One Gospel (Galatians 2:1-10)

Like I said, Galatians chapter 2, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 10.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

And this is really, Paul's still setting stuff up here.

He hasn't gotten into the real meat and potatoes of Galatians yet.

He's still just trying to prove to them that he's an apostle, that the gospel he's teaching is right on, and it's agreed upon with other leaders within the church that the gospel that he preaches is the one he received from Jesus Himself.

So he's really going to be continuing on, and this is still kind of a narrative passage that we're going through here this morning.

So if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

Galatians chapter 2, starting verse 1.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preached among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders.

I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain.

But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us.

But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.

Now, from those recognized as important, what they once were, makes no difference to me.

God does not show favoritism, they added nothing to me.

On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised, since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles.

When James, Cephas, and John, those recognized as pillars, acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word, first of all, that you have have left here for us.

Lord, this book that's filled with your voice and your truth, every word inspired by the Holy Spirit.

God, I pray that these ten verses here today that you would accomplish all that you did desire to accomplish in each one of us, but as a church body as a whole as well.

That we would come to you with humility, with openness, and a willing to allow you to change us and to mold us to be more and more like Jesus as we abide closer and closer with Him.

Lord, I pray that your will would be done here today and that you would use these verses for your purposes.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So, like I said, today's largely a narrative passage with some more of Paul's testimony coming to light that we're going to see here.

But this section is important as he builds his case to go to Galatia to recognize his apostleship.

That the gospel of grace that he is preaching is actually legit.

And for them specifically to not be deceived by the Judaizers.

If you remember, those are the people that were talking about that they claimed you need Jesus and something else.

In their case, it's Jesus and the law, Jesus and circumcision.

Now, he already set up in chapter one that the gospel that he preaches was not learned from a man.

It wasn't like it came from Peter or James or John, but that it came from Jesus Christ Himself.

And that will be important for today's passage as Paul's convincing them that he's preaching the one true gospel.

And that the Judaizers that are now influencing Galatia are not preaching the same gospel that he is.

And basically what he's telling them is if you want to argue with what I'm teaching, then you need to argue with Jesus.

Because Jesus is the one that taught him the gospel.

And we just need to notice before we jump into this passage, because it's going to be important, that in chapter two, Paul is very confident in the gospel that he's teaching.

Because at first reading, it may not appear that way, and we're going to be getting into this.

Now, Paul ended chapter one as we as we jump in and start talking about all this.

He entered, um, he ended chapter one mentioning a trip to Jerusalem, if you remember as Ben taught last week.

And then to Syria and Cilicia.

And it says, if you want to start with me back in chapter 1, verse 22, he says, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

Now Jerusalem is in Judea, and then in 23 he says, they only were hearing it said, He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.

And they glorified God because of me.

So Jerusalem knows of Paul, but they don't know him like Antioch.

They don't know him like Galatia, those places that know Paul personally because he ministered there for so long.

So now, with that in mind, look at verse 1.

Then, after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

So again, we could get caught up, as we've been talking about, in the timeline and trying to piece this all together and figure out, okay, was this 14 years between his visits to Jerusalem?

Was this 14 years from his time in Syria and Cilicia to his visits to Jerusalem?

Or maybe even this is 14 years from his conversion to his visit in Jerusalem.

But that really doesn't help us.

Because the reason he mentions this right here is to drive home the fact that he's been separated from the Jerusalem apostles, really, in ministry so far.

You know, he didn't know them very well, they didn't know him very well.

He's really just adding to the point that the gospel that he preaches didn't come from them.

The gospel that he preaches came from Jesus.

He's simply saying, My ministry was in other places.

I've been very I've been influenced very little by these church leaders that are in Jerusalem that we're going to be talking about here.

All this is key information for what we're jumping into.

But first, let's take a look at who's with Paul on this journey to Jerusalem that he's talking about.

So first, it says he's with Barnabas.

And we learn as early as Acts 4 that he was a faithful servant of the early church.

Barnabas was.

He's a Hellenistic Jew.

So that's a Greek-speaking Jew that's from Cyprus specifically.

He was one, um, the one that the leaders in Jerusalem sent to Antioch when they heard that people were getting saved and God was doing a revival up there.

And Barnabas shows up, he sees what's going on, and he realizes that this would be the perfect place for Paul to minister.

Um so he goes and he finds Paul and he brings Paul to Antioch with him so that they could minister there together.

And the name Barnabas was given as a nickname, which means son of encouragement.

I don't know what that is, but okay, let's try that.

Um, I might have just turned the zoom off.

Okay, let's try that.

Um, but the name Barnabas is son of encouragement.

Have you ever known a Barnabas?

