6:30pm Service
Sunday 19th June 2016
St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds
Preacher: Dorothy Haile

Galatians 3:1-14

‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?’

I am astonished … [1:6]; I fear for you … [4:11]; I plead with you [4:12]; I am in the pains of childbirth [4:19]; I am perplexed about you [4:20];

This letter to young churches in part of what is now Turkey contains some strong language. It is obvious that Paul is deeply concerned about what is happening to people who had come to faith in Christ during what we usually call his first missionary journey. But this is all a long time ago and a long way from Suffolk. Is it relevant to us?

The New Testament letters were written to address specific issues in specific places, which leaves me with a question: why has this particular letter been preserved for us? I think it is because it is relevant way beyond its original context. How?

The simple answer is that Paul is convinced that the people of the Galatian churches have been deceived into a position that denies what Paul calls ‘the truth of the gospel’, and we can be deceived into that position too. Paul uses several different words and phrases for the ‘the truth of the gospel’, such as

• Faith in Jesus Christ
• Justification
• Justified by faith in Jesus Christ
• Righteousness
• Receiving the Spirit
• Being redeemed

These different words and phrases are all describing the same thing: we would often call it ‘becoming a Christian’. So Paul is telling us how a person becomes a Christian, and making it 100% clear that it happens through believing in Jesus, not by believing in Jesus plus observing ‘the law’. At that time ‘the law’ was the Jewish law, because there was a group of people from among the Jews who had become Christians who believed that Gentiles who became Christians – like most of the people who were getting this letter – had to come to the Christian faith via the Jewish faith; they had to be circumcised and keep the Jewish law as well as believing in Jesus. So it was Jesus plus.

Why is this so important to Paul? He has the absolute conviction that the true gospel is based on faith and not on keeping the law. His own experience is really on the line here. After all, his conversion to Christ involved a complete reversal of belief and action (often humanly speaking an embarrassing thing). He had persecuted the church intensely because of his utter commitment to Judaism, then he met Christ on the road to Damascus and found that he had been completely wrong; with a changed life and total commitment to Christ he started to fulfil his calling to bring the gospel to Gentiles; he had been chased out of Damascus and Jerusalem because of his fearless preaching of Jesus as Messiah, the one through whom God’s salvation plan was brought about; he had opposed a senior church leader, the apostle Peter, to his face, in public, which was extremely risky and really counter-cultural in a situation where leaders and elders were treated with respect. All because of what he believed about the gospel. So this is vital to Paul’s life and ministry.

In verses 1-5 Paul also points out that if the Galatians have started to add observing the law to believing in Jesus they are contradicting their own experience. He emphasises that they began their Christian life through faith in Jesus, not by observing the law, in other words not by human effort. So it made no sense to continue their Christian lives by observing the law.

Then in the next section, verses 6-9, Paul explains that this is not a new idea, as some of the Jewish Christians may well have thought: Abraham’s own righteousness with God had come through faith (Genesis 15:6), and the same applied to Gentiles: Scripture ‘foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith’ (v8, referring to Genesis 12:3, where the Lord had told Abraham that ‘all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’), and Paul even says later in v8 that God had announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. So there is a sense in which the early church should have known that faith was the way to salvation, as it had been for Abraham. In fact Paul says that those who have faith are the legitimate descendants of Abraham.

In these first 9 verses, the noun ‘faith’, the word ‘believing’ and the verb ‘to believe’ occur seven times. It must be very important.

Paul continues in verses 10-14 to underline the consequences of the other position. People who rely on observing the law – the plus in other words – are in deep trouble (he calls it ‘under a curse’) because it means you have to keep the law perfectly, which is impossible. The punishment for failing to observe the law perfectly is death, and after that no relationship with God is possible. Christ’s death on the cross paid that price on our behalf. The good news of Jesus is that justification (bringing us back into relationship with God) comes by grace alone through faith alone, but Paul’s opponents were saying that this was not enough.

Therefore, Paul is emphasising very strongly that to change the gospel is completely unacceptable. It is a change that makes Christ’s death on the cross inadequate, which is really an insult to Christ and to God who loves us so much. The good news is that Christ has done everything that is necessary so that we can come into a personal relationship with God, as we accept forgiveness by grace through faith. In a way it sounds too good to be true. It is a gospel of grace (God’s free gift) and God accepts us because of his love, not a gospel of works through which we do enough to be accepted and get over the line, as it were.

