Is Jesus Still Relevant?

No Other Gospel • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Is Jesus Still Relevant? Is somthing that old still relevant for our lives today? Even the Galation church was struggleing with this question but Paul awnsers this by asking the Galation church 3 questions to bring them back to the true Gospel.

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As a lot of you know often times I will work at the coffee shop that is downtown to get work done because its a good way to be out in the community and make connections.

And I am probably there a little too much, but I am starting to know the employees a little to well.

but the other day I was talking with one of the employees and it came up that I was Pastor and she used to be a Christian

and whenever those two things come up you know its going to be a long conversation.

But we were talking for awhile and really if I had to sum up our conversation it probably could be summed up with one sentence:

How is Jesus still relevant for us today?

You know how could something that happened over 2000 years ago still be relevant for our lives today?

And maybe He was relevant in Biblical days because they were a mess and needed someone to fix them up.

But how could He still be relevant in todays society where things are pretty civil and where we look at our lives and most of us would probably ask do we really need a savior?

And if we did at some point, do we really need Him now?

And you know as we look at the direction we are heading in our society and even with people in the church

We are viewing Jesus as less relevant

He may have been a good guy but is he really necessary for for my life and the lives around me.

But what is so interesting is this isn’t the first time in history that people have ever thought this?

Because in the series we are in “No Other Gospel” we are going through the book of Galatians

And the Galatian church was starting to get this mindset that maybe Christ wasn’t necessary

And like we talked about last week they were beginning to twist the Gospel message

and one of the false ideas they began to believe was they don’t need Christ because they are doing good works and because of this Christ is unnecessary .

So Paul who helped build this church and who is writing this letter to this church is trying to bring them back to the true Gospel Message

And what Paul does today in our passage is He ask them questions to bring them back to bring them back to the true Gospel message and we will be diving into three of these questions.

so we will be in

and these questions that Paul ask the Galatian church are relevant for them, but they may be even more relevant for us today.

So once again turn with me to … It says...

Galatians 3:1–5 NIV

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

So like I said Paul is trying to get these people back to the true Gospel and the first question he ask (in verse 2) is “How did you receive the Spirit: Through Works or Faith?”

Basically asking how did Christ come into your life?

How did you accept Christ into your life because when that happened it wasn’t just accepting Christ but you received His Spirit.

And Paul is asking did you accept Christ and receive the Holy Spirit in your life because you were this great person who did amazing things or did it happen through placing your faith in Christ?

And Paul is asking this question knowing that these people should know the answer because he taught them it.

Galatians already know

And Paul taught them its not by how great you are that you are saved, but it is solely by placing your trust in Jesus.

I have used this illustration before but it really fits this idea

Imagine with me you are golfing and your at a country club with all of these beautiful homes .

and you hit your ball and like most of us who play golf the ball goes somewhere where you don’t want it to go.

and you see it go towrds this beautiful home and the ball hits the window.

So you walk up to the home and this home has this beautiful window that fits the entire front of the house.

and right in the middle there is this small golf ball size hole.

So naturally the owner runs out and before he can say anything you say “I am so sorry, I will take care of it” and you take out your wallet and give him 5 dollars and say don’t worry this should cover it.

And he looks at you and says 5 dollars?!?! I just paid $5000 for this window

And you just look at him and say but its just a golf ball size hole you can just patch it up.

Well hopefully you know that you can’t just patch a window, but you have to replace the entire window even if you have a small golf ball sized hole

and this is what Paul is saying because the truth is all of us have these small golf ball size holes in our life, some probably bigger then golf ball size holes

These are the things that we mess up, the mistakes we make, and really our sins in general.

And the message Paul is giving is you can’t just patch over these golf ball size holes by doing good things, you can’t just patch up these golf ball size holes by not sinning more

But the only way to fix these whole are to get a new window, which in our case is a new heart.

The only way that that we can get rid of the sin in our life is through asking Christ into our lives.

Its not through doing good things or justifying what we have done, but we are saved through the blood of Christ. Amen?

So are you ready for the next question because look at verse 3 because Paul ask “do you think what God started in you through faith he is going to continue through works?”

