The Audio of the sermon I preached this morning is online. My notes follow:
Good news when doubts attack (Galatians 1:1-12)
Intro
Doubts are a feature of life. Does he really love me? Will I ever meet someone? Is this the right job for me?
There is not one aspect of the Christians message that isn’t under attack from outside and within the church
Was Jesus who he said he was? Was he born of a virgin? Who made the world? How can a loving God allow suffering? Why has this happened in my life?
The world is full of bad news, and if we are honest we do wonder sometimes when the next bit of bad news that will affect us will come. We know it will come.
The world is crying out for good news, even though when it happens the papers rarely report it. Possibly because the good news sometimes seems so pale in comparison to the bad. News of a royal wedding excites, but not as much as the juicy details of gossip surrounding its almost inevitable demise.
Is there any good news that can change lives?
The answer is YES, its here in this book. Good news for the poor, good news for the sick, good news for the ones struggling with feelings of guilt. Good news for the lonely. Good news for those full of doubts and anxiety. Good news for the outwardly successful but inwardly living lives of quiet desperation.
It is the Good News that will change the world by changing one person at a time (CF Acts series)
What do we do when doubts attack?
Go back to the only truly good news in the world and get more certain about it
SLIDE
I am going to be preaching a series on good news
1. Good news when doubts attack
2. Good news when you feel rejected
3. Good news: the end of rules
4. Good news for the powerless
5. Good news when you feel like giving up
The bible has another word for good news- The Gospel. When the bible speaks of the gospel it uses a word- evangel that actually means good news. When it uses the word evangelism it simply means the process of sharing the evangel, the good news. When it uses the word evangelist it simply means one who is particularly good at sharing that good news!
Why is it that the world doesn’t immediately think of Christians as those with good news to share?
If the good news has gripped our lives, we will not be able to anything but share it.
Can you imagine I just got married, but Im not going to tell anyone, “I just had a baby, but lets keep it private and personal I won the lottery but its not going to change my life, I have had the all clear from my cancer- the operation was a success but health is a private personal matter, I don’t want to get in other peoples face about it
My football team won, but I am not going to gloat to others
The war is over but I don’t want to go to the victory party
We have a simple message of good news that should thrill us and excite us- how can we not share it?
Can the message that changes the world really be that simple? Theologians make their living by assuming it isn’t!
We will be going back to the simple gospel here both for the sake of our visitors- please do invite people who are not yet Christians- but also for ourselves. For, as Luther says of the gospel it must [sound] in our ears incessantly because the frailty of our flesh will not permit us to take hold of it perfectly and believe it with all our heart (Gals commentary)
MY GOALS FOR THIS SERIES
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SALVATION
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GOSPEL TO TRANSFORM OUR LIVES ALSO
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CLEAR UNDERSTANDING SO WE ALL FEEL CONFIDENT SHARING THE GOOD NEWS
The world says it doesn’t really matter what you think
The lesson of 911 and 7/7 is Ideas matter after all.
It sounds like the middle ages all over again.
People die in the 21st Century in England because of a war of ideas between legalistic radical Islam and secular western life which itself arose from the philosophy of a Christian worldview it now desperately tries to forget.
What does the bible have to say in the middle of the war over ideas that rages in our own heads, and the one that engulfed our tubes and buses?
We are going to address one short book which has done more than almost any other to shape the church. This book was the spark which led to the reformation which engulfed the church. Luther claimed he was practically married to this book.
It could be described as Romans lite – read this book, study it well, understand it then progress to Romans. I would rather describe it as Romans condensed as it is no lite book, every word is rich with meaning. IT is a masterpiece of literature and Paul’s most passionate explanation of his life’s message.
If you want to get to know someone, find out what makes them mad. The ideas Paul opposes in Galatians got him mad!
READ Galatians 1:1-12
Encourage people to read the whole book and at least the next chapter before I preach.
What is the good news?
It is vital we can r
emind ourselves of this, and be able to explain it to others
NB
1. Someone can be saved on the merest snippet of truth then spend a lifetime making sense of it.
2. The gospel actually includes the entire teaching of the bible and thus cannot be adequately contained in any system.
Grace and peace from God and Jesus
the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24
undeserved. When we are doubting we need to remember that we actually deserve far worse than we get. CJ when asked How are you doing makes a habit of saying Better than I deserve
declaration of peace
WORLD looks for peace.
peace with God, internally and each other, it is Gods initiative and is brought about by God and Jesus working together.
What do we need? Not what we deserve as that wouldnt be good news, but instead unmerited favour and an offering of peace.
The Good News can be summarised in 4 words
God, People, Christ, Response
God
The good news is that God is our Father. The miraculous God who can create the world and raise Jesus from the dead (v1) is also our Father (v4). We believe God is good- he is Love (SEE PREVIOUS TALK ON LOVE)
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God made everything that exists out of nothing and made mankind as the pinnacle of his creation designed for a relationship with him. This desire for a relationship is hardwired into us, and one of the evidences for this is our stubborn insistence in clinging onto notions like morality, love, individual choice, nobility and the reality of the conscious self in the face of people telling us we are nothing but a machine.
People
We are sinners (v4) That sin is what makes the world the terrible place it is.
There is a present evil age. Guess what- people will let you down badly.
The world is not as God intended it to be.
There are consequences of our sinful actions in this world. Because of everybodies sin sickness and death exists (doest mean the sick are more sinful!)
Because of sin people can be awful to you!
The forthcoming judgement is part of that good news ….on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Ro 2:16
Everyone has Sinned. Following in the footsteps of our first parents from whom we have inherited a self-destructive urge- we all are biased towards sin. Without the constraints of culture we would all be capable of committing the worst of sins.(See New Orleans)
CHRIST
Despite our hatred for God, God still loves us. God does hate sin and has determined that sin must be punished, or else he could not be considered just.
God loves us so much that he gave his only son to die in our place. Jesus took the punishment instead of us on the cross so that we could receive a pardon for our sins.
He gave himself FOR our sins v 4
– subsitutionary ie he’s our substitute (cf football)
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day (1 Cor 15:4)
Deliver= RESCUE: He rescued us- cf the emergency services
Rescued from the present- Christianity is a future orientated faith- heavenly minded so we can be of earthly use.
Note it is not that Jesus persuaded a reluctant God to forgive- the whole thing was according to Gods will
called in the grace of Christ v6
Called= the initiave was Gods not ours (maybe someone here thinking why am I here perhaps because God organised it)
Grace= undeserved act of kindness
Paul is clear: there is only one gospel that never changes. We must beware of any attempts to change the gospel to make it more palatable to modern ears. We cannot afford to say the preachers of old got it wrong, modern scholarship has shown us If that were really true, then we are saying that the Calvins, the Spurgeons, the Luthers, the Edwards, the Billy Grahams, the Whitefields, the Wesleys were all under a curse because they were not preaching the true gospel.
As a preacher I better be quite sure I am preaching the right gospel as if I am not I am under a curse which has been marked with Gods approval by being included in the word of God.
The teachers will be judged more severely than the others (James 3:1)
Response
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we shouldn’t desert it- ie we should accept it: This is so vital that Paul doesn’t even thank God for them or pray- even the Corinthians get some positive words!
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The GK means turned traitor transferring allegiance.
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Turning from him NOT just the teaching : You cannot turn away from the teaching of the bible without turning away from the God of the bible
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See Acts 2 talk and Topes
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The good news is not about what we do for God, but rather about what he has done for us but does demand a response
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WE are to stop and change our mind, deciding to follow Christ and repenting of our sins, we are then to be baptised, receive the Spirit and join the church.
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