Why Paul Persecuted the Early Church — Galatians Chapter 1

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say, time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. How we just thank you for your response, we thank you for your letters, your help financially, and we just live for mail time. Now that's all there is to it. Iris and I open every letter yet, and I hope we don't get so big that we can't do that. We like to keep the personal touch of seeing every name that comes through, and reading your letters, your biographies. You tell us about yourselves, we enjoy every bit of it. We appreciate your requests for prayer, and believe you me we take these things seriously. And whenever we have a prayer request, we certainly honor that by taking it into the throne room. And so again I just want you to know that we appreciate everything that you're doing. And again for those of you here in the studio, we couldn't do it without you. And so all of us are working together, and how we always have to thank the people that are helping in the ministry itself. Jerry is here again today, does all the transcribing for the books, and of course Margaret Rainwater isn't here today, but she does all the bookkeeping. She has a little help, but not a lot. And Keith Deckard gets everything ready for the printer, and we've just got so many people that put in their effort and their time, and I just have to say thank you to everyone. I think you're all aware now that all the past programs are available on video, and on the little printed books that I've just given Jerry credit for transcribing. They're word for word, and we've had a lot of people say, all I've got to do is close my eyes and I can just hear you. So they're not dressed up, they're not edited, but they're pretty much what we teach on the air. If you're interested you write to us or call us, and we'll get the information out to you. Let's go right back where we left off in Galatians chapter 1. And now verse 13 continuing on. And remember as we've introduced the book of Galatians, Paul is frantically responding to false teaching that has come in to the congregations that he had established up there in Asia Minor, which of course is today what we call the land of Turkey. And Galatia was right down pretty much the middle of what is now Turkey, and especially I think the Galatian churches were probably in the southern half of that part of Turkey. And they were being bombarded by false teachers who were claiming that they couldn't be saved by faith and faith alone. They had to circumcise, and they had to keep the Law of Moses or they couldn't be saved. Ring a bell? Well we don't have circumcision as such, but we've got a lot of other things that are in the same category. It's that which you can do, and that is which of works, and it does nothing but bring down the anathema of God Himself. Now verse 13 continuing on. Paul says, "...you've heard of my manner of living, and times past, and the Jews religion." Remember he was a Pharisee of the Pharisee, he says in Philippians. I'm positive he was a member of the Sanhedrin, and as such I'm glad that others have confirmed my thinking that he must have been a husband and father, or he wouldn't have been a member of the Sanhedrin. I feel he was that, because he says in Acts chapter 26 that when they were persecuting these Jewish believers, and they were brought before the religious councils, he along with others voted to have them put to death or thrown in prison. So that tells us quite a bit right there. So he was high up in the echelons of Judaism as it was known at the time of Christ, and the temple worship, and now reading on how that beyond measure, in other words it was despicable, I persecuted and brought under pressure the assembly of God. Now I use the word assembly here purposely, because too many people get confused by thinking that the word Church always means what we call the Body of Christ, and it doesn't. I've put it on the board several times in the past, and maybe I should do it again. The word translated Church in our New Testament is the Greek word Ekklesia, and it can be spelled K or A, R or C, it doesn't make any difference. But the Ekklesia, and all it meant in its true translated form, was a called out assembly. It does not mean someone with pastors and bishops and deacons necessarily, although when Paul speaks of the Body of Christ in the local church, yes it does. Now the word Ekklesia then was what Stephen referred to in Acts chapter 7 when he said the Church in the wilderness. The Church in the wilderness wasn't a Church, but it was a called out assembly, because God called Israel out of Egypt unto Himself, and it was called an Ekklesia. The group of Jewish believers in Jerusalem were a called out assembly, they had separated themselves from the run of the mill of Judaizers, and so they were an Ekklesia. They were a called out assembly, but I maintain they were not yet the Body of Christ. And so back in Acts another instance when it's anything but a spiritual group of people is when they rioted in Ephesus, and they ran into the theater, and they were a mob, and they were rioting because of what the apostle Paul had been accomplishing amongst those pagan people. And what's it called? An Ekklesia. Now fortunately the King James translators at least didn't use the word Church for that, so what do they use? Assembly. And so the assembly was being addressed, and we're warned that the Roman authorities were going to call them into question. So we have to be careful how we let these terminologies either confuse us or set us straight. He says here, I persecuted the Church, and I prefer the word assembly, because that's what it was. It was a called out, separated group of Jews who I do not feel were as yet under the terminology of the Body of Christ, which is something so different. Take that for what it's worth, you may not agree with me, but that's fine. So he says, I persecuted the assembly of God, and wasted it. Now let's go back to Acts chapter 7, and let's just jump in at verse 57. Here we have Stephen now who has addressed the leaders of the nation of Israel, and he's gone through that whole historical record of the nation, and he brings them up to the time of Christ's crucifixion and rejection, and proclaims as Christ Himself had been doing and as Peter had been doing in Pentecost and in the intervening chapters, that He was the Christ, the Messiah of Israel. But Peter said back there in chapter 2 and 3, you killed Him, you murdered Him, but God raised