Galatians How People Change Just Experience Convincing Logic - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Galatians How People Change

WORLDVIEW

Logic Convincing

WORLDVIEW

Personal Decision Reason Just Experience Just knowledge

Galatians 1:13-14

Persecutor-Believer-Witness

• 13”For you have heard of my

previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God & tried to destroy it. 14I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age & was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”

Acts 8, 9 & 22 Persecutor

• 3”But Saul began to destroy the church. Going

from house to house, he dragged off men & women & put them in prison.”

• 1”Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out

murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.”

• 4”I persecuted the followers of this Way to their

death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison.”

Acts 26 Persecutor

• 9"I too was convinced that I ought to do all that

was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of

• Nazareth. 10And that is just what I did in
• Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests

I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against

• them. 11Many a time I went from one

synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my

• bsession against them, I even went to foreign

cities to persecute them.”

Karla Faye Tucker Persecutor to Believer

Galatians 1:15-16 Persecutor to Believer

• 15”But when God, who set me

apart from birth & called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man.”

Acts 8 Persecutor to Believer

• 3”As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a

light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5"Who are you, Lord?" Saul

• asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he
• replied. 6"Now get up and go into the city, and you

will be told what you must do." 7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see

• nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.”

Acts 26 Persecutor to Believer

• “…I heard a voice saying to

me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’”

Galatians 1:11-12 Persecutor to Believer

• 11”I want you to know, brothers,

that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?

• “Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar,

Charlemagne & I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him… I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man… I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me… but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence

• f my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men &

spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts…

Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?

• Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind
• f man toward the unseen, that it becomes

insensible to the barriers of time & space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to

• Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and

forthwith His demand is granted.

Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?

• Wonderful! In defiance of time & space, the soul of

man, with all its powers & faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its

• range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often

thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.”

Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?

• “Christ speaks, and at once

generations become his by stricter, closer ties than those of blood; by the most sacred, the most indissoluble of all unions. He lights up the flame of a love which consumes self-love, which prevails over every other love.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

From Persecutor to Believer

• Self-Righteousness taken
• ver by Christ’s

Righteousness!

• Paul didn’t consider the

costs, he was taken!

1 Thessalonians 1

• “4For we know, brothers loved by

God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit & with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.”

Ephesians 1:4

• “For he chose us in him

before the creation of the world to be holy & blameless in his sight.”

Paul had everything BUT Christ Now he has lost everything BUT Christ

• Now he would live by way of crucifixion
• dying to self, and living for Christ
• What was the result?

Acts 9:20 Persecutor to Believer to Witness

• 20At once he began to preach in

the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

Have you been knocked off the horse of your self-righteousness?

• What’s been the result?