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We want to share important pieces of our worship service with those who might not have been able to be there in person.
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Galloping Through Galatians - Part 1/6
Freedom frightens us. It always has.
When Paul journeyed to Jerusalem fourteen years after his conversion, he faced a pivotal moment that would define Christianity's future. Would the good news remain just that—good news of salvation through faith in Christ alone—or would it become burdened with additional requirements?
This exploration of Galatians chapter 2 unveils the controversy around circumcision that threatened the early church. Some insisted Gentile believers needed this physical sign of the covenant to truly belong to God's people. But Paul recognized this demand for what it was: an attack on the very essence of grace. Their freedom in Christ was being "spied upon" by those seeking to bring them back into religious slavery.
What makes this ancient text so relevant today is how perfectly it mirrors our modern religious experience. We still struggle with "Gospel Plus" thinking—taking the beautiful simplicity of salvation through Christ and adding our own requirements. We've transformed traditions like Wednesday night church attendance from helpful practices into essential markers of true faith. We've created unwritten rules that become chains, driving away younger generations who long for Jesus but reject our complicated systems of control.
The Jerusalem leaders ultimately added nothing to Paul's message except a reminder to care for the poor. They recognized what we often forget—that God works effectively through different people in different ways, and the gospel message stands complete without our additional requirements.
When you see someone exercising their freedom in Christ differently than you might, does it frighten you? Perhaps the most challenging question this passage raises is why we love taking what God made simple and making it complicated. The answer reveals more about our need for control than about the gospel itself.
Okay, okay, you all ready to get started? It's okay, we're not going to even get through Chapter 2 today, so you're good. Okay, if you are here for psychology two, you're in the wrong classroom. You'll have to go down the hall, up the steps. What's the name of this class? Mental health one. Mental health one. Thank you. This class, mental health one, thank you.
Speaker 1:Galloping through Galatians. And this is lesson two. What was lesson one? What did we learn in lesson one, do you recall? Well, we did talk about where Galatia was right. Which is in what modern-day country? Turkey, modern-day Turkey, yes.
Speaker 1:And we talked about who Paul was, and we talked about the message that he preached to the Galatians when he was there and to everybody else on his first missionary journey. Remember, we said that the general consensus is this book was, or actually a letter was, probably written between the first and second missionary journeys. So, when he was preaching to the Galatians and to everybody else, he preached to them the gospel. And what does the word gospel mean? Good news. So what was the good news that he preached to them? The gospel when? What does the word gospel mean? Good news? So what was the good news that he preached to them? There were two elements to it that we talked about last week. It's only the most important thing you'll ever hear, do you remember? No, okay, what was the good news? The first part of the good news was that Old Testament prophecies had been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, that Jesus was the Messiah, that he fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies that had to do with the Messiah. And the second part of the good news was that salvation, your forgiveness of sins, salvation, comes through Jesus, right Through faith in Jesus, not from your good works and not from obeying the Old Testament law. That was the good news. That is the good news. That's the gospel in a nutshell. So we're going to pick up from there this week. And you remember when we left off last week, we were talking about Paul starts into this discussion, about his conversion, how he began to be a follower of the way, how he began to follow Christ, and we said this is a story they've heard before. I'm certain of that, but he starts to tell it again for another reason. So that's where we're going to pick up today.
Speaker 1:So, galloping through Galatians, lesson two, I call this going up country. Remember this song, canned Heat played at Woodstock. A lot of people in here would remember Woodstock, right? Okay, yeah, some of you would. You were there, if you remember. Oh, carol, carol, let me just give you the microphone and tell us all about it.
Speaker 1:We did famous gallopers last week, maybe. We did a whole bunch of different horses and stuff. Let's do one more famous galloper this week. Let's see if you can remember. You won't remember, probably.
