Galatians 2:1-10

Unity through Freedom

Opening

Have you heard the saying:

“Failure is life’s greatest teacher, and the only way we truly fail is to learn nothing from the valleys we experience.”

― Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual

If I survey back over my life I realize that the biggest moments of personal growth come from a deep failure or deep valley type experience. It was in times of complete dependance on things outside of myself and outside of my control have led to so much of the person that stands before you today.

Praise be to God that I haven’t been left to my own devices. Failure can be a lot like the tiller going through the ground. The top soil of our lives are the things that are getting in the way of real growth and so when failure comes along, or a mess up comes it is like the chisle coming in and preparing our hearts and our minds for new things to be planted in its place.

Without that happening the weeds and the hard soil isn’t going to accept the new growth.

Jesus says it this way,

John 3:3 “Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.””

This is process of being a disciple. Letting God gracefully and lovingly uproot the hard soil in our lives to allow new a real life to take root and bloom and blossom into our lives and eventually into the overflow of ourselves.

In Acts 9 there is a very dramatic example of this.

Acts 9:1–6 NIV

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Following this moment Saul goes to a house on straight street in Damascus for 3 days he doesn’t eat or drink anything. God sends a man named Ananias to pray for him. Scales fall from Saul’s eyes he can see again (a symbol of a new life a new way of thinking a new way of being).

It was in those few days that Saul had fallen so hard on his face and failed so hard, that the ground of his life was completely uprooted. But God in his wisdom uprooted that which was death in Paul, and brought so much new life.

Main Point

The Gospel is unique a treasure, once you have it you can’t help but share it.

He began preaching in damascus about Jesus and the Jewish people got mad at him and setup a plan to kill Saul. He escapes through the wall of the city.

This is likely the moment in which Saul goes into Arabia Which we read about last week in Chapter 1. Saul spends 3 years before he goes and consultes with Peter and James (the two head honchos of the church at the time).

I think there are some things worth teasing out in some of these details before we move forward in the Book of Galatians.

For he first 2 chapters of Galatians Paul is presenting a biographical argument for the validity of the Gospel he preaches. Notice how important to Paul it is that the gospel he is preaching wasn’t inherited from the leaders in Jerusalem, but that God himself revealed it to him.

Paul does this by doing somethings that we might miss in a quick reading of the text. Paul is telling the Hebraic Christians some very intersting things

in Chapter 1:15 Paul states set apart from my mother’s womb (referance to the prophet Samuel)

vs. 16 Fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah that this good news would go into all the world

vs 17 Elijah going into the mountains/wilderness to hear from God. Also pulls in the same symbolism of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness before launching into ministry.

Why are these parallels in the text?

Paul is very important to the early church, and because of his past God took Paul through these experiences that mimicked that that symbolized the old testament prophets, so that Paul would have validity among the Hebrews.

This leads us into Galatians 2

Galatians 2:1–10 NIV

I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

Power in the Text

Paul continues his biographical defense of his position on the true Gospel by telling his readers that he went and presented this God revealed gospel to the three leaders in Jerusalem, the main hub of the church, and they came to an agreement. This agreement isn’t that the gospels they were teaching were at odds or different, but rather the target audience. Paul was issued a special focus on the Gentiles and Peter a special focus on the Hebrews.

Something I don’t want us to miss in this account from Paul is that independant of any of the Apostles the gospel was revealed to Paul and aligned with the same message that The apostles were teaching. Paul was 150 miles from Jerusalem, about a 62 hour walk when he was converted. And yet in this passage Paul tells us that the good news he was sharing was the same as the one that the men who spent 3 years with Jesus were teaching.

On top of all of that, Paul who is a self proclaimed pharisee of pharisees is well versed in the old testament. Would have had the entire first 5 books of the bible memorized by their teenage years, and would be expected to have the entire Old Testament memorized.

The Good news, the teachings of Jesus, the way Jesus taught all of it fell in line and became congruent with the Old Tesament teaching.

Why does that Matter?

