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"God Changes Everything" Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17

by Clancy Nixon

June 10, 2007

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

God changes everything. God's love changed me, and God's love changed you.

God's truth changed me, and God's truth changed you. God's power changed me, and

God's power changed you. When God shows up, all bets are off. You think you know

what you are about, but God changes everything. When God shows up,we are marked

forever.

In the gospel reading assigned for today from Luke 7, when Jesus showed up at

the funeral procession of the son of the widow from Nain, everything changed. Jesus

changes everything. The widow grieved the loss of her only son he had probably died

that very day, since the Jews buried their dead immediately. His body rested on a burial

plank, not a coffin, and would have been wrapped in cloth. He was probably his

mother's only means of support and livelihood there were no social security checks in

those days. Jesus walked into this seemingly hopeless situation and changed everything.

The scripture says that Jesus had compassion on her. God's love changed her life.

Tragedy had piled on tragedy - after she had lost her husband, then she lost her only son.

At this most tragic moment, Jesus' love for her changed everything. His heart went out

to her. He told her not to weep. From anyone else, this statement would have been cruel.

Her weeping would soon be changed to joy. Jesus then touches the dead body. That touch

rendered him unclean, according to Numbers 19:11. That touch showed that his love was

stronger than the Law of Moses, even stronger than death. Notice how Jesus surpasses

the work of the prophets. While Elijah had to stretch out over a corpse three times to

revive the son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:21), and Elisha stretched out twice

over the dead body of the Shunammite's son (2 Kings 4:34), all Jesus had to do here was

to say a word. He tells the dead man to rise, and he sits up, alive. The people are amazed

and become convinced that God has come near. Indeed he has. Jesus has overcome

death! Amen? Jesus changes everything. Jesus is stronger than death. He changes the way

we look at death.

I'd like to ask Kelton to come forward to tell us about the death of his friend Phil.

God changes everything, and God's love changed Phil Grosser. Americans learn

in our culture to admire those who lead lives of great accomplishments and achievements,

but the Lord looks on the heart far more than on our works. The Apostle Paul learned

that lesson early in his Christian ministry, and so he is decidedly angry at the Galatians.

He calls them foolish (3:1) for believing the Judiazers who have convinced some of them

that Gentiles must become Jews before they can become Christians. That controversy is

the occasion of his letter to the Galatian churches he planted in southern Asia Minor,

present day Turkey. Turn with me to Galatians chapter one, page 1151 of your blue pew

Bibles.

God changes everything, and God's truth changed Saul of Tarsus into the Apostle

Paul. The truth about who God is, and who Paul is in relation to God, came at him in a

blinding flash on the road to Damascus while on his way to persecute the church. Until

that power encounter with Jesus, Saul thought God was all about the laws of Moses.

Early in his life, Saul was proud of his Jewish heritage: calling himself a Hebrew born of

Hebrews, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, (Phil. 3:6). Saul was born the son of a

notable, since he was a Roman citizen. (F.F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free,

p. 42) Saul studied under the great Rabbi Gamaliel while in Jerusalem as a teenager.

Saul excelled in his studies, verse 14, and joined the party of the Pharisees, which he calls

the strictest of the parties in Judaism (Acts 26:5). He was so zealous for the law, verse 13

and 14, that he not only persecuted the church, he also tried to destroy it. He probably

thought that Christians were blasphemers, since they believed the Messiah had died on a

cross, when Deuteronomy said that one hangs dead on a tree is cursed. The book of Acts

(8:3; 9:1) tells us that Saul went from house to house arresting and imprisoning followers

of The Way, even pursuing refugees beyond Judea to bring them to "justice."

You know the story about midday on the road, a light from heaven flashed

around him, he fell from his feet to the ground, (no mention of a horse in the Bible) and a

voice cried out to Saul and his companions: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And

he said, `Who are you, Lord?' And he said, `I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.'"

(Acts 9;4, 14, 22, 26). It was Jesus himself, in the last of his resurrection appearances. (1

Cor. 15:8)

God changes everything. God's truth about Jesus changed Paul. What truth was

that? The truth that Jesus was indeed alive; that he was indeed Lord and God; that Jesus

had identified himself with his church; and that Paul was now called to build up what he

had been trying to demolish. Paul says in verse 16 that this vision of Jesus was not just

revealed to him, but was also revealed in him. He experienced this objective revelation

not only outwardly, but also inwardly. Paul tells us that his conversion, his call and his

commissioning were all part of this same experience. Paul's famous zeal was not

changed, but his understanding of the truth about God had changed, so he became the

greatest of the Apostles and evangelists.

Paul insists in chapter 1, verse 11 and 12 of Galatians that he did not make any of

this up, nor did he learn it from anyone else who did. Paul claimed that his message came

directly by revelation from Jesus Christ. It was truth from God that changed Paul. He

did not learn his gospel from the other apostles, since he spent only 15 days with Peter

and James in the first 14 years of his ministry. (1:18 2:1) Verses 17 and 18 tell us that

Paul spent 3 years in Arabia immediately after his conversion. This time in Arabia is

shrouded in mystery. Some say that since Paul had missed the 3 years of Jesus'

instruction that the other Apostles had, that Paul had Jesus all to himself for his 3 years in

the wilderness. God's truth about Jesus changed Paul. God showed up, and marked Paul

forever. Now Paul saw that when Jesus died on the cross, he became a curse for us, so

that we would be free form the curse of sins and death.

Today we baptize the twin daughters of Frank and Becky Bajowski, whose names

are Lorelei Michelle and Emma Rose. For Frank and Becky, God has changed everything

in their lives, including how they raise their children. It is with faith in Jesus as their

Savior and Lord that they come to ask that their children be brought into the new

covenant of God, much like Jews bring their male children to be circumcised and so

brought into the old covenant. In his letter to the church at Colossae, chapter 2, verse 11

and 12, the Apostle Paul likened baptism to circumcision. He writes: "In him you were