Apostolic Credentials, Part 1

Galatians 1:10-15

     Tonight we come in our study, continuing in the Book of Galatians, to chapter 1 and verse 10.  Galatians, chapter 1, verse 10.  And it deals with apostolic credentials.  Apostolic credentials.  Now, you'll recall, and in case you don't, I'll remind you, that Galatia was an area, not a city, and that when Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians, he was not writing to one church, but he was writing to several.  He had founded several churches in Galatia traveling throughout that area on his first missionary journey, also on his second missionary journey and visiting there on his third missionary journey.

     He has there come into acquaintance with Timothy, who became a very close friend.  It was there that he was stoned and left for dead.  He had ministered in the towns of Derby, Iconium, Lystra and Antioch, all in the area of Galatia, and in all of those places he had established churches.  He had poured out his heart to those churches.  And in his absence, he has been gone, false teachers have invaded the area of Galatia, and they have propagated one particular message, and that is the message that we call Judaizing.

     These were Jewish people from the Jerusalem church, actually calling themselves Christians, who went to Galatia and told all of the Galatian Christians that they needed to be circumcised and to obey all of the Mosaic ceremonial law in order to really be saved.  And so they were laying a whole legalistic thing on top of these Christians.  Well, Paul heard about this, found out about this, and he wrote the letter to the Galatians to straighten out the heresies that had been delivered by these false teachers. 

     Now, in the opening five verses of the book, he gives his salutation.  And, as we noted when we studied it, it is the only time that Paul ever writes a salutation and says absolutely nothing commendable about the people.  He says nothing.  He is far too upset for any little nice amenities.  He fires right into his message. 

     And in verses 6 through 9 he whales away on the false teachers.  He just says, "Hello, how are you, here's what I'm going to say," and he says it in verses 6 through 9.  He can't believe that these teachers have done this.  That's part of his problem.  Two, he can't believe that these people have bought what the teachers have been selling, after the good beginning that they had.  And later on in his particular letter, he makes the statement that "you began so well.  Who messed you up?  How did this ever happen?"  And so he's writing this letter as a direct attack against false teachers.

     Now, as we said in our last study, two weeks ago, the attack came on three fronts.  First of all, the false teachers attacked Paul's authority.  They, in fact, stated that Paul was a subordinate to them, and that whatever Paul taught was now superseded by what they taught.  And they went so far, probably, as to claim their heritage from the Jerusalem church, sort of giving them authority.  They really denied Paul's right to speak for God.

     The second attack was, they denied the gospel of grace.  Paul had come preaching salvation by grace plus nothing.  They denied that.  That you had to be circumcised, that was added to grace.  Law added to grace.

     The third attack was, they demanded that Christians live by law works, that the Christian life was not just free to live in the Spirit.  It was a matter of obeying all the ceremonial things to maintain your relationship.  So three attacks.  They denied his authority.  They denied his gospel.  They denied his pattern for the Christian life.  And that was everything.

     So Paul writes the Book of Galatians to answer these attacks.  In chapters 1 and 2, he defends his authority.  In chapters 3 and 4, he establishes grace salvation.  In chapters 5 and 6, he shows that Christians are free from the law.  So it's divided into those three sections, generally, where Paul answers each of these criticisms.

     Now, the first criticism, then, was the fact that Paul was not the authority and that he had no right to speak for God, and that these Galatians should never just believe what Paul said.  They were actually questioning his right to speak.  And, of course, this is the heart of everything.  This is absolutely the critical issue of this book and of the whole ministry of the apostle.  Because if he has no authority, then he has no voice.  If they do not believe that he speaks for God, then he might as well shut up and forget it, because it doesn't matter.

     And so he launches right off, in chapters 1 and 2, with a lengthy defense of his right to speak for God as an authority.  And in fact he even gave that the first priority in chapter 1, verse 1, where he says, "Paul, an apostle not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead."  In other words, he establishes the authority of his apostleship in the very first sentence.

