Galatians - Set Free OVERVIEW

Andrew Colin Hackler

Galatians - Set Free • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

Galatians 1:1–5

Galatians

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Intro

We are going to study the Book of Galatians together.

We will memorize scripture together, too. 3 wks at a time. These three weeks, Galatians 1:10. New memory verses revealed as we go (don’t want you getting ahead!)

Reading Galatians Together

Two ways to use this scripture journal:

Personal Devotions Through Galatians

HEAR Method

As we go through this, I want to share with you one of my entries from my times in God’s Word using the HEAR Method.

Highlight

Exactly as it sounds. Highlight a verse or a few verses that speak to you in the passage.

Then, give the passage a title that kind of captures the meaning of the text in your own words.

Explain

This step is important. What you’re doing here is explaining what the text means on its own terms… You catch that? On its own terms. Meaning, if you didn’t exist, what would this passage mean?

I heard a wise preacher once say, “A text can never mean what it never meant.”

So in this portion you’re going to ask questions like, “Who is receiving this message? What did it mean to the original audience?” “How does this fit with the verses before and after it?” “What is the Holy Spirit intending to communicate through this text?”

Example: If you read Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, first, wow, that’s impressive that you can do that, but you probably wouldn’t assume the message was for you. You’d think, what did it mean based on what little I know about Egypt?

We should start there with Scripture too. What did this mean to the church in Galatia?

Apply

This is the meat of the devotion, but it’s not wise to skip straight here. Many a theological error has been made by skipping straight to application without doing the proper explanation work.

Now look, I’m not asking you to be a scholar here. I’m just asking you to be a student of the text. But here is where you let the rubber hit the road of your life.

“What does this mean for me?” Versus Explain which is “What does this mean?”

“What does this mean today?” “What is God saying to me personally?” “How can I apply the message of this text to my own life?”

Respond

How will I go out and do what this passage is calling me to do?

How will I be different because of what I have learned?

Write out a prayer of response to God.

THEN:

Take sermon notes on our bulletins that we hand out, and stuff your sermon notes in the pages of the book as we go through the Book of Galatians.

Using Journal as Sermon Notes

Divide the pages up into sermons using your schedule. It could look something like this:

(SHOW IMAGES ON SCREEN)

As we go through this Book together, I also invite you to do some scripture memory. We will have on our bulletin, beginning next week, a scripture passage from the Book of Galatians to memorize. Don’t worry. We’ll go slow! For some of us, this may be a quick thing, for others, it may be a slow thing. My encouragement if you’re slow: Allow your church body to help you, and don’t get all puffed up in pride about it. My encouragement if you’re quick to these things: spend time with those who are slower and make this a part of hallway conversations. How are you doing at memorizing right now? Have you made progress on our memory verse?

And look, I can already hear it now. Some may feel uncomfortable or as if they’re going to be judged on their ability to memorize, and you’re reticent to even give it a chance. Don’t be that way. “Oh I’m not doing that!” Don’t have a spirit of disunity about this. You could really discourage someone who is trying to adopt a new habit. Go with the flow. Cool?

So for the next three weeks, our scripture memory passage is Galatians 1:10

Galatians 1:10 ESV

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

IMAGE ON SCREEN OF 1:10 UNDERLINED & STARRED

Tips for Studying Galatians

Read the whole book in one sitting. Do this a few times. Then read partition by partition. Then read chapter by chapter.

Now, I want to give you some context to set your understanding of the Book of Galatians in order.

The Author

Paul, a Jewish convert to the Way of Christ.

Not just any convert… Paul was an activist Pharisee. Just look how he described himself in the Book of Acts.

Acts 26:4–5 ESV

“My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.

Acts 26:9–11 ESV

“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

Further in Galatians:

Galatians 1:14 ESV

And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

This is important as we read the Book of Galatians, because Paul is going to stand very strongly against those who are trying to Judaize, or make Jewish, the converts in Galatia. He wants them to leave behind the ways of the Law, and pursue a grace-filled freedom in Christ.

So as you read Galatians, hear the Book from the perspective of a man who has been set free, and is watching his compatriots slip back into bondage.

No doubt those who have been saved from such radical pasts end up some of the most dedicated followers of Christ.

Audience

“Galatia” was a term for a part of Asia Minor (Modern Day Turkey) that would expand and contract based on who had control, either Rome or another civilization.

Paul met these believers on his FIRST missionary journey.

It was a wide stretch of land, made up of many different cities. It’s most likely that the cities that made up the part of Galatia Paul wrote to was Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium. All of these cities are recorded in the Book of Acts.

There are a few different evidences of this. We’ll hit them as we approach them, but one in particular:

Galatians 6:17 ESV

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

In Lystra:

Acts 14:19–20 ESV

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

History

It’s likely that this is one of Paul’s earliest letters.

