PAUL’S AUTHORITY AND ITS PROOF (GAL 1:11-24)

SERIES: FREE AT LAST, PART 3

GCEFC: OCTOBER 11, 2009

INTRODUCTION

1. On Friday afternoon, November 22, 1963, I was in my elementary school classroom when word came that President John Kennedy had been assassinated.

2. As an 11 year old, I watched the events unfold. And I fully believed this had actually happened. I had no reason not to.

3. As the years passed, nothing caused me to doubt the truth of what I had heard.

4. I never saw President Kennedy again on live television. He didn’t run for reelection in 1964. And his wife, Jackie, eventually remarried. It seemed certain that Kennedy had actually been assassinated by a deranged man named Lee Harvey Oswald.

5. Then, six years later on July 20, 1969, on television I watched the landing of Apollo 11 on the surface of the moon.

6. And though conspiracy theories have abounded since 1969, claiming that the entire thing was a hoax filmed on a back lot in the desert—I continue to believe that we actually sent men to the moon, landed there, and returned them safely to earth.

7. And as we were settling into the work routine at the church on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, we heard that planes had crashed into the WTC in NYC.

a. I believed this too and had no reason to disbelieve it. Nothing has happened since to convince me otherwise.

b. I saw the Twin Towers several times prior to 9/11. And I’ve been to Ground Zero since 9/11 and I can assure you that the Twin Towers of the WTC are not there.

8. Over the course of a lifetime we process a staggering amount of information. Whenever we hear something, or read something, or see something, we assess it for believability.

9. And though belief and unbelief can be a complex matter, basically we choose to believe something is true when we perceive that either the source of the information or the information itself is credible.

a. So even though I’m a reasonably credible source of information, if I told you that Martians had just landed in Times Square—it’s highly probable that you would not believe me.

b. The information would not seem credible enough to accept as true. You would figure I was joking, or had lost my marbles.

c. But what if you turned on the television and the radio and all the networks and cable stations were claiming that Martians had landed in Times Square?

d. In that case you might be inclined to believe it. The information may still be hard to accept. But the credibility of the source makes it more believable.

10. Now, much of the information we receive is of little consequence. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t make much difference one way or the other.

a. But some information is of great consequence. Or at least it could be.

b. The Bible says in JN 3: that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

c. The Bible says in JN 20: Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

11. These things may be true or they may not be true. But they have such weight…who can afford to ignore them?

12. If they aren’t true, then it doesn’t matter. If they are true—it matters more than anything else ever will or ever could.

13. If a person’s eternal destiny depends on their response to these claims—then it would be impossible to overstate the importance of the response.

14. Today, as we continue in our study of the Book of Galatians, the 14 verses that complete chapter 2 focus on this all-important question of belief.

15. The Apostle Paul has preached the gospel to the Galatians. But they’ve begun to doubt and question what he preached. They aren’t sure they want to believe it.

16. So Paul addresses both the credibility of the message proclaimed to them. And he addresses his own credibility as the messenger.

17. Sooner or later it comes down to this. Can I believe what I have heard? Will I believe what I have heard?

A. CREDIBILITY OF THE MESSAGE

1. In the first part of this section, Paul focuses on the credibility of the message. If we’re going to believe something is true—the message must be believable—or we’ll reject it.

2. And we should. Faith is not about believing what is unbelievable. That would be stupid. Only a fool believes what is unbelievable.

3. The Bible defines faith in HEB 11: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

4. I have faith that tomorrow will be a sunny day. I’ve heard weather reports and the storm front has moved out. I’m sure of what I hope for. That’s what faith is.

5. Now, if we were in the middle of a hurricane, it would be foolish for me to have faith that tomorrow will be a sunny day. Faith must be based on what is believable.

6. But faith is also defined as certain of what we do not see. I can’t have faith in what is already here.

7. I can’t say that I have faith that I will be standing in the pulpit on Sunday morning, October 11 at 10:15 am. This doesn’t require faith—it’s already here!

8. So Paul begins with the credibility of the message that he preached. Look at V11: I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.

9. The good news that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin and rose from the dead is not the fabrication of a fertile imagination. It was not made up by some man.

10. He goes on to say: I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. In other words, no one passed on the gospel to Paul. He didn’t get it handed to him complete.

11. Nor was Paul taught the gospel through a process. He didn’t attend some seminar or conference where he heard the gospel presented. And though Paul was highly educated in multiple languages—the gospel is nothing he was taught by someone else.

12. So where did it come from? What is the source of the gospel? Where did Paul get it? V12: Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

13. The gospel was received by revelation. Revelation is something that remains a secret and unknown unless it’s revealed.

a. It’s a translation of the Greek word: apokalupsis, from which we get our English word apocalypse.

b. A revelation is an uncovering or bringing to light that which had been previously hidden or only obscurely understood.

c. For example, I’m holding something in my hand. But not a one of you here knows what I’m holding. The only way you can know is if I reveal it.

d. It’s saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ became known to the Apostle Paul for one simple and very important reason—it was revealed to him.

B. CREDIBILITY OF THE MESSENGER

1. So, if the gospel came by revelation from Jesus Christ, do we think that the message is credible? Can we believe the source of the good news?

2. Of course, not everyone believed Jesus even when he was on the earth. In fact, it was disbelief that sent Jesus to the Cross.

3. But the fact that people disbelieved him does not make what he said untrue. It just means there were some who disbelieved him.