Him from the dead, and He is still in a position to be your King. Now like I said earlier on, when Saul of Tarsus, that religious practitioner of Judaism, saw the inroads that Jesus of Nazareth and the Twelve were making to Judaism, he just went into orbit, as we would say, and he fought it tooth and nail, and was trying to stamp it out. Now let's come down to verse 57. He was sincerely wrong, but he was sincere in hating these Jews who had embraced Jesus of Nazareth. Then they cried, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him." You remember several programs back I told you that one definition or description of stoning was that it was obscene. In other words, the body of that victim was just smashed and squashed with these stones and rocks, to where it was just unbelievable. This is the death of course that they're bringing on Stephen, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Now don't put him too young, he's thirty something, and so he's probably in his early or mid thirties. Verse 59. "...And they stoned Stephen, who was calling upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried to the loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. When he had said this, he fell asleep." Maybe I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to. We had a listener from somewhere out in TV land send us a tape of their pastor's previous Sunday morning sermon. It was a gem. I'll tell you what, I just listened to it from start to finish, it was a good one. He made several points, I guess that's why I thought it was so good, where he agreed with me explicitly. One of them was, and you've heard me say it on this program, it is not appropriate for us in this age of grace, in the post resurrection era, to refer to the Lord as simply Jesus. That was His name of the flesh in humiliation. This gentleman made the point, and that's why I'm repeating it. Never in all of the scriptural account did the apostles address Him as Jesus. They called Him either Lord or Master, but they never called Him Jesus. Now the ridiculers did, but His followers never did. The same way here in verse 59, and they stoned Stephen who was calling upon God, and saying, Jesus receive my Spirit, the only appropriate address for him today is either Christ, or the Lord Jesus, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Lord, but don't ever approach Him as just Jesus. It is not scripturally apropos. Now let's read on. He says, "...Lord Jesus receive my Spirit, and he kneeled down and cried out the loud voice, Jesus the Lord." And the same way the apostle Paul, now on one or two occasions I know he uses the term Jesus, but always Paul says, the Lord Jesus Christ, or Christ, or Jesus Christ. it, never Jesus alone. It's just not appropriate now after His resurrection. Well there's another one that's free for nothing. Now come on over to chapter 9, and we'll pick up a description of Saul of Tarsus in his hatred for anything connected to the followers of Christ. Acts chapter 9, verse 1. And Saul, the one we just read about in chapter 7, continuing breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Now remember I mentioned in a program or two that the Judaistic religious people had clout with Rome. They had quite a bit, and it was just their own obstinacy that brought down the city of Jerusalem by Titus. But the Romans had a lot of respect for Judaism, and I think I've mentioned it before in this program. The reason that they persecuted the Christian soul was that it was something totally new, and as the Jews accused it of being, they treated it like some kind of a sect or something. But Judaism had the respect of the Roman authorities, because it was considered one of the ancient religions. And another thing I've made on this program, I know I have. The Jews from one end of the Roman Empire to the other would send vast amounts of money to the Temple as their offerings. Never was a dollar lost. Now it wasn't called a dollar then, but you know what I mean. Never did they lose an ounce of those gifts that were sent to the Temple, because Rome recognized and protected it. Now they also had enough clout that they could actually demand extradition of Jews that they wanted to deal with in their own religion, and bring them back to Jerusalem. And that's why Saul had the authority to go to Damascus, which was outside of Israel, and yet Rome permitted him to go to Damascus, arrest Jews, and literally drag them back to Jerusalem. So here they have slaughter, and they were ignored. And they went to the high priest, or Saul did, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues. He wasn't going to bother with the Syrian population, all he wanted were those Jews who had embraced faith in the Messiah. So he had letters to go to the synagogues in Damascus, that if he found any of this way who were following Christ as his Messiah, whether they were men or women, that he might bring them bound under Jerusalem. He was vicious, and he had no mercy. He didn't care whether they were young or old, or whether they were men or women. If they had embraced Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, Saul's attitude was, they are not worth living. They are nothing but a threat to my religion. Now you come back to Galatians, and the poor man never got over that. I imagine as he suffered all of the ramifications of his apostleship, he must have constantly remembered that what goes around, comes around, and his was coming around. So verse 13. Galatians 1. How that beyond measure I persecuted, I literally chased them to the ends of my authority, and wasted it. Now he evidently had made so much headway in the area of Jerusalem and Judea, that he thought he had pretty much cleaned house, and there wasn't anything left to do. So he says, Hi priest, let me go to Damascus. There are still some of these people up there, and we know there were, even from archeological digging, that a lot of these Jewish believers who had to flee Jerusalem for fear of Saul's and the other religious persecutions, did migrate up to the area of Galilee, trying to think of the name of the one city in particular. But there was a community that the archeologists have now found that identifies them as Jews who had been followers of Christ. So evidently some of them had even gone up as far as Damascus. Now back to Galatians chapter 1, verse 14. Not only was he a religious zealot who had no mercy, who had no compunction in putting these Jewish believers to death, on top of that what else motivated him? Money. He