Galatians 1:6 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

Now that brings up another point… Paul’s temper in the Book of Galatians. Paul is quite upset with the Galatians because of this right here: they are ditching the Gospel!

For what?

There’s a crew of people following Paul from town to town convincing newly-converted Gentile Christians that in order to be real followers of Christ, they had to go through with becoming Jewish according to the Law before they could be considered full Christians. So you’ll see Paul bringing up a lot of examples of the Galatians trying to submit to the Law, rather than Christ.

Structure

1:1-11 - Greeting and Occasion for the Letter

1:12-2:14 - Paul’s Story

2:15-4:31 - Main Point - Justification by Faith

5:1-6:10 - Instructions for the church

6:11-18 - Conclusion

And now we get to the Message of Galatians as a whole.

The Message of Galatians

We’re calling this series, “Set Free.” It’s my understanding of the Book of Galatians, that the whole of the book points to Paul’s desire that the Galatian believers be SET FREE from their bondage that they continually return to over and over again.

Here in the address alone, you see Paul’s occasion for writing.

In v. 1 he defends his title as an apostle.

Again, an apostle is a special-appointed messenger of God for the early church, who spoke with authority about Christ and the church, and even penned scripture.

And he bases his authority for claiming to be an apostle upon Christ Himself who called him, and His resurrection.

He gives us the main point as early as the greeting! Watch.

Galatians 1:1–5 ESV

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

“Gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.”

This right here is why Paul writes to the Galatians. He is reminding them of their salvation, their freedom in Christ. That’s what Paul is getting at when he writes, “deliver us from this present, evil age.”

You see this theme all over the letter to the Galatians. And why?

Again, v. 6 which we viewed earlier. But let’s look at 7 too.

Galatians 1:6–7 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

There’s a group of people trying to deceive the Galatians. Now, whether they have nefarious intent, or if their intent is honest, it does not matter. The point is, Paul wants them to know that they should trust Jesus Christ, and him, Paul, as the servant of Christ.

Paul is clear. There should be no distortions of the Gospel. And no doubt, there have been many distortions of the Good News of Jesus Christ over the millennia.

So he will go on to share his story, in order to support his accreditation to be able to tell them the things he is going to tell them.

His sharing of his story is not boastfulness, but simply laying before the Galatians the reason that they should be able to trust him.

After sharing his testimony, Paul is going to lay out a strong case for WHY the Galatians should trust Christ alone for their salvation. They are not to put their faith in their religious works. They are not to submit to the Old Testament Law… In fact, Paul will tell them that the Law is a prison!

Galatians 3:22–23 ESV

But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

Instead, the Galatians are to view themselves, not as prisoners or slaves, but as children of the Most High God.

If you’re not a believer this morning… consider if you are truly free in your libertine lifestyle, or if you are actually trapped within your own desires?

After giving them the argument for trusting in Christ alone for their salvation, Paul will then lay out an ethic for them to live by with their new freedom.

Galatians 5:13 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Conclusion

In all of the Book of Galatians, Paul’s challenge is simple: You have been set free. Live like it.

Again, you might want to write that down in your journal… You have been set free… Live like it!

As we go through this book, what I want us to do is to consider the freedom that Christ offers. It’s a radical freedom, different than what we are used to today. It’s radically different than the freedom our culture sells us. Our culture offers some very odd versions of freedom. The big one today is what’s hitting our students and children in schools and all over media, social media, et. al. Students, listen up here.

The freedom that you are being offered today through the transgender movement is a false form of freedom. Essentially, what these folks say is that the real you is divorced from the physical you. The real you exists up inside your head, or perhaps somewhere in your soul, heart, whatever word they want to insert. Meaning that the real you could be something completely different from your physical body. That’s where we get these ideas of being a man trapped in a woman’s body. Or a woman trapped in a man’s body.

And don’t think this is just confined to the transgender movement… This is social media, too. How many times do you see someone post a picture, and a filter is used… Or even with Artificial Intelligence these days, you have what are called deepfakes, which is a form of creating alternate realities. In one particularly famous deepfake video, a guy has artificial intelligence superimpose the face of Tom Cruise onto his own face, and it’s virtually impossible to tell that it’s not Tom Cruise that you’re seeing.

With the advent of Transgender ideology and the oncoming revolution that artificial intelligence will bring, we are going to see more and more pressure upon people everywhere to divorce their identities from their physical bodies and current realities…

You know what this is called?

It’s an age-old heresy… It’s called Gnosticism. (Spell it) The gnostics believed their true selves were not their bodies, and they had to live in such a way that showed contempt or separation from their bodies.

Perhaps some of us in here have even adopted some traits of gnostic beliefs in our own worldviews.