Berean Community Church Wednesday Bible Study Galatians 2:1-5

>> Simon, can you hear me?

Thank you.

Lindsey Han, can you hear me? Okay. Theodora, can you hear me? Great. Okay, let me go ahead and just ask the Lord just for his help. Father, we are gathered here tonight just to study your word. I pray that you would help me to articulate clearly and help us as a congregation really feed off your word well. So Lord, I pray for just eager hearts to be fed, and we pray that you would be honored in this gathering tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. So this is as a way of review. This was in the first week when I taught this. We just finished Galatians chapter one and we're starting Galatians chapter two, right? And so just as a way of reminder, we're still in the section where Paul is describing that there is no other gospel.

There's only one gospel. And then three and four, it's gonna be super meaty, weighty theology. In chapter five, verse 13, it talks about not using our freedom to indulge the flesh, which is kind of important to what we're talking about today. So this is kind of the context that we're charting through. And to break it down a little bit more, chapter one, verse 11, all the way to chapter two, verse 21, that's Paul's longest description of the accounts of his ministry. It's the longest autobiographical section of all his letters. And so like I mentioned before, we're gonna be in this section until November 1st, okay? So we covered a few weeks back that the main point in this whole autobiography is that the gospel is not of man.

It's completely of God. And obviously it's coming through different people, but the gospel is completely of God. And we looked at Paul's testimony as a persecutor of the church. And then last week we looked at like Paul's first encounters with the churches of Judea and then with the apostles. And today and next week we're looking at verses 1 through 10, okay? And Paul is in--he's describing his time in Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem he has a summit meeting with the apostles talking about gospel ministry. And today we're looking at Paul's gospel ministry was not in vain, even though there's false brothers. Okay, that's the main point. Paul's gospel ministry was not in vain despite the efforts of the false brethren.

Okay, and then next week we're gonna read Paul and the other apostles of Christ were in one accord. Now that's important to remember because if we look at the tone all the way through verse 11 of chapter 2, it just seems like Paul is angry. Right, doesn't he sound like an angry person? He's a lone ranger. He has his own thoughts and Peter, James, and John, those reputed to be pillars, they're just in the way almost like, hey, Peter's acting in hypocrisy. He's standing condemned. And then he goes, "Those men contributed nothing to my gospel." Is that the tone? And I'll say it's not, okay? So Paul's not being disrespectful. If anything, as we look through this week and next week, you're gonna see that Paul and the other apostles of Christ were very much in one accord, in one united ministry.

And then Peter and Barnabas have kind of a momentary lapse. But they are in one accord, and that's what we're gonna be looking at today and then next week. So this is just pretty much how I chart through the letter, this section. And the first thing that I want you guys to notice is look at all the buts. Do you notice that? Anybody notice this? But, but, but, but, but, but. Now, usually when there's a but, you're saying something against what has just been said. Right? So that's one of the first things that I notice when I kind of chart it this way. So that because of a revelation--so Paul went to Jerusalem because of a revelation, and this revelation talk, it's mentioned a few times. This is the third time so far in the, what, 20-something verses.

And he goes, "I went in response to a revelation, and that the gospel is not of man, it's of God." And all the buts that are written there are talking about how this, though, is played out in relation to man. Now, if you guys looked at the ESV, they would all be--you're looking at different words. So what I will discover is that all the buts are not all the same word. But I do notice this, this catches my eye. That all of the buts are talking about something that is being played out in relation to mankind. So then the question is, for me, when I'm reading through this, Paul's in Jerusalem because of a revelation, and I know the book of Acts talks a lot about stuff that happened in Paul's ministry.

Can I find a parallel? So what I did for myself, I actually just took Acts 15, Acts 11 and 12, and I just put them all in one column, and I just charted it out in notes. And I just put this in here just so that you can kind of see how I do this. So when I study the Bible and I come across a narrative, or I come across Paul talking about an event, I sometimes will just go into Acts to see what's happening. Anybody else do this? Okay, and then you learn a lot of things. But the tricky part about Galatians 2, verses 1 through 10, it's a little bit difficult to know what he's talking about in terms of the event. So what or when was this revelation? Was this Acts 11 and 12? When Agabus comes down and he actually gives a prophecy saying there's going to be a global famine, and so Paul and Barnabas get sent with money and aid to the poor in Jerusalem, is that what he's talking about?

