SERMON OUTLINE
(1). The Runner (vs 1-5)
(2). The Steward (vs 6-10)
(3). The Watchman (vs 11-13)
(4). The Destroyer (vs 14-21)
SERMON BODY:
Ill
• George Whitefield, also spelled Whitfield,
• May have been the most well-known religious figure;
• Of the eighteenth-century English-speaking world.
• In a little less than thirty-four years of ministry,
• It is estimated that Whitefield preached eighteen thousand sermons,
• And was heard by as many as ten million people.
• He carried on an extensive preaching ministry in England, Ireland, and Wales,
• As well as making fourteen trips to Scotland and seven trips to the American Colonies.
• Quote: One of my favourite Whitefield quotes is:
• “Other men may preach the Gospel better than I, but no man can preach a better gospel.”
• Wow! That is good!
Now, ministry was not always easy for Whitefield:
• He often faced misunderstanding;
• And even opposition from the established Church,
• One of the revolutionary things he did was to preach in the open air,
• We take that for granted today, but in his times is was revolutionary.
• He began his open-air services among the mining community;
• And those who would not normally come to Church.
• George Whitefield’s ministry also crossed denominational lines;
• As he was willing to preach the gospel in an uncompromising way,
• To any group that would have him.
• George Whitefield kept up a nearly unbelievable pace,
• Speaking in public about one thousand times a year for thirty years.
• He loved to preach, and one biographer wrote of him,
• (Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield, 2:522).
“His whole life may be said to have been consumed in the delivery of one continuous, or scarcely interrupted sermon”
• Quote: Let me give you one of my favourite Whitefield quotes again:
• “Other men may preach the Gospel better than I, but no man can preach a better gospel.”
• TRANSITION:
• I think the apostle Paul would give a hearty ‘Amen!’ to that quotation.
• Like Whitefield, the apostle Paul also had a passion for the gospel,
• And was at times radical in the way he went about sharing it.
• And like Whitefield he too experienced misunderstanding and opposition.
Note: The key themes in the first two chapters are often summarised as:
• Chapter 1 deals with the fact:
• That Paul’s apostleship came from God – not from men.
• Chapter 2 deals with the fact:
• That Paul’s gospel came from God – not from men.
• If you scan these verses, you will notice they contain four-word pictures.
• There are four images, four metaphors,
• That will help us get to grips with an overview of this chapter.
(1). The Runner (vs 1-5).
“Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not RUNNING and had not been RUNNING NY RACE in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you”
Ill:
• When my friends daughter was about three,
• He tucked her up into bed and asked what she would like to pray about.
• Straight away she replied, “Onions."
• The dad then asked his girl, “Why she wanted to pray about onions.”
• She replied:
• "Because last week the preacher said we should pray for things we don’t like."
• When it comes to running or exercise,
• Some folks just don’t like to do it!
• In sport there is an expression, “No pain, no gain”
• I have a friend who does no exercise and if you ask him why,
• He replies, “No pain, no pain!”
• TRANSITION: The apostle Paul uses running as an illustration,
• The point he makes is this;
• When he runs he runs to win! He does not run in vain!
• He compares running to his ministry;
• And he says his ministry had purpose and direction and achieved something.
• His desire was this Church would also run in the right direction,
• Until they finished their race.
• But there were others false teachers who were trying to detour them.
• And if they were successful,
• Then the end-result is they would have run in vain.
Question: Who were these ‘others’ these ‘false teachers’?
Answer:
• The New International Version calls them, “false believers”.
• The New English Bible calls them: "Sham-Christians".
• J.B. Phillips translation calls them: "Pseudo Christians".
• Put those three words together and you realise these people were not true Christians!
• They may have looked the part,
• But they believed and proclaimed a false gospel.
Ill:
• Bible commentators often refer to them as ‘Judaizers’
• (Meaning: "to live according to Jewish customs").
• In other words, they were mixing the old and the new.
• The backdrop to these verses is Acts chapter 15:
• There we read in verse 1 that: “some men from Judea arrived”
• And they started to teach that Gentiles had to first become Jews;
• If they wanted to be ‘proper’ followers of Jesus.
