The Power of a Testimony
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Gal 1:13-24
Paul is trying to get this church back on track.
They are attacking his position in the church.
Paul is making the case that this message and that his calling is not something that has come from men, but it is something that Jesus has assigned him.
In this passage, he shares his testimony of how he was called into the ministry.
I remember my ministry calling…
I. The Former Man
I. The Former Man
The Apostle’s Testimony is being shared here because he is trying to relay to the church he is writing to, the church of Galatia, that he is and apostle.
Apostle is someone who has physically seen Jesus, and has been commissioned by Jesus as an apostle.
So, some today might say, “I am an apostle.” They’re not, because they have not physically walked with Jesus.
Paul has, and what he is trying to prove by sharing his testimony is that there has been a distinct change in his life, something that could only come from God. He is also trying to remind them through his testimony that everything he has been teaching came directly from God, and not from any man.
For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.
And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
Paul’s whole life was based on what he believed to be true, and so is ours. What Christianity calls us to do is surrender our former way of life and to be transformed by God’s truth.
What is the former life comprised of?
1. Sin
1. Sin
Before we are surrendered to Christ, we are under bondage to sin.
No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
This means that everything evil comes from inside of us, we are hopelessly and helplessly lost.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
2. Sorrow
2. Sorrow
The Bible says that Jesus brings us joy through hard times. Without Him, we have no ultimate hope and nothing that keeps us grounded in the winds of life.
That doesn’t mean we don’t go through hard times. That doesn’t mean we smile when things go wrong. It simply means that we understand now that sorrow has a purpose.
What is the purpose of sorrow in the life of a Christian?
To remind us that our hope is not in this world!
We always need to remember that we are not stuck here, we are simply passing through. That all the hardship that we will face on earth will seem like a distant memory when we get into heaven.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
Many others have compared the sorrows of today to a mother giving birth. It’s excruciatingly painful in the moment, but that pain just disappears when that baby is laid on that mother’s chest. What once was so miserable and painful leads the new mother to say, “I’m ready for the second one!”
To keep us reliant on God.
We tend to get lazy when things are going good! We stop searching for the Lord, we stop walking with the Lord, we just kinda shrivel up like we’ve been sitting too long in a warm bath!
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
God didn’t deliver Paul from this great sorrow so that Paul would learn to rely on Jesus for everything he did.
Paul was a smart, tough, and confident person. He needed humility in his life.
How is a Christian’s sorrow different than a Non-Christian’s sorrow?
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Godly sorrow hates the sin; worldly sorrow hates the consequence of sin.
Think of how any kind of legalist religion or any kind of false belief operates. Everything is based on the fear of facing a consequence of doing something bad.
When we become a Christian, we ought not simply hate the consequences of our sin, but we ought to be in a place where we hate sin itself.
Godly sorrow hates how sin makes God and others feel; Worldly sorrow hates how the consequences us sin makes us feel.
Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
It Will Hurt My Father
There were two young girls and they were the life of the party everywhere they went. Drinking, sex, drugs, you name it, they did it. They were driven by being a good time. Their whole life revolved around it.
One day, they end up in a church, and they get saved! And when they got saved they were just as passionate about Jesus Christ as they were passionate about living the party lifestyle!
One day, they’re in the car with some old friends. These old friends decided they were going to go to a party and wanted these two girls to go with them.
When they got there, the two girls said, “We’re not going in there, our Father wouldn’t approve.”
The boy that drove them said, “Awww, are you afraid your daddy is gonna hurt you?”
The girl responded, “No, but I am afraid that if I go, I am going to hurt my Father.”
As Christian people, we don’t need to focus so much on what God has called us away from as we need to focus on what God has called us to.
Godly sorrow confesses sin before you’re caught; worldly sorrow hides sin until you’re caught.
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
When we have a heart that desires to be right with God, there is no way possible we are holding onto any kind of sin. If we are holding on to some kind of sin, then we don’t truly love God.
Can Christians hold onto sin?
Absolutely! That doesn’t mean they’re not saved, it just means that they haven’t gotten serious about having a relationship with God.
