Kaleo San Diego Church > Sermons

Galatians 4:12-20

David Fairchild
Oct 29, 2006
Series: Galatians

TEXT

Galatians 4:12-20: "Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you."

INTRODUCTION

We're continuing our study of Galatians this morning as we continue to unpack the beauty and richness of the Gospel of grace.

Over the last several months we have had the pleasure of talking about subjects that were convicting, comforting, and mind blowing as we've considered Paul's defense of the Gospel. There have been certain sermons that many of you have said really got to you and are now affecting your life. It's great to hear how God is working through His word to His people.

As I've mentioned before, we like to preach verse by verse through the Scriptures because we feel that it helps us to get a wider spectrum of teaching as we come face to face with passages and subjects that we may not have chosen were it not in the letter we're preaching through. This morning is one of those mornings where I am more uncomfortable preaching on this subject than you may be in receiving it.

The reason is that I'm going to be speaking about the relationship of ministers of the Gospel and the people of God. This is a great subject, but I have to confess that I don't know if I can trust my own heart when speaking about such things. Not only that, but as we look at ministers there will naturally be a tendency to see that there are quite a few ministers that shouldn't be ministering. This is odd as well because now we're critiquing other pastors even though we're not using specifics. There are certain pastors you'll naturally think of, so it feels a little uncomfortable talking about this.

Also, what is so odd about a pastor bringing the word to you about pastors and what they feel and go through so that you're fed, is sort of like a parent telling his kids that they need to listen. Think about that: a parent telling his children that they need to listen. That's kind of funny-why would they listen to a parent telling them to listen to their parents? If a friend tells them the same thing, they'll probably accept the advice and listen, but not as readily with a parent.

There are a number of places in the Bible that tell us about the relationship of a pastor and the people, and so we can't really dodge it for too long if we're going through the text.

Perhaps one way to look at this passage is to think about people that you care for that are hurting, grieved, or perhaps in sin and you want to see them changed by the Gospel. Hopefully this will draw you to see that we are all in some way ministering the Gospel to one another. If you are someone that has a certain degree of spiritual maturity, you find yourself wanting to help people and you place yourself in the role of acting as an agent/representative for change in that person's life.

If you don't have anyone around you that you ache for in that way, someone that you are invested in and would love to be an agent for change for them, then you may be the one that needs a spiritually mature brother or sister to come along side of you. If you're not in a position to ache like that, then you are still too self-absorbed and perhaps still too emotionally immature. Either way, what Paul says in this passage doesn't just apply to professional clergy, it applies to anyone who wants to be involved in reconciliation and change in the lives of others.

What Paul is doing is defending the Gospel that he labored to bring to them. He's fighting for them, even though they might think he's fighting against them. Teachers had crept in to lead the Galatians away from the Gospel of grace to another gospel, which is no gospel at all.

Paul taught these Galatians that they weren't saved by what they do, but by faith in what Jesus had done for them. The teachers were teaching that they will never really be saved unless they obey the law and keep it precisely.

The teachers taught: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, obey the Law, and you'll be saved.

Paul taught: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved, then you'll obey the Law.

The teachers taught that belief and obedience results in salvation, and Paul taught that believe and salvation results in obedience.

Paul's point in this entire letter is that these two different approaches make all the difference in the world. They are not just two different opinions about the same basic belief; they are two entirely different beliefs, and therefore they are two entirely different religions that produce completely different motivations and results in the lives of their followers.

The Galatians thought Paul was attacking them to protect his doctrine, when in reality Paul was attacking the doctrine to protect them.

There is a great story of a bear caught in a trap that can't get his foot out. A man sees the bear, knows that it's trapped, walks closer to the bear, loads his gun and shoots the bear. After being shot, the bear begins to swing wildly at the man and just as the bear loses consciousness, the man comes closer. He sees the man taking his foot and pushing it deeper into the trap just before he blacks out. Now, what do you think the bear was thinking just before he passed out? This guy loves me, he's here to save me and care for me? NO! The bear was thinking that he was trapped by this man, that this man is coming to harm him, he was shot by this man, and the last thing the bear feels is the pain of his paw being pushed deeper into the trap. Little does the bear know that the man who shot him was a park ranger, that he was shot with a tranquilizer dart, that the reason he pushed his foot deeper into the trap was to spring the trap free so that the bear would wake to a patched up paw and to freedom from the trap. This is sort of an obvious point-the Galatians don't quite understand that Paul is a pastor for them. He is causing this pain because he loves them. The trap their foot is stuck in has to be sprung and the only way to do it is by pushing their foot deeper so that they're set free. Paul goes deep with the Gospel in this letter to free them from the trap. Some of you have responded as the bear-swinging and fighting against what's being done to you, and all the while missing that it is out of love that we have to push things a little deeper than what you're comfortable with. We want you free!

