Introduction:
A. You are probably familiar with the traditional Russian parable about the hunter and the bear.
1. One day a hunter raised his rifle and took careful aim at a large bear.
1. When he was about to pull the trigger, the bear spoke in a soft, soothing voice, “Isn’t it better to talk than shoot? What do you want? Let us negotiate the matter.”
2. Lowering his rifle, the hunter replied, “I want a fur coat.”
3. “Good,” said the bear, “that is negotiable. I only want a full stomach. Let’s compromise.”
4. They sat down to talk, and after a time the bear walked away alone.
5. The negotiations had been successful - The bear had a full stomach, and the hunter had his fur coat.
B. Compromise is not always a good thing, is it?
1. While that seems to be the case when hunting bears, it’s definitely the case when it comes to the gospel.
2. Certainly God wants Christians to be peacemakers, but He does not want us to attain “peace” through the compromise of his Word.
3. This morning our passage from Galatians reminds us how God wants us to stand firm in the truth of the gospel - even though that truth may sound incredible, and even when standing firm creates conflict.
C. We are in a sermon series on the book of Galatians that we are calling “Set Free!”
1. We took a two week break from the series so that we could focus on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
2. Now let’s return to our study of Galatians.
3. So, as you will recall, Paul had established churches in the Gentile region of Galatia which is modern-day Turkey.
4. After he left the region, some “false brothers” who claimed to be from Jerusalem came to Galatia and began undermining all that Paul had taught and built.
5. The false teachers confused these new Gentile Christians by attacking Paul’s apostleship and his teaching.
6. The false teachers told the new Gentile Christians that in order to be saved they had to believe the Gospel and they also had to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law.
7. When Paul heard about the influence the false teachers were having on the Galatians, he immediately wrote this short, passionate letter to them that we know as Galatians.
D. In chapter one, we have seen how Paul defended his Gospel and his apostleship.
1. Paul did so by showing that his Gospel and apostleship came directly by revelation from God.
2. His Gospel was not dependent on human teaching or on the Judean apostolic leaders or churches.
3. By telling his conversion story, he demonstrated how his calling and training came directly from God.
4. Then in chapter two, we noticed how Paul demonstrated that even though his Gospel didn’t come from the Jerusalem apostles, his Gospel was still endorsed by the Jerusalem apostles.
5. In this way, Paul used both sides of the argument to support his Gospel and ministry.
a. On the one side, he had argued that his Gospel was independent of the Jerusalem apostles.
b. But then on the other side, he demonstrated that his Gospel was also endorsed by the Jerusalem apostles.
6. That endorsement, of course, was not necessary, since God had directly endorsed Paul, but the endorsement of the Jerusalem apostles took the “wind out of the sails” of the Judaizers.
E. Today, we are going to pick up our study of Galatians in chapter 2, verses 11-21.
1. Paul tells one more incident about his relationship with the Jerusalem apostles that sheds light on his independence from them and the truthfulness of the Gospel he preaches.
2. We will approach today’s lesson by working through a few “P”s. First we will address “The Problem,” and then we will address “The Procedure and Prescription.”
I. The Problem
A. Let’s read Galatians 2:11-14: But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
B. The incident that Paul tells about happened in Antioch, a bustling, cosmopolitan center located 300 miles north of Jerusalem.
1. It was the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire and was an early Christian center.
2. Although it had a large Jewish population, it was a predominantly Gentile city.
3. We know from Acts 13 that the first missionaries to the Gentiles were sent out from the church in Antioch.
4. The church in Antioch was likely made up of both Jews and Gentiles, but they got along just fine despite their different backgrounds.
C. Then one day the Apostle Peter came for a visit to Antioch.
1. Can you imagine what a scene that would have been?
2. This was the great apostle Peter who had been personally called by Jesus and spent three years with the Master.
3. This was the Peter who had walked on water and saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.
4. This was the Peter who had visited the empty tomb on resurrection morning and then who saw the risen Christ on several occasions.
5. This was the Peter who had preached the first Gospel sermon on the Day of Pentecost when 3000 people believed and were baptized.
6. This was the man who came to visit the church in Antioch.
7. I’m sure the Christians of Antioch crowded around him and listened with amazement to his stories of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus.
D. But the Christians in Antioch were not the only ones amazed, Peter also was amazed by what he saw there in Antioch.
1. He saw Jews and Gentiles worshipping together in one church – singing the same songs, working together, praying together, and even eating together.
2. Nothing like this had yet happened in Jerusalem.
3. The church in Jerusalem was still entirely Jewish.
4. But that was not the case here in Antioch, and Peter loved what he saw and joined right in with his Jewish and Gentile brothers and sisters.
E. Then one day, some other people from Jerusalem also came for a visit to Antioch and they spoiled everything.
1. They claimed to be sent from James, a leading apostle in Jerusalem.
2. When they witnessed what was happening, they were appalled.
a. They saw circumcised Jews eating with uncircumcised Gentiles.
b. They saw Jews disregarding the kosher laws of the Old Testament.
c. And worst of all, they saw the apostle Peter doing the very same things.
