Galatians 1:10-17

In Galatians 1:10 Paul asks a question.  This question is the beginning point of Galatians and the beginning of the argument Paul made to convince the Galatians to return to the Gospel. What is fascinating is; the correct answer to this question is the first step on the road to our freedom. Remember that is the theme of 2009:

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

This freedom we have in Christ begins with the answer to the question in Galatians 1:10. Let me read the question from the NRS version. 

NRS Galatians 1:10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people?

“Am I trying to please people?”  Wow.  Isn’t that a real question?   Every morning when you get out of bed you have to decide who it is you are going to please. 

-Either you will attempt to please yourself… It is a constant temptation to get out of bed and say, “What am I going to do today?  What is it that I would rather do?  I have to meet my needs.  I have to look out for number one.”  Your needs rise to the level of demands and I have to get what I want. 

-Or, when you get out of bed in the morning you could choose to please other people.  Do you know what I mean?  How often do you ask yourself, what will so-in-so think if I do that?  How will so-in-so react if I say something. What will so-in-son do if they find out about whatever? There is the constant question haunting us. What should I do to make everyone else happy?

-Or, when you get out of bed in the morning you could be like Paul. The question in Galatians 1:10 is actually a rhetorical question.  He is saying that he is not attempting to please either himself or others.  His motivation comes from pleasing God.  “Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval?”  Obviously, God’s.  “Am I trying to please people?” Of course not. 

Paul begins his argument to the Galatians by pointing to the importance of pleasing God!   I want to track how Paul answered the question and how he got to his answer; because his decisions points will help us to have the right answer of pleasing God. 

Last week we saw, in the first 9 verses of Galatians, that Paul was angry.  He was ready to rummmble because some others messed with his churches in Galatia.  They were changing the Gospel to a gospel that was no gospel at all. They were destroying the freedom the Galatians had in Christ and that made Paul mad.  Continuing in verse 11, Paul argues that he is not pleasing humans because the Gospel did not come from humans; it came from Jesus.

Galatians 1:11-12   I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.   

The Gospel of Freedom was not made up by people.   This is an amazing insight.  Humans don’t think like this.  The tendency we have is to attempt to earn our stuff.  “If I am mostly good, if I keep most of the 10 commandments and be nice to my neighbor and don’t cheat on my wife and pay most of my income taxes and coach soccer and earn my own living; then when all is said and done God will let me into heaven.  After all, I am a good person.”  That is the way people think.  Humans tend to think that God grades on the curve. Human wisdom is that we have to “do something” to get our freedom.   

Even we church folks tend to think the same way.  “As long as I go to church and give my tithe and don’t cuss and avoid lying and any sort of sexual sin then I’m good with God. We are buddies.”   These others that Paul is so angry with in Galatia, are adding circumcision and the dietary laws of Moses to the list.   It is not in our thinking as humans, that God offers his grace to us for free.  Freedom is free.  “Ah, come on Tim that can’t be true.” 

Paul, says, “It is!  I didn’t make this up.  I received it by revelation from Jesus!”  This is another amazing point.  Paul got his gospel of freedom straight from Jesus Christ!  Paul’s authority to tell the Galatians, and us, about the gospel of freedom comes directly from Jesus.  Paul wasn’t trying to please people, he was trying to please Jesus, who gave him the message of freedom! 

Remember these two amazing points, we are going to come back to them in just a minute; Humans wouldn’t have made up the Gospel; Freedom is Free. And the Gospel came from Jesus. Paul wasn’t pleasing people with his freedom Gospel.  Now, let’s keep going to the next step in Paul’s argument.

Galatians 1:13-14  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 Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Last year, in our study of Acts, we heard the story of Paul’s conversion 3 times.  Luke records it in Acts 9, 22, and 26.  We too have heard of Paul’s previous way of life.  Let’s review it again from Paul’s own words.

Acts 22:6-16   "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?'  "'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. "'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied.  My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.   "'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked. "'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.'  My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.   "A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.  He stood beside me and said, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him. "Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.  You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.  And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'”

Here is the point Paul is making, he was as zealous as any of the others who were perverting the Gospel.  He believed fervently in the traditions of his fathers.  He even went so far as to hammer Christians because of it.  But there came a point when God appeared to him and changed everything.  There came a point of conversion. He learned that Jesus was indeed the Messiah; that he was resurrected. Paul was slapped down and told that he was wrong.  At that point Paul surrendered.  He was baptized into Christ.  His sins were washed away and he became a witness of the Gospel!  From that moment of conversion and he preached the Gospel of Freedom!  He quit trying to please people and was totally committed to pleasing God! 

