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Good morning friends, today is Tuesday May 21 and in our journey together, we begin a new book of the Bible today.
The year was about AD 48. Paul, having arrived back in Antioch from his first missionary journey, was enjoying the friendships he had there and according to Acts 14:28 his re-entry into busy ministry with the church which had sent he and Barnabas out.
Then trouble… word came to Paul that passionate Jewish Christians had followed in his footsteps, through the same cities where he had boldly proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus. These Jewish Christians were causing great confusion among the new Gentile Christians in Lystra, Derbe, Iconium and the others cities where fledgling churches had begun.
The problem was this: The Jewish Christians felt strongly that God does not change, as it says in Malachi 3:6, and thus the Old Testament covenants and laws and ceremonies which were distinctive to Judaism and were given by God to His people, should not in any way be changed by Jesus and His Gospel, if in fact Jesus was the same God who gave these important Old Testament laws.
And since Jesus was born into a Jewish family, lived and did His ministry in Israel primarily to Jewish people, and Himself was circumcised and participated in the Jewish traditions… and since Jesus chose only Jewish disciples, it seemed only logical that any and all followers of Jesus must either be Jews first, or become Jewish through the ceremonies and traditions in order for their relationship with God through Jesus Christ to be legitimate. Did you get that?
So you can perhaps see what turmoil this aroused among the new Gentile Christians. Would they really not be fully accepted by God and their faith in Jesus not be enough to save them UNTIL they were circumcised and fully immersed into Judaism?
Paul was flabbergasted when he heard what was happening in the towns he had preached Jesus’ Gospel and started little churches. He had no cell phones to call the people, no radio to send a broadcast…so he prayed, and evidently the Holy Spirit told Paul to pick up a writing utensil and write a letter to those young Christians to answer their questions and bring clarity to the confusion.
That letter has been preserved and duplicated over these centuries, and is what we have in our Bible as the book of Galatians, so titled because all those towns and new churches were in the Roman Empire province of Galatia in modern day Turkey. A ‘province’ was like a Canadian Province or a State in the USA.
So, today let’s read Galatians chapter 1 and imagine Paul sitting in Antioch, carefully scratching out this letter on a parchment, deeply pondering every phrase, and then sending that scroll letter by a trusted friend, to be read in each of the little churches that he had begun in Galatia.
Do you see Paul begins, as he always does, identifying himself as the author of this letter, and pointing his readers to Jesus? He’s not seeking glory for himself, he’s taking responsibility for what he writes!
Also, you see he jumps right into the confusion…“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different ‘gospel’ – which is really no gospel at all.” (Gal. 1:6). Paul then uses some strong language as he condemns those causing the confusion. I don’t think I would have wanted to go nose to nose with Paul, how about you?
Then beginning in vs. 11 Paul gives us a clear statement of the integrity of the Gospel he proclaims. He states that he received it directly from Jesus, not from any other man. Notice he admits he was a persecutor of followers of Jesus, trying to destroy this Gospel movement, until he was confronted by God Himself.
I love verse 23 don’t you? “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” I wonder who comes to your mind in our generations like that? Maybe Franklin Graham who for a season as a young man wanted nothing to do with his father’s preaching or message? Or maybe Lee Strobel, the atheist Chicago Tribune journalist who set out to prove there was no God, and himself became a passionate follower of Jesus, and now tremendous author and pastor.
So what’s your story? Who were you before your encounter with Jesus? Who has HE transformed you to be and how is your life, your words, your relationships pointing people to Jesus in a clear way? Any chance you’ve diluted the pure Gospel in your own life or in your explanation to someone else? As you read Galatians 1, let it penetrate your life like a search light. I wonder what you’ll see.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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