From Antioch, With Love - Galatians 1:1-5

Since we’re all here, I think we can draw a couple of conclusions from that fact:

1. Either there was no worldwide rapture yesterday in spite of the fact that the Bible "guaranteed" it, and therefore the Bible is filled with lies and not trustworthy, so we can stop now and eat dinner . . . OR

2. There was a rapture yesterday and we missed it.  But since there doesn’t appear to be anyone missing, including Harold Camping, then option number three is . . .

3. The Bible is true, Harold Camping is a false teacher, or at best, very seriously misguided, has deceived many people, and now more than ever we need to read the Bible and actually see what it says about the return of Christ..

Let me make one very basic statement concerning the return of the Lord Jesus and the end of the world.  If you belong to Christ, if you are a true Christian, and if you’re walking with Him, it doesn’t really matter all that much when He comes.  Sooner is always better than later, of course.  But if he comes soon, or if He doesn’t come for another 1000 years, we want to be found faithful in our everyday lives for Him.  If He comes before the Great Tribulation, or in the middle, or at the end, or even after the end, the timing of His arrival is not our main concern.  As His people, our main concern should be our obedience to all He has commanded us to do.  

But very often, especially within the Evangelical community, believers lose the priority of holy living because they are so focused on interpreting world events in order to be actually looking at the clouds when Jesus comes through them.  They have become so enamored with the mystery of the Second Coming that they neglect other biblical teaching that isn’t directly connected to end times prophecies.  Consequently, many exert very little effort to read all those apparently less important portions of Scripture like Hebrews 12:14 -

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14 ESV)

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. (2 Timothy 3:12 ESV)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, [12] training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, [13] waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, [14] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14 ESV)

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. [8] For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, (or whether we get raptured or not!) we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:7-8 ESV)

God has saved us, not so we can sit back and relax while we wait for the Second Coming.  Christ saved us in order that we might glorify Him by living holy lives, in our work and in our families; That we might glorify Him in how we think, and in how we conduct ourselves in this dark and sinful world.  Here is how Paul prayed for Christians:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, [11] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11 ESV)

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, [15] that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world . . ..  (Philippians 2:14-15 ESV)

Our work as followers of the Lord Jesus in this life is to be holy, godly, pure, blameless, and innocent for the day of Christ.  We are to shine as lights in the word, not as fools who can’t discern biblical teaching from false teaching.  I don’t know whether to feel pity or anger towards Harold Camping and his followers.  I feel some of both.

Having said that, now let’s turn once again to Paul’s epistle to the Galatians.  First, before we look at the text, I want to give you a little pop quiz.  Listen carefully.  If the Philippians were from the town of Philippi and the Ephesians were from the city of Ephesus, and the Colossians were from a town by the name of Colossae, then the Galatians were from the town of _______.  Beloved, the Galatians were not from the town of Galatia.  There is no town of Galatia.  The Galatians were from the Roman province of Galatia.  

Galatia was the name of the central region of Asia Minor which is our modern day Turkey.  This is where Paul and Barnabas traveled on their first missionary journey and preached the Gospel as a missionaries among the Gentiles there for the first time.  God saved many people through Paul’s preaching and churches were established in various towns.  In Acts 13, Paul preaches in the town of Pisidia in Galatia:

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48 ESV).  

Then, according to Acts 14:1, they traveled to the city of Iconium in Galatia:

Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. (Acts 14:1 ESV)

From there, Paul and his companion Barnabas traveled to the Galatian cities of Lystra and Derbe:

[21] When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, [22] strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.  And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (Acts 14:21-23 ESV)

It is to all those believers, both Jews and Gentiles, in all those churches in all those cities throughout Galatia that he writes this letter called Galatians.  They were among the very first people to trust in Christ as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of Paul.  It is some years later, after Paul’s enemies had also traveled to those cities and had begun to lead the brethren away from the truth of the Gospel, that Paul puts pen to paper and writes one of the most scathing of all his epistles.

Last week, we looked at Paul’s sordid background as a Pharisee, and as a persecutor of Christ.  How is that possible?  How is it possible that Paul, who prior to his conversion was known as Saul; how could he have been a persecutor of Christ AFTER Christ had risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven?  

In Acts 9, when we read the account of Saul’s salvation experience on the road to Damascus, we see this:

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" 5And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:1-5 ESV).

Was Saul persecuting Jesus?  How is that possible?  Jesus was speaking to Saul from Heaven.  And yet He says to Saul, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

In Matthew 25, when Jesus returns and gathers the nations for the final judgment, he says to those on His left these remarkable words:

'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44 Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' 45 Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:41-46 ESV)

The proliferation of false teachers and false Christians who are not confronted and are allowed, largely by means of the Internet, to propagate all kinds of ridiculously evil doctrines, which the Scriptures call “doctrines of demons”, will have an affect upon the rest of us.  Harold Camping has created an even higher degree of intolerance among the ungodly for anything that smacks of the Bible and Christianity.  And, although I do not claim to be a prophet, I believe it is unmistakable that worse days are ahead for the true people of God.

Those of us, the shrinking minority of people who actually believe what the Bible says, who are not pretending to be Christians as long as it is convenient, and who have the audacity to try by God’s grace to live according to it, will increasingly become the targets of widespread intolerance, ridicule, violence, and eventually death.  In the days ahead, the ranks of the persecutors will grow exponentially here in this country.  You and I are already seeing this take place before our eyes.  It has been a long time since the Christian community as a whole has been seen by the world as the laughingstock it is right now.

