Sermon Tone Analysis

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Galatians 1:10-16 (ESV)

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?

Or am I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.

12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles,

Opening Prayer

Foundational Statement by the Apostle Paul

Galatians 1:10–12 (ESV)

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?

Or am I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul is taking the accusations of the false teachers...

And turning it on them by asking questions of the Galatians...

And this morning we will start with the proof he lays out for his argument that he is not a man pleaser...

But a servant of Christ, and Apostle of Christ...

And the gospel he preaches is divine in origin…not man-made.

It appears that the False Teachers were saying that he was not a true apostle of the Lord Jesus...

Because he had not been a follower of the Lord when the Lord was on the earth.

Therefore, what he was teaching was a man-made gospel taught by mistaken and misguided men.

Paul responds...

Gospel of Divine Origin

Galatians 1:11–12 (ESV)

11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.

12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul calls their attention to the seriousness of what he is about to declare by saying..

Because I would have you know

This is a strong declaration that prepares the reader to know information of crucial importance will follow.

Paul says, I’m not a man-pleaser and here’s a reason why...

The gospel I preach is not man’s.

We’ve already discussed the litmus test of the gospel...

God receives all the glory in the biblical gospel...

Which is the gospel preached by the Apostle Paul.

Paul says I did not receive it from man...

Nor was I taught it by man, but I received it directly from Christ, Himself.

The gospel he preached was not a message...

handed down to him like tradition.

learned by him from an educational institution.

taught to him by men.

The biblical gospel is not only different in character and content...

But it is different in its origin.

12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

In the same manner as the other Apostles, Paul received the gospel...

By a direct revelation of Jesus Christ to Paul, in person.

This was an in-person visitation of the risen Lord...

Confronting the Apostle Paul of his misinformed and sinful zeal.

Speaking the gospel to Paul...

Most likely a personal conversation much like the Road to Emmaus conversation…

Where we are told that Jesus taught them in this way...

Luke 24:27 (ESV)

27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Did Paul see the risen Lord?

1 Corinthians 9:1–2 (ESV)

1 Am I not free?

Am I not an apostle?

Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?

Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Acts 9:17 (ESV)

17 So Ananias departed and entered the house.

And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

This personal encounter that Paul had with the risen Christ...

Was also where he was converted in dramatic form...

Taught the gospel by Jesus Himself...

And made an Apostle of Christ, as well.

Paul was no longer a servant of man...

Nor was he a man-pleaser.

He was, at that point and forevermore, a servant of the risen Lord.

Empirical Proof in the Apostle Paul’s Life

Galatians 1:13–14 (ESV)

13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

Paul was in a Man Pleasing System

In Paul’s old system of belief, he did not understand the substitutionary atonement (3:13), which teaches that Christ died in our place.

He believed instead that Jesus’ crucifixion proved that he could not be the Messiah.

Paul also grasped as an unbeliever that the Christian faith threatened the centrality of the law, but he understood only after his conversion how the end of the law did not threaten OT teaching but actually fulfilled what the OT taught.

Paul’s old system of belief was this...

Romans 10:2–4 (ESV)

2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Establishing your own righteousness is a system that reserves glory for oneself.

Paul used to be in a Man-pleaser system.

But he was delivered from such by the power of God...

And delivered from self-serving to serving the risen Lord.

Paul’s Life was Filled with Self-Righteousness

Galatians 1:13–14 (ESV)

13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

If we dig a little more into this system of Paul’s, which was Judaism...

Philippians 3:3–6 (ESV)

3 For we [Christians] are the [true] circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

[here it is] If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Do you see it?

What is the system that Paul was enslaved to all about?

Me.

Me, me, me, me.

My resume.