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Gospel to the Nations, Generosity to the Poor
The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from Desiring God is available at www.desiringgod.org. Galatians 2, verses 1 through 10. Then after 14 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. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 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 ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. This weekend marks the second weekend in our missions conference. And it's been our tradition for many years. I don't know how many. That at the end of these six services on this weekend, we very simply and without any manipulation or pressure, ask people to come to the front that we might give them information about the nurture program and then I pray, a very special prayer of consecration. And I'm going to tell you so that you can be praying in this direction through these services exactly who I would like to come. I'll put it like this, I'll say it now, then I'll say it then, at the end. Do you believe that God is stirring in you to move you into cross-cultural missions sooner or later, this year or 10 years from now, longer term, two years or more, not summer projects, everybody would come. I hope if that was the case. That's the invitation that will come. Don't want you to be taken off guard, don't want it to be sprung on you suddenly. That's where we're going. And you heard me mention, you now hear me mention that I'm praying along with Eric and others for 350 of you to stand at the front in these six services saying that, at least, let's pray. So Father again now, I ask that through the channel of a video recording, the downtown campus on Lord's Day morning and every other way on this weekend, you would work some by awakening for the first time this sense of stirring from God. And others bring to a resolved confidence, that's what these last five years have been. So come, we're asking in accord with the command of Jesus, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. That's what we're doing in obedience to you. In Jesus name, amen. The first thing I want to do in this passage is to back up to verse six of chapter one and walk with you quickly through the entire flow of thought from one six to two 10, because I don't think two 10 is going to work without the wider context. Then once we've quickly walked through one six to two 10, we're going to turn around and go backwards in three steps from poor to gospel to call. And we're going to end with your call. So I hope that as we do this exposition frontward and then backward, your mindset will be Lord, I am available. I didn't come into this room, perhaps thinking that I might experience some kind of stirring towards cross-cultural missions, but if that's what you want to do, I'm available. It's the Word of God that does this, not me. So let's go. Paul is astonished that these Galatian churches are about to abandon the gospel because some professing Christians, you'll hear why I use that phrase in a minute, have come among them and are stressing the necessity of circumcision for salvation. Verse six, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Many stresses, there is no other gospel that we'll say from sin and hell. And if anyone tells you there is, and then his language becomes controversial. Verse nine, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you, a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be a curse. Can I give you that in street language? Literally, to hell with him. And then he argues for his gospel by saying he got it from Christ, no man. Verse 11, for I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Now he's got to defend that. And so he launches into his defense, he reminds them in verses 13 and 14, what a zealous persecutor of the church he was. His argument is moving from the dramatic change in his life, and he's arguing the only explanation from moving from a zealous persecutor of the church to a life-risking promoter of the risen Christ is this. I met him on the Damascus road, and he called me and saved me. That's his argument. Verse 15, but when he who had set me apart from before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem, to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned to Damascus. He's stressing his independence here. And then in verse 18, after three years, he makes a 15-day trip to Jerusalem, and he meets Peter, and he meets James the Lord's brother. That's all he says. And then he disappears for 14 years into Syria and Solicia. That's probably hometown. That's where Tarsus is. Now the point of all that so far is to say, I didn't get it from man. I didn't rush up to Jerusalem and say, I think I'm an apostle. Would you guys tell me the gospel? The whole point was I didn't do that. I am not a second-class apostle. I'm not derivative from Peter. I met the king on the Damascus road. I am qualified. I have seen the risen Christ. He called me, I didn't get called from Jerusalem. Chapter two, continues the same emphasis. Only he adds a new twist. He must establish unity with the original 12, or everything's coming down, right? If you've got a split apostleship in the early church, you are split as a movement, and there would be no church. So he's got to both be independent and be unified, and that's what these verses are now about. Verse one, then after 14 years, a long time, he's stressing because of his independence. I didn't hobnob with these apostles. For 14 years, I went again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. That's very significant because Titus is an uncircumcised Gentile convert to the king, the way Christianity, and he's taking exhibit A to test and prove the freedom of his gospel. Will they make this man be circumcised, or is the gospel that I preach going to be accepted? That's the issue. This is exhibit A, Titus is a test case. Verse two, I went up because of a revelation, stressing again, I'm not just doing a man thing here. I got, the Lord told me 14 years later, now go. And set before them, though privately, before those who seemed influential, the gospel, I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running in vain. Meaning, I think, I know my gospel. I got it from Jesus, but if it's not your gospel and you, Peter and James, don't recognize me and I don't recognize you, we're all running in vain. Verse three, but even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek, yet because of some false brothers. That's why I used the phrase professing Christians a few minutes ago. 