Paul's Apostolic Calling
Dear Church: A Study of Galatians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 202 viewsPaul's life is the picture of what God can do with a life surrendered to Him
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B: , Galatians 1:10-24
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Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:
Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself. Thank the band. Invite guests to parlor after service.
Through the month of July, we have been collecting our annual offering to combat world hunger and to provide assistance during disasters through the Southern Baptist Convention. Our goal this year is $3,700, and so far, we’ve received $1,9??. This is the last week that we will take this offering, although you can give to World Hunger and Disaster Relief efforts throughout the year.
Our church family and Monterey Baptist Church on Lomas have partnered together with Shine Partnerships to provide support and care for students and teachers at Manzano High School. At this point, we’re getting our foot in the door, and you’ll see on the Page that there is a Shine training at Monterey on August 7 at 1 pm. Unfortunately, I misunderstood Aaron (Monterey’s pastor), and that training is for the school coordinator and church leadership only. It’s not an open invite at this point. Sorry for the mistake. Totally my fault. Please forgive me.
Eric and Megan Wong are going to be leaving for their mission trip to Peru with Wheels for the World, where they will share the gospel and the love of Christ with those who need mobility assistance such as wheelchairs. Please pray for them during this next week.
This is Gary and Stacy Lowe’s last Sunday with us, as they are moving to Texas this week. I’ve so appreciated their ministry, and especially how Gary has allowed me to lean on him during Sunday nights. Keep them in your prayers as they embark on this next chapter of their life.
Eric/Megan’s missions trip, Gary & Stacy Lowe’s last Sunday, Shine Training on August 7 at 1:00 pm at Monterey
PRAY
Opening
Opening
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead—
10 For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15 But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you. 21 Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. 23 They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
PRAY, remembering to mention Eric & Megan, and Gary & Stacy.
Today, as we continue our series called “Dear Church,” from the letter that Paul wrote to the churches in the Roman province of Galatia, we are going to spend some time looking at the calling of and initial ministry life of the apostle Paul. We looked a little at his amazing encounter and conversion back in June, immediately following VBS in the message entitled “But These Are Written...”
Given the fact that Paul spends a large portion of the beginning of Galatians on his personal conversion and early Christian experience, we’re going to need to go back and repeat a little about his life from that message back in June in order to understand Galatians well. We’ll just hit some highlights:
We meet Saul of Tarsus in the 58th verse of the 7th chapter of the book of Acts, a young Pharisee, possibly a member of the Sanhedrin, who watches over the coats of the men who kill the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Following that moment, a massive persecution breaks out against Christianity in Jerusalem, and Saul is riding that wave as the leader of the pack.
3 Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.
This man was zealous to get rid of what he believed was a heretical group of Jews who were blaspheming against Yahweh. Saul gets permission from the chief priests to go to Damascus and start cleaning house there as well, and heads out with an entourage of people in support. But Jesus breaks onto the stage of his life in a most dramatic fashion:
Conversion narrative from Acts:
Conversion narrative from Acts:
1 Now Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest 2 and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. 4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul said. “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.
Acts 9:1-8
17 Ananias went and entered the house. He placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.
17 Ananias went and entered the house. He placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 And after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some time. 20 Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.” 21 All who heard him were astounded and said, “Isn’t this the man in Jerusalem who was causing havoc for those who called on this name and came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?”
17 Ananias went and entered the house. He placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.
Acts 9:17-21
Saul is blind and broken. This wasn’t some vision or dream. This was Jesus showing up and revealing Himself in His glory to Saul in real space and time, because even the men with Saul heard the sound. Saul waits for a Christian named Ananias to come and pray over him, lay his hands on him, and then Saul regains his sight.
Summarize
Plot to kill him. He flees, apparently to
The points of the sermon:
Saul immediately goes from terrorist to testifier. He begins to go to the synagogues in Damascus and declare the truth of the Gospel:
20 Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.” 21 All who heard him were astounded and said, “Isn’t this the man in Jerusalem who was causing havoc for those who called on this name and came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22 But Saul grew stronger and kept confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
Acts 9:20-
So Saul immediately starts to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God. It’s not long (Acts only says “many days”) before the Jews make a plan to kill Saul, so he leaves the city, and according to what he says in verse 17 of , goes off to Arabia for some time. I’ll make some more references back to the book of Acts as we go through our focal passage today, but we probably won’t jump over there and read anything, just to save time.
