The Gospel Of Grace

Good morning, friends. You know, our nation was established and for nearly 250 years has been protected and preserved through courage and sacrifice. And that means that we are all beneficiaries of the valor of people we'll never know. And in many cases, friends and loved ones who have died in the line of military duty. And tomorrow is a time when we as a nation, we celebrate Memorial Day.

We remember and we honor those who've given their lives. And we want to pause today just to lament their loss and to salute their sacrifice and to thank God for the difference that they've made in our lives. So would you join me for just a moment? Let's just take a moment silently together to remember that sacrifice, and then I'll lead us in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning that we come together as free people. And on the one hand, Lord, we celebrate that we live in a nation that allows us the privilege of gathering like this, the freedom to come together in worship. And we're grateful, Father, for many men and women throughout our nation's history who have been willing to put their lives on the line in order to preserve those freedoms for others. And we thank you, Lord, for their courage and sacrifice. We lift up their families who continue to deal with just the difference that their absence makes.

And Father, we thank you for them. At the same time, Lord, we acknowledge to you today that we are citizens of a nation that is higher and nobler than anything that planet Earth has to offer. And we're grateful, God, that because of the name of Jesus, we are able to come together as free people, no longer tainted by sin, no longer separated from you by it. And we're grateful, God, for the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus that makes that possible. God, we're grateful for the gift of freedom and we praise you for it.

In Jesus name, Amen. Well, as Joel said earlier, we're kicking off an eight week series in the New Testament book of Galatians that is called Freedom. You know, many people think of Christianity or religion in general as essentially just a list of rules to follow. And what we're going to find as we unpack Galatians together is that that way of thinking is nothing new. See, our church's mission to love, grow and inspire requires that we become disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus.

So we want to use this summer, we want to use this Galatians series to introduce and just practice using a simple tool that's called Discovery Bible Study. Now, you can use Discovery Bible Study with any Bible text or any reading plan because but we've put Together a specific 8 week reading guide for the Book of Galatians that will guide you through this entire series. It'll provide you five daily readings each week, plus some simple questions just to help you process and share what God is teaching you. You can pick up a print copy of this Discovery Bible Study reading Guide out at our Connection Center. You can also download it from our mobile app or from our website.

And we would love for you to join us in reading through Galatians together in a systematic way throughout the course of this summer. And if you need a Bible, we'd love to put one of those in your hands. The the YouVersion Bible app is a great free application that many of us use on our phones. I use it all the time. But if you'd like to have a print copy of a Bible, we'd be glad to put one in your hands.

You could see the Connection center this morning. We'd be glad to give you one of those things. We look forward to jumping into Galatians together. Now, right off the bat you might be wondering, what in the world is a Galatian? And I'll give you a hint.

Okay, they don't have black and white spots and there were more than 101 of them, okay, a Galatian is a person from the region of Galatia. The Galatians came from the ancient Celts, some of whom lived in what we now think of as France, and they were known as the Gauls. Now in the third century bc, some of those Gauls invaded Macedonia, which was a part of Greece, and they moved on from there into Asia Minor, which we think of this is the modern day nation of Turkey. But when you read about the province of Asia in the book of Acts in particular, it's really talking about this particular part of Asia Minor. And to distinguish these Gauls from the other Gauls who remain behind over in Western Europe, they became known as Gallo Gratians, which was later shortened to Galatians.

So in Acts chapter 16, the apostle Paul and his ministry companions traveled and preached in the regions of Phrygia and Galatia, which are right here in this part of Asia Minor, where they probably planted some churches. And then Paul went elsewhere as a missionary, but he later came back to encourage the Galatian churches. And it was these churches, these believers in this region called Galatia, that Paul wrote this letter to. Now, Paul wrote this letter about the middle of the first century, probably between the years of about AD 48 and 58, and we're going to see very quickly that one of his driving objectives in writing this letter was to clarify and defend the message of Jesus. Like many leaders, Paul had critics who accused him of not being a real apostle, not teaching the truth.

Now an apostle, that word literally just means one who is sent. The apa part is a, is a Greek preposition that just means to be sent out or to be sent away from. And, and it's a really a generic general purpose word. It can mean a messenger entrusted with communicating specific details. It could refer to an employee who is sent by her company to represent them to a client.

In Paul's case, it refers to a disciple of Jesus who is commissioned by him, sent by him to do ministry somewhere else. Now there were Jews from Jerusalem who had come to Galatia, and this was their beef with Paul number one. He, he wasn't one of Jesus original 12 disciples. So they just saw him as less than for that reason. And when Gentile, meaning non Jewish people decided to follow Jesus, Paul didn't require those people to first pretend that they were Jews and become subject to all of the Old Testament Jewish law of Moses regulations.

