If you turn to Galatians, chapter 1.
I've been here 22 years.
And over the summer I worked out the books that I hadn't preached on in the Bible.
! And so we've got Galatians, 1, 2, 3 John,
and then the greatest hits of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, Joshua, 1 and 2 Chronicles.
So you're in for a great few years, all right, coming up.
And I've shied away from Galatians.
Galatians, but I'm quite excited about preaching it.
And there's many things that I'd love you to know as a church family.
There's many things I want you to know.
Lots of things about the Bible and about the Christian life that I want you to know.
But I think what Galatians gives you is what you need to know.
And particularly as we start this morning, I need you to know this.
Many things I want you to know,
but what is the key message of the church we need you to know?
And that's Galatians, chapter 1, verses 1 to 5.
Really, and we're going to look at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what I need you to know.
Galatians might be one of the earliest,
well, it might be the earliest of the New Testament letters.
It's a toss-up between Galatians and 1 Thessalonians.
But most people think it is Galatians.
It means it was written about 48 AD.
It's only 15 years, 1-5, 15 years after the death of the Lord Jesus.
It's not a lot of time.
These are the first words we read of the Apostle Paul.
Possibly the first words in the New Testament.
They're exciting words.
The first words written by New Testament believers.
And I think that's really important.
It's important because lots of the sceptics that are around today,
and the kind of default that people think is that the Christian faith kind of evolved.
Jesus was a nice guy.
He did lots of good things.
And then he's kind of evolved into what we believe about him today.
Those who were there at the time, they didn't really think that.
They admired him.
But it's evolved into this kind of more complex son of God kind of stuff.
The Christian faith, they would say, started really simply.
And unsupernaturally.
And gradually those doctrines kind of evolved.
But that just isn't the case.
The great truths which Christians believe, that we believe,
are there right from the beginning.
Just look at the first few verses of Galatians.
Verse 1, you have Jesus alongside the Father.
You've got the resurrection in the first verse.
God raised him from the dead, right from the off.
You've got verses 3 to 5.
The atoning death of Jesus Christ for our sins.
So it's all there, right from the very first words of the New Testament.
Now I want to pass quickly over verses 1 and 2,
where Paul states more clearly than anywhere else in the New Testament,
his kind of divine right of apostleship.
Verse 1, Paul, an apostle, a sent one,
not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father,
who raised him from the dead,
and all the brothers who are with me.
He emphasizes his apostleship there.
It's something we're going to come back to again and again in Galatians.
There are people in the church in Galatia who are trying to influence the church,
and they're very anti the apostle Paul.
And they're casting doubt on his apostleship.
So can you see, right from the very first words of verse 1,
Paul stresses, doesn't he, in very strong words,
I am an apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am an authoritative witness,
and I am an authoritative spokesman of Jesus Christ.
It's not from man.
It's not by man.
It's not something that I took upon myself.
It's not something I applied to.
It's not something anyone appointed him to,
or was conferred upon him.
It was the choice of God,
who raised Jesus from the dead.
And he's going to say much more about that in chapter 1 and chapter 2.
But I want to start with verses 3 to 5,
and we're going to do something slightly different in this series.
We're going to do memory verses, all right?
And so we have done you a little card.
And if you can get it,
it should have been in all your service sheets.
I want you to pin it on your fridge,
put it in your Bible,
stick it on the windscreen of your car if you want to.
But I want us to start,
in the words of Psalm 119,
hiding God's word in our hearts
that we might not sin against him.
And we get children of our church, don't we,
to learn the Bible,
but for some reason we think when we get to about 14 or 15
that we've outgrown it.
And so would you read with me,
Galatians 1, verses 3 to 5.
Let's say it all together.
Grace to you,
and peace from God our Father,
and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins,
to deliver us from the present evil age,
according to the will of our God and Father,
to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
And so what we have in those verses
is really the earliest statement
in the New Testament
about the meaning of the death of the Lord Jesus.
And I want to give you six points,
yes, six points,
about the death of the Lord Jesus.
Before we do that, let's pray.
Amen.
And we thank you, Lord,
for this, the greatest of all subjects.
And I guess, Lord, that some of us,
when we hear about the message of the cross,
or that we're going to hear a sermon on the cross,
we switch off
because we think we've heard it all before.
And we pray, Lord,
that we wouldn't do that this morning.
