Northside Church - Sydney
GALATIANS 2013 // A Celebration of Grace – Week 1: Grace To Live Abundantly
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Now here's a bit of Bible trivia for you. What does the book of Galatians and a former French president have in common? Got you stumped? Well, I would have been stumped if I hadn't done the research. It seems that the region of Galatia in the 1st century occupied a fairly big area which we would know today as Turkey. But it seems like in that early part in the 1st century many from Galatia for various reasons, depending on which source you look at, moved from there across the empire and established themselves in a part of the world that we know now as France, but which in those days was known as because of the coming of the Galatians became known as Gaul, G-A-U-L. And so between the years of 1959 and 1969, France had a president called Charles de Gaul. And his surname could be traced back to his heritage in Gaul which came kind of from the Galatians. It's a very loose link. I'll grant you that. But I thought it would at least maybe just get your attention for a moment. But it does highlight something. It highlights the fact that when Paul wrote his book to the Galatians, he's led it to the Galatians, that group of churches was made up largely of Gentile people. It was primarily a Gentile region. But there were some Jewish people within those congregations. And therein lay the problem. Because as was the case with so many of the churches Paul established, there were those who thought that you had to modify the Christian faith include some of the old Jewish elements to make it all really work. So there was a clash of theological viewpoints. Look at this. There was a clash of theological viewpoints between those embracing the faith for the first time and the members of the long, established Jewish religion. And we can kind of understand it. I mean, the Jewish faith would be going for centuries. And the message of Jesus was all new and they naturally felt, you know, it couldn't be all gone. Surely. Let's include some of the laws and some of the rights and rituals, including circumcision. Now here's the thing, devotion, dedication, diligence in the Jewish faith was all about adherence to the law. That was where it began and ended, strict adherence to the law. And this is where the theological clash was taking place between these two groups. Paul was teaching that salvation comes through faith alone. It is purely a matter of God's grace. It is not dependent on obedience to the law. Now, by way of review, look at some of the great passages that Paul stated on this Romans 614, "We do not live under the law, but under God's grace." You can't get any clearer than that. Romans 7, 6, "No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit." Now it's clear from Galatians, there were people, members of these Galatian churches who were hell-bent, can't put it all away, hell-bent on a distorted view of the gospel, including some of these aspects of the Jewish faith. And that's why some of his strongest words ever expressed in any of these laws are in Galatians. And one of the things I hope will come out of this little series will be that you'll get into the book of Galatians and rediscover its rich truths for yourself. Look at some of Paul's rebukes, chapter 1, verse 6. He says, "I'm surprised that you in no time at all you are deserting the one who called you and you're accepting another gospel." And then in verse 7, look at this, verse 7, he says, "Actually there is no other gospel, but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ." Have a look at chapter 3, verse 1. He says, "You foolish Galatians," pretty strong, "who put a spell on you before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus on the cross." And then in verses 2 and 3, he says, "Tell me there's one thing, did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the law requires, or by hearing the gospel, and believing it?" Which was it? How can you be so foolish? You begin by God's Spirit, do you now want to finish by your own power? It's only getting right into it. He was pretty fired up and as if he hasn't been upset enough, Paul uses the second last verse of the entire book to drive his indignation home even further, just one more time. Look at chapter 6 verse 17, I really love this, this is a preacher who's having a bad day. He says, "To conclude," not me, him, "to conclude, let no one give me any more trouble because the scars I have on my body show that I'm a slave of Jesus." In other words, don't mess me around anymore, don't keep building up on me, I've got enough scars already from being an apostle. I expect you Galatians to behave yourselves and get back on track, so it's very full-on and all men and women of God have days like that, but Paul actually states it, you know? "Include that no one give me any more trouble." So Graham had to let me in the head of all this meeting, just laying it out. Well here it is, here's the thing, we've entitled this series, Galatians 2013, because I tell you what, the contents of this book are as up to date for you and me as they were for these people of Galatia, who many of whom later went and settled in Gaul, now it's as up to date for us as it was for them. We may not have Jewish sects trying to infiltrate the teaching here, some of the specific issues are different, I'll grant you that, but you know there's always been a form of Christianity around always. With the emphasis on it's all a matter of what you do, it's how you do life, it emphasizes the belief of being a good Christian is about behaving in a certain way, it's about trying hard to maintain certain moral and ethical codes and look while these things are for sure indicators, they are indicators of the strength of one's faith in Christ, absolutely, but they do not represent the central component of