Gathered at Jerusalem II
Galatians 2:6-10 · Vern Peterman · Jun 10, 2007
Galatians (2007), No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492602942863

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be stepping into this passage here this morning. Before we do that, however, we've been trying to get an act of Congress passed that would allow Davis to be here. And so is Davis actually here? Really here? Yes, yes. OK, come on up. I don't think we'll need congressional pages to assist in this stage. We'd like at this particular time to just acknowledge your great moment. Is this the right thing? The great moment of passing? The milestone? Is that okay? Alright, alright.

So we'd like to acknowledge that. We'd like to pass these on to you. It's better you carry them, you're young. And just these to advance your study of God's Word. And we'd also like to pray for you. Can you handle that? Can you handle that? Let's do it.

Lord, we thank you. Thank you as we look at this milestone that Davis has passed here and that we just look ahead also to the opportunities in the future. We look to you for wisdom, we look to you for guidance, and we thank you for all that you've done and for your word, Lord, that we can look to and depend upon and rely upon. And we're thankful that as Davis looks to his future, that we can count upon you and he can count upon you in the days and weeks and years to come, however long that may be. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Now, we also want to remind you we have these electives beginning in July. Believe it or not, we're just weeks away, and not very many, and the year is half done. But this starts the next quarter, so we need to have, if you haven't done so, to sign up for those electives. It helps us in planning for materials, make sure we've got the right arrangements for seating, and even planning ahead for what media and microphone systems need to be set up. So, if you can sign up for that, it's out in the hallway, in the lobby there, that'd be helpful. So we'll remind you of that.

Now, today we're going to be looking at the passage that Courtney read for us, Galatians 2, 6-10. This is part 2 of 2, because remember last week we looked at the first five verses of Galatians chapter 2, and Paul had introduced us to the beginning of his second visit. We're looking at the second half of that visit here. Last Sunday, having looked at these first five verses, and if you need to catch up with that, the material is online. You can also get in the coffee room some media there to listen to it, and also handouts.

What we're doing here, Paul had begun by telling about how he and Barnabas, and yes, Titus, had come down probably from Antioch, the place where Paul started two of his three missionary journeys. The book of Acts early on says that Paul and Barnabas, among several others, taught there. They came down from Antioch to Jerusalem for what Paul has recorded as his second Jerusalem visit. Paul had said in that passage we read last week that they had met privately with James, the brother of their Lord, that's the one part there, and the apostles Peter and John, those two, and verse 9 gives their names.

We'll soon get there. These three had agreed that a Gentile need not be circumcised to be saved. And they'd already said that. We've seen that in last week's passage. And now in chapter 2, verse 6. But those who were of high reputation, what they are, in parentheses, makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Well, those who were of high reputation contributed nothing to me. Alright.

Paul identified these three. James, the brother of our Lord, and Peter and John. Now, James, the brother of our Lord, was not an official apostle, but he was one indeed who the Lord, interestingly, as we discovered last week, he was one that the Lord appeared to, and from any indication we have, only became a believer when he saw the Lord resurrected. Imagine what that would be like. Oh, that's my brother. Oh, wait a minute, he died. That's got to get your attention, right?

So here's the identification that Paul has made previously, James the brother of the Lord. Now, it wasn't James the Apostle most likely in this passage, because one, he previously identified this as James the brother of the Lord. The other thing is James the brother of John, one of the apostles and the first of the twelve apostles to be killed.

That death was recorded in the first couple of verses in Acts chapter 12. By this time, or about this time, he had been killed by Herod. So remember when we saw this here, James wasn't officially one of the twelve, but was often times unofficially included with them. He was martyred about 62 AD, so about the time Paul was getting out of prison in Rome. James, a brother of our Lord, had apparently not been a believer, something we saw in the passage a couple of weeks ago.

John 7.5 is what puts this in front of us, for not even his brothers were believing in him, James included. After Christ was resurrected, James was one of those who saw Christ, and James seemed to have believed at that time.

