Paul's Autobiography

Tom Shrader walks through Galatians 1:11–2:5, using Paul's autobiographical account to establish that the gospel is not a human invention but a divine revelation received directly from Jesus Christ. Drawing on parallel passages in Acts, Philippians, and Romans, Shrader traces Paul's life before conversion, his dramatic encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, and his subsequent calling to preach among the Gentiles. The teaching closes with a challenge to believers that salvation carries with it a call to service, and that the lives of those around them should reflect a God who is glorified through their witness.

“Your salvation, your relationship with Christ is generated by, initiated by, continued by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not human incentive.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Galatians: Fighting for Grace

Recorded: 2012 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 51 min

Themes: grace, freedom, calling, service, witness, salvation, legalism, transformation, new believer, struggling with legalism, feeling unworthy, questioning your calling, recovering from religious performance, young adult, mentor, seeking purpose

Scripture: Galatians 1:1, Galatians 1:4, Galatians 1:6, Galatians 1:10, Galatians 1:11-24, Galatians 2:1-5, Galatians 2:11, Galatians 2:14, Philippians 3:4-10, Acts 7:54-60, Acts 8:1-3, Acts 9:1-19, Romans 5:8, Romans 9:10-18, Jeremiah 1:5, Isaiah 49:1, Luke 1, Ephesians 2:8-9, 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

Theological Themes: divine revelation, apostleship, sola gratia, gospel authority, justification by faith, conversion, biblical authority, gentile mission

Full Transcript

Introduction: The Book of Galatians

Open your Bibles, please, to the Book of Galatians. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand. If you get a Bible from us, it's page 631.

Let me offer a brief reminder summary using a couple of quotes we read last week about the introduction to the Book of Galatians. One author wrote, "Galatians has been conferred such titles as the Magna Carta of Spiritual Liberty, the Battle Cry of the Reformation, the Christian's Declaration of Independence. It is clearly the Holy Spirit's charter of spiritual freedom for those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior." So you get that idea of freedom recurring throughout. Another author writes, "The message of Galatians is a message of the Christian's spiritual freedom. He is delivered by Christ from the bondage of sin and religious legalism. It's a message that's particularly relevant in our day."

I also had about a half dozen other quotes, and I like this one in particular: Galatians is a letter for recovering Pharisees. The Pharisees who lived during and after the time of Christ were very religious, so this has great application to us. In fact, we've said before that probably the better the church, the more the application for this. These Pharisees regularly attended their worship. They were orthodox in their theology and moral in their conduct, yet something was missing. Although God was in their minds and in their actions, He wasn't in their heart. Therefore, their religion was little more than hypocrisy.

The Pharisees were hypocrites because they thought that what God would do for them depended upon what they did for God. So they read their Bibles and prayed and tithed and kept the Sabbath as if their salvation depended upon it. What they failed to understand is that God's grace cannot be earned. It is only given freely.

Paul's Defense of His Apostleship

The recurring theme, especially in chapters one and two of Galatians but running all the way through, is the freedom we have in Christ. The background is that Paul is writing to the church at Galatia, and in doing so he is defending himself and his gospel. All sorts of attacks had been made on him — attacks on his apostleship, accusations that he was either self-appointed or something less than a real apostle.

We saw last week in chapter one, verse one: "Paul, an apostle not sent from men." He is saying, I was not elected to this, I did not aspire to this, "nor through the agency of men" — there wasn't a group of men who got together and sent me out — "but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead." He is appealing to that authority. He is not driven by man, nor by the approval of man.

Look at chapter one, verse 10: "For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ." Paul is saying, I am delivering a very hard, unpopular message. I am not motivated by the acceptance of man or the pleasing of man. I am motivated by loving God, by obeying Him, and by presenting the real gospel.

We also noted last week that this is probably the only one of Paul's epistles that contains no commendation. We cited the church at Corinth — a church with all sorts of ethical and moral problems, so much so that at one point Paul chastises them because they have someone in the church sleeping with his stepmother and they haven't dealt with it. Yet even to that church, Paul offers commendation and encouragement. He does not do so here.