Because Galatians 2.10, which we're going to look at next week, seems like, "Oh, only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." That sounds like that's where that is. Or is it Acts 15? Acts 15 is extremely important, especially in our context of the study of Galatians, because that's when all the church leaders at the time assembled together-- not all of them, but the major guys assembled together and made a declaration. So was this what Paul was talking about? So that's the question that I would have, and I will say it's inconclusive. It's very difficult to time when exactly this was. And I don't need to be satisfied with an exact answer. I can leave it as is. Okay, it happened.

So I don't know if when Paul says, "I went up again to Jerusalem," it's his second time being a Christian or his third time after becoming a Christian, and at the end of the day it doesn't matter. All we know that is Paul, when he went to Jerusalem, he didn't go there to learn the gospel from the apostles. He went to Jerusalem with a specific mission in mind, and the apostles were there, and they got acquainted, and the things that they were saying were exactly the same. So I'll get to that. So when I'm looking at this passage, there are three points of interest for me. So the first one, what does Paul submit, and what was his fear? That's in the NASB. If you're just reading the NASB, it might almost come across of like Paul feeling insecure.

I laid out--I presented the gospel, I submitted the gospel to those who were of reputation, but I did so in private for fear that I was running or had been running my race in vain. Is Paul insecure about this? Can an apostle of Christ also have self-doubt? If you only read the NASB, that's what it kind of might lead you to think. But if you look at the other translations, actually that's not necessarily the case. And that's one of the reasons why we do a cross-translation. So when Paul says he submitted the gospel, the ESV says set before, kind of lay out. The King James Version says communicated unto. NIV will say presented to, and the Legacy Standard will say I laid out. And the reason I'm bringing this up is when you do a cross-translation, and every translation seems to have a different way to translate it, that's significant.

Because that means in the original language, it's actually a very difficult word to translate. You guys following? So Paul, in private, I translate it as like--and this isn't inspired, okay, but this is just how my brain works--he compared notes. He compared the notes of all of the things that he was preaching with the apostles who were disciples of Jesus. He compared notes. And he did this in private. And his fear was not that he was running in vain. But when I'm reading the context, he wanted to make sure that what these guys were presenting and what he was presenting was on the same page, because if those guys had it in the wrong, let them be anathema, let them be accursed. Right? But to his relief, that was not the case.

So that's the first thing that I notice. Why did he do this, submission in private, and what does it mean for him to have run his race in vain? I take it as like, man, he was afraid that he was wasting his time in this meeting. Okay? So secondly, the second part for me to note is, "But not even Titus, who is with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." Who was compelling Titus? Did you guys ask that in your groups? And the word "forced" is also another translation, but who's making him do this? Who wasn't compelling Titus? The one thing that's very clear when I read this is that Peter, James, John, all the other big guns in the church, none of them took issue with the fact that Titus was a Greek and he wasn't circumcised.

They didn't force him to do that. Are you guys tracking? They were fine with him there. He was a Greek, uncircumcised, and the apostles of Christ in Jerusalem and Paul had the exact same expectation of Titus. "You don't need to be circumcised, bro, to be saved." So they were in one accord. But then I get to this, "Okay, there's false brethren." Okay, who are these guys? Okay, so who are these false brethren? What was their motivation? What was their goal? The Greek word actually means "fake siblings." All right, so pseudo-brothers, they're fake. And three things that were characteristic of them is they were secretly brought in. So then my question is, "Who brought them in?" Okay, Matthew 13:39, it says, "And the enemy who sowed these tares was a devil."

So I'll look at this as Satan planted them in the church. They were secretly brought in. But they sneaked in to spy out the liberty which they have in Christ in order to bring us into bondage. So my question is then, "Who were these false brothers? What was their motivation and what was their goal?" And then some other questions that kind of run through my mind is, "Did the apostles know or were they unaware? Was it obvious that they were false brothers? Were they in leadership? And why are they mentioned in here?" Because they're in this business to basically distort the gospel. And Paul's going to say, "But we didn't yield in subjection to them even for a moment." So I want to kind of call attention briefly to who these false people are, the false brothers.

And I did this in the very first week. But there was a group called the Judaizers who basically said that for Gentiles, non-Jewish people, when they want to become a believer and a follower of Jesus, they actually had to do three prerequisite things. The first thing was they needed to get circumcised. The second thing they needed to do was take a ritual bath in water. And they almost had to take a pledge that they would take upon the yoke of the Old Testament Mosaic Law. So that's almost--that was what was being pushed. If you are a non-Jew but you want to become a Christian, you first have to become like a Jew in order to be a believer. But obviously, Paul was going around teaching something different.