What we find here in our focal passage from the book of Galatians is Paul beginning to recount his own personal testimony of his faith in Jesus for a specific purpose. Last week, we saw that Paul was struggling with the fact that the Galatians had “so quickly” begun to turn away to a “different gospel,” that isn’t really a gospel at all. What had started to infiltrate the church in Galatia was the idea that legalism, specifically the following of the Hebrew ceremonial law, was necessary for salvation. Accompanied by that was apparently the suggestion that Paul didn’t have the authority of the church to do the things he was doing or to preach the things he was preaching. Paul here begins to address that issue with the Galatian believers.
What we find here in our focal passage from the book of Galatians
I’ll make some references back to the book of Acts as we go through our focal passage today, but we probably won’t jump over there and read anything, just to save time.
The idea of Apostleship and apostleship.
The first thing that Paul deals with is the source of the Gospel:
1) The Gospel is God-revealed, not man-invented.
1) The Gospel is God-revealed, not man-invented.
In what we looked at last week, Paul addressed that there is only one true Gospel—which Paul had already preached to them— and that if anyone came to the churches in Galatia and preached anything different than that, they were to be anathematized: cursed with the wrath of God.
One thing that we skipped over really addressing in our first message in Galatians was Paul’s initial introduction, which we often kind of cruise past when we start reading a book, especially one of Paul’s epistles.
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead—
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead—
Paul says that he is an Apostle, and that he is one “not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father...” This verse is truly our first hint in the letter of what is amiss in the churches of Galatia: Paul leads with defending his calling and ministry. Some clarifying is necessary, and some scholars will disagree with me here, and some here in this room might disagree with me, but that’s ok.
The Greek apostolos means, in its simplest definition, “a messenger or one who is sent.” In this way, there are “apostles” today… there are people who are set apart by the work of the Holy Spirit and by the church to proclaim the message of the Gospel. However, those who might be considered as “apostles” today have had to learn the message of the Gospel through it being passed down and carried along through the evangelism of others. So in a way, “apostles” today are at least partially “from” or “by” others. I’ll call these apostles—those who are at least partially from or by others— “little a apostles.”
But Paul wasn’t one of these. The other definition of apostolos is “a special messenger of Jesus Christ, a restricted group.” These are “big A Apostles.” Paul, Peter, the others in the Twelve (aside from Judas Iscariot, of course), and James by my own count (there are more that are unnamed, see ), were appointed not by men at all (for James, it is clear that Christ appeared to him as well, ).
For Paul, we just read that Jesus broke into his life dramatically, and called him off of the path that he was on. Paul’s conversion could not have been more sudden: Jesus appeared to Him specifically, and directly called him into a new relationship with Him and into a new life of service, and Paul went from terrorizing the church to defending her.
So for the rest of this message, at least, if I say “apostle” or “apostles,” I generally mean the “big A” kind.
Paul continues his defense of his Apostleship in verses 11 and 12:
Paul continues his defense of his Apostleship in verses 11 and 12:
11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul is clear that his conversion didn’t come from another’s testimony, or through a message on the Gospel, or by his own personal reflections and ruminations on the Old Testament. His conversion to faith in the Gospel came by direct revelation of Jesus.
Timothy Keller writes:
David Platt wrote this about the grace of the Gospel:
If you think about it, you have to admit that we would not make this gospel up. If we were given the power to determine how one earned God’s favor and a place in heaven, we would make up a scoring system, something that emphasized human works. Why? Because the natural default mode of the human heart is works-righteousness. The message of grace—that the work has already been done—is counter-intuitive. Grace offends our natural sensibilities. Works-righteousness is motivated by unbelief. We do not naturally trust grace. We want control. This supports the reality that people did not make up the gospel of grace; it came from God.
In verses 16-20, which I won’t read again, Paul basically takes an oath that he didn’t go to Jerusalem and learn the message of the Gospel, but that he went off into Arabia for a time, as the Lord reinterpreted the Old Testament to him.
For Paul, then, is declaring that his authority as an Apostle comes from the direct work of God in his life. These others who have come in and are “troubling” the Galatian believers might claim to be apostles, but they’re the “little a” kind…
16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you.
galatians 1:16-
This is a big sticking point in evangelism today. People struggle to believe that the message of Jesus Christ could be anything other than a man-made idea to get people to behave well, or to manipulate them to give their time or their money or whatever. That doesn’t make any sense. Now, it might be true that men have twisted or abused the truth of the Gospel for their own ends, but that doesn’t change the reality of it.
