Session 2: An
Autobiographical Reminder
Paul’s
Vindication of His Apostleship
(Cp
Acts 9)
11 For
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed
by me is not of human origin; 12 for I did not receive it from
a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of
Jesus Christ.
This
statement speaks to two problems. First,
it addresses the charge that Paul is not really an apostle. Second, it underscores why it is perilous to
“pervert the gospel of Christ.”
The
response to the charge that he is not a legitimate apostle it reminds us
something important about Paul. While we
might attempt to model our ministry after his, the truth is there are some
things about his ministry that can never be true of ours. Paul had had an
encounter with Jesus Christ that forever ended any doubts about his
resurrection and, consequently, ended any doubts about his identity as the
Messiah.
As
he would put it in I Corinthians 15, when he listed the post-resurrection
appearances of Jesus, “Last of all he appeared also to me.” The story of Paul’s encounter with the Risen
Christ is pivotal in the story of his life presented in Acts. It is repeated three times in Luke’s history;
once as part of the narrative introducing us to Saul (Acts 9:1f) and twice in
testimonies before authorities, both Jewish and Roman (Acts 22:1f;
26:12f).
13 You
have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently
persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14 I
advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far
more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.
He
reminds them of two important aspects of his early life: 1. His commitment to Judaism was
unquestioned. His credential were exceptional as he would explain to the
Philippians: “I was circumcised when I
was eight days old, and I am from the nation of Israel and the tribe of
Benjamin. I am a true Hebrew.” He could
even be thought of as something of a prodigy, extremely “zealous” for the
traditions of his ancestors, demonstrating greater zeal than his
contemporaries.
2. He was so zealous that he eagerly became a
persecutor of the young church. In Acts,
Luke would report that “Saul was ravaging the church.” His intent was to destroy it completely.
So,
Saul/Paul enters the picture, not as a nominal Jew who might be easily
persuaded by the new Christian message, but as an earnest, thoroughly committed
Jew who would not be easily moved from the commitment of a lifetime.
15 But
when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his
grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son to me, so that I might
proclaim him among the Gentiles,
Only
something remarkable could shake Paul from his convictions. That shaking came from God.
Paul
doesn’t repeat the story here but you can be pretty sure the Galatians had
heard of what happened when Saul was thrown from his mount and found himself
facing a man who said, “I am Jesus….”
Try
to imagine for a moment the impact of those words. They were so filled with implication and
meaning that we can only deal with some of what Saul discovered in that moment.
Saul
discovered the man he knew was dead was truly alive. This Jesus Whom the Christians claimed walked
out of his tomb was really alive. The
Lord used the name Mary used to call him to dinner, the name by which he was
known young man in Nazareth, the name which identified him as a specific
historical person who had been crucified by the order of the Romans.
Saul
discovered the closeness of Jesus and his people. Jesus’ statement seems to imply that the
persecution of Christians was actually directed against him. The church was struck and Jesus felt the
pain, one writer put it. The men and
women Paul had been beating and throwing into jail had such an intimate
relationship with the Risen Jesus that he shared their anguish and pain.
Saul
discovered that much of what he thought Judaism said about the coming Messiah
was wrong. It would take time to fully understand how
his teachers had misunderstood but, with the Risen Jesus standing before him,
bearing the marks of crucifixion, it was clear that he needed to review some of
the scriptures he had thought he understood so clearly.
Saul
discovered Jesus wasn’t finished with him.
No lightning bolt from heaven would strike him dead. The ground was not going to open up and
swallow him. Instead, he was to go into
the city to await further instructions.
Again, Paul’s testimony before Agrippa fills in some of the blanks in
Luke’s skeletal account. According to
Paul—as Luke himself records it—Jesus had more to say. He told Saul,
I have appeared to you to appoint you as a
servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show
you. I will rescue you from your own
people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and
turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that
they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified
by faith in
me.'
What
took place on that Damascus road ushered Paul into his ministry of proclaiming
the good news about Christ among the Gentiles.
I did not confer with any
human being, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were
already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards
I returned to Damascus.
Here
Paul elaborates on his claim that his message is not of human origin. What he says isn’t intended to be
anti-Jerusalem or to pit Jerusalem against somewhere else, like Antioch; it’s
intended to underscore that no place is more sacred than another. What’s important is whether you have a vital
relationship with Jesus wherever you may be.
And Paul seems to imply he had such a relationship with Jesus in Arabia. This seems to be what he is implying in his
words about his message, “I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Just
what does Paul mean here? The term
“revelation of Jesus Christ” can mean either a disclosure from Jesus or a
disclosure about Jesus. Given the
context, it seems clear that Paul is claiming that his message about Christ
came directly from Christ.
But
how was this “revelation” mediated? His
words don’t necessarily mean he was in a face to face encounter with Christ
while in Arabia. Perhaps the encounter
with the Risen Christ on the Damascus Road involved such a paradigm shift that
he found himself reading the Old Testament in an entirely new way. Or, perhaps the Spirit led him to a new
understanding of the Scripture. On the
night before the crucifixion, Jesus had made such a promise regarding the Holy
Spirit when he said, “The Spirit will teach you everything.”
Of course, Paul wouldn’t say anyone preaching
the gospel who hadn’t had his experience was his inferior nor was he
denigrating the role of human teachers; he is establishing his claim to a
genuine apostleship in response to specific charges his opponents had
made. Moises Silva explains:
This is a clear indication that Paul
was responding to some very specific accusations. No doubt, the Judaizers were
spreading stories to the effect that he had sat under the drawn-out instruction
of the Jerusalem apostles as a disciple would normally do under a rabbi.[1]
This
is especially important because the false teachers apparently claimed to have
apostolic authority for their teaching.
