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Founding
Missions (1) Galatia
Founding
Missions (2) Macedonia
Founding
Missions (3) Achaia .. Summary Chart #2
Founding Missions (4)
1 Thessalonians |
Paul as Church Founder
• Paul had received a resurrection appearance, had labored in Arabia and
Damascus, had visited Cephas (Peter) in Jerusalem, had departed for
Syria and Cilicia, and now was about to embark upon the founding
missions for which he is best known, those in Galatia, Macedonia,
Achaia
or Greece, and Ephesus in the province of Asia.
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• He had been commissioned an apostle
to the gentiles, and the make-up of
the congregations he was to establish seems to reflect that job
description.
• He was supported, not by some “Pauline Missionary Society to
the Heathen,” but by his own labors. In fact, he would at the end
of the day bring funds from his own mission congregations for the
relief of the Jerusalem church.
1 Thessalonians 2:9 You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we
worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we
proclaimed to you the gospel of God. (See also 1 Corinthians
9:1-18 and 2 Corinthians 11:7.)
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| • It follows from the foregoing point that Paul was not what we would
call an
itinerant evangelist but one who preferred to stay for an extended
period of time in a city, laboring at his trade and forming a
congregation.
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This period of church
founding may well have consumed a decade or more; it would thus be
misleading to speak of it as a missionary journey (a notion absent from
the letters, and even from Acts). |
Founding Churches in Galatia
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The first of his major mission foundations was in the central Asia
Minor province of Galatia, accessible from Cilicia (mentioned in Galatians
1:21). His initial visit was occasioned by illness. He established several
congregations in the province. Their members were gentiles, who had been
idol worshipers.
Galatians 1:1-2 1Paul an apostle . . .
2to
the churches of Galatia.
Galatians 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were
enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods.
Galatians 4:13-15 13You know
that it was because of a physical infirmity that I first announced the
gospel to you; 14though my condition put you to the test,
you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of God, as
Christ Jesus. 15What has become of the goodwill you felt?
For I testify that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your
eyes and given them to me.
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Galatians 1:21 Then I
went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. . . .
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The main outlines of the gospel which Paul proclaimed to them are
discernible: the death and resurrection of Jesus and the impending
end-of-time.
Galatians 1:1, 4 1Paul
an apostle . . . through Jesus Christ
and God the Father, who raised him from the dead . . . .
4[Jesus
Christ] gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age . . . .
Galatians 3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?
It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as
crucified!
The Galatians shared with him in the life of the Spirit as they came to
faith in response to the Christ whom he was preaching.
Galatians 3:2 The only thing I want to learn from you is
this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by
believing what you heard?
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Compare 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 5:9-10; and 1 Corinthians
15:3-8, for recollections of gospel proclamation material.
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It was probably at the founding visit that Paul also gave these
converts from a pagan way of life the solemn warnings about the kind of
vices that would exclude them from the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 19Now the works of the flesh
are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20idolatry,
. . . 21and things like these. I am warning you, as I
warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom
of God.
When some months or years later Paul departed from the Galatian
congregations, he had established such a warm relationship with the
Galatians that, when the breech opened between them at a later time, the loss
of the affection which they had had for him seemed all the more poignant.
Galatians 4:14-15 14[Though] my condition put you to the test,
you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of God, as
Christ Jesus. 15What has become of the goodwill you felt?
For I testify that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your
eyes and given them to me.
Galatians 4:19-20 19My little children, for whom
I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20I
wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, for I am
perplexed about you.
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Click Next
button below to continue to Founding Missions (2).
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| Revised
January 23, 2003 |
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