So they believed that Paul was preaching this watered down man made sellout gospel. So one of Paul's key themes in the book of Galatians is where salvation comes from. And Paul makes a really strong case that what saves us, what makes us righteous? That word just means right with God. What saves us and makes us righteous is not our good deeds, it's not our biblical knowledge, it is not our practice of rituals and traditions.

It is our faith in Jesus. So let's jump into Galatians chapter one, which begins like this. Paul, an apostle sent not from men, nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers and sisters with me to the churches in Galatia. Now, ancient letters typically followed this format. They began by identifying first the writer and then the recipient.

So right out of the gate, the Paul presented his credentials as an apostle. Paul more or less said, friends, I am not in ministry because I randomly decided to be or because a committee recruited me, but because God himself called me. See, unlike the other apostles who had accompanied Jesus during his earthly ministry, Paul received his calling through a direct personal encounter with Jesus that we read about in Acts chapter 9. Now, just in case you aren't familiar with Paul's backstory, let me give you a really quick summary. The fifth book of the New Testament, the book of Acts, which follows the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Acts is all about the early history of the church.

And chapters six and seven in the book of Acts focus on a powerful Christian leader and preacher named Stephen. Now, the Jewish authorities who killed Jesus not only didn't want Jesus around, they didn't want anybody else continuing to speak about him. So just like they had with Jesus, they. They falsely accused Stephen and they killed him. They stoned him to death to shut him up.

And one of the ringleaders of Stephen's murder was a man named Saul. After killing Stephen, Saul went on a rampage, hunting down and imprisoning Christians, both men and women. And In Acts chapter 9, Saul was headed to the city of Damascus to arrest more Christians when Jesus stopped him in his tracks, when with a blinding vision in which he told Saul that he was actually opposing the very God he thought he was serving. And that Damascus Road encounter was a huge pivot point in Paul's life. And he went on from there to travel extensively as a preacher, as a missionary, as a church planter, and to write a large portion of the New Testament.

So Jesus called Saul to preach to the Gentile world. So Saul eventually became most widely known by the Roman name that you and I know best, which is the name Paul. So after introducing himself, Paul continued in Galatians 1 by saying this grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever and ever. Amen. So Paul wrapped up his introduction by summarizing, summarizing the message that God gave him.

That the message was this, that by his own intentional plan, God himself put on flesh in the person of Jesus and died for our sins to save all of us from this corrupt world. And on that basis, Paul greeted the Galatians like he often greeted other people he wrote letters to with two key words. The first of those words is the word grace, which refers to God's undeserved kindness, something that we absolutely cannot earn. And the second keyword in his greeting is the word peace, the state of being, right with God, right with others, right with creation, right with ourselves. Old Testament Jews would have used the Hebrew word shalom to describe this.

But the first question that Paul addresses in this letter is this question, what is the Gospel anyway? Grace and peace was Paul's standard greeting in his letters. That's not just true in Galatians. That's true of most of Paul's writings. And from there if you've read Paul's other letters, you know that he often, after he says grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He often goes from there to express his love and his gratitude for the people that he's writing to, to highlight some of the things about them he's proud of and grateful for, to. To highlight some exciting things he sees happening among them. But not here. I mean, six verses into Galatians chapter one, here's what Paul wrote. He says, 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, which is really no gospel at all.

In other words, Paul says, I am shocked that after all you've been taught, you have traded the truth of Jesus for a lie. I mean, compared to many of Paul's other letters, Galatians feels kind of like a birthday card that you open up and it says, I expected more. Or a graduation card that says, here goes nothing. Or an anniversary card you received that says, everybody makes mistakes. It's not a very encouraging beginning.

So Paul had become a follower and an apostle of Jesus through a dramatic, miraculous vision on the road to Damascus. And it makes me wonder, what would it take to astonish someone who had had that kind of an experience? I mean, why would Paul begin this letter with such confrontational, potentially even offensive words? Well, because he was alarmed. He was appalled that people were abandoning and discarding their hope and salvation that were found only in Jesus.

There's a group of people sometimes referred to as the Judaizers. These were Jews who insisted that in order to become a Christian, a person had to first become Jewish, had to first follow all the tenets of the Jewish law. And these Judaizers had begun pressuring the Galatians, and the Galatians had caved in. The word that Paul used to describe the shift that had taken place with. With this church is the word deserting.

