I have a confession to make… I don’t deserve to be your pastor… “Why?” you might ask… The answer is: because I didn’t go to Sunday School.
Now, as soon as I said that I realized it wasn’t quite true. I did go to Sunday School growing up, just not very much. I do have a certificate that says I graduated from one Sunday School department to another when we lived in New York. (Mind you: this was in the heyday of the Church when congregations had graded Sunday Schools.) But I only have one or two distinct memories of Sunday School in New York. And you all know the story of the one time I attended Sunday School in this church as a child. I ran out!
My family moved to California when I was seven. I have only one distinct memory of Sunday School in California. I wasn’t even there when they handed out Bibles to fourth graders. So, you are getting the picture… I have a dismal Sunday School record.
But I do have a superpower. I married a woman with a Sunday School pin that reached from her shoulder to the floor. She was in Sunday School whenever the doors were open. And she learned really cool stuff that she passed on to me. She even memorized the books of the Bible in order. How cool is that? And apparently, they taught her in Sunday School these really neat ways of remembering the order of the books of the Bible. The one I always remember that Becky taught me was: General Electric Power Company—Galatians—Ephesians—Philippians—Colossians!
Well, here I am fifty years after failing out of Sunday School and I am offering you a sermon series entitled… you guessed it… General Electric Power Company! We are going to spend the next year together studying Paul’s letters to the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Philippians, and the Colossians. Today, we are going to start with Galatians, and I have titled this mini-series which is part of the maxi series… Plug into The Power of Grace!
Listen for God’s word of grace to you from Galatians 1:1-10…
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:
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 for ever and ever. Amen.
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. 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! 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!
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.
Paul was passionate about the Gospel.
Reading the opening of Galatians for the first time is sort of like walking into a room where people are raising their voices and arguing… vehemently. When you walk in on something like that, with two people arguing who you don’t know, and you don’t know where the argument began, it can be unnerving. You might have one of two reactions. You might just want to turn and walk out of the room. Or, if you are a peacemaker, you might choose to step in and try to settle the argument, or at least calm things down. I’m sure some people, in reading Galatians, have wanted to tell Paul, “Just calm down. What’s the big deal?”
Reading the opening of Galatians is also like listening in on one side of a telephone conversation. We don’t know what has been said on the other end of the telephone line to provoke the response we are hearing from Paul.
To understand what is going on in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, it can be helpful, I believe, to go back to the book of Acts and see how Paul’s ministry in Galatia began. Paul went to Galatia, in what is now central southern Turkey, on his first missionary journey. We read about this in Acts 13 and 14. Specifically, Paul preached the Gospel in four Galatian cities: Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. A key part of Paul’s message, preached first in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, is summed up in Acts 13:38-39…
Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
The people in the synagogue were so fascinated with Paul’s message that they followed him and his co-worker Barnabas out of the synagogue in continued discussion. We read that Paul and Barnabas urged their hearers to “continue in the grace of God”.
Then we read, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.”
So, we can gather that some of Paul’s fellow Jews accepted his message, while others did not. Because of this rejection, Paul left the synagogue and took the message to the Gentiles. This became his regular pattern in each of the cities he visited. First, he went and preached in the synagogue, but when he faced rejection there, he took the message to the Gentiles.
However, some of Paul’s fellow Jews in Pisidian Antioch were not content with ejecting him from their synagogue. We read that they also “incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region.” Paul and Barnabas’ response was that they “shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.”
In Acts 14 we read that in Iconium, Paul and Barnabas “spent considerable time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.” But again, the people of the city were divided. Those who were against Paul’s message wanted to stone him and Barnabas, but the two men were able to escape.
In the next city, Lystra, Paul healed a man who had been crippled from birth. As a result of the miracle, the people of the city wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas who, of course, rejected such worship and urged the people to worship God alone.
“Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples.”
It would be easy to think, when reading the opening of Galatians, that Paul is simply angry. And we wonder: why is he so angry? When we read Acts and then Galatians, we realize that Paul is angry because he has introduced these people in Galatia to the Gospel and now some of them, have been led away from that Gospel by some of Paul’s fellow Jews.