• So, their message was a Jesus plus Judaism gospel.
• They were taking the gospel of grace;
• And changing it to a gospel of grace plus certain practices.
• The big problem with that is,
• As soon as you add anything at all to grace – then it is no longer grace!
• Grace cannot be added to or improved in anyway – add to it and you destroy it!
• Galatians chapter 2 verse 4 tell us;
• That these men permeated the meetings;
• So that they could mix with and deceive other Christians into following their ways.
• Notice in verse 4: Paul's deliberate choice of words;
• "Infiltrated"…”Penetrated”…"Secretly sneaked in”
• They had come to "spy," they were undercover agents on a mission.
• And their intent was to steal Christians away from the message of Paul;
• And get them to embrace the message THEY were proclaiming.
Note: Four things to notice in verses 1 to 5:
• A Journey – Paul explains why he went to Jerusalem.
• A Revelation – Paul explains this was not his idea, God told him to go.
• A Meeting – Paul explains he met with Church leadership in Jerusalem,
• And he described to them the gospel he was preaching.
• A Result – the Church leaders (the Mother Church) were in agreement with Paul,
• That they and Paul both preached the same gospel of grace.
Ill:
• George Whitefield the evangelist I mentioned earlier;
• Used to say to those who preached a gospel of good works:
“Works? Works? A man get to heaven by works? I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!”
• TRANSITION: Whitefield, like the apostle Paul and the Mother Church in Jerusalem,
• Preached a gospel of grace.
• (Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8)
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”
(2). The Steward (vs 6-10).
“As for those who were held in high esteem – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favouritism – they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognised that I HAD BEEN ENTRUSTED WITH THE TASK OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL to the uncircumcised,[a] just as Peter had been to the circumcised.[b] 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas[c] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.”
Ill:
• The preacher was greeting folks at the door after the service.
• People filed out saying the usual things; “Nice word” or “Thanks a lot”
• And you can always tell the visitors they say, “Nice speech”
• One enthusiastic woman said, "That was a good sermon."
• The preacher trying to be humble replied;
• “Thank you but I have to give the credit to the Holy Spirit."
• The lady looked him in the eye and said; "It wasn't THAT good!" she says.
• TRANSLATION: Well the Mother Church in Jerusalem,
• Confirmed the Holy Spirit’s influence in the gospel Paul preached (vs 7):
• That the apostle Paul had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised (Gentiles)
• And the apostle Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (Jews),
• Three other people get a name check in verse 8: ‘James, Cephas and John’,
• I like what they are called, they are referred to as “pillars”
Ill:
• “You can be a pillar or a caterpillar in your Church”
• A caterpillar flies in and out of a building and looks pretty,
• A pillar is essential to the stability of the building!
• TRANSITION: ‘James, Cephas and John’, were “pillars”
• And they gave the “right hand” of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas.
• The apostle Paul had the full endorsement of the Jerusalem apostles,
• And the Jerusalem Mother Church.
Note:
• The ‘false believers’ mentioned in verse 4 had a cunning plan;
• They were expecting the leaders of the Jerusalem Church to disagree with Paul.
• But their plan failed badly!
• Rather than dividing Paul and the Church leaders in Jerusalem;
• God used this occasion to sound out a message that was loud and clear;
• The message of salvation is a gospel of grace and grace alone!
Ill:
• He was born in Italy of humble parents and is said to have trained as a carpenter,
• He started to play the violin as a hobby.
• And that created an interest in the violins themselves,
• He discovered that he had a natural talent for business
• So, he began to acquire and resell some of the many fine instruments;
• That were lying unused in the towns and villages of northern Italy.
• In 1828 he made his greatest coup,
• He acquired a number of violins from Count Cozio of Salabue,
• Including a 1716 Stradivari in unused condition.
• This violin was his treasure, and it came to be known as the 'Messiah'.
• One morning Luigi Tarisio was found dead,
• In his home, they discovered 246 superb violins,
• Which he had been collecting all his life.
• He had violins crammed into an attic,
• The best of his collection packed in the bottom drawer of an old rickety bureau.
• His 1716 Stradivari in unused condition.
