Freedom to Unite
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Hey everybody my name’s Louis I’m the lead teaching pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to gather with you this morning. Today we’re continuing our series on a book of the bible called Galatians. We’ve been exploring why life with Jesus is so freeing, and what we’re gonna talk about in particular today is how Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God...Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God...It’s an extremely relevant topic for our time, because we live in a nation full of division. I know the Pledge of Allegiance says we’re one nation under God, but if you watch the news it’ll reveal we’re really a DIVIDED nation under God. If you watch the news it’ll reveal we’re a nation full of division over things like culture, race, economic class, and gender equality, with our nation’s leaders leading the way with their government gridlocks. Our nation’s full of division, and it gets heated very quickly.
Now the solution to such division won’t come from government laws, it won’t come from discrimination or anti-bullying laws. As good as those laws are in helping to discourage harmful divisions, they’re not the solution to division. The solution to division comes not from a change of laws, it comes from a change of heart. It comes from a change of heart, it comes when two divided parties have their hearts changed toward each other, to where they no longer view each other as enemies, and this is what we’re gonna talk about today. We’re gonna talk about how Jesus can change our hearts, Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God. So let’s turn to Galatians 3:26-4:7 and get into it. It’s Galatians 3:26-4:7 located in the back quarter part of your bible. The title of today’s message is Freedom To Unite, and here’s the big idea. Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God...Jesus can free us to be united with God the Father, and each other, as sons and daughters of God.
Context:
Here’s your context. In Galatians 3:15-26, Paul the author of this letter, taught us three
things about God’s laws. He taught us God’s laws are a cage that helps to restrict evil from fully devouring our world, they’re a mirror that helps to reflect our own transgressions and need to be saved from our transgressions, and they’re a guardian that helps to teach us, guide us through life, and point us to our need for Jesus. God’s laws are a cage, a mirror, and a guardian, but they can’t give us life...Paul taught us God’s laws can’t give us life, they can’t change us, save us, or unite us with God and each other. But Jesus can do what the law can’t do. Jesus can change our sinful hearts, save our sinful souls, and unite us with God and each other. Paul’s about to teach us that Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God, so let’s check it out.
The Word:
Galatians 3:26-4:7 states, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” Notice Paul doesn’t use a more gender neutral phrase like “sons and daughters of God.” Some of your translations might say “children of God,” and in this message I’ll use the phrase “sons and daughters of God.” Both phrases are fine to use as implications of what Paul’s saying, but only after we’ve explained why he doesn’t use either of those gender neutral phrases. Because if we don’t explain why he says sons of God, we’ll lose the historical significance of what he’s saying.
See the Greek word for “sons” is huios, h-u-i-o-s. It’s huios, and he intentionally uses this word because it’s a legal term they used in 1st Century Rome for adoption and inheritance laws. Don’t miss this, because it’s huge when it comes to gender equality issues, especially for you ladies. It’s huge because in ancient cultures women didn’t have equal status or inheritance rights as men, and they couldn’t inherit certain things like property. But when Paul uses the legal term huios, the legal term for adoption and inheritance laws, he’s saying Jesus has elevated the women in society to having equal adoption and inheritance rights as the men. He’s saying in God’s family Jesus has given women the same worth, value, status, and eternal inheritance rights as men. Don’t you see how great Jesus is, how great Christianity is? I mean this was a massive cultural historical shift for humanity, because like I said ancient cultures didn’t treat women with equal status and inheritance rights as men. So it wasn’t ancient cultures or America that started the global push for gender equality, it was Jesus and his Christian followers that did. Paul’s saying through Jesus ALL of us can become huios, become adopted sons of God, adopted sons and daughters of God. Through Jesus all of us can have equal worth, value, status, and access to the eternal inheritance of God. We’ll each have unique roles and gifts, but equal adoption and inheritance rights through Jesus. Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God.
