Galatians 1:1-5 (Inductive Bible Study)

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Okay, so today we're doing something different. We're taking a break from what we've been doing, which has been, you know, studying different categories of theology, systematic theology. And I just wanted, you know, to take a break so we could kind of start an inductive Bible study. And I think we'll be able to finish this book probably by the end of summer, and we can maybe resume what we were doing before in August, or maybe we'll do something else. But I wanted to take this time to really go slowly through a book, because that's even different from Wednesdays where we kind of try to do at least somewhat bigger passages. We want to just do a few verses at a time here. So we're doing an inductive Bible study of Galatians. Now, does anybody know what an inductive Bible study is? What does that mean? Has anyone ever done one? You just don't recall really what it means? Well, an inductive Bible study is a method for studying the Bible, and you do it inductively. What does that mean? Well, it means that we are going to find the meaning of the passages within the Bible itself. So we look internally, we look at the parts of speech, we make observations about what it says, and then based on what we see what it says and other context that we can bring in from the rest of the Bible and from theology and from what we know historically, what we interpret and find the meaning of what we've read. And then once you've done that, you move on to try to see what it means for your life, because this is the word of God. It is not just a history textbook. It is God's Word. And so it should transform our lives. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to observe what it says, interpret what it means, and apply it to our lives. That's basically what we do with inductive Bible studies. So that's what we're going to do, starting with Galatians 11 5. And we're going to work slowly through this whole letter. So let's read these first five verses, and then we can kind of talk about the context, and we'll start doing the inductive Bible study. So the goal of this, just so you guys know, is to uncover the meaning and to help us know what God's word is saying to our lives. And I want this to be interactive, so I want you guys to really think and engage and try to answer some of these questions because it's helpful and it'll even help you in your own life. As you open the Bible, hopefully you can remember to ask some of these questions and some of these tips to figure out the meaning on your own. So with that, let's look at Galatians 1:1:5, and I'll read it, and then we'll talk about it. Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. And all the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to Whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Okay, so pretty simple. This is a standard greeting, but there's a lot here we can kind of take up and understand. But first, we want to know at least where we are. So we see that this is called Galatians. That's because Galatia is a place. Does anybody know where Galatia was? Or what was it? You mean you guys aren't looking at the maps in the back of your Bible all the time? That's okay. Galatia is. It's a region. So it's not a city, It's a region. So it's a collection of cities in Asia and kind of into Greece, in. Or in kind of Turkey into Greece, I believe. But it's a region. That's what we need to remember. That's probably the most important thing, because a lot of times we read these letters, like Romans, that is, to the church in Rome. That's a city. Or we're studying First Thessalonians, that's written to the city of Thessalonica. But Galatia is not just a city, it's a region. So it was written to a region. Now, who wrote Galatians? Can anybody get this? Paul. That's great. Good job. You can be confident. The first word of the book. Paul. That's right. And it was written to who exactly? The church of Galatia, or church is. Yeah, See, we see churches, right? That's why it's important to remember how exactly these churches worked. At the time. There weren't a lot of Christians. This is very early in history. Again, one of the earlier letters Paul wrote is this one right here. And so typically, you'd see all the Christians in a given city gathering together. That's maybe hard to picture for us as you drive down Elm and pass a dozen churches. But that was kind of how it worked. At the time, since there were far fewer, they would all gather together. And so he's writing to a bunch of churches in this region. So there are different cities in this region, and this would have just been passed around to them. Yet somehow we know that the message he's sending is applicable to all of them. And so in a similar way, it's applicable to us. But there must have been similar issues and questions of theology that needed to be answered with all of these churches. They were all being affected by similar things, so they were probably pretty close together. Now, the main subject. I don't know. Does anybody know what the main subject of Galatians is? Might be a little harder. If nobody has a guess, We'll. We'll uncover it as we go. John Calvin said that justification of man is the main subject, and I think that is one of the main subjects. But