PAUL’S FIRST POST-CONVESION VISIT TO JERUSALEM
KEY VERSE – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselvesbe burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) SECONDARY THEME VERSES: “A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16); “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Gal. 2:21).
THEME: Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone releases us from the yoke of the law, freeing us to live a life of love through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Legal (Imputed) Righteousness: We are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Imparted Righteousness: Immediate Moral Change at conversion (Gal. 6:15); Gradual Moral Change through the fruit-growing work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which requires our cooperation (Gal 5:16-17, 25, 6:8). We cooperate by using CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving. Foundational verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Good Teachers: (1) Constantly re-evaluate what they are doing; (2) Set large goals; (3) Ask – Does everything I do contribute to learning?; (4) Prepare well; (5) Check for understanding; (6) Like teaching; (7) Get results from their teaching; (8) Have perseverance. Don’t give up.
TEACHING GOAL: To show that Paul did not receive his Gospel message as a result of his first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem.
REVIEW
The problem Paul is facing is “How can I prove to the Galatians the essentially supernatural source of the gospel preach?”
Paul’s thesis: My Gospel was received by divine revelation. (Galatians 1:11-12)
From 1:13-4:31 Paul defends his position as an apostle and the divine authenticity of the Gospel he preaches. Paul shows his independence from: (1) Human Teaching (1:13-17); (2) The Judean churches (1:18-24); (3) The Jerusalem “pillars” (2:1-10); (4) The Apostle Peter (2:11-21).
Last time we met we discovered that:
1. Critical scholarship has given us a solid understanding of what the church believed and taught between 35 and 70 AD.
2. Apart from receiving unique Divine Revelation from God Paul also built his theology around the historical facts found in the earliest creeds, hymns and traditions of the church.
3. In a world of skeptics, cynics and nay-sayers the historicity of the Life and Jesus and the New Testament becomes stronger and stronger.
TEXT FOR THE DAY:
Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with 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. Later 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 praised God because of me. (Galatians 1:17-24)
1. Background of Galatians 1:17-24
2. Down-Playing the Jerusalem Visit 1:18-19
3. Relationship with the Judean Churches (1:20-24)
4. Paul in Arabia 1:17
INTRODUCTION:
Paul is seeking to show the Galatians his independence from the major churches. He must do this to show that his Gospel came to him directly from the Lord.
An underlying question of Galatians is: Will Jewish culture dominate the Gospel of Christ.
QUESTION: What cultural aspects of 7th century Arab tribalism do we see evident in Islam today?
Desert robes, beards, prostrating self in prayer, praying in Arabic, facing Mecca in prayer, going on pilgrimage, circumcision, avoiding pork, child brides, jihad etc.
If the “false brothers” and the “Judaizers” would have won, Christianity would not have spread like it has and it would emphasize some aspects of first century Jewish culture, especially circumcision, holy days and food laws. One of the unique things about Biblical Christianity is that there is minimal cultural baggage … the Lord’s Table & Baptism.
I. BACKGROUND OF GALATIANS 1:17-24
UPDATED CHRONOLOGY
2AD Born in Tarsus
12-15 Jerusalem as a student (Acts 22:3)
33 Crucifixion of Christ, April 3
35 Witnessed the Martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:58-8:1)
35 Saul’s conversion (Acts 9)
35-38 In Arabia and Damascus
38 Visits Peter and James in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26-30; Gal. 1:18-19)
38-48 Paul in Tarsus (Acts 9:30, 11:25)
48 Barnabas asks Paul to come to Antioch (Acts 11:25)
48-49 Paul / Barnabas serve in Antioch (Acts 11:25)
49 P/B bring famine relief to Jerusalem (Acts 11:30; Gal. 2:1-10)
49-51 P/B visit Galatia for first time (Acts 13:13-14:25)
51 P/B in Antioch (Acts 14:26-28)
51 Paul writes Letter to the Galatians
51 Jerusalem Conference (Acts 15)
Difficulties in establishing an exact chronology: (1) Date of the crucifixion of Christ, (2) Date of Saul’s conversion, (3) Is “14 years later” (2:1) to be dated 14 years after conversion or 14 years after first visit which would mean 17 years after conversion, (4) Is Galatians 2:1-10 the same event as Acts 15 or does it relate to the “Famine Relief Visit.”?, (5) Did Paul write the letter to the Galatians before or after the Jerusalem Conference of Acts 15?
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF SYRIA / ARABIA
Syria and Cilicia were joined as one imperial province between 25 BC and 72 AD being governed by a Roman legate in Antioch.
The Nabatean Kingdom was known as Arabia and included Damascus and areas around Damascus.
