Let us pray Father, I prayed this morning that is we look at this book of Galatians that we would We would start a process of transformation We would start becoming more and more free in the gospel more and more bound to Jesus I pray that you be in my head and in my thinking in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking in Christ name we pray these things a man and a man We told you last week at Easter that I'd beginning to begin today to preach on the book of Galatians I actually practiced Two times in Ethiopia. I preached the whole I taught the whole book of Galatians once to Ethiopian pastors and once to Somalis actually got parked way through but either way The big question. I'm sure as I was reading the text this morning that you are reading and you noticed the same thing that I noticed You notice the same thing that just jumps out as you read the text Anyone Anyone When you read Paul's Paul opens his letter he Paul opens the letter and he opens it in the normal way that people would open letters in the ancient Near East He opens by stating his name the author's name he says to who it is the churches of Galatians and then he gives us Standard greeting grace and peace to you seems standard But he leads out something in this letter that he puts in all the rest of his letters and now Brian When Paul writes this letter to the Galatians, he does not say I Thank God for you Now when when someone like Paul writes writes a lot of letters in the New Testament and almost all of them He opens and in some way shape or form says I thank God for you when he doesn't say I thank God for you There's it should catch your attention when you think about the church at Corinth that had every manner of problem They had sexual deviancy. They had people leaving their spouses. They had people who didn't tie for goodness sakes all these things And Paul opens up that letter and he says I thank God for you He writes the letter to the Galatians and he doesn't say I thank God for you in fact He's very sharp and and the the next week will look he immediately dodged right in and Paul apparently is very upset and even Angry as he writes this letter He doesn't thank God for them. Why what in the world could possess Paul to not be thankful for the Galatian Christians? Was it because of who they were Brian? Can you show me the next slide? Was there something inherently wrong with the Galatia no if that if you look at the map there That's modern day a modern map and if you look up at turkey Brian go ahead and hit the slide hit the animation That area right there would be about where Galatia was and Paul planted churches in the southern part of Galatia You know Pocidian, Antioch and Durbey and Listera and so was it because just something about the Galatians was inherently bad And answers know what bad Paul angry is because the Galatians had the same problem that you and I have They have become Christians Paul planted these churches and they had become free in the gospel and now they were starting to become Pharisees They were starting to become Pharisees. They were starting to become legalists and if you want to make the apostle Paul mad
Don't don't just I mean you you can sort of get him to be involved in sort of lascivious sin and that kind of stuff And Paul will write you a letter and he'll say I thank God for you, but you shouldn't do that stuff If you want to make Paul upset Start saying you know Jesus is good, but Jesus saved me from my sins, but I need something else in their case. It was to obey the mosaic law And everyone in this room frankly you're either a Pharisee or you're recovering Pharisee Let me give you a good example of what what a Pharisee is or what a Phariseeical Attitude is when Judy and I moved to Seattle in 1997 to start a church in capital hill You know the biggest problem of course is finding a place to worship especially in a place that's densely populated and the economy was booming So everything was expensive and what do you know literally across the street from our house was a church that worships on Saturdays not Sundays And I thought well that's beautiful and I went over and asked the elders can we what do you think about us using your church on Sundays And they said never No one's ever used this church for 60 years or anything. We don't plan on starting now And so it's a it's a an interesting story I don't have time for but I did some things that actually endeared me to them Believe it or not And so I did some things for them that I became very endeared to them They said you know what we'll let you worship in our Church and I said great. Do you have a room where we can have coffee between services Crickets What do you mean coffee between services? I said like we're you're we are in Seattle right you know what coffee is And they said we there's no way we're ever going to let coffee be served in this building As you kidding me so we can't even drink coffee in here. They said never Right and so I had to go back to my old charm box And pull out and smooth them and finally I negotiated to the point where they said okay Here's the deal Tommy you guys can drink coffee in this church However you're not allowed to brew it here Because we do not want this is true We do not want to be implicated in the sin of coffee brewing
and What came out of my mouth of course was thank you What was going on in my head was you've got to be kidding me Because I wanted to say how about instant where's that fit on the continuum
That's not in the Bible Now here's the thing If you think avoiding coffee is a good thing and that's what God wants you to do more power to you But if you think that God somehow loves you more than he loves me because you avoid coffee You've missed it you've missed the point If you think not drinking and not smoking and all those things are good things to avoid That's a great thing and it's great for you But if you think that somehow God loves you more because you do those things You don't get it And you see all of us are Pharisees every one of us because you know what Pharisees do is they build fences And what Pharisees do is they begin to think that they're better than other people Right do you think you're better than then Democrats because you're a Republican? Do you think you're better than Republicans or Democrat? Do you think you're better than everybody because you're independent?
