MPC, 26th March 2000.A Message Made in Heaven
Galatians 1:1-2:10
Phil Campbell MPC, 26th March 2000.
If you've been following the career of Dick Smith, you'll know that there's something VERY WRONG with the jar of Vegemite I'm holding. It looks okay. And if you're a vegemite eating sort of person it TASTES OKAY. But SOMETHING IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS.
Dick Smith is on a campaign to get us all buying OZEMITE. Along with a bunch of other new products he's come up with. Because they're both MADE BY, and OWNED BY, Australians.
I mean, there's Vegemite, an Australian ICON, up there with Bondi surf lifesavers and FourEx beer; and it's not even Australian owned.
Dick Smith says, if it's not Aussie made and Aussie owned, DON'T BUY IT.
Which is exactly the point the Apostle Paul wants to make about HIS MESSAGE. His GOSPEL. In the face of the issues we saw last week, in the face of a team of FALSE TEACHERS who are working their way around Galatia, Paul wants to say DON'T BUY IT. Unless you check where it comes from.
Which he empahsises right from his very first words. Where he says as an Apostle, as an Ambassador of Jesus, he's hasn't come from men with a message made by men. He's come from Jesus Christ himself. And God the Father. With a message MADE IN HEAVEN. Rather than made up by men. A message made by God. Owned by God.
Which he says in verse 11 and 12 here in chapter 1. I want you to know brothers, he says, verse 11, that THE GOSPEL I PREACHED is NOT SOMETHING THAT MAN MADE UP.
We saw last week; Galatia, the place they invented Turkish Coffee; he's been there, he's preached there, he's been around the cities like Iconium and Lystra and Derbe; and the message he preached wasn't HIS MESSAGE. It was GOD'S MESSAGE. The message I was preaching, the gospel I preached is not SOMETHING MAN MADE UP. Verse 12, I didn't receive it from any man, nor was I taught it - rather, I received it by REVELATION from Jesus Christ.
Now did you notice, his very first words in the letter, he said exactly the same thing. Because this is important. Check the label before you buy. Verse 1. Read it. Here's a letter to the churches in Galatia that are there because Paul preached there. We read about it last week in Acts 13 and 14. And now he's writing. And he says it right from the start... "Paul, an apostle - sent NOT FROM MEN NOR BY MAN... but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead... and all the brothers with me."
The message he preached... not something man made up. Not something second hand that he was told be someone, then he told them second hand. Paul's an APOSTLE. Which means he was commissioned by Jesus
Now if you're someone who's been in Sunday School or been round Christian things for a while, you'll probably know the story of Paul; it's one of the great turn arounds of all time. You might know someone who's been CHANGED DRAMATICALLY by coming to faith. Like a bloke I heard who I think was called something like Mad Dog Murford. Bikie, leather jacket, head shaved, big bushy beard. Used to beat people up. These days Mad Dog's just a puppy. A totally changed man. Because he heard about Jesus. And came to faith. And he's dramatically changed.
But for the Apostle Paul, it's an even bigger change. And it came from running HEAD ON into Jesus. And having his whole life direction turned totally around.
And he reminds the Galatians of that in verse 13. As proof of the fact his message is NOT MAN MADE.
Verse 12, we've just been here; he says I didn't receive the GOSPEL, the GOOD NEWS MESSAGE I've been preaching, I didn't receive it from men, nor was I taught it. I received it by REVELATION FROM JESUS CHRIST. And he reminds them how it happened. How when he was a Jew, he was way ahead of his class. How he PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS, went from town to town; trying to DESTROY the church of God. How he says in verse 14 he was EXTREMELY ZEALOUS for the traditions of his fathers.
Here's a full on Jew, between towns, on the road, on his was to KILL SOME CHRISTIANS. And Jesus steps in. This is the RISEN JESUS. Well after the resurrection. And the ascension. And Jesus says ENOUGH. Turn around. I'm going to use you... to PREACH TO THE GENTILES. To call people who aren't even JEWISH... to take me as their King. And Saviour.
Verse 15. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles... even when that happened, says Paul, I didn't consult ANY MAN.
Can you see, same point. Over and over. The message God's given him, the gospel he's preaching, 100% made in heaven. 100% given by Jesus. Verse 17, he didn't even go up to Jerusalem to check it out with the other apostles, the ones who'd been with Jesus in the first place. Here he is, hundreds of kilometres to the North; totally independent, turned around by Jesus. Not in any way dependent on anyone else's message. Doesn't even check it out with CHRISTIANITY HEAD OFFICE in Jerusalem. Until much later.
All of which is Paul's very detailed way of saying to the Galatians, when I was there with you, when I was preaching to you, when I was telling you about Jesus, MY MESSAGE came straight from the source. My message was God's message. It's the message he sums up in verse 4. And we saw it last week back in Acts as well. Here's what he calls his GOSPEL. His message from God. That The Lord Jesus Christ GAVE HIMSELF FOR OUR SINS, to rescue us from this present evil age. That's the message. That Jesus has done everything that needs to be done.
That we were like that - guy paragliding the other day who got himself stuck up in a tree. Dangling there helpless. Couldn't save ourselves. But Christ gave himself FOR US. And we're rescued.
That's what he preached when he was with them. The made in heaven, God given message. Which as we already saw last week, for some people apparently wasn't enough.
And the reason Paul's going to such pains to spell out where HIS MESSAGE CAME FROM, is that another message is doing the rounds. And the Galatians are being TORN BETWEEN TWO GOSPELS. Pulled in two directions by TWO CONFLICTING MESSAGES. About how to get right with God. And live a life to please him. I guess Paul's saying to you and me too, if that's YOU, if you're not sure where you're standing with God, if you hear one thing, then you hear another thing... ask the question. Where's the message coming from? How's it measure up to the made-in-heaven gospel - that says The Lord Jesus Christ GAVE HIMSELF FOR OUR SINS to RESCUE US? There's no list of rules. There's no set of pre-requisites. Pure GRACE.
And yet the Galatians are deserting it. Pick up in verse 6 and you can see the problem. The problem that underlies the whole letter. Verse 6 and 7 here in Galatians 1 sum up what the letter's all about. And it's the exact issue we saw last week in Acts 15.
Funny, you can look through all Paul's other letters in the New Testament, and none of them start quite like this one. Usually you get to this point in the other letters and he's saying how much he's praying for them. How much he wants to be WITH THEM. How much he THANKS GOD FOR THEM. But the Galatians have got nothing to celebrate. Straight down to business. "I am ASTONISHED," says Paul, "I can hardly believe 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. Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion, and are TRYING TO PERVERT THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST."
Paul's been there, they've heard his GOSPEL, his message about THE GRACE OF CHRIST, his generous mercy in taking God's CURSE on the cross. And now some new guys have come along saying something new. A DIFFERENT GOSPEL. A slightly reworked Gospel. Not so much CONTRADICTING what Paul might have said. Just adding a little. A few finishing touches. Which Paul says means it's really NO GOSPEL AT ALL.
I want to play LET'S PRETEND for a minute. Let's PRETEND, just imagine it, that as I'm speaking, a huge hole opens up in the roof up above me here, a shaft of blinding light beams down, and there's an angel - just hovers down, glowing white, the big feathery wings. Maybe the sound of trumpets. And you can hardly believe your eyes.
And the Angel says, wait a minute. You're not really saved by the SACRIFICE OF JESUS AT ALL. You'll need to - I don't know, make up your own bits here. You'll need to do some ritual stuff... observe some Angel Days. Once a month. Add this. Do that. And whatever you do, you need to make sure you don't eat Green Vegetables. Or else. No problem for my kids, they'd sign up straight away.
Let me tell you, my guess is you'd go out from here, SO WOULD YOU. We'd be sucked-in in a flash, wouldn't we. Mitchelton Presbyterian Church - tourist attraction. We'd sell souvenir angel tea-towels, we'd talk about it for years. Terrific. And we'd say, God's revealed himself in a NEW WAY. Which we'd spread around everywhere. Wouldn't we?
Play let's pretend again. Pretend you're back in Turkey. One of the churches Paul's writing to here. You've just read the letter; you're home eating your Turkish Kebab for dinner, there's a knock at the door. Dusty, road-grime on his face, there's Paul. He's BACK.
And he says, Oh listen, wait a minute, about the GOSPEL. You got my letter. CHANGED MY MIND. What are you going to say? What are you going to do?
Verse 8; read it. Paul says, there are people who are trying to throw you into confusion about the gospel of Christ. But verse 8, he says, even if WE... or AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN... should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, LET HIM BE ETERNALLY CONDEMNED."
Which is the slightly more polite way of saying, if an angel lands in the middle of church with a different message, if I myself, says Paul, come back and say I've changed my mind, you can say "GO TO HELL" - let him be eternally condemned.
Because messing with the gospel of Christ is messing with THE MESSAGE FROM GOD. And so Paul says it again, verse 9... as I've already said, I'll say it again... if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, the gospel I preached in the first place, let him be eternally CONDEMNED.
And remember, this is already a real problem; we saw it in Acts 15 last week; people who want to add the OLD TESTAMENT LAW the Jews always lived under, they wanted to IMPOSE THAT on the non-Jew Christians, as the way to live the Christian life. Or else, they said, you can't be saved. Saying, the Lord Jesus Christ might have given himself for your sins to rescue you, but you'd better make darn sure you get circumcised like a Jew and keep the sabbath like a Jew and obey the law of Moses like a Jew - or you're not saved at all.
