The Gospel not from Man - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Galatians 1:11-24, Paul continues his defense of his own credibility to drive home to the Galatians the truth and the importance of the gospel that he had preached to them, given to him by God.
Transcript:
If I told you that King Charles III loves Five Guys Burgers and Fries, would you believe me? Yeah, perhaps you would, since I'm your pastor and you suppose I've done some serious research on the King's diet. Let's suppose in the wake of this sermon, Prince William held a press conference tomorrow issuing the statement that King Charles despises burgers all together. Who would you likely believe? Me or the prince? The prince? Yeah, the prince, of course. Yeah, you would reasonably believe William has actually discussed this with his father, whereas I would just be depending on some court reporter at best. Some sources have more authority than I do. The occasion of Paul's letter to the Galatians is a confrontation.
He is writing them because they have abandoned the true gospel for a false gospel. The text reveals that the heart of this controversy apparently stems from the fact that the Galatians doubt Paul's authority when it comes to the gospel. As we'll see later on, some others have come along who have cast doubt on Paul.
Perhaps suggesting that he is pawning a half gospel, or a mutated gospel. Not the real deal. So, if you were Paul in this situation, and people were doubting your authority, what would you do?
You'd make a defense, right? You would defend your authority. You'd defend your standing as an authoritative source for the gospel message. This is precisely what Paul does in the remainder of chapter 1. And so today, we're going to focus on that. He, that defense actually carries into chapter two, but today we're going to focus on chapter one because it gives us a good chance to slow down and acquaint ourselves with Paul.
Who is he? Why should we and the Galatians listen to him? So we first look at verses 11 through 16. They were just read. What should stand out to us is what he says in verses 11- 12. This is really the heart of everything we're looking at today. He says, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preach is not of human origin.
I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. That's the heart of the matter. Paul's saying, I didn't come up with this. This is not something of my own devising. It comes from God. It comes from the revelation that I've received directly from Jesus Christ.
Now, this is an interesting claim amongst the claims of the other disciples. Because, Paul, Is a late comer to the story. If you were here on Easter, you heard me preach on first Corinthians 15. First few verses of that chapter talking about the witness of the apostles to Christ's resurrection. And so you'll remember that Paul says this regarding himself. So he says in 1 Corinthians 15:7-10, he said, Then he, Jesus, appeared to James and then to all the apostles. And last of all, He appeared to me also as to one abnormally born. When he says abnormally born, he doesn't mean like he came out like in an unusual shape or something like that.
It's just as one who was born kind of lately, to the faith. He says, for I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle. It's not because he's late. But because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. So Paul is, possesses a certain degree of humility in his stature as an apostle, but it's not because he came late. It's because of who he was before. Unlike the apostles who walked with Jesus during his ministry for three years, Paul comes after the fact.
Paul arrives on the scene after Jesus lived, died, was resurrected, and ascended. And what we learn is that, in fact, Paul was antagonistic towards Christians and was persecuting them. Now, as Paul says here in Galatians, he was a very religious Jew. He was someone who was extremely zealous, and zeal is characterized very often positively in the scripture, but Paul's zeal was misguided.
And yet, he says that God set him apart, in order that the Son would be revealed in him, and so that Paul would preach to the Gentiles, that he would bring the gospel to everyone who is a non Jew, to the rest of the world, basically. So, in order to really appreciate Paul's story and where he's come from, it would benefit us to go to kind of the primary account that's offered of that.
And we find that in the Acts of the Apostles written by Luke. So we turn to Acts 22. And here, Paul is speaking in Jerusalem. There's a mob of Jews who want to see him dead. And he's basically making a defense. And he's beginning his defense by offering his story. So he says this. I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.
I studied under Gamaliel. And was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the council can themselves testify.
I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. So the first thing to just kind of notice here is, like, Paul was a very seriously religious Jew. He was basically under the training of one of the top leading Pharisees of that day, Gamaliel.
And Gamaliel appears earlier in Acts of the Apostles when, The Sanhedrin drags Peter and the rest of the apostles before them because they're preaching the gospel and they want them to stop and they don't really know what to do with them because they don't really have the authority just to kill these guys, and, Gamaliel stands up and just says, let's just play this out.