Christianity, they do not represent the essential core of God's plan of salvation and look guys it's in this area of doctrine and theology that we better get it right, we really need to get this very clear in our minds, otherwise the Christian life can become a very frustrating and a very legalistic form of religion with very little if any joy and purpose and meaning, nothing like the experience God intends us to have, because you're always beating yourself up, because you're never maintaining the standard and some of you have come through this, you see, the Pharisees of Jesus day, let's be honest they were upright people, they were good people, most of them were very moral people, they were God fearing people, but there wasn't a lot of joy, very judgmental, very holier than thou, very guilt ridden, of course, constantly in conflict with Jesus because he made it clear from the beginning that being saved was not about external appearance, it was about inter-conviction and there's a huge difference in a transformation, that's why the Bible says the common people heard him gladly, of course, because he was pointing them in a direction that they could relate to, come to me all who are tired from carrying heavy loaves of the law and guilt and pain, come to me and I'll give you rest, Jesus talked about relationships, about trust, about faith, about surrender, Paul put it this way, and this comes directly out of Galatians 2, 20, look at this, I've been put to death with Christ on his cross so that it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Now guys, let's just pause for a moment, let's just press pause for a moment and think about the impact of this verse on the original hearers, it's always a good place to start in Bible study, just pause and think about the impact of this verse on the original hearers, first of all it's being read aloud, okay, all of Paul's letters would have been read aloud in the congregation, they didn't have their own copy in their equivalent of the North Side news, like so you go home read it at home, that facility was not available, so somebody would have got up and read this out in front of the congregation, the bulk of the hearers were coming from a pagan background and for then the cross was a symbol of shame, it was a symbol of guilt, it was a symbol of disgrace and yet Paul is saying he has been figuratively crucified with Christ on the cross, he's saying that that's the key to really knowing Jesus Christ, it's not about shame, it's about surrender, it's all been quite confronting for them, this is so critical, you know I've come from a background as many of you have in my early years with beautiful soul of the earth Christian people who thought that being crucified with Christ meant that you didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't swear and in my context out in the western cellos you couldn't go to the bank's town bars on Sunday, and you couldn't watch television on Sunday, thankfully, mercifully my father never imposed that one, but like there was a whole, this was just like, along with attending church and reading the Bible, attending church up to three times a day by the way, I mean that was a big part of my background of knowing and understanding, it was about this keeping, this rule, this rule, this rule, this rule, beautiful people, God-fearing people, thank God for the people who influenced my life in those days, I also thank God for the people who influenced me as I journey along and helped me to see that that was not where it was at, in other words strict obedience to a series of rules considered to be important, at least we consider it to be important for the maintenance of a Christian life, and you dare not infringe on any of these, but the new life promised in Christ is far deeper, it's far more meaningful than any of these external behaviors, when Paul talks about identifying with Christ in his death, he's referring to a spiritual principle, of course, a spiritual principle which says we live because we die, it's a paradox, it's an apparent contradiction, it's not the teaching or the belief of the world, you won't get that in a glossy magazine somewhere, you won't get that on a popular variety program, it's the same principle in which, that also says we gain because we lose, and of course these are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in Mark's Gospel chapter 8 verses 34 and 35, Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him, he said if any of you want to come after me, you must forget yourself, carry the cross and follow me, for if you want to save your own life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life for me and for the Gospel, you will save it, do you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your own soul, I mean this is fundamental to the discipleship Jesus calls us to, we need to surrender ourselves by faith, to embrace his teaching, to allow this sort of thinking to become a part of who we are, it's surrendering, it's death to self. Now guys that's conversion, that's when we say dear God thank you for what Jesus has done, thank you for his life, thank you for his death, thank you for his resurrection, thank you for his living presence in the world today, I through no worthiness of my own, I want to embrace that, I want to take that into my inner being, I want him to start making changes, in that act of surrender, we are trusting that he will establish new desires, new priorities, new values, new standards, it doesn't happen overnight for most people but it does happen, it does start to happen, it's part of the Christian progress and our move to Christian maturity, our life begins to change, not out of a sense of duty or obligation but in response, in response to the love, the grace, the compassion shown to us by Jesus, I mean best of all I can put it based on what Paul is saying is we live visibly in the flesh, we live