And so Paul's saying here, if someone comes to you and says that, what they deserve is to be eternally condemned. Because they're messing with the MESSAGE MADE IN HEAVEN... they're messing with the MESSAGE FROM GOD. God made it. So leave it alone.
Pick it up in Chapter 2 - where Paul starts to get a bit more specific. And he's talking, I think, about exactly the issue we saw last week in Acts 15. Where he goes to Jerusalem with Barnabas. And Titus as well. To set before them the GOSPEL HE'S BEEN PREACHING. Head Office. Peter. James. John. Verse 4, he says, this matter arose because SOME FALSE BROTHERS had infiltrated our ranks ... to spy on the FREEDOM we have in Christ Jesus and to make us SLAVES AGAIN.
The argument, you might remember, is all about circumcision. These days it's a medical debate, whether baby boys should be circumcised. Back then it was about the MARK OF BEING JEWISH. And these false brothers, these pretend Christians, they're saying, how come you're not insisting these CONVERTS to JESUS get CIRCUMCISED. Become Jewish. Obey the law. Because that's what the Old Testament law says... if you want to sign up as an Israelite, that's what you had to do. And take on a life of OBEDIENCE to the LAW OF MOSES. The rules and regulations back there in Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Learn it off by heart. DO IT.
And Paul's not saying ANY OF THAT STUFF. Just telling them to TRUST JESUS. While the HOLY SPIRIT starts renovating from the INSIDE. It's a bit like MICROWAVE COOKING... starts from the inside and works outwards.
And so these false brothers are spying. On their FREEDOM from all that.
Let me ask, if these false brothers wanted to have a look at us PRESBYTERIANS, check out our freedom, I wonder if they'd FIND ANY? Christians in general. But the important thing Paul wants to say is, we WENT UP TO JERUSALEM, we worked it through with the guys who were important, like James and Peter and John - and they absolutely agreed. Chapter 2 verse 6. As for those who seemed to be important at head office, he says, those men ADDED NOTHING TO MY MESSAGE. On the contrary, they saw it was MY JOB... to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. And keep telling them exactly what I'd been telling them. Plus NOTHING.
And friends, if there's anything you take away from our series on Galatians over these next few weeks, make it that. Jesus Christ - PLUS NOTHING. You've trusted in him, you've been rescued through his DEATH FOR YOU; live with him as your Lord; PLUS NOTHING. No circumcision. No rituals. No Jewish laws. No food rules. No special extra blessings. No new revelations. No angel messages. You name it... they DIDN'T ADD IT. And we shouldn't either. Which means you need to be VERY, VERY SUSPICIOUS of anyone who comes along and offers the NEXT NEW THING. Which seem to arrive at about the same speed as Christian Bookshop Catalogues. Or Major Church Conferences. It's ALL HERE ALREADY. And what we need to be doing is putting our minds to understanding the gospel that was preached in the first place. And sticking to it like GLUE.
Because when it comes to the Gospel, ADDING is SUBTRACTING. Like a few weeks back on the news, Petrol stations were in strife because they were adding OTHER STUFF to Petrol. Paint thinner. See, getting a little bit of something extra in your petrol, it's really getting a little bit LESS isn't it. And for Paul, anything that tries to ADD TO JESUS, just subtracts. And says his death on the cross wasn't enough. That his rescue wasn't quite complete. That you've got to DO SOMETHING YOURSELF... or you're not properly saved. That you've got to take on the RULES.... even the good rules that the Jews had. The laws of Moses.
It's not popular, is it, being CAREFUL. Being careful of the gospel. Watching out for additives. Thinking critically. But Paul says, DO IT. Because the real gospel is MADE IN HEAVEN. Not by men. Which in the end is why REAL CHRISTIANITY doesn't look like other religions at all. Because it isn't about what you have to DO... it's about what's already been DONE... at the cross.
And if there's someone who wants to TAKE AWAY THE FREEDOM that comes from that, if there's someone who wants to BIND YOU UP with rules, to question whether you're saved, to lay something extra on your conscience, Paul says, STAND YOUR GROUND. Even in the face of opposition. And persecution.
Benjamin Franklin said, Those that give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY for the sake of TEMPORARY SAFETY - deserve neither LIBERTY nor SAFETY. Paul says, I didn't give into them for a MINUTE. Chapter 2 verse 5. And this needs to be our position as well. Some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the Freedom we have in Christ Jesus and make us slaves. WE DID NOT GIVE INTO THEM FOR A MOMENT... so that THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL might remain with you.