     Now, apparently, he was really challenged with some success.  Apparently, the Judaizers had won a very serious hearing among these Galatian believers and those who were attached to the church, and he was really threatened in terms of his future ministry with them, as well as having his truth that he had imparted to them being threatened.

     And so it's a question of apostolic credentials that we see in the first part of the book.  It's a question of authority.  It's a question of, is Paul's gospel the truth, or isn't it?  And we read his words now as we read Galatians and Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus.  We read all of this, the letter, even, to Philemon.  And as we read these things, we can't help but be amazed at his depth and astounded at the majesty, the insight, the absolute consistency of Paul's message.  Never waivers.  Never varies.

     We see him outlining God's plan from eternity to eternity, and it is amazing to us.  Particularly the Book of Romans is startling in its classic approach to the style of the legal mind.  And we say, "Boy, that guy gave out a lot of information.  Thirteen letters he wrote, at least.  And where'd he get it all?  I mean, can we believe it?"

     I told you a few weeks ago about the fellow I met who said he didn't think we could believe everything Paul said.  Is that true?  There are all kinds of critics running around in the world today saying, "Well, Paul was sort of a nice guy, and he had a lot of very strong religious opinions, some of them good, some of them bad, no different than you.  You can have your opinions, too."  I mean, is Paul authoritative today, or isn't he?  Was he authoritative then in Galatia, or wasn't he?  Where did he get all this information?

     You say, "Well, he studied the New Testament."  No, he didn't study the New Testament.  He wrote the New Testament.  You say, "Well, he studied the Old Testament."  Well, I'm not sure that...I know he studied the Old Testament, but I'm not sure he got this out of the Old Testament.  In fact, I'm quite sure he didn't.  Where did he get it all?  Did he make it up?  I mean, he just...it just came out of him.  It just gushed out of him.

     Peter had had an interesting experience in Matthew, chapter 16, where Christ says, "Who do men say that I am?"  Peter says, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."  And Peter knew he didn't know that.  And Jesus said to him, "Peter, relax.  Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you.  My Father in heaven did."

     Now, is there such a thing as apostolic authority?  Did Paul make all of this up?  I mean, did he just sit down, "I think I'll write a thing called Galatians and make it all up"?  Or did he go to Galatia and just give his opinion like all the rest of the would-be teachers who traveled around?  Or did he really get this thing from somebody else?  Did he get it secondhand?  Maybe some apostles told it to him, and he did the best with the information that he had?  Or did he learn it in his trip to Jerusalem?  Or did he really get it from God directly? 

     Now, that's a question that we have to answer, because we need to answer it for the sake of the Book of Galatians.  We need to answer it for the sake of the whole New Testament.  We need to answer it for the sake of apostolic authority today, in 1974.  It's a key issue.  It's a key issue for all of our Bible study, because there's no sense in studying the Book of Galatians if we're not sure what Paul said is true.  Right?  So it's important.

     Now, Paul was super-conscious all his lifetime, his lifetime of ministry, about his credentials as an apostle.  At the beginning of Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians and Galatians, at the beginning of all those books, Paul lays down his apostolic credentials, because he knows that this is basic.  Absolutely basic.  For if he cannot be believed, for sure, then it is a pretty grab-bag situation as to what we do with what he said.

     But he said in II Corinthians 12:11 this, and I think it's significant.  "For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles."  That's quite a statement.  He says, "In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles."  Now, that's just a little insight into the fact that he considered himself an absolute equal to every other apostle.  He didn't see himself as a second-rate apostle.  He didn't see himself as a Paul-come-lately.  He didn't see himself as some kind of an addendum to the apostolate.  He saw himself in no way less than the chiefest of them.  He was an absolute equal.  Now, whatever authority they had, he had.

     Now, you say, "What authority did the apostles have?"  Well, it's indicated to us, to begin with, in Acts 2:42, by this simple statement.  "And when the church came together, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine."  The Spirit of God designed that the early church study the teaching of the apostles.  So, at least in the mind of the early church, their doctrine was authoritative.  Right?

