The Gospel Paul Preached - Galatians 1:11-24 | Benny Ho

well last week we have been so blessed uh by pastor amos as he begin to um introduce the book of galatians to us and that's when we realized that the gospel the gospel that the apostle paul preached is one that is by christ is one that is for christ as well is one all about christ isn't that what we learned last week and this week what's going to happen is that we're going to talk about where did this gospel come from and what can this gospel actually do to us and i think that's an important subject now let me introduce it this way when i was growing up as a young christian i often hear a lot of amazing conversion stories of former drug addicts or gangsters or prisoners and just and their conversion story is so dramatic their conversion story is so amazing that it makes my conversion story seem very lame you understand what i mean how did i come to christ oh i grew up in a nice family i went to school i struggled with identity issues then i went to a school camp someone shared with me the four spiritual laws and then they asked me would you like to receive christ i say yeah i think so yes and then i prayed the sinner's prayer and i got saved it seems really boring you know saying what i mean seems really boring compared to these amazing stories that these people tell and then sometimes i'm so tempted growing up as a christian maybe i should go out and smoke some weeds or beat up my neighbor or you know do something and then i can turn around and can tell these amazing stories how many of you ever feel tempted to do that actually that is perverted thinking that's perverted thinking i'll tell you why it's because it's only by the grace of god that i don't have to go to the pits i don't have to go to hell you know and only to come to christ you see it's by the grace of god i don't have to experience all these bad stuff before i actually turn to christ because salvation is a gift from god and i'm so blessed and those of you who are born in a christian family and sometimes you feel like i haven't really tasted the world you are blessed you don't even realize it you should be thankful that you are in a christian family how many will say amen to that you should be thankful it's only by the grace of god but this morning we're going to be looking at an amazing conversion story of a jewish man who was formerly known as saul and now we know him as paul the apostle and his story is recorded for us in galatians chapter 1 verse 11 to 24 so if you have your bibles with you can i invite you to go there and now read this amazing story for you and you'll find that this story is beautifully divided into three portions before during and after it's like an amazing testimony okay and here it goes galatians chapter one reading from verse 11 to 24. i want you to know brothers and sisters that the gospel i preached paul now tell us where did the gospel come from he said the gospel i preach is not of human origin i did not receive it from any man nor was i taught it rather i received it by revelation from jesus christ for you have heard my previous way of life in judaism how intensely i persecuted the church of god and tried to destroy it i was advancing in judaism beyond many of my own age amongst my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers but when god who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace and was pleased to reveal his son in me so that i might preach to him among the gentiles my immediate response was not to consult any human being but i go up i did not go up to jerusalem to see those who are apostles before i was but i went into arabia later i returned to damascus and then after three years i went up to jerusalem to get acquainted with cephas which is actually peter and stayed with him 15 days i saw none of the other apostles only james the lord's brother i assure you before god that what i'm writing you is no lie and then i went to syria and cilicia i was personally unknown to the churches of judea that are in christ they only heard this report and here's the report the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and they praised god because of me i think one of the greatest conversion experience stories in the bible must be dead of the apostle paul and his conversion was not only dramatic but i think it was also drastic in his impact on christianity his conversion was actually a pivotal event that sets christianity up to actually move from the jewish world into the gentile world and perhaps that was why god had to raise paul who who is who is not one of the original 12 apostles and then used him as an apostle to the gentiles you see the original 12 apostles they were called to the jews first okay and and and they were all ministering in jerusalem paul was different he was unique and that was why the false jewish preachers that we heard about last week these are the people who are trying to bring the the christians back into judaism you know back into the law trying to get them to be circumcised these false preachers actually looked at paul and he was preaching this gospel of grace and then they said because he's his his non his non-conformity because he's not the same as the other 12 apostles therefore his mandate his message his ministry were not was not from god that's what they were accusing him of and therefore they said he is not a true apostle but here in in galatians chapter 1 verse 11 to 24 paul begin to defend his apostolic calling now let me ask you what was his apostolic authority based on it is actually based on the gospel that he preached what was his authority based on it's based on the gospel he preached so the question now is this where did his message come from how did the message get to him and what is this