Righteous Gospel Anger
Galatians 5:7-12
KLMF
Commissioning
I want to say a word to those who are graduating and leaving
No one leaves Renewal. You are sent.
Our vision is to renew lives in Christ to transform our city and the world
We hope your lives have been spiritual renewed, that you’ve been blessed, and that you go and be a blessing, you are agents of Kingdom transformation
Live in the Gospel
you must learn that the gospel is not just how you start and then you move on
you must learn how to live in your gospel identity, live in gospel freedom, live in the HS, live by faith.
Share the Gospel (I’ll say more in a moment)
Emotions are great indicators. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Things that stir strong emotions in us reveal what’s most important to us. What makes us angry, upset, what makes us depressed, what makes us jealous, what makes us happy? We get upset at different things for different reasons.
Some of us might have serious road rage, while others get more worked up watching sports. Maybe it’s a low grade on an exam, losing in some competition, getting a parking ticket, feeling rejection, sensing racism. Or maybe you seem like a pleasant person, but if anyone hurts your kids, watch out, momma bear is ferociously protective. We have different “hot buttons.”
These are indicators. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Our strong emotions reveal our deeper values. Anyone can learn to say anything during a bible study or prayer meeting. But if you really want to know what’s inside, look at when they have strong emotions, positive or negative.
Throughout Galatians, but particular in our passage today, Paul’s been emotional. Paul is usually a very logical guy. Every phrase hangs together with the phrases beside it in a tightly constructed argument. But here, it seems that Paul is just “speaking from the heart.” More than a tight flow of thought, there’s a lot of pleading and emotion. Paul expresses that he’s astonished, frustrated, dismayed, concerned, confident, and angry! We have to hear the teaching content, but we have to feel the pleading and the emotion. In other words, like a Psalm, this passage isn’t just to be analyzed but felt. [read Gal 5:7-12]
7 you started well, you started in the gospel, but you’ve lost your way, turned away from God—what happened?! Paul is astonished, bewildered, angered.
I want you to Paul’s anger, see how much Paul hates legalism.
8 This persuasion does not come from God—it comes from Satan! What you’re believing is Satanic!
9 yeast—it doesn’t take much to have a huge effect. It’s very dangerous. One rotten egg ruins the omelet. A little virus can kill thousands of people. A little bad theology and the gospel can be destroyed. We’ve got to be very careful. (And as I’ve mentioned, it’s easy to get this gospel wrong.)
10 In the midst of his pleading, Paul expresses confidence that they will turn back to the Gospel.
Those confusing you will be punished
We need to remember there were these Judaizers who were telling the Galatian Christians that they needed to be circumcised to be fully accepted by God
Paul has said earlier, if anyone preaches another gospel, let him be accursed.
Paul wishes judgment upon them. “Let them go to hell!”
11 I spoke on the offensiveness of the cross at our Good Friday service, so I won’t say much today.
Let me just say again, the cross is offensive.
If we’ve haven’t been offended by the cross, then we haven’t really seen it.
The cross strips us of any boast, any dignity, any sense of accomplishment. If you remember the Good Friday service, we’re the child molester caught on Dateline. The cross says we’re guilty, condemned, bankrupt before God.
12 I wish those agitators (who want you to be circumcised) would emasculated themselves!
Paul is upset, angry, infuriated, fuming! He hates legalism, with a passion.
Let me again put this in a moral context. If you recall, the incident that Paul described in chapter 2 may not have seemed like a big deal: Peter and other Jews withdrew from eating with the Gentile believers. So they don’t want to eat with them. In our world of poverty, disease, terrorism, wars, etc, why is this such a big deal?
So these Judaizers want the Gentile believers to be circumcised. It’s not like they’re asking them to steal or sleep around or commit hate crimes. It essence, it’s like they want them to be baptized. Is this so terrible?
But Paul is furious! I’d like us to consider some lessons for Paul’s anger.
Emotions are great indicators. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. What does anger reveal about Paul? Paul’s emotions tell us what’s important to him. Why is Paul so furious?
Paul hates legalism. Or more positively, Paul has a passion for the gospel, and anything that threatens the gospel, that pollutes or compromises the gospel touches on a sensitive nerve.
1. Re-evalute our values.
Do we share his passion? What is a big deal to Paul, is that a big deal to us? What is a big deal to us, is that a big deal to Paul?
For Paul, the greater enemy than poverty, disease, terorrism or war is anything that threatens the gospel.
The greater crime than stealing or adultery or hate crimes is compromising the gospel.
The central issue is have you started in the gospel and do you continue to live in the gospel—Paul will literally die for this. Human life, his own life is less important than the gospel. Paul will gladly lay down his life for the gospel.
I had mentioned at the beginning of this series that we want to learn from Paul the content of the gospel and catch some of his passion as well.
Graduates, this is of first concern: are you living in the gospel? Do we care about the gospel in our lives? Are we living it? Do we ever get excited, do we ever get angry?
2. Review: Gospel Living
Let me take a moment to remind us how we’ve described this before
Acknowledge
Pray
Trust in God’s Word, Promises; Ps 23:1, Ro 8:28, Isa 41:10
Act
Thanks
It’s not about what we do but about what God does.
The story we live in is the story of God saving His people. God is the main character, and this story is about what He has done.
