Galatians 2:10
Amen, you can be seated. Turning
your copy of God’s Word to Galatians 2, 2 verse 10 will be our passage
for today. While you’re making your way
there, if you’re using the Pew Bible, it can be found on page
972. As you make your way there, remember
the big picture of Galatians. It’s Paul’s first letter to the
churches he served on his first missionary journey. It’s a region
of churches. He went from Antioch in Syria
and preached across Cyprus and then into the Galatian regions. Soon after he left, the Judaizers
came through and said, Paul’s not a real apostle and faith
in Jesus isn’t enough. You need to follow the ceremonial
laws. And so Paul and his companions
have gone to Jerusalem. They’ve gone to take an offering
for the poor to relieve them from the famine. And he asked
the apostles there after 15 years of ministry, is my gospel that
Jesus gave to me the right gospel? They perceived he was being used
by the spirit. They perceived that God had been
working through him and that grace had been given to him.
And they said, don’t preach anything but what you are preaching. But
they give this little admonition, which we find in verse 10, and
we want to think about it today. So give your attention to verse
10 of chapter two of the Book of Galatians. Only they asked
us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Amen, the word of the living
God. For three years, I commuted into
Charlotte to go to seminary and when I made my commute down the
interstate, I got off at a certain road that took me about 10 miles
through town. It took me through some of the
wealthiest areas of Charlotte. And one of the things I noticed,
I had never seen it before in other places where I had lived,
were the panhandlers. At nearly every single intersection,
every morning and every afternoon, you would see people outworking
the intersection. They usually had a sign, God
bless you, homeless, vet, got children, need help, all the
things that we usually see on these signs. And they would ask
for money. I’ve never really seen this sort
of thing before living in small towns. And so the other day I
read with interest an article that was on the front of the
Charlotte Observer that spoke about two particular men who
had been living this lifestyle for quite a while. And as they
interviewed them, they described where they lived, what they did
with their belongings during the day, why they stood in the
street, what they said. you know, why they didn’t just
go get a job, those kinds of things. And it gave great insight
into their lives, their thought process, and why they lived on
the streets like they did asking daily for money. You all know
these sorts of sites just up the street from here near our
Harris Teeter or down the hill from there at our Walmart. It’s
a regular sight to see these panhandlers and we go through
the struggle, the guilt. Do we make eye contact? Do we
roll down our window? Do we give them something a couple
months back? sitting at the intersection,
I was heckled by one of them. Oh, you know, you don’t want
to see me. You don’t want to look at me. You don’t want to give me anything.
And so we all have stories. We all have perceptions of these
sorts of things that go on in our community. And so it brings
to question in our minds, what sort of obligation do we have
for those in need? Is there something we should
distinguish between one reason people are poor and another?
How do we understand poor, the state of being poor in this sin-filled
world? What does the gospel do to help
those who are in need? Should I help or does it hurt
to help? I imagine most of us have lived
at some point, if we are not now in the current economy, living
tight, living on a shoestring budget, more month than money. I think it’s a godly thing to
have margins in our budgets to help others. But I would guess
that very few of us, if any of us, have ever been without nothing.
I mean, penniless, broke, no next meal. We had resources we
could go to, some sort of family member or church or something. But a good bit of the world,
a high percentage of the world, lives under the oppressive nature
of being poor. And there’s all kinds of things
we could think about and talk about and discuss. The big question
is though, should we help the needy? And I want to put that
off. That’s really for another day. Because Galatians chapter two,
verse 10 really speaks of how we should help the poor within
the church of Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter two verse 10
is part of a larger picture of the whole book of Galatians and
special attention is given by the early church fathers, the
early church pillars, James and Peter and John and others who
greet Paul and meet with Barnabas and Silas and give them the right
hand for ministry. They add nothing to their gospel.
