Sermon for CATM – June 20, 2010 – A Drastic Change of Heart
How would you feel if Osama Bin Laden walked into this room right now, sat down beside you and began listening to what was being said?
Or what if he had come in earlier during our time of worshipping in song and had stood beside you with hands raised, singing songs of praise and adoration to Jesus? Would you be weirded out? I would be!
Now what if Bill Ryan, who spoke here last week were to walk in, sit beside Bin Laden and then vouch for him, that he was sincere in what he was saying and that he actually did believe in Jesus?
Most of what I know about Bin Laden is based on his reputation, and it’s not good. He’s known to consider Christians infidels worthy of killing. He’s known to have been the key person behind 9-11. He’s known to have trained many to be terrorists.
He’s known, frankly, as a guy you’d rather not hang out with. And if Bill was to vouch for him, well, he’d be putting her own reputation, his own neck on the line, big time.
But what if…what if he were to come in to this gathering and begin worshipping God in Christ? What if…what if this walking threat of a man became a leading evangelist, the good kind, in Toronto?
By thinking about this scenario, we begin perhaps to appreciate the challenge that both Paul of Tarsus and the early church faced.
Last week Pastor Bill gave us a great overview of the book of Galatians, which we will be looking at over the summer in our Sunday gatherings. Today I thought we’d start with a look at the author of the book.
Paul, the author of Galatians and of much of the New Testament, had first been known to the early church as its chief persecutor, a hunter and murderer of Christians who felt really, really good about his job; who felt he did God a great service by imprisioning and eliminating people who followed Jesus.
He was deeply satisfied in his life, he thought that he was leading the best kind of life.
The book of Acts, a book that we’ll be looking at in some depth next year, describes in chapter 7 the stoning of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen as he is known in our history.
He is testifying about Jesus, giving a brilliant recounting of how God had worked in the history of His people, despite how stiff-necked and stubborn the people were.
Acts 7:54 begins describes what then happens to Stephen: “When the people heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
“At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.
“And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
Not the kind of fella you’d be eager to invite here on a Sunday, eh? But something happened to Saul. Something happened to this man who took delight in persecuting our earliest brothers and sisters in the faith.
Show “Conversion of Saul” video. [http://www.sermonspice.com/search?topic=Sermon+Illustrations&q=conversion+of+Saul]
Saul became a changed man. Saul became a new man. Saul became Paul. And now…now we’re ready to look at today’s passage of Scripture, where we hear the voice of this changed man.
11I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. 13For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15But when God, who set me apart from birth[a] and called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
18Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. 19I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." 24And they praised God because of me. NIV
Paul morphed from being the Christian faith’s worst persecutor to being its greatest defender. Paul writes to the Galatians who lived in what is now Turkey. (My brother’s widow, Karen, as it happens, is working on an archeological dig in Turkey as we speak...in the same region of the Galatian church!).
Paul writes because the church he had planted years earlier is being threatened. It is being threatened by those for whom the simplicity of the gospel was a stumbling block, to those for whom the grace of God, seen in the free gift of salvation, was an impediment, in their minds, to really following God.
Let’s look at today’s passage more closely:
11I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. 13For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
Paul is responding to things that he had got wind of since planting the church in Galatia. The church had been built on the rock of the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ…that Jesus had lived and died to reconcile the world to God, that salvation was an act of God’s grace, that by faith and faith alone one had access to this grace.
But since Paul had left to plant churches elsewhere, some had come into the Galatian church and were preaching that the gospel Paul preached was too simple. They said that in order to truly be saved one had to follow the law of Moses, including circumcision.
In other words, some were teaching that in order to access the grace of God and to be saved, it was necessary to engage in other works…to do things to qualify oneself to be saved.
We just watched how it was that Paul, then Saul, while on the way to even further persecuting the church, was met by Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul had not been among the original disciples.
During the time of Jesus’ public ministry, in fact, Paul had been in training and, as he says in 1:14, he “was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers”.
