Praying with Power – 4

Praying with Power – 4

Subject – Branded for Christ

By Rick Welborne

Galatians 6:14-17 (NKJV)
¹⁴  But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
¹⁵  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
¹⁶  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.    
¹⁷  From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. 

--We all think we know each other so well but none of us truly know each other deeply. How many times are we surprised when a spouse walks away and leaves a family after 20 or 30 years?

--We have a tendency to put on at church what we want people to see or what we want them to believe about us and we are shocked when we find it is not true. To a great degree, we are all hypocrites.

--To truly know someone you would have to know the influences of heredity and environment, and all the countless moral choices that have fashioned the person. 

--Even though we cannot know all the details about a person, we can often trace a person’s life and find the motivation that turned that person around or what marked that person for destiny. 

--Such a man, Saul of Tarsus, later to become Paul, was a marked or branded man. As we look into his life and see the total transformation, we can learn from his words…I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. 

--Whatever you think Paul meant by these words, one thing is very clear, he was acknowledging that Christ had ownership of him—body, soul, and spirit. He was branded for Christ from this day forward.

--Paul was not trying to say that he was like Jesus by the outward wounds he received in his body but was referring to an inward crucifixion that identified him with Christ.

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
²⁰  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

1. Branded for Christ – I have been crucified with Christ.

--Other than Jesus, has there ever been a man more branded to a task than the Apostle Paul. Jesus came with singleness of mind to fulfill God’s plan for His life, so did Paul after his conversion. 

--Even in his calling, he would learn his life was no longer his own. Listen to what Jesus told Ananias when he was to go and pray for Saul.

Acts 9:15-16 (NKJV)
¹⁵  But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
¹⁶  For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."

--Jesus was saying to Paul…I am calling you to a life of suffering for My Name’s sake. I gave My life for the sins of the whole world and now you will lay down your life for Jews, Gentiles, and Kings. 

--I wonder what Paul would think about the gospel that is being preached today in so many of our churches about being healthy, wealthy, and extremely prosperous? Just read his epistles. 

Galatians 1:6-10 (NKJV)
⁶  I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
⁷  which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
⁸  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
⁹  As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
¹⁰  For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

--Paul never claimed that what he was preaching was easy but he did declare his love for Christ was a process. Paul said…I die daily. I die to myself every day. 

--Think about that and how that would affect your daily lives. I don’t feel like praying. I die to myself. I do not feel like sharing Christ. I die to myself. I don’t feel like giving more to missions. I die to myself.

--I don’t want to forgive my spouse or my brother or sister. I die to myself. I don’t want to keep my mouth shut. I die to myself. I don’t feel like going to church. I die to myself. 

--If I choose to please myself or to please others, I could not be a bond-servant of Christ. I am branded for Christ, and the more who know, the better for my calling and mission.

Romans 1:14-16 (NKJV)
¹⁴  I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.
¹⁵  So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
¹⁶  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 

--Here’s some truth many do not want to hear. Not only are we not branded for Christ, most of the people who know us do not even know we are Christians. We are the opposite of Paul…we are ashamed. 

--Think about how much it hurts a parent’s heart when your kid, your own flesh and blood, the one you sacrificed so much for, ask you to go away when their friends are around.

--Think how Jesus must feel when we are ashamed to be identified with Him. When He has told us to go into the world to tell everyone about Him and we do not even mention we belong to Him. 

2. Belonging to Christ – Look at my scars (marks).

--Notice the word marks in our text. Paul is saying, "I bear in my body the 'marks'" -- the Greek word is stigmata -- meaning 'scar marks.' If you want to see the handwriting of Jesus, look upon Paul's body.

2 Corinthians 11:23-25 (NKJV)
²³  Are they ministers of Christ?--I speak as a fool--I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.
²⁴  From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
²⁵  Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;

--That would definitely leave a mark. Contrast with today. Our new gospel tells us the marks of true Christians are new houses, new cars, much wealth, constant blessings with no trials. No gospel at all!                                 

--In Paul's day stigmata was used in three ways. 

--When a runaway slave was found and brought back to his master, he was branded on the forehead. Paul was saying, I was a prodigal on the run and I have been brought back to my Master. I am a bond-slave.

--Also soldiers who belonged to famous companies had the names of their commanders tattooed on their foreheads. Paul said I endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 

--Then, too, believers of a pagan goddess (and there was much of this in Asia Minor and throughout the Roman Empire in Paul's day) had her name branded on their foreheads. 

--Paul says, "I have on my body the stigmata (the scars or marks) of the Lord Jesus." If you want to know if I truly believe what I have written and if these things are real in my own life, read my body -- look at my scars."

--Our marks are not of Paul’s kind…we wear a pretty cross around our neck or on a t-shirt with some cute saying. Or we have a tattoo (most of the time hidden) with a cross or LOVE on it. 

--We tell one person about Jesus one time and we get rejected and we feel we are scarred for life. We become undercover Christians so we want receive all that abuse. Think about Jesus:

 Isaiah 53:1-7 (NKJV)
¹  Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
²  For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
³  He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
⁴  Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
⁷  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 

3. Burning for Christ – Nothing could put out passion’s flame. 

--Think about how easily people walk away from Christ today but not so with Paul. Oh, that the wondrous flame Paul had might burn within us. 

--Let’s look at this marked little body of Paul and ask what could put out the flame of Holy Spirit? Could hunger and thirst? No! Fasting and burdens? No! Being stoned and left for dead at Lystra? No!

--Could being shipwrecked in the sea for 36 hours? No! Could being terribly lonely? No! Could 195 lashes? No! Could 3 shipwrecks? No! Three beatings with rods? No!

--Paul wrote it all off as nothing. How is that even possible? His marks or scars cried of a better day!

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NKJV)
¹⁶  Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
¹⁷  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
¹⁸  while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Romans 8:18 (KJV)
¹⁸  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.