. John, verse 17 of chapter three of the first epistle, but whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth. Is having a heart of compassion for the poor characteristic of godly people? Yes. So the problem with helping the poor is not the what or the why. It's usually the how. And in the how, people get preachy. In the how, people get judgy. In the how, people go awry. 'Cause they think the church's objective is to help the poor. It is not. The church's objective is to make the gospel loud and clear to the world. Amen? But if there are poor around you, love on 'em. So this passage that we looked at in Galatians 2 is not a prescribed thing. It is just a description of the people's hearts. So just when it comes to people of God and poverty alleviation, and when we look at a passage like this, before we jump to make an application, we wanna understand in context what does Galatians have to say, what does Paul have to say, directly or indirectly, what do the other New Testament epistles have to say, what does the whole Bible have to say about how God would have his people engage the poor.

So you don't wanna just jump, okay, we gotta every homeless person off the 55 MacArthur exit. There's almost a rotation. I see like four of 'em on rotation, three or four of them on rotation. I gotta help them. Is that the application? I don't think so. And this is why I say this, okay? The rest of, just from Paul, okay, I'm gonna give you a sample. First of all, when it comes to the poor, 1 Corinthians 16, one to two, concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also on the first day of every week, each one of you is to put aside and save as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. So plan on helping the poor is something that Paul told the Corinthian church.

And in 2 Corinthians, in chapter eight, he goes, God loves a cheerful giver, right? You set in your heart what you wanna give, give. Okay, there isn't like a set number or target, but there was a specific plan. Ephesians 4, 28, he who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good so that he will have something to share with one who has need. So if a poor person is tempted to steal, you put him to work. That's what it says in Ephesians. 2 Thessalonians 3, 10 to 13, for even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. Apparently the poor were everywhere, okay? If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.

Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you, brothers, don't grow weary of doing good. So this passage I will also wrestle with. 'Cause the problem of poverty, especially in a first world, is a little bit more tricky than not having food to eat. Last one, 1 Timothy 5, 8 to 9, and then verse 16, but if anyone doesn't provide for his own family, and especially for those of his household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. If a poor person, truly poor person, is part of your family, you need to take care of them. That's something that's clear, okay? Verse nine, a widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than 60 years old, having been the wife of one man.

And then it goes on to describe how the younger widows, you don't need to put them on that list, okay? Especially if they're like gossipers and they just like to go from house to house begging and gossiping, don't put them on the list of widows who collect a special thing, right? Verse 16, if any woman who is a believer has dependent widows, she must assist them, and the church must not be burdened, so that it may assist those who are widows indeed. Now, I am not giving an application. What I'm trying to lead us toward is, if there is a command to help the poor, all of us will get it.

But how that's applied, you would wanna wrestle with it. If God plops a poor person into your life, that person's there on purpose. So wrestle with how to help them. Because a lot of times in the first rule, trying to help the poor hurts the poor. So we wanna wrestle with these things, okay? But the main point of this section is that the apostles had the same stance on not having to circumcise the Gentile converts. They had the same exact message. They had the same goal, strategy. They had the same empowering. They were all abiding in Christ, because apart from Him, they could do nothing. They abided in Christ, and He was a source of their strength, and they had the exact same love, especially for the believers who are poor.

Make sense? So keep that as a backdrop, because verse 11 is pretty strong. Paul opposes Peter to his face. So now we're getting set up for like a, ee, it's gonna be a jolt, okay, in two weeks. I wanna hit some announcements, and then I'll highlight the questions. We have a members meeting this coming Sunday. If you can, if you guys come to first service, first service, actually, nevermind. Just try to park farther away so we don't hog the visitor spots for the second service, but parking will be an issue. So please do plan accordingly, or try to carpool if you can. We do have a 1:30 meeting, and there's gonna be a fundraiser lunch that's provided for you. Next week, there's no Bible study, so if you're a bammer, I hope to see you on the bowling lanes, okay, for a good time of fellowship.

And next Friday at 7.30 is the all church praise and prayer. Those are the upcoming things for the next couple weeks. And then for the Reformation, we do need a lot of candies and trinkets and little prizes for the kids. Obviously appropriate to kids, so please do donate if you can, all right? And now, just the Thanksgiving regional dinner signups have been up, and the sooner you sign up, the sooner we can put you in a home near your area. So please do that. And then for the two weeks from now, for the 25th, it's the next six verses, and please wrestle with what does it mean for Cephas to be standing condemned? Second, what would qualify as not being straightforward about the gospel? I would never think about that like straightforward about the gospel, okay?

But what does that mean? And then here's a very important word that this I actually would encourage you to spend some time on. How would you define the word justification? And that's for two weeks from now. So for the remainder of the time, here's some group discussion. To and for whom has God entrusted the gospel with you? Okay, there's a lot of so that's in the first chapter, the first two chapters of Galatians. He doesn't just save you so you can go to heaven. There's a earthly purpose for which you have been called as a believer. So to who and for whom has God entrusted the gospel with you? Number two, how are you when it comes to recognizing the grace of God in the lives of believers around you?

And you might have to think about this one. What does that mean? Okay, third, how strong is your eagerness to remember the poor? Okay, what areas do you need to grow in and what are areas you need to be careful in? So those are the things that I'd like you guys to discuss and if there's prayer requests that come out of that, please do go ahead and share. But let me wrap us up. Father, thank you for just the opportunity to spend some time just fleshing out some of the things that we've seen in these five verses. Guide our discussion so that we would be a humble people, that we would be an honest people, and that we would grow, that we wouldn't just learn and leave, but we would seek to apply to the best of our ability.

Ultimately, for your glory and for our joy and our growth and our fellowship. In Jesus' name we pray.