This week we continue our series called Chronos. A term which means time. We have decided to study the scriptures this year in the order they were published. It gives us a very unique insight into the early church and the struggles of a growing movement. This review of history is important because The Center’s leadership believes we are on the cuspid of a great awakening in America. An awakening that will challenge the status quo of the current Christian industrial complex. An institution more concerned with Attendance, Buildings and Cash than the Gospel, Grace and Growth of the kingdom.
This week we begin the book of Galatians. It’s another book written by Paul around 25 years after Jesus' earthly ministry. It’s written to a group of Jews and Gentiles in the central part of present day Turkey. Paul is writing to this church plant because false teachers had come to question not only what he had taught but his place among the leaders of the new movement. As the saying goes, Power, like nature, abhors a vacuum.
There are a lot of similarities in the struggles of Paul's new church plant and The Center. They were dealing with religious leaders who were opposed to Paul’s focus on grace over the law. They would cry that his teachings were dangerous in that they did away with the rules and abandoned the high standards of the establishment. The problem with introducing grace into the world comes from man’s inability to accept the gift without thinking that there's a catch? A cost. It’s almost easier to take the gift when you define what the cost will be versus saying “don’t worry about it.”
This is what Paul is dealing with in this first few verses. The Galatians had heard the gospel and about the grace of God but were having a hard time accepting it. Take a listen.
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Paul is saying, Grace is free. Period. End of Story. You don’t need to do anything. It comes from God to all who believe in God’s love and sacrifice for them as shown through and by the life of Jesus. No need for rituals. No need for reenactments of festivals. No Mythical figures. No work to make yourself right before God. No conditional love.
As Warren Weirsbe says, “ Keep in mind that God’s grace involves something more than man’s salvation. We are not only saved by grace.
We are to live by grace.
We are to stand in grace.
Grace is the foundation of the Christian life. Grace gives us strength.
Grace allows us to suffer without complaint. Grace allows us to use suffering for God’s glory.
Grace is a dependence on God.
Christian grace is dependent on God, more than ourselves, our money, our power, and our prestige."
To say Paul was very concerned that his friends were deserting the real gospel is like saying kids playing in the street shouldn’t look for cars. Paul was very concerned. Let’s continue to see if we can find out why?
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas (peter) and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.
21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me.
Paul begins by reminding everyone of his story. The whole story is in the book of Acts in chapter 9. It’s one of my favorites. Paul is a zealous young rabbi chasing after jews who had become part of the christian sect. A division of the jewish faith that was emphasizing the Messiah had come and everything had changed. Paul, wanting to show his loyalty, pursued the approval of others and to be seen as a strong rabbi in favor of the orhtdox faith. That is, until God intervened. On the day he was struck by lightning, knocked on his keister and heard God’s voice, Saul became Paul. Christ became known to Paul and his zealousness was redirected towards sharing the truth versus keeping people in line.
The scriptures show:
Paul’s pursuit of God was rewarded
When God reveals himself, his grace becomes apparent.
when Jesus' full identity and actions are made known, the reality of God's love for His creation becomes apparent. He became man because it was the only way humanity could ever be good enough to reside in the perfection of heaven. As such, Salvation is always by God’s grace, not man’s efforts.
God came not for himself but for the sake of others. Paul experienced this and then became Christ’s greatest advocate.
that when you measure yourself (no matter how good you think you are) next to Jesus (God incarnate), you are bound to see yourself in the greatest of clarity. If it were a mirror, you might be tempted to look away but when Christ steps in the mirror with you, you see the original masterpiece as it was intended: A masterpiece for the ages.
“For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand…” (Psalm 139:13-18).
Reference: Warren Wiersbe Commentary p 684-685
If you'd like to hear other messages like this live, check out https://communitycenter.life
