Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 860 | Phil Has a Cheeky Answer to His Wannabe Haters & Willie Fulfills a Prophecy

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

Phil never reads the comments, but he’s got a hilarious response to why he never feels the negativity. Zach taunted Willie years ago, but it came back to bite him — hard! Jase is afraid he might have eaten a record-holding fish, and it turns out Phil has something big in common with Paul. The guys debate the motivations for Paul to give up his powerful position among the Pharisees and his focus on his own guilt and the grace of God. In this episode: Acts 9; Ephesians 4, verses 1-10; Galatians 1, verses 8-24; Galatians 2, verses 19-20 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome back to Unashamed podcast. It's always a blessing to have you guys along. We've got Zach coming in from North Carolina, Zach. Good to be here. Always good to have you. Somebody sent me an email. I was going to read it. Oh, yeah, here it is. It says they asked me if, did you, this is from the Unashamed Mail. Did you ever wonder if Anonis and Safara were buried in the field of blood with Judas,

which was an interesting question. Of course, there's no way we would know, because we studied that recently. We don't know, but that's possible. They drug them off and buried them somewhere. Do you want my response? Yeah, go ahead. Because they had another comment I wanted to read, yeah. Let the dead bury their own dead go proclaim the will of God.

Okay. That's the quote a verse from Jesus. Gave you a verse. So here, but their next comment, this is from Lynn, the next comment was the one I was going to read you,

Zach is that I love unashamed, especially when Zach is on. Amen. You guys have a special camaraderie. Oh, I love that lady. Whoever she is.

That's Lynn Kay. Well, let me tell you, I peruse through the comments sometime. The last comment I read, and I, every now and then I get a few,

we all get a few negative comments except for Phil. He gets zero negative comments, But really? No negatives for you, Dan. No negatives for Phil. The last one I... That's because I barely can get in a word it is.

Sometimes it's better to just shut up and take it. How can they talk about you if you never talk? That's what you're saying. But when you do, it's gold. Every time it's gold. The last comment I saw, the negative was... And I couldn't remember what we were talking about. It said, Zach, don't chase the money.

And I was reading that and then my, I get a text message from Willie. Uh-oh. Which is, yeah. I'll change the money. Mr. Money Man sends you a text. Yeah. So he, so I got to give you some contacts. I'll tell you where he's at.

He's with Dave Ramsey at some thing he's doing with Dave Ramsey, which I've never met Dave Ramsey. But there was a time when Willie worked for me before he worked for Duck Commander. he worked for me. It was in an intermediate time where he was in between jobs. I think he was not the youth ministry anymore. I think y'all may have fired him from that job. Yeah, it's been saying he worked for me too.

Yeah, he did at the church. In one period. So I was, I had a lot of cleanup up my house. This is, I don't know how long ago this has been. It's been a while, but I had a lot of cleanup at my house. And, uh, and, um, I hired Willie to come to bring his trailer over and get all this drywall and construction debris. well, we're cleaning it up and, you know, he's working for me.

I don't want to repeat that. He's working for me. And so he's cleaning up the debris. And we get in this conversation because we were young and married. And me and Jill were doing this Dave Ramsey plan. You guys, have y'all seen this right? You all seen the Dave Ramsey. Oh, yeah, I'm very familiar.

Now, who is Dave Ramsey? A lot of people did in our church. He's like a financial guy. Yeah. But he came up with this program about getting out of debt. Okay. So basically you just don't spend more than you can afford and put everything in these little money slots. And back in the day, that's the way I remember.

Yeah, it was like you put cash in an envelope. Yeah. And then it's the envelope system. His deal is get off of the credit, living on credit, because it's going to be bad. So when I paid Willie, I pulled out my envelope to pull the cash out to pay Willie. Well, he, of course, you know, Willie is. I mean, he just starts making fun. I mean, what are you got there?

You got your envelopes. And he's just, I mean, just relentlessly making. fun of me. And so I'm like giving him a rebuttal. Like, hey, like, I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm providing for my family. We're building, you know, I'm building a life here. And like, and we're going back and forth. And he's telling me what I'm doing stupid. And, and I made, I made the mistake not knowing what the future would hold for Willie. I said, I'll tell you what, Willie. You do your thing and I'll do my thing. And we'll see who comes out on top. Oh, boy. Well, you lost.

