Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
June 4, 2023
INTRO
In 1955, Billy Graham went to Cambridge to do a university mission. He was preaching on campus at Great St. Mary’s Church five nights in a row.
He had receive a lot of criticism in the London newspapers before his arrival. They were saying, “What in the world is this backwoods American fundamentalist doing coming and talking to our best and brightest at our most prestigious university?”
This intimidated Billy Graham. So he boned up on his Kierkegaard, his Nietzsche, and his Satre, and other philosopher and thinkers from history. He had prepared all kinds of quotes in his messages, and he was trying real hard not to look silly.
He didn’t do very well the first four nights. And so the last night he decided he was just going to preach about the blood. Forget about everything else, forget about trying to look smart to the educated elites of England. He decided to simply preach about the cross and boast in the blood of Christ.
Dick Lucas, the great evangelical pastor of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, was there at that fifth night of Billy Graham’s university mission.
This is what Dick Lucas said, “I’ll never forget that night. I was in a totally packed room, sitting on the floor, with a distinguished Professor of Divinity on one side and a chaplain who would be a future bishop on the other side. Now, both of these were good men in many ways, but they were completely against the idea that we need salvation from sin by the blood of Christ. And that night, dear Billy got up and started from Genesis and went right through the whole Bible and talked about every single blood sacrifice you can imagine. For 45 minutes, the blood was just flowing all through the Great St. Mary’s Church! Both my neighbors were terribly embarrassed by this crude proclamation of the blood of Christ. It was everything they disliked and dreaded. But at the end of the sermon, to everyone’s shock, about 400 young men and women stayed to commit their lives to Christ.” WOW!
Dick Lucas remembers meeting a pastor many years later, a Cambridge graduate, who was serving at Birmingham Cathedral, and over lunch Dick said to the man, “Where did Christian things begin for you?” “Oh,” the man replied, “Cambridge. 1955. Billy Graham. The last night.” Lucas replied, “How did it happen?” The pastor replied, “All I remember is that I walked out of Great St. Mary’s for the first time in my life thinking, ‘Christ really died for me.’”
For all Billy Graham’s efforts those first four nights to prepare complex theological and philosophical messages to impress the best and brightest, what he realized was this profound fact: The simple message of the cross of Christ alone has the power to save. It is the center of theology, the very heart of the gospel. (SLIDE 3, title)
You see friends, we have been working our way through foundational questions about the Christian faith, and today’s topic is “What is theology?” This word simply means “the study of God,” and it really focuses on how we begin to look at life and faith through the lens of God’s self-revelation, especially in the climactic revelation of Jesus Christ.
There are two disciplines in the area of theology:
Systematic Theology — (SLIDE 4a) Formulating biblical truths into a cohesive whole. An example of this are the 10 articles of our Statement of Faith. Or many textbooks of theology are organized in systematic ways that bring together biblical interpretation with other disciplines such as science, history, and philosophy.
Biblical Theology — (SLIDE 4b) Study of the people, events, and themes in the Bible as they unfold from Genesis to Revelation. This discipline lets the Bible’s storyline shape the organization of what we believe. It is a way of letting the unfolding events of Scripture be the guide to formulating our theology.
Both are important. Both are necessary. And our goal this morning is to learn to think theologically. We need to learn to apply the gospel by sitting under the authority of Scripture and letting our increasing understanding of God shape every aspect of our lives as the Holy Spirit does his sanctifying work.
We can think theologically about work, family, relationships, politics, conflict, marriage and gender, stewardship, and everything else in life! That’s what we will be doing in the second half of our series later this summer as we talk about having a biblical perspective on important issues.
But we first need to grasp that thinking theologically always starts with the cross of Christ. (SLIDE 5a) You see, I think the best approach to theology is to start at the center and move outward. We need to get the most important reality correct: That God himself, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, has died and risen from the grave to redeem sinners and to destroy sin and evil and death forever. From this revelation, we can then understand everything else and think theologically about this world and our life day-by-day.
Here’s why that is so important: The truth of the gospel should always be forming and re-forming us. (SLIDE 5b) It should shape us and re-shape us day-by-day. The gospel is not merely fire insurance! It is the enduring reality, the saving grace that we need, and the lens through which we view all of life!
In order to learn how to think theologically, I want to show you an example from the letter to the Galatians of how the Apostle Paul addressed a problem within the church just 15 years after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.
You see, Galatians is the earliest letter we have from Paul. He wrote it to the churches in the Roman province of Galatia around the year AD 48. So this is probably the first example of how someone can think theologically in light of the cross.
