Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 22, 2024 | Galatians - Gospel Partners

Transcript

September 22, 2024 | Galatians - Gospel Partners · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good to be with you.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Glad you're here.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, are you guys familiar with uh you know like the individual label maker guns, right?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Where you can you can type something in and then you can just like press it and it creates individual labels.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen somebody who loves labels get a hold of one of those?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you come back and like the stapler has a stapler label on it.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I think we've gone just a little bit overboard.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's amazing how easy it is, it easy it is for us to begin to label things in our life, begin to label um not just staplers, um three whole punches, but uh really the kinds of things that we think are appropriate, and and in fact to create boundaries that hold us back.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to the Christian community, we have a great tendency to begin to label things as appropriate or inappropriate or people that we want to spend time with or we don't want to spend time with, that really are part of division that we don't find in Scripture.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is not because that some divisions that have been made are not important, uh, but rather that when we look at like the very early, early church, and by that I don't I don't mean like 85 years ago at TBC, I mean like 2,000 years ago early church.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: When we look back then, and particularly in the book of Acts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts, when we see what the early church was doing, and we understand all of the problems that they had to deal with, um, some good problems, some not, with having a brand new religion, and Jesus, as obviously amazing as he is, just kind of went, figure it out, right?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so then for the next couple hundred years, they're going, okay, well, what does it mean for Jesus to be have two natures, for instance, fully God and fully man?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they eventually created certain things.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: They said, okay, these are kind of the boundary fences that we've established around our faith.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to be a Christian, to trust in the gospel.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And outside of those fences, it means that they're not a Christian.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem that we have is we then start looking within those fences, and we start going, but they're not a real follower.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: They don't care as much as I do.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: They've made these mistakes, or we, they're reformed and I'm not, or they have drums in their worship and we don't, or they're elder led and we're congregationally led, and there are all these different things that come up.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: This morning we're gonna be looking at a passage.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start in Galatians chapter 2, and really this morning is kind of a two-part message, finishing next week.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the type of person who makes boundaries easily, uh this morning is gonna be kind of the push for you, and next week is gonna feel very comfortable.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if, on the other hand, you're the type of person who just loves and values unity but might go a step too far, um, you're gonna love this morning, and next week might be a push for you.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have to reconcile this fact that in our churches today, and I mean like in Topeka as well, um, we have a sense of competition, that we can breed a type of disunity, even with those who are preaching the gospel.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we start looking at churches like they are um firefighters and police officers, okay?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Both serving uh kind of the good in the same people, but like we're gonna crush you at the next softball game, right?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you have felt that tension too.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have had people come up to me here in Topeka, be at the grocery store or something, and I don't know them, they'll meet me, and they'll find out that I I'm a pastor here at TBC and they'll apologize to me for not going to TBC.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, it's okay.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I am not upset with you.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you have family members who live here in Topeka who go to other churches and you feel the need to justify why they go somewhere else.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: But if we are united in the gospel, and if we are all on the same team truly, and if we are all pushing forward with the same mission, um, at least in its most important parts, we should have the ability to find unity and to work together.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we're at this morning when we begin at Galatians chapter two.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Final statement before we get going is if you were here last week, you'll remember that Jim began to go into Paul's, he has sort of an autobiography at the end of Galatians 1 and the beginning of Galatians chapter 2.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we are kind of picking up halfway through that.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So just sort of keep in mind that what Paul is trying to do here is establish his authority as an apostle and proclaim that the gospel message he has shared with the Galatians has come directly from God and has not come from man.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's begin.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 2, verses 1 through 5.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be sure I was not running, and in fact had not been running in vain.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of details in this passage.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: What we need to understand is that by Paul sharing this information, he is continuing the thought that he is independent from sort of the other Christian leaders at the time, which would be primarily those in Jerusalem.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem is the Christian HQ, okay?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is where Jesus was crucified, and it is also where the temple is at.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so in this one city, you have the headquarters for the Jewish faith and the headquarters for sort of just this Christian faith in general.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Many of the apostles, which we normally think of the twelve disciples, um, but apostles would be a more specific term.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna find out, for instance, that Paul is going to meet with Peter and John, and then he's also gonna have a meeting with James, not the apostle, but the half-brother of Jesus, who is leading the church in Jerusalem, and is actually one of the most important figures here.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul is talking about a meeting that he had with these three individuals, whom he calls the pillars of the church.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're so important in this early church.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul has been separate from them for 14 years.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's met them before, but he's been doing his own thing over in Asia Minor, Turkey.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's been living in Tarsus, he's done a lot in Syria and Antioch.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul's main mission for well over a decade has not been ministering to Jewish people and trying to convince them to become Christians, but rather ministering to Gentiles, non-Jews, and doing the same kind of work, sharing the same gospel message, but he hasn't had a whole lot of contact.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: That becomes really important because the if you've been with us as we're going through the book of Galatians, you know that there's this false gospel message that is being presented in the Galatian churches.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a gospel of works which says, you know, you need to do certain things in order for you to be truly saved beyond just trusting in Christ.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is not grace by faith that you have been saved.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: The false gospel would say there is a matter of works.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in particular, though it might seem weird to us, the main thing that they're hung up on is people getting circumcised.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know what that is, ask your neighbor, okay?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're really focused on this.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll actually talk more in the podcast about why that was such a big deal, but you can you can substitute something else in.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, imagine if I said, hey, um, I have organized with a number of Topeka tattoo artists to come here this morning, and when everybody walks out, we're gonna get a little cross on our arm.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you really care about Jesus, like if you actually trust in him as your savior, you're gonna have no problem getting a tattoo because, I mean, your relationship with him is eternal.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is a little bit of ink?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell those who don't really care about their faith because they're not going to take this extra step.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, the only conclusion I could come to is that they must not be saved at all.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they should not have security in their faith because they weren't willing to get a little tattoo.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, as crazy as that sounds, that is the type of thing that is happening only with circumcision in the Galatian churches.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, Paul received a revelation from God.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord spoke to him.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the first time, not the last time that God did this, while Paul was down in Asia Minor.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, You need to go up.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: You need to go up to Jerusalem, and you need to unify with the brothers that are there, because what is happening is this Christian religion is starting to go off into two different directions.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're starting to have a faith that is Jewish and a faith that is Gentile instead of being unified in the gospel.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is why Paul goes up to Jerusalem.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: That is the purpose of his visit, and ultimately he is going to meet with those who are basically leading the church at this time, which would be Peter and John and James.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the last sort of piece there is the false gospel is originating out of Jerusalem.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of a long story in and of itself.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: But that's where it's that's the hotbed of this heresy.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important to recognize that the early church leaders, right?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to think that we've got like problems in the ranks, James and John and Peter, they are not proclaiming this false gospel, but, and you're gonna sense a little bit of like frustration with Paul.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say, but it's happening right under your noses.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is why he's going to the top as an apostle himself, and he's like, we need to get this sorted out.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Is this something we're dividing over, or is this something that we can unify over?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: A huge question when we get to the idea of churches and Christianity is what are the things that we divide over and what are the things that we come together on?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: As Paul does this, he has an additional motivation.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I wanted to make sure that I was not running and in fact had not been running in vain.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: What he means there is not that he was nervous about the gospel message he had been preaching, you know, for 14 years, sort of on his own, that it was wrong somehow.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: That was a huge part of Galatians chapter 1, is God or Paul says, I received it from the Lord himself.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I know I'm good.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But the people he's going to talk to have the ability to make decisions that will alter the future of the faith.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what he's worried about is all of these churches he's planted, all of these people he's brought to faith who are Gentiles, Titus is one of them, that eventually the leaders in Jerusalem would go, they're separate from us.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're not really Christians with us.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have that law-free gospel and they aren't following what we're doing.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I want to make sure that the work that I have been doing was not worthless.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he can do that.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: He can make sure and comfort himself, and in fact, protect them by just seeing that the gospel message is the same.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: If that's true, if the gospel message is the same, they can keep moving forward together.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So he brings Titus along.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Titus, this is, if you've read any of Paul's letters, you know he sometimes has no problem forcing an issue or being direct.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so what he does is he brings a guy who came to faith down in Syria who was a Gentile, who was uncircumcised, and he basically brings him and goes, okay, what are you going to do with this guy?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Titus, he's professing faith.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: He loves Christ.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, right?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: He he trusts in the word of God and proclaims the gospel, but he has that thing different about him.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are you guys going to do?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And his confidence here is he says, but not even Titus, this is right in the middle, who is with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the point is, we have the same gospel.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, James, and John, they are not following this false gospel.