Facing Opposition

Bold Moments in History

A number of years ago, Mark Mandio got me reading some books on Vikings and the Danish invasion of England.

They were some pretty fun reads.

I learned about where the Vikings came from, what they were pursuing, and how they fought.

At the same time, I also learned a lot about the history of England.

What helped shape her as a culture and a nation.

These books were what would be classified as historical fiction.

The main character was fictional, he was made up, but he went in and out of historical events.

At the end of the books, the author would come clean.

If there was anything where he stretched the truth, or embellished it a bit more than what happened, he would say where he did that.

If he invented a character he would say who was real and who wasn’t.

My favorite part of these ends was where the author would explain in detail the significance of the story.

How it affected the rest of history.

One of these books came to a head in 878ad.

Alfred the Great, was king of England.

England was hardly a nation.

They were really struggling to survive.

They were a bunch of mainly disorganized peasants.

Alfred the Great was a unifying part of the foundation of the nation.

By the way, he’s also the only British King to ever be called … The Great.

He was Alfred The Great.

In the early part of 878ad, England was really just a few swamps.

They were on death’s edge.

The author said, “One more defeat and there would probably have never been a political entity called England. We might have had a Daneland instead, and this novel would probably have been written in Danish. Yet Alfred survived, he won, and that is why history awarded him the honorific ‘the Great.’”

Basically, it all came down to one battle.

If Alfred lost that battle, there’d be no England.

And we probably wouldn’t be speaking English.

I remember reading that line, and I became angry.

Are you telling me that one little battle in the swamps of England in 878ad, could have changed the scope of history?

There’s a possibility we’d be speaking Danish instead of English?

Honestly, it freaked me out, and I had a huge appreciation for history.

That little battle made me want to root for Alfred the Great.

The events of history can have far reaching repercussions.

Today in Galatians, Paul tells us of an equally historical event.

This is one of those moments where if things go wrong … you’re speaking Danish, and there’s no England, it’s called Daneland.

We are going to be in to get Paul’s perspective of the event.

And through this, we learn of Paul’s boldness for the Gospel.

Let’s read Galatians 2:1-10.

Our first point is Boldness Requires Conviction

This all picks up 14 years after Paul’s conversion.

When I was in my late 20’s I applied to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

The biggest threat wasn’t outside the church.

My dad was a deputy.

There

I wanted to be a deputy.

It’s not like applying for any normal job.

It’s not the type of job where you turn in an application and they call you back when they’re ready to hire you.

It wasn’t persecution, or governmental powers.

It was a very long process.

It began with a written exam.

The exam took a couple hours.

The biggest danger upon the young church was going to come from within.

Then at a later date, there was a physical assessment.

Paul knew that the day would come when danger would rise from within the walls of the church.

This was Paul’s greatest fear.

I had to run a mile and a half within a certain time frame.

That’s why in , he said, “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”

Or in , he said, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

, “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”

Be able to drag a 150 pound dummy.

Hop some fences.

Run an obstacle course.

It would seem that, 14 years after Paul’s conversion this evil day had arrived.

, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

There was a very extensive background check.

There were people in Jerusalem that were preaching another Gospel.

They needed to know every place I’d ever lived.

It was a hybrid gospel.

It was a false gospel.

I felt like they wanted to know every single person I was related too, as well as every friend I’d ever had.

It blended works and grace.

It didn’t deny Jesus directly.

The most stressful part of the process was the lie detector test.

But it lessened Jesus by saying Christians needed to do certain things to receive forgiveness from Jesus.

Before I took the lie detector test, I had to answer what seemed like a 400 question questionnaire.

The false teachers specifically, were telling Christians that they needed to hold to the Jewish law while being Christian.

They wanted to know everything about me.

The presence of these false teachers in Jerusalem was definitely a call for alarm.

They wanted to know all my dirty laundry.

Just like how Commissioner Gordon shines the bat signal into the sky to summon Batman’s help.

They wanted to know my all my sins.

They wanted to know how truthful of a person I was.

Once you fill out the questionnaire, the person who oversees the lie detector test, makes a custom test for you.

Paul was summoned to Jerusalem to make a defense of the Gospel.

