Well, good morning, church. Would you turn with me to Galatians chapter 2? We are looking at verses 1-10 today.
! As you turn there, I just want to express some thanksgiving for all the good things that have been happening lately in our church body,
the three-week women's Bible study that just concluded, the men's breakfast yesterday. I also continue to hear about good things happening in small groups.
How many of you, raise your hand, are part of a Trinity small group? It's like 90% of the church right here.
So, you know, I'm sure there were lots of hands at home too. You know, it's encouraging to see the Word of God reverberating in our church fellowship
as we build each other up in love, as Paul says in Ephesians 4. Well, let's go ahead and take a look at our passage in Galatians 2.
As we come to this text, let me pray for us. Father, help us now as we come to Your Word. Lord, would we be edified by Your Spirit?
Would we be built up in love? Would we be strengthened in our faith? Would we be renewed in our hope?
We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.
All right, Galatians 2, 1-10. Paul writes this,
Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus,
so that they might bring us into slavery, to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment,
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me.
God shows no partiality.
Those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.
On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised,
just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised,
for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised,
worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles.
And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me,
they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me,
that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
So, our passage today is about unity in the gospel, gospel unity.
Now, let's remember the context here.
In these early chapters of Galatians, Paul is responding to false charges and criticism
that he not only received his gospel message from the other apostles in Jerusalem,
but also that he had been misrepresenting the gospel that the other apostles preached.
In other words, there were false teachers in Galatia saying that Paul's message was both derivative and deficient,
kind of like a photocopy of a photocopy, all kind of blurry and darkened and faded.
They were saying that his gospel wasn't the real thing.
So, in response to these charges, Paul, in chapters 1 and 2 of Galatians, gives us some autobiography.
In fact, if you're looking for a handy outline of the book of Galatians, chapters 1 and 2 are biography,
chapters 3 and 4 are theology, and chapters 5 and 6 are ethics.
And Paul's going to walk through each of those as we go through this book.
But in these first two chapters, he's giving us some autobiography.
In chapter 1, we heard Paul tell the story of how he received his gospel not from the other apostles,
but directly from Jesus Christ himself.
In chapter 1, verses 11 through 24, Paul tells the story of how his apostolic message and ministry
were not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead,
which is how the book starts in verse 1.
So, last week we saw Paul respond to this false charge that his gospel isn't the real gospel
by showing how he received it directly from Jesus independently of the other apostles.
But today, in the passage we just read from chapter 2, Paul now argues that even though his gospel
doesn't depend on the other apostles, it is in fact the same gospel that they preach.
Here, Paul recounts how some of the apostles in Jerusalem, far from preaching a different gospel than Paul,
affirmed and validated Paul's gospel as their gospel too.
In other words, despite what the false teachers were saying to the Galatians,
Paul's gospel and what we might call the one true apostolic gospel are one and the same.
The gospel, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel, the good news, that God justifies sinners,
whether Jew or Gentile, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from our works.
That is the one true apostolic gospel.
So, don't let anyone deceive you or mislead you, Paul says.
This isn't just my gospel, Paul's saying.
It's the gospel.
God raised Jesus from the dead.
He is Lord and Christ.
And all who are united to the Lord Jesus by faith are released from all their guilt,
accepted as righteous in God's sight,
and become full members and participants in God's family and God's kingdom.
So, what we have here in chapter 2, verses 1 through 10,
is Paul recounting an episode from earlier in his life
where this apostolic unity in the gospel was affirmed and established.
And with the time that we have, I want to take a closer look at this gospel unity
because I think there are a lot of things that we can learn from it today.
I want to pull out three lessons for us.
The first one is this.
Gospel unity is worth pursuing.
Look again at verses 1 and 2.
Paul says,
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas,
taking Titus along with me.
I went up because of a revelation and set before them,
though privately, before those who seemed influential,
the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles
in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.
Now, Paul here is most likely describing the visit
that he and Barnabas made to Jerusalem at the end of Acts 11.
If we pick up where our first Scripture reading left off this morning,
we read this.
It says,
Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch,
and one of them, named Agabus, stood up and foretold by the Spirit
how there would be a great famine all over the world.
This took place in the days of Claudius.
So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability
to send relief to the brothers living in Judea,
and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Sahal.
So, we see there that Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem because of a revelation
that a famine was soon to come, and they brought relief to the churches in Judea.