3. Death
3. Death
Jesus says that He is the life. Without Him, even if we prosper in this life here, it’s nothing because it ends in death.
I heard a man say that we’re all on a road to death because all roads lead to the grave! Well, that’s not true because the road paved by the resurrection of Jesus leads to life! So, we need to make sure we’re walking on the right road!
When Jesus rose from the dead, He proved that He could raise us up as well!
The Bible describes the Christian as someone who is “sleeping”. Jesus started this in Mark 5:39
When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”
He was about to raise this little girl, and Jesus says that she is simply sleeping!
When we become a Christian, we have everlasting life. We will die a temporary physical death, and we will be with God spiritually until Jesus physically brings us back from the dead!
Who was Paul in his former life?
A. Persecutor
A. Persecutor
(v. 13) He openly admits that he persecuted the church.
Persecution means to oppose someone because of their faith or ethnicity.
So, we could say that someone is committing religious persecution. This is typically associated with some kind of violent action. In Paul’s case, it was full scale martyrdom!
There was a man named Stephen, and Stephen preached a message about Jesus just like I do every Sunday morning, except Stephen was killed because he preached it. And the Bible says that as he was being killed, that it was this man named Paul that approved of the murder.
Paul was a persecutor, someone who hated and actively opposed people that followed Jesus.
B. Hyper-Religious
B. Hyper-Religious
(v. 14) There wasn’t anyone that was going to be as great as the Apostle Paul. He was on a pathway to glory in the world of academia. Any degree, any credential Paul had it. Any service to be performed Paul could do it. He was going to be great in the eyes of the Jewish people.
There are so many people today that are like this, they are “hyper-religious”.
There are so many playing the game in the corporate world, they are selling their souls to go along with the trans agenda.
There are so many playing the political game, just saying whatever will get them attention whether its true or not.
There are so many playing church, just showing up and showing out, never really being set free from the former man. Everything that they do is to look good to others in what they call their faith community, when what they should really be worried about is how they appear to God.
The former man is a man trapped by sin sorrow and death…
II. The Saving Man
II. The Saving Man
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
The saving man is the man named Jesus.
How does the former man come in contact with the saving man?
A. By His Grace
A. By His Grace
“called me through His grace.”
We don’t seek after God, but the Bible says that by His grace, He came to this earth to seek all men.
Grace is the unmerited favor of God.
This means that we cannot earn it. We can produce no merit, no good thing, to get the favor of God. It is something that He gives freely to us without charging us. Instead of charging us, He charged it all to the Lord Jesus.
G.R.A.C.E. - God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense
B. In a Personal Way
B. In a Personal Way
“to reveal His Son in me.”
The word “reveal” used in this verse is translated from the Greek word, ἀποκαλύπτω (ah-po-kah-loop-tow). It literally means “to uncover”.
The Bible says that we are all blind from sin.
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
When Jesus “reveals” Himself to us in that personal way, it’s like He is uncovered. We can see Him because He’s not hidden from us anymore.
This is why the preaching event is vital.
When you come to church, what we call the preaching is central to what we do, because I am spending a majority of my working week searching the Scriptures so that I can reveal more of God to you in a way that is clear and precise.
Not only should the preaching do this, but the music should do this. We can’t just get up here and sing any song that we might consider Christian. The point of what we are doing during the music portion of worship is getting our hearts and our mind in a place where we are ready to receive the preaching of God’s word. If the singing and the music is not specific in pointing us to Jesus, then it’s not what we need in the church.
Because whether it’s the preaching or the singing, the purpose of it all is to help you know Jesus in a more personal way. It’s not about making you feel good or emotional, but it’s about allowing you to reflect on truth.
C. For a Specific Purpose
C. For a Specific Purpose
Paul is trying to prove that his calling and message is from Jesus.
He says that he did not talk with men, but went to Arabia. This means that Paul physically met with Jesus and recieved the message of the Bible, the gospel, from Jesus.
The reason that he had this personal encounter with Jesus was specific, “that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.”
Every person that is a Christian has a specific purpose given by God.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are unique, we are assigned different tasks, but we all have an assignment from God.