“Arabia” probably means the immediate vicinity of Damascus although ‘Nabatean’ Arabia coverage a large and ill defined desert area and trade routes. Aretas, the Nabatean king, had some control over Damascus through his resident ‘ethnarch’ (Political leader, governor, of a small homogenous kingdom or ethnic group). See II Corinthians 11:32
When Paul says he traveled from Damascus to Jerusalem, it was a trip of 135 miles. It is about 160 miles from the East Valley to Flagstaff.
II. DOWN-PLAYING THE JERUSALEM VISIT
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.
JERUSALEM, THE MOTHER CHURCH
When Paul says that he went to “Jerusalem” you need to remember that this is a metonymn (denotes one thing but means another) for the Jerusalem church. It is just like when we say, “The problem is with Washington” but what we mean is that it is a government problem.
Jerusalem had always been the center of ancient Judaism. It you had religious questions it was certain that you would consider what “Jerusalem” had to say.
At the beginning of the Christian Era the church in Jerusalem was the “Mother Church.” The original apostles were there and thus all of the authorities on Christian thinking. The knowledge of the OT had been studied there for centuries.
Of course Jerusalem as the “Mother Church” ended with the destruction of the city in 70 AD by Vespasian.
The first visit – After 3 years, for 15 days, saw only two apostles. All said to show the insignificance of the visit.
So between his conversion and the “Famine Relief Visit” of 2:1-10 (14 years) he had only spent two weeks in Jerusalem.
In those 14 years Paul had been studying the Scriptures and preaching the Gospel. Certainly the Gospel message he was preaching was fully developed by the time he came to the meeting in Galatians 2:1-10.
PETER AND JAMES
Most of the apostles and disciples fled Jerusalem as a result of the persecution. Maybe only James and Peter were left.
James is called an apostle although he had not followed Jesus from the time of the baptism of John. It appears that he had been skeptical of Jesus and came to faith after the resurrection.
It is important to note that Peter had a definite revelation concerning bringing the Gentiles into the church:
“The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles . . . . . The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him . . . . So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” (Acts 10:45, 11:1-2, 11:17)
15 DAYS IN JERUSALEM
Originally it was Barnabas who helped the Jewish leaders receive Paul because they were afraid of him.
When he [Paul] came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 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. (Acts 9:26-27)
QUESTION: What did Paul do in Jerusalem during this 15 day visit?
Discover by reading Galatians 1:18-19 and Acts 9:26-31 and Acts 22:17-21.
Initially met resistance from the disciples, befriended by Barnabas, stayed with Peter, met James, shared his testimony, told about his preaching in Damascus, moved about Jerusalem, spoke for the Lord debating Grecian Jews, had life threatened, prayed in the temple, had vision, warned by the Lord to leave Jerusalem, received another commission from the Lord, escorted to Caesarea, fled to Tarsus.
QUESTION: What do you think Peter and Paul talked about?
Paul is going for a “visit” to “get acquainted with.” The word used is historesai which means getting a report. Paul possibly wanted to interview Peter, get his personal history, learn more about the life, death, resurrection of Christ. (Ryken, 29)
It is interesting that Peter and James are mentioned specifically in I Corinthians 15 as two that witnessed the resurrection of Christ. (I Cor. 15:5-7)
And that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. (I Cor. 15:5-7)
Did Peter and Paul discuss the two lines of ministry, one to the Jews and the Gentiles? Peter would have been sympathetic.
Did Peter explain his experience in the home of Cornelius where the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles?
EXTENT OF CONTACT WITH JERUSALEM LEADERS
READING: 1:11 – The gospel I preach is not what human beings normally have in mind when they speak the ‘good news’; 1:12 – I did not receive it from another human being; 1:12 – I was not taught it; 1:16 – I did not ask advice from anyone; 1:17 – I did not make a trip to Jerusalem; 1:17 – On the contrary, I went away to Arabia; 1:17 – I returned to Damascus (traveling there directly, that is to say, not passing through Jerusalem; 1:18-19 – After three years had passed I did go up to Jerusalem . . . but, aside from Cephas, I did not see any of the other apostles, except James; 1:20 – What I am writing you is not a lie; 1:21 – Then I went to the region of Syrian and Cilicia (far from Jerusalem). 1:22-23 – thus, through the whole of this period the Christians in the churches of Judea (including those in Jerusalem) did not even know my by sight; they only heard stories about me. (JLM, 178)
“Everything here depends on whether Paul had prolonged personal contact with the leaders of the Jerusalem church before his own Gospel was formed.” (Cole 96)
Paul’s Gospel was fully formed before this 15 day visit. In fact he was forced to flee Damascus because of what he was preaching. What was he preaching? Certainly the fact that Jesus is the Messiah and salvation by grace was purchased on the cross.
