The Ingredients Of The Gospel Series

You’ve Got the Time is taking 28 minutes a day to listen to the New Testament on mp3. You’ll cover the entire New Testament in just forty days. 28 minutes a day for forty days – it’s just that simple. And if you’re behind in your reading/listening, do as Dori did in the movie, Finding Nemo, “Just keep swimming.” I’m preaching on selected Scriptures throughout the forty days as you listen.

Note: for those who are on Twitter, I’ll be tweeting throughout the message with the hash tag #sermon.

“Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—2 and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:1-10)

You cannot read the first ten verses of this letter without feeling that something important is at stake. The early church father, Jerome, once said that when he read the letters of the apostle Paul he could hear thunder. Nowhere in all of Paul’s writings do you hear the storm better than in this letter. The letter has been described as a “lion turned loosed…” Throughout these six chapters of 149 verses you can readily sense Paul’s passion, sarcasm, and anger. There is a tremendous amount of emotional intensity in the pages of this letter. Another has compared the emotional intensity as holding a “live coal with your bare hands.” We see from the outset that Paul’s words are to the point when comparing this to his other letters. It’s these terse words that betray his tense mood. Why all the emotion? Because of the gravity of the situation.

1. Only One

Focus on the starting words at the beginning of verse seven for a moment: “not that there is another one…” (Galatians 1:7a) Paul is so intense because the Christians have turned away from the gospel to “a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6b). Paul had spent about four years spreading the Gospel in modern-day Syria, among other areas (Acts 13-14). Ironically, Paul had gone throughout this region before his conversion in order to sniff out Christians for persecution. Now, after his conversion, he went through the very same region in order to share the Gospel with those same people. After Paul leaves this area with churches in their embryonic state, he learns they have gone away from the gospel: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6)

Part of his emotional intensity is how “quickly” these followers of Christ turned from the gospel. The word “deserting” in verse six was used to describe a soldier who revolted his command or deserted his post. The converts had become religious turncoats or spiritual deserters. He was concerned that the Christians were committing spiritual suicide. He is now sounding a spiritual tornado warning.

Over the past two Sundays, we have examined two instances of an interfaith dialogue (John 8:30-36 and Acts 24). What’s been remarkable is how the Bible consistently puts its cards on the table by its denial that all roads lead to heaven. Against, the popular notion of all religious roads lead to the same place, the Bible says this: “not that there is another one…” (Galatians 1:7a)

For believers, we cannot be hazy and imprecise in what we believe about the Gospel. I hope our church has clarity when it comes to the Gospel. I hope to rid all confusion when it comes to the Gospel’s message. Every Christian should know by memory how to communicate the Gospel with accuracy. Instead, the Bible expects our mental concepts have to be sharply attuned.