Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The letter to the Galatians is one of my favorite letters for a lot of reasons.
[00:00:08] He's really pushing them on some issues that I think our first or 21st century church struggles with.
[00:00:18] But the smallest reason, although it's not small, it delights me quite a bit, is the way this gospel begins. Now, to know this, you've got to know how Paul writes. I keep calling it a gospel. It's not. It's a letter. I apologize. We're off to a great start.
[00:00:40] You got to know how Paul writes his letters. Paul has a pretty basic template from which he particularly begins his letters. And it goes like this. At first he states, this is the author.
[00:01:00] I am. Here's the author. And then there's a recipient.
[00:01:04] And then there's a greeting.
[00:01:07] We're gonna. Sorry, throw those up there. They're gonna come in. Wanted the greeting. And then there is the Thanksgiving. Pretty easy.
[00:01:18] Pretty easy. He just has. He says, I'm Paul, you're you.
[00:01:24] Grace and peace. I'm thankful for you. Easy peasy. And this is. This was a common way to write letters. You actually see this in the. We'll go through the bigger ones in Romans. Just show you Romans the greeting. The author, he says, paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. And he goes, he expounds for sure the recipient to all of God's people are beloved in Rome. Then he says, some form of grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. And this is long Thanksgiving. A lot of times it's just, I'm thankful for you when I pray. I'm thankful for you.
[00:02:09] Now, you would believe me if I told you that the rest of his letters follow the same pattern. But I'm going to show you anyway.
[00:02:22] So first Thanksgiving, we're going to start in first Corinthians here. Well, the author. The author, he says, throw that on Paul. That's Paul. The author's Paul all the time.
[00:02:37] To the church of God in Corinth. The greeting, some form of grace and peace. Thanksgiving, I thank God for you.
[00:02:44] I think it's funny, in Second Corinthians does the same thing. The author is Paul.
[00:02:51] It's again, to the church, God's people in Corinth. Grace and peace to you. And then he says, I must.
[00:02:59] Blessed be the God of Father. And then in Second Corinthians, he's telling them, hey, by the way, you're suffering, but blessed be God when we suffer. There's a Thanksgiving there as well. Let's keep going. Ephesians, the author is Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. And the recipient is to those, the saints who are in Ephesus.
[00:03:21] He says, grace and peace to you. And then there's this long sentence in Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14. Is biggest Thanksgiving in Scripture.
[00:03:34] So Philippians, author, Paul, recipient, church in Philippi, Grace and peace. I thank God over and over and over again. We're almost done. Colossians, Paul and Timothy, by the way, to the faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae, Grace and peace to you. And then the thanksgiving is quite easy. In our prayers, we have always thanked God for you.
[00:04:01] If we can remember the books of the Bible in order. Paul Sylvanus, do y'all know him? Y'all know Sylvanus in them, he's never come up. But he wrote with Paul both of the letters to the Thessalonians, grace and peace to you. And then the thanksgiving, as we always give thanks to God for all of you. Again, same group to the church in Thessalonians, I'm writing you again, grace and peace to you. We must always give thanks to you. But Galatians is different.
[00:04:35] In Galatians, he says, paul and the members of God's family. He's writing, I'm writing to you. The recipients are to the churches in Galatia. Galatia wasn't a town. It was a province. It was a group of cities, and they were supposed to work together. The greeting is a typical Grace and peace to you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. A And then the Thanksgiving is. I am astonished.
[00:05:03] It's such a left turn. We went through every single one of Paul's openings here to two large churches, and they all have. I am thankful for you. I thank God for you. I thank God for this. And here he's just befuddled.
[00:05:24] The word. The word. I am astonished in Greek is just one word. And it's the opening word of this section. Thalmazzo.
[00:05:35] It's a fun one. We should add it to the English language. And it just. It's just this. Befuddled is a great one. Flabbergasted.
[00:05:45] Just when you're looking at something and going, what is going on here?
[00:05:51] I'm blown away.
[00:05:54] So Macy's part of a volleyball team that travels.
[00:06:00] No tournaments in Tyler, just. We have one in Alaska tomorrow.
[00:06:06] She's part of this group that travels.
[00:06:09] And one of the fun things, because you pay money to get into the. You know, to. To travel. And one of the fun Things is they say, hey, every tournament you buy a gift for another person.