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: They are united, and now Paul can turn his attention towards those in Galatia who are following the false gospel and use the big boys back in Jerusalem as kind of like a trump card, okay?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, hey, look, they said it, I've said it.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: You need to hear this.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: What they're doing is not good.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: So now he says this matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's um it's good to keep in mind, right, that the people that Paul is angry with, and a couple of weeks ago, remember, he is pronouncing them anathema, right?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: They are those devoted to destruction because of their gospel, that they are not people who have pure intentions.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, what they have done is they have infiltrated like spies into the Galatian churches, and we know from the letter to the Romans and the Colossians and the Philippians and the Corinthians that this false gospel of works was spreading all over.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says this is not some true effort of God, some true movement that the church is changing in a positive way.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says there is a sect of people who want to claw Christianity and bring it back under the umbrella of Judaism.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: They just want people to say, like, we're gonna follow all of the laws for being Jews, and also our Messiah is here.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says that is not the faith that we have heard, and in fact, that undercuts the gospel message and in fact ruins everything that the cross represents.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's not gonna have it, and he says that their intentions, their motivations are not pure.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians, look around you, understand that the people who are saying this message have come in like lambs, they have watched, they have um earned your sort of favor, and now they've begun to twist things.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to the message.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be fooled by the messenger.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now I recognize that this um section here, verses one through five, it's a lot of um, we could just call it like inside baseball.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a lot of conversations here that if you are not familiar with the Bible, you're like, what is going on, right?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: What is happening?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a summary.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: The early church was in danger of splitting over this issue of circumcision.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Paul went to Jerusalem to speak with the leaders and pursue unity.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because the meeting went well, Paul could be confident that his work with non-Jews over the last 14 years was not wasted time.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Importantly, the gospel is truly a work of grace, not works, and the gospel is truly for everyone, Jews and Gentiles.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's one other section here in Galatians 2 that we're going to look at.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because this meeting that Paul had with the pillars of the church, when he went back with Barnabas and Titus, and they all got together and they sort of had this uh private meeting, more than just the true gospel was confirmed.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there was a whole host of marching orders that spilled out of this meeting that genuinely and without exaggeration affected the course of Christian evangelism for all history.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because Paul and Peter, who kind of, Peter sort of by this point is the leader of the group there in Jerusalem, and particularly of the apostles, those two guys don't always see eye to eye.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, next week, when we get to the part about when we do divide, Paul and Peter are going to be butting heads with each other for a very good reason.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: But as we're looking this morning in our passage and talking about unity, I want you to see some of the things that came out of this private meeting that changed really Christian history.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's going to share those things.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Now from those recognized as important, what they once were makes no difference to me.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: God does not show favoritism.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: They added nothing to me.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised, since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: When James, Cephas, that's Peter, and John, those recognized as pillars, acknowledged the grace that had been given to me.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: They gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul wrote a very confusing passage here.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is in the Greek one long sentence.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's been a little bit of difficulty figuring out what his tone was at the very beginning when he seems to be being very sarcastic about those who are leading in Jerusalem, right?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important for us to recognize one more time Paul's role as sort of the least of the apostles.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, here's my position.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is not jealous about them, but he is being a little defensive because those who are in the church have held against Paul his past.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: They have lifted up some of these apostles, right?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're like, hey, these guys, Peter, walked with Jesus, prayed with Jesus, went up on the mount, saw him transfigured, was there, followed him.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like Peter, Pentecost?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Man, the message that he's preaching, thousands of people are coming to the church because of like all of these things about them, they have a history.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Their LinkedIn profile is a lot longer than Paul's is.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul has been trying to establish his authority, not because he needs a gold star, but because those who hear his message are kind of dismissing it as not as real or true as what's coming out of Jerusalem.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, for those recognized as important, right?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's acknowledging that Peter, James, and John have been lifted up to these positions by other people.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: What they once were makes no difference to me.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Most likely he's talking about their past, but he's saying, no matter our past, no matter where we've come from, we are working together in the gospel right now, and we're all apostles here.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I'm on a level playing field with them.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is why he says they added nothing to his gospel.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: He needs those in Galatia to understand, look, I went up to Jerusalem with a gospel, or rather, I went kind of down.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I went down to Jerusalem with a gospel message, and I left with the same gospel message.