Galatians 1:10-24 Paul's testimony

If you strip away all the entertainment, sports, job and school priorities of you life, what's left?  Do you have a purpose beyond seeking your own pleasure?  Paul the apostle is forced to defend himself in this portion of the epistle to the Galatians, and in so doing, reveals his purpose in living; to live is Christ.  

Transcript

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we're beginning again this afternoon in our third sermon in the Epistle to the Galatians. So if you want to open a Bible and turn to Galatians Chapter one, we're gonna be considering today versus 10 through 24 it says for do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men for five, please? Men? I would not be a bond servant of Christ, but I make known to you, brethren that the gospel, which was preached by me, is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was taught it. But it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you've heard of my former conduct in Judaism how have persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remain with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Now, concerning the things which I write to you indeed, before God, I do not lie. Afterward, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they were hearing on Lee. He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God and me. This morning, as we consider this passage of Scripture, we're considering it around the idea or the topic that my whole life, my whole existence as a believer, is all about Jesus in me, about the relationship between Jesus and me, and that's particularly pertinent in our lives. Right now, during this time of locked down surrounding the Covad 19 virus, everyone is talking about how we adjust to the new normal. We had to figure out how to work from home. How toe scavenge for hand sanitizer. How to become, ah, home school family. How to relate to family and friends when we're not ableto go and see them face to face. There's a lot of adjustment taking place, and some of that adjustment may be sending some people over the edge. I hope that's not the case for those of you who are part of our church. For those of you who call yourself Christian. Yes, it could be uncomfortable having your husband or wife right there all day, every day. Or your kids, for that matter. It can be uncomfortable being confined to your home and unable to get out. It could be very difficult, but let me suggest a remedy for a Christian this time that we are confined to our homes. Use it to realign your spiritual life. During normal times, it's easy to make our lives about work or play, or about entertaining ourselves or about education. But now that those things are stripped away, result is that our lives air laid bare, and some of us may discover that we are spiritually starving. We haven't nourished the part of us that hungers and thirst for righteousness. We haven't spent time in the word of God in prayer or in spiritually conversations sharpening our inner man. Well, this passes is a wonderful one for us to consider today, because Paul is a good example for us regarding making our spiritual lives a priority. In today's study, Paul is defending his apostle ship, but he is also giving us an insight into the priority of his life. His new life in Christ was all about his relationship to Jesus Christ, and so we can take him as an example for our own lives. Let's jump into it a moment. Paul's epistle to the Galatians addresses the problem of Judy Eyes, Er's teaching gentiles, that they had to be circumcised. They had to follow the Mosaic law in order to be say, they were teaching a works based salvation. But in order to address that, teaching to the Galatians Churches poll had to defend himself as a teacher. In fact, they had to defend himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. In other words, he has to convince them that he got his message and calling straight from Jesus Christ because if they don't believe he was sent from Jesus. There's no reason to value his gospel over the different gospel that the Judy eyes Er's were teaching. And that's where we should be as well. Let me ask you this. If someone challenged your Christianity, what evidence from your life would you give that you know and love and follow the Lord? That's really where we're going. The church is that Paul had founded and delay Sha Coney, um, Derby list ra. Those towns had begun to doubt who Paul Waas and to doubt the message that he brought to them. So why did they not believe him? I mean, he started those churches. What happened that changed their minds? Well, what happened was that the Judy Izer is not only came in and started teaching a different gospel. They also began accusing Paul of certain things in order to undermine his teaching. And the accusations come down to two things. The first accusation is appalls. Not really an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's not really chosen by Jesus to take this message out. He kind of took that on himself. Well, Paul addresses that accusation immediately at the beginning of the letter when he says in the first verse. Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and then in verse 11. But I make known to you brethren that the gospel, which was preached by me, is not according to man, for I neither received from man. Nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the first accusation that they make against him. The second accusation is that he's preaching this gospel of his. This easy gospel that doesn't require you to be circumcised doesn't require you to follow the mosaic law. He's preaching it to make it easy on himself. He's an ear tickler. He's just telling you gentiles what you want to hear so that you will like him and follow him. Well, Paul addresses that accusation in verse 10 of the first chapter, where it says for Do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? Or if I still pleased men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. I'm not a man pleaser. I'm not here to make anybody happy. I'm here to proclaim the truth that I've been given from God. Well, those were the two major accusations. So today we're gonna look at his answer to the first of these the accusation that he was not really an apostle, and he answers that in chapters one and two of Galatians were really only going to get to Chapter one in this message. But Chapter one describes Paul's personal experience and that his personal experience testifies to his apostle ship. Now, when we get to the Chapter two, it will talk about his experience with the other apostles and how even that interaction between himself and the other apostles testifies to his apostle ship. But today we're gonna consider his personal experience and how it testifies to his apostle ship. Today Sermon is about Paul's defense of his apostle ship centering around his conversion. And he describes for us number one his personal experience with Christ before he was converted number two, his personal experience of conversion to Christ, and number three, his personal experience with Christ after conversion before, during and after. And all of them point to the fact that he is an apostle chosen by Jesus Christ, not by men, that his life is centered in his relationship with Jesus Christ before we jump in to his personal experience before he's converted. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and the father. I pray you help us understand the truth that the lives that we live, regardless of the circumstances in the world that we're living in our to be centered, wrapped around, build around our relationship to you, our Lord, Jesus Christ. We can get caught up in a lot of stuff. We can get caught up in church activities, even our families, friends and entertainment and work and all the priorities that present themselves. But, Lord, during this time you have stripped away so many things that we have elevated to great importance. What I pray most of all that you will help each and every one of us spend the time that we have getting back to our spiritual center, which is you. And we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, this is Paul's testimony, and the very first part of it is his personal experience. Before he was converted, 1st 13 says for you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it and advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being mawr exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. He's talking about his life before turning to Christ, and the point is trying to make Is that his life before Christ testified to the fact that he is an apostle and that he is not in this business to please people. He's only in it to follow the command and obey the mandate that Jesus put on his life to share this gospel with the gentile world essentially two things that he's sharing with them about his life before he came to Christ. The first of them is before I came to know Jesus, I was a persecutor of the church. The second thing is, I was at the top of my fair sake class. Look at verse 13 again, for you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism. Now I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. You remember Paul's testimony about what his life was before he knew Jesus. It's a very famous testimony. In fact, Paul gives the account of his life before Christ, a number of times in Scripture. One time in particular, is in acts. Chapter 26 Paul is appearing before a grip. He's on trial, and Agrippa said to Paul, You are permitted to speak for yourself. So in Verse one, it says, Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself. He said, I think myself happy King Agrippa because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews. If you jump to Verse four, he describes his life. Before he came to Christ, he says, My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning, among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews. No, they knew me from the first. If they're willing to testify that according to the strict dissect of our religion, I lived a Ferris E. It's just a movie for grip. It is the same one he tells on multiple occasions. He essentially says, I was a Ferris E who persecuted Christians, and now I'm a Christian missionary. Now we can't pass over that too quickly. This is strong evidence that something big happened. This is strong evidence that he did in fact, meet Jesus Christ. The radical change in his life is that evidence. Let me illustrate that. Bring it into our time for a moment. Obviously, I am a Southern Baptist preacher of the Gospel. I've been a Christian since I was eight years old. I started preaching when I was 18 and I've been pastor at my present church for 16 years. But let's say that you went away from the church for a time. You had to go be with family for some reason, and that we met again in six months. And when we met again, you said to me, How's the Southern Baptist ministry going? My reply. Oh, I'm not a Southern Baptist preacher anymore. Now you might say, Oh, did you become another kind of Baptists? Free will now? Then I replied, No, I'm I'm an atheist now. I opened a bar down the street. Well, what