Grace Over Pressure

We read Paul’s gospel straight from Acts 13 to see what he actually preached in Galatia and why the resurrection changes everything. We wrestle with grace versus pressure, and we reset our focus on God’s glory as the center of the cross and the Christian life. 
• Paul’s missionary pattern of starting in synagogues and speaking to both Jews and God-fearers 
• Acts 13 as a clear summary of Paul’s gospel message 
• The resurrection as the decisive proof and turning point 
• Forgiveness of sins and freedom that the law of Moses cannot provide 
• God as the main character shown through the verbs of salvation history 
• The purpose of the cross as bringing glory to God 
• Paul’s authority in Galatians 1:1–5 and why it matters 
• “Grace and peace” as a bridge to Greeks and Jews 
• Rescue from the power of the present evil age 
• Letting go of comparison and embracing our specific calling 

Transcript

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Welcome And Where We’re Going

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome, welcome to Biblically Wired. You're joining us today in season four, episode three. We are on our way to the letter to the Galatians. But before we do, since Paul is defending his gospel message that he brought to Galatia, we're going to read his gospel message as it is written in Acts 13, literally in Galatia. Now, Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark are finding themselves on this first missionary journey. The land of Galatia is a region, really, and it consists of five cities. There are three cities in the south and five in the north. Apostle Paul will hit Galatia on all three missionary journeys. And if you follow Paul's story in the book of Acts, what he tends to do is he goes to a synagogue first. That's where he's going to find God fearers. God fearers are people who are not of Jewish descent

Why Start With Acts 13

SPEAKER_00 1:31

and haven't converted to Judaism, but they want to hear what the rabbis have to say about God, Abraham, etc. They're searching. They fear God enough, especially the God of the Jews, to come hear what they have to say. Now, also, of course, that synagogue is full of Jewish people and rabbis. This is where Paul started as he traveled because there he has possibly a hungry car crowd and also a crowd that needs to be corrected now and introduced to Jesus Christ because he fulfilled the law. And now the people of the way, the Christians, have that secret sauce, that mystery that Paul says we understand because the Holy Spirit is inside us. Now, Paul is in Galatia, and I'm going to read from Acts 13, verse 17 to 39. This is a little bit long, and it's going to include the majority of what Paul taught as far as the gospel goes. We know he did a lot of other stuff, but I'm going to read here in Acts 13, starting in 17. You might want to shut your eyes and see if you can tell a few repetitive words that go on within his gospel. So the high priest asked these travelers, hey, do you guys want to speak? And this was common because for the Jews, they understood that prophets often traveled distances with messages. So they very often asked a traveler if they had anything to say, and they did in this case. And Apostle Paul gets up and listen to what he says.

Paul’s Gospel In The Synagogue

SPEAKER_00 3:38

And with an uplifted arm he led them out from it. When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land as an inheritance, all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. After these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. After he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, concerning whom he also testified and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus Christ. And this is verse 23. Here enters Jesus Christ into Paul's gospel. And Jesus Christ was predicted to be through the family of David, or the Savior or Messiah, was predicted to come through the tribe of David and reign. And that's in 2 Samuel verse 7. So after John, we're talking about John the Baptist, had proclaimed before his coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And while John was completed his course, he kept saying, What do you suppose that I am? I am not he, the Messiah, but behold, one is coming after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brethren, sons of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, recognizing neither Jesus nor the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these prophecies by condemning him. And though they found no ground for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he be executed. When they had carried out all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb tomb. Verse 30. But God raised him from the dead. Game changer. That's the game changer, and that is the key. If he wasn't raised from the dead, we wouldn't even know his name right now. He would not have been the Savior prophesied from the beginning of time or the beginning of creation. So we preach to you the good news of the promise made to our fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children and that he raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm: You are my son, today I have begotten you. As for the fact, he's saying, fact, that he raised him up from the dead no longer to return to decay, he has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore, he also says in another psalm, you will not allow your holy one to undergo decay. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep. That's what we say when believers die, they fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay. Now I circled therefore in verse 38-39, and then we'll review something kind of cool.