Speaker 1:Let's see if you can figure out who this is. Where's my sports guys at Trevor's back there? Who's that? Red Grange? Yes, very good. Now where did he go to school? Look at his colors. Illinois. Yes, went to Illinois and he was known as the Galloping Ghost. Yes, there he is. Maybe the best football player ever. Of course, if you ask for a list of the greatest of anything these days, if it didn't happen in the last five years, it didn't happen. There he is scoring a touchdown or getting ready to score a touchdown Illinois 39, michigan, 14, 1924. How about that? There you go.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we're going to talk about Paul's visit to Jerusalem, because this is what he's talking about and this is one person's idea of what it may have looked like when he's visiting with the apostles and the other disciples there in Jerusalem. So in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 2, he says that in his first trip to Jerusalem, he met with Peter and James. Now, this James would not be John's brother because he had already been killed. This was Christ's brother. His second trip to Jerusalem takes place 14 years later. Sometimes we get the idea that all this stuff happens within a few days. This is over a period of many years that this stuff happens. It just gets compressed into telling. And let's read verses 1 and 2 of Galatians 2.
Speaker 1:He says Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately, before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain. So he's going up there with two people with him to Jerusalem Barnabas and Titus. So why did he go to Jerusalem? What does he when he says you know what's the next one? That's not the one I'm looking for, okay. So what does he? In verses one and two, he tells us why he went up to Jerusalem. And so why did he go. What does he say? Say what Follow up. He had a revelation. He says Now he doesn't tell you what it was, he just says that I went there because I had a revelation. That he says Now he doesn't tell you what it was, he just says that I went there because I had a revelation that I was supposed to go. And he went there to tell them particularly what I want to tell them the gospel. What particular gospel? The one I'm preaching to who? The Gentiles? I want to tell them about the gospel I'm preaching to the Gentiles. Why? Okay, so Doug says he felt he was preaching the right gospel. Others said that he wasn't.
Speaker 1:So during this 14 years, between trips to Jerusalem, what do you think is going on in Paul's life? He's still teaching the gospel. He's still teaching the gospel, okay, he's living his life right. He's not in a coma somewhere. He's not in a monastery. He's living his life. Paul's living his life. You know, he's just living his life. Do you think he's growing? Do you think he's getting wiser? Do you get wiser as you get older? Is that a loaded question? Hopefully he's having experiences, he's seeing the way that things work and he's hopefully getting wiser and learning lots of stuff. After 14 years, do you think the way he deals with the church in Jerusalem, the leaders in Jerusalem, be different after 14 years? I would think so to a degree. He's living his life.
Speaker 1:So here's the question what's the gospel that he preached to the Gentiles? What's the gospel he preached to the Gentiles? Because that's what he said. He wanted to set before the leaders in Jerusalem to tell them here's what I'm preaching. Am I doing this wrong or not? Okay, what did we just say? The gospel was that Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures, that he was the Messiah and that salvation comes through faith in him. There's your gospel. And he says this is what I'm preaching. This is what I'm preaching. Anything wrong with that? You guys tell me. That's why he goes to Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:And then he talks about verses three through five, about circumcision, which I said was a cutting issue. Now for those of you, okay, I will do a very 2025 thing. This is a trigger warning. Okay, this is a trigger warning. So we're going to talk about a couple things here that some people may your sensibilities may be offended if you stay. So I'm just warning you now. If you don't want your sensibilities offended, now's the time to scurry out, hide your head in your hands.
Speaker 1:So this is Paul continuing on, and this is the English Standard Version. But even Titus, who was with me, remember, titus and Barnabas both went with him to Jerusalem. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek, a non-Jew, a Gentile. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so they might bring us into slavery to them, we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved to you. Now he kind of hints around at something here he's going to get into this in more detail later but he kind of hints around at the real issue. He's going to get into this in more detail later. But he kind of hints around at the real issue that he's writing to the Galatians about.
Speaker 1:So what is circumcision? What is it? Well, here's the. The etymology of it is circum, meaning around, size, meaning to cut. So to cut literally. Meaning to cut, so to cut literally, to cut around. It's a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. There you go. Didn't know you were going to have an anatomy class.
Speaker 1:Now for our listeners on Spotify. I am not going to repeat what the peanut gallery just said. Now you can read Genesis, chapter 17, verses 9 through 14. God commanded Abraham to circumcise the males in his household as a sign of his covenant with Abraham and his descendants. This was a command from God to Abraham. He said I want you to do this. When he made his covenant with Abraham, this is one of the things he told him to do.
