Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: acts

Letters from Proselytes of Galatia to Paul
```
Premise: The Apostle Paul likely received one or several letters to which the Apostle responds with Epistles to several churches and certain important persons.
```
Who wrote to the Apostle Paul?

Think about this —

Paul and other Apostles come into your town or city, proclaim some Good News, build a church of Christ followers, establish some local leaders. AND then after some time these missionaries leave to go somewhere else into all the world.

ACTS of the Apostles details some of these encounters which occur after numerous encouraging visits of various apostles sent out to them.

Apostles Sent to the Gentiles with a Letter of the Council

Many apostles and letters communicate Good News of one faith in Christ for all the world.

Although we have no preserved documentation of any messages or letters delivered to the Apostle from the Gentiles, I suspect that Paul perceives a crisis of faith in the churches of Galatia — a crisis conveyed to him by faithful disciples of the risen Christ and perhaps even believers considering IF they should abandon The Way of the Lord for a more prevalent cultural Judaism.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The Apostles, including the Twelve and Paul, James and other church leaders communicate in person and by messenger by the Spirit who has sent them out into each mission.

Who are the Galatians?

In Paul’s day, the word Galatia had two distinct meanings. In a strict ethnic sense, Galatia was the region of central Asia Minor (modern Turkiye) .. a Celtic people who had migrated to that region from Gaul (modern France) .. (in) 25 B.C. when Galatia became a Roman province, incorporating some regions not inhabited by ethnic Galatians (e.g., parts of Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Pisidia). In a political sense, Galatia came to describe the entire Roman province, not merely the region inhabited by the ethnic Galatians.

Paul founded churches in the southern Galatian cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13:14–14:23).
Commentary of John MacArthur – BlueLetterBible.org
You will recognize these Galatian cities from Paul's early missions into all the world.
WHY did Paul write to the Galatians?

Regardless of who founded any of the Galatian cities in the A.D. first century Roman Empire, every town had an ethnic challenge common to all churches established by the apostles in every Roman province.

Proselytes – Judaizers fleeing Persecution for the Cross of Christ

The covenantal culture of the Jews opposed the pagan practices of peoples of other cultures. SO the Jews insisted on certain traditional identifications of Jewish men such as circumcision.
```
Who are these proselytes?
```
Even as Paul, Barnabas, Silas and other apostles had encountered opposition from Jews seeking their own disciples, so had the Lord Jesus.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
Gospel of Matthew 23: 15 LSB
The Lord Jesus Christ describes the culture of Judaizers rejecting their own Messiah

An Apostolic Urgency to Write to the Galatians

PAUL must urgently address the concerns of those men in Galatia struggling in the faith

AND like all Christians, pursued by the Jews.

TWO QUESTIONS HERE:
- WHO represents the earthly authority of GOD?
- IF it is CHRIST, what is PAUL’s authority over the JEW and non-Jew?
```
Later, I will get to a Twenty-first century C.E. challenge
of this AUTHORITY in Christ which has now challenged the Church for some 500 years.
```
How will the Apostle answer?

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
Galatians 5:1 KJV

Galatians 1 – Paul’s Authority
```
The Apostle begins his Epistle to the Galatians by firmly establishing his authority and leadership of the churches.
```
Paul, an apostle—not sent 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,
```
Pretty convincing.

Paul opens fire against familiar enemies of Christ (Judaizers).
```
6 I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
- Paul clearly states that the Galatians must choose:
  - – between him as a representative of God the Father and Christ Jesus OR
  - – teachers of a false and distorted gospel
    
    (which is not good news but a Jewish tradition chained to the Law and regulations of the flesh).
Paul defends not only his credentials and calling by Christ, but once more presents his case of Christ’s freedom to these gentile believers caught between the Gospel and the yoke of the Judaizers.

2:17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
Galatians 2:21 LSB
```
PAUL goes straight to the QUESTION of deceitful men claiming a GOSPEL other than Christ crucified and risen -- Judaizers seeking to lure these Galatian Christ-followers back to a Law of social Judaism. 
```
3 O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

THEN the Apostle clearly asks these men of the church a key QUESTION of their calling.

2 This is the only thing I want to learn from you:

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law,

or by hearing with faith?

“The righteous shall live by faith.”

What does Paul seek to prove here refuting Judaizers requiring circumcision of gentile proselytes?

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,

“All the nations will be blessed in you.”
Galatians 3:8 LSB

The Apostle QUOTES Hebrew SCRIPTURE from BEFORE the LAW.

From Genesis 22:

22:18 וְהִתְבָּרֲכוּ בְזַרְעֲךָ כֹּל גּוֹיֵי הָאָרֶץ עֵקֶב אֲשֶׁר שָׁמַעְתָּ בְּקֹלִי׃
```
 “By Myself I have sworn, declares Yahweh, because you have done this thing and have not spared your son, your only one, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have listened to My voice.”
```
LATER comes THE LAW of Moses by which the Christ was crucified on a Cross as a redemptive Sacrifice for our sins. (It was NOT ONLY for the Jews, but for ALL the seed of Abraham — every sinner.

The Apostle makes further legal arguments and adds an allegory comparing:
- Ishmael & Isaac
- flesh & promise
- Hagar & Sarah,
- Jerusalem and Mount Sanai and slavery,
- Moses & Christ
- the Jerusalem above and freedom. (Study its juxtaposition if you like.)
The Apostle’s closing argument
1. 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace!
2. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are eagerly waiting for the hope of righteousness.
3. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Faith Reformed in Fact

Jewish faith — to Christian faith — to Scriptural faith informed in the Good News of the Word of God…

Who has believed our message?

The Galatians and every other culture encountered by the Apostles —

~ ano Domini 49 – 50

~ A.D. 49 Paul has just written to the Galatians out of the Apostle’s concern for their failing faith being replaced by a false gospel.
```
NEXT: Paul will also write to the THESSALONIANS out of his same love for the children of Christ Jesus the Apostles have led so far.
```
WHERE could other gospels lead these Christian flocks of the Empires?

A fall of Rome, a division with an Orthodox New Rome (Constantinople) and Western father of Bishops and Princes competing for pawns of populace.

New temples built as CATHEDRALS for poor pilgrims to look up to God and well-mannered robed men who could actually READ the Holy Bible of God…

And then printing presses and challenges by Reformers pointing to Scripture in place of the yoke of Law and even Church law.

In my heart reigns this one article, faith in my dear Lord Christ, the beginning, middle and end of whatever spiritual and divine thoughts I may have, whether by day or by night.
From Luther’s Introduction, ano domini 1538

THEN what should happen in yet another 500 years once common men and women of the Common Era COULD (yet did not) actually READ the BIBLE?

a brief application …

My HOT reaction to a 1st. c. Hot Topic

Talk of JESUS . com

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
January 26, 2024
Personal Letters from Nicopolis – Intro
Personal Instructions and Greetings

When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.
Letter of the Apostle Paul to Titus 3:12 Legacy Standard Bible

We have been following the missions of Paul and others in Acts of the Apostles for some time now and might easily miss a small personal instruction such as this found at the end of one of the Apostle’s many letters.

Just a brief record of one winter:
- Paul will stay in Nicopolis for one winter.
- He instructs Titus that he will send one of two others to him, either Artemas or Tychicus.
I emphasize in my pause in ACTS by this introduction to Paul’s letters in context that during these historical missional journeys all of the apostles nurtured both personal and community relationships with those won to the Lord Jesus Christ.

A.D. 52-57
```
Paul's THREE missions over ELEVEN years from ~ A.D. 49 to ~ A.D. 57 would have included 10 winters. 

Please COMMENT if YOU can pinpoint the actual YEAR or place in ACTS when this occurred. 
```
Further Personal Greetings, Blessings, Thanks & Instructions

Diligently help send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking for them.

And our people [that is, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ] must also learn to lead in good [occupations] works to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.

All who are with me greet you.

[Paul does not say who these disciples of The Way traveling to Nicopolis for their winter stay might be, but through the Holy Spirit they remain connected to the church and those who receive his letter through Titus. The Apostle then asks them to extend their love to others in the faith.

Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all.