They want to hear you tell the truth about all the things you’ve done that you wished you’d never done.

Somehow, God revealed to Paul that he needed to go to Jerusalem and meet with the important people there.

And the only way to make it through that process is to be convicted of the truth.

Because if you hide any details, you’re gonna fail.

Our text begins 14 years after Paul’s conversion.

The armies were mobilized.

Paul was never taught the Gospel from any man.

I had to tell a complete stranger my deepest darkest secrets.

He didn’t go to college.

Paul went to Jerusalem, to something called the Jerusalem Counsel.

He didn’t go to seminary.

Paul never

And there he was tested.

Jesus Himself taught Paul.

I said this last week, none of us will have experienced the kind of teaching that Paul had.

It’s scary.

It’s nerve racking.

You might remember that 3 years after his conversion, Paul went up to Jerusalem to meet with Peter.

It’s embarrassing.

He spent 15 days with Peter.

When you are audited, everything is put on the table.

It’s of my opinion that those 15 days with Peter were 15 days of testing.

Making sure he knew the truth.

All your

But now here we are, at the start of , and we are 14 years out from Paul’s conversion.

He’s been preaching the Gospel.

He has been training men to be pastors.

But in Jerusalem there is controversy.

There are different people preaching different things.

False teachers.

There is a false, hybrid Christianity being taught that merges Christianity with Judaism.

A mix of grace and works.

Paul goes up to Jerusalem and meets privately with some of the influential founding disciples.

Verse 2 says that he met privately with them.

There are different people preaching different gospels.

I think back to my lie detector test when applying for the Sheriff’s department.

Some are

Everything was on the table.

I was an open book.

My life was judged before strangers.

In the same way, Paul’s entire ministry was put on display.

What he believed was put out.

What he preached was put out.

What his ministry was put out.

Everything was aired.

He couldn’t hide anything.

He was judged.

Look at verse 2, “I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.”

What he believed was put out.

What he preached was put out.

What his ministry was was put out.

It was all there for the original disciples to judge and whoever else was there.

Paul even brought Titus with him.

Titus was a Greek believer.

Unlike Timothy who was half Jewish.

Titus was 100% Gentile.

Titus was a disciple of Paul’s.

Paul had trained him.

Paul had taught Titus.

Paul had trained him

In the book of Titus, we learn that Paul had been grooming Titus to be a pastor of the churches in Crete.

Titus was so well trained that he became a teacher of men himself.

He appointed elders in the young church.

Titus was judged as a picture of Paul’s ministry.

Paul explained what he preached.

Paul introduced Titus to them, a prototype of the type of Christians that Paul was developing among the Gentiles.

What Paul taught and what he brought was a test to display his ministry.

He was working hard to proclaim truth.

And this test was a way to demonstrate that he wasn’t running in vain.

His work was real.

I read of Paul, and I want to be like him.

I’m sure you do too.

Here

You read of his boldness to proclaim the truth.

You read of how he was committed to Christ so much, that he could not be silenced.

This kind of boldness requires conviction.

I read of Paul, and I want to be like him.

I’m sure you do too.

You read of him and you think he’s an exception.

I’m surprised by how often Paul was tested.

How often he had to make clear what the Gospel is.

Paul is not the only one who lives in this reality.

We, all Christians are expected to know what the Gospel is, and to be able to explain it.

tells us, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

It was August of 2010.

I had been pastor for just over a year.

I had only recently turned 30.

Trouble was brewing in the church.

More and more, people were getting upset about my preaching of the Gospel.

Let me just tell you … elders meetings were tense.

After one particularly … not fun elders meeting … I told the Elders I would write a document to clear up what I believed.

At the time we didn’t have a clear belief statement.

At least nothing like what we have now.

I thought it would be a good idea for someone to clearly state what they believed.

So I would write my beliefs, and be tested on them.

I remember Richard telling me I didn’t have to do that.

What pastor of a church has ever had to try and teach the Elders the Gospel?

I preached every Sunday, it should be clear what I believed.

But I told Richard I would go ahead and do it.

I wrote a 6 page document on what the Gospel was.

And I haven’t changed since then.

I reread that document this past week, and I love what the Lord has done here.