[00:06:21] And so they get a bunch of candy, and then they give a bunch of candy and Alanis and stuff. And they do. They.
[00:06:29] Well, we ordered a gift. This tournament's coming up as our last one. We ordered the gift for one of her teammates, and it came in yesterday.
[00:06:39] And our dog is seven pounds and hates packages.
[00:06:45] Hates them. Just. I can't tell you how.
[00:06:49] When Ruby is her name, not the baby, but the dog.
[00:06:56] When Ruby was little, our UPS guy had to walk up our front yard to set something on our porch in Arkansas. And he would walk up, and she would walk up to him to sniff him, and he would take that box and he'd go, when I tell you she hates boxes, I can't.
[00:07:20] If they invented a collar for dogs that allowed them to speak as a preacher, I couldn't buy one because my dog, I'm sure, let some obscenities fly when packages show up.
[00:07:33] She hates. Hates them. When they arrive, we have a basket on our front porch.
[00:07:38] It's a prison for packages. So that Ruby can't get to them.
[00:07:44] She puts them.
[00:07:45] Our mail lady does not put them in there because she thinks it's funny how Ruby will grab the package and try to murder it and drag it out for dead in the front yard.
[00:08:01] So when we hear Ruby barking, we usually. If we're at home, we usually know it's a delivery. And so we go outside to rescue the mail person, the FedEx driver, the UPS driver. Well, it was FedEx yesterday. And I walked out and I said, she's just mad at the box. She's not mad at you. Don't take it personal.
[00:08:22] I'll just take the package.
[00:08:24] He said, well, I put it over there in the bushes.
[00:08:32] He said, I thought she wouldn't get to it. I turn and look, and she's just breaking its neck.
[00:08:41] I said, well, how did you get it over there?
[00:08:45] He said, do you bowl?
[00:08:50] I said, no.
[00:08:53] He goes, I do. I'm pretty good at it.
[00:08:56] I said, okay.
[00:08:58] I thought it was just a non sequitur.
[00:09:01] He said, I bowled it.
[00:09:06] This man got out of his FedEx truck, saw the dog, didn't want to mess with her, and threw this blanket across my yard.
[00:09:19] Of course. I go in and I look for a ring video to see if I caught this on. And here we go. I'm just kidding. I didn't get it. I know it's exciting, but I was just flummoxed. I was like, why'd you Throw our package.
[00:09:34] Tiny seven pound dog.
[00:09:37] You can kick her. She'll be fine.
[00:09:42] But like, I wanted to see him bowl because I wanted to shout. I've been spending time with Thalmonzo this week, and I finally got a time to yell it, and I don't. I can't.
[00:09:59] Through our package. Thankfully, it was a blanket and not a vase.
[00:10:05] It was a bowling ball.
[00:10:09] But to be astonished to be blown away, to be so blown away that typically where you would say, I thank God.
[00:10:18] Very preachery, churchy thing. I thank God for you. Every time I think of you. He's just, you know what? Cut that part, thou mazzo.
[00:10:29] I am flabbergasted, befuddled. I am thrown for a loop that you have so quickly deserted the gospel, deserted the one who called you.
[00:10:49] I'm so. I'm just blown away.
[00:10:53] Now, the question here is, then, what did they do exactly that made him so befuddled?
[00:11:05] When you say abandon the gospel, what do you mean, Paul? Because that means something. Correct? It's got to mean something. There's something he heard them do and he thought, well, that's not what they were called to do.
[00:11:23] There was something.
[00:11:25] What was it?
[00:11:28] I am astonished that you have turned so quickly from the gospel, turning to a different gospel, which, by the way, is not really a gospel at all. Evidently, some people are trying to throw you into confusion and they're trying to pervert the gospel of Christ to turn it into something that it isn't.
[00:11:51] But even if we or an angel from the heavens comes and preaches a different gospel to. To you, I say, let them be cursed, as we've already said, and now we say again, this is a very Greek way of saying, it's worth repeating.
[00:12:09] Anybody preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse. I'll tell you what this isn't.
[00:12:18] It isn't me saying I've got the gospel right and the other people who've got it wrong getting it wrong.
[00:12:29] The line of selfishness and incorrectness does not travel between our three doors out there.
[00:12:39] We are a church that although we have opinions and doctrines and thoughts, and we are doing our best, we are going to trip. We are going to mess up. We have misunderstandings about things.