message all about does this message have any power at all those were the important questions he need to answer and these are the questions that would defines his authenticity as an apostle and you notice right from the start the apostle paul declared in no uncertain term that this gospel that he preached is not of human origin it is not a human invention but it is of divine revelation he stated right from the beginning so you look at verse 11 and 12 now he said i want you to know brothers and sisters that the gospel i preach is not of human origin it is not taught up by some people it is not of human origin it's not a personal invention but it is divine revelation i did not receive it from any man nor was i taught it rather i receive it by revelation from jesus christ now you ask yourself how did we receive the gospel mo all of us if not i think all of us actually either learn it by reading by studying or somebody taught it to us is that right most of us received the gospel in that way but for for paul it was unique his message and his ministry was divinely given by jesus christ directly he got it direct from the lord that's why he's a he he writes the bible within he got it direct from god and what better way for paul to validate this than to share his personal testimony and that's what he did in galatians 1 verse 13 to 24 and you notice paul down outlines three pivotal periods in his life that authenticated his mandate his ministry and his message and let me outline them for you here are the three pivotal periods the first was before his conversion he talked about how before his conversion he he was on a crusade to persecute the church right that was his past life his crusade to persecute the church and paul went back to his past as an intense jewish rabbi who was on the crusade to get rid of the church and in galatians 1 13 he says for you have heard of my previous way of life in judaism how intensely i persecuted the church of god and tried to destroy it now to go ahead to get ahead in judaism he went against the church and the more he persecuted the church the more he advanced up the ladder in judaism so if you look at galatians 1 14 now he says i was advancing in judaism beyond many of my own age amongst my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers and those traditions include circumcision it includes keeping the fees keeping the laws etc and then he testified that he was on an all-out quest to squash the church he was going around from city to city closing down churches putting believers in prison he himself testified in acts 22 verse 4 i persecuted the followers of the way to their to their death arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison i think about the apostle paul i think he's he's the typical high d personality you know the typical highly driven person he was a man of conviction he was someone who knows what he wanted and then he goes for it he sets a goal and then he bulldozes his way through that's him anything and anybody could stand in this way he will have them demolished and destroyed that's the apostle paul and saul knew that judaism and christianity cannot come together they are not the same they are opposites in fact they are like oil and water they cannot mix and so since he was all out for judaism he made it his goal his life mission is to get rid of christianity it's one or the other he knows that it cannot be cannot be the same and the point that the apostle paul was making here is this that if he is so for judaism don't miss this this is his final argument if i am so for judaism i'm so dead against the church how can i end up becoming a preacher of the gospel that i'm trying to destroy if not for something drastic something drastic must have happened to me that's how i ended up preaching the gospel i was dead against it actually and his point was this it was not the jews who called him to preach for jesus they were anti-christianity it was not the christians who gave him the ministry because they were running away from him because he was persecuting them so if it wasn't the jews and it wasn't the christians that called him and turned him from his path to actually become a preacher of the gospel if it's not the jews if it's not the christians then where else can it be it must be god that's his argument it must be god who actually called me and his past conduct as a persecutor of the church plus a dramatic change in his life proof that his mandate his ministry his message can only come from god question when did this happen i think the turning point was when he met the risen christ on his way to damascus to actually persecute the church and this is what led to his next season and the next season was this it was during his conversion now he begin to talk about his conversion to christ period number two now we come to this watershed moment in human biblical history the conversion of saul of tarsus i tell you this was not just the most famous conversion it was also one of the most important conversions of all times in fact it was so important it was recounted three times in the book of acts his testimony was shared three times in chapter 9 chapter 22 and chapter 26 that was how important his conversion was and his was not a typical conversion not like mine you know went to church in the camp people shared with me no no it's not like that it was dramatic in fact this his conversion resulted in 25 of the new testament do you realize this this guy's conversion resulted in 25 percent of the new testament in fact paul wrote one of the most important epistles in the new testament the book of romans the book that actually tell us what the gospel is all about and and paul wrote this this book the book of romans was so instrumental to the conversion of spiritual luminaries like saint augustine martin luther john wesley they all attributed their conversion to the book of romans these are spiritual giants of god who changed literally the spiritual landscape of history the conversion of paul the apostle literally changed the world how did it happen i'll tell you how it happened acts chapter 9 verse 1 to 6 recorded this amazing encounter listen to this meanwhile saul was still bleeding out murderous threats against the lord's disciples and he went to the high priest asked him for letters to the synagogues in damascus so that if he found any there any christians there who belonged to the way where the men or women he might take them as prisoners to jerusalem but as he neared the mosques on his journey suddenly hallelujah i love suddenly you know that's when god suddenly come into our midst god intervenes and suddenly you know he a light from heaven flashed around him he fell to the ground heard a voice say to him saul saul why do you persecute me persecute me who are you lord saw us i am jesus whom you are persecuting and he replied now get up go into the city and you'll be told what you must do the apostle paul at that time he was saul he was on his way to persecute the church in damascus i can picture him typical highly driven heidi personality riding up in front you know leading his troops towards damascus and then suddenly out of a midday sun no imagine that a light that is brighter than the midday sun broke through and it flashed around a flesh from heaven and saw when crashing to the ground and then when he was on that floor a voice from heaven said to him saul saul why are you persecuting me he didn't say why are you persecuting the church he said why are you persecuting me it tells me that our attitude towards the church reflects our attitude towards christ hear me don't miss this our attitude towards the church reflects our attitude towards christ if you attack the church you are attacking him you see and for the first time saul realized that he was going against god himself and his response was this who are you lord and then the lord replied i am jesus whom you are persecuting in the end in the new king james version saul actually asked the next question the next question was this lord what do you want me to do what do you want me to do and then the lord replied arise go into the city and you'll be told what you must do brothers and sisters don't miss these two poignant questions that every single one of us have to ask the two pointless questions of life is this who are you lord and then after that we have to ask lord if he is really lord then we say lord what do you want me to do because do these two questions friends they define for us who our master is and they define for us what our mission is how many of you agree if you don't know your master if you don't know your mission you're living a meaningless life hello you're with me if you don't know what your life is all about you don't know who you're who you belong to you really don't know what you're living for and i think these are two key significant questions of life and my friends we will never know who we are we'll never know our identity until we know and we'll never know what we must do with our life you see you will never know who you are what your identity and what you must do your life your mission until you know who is your master you know your master first and then you will know your mission that's why one of the advice i give to all young people looking for a life partner always think of these three things master mission then made okay master mission damn me some people just go for the mate first without even knowing the master then after that you find you cannot fulfill your mission too bad for you master mission made and there's a good way to look at it see and i tell you there on the ground saw the persecutor became paul the preacher saw the legalese became paul the evangelist and his rope of self-righteousness fell off and he surrendered to the grace of god and i want you to know that when paul got off the ground he was a totally different man his life was radically transformed for jesus christ it has been said and rightly so that the most important thing in the men's conversion is not what happened during the conversion is what happens after see it does not matter what moving experience you had but the question is where did that experience move you hello it's not what moving experience you have is where did that experience move you did your conversion result in real change in your life it did for the apostle paul from the pinnacle of jerusalem paul is now sitting in a corner of a little house in damascus and the great religious leader of his time is now helpless you know he sat there for three days and three nights doing nothing it must have been tough for this type a highly driven person he sat there unable to see anything unable to do anything for three days and three nights i just cut my eyes on cataracts and i had to adjust for one month i feel like my life is finished this guy was totally blinded for three days and three nights sitting there and during this tree you know he could not see a thing but yet ironically for the first time he could see everything and during these three nights of three days of darkness he realized how blind he truly was how much he has misunderstood jesus how much he has missed the messiah himself and he realized at that point i've got to lose my religiosity in order to gain christ's righteousness and it was during those three days he was he realized i'm trying to get to heaven on my own steam but now i have seen the messiah and he never knew he was he he realized that he now know that all the laws and all the prophets actually pointed to jesus christ and you know what he concluded he concluded in philippians 3 7 he says whatever was to my prophet i now consider laws for the sake of christ what is more i consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus my lord for whose sake i have lost all things i consider them rubbish that i may gain christ what was before was prophet for him has now become lost what was once precious has become rubbish what he once hated he now pursue all of the prestige the status the position and all of that that he was striving after trying to get to heaven on his own steam he realized that's all rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus my lord hallelujah i don't know about you we should feel it in our hearts that we have come true that and we understood this wonderful gospel for one who persecuted christian he now died with christ for one who lived by self-effort he now lived unto christ for one who lived by the law he now lived unto christ for one who hated christ now he knows that christ loved him saul of casters has become paul the apostle what a radical conversion and i tell you that can only happen because of god and in galatians 1 verse 23 and 24 he says they only heard this report the man who formally persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and then this and he said they praised god because of me before he was on a crusade against the church during he was converted to christ and now after his conversion what happened it was it became his call to the gentiles he began to talk about his call to the gentiles the apostle paul had a unique encounter because god was preparing him for a unique assignment which is what to be an apostle to the gentiles now tell your friends his ministry was not just unique it was also totally divine and that was why paul defended his apostleship by revealing that he had no personal contacts with the apostles immediately after his conversion what he's saying is this he did not receive the gospel through the apostles or were taught it by them but he received the gospel the message of the gospel directly from god he's a unique person it was not an education but he was an encounter that took him across the line he wasn't educated in the gospel he encountered the living christ and that's where he got his gospel from so listen to what he said now in verse 15 to 20 but when god who set me apart from my mother's womb called me by his grace was please reveal his son in me so that i might preach to him among the gentiles my immediate response was not to consult any human being i did not go up to jerusalem to see those who are apostles before i was but i went into arabia that's where he went later i returned to damascus and after three years then i went up to into went up to jerusalem and got acquainted with peter and then stayed with him for 15 days i saw none of the other apostles except james the lord's brother and i assure you before god that what i'm writing to you is no lie now how many of you agree the logical thing for the apostle paul to do after he got after he got converted was actually to visit the apostles in jerusalem that's the most natural thing to do right it's just like if god should encounter you and you get converted what's the what's the next best thing to do go to church and this is what we typically do but the apostle paul says no i didn't i didn't go there the lord led me differently because i and i think the reason is because if he had gone to jerusalem then his ministry would have been identified with the apostles then you'll be all be focused on the church in jerusalem and i think this is right because the gospel had to go to the jews first but god was preparing paul for the next phase of the gospel which is a ticket to the gentiles then what happened to paul galatians 1 17 says i did not go up to jerusalem to see those were apostles before i was but i went into arabia instead after a time in damascus paul was led by the lord going to arabia where he devoted himself to a season of meditation of study of prayer and he must have spent a greater part of that three years in arabia and he was there that the lord jesus would have revealed himself to paul actually gave him the message of the gospel see the original apostles remember they spent three years with christ walking with him and all that paul had the same experience of being with christ for three years but he was in the desert in arabia after he got all that then he went back to damascus and how many of you know if he goes back to damascus it's actually quite dangerous and i'll tell you why because the the jews and the muslims would be very upset with him because he has turned away from them and gone the other way right and because of that he almost lost his life in damascus now tell you where i got that from acts chapter 9 verse 22 to 25 now let me take you to all that so that you can see the big picture and then i want to make one application for you before we close acts chapter 9 verse 22 to 25 yet saul grew more and more powerful while he was in damascus he became more and more powerful he baffled the jews living in damascus by proving that jesus is the messiah and after many days have gone by there was a conspiracy amongst the jews to kill him but paul the soul learned of their plan and day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him but his followers took him by night lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall and then paul managed to escape as a result and that was when he decided to go to jerusalem then he went to jerusalem and met peter and james but in between this time how many of you know he was already preaching the gospel the gospel he received direct from god and he was already demonstrating the power of the gospel so much so that he baffled