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Heavenly Father, thank you for your living and active word – sharper than any two-edged sword. Give us ears to hear and hearts to obey. In the name of Jesus, our only Lord and Saviour, Amen.

What’s your spiritual history? That’s one of my favourite questions to ask people, if the moment is right and they have the time to give a full answer. In other words, how has God been at work through your background and your life to bring you to the point you’re at now? It’s always fascinating, instructive and encouraging to hear. Try it on someone!

This is part two of our journey through the apostle Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Last Sunday we majored on Galatians 1.1-10. This evening we’ll be looking at Galatians 1.11–2.14. So that includes the second part of Galatians 1, that I didn’t get to last week, as well as what we’ve just heard from Galatians 2 – because Galatians 1.11–2.14 is all of a piece. That starts on page 972 in the Bibles. It’ll help to have that open.

What we’ve got here is the Apostle Paul’s spiritual history; his backstory, if you like. And it is fascinating and encouraging. But, it’s more than that because it’s vital that we grasp the truth that Paul is a God-appointed apostle, and that his teaching comes direct from God. It’s through this teaching that we come to know God, and to enter his eternal Kingdom. It’s that important. So there are four lessons about the apostolic authority and teaching of Paul from his life story that he wants to pile-drive into our hearts and minds. I’ve summed them up in my headings. And I warn you now that they’re not particularly snappy:

1. Paul’s apostolic authority and teaching came direct from Christ by revelation

This is Galatians 1.11-16a. Paul’s fundamental claim, which is at the root of all his authority and teaching, is there in Galatians 1.11-12. He says:

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.

Everything hangs or falls on this. Is Paul’s gospel God’s gospel, or does it just come from human minds? Is it true or made-up?

The other evening we saw One Life - the story of Nicholas Winton and his rescue of Jewish Children from Prague as the Nazis were invading in 1939. Whenever I go and see a film that says it’s ‘based on a true story’, the first thing I always want to do afterwards is to find out whether it really was true, or whether it was essentially made up for the sake of good drama. Well, Paul gives us the truth about himself – starting with his life before he met the risen Jesus. Galatians 1.13-14:

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

In those days his religion was man-made (a deadly distortion of the true faith of Abraham and Moses), the traditions of my fathers as he calls it. But he was deeply committed to it. Sincere but sincerely wrong. And it lead him into violent persecution of the early disciples of the crucified and risen Messiah Jesus. But he went through a radical transformation when he met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. In one irresistible divine move he was converted to faith in Christ and called to take the good news of his Lord and Saviour to the world beyond the Jews – the Gentile world. Galatians 1.15-16:

But…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, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…

For all Paul’s bitter hatred of Jesus before he met him, and despite the fact that Paul was the chief of sinners, as he calls himself elsewhere, this had always been God’s plan for him. And God cannot be thwarted. So he gave to Paul, by direct revelation, the message that he wanted him to preach to the Gentiles. Is it a fake or is it real? That’s a big question in the art world. Banksy art works can go for a small fortune. Game Changer was sold for £16.8m. There are apparently millions of pounds worth of fakes -Bogus Banksy’s. There is a whole Banksy organisation called Pest Control through which he certifies the authenticity of his work. Paul is the real thing. That’s Lesson One. Paul’s apostolic authority and teaching came direct from Christ by revelation.

2. Paul’s apostolic authority and teaching were independent of the other apostles

This is Paul’s point in Galatians 1.16-24. Here’s the key question: is he subordinate to the other apostles? Answer: no. His teaching did not come from them. For years he hardly had any contact with them. I won’t read it all out, but this is what happened. After his conversion, he had three years of private tuition from the Holy Spirit away in Arabia and Damascus, without consulting anyone, and without going to Jerusalem where the other apostles were based. Then after three years he spent just a fortnight in Jerusalem with Peter (Cephas, as he calls him –Aramaic for Peter). He didn’t meet any of the other apostles at that stage, except James the brother of Jesus. That wouldn’t have been long enough for any serious study. Then he went off again back to Syria and Cilicia - miles from any other apostle. The churches in Jerusalem knew him by reputation, but not personally. And so it was for fourteen years. By then his ministry and his message were established and embedded. And only then did he go to spend time with the apostles in Jerusalem.