kind of what we see throughout is that the churches here are dealing with some teachers who are not teaching a true gospel. See, they are requiring Gentiles, non Jews, to observe parts of the Jewish law in order to be in the church. And so they are teaching the gospel falsely. And Paul is opposing them. So dealing with these false teachers and some issues of legalism. But he's also emphasizing then that we don't need the law in that way anymore because we are justified. That means made right before God by faith. So that's kind of the main goal. There are other issues and little parts things of theology. He teaches us throughout, but that's kind of the main thrust. Now let's kind of focus more on the verses. So we're going to look first at verse one. We're just going to walk through it. So we see Paul. You see Paul. Now, how is Paul described? Yeah, that's right. He is an apostle. What is an apostle? Yeah, somebody sent by God to proclaim the gospel. Yeah, somebody sent by God to proclaim the gospel. That's really good. I had written out that someone who is delegated or sent by someone else to carry a message or enact a commission. And so he is commissioned. He's given a specific mission by God that is to take the gospel to the Gentiles. So he goes on multiple missionary journeys in his life to do just that. And specifically, he is given this by God. Right. How do we know that? How do we know he was specifically given this title by God? Yeah, so we know that historically happened. Is there anything right here in this text that teaches us that says he was sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father? Yeah, yeah. And specifically, he says what? Not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus. So we know he's making it very clear who sent him. And that's important because the person or the being sending him decides what. What the message is. That's what a delegate, an envoy, an apostle carrying a message does. He proclaims the message he's given by the sender. And if he's sent by men, then his message is from men. But if he's sent not through man, but through God, his message is from God. So from the start, this is a really powerful statement setting the tone for the rest of. Of the letter. Now, why do you think he throws this detail in? We see in other letters he calls himself an apostle. Sometimes he doesn't even necessarily say that, but he says apostle, not from men, nor through man. So he kind of says this detail about men and man twice. Why do you think he's doing that? Yeah, right. So there are false teachers that are against him. It's being challenged in some way. It's hard to know exactly what that looked like. That seems to be the right answer, at the very least. There are people with opposing messages. And if they have an opposing message and they say they're from God, he has an opposing message saying he is from God. He needs to prove that he really is from God. He is not sent by man or men. He says that doubly, so we know it should not be questioned. And so that's kind of one of the main conflicts of Galatians that we should. We should keep an eye on as we study it. So he comes not from men, but as we mentioned, through Jesus Christ and God the Father. Paul is saying that he was given his mission by God the Son and God the Father. Jesus Christ is God the Son. Now, why do you think he's making that plea again? We just mentioned this. But why do you think he's making this so clear? Why does it matter that he's sent by God? So they know his message is true. Yeah, they know his message is true. These are Christians he's writing to, right? They are churches. They believe in God. They believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son. And so he's kind of invoking the Son of God and God the Father both to say that if he's sent by God, it doesn't matter who he is. It doesn't matter what he's done. It doesn't matter what other people are saying. All that matters is I'm sent by God. This is his message. You must listen to it. Right. If we were confident that somebody was standing here getting, giving you a direct message from God, like a direct message from God, I would assume that many of us would listen if we truly believed that. Now, of course, that's a reason we should always listen when the Word is read, because that is what's happening when we read the Word. And even when our pastors preach faithfully, they are preaching God's Word to us. They're helping us understand it, and that is God's message to you. So in a similar way, we need to remember that if pastors are preaching faithfully, and especially when we are reading the Word, we are hearing from God. Now, these Christians in the churches of Galatia, they were hearing it through Paul. And so this is a very direct revelation from Paul. What he's writing down becomes Scripture. And so he just wants to make clear, you should listen not to me, but to God. That ultimately is who he is speaking on behalf of. He is not making up his own message. He's not just trying to make himself rich and famous. No, he wants them to know what God has sent him to say. And so he really just wants this established, that is core to his identity, that he is sent by God, not from other men. And so again, he says this first. Now, moving on, we see this phrase, who raised him from the dead? So that is describing someone. It's like an adjectival phrase or whatever. I don't know what you would call. I haven't taken a grammar class in a while. But who or what is that phrase describing? Who's the who and who's the him? Basically, God is the who and him is Jesus. Yeah. So God, the Father who raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. That's right. So that's how we need to make sure we're kind of observing. Right. So we're observing. Okay. So that's describing. Why is Paul inserting that? So if the point is to say, I'm sent by God, not through men, why is he saying who raised him from the dead? Why is that necessary? Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah. He might be showing that he's a witness to the resurrection. And I think there might be other reasons. Does anyone else have any ideas? Are you raising your hand? Okay, why is he saying who raised him from the dead? I think the pointing out the resurrection is important because he's saying a new age has come. This is completely different. Jesus has been risen from the dead by the Father. He's reminding them of the central tenet of the faith. The reason that they are gathered together, these churches of Galatia, which probably are mixed of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians and Christians of all different backgrounds are together in these churches. And he's saying, look, the reason that you guys are together is this fact. And this fact is a dawning of a new age, a new covenant. God relates to his people differently now. All in this little phrase is what he's saying. And this New Covenant era is so important for the Galatians because the Galatians, as we'll continue to see, are confusing the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. They are requiring Gentiles to observe certain aspects of the Jewish law. And so it's clear that in practice they're not acting like Jesus Christ has been risen from the dead. Because when he was risen from the dead, everything changed. The New Covenant was established. We are justified now through faith in Christ, right? And so we follow the law of Christ. And that is not contradictory, but it is different. And so we live our lives differently. We don't have to seek atonement in the ways that they did in the Old Covenant. Those things are done away with. And so even here in this little phrase, he's kind of hinting and pointing towards what this letter is really going to be about. He's saying a new era has come. It's all centered around Jesus on the cross. And that is central to who we are at all. And so that's, I think that's why he puts this in. Now let's kind of look at verse 2. He says, and all the brothers who are with me, who are brothers. Any ideas? Who are the brothers? [00:17:43] Speaker B: Other Christians. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah, other Christians. He does missionary journeys. I actually don't quite know where he was when he wrote this. I'm not sure how clear it is, but he might be on a journey, a missionary journey. So we know he traveled with, for instance, when he wrote First Thessalonians. He's with Silas or Silvanus and Timothy. He travels also with Barnabas and Luke at other points. So, you know, he would not just travel alone. Typically he would have a team of brothers. And so that's who he's referencing. He. It's in other words, it's not just him, the brothers who are with him. Now all we can really know again is that they are fellow Christians. We don't necessarily know who's with him helping him write this letter, but he is saying that the brothers are with him as he writes. They're kind of co authors. He's the lead Author, of course, but we will understand that some of this probably is coming from his brothers in support. And as we mentioned before, this is also in verse 2 to the churches of Galatia, the recipients, obviously. And though this would have been passed around to the churches in Galatia, we know that eventually it would then be copied more and passed out to other churches. This is how the New Testament was collected. As they would copy, send it to the next church, copy it, send it to the next church, so that all the churches would have the Word of God as it was being built up in the first century. Now let's go to verse three. Verse two is pretty straightforward. We read grace to you, Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when I read these letters, I don't know about you, I find it really easy to just gloss over probably this whole section. But you know, especially kind of phrases like this, Grace to youo in peace seems kind of generic. Why necessarily, I don't always know why. And so it's just really easy, probably from a bad habit, to just kind of go over it and ignore it. Well, when we're doing inductive Bible study, we don't want to ignore anything. We want to try to take into account everything written, even if it seems small, because it might make a difference. Now what is Paul saying when he says grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? Just kind of think about it a little bit. Grace to you and peace. I was reading Charles Spurgeon, what he said about this very verse, and he said it was good that grace came before peace. So I'll pause there. That's interesting, right? He mentions that he thinks