Jesus Frees Us
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Today we’re starting a new series on a book of the bible called Galatians, and it’s about why life with Jesus is so freeing. We’re gonna explore why life WITH Jesus, is so much greater than life WITHOUT Jesus, and today we’re gonna start things off by talking about how there’s a lot of messages that are appealing to our souls. Our souls are constantly pursuing things that’ll bring us joy, and there’s a lot of messages that are appealing to our souls, messages that promise to bring our souls joy. It’s appealing messages that tell you if you can just have this one thing that’s missing in your life, it’ll finally bring your soul joy.
Now that one thing might be different for each of us. For some it’s I just need to down a bottle, get high, have more sex...I just need to meet that special someone, get married, have kids, start a family...I just need to make more money, buy that new product, and the list goes on. The list goes on regarding the one things we pursue thinking it’ll bring our souls joy, except none of it ever does. It might give you joy in the moment, but eventually the buzz wears off, the high comes down, the sex is over, the marriage and family have issues, the money’s never enough, the newness of the product fades, leaving our souls searching for joy again. Our souls are left searching for joy again, and you know what’s waiting for you? Another message that’ll appeal to your soul, that’ll overpromise and under deliver the joy it promises to deliver. But we get duped...Over and over again we get duped...We get duped into thinking we can obtain our joy outside of God, outside of Jesus, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. So let’s turn to Galatians 1:1-10, and get into it. The title of today’s message is Jesus Frees Us, and here’s the big idea. There’s plenty of messages that are appealing to your soul. But only the message of Jesus, can eternally free your soul...There’s plenty of messages that are appealing to your soul. But only the message of Jesus, can eternally free your soul. I’ll give you context as we go.
The Word:
Galatians 1:1-10 states this, “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me. To the churches of Galatia.” Oaky we’re getting a little context here, we’re learning Paul’s the author of this letter, and the recipients are the churches in Galatia. So it’s not just one church, it’s all the churches in Galatia, and he’s writing it around 48 A.D, which is shortly after Jesus lived, died, and rose again. At this point he’s been a Christian for about 15 yrs, and his story’s an incredible testimony to just how life changing, eternally freeing the message of Jesus can be for our souls. You’ll learn more about Paul’s story next week, but for now just know he had a deep hatred for Christians, and made it his life goal to seek Christians out and kill them. In fact he’s responsible for killing the 1st Christian martyr in history which is Stephen. But Paul’s entire life changes after meeting Jesus. He’s traveling, he’s on his way to persecute more Christians, and Jesus appears to him post resurrection, meaning after Jesus has already been crucified and buried. So when Paul sees Jesus has risen he’s like “Rutro! I’ve been working against Jesus. But I believe now!..I’m convinced Jesus is God now... I’m going with Jesus, I’m going with the one who rose from the dead.” So he goes from murdering Christians, to becoming a Christian, to eventually getting executed for being a Christian. It’s an incredible testimony as to just how life changing and eternally freeing the message of Jesus can really be for our souls.
So that’s the author of this letter to the Galatians, and something that’s very important for you to notice is that Paul’s an apostle...He’s an apostle, and the Greek word for “apostle” means “one who is sent,” which in this context refers to a very small group of Christian leaders that’ve been selected and sent by Jesus. They’ve been personally selected and sent by Jesus to lead the church in all matters of the Christian faith. Hence why Paul says he wasn’t sent by men, he was sent by Jesus. He’s reminding the Galatians of his apostolic authority not to be prideful, but so they can be certain the message he’s given them is the true message of Jesus. He’s doing this so they’d remember to follow the true message of Jesus, because just like us, they can so easily turn to other messages that are appealing to their souls. There’s plenty of messages that are appealing to your soul. But only the message of Jesus, can eternally free your soul.
Vs. 3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Now this isn’t a normal greeting for Paul. His letters usually start a little warmer and include a thankful prayer, but he doesn’t do that here. Instead he keeps it very short, which tells us something’s up with Paul. I’ll give you an example of what’s happening so you can really capture the mood of the letter. See every speaker or preacher has a pattern they follow. My pattern is to welcome you, intro our series, give a little bridge builder that Christians and non-Christians can relate with, then state my thesis which is the big idea. Now if I deviated from that, if I came in here one day saying “Hey everybody, no pleasantries today. We’ve got some stuff we need to talk about.” You’d know something’s up. If I came in here trying to be like our Executive Pastor Zack wearing skinny jeans, tight part in my hair, talking with an Alabama twang, “Hey yall, no pleasantries today. Here’s why.” That wasn’t a good Alabama accent, but you get my point. If I came in here like that you’d know something’s up, because it’s not me, it’s not my pattern. In a similar way, this isn’t like Paul, it’s not his normal greeting, which tells us something’s up. It tells us just how highly concerned he really is for the Galatians. The mood of the letter is a very serious, loving, concerned mood.
