Okay, thanks so much, Gary. Folks, keep that passage open in front of you in Galatians chapter 6.
! According to website L.com, E-L-L-E, avid readers I'm sure you are.
Here's what's making something of a comeback in the world of high street fashion.
The cross pendant. Now if you're there, you're here, and you're wearing one today, then go ahead and enjoy the next five,
five seconds, knowing that you are bang on trend.
And let me then burst your bubble and tell you why it's really strange.
Suppose for a minute that we were to jump in a time machine, travel back to the first century,
and walk around the region of Galatia, what is now modern day Turkey, wearing a cross around our necks.
People would not be thinking bang on trend.
People would be squinting and looking at us with a puzzled expression,
and they would likely ask us, why on earth are you wearing a symbol of torture, of humiliation, and agonizing death?
That's the thing that criminals are executed on, and where they are made an example of.
And you're wearing it around your neck? What's the matter with you?
And case in point would be Jesus of Nazareth.
You see, the Romans, in the first century, looked at Jesus on the cross, and they concluded powerless.
The Greeks looked at Jesus on the cross, and they concluded foolishness.
The Jews looked at Jesus on the cross, and they concluded cursed by God.
But have a look at verse 14 of Galatians chapter 6.
And remember that Paul, the guy writing this letter, was formerly one of those Jews who looked at Jesus and thought good riddance.
But now having encountered the risen Jesus, he now looks at what Jesus did on the cross, and he says,
My boast.
My glory, my revel, my pride, my everything, my boast.
And fast forward 2,000 years, and here's Alice, a girl from Cumbria, studying to be a vet.
Her life totally different from this man, Paul, and yet she's declaring exactly the same thing.
Curious, isn't it?
As so many people in our world see the futility and fleeting nature of what modern culture holds out to us.
And as people today are looking for a bigger and a truer story to anchor themselves in.
One that spans the generations and is swept like wildfire across the nations.
It really is curious.
And it's worth reflecting on the durability and timeless nature of the Christian faith.
I was listening just the other day to a young man in his 30s called James.
James was talking about how growing up he swallowed a secular mantra.
And try this one on for size when it comes to genius atheist marketing.
He said, this is what I heard.
I heard the mantra that science will fly you to the moon, but religion will fly you into buildings.
And he thought, genius.
Got it.
A snappy slogan, he said, that had me hook, line and sinker.
But years later, reflecting on the mental health and meaning crisis facing his generation,
he thought to himself,
maybe there is something in this Christianity stuff that I was so quick to dismiss.
And turning to the Bible, he finds in the person of Jesus and specifically at the cross of Jesus,
a message that is both compelling and true.
You know, I wonder if you, maybe you're here this morning and you're somebody that I think G.K. Chesterton was thinking of all those years ago
when he said the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.
It's been found difficult and left untried.
You see, Paul, as he finishes his letter to the people in these churches in Galatia,
as a church, we've been through this letter over the last couple of months.
And the words in this section might be different, but here's the thing.
The base is exactly the same.
Nothing's changed in his final plea.
Here's the big thing.
Really simply, Jesus is all you need.
Jesus is all you need.
And he's going for one last big play,
one last big pitch in this letter.
That's what the whole
see with what large letters I write thing
is all about.
In case you were thinking, what on earth is that?
Because here's what would have been going on.
Paul would have been dictating this letter to a scribe
up until this point.
But now, as it were,
he takes the scroll, he grabs the quill,
and he goes to town on the papyrus.
You can imagine that whoever has the task
of reading out this letter in these churches,
holding it out so that everyone can see at this point,
and saying,
hey guys, we know that handwriting.
It's him.
It authenticates Paul.
But it does way more than that.
This is his way of getting their attention.
What would we do when we send emails today,
or texts, or WhatsApp messages?
What's really important is the text in bold,
font size large, underlined.
You need to get this.
If you get one thing, get this.
And this is what Paul's doing here.
He's saying, you've got to understand this
as I leave you.
