SPEAKER_00: We're looking at Acts 20 and from verse 17 to 38.
SPEAKER_00: And we're looking at this as an introduction into Paul's letter to the Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: Now this particular section in my Bible is titled Paul and the Ephesian Elders.
SPEAKER_00: And from Militius he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And when they were come to him, he said unto them, ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And that and that how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and affliction abide me.
SPEAKER_00: But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And now behold, I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
SPEAKER_00: Take heed therefore unto yourself, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
SPEAKER_00: For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not spurring the flock.
SPEAKER_00: Also of your own soul shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every war every night and day with tears.
SPEAKER_00: And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
SPEAKER_00: I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.
SPEAKER_00: Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me.
SPEAKER_00: I have showed you things how that so labouring ye might ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had thus spoken he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they would see his face no more, and they accompanied him onto the ship.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord add his blessing to this reading of his most precious word.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians have been a difficult book to study for many reasons.
SPEAKER_00: I I I I opened and started thinking it was a simple book.
SPEAKER_00: It would be Paul just telling his congregation uh how to behave.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not.
SPEAKER_00: I've titled this Paul's Broken Heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel that brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: The father's anguish behind Galatians, because Paul had created the church at Galatia.
SPEAKER_00: My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and I pray you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Today we begin our journey.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's letter to the Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: The letter unlike others in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It's sharp, it's urgent, it's motioned, it is at times almost painful to read, and it was meant to be.
SPEAKER_00: Because Galatians is not the voice of aologian, a distant theologian, it is the cry of a spiritual father whose children are in danger.
SPEAKER_00: And if we miss that, we will miss the heart of the entire letter.
SPEAKER_00: Galatia, you see, was not just Paul's church.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Galatia was not just a church, it was Paul's church.
SPEAKER_00: Paul founded many churches, but Galatia was different.
SPEAKER_00: When he first arrived among them, he was physically weak, perhaps ill, perhaps exhausted, perhaps wounded, and he reminds them, ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preach the gospel unto you at the first.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 4.13.
SPEAKER_00: They did not despise him, they did not turn him away, they welcomed him with open arms.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says they received him as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus, Galatians 4.14.
SPEAKER_00: It's extraordinary language.
SPEAKER_00: This was not a polite congregation listening to a visiting preacher.
SPEAKER_00: This was a people who loved him, cared for him, and embraced him in his weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 4 15 again.
SPEAKER_00: This is the language of the church holding their pastor in deep affection.
SPEAKER_00: This is the bond of a father to his children.
SPEAKER_00: The crisis in Galatia was not doctrinal, or not only doctrinal, it was personal.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul writes to Corinth, he deals with immorality, division, pride, and chaos.
SPEAKER_00: But he never says he fears for their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: When he writes to Thessalonica, he comforts.
SPEAKER_00: When he writes to Philippi, he rejoices.
SPEAKER_00: When he writes to Rome, he teaches.
SPEAKER_00: When he writes to the poor people of Galatia, he bleeds.
SPEAKER_00: And why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Galatians were not simply misbehaving.
SPEAKER_00: They were turning away from the very gospel Paul had given to them.
SPEAKER_00: They were listening to teachers who said, Paul's gospel is incomplete.
SPEAKER_00: It's not right.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's authority was inferior.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's apostleship was questionable.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's message needed correcting.
SPEAKER_00: This was not a theological disagreement.
SPEAKER_00: This was relational betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: The children were turning from their father.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's sharpness in response to them is a sharpness of love.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians contains some of Paul's strongest words.
SPEAKER_00: He opens with, Oh, you foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you.
SPEAKER_00: If any man preach another gospel, let him be accursed.
SPEAKER_00: But these are not the words of a harsh man.
SPEAKER_00: These are the words of a desperate man.
SPEAKER_00: A father shouting to a child who is walking towards a cliff does not whisper.
SPEAKER_00: He raises his voice because he loves.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not angry because he is authoritarian.
SPEAKER_00: He is anguished because he is attached.
SPEAKER_00: This is the tone then of the letter to the Church of Galatia.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel, the hope that we have in Jesus Christ is at stake.
SPEAKER_00: And his children, the Church of Galatia, are at risk.
SPEAKER_00: The Judaizing teachers were not simply adding a few Jewish customs.
SPEAKER_00: These were guys that would come around and they would go, You've got to be circumcised and you've got to follow the Lord of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: They they wanted to make it the gospel plus.
SPEAKER_00: They had to be Jewish before they could be Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But what these Judaizers are doing is they're redefining the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And they were saying these things, and these are things that are still said in many churches today.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: And you must add works of the law to be truly accepted by God.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul sees this for what this truly is.
SPEAKER_00: It's not making people closer to God, it's a return to the slavery of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: A return to chains, a return to fear, a return to the old life.
SPEAKER_00: Christ died to free them from those chains.
SPEAKER_00: Christ died to free each and every one of us from those chains.
SPEAKER_00: And anybody who tries to take you back to those systems is working against the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul fights as I fight.
SPEAKER_00: Not for my reputation, not for his reputation.
SPEAKER_00: My reputation's in tatters most of the time, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: But I fight for your very souls.
SPEAKER_00: I argue for your souls.
SPEAKER_00: Just as Paul did.
SPEAKER_00: I don't see myself as a Paul, I see myself more of a Peter.
SPEAKER_00: But your souls and the souls of all my people that I know, my community are my responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean for us today?
SPEAKER_00: Galatians is not a cold theological treaty.
SPEAKER_00: It's a pastoral cry.
SPEAKER_00: It is the cry of a man who knows what it is to love people deeply and to watch them drift away.
SPEAKER_00: It is the cry of a shepherd who sees wolves approaching.
SPEAKER_00: It is the cry of a father who sees his children being misled.
SPEAKER_00: And it is a cry of the Holy Spirit through Paul calling the church back.
SPEAKER_00: But back to what?
SPEAKER_00: Back to the simplicity of grace, back to the sufficiency of Christ, back to the freedom of the gospel, and back to the joy of being called God's children.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why Galatians matters today.
SPEAKER_00: Because every generation, and we live in such a generation, every generation faces the temptation to add something to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To make salvation about Christ plus something else.
SPEAKER_00: To turn the gospel of grace into a system of performances.
SPEAKER_00: And every generation needs Paul's voice to call us back.
SPEAKER_00: And for you in my own church, as we begin this series next week, I want to hear, I want us to hear Paul's heart.
SPEAKER_00: I actually want you to hear my cries as well.
SPEAKER_00: Not for his anger, not for his sharpness, not for his rebukes, but for his love.
SPEAKER_00: His fatherly love, his protective love, his wounded love.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is the heart of God towards his people.
SPEAKER_00: God is not indifferent when we drift, he is not cold when we wander, he is not silent when we are deceived.
SPEAKER_00: He calls, he warns, he pleads, he pursues, and he does it because he loves.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hear the voice of a father calling his children home.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hear the voice of a shepherd protecting his flock.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hear the voice of the Spirit calling us back to Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: And may we, like the Galatians once did, receive the gospel again with joy, with humility, and with the freedom that only comes with grace.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.