Again vs. 26, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” The Greek can also translate as we’re “clothed in Christ,” and it means 2 primary things. First it means to put off the old way of life we were living before we had a relationship with Jesus, and to put on our new way of life now that we have a relationship with Jesus. The second thing it means is to be clothed or covered in the perfect righteousness of Jesus. When Jesus died for our sins on the cross he clothed us in his righteousness so thatwhen God sees us what He sees isn’t our sin, it’s the righteousness of Jesus covering our sin. It’s why we call the gospel good news! It’s because our sin separated us from God, it created a division in our relationship with God. But the good news of the gospel is Jesus came to break that division through his death on the cross. He came to cloth us, to cover us in his righteousness so our sins would be forgiven and our relationship with God restored, allowing us to be adopted into the family of God and to receive the eternal inheritance of God. Jesus breaks the sinful divide between us and God by clothing us in his righteousness, and then he sends us out to put on that gospel clothing in our city helping to break the sinful divides that exist in our city. Simply put, this is what it means to put on Christ, to be clothed in Christ. It means just like your clothes go everywhere you go, you’re to reflect Jesus everywhere you go. Just like your clothes are covering your bodies, Jesus is covering you in his perfect righteousness. Our lives are to reflect that great news to our sinfully divided world. They’re to reflect that Jesus really can unite us with God, and each other. Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God.
Vs. 28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Notice Paul’s challenging 3 barriers here. He’s challenging 3 major barriers that can cause discriminatory division. He’s challenging...
#1 Cultural and Racial Barriers = When he says there’s neither Jew nor Greek, he’s challenging cultural and racial barriers. He’s saying we shouldn’t have any cultural or racial barriers in the church, we shouldn’t treat any culture or race better than another. It’s because we’re all in the same family since Jesus united us. We’re all in the same family since Jesus united us as adopted sons and daughters of God. Paul’s challenging cultural and racial barriers.
#2 Socioeconomic Class Barriers = When he says there’s neither slave nor free, he’s challenging socioeconomic class barriers. He’s not saying we should all be socialists or that we’re not allowed to make a profit. He’s saying we shouldn’t treat people differently, treat them more superior or inferior based on their socioeconomic class. He’s saying people who are slaves, free, poor, rich, lower class, middle class, upper class should all be treated with equal worth, value, and status in the church, because we’re all in the same family since Jesus united us, as adopted sons and daughters of God. Paul’s challenging socioeconomic class barriers.
#3 Gender Barriers = When he says there’s neither male nor female, he’s challenging gender barriers. Like I said before it was a major barrier in ancient cultures, but Paul challenges that barrier just like he challenged the other barriers. He challenges all 3 barriers that can cause discriminatory division, and again, the global push to challenge these barriers didn’t come from ancient cultures or America, it came from Jesus and his Christian followers. It came from Jesus uniting us as adopted sons and daughters of God, regardless of cultural, racial, socioeconomic class, or gender barriers. All of this is actually a part of our vision at City Awakening. We want to build a diverse church that challenges these same divisive barriers in our city, helping to bring unity in diversity. We know it’ll take time to build such a church, but one of our codes at City Awakening is we believe in cultural diversity, but gospel unity. Something you’ll hear us say often is the gospel’s our common ground, meaning despite our cultural, racial, socioeconomic class, and gender differences, Jesus is our common ground. Jesus is our common ground because he united us, as sons and daughters of God. He allows us to have unity within diversity.
But we need to be careful here, we need to be careful not to confuse what Paul’s saying with uniformity. He’s not talking about uniformity, he’s not talking about how we should all be the same, we should all just ignore our diversity. He’s not saying, “Well my God doesn’t see color.” Some people like to say that, they’re like “Well my God doesn’t see color.” They have good intentions in saying that, but it’s not true. I mean of course God sees color, He created it. God created our different skin colors, He created our diversity, and it started when He created Adam and Eve as male and female. Then in Genesis 2:24 He joined them together in martial union so they’d become one flesh. They were diverse, but one. They were one, but then sin entered their relationship and what happened?...Division...It was division...Once sin entered their relationship it was division, it was separation from God and each other, which is exactly what happens to your relationships. At one point things are going well in your relationships, you’re united together as one, but once sin enters that relationship there’s division, there’s separation. It’s because what happened to Adam and Eve is what’s happening to you, our city, our nation, our world. God created us to be diversely unified and sinful humanity turns it into sinful barriers like racism, classism, and sexism. But Jesus sets us free from those sinful barriers, allowing us to cherish each other’s unique diversity, as adopted sons and daughters of God. It’s not uniformity, it’s unity within diversity. Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God.
