“Astonished!”
Galatians 1:1-9
INTRO: Have you ever experienced the frustration and shock of finding out that something you felt was very clear and plain had become muddied, confusing, even forgotten?
As a kid, my mom would often ask me rhetorically, “Do I have to draw you a picture?” And most times I would think, “That would help!” (But I never said that out loud!)
Now, as a parent, I understand how she felt. Sometimes I see an action or hear of an incident, and I wonder, “Didn’t we just talk about that?” Or, I want to ask, “How many times do we need to go over this!?” Quite frankly, it is just astonishing sometimes to see how quickly our children forget – for whatever reason – and turn away from what we once laid out so plainly.
TRANSITION: Such was Paul’s reaction when he got wind that the Christians in the region of Galatia were turning away from the true gospel to a different gospel – a false one no doubt! He was astonished!
I imagine he was thinking, as their spiritual father, “Didn’t we just go over this?” In fact, this is the very thing he mentions in his letter to these believers – look at it with me in Galatians 1:6 – “I am astonished…” Paul just couldn’t believe what he was hearing! So he writes this book – this “little Romans” as I refer to it – to bring them back to their senses and reel them back into the net of truth.
BACKGROUND OF BOOK: To help you gain a better understanding of this letter, these people, their location, and Paul’s connection to them, let me provide a little background color to the book so it doesn’t seem quite as gray to some of you.
• Galatians is the only one of Paul’s epistles that gives no word of commendation to its readers. Though all other of his letters refers to the readers in some positive way at some point, Galatians holds no such positive tone. Remember how it starts – “I’m astonished!” As John McArthur said, “From that point until the closing benediction (6:18) the letter is a flashing sword wielded by a burning heart.”
• Galatians was written to what I’d refer to as a regional church – believers in multiple churches probably started by Paul on his first missionary journey (SHOW MAP) in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13:14–14:23). These cities and their churches were in the southern province of Galatia, now modern-day Turkey, and although the Galatian epistle itself does not identify the specific local churches, but they were churches in which Paul had personally ministered (4:13–15).
• Galatians addresses the doctrinal dangers that threatened these churches, namely Judaism – the false teaching that Christianity was merely an extension of the Jewish traditional system of works of righteousness. More than likely, the Jewish leaders who stoned Paul at Lystra no doubt continued to intimidate and persecute Jewish converts in Galatia. They were implacable enemies of the gospel and were used by Satan to sow confusion and discord in those and many other infant churches. Essentially, The Judaizers were causing great confusion in the churches and were seriously distorting “the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:8). They taught that Gentiles must become Jews by circumcision before they could become Christians and that all Christians, Jewish and Gentile alike, were righteous before God only if they remained bound under the Mosaic laws, regulations, and ceremonies. IN that sense Galatians is a doctrinal book, yet it does contain many practical applications, especially in the last two chapters.
• Galatians seems to have three basic sections: Personal (1-2), Doctrinal (3-4), and Practical (5-6). And while we’ll examine them in more detail over summer, this basic framework will help you understand the book as you read and re-read it week and week. (hint, hint).
TRANSITION: Knowing this background, and understanding Paul’s first reaction in 1:6 in what we know to be the personal section, I often wonder how the letter arrived. We have no Scriptural indication to this, but in my spiritual imagination, I am curious if the Galatians welcomed the letter’s arrival or worried about the letter’s arrival. After all, it did start with a rather reprimanding tone, didn’t it?
Perhaps they were actually meeting together one weekend, enduring one of the false teachers and feeling somewhat tapped, maybe even intrigued, when suddenly a “1st Century courier” brought the news –
DRAMA – [1st Century Mail Courier, costumed appropriately and running excitedly, comes running in from back, INTERRUPTTING Todd! “The churches around here got a letter from Paul! Hey look, everyone, Paul wrote us a letter!” After some “give and take” with Todd, the 1st Century Courier starts reading Galatians 1:1-9 slowly with anticipation, like you would read a letter from a long, lost friend. At end of v. 9 freeze.
TRANSITION: Do you get the feel of the letter’s opening – very authoritative! Great clarity! Incredible shock! And rightly so! It was necessary for Paul to start off with great clarity about his authority, because it is crucial to his attitude. Let’s take a closer look at our text now, okay? (And can you thank our 1st Century courier?) APPLAUSE (he exits to the back of the stage)
EXEGESIS: Take your pen and circle or mark three sections in these opening verses, which originally, when penned by Paul, were just five sentences:
• 1:1-5 tell us about Paul’s authority from God
These verses, which are a single sentence in the original language, bring out Paul’s authorization in three ways – as 1) from the Father, 2) the Son, and 3) affirmed by the brothers. His authority is three-fold, a “jab” no doubt at the other super apostles who were only empowered by their commendation from men and who felt Paul often was a self-appointed and spurious messenger. But Paul is clear about where he gets his authority: from God! This started on the Damascus road, and his mission came straight from Jesus. So he can set the record straight about the Gospel, can’t he? You bet!