3. We don’t know exactly what they did or how they did it, but we know they stirred up trouble.
a. Perhaps the Judaizers confronted Peter.
b. Perhaps they painted a picture of “doom and gloom” and “slippery slopes.”
b. Perhaps they threatened to write James and the other apostles.
4. Whatever they did, it caused Peter to change his behavior.
a. Peter drew back and stopped eating with his Gentile brothers and sisters.
b. We know that he did it because of fear.
c. Maybe he reasoned with himself that he would compromise with the Judaizers while they were there, but once they left town, he would resume his fellowship with the Gentile believers.
b. We don’t know what Peter was thinking.
5. It is really sad to see Peter, this bold apostle, compromise the Gospel in order to placate these men.
6. And worst of all, his bad example caused the other Jewish Christians to follow his example, and even Barnabas (a strong Christian leader and associate of Paul) was carried away in the same hypocrisy.
7. So this was the problem that needed to be addressed.
II. The Procedure and Prescription
A. Paul’s response to the problem in Antioch was swift and decisive.
1. He saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel.
2. Paul understood that Peter’s hypocrisy was really a compromise of the Gospel itself.
3. Withdrawing from the Gentile Christians, under these circumstances, was to deny the truth that all believers are one in Christ and that there is no need to follow the law of Moses to be saved.
4. Therefore, Paul rebuked Peter face to face in front of the whole congregation, presumably on a Sunday morning when the whole church was gathered.
B. Scholars are not sure where the rebuke of Peter ends and where Paul’s letter to the Galatians continues in this passage.
1. I am going to assume that verses 15 through 21 contain the content of Paul’s rebuke of Peter and the teaching that he gave the church at the time of the rebuke.
C. Let’s look more closely at those verses: 15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
D. Notice the important points that Paul drives home:
1. #1: A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus.
2. #2: If a person could be justified by works of the law, then Christ died in vain.
3. #3: By the grace of God, the Gospel of Jesus allows us to surrender (to die) to the law and to die to self in order that Christ might live in us.
E. If ever a man had tried to be saved by keeping the law, it was the apostle Paul, back when he was Saul of Tarsus, the Jewish Pharisee.
1. But that path to salvation is grueling and fraught with guilt and failure.
2. What the law could not do, Christ has done for us by fulfilling the law and setting it aside.
3. But when Christ enters our lives, we find new life.
4. To be alive to God means that we no longer live for self, but instead we live for God.
5. Once Paul had found and experienced the Gospel there was no way he was going to go back to the old way of the law, nor was he going to allow anyone to keep the Gospel from others.
6. So Paul took his stand for the truth of the Gospel and he stood firm.
F. We have no record of Peter’s reply to Paul’s rebuke, but it seems obvious that Peter must have repented and recommitted himself to upholding the truth of the Gospel.
1. When we read Peter’s letters (1 & 2 Peter), we detect no deviation from the Gospel of grace.
2. And it is obvious from the history of Christianity that the Judaizers did not win and that the truth of the Gospel has been preserved.
Conclusion:
A. So what lessons can we be applying to our lives from today’s Scripture section?
B. First, We learn that there are no infallible leaders.
1. If the apostle Peter needed rebuking because he didn’t always do what was right, then you can be sure all of us are in the same boat.
a. All of us are imperfect, and there are times when even spiritual leaders need to be corrected – this certainly includes me!
b. It is important for all of us, especially spiritual leaders, remain open to the concerns and correction of our loving and godly brothers and sisters.
c. We must be approachable, and welcome the loving concern and godly advice of God’s people.
2. And let me add to this discussion an acknowledgement that none of this is easy.
a. Confronting people and holding people accountable is a practice that is wrought with many pitfalls and land mines.
b. We are often tempted to look the other way and be most defensive when those in need of correction are our family and closest friends, or even ourselves.
c. But personal relationships must never come before our relationship with God and our upholding of God’s truths.
3. The last thing I want us to notice before we leave this point about the fallibility of leaders is: take note of how honestly the Bible portrays the failures of its leaders.
a. This is an affirmation of the divinely inspired quality of Scripture and the validity of its message.
b. Failures, disagreements and conflicts in Scripture are not glossed over in Scripture.
c. God’s people were not super human beings, but were just people who struggled with the same inconsistencies, weaknesses, temptations and failures that we do.
d. The fact that the weak side of their characters is revealed authenticates their witness and the truthfulness of the Bible.
C. A second lesson we can learn is to beware of the power of peer pressure.
1. We are often in the habit of applying the problems of peer pressure only to the youth in our society.
a. And it is true that teenagers do face a tidal wave of peer pressure from the sinful culture that they face every day.
b. But we must not forget that peer pressure is as much a part of the adult life as it is of the teenage years.
2. Today, in our text, we saw how Peter was led astray by the peer pressure he faced, and he was an adult and supposedly a mature Christian.
3. So what kinds of peer pressure do adults face?
a. There is the pressure to fit in at work and with our friends and family – many of whom may not be Christians.
b. There is the pressure to materially keep up with the neighbors, friends and family.
c. And there can even be a negative peer pressure at church.