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't get altered, didn't get changed.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: The things that you heard from me are the same things that they believe.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So there's this there's this continuation.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Of the message here.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, he says, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And now here we begin to see a natural separation, but not out of competition.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: What comes out of this meeting and what is so revolutionary is that they say, you know what is probably best?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, it seems like your ministry to the Gentiles has been unbelievably effective.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what's going on here in Jerusalem and some of these other Jewish places around here that are proclaiming Christ in these synagogues that are being transformed, man, it really seems like Peter, his ministry to the Jewish people, is flourishing.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Though we have the same gospel message, maybe we need to be more strategic in the way that we are reaching these groups of people.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not that the gospel message would change, but we already know that the way that the gospel pushes and pulls on a certain culture is different wherever we go.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Paul said this in his letter to the Corinthians, when he says it is a the gospel message is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, if you're talking to the Jews about the gospel and what Jesus did, he goes, they can't believe that their Messiah would be cursed and that he would die as a criminal.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, they can't believe that the one who is supposed to be their savior actually died instead of rescuing them from Rome.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's a stumbling block for them.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Paul goes, but when I talk with the Greeks, and when I share that truth with them about the gospel message, he goes, they've got a whole pantheon of these gods who are so powerful and meddling in human affairs that he can't imagine, or they can't imagine rather, that we should worship a God that let his enemies kill him.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: What would be the purpose in that?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is he truly powerful?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why would we follow after a God that died?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, resurrection?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like the gospel is pushing and pulling on these things in different ways, and so it became wise for ministry to begin to contextualize and go, we're gonna go over here, you're gonna go over there.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a divorce, like the parents are dividing up possessions.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a pie chart.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: We know that Peter ministered to Gentiles and Paul still ministered to Jews.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they they had crossover.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like they, you know, drew the line in the sand, but they said, maybe we should go off in slightly different directions here, so that the Great Commission, the thing that every single believer is called to do, to share the gospel message, to further the good news, to make disciples of all nations, so that it can be most effective.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when you think about it from that perspective, what is most effective for the Great Commission?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: The answer then becomes, or the solution rather, the truth, is that sometimes it is far better to come together when we disagree for the sake of unity so that the Great Commission would flourish, so that more people would come to faith in Christ, and we would not have needless debates.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you again, part one, next week, part two, there are some needed debates.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are times where we do genuinely draw the line in the sand and we're like, we we can't have fellowship over this because we believe something very different.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: But for Paul, for Peter, they came together and they said, you know what, we have different opinions about what it means to reach these people, but we're gonna come together because the mission is more important than our opinions about these matters.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to be the ones with label makers over here.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we're going to say, yes, we can come together because the gospel is true.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: The final part about this passage I want to share with you is at the very end, sort of the parting words that they have for one another, is Paul's going to kind of go in his direction, and Peter's gonna kind of go in his direction.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Peter says, but don't forget the poor.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget the vulnerable.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what it reminds us is that there are certain elements of Christian ministry, of gospel-focused efforts, of the Great Commission, there are certain themes that are universal.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whether they were to the Jews, whether they were to the Greeks, they were supposed to care for the poor and the vulnerable and the needy.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the only thing, but it was so important that when Paul left, this was the parting words of Peter to him.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, he Paul felt it was so important to include in the letter to the Galatians that Peter said this as he was leaving.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, you're going in your direction.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: We differ over some things, but we're unified in the gospel.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be wise about who we're reaching.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's try and um uh adjust our message to be most effective in where we're ministering, but also keep in mind that the gospel has its own objective truth.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some things about God's word which cannot be changed.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: And in this case, it was his care for the poor and needy.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, where does that leave us?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: I rec, I mean, I'll be honest with you, um, this passage it feels a bit like the bridge in a song.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: As we keep going in the book of Galatians, we're gonna get into meatier things that aren't about like meetings in Jerusalem.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: But here's why this passage is important and why I wanted to preach it is because we have to take from this an understanding of what it looks like to do ministry today, both as a church and as individuals.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the problems that they were dealing with, though I don't think any one of us is hung up over circumcision in the church, um, the problems that they were dealing with are still the same kind of problems that we have today.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to be able to see this message of unity and work towards it so that we can be most effective for the Great Commission.