but they encouraged them, do remember the poor, especially
of those within the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul
says, it was the very thing I was eager to do. In fact, it was
the thing, it was the reason, one of the reasons that they
were there in Jerusalem. They were bringing an offering
for the church of God and Christ there at Jerusalem from the Antioch
believers. And so the leaders, the church
at Antioch had sent Paul, Barnabas and Silas with an offering to
give to the struggling church in Jerusalem. But also you remember
last week in our study, Paul received the revelation, go to
Jerusalem and present the gospel that you preach to the leaders
there and see if you will receive the right hand of Christian fellowship
and service. Well, 15 years previous to this
event in Jerusalem, Paul was still Saul. And Paul was breathing
murderous threats against the church of Jesus Christ. He was
a Pharisee. He was of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was a student of Gamaliel. He was zealous for the law and
he hated the way, the Christian faith. And he persecuted so much
so that he stood at the feet or he stood at the body of Stephen
as he was being stoned, holding the cloaks of those who put him
to death. This event in the life of the
church, this great persecution that culminated in the, or centered
really upon the life of Stephen being lost, was a monumental
event in Jerusalem that marginalized Christians If such a persecution
broke out, how could they work? How could they get jobs? How
could they live and prosper in that community? Now, to add insult
to the injury, the stoning of Stephen, the persecution of Christians,
the separation of Christians from being able to live and work
and thrive in this world, you had an overpopulated sort of
metro area of Jerusalem. So many people had come for Pentecost.
So many people had come to keep the feast and they had enjoyed
the blessings of becoming one in Christ. The church there was
over 5,000 people. And so that, among other reasons,
Jewish festivals, the area became overpopulated. And it just so
happens at that time, the ground had been over tilled. The land
had not been keeping their Sabbaths. And so you look at all these
factors and the Christians of the early church in Jerusalem
were extremely poor. A famine broke out in the land
and Egypt was providing food. But what did you need in order
to buy the food? You needed money. And we know from our current
economy, when supply goes down and demand goes up, that drives
up the prices. And so poor people, oppressed
people, can’t eat. They can’t afford the basics
of life. And so in the church of Jesus
Christ, we see a wonderful picture in the book of Acts, and we see
a picture of it here in Galatians two of how the people in Jesus
needed one another. The people in Christ were maybe
separated geographically all over the Roman world now, but
they were in Christ. They were in the spirit together.
And one of the things you’ll see throughout Paul’s ministry
When he preaches among the wealthy Greeks and the Romans across
the empire, whose trade is prospering, he says, remember the poor, remember
the needy. And so one of the big themes
of his ministry, as it is here in the actions of his life, is
to remember those churches, those Christians, those saints of God
who’ve fallen on hard times and may need help. And so that’s
exactly the occasion we find here. The Jerusalem church under
so many difficult circumstances is in need of the brothers and
sisters who elsewhere are prospering to give them assistance. Now,
this idea of helping the poor among the people of God is nothing
new for the apostle Paul and all of his old Testament studies.
He would have looked at the Old Testament. He would have looked
at the old covenant and he would have seen over and over throughout
the law of God. God wants his people to be taken
care of by one another. You read places in the Old Testament
where God says, there shall be no poor among you. You read places
in the New Testament where it says, do not harden your heart
against the poor. Do not shut your hand against
the needy. Do not oppress the poor or the
weak. Pay wages at day’s end. In fact, about a year or so ago,
when we studied the book of James, James, the half-brother of Jesus,
echoes this old covenant ethic and says to the rich people in
the early church, you’ve hired out workers. They’ve gone into
your fields and they have mown your fields, yet their wages
are crying out because you have held them back, you have not
paid them. And so we were, the scriptures encourage us to pay
wages at day’s end. You remember the story In the
Old Testament of Ruth, Ruth’s husband died. Her sister-in-law
went back to her people, but Ruth wanted to stay with Naomi,
her mother-in-law, who was an Israelite. And so they went back
to Bethlehem during the great famine. and they found their
kinsman redeemer in Boaz, and Boaz supported them by letting
Ruth glean in the fields. He encouraged or commanded his
workers, leave a little extra. She’s a special person and needs
our help. And so we’re not to pick our
fields clean or our vineyards bare, but leave extra for the
gleaning of the poor. We’re to support those who’ve
fallen under hard circumstances. Just last week on Sunday evening,
our studies Nehemiah showed that during a famine in Jerusalem,
during the rebuilding of the city and the walls, brother sold
brother into slavery. People were putting their children
up for collateral as property. And it upset Nehemiah so much
so that he called an assembly and said, what is this you’ve
done? God has redeemed us out of Egypt. God has redeemed us
out of Babylon only for us to come home and for us to enslave.
one another. And so we see a wonderful example
in Nehemiah of making that wrong right and redeeming brothers.