This letter to the Galatians was probably written shortly before the Council at Jerusalem which is described for us in Acts 15. The result of that Council was a clear statement that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and obey the Jewish law in order to be Christians. So was the issue tackled and settled? Yes, it was tackled, but the controversy went on and on in the history of the early church, because, I think, Jesus plus appeals so much to our human instincts. In fact all through church history this issue has come up again and again – Martin Luther tackled the same problems in the church of his day. There’s always the tendency to add a gospel of works to the gospel of grace. I think it is because we really don’t like to feel that we aren’t contributing anything to something important.

English proverbs include: There’s no such thing as a free lunch, God helps those who help themselves, and You can’t get something for nothing. Even that suggests that we don’t think we can get something for nothing. But the gospel gives us salvation by grace alone – something for nothing in fact.

What about us? No one is now suggesting that we have to become Jews in order to become Christians. What could our gospel of works be? We could think about lots of things, but in this context tonight it is worth noting that the Jewish Christians who were teaching a gospel of Jesus plus were saying that the plus was religious good works. We can apply this to ourselves: our religious acts, whether it is coming to church regularly, giving our offerings, even singing in the choir, don’t earn us any points with God. Our salvation is by grace through faith, God’s gift to us secured by the death of Christ. Does this mean we can forget about all those good and faithful things? Not at all. They are a result of our salvation, not a contribution to it. But this result of our salvation changes our whole lives, determines our priorities, and challenges us to live in a different way, as Paul goes on to explain later in his letter. God has plenty of ‘good works’ for us to do, as Paul writes in his letter to the people of Ephesus:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

I spent most of yesterday at the Ten Year Celebration of Town Pastors ministry in Suffolk. Several VIPs told us how valuable it is. I believe it is a ‘good work’, but I don’t spend a night in the Prayer Base every month in order to contribute to my salvation account I do it as a result of my salvation.

We are constantly tempted to add a plus of some kind to God’s good news. I have been a Christian for many years now, and I can tell you that temptation doesn’t ever go away. But as I read of the extent of God’s love and grace I am also constantly reminded that I have got something for nothing, to be thankful, and challenged to live in light of what God has done.

6:30pm Service
Sunday 29th May
St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds
Preacher: Duncan MacInnes

Galatians 2:1-10

At the moment here at St Mary's we are looking at the book of Galatians. What a fantastic book it is for the church and for Christians, for in a world of division and difference, Paul emphasises again and again, the one true gospel – freedom through trust in Jesus' atoning death on the cross – and that anyone, from any nation, race, culture, ethnic group – you name it – can be friends again with their creator through Jesus.

It's important because this message – of God's free gift of forgiveness of sins through the complete work of Jesus on the cross - was severely challenged in Paul's day. Throughout Paul's ministry we read that he was challenged, and challenged on various different occasions and challenged from different angles. It was sometimes the message that was attacked – the gospel itself. At other times during Paul's ministry it was the messenger – Paul himself – that was attacked.

Galatians is Paul's response. A full throttle, full frontal, multi angled defence and championing of the one true unchanging, and unchangeable gospel.

So if you keep open page 1168 and 1169 in your Bibles, we will be following this passage of Galatians 2 verses 1 to 10.

Galatians 2 verses 1 and 2:

Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabus. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.

It had been fourteen years since Paul had been in Jerusalem, and remember that Paul, before his conversion was a Pharisee, a top Jewish scholar, so Jerusalem would have been a place central to his religion and life. Jews, especially observant Jews, would aspire to visit the city as often as they could to visit the site of the temple. But here was Paul, fourteen years had passed since he had returned to Jerusalem. Paul was too busy fulfilling his God given duty to reach the nations, to reach non-Jews – Gentiles – to be travelling back and forwards to Jerusalem. That task – reaching the Jews - was a task for the other apostles to do.

Verse 2:

I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.

Paul wasn't summoned by the church leaders, or the other apostles to come to Jerusalem and report back, but it was in response to a revelation – in other words, God told Paul to go to Jerusalem – it was through God's initiative that he travelled. And Paul: set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles – it would be the same message Paul was preaching at Jerusalem – the heart of the Jewish world – as it was to the Gentiles of Paul's travels through what is today Turkey, Greece and beyond.

We saw in chapter 1 of Galatians, of Paul writing in astonishment at the rapid way in which the churches in Galatia were turning away from the gospel and replacing it with a 'newer' one. Which Paul says in chapter 1 verse 7, is really no gospel at all. Gospel truth is so important that Paul in chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 emphasises his point by repeating it – if someone – even an angel – preaches anything other than the gospel – adds to it, or takes it away – they are to be eternally condemned. This is serious, serious business.

