Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) – Chapter 2

Okay, finally, he’s coming to the city of Jerusalem, and he’s going to meet the church, and he’s going to meet the brothers who are the apostles, and they’re all going to have some time to look this man straight in the face.  Okay, let’s go to Jerusalem with him, shall we? It’s very important that you get this because it’s in here. He’s free to wander the city. Let me tell you what he does. It’s not in the Bible, but if I know anything about human nature, he takes Titus out to the place where the Lord rose from the grave and to the place where the Lord was crucified, and he shows him those things he knows. He also has to pass the synagogue where he debated Stephen. He’s facing his past for the first time. He has to go to the place where Stephen was stoned to death and remember that it was he who caused his death. Then he speaks to the church and gives his testimony. This must have been very hard.

The grace of God has abounded in his life for 14 years, but it’s like yesterday as far as these people are concerned. These folks look at him. They still don’t know who this man is. He gets up and shares his testimony. He cries. They cry. After the meeting, someone approaches, embraces him, and says, “Paul, you need to forgive me because I’ve hated you.” Saints, I hate it when someone walks up to me and says, “You’ve got to forgive me. I haven’t liked you.” Have you ever had this experience? I’ve had it many, many times. Probably more than anyone else in this room. It’s just that’s what happens from being up in public. It’s really hard. You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t know what you did wrong.

Another brother comes up, drops his coat, turns around, shows him his back, and says, These are my scars for Christ. It was because of you that I got them. Thank God for the grace of God. Walks off. Maybe a sister comes up and says, “I was widowed during the persecution that you brought on the church.” That must be very hard. Somebody else comes up and says, “I was one of those who picked Stephen up.” You remember? You remember? And wept and moaned and groaned and took him out and buried him. I’m glad to know he didn’t die in vain.

Well, those things are hard, saints. I have a notion about the poor person who came up and showed him his beaten back. Paul might have taken off his outer garment, turned around, and said, “I also bear the scars of the Lord Jesus Christ, too.” I don’t know if that happened. I know those were hard days for him, but the church did get to see him face-to-face. You Galatians need to know what Blastinius did not tell you. He was not afraid to be scrutinized by other believers. He was prepared to submit his gospel to the best of them. He was not hiding anything. As hard as it was, he went back to Jerusalem for the sake of the unity of the church, and he went back there unafraid of a gospel of grace. So don’t pay a whole lot of attention to Blastinius’s story. He left a lot out.

Now comes the most important Christian gathering in church history. No question about it. And boy, what a meeting. Wouldn’t you have liked to have been there? 12 apostles. Barnabas, Paul, Titus, Silas were there, Justus was there, and probably a lot of other big folks. Who knows? Maybe Mary was there. Very possible. We are shaping up for a first-class war because sitting right in the middle of all these people is one of the most stubborn, obstinate, legalistic, unbending, unyielding fanatics of the first century. Do you know who I’m talking about? Say it. James. I thought I’d catch you. James, the brother of Jesus, and I want you to get the power of his influence, brothers. What is the power of the influence of this man? It’s in his face. It’s in his face. He looks just like his half-brother. It’s just downright eerie. He looks like his half-brother, and he has enormous influence. He had grown up from his earliest recollection. He remembered every day of Jesus Christ’s life. Wow. And he looks like him. And he is a Christian. And he is, if you forgive me, a religious fanatic. He’s the hill we’ve got to climb. He’s the hill we’ve got to climb. Yes, Blastinius is in there, and he is really depending on James because he said he had come from James. There are some others there likewise.

Now I don’t know what Paul meant when he said they came to spy out our liberty. It may be that some were not invited to the meeting, and they were peeping through the door or window, or the keyhole, or listening up against the door, trying to find out what was going on, or sneaking in when no one was looking. Or maybe it has been conjectured that they were trying to catch Titus without his clothes on to see if he was circumcised or uncircumcised. Spying out Titus’s liberty in Christ. I happen to think that’s probably what that means. It makes more sense to me that way than anything else. Paul could be extremely sarcastic. I think there’s a strong possibility that’s what was going on, but this room is full and as tense as it can be. And the weight of evidence really falls on Barnabas and Paul. They stand up. Barnabas gives his testimony; everything that happened to him since the apostles sent him to Antioch. It goes on for hours, maybe a day. The next day, Paul speaks, and he tells them about his conversion. He tells them of his time in Antioch. He talks about seeing the Lord in another realm, and then recounts the story of that incredible trip to Galatia.