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, the kingdom of God will benefit, right, because God's work is being carried out by people who are more focused on a mission than on opinions.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: So there are four things I think that we can take away from here, and uh four things that really actually come from this final passage.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: The first one, not surprising at all, is that the true gospel unifies us.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I will underline the true gospel, because that will be the thing that we begin to debate about next week.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that Paul and Peter eventually got frustrated over was what does it look like to live out the true gospel and perhaps how Peter was not really living it out the way that he should have been.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Teaser for next week.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the true gospel unifies us.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain core elements of this that we need to believe in.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'd direct you back a couple weeks ago when we talked about sort of the saved who, saved by, saved how kind of stuff that we are saved by grace through faith.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a matter of our works, it is only Jesus Christ who can do it.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross for our sins so that we might be saved.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: He rose on the third day to give us hope for the future.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: If we trust in him for our salvation, if we believe in Jesus, then we are saved.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is not any other kind of gospel.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if we can hold to that piece of information, right?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: If we can say yes, we believe this, then we need to be able to partner with other people who also hold to that gospel message because that is the most important message.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whether or not we have congregation-led or elder-led, whether or not we have drums or no drums, like those are not elements which should be concerning people who are unchristian, who are not Christians.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And yet sometimes those divisions bleed out, and those who are not Christians look inside sort of the walls of the church and they go, Man, why are they fighting so much?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Can't they come, like, why are they continuing to divide?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why are there so many problems?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the label making comes in.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Christians can only vote this way.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Christians can only send their kids to this school.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Christians can only listen to this radio station.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what Paul said was that when the gospel message was unified, when Peter and James and John agreed with what Paul had been saying, they extended the right hand of fellowship to him.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: They said, We're united in this.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: We differ over some particulars, but we're going to work together in this because the mission is most important.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the question for us is where have we created unhelpful and divisive boundaries with other Christians?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, ministry contexts are a real thing, meaning there is no one-size-fits-all approach to how the gospel message is proclaimed around the world.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: The way that we would minister in China, where uh pastors and Christians are being persecuted and thrown in jail and they are being uh tortured, and where all of these things are happening, where Christianity is sort of this, it's an exploding faith.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is growing massively, but there's intense persecution, vastly different than the way we might minister in Dallas, Texas, where everybody has heard the gospel basically by growing up, but there is nominal Christianity and is just more of a cultural thing.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the greater question is whether people truly believe it rather than if they have heard it.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: In China, when you are being thrown in jail for your faith, you're normally able to figure out if somebody actually believes the gospel.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so we can look at those sort of polar ends, but we can also say, I mean, I had a meeting with a guy who planted a church just like two blocks south of Washburn University like a week ago.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: I got together with him and uh just wanted to meet him and get to know him.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Great guy.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's from Lawrence.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we our conversation hovered around even how different it has been for him to minister the gospel here in Topeka just different than Lawrence.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just countries.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, it's not even just cities.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's a difference between how we as Topeka Bible Church minister in the center of Topeka versus how somebody on the north side or the west side or the east or the south ministers far off.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: A rural church is different than a city church.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: My point here is that just as the pillars and Paul recognized the need to go off in different directions, it is okay to say that there's not a one-size-fits-all approach.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, our goal and my goal is that our church would be the best equipped and most effective to reach our neighborhood and our community right where we're at.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Our goal is not to reach people in Lawrence with the gospel.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Our goal is to reach people here with the gospel.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so we need to understand that ministry contexts might mean that we do things slightly different than other churches, and that's okay because we have a different group of people we are trying to share the gospel with.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, we need to celebrate every partner in the Great Commission.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been so easy for Paul to dismiss the ministry of Peter because he disagreed with his methods.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been so easy for Peter to become jealous of Paul because he's planting all of these churches and bringing probably even more people to Christ than Peter was.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: But we are not dividing up a pie.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's probably I mean, I don't know exactly, but there's probably 80 to 90,000 people in the Greater Topeka area that don't go to church.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've got enough, right?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: We've got enough to handle church plants, we've got enough to handle other churches growing, we've got enough to handle a whole lot of things.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: We are not running out of people to share the gospel with.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so we need to be able to partner with other people.