A Different Gospel – Pt. 1 Galatians 1:1-10

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here today
Be with us
Present in our struggles
In our successes
With us in our sorrows and joy
Together, even in,
Maybe especially in,
The everyday
The commonplace
The ordinary
These unexceptional days
Most of us live
Most of the time

And join us together Lord
One body
One community
One family
Loving
Serving
And seeking you
To know you
To join in your work
To heal and repair
This world
With your love
Day by day
Step by step
Moment by moment
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Paul, an apostle—not from 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,
To the churches of Galatia:
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, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Galatians 1:1-5

Intro: I’m going to make this simple, and show you what I see in the introduction to this letter

First, there’s something different about the way it begins
– in Paul’s usual typical greetings he identifies himself, his title, and whoever else is with him
• then, he greets and blesses his readers with, “grace and peace”
• but in this letter, before he mentions his companions, he takes a detour
◦ he turns this simple greeting into a strong assertion
– humans had nothing to do with Paul becoming an apostle
it was “not from man nor through man”
– this cuts to the heart of what Paul wants to say in this letter
• he’ll spend most of the first two chapters with autobiography
◦ how he was inspired and the revelations that came to him
• but that is because Paul is very upset, as will become obvious
◦ if you’ve ever been “lectured” by a parent, a police officer, or a teacher,
◦ you will recognize how Paul is dealing with the Galatians

In the next three verses,
– Paul turns a simple greeting into a theological lesson
• when he mentions God and Jesus,
◦ he also reminds us of our relationship to both of them
◦ the Father has adopted us, and our Lord guides and trains us
• working together, they “deliver us from the present evil age”
(which means we enter instead “the kingdom of his beloved son”–Col. 1:13-14)
◦ personally, I want to hang on to this word “deliver”
◦ I can discipline myself to break many bad habits but I can’t break them all – not on my own
Jesus gets us unstuck from what holds us back or drags us down
– “to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen” is a doxology – (Greek, doxa is “glory”–praise to God)
• doxologies are often read or sung in church liturgies
◦ every doxology has a theological foundation
• isn’t it lovely how Paul slides so easily into worship
◦ it’s like a second language to him
◦ he can be wading through profound truth,
or writing a simple greeting,
or telling the story of his conversion,
and praise flows naturally from his heart
• a bit later, I want to return to what worship means to us today

Paul jumps into the thick of his message
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—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:6-7

I think we need to feel the force of the key words in verse 6:
– “astonished,” “so quickly,” “deserting,” and “turning”
• Paul is intentionally using strong language
◦ have you ever been reading a book when you realize
you have no idea what the paragraph you just read was about because your mind was elsewhere?
◦ Paul uses a shock tactic to guarantee he has the Galatians’ attention
• these verses in the King James Version contain an odd contradiction
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another“
◦ this is because the Greek language has two words for “another”
◦ allos means “another of the same kind” and heteros means “another of a different kind”
– the other gospel that came to Galatia wasn’t totally “new”
• it still contained elements of the life and teaching of Jesus
◦ but a twist had been added that “distorted” the gospel,
so that it was no longer the gospel Paul preached
• what did that do to the Galatians?
“but there are some who trouble you”
◦ “trouble” refers to a mental or emotional state of upset, agitation, disturbance–a kind of unhappiness

Some people had passed through Galatia preaching a gospel; supposedly the same as Paul
– but what they taught contradicted Paul’s teaching
• in my years of ministry, I’ve talked with many people who have goofy interpretations
◦ I can overlook the majority of them
◦ their relationship with God isn’t seriously threatened
• but there are other interpretations I can’t ignore or overlook because they’re patently wrong
◦ there are streams of doctrine that carry people away from Jesus
– we must take these things seriously

Listen to how Paul instructs the Galatians to respond to these people
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:8-9

What the Galatians had been fed was so wrong,
– that even if it Paul came preaching it or “an angel from heaven”
• the Galatians were to pronounce a curse on those people
• in fact, that is what Paul does in verse 9 where he says, “let him be accursed”
– this other message was not like a generic medication,
• a cheaper version of the same product
• it was something so warped it was no longer Christian
◦ it did not heal or cure anything
◦ it could only make them spiritually ill, or worse

As we go on in Galatians, we’ll learn the threat was severe enough,
– that it could have torn them away from Jesus
• it could have canceled the work of God’s grace in their lives
• they would have been deceived into believing they were still Christians,
◦ when in reality they had left the path of Jesus

Paul loved the people he introduced to Jesus,
– and whose faith he had nurtured
• he felt very protective of them
◦ when he heard they were buying into a different gospel,
◦ he reacted like a concerned parent or best friend
• he had to insist that they trust in Jesus and their relationship with him
◦ that they not allow anyone to turn them a different direction
◦ or judge them, or influence them to doubt their faith
regardless of how knowledgeable those preachers seemed to be
or how clever and impressive they were,
or how powerful their presentations
– whenever people commandeer Christianity, it turns ugly

Paul asks two rhetorical questions
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10

This loops back to what he expressed in verse 1
– it was God who called him and equipped him to be an apostle
• he wasn’t worried if he angered the other preachers
◦ he wasn’t worried if they didn’t respect him
• if his life was driven by what others thought of him,
◦ God’s mission would have no longer been his priority
– today there are many people in every strata of society,
• who are scared to death to let their ideals and loyalties be known
Perhaps if all people who consider themselves believers,
– asked themselves a couple of questions, like Paul asks regarding himself
• the church could produce Christians with greater integrity and courage
– the first question might be:
“On what grounds do I consider myself to be a Christian?”
• let me give you a hint:
◦ if your answer is, “Because I was born in America,” your kite ain’t gonna fly!

Contemporary Christian worship has gone off course
(This does not apply to all churches, but more than I’d like to admit)

On Thursday I had a long conversation with a friend regarding worship
– we had similar experiences when for the first time our worship felt real
• maybe for you, the first time you experienced worship it brought tears to your eyes,
◦ was because you had found your way to your true home
◦ you had come out of the darkness and into the light
• you realized God’s mercy was setting you free
◦ and the love of Jesus was embracing you
◦ you were forgiven and God was going to make you whole
– that experience of worship was not a result of being hyped up
• it wasn’t sentimental or schmaltzy
• it was more like returning home from active duty in the army
◦ we were wounded, we had battle fatigue,
◦ we had fought for our lives and seen our companions die
– worship wasn’t entertainment then–at least not at first
• it was being rushed into the emergency room and receiving triage
• it was our first sensation of hope
◦ Jesus cam near to us and our hearts were singing to him, “You are awesome and I love You”
– but in the last twenty years, “worship music” has become a commodity;
and for the musicians and singers who take the stage, a performance
• it is loud and energetic, the lyrics have become formulaic,
◦ and instead of turning believers into worshipers, we’ve turned them into an audience
• many leaders have little experience of worship’s transcendence
◦ there is more froth than substance, more hoorah than hallelujah
and we don’t experience the closeness of Jesus in it like we once did
◦ but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of today’s troubled church

Conclusion: What Paul wanted is what we are also longing to see in our lifetime

To hang our heads for what we have been willing to swallow,
to drop out of pop-religion and just get back to Jesus
I’m hoping that going through Galatians will help us do that