Have you had a chance to read any of volume two? Have you read the part yet? How did they cross the river? You did. What’d you think about that, Alex? That’s good. Alright. Anybody else? You do. Do you know what I’m talking about? These were the kind of stories they told the apostles. Shipwrecks almost freeze to death. Nakedness, peril from thieves, peril from robbers, perils from the Jews, perils from false brethren. The apostles who have lived in Judea and suffered for the Lord nonetheless do not have stories like this to tell, and they realize that they’re sitting there listening to two of the most courageous, bold men living who have laid their necks on the line again and again to spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are impressed.

Then Paul enunciates his gospel to them. What he preaches, what he has said. They ask him questions. He gives penetrating answers, some of which they have never considered. And sometimes an apostle will shake his head like this. Some of the others will go like this. Incredible. His answers are of a man who knows, and their own spirits witness that this man is clear on his gospel, and it causes them, for the first time, to really consider issues they have never faced. He begins reminding them about Abraham and how Abraham was justified, and he brings out scriptures from what we call the Old Testament of the promise of the Gentiles. They have to sit there and shake their heads.

He reminds them of what happened to Peter when Peter saw a vision, and they all shake their heads, including Peter. Finally, it’s over with. Paul sits down. Man, this must be the most tense moment that brother ever lived. He sits down and goes…I know he sat down by Barnabas, and I know Barnabas put his arm around him as if to say, Paul, win or lose, you did your best. We did our best. Then Simon Peter gets up and as best and as clear as I can understand, the first thing he quotes is something that he and Paul must have said to one another during those 15 days that Paul hid in his home way back when Paul first got saved when they both admitted they could not live by the law, and which Paul repeated to him in Antioch when he had his finger under his nose, saying, “Peter, you’re a hypocrite.” He reminded him, “Peter, you and I know.” He says to him…you can read it there, “You and I know we cannot obey the law. We’ve never been able to fulfill the law.” Why then would we who cannot fulfill the law try to put these Gentiles under the law? And Simon Peter stands up and repeats what must have been said when they first met. What Paul repeated to Peter in Antioch, Peter now seems to repeat to all the apostles, and he says to them, “Brothers, you know that none of us ever successfully obeyed the law. Praise the Lord.” Amen.

Would God that some Baptist preachers, some deacons, and some elders would get up and admit that they have never successfully lived the Christian life, that they have never been able to do all the things they preached to you to do. Do you really believe that we pray as much as we tell you ought to pray? Hey, do you think that we read our Bible as much as we tell you ought to read your Bible? Do you think that we are as faithful in obeying the scriptures as we tell you ought to be in obedience to the scripture? Do you think that we witness as much as we give the impression that we witness in order to get you to witness so that you can win more people to the Lord? So that we can have more people in church, so that when the hat is passed, they’ll put more money in it, so that we’ll get a bigger building, a bigger congregation, a bigger salary, a bigger house, and a bigger car? Do you think we’re as morally good as we pretend that we are?

We are gentile sinners, just like you, and we wear suits and ties wherever we go to intimidate you, and we practice speaking in a baritone voice. Brethren, we Pharisees called preachers do not live the Christian life any more successfully than you do, but we don’t hesitate to put you under bondage to the Christian life. We need to all get together and say, “I never could pull this off. I was a flop at being a Christian.” I’m doing everything I’m supposed to do. And as surely as a Jew is not supposed to sit with and eat with an uncircumcised Gentile, that is a human tradition. So much of what we demand from you is not scripture but human tradition. I’ve heard enough sermons on prayer. Let me just say I’ve heard enough sermons on prayer. Period. But then I go to pray with the people who preach sermons.

Dear child of God, I would quit praying if I were you, if I cannot pray any better than what the typical Christian and the typical preacher can pray. I find nothing of spiritual content in most of it, and yet you will be told again and again to pray by men who, I have the deepest impression, have not the foggiest idea in this world how to sit down and fellowship person to person with the Lord Jesus Christ. The prayer is some kind of…I don’t know if it’s a ritual or what they call it…But I can tell you this: it’s dead. I really mean this. I wish we who happen to be ordained ministers, and I am one, and I really do…what Paul did with his Pharisee… I am a preacher. He said I am a Pharisee of Pharisees, but deep down in my heart…