Make no mistake: I’m not here today that the Gospel should be true for you. I’m saying that the Gospel is true: that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, who came and lived a perfect life and died to take the punishment deserved by sinful man, so that we could be forgiven. He really rose from the grave, defeating death on our behalf so that we can have eternal life, and He really ascended into heaven, and He is really coming back to receive His followers to Himself and to correct all that is wrong and broken in this world. Believe it or don’t, but our belief or unbelief doesn’t change the reality that God has made a plan to redeem a lost and dying world, and Jesus is it.
Paul received it by revelation, not from man (thus he is a true Apostle).
The first Apostles didn’t have anything to gain from their message of the Gospel but hardship, rejection, persecution, imprisonment, and death. This would be the most incredibly foolish lie to attempt to perpetrate on society, if that were the case. No, what we see in the life of the Apostles, and especially in the life of Paul, is that their lives were radically changed by their encounter with the risen Christ: their belief in the one and only true Gospel.
2) True belief in the true Gospel radically changes lives.
2) True belief in the true Gospel radically changes lives.
After his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Saul made a true one-eighty in his life. His life was completely different after that moment. He had been on a path to religious stardom: a talmid, or a disciple, of the leader of his Hebrew school, being groomed for life as a leader himself, given great authority and responsibility by the Jewish court, the Sanhedrin, at a young age… He was on his way until Jesus showed up. Then it’s not long until the Jews wanted him dead.
13 For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.
His life was completely different.
galatians 1:13-
This is who he was. He persecuted the church, he was the best and the brightest of his class in Hebrew school, and he followed all of the traditions of his ancestors. In short, he was radically religious. But that didn’t mean that he was right with God.
Tim Keller says it this way:
There is no clearer example than Paul that salvation is by grace alone, not through our moral and religious performance. Though Paul’s sins were very deep, he was invited in. Paul’s experience proves vividly that the gospel is not simply “religion” as it is generally understood. The gospel calls us out of religion as much as it calls us out of irreligion. No one is so good that they don’t need the grace of the gospel, nor so bad that they can’t receive the grace of the gospel. Paul was deeply religious, but he needed the gospel. Paul was deeply flawed, yet he could be reached with the gospel.
His life had previously been all about that outward performance. He looked for, and wanted, recognition from men. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this attitude in :
5 They do everything to be seen by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people.
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead—
If he were going for that, he never would have converted at all. He had the recognition he was looking for before Jesus broke into his life.
But look at what Paul said about himself and his motivation back in verse 10 of our focal passage in Galatians:
10 For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
So how does this confirm that Paul’s life was radically changed by His belief in the Gospel of Christ? Simple: If he were going for that, he never would have converted at all. He had the recognition he was looking for before Jesus broke into his life.
He had previously wanted recognition from men. If he were going for that, he never would have converted at all. He had the recognition he was looking for before Jesus broke into his life.
So how does this confirm that Paul’s life was radically changed by His belief in the Gospel of Christ? Simple: Paul says that if he were going for pleasing people, he never would have been converted (be a servant) at all. He had all the recognition he was looking for before Jesus broke into his life. Instead, now he is trying to “persuade people.” This is how we defined evangelism in the series I taught on evangelism on Sunday nights: teaching the Gospel with the aim to persuade. He went from being a terrorist to being an evangelist.
This is how we defined evangelism in the series I taught on evangelism on Sunday nights: teaching the Gospel with the aim to persuade. We went from being a terrorist to being an evangelist. Paul was transformed by his encounter with Jesus. He was not just tweaked by it. Like
Paul was transformed by his encounter with Jesus. He was not just tweaked by it. Like Paul, we need more than a minor adjustment when we come to Christ; we need transformation. Only the Gospel transforms people from the inside out, like Paul and the rest of the Apostles.
10 For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
pro 25:29
25 The fear of mankind is a snare, but the one who trusts in the Lord is protected.
galatians 1:10
13 For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15 But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.
This creates two questions for us:
galatians 1:13-16
In this passage the amazing, powerful, counter-intuitive grace of God is on display. Paul gives us a picture of God’s transforming grace by relating his own story, the story of a terrorist-turned-evangelist. Paul was transformed by his encounter with Jesus. He was not just tweaked by it. Like Paul, we need more than a minor adjustment when we come to Christ; we need transformation. Only the gospel transforms people from the inside out.
