Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / November 24 - Galatians 2

Transcript

November 24 - Galatians 2 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends, it's Sean here. It's Monday.
• 0:14
  It's the 24th of November. Thank you for tapping on play.
• 0:17
  It's great to have your company in this new week, this week
• 0:20
  where we are going to settle in and spend the whole week.
• 0:23
  Well, Monday to Thursday in the book of Galatians.
• 0:27
  This is a book that Paul wrote very early on in his ministry.
• 0:30
  So he is not that he became less zealous, but he's incredibly
• 0:34
  zealous at this point, and particularly about the
• 0:38
  transformation that he has just experienced.
• 0:41
  Transforming from the law, being the place where people are set
• 0:45
  right with God to being the grace that Jesus gives us, being
• 0:50
  what makes us right with God. So he is particularly passionate
• 0:54
  about making sure that this distinction is clear as he
• 0:58
  writes to this community of new Christians in Galatia.
• 1:02
  And just in case you're wondering why you can't find
• 1:05
  Galatia on your Atlas or your your map app Glacier is modern
• 1:10
  day Turkey. So that is where he is writing.
• 1:13
  This is what he's writing about, and that is what is boiling in
• 1:18
  his bones causing him to write this.
• 1:21
  So let us dive back in and read together Galatians chapter 2.
• 1:36
  Then 14 years later, I went back to Jerusalem again, this time
• 1:40
  with Barnabas, and Titus came along too.
• 1:44
  I went there because God revealed to me that I should go.
• 1:48
  While I was there I met privately with those considered
• 1:52
  to be the leaders of the church and shared with them the message
• 1:55
  I had been preaching to the Gentiles.
• 1:59
  I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement for fear that
• 2:02
  all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for
• 2:06
  nothing. And they supported me and did
• 2:09
  not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised,
• 2:13
  though he was a Gentile. Even that question came up only
• 2:17
  because of some so called believers there, false ones
• 2:21
  really, who were secretly brought in.
• 2:24
  They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in
• 2:29
  Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and
• 2:32
  force us to follow their Jewish regulations, but we refused to
• 2:37
  give in to them for a single moment.
• 2:39
  We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you,
• 2:44
  and the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was
• 2:47
  preaching. By the way, their reputation as
• 2:50
  great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no
• 2:54
  favourites. Instead, they saw that God had
• 2:57
  given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the
• 3:00
  Gentiles, just as He had given Peter the responsibility of
• 3:04
  preaching to the Jews. For the same God who worked
• 3:07
  through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me
• 3:12
  as the apostle to the Gentiles. In fact, James, Peter and John,
• 3:18
  who were known as pillars of the church, recognised the gift God
• 3:21
  had given me and they accepted Barnabas and me as their Co
• 3:25
  workers. They encouraged us to keep
• 3:28
  preaching to the Gentiles while they continued their work with
• 3:31
  the Jews. Their only suggestion was that
• 3:34
  we keep on helping the poor, which I've always been eager to
• 3:37
  do. But when Peter came to Antioch,
• 3:41
  I had to oppose him to his face, for he did what was very wrong.
• 3:47
  When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers who
• 3:50
  were not circumcised. But afterwards, when some
• 3:53
  friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles
• 3:57
  any more. He was afraid of criticism from
• 4:00
  the people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision.
• 4:04
  As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter's
• 4:07
  hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
• 4:12
  When I saw that they were not following the truth of the
• 4:14
  gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others,
• 4:18
  Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and
• 4:23
  are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make the
• 4:26
  Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
• 4:29
  You and I are both Jews by birth, not sinners like the
• 4:33
  Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is
• 4:36
  made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the
• 4:41
  Law. And we have believed in Christ
• 4:44
  Jesus so that we might be made right with God because of our
• 4:48
  faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law.
• 4:51
  For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the
• 4:55
  Law. But suppose we seek to be made
• 4:58
  right with God through faith in Christ, and then we are found
• 5:02
  guilty because we have abandoned the Law.
• 5:04
  Would that mean Christ has LED us into sin?
• 5:08
  Absolutely not. Rather, I am a Sinner if I
• 5:12
  rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.
• 5:16
  For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me.
• 5:20
  So I died to the law. I stopped trying to meet all its
• 5:24
  requirements so that I might live for God.
• 5:28
  My old self has been crucified with Christ.
• 5:31
  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
• 5:36
  So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God
• 5:40
  who loved me and gave himself for me.
• 5:43
  I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless, for keeping the
• 5:48
  law could make us right with God.
• 5:50
  Then there was no need for Christ to die.
• 6:03
  Our Jesus humanity really was in a pickle and any moment of self
• 6:08
  reflection would reveal that to us as we see in ourselves the
• 6:12
  impossibility of us following the law perfectly, never making
• 6:18
  a mistake, never making a bad choice, always following the
• 6:22
  selfless godly way. No, we are broken and corrupted
• 6:27
  by our sinful nature. But there you are, Jesus.
• 6:32
  I'm stretched wide on that cross, the ultimate sacrifice.
• 6:38
  That means that it's your love and your acceptance and
• 6:42
  everything you've done for us. That's what justifies us before
• 6:47
  God. That's what makes us right.
• 6:50
  Thank you for your grace. Thank you for winning that
• 6:55
  battle for us. So that wrapped in your grace,
• 7:01
  under the protection and provision of your arms, we can
• 7:04
  stand perfect before the throne. Holy, holy, holy are you Lord
• 7:11
  Jesus, and we just praise you and thank you for all you've
• 7:17
  done for us. We pray all of this in your
• 7:21
  mighty and victorious name, Amen.