The lutheransermons's Podcast

Study of Galatians Part 4 - Galatians 1:15-2:10

Last week, we heard Paul explaining that he had become a believer and was called to preach purely by the “grace” of God, through “a revelation of Jesus Christ” Himself. Previously, he had been “extremely zealous for the traditions of his Jewish fathers” and had therefore been persecuting Christian churches because they were not doing everything the Law and precepts commanded. Then God “was pleased to reveal His Son” to Paul, so that he might preach Him (Christ) as Savior, among the Gentiles” (Galatians 1:12-16).

Christ’s own revelation was key for Paul. He “did not immediately consult with anyone (Galatians 1:16). He did not even go to Jerusalem to talk with the apostles. Rather, he “went away into Arabia” for a time (we know nothing more about this) and then back to Damascus. There, we are told in Acts 9:20-22, he was “proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues, as the Son of God” and “proving that Jesus was the Christ.” He increased in strength and spent “many days” doing this preaching until “Jewish people plotted to kill Him” and he had to escape (Acts 9:23-24).

It was not until three years after his conversion to faith that Paul went to Jerusalem and met with Cephas (Peter) for 15 days. He met none of the other apostles but James, the brother of the Lord. He told this in his letter very emphatically, saying, “In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!” Then Paul went to regions of Syria and Cilicia.

He was still unknown in person by the churches in Judea, though people had heard of him and that “the one who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they “glorified God” because of what Paul was now doing (Galatians 1:18-24).

Paul does not mention it in his letter, but at some point he was back in Jerusalem and then had to flee again because some Greek-speaking Jews wanted to kill him. He was then sent off to his hometown of Tarsus, where some think he spent about eight years. (See Acts 9:29-30.)

We know very little about this part of Paul’s life. He was surely sharing his new faith in Christ, but he may have spent a lot of time studying the Old Testament and the many prophecies about Jesus and having his faith strengthened by the Lord. In other letters, he often mentioned revelations from Christ Himself, many of which may have come during that period of time, since he had not had the chance to learn directly from Jesus during His public ministry. Some think that Paul also learned his tent-making skills during this time, which he used to help support himself at times during his later ministry.

We do know from the Book of Acts that at some point a Christian worker, Barnabas, went to Tarsus to look for Saul (Paul) and brought him to Antioch, in Syria, where they carried on a strong ministry, blessed by the Lord, and where “the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:25-26). Prophets also predicted a “great famine” coming. The disciples gathered funds, and Barnabas and Saul delivered these gifts to people in Judea (Acts 11:27-30).

It might be that what Paul described in Galatians 2:1-10 happened during this visit to Jerusalem. In verse one, we hear that Paul and Barnabas were there, along with Titus, a Greek person who had become a Christian also. Paul mentioned a “revelation” and that likely was the one described in Acts 11 about the “famine” and the need to bring help to the poor, struggling people in Judea. This was also a chance for Paul finally to meet in a “private way” with some of the “influential” leaders who were “pillars” of the church in Jerusalem. He wanted to assure them that he was not off track or “running in vain” in his “proclamation of the Gospel among the Gentiles” (Galatians 2:2).

In Galatians 2:6-9, we hear that those leaders, James (the brother of Jesus) and Cephas (Peter) and John the Apostle “had nothing to add” to what Saul was preaching. “On the contrary,” they were excited about “the grace” of God given to him to preach “to the uncircumcised, to Gentiles,” while they were called to focus upon Jews (the circumcised). They all had an “apostolic ministry” - but with a primary focus on different groups of people.

They only asked Saul to be sure to “remember the poor,” as well, which he was already doing in his ministry. Many times we see Saul (soon to be called Paul, most of the time) bringing up in his letters the importance of helping the needy in this way (Galatians 2:10). And, of course, both Paul and the other apostles shared the Good News of Jesus with everyone they could, Jew or Gentile, as they had opportunity.

