Sermon

Click here to print this sermon.

June 20, 2004
3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Galatians 1:11-24
Pastor Robert Raasch

Paul Defends the Gospel

1. A Gospel Received from God
2. A Gospel Revealed in Paul

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you had to defend yourself? I don't mean defend yourself with a gun or your fists. I mean defend yourself with your words. Defend yourself from people who are accusing you of doing wrong. Maybe it was your boss who called you into his office and charged you with stealing from the petty cash fund. Or maybe you came home from the store and your spouse started digging through your packages saying, "How much did that cost?" And, "Do we really need one of those? Why did you buy that?" Or maybe it was your parents you came to you and said, "So why were you out so late last night? Who were you with? What were you doing? Sometimes, even when our actions are perfectly legitimate, even if we haven't done anything wrong, we still find ourselves being forced to defend our behavior.

In fact, sometimes it's not only our behavior that we have do defend. Sometimes we also have to defend our beliefs. Isn't that right? Haven't we all been in situations where people have said things like, "You don't really believe that, do you? You think the universe came into existence over a period of six days? How can you possibly believe that?" Or, "You're telling me that you consider a baby to be sinful even before it's old enough to know the difference between right and wrong? How can you say that?" And, "You think that Christianity is the only true religion-that strikes me as being so narrow minded, so bigoted, so intolerant of other cultures, other belief systems. How can you possibly believe that?"

My friends, when we find ourselves in situations like these-whether we were sitting in a college class room or having a lively debate at the local bowling alley-when we feel like we're being interrogated for what we believe-we can feel a little uncomfortable. We feel like were on the hot seat. Fell like we have to defend what we believe and why.

But you know, you and I are not the first ones who have been placed in that rather unenviable position. The Apostle Paul often found himself in a very similar situation. At various times in his ministry, Paul was accused of teaching things that were wrong. He was accused of proclaiming a gospel that was not ordained by God, but rather concocted by men. All these allegations against Paul forced the Apostle to make a verbal defense of himself and more importantly, a defense of the message he was preaching. In fact, that's exactly what St. Paul does here in our text for today. Here, we might say that:

The Apostle Paul Defends the Gospel

He defends it in two ways. First, he says that his gospel is:

1. A Gospel Received from God

Secondly, we see that Paul's gospel is:

2. A Gospel Revealed in Paul

Now, for us to fully understand Paul's words here in our text, we need to know something about the people who were accusing Paul of false doctrine. Paul's accusers were called Judaizers. The Judaizers were a sect that believed that in order for a person to get right with God, he or she had to believe in Jesus and comply with the Old Testament ceremonial laws. In other words, to be a true follower of God, you need to be circumcised, worship on the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday, and abstain from certain kinds of meat. If you think about it, even today, there are an awful lot of church bodies that still hold to that same doctrinal position. They say to be right with God, you need "Jesus Plus." Jesus plus your good works; Jesus plus your adherence to certain rules like no meat on Friday, or Jesus plus your promise to live by the golden rule.

Now, in contrast to that doctrine of the Judaizers, the Apostle Paul comes along with a different Gospel. A gospel which is summarized in passages like Romans 10:4, "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." Or Colossians 2:16, "Let no one judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath Day" (Col 2:16). And again, "A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ" (Gal. 2:16).

In other words, Paul preached a gospel that said that God no longer requires people to keep those Old Testament ceremonial laws. Because Jesus had kept those laws perfectly, sinners need to simply trust in Jesus as their perfect substitute. Forgiveness of sins and eternal life comes not from observing the law, but rather, by faith in Jesus.

Now, when the Judaizers heard Paul preaching that, they immediately accused Paul of caving in on God's demands. They're thinking to themselves, if not saying right out loud, "This Paul fellow is going soft on God's law. He's out to make it easy to be a Christian. He's just trying to please men rather than God. His ideas could not have come from God. He must have made them up himself. The fellow Paul is a fraud."

It is in response to that accusation that Paul makes the defense we have recorded here in our text. He begins by saying that I. His Gospel was Received from God. Listen to what Paul says, "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ."

Now, maybe you're thinking to yourself, "How could Paul say that he received his teaching from Jesus Christ? Paul was not one of the 12 disciples. In fact, Jesus had long since ascended into heaven by the time Paul became a Christian. So how could Paul say that his teaching came from Jesus?" Well, do you remember how Paul had become a Christian? Paul was on the road to Damascus when Jesus himself appeared to Paul and said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" On that day, Jesus not only called Paul to faith. He called him to be his chosen apostle to the Gentiles. After that miraculous appearance of Jesus, Paul traveled not back to Jerusalem to be instructed by the Apostles. Rather, he traveled into the Arabian Desert, apparently to receive further instruction from Jesus. Paul describes that period of his life with the words, "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, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus." Paul's point is this: "I did not come up with what I preach on my own. My teaching is not shaped by the winds of popular opinion. It was not created by a set of human advisors, like some kind of political agenda. No, my gospel," says Paul, "came directly from God."

My friends, if you think about it, how could it be any other way? The Gospel that Paul preached-the gospel of the Bible-could never have been created by the human mind. Think about it. The gospel declares that God loves sinners. That means that you could be guilty of slitting the throats of your children and in Christ, God would still love you. You could be guilty of repeatedly raping helpless prisoners of wars and God would still forgive you. You could be guilty of stealing millions from the savings of senior citizens across the country and God would still say, "I will punish my son so that you can go scot free." To human reason, that makes no sense! Our innate sense of justice tells us that God should make those people pay for their horrific crimes. But what our reason cannot tell us is what the gospel does tell us, namely that God has punished the sins of every murderer, every rapist, every embezzler in the person of Jesus Christ. God laid all those sins on his Son and sent Jesus to the cross. And why did God do that? Because he loves you. You see, in the big scheme of things, you and I are no different that that murderer or rapist. We've broken all of God's commandments. Time and again we've known what was the right thing to do, and didn't do it. We've fallen into the same sins of pride, worry, anger and bitterness. Considering how many times we've been guilty of the same sin, any mere mortal would have given up on us long ago. But not God. Our Gracious Father in heaven says, "For the sake of my Son, I will never give up on you. You are still my own dear child." My friends, that's what the gospel says to you. It says something that no human mind could ever invent. It says, "In Christ, you are forgiven, no strings attached." That's a message that could only come from God, first to Paul and now to us.

You might say that that was Paul's first line of defense. He focuses on what the Gospel actually says and where that true gospel comes from. But Paul's defense of the gospel continues. He goes from the source of his gospel to the effect of his gospel. Or to put it another way, the true gospel is not only received from God, it was also II. Revealed in Paul.

Now what does that mean? "The gospel was revealed in Paul." Let me see if I can illustrate. I have here a lamp. I've plugged it in but I don't know if it works. Tell me, how can I figure out if this lamp works? (Don't say, "Stick your finger in the socket.") Rather, let's put a light bulb in it. I have a brand new light bulb here. What happens? When I put the bulb in the lamp, the lamp makes a change in the light bulb. The lamp turns this from a dark bulb into light bulb. You might say that the bulb proves that the lamp works.

Now, apply that to what Paul is saying in our text. Paul is trying to prove that the gospel he's preaching works. That it is genuine. It's real. It's from God. So what does he do? He points to the effect the gospel has made in his life. He says, I was once dark. I was a terrible persecutor of the church. He writes, "You have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it." But what happened? Paul came in contact with the grace of God in Christ. Jesus shared with Paul the incredible things he had done for him. And that message changed Paul. Paul went from darkness to light. Paul became someone totally different. Paul says that the churches in Judea "heard the report: 'the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.' And they praised God because of me."

My friends, just a surely as the change in this light bulb proves that this lamp is genuine, that it's not faulty, so also the change in Paul's life proves that the gospel he proclaimed is not faulty, but rather, is the truth. A truth that still has the power to change lives today. So what does all this mean for you and me in 2004? Two things: First, it means that when you confess that you are a poor, miserable sinner who is worthy of nothing but God's punishment and yet who for Jesus sake has been declared a child of God and heir of heaven-that's not your idea, it's God's idea. The true gospel comes not from men, but from God. Every man-made religion in the world says that God will reward you if you're a pretty good person. The true gospel says that God loves you even though you are a sinner.

The second point is that that gospel-what God has done for you in Christ, cannot not have an impact on your life. The gospel changes people. Look at what it did for Paul. It turned the greatest persecutor of the church into the greatest defender of the church. Are you looking for a little change in your life? Are you frustrated by a bad attitude you can't seem to shake? Or a sin you've grown far too comfortable with? On this Father's Day weekend, do you feel guilty wearing a T-shirt that says, "World's Greatest Dad" because you know you aren't? Are you troubled by the fact that you haven't always treated your dad with the respect he deserves?

Let's face it, we all see things about ourselves that are not good. We see things we want to change. Things we must confess are sins. The trouble is, in and of ourselves, we can't change them. But God can and does. With a piece of bread and a sip of wine, with a handful of water and the power of his Word, he says, "For Jesus' sake, your sins are forgiven. You are now a new man in Christ. You are a new woman in Christ. Go in peace and sin no more." Friends, that's the gospel. Believe it. Hang on to it. And defend it with all the strength that God gives, for Jesus' sake. Amen.