June 12, 2010

You Have Every Reason to Believe the Gospel!

3rd Sunday after Pentecost, 6/13/10
Galatians 1:11-24


You Have Every Reason to Believe the Gospel!
I. It comes from God himself.
II. It produces amazing results.


The older I get, the less I believe the things I read and hear. How about you? I read articles in newspapers and magazines, and in general I accept what they are telling me as true, but in the back of my mind I always wonder if the story is slanted. Did things really happen that way? What would the other person say if given the chance? Was there an audio or video recording that I could hear and watch for myself? Is this medical study completely objective? Who paid to have it done? A drug company? Some group with a vested interest?

The bottom line is: What should I believe to be true? And it often comes down to my own opinion. I decide what’s true or not.

But that leaves us with a rather subjective mess, doesn’t it? If it’s up to the individual to decide what’s true, then how can we share truth with one another? We can’t. And that becomes particularly disturbing when it comes to the truths about the life after this one. Who can really know for sure what lies beyond this life?

God does. And he shares his truth with us. The greatest news that he wants to share with any sinner is that Jesus has done everything for our salvation so that we can enjoy life with him after this life.

One of the men the Lord used to share this truth with others was the Apostle Paul. And yet Paul himself ran into fierce opposition when he shared the truth of the gospel with others. They attacked Paul and his message. They wouldn’t believe that what Paul was saying about Jesus was true.

Could those people have been correct? Could it be that we believe something that isn’t true? Might our complete trust in Jesus be misplaced? Not a chance. You have every reason to believe the gospel! May that truth comfort and strengthen us this morning as we come to a deeper understanding of our Lord’s words to us through Paul.

Part I.

Someone tells you something astounding about someone else. What they’re telling you just seems impossible. And your immediate reaction is, “Who told you this?” or “Says who?” You want to know the source of that person’s information. You want to decide if that source is credible or not. You want to have the opportunity to go to that source and check it out for yourself.

Paul’s first missionary journey covered an area of the Roman empire known as Galatia. It’s present-day Turkey. His work in that province was done in cities such as Antioch and Iconium and Lystra and Derbe. His usual course of action was first to meet with the Jews in those towns in their synagogues and explain to them that Jesus was the Messiah that they were waiting for. After speaking with the Jews, he would then reach out to the Gentiles in that town. And his message was simple. Jesus lived and died for our sins. He won heaven for us. There is no longer any need to follow Jewish kosher laws, the Sabbath or circumcision.

And the response he received in Galatia was, “Says who?” You see, some of the Jews in these cities believed that Jesus was their Savior, but they also taught that you had to obey the Jewish laws about eating kosher and the Sabbath and circumcision if you wanted to be saved.

So Paul defended his message. He defended the gospel—the good news that we are saved by faith alone and not by faith plus these works of the law. And the people in these Galatian congregations said, “Says who?” Paul’s answer was, “Says God.”

Paul defended the gospel that he preached by pointing to the facts of his life. He didn’t fabricate the message that we are saved by faith and not by works. This is something he received from God himself and Paul related how it happened.

First, he reminded his readers of his past. He used to be a Pharisee among the Pharisees. There was no one as zealous for the works of the law as he was and he violently opposed Jesus. He writes, “For you have heard of my previous way of life, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” The traditions Paul mentions are all the extra laws the Pharisees obeyed, thinking they were saved by their own works. There was no way any human being could have talked Paul into renouncing his Judaism. Only God could do that.

And he did it at Paul’s conversion. You remember the story of how the Lord appeared to Paul on his way to Damascus and blinded him with a light. He converted Paul from trust in his own works of the law to faith in Jesus as his Savior. He then appointed Paul to be his apostle to the Gentiles. An incredible turn-around to say the least!

Next Paul mentions his visit to Jerusalem. He states clearly that he only spoke with Peter briefly and also met James, the Lord’s brother. In other words, he had very little contact with other people and certainly no time to study with others. This was further proof that Paul didn’t receive his teachings from another person. He received his gospel from God himself.

Finally, Paul mentions that he stayed in Syria and Cilicia. These two areas were far from all the other apostles. Again, this was proof that no human gave Paul a message to share with others. Paul received his message—the gospel of Jesus Christ—from God himself.

And that gospel was this: we are not saved by faith in Jesus plus our own works. We are saved only through faith in Jesus. That was the message God gave to Paul.

You have every reason to believe the gospel. It comes from God himself.

Humans like to think that we make things better. But look how often the opposite is the case. We pollute our land and water. We’re in the midst of the largest oil spill in world history. We deforest the land and in doing so endanger all sorts of species of animals, insects and birds. We create antibiotics, but the organisms they kill have an uncanny ability to resist them and become harder to kill. We can’t improve on God’s creation.

And we can’t improve his message either. The gospel of Jesus proclaims salvation and forgiveness without any works on our part. That’s the sweetest news any sinner can hear. But we ruin it when we attempt to think that our response is necessary. We ruin that message when we think that we deserve better treatment from God. We pollute that message when we measure our outward goodness against the goodness of others or the lack of it. Those are attempts to trust in yourself. Instead, believe the gospel—the good news that Jesus has done everything for your forgiveness and eternal life. That’s the gospel that comes from God himself. You have every reason to believe it.

Part II.

I mentioned the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a few moments ago. It’s an environmental disaster so enormous we’d rather not think about it. Human experts have tried to stop the flow of oil for nearly 2 months but have failed. It’s almost as if this is going to take a miracle of God.

Spiritually speaking, God avoided an eternal disaster for us with the miracle of the gospel. We were headed for eternal death in hell. God used the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ—to avert our eternal death and give us eternal life.

Just look what that gospel did in the life of Paul. First, he renounced his Judaism. By that I don’t mean that Paul denied his Jewish heritage. But he did renounce the Jewish way of life as a means of gaining eternal life. Paul had lived the half of his life as a Jew among Jews. There wasn’t a Jewish religious law that Paul didn’t observe. And he observed them all thinking he was earning his own salvation.

But the gospel changed all that. He heard the good news that Jesus was his Savior and that news created saving faith in Paul’s heart. Paul realized his good works were nothing but filthy rags. He was a sinner before God, condemned to hell. But Jesus had saved him with his perfect life and his death on Calvary’s cross. A miracle of God indeed!

And the Lord also used this former persecutor of the church to expand the church. Paul became the greatest missionary Christianity has ever seen. He fearlessly proclaimed Christ. For the sake of the gospel Paul was beaten and left for dead. He was imprisoned. Ultimately he would be murdered all because of his connection with Jesus. And this was the man who once lived to wipe the name of Jesus from the face of the earth! A miracle of God indeed!

That miraculous change didn’t go unnoticed. Paul writes, “I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only 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.” The churches around Jerusalem heard that Paul was proclaiming the message about Jesus as the Savior from sin and they praised God. They didn’t praise Paul. They knew that this dramatic change wasn’t Paul’s doing. They didn’t praise other men. They knew that no human being could have accomplished this. They praised God. God alone could make this change in Paul. God alone was responsible for this amazing result. But that’s what happens when the gospel is proclaimed. It produces amazing results.

That same gospel is proclaimed to you every week here in worship. You have every reason to believe the gospel. It produces amazing results.

You confessed your sins at the beginning of worship and the gospel announced to you, “You sins are forgiven.” Our communicants will receive the Savior’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of their sins. That’s the gospel in the sacrament. You share the message of Christ with another sinner and God uses it to work saving faith. Those are amazing things, eternally amazing! That’s what the gospel does. You have every reason to believe it. Amen.