So he's at the beat. at this like ridiculous I mean I probably shouldn't even share this but he's like he's there with adam la roche and he's like hey Zach remember that time and he's like doing the panorama you know view of it you remember that time and you told me you were doing the Dave ramsie plan and you said you do your thing and I'll do mine and just see what we'll see what happens in the end because I was just thinking about that because I'm with Dave right now and he's like panning this like ridiculously beautiful place he's at he said I just was thinking about you and uh and of course La Roche is like, bad move, Zach, bad move.

And that was my text after I got the comment. So anyway, that's your brother, Jason. Somebody asked me recently because somebody had jabbed me at church. And so then I got up to preach. And of course, you know, you never jab the guy who's up second. And of course, I went on about a four-minute, you know, rant about this good brother that I love. and was just, you know, and everybody's laughing. I just, and so one of his brothers come to me and said, how did you do that?

Like, it just happened. Like, it's not like how planned this. I said, no. I said, because I've got the same ability that Willie has, we never forget anything. And so it's always back there in the recesses of your mind. And when the moment is right, it springs forward in a way to then make fun of you. I mean, it's a gift or a curse. I'm not sure.

Well, the bad thing is you can't help but laugh at it because he's, he's hilarious. I'm like part of me, right. And I'm willing to make fun of myself and so is Willie. So that's part of it. It was really funny. Well, I'm the forgetful brother because when I read, forgetting what is behind, I press on toward the goal to win the prize.

But plus, as you've already said, you're, you are funny, but only when you're not trying to be. So that's the difference that you at us. Well, that feels like that. And that's like that too. That's right. That's as, I mean, when he was talking about that, bidet in the last bite there was so so many things that need to be addressed here one the so it turns out

the comment that you read was not negative because after you told the story about willie the thought i thought was don't chase the money zack yeah that's right that was actually a positive statement yeah it's good i mean i'm in uh it's funny yeah it's funny see yeah i didn't say that what chase I wasn't chasing the money. I mean, I was putting it in the envelopes, but it's because I didn't have any money. No, he'd have been fine if he hadn't have made this thing. You do you and I'll do me. Of course, nobody had money back then, so we're out.

Well, Willie's notorious for this because he tells the story when he does his speech about his father-in-law having it out with him and mother-in-law about not marrying Corey. And, you know, at the time, Willie's in preaching school. I mean, you know, he's not sure what he's going to do his life. They're like, you need to wait and get, you know, she needs to finish college and, you know, just what a lot of people think. And so they're like, you know, we want this thing to be long term. So Willie tells the story. And at the end, he says, his punchline is, yeah, and her father and my father and I was one of my best employees now. That's the way he works.

Be careful what you wish for. I love it that Willie's been successful. He's created this pond to which I frequently visit. That's right. That's right. It was back to Willie's fine. Well, I'm just saying, and I offer every year to pay him money to contribute to the fish that I'm going to catch and eat. So yesterday I go down there, and I'm, I quite possibly caught the world's largest bluegill out of his pond.

I have pictures. Oh, there's bluegill on there, too. Well, I didn't even know this, this thing. So, so, and I'm, did you stock it with bluegill? I don't think so. I don't think so. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm down there trying to catch a couple of crappie to eat.

And my court goes under, and I thought, man, I got a largemouth bass. Because whenever it starts pulling drag, well, the fight went on and on because I got light line. And finally when it came up, I said, it's not a bass. And it's not a cropy. What is this thing? And you know how when you take a brim and you'll say, you know, I'll call it. I caught some hand-sized brim. Yeah.

Well, this brim, his nose, when I put it on my longest finger, his tail was near about to my elbow. Woo. And wide. That's a haul. And I thought, what is the world record for Blue Guil brim? So in between that, I just thought, I think I'll just clean him and eaty.

So that became. No world records, no mounting. Well, it became the world. record brim that I've ever eaten. Four pounds, 12 ounces. Well, he wasn't four pounds. So I was worried that I ate. A world record.

I really, I'm going to tell you, he was over two pounds. Four pounds and what, say? Four pounds and 12 ounces. Can you imagine? That's almost a five pound brim. So the pictures that I'll give you two pictures that Maddie can show. So I caught another brim later, and it was the largest. Blue Gild brim that I'd ever caught before the one I caught.