Let's see what happens. If God's against them, then they'll fail. If God's for them, then, well, we shouldn't touch them. So a Gamaliel was a very well respected Jewish scholar of that day, the fact that he could persuade the entire Sanhedrin to let the apostles go. And Paul was one of his students.
But unlike Gamaliel, who had a softer hand, Paul was very insistent about persecuting the Christians. And he relates there about how he sought to imprison them. We actually see him on the scene when the first Christian is martyred for the faith. Stephen, who was a deacon in the early church, was stoned by a mob, and Paul is standing nearby, holding their coats.
Now, just as a little aside, so you're not confused as we're going along in the story, Paul's name was originally Saul. And later on, as he goes along in his ministry to the Gentiles, he becomes known as the name is Paul. We're not exactly certain why that change is made, but it's a kind of a helpful distinction, kind of a before and after.
Before he was known as Saul, later as he's come to Christ he's known as Paul. So continuing on in verse 6, Paul says, About noon, as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord?
I asked. I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting, he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. What shall I do, Lord? I asked. Get up, the Lord said, and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
So, Paul's on his way to Damascus, he's going to get him some Christians, throw them into jail, and he's confronted by Jesus in this, by this blinding light, and this voice, and Jesus tells him, you've been persecuting me. And the interesting thing about that, of course, is that, well, Jesus hasn't been there in person for Paul to be, like, nailing him to a cross or something like that, but Paul has been persecuting the church.
And so, by extension, because the church is the body of Christ, he has been persecuting Jesus himself. And as a result of this encounter, he's been blinded, and so he's on his way to Damascus to figure out what in the world is going on, because this was the last thing he was expecting. Now we get a little bit of a kind of behind the scenes look at what God exactly intends for Paul when we switch over to Acts 9.
In the city of Damascus there is a Christian named Ananias and God speaks to Ananias basically saying, You need to go to Saul, to Paul and tell him what I want you to tell him. And Ananias is like, whoa, this is the guy that's killing us. Why would I go to him? But, in verse 15, the Lord says to him, Go!
Don't question me. Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. So there's kind of a sort of irony here about how Paul has been causing great suffering to those who confess the name of Jesus Christ.
Now God is calling Paul and he's going to have to suffer greatly for that same name himself on this mission to proclaim the gospel to the rest of the world, to the non Jewish world. We swivel back over to Acts 22. Kind of Paul's point of view here. He says in verse 12, A man named Ananias came to see me.
He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very moment I was able to see him. Then he said, The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the righteous one and to hear words from his mouth.
And you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name. So Paul does that. He's, he's baptized, he's converted. I bold those words there because it relates directly to what Paul's saying here in Galatians that the God of our ancestors has chosen you to know as well and to see the righteous one and to hear words from his mouth.
Paul really did have an encounter with Jesus Christ. And really, this is the only thing that could account for the fact that he would go from persecuting Christians to being a great apostle for the Christians, for the gospel. And he's told that he is set apart. He's set apart. And this, this harkens back to what we find in the prophets.
Paul understands himself to be set apart, and in Jeremiah 1, verses 4 through 10, this is what God says to the prophet Jeremiah, he says, The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
Alas, Sovereign Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak. I am too young. But the Lord said to me, do not say I'm too young, you must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, I put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant. So Paul's very much following kind of in the pattern of the prophet of Jeremiah.
God has set him apart for this purpose of speaking to the nations, to speaking to the kings of the Gentiles, and testifying to the truth of the gospel. Now, the reason that Paul emphasizes this, all of this, his story, is that he wants the Galatians to realize the gospel he preached came directly from Christ himself.
He wasn't instructed at the feet of the other apostles about the gospel. It wasn't as though he was their student. So continuing on in verse 17, we're back in Galatians 1. Paul says, I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later, I returned to Damascus.
Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas. And that's just another name for Peter. Cephas, Peter. And stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you, before God, that what I am writing you is no lie. And I went to Syria and Cilicia.
I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report, the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they praise God because of me. So the first thing that might probably raise your curiosity is wondering, Paul went to Arabia?
Like, maybe that's news to some of you, you didn't realize that Paul went to Arabia. Well he did. And we ask, well why? We're not really given a complete explanation here. We can assume that part of it was just to contemplate the gospel revelation that he had received. Maybe he had more experiences in communication with Christ, we can also suppose that maybe he engaged in some form of preaching.