would your next question be? Your next question would be what happened? You would assume something big happened in my life that brought about such a change. You might think some huge tragedy took place. I lost somebody special or I went bankrupt or something that I blamed God for you might assume that I had some secret sin that was revealed, but you would think that something big had to have happened that caused me to make such a radical change. My friends. That's Paul's testimony, and his testimony is evidence that he was given his apostle ship directly from Jesus Christ in a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. How is it evidence? Because something radical had to have happened to Paul to make him change from a Christian persecuting Faris E to a Christian missionary. Well, if you go on and read the testimony he gave before a grip, Verse nine says, Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem and many of the saints I shut up in prison. He's saying, Listen, this is who I was before I came to Christ. I was so radical in my beliefs regarding the Jewish law that I thought these Christians who were declaring that Jesus is the Messiah, that they were blast femurs and therefore deserved to be put to death. So, he says, I shut them up in prison. I received my authority from the chief priest that they could be put to death. The punishment for blasphemy in the Old Testament was death. Since he considered them to be blast femurs, he had them arrested and put them on trial. He himself, it says, cast my vote against them, and some of them were actually put to death for claiming that Christ is the son of God, that Christ was God in flesh, that he was the Messiah. Verse 11. Paul goes on to say I punish them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. In other words, when they came on trial, I wasn't just content to say, What do you believe? He actually tried to get them to say something that would bring them to a conviction. Similar thing took place in the life of Jesus. At his trial, you might remember Jesus was quiet during his entire trial. Matthew, 26 62 through 64 says the high priest arose and said, Jesus, an interest now nothing. What is it that these witness against you? But Jesus held his peace and high priest answered and said to him, I juror thee by the living God that they'll tell us whether thou be the Christ the son of God. High Priest was requiring that Jesus testify by calling on God as witness to that testimony. Jesus said to him, Thou hast said, nevertheless, I say to you here after you shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven in the same way Paul would get these people on trial and then use every means possible to get them to say something that would be considered blasphemy. This is what he did before he came to Christ and it goes on to say and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. He wasn't even content to stay in Jerusalem after all the Christians fled to other parts of the world. Okay, Not content to have his hometown free of these blast Femurs decided he needed to rid Israel and the rest of the world of them as well. So he pursued them. He received authority from the high priest, the chief priests, to go seeking after them in foreign cities. My friends Paul was an evil man, but He was a very religious man before he followed Christ. That didn't change, did it? Yes, well, he changed. He was still religious in one manner, speaking after he came to Christ. But he might as well have converted from being the pope to being the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. The two types of religion that he adhered to were so far removed from each other. Before his conversion, he was at the top of his fair say class. He was a member of the sect called the Faris Ease Verse 14. Back in, Galatians says. And I advanced in Judaism, beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. He was a member of the sector, the Faris ease. Now this group Onley numbered about 6000 people at the time of Christ. In a population of over a 1,000,000 Jews, that would have been a very small percentage of the population, but they had great influence among the Jewish people. They were a group who believed in adhering to the mosaic law and their traditions that had built up around the law. Jesus described them this way, Matthew, 23 5 says about the Faris ease. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their flak teres broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. Flak Teres were his friends that was on the bottom of a Jewish garment that was required by God. It distinguished them from the rest of the world so you could see somebody coming and know this individual is Jewish. Well, they want to make sure everybody knew and they made their ful act Aries huge. It was like they were saying, You may be Jewish, but I'm really Jewish, Jesus said in worse, 23 of Matthew 23. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for you pay tithe of meant and anise and cumin that literally meant is that not only were these people tithing giving 1/10 of of their grain their cattle to God as an offering, but because they believed they needed to follow the law of God and the Law of God said, You're supposed to give this 10th to the temple. They would go to their spice rack and break out there, meant in anise and cumin and pour it out on the counter and take their little knife and say, All right, one for you, God, nine for me, one for you, God, nine for me and and count out there spices as part of their offering. That's how fastidious they were in the keeping of the law, Verse 25 says. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you cleanse the outside of the cup in the dish. They were so concerned about eating something that was unclean, the Old Testament law said. You don't eat certain animals and you can eat others. They were so concerned that maybe some dust or something got on the outside of the cups and dishes that they used, maybe some unclean insect part that they would wash it and clean it to ensure that they did not take in any unclean animal, Jesus said. On another occasion, you strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. When he sang as thes Faris ease made it a practice when they drank their wine to suck the wine through their teeth, using their teeth as a filter because they were afraid that Nats might have gotten into the wine and a gnat is an unclean insect, so they didn't want to swallow the NAT because then they would have violated the law of God so they would strain the gnat through their teeth. That's how dedicated they were to these traditions that had built up around the law, the law said. Keep the Sabbath day rest on the Sabbath Day, and they made long list of what could and couldn't be done on the Sabbath Day. Like I found online 39 categories or Sabbath Day practice that were existent in the first century. There are rules about what you can and can't do on the Sabbath day or on our Saturday. Here are the 39 categories the rules about carrying, burning, extinguishing, finishing, writing. In other words, how much can I write on the Sabbath Day and it be considered work or not work erasing How much of that writing can I race and not violate the rule that you shouldn't work on the Sabbath? Day Cooking, washing, sewing, tearing, nodding? How many knots can I tie? Untie ing. I mean knots. Can I untie on the Sabbath day shaping, plowing, planting, reaping, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, selecting, sifting grinding, needing, combing, spinning, dying chain stitching. I don't even know what change. Stitching is. Warping, weaving, unraveling, building, demolishing, trapping, shearing, slaughtering, skinning, tanning, smoothing and marking made all these rules about what could and could not be done on the Sabbath Day. And they had rules about everything. And what Paul says in this letter to the Galatians is. Before I came to Christ, I was one of those guys. I not only followed those traditions, I helped enforce them on the Jewish population. As he would say later, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. You couldn't get more devout than I Waas. I wanted to follow the law perfectly. I was an up and comer. He was moving up among his contemporaries. What was the point behind all that he's trying to say to these Galatians? Listen, I really, really, really did see Jesus Christ and here's the evidence for it. I changed from being that guy to being a preacher of the gospel and the gospel, being that you are saved by grace through faith, not of works. In other words, I began preaching that you Onley come to faith through the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary, and there's nothing I can add to that. I can't legalize my way into heaven. That's a really conversion. That's a radical change in Paul's life in its evidence that he really did see Jesus. And it's evidence that we can believe, you know, there are conversions, people that claim to become Christians, that I have my doubts about. I have my doubts about most jailhouse conversions. You hear that some person in jail becomes a Christian, especially, You know, the worst kinds of criminals, and the reason I doubt them is they are now at the bottom. They are incarcerated, many of them for life terms. They have nowhere else to turn, and many of them know that they're going to come up before a parole board at some point. And it will sound good to the parole board to hear that they have changed. So I have doubts because I don't know for sure they really have changed. But I have no doubt about halls conversion because he didn't change from someone who is at the bottom, and the only option he had was to turn to Christ. He was somebody who was at the top, and he abandoned everything to follow Jesus Christ. So what he's saying to the Galatians, is this My life before my conversion offers proof that Jesus personally appeared to me and shows me as an apostle because nothing short of that could have changed me from the radical that I waas. I was on a path to kill and destroy Jewish Christians. That's a really change in a person's life now. That's Paul's personal experience before Christ. Now let's look at his personal experience with Christ at conversion, 1st 15 goes on to say. But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who are apostles before me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus, and here's this point again. My conversion to Christ testified to the fact that I am an apostle and I'm not a man pleaser. Look back in verse 15 but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the gentiles. His conversion notice. He takes no credit for it, he says, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb. In other words, God was working on me even as I was being stitched together as a baby. He doesn't take any credit for his own conversion. He doesn't say, for example, Well, you know, I I was a fair see, but I started to study some books on Christian apologetics and I saw the light. He doesn't say Well, you know, I heard Stephen Sermon when we were daunting him to death, and I saw how devoted he waas and that made an impact on my heart. And so