Galatians 1:11-24

Called through His Grace

Open your Bible to…

Gal. 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,

Pray

Intro

√ Called through His Grace

Remember that Paul’s purpose for writing this letter to the churches in Galatia is that they were moving from the Gospel of Grace, which Paul preached…

…to legalism a heretical attempt to mix the Law and Grace.

However, as we noted in our study last week before Paul could defend the doctrine of Grace he first had to…

…defend the validity of his apostleship and the message he preached.

So, in our study this morning we find Paul still presenting evidence to support his calling and ministry, the heart of his argument is found in vs. 15 our opening scripture…

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace.”

That is, Paul’s strongest proof that he was called to be an apostle and that his message of Grace was the true Gospel was to look at his own radically changed life…

…which was a testimony of God’s Grace!

Ap. Your life is the best testimony you’ve got going!

May our lives be so radically transformed by God’s grace that others may seek to know the God who changed us!

Paul’s Claim (vs. 11-12)

Gal. 1:11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

Gal. 1:12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

√ Paul’s claim

Wow! Paul makes a radial claim in these two verses in an attempt to establish his authority as a true Apostle of Jesus Christ! Note that he writes…

“For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Vs. 12

That’s a pretty bold claim!

Paul’s telling us that the Gospel message he preached in Galatia was given to him by divine revelation…

…in essence putting his message on the save level as Scripture!

The point is that he’s either a nut case, a bold face deceiver…

…or, he’s telling the truth and Jesus really did privately tutor him in the message of the Gospel of Grace!

√ What makes Paul’s claim different?

With all the accusations brought against Paul by the Judaizers Paul’s stepping out on a theological limb.

That’s because anyone can claim to have received a revelation from God!

So the question we should all ask is, what makes Paul’s claim any different than every other false teacher?

Ex. Joseph Smith

He claimed that an angel gave him a message too.

How do we know that Paul’s telling the truth and Joseph Smith isn’t?

What proof do we have that Jesus really appeared to Paul and gave him the Gospel of Grace that he was preaching?

That’s what we find in verses 13-24! Paul offers three lines of argument to prove that he was divinely called by Jesus to be an apostle and to preach the Gospel of Grace.

Paul’s Proof (vs. 13-24)

√ Paul’s proof

As evidence of his divine calling Paul points out that he was…

An unlikely convert

With an unlikely calling

Followed and unlikely course

Proving that his apostleship was valid because it was the only logical explanation for the radical change in his life was that God did it!

1) An unlikely convert (vs. 13-14)

Gal. 1:13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

Gal. 1:14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Paul’s first point is to remind the Christians in Galatia that he was the last person anyone would have thought would be a convert to Christ!

That is, his conversion experience was so radical and so quick that the only rational explanation is that he truly met the Lord Jesus!

There was simply no other logical explanation for his conversion.

Ex. Paul’s previous life in Judaism

Paul reminds his readers that he had radically and violently persecuted the Church of Jesus Christ before his conversion.

“I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it…” ~ vs. 13

Luke records Paul’s violence against the Church…

Acts 9:1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

Acts 9:2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Paul’s testimony before the riotous crowd in Jerusalem…

“I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women”

Acts 22:4

And before Agrippa…

Acts 26:9 “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Acts 26:10 This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.

Acts 26:11 And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

I would not be overstating it by saying that Paul had persecuted the Church with the same hatred and violence that Osama Bin Laden seeks to destroy Israel and the USA.

Something radical had to have happened in Paul’s life to change him from a persecutor of the Gospel of Grace…

…to a preacher of the Gospel of Grace!

That radical change came when he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus!

√ Hunter to hunted

Think about what it cost Paul personally to switch sides and ask if there’s any other rational explanation for his conversion.

He went from being a hunter to being the hunted!

He gave up all his power and prestige in the Jewish religious system for the life of an outcast.

He traded a life of comfort and prosperity for the hardship of life on the road, time in jail, shipwreck, frequent beatings, and ultimately execution as a criminal.

