Galatians Chapter 1:13-16b

Galatians Chapter 1:16-24

Sermon #8 ~ Cheeseburger, Hold the Cheese

Introduction

How many of you have heard the old joke where you pull into the drive through lane at McDonalds and when the person comes on the intercom to take your order you order a cheeseburger, hold the cheese?
I have never tried this because I am fairly confident all McDonalds employees have heard this so many times it isn’t even funny
But the way the joke is supposed to work (and perhaps did a generation or two ago) is you ask for a cheeseburger, hold the cheese
The McDonald’s employee taking your order would then say “Sir, that would be just a hamburger”
To keep the joke going you would correct them and explain again that you would like a cheeseburger but hold the cheese
After this back and forth a few times the McDonald’s employee grows agitated with you, you then explain you just want a hamburger but you like the yellow paper that the cheeseburger is wrapped in
Now while this prank may seem childish it may illustrate something of what the apostle Paul is dealing with as he addresses the churches of Galatia
You see Paul was saved as a result of a revelation of Jesus Christ, keep in mind the earliest converts were saved as a result of the earthly ministry of Jesus, later converts were converted because of the preaching of the apostles
Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost recorded for us in Acts chapter 2 where 4,000 people are converted is an example of apostolic preaching being the means by which the gospel was presented
Later in Acts 8 we see the preaching of 2^nd in the list of 7 chosen to serve, Phillip by name, preaching in Samaria and people coming to Christ and later Phillip preaches to the Ethiopian Eunuch
So the norm for the early church was you were saved because you walked with Christ, you were led to Christ by one of his followers, or at least you were led to Christ by someone who had been in the presence of Christ
Paul has broken all these norms with his Damascus road conversion which we looked at two weeks ago when I was last in the pulpit
Now today we are going to look out how he continue to break the norms of how people are trained in the gospel ministry
Paul’s audience may be tempted to think how can you be a Christian, let alone a Christian leader, without the influence of Christ or the apostles in your life?
But this is similar to the McDonalds employee that assumes that if you hold the cheese on the cheeseburger it is just a hamburger and that is mostly true but the prankster is correct that a true cheeseburger minus the cheese would still have the yellow paper
Paul endeavors to do the same thing here, of course he is still a Christian, still set apart from before birth, still called to the Gospel ministry as a preacher but without the formal training while Christ was alive or more recently from the apostles in Jerusalem
He has said he is all these things but he lacks the exposure to the other apostle’s doctrine; the audience is ready to conclude that he is something entirely different but Paul just like the cheeseburger prankster has a point to make
So let’s look at how Paul makes his point today by reading Galatians 1:16 through the end of the chapter, actually I will start reading midway through verse 16
I did not immediately consult with anyone; ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. ²⁰(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) ²¹Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

No consultation

Paul ends verse 16 by stating “I did not immediately consult with anyone”
The question is sure to be asked by those that know this story from Acts chapter 9 well what about time spent with Ananias?
What about the phrase after many days found in verse 23 of Acts 9?
The first thing we need to understand about the narrative Paul is giving here in Galatians is his purpose is to establish that the Gospel he preaches was not taught to him by men as he has already stated in verse 12

What Paul is establishing with his audience is that he was not trained by men, least of all the apostles or those who had been close to Christ during his earthly ministry
When he says he did not immediately consult with anyone he is stating that he did not immediately seek anyone out to explain to him the Scriptures
Remember Paul has just stated that he was set apart from before birth to be a preacher and at God’s appointed time the Son was revealed to him
Now he is stating that in spite of the fact that there is a call on his life to preach he didn’t immediately seek out a degree in Theology from the Baptist Seminary of Jerusalem
His point is not to debate whether he remained in Damascus for 3 days or for two weeks what he is trying to get across is 1) he didn’t meat with anyone of importance who it could now be said conferred his apostleship on him & 2) he wasn’t there long enough to be trained to maturity in any form of theology

