Week 2-Freedom

Galatians 3:1–9 NIV

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

They had right foundation but the wrong direction

and that meant they were fundamentally missing the point.

Paul says - people STARTED the right way - how could they possibly think that they would finish a different way?

This is REALLY important. Paul’s talking about salvation and forgiveness here.

We BELIEVE that the cross is everything. But do we act like the cross was a one time deal. Jesus forgave us once - but now our acceptance hinges on us doing the right things in the right ways.

Paul is saying - We started on belief, we were accepted by faith, and

We continue to be accepted purely by faith

It didn’t shift at some point, where God said, ‘Ok, now I’m gonna break out my score chart and I’m going to see how well you can perform’.

We deny the cross when we approach it like that. God calls us to a life of sacrifice, one where we place ourselves continually on that cross, die to ourselves, and live completely for God and by God. But when we believe that our continued acceptance is based on our actions, we make salvation a single thing in the past. ‘I know Jesus died for me. Obviously. But now, all this stuff that’s happening, it’s happening because I did the right things’.

Philippians 2:12–13 NIV

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Faith is not an information piece, it’s a lifestyle. It’s not something simply to be known, it’s something to be lived!

It’s not that we were once accepted in by the sacrifice of Jesus, and now we have to work hard to stay. We are only and always ever welcomed in, every single day, by the sacrifice of Jesus. And that sacrifice is the only, the ONLY reason that we get to stay in God’s grace.

HOW DO WE DO THIS?

Matthew 6:33 tells us to worry about God’s kingdom, and he’ll worry about our lives and what we need.

So whenever we’re faced with a decision, a way to choose something that pleases us, or is focused on us, or is about our preference or our desires. Just take a step back and say, what is Jesus doing in this situation? What can I do to show Jesus more? What about this situation is related to God’s kingdom?

you’d be amazed how that rearranges our priorities. Rather than rejecting someone, we love them even more, so they have a better chance of meeting Jesus. Instead of pushing for our preferences, we aim for sacrifice instead, and give up our rights for the sake of someone else having an easier time.

SIDEBAR

A lot of people are coming at this action piece from a REALLY good perspective. They’re concerned about living the kind of life that pleases God. And that’s admirable! But let’s let the bible tell us what pleases God.

Hebrews 11:6 NIV

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Imagine if that way of thinking factored into our approach. The bible here says - we can’t please God without faith. And one of the requirements about pleasing God is believing that he WILL reward us JUST because we’re earnestly seeking him out.

The bible here is saying - if we want to please God, we HAVE TO believe that when we approach him, he WILL reward us.

It makes sense to me to say, Jon, you’ve done so many things wrong. You need to clean yourself up, or God won’t answer!

But the bible says - if I seek him, I’ll find him. He’ll reward me. And I have to believe that to be able to please God.

Going back to our verse above. paul points something out in galatians. The jews, they were trying to live under the law of moses. But what they REALLY wanted was the perks, the blessings, the identity as children of Abraham.

There was a dynamic they didn’t understand. TELL A BIT OF ABRAHAM’S STORY - God called him out, God accepted him, god made a convenant with him.

Abraham was accepted because of belief. He lived before the law was ever even mentioned.

And in fact, Paul says, the blessing promised to abraham was an early version of the gospel itself!

God had this in mind from the very beginning

Freedom through Christ was always the plan

Galatians 3:16–17 NIV

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

The jews at the time, THEY belived they were the blessing to the world. They saw that God was going to bless the world through Abraham, and they said, yep, that’s us. Through our obedience, the entire world will be blessed.

But paul says - that promise, that through Abraham’s offspring the whole WORLD would be blessed - it wasn’t coming from the jews. It finds it’s source in one single person- Jesus.

The jews were saying, people will be blessed because when they come near, they’ll see us doing everything right, and they’ll know what’s right and worship God!

The truth is

we’re here to show people Jesus, not ourselves

We’re not the stars of the show. When people come in, what should floor them is the person of Jesus!

I don’t care if people think I preach right or wrong, if i’m doing it great or not up to their standards.

What I care about is seeing people encounter Jesus. I feel good for a couple hours if i get ‘great job Pastor!’. I’m thinking about it all week if I hear, ‘Man, God really spoke to me today, and here’s what He said...’.

The best sermon in the world is one that totally points people away from me.

The jews, in their efforts, they moved the focus to themselves. And that polluted the message that God actually meant to convey through israel.

I’ve heard it said before, not a lot of people hate Jesus - it’s his followers they can’t stand. And we can hide behind the word ‘righteousness’ and say, well it’s because we have a standard.

But in my experience, i’ve learned. It’s not often biblical standards that people run from. It’s churches and christians who are hateful and judgmental and exclusive.

Sinners FLOCKED to Jesus. He ate meals with prostitutes and tax collectors. They LOVED him. And he was a better embodiment of truth and God’s will on earth than we will ever be.

We are all broken. Every last one of us. We all sin, we all have evil inside. But when we put ourselves, our nature, on the pedestal for people to look at - they will see bad things. Because that’s what WE’RE focused on.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Faith in Jesus radically changes us. It turns us into the kind of people that have meals with prostitutes and tax collectors. The kind of people who even when we are led by God to call out sin, the person leaves feeling loved and accepted (STORY OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN - Jesus called her out, not only did she stick around, she brought others to listen!)

If we want to see people flock to Jesus - we need to make sure people see Jesus. And people will strongest see Jesus when we’re working AGAINST our own nature.

There’s an easy way to do that. Make everything we do about and in church about other people, even to the point of sacrifice. Don’t fight for ourselves, our preferences, or what makes us happy. Define ourselves by how much we can give up and give away.

The world is already filled with people fighting for their own slice of the pie. We need to die to ourselves in order to show the world a Jesus that died for them.

We can approach Jesus today, and be welcomed by Him

Romans 10:9–10 NIV

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

At our midweek kids program, we explain it like this:

we ADMIT. Approaching the cross starts purely with this - knowing that we can’t approach God on our own. That we all have sin in our lives, we all have problems and failures. BUT

we BELIEVE not only that God raised Jesus from the dead - but also that Jesus is our Lord. That he is our king. and then

we CHOOSE to follow Jesus with our lives