The context of chapter 2 is that the Galatian church was being influenced by what Paul calls 'false brothers' who had infiltrated the church. These false teachers were the Judiazers. These were people who said: 'Yes, Jesus died for forgivness of sins, but, to be a true follower of Jesus, people need to follow and adhere to Jewish customs as well', therefore Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised. So in reality, these 'false brothers' were teaching that being a 'true' Christian was to do works and rituals – Jewish work and rituals, instead of simply accepting, trusting and following Jesus. Paul was strong and called this (verse 4) slavery – it went against the core of the gospel.

Paul's travelling companions to Jerusalem were Barnabus, who, like Paul, was a Jewish background Christian, and Titus, a Gentile convert. Many commentators suggest that Titus went with Paul to Jerusalem, as an example – a test case – to show that the gospel message breaks down barriers and is penetrating into the Gentile world. John Stott in his commentary says that:

“It was to overthrow [the Judiazers] influence, not to strengthen his own conviction, that [Paul] laid his gospel before the Jerusalem apostles”.

Indeed, reading from Galatians chapter 1, you don't get the sense that Paul is unsure and lukewarm about the message, as if he is going through the motions half-heartedly. No, there is real 'fire in the belly' conviction – one of an apostle, who had a meeting and direct commisioning from Jesus himself, to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles, to the nations.

Paul was aggrieved that the gospel he helped to plant was being attacked, and so he was here out to overthrow the influence of the false teachers.

It seems that one of the false teachers lines of attack was to attack Paul and cause a chink, to drive a wedge between the apostles, in saying something like this:

'you need to listen to Peter, James and John – they were the ones who shared Jesus' life and ministry, don't listen to Paul, he came afterwards'.

Paul answered this line of attack in chapter 1 of Galatians, by giving his testimony – that he was commissioned by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. And his life, from persecuting Christians and dispising Gentiles, to loving, caring and reaching Gentiles for Christ, was a clear statement that God had been at work in Paul.

Verses 6 to 8:

As for those who seemed to be important – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external apperance – those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul, here was addressing the argument that the false teachers made, that status in apostleship mattered. No, the apostles had equal status but different tasks – Paul to reach the Gentiles, and Peter to reach the Jews. God favours gospel partnership, not rivalry.

Leon Morris in his commentary says:

“In no sense was Peter a rival of Paul; they simply had two different fields in which to preach the gospel...They preached the same gospel, even though Paul recognised that the different backgrounds of their hearers meant that there were different ways in which the two groups lived out their commitment to Christ”.

And we read in verse 9 that James, Peter and John, accepted and approved of Paul's minsitry.

In verse 9 Paul is emphasising two things:

1. That Paul's ministry was recognised as God given and legitimate – from the very one who shared in Jesus' life and ministry – a big accolade.
2. By using the rather belligerent tone of ' those reputed to be pillars', and earlier in verse 6 of: 'those who seemed to be important', Paul was emphasising to his readers that even the apostles are human beings capable of getting it wrong and sinning. Again, it wasn't status, but subsatnce, the message, that was important to Paul, and important to God.

So there we are. Here was Paul strongly facing up to people inside the church peddling a false gospel. It needed to be tackled for if it hadn't, the church would have slid into factionalism and rivalry – the gospel would have been lost, and the fruits of the spirit would have been absent.

What has been the situation since Galatians was written?

Many people have challenged and changed, added or subtracted from the Bible's message throughout the centuries.

People still have sinful hearts, and the devil still prowls, especially wanting to infiltrate and pick off churches and church leaders, wanting to sow confusion and division. We must pray for our churches and especially our church leaders that the Holy Spirit will protect them against attack.

Gospel truth is attacked today from both outside and inside the church. The most damaging, is when gospel truth is attacked from within the church – sadly, the Church of England has been no stranger to heresy through the years.

