I don't know about you, but I think it's going to take some time to retrain my Bible to not automatically fall open to Mark every time I open it. Just as I was flipping from the Psalms to Mark, or trying to not turn to Mark, my Bible turned to Mark. It's going to need some new creases, but we'll get there. Eventually, my Bible will fall open to Galatians, which is where we are going to be for a while. but not all that much this morning. We will start there, but today we're going to transition into Galatians by looking at some background and introductory material so that when we do dive in and start digging in the book of Galatians, this background, this introductory material will help us to know why the Apostle Paul wrote what he wrote. If we know why he wrote what he wrote, it will help us to understand the meaning of what he wrote. It will help us to interpret it, understand it more accurately. So, we're going to look very briefly at the first two verses of Galatians, and then we will spend most of the rest of our time this morning in the book of Acts. So, Galatians chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. If you were in 1 Corinthians for Our scripture reading, let's turn a little bit further to the right. You'll go through 2 Corinthians and into Galatians. That's where we are and where we will be in weeks ahead. So get familiar with it. Galatians chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. Paul, an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia." Now, as this letter begins, Paul, the author, identifies himself, Paul, an apostle. As always, when we study any book of the Bible, there is a human author. For Galatians, that was Paul. Paul the Apostle. But all of the Bible authors were moved by the Holy Spirit to record the exact words that God wanted them to record. As we are told in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all scripture is inspired by God. And so we could also accurately say God is the author of each book of the Bible. This is God's word. So that means as we go through Galatians, whenever I say Paul wrote or Paul said, that is true as far as the human author goes, Paul being the human author. But we also need to know and keep in mind, this is what God says, because this is scripture. As we looked at last week, we know. that this is the word of God. The book of Galatians belongs here in the Bible. We know this is God's word. We should have every confidence that this is accurate, it is trustworthy, and this is exactly what God wants us to know. Now we see in verse one that Paul needed to do some convincing about that. To the recipients of this letter, Because there was some confusion and some uncertainty about who this Paul was. Some of what we're going to see in this letter is that Paul had to defend his apostolic authority. And we will get into why that was, but there were some people who were trying to convince the people in the churches of Galatia that Paul was not a real apostle. and that he had not really told them the truth, at least not the whole truth. And so he begins right off in verse one with his credentials, Paul, an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Now, unfortunately it didn't take very long for some people who had professed faith in Christ at Galatia to start to believe these false teachers, that Paul hadn't told them the whole truth. And so this greeting in Galatians, it's not exactly a friendly greeting. It's a little different than most of the other letters from Paul. where he says some things that he's thankful about for the believers in the church. Even in First Corinthians, a letter that Paul wrote largely as a correction. Paul says in there that he's thankful for them. He can think of some things that he's thankful for. But Galatians, this is a letter of urgency about a serious matter that needed to be corrected. And Paul identifying himself as an apostle. The word apostle basically means one who is sent. So who was it that sent him? It says, not sent from man, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Jesus sent Paul with this message. God the Father sent Paul with this message. So if you're going to disagree with the gospel that Paul preached as he went through the region of Galatia, that we're going to look at a little later, or you're going to disagree with what Paul says in this letter of Galatians, you're not just disagreeing with Paul, the man. You're not simply holding to a different opinion than a group of men, some missions agency that sent Paul. You're disagreeing with Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, and is the way, the truth, and the life, and is the only way to the Father. That's who you're disagreeing with. You're disagreeing with God the Father, who holds the power of life and death in His hands, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Because that's who sent Paul with this message. And we've got to think about that as we work our way through Galatians. It's possible that I could interpret something wrong. I could misunderstand something. And as I teach to you, I could get something wrong and I hope and pray that that doesn't happen. I'll do everything I can to avoid that, but it's possible. So you could disagree with me and my interpretation as I teach the book of Galatians. But if you disagree with the book of Galatians, you're going to have to take that up with God. And we know that He's not going to change His mind. So you're best to agree with the book of Galatians. This is God's Word. Now we're going to see more of Paul defending his ministry and his apostolic credentials as we go through this book. But we see this in verse two. He says, and all the brethren who are with me. Now this may be not as significant of a detail as this coming from the Apostle Paul who was sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father. But this is also coming from those who are serving with Paul. It's a group of men who cared. They care about the truth. They care about the churches in Galatia. To the churches of Galatia, verse 2. We're going to find out who they are when we turn to the book of Acts very soon. If you were with us, you remember we were right at the end of Mark. At the end of the Gospel of Mark, we saw that someone, somewhere along the way, wanted to fill in the rest of the story. After Mark