And so you'll see the size. I took a picture and I caught a really nice croppy. I mean, and the croppy. You got a mess of fish there. I had three fish and that was more than I could eat. Right. Because this brim was such a beast. I had to cut him up into pieces to frying.

Wow. I mean, it'd fill up your frying pan just one side of the filet. So it was kind of a monumental moment. I mean, you just think I've been fishing my whole life. That was the largest bluegill brim that I've ever caught. You know, as good as a cropy is, and he is the king, but, man, a brim, like a brim filet is delicious. He was actually a little fishy. Just because he was so big.

So big. But, you know. He got so big. I went Chicago. I'm a man. I conquered the beast. And then I ate it. Genesis 9.

You know how that made, Dad, maybe that went in on the leg of one of those. shorebirds. That's how the eggs get from one pond to another, don't. Yeah, I don't think you stocked bluegills. I think he just... The only way he could have got in there, there's some eggs got on something that transported it over. You dig a hole in Louisiana.

They'll be fish in it. Yeah. Crain legs. Yeah. He gets on their legs, and they get with pond to pond. They plant them. Yeah. It's the Almighty's way of stocking a pond, right?

Yep. Yeah. I like it. All right, is that all the Willie stories we got? I thought that was a little. I knew it. Yeah, I knew a guy. by the way that I was trying to find it caught the world record red belly on the Swanee River.

So I did actually know a world record redbelly brim record holder. We don't have that in Louisiana do. What is that a chinky pan you're talking about? Yeah, they call them, I think they call them. What do y'all call those? Red breast sunfish is what we call. Oh, red bellies. How big was he?

I want to say he was two and a half pounds. Somewhere around that. I can't remember. I was trying to look it up. That Swanee River is beautiful. Oh, I have to say anybody. Don't tell anybody that. Oh, man.

It's fantastic. All right. So are we done with fish stories? Dad, you got any fish stories or? Now, what you got? You got a hot take on. I'm trying to make it fit somewhere in the Bible as we move forward. Well, you got one pond, Phil, and you got all these different kinds of fish.

But they're in one pond. It's an interesting statement. In Jesus, you have different. different cultures in history and it all came together under one body, which Jesus has the head. You don't see many endeavors. You don't see man-made endeavors, it is, I would say. But the things that come out of God's plan, unity in the body of Christ. and I've had this verse in my head for about a couple of weeks. Apostle Paul was in prison.

Just think about it. Your leadership, you're one of your leaders. He's in jail, and he tells him, he said, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received. Now, he's saying this, and he's in prison. They've locked him up for proclaiming Jesus. He said, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bear him with one another in love, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. And then it's remarkable.

He said, there's one body, he's speaking of the body of Christ that he's in prison for, one spirit that you receive when you're baptized. Just as you were called to one hope when you were called, God called you. that's how you have your salvation one lord the lord jesus is front and center one faith his death peril and resurrection one baptism your response that should be there one god and father of all who is over all and through all and in all when you read that text it's amazing that these people the apostle paul and all the rest of them the front line that far back that's quite the story coming from how this your your leader has been killed but there's a resurrection of the dead he's resurrected he gives the marching orders go into the world preach the good news on

what happened here i'll be with you to the end of the age but that's simple little a little three or four, that's one verse, one or two verses in the book coming out of a feast with the Apostle Paul and the shape he was in. I admire the grit that these people had before. Well, yeah. And, you know, when he goes on to say that it was he who gave some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers to prepare God's people works of service. Well, right in the middle of that, really for where we're in Acts, when he says in chapter four of Ephesians verse 10,

he who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, speaking of Jesus, in order to fill the whole universe. Oh, I'm dead. Well, you say, well, how does he do that when he's talking about unity in the church? because he is at the right hand. He poured out his spirit. Remember what Peter said in Acts 2 when he said he's exalted to the right hand of God and has poured out what you now see and hear?

So that was his plan to actually fill the universe and it's working. And he picks as well the leadership, the main dog and presenting it all, is the Apostle Paul of all people who you doubt, You'd think that's a last thing God would allow him to do. Murdering Christians? That'll send you down the road. You would think that wouldn't be possible. Let's take her first.

Paul gets a bad rap in the scholarly world. I mean, I assume, you know, everyone agreed that Paul wrote 13 letters. And perhaps, you know, Hebrews is. Right. I don't have that in there because that's unknown. Right. But you know, when I looked at where the scholars, 13, possibly 14.

