New series: Preaching through Galatians
My goal in a sermon plan for the year is for God to instruct us and edify us regarding our roles and responsibilities as individual believers and together as God’s church
After agonizing over a plan and much prayer about what to teach first, etc. It finally became clear. I began to get the unmistakable feeling of being led to preach through a book of the bible. It settles the question of what comes first and what comes next.
The book of Galatians was in my mind to begin with, and I couldn’t get it out, so I accepted it as the place to start.
Our series from when I arrived in August up til now has been my attempt at building a foundational understanding of the Nature and attributes of God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
Now we are at somewhat of a turning point.
In preaching through Galatians, my goal is to let God edify us in a foundational understanding of salvation and the gospel. How we think about and understand salvation influences how we relate to God and to each other, which is foundational to our goals for the year.
Major themes in Galatians include Justification by Faith alone, in Christ alone
Also our Freedom in Christ, a Freedom found IN the will of God, not a license to do whatever we want.
Going along with that is living in the Spirit, which means living a life Led by the Spirit
The Gospel Crisis: An Introduction to Galatians
Background
Author: Paul
Written to churches in Galatia which Paul had started on his 1rst missionary journey, and visited on his 2nd and 3rd
Written to the churches while they were fairly new
Some believe it is 1rst letter from Paul, written around 48-50AD
Paul is writing the letter because he has found out that there is a major situation in the area churches
A major heresy is on the rise in the churches of Galatia. A false gospel is being taught / accepted – The people in the churches of Galatia were being convinced that following traditional Jewish law was required along with Faith in Christ in order to be saved
The situation is so serious, Paul knows that if it continues unchecked, it will destroy the entire church
Christianity itself is at stake here, and the letter to the Galatians is the word of God to correct the grave error that has taken root
Today we will start with the first 5 verses
(After a month or two, your bible will probably fall open to Galatians)
This is the opening of the letter, Paul includes one in all of his letters
He identifies himself (so they don’t have to unroll the scroll to see his name)
Then there are some words of greeting – which I think we have a tendency to kind of skim through, or gloss over. Like reading the standard “To whom it may concern”, regarding so and so and such and such
But this is no ordinary letter. This is the word of God, and we can profit from every word that God has to say, and he is very good at saying a lot with just a few words
Gal 1: 1-5 (NIV) 1 Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- 2 and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
PRAY
There are several things happening here that Paul addresses in a powerful way right off the bat, with his opening couple of lines.
Paul is being attacked personally by the false teachers in Galatia. These false teachers are claiming that because Paul is not following Jewish customs, he is not a real apostle
They are teaching that Jesus is great and all, but you need to follow Jewish law and tradition to be a “real” Christian – after all, wasn’t Christ a Jew?
With this opening passage to his letter, Paul confronts these things right up front.
First of all, the false teachers are attacking Paul’s authority
When I stand up here in this pulpit and speak, what authority do I have?
Does my authority come from being the pastor of a church?
Does it come from being a man called by God to speak for him?
How can you test whether what I say to you has authority?
If I speak with authority, that authority comes from one place – the Word of God
If what I say agrees with the Word of God, then it has authority, you are safe in listening to what I say and in doing what I urge you to do, because you are listening to and obeying the word of God.
When Paul was writing his letters to the churches, where did his authority come from. He was writing scripture, so how do we establish His authority?
In order to be scripture, in order to have authority from God, NT scripture must come from an apostle, or someone who was close to the apostles, or an eyewitness to the events of scripture.
These false teachers are saying to the Galatians: Peter is an apostle, he is a jew and he was with Christ during his ministry. John is an apostle, but this guy Paul, who is he? He wasn’t with Jesus, He’s not an associate of one of these apostles. He was a persecutor of Christians!! He’s no apostle! He has no authority – don’t listen to this guy, listen to us.
Paul answers this challenge in vs 1& 2
Gal 1: 1-5 (NIV) 1 Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- 2 and all the brothers with me,
Paul identifies himself as an apostle, then says I was not sent by men nor by any man.
Paul wasn’t chosen by a committee of men to take the gospel to the Gentiles,
he was chosen, he was appointed by Jesus Christ himself.
Paul started these churches in Galatia on his first missionary journey
He would have told them the story of his conversion, which we read in Luke’s account found in Acts chapter 9: We will take a closer look at this story in a couple of weeks, today we will just summarize.
On his way to Damascus, God decides to get Pauls attention. A light from heaven flashed all around him and blinded Paul and he hears a voice “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” When Paul asks who it is, Jesus answers “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”.
A little later in the story we read Gods plan for Paul’s life
V15 “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
In the first 2 verses of Galatians, Paul is reminding them that his authority comes as a true apostle, one sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead.
Paul emphasizes the resurrection. We are talking about God here!!!
These others come to you as men, with the doctrine of man – When I talk, my authority comes from the SOURCE. THE ONE TRUE GOD.
This is no God made in the imagination of man – This is the Real GOD, with real Power The Power to RAISE CHRIST JESUS FROM THE DEAD.
If you want to question my authority, you question HIS.