But it’s not just the Paul’s and the Luke’s who need to be prepared for this.

Each of us need to have a solid understanding of the Gospel.

You need to have a solid understanding of the Gospel.

How do we do this?

By a conviction.

By remembering that the Gospel is the cure to the great plague of sin that has captured all of mankind.

By having a conviction that the wages of sin is death.

By having a conviction that without Christ, people are going to Hell.

By having a conviction that God is holy, and that there is no other God.

By having a conviction that begins with a righteous fear of God, leading to true knowledge of God, and falling at the feet of Christ.

Like it says in Acts 4, “... there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

We must know this deep down in our soul.

If there is no gospel, then man most certainly doomed.

Remember the supremacy of Christ.

Remember your personal need for the Gospel.

And hold to it.

says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”

It is your duty to be able to be tested and give an answer.

In your bulletin’s this week and next week, within the articles, there are instructions on how to tell your own testimony.

It is your

Within the church emails, that are sent out each week, there is a form to help you work through, what Christ has done in your life.

Keep an eye out for that.

Take some time to do that, so if the day ever comes when you need to give an answer, you’ll be prepared.

Next, Boldness Requires Confidence

What’s the worst part about buying a car?

It’s the negotiating.

It’s the wheeling and dealing.

It’s frustrating.

It’s the back and forth.

It’s time consuming.

Someone once told me that you know you’ve reached a good compromise when both sides think they’ve been taken advantage of.

That means both sides of made sacrifices.

When Paul returned to Jerusalem, there was compromise going on.

There were some who wanted more law.

Then there was Paul who said absolutely not.

He calls that slavery, the destruction of our freedom.

There were some who wanted to put the new Gentile converts under legalism.

They said that if these new believers wanted to be embraced by Christianity they’d need to:

Be circumcised, eat clean food, and celebrate Passover.

Paul refused to go into negotiations about this.

To say:

If you want to become a Christian you need to first:

Do this or do that.

If you want to have your sins removed you need to first:

Be circumcised.

Or even, let’s put it into our sphere, you must first be baptized.

If we say these things, if we put requirements ahead of forgiveness what does it say about the Cross?

It says it is the Cross and something.

It is the Cross and circumcision.

And circumcision.

It is the Cross and baptism.

If it is the cross and anything else, then it lessens the value and work of the Cross.

I told you earlier that there are moments in history that have lasting affects.

One small event, brings with it changes for future generations.

One small battle in England means we speak English today.

You ever watch old movies where they are in an airport.

A person is exiting a plane, walking into the gate at the airport, and he has family and friends waiting for him.

They are all standing there with balloons, eager to exchange hugs at the gate.

Do you remember meeting people in the airport?

It was a bit more fun then.

One morning in September of 2001 all of that changed.

One of the affects of 9/11 is that you no longer greet your friends and loved ones at the gate.

And you have to take off your shoes when passing through security.

One event has lasting affects.

Paul’s boldness had lasting affects.

Had he decided to play Let’s Make a Deal with these Judiazers, these people who wanted law to be a requirement for the Gospel, the consequences would be far lasting.

They’d be worse than what we experience in the airports today.

They would put you back under the impossible burden of legalism, and neuter Jesus of His power on the Cross.

Look at verses 4-6, “Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.”

But under the sovereignty of God, Paul went to Jerusalem, to lay down truth.

Paul went to Jerusalem.

His opponents decided to try and negotiate.

It was a fierce conflict.

Like the car salesmen

Like the car salesmen, they pulled out the piece of paper, drew a line down the middle.

Lots of back and back.

Said here’s what we want.

Here’s what you want.

It was almost like Paul’s opponents were trying to play Let’s Make a Deal.

Let’s find some common ground.

If the Gentiles want to become Christians then they need to do this or that.

They wanted to come to a compromise.

In verse 5 Paul says, “to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.”

But Paul saw it for what it was.

In other words, there will be no negotiations.

There is one Gospel.

They said, “But here me out ...”

Jesus died for sin.

It was His death alone that atoned for sin.

Paul said he wouldn’t listen for even a moment.

And His resurrection proved the acceptance of His death, and was His victory cry over death.