     Let me tell you something else about the early church.  The early church was filled with the Holy Spirit, weren't they?  The same chapter, chapter 2, says "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.  Later on, they studied the apostles' doctrine."  You know what that means?  You put that together and you get this.  The Holy Spirit commends to their study the doctrine taught by the apostles.  Therefore, not only the church thought it was authoritative, but so did the Holy Spirit.

     Now, keep in mind that the early church had no Bibles, that the only information they had was the information granted to them from God.  And God had chosen to give it through His apostles, and also, from time to time, His prophets, who seemed, rather than speaking in doctrinal terms, to have spoken in more practical situations.  But God directly communicated through them authoritatively.  There were no Bibles.  And studying the words of Paul, or the words of Peter, or the words of any other apostle, was tantamount to reading the Bible today.  It was the same thing.

     And God even confirmed them, you know, in, again, II Corinthians 12:12.  Paul, having not come behind the very chiefest apostles, then says, "Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, signs, wonders and mighty deeds."  In other words, God confirmed His apostles by miracles.  Now, we've looked at that very same thought in time past, and we see that if God's going to send an apostle along, there's going to have to be something about this man that's going to make him believable.  And God attended his ministry with miracles.

     And people would say, "Well, here is a man who preaches a certain message, and his message is confirmed, because God is doing miracles through him."  In Hebrews 2:3, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?"  Well, the ones that heard the Lord were the apostles.  "God also bearing them witness with signs, wonders and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit."

     Paul, in writing to the Romans, basically says the same thing in Romans 15:17.  "For I have, therefore, that of which I may glory in Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God."  Listen.  "For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me."  In other words, "I'm not giving you human information.  I wouldn't open my mouth on anything personal.  I would not speak anything that Christ has not given me."  And then he says, "Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God," the idea being that his speech and miracles were from God.

     Paul, then, claims throughout his writings to be apostolic, and he claims to have this authority.  And this is what he sets about to defend in Galatians 1:10 through, really, chapter 2, halfway through the chapter.  He is concerned that they accept his authority.

     Now, you say, "Well, what's he motivated by?"  Well, he's not motivated by wounded pride.  He's not saying, "Oh, this isn't fair to me.  I'm an apostle."  No, he's not doing that.  And it's not selfish desire.  "I'm going to be an apostle and I'm going to get my due."  No, it's not that, either.  It's a deep love for Jesus Christ and the truth, is what it is.  They have to know that he speaks for God or they'll not listen to the truth.  And that's his concern.

     Now, let's follow his defense.  Apparently the Judaizing Jews, false teachers, had gotten the message across that Paul was not a legitimate apostle, but that in fact Paul was less than they were.  He was really subject to their authority.  They maybe communicated that he was on a popularity binge, that this nice fellow, Paul, was on an ego trip.  And he was going around pawning himself off as some apostle. 

     And that the reason he dropped all the requirements of Judaism when he got to the Gentiles was obvious.  He just didn't want to hassle the Gentiles with Judaism, so he just dropped all of it so he'd be popular.  And he went to the Gentiles and said, "Hey, all you have to do is believe in Jesus Christ by grace through faith."  And they all believed, and that was it, and he did it just to be popular with the Gentiles.  That's what they accused him of.

     In chapter 5, verse 11, "I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?  Then is the offense of the cross ceased."  He says, "You know, this thing of being popular is getting to me.  If I'm on a popularity binge, how come I keep getting persecuted?"  You know, if the apostle Paul was just trying to be popular, he did a lousy job of it.  I mean, the worst job in history.  He was an absolute bust at being popular, if that's what he was after.  "Why do I yet suffer persecution?", he says.