When it says Arabia, we shouldn't think the lower part of the peninsula back here, kind of like that's what we usually think about when we think about Arabia today. pictured there in kind of bold is actually the kingdom of Nabatea. Which would have also been considered Arabia during that time. So he didn't go that far away, but he went to kind of some wilder, more desert sort, sort of parts of the land and, spent time contemplating, perhaps sharing the faith.
We do know that he did share the faith, share the gospel in Damascus and that that caused problems for him. So that he eventually had to flee Damascus, and that's what eventually brought him to Jerusalem, but it didn't bring him to Jerusalem until three years later. So there's quite a bit of a gap there.
Sometimes we kind of compress the timeline here, but we have a number of years playing out here before Paul actually makes contact with the Apostles. Now we have an account of that occasion back in Acts 9. So in Acts 9 verses 26- 30, this is Luke's account here, he's saying, When he, Paul, came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was really a disciple.
Can't blame them, I think most of us would be a little nervous. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord, and that the Lord had spoken to him. And how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.
He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. So Paul has this encounter with the apostles. He's preaching in Jerusalem. He has problems while he's in Jerusalem, though, because the people are very resistant to his message, and they try to get him killed.
I mean, talk about the tables turning here. Now Paul's preaching this message. Now he's the one on the run. And he's not in Jerusalem all that long, because recall that what he says back in Galatians 1 is that he only was there for like 15 days. He spent 15 days with Peter. He saw James. He didn't see everyone.
He wasn't there long enough to learn a whole lot from them, if that's supposedly what the Galatians are thinking, that he got all his information from them. He was there for just a short while and the persecution basically put an end to the visit. Now, it's interesting though, before he leaves and we just have a little map here for us that kind of shows where he's going to go from Jerusalem up back to his hometown of Tarsus.
But before he ends up fleeing Jerusalem, he has this visionary experience, and sometimes it's tough for us to piece the timeline together here, so these are the kinds of details that can kind of fall off our radar here in terms of understanding Paul's story, but he's gone to Jerusalem, and he has this visionary experience in the temple.
In Acts 22, he says, verse 17, when I returned to Jerusalem, and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw the Lord speaking to me. Quick, he said, leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me. Lord, I replied, these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you.
And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval in guarding the clothes of those who were killing him. Then the Lord said to me, go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles. So Paul's praying in the temple. He has this vision with once again, he's talking with Jesus. Not a usual experience the rest of us have. You know, we can pray and we say, yes, I'm talking with Jesus. But Paul is having a literal encounter with Jesus here once again. And Jesus is telling him to leave Jerusalem. This is a lot for Paul to wrap his mind around because he's like, wouldn't I be the perfect person to be speaking here in Jerusalem?
I was zealous for the law. I was persecuting the Christians. And now I've been converted. Shouldn't that be persuasive to everyone? That's basically what he's saying here. That's why he's relating his whole story here in his conversation with Jesus. He's like, shouldn't I stay? But whatever seems wise in Paul's eyes is not what is in God's plan for him.
And that's why Jesus insists, no, I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Because Paul's primary mission, even while he is going to speak to the Jewish people in the course of his mission he travels, and very often he starts at the local synagogue. All the same, though, his mission that's been given to him by God is to welcome in non Jewish people into the faith, to bring them to God in Jesus Christ.
Now, so we've, Paul had this encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. He's had this encounter with him in the temple and we see elsewhere that Paul gives indications that he's had these sort of revelatory experiences. We look at, and that's just show, that's just showing once again, the map that he goes up to Tarsus.
But we see in second Corinthians 12, he says, I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained. I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ, and Paul's talking about himself kind of in the third person here. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.
Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. I know that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, but God knows, was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things. Things that no one is permitted to tell. It's a very kind of mysterious experience that Paul had here.
But it seems clear that Paul was given special access by God to Jesus Christ and these experiences that he had. So we shouldn't think that the only experience that Paul had was on the road to Damascus. That's the most famous one. But that's not the only encounter. That's not the only revelation that he received in communication with Christ.
