Galatians 1:1–5 – An Authentic Messenger

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This message is from Galatians 1-1-5 and is entitled "An Authentic Messenger."

It was originally delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, February 2, 2025.

As we work through these opening verses together, we're going to find some biblical principles

for qualifying an authentic messenger of the gospel that are just as relevant for us today

as they were for the early church that Paul was writing to. Let's begin by reading this passage.

Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father,

who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of

our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

So to introduce you properly to the book of Galatians, we need to introduce both Paul and

the Galatians that he is writing to, the people in the church in Galatia.

First of all, let's take a look at the world that all of this is happening in. What was the world

like then? A few things, a few conditions were making it possible for Christianity to travel in

a way that it never would have been able to even a few hundred years prior to this happening.

There are two things in particular. One is that the Greek language had become kind of the norm in

this area of the world. And so this area that used to have separate languages for all of these peoples,

while they still had their original tongues and languages that they would speak, Greek had become

the normal custom in that area of the world, which allowed people from different areas to

communicate easily together because of the common tongue. Basically, this is the opposite of what

happened at the Tower of Babel, where now people can speak to each other in one language. And

importantly, that language is not just spoken but written. And so these letters that are written in

a common tongue would have been easily disseminated and shared among people and among churches. And

so the Greek language is the first piece to that puzzle. The second is that the letters in the

communication actually had to be able to get somewhere. And the Roman road system and really

the Roman Empire's protection of that area of the world allowed safe travel from one area to the

next. And so this was allowing safe travel for those communications between people. So you have

both a common language and a common kingdom, so to speak, where these people were able to travel

and Christianity as a result exploded. All of these letters from the apostles, all of the missionaries

that are going out from the church originally in Jerusalem and then from other churches and other

places. So all of that's happening. At the same time, there's a lot of confusion in this area of

the world about Christianity. Is Christianity a new religion or is it an old religion? Some people

are saying, well, this is an old religion because it's basically Judaism, which is the oldest religion.

And some of them are saying, no, we think this is a newer religion that comes from one of the

Eastern countries because these new religions would pop up every once in a while. And so the

people in this area of the world are confused about Christianity as to whether it is a new kind of

Eastern religion talking about a new deity, this Jesus who raised from the dead and now is God

in a similar way that the Greek gods would have been understood. Or is it an old Jewish thing with

a different bent? And so a lot of what the apostles are pushing against in areas like Galatia is

explaining exactly what Christianity is. And so we see some of that throughout the letter.

As we read a letter, it's going to read a little differently than a historical narrative like axe.

So we've just finished with our church going through the book of axe. And that would have been a

narrative. But this is going to be a letter, an epistle, which means it's a letter with instruction.

And so we're going to read this a little differently. A few of the ways that we do that is we read it

in context with the gospels. Often we're going to be going back to the gospels to find out what is

he referencing, what did Jesus say? And also with Paul's other letters. So a lot of these letters

have connections, things that Paul will expand on in other letters. And so we can go to those to

help us understand what is Paul getting at here. Our pace will generally be slower. There's going

to be a lot more direct application kind of questions that come out of this because it is an

instructional letter. We'll read the whole passage at the outset every week and then go through verse

by verse. Galatians is known as one of the, I would say the spicier epistles or letters,

because Paul is addressing not only the people who are coming against him as an apostle, but also

this twisting of the gospel, which we'll get into next week. And I think this is very timely for the

church today. It is just as relevant to address people and ideas that will twist the gospel in

2025 as it was when it was originally being sent and delivered to this church. So let's dive in,

and let's talk a little bit about Paul. Paul is having to say some things and explain some things

to qualify himself. And that's kind of what we'll get into in the introduction today. So before we

dive into what he opens with in the letter, let's talk about Paul a little bit. Paul is first of all

a Jew raised in Gentile country. So he was raised, we know in the city of Tarsus. There he would have

been in more a Gentile area, but he was raised in a Jewish family. He would have received the primary

schooling probably at the local Jewish school. But then he also would have received the secondary

education where he went under the teacher Gamaliel. And so he would have received a comprehensive