It's a word that's used elsewhere, we recognize has to do with a soldier who disobeys their commanding officer and abandons their post. Paul said the Galatians had traded the gospel of grace, the good news that God himself died in our place to save us for a DIY gospel, a do it yourself salvation. They were trading trust for God for trusting themselves. Now, Paul's astonished words to the Galatians actually remind me of a moment in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth and he. He taught in the synagogue, as he often did he amazed people there with his teaching?

But rather than recognize that Jesus wisdom and his miracles were clearly evidence that he was God in flesh, the people pointed to what they knew about Jesus biological family and they just pointed out that as evidence that there's no possible way that this guy could be the Messiah. And Mark tells us that Jesus performed only a few more miracles because so few people were willing to believe. Mark 6, verse 6 tells us that Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. If you wonder what would cause a guy like Paul, who'd had this blinding dramatic Damascus Road vision, to be astonished, you might also wonder what does it take to amaze Jesus anyway? I mean Jesus who is God, Jesus who has always existed, Jesus who spoke creation into existence and who holds all power, what does it take to amaze him?

Well evidently when we see and we hear the truth that he taught and demonstrated, and yet we refuse to believe. Do you suppose that there are any stubborn self focused thoughts or words or attitudes or habits in your life or in my life that are amazing Jesus at this very moment? See, Scripture is emphatic that Jesus is the non negotiable core of the Gospel. That word gospel means good news. I mean Jesus himself said this.

He said, whoever believes in the Son. Jesus said, whoever believes in me has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them. Later in John, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The apostle Peter preached this about Jesus.

He he said, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. And Paul in his letter to Timothy wrote these words. He said, there is one God and one mediator, one go between one liaison between God and mankind and that is the man, Christ Jesus. See, all of these biblical statements and others highlight the reality that Jesus is our only means of access and reconciliation to God. And that means that any other so called gospel is empty and powerless and unable to deliver on its promises.

Which means it's not really good news at all. Paul wanted his friends in Galatia to know that they had everything they needed to be right with God. There wasn't another revelation of God still to come. There was no gospel 2.0. There was no sequel to Jesus coming to theaters this fall.

None of that. The Gospel of grace, Paul said, equals Jesus plus nothing. So Paul went on to write this. He said, evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 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.

And then he doubled down. He said, 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. Now every single time I read this text In Galatians chapter one, I'm reminded that in 1820, a man named Joseph Smith claimed that an angel appeared and gave him a set of golden tablets containing a new message about Jesus not yet available in stores, which he wrote down as the Book of Mormon. There are a number of questionable things about Joseph Smith's claims, like the fact that nobody else ever saw the golden tablets he talked about, that they were written in a language that there's no evidence has ever existed, and that the Book of Mormon was makes claims that clash with recorded history. But even if Joseph Smith really did see an angel, even if he told the truth about that part, his claim of another gospel was not from God.

Jesus accomplished everything necessary for our salvation. And he communicated through Paul that any attempt to change or replace or add to his message amounts to abandoning the gospel and deceiving people. I mean, if you steer people away from the only one who can give them life, you actually play a key role in their destruction. That's why Paul said, anyone who does that should be under God's curse. Did you notice he said it twice, literally.

Paul said, let them be damned. It's pretty strong language. Those are bold, tough words. And yet Paul's critics accused him of being a people pleaser who pedaled a softer, more palatable, less demanding version of God's message. So Paul asked the question.

He said, 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. In other words, Paul said, guys, if I am the wimpy, spineless people pleaser you accuse me of being, would I really have the guts to speak out so strongly against those who distort the gospel? And that shifts gears into the third part of Galatians, chapter one, which is really just a summary of Paul's story and his ministry. I already told you that Paul's critics were actively questioning his calling, the legitimacy of his role as an apostle.

So he turned his attention to his own story. Next. And in verse 11, Paul wrote, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Now we know from some of Paul's other writings that he was highly educated. Paul was raised from childhood as a devout Jew. He was taught in the synagogue. He studied under a well known rabbi mentor by the name of Gamaliel. Paul was an overachiever.

I think if Paul were alive today, he would be a national merit scholar and probably the valedictorian of his class. Paul was just that kind of driven, diligent, accomplished student. But Paul stressed that his ministry as an apostle and the message he preached was not something that he'd studied in school. This wasn't something he'd read in a scroll. This wasn't something that he had written down notes about in a lecture by a rabbi.

