{"id":10,"date":"2010-06-06T12:12:27","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T19:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/?p=10"},"modified":"2017-03-29T10:09:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T17:09:45","slug":"has-the-gospel-lost-its-luster-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/06\/has-the-gospel-lost-its-luster-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the Gospel lost its luster for you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Galatians 1: 1<\/strong>-10\u00a0| June 6, 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul, an apostle\u2014not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead\u00a0 2 <\/sup><\/strong> and all the brothers who are with me,
\nTo the churches of Galatia:\u00a0 3 <\/sup><\/strong> <\/strong>Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0 4<\/sup><\/strong> who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,\u00a0 5 <\/sup><\/strong> <\/strong>to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
\n 6<\/strong> <\/sup> 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\u00a0 7 <\/sup><\/strong> <\/strong>not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.\u00a0\u00a08 <\/sup><\/strong> <\/strong>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.\u00a0 9 <\/sup><\/strong> <\/strong>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.\u00a0 10 <\/sup><\/strong> <\/strong>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.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s a joy to be around a new Christian.\u00a0 It’s something like being around newly weds or new parents.\u00a0 They’re very happy and hopeful about each other or their new little one.\u00a0 I wonder sometimes. If you turned out the lights, would they glow in the dark?
\nNew Christians can be like that. The good news of Jesus Christ has touched their hearts. They know something very new and wonderful they didn’t know before.\u00a0 A burden is lifted that they’ve carried around inside.\u00a0 A terrible question mark is taken away and replaced with hope.\u00a0 They’ve stood before Jesus cross and caught a glimpse of a love for them ,God’s love for them, that goes beyond understanding.
\nYet with time something can happen if we are not careful.\u00a0 That husband can begin to take his wife for granted.\u00a0 The responsibility that comes with raising kids can tarnish some of our joy.\u00a0 And I suppose some of that is bound to happen.
\nBut what about the gospel?\u00a0 What about the good news of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 How do you hold it today?\u00a0 I know how you once held it.\u00a0 But what about now? \u00a0Do you hold it close \u00a0like a treasure or under your arm like a sack of potatoes.\u00a0 Is it something that gives you joy, peace or something you rarely think about.\u00a0 I guess what I’m asking is this:<\/p>\n

Has the Gospel lost its luster for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

From time to time I like to preach through a book of the Bible.\u00a0 These next months I intend to preach through the letter to the Galatians starting today with these first 10 verses of chapter one.\u00a0 Here Paul’s inspired letter made me think of this.<\/p>\n