And what really simply we have in this passage
is a comparison in boasting.
And here's the reality for all of us this morning, friends.
We're all boasting in something.
Something gets each of us out of bed in the morning.
Something gives purpose to each of our days.
Something provides the reason for our existence.
Something means that we think there is a future.
Something, that something is what we boast in.
The only question is, what is it?
So here's this comparison in boasting.
Firstly, from verse 12, he gives you these false teachers
who've invaded this church, these churches in this region.
And they're peddling the mantra
that faith in Jesus is a cracking start.
But if you really want to perfect your faith,
if you really mean business,
if you really want to be in,
then you must add to your faith
a suite of Jewish religious practices.
So Jesus isn't quite enough.
It is Jesus plus the addition of all this stuff.
That's the solution to your problem.
And Paul in this message, he says,
see if you strip it back.
Really, this is just three quite simple, hollow things.
Number one, these guys are all about,
just see it in the text,
these guys are all about self-promotion.
So they're after boasting in how many converts they make.
That's their skin in the game.
They're not really interested in you.
Right?
It's like when you phone up a call center
and they say your call is really important to us
and you think, well, if I'm caller number 362,
I'm not quite sure that's true.
That's what he's saying here.
They don't care.
You're just a number to them.
You're just a statistic to them.
You're a tally mark.
And what does it come down to?
Verse 12, what do they want?
They just want to impress people
with the number of converts that they've made.
Number two, these guys are all about self-preservation.
They just don't want to be persecuted
for what they believe in.
Do you know, a message that says at its heart,
really, it's still all about you
and what you do and what you contribute.
That kind of goes down well with the world.
Okay, you do your Jewish things,
but we'll do our pagan things.
We'll do our other things.
And we're all kind of in the same game here.
We just all think we're working our way to God.
Christianity is completely different.
But these guys don't want to be persecuted.
A state-approved religion is not a threat to the world.
And three, these guys,
their message really is all about self-help.
Saying that there is something that you can do
to contribute something to your salvation.
But Paul says, verse 13,
do you see the emptiness of it all?
They don't even keep the law themselves.
So the very thing that they want you to do,
they don't even do it themselves.
Do you see how hollow that is?
These teachers, they talk big.
But at the end of the day, there's no fruit.
And here's the drum that Paul's been banging
all the way through this letter.
It's a mindset.
Thinking that by cleaning up your outside,
your inside is going to follow.
Think again.
It just doesn't work like that.
You've got a completely the wrong way around.
But do you know what does work?
Do you know what really does work?
It's the thing that I'm about to tell you
I'm about to boast in.
Verse 14.
I boast in the cross of Jesus Christ.
And you think, hang on a minute.
That brutal form of execution?
How does that work?
What did Paul find?
What has Alice found as they both look
at the old rugged cross?
Friends, that's the place where you and I see
what God really thinks of us.
The cross says two things to us.
It says, number one, that you and I are more broken
and rebellious and lost than we stop to think.
And let's be honest, that's really jarring.
Because we're not used to that kind of talk
in our culture.
Right?
At kids' sports days today,
everybody wins.
At Pass the Parcel,
if you watched that Bluey episode,
everybody gets a prize.
That's the reason that love hearts
are still one of the best-selling items
from the sweetie aisle at the supermarket.
You're the best.
You're awesome.
You're perfect.
You're number one.
The cross says, no, we're not.
We're not.
We're really, really not.
And deep down, friends,
we know that that's true.
We look out and we see that.
We look inside and we feel that.
Multifaceted problems.
And it's really interesting
because the Bible,
into these multifaceted problems,
gives us a multi-angle definition of sin.
lives that fall short of God's standards,
missing the mark,
minds that are darkened,
desires that are bent out of shape,
lives that long to worship,
but look for that object of worship
in all the wrong places,
hearts that suppress the truth,
like a beach ball holding it underwater,
suppressing the truth,
the things that we know to be true.
And I'm really glad that the Bible does that.