In all that he wrote, then, at the beginning of this letter to the Galatians, Paul was emphasizing that he was not preaching a “man’s” Gospel, but what he had learned from Christ and His Word. He had actually had little contact with the most famous apostles, and when he did talk with them, they agreed with what he was saying and preaching. He was preaching the truth, unlike the false teachers who had come later and so upset the Galatians with their additional Jewish rules and regulations that they claimed that Christian believers also had to follow.

As we will see, one of those “regulations” of the false teachers was the need for every male believer to be “circumcised.” So, Paul also included one important detail of his visit with the leaders in Jerusalem, back in Galatians 2:3-5. Titus, who was Greek, a Gentile, a non-Jew, but now a believing Christian, was with them. Greeks and Romans and many other Gentile men were never circumcised. Titus was not, and none of the leaders brought this up and tried to “force” Titus to be circumcised. It was not necessary in the new “freedom” of the Gospel in Christ. The apostles and Paul all knew that, as they had learned the Good News of Christ, from Him and through the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:3).

Sadly, even then there were some “false brothers” around who wanted to put Christians into “slavery” to additional rules and regulations, as necessary for salvation. They must have been troubling Titus and others, for Paul said that "to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved for you” - that salvation is a gift, given purely by God’s grace apart from our works or efforts and is received simply by the gift of faith that God works in us (Galatians 2:4-5).

The pressure is still great to make salvation dependent upon faith plus various other works we must do. Paul gave one more example that we will look at next week in Galatians 2:11-14, where even Cephas (Peter) backed down and acted in a hypocritical way on this issue. The rest of this Letter to the Galatians is about this very issue.

May the Lord open our eyes to be clear about why this teaching is so important and why Lutherans have said that this is the key teaching about Christ on which we and the church stand or fall.

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost - June 26, 2022

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Pentecost, based on:

1 Kings 17:17-24

Galatians 1:11-24        

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon originally delivered June 9, 2013

Preparing for Worship - June 26, 2022

The Scripture readings for this 3rd Sunday after Pentecost have to do with ongoing commitment to the Lord, as He leads us on the path of life eternal. The Psalm is Psalm 16. King David knew that he had “no good apart from the Lord.” He knew “the sorrows of those who run after another god.” He prays that the Lord would “give him counsel” and “instruct him” and be “at his right hand.” David even gives prophetic words that were eventually fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. (See Acts 2:25ff.) Only in the Lord is “the path of life.”

The Old Testament lesson is 1 Kings 19:9-21. Queen Jezebel vowed to kill the prophet Elijah, and he had run away to Mount Horeb (Mt. Sinai) in great fear. God appeared to him in two powerful ways, but then with “a low whisper,” assuring him that He would judge evil and was preserving other believers who had not bowed down to false gods. God also gave Elijah another prophet, Elisha, as a successor - though Elisha had trouble following him right away.

The Epistle lesson is Galatians 5:1, 13-25. Paul reminds us that we have freedom in Christ, but a freedom by which to help and serve others, not to “gratify the desires of our sinful nature, our sinful flesh.” Paul then describes some of the “works of the sinful flesh,” which are dangerous to us and others, and could even cut us off from the “Kingdom of God,” if we keep on and on doing them. Instead, the Lord wants to produce in us “the fruit of the Spirit,” which Paul also describes. God has already brought us to new “life” in Christ by the Holy Spirit. He calls us also to keep walking by the Spirit’s guidance and in His ways, by His power.

The Gospel lesson is from Luke 9:51-62. Jesus was headed to Jerusalem, for He had just predicted (Luke 9:22) that he would suffer and die and rise again there. He went in mercy and love for people, including Samaritans who were rejecting Him; and He rebuked His own disciples for wanting to destroy the Samaritans. He wanted “followers,” but not those who would just say in an emotional moment that they would follow Him anywhere, or those who kept looking back to past people and past events. Family and friends were still important, based on other Scriptures, but Jesus and His way was a transforming way that meant sacrifice, but also new life and new joy in trusting Him.