We have the first record of him believing and being among those who believed in Acts 1.14.

Now twice we have this phrase with slight variation, those who are of high reputation, or those who are of reputation. We mentioned this last time because between the two passages last week and this week, we've got about four mentions of this reputation issue. And we want to address that here. Paul had identified these guys and the bottom line point Paul met with the Apostles Peter whom we said is also called in this passage Cephas or in the Aramaic Kephas and John. Now we mentioned previously also and we just want to bring it to the forefront here. Why did Paul bring up this issue of those who have a reputation?

He wasn't using it to mock or belittle these other apostles. And this comment that we see in verse 6 is not to make little of these men. No, excuse me. Rather instead, more likely it was because the Judaizers, that is the legalists who are making trouble for Paul with the churches in Galatia, often use this term because The Judaizers, it appears, kept pointing to these guys. Those are the ones of reputation you ought to be listening to. You know, to John and to Peter and James and those guys in Jerusalem.

Not to Paul. He's not one of the original guys. Don't listen to him. Listen to the ones who have reputation. That's what you ought to be doing. Now, it says, what they were, and this is sort of a parenthesis in the first verse there, What they were makes no difference to me. So is Paul apathetic? Is that what he's doing?

Probably not. It seems they were trying to boost the authority of these original founders and trying to thereby decrease the esteem and the regard for what Paul said, and especially for the message, since what they were bringing was quite in conflict. The legalists wanted all the believers there in the churches in Galatia to be impressed by the leaders in Jerusalem and unimpressed by Paul. They wanted them to think, we've got a message from these leaders, you don't want to listen to Paul, because he's got a grace message. Now, Paul of course wasn't buying this.

You can imagine Paul He says, look, I've had the risen Lord Jesus Christ appear to me in person. In fact, that's the very reason that I'm a believer in Jesus Christ today. Before that, I was killing Christians. He not only brought me to the point of salvation, but taught me everything I know about the gospel.

You think Paul's going to back off on that and wonder, Heavens, I wonder if I really have got the right gospel. I think not. You think when you talk to the risen Lord Jesus Christ personally, at length, quite likely a number of times that you're going to back off on it and wonder if you've got the right gospel? I don't think so. Paul wasn't going to. So he's not buying it. It says, God shows no partiality. Now, Paul was not independently saying this. The picture we get here is certainly God shows no partiality. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 26-31. Spell out the details on that. We won't go into that here, but we do have this to refer to. Peter and James, two of the guys that are there meeting with Paul, had said the very same thing.

And we'll look briefly at that, Acts 10.34.

Peter, As he was right there with Cornelius and that household, all Gentiles, said this, opening his mouth, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality. God does not estimate the value of a person based on their earning. He doesn't say, this person has earned this and this person hasn't. God does not want to show partiality. Paul said it. Peter said it. James said it too. Now this last line here in verse 6, it contributed nothing to me.

So Paul is saying those guys are worthless, right? No. Not quite. His point wasn't, again, to belittle what any of these people had to say. He's not trying to cause them to think less of these men who were indeed founders. They were there before Paul. Paul wasn't disputing that. Paul instead was making the statement based on two things. Two things.

One, the leaders in this meeting didn't add to the content of the gospel that Paul preached. They didn't say, Paul, after you've gone over this thing, that's cool, but we need to have you add this and this and this and this other thing, and then you'll be alright. No. They did not add some feature. They didn't come to Paul and say, Paul, you're alright as long as you have these three things. They said, Peter and John and James all said, Paul, what you're preaching, it's right on.

Keep doing it. The second thing, the second thing there, these leaders didn't add to Paul's apostleship. They didn't say, you know, you're doing alright, and so we're going to appoint you an apostle. Or before you kind of went off and you're sort of self-appointed, but we're going to go ahead and make you official. No. They did not add by content. They did not add by authority. Neither one. Neither content nor authority did they add.