[00:12:52] Every church does. And when they tell you they don't, they're lying to themselves or you.
[00:12:59] We don't have it all together, so we can't take this and go, well, the people who disagree with us are different from us, and they are perverting the Gospel, Therefore, this is talking to them.
[00:13:12] This scripture is talking to them out there, may they be accursed. Although we don't really have the authority.
[00:13:20] This isn't what he's getting at.
[00:13:23] He's getting at something very specific that's happening in that church. The kingdom of God came so that Jesus might reign, Jesus might rule.
[00:13:39] And Jesus rule wasn't working there, or at least they weren't letting him rule.
[00:13:46] I'll tell you what was happening. So the Galatian provinces are full of people who are gentiles. Gentiles just means the nations. And actually it makes more sense if you just take the Greek word ethnos. You hear it better.
[00:14:06] You know that. You know ethnicity. We get our words of other nations from that Greek word. But for some reason, our Bible translated gentiles. And it just means that everybody else's. The people who are different nationalities than me. And every time you read the word gentile in scripture, just know it's different nationalities. It's different people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different ways of life. They have different food practices. They have different. All sorts of things. And the Jews bring this gospel to them. And Paul even asked the elders at Jerusalem, what should I do? And he said, force the law on them. They said, don't force the law on them. Just remember to take care of the poor. That's all we ask.
[00:14:59] He says, I'm willing to do that.
[00:15:02] But what was happening was these. These Gentiles were being made to follow some commands that God wasn't putting on them.
[00:15:15] They were. They were being asked to follow new food laws. We talked about bacon in class this morning. We love bacon.
[00:15:25] Yeah. Amen. Okay, but like that, that was the.
[00:15:32] It was two different cultures, and neither culture was correct.
[00:15:36] But Paul was against division happening. Paul was against people saying, listen, unless you're like me, you can't be like Jesus.
[00:15:47] Unless you practice what I practice, you can't practice like Jesus. First, the path to God is Jesus, but the only path to Jesus is me.
[00:15:58] That's incredibly unhelpful. And it's not in line with the actual good news that God came and that God became man, dwelt among us, that the salvation of God is free to all. The forgiveness of sins was born on the cross. The resurrection conquers death, and his kingship conquers division.
[00:16:20] That we bring unity to all sorts of people, that every nation, tribe, every person in the world, no matter where they came from, can go to the throne of God and worship God without having to look like the person next to Them, that's gospel.
[00:16:37] And whenever you have to start, when you start telling people, well, you've got to dress like me, you've got to eat like me, you've got to practice what I practice, you've got to believe what I believe. You've got to understand scripture the way I understand it. You are hurting not just the church, but the gospel that was meant to create the church.
[00:16:59] And so Paul is incredibly upset about this.
[00:17:04] He says, you are perverting, perverting the gospel.
[00:17:12] And he says, you know, I once confronted Peter about this very thing.
[00:17:19] He says, when Cephas, now his name's Peter, we should translate this Peter. Because in the south we see this and we go, cephas. We just, for some reason, we just almost put a bow in front of it.
[00:17:32] Bo. Cephas. Is that just an Arkansas hillbilly name? Okay, sorry.
[00:17:37] Sometimes I speak a different language than you people.
[00:17:42] When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned or his actions spoke loudly enough to condemn him.
[00:17:56] For before certain men from James came, he used to eat with the Gentiles. He used to. It didn't matter what table was where he sat down. He sat down with the kingdom of God. He used to, no matter who was there, he would sit down and eat with them.
[00:18:16] But when they arrived, he began to pull back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group. This is not a fraternity. This is a belief that unless you were circumcised like a Jewish person, then you also weren't. You couldn't be a Christian, so you had to go through that process before you went to the next. And this is upsetting to Paul as well, but this is a very common problem in the first century church.
[00:18:52] The other Jews that were with Paul joined him in his hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a fun word. We throw it around.
[00:19:03] We love labeling hypocrites. Church is full of hypocrites. Amen.
[00:19:09] Of course it is.
[00:19:11] Hypocrites are. That just is what it is. We're.
[00:19:15] You are always to a certain extent, doing your best impression of what you hope to be.
[00:19:22] But when they use this word in Scripture, what he's saying is you're pretending to be something, and you're not that on the inside.
[00:19:34] You're pretending on the outside to be a. To believe in this big unity. But as soon as it's tested, you falter.