But while Paul is there, he makes an express point to go to the other apostles living in Jerusalem
and to make sure that they are proclaiming the same gospel.
Now, why does Paul go through the trouble to set up this private meeting?
Well, he says,
Now, Paul doesn't mean that he was worried over the accuracy or truthfulness of what he was teaching.
He wasn't sort of checking in with the Jerusalem apostles to see whether he had gotten it right or wrong, right?
He had been doing ministry for 14 years at this point.
According to chapter 1 of Galatians,
Paul was quite sure that the message he received was from Jesus himself.
It was the true gospel.
So, if Paul didn't have misgivings about his own preaching, what was he concerned about?
Well, Paul realized that if he and the leaders in Jerusalem were not on the same page,
then all his work among the Gentiles would be severely threatened.
Why?
Well, you know why, right?
Imagine Pastor Matt got up one week and said,
God saves sinners through faith in Christ, so believe in Him and be saved.
And then the next week I got up and said,
God saves sinners through faith in Jesus Christ,
if you also get circumcised and keep the regulations of Moses.
So, believe in Jesus, get circumcised, keep the law, and then you'll be saved.
Well, everything that Matt had done the previous week
would be severely undermined by me the following week.
And that's exactly what Paul didn't want to happen
between his and Barnabas' ministry in Antioch at this point in history
and the apostles' ministry in Jerusalem.
So, their gospel unity was worth pursuing.
Why?
So that their labors wouldn't be in vain.
As Paul and Barnabas pioneered the gospel work in Antioch among the Galatians,
they knew it was vital to establish the unity of the gospel message.
They needed to be proclaiming the same gospel
or else their labors would be in vain.
So they took the time to meet together
and to talk through what they believed and why
to make sure that they held the most important thing in unison.
Gospel unity is worth pursuing.
Now, today, this is important still.
It's important between local churches, right?
We want to partner with other churches
who believe and proclaim the biblical gospel.
Of course, it takes time to get to know other ministries
and other leaders in our city.
It takes time to learn about church planting networks,
with whom we're on the same page, right?
It takes time to get to know other congregations
throughout our region.
But this unity in the gospel is worth pursuing.
I'm incredibly grateful that Trinity can be a part of church networks
that hold the gospel in common,
whether it's our local Connecticut Baptist Association
or whether it's our New Haven Network,
Bridges of Hope with other gospel-preaching churches,
or whether it's the gospel coalition nationally.
We want to pursue this gospel unity.
You see, local churches aren't meant to be just little islands
pretending as if we can simply do it alone.
We need to pursue unity in the gospel with other churches
so that we don't run the race in vain.
But this isn't just true between local churches.
It's even more true within a local church.
Our unity here at Trinity is grounded in one thing,
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If as fellow members of the church we don't hold the gospel in common,
then surely all our labors will be in vain.
I've actually witnessed churches where unity is not based on the gospel,
but on family heritage or mutual friendship
or on appreciation for a certain tradition
or on a worship aesthetic
or on similar, you know, interests in social causes.
And eventually, friends, those churches fall apart.
Most churches that splinter and die
or that wither in stagnation do so
because they haven't done the necessary and hard work
of pursuing unity in the gospel.
So at Trinity, we ask every incoming member,
tell me, what's your understanding of the gospel?
In a nutshell, what is this life-saving good news?
We want to ask that question and pursue it.
We want to make it a point to put the gospel front and center
because if we don't have unity in the gospel,
then we're simply running in vain.
And, you know, this isn't true just between local churches
or within local churches.
I mean, think about some of our most important relationships, right?
I think we can also say that pursuing unity in the gospel
is critical in something like marriage, for example.
If you're considering a potential spouse,
unity in the gospel is absolutely necessary.
If you don't share a common understanding of the gospel,
then your marriage simply won't have the foundation
to support you through all the ups and downs
and trials and joys of married life.
And if you're already married
and you find that you don't currently have this sort of unity,
then make it your regular, earnest prayer
that God would bring this about.
Call out to God.
Go to His throne of grace.
He hears your prayers.
So we see first that gospel unity here
is worth pursuing.
The next lesson we see is that
in our pursuit of gospel unity,
gospel truth must be defended.
In our pursuit of gospel unity,
the truth of the gospel needs to be defended.
We see this in verses 3 through 5,
where Paul says,
but even Titus, who was with me,
was not forced to be circumcised,
though he was Greek.
