He Gave Himself

He Gave Himself

January 1, 2017

Galatians 1:1-5

Read Galatians 1:1-5

Welcome to 2017! It is a new year, a new beginning. Much is familiar and it does not feel a whole lot different than it did yesterday, but everything is different.

That is the perfect summation of the letter Paul wrote to the Galatians. We are going to cover this in much greater detail throughout the next couple of months, but it is important to recognize the big picture right up front: for the early church, there was confusion because much was familiar and did not feel a whole lot different; yet everything was different. This letter was written to give clarity where believers were confused.

Background

We start today with some background. We first have to introduce the author: Paul. This will be familiar to many of you, but a review is worthwhile.

As we look at the New Testament, it would be difficult to overstate the impact this one man had on our understanding of the person, work, and meaning of Jesus Christ. He is the reputed author of almost half of the New Testament; thirteen out of the twenty-seven books. That material includes instructional and correctional letters to congregations, and letters to individuals. In addition to what Paul wrote, in a good portion of the book of Acts (Luke’s account of the early church’s movement outwards into the world from Jerusalem after Jesus’ crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension), Luke wrote about three missionary journeys made by Paul.

Paul was quite the character. We know a fair amount about him because of his own writing and what we read in Acts. Listen to Paul’s own words, and you get a sense of him:

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:4-6)

You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. (Galatians 1:13-14)

Before his “road to Damascus conversion,” Paul was a passionate persecutor of the church. He was present at the stoning of the first martyr, Stephen; and he watched it with approval. His Road to Damascus conversion took place after he had been granted authority – at his own request – to arrest and bring back to Jerusalem for prosecution any and all believers in Jesus Christ. He was a well-known threat to believers.

When he was blinded, the LORD appeared to disciple named Ananias in a vision:

Acts 9:10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

And suffer, he did. Paul would describe his experiences in ministry this way:

Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23-38)

By this point, you should have the impression that Paul was a driven, convicted, and passionate proclaimer of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is absolutely the case. Here’s the thing: as we read about Paul, we get the impression that the only thing that changed about Paul was Jesus. He does not seem like the easiest guy to have around. Most of the rest of his personality, character, energy, and commitment are the same as it was prior to the road to Damascus – it does not feel a whole lot different, yet everything was different.

I am dwelling on this because many people struggle trying to change who God created them to be in order to become something they are not. They struggle to become some image of a Christian that they think other people have down pat. That is not how it works.

Yes, God is working to conform you to the image of his son. Think of that in terms of the relationship as opposed to your lacking something because you are not the spinner of parables or worker of miracles that Jesus was. God created you as you – intentionally. Paul’s conversion and commitment did not miraculously change his character and personality except insofar as God had redirected his heart and relationship to Jesus Christ.

Paul believed; and more than that, he was compelled to tell others because he was convinced it was essential for them to believe, too. He made no apologies for the gospel, “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith. …For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17).

Galatia

Now that you have a feel for Paul, let me turn our attention to the recipients of the letter: the churches in Galatia. I need to give you a wildly inaccurate geography lesson. If you imagine the Mediterranean Sea as a rectangle, Jerusalem would be at the bottom right corner. Paul was commissioned as a missionary from the church that had developed in Antioch, which was almost to the top right corner along the east side of the Mediterranean. Galatia was a Roman province in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. If you are able to see it this way: Paul’s travels in Galatia were like being caught in a rundown between first and second base.

Paul started these churches. They were part of his first (of three) missionary journeys we read about in the New Testament. Among the cities he visited were Derby, Lystra and Iconium. His ministry in these cities during the first missionary journey are described in Acts 13 – 14. He would first go to the synagogues to address the Jews. But he also would go out into the town and address Gentiles. These were places he boldly proclaimed his message, people responded, and then he was driven out of town by those threatened by what was happening. Despite – or perhaps because of – how he was treated, churches began.

This letter comes a number of years later. Word got to Paul about some of the growing pains these churches were experiencing: how to reconcile the cultural divisions that were a part of the Old Testament understanding of God. In short, people claiming authority in the Christian movement had come to urge the new believers to think that Jesus’ primary role was prophetic – pointing them back to the Old Testament in order to get right with God. It seems like a subtle thing – and it is – but Paul’s scalding reaction that we see foreshadowed in these opening lines show how essential is the understanding that the Old Testament was fulfilled by – and points to – Christ, and not the other way around. You do not need to be a practicing Jew to be a Christian. Yes, things are familiar and may not look much different, but everything is different.