The Old Testament lesson for people at St. James, Lafayette, is the alternative, Exodus 12:1-13, the story of the Passover Lamb. God was going to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt and to a new life in a Promised Land. The escape involved the sacrifice of a lamb, which would protect them, and judgment for their enemies; and they were to were trust the Lord and be ready, at any moment, to leave and be rescued. This event was prophetic of the coming sacrifice of Jesus, God’s own Son and “the Lamb of God, Who would take away the sin of the whole world” (John 1:29) - as Jesus also predicted in our Gospel lesson.

Study of Galatians Part 3 - Galatians 1:1-10-16

Last week we heard Paul’s strong emphasis upon the truth of salvation coming simply by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, “who gave Himself for our sins.” Paul also warned that anyone who taught otherwise should be accursed, for there was only one true Gospel, which he had already brought to them (Galatians 1:1-9).

Beginning with verse 10, Paul reminded the churches of Galatia that he was not trying to please any other human beings, but to please God, as His servant. This is what God had called him to do. (See Acts 4:18-20 and Acts 5:28-29. Like Peter and John and the other apostles, Paul was not preaching “man’s Gospel,” but “a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:10-12)).

Paul was different from those original apostles in that he did not learn directly from Jesus during His three years of public ministry on this earth. In fact, Paul had been raised in Judaism and was very anti-Christian, rejecting Jesus as “Lord and Savior and the promised Messiah.” By his Jewish name, Saul, he had “persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it” (Galatians 1:13, Acts 8:1,3, Acts 9:1-2). He did this because he believed strongly in the ways of Judaism and was far beyond others of his own age in his “extreme zeal” for “the traditions of his Jewish fathers” (Acts 1:14). That meant that he followed not only the Old Testament, but the teaching of later Jewish leaders who went far beyond what the Old Testament said. That included the teacher Gamaliel. (See Acts 5:34 and Acts 22:3-4.)

Paul was headed in this extreme Jewish direction, but God had a different plan for him. God had “set him apart before he was born” (literally, “from his mother’s womb”) and then “called him by His grace” on the road to Damascus to be a believer and servant of Christ (Galatians 1:15, Acts 9:3-19). (Paul told this story two more times in the Book of Acts in 22:3-21 and 26:9-20 and briefly in other places, because his coming to faith in Jesus as His Savior and being called to share this Good News with others was so important for his life.)

Note also that Paul was using language that was used by other prophets, including Isaiah in the Old Testament. See Isaiah 49:1,5, and this whole section from Isaiah 49:1-13. These verses are not just about Isaiah’s work, but go beyond as a prophecy of our Lord Jesus and His calling and being “formed from the womb” to be our Servant Savior. See how part of Isaiah 49:8 is quoted in 2 Corinthians 6:2 with reference to Jesus and His saving and reconciling work in 2 Corinthians 5, in “a day of salvation.” So, Isaiah and Jesus and Paul were set apart and called by God “from the womb” even before they were born. They were important to God even while still in the womb, as living persons.

(This is a key Biblical idea to remember in these days when many are trying to defend the “right” to an abortion, no matter what. Paul’s life was a real human life, already in the womb, as God “set him apart” even then.)

Paul told all this to emphasize that he, too, was chosen by God to be an apostle and later on specifically called by God’s grace, and Christ Jesus was revealed directly to him, and gave him what he needed to know “to preach Him, Christ, among the Gentiles" (Galatians 1:15-16). And in all this, Paul was telling the Galatian believers that he had told them what was the true Word of God, revealed by Christ Himself to Paul. He was telling them the truth from Christ, unlike the false teachers who had come later on with their own ideas.

This is something that Paul spoke about, again and again, in his preaching and writing. (See passages like 1 Thessalonians 2:13 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. This is the claim of all the Biblical writers. See 2 Timothy 3:14-17. We can have confidence in what we read from Paul in Galatians and from all the Scriptures and especially about the central teaching - that we have “salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”)

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost - June 19, 2022

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Pentecost, based on:

1 Kings 8:22-24, 27-29, 41-13

Galatians 1:1-12         

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon originally delivered June 2, 2013

Preparing for Worship - June 19, 2022

This is the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost. The psalm is Psalm 3, a psalm of David. David had been overthrown as king by his own son, Absalom, and Absalom now wanted to capture David and eliminate him as a threat to him. David knew that “many” were out after him, but trusted that the Lord would be his “shield” and help him. He was able to live without much fear and to sleep at night, knowing that “salvation belongs to the Lord” and that the Lord would ultimately bless His people and prays that he, David, would be saved, too.

