Behind me on the screen is a picture of Petra; it once was a very rich city along

Transcription

1 Galatians 1:11-24 Religion of Grace Behind me on the screen is a picture of Petra; it once was a very rich city along ancient trade routes- and this particular building is Al Khazneh, the Treasury, because when it thought inside would be great treasures. Some writers think this is the Arabia of verse 17, which Paul mentions here describing his travels after the vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus. It isn t on the Arabian Peninsula, in Saudi Arabia, where we think of Arabia geographically, but in the Arabah, a strip of land east and southeast of the Dead Sea in what has always been Arab lands. If you look in the maps at the back of your Bible, it is part of the Old Testament kingdom of Edom, and in modern day Jordan. This building, and much of the city, in fact, is carved out of the mountain; you may recognize The Treasury, or some other structures in the city, because Petra has been featured in numerous movies. It is famous now, many tourists come all year round, but this old, old place was unknown to the Western world, forgotten for hundreds of years, until it was discovered by a French explorer in Such an important part of the history of the Middle East, and if the legends about Paul are true, an important part of Christian and Western history, as well.

2 Now, I don t think it s essential that we know whether or not Paul came to Petra, or that we need to know anything at all about where he spent those three years (noted in verse 18) before he came to Jerusalem to visit Peter and James, but it does seem that during this time- or immediately after this time- he began his ministry to the Gentiles. But what Paul does want us to know for certain is that he was someplace reflecting on that remarkable event on the Damascus road; trying to figure out what it meant that the man who should have been dead, wasn t and even spoke to him; trying to work out why the Messiah had called him. So he went someplace on his own; as he tells it he did not consult with flesh and blood, didn t go to discuss these things with those who were apostles before him. He wanted his readers to be assured that the gospel he had preached was not somebody else s, it wasn t part of another tradition, it wasn t mingled with other teaching; but it was truth that had come directly from the Lord Jesus; it was the good news of Jesus specifically for the sake of non-jewish audiences- like these people in Galatia. That s why he emphasizes so strongly that he had no assistance from others in understanding the revelation of Jesus to him. It very simply comes down to this:

3 that the believers in Galatia should know that they were not second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God. And that fact expresses itself in two ways, I think. 1) In Galatia, and in other places Paul had gone, false brothers he calls them, have come in behind him, proclaiming that Gentiles cannot just believe Jesus is the Messiah and expect everything to be fine; no, they say that Gentiles must first convert to Judaism. To Paul s way of thinking, this would make his Damascus road experience and his three years in a personal wilderness meaningless; it would mean that his suffering for the sake of his Gentile ministry had no value. And so he becomes enraged at these false teachers, who try to add requirements and impediments to the gospel of faith and grace which he has preached in all the regions around the Mediterranean. So here is what he does and says: he insists he is telling the truth, insists that he received the truth by the revelation of Jesus himself- there is no secondary word or influence from others in his gospel, no need of another teaching from any man, because this is God s wordpure and simple. And so, he asserts his authority to teach and preach his gospel, he claims that God s call on him from birth and the revealing of Jesus, have given him the authority of apostleship. So that not even Peter or James the brother of Jesusnor any other person- has a greater authority than his own. Thus, his Gentile

4 followers should never give in to the false teachers, but remain confident in the content of their faith. His authority is from Jesus, and Jesus alone, and not contingent upon the approval of anyone else. 2) Paul s authority from Jesus means that he was not subject to the opinions or wrongheaded traditions of other leaders, Jewish or otherwise. Again and again, Paul reiterates that he didn t learn from other humans; in verse 14, he makes note of his background and training in Judaism, and his eagerness for the traditions of his ancestors, but look where that led him: to persecuting the followers of Jesus. I don t think he is saying that traditions are evil, but that they can create another layer that may separate the believer from God, or that may divide believer from believer. But the revelation of Jesus to Paul was a direct contact with God- and with the grace of God- which Paul then passed on to those who believed by his word. Paul understood that this grace creates unity, but the false teachers only wanted to gain control over the Gentile believers; it was a power grab (Have you ever been in a church where someone just has to have the last word- this is the way we ve always done it, or real Christians believe this, they might say; or where they play politics to become head elder- or to gain some other position where they can tell people what to do.), but Paul was adamant that no person and

5 no extra requirements could be allowed to stand between any believer and a joyful and saving relationship with God. This is profoundly important because of something, I believe, Paul relearned on the Damascus road and in those three years alone. In the sermon last week, I said that Paul had ignored something about his faith; it wasn t something he didn t know, but something he kind of chose to forget. We all do, those times we get full of ourselves. But Jesus appeared to him to bring him back to one complete, central truth: that God is full of grace. In Paul s zeal for God in his earlier life in Judaism (verse 13), he forgot that his life and his Jewish faith were utterly dependent upon God s grace, and he became a tormentor of those who didn t think as he thought; believed he had the right to coerce a particular kind of obedience from others; and that is religion without grace- it becomes self-justifying and judgmental, a bullying sort of religion that approves of (or even requires) persecution; and that is a gospel of hate; it is a corruption of truth. But in verse 15- he knows it now! and he would never forget- he says it was God s gracious act to call him, and in verse 16, it pleased God to reveal Jesus to him: that is the language of grace. God s pleasure. And so, the Galatians can know, and we can know, that God s perfect, amazing grace has been expended for all of us. It was

6 never limited to just one people, one nation. But rather, God has shed his grace upon all of us, and gives his grace so that we may act graciously to every person out there, to all the people God loves. I wanted you to see that picture of Petra, because I want all of us to think of Paul on his own in Arab lands, separated from his people and the traditions that had comforted him all his life. But somehow he had let it confuse the correct understanding of God. Three years alone to get that self-righteous, prideful sense of religion out of him, and to make him understand grace: that it is not a human accomplishment, nor reserved only for those we ourselves may choose. But it is God s gift and available to every person we may meet. It is, in fact, what the very earliest believers in Jesus knew, long before Paul knew it. Look at what verse 24, says, they (those who had previously been persecuted by Paul and those who suffered because of Paul) glorified God because of me. Think for a moment how powerful that statement is. They recognized the signs of God s grace in him after he had met Jesus, grace that filled him up with goodness and a spirit of love; and making him a brother, and no longer an enemy. That s why we must pray for our enemies, so that we might find ways to make them sisters and brothers, or perhaps,

7 so that we might find ways to become brothers and sisters to them; and by God s grace, to make peace in our hearts and in their hearts, peace in all the world.