1. There can be the pressure to not rock the boat, or not to be too fanatical.
2. There can be the pressure keep to our little click closed to newcomers or to people who are different.
d. Those are just a few examples.
4. God wants all of us to be God pleasers and not people pleasers.
a. And certainly, God wants us to stand for the truth no matter what, even if we stand alone.
b. This week Leslie Prosonic posted this saying on Facebook: “Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it. Right is right even if no one is doing it.”
5. And so all of us, children, teens and adults, need to beware of peer pressure.
D. The final lesson that we can learn from today’s section is that we must stand firm in the truth of the Gospel that we are saved by grace and not by works.
1. This is a lesson that we will emphasize over and over again during our study of Galatians.
2. Satan hates the Gospel and its’ doctrine of grace and freedom, and Satan will do whatever he can to bring us back under bondage to the law.
3. Satan wants us to believe that we can save ourselves, and therefore, we don’t need Christ.
a. Salvation by works is a criminal doctrine that robs God of His glory and renders the death of Christ meaningless.
b. Salvation by works dooms and damns those who believe in it.
4. The truth of the Gospel that we must stand for includes an understanding of the following:
a. #1: There is no way to be saved outside of Christ.
b. #2: There is no way to be saved except by grace through faith.
c. #3: Nothing we do contributes in the least to our salvation.
d. #4: Our job is to trust in and depend on God’s grace, and to live by faith.
e. #5: Our job is to die to self and allow Christ to live in us and through us.
5. There is a great story in the Old Testament that illustrates the need for our total dependence on the Lord for salvation (It is found in 2 Chronicles 20).
a. The Ammonites and the Moabites were moving in a vast army toward Jerusalem.
b. There were so many of them, and they were so well armed, that the men of Israel would never be able to defeat them.
c. As the invaders came closer and closer, the situation looked increasingly hopeless.
d. King Jehoshaphat called for a nationwide fast.
e. Men from every town and village gathered in Jerusalem to seek the Lord.
f. Jehoshaphat stood before them an offered one of the greatest prayers in the Bible.
g. He prayed, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you… O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chr. 20:6, 12).
h. Then the answer came from the Lord, “You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf…” (2 Chr. 20:17).
i. The Israelites praised and worshiped God when they heard this promise of the Lord.
j. The next day, Jehoshaphat appointed men to lead the army to the place of battle while singing praises to God.
k. As they began to sing and praise, the Lord confused the enemy ranks, causing the Moabites and Ammonites to kill each other by mistake.
l. When the Israelite army arrived at the place of battle they saw the vast armies of their enemies lying dead on the ground; no one had escaped.
m. The story ends with the Israelites returning to Jerusalem joyfully praising God for the salvation He provided.
6. Think for a minute about the attitude expressed in King Jehoshaphat’s prayer, “We are helpless, do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
a. In other words, “Lord, we’re a bunch of helpless, pathetic losers, and if you don’t come to our rescue, we’re sunk!”
b. Oh, how true that is for us - apart from God’s grace and power, that’s all we are – just a bunch of helpless, pathetic losers.
c. Sometimes I think the hardest job God has is trying to get all of us to admit how desperately we need Him.
d. We have all sinned and fall so far short of the glory of God. Nothing good we do can save our souls. We stand before God helpless and desperate.
e. Praise God that we are saved by grace.
f. It is entirely God’s doing, and He deserves all the glory and credit.
7. I heard of a church that adopted a phrase as its’ theme, and put it on the top of their church bulletin each week.
a. The phrase is “Blunder Forward.”
b. That pretty well describes our attempts to live a life of obedience to God in view of God’s grace and mercy.
c. Even on our best days as Christians, we struggle to simply “blunder forward,” right?
d. But guess what? God’s on our side and He’s got it covered.
e. God’s message to us is: “Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf!”
f. Stand firm in God’s grace. Stand firm in the Gospel.
8. Look one last time at Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
E. That is a Gospel worth receiving and that’s a Gospel worth defending.
1. Praise God the He loves us, saves us by His grace, and gives us new life through faith in Jesus!
2. Will you stand for the Gospel?
3. Will you resist the peer pressure to compromise the truth?
4. Will you stand in God’s grace and do your best to simply “blunder forward?”
5. God loves us and gave himself for us that He might save us by grace through faith.
Resources:
Galatians, The NIV Application Commentary by Scot McKnight, Zondervan, 1995
Galatians For You, Timothy Keller, The Good Book Company, 2013.
Galatians, Maxie Dunnam, The Communicator’s Commentary, Word, 1982.
The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians, William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series,
Westminster Press, 1976.
Be Free – Galatians, Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Victor Books, 1989.
Bad Manners at the Dinner Table: A Powerful Lesson in Biblical Confrontation, Sermon by Ray
Pritchard, www.keepbelieving.com
How God Saves Sinners: Coming to Grips with Justification by Faith, Sermon by Ray Pritchard,
www.keepbelieving.com