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: And even if we don't technically do the same ministry event, when other churches win, we win.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: When the Great Commission is furthered because another church has revival, because they're exploding in growth, because their youth group is doing amazing things, right?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because their whatever ministry is reaching people that haven't been reached before.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe that's not happening here.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, I pray for them and I'm thankful for them, and I ask God that He would do even more.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we really care about the Great Commission, our prayer is not just that TBC would reach the unreached, but it's that every single church would.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that we get happy when that happens.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel that there is a sense of competition, I just want to encourage you to push back against that.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're all in this together.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: As long as we believe the true gospel, if, and this might surprise you, but as long as we here at TBC are preaching the true gospel, if we never grew, but every other church in Topeka that was preaching the true gospel grew, I would be happy.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because it means that more people are coming to Christ.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's ultimately what we're here to do.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth and finally, gospel-focused ministries have similar themes.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just because we contextualize or might shape a message to best reach a group of people, it doesn't mean that we get to do whatever we want.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain elements about the gospel that are proclaimed because of who God is.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if we are faithfully carrying out, carrying out the gospel message, there are certain things that will naturally flow out of that.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Paul and Peter listed one of them: care for the poor and the vulnerable and the needy.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: A non-exhaustive list.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Teaching which upholds the integrity of the Bible, advocating for justice for the oppressed, seeking communal relationships with other believers, concern for the value of human life from conception to death, pursuit of a deeper knowledge of God's Word, radical forgiveness for our enemies, a view of wealth defined by generous giving, a willingness to endure hardships for others, and to top it off, a desire to share the gospel message with other people.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Over time, what happens, the longer that we are Christian, typically we begin to think more about ourselves than other people.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: If we're not careful, if we're not focused on reaching others with the gospel, what ends up happening is we become way more concerned about whether or not the TBC calendar is full of activities that we like, whether or not the worship music is the particular style that we like, whether or not we were talked to or reached out to by a person when we never reached out to someone else.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain elements that we just begin to focus on because it becomes about us.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want you to see is that when you look at Acts, when you look at the early church, they were on mission, and there were certain themes of that mission that could not be sacrificed.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so a question for all of us is is the ministry that we have, and I said this is for churches and for individuals, is the ministry that we have and we are carrying out, because if you trust in Christ, you have a ministry.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: It might be dormant, but you have a ministry.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is the ministry of Christ that is represented by your life something where because of what you are doing, other people can see the gospel message work through you?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Primarily because you're sharing it verbally, but also by your actions that are following it up.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this was the concern that Paul and Peter had.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go into these lands, we're going to share a gospel message that is divisive.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: But will they be able to tell that we care for the poor?
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't as important as the unity of the gospel, it wasn't as important as grace by faith, but it was very important.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Does our ministry reflect the same?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: So in conclusion, you know, next week is more of the when to hold the line kind of message.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Next week is more of the when we do divide and what happens then.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: But this morning the push is, I mean, what does it look like to break down some unnecessary barriers so that the mission of the gospel would go forward, so that we would all be a people on mission for the gospel message, and that we would not see it as competition, we would not be label makers, but we would say, hey, as long as we've got the true gospel, we're willing to work together.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: We might do it near each other, we might not work on the exact same activity just like Paul and Peter did, but we're gonna say that we're brothers and sisters in Christ.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna support them, we're gonna pray for them, we're gonna encourage them, and we're gonna say that what they're doing is good.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's good.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and pray.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you today.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: God, your gospel message is true.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: You have saved the world or given the world the opportunity, Lord, to be saved because of that gospel message.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, you are working through that message today and in the past and in the future to transform the lives of those who would trust in Christ.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you would help us to seek unity with those who hold the true gospel, that you would remove from our hearts a need to be tribal and a need to be in a different division.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, a need to push others away when we shouldn't.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to, and by your Spirit, bring to mind other churches in Topeka and elsewhere, Lord, when we are praying.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: I pray for the other churches here in Topeka, Lord, that they would grow.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: They would reach people who don't know Christ, and that they would have revival that is so astounding that the rest of the city just has to look upon them and say, wow, God must be doing something.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that that same thing would be true for TBC, and I pray that everybody here would be a part of that because we are more committed to the mission than division.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you for Christ who does bring us together with this gospel in unity.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's in his name we pray.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.