Resurrection As The Turning Point

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through him, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And through him, everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed from through the law of Moses. Okay, that's that's a powerful statement. So through the death of Christ, forgiveness of sins was offered to all humanity. Those that receive it are freed, free from the punishment and the penalty of sin, and they're justified because of Jesus Christ's payment. He paid for our sins. It's done, it's over. All right, now if you were listening, and

Forgiveness And Freedom From The Law

SPEAKER_00 8:04

this, you know, hit me as I went through it yesterday and I was studying. I'm like, oh my gosh, you know how we discuss how God is always the main character? Well, of course, Stephen did that, and now Apostle Paul does that too, because they understand not only is God the most best character all through scripture, but get this. And this might kind of like make you want to braid your hair, make you want to sleep in rollers, make you want to pace through your kitchen, make you want to yell in the backyard. Like my brain, I just don't know if I can take this in because that's what happened to me in seminary when I heard this. The main purpose of Jesus dying on the cross was what? Was what? Okay, my answer at the time was the forgiveness of sins, the payment for all to be reunited with God, that all of humanity could be with God as he tried to do in the Garden of Eden. Blah, blah, blah. The professor said, I'm wrong. He said the main purpose of the cross of Jesus Christ was to bring glory to God. Okay, hit me with a frisbee. Hit me with a frisbee because wait a second, that almost sounds uh anti-biblical. But as you go through the Bible, what you see is yes, if what God does with us, if our purpose from God that He handles in our life as we make ourselves available does not bring glory to God, then it it was in vain. It was in vain. If it's going to bring glory to us, to other men, to the world, to the enemy, it's not good. I mean, go ahead, feed the poor so you can win an election in your district, but is that serving God or is that serving yourself? Not that God can't use our stuff, even if we're trying to glorify ourselves. I'm not saying that, but basically, how does our life glorify our creator? God is the big deal, he's the big kahuna. So, what is Apostle Paul doing there in Galatia? He is setting them up for the gospel. Now, listen to the difference in what he writes about God and what he writes about the people. So this is God the creator and the

The Cross And God’s Glory

SPEAKER_00 10:44

foolish people. That's kind of what I feel like. I'm only gonna list the verbs. So look at God. He chose, made, led, put, destroyed, distributed, gave, gave, removed Saul, raised up David, testified, and brought Jesus. So that's just in those first seven verses before Jesus shows up. It goes on and on about everything God did. But look at this little narrow part about the people. What about the people? People did not recognize Jesus nor the prophets, and they found no ground to put him to death, and they asked for him to be executed. All right, so basically, in Paul's gospel, do you see anything that glorifies the people that gives them some sort of advantage over God or some sort of earning of God's love? It's not there, period. Not there. And and I kind of find myself moving away from grace and putting pressure on myself, maybe to serve or about my Bible studies that I'm teaching and etc. And every time I do, I just make myself a fool. I just make myself a fool. God, please embrace us today. Please embrace our ministries, our parenting, our teaching, our daycare working, our bus driving. Lord, let us be a light. Allow us to bring glory to your name. That's all we want.

Paul’s Obsession With Grace

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Now, Paul, Paul wrote the word grace over 100 times in his letters. In all the other writers combined, there is just over 50. So he wrote it over a hundred times in his gospels. He is a defender of grace, tooth and nail. Tooth and nail. All right, so we're gonna get into Galatians.

Galatians 1:1–5 And Apostolic Authority

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Crazy over here. My microphone literally broke, and by some miracle, I'm holding it together. Wow. Okay, so into Galatians, we are just going to hit on verses one through five. All right, so you're not gonna be listening forever. Good job, good job. This is this is really good stuff, and here we go. Here's his first letter, and it's going to the Galatians, and this is his introduction. Paul an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Okay, so for all

God’s Verbs Versus Human Pride

SPEAKER_00 13:44

those people out there saying, I'm he's not even a disciple. No, no, no, you know that. It was just the 12 disciples. Paul is just trying to get some press. Well, Paul is starting his letter saying an apostle. And that can sound just like, okay, okay, whatever. But the best way I can describe this real quick is imagine your kids were left at home, some neighbor kids came and they said, Oh, your parents aren't gonna care if we do such and such, and if we break such and such, and maybe set such and such on fire. I mean, they're not gonna care, they're not even gonna notice. I mean, do you guys seriously want us to leave? Okay, your kids get deceived, your reputation is gone, and this rule that you've always had, no flames in the house, is suddenly out the window. But you come back, and that's what's going on here. Paul is now on the scene, and it's like dad put his foot down, it's like, whoa, the authority has something to say. And look at him, look at what he says. He's an apostle, literally, through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. That is quite a quite a tribute. And then he goes on to say, and all the brethren who are with me, although this doesn't look like a group effort, Paul usually had a scribe. There are a few letters that he writes in his own hand, just portions. Paul was probably pacing with this one, and his scribe could barely keep up. But I don't know. I don't know. He was very, very disturbed. And you can imagine he comes there, he's giving them a gospel of grace, he's freeing them from the law of Moses, he is letting them know they are born again and justified before God without sacrifice, slaughterings, blood, and the 633 rules of the Jewish people. I mean, imagine the freedom they had, they dropped their backpacks on the ground and danced, and then someone comes along and tells them to pick that thing up again. Can you

Grace And Peace As A Bridge

SPEAKER_00 16:29

imagine his fury? So he says to them in verse 3, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It was not common knowledge to me, but now has been told to me in some of my research. When Paul says that grace and peace, you know, I just read that as a greeting, like a hello, and I hope you're good, or may God be with you and keep you healthy, that kind of thing. Believe it or not, when he says grace, he is addressing more so the Greeks from their culture, because the Greeks were always in pursuit of grace. And when he says peace, that is addressing the Jews, the shalom, shalom. They're always in pursuit of that. So this was actually what we might call an evangelistic tool. And also look at how he puts the Greeks first there, and that is because he always is going to be big on, including them. He he writes about there being no difference between Jew and Greek or slave and master, and another one of his letters grace from God and the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

Rescued From The Present Evil Age

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Who gave himself for our sins, so that, so that what? So that what he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen. Okay, Jesus is about rescuing us from what the present evil age. The present evil age. It is interesting because at our Bible study I was telling them about this, and we're discussing how hard it can be sometimes as a believer to look around and see a lot of the evil and feel like I don't even know where to start. I just want to freeze. I just want to freeze. God, uh, what are you equipping me for? Where is a portion of the world that I can bring the light to? All of us are just as valuable. No one's more valuable than anyone else. We all have the same amount of Holy Spirit, and if we are feeling like we're sitting on the bench, it's probably because we sat down and we're forgetting our identity in God's kingdom as a son and daughter. It's interesting because another thing I was telling the ladies, if you think about people going to heaven and you think about this reward system that Jesus has when we go before him. Interestingly,

No Comparison In God’s Kingdom

SPEAKER_00 19:24

let's say you are going to be right behind Billy Graham. Okay, so Billy Graham gets there. Oh my gosh, you're behind him thinking. Oh, gotta be kidding me. How am I in line behind Billy Graham? He may also just take all the gold, silver, and jewels and just trot off, right? But this is what's fascinating. Billy Graham is the one responsible for Billy Graham's calling. Billy Graham is the one responsible for Billy Graham's gifts and talents. God does not need 10,000 Billy Graham's. So the person who drives the school bus, who cleans the school, the principal, the person that's serving breakfast to the truckers that are weary, all of these people are on a level playing field using what they're equipped for to be a light. So we're not being compared. In America, we always think of comparison, first and last, and et cetera. And the disciples thought the same thing. Who's gonna be the greatest? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, we are only responsible for our calling, our gifts, and for the amount of stuff we know about God and we believe about our identity. God is not like up there just weighing people on a scale left and right. And that that is so empowering because I became a believer in my 30s and I was like, Lord, I don't expect you to use me at all because I've ignored you for so long. But please use my kids. I never believed in a million years that I would be righteous. All right, so he's talking about rescuing us from the present evil age. There is another way to look at this, and this is the true way. He's not rescuing us from the land, like in the exile. Guess what he's rescuing us from? He's rescuing us from the power of the evil world. We are living here, but our home is in heaven. We are walking here, but our home is in heaven. We've been rescued from the power of this evil age. There's no reason it should just almost bury us in grief. There's no reason because the enemy is just trying to rob our joy. All of this is paid for. We are on God's team. There's not an A team and a B team, there's just God's team.

Closing Encouragement And Next Week

SPEAKER_00 22:15

So next week we are going to get into the rest of chapter one. Glory be, glory be. I really appreciate you guys. And I think slowly but surely, I'm really beginning to take in this grace issue and sit back, take a sigh, and remember I am God's daughter, and He adores me. And I hope you feel the same. Keep your chin up out there, along with your family, and remember you are loved in Jesus' name.