Amazing Grace – Week 2 (9-17-23)

Amazing Grace
September 17, 2023
χάρις

Watered-Down Gospel
vs.
Christ Centered Gospel

Galatians 1:11-14
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. ¹² I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
¹³ For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Acts 8:1-3
And Saul approved of their killing him.  On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. ² Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. ³ But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Paul’s past is a problem.

Acts 9:3-6
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. ⁶ “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

God uses Paul to scatter the church, then God uses Paul to build the church.

Did you know some things have to be torn down to be built back up?
Is there something in your life that must be torn down before it can be built back up?

How can God use Paul?

Galatians 1:15-16
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.

Does God chose some and not chose others?
charis – Grace; Unmerited favor

Watered-Down Gospel (Jesus + The Law)
vs.
Christ Centered Gospel (Gospel of Grace)

Galatians 2:4-7; 10
This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. ⁵ We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. ⁶ As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. ⁷ On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.

¹⁰ All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

If you lose sight of the identity you have been given vertically, you will search for it everywhere horizontally.

Is it possible the darkest day of Paul’s life became his greatest blessing?

Paul losing his sight led to him gaining his vision.

Jesus! Only, Jesus!