13 possibly 14. But when you read all the scholars, they say seven for sure. There's seven for sure. Then six, they're in argument about. And I thought, what, what, what? Because it's like, well, because some things don't fit in the style of writing. So they all say they're inspired, but they're just like, we don't know if that was the actual written by Paul himself.

And there's a couple of books that at the end he says, like a scribe wrote it. He was like doing dictation. Well, plus there's a team of people. But it'd be just like Dad said, Dad has books that he's written. These are his thoughts. These are what he's done. But he's had people that assist him in writing the book because they're talented writers. One of the brothers.

I mean, that's exact same thing. Well, Zach's dad was in a right place at the right time. Yeah, Gordon was... Back and forth. He's a gifted writer. These are your thoughts. But it's your thoughts with him. And it's your book, you know?

I actually ran to a guy one time. I'm not going to say his name because we might create too much controversy. If it's family, say his name. If it's not, let's not. Oh, if it was family, yeah, we'd throw it under the bus. No, it's a very, very well-known, conservative, political operative. And I was writing something and... He was reading what I was writing.

We were literally sitting at the same table together. And I was quoting the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter one about, I was writing something about general revelation that God has revealed himself to us through creation. Those are some of the words that Paul uses in Revelation, I mean, Romans 1 and 2. And this guy looks at me and just he starts to like laugh at me. Like literally is offensive. He's laughing at me. And he was like, you evangelical, I won't repeat exactly what you.

he said because it's full of profanity, but he said, you evangelicals, you are so gullible. And I was a little bit taken back by it. And he said, if you knew anything, anything at all about the Bible, you would know that Paul wasn't even inspired. Peter was the inspired apostle, not Paul. And, I mean, I could feel my, I don't know. In that moment, I was, I was a lot younger than I am now. I felt the emotions were boiling up in me.

And the Lord put, I just looked this up because you said that about it being inspired. They all agree that he's inspired, but some people don't. But this verse popped up in my head in 2 Peter 3. I want to read it because this is what I told him. I said, I said, we'll call him Bill. That wasn't his name. I said, Bill, do you know what a buzz saw is? He said, no, I said, Buzzsaw, you know, oh, yeah, that obliterates the wood.

I said, yeah, I know what that is. I said, well, you just ran into a Buzz saw. You don't even, you didn't even know it. And I slid my Bible down. I said, read 2. Peter 3. And he did. I said, read it out loud. And it says this.

He says, this is Peter talking, by the way. He says, and count the patience, 315, of our Lord of Salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul. So Peter here is talking about Paul. Also wrote to you according to the wisdom given, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. and if you've read Paul, you're going to understand this next part. There are some things in them that are hard to understand. Well, yeah, Paul's difficult to understand, which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction as they do other scriptures. And I said, man, that's interesting that Peter calls what Paul wrote scripture.

He compares it to other scripture. So you're telling me, don't listen to Paul, listen to Peter, but Peter's basically saying listen to Paul. So I don't know what to do with that. And it was like the look on his face was like, hmm, but, but what Paul wrote. Now that, you know what? Hmm means? You won. What was that?

You won. You lost with Willie, but you won with Bill. That's right. You know what I mean? Sagan means buzzsaw, enters wood. That's what that verse meant. Yeah, what a clever verse. It is a clever verse.

And I love that, that they're writing these letters. And he's like, look, some of what Paul says is hard to understand. I mean, it's a fascinating. intermingling of Holy Spirit-led authors. Yeah, because one is a fisherman who, you know, doesn't have an unschooled, you know, ordinary person. Oh, yeah. And then the other guy has been trained in every possible place you can train him.

And yet they're both on the same mission. To your point, Dad, one. No, I think this is the point where we're at in Saul's conversion. Because you've got to really just step back and think about this. if you read the 13 letters or even the seven that are unanimously authored by Paul, you know, according to the scholars, without argument. But so just take those seven, but all 13. And then you look at our world today.

What does our world look like? Who got it right? Did the Greek philosophy or I'm not, you know, a historian, but interject any writer of anything in history and fast forward thousands of years, whose writings seem to have an impression what the world looks like today? And you just pick a subject. That's right.