Many scholars even suggest that he lost his family including a wife.

Is it reasonable to believe that a man would endure such a cost if the message he preached was not actually given to him by divine revelation?

Ap. Who is the “Saul of Tarsus” in your life?

Write their name in your notes and begin praying that they will be transformed by God’s Grace just as Saul was!

2) With an unlikely calling (vs. 15-16a)

Paul’s second proof that his calling and message were given by divine revelation is that Jesus gave him an unlikely calling…

Gal. 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,

Gal. 1:16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,

The Gentiles!?

Who but God would think of sending a highly prejudiced legalistic Pharisee to preach Grace to the Gentiles!

Think of how absurd that is!

Paul’s entire life had been dedicated to learning and practicing the most legalistic form of Judaism.

He was a Pharisee!

Before he met Jesus he was theologically convinced that God created Gentiles to fuel the fires of hell.

He believed that Gentiles, their homes, their clothes, their language and their food was unclean and an abomination to God.

As a Pharisee Paul would not so much as have shared a glass of water with a Gentile.

He would have walked on the other side of the street from a Gentile.

The point is that before Paul met Jesus the last place on earth you’d expect to find him would be preaching to, eating with, and loving, Gentiles!

Yet, according to Paul it was Jesus who commissioned him to go and preach the Gospel of Grace to the Gentiles…

…clearly Paul something radical had changed in Paul’s theology!

Ex. George Wallace

In the early days of his political career and at the height of the Civil Rights movement Wallace represented the most shameful form of bigotry as evidenced by the words of his inaugural speech…

“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

But that’s not the end of the story! Later in life Wallace became a born-again Christian and in his last term in office said that…

“he once sought power and glory, (but) he realized he needed to seek love and forgiveness.”

He apologized for his racist attitude and words and went on to appoint more African-Americans to public office than any other governor of Alabama.

Clearly something radical had changed in his life!

It wasn’t brought about by man, it was by the same Person Who changed Saul the Gentile hating Pharisee into…

…Paul the Apostle of Grace and lover of all people.

Ap. How about you?

Do the people in your world see the kind of Grace that was evident in Paul’s life?

3) Followed an unlikely course (vs. 16b-24)

Gal. 1:16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,

Gal. 1:17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Gal. 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.

Gal. 1:19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.

Gal. 1:20 (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)

Gal. 1:21 Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Gal. 1:22 And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.

Gal. 1:23 But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.”

Gal. 1:24 And they glorified God in me.

Paul’s 3^rd proof that his calling and message were divine in origin was the unlikely and unconventional course he followed after his conversion.

That is, he didn’t follow the normal course of discipleship common to Jewish theology and culture!

Instead he followed the course laid our for him by Jesus!

Ex. Rabbinical training

The standard practice in Rabbinical training was that a student would place themselves under the teaching of a Rabbi.

The student would dedicate all of their time to learning from, eating with, studying with, and following the Rabbi.

We see this model in Jesus’ call and discipleship training of the original apostles.

In fact that’s what Paul had done as a young man when he studied under the famous Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel.

So the normal practice would have been for Paul to head straight to Jerusalem to be trained by Peter and the other Apostles.

But, that’s not the course that Paul followed after his conversion!

Instead of heading immediately to Jerusalem to study under the watchful eye of the Apostles…

…Paul tells us that he went first to the desert!

In fact, it would be more than 3 years from Paul’s conversion before he ever went to Jerusalem to see the other Apostles.

√ Paul’s training

A) Paul went to Arabia

Note vs. 16b-17a

“I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia…”

That is, after Paul was saved he sought out the solitude of the desert so that he could set himself apart to study, prayer, and the personal discipleship of Jesus.

Vs. 18 indicates that it would be 3 years before Paul would ever go to Jerusalem…

…the better part of which he probably spent with Jesus in the desert.

It was there that Paul refined his knowledge of the scripture and came to understand how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah.