Perhaps the most critical point in the history of the church, where it teetered on the brink of truth or heresy, was the Arian controversy of the fourth century. Arius was an important church leader in Alexandria in Egypt and taught that Jesus was not God, but 'had a beginning and end' – Jesus according to Arius was therefore created, which is the view today of the Jehovah's Witnesses. As Arius was an important church leader many in the church at the time were tempted to follow him, and it was so controversial that the church could well have fallen into heresy. Arius' teachings were challenged by Athanasius who was also an Alexandrian church leader, who re-stated that Jesus was God and part of the Trinity. The Nicene creed, a version of which we read at church services, is what was written in response to Arius' teachings, and the official condemnation of Arius as a heretic. That Jesus was 'begotten not made' as it says in the creed, was the specific response to the specific attack on gospel truth that Arius in the fourth century had made. In other words, Jesus is eternal with the father, and not created – by saying this in the creed, we are publicly declaring that Jesus is divine, creator God himself, and we are upholding the Trinity by declaring this. We must give thanks to God for Athanasius, and the Council of Nicea for challenging heresy and confirming and upholding gospel truth.

In our passage of Galatians 2, Paul speaks against reliance on status in church leadership, and instead emphasises being true to the message.

Those in church leadership positions should always stive to be humble, to be servant hearted and not to seek out position and power.

A good pastor friend of mine a few years ago went through a very troubling and testing time when his elders seeking status, postion and power plotted to unseat him. Thankfully God overuled in this situation and the elders had to leave and my friend carried on, supported, with a church that came closer together through the difficulty.

In conclusion, then, we should, first and foremost:

• Seek gospel truth – we come with nothing, and bring nothing with us, we are poor sinners who look to, and cling to the cross and only the cross. Salvation is found nowhere else.
• Be humble, caring and loving towards others inside and outside church. The Judiazers and false teachers sowed division and emnity – that's what false teaching does (however 'loving' it's packaged up today). Gospel unity, is just that, unity around the gospel – humble before the cross. Loving others because Jesus loved us.
• We mustn't be afraid today to question people within the church, and challenge them in a loving and humble way, if they are consistently saying things that deny gospel truth. We don't have the apostolic commission Paul had to tackle people who peddle a false gospel, but we can and should take a friend to one side and lovingly challenge them, if we feel the Spirit calls us to. It's the same spirit with us as Christians today as Paul had!

PAUSE

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for Paul's letter to the Galatian church. Thank you that it shows us how to build our lives and to build our churches on the one true gospel.

Help us to seek gospel truth, only relying on the cross and nothing else, and to be humble, caring and loving towards others in church and outside church.

Amen

St Mary's Church 11:00am Sunday Morning Service
Sunday 1st May 2016
Preacher: Craig Young

Today we begin a series of sermons each prepared by the preacher but based on the Footprints series of talks which Andrew Buttress devised for our lent course this year.

Andrew introduced us to the way we leave a Christian footprint in the world and today we will be looking at the disciples as apprentices and how they followed the master.

I wonder what sort of image the name apprentice conjures up for you. A spotty youth with a big mouth, Alan Sugar getting tough with someone he doesn’t want to suffer gladly, or maybe Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer’s apprentice as we see an eager but naughty one who tries to use knowledge and power before they have the wisdom to appreciate their limitations or the consequences of their actions. Maybe you were apprenticed yourself.

For the last four years of my formal working life I worked on a consultative basis with many of the public service organisations in the East of England on running good apprenticeship schemes which has given me an insight into how best to succeed with apprentices. Selecting the right candidate is key to the process and the mantra used by good organisations is, recruit for attitude and train for skill.

Bright people who come from a good background and are well turned out are not always the ones who will succeed in the world of work. It depends on their attitude or as we used to say, have they a heart for the role to which they aspire. How much do they want to carry through with all of the training required to become a fully qualified in their chosen field?

Jesus selected his disciples, his apprentices, not from those whom you would expect to be disciples of a powerful teacher in the Lord. People chosen by the great teachers of the time as apprentices were often from wealthy families or were highly intelligent and diligent religious people who had the right connections in society. No Jesus chose ordinary people when making his selection. Jesus was looking for people who would follow him when the going got tough and he was looking for attitude. Jesus could discern something in people and could see the potential which a person had to possess if they were to be a follower of his. The important word to note is that of potential and this not just true for the disciples but also with us. Jesus has described all Christians as those whom the Father has given him which also means that as far as Jesus is concerned we all possess potential because we have taken that first step in agreeing to follow him. Jesus knows everything about us and can discern a potential in us which we very often don’t see for ourselves. We have been chosen or selected whichever you prefer and as we follow Him our training proceeds and our heart is put right for the task in which we have been invited to participate.

So how should we react to that which God is calling us? I’ll give you an example.

