One Message for God's One Family

Series: Galatians: Freedom Through Christ

 “One Message for God’s One Family”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Sept 8, 2019

Text: Galatians 1:1-10 // Series: Galatians: Freedom Through Christ  

 

Welcome here, friends.  My name is Brad Sumner, I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge and it is our privilege and pleasure to have you here with us today as we launch into the fall together.   

 

I want to ask you a question and I need you to be honest with me…. How many of you have ever written an e-mail, a letter or sent a text from a place of deep frustration and passion?  You were upset or excited and you tweeted or posted something to social media that had heat to it?  Maybe you got involved in a discussion thread that got under your skin and so you went at that person hard.  Or maybe you had an opinion that you just HAD to express to the world and your fingers could not fly fast enough over the keyboard as you wrote your thoughts down.  Hands up.  OK – the rest of you are lying and we’ll have a come to Jesus moment later for you.

 

The reason I ask is that today we are launching into a teaching series here at Jericho in the New Testament book of Galatians.  This book of the Bible was originally written as a letter by one of the leaders of the early Christian movement named Paul to a group of Jesus-followers in the city of Galatia which is in the highlands of modern-day Turkey.  And if you read through this book, you get the distinct impression that Paul fired this letter off from a place of deep frustration and deep passion.  It is some of the most dense, terse, excitable writing we have in the New Testament.  It is also arguably one of the earliest documents written down in the first century that attempts to give some shape to some of the key questions that faced the early Christians and we still wrestle with today.  Questions about ethics, questions about the place of faith in public life.  What is a Christian view of Israel's scriptures? What is the balance between faith and works? How do I experience true freedom and joy and hope in my search for meaning. 

 

Let me set a little bit of context here for our time in the book.  Some things will make way more sense to you if we get some clarity on the world into which Paul wrote this letter.  It’s important to understand that Christianity began as a Messianic movement in Jerusalem in the first century.  Jesus is born, lives, dies, rises from the grave and makes the stunning claim that He is the Messiah – the Anointed One sent to fulfill the promises of God to Abraham and the Jewish people.  Jesus is both fully God and fully human and He reminds his followers that the message of God’s redemption and rescue is not just for the Jews, but for all people.

The Jesus movement quickly spreads beyond Jerusalem and so by Paul’s time as a missionary, there are as many non-Jewish people (any non-Jew is called a Gentile in the ancient world) as there are Jews in the church.   But this expansion created a growth problem and sparked a HUGE debate which we can see in the book of Acts 15 between these two groups. 

 

Now historically, the family of God had been focused in one people group, the descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people.  And what made them distinct or set apart from others was their observances of the commands of God in the Torah, the ancient laws given by God to God’s people.  These included things like circumcision, food laws like only eating kosher things, and observing the sabbath.  This was so deeply embedded in the thinking of Jewish Christians that many of most of them believed the in order for any non-Jews to become part of God’s family, they MUST obey the laws of the Torah.  And some of these Jewish Christians end up in Galatia and begin demanding that these new Jesus followers must observe all of the laws of the Torah, including the circumcision of males, abstaining from eating pork and observing Sabbath.  And some of the new Christians in Galatia were convinced that these people were right.  So they began to practice those things and this created a massive conflict – did you have to follow the ancient ways or was there freedom from these because of Christ?  This was a massive problem that raged on all sides in the first few centuries and so we see it coming up in multiple books of the New Testament.

 

But not only was this battle raging inside the church in Galatia, it was also going on in the culture around them.  You see, the ancient world was a place devoid of any atheists.  Everyone believed in and worshiped something.  There were local pagan deities and idols.  There were other religious systems like Judaism. And the Imperial overlords of the Roman empire also demanded that Caesar be worshipped as a god.  So into this competing and complex religious mix, Paul in his missionary travels through the region of Galatia stands up and says “I want to introduce you to Jesus of Nazareth. He was God and He gave His life for our sins, to rescue us from the dark hopeless of idolatry, and He initiated a new way of life for us to walk in.”

 

If you can use your imagination and picture people sitting in an ancient marketplace or by the city gate talking about this new fandangled idea, you can get a bit of a sense of the  Challenges Facing Galatian Christians

  • Pagan neighbours were uneasy… were Christians really Jews? Something new?