Paul is hammering this issue because it is the difference between slavery and freedom, between life and death, and between self-inflicted pain which results in decay and the salve of grace cleansing your wounds and healing you.

In this passage, Paul begins to remind these Christians of how he cared for them and ministered to them when he was with them. In doing so, Paul is showing the pastors of this church how to love and serve you and how you as the congregation are to love and serve one another.

STUDY

Verse 12: "Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong."

This verse is remarkable in that it shows us, not only as pastors but also as Christians, how to be used by God to see change in someone's life. This passage is a short summary of what this looks like. If you can by grace follow Paul's example and instruction, you can begin to be an agent of help and change in others' lives. To see healing, to see liberation, to see them grow as God works through you is an incredible and wonderful blessing.

Paul essentially lays out his philosophy of ministry to the Galatians and to others as he works with them for their growth and maturity.

"I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are..." This is incredibly powerful for such a short statement.

There's two sides to this sentence, and only by the power of God can you see this happen, but if God empowers us, which I believe He desires to do, we can see our entire community and those outside of it changed by this simple truth.

First, Paul says that when he was with them, "I have become as you are." He didn't say that he first expected them to become like him. He says here that he became like them. Paul is saying that he became gracious, flexible, he adapted to the people and genuinely strived to become as they are.

Paul mentions this in another place of Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul says this:

1 Corinthians 9:19-23: "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings."

When you read or hear this passage it sounds pretty incredible doesn't it? It seems as if Paul was willing to bend over backwards to reach someone. This doesn't mean that he's manipulative, it means that he's flexible.

When you hear him say, "I made myself a servant to all," and, "To the weak I became weak," you realize that this isn't someone who is playing games with people. Paul was able to learn about these people and did everything he could to understand them and build bridges to reach them. He was able to get into their hearts and sense their feelings and understand their questions. He attempted to adapt his ministry to their problems to meet their needs and reach their difficulties and issues. He became like one of them!

What is so fascinating about this comment from Paul is that it is found in the middle of his theological defense for why he's writing this letter. He says this in a letter in which we already know he wasn't budging one inch as it related to the Gospel. He is totally inflexible and stubborn about the Gospel of grace. He simply won't move or compromise this Gospel.

Paul is fighting for the truth that we are only saved by what Christ has done and nothing else. The difference of being saved by sheer grace and being saved by works for Paul was worth dying over. He simply wouldn't allow the Gospel to be perverted. He was willing to take on Peter, the strongest of the Apostles over this issue, he was willing to die for it, he was willing to spend years in prison for it, and eventually he had his head cut off for his commitment to this Gospel.

Paul says in Romans 3:4, "Let God be true, though everyone were a liar." Obviously Paul isn't a coward and afraid of confrontation. Paul is willing to not only take on the Apostles, but also was willing to grab an angel from heaven by his ethereal shorts and kick him out if he contradicted the Gospel of grace.

Paul took on the Jews, Paul took on Rome, and Paul was willing to take on angels all for the truth of the Gospel. It was something worth fighting for and he had great courage defending it. Yet when he came to the Galatians he became like them! What do we learn from this?

#1- I became like you...

One of the great marks of understanding the Gospel and experiencing its grace is that you don't major on the minors. You don't spend your time fighting and defending things that are secondary. You major on the majors, and you minor on the minor issues. You don't sweat the small stuff.

When you do make mountains out of molehills, you are proving that you really haven't understood that you no longer have to gain your identity from what you do, or what others think of you. You no longer have to defend yourself so that you feel worthy and valuable. When you take the details of a church or the details of a culture and insist that everything has to be done right and yet you refuse to make any changes, you are simply trying to convince yourself that you're right and others are wrong, that you're good and others must be bad.

We see with Paul that one of the marks of someone who really understands grace is that you are unyielding about the Gospel but you are incredibly flexible and yielding about everything else.