The Gospel and the Crisis in Galatia

We saw in chapter one, verses one through five, Paul's introduction, followed immediately by the gospel. Look at verse four: it is Jesus "who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our Father." There is the gospel. But look at verse six: "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel."

What had happened was this: some Judaizers had come in behind Paul. The gospel was spreading — originally it moved largely from Jew to Jew, but now it was going out into the Gentile world. This created one central issue: can a Gentile become a Christian without adherence to the law of Judaism? For example, is it necessary for an adult converted male to be circumcised? These Judaizers came in and said, listen, Paul preached this message of salvation by grace through faith, but he neglected to add that there is more to it.

Paul's response is clear — look at verse four. The gospel is really simple: Christ died for our sins so that He might rescue us. The problem of mankind is a sin problem. It is not an economic problem. It is not a political problem. It is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem, and there is nothing we can do to fix it. So God becomes flesh and dwells among us as Jesus, dies on the cross, and rises from the dead as payment for our sin. If you weren't here last week, go online, hit play, and there it is. That is the gospel, and that is the issue.

The Stakes: A Public Confrontation

Paul is absolutely adamant about this. Today we are going to look at chapter one, verse eleven through chapter two, verse ten — a large section. But note also chapter two, verse eleven, which is part of next week. Paul is describing a confrontation he had with Cephas — with Peter. He says, "When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face." He stood toe-to-toe with him. And then in verse fourteen he says, "I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel," and he said to Peter "in the presence of all." Paul is saying this is not some frivolous issue.

The Gospel's Supernatural Origin

When Paul talks about the gospel, he makes clear we cannot alter it at all. What the false teachers in Galatia were doing was not necessarily removing the gospel itself, but saying, "Here's the gospel, but there's more." That is vintage man-made religion. One author writes, and this is patently true, that the centrality of the cross and of the resurrection do not figure in man-made religion. Man always seems to prefer what flatters him and affirms his human goodness.

Voltaire said it this way: God created man in His own image, and man has been returning the favor ever since. What we do is create religion, and in essence it works like this — we create something that says, "If I were God, this is how it would work." The God we create is not a sovereign God. The God we create is really there for our use. Almost all religion is going to have a component of this human endeavor in it.

Consider a simple experiment. If you went out to a food court and started interviewing people, asking whether they believe in God, about 93% would say yes. Ask whether they believe in life after death, and something like 85% would say yes. Then ask: if there is life after death — call it heaven for the sake of the discussion — what do you have to do to go there? By far, the number one answer is: be good.

It is always about me. Everything man can create is still about me. When you push back and ask how good, most people will eventually say that a loving God would never send anybody to hell. Push people long enough and they will say pretty much everybody gets there — Hitler, no; Gaddafi, no; maybe an ex-spouse, no — but just about everybody else slides in one way or another. That is the religion man constructs.

What the false teachers in Galatia were doing was altering the gospel in exactly this way. Whether you take the gospel and start cutting pieces out, or you add pieces to it, either way you have distorted the gospel. Either way, it is no longer the gospel.

Paul's Autobiographical Defense

Beginning in verse 11 and running through verse 24, Paul speaks autobiographically, and I want to work carefully through this passage. I think we will get about as far as chapter 2, verse 5 today, and then next week I will take the balance of chapter 2 and tie it together with that lesson. But I really want to attack the balance of chapter 1, beginning in verse 11.

Paul says this: "For I would have you know" — literally, I would make it clear, I would certify — "that the gospel which I preached is not according to man." This gospel did not originate with any man. He also says he was not taught it — he is not a disciple of someone who came and passed this down to him — nor did he receive it through tradition. Rather, he says, "I received it through a revelation of Jesus." The accusation against Paul was that he was self-promoting in his apostleship, and his answer is no — the gospel itself did not originate with any human being. He received it through a revelation. It is not a human message.

That word "revelation" literally means an unveiling of something previously secret. Paul received it through a revelation of Jesus, so it is Jesus who is revealing this to him, and the subject of that revelation is also Jesus Himself. Paul is coming at this full force. Just as he defended his apostleship in verse 1, he defends the gospel here: this is not something he dreamed up, not something a committee concocted somewhere, not a tradition passed down by men. This came to him from Christ.

