Sermon Text:
Galatians 1:1-5
As we start Promontory Community Church, we want our eyes to be focused on the good news of Jesus. It is easy to get distracted with other things, or to allow other ideas to shape us. Paul writes the letter to the Galatians to keep them focused on the grace of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
Sermon Transcript:
(transcribed with AI)
Thank you, it is a privilege to be able to spend time with you in prayer for our church before our God but with that, let me say once again, welcome to Promontory Community Church. It is an exciting day to be here. This is something we have been looking forward to and preparing for for quite some time and the day is finally here it's an exciting time so thank you for being part of it for coming to celebrate here together you know it's an exciting thing when you're finally on your own, isn't it? Right?
I don't know how many of you can think back to the first time that you left home, right? The first time that you were off on your own, what was that like? Right? For me it was, I was 18 years old and I was gonna spend a year in Northern Ireland at a Bible college there and so my parents, you know, they were helping me pack up. They brought me to the airport, Vancouver Airport. Dad helped me get checked in, gave me a hug, and then I went through security on my own. I remember going through, I'm walking through the Vancouver airport and suddenly a thought hit me for the very first time. You know what? I'm on my own. I could do whatever I want at this moment. I could get on that plane or not, right? I was about to fly to a country where not a single person had ever met me before. I didn't know a single person. I could be, I could do whatever it is I wanted to do. And then another thought hit me. Oh, I'm responsible now. Oh, actually, hold on now I actually have to be responsible for what I'm doing, right?
And the two things, they go hand in hand together, don't they, right? Even as we start off on our own, we do have a measure of freedom, but that also means we carry with it the responsibility. And so the question is, well, what are we going to do with it? What are we going to do with this freedom that we now have? What do we do with Promontory Community Church. What exactly are we going to focus on?
And so this morning as we open our Bibles, that's really the question I want us to be considering. What are we gonna do with the freedom that God has given to us? If you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to find your way to the book of Galatians. All right, Galatians is where we're gonna be. In fact, we're gonna spend the next number of months walking through this book, and there's a lot of reasons for that. Galatians is a book that's written to a new church plant seems awfully appropriate. It's one of the very first books written in the New Testament seems like a good place to start.
But in many ways. The book of Galatians is written to a new church plant who's been using their freedom in all the wrong ways, right there, this is a book written to a church plant that has been making all the wrong choices and so Paul is actually writing to correct them from a lot of things in many ways this is a lesson for us not or on what not to do. But it's also one of Paul's most focused letters. This book, this whole letter has one point. The whole thing start to finish, has one point that we need to understand, and that is. The gospel message that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone. The whole book is about that.
And in many ways, that is why I want us to look at this book. That's why I want us to spend even as we start out and we say what are we going to do with this freedom now what are we going to do as promontory community church? I want us to root ourselves deeply into the gospel of Jesus. So we call this series deeply rooted freedom. In many ways, I know those two things seem like opposites, right? Being deeply rooted means you're not going anywhere. Freedom means you can go anywhere. We put those things on opposite ends of the spectrum, but what we actually find through the book of Galatians and in the Bible is that actually when we root ourselves in the gospel of Jesus, we find actually greater freedom than we have ever had. That is what we're going to do.
And so this morning we're gonna get ourselves introduced into this incredible book. And so it's been our tradition here and it's going to continue to be our tradition here to stand as we read God's word. So if you're able to, would you join with me? Galatians chapter one starting in verse one. This is God's word.
Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead and all the brothers who are with me. To the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Amen. You may be seated.
Well this morning we're really gonna get ourselves familiar with this book, a little bit of an overview in terms of, you know, what Paul is going to be talking through in this book and one of the beautiful things about Paul's writing is he's great at writing an introduction that actually shows us what the big themes of the book he's going to write about are and very much this short little introduction does that for us. It gives us a big scope of what's all going on in the book. In fact, you'll notice there in verse 2 it says to the churches of Galatia. Right, he's writing this letter and it's meant to be passed around to a number of different churches.
