Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Because he first loved us.
[00:00:09] You have been known by God. That's why you know God.
[00:00:14] God loved you.
[00:00:17] Now you love him. And this makes up your relationship with him. You know him personally in this relationship of love. He is for you, unlike a dead idol who can do nothing for you.
[00:00:32] And so Paul's question here as we continue is, if you know God personally, in light of the dead idols that you used to worship, why in the world would you turn from him?
[00:00:46] Why in the world would you go back to this idolatry? Notice, he says, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?
[00:00:58] He sums up what their idolatry was. It was weak, it could do nothing for you. It was worthless, it was futile, it was empty. And it was about the elementary principles of the world. You see, these idols often represent it, just like in the village of Cordova. Earth and wind, the sky, the sun, the moon, the. The things of the world that you are trying to placate, to bless you.
[00:01:28] But there were no idols that really did this. They were dead and feudal. And this isn't the way that you are blessed or protected.
[00:01:37] Notice, he says, these gods, as the verse continues, you want to become slaves once more. To whose slaves you want. Notice the word want you desire.
[00:01:55] This is what you want to do.
[00:01:58] Even though you say you know God is Father, there is a desire in your heart to want to still worship idols, to perform rituals, to be blessed, to placate idols. Why in the world would you want to do that?
[00:02:17] Now, if you're in the church of Galatia and you're reading this letter and you hear that, you might stand up and say, what in the world is he talking about?
[00:02:26] We haven't been to a temple of worship in years.
[00:02:30] What?
[00:02:32] We haven't gone back to the pagan temples. What is he talking about here?
[00:02:37] We haven't burned incense to these local deities. What is he talking about in saying we are pagan idolaters?
[00:02:46] Notice verse 10.
[00:02:48] You observe days and months and seasons and years.
[00:02:53] Here he is referring to the Jewish calendar, the Old Testament days of festivals and sabbaths and, and. And things that set Israel apart. These things that they did, these outward dates and seasons where they performed rituals that God had commanded that we see in the Old Testament were a part of the law, as we talked about in Galatians. The law reveals Christ, it reveals our sin. It's leading us to Christ.
[00:03:30] And even things like the Sabbath in the Old Testament were leading us to Christ because Jesus is our ultimate Sabbath.
[00:03:38] All of those things are good and right.
[00:03:42] But now you are taking those things and treating them like pagan rituals. This is what he's saying the Judaizers are doing to you, these teachers that say, you must add the law to Christ Jesus isn't enough to really please God, you have to be circumcised. To really please God, you have to go to the festivals, the Jewish festivals. To really please God, you have to take part in the Sabbath. To really please God, you have to add those things to Christ. And he says in doing so, you have become pagans again, because you are carrying out these rituals as though God is a distant, unknown force who is meant to serve you.
[00:04:29] You're treating the holy God like a distant pagan God.
[00:04:36] You are treating the holy law of God like a bowl of incense to an idol that you burn and hoping it will be happy with you.
[00:04:48] And so Paul says, because you've done this, notice verse 11.
[00:04:52] I am afraid that I have labored over you in vain.
[00:04:57] Paul in Galatians is back and forth.
[00:05:02] He expresses his genuine emotion and frustration for these believers, but you also see his love for them.
[00:05:11] He cares for them because the gospel is at stake.
[00:05:15] And here in his mind, he says, how in the world could you have God as Father and still want to worship him like pagans?
[00:05:23] You must not have understood the gospel. I may have labored over you in vain.
[00:05:29] All that it took to see you come to faith in Christ is empty in light of what you are doing in worshiping these pagan gods.
[00:05:39] And so I want to ask you the question today.
[00:05:42] Are you engaged in Christian paganism right now, as you showed up for church today? Did you come here to appease God, a God that you're really trying to make happy so that your life would be easier this week?
[00:06:02] Or are you here to know God, the God who has known you?
[00:06:08] Did you come today to take part in all of this?
[00:06:13] Your service here today, Is it just another offering to a pagan God as you sing the songs? Is that just ritual perfunctory mumbling through the words, thinking this is going to make God happy and he's really happy. If I. If I feel happy in this moment, that's paganism.
[00:06:41] Did you come here today to just take part in rituals to make God happy? Or are you here today by the power of the Spirit through the gospel, saying, God is my Father and I need to know Him? He has known me and he set his love upon me and I need to know more about Him.
[00:07:01] And so I open up the word of God and I say, Oh, I know the end of the story.
[00:07:06] My Father is faithful.