Look, even the unbelievers have to acknowledge that. If you read Paul's writing, because we think, oh, it's a lot. It's not a lot compared to all these other historical writers. and I'm trying to think of some historical writer. But they have withstood the test of time. I mean, yeah,

that's my point. Yeah. And they're like a bombshell, really. Well, let me read this as you were saying that. I was thinking this isn't, Paul didn't write this, but it's about Paul.

Think about, I won't read, I'll just paraphrase it, but think about Paul in Act 17. And Phil and I got to experience this. And Phil had one of the best lines, like off the cuff that I've ever heard that when he said, something to me about this particular moment in Act 17, it has reverberated it through my whole

life. We're up on Mars Hill. We're in Athens, and we're looking at the ruins of the Greco-Roman Empire. It's the Acropolis. When you go into the Acropolis in Athens, they have guards that you can't even touch the columns. They won't let you touch them because I guess the oil from your hand will disintegrate it. But I mean, everything is like, under locking key. They're watching it. You can't touch it. It's preserved. You go down below Mars, that the Acropolis is above Mars Hill, and then below Mars Hill was the Temple of Zeus and a few other temples, which are just complete and utter ruins. They're collapsed and there's like a couple poles left. And so we're walking around looking at this scene of the God Zeus, his temple in ruins,

and we had just left Mars Hill where Paul said, God doesn't live in your temple. temples built by your own hands. That's what Paul told him. And Phil had just recited that entire Act 17 sermon. And Phil, I don't know if you remember this, we were walking around and you looked at me. And you said, Dash, you know, you want to know the evidence for Paul's arguments on Mars Hill. And I said, what's that? And you pointed at that temple that was it, that was a couple poles left.

And you said, there's your proof right there. So long, Zeus. It was like this moment where like Paul stood the test of time. What Paul said on Mars Hill, what Paul wrote these scriptures, it has stood, it has stood the test of time. And it's proven to be true. Everything that he said in the Ariopagus has proven to be true. Go to Athens if you don't believe.

No, that's exactly right. And I remember that Tuesday. And then we, in fact, we went down and filmed down there because it's so inspired you. You were like, let's go down there and let's talk about that. And then we filmed it up close. and you could see the ruin of it even more than where we were looking at, which is powerful. Well, I think what's fascinating about Saul slash Paul is that he was born a Jew, he spoke Greek, and he was a Roman citizen, and he was born a Roman citizen.

Right. Right. Right. So when you think about what he's representing there, you see why God chose him as his special instrument to bring all people together. Right. Because it made me think, think about what he gave up. I mean, think about the power that he had.

I mean, he's going around just running rampage on Christians. And being in prison didn't shake him at all. But to have that kind of power, if you have the power, if you're in life where you can go around and actually kill other people and it be legal, well, you got some power. Your career has put you on a pedestal. Well, think about it. He gave that up. See, why would you give that up?

To basically, when you look at the other side from a worldly view, he became just a traveling vagabond building tents. Career over. Power gone. Now he's being hunted. So just if you take out the part about Jesus and just look at his life, they would think the man had a midlife crisis here. He went from one extreme from all the success that you possibly could do in his,

if we'll call it a career. So that's one thing that just happened practically. But thinking about that, Jay's, he was already a, he's already such a dichotomy because he's a Roman citizen from Sicily. He's already kind of an anomaly. He is. He's a hybrid because he's a hardcore Jew, but he's not of Israel, he's of Italy.

What we now know is Italy. But that's my point. That's my point. Why would he change? He has a good position in all the worlds culturally around him. Right. Why would he change that and become... What would he gain from this?

Yeah, well, what is there? I mean... We have a hard time looking at it like that because we're like, well, he's in the Bible. He heard it. But just look at it. culturally if he were alive today yeah people looking around like wait what so because I think once you analyze that in your mind you really start thinking I think

he actually saw and met Jesus on that road yeah there's it practically yeah practically yeah practically that well I was going to make one other point then when you hear it they're like you mean you're following that crucified criminal because from their perspective, if you didn't acknowledge Jesus' son of God, well, he was just one of three criminals on a cross. And he's got killed. That's why you gave all that up? Are you crazy?

And then think about socially just how much of he was a Hebrew of Hebrews and a Pharisee. All these little social, cultural things that they did, they weren't like us. I mean, you know, that circumcision mattered to a Jew. You being circumcision. It mattered as in there's a crisis if you don't agree with that, you know. And for him to then later on say, oh, you don't have to be circumcised. Well, and I'm just picking that one issue. Take every law and every custom that they had that made you a part of that society.

