A Great Story (That Glorifies God)

Galatians 1:11-24

Introduction

One of the genres of books that I enjoy reading is that of biography. Sometimes it is a biography of a pastor or theologian, sometimes a military leader, sometimes a politician. Have you ever wondered what qualifies someone to have a biography written about them? Of course we are all free to write memoirs about ourselves and many people do, to leave a legacy for their family. But not everyone gets to have a biography written about them.

One things is that they need to be famous. Authors and publishers are ultimately about selling books and so biographies of people no one has heard of are not going to do well. They also need to have accomplished something, either for good or bad. Even if there was a well known person, perhaps because of the family they belonged to, but they never did or experienced anything remarkable, they likely would not have a biography.

The most recent biography that I read was that of Billy Bishop.I was somewhat aware of Billy Bishop, having spent a lot of time in Owen Sound, Ontario, Bishop’s hometown. But beyond being a very successful Canadian fighter pilot in the First World War, I knew very little and this book was quite informative. Most interesting was how little promise he had in his early years. Even in his time at the Royal Military College, he would have been kicked out of the military if it had not been for the war. He switched from the Cavalry to the fledging air corps. But still there was not much promise. He was not a great pilot and almost did not get his wings. Throughout the war and even after, he was notorious for crashing the plane on landing. But he was great in a fight and was disciplined as an aerial marksman.The biography was written by his son and was not unbiased but did attempt to show him with all of his flaws. He was not a person to whom success naturally flowed but he was fortunate to find the thing that he did excel at, and he found it at exactly the right time.

I share this to highlight the fact that we all have stories. And those stories are important, even if they are never published in a book. Stories are important. We find this in the Bible, which is very often not just statements of doctrine but stories of people. In the passage that we are looking at, we find a bit of Paul’s story. We have some of it in Acts but it is helpful to have his story in his own words. What we find in his story and the way he words it actually helps us to understand how we can look at our own stories and the stories of others.

Paul’s Story

The first thing that I want to say that Paul is not telling his story just for the sake of telling his story. Everything is being done within the broader picture of the gospel. Paul is building an argument about why the Galatians should embrace the gospel that Paul preached and not the false gospel of the people who came after him. To do this Paul explains where his gospel came from and that is found within his story. 

Paul begins by giving an account of his early religious activity within Judaism. Paul was not just a cultural Jew, he was zealous for the traditions and acted as he believed was the best. This included persecuting followers of Jesus. We must make it clear that this was not the persecution from one religion named Judaism toward another religion named Christianity. What Paul did was all within the context of Judaism. The people that Paul went after were Jews who followed Jesus, something that he saw as incompatible with the traditions. To keep the faith pure, he did whatever he needed against the followers of Jesus.

The problem was that although Jesus had died, he did not stay dead. Jesus was revealed to Paul in some way, what we find as the Road to Damascus experience in Acts. That was a complete change and Paul was called, not just to follow Jesus but to proclaim Jesus. 

This is important as Paul became an Apostle by the calling of Christ and not as an appointment by the other Apostles. Paul eventually did connect with the Apostles but again Paul wants the readers, including us, to realize that Paul did not receive his gospel from the Apostles, he received the gospel from Christ. Paul met with Cephas, also known as Peter, as well as James, the brother of Jesus.

The big picture of what people were hearing was this: “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.” This is a great story. One could make the argument that this is even more reason to respect Paul. Paul went from a persecutor to a preacher. This took obedience, bravery, and humility, to make this move. He was making potential enemies within his old community with no guarantee of being embraced by the new community. This has all the makings of a Christian celebrity. And no doubt some within the church wanted to give glory to Paul for all he had accomplished. But catch what Paul says: “They glorified God because of me.” Paul’s story was important but the importance of it was not to get the spotlight on Paul but to bring glory to God. That was Paul’s goal all along.

Our Story

We all have stories and all of our stories are different. Some grew up in the church and some joined the church later. Some wandered away and some stayed faithful to the church throughout their life. There would be differences among us as to how we first encountered Christ and how we first responded. Some may be able to give a specific day that they accepted Jesus and some may have just realized that they had been believing for some time. Different stories.

There are other stories that we have encountered that have impacted us. It may be a C.S. Lewis or a Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It may be a Corrie ten Boom or a Joni Eareckson Tada. We may read their stories and see aspects of our own story or perhaps wish that our story was more like them. The question we have to ask is what is the purpose of their stories and what is the purpose of our own story.

We live in an age of Christian celebrities, although they have existed as long as the church. However, based on my study of history, there is more of an emphasis on the person and how their story can help build their personal brand. This has gotten some people in trouble. Some people have fallen off the pedestal that they put themselves on. Others have been found to have exaggerated their story to bring more glory to themselves.

But that is not the point of our stories. Our stories are to make people glorify God because of us and not to glorify ourselves. We are not trying to build our personal brand, we are to point people toward Jesus. Even if we are not famous and no one is flocking to hear your story, the goal is the same, to bring glory to God.

Conclusion

Paul had a story, a rather dramatic story. He went from persecutor to preacher. Ironically, both stages reflected his zeal for God. People were inspired by Paul’s story, just as people continue to be inspired by stories of radical change. While we might be tempted to give the credit to those who have changed, the real credit goes to the one who made the change. People heard about what had happened to Paul and they glorified God.

We all have stories. While we may feel that our story does not compare to Paul’s, that is okay as we are not meant to compare. It is the same God at work in our life as was in Paul’s life. Our goal should be the same as Paul’s, that people will see what God has down through Christ in our life and to glorify God as a result.