I Can’t Dance
This may shock you but…I can’t dance. I do dance but just not well. I’m stiff, have very little rhythm, and most of the time look like I’m having some sort of fit.
My father tells the story that my mother was one of the best dancers he ever knew. Sadly, I did not inherit any of that talent.
Maxine has two left feet as well, and when we dance together, we mostly just sway back and forth.
I’ve often been jealous of people that could really dance.
But, it’s different if I know the steps to the dance. When my oldest son Josh was in junior high, I chaperoned one of his dances. He was mortified when I ended up leading one hundred junior high students in the Casper Slide.
Another time, Maxine and I were on an anniversary cruise on Lake Michigan and the song “Gangnam Style” came on. The kids at church had taught me the dance and, much to Maxine’s horror, I ended up in the middle of a bachelorette party teaching them the dance.
When I know the steps, I’m feel free. I don’t feel as self conscious and don’t care what others think near as much.
That leads me to the quote that will anchor our entire series:
“Those who dance are thought crazy by those who can not hear the music.”
In the pages of this letter by Paul, we will be learning the steps of a dance - the dance of grace found in the book of Galatians. Only those who know Jesus can dance this dance and it will make us look weird to the world who can’t hear the music.
This dance will free us from the idea that following rules can make us righteous before God. It will also help us understand that our freedom is to be used to help others learn the same steps.
A Long Time Coming
For about 15 years, I’ve wanted to preach and teach my way through the book of Galatians. It’s my favorite book in the Bible and I’ve read it and studied it for years.
I want to tell you up front that I’m going to preach through these verses pretending that you know absolutely nothing about the Bible. For some of you who know the Word inside and out, that may be a bit simplistic. But I want to make sure that everyone understands what Paul is trying to say.
I want to encourage you to read the book of Galatians. It’s only 149 verses and takes about twenty minutes to read. The book contains six chapters so if you read a chapter a day, you will finish in less than a week.
The book of Galatians is in the New Testament. The Bible is divided into two parts. The Old Testament is the story of the children of Israel before Jesus came. The New Testament is the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and the birth of the church.
The book of Galatians was written in AD 49 making it the earliest NT book. This is less than twenty years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Other than the book of Romans, Galatians is the most concise description of the Gospel in all the Bible.
It’s been called the “Magna Carta of Christianity,”the “Declaration of Christian Liberty” and the “Cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation.”
It was in his studies of Galatians that Martin Luther was saved and it was through Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Galatians that Charles Wesley was saved.
In fact, Martin Luther went as far as to say that the book of Galatians was like a wife to him!
In our study of the book of Galatians, we will learn to dance to the rhythm of grace and freedom.
Tim Keller writes,
“The book of Galatians is dynamite. It is an explosion of joy and freedom which leads us to enjoy a deep significance, security and satisfaction - the life of blessing that God calls his people to.”
Jesus + Something = Nothing
Before we begin, let me make one more point. Galatians is a very different letter than most of Paul’s writings. Its tone is sharp, angry at times, his words strong, and his message crystal clear.
In the churches that Paul and Barnabas had planted in the region of Galatia, false teachers had infiltrated into their ranks.
These false teachers questioned Paul’s authority. Their teaching went something like this:
Listen, we agree that faith in Christ is important but there’s just more to it. Paul, whoever he is, watered it down for you so you would accept his message.
Jesus? Yes. But you also need to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic dietary laws. In other words, you Gentiles need to become Jewish first.
They didn’t know what, or who to believe.
So Paul wrote them a letter to them to help them understand that Jesus + nothing = Everything! It is purely by grace that we come into a relationship with God.
In chapters 1-2, this grace is defined.
In chapters 3-4, this grace is explained.
In chapters 5-6, this grace is applied.
This book answers the legalists, in their day and ours. Christ sets us free from following rules to get brownie points with God.
Some of you grew up this way. You weren’t supposed to go to movies, or play cards, or dance although there are no prohibitions against these things in the Bible.
One of favorite movies is Footloose (not the new one). In the movie, a new student named Wren played by Kevin Bacon moves to town and wants to have a school dance. The community, especially the church, is in an uproar and at a meeting Wren stood up and simply opened the Bible and read verses about dancing.
Some of you know the old adage:
“I don’t dance and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls who do.”
For the first ten years of my Christian journey, I was a judgmental legalist. I was known more by what I didn’t do than what I actually believed in. I’m so thankful that God set me free from that bondage and taught me the grace dance.
When I was first saved, I attended a very large church in Memphis, Tennessee. If you were to look across the congregation, you would have thought there was a dress code. All the men seemed to have on gray suits, very expensive, gray suits.
One morning while I was sitting in the balcony with some friends, I noticed someone who looked very out of place. He obviously didn’t get the memo about the gray suit rule. He had on black jeans, a black t-shirt, a red coat, his hair was pulled back in a pony tail and he had an earring.