Jewish education and was highly educated in the law and understanding what the law was to mean for

living in the eyes of the Orthodox Jews of that time. And then Paul experiences after becoming

an advocate for the law in that he was against all Christian churches. He has this shocking

conversion on the road to Damascus that we read about a few times in Acts where he hears the

voice of Jesus and he goes blind because he sees this bright light that is Jesus. The people around

him hear the voice, but they don't see anybody there. And so he goes through this shocking

conversion event in which he becomes, he goes from being the biggest enemy of the church to the

greatest advocate for Jesus and his kingdom. And so all of that makes up who Paul is today.

And interestingly, some of the attacks against Paul have to do with each of those things. The

first is that he's not Jewish enough. Some of the attacks against Paul that we hear in like

Corinthians 10 and 11 are that he's not Jewish enough, that people even would have said he was

a closet Greek, right? Oh, maybe his parents weren't actually Jewish. Maybe they were

actually Greek. And so he's not Jewish enough to really want to keep the law. Paul says that's

not true. He's the most Jewish person that they're going to meet. He was a lawkeeper of lawkeepers.

The second is that he's not a very impressive man. So Paul, the name Paul actually means little.

He is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10 and 11 as being kind of an unimpressive person. And so people

would have, one of the arguments against him would have been that he was not a very

impressive looking person. He wasn't very entertaining. He wasn't as charismatic as some of the other

speakers of the time. So with that kind of introduction to who Paul is, let's dig into our

passage. This is verse 1, Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus

Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So in this introduction, how does Paul

qualify himself here? First, he is an apostle. An apostle means one sent or dispatched. It's like

an envoy or an ambassador sent in the service of another. So he's not arriving with his own message.

He's arriving with a message from someone else. In this case, it's God. The early church decided

on exclusivity of this office. And so it's not that every person who preaches and teaches becomes

an apostle. An apostle was a specific role in the church. And the church early on decided that this

was to be a participant in Jesus' earthly ministry and an eyewitness to the resurrected Jesus. So

as to the first, Paul was now a participant in Jesus' earthly ministry along with the original

disciples. And he says, "I was one untimely born," and he was the last, he also says,

meaning that Paul kind of stands apart, which is something that he gets some flack for,

as being an apostle that saw Jesus resurrected on the road to Damascus, but as far as we know,

did not run with Jesus at all while he was here on this earth. So Paul obtained this office. He

was the last one to do so by his own admission, by the authority and the calling of Jesus himself,

who Paul equates to God. His title and role, he says, are not from or through men, but from Jesus.

And so what looks like a simple greeting here is actually Paul firing a warning shot to those who

would oppose him, saying, "I am qualified. I am an ambassador sent by the authority of God himself.

And it is his message that I was sent to deliver." So in an age of a multitude of churches in 2025,

how are we to decide which one is a true messenger of Christ? We're not looking for new

apostles. We know, biblically, that new apostles don't happen. Paul is the last one to be called

apostle in that role in the church as one of these founders of the church who were capable of writing

inspired scripture. We know that those are not happening anymore, for sure. But when it comes

to other people who claim to speak for God, who claim to preach and teach for God, we're talking

about churches, pastors, ministry leaders, Christians, all of these people in a multitude of

them, right? In a multitude of those, how do we decide who's speaking for Jesus?

Further complicating that is the number of social media warriors, online influencers,

celebrity Christians, and authors, podcast hosts, all who claim to be true messengers of God.

Some of these people are well-intentioned. Some of them are masters of manipulation,

both in scripture passages and all of your emotions as well. It brings to mind almost like a

football game where you have this lay of the land and the team on the field that's identifying as

Christian, but it looks a lot less like a unified team under one coach. It looks a lot more like

that moment after either a bad call or the end of the game when everyone floods the field.