We ask that the death of the Lord Jesus,
the cross of our Savior,
would come to us with a new power,
with a new freshness.
We ask that your Holy Spirit
would bless his word
and focus us on Jesus
and what he's done for us.
And we pray that we would be sent away today
with glad hearts.
Bring us to Jesus, we ask,
in his name.
Amen.
Six points.
Number one,
Jesus' death was voluntary.
Verse 4, can you see it?
Jesus,
Christ who gave himself.
Jesus gave himself for our sins.
Jesus chose to die for us.
Jesus wasn't betrayed and arrested
and put on trial
and condemned
and ill-treated
and tortured
and crucified
against his will.
His death on the cross
was not something he resisted.
And then he was finally overcome
by his enemies.
Jesus wasn't dragged
to crucifixion
against his will.
Jesus didn't go suddenly
on that road to Calvary,
kind of sullenly accepting
the inevitable.
No,
this is what Jesus
wanted to do.
This is what the Lord Jesus
chose to do.
He gave himself.
At the good shepherd,
gave himself
for his sheep.
John 10,
he says,
no one takes my life
from me.
I lay it down myself.
Jesus gave himself.
He chose to do
what he did.
That's very clear,
isn't it?
I mean,
if you take Mark's gospel,
do you remember Mark's gospel?
Chapters 1 to 8.
Jesus reveals to his disciples
who he is,
his identity.
He is the Christ.
He is the one
who has absolute authority.
He has authority
in his teaching.
He has authority
over demons,
over disease.
He has authority
over nature.
He has authority
over disability.
He has authority
even over death.
And then he gets
to the halfway point
in Mark's gospel
and he tells
his astonished disciples
that this one
who has authority
over absolutely everything
is going to Jerusalem.
And when he gets there,
he will be rejected
and he will suffer
and he will be killed.
And we're told that
Jesus sets his face
towards Jerusalem.
That he knowingly
drinks the cup
that his father
had given him to drink.
He willingly drinks it.
When he's
about to be arrested,
you remember
the soldiers
approach him
and Jesus forbids
his disciples
to resist.
He says,
put your swords away,
boys.
He says,
don't you realise
that I could call
to my father in heaven
and twelve legions
of angels
would come and rescue me
if I wanted them to.
They would get me
out of this.
Put your swords away.
Jesus chose
to die.
He gave himself.
So the question is,
isn't it,
why did he do that?
Why did he
voluntarily
choose to give himself?
And the answer is love.
Love is the reason
why he did that.
Love was why he did it.
If you just look at
Galatians chapter 2
and verse 20,
flick over the page,
these remarkable verse,
halfway through the verse
he says this,
Paul,
and the life I now
live in the flesh.
I live by faith
in the Son of God
who loved me
and gave himself
for me.
It's what every
Christian can say,
isn't it?
The Son of God
loved me
and gave himself
for me.
So the death of Jesus
was voluntary.
Secondly,
the death of Jesus,
Jesus' death,
was an act of obedience.
Can you see that
in verse 4?
He gave himself
for all our sins
and to deliver us
from this present evil age
according to the will
of our God
and Father.
And Jesus gave himself
willingly,
he gave himself
because it was
what his father
had planned.
And it was what
his father had wanted.
you can go to those passages
in Mark's gospel
where he will talk
about how he will
go to Jerusalem
to die
and do you remember
how Jesus
says it in Mark's gospel
if you read it?
He says,
it must happen.
It must happen.
It says,
the Son of Man,
which is the way
he refers to himself,
the Son of Man
must go to Jerusalem.
He must suffer.
So why must he?
Because it is
his father's will.
And because the scriptures,
God's word,
must be fulfilled.
The scriptures foretold it.
The father wills it.
It's what the father
wanted him to do.
And that is why
the Lord Jesus
gives himself to this.
That is why he was doing it.
So you go to John's gospel
and you read
over and over
and over again
where Jesus says
he'd come to do
his father's will.
He'd come to please
his father.
He'd come to do
the work
that he'd been given
to do by his father.
He was doing
the will of God.
It was his father's will.
That he lay down
his life.
That he give his life.
And so you go
to the Garden
of Gethsemane again.
And where Jesus prays
and it's the night
before his crucifixion
and he prays
and sweat as it were
like great drops
of blood falls from him.
And he prayed
didn't he?
If it is possible
let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless
not my will
but yours be done.
And then he rises
to meet those soldiers
that we just talked about.