the jews and they're wondering why where did this guy come from he was a curved ball that came from don't know where and then they're beginning to see people getting converted everywhere it was only after that then he went to jerusalem and even when he went to jerusalem none of the apostles wanted to meet him because at first they were not sure if he was for real it was only because of barnabas that he finally got a chance to meet peter and james how do i know that now all this is actually in the bible you know we just need to read it hello you just need to read it and know that it's there it all makes sense the bible is not haphazard it's very meaningful you piece it all together and it's all there you know how do i know that paul wasn't easy for him to see james and peter it's because of acts chapter 9 verse 26 listen to this when he came to jerusalem he tried to join the disciples but they're all afraid of him not believing that he really was a disciple but barnabas he was a son of encouragement you know he took him and he brought him to the apostles and it was there that he got to see peter and james he stayed in jerusalem for 15 days and during that time that's when he got acquainted with the apostles he wasn't there to be taught the gospel he was there to get acquainted with them and he it was there that he shared with them what he does what he was doing and then the apostles actually affirmed him and thereafter paul went back to his hometown of tarsus and to go back to his hometown taxes he's got to go through two cities which is syria and cilicia and that's why you read verse 21 and 22 i went to syria and silesia and because it was on his way home okay and i was personally unknown to the churches in judea they are in christ and i believe that paul actually stayed in his own hometown of tarsus and he was there that he continued to preach the gospel and all that for several years until when until barnabas came recruited him to go to antioch which is when the church was the gentile church was first birth okay and it was barnabas who actually recruited him brought him to antioch and then the whole thing started from there how do i know this acts 11 25 and 26. are you following me so far follow me follow me and then i'll nail it down for you barnabas went to tarsus to look for saul you see that's how he ended up in the gentile world barnabas when the tarsus looked for saul and when he found him brought him to antioch and then for a whole year barnabas and saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people and the disciples were first called christians at antioch it was in antioch my brothers and sisters that the apostle paul finally found his destiny and fulfilled his calling to the gentiles you see by going back to his past conduct by going back to his conversion by going back to the divine calling that he had the apostle paul make it very clear that no one can accuse him of inventing or corrupting his message or his ministry so you ask me when is the gospel true it is when it is the gospel that paul preaches and everything that paul preaches is written in here that's when the gospel is true and you know what brothers and sisters this gospel is now entrusted to us passed down to the generations it is entrusted to you is entrusted to me and i'm saying to you my friends it is our job to uphold this gospel it's our job to defend this gospel and it's our job to proclaim this gospel there is power in the gospel of jesus christ that's why paul himself wrote in romans 1 16 and 17 for i am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of god unto salvation then it brings our faith this is the power of god to bring salvation to everyone who believes first to the jew dental gentile for in the gospel a righteousness from god is revealed a righteousness that is by faith from first to last as it is written the righteous shall live by faith i want to end this morning with a prophetic burden that i want to bring to you as convincing as paul's conduct polls conversion and paul's calling may be what really nailed it for me was the transformation that we saw in his life how many of you agree that's what newt did for me because it testifies to the transforming power of the gospel you see once paul was transformed from the inside his passion and his pursuit begin to change on the outside everything about him change see because you see of his new master that he got to know his past his pursuit on the inside change see his passion inside change because he he got to know a new master he now has a new mission in his life and i think this is what we should see when we come to christ you see all of his life pursuits will radically change in one encounter what is his pursuit in life now he said it in philippians 3 13 this one thing i do that's passion this one thing i'm pursuing for getting what is behind straining towards what is ahead i press on towards the goal for which god has called me heavenward in christ jesus he was radically changed the persecutor has now become a preacher the greatest missionary against christ has become the greatest missionary for christ because of that one encounter with the gospel it is not what moving experience you have but what is your experience moving you too it is not just what happened to you when you came to christ be it 10 years ago 15 years ago or just yesterday it's not what happened to you when you come to christ but it is what happens after you come to christ that really matters and the holy spirit is challenging every one of us here whether you are a 20 year old christian or you are two day old christian i'm saying to you now the holy spirit is asking you since you became a christian is your life changed is your life radically changed is your character transformed