Galatians 1:1-10

NO OTHER GOSPEL

 

Good news!

            As an expression, “good news” has been overused. It is applied so broadly that “good news” can mean anything. 

            Recently, I was searching online for nightstands to match our bedframe. The virtual salesperson popped up and asked if “she” could help. Sure. I told “her” what I was looking for and she did her thing. “She” came back and texted, “Good news! It’s in stock right now! Earliest delivery date is looking at next Tuesday if ordered now.” 

            Good news, my materialistic desire to spend can be satisfied. Good news, I can have what I want. Good news, shopping is made easy online. 

            Is this good news? I was struck by the absurdity of this announcement in contrast to my study in Galatians. I was also convicted: What is good news? There are many variations of “good news” in our world; “good news” that offers relief from suffering; “good news” that promises an easier life, a prosperous life; “good news” that frees the self to enjoy life without the hang-ups of rules and the “shoulds” of religion.

Freedom is key. People want to be free. Free from what? Free from obligations. Free from rules. Free to live life as they choose. Is that real freedom? 

Galatians is a letter that Paul wrote to a group of churches in the region of Galatia (South-central Turkey). It’s a letter about freedom. It answers the question, “How can I truly be free?” Free from guilt, free from fear, free from doubt, free from sin, free from always trying and never quite making it. The answer for these folks is to do good, try harder, go to church, get baptized, give your money, …The list is endless because the human mind is always trying to please a God we cannot see or understand. But rule-keeping fails in the end because you can never do enough. 

Then there are those who believe that freedom comes from throwing the rules aside and living as they please. Follow your dreams, chase your passions, you only live once. It’s called “hedonism.” But for these folks seeking the next pleasure becomes another form of slavery. 

Legalism doesn’t do enough, and hedonism enslaves. Where is true freedom? Paul writes to the churches saying true freedom is found in the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s simple; it’s compelling: it is the freedom that you are looking for.

 

The “Good News” is God’s Idea (1:1-2)

 

A man was working in his garage one day. He was the kind of person who did not like to be interrupted while engaged in a project. Knowing this, his wife walked into the garage and stood quietly at his side for several minutes, waiting for the proper time to speak. At last, her husband looked up, the signal that she was free to speak. Very calmly, without panic, she said, “The house is on fire.” 

            There is a time to set aside the pleasantries and social graces and just blurt out the problem. The churches in Galatia were abandoning the “good news” of Jesus. Paul needed to sound the alarm. He dropped the introductions and went for it.

            You may not see it. “Paul, an apostle – not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead…” (1), sounds like a formal introduction to us. It’s not. He goes right after the issue. “You don’t think I am qualified to tell you this, but I am,” he says. I didn’t get this gospel from JK Rowling or Dan Brown. I didn’t make it up. This gospel comes from the person of Jesus. 

            Some among the Galatians were saying that Paul was not a real apostle. He wasn’t Peter, James, or John, or any of the Twelve. Where did he get his authority? God! He’ll tell the whole story later, but suffice to say, God in Christ called him. 

            In his very first statement, Paul touches on the gospel that is good news for everyone: God raised Jesus from the dead. That little phrase validates everything that we know about Jesus. It is the exclamation point on the life, teaching, death, and work of Christ on behalf of sinners. That’s the only reason we are here today. God raised Jesus from the dead. That alone gives credibility to this gathering of people we call church.

 

A Reminder of what makes “Good News” Good (1:3-5)

 

For Paul, this was no small issue. We cannot afford to take it lightly either. This is a “Jesus only” gospel. 

            We don’t see it immediately, but there was a problem in Galatia. Some dynamic teachers were trying to convince the churches that what Jesus did on the cross was good, but only a beginning. You see, Jesus was a Jew and a product of Jewish customs. So, they deduced, that to be a real Christ-follower, you had to adopt Jewish practices. You had to do works of the law to complete your faith. We would call this “Jesus plus.”

