Category: sermon-archive

the Gospel of LOVE

“For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:13-14 CSB).

We are approaching this study in Galatians with this question in mind: How does Paul define the gospel that he preached, in contrast to the counterfeit gospel that was being spread among the Galatian churches?

So, I want to draw your attention to a word repeated four times in this chapter: the word love.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love” (6)

“For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love” (13)

“For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself” (14) (Leviticus 19:18).

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (22)

Paul teaches in this chapter that love is the motivating force behind what the gospel believer does. People can say that they believe the gospel, but if they are not living in love, others will have reason to doubt their sincerity. A life of love is the evidence of faith in Christ.

the four loves

But what kind of love was Paul talking about? Nowadays, we use the word love for just about anything. In Paul’s day, people were a bit more specific. There were four major Greek words that we could translate as love, and each had a different meaning.

Gospel love is not storgē – the love of family, respect and familiarity.

Gospel love is not philia – the love of friendship and shared experiences.

Gospel love is not eros – the love of passion and romance.

God’s love is agapē – the love of unconditional care and self-sacrifice.

When I see the word agapē in the Greek New Testament, I use the word “care” to translate it. C.S. Lewis used the word picture of a gardener who poured himself into his garden every day. That is what agapē does. Believers in the gospel focus their lives on caring for others.

Now that we have that established, let’s see what Paul says about this kind of love in Galatians 5.

Love is how faith and freedom work together (1-6)

“For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law. You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace. For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.”

Paul says that believers in the gospel are set free, and they have a choice. They can either stand firm in that freedom or become enslaved again. He urges the Galatians to stay in grace and not fall from it. He knows they are concerned about living righteously before God, so they are being told that they need the law to do that. But Paul tells them to await righteousness through Christ. Meanwhile, they need to focus on working out their faith through love – caring for the people around them.

Love is how believers fulfill the law (13-14).

“… serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Love redirects the focus of your life. Love focuses on blessing your neighbor, not yourself.

Love serves reciprocally. People in agapē love serve one another.

Love is how believers defeat the works of the flesh (19-21).

“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The works of the flesh are all self-focused. That is why Paul said that they are obvious. You know it when someone is caught up in the flesh. these sins just pour out of them. They are in slavery to those self-motivated passions and perversions. Practicing the works of the flesh get people further and further from the kingdom of God. But believers can defeat these works in our lives by redirecting our walk toward agapē love – caring about others more than ourselves.

Love is how believers begin the journey of walking by the Spirit (16, 22-23, 25).

“I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

Love is the launching point to manifesting all the attributes of Christlike holiness. It is the first step of walking in step with the Holy Spirit. All the other attributes will fall in line if we get the first step right. Don’t worry about all the things you have to do to manifest all the fruit of the Spirit. Take the first step and focus on loving others and the other attributes will be reflected in your life.

It was Donald Grey Barnhouse who said: “Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Longsuffering is love enduring. Gentleness is love’s true touch. Goodness is love’s character. Faithfulness is love’s habit. Meekness is love’s self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins”

We have the opportunity to live out the gospel we believe in. Love is how we as believers begin that journey. As we continue to focus on loving others, the Holy Spirit will change us into the people God wants us to be.

Lord, we confess that somewhere along the walk, we have taken some false steps. But we commit ourselves to getting back on track by walking in love, fulfilling your law, loving our neighbors, and loving one another. Demonstrate your love through us, and draw the nations to yourself.

the gospel of IN

“But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:22,28 CSB).

Galatians 3 is one of the most crucial passages of Scripture that help define the gospel, but it is also very complicated. I want to try to simplify Paul’s teaching in this chapter by focusing on what Paul said in these two verses. Notice the word “in.” It will help us to understand the gospel if we learn what it means to have faith in Jesus (22) and what it means to be one in Christ (28).

the gospel is the story of a prison: we are either under the power of sin, or set free by faith in Jesus Christ.