But one of the reasons why we will suffer increasing persecution in the days ahead is because we have convictions about what is true which we are not willing to compromise.  And it is compromise that Paul addresses in this Galatian letter.  The Galatians have been persuaded by some smooth-talking Jews that faith in Christ is not sufficient to save anyone, and Paul is a false teacher who has deceived them.

[1:1] Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—[2] and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: (Galatians 1:1-2 ESV)

Once again, Paul introduces himself to the Galatians in the standard letter writing form of that day.  We always begin a letter by saying, “Dear So and So”.  In the Middle Eastern culture of the first century, people began letters by first introducing themselves, and then stating who the intended audience is.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul begins by introducing himself alone: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, . . . to all those in Rome . . ..” (Romans 1:1&7 ESV).  On other occasions, such as when he writes 1 Corinthians, he begins by saying, “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth” etc., etc. (1Corinthians 1:1-2 ESV).  In 2 Corinthians he says, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth . . .. (2Corinthians 1:1 ESV).  In the book of Ephesians, he only mentions himself in the greeting.  In Philippians and Colossians he mentions himself and Timothy again.  In 1 & 2 Thessalonians Paul, Timothy and Silvanus greet the brethren in the introduction.  

But notice how he addresses the churches of Galatia: “Paul, an apostle . . . [2] and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia."  It should be sufficient for Paul to simply state his own apostleship in order to assert his authority in writing this letter.  And it is safe to assume that when he mentions Timothy or Silvanus in his greetings to other churches, he does so because these men are in agreement with the content of Paul’s letters.

But on this occasion Paul says it is not only himself, but “ALL the brethren with me” who are, in essence, writing and sending this letter to the Galatians.  It is believed that these brethren to whom Paul refers are the entire congregation of Paul’s home church in Antioch, the church that sent Paul and Barnabas to Galatia of which we read in Acts 13.  

Paul and his home church are in agreement concerning what he writes in this letter.  So while the letter may be authored by Paul, and while Paul may write with the authority of an apostle, it is also quite interesting that an entire church collectively sends a letter of exhortation and rebuke to their brethren who came to believe the gospel through the preaching of their missionary.  And even though Paul doesn’t necessarily need his home church to sign off on his letter, when they do, it lends even more credibility to him personally, and it lends more urgency to what he writes.

“Paul, an apostle . . . [2] and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia” is a powerful statement.  The brethren at Antioch not only agreed with Paul’s letter, but they felt a collective responsibility to warn and rebuke and correct their sister churches in Galatia.  Would that more churches felt such love and concern as this for their erring brethren elsewhere.

Many of you are not aware of this, but several of us in this congregation attempted to address some very serious matters that had taken place in another Baptist church here in our community.  I don’t know how the churches of Galatia received Paul’s and Antioch’s letter of correction, but in our situation let’s just say our warnings weren’t appreciated by the other church.  At all.  In fact, I was personally ordered never to step foot on their church property ever again.  

So, we need to realize that just because Paul (the apostle!) and all the brethren with him (presumably the entire church of Antioch) wrote a letter to chastise the Galatians for embracing false teachers, that doesn’t mean the Galatians actually paid this letter any attention.  But it should have been seen as a very serious matter when an entire congregation--particularly the congregation that sent an apostle to you with the gospel for the first time ever--when that congregation sends a warning letter telling their brethren they are in danger of becoming apostate--that by listening to false teachers they are losing the very gospel message that brought salvation to them in the first place--that is a very, very serious warning which should have been received and heeded immediately.

This little letter to the Galatians is one of the weightiest letters the apostle Paul ever wrote.  It carried with it the endorsement of an entire church family, most likely the church at Antioch.  And what is the gist of their message?  Paul’s introduction continues with these words:

[3] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, [4] who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, [5] to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:3-5 ESV)

The issue Paul is going to address is the sufficiency of Christ alone to save.  Christ gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.  That right there--that simple, uncomplicated message of salvation in Jesus Christ alone--was being brought into question by evil men who would rob the Galatians of it by adding “good works” to the gospel and making the work of the Son of God upon the cross inadequate and insufficient to save.

Beloved, the saving grace of God is so simple it is hard to believe.  It is so simple that it becomes rather easy for ungodly men to convince others that “Salvation just isn’t that simple.”  “Yes, Jesus died for sinners, but . . . “  And thus begins the slide into a gospel that cannot save those who believe it.

It is a terrible thing to be so deceived as to quit your job, give away all your earthly goods, and spend your entire life savings on advertising to warn people of the end of the world when the world isn’t coming to an end just yet.  I feel a great deal of pity for those thousands of people whom Harold Camping has led to their own personal financial ruin all for nothing.  They are seen by the entire world as fools.

But it is infinitely worse to have the gospel of Jesus Christ and then lose it because unbelievers convince you that your faith in Christ is an insufficient faith that cannot really save you.  It is one thing to be mistaken about the Rapture.  You can be completely wrong about that and still have a Savior who will eventually bring you to Heaven.  It is another thing entirely to be mistaken about who Christ is and what He has done and die in your sins.