Three Phases of Paul's Life

Beginning in verse 13 and running through verse 24, Paul speaks autobiographically, and I have divided this section into three parts. Verses 13 and 14 cover Paul's life before his conversion. Verses 15 through the first part of verse 16 cover his conversion itself. The second part of verse 16 through the end of the chapter covers his life post-conversion.

What happened to me in preparing this was that it did not remain merely an academic study — and I am not that interested in the purely academic anyway. The application of it is what gripped me. When I broke Paul's account into those three sections — pre-conversion, conversion, post-conversion — I saw something we have contended and taught here for a long time: your conversion and mine is circumstantially different from Paul's, but substantially the same.

None of you were likely converted on the road to Damascus. But for Paul there was a moment of what we would call radical conversion — and that phrase is essentially redundant, because all genuine conversion is radical. Paul is going to say: this is what I was, this is what Jesus did, and now this is who I am. As we look at what Paul was before his conversion, somewhere in that description it is going to describe you. You were something. Then there is this moment of conversion. Then there is this call on your life.

Paul's Zeal Under the Law

Paul was totally driven by pleasing God through his works, through his compliance to Jewish law, to the ceremonial ritual, to compliance. In verse 13 he describes two things about his former manner of life in Judaism: first, how he used to persecute the church beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and second, that he was advancing in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries among his countrymen, being more extremely zealous for his ancestral traditions.

Paul says he was advancing — the word literally means to chop ahead of, to blaze a trail through a forest. He was moving ahead through the ancestral traditions, and that phrase refers not just to the Old Testament, but to the oral teaching around it, the laws that were developed by the Jews to explain the laws, every little thing along the way. We see this when Jesus confronts the Pharisees: He says they tithe on the mint and the dill, meaning they take their salt and pepper and things around the house and tithe off of them, while ignoring the big picture of the law. They cleanse themselves ceremonially but inside are filled with dead men's bones, and they go all over the world seeking a convert only to leave that convert further from God rather than closer. Paul is saying that was his world.

Paul's Résumé in Philippians

To understand Paul's full assessment of his former life, we turn to Philippians chapter 3. In verse 4, Paul is talking about the ability to please God through the law, through obedience, through the flesh, through his own effort: "Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more." Paul is saying plainly: you think you are good — I am better.

He then lays out his credentials beginning before his own choices. Verse 5: "I was circumcised on the eighth day." He had nothing to do with that — it was his heritage. He was from the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and as to the law, a Pharisee. In any category of Jewish observance, he excelled.

What Conversion Did for Paul

Then Paul describes what conversion did to all of that. Verse 7: "Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ." And further: "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Everything he had achieved through ritual and obedience — all of his human achievements — he now counts as nothing. What has value is knowing Christ.

Verse 10 carries this further: knowing Him, knowing the power of the resurrection. We talk all the time about relationship, and Paul is pointing to exactly that — how you come into a relationship, how you grow it, the beauty of it. That is what it is all about. If it had been possible to please God through the law, Paul would have done it. In terms of compliance, he was, as he says of himself in Philippians, a Hebrew of Hebrews — no one was going to surpass him. And yet none of it was sufficient.

Paul and the Persecution of the Church

Paul also speaks in Galatians about his persecution of the church, and the book of Acts gives us a vivid window into that. In Acts chapter 7, verse 54, Stephen has been charged and is about to be killed. He takes a stand and speaks to the Jews directly: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always resisting the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did." When the Jews heard this, they were cut to the quick — laid bare, exposed. There was gnashing of teeth.

Yet being full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He declared: "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." In response, they cried out with a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed at him with one impulse. It is a vivid picture — they cannot hear this, and they will not hear it.

The Reaction to Unwanted Truth

That image of people covering their ears and rushing forward raises something worth noticing about human nature. Someone earlier asked about Tim Tebow, and what is intriguing is not Tim Tebow himself — he seems like a decent person, and if he called and asked for coffee, there would be no hesitation in going. What is striking is the people who cannot stand him. It is genuinely stunning that people have such strong objections to him for no apparent reason. The NFL is filled with players who have been involved with all manner of serious moral failures — and people buy their jerseys without a second thought. Yet somehow Tim Tebow draws objection.

