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[330.54 --> 334.62] I speak on behalf of Christ who is full of grace, who rose from the dead, |
[334.74 --> 337.32] how foolishly have you departed from that? |
[337.92 --> 339.34] That's Paul's letter in Galatians. |
[340.08 --> 345.52] And what we're going to do this morning is we're going to try to understand why Paul is so upset. |
[345.78 --> 348.82] And I'm hoping that this sermon will help us understand the rest of the series. |
[348.94 --> 350.30] I'm going to preach on Galatians 1, |
[350.58 --> 354.86] but in some sense try to give us the background to listen well, |
[354.92 --> 357.30] to hear well what Paul is trying to say, |
[357.30 --> 359.96] why this is such an urgent letter for him. |
[359.96 --> 364.94] And I want to say to you at the outset that we need to be patient with this book. |
[365.34 --> 366.44] Galatians is a deep book. |
[366.98 --> 369.30] It's heavy teaching and it moves quickly. |
[369.82 --> 372.28] And sometimes, maybe this is not you, but I'll just say it, |
[372.32 --> 374.98] we can be impatient as modern readers of the Bible. |
[375.52 --> 379.52] We sort of read the book trying to find out what's the practical takeaway for me right away. |
[379.78 --> 381.68] And Galatians is not that kind of book. |
[381.68 --> 386.38] It requires you to sort of put aside some of the questions you might have about your own life |
[386.38 --> 390.12] and be patient to listen well to what's going on there. |
[391.56 --> 395.80] A Bible scholar once said, you know, the way we have good relationship with one another |
[395.80 --> 399.50] is to love someone is to listen really well to them. |
[399.70 --> 403.46] Not to cut in, not to sort of bring up what you have in mind, but to listen really well. |
[403.46 --> 407.22] And I want to suggest that a way we can love our ancient neighbors, |
[407.76 --> 411.14] including Paul who wrote this book, is to listen well. |
[411.68 --> 414.96] And to get into their shoes a little bit, what's going on. |
[415.12 --> 418.60] To figure out what's the challenges, because it's very different challenges in our day. |
[418.82 --> 422.06] And then we can start to say, okay, now how does this speak to our day? |
[423.24 --> 425.40] So let's look at what's going on in Galatians. |
[426.26 --> 428.00] Some important background details. |
[428.74 --> 432.30] Galatians is Paul's first letter, at least that's what most people say. |
[432.30 --> 434.60] And there's some jokes around how Paul got nicer. |
[435.14 --> 439.14] Maybe he figured out how to write more compelling letters that were a little less upset as he went. |
[439.14 --> 444.34] But this is written in 49 AD to a cluster of churches in the province of Galatia. |
[444.84 --> 446.60] The province of Galatia is now present-day Turkey. |
[446.66 --> 447.96] And I'll put a map on the screen. |
[449.02 --> 452.86] The red, sorry, the blue arrow is his first missionary journey. |
[452.98 --> 455.06] He goes up into Galatia, which is the green zone. |
[456.02 --> 459.60] He goes first to Antioch and then Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. |
[459.72 --> 462.44] And those three churches there are sort of the churches of Galatia. |
[462.44 --> 465.74] And you get a sense of the roller coaster of church planning. |
[466.58 --> 470.44] You know, Paul and Barnabas receive great opposition from the Jewish people. |
[470.84 --> 472.92] Then Paul and Barnabas flee to avoid being killed. |
[473.22 --> 475.34] And then Paul and Barnabas are mistaken for gods. |
[475.54 --> 478.24] And then Paul, people throw stones at him and try to take his life. |
[478.72 --> 480.82] The joys of church planning in the first century. |
[481.74 --> 484.90] You can read about these, by the way, and we encourage you to do so in your small groups |
[484.90 --> 487.24] by reading Acts 13 and 14 and 15. |
[487.24 --> 491.18] That will really help you situate a bit of the tensions going on in the church then. |