Anything less is heresy.

Paul would not entertain these false teachers cries for compromise.

And what was Paul’s motivation?

“so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.”

Had he negotiated and tried to corrupt the gospel of salvation of faith alone through Christ alone, it would change the scope of history in ways worse then what 9/11 did to air travel today.

It not only would change what the Galatians heard.

But it would change what you hear as well.

This kind of boldness requires confidence.

It requires us to fix our eyes upon Jesus and see Him as the only way.

Our pride loves to creep in.

We are always wanting credit for things.

One of the things I am always in danger of is when I come up in front of people and start thanking people.

I come up and I say thank you to all of you who served the women at the women’s tea.

The dangerous part is when I start mentioning names.

Tom thanks.

Richard thanks.

Jason thanks.

And suppose I forget this guy named Bob.

Afterwards Bob is upset because I forgot to mention him.

He’s off on the side saying, “Why didn’t Luke say my name?”

Houston wouldn’t really do that.

We want credit.

And when it comes to us and God … we want credit.

Forgetting that the Gospel tells us that we were completely unable to come to God on our own.

The life saving mission of Jesus is that He jumped into the waters of humanity to drag us to life.

We must have that kind of confidence in the Gospel.

Next, the Boldness that Paul had, Requires Commendation.

After Paul made a plea for the Gospel and made his stand to refuse to negotiate, there was nothing to add.

Look at verses 6-9, “And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”

Peter, James and John had nothing to add to what Paul had said.

The disciples heard the Gospel that Paul preached.

Verses 7-8 describe how the original disciples viewed Paul’s ministry.

They saw Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles being just as powerful and affective as Peter’s was to the Jews.

They gave the right hand of fellowship.

They were on the same team here.

This boldness requires commendation.

Here’s what I mean by that.

First it is based on truth.

There is a boldness that is not good.

It is brash.

Boldness

It is impulsive.

It is foolish.

It is not right.

Judas was bold.

He thought Jesus was doing things wrong.

He didn’t understand Jesus’ mission.

And based off faulty information, he boldly went rogue.

He sold Jesus for 30 silver.

That is a bad boldness.

Paul’s boldness is based off of truth.

Look at verse 6, “And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.”

The original disciples that were present at the meeting had nothing to add to what Paul had said.

He had spoken the truth.

They saw his ministry.

And they were silent.

Nothing to add.

He boldly spoke the truth and had nothing to be ashamed of.

echoes Paul’s attitude, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Verse 6 describes people who seemed influential, they affirmed Paul’s words.

He laid everything out for them.

They couldn’t argue with him.

They knew it was true.

Therefore, they were on the same team.

One of the great affects of the Protestant Reformation is that we have God’s Word, the Bible at hand.

There was a time, when the only way people could learn biblical truths was to look at the statues and pictures that were within the Roman Catholic Church.

But with the Protestant Reformation, there was a return to the Word of God.

The Altar that was normally front and center in the church was replaced with God’s Word.

People were encouraged to learn to read, so they could read and study the Bible.

Today, there are countless Bibles.

We have multiple copies of the Bible on our shelves at home.

You might even have multiple Bible apps on your phone.

And yet … all of this information, doesn’t mean you study in a vacuum chamber.

Notice, for all of Paul’s boldness and understanding of the truth, he was taught by Jesus for crying out loud … he still was tested.

He still was commended by others.

In this text, they said he had it.

They had nothing to add.

They extended the right hand of fellowship towards Paul.

They were on the same team.

But he was still tested.

Paul’s boldness required commendation.

With all of our information at hand, there is a tendency for Christians to forget the necessary commendation.

They forget to seek the advice of others.

Young people can be especially vulnerable to this.

They come to conclusions that aren’t true, or are wrong.

For example, more and more people are abandoning church and they claim to do church at home.

They stay home on Sundays and read a verse as a family and call it church.

That’s not church.

And that’s not how God has laid out for us to have fellowship.

Church has elders.

Has servants.

Has other people.

Has people who are different exercising their gifts.

Learn, learn truth, but don’t learn by yourself.

Use the resources God has provided.

3 says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ...”

Don’t go rogue.