Basically he is saying “How are you sanctified?”

“How are you sanctified?”

“How are you going to grow closer to God?”

Is it through something you can do or is it through what God can do in you?

and this question is a little harder for us because we like to think well of course Christ saved me but now its up to me to grow in my walk with Him.

and to some extent there is truth to that, because we respond to what Christ is doing

but our mind set becomes

if I don’t drink alcohol, I will grow in my walk with Christ,

if I abstain from sexual immorality ill grow in my walk with Christ,

if I feed the hungry ill grow in my walk with Christ,

if I do good deeds ill grow in my walk with Christ

and these are things God calls us to do but they aren’t the things that are going to make grow closer to God.

because the thing that is going to make us grow closer to God is not setting our minds on good works

But the thing that will grow us deeper in our walk with Christ is by setting our heart and mind on God

And then God will change us to do His will and to draw closer to Him.

Its saying “thy will be done”

Do we have gardeners in the room?

Imagine if you had a plant and you would fertilize, you had some sort of special growth formula, and watered it the perfect amount.

but you didn’t have the sun shinning on it, well that plant is not going to grow.

and the same it true in our life, we can do all we can to be a “good Christian”, but if the source of us doing everything isn’t because of God then we are just giving water to a plant thats not going to grow.

Ready for Pauls final question? because it is in verse 5 and Paul ask:

How do miracles happen?

is it through faith (in Jesus Christ) or is it through the law (the things you do)

Hopefully by now you know that when Paul gives you this multiple choice question the answer is faith

But here is what I want you to catch because that term miracle is a pretty broad term

Paul doesn’t say a specific miracle because thats not what he drawing our attention to

But what Paul is wanting us to get is that whenever there is an act of God

Wether that be God divinely healing you

God helping you in a situation

Where

maybe the miracle is you turning your life to God.

But whatever the act of God is we are not the ones responsible, but it is God.

Sometimes its easy to say I was the one who accomplished this near impossible task

I was the one who turned my life around

We as the church are reaching lives for Christ (and we are doing it all on our own)

But that isn’t the case.

Because the one who is responsible is God.

And really for all three of these questions its asking the same thing.

Is it by works (what you do) or by faith (what God does) that an act of God can occur.

And every time in this letter Paul is telling them its by faith (what God does in us).

I want to end with a story today.

I had a friend who was having dinner in Chicago one night and he parked his car at a parking meter and payed

and he stayed at the restaurant a lot longer then what he had planned so in the middle of the dinner he had to go repay the parking meter so he goes out searches for his car for 10 minutes couldn’t find it and came to the conclusion that his car was towed.

So he went ahead and called the lot where the cars got towed, and they said we don’t have your car and there are no reports of any car with your license plate getting towed.

So at this point it begins to dawn on him that someone may have stollen his car

So at this point he goes to file a police report over the phone, and after he called and was so frustrated he went back into the restaurant where his wife was and he told her how the car has probably gotten stolen

and his wife just says who would steel her car

and as soon as she said that it dawned on him that they did not drive his car they drove her car.

and he was looking for the wrong car the entire time.

But isn’t it amazing how you can miss one detail and it throws you completely off track.

And today Paul is saying to this church he’s writing to and to us “whatever you do don’t miss this detail”

because we can look at Jesus and say he doesn’t seem that relevant to me but when we realize what he does for us

You can only change your life, and have a true act of God through Him.

And I have to watch out because this message is a little bit of a tight rope, because we still have to respond to what God is doing and be faithful to what he wants us to do,

But we can only do that through Him.

And maybe today you are frustrated because you have been trying so hard to stop that habit, to start doing devotion time, to do something but you just havnt been able to because you have been trying to do it on your own.

And today is finally the day you realized I have been looking for the wrong car.

maybe its time to realize that we can’t do (fill in the blank) without God.

And here is the deal God is sitting there with his arms stretched out to you saying “are you ready?”

Are you ready to come back to me?

Are you ready to stop living a life where you keep missing the most important ingredient in your relationship with Christ and that is Christ.

Because we will get distracted but like I said God is ready to come to your arms open wide and when you accept that your life will be changed.