It looks like chaos sometimes. I wonder what Paul would have to say to the Church in America or

in Council Bluffs today. The endless denominations, the clever church titles, the para-church ministries,

these ministries that come alongside the church but aren't actually the church,

how would he qualify himself? I suspect the specifics may change, but the same principles

would apply today here. So let's use some of Paul's provided criteria to help us determine at least

some of the qualities or the factors that would help us to know who is trustworthy.

First is that they are qualified by character. These qualifications of a godly messenger

are decided by God, not by man. The world has all sorts of qualifications. Just fill out a profile

on LinkedIn or make a resume and you'll run into dozens of these past jobs, experience, skills,

references. These things are important, but they are not the primary qualifications for God.

God's qualifications have to do first with their character and with their fruit.

So for a pastor, we see the qualifications laid out in 1 Timothy 3-1-7 and Titus 1-5-9.

They are primarily about the godly character of those men. Yes, there are included things like

an ability to teach and preach, but primarily they are character qualifications.

In Matthew 7-15-20, Jesus says that you can tell a good teacher by looking at the

fruit of their lies. He's talking about a transformed life and godly character

that produces good teaching. When you look at the woman who is discussed in Proverbs 31,

who exemplifies godly character traits for leadership, it is unsurprisingly a qualification

of character. She is trustworthy, diligent, demonstrates wisdom in managing her home,

is generous, she fears God. So for the Christian, before you consider listening to the advice

or the teaching of someone, you should examine their character and the fruit of their life

before allowing them to have any influence over you. Beyond leaders and influencers,

we also need to consider groups and organizations. You can certainly look at character and fruit

for them as well, but in verse 2, Paul includes something else that is helpful. He says, "And all

the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia, who are the brothers who are with Paul?"

Well, Paul means the rest of the church that is with him or the people that are of one mind with

him more broadly. Later, Paul will clarify that he has the full blessing of the other disciples.

He's not a one-off, he's not doing things separately from what the other disciples would

say, teach, and do. They are united in purpose, and part of his qualification

is his being aligned with the teaching and the mission of the other apostles.

So when we are evaluating an organization or a denomination or any group, we have to ask,

are they aligned with the disciples? So how do we clearly do that today? Well, we ask the question,

do they submit to the authority of Scripture? Do they submit to the whole counsel of God

that we have been given in Scripture? One of the biggest forms of a group or organization

in the church today is the denomination. So a word on denominations, they are

an excellent tool for disqualifying a church. I would say they are not a great tool for qualifying

one. Let me say that again. They are an excellent tool for disqualifying a church, but they're not

a great tool for qualifying one. Let me explain. You can look at the doctrine or the teaching of

quite a few modern denominations and see clearly that it does not align with Scripture. I'm not

afraid to name a few names here because they've called themselves out by giving us their statement

of faith, such as the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran ELCA Church, the Presbyterian Church of America,

the United Methodist, the United Church of Christ. All of these denominations

have departed from Scripture on several key items. And in order to submit to the teachings of these

denominations in 2025, you have to reject the clear biblical stance on issues such as sexual

identity, exclusive salvation through Jesus, multiple other resulting social issues. And so any

church or denomination who rejects the authority of Scripture is a non-starter. So I suppose in a way,

denominations are helpful. Some denominations, unfortunately, are like a big red

flag that says, "Not it." Now, unfortunately, just having the right denomination or the right

affiliation isn't enough to qualify you either. As a church, we have a lot in common with Baptist

churches, generally speaking, specifically with the SBC or the Southern Baptist Convention. We're

not affiliated with them, but we share a lot of their doctrinal positions when it comes to salvation,

baptism, communion, etc. I have been in Baptist churches that adhere wholeheartedly to both the

stated biblical positions of the church and to Scripture directly. But I have also been in some

churches that while they say "Baptist" on the front, they have little interest in baptizing anyone,

and their view of Scripture is a weak one at best. So when it comes to qualifying a church or

organization, there's not an easy checkbox or an easy button. We actually have to do some work.