The Stoning of Stephen and Saul's Role

They were convicted and condemned by just the message that Stephen gave. They drove him out of the city — verse 58 — and began stoning him. The witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

So here is what is happening. They are going out of the city to stone him. There are witnesses, and those who are going to do the stoning take off their robes and lay them at the feet of Saul — that is Paul, the pre-converted Saul of Tarsus. They stone him. Stephen cries out in verse 59, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold it against him." And he fell asleep.

Verse 1 of chapter 8 tells us that Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. Remember, that is what Paul said in Galatians chapter 1 — "my former life, I used to persecute the Church of God." On that day a persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.

But Saul, beginning in verse 3, began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, putting them into prison. That word translated "ravaging" is used in secular Greek literature to describe a wild animal tearing apart its prey. So here is Saul going from church to church and house to house, ripping apart and doing anything he can to destroy the church.

He is successful. Chapter 9, verse 1: "Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." Acts 9, verse 3: it happened that as he was approaching Damascus, a sudden light from heaven appeared.

Saul Was Not Looking for Jesus

There are some important things to observe at this point. Saul is not looking for Jesus. He is not looking for a better way to communicate with God. He is absolutely confirmed in his mind that he is God's instrument doing God's work. He is not open to conversation. He is not trying to find Jesus — he is trying to destroy Jesus.

Paul Describes His Conversion in Galatians 1

Now keep your finger there, because we are going back and forth between Acts and Galatians. Let us look at how Paul describes his conversion in Galatians 1:15. God is going to move. "But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son to me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles..." Paul says this was a calling of God, a calling that God placed on his life while he was still in his mother's womb.

Jeremiah writes the same thing. The Lord came and said to him, Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to all the nations." Isaiah writes in chapter 49, verse 1: "Listen to me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from my mother's womb." We read these same things about John the Baptist in Luke chapter 1.

God's Sovereign Call in Romans 9

Here is probably the classic passage on this idea of the divine call of God. Look at Romans chapter 9, verse 10: "And not only this, but there was Rebecca also, who when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac..." So here is the background — Rebecca is pregnant with twins, obviously by the same father. Paul is saying there is no distinction between the two in terms of heritage.

"For though the twins had not yet been born and had not done anything good or bad..." They are still in the womb. Neither of these boys had done something to earn favor with God, nor had either done something to lose it. "So that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls — it was said to her, 'The older will serve the younger.'" That is the reverse of the tradition. "Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'"

That is a powerful statement. Here are these two boys in the womb. Regarding Jacob, God says He will show affection and mercy to him. The word "hate" with respect to Esau does not mean God actively intervenes against him — it simply means He is not going to extend mercy to him. Now, when you hear that, something inside of you should cry out that it is not fair.

Paul anticipates that reaction in verse 14: "What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? ... I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Paul is saying no one was treated unjustly. Esau receives justice; Jacob receives mercy. This is entirely independent of them and totally dependent upon God and His good pleasure.

It is the same thing Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, telling that church — and all believers — that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the earth and predestined us to adoption as sons. This is what Paul is affirming here, and it is true.

God's Sovereign Choice in Salvation

You see God's choosing all around you. You were chosen to be born this year, not in 1712. You were chosen to live at this point in time in Arizona, not in India. You see all sorts of natural selection around you — you were chosen to be tall or short, wide or narrow, handsome or otherwise. What Paul is saying is that the same thing is true of salvation and of ministry. Paul was chosen for salvation, chosen for apostleship, chosen for a mission. You and I who are followers of Christ are that because of God's choosing.

Look at this account — it is a wonderful example, and I'm not sure we always see this in it when we read it. It's all God. It's not Paul. I want to make this point again: Paul is not looking for salvation. He is convinced he already has it. Does he seem indecisive to you? No. Paul is still breathing murderous threats. He is on the road to Damascus.