• Sadly, in his very devotion to the violin,
• He had robbed the world of all that music,
• That those superior instruments could have produced!
• TRANSITION: How many Christian's are like Luigi Tarisio?
• In our love for the things of God, we fail to share this good news with others.
• Good News needs not just to be cherished, but needs to be told?
• People need to hear it.
• God has committed his gospel to his people,
• And we must guard it and share it with others.
• He is looking for faithful stewards.
(3). The Watchman (vs 11-13)
“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.”
Ill:
• In Bible times watchmen are mentioned in two ways.
• (a). Large watchtowers were placed overlooking the fields.
• There, in the weeks that the crops were ripening and ready for harvest,
• Men would stand watch, guarding the fields from animals,
• Or from thieves who would make off with the crops.
• With the community’s basic food stores at stake,
• The watchman’s role was critical to the townspeople.
• (b). Watchmen stood on the city walls at night or in times of stress,
• Observing and looking all around for danger from bandits or an enemy army.
• TRANSITION: Paul was a watchman who looked out for danger,
• He was not afraid to confront the apostle Peter,
• When Peter moved away from the truth of the gospel.
Question: What did Peter do to cause a public rebuke from Paul?
Answer: Is found in verses 11-13.
• When Peter was in Antioch, he would eat with the non-Jews (Gentiles) Christians,
• We would say, “that is no big deal”, but for Peter it had been!
• Peter was a Jew, he grew up with Jewish prejudices and Jewish predispositions.
• His culture and therefore his practice were that Jews & Gentiles do not eat together.
• And Peter stuck to that!
• It was such a problem that in Acts chapter 10,
• It would take a vision from God to get him out of his Jewish bigotry,
• And to teach him that eating with non-Jews (Gentiles) was ok.
• However, when “certain men” (Jewish brothers) came with James to Antioch,
• Peter went back to his old ways,
• He separated himself from the non-Jews (Gentiles) Christians,
• He allowed himself to be intimidated,
• He became afraid of what they would say and possibly do.
• Quote: someone once said: “We never sin in a vacuum”
• Our sin always affects others either directly or indirectly.
• Peter’s actions influenced other Jewish Christians, including Barnabas (vs 13),
• They too copied his behaviour and started to act hypocritically.
• e.g. This could have easily caused a domino effect,
• That could have easily spread to other nearby Churches.
The apostle Paul when he found out decided he needed to take-action (vs 14):
“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?”
• God’s message is clear,
• Salvation in Jesus Christ is exactly-the-same for both Jew and Gentile.
• There is no two-teared structure or behavioural standards for one group and not the other.
• So, when the apostle Paul saw the behaviour of Peter, he:
• (N.I.V.): “Said to Cephas in front of them all,”
• (ASV): “withstood him to the face.”
• The apostle Peter’s misbehaviour was public,
• Therefore, the apostle Paul confronted him publicly.
• The apostle Paul then goes on to show how Peter’s actions were;
• Sinful, inconsistent, and contrary to the Gospel.
Ill:
• Peter stood condemned by his actions,
• He and others knew that before these ‘Jewish men’ turned up in Antioch,
• Peter was happy to chew on a bacon buttie or enjoy a ham sandwich,
• And after they arrived, he allowed himself to be intimidated,
• And went back to kosha food and not eating with non-Jews (Gentiles).
Note:
• Bible commentators are divided regarding the length of Paul’s rebuke.
• Some say it finished at the end of verse 14,
• Others say it continues to the end of the chapter,
• That the rest of the chapter provide the theological reason behind Paul’s rebuke.
(4). The Destroyer (vs 14-21).
“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
15 ‘We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[d] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 ‘But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a law-breaker.
19 ‘For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!’”
• Great section of verses reminding us that;
• Jesus destroyed the law by fulfilling it.
• (Matthew chapter 5 verses 17-20).
Ill:
• When Jesus died, we are told that the curtain, the veil in the temple was torn in two,
• From top to the bottom (Luke chapter 23 verses 44-45).
• To go back to the Law that came through Moses,
• Is to try and stich up that torn curtain.
• It cannot be done because it has been destroyed.
• TRANSITION: Jesus destroyed the law by fulfilling it.