You know, I like hanging out with Barnabases.

The type of people that are Barnabases.

You know, you leave their presence and you're uplifted in the Lord.

You know, you want to keep fighting the good fight after hanging out with them, and you want to continue serving the Lord in diligence.

That's who Barnabas was.

You know, and I can just picture Barnabas showing up to Paul in Tarsus and just, you know, saying, Paul, you know, I just found the perfect ministry place for you.

It's perfect for your giftings, it's perfect for your background and the gospel of grace that exudes out of you, Paul.

You know, these people in Antioch, they need you, Paul.

Come with me.

You know, we'll go do this together.

And I just picture Paul being like, yeah, I mean, why wouldn't I?

After what you said.

And I'm sure it didn't happen like that, but it could have.

So this is one of Paul's close companions, somebody that he has ministered with.

And Barnabas was already known among the church in Jerusalem that they're on their way to, you know, on this journey to Jerusalem.

So if needed, he could really vouch for Paul if he needed to, among the church leaders in Jerusalem.

And then it says that they brought Titus with them.

You know, we saw a lot of Titus as we're going through 2 Corinthians.

We know that he was a highly trusted companion and co-worker in ministry with Paul.

And Titus was sent to Corinth without Paul to minister at one point, and then we saw again that Paul sent him ahead to start collecting the offering for the church in Jerusalem.

And then we see when Paul writes to Titus, the letter, the book of the Bible that we have called Titus in the New Testament, that Paul addressed the letter to Titus.

He said, To Titus, my true son in our common faith.

You know, those are some pretty intimate words that he's using for Titus.

Kind of gives us an idea of the relationship that they had.

If Paul's willing to see him and call him his spiritual son.

And along with that, Titus was not Jewish.

He was a Gentile.

So he's a Greek that was saved by the gospel of grace.

So Paul says, after 14 years, they go up to Jerusalem.

He has Barnabas.

They brought Titus along with them.

And look at verse 2 with me.

I went up according to a revelation.

So he was divinely directed to do so.

And presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles.

So God tells him, you know, go to Jerusalem and preach the gospel that you have been preaching to places like Galatia.

And then Paul adds in the second part of verse 2, he says, but privately to those recognized as leaders.

You know, as I mentioned when we introduced this letter a couple weeks ago, there's a lot of debate on whether this conversation with these leaders is the Jerusalem Council that we see in Acts 15 or not.

As I mentioned then, Paul says he went privately to these recognized leaders.

In Acts 15, it seems a lot more public than what Paul's describing here.

So that's part of the reason why there's some uncertainty of is this really it?

And you can jump into all the timelines and all of those things.

But I want to reiterate that regardless of if this was before the Jerusalem Council or if this is the Jerusalem Council that's being talked about here, really doesn't change the interpretation of how we look at these verses that he's teaching right here in chapter 2, or for the rest of Galatians for that matter.

So we're not going to jump into all those timelines and try and figure it out because scholars have been doing that for years and they all have different opinions on it.

But it really doesn't help what we're talking about here today, or Paul's message to the Galatians.

So Paul goes on to finish chapter 2 and tells them about, I mean, uh, verse 2 and tells them about the purpose of the visit.

He says, I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running in vain.

Now there's two ways to look at the very end of verse 2 here.

First, that Paul wanted to check his gospel doctrine and make sure it lines up with these guys and what they're teaching, which at first reading, it may seem that way.

But when you keep this in the context of the next eight verses that are to come, he pretty much blows that theory out of the water.

Paul had no doubts about the gospel that he preached.

You know, he told us in chapter one that it came directly from Jesus.

So the second way of looking at this, and I think the correct interpretation, is Paul wanted to go to these leaders to share what he had been preaching to make sure that they didn't discredit him or discredit his ministry, which would make the hard work and the persecu persecution and the ministry he had done to be in vain.

If these people, these trusted people, were discrediting his ministry.

You know, basically undoing all of what he had done so far in all of these churches.

You see, if these Jerusalem church leaders were doubting or discrediting his teaching or his ministry from afar because they didn't know him well, then that could have caused a lot of havoc, of distrust from other churches towards Paul.

And the other thing, too, is maybe these church leaders needed to hear what God was doing through Paul in the Gentile world and hear what Paul was preaching so that they could come behind him and could come to agreement with him and be able to vouch for him, to be able to confidently confirm his ministry to others.

No, we know this guy, we've heard his message, you can you can trust that guy.

You know, who knows what kind of stuff these church leaders in in Jerusalem were hearing at this point?

What third-hand, you know, things, you know, well, you know, I have good intel from my friend's mother-in-law that Paul's teaching that, you know, sin so that grace may abound.