I asked my friend how he got away with that. My friend looked at me in disbelief and said, “Don’t you know who that is?” I did not. “That’s Dana Key…of Degarmo and Key? The Christian rock band?”
I didn’t know who that was, although I later saw them in concert several times. All I wanted to know was how he had the guts to walk into a sea of gray suits dressed like that. I know now, he heard the music of grace and danced to a different drummer.
That’s what we look like in this world.
Listen, you don’t have to do anything. There is nothing you can do or not do to make God love you more or love you less. Anyone who tells you otherwise are selling you swamp land in Montana.
This book also answers the antinomians who say, “Well, grace has freed us so we can do whatever we want. He’ll forgive us. That’s His job.”
We have not be set free to do whatever we want. Because we have been set free, we will desire to honor Jesus in every aspect of our lives.
With that introduction, let’s dive in!
Turn with me to Galatians 1.
Who Wrote the Letter
“Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers with me,
To the churches in Galatia…” (Gal 1:1-2)
The author of this letter is Paul. That is the name that God gave him. Before that, he was known as Saul.
He was born into a Jewish family from the tribe of Benjamin. He grew up in Tarsus and was educated under the famous rabbi Gamaliel. He was also a Roman citizen.
He was a strict Pharisee who persecuted the church. In fact, we first meet him in the Bible as he is holding the coats of the men who were stoning Steven, one of the first “deacons “ of the church.
He hated Christians and even went from town to town rounding up men, women, and children. It was on one of these missions, that he had an experience that changed his life and direction forever.
One the road to the city of Damascus, he had an encounter with the risen Christ.
“…suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:3-5)
He was blinded by the light and wandered into Damascus with the help of his companions. A Christian named Ananias was directed by God to go and pray for Saul and when he did:
“Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.” (Acts 9:18-19)
Immediately, the persecutor became the preacher! He would be the one to take the Gospel to the Gentiles on multiple successful missionary journeys, would do miracles, would be beaten, stoned, and nearly killed multiple times, would go on to write 2/3 of the New Testament, and would have his head cut off as a martyr in Rome in A.D. 63.
A lot times when Paul begins a letter he describes himself as a slave to Christ but in Galatians he writes that he is an apostle, which simply means one sent with a message.
There’s a reason he starts this way. The Judiazers, what we call these false teachers, were questioning his credentials. Who is this Paul?
He wasn’t one of the twelve apostles that Jesus commissioned. They had seen the risen Christ and had been taught by him.
But so had Paul. He told the Corinthians:
“Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” (I Cor 9:1-2)
He later writes that Christ appeared to him “as one abnormal born” and describes himself as “the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (I Cor 15:8-9)
He was not “sent from men.” There was no committee that got together and decided that Paul would be an apostle.
In 2005, I wrote a 50+ ordination paper and then had an ordination council. A group of men went through this paper and grilled me for three hours. At the end, they laid hands on me and commissioned me. Later, we had a ceremony and I was officially “ordained.”
Not so with Paul. He was not sent from man or “by a man.” This is probably referring to Peter or James, two apostles that would have been recognized as leaders in the early church.
Who had sent him? Paul was sent “by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead.”
Paul was commissioned by Jesus Himself! Already we sense that Paul’s tone is terse. Why? Because, as we will see, the very Gospel and the souls of his spiritual children are at stake.
Here’s an important thing to remember. The apostles, including Paul, were unique. They had walked with Jesus while He was here on earth. They had been taught and commissioned by Him. Several of them were inspired to write books of Scripture. But this was a limited group. There was no apostolic succession.
There are no more apostles today. I’ve meet people who call themselves “apostles” but they are not apostles in the Biblical sense. Mormons believe that after the apostles, the Gospel was corrupted , and it wasn’t recovered until the apostles were restored with Joseph Smith. More on that false teacher next week.
Paul is writing from Antioch in Syria and he includes in this salutation a group of people that are with him “and all the brothers and sisters with me.” Interestingly, he doesn’t name them as he usually does. But he wants the Galatian believers to know that there are others who can attest to his apostleship and his authority.
To Whom was the Letter Written
“to the churches in Galatia:”
Who was Paul writing to? Notice that churches is plural. Galatia wasn’t a city but a geopolitical Roman region in southern Turkey, which included the cities of Derbe, Iconium,, Lystra, and Antioch Pisidia. People wanted to live there because it was a fertile plain that was good for farming.
Paul and Barnabas set sail from Antioch in Syria on their first missionary journey. They sailed to Cyprus, where Paul confronted Elymas the sorcerer (see Acts 13:8-12) Then they sailed to Perga, where John Mark abandoned them and went back to Jerusalem. (See Acts 13:13)
Let’s not be too hard on the boy. It was going to be a long hike over the mountains through very treacherous territory.
