Last week we had a guest speaker, Joe Wagner, from the Brainerd Institute so there is no recording for June 21, 2026. Joe encouraged us from 1 Peter 1:1-2. Today’s sermon audio can be found on Castbox at 166 “Then After Three Years” Galatians 1:18-24.

Our text for June 28 was Galatians 1:18-24. Our first reading was Acts 9:19b-31. We read the passage from Acts to consider how Luke and Paul complement each other in their accounts of this time in Paul’s life.

We are working through the historical section of the letter (Galatians 1:11-2:14). In this section Paul is defending the gospel by defending his apostleship and by defending his claim that he “received [the gospel] through a revelation of Jesus Christ”.

Paul stated the thesis of his historical argument in Galatians 1:11-12.

11For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:11-12, ESV

We have restated Paul’s historical thesis (Galatians 1:11-12) as follows:

  • Paul’s gospel was not of human origin.
  • Paul’s gospel was not received through human communication by Paul.
  • Paul’s gospel was of divine origin.
  • Paul’s gospel was received through divine communication to Paul.

Paul then testified in Galatians 1:13-17 how he had conducted himself before he was saved, how he had been saved and called to apostleship, and how he had conducted himself for the next three years after his conversion. All of these facts supported his contention that he had not received the gospel from any mere human and that he had, in fact, received the gospel directly from the Lord Jesus. Now in Galatians 1:18-24 we come to his first visit back to Jerusalem after his conversion.

Text

18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24And they glorified God because of me.

Galatians 1:18-24, ESV

Overview

The word Then in verse 18 refers back to the word immediately in verse 16. The word Then in verse 21 refers back to the prior Then in verse 18. The word Then in 2:1 refers back to the prior Then in verse 21. The repetition of Then indicates a continuous accounting of Paul’s visits to Jerusalem.

Three years after Paul was converted he went up to Jerusalem. During those three years Paul was in either Damascus or Arabia (verse 17). This was his first return to Jerusalem since the day of his conversion. He went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter. He spent fifteen days with Peter at that time. He didn’t met with any of the other apostles except James the brother of Jesus. In verse 20 Paul adds an oath to the letter about the truthfulness of what he had written in the previous verses.

In verse 21 Paul documents where he went after his visit to Jerusalem. He went to Syria and Cilicia. Paul’s stay in Jerusalem and Judea was short. The Christians in Judea did not know Paul personally. But they were hearing that now Paul preached the faith in Syria and Cilicia. And they glorified God because of what they heard about Paul.

Paul here argues that he had very limited interaction with the apostles and with Christians in Judea. Yet the Judean Christians were very pleased with Paul’s preaching. This narrative precludes teaching, supervision, or control of Paul by the other apostles. Paul is an independent apostle. The Judean churches approve of his doctrine.

Sermon Outline

"After Three Years" Galatians 1:18-24

  1. Galatians and Acts
  2. Up to Jerusalem (1:18-20)
  3. On to Syria and Cilicia (1:21-24)
  4. Now Preaching the Faith

Scripture References: Acts 9:19b-31; Galatians 1:18-24;

1. Galatians and Acts

19bFor some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. 23When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. 26And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. 31So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Acts 9:19b-31, ESV

Galatians 1:17 and Acts 9:19b-25 both cover the three years between Paul’s conversion and Paul’s first subsequent visit to Jerusalem. Luke does not mention the time Paul spent in Arabia. There is nothing particularly significant about that omission. Luke may be narrating both periods of time spent in Damascus in his account. There is certainly room in the phrase When many days had passed, … for Paul to have gone to Arabia and come back.

Galatians 1:18-20 and Acts 9:26-30 give us two accounts of Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion. In Acts 9:27 Barnabas brought Paul to the apostles in Jerusalem. In Galatians 1:18-19 Paul visited Cephas and also saw James in Jerusalem. Luke must mean that Barnabas brought Paul to Cephas and James.

Galatians 1:21 agrees with Acts 9:30. Both accounts put Paul in Cilicia (Tarsus) after he has been in Jerusalem.

2. Up to Jerusalem (1:18-20)

18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)

Galatians 1:18-20, ESV

‘18Then after three years’.
As we have been saying Paul gives a continuous but not comprehensive account of his life in this historical section of the letter. By continuous we mean that Paul omits nothing germane to his historical argument. That is the force of the word Then here in verse 18. Paul may well mean something like Then in the third year after I was converted ….