invisibly by the faith, our visible external appearance or behaviour is not necessarily what distinguishes us from others, there are a lot of very good people out there, a lot of very morally ethically upright people, that's not the point of distinction, no any goodness people may see in us, any acts of love and kindness and compassion and reconciliation, mercy which we may express, they are the result of what's happening within us, the work of the Holy Spirit, his teaching, his renewing, his guiding, his transforming, it's our invisible life in Christ, it manifests itself in those kind of behaviours, I think Paul puts it beautifully in his second letter to the Corinthians, another church with which he had some real struggles, chapter 4, verses 16 to 18, look at this, he says for this reason we never become discouraged, even though our physical being is gradually decaying, our spiritual being, the inner life, is being renewed day after day and this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us tremendous, will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory much greater than the trouble, for we fix our attention not on things that are seen but on things that are unseen, what could be seen last only for a time, what cannot be seen last forever, visible life, that's one thing, but our internal life, our life in the spirit with what the Holy Spirit is doing within us, that's the point of distinction for the Christian. Guys I had a certain ending that I was going to give to this message that I had sort of planned through the week, but something that happened with this on Friday night changed all of that, as Sam mentioned, and Sarah mentioned at the first service, the ministry team, we went up in my car up to Bathurst to partner, to begin the process of partnering with the Bathurst Church of Christ that are ministering in their area to some Aboriginal young people and it was a very interesting night, I'm still processing a lot of what happened to be honest, it was just absolutely fascinating, confronting, exciting, inspirational, scary, all those things in one, and part of our role was just to move around and meet the people involved, this is a Friday night youth night, and I met this lady here, I said I want to take a picture of you because I want to remember your smile, is that there Carter, right there, okay, now I'm not going to give that lady's real name because somebody may know her, she's lived 70 of her 77 years in Bathurst, right, we'll call her Flo, if she looks like a Flo doesn't she, I got talking to Flo, right, and I asked the obvious question, I said what is a 77 year old lady doing here on a Friday night with all this noise and with all these kids running everywhere, it was about 30, I guess, that night at the youth night, and that was our point of, it was just, it was a 14 year old mother with a little baby, and this lady had given a lot of attention and a lot of care to that young girl, so there was some interesting scenes, it was just fascinating, and she said well you know I'm here because I know the sort of life some of these kids have, she said there's some shocking stories here, some stories of abuse and alcoholism and violence and that, she said I know what that's like because that's my background, that's my story, and she started to tell, she said look I, I said are you still living in the same home, that my, home I grew up in, that's hell, it's another side of town, that's hell, and she started to let the kind of abuse that she had experienced, and she said to me this is what really stuck me, she said all my life during my childhood and my adolescent years for as long as I can remember I was told every day exactly what I was by my father, and she used the term which I, for obvious reasons can't repeat here, and she said that's all I remember my father really saying to me apart from a couple of moments maybe when there was something different, so like I'm thinking well I said look, look as a parent, as a grandparent, I know how important it is to give positive affirmations to your children, I said you know like how do you survive that sort of upbringing, how can I explain you flow and who you are right now, and she without even missing a bit she said oh that's the grace of God, she said that's the grace of God, she said because I reached a point in my life thankfully for a thankful to a godly mother, she said I started to realize just how valuable I am to God, and it's nothing I've done or nothing I am, she said but that's his grace, she said I am here to today because of his grace, and I'm thinking hang on I'm preaching on grace, and I've got all the theory and I've got all the research, but like here's an example right before my very eyes, and look I could call on snacks of you of course, but that's a bit embarrassing because you know but to you somebody I met on Friday night, so here's a lady, why is she there with these kids on a Friday night because she knows where she's come from by the grace of God, and at 77 she wants to be there to make sure she does as much as she can in God's strength to ensure some of these kids don't go down the pathway she could have gone down, she told me about it, you know breakdowns over the years it wasn't a pretty story at all, but she said I'm here tonight because of God's grace, guys that's it, like your story, what is your, I mean what's the link between you and God's grace, are you celebrating that every day, are you thanking him, it's not about you, it's nothing that any of us could do or have done, it's all about because he says you are valuable, I love you as you are, I love you too much to just leave you as you are, I'm going to make you and shape you to the person that I know you can become, in her case, a person who's giving back even at 77, just let me, just surrender yourself to me and in losing you will gain, in dying, you will live, that's grace.