Speaker 1:Now that raises lots of questions to me. Of all the things God could have picked, why in the world did he pick this? I mean, I think I would have been saying you know, can we renegotiate this contract? Can we maybe renegotiate here? You know, I'm not the only one that would think that If you're a guy in here, you're going preach brother, preach Right.
Speaker 1:This raises another question. If somebody asked you are you a Hebrew or are you not a Hebrew? Are you a Hebrew or are you not a Hebrew? Are you a Jew or are you not a Jew? And you said yes, how would you confirm that you were? You can laugh. That's how you would do it. I'm going to show you do it. I'm going to show you Now, in our society in our group. Here we're going. I'm telling you this was a different world. You would not recognize the first century. If you showed up there, you would be shocked and amazed. But our Victorian values make us blush and go oh dear To them. This is the way it was. This is the way it was.
Speaker 1:So here is Genesis 17. God said to Abraham you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants and the generations after you. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep Every male among you must be circumcised. You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and this will be a sign of the covenant between me and you, etc. Etc, etc, etc. And then he says at the end if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people. He has broken Play on words there. Everybody, every guy, has to go through this as a sign that they are part of the covenant between Abraham and God. Being circumcised represented that you are part of the covenant between God and Abraham, between God and man. You are part of that covenant. What's that got to do with anything that Paul is talking about? Hang on here, we'll get to it.
Speaker 1:So he talks about the issue of the circumcision of Gentile believers, including Titus. Titus is a Gentile, not a Jew. Therefore, he is not circumcised. He is not circumcised. This is an issue with some people, and you'll read in other books that Paul has written. In other letters he's written that there are brothers who are showing up to the Gentile believers and telling them what, if you want the blessings of the gospel, part of that means that you have to be circumcised. You don't have any part in Abraham's covenant. You're not part of God's people unless you do this, is that part of the gospel that Paul was preaching to the Gentiles? No, and so he goes to Jerusalem to say am I doing this wrong? I don't think I'm doing this wrong. I'm going to put this in front of you and you tell me whether I'm doing it wrong, because I'm telling them they don't have to. To us today, this is like what, what? This doesn't make any sense To them. This is big, this is huge, this is a major issue. And there's your circumcised guys here. Okay, that's the guys who are getting ready to work on Titus. For those of you on Spotify, it's the Three Stooges. There it is.
Speaker 1:Paul uses these terms. Whew, paul uses these terms to talk about these people who were making this argument. He calls them what? False brothers working under a false pretense and are spying on our freedom. What do those terms suggest to you? They weren't genuinely wrong. They had ulterior motives. They weren't genuinely wrong. Now Paul's going to call them out and say they are wrong, but what's their ulterior motive?
Speaker 1:Let me put it this way what do these people believe? What do they believe? We are right and you are wrong. Correct, you have to do this. There's no if and or but about. You have to do this, you must do this, have to do this, you must do this, but by spying on their freedom. I don't know what. Nothing, nothing. Well, let's move on. Maybe they'll come to us.
Speaker 1:What's Paul referring to when he talks about our freedom in Christ? Because that's what he says they're spying on right. They're spying on our freedom in Christ. False brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so they might bring us into slavery. What freedom is he talking about? We're going to be judged against the law. We're going to be judged with Christ's grace. That's how we're going to be judged against the law, we're going to be judged with Christ's grace on us. That's how we're going to work in two different places. Okay, anybody else? I didn't say I was wrong. I appreciate the answer. What did you say earlier? Go ahead. I'm sorry, I hate to keep bringing up a sore subject. Okay, what happened to the law when Christ was crucified? Say it, geiler. It's the right answer. It was fulfilled. Other places will say that the law was nailed to the cross with Christ. Are these Gentile believers under the law? Were they ever under the old? They were never under Moses' law, never, never, ever.
Speaker 1:Paul says we have freedom in Jesus. We have freedom in Christ. What kind of freedom and why? Would some people oppose? What's wrong with freedom? Freedom? Say it again. God, I just got all the answers. Today Must be that Monroe County water Got all the answers.