His ministry and his message were given to him directly and personally by Jesus. Which is remarkable given where Paul was at the moment when Jesus called him. Paul wrote about that. He said, 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. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age, among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Remember when Saul first appeared in Scripture, he was on a mission to destroy the church. His fanatical loyalty to his Jewish way of life caused him to see this new Jesus movement as a lie and as a threat and to dedicate himself to stamping it out by any means necessary, even arresting and killing Christians, if that's what it took. Paul was on a search and destroy mission to Damascus when Jesus intervened and completely turned Paul's life around. Paul was so fierce in his opposition to Christianity that, that I'm convinced that only God could have changed him. I suspect that if anybody else had tried to come along and reason with Paul and persuade him to change his mind, they probably would have met a violent end at that point in time.

So in this massively ironic twist of grace, Jesus called this super Jew named Paul not only to stop persecuting the church but to become a missionary to of all people, Gentiles. Gentiles were non Jewish people that the Jewish world thought of as unclean and second class. Think about that. Paul became someone that his former self Saul would have killed. And that's all because God changes lives.

Now Paul went on to write this. In verse 15 he said, but when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace was pleased 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.

Paul goes on from there to say this, that 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. See, Paul discovered that God had a very different plan for his life than he did. And Paul discovered that he was called not because of his achievements or his credentials, but by God's grace, by God's unconditional, undeserved, unearnable kindness to Paul. And Paul discovered that God's intent was to use him to reveal Jesus to the Gentile world.

And one of the ways that God prepared Paul for that calling was through retreat and solitude. See, at this time in Paul's life, what we call the New Testament didn't even exist. Yet. We don't know exactly what Paul did while he was in Arabia and Damascus. But I can't help but wonder if during that time, if Paul took all of that extensive knowledge of the Old Testament law and prophets that he had grown up with as a Jewish leader and began synthesizing all of that with everything that Jesus had taught him about himself in the process of.

Of his calling, and began to meld all of that together into the message that we see Paul repeatedly and so compellingly preach throughout the book of Acts. Paul went on to say this in verse 18, he said, then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas, that's the Aramaic name of the apostle Peter, and stayed with him 15 days. I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's brother. I. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.

And then Paul said, I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown at this time to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. So when Paul returned to Jerusalem, he hung out with the apostle Peter. And the Greek word he uses here for get acquainted is the word hystereo. It's where we get our word history.

It's the idea of telling a story. So we have this scene here where Paul and Peter, the two most prominent New Testament apostles, get together for a couple of weeks and they begin to share their stories of how Jesus had changed their lives. And because there were some who regarded Paul as a hack, you know, as a wannabe apostle at this point, Paul stressed here in Galatians one that his calling was from God, that this wasn't Something he borrowed from somebody else. Paul's is one of the most famous names in the entire Bible. But his ministry began in relative obscurity.

And yet, as Paul began to follow Jesus and began to preach about him, word of his conversion began to reach the churches in Judea, the region where Jerusalem was located. So Paul made this observation. He said, they only heard the report. The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. They praised God because of me.

The Gospel of Jesus is a remarkable story, isn't it? I mean, God put on flesh, he performed miracles, he allowed himself to be killed by his own creation, and then he came back from the dead to offer forgiveness and new life to everyone who trusts him, including those who killed him. And you know what else is remarkable? The fact that one of the first and most powerful proclaimers of that message was a guy who started out killing people for sharing that message. God specializes in transforming lives.

Paul's life, my life, your life. Around here. We strive to be a church that celebrates changed lives because we believe that our God is a God who celebrates changed lives. We sang a song a few minutes ago asking God to make us one with a heart for the one. Joel Talked about Luke 15 and those stories about a lost coin and a lost sheep and a lost son, all of which just exemplify the heart of God for lost people.

When you walk out these doors after the service across the commons, you're going to see a ginormous number one that is just a visible reminder to all of us that God loves each and every one of us, every person. And we want to be a church that celebrates with all of heaven each and every time a lost person turns to Jesus and comes home. Now, as we wrap up Galatians Chapter one, I want us to not miss this foundational takeaway. And that is, the Gospel is Jesus, period. No matter who preaches it.

There is no other good news but the message of Jesus, who graciously died for our sins and powerfully rose from the dead. We become right with God through faith in Jesus. Now, we express that faith in a number of ways. We express it in our worship, in our obedience, in our prayer, in our baptisms, in our generosity, and in other ways. But what saves us is Jesus, our trust in him.