As he was traveling, there was a sudden light. Acts chapter 9, verse 4: "And he fell on the ground and he heard a voice saying, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' And he said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Get up and enter the city, and it will be told to you what you must do.'" The men who traveled with him stood speechless — they heard a voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could not see. They led him by hand into Damascus, where he remained three days and three nights with no sight, no food, no drink.

Ananias and the Human Response to God's Call

God is not just working in Paul's life directly — He is going to bring His word through a person, Ananias. God appears to Ananias, who answers, "Here I am, Lord." Verse 11: "The Lord said, 'Get up and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight.'"

Look at Ananias. This is the perfect human response: "Lord, I have heard of many things about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints in Jerusalem, and he is here with the authority of the chief priest to bind all who call upon Your name." What he is really saying is: are you sure you have the right Saul? This doesn't make sense. And that is so typically human, isn't it?

In your life, you have seen this same dynamic play out. Some of you are married today to people who are not Christians. You entered that marriage knowing full well they weren't believers, thinking they were just that close — that if they could spend time with you, you could push them over the edge. And yet it hasn't happened. You will also see people who, by every outward appearance, seem so sweet, so open — you think, if I could just explain the gospel to them. And they never respond. And then you will see the most unlikely people, the most despicable people, people you would never even think to share the gospel with — and God saves them.

A Chosen Instrument for a Specific Mission

That is exactly what happens here. God says of Paul: "He is a chosen instrument of Mine. He will bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and I will show him how much he must suffer." When Ananias departs and meets Saul, scales fall from Paul's eyes, he regains his sight, he takes food. For several days he is with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he begins to proclaim Jesus. That is your call and mine.

We are saved by grace through faith. We are called by grace. Paul writes in Romans chapter 5, verse 8: "For God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Your salvation — your relationship with Christ — is generated by, initiated by, and continued by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not by human incentive.

You were likely no more looking for Jesus than Paul was. If you were looking for something spiritual, it was something other than Christ, something that had your flesh in it. But God called you. He gave you mercy. Paul was not looking for God, not looking for Jesus, not looking for the church, not looking for truth — he already thought he had it. And that is an amazing picture of God's grace and mercy.

Salvation Comes with a Call to Service

Here is something that is huge: with the call of salvation comes a call to service. We have been looking at these aspects of Paul's life — his pre-conversion state, hating the church; then God saving him, totally a work of God; and then God saying, "I saved him for a purpose."

We said your salvation is circumstantially different but substantially the same. You have your own story — whatever came before your conversion, and then the moment of conversion itself. You may be able to name a date, a place, a time. You may say you don't know exactly when, you just know that it happened — and that's fine. But there is that moment in time where you turn from your own efforts, your own religion, whatever you were, and you turn to Christ and Christ alone. You believed in the crucifixion and the resurrection. That is your story. You were at war with God, and now you are at peace with Him.

And He saved you for a reason. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" — Ephesians 2:8–9. And we are saved for good works: not works that result in our salvation, but works that result from our salvation. That is the gospel. That should be your life.

The whole basis of Paul's ministry becomes what he declares in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2: that he preached Christ and Christ crucified.

If You Know Enough to Believe, You Know Enough to Share

Paul is now saved and he preaches. This is a gigantic point: if you know enough to believe the gospel, you know enough to share the gospel.

Consider how this works in everyday life. A man came up to me this morning and said I needed to see *The Iron Lady* — he never even told me it was good, just that Meryl Streep was amazing. I ate at a restaurant the other day and told someone it was really good. You read a book, watch a movie, watch a TV show — someone asks what you're watching and you say you love *Castle* and *The Mentalist*, and so do they. Nobody has to tell you to share those things. You just do it because they've had an impact on your life.

Now here is Jesus. Shouldn't that work the same way? Maybe even more so? I believe that is the norm, or at least it's supposed to be. If it's not happening, you have to ask yourself why.

It's not as though there aren't hurting people around you. When was the last time God used you like an Ananias — as the instrument to deliver the gospel to somebody, in which He converted them? You didn't convert them; He did. When was the last time He did that? My assumption is there are a whole bunch of people all around you.

