The Gospel Changes Everything
February 26, 2017

Scripture: Galatians 1:11-24

I. The Gospel changes everything for you because God chooses you.

A. In order to discredit Paul’s message his opponents tried discredit Paul’s authority. They said that Paul was no real apostle and therefore he had no real authority behind the gospel he was teaching. So what was Paul’s response? Where did he get his gospel from according to vs. 12? Not from the apostles. But from Jesus himself. He got the gospel straight from the source. We read about the day when Paul met Jesus in Acts 9:1-6. When he saw Jesus in all his glory Paul knew the reality of the cross and the empty tomb. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God.

B. Paul uses an interesting phrase though to describe how long God had been planning for Paul to be converted in Galatians 1:15-16. God chose Paul for salvation from before his birth because God loved him. Ephesians 1:3-5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

II. The Gospel changes everything for you because God calls you.

A. God not only chose Paul to be part of His family. He also called Paul to a particular place of service. What was that place of service? Vs. 16 says that Paul was called by God’s grace “that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” Before Paul met Jesus Paul had persecuted the church (vs.13). He was obsessed with destroying the church. But after he met Jesus everything changed. Paul changed from being a persecutor of the church to being a preacher in the church.

B. God had called Paul to preach to Gentiles about how Jesus and the Gospel could now change their lives also. And Paul used similar language to the Old Testament prophets to describe Paul’s calling to preach. In Galatians 1:15 Paul writes about being set apart by God before he was born. This sounds very much like God’s call to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

III. The Gospel changes everything for you because God reveals Jesus to you.

A. How did the Gospel change Paul’s life? We see how in vs. 16: God was pleased to reveal his Son to Paul. Paul saw Jesus one day as he was making a journey to Damascus. Before he met Jesus Paul was a very religious man. His faith was spelled D-O. Paul had to do and do and do more and more things to please God. But when Jesus was revealed to Paul from heaven Paul was completely changed. His faith was no longer spelled D-O. His faith was spelled D-O-N-E. He realized that Christ had done all the work in His death and resurrection to save Paul’s soul. Now Jesus lived in Paul. Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Application:
Celebrate the fact that the Gospel has changed your whole life.

Sources:
The letter to the Galatians
Commentaries on Galatians by Philip Graham Ryken and Douglas Moo