Continue listening to Paul’s argument in Galatians.

Galatians 1:15-17   But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

Not only did Paul experience conversion he received a calling.  Wow.  Paul was baptized into Jesus Christ but he also was called to a mission, to preach his grace.  There are lots of echoes of Old Testament prophets.

Jeremiah 1:4-5  The word of the LORD came to me, saying,  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Isaiah 49:1, 6  Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name…  6 He says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

Paul stepped into the story of prophets of old and received the call that was his destiny from before he was born.  How cool is that?  Paul wasn’t simply converted to Christianity; he was called to proclaim the Gospel of Freedom to the Gentiles!  He was given purpose! 

I said all of that to show you Paul’s answer to the question, “Do I please people or do I please God?”  Obviously, Paul was pleasing God and not others.  But not only has Paul told us he was pleasing God he is also telling us how to please God.  When you wake up in the morning, wouldn’t you like to be able to have the conviction to solely please God?  Wouldn’t you like to be the kind of person that was a God-Pleaser?  Wouldn’t you like to have the courage to be able to say with Paul, “Do I please people or God?”

Here is the heart of this sermon; the same four arguments Paul used to show that he was pleasing God are the same four steps we make to align our hearts with pleasing God.  Watch this. 

1) Freedom is Free.  We must surrender this notion that we deserve freedom; that there is anything we can do to warrant God’s grace.  We must abandon this concept that I am a “good person” or even “mostly good person” and because of our acts of goodness God will owe us freedom.  God’s grace is free.  In order to learn to please God, we must acknowledge his awesome grace.  When we get it; when we finally realize God’s freedom is free, then how can we not love God with all of our hearts? How can we not want to please him with all of our being? 

When it sinks into my thick skull that God really does love me and that his freedom is free, then that rips open my heart and pulls out my desire to please myself and my worry about pleasing others and leaves me purely wanting to please God. 

2) The revelation of the Gospel came from Jesus. Let’s look at it another way. Who came to this earth to tell us about freedom?  Jesus. Who gave his life for you?  Jesus.  Who was resurrected so that we could have the hope of resurrection?  Jesus.  Consequently, who has complete authority over your life?  Jesus. We don’t respond to Jesus to please people.  We respond to Jesus to please Jesus.  We aren’t baptized to make others happy.  We are baptized to make Jesus happy.  The authority for why we react to Jesus is because of who He is.  He has the complete authority; he is the boss of all bosses; therefore we please him!

3) Our conversion is surrender to Jesus.  The very act of baptism is a model of yielding; you very passively are dunked in water. It is an amazingly passive act.  I give up.  Your conversion is a reminder that, “I only serve Jesus.” If you have been baptized think back to that moment.  It was all about a commitment to please Jesus.    

4) We have a calling.  I don’t believe that Jeremiah, Isaiah or even Paul were unique.  Certainly, their callings were spectacular, but not exclusive. Before you were in your mother’s womb, you were designed to be a witness to the gospel.  You have a destiny.  You have a purpose.  You were created to be a messenger of grace.  Wow!  Why does Tim Stidham exist?  Not to please others. Not to please himself; how silly.  He was made for one reason; to please God! 

The first step to your complete freedom is to decide to please God exclusively. It doesn’t really matter what I think of you.  It doesn’t really matter what your mother thinks of you or even your mother-in-law.  It doesn’t matter, really, what your spouse or your kids or your neighbors or your church-family thinks. It doesn’t even matter what you think of your. If you think like that it is a form of slavery.  Freedom is found in pleasing God only.  How cool is that?  I only need be concerned with one thing; show me how to please God.  How liberating is that?  I’m free to please only God. 

Let’s go back to Galatians 1:10 and read all the verse.  We only read the question.  We stopped before but the answer. Listen to all of Galatians 1:10.

NRS Galatians 1:10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

When you get out of bed in the morning, the first choice you need to make, in order to be free, is to be a servant of Christ.   Let me give you an assignment for the week.  Try to remember the first thing you say as you get out of bed in the morning is, “I am a servant of Christ.”

I have an assignment for you this week.  Before you get out of bed each morning say, “I am a servant of Christ.”  Practice this with me. 

Los Alamos Church of Christ
January 18, 2009