The Call of the Apostle

Galatians 1:11-24

INTRODUCTION: A Scot named John Harper. Harper, a minister of the Gospel, boarded the Titanic with his six-year-old daughter, Nana. He planned to travel to the Moody Church in Chicago, where he'd been invited to preach for three months. When the ship struck the fateful iceberg and began to sink, Harper made sure his daughter was placed into one of the lifeboats. He then began what would be the last evangelistic work of his young life.

As the freezing waters began to fill the ship, Harper was heard shouting, "Let the women, children and the unsaved into the lifeboats." Survivors reported that Harper took off his own life jacket and gave it to another man. "Don't worry about me," he reportedly said, "I'm not going down, I'm going up!"

When the ship began to sink, more than 1,500 passengers jumped or fell into the icy waters. As they gradually drowned or froze to death, Harper was seen swimming from one passenger to another, pleading with them to accept Christ.

Only six of the 1,500 people struggling in the water were later rescued, including a man who later identified himself as Harper's last convert. This young man had climbed up on a piece of debris. Harper, who was struggling in the water near him, shouted out, "Are you saved?" "No," the man replied. Harper then shouted the words from Scripture: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." The man did not answer, and a moment later he drifted away on the waves.

A few minutes later, the current brought the two men back together. Again Harper asked, "Are you saved?" Once again, the answer was "no." With his dying breath, Harper shouted, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." He then slipped under the waves for the last time.

Then and there, the man he had witnessed to decided to turn his life over to Christ. Four years later, at a Titanic survivors meeting in Ontario, Canada, this man tearfully gave his testimony recounting how John Harper had led him to the Lord.

How can we explain such heroism? It is supernatural, like the Apostle Paul’s zeal in some ways. How?

THESIS The True Gospel is from Jesus Christ Alone.

The Apostle is dealing with the objection of the Galatians that his Gospel was not authoritative.

First, The True Gospel is authoritative since it is received directly from the Lord Jesus (Verses 11-12).

· Man made religion emphasizes human effort and merit, Paul’s did not.

· From no human source – Paul heard Stephen, Annias, Barnabus etc., but the Gospel came directly from Christ…

· He did not receive it by some course of instruction.

· He did receive it through revelation - apokalupsis - ap-ok-al'-oop-sis; from Greek 601 (apokalupto); disclosure :- appearing, coming, lighten, manifestation, be revealed, revelation.

· This is the highest authority, no basis to question it since it comes from Christ…

Application: The church should accept nothing but the voice of God’s revelation speaking to them in the Scripture. We do not have the right to be innovative or creative with God’s truth; we must conserve it and teach it alone. Sola Scriptura is the basis of true faith and of our culture. We dare not leave this principle.

Secondly, The Gospel is authoritative since it comes from one who had been supernaturally converted (Verses 13-16)

· Paul says, "I am not ignorant of your Law. There was a time when I was an absolute fanatic for the Law. I not only followed it; I demanded that everyone else follow it too. With passionate intensity I once tried to earn God's favor and approval. Been there, done that! How absurd for you to return to the past I’ve abandoned!"

· Paul here describes his actual conversion by means of three phrases:

1. God set me apart from birth. ( Like Jeremiah 1:5) - Eph. 1:4: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

2. He called me by His grace. The Damascus Road – Sovereign Effectual Call of God –"He chose us according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us . . . "

3. He revealed His Son in me. God breaking down the religious prejudices and opening his spirit to see exactly who Christ was, the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

APPLICATION: This is my own story. Growing up in a small town on the boarder of Appalachian Mountains. Ignorant, steeped in works religion with a little Christianity sprinkled in I never had peace with God. I came from a broken home, with little nurturing. Christ Jesus revealed himself to me through the Scriptures. MY LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME – I TRULY AM GLAD TO SAY, CHRIST JESUS FOUND ME AND SAVED ME.

Paul is saying look at my conversion, it was truly supernatural – You should believe me when I say that it is only through grace that you are saved. GRACE ALONE!

LASTLY, The True Gospel is authoritative because it came from one Called by Christ to be an Apostle (17-24)

· First, he spent time with the Lord in refection in the dessert.

· After his conversion he did consult with the Apostles in Jerusalem and was accepted by them as an Apostle.

· First, He was called by Christ, and then he consulted with the Apostles…

· This is to reinforce the idea of the authority with which he speaks…He was called by Christ to be an Apostle.

· Because of opposition in Jerusalem (see Acts 9:29-30), Paul had gone to Syria and Cilicia. In those remote areas, he had no opportunity to receive instruction from the apostles.

· These details confirm Paul’s claim to be speaking with genuine apostolic authority. The Gospel of Grace is the Gospel of Truth.

We live in a culture of skepticism and hatred of these same truths. Not long ago, Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura made headlines when he called religion "a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people." He then chastised the faithful for "[sticking] their noses in other's people's business."

Many people have taken on the governor’s statements. One unlikely supporter of the Gospel is Guenter Lewy of the University of Massachusetts. Lewy is the author of the recent book, Why America Needs Religion.

Interestingly, Lewy is neither a Christian nor a theist. He originally set out to write a book with the opposite thesis: Why America DOESN'T need religion. It was to be "a defense of secular humanism and ethical relativism."

But when Lewy researched the data, he reversed himself 180 degrees. Lewy discovered that Christianity has historically been a strong support for human dignity and social justice (Antislavery, education, civil rights). Lewy found that Christians exhibit measurably lower rates of marital conflict, divorce, prejudice, out-of-wedlock births, juvenile delinquency, adult crime, and other "indicators of moral failure and social ills."

CONCLUSION:

Here we are floating in a modern sea of relativism – atheism – postmodernism – a culture which has lost its trust not only in the Gospel of Grace but of any truth at all.

We hold out a Gospel which is completely authoritative because:

· It comes directly from Jesus Christ.

· It comes through those who have been supernaturally born again by grace alone

· It comes through the word of God given by Apostles of Jesus Christ…

ARE YOU READY to go down, to go up! Today? Do you see the message, do you see the need, and do you see the faith?