The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 65:1-9. This is a lesson of judgment and grace, with both Law and Gospel. God condemns His own people, because they have been rebellious, with many actions that were not good, provoking God to His face very openly. Many of the things God lists have to do with the worship of false gods and goddesses and getting involved in occult activities, with secret rituals and attempts to consult the dead in tombs. (See Isaiah 8:19, for example.) Even with so much evil, many of the people still felt that they were superior and holier than others. God promised judgment upon their sins, their iniquities. At the same time, God promised to have mercy upon some of God’s people in Judah and Jerusalem and to spare them, so that His promises might be fulfilled for all.

In the Epistle lesson, Galatians 3:23-4:7, Paul says that Old Testament people were held captive and imprisoned by the Law of God, as a kind of guardian, seeking to keep them under control until the promised Savior, Christ Jesus, came and justified all people by the gift of faith in His saving work. Now, all people can be children of God by faith and the gift of baptism and be counted as offspring of Abraham and heirs of His promises, through Christ, who came to be the Redeemer of all.

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 8:26-39, Jesus showed that He had come for all people, by traveling to the area of the Gerasenes, where there were many Gentiles (non-Jews) mixed in with some Jews. Jesus healed one of the Gerasenes who had been possessed by a legion of evil spirits and brought him to faith. The evil spirits then went into pigs and caused all of them to drown. The Gerasenes were frightened by the power of Jesus and the economic loss of their pigs and asked Jesus to leave them. The man who was healed went around, though, telling everyone he could about what Jesus had done for him.

Members of St. James should note the alternative Old Testament reading they will hear, Genesis 22:1-14. God had called Abraham to be the father of a new nation, God’s chosen people of Israel. Then God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Abraham trusted God and prepared to do this, but God stopped him and provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac. This story is prophetic of the coming of God’s only Son, Jesus, from the line of Abraham. Jesus would be the substitute who would die for the sins of the world instead of Abraham’s son and in place of us, too. We can now be forgiven through faith in Him. This is another important step in God’s plan of salvation, working its way through the Old Testament, for the benefit of all people.

Study of Galatians Part 2 - Galatians 1:1-9

This letter begins in the normal way for a letter in ancient times. The author - in this case, Paul - identifies himself first (Galatians 1:1), and then identifies the people to whom this letter is addressed: “To the churches of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2). (Remember that letters were normally written on a parchment scroll, which was rolled down from the top to the bottom. It made sense to indicate the author and the recipients at the very beginning, so that people could quickly tell to whom the letter was addressed.) In Biblical letters, there was usually also a brief blessing from God and word of encouragement and praise of the Lord (Galatians 1:3-5).

In this case, Paul also adds in verse 1 that he is an apostle (someone “sent out” on a mission from God) and tells briefly how he became an apostle. He does this and will write much more about being an apostle as the letter goes on. Last week, in the introduction, we heard that he and Barnabas had established Christian churches in the Roman province of Galatia. Then, false teachers came after he had left and challenged the validity of Paul as an apostle and the truth of the good news, the Gospel of Christ that he brought.

Paul wrote this letter, then, to defend himself and his message, but especially to correct the bad teachings that the Galatians had heard and to get them back on track with the truth in Christ and how one can actually be saved. He began by saying that he was an apostle - “not from men or through man,” but “through Jesus Christ” Himself “and God the Father,” who has all power and “raised Jesus from the dead” (Galatians 1:1). God had made him an apostle and he simply shared God’s message; and Paul also wrote with the support of “all the brothers” in the Christian faith “who were with him,” and taught the ideas of all true believers, and not his own ideas (Galatians 1:2).