            Again, it is not a courtesy for Paul to say, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…” (3). Ancient letters did have these niceties in them, like when we write “Dear John, how are you?” Paul isn’t doing that. He is directly pointing to the twin pillars of Christian faith: Grace and peace. 

            Grace is counter intuitive. It goes against our natural inclinations. Sharon and I made cinnamon buns years ago and decided to share them with neighbors in our new community. The next day we received a plate of cookies from one lady. We can’t seem to receive free gifts; we think we must pay people back. The grace of God in Christ is a gift that cannot be repaid. We can do nothing to earn God’s favor. The harder we try to do so, the more we realize our efforts are not enough. You have to just stop, give up the “try harder” attitude, and cry out for God’s mercy. That’s how the 12-Step program of AA works: you must admit that you are powerless to change and are in the grip of something that will destroy you. Now apply that to sin; sin has us in its grip and we are powerless to save ourselves and need Christ to rescue us. 

            That’s hard for many people to accept (even Christians). Grace is offensive because it reminds you of your sin and weakness. Grace is scandalous because it is free, and you cannot pay it back to God. 

            Peace is a perfect companion to grace. Through the grace of God in Christ, we have peace with God. Remember in Romans 5: While we were weak…while we were sinners…while we were enemies of God, Christ died for us? And through that death we are reconciled to God. We have peace with God and with each other because of the grace of Christ. 

            That’s how Paul begins this letter, pointing to Jesus “…who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,” (4). This is the main point of the letter. He has delivered us from the present evil age. Some translations say “world,” but Jesus did not die to take us out of the world, but to equip us with his grace to escape the “evil age.” 

            In response to this brief greeting, Paul breaks out in worship. He can’t help himself: “…to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen,” (5). Yep, he’s praising God for this bit of truth. These few words express Paul’s great joy – Jesus!!

 

It Only Sounds Like Good News… (6-10)

 

In Paul’s other letters to the Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Paul tells the churches each time “I thank God for you…” Not the Galatians!

            He bursts out with, “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…” (6). How did this happen? Paul’s astonishment comes from the speed with which these churches decided that Jesus was not enough. Later he will ask, “Who bewitched you?” (3:1), as if someone had put a spell on them. They seemed to be in a trance. Someone offered them a more palatable gospel, something more comfortable, a gospel that gave them more control (law and tradition does that). That grabbed them.

            If someone today would tell you that you needed to add Jewish rituals to your faith, you would guffaw. If we decided at RFC that all males should be circumcised, there’d be a lynching. Galatia’s problem is not ours. 

            “Good news” in the Canadian context comes in a strange form. There is a gospel being preached, not from pulpits, but from social platforms, that claims to offer society salvation, equality, freedom. This “good news” declares freedom from gender labels and freedom from social norms. It promises acceptance for those who don’t fit into the traditional stereotypes of maleness and femaleness. It saves them from being something they feel is not them. But freedom for some results in enslavement for others. If the price of freedom is the cost of someone else’s freedom, is it truly freedom? To ask for understanding while they sort out this confusion is reasonable. To demand conformity to a way of thinking is tyranny. 

            What would Jesus think? You will hear that Jesus loved people and didn’t judge. He ate with fringe people and outcasts. Jesus would not bruise the non-binary or shame the queer. True. But he still died for them. 

            There are many forms of good news being declared in our world. Paul says there is only one gospel, “…but there are some who trouble you and distort the gospel of Christ,” (7). Galatians were deserting the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Other Galatians were distorting the good news by adding to it that which God never intended. We see that where churches bend over backwards to appear non-judgmental, accommodating, tolerant. Grace welcomes the LGBTQ to worship Jesus. But grace does not change the work of Jesus on the cross to remove its offense or scandal. 

            Paul repeats himself to emphasize that changing the gospel to suit your culture or context is disastrous. (Read 8-9). 

The word “accursed” is from the Greek “anathema.” It means devoted to destruction. Think of Achan (Joshua 7). His sin led to the defeat of Israel at Ai. He had taken some forbidden items and buried them under his tent. He, his family, and all the treasure he had taken were destroyed to remove sin from the camp. Changing the gospel to make it sound better is anathema, cursed. 