For years I’ve been hearing and reading about Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. But only second hand. I had never read it. But I did last year. And very moving I found it – especially that momentous journey of Frodo and Sam across the murderous land of Mordor to Mount Doom. At last I have first-hand knowledge of The Lord of the Rings. From the very start of his life as a disciple of Christ, Paul’s teaching was not second hand from the other apostles. It was first hand from Christ himself. That’s Lesson Two. Pauls’ apostolic authority and teaching were independent of the other apostles. That’s going to be vitally important later.

3. Paul’s apostolic authority and teaching were recognised and accepted by the other apostles

That’s what Paul tells us about in Galatians 2.1-10. Paul was an apostle. But he wasn’t the only apostle, chosen to be an eyewitness to Jesus, appointed, and authorised by Jesus to teach the truth about him to the world. Nor was he a free-lancer with a different message to theirs. It mattered that all the apostles were on the same page. So let’s go through this and see what Paul wants us to know. Galatians 2.1-2:

Then after fourteen 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.

So he wasn’t summoned as a subordinate. He went because God told him to. And he wasn’t needing their seal of approval. He wanted to make sure they weren’t going to undermine his ministry. Galatians 2.3:

But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.

So that confirmed they were teaching the same as him – that those saved by grace through faith in Christ did not also need to keep the Old Covenant Law, including circumcision. That would be to enslave them again and take away their freedom in Christ. But that was the particular point of dispute and conflict in the church then. So he goes on (Galatians 2.4-5):

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.

That’s the key thing for Paul; his apostolic teaching of the gospel must not be compromised. Not one bit, and not even for one short moment. A lost world depends on that. How vital that is for us to take on board. Galatians 2.6:

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.

Again he stresses that the other apostles, with whom he was equal in authority, and whose human status he was not concerned with, did not want to amend his teaching at all. Galatians 2.7-10:

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 asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

So Paul’s apostolic authority, teaching and ministry were recognised and accepted by the other apostles as God-given. And they recognised too that Paul had been called by God as the primary apostle to the Gentiles (non-Jews – that’s most of us) just as Peter was the primary apostle to the Jews. You might think that Paul labours the point. But he needed to. His apostolic authority was constantly under attack then. It still is. In fact you could say that the current conflict in the Church of England over sexual ethics comes down to whether or not we should accept Paul’s writings as God’s word written. So that’s Lesson Three. Paul’s apostolic authority and teaching were recognised and accepted by the other apostles. And then Paul gives us a case study to hammer home the significance of those first three lessons. So:

4. Paul’s apostolic authority and teaching were brought into sharp focus by his opposition to peter’s temporary fall into hypocrisy

Take a look at Galatians 2.11-14. Galatians 2.11:

But when Cephas [that’s Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

So Paul doesn’t hesitate to use strong language even about the apostle Peter when he sees Peter going off the rails. So what’s been happening? He explains. Galatians 2.12-14:

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Peter understood the gospel. God had taught him that faith in Christ meant that the food laws of the Old Covenant no longer applied. So he had been living and eating alongside Gentiles and Jews alike. The old social separation of Jew and Gentile had been broken down by the gospel. But he had allowed himself to be intimidated by this Judaising party group from Jerusalem who were insisting that this apostolic teaching was mistaken. Not for the first time, Peter’s courage failed him. He gave in to fear. And his cowardly compromise was contagious and poisonous. Peter’s standing in the church made his compromise influential. Even Barnabas (Paul’s own friend and partner in ministry) gave in to the peer pressure. But Paul was having none of it. As we’ve seen so clearly, he understood very well his own apostolic authority. He understood the implications of this God-given gospel teaching. On this occasion, Peter was in the wrong. Letting that go would have had far-reaching, long-lasting and devastating consequences for the church. This was a first-order gospel issue. So, says Paul in Galatians 2.11:

…I opposed him to his face.

