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July 13, 2003 |
"Galatians" Series |
Pastor Brian Shimer
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"What Are You Running On, 110 or 220?"
Galatians 1 and 2
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I. |
We have had a great week with your children in VBS this week. We had 60
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kids here talking about Jesus and how much he loves us. That is the Gospel --
The Gospel is about Jesus. Jesus died or gave himself for our sins.
The reason Jesus died for our sins, Paul says was "to rescue us from the present evil age." Jesus gave himself to rescue you and rescue me. Martin Luther the great theologian of the 16th century wrote that this one phrase is a summary of Paul's argument from the whole book, for only God, the divine majesty, can possibly do this work of rescuing us.
Jesus through the Gospel changes lives.
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II. |
It is the Gospel that took our team to Peru. We did not go such
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a distance because we wanted to travel, although it is a joy to travel. We did not go because we wanted to spend lots of funds. We went because Jesus called us to go. People asked us why we had come. And every time it was an opportunity to tell them about Jesus. We went because of the Gospel. The good news that God has done something for you and me to rescue us from all that holds us trapped.
One song we taught in Peru is called "Yo Peque."
That means "I am a sinner". It is the Gospel in a song. It tells the whole story of redemption using the hand.
Hold up your thumbs and say, "I have sinned." ** "Yo Peque"
Now that is the bad news all of us are sinners. But the good news is that God loves you and me, it says so in John 3:16. So your index finger is raised and you say: "But God does love me." "Pero Dios me Ama"
And the really good news, your middle finger, is "And Jesus died for me." "Y Cristo murio por mi."
Remember what Paul wrote in 1:4 about what Jesus did? He gave himself to rescue us from the present evil age.
The truth of the gospel must be received. It says so in John 1:12 "To as many as received him to those who believed on His name, he gave the right to become children of God." To become God's children, we must be born again, we receive Jesus into our lives.
The Galatian Christians had done this with Paul. They had believed and received the good news.
So, the ring finger is lifted, as best you can and we say, "I receive Him" "Yo le recibo" and then the fifth finger becomes true, "And I become His child." "Y ya soy su hijo."
And "that's his plan for me." "Es su plan para mi."
If we put it all together into a song, this is how it goes.
"I'm a sinner, but God does love me and Jesus died for me.
I receive Him, become God's child, and that's His plan for me."
"Yo Peque. Pero dios me ama. Y Cristo Murio por mi. Yo le Recibo.
Y ya soy su hijo. Es su plan para mi."
When we say, "that's his plan for me," we clap hands with another person emphasizing the joyous plan God has for you and for me.
On Monday June 23rd, we arrived at a school for a midday assembly with about 120 students all lined up in a large plaza. We were told we had a full hour for our program. We stretched out the music, did our skit and taught Yo Peque. Well, the school's director had received complaints from parents that they were allowing this evangelical group on campus.
You see in Peru evangelistic programs are not promoted on public school campuses. The pastor told me just to have so many schools requesting our program was a miracle. "For 17 years we have tried to gain access to the schools, but it has been impossible, until this week." God worked in my heart and prompted me to take a team and God was opening doors.
But this director had received complaints. He was nervous and so cut our program short just after the song Yo Peque had been taught and sung. We were dismayed, but knew with the song the Gospel had gone forth. God confirmed this. As we were leaving, one little 4th grade girl came back to us. "What is this finger?" she asked. Patricia told her. The fourth time she returned, her teacher had asked that she have us write down the words so the whole class could practice the song.
The next morning, we were back at this same school for a program for the older students. There were over 400 students present counting those standing behind us on balconies and crowded around the plaza. I preached and over half the students and teachers came to Christ. One teacher, Victoria, was thrilled to have come to Jesus. What power Jesus has to change lives.
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III. |
Paul had seen Jesus change lives in Galatia, too. He had seen great
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responses to the Gospel. But since he'd left, they'd been led astray.
You know how Paul felt about that? He was not mildly indignant. He was furious. He abandoned all his normal letter etiquette. "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ…" he writes. When someone messes with beliefs about God, anger is a proper response. For a lie about God will become a lie about life. As Eugene Peterson wrote, "A wrong idea of God translates into sloppiness and cowardice, fearful minds and sickly emotions." (Traveling Light, NAV Press, c'82, p 35.)
Do you hear Paul here? He curses those who would pervert the truth. He even says, if he were to pervert the Gospel, he too should be eternally condemned. Paul even repeats this curse.
Reading this I think we are far too nice today. We put up with far too much heresy. The word heretic is a word simply meaning "choose". A heretic is a person who chooses a single item out of an entire body of truth and ignores or denies the rest, and then teaches others to do the same.
There is much heresy in the church today passing for gospel. We would do well to get angry with Paul. Let those who are telling lies about God be cursed. Paul was bold enough to take such a stand. Today many are making such stands as well for the truth.
Paul asks the Galatians a question in v 10 which is one that has had me repenting. He says, "Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
When it comes to the Gospel, God is inviting us into a whole different life. All of us live to some extent out of a desire to please those around us. But, the Gospel invites us into the freedom of living not for people but for Jesus. The Gospel invites us to live so that life is about Him not about us.
This verse first encountered me in an email from our Peruvian translator Patricia. The last sentence is the verse she has at the end of all her emails: "If I were still trying to win the approval of men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
The verse jumped out at me. When I am living out of a motive to please people, I am in that moment not being a servant of Jesus. I've done some repenting.
That is 110 living. It is the same number sequence as America's electrical current. We have 110 watts in our homes for most outlets. To be plugged into 110, in the Galatian sense, is to be living plugged into living to please those around us.
But that is not what God wants for you nor for me. He does not call us to the Gospel, to be rescued from this present evil age in order for us still to get our power from it. He rescues us so we can be plugged into his power source.
That's 220 power.
Paul in these chapters tells the Galatians his testimony and then tells how he stood up to Peter when in Antioch because peter was being led astray by the heresy that had infected the Galatians. In that testimony he gives the motive of his living. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
You hear the gospel in that verse "Gave himself up for me." What Jesus did changes my life. I no longer live under the burden and curse of sin, I no longer live bound by the opinions of people, but have been set free to live simply for Jesus. What does this look like?
For Patricia our translator - it meant, "it is all about Him". She was not afraid to confront me on errors I made, for her focus was not on pleasing men but God.
She was courageous and honest, a very refreshing person.
For Josef Tsion in Romania it meant a greater fear of God than man. When his interrogators threatened to kill him, Josef responded, "I know that is your greatest weapon, to kill me. But if you kill me then my greatest weapon will be released." "What is that?" he was asked. "If you kill me all the messages I have preached these many years will be sprinkled in my blood and given even greater power." That caused his interrogators to fear killing him, and Josef lived to tell his story.
For philosophy Professor Emile Caillet, at Princeton University, when a student derided him in class for writing a simple layman's book it meant not defending himself, but simply saying thank you. Emile knew God was his defense, he did not need to defend himself. And you know what God did?
These are people living plugged into God's 220 circuit. Are you?
The Gospel is about Jesus changing the circuitry of our lives.
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