            Unapologetically, Paul stands his ground on the gospel. “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,” (10). I confess that my peacemaking nature tends to quiet my voice. It is too easy to sound angry and judgmental about the sins of our nation. I am slow to speak, then. I choose my words carefully that I will speak with grace. Yet the conviction of these words of Paul ring in my ears…who am I trying to please? 

 

Paul’s introduction to the letter to the Galatians highlights the truth that is central to the epistle, the true gospel. Every one of us is challenged by this letter to guard the gospel from distortion. There are many “gospels” floating around for our ears to hear. How can we know what is really good news? 

1.     Consider the source. Does the message and the messenger line up with what the Word of God tells you about Jesus? It is easy for me to point out that Walt Disney was an outspoken humanist. All his movies, even the ones we see today, have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. They proclaim the triumph of the human spirit in the face of impossible odds. They never point to Christ as the solution of life’s problems. That’s easy. On the other hand, there are Christian preachers who are very encouraging, but either provide steps to success (works), or soften the demands of the gospel. 

2.     Consider the Scriptures. We are beginning a year of “becoming a people of the Word.” There is a fallacy among Christians who profess to know the Bible so well that they don’t need to read it. They have heard its stories since Sunday School and there is nothing new. Love God, love your neighbor, maybe love your enemy. But I tell you the truth, the Spirit works with the Word to reveal the mystery of God – that’s why it’s called the Living Word. You don’t know it as well as you think you do. I don’t either. Let’s read it and let the Spirit work in us.

3.     Consider the community of faith. When you don’t know if what you are hearing is the gospel, talk about it with other believers. Does the message you have heard jive with the Spirit of your faith circle? 

 

I would like us to close with a verse from Galatians that is worth reciting together. We will read this verse for every message from Galatians over the next 8 Sundays.

 

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” (Gal. 2:20).

 

                                                            AMEN

Becoming a People of the Word

BECOMING A PEOPLE OF THE WORD

 

The great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, was testing the acoustics in a new building erected for his congregation. In his best annunciation he spoke into the empty hall, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” To test the acoustics again, he repeated the phrase. This was in the 19^th century without the benefit of a sound system. But he was not as alone as he thought. Two laborers were working up in the superstructure of the cathedral, unchurched men who did not follow Christ. One of the men was convicted on the spot when he heard those words, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” 

            I believe this is the power of the Word of God to change people’s lives. Reading the Bible will transform your life. Hearing the words of the Bible spoken will speak to your heart. 

            From our Vision Statement under “Radically Following Jesus,” is written: “We envision a community of believers becoming a people who read and understand the Bible, becoming as a result a people of the Word. We will read the Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ, grasping his Lordship, Sonship, and salvation throughout the Old and New Testaments.” 

            In short, when we adopted this vision statement as a community of believers, we promised to become a people of the Word of God. To that end, we are embarking on a year of becoming a people of the Word. Our primary way of doing that is through using Immerse in our Life Groups.

            Our text today emphasizes our conviction that the Bible transforms the life of the Christian making him or her equipped to handle life’s challenges. Let’s briefly unpack this. 

            Paul told Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” (16a) or is “God-breathed.” Think of God breathing out versus inhalation. If you speak while breathing in, it’s not natural and a little difficult Your larynx was designed by God to respond to air moving up out of your lungs (A-B-C-D inhaling and exhaling examples). Scripture is God breathing out. We can say that the Bible is God talking – it is the voice of God. 

            All of Scripture is a product of the breath of God. The Spirit moved in the writers’ personalities, contexts, histories, and crises to speak what God wanted to convey to his people. Peter commented on this when he wrote, “…you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, these prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God,” (2 Peter 1:20 NLT). 