So, it was not a big waste of time, right? Now, this doesn't mean that their meeting ended negative or just neutral. It was nice that you came here, but we're not quite sure why you came. No, there were some positive and definite things that came out of their meeting.

And he's going to point that out here. Now, let's look at the next section, verses 7 through 9. And as we take a look at that, some things we're going to take note of here. In each of the verses, we have, and you have this also on the first page of your handout there, Take note of a part in each one of these verses.

Here's this first part, I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been to the circumcised. That's part one. The second part here, Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also in the Gentiles. That's talking about God working. And the third one, that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Each of the verses makes the point that Paul was sent to one group, the Gentiles, the uncircumcised, and each of the verses makes the point that Peter, or the others with him, were sent to the Jews, to the circumcised.

Three times he makes that point. Interesting. Why would he repeat it three times? First of all, he's got an additional truth to put alongside it. That's one. The other thing is repetition emphasizes. Repetition emphasizes. There was a purpose in each of them being sent to each group, and that was not an incidental item. It was emphatically important. Each verse provides a unique insight into the division of this apostolic ministry. Let's look at 7 and 9 here. Additional key points. I had been entrusted. We'll take a look at that later as to what that means. The next one.

He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me. as Paul carried out his ministry to the Gentiles. God was at work. And the third point, this grace had been given to me. Yes, this responsibility was a grace. Can you imagine that? Yeah. Something for him to do that was grace.

Paul had not grasped at anything. He hadn't gone out and said, oh, can I please be an apostle to the Gentiles? He wasn't headed to Damascus for that purpose, right? The Lord didn't show up and he said, oh man, I really want to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

Can you please let me do that? Me, me, pick me. He didn't do that. That was not his manner of dealing with it. The Lord picked him. He didn't put his hand up and yell, pick me. The Lord was the one who picked him. The Lord was the one who gave him the gospel. It wasn't anything he'd earned.

Something interesting about this meeting that we're reading about here, the second half of it, think of the authors of the New Testament present at this meeting. You have Paul, who wrote a baker's dozen of books in the New Testament. We've studied a number of them here. a great portion of the New Testament, nearly half by number count, of the New Testament written by Paul.

Let's add to that. Here's James, author of the book of James. Peter, as we're studying in the elective and finishing up this month, 1st and 2nd Peter, written by the Apostle Peter. We also have five books there, from very brief to fairly lengthy, written by the Apostle John.

These men are all represented at this meeting. Isn't that interesting? Most of the New Testament written by these men meeting in this room. There's other involvement there. Paul appears to have been a sponsor to Dr. Luke who wrote the book of Acts. So here's Paul not only writing his own books, but writing between Luke and Acts over a quarter of the New Testament. written by Dr. Luke. Dr. Luke was not officially an apostle, but wrote under Paul's sponsorship. Additionally, Paul wrote at least one letter to Titus. We have that one letter. Here was Titus that was sent in the letter of Titus, three chapters, to the island of Crete.

That's real interesting. Titus is the one he brings down into this place that's a potential firestorm to Jerusalem with an uncircumcised Gentile. Remember last week we said there were a number of Jews who taught that the Messiah will come when we get all the uncircumcised Gentiles out of the land of Israel.

So what does Paul do? He brings in another one. Oh boy! Titus is a guy that he brings into the hotspots, and Crete was one crazy place. So what does he do? He sends Titus there with a letter. Once you go to this place where they believe that lying is a virtue, that being sneaky is the best thing you could possibly do, I want you to appoint elders. That's Titus. It's like sending in the Marines or Navy SEALs or something of that sort.

Here's Barnabas who restored John Mark. John Mark, remember, was the one who was at the center of the conflict prior to Paul's second missionary journey that had Barnabas and Paul heading off in different directions. Barnabas hung out with his, turns out to be relative, John Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark. Peter appears to have been a sponsor, the apostolic sponsor of the Gospel of Mark. Now, here's Barnabas from the island of Cyprus, which is also where Paul and Barnabas went on their first missionary journey.