So, Paul had not heard Jesus’ teaching directly, had not seen His miracles, had not had any previous encounter with Jesus during Jesus’ public ministry.
All that he knew of Jesus came from direct revelation. And what he learned from Jesus was the precise opposite of all that he had previously believed and lived by.
15But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
Dealing with these people who were spreading error throughout the church in Galatia must have been very difficult for Paul. Of course, what they were saying was familiar to him. He had been raised under the OT Legal system, and the problem in the Galatian church was something Paul had dealt with elsewhere as well.
In Philippians 3:3-6 Paul says this: “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh (Those requiring ritual circumcision as necessary for salvation) For. it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh--though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
Paul knows the way of law. He knows the way of legalism. He knows about the notion of ‘salvation by works’. He lived that way. He was a proponent of that kind of religion. But when he encountered Jesus, he learned that God’s way is the way of grace.
He learned that there is nothing anyone can do to earn salvation, there is nothing anyone can do to tip the scales, to compensate for sin. No, all that was required for salvation had been accomplished by one man – Jesus Christ.
Paul says in V 15 that God revealed his Son IN him. This is interesting. The knowledge of Jesus got INSIDE Paul. This went well beyond information acquired about Jesus.
Lots of people have information about Jesus. Many in our culture, more in the culture of the nation to our south know ABOUT Jesus. They know about His miracles, they know about His claims to be God. That’s so much information. Safely out here…
But Paul got Jesus on the inside, well past head knowledge, well past contemplation even.
Jesus dwelt at Paul’s core, enabling Paul to break through all his own barriers and baggage, his preconceptions, prejudices and biases, changing Saul (“If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation”) into a new person, a new creation, empowering Paul to live for an entirely different purpose than he had before.
Instead of targeting the gospel and the church for extermination, he was to preach the gospel to the Gentiles…to go into towns and villages unknown to him and boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel.
Putting his life on the line over and over again for the priveledge of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and eventually being martyred for that privilege.
The early church had a lot to contend with. The conversion of Saul was a great challenge to them.
He was a feared hunter of Christians. Barnabas, one of the apostles, personally vouched for Paul as it indicates in Acts chapter 9, telling church leaders that Paul had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. Over time, the church came to trust and welcome Paul, accepting him as one of, if not the greatest of, the apostles.
The gospel changes people. Believing in Jesus changes people. Like Paul, those who trust in Jesus go from darkness to light, from wrong to right, from ‘religious’ in the legalistic sense, to authentic Christ-follower.
Where are you today? Are you at a place of asking questions about God? Are you at a place of being, like Paul was, ready for transformation?
The core of the gospel is that God loves you with a love that runs deeper than any other love.
That because of His love for you, Jesus came to planet earth, lived and dwelt among us, and then willingly laid down his life as a sacrifice for sin. He did this for you.
He did this for me. He did this because there is nothing you or anyone else can do to earn their salvation. Paul was so grieved when people began to think that they could qualify themselves for being in right standing with God, that they could work FOR their salvation.
He was grieved because he knew it was a lie.
Perhaps there is one here today who is ready for transformation. Perhaps there are one or more here today who are ready to be embraced by the love of God in Christ.
Out of respect, and for the one, can we bow our heads? If you are here today and you want to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Or if you recognize that you’ve been doing things your own way, and you now wish to return to God’s way, the way of the cross, then pray with me now.
Lord Jesus. I thank You that You love me. I thank You that You laid down Your life for me. I thank you that You went to the cross bearing my sin. That You died for my sin, You died in my place, paying the penalty for my sins. I now turn afresh to You. I repent of my sins, the things I ought not to have done and yet did. The things I ought to have done and yet failed to do. And I receive You as my Saviour, my Lord and my God. Empower me to live for you. Transform me from the inside out so that I can be the person You want me to be. May Jesus be revealed in me, I pray. In His name that is without peer or equal we pray. Amen.