So, Paul's claims about this direct revelation also line up with his experience. He's received this revelation that he's to go and preach to the Gentiles. And what we find is that the doors continue to open for him to actually pursue that ministry away from the Jewish mainland, away from Judea. Now we look to Acts 11, and it's interesting, we kind of find out what's going on in the background here in terms of how the ground's being developed for Paul's ministry to begin in full.
Well It says there, now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. So the Christians are being persecuted and that kind of forces them out. They're compelled to go out to the rest of the Mediterranean because of the persecution that's happening, but they're only focusing on the Jews.
Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand with them, was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.
So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. That's an interesting little trivia question. You're doing a Christian trivia question, and that's, they were first called Christians in Antioch. Before that, they were just simply called followers of the way.
Now, it's, it's interesting to see how things develop. Again, initially the gospel was really only being preached to the Jewish people. Now, why? Was it that they were biased against the Gentile people? Not exactly. It was, it was that Jesus was understood to be the Messiah. He was the promised king of the Jews that had come, the promised savior.
And so it was immediately recognizable how this was relevant to the Jewish people. But the early church was only slowly beginning to comprehend that the scope of this exceeded far beyond the Jewish people. And that God's intent was to encompass the whole world. And so kind of ground zero for this development, even though it was happening elsewhere, we see Peter going to the house of Cornelius and we see things happening in Judea, but kind of the ground zero for the Gentile church is the church in Antioch.
And as things develop there, Barnabas goes and grabs Saul from Tarsus and it says, you got to come with me here. And so you have Saul, Paul and Barnabas together in Antioch teaching and it's in Antioch that we then see Paul and Barnabas get launched out on this on their first missionary journey that really kicks off the rest of Paul's life.
So in Acts 13 Luke tells us now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menaen, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barambas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. So once again, we see testimony to the fact that Paul has been set apart for this work of going to the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit now is testifying to this. And so they're commissioned to go by the church on this mission, when we look further on in the chapter, we have kind of the first instance of that.
Now, this isn't obviously the first time that Paul has preached, because he's preached many times before. But as far as I can tell, this is the first recorded words that we have from him and the substance of his gospel can be found here in verses 38 and 39 of Acts 13. And he says, therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus.
The forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin. A justification you are not able to obtain under the law of Moses. That's Paul's gospel. That pretty much sets it for the rest of his ministry. The idea is that you're not able to justify yourself by good works, by being a good person, by trying to uphold the law of Moses.
Under that law, everyone's condemned because everyone falls short. The only way that a person can be saved is by placing their faith in Jesus Christ as the fully sufficient sacrifice for our sins. He atones for what we've done wrong. He justifies us so that we're forgiven of our sins and we're also liberated from sin so that we can begin to lead a new life So now, continuing on in this passage, this is the Gospel Paul's preaching.
It says, When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying, and heaped abuse on him. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly, We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it, and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
For this is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord. And all who were appointed for eternal life believed. So the Jews that were hearing Paul preach, they were getting jealous because they were recognizing the ramifications here, that Paul was extending welcome to the non Jewish people. And when they refused to accept the message, Paul says, all right, that's fine. We were, it is incumbent upon us to go to you first to bring you this news. But now we turn to the Gentiles and here Paul links his commission with the prophetic word that was given by God. He, he offers a quote here.
He says. For the Lord has commanded us, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. So we ask, well, what is he quoting? What prophet is he quoting? He's quoting the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 49, verses 5 through 6. And once again, this is just incredible because you read this passage and it sounds like something that they probably wrote in the era of the New Testament, but it was written 700 years before, which just testifies to the reality.
That Jesus is truly the Messiah. So it says there, now the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength. He says it is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. That's an incredible passage because as far as the Jews were concerned, the Messiah was only for them. At best, the Messiah was going to come and bring back the Jewish people to Israel because of the persecutions that they had suffered, they had been kind of cast to the four winds.
So yes, the Messiah is going to come, he's going to rise, bring the Jewish people back. But notice what God says here. He says, and this is the suffering servant here. The Messiah, the one who is to come. He says, that's too small of a thing for you. There's something more in store for you. That, in fact, you're going to be a light for the Gentiles.