profited in the Jews religion. Now I've always told my classes, and I think again I've even put it on the program. You go into any religion of the world, and you go into their headquarters, their upper echelons, and what do you find? Wealth. Tremendous wealth. And where have they gotten it? From the peons down there on the lower levels. Judaism was no different. Now this is all common sense. Why did Jesus drive out the money changers in the temple? What was going on? It was graft, it was corruption. These poor people living out in the little small alleys and huts of Jerusalem, they couldn't afford to go out to maybe one of the flocks out in the Judean hills, and buy a nice beautiful lamb, and bring it to the temple. They couldn't afford that, nor did they have whatever it took to do that. So what did they have to do? Well they had to buy some kind of a sacrifice for some kind of a peon's wage, in order to fulfill the demands of their religion. And so what were these religious leaders setting up? A market place. And they would charge 10 prices for whatever these poor people had to have. Whether it was a turtle dove, or maybe it was a little lamb that had something wrong with, and wasn't all that good. That was the thing that God had as a controversy with Israel. They were to bring a lamb without blemish, but see these rascals of Israel were taking advantage of the poor people, and selling them the off scouring of stuff that they could use for a sacrifice, and charging them bloated prices. Why? It was the same motivation that people have today, to get rich. And you see Saul was right in the middle of that. He was making big bucks. Now if you don't believe me, you've got to go with us to Jerusalem, and usually we get a chance to go down and see the home of Caiaphas the High Priest, dug out of the archeological diggings. Now it's quite a few feet below street level, but even after all these 2,000 years of laying under the dirt and the sand of the Middle East, you can see by the material that was on their walls, and with all the bathrooms that they had, that they lived sumptuously. In fact in one area of that house you can see 3-4 layers where like our guide pointed out, Caiaphas wife must have gone to Athens, and she came back and said, Honey we've got to have this on our walls, because after all that's what all the rich people in Athens had. So maybe a year or two later she went to Rome, and she saw something that was even prettier, and she came back and said, Honey you've got what it takes, I've got to have this new material on our walls. So there were about 4 layers, and you can see that each one was beautiful, and must have cost tremendous amounts of money. They lived sumptuously, because they were feeding off of the income from that religion. Religion has always been that way, and I tell people, look at any religion on the face of the earth tonight, and you go up into the higher echelons, and you'll find the same thing. The human race hasn't changed one iota in 6,000 years, as they get corrupt, and they get more, and they get more corrupt, and they get more, and who was it the old boy that said, I can't remember, but I'll never forget how it goes. Corruption breeds total corruption. That's not right, I had it a moment ago, but I lost it. But you know what I mean. The more corrupt people are, the more corrupt they get, and it just keeps feeding on them. This was Saul of Tarsus. This guy was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he was corrupt in the religion, he didn't have any mercy for those who opposed it, and so he could drag them in, throw them into the dungeons, or commit them to stoning. It's his account, not mine, and he says, You have heard of my manner of living, I profited in the Jews religion. Now those of you who have heard me teach for the last many years, you know I detest the word religion, because the Bible always uses it in a bad light. I think in the book of James, it's probably an exception when James says, "...he that is religious will bridle his tongue." But for the most part, the word religion in Scripture is a bad word, just like it is here. Paul says, I was profiting in the Jews religion, because it was a bad, corrupt system. Now I don't have to tell you that. All you have to do is go back and read Jesus' account with those Pharisees, and what were they? They were corrupt. Remember when one of them smited Paul on the face? What did Paul call him? You whited sepulcher. Now that's a pretty strong language. He had to take it back, because I didn't know he was a high priest. Well I think there's more there than reads between the lines. But whatever, that's what he called him. He said, Why you whited sepulcher? How dare you strike me? And then they came back and said, Can you call the high priest that? Oh he said, I didn't know he was a high priest. Well reading on in verse 14, we only have a few seconds left. So he says, I profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation. In other words, he was probably making more bucks than most of them. Why? Because I was being more exceedingly zealous of the Traditions. Religion always banks on Tradition doesn't it? Not doctrine, but Tradition. I'm getting ready that when we get a little further in Galatians, we're going to see that times haven't changed one iota in 2 ,000 years. We're not dealing with circumcision, we're not dealing with Pharisees and Judaism, but we're dealing with the same kind of a mentality. It's the same thing, it's religion and all of it's demands on poor unsuspecting people. Now look what he says. In other words, Saul was proud of his genealogy, and he probably was even able to trace it clear back into the Old Testament economy. And remember that his father must have been some kind of a man of influence, because he was already a Roman citizen. Remember when Paul is brought under arrest by the Romans, what does he claim? I'm a Roman citizen. And he says, how could you afford to buy it? It costs me all kinds of money. And Paul says, I didn't have to buy it, I was free born. I was born a Roman citizen. So that tells you something about his father, and probably even his grandfather. But all these come into play now, when you look at the man's religious fanaticism. He was a zealot, and he didn't care who he hurt, he didn't care who he condemned to death. If he could stamp out all these Jews who had followed Christ, then he thought he was the winner. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. 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