            The word “fairy tale” kept clanging in my head this week. I had read a post online of a person responding to the Bible as a just a bunch of fairy tales. As if Hans Christian Andersen had written his ugly duckling story for the Bible. It was a hostile response. And I kept thinking, “Is that what the world thinks of the Bible?” When people think that way it gives you pause, “Do I believe the Bible? If I believe the Bible, do I take it seriously?” 

            Peter’s inspired statement in his second letter tells us that the Bible writers were not writing from their imaginations, nor were they inventing clever stories. These are NOT fairy tales, but revelations of God’s working in the midst of human history, most notably through Jesus Christ, his own Son. 

            What’s most remarkable about Paul and Peter’s statements is that they are talking about the OT. The New Testament had not been written and collected yet. The OT, which many Christians find difficult to read, was the Bible for the new church in Acts. All the books, from Genesis to Revelation, are God’s breath. Not all books are equally important; not all are equally inspired (Esther vs. John). But the Holy Spirit had a purpose in prompting men and women to write what they wrote. 

            What does the Bible do for you? Paul told Timothy that it is “…profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (16b). A good way to remember the gist of this verse is this: 

·      Teaching – tells you what is right.

·      Reproof – tells you what is not right.

·      Correction – tells you how to get right.

·      Training in Righteousness – tells you how to stay right. 

            Many people today think that the Bible is not relevant to today’s issues. Some think it is the job of the preacher to make the Bible relevant, but the truth is more that the job of the preacher is to keep from making the Bible irrelevant. It is already relevant. We must handle it correctly. 

            A Wycliffe Bible translator in a remote village in Papua New Guinea reported how when they translated the opening chapters of Genesis for the natives, their attitude toward women changed overnight. They had not realized or understood that women had been specially formed out of the side of the man. Without even this concept developed, these people immediately grasped the ideas of equality between the sexes and adjusted their behavior. They heard the Word. They believed the Word. They changed.

            If the Bible is not relevant for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in what God tells us is right living, then why, during the Stalin era in Soviet Russia, were the Soviets so afraid of the Bible? They jailed people for reading it. They knew that this book had the power to change lives. 

            What does the Bible do to you? Paul concludes his thought, “…that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,” (17). That’s an interesting word, “complete.” It carries the meaning of “entirely suited” or “able to meet all demands.” If you don’t believe the Bible is useful and relevant, you will be an incomplete Christian. That means, you will not be able to meet life’s challenges with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of Christ, or the power of God. 

            What are you facing? What challenges? What responsibilities? What burdens? What sacrifices are you called to make? The Scriptures enable us to face all of life’s challenges by comprehensively preparing us for every good work – for whatever God asks us to do. 

 

            Today, in English alone, there are more than 900 translations or paraphrases of the New Testament in whole or in part. And to think that only 500 years ago there was only one basic translation – Latin! And only the priests and the wealthy could read Latin. The Bible was not in every home. The Bible was not available to every person. Most Bibles were chained to the pulpit. 

            But men like Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, and William Tyndale believed that the Bible should be available to every person in their own language. The church at the time prohibited translating the Bible into the common language. But they persisted, some died, and we have the Bible – God’s words – in our homes, even on our phones. We have no idea how miraculous that is! 

            This is the year for RFC to become a people of the Word. Our challenge is to read the Bible with fresh eyes. Nothing has a greater impact on the spiritual growth of the church than when people read the Bible. If we could do one thing to help people grow in spiritual maturity and in their relationship with Christ, it would be to help our people get into the Word of God and to reflect on it as it pertains to life. 

            Let’s read together God’s Words! Let’s hear together God’s voice!

 

                                                            AMEN?

Waiting

WAITING

 

Isaiah 40:31 “…they who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” 

 

Waiting.

 

Waiting can be painful and frustrating. We don’t like to wait. Our cars which are supposed to speed up our lives, end up rushing us to a place where we have to wait. Either we end up waiting in our cars, or we rush to appointments and wait to be called in. 

            There are three stages to waiting:

First, as your car slows to a stop, your brain begins to reel as your progress is impeded. Alarms go off – you need to do something, anything to make the waiting more bearable. Grab your phone and check messages? Play with the radio? 