[00:19:47] To believe that, oh, everyone is welcome but as soon as somebody shows up that you're nervous about welcoming, where does the welcome go?
[00:19:59] The kingdom is for all until my crew shows up. And then, you know, y'all can be over there, but I'm gonna be with them.
[00:20:09] And Paul confronts him to his face.
[00:20:19] I am A.
[00:20:21] Let's see, what did they say in college when I was a vocal music major, A C plus singer, B minus. It's one of those things like I can't keep in tune, but I have a good enough ear to know I'm out of tune. And so I'm just depressed sometimes when I'm singing, it's a tough cycle, but when my throat hurts or whenever I'm.
[00:20:45] Whenever I'm not in good voice, I sing anyway. Now sometimes I'm quiet and I listen to you guys sing. And that's worship too. But I never, because of like, whatever's happening with me, I. I always want to be encouraged to worship. I want to worship whenever I'm given the opportunity in my car or here with you guys. Particularly, I want to worship with you.
[00:21:14] And so I'm given such an opportunity to sit with you guys and worship. Even if I'm not in full voice or if I'm not, I don't know the part all that well or I don't know the song all that well. My goodness, I'm going to give it a college try. And for me that's a C.
[00:21:34] When I'm not quite feeling like following Jesus, like I've got a bad attitude about something.
[00:21:46] I need the word of God.
[00:21:49] Whether I think I do or not, I need to be challenged by the way of Jesus. Whether I think I do or not, I feel this way.
[00:22:02] Can I just be honest with you guys? I feel this way sometimes with giving too.
[00:22:08] Where new tires come and. Or like that month we had to buy eggs or.
[00:22:23] Or maybe this is your world. The stock market is a disaster.
[00:22:31] It's going up and down so much that you have to be like a minimum height to ride it.
[00:22:40] And it comes time to give and you just think this contribution's gonna hurt a little.
[00:22:51] I've been there.
[00:22:56] But the reason you give is not because things are going well. The reason you worship is not because you're full voiced. The reason you get into the word of God and follow Jesus is not because it's easy and only rewarding. It's difficult at times.
[00:23:14] And so we have the opportunity to, no matter the circumstances, trust in God no matter what's happening in the world, no matter what's happening around us. No matter what the hot button issue is of the day, they want to rile you up and make you hate people.
[00:23:47] And you're like, who's they? Anybody that wants to rile you up and make you hate people.
[00:23:53] Stop that.
[00:23:57] There are people in this world who need us to sit and eat with them, to welcome them to the table.
[00:24:08] That the greatest thing we have to offer them, although we would say it's the cross and the resurrection, the greatest thing and the greatest felt need in their life is they lack a community, and they need a united community. And we want to be that for them.
[00:24:27] And Paul had this dream. Jesus had this dream for a place where the doors were always open and every nation, tribe and person came in and were welcomed into the kingdom of God. It was a house of prayer, a place where God heard all that was said.
[00:24:45] And that can happen in any place where Jesus is present, where two or three are gathered, Jesus is there.
[00:24:55] We're gonna have ironworks this Tuesday.
[00:24:59] God is there.
[00:25:04] Mary Catherine's getting a bridal shower.
[00:25:09] Now. We could mention the husband, but it's for you. It's for you. There's not gonna be tools, right? I mean, it's not. It's like every anniversary gift from a family member is like, it's a candle. I'm like, okay, I guess you're just rewarding her for being with me. Okay. For having to.
[00:25:28] But when we're gathered together to celebrate just guys hanging out or a new marriage and a new relationship, God is present.
[00:25:40] God is present in those places.
[00:25:44] And whenever. When God has done the work of unifying, and Peter, because he's uncomfortable and afraid, undoes that work.
[00:25:55] Paul is upset.
[00:25:57] Now here, Paul is not just mad at Peter. He's telling them about the confrontation with Peter so that he can tell them how he's confronting them.
[00:26:07] He said, when I was saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. Actually, this should be translated when I'm. When I saw that they were not standing aright.
[00:26:21] It's the only time this word appears in scripture. And it's where we get orthopedic from.
[00:26:29] When I saw that there. When I saw that Peter ran so fast to that other table that he rolled the ankle of the gospel, I said to them in front of everybody, you are a Jew, but you live like the Gentiles.
[00:26:52] You don't follow the Jewish. You are Jew, but you live in the customs of the gentiles. You live among the customs of the nations.