[00:07:09] He's given me Christ and he's going to give me the kingdom. And oh, he's faithful. My Father is faithful and I can leave here today trusting in Him.
[00:07:19] Are you here today and you know your sin well, you know the things that you have done this week that have racked you with guilt.
[00:07:29] And instead of trying to earn mercy today, you come in to know more of God's mercy today.
[00:07:38] Oh, I open up the word of God and I understand my Father is merciful.
[00:07:43] I don't have to earn his mercy. It's been accomplished in Christ at the cross. He has been merciful to me and I know more of my Father's mercy. Why are you here today? To appease God or to know God?
[00:07:59] Have you turned from your father to paganism?
[00:08:02] The next question is, have you turned from weakness to strengths?
[00:08:09] Have you turned from humility to pride? Verse 12 he says, Brothers, I entreat you.
[00:08:16] It is as though at times Paul gets carried away with his comments and then he pulls it back in.
[00:08:26] My ministry with you was like a miscarriage.
[00:08:30] It wasn't real, it was in vain.
[00:08:35] And then he pulls himself back. Brothers, brothers, I entreat you, I beg of you, become as I am, for I have also become as you are. What is he talking about here? Paul, a Jew, born and raised under the law. The traditions of the law excelled in the law.
[00:08:56] To come to Christ had to give up on the law.
[00:08:59] So he became like a Gentile who didn't have the law to believe in Christ. The law in earning God's favor was of no good. He had to look to Christ for God's favor. So he became like a Gentile without the law.
[00:09:13] And in this section Paul begins to talk about a self righteousness and pride in the flesh that the Judaizers have as they bring in this false gospel. It is all about pride in the flesh, okay? You, you have to become weak to believe in Jesus now that you are a Christian. Believe in yourself. Trust in yourself to do these good things.
[00:09:39] And Paul says in Philippians, that's rubbish, that's garbage.
[00:09:46] In the book of Philippians, Paul reads out his resume that according to the flesh he was more Jewish than anyone, that his resume was at the top of the list when it came to credentials among teachers and students.
[00:10:02] He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
[00:10:06] He says, I had all of these traditions. I had all of the law in some sense on my resume. I was at the top of the list. I had it together.
[00:10:21] Just like these Judaizers who are teaching the false gospel to trust in yourself. I was better than they were.
[00:10:29] But when I came to you, that's not what you saw.
[00:10:32] When I preached the gospel in Galatia, that's not what you saw. You saw a very weak man who had. Did not have it together. And notice, as verse 12 continues, you did me no wrong.
[00:10:45] Paul wants to remind them of their first encounter with him, and he was a man who seemingly did not have it together.
[00:10:55] He says, verse 13. You know, it was because of a body ailment that I preached the gospel to you.
[00:11:01] It's likely that Paul, who had been stoned in Lystra, had to make his way to Galatia for help, and he had to get there. And there he preached the gospel, but he did so with great physical pain, bloodied hurt, he says, verse 14.
[00:11:29] And though my condition was a trial to you, so when I got to you, it wasn't as though this teacher who had it together, and I could take care of you, give you all of my insights, and you could look at me physically, and this man has it together.
[00:11:47] He says, no, I was beaten to pieces and I was weak.
[00:11:53] And he says this, you didn't reject this weak preacher.
[00:12:00] Even though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me.
[00:12:06] The phrase means you didn't spit upon me.
[00:12:09] Now, what the teachers of the day would do is they would say that a person's message was equivalent with their physical appearance and their skill in preaching the message.
[00:12:21] If physically you came in and you were flashy and you had it together and you looked healthy, and then you were able to deliver a message in a way that wowed the crowd, then your message must be true.
[00:12:37] And see, the judaizers are saying you're believing this message of this rogue apostle who everywhere he goes, he's kicked out of the city and he's beaten.
[00:12:51] Paul would often talk about a thorn of the flesh. We don't know what that is.
[00:12:56] Some believe it was epilepsy or malaria, some contagious disease or eye problems.
[00:13:03] So he wasn't a guy when he showed up here who looked in appearance flashy. Glitz and glam of a preacher who had it together, no, most people of the day would have despised him and spat upon him.
[00:13:23] Who is this guy?
[00:13:25] He says, but you received me as an angel of God, a messenger of God.
[00:13:30] You look past the appearance, you look past the weakness. He says, even you received me as Christ Jesus.
[00:13:40] What he Means by this is you receive me as a message from Christ.
[00:13:46] Christ in your presence, declaring you the truth.