Now, in these verses 7-9 here, verse 8 is a parenthesis, so for the time being we're going to pull it off to the side. Look with me at verses 7 and 9. I'm going to read it for you just to get it fixed in our minds. But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, this is Peter had been to the circumcised, and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barabbas the right hand of fellowship so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

This, on the contrary, begins with a Greek word we've been kind of bringing forth in the last several weeks, and that's this word that's translated in the English, but. In English, we have this word, but, and we don't have anything behind it to show how big a contrast it is. Sometimes it's a big contrast, sometimes it's a little turning point in a sentence. Here, it's a big contrast, and to underscore it, he adds another word, on the contrary. Sharp contrast on the contrary, way different. So we have the question, what's the big contrast here? The contrast is what came out of that meeting was in sharp contrast, radically different from the claim of the legalists.

What were the legalists going to say was going to come out of that meeting? They were going to say, if Paul is going to go down to that meeting, then Peter and John and James are going to give them the full gospel, the whole deal, right? That's what they were saying. They were saying that if Paul went down there, that Peter and John and James would just chew him up and spit him out. They were saying that if Paul came out on the better end of things, that Paul might get authorization from Peter and James and John. Is that what happened? Not even sort of. It was in sharp contrast. What came out of the meeting was in sharp, very sharp contrast to what the legalists were aiming for. I think ultimately, what do we do with that? One of the things we see is God's word is the universal, the ultimate measuring stick for any claims to truth.

Ever have somebody tell you, oh, but I had this happen to me. I've had this experience. Well, let's get out the measuring stick. Let's see if it measures up. Someone says, oh, but I've got this other special book that I add to the Bible. Well, let's take out the universal measuring stick and see if it measures up. Someone else says, oh, but I've studied this in school, the teacher, the professor. Hey, let's get out the measuring stick.

How does it measure up? God's Word is the standard. For everything else. Everything. Do we have an experience? We don't use our experience to measure God's Word. We use God's Word to measure the experience. Ours or anybody else's. Does somebody say they have another book? God's Word is the standard by which we measure anything else. That's the ultimate measure.

Because it is the Lord who revealed the truth to Peter. and to John and James and to Paul, same Lord. Alright, now, next one. Seeing that I had been entrusted, James and Peter and John didn't object to, add to, or modify the gospel that Paul had been preaching.

Paul often claimed, and we have one quote here in 2 Timothy 2.8, he often claimed and wrote in terms of my gospel, the gospel given to me, the gospel with which I've been entrusted. It is the same gospel because it's the same Lord. All scripture, as Paul wrote also in 2 Timothy, is inspired by God. All scripture is inspired by God and given by His inspiration and is profitable. Here's the deal. They understood and perceived the truth. What's the truth? That Paul had been entrusted with the gospel by Jesus Christ himself. Isn't that amazing?

Here is Here is Peter and James and John who walked with our Lord. It was our Lord who said to Peter and to John, Hey you, come and follow me. I need you to leave your fishing business for a time here. I've got something else for you to do. Come follow me. They walked with the Lord. It was Peter that volunteered to get out on the Sea of Galilee and walk on the water. And it was the Lord that pulled him up out of the water when he started to sink.

But he remembered that. They remembered that Paul had been the one who had been out trying to kill them and everybody else who followed them. They remembered that. But they also knew when Paul laid out the Gospel, and laid out how he had come to the Lord, and laid out his apostleship, they recognized, they said, that's the Lord. That's the Lord who said those things. We know that what you're telling is from the Lord Jesus Christ, because we know Him too. And they both supported the gospel that he said, and the apostleship that each had.

Peter and Paul, and all those who were with them gathered, each had a different primary assignment. We saw that three times in verses 7-9, underscored here in 7 and 9. But the gospel is still singular. The faith, the truth, the gospel. Singular. Paul had already said in this letter, and he said it with great potency. Paul had already said in this letter, there is no other gospel.

