NC Chapels
Chris Winegar | Galatians 2:1-10
C.A. this summer is Chris Winneger. He's the pastor at LifePoint. I. I struggle. I you remember him more as the pastor of Christ is King of Kings and it was like a whole sentence long and then he changed the church name to LifePoint. So I remember as the long church name, but Chris is a really good friend of mine. One of the few that I reach out to just for encouragement. He can tell me something that I need to hear when I don't want to hear it. We have had great conversations wrestling through hard theological things. So it wasn't hard when just thinking about the book of Galatians. So if you turn to Galatians to this morning, he's going to be in Galatians to one through 10. The one thing I love about Chris is he is so good about bringing things back to the gospel. He group leaders, we talked about this yesterday, the word that we talked about was gospel centrality, right? Chris is really good at that. And this text is going to expose some of that. So Chris, if you could come up, I'll pray for you. And we'll dive in to God's word this morning. God, we thank you for this time. We thank you for the gift to be able to sing the truths from our mouths, yet not us, yet not I, but it's your son, Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection on the cross through me, that I can wear this robe of righteousness, that I can be saved from my sin, that I can have eternal life. Thank you for your son, Jesus. May you be honored and glorified this morning. And Jesus, may you be big in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hey, good morning, guys. Well, I think every year that I'm here, most years I'm here, I think it happens to be Homecoming Week. And the first year that I was here at Homecoming Week, everybody I think was dressed as an animal that day is the first time that I'd ever been here. And I kind of felt a little out of the loop for that. But it is a joy to be here grateful for the opportunity to be in this place. As TJ said, I am from up in Norfolk, North Fork, if you're from there. But I want to tell you a little bit about my story. So I grew up in a small Midwestern town. And so because of that, I grew up kind of surrounded by churchy things. But I was sort of one of the rare people that grew up in a small Midwestern town that actually didn't grow up in church at all. We weren't even CNE, Christmas and Easter Christians. That just wasn't part of my upbringing. And so the opportunity to be in a setting like this and singing songs like that and diving into the Bible and being surrounded by friends that are pushing you and pursuing you in the Lord, that just wasn't something that's part of my experience. And so don't forsake that. Don't don't waste that opportunity. You have an incredible opportunity these years. Why you're here? Well, I sort of radically, I think that's the word, I sort of radically got saved my senior year of high school. And I knew a couple of things. I knew that I knew that I loved Jesus. I knew that I wanted to give my life to following Jesus. I knew that Jesus had saved me. And I didn't know nothing after that. And so as I start walking out my faith and I'm, you know, I got friends and teammates and all these kinds of different things that aren't followers of Jesus. And I start telling them, Hey, I love Jesus. You should love Jesus. They start asking me questions. And I didn't know any of the answers to any of these questions. And a lot of the questions were revolved around sort of the old Testament. And hey, what, well, there's some weird things back in the Old Testament. What do you do with that? Or, well, how do I get saved? And I was like, Well, I know that you tell Jesus that you love him and that you want to follow him. And there are just so many things that I just, I didn't know specifics to. Well, that's one of the reasons I love that you guys are going through the book of Galatians. And so if you do have your Bible being Galatians to, we're gonna we're gonna be looking in deep there. But but this is what Paul is writing about in this book. He's trying to answer some of these questions that that I had. And and maybe questions that you have questions like, who is our faith in? And how does our faith in Jesus actually work about in a way that leads to our salvation? How can one embrace faith? How does one come to faith? What does it look like to share my faith or to live out my faith? And so this is what Paul is going to be writing about. I don't know exactly how you've broken down the book so far. But so I'm just going to set the scene for you a few years before writing the book of Galatians. Paul and his friend Barnabas had come into this region of Galatia. And they'd come with this message. Hey, Jesus is it came to seek and to save the loss. Let us tell you about him. Jesus died for your sin. Let us tell you about that you need to repent and put your faith in Jesus. And things were going to really well in this region. That message was spreading and churches were getting planted and people were coming to faith. And then a group of people known as the Judaizers came along. They claimed to be believers. They were people who came from a Jewish background. They grew up doing sort of Jewish Old Testament things. And they had sort of a Jewish cultural identity. And they taught, they're coming into churches and they're saying, hey, Jesus is great and all of that is awesome. But if you want to be a true varsity level religious person, then here's sort of a whole list of things that you need to do. You need to basically start following all