[00:13:50] In no way did my physical appearance or my weakness cause you to reject my message.
[00:13:56] You received my meekness.
[00:13:59] You received this weakness when you received the gospel. And so he asked the question, verse 15. What then has become of your blessedness? What has happened to this joyful embrace?
[00:14:13] We receive his message. We love Paul.
[00:14:16] Yes, Paul even helped him through his difficulty and pain to now.
[00:14:27] Oh, he is no, he can't preach.
[00:14:31] Why would we believe his message?
[00:14:34] The way he looks.
[00:14:36] He must be cursed by God.
[00:14:39] The Judaizers are saying these things and the Galatians are believing it. And so they're rejecting Paul. And he says, for I testify that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and give them to me.
[00:14:54] Then he believed that. That's what Paul's talking about here. With the ailment, his eyesight, he couldn't see.
[00:15:01] And if he was a blind man, of course he was cursed by God. You shouldn't listen to him.
[00:15:08] You see, Paul is saying here that he was a walking display of the weakness that is necessary to believe the Gospel.
[00:15:16] You've got to become weak to believe in Jesus.
[00:15:19] You've got to give up on personal strength to believe in Jesus.
[00:15:24] Paul knew this well what weakness was when he became a Christian.
[00:15:29] On five occasions he received 39 lashes. It's really 40 minus one. Because they thought if they hit you one more time, you would die.
[00:15:38] Five times he received this type of beating.
[00:15:43] Three times he was beaten with rods and stoned. He talks about being shipwrecked, hungry, cold, out in the elements as he traveled to preach the Gospel.
[00:15:56] He talks about this thorn in his flesh that constantly was with him, that displayed his weakness.
[00:16:04] He was racked with anxiety for the church.
[00:16:07] Church history tells us that Paul was not impressive, that he was short, that he was bald, that he was bow legged with a crooked nose.
[00:16:19] Not that anything's wrong with that.
[00:16:22] Stop looking around the room.
[00:16:26] This was Paul. He was not impressive.
[00:16:29] He was a weak man. Do you think of that when you think of the Apostle Paul?
[00:16:33] We often read our Bibles and he's some sort of superhuman Christian moving from town to town. No, if he showed up, we would probably not listen to him. Who is this guy? He looks like a homeless guy. Why is he here preaching?
[00:16:49] And Paul says that this is because we are treasures in jars of clay.
[00:16:57] Meaning that we are the glory of God in dung pots.
[00:17:04] Why is that? Why does God take unimpressive, weak People to preach the gospel, to say, this is my power, not yours.
[00:17:14] And Paul, the most accomplished preacher ever, was probably the weakest preacher ever.
[00:17:23] Nancy Pointer used to say to me, Pastor Jeremy, I love when you preach sick because you preach so powerfully.
[00:17:31] Probably something to that in your weakness, you have to look to Christ.
[00:17:37] And here when Paul says, become like me, he's not just saying when it comes to the traditions and rituals, give up on those things. He's saying, become weak like me. You saw a weak, pathetic man preaching the gospel and you believed it. So become like me. Become weak, empathetic, quit trusting in yourself.
[00:17:59] You see, Jesus doesn't just make us super powered versions of ourselves.
[00:18:05] We think that when we come to Christ, we think all the things that I could do in my own strength. Jesus is just going to superpower those things.
[00:18:16] That's not what Jesus does when we come to him.
[00:18:21] He often makes us weak in the things that we can do according to our own flesh.
[00:18:26] Crushes them as idols and says, you're not going to trust in these things anymore. Takes them away from us. So often that's why it's humorous when we see folks hashtag all the things that I want to do through Christ who strengthens me.
[00:18:47] I'm pretty and I'm strong.
[00:18:50] Can do all things through Christ.
[00:18:54] Now, before Christ strengthens you, he weakens you.
[00:18:58] Some of us know that full well. In this room right now, your sin is making you weak.
[00:19:05] And you're saying, why can't I get past this?
[00:19:10] You're going through situations in life, maybe like Paul, physical weakness, that can be a gift from God to humiliate us as we suffer physical weakness primarily when we get older. God is preparing us to go to heaven.
[00:19:31] I want you to die well, so you're going to have to deal with a lot of bodily ailments.
[00:19:37] Why? So you will look to him physically. You are made weak to look to him spiritually. God crushes the things that we would boast in so that we can look to him.
[00:19:49] Albert Einstein and Jesse Ventura.