Since Paul and the disciples in Jersualem were on the same team, Paul’s ministry was not a rogue ministry, but was an embraced ministry.

He could boldly preach the Gospel to all people.

The disciples saw that Paul had the same ministry that Peter had.

Look again at verses 7-9, “On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”

Paul’s boldness received the support of the church, and in turn supported the church.

He was not a rogue missionary.

Something to point out here, there is only one Gospel.

In the context of the passage, there isn’t a Jewish Gospel, and there isn’t a Gentile Gospel.

Paul and Peter might have had different focuses, but there is only one Gospel.

Some have mistakenly read this passage and that there is a Jewish Gospel and a Christian or Gentile Gospel.

That a Jewish person is saved differently than a Gentile person.

That they need to hear the Gospel differently.

There is just one Gospel, and it is the power of God for salvation.

And the same applies to every other religion out there.

Just one Gospel.

How do you preach to a Jewish person?

The same way you preach to a Gentile person.

Use the law to reveal their sin, diagnose their condition, then explain what Jesus has done.

Not rogue

How do you preach to a Catholic person?

Same way.

Use the law to reveal their sin.

Diagnose their condition.

Is always based on truth.

Then explain what Jesus has done.

How do you preach to a Mormon person?

Same way.

Use the law to reveal their sin.

Diagnose their condition.

Then explain what Jesus has done.

The boldness of Paul comes with a commendation that you are within the guidelines of Scripture.

Lastly, Boldness Requires a Commission

Paul’s given the right hand of fellowship, and he is given a commission.

You see it in verse 10, “Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

At the time, there were a lot of poor Christians.

There were 2 reasons for the extreme poverty affecting Christians, especially in Jerusalem at that time.

First, there was a famine in the region.

The famine brought hardships upon all people.

And in addition to the famine, when a Jewish person converted to Christianity, they were expelled from their community.

They lost their income.

They lost their family.

They were kicked out of society and ostracized.

Basically, this resulted in a poor culture, with extra poor Christians.

The church had to pool their resources together to meet their day to day needs.

In , it describes them selling what they had, and sharing just to survive.

But eventually, everyone ran out of money and food.

Therefore, Paul was given a commission, “remember the poor.”

Specifically, remember the poor Christians.

Paul had no problem with that.

He says he was eager to remember the poor.

And you see this throughout his letters to the churches.

In , he commended the Macedonian Christians in their efforts to raise funds to help the Jerusalem church.

Romans was a letter to help support the Christians who are in Spain.

He definitely did this.

He was bold to show his love for other Christians.

A bold love for Christians was a focus of Paul, and continues to be expected of Christians today.

We are sent with a commission to be bold in our love for other Christians.

This love is to recognize Christians, and to have a sense of unity with them.

Paul and Peter had different focuses.

Peter to the Jews.

Paul to the Gentiles.

And yet both had an obligation to the church.

Paul was told to demonstrate his love for the church by remembering the poor Christians in Jerusalem.

The same love that Paul was to have for the church, we too are to have for the church.

It’s expected of Christians.

Jesus expected Christians to love one another.

, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Paul wasn’t alone in this commission.

Later on in this book he passes on the same commission to us.

, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

And so, you have different personalities.

You are gifted differently.

You have different interests.

And yet, the common link among Christians is their love for the church.

This is a bold love, because it’s not optional.

Paul wasn’t alone in this commission.

Later on in this book he passes on the same commission to us.

It’s not based on how you feel.

It’s based on a conviction and confidence in the Gospel.

And understanding what Christ has done to secure you, then expressed towards other believers.

says, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

God has provided resources to you, so that you would be bold in loving other Christians.

That could be by giving.

It could be by serving.

It could be by going the extra mile.

Boldness is difficult.

I’m sure you wonder how to be bold.

And you think you’ll never be like Paul.

The key isn’t in manufacturing something fake, forced, or insincere.

It’s found in having a:

Conviction of the Gospel.

A unwavering confidence in the Gospel.

Going with the commendation of the those over you.

And living out the commission to care for the saints.

This isn’t something too burdensome.

Because when you live under Christ’s victory and purchase on the Cross, it’s the natural progression of events.