June 5, 2016
All Scripture from NIV unless otherwise documented.
Introduction:
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me.” Galatians 1: 11 – 24
Let me ask you a weird question this morning. Can a leopard change his spots? That was the first thought that came to my mind when I read this passage of Scripture written by Paul to the churches in Galatia.
Think about that question as we examine this passage together this morning.
Paul was writing to a group of the churches that he had previously founded on his first missionary journey. They had heard and received the gospel unto salvation when he had been with them but were now turning away from the faith that they had received. On the one hand, you might say that they had changed their spots when they believed the gospel that Paul shared with them. And yet, it seemed to Paul that maybe they really hadn’t changed their spots as they were deserting his message for a different one.
In verse 6 Paul said that he was “astonished” that these believers were so quickly deserting Jesus for another gospel, which was no gospel at all.”
How easily people are persuaded to change their minds about something. One of the reasons that these false teachers were having success with their message is they were discounting Paul’s credentials as a leader of the church because he didn’t adhere to the Jewish church traditions. So Paul felt constrained to defend his apostleship against those who were agitating the Galatian believers and turning them from the true way to a legalistic form of the faith that required not only belief in Jesus, but also obedience to the Judaic law.
I believe that the older we get the more set in our ways we become. I know that I have. When we are young we have a tendency to want to consider and try new things. Oldsmobile used to have an ad campaign toward younger people that said, “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile.” It was an appeal to the younger generation with a new look and a new feel. And yet, a car is still a car, right? But when we are young we can be pretty easily swayed in our thinking, and not always for the good. I wonder how many of us as youngsters have experienced the expression; I learned it the hard way? I think that when you learn things the hard way, it becomes more and more difficult to want to try new things, it’s just easier, if you will, to stick with the tried and true.
That seemed to be the case of the new believers in Galatia and I guess that is as true of our faith as it is in other areas of life. New believers are easily persuaded by what some might promote as new and exciting teachings or revelations. I remember reading a book many years ago now that taught that you only need to pray about something once. If God knows our wants/needs before we ask Him, then once we have asked, if it is His will to answer, He will answer without us having to ask a second or third, or 100th time.
I was pretty excited about this concept of once and done when it came to prayer. I didn’t like much the aspect of having to ask the same thing over and over and over, each day adding other needs or requests until I had a long laundry list of prayers that I needed to recount to God on a daily basis.
The problem with that theology is that it doesn’t take into consideration the full counsel of God in the Scriptures. As an example in Matthew 7: 7, even though our translations say, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”, the literal translation should read “keep on asking; keep on seeking; keep on knocking;” for these verbs are in the present tense in the Greek signifying continuous and persistent activity. (BKC pg. 34)
So you can see it is just as important today, as it was in Paul’s day, for believers to be grounded in the truth of the gospel so they won’t be easily persuaded to follow after false teachers and false doctrine.
These believer’s spots were fading, if you will, as they tried to sort out who was teaching them the true gospel.
Then there is Paul. This section of chapter one is really more about Paul than it is about the believers there. Paul defends his apostleship, beginning by explaining what a good Jew he was, persecuting the church and trying to destroy it. He told them how he was advancing in Judaism faster than his contemporaries and how he was extremely zealous for the faith of his fathers. Then something happened.
Something, or should I say, someone changed him. Paul’s spots were forever changed if you will, not by his own efforts, it was by the plan of God who set him apart and called him into His grace from birth.
Stop and think about Paul’s conversion for a moment. It wasn’t an ideal thing for Paul. He was a leader in Israel. A Pharisee, and quite possibly a member of the ruling council, the Sanhedrin. As a Pharisee, he would have had power and prestige and influence and honor and great wealth. We get glimpses from the Scripture that Paul was already enjoying some of these things when he was suddenly and drastically changed by his encounter with Jesus. But once Paul met Christ, his spots were changed forever.
Look with me for a moment at Jeremiah 13: 23 and you will see where this saying comes from. God spoke to Jeremiah and said in part, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? (Obviously a rhetorical question) Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” I think God makes it pretty clear that a leopard cannot change its spots.
But I think that Paul makes it just as clear that although we can’t change who we are as people, Jesus Christ can. Just as Saul was changed when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and became Paul the Apostle, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, you and I can be changed by Jesus too.
As a matter of fact, God wants to change each and every one of us into His disciples. That’s why He sent His Son into this world, to pay a ransom for the sins of mankind and to offer eternal life to all who will accept Him by faith.
If you don’t like who you are apart from God, then ask Him to change you today. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that God loves you and has forgiven you for whatever it is in your life that you need forgiveness for.
And if you are a believer but have been wavering in your faith, much like the believers were in Galatia, return to the gospel that you first believed. Don’t let the vain philosophies of the world, the hurts and pains inflicted on you by other believers, or anything else keep you from being the person you were changed to be by the gospel. God set you apart for a purpose, to love and serve Him and to love and serve others. How bout we get about the business that God has called us to?