Sermon Tone Analysis

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: 6-9

Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:

Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself.

Thank the band and choir.

Invite guests to parlor after service.

Through the month of July, we are taking up our annual offering to combat world hunger and to provide assistance during disasters through the Southern Baptist Convention.

Our goal this year is $3,700, and so far, we’ve received $985.

Please prayerfully consider how God would lead you to give to this offering this year.

We have our regularly scheduled bi-monthly business meeting of the church tonight at 5:30 here in the Sanctuary.

Please plan to be here to be a part of discussing and deciding the business of the church family.

Adults on Mission (AOM) will be held tonight following our evening service in Miller Hall.

The service starts at 5:30, and then AOM will be immediately following at 6:30.

Richard and Anna Shelley will be sharing about their recent trip to Croatia.

Just a reminder that Tenna Eckert’s memorial service will be this Friday at noon.

We will have Jessi Hale’s memorial service on Saturday at 1:00 pm.

The family has requested casual dress for that service.

There will be a cookie reception afterwards in Miller Hall.

Please keep both families in your prayers this week.

I really appreciate how many of you grabbed a Sunday Morning Bible Study card last week after I mentioned them in service.

Remember that our Sunday morning Bible studies are the best vehicle we have here at EHBC for intentionally connecting the members of the family to each other on a weekly basis.

If you aren’t currently involved in a Bible study on Sunday mornings, please look at the card and find one to try next week!

PRAY

Opening

Following his introduction, Paul doesn’t give the customary thankful blessing that was normal for letters written during the time, including most of his epistles.

He launches right into an assault on the situation in Galatia.

To help us understand this passage a little more, we can use a little bit of background information to give us better context.

As I mentioned last week, I believe that in the book of Galatians Paul is writing to the churches that were founded during his first missionary journey, when he and Barnabas traveled through the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia.

This missionary journey is recorded in & 14.

They traveled through the Galatian towns of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, sharing the gospel and starting churches in each town.

Before we read our focal passage this morning, I need to give a little bit of background to set the passage up.

As I mentioned last week, I believe that in the book of Galatians Paul is writing to the churches that were founded during his first missionary journey, when he and Barnabas traveled through the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia.

This missionary journey is recorded in & 14.

They traveled through the Galatian towns of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, sharing the gospel and starting churches in each town.

Luke records in Acts that the Word of the Lord spread throughout the whole area.

They first spoke to the Jews in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, but when the whole town showed up to hear the message of the gospel, the Jews argued against them out of jealousy.

Paul then said that they would be taking their message to the Gentiles instead, and the Gentiles rejoiced at this, and many believed (a Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew).

However, the Jews incited the prominent people of the city to “stir up persecution” against them, and had them kicked out of the city, so they went to Iconium.

In Iconium the same thing happened, although they were able to stay for a longer time there, according to .

In Lystra, God healed a paralyzed man through Paul, and the people there began to worship Paul and Barnabas as Greek gods, and nearly sacrificed offerings to them.

But Jews had followed them down from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, and Paul was nearly stoned to death in Lystra.

After that, they then traveled as far as Derbe.

On their return trip, they traveled back through those same towns, strengthening the churches along the way.

These churches were mostly made up of Gentile believers.

They then traveled as far as Derbe.

On their return trip, they traveled back through those same towns, strengthening the churches along the way.

These churches were mostly made up of Gentile believers.

On their return trip, they traveled back through those same towns, strengthening the churches along the way.

These churches were mostly made up of Gentile believers (Gentiles being anyone who is not a Jew).

This first missionary journey occurred from around 46 to 47, maybe 48 AD.

In his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul makes no mention of the Council of Jerusalem, which is recorded in , and took place in about AD 49.

The Council of Jerusalem was specifically about the issues that Paul brings up in Galatians: the introduction of false teaching appearing in the new Gentile churches regarding the gospel.

Certainly, if Paul is addressing the same issues to the churches of Galatia that were addressed in the Council of Jerusalem, he would have brought that up.

So I believe that Galatians was written not long after Paul and Barnabas returned to Syrian Antioch.

If this is correct, then the false teaching infiltrated the Galatian churches very quickly.

In less time than I’ve been the pastor of this church.

This explains why Paul immediately attacks the problem:

He is astonished, shocked, and dismayed at what has occurred “so quickly.”

Within perhaps a year of Paul and Barnabas going back through the Galatian churches on their way home, a problem has arisen: the Galatian believers are “turning away from him who called [them] by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”

galatians 1:

He is astonished, shocked, and dismayed at what has occurred “so quickly.”

Within perhaps a year of Paul and Barnabas going back through the Galatian churches on their way home, a problem has arisen: the Galatian believers are “turning away from him who called [them] by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”

He is astonished, shocked, and dismayed at what has occurred “so quickly.”

Within perhaps a year of Paul and Barnabas going back through the Galatian churches on their way home, a problem has arisen: the Galatian believers are “turning away from him who called [them] by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”

Paul’s concern is that the Galatians have been seduced by a heresy: that there is a “different gospel” for them to believe.

Apparently, as we will see as we go through Galatians together, some people who are commonly called “Judaizers” came through Galatia after Paul and Barnabas left.

They claimed to be Jewish believers in Christ who had come from Jerusalem, and they had come to tell these Gentile believers basically how to be “really saved”… by following the Jewish Law.

They questioned Paul’s credentials as an apostle, which we will look at more next week.

And they had started to throw these fledgling churches into a state of confusion and error.

Just by way of evidence of these conclusions, notice some things that Paul says throughout this letter (we’ll look at these in more detail when we get to them during our study in the weeks to come):

Someone had “cast a spell on” or “bewitched” them.

They had been taken in by something that wasn’t true.

galatians 3:1-

galatians 4:

galatians 5:7-

Strong words!

Paul isn’t playing around in this letter to the churches of Galatia.

And we need to ask ourselves if we might be in the same situation as the Galatians.

Before we address this, however, we need to address the question: “What is the gospel?”

Strong words!

Paul isn’t playing around in this letter to the churches of Galatia.

Before we address this, however, we need to address the question: What is the gospel?

1: The Gospel is the good news of what God has done in Christ.

1: The Gospel is about what God has done in Christ.

The word “gospel” literally means “good news.”

So the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the message of God’s joyful revelation of Himself and His work of love in Christ that leads us to salvation.

The message of the Gospel is God’s joyful revelation of Himself and His work of love in Christ that leads us to salvation.

It answers four big questions:

The Gospel answers four big questions:

1) Who is God?

2) Why are we in such a mess?

3) What did God do in Christ to remedy the mess?

4) How can we get back to God?

The answers to these questions are basically known as the “Four Spiritual Laws.”

I try to bring these four elements into every message I preach on Sunday morning.

Sometimes I succeed.

Sometimes I don’t.

But I do this because the message of the Gospel isn’t only critical for those who have not yet believed in Jesus, but for those who are believers to constantly apply and reapply to our lives.

So the truth of the Gospel of Christ saves us, and it continues to be effective in our lives.

I personally like the acrostic GOSPEL to explain the Gospel message: