Paul: Man Of Zeal Series

INTRODUCTION

On an autumn day nearly 200 years ago, Ray Palmer met his friend Lowell Mason on a busy Boston Street. Mason was a collector and publisher of hymns, and he asked Palmer if he had recently seen any good religious verse.

Palmer thought a moment, then pulled out a little book in which he jotted down his own thoughts and poems. He showed Mason a particular poem he had earlier written as a personal prayer to the Lord.

Palmer, a theology student in his early 20s, had a passion for the Lord, and as he showed Mason his poem he recalled the night, two years previously, when he had sat alone at his desk on an early winter's evening and wept over the words he'd written. To him, this was a sacred text conveying the craving of his life, uttering his deepest prayer to the Lord, and he showed it to his friend hesitantly.

Mason, reading the lines, was immediately moved. Ducking into a store together, the words were copied and Mason put the copy in his pocket. Arriving home, he was so deeply touched by Palmer’s verses that he immediately set them to music.

Two days later the two men chance to meet again. “Mr. Palmer,” Mason said, “You may leave many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best-known to posterity as the author of ‘My Faith Looks Up to Thee.’”

Mason was right. The words that had so moved the two men include this stanza which has worded the prayers of several generations of Christians since:

May's thy rich grace impart

Strength to my fainting heart,

My zeal inspire;

As Thou hast died for me,

O may my love to Thee,

Pure, warm, and changeless be,

A living fire!

BACKGROUND

We are all zealous for or about something. It may be our jobs, our family, our favorite sports team (Geaux LSU!), or something else. But are we zealous for the things of God? It would seem that all Christians need a renewal of their zeal from time to time. We need to be reminded that our zeal for God is what keeps the proclamation of the gospel of Christ from becoming stale and stagnant.

What is zeal? Pastor Ed Vasichek said this: “What we see urged in the NT is zeal, which is not quite the same as the fad word “passion” (which implies the necessity of emotional exuberance and is emotionally driven) or “urgency” (which implies a desperate God and is usually guilt-driven). Zeal is a spiritually driven energy grounded in a faithful, long-term attitude within a servant-like heart. It energizes a marathon, not a sprint. Zeal is practical and tenacious.”

As unlikely heroes go, the man whose life we will examine today was a man of zeal all his life. Unfortunately, it was aimed in the wrong direction, unbeknownst to him.

This young man was apparently born of a Jewish mother and Roman father, giving him dual citizenship. He was in his early youth educated in the finest Jewish institutions, even learning from their foremost scholar of the day. When the “Jesus of Nazareth sect” appeared, he was one of its notable prosecutors. His zeal was incomparable.

By now you must know the man of whom I speak was named Saul, later to be renamed Paul. His first impressions were that of a bully and defender of all things Jewish. Paul was convinced that he was doing God’s will in defending the Jewish religion and keeping it pure.

But when Jesus lay hold on him on the Damascus Road, that zeal was redirected truly towards the way of God and His Son, Jesus. And he never looked back.

Our text for today is Galatians 1:11-24, and it will reveal how Paul’s zeal for God was transformed. READ

I. True Zeal Derives from God’s Grace.

Before Paul became a follower of Jesus, his zeal for his nation, his people, and their way of worship was commendable, but wayward. No one was more zealous than he. He would later speak about the zealousness of his actions:

Acts 22:3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.”

Galatians 1:14 “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.”

Philippians 3:6 “… as to zeal, a persecutor of the church.”

But only when the grace of God changed his life did he discover true zeal. Now he was a part of God’s new covenant with all men, and his efforts were now focused on the things of Christ. His passion was before leveled against people, whereas now his passion was for people. All because of the grace of God!