We have to do the work that the Bereans did, the people of Berea, in Acts 1711, as where we see

them referenced, when they received Paul's message eagerly, but also examined the Scriptures daily

to see if these things were so. They didn't just take Paul's word for it, they tested everything

against Scripture. So finally, before Paul launches into his purpose for writing, he establishes what

they all should affirm as true. Verse 3, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will

of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever." Amen.

The final qualification is that authentic messengers prioritize the Gospel.

Before Paul launches into anything else, he starts with the Gospel. It is clear, it is brief,

it is the foundation of everything else that Paul will say is built on.

Jesus is who we find our peace in, not the law. In this present evil age, we actually find peace

in Jesus Christ. But we also live in this in-between age. This work of Christ is finished on the cross,

which will be a theme that he gets into in this letter, but the future kingdom is not yet fulfilled.

We live in the in-between. And while we live in the in-between, we trust in the Gospel. So here,

too, we want to treat the Gospel as foundational. Without what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf,

without his resurrection being true, nothing else has any meaning whatsoever. Paul makes this exact

point in 1 Corinthians 15, 14 through 19, where he says, "If Christ hasn't been raised from the dead,

then our preaching is in vain. Your faith is for nothing. If Christ has not been raised,

your faith is futile, and you're still dead in your sins."

It's in Christ that we have hope, right? And it's not just for this life only. If it was just for

this life, then we are to be pitied. If there's no eternal life, then what are we doing this for?

So the Gospel that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead to the glory of God the Father.

That Gospel is central to everything that we believe in, everything that we do. And I would

beware of anyone who makes the Gospel secondary to a political, social, or personal agenda.

Our positions on these matters flow out of our position on the Gospel, but they must not be

raised above it. So as we close out this first couple of verses in the letter of Galatians,

let's review what those qualifications are, right? Before we are going to accept a messenger or

a messenger's claiming to come in the name of Christ, let's first evaluate. One, are they

qualified according to God? Do they have godly character? Are they showing evidence of the

spirit at work in them? We do not want to be a people that say we submit to the authority of

Scripture. A person can claim to submit to the authority of Scripture and they can claim to

prioritize the Gospel and actually sound pretty good, but if they don't live a life of godly

character showing that the spirit is at work in them, they don't deserve our time and attention

because they are not speaking for God if God is not at work in them. Second, do they submit to the

authority of Scripture? There are some very nice people who show some wonderful character traits

who are kind and are caring and are people of integrity and yet they do not submit to the

authority of Scripture and if that's the case, they don't deserve our time and attention either

because they don't speak for God if they are not going to submit to God's word.

Finally, do they prioritize the Gospel in an age of dozens of social concerns and organizations?

It's easy to elevate some of those things above the Gospel and we don't ever want to do that. We

want the Gospel of Jesus Christ to remain central to who we are and to what we are about. We are

called by Jesus to make disciples and teach them to obey everything that God has commanded.

We are called to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We are called to walk alongside people as they come to faith in Jesus. That is our primary mission.

Yes, because we love Jesus and because we love others, there are going to be other things that

we do, other organizations that we partner with, that we become a part of, other things that we give

to because we love Jesus. But it all comes out of that core value of knowing and loving Jesus,

of being convinced that he rose from the dead, of wanting to serve him and be with him forever.

That's what everything else needs to come out of.

And so I pray that in this present age, we are living in the grace of God, that we are a church

that grows not only in number but in being known as a people of character, a people that love others

well, that we are a people that know and love the Word of God and we submit to its authority.

We trust what God has to say about us and the world around us and that we prioritize the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Councilbloss, Iowa and in homes throughout

the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples

of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact the pastor by visiting

ecclesiachurches.org.