I didn’t seek out the leadership

Paul continues in verse 17 the same line of reasoning his started in 16, listen to his words from vs. 17
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
He states emphatically that he did not travel to Jerusalem; why does he make this point?
Because if he were in Jerusalem the natural assumption would be is that he took counsel with the others that is the remaining 11 apostles of Christ
He says this in verse 17 as well, that he did not go to meet with them and this was deliberate
Rather where does it say he did go? He went away into Arabia and then returned again to Damascus
If you are trying to reconcile this account with what we read in Acts chapter 9 then you should know that almost all commentators agree that the time spent in Arabia did not seem important to Luke in telling the story in Acts so it is skipped over
Once you have the data from Galatians it fits very nicely between verses 22 and 23 of Acts 9
What Paul did in Arabia is unknown, whether he was preaching this entire time or whether God was personally training him is unknown and anything more than this would be conjecture on our part
It is however safe to say that Paul was trained directly by the Holy Spirit
Now this was not the norm back the first century just as it is not the normal thing today either however it should be noted if we are being accurate and thorough that all of us must be trained by God if we are to have any impact in any ministry we undertake
Keep in mind verses such as Matthew 16:17 where Jesus praised Peter for his confession of Jesus as the Christ but Jesus quickly adds that flesh and blood, meaning no mere man, taught Peter this but specifically it was the Father in heaven who was pleased to reveal this truth to Peter
It is equally so in our lives, give thanks right now that God has chosen to reveal to you the truth of his word because many are those who though hearing never hear to understand the truth and although they can see they never see the beauty of the truth
No one hears or sees except that the Father gives them the gift of hearing and of sight
But this was especially true for Paul, he didn’t have a mentor in the faith that led him through the word and imparted knowledge to him for God himself took on this task because it was important to Paul’s apostleship and ministry

Eventually I made it to Jerusalem

Verses 18 & 19 tell us that after 3 years Paul made it up to Jerusalem; again listen to Paul’s own words
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.
Clearly there was no rush to make it to Jerusalem or he would have been there much sooner but as we saw a verse before it was God’s intention and therefore Paul’s intention as well to go into Arabia vs. going up to see the apostles in Jerusalem
The reference to 3 years would be an approximation of 3 years vs. a literal 1095 days
Paul or course is counting from the most important date in this narrative and that would be the date of his conversion; so three years after he is converted and after he has been preaching in Damascus he goes to Jerusalem
In a twist of irony Paul is re-living his past life in an opposite universe; if you recall he persecuted the Church in Jerusalem and then went to Damascus to persecute it there to
Now once saved he returns from Arabia to Damascus to preach there and now goes back to Jerusalem for the first time in 3 years in order that he might continue to preach Christ to the Jews
Now that Paul goes to Jerusalem it appears to be his intention to see Peter for the text tells us that he saw no one but Peter, from the account we have in Acts the Church was still afraid of Paul but Barnabas brought Paul to Peter and vouched for him
Again remember Paul’s purpose is to establish that he didn’t receive his training from man so he calls our attention to the length of his stay in Jerusalem
As we can see he was only there 15 days and he didn’t even meet with all of the overseers in Jerusalem. just Peter and briefly with James the Lord’s brother