There is a very interesting story that came from the rebuilding of St. Paul’s as the first building designed by Sir Christopher Wren was destroyed in the great fire of 1666 whilst still under construction so he had to begin again.

One morning, Wren, who was not personally known by many of the workers, stopped and asked three different laborers, all engaged in the same task, what they were doing. He got three different answers.

The first said, “I am cutting this stone.”

The second answered, “I am earning three shillings and six pence a day.”

The third man straightened up, squared his shoulders, and still holding his mallet and chisel, replied, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build this great cathedral.”

They each had three different ways of looking at the same job.

The first one was just doing a task.

The second one was just earning a living.

The third was doing a small part of a great work. He did not personally know the architect or understand how his task fitted into the overall plan. But he believed that there was a plan and that by following it, he would help create something greater than himself.

Which worker do you think was getting the most satisfaction from his work? Which worker was really on board with Wren’s vision?

Today in our reading from Matthew we see Jesus calling those in whom he recognised the sort of potential he was looking for and they had been selected for having the right attitude. Due to the Gospel writers and others such as Paul we know that the disciples were not all clones of Jesus. Whilst they had the right attitude and answered their calling to follow Jesus they were still all different in the way in which they carried out their appointed ministries. There were many disciples but scripture concentrates on the twelve really close ones. Those outside of the twelve were also following Jesus in carrying out God’s great plan but in a way which brought out and developed their own potential. Just read Acts and the epistles and you see many references to people doing great things as they follow Jesus’ teaching and build up the church, the body of Christ.

Paul often describes followers of Jesus as being part of the same body. Each part is vital to making the whole thing work. To be fully functional we need everything to work and that includes the parts we cannot see and even the parts that are far too small for us to see. We as followers of Christ have answered a call to be Christian and like the willing worker of Christopher Wren we should be aware that there is a big picture which Jesus is asking us to work towards. It’s God’s plan and it is much bigger than us but at the same time it cannot be completed without us. The plan is that one day the world will be perfect and as willing workers all we can do to make this happen is to do the basics, love god and love our neighbour as our self. When we realise the magnitude of the task we sometimes put up barriers. We might think that this is far too big for us to be of any use whilst others leap straight in and with a great demonstration of faith give everything up to follow. However we must remember that even the chosen few close disciples were not clones of Jesus. Jesus is perfect and is the master of everything. When we follow him we are in training and it is due to that we develop our potential. It’s a life’s work for us and we should not be discouraged. There are many barriers and I believe that one is that we look at what others do and dwell too much on what we think we cannot achieve rather than carrying on in faith. What we all too often do is to fail to appreciate our potential and maybe don’t recognise the power which Jesus has brought to our lives. I’ve been coming to St Mary’s for twenty seven years and have known most of you for many years. Over those years I have seen you develop in Christ as you have faithfully attended St Mary’s and carried out many duties. You’ve lived worked and witnessed in the places where you go and brought a Christian influence to all that you have done. The Holy Spirit has been working in you. This is true for all Christians to varying degrees so if you’re here for the first time today stay engaged with the process of following Jesus and you will develop.

However none of us are perfect and none of us have arrived at that stage where we can say we know it all because God’s plan is so magnificent. Our apprenticeship is a work for life and it is one where we are always learning whilst we try and emulate our teacher and master craftsman Jesus. Apprentices make mistakes. Have you ever made a mistake at work and felt awful about it? I bet you did. Being an apprentice for Jesus is just the same, we do make mistakes but the important thing is that we learn from these and move on. Justified by faith we have the assurance that we will be forgiven so there is no excuse for us not to take the hard knock of failure, or the fear of it, and to get back to the task of helping Jesus bring Gods plan to perfection.

In my own apprenticeship as a Christian I know that I have not got my heart sorted out in all sorts of areas but I take comfort in the fact that Jesus has not given up on me and that he is still teaching me. It’s up to me to keep turning up for my work with him and doing my best to discern what I can do to make the wider plan of God a reality. Not an easy task.

A question we should all ask ourselves is this, “Here I am Lord with all my imperfections, please guide me in the ways which will help me to appreciate what Jesus is doing for me and how I can help others to benefit from his teaching.”

A final note on apprentices. By taking on an apprentice you are in a way taking a risk because you invest a lot of time and effort in the person you have selected. God the father has invested in us and sees a potential which quite often we do not recognise for ourselves. All we need to do is to live and learn his values and pray that a right heart will be created in each of us. And so as we listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit we grow in faith and stay on track for reaching our true potential.