He rises to meet Judas
who've come to arrest him.
And he says
these words.
Shall I not
drink the cup
that the father
has given me?
The apostle Paul
in Philippians
says that
the Lord Jesus
was obedient.
Obedient
even to death
on a cross.
And so can you see
these first two points
that Paul is making
in Galatians 1, 3 to 5
that Jesus
gave himself
and his death
was an act
of obedience
to the father.
These first points
tell you
don't they
that the father
and the son
are in perfect harmony.
They are in perfect harmony
when it comes
to the death of Jesus.
We must never imply
that the son
volunteered
to do something
against the father's will.
Or that the father
required the son
to do something
against his will.
The father
and the son
were completely
at one.
Jesus gave himself
in love and obedience
in love for us
and in love
for his father
and in desire
to do his father's will.
Number three
Jesus' death
was for our sin.
Jesus' death
was voluntary.
Jesus' death
was an act
of obedience.
Number three
Jesus' death
was for our sin.
Look at verse four.
He gave himself
for our sins.
And why was this
giving of himself
and this act
of loving obedience
necessary?
Well, Paul says
it's necessary
that Jesus died
for our sins.
Our moral failure.
Our rebellion.
Our disobedience
towards God.
It was our sin,
my sin
that made it
necessary for Jesus
to do this.
Jesus was
without sin.
So Jesus' death
was not on account
of his own sins
but on account
of our sins,
his people's sins.
And again,
that's what the New Testament
says right the way
through, isn't it?
In 1 Corinthians 15
and verse three,
the Apostle Paul says,
these are the really
key things
about my ministry.
Here are the most
important things
about the gospel.
Here are the things
that I need you to know.
Christ died
for our sins.
He was buried
on the third day
and he was raised again.
Christ died
for our sins.
The Apostle Peter
in 1 Peter 3
verse 18
said this,
Christ also suffered
once for sins,
the righteous
for the unrighteous
that he might bring us
to God.
And of course,
this builds,
doesn't it,
on the whole teaching
of the Old Testament.
So you read
the Old Testament
and you will see there
that there are
Old Testament sacrifices
for sins.
There are differences,
aren't there?
Different kinds
of sacrifices.
But there are
animal sacrifices.
sacrifices.
What's the difference
between an animal
sacrifice
and the Lord Jesus
sacrifice?
What have we learned
already?
We've learned,
don't we,
that animals
don't give themselves.
We've learned that
the Lord Jesus
gave himself.
The animal never
gave himself.
The animal is taken
kicking and screaming
or blindly.
They didn't give
themselves.
They were dragged
kicking and screaming
to the place of sacrifice.
But the Lord Jesus
gave himself
to be a sacrifice
for sin.
You go to Isaiah
and that most famous
foreshadowing
of the cross of Christ
in Isaiah 53,
the servant of the Lord
who gives himself
for Israel's sin,
who is wounded
for our transgressions,
who is bruised
for our iniquities.
The punishment
that brings us peace
was laid upon him.
And by his wounds,
we are healed.
And so in the Bible,
death is associated
with sin.
Death is not natural.
There's no such thing
as a natural death.
Death has come into
our world as sin.
Now you know that,
isn't it?
How do you know that?
Because when someone
that you love dies,
it feels like an intruder.
It feels so wrong.
The wages of sin,
the Bible tells us,
is death.
And so Jesus' death,
like all deaths,
is associated with sin.
But in his case,
the sins are ours.
Not his.
And that means
that Jesus acted
as our substitute
and our representative.
Jesus died instead of us.
He was our substitute.
And he also died
on our behalf.
He was our representative.
Let me try and illustrate it.
Let's imagine
that IPC Ealing
have a football team.
All right?
And I'm one of the star players,
quite naturally.
And yet I'm getting old
and I get injured often.
And so I ask Andrew Cuey
to be my substitute
and to be my representative.
And because Andrew
goes to play
for the IPC football team,
I don't have to.
I can sit at home
while he plays the game.
He's also my representative.
He speaks on my behalf.
He speaks in my name.
When he scores,
we score.
And if his team wins,
we win.
And it's not just
Andrew that wins,
it's IPC Ealing
that wins.
His victory is ours.
So in and through Andrew,
the whole church plays
and wins.
Jesus is our substitute
and our representative.
He died instead of us.
And because he died,
we don't have to
if we trust him.