Speaker 1:Freedom is hard to control. Actually, if I have freedom, it's harder for you to control me, for you to control me, and so, because I am not happy that you don't have to follow the laws that I have imposed on myself, I'm going to try to make you do what I do, because I think that doing what I do is what you're supposed to do, because doing what I do is what you're supposed to do, because doing what I do in my mind is part of the gospel. You have to do it this way, and if you don't do it this way, you're not following the gospel. That's the message that these people were giving to the Gentile believers. It was gospel plus.
Speaker 1:Yes, all that stuff Paul said is true. He did fulfill the Messianic prophecies. Yes, indeed, our salvation is through Jesus Christ, but there's some other things you've got to do too. We're going to add some more things on to it, one of which is circumcision. You have to do this, one of which is circumcision you have to do this. So what does circumcision have to do with freedom in Christ? Do you have to be circumcised to be a Christian? Do you have to be circumcised to be a follower of the Messiah? According to these people, you did yes, and that's the point that Paul is eventually going to get to here. If my salvation is in Jesus Christ, in Him alone, then circumcision or uncircumcision is meaningless. He tells them elsewhere that if you allow yourself to be circumcised, in other words, if you allow yourself to be put under the old law for the idea of circumcision, then you have to follow the whole law, it's not just bits and pieces. If you're going to follow it, then you've got to do the whole thing, which is what Christ came to relieve us of that burden.
Speaker 1:Ever see an Easy Rider before? All right, great. Anybody here ever seen Easy Rider? Sam has. I knew Sam would Always wanted to have one of them choppers. You know, I'd never ridden on a motorcycle in my life but I always wanted one of those things. You know, with the big ape hanger handlebars. You know Peter Fonda said one time that was the worst. That bike was handled terribly, it was impossible to drive. And they drove and they're filming that movie, but he's driving like 25 miles an hour because that's the only way they could get the camera to focus correctly and have the background look the way it did. Imagine trying to drive 25 miles an hour for hours on end. All right, so there's Peter Hopper, dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda and Luke I can't think of his name on the back Luke Askin. This is what I want to focus on.
Speaker 1:There's a point in the movie where they're sitting around a campfire. They just tried to get a hotel room and the guy wouldn't. He turned, had a vacancy sign on. They pull up, you remember, and they beep their horns and say, hey, man, you got a room. And he turns on the no vacancy sign. So there is Dennis Hopper on the right, jack Nicholson on the left and they're having this conversation about freedom and in this context I think it's valuable.
Speaker 1:I watch too many movies, I know, but this always stuck with me the first time I heard this. This stuck with me. It's one of my favorite parts of the whole movie. Now I cleaned up the language, okay. So George Hansen that's Jack Nicholson. He says you know, this used to be a good country. Can't understand what's gone wrong with it.
Speaker 1:Now Billy, who was played by Dennis Hopper, says man, everybody got chicken. Man, that's what happened. We can't even get into a second-rate hotel, I mean a second-rate motel you dig. They think we're going to cut their throat or something. They're scared, man. And George says they're not scared of you, they're scared of what you represent to them. And Billy says hey, man, all we represent to them. Somebody needs a haircut. He said no, no, no, what you represent to them is freedom. And then Billy says what's wrong with freedom? Isn't that what it's all about? And George says oh, yeah, that's right, that's what it's all about. All right, but talking about it and being it are two different things. They're going to talk to you and talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom, but when they see a free individual, it's going to scare them. And Billy says well, don't make them running scared. And George says no, it makes them dangerous.
Speaker 1:That's the situation that the Gentile believers are in. Here are people who are observing their freedom in Christ and it scares them to death. It scares them to death. And so how do we fix that? How do we fix that? We make them obey the rules that we obey. We're going to cut in on their freedom. We're going to take away their freedom. We're going to make them observe the things that we observe, and that makes them dangerous. And Paul recognizes that dangerousness Because if you compromise on that issue, you will find yourself being taken back under the law, which is not going to provide salvation in Christ, and that's what he wants to prevent. Does that make sense? How are we doing? We're doing good.