It would, therefore, be essential to deny such authority to Paul. This is important because if the Judaizers
could successfully argue that their authority trumped Paul’s, they might
persuade the Galatians to listen to them rather than Paul. At the same time, if they could present Paul
as just a disciple of the Apostles in Jerusalem, the Judaizers might be able to
persuade the Galatians that Paul had abandoned the true message of Jesus, not
they. Dealing with that reality is why Paul inserts these autobiographical
comments.
Of
course, Paul is not claiming to have some innate moral or spiritual
superiority. As he has already made clear, he is a beneficiary of God’s
grace.
18 Then
after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him
fifteen days; 19 but I did not see any other apostle except
James the Lord’s brother. 20 In what I am writing to you,
before God, I do not lie!
Although Paul spent some time in Arabia
(a term that could refer to the region just south of Damascus), he did not
remain completely isolated from the Jerusalem community. Three years after his conversion, Paul did
travel to Jerusalem for just over two weeks.
He went to spend time with Cephas—Paul’s usual name for Peter. Just why Paul made this visit where he saw
Peter and “James, the Lord’s brother” isn’t spelled out but if he Paul had
questions about the earthly life of Jesus this would have been a good way to find
answers. But, as Paul will make clear,
this was not a matter of submitting to their authority.
21 Then
I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, 22 and I was
still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; 23 they
only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming
the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God
because of me.
Altogether these three verses cover
about a decade. Paul mentions where he
was and where he wasn’t .
He spent time in Syria, possibly near
Damascus where he was converted. And he
spent time in Cilicia. Tarsus, Paul’s
hometown, was located in this region in southern part of Asia Minor in what is
now Turkey. He was, doubtless, preaching
and teaching and further developing his understanding of who Christ was and
what his coming meant, especially for all the Gentiles he encountered.
Meanwhile, he was known by reputation
back in Judea. Most of the believers had
never met him and only knew that “The one who formerly was persecuting us is
now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.”
OBSERVATIONS:
--Historically, the conversion of Saul
from fiery persecutor to passionate advocate for the gospel has loon ben seen
as a powerful argument for the resurrection.
Of course, there have been similar conversions
in the history of religions and ideologies but when taken with other evidences
found in the New Testament, it does seem to point to the reality of Christ’s
victory over death.
--Theologically, Paul reminds us that what the
church teaches needs to be ‘vetted” or compared to the teachings of the
Bible.
Paul’s opponents claimed they were
preaching the true gospel, Paul claimed he was.
By no means could this conflict be solved by saying, “It doesn’t matter
what a person believes as long as he or she is sincere.” The hope of salvation and the unity of the
church rested on the issue.
--Ecclesiastically (that’s a big word
for “related to the church”), there will always be conflict in the church. The false teachers attempted to undermine
Paul’s authority, so they could advance their own agenda. Other factions grew out of other
dynamics. What was true in the first
century is true in the twenty-first century.
As in the first century, today’s trouble makers may have a variety of
motives--jealousy, fear, anger, arrogance, error, and even mental illness. We shouldn’t be surprised they exist.
--Evangelistically, the story of what
Jesus has done for you remains one of the most effective tools for spreading
the gospel.
We live in an age when people crave
authenticity and honesty. Some people
do have questions that deserve answers,
some people have a poor image of Christians for whatever reason--personal
experience or a biased media, some people have imbibed from the well of
relativism and think all religions are the same but most people are interested
in hearing if what you claim to believe really works. In other words, they are
interested in what Jesus has done for you.
You may not have Paul’s story but you
have your story. Alister McGrath, a
former atheist and now professor at Oxford and defender of Christianity,
believes many of today’s young people are hesitant to commit to Christianity
because they don’t want to find themselves having to commit to something else a
few years down the road. McGrath then
says:
We are dealing not with some throwaway
package but with something that is here until kingdom come! And this is where older Christians have a
real role to play. The are able to demonstrate that Christianity
has long-term potential by virtue of their being--and continuing to
be!--Christians.[2]
Let me be candid. l have been here over twenty years. During that time I’ve seen a lot of
changes. I could list some of them but I
don’t want to digress. One change is
what I see from my vantage point behind this pulpit. I see a lot more grey than I used to
see. Don’t be offended; it’s the same
when I look in the mirror.
What’s my point?
It means you can say to that young
person who has questions about the Bible and Christianity that you, too, had questions
but in time you found answers to most of them.
It means you can say to that man or
woman who has lost a job that you too have faced difficult times but God never
abandoned you.
It means you can say to that father or
mother who fears they will fail as parents that God has been faithful when
you’ve prayed for wisdom.
It means you can say to that young
person who beset with loneliness that, when the loneliness of grief gripped
you, through Christ you have found a loving, supportive family.
I could go on but you get my point.
Tell your story. Someone may need to hear what Jesus has done
for you.
That’s why Paul kept telling his
story. In fact, he wouldn’t stop.
[1] New Bible commentary: 21st century edition.
1994 (D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer & G. J. Wenham, Ed.) (4th
ed.) (Ga 1:16). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
[2] Michael Green and Alister McGrath, How Shall We Reach Them? Defending and Communicating the Christian
Faith to Nonbelievers, Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, p. 71.