And now him writing all these letters, giving people the freedom. So we're not under that anymore. Yeah. For that, that would be like you having every bit of history and tradition about your family and your culture. And then all of a sudden, you're giving up your entire career, all your power place and all the social networking there is. And then all the practical things, you're giving all that up. And you're doing it all because of a guy who was crucified as a criminal. it just wouldn't make sense unless it actually happened.

Yep. I mean, that was my point. Go ahead. We mentioned this, and I mentioned it very briefly in the last podcast out of 1st, Corinthians 15, when Paul is, when he received the gospel, which we're going to get into that in Acts, because he received it during a certain period that we'll talk about, but he received what's called the oral tradition that was handed down to him. But he says in there that Christ appeared to him as one abnormally born.

And I've wrestled with that statement quite a bit. But whatever, however Christ, on that road to Damascus, I do think it was something, it was such a powerful experience for Paul, who was Saul at the time, who became Paul, that when I was going to ask you all if you guys kind of think this way. When I think about the Apostle Paul, he does seem to occupy almost. almost like this role among the apostles as like, almost like the conscience of the apostles. He just, I just keep thinking about that passage in Galatians where he's like going to Peter and rebuking a fellow apostle. And it's just like he had this sober judgment.

And I don't know if it came out of his, the guilt that he felt, maybe that he felt or carried some guilt with him for how zealous he was for the persecution of the church. And I even wonder, was that part of his thorn in the flesh that he was dealing with? And the Lord's like, my grace is sufficient. I mean, I don't know the scripture does it teach it. But he does seem to occupy kind of this special place among the other New Testament writers. And I know this is all inspired by the Holy Spirit, by what he wrote. But he does seem to carry a little different something about him. Well, and he says, Zach, in your context of first Corinthians 15, after that,

abnormally born. His next comments, I think, sort of describe what he meant by that. He says, for, since I'm abnormally born, in other words, I didn't come in to this like the other guys did, I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle. It was interesting, he says, I'm one of them, but I don't deserve this because I persecuted the church of God. I mean, he still got that ever before him, I think, all the way to the end of his life. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace to me was not without effect. I worked harder than all of us.

That's the motivation. Yeah, exactly. So he admits it, and, you know, several different contexts, he sort of defends his right to be who he is because he was called on that road. Well, yeah, that was, that was, I was going down the same vein. Let's take another prayer. So, you know, when he wrote the letter to Galatians, which is fortunate for us that he did write so many letters because we can get into his mindset. You kind of pieced together, right? Everything he was thinking through his letter. He starts off just saying, you know, in verse 6 and 7, I can't believe you're deserting the one who called you by the grace of God and they're turning to a different gospel, which, you know, he's just lighting up his people because they're saying that everyone needs to be circumcised.

It's Jesus plus something. Jew or Gentile, and I'm going to go and read the account in Acts 21. Which, by the way, Jay, before you read that, it's the setup work we did on this. Remember all those texts we talked to at first, the Jew, then the Gentile, and how this went in the early part of Acts? All that sets up while these controversies come in later. Because the church gets to think, well, wait a me, you've got to convert to Judaism first. Then you can become a Christian. But that's not the way Jesus had in mind.

Yeah, and these issues are. like in Acts 21 because they were having so many problems socially getting these cultural differences together under one head in Jesus, which is kind of what Phil was reading in Ephesians four. Correct. And just think eventually, you know, I'm reading Genesis, I'm in Galatians 1 here, and he's using very strong language. I mean, in verse 8 of chapter 1, he's like, if we are an angel from heaven should preach

a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned. I mean, it's as strong a statement as he can make. And then he kind of gives really his background into, because he's the strangest person in the world to be anti-circumcision for Jew or Gentile because of his history. So he kind of explains himself, which is very thought-provoking. When he gets to verse 11 of Galatians 1, he said, I want you to know brothers, that the gospel are preached is not something that man made up, which goes to my point.

He had an encounter with Jesus. It's the only reasonable conclusion on why a person like him would change course, change directions, which is why in the Acts 22 account you're going to see when Jesus also said it's when they have their conversation, why are you persecute me? he said it's hard to kick against the goads yeah and which you know a goad was used in their world to keep an ox or a group of oxen on the path you know they they start wondering and that you know it's

about a six to what ten foot spear looking thing and they'd tap them and they'd get back in line and you get this visual image of a field and it makes you think of all those parables Jesus said about a sower went out sowing seed and so and all of that is illuminating i think for for paul now so verse 12 says i did not receive it from any man nor was i taught it rather i received it by revelation from jesus christ i had a conversation with jesus at the right hand of god for you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism. How intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age.

