THE BOOK OF GALATIANS – BACKGROUND AND CHAPTER 1 - Message 1 SERMON CENTRAL
We are going to begin a series in the book of Galatians. Paul was upset with the churches of Galatia because they had departed from the pure truth of the gospel and turned to teachings of man. The purpose of Galatians is to correct those errors the people had adopted to their hurt.
INTRODUCTION – BEFORE WE GET TO THE SUBSTANCE OF THE BOOK – THE BACKGROUND
(A). THE GALATIAN PEOPLE
The background of the Galatian people is most interesting for they were separate from all the rest of Asia Minor. The Galatians were the sons of the great Celtic family, migratory tribes that crossed Europe and entered Greece in the 3rd century BC, and then a separation from the main body crossed to Asia Minor and in 232 BC established their State of Galatia. It got that name because the people themselves were called Gauls. The Celts were also the people who settled in Britain, and places in the British Isles still contain a Celtish background (Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Scotland).
This is a bit extra about the Galatian people as Paul would have known them.
(1). From the “BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY”
Galatia refers to a region in north central Turkey; Ankara, the capital of modern Turkey, was once a major Galatian city (Ancyra). The name of Galatia is derived from the 20,000 Gauls who settled in the region in 278 B.C.E. More than two centuries later, in 25 B.C.E., the area became a Roman province and was extended to the south. In Paul’s day, the new province included the regions of Pisidia, Phrygia, and Lycaonia. Scholars often refer to these new, southern regions as “south Galatia” and to geographic Galatia as “north Galatia.” Gaul was the name the Romans gave to France.
(2). From "THE COLLECTOR"
The Galatians’ origins can be traced back to an ancient Celtic group that centered in Europe from as early as the 2nd millennium BCE. The Greeks had known the Celts since at least the 6th century BCE, mainly via the Phoenician colony of Marseilles. Early references of these strange tribal peoples were recorded through Hecataeus of Miletus. Other writers like Plato and Aristotle mentioned the Celts often as being the wildest of peoples. From the 4th century BCE, the Celts also became known as some of ancient history’s most prolific mercenaries, employed in many parts of the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean.
(3). Again from “THE COLLECTOR”
In the Greek world, like the Roman, such observations reduced the Celts to a few well-worn cliches and tropes. Celts were celebrated for their size and fierceness and known for being wild, hot-headed, and ruled by animal passions. In Greek eyes, this made them less than rational. The classical civilizations of ancient history painted the Celts as savage, warrior people, uncivilized and simple in their animal passions. Greeks and Romans grouped ‘barbarian’ tribal people into clumsy stereotypes. Thus, to the Romans, Galatians would always be Gauls, no matter where in the world they hailed from.
(B). THE BACKGROUND FOR THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS
We are going to have a look at Acts 13. This is the first missionary journey of Paul’s. At Antioch Paul was sent forth for the start of his first missionary journey {{Acts 13:4 “so, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. . . .”}} Then travelling through they eventually came to Pisidian Antioch.
Paul and Barnabas were now in the region of Galatia which is recorded in this way - {{Acts 13:13-14 “Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia and John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.”}} This was Paul’s normal custom – meet the Jews in the synagogue, but it usually meant rejection from the Jews and then he turned to the Gentiles. We then have this account of Paul’s first contact with the Gentiles -
{{Acts 13:44-52 “The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God, 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 should be spoken to you first. Since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles, for thus the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles that You should 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 aroused 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. They shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”}}
Paul and Barnabas were ordained by the Lord, so in spite of all opposition which was fierce because Satan desired to destroy the work, the Lord’s hand was with them in great blessing.
{{Acts 14:1-7 “It came about that in Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a great multitude believed, both of Jews and of Greeks, but the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles, and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. The multitude of the city was divided, and some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles, and when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region, and there they continued to preach the gospel.”}}
Paul was being hounded by these demon-inspired Jews of the region in great opposition to the word. The true testimony for God always draws opposition and hatred. It is at that point a real man of God shines. Only the turncoat will give up the word and go to pastures of luxury. Paul was now to encounter what it meant to suffer for the name of Christ and bear shame for His name. Here is the account, still in the region of Galatia –
{{Acts 14:19-23 “but Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead, but while the disciples stood around him, he arose and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had preached the gospel to that city 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.”}}
Now all that ministry was possibly in the churches of Galatia, and the record is of their foundation. Luke the ever careful historian sets out clearly the series of events on this first missionary journey. It was a fiery introduction to the work of the Lord, but the Lord is always faithful to His word and gave great blessing through Paul and Barnabas.
In Acts 16 v 6, on the second missionary journey, it says they went through the region of Galatia. The Bible draws a veil on this work and is silent about what happened when Paul returned there. It might seem a little strange as Luke is so detailed but it was God’s decision. Then we come to {{Acts 18:23 “Having spent some time there, he departed and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.”}} This then was the third time we read of Paul being in the Galatian area, and I believe no other place got three visits. The Galatian churches were blessed by the ministry of Paul. I am sure we would all welcome Paul for three visits and prevail on him to stay longer!
(C). WHY THE LETTER WAS WRITTEN
To understand the purpose of this letter we are helped by Acts chapter 15. Paul had faithfully preached the pure gospel of salvation but Satan is never content with the progress of the word and always has his agents ready to contaminate it. One name for Satan is Beelzeboul (bub) meaning Lord of the Flies and he always has his demonic flies laying maggots in the good word of the Lord’s work to adulterate and pollute it. Here are a few stanzas of one of my poems that deal with the names of Satan –
BEELZEBUB
The “lord of the flies” in great disrepute
Baal-zebub, Ekron’s god so filthy -
In stench and pollution he’s dissolute.