of these Old Testament rules and rituals and much of it. And what you're probably going to talk about a lot in the book of Galatians is this issue of circumcision, which was this Old Testament outward sign of being part of God's covenant community. And so these people are kind of teaching that and Paul's over here teaching this and you get these newer Christians who are newer churches with all kinds of questions. And they were being lured into this kind of debate and confused about what the gospel actually is. Am I saved by faith in Jesus? Or is it faith in Jesus plus me doing a bunch of other things? And so it's really kind of 50% Jesus, 50% me or 75 Jesus, 25 me, or is it just all Jesus? And so this is what we call legalism. If it's anything beyond Jesus, it's legalism. And so Paul writes this letter to explain what the gospel actually is. Now this word gospel, if you've been in church at all, you throw this word around a lot, it's the good news of Jesus. But a lot of times we can just say that word gospel and not actually know what it is. And so Paul writes this book to say here's what the gospel is. This is where our freedom is found, but also to help us understand how it is that we live in light of that good news of Jesus. And so let's get into this Galatians 2 verse one. Actually, let me just let me read the whole thing. And let me read the whole thing. And then we'll go back and unpack it a little bit. Then after 14 years, I went up to 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 seem 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 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, when we should go to the Gentiles, and they should end they to the circumcised only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Now, in that you've got about six different parenthetical statements where I feel like Paul's just kind of going off and like, I won't talk about the debate last night, but this kind of, kind of, kind of a little bit of a thing that's going on in there. And so we really got to dive in and almost just sort of take this kind of phrase by phrase to unpack what he's talking about. And so look at me at the very beginning, Galatians 2 verse one, then, which implies that there was something that came in his track of thought before the then. And so got to stop and recap a little bit. The then refers to chapter one, 11 through 24, where Paul shared his story of coming to faith. And so if you know the story of him going to Damascus, I mean blinded by the light and who is it? It's, it's Jesus. Why are you persecuting my people? Right. Then after he tells that story, today, sort of part two of it, he's going to talk about how it is that he lived out his faith. He lived out the gospel. Then after 14 years, which is sort of a decent amount of time, isn't it? Right? I mean, it's, it's 2024. Where were you in 2010? Some of you weren't born. But, but this a long amount of time has passed. After 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation. So he went up because he felt like God was leading him. God was telling him to go do this. And I set before them, and he puts in his parentheses though privately before those who seemed influential. So he goes up to Jerusalem and he goes to what's most likely the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, which was probably the apostles. So he's going to the apostles. And the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. So Paul's been a Christian for a decent amount of time now. And he's preaching the gospel. And he's planting churches among Gentiles. And he started to get criticism for doing that. What do you do it? What why are you preaching the gospel amongst those people and the message that you're preaching is, is incomplete. And it's easy to sort of understand why he would have gotten that criticism. I mean, if you know any about this at all, the Jews and the Gentiles did not exactly get along. We're going to talk about why in a minute, but just sort of put it into our context. We might say this might be like Husker fans and Carlisle Buffalo fans times like 1000. Okay, I mean, this is the the the disdain these people have for one another. Now, it's true that the gospel came to the Jewish people first. And Jesus himself was Jewish and there was a whole history. The Old Testament rooted in Judaism. Well, now, for the first time in redemptive history, in an en masse sort of way, the gospel is going to non Jewish people. And so sort of the questions that everyone is asking is, is as the message of Jesus goes forth, what goes with that message? I mean, does does someone have to look a certain way? Do they have to talk a certain way? Do they have to eat certain things? Do they have to go to certain places in order to be saved? Not as a result of being saved, but in order to be saved. And the Judaizers are like, yeah, yeah, yes, Jesus, but also these Gentiles, these non Jews need to become like us, they need to become culturally Jewish. And what Paul's going to do in this passage is lay out through important truths about proclaiming and living the gospel. And so if you're taking notes, you can write this down. Here's the first thing, the gospel isn't bound by any culture. The gospel isn't bound by any culture to any culture. Jesus came for all people of all cultures, of all languages. Okay, now that might seem kind of obvious to us, but it wasn't to them. And so Paul goes up to Jerusalem and he goes to the leaders, look at me verse three, he says, this is the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. So, so, so here's what I'm going to say in here. Peter, James, John, leaders of the church in Jerusalem, you walk to Jesus, you talk to Jesus, you are commissioned by Jesus. Here's what I've been telling people is what I've been telling people make sense to you. Look, verse three, even Titus, who was with me was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. So Titus is sort of a case study in what it is that we're talking about. Does someone have to become culturally Jewish in order to be a follower of Jesus? And the profound answer is going to be no, that the leaders in Jerusalem confirmed that the gospel is for all people in all places at all times, regardless of culture. It is not bound to any particular culture. Now, that might not seem like that big of a statement, that big of an idea to us, or maybe it's just going to say 30 in the morning. All right, but this is a huge deal, huge deal. If the apostles would have rejected Titus because he wasn't circumcised, or if they would have come to the conclusion that God had limited the gospel to Jewish culture, then you would be learning Hebrew and Aramaic in a school like this. If you want to follow Jesus, you would need to learn something like that. You would go to church on a Saturday. You would go several times a year with your family to different festivals in Jerusalem. You better follow pretty near perfectly the 613 Old Testament laws, and you better get it right. Does that sound free? Does that sound like life and life abundant? That's not the gospel. It's not bound to one culture. Rather, it speaks into all cultures. And so we're just very practically what this means. You can be a follower of Jesus and a Nebraska. With all your Dorothy Lynch and runs on your things, right? And I'm not from the brassicas, I always say this, right? Someone else can be a follower of Jesus and be culturally African or culturally Asian. You can even be a Colorado Buffalo fan and be a follower of Jesus, all right? You can. You can. It's not bound by any particular culture. Truth. Number two. Truth number two. Adding to the gospel leads to slavery. Adding to the gospel leads to slavery. It leads to slavery. There's freedom in Christ. And so adding to it is slavery. Look at verse four. He says yet. So come to this conclusion. Go into the leaders of Jerusalem. Come to the conclusion. Hey, this is the gospel I've been proclaiming. And they're like, yep, that sounds good yet, which is a negative contrast word. The leaders in Jerusalem, affirmed what I was saying about the gospel, yet not everyone is on board. Because of false brothers, which is a strong statement, because of people who are claiming to be followers of Jesus, but apparently they're not because of false brothers who've secretly brought in, they slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus for this purpose so that they might bring us into slavery. To them, we did not yield in mission even for a moment, even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. So Christ came bringing freedom, adding cultural requirements to it is actually enslaving and Paul's not pointed out. But he's not compromising on this. He's like, we didn't even waver for a moment on that. Here's what this means for us. When we add requirements to the gospel. Yes, worship Jesus, but also where this and not that. Eat this and not that. Go here and not there in order so that you can be saved. It actually enslaves people into thinking that we're the ones who earn our salvation. That Jesus does part and we also do part. Jesus purchased it kind of, but you also got to purchase some of it too. And that isn't what we believe. Jesus paid the price and God doesn't charge twice. Right? This is what we believe. Now, this does lead to a question then and hopefully you're already having the question and you're not. And this is the kind of thing when I was your age or maybe in college that I didn't really know what to do with, it leads to this question of, okay, then what do we do with all of the the regulations that are found in the Bible? What do we do with the first two thirds of this book then that does talk about those festivals and rituals and ceremonies and and does have all of those laws? Do we just throw it out? What do we do with that? In other words, aren't the Judaismers, aren't they just reading their Bibles and trying to be faithful to do what it says? And it's a it's a valid question. And it's and it's worthy of a little bit of tangent. So in your notes, I don't know if you just want to put a star or draw a line or something we're gonna we're gonna rabbit trail here, but I think it'll be helpful for five minutes or so. We have to read the Bible in its context. We believe that God gave us this book, all of the words inspired, all of it beneficial, all of it for our good, if we properly understand it in its context. And so your Bible is broken into two sections. What are they? Old Testament, New Testament. The Old Testament is about the Old Covenant. The New Testament is about the New Covenant. We have to understand that living us living on this side of the cross, we live in what's known as the New Covenant. And so there's going to be some things that are pretty important for us in there in the in the Old Covenant. The Old Testament, there's 613 unique rules. And these rules were sort of a heavy burden. And no one could follow those rules perfectly. It was impossible, which was actually one of the purposes of that law. You can't do it. Congratulations. You need somebody who can. And so these 613 unique rules in the Old Testament, historically, you have been understood as having some some pretty clear categories. In fact, historically speaking, we would say that the Old Testament contains three types of law. So here's the types. The first are ceremonial laws, and I'll give you definition, but I'm just going to give you all three. So first ceremonial laws. The second are civil laws, C-I-V-I-L, civil. And then last one are moral laws, ceremonial civil moral. Let me give you just some quick definitions. The ceremonial laws were regulations that were given to Jewish festivals, religious ceremonies, how to do church. These are the things that made the Jewish people distinct from all of the different religions around them. Alright, so ceremonial laws think sort of religious activity. Civil laws. These were laws that were specifically for governing the nation of Israel. So think about, you know, if you do this, this is the punishment for crimes committed regulations for trade business, things like that, and how fast you could ride a horse through town, that kind of stuff. Alright, that's the civil laws. Lastly, the moral laws. These are laws about behavior that God views as immoral. So 10 commandments. For the most part, more laws, murder, lying, stealing, all that kind of stuff. Now, it would be super convenient if in your Old Testament, take the book of Leviticus or Deuteronomy or something like that, and it was like, hey, chapter one is the ceremonial laws and chapter two is the civil laws and so forth. But that's just not sort of how the Hebrew mind worked. All these things are just sort of mixed, mixed together. And so you've got these categories of law. And then Jesus comes along, the very beginning at the end of the old covenant, the beginning of the new covenant, and he comes along and in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus says that he came to fulfill the law. And by the way, he was the one and only human who ever did it. What does that mean? That Jesus came to fulfill the law? Well, it means that all of those laws from the Old Testament, all of them pointed forward to him, and he accomplished what it is that they pointed to. So, so the civil laws, the civil laws governed that the nation of Israel, from which Jesus came, and those who are in Christ today, are no longer under the nation state of Israel. And so we're no longer under the civil law. But we can learn things from the civil law because every law says something about the law giver, but we're not specifically under their regulation, the second category, sorry, I got him backwards, the ceremonial laws, it's the second one I want to talk about. They taught us how to think about the sacrificial system, that they reveal to us God's holiness that he has a standard in that there's a price that's going to have to be paid for not meeting his standard. And what we find is that none are righteous. The book of Hebrews makes really clear that all of those sacrifices found their fulfillment in the once for all sacrifice of Jesus. And so the ceremonial laws, once again, we can learn things about the giver of the law, but those laws themselves no longer for us. Last category, the moral laws. The moral laws reflect God's moral character, his creative design. Don't murder, don't lie, don't steal has God's moral character changed. No. And so we're still on the moral law still valid for us. Now, I know that's a lot. If you zone out, just come back in for a minute. This can be a little bit complicated. But here's what we're saying. The law wasn't a bad thing. The law was a good thing. But obedience to it is never what earned us salvation. But it was never do this. And so you can become God's people. It was because your God's people do this always, always, in response to the fact that you're his always in the response to salvation. We're not going to turn there. But even in Exodus chapter 20, the 10 commandments, right? Famous 10 commandments. 10 of them listed off, right? It never says, Hey, do these. And if you do these commandments long enough and hard enough and in the same direction enough, then you might be God's people. I might free you from Egypt. In fact, he delivers them, he gives them salvation from Egypt. And then he says, Hey, now that I've saved you, live like my people. This is what we're talking about. We don't do these so we can be saved. We do these because we are saved, right? So now go back with mitigulations. That was the tangent. Maybe it's a little longer in five minutes. Go back with mitigulations. The Judaizers are coming in. And they're saying, Hey, this Jesus thing is great, but you're not quite Christian yet. Here's what you need to do. You need to get circumcised, which would have been a ceremonial law. And the Apostle Paul says, No, no, you don't have to do that. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus did and accomplished what we couldn't. And so here's sort of the practical implication for us. We have to be on guard against adding to the gospel, telling people, Hey, you have to do trust Jesus and do this thing in order to be safe. But whether that's Old Testament things, but most of the time, my guess is probably just more cultural things. Right. So let me give you a few examples. To be a real Christian, you can't have any money. Because after all, Jesus was poor. So you have to be poor. This is what we call poverty theology. Another example would be sort of the exact opposite thing. Other people would say, Hey, if you're a real Christian, then then you'll be rich. Because if you're not healthy, and you're not wealthy, then it must be because you're doing something wrong. Otherwise, God