HOW DARE YOU – THIS IS NO GAME WE ARE PLAYING HERE
I am no peddler, no slick salesman, no smooth talker. I am GODS MAN – Commissioned by Jesus Christ Himself. (By the way, if you belong to Jesus, so are you)
V2 “and all the brothers with me” It is believed that Paul probably wrote his letter to the Galatians from Ephesus. Here is talking about his fellow Christian brothers, either those in the work of the ministry with him, or all of his Christian brothers
Either way he is saying: “We speak in unison. We speak as one. Because we all stand on the same gospel truth, the truth of Jesus Christ, my brothers in Christ, Jew and Gentile alike, are with me on this.”
To the churches in Galatia:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Grace and Peace, from God our Father AND the Lord Jesus Christ
Grace and Peace come only from God, by placing Jesus here with God the Father, Paul is affirming the Diety of Christ, that Grace and Peace come from the Father and the son.
Grace: Grace is the undeserved favor of God to us as sinners
We do not deserve God’s grace
We didn’t do anything to get it, there is nothing about us that makes us worthy
Grace focuses on the work of Jesus on the cross.
We are released from the guilt of our sin because the price was paid by Jesus
Grace is humbling because it is NOT something that We do that causes grace to become ours, but out of the Great love of GOD, GRACE COMES FIRST, and then we respond to the truth of the gospel
Peace: Peace is what is accomplished in our lives when Gods grace is applied
Not peace in general, but peace with God – when you put your trust in Jesus, and the payment for sin is accepted and your slate is wiped clean, you have peace with God, you are Justified in the eyes of God by your faith in Jesus Christ.
You are no longer an enemy of God, you have been reconciled to Him through Christ Jesus. Amen? It is a peace that comes only through the Grace of God
And it is this peace that is being threatened in Galatia.
The believers in Galatia have security in their salvation of course, but the church contains more than just believers. There are people with a stated faith only, who have not yet truly trusted in Christ, and there are those seeking the truth, who can be led away from the true gospel by the false teachers and never gain true peace.
The believers in Galatia are in danger of losing the peace within their hearts that comes from the Holy Spirit, and when you entertain false teachings, the Holy Spirit will not give you rest and contentment, he can make your life downright miserable. They cannot lose their eternal peace with God, but they can lose their contentment. They can forfeit blessings that would otherwise be theirs.
Vs 4 continues in detailing where our justification come from.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
Again, this is not something that we did for ourselves. But the Lord Jesus Christ who was following the will of His Father. Everything Jesus did He did because it was the will of God the Father.
Phil 2: 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
He went to the cross to give himself as a sacrifice, to pay the price for our sins, yours and mine, the sins of the whole world
To rescue us from the present evil age:
Paul saw the age he lived in as Evil. Those words could be written today.
Everywhere you look, you see evil. Terrorism, people killing other people in the name of a God who hates people who aren’t like them. A God they have remade into who they want him to be.
Evil: People killing their unborn babies. Dictators torturing and killing their people, War, Genocide, Oppression, people starving, little innocent children starving to death.
This isn’t new. The world worships itself. The world worships humanity, they make up the rules as they go along, anything goes. Sin is the norm – Sin brought death and evil into this world.
As Christians we are aliens in a strange land. Our religion is based on the gospel, it is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ.
The religion of the world is based on the lies of Satan, what would you expect other than evil?
I have heard people say they don’t know why a person would want to have children and have them born into the world we now live in.
But I am here to tell you that there IS HOPE
Our Hope lies in Jesus Christ, who gave himself on the cross, He died for our sins in order to Rescue us from the present evil age, that is every evil age for every person who reads these eternal words from God. The evil age when Paul wrote these words down, our evil age today, even the evil age before the incarnation of Christ, the times of the Old Testament, He died for them to.
The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was to rescue every person in every evil age throughout all Time.
No matter what you are facing, no matter how bad it is – There is Hope
Jesus WANTS TO RESCUE YOU!
He wants to rescue you from the guilt of your sin
He wants to rescue you from the power of sin
He wants to rescue you from the temptation of sin
He wants to rescue you from the moral darkness of this evil world
He wants to rescue you from an eternity without Him, an eternity in HELL
He wants you to know him, he wants to have a relationship with you
He wants you to accept the grace of God, he wants you to have PEACE
Peace that can only come from one place, from God. Won’t you trust him today?
As our hymn says, Jesus Paid it All – He did it according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Vs 5
All that Jesus did, he did for the Glory of God. Jesus is our example in this
Everything we do, we do for the Glory of God.
If there is any question as to whether you should do something or not, ask the question – Will this Glorify God? If it will not, you need to step back and take another look.
God gets the glory when a person is rescued from evil by the work of Jesus on the cross.
God gets the glory when we, as his church act as his hands and feet, meeting the needs of people, ministering to them.
All that we have and all that we are, we owe to God.
We have nothing on our own, we have no ability in us to love
We love because he first loved us
We have no power, it is the power of the Holy Spirit working through us that enables us to build each other up, to encourage each other, to go the work of God
All that we have and all that we are, come by the Grace and Mercy of God
To whom be Glory for ever and ever. Amen