His three-fold authority enables him to do one thing so well, as he did throughout all of his letters: lay out the Gospel with great clarity. And in 1:3-4, he succinctly encapsulates the Gospel with “grace” (the Gospel’s source) and “peace” (the Gospel’s result). And where do these both flow? God and the Lord Jesus Christ! In fact, Paul shows the equality of both in the next phrase when he puts the Father on the same plane as the Son with the word “himself.” Yes, it was Jesus who died, but Jesus was God in the flesh. So it is plainly clear that God, in the person of Jesus, died for us to redeem us from sin and to “rescue us (i.e., snatch from danger) from this present evil age.” It is this God that deserves our praise forever, and it is this God who has given Paul the green light to rebuke the false teachers and return the believers to a proper place of understanding when it comes to the Gospel.
• 1:6-7 tell us about Paul’s astonishment at the Galatians
With his authority clearly established, Paul expresses his emotion right off the bat in two simple sentences, the key word being “astonished.” In other words, he was shocked, amazed, most literally ‘bewildered.’ And why? Because they were “deserting” God, for that is who called them by the grace of Christ.
Make no mistake about what they were doing – they were abandoning the first principle of grace, leaving behind the most important element of the Gospel. “Desert” is a military term here, and means to walk away from with intentionality and willfulness. And why were they walking away from the true Gospel to another gospel (pseudo good news)? Because of the work of false teachers who were “throwing them into confusion” (1:6). Literally, this is one word which means to shake back and forth; to disturb. And no doubt that’s what happened – they became confused and started turning away from what was true to what was false.
But Paul makes it clear that actions of that nature are a “perversion” (1:7) – they aren’t correct and only leave us with a distorted picture of what is right.
It’s no wonder Paul was astonished and bewildered – his spiritual children were cutting their family ties, and it was no small event.
In fact, Paul uses his authority and astonishment to raise the standard and show just how dangerous it was to pervert the Gospel with which he was entrusted: If you mess with the Gospel, may you be eternally condemned!
• 1:8-9 tell us about Paul’s attitude on behalf of the Gospel
Here again, Paul uses one sentence, repeated, to make his point and reveal his protective spirit and attitude. Repetition correlates to emphasis, and Paul takes this opportunity to, in written form, use all caps, so to speak.
Yes, he takes aim at anyone – even an angel – who departs from what was once and for all given as the Gospel – the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ – and commits them to destruction. And that is the meaning here. You can almost hear Paul saying it – “may anyone, regardless of how beautiful they look and how nice they sound, be devoted to destruction of they change what was once and for all laid down as the only means of salvation – the Gospel of God!”
Interestingly, these false gospels are not really a gospel at all. In other words, what some men think is “good news” is really not good news at all. And you know why? Because it can do nothing to affect what matters most – your soul! They may sound nice and look pretty ad act religious, but if what they say in any way “edits” the message of the Gospel, don’t think for a moment it’s even a gospel at all. It’s just another form of the law, and all the law can do is condemn. There’s no way condemnation can be good news in and of itself. There’s only one good news; only one true Gospel.
In a sentence, these first nine verses can be summed up this way: The only true Gospel starts with God, is seen in the grace of the Son of God, has been once and for all delivered by the apostles of God, and should be guarded by the children of God.
Let me put it another way, using four simple words to summarize Paul’s opening comments regarding the Gospel:
• exclusive (one way). There is no other way or option. Jesus won’t be added to a list or be part of a multiple choice religion. Jesus is the only name by which we can be saved from our sins and gain access to the Father in Heaven. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)
• exclaimed (one time). It was accomplished at a specific point in time – the cross and the resurrection! That holy weekend was when the Gospel was signed, sealed, and delivered. That is the “faith” that we have been given and have accepted and that we protect. (Jude vs. 1-3)
• exemplified (one Jesus). It came through one person, the God-man Jesus Christ. No one else has brought us peace or reconciliation. Only Jesus, the historical, physical, visible, and evidential incarnation of God Almighty. (1 Timothy 1:5)
• embraced (one cause). In an age of pseudo-tolerance, the slippery slope is this: that when everything becomes true, nothing is true. And when nothing is true, we have nothing left to defend, guard, or live and die for. So the exhortation is to be embrace the one cause that matters most – protecting and guarding the Gospel! Truth can only set you free when you know what truth is. (John 8:31) And to know what truth is, it has to be raised up in a way that it combats error and falseness. So we have to be willing to spot error and call it out by name. Then the truth really rises and people see just how important it really is to believe. More than anything, our culture needs a boatload of God’s children willing and ready to embrace the Gospel according to Jesus. (Colossians 2:8; 2 Timothy 2:3,4)
It was these very core essentials and fundamental principles that the false teachers (i.e., the Judaizers) were trying to undermine and pervert. They were trying to rope the new believers into thinking it wasn’t a one-way gospel, but rather a multi-way message (God’s grace and your law-keeping obedience); it wasn’t a one-time action on the cross by Jesus, but an on-going act of you keeping the law and being good enough; it wasn’t just about Jesus only, but also about Moses and his law, and even the Galatian believers and their abilities to be good enough; and it really wasn’t a big deal to “edit” the truth and minimize the one message Paul was called to declare and he one cause he was called to defend. After all, they weren’t taking anything away, just adding a few other items to it, namely the law. I can almost hear them now – “Can’t we all just be friends?!”
