Are You Experienced?
Text: Gal. 3:1-5
Introduction
1. Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix once asked, "Are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
2. The Apostle Paul asks the question, "Are you experienced." However, it is far different from the experience that Jimi is talking about. Furthermore he suggests that this experience should have a profound impact on our lives.
3. Paul wants to know if we have had...
a. The experience of salvation
b. The experience of sacrifice
c. The experience of power
4. Let's stand together as we read Gal. 3:1-5.
Proposition: The Christian life is all about having an experience with the living God.
Transition: The first experience of the Christian life is...
I. The Experience of Salvation (1-2).
A. Oh Foolish Galatians
1. As Pentecostals we are often criticized for being too focused on experiences.
a. The Christian Life is all about experience.
b. Salvation is an experience with the living Jesus where we come to realize that we are sinners in need of a Savior.
c. When we give our lives over to his Lordship we experience what real love and real peace is all about.
2. Unfortunately, some Christians forget about this experience. That was the problem that Paul was having with the Galatian Christians. They had forgotten what it meant to have an experience with Jesus.
3. Paul asks the Galatians, "Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you?
a. The "header" for this section, "You foolish Galatians!" is not intended to' make friends, but neither was it perceived as a personal insult and therefore unworthy of an apostolic leader.
b. The term foolish, however, captures Paul's point: they were illogical in committing themselves to the Pauline message of God's grace in Christ and then succumbing to the Judaizers'.
c. Anoētos (foolish) does not connote mental deficiency but mental laziness and carelessness.
d. The believers in Galatia were not stupid; they simply failed to use their spiritual intelligence when faced by the unscriptural, gospel-destroying teaching of the Judaizers.
e. They were not using their heads. The Greek term frequently carried the idea of a wrong attitude of heart, a lack of faith that clouds judgment.
f. John Calvin insists that their fall from grace was more from madness than stupidity (Calvin, Reformation Commentary On Scripture, vol. 10, 87).
4. Paul continues clarifies his question by say, "For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross."
a. Crucifixion is the center of Paul's understanding about Jesus Christ.
b. What may be distasteful to modern readers is the center of his attention.
c. For Paul, the cross delivers from the present evil age and murders the law, thus terminating its lordship hold over people, so that we can die to the law, sin, and the world; the cross of Christ justifies, absorbs our guilt, and ends nationalistic Judaism.
d. We can see from this impressive list of the accomplishments of the cross in Galatians that Paul has wrapped his entire argument both/or Christ and against the Judaizers around the cross of Christ.
e. John Stott states it well: "There is then, it is safe to say, no Christianity without the cross. If the cross is not central to our religion, ours is not the religion of Jesus."[6]
f. What he had preached to them was so openly and clearly proclaimed that Paul is at a loss to know how his converts could ever have failed to see its significance or to appreciate its implications for the question at hand" (Scot McKnight, The NIV Application Commentary – Galatians, 136- 137).
5. Paul again reminds them of their experience when he says, "Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ."
a. Here Paul appeals to their initial, perhaps charismatic, experience of receiving the Spirit.
b. And he wants to know: How did they get the Spirit? By obeying Moses or by obeying the gospel of faith?
c. For Paul, receiving the Spirit is the identifying characteristic of the Christian. To be a Christian is to be indwelt by the Spirit, and to be indwelt by the Spirit is to be a Christian.
d. Romans 8:16 (NLT)
For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
e. If they received the Spirit by faith, then they are wrong in attaching themselves now to the laws of the Judaizers; if they received the Spirit by observing the law, then Paul is wrong and the Judaizers are right.
f. But, Paul knows, they received the Spirit earlier than the Judaizers' arrival, and therefore they have to admit right here that they received it by faith (McKnight, 138-140).
B. Experiencing Jesus
1. Illustration: Barbara Kerby has written a humorous reflection about her first experience of driving. Barbara’s father took her to the high school parking lot for driving lessons. For this particular lesson, Barbara’s three-year-old sister rode along in the backseat. While trying to negotiate a turn, Barbara hit the curb. From the backseat she heard a small voice say, "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food." Barbara slammed on the brakes, turned around to the backseat and yelled, "What are you talking about?" Her little sister replied, "Your driving is scaring me, and that’s the only prayer I know."
2. Becoming a Christian is a personal experience with the Living Jesus.
a. Acts 9:3-5 (NLT)
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” 5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!
b. Paul knew all about personal experiences with Jesus because his was traumatic.
c. My personal experience with Jesus was also traumatic.
d. It is more than just saying a prayer.
e. It is more than responding to an invitation.
f. It is God reaching down from heaven, picking you up out of the mud, and saying follow me and I will give you life.
3. Unfortunately, some of us forget about that experience.
a. Revelation 2:4 (NIV)
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
b. We have an incredible salvation experience with Jesus, but as time goes by we let things slide and fall back into our old ways.
c. We lose our passion for Jesus and the importance of our relationship gets lost.
d. When this happens we need to repent, and turn back to Jesus our first love.
e. We must keep the fire burning and not let it grow cold.
Transition: Another experience we encounter is...
II. The Experience of Sacrifice (3-4).
A. Experienced So Much
1. Once we have experienced of Jesus there are others to follow, and for certain some of them will not be pleasant.
a. You see before your experience with Jesus you belonged to the devil.
b. Now that you belong to Jesus the devil wants to make you so miserable that you want to come back to him.
c. But what he doesn't realize is that this only brings us closer to Jesus.