Paul and Barnabas shared the Gospel in Pisidian Antioch and Gentiles responded and a church was born. The Jewish leaders finally got fed up with them and expelled them. (See Acts 13:24-52) They moved on to Iconium.
At Iconium, they preached the Gospel and many Jews and Greeks believed and another church was born. They had to leave there because the Jewish leaders had planed to stone them. (See Acts 14:1-7)
Do you see a pattern here?
They moved on to Lystra where Paul healed a man with a lame hand. The people went nuts and thought they were gods and started worshipped them. Paul quieted the crowd and shared the Gospel…and a church was born. And the Jewish leaders stoned him to the point where they thought he was dead. (See Acts 14:8-20)
They moved on to Derbe and preached the Gospel and a church was born. (See Acts 14:20-21)
Then they went back through the territories to the new churches encouraging them and appointing elders. (See Acts 14:21-25)
They sailed back to Antioch in Syria and gathered the church to tell them all that God had done opening a door for the Gentiles for faith in Jesus. (See Acts 14:26-28)
It is while he is in Antioch that he gets a message that these new believers were being duped by these deceiving teachers. Paul was absolutely astonished that they would so quickly desert Jesus.
What is The Message?
What is the message that he has for them? Nothing less than the Gospel!
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and 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, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Gal 1:3-5)
Paul often begins his letters with "grace and peace” but here they carry extra weight. Grace is the normal way a Gentile would begin a letter. Peace is the way a Jew would begin a letter.
Grace is God’s unmerited favor which leads to peace with God, the peace of God, and peace with others.
These Judiazers were putting a dividing wall between Jews and Greeks, one that Jesus tore down on the cross:
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Eph 2:15-16)
Jews and Gentiles are saved by exactly the same thing - Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross.
Think about it from their perspective. They could no longer go to the pagan temples but they weren’t welcome in the Jewish synagogues. Then these false teachers come and tell them that they aren’t good enough for Jesus. They have to become Jews and be circumcised, follow the Mosaic dietary laws to be “really saved.”
Paul isn’t going to stand for this for one minute. And throughout the letter he has some of the harshest language in all the Bible for these teachers that are perverting the Gospel.
What the central point of Paul’s message?
That “Jesus Christ …gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”
Martin Luther wrote that these words are “the thunderclap from heaven again all self-righteousness.”
First, notice that Jesus was a willing sacrifice. Mark records Jesus’ words:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
And in John, Jesus says,
“No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:18)?
In Paul’s letter to Titus, he writes that we are waiting for Jesus to come back:
“…who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14)
Second, notice the purpose of the sacrifice - “to rescue us from the present evil age.”
The word rescue is a strong Greek word. It’s the same idea used in describing the Israelites being rescued from Egypt, or Peter being rescued from prison, or Paul being rescued from an angry mob.
There are highly trained rescue dogs that are on a mission in the Australian forests. They are rescuing Koalas. Experts have estimated that maybe up to 30,000 Koalas have died in the fires. These three dogs have located 16 injured Koalas so far.
The Koalas are trapped and helpless, many of them are injured. If there is any hope of rescue, it has to come from the outside.
So it is with us. Because of our sin, we are separated from God and we can’t be good enough to earn the relationship back. But Jesus died on the cross, for our sins, in our place, to pay our debt.
Imagine going to a doctor with a sprained ankle and the doctor says, “I’ll take that for you.” Immediately your foot feel fine but you notice the doctor is limping.
Jesus, the only Person in all of history that didn’t deserve to go to hell. It was the only Person that fulfilled the law perfectly. He never sinned.
But on the cross, He took our sins in order to give us His righteousness and rescue us from this evil age:
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.” (Colossians 1:13)
Why did He do this? Sheer grace. We didn’t deserve it. We couldn’t earn it. But God accepted the work of Christ on the cross on our behalf. This was the will of the Father who loves you so much he’s rather die than live without you:
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
He doesn’t want to take us out of this present evil age but wants to teach us how to dance to the rhythm of freedom and grace in the midst of a lost and dying world.
Paul is so overwhelmed by the grace given to us that he breaks into doxology - “to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.”
In Taiwan, the word Amen is “Shin San soo Yun.” It means “with all my heart this is what I desire.”
The Gospel changes Everything
I got a text from a friend this week that greatly encouraged me and I hope it encourages you.
He’s been a Christian for 20 years and when he came to Christ he tried to share the Gospel with his sister. The only problem was he wasn’t really sharing the true Gospel. He got all over her about her lifestyle and what she did and didn’t do. His sister didn’t think much of his self-righteous behavior modification program and has resisted it for nearly two decades.
But Don has grown spiritually and learned to dance to the rhythm of grace. He shared the Gospel with her this week - the free gift of grace, joy, and freedom and she committed her life to Christ!
We will discover in the amazing book of Galatians, that the Gospel changes everything!