And what is the particular fault that he skewers? Hypocrisy. There’s no indication here that Peter was teaching falsehood. But his behaviour wasn’t in line with what he knew to be true. He was being a hypocrite. And he was leading others into hypocrisy. And because his behaviour was public, he had to be opposed publicly too. Lesson Four: Paul’s apostolic authority and teaching were brought into sharp focus by his opposition to Peter’s temporary fall into hypocrisy.

Now there is an obvious application here to the situation in the Church of England. I spoke about this last week. But let me add this. The House of Bishops is doing two things. On the one hand, it is saying that there is no change to the Church of England’s doctrine of marriage. What is that? It is the apostolic doctrine, learned directly from Jesus, that marriage is between one man and woman for life, that sex is for marriage, and that all other forms of sexual activity are immoral. That is God’s way, for the good of all of us – however counter-cultural it may be. The House of Bishops says it is upholding that teaching. On the other hand, it is also encouraging and commending the blessing of same-sex sexual relationships, whether inside or outside of same-sex marriage. The effect of this in the end is to abandon apostolic sexual ethics entirely. In doing that, the House of Bishops is fatally denying and undermining the very apostolic teaching on marriage that it says it is upholding. That is a flat contradiction. So there is now a deep-seated institutional hypocrisy at the heart of the Church of England hierarchy. And, following the example and teaching of the apostle Paul, it has to be opposed – and opposed publicly. That’s why we’ve written to the bishops of this diocese, reaffirming what Ian, Ramzi and I said in a meeting with the bishop of Berwick. We reported this last year, but let me repeat part of it. At that meeting I said (I quote):

We can never regard the Christian and Biblical teaching on sexual ethics as anything other than an issue of primary importance – a salvation issue (see for instance 1 Corinthians 6.9-11). I said we are called (in the words of the Nicene Creed) to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. What the House of Bishops is doing is unholy (contrary to our calling to be holy as God is holy), uncatholic (contrary to the teaching of the church for 2000 years), unapostolic (contrary to the teaching of the apostles in the Bible), and is destroying the unity both of the Church of England and of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It puts the eternal destiny of people at risk by leading them astray.

We have also drawn to the attention of the bishops the resolution passed last year by the JPC Church Council. That resolution includes this:

This PCC of Jesmond Parish Church:is dismayed by the proposals from the House of Bishops, agreed by General Synod, and commended by the bishops of Newcastle and Berwick, for prayers for the blessing of sexual relationships outside of God-given marriage between a man and woman for life; …[and] prays that the House of Bishops might yet change its mind and reject the proposals before they are implemented …

As you’re probably aware, they have now been implemented. So this plea and many others like it from around the country, have not been heeded. Why are we speaking like this? Because we can’t just listen to the lessons of Paul’s teaching, and not heed them. They are given to us to put into practice in our own generation and context. If you’d like to hear more on this, you could listen to the two podcasts that Laura Robb and Fi Jamieson have done about these issues with me and also Liz Jackson. You can find a link to those in the Weekly Email.

So to sum up - what must we do in response to these four lessons from Paul? Collectively and individually, we are to listen to his gospel. We are to believe it – because it is the gospel of God. We are to live by it. We are to preserve it with no compromise. And we are to oppose publicly those who deny it in word or deed. Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father – have mercy on us. We are so easily swayed by the social pressures that press upon us. We so easily begin to fear men rather than you. Forgive us, we pray. Constantly lead us back by your Spirit to a true repentance and a lively faith in your Son our Saviour Jesus. We praise you for the grace and freedom that you have given to us in him for all eternity. Thank you for your servant Paul, and for all that you have spoken to us through him. Thank you for the deep repentance and faith that you worked in him. Thank you calling him to be the apostle to the Gentiles for our sakes. Help us to learn from you through him. And teach us always to live to please not men but you. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.