‘I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas’.
So this is Paul’s first return to Jerusalem after he was converted. The verb to visit has a sense of to become acquainted with. Paul wanted to meet Peter.

‘and remained with him fifteen days’.
Certainly Paul asked Peter questions and learned from him at this time. But Peter no doubt also asked Paul questions and learned from him. The fifteen days is very precise and very short. Paul’s opponents in Galatia may have claimed that Paul spent a lot of time with the apostles before he started any ministry work. Instead Paul spent only fifteen days with Peter and he did so three years after his conversion and initial ministry work.

‘19But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.’.
Then Paul mentions one other person of note that he saw while he was in Jerusalem. That would be James the Lord’s brother. It seems like not much time was spent with James. We note that there is much debate about whether Paul here designates James as an apostle. My reading of the arguments is that yes Paul did in fact think of James the Lord’s brother as an apostle. But James is mentioned because his authority was probably being invoked by the opponents to try to distort the gospel of Christ.

‘20(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)’.
Now Paul makes a oath. He is perhaps swearing to the truth of his entire testimony. But he is certainly swearing to the truth of verses 18-19. We can not be sure of how the opponents in Galatia were distorting Paul’s personal history. But verses 18-19 must be very important to Paul’s testimony on behalf of himself, his apostleship, his gospel, and his ministry. Perhaps the opponents were attempting to associate Paul with Peter and James in Jerusalem right at the time of his conversion.

3. On to Syria and Cilicia (1:21-24)

21Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24And they glorified God because of me.

Galatians 1:21-24, ESV

‘21Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.’.
The word Then once again indicates that Paul is writing a continuous account of his life after his conversion. The word Then in verse 18 refers back to the word immediately in verse 16. The word Then in verse 21 refers back to the prior Then in verse 18. The word Then in 2:1 refers back to the prior Then in verse 21. The repetition of Then indicates a continuous accounting of Paul’s visits to Jerusalem. Paul left Jerusalem and went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia but not necessarily in that order. We note that Tarsus was in Eastern Cilicia and that Damascus and Antioch were in Syria. This one sentence may account for a decade of Paul’s life. We know that he ministered in Antioch during this time. We suspect that he ministered also in Cilicia during this time.

‘22I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.’.
Paul wrote that very few individuals in the churches of Judea had ever met him in person. Paul used Judea here to mean Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. All through that region very few Christians knew him personally. This assertion further establishes Paul’s independence from the Judean churches.

‘23They only were hearing it said,’.
We note the continuous past tense of the phrase were hearing. For an ongoing period of time the people in the Judean churches were hearing positive things about Paul’s ministry.

‘“He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”’.
Clearly, these Christians knew about Paul. He was the one who used to persecute the Judean Christians. But now they kept hearing that Paul was now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. I want to come back to this phrase preaching the faith. These Judean Christians ought to be good witnesses against Paul. But Paul’s Galatian opponents cannot use them as witnesses to discredit Paul.

‘24And they glorified God because of me.’.
Instead, the Judean Christians glorified God because of Paul and his ministry in the regions of Syria and Cilicia. The Judean Christians knew what Paul preached and agreed with his preaching. The Galatian opponents might claim that Paul didn’t quite understand the gospel but they would not be able to use the Judean Christians to prove it.

4. Now Preaching the Faith

23They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

Galatians 1:23, ESV

What did Paul (and the Judean Christians) mean by the words ‘the faith’?
Most likely here Paul is using the word ‘faith’ in its objective sense. ‘The faith’ then would mean what is believed. If Paul was using the word ‘faith’ in its subjective sense he would have meant the act of believing. We must note that Paul uses ‘the faith’, ‘the gospel’, and ‘the word’ more or less interchangeably.

We should also keep in mind that what Paul was preaching would include both law and gospel with the law-gospel distinction clearly in focus. So Paul was preaching that we need to keep the law perfectly to save ourselves, but that we cannot keep the law perfectly, that therefore we need the righteousness of Christ, and that we need to believe and trust in God to receive our salvation.

So I think that when Paul used the words ‘the faith’ here in Galatians he explicitly meant ‘the gospel’ but also implied the need for the act of believing. I close by citing Paul’s second thesis:

15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Galatians 2:15-16, ESV