I.\u00a0 Treasure what is yours in Christ
\n<\/strong>II. Don’t be so quick to trade it away<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Who were these Galatians?\u00a0 Where did they live?\u00a0 We know they lived in the Turkey of today.\u00a0 But we’re not sure where these congregations were.\u00a0 Yet we do know this.\u00a0 These were people that Paul came to in one of his missionary journeys.\u00a0 He came wanting them to know the One who had turned his life around.\u00a0 A man named Jesus.\u00a0 Paul worked very hard that they should know who this Jesus was and what God had done for them through Jesus.
\nBut something was threatening that.\u00a0 Something was causing them to lose sight of what was theirs in Christ.\u00a0 So Paul reminded them as God reminds you today.\u00a0 To the churches of Galatia:<\/span> 3<\/sup><\/strong> Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,<\/span> 4<\/sup><\/strong> who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father<\/span>\u2026
\nWhat is yours in Christ? This is yours.\u00a0 Grace.<\/strong> Grace was a common greeting among the Gentiles.\u00a0 But there was nothing common about this grace.\u00a0 This grace is the love of God for undeserving people like you and me.\u00a0 It is the grace that caused the Father to send his own Son to be born as our brother, to live among us for a time and then give his life for us all.\u00a0 This grace is the love of God that now forgives us all our sins because Jesus paid our debt of guilt on the cross.\u00a0\u00a0 So treasure what is yours . Grace.
\nAnd peace.\u00a0 Again that was a common greeting this time among the Jews.\u00a0 Shalom.\u00a0 Peace be with you.\u00a0 But that could only be a kind wish or at best a prayer. \u00a0Here \u00a0Paul greets us with a peace that is truly ours in Christ.\u00a0 You see, each of us has a voice inside that troubles us with guilt. It points to things we have sad or done or failed to do.\u00a0 Then there is the devil who points an accusing finger our way and for good reason.\u00a0 For how often our hearts been far from God.\u00a0 How often we have failed to love and be kind to the people around us as should.
\nBut look what the gospel announces. Look what the gospel brings to you.\u00a0 Peace.\u00a0 When we bow our heads in repentance, we can look up knowing that God has removed what stood between us and him.\u00a0 There is now no condemnation<\/span>.\u00a0 And more than that we can know.\u00a0 We can come to God knowing that he is our dear Father and we, his dear children.\u00a0 \u00a0We can face life knowing that nothing can separate us from his love.\u00a0 No accident, no cancer, no broken heart or broken body.\u00a0 That’s peace.\u00a0 So treasure what is yours.
\nAnd treasure this. Your rescue.<\/strong> I can remember taking some fisherman aboard our Coast Guard ship. Their boat had sunk in the treacherous North Atlantic.\u00a0 How grateful they were for that rescue!
\nWell treasure what is yours in Christ<\/strong>.\u00a0 You see, this world is like ripe fruit hanging on a tree.\u00a0 This is ripe for God’s judgment.\u00a0 For doesn’t this sound like the world we live in.\u00a0 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. <\/span>2<\/sup><\/strong> For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, <\/span>3<\/sup><\/strong> heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, <\/span>4<\/sup><\/strong> treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.<\/span> (2Timothy3:1-4)\u00a0 Yes, this world is ripe for judgment.\u00a0 \u00a0And we would be swept away by a torrent of God’s righteous anger if not for One.\u00a0 The One who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age<\/span>.
\nSo has the gospel its luster?<\/strong> Treasure what is yours.<\/strong> That grace of God’s forgiveness , that peace that all is well even in death; that rescue from what is to come.\u00a0 It is yours.\u00a0 It is yours not because of something that you have done or could do. It is yours in Christ, through faith in him, a gift of God. \u00a0\u00a0It is yours because of what Christ has done for you.\u00a0\u00a0 And that is very good news.
\nYou know, parents are sometimes astonished when their young people get off on their own.\u00a0 How quickly young people can \u00a0turn away from their good upbringing to foolishness. Some of us know that from our own foolishness.\u00a0 Well here Paul was astonished.\u00a0 He had worked hard to build these people up in their faith in Jesus. \u00a0He had worked hard to give them that grace and peace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 \u00a0. <\/span>6<\/sup><\/strong> 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\u2014 <\/span>7<\/sup><\/strong> not that there is another one.<\/span> What had happened? After Paul moved on, some came and told them things that made the gospel lose its luster.\u00a0 The same can happen with us if we are not careful.\u00a0 So treasure what you have. Don’t be so quick to trade it away<\/strong>.
\nWe can’t be sure of what these men told the Galatians. Maybe something like this.\u00a0 Paul made a good beginning by telling you about Jesus.\u00a0 But there is more you need to know. There is more you have to do if you are going to be saved.\u00a0 For them it was the law of Moses, circumcision, maybe keeping the Sabbath day.\u00a0 Later came people \u00a0called Gnostics who claimed that the Gospel was not enough. You need a special knowledge from God.
\nThe same kind of thing happened in the days of the Lutheran Reformation. \u00a0After God used Luther to restore the pure gospel, along came those who said.\u00a0 Yes, Luther made a good beginning. But he didn’t take you far enough.\u00a0 And there is nothing new under the sun. Inside and outside the church, people are told that we need \u00a0something more than what Jesus has done. We need something more than what Jesus offers in his Word and Sacraments.\u00a0 Some are told you need to speak in tongues.\u00a0 Others are told you need to be worthy.\u00a0 Still others are told that the gospel is about social justice. It’s about making this world a better place for all.
\nKnow what’s being offered you.\u00a0 Any time someone claims you need something more than Jesus, go in the other direction.\u00a0 For didn’t Jesus say, it is finished.<\/span> Isn’t that the gospel?\u00a0 Your sins are paid for and forgiven.\u00a0 The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord<\/span>.
\nYou might even think about it this way.\u00a0 In the gospel God invites us to stand on the rock solid perfect righteousness of his Son.\u00a0 But the false teacher at best, tells us, you can stand with one foot on Jesus. But with the other foot you have to stand on your goodness, or your spirituality or your wisdom. Well that’s like trying to stand with one foot on firm ground and the other on quicksand. It’s doesn’t work. You sink.\u00a0 You fall.\u00a0 So don’t be fooled.\u00a0 Don’t trade away what you have.\u00a0 You get to stand on Christ, the grace and peace you already have in him.
\nBut you know, if Paul were like many preachers today, he wouldn’t be making such a big deal of this.\u00a0 He’d find a way to accommodate their views.\u00a0 He’d try to work things out.\u00a0 But Paul was not trying to be the most popular preacher in Galatia or anyplace else His goal was to be a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And more than that, Paul knew what was at stake.\u00a0 Precious souls were being led away from Jesus, their Savior.
\nAnd so as Christ’s apostle, Paul expessed God’s anger at those who offer us anything but the good news of Jesus Christ. If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed<\/span>. \u00a0\u00a0His words might shock us but they should not.\u00a0 Such a person is like that con man who gets a poor widow to sign over her house to him.\u00a0 \u00a0She thinks he is offering something more valuable.
\nThere is nothing more valuable than what you have in the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Don’t trade it away. The grace, the peace, the hope that yours in Him. \u00a0\u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Galatians 1: 1-10\u00a0| June 6, 2010 Paul, an apostle\u2014not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead\u00a0 2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:\u00a0 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0 4 who gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}