You know, who knows what they're hearing and what kind of type of third-hand information.

But it seems like these leaders needed to come to a consensus among themselves that Paul was legit and that the gospel he was teaching was the one true gospel.

And maybe, maybe, they had some Jewish customs that they needed to let go of.

Maybe they had some legalism in their own heart that needed to be dealt with through Paul's testimony and the gospel that he had been teaching.

You know, maybe there's some doctrine they needed to square away.

Which would really make sense of why Paul did this privately and why he's writing about this really so delicately to this Galatian church.

You know, it's to make sure he doesn't throw those Jerusalem leaders under the bus.

He mentions in verse 5 and 6 and that he didn't even waver in the gospel of grace that he was teaching.

And he says outright that the church leaders in Jerusalem added nothing to him.

You know, I think this is another way of him just gently saying to the Galatians, I wasn't there to get my doctrine straightened out.

You know, look at verse 3 with me.

But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

So remember, we talked about how Judaizers preached Jesus and the law.

You know, you need to become Jewish and then you can follow Christ.

It was basically the message that, the false message that they were spreading around.

What they were doing was stealing away the freedoms that Christ died for.

You know, Titus, sitting under Paul's teaching for who knows how long, who is a Greek and uncircumcised, was not compelled to follow Jewish tradition, being a Gentile.

He really is for Paul, living proof that a follower of Jesus could be a follower of Jesus without being circumcised.

I mean, think about Paul thinks about Timothy as his spiritual son, you know, as his disciple, as his trusted aid.

And he wasn't even circumcised and didn't even feel compelled to be circumcised.

Now, this is proof that Paul had not compromised in the gospel of grace that he first taught the Galatians when he was first with them.

And it proves too that he has not yielded to the Judaizers to appease them.

Look at verse 4.

This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us.

So we don't know who these false brothers are, and if they infiltrated the church in Paul's camp or in the Jerusalem camp, if you are somebody that really believes that this is the Jerusalem council we see in Acts 15, then it's referring to the men that came from Judea to Antioch and taught that you had to be circumcised to be saved.

But regardless of who these people are, this is hitting close to home.

Some Judaizers were now within the church.

It says right there, they infiltrated their ranks.

And this trip was to take care of that issue specifically.

These false brothers, he calls them, that have infiltrated are now in their camp.

Look at verse 5.

But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment.

So that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.

So whoever these people were, Paul stood firm in his conviction of the gospel of grace.

That again was not taught to him by man, but by Jesus.

He didn't waver, he says, even for a moment.

It says he did his part to preserve the gospel, to keep it in that same permanent state that he received from Christ Himself.

So at this point, question for you.

Do you think Paul was in Jerusalem for the sake of his own doctrine?

Or for the sake of the others within the church, and saying as for the sake of unity within the greater church?

I sure think that's why he was there.

He wanted unity based on truth.

You know, this trip was about confirming the truth of the gospel so that they could stand in unity as leaders, as apostles together.

Look at verse 6.

Now, from those recognized as important, what they once were makes no difference to me.

God does not show favoritism.

They added nothing to me.

The church leaders in Jerusalem added nothing to Paul's gospel.

He didn't show up and be like, oh, I need to make some corrections and I need to change the way that I say that.

The church leaders in Jerusalem added nothing to his gospel.

Nothing to him.

And the way he phrases this, I think he's saying, just because these guys were with Jesus, just because two of them were part of his twelve disciples, and just because they're more widely recognized and more respected maybe than I am, or in James' case, even though he's Jesus' half-brother and grew up with him, he says, that doesn't matter to me.

I'm not in awe of these guys because of what they once were.

He doesn't make, it doesn't make them better than Paul, or more trustworthy than Paul, or more of an apostle than Paul.

And they added nothing to him.

And I don't think this is Paul's pride here.

Like they added nothing to me.

It's just another way of communicating to Galatia.

My gospel has not changed.

It's strictly from Jesus, and it's the same one that I taught you when I was first with you.

Look at verse 7.

On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised.

Since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles.

It was the same gospel by the same Spirit.

And Paul had the same calling that Peter had on his life.

And now we know from Acts that Peter also ministered to Gentiles.

We also know that Paul also ministered to Jews.

You know, he'd always go into the synagogue in a city first and then to the Gentiles.

But the primary ministry that they were engaged in were Paul to the Gentiles and Peter to the Jews.

And these leaders in Jerusalem are now just confirming that Paul is called to the Gentiles just as much as Peter is called to the Jews.

Which is saying a lot.

He's saying, hey Galatia, these guys in Jerusalem, you know, they support my ministry.

They don't discredit it.

So all that I have done is not in vain.