And when we understand/trust in what God has done, that produces what we do. (Faith produces works; e.g., we believe He cares and wants to give us good things, and so we ask)
If it does not produce good works, then our faith is dead. (against antinomianism, faith does not produce laziness)
If we do anything that does not come from faith, that work is worthless. (against legalism; pray, serve, help the poor, share the gospel)
Christian living, living by faith is living in light of what God does for us. (It is to live trusting in His promises. Living in our Gospel Identity, Living in/out of the Indicative)
Anger is rarely righteous, but here is an example. Paul has deep, real, raw anger, but it is godly anger. It is a holy anger. Paul is angry for God’s glory, God’s gospel. Paul is not a “nice guy” doormat. He is boldly confrontational. And sometimes we should get angry. We’re not to be passive and indifferent on such matters.
But under that anger, I see a deep concern and love for the Galatian Christians.
Paul is fighting for God, but he is also fighting for them.
Paul is passionate about the gospel, but here in this letter, it is about the gospel in the lives of others.
We should care about the gospel for nonChristians and we should care about the gospel for Christians.
I’d like us to recognize 2 deep passions for Paul: the Gospel and the Galatians.
Do we care about others? And do we care about the gospel in their lives?
The verse earlier, Gal 5:6, “the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.”
The gospel should produce love, love for God and love for others.
Let me remind us of how our life/meditation on God’s word is connected to the quality of love in our lives. As we were reminded last week, we want to have our thoughts held captive and obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5). We want a positive charge, a God-ward direction to our thoughts.
One thing that has helped me in “faith expressing itself in love” is the discipline/exercise of giving thanks. I’m often in task mode, thinking about all the things I have to do. But I’ve noticed it really helps me to pause and reflect and give thanks to God for all the things He’s given me. I think about my family, our church, various people, opportunities I’ve been given, material blessings, spiritual blessings. I write out my thanks to God, and it helps me feel that God is indeed good to me, faithful to me, gracious to me. It helps me feel that all these promises of God’s goodness to me are indeed true. I have already received so much undeserved grace. I’m blessed, I’m safe. And when I’m done with that time of prayer and thanksgiving, I leave with inner peace, freedom and overflow. It helps me be a more generous, more caring, less self-protective. It helps me live in “faith expressing itself through love.”
Love involves serving the best interest of others. It means doing what’s best for them, it means serving their needs. If they’re sick, we want to do what will help them regain their health. If someone is discouraged or brokenhearted, we want to encourage and comfort. People always have problems: financial, relational, emotional, physical, spiritual problems.
For Paul, the greatest need, the best interest, most loving thing to give is the gospel. More than helping with their medical, marital, financial problems, the most loving thing to do is to help people find Christ and live in the Gospel. And that’s what Paul is doing here in Galatians. Paul is lovingly confronting the Galatians. There’s anger and frustration, but we underneath it all, we recognize a genuine love for the Galatians.
Now to be clear, we need to also serve the more immediate needs. If someone is bleeding, bandage him. If someone is hungry, feed her. But for Paul, the greatest gift, the most loving thing we can do is to help people start in the gospel, and if they’ve started, then to help them continue in the gospel.
We want to share the gospel with those who don’t know Christ. But I recognize that this is often very difficult for us. We feel artificial and awkward. Let me suggest one reason why: its because the gospel isn’t that powerful/meaningful to us. Let me make a suggestion: start by
1) Live in the gospel.
2) Share the gospel with Christians.
3) Share the gospel with nonChristians.
I’ve already reviewed what it means to live in the gospel.
Let me make some suggestions for how to share the gospel with Christians:
Helps remind each other of the indicative, the promise and the Promiser. We have a tendency to focus on our problems, and sometimes we need another voice to help us get our eyes off of ourselves and onto God. We need to show us who God is and what He’s done, so much so that our hearts are deeply comforted and freed.
In a marriage counseling conversation, I reminded one person I know things are hard now, but what if I told you that one year from now, you’ll look back and be amazed and how spiritually valuable this time was. There will be things about your heart, your relationship with God that would never have come to light; you’ll learn about grace and forgiveness for yourself and for others that you’ve never learned before; you’ll be deeply humbled regarding yourself and profoundly built up with a renewed significance in your identity in Christ. What if I told you that God promises all things work together for your good.
My parents were visiting this past week, and in one conversation, my Dad was telling how much he feels God has blessed me. I have a beautiful family, a beautiful wife, a new house. But for my Dad, what is even more meaningful is that I’ve been called into ministry, and that God has blessed that ministry. I have the opportunity to study God’s word and preach the gospel. I have the opportunity spend my life pursuing spiritual depths and helping others pursue it too. I am blessed.
Sometimes it really helps to have an outside voice speak such gospel truths to us. We’re not able to always hear it by ourselves.
For those who are going through more serious problems, I’d like to point to our counseling ministry. Our counseling ministry wants to help people see how Christ and the gospel speaks to their immediate needs.
If you don’t know Christ, I want to tell you that in the midst of our problems and fears, the Bible says there is a God who cares, who is both strong and good. He is a perfect Heavenly Father, a Good Shepherd. We call him our Savior, one who rescues us.
Graduates (and all of us)
No one leaves Renewal. You are sent.
Our vision is to renew lives in Christ to transform our city and the world
We hope your lives have been spiritual renewed, that you’ve been blessed, and that you go and be a blessing, you are agents of Kingdom transformation
Live in the Gospel
you must learn that the gospel is not just how you start and then you move on
you must learn how to live in your gospel identity, live in gospel freedom, live in the HS, live by faith.
Share the Gospel
You are being sent, not just to be a nice person, but as a servant of the Gospel.
The most loving thing you can give to Christians is the Gospel
The most loving thing you can give to nonChristians is the Gospel
Go and proclaim the Gospel