 

Second, you may begin to think of the cause of this slow-down. An accident? A big truck backing into a shipping lane? Congestion? Construction? Not that it really helps to know.

 

Third, as you wait longer, your mind moves to anger and blame. How did the driver ahead of you even get a license? They don’t know what they are doing. And why are there only two seasons in MB – winter and construction? Argh – you just want to get home. 

 

We don’t like to wait.

Waiting translates into doing nothing in our minds. Going nowhere. Wasting time. 

We have it burned into our psyches that we must “do something” because “doing nothing” is laziness. Waiting is counterintuitive to productivity. 

 

Yet the Bible is full of times of waiting. God or his prophets tell people to wait. Wait for the Lord. Wait for God to move. Wait for God’s answer. 

·      When God tells Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child, they need to wait for God’s timing.

·      On Mount Sinai, while Moses is receiving the Law, the people wait down below.

·      While the Israelites are captives in Babylon, they are waiting for their release. 

·      A Messiah is promised but the people have to wait 400 years before he appears in a backwater town like Nazareth. 

 

Waiting seems to be a big part of how God works with people.

 

In Acts 1:4, Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he ascended to the Father were “wait for the promise.” What the verse says in entirety is, “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 

 

What do you do when you wait though? 

What we find in Acts 2 is a story of the apostles busily acting instead of waiting. They are commanded to wait. And they do. For a while. After Jesus goes to the Father, they wait. They pray. Praying is part of waiting – prayer is waiting. The church in its essence is a people waiting together, waiting, and praying. Telling stories of Jesus and waiting. 

 

Peter gets itchy waiting. He can’t sit still and wait. To cope with the restlessness of waiting, he does some administration. That’s what the church has done for centuries when it feels the burden of waiting – we distract ourselves with meetings and plans and projects and politics.     

            Peter tells the group that they need to find a replacement for Judas Iscariot – he’s dead. What better way to wait than to do some housekeeping. They go “Vegas” on this decision and cast lots for the replacement who ends up being Matthias.

            After this, we never hear of Matthias again. 

            The disciples were supposed to wait, not administrate. Like a pregnant woman in her last trimester, when waiting is hardest, she feels like doing something (nesting). 

            The casting of lots, rolling the dice, does not get them in trouble with God, but their action doesn’t lead anywhere. God is gracious with people when they fail to wait:

·      When Abraham tries to force the promise with Hagar…

·      When the people form a golden calf because Moses is MIA…

·      When the Jews’ hearts are distracted by idols in the OT…

It’s the act of the apostles that chooses Matthias. He’s chosen before the Spirit arrives. In Acts 9, with no apostles present to do this act of admin, we’re told of God’s own action of choosing. God elects the 12^th apostle not by rolling the dice but through an amazing encounter with words and visions. On the road to Damascus, a zealous Pharisee named Saul (Paul) is knocked to the ground and addressed by Jesus. That’s God acting. That’s the Spirit choosing. 

 

Waiting is hard. But we don’t have to do church admin while we wait. It’s not a waste of time. It’s a time of prayer and worship. We are in a period of waiting as the church, waiting for God to move, waiting for God to act in history. While we wait, we pray. While we wait, we tell the stories of Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection. The church is birthed and called to wait because it is always to be looking for the living Jesus Christ’s action in the world. For the church, waiting is the way of attentive looking. The church must wait because its only job is to witness to the living Jesus Christ, who is moving in the world. 

            We must wait for the Spirit to empower us to act.

 

What are you waiting for? Can you wait for God to move in your life? 

            When we take matters into our own hands, we may miss the really great thing God has been doing or is going to do.

            Wait upon the Lord, he will renew your strength. Wait for the Spirit to reveal his truth to you. Wait for his deliverance.

            Waiting is worth it when we know that a gracious and generous Lord has good things planned for us.

 

Inspired by and adapted from the book When Church Stops Working by Andrew Root. 

                                                AMEN