Sunday 29th June – Never Left Behind – Pastor Adrian Kitson

In my young adult and 20+ years, I remember thinking that once I got the good news that God forgives me and approves of me not because I am any good but because Jesus, in all his suffering a teaching and miracles and cross and resurrection to rule is very good, I was on the hunt for more; more current things, deeper things, spiritual things, more experiential things

It was as if this ‘gospel’ or ‘being saved’ stuff was only for the start. Being a mature Christian person demanded deeper things, more detailed understanding of lots of other things in the bible, better learning from other people, more praying, more experiences of God’s presence. These were the things that would help me grow in faith.

The gospel was where we all begin but need to move on from that in order to grow into maturity as a Christian.

I remember some people saying that the problem with mainline church people is that they never graduate from the basics into spiritual depth – like prophecy and tongues and words of knowledge and other spiritual experiences. All they do is bang on about the gospel and baptism and holy communion and etc….

So, I searched and sometimes I found. Funny thing is, I noticed sometimes that there seemed little freedom in this. It was all up to me to make things happen, to grow in love and understanding and etc. Looking back, I also noticed that I was pretty judgemental on others – especially other Christians – Christians who had not graduated from the first things to the many more important and ‘deep things’…..

I now know that I was a ‘Galatian’.

To grow in this faith I had left believing what I heard from Jesus, the crucified, for listening to what I and/or others said we need to do. I had stopped listening to the one true and life-giving gospel and fallen back into achieving my own life and wellbeing for myself.

Obviously, this is not so hard to do. If Peter can fall here, and a whole network of local churches can fall here, then so can you and so can I.

The question stands this morning: Where is your life? Where is your hope? To whom are you listening?

Paul uses Abraham as a way of helping us know who we are and where we stand so that we stay in this gospel of life and not fall back into the Law that can only ever accuse and kill all hope and joy.

Why go back to Abraham to help these non-Jewish converts be confident in the gospel and who they are in Jesus? But, they are not Jews! Surely Abraham is the last guy to talk about?

For Paul Abraham is exactly the bloke we need to talk about – and for three reasons

1. Paul knows that Abraham is the beginning of God’s promises future not just for Jewish people but for ALL people.

1. For Paul and for any devour Jewish person of his day, God’s calling of Abraham is THE answer to the problem of human and the whole world, not only Jewish people.

This promise of this inheritance was always for all people, not just Jewish people, and now the Messiah has delivered this to all of these gentiles.

The Gentile world and all of creation was never just an ‘add-on’ to God’s love for his Jewish people. We gentiles are not let into this promised new world of many nations under God’s grace by some slackening of the rules. No. We are the beginning of this long-term promised world-wide rule of all Abraham’s descendants.

Gentiles are now caught up in the beginning of this new beginning personally delivered by the Messiah

2. The last reason is very practice for these new Christian under pressure to conform to Jewish laws and customs in a pagan and often hostile community.

When pagans hear and believed the gospel, they naturally ceased to worship the local gods, which included the worship of Caesar himself. This of course, was seen by their pagan community to be very anti-social and even a danger to the town or region (because we all have to appease the various gods to get a good crop and not have natural disaster or disease come our way).

Their justification for not turning up to the special festival or the temple and etc would be that they were now in some sense Jewish. And, at this time, there was this special and unique deal between Rome and Jewish people that only Jews could be pardoned from pagan worship of gods etc.

For the born and bred Jewish people in the community, this could be very annoying. How dare these pagans shelter under this special deal.

“What if the Roan get on to this and throw out the deal? We will all be open targets then!”

Or,

” You pagans better get circumcised and adopt our moral law and pay attention to some of our dietary and ceremonial habits so you look a whole lot more Jewish! This will help keep us out of trouble.

Paul speaks of Abraham to declare that ALL people, especially the Jewish people, have to submit themselves to the crucified and risen Messiah Jesus in order to belong to Abraham’s family. These pagan believers are not just ‘ad-ons’. They never were.

God always promised that ALL people would be his people by FAITH not genetics or family name or ethnicity.

Paul himself, and all other Jewish believers have gone through the same total transformation of death and resurrection (Baptism) into Jesus that has changed their identity.

We are the same. All of our new hope and life and future resurrection in God’s new earth and sky is only received by hearing – by faith in what we have heard not by keeping God’s law.

Yes. That was me when younger (and sometimes still)– beginning by means of the Spirit (hearing the gospel) and trying to finish this life on my own intellect, reason, need …

Here is how NT Wright, the British Pastor, Bishop and Scholar sums it up:

The Galatians already have within them the evidence that they are the new [people of God], on the way to the full inheritance. The powerful divine Spirit that already indwells them was not given because they were trying to keep the Jewish law. The Spirit was given through the message that, when they heard it, evoked faith.

Same for you, friend. You have the Spirit of Jesus in you by hearing his voice; his word, not by your behaviour or intelligence or nationality.

So, why would you leave this Word, this gospel, this good news of acceptance, blessing and promise?

I know, it can be easy to leave. In the battle we have to deal with to know those essential human things called comfort, approval and control, we can go looking for more and leave this beautiful gospel out.

Tim Keller calls these our ‘functional saviours’. Yeah, sure. I am Christian and I know Jesus is my Saviour, but I somehow find myself leaving that good news when life is very uncomfortable, saturated with disapproval from others or totally out of my control. And when these things are happening, I get angry; angry that my efforts are going unrewarded in need to do more.

But Paul is saying to these new Christians, trying harder won’t stop this. Only trusting the gospel you have heard – the one centred on the cross and resurrection to life of Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Son, will enable you to go through these and even grow through these.

So, this gospel the Christian church carries and speaks is never left behind.

This gospel I hear is not only God’s means of giving us everything he has at the first moment, but is the means by which we stay and grow and live in this hope and joy in God’s world..

We are not only saved by the gospel but we grow by the gospel.

Luther puts it well in the Catechism (from Paul’s words),

Because we have been baptised (received the gospel) we drown the old nature we were born with so that selfish and sinful things die as we ask for his forgiveness and new life everyday so we live as his new people day after day.

Friend, this gospel never leaves you behind.

This crucified Saviour speaks it still. His Spirt brings it to your home still. There is no graduating from the gospel, there is only allowing it to be in everything and go everywhere.

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