Paul & Jesus

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Verses 37 through 40 is titled, Addressing the Jerusalem Mob. This isn't exactly a friendly crowd, is it?

Paul’s Strategy for Addressing the Jerusalem Mob

Addressing the Jerusalem Mob. So what happened is, Paul had been arrested and falsely accused. But he's smart enough to know what to say to maybe kind of get in with them a little bit and to cause them to listen.

So what does he do? He speaks to them in Hebrew. And they hear this and, hey, maybe this guy isn't half bad. He can speak Hebrew. So that's all part of his strategy. Find common ground. So now he has a captive audience.

Notice he also calls them what? Brethren. Brethren. These were not brothers and sisters in Christ, but they were fellow Jews. So in that sense, he can rightly call them brethren, at least according to the flesh.

And then he calls some of them fathers, which is a sign of respect. And then he compliments them and says, I know that you are very zealous toward God. Now, is that true? Well, it is true. But remember in Romans 10, he says they do have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

So in a sense, they have a zeal for God, but they're way, way off. But he doesn't say that here. So, you know, you can say things that are true and maybe leave part out. You know, you don't have to say everything that will kind of cause a person to react or to throw up a wall.

We want to reach people, don't we? We want to show kindness to them whenever we can. And that's what Paul was doing, trying to reach people, trying to find common ground. There's too many people, even in churches, who kind of view the Apostle Paul as some sort of jerk or something.

It's sad, but, you know, I've been around long enough to know that I've heard things like that. Maybe no one in the church would come out and say that, but that idea is out there. This man loved the church.

He loved others more than most of us. Look at what he did. He was willing to give his life for other people. Are we? So for that one person, maybe, or maybe no one here who's watching online, you have this negative idea about the Apostle Paul.

You're the one who's way off. He was a great man of God. All right, go back to Galatians chapter 1. But along this idea of trying to find common ground with people. As Christians, our goal is to win people over, not to alienate them or to turn them away.

So depending on who you are talking to, for the most part, we want to be gracious. Speak the truth, do it in love, but we want to be gracious. If you're trying to reach an unbeliever, it's probably not the best approach to go in there guns blazing.

There may come a time for that. And Paul does that in this book. But we want to be respectful and try to reach people with the unrepentant false teachers. That's a whole different category, though. We have to understand that.

Paul’s Apostolic Authority Comes from Christ

Galatians 1 .1, Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God our Father who raised him from the dead. So we spent a little time just on the name Paul, what we could take away from that.

Now, what does he say? He identifies himself as an apostle. And the Greek word apostolos means messenger, one who is sent. So he's like an ambassador, an ambassador. When they are sent, they speak with or they speak with authority on behalf of the one who sent them.

Right. So who sent Paul? He says he was an apostle, not from men nor through man. So Paul did not receive his authority or his calling from men. Instead, he received his authority and calling from the Lord himself.

See, the early church understood that. And I think as believers, born again believers, we understand this. But let me just make it even more clear. The words of Paul are equally authoritative as the very words of Jesus.

Paul himself, as a man, did not have the authority that Jesus had. But his words in Scripture carried the same weight as Jesus Christ. That's going to be a new thought or something that not everyone is going to fully accept.

But I want to make the case this morning to reject the words of Paul, or to reject the words of Jesus. Let me prove that. Jesus never wrote, you don't know what Jesus said apart from the writings of the apostles.

Jesus never wrote a book. Jesus is not here on earth right now, except we are the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. But Jesus never wrote a book. Jesus was not on earth at this point when Paul is writing.

The church, the Scripture says, was built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20. So we don't know anything about Jesus. We don't know anything about who he was, what he believed, what he taught, what he expects from us.

We know nothing except that which was written by the apostles, Matthew and John, Peter and Paul, and their associates like Mark and Luke. These are the men that wrote the New Testament. Everything you know about Jesus is in the Scripture.

So to reject the apostles is to reject Jesus. I mean, it's that simple. Just as to reject Moses would have been the same thing as rejecting the Lord because Moses was his messenger. So to reject Paul is to reject Jesus.

Obviously, Paul is not our Savior, but we know about the Savior because of Paul. I hear people today, false teachers within the evangelical church. Because remember, this is Galatians. This is a book about addressing false teachers.

But I hear false teachers in the evangelical church, and they will say things like, well, I don't follow Paul. I follow Jesus. That's interesting because in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.

Well, I'm not following Paul. I don't follow Paul. Then you don't follow Jesus. And if you've said things like this, I'm not against you. I mean, we hear things. We tend to repeat what we hear. And I'm just saying that sentiment is wrong.

