Galatians 2:1-10
Sermon Summary
On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson opened with a photo from his niece's wedding, wearing a Texas Rangers World Series ring that belongs to a family friend in the team's front office. He sent it to Chad Melton and his brother-in-law, and the first thing they wanted to know was how that ring got into his hand. Whose is it? What is the story? Fair questions, he said, since he would be the last guy to have one. People felt the same way about Paul, the last man who should have been preaching Jesus. Where did he get this, and who helped him? So in Galatians 2:1-10 Paul lays out a chain of custody. Three years before he met anybody, two weeks with Peter, then fourteen more years before he was back in Jerusalem at all. Pastor Russell said you do not wait fourteen years to get a second opinion on something you are worried about. Nobody summoned Paul. He went with famine relief in his hands. He brought Barnabas and Titus, an uncircumcised Greek: not a position paper, a person. Titus walked out exactly as he walked in. The pillars contributed nothing, gave Paul the right hand of fellowship, and asked one thing: remember the poor.
Discussion Questions
- ICEBREAKER: What is the most valuable thing you have ever been allowed to hold?
- LIKE NEVER BEFORE: Pastor Russell said we may not have circumcision as an issue, but we have a hundred things we try to add to salvation and to growing as a Christian. What is one you have caught yourself adding?
- Read Acts 9:26-27. Everyone in Jerusalem had good reason to be afraid of Saul, and Barnabas took hold of him anyway and brought him to the apostles. What do you think that cost Barnabas if he turned out to be wrong?
- Paul did not bring a written defense to Jerusalem. He brought Titus, an uncircumcised Greek, and let the man himself be the argument. Who in your life is the clearest evidence that God's grace works?
- Genesis 15 says Abraham believed God and was counted righteous. Genesis 17 gives him circumcision years later. Pastor Russell said the sign never made anyone righteous; it was a seal on an envelope, and the letter inside was already written. What difference does the order make?
- Paul held that line in Jerusalem years before there was a church in Galatia, for people he had never met. Who held something for you before you got here?
- The one thing the Jerusalem apostles asked was to remember the poor, and Pastor Russell said remembering in Scripture means opening your hand. Who is one person you could open your hand to this week?
Extra Credit
Look up Acts 11:27-30, Acts 4:36-37, Galatians 6:12, and 2 Corinthians 8:1-5. Acts 11 is most likely the very trip Paul describes, when Antioch sent famine relief to Judea by the hands of Barnabas and Saul; Acts 4 is where Barnabas first appears, selling a field and laying the money at the apostles' feet, which is how he earned the name Son of Encouragement; Galatians 6 names the motive behind the pressure in Galatia, that the teachers wanted to make a good showing and avoid persecution; and 2 Corinthians 8 shows the Macedonians giving beyond their means for that same collection, out of deep poverty.
How do these passages together shape what you think generosity has to do with guarding the gospel, and what would it look like this week to give something away without anyone knowing it came from you?
How do these passages together shape what you think generosity has to do with guarding the gospel, and what would it look like this week to give something away without anyone knowing it came from you?
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