There was enough overlap for it to be confusing.  But they are disagreeing on some key issues.  Are these Christians just a sub-set of Jews or is this really something new?  And this was not just an academic question.  Because the Roman government had given Jews a special exemption from participation in the cult of the Empire.  Rome had tried to overthrow Jerusalem several times and found out that this little band of people were scrappy and cared about their temple and obedience to some ancient laws.  So Rome decreed that anyone who was Jewish was exempt from having to go to the local temples to participate in worship of the Emperor.  Christians were claiming that they too were exempt from this. Which made

  • Jews were uneasy… how would this new movement impact their exemption?

Rome might look at this as an internal squabble, but Rome might also say ‘you know what. We’ve changed our minds. There’s too many people claiming this exemption now.  Some of you can prove it by your ethnic heritage and your distinct religious practices. But why do your newcomer Jesus people think you should have the same privileges for freedom of worship?” So many Jews didn’t like the way this was heading. 

 

We also get the sense from reading the book of Acts that the

  • Jerusalem church was uneasy… what was being taught out in the hinterlands? 

Was this Paul guy faithfully representing the truth of Jesus’ message?  After all, Peter, James, John and the other Apostles had spent time with Jesus personally.  This Paul guy was new and maybe he was out these teaching things they may not approve of 

 

Some people were arguing that Paul was simply…

Challenges Facing Paul

  • People accused him of watering down the gospel to be culturally relevant (easier to get converts if they didn’t have to practice circumcision or follow strict rules)
  • People were saying that his gospel was second hand (he was making stuff up) That he hadn’t been with the original disciples and therefore, what did he know of the risen Jesus?
  • People accused him of upsetting a delicate socio-cultural balance

Although Paul would say that it was God who was upsetting this balance with the purpose of fulfilling God’s ancient promise that all the nations of the world would be blessed through the family of Abraham and the Jewish people. 

 

So it is with these tensions in mind that we come to the start of the book of Galatians.  And today, we’re going to explore 4 questions that come up right away in the first few verses of this compact and fiery book.  Paul wastes NO TIME at all with pleasant greetings like he does in other letters to other churches.  He gets right down to business.  Turn with me in your Bibles or on your devices to Galatians 1:1-2 (New Living Translation)

 

His tone is terse and focused and he is already wading into the controversy about his authority and his ministry.  We can see

Q1) What is Paul Trying To Balance? (tightrope picture)

a few complicated realities here.  It’s like he is on a slackline or a tightrope…. He has the Jerusalem Church, local Jews, local civic leaders all pressuring him to explain why he thinks these non-Jews can be part of God’s family. 

 

But this is something God has uniquely equipped Paul for. After all, he is

  • Paul is both a Jew (trained as a strict Pharisee) and a Gentile (Roman citizen)

Some of you are bi- or tri-cultural.  You are American and Canadian. Or you have dual citizenship and share some of the values of the Asian culture in which you grew up and also Canadian culture.  And sometimes, these cultures are in tension with each other!  This is Paul’s whole life.  We know from his writing that he grew up Jewish but he was born in a Roman-occupied city and so he was both a citizen of the empire but also a devout Jew.  His whole life has been lived in that tension. And then he has a dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus where Jesus appears to him personally in a vision and gives him a new mission and ministry for his life.

 

But Paul doesn’t just say to those who accuse him “you know what? I’m kind of a bid deal in missionary circles.  I met Jesus personally in that vision so and opposition you have to my message and ministry, you need to stuff it!”  He reminds his readers that he wasn’t appointed by a human authority like the church in Jerusalem. But he also is subject to and lives among a community of people.  In other words,   

  • He balances apostolic authority with the voice & authorization of the community

When people start to claim authority for their teaching, you want to ask where that comes from.  We see this all the time in Tanzania.  People hand me business cards on it that say self-appointed apostle.  And now it’s getting crazy. One guy told me on this last trip that he was an apostle to the apostles.  But even in reminding the Galatians of his authority, Paul is also saying that what he is teaching and writing is under the guidance of a community of brothers and sisters.  Leaders and teachers in the church are those under authority.  I am under the authority of our elders board here at Jericho.  We live in vibrant and sometimes complicated relationships with those in our denomination, the Mennonite Brethren. 