And he's also our representative.
Jesus acted
as the head of the church.
And so what he did
on our behalf,
what he did,
the church did.
Not because we've actually
done anything,
but because Jesus,
the head of the church,
has done it.
Jesus obeyed
the law of God perfectly.
Jesus died on the cross.
He took the penalty
for our sin.
Jesus suffered
what we should have suffered.
And because he did it
as head of the church,
God regards us
as having done it.
So Jesus' death
was for our sin.
That's the third point.
Number four,
Jesus' death rescues us.
Can you see that verse four?
Who gave himself
for our sins
to deliver us,
to rescue us
from the present evil age.
The word rescue here
is different.
It's unusual
in the context.
It's not usually
said of
what Jesus
has done for us.
This word rescue,
it's used
in the book of Acts
that we studied
last year.
So it's used,
for example,
about Peter
being rescued
from prison
by an angel.
Peter being
delivered,
rescued
from prison
by an angel.
It's used
of the apostle Paul
when he was rescued
from the Jewish lynch mob
by the Romans.
It's used
of Stephen's speech
in Acts
of God
rescuing Israel
from the clutches
of Egypt.
And so Paul says here
that Jesus' death
rescues us.
The implication is
the situation we were in
was disastrous
and hopeless.
We're facing misery,
we're facing disaster,
we're facing death
unless someone
comes and intervenes
and pulls us out.
But
and it is Jesus
who intervenes
and it is by his death
he rescues.
And it is the only thing
that rescues.
Jesus' death
is the only thing
that can rescue you
from your sins.
And so that tells you,
doesn't it,
that self-salvation,
trying to rescue yourself,
is utterly impossible.
And you should give up
the attempt this morning.
Jesus gave himself
for our sins
in order to rescue us.
But what is it,
according to our verse,
that Jesus' death
rescues us from?
What is it that Jesus' death
delivers us from?
Can you see it?
The present evil age.
Could be,
another way of putting it,
is the present age of evil.
Or the present age
of the evil one.
2 Corinthians 4
calls the devil
the god of this age.
The Jewish people
divided history
into two ages.
At this age
and the age
to come.
So I've got an illustration here.
And so
there are two ages.
All right?
There is
this age
and there is the age
to come.
All right?
I don't know why.
I couldn't find one
that didn't rattle.
All right?
Okay?
So there's this age
and the age to come.
So the Jewish people
believed we lived
in this age
and then in the future
there was
the age to come.
This age
is dominated
by evil,
isn't it?
This age
is dominated
by sin
and it is
Satan's age.
Dominated by sin
and death
and judgment.
This age
was inaugurated
when Adam fell
in Genesis 3.
And so how do we
get into this age?
Let me tell you
how we get into this age.
We're born into it.
Every single one of us.
We're born into it.
But Jesus' death
rescues us
from the age of judgment
and death
and sin
and we're told,
aren't we,
that it delivers us
from this present
evil age.
That Jesus,
our substitute
and representative,
he accepted
God's judgment.
He entered
into this evil age.
And because he did,
he is now
raised from the dead
and the new age
of the kingdom
of God,
the Lord Jesus,
has come.
And so when you
became a Christian,
you move from being
in this present
evil age
into the age to come.
But here's the truth.
The Jews thought
that these ages
were completely separate.
But what the New Testament
teaches,
and it's really important
for you and I to grasp,
is that Jesus
entered into this
present evil age
and we live now
in the overlap.
So we live in that
bit in the middle.
Don't put it all over that.
We live in the middle bit.
One day,
gloriously,
the age to come
will be fully
and perfectly free,
won't it?
But we now live
in the overlap
of the ages.
The Jews didn't think
it was going to be like that.
And Jesus says,
no, no, no.
I have died
and I have risen.
So the cross comes
right in the middle here
and inaugurates
the age to come.
We live in the overlap.
And so as Christians,
we have two locations,
don't we?
We live in this
present evil age,
but we also live
in the age to come.
And we are living for
and looking for
this age to come.
Jesus rescues us
by his death
from this present evil age.
And so Andrew,
if he is my substitute,
do you remember that?
And not mine,
but I am in the first division.
And we as a church
are in the first division
because Andrew,
our substitute
and our representative,
has scored the goals for us.
He's got us out
of the second division
and into the first division.
Jesus Christ,
by his death
and by his resurrection,
has got us out
of the present evil age.