[00:19:55] Both were known for saying, Christianity is just a crutch for weak people.
[00:20:03] Into Albert and Jesse, I say amen.
[00:20:08] That's what it is, guys.
[00:20:10] You don't like to hear that because you don't like to think or want to be weak.
[00:20:16] But the thing that I've learned in ministry is those who walk closest to God walk with a limp, not a strut, because they've been broken down and they've mained a trust in Christ to boast in him and so how do you do that? How do you become as Paul? How do you become weak?
[00:20:37] Well, you spend more time confessing your sin than hiding it.
[00:20:42] You spend more time admitting your frailty and praying than trying to fix things yourself.
[00:20:52] What is your natural tendency when you sin covered up? I got to protect my image.
[00:20:58] What is the tendency you have when things aren't going your way? I can fix it.
[00:21:04] No, to become weak. You just admit it? Yeah, I'm. I'm worse than I know or anyone else knows. And the closer I get to Jesus, my sin just keeps being uncovered.
[00:21:14] It's not necessarily that we sin more.
[00:21:17] It's not necessarily that we suffer more when we become Christians. Those, those things are just more intense to us sometimes because God is working and he's screaming at us. Trust me.
[00:21:31] Cry out to me.
[00:21:35] Don't try to fix it yourself. Don't try to cover it up. Become weak.
[00:21:40] We lean on Christ by leaning into our weaknesses, not denying them. Yes, this is true about me.
[00:21:48] And look at all Jesus has done for me, despite my sin and stupidity.
[00:21:54] That's what Christianity is about. Not look at me.
[00:21:58] I believe in Jesus now. I believe in myself. No, I believe in Jesus and I gotta keep believing in Jesus and I keep trusting in him in weakness.
[00:22:09] So have you traded weakness for strength? And then finally, have you traded Christ likeness for self righteousness or self exaltation?
[00:22:23] Have you replaced Christ exaltation with self exaltation? Notice verse 16.
[00:22:31] After your reception of my weakness. Have I now become an enemy by telling you the truth?
[00:22:38] I haven't changed. The message hasn't changed. It's the truth you believed in telling you. To turn from pride in the flesh to humility, to look to Christ is am I your enemy?
[00:22:49] One of the points here is the things that people love the most about you and telling them the truth they will eventually hate the most about you when you tell them the truth.
[00:23:00] It happens all the time in ministry. Pastor Jeremy I love it. You tell it just like it is, and then you tell them like it is.
[00:23:09] Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[00:23:10] Well, it's the same truth I was saying over here. It just now hits you.
[00:23:16] And this is what's going on with Paul here. This is the same gospel.
[00:23:19] I haven't changed.
[00:23:21] And he says, let me tell you something about these false teachers. They make much of you.
[00:23:26] The word here means they court or they woo you to themselves, but it's for no good purpose.
[00:23:34] They want to shut you out. They want to close you out.
[00:23:38] They want to get in between us. They Want to say Paul, he's no good, look at him. He's cursed by God.
[00:23:46] You got to trust us. Look at us. We got it together.
[00:23:50] We're prim and we're proper.
[00:23:53] We're elegant speakers, not Paul.
[00:23:59] Why do they want to do that?
[00:24:02] To make much of them. That's what they want. This is personal. This isn't about the gospel. This isn't about your soul. Ultimately, it's not even about the law.
[00:24:11] They're taking the law and these traditions like a knife and they're cutting you from Jesus.
[00:24:17] They're cutting you from the truth I gave you.
[00:24:20] And how often can we do that as Christians with our standards and expectations of others, we can cut them away from Jesus. A good question here is, are you more worried about what you want for others than them following Jesus?
[00:24:38] When you look at your kids, when you look at your friends, when you look at the people you're called to lead and you say, what do I want for them? Is the first answer what I want for them to do things like I want and be like me?
[00:24:54] Or do you say, I want them to know Jesus changes the way that we carry out our parenting.
[00:25:02] Our kids aren't just little props or idols of our self righteousness that we can post all their great achievements. Look how great they are. Look how great they are.
[00:25:15] And if you don't do well at this, I can't tell everybody on social media.
[00:25:19] That's about you.
[00:25:21] That's about you being able to turn to others and say, look how great I am. He says, that's what's going on with the Judaizers. They just want to say how great they are.
[00:25:29] That's why they want you to go through the rituals and all of the traditions that they're presenting.
[00:25:36] When you think about your friends, do you want your friends to believe in Jesus and know Jesus better or just agree with you on every cultural issue, every theological point, you've got to agree with me. Or is it just okay that they know and love and follow Jesus?