would have blessed you. This is what we call prosperity theology. But we can also add all sorts of things. Hey, if you're a real Christian, then this is the specific version of the Bible that you're going to use. Or you have to get behind this social cause or you have to vote this way, right? You have to abstain from and Paul says, stop it. You're enslaving people. You don't have to do those things in order to find salvation in Christ. What you have to do is trust Christ alone for your salvation. And then trusting in Christ is going to lead you to live a certain way and to do a certain things, not for salvation, but from salvation, because you have salvation. And so this is where good Christians can have different convictions. And that's okay. So for me, just give you one for me. It's a lot of funny that you guys dressed up as movie things today. That's the example that I want to use. So I watch almost no movies. And the reason I don't, and the way there's some things out there. But the reason that I don't is that the way my brain works, I remember every line in every scene and once it's in my brain, I can't unsee it. And the movies you all picked, I'm sure are great. But a lot of the movies are just sort of hot garbage. And so I just, I don't need to hear that humor. And I don't need to see that scene. And it doesn't need to fill my mind. It doesn't lead me to walk more closely with the Lord. And so for me, a conviction is, I'm just not going to watch a lot of movies. But I wouldn't put that conviction on you if you don't have that conviction. Right, you're tracking with that. This is how we walk this, this out by saying anything other than trust in Christ for salvation. If it's trust in Christ, and then we're enslaving people. Truth number three, this is the last one. The gospel message stays the same. But gospel methods change. So the gospel message stays the same, but methods change. So look at me of this for six. And from those who seem to be influential, and then he says, what what they were doesn't matter to me that they seem influential. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. Right. So he's like, Hey, listen, I met with some of the big, big guys. They thought they were captains on the varsity team. But they made a difference to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised. So to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, that's the Jews. For he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me from mine to the Gentiles. So what do you say is there's one gospel, one savior for all people, but unique people taking that message to unique places, and unique cultures, and unique languages, verse nine. And then James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that was given to me, they give the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised to the Jews. Only they ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Here's the implication. Peter was uniquely called to Jewish people. Paul uniquely called to Gentile people, both passionate about the gospel going forward, proclaiming the message that Jesus saves, and people come in the faith. Unique guys, go into unique context. This message, Jesus came to save sinners, that we are saved by faith alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That message does not change. But how we deliver that message, and who might be best equipped to deliver that message, so the method, that can change, which is why I'm here on a morning like this, wearing jeans and speaking in English. Because if we didn't believe this, then I better be here in a way of speaking in Hebrew. Okay? This is what we're talking about. Here's what I want to challenge you with. Culture changes, people change, but the good news of Jesus doesn't change. And so we're going to have to, and by William, I'm saying you, you are going to have to think critically and strategically about how it is that you proclaim this message. When I was your age, social media was just kind of starting as a thing, kind of. No TikTok, no be real, right, viral or something that kept you out of the game on Friday night. Okay? That's what I meant. It can be daunting and fearful to think about everything that's coming at you. As a parent, I got kids slightly younger than you, daunting and fearful for me to think about the world that they're going into. But here's the deal. God made you for this moment. He made you for this moment. It'll make the Apostle Paul for this moment, make Peter for this moment, and then Charles Spurgeon for this moment, bury the Graham for this moment. You've got you, you for this moment. This is a unique time in history, and there's going to be some unique challenges, but the gospel of Jesus hadn't changed. Trust him. Make the gospel known, amen. Hey, let me pray for you guys, and then we'll wrap it up. God, it's so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that Jesus saves sinners. God, if there's anyone in this room that doesn't know you, I pray that they would come to a place of faith and trust in you, that you stepped in on their behalf and did what it is that they couldn't do. God, as we think about complicated topics like this, of how to believe in you and live out our faith and the way to communicate that to one another, would your Holy Spirit just give us direction, guidance, and how to do that? God, I pray that you would bless these students, these teachers at this place, that this would be a fountain head for the faith moving out all across Nebraska in years to come and pray in your name. Amen. Thank you guys. (audience applauds)