That the salvation, that my salvation would reach the ends of the earth. And that's exactly what we see going on in the New Testament era. In the era of the early church, and it continues today as we seek to bring the gospel message to the ends of the earth. Now, there is a bit of a question here, though, because I've just been talking about how Jesus fulfills this.
And yet, Paul seems to be suggesting here that he is, he and Barnabas are fulfilling this prophecy. So, how we should understand this is that Paul and Barnabas are part of the fulfillment. They've been added to the body of Christ. They are members of the body of Christ. And so by extension of Christ, they are contributing to the fulfillment of this prophecy.
In fact, we can say the same thing of ourselves, collectively. So we see in the Gospel of John, in John 1, it talks about how Jesus is the light of the world. The Word Incarnate. He's the light of the world. But then when we go to Matthew 5, we see how Jesus talks about how his disciples are the light of the world.
It says in Matthew 5, verses 14 through 16, You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works.
And glorify your father in heaven. So in fact, this passage in Isaiah 49, yes, it is anchored and ultimately, precisely fulfilled in Jesus. But by extension, Paul and Barnabas, in fact, everyone that's participating, anyone who's a disciple of Jesus Christ is part of this fulfillment of bringing the gospel to all people.
Isn't that wonderful that all of us have a part in the fulfillment of God's prophetic word, but especially Paul, because he broke open the door here that had been kind of sealed off. They were very hesitant of reaching out to the non Jewish people. So Paul did have a special role to play, but all of us collectively are to be shining this light of the gospel to all people.
Now, the fact that the Judean churches praise God for Paul's work, though they had not met him, that perhaps testifies to the fact that they were basically indicating by their praise that they approved of his work among the Gentiles. Maybe that's not what Paul is suggesting here, but it seems like maybe that's the case.
At the very least, the fact that he had not spent prolonged time among those churches or with the apostles testifies to the fact that his knowledge of the gospel was received from Jesus Christ himself. Paul's testimony has equal standing among all the apostles. His testimony points all the more to the divine authority backing the gospel message.
Because how else can we explain his story? How else could it be that a man who is a zealous pupil of the Pharisees, who breathed murder, who wished to wipe Christians off the earth, should suddenly become a vigorous proponent of the gospel. Nothing would lead us to expect this. Paul had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
His encounter with Jesus Christ on the Damascus road changed everything. He was struck blind so that he might finally see. What followed was not a life of a crazed madness, as though like Paul just simply lost his mind. A fellow who had a mental breakdown. No. What emerged was a man who was liberated by Jesus Christ.
And who would travel the Mediterranean, teaching in countless synagogues. Who stood before kings, faced down the pagan idols and acquitted himself before the wisdom of Athens. Paul's defense of his authority to the Galatians also explains how he did any of it. It was not by his own genius. He tells us, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preach is not of human origin.
I do not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. The gospel is too incredible for human ingenuity. It exceeds human conspiracy. It can only be explained by a divine conspiracy. That over the course of thousands of years of human rebellion and failure, God would nonetheless lay the stepping stones to reveal his Son who would be the Savior.
Not just of the Jews. But of the entire world, for anyone who would turn to him in faith. Paul believed because he could not deny what he had seen, what he had heard, what must be told, though all the world reject him. He says this, Jews demand signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.
A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Paul's gospel is our gospel. Its authority does not wait upon human approval.
It's origin is from God, not man. It's truth rests in Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
Father, as we considered Paul's testimony here, we are so struck by his confidence. The confidence he has in the message that he preaches. And father, We can see that it's a confidence that's not born because he thinks he's the greatest. He testifies himself, Father, that he's the least, that he's, he didn't deserve to be called because he was a persecutor of the faith.
Father, we see that his confidence comes from the fact that the message that he preaches is the truth, because it was not muddled together by any human mind. But because the gospel is a reality which was revealed to him. The reality that Jesus Christ is alive. That Jesus Christ is the Savior. And that anyone who turns to him in faith will be saved.
So Father, we pray this morning that you would give us that confidence in the gospel message. Thank you so much that, though people disapprove of it, maybe they push back against it, we would stand firm because we know that is the reality of things. Because Jesus has proven it by his teaching, by his life, by his death, by his resurrection.
Help us to hold fast to that message, Father, we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series through the letter to the Galatians. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)