 

And even through Paul has direct revelatory experienced with God, he also

  • He locates his personal experiences within the saving work of God in history

Paul is quick to point out that his teaching and ministry emphasis is not actually new but that God has always had it in God’s plan to include the nations in the family of God.  Let’s keep reading and see why Paul is so passionate about this.  Look with me at Galatians 1:3-5

 

One of the central questions that the New Testament wrestled with is

Q2) Why Did Jesus Die?

 

Traditional answer I heard growing up was “Jesus died so we can go to heaven when we die.” And while that is certainly true, it is also radically insufficient to bear that full wright of the biblical witness to the radical nature of God’s gift.  This is a truncation of the gospel that treats salvation as some kind of golden ticket that you pull out when you die and show for entrance at the pearly gates.  This kind of model can become highly transactional and obsessed with getting people to “pray the prayer”. But look at how much broader and richer and deeper of an answer to this important question Paul gives just in a few short verses here in Galatians:

 

Why Did Jesus Die?

  • So that barriers between God and us are eradicated (the curse of sin is broken)

Because of what Christ as accomplished, God’s grace and peace can begin to flow into my life.  The veil has been torn, the barriers between God and humanity have been eradicated.  This is GOOD NEWS! 

 

Paul also is insistent ion using relational language.  When anyone becomes part of Christ’s new community, the church, they are declaring God as their Father in heaven and

  • So that people who have nothing else in common can be part of God’s new family (obstacles to community are removed)

They may not share cultural backgrounds or language but they have come to share in spiritual DNA. They are one in Christ. Here at Jericho, we have people from all different social and racial backgrounds. All kinds of economic status and political persuasions. Outside this community, you might have nothing in common. And yet, the thing that unites us is that we are part of God’s family because of what Christ has done.  We are one. 

Paul is also going to use most of the book to explain why Jesus and Christianity are not some newfangled idea but rather the fulfillment of God’s long-ago promises.  Paul sees Jesus’ work as something God planned and promises.  That Jesus died so that

  • So we can be people of God’s new age (the Kingdom of heaven is breaking in)

 

The prevailing worldview of Paul’s day was that time was divided into two periods.  There was this present evil age (which was bad) then there was the age to come (which was good).  Philosophers like Plato and Plutarch and others were suggesting that since we were not seeing predominately good, we are not living in the age to come.  Paul strikes at the heart of this and says that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have actually been rescued from the present evil age (the New International Version and other translations use that phrase in 1:3) even though we still live in it.  Paul is saying that because of Jesus, a new way of living and thinking is possible.  And this is why he get so upset with the false teachers who have come to Galatian and are suggesting that in order to be proper Christians, you must first become properly Jewish.   Listen to his passion around this issue in Galatians 1:6-9.

 

Q3) Why is This Such a Big Deal?

Paul seems really amped up about this!  It’s important to understand that this is not just about two cultures – Jewish and non-Jewish living together in harmony in the church.  The false teachers are suggesting that Jesus work was not really for non-Jews at all.  They could observe and benefit from it only so much as they became full participants in Jewish culture.  No circumcision, no food law observance, no Sabbath = no Jesus for you.

 

Paul has seen how God is at work breaking down barriers and the Spirit is being poured out on all peoples.  And he is determined not to go back.

  • If Messiah Jesus’ work was only for Jews, the power of the old age has not really been broken, the life of the new age has not really been launched
  • They aren’t just embracing an alternative theory; this is turning away from Christ
  • We’re left with 2 messages for 2 families

This is why the strong language.  You are deserting the grace of Christ. You are turning away from the gospel, the message of Christ.  If you want to make this abut cultural observances, that is no gospel at all.  Whatever you have at that point, you don’t have Christ!  We are going to see Paul’s argument fleshed out further in the weeks to come but Paul is saying in no uncertain terms: Jesus is for everyone, not just those who are Jewish.

You might be saying about now “that’s all nice and interesting, Brad, but what in the world does a first century argument about Jewish culture have to do with my life in suburban Vancouver in the 21st Century?”  I’m glad you asked.  Let me lay out a few thoughts for us to consider about the

Q4) What are the implications? Of Paul’s argument here for our world. 