I was extremely zealous. We talked about that last time for the traditions of my fathers. But when God who set me apart from, and the translation should be from my mother's womb, the NIV just says birth, they got it wrong. It should be from my mother's womb. I actually looked up the Greek word to that. And where it comes up, it's the same word that when Jonah was in the whale that Jesus said, in the belly. Right.

Which I think is important because, one, it shows that there's life in the womb. Yeah, and God is the creator of that life in the womb. And called me by his grace, verse 15, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might be. preach him among the Gentiles. I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. And that's a huge statement right there, because it gives you a little bit of a timeline that how it's a little different in Acts, because Acts just gives you the big story. Here you're seeing that this thing was over years. So verse 18, it says, then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem

to get acquainted with Peter, which we're going to see that happen, and stay with him 15 days. I saw none of the other apostles, only James, Lord's brother. I assure you before God that I, what I am writing you is no lie. Then later he went to Syria and Sicilia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report. The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith. He once tried to destroy.

What a quote. Yep. And they praise. And, and let me just caveat. That second Peter, that, that, he goes to get acquainted with Peter, to your point earlier, that, whatever is happening in this time period, he went from the guy who formerly persecuted the church, which Peter would have known that to the guy that Peter says, hey, whatever Paul says is scripture. That's happening right here in what James is reading. Yeah. So then he goes on to say 14 years later, he went up again to Jerusalem and he took Barnabas

and you can read that in Acts because Barnabas was the only one that had the courage to realize the man had changed because everybody was scared that he was a spy and was going to kill him all. And that is pretty quick from doing one thing and then doing the very opposite. But it also gives you a little bit more because it would have got my attention too. Well, when you read Acts, it almost feels like all this has happened within days. but only the first part is when the days. Now, Luke's given us the account over years. Jay's just read 14 years of what happened here.

But the reason where you may say, well, this seems kind of boring that you're getting off in the details. Well, the more you reveal the details, the more incredible this conversion becomes. And then when you put in the point that I made about how his teachings and his letters are probably the greatest compilation of a prediction of what the world's going to look like, 2,000 years later in the history of the world.

No doubt about it. How can something that he wrote all apply and make sense in this world? You mess with what he's saying here and you don't make an attempt to obey what he's talking about and you have really got yourself in a bind. Phil's getting fired up, which is good. So then he goes before and preaches the gospel to the Gentiles, brings that up. Because you see this struggle, especially when you get. get to Acts 21.

Because they're all trying to bring their own cultures into Jesus instead of coming to Jesus and creating the new culture of the kingdom of God. And that's really what this is about. So then verse 3 of chapter 2 it says, yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.

I mean, it's so crazy that now he's talking about, you're talking about broken free from his heritage? He's like, we got some $1.80 on the freedom in Christ. And by the way, just to another caveat here, and you go back and look when Paul was with Timothy, who was also a young disciple who had a Greek parent and a Jewish parent, he encouraged him to be circumcised in that setting and context. So again, it's not just about,

circumcision itself is the idea of trying to add to the gospel. The minute you start saying, look, you're either circumcised or you're not in Christ, Paul rared up and said no. And even rared up on Peter and said no. But in one context where he thought it would be more beneficial for the gospel, Timothy, who could have gone either way, been circumcised or not, he had a Jewish parent and a Greek parent. He said, yeah, go ahead and do it. I think it'll help your influence. So it wasn't he was against circumcision? That's what we get into this. It was that. He's against saying anything that you add to the gospel will save you. And that was the point.