I swear before God

Paul now takes an oath in verse 20 to stress the importance of this message to his audience
In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!
What Paul does here may not seem like an oath to you and me but to his audience it was clearly an oath that bound him to his words
For those of you who have done some reading in the New Testament you may be aware of a couple of key passages that deal with oaths so I am going to segue into a discussion of oaths for just a moment before returning to Galatians because I feel that if I don’t some of you may become confused on this point
For those of you who have never looked into what the Bible says about oaths I apologize in advance if this discussion seems a bit odd but I assure you there is a lot of misinformation floating around on the subject of oaths so let me try and set the record straight
Any time I endeavor to set a record strait I have a tendency to confuse some that weren’t confused before and clear it up for some that were previously confused
So let me say if I confuse you today come see me afterwards and hopefully I can clear it up and we can all walk in understanding
So on the subject of oaths the two verses that are often cited as proof texts against the swearing of oaths are Matthew 5:34 and James 5:12
Both verses read almost identically in content although James is a bit more condensed so I will quote the more complete thought from Matthew 5:33-37
³³"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' ³⁴But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil.
Jesus command on the surface appears to command against all oaths but that is because we lack the context of what he was addressing here
The Pharisees had an elaborate system of what you could swear by and it would be binding and what if you swore by it it would not be binding
The short answer is here Jesus is saying I don’t want clever tricks like a Philadelphia attorney, I want honesty not tricks and treachery
Jesus has commanded here that we be known as truthful people, people who when we say yes or no other automatically know it will be done as we said. We don’t have to preface what we say with oaths
On the contrary and here is where the difference lies, the oath Paul swears is a type of oath we are not familiar with today
Let me give you another definition of oath that you may not be familiar with
An oath is an appeal to God for the truth of an assertion
If you think about this definition it makes sense because we see oaths all over the Bible; in fact Moses sanctioned oaths in the law and God is unchangeable in his being so it would be inconsistent with God’s character for that to change
Even look at God himself what is recorded of him in Hebrews 6:13
or when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,
Surely God would not forbid oaths and then himself violate his law
Look also at Jesus when he was on trial before the high priest he would not speak a word until the high priest swore an oath
Let’s examine the behavior of Jesus in Matthew 26:62-64
⁶²And the high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" ⁶³But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." ⁶⁴Jesus said to him, "You have said so.
Let’s look again at the definition of an oath, it is an appeal to God for the truth of an asserction
The high priest is questioning Jesus and he remains silent but when he appeals to God for the truth of a statement Jesus responds affirming his fully deity as God incarnate which is in fact a truthful statement
Even though the high priest had malice in his heart we see here the oath he swore was responded to with 100% truth
So to conclude this little discussion of oaths it is imperative that we train our hearts and lips to be truthful so that those around us can trust our words and we don’t need to swear false oaths to convince people we are telling the truth
On the other hand asking God to prove to the heart of the listener that something is true by swearing an oath before God as Paul does here is quite a different matter
Paul is not violating the commandment to do what he does here but instead he entreats God to plead his case for him and on his behalf
Now the Word of God also teaches us not to be rash with our mouth when we make vows before God; consider the words of Ecclesiastes 5:2
Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.
Keep in mind that a vow is addressed to God and God has told us he searches the heart so there is no need to prove to him our sincerity; again that is not the purpose of an oath
Did that make it clear? If not come see me afterwards so we can discuss it further
So back to Galatians the reason for Paul’s little insert here is to ask God to plead his case and vindicate the words he has spoken so his listeners will not continue to be led astray by false teachers

I went away again

Paul only staid 15 days in Jerusalem and this was off again; let’s look at verses 21-23 together
Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."
I notice something here, when Paul left Jerusalem he left in some haste, he didn’t stop along the way to preach, minister, share or otherwise with the brothers and sisters in Judea
Why is that do you think?
I will tell you why, it is in part why he wasn’t in Jerusalem earlier
Paul was called as the apostle to the Gentiles not the Jews
It seems strange that the apostle with the most training in Judaism would have been the one chosen for the task of taking the Gospel to the Jews but in point of fact it was Paul he was chosen to take it to the Gentiles
Again God had sanctified Paul’s gifts but to ensure that history didn’t record that Paul had done this and Paul had done that God sent Paul to where he couldn’t rely on his own strength but he had to rely on God’s strength

God was glorified

I love how this chapter ends
And they glorified God because of me.
As we have taught the children, man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever
Paul states here that as a result of his conversion (which clearly was the Lord’s doing) people were naturally drawn to glorify God
As we looked at last week had something happened to Paul back when he was Saul, something that took him out of commission the Christians would have praised God that their great persecutor was gone but how much more did they praise when God chose to save his soul and he became a minister of the gospel

Conclusion

So let me ask you a question; Is God getting glory today from your life?
Are you doing everything that he has asked you to do?
Is God trying to teach you something, something directly much like he taught Paul but instead you are looking for a Christian book or a Christian friend, maybe even a pastor or church leader to clarify for you what God has already taught you
Or perhaps your relationship with God is such that you don’t spend much time or perhaps none at all in the Word of God, perhaps you have no interest in praying and thanking God for all the things in your life
Perhaps you have tried to shut down the communication between you and God because of sin in your life that goes on unconfessed
We talked a few weeks back about how God has a plan for each and every one of us each and every day; can you say with the same certainty as Paul that you are living in the center of God’s will and carrying out his plan each and every day?
If you answered no to one or more of those questions then maybe you need your own Arabia just like Paul right now, perhaps this alter during the time of commitment can your private Arabia