The reason is because Galatia is not a city, it's a province, OK? It's a whole region and in fact if you're familiar a little bit with the book of Acts, you'll remember Paul goes through this whole area, right? He, his first missionary journey, if you look in Acts 13. 14 you can actually read about it. He travels all the way through it so you can actually see, I think we have a map here, you can see where he goes. There you go, starts off in sort of northern Israel, travels over, ends up there in Antioch at the top, and then Iconium, Listra, Derby. These are all towns in Galatia. All right, so Paul has just gone through, and if you know the story, his trip wasn't exactly easy. It wasn't a smooth trip. In fact, everywhere he goes, he pretty much runs into opposition. In fact, at one point they nearly put him to death. They tried, he managed to escape and ran to the next town, and yet despite all of that.
As Paul is going, what happens is. People believe churches are brought together despite all the opposition despite all the reasons not to these churches are formed and in fact they're set up and so as Paul leaves he makes sure that they their elders and the churches are working together and then finally he makes it back and he is rejoicing. Look at what God has done. Look at the amazing work that God's been doing, but it's almost as if he walks in the door. Made it back. Praise God. And shortly after, very shortly after, he gets a message. We don't know how, whatever it is, he gets a message. Paul, the churches have, they've really gone off the rails at this point. What? Right, in fact, actually, if you look at verse 6, you see Paul's surprise, he says,
I am astonished. You are so quickly deserting him who called you to the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
Paul just made it home and you're already going off. I just planted this church. What are you doing? Right, in fact, I mean that's what Galatians is all about. Why did you go to a different gospel? He writes it so they would understand the gospel, faith in Jesus Christ. That's what the whole book is about.
And so even as we start as a church, as we're excited about all the different things we're getting to do the ministries that are all starting here if we miss this one thing we are lost, right? This is the letter we don't want Central to write to us, right? We do not want Central going, I am astonished at how quickly that happened. No, our goal is to focus, root ourselves deeply in the gospel.
And so this morning we're gonna take a survey through this book of how Paul unravels this message of the gospel. He reminds him the gospel is first and foremost from God. It is the message of God's grace through faith, and it brings the freedom in Christ. The gospel is God's message of grace through faith in Jesus which frees us from our sin. All right?
So look back with me here in verse one. OK, because Paul introduces this theme right off the bat, OK, right, the gospel is from God. Verse one,
Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through men but through Jesus Christ, the God and Father who raised him from the dead.
Right, if you're familiar with New Testament letters, you know this is the pattern, all right? All the letters follow a very similar pattern. First you get who writes the book, then who it's to, and then a greeting of some kind. That's what Paul is going through. He's just using this framework of how to write a letter in their day, but he can hardly get through his own name before he interrupts himself because he needs them to understand something. Right? Paul is an apostle that is someone who's been commissioned to preach the good news of Jesus to go tell people about that, but he needs them to understand right away that wasn't just because he decided so it wasn't because he said, well, you know what? I've got some cool things to say, so I'm gonna get up there and I'm gonna start preaching. No, no, no, Paul is an apostle because God called him to.
In fact, God is the one who told Paul to get up and go preach this gospel. In fact, a little bit later, chapter one, Paul will say,
for I have you know brothers, that the gospel that was preached to me is not man's gospel.
He's gonna hit this over and over again throughout the book. Why? He wants them to realize these are God's words because it actually matters who said it. Right? Well, when I was growing up, my parents always told me don't believe everything you hear, right? And honestly, still really solid advice for today, OK? You read something you should probably ask, is it real? AI is really good at this point and you need to ask, is this real? Is this from a reputable source who wrote this is a really important question. Because it tells us whether or not we can trust what is being said.
In fact, that's exactly what Paul wants us to ask. Who wrote this? Where did it come from? Because the source actually matters. And so Paul is gonna outline in throughout Galatians, how did he get this gospel? Where did it actually come from? He's gonna write his whole story down so they can inspect and say, where does this come from? This is God's message, and that means, guess what? We're not allowed to just change it. Right, imagine you wrote a book, right? You'd spent years writing your novel finally it's finished, it's done you send it to the publisher and they send you back your copy and you're looking at you, wow, there's the title my name across it, there's my picture on the back, little blurb about me and then you open it up and you read the first chapter and you say. That's not what I wrote. It's not what I wrote, right? You'd actually be a little upset, right? How dare you put my name, my picture on something I didn't write. Wasn't it the same with God? We can't just take his word and then change it and say, well, this is a message from God. No, if it's his, we actually are not called, we're not allowed to just change it. We don't have the authority to do that. Right, this is God's word.