First, have I believed the Gospel? This is more than just giving a mental agreement to the Gospel. This is surrendering your life, staking your eternity, trusting your now and your forever to the truth that Jesus is exactly who He said He is, and did exactly what the Scriptures say He did. We must ask ourselves: have I believed the Gospel? I would say that most of us here would say “yes, I have believed the Gospel.”
Platt, David. Exalting Jesus in Galatians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
But then comes the second question: Is my life any different because of the Gospel? If I say that I believe the Gospel, my life should bear evidence of that change. As I said last week, the Christian life is created by, informed by, and defined by the Gospel. Is my life a living tree of Gospel fruit, or something else? If there is no evidence of transformation (not perfection), then perhaps it is not the Gospel that I have believed! What should I do if I find myself in this position? Hide? Lie? Keep putting on a false face? No! Repent and believe the Gospel, and be transformed by the grace of God in Christ, so that God can be glorified in and through your life!
Platt, David. Exalting Jesus in Galatians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Any more examples of radical changes following an encounter with the gospel?
Because here’s the deal: if we don’t actually belong to God through faith in what Christ has done, then we
This brings us to our third and final point this morning:
3) Lives radically changed by and submitted to the Gospel bring glory to God.
3) Lives radically changed by and submitted to the Gospel bring glory to God.
galatians 1:
23 They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
When the Gospel of Jesus Christ has taken hold of us, and we have submitted our lives to the truth of what God has done for us in Christ, then the radical transformation that occurs should showcase not our own greatness, but the greatness of God.
Paul ends our focal passage today with an explanation of the results of his radical transformation because of the Gospel:
22 I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. 23 They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
21 Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. 23 They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
Paul writes that he wasn’t a product of the church at Jerusalem, and in fact, didn’t really spend much time in Jerusalem at all, but instead, went to the “regions of Syria and Cilicia:” His hometown of Tarsus was in Cilicia, and Syrian Antioch (where he ended up working with Barnabas) was in Syria. The churches in Judea (including Jerusalem) hadn’t really met him. Instead, the story of his conversion and evangelistic skill and fervor reached those believers, and what happened? They glorified God because of him.
Jesus spoke about the radical transformation of the believer bringing glory to God in John chapter 3:
18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
When our lives are reworked through belief in Jesus Christ, the fact that God accomplished that work is clearly shown.
Even Paul, as he looked back on his life following his radical transformation, could see that God was at work in him and around him, preparing him for the task that Paul would be called to: to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles.
15 But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.
gal 1:
21 Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. 23 They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
galatians 1:
galatians 1:
22 I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. 23 They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
God can use even the struggles of your past to prepare you to be all that He wants you to be in order to bring Him the glory that He is due. He can use the hurts, failures, and even the weaknesses of those who belong to Christ, provided that we submit ourselves to His workmanship. But so often, it’s only in the looking back that we can see God’s fingerprints all over our lives. I really like how Tim Keller sees this truth:
The gospel gives us a pair of spectacles through which we can review our own lives and see God preparing us and shaping us, even through our own failures and sins, to become vessels of His grace in the world.
And when we are vessels of His grace, useful to the Master for every good work, then he receives the glory for all that He’s done. Maybe He receives that glory through you sharing the Gospel with your “one”, maybe through your loving kindness to someone who needs it, maybe through you standing up for the truth of the Gospel in the marketplace, or the workplace, or the public sphere. There’s no limit to the glory that God can bring to Himself through a life of faithful surrender and submission to Him.
Closing
Closing
Paul’s ministry was a calling from God. His life was radically changed by God. And through that radically changed life, God received glory that still shines today, nearly two thousand years later.
Will you believe the Gospel today? Will you surrender your life to God through faith in Jesus Christ, and be transformed? Right where you are, right now, trust in Jesus for your salvation, believing that He is the Son of God, that He died to cover your sins, and that He rose again so that those who believe in Him can live forever. And if today, you are believing the Gospel for the first time, then come and share that with us. I’ll be here, Trevor will be here, Joe and Kerry will be in the back. We want to celebrate with you that your life has been transformed.
If God is speaking to you by His Spirit that you have some unconfessed sin in your life, something that doesn’t belong in the life of the Christian, then come and pray with one of us or at the steps. Repent and turn from your sin and turn to God.
Or maybe today, God is calling you to come and be a part of this family of Eastern Hills through formal membership in the body. Come and share that with us this morning.
Listen to what God is saying to you this morning while the band comes and while we pray together.
PRAY
Invite guests to the Parlor.