Here are a few truths about His assignments
They come from Him.
We don’t get to decide what we are going to do for God, He decides what we get to do for Him.
They align with His word.
When a man who is in active sin or when a woman says that God has called them to preach, it’s impossible because the Bible reserves the office of the pastor for men who meet God’s criteria.
When a person says that God has called them to leave their spouse for another person, it’s impossible because God says, “Do not commit adultery.”
When a person says that God called them to do something that is unwise, it’s impossible because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
They build the church.
God is interested in seeing unsaved people get saved, and He is interested in seeing those that are saved fall more in love with Him. If something doesn’t accomplish one of those two things it’s worthless in the grand scheme of things.
When the former man meets the saving man…
III. The New Man
III. The New Man
And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.
But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.”
And they glorified God in me.
A. The Testimony
A. The Testimony
When Christians speak of sharing a testimony, they mean recounting how God has worked in their lives.
This was Paul’s testimony - My former person was a Jesus hater and a murderer…by God’s grace I met Him in a personal way and for a specific purpose…and when I began to preach the word of God, the Christians couldn’t believe it
C.S. Lewis said, “The greatest evidence for Christianity is changed lives.”
D.L. Moody said, “A holy life will make the deepest impression.”
I’ve told many people that they could reach more people for Christ than I ever could. This is because their life has radically changed direction since they’ve come to know the Lord and it shocks people!
When a person that is deep in the pit of sin and their life is radically changed, they can boldly say to other people, “This was the former man, until I met the saving man, and now I am a new man!”
And the Bible says that because of Paul’s miraculous testimony the people in the church glorified God.
B. How to Share
B. How to Share
Do it just like Paul did it!
We explain our life before Jesus Christ had that personal encounter with us.
Most come to Jesus because they have unsatisfied inner needs.
lack of peace, fear of death, a lack of purpose, tired of trying to control everything.
When we realize those unsatisfied needs, what happens? - We try to fill that void.
getting married or starting a family, workaholics, drug and alcohol addiction, sports or fitness lifestyle, sex, education, or even just hobbies.
An important part is that we begin to describe how we came to know Jesus as our solution to that lack of inner satisfaction instead of embracing these other things.
This means that we give details of how we started thinking about spiritual things, how standing on the other side we see how God worked it all out, and what finally brought us to Jesus.
For me, it was that I was in church as a child, but was given the opportunity not to go…but I went back to church for basketball, pizza, and girls. And through years of trying win approval of people I finally realized that God would approve of me only if I trusted in Jesus, and so I did. And now, I am totally satisfied in His approval of me.
But when we share with others, we need to be clear about the gospel.
It should sound something like, “I heard about sin and knew that I was living wrong. I learned that sin means that we will die, but I also learned that God will forgive us of sin if we will admit that we’re wrong and He’s right. Admitting that God is right means accepting what Jesus did on the cross, and believing that He rose from the dead!
C. How Not To Share
C. How Not To Share
By exaggerating.
We don’t need to make ourselves seem worse than we were just to get people’s attention. That’s called lying and we don’t want to lie and manipulate someone into believing that Jesus is what they need.
By focusing on you.
Don’t talk about yourself, but talk about Jesus!
By using complicated religious words.
We like to assume that everyone is like us, but they’re not. Most people don’t have any clue was repentance, justification, sin, under the blood, born again, or even Christian means. We need to be very simple in our approach and simple in how we present.
By arguing.
You cannot win a lost person by arguing.
By talking about the benefits.
Worldly people think in terms of consequence and benefit. We need to communicate with them in terms of relationship. That we are enemies of God because of sin, and we want to be made right with Him. That the only way we can be made right with Him is through believing what the Bible says about Jesus, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead.
Conclusion
Conclusion
When the former man, comes in contact with the saving man, he is then a new man…and the new man has a story to tell and a specific purpose to complete.
When we share:
Don’t exaggerate, God doesn’t need your help!
Focus on the Cross, it’s not about us, it’s about Jesus.
Don’t argue and don’t use religious language. Speak plainly so a child could understand it.
Keep the focus on sin and brokenness, don’t focus on the benefits.