I went back and researched my old Testament passages again to see if Jesus claimed for legitimate and I came to the conclusion that they were No, he gives God all the credit. He said It pleased God to choose me. He chose me before I was even born. Now why is this important? Because if it was all Paul, if it was all Paul's mind coming to a conclusion about Christ, then his gospel could have been that which he derived out of his own brain. But what he's saying is, even my conversion had nothing to do with me. God was working on me. God chose me even before I was born, you might say, Well, hold it. Paul was chosen before he is born. Yes, in that way, he was like John the Baptist. John the Baptist was chosen to be the forerunner or announcer of Christ from his mother's womb. You remember that the Angel Gabriel announced that Zachariah, as before John was even conceived. And you remember as well that when Elizabeth, his wife being pregnant with John, was greeted by Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, John leapt in his mother's womb at the greeting of Mary. It's because it says in the Scripture that he was full of the spirit of God from his mother's womb. John was chosen before he was even born, and Paul was chosen for this role as a missionary to the Gentiles before he was born. He's saying it's all about Jesus and what he chose to do what God chose to do in my life. It didn't have to do with me. I didn't contrive this gospel. I didn't decide this profession. I'm not running around taking the role of apostle on myself. I was chosen even before I was aware. Well, what about his conversion? Well, his conversion testifies that he is an apostle. If you read the account of his conversion in any number of places, you'll come to that conclusion. But acts Chapter nine gives us an account of it, it says, then Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. This is before he came to Christ, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And it says as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, So why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And this is the point where Saul had some cognitive dissonance as he went to Damascus to arrest Christians. He thought he was serving God. Then all of sudden, God's she kinda glory appears brighter than the noonday sun and blinds him, and a voice comes from heaven. No, I don't know about you, but if I see a light brighter than the noonday sun and I hear a voice from heaven, I suspect that's gonna be the voice of God. But the voice of God speaking to Saul says, Why are you persecuting me immediately? Saul is confused because he doesn't even know who he's talking to now. He thought it was God, but he thought he was doing God's will by going to Damascus to rest Christians. So then Saul says, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do now? His conversion there also testifies to the fact that his preaching is all about what Jesus sent him to do, not what he chose at his conversion. He didn't even know what the agenda Waas Jesus says. Why are you persecuting me, Seoul says. Who are you? He says I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting and then solves. First response is what do you want me to do? I have no idea what the agenda is for me. He didn't know he's gonna be called by Christ to be an apostle, it says. Then the Lord said to him, Arise and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do says the men who journey with him were speechless. They heard a voice but saw no one. So all the rose from the ground And when he opened his eyes, he was blind. They let him by the hand into Damascus. He was three days without sight and didn't eat or drink. During that time, he was blind. He's really blind in more than one way. He was physically blind. Is Spiritualized were opened. At that point, he could see clearly who? Christ waas. But he was blind regarding his future. Before this meeting with Jesus, he had a clear path in front of him. He knew exactly what his life was about. Now he has no idea what's next for him. What's his point here? His point is, I didn't choose Apostle ship. Christ chose me. It goes on to say now there was a certain disciple of Damascus name and an IAS and and we know the story there that God spoke to Anna Nice and said, I want you to go down and find this Saul of Tarsus and pray over him that he might receive a site and a nice protests and said, Hey, this guys running around arresting and persecuting Christians. And then the Lord says to him, Go for he's a chosen vessel of mind to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the Children of Israel. Even Paul's testimony about his conversion indicates that Jesus is the one that chose what Paul's profession was gonna be. Jesus goes on to say I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. Then an IAS goes and finds. Saw lays hands on him. His blindness is healed. He arose and was baptized and then says he spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. So this is what happened. Jesus radically changed Paul from the inside out. That really is a wonderful example for us because we need to ask ourselves the question. What about me? What about you? Was my life changed by Christ? And even as we go through some struggles now, where is that change now? What is the evidence for Christ in your life today? But Paul's conversion testified to his apostle ship. How so? Well, let me ask you a question. How did the original 12 disciples learn about the gospel will? They learned it directly from the lips of Jesus. How did Paul learn about the gospel? He