Speaker 1:Anytime I can slip an Easy Rider reference in, I'd like to do that. One of the greatest movies of all time. You dig Luke Askew? That was the other guy on the back of the bike. Does freedom in Christ frighten people? Does it frighten us? Okay, the answers are all coming from this side of the room. Now I hear Faintly. I hear something, I'm not sure where it's coming from. There will be no follow-up answers. Okay, I'm going to ask all the hard questions now. Does freedom in Christ scare us, and, if so, why? If it doesn't, we're done talking about it, we'll move on.
Speaker 1:When you see somebody exercising their freedom in Christ, does it scare you? Oh, it can, because of tradition, like what? Let's get down to brass tacks. If you don't sing three songs in a prayer, you're wrong. See, I grew up going to church Sunday night, wednesday night, sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night. I never got to see a Super Bowl. Until, you know, you get to see the last two minutes of it. Maybe by that time the game was already over. That was what you had to do. That's not just what you did. That's what you had to do. You must do these things. I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. This is my class. As Al Haig said after President Reagan was shot. I am in charge here. I don't remember what I was going to do. I've lost my train of thought. It's gone off the rails. The Super Bowl, yes.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this question Is Wednesday nights in the Bible? Yes, it is actually. In the first century, the church met daily. They met all the time. And they met not in a building, they met in their houses. They met together every day. They met every day.
Speaker 1:I hated Wednesday nights. I hated it with a passion, and I don't think I'm alone. I hated going on Wednesday nights. I saw it as useless. But if I missed I was going straight to hell. Forsake not the assembling of the saints together, as the manner of some is. Okay, I'll do it. So I went and hated every minute of it. I might as well not been there, but my mom and dad made me go. My loving mother, my gentle mother, would have boxed my ears if I said I was not going to go on Wednesday.
Speaker 1:We turned it into circumcision. We took something that was at the time, I'm sure when they started. It was a good idea, and maybe it is still a good idea, I don't know. But we took that a good idea and turned it into a commandment which you must keep in order to keep your reward in heaven. I don't have to go, I have something else. I'd rather do on Wednesday night. Oh no, you have to be there. A faithful Christian would be there on Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Do you see that it has become and I could give you a thousand other examples, and maybe I will as time goes on of where we have taken our freedom in Christ, bounded in chains, and then taken those chains and attached them to each other, and then we wonder why the world doesn't want to have anything to do with us. You people are crazy. I'm going to tell you this For folks that are under 30,. They want to love Jesus with all their heart. They don't want to have anything to do with our chains and traditions. They don't care. Don't care in the least. That's what drives them away. Am I wrong, reed? Are you under 30? You are 30, okay, okay, mckenzie says I'm under 30.
Speaker 1:Yes, it can't be that simple. There's always a catch. There's always a catch. There's always lawyers involved. You've got to read that fine print, because they're going to get you. They're going to get you.
Speaker 1:Why can't I just love Jesus and try to serve my brothers and sisters and make disciples? Why can't I just do that? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's lots of other stuff you have to do. Is that what Paul preached to the Gentiles? Lots of other stuff.
Speaker 1:So the Gentiles are doing their worshiping of Jesus, their following of him being a Christian in a Gentile way, and the non-Gentiles are looking at that and saying that's not the way you're supposed to do things. You have to do it our way. You have to do it our way. Now, put yourself in the sandals of the Gentile, the Gentile believers. These guys come in and say now you have to do a whole bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 1:What would your reaction be? Leave aside the cutting issue, okay. What would your reaction be? Leave aside the cutting issue, okay. Set that aside for now. If you're a guy, that's all you're thinking about. What's your reaction going to be?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what mine would be I ain't doing it. I am not doing that, and if that's what I have to do, I'm out. I ain't doing it. I am not doing that, and if that's what I have to do, I'm out. I ain't doing it, I'm out. I may believe all that other stuff. I may believe the gospel is preached to me by Paul, but I don't believe all this other stuff. I'm out, I ain't doing it.