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Depravity and decadence we see
Where Beelzeboul has placed his influence –
His fly-blown cesspools of impurity.
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His sinfulness becomes the effluence
Contaminating human hearts and minds,
That then seeps through men’s lives to influence
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All human institutions, and inclines
Decision-making towards uncleanness,
So with time’s passing, what is right, declines.
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O cunning Satan, who works unfairness
And pursues it in your glorious form;
Pretends to uphold a false correctness . . . .
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In Acts 15 the whole matter of this contamination of the gospel was thrashed out in a conference. Here are the relevant verses exposing what the problem was –
{{Acts 15:1-5 “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,” and when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them, but certain ones of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed, stood up saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”}}
This is exactly what had happened in the Galatian region. These men were destroying the purity of the gospel and adding works to grace. It is not possible to add to God’s grace so they were destroying grace by trying to put the believers under law and bondage. They were trying to force Gentile believers to keep the Law of Moses that even the Jews could not keep, and is the reason that Jesus came, for the Law was not able to save properly from the penalty of sin. It covered sin over but could not remove it forever. That required the blood of the Lamb of God. As well as mutilating the gospel, they also attacked Paul’s character and tried to drive a wedge between Peter and Paul as the Apostles of the Circumcision and of the Gentiles.
These Jewish teachers were vicious in their attacks on Paul. They would gladly have seen his death. After Paul left Galatia, some years later, these destroyers of the purity of the gospel come to Galatia to try to undermine the work done there. Not only did they destabilise the believers, but they attacked the work of the Lord by what they did. The final cry from the cross, “It is finished,” became, “Yet you need to add this extra. You must obey the Law of Moses.” In some churches today they make issues such as, “You need a set of rules and regulations, a constitution, an official membership etc,” things which were foreign to the New Testament teaching.
Because of the strong need to expose and refute what these false teachers were bringing, for that reason, we will find the letter to the Galatians more stern and severe than any other letter Paul wrote. It is noteworthy that Paul was more troubled about the Galatians who were putting themselves under law than about the Corinthians who were behaving badly in issues of conduct and morality. In the one case they were putting themselves under law and bondage, while in the case of the Corinthians they were allowing the flesh to have its way. Paul says good things to the Corinthians as you read the letter, but says not one gracious word about the Galatians. This was a very serious issue he was contending against and it had to be overcome. The legalisers had done the devil’s work in the churches.
From the days of Cain to the present day, men have always been trying to substitute salvation by their own works, or speculation, instead of salvation through the shed blood. Cain took the bloodless path to God, and sin condemned him for it. It was the death of a substitute that was the way to God, established by God as early as Abel’s lamb. In the world there are three ways people behave in the matter of salvation – Not interested, My way, and God’s way. In the letter to Galatians Paul was defending God’s way. Man was wanting to add, and therefore pollute, God’s way.
(D). THE OPENING VERSE IN THE GALATIAN LETTER
Galatians 1:1 “Paul, an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of (a) man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),
Apostleship – the sent one for a mission. This was the way the letter had to begin – apostolic authority was essential to confirm. Paul affirmed his apostleship. Apostleship came from God, not from man. It was his apostleship that was being denied by the false teachers. Paul was not one of the 12 disciples; nor was he sent out from Jerusalem initially; nor was he “properly ordained” as today’s denominations would insist upon.
Over the centuries man has added to what God formatted in the early church. Men were called by God. They did not have to have theological degrees, or approval to preach, or authorisation from denominational institutions. Peter, John, James and Andrew were simple fishermen who went to no theological college or seminary. Neither did Matthew who collected taxes. None of the disciples went through those hoops. They were ordained by Jesus, taught by Him, sent by Him, and they were accountable not to man, but to God. Why have we departed so much from the correct standard God set in the church? I will suggest one reason why then leave the matter at this. Man wanted to lord it over other men and rise to a place of importance in their own eyes so they then felt important before others.
Paul was not sent through one of man’s agencies or mission society, or denominational institutions or sent because he had a degree or licence from some College of men. He did not have the stamp of man upon him to give authority to serve Christ or to preach. In {{John 15:16 the Lord said to all His disciples, “You have not chosen Me BUT I HAVE CHOSEN YOU and have ordained you that you should go . . .”}}
One other practice I find odd in churches, even bordering of discrimination, is the matter of “calling a pastor” in the way some conduct it. It can become a popularity vote, or one of judging God’s servants thinking you’ll get the best you can for your own church. Is that not a selfish way of judging men? The Lord chooses and the Lord commissions and the Lord sends.
(E). COMMISSION AND AUTHORITY
Paul was commissioned by God at the time of his conversion – {{Acts 26:15-18 “I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ and the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but arise, and stand on your feet, for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I AM SENDING YOU, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’”}}
Authority – directly from the Father and the Son. We might ask why the resurrection is here mentioned. As in all our faith it is pivotal. No resurrection, no belief and no hope. The resurrection carries the authority of God, and authority is essential in this book. Paul needs to establish authority because of the arguments he must make and because of the forces in opposition that have played havoc with the Galatian churches.
Three times in these first 4 verses the Father and the Son are linked in equality. It is another aspect of authority for this letter. There is an old proverb in {{Ecclesiastes 4:12 – A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”}} When God mentions something in His word it IS important. When something is mentioned twice, then take notice! When is comes up three times then be VERY careful you don’t miss the great importance of what is being said. God does not waste words in the inspired scriptures.
Part 2 will follow on
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