I was talking to an attorney one day who said he wanted to get into ministry because he wanted to help people who are hurting. I asked him about his law practice. He said it was family law. All day long he was dealing with family disputes and marriage. It seemed to me like God had placed him in a perfect opportunity for ministry — and they pay him for it. That should be the norm. There should be something consistently in your life that draws people to you.

Recognizing and Worshiping God Because of You

Look at Galatians, at the end of this passage — verse 24. Let me read it from Eugene Peterson's *The Message*: "Their response was to recognize and worship God because of me." The question is: how many people are walking around right now recognizing and worshiping God because of you? Is it one hundred, fifty, five, four, three, two, one?

If you are sitting here feeling guilty, good — because if I hit your number and it's only one or two after thirty years of knowing Jesus, something is wrong. I love you, but something is wrong. There should be people who are glorifying God and worshiping God because of an encounter with you. Jesus commands, "Let your light shine in such a way that people see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." That is this second part of Paul's testimony.

Paul's Three Years Alone with God

Now, backing off a little, look at the second part of verse 16. Paul says, "I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood." He didn't run out and start talking to other believers at this point. "Nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus. And then three years later I went up to Jerusalem."

He is in this place for three years — three years where it is essentially just him and God, where God is teaching him. Remember what he said earlier: this gospel is not of human origin. He didn't receive it as a man; it wasn't passed down as a tradition. His seminary faculty was Jesus. We see something similar after the crucifixion and resurrection, when Jesus comes alongside the disciples on the road to Emmaus — they don't know it's Him — and He opens up the scriptures and teaches them. That is what is happening to Paul. Paul is being prepared here for ministry.

Meeting Peter and James in Jerusalem

Three years later, in verse 18, he went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with — the word literally means to visit with the purpose of getting to know someone. He became acquainted with Cephas, with Peter, and stayed with him for a little over two weeks, fifteen days, and didn't see any other apostles except for James.

He went up there and became acquainted with Peter, and they obviously discussed spiritual things. After this period in which God had given Paul this gospel directly, my sense is that Paul and Peter are having these discussions and Paul is sharing what he has come to know — and I would assume there was something stunning to Peter about that conversation.

In verse 20 Paul makes something of an oath: "Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God, I am not lying." There were accusations being made against him, and he is saying plainly: this is the truth, this is how it happened.

Returning to His Hometown

Then he goes out to other regions, and interestingly, these regions include his hometown of Tarsus. This calls for another pause. It is one thing to share your testimony with a stranger, or — in my case — when you are invited into a situation where that is the whole point and you are asked to come in and speak. That is fairly easy. But sharing one-on-one, sometimes that is —

Sharing the Gospel With Those Close to You

Sometimes sharing the gospel is more difficult than we expect, and that difficulty can depend on the circumstances. About fifteen years ago, I was teaching a Bible study and got carried away in one of those moments. I said, "Let's pray and ask God to bring somebody into your life this week — somebody with whom you have the opportunity to share the gospel." The next Wednesday morning, a man came up to me and told me what had happened. His wife and he were having a couple over, dinner was done, the women were talking, and he was talking to the other man about baseball or cars or something random, when the man looked him in the eye and said, "Can you tell me about Jesus?"

I am not suggesting that will happen to you, but that kind of openness should be something we are concerned with and praying for. Pray this week that God brings somebody into your life and gives you a sensitivity to recognize the moment. They may come to you and say, "How is it you handle all of this?" or "I've been watching you," or "You had this health problem — how do you do that?" When you hear something like that, they are essentially saying, "Tell me about Jesus." So pray: God, bring somebody into my life, give me sensitivity to recognize them, and then give me the courage and the words to speak.

Families, in particular, can be really hard. When God saved me, I got the idea one day to call my three brothers and tell each one of them what had happened. With the first one, we talked for a while — water bills, the usual things — and then he asked, "What's new?" I told him the story. There was a long pause, and then he started to laugh. He said, "Do you remember the night you'd been drinking all night and passed out, and the pizza delivery guy picked you up and brought you home?" I told him I remembered the morning — waking up smelling like pepperoni — but not the details. He remembered all of the details.