Paul then gave a prayer of blessing to the Galatian believers, but in the process reminded them very simply from where and how these blessings came. Paul wished first for the Galatians: “Grace to you.” “Grace” means a “gift,” undeserved and unearned, that simply comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, out of love and mercy and concern for people.

Paul also prayed for the gift of “peace” for these Galatians. In the Bible, “peace” does not mean absence of war and conflict for people, but well-being when we are at peace with God and have His care and help because of what He has done for us (Galatians 1:3). What has God done for us? Again, Paul put it very simply. God the Father sent His Son, “the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.”

Every part of the Son’s name is important. The Son is “Lord.” This is a key Old Testament name for God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Philippians 2:5-11). The Son is God. He has the power to “deliver us from the evil of sin and Satan and death. He is also “Jesus.” The name “Jesus” means “Savior” (Matthew 1:21). He gave His life for us on the cross “for our sins” - to pay the penalty for them all and forgive them all. The Son is also “the Christ.” He is the One promised from God, the One “anointed” by God the Father to do all this saving work for us (Mark 8:27-31). This was all “according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4). This was His plan to rescue us and forgive us, even though we are sinners in “this present evil age” (1 John 5:19-20, Hebrews 10:10-14, Hebrews 2:14-15).

Clearly, then, Paul was saying as he began this letter, that “grace and peace” came to our world and to us simply by God’s saving plan, brought to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We sinful humans contribute nothing to our salvation by our own work or efforts or keeping of God’s Law (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is all God’s doing, in Christ.

That is why Paul ended his opening prayer and blessing with these words: to God “be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” We can take no credit or glory for ourselves (Galatians 1:5). (The word “Amen” means “truly” or “this is most certainly true.” We can count on what God says and His promises, always.) We say “Amen” by faith in what God has already said and done for us, especially in Christ.

That is why Paul spoke so strongly, then, in Galatians 1:6-9. Paul was “astonished” that the Galatian Christians had been accepting the teaching of the false teachers, the “Judaizers," as they were sometimes called. These false teachers were saying that Paul had misled the Galatians and that what Jesus had done and accomplished was not enough. They said the Galatians also needed to do additional things truly to be acceptable to God and to be saved. Paul insisted that this idea was a “distortion of the Gospel of Christ.” It was actually “deserting the Lord” and His saving plan in Jesus and “turning to a different Gospel” (Galatians 1:6-7).

Paul went on to say twice in the strongest possible language that anyone who said something different from what he had already preached to them should be cursed and condemned.(Galatians 1:8-9). Trusting in God’s completed plan of rescue in Jesus alone was enough. Adding to Jesus’ work and saying that we must also do additional things ourselves for genuine salvation was “contrary” to the truth of the Gospel and would put put us back under a terrible curse.

Paul went on to say that even if someone claiming to be an “angel” came and said something different, don’t believe that person. Paul even went so far as to say that even if he came back later and preached a different, contrary Gospel, they should not believe him. He had already preached the truth of God’s plan and message in Christ and that is what they must continue to follow, no matter what. This is the message of God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the leading and guiding of God the Holy Spirit, as well.

The rest of this letter is largely a continuation of this basic message. We will hear more about Paul’s defense of his “apostolic” ministry, about the wrong ideas being taught by the false teachers, and about why what Paul was saying is still so important for us today. There are plenty of ways still today where people distort who Jesus was and what He did for us and want to add more things that we must do to have salvation. May the Lord bless us, as we continue this study, and help us to listen closely to His Word.

Sermon for Trinity Sunday - June 12, 2022

Sermon for Trinity Sunday, based on:

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Acts 2:14a, 22-36          

John 8:48-59

Sermon originally delivered May 26, 2013

Preparing for Worship - June 12, 2022

This Sunday is know as Holy Trinity Sunday, with a focus on the nature of God, revealed in the Bible as the One True Triune God.