learned it directly from the lips of Jesus. So Paul is saying I was chosen by Christ. I'm not a man pleaser. If I were a man pleaser, why would I leave what I was doing before I was the top of my game? That was the top of the heap in terms of the Faris ease and in my own nation. So that's the second part of his life that bears witness to the fact that he was chosen as an apostle by Jesus Christ. The third part is his personal experience. After conversion, he says, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who are apostles before me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Now, concerning the things which I write to you indeed, before God, I do not lie. 1st 21 afterward, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they were hearing only he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God and me. So what about after his conversion? Well, it to bears witness to the fact that he was chosen as an apostle by Christ, not men, and that he wasn't a man pleaser. Now let's look at the chronology of events after Paul's conversion, and this is interesting. The events that took place afterward. You you find three themes throughout number one. Immediately, he starts preaching the gospel. Immediately after his conversion, he's out there talking to people about Jesus Christ and his being the Christ the Messiah. The second thing that is a constant in his life after he comes to Christ is persecution. Everywhere he goes, somebody's trying to kill him. Drive him out of town, Stone him accused him, and the third constant is there is no conferencing with the apostles. You don't find any evidence. And that's what Paul is trying to point out here. There's no evidence in his life after his conversion that he ever got his mandate. His doctrine, his gospel from the other apostles and the point is trying to make is I got it from Jesus himself. Look what he says, he says. First off, I didn't confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who are apostles before me. Immediately after Paul was converted, it might have been natural for Paul to go up to Jerusalem to confer with the disciples, but circumstances didn't allow that to happen. What Paul was saying, though, was the gospel. I'm preaching the gospel of grace without circumcision without law is not something I got from the apostles in Jerusalem. This came directly from God. Therefore, it is the true message I didn't go to Jerusalem. I didn't attend the Jerusalem Christian Seminary second step in regard to the happenings. After Paul was converted, I spent a few days in Damascus, so he comes to Damascus. He has healed of his blindness and he spends a few days there. That's all it says. It doesn't say anything about his sitting at the feet of an IAS and gathering together the Christians and asking them questions about Christianity or or what the teaching from Jerusalem. Waas, he says. I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood. I didn't confer with disciples or elders in the church somewhere to come up with the message that I was going to preach. So what's the third step? He was driven out of town. He's driven out of Damascus. It tells us a little bit more detail about that. In acts Chapter nine, Verse 19 it says for several days Immediately after his conversion, he was with the disciples who were Damascus. A few days he recovered from his blindness, and it says he immediately began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying he is the son of God. So right off the bat, Paul starts going to the Jewish synagogues and proclaiming that Jesus is the son of God. And it says that the people who heard him were amazed because here's this guy who had come from Jerusalem to destroy Christians and to obliterate the name of Christ sent there from the chief priests. And now he who was a persecutor of Christians, has begun preaching Christ and proving that Jesus is the Messiah. But where is that coming from? Where in the world and Paul get disability to go into the synagogues and open up the Old Testament and begin to argue with them and dispute and bear witness that the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus Christ? How does he know what to say here? Well, he is being taught by the Risen Lord himself by the spirit of God that now in dwells him well. What happens? Well, what always happens, happens. The Jews decide they don't want him around upsetting their synagogue services, drawing people away from Judaism to Christianity. And so it says. There there was a plot that became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night that they might put him to death And so then the other disciples in Damascus took him by night, let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket so that he could get out of town. So where is the fourth step? After that? It says that he went to Arabia for three years. 