And where he was taught the Gospel of Grace.

The point is that Paul was actually taught by Jesus Himself through divine revelations!

Ex. Like Moses

Just as Moses met with God “face to face”, so Paul met with God in the same desert to learn all he would need to know to preach a New Covenant of Grace.

B) Paul went Damascus

Note the end of vs. 17…

“…and returned again to Damascus.”

Once Paul was trained as an apostle of Grace he returned to the place where he had first gone with the intention of destroying those who trusted in God’s Grace!

In Damascus, Paul anointed by the Spirit preached boldly in the synagogues that Jesus is the Messiah! (Acts 9:20-25)

He was so effective in his preaching that the Jews who were once his friends…

…turned against him and tried to kill him!

But, Paul was rescued by his new friends, those he once tried to kill, and they helped him escape by putting him over the wall in a basket.

Paul’s point is that his message and ministry must have come from God because the people he used to work for in Damascus…

…now wanted to kill him because he was preaching the Gospel they had tried to destroy!

C) Paul went to Jerusalem

Finally Paul did go to Jerusalem as he notes in vs. 18-19…

“Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. “

Luke adds to the account by telling us that Paul was not immediately welcomed into the Church!

Acts 9:26 And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.

Acts 9:27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

Paul’s point, which Luke confirms is that if his message and ministry had been from the Apostles then he would have been welcomed with open arms!

But Paul didn’t receive his call to be an apostle from the men in Jerusalem…

…his calling was from the Lord Himself and that’s why the Church didn’t initially receive him.

You see the apostles last memory of Paul was when he participated in the arrest, trial and execution of Stephen, a leader from their church!

They weren’t buying into his conversion story until they could confirm that it was true.

Once Barnabus was able to introduce Paul to the other apostles then they were able to test his doctrine and concluded that he had in fact been commissioned by the Lord.

D) Paul went to Tarsus

Paul’s last proof that his message and ministry were given to him by Jesus and not from Man was that he preached the message Jesus gave him in places that none of the others had yet gone.

Gal. 1:21 Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Gal. 1:22 And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.

Gal. 1:23 But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.”

Gal. 1:24 And they glorified God in me.

If you follow Paul’s life as recorded in the book of Acts you’ll discover that he had to leave Jerusalem for the same reason he had to leave Damascus…

…the Jews who used to be his friends and employers now wanted to kill him!

So, his new friends got him safely out of Jerusalem.

Then Paul made his way back to his hometown of Tarsus in modern-day Turkey.

By comparing the accounts recorded here and in Acts we discover that Paul preached his way home and helped to establish churches in Syria and Tarsus.

His point is that this all came about during the time that the apostles in Jerusalem weren’t actively taking the Gospel outside of Israel.

So, Paul’s unlikely course proves that he didn’t invent the Gospel of Grace on his own, nor was he taught it by any man…

…rather, he received directly from Jesus who gave it to Paul that he might preach it as an ambassador and apostle of Christ.

Ex. Spirit led

The growth spurt of Calvary Chapel since 1994.

Close

Ap. Called through His Grace

Beware of the modern-day Judaizers!

Just as in Paul’s day there are those who want to mix law and grace and place you under a burden that you’ll never be able to carry!

What’s interesting is that you’ll find that they like the false teachers in Paul’s day will deny Paul’s authority!

Ex. Guy at the NW Medical in Springdale

He claimed that salvation is only to those whose righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and that we have to practice the Law.

He rejected all of Paul’s writings and said that they were not scripture and only acknowledged the “red letters” and the words of the real apostles (like Peter).

Much to the relief of the poor hospital volunteers I silenced him with Peter’s words…

2Pet. 3:15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,

2Pet. 3:16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

I pointed out that Peter equated Paul’s epistles “scripture”!

That was the end of our conversation.

So, beware of anyone or any group that rejects the calling and message of Paul…

…for he received them both from the Lord Jesus Himself!

Ap. How about you?

Is your life a radical testimony of God’s Grace?