Speaker 1:I could go back to being a pagan. They've got all sorts of rules you've got to follow. I could go back to being a pagan. They've got all sorts of rules you've got to follow. The older I get, the more the unwritten rules grate on me. I'll just tell you that up front. In my time as an elder and I think it's been 11 years, I think I have learned lots of lessons, lots of lessons. I remember when I met with Buddy before I said yes, and I still blame you. I remember when I met with Buddy, he said you're going to be asked to do some things you've never done before and make decisions you've never made before and deal with issues you've never dealt with before. And it's true, it's true. It's true.
Speaker 1:Now Paul states that the leaders that were there Peter James, the Lord's brother, and John he said that they added nothing to me. After he told them what the gospel was, that he was preaching, he said they didn't add anything to me. What does that mean? That's exactly it. They didn't change his thoughts on the gospel. He said yep, that's right, that's it. We're not going to tell you to add anything else. We're not going to tell you to go tell those people to be circumcised or to follow any other part of the law of Moses. They didn't add anything. They said preach, brother, preach, right, that's it.
Speaker 1:So what might they have told him to add to the message? Well, that sounds pretty good, paul, but here's a couple other things I think you ought to say. What do you think they could have said to him oh, come on, how about this one? Now, you know we don't eat pork and I know how them Gentiles, especially American Gentiles, like their bacon. Put bacon on everything, even in their ice cream, their coffee, everything. Put bacon on everything, even in their ice cream, their coffee, everything. You tell them stay away from that pork. Could they have done that maybe? I mean, after all, if we see them eating pork, what's it going to do to us who are the Jewish Christians? It's going to offend us, right? Tell them not to do that anymore. Did they tell him to do that? No, no, the Gentiles have the freedom to continue to eat whatever they want to eat. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:If they had told him to add a bunch of stuff to the gospel, what would the effect have been on the gospel? We'll get to that in just a second. You're ahead of me, we'll get there. What would the effect have been on the gospel if they had added a bunch of stuff to it? This is real simple. It would no longer have been the gospel, it would not have been the good news, because now salvation would not have come through Jesus Christ. You would have to say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, I love Jesus, I think he was a Messiah and I'm going to do all this other stuff which is not the gospel. Yes, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Many years ago, a friend of mine was invited to speak for church and before the lesson they had a prayer and Dave evidently didn't bow his head. I went to church and prayed. After serving on the elders' banquet, I noticed that she didn't bow her head, and this year she bowed her head. Dave looked at me and said oh, I got that beat. My father-in-law never closed his eyes during prayer. Here's how he would pray Everyone bow your heads, everybody else's heads bowed. He'd cross his arms and he'd do this Always. Is that right, buddy? I mean always, even at our meetings, he's looking around. He'll make sure everybody's close, okay, so he's the eye-closing judge, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:It fascinates me as a study in human psychology, how we love to take things that are simple and make them hard. We love it. We love it. We love it. We love to take the simple and make it hard. Next time you get a new credit card in the mail, the new credit card's here. Remember the jerk? The phone book is here. The phone book is here, navin Johnson. Next time you get your new credit card in the mail I know you just ripped the top off of that thing and mutilated it. So I said, yeah, it's here, it's not melted yet.
Speaker 1:Take a look at that pamphlet that comes with it With the microscopic print six pages of microscopic print. What's that telling you? Here's what happens. If See, so you don't have a bunch of panhandling lawyers running the streets, they let us do stuff like that. We write these huge pamphlets that nobody reads and everybody throws away. Got to keep us off the streets somehow. So we write this stuff. It tells you all the stuff you never wanted to know about what happens if you use this credit card and what happens if something goes wrong if you use this credit card. Right, all the stuff we love to make things simple.