Yet, because a false brother
secretly brought in,
who slipped in to spy out our freedom
that we have in Christ Jesus
so that they might bring us into slavery,
to them we did not yield in submission
even for a moment
so that the truth of the gospel
might be preserved for you.
You see, Paul knew that the very truth
of the gospel was at stake
when these false brothers slipped in
to his meeting with the other apostles,
and they began, presumably,
to demand that Titus be circumcised
if he was going to have fellowship with them.
Now, why did Paul perceive
that the truth of the gospel was at stake?
Well, because they were adding
a necessary requirement to salvation
over and above what Christ had accomplished
through his death and resurrection, you see.
And whether these false brothers,
as Paul calls them,
thought of circumcision
as an act of moral obedience
or as an identity marker of being Jewish,
it doesn't really matter.
To require anything in addition
to Jesus' person and work
as a necessary condition of salvation,
as a necessary condition
to be accepted into God's family,
to put any other necessary condition
or requirement on top of what Jesus has done
is to jettison the very heart of the gospel.
So Paul here is unyielding, he says.
Now, if you know the story of Acts,
you know that in a little while
after writing the book of Galatians,
Paul actually does circumcise
another one of his young partners in ministry
named Timothy
before they go off
on another one of their missionary journeys.
So what's the difference?
Why be utterly unyielding with Titus
but then be super flexible with Timothy?
I mean, did Timothy sort of like
draw the short end of the stick here?
Like, what was going on?
Well, the difference is obvious, right?
The difference is that in the case of Titus,
circumcision was being made a requirement
for salvation.
It was being made a necessary part
of the gospel itself.
Whereas with Timothy,
it was done in freedom.
It was done willingly
in order to lower barriers
between himself and unbelieving Jews.
The one case threatened the gospel.
The other case was an expression of love
for the lost flowing out of the gospel.
That's a big difference.
And Paul saw the difference.
And in the case of Titus,
he was unwilling to yield at all
so that the truth of the gospel
might be preserved.
Friends, are we also willing
to be unyielding
when the truth of the gospel is at stake?
And like Paul,
are we motivated to be unyielding?
Not for the sake of our pride,
not for the sake of our reputation,
but for the sake of others.
Notice, Paul says,
so that the truth of the gospel
might be preserved for you.
In that moment in Jerusalem
with Titus and Barnabas
and the false brothers
demanding circumcision,
it wasn't Paul's pride
that was on the line.
It wasn't about Paul being right
and then being wrong.
It was all about
the Gentile believers
and whether they would be assured
and grounded
in the real freedom of the gospel.
Paul's heart in that moment
was beating for the men and women
who had turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God
and to know the liberating grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be free from guilt and shame.
His heart was beating
for those who were once far off
but had been brought near.
How?
By the blood of Christ.
If Titus was forced
to be circumcised,
if Paul went along with it,
then the gospel of grace
for all people would be lost.
Do we see the truth
of the gospel in this way?
It's not just about
winning theological points
or being a part
of a certain tribe.
It's about the souls
of men and women
really coming to know
the life-changing power
of the gospel of grace.
It's about really knowing
the finished work of Christ
and the freedom from guilt
and dominion of sin
and the law.
So when we are unyielding
about central things,
the authority of Scripture,
the exclusivity of Christ,
the substitutionary work
of the cross,
justification by faith alone,
the bodily resurrection,
these core gospel truths,
when we are unyielding
on those things,
it's not because
we're being doctrinaire
or because we relish
a good theological fight.
It's because we love
the people for whom Christ died
and we don't want anything
to keep them from knowing
Christ crucified
and the real glory
of the gospel of grace.
So as we pursue gospel unity,
yes, the truth of the gospel
must be defended at times.
There can be unity in the gospel.
There cannot be unity
in the gospel
without the truth of the gospel.
So we don't yield
when the gospel is at stake.
And now we come to our last point.
We've seen that gospel unity
is worth pursuing
and we've seen that
in our pursuit of gospel unity,
the truth of the gospel
needs to be defended.
The last point is this.
In our pursuit of gospel unity,
not only must gospel truth
be defended,
but gospel love
must be expressed.
The love of the gospel
must be expressed.
Look again with me
at verses 6 through 10.
Paul says,
and from those who seem
to be influential,
what they were
makes no difference to me.
God shows no partiality.