concluded, chapter 16, verse 8, with the empty tomb, the announcement from an angel that Jesus had risen from the dead. And we saw that even if Mark 16 verses 9 through 20 weren't original, they're true insofar as they agree with the rest of scripture when understood in the light of the rest of scripture. So what we saw last week was that after Jesus had risen from the dead, he appeared to some women who had been traveling with him. And then he appeared to his disciples He appeared to some others. He commissioned his followers to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. And he later ascended back to heaven, sat down at the right hand of God. Now we get to this place called Galatia. As the followers of Jesus Christ obey his command, they go and they preach The Book of Acts is a history of how that happened. Several years ago, I noticed that with every New Testament epistle that we studied, somewhere along the way we always went to the Book of Acts to see the background of how that book came to be or to figure out some of the details of what was being said in that book, learn about who it was written to, So that got me thinking at that time that we should study the Book of Acts and see how all those backgrounds fit together. And so we did that. We finished that study about five years ago. And so if you were not here with us at that time, if you've never studied through the Book of Acts, you should. It's a really interesting and helpful book to help see how all the pieces of the New Testament fit together, how all of those letters, fit together, who all these people are that it was written to, the situations that they were in. We see the history of the spread of the gospel in the book of Acts. The history of the expansion of the church. That's what the book of Acts is all about. We're going this morning to do a very brief survey of some pieces of the book of Acts to find our way to Galatia. basically begins kind of a crossover to where Mark ended, where we saw last week. Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus back to heaven. And then the coming of the Holy Spirit. And it's amazing to see the change in the disciples in the book of Acts. Most of what we saw through the last couple of chapters of Mark as it related to the disciples was about their fear and their lack of faith. The last of what we saw in Mark, the disciples weren't even there. They had left because they were afraid. But after seeing the risen Christ, and once they had the indwelling Holy Spirit, These disciples changed amazingly. One of the first things we see them do in the book of Acts is to boldly enter Jerusalem and boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to whoever will listen. And that message that they preached in the book of Acts, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, fell on many ears and hearts that were ready to believe. When the church started, the day of Pentecost, it was only about 50 days after Jesus had died on the cross. The church began in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost. It began with about 3,000 new believers on that one day. 3,000 new believers. at the end of the last verse of chapter 2 in Acts chapter 2 last verse it says and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved and the church was off to a solid start in Jerusalem the gospel was being proclaimed people were being saved day by day Now the still jealous chief priests and Pharisees noticed. Remember how they thought of Jesus' popularity? What they did to Jesus because of his popularity, their jealousy. They're still jealous. They tried several times in different ways to put a stop to the spread of the gospel, the growth of the church. Their attempts to stop it escalated to the point where they brought in Stephen, a good and faithful man, brought him in before the Sanhedrin, chapter 7. They drove him out of town after his testimony that he gave before the Sanhedrin. They stoned him to death. I think Pilate was still trying to stay out of the mess that was in Jerusalem. They're religious things. You deal with those yourself. After all that had happened with Jesus, he didn't want to be involved in that. And he's now even more trying to stay out of things. So after Stephen was put to death, and no one tried to stop them, there were no consequences for it, the unbelieving Jews were very bold in their opposition to the gospel. In Acts chapter 8, verse 1, gives us some important pieces of information. Acts chapter 8 verse 1 says Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. That's talking of Stephen. Saul was in hearty agreement. Saul said, yes, this is exactly what needs to be done with this man Stephen. We need to kill him. It goes on and says, and on that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem. They continued proclaiming the gospel there. But it was from that day that the gospel really began to spread beyond just the city of Jerusalem. It happened because of persecution. Now we don't want persecution, we don't like persecution, we don't seek persecution, but God uses persecution. Many times, in many ways, people have testified that persecution has actually been a good thing in the spread of the gospel, in the faithfulness of the church. This man Saul became a big part of that persecution. Now, as we're surveying through a few various things in Acts, we're skipping a lot of good details. But in chapter 9 of Acts, Saul gets saved. And that's huge. You remember how that happened, right? Saul is on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians who had fled there. And on his way there, he's confronted by Jesus. Jesus appears. This bright light knocks Saul off of his horse. Jesus stopped him from being a persecutor and converted him into a witness. That was huge. What Jesus did in Saul's life that day. It's an amazing example. It should remind us that no one is beyond God's ability to save. Anyone you know you think is hopeless, remember Saul. Keep praying. Keep witnessing. God can change hearts. The next chapter of Acts begins something else that was kind of new. The conversion and salvation of Gentiles began with Cornelius. For the Jews who believed the gospel, it seemed like a natural flow and a progression into Christianity. Because their scriptures had prophesied about the coming Messiah. And now that they know Christ and they look back on the scriptures, it all makes sense. Everything fits together. Yes, that is what that meant. Isaiah 53 makes so much sense now. That's Christ. That's our Messiah. Those who had believed in Christ up to this point, for the most part, had been Jews. They're still Jews, but now they're completed Jews, having trusted in their Messiah. It all flowed together so well. But what do you do with the Gentiles, who are now starting to believe the Gospel? What about them? In the past, before Christ came, if a Gentile believed in the one true God of heaven, wanted to be a faithful servant of the one true God of heaven, they would basically become Jewish. They would be a proselyte and put themselves under the law. What about now? Do they still do that? What about on this side of the cross? Has anything changed? Peter reported to the rest of the church leaders after his meeting with Cornelius and his family that from his experience and what he saw, they were being saved in the same way as Jews were. They believed the gospel of Jesus Christ and God saved them. At that time, God was giving some signs that they could know when that happened. They believed the gospel and God saved them. Well, eventually, chapter 11 of Acts, Quite a few Gentiles begin trusting in Christ. And the now saved and growing Saul was brought to the church at Antioch to help disciple the new believers there at Antioch. Okay, and if you can go to the next slide, got a map up here, help you see a little bit about what we are and we'll be talking about. Jerusalem kind of down here on the bottom, right, east side, Antioch straight north. There are two Antiochs on this map. The first Antioch that we're talking about now is the one on the east side, the right side. That's right, right? Yeah, the right side from your perspective. The other Antioch is one we will talk about a little later. This Antioch became another hub of the church. Jerusalem was one, people getting saved and moving out. Antioch was another one where many people were getting saved and moving out. Saul was brought to Antioch. And after being there for about one year, chapter 13 of Acts tells us how the Holy Spirit set Barnabas and Saul apart to be sent out to take the gospel to some new territory where it had never been heard before. And as you look up here on the map, that green squiggly line, that's the route that Paul took into this new area to proclaim the gospel where it had never been heard before. Interestingly, Mark, who's also sometimes called John Mark, went with them, went with Saul and Barnabas on this first missionary journey He went with them to help them on this trip, and he did until it got hard. Some things happened. One of them, somewhere along the way, Paul got sick. And that may have been part of what discouraged Mark. We'll read of that in Galatians. Things got hard and Mark left. And Saul, which was his Jewish name, Hebrew name, Saul. Paul was his Greek name. He'd had both of those names all along. He didn't change it to Paul just after he got saved. It just depended on who he was around, who was talking to him, if he was Paul or Saul. He was not at all happy with Mark abandoning them. They needed him. Well, eventually, they reconcile. Happy ending there to that story, but we don't have time to get into all of it this morning. But I'd like to read some verses here in Acts 13 about their coming into this region of Galatia. So you see Galatia there on the top of the map. Those cities where all those green squigglies are circling around there, those are cities in Galatia. So those are the cities we're talking about in these verses, Acts 13, verses 13 through 15. So now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. But John, that's Mark, John Mark, left them and returned to Jerusalem. But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. Okay, so that's the other Antioch, the one that's Kind of toward the top of those cities with the green lines. That's Pisidian Antioch. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue officials sent to them saying, brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it. Now, Paul had been trained to be a teacher. I think we're still calling him Saul at this point in Acts, generally. He's mostly working with Jewish people, but he was a teacher. And so there's nothing out of the ordinary for the synagogue leaders to come to Saul and say, hey, if you've got anything you'd like to say, now it's your turn, stand up and say it. And there's no way that Paul would turn down an opportunity like that. This is why he was there. And what comes next is the sermon that he preached Antioch, the second Antioch. And we're going to read Saul's sermon. It's a little bit long for a scripture reading. But I'd like us to see what Paul was teaching to the churches or to the people in this region of Galatia. This is important for understanding what we're going to see in the book of Galatians. Here's what Paul, Saul, taught. I guess we're calling him Paul now. Acts 13 verse 16. Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with an uplifted arm, he led them out from it. For a period of about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness. When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land as an inheritance, all of which took about 450 years. After these things, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years. After he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, concerning whom he also testified and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will. From the descendants of this man, according to the promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus. After John, speaking of John the Baptist, had preached before his coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, what do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But behold, one is coming after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brethren, sons of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. For those who live in Jerusalem and the rulers, recognizing neither him nor the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning him. And though they found no ground for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he be executed. When they had carried out all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now his witnesses to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children and that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. As for the fact that he raised him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay. He has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessing of David. Therefore, he also says in another Psalm, you will not allow your holy one to undergo decay. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay. But he whom God raised did not undergo decays. Interesting how much Paul emphasizes the resurrection in his message. Verse 38, therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And through him, everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses. Therefore, take heed. so that the things spoken of in the prophets may not come upon you. Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish. For I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you." It's a message Paul preached in the synagogues in Galatia. In the next couple of verses, we find that the people loved it. They were excited to hear what Paul had to say. They begged to hear more the next Saturday. Now let's read a little more here from verse 44 to the end of the chapter to see how that went. The next Sabbath, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. Now think about that. I'm not sure what the size of the city was, but the Saturday before, he had just been preaching in the synagogue to whatever Jews and Gentile proselytes had been there. But the next Saturday, people have been talking about it all week, and almost the whole city shows up to hear what Paul has to say. Verse 45, but when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, Since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium." You see that, the next city on the map up here where they went to Iconium. And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Now that persecution, that came upon them in Antioch kind of became the pattern in each of the cities that they went to on these green squiggly lines here until they made it to Derbe. Picking up in chapter 14, verses 21 to 23, it says, after they had preached the gospel to that city, to Derbe, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. And so through many tribulations, things like, we didn't read it, but Paul had been stoned. drug out of the city and stoned, they thought he was dead. He got back up, went back into the city, preached some more. Through many tribulations, there were new believers and churches planted in each of these cities in Galatia. So it's to these professing believers, in these churches, in these cities, that Paul, a little while later, writes the letter that we know of as Galatians. Why did Paul write this letter to the believers in the churches in these cities that we call Galatians? If you look in Acts chapter 15, we find the answer to that. Acts 15 verse 1. Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now, this specifically was happening at the East Antioch, the one on the right side of the map, where Paul and Barmas began their ministry, where they went back to and shared their ministry in Galatia. Some men from Judea, it says they came down They weren't looking at the map right, apparently, but no. Elevation-wise, it was down from Judea. And they apparently went everywhere that Paul had been. The Jews in those places, I don't know if they sent for them, maybe they invited them to come. They told them of the trouble that Paul had brought. But they went where Paul had been, preaching this message that we see in Acts 15.1. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. There are people who we call the Judaizers. They were compromisers, or halfway in-betweeners, trying to find some middle ground here. And they would say to the Gentile converts, yeah, sure, Jesus is the Messiah. Believing in Him, yeah, do that for salvation. But, you can't trust what you've heard from Paul. He only told you part of what you need to know. He's not even a real apostle. He wasn't one of his disciples. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He only told you part of the truth. Now, what you need to know is that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. This is a Jewish gospel. If you are going to be saved, you also must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses like the Jews. So the gist of what they were teaching, the bottom line is Jesus is not sufficient to save. He'll get you part way. He's good, he's important, but you've got to do your part too. You need to take up the slack. You need to do these things in order to be saved. Now there were some in those churches, in those cities of Galatia, who had agreed with Paul's message of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Jesus Christ alone, who were starting to waver. What those Judaizers were saying sounded believable. The pure gospel was being contaminated. and it was changing into something that was not a gospel and it could not save. That is the serious and urgent situation that Paul was writing this letter for into the churches at Galatia. There would be a council about this issue with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem that comes later in Acts 15 It seems that Paul wrote this letter before that happened because he doesn't mention the findings of that council. It seems this letter came before that council in Jerusalem happened. It was somewhere around the year 50. So approximately 20 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel had spread to these regions, but false teachers weren't far behind. And so Paul wrote to the churches at Galatia, the letter of Galatians, to correct a false teaching that was creeping in of salvation being by Yahshua Grace, Yahshua Faith, Yahshua Jesus, plus anything, plus anything makes it not a gospel. Martin Luther said that it was through studying Galatians that he got his thinking and his belief straightened out to when he actually got saved. Galatians became a big part of the Reformation in a return to, a retrieval of, a saving of the true gospel of salvation being by grace alone, through faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's the background of Galatians. That's why we have the book of Galatians. Lord willing, we'll dive into it next Sunday and we'll see in the weeks ahead what the Lord has for us in Galatians.