I said, "Why don't we have a conversation?" I don't operate under any illusion in moments like that, other than that you open it up, and then they get to watch your life from there. But families — that is really hard.

Paul Returns to Tarsus

Now Paul is going into Tarsus, where he had been leading the charge against the church, where everyone knew exactly who he was. And now he is coming in there preaching Christ and Christ crucified. So what did they say? Verse 23: "Is not this he who persecuted us, and now is preaching faith, which he once tried to destroy?" There is naturally some hesitancy, a tendency to be suspicious, which is completely understandable. But it is not about Paul — it is about the message. And apparently, as they looked at that message and saw that it was matched up with that life, they glorified God.

Paul's Visit to Jerusalem: One Gospel, Not Two

I want to look quickly at the beginning of chapter two — just three or four minutes on this. "After an interval of fourteen years, I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and I took along Titus. It was because of a revelation that I went up." So the traveling squad is Barnabas and Titus, and Paul is going because God revealed that he should go. He writes, "I submitted the gospel to them" — meaning primarily Peter, James, and John — "the gospel which I preached among the Gentiles," because the charge was that Paul's gospel was somehow a different gospel. He did this in private, for fear that he might be running or had run in vain.

Verses three, four, and five are, according to those who know Greek and the experts who translate it, an absolute mess in Greek — pretty hard to unpack all the subtleties. But we can grab the big point. "Not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." So Titus is along, and Titus becomes Exhibit A. The issue was that Paul was preaching a different gospel. My guess is that the Judaizers had gone to James and the other leaders and said exactly that. And as the Judaizers had gone around to those in the Galatian region, they had likely said, "Paul is preaching a gospel different from those men — those men don't approve of him." They even, in at least one case, presented what amounted to false credentials, claiming, "We are from James."

So this is the big moment. Paul and Barnabas have the opportunity to talk about what God is doing among the Gentiles — the miracles that have been done and the message that has been distributed. Peter speaks. James declares that the gospel Paul is preaching is in fact the gospel. They are the same gospel. It is Jesus plus nothing. Salvation is utterly, incompletely, wholly, entirely an act of God.

And there is old Titus. He has a little invested in this. Here is Titus — the uncircumcised Greek — and when they make that declaration, you could almost hear it in the room: that was him, that was Titus in the back. The stakes were high for him. But that is exactly what they are saying: Titus is one of us. That gospel is the gospel — Christ and nothing more.

The takeaway for me from all of this is to look at Paul's life and to consider what it means for our own.

Conclusion and Commission

Before the service closes, let me draw together what we have seen across this series: pre-conversion, conversion, and the subsequent life that follows. You are saved by God, from God, and for God. When God delivered you, He delivered you from your sin, but He delivered you into freedom. The call to salvation is accompanied by a call to service, whatever that looks like for you. And this gospel cannot be changed — it must not be changed.

Next week we will pick up that story and develop it a bit further, working through to verse 14. The week after carries essentially the same weight. We were discussing it in the preaching collective, and there is a glorious repetition to these three weeks. My hope — and I trust God with this, because I know I cannot do it on my own — is that God takes this gospel like a prism, turns it just slightly, and you see Jesus all through it and become convicted.

A Word to Those Who Are Searching

Maybe you are here and you have no idea what any of this means. There will be people at the front of the room when the service is done who want to meet with you and talk through it with you.

A Word to Those Who Know Christ

For those of us who do know Christ, I think one clear takeaway is this: are people rejoicing, recognizing, and worshiping God because of an encounter with you? If they are not, you need to take a hard look at your life.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for this amazing truth. We pray that You would take this message and drive it deep into our hearts. Here is our prayer — we mean it humbly, but we mean it boldly. We beseech You and ask You to bring someone into our lives this week — one person with whom we have the opportunity to share the good news. That may be a family member, someone at school, someone at work, someone at the gym, or a casual conversation on a plane or in a store. Will You bring that person into our lives, give us the sensitivity to see the moment, and then give us the boldness and the courage to communicate Your love? Father, we ask it of You in Christ's name, amen.