[00:25:55] What is your goal here? Paul gives us insight into his goal when he says, it's always good to be made much of for a good purpose. Not only when I am present, not only when I'm present with you. His point here is it doesn't bother me that other people come in and preach and and teach. This isn't about an ego. This isn't about someone else doting on you or making you feel special.
[00:26:20] That's okay with me as long as it's for a good Purpose, which is the gospel. And he says, my little children, from whom I am again in anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. What Paul says here, it's like we've stepped back in time and you are gentile pagans again. And I am pleading with you to believe in Christ again, to believe the gospel again.
[00:26:44] I am like a woman who is in labor pains to birth a child again.
[00:26:51] That's how much Paul says, I love you. That's my motive, Paul says, is that I would see Christ formed in you. This is about Jesus.
[00:27:01] And he says, verse 20. I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone.
[00:27:08] And this is all back and forth, man, I'm so mad at you.
[00:27:14] I love you so much.
[00:27:16] I wish I could be there so you could see and feel my loss.
[00:27:23] And that's why he ends here with this phrase.
[00:27:26] I'm perplexed about you.
[00:27:29] You confuse me.
[00:27:32] I was thinking today is getting ready for this service. I was thinking, how perplexing are we to God at times.
[00:27:43] I've given you all these wonderful things in the gospel, and yet you still approach me like slaves.
[00:27:50] Why, that's perplexing, that's confusing.
[00:27:56] We see Paul's sanctified intensity to communicate what's at stake.
[00:28:01] And we see his direct love, which proves his goal for these believers.
[00:28:10] What is your goal for others?
[00:28:13] That they know and they grow in Jesus, or they just think and act like you?
[00:28:19] This is why discipleship, which we like to couple with the term friendship around here, discipleship should be seen as a map, not a ladder.
[00:28:32] Often we view discipleship as a ladder.
[00:28:35] And I've made it this far and I'm throwing down a ladder to you, and you need to climb up and get on my level in Jesus.
[00:28:45] Need to read your Bible, you need to pray, you need to go to church, you need to do evangelism, you need to read this book, you need to parent your kids this way, you need to vote in this way. And maybe one day you'll get on my level.
[00:29:02] Now, discipleship is a map where we take the gospel.
[00:29:08] We say, I'm right here beside you, and I got a map.
[00:29:13] And I've been to some of these places before, and you're going to have to go through them. But I'm right here with you.
[00:29:19] And here's some things we need to pack.
[00:29:22] We need to have the gospel, the word of God, and we need to have prayer, and we need to have community, and we need to have all these things as we walk together.
[00:29:31] And I Walked off that cliff before and God had to bring me back. Don't go there.
[00:29:39] And I made that wrong turn. Don't do that.
[00:29:43] Oh, but let me tell you about this road.
[00:29:45] You're gonna have to go down it. I'm gonna be there with you.
[00:29:50] And when we get on the other side, it's gonna. It's gonna hurt, gonna be painful, and we're going to have scars.
[00:29:58] But you know one thing that's great?
[00:30:00] When God makes us weak down this road, we get to the other side.
[00:30:06] Oh, Jesus is going to be so much better to you.
[00:30:09] I've been there. I can tell you he's going to be better.
[00:30:13] I love you. I want you to know that. Don't turn away.
[00:30:16] Don't turn away. Don't walk the other way. Don't go back to the idols.
[00:30:21] No, no. You have a good father.
[00:30:23] Let's walk this road together.
[00:30:26] Discipleship is a map, not a ladder.
[00:30:31] I wonder what a stranger who showed up here today would see in you and me in this church.
[00:30:38] Would he see religious syncretism, where we've taken the idol of self and we've just mixed it with our Christianity, and this is really all about us.
[00:30:49] Who's this guy Jesus y' all are singing about?
[00:30:53] What is this stuff? Free to call you Father.
[00:30:57] What is. What is this stuff?
[00:31:01] If a stranger could see in your heart right now is a better question. What would they see?
[00:31:07] Prayers to an unknown God, songs about Jesus, Baptism, the Lord's table. These are just rituals to get a blessing from God, or so that you would become a better version of yourself.
[00:31:22] Or would they see kids who have been known by a father?
[00:31:27] Would they see us today by the power of the Spirit and the Word, trying to work through our weaknesses?
[00:31:33] And would they see us walking with the Son, trying to get home to the Father?
[00:31:39] What would they see today?