Because when I came to Jesus
and I read his diagnosis
of the world out there
and the heart in here,
it fitted hand in glove.
The cross declares to you and I publicly
that there is a problem.
A problem so big and unsolvable by us
that God sent his son, Jesus,
who willingly stepped into our earthly existence,
who knew pain,
who knew grief,
who knew mocking,
who knew injustice,
and all of those things culminating
in the only perfect one
being crucified on a Roman cross.
It says there at the cross
that God is just.
In our world where we long for justice,
that's what the cross declares,
that every evil thing,
every bit of suffering,
everything that's wrong with the world,
that declares to us the cross that it's true.
God's just.
He is perfectly just.
He cannot just sweep sin under the carpet.
What kind of God would he be
if that was what he did?
God's justice,
his wrath,
his anger,
all of human sin and evil.
Jesus goes to the cross
and pays the penalty for it all.
And no one puts this better than
John Stott.
And this quote stopped me in my tracks this week
when I was preparing for this.
Can I just read it to you?
See if this connects.
He says this.
Every time we look at the cross,
Christ seems to say to us,
I am here because of you.
It is your sin that I am bearing,
your curse that I am suffering,
your debt that I am paying,
your death that I am dying.
Nothing in all the universe
cuts us down to size
like the cross.
All of us have inflated views of ourselves,
especially in self-righteousness
until we have visited
a place called Calvary.
It is there
at the foot of the cross
that we shrink
to our true size.
And it is there, friends,
that Paul and Alice
and every single believer bows
because it is the place
that says,
my sin put him there.
It declares there is a problem
in the cross,
but here is the wonderful second thing
that it declares,
that you and I are more loved
and known than we could ever
hope possible.
Paul has already talked about that
back in chapter two.
He talked about the Son of God
and Alice quoted it,
didn't she?
Of the Son of God
who loved me.
And it is really interesting there
that he goes personal.
He doesn't say us,
which would have been true.
He says me.
Jesus loved me.
And Paul, of all people,
knows that he deserved
nothing but the opposite.
That is the guy with dead Christians
on his conscience.
He says,
Jesus loved me.
Jesus was patient with me.
Jesus showed grace
and kindness to me
when I didn't deserve it.
And that's where he showed it.
At the cross.
And so bring these two things together,
friends.
Do you see the perfect justice of God
and the unfailing,
unrivaled love of God?
They kiss at the cross.
Some of you might remember,
you might be of a vintage,
that you remember tennis player
from years ago,
a female tennis player
called Chris Avert.
Some of you will have no idea
what I'm talking about,
but some of you will know.
She was formidable in her day.
I think her career win-loss record
was the best of any singles player
in history.
But here's the really interesting thing
I read this week.
See, she contemplated retirement.
The massive success of her career.
She was utterly petrified
of giving it up.
Here's what she said in this interview.
She said,
winning made me feel
like I was somebody.
It made me feel pretty.
It was like being hooked on a drug.
I needed the wins,
the applause,
in order
to have
an identity.
Now listen,
tennis might not be your thing.
You might not know
your forehand
from your backhand,
but sketch what she's saying
onto each of our lives.
What is the thing?
What is the thing
that we're all looking to
to give us that sense
of being somebody?
Putting in
the work at the gym,
in front of the mirror,
cramming at the library,
extra hours at the office,
trying to get your kids
into that school,
contemplating taking
the bigger mortgage
to get the house.
Listen,
none of these things
in and of themselves
are bad.
But whatever that thing is,
it's as if Jesus
would come alongside
to us and say,
listen,
what's really going on
in your heart?
What's the applause
you're living for?
What's the thing
that you are seeking?
Listen,
see,
whatever it is,
is it going to be enough?
Whatever it is,
you're chasing bubbles.
You know that song,
they fly so high,
they reach the sky,
and like my dreams,
they fade and die?
What has Paul found
at the cross?
Why does he boast?
Because he's found
everything that he needs.
He's found the one
applause worth living for.