Those, I say,
who seemed influential
added nothing to me.
That is,
they added nothing
on top of the gospel, right?
On the contrary,
when they saw
that I had been entrusted
with the gospel
to the uncircumcised,
just as Peter had been entrusted
with the gospel
to the circumcised,
for he,
that is God,
who worked through Peter
for his apostolic ministry
to the circumcised,
worked also through me
for mine to the Gentiles.
And when James and Cephas,
that's Peter, right,
and John,
who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace
that was given to me,
they gave the right hand
of fellowship
to Barnabas and me
that we should go
to the Gentiles
and they to the circumcised.
Only they asked us
to remember the poor,
the very thing
I was eager to do.
So you see,
the gospel produces
not just courage
that refuses to yield,
but it also produces love
that refuses to be partial
or partisan.
You see that here?
Notice how often Paul says,
what they were
makes no difference to me.
Yes, the apostles in Jerusalem,
James and Peter and John,
they seemed influential.
After all,
wasn't James
Jesus' brother?
Weren't Peter and John
part of Jesus' inner group
of the disciples
during His earthly ministry?
People, it seems,
had been looking up to them,
respecting them,
viewing these three
as pillars
in God's new temple,
the church,
viewing them as
more significant
than the other apostles.
apostles.
And as humans,
don't we have
a natural tendency,
right,
to kind of elevate
personalities
and then to create
kind of tribes
or cliques?
But Paul says,
look,
what they were
makes no difference to me.
God shows no partiality.
To some,
they might have seemed
more influential
than the other apostles.
To some,
they might have seemed
like the real pillars
of the church.
But Paul says,
their apostolic message
and their apostolic ministry
was in reality
no different than His.
Before the Lord Jesus Christ,
they were equal.
There was no partiality.
And that is what
the apostles affirm
in this moment.
They see that God
had given His empowering grace
both to Peter
and Paul alike
and to all the apostles.
Yes,
they may have had
different mission fields,
Peter primarily
to the Jews,
right,
Paul primarily
to the Gentiles,
although of course
there was lots
of overlap there.
But,
they have the same message,
the same empowering grace,
and most importantly,
the same Lord,
the Lord Jesus.
And that means
they can put
personality aside.
They can put
partisanship aside.
They can put
the opinions
of others aside.
and they can extend
the right hand
of fellowship
to one another.
They can reach out
across all of that
and give each other
the embrace
of gospel unity.
They can be genuinely
for each other's ministry
because they know
that they serve
the same Lord
and the same kingdom
and the same mission.
You know,
this is why we pray
for other local churches
regularly in our services.
praise God
that Trinity
isn't the only local church
in New Haven
that proclaims
the biblical gospel.
We couldn't even fit
that many people
in our sanctuary, right?
It's got to be more than us.
So, we pray
for other faithful churches
because we serve
the same Lord
and we preach
the same message
of grace
and we serve
the same kingdom
and we serve
the same king.
Just as Peter
and Paul
weren't in competition
with one another,
so we aren't
in competition
with Christ Presbyterian Church
or with Vox Church
or with Christian Tabernacle
or St. John's
or Elm City Vineyard.
If any church
proclaims
the biblical gospel
faithfully,
then we can extend
the right hand
of fellowship.
Now, that doesn't mean
that what we might call
our secondary doctrines
and practices
are completely irrelevant,
right?
I think there are
really good reasons
to preach
expositionally,
to practice
believer's baptism,
to sing old hymns
and contemporary songs,
to have a plurality
of elders,
to prioritize meeting
in person
rather than virtually
when it's not a snow day,
right?
I think I can give
some really good reasons
why churches
should do these things.
And I think it's good
to attend a church
that does these things.
But you know what?
Those things aren't
the gospel.
They aren't matters
of first importance.
Are they important?
Absolutely.
Some of them
are very important.
Are they of first importance?
No.
So we can extend
the love of the gospel
and the right hand
of fellowship
to our brothers
and sisters
with whom we may
disagree
about secondary issues.
We can partner
in ministry together
like we do
through Bridges of Hope.
We can pray
earnestly for each other.
We can worship
and work together
for Christ's sake
because we hold
the matters
of first importance
together.
But love doesn't
stop there.
Paul ends the passage
by saying,
only they asked us
to remember the poor,
the very thing
I was eager to do.
You see, friends,
we are saved
by faith
in Christ alone.