ORG SENT — So here’s what we are going to do: I am going to explain the situation in the Galatian church and show you Paul’s theological response by walking through the whole book of Galatians in 15 minutes. Then we will reflect on how this letter helps be formed and re-formed by the gospel. Ready? Here we go!
MAIN 1 — No Other Gospel (chs. 1-2). (SLIDE 6a)
Let’s get acquainted with the situation: Paul was planting churches in the Roman province of Galatia, in modern-day Turkey. These Greek-Roman believers were being confronted by Jewish Christians who said that they needed to not only believe in Jesus, but they also had to adopt all the Jewish laws and outward ritual practices. (SLIDE 6b) This was a five-alarm fire to Paul! This was a threat to the gospel! So he wrote this letter to set them straight.
Look at verses 6-9. This is how strongly Paul felt about this situation. READ 1:6-9.
Paul says here that the gospel is not “good news” if you need to follow all the laws and rituals and outward motions to earn God’s favor. Adding a little works righteousness to the gospel of grace spoils the whole thing! (SLIDE 6c) Friends, eternity is at stake here!
Paul feels to passionately about this, he gives an example from his own life and ministry, highlighting a significant rift in the apostles themselves during these early years in the church.
In chapter 2, Paul explains how he went to Jerusalem to meet with the original Apostles and to explain the gospel message he was sharing with the Greeks. They found that their messages aligned and that Paul’s message of grace to the Gentiles was supported by the other believers in Jerusalem.
But then problems started. When Peter came up to visit Antioch, he wouldn’t eat with the Greek Christians. Table fellowship was incredibly important in the ancient world. By not eating with the Greek believers, Peter was breaking fellowship with them. He was cutting them off from being in the family of God, thereby elevating himself and the other Jewish Christians as the “real” believers. He was saying with his actions, “You aren’t doing enough to be worthy of Christ.”
Paul knew this was wrong, so he publicly confronted Peter! (SLIDE 6d) READ 2:14. Peter was not even living up to his own standard! Paul isn’t afraid to point out Peter’s hypocrisy because everything hinges on the gospel of grace.
You see, in Paul’s eyes, to put extra burdens and requirements on top of the free gift of forgiveness of sins and adoption into God’s family was to destroy the gospel. This is why he goes on to describe the proper perspective in light of the cross: (SLIDE 6e) READ 2:20-21.
Of all people who could brag about their works, Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews. But he died to self, crucifying his sin nature on the cross with Christ, being free of the slavery to earning favor with God. Instead, he lives by faith in Jesus. There is no other gospel.
MAIN 2 — Series of Contrasts (chs. 3-4). (SLIDE 7a)
Chapters 3 and 4 are where Paul gets into some deep theology. He makes 9 direct quotations from the Old Testament to ground his claim that salvation by grace through faith is the only gospel. This is so important because he is combating Jewish Christians who want the Greeks to follow the Old Testament law. In other words, he beating then at their own game!
There are a series of contrasts in these chapters. Paul drives them home by asking the Galatians three questions:
(SLIDE 7b) Faith vs. Works — READ 3:1-7 — “Did you receive the Spirit by works or by faith?” In other words, did your salvation depend on your works, or did you receive it as a gift because you trusted in the Christ’s work on your behalf? Paul says, “You started off great! But now you’re back on the effort and earning train again! Stop! Remember that the gospel is about grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!
(SLIDE 7c) Promise vs. Law — READ 3:21-22 — “Is the law opposed to the promise?”
No! But, Paul says, you have to understand that the law was a temporary guardian that could not achieve the new birth in your heart that is really needed.
So the law pointed ahead to Christ and through his sinless life, his substitutionary death, and his victorious resurrection Jesus fulfilled the law and set us free from the law! This is the promise fulfilled in the gospel!
(SLIDE 7d) Freedom vs. Slavery — READ 4:8-11 — “Why turn back to those weak and miserable forces?”
This is a technical term in the ancient Greek world. Paul had already used the words “elemental spiritual forces” in 4:3. This refers to the base instinct of our sinful flesh, the underlying natural motivation of all human beings.
In chapter 4, Paul says that both Jewish law-keeping and Greek idol-worship are based on the same base instinct: Earning favor, posturing, keeping score, feeling good enough about yourself that you can sleep at night.
You know what he calls this base motivation: WEAK AND MISERABLE! That is what it will make you! Miserable! Paul says, “Don’t fall back into the comparison game, don’t try to be good enough, don’t succumb to the lie that you need to measure up…it will enslave you!” After illustrating this point using Hagar and Sarah as an example, he turns to explain what he means by “freedom”.