are you now governed by the word of the living god is your worldview biblical or is it still the same as before that's the big question are you becoming more christ-like now in your in your relationship with other people around you are you more christ-like with your family with your children with your husband your wife are you more christ-like with the colleagues around you that's the big question it's not what happened to you 20 years ago you had this great encounter it's what happened after that that's what i'm talking about are you pursuing the things of god today rather than the things of this world i've seen so many christians who profess christ and then after that they still speak like the world you get a little bit upset and suddenly your language becomes very colorful all the f's and the ass and everything else you know all starts coming out is that what is that the transforming power of the gospel it's not i see people profess i'm a christian but after that they act like as if they are not with you gambling and smoking and you know drinking and getting drunk and all of that the pursuits remain the same it's still money sex and power everywhere then i'm saying to you my friends that's romans 2 2 is true don't be conformed anymore to the pattern of this world but be transformed how do you do that by the renewing of your mind through what through the living word of god and then you read the word and then you ask the holy spirit help me to apply the word you see it's all it's going to come back to this it's not just what you know about the gospel we are going to teach you everything about the gospel sign up for the for the course on the gospel and you get all the all everything about the gospel but it's about the transforming power of the gospel that you need to experience it's about the transforming power of the holy spirit it's not by trying harder in your own strength but it is by trusting in the transforming power of the holy spirit that is at work within you right now the apostle paul was radically changed on the road to damascus in his perspective his persona his posture his pursuits everything changed question is this did it last sometimes you say yeah yeah yeah when i first came to christ i was radically transformed but did it continue did it last i got good news for you i'm so glad to report to you that it definitely did for the apostle paul 20 years down the road after that encounter on the damascus road experience 20 years down the road paul himself stood before the people and he testified this in acts 26 19 nearing the end of his life he said i was not disobedient to the heavenly vision what was the vision he saw that god called him to be an apostle to the gentiles did he obey it absolutely he declared at the end of 20 years i was not disobedient to the heavenly vision and a few short years after the declaration he's sitting in a prison cell in rome and he wrote these parting words to his spiritual son timothy in 2nd timothy 4 6-8 he said i am already pulled out like a drink offering i'm an oblation now i'm poured out like a drink offering and the time has come for my departure i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i kept the faith i pray that that will be my testimony at the end that i'll be able to say in no uncertain terms god i have not been disobedient to the heavenly vision you gave me you know i have fought the fight i have finished the race i have kept the faith not just for me but for my children and my children's children i pray i'll be able to say that paul was a man obedient to the heavenly vision he did all of that and we need to resolve to do the same i don't care where you are right now you could be far away from god but today you can turn around and say god i want this i want to be able to declare with the apostle paul i have kept the faith i have run the race and i have done everything you call me to do i have not been disobedient to the heavenly vision not just for yourself or for your family not just for you your children and your children's children god help us to do that amen this gospel is not just for you to know is for you to experience there is a transforming power in the gospel and you can taste it for yourself taste and see that the lord is good he is stand with me to your free place thank you lord [Music] thank you lord [Music] allow me to pray and then i want you to respond to him as the lord would lead you lord i pray this morning that you will come and you speak to us lord as we look at the apostle paul what an amazing testimony he has been to us lord to see him before and during and after but god thank you it wasn't just a moment of encounter for the apostle paul it was a lifelong transformation for him and lord it is our desire also that we will experience the transforming power of your gospel and allow your gospel to change us from the inside out lord we recognize that the gospel has that ability to do it it is the power of god unto our total salvation body soul and spirit so come and speak to us this morning in jesus name i want you to just lift your hearts and city campus you can take over lift your hearts to the lord and let's worship him and then i'm gonna invite you you know i don't doesn't matter where you are right now in your walk with god and some of you could feel that i'm so defeated i've been to so much i don't i can't even see myself making progress i want you to know the power of the gospel is here the power of the holy spirit is here and he can turn things around for you let's worship him together shall we

Channel: Faith Community Church Perth

Views: 1,088

Rating: 4.6923075 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: QkDHicckaZY

Length: 41min 22sec (2482 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021