Revelations 21 & 2 Peter 3:10-13

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Acts 2:42-47

What does a Christian brotherhood look like? Paul's exhortation to live in proximity to one another and help shoulder other burdens includes acts of grace, restoring fallen brothers, teaching and accountability. This plurality of Christendom acts as a protection from the influencers as well as the apparatus for restoration and the place for stewarding faith relationships for His harvest.

Paul addresses the age-old battle of continuing to sin that every Christian faces. Paul uses Greek word sarx which means "flesh" to represent the desire to sin. We see this great inward struggle by the contrasting appearance of the word Spirit (7x) with that of sarx (5x). Paul identifies the dueling presence of the words of the sarx with the fruits of the Spirit in this thought provoking and motivating sections of the letter.

How can we know we are really saved? Paul gives us THE TEST and he warns the Galatians if their salvation rests on performance they can be severed from Christ. You can't add anything to the work of Christ. How then does keeping the law matter once saved? Pauline theology shapes this view: The law is an expression of God's nature and keeping the law is a way to imitate him, but not to earn salvific favor. The gospel sets us free from the law for the law.

"If salvation is by works then only the fertile can have children." Wow - unpack that! Paul's brilliant use of the story of Sarah and Hagar condemns any dependence on works for salvation. Hagar was fertile and the effort to bring about God's promise through her failed. Sarah was old and barren, yet God in his own sovereign power and grace fulfills his promise through her. Paul is saying there are two ways of salvation - put your faith in the right one. The Ishmael path often persecutes the Isaac path and we see this occurring in the Galatians church Paul is writing to.

How does Paul go from position of "like and angel" to that of an enemy in the eyes of the Galatians? The answer: influencers. This message addresses the issues of influencers and their work to build followers. Paul exposes that influencers ultimately care about themselves when he says, "They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them." Paul wants to make much of Christ. Who are the influencers in your life today and is their ultimate purpose to make much of Christ?

The greatest position in all of the created universe is to be in the family of God. A child of the king of the universe and an heir to that kingdom - what other identity could ever overshadow that? Paul destroys man's proclivity for tribalistic identities. Even his clever use of a pronoun accentuates his point. our first identity should always be...Christian.

The word promise occurs 7x in this passage where Paul leads us to the guardian of that promise - the law? Paul explains how the law functioned as a teacher who is preparing a child live life in the future as a free adult. Paul touches on the depravity of man and his need for the law to show him what he is really like underneath. The law helps us see our need for Christ so we may receive him in faith.