In fact, notice there in verse 2, he says,
and all the brothers who are with me
right? This wasn't just Paul's idea, didn't start from him, it came from God, and Paul's not some sort of lone ranger Christian off on his own on the fringes that no one should pay attention to. No, he's saying actually the church this is what the church has always believed. This is what we've preached for 2000 years. These are God's words. We're not changing it.
The problem is that's exactly what they were doing. Right in Galatia, that's exactly what was happening. See, soon after Paul had left, some other people came into the church. They began to start teaching, and we're not told exactly what these false teachers began to say, but the emphasis is pretty clear. They were trying to tell people, well, if you want to follow God, what you have to do is you have to go back into the Old Testament, you have to follow all of those laws, right? Particularly circumcision, right? That was the definitive sign that you were going to follow God. And so, people began to get a bit confused, or maybe that is what I have to do. If if I'm a Christian, I want to follow God, maybe that is exactly what I have to do.
And so Paul's actually gonna spend a while in the book of Galatians unpacking. What do we do with the Old Testament? It's a good question for us as Christians to answer. What do we do with this giant part of our Bible? Do we just ignore it? Do we do everything? How exactly are we supposed to use this? What are we supposed to understand? But the biggest problem with what they were teaching is they were changing the gospel. In fact, Galatians 5, Paul writes,
you were running well. who hindered you from obeying the truth?
Right?
I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
Paul's pretty direct in this book, right? He says, look, if you love circumcision so much, go all the way. I'll leave it at that. This wasn't Paul's message. He was upset, yeah, you're changing what God has told us to do. You don't mess around with that.
And here we actually need to hear that warning as well. Right, our temptation is probably not that we're gonna go back and say, yeah, we need to have circumcision, that's probably not where we're gonna go. But the temptation to slowly even subtly shift away from the message of the gospel certainly is a danger we need to be aware of. It's very easy to allow things to just slip in unnoticed to get distracted by everything else that's going on. It's true of churches, it's true of people. Where people, we get distracted all the time. Right now it's September. Everything is starting in September. There are 1000 things that just got added to your schedule, and the temptation is you begin to pay more attention to them than to God. And actually you get a bit distracted. Stop paying so much attention. And little things start to slip in even without you noticing them.
It's easy to lose sight. We rarely in the busyness of life reject the gospel outright, we just let it slide. As a church, we can do the same thing. We can get distracted by all the programs, the ideas, the fun events that we could do. We can do all sorts of different things. And yet if we miss this, if we lose sight of what is most important, we have lost it all. In fact, Jude writes. He says,
beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints
right? Jude says, actually you do need to fight for this. You actually do need to keep yourself focused on this because the moment you take it for granted is the moment you start leaving it behind. Right? We go from being people who read God's word to people who have read it. To people who remember it, to people who once remembered it. It's easy to get distracted and to let things slide, but the gospel message is God's words. It's not something we get rid of, change or leave behind, it's something we hold, proclaim and follow.
And so what is this gospel message that Paul is going to spend this time in Galatians actually unpacking for us, right? In fact, he's already introduced it in the very first verse, right? Look, look back, he says he's received his apostleship through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Right off the bat, Paul is reminding them of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, right. Way he wants us to remember this is what the gospel is all about. Jesus, who died and rose again. In fact, verse 3, look again,
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.
I right from the beginning, here is Paul's idea. Salvation is by grace through faith. See, in contrast to what everyone else had been teaching these false teachers who had come in, in contrast, they were saying, hey, you need to do all these laws, make sure you're keeping all these different things that you're a good person, then God's gonna love you. And Paul says, no, that's rejecting the gospel.
Right, so here's the thing, everyone agrees something is wrong. Right, everybody agrees there is a problem out there, right? Things aren't quite right. Just look around, watch the news, you'll see things aren't exactly perfect out there. Everyone agrees on that. The question is what that problem actually is and then how to fix it. Right, is our problem our structures, our government. Is that our history, social expectations, education or climate change, right? Depending on what you think the major problem is, you will find a different solution.