The Psalm is Psalm 8. David praises the Name of the Lord, who is the Creator of the universe and all things and cares about even us ordinary human beings. God cares about us especially in sending His own Son, who was made a true man, “a little lower than the heavenly beings” and suffered and died for us. Hebrews 2:5-9 quotes this passage about Jesus and that He has now been restored to “glory and honor,” and God has now “put all things under His feet” as our risen, victorious Savior. See also Ephesians 1:22. Jesus also quotes this psalm about Himself when children were singing His praises in the temple (Matthew 21:16).

The Old Testament reading is from Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-36, where the Wisdom of God cries out to “the children of man” - a Wisdom that is pictured as a living Being, together with the Lord before anything in the universe was created and “beside Him, like a Master Workman,” in the creation of all things. “Whoever finds Him and listens to Him finds life.” This fits well with what is said about God the Son, “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God," “the Word made flesh," in the New Testament and what he has done for us. (See John 1:1-3, 1 Corinthians 1:24,30, and Colossians 2:3, for example.) Be aware that there have been false teachers like Arius in the past, and groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses in the present, who have used this passage to try to say that Jesus was just a created being with some godly power, but not true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Their ideas are false, according to the whole witness of the Scriptures and a careful reading of this passage.

The Gospel lesson is John 8:48-59. Some Jewish people were calling Jesus a “Samaritan with a demon.” Jesus said that He was honoring His Father and doing His will, and twice He said, “If anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.” Those challenging Jesus asked if he thought he was greater than Abraham, who died. Jesus then used the special name of God in the Old Testament, “I am Who I am” (see Exodus 3:14), and said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” claiming that He had always existed as the one true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, from all eternity, long before Abraham or anyone or anything else. Earlier He had said twice, “I am He,” in John 8:24 and 28, making the same claim for Himself, as one with the Father. (See Isaiah 43:10-13, for example.) The Jewish opponents then thought Jesus was speaking blasphemy and tried to kill Him - which they eventually were able to do.

The Epistle lesson, Acts 2:14a, 22-36, is a continuation from last week, with more of the sermon Peter preached on Pentecost. Peter proclaimed that Jesus, God’s Son, was killed on the cross, but was raised from the dead on the third day. Peter gave his own eyewitness testimony to this fact, along with Scriptures that predicted this, from Psalm  16:8-11 and Psalm 110:1. (Psalm 110:1 is quoted 15 times in the New Testament, affirming that Jesus was the Son of David and yet David’s Lord, as God the Son, who rose from the dead and is at the “right hand of the Father” with authority over all.) Notice also how Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are all described as being at work for us in v.31-33, and yet there is no other God but one (1 Corinthians 8:4). (That is the unexplainable mystery of the Trinity - three Divine Persons, yet only One True God, as described in the Scriptures.) Jesus is both Lord and God, and the Christ, the promised one who is our Savior.

There is one more note for St. James members. St. James will use Genesis 3:1-15 as the Old Testament lesson, as part of a special 10 week series they are beginning, telling the basic story of God’s saving work. God’s Son had to come and be the Savior of the world, because Genesis 3 describes the fall into sin (Adam and Eve wanting to be god-like and do what they wanted to do and rebelling against God’s will, which we still do, too, at times) and the need to overcome sin and defeat the power of the devil. Genesis 3:15 predicts the suffering and death Jesus would go through, and yet that He would rise again and ultimately “crush Satan and his power” for us.

Study of Galatians Part 1 - Introduction

Even though Jesus clearly said that the Good News of His saving work, the Gospel, was to go to all people (see, for example, Matthew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:15 and Acts 1:8) the early Christians were slow to carry out His command. Peter preached already on Pentecost, 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven, that God’s promises in Jesus were for those in Jerusalem and their children “and for all who are far off.” Those promises included bringing people to repentance and forgiveness and baptism and faith, through the power of the Holy Spirit. (See Acts 2:38-39, and Acts 5:29-32, for example.)

However, it was not until Acts 8, with persecution coming, that many Christians scattered, leaving Jerusalem, and some began to reach out to people of Samaria and to an Ethiopian man. (See Acts 8:1, 12-14, 27-38.) Even Peter himself struggled to reach out to non-Jews until God convinced him, with words and visions, to go and meet with and teach a Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his family and friends. (See Acts 10. In Acts 10:28, we hear that this was the first time that Peter had even gone to the home of a non-Jew of another nation.)