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 gospel, the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. Who's the you? Gentile believers scattered throughout Galatia. This is a missionary vigilance over right doctrine. This is, it's really got tense in Jerusalem, right? This really got tense. They're coming in, checking out Titus and saying whether or not he's got to be circumcised. And Paul calls them false brothers. That's amazing. They're Christians, they're professing Christians. And he wouldn't budge one inch on his conviction. If you try to make circumcision necessary for salvation, you are not a Christian. Breath taken. Verse eight, 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. So he's still stressing his independence. Verse seven, on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, that's my unique mission. Just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, the Jewish people, that's his unique mission. 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, James, Peter and John, the core three close apostles 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. And I think all of heaven breathed a great sigh of relief. That is one of the most important moments in the history of the world. No overstatement. That is one of the most important moments in the history of the world. Had Peter said, no, you're not preaching the gospel. They must be circumcised. There would have been no New Testament, no church, no Christianity. This was awesome what was going on here. The apostleship, the foundation on which the church is built would have been rent asunder. And God didn't let it happen. And we should read that and be thrilled. One more thing they agreed on, verse 10. Only they ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Now, that's our walkthrough in one direction. Let's turn around now and go backward through the text. And this time we're not going through the whole thing but we're hitting on poor gospel calling. That's where we're going 'cause that's the reverse order that we got them in. And I hope when we are done in a few minutes on calling, this will have become very personal for many of you. Let's talk about the poor for a moment. I want you to see four things in verse 10 and behind verse 10. One, the apostles were of one mind about the importance of the poor. There's agreement. Second, I want you to see that it was important enough to put alongside the purity of the gospel. Third, I want you to see that Paul is not simply willing to kind of, okay, remember the poor. I really got work to do but you only remember the poor, okay. But he was eager and the fourth thing I want you to see is where this priority and passion comes from, okay. Now the first three are crystal clear in verse 10. No argument, I hope. Let's read it again. Only they asked us, Paul and Barnabas, to remember the poor. The very thing I was eager to do. So you can see they're agreed. That's easy to see. This is the whole apostleship now, agreed. Remember the poor. Number two, it's explicit and it on alongside the gospel. A lot of things go unsaid here. We can make a long list of important issues, right? That are not spoken here. This one gets spoken. Remember the poor. The gospel was at stake. You didn't circumcise Titus. The gospel is pure. You got a message to take to the Gentiles. And as you go, one other thing we better make explicit. Don't ever forget the poor. That's amazing. And then the third is also obvious. The eagerness of Paul. See those words? The very thing I was earnest and eager to do. This did not take Paul off guard. This Paul said, oh, I never thought of that. I haven't even done that for 14 years. That's been a blind spot in my ministry. It wasn't. Paul says, I know that. And then you watch Paul for the rest of his ministry. And it's there in 1 Corinthians. And it's there in Romans. And he's collecting for the poor. He's always telling the churches, there are some poor to take care of. And I'm part of what is going on here. Here's the last question, where does this come from? That's pretty strong and high priority. Where did it come from? Where does this priority, this passion for the poor, come from? And I think we'll just pass over one massive answer and go to one other one. The massive answer that you would all know, I'm sure, is that for Paul, I think his commitment to be compassionate towards the poor came from the gospel. A forgiven sinner through the blood of Christ has a compassionate heart. I could take you to parables of Jesus that show you that, right, Matthew 18. But let's just leave it. That is so obvious. If you know yourself a sinner, you look at the Son of God dying for you, you embrace him and all your sins are taken away though you don't deserve it at all. You are a bankrupt sinner and all the riches of God are now yours in Christ. By faith alone, you cannot be an uncompassionate person. And if you show up in my office saying I have no compassion for the poor, I will say let's deal with you in Jesus here. But I want to say this for the 12. If you ask them where this come from, they're going to say first it comes from the cross and then they're going to say and we walked with them for three years and that's just about what we saw every day. For example, the vision of the judgment in Matthew 25, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. That's the word that will be spoken to the judgment day over the people on his right hand side, the sheep. Zacchaeus gives half of his possessions away. This rascal, tax collector. He gives half of his possessions away. When Jesus comes to dinner, the wee little man was he. I'm going to your house for tea and he gives half of his money away and Jesus announces salvation has come to this house today. What does that mean? It means when I see that, I know something about what's happened here. What happens when salvation comes on your life is money totally changes. The poor rise and retirement and vacations and double houses and triple cars and expensive stuff goes way down and the poor go way up. That's what happens when you get saved. This salvation has come to this house today. Look how the money is flowing to the poor. He got invited to a feast one time. Jesus never did treat his hosts very politely. He said to the host, Luke 14, "When you give a feast and invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Find somebody to invite for dinner who can't invite you back." That's the paraphrase for tomorrow, noon. The inauguration of Jesus' ministry, Luke 4, 18, in the synagogue opening the scroll, preaching his first sermon. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. And so many more texts could we bring from the gospel. So I think the answer, where does this verse 10 come from in Galatians 2? I think the answer is it comes from the cross lived out in the life of Jesus. And I assume, therefore, that since the apostles were agreed on this and had it as such a high priority, it should be crucial in our commitments as a church and a people. Second, step moving backward. We step on verse 10, and now I'm going a second step backward to verse 5, the gospel. The centrality of the purity of the gospel, verse 5, chapter 2. To them, those who were insisting on circumcision for salvation, to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you, the nations. Oh, how attractive it is. Oh, how attractive it is at home in a pluralistic Minneapolis and on the mission field to just tweak the gospel a little bit so as not to offend people. Just Paul lightened up. A circumcision is no big deal. And Paul says it pretty strongly in several ways. He says, "We did not yield for a moment." I think you probably would have said it like that. Not a heartbeat of consideration to that compromise. And then he calls them in verse 4, false brothers. It's just breathtaking. The purity of the gospel. So I say to all of our missionaries and all of our aspiring and dreaming missionaries, whether retirees or nine-year-olds, you got to get the gospel right. We're gonna wave that banner at Bethlehem because all over the world other gospels are being preached besides the gospel that was delivered. The gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone on the basis of Christ's blood and righteousness alone to the glory of God alone. No compromise. He even calls the angel who brings a different gospel, damnable, in verse 8 of chapter 1. The point is that our missionaries take to the nations the gospel purely. It's really important that they get it right. Let none of our missionaries ever say, "Dr. and doesn't matter." Let none of our missionaries ever say, "A little change in the gospel doesn't hurt anybody." May every missionary, when they're pressured to compromise, say, we did not yield in submission even for a moment. So that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. I would call this tough love at home for the sake of the nations. We wonder sometimes about all the doctrinal squabbles in the home front, as though, I mean, I've heard so many people respond to doctrinal controversy. Let's be about the business of missions. Let's stop this controversy. I'm saying, wait a minute, this text says you get it right or there's nothing to take. And that includes the poor. May every missionary to the poor, and that's almost all of them, say with the Apostle Paul, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the gospel, pure, unvarnished to the poor. It's the most important thing we have to take to the poor. Finally, let's go one more step backward. We went to poor in verse 10, and we went to gospel in verse five. And now let's go to the calling back in the first chapter. And before we look at a verse there, let me step back to a bigger picture here. The great gospel promise and hope for the mission field is Romans 10, 13, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And that includes a gentile jailer in midnight in Philippi, hearing some Jews sing funny songs. It includes inner city projects of Bangkok. It includes the rubble of Pakistan and Guatemala. It's true amongst Somali refugees in the Apollus, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. It's true in Mexico and Kazakhstan and Kenya and Cameroon and Russia and Papua New Guinea and the Philippines and Senegal and Japan and Bosnia and Germany and Ethiopia and Peru and Bolivia and Ecuador and Brazil and the Czech Republic and Austria and Syria and Ivory Coast and Turkey and China and Oman and the United Arab Emirates and England and Uzbekistan and Indonesia and India and Zambia and that's where our people are. I hope you love giving to this church. I really hope you love giving to this church. That's where we are. Just look at the back of your worship phone, that's where I got them. Everyone, in every one of those countries, so many cultures, so many languages, everyone who calls upon the Lord in truth, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings will be saved and then Paul says, but how will they call upon him whom they haven't believed and how will they believe him of whom they haven't heard and how say they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach unless they be sent as it is written, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring goodness. God calls you to missions in a thousand ways. Wouldn't it be thrilling to spend an hour just asking those of you who are involved in missions or on your way, how did God do that? We'd hear a thousand different stories. It is so thrilling to think about how many ways he calls. Look at Paul's way, Galatians 1 verse 15. I think this is, in one sense, a paradigm for everybody. If you don't bring in the details of Damascus, look at this. Galatians 1 15, when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me, and then watch the logic here, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. In Paul's case, the call was the revelation of Jesus Christ. He revealed his son to me in order that, not in order that I might be a Christian, but he just got to skip over that, essential, in order that I might go. The sheer sight of Christ did it for Paul. And I think most of our callings to whatever we do in the service of Christ, in one way or another is a fresh sight of Christ. It's a fresh sight of his power. It's a fresh sight of his beauty. It's a fresh sight of his sufficiency to save sinners. It's a fresh sight of his willingness and love to take care of you wherever I am. It's seeing Christ so fresh, so new, so tailor-made for this path. I can't stay off that path. Now, how about you? We're drawing to a close here. I don't know how the Lord is gonna do it with you. But my question is this in my prayer. He has a thousand ways to stir you to the point where you must move. You must move. You must venture and you must venture to the unreached and you must venture to the poor. Are you aware of this fact that 85% of the poorest of the poor in the world are in the 1040 window, West Africa to the Pacific Rim, 10 degrees north to 40 degrees north. In that swad, in that 85% of the world's poorest of the poor live, and here's the remarkable thing. In that window, 95% of all the least reached people's live. So globally speaking, lost people's are poor people's. It's not an absolute. It's just almost absolute. The big blocks of the unreached are the big blocks of the poor. Therefore, to talk about gospel to the nations and generosity to the poor are to talk about one thing. So when we're talking about summoning you to cross a culture, to do missions, if your heart is set on the least reached, it will almost certainly be poor people. - Thank you for listening to this message by John Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not charge for those copies or alter the content in any way without permission. We invite you to visit Desiring God Online at www.desiringgod.org. There you'll find hundreds of sermons, articles, radio broadcasts and much more, all available to you at no charge. Our online store carries all of Pastor John's books, audio and video resources. You can also stay up to date on what's new at Desiring God. Again, our website is www.desiringgod.org. Or call us toll free at 1-888-346-4700. Our mailing address is Desiring God, 2601 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55406. 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