     Now, maybe they brought up an interesting incident.  Remember back in chapter 16, verse 3, when Paul met Timothy on the second tour?  It says, "Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those quarters, for they all knew that his father was a Greek."  Now, Paul wanted to use Timothy, and he thought it would be wise to have Timothy circumcised, since he was already half-Jew.  If he was circumcised, it would give him just that extra entrance among the Jews. 

     And so maybe the Judaizers even picked that up.  And they might have used that to accuse him of just kind of being whatever he needed to be.  And when he was with the Jews, he did the Jews' thing, and when he was with the Gentiles, he played it cool.  I don't know.  But they apparently got the message across that he was on an ego trip, that he was on a popularity drive.  And the only reason he didn't lay on them some law was because he was afraid he might offend them and lose his popularity.

     And to them, you see, Paul was not a theologian.  He was a politician.  He was playing politics.  Well, you know, personally, that must have hurt Paul.  I mean, he was a sensitive guy, and that must have really hurt, when he found out that that's what they had told all of his beloved children in Galatia about him.  It must have hurt. 

     But you know something?  He's past the point of dealing with his feelings, and he's at the level of dealing with fact.  You know, that's something about spiritual maturity, isn't it?  Spiritual immaturity usually operates on the feeling level.  Spiritual maturity usually operates on the fact level.  And Paul wasn't going to write them and say, "Oh, you Galatians, I'm so sad.  Look what you've done to me."  No, he just whales away on the facts.  That's a level of maturity.

     Now, I want you to see how he does this.  This is really beautiful.  Look at verse 6, and let's pick it up right there.  Now, watch.  And we'll just come flying into verse 10, and you'll get the message.  "I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ."  Now listen to this.  "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed," anathema, destroyed.  "As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed."

     Now, watch 10.  "For do I now seek the favor of men?"  "I mean, do those two anathemas sound like I'm trying to please people?"  The word "for" at the beginning of verse 10 is the word in the Greek gar, and gar can be used in so many different ways.  It can mean "for," it can mean "because," but it can be a strong exclamation.  It could be used...it could be translated, "yes, indeed," "certainly," "what," "why," many things.  Here, I'd like to translate it, "there."  And what he's saying is, "If anybody preaches another gospel, let him be accursed.  If anybody preaches another gospel, let him be accursed.  There.  Does that sound like a people pleaser?"

     That doesn't sound like a people pleaser to me, not hurling those anathemas around.  That's what he's trying to say.  And the beauty of the thing is, he didn't just say it this time.  He said it before to them, in verse 9, and apparently he had even said this to them earlier.  "Isn't it fairly clear that I'm not seeking men's approval, but God's?"  And he goes on in verse 10, "or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."  Do you think I'd spend my life serving Jesus Christ at this level, suffering what I suffer, if all I want to do is please people?

     At the end of the Book of Galatians, he says, "I bear in my body," what?  "The marks of Jesus Christ."  "Do you think I'm going through all of this and suffering all the pain and the anguish because I want to please people?  Do you think that I would be a men pleaser and serve Christ at this level of commitment?  Guess again."  He accepted slavery, and that's the word there, servant, bondservant.  "I accepted that.  I accepted persecution for the cause of Christ.  Does that sound like a people pleaser?"  And he had the marks to prove it.  And he got some of them in Galatia, and they knew it, because they had stoned him there and left him for dead. 

     "If all I wanted to do was be admired by men, do you think I'd be hurling anathemas at people?  Do you think I'd be serving Jesus Christ at the level that I'm serving Him if all I wanted to do was please people?  Guess again."  Boy, I mean, that's a pretty...that's a pretty solid argument. 

     And, incidentally, later on, he accuses the false teachers of doing exactly what they were accusing him of doing, trying to please people, in chapter 6, verse 12.  He says, "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh."  They just want to show off their heritage as Jews.  "They constrain you to be circumcised."  Why?  "Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cause of Christ."  Oh, boy, is that ever a shot at those Judaizers. 

     Paul says, "You know the truth of it is?  Do you know why they want you to be circumcised?  Because they know well that a Jew who departs from Jewish traditions