One of the features of the old covenant community as they lived
within the confines or the borders of Israel was the Jubilee year. Every six years you were to work
the land, but the seventh was a Sabbath for the land and the
50th was a Jubilee year. And so built into the agricultural
cycle, The land would lie and rest and then it would be ready
to grow again after the soil had recovered. It was also a
time where they reset the economy. If someone owed a debt, it was
forgiven. If someone’s land was put up
as collateral for a loan, it was returned to them. And so
every sixth year on the seventh year, the economy would reset. And so people weren’t exploited,
but they were given opportunity to start afresh again. When Paul
preaches at Ephesus for three years or so, he tells the Ephesian
elders, I’ve preached the whole counsel of God to you. I’ve told
you everything you need to know. And as he’s meeting with them
on the docks of Miletus outside of Ephesus, as he’s making his
way back to Jerusalem for that final episode where he’ll be
imprisoned and ultimately be shipwrecked on the way to Rome,
he’s tearfully meeting with these Ephesian elders and he says to
them in his parting words, and parting words can be, well, those
are the precious ones. He says to them, help the weak.
And he says words of the Lord Jesus that are not recorded in
the Gospels, but are recorded for us in the book of Acts from
the pen of Luke. Jesus says it is more blessed
to give than it is to receive. We pass people on the street
and wonder, should we help? And that’s a whole nother category
of helping, not for today. But we want to think through,
how can we help those within the covenant community who fall
on hard times? And there are a couple roadblocks
to that. We live in a day and a time where we say, let the
government do it. Oh, they’re unemployed. Let them
draw unemployment. Oh, they’ve fallen on hard times,
let them go to the soup kitchen or the clothing bin or the whatever. And so we say let others do it
when in fact it seems to be our duty, doesn’t it? It seems to
be God and the Old Testament ethics as well as in the New
Testament commands. And also I think as we’ll see
in the words of Jesus, it’s our duty towards our fellow Christian
to help them when there is a need. We live in a materialistic world
though. And so in addition to saying
to people, oh, let the government help them out, we say, well,
it’s going to hurt my bottom line. I’m working hard. I’m earning
money. I’m saving money. I’m doing well. Why should I help them when they
have the same opportunities as I do? I think sometimes we don’t
build in margin or room in our lives to help other people. A common prayer we make sometimes
when someone needs work We pray that they’ll get a job so they
can provide for their family, help the poor and support the
work of the church. Those are three godly uses of
our money to provide for our own and support the church, but
to help those who are in need. God calls us to love and to care
and to be concerned for others in the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I think sometimes it’s the duty of the church.
It’s the need of the church to help people back on their feet.