And that's why a lot of these Judaizers--there was probably a lot of talk. He's not an original apostle. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He used to be a murderer. How can you take his word for it? Clearly, his gospel and our gospel is different, and we're the ones who got it right, not that guy. So that's why in chapter 1, Paul defends his apostleship. And they're also saying that Paul's gospel is not the true gospel because what the Judaizers are saying is, yes, it is by grace, it is through faith, but it's also through the law. You guys tracking? It's by grace, it's by faith, and it's also by adherence to Old Testament law principles. And this becomes a big issue in the early church.

And I want to show you some things that are of interest. In Acts 15, verses 1 to 12, it reads, "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.' And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. So therefore, being sent on their way by the church," they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, "describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they were bringing great joy to all the brethren. When they arrived at Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them."

This sounds kind of like Galatians 2, right? "But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed," I have questions now, as soon as I see that. "They stood up, saying, 'It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the law of Moses.'" That doesn't sound super incorrect if I'm a Jew. So the apostles and the elders came together and they looked into this matter. And there was a lot of debate. So do you think this was an open and shut, easy debate? No. These men of God were really looking through the scriptures and praying through and debating this. "Peter stood up and said to them, 'Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.

And God knows the heart, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, the Gentiles, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now, therefore," this is Peter, "why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?'" Do you think Peter and Paul preached the same gospel? Absolutely. "But we believe," and this is Peter, "that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are. And all the people kept silent. And they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles."

And now here's James. James jumps in. "After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, 'Brethren, listen to me.'" And this is Jesus' half-brother. He's called an apostle. He's the leader of the church of Jerusalem. He is the main guy in Jerusalem, even though he wasn't one of the original disciples. And he quotes Scripture, and then he says, "It is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things." This isn't a matter of salvation per se, do these things to be saved. These are harmful things to your soul. As it says in 1 Peter 2, "Abstain from the lusts of the flesh that wage war against your souls."

So he's saying, "Abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood, for Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he has read in the synagogues every Sabbath. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, Judas called Bar-Sabbath, and Silas, leading men from among the brethren. And they sent this letter by them, the apostles and brethren who are elders to the brethren in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, who are from the Gentiles, greetings." So this is the only council you ever see in the New Testament. This is the only big council of all the New Testament apostles.

They come together and they have a letter, a written document of what the gospel is and what the gospel is not. And they read it. So do Peter, James, and John have the same gospel or is it different? It's exactly the same. And that's the main thrust. Even though their source, well technically their source were the same. The disciples spent how many years with Jesus? Three. And for me, when I read Galatians, it's like three years he was in Arabia and then returned to Damascus. I believe that he was being directly taught by Jesus during those three years. So they're receiving the same revelation. So Paul says, "We did not yield in subjection to these false brothers for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

So here's the truth of the gospel. "We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone." Amen? "Praise God that this has been preserved and handed down to us. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Salvation is completely a gift given by God and received only through faith." What did you guys do to be saved? All you really did was you repented and you received it. Right? Here's John MacArthur. I was listening to a sermon that he gave in Galatians 2, 1 to 10, and this is what he said. "It is impossible to be a legalist and a Christian." And you know, he's one of the pastors that always gets criticized for being legalistic. So he says, "It's impossible to be a legalist and a Christian.

It is impossible, let me say it practically, to believe that you have to do something that contributes to your salvation and at the same time be a Christian. If you think your morality, your religiosity, your baptism contributes to your salvation or is in any part necessary, you can't be a Christian. You've fallen from grace. This is about the gospel. This is about the truth of the gospel remaining with you." So if there is a church that you come across that says you have to be baptized into our church, or you have to only read this, or you have to do this to genuinely be saved, those are all adding works, and that's not the gospel. So I want to bring us back to the main point of this entire section.

Paul is saying, "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." So this gospel has been given to Paul by revelation. He didn't learn it from anybody. He didn't learn it from the apostles. And we're charting through this, and we looked at what makes Paul's direct revelations credible. That was the last week. Did Paul really need no confirmation or affirmation from the other apostles? At first glance, at Galatians, it might look like that, but he did get confirmation and affirmation from the other apostles. Did you guys see that?

