What Matters Most?
Excerpt -
You know, whether consciously or unconsciously, many Christians including us today have become modern day “Judaizers”. “Judaizers” don’t deny the gospel. They believe the same gospel but they want to alter the gospel message. Some, like those who were in the churches of Galatia, have more to add. They wanted to add new requirements, new ceremonies, and new standards for a person to come into salvation. Listen to me. Get this: anything added to grace destroys it. When law is added to grace, grace ceases to be grace.
WHAT MATTERS MOST?
- A message on a study of Galatians 1
10 September 2006
Gary Chan
Free Community Church
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Introduction
We have just finished a sermon series on the search for faith and today we begin a brand new 6 week series on the Galatians. I believe this is a very opportune time for us a Church to be studying this Book, especially at this season in the life of our Church.
Since this is the first sermon in our series on the book of Galatians, we need to first spend a bit of time to understand the big picture of Galatians. Firstly, Galatians is not your usual narrative that reads like a history book like the Synoptic Gospels or the Book of Acts. It is in another form of literature commonly found in the New Testament - an Epistle or a letter.
Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul - one of thirteen letters of Paul that have been included in the New Testament out of a total of 21 letters. You may be asking, why were so many letters written by Paul included in the New Testament? Well, the first thing you have to realize is that Paul never sat down and decided to write a book on Christian faith and doctrine. Actually, if you read Acts and his other letters, you will realize that he was rather against this whole idea of doctrine and the written law.
The reason why so many letters from Paul have been included in the New Testament is that each letter captures different aspects about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and deals with different themes on human nature, salvation, the Church (the body of Christ), and how we should live as Christians. And rather than presenting all his thoughts as a unified whole, or a set doctrine to follow, we see how different aspects of faith are applied in different situations.
So it is important to understand a bit of the background as to why each of the letters were written. Many times if we don’t do that we run the risk of running into error by applying verses wholesale to our own lives without understanding first whether our situation is anything similar to that of the one which Paul was addressing.
Who was Paul writing to?
The first question we have to ask ourselves in understanding Galatians is who was the recipient of the letter? Who was Paul writing to? So let’s turn to Galatians 1 and let’s start reading from verse 1.
Galatians 1:1-2
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,
To the churches in Galatia:
So we see here in verse 2 that very clearly this letter was addressed specifically to the churches in Galatia. Now where is Galatia? Galatia is not an ancient city, but a region of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). If you read the book of Acts (chapter 13), Paul had visited this region during his first ever mission trip, and he had later on passed through the area at least twice more (in Acts 16 and 18).
So what happened was that during Paul’s first mission trip, he had preached the gospel to the people in Galatia who were pagans at that time, and they had received the gospel by faith and had set up some local churches in the cities in their area.
But something was going on in the churches that compelled Paul to write this letter.
It’s not just a friendly “hello, how are you? How’s the weather in Turkey?” courtesy kind of letter. Paul needed to deal with a particular situation or issue.
What was Paul writing about?
So what was happening in the churches of Galatia? Well, false teachers had come in after Paul had left Asia Minor. These false teachers had not only attacked the message of the gospel, they also had attacked the messenger. And Paul was writing to the Church this very critical letter to deal with the situation at hand.
Galatians 1:6-10
I am astonished 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. But 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! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
You see, Paul was writing this letter to the churches in Galatia because he was concerned about false teachers were corrupting the truth of the Gospel. These people had come in after he had left and was preaching a different gospel. I’ll leave it to Chee Meng next week to preach on Galatians 2, but essentially we find that a group known as “Judaizers” or were teaching a salvation by works.
They were saying: It was not enough to receive salvation by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, everyone had to become a ceremonial Jew but obeying Jewish traditions like getting circumcised. “Jadaizers” were claiming that this was the only way to be truly saved or completely saved.
Now I want you to look with me a verse 6. Notice that Paul was not astonished at the fact that there were false teachers. In Acts, Paul warned the elders in the church of Ephesus to expect false teachers. What he was astonished at is that the church was so readily following them. Paul was totally bewildered that the church so readily rejected the central truth of the Christian message for an alternative idea.
Today, there is still such an urgent need for preaching and teaching the simple truth of the gospel - belief that we can be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Yes in FCC and in different churches around the world, we need to allow for diversity in the expression of our faith. We are each unique people with our own unique experiences for our own unique culture, and different people focus on different aspects and expressions of our spirituality. This morning you experienced a contemporary, uplifting style of worship, followed by a responsive liturgical section for our communion and Tuck just led us through a contemplative prayer segment. So yes, we should plenty of give room for diversity in the expression of our Christian faith, but when the gospel is compromised, when people start preaching another truth or adding or removing requirements for salvation, you need to know when to draw the line.
Whether it is the first century or 21st century, the Bible tells us to expect false teachers of the gospel.
Beware of False Teachers
I have found that there are 2 kinds of false teachers. The first kind openly denies that Jesus is the Christ. These people are fairly easy to spot.
But the more dangerous ones are false teachers that come in the name of Christ but distort the gospel of grace (which is the unmerited, underserved favour of God). They are dangerous because while they give people the appearance of leading people to Christ, they are actually erecting barriers to salvation by grace. And you know what, most of the time we are all guilty of doing it unconsciously.
I’ve know of many friends who are no longer coming to church. Some don’t even consider themselves Christians any longer. I recall this conversation with girlfriend of mine more than 7 or 8 years ago as clear as day.
Her name was Charlene and one day I was sending her home after a night out in the city. She stayed in Ang Mo Kio and it was a pretty long drive to her place from town. She was sharing with me her relationship and family problems and they were threatening to overwhelm her. She didn’t know what to do, she needed support, she needed the love of Christ in her life.
Back then, I was still a pretty new Christian, so I didn’t have the boldness to pray for her or share the love of Christ with her. So I did the only thing I knew how to. I invited her to church the following day, Sunday.
So I asked her, “hey Charlene, why don’t you come to church with me tomorrow.” And her reply to me I still remember to this day. It was the saddest thing I’ve heard. She said, “I don’t think I’m good enough for the Church. Why would God want to have anything to do with a person like me?” And you know what, I’ve discovered since that there are so many other people like Charlene.
Yes, there are some people are not ready yet to hear the gospel. They are just apathetic about God and the Church, especially in our modern fast-paced lives with so many things demanding our attention. It is easy to shut God out for a time. But there’s no running away forever. The famous mathematician Blaise Pascal said it best, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” Genesis tells us that God created man to have fellowship with Him. Exodus tells us that we are created to worship a God. When Moses went up to receive the 10 Commandments, the Israelites got fed up and created another God - a golden calf to worship.
But there’s another group of people like Charlene, there’s a large percentage of non-Christians out there who don’t come to church simply because they think that the church and God won’t want to have anything to do with them. That’s what they see when they look at the Church and Christians and the way they operate and respond to the world.
We have become modern day “Judaizers”. Looking at us, they feel like they need to meet up to a certain mark to qualify to come to Church. That they have to get their lives fixed up first before God will accept them. That there are so many requirements to being part of a church (you have to do this and that) that rather than experiencing true freedom and liberty in Christ, they are oppressed by requirements to attend these meetings, do ministry, etc. You know, whether consciously or unconsciously, many Christians including us today have become modern day “Judaizers”.
“Judaizers” don’t deny the gospel. They believe the same gospel but they want to alter the gospel message. Some, like those who were in the churches of Galatia, have more to add. They wanted to add new requirements, new ceremonies, and new standards for a person to come into salvation. Listen to me. Get this: anything added to grace destroys it. When law is added to grace, grace ceases to be grace. Although sometimes used in different ways, this phenomenon is known as “legalism” in the Church.
Another group of false teachers want to take things out of the gospel. They say that evangelism is irrelevant today, that God saves everyone, regardless. That the righteousness, holiness and justice of God is not relevant. All roads lead to Rome. All religions and belief systems lead to God. In our post-modern world, morality is relative. So you can’t apply a universal code or absolute standard to everybody. So everything is ok, as long as you don’t hurt anybody. It is more important to be politically engaged, and stand up for who we are. There are many flavours and variations of this, but if you want to know some associated terms for this phenomenon, you will come across terms like “antinomianism”, “relativism”, and “universalism”.
Either way, what is masquerading as holiness or being right is erecting barriers to people coming to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
And what is the end result of letting this persist in the church? Look at verse 7. It says that there will be confusion in the church and among Christians like what we are experiencing today in our church.
And the next verse, verse 8 and 9 gives us a very serious warning against the “Judaizers”. So serious, Paul repeated it twice so you know it is very serious indeed. That most severe judgment of God will come upon these people. So we always have to check ourselves. Are we being modern day “Judaizers”? Are we adding things to the gospel and keep the doors of the church tightly shut? Are we removing things from the gospel and preventing people from coming into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through grace by faith?
So as a church, we need to welcome everyone because God loves everyone. But we also have to watch out for false teaching and they will come, consciously or unconsciously. Sometimes even in the “well-meaning” disguise of the name of Christ. And we have to grow up and be strong in our faith so we don’t get swayed this way and that way, following every teaching.
The Power of your Testimony
But you say, I’ve never been to Bible school, how do I convince people about the true gospel? They have very good arguments. They even use the scripture to push their teaching across. How do I overcome them?
Rev 12:11
(They) overcame the accuser (Satan) by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony
You see, Paul knew that too. So he didn’t stop there by just preaching theology on salvation. He knew that argument wasn’t going to win them over. What will win them over is through your testimony, your life. What you were like before you received Christ, your conversion experience, what happened after that.