it's important that Paul says grace to you and peace. He says it's good that grace came before peace because grace means that God accomplishes salvation and then we find peace in Him. Grace is the gift of salvation through faith. That's what Paul's referring to. You are Christians. Grace to you. You have received grace. And I pray that you continue to receive daily sorts of grace. And that comes before we find peace in him, if we found peace before the grace of salvation was given to us. So if you find peace before you are saved, then all you would have is false assurance. You would be at peace, thinking you are at peace with God when you don't have saving grace. And Spurgeon says that would be a terrible thing. Paul wishes them grace because in their confusion of the old and new covenants, they have become legalists. They have forgotten the function of grace, seeking to find peace with God through their actions. But grace is not quite like that. Now, I said legalist, and when I said legalism earlier, can anybody tell us what legalism is? Yeah, yeah, I think that's a. A good definition. Trying to attain. Obtain salvation just through obedience of laws. Another way we sometimes use the word legalism appropriately is by adding to the word requirements that are not there. And so both of these are kind of true. Jewish Christians are requiring gentile Christians to obey certain laws to be in the church. Whereas that's also kind of adding to the law of Christ. You must have faith in Christ, but also be circumcised. Right. That's adding. So in both ways it is legalism. Whereas the mention of grace to them reminds them that their salvation is a gift from God and their peace with God is with one another and with one another. So peace with God and with one another is first a gift from. Through grace they must receive grace. I mean, if they don't have grace that brings them and unites them to Christ, then these groups of people probably would have a lot of conflict and wouldn't really get along and probably wouldn't stay together at all. Churches are, especially at this time, were so diverse in their makeup that there's just no way that people would have actually gotten along if they weren't unified in Christ through grace and faith first. So again, even this grace to you and peace is, I think, helping us see the themes of the letter before we even really get into the body of it. So grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 4. Who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. Who gave. So this phrase is describing and modifying who's the who, right? I think that's true, yeah. The who is the Son. We could be confused. Like, is it the Father? Is it the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it both? I think from other contexts in Scripture, we know we are talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we know we can look in the Gospels and see, obviously the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who was delivered for our sins. So again, this is. It seems kind of intuitive. You don't think you're using context, but you are, you know from context that this is the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins. How did he give himself for our sins? What did he do? He died on a cross. Right. And gave himself for our sins. Who's the our? Who's the we that's receiving this deliverance? You can Say those who are chosen, or you might say even more immediately, the Christians in the churches of Galatia as well as the apostles. So all those who have faith in Christ, Right, have been delivered from sins and delivered from what? The present evil age. Now that's an interesting part of the present evil age. In what sense did Jesus death deliver us from the present evil age? I mean, even at the time, were they not living in a very evil age? Was there not a lot of sin and persecution of the church? Seems like they were in an evil age. So I think this can be confusing if we really start to unpack it. But let's think about it. Think of the story of scripture. Think of how biblical theology, which basically just means how do different parts of the Bible relate to each other? How is it one story in the Genesis sermons we've heard about the city of man and the city of God and the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This battle emerged in Genesis 3 when Satan tempted Adam and Eve and they sinned. From that point forward, the serpent Satan sought to destroy the seed of the woman, who is the Messiah and the lineage that came before him. The Messiah, who we know now is Jesus Christ, won by giving himself for sins. And this gives us opportunity to escape the present evil age, even while we still live in it. So while we still live here, we actually belong to the city of God, since we are united to the seed of the woman, to Christ through faith. And so we just live in this in between. We are already a part of the city of God. We are already, if we're in Christ, saved and delivered from the present evil age, even while we are still in it, awaiting for his return to completely destroy the kingdom or the city of man. And if this is true, then how should we live our lives? So let me say that again. If you're in Christ, you have been delivered from the present evil age, but you still live in it physically. How should