Galatians Part 2

Announcements:

Next Steps beginning Feb. 6th

YouVersion

Prayer

Flow:

Recap: Last week we set up the book of Galatians. We talked about it’s origins. it’s author. It’s purpose

We saw how Paul was astonished at the Galatians for how quickly they deserted the true gospel of Jesus

And we saw that the gospel plus or minus anything is not the gospel

It can not have something taken away from it

It can not have something added to it

It is perfect and it is complete

This week we will finish chapter 1

We will see Paul expound on the source of the gospel he is preaching

We will see a little bit about Paul and his journey to Christ

And we will see Paul’s introduction into the early church and evangelical revolution

So let’s read and then we will begin to pick it apart

Galatians 1:11–24 (NIV)

Galatians 1:11–24 NIV

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me.

So now Paul will begin to answer a very important question.

What is the origin of Paul’s gospel?

This gospel that Paul is so passionate about, where did it come from?

It is good news without doubt

But did he receive it from his own thoughts?

Did he make it up?

Did he get it secondhand from someone else?

The answer to these questions are found in verse 11 and 12

The first phrase in verse 11 in the greek signifies that what Paul is about to say is very important

He says “the gospel I preached is not of human origin.”

So we talked about last week in verse one how Paul got his apostolic authority and position divinely

Now he is making the case that he also got his apostolic message and mission divinely

Essentially what Paul is saying is yes I preached it and I was given the authority to do so but I did not invent. Nor did I receive it from a man.

So what the Galatians are learning is that neither Paul’s mission nor his message was derived from man

Let me say this clearly for us this morning. When you surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus, man will not be the source of your mission or message.

When we look to mom, dad, spouse, pastor, church, to give us our mission and message we will always fall short and always feel less than

The plans and purposes of your life are imparted by God, possible by Jesus, and empowered by the Spirit

They can not be accomplished any other way

No man has the authority or ability to do it

So Paul here is telling the Galatians: “Look, the gospel that I preached, that you so quickly deserted, that is being called into question is not an invention nor a tradition but a revelation

Paul’s answer to the doubters is our answer to the doubts

And it’s this: It’s all God’s!

My message, my gospel, my words, my life, it belongs to God and comes from God and God alone.

Then what Paul does next is proves his point by using his conversion or his testimony

There is power in your testimony

When you don’t know what else to say. Share your testimony.

Revelation 12:11 NIV

11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

And this is what Paul begins to do. And he gives us an outline of how to do it

And here’s an easy way to remember it. The wrong (before), the revelation (but), and the result (because).

Paul starts with the before.

To understand the condition of the good you must first feel the weight of the bad

So Paul, formerly known as Saul, was an evil man.

He was an evil man and didn’t even know it

He was a Pharisee and spent his early life protecting the Jewish customs and Judaism

He thought that it was the only way and everyone else was wrong and he went to great lengths to protect it

He would imprison people, have people killed and sought out to destroy the church

Acts 8:1 tells us that Paul approves of the stoning of Stephen

Acts 8:3 tells us he threw Christians in prison

Acts 9 tells us that he was on his way to persecute the church before he had his conversion

Here in Galatians he states that his intent was to destroy it!

And Paul wasn’t just evil, he was really good at it.

Essentially he says he was the best at being evil

In 1 Tim 1 Paul refers to himself as blasphemer, a persecutor, arrogant man, and the chief of sinners. The worst of the worst. Or the best at the bad

Here’s where I would interject - Jesus isn’t scared of your mess

He hasn’t disowned you because of what you’ve done

You are not without hope

I hear it a lot, and it often goes something like this....

You don’t know what I’ve done

How could God still love me?

The answer is, because love is not something God does, it’s who He is

He can not depart from it, He can not take it off, He can not decided to act out of it

He would then be acting outside of Himself and that’s impossible

You are not too far gone, you have not done too much bad, you have not separated yourself from the love of Jesus

If we can learn anything from Paul’s testimony it’s that if Jesus can save someone like Paul, He can save you too

So, Paul covers the bad. And it’s really bad!

Then vs 15 comes the but.

The gospel hinges on this

good news always does

Hope always does

We use it often

My kids will do it to me all the time

They’ll say ok daddy I didn’t clean my room like you asked me to, but I did clean the bathroom

We may say something like I had a really rough day, but it’s good to be home with you

We may have hear words like you have cancer, but it can be treated

I was headed down a very dark path, but Jesus saved me

I was on the verge of committing suicide, but Jesus kept me alive

The gospel gives us the opportunity to interject a…(but God) in the middle of our story.