[492.80 --> 497.10] The structure of Galatians and how we're going to preach on them in the upcoming weeks |
[497.10 --> 499.18] is very wonderfully simple. |
[499.76 --> 503.66] The first two chapters are asking the question, what is the gospel? |
[503.92 --> 506.40] And I would add, and what is not the gospel? |
[506.48 --> 508.30] That's really what Paul is getting at in our passage. |
[508.90 --> 512.30] Chapter 3 and 4, Paul is saying, who are God's people anyway? |
[512.38 --> 514.36] Like, what defines the church? |
[514.36 --> 517.68] What sets the church apart from the rest of the world? |
[518.32 --> 522.98] And then chapter 5 and 6, Paul is asking the very important question, well, how then should |
[522.98 --> 523.82] believers live? |
[524.48 --> 528.60] What's the way that we should be living our lives out in the short lives that we have |
[528.60 --> 529.84] in the world around us? |
[529.94 --> 532.14] So that's the structure of Galatians. |
[533.54 --> 538.22] What I want to spend some time on now is helping us get a picture of the reality he's |
[538.22 --> 538.78] speaking into. |
[539.70 --> 541.60] Paul's not speaking directly to our day. |
[541.68 --> 542.64] He's speaking to a very different day. |
[542.64 --> 545.68] And I want us to sort of feel the context, the historical situation. |
[546.40 --> 547.20] Here's what's happening. |
[547.98 --> 553.06] Paul and his missionary partner, Barnabas, are going into new places to preach the gospel. |
[553.64 --> 556.08] For the very first time, think about this. |
[556.66 --> 561.18] Paul is preaching about Jesus in a non-Jewish place to non-Jewish people. |
[561.96 --> 564.62] Now, for us, that's like no big deal, more information. |
[564.92 --> 568.26] But this is like groundbreaking stuff then. |
[568.26 --> 573.04] All the converts up until that point, Jesus' disciples, to add to that, they were all people |
[573.04 --> 574.48] who'd come out of Judaism. |
[575.02 --> 578.42] They sort of had this understanding of the Old Testament story, and Jesus was the fulfillment |
[578.42 --> 579.08] of that. |
[579.54 --> 584.70] Now Paul's preaching to everyday Gentiles, which, by the way, is us, non-Jewish people. |
[585.40 --> 590.50] And much to everybody's surprise, Gentiles hear the good news about what Jesus did. |
[590.50 --> 595.00] They show curiosity and then say, I want to follow this Jesus. |
[595.76 --> 597.66] I want to be part of Jesus' family. |
[597.82 --> 601.46] I want to understand more and grow as a follower of Jesus. |
[601.98 --> 604.68] And so this new community, I mean, this is so groundbreaking. |
[605.20 --> 609.86] This new community came together of converts from Judaism and converts from Gentile world, |
[610.02 --> 612.20] and they became the church. |
[612.88 --> 613.72] It was beautiful. |
[613.72 --> 619.48] It's a beautiful reality that all of a sudden, it's not just an ethnicity that follows Jesus. |
[619.84 --> 624.82] It's people from wherever who has faith in Jesus that becomes part of the church. |
[626.36 --> 627.80] Here's where it gets complicated. |
[628.90 --> 633.96] Jewish people who were converting to Christianity looked at these non-Jewish people, the Gentiles, |
[634.22 --> 638.14] and just had their questions like, are they really legit? |
[638.94 --> 641.62] They're just not quite Jewish enough. |
[641.62 --> 643.74] They don't do the things that we do. |
[643.82 --> 645.46] They don't know the Old Testament like we do. |
[645.56 --> 650.50] And it just seems a little bit disjointed, the Gentile way of being and the Jewish way |
[650.50 --> 651.60] of being in the church. |
[652.16 --> 653.26] And so they had questions. |
[653.42 --> 654.92] And then this started to happen. |
[655.84 --> 659.28] There are people, they're often called the Judaizers. |
[659.88 --> 663.28] They're zealous for the law, people who believe in Jesus but are zealous for the Old Testament |
[663.28 --> 663.64] law. |
[664.10 --> 665.86] Paul calls them the agitators. |
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