But what’s Paul concerned about?..What’s he’s so concerned about?..He’s concerned about the Galatians so easily turning to other messages that are appealing to their souls. It’s why he immediately jumps into the gospel message in vs. 4. In vs. 4 he says that Jesus gave himself for our sins. That’s the gospel message of Jesus. It’s that Jesus gave himself up for our sins, he died for our sins on the cross...He lived the perfect life we haven’t lived, and died the death we deserve to die for our sins. He substituted himself on the cross to pay the full penalty for our sins, meaning he put himself on the cross instead of us. He replaced our sinful imperfect lives, with his sinless perfect life on the cross. To put it simply, he stood in our place...Jesus stood in our place on the cross, and died for our sins. He gave himself for our sins. That’s the gospel message that changed Paul’s life, and that Paul was selected and sent to deliver as an apostle of Jesus. It’s that Jesus gave himself for our sins, and the reason Jesus did this is because he loves us, wants a relationship with us, wants to give us eternal life and eternal joys in him. He wants to eternally free our souls...He doesn’t want to give us some cheap, short lived joy, he wants to eternally free our souls and give us eternal joy in him. Paul skips the warm greeting and gets right to the gospel message, because he’s concerned about the Galatians turning to other messages that are appealing to their souls, but can’t eternally free their souls. There’s plenty of messages that are appealing to your soul. But only the message of Jesus, can eternally free your soul.
Vs. 6, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him...” Notice Paul doesn’t say they’re deserting IT, he says they’re deserting HIM, meaning they’re deserting Jesus. It’s because the gospel isn’t about an IT, it’s about HIM, it’s about having an eternal relationship with Jesus. This means if you reject the gospel, you’re rejecting a relationship with Jesus. If you desert the gospel for something appealing to your soul, you’re deserting your relationship with Jesus. It’s because the gospel message is about a relationship with Jesus. The eternal freedom and joy your soul craves, flows from a relationship with Jesus. Paul says it’s not about an IT, it’s about HIM, and the Galatians are deserting their relationship with Jesus, for things appealing to their souls.
Again vs. 6, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” Paul says there’s no other gospel that can save you, that can give you eternal freedom and joy for your soul. But he says there’s some who will trouble you, who will tell you otherwise, and in this case it’s a group of people called the Judaizers. The Judaizers are telling the Galatians there’s something missing in their lives and that they need to start following Jewish laws to have a relationship with Jesus. Paul says they’re distorting the gospel of Christ, because they’re adding to the gospel message. In fact the Greek word for “distort” means “to pervert.” The Judaizers are distorting, they’re perverting the gospel by adding the requirement of having to follow Jewish laws. Remember Paul says the gospel’s that Jesus gave himself for our sins, and if we add anything to that as a requirement for having a relationship with Jesus, it becomes a distortion, a perversion of the gospel. It makes it no gospel at all, and powerless to eternally free your soul. There’s plenty of messages that are appealing to your soul. But only the message of Jesus, can eternally free your soul.
Vs. 8, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” The reason Paul’s taking this serious, is because the gospel’s dealing with people’s souls. In fact he takes it so serious, that he says even he should be accursed if he ever distorts the gospel message. The fact he’s willing to do that should give us such confidence that what he’s teaching is the true gospel message of Jesus, because if it’s not, he just condemned himself by his own words. But the reason he’s not afraid to say he should be accursed too, is because he knows what he’s teaching isn’t a distortion of the gospel, instead it’s the true gospel message of Jesus.
Vs. 10, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Simply put, it’d be much easier for Paul to be a people pleaser, for him to sit back and be affirming of their beliefs. It’d be much easier for him to say what a lot of people say today which is, “Oh it doesn’t matter what you believe. As long as it makes you happy, as long as it makes you feel good, then it’s all good.” It’d be so much easier for him to say that but he doesn’t, because his desire isn’t to people please. It’s to please Jesus by teaching the true gospel message, just as he received it from Jesus.