And one day
that evil age
will pass away.
And all there will be
will be the age to come.
And we will be part of it
if we belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if we trust
in what he has done for us
when he died on the cross,
that is good, good news.
Number five,
Jesus brings grace and peace.
Can you see that?
Verse three, chapter one.
Grace to you
and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this work
of the Lord Jesus
brings you
into a life
of grace
and peace.
Nearly all
of Paul's letters
begin
grace and peace
to you
from God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
At that age to come,
the age to come,
do you remember it?
The age to come
is an age
of grace
and peace.
And we enjoy it now,
right now,
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace
is how Christians live
in this present evil age.
That is our Christian experience.
So,
understand this,
grace,
God's undeserved kindness
leads to peace.
Peace
comes from
grace.
And peace
can only come
from grace.
God's grace,
receiving God's undeserved kindness,
is the only way
to receive God's peace.
The only way
that you will
ever receive peace
is by relying
on the grace of God.
As long as you look
to yourself,
even if you're looking
to yourself
for 1%
of your salvation,
if you look to yourself,
you will never have peace.
grace.
Because you will
never ever be sure
that you've done enough.
The Christian message
is this,
that the peace of God
is by God's grace
100%.
Grace,
grace,
grace.
We stand in grace
and it is that grace
that is the basis
of our peace.
Grace and peace
from God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is totally undeserved
and it comes only
through Jesus,
through what he did
on the cross.
And Christians
never move beyond this.
So we never move
beyond the grace of God.
We never move
beyond the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's nothing to move to,
there's nothing beyond it.
We are always celebrating
the grace of God
in Jesus Christ.
Christ.
And so this morning,
if you've lost
your peace
and you've lost
your assurance,
let me tell you this,
it is almost certain
that you've moved away
from the grace of God
to a certain degree.
If you've lost
your peace
this morning,
it is almost certain
that you have moved
away from the grace
of God
and the cross
of Jesus Christ.
Number six,
the result
of Jesus' death.
is that God
is glorified forever.
Look at verse five.
To whom be the glory
forever and ever.
Amen.
And the purpose
of the good news of God
is not
just our personal salvation.
It's not just
our salvation.
The purpose of the gospel,
the good news of God,
the glory of God.
The purpose of the gospel
is to display
God's character
of all that God is
so that God's character
and his holiness
and his mercy
and his grace
and his love
will be known
and praised
throughout all the world
and all eternity.
and that is why God
sent his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ
to die on the cross.
It was not just for us
but for him.
He wanted to make himself
known.
He wanted to demonstrate
his glory.
That is what Jesus wanted.
So do you remember
he prayed,
glorify your name,
Father.
This is what it's all about.
Glorify the Father
because of the cross.
Because of the cross,
the Father will be glorified
forever and ever
and Jesus was entirely
centred
on the glory of the Father.
And for us to be
Jesus centred,
which people talk
an awful lot about,
will mean that we are
Father centred
because Jesus recognised
that the work of the cross
was that the Father
might be glorified
forever and ever.
That is
the Apostle Paul's message.
The Apostle Paul's gospel
centres on Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
It focuses on the person
of Jesus Christ
and his work.
It focuses on a message
of rescue,
pointing
to the now
and the not yet.
and it is
the best news
and it is
the only answer
for your guilt
and mine.
And it is why
this church exists
to preach
Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
And it is
the main thing
and we have to fight
to keep it
the main thing.
Because verse 6,
he drops the bomb.
And he says
to the church
in Galatia,
he says this,
I am astonished.
I am astonished
that you are
so quickly
deserting,
abandoning
him who called you
in the grace
of Christ
and turning
to a different gospel.
And so
we as a church
never abandon
the gospel.
Never abandon
the message
of Jesus Christ
crucified.
And can you see
how quickly it happens?
Look what it says.
I am astonished
that you are
so quickly,
quickly
deserting,
quickly abandoning.
May we never
abandon
the message
of Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
May we delight in it.
May we rejoice
to take this message
to others
because it's
changed our lives.
Let's change
our eternity.
Would you read
with me again
verses 3 to 5
of Galatians 1?
Let's read it together.
Grace to you
and peace
from God
our Father
and the Lord
Jesus Christ
who gave
himself
for our sins
to deliver us
from the present
evil age
according
to the will
of our God
and Father
to whom
be the glory
forever and ever.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Let's pray.