 

And they really centre around how you and I define this thing called the gospel. What exactly is God’s good news which Paul is so concerned has gotten polluted or confused?  Look at some of the language in this text:

 

Paul reminds us that the gospel is something that we receive and welcome.  We don’t invent it or get to tinker with it or add to it. 

  • In MERCY, God CALLS & INVITES people in to God’s family
    • We can receive it & welcome it (1:9) but we are not the gospel’s gatekeepers (1:6)

The gospel doesn’t need a coalition to defend it or authoritarian tactics to market it.  The gospel is about the fact that we trapped under the oppressive power of this present evil age, unable to save or rescue ourselves. But because of God’s eternal love for you and for me, God sent Jesus to call and invite us into God’s family.  And God sets the ground rules for how entrance into the family works.  We don’t get to tinker with that.  Sometimes people get massively amped up about specific theories of atonement or that you have to understand the gospel in a very specific kind of way.  And our time in Galatians is going to remind us that this is not about a human initiative or plan. And therefore, we don’t get to set the rules for a family that we are not the head of. God calls. God invites. We can receive the message, we can welcome the message, but we are not to stand at the gate and say whether people can come in or not. 

 

This is hard for us in a context like a church community because we want to know who is in and who is out.  And we like to notion that external trappings might be helpful to know who is a Christian and who is not.  We look for things like “did they have their Bible when they came through the door?” or “did they say the right words when they prayed?” or sometimes in history, did they have the right last name?  But Galatians reminds us

  • God has ONE family, not two
    • People don’t need to embrace our external cultural practices in order to find & follow God

This has been the challenge of spiritual colonialism, and we live with this legacy today.  Think of our First Nations brothers and sisters who were forced to become white in order to become Christians.  Friends, this should not be.  We don’t’ need to put up additional barriers to the gospel!  We don’t’ need to insist that people dress a certain way in order for them to attend Jericho.  We don’t need to insist their kids behave a certain way or raise their hands are certain times in worship or read a certain translation of the Bible or not wear hats in the auditorium…. whatever other trappings we might put up, subtly or not so subtly, the gospel must stay at the centre, not culture or subculture!  We will always be diverse in our beliefs and expressions but we are still ONE in Christ.    Because we have received the same grace, the same peace from the same Father. 

 

And this is true not only within the family, but also for all of humanity.  Because the message of Messiah Jesus is not just for Jews, not just for Christians, but this is good news of great joy that shall be for…

  • God’s GOOD NEWS for all people (1:7)
    • As Christ’s servants (1:10) we are called to declare it (1:8) and share it freely for we don’t own it or manage it

Paul says that he preached or declared this message, and you and I are called to the same thing.  I find myself deeply challenged by the fact that if I have found something precious like hope and freedom in Christ, why do I feel nervous about talking about my faith with my new neighbours.  But these verses reminded me again that the message of Jesus is something that I am invited to declare and proclaim to all.  It is GOOD NEWS that Jesus’ gave his life so that you and I could be rescued from the hopelessness and pain and brokenness of this present world.  That God would love not just you and I but the world so much is a powerful reminder and challenge to me to be bold.  So maybe for you that is a challenge.  Our youth are starting into a Bible reading plan and Mike is challenging them to post what they are learning online.  Not a cheesy Christian meme but to help them learn to declare their faith.  Pray: ask God for boldness & faith. 

 

As Ron and the worship team come, I want to ask you to pause and reflect for a few minutes: what barriers have I put up in my mind or heart to the gospel?  Maybe you are here today and you have never actually believed and received the message of God’s love and mercy for you.  One of the most powerful implications of the work of Christ is that

  • The stranglehold of sin has been broken
    • Those who belong to God’s family will still struggle with sin, but they have undergone an identity shift and are sinners no more.

You might suffer from a sense of deep shame and guilt.  That is a burden you were not designed to carry.  Today is the day to receive God’s grace.  First time, come pray with Wally & Sylvia or Katy & myself.  Maybe you have been putting up barriers for others in your mind and heart. Subtle (ways you treat others who are different) but they are a barrier none the less.  Ask God to show us how to live together as 1 family with 1 message.  

What are some of the barriers we put up (intentionally or unintentionally) to people becoming part of God's family? #Galatians #FreedomThroughChrist

Speaker: Brad Sumner

September 8, 2019
Galatians 1:1-9

Brad Sumner

Lead Pastor

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