Titus 3:13-15 – closing of Paul’s letter

Greetings and Grace
```
Note Paul's humility in Christ and tenderness toward those to whom the Apostle writes:
```
Paul, a slave of God

and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

according to [for] the faith of God’s elect and the full knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised before times eternal [from all eternity]..
```
And in Paul's 'sent out' purpose as Christ's apostle to the Gentiles here he connects his servitude to the risen Jesus as they must receive his gospel from God, even referring to Christ as God.
```
.. but at the proper time manifested [made known] His word in preaching,

with which I was entrusted

according to the commandment

of God our Savior,
Titus 1:1-3 LSB
```
All this deep connection and theology in just a brief introduction and closing of a short letter written to a fellow beloved leader of the church.
```
To Titus, my genuine child according to our common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Νικόπολις

Nicopolis

Nicopolis meaning “city of victory”

There were many cities by this name, — in Armenia, Pontus, Cilicia, Epirus, Thrace —

The one in Titus 3:12 seems to refer to the city was built by * Augustus in memory of the battle of Actium on a promontory of Epirius.
- Before Augustus Caesar seized power he was known as Octavian. His victory on 2 September 31 B.C. at Actium (pictured above on map near Nicopolis) secured Rome’s strategic position as rulers of the Mediterranean.
- Paul, as a Roman citizen, would have felt at home in such Roman cities.
The one in the subscription of Titus seems to refer to Thracian Nicopolis, founded by Trojan on the river Nestus, since he calls it the city of Macedonia.

When did Paul write?

Our focus in this overview of Paul’s letters is more toward the relationships the Apostle and disciples of The Way create with each other than the how, where and when he wrote.

Paul may have been in Thrace or Macedonia. Perhaps some of these letters were written in part on his journeys abord ships between destinations. And in these ten years having spent extended time in so many towns and cities Paul’s letters may well have been composed from his guest quarters in some of the homes of recipients (perhaps even Titus) to whom the Apostle wrote on a later occasion and circumstance.

What we do know is the approximate times and chronology of most of Paul’s letters.

This chronology and connection to events Luke records in ACTS of the APOSTLES will be the focus of our series looking at Paul’s letters.

Time to Write to Loved Ones
```
ALL dates approximate.
```
- A.D. 30
  - Resurrection & Ascension of JESUS CHRIST
- A.D. 37
  - JESUS appears to Saul (Paul)
    
    ACTS 9
- A.D. 47
  - Paul and Barnabas depart on their first missionary journey
    
    ACTS 13
- A.D. 49
  - ACTS 15
THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM

Epistle from the Council of Jerusalem – Acts 15:20

& Letters to the CHURCH sent out into all the world

THESE INCLUDE LETTERS (or Epistles)

from: James the brother of Jesus & leader (in A.D. 49) of the Jerusalem church

from: Paul to the Galatians

Letters of the A.D. 50’s
```
a generation (~20-30 years) after the Lord's resurrection

All dates approximate:
```
- A.D. 50 – John Mark, who had accompanied Barnabas and Paul on Cypress writes his GOSPEL.
- Paul writes two letters to the Thessalonians
Three Weeks in Thessalonica- Acts 17

During Paul’s SECOND missionary journey

And during Paul’s THIRD missionary journey (where we have once again paused briefly) THESE LETTERS:
- Paul writes TWO letters to the Corinthians living in the Achaian city larger and more important that Athens.
- The Apostle Paul, a Roman citizen, also writes to the Romans around the end of his third missionary journey (A.D. 57) and two years prior to his own journey to Rome.
Later Letters of the A.D. 60’s – 80’s

Our introduction to these Church Letters is NOT expositional but topical. And these are personally relational to those Christians to whom the Apostles wrote.

I will also point to Scripture from other Epistles yet to be written (as of this pause in ACTS of the APOSTLES ) when later events will connect the Church in many more ways to our struggles of a 21st century C.E. faith.

These include Titus written around A.D. 64-66 on which I have focused today

AND other important ‘personal letters’ instructing leaders and others of the church including:

an Epistle to Philemon and TWO letters to Timothy.

Several letters written in the early A.D. 60’s to churches Paul has already visited on his current and previous missions.

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

Luke will also complete his Gospel in the early A.D. 60’s as does the Apostle Matthew.

Nero has been Emperor of Rome during most of these times (A.D. 54-68) and things are about to get much worse for all of the Empire including Jerusalem, which revolts against ROME beginning in A.D. 66 and will eventually be destroyed in A.D. 70 as the Jewish Wars continue on into A.D. 73.

