Galatians Bible Study Series - Joel H. Linton Week 2 Galatians 1:1-5 1. What is an apostle? - vs. 1 "sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father..." the Greek "apostolos" means literally, "one who is sent," the one who is a representative/ambassador who has the authority of the sender. Today Christians might mean many things when they use the term "apostle" and speak of modern people as "Apostles." The Bible uses the term very specifically. Following are verses that are marks of the apostles. 1) sent NOT from men or by man (see ahead vs. 11-12) 2) sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father 3) direct revelation from Jesus that has authority as God's Word (see Acts 26:15-18, Acts 1:21-26, Acts 10:41-42, Acts 3:41-43, 2 Cor. 10:8, 13:10) 4) God confirms the status of the apostles through miracles and signs (Acts 3:41-43, 2 Corinthians 12:12, Hebrews 2:3-4 5. There are no more Apostles today. (1 Corinthians 15:3-11) 2. What is the characteristic of Jesus Christ that Paul focuses on in his greeting in vs. 1? God "raised him from the dead" What do people often focus on about Jesus? A: His good teaching... or his death. Do you know what the importance of Jesus being raised from the dead is? Why does Paul bring this up? * it could be because one main characteristic and qualification of the Apostles is that they were literal eye-witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus * also, Paul feels the resurrection of Jesus is a key part in our salvation... (see discussion of vs. 4) 3. What do you usually pray that God would give you? What does Paul wish that God would give the Galatian churches? What is "grace"? Why do we need it? (A: Unmerited favor. Not something owed to you. You do not get what you deserve. You get goodness when you deserve misery and death.) (A: Most people do not think that they need grace. They say... don't help, I can do it myself. I can pull my own weight. There are many things in life where we can do things ourselves. But we cannot deal with our sin on our own. We need God's grace.) Explain this statement: "You cannot become a Christian until you realize your need for grace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (A: You cannot repent until you see your sin. You cannot believe in Jesus unless you realize what he did for you. Otherwise you are believing something else, but not in the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible.) What is "peace"? Why do we need it? (A: We are at war. Our sin makes us enemies of God. We need to make peace with him. Our sin makes us enemies of each other. We need peace between each other.) 4. How do you get grace and peace from God? (A: Through Jesus... because...) What did Jesus do for you? vs. 4 Why did he do it? What is "this present evil age"? Some people try to make the most out of this world, to make "heaven" on earth. Why do we need to be delivered from this present evil age? How many ages are there in the world? What is the resurrection of Jesus evidence of? (Our future deliverance from this present evil age. See from 1 Cor. 15)