I suppose we probably wouldn’t pay your cable bill, but we’d
help you with groceries. Or we’d set up a plan and say,
let’s get from here to there together. Let’s get you back
on your feet. And then when God prospers you,
you’ll be in good shape. Martin Luther was famous for
saying, preach the gospel and help the poor. He saw a great
connection between our theology, what we believe about God, and
then our duty towards our fellow man, preach the gospel and help
the poor. It puts true faith on display
when we have faith in God and we see other people’s needs. And so I think we ourselves,
but the church also should should set aside funds to help. Now, I’m guessing this day and
time, the economy’s bad and all the rest. Most of us are on our
feet pretty good, but I can imagine in the future we will see something
like the widespread oppression that the early church felt. Looks
like we’re moving towards digital currency. Perhaps we’re moving
towards social credits like there is in other nations. And I would
suppose that in some day in the future, Christians are going
to have to help each other in ways that we have not done. So
because we’ve said, let the government help or we’re too materialistic. But I imagine in the coming years
there will be some sort of persecution against Christians where it may
be hard to find work. It may be hard to be faithful. That’s something that we should
think about and wonder about, and should that come, be the
church for the people of God. But I think now, while things
are, well, sort of prosperous, we should keep our eyes open,
our ears open. And if there’s a need, we should
strive to meet it. If you were to need help, you
should ask. I would hope that you would be
asked, that people would notice something’s not as it should
be, and we want to be Christlike to you. But our doctrine, what
we believe about God and our duty towards our fellow man mixed
together well in this command that the early church gave to
Paul to remember the poor. If the poor cry out to God for
help, If the needy come to God for pity, don’t you think in
his providence he most often will help them through the work
of the church of the Lord Jesus. Now Barnabas is with Paul and
Silas on this trip to Jerusalem. And Barnabas, as you know, has
been around a pretty good while. He’s mentioned in the early chapters
of Acts. His real name, his given name,
I believe, is Joseph, but he’s called Barnabas, sort of a nickname,
which means son of encouragement. And during those early days of
the church, when persecution and hardship fell upon them,
the famine had not yet come. But there was persecution and
hardship. He sold property and he gave the proceeds to the church
so that any who had need, those needs could be met. He was a
son of encouragement. And here he is doing the same
work again. Perhaps God has called you to
be a son or daughter of encouragement to others. Well, what should
we think as Christians of this call to be merciful to the poor. Is it a common issue? Is it something
that’s in our midst now? Possibly so. It’s not as widespread
for sure as it was here in this letter to the Galatians. One
thing to remember is a gift of the Sabbath is a day to be merciful
to other people. I see other churches on the Sundays
when they have the Lord’s Supper, they take up a special offering
to help relieve the poor. Those are practical ways, using
your Sundays, using the Lord’s Supper Sunday as we remember
what God has done for us in Christ, we can use those reminders to
help those in need. I think the great principle here
for us to understand, though, is the word love, agape. It’s the Christian word for love
in the New Testament. And Jesus embodies this, doesn’t
he? When people say, how do we love
others? Well, you love like Jesus. Or
when someone asked Jesus, what should I do? How should
I be of help to others? And he says, when you see someone
hungry, when you see someone thirsty, when you see a stranger,
when you see someone naked or in prison or the least of these,
Jesus says, if you’ve done something for them, you’ve done something
for me. And I think as y’all have studied
this union with Christ theme in Sunday school, I think you
see very clearly, don’t you, that we who are in Christ are
in Christ together and ought to serve one another as best
we can when when needs are there. Jesus in the book of Isaiah is
said to come to give good news to the poor. The book of first
John, one of John’s little bitty epistles, he writes three of
them there at the end of the New Testament. He raises this
question. He says, how does God’s love
abide in you? if you close your hearts to the
poor. Now he’s not speaking of the
poor outside the church, he’s speaking of those within. Or
James says, how can you say to someone in need, be warm, be
fed, go in peace? No, our faith is on display when
we go after those who are in need. Our heavenly father is
merciful, and so we should be merciful as well. Our love for
others in need ought to be a vigorous, a strong love. And we have the
great example in Jesus. The second letter to the Corinthians
reminds us of the mission of Jesus. He who is rich beyond
all splendor, for our sakes became poor in order that we might become
rich. God left the throne of heaven,
the riches of glory, and made himself poor. And he came and
suffered in this life, was under the law, endured the cross, endured
the shame, endured death. And he did so in order that we
might get back on our feet spiritually and be united with him forever
in a relationship with him. And so that’s the motive behind
our love for one another. It’s the love of Jesus for us
that fuels our love for Jesus to other Christian saints. Let’s
do pray together. Lord, we give you thanks for
your love and your kindness to us in Christ and pray that we
would show that love and kindness also to those who are in need. We pray it in the name of Christ
our Savior. Amen.