Because he's found
at the cross,
he's found in Jesus
the way to be reconciled
with the living God.
The God that he thought
he was pursuing
in all the wrong ways,
the God that met him
in Christ,
he's been reconciled
reconciled to the living God.
And he's been saved
to know the living God.
And it was nothing
to do with him.
What greater purpose
is there in the world,
according to Paul,
than to experience
that possibility?
And that's why Paul says,
I boast.
I boast in the thing
that made me right
with my creator.
I boast in the place
where the justice
of God is seen.
I boast in the place
where the love of God
is seen.
And I boast about the fact
that I can know
this God is my Father.
And do you see
in this text
how he doesn't leave it there.
He kind of drills it down.
Notice the two C's.
What does that mean
for our lives
if we follow this Christ?
It means,
first of all,
do you see
that the world
has been crucified
to us?
Paul says,
I have been crucified
to the world.
And caught up in that
word world
is a whole plethora
of values,
of desires,
of ambitions,
of logic,
of thinking,
of the God-doesn't-exist
mindset.
And Paul said,
now the world,
ambition,
status,
value,
all these things
that I once pursued,
they no longer
have the entrancing
appeal
that they once
had in my life.
And guess what?
It works both ways.
I have been,
as it were,
untethered
from the world.
I don't recognize
the world.
And it works both ways
because the world
doesn't recognize me.
It thinks I'm bonkers.
But guess what?
I don't care
what the world
thinks of me
and I don't want
what the world
has to offer me.
because I have been
crucified to the world
and the world
has been crucified to me.
And by implication of that,
to drill down
into application.
Friends,
I faced up to this
language this week.
Faced up to the language
this week of that word
crucified.
And faced up to the
many, many ways
that my heart
is still drawn out
to dance the tango
with the world.
I don't know
do you know
what's going to
wean me off that
the best?
It's when we see
the second C
that he talks about here.
It's the word
counts.
What now counts?
What now is the
ultimate thing
in Paul's eyes?
He says,
have you been circumcised
or haven't you
been circumcised?
That's the wrong question.
If that's the question
that you're drawn to,
can I suggest
your horizons
are way too small?
It doesn't matter.
What matters,
verse 15,
is the new creation.
That because of what
Jesus did for you
and because the Spirit
now lives in you
and because God
is now your Father,
you have every single
reason to live.
the old you
has gone.
Have you ever thought
about the fact
that that's what
a baptism service
is?
It is the funeral
service of the old you.
And it is,
if you like,
the birthday party
of the new you.
You are a new person.
God has saved you
and he's called you
out of the darkness
to live in his
wonderful light
and to live in a new
way of life.
A life because of
the Spirit
that is slowly
and gradually
producing marks
of the new age.
It's a wonderful thing
to think about.
Maybe if you're
slightly older
in the Christian life,
many people tell me
that they're struggling
with old age.
Listen,
that might be
absolutely true.
But here's the challenge
is you grow
and experience
the old age.
Why not make it
your thing
to excel
in showing
the evidences
of the new age?
Love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
self-control.
Younger people,
if you want to be
a revolutionary today,
remember what it was like
being your age.
You get what I mean?
Leaving university,
at university,
with plans to change
the world,
and then getting
beyond university
and then realizing
that I've got not a lot
to offer.
But if you want to be
a revolutionary today,
don't think fight,
think fruit.
Display in your life
those things.
In our world,
it just seems to be
so angry.
Angry.
Why not excel
in displaying
kindness
and patience
and self-control?
Do you know
what those things are?
They are evidence
that Jesus reigns
in your life.
And as somebody
reminded us
in our home group
last week,
we should be better
as a local church
at spotting
those things
in each other's lives.
You know,
you're really growing
in gentleness.
You're really growing
in goodness.
You're really growing
in faithfulness.
You're really growing
in all these things
that won't make
the news at 10,
but boy,
will they show up
on the new speed of heaven.
The marks of
the new age.
And Alice,
that is why
God has saved you.
So that you would bear
witness to him
by a life
that's been transformed
by him that you are.