There is no different gospel. Someone cannot present a different gospel because guess what? It's bad news, not good news. It's bad news, not good news. Paul had underscored to them, nobody can present anything different anyway. It's not like you've got a gospel and then you've got a little bit better gospel. Anything else just falls off the cliff.

Notice in verses 7 and 9, in verse 7, seeing. Who did the seeing? James, Peter, John. Who did the recognizing? James, Peter, John. They were the ones who did the seeing and recognizing. And guess what? When you see and you recognize, they didn't make something happen. All they did is they looked and they saw what the Lord had already accomplished. And think about that.

In our own lives is not a great deal of our spiritual progress that very same thing? Seeing and recognizing what the Lord has already done? Don't we have, I know in the class that's been going on downstairs they've been talking about the 34 things, the things that you have in Christ, your position in Christ, that's a seeing, it's a recognizing of what God has already done. Often times what we do here in this church body is we see and we recognize what God has already done. When we see and when we recognize, that's growth. And the Lord uses that, doesn't he? Even when we recognize an elder. Acts chapter 20, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. He said to the elders at Ephesus, right? We don't make anybody an elder.

All we do is see and recognize what God has already done. It's what God's doing that counts. And we see and recognize it. That's progress. Seeing and recognizing. And that's what they had done here. They had seen and recognized this Paul is not just a man saying something. This guy, Paul, is one who has come to know the Lord. The Lord has met with him. The Lord has given him the gospel. The Lord has appointed him. It's what God has done that counts.

Here we see that the Jews were consistently called the circumcised. That was the terminology. The Gentiles were called the uncircumcised or the Gentiles. And I would point out there that this is the word that we pointed out when we were going through the book of Isaiah. We pointed it out elsewhere. This is the Greek word ethnos. We get our word ethnic from that same Greek word. It's those who are of the ethnic groups. Those are the ones who are non-Jews.

Those are the Gentiles that he's talking about here. Those who are reputed to be pillars. Now, that was something that the legalists, the Judaizers, apparently drew upon. Among the Jews, it was common in the New Testament times and the times around there to refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those were the pillars. Those were the guys who really held things up.

Even rabbis who are well-known and famous, like Nicodemus, Gamaliel, those would be, even in New Testament times, called pillars. They certainly, in the temple in Jerusalem, had huge pillars. It took over 80 years to do the reconstructions of the temple that were being done. It was started 20 BC and wasn't finished until about 63-64 AD, over 80 years later before they got this done.

But plenty of pillars to look at and pillars to use as examples of very stalwart, very strong people supporting the faith. The legalists would point to that. They had apparently called James and Peter and John pillars in order to place them well above Paul. Paul, they would say, just doesn't rate. Not like Peter, James, John. Those are pillars. Those are men. Madden me, men. Right? Okay. All right. And then Paul writes here in verse 9, "...gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship."

Now, what you find out here is the legalist strategy didn't work at all. The legalists were hoping that a situation of a meeting like this occurred, that Paul would just get blown out of the water. He would go away with his tail between his legs. That's what they were hoping for. It didn't work. Instead, remember, but on the contrary, strong contrast, widely in contrast to what the legalists were hoping for and strategizing. James and Peter and John extended the right hand of fellowship to Paul and his companion Barnabas.

That's the picture we get. So let's take a look at this right hand of fellowship, okay? Well, we'll find out which one of these configurations is the right one. This right hand of fellowship here, where we had James, Peter, John, Paul, and Barnabas, looks like this. In the culture, the right hand of fellowship would actually be right hands. The Greek is actually plural. English translations don't always bring that across. It's right hands of fellowship.

We all shook hands. That's what he was saying. Here's James, and Peter, and John, and Paul, and Barnabas, perhaps Titus, but certainly those first five guys I mentioned, those guys all roundabout, shook hands. And what were they doing? They were saying, we are establishing a partnership.