1st 17 I went to Arabia. This is Nabatean Arabia. It is an area that's north of Israel. In the area around Lebanon, they go a little east. From there, you come to Damascus and then you go east and south from Damascus and you get to the Sinai Peninsula. That's all. Nabatean Arabia. What did he do in Arabia? Well, it doesn't tell us anything in the Bible about this time, but he was there for three years. What do you think he was doing? My seminary experience took three years. I think that's what Paul was doing in Arabia. Except for his learning didn't take place in a classroom in front of professors who had sometimes dubious credentials. His learning took place at the feet of Jesus. He spent three years in Arabia between his two visits to Damascus. You might wonder why three years But here's a question for you. How many years did the 12 walk with Jesus? Three years. This really is his private personal tutorial with Jesus. He spent that time directly receiving revelation from Jesus Christ. And that revelation later came out in the epistles that are part of our New Testament. You know, I always thought were the most amazing things about the Bible in particular. To me, the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is that these disciples remember Jesus words and you read them and you think, man, were they taking notes? So that later, when they wrote down the Gospel, they'd be able to remember what Jesus said. How did they remember all that when they later wrote it down? Well, the spirit of God brought it to their remembrance. Paul, for three years, is walking in the spirit fella, shipping and learning from his new Lord. And I think the Lord was revealing to him the things that had happened in his life. The teachings that he had given Paul had a personal one on one teaching session with the Lord Jesus Christ. But what's the fifth step after he's in Arabia? Says he returned to Damascus, Verse 18. Then, three years later, I went to Jerusalem, started in Damascus, went to Arabia, returned to Damascus at the end of three years, and then this very short time because it immediately says, Then he went to Jerusalem. That's the sixth step, says Verse 18. Then after three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Okay, so it spent thes three years in the wilderness. Now he's goes through Damascus, gets back to Jerusalem, He wants to see Peter. Of course, that would be a natural choice for him. Peter was the great preacher in the early church. We have his sermons and ex chapter 2345 and eight. Peter was the de facto leader of the apostles, so that's understandable that he'd want to see him. But a couple things Number one. It wasn't so easy for him to get to see Peter or even any of the apostles at that point tells us that when he came back to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples, but they were afraid of him. They didn't believe that he was a disciple. But you might remember the story that Barnabus went and found him, took hold of him, brought him to the disciples, described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road. They talked with him and how Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. And so he gets to meet the disciples. He's there for 14 days that what's the point? All is saying I didn't get my doctrine from the apostles. I was there two weeks. I met with him for a couple of weeks and nowhere does it say in the book of acts or anywhere that he was learning from these apostles, that he was jotting down notes about their teaching from Jesus. It just says As soon as he got there, he did what he always did. He started preaching. He went to Jerusalem to meet with Peter. And then as soon as he could, he got up off of his chair and went and started preaching boldly to the people in Jerusalem. So much so that the people in Jerusalem, the Jewish people there, tried to kill him. So the apostles and disciples had to get him out of town. So they took him, rushed him to Caesarea, put him on a boat back home to his home city. So this is the seventh step. He's back at Tarsus. It says he went back to his hometown, 1st 21 of relations, one says Afterward, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, Syrian Cilicia or in a region where Tarsus was. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they were hearing only he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God and me. In essence. What he's saying here is they don't even know who I waas. I didn't get my gospel from them. They didn't even know who I waas. I was in Jerusalem for a very short time. When I left Jerusalem, I came back home when I got there. Nobody knew who I waas. And he is giving every possible argument against the notion that he learned his gospel from some other source than the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. All those people knew was that. Here's this guy that used to persecute the church, and now he's preaching Christ and it says they were glorifying God because of me. They weren't correcting my doctrine. They were glorifying God because I already had the doctrine. I began preaching the vory message that I had once persecuted, and they were glorifying God because of it. So that is Paul's life after turning to Christ. And it testifies to the fact that he was an apostle and not a man pleaser. Paul's whole life before conversion at conversion after conversion, Bear witness that he was called by Christ, that he was an apostle of Christ, that he wasn't doing this to please people to please men. And it was very important for the Galatians to hear that because their faith depended on the single person who was preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. You know, it's important for us to believe it is well, because 13 of the letters in the New Testament were written by Paul my friends. This is also an important lesson for us is a lesson from the life of Paul, whose testimony was that It's all about Jesus, so we ask ourselves. The question does my life before Christ at my conversion and after Christ testify to Christ in my life is the sum of my life about Jesus Christ. What is your life? Testifying to the world. And in this your alone time. Where is Christ in your life? Can you find him? Well, this is a good time to search for him. Well, I pray that God may richly bless this hearing and preaching of his word.