What are some examples of inflexibility over secondary issues? Worship? Time of service? Location? Programs? Name? Service length? How communion is done? Style of preaching? What else? We all have our little pet methods which we are convinced are the right ways to do things. Why?

Typically, you find that the churches that are most inflexible about things like alcohol, dancing, spiritual gifts, and end times stuff, are typically the most flexible over the Gospel! They'll allow a works-based kind of legalism, which kills the Gospel, but they won't let you smoke.

I heard of a mainline denominational church that was absolutely legalistic about alcohol consumption while allowing a lesbian female pastor preach against calling God our Father. Strange and ironic isn't it?

This is why we adopt an open-hand closed-hand form of ministry so that we know what things to contend for and what things to contextualize and keep flexible.

Let me give you an example of how it causes me to constantly rethink what is major and what is minor. When I was in Africa this last trip, I was fortunate enough to meet many men, women, and kids from the Zulu tribe. These were some of the most humble, sweet, and gentle people you'll ever meet. Several of them were converted and some were working for the Agathos Orphanage where we were staying and serving. One of the great delights of that particular village was to show off their Zulu warrior dance to guests. So, they had a barbecue, waited until it was dark and then left to go dress in their warrior attire. All of the sudden I heard the loud drums and the introductory scream by one of the warriors and the dance began. This was incredible! It was beautiful; it was totally different than anything I had ever seen. It was really athletic and they used their sticks and shields and warrior moves as part of the dance. The stronger the moves, the better the warrior and they intended to show us that they were strong. I was sitting some 30 feet from the dancing, without my glasses, and totally enjoying the dancing when all of the sudden, they lined up in formation and started advancing upon us as were sitting in a long straight line. This was the peak of the show when they kind of scare everyone watching by showing their warrior moves with their short spears in hand. Now, without my glasses it just looked incredible, but as they group advanced towards us, I notice that some of the men didn't look like men, and had a chest that wasn't shaped like a man's chest. You see, they all had shaved heads and identical warrior attire, so I didn't know until they were right in front of me who was who. Needless to say, I immediately took an interest in the stars.

I was uncomfortable, to say the least. But what I noticed was that I was the one that stood out because I was looking at the stars and then everyone next to me. They were looking at me like, "Why are staring at me dude? Watch the show!"

There are some Baptist organizations that still think that the drums are the jungle beats from Africa and so they won't allow them in the sanctuary. There are some missionary organizations that won't minister to tribes in Africa where they know the women are topless. There motto should be, "Go topless, go to Hell!" They're more concerned with their Western, American sensitivities than they are the souls of those men and women who live in a culture where this is the way they've dressed for hundreds of years.

The music in the churches in Africa is considerably more aggressive and thumping than here. But it is some of the most worshipful sounds of singing and joy that I've ever heard from any church. Yet when American denominations begin to plant churches there, they immediately attempt to change their instruments, their sound and style and their liturgy to reflect their Western context. These groups spend most of their time changing the outward forms of the church and yet spend virtually no time teaching them the Gospel of grace to see their village and church changed from the inside out.

What happens to us is that we get locked in to doing things a certain way and then we fight to keep it that way. It's not the Gospel we're fighting over; it's something else.

The problem is that when we add something or fight over something as if it's the Gospel, we actually destroy the Gospel. If you fight for anything to be added along with the Gospel, you actually take away from the Gospel and make it impotent. When you think or say that the Gospel is important but so is x,y,z, you have just subtracted from the Gospel. Nothing is to ever be put on par with the Gospel. Only the Gospel will change someone so that the outward stuff is corrected. Without the power of the Gospel, we are left with a works-based approach, which will not change us for the better, but enslave us and make us enemies of grace.

This is why Paul was so flexible, he understood the Gospel. But it didn't end there. Paul desires something else:

#2- Become as I am...

Paul is saying that he became as they were, and he desires that they would become as he is. Paul came and adapted. Paul came and he learned. When he was with them, he did everything he could to bend towards them, not away. Like Jesus Christ Himself, He became incarnate and became flesh. He didn't just come down as some transparent spiritual being. Jesus became man to reach man. He became one of us. He became someone you could speak to, see, hear, and embrace. Paul is asking the Galatians to now become as he is.

Paul is not just saying that the Gospel ministry is flexible and adaptable, though it is, he's showing us that a Gospel life is normative, it's the standard and what we're to move towards.

