The Gospel Changes Lives | Galatians 1:11-24 | Pastor J.D. Todd

Today's scripture reading comes from Galatians 1, 11 through 24.

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you have heard from my former life in Judaism how I persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who are apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

Then, after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days, but I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother, and what I am writing to you before God I do not lie.

Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

They only were hearing it said, He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and the glorified God because of me.

This is the word of the Lord.

Or in other Spider-Verses, Gwen Stacy becomes Spider-Woman.

You have Penny Parker, Peter Porker, or even in some universes, there's a Spider-Man that is played by Nicolas Cage.

You could also imagine that you're at your cousin's 111th birthday party.

He gifts you a ring, and then you're off on an adventure with a wizard, an elf, a dwarf, men, and your fellow hobbits.

Or maybe you're hanging out with your bros in the sewer.

And you happen to cross some ooze.

You meet a rat, you learn some ninjutsu, and you become the teenage mutant ninja turtles.

And one more, I got one more.

Imagine you're at a restaurant and your feigned food critic, Anton Ego, and you eat a bite of Remy's ratatouille and are transported back to childhood, rediscovering your joy of food.

Each of these stories, each person or turtle experienced something that would change their lives forever.

They could no longer be the same person they once were before or after this event.

If we were to look back over our lives, I'm sure there are events that we would consider life-changing.

Moving homes, graduation, loss, surviving near-death experiences, relationships, marriage, having your first kid, second, third, fourth, fifth.

But many of us here would point to our salvation story as being the most significant life-changing experience.

And more pointedly, the gospel.

The person of Jesus Christ changed our life.

Today we will see how Paul's life was radically changed.

For the sermon outlined, there's four parts.

We'll have the divine origin of the gospel in verses eleven through twelve.

Second, life before Christ, verses thirteen through fourteen.

Third, encounter with Christ, verses fifteen through sixteen, and life with Christ, 17 through 24.

First, the divine origin of the gospel, verses eleven through twelve.

For it have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, nor did I receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I believed it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Which is a little bit crazy as Paul was absolutely taught, right?

Um but at the same time he was taught religion, traditions.

He references here specifically the gospel, not from men, but from a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Man does not have ownership of this gospel, nor can he be taught in such a way that it saves us.

Yes, the church is entrusted to the stewardship of the gospel.

Christians are entrusted to proclaim and live out these truths, but it is the life-changing power of Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross.

And there is a response, which we'll get to later.

But salvation of itself is of the Lord.

Salvation is ultimately a miracle.

It cannot be manipulated or calculated, it is not based on man's moral or religious effort, it cannot be earned.

You see, after the churches in Galatia were established, Paul left and continued his missionary journey, and some men came down from Judea.

They were teaching that Gentiles believers must adopt Jewish customs to be fully accepted by God.

They were preaching a Jesus and type of gospel.

Not that there is more than one gospel, but we can become enamored by false gospels.

This is in somewhat the first sin for us.

We wanted to define what was good and evil.

So we ourselves can become enamored and twisted with our own thinking and our own ways.

We can look to traditions, good works, how well we keep the law.

We hear believe in yourself, follow your heart.

I am saved, I can live however I want.

But when we belittle sin, we belittle our Savior.

Jake did a great job last week clarifying that there's one true gospel.

When we add to the gospel, we lose the gospel.

When we take away from the gospel, we lose the gospel.

When we change the good news, it becomes bad news.

We don't want to get this wrong.

Not only because of verses like, let them be accursed or have a millstone hung around their neck and cast into the sea, but because the good news is perfect the way it is.

It is grace, the free unmerited favor of God.

God saves his people.

Ephesians 2 says, But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses.

It is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Not by works so that no one can boast, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared for us in advance as our way of life.

And to help us remember that and help us guard against false gospels, we can rely on the authority of Scripture.

The Bible is the ultimate guide for doctrine, moral conduct, spiritual growth, and upheld by the teachings of Christ and illuminating light of the Holy Spirit.

It is divinely inspired, as Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17.

All scripture is God breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and fully equipped for every good work.

The Bible is anerrant and infallible.

Inerrant meaning it is without error in all that it affirms, as Psalm 197 declares.

Reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making wise as simple.

And if inerrant, then it is infallible.

Is incapable of leading believers astray in all matters of faith and practice.

So here in these first two verses, Paul is clarifying the one thing, the one person that saves you.

It is Jesus, his life.

He died for our sins, he was buried and raised on the third day.

And it is by his righteousness we are justified and are saved to life everlasting.

So do not be led astray.

Do not abandon your first love, because it is out of that love, and by his grace, that we are to love one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, serve one another, and bear each other's burdens.

So that is the first point.

Second point, life before Christ, Paul's former life.

So Jake said that I would share about who Paul is.

So who is this Paul?

He sums it up pretty well here in verses 13 and 14.

He says, For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.

So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

So Saul, also known as known as Paul.

A little bit of a name game there, but it's this isn't the same as Abram to Abraham or Sarai to Sarah, or Jacob to Israel, or Simon to Peter.

It was common during the time in history that Jews who were born and lived under Roman rule to possess both a Hebrew name and a Greco-Roman name.

It'd be like if I was known by James back in my hometown, then people would call me by James.

Here I'm more known as J.D.

So it's kind of like you kind of have a picture of who that person is based on their name.

But later in Acts, you'll learn that Paul was born in Tarsus and the city name at Cilicia.

He was a Roman citizen, he was a tent maker, worked with leather, he was a Pharisee, educated under Gamala, a respected teacher of the law.

And as Paul put it, he was zealous for the transition for the traditions of his ancestors.

But the first time we are introduced to Saul is in Acts 7.

After a riveting speech from Stephen, Saul oversees and approves the stoning of Stephen to his death.

And he actively sought to imprison Christians.

See, Paul has done and did some terrible things.

And at this point, we may be thinking, God is choosing him, saving him.

And it reminds us of how God also chose Jacob over Esau.

Jacob, deceiver, fearful, in the face of consequences, stole his brother's birthright, relying on man-made strategy versus faith in God.

That last one we may resonate a little bit with.

And then we can kind of remember that we do not know hearts, but God knows hearts.

And this goes beyond choosing, as we will see later.

We could also be like Jonah, when God told him to go tell the Ninevites his message.

Ninevites were described as wicked and evil.

But the Ninevites believed in God after Jonah told them.

And when God saw what the Ninevites did, how they turned from their evil ways, God relented of the disaster.

And he said he would do to them, and he said what he would do to them, he did not do it.

And instead of being elated and excited and cheering that on, this is Jonah's response.

In the very next verse, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

I knew you were going to be merciful and gracious and steadfast in love.

Where is the justice?

So do we think that there is sin greater than our Savior?

Do we sing sin that is greater than all your grace?

No, we don't.

There is mercy and grace for the Pharisee, for the prideful of heart.

But there is also some in this room and around us who may feel that they have sinned too much to ever be saved, that they're too dirty to ever be cleansed, that they are truly unworthy, without hope.

But God sees you, yes, all of you, and says, I love you.

So much that he would give his only and only unbegotten Son to whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned.

Light came into the world.

So whether we think of ourselves too highly or too lowly, God loves us perfectly.

No one is so good that they don't need the grace of the gospel, nor so bad that they can't receive the grace of the gospel.

Paul was deeply religious, but needed the gospel.

Paul was deeply flawed, yet he could be reached by the gospel, as we will see leading into point three, encounter with Christ.

And for this, we'll go to Acts 9.

Don't have to turn there, but we have Paul fresh or Saul fresh off Stephen, stoning, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, ravaging and physically persecuting the church.

After receiving some letters from the high priest approving his request to go into the synagogues of Damascus, if he should find anybody belonging to the way, he would bring them back bound to Jerusalem.

So picking up in Acts verse three.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Who are you, Lord?

Saul asked.

I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, he replied.

Now get up and go to the city, and you will be told what you must do.

And then Paul was blind for three days.

He neither ate nor drank, and in a vision God would tell a disciple named Ananias to rise and go see Saul.

And after some back and forth, understandably between Ananias and God, Ananias departs, goes to the house of Judas, different Judas, and lays his hands on Saul, saying, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled in the Holy Spirit.

Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again.

He got up and was baptized.

After taking some food, he regained his strength.

And of his own conversion of experience, this is what Paul would have to say in verses 15 and 16 of today's passage.

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me.

God was pleased.

He was satisfied, excited, delighted to reveal the Son of God to Paul.

God sets us apart.

He knows us while we are in our mother's wombs.

He calls us by grace to see us to see Jesus for who he really is.

Rarely will a good man die for a friend, but he died for my sins.

He died for your sins.

He died for sins that we committed in the past, but we'll commit today, tomorrow, and all future sins.

Jesus paid it all.

He held nothing back and he gave us everything so we might believe in him.

He was buried and after three days resurrected and ascended to heaven.

That is the gospel.

And if you believe that, here's the response.

If you believe that in your heart and confess Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.

See, the gospel changes lives.

And it's at this moment in Paul's life that would change him forever.

And point number four, life with Christ.

So the story does not end with salvation.

If conversion is the event that brings us from death to life, then this is just the beginning.

Picking back up in Paul's story, we see that Paul was saved so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went to Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

And after three years, only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas, which is Paul, or Paul, Peter, that is Peter, and I stayed with him fifteen days.

But I saw no other apostles except for James, the Lord's brother.

I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.

And later I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

So there is a little bit of a fuzzy timeline thing there with the three years, but what is clear is that he was in the Arabia and Damascus regions for three years before even going to Jerusalem.

He did not rush to consult with anyone the legitimacy of the revelation he received.

He knew without a doubt that he had been called to be an apostle of Christ.

While he was in Damascus, we see that he spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

And I love that Luke points that out.

The recently converted Paul spent time with people who follow Jesus.

You have brothers and sisters in this room who are eager and willing to help you teach you how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to keep you accountable and to point you to Christ.

And remember how he was supposed to go to Damascus to bound people and bring them back to Jerusalem.

He still went to those synagogues.

But instead of arresting those of the way, he turned his attention to proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God and proving that Jesus is the Christ, as we see in Acts 9, verses 20 through 22.

Acts 9:20–22

Saul promptly began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, declaring, He is the Son of God.

And all were astounded and asked, Isn't this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem on those who call on his name?

And hasn't he come here to take them prisoners to the chief priests?

But Paul or Saul was a power all the more, and he confounded the Jews that were living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

He confounded them so much that they wanted to kill him.

And so he escapes the only proper way, via basket.

And then he heads to Arabia to preach the good news and almost gets arrested when he comes back to Damascus.

Finally goes to Jerusalem, once there, he hung out with Peter for 15 days for unity's sake.

And he saw James and was off to Syria and Cilicia with Barnabas and Silas to continue preaching the good news.

Finally, here at the end in the last few verses, he says, I was personally unknown, and however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ, they only heard the account.

The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me.

So it is important here that we don't read this as people, as people glorifying God because of what Paul was doing for God, but what God has done was doing through Paul.

Paul wasn't trying to get fame or anything from this.

He was pointing to God.

So from persecuting to preaching, from an enemy to an ambassador, from oppressor to the oppressed, from proud zealot to humble servant, let us be encouraged by Paul and what God was doing through Paul.

And after we are saved, let's spend time with fellow disciples and go tell others of the good news of Jesus.

I encourage y'all this week to share the good news with people around you, to share your salvation story.

Whether it's parents telling your kids, kids telling your parents, sharing a small group, getting lunch together.

I would encourage y'all to share the good news and how good God is.

And as we close chapter one, I pray that we are reminded of the gospel.

Christ completed and finished work on the cross.

Trust and believe that he who began a good work in you will carry it on completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Let's pray.

God, you love calling us out of our sin.

You love saving sinners.

You love bringing light into the darkness and bringing us to your glorious purposes and life is life to the fullest.

You are the author and perfecter of our faith.

Draw us close to you.

Save souls.

You are an awesome God.

Amen.