But saving faith
is never alone.
The faith
that unites us
to Christ,
the living Lord,
is a faith
that inevitably
issues forth
in love and good deeds.
In Christ,
we're a new creation.
The old has passed away,
the new has come.
Paul will say
a little later
in this chapter,
it's no longer
I who lives,
but Christ who lives in me.
Amen.
All his heavenly riches
and became poor
in our place,
he emptied himself
so that we,
through his poverty,
might become
spiritually rich.
And so,
having received
such a gift,
how could we not
now turn
to those in need
and seek
to meet their needs?
Now,
think about it.
Of course,
if I think
that my salvation
before God
is based
on something
I've done
to deserve it,
whether that be
my circumcision,
like the false teachers
in Galatians
we're teaching,
or my moral efforts,
or my regular
church attendance,
if I think
my salvation with God
is based on something
I've done
to deserve it,
then I am much
more likely
to view the world
through the lens
of who does
and doesn't
deserve
my help.
After all,
if God
only saves
those who
do something
to deserve it,
shouldn't I
treat others
the same way?
And,
if I think
I've actually
done something
good enough
or smart enough
or spiritual enough
to earn
God's salvation,
then how could
I not expect
others to be able
to pull themselves
up by their
bootstraps
and help
themselves?
But,
friends,
that's not
the gospel.
The gospel
says that you
and I
are sinners.
We've made
a wreck
of things
with God
and we can't
earn our way
out.
God's rescue
is completely
and totally
by grace.
When we were
dead in our sins,
Christ made us
alive.
In other words,
if you believe
in justification
by faith alone,
there's no way
you should view
the world
through the grid
of deserving
and undeserving
because you
and I don't
deserve anything
good that we've
received.
It's all of grace.
And that changes
how you see
those in material
need,
especially fellow
Christians.
The poor here
in verse 10
probably referred
specifically to
those suffering
churches in Judea
that Paul and
Barnabas and
Titus had gone
there to help
in the first
place.
And Paul says
he was eager
to help them.
And when we
read the rest
of Paul's
letters,
we see that
a large part
of his ministry
among the
Gentile churches
was organizing
a financial
collection that
would then be
sent back to
help those
Jewish Christian
churches in
Judea who
were materially
in need.
You see,
the gospel
of grace
cuts across
racial,
ethnic,
national,
socioeconomic
lines.
It creates
a whole new
humanity that's
bonded together
in love.
So we're
eager to help
when we hear
of needs.
But not
just,
not just
for our
fellow
Christians.
Historically,
Christians have
cared for the
poor whether
they're Christians
or not.
Why?
Because again,
is this not
the very
logic,
the very
heartbeat
of the
gospel.
Grace.
Amazing grace,
how sweet
the sound
that saved
what?
A pretty
good guy
like me.
No,
a wretch
like me.
I once
was lost,
but now
I'm found.
I was blind,
but now
I see.
When I was
an outsider,
Christ left
everything to
bring me in.
when I was
far off,
he went out
into the
far country.
I was
condemned,
so he was
condemned.
I was dead,
so he died.
I was poor,
so he became
poor.
And through
his death
and his
poverty and
his condemnation,
through that,
he rose
victorious
and rose
me with
him
and rose
you with
him
if you've
put your
trust in
him.
And do you
see that?
Do you
see then
that the
way to
life,
to real
lasting
resurrection
life,
isn't through
amassing
wealth for
myself,
but through
giving out
of any
abundance that
I have
to those
in need.
The way
to life
isn't through
ignoring the
poor or
the needy
or the
suffering of
this world,
but remembering
them.
And together
with all the
church,
letting our
resources meet
their needs
wherever we
can.
the very
thing I
was eager
to do,
Paul says.
Of course,
of course.
How could
the gospel
not make
you eager,
eager to
live out the
love of the
gospel because
we have first
been loved?
Let's pray.
Father in
heaven,
help us
to live
out this
gospel unity.
Unite us
as a local
church together
around this
wonderful,
life-saving
message of
Jesus crucified
and risen.
Lord,
help us to
forge good
relationships
with other
like-minded
gospel-preaching
churches that
we might advance
your gospel
all the more
winsomely and
effectively
together.
And Lord
Jesus,
help us
to be a
church of
unyielding
commitment to
truth and
passionate,
compassionate,
eager love for
those in need.
We pray this in
Jesus' name.
Amen.