4. As far as I’m concerned, if the message came by way of revelation from Christ himself—you can sign me up for believing it.

5. But Paul goes on to demonstrate that he not only did not learn or receive the gospel from men—he could not have done so. The rest of the chapter explains why.

6. In V13-14 he talks about his life prior to his conversion.

a. So what was Paul’s life prior to his conversion? We know this from the Book of Acts and through the brief description here.

b. V13: For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

c. Before his conversion, Paul was enemy #1 of the church. He was responsible for hunting down Jewish Christians and bringing them back to Jerusalem for trial and possible execution.

d. Paul was advancing in Pharisaic Judaism faster than his peers. No doubt his advancement would be accelerated through his persecution of Christians.

e. Paul and other Pharisees saw Christians as a very serious threat to the Jewish way of life and to the coming Messianic Kingdom.

f. The point is that Paul would have been unconvinced by the true gospel of Christ—he was overtly and systematically and ruthlessly dedicated to destroying the church that came into existence through the gospel.

7. Which goes to support the claim that the gospel was nothing Paul was even tolerant of—much less something he would have made up himself or even been a student of.

8. Next Paul talks about his conversion, beginning at V15.

a. First, it was not Paul who initiated his calling—it was God who called him! As an act of pure grace, God reached down and pulled Paul from certain destruction and revealed that what he thought was a service to God was actually war against God!

b. Second, after his conversion on the Road to Damascus, he says: I did not consult any man. Once again, the gospel was not something he picked up through consultation.

c. Third, he didn’t travel from Damascus to Jerusalem to powwow with the other Apostles who were Apostles before he was.

d. Fourth, rather than go to a place where he could consult with other Apostles, instead he went away from them to Arabia, where he spent the next 3 years.

9. Then (V18): after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him 15 days.

10. The word “acquainted” means to visit with someone for the purpose of getting to know them. He was in Jerusalem 15 days—hardly time to develop a theology.

11. He also points out that while in Jerusalem for a mere 15 days he sees only one other Apostle besides Peter, only James. Again, this was no consultation trip.

12. Finally, in V21 he says that later he went to Syria and Cilicia. Places far north of Jerusalem. He points out that he was personally unknown to the churches of Judea.

13. The reason he was unknown to the Judean churches is because he was not around to be known. He was 100’s of miles north of where they were.

14. In fact, the only tie they had to Paul was that they had heard (V23): The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. By now Paul had been all but forgotten by the church.

C. THE SIGNIFICANCE

1. Before we’re prepared to accept what we hear as true, we must assess the credibility of the message itself and the messenger who brings it.

2. The gospel of Christ is not something that any human being made up, nor would have made up. The idea is so foreign to human thinking and so counterintuitive to our sensibilities—most don’t even believe it when they hear it.

3. So where did Paul get the gospel? Did he make it up? Was he some frustrated novelist? Was his gospel just warmed over tradition? Was it a hybrid of multiple religions? Did Paul steal it from the other Apostles?

4. No—in every case. The gospel was made known to him through revelation. Otherwise he would have never known it. The gospel is not man-initiated—it’s God-initiated.

5. Paul was already an Apostle by the time he met the other Apostles. His delayed and brief meeting with them was to get acquainted—not learn their theology.

6. Paul’s only relationship with the true believing church was as a fanatical persecutor of it. Before his conversion he was a fanatical, bigoted, zealous, critical, racist eccentric. But he was sincere. He really believed in what he was doing.

7. Like others before him, Paul assumed that Jesus was a false Messiah whose humiliating death was confirmation that he was a false Messiah.

8. Paul was as set in his ways and as committed to his values as a person could be. Only God could have reached him. Fortunately that’s exactly what happened.

9. Conversion to the Christian faith was not Paul’s initiative—it was God’s. Paul simply responded to it because he knew it was true and it was real.

10. Paul authenticates his authority and credibility through his autobiography, given here in abbreviated form.

11. After Paul believed the gospel himself, he went to Arabia for 3 years. When he went to Jerusalem it was for a brief visit with only 2 Apostles.

12. Then he went to Syria and Cilicia—far away from any apostolic influence.

13. There are questions we must ask whenever we hear any spiritual teaching. They include:

a. Does what is said ring true?

b. Does it mesh with what God has already revealed?

c. What credentials does the messenger have? What authority do they have?

d. Is the source the Bible, or something else?

e. Do I believe what is being said?

14. The Christian faith is historical. It is founded upon specific, irreversible, unrepeatable, irreducible historical events.

15. Christianity is not a philosophy or a code of moral precepts. Or some mysterious means by which a person can have some mystical union with the divine.

16. Christianity is a record of what God has done and why he has done it. The Christian faith is rooted in time and space history.

17. The purpose of Paul’s letter is to set forth the truth of what has happened and what that means for all of us.

18. The false teachers in Galatia had sought to undermine and discredit Paul’s authority and message by claiming that he dealt in a second-hand gospel.

19. A gospel originally derived from the Apostles at Jerusalem, but then changed and compromised by Paul without their knowledge or consent.

20. The Book of Galatians authenticates the gospel message. As we saw last week—there is only one true gospel of God’s grace.

21. In the end we must either believe it or disbelieve it. Accept it or reject it. Live by its values or live by our own or someone else’s.

22. As the saying goes: When we don’t want to believe something, any excuse will do. May each one of us believe it—and be transformed just as Paul was.