Paul is saying two profound things:

1- He's essentially saying to them that he's not letting them stay as they are. He's going to press them to change through the Gospel. He's calling them to change. He's urging them to change. He doesn't want them to say the same.
2- He's also saying that he is the example of the kind of life that he wants them to live. That's pretty incredible to say don't you think? No one without the power of God can say these things and mean them sincerely and without pride. This is not the natural way that we are.

Many of us are wounded healers that are affirming, comforting, and identify with other people. You see yourself as a sinner like everyone else. You want to affirm and love and not press or push others.

Others are demanding, disciplined, with high expectations of everyone around them to grow in godliness.

But who puts these two things together? No one in our natural disposition and temperament can say, "become like me because I became like you." We have many who will say, "become like me." They expect that you'll catch up or move towards their model of life. Or, you are someone who will say, "I'll become like you, I'm struggling along with you, I'm broken over the same things, I'm no different than you, we're in this together."

This is not what Paul is saying. Paul is calling us to both. "Become like me because I became like you," is what Paul is calling us to.

How can you become someone who is incredibly humble and gracious, who doesn't sweat the small stuff and doesn't major on the minor issues, so that people feel like they can share anything with you because they know you won't judge them or jump on them about their shortcomings, and they know you'll be understanding? How can you be that incredibly approachable and yet at the same time be so incredibly strong, so poised, and so joyful that people are inspired to change when they're around you? How is it possible to become a person who is both, like Paul?

Here's the answer: if you believe you're saved by grace, that you are truly a sinner in profound ways, and that you can't earn your righteousness, but that righteousness was earned for you and only given to you by faith and nothing else, and that this brings you to the Father and makes you fully accepted by Him-though you're a sinner, the Father sees you as righteous-you'll be able to begin the process of walking in humility and great confidence. You'll be able to humbly become like others for their sake to reach them and also act as the example to them so that they see what it looks like to love Christ and live with gratitude for His grace.

If you don't grasp this, when you're living up to your standards you'll be confident because you don't see yourself as all that bad, but you won't be humble and loving. But when you fail to live up to your standards, you'll be broken and humble, able to identify with others pain and suffering, but you won't be confident and courageous.

Without understanding the Gospel you'll either expect others to be like you, or you'll stay with them and wallow in their misery. The beauty of the Gospel is that it brings both. You can feel the humility of your sin and yet feel like you just won the lottery at the same time. Only in the Gospel are you both bold and humble. Only the Gospel can create that kind of life. Only when you grasp this will you begin to enter into relationships with incredible humility and respect, without a trace of superiority, and yet at the same time have a joy and freedom in your own life which causes you to be humble and as a result you can say, "become like me as I became like you." When you can say that, I think you'll begin to see lives changed around you as you act as a Gospel agent of change in loving friendship with others.

So far, I've tried to broaden the scope of this passage so that it includes all of us. But now, I need to narrow in on this passage and deal with what it's saying about pastors and the people of God.

Paul is showing us a rich glimpse of how a pastor should work among the people. This is incredibly convicting for me.

#1- This entire text tells us that you need ministers. You need teachers, you need preachers, and you need others who are not necessarily pastors but who have the Gospel as the center of their lives.

Hebrews 13:17: "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you."

This means that you need to have someone who is more mature in the Gospel, who can lead you, to which you are accountable. How else could you possibly obey that passage without leaders? Unless you've joined a church where you look at the elders and deacons and small group leaders and you see that you need to be accountable and you seek to be connected to them so that you can grow. We all need someone like this or else we couldn't possibly obey this text. Do you have someone like this? You need them. God has sovereignly chosen and grown them in the Gospel so that they could minister the Gospel to you.

Even if you are only checking Kaleo out, which is totally fine-we're not turf conscious and we're glad that you are considering coming here and visiting-but at the end of the day, to whom are you accountable? Who is watching over your soul? If you say, "God," that's good, but God has chosen leaders who love Him and the Gospel to be placed in the unique position of loving you and helping you grow in the Gospel. If you're not connected to a church at this level, it's going to be very difficult to grow in maturity.

Though this might not be popular because of our current cultural sensitivity with authority, even if you're single and you don't want this or married and you don't want this, the Scriptures seem to think it's necessary for you.

#2- Have you noticed that the majority of pastors in the conservative church today have said only, "become like me," but they are unwilling to become like you? They're very rigid, they're inflexible, and they're pretty judgmental.

