2011_07_05 Grace Pt1 Gospel of Grace

The Gospel of Grace Faith Service Worship Vision

Galatians 1:1-24

5 July 2011

Imagine a man and his wife go hiking and they get lost. Darkness is coming soon and there is a bad storm approaching.

You are part of a rescue team that is sent out and as night falls and the temperature drops, you find them and begin to lead them out. As you come upon one of the last legs of your journey out, you tell the man and his wife that there is a shelter and fire and food just up ahead. But instead of going in that direction, they begin heading the other way.

What would you think and do at this point? 1. Wondering what they are thinking. 2. Asking them what they are

doing. 3. Urging them to continue to follow you to safety.

You know that you know the only way to safety and they are not following you. The way they are heading is straight to their destruction. This happens to be the situation in Galatia, Paul had gone to Galatia and set up churches there on his first missionary journey (Acts 13-14). He told them that salvation was by grace and that there was no other way. But there were some who came after Paul who were confusing the Galatians by preaching something different to Paul.

In Galatians 5:1-4 we see that the people who were confusing others were claiming people must become Jews first to then become a Christian - the same thing is recorded as happening in Antioch; Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1) Paul writes to the churches in Galatia because many there are starting to believe these false teachers and question what Paul was teaching. In this study we are looking at the beginning of his letter to the Galatians and to understand what was going on there and look at the implications for each of us today.

Paul, an apostle-sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead- 2 and all the brothers with me,

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To the churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by 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 him be eternally condemned! 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 him be eternally condemned!

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Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

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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 Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

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Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with 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 you is no lie. 21 Later 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. (Galatians 1:1-24) 18

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A Message of Grace

Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.

(Acts 14:1-3)

Grace alone is good news Paul preached that salvation is by grace and grace alone. Why is this good news to us today?

The Lord confirmed that the message they spoke was from Him. We speak this same message today. Each one of us are messengers of the gospel of grace. Your message today is confirmed by God through His word. That is how God authenticates His message today. God uses individuals to convey his message.

The Gospel message is a message of grace. Jesus Christ paid for your sins. He died and 3 days later rose again.

He took our punishment and He gave us His righteousness.

You didn’t deserve it. I don’t deserve it. That is grace. He has blessed us with what we do not deserve.

Why do all of us need to be faithful in delivering the message that the Lord has given to us, the message of salvation through Grace?

That is the good news and this is what Paul was preaching to the Galatians. Then some others came and were saying that Jesus’ death and resurrection made it possible to have salvation but first you had to become a Jew and be circumcised. Paul explains that is not the gospel I preached.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14)

Grace+ anything is bad news

The Messenger Matters

He says the gospel you are turning to is no gospel (good news) at all. If we add something to the work of Christ to receive salvation, we are saying that Christ’s work on the cross is not sufficient - that it is not good enough. All we do is receive the grace of Christ by believing in Him as our Saviour and in His work on the cross; Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)

Does who is telling you something make a difference on whether you believe them or not?

This is not some package that is being delivered from point A to point B. This is not a job that Royal Mail could do.

This message has to be delivered from person to person.

Paul is someone who the Galatians have known. They know how he lived, what kind of person He was, if he was a man of integrity or not. He lives his life in accord with what he speaks.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faithand this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Paul is not trying to win the favour of man, but of God. He is certainly not winning the favour of the Jews. And yet he was a Jew of Jews before he met Christ on the road to Damascus.

What gets us into Heaven?

Believing in Christ and receiving Him as Saviour is the only thing that gets us into heaven, not going to church, not reading the Bible, not doing good things. Don’t misunderstand me - we should be doing those things and as we do them, we grow stronger and glorify God more but, they will never get us into Heaven.

Do you live your life in accord with what you speak and what you say you believe? What kind of messenger are you?

Maybe you think you are not a messenger. If you are a Christian you are delivering a message to those who know you and are around you. Even if it isn’t with words.

When was the last time you told someone about the good news of grace through Jesus Christ?

A Messenger of Grace

Francis of Assisi said “Preach the Gospel at all times.

If necessary, use words.”

The Messenger Delivers

What message are you delivering with your actions?

A messenger delivers something from someone to someone else. Paul is delivering the message of grace that He received from Jesus to the Galatians. Who a message comes from is important. Paul is reminding the Galatians that this message is from the Lord. He did not get it from any man. He got it from Jesus Himself and that message was authenticated by many miracles.

Are you delivering a message that people will respond to by saying, this person really believes what they say because their life shows it? or Are you delivering a message that people will respond to by saying, they talk about Christianity, but their life doesn’t match what they say?

At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So Paul and

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This is a question that is important for every Christian but especially those who have been called to preach or teach the Word.

We are saved by the grace of God.

How we live our lives matters. The life of the messenger matters in how well the message gets received.

That grace is good for all eternity to save us and keep us saved. However, in terms of our growth in the Lord while we are here, we require continued reliance on God’s grace.

The Manifestation of Grace

When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. (Acts 13:43)

Grace changes a person Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17) Paul persecuted the church and tried to destroy it, but when He experienced God’s grace, He was changed by it.

Those times of weakness in our lives, are times when we have begun to rely on ourselves or are in danger of it, and God uses that to help us to rely on Him and not on ourselves.

Paul tells us in, For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

(1 Corinthians 15:9-10 )

What happens in our lives often is that things get going well, and we take over. We turn to God when the going is tough, but once we get past the rough spots, we say thanks God, but I’ve got it from here - then we find ourselves right back in one of the ruts of life.

God’s grace had great effect in Paul’s life. He was changed to the point where people were reporting that “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy”. That is a pretty remarkable change.

How can you stay out of the ruts of life while continuing on with the Lord?

By receiving His Grace everyday. We need to fill up on His grace each and every day.

How has God’s Grace changed your life?

When we don’t, we start working in our own strength, we start thinking we know what God wants us to do so we just need to follow His rules; that’s when we start becoming legalistic in our ways.

Maybe you have had some remarkable changes in your life, maybe you have seen remarkable changes in other people too.

Why do those changes seem to stop in some of us?

If we lose the joy of living the Christian life, because we aren’t growing in our relationship with the Lord but are only doing our duty - that is when the Christian life, at least as we are living it, becomes stagnant, boring, burdensome.

Paul tells us that the Lord told Him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Don’t become like the Pharisees - rule followers who miss the presence and grace of Christ because we are so concerned about following the rules instead of being strengthened to walk in relationship with the Lord.

How can we receive God’s grace for living each day?

If God’s grace is sufficient for us, why does it seem to lose its effect after a while?

Why do we sometimes fail to experience the power that God’s grace promises to us as Christians?

By meeting with Him and being with Him in prayer and meditation and through His word, we will have our focus on the Lord, we will have the strength to live each day joyfully in spite of a bad day at the office or bad news from the Doctor or a bad hair day.

Why is it that some of us just experience the weakness of ourselves and not the power of God?

It is then that we will be able to continue to experience the Grace that has saved us and made us a new creation.

When we first believe, we are often filled with such joy and wonderment and everything is new to us and there is an excitement that is contagious. Then, things seem to settle down and just plod along.

Receiving God’s grace will not be only an event that changed us, but it will be a daily Presence that continues to change us.

Fill up each day at the spring of living water and receive the Grace for living that God wants to rain down in your life.

I think part of it has to do with the fact that when we first accept Jesus as Saviour, we understand that we are in desperate need of a Saviour.

As we continue on and understand more of how the Lord would have us live, we begin relying on our own strength instead of on the grace of God.

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