Reading about the mission to Galatia in the book of Acts gives us the appropriate backdrop we need to understand Paul’s letter to the Galatians. And the main thing we see in both Acts and Galatians is that Paul is passionate about the Gospel. It is not simply a matter of Paul being angry because some of his fellow Jews disagreed with him. Paul was positively passionate about the Gospel.
And what is the Gospel? It is simply the good news about Jesus the Messiah—his life, death, and resurrection. And this leads to a second point…
The Gospel is all about grace.
Grace is mentioned at least three times in Acts 13 and 14. There we read about “continuing in the grace of God”, and God “confirming the message of his grace”, and Paul and Barnabas being “committed to the grace of God”. That would make a good three-point sermon in and of itself: committed, confirmed, and continuing in the grace of God.
Then in Galatians, Paul opens the letter by wishing the Galatians “grace and peace… 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 for ever and ever. Amen.”
That is Paul’s summation of the Gospel, neatly tied with a bow, right out of the starting gate of this letter. Then he goes on to say, “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—which is really no gospel at all.”
So, it becomes quite clear, that for Paul, the Gospel is all about grace. And what is grace? The word “grace” is one of the most important words in the New Testament. It appears 157 times. 102 of those occurrences are in Paul’s letters.
The word in Greek is χάρις and it is a very rich word. In one sense it can refer to that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, and loveliness. In a second sense, and this is the primary meaning of “grace” for Paul, the word means good will, loving kindness, favor. Specifically, grace is a type of kindness that bestows upon someone what they have not deserved. Grace is preeminently that kindness which God bestows, the favor he extends, to undeserving sinners like us, by which he grants us pardon from our offences and bids us accept eternal salvation through Christ. The word is used of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian faith knowledge, and affection, and kindles within them the exercise of Christian virtues. There is within this little word, grace, the idea of God freely extending himself and his favor, reaching (and inclining) to people because he is disposed to bless (and be near) them.
But what does grace look like? I would suggest to you that grace looks like Deacon Dave in a church that I once served. Deacon Dave’s church had called me to serve as their pastor. And so, I made my way to Columbia, South Carolina to be examined by the Presbytery and to look for a place for Becky and me and our one-year-old son to live. Deacon Dave loaned me his car to drive while I was in town. And what did I do? I went out looking for housing. I had various addresses I was trying to find. Mind you, this was long before the advent of GPS. But I had handwritten notes to guide me through this town that I had only been to once before in my life. So, I was driving along in Deacon Dave’s car, and every so often I was looking down at my notes. And the last time I looked down, as I was driving along, when I looked up suddenly there was a school bus stopped in front of me. Well, I didn’t want to hit the school bus, so I swerved into the other lane, and I hit the car parked there. That was much better than hitting a school bus! Deacon Dave’s car was totaled. I dreaded making that call, but what else could I do. I called up Deacon Dave right away and told him I had smashed up his car. Now Deacon Dave was one of those people who is smiling all the time. And it was genuine. That man probably came out of the womb smiling and he will go to his eternal reward smiling. And when I called him and told him I totaled his car, I could hear Deacon Dave smiling through the phone. He was sad to lose his beloved automobile, but he forgave me immediately. He was concerned that I was alright, that I wasn’t hurt. And he continued to accept me and work with me as his new pastor. That’s grace. That’s undeserved favor. Deacon Dave could have gone back to his church and said, “Are you sure we should have Will as our pastor? After all, he cracked up my car!” But he didn’t do that. He forgave me. He loved me. He accepted me. And that is grace.