So here we are in 2019, and just like the Galatians had messages appealing to their souls, we have messages appealing to our souls. If we’re not careful, we can get duped like the Galatians... We can get duped into thinking that one thing, or some other message can eternally free our souls and bring us eternal joy...We can even get duped into thinking other messages can eternally SAVE our souls, and get us into heaven...In fact I’ll give you 2 messages, 2 very popular messages a lot of people in Orlando tend to believe will save their souls and get them into heaven. Some of you sitting here today might even believe these messages, and here’s the 1st:
#1 If you’re a good person, and do good things, you’ll get to go to heaven = A lot of people in Orlando believe this. They believe if you’re a good person and do good things, you’ll get to go to heaven. But that message is powerless to save your soul, because Jesus said in Mark 10:18, “No one is good except God alone,” and Jesus is right, Jesus is always right. I mean to be a good person means you have to do good 100% of the time, because if you’re truly good, then good should always flow from you, but it doesn’t...You and I both know good doesn’t always flow from you, just ask the people you live with...Ask your spouse, kids, siblings, roommate, people who know you best, and they’ll be able to point out the times you’ve sinned. We’ve all sinned like Jesus said, and so nobody can claim the title good person, which means nobody’s getting into heaven based on being a good person and doing good deeds. It’s an appealing message, but it’s powerless to save your soul and get you to heaven.
#2 You need to do a bunch of religious activity = It’s another one Orlando people tend to believe. They think if they do a bunch of religious activity, if they’re spiritual enough, then their religious activity will make them right with God, save their soul, and get them to heaven. It’s the message of the Judaizers and every other religion in the world. They say you need to do a bunch of religious things to save your soul. Judaism says live out the Torah, Islam says live out the 5 Pillars of truth, Buddhism says live out the 8th fold path, and the list goes on. Every religion in the world except Christianity teaches your salvation depends on your religious activity. Even some Christians get duped like the Galatians into thinking if they go to church, read their bibles, pray, serve, do a bunch of religious activities, then Jesus will be pleased, give them favor, and save their soul. But all these messages are powerless to save your soul because they’re attempts to manipulate God with religious activity. But God can’t be manipulated by puny little human hands, and just like we’ve all sinned, we’ve all failed to live out our religious activities, which makes our religious activities powerless to save our souls and get us into heaven.
Look here’s my point, here’s Paul’s point. It’s that you can’t add to the gospel message. Paul said the gospel message is Jesus gave himself up for our sins. Jesus is the only one who’s lived a perfect life, who’s able to be considered a good person, who’s good work on the cross can save our souls. Paul says anything added to that is a distortion, a perversion of the gospel, and is powerless to save. Simply put, Jesus + something = nothing...Jesus + something = nothing... Jesus + being a good person, doing good deeds = nothing. Jesus + following Jewish law or doing a bunch of religious activities = nothing. None of it can eternally save your soul, free your soul, give your soul eternal joy. Paul’s saying why would you ever want to enslave yourself to those messages, when you can be eternally free in Jesus?...Why enslave yourself to such messages that are filled with empty promises and give your soul eternally nothing...when you can enjoy eternal freedom with Jesus, who’s able to give your soul eternally everything?
The Big Idea:
Let’s get to the big idea. Here’s the big idea. There’s plenty of messages that are appealing to your soul. But only the message of Jesus, can eternally free your soul...Only the message of Jesus, can eternally free your soul...Too often we get duped into thinking we can obtain our joy outside of God, outside of Jesus, but deep down inside our souls are crying out for that one thing, that missing thing, and that one thing is Jesus. That one thing, that missing thing is Jesus...So if you’ve rejected Jesus in the past, if you’ve recently deserted Jesus by taking your eyes off Jesus for other appealing messages, listen to the words of Paul...Listen to the words of the APOSTLE Paul, saying there’s no other gospel message that can eternally save your soul, free your soul, give your soul eternal joy. So believe in the gospel message of Jesus, believe that he gave himself up for your sins, and enjoy an relationship with him. That’s where the relationship begins, it begins at the foot of the cross. Then from that relationship, will come so many eternal freedoms and joys, which we’ll soon discover, as we continue our study of Galatians.
Communion:
Let’s go ahead have those serving communion come on up at this time and start passing the plates...Communion is a reminder of the eternal freedom we have in Jesus, because of his death on the cross. Jesus told us to do this in remembrance of him and what he did for us on the cross. We’re to do this in remembrance that he gave himself up for our sins. So as the plates are being passed, let the non-Christian use this time to repent for rejecting Jesus, and the Christian repent for having deserted Jesus for other things. Use this time to repent of any sins you’ve committed, then turn to Jesus, and thank him for giving himself up for your sins...
On the night Jesus was betrayed he was hanging with his friends, he took some bread, gave thanks for it, broke it saying “This is my body which is to be broken for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you eat it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” When supper ended he took the cup, blessed it, gave thanks for it, and said “This cup is a symbol of my blood which is to be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink of it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” City Awakening let’s eat, let’s drink, let’s stand and celebrate Jesus, for having eternally freed our souls.