I know something about prisons because my father was a prison guard. He became quite cynical about prisoners because he noticed so many repeat offenders who spent their time in prison learning how to be more efficient criminals once they got out.

The Bible tells us that sin is like that. The early chapters of Genesis tell us that once sin entered our world, it wasn’t long before everything people were thinking or wanted to do was a sin.

So, the prison analogy is an appropriate one. We cannot know freedom until we get out of that prison. While we are under sin’s power, the best that we can hope for is to become more efficient sinners.

We cannot get out of the prison of sin any other way except on the basis of faith in Christ.

Paul told the Romans that we all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, but we can be justified as a gift of God’s grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24).

The cross has made a difference. While we were still helpless, at the right time in history, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6).
We are justified by faith in Christ’s atonement on the cross (Romans 5:1). That was our way out of the prison.

Now, being out of the prison does not mean we will never sin again, but it does mean we are not stuck in the situation we were in where we couldn’t do anything but sin.

the gospel is the story of a promise: long before the law, God promised a blessing to the nations.

Verse 22 mentions that promise.

You see, the troublemakers had gone to the Galatian churches and told them that they had to get out their Bibles and review their history. They told them that God gave the law at Sinai, and that nobody is going to be blessed if they do not follow that law to the letter.

The trouble with the troublemakers is that they did not go back far enough into biblical history. Paul reminded the Galatians in this chapter that the blessing was promised to Abraham centuries before Sinai. Abraham received that promise through faith, not through obedience to the law.

The Galatians received that promise too. In verse two, Paul asks them if they had received the Holy Spirit by works of the law, or by believing the gospel. He then asked them “Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?” (3). You see, the promise of a blessing and freedom from the prison are the same thing. And we cannot get either by works of the law.

the gospel is a story of a position: believers today are equal before God.

We are all in Christ, and share his status and inheritance.

This is how Paul explains the purpose of the law in this chapter:
There are two stages. Stage one is the guardianship. Note verses 23-26:

“Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.”

Under this stage, believing Jews were imprisoned just like the rest of the world was. Their prison was the law, and it kept them longing for the faith that was to come. Once Christ came, many Jews came to him by faith, received the Holy Spirit, and were set free from both prisons.

Now, the troublemakers came to Galatia trying to get the Gentile Christians to go back to prison. They were teaching them that God wanted them to obey the law that Christ had set the Jewish Christians free from!

This is how Paul explains the reality of sonship that came to the Gentile Christians. Note verses 26-29:

“for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. Sons and Heirs For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

The promise is that by faith in Christ, all of us have a new position before God, and that position is equal. Our ethnic background does not matter: both Jew and Gentile are set free from prison. Our socio-economic background does not matter: slaves and non-slaves need this freedom, and can get it equally. Our gender does not matter: whether we were born as sons or daughters, we were all reborn as “sons of God in Christ Jesus.”

Now, before we leave this chapter, though – we have to ask the application question. As I mentioned already in this series, no one is tempted to follow the Jewish law much anymore. Oh, maybe there are a few who are hung up on the sabbath issue. But that does not mean that the principle taught in this chapter is irrelevant. In our discussion this week, Penny brought up a very helpful question: “Has the church replaced Jewish law with their own?”

I think we are in danger of replacing the gospel when we give people the impression that the kingdom of God happens when we stop sinning, become good citizens, go to church on Sunday, and just fit in with everybody else. No! That is not the definition of saving faith. I wonder if Paul were alive today, would he write us a letter similar to Galatians? Faith in Christ has no substitutes.

Lord God, thank you that we can be free from the prison of sin by trusting in Jesus Christ. Keep us from falling into slavery by turning away from this gospel of grace, and help us to share it with those who are still under sin’s power.

the gospel of GO

“When James, Cephas, and John—those recognized as pillars—acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised” (Galatians 2:9 CSB).

the gospel of grace is the flag of our unity in Christ

We all come to Christ on the same basis. When I learned that Jesus is God’s only Son and our only sacrifice for sin, I decided to accept him as my Savior. I knew then and there that everyone who accepted the same gospel and made the same choice would be my brother or sister in Christ. They might not look like me, talk like me, or even act like me, but they would be part of my family. We may not have anything in common except the gospel of grace, but that is enough.