I'm just saying I remember when I interviewed here to become an assistant pastor I had a great job at lily so I could be very honest You know it was kind of interview sort of I might as well tell him who I am because you know And someone at some point said you know do you have any particular struggles or weaknesses? And I said honestly I do I said the primary ones regarding church though are church politics and dealing with Pharisees Said I cannot stand Pharisees And I said I forget how exactly the conversation went but I said now realize the fact that I just said I can't stand Pharisees Makes me worse than the Pharisees that I hate Because as soon as you begin to think that I'm above them I'm somehow better than them because of the way they act then you don't get it It's the classic Pharisee in the tax collector remember the Pharisee stands up and says God thank you that I am not like him If you've ever thought that if you ever feel like that you're a Pharisee you just are And the here's the thing that Pharisees are further away from the kingdom We read in the New Testament than the tax collectors and prostitutes are Because they have no question that they're bad But if you're an extra righteous person or a particularly good person then there are people who are particularly good and moral But even the best of people are not fit for the kingdom of God And Paul is going to address the Galatians in this morning what you're going to see is in this this introduction to the book of Galatians Paul actually encapsulates the whole letter When he says a man at the end of verse five if the people understood it he could have stopped writing Apparently, they didn't and so he continued fortunately for us You see the book of Galatians really is going to get a deal with two things If you look at it from a 10,000 foot view One is going to be Paul defending his apostolic authority and the other thing is going to be Paul Defending and differentiating Christian righteousness from all other kinds of righteousness Why is Paul going to have to defend his authority and defend his apostleship? And the answer is pretty simple it's you know if you've ever watched a CSI or law in order one of those shows You know, there's always a storyline at some point about a crooked district attorney Right and there's the everyone's really wigs out because if the district attorney turns out to be crooked Then all of the people he prosecuted will go free on a loophole, right? And so all the detectives are always you know squirming around trying to figure out things And it's pretty typical if you want to to to denigrate the message You denigrate the character or the the credentials of the person bringing the message correct That's why most political ads on TV have absolutely nothing to do with policy and everything to do about character and slander every one of them Because if you can make someone think that a politician is immoral or has bad character who cares if his policies go to bad That's what people apparently were trying to do to Paul If they were trying to say who does Paul think he is You see in order to be an apostle an apostle meant someone who was sent and an apostle bore the authority of the one who sent him and they would say how could Paul call himself an apostle? If two main things you need to be an apostle or you need to have been seen the risen Lord And we were all there at the resurrection. I didn't see Paul And you need to have been commissioned by Jesus And Paul's going to address them right out of the gate And he's going to address his gospel right out of the gate. We're going to look at two things this morning The first thing we're going to look at is Paul's authority And the second thing we're going to look at is Paul's gospel simple as that. So let's look first at Paul's authority
Notice in verses one and two Paul says Paul an apostle Not for men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead and all the brothers who are with me Now if this was a normal letter you remember I told you Paul leaves out something that he usually puts in letters Well in this very first verse he adds something that he usually leaves out In a normal letter Paul would say something like Paul an apostle and all the brothers Or Paul an apostle called by God and all the brothers But as you notice the first word here Paul says Paul an apostle comma dash long dash Not From man or through man but Never get rid of everything they came before From Jesus Christ and through God the Father Right the third word that he says here He's he's asserting his authority. So Paul I'm an apostle. I am a I am an apostle But I'm not an apostle. I'm not from man and I'm not through man In other words all of the accusations that you have been making toward me Paul would say are absolutely correct All of your conclusions however are not In other words Paul says I'm not from man in other words Paul says you got me I was never in Jerusalem with Peter Paul and James and they never sort of sent me out They did eventually but not when he originally started his ministry So you're right. I didn't come from Jerusalem I didn't have the stamp of approval when I started my ministry Nor did I come through Jerusalem In other words those the the original apostles didn't lay hands on me and you if you will and bestow Apostleship upon me. I mean we do that now when we ordained someone to ministry Right Jesus what Jesus sends them into ministry through The the office of elder so we invite all the elders up front and they lay hands and and through the elders ministry The this person you know Joe tent peg is sent into ministry himself Paul says I didn't come from men and I didn't and I was not becoming an apostle through men But instead I became an apostle from and through Jesus Christ and God the Father Who