There are a number of false gospels that would imply that Jesus is a way of salvation or that Jesus is a part of salvation. But if our hope hinges on anything besides Jesus himself, the Apostle Paul would say in Galatians Chapter one, that we are Adding to we are distorting and in the process we are undermining the message of Jesus. So let me just go on record as clearly as I can by saying the Gospel is not Jesus plus financial security. It's not Jesus plus career success. The Gospel is not Jesus plus our relationship status or Jesus plus our horoscope, or Jesus plus our political affiliation, or Jesus plus Bible knowledge, or Jesus plus church membership, or Jesus plus tithing, or Jesus plus a sinner's prayer, or Jesus plus an ongoing string of emotional experiences.

The gospel of grace equals Jesus plus nothing. Jesus alone has the power to save us. We cannot save ourselves by what we know. We can't save ourselves by what we do. We can't save ourselves by what we achieve.

The Gospel of grace equals Jesus plus nothing.

Let's go back for just a second to the way that Paul began this letter, verses three through five, where he said grace, the undeserved kindness of God and peace, that place of being right with God, with each other, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Paul begins this letter by stressing that our rescue from this evil world, our deliverance from sin, our assurance of forgiveness, our hope of eternal life is anchored in Jesus. By God's grace. Jesus died in our place at the cross and, and we don't deserve that gift.

We can never earn it. But because of that grace, we can have peace and reconciliation with God. So I need to ask you this this morning. Are you trusting present tense in Jesus to save you? Are you trusting in Jesus to save you?

I want you to notice I'm not asking if you grew up in Sunday school. I'm not asking if you prayed a prayer at vacation Bible school. I'm not asking if your grandpa was a preacher. I'm not asking if you were baptized as a kid or if you went to church camp or if you're a church member or if you volunteer in ministry or if you've made a donation to our church recently. I'm asking are you trusting present tense in Jesus to make you and keep you right with God?

Are you acknowledging that you cannot save yourself? Are you guarding against counterfeit gospels, gospel additives? Are you living present tense for Jesus? Are you living with present tense Jesus? The gospel of grace equals Jesus plus nothing.

Let's pray. Father God, we're grateful for this gospel of grace Father. Because every single one of us, in a variety of different ways, we're a mess. Father. We come together this morning not because we have it all together, not because we have it going on, but because we are broken, flawed, sinful people in need of your grace and your mercy, your spirit's power to transform our lives, to reorient our hearts and our minds, to upgrade our desires, to steer us in a completely different direction.

And God, we thank you for the gift of your grace that makes it possible for us to receive a gift that we could never achieve or earn. We're grateful for your willingness to put on flesh, to live a perfect life, to show us what obedience looks like, and then to offer that perfect life in our place at the cross, and then to reclaim life from the jaws of death by coming back from the grave so that we can join you as well in life that never ends. God, we thank you for that promise. And we thank you for the one name that makes it possible, and that is the name of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Friends, if you're not sure where you stand with God, the message of Scripture is that you can be. I mean, we would love at any time to talk with you. We would love to pray with you. We love to help you find answers to whatever questions you're wrestling with right now. We'd love to help you get to know Jesus better and follow him more closely.

So let me quickly practically just tell you a couple of ways that you could reach out to us to facilitate that conversation. Number one, to all of our friends who are online right now, we would just invite you to text the word next to 317-707-997. Let us know what you're thinking about. We'd love to follow up with you and begin that conversation. And if you're here in person with us today, thank you for being here rather than watching cars drive 200 times in a circle.

We're grateful that you're here, but if we can be of help to you in any way, we'll be down front of the stage right after the service. We'd love to have a conversation with you. We'd love to pray with you, help in any way we can. I want to encourage us, lastly, to remember that Paul's ministry, it began with a time of reflection. So as we launch into the book of Galatians, I hope you'll join me in tackling that, that reading plan that I mentioned.

I'm going to start this plan tomorrow morning. I would invite you to join along with me. You can pick up a copy of this at the Connection Center. You can download it from our mobile app or from our website. Together we have the opportunity to spend time on a daily basis with Jesus throughout this series, unpacking together and allowing the Holy Spirit to help us pray Process individually some of the things that we're going to focus on when we gather together on Sundays.

Our opportunity as followers of Jesus is to seek and to find freedom as we seek Jesus who wants to be found. So as we walk out those doors, we're doing that as people who on the one hand continue to be seekers of Jesus, but also people who have this amazing opportunity to share what Jesus is teaching us with other people who are seeking him as well. And and I want to encourage you to use this reading guide, grab a Bible if you need to to help you in that process. But thank you so much for starting your week with us. God bless you all and we'll talk to you again soon.