• (Matthew chapter 5 verses 17-20).
• Therefore every Christian is justified not by keeping the Law buy by faith in him.
Note:
• The use of the word ‘justified’ in verse 15.
• This is the first time the apostle Paul uses it in this letter.
• And possibly the first time he uses it in any of his letters.
• (Many believe Galatians was the first letter that the apostle Paul penned).
“‘We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[d] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”
• The words “justification” or “justify” is legal jargon,
• In a court of law.
• When someone has been accused of a crime,
• A trial will be held, and the accused will either be found guilty or innocent.
• If found innocent, the accused is declared justified.
• That person can walk out of the courtroom a free or woman;
• They can walk past their accusers, they can walk past the arresting police officers,
• And they cannot do a thing to stop them!
• Because they have been declared right before the law;
• And therefore, the law has no claim of punishment on them.
Now there is a spiritual parallel to that scenario and it is this:
• God declares or pronounces every true believer to be justified before him;
• That is God sees them, ‘Just as though they had never sinned’
• He can do that, not because they are perfect,
• But because Jesus Christ is perfect, and we are made right through him.
Ill:
• To change the illustration:
• Before conversion we were in debt to God;
• And we had no means of ever clearing that debt.
• Jesus who was in credit,
• Willingly took on our debts and paid them,
• But he also transferred his credit into our accounts.
• So that we can never be in debt again!
• TRANSITION: Therefore, no Christian can be more justified than another!
• Both Jew and Gentile are justified before God the same way.
• By faith in Jesus Christ.
• When Peter separated himself from the Gentile Christians,
• He was denying the truth of justification by faith,
• Because his actions were saying;
• “We Jews are different from – and better than – the Gentiles.”
• So, in verses 17-18 the apostle Paul teaches we have freedom from the Law.
• To go back to Moses and the Law,
• Is to deny everything God has done for you.
In fact, the apostle Paul argues in verses 19-20;
• That if a person is justified by the works of the Law,
• Then why did Christ die? He died for nothing if that was true!
“ For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”
• According to the apostle Paul;
• We are so identified with Christ by the Spirit that we died with him.
• This means we are dead to the Law.
• And so to go back to Moses is to go back to the graveyard!
• We have been raised with Christ,
• Raised to walk in newness of life.
• And because we live with resurrection power, we do not need the Law.
Note: verse 21 is like the ace-trump-card.
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
• The apostle Paul says people have no choice.
• Either the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of grace or it is not!
• If you add to it or change it in anyway, then it is no longer a gospel of grace.
• And therefore, it is no longer the gospel, no longer good news!
In Conclusion:
(1).
• Paul was ACCEPTED by the church leaders.
• He was not viewed as a self-appointed apostle;
• He was viewed as an equal, one who like them was chosen by God.
(2).
• Paul was AFFIRMED by the church leaders.
• Remember when Paul, Barnabus and Titus met the Jerusalem council;
• It was a meeting of spiritual giants of the early church.
i.e.
• Paul, James, Peter and John;
• Wrote 21 out of the 27 books of the New Testament.
• If Paul or Barnabus wrote Hebrews (many believe it was one or the other).
• That is 22 out of the 27 books of the New Testament.
• In other words:
• These folks had authority!
And in this passage and in Acts chapter 15:
• Paul is both accepted and affirmed by the Church in Jerusalem.
• And the true gospel of God was also affirmed!
• Salvation is all of grace!
(3).
• Paul was REBUKED error (if when it came via the apostle Peter).
• That error affected the message of the gospel and needed destroying.
• The error was a subtle change of message, Jesus plus (in this case the Law).
• The gospel is Jesus only – one sacrifice for sin, once and for all!
• (Hebrews chapter 10 verse 12).
• We have no record of Peter’s response to Paul’s rebuke.
• But when you read Peter’s two New Testament letters (1 & 2 Peter).
• It is clear that he accepted the rebuke and he too proclaimed;
• “The true grace of God”
• (1 Peter chapter 5 verse 12).
• In fact, a bit of trivia, the word ‘grace’
• Is used in every chapter of Peter’s first New Testament letter.
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=2