And those are the people
he envisages
when Paul says,
all those who walk
by this rule.
That's all those
who put their faith
in Jesus,
who live by that mantra,
by grace alone,
through faith alone,
in Jesus alone.
They are the true
Israel of God.
Listen,
our time is gone.
Let me try and land
the Galatian plane
by leaving you
with one question.
If you've been tracking
through this series,
here's the question.
What's just been
your biggest takeaway?
What's been the biggest
thing that you've been
challenged on,
maybe that you've learned
or you've seen
for the first time?
Can I give you mine
just as we close?
Try and get you
into mine
by telling you
about my weekday routine.
Every day begins
with the school run.
And I play a little game
with myself.
It's called
Parent Phrase
Lingle Bingo.
It begins
after I've taken
great delight
in putting on
the big light
in the kids' bedroom,
the thing that I hated
my mum for,
but now I am so that man.
The questions come.
You can tick them off.
Right?
What do you want
for breakfast?
Have you got a snack?
Where are your shoes?
Where is your water bottle?
What jacket do you want?
Have you done your teeth?
Has mummy done your hair?
Because it's been
made clear to me
that that is not
daddy's gig.
Right?
But there's a new phrase
that's just entered
the top ten.
As we leave the house
and we walk to school
and we cross
the various roads
that we come to
en route
and I find myself
every morning
saying that phrase
see if you can
complete the sentence.
Have you looked
both ways?
Yeah?
Have you looked
both ways?
Every morning
have you looked
both ways?
And the thing
about that phrase
is that there's
pretty good advice
for the Christian life.
Because this is how
Galatians has
challenged me
and invited me.
See when it points
in your life
you're struggling
and you maybe
don't know
what's up ahead.
You're feeling a bit weary.
You're feeling a wee bit tired.
Your life story
is maybe lost
and you think
I've lost sight
of the big story.
Friends, here's the thing.
Look both ways.
In that word
new creation
that's what it's
inviting us to do.
Look both ways.
Here's what I mean.
Look back
to the cross
and see the place
where Jesus secured
your forgiveness
and won for you
that newness of life.
That empty tomb.
Look back the way
and see it all.
You didn't earn that.
I didn't earn that.
He won that for us
on the cross.
He secured our place.
He did it there.
Look backwards.
Look to the cross.
But don't stop there.
Look forward
to the new creation.
Alice has mentioned
that it's great.
It's great when someone else
does your sermon for you
before you've even got up here.
The new age,
the place where
righteousness dwells,
where we will be
with God,
where sin will be
a distant memory,
where there will be
no more death,
where tears will be
wiped away.
Friends,
we live our lives
between these two
great bookends
that Jesus
has won
for us.
And these two things
will not change.
So when I'm
struggling,
when I'm working out
what I'm doing
in my life,
I look up and I see
these two bookends
and the invitation
in the middle
as we wait for Jesus
to come back
is to know
that he's not left us.
We have his spirit.
And what is the spirit
doing?
It is drawing
out our hearts
to say no
to the old us
and yes
to the new us.
I am a new creation.
So friends,
look both ways.
Look both ways.
And maybe even
this morning
is the day,
the morning,
where you put your faith
in this
Jesus for yourself.
Why don't I pray?
Father,
we thank you this morning
for everything
that we've heard
and sung
and read.
Father,
thank you for this
wonderful testimony
about the transforming
grace
of Jesus Christ.
And so,
Father,
I pray maybe
for many of us here
who are struggling.
Maybe we are doubting.
Maybe we're weary.
Maybe we're even thinking
about tapping out.
Lord,
may this morning
by your spirit
as your word
has gone forth,
may you encourage us
and challenge us
in the perfect way.
Lord,
thank you that
it is true
that all
the books
in the world
couldn't tell
the glory
of your son,
Jesus.
And so,
Father,
we look to him
this morning
and we pray
that you'd be with us
just as we close
our time now
in Jesus' name
we ask.
Amen.