raised him from the dead It's interesting that Paul would begin You would begin this letter with the resurrection remember last week I told you that the resurrection was was as important as the cross Because what the resurrection says among other things is a there's a possibility that Paul could have seen him after But also it says that the work of Jesus is completely finished and satisfying to God Martin Luther in his commentary on Galatians says that verse right there is the key to the whole letter That in Romans chapter 4 verse 25 Paul says that Jesus was raised for our justification In other words, we were credited with the righteousness of Jesus and when he was raised we it was credited to us and we now own it And so but he says that I was was sent in commission and became an apostle from Jesus and through God and other words Remember the story of Paul Paul himself was a Pharisee so Paul knew how bitter the life of a Pharisee was He knows a Pharisee, but he's a Pharisee of Pharisees is according to the law blameless He says in Philippians and he went through out the engineers Persecuting Christians but and perhaps killing them certainly overseeing their murders and on the road to Damascus and Acts Chapter 9 remember what happens Paul's knocked off a horse and Jesus appears to him the risen Christ And tells him he will he will send him to the Gentiles to proclaim his name He also says as a side note to
What's his name the guy who goes to get him Help me out here Any help I can't hear I'm deaf He goes basically he tells the person to pick him up That he says how much he will suffer for my name Now just as a side note because it's going to come up later in the book of Galatians or at least I'm going to bring it up When you get home maybe if you're using the sermon questions for small groups ask yourself this question When did Paul choose Jesus? Never ask yourself that? Whenever people say I don't believe God initiates with sinners. I don't believe God does all the work I say ask tell me with them when did Paul choose Jesus when did Paul get down on his knees to Jesus? I receive you as my personal Lord and Savior never Instead Paul is running from Jesus to kill Christians and Jesus knocks him off the horse and says you are mine I am initiating with you. I am embracing you and you will be a minister of mine to the Gentiles I will show you how much you have to suffer for my name in other words Jesus is the one who always initiates Jesus is the one who does all the work We're going to see that not only in these verses, but we're going to see it through the whole letter Paul wants to assert this because God is the one who does everything That the reason Paul is a minister is not because he was so smart and he figured out that Jesus is someone he ought to be following It's because Jesus decided that Paul was someone that he wanted to embrace and he did So so Paul's authority comes that way So what is the authority to do? Will he is authority to preach the gospel? And that's the very next place he goes before he does that by the way He adds this phrase he says you know Paul and Apostle not for men or through men and then he says and all the brothers Part of the reason people think he did that is to make the point to the to the Galatians that What I'm getting ready to write you is not idiosyncratic. It's not just me There are a lot of other brothers who believe what I'm getting ready to tell you There are a lot of other brothers who endorse what I'm getting ready to tell you And what does he tell him? Well, that's where we go next to Paul's gospel
He says in verse three grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father
So how does Paul start when he actually gets into the meat is the greeting he gives her he says grace to you and peace Now it's interesting there because if he were just writing to people who he knew if it was a if it was a Greek letter He would just open up by saying agree grace to you or chorus If he's just writing to Hebrew people he might write and just say peace Shalom but instead he binds them together and he says grace and peace to you Because it is in grace and peace where the whole gospel is summarized grace brings us the forgiveness of sins and Peace brings us is the product of our sins being forgiven that we have peace with God and we have peace with our conscience and Paul says the whole gospel starts there with grace and peace God's unmerited favor and his willingness to forgive your sins and the peace that ensues from that Do you have peace with God because your sins have been forgiven? In other words, how do you know that you can have grace and peace or how do you embrace this grace and peace that Paul is telling the Galatians to have grace and peace to you What's the very next line Paul explains the gospel here is how you get grace and peace by understanding verse four I notice what he says in verse four he says who gave himself up That's Lord Jesus Christ for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age According to the will of our God and Father So in verse four you have the whole story of redemption in a nutshell What's the story of redemption? It's just this that Jesus gave himself up for our sins Why did Jesus have to give himself up for our sins? Because our sins had separated us from God and get this your sins are not only the bad things that you do Your sins are the good things that you do that you think gain you some kind of standing with God See as Lewis was very fond of saying that your biggest problem is not the bad things you do But it's your damnable good works Because if you're doing good works thinking that they somehow are getting God's favor. You're actually digging yourself into a deeper hole And yet Jesus came and gave himself for our sins. I heard a great sermon this week. I got him dick Lucas from England On John 316 and he talked about Nicodemus and how in John 3 what you see is Israel putting forth their very best person they had to offer So if anyone could have gotten into the kingdom by being good it was Nicodemus If anyone could have got he was the teacher of Israel He was blamed most according to the law He was a faithful Israelite he comes to Jesus and he said talk to him and he says teacher And before he can almost say anything else Jesus says you must be born again