Speaker 1:Why not just send your credit card and say here, use this wisely, use this wisely, why they don't have enough control over you. Lots of people don't use them wisely, oh, and that bothers me. If I'm the credit card issuer, oh, it's nice to stay up nights, oh, worrying about people. Oh, I don't know what are people doing with this credit card. So we'll regulate the way they can use that credit card, because they might use it wrongly, Right, they might use it wrongly. Oh, these Gentiles have freedom in Christ. Oh, but they might use it wrongly. So let's make some rules for them. Right, let's make some rules, and they better follow these rules.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, here's how it starts out. I have some advice for you. Who doesn't like advice? Right, especially the unsolicited kind. Don't you love unsolicited advice? Driver, let me tell you how to run that bank. Sure, sure that'll go over. Well, you like backseat drivers. Slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up. You're going over the line. Go to the left, go to the right. Would you like to drive? We haven't even left the parking lot yet. What starts out as advice? Here's the advice that we will give you. Here's how to wisely handle your freedom. And you know what? Honestly, I don't mind advice from wise people, but when the advice turns into the rule that you must follow. Now we've got an issue. Right Now we've got an issue. That's what they're struggling with and I contend that's what we have struggled with for 2,000 years since then and continue to struggle with today. And I don't mean in the world in general, I mean right here in these pews, and that's what we're going to talk about in the upcoming sessions here.
Speaker 1:Very quickly, did the Jerusalem church I'm just using that term because I don't know how else to describe them the church in Jerusalem? Did they have the ability or the authority to tell Paul what to do? Was he like their underling? You want to say no, but you scare me. I'll exercise your freedom to give me an answer and I'll tell you if you're wrong. Was he under them? The answer is no, he's independent. He's independent. You were just about to say that right, and yet he goes to them because he wants some advice and he wants to make sure what he's doing is right. That tells me that he's a man who has a conscience. He's a man who does love Jesus. He's a man who wants to do the right thing. Lonnie, go ahead.
Speaker 1:He started right off in Galatians 1.1, saying he wasn't sent by any men or any man, but by Jesus Christ and God. So he didn't have to respond to anything to the Jerusalem people. They thought it was more important, but what God and Jesus said was the most important, exactly, they don't have the authority to tell him what to do, but he's good. Listen, paul, for all his high D personality, he wants to get this right. He wants to work with people. Am I doing this right or am I not doing it right? I want to hear what you have to say and they say it sounds good to us.
Speaker 1:Paul says the leaders of Jerusalem saw he had been entrusted to take the gospel to the Gentiles, while Peter had the same mission to the circumcised. How did they know this? How did they see this Saw that he had been entrusted? How did they see that? How does somebody see that you're good at something? The results right. If you saw me trying to build something in my wood shop which consists of one vice, one screwdriver and one drill, you would say that man has no skill whatsoever. I can make sawdust and bent nails. What are the results of his work? The church is flourishing where he goes right, and I think that's what that means. They saw. This guy has a gift. God has given him a gift to reach out to the Gentiles. Let's just hands off, let him do it right. Let him go to the Gentiles Now, in verses 6 through 10, which I think we're going to do next week because we're running out of time here, because I really want to get into this.
Speaker 1:This is important, I think, but I'll leave you with this. You guys can think about this for the next week because, think, but I'll leave you with this, you guys can think about this for the next week because we're going to finish chapter two next week. Wasn't the gospel message the same for both the Jews and the Gentiles? And yet Peter says he's going to go to the Jews and Paul's going to go to the Gentiles. Why don't they just both go to both groups? Why split it up like this? What are the advantages to doing that? What are the disadvantages?
Speaker 1:And then to Rob's question here the only thing that the church in Jerusalem said was that they wanted him to remember the poor. Why Remember the poor? Why Remember the poor? And what poor the lost? Well, I think this is a reference to it. Paul talks about this in some of his other letters. In fact, he makes one in one of his journeys. He takes up a collection. Do you remember this? He takes up a collection for the widows in Jerusalem, right, and there was a famine going on, and so he wants to take up a collection for them. I think that is reference to this. Remember that there are poor people here in Jerusalem, there are poor people here in Israel who need some help. Remember that, and maybe the people you're talking to can help. Don't forget us. Don't forget us. So we're going to finish up with that next week. Does that make sense? Okay, we covered a lot of ground. I'm not sure I did so very effectively. I'll pass out a test next week and we'll figure it out. Okay, adios amoebas.