[00:27:04] But why would you make the nations live then by the customs of the Jews. Why would you force that on them?
[00:27:18] You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force the Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
[00:27:28] Now his problem here is not Jewish customs. His problem is not Gentile customs. He is not saying one is right or the other. Here Paul is saying when you force your way on others, when it's not the way of Jesus, it creates division, particularly when you're abandoning them.
[00:27:50] The gospel is unity.
[00:27:56] Notice what he says. When I saw that they were not acting in line, when they were not standing firm on the gospel, when I saw that, I spoke up.
[00:28:12] And their failure to stand firm on the gospel was not. They were saying the sins weren't forgiven by Jesus. They weren't saying that the resurrection from the dead wasn't true. What he was saying was there are times when unity can happen and there are times when it can't.
[00:28:30] And to Paul and to Jesus the gospel was about the kingdom reigning, not just the kingdom rewarding the gospel is, is forgiveness of sins, resurrection of dead.
[00:28:50] But for Jesus, the gospel was about the kingdom coming in and setting up shop and ruling.
[00:28:56] And that rule was Jews and Gentiles eating together in the name of Jesus.
[00:29:05] Everybody was welcome at the table.
[00:29:10] And whenever that that didn't happen, Paul is flabbergasted.
[00:29:20] He said, that is a different gospel than what I preach to you. And even if I were to come back and preach a different gospel, it would be cursed. Even if an angel did it, it would be cursed.
[00:29:34] Because to stand firm on the gospel, to not be a hypocrite and pretend that I am welcoming and when it just comes down to it, I don't that from just not my appearance, but my heart, I live out the unity of the gospel, the gospel message. And we're going to talk about the resurrection of the dead next week. And it is the hope we have together. But the gospel fully is kingdom.
[00:30:11] The kingdom reigns.
[00:30:15] It reigns with the hope of our sins being forgiven and our death not being final. It reigns with unity being brought together at the table. And it starts not just with our appearance, but it starts with our heart. Where do we actually want difficult people in church?
[00:30:37] Yeah, we should, we should want that because you know another way to say difficult people, people, it's sort of implied, isn't it?
[00:30:54] We all have our hang ups and our differences and our struggles and our opinions and our strong opinions and our stronger opinions.
[00:31:05] We all have different preferences.
[00:31:10] But we all have one table and one king.
[00:31:13] One table, one king.
[00:31:18] There is not a table for the nations and a table for the faithful. There's not a table for the practice and the table for the novice.
[00:31:30] There is one table, one king. And the quicker we can start associating that with the gospel itself, that if we're going to spread the gospel, we're going to have to live out this new kingdom. The quicker we can connect that, the better off we're going to be as a church.
[00:31:53] We're not just trying to get people into the door of we'll save you from sins or will conquer death. But then there's a line at a boarded up door of the church that offers community for all. And we need to unlock that, deadbolt it and let them in. Because they'll find Jesus at that table where they thought they'll find a community. They'll learn about the empty tomb.
[00:32:24] But a church that hopes for people to belong even before they believe is a church that is doing kingdom work, a church that is doing gospel work.
[00:32:43] And that's going to be difficult for us sitting at tables with difference.
[00:32:48] It's tough. It's tough, difficult people.
[00:32:53] I should have invited my FedEx man to church.
[00:32:57] I was afraid of what he'd do with the songbooks. But the.
[00:33:03] But I should because it's this group.
[00:33:16] It's no wonder that Christianity has become a individualistic sport where we can say I believe in Jesus and I believe in the cross and I believe in salvation and I believe in resurrection. But that like whole church thing, I'm wrestling with it. I get that sentiment, I really do.
[00:33:39] And people think that because we've taught them that.
[00:33:44] But when Paul is asking the church to stand up firm on the gospel, he's asking about who they are associating with.
[00:33:58] And it can happen both ways, right? You can like think those people are pagans.
[00:34:05] I don't want to be with them.
[00:34:09] Well then you can get so holy that you think the religious people just don't have it right. And I don't want to be with them.
[00:34:17] Wow, that's fantastic that you've accomplished so much. But if your holiness can lend to a community of faith and that's gospel work, that's not just an aside part, an elective of the gospel. The gospel is community, hope and community found in Jesus.
[00:34:45] We've got to stick with it.
[00:34:49] Let's.