Paul’s three alibis to prove that his Gospel was not formed by the Jerusalem apostles: (1) He went into Arabia immediately after his conversion; (2) He went up to Jerusalem later and briefly; (3) He went off to Syria and Cilicia. (Stott, 34-35)
III. PAUL’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE JUDEAN CHURCHES
I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. Later 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 praised God because of me. (Galatians 1:22-24)
PAUL IS PERSONALLY UNKNOWN TO THE JUDEAN CHURCHES
The word “church” in 1:13 and 1:22 better translated “congregation.” These “congregations would include those in Jerusalem.
Paul went off to Tarsus. He did not visit and minister in the various churches in Palestine. They had not met him personally as a Christian although they heard about him. He had not spent any time in fellowship with them.
How could they have given him the Gospel? In 14 years he had spent no time with them.
“The faith he once tried to destroy” (Gal 1:23) is just another term for Gospel.
The Judean churches praised God because of Paul and his conversion but they had never spent time with him.
PAUL EMPHASIZES HIS INTEGRITY
I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. (Gal 1:20)
This is an oath and an oath is simply an appeal to an omniscient God who searches the hearts. A person under oath is discharged from an earthly tribunal.
Jesus forbade oaths that were being used as a means of masking untruthfulness, as was the case with the Pharisees. (Mt. 5:33-37)
Universal affirmations and negations are not always to be universally applied, but are to be limited by their occasions and circumstances.
God gives oaths, e.g. Gen. 22:16, Isa. 45:23, Heb. 6:13-16.
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. (Heb. 6:13-16)
“To show how serious he was about all this, Paul took the kind of oath someone would swear in a court of law: In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!” (Gal. 1:20) (Ryken, 29)
“It has been observed that in Roman legal procedure the proffering of oaths in court was generally discouraged, unless it was absolutely necessary; here Paul takes the voluntary oath as ‘a forceful and even dramatic means to emphasize both the seriousness of the issue and his own truthfulness.’” (Fung, 78)
Obviously the false teachers in Galatia had been teaching that Paul got his Gospel from Jerusalem and then adjusted it to meet the Galatian situation. Paul was contradicting their false report. How could he convince the Galatians that what they had heard was false? Paul needed to reinforce the truthfulness of his own testimony and so he adds an oath.
IV. PAUL IN ARABIA (1:17)
Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
PREACHING IN ARABIA
We have seen that Paul preached fearlessly in Damascus in the name of Jesus after his conversion.
Just looking at vs. 17 you would think that Paul preached to the Gentiles at that time. His commission that relates in vs. 16 ends with “that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.”
So, as stated above, Paul was involved in preaching to both Jews and Gentiles for three years before going to Jerusalem.
DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE GOSPEL
Yet, he probably did more than preach. John Stott wonders what he learned during those three years in Arabia. John Stott writes: “We believe that in this period of withdrawal, as he meditated on the OT Scriptures, on the facts of the life and death of Jesus that he already knew and on his experience of conversion, the gospel of the grace of God was revealed to him in its fullness.” (Stott, 34)
“By the Spirit the first illumination came to Paul, and by the Spirit the light would grow. Paul would already be familiar, of course, with all the OT Scriptures dealing with the Messiah. He would probably also be familiar with the Christian use of such Scriptures, from his old days of controversy with the church. Al l that now remained was to rethink his whole position in the light of the new revelation. For this, not advice from others but quiet thought was needed.” (Cole, 92)
RELATING TO GOD WHEN ALONE
Martyn Lloyd Jones made the observation that in the Victorian era (1837-1901) nobody was Christian by themselves. Christianity overshadowed them but did not penetrate them.
Paul went into Arabia. He was alone and yet he progressed in his relationship with God.
What relationship do you have with God when you are alone? Does God get more real to you when you are alone? Or do you neglect relating to Him when you are apart from the church?
When people leave their familiar Christian environments, e.g. their home, their church, their school, their friends to they still continue to cultivate their relationship with God?
ILLUSTRATION: One of my fears was then when I resigned from WEC, when I quit being a missionary, being involved in the work of the kingdom of God every day, would I fall away from the Lord, would my heart grow cold or indifferent to the things of God? This was a major concern because I knew that being involved in Christian work every day helped to spur on my spiritual growth. I was busy doing “Christian” things and this tended to refresh my spirit.
CULTIVATING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. (Phil. 3:8)
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son . . . (Romans 8:28)
Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. (Mt. 22:37-38)
QUESTION: Make a list of as many ways as you can think of for cultivating your relationship with God if you were alone in Arabia for three years.
SO WHAT???
1. Apart from receiving unique Divine Revelation from God Paul also built his theology around the historical facts found in the earliest creeds, hymns and traditions of the church.
2. We need to thank God for how He preserved the pure message of the Gospel in the early days of the formation of the Christian church.
3. Paul’s strong stance on defending the veracity of his Gospel saved us from have a Christian faith that was hampered with first century Jewish cultural baggage.
4. We must make a special effort to relate to God while alone, to grow in grace when we are away from our Christian cultural surroundings.