If you understand that explanation, you have the key to understanding the whole letter.

Paul’s Authority

With that as a background, let us return to the salutation from Paul to the Galatian churches. “Paul an apostle,” he began, emphasizing his status within the larger Jesus movement. Apostles were recognized as being way up in the hierarchy. He was claiming to be on par with The Twelve; those who had been called, traveled, and been with the Lord Jesus during his ministry, arrest, suffering, crucifixion, and then were witnesses to the resurrection. Paul came to faith later in his personal encounter with the risen Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, yet he was declaring here that he had the same authority as The Twelve.

He backed that up with “sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” Now – you and I looking back from the vantage point of more than two thousand years and finding this letter in the canon of the Bible – we may wonder, “ok, what’s the big deal? I can accept this.” The big deal was Paul was saying he was not sent out as a missionary by The Twelve in Jerusalem; his call was direct from God. God’s message that Paul declared stands as revealed; it did not need certification of experts who may try to explain why it does not mean what it says.

Paul was exhorting Jew and Gentile believers in Galatia to not give up salvation by faith through grace – the gospel he proclaimed – in favor of a works-based righteousness demanded by adhering to the law of Moses. For those of you familiar with the history given in Acts, Paul had founded these churches prior to the time he had gone to the Council in Jerusalem with The Twelve that we read about in Acts 15. The churches were founded before that Council, but the letter was sent long after. It appears that even though the Council had issued a declaration in support of Paul, there were Jewish believers who trailed behind Paul telling Gentiles just the opposite. The occasion for this letter was that Paul got word that the opponents were beginning to have an effect. You can imagine the confusion by new believers: what is it we are supposed to believe? What is it we are supposed to do?

We have the same confusion and questions: what are we supposed to believe? What are we supposed to do? For us, the struggle was real because it is difficult to discern among much that looks familiar and does not feel a whole lot different; yet everything is different. We look around and see the church in tatters – denominations splitting over theology, Christians battling on all sides of the political spectrum, battling on all sides of social issues, battling on all sides of economic battles. How are we supposed to know what is true?

Here is where Paul’s second phrase matters: we believe God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That is it. That is the foundational stone upon which our faith, our hope, our worship, and our salvation depend. Everything else is evaluated based upon that truth.

That message was the cornerstone of Paul’s authority. It is why he will fight so hard to keep it clear. Paul’s commitment to the message – not his own position, power, or persuasiveness – is what gave him such passion to defend the gospel against incursions by those who would say, “yes, but…” or “yes, and…”

In my time serving here, I have focused on preaching through books of the Bible, verse by verse. It has been uncomfortable at time because there are topics I would have preferred to avoid: how many of you remember the time I covered Lot’s incestuous relationship with his daughters on a Sunday where we had Preschool families in worship? Through it all, there has been one overarching commitment: we are going to study God’s word on its own terms as God’s word revealed to us. We are going to study it with the presumption that it has authority to correct and shape our lives, not so we can pick and choose what makes us feel good from it.

Over the last week away from the office, I have spent a fair amount of time reading. Two pieces stood out to me, both of which I find to be unfortunate and illustrations of the very kind of thing Paul was already addressing here in the salutation. The first[1] was a critique of Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. It was in a post responding to a New York Times article in which Nicolas Kristoff interviewed Keller.

…If I were genuinely struggling and skepticalabout my standing in the Christian tradition, Keller’s answers would have sounded more dismissive than pastoral, more in quick “fix it” mode with ready“answers” than truly listening to the legitimacy of these recurring concerns.

Despite Keller’s protests, the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesusinvite genuine intellectual skepticism, not simply because of the nature of these events, but preciselybecauseof the Bible’s varied and even confusing reports of them. The resurrection accountsdiffer considerably from one another and cannot be merged—they were not meant to be. The virgin birth is known only to Luke and Matthew—Mark and John don’t mention it and Paul, though given ample opportunity, never even alludes to it.

Simply reading the Bible raises the concerns and, intellectually speaking, they are not easily solved.

All believers need to decide how to handlethese things, and my point here is not to address that process. I only want to say that a truly pastoral response should begin, “Yes, I understand and respect the honest searching that has brought you to this point and I acknowledge the Bible’s ambiguities,” rather than (to cite the article) “if you don’t accept the Resurrection or other foundational beliefs as defined by the Apostles’ Creed, I’d say you are on the outside of the boundary.”