Unlike theology and arguments, no one can take your testimony away from you. It is your life in Christ. Others can dispute say what they like to dispute it, but you know that you know that you know that it was God who intervened in that situation, who provided that miracle, who turned your life around.
Galatians 1:11-17, 1:22-24
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.
For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, 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. 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, 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...
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.
Look at Paul’s life before his conversion. Verse 13 tells us that he persecuted the church intensely. Verse 14 says that he was advancing Judaism (v14). Paul was a Hebrew, trained as a scholar and a Pharisee just like his father, a teacher of the law. He had a powerful social standing, high up in the religious organization, on the fast track to success.
He was zealous for his religious traditions and being a very conservative sect of the Jews, was very opposed to Jesus. But God had other plans for Paul. He was doing the right thing, and was good at it, zealously promoting his religious beliefs, but just with the wrong message. Then Paul gets radically converted (v15-16) when He encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus. On his way to persecute the Christians in Damascus and push Judaism.
He gets saved and immediately does a 180 degree turn and makes a decision to start preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ instead. And the end result is that in v23 and 24 - the church reports that “’The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.’ And they praised God because of me”. What a great testimony of his faith and the power of the gospel in Paul’s life. Like Paul, there is tremendous power in your testimony. The world has recognized this power of testimonies and they use the exact same methods that Paul used 2000 years ago.
Paul tells us what he was like before his conversion, the process of conversion, and the end result. And likewise, many advertisements today feature people to talk about what they were like before, what they went through, and what they were like after they used a particular product or service.
For example: all the scientific theory alone isn’t enough to convince you that “Xando” will help you lose weight and you move you to spend money to try the product out! So what do they do? They get a celebrity to show you their “before” and “after” photos, and put in quotes from the celebrity telling you things like, “I was once 120kg, but after taking Xando for 2 months, I am now 50kg!”
Be it slimming tablets, cosmetics, movies, restaurants, professional services, whatever. The success of many products and brands depends on what people say about them. Why do they do that? Because the world has recognized that there is tremendous power in your testimony.
For the Kingdom of God, your testimony servers 2 purposes: For Christians who hear your testimony, maybe they are in a similar situation, you will be encouraging their faith. And whether or not they are in that situation, it will move them to give God glory. For non-Christians who hear you testimony, it will help you show them how God has worked in your life and continues to work in your life and give you an opportunity to share the gospel with them.
Revelations 12:11
(They) overcame the accuser (Satan) by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony
So in one hand we have the gospel, the theory to move the head. And in the other hand we have the out working of a life in Christ, your experiences to move their hearts. The end result is that the Satan, the accuser will be defeated. The accuser that says that:
God doesn’t love them. They are not good enough to be a Christian. The life of a Christian is dull and they have no fun and live enslaved to their rules.
Reaching our World with the Gospel
I’ve pretty much finished my sermon on Galatians 1 today but as we close, I wonder if you really understand how much God loves the lost in the world. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he gave his best - His son Jesus Christ - SO THAT whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will be saved.
Why isn’t our church growing? A few weeks ago I preached a message that people were not responding to the call of God. That was reason #1.
In closing today, I want to share with you reason #2. FCC is not growing as a church because we have lost sight of what is important to the Kingdom of God because we do not have a burden for the lost.
You know, most of you who come to this church already knew Christ before stepping into this church. We have had only a small handful of people who have received Christ through our ministry.
If you forget everything I’ve said today, get this: the #1 reason why the church exists is to win the lost to Jesus Christ. Not for worship, communion or having Sunday Services. Jesus didn’t come so that we can have Sunday Services and have Sunday Services more abundantly. Worship, communion, having cell group meetings and Sunday Services are all good, but they are secondary to winning the lost to Jesus Christ.
Why do I say that? If we had to distill the entire Bible down, what does our Christian faith come down to? What is the most important thing that we as Christians need to do?
Well, a Pharisee asked Jesus that in Matthew 22:36-40.
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
So how do you love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength? It’s very simple: by loving the things He loves.
So what does God love? We read in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that the world can be saved.
Let’s read John 3:16 and 17 together:
John 3:16-17
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Romans says it this way:
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Friends, soul-winning is the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion, or the Great Opinion. Mark 16 records the last words of Jesus Christ before He ascended into heaven. The one last thing He could tell the disciples before He ascended into heaven. The last time He would ever have physical contact with them.
Matthew 5:15-16
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
So we see God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to die for our sins so that the world could be saved. So we see that preaching the gospel was so important that it was the last thing He said to the disciples before He ascended into heaven. And you know what, the number #1 reason why the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity was given to us was so that we can be a witness for Christ!
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
So the power of the Holy Spirit is not just for us to enjoy His presence and operate in His gifts and for Him to be our helper and guide, it was for the expressed purpose of Christian witness. To who? First in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the Earth.