Many people have argued or claim that the God of the OT isn’t the same God of the NT. They say things like, look at how the God of the old testament acted and what he did. Here is Paul who is as engrained and studied in the OT as one could get, and yet when he meets Jesus, and he hears what he teaches and he begins preaching and teaching the lessons Jesus gave none of that disagreed with Paul’s understandings. As to say Paul was able to see how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament, revealed the true God and that the God of the OT and the God Revealed in the Son didn’t clash to Paul, but amplified one another.

If we take this and then lay on top of it that then Paul hears that all men and women can be saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ we can begin to see how Paul takes the good news and looks back over scripture and like a decoder ring all of the puzzle pieces fall into place.

It is like the roladex in his brain of Bible stories, promises, prophecies, individual verses, psalms begin to link together and make sense.

This is like Isaac Newton having an apple fall on his head, or watson and crick discovering DNA, or when the Sistine chapel was finished, or the mona lisa was painted. There is a before and an after in those kinds of moments.

For Paul it put into the right place all he had learned, all he had understood. So he couldn’t stand when people messed about with it, changed the message, added to it. Paul saw that the gospel of Christ, in it’s pure state, not toyed with is a treasure

Main Point

The Gospel is unique a treasure, once you have it you can’t help but share it.

Transition

When Jesus was teaching a large crowd about what the Kingdom of heaven was like he often used parables, Earthly stories with heavenly meaning. One example of this is in Mattew 13. Where Jesus states

Matthew 13:44–46 NIV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Paul is just like the man who found a treasure, and then in JOY sold everything to obtain it. He was all in. All Paul had, all of Paul’s past amounted to nothing to him, the only thing that matter to Paul was Jesus, and the Good News Jesus brought. It was so beautiful and precious to him that he wanted everyone to know about it and experience it and to know that This kingdom is avaliable to them also. No matter their past, no matter their race, their religion, their social status, their economic standing, it was for all because Jesus was coming to reconcile our little small puny kingdoms to God’s kingdom.

I don’t want you to think that the way that we embrace this treasure is only in the grandiose in the large overarching. I don’t want you to not move forward into the kingdom of heaven, because you think that it has to be XYZ.

Jesus also described the Kingdom of Heaven as being like a pearl of great price. Mothers often search for pearls in the everyday—those moments of joy in a child's laugh or a shared loving glance. When a mother bends down to wipe away her child’s tears or rejoices in their triumphs, she mirrors the heart of God, who delights in His creation. Through her eyes, we glimpse the beauty and wealth of the Kingdom, showing us that it is found in love, companionship, and the nurturing of hope.

It is all those Small moments built over a lifetime. Simplistic dedication to walking the same direction mother after mother generation, after generation.

Main Point

The Gospel is unique a treasure, once you have it you can’t help but share it.

That is something so beautiful about the Gospel of Jesus. That when we reside in our faith in Jesus we begin to be formed and shaped by him. Then we carry that like the treasure it is into our daily mundane moments, never knowing the full impact it can have.

Just like a mother showing the patcient, long suffering, encouraging kind of love in the midst of dirty diapers, scraped knees, bruised hineys and egos, broken hearts, sibling fights, broken knick-knacks, hospital visits.

We are only able to love to the amount we have experienced love, we can only forgive to the amount we have experieince forgiveness. So many of us experienced that because it was shown to us by moms and dads who were trying, and attempting to love and forgive the best they could.

That is how the kingdom of God advances, we experience the treasure God has for us, we carry that treasure to our relationships and then that plants seeds that God can increase.

PRACTICE

Share your treasure.

We often lose sight, or forget the abundant treasures we have been given. Remember the treasure you have and don’t hide it under a bushel, No let it shine. When you are fed up this week with one of your children, or co-workers, or spouse. Take a step back, take a breath and remember. I have been shown much love, and shown much forgiveness even when I have acted worse, or treated others worse that what I am experiencing in this moment. I will remember the treasure.

So if we were going to share our treasure, that means we need to abide in our treasure, and I just what Christ beckons us to today. Draw near to him, and he will draw near to you.

remember your treasure

Main Point

The Gospel is unique a treasure, once you have it you can’t help but share it.