MAIN 3 — Freedom in Christ (chs. 5-6). (SLIDE 8a)
For Paul, freedom is not about choosing to do whatever you want. Freedom is not unfettered choice so you can be authentic in your self-expression. He is talking about freedom from the need to prove you are good enough, freedom from the tyranny of comparing to others, freedom from the oppressive ways this world tells us we need to conform in order to be accepted.
Listen to how Paul describes this freedom: (SLIDE 8b) READ 5:13-18. When we walk by the Spirit, we fulfill the law. We have the unique privilege this side of the cross to have the indwelling of the Spirit who leads us freely into fellowship with God and empowers us to be in alignment with his ways.
When God is working through his Spirit, we have particular fruit as we see in (SLIDE 8c) 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
And here’s where Paul lands at the end of this letter: When he considers the crisis in the Galatian church where the gospel is at stake, he ends with these simple words about where his confidence comes from. (SLIDE 8d) READ 6:14.
This is where we need to reflect on how this letter helps be formed and re-formed by the gospel.
APPLY
ILLUST — In the ancient world, a boast was about warfare! Boasting was about how you got yourself the confidence to charge the enemy!
A boast is your identity. (SLIDE 9a) It is where your confidence comes from. It is about where you draw strength, what you rely upon.
KEY — Paul is saying that everyone will boast in something. (SLIDE 9b) Stop boasting in other things! Boast in what Christ has done for you at the cross!
ILLUST — In Martin Luther’s preface to his commentary on Galatians, he says that when things get real, when challenges come, when we are facing trials and difficulties, when Satan accuses us, we will instinctively turn to whatever we boast in. Suffering or threats or difficulties reveal where we find our identity, where our confidence lies.
In our sinful flesh, we will say, “Well, I’m a good mother,” or “I’ve been a good person,” or “I’ve helped lots of people,” or “I’m not like others people who make terrible choices,” or “I deserve better, things will turn around eventually.” In our flesh, we will get defensive and our instinct is to point to ways we measure up, ways we have postured ourselves to be enough, or ways we can prove that we are good in ourselves. We will turn back to those weak and miserable forces.
An example in our culture is the modern self-esteem movement: It is all about boasting!
But the Bible says, “Boast in Jesus” and “Boast in the cross” and “boast in your weakness!” We should simultaneously say, “I am nothing!” and “Christ is everything!” Therefore, we are worthless and worthy, only because we are in Christ.
Friends, boasting is a heart issue: (SLIDE 9c) It is concerned with what delights us, what captivates us. When you boast in Christ, when your identity is in Him and what he did for you on the cross, other lesser things that had claimed your identity become “just things.” They don’t captivate your heart anymore, they aren’t saddled with the burden of having to make you feel good enough about yourself anymore.
Money is not your identity, so you can give it away freely.
Your work is not your identity, so you can serve God and do what it right whether you are commended or not.
Your kids are not your identity, so you can love them freely and encourage them to be molded into the image of Christ, not your own image.
Your reputation isn’t your identity, so criticism isn’t the end of the world. You can remember that you are justified before God by his kindness and love poured out at the cross as Jesus died in your place to make you right before the only Judge whose word about you matters.
Here’s our lesson today: All our theology and our application to daily life must be cross-centered and cross-shaped. We need a fresh sight of the cross. (SLIDE 9d) We need to have our hearts captivated by Jesus. Nothing else has the power to stir the deep affections of human hearts like Christ crucified! Like Billy Graham, let us center our theology on the cross, the blood of Christ poured out for us so we could be cleansed, his body broken for us so we could be healed. Pure grace, a gift we don’t deserve.
There’s an old hymn by Lewis E. Jones from 1899 called “Power in the Blood” (read lyrics)
Power in the Blood (Lewis E. Jones, 1899)
Would you be free from the burden of sin?
Would you over evil a victory win?
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide–
Would you be whiter, yes brighter than snow?
Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow–
Would you do service for Jesus, your King?
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
Refrain:
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
Yes, there is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Questions:
What are some of the temptations we face in the late-modern world that risk compromising the gospel?
Why is it so important to keep the cross at the center of theology?
What are the “fall back” things that you boast in when times get tough?
How can you cultivate a cross-centered and cross-shaped perspective on every aspect of life?
Key Terms:
Systematic Theology — Formulating biblical truths into a cohesive whole.
Biblical Theology — Study of the people, events, and themes in the Bible as they unfold from Genesis to Revelation.
Resources:
Systematic Theology (2nd ed.) – Wayne Grudem
The Christian Faith – Michael Horton
The Promise-Plan of God – Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
New Dictionary of Biblical Theology – Rosner, Alexander, Goldsworthy, Carson