2. Paul says, "How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?"
a. Although Paul’s opponents do not seem to have denied that the Galatians received Christ and the Spirit before knowing the law, they insisted that “perfect,” or complete Christianity included obedience to the law.
b. Judaism stressed that the Jewish people had been saved through grace, but that Jews who rejected the law were lost; in their view, Gentile converts to Judaism also had to prove the genuineness of their conversion by obeying all the details of the law (Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
c. However, Paul shows them how ridiculousness of that statement.
d. Since Paul, like any good debater, assumes that his readers are on his wavelength and agree with him, he begins with an assumption: "After beginning with the Spirit."
e. This assumption is based on the correctness of his previous argument. Assuming that they began in the Spirit, Paul now wants to know if they are going to find perfection, or completion, "by human effort."
f. Now some modern translations like the NLT or NIV translate this Greek word as referring to human effort.
g. However, a more literal translation would be "by the flesh."
h. This is more appropriate in this situation because what Paul has foremost in his mind is the rite of circumcision.
i. What Paul wants to know is are they going to be made complete in their faith through the flesh or the Spirit?
j. The opposite of "flesh" in is not "faith," as if Paul were talking about effort or reception; rather, its opposite is Spirit.
k. In choosing to move over to the view of the Judaizers, Paul argues, the Galatians were choosing to live in the "flesh" and were revoking their claim to live in the Spirit, which is the new age inaugurated by Christ's death (McKnight, 140).
3. Then Paul says, "Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?"
a. Now Paul asks, "Have you experienced so much for nothing?"
b. In this case experienced is from paschō, a word that carries the basic idea of experience and sometimes that of pain or hardship (MacArthur, 68).
c. In other words, had you simply converted to Judaism immediately, you would never have experienced the persecution you encountered for converting to Christ.
d. If you suffer as a Christian, it is for something; but if you suffer as a Christian and then toss it all away by converting to Judaism, your suffering as a Christian would be for nothing.
e. So, he asks, was this all in vain? Paul is both shaming the Galatians and appealing to his standard argument that those who are persecuted are in the right and those who persecute are in the wrong (McKnight, 141).
B. Sacrifice and Difficulty
1. Illustration: A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing (Martin Luther).
2. Our difficulties can bring joy.
a. 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT)
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
b. That's right suffering can bring joy.
c. If we are suffering for the right reasons it can bring us closer to the Lord.
d. It can increase our faith and make us stronger.
3. We must make sure that our difficulties aren't of our own doing.
a. 1 Peter 4:15 (NLT)
If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs.
b. Sometime we face difficulty for the wrong reason.
c. Sometimes we face difficulty because we have made bad choices.
d. Sometimes we face difficulty because we have not lived by the Word.
e. Don't be your own worst enemy.
Transition: There is another wonderful experience and that is...
III. The Experience of Power (5).
A. Give You the Spirit and Work Miracles
1. The Christian life is all about mission.
a. When Jesus came to earth he had a mission; to go to the cross.
b. When he left this earth he gave his church a mission; to tell the world about the cross.
2. No one who has accepted Jesus as Savior is exempt from the mission.
a. It's not just church's leadership that has this mission.
b. It is for all who call themselves Christian.
3. The great thing about Jesus is that he did not leave us unequipped for our task. He left us a helper. In fact, he told not to try and accomplish the mission without our helper.
a. Luke 24:49 (NIV)
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
b. He knew that the task would not be easy, but he armed us with his power through the Holy Spirit.
4. Paul points out to the Galatians that they had this experience. He said to them, "I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ."
a. The Galatians were well aware of God's powerful workings in their midst; they were no doubt proud of their "power evangelism."
b. Miracles translates dunamis, which refers basically to inherent power or ability.
c. Paul may have been referring to miraculous events God had worked among the Galatian believers, or he may have been referring to the spiritual power over Satan, sin, the world, the flesh, and human weakness that the Father bestows on His children through His Spirit (MacArthur, 69).
d. Not only their conversion but also the miracles continuing among them were by grace.
e. Although ancient peoples were more open to miracles than modern secularists are, the idea of a religious community where miracles occurred regularly would have been spectacular even in antiquity (Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament)
f. But, Paul wants to know, what triggered God's power? (McKnight, 141)
g. It didn't come by obeying the law, but only by faith.
B. Power of the Spirit
1. Illustration: You know when you buy toys for your kids or grandkids often times on the package in fine print are these words: "Batteries not included." Do you know what that means? It means that you get the toy, but the power to make it work is not included. That is not the kind of gift that God gives. God’s gift of holiness includes the power of the fullness of the Holy Spirit – the power to make it work.
2. This experience of power is a promise from God.
a. Acts 1:4-5 (NLT)
“Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
b. This isn't just power for the spiritual elite, but it is promiesed to all who believe in Jesus.
c. It is a promise of power to witness.
d. It is a promise of power to overcome.
e. It is a promise of power to do over and above what we are capable of by ourselves.
f. It is an experience that God WANTS you to have!
3. This experience of power enables you to win!
a. Ephesians 6:18 (NLT)
Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
b. This experience of power is evidenced by the ability to speak in other tongues.
c. This experience of power is a spiritual weapon.
d. Notice that this verse comes at the end of a section that talks about the "full armor God."
e. Paul tells us to use this gift of power "at all times and on every occasion."
f. If we are supposed to use all the time, why wouldn't God want you to have it?
g. Once we have experienced the gift of salvation, God calls us to seek after this second experience of power because he has a job for us.
h. This promise is for you!
Transition: Let me ask you a question, are you experienced?
Conclusion
1. Have you ever been experienced? Well I have.
2. God is waiting to give the experience of a life time.
3. Get experienced.