But let’s take it up a notch. The grace that Deacon Dave showed to me many years ago is but a dim reflection of the grace that God shows to all of us. We haven’t just cracked up God’s favorite automobile. We have cracked up our lives. We have cracked up this beautiful world that God gave us to live in. We have messed up relationships. We have polluted our bodies and we have polluted this beautiful earth that God created. And some of that we have not done by accident. We have all had times in our lives where we have basically said to God or acted toward God like, “I know how to run my life. I am just going to do things my way. I’m going to do what I want to do.” And it never works. But we persist in it anyway. And God never gives up on us. Despite wars and rumors of war. Despite murder, adultery, lying, theft, you name it, in spite of it all, God still loves us. He pursues us. He sends his Son to live and die and rise again for us. And so, he forgives us. God continues to choose to work with us and in us and through us. That’s grace. That’s undeserved favor. No wonder we call him Savior. The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is all about grace. And that grace is powerful. It can change our lives.
There is only one Gospel.
This leads me to one final point that Paul makes in this passage, and that is that there is only one Gospel. He says, “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—which is really no gospel at all.” And then Paul makes the point even stronger when he says, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” That is strong language! But Paul thereby makes his point crystal clear: there is only one Gospel.
Now I know some of you are thinking: aren’t there four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? That is true. But all four Gospels in the New Testament point to the one, true, and only Gospel, the only Good News, the same Good News that Paul proclaimed, the Good News of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
Last year, a long-time member of our church passed away. Her name was Mary Studley. She and her husband Bob had been very involved in our church throughout their lives and contributed heavily to the work of this church. For the last three or four years of her life, Mary was bedridden. But she never lost her smile. Even the last day I went to see her when she lay dying in the nursing home, she still had a smile on her face. And Mary had this habit, whenever I went to visit her, she would ask me, “So what’s the good news?” And I would say, “The good news is that Jesus loves you!” I think Mary was startled the first time I said that. I think she was expecting me to share some little story of something good happening in my life or in the church, but instead, every time she asked me, “So what’s the good news?” I would answer: “Jesus loves you.” It became a kind of running conversation between us.
And that, my friends, is the ultimate Good News: Jesus loves you. He forgives you. He shows you his grace, his undeserved favor. There is no other good news besides that. Every other thing we call “good news” is really only “good news” as it is a reflection of God’s love in Jesus Christ.
There is no other religion that has “good news” like the good news of Jesus. Think about it. Every other religion says, “You’ve got to do this. You’ve got to do that, in order to get into God’s good graces, in order to earn heaven or nirvana, or whatever ideal of perfection it may be.” Every other religion of the world says, “Do!” But Jesus says, “Done!” When he died on the cross, he said, “It is finished!” The word in Greek is “tetelestai”. And it literally means, “paid in full”. It’s the word a creditor would stamp on a bill when a person’s debt was fully paid. That’s what Jesus has done for us. He has paid the debt of our sin which is death. And he has paid it in full. He has given us eternal life instead. That’s grace. And it’s the only really good news in town. Every other religion or philosophy offers only bad news by comparison. Jesus offers good news, and it is the only good news on the market.
Many years ago, when I was a student in seminary, my best friend was a young man named Richard Burnett. Richard’s father, Bob, was a pastor and one day he came to visit his son at seminary. I didn’t know much about holiness in those days. I still don’t. But I had a sense that Bob was a holy man, a good man. He was the kind of man I thought could see right through me. And as I got talking with Bob Burnett over dinner one night in the school cafeteria, he told me the story of his call to ministry. He was a Christian, but as a young man he worked in insurance. And one night he went to hear the famous preacher, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. After the message, Bob Burnett went to greet Dr. Barnhouse and introduced himself. He said, “My name is Bob Burnett and I sell life insurance.” And Dr. Barnhouse said, “You mean death insurance. If you want to sell life insurance, then you need to change jobs and do what I’m doing.” That was Bob’s call to ministry, and he changed his job almost immediately. He quit selling death insurance, went to seminary, and spent the rest of his life serving as a pastor, “selling life insurance”.
There is only one real life insurance on the market, only one person who offers good news, only one who gives eternal life, and his name is Jesus Christ. He offers grace to you today, undeserved favor, but that grace is not yours until you receive it, accept it as a gift, unwrap it, enjoy it, give thanks for it, and share it with others. I hope you will make the decision to do just that today and that you will plug your life into the power of grace.
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