Make no mistake church, soul winning IS the primary purpose of God. Everything else is secondary to that! You know, you can be super spiritual and not lead a single person to Christ. Like many of us in FCC, we get so deep in the word with our theological diversity, we know the 6 theories of atonement, the significance of each part of the tabernacle, the Greek and the Aramaic, but never have led a single person to Christ.
You know, for a thousands years in Europe, the theologians were so deep in the word, they shut the doors of their monasteries, while the entire world plunged into a period known as the “dark ages”. Why was it dark? Because there was no light! As Christians, we are called to be the “light of the world”. To reflect the light of Christ into a very dark world. That’s why we sing, “this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine!”
When Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, the Book of Acts tells us that he immediately started preaching the gospel to the very same people he came to persecute.
Acts 9:19-20
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
Paul got it! As a church, have we lost the plot? Do we love what Jesus loves? Or are we happy to keep the doors tightly shut from the rest of the world in our holy huddle? Are we going into the highways and byways to bring people into the kingdom of God?
You may be saying, I’m just a new Christian, or a young man or woman, how do I witness to people? Can you last 5 more minutes so I can talk about this for a moment.
Is it by stopping people on the street and giving them a Bible Study? No! Is it by shoving Christian tracts into mailboxes hoping they would call? No!
No, we witness to people by reaching out to them, getting in relationship with them, connecting with them, meeting their needs, and then sharing with them the gospel and your testimony. It may sound like a cliché, but people really don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Soul-winning the Jesus Way
Last passage for today. Promise. Turn with me to Luke 5 and we are going to look at Jesus’ example of soul winning.
Luke 5:1-2
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.
So here we read that one day during Jesus’ ministry, He was standing on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret and people were crowding around him and listening to a sermon he was giving. And out of the corner of His eye while He’s preaching, He sees three fishermen, Simon Peter, James and John who were going about their daily livelihood. They were washing their nets ready to head out to go and catch fish.
These guys obviously weren’t interested in Jesus’ preaching. They were going just going about their daily lives. Trying to make a living. But look at what Jesus did in verse 3.
Luke 5:3-4
He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."
Instead of letting them be, Jesus entered their world. He stopped his sermon, got into Simon’s boat, asked Simon to put out from shore a little and then sat down and continued his preaching. Not only did Jesus enter their world, he stayed there, connected with them and look at what happens in verse 4. When Jesus had finish speaking, he didn’t just leave them alone and went on his way. He stopped to fellowship with them and then proceeded to meet their needs through a miracle that the 3 fishermen weren’t able to do on their own.
And look at the result in v8:
Luke 5:8
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!"
Simon recognized that he needed to be saved and gave his life to Jesus. That is the Jesus’ way of soul-winning. He sought the fishermen out, He entered their world and connected with them. He sat down and fellowshipped with them. He met their needs and then they responded by giving their lives to Him. This is how we need to witness as Christians. And we need to equip ourselves with the good news of the gospel in one hand, and the word of our testimony in the other.
You know, I’ve been a Christian for about 10 years ago when a friend bothered to build a relationship with me, and accompany me to Wesley Methodist Church for a service where I was the only person who came forward for the altar call to receive Christ. Imagine that, an altar call for just one person! And my life has never been the same since and it has been an amazing journey walking with Christ these last 10 years.
Today, as a church, I pray that we will quit fooling around. Quit playing church. The primary reason why the church exists to win the lost. Our commission is to go into all the world to preach the good news of the gospel. Everyone of us. Not just the preacher. Or your cell group leader. Everyone.
FCC may have been born in the natural because some of you got asked to leave your churches. But FCC was born in the Spirit to reach out to a lost group of people that no other church could understand or be bothered with. The GLBT population in Singapore. That is our Jerusalem, our Judea.
I pray that we will heed the call today to be focused living out the Great Commandment, to obey the Great Commission.
I want every eye closed and every head bowed in this place. How many of you will say yes to Jesus today? To say yes, I will be bold and stand up for my faith like Paul did. I will not be ashamed of the gospel. I will add nothing to it. I will take nothing away from it. I will step out into the highways and byways to seek people out. I will build relationships with them and not just with my church friends. I will connect with them and meet their needs. I will share my testimony with them. I will live out the Great Commandment to love God and people with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. If that’s you, just lift your hands all over this place.
Let’s all pray this prayer together:
Heavenly Father, thank you that because of Your love and Your grace, we can be saved. We can experience peace, joy and true freedom. Today we make a commitment to You. We will be bold Christians. We will not be ashamed of the gospel. We will not change the gospel message we have received. Give us opportunities and boldness to step out of our comfort zone. Help us reach out to our friends and family members who still do not know you. Lord we commit ourselves to be a soul winning church. To be your light in the world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!