The Bible is actually gonna argue the problem's not something just out there, it's something in our own hearts. We are part of that problem. In fact, we are the ones who are doing things that are not right. Going our own way. The Bible calls this sin. God made us, He created us for a purpose, created us to actually know Him, to be in a relationship with the God above all creation. And our sin is what has absolutely destroyed that relationship. It breaks, it separates us from God, right? Like a cheating spouse, we are the ones who have broken that relationship. The question is what do we do about it? What actually fixes that problem?
See, the answer so many times people will give is well just be a better person, do good things. If you're a good person, God will be happy with you, right? In fact, they tried to use God's law. All right, here's God's law. This is what you have to do in order to be right with God. But that's like buying flowers for your spouse after you cheated on them, expecting that fixes the problem. Not only is that insulting, it's even worse because you haven't stopped the affair. Right, we haven't sinned once. In fact, we've sinned all the time. We've continually broken God's laws, continued to put ourselves first in all things like an addiction to sin. Every time we try and go somewhere else, we're pulled back into it. We are stuck in our sin, going back again and again, and we think a few nice gestures thrown God's way makes us good. It's more insulting than helpful. God, I went to church. I did some nice things. I didn't hurt anyone. Is that really enough? Is chocolate, flowers, and a meal going to fix the relationship?
So I gave the example of a cheating spouse. It's actually the one the Bible uses quite a lot, but there's a lot more to it. Not only is sin breaking our relationship with God, it's an addiction, it's even putting us in opposition to God. See, God is perfect, pure, he is good in every conceivable way and that actually means also his commitment to justice, to deal with evil, to get rid of it. And so when we sin, when we do what is wrong, what we are doing is putting ourselves in opposition to the justice of God Himself. Not only did it break our relationship, rightly, we're under his judgment.
Why shouldn't we change the gospel? Cause we can't do anything about it. It's broken our relationship with God. We are stuck and mired under it, and we face his punishment, his judgment for our sin. We can't do anything about it. We truly are lost. But that's what makes the good news so good. It's because what we couldn't do. God has done for us. What we couldn't accomplish, God has already accomplished in Jesus. That's the good news that we get to proclaim. It's not just the bad news, we have the good news of what Jesus has done on the cross. He has saved us. When we couldn't do anything, Jesus did it all.
See, when Jesus came, he actually went to the cross. He died and what God did is he said, I'm gonna place all the punishment for your sins, mine on Jesus. He will die in our place so that anyone who would trust in him, turn away from their sins and trust in Jesus would be saved. Our sins are forgiven. It's as if God has piled up all of our debt upon this giant table in front of us, and as Jesus comes along, swept it all onto his shoulders. Actually it's now clean for everyone who trusts in Jesus. This is the good news that we get to not only proclaim but experience. We are forgiven of our sins, our broken relationship is now restored in Jesus Christ. That is what this book is all about. Galatians 2:16. Says
yet we know a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.
Right here is Paul's thesis statement for the entire book. We are saved, we are justified, legally declared righteous, not guilty, not by doing things ourselves, but by Jesus, by trusting in what he has done.
So do you trust him? It's really the question. The question is, do you trust in Jesus? Do you trust that his death and resurrection is the only way that you can be saved, be made right with God, restored our relationship and actually set free from sin. It only comes through faith and it is the invitation open to everyone who would repent and trust in him. If you're here today, you've never done that. Come talk with me. Even ask questions if you're still not sure. I'd love to help you understand this more. Talk to someone around you. Place your trust in him and watch as God transforms us. Paul writes in Galatians 3, he says,
let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
The answer, by the way, is with faith. When we trust in Jesus, our sins are forgiven. The Holy Spirit lives in us, dwells in us, transforms us, and helps us to follow after him. It's not about what you can do. You can't be good enough to be right with God, but the good news is that God has done what we cannot. Jesus has died in our place, rose again that we might have eternal life with Him. That's what this book is all about. It's God's message of grace through faith in Jesus.