you live your lives knowing that what are some things we must do? How should we live knowing that we have been delivered from the present evil age? If you're in Christ, we should live with endless praise and thanksgiving. You should live with endless praise and thanksgiving, you said. Yeah. So praising the One who saved us and being thankful to him. Right. And there are so many ways we can think of how we can be thankful. In prayer and in our day to day conversations, mentioning and remembering God for all the things he's provided for us. I think that's a great example. Does anyone have other examples? [00:28:33] Speaker B: We should live with eternity in mind. [00:28:36] Speaker A: Yeah. What do you mean by that? Instead of just. [00:28:48] Speaker B: Instead of just, you know, living for this world and focusing on this world, you should know that there is eternity after this. So, yeah, in the end, everything. Well, obviously not everything, but worldly things in the long run just don't equate to anything. [00:29:12] Speaker A: Yeah, they don't last. So you know that things you're tempted to do, it's not going to last. Like the small pleasure you might get won't last. And so we should avoid sin. We should also avoid sin because we can be representatives to the world that even in a present evil age we have been delivered. We live by a different standard because we are saved by grace and have peace with God. Now these are just some really great examples of how we can apply this to our lives. We read right before verse five, according to the will of our God and Father. Basically what this is saying is that God is in charge. He's reminding them of the authority and the sovereignty or power of God. And this is a theme throughout the letter. So I want us to take note of it. There's a theme of God's power, his leadership, his control, and his sovereignty, which again means his control over. Over all things. And we see this because God is sovereign to raise Jesus from the dead. And so God is sovereign to unite Christians to Himself. Without the law of circumcision, he can establish a new covenant because he is in control. He is sovereign, and this is all according to his will. This is not a plan B. This is not us changing God's plan so that we have an easier way to get in. No, this is. Is God's will, all of this. And he finishes in verse five saying, to whom be the glory forever and ever? Amen. So what is this? Does this have this phrase? What do we kind of call these phrases? Does anybody know to whom be glory forever and ever? Amen. Verse 5a. What? Oh, well, yeah, I think that's probably. That actually sounds right, but that's not quite what I'm meaning. Less grammar, more kind of how we might use it in church. But I think that might be right. I don't know. I can't say it wrong. Yeah, Doxology. So a phrase of worship or a benediction, which means a good word or a blessing. All these you could probably use. And he's just throwing this in here now. It might be interesting. Why does he interrupt the flow of thought with this kind of benediction? Doxology, blessing. Well, I think it's important I think that it kind of feels like a pause if you were to keep reading. He says these things. He says, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And then he immediately says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him. So he's about to rebuke them pretty significantly. But Paul demonstrates how his heart was full of praise in all circumstances, that God gets the glory no matter what. And that's the point of the letter. Even if we are rebuking the Galatians and pointing them to the true gospel, away from legalism. Ultimately this is all for Gods glory. And he and the writers and the recipients all need to remember that. Spurgeon said his heart was full of praise and he could not help giving it vent or letting it out. Would it not be well if every now and then, even in the midst of other things, we paused to bless our Lord? And I wrote this question down at the bottom. So I'd encourage you guys to take a minute and think about this and maybe jot something down, but at least think about it as we pray at the end. How can you stop and give the Lord praise this week? So even though Paul has an agenda, he's got things on his mind that he's going to write to them. He does take a brief moment to praise and give glory to God. How can we do that? We are busy to varying degrees, or we at least have things on our minds that distract us. How can we find time to step away to give God praise this week? Of course we can do it in a moment when we go worship with the church, but throughout the week. So think about that while I pray. Jot it down so you can remember. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we pray and ask that this study of Galatians would benefit us. It would grow us closer to your son. That you would grant faith to those who may not know you in the room. And for those who do that you would continue to sanctify us, that you would make us more like yourself, and that you would help us to pick up tricks and understanding of the Word so that when we read the Bible on our own throughout the week, we are better equipped, able to read and understand and apply to our lives so that we can grow all the more in Christ. We pray this all in his name. Amen.