Yeah, and I was going to keep reading that, but the Al gave a summation of that, which is really the struggle between Jew and Gentiles and bringing the cultures all together. So he gets to the end of chapter 2, because now it makes this verse seem to have more meaning once you look at it throughout the entire context, Galatians 220, or verse 19,

maybe. It says, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. If I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteous, I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. And to your point, Phil, when he gets to three chapter three and he goes through basically the same as galatians two in a different format and brings up abraham and the promises and but then he says in verse 26 your all sons of god through faith in christ jesus for all of you who are baptized into christ have closed yourselves with

christ there's neither jew nor greek slave nor free male nor female for you are all one in christ jesus Yeah. And which is what an incredible statement of bringing all these cultures together, breaking down the walls of, you know, women being viewed as insignificant or perhaps, I mean, that's an understatement of how they viewed women. And even the slave free, which we don't talk much about, but, you know, in the Bible context, slave and free wasn't like what we think of. It wasn't based on the color of your skin back in their culture.

that was just how things got done. And if you lost a war or you went bankrupt, you became somebody else's slave. That's right. And it didn't matter what your color of your skin was. And it's unfortunate because they were being viewed as things, but that's just the way it was. But for him to say something like this,

that now there's no social classes, there's nobody owning any other people. There's no, as matter as way God views, whether you were a Jew or a Gentile, whether you're a male or female. We're all one in Christ. And as Paul's, honestly, it's Paul's writings that gave way to pretty much every single modern movement where we've moved away from any type of oppression like that. It's been in the arguments of Paul, particularly or in the arguments of the Bible that man's made the image of God and that we're all on equal footing before the Holy One.

But I was thinking when you were reading in Galatians, I pulled up 2 Corinthians. And I was just thinking how, think about how consistent Paul is in the different churches with the same exact message. Because you read in Galatians where it said something to the effect of, if anyone should preach to you a gospel other than the one you received from us, let them be eternally condemned. Even an angel itself. So he's elevating the gospel that he preached. And to your point earlier, this is so key because it has implications for us today. you can't build a synchronized kingdom with other earthly kingdoms being mixed in with God's kingdom. That's the whole point of Mark 2 and the wine skins.

You can't put new wine into old wineskins still burst. You can't take a new patch, which is God, Christ in this kingdom, and sew it onto an old system. They don't mix. They're not like, oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, which is what was happening in Galatians with Judaism and the Judaizers coming in with the circumcision. but something else is happening in the Corinthians Church, too, because listen to what he says in 2nd Corinthians 11, same Paul, different church, for I feel divine jealousy for you.

Why would he be jealous? Because you're trying to bring something else in. Since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure version to Christ, but I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. for if someone, so similar language here to Galatians, for if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. In other words, you guys are accepting this stuff, and like, it's like, almost like you said, just like I told the Galation Church, like what we preach to you, the Jesus that we introduced you, you to. That's the Jesus. That's the gospel. That's the spirit. And I think that's why Paul is so

controversial in so many circles. I actually think it may be one of the reasons why the guy I was talking about earlier pushed back on the Apostle Paul, because Apostle Paul says, you're not sinking up these kingdoms. This is a, the kingdom of God is a whole other realm. It is a whole other kingdom. And you're not sinking these things up to be a little bit of this, little of that. It is all Christ, Christ alone. And that's offensive for us. That is an offensive claim, but Paul does an incredible job throughout his entire ministry of pointing us to that.

And when you see that is Christ and Christ alone, what that does is that leads us to the inevitable conclusion that surely we're all equal before him, equally guilty, equally fallen short, Jew, Gentile, male, female, slave, free. Man, we stand before a holy God, and we have nothing to bring to the table that God's going to say, man, now that's what I was looking for. Bring that in. We all stand equally condemned and are justified freely by his grace, which is why Paul's demeanor is soaked in humility.

What Al mentioned in 1st, Corinthians 15, it's soaked in humility. Why? Because he knows what he was saved from. And I think that's the big lesson that we can learn from Paul and hopefully apply it. I want to apply that to my life. Well, and I like the way, Zach, you put that earlier. I like the phrase you used that he was the conscience. of the apostles, especially concerning the Gentiles, because it wasn't natural for them to go into

that world, even though Jesus had been pointing at it, he'd been showing them. It took years, and it even took another miraculous story that we'll get into later on future podcasts of Peter being called to go out to even share that first time with Cornita. So this miraculous strikedown on the road to Damascus gave Paul his marching order. So, we're out of time. Before we quit, we'll have to, so read Acts 21 and Acts 22 before we come together because we keep trying to get to it and we did not get to it again today. We have to read that because I think it makes everything we just said make sense.

And even in 26, there's some interesting things that happens in his retelling of it as well. So we'll get to there eventually on the next Unashamed podcast. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to blazed TV at blazediv.com slash unashamed.