We enjoy fellowship with all true believers everywhere on the same basis.

That meeting that Paul had with the church leaders in Jerusalem was crucial because it would decide whether there would be two Christianities – the Jewish version and the Gentile version. Would the leaders in Jerusalem accept a church of Jesus Christ without their Jewish traditions? Their acceptance of Paul, as demonstrated by their giving him the right hand of fellowship represented their understanding of the basis of everyone’s standing with God.

We don’t have to conform to the traditions of others in order to be a part of the body of Christ. But sadly, that was a lesson we had to learn over and over again in Christian history. The Protestant Reformation was necessary because human traditions took control and led the Christian church into bondage for a thousand years.

God sends missionaries out – not to enslave people, but to set them free. That lesson has been very hard for us to learn as well. We have created churches all over the world that look and act just like the missionaries. But when we did that, we ensured that those churches would not be able to reach the unbelievers in their own culture. Thankfully, God’s Holy Spirit has empowered many of those churches to remold themselves into churches that can reach their own people. All around the world today, people are being won to Christ by these transformed churches.

the false gospel seeks to destroy that gospel of grace

Paul knew what was going on in Galatia because the very same thing had been attempted in Antioch when he was there. Proponents of the false gospel were trying to influence the people in the churches to deny the gospel of grace. Paul had opposed that movement in Antioch. He said…

“But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you” (5).

What was at stake was the truth of the gospel.

That false gospel replaces freedom with slavery. Paul had said..

“This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us” (4).

That false gospel replaces integrity with hypocrisy. Paul had related his experience with Peter, also called Cephas:

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy” (11-13).

A Hypocrite is an actor. When someone is acting like he’s better than you, you can bet that behind that hypocrisy is a false gospel, because the true gospel admits that all of us need Jesus equally.

That false gospel replaces the cross with human works. If anybody could have claimed to deserve special treatment because of his works, it would be Paul, but he said…

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing” (20-21).

the true gospel is the only one which will reach the nations for Christ

The same gospel was for the Jew as well as the Gentile.

“… they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised, since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles” (7-8).

It is not that there are two gospels – one for Jews and another one for Gentiles. No, there is only one gospel, and God has sent missionaries to every corner of the globe to proclaim it.

Paul would later write to the Romans that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God to save the Jew first (because it came to them first) but also to the Greeks and everyone else (Romans 1:16).

What these leaders in Jerusalem realized is that in order for the Gentile world to hear the gospel, someone had to go, and they recognized that Paul had been called to do so.

The gospel always comes with a mandate to missions work.

Remember those words “…we should go” (9). The Christian gospel is the gospel of GO. None of us have been called to stay. Some of us are called to go overseas, others have been called to go next door. But all of us have a mission.

Remember the great commission, where Jesus told us “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

Remember also that the purpose of the Holy Spirit was to empower us for this mission. Jesus told us…

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

the false gospel is the gospel of STAY

Now, here’s the problem. All of us are born into communities, and families and each of us will know the temptation to stay. It’s not just the temptation to stay in one place. It can also be the temptation to stay like we are. Stay isolated. Stay conforming to past norms.

But the gospel of stay is a false gospel. If we are committed to staying like we are, we will never have an opportunity to reach others with the gospel of Christ. The most we can ever accomplish is reaching people like us, who are where we are, doing what we do.

There are nations that are in bondage, who need the message of freedom in Christ.

There are also neighbors who need the gospel, and those neighbors are not exactly like us, either. The gospel of GO for us means that we need to show our neighbors that Jesus can set them free too, and they do not have to become like us for that to happen.

LORD, give us the courage to renounce the false gospel of STAY, and to reach out to those who are different from us, so that they can also know freedom and forgiveness in Christ.