Yet, the leaders in liberal churches have, "become like you," but they are unwilling and uncomfortable saying, "become like me," because they are not confident in the Gospel. They just see themselves as wallowing in the same mud, and therefore they don't think it would be right to call others to become like them.

Don't you see that both of these ministers are bad for your souls? You have to look for the kind of pastors that can say both of these things, and therefore you have to look for pastors who understand the Gospel.

#3- For pastors and for all members of the local church, look at Paul's comments at the end of this passage:

Verses 19-20: "my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you."

This is an interesting use of words for a man. Now, my wife has had two children, therefore I have two children, but my role was significantly more enjoyable than was hers. She had to carry these children, and she had to labor for the birth of these children in great pain. It is a difficult kind of anguish because you're looking forward to what the labor will produce.

What is so striking about having children, is not just the physical pain or process of birth, but the reality that when you have kids, you're heart can't be settled unless your children can rest in joy. This is especially true of mothers, though both parents experience this. Paul asks the question in verse 15, "What then has become of the blessing you felt?" or in other words, "What happened to the joy you experienced?"

As a parent, you feel as if your heart doesn't belong to you anymore. If your kids are unhappy or in pain, you feel the same. This is a frightening thing when your children are young, but when they're young you feel like you have more influence and control. But when they get older, your heart is no less tied to them than when they were young. You can't feel safe or rest unless you know your children are safe. Even if they've moved out and gone to college, your heart is still with them.

Paul shows us his heart in 1 Thessalonians 3:

1 Thessalonians 3:8: "For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord."

He's telling the Thessalonians that he has heard that they were growing, that they are free in the Gospel and they are alive to God and standing fast in Him. Now that he's received the report of their connection to Christ, Paul says, "now we live..." This is such a true statement about ministers. When you become a pastor, it's like becoming a parent-your heart is gone. If the people that God has given you are in pain and unhappy, you feel like you've died. There's nothing you can do about it! And the more you want to be an agent of change in people's lives, you'll loose your heart more and more.

Paul says, "I'm in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!" This is a crazy mix of metaphors. Usually you're in labor because the child is formed in you, and Paul is in labor until Christ is formed in them. God has deemed that the way that he's going to work on the lives of His people is through men and women, who through the Gospel can say, "become like me, because I've become like you." But if you sign up for that kind of intimacy and love for others, say good bye to your heart! If those you're loving and working with don't stand firm in the Lord, you feel like you're going to die.

C.S. Lewis says that if you don't want your heart broken, don't give it. Wrap it up in a casket of selfishness, and in that casket it will stay, it will not become broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

The only alternative to this kind of ministry is a hell of disconnection and separation. We need to find others who can be over us in the Lord, who have the Gospel in their lives. We also need to have others in our lives that we can be hurt by. We need some that we are going to hurt when we are not steadfast, and we need some that will hurt us when they are not steadfast in Christ. This growing process is incredibly important.

Some of you are in the position of hurting your leaders whether you know it or not. You are critical, difficult, and you fight against their leadership. This breaks their hearts. And without someone that can do the same to you, it's going to be hard to grow past where you are until you have your heart wounded by others you are pouring yourself out to.

Some of you are in the position of being hurt by others since you are leading them, but you have not developed a relationship in which you are close enough with someone who can be hurt by your actions or lack of growth. It's going to be very hard for you to be a good minister of the Gospel to others if you are not being ministered to by someone with whom you're close. You need to see what others go through when they labor over you, and that needs to be a good model of how you are to minister to others. If not, you'll end up always pouring into others while never being poured into and at some point, you'll end up feeling as if you're empty and have nothing left to give.

To really know Jesus in a fuller understanding of His coming to us and ministering, in many ways you need to do likewise and sense some of what He sensed. Jesus says in John 17:

John 17:19: "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."

Jesus says He was consecrated, He was literally set apart for His disciples. He gave Himself to them with everything He had.

This shows us that Jesus Christ, the great God of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things, in whose hands everything is sustained, has bound His heart up with you. For Him to be consecrated means that He has set Himself aside for you. If you're a believer, He has come and given His heart for you so that you can have Him, so that you can be like Him. He came to become one of us, so that we might be made into His image. He wants us to be in His image, and the more we see that He came to us and gave Himself to us, the more we see the beauty of the Gospel, the more we will be conformed into His image.