As the world of ROME begins to disintegrate while Paul and Peter and every other Apostle except John are executed, the Gospel and Letters of a New Testament go into all the world — a world to which the Lord Jesus Christ came and died for sinners like you and like me — that we might have eternal life in Him.

MORE Letters arriving SOON… God-willing…
January 13, 2024
Not ME – the deception of SIN
“Not me,” we boastfully sang out as children.

We gleefully sang each verse of the children’s song so familiar we knew the continuous scratches in our 45 rpm record. Who’s afraid of the BIG BAD WOLF? — a story also told on our little black and white television and eventually in living color by Walt’s colorful characters. (We knew the story and song by heart.)

“Who’s afraid of the BIG BAD WOLF?” Not me.
```
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf,
the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf,
"Who's afraid of the BIG BAD WOLF?"  
[then 5 familiar notes of melody during which we sang out: 
NOT MEEEE!]
```
I’m not even certain ANY version of the song from “The Three Pigs” even included our unanimous care-free response of each little pig; but my sister, brother and I all knew where the story was headed.

A Father’s Letter to his Gentile Children

Now you’re probably wondering what a children’s song has to do with the Apostle Paul.

(I’ll make the connection before the last verse of his letter (so to speak) as we suddenly discover a HOT TOPIC for the church.)

In the year of our Lord 49 to A.D. 51

As the Apostle Paul nears completion of a Second Missionary Journey he sends a letter to a church back in Macedonia from where the Apostle to the gentiles had been forced to flee. Paul’s heart for these new believers looks back to Christ’s love in them.

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
First letter from Paul, Silas and Timothy to the Thessalonian church 2:7

Thessalonica

The First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians
```
What do you do when travelling away from home and separated from loved ones? We do our best to communicate at a distance, (before hand-held phones) traditionally by letter.

Again, from Corinth, the year ~ A.D. 51 
```
These new believers in Christ Jesus in Macedonia receive communication from Paul, a father to them in the faith. Silvanus we know familiarly as Silas and their young protoge Timothy has been their trusted courier and also a pastor to believers in distant towns.

[READ 1 Thessalonians 3 for details that complete the ACTS journey to Athens.]

Like any good father the Apostle encourages and also exhorts these young believers to maintain their new-found righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

.. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
```
Is this not what every child wants to hear from its father? 

'Well done, good and faithful young follower of Christ' 

Even in other parts of Macedonia and HERE IN CORINTH ACHAIA the Thessalonian faith has become an example to others.

The Apostle then recounts their struggles in other cities.
```
2: ²But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. ³For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive…
```
Remember this, and remember the big bad wolf who will knock at our door later.
```
5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness.

Three Weeks in Thessalonica- Acts 17

Opposition to the Gospel in Philippi and then Thessalonica

We are proud of you

11 For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
```
CHILD of God, Christ is at work in YOU.
Good job, son! Well done, daughter.
```
14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind..

but Satan hindered us
- DO YOU BELIEVE IN SATAN?
  - “Not me,” will be the response of many 21st century claimants of Christ.
- Yet the Lord Jesus AND Paul both include along with the Gospel warnings about the fallen angel Satan who huffs and puffs at the door of faith of every Christ follower.
.. we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.
1 Thessalonians 2:18 διότι ἠθελήσαμεν ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ μὲν Παῦλος καὶ ἅπαξ καὶ δίς καὶ ἐνέκοψεν ἡμᾶς ὁ Σατανᾶς ESV

19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

Furthermore then we beseech you..
```
Many long-time servants of the Lord Jesus may detect a certain fatherly embrace of Paul opening his arms to his Thessalonian children of the faith. 

The more formal quaintness of the King James Version perhaps captures the Apostle's love for these saints best.
```
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians 4:1 KJV

(Some may even recall familiar and more formal prayers of your own childhood in Christ simply at hearing the plea,

WE BESEECH YOU.
```
A General Thanksgiving (from the A.D. 1928 Anglican Prayer Book)

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all men; We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.

 And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may he unfeignedly thankful: and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
```
NEXT: from Thessalonians 4-5 – WARNINGS

to the children of the Lord facing that Big Bad Wolf, who disguises himself as light while he huffs and puffs at the saints approaching the narrow door of eternal life.
July 13, 2023