There were many rules for the Jewish people, some from the Old Testament and many more made up by Jewish authorities themselves, that kept Jews and non-Jews apart. How were Jews and others who became believers in Jesus going to respond to all these Jewish rules and expectations?

We hear in Acts 11:1-3 that Peter was strongly criticized for even associating with non-Jews. Instead of rejoicing that some of these Gentiles (non-Jews) had received the Word of God and had come to faith in Jesus, the critics were condemning Peter and others. Peter had to defend himself and explain that the Holy Spirit had sent him and others to these Gentiles, and the Holy Spirit had brought even non-Jews to the same faith and blessings of God. See especially Peter’s Words and the response of the people in Acts 11:11-18.

The tensions continued, though, especially about how “Jewish” new Christians needed to be, especially with regard to these Jewish rules and regulations. Acts 11:19 tells us that some still wanted to share the Good News of Jesus with “no one except Jews.” Others shared about Jesus with everyone they could, though, and more people came to faith, especially in the Syrian city of Antioch. These tensions were not directly dealt with until the Council of Jerusalem, a meeting of early Christian leaders, in Acts 15.

While all this was going on, there was a strongly anti-Christian Jewish leader, by the name of Saul, who was a well-trained Pharisee and felt it was his duty to round up Christians and put them in prison. He even helped put at least one Christian, Stephen, to death. (See Acts 7:54-8:3, 9:1-2.) The Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus had other plans for Saul, though.

Jesus appeared to him as he was traveling to Damascus, Syria, and turned his life around and brought him to faith and baptism and called him especially to to be a witness for Him to Gentiles (non-Jews). You can read about this is Acts 9:1-30. Saul quickly began to speak positively about Jesus as the promised Savior, but was in danger because of doing so, and was sent off to his home city of Tarsus, in the Roman province of Cilicia.

We’ll hear later of how he spent a number of years learning more about the Christian faith and about prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament and receiving revelations directly from Jesus. Then he was brought to Antioch to help teach new believers and then was sent off with Barnabas on his first missionary journey, preaching the Good News of Jesus in areas that included the Roman province of Galatia. (See Acts 11:25-26, 13:2-14:28.)

Churches were established there, which included Jews and Gentiles. Tensions continued about how Jewish the Gentiles believers needed to be,  though, and Saul, who was now called Paul, attended the Jerusalem Council, in Acts 15. Peter and other leaders clearly said everyone simply needed to “hear the Words of the Gospel and believe.” God would “cleanse their hearts by faith.” And Peter said, “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."

The Lord led the Council to say that was enough. All people were to avoid wrongdoing like “sexual immorality” and avoid a few things that would be really offensive to Jews. Otherwise, Peter said, “Why are (some of) you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.” Peter wanted no other burdens placed upon people who were saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. (See all of Acts 15, but especially v. 4-11.)

Paul returned to Antioch and then went off on a second missionary journey (Acts 15:35, 40-41, and the chapters following). Unfortunately, some of “party of the Pharisees” continued to insist “It is necessary to circumcise (the Gentiles) and to order them to keep the law of Moses” (Acts 15:5). Some them actually traveled then to the churches in Galatia and stirred up trouble against Paul and his teachings and terribly confused the churches.

Dr. Martin Franzmann says that their attack was three-pronged: (a) an attack on Paul as an apostle, (b) an attack on the Gospel of Paul as omitting essential demands of God, and (c) an attack which pointed up the moral dangers that would result from a proclamation of salvation by mere faith in an absolutely free and forgiving grace of God. When he heard of it, Paul could not go to Galatia at that time, but wrote what was likely his very first missionary letter, the Letter to the Galatians, in 48-49 AD or a little later, to refute the false teachings and emphasize once again that salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

That is what we will be looking at as we study Galatians. We will see that we are facing the same challenges and dangers from some in our own day and need to stand firm in what God teaches us through Paul. May the Lord richly bless our study together in the weeks ahead.