And everything that's to come, you need to listen to and you need to trust because it is now confirmed by these other men as well.

Look at verse 9 with me.

When James, Cephas, and John, those recognized as pillars, acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnett.

This, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

You know, these are probably the most recognized names in the church at this time.

James, I already said, Jesus' half-brother.

Cephas, you know, who's the disciple Peter, John, another disciple of Jesus, and Peter and John were part of that smaller group, Peter, James, and John, different James, Peter, James, and John, that did special things with Jesus.

Now you add in Paul to this picture, these four wrote 21 of the 27 books of the New Testament.

If Paul wrote Hebrews, that's 22 of the 27 books in the New Testament.

And these four came to an agreement on this issue of a gospel that's based on grace.

And came to an agreement of how they were going to move forward giving that gospel to Jews and to Gentiles.

And gave, these three gave the right hand of fellowship to Paul.

Basically saying, hey, Paul, you're one of us.

We recognize that now.

And then so Paul's relaying to Galatia.

Galatia, even though those guys added nothing to me, you know, these guys that you recognize as pillars, they confirmed my ministry, they confirmed my message, they confirmed my apostleship, and they extended to me the right hand of fellowship.

You see, he's still setting up the rest of this letter to Galatia.

He's still just kind of convincing them of, hey, you need to really pay attention to what I'm about to say to you, specifically regarding grace and freedom in Christ.

And then we'll end with verse 10.

They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I have made every effort to do.

At this time, the Jerusalem church had suffered through a famine.

They had suffered through a lot of persecution.

So this is probably just a plea on these church leaders' part of hey, don't forget us.

Don't forget Jerusalem as you go out to the rest of the world and you know, to all these Gentiles.

Please just don't forget about the church here.

We're suffering, we're going through some hard times.

So basically, Paul, you know, just go out about your business.

You know, you have our blessing, yeah, but please don't forget about us.

And as we saw in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Paul made a point of gathering a collection for the church in Jerusalem.

So we can see that he upheld this direction that he got from them.

And you know, this is kind of a side note, but I wonder if Paul felt at least partially responsible for the poor in Jerusalem.

You know, I wonder how many of those widows and orphans he made or helped make into widows or orphans because of the persecution that he was doing among the church before he got saved.

I wonder if this is part of Paul's sleepless nights, you know, dealing with the guilt of that and convincing himself that God's grace was sufficient to forgive him of that sin.

So they tell him to remember the poor, and from what we see, Paul did that like he often does with zeal.

So as we come to a close here this morning, you know, this is very much a narrative passage that we've gone through, but we still need to ask, what can we apply to our walk through these verses?

We can, I think through these verses, we can be assured that there's only one true gospel and there's no variations to it.

I think we can be assured that salvation is by grace and by grace alone.

It is not by works.

We can add nothing to it.

Basically, I think what we get out of this is that God's grace is sufficient.

2 Corinthians 12, 9 says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.

God doesn't need us to come to Him strong in our flesh.

It's quite the opposite.

His grace is sufficient.

It's perfected in weakness.

His grace is sufficient to save us completely in the midst of that weakness.

And our good works shouldn't come from a place of feeling like we need to add something to the gospel.

We need to add something to our salvation.

You know, our good works should come because we love God so much.

And we recognize how much he loves us.

Our work should come from a place of love and not from a place of obligation.

We should be in a state where we just can't wait to serve him because we love him so much.

And we know how much he loves us and that he loves us perfectly.

Biggest takeaway his grace is sufficient.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for that grace.

That nothing is needed from us to make your grace perfect.

Nothing's needed from us to add to salvation, Lord.

We are saved completely and only by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we thank you for the sacrifice that you made on the cross in our place for us so that this grace through salvation, Lord, could happen exactly as we've been talking about through this whole thing.

And as we're going to continue to talk about as we go through Galatians together.

Lord, that your grace is perfect and your grace is sufficient.

Lord, I pray that we would understand that, that we would accept that.

And because we're so blown away and so in awe of you, and because we love you so much, that works would be a result of that grace that you first showed to us, of that salvation that you have offered so freely to us as a free gift.

And Lord, as we're about to take communion this morning, I pray if there's anybody here that has never accepted that grace for themselves, that today would be the day.

Just recognizing that Jesus is the only way, that he is the truth, that he is the life, the only way to the Father, and that salvation is a free gift.

He paid a ton for it, but it's a free gift to us that we simply need to accept.

So, Lord, if there's anybody here, I pray that they would do that in the quietness of their own seat right now before we take communion so that they can partake in this meal of celebration, the symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ for the first time.

God, we love you.

We thank you for your love that you first loved us and that you desire to be our Father and for us to be your children.

Pray these things in Jesus' name.