And here is Paul's final point in the book. Actually, it's this gospel that brings us freedom in Christ. See the final part of his introduction, actually he points out actually the gospel's gonna make a change in our lives. Look back, verse 4 says
Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of God our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Right, the result of the good news, the result of what Jesus has done is that we are delivered from this evil age doesn't mean we leave this earth. That's not what he's talking about. He's saying we're freed from the power of sin, our addiction, our bondage to it. We're no longer under sin's control. We are transformed people. Right? The problem with sin is it breaks our relationship with God. We're stuck in it and we're under his judgment. What Jesus came to do is deal with our judgment, restore our relationship and break the bondage of sin over us. The transformation of the gospel actually brings us freedom.
Hear me, I know, as Christians, we're still gonna struggle with sin. We're still gonna wrestle in this life, in this fight against sin. It's the already and the not yet of the Christian life. We are set free from sin and yet we're not entirely free of it. We are declared righteous by God, yet not fully living righteous. A change has been made when we trust in Christ, a transformation begins even though there are still remnants of the old life left. It's like a new church planted when the old banners haven't come down yet, right? The new ones are coming, by the way.
And isn't that the picture of the gospel? Transformation has happened inside. Yes, there are remnants of the old left and yet we know where things are going. We have freedom now from our sin, but we still will fight for it. Paul writes Galatians 5
for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Right, the good news of Jesus has set us free. So don't go backwards. Don't go back into your old life of bondage, of sin. Paul writes the book of Galatians actually help them understand how to live in the freedom of the gospel. Because it transforms every part of our lives, how we relate to God.
See sometimes we almost have this idea that when we become a Christian, it's like God has, you know, it's like getting a job that you aren't qualified for, right? You're like, oh man, the boss really stuck his neck out for me. He hired me even though I didn't have all the qualifications. So now I better work really hard in order to impress him because I gotta, I wanna try and keep that job. And so we start, we start working, we start trying to do all kinds of things to really impress God so that we could stay there. We're not God's employees. Actually, the gospel transforms us, we're his children.
The freedom of Christ changes how we relate to God. We're not under fear, we're not worried about messing up because that would kick us out. If God didn't save you by your merits, why would you think for a moment that you are staying by your merits? It is grace all the way down. It is Jesus all the way through, start to finish, we depend on God's grace. We are free from any performance that would dictate our lives. We are free as his children. It transforms how we relate to God.
It transforms how we relate to one another. Because I'm not saved because I was better. And so even when I see your failures, it's not because you are worse. In fact, God has given me strength in some areas so that I can help you, and where I'm weak, others are strong so that we can actually work together for the glory of God. Changes how we relate to God, how we relate to one another, it even changes what we want to do with our freedom.
Our freedom is for the glory of God. That's how Paul ends here, his introduction, verse 5,
to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Our salvation has one goal, the glory of God. We exist to honor him, to make his goodness, mercy, grace, love, patience and kindness visible to others. We are freed to do that. We are not under compulsion. God is not holding this over us, saying you have to do really good things now. No, we are freed as His children to express our gratitude and joy because of what Jesus has done. It changes how we want to use our freedom. It changes how we relate to one another, it changes how we relate to God. Peter says,
live as people who are free, not using it your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Our freedom is for the purpose of showing the glory of God in all things. The good news of Jesus results in our freedom from sin by the grace of God.
See, this is what Galatians is all about. It is God's message of grace through faith in Jesus that frees us, right? The unchanging, unmoving word of God that is given to us in the gospel, right? These are God's words. We don't just get rid of them. Because only God can deal with our sin. We've tried long enough. Let us repent, turn to Christ and trust in what He has done. He has dealt with our sins, freed us from its control, freed us from its judgment, and restored our broken relationship with God.
Promontory Community Church, what are we going to do now that we're on our own? What will we do with our freedom? My commitment as your pastor, my challenge to you, the call God has given, let us root ourselves deeply in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in that freedom let us use it for the glory of God.
Let's pray together. Our heavenly Father, we are so grateful for what you have done. Lord, as we open your word, as we spend time in this incredible book. Father, I pray, would you convict our hearts once again? Might we see the goodness of your gospel afresh? Might we live in response to the freedom that you have given to us, Lord, that we can approach you as your children, beloved, not because we are perfect, but because of what Jesus has done. Father, thank you for your grace, thank you for your mercy, thank you for your faithfulness that you have poured out on us. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.