Again vs. 28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. 4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.” Paul’s talking about the process of a Roman child-heir “coming to age,” transitioning from childhood to adulthood. It was a very careful process back then where the child was under the care of a guardian until they were 14 years old, and in a lot of cases they were under the care of a manager or trustee until 25. Paul uses this analogy because he wants the Galatians to realize they didn’t come to age, they didn’t become adopted heirs in the family of God, until Jesus came to redeem them, which he explains next.
Vs. 3, “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Paul’s saying it’s Jesus who makes us come to age, it’s Jesus who makes us adopted sons and daughters of God. Through his death on the cross he makes us adopted heirs and gives us all the rights only he deserves from God’s eternal inheritance. He literally gives us all the rights only he deserves, including the right to call God our very own Abba, Father.
Vs. 6, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” Jesus gives us the right to call God “Abba, Father,” and the word “Abba” is an Aramaic word that means father, but it has a more personal and relational meaning to it than that. It’s more personal and relational like when a child calls their father Daddy or Papa. So what Paul’s saying is when Jesus died for our sins, when he covered us in his righteousness, he makes us God’s huios, he literally makes us God’s legally adopted sons and daughters, so that we can call God our very own “Abba, Father, Daddy, Papa!” City Awakening God’s relationship with you isn’t an impersonal un-relational one, it’s a personal relational one like a child who gets to walk, talk, laugh, cry, have some fun hanging with their Dad. Through his death on the cross Jesus made it possible for us to have that kind of personal relationship with God, to be able to call God “Abba, Father, Daddy, Papa.” There’s nothing greater than having that kind of relationship with the Father. Apparently Jesus felt that kind of relationship with the Father and the Father’s eternal inheritance is so amazing, it was worth suffering the excruciating pains of the cross, just so you could have it. It was worth him dying for us regardless of our cultural, racial, socioeconomic class, or gender, so we could be considered sons and daughters of the Father.
The Big Idea:
Let’s have the worship team come up and get to the big idea. Here’s the big idea. Jesus can free us to be united, as sons and daughters of God...Jesus can free us to be united with God the Father, and each other, as sons and daughters of God...But what about you, do you have any divisive barriers in your heart?..Are there any cultural, racial, socioeconomic class, or gender barriers in your heart?..Are there any sin barriers in your relationship with God?..City Awakening the ground is level at the foot of the cross...The ground is level at the foot of the cross, which means Jew, Gentile, black, white, Hispanic, are all at the foot of the cross...Slave, free, poor, rich, doctor, nurse, guy with a hard hat and construction boots, all at the foot of the cross...Male, female, young, old, married, single, all at the foot of the cross...The ground is level at the foot of the cross. We’re all equally sinful and undeserving of the Father’s love, but the great news of the gospel is Jesus came to give us access to the Father’s love through his death on the cross.
So if you’re not a Christian repent of your sins, believe Jesus died for your sins, and you’ll be a part of the Father’s family, you’ll be able to call God your very own Father, you’ll be given equal access to the Father’s eternal inheritance. If you’re a Christian you’re already a part of the family, and your job is to help this family become a diversely unified church, by living diversely unified lives, helping to lead others in our city to Jesus regardless of culture, race, socioeconomic class, or gender. In the words of Pastor Tony Evans, “It is my contention that if the church can ever get this issue of oneness right, then we can help America to finally become the ‘one nation under God,’ we declare ourselves to be.” The reality is the church already has that oneness through Jesus, we just need to live it out. We need to live out the oneness, the unity we already possess, as sons and daughters of God...So let’s respond to the message by uniting in our worship of Jesus, and if you need prayer or want to have a relationship with Jesus, some of our team members will be standing in the back left corner of the room to pray with you. You can go back there anytime you want during the worship. Let’s stand and worship Jesus for the freedom he’s given us, as sons and daughters of God...then let’s go live that freedom out in our city.