You see, while the overall goal of the early false teachers and opponents of the true Gospel was destruction, their primary strategy was deception (1 Timothy 4:1). To put it another way, their goal was sabotage through synchronization. That’s exactly what the Judaizers were attempting to do – sabotage the true Gospel and biblical Christianity so as to make it ineffective in the lives of as many as possible. They were close, but still not connected.
Yet, to each of these points Paul says, “No way!” If it’s not a one-way, one-time, one-Jesus, one-cause Good News, it’s not good news at all!
Likewise today, hoards of false teachers and corrupt preachers say they want to “join” you in what you’re doing to help people be rightly related to God. Their call for unity sounds so inviting, and since they often use many of the same words as the Bible, it can be very hard to tell the difference between truth and error. But a closer look reveals that, just as it was in the time of the Galatian believers, so it is today – lying, false teachers are getting as close as possible to the truth without connecting with the truth. They are secretly seeking to sabotage biblical, historical theology with the poison of human, cultural “experiology.” Yes, many words are similar, and they want to look as much like us as possible. But error is still error regardless of its proximity to the truth. And many of the Gospel ‘professors’ really aren’t God ‘possessors!’
TRANSITION: You may be wondering, “Does this really matter to me today?”Allow me to answer that in a phrase: more than you realize! Let me show you what I mean.
ILLUSTRATE: In fact, just a week or two ago while watching the news I saw where Paris Hilton was preparing herself for some time in jail. Guess what she was collecting? Some reading material. And in that stack of books was the Bible, along with the Secret, and another new age, self-help book about the power in ourselves. See what I’m saying? There is a secret sabotage taking place, and the Gospel is becoming less and less the stand alone way to get to God. We should be astonished!
Let me illustrate further by showing you some actual clippings of sabotage by synchronization in action. Each of the following violate one of the basic tenants of the true Gospel as Paul laid out in these first nine verses of Galatians 1, yet many people seem completely unaware of this:
• The Puerto Rican minister who says he is Jesus Christ. But don’t be appalled – loads of people are following! Yet, it is completely anti-gospel and unbiblical. That’s somewhat obvious, right? But did you know there are actually several ‘Jesus Christs’ out there? There is one known the world over – called the Maitreya, and he has a global following. We shouldn’t be surprised – Paul warned us this would happen?
But…
• The newest rage in self-help DVDs is The Secret, but it’s all about you, not Jesus. A little more secretive in that they have all kinds of “references” on there, including the “Chicken Soup” dude Canfield…whew! Yet, it’s anti-gospel and unbiblical. Oprah is all over it, as well as the media. But it is totally unscriptural and damning.
• Jane Fonda’s “spirituality” – all about her inner self. No mention of Jesus anywhere. When she mentions metaphysics, it isn’t in the traditional sense of the word, but in the loose, cultural sense that is pervading our society – a way to explain reality apart from God within yourself. This is very important – metaphysics is a hot word for the ‘new gospel’ people.
Let’s get a little closer to our area, shall we?
• The Breathnazium in Minneapolis, MN – all about their experience and their connection to each other. Just a front for new age meditation and discovery. After all, that’s how the founder “found” her way back from pain, so she is helping others find their way. No mention of the Gospel or Jesus as the real avenue of grace. Again, anti-gospel and unbiblical.
This may be catching some of you a bit off guard…maybe a bit by surprise. To help you learn to distinguish the truth from error better, we’re offering you a free, downloadable study guide that will walk you through some of the false gospels that are out there trying to synchronize themselves with the only true Gospel. In fact, we’re encouraging you to print it this week and use it in preparation for this weekend’s New Age Expose’. (Mention the book Reinventing Jesus Christ by Warren Smith. Promo the study guide and Warren’s visit with us on June 9-10, etc.)
APPLY: What can we do? What should we do? Our astonishment should turn to action, and we should do two things:
1. Confess the truth! Believe!
[Give Gospel plainly and invite people to be saved]
2. Contend for the truth! Battle!
[Talk about summer series, upcoming mission trips, and how FFC goes about the discipling of people so that they are ready to make disciples.]
CLOSING: Let’s spend some time praying for those around us, for those in other parts of the world, then I’ll close us with a commissioning prayer for our Afghanistan mission team who will be leaving Wednesday to do exactly this – battle for the truth and help people believe the truth.
[Prayer…band play “Hope of the Nations” in background and I or Marty will move into this eventually.]