You Nicodemus you the very best that Israel has to offer you good person you must be born again Everyone knows the bad person needs to be but you who think you are the best you need to be born again You know, they're great moral people. They really are I've worked with them But that doesn't mean they know Jesus and it doesn't mean they've entered the kingdom of God The question is do you know Christ has he died for your sins Paul says he gave himself for our sins You know whenever I read this text this week for some reason Batman came to mind the dark night Maybe it's because I was also thinking district attorneys from the beginning of the sermon You think Batman the dark night remember Harvey Dent is this great district attorney I mean he prosecutes everybody And he is a horrible accident that not only disfigures him but makes him he becomes too face if you remember It not only disfigures him but it makes him mentally unstable and he does some crazy things And if he does all the bad if people see that he's the one who did the bad things all the rest of the criminals are going to go free So what does Batman do Pretty amazing Batman becomes Harvey Dent's sins so that Harvey Dent can become righteous in other words Batman takes the blame for all the bad things that Harvey has done So that Harvey's record will be clear and with Harvey's record clear all the centers are taking care That's what happens in the gospel That Jesus takes on your badness he takes your record of badness and or that you might have his record of goodness Do you have that? The next thing Paul says he said he did this he delivered us from our sins in order to deliver us from this evil age And Paul's not saying that the world is a bad place at all Remember first Timothy he says it's all good The evil age is sort of the spirit of the age and the Hebrew mindset there really only two ages There was the present evil age and there was the age to come And whenever you read the eternal life Jesus says I'll give you eternal life. He says I will I'll give you the eight the life of the age to come In other words when you trust Jesus you're not only delivered from the present evil age and the power of the world around you But you're delivered into eternal life. It starts right now Paul says all of this is yours And it's according to the will of God the Father
In other words the cross did not catch Jesus by surprise That when Jesus gave himself over he didn't he didn't he didn't say well what's gonna happen if I do this From the foundation of the earth according to the will of God the Father Jesus went to the cross to die for his people God gave his son remember last week Jesus gave himself and what motivates that it goes back to John 316 God gave his son not because he had to but because he loved the world and the world and the New Testament is always a bad thing It's always evil Because God loved bad people Jesus died for our sins That's what he says it's according to the will of God the Father and then verse 5 Paul sort of ties it together and notice what he says I'll close with this He says to whom be the glory forever and ever men So Jesus has died for our sins. He is delivered us from the present evil age Did you notice what was it mentioned not one time in the first five verses of Galatians?
Among other things it was works of the law In other words Paul didn't say grace and peace to you all of you who have the ability to be obedient 100% of the time God love you Grace and peace to you who never do anything were on grace and peace to you in Galatians who are much better than the Baptist down the street God loved you Did you notice in the first few verses of Galatians? There's not one mention of anything that we do in order to obtain our salvation Nothing Jesus dies for our sins Jesus gives himself it's according to the will of God the Father and because Jesus does all the work Guess who gets all the credit God to whom be all glory in other words Jesus does all the work in our salvation from beginning to end God chooses us Jesus saves us the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and because of all of that Jesus that God the Father Son and Holy Spirit get all of the glory Consider that if you don't think of anything else You don't remember anything else from this sermon to the rest of Galatians remember this The Jesus plus anything equals nothing Jesus plus anything equals nothing. It's so easy to think well. I've got Jesus Now if I just had a little bit more of this and a little bit more that I'd probably a lot more effective in ministry a lot better Christian Jesus plus anything equals nothing Conversely Jesus plus nothing equals everything The question you got to ask yourself first and foremost is do I have Jesus or maybe better this Jesus have me Think about that let me pray Father I pray this morning That you would open our eyes more and more to see the glory of your grace the glory of your peace the glory of this great gospel Jesus who does all the work for us that we must simply receive it by faith I pray that you would use this series of Galatians to make our church more and more free from those things Which bind us up and more and more free to to be obedient more and more free to do those things which please you Christ name we pray these things amen