And then in a couple of weeks, we're actually going to look at something very interesting. In what ways had Cephas stood condemned? That's very strong language. And so we'll get there in a few weeks. So hopefully this is beneficial, just kind of putting the pieces together. Paul, Peter, James all preached the exact same gospel because they were all inspired by the same Holy Spirit. And their gospel is the exact same gospel that you and I have. The Holy Spirit that is working in Peter, James, and John is the same Holy Spirit that you and I have access to. Amen? That's the exact same Holy Spirit, the exact same gospel. And we are not ashamed of the gospel for that's the power of God for salvation unto everyone who believes.

Whether you're Jew or Chinese or Korean or Hispanic or whatever it is. Amen? And it's not something that we earn by some kind of effort. It's by grace alone. Okay? A couple of announcements. We're cleaning on Saturday. And the more hands we have, the more thorough the clean. Hopefully. So if you haven't signed up yet, please do sign up for this. Or you can just walk in and show up. We'll find you something to do or something to scrape or something to mop. And there will be light refreshments and coffee provided. Here's just a couple of things to note that are upcoming. Next Sunday we have our members meeting. So if you're a member, our members meeting is at 1:30. And there will be a lunch prepared here.

It will be at a cost. It's going to be a fundraiser for the youth group. And the youth group has gotten pretty sizable. And so they're raising funds for just, I think, for retreat and different things. So stick around for that. If you're a young adult, meaning you're not married, we have a BAM bowling night. That's coming up in a couple of Wednesdays. So we don't have Bible study that week because we have praise and prayer. But you can't be like, "I went to bowling, so I'm not going to go to praise and prayer." Don't do that. All right? But please do -- I think -- are the sign-ups still available? Someone yell yes or no. Yes, we can still sign up for this. But we do have a limited space, I believe, because it's a number of lanes.

And there are going to be dinner groups assigned. So if you haven't checked your BAM Facebook already, please go ahead and do that. And Tuesday, the 31st, we have a Reformation night where all our kids come in. There's trunks set up. There's games set up. We do need candy donations. So if you guys have them, if you go to Costco and you're buying your toilet paper and paper towels, and you're like, "Hey, there's a bag of candy. Pick it up," okay? Donate it to our kids. And we also do need some help in the event that you're able. Lastly, our regional Thanksgiving dinners, the participation sign-ups are up. So this is kind of -- we mix all the affinity groups together, and we stuff them into different homes.

I think we have enough room for about, like, 750-ish participants. So that's a lot of homes. So if you guys want to meet -- I guarantee you're going to meet new people at the church, but you want to do it in just a family setting, please do sign up. We still are in need of some hosts. So if you haven't done so already but you can host, please do go to the QR code and sign up for that. So here are the prep questions for next time. What does Paul mean when he says that the reputed apostles contributed nothing to him? Judging from the context, is the tone negative or neutral? I kind of gave it away. Okay? Three, what is an apostleship to the circumcised, to the uncircumcised? That's going to be a question that comes up as you plow through the verses.

And then in context, what does it mean to remember the poor? So for you guys who have a tender heart toward the poor, this might be a passage of interest. Okay, so what does that mean? And this is going to be on the Facebook, so you don't need to jot all this down now. This is our final discussion questions for your small group time. The first question is how would you define legalism? What is it? And that's actually a pretty important definition that you need to nail down, right? What is that? And how is legalism different from a personal pursuit of holy living? Okay, because a lot of times you're trying to pursue holy living and you can get accused of becoming or you can be accused of being a bigot or a legalist, right?

So what is that exactly? Second question, and this is going to hit a little bit, it's going to jar you a little. Are you pursuing personal holiness? What drives or hinders you? Okay, if you are pursuing, if you're like, "I've read four hours a day, I'm doing all this," but then what drives you? Okay, or you're struggling, what's hindering you? This is a good place for accountability to form. Third, in what areas of your life are you susceptible to being led astray by a false gospel? It could have something to do with your background. It could have something to do with perhaps different relationships that you have. What areas are you susceptible? And then in what areas do you need to grow to guard yourself against false brethren?

Okay, and then subsequent prayer requests that come up from that. All right, let me quickly pray and then I will dismiss. Lord, I pray that you would cause all of us just to be humble before one another, to be prayerful, and to grow genuinely in love and compassion toward the brothers and sisters that are sitting with us. And so I pray for your help, and Lord, we thank you, God, for your living and active word, and I pray that your word would do its work in and through our lives. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you very much.