In every good redemption story there’s a but

There are many that are scattered throughout the Scripture but to name a few....

Romans 3:20–21 NIV

20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

rom 5:6-8

Romans 5:6–8 NIV

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

rom 7:5-6

Romans 7:5–6 NIV

5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Ephesians 2:3–5 NIV

3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:12–13 NIV

12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Every good redemption story has a but in the middle of it and the gospel makes way for our stories not to end in gloom and wrath but to have a turning point that we can point back to and say “but God.”

And there are 3 major buts that Paul covers here in verse 15 and 16

He says but God set me apart

God has a plan and purpose for you

You are set apart

He formed you while you were in your mother’s womb

He knows every detail of your life down to the number of hairs on your head

But God has set you apart

Paul also says that God called him by His grace

It is only by the grace of Jesus that Paul is saved, that I am saved, that you are saved.

The gospel is not works based

Even if Paul was the most righteous man on earth he would still have been in need of the grace of Jesus

It is not something we take advantage of but something we rest in

Grace is what gives us access to King Jesus

We all need it and we are all extended it

It’s our job to accept it and to rest in it

But God called us by His grace

Paul then ends this thought with

God was pleased to reveal His Son in me

God gets no greater joy than sinners being saved

God is delighted in us when we surrender to Him

He doesn’t in that moment contemplate if He wants you or not

He doesn’t take a big white board in heaven and begin to write down your sins on one side and your righteous deeds on another and see how the weigh out

He throws your sins as far as the east is from the west and He delights in your acknowledgment of His Son

So here is what we have seen so far

Before Christ I was a mess. In fact, I wasn’t just a mess but Paul would tell us in Ephesians that we were dead in our sins.

But God!

But God sets us apart

But God calls us by grace

But God delights in our revelation of Jesus

So, now, let’s talk about because.

And here is what we should be able to see:

The gospel changes everything

Paul says in verse 16

That I might preach Him among the Gentiles

Essentially what that meant during that time was, that I may preach His good news to everyone!

That I may take His gospel to the ends of the earth!

So, because of the before and the but, now my mission changes. My goals/my values/my life changes

Paul’s mission now has taken a complete 180 because of the gospel. Instead of wanting to destroy it, he now wants to preach it

So we see that Paul studies, learns, and meditates on this gospel before he does anything else

We can not preach a gospel we know little to nothing about

If you have been called by God you will desire to know all that you can about Him

If there is a but in your story, the next step is the Word of God

Get in the Word of God!

It doesn’t matter if you get saved this morning for the first time or you’ve been saved since you were 5 years old. The best next step is to always run to the Word of God.

We can not be an uneducated, improperly prepared, ineffective communicator of the gospel

Paul was one of the smartest guys around and yet he spent years studying the gospel of Jesus before he went on his missionary journeys

Now, you can have a gospel impact on those around you without knowing the intricate details of every theological matter of the gospel

But, we need to be careful before we start preaching at someone, to someone. Making emphatic statements about the gospel is a powerful but also a potentially dangerous thing.

In order to be most effective we need to be most studied.

We need to know God’s Word front to back

And we learn it, not to puff up, not to just obtain knowledge, but to grow closer to the Father and to be able to defend our faith and confess our faith

The other thing we see is that people praised God because of Paul

If you had a before, and a but, then because of God, people should praise Him

This comes from your testimony

Your testimony is a powerful thing and it’s intended to point praise to God

So now not only has everything about Paul changed because of the gospel but now the way that people view and respond to Paul has changed

What once made people fearful has now given them a reason to praise

People feared Paul, the gospel has now made Paul into something to be praised about

The gospel changes everything

When people know and see who you once were and then see and know who you now are, if they understand the gospel, they should want to praise God

Which means that there must be a difference

There must be a difference between the old you and the new you

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

You are a new creation in Christ, so part of understanding the gospel is living in the newness of life that Jesus gives us

We can’t be a new creation and continue to just keep doing what the old self would do

Jesus changes our want to

Our desire should be to become what Christ has called us to

We must look and act new

So let’s focus on what it looks like to constantly be taking off the old and putting on the new

Pray