The Greek word there is koinonia, often translated fellowship, because Among Christians, that word ended up having greater depth of meaning and having a spiritual sense to it. In the secular culture, the word koinonia meant simply a partnership. And so it now had additional spiritual depth and significance for Christians. But what was this?

A spiritual partnership. We have a spiritual partnership. We are working together. And in a partnership, you have partners working at the same level. So here's James and Peter and John shaking hands with Paul and Barnabas in a partnership of equals saying, not only are you on the same level, but we're working together.

That's exactly what the legalists didn't want! Truth is, it was their worst nightmare. Oh no! That's not at all what they wanted and why Paul would underscore, but on the contrary, in very sharp contrast, pulls apart wildly different from how the legalists spelled this thing out.

Paul's gospel and his apostleship had the same core content and the authority as the others in Jerusalem. Further, oh there were other benefits to this meeting. The news gets even better. They clarified their areas of ministry and forged a partnership. It couldn't go possibly worse for the legalists. This is exactly what God had in mind. That they see this as a spiritual partnership. We have a partnership of equals with spiritual dimensions by God's authority. Equal among partners.

And then verse 10, And they only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do. Paul and Barnabas had been sent, as we put the things together last week, they'd been sent with these famine relief funds to Jerusalem, likely this very trip, And certainly the Jerusalem leaders, James, Peter, John, the leaders that were there in Jerusalem and met with him were saying, Paul, it's great for you to go off to the Gentile lands and to evangelize those Gentile lands. And that's our partnership.

Just while you're doing so, we realized that here in Judea, where we're gathered, are a whole bunch of Jews. And your ministry isn't to the Jews, but don't forget us. We're in trouble here because of the famine. We need your help. We greatly appreciate and encourage your continuing to support us just like you have with the gift that you just brought. Please do it some more. We need the help.

Paul was eager to remember the needs of the saints in Jerusalem. Jews are the wise. Helping other saints didn't matter, Jew or Gentile. That was something he was glad to do. And about this word remember, we have to remember, oh boy, we have to remember in the Jewish mindset that the word remember doesn't mean, oh, I forgot.

The word remember that he used here is like we see in Genesis 8.1. God remembered Noah. It doesn't mean that, oh, the flood that's going on that's been flooding for weeks and months, and all of a sudden the Lord goes, oh my heavens, I forgot Noah!

Right? No, that is not what it means. Okay? That is not what it means. It means to have central in one's mind and to keep on remembering. That's why we observe the Lord's Table not just once, but again and again and again. It's that kind of a remembering. Keep it. in front of your mind, to keep it something that is central to your thinking.

That's what they wanted. They didn't want Paul to occasionally think, oh heavens, I've forgotten the poor, I guess I'd better remember them. They wanted him to keep the needs of the poor in mind no matter where they were, and right then they were among the Jews. If you Gentiles do as you just did and help us with this famine, that's great. Keep it up. We love it.

Now, remember, in Galatians 2, 7, and 9, we made these points here. Paul said, I have been entrusted. God, the one who effectually worked in me and in Peter. In verse 9, recognizing the grace that had been given to me. If you think about it, these things that Paul wrote of himself, those three things, true of us? Not identically, but very much true. Let's talk about that.

This word entrusted, what had Paul been entrusted with? We think of it, here's Paul, he goes on these missionary journeys that we have recorded for us in Acts, and some reference back to those in the epistles. And as he goes from one place to the next, He's taking a gospel that he made up? No. A gospel with which he had been entrusted.

Now, sometimes we think of entrusted as something somebody gives to you and you just kind of keep it safe. This is an entrusted that the only proper use is to pass it along. Okay? So that's the character of the entrusting that was given to him. But think about it, was Paul the only one who was ever entrusted with anything? No. Let's take a look at that for ourselves. How have we been entrusted with things? Have we not, each of us, if you're a believer here today, have you not been entrusted with the gospel? I mean the gospel, Christ died for your sins. He was buried. He rose again. Believe that. and you're saved.

Have you not been entrusted with that as a believer? Not just for your own life, but what I just said to you in less than 60 seconds, could that be repeated to somebody else? Are you entrusted with that? Yeah. Is not everything else in God's Word that you have come to know and learn and understand something that you are entrusted with for your own life? and even to pass it on to another? Have you not been entrusted with those things? Are those not things of eternal value that have been put in your hands as a stewardship? Yes, absolutely. Think of this.

Have you not been entrusted with people? People in your family? People who are in varying ways in your care? whether very dependently or not so much. There's still an entrusting, isn't there? People, even that are friends, isn't there an entrusting that God has given to you? You have been entrusted with a part of their lives. There is an entrusting to you.

How about our own kids? If you have kids, had kids, you know what I mean. They're on loan, but it's not a loan to do whatever you want. They are put in trust into your care. Have you not, like Paul, maybe not identically, but have you not been entrusted?

How about our own relationships right here? The relationships that we have right here among us are a trust. The Lord has entrusted us to one another. Isn't that something? The relationship that we have is not just something incidental, and it's not just a social institution. The Lord has entrusted us with each other's lives. There is a trust there. Whether here or any other place we gather.

Even as we're in separate places. We think of Norm, for example, who's been going through the surgery and has to be in a certain position for a certain number of hours a day. Turn his head down in order to keep the gas bubble in the right spot. Well, guess what? We can't be around him all the time. Is there not an entrusting of his life into our hands for us to pray? Yeah.

The next point that we see in Paul's letter here in verse 8, God was at work. Energeo is the Greek word. We get our word energy from that family of words. Energizing. Peter for his ministry, Paul for his ministry. Here is Paul, he writes to the Church of Colossae, We proclaim Him, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power which mightily works within me.

Let's take this, remember the groups we've been entrusted with? Might this be part of our place here at Holly Hills with each other? Here's another one. Suppose, because the word says every man, that's anthropos, that's persons. With whom have we been entrusted? Maybe it's with our kids or even grandkids. Maybe it's kids that we're not even blood related to or even by marriage. But ones that we have an impact on. Let's put the thing there. We proclaim Him admonishing every one of the kids. Teaching every one of the kids with all wisdom so that we may present every one of those kids complete in Christ. How do we do that?

For this purpose I also labor, and by the way, moms and dads, you understand this. That word labor means to labor to exhaustion. Striving, and that's agonizomai, which we get our word agony from, but that's athletic effort. According to His power, which He mightily works within me, the things that He has entrusted us with, the people He has entrusted us with, what we have as a trust, is there by God's power and doing. We could look at Philippians.

Here, this is the one, you know, work out your own salvation. It's God who is at work in you. He doesn't say work out your own salvation, good luck. God is at work in you for the doing of that. It is His energizing to pull that off. here in Ephesians, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight. God is right now, present tense, working in us to make that which is pleasing in His sight. You as a believer, you as a believer, this applies to you. The Lord has not asked us to do anything this day or any other day. That He has not provided us completeness in this position that we have. in the empowerment that we have in the person of Jesus Christ.

He has, remember Ephesians 2.10, prepared every good work that we should walk in Him.

It's not by your power. It's not by your position. Not anything earthly anyway. And not by your person. It's by His position. It's by His power. It's by His person. That's what the preparedness is about. It's His to pull off and His to do. And finally, it's grace given. All by grace. We didn't earn any of this. The trust? Grace given. The power? The position? The presence?

Grace given all the way. Let's thank him for his marvelous grace. Lord, as we look at this passage, we see all of what you have given Paul, all of what you have given us. And Lord, it is awesome. It is unfathomable. It is not stingy grace, not just barely sufficient grace, but it's amazing grace. It's unfathomable grace. We thank you for it. We praise you for it. And we pray you would teach us. In Jesus' name, Amen.