It's wrong.

Or you will hear people. This is very common. You know, we're not really focused on the Bible. We're more Jesus centered. That sounds really spiritual. But it's straight out of the pit. Because you cannot pit the two against each other.

I mean, think about it rationally for a moment. You're going to pit the Bible against Jesus? There's people out there saying these things every day. You're going to pit Jesus against the Apostle Paul or pit Paul against Jesus?

This makes absolutely no sense. And it's a false dichotomy. It's not Paul or Jesus.

It's both.

It's both.

Again, Paul is not our Savior, but he speaks on behalf of the Savior. So, because Paul is an Apostle, every Christian must accept his teaching. So, let me illustrate it this way. If I say something. And I'm not an Apostle.

I'm not a prophet or anything like that. But if I say, for example, God created the heavens and the earth in six days. And rested on the seventh day. If I say something like that. Somebody responds, what are you, a science denier?

You don't believe in evolution or the big bang? And I say, no. God created all things. And mankind was made in God's image. If somebody could respond and say, well, Pastor Grant, he's just an idiot. He doesn't believe in science.

Are they really attacking me? I mean, well, yeah, they're attacking me. But who are they really attacking? They're attacking God's word. They're attacking the Lord. Because the Lord said that he created in six days.

The point is this. So much as I am speaking on behalf of God, rightly. And that's a preacher's job. So much as I am speaking on behalf of God and his word. Any attack against my message is an attack against God's message.

I can come up with my own message and you can say, well, he is an idiot. Because he's preaching his own message. And that may or may not be true. But you understand, I didn't come up with this. God created the heavens and the earth.

That's not my message. I didn't come up with that. That's in God's word. And Paul's writings are scripture. They're God's word. So any attack against the apostle Paul, you might as well be attacking Jesus himself.

Let me prove that. Go to Acts chapter 9. And I say all of this to try to lay a foundation that Galatians is absolutely authoritative. Everything that is said in the book of Galatians is true. We must accept what is stated.

Because it's a book about the clarity of the gospel. What's the gospel? How can you answer that question outside of the writings of Paul or the writings of scripture?

You can't. You can't.

And, you know, I talk about me and my words. It's the same for you as a believer.

Right?

You're a priest. If you're part of the new testament, if you're part of the new covenant, you're part of that priesthood of all believers. So you represent, in this world, you represent Christ because you are part of the body of Christ.

So if you proclaim that Jesus is the son of God and if you're attacked for it, if you're persecuted for it, are they really attacking you or persecuting you? No, they're persecuting Christ. So as much as you speak rightly the word of God on behalf of Christ, you're speaking the word of God as well.

So any attack on you is really an attack on Christ. Here's the proof. Acts chapter 9 verse 1. This is while Saul was still an unconverted Pharisee trying to oppress Christians. It says, then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way.

That's Christianity. They're followers of the way. Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. So if he found any who are followers of the way, whether men or women, that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord?

And then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Who is Paul persecuting? He's persecuting Christians here on earth. Jesus said, you're persecuting me. So the point is when people are persecuting Christians or attacking the message of scripture spoken by Christians, they're really persecuting Christ.

They hate Christ. You know, I don't know if this is an encouragement to you or not. But if you're hated for your faith, don't get that. They don't really hate you. They hate the Lord.

They hate the Lord.

They hate the Lord's message. So we speak on behalf of Christ. Paul spoke on behalf of Christ. Galatians chapter one. Go back there. I don't think it needs to be said, but obviously our words do not carry the same weight as the apostle Paul.

You know, we kind of put things in our own words and we may write things. Obviously, it doesn't carry the same weight. Paul was an apostle. I'm not.

Okay.

Paul was an apostle.

You're not.

Paul received special revelation from God.

We don't.

Paul was an eyewitness of the resurrected Lord.

We are not.

Jesus appeared to him in a vision and gave him this holy calling. Our calling isn't the same. In some ways, it's the same, but we don't have the calling as an apostle. The Lord gave him the ability to heal the sick.

Paul even raised the dead on one occasion. You can't do that. I wish I could do that. I can't do that. So there are no apostles in the church today. Again, they are the foundation of the church. You build the foundation where?

At the bottom. The foundation was laid 1900 years ago. We've been building on the foundation ever since. This is as good a time as any to say it. If anyone ever comes to you and claims that they are a prophet or an apostle, what should you do?

Somebody comes to you and says, I'm an apostle like Paul. Well, my advice is to flee as fast as you can and hold on to your wallet. Because that's really what they're after. 1 John 4, 1 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits where they're there of God.

Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornetChurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.