Super Stars

Galatians 2:6-10

Has it always been this way?  Yes, for as long as I have memory, we have had our super stars, as a kid they were; General Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee, two men any boy in the South would put high on his list of “Super Stars” but the list was much longer, Robin Hood, Roy Rogers, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Jim Brown, Willie Mays, and Elvis Presley.  That is the short list of my many “Super Stars” or hero’s and what do they all have in common?  They all were gifted with special abilities and talents from our Creator.

Today we have all kinds of “Super Stars” in fact, we give them names like “Pro Bowlers, Movie Stars, Dancing with the Stars, NBA national Champs, Super Bowl, American Idol and the list keeps going and going.  And what is the common thread we find in all of these people, they have been given some special gift from Creator God, and have used it to earn a spot in the lime light of our world.  In no way am I saying that is a bad thing, in fact it has been going on for a long time, King David had his groupies whom sang, “Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his ten’s of thousands.”  So what does that have to do with Galatians 2:6-10?

In Galatians 2:6-10 we come in contact with two of the “Super Stars” of the New Testament; Paul and Peter, both men were apostles and God used both of these men’s talents and abilities, their personality under the control of the Holy Spirit to give us much of the New Testament.  One was highly educated and a gifted orator and the other was a fisherman with just the basic education.  Both men had a skill and they used to earn a living, Peter was a fisherman and Paul was a tent maker.  It is believed that Paul's parents were people of influence and perhaps even moderate wealth, where as Peter ran a fishing business in Bethsaida.  It would be fair to say that if not for Jesus Christ these two men would not have anything in common.

Peter was with Christ for 3 ½ years and was a leader of this new band of disciples who went by the name Christian, and Paul was known as the one who approved of Stephens death and was going all over looking for Christians he could put in prison or even kill.  Not only were they very different in their upbringing and social status, there was a factor of distrust on Peter part, could he really trust this man who had once set out to destroy anyone who claimed the name of Jesus Christ. 

Now look at Paul in the light of this information; beginning with Galatians 2:6-8, “As for those who seemed to be important – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance – those men added nothing to my message.  On the contrary, they saw that I had been given the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been given the task of preaching the gospel to the Jews.  For God who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.”  It seems to me that these great men who were used of God, were very much like you and me.  There were a lot of strong emotions going on at this meeting, and yet because they were being lead by the Spirit of God, each of them put aside fear and feeling and sought the will of God.

This was the climax of that meeting; James, Peter and John extended the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas and acknowledged the grace that was given to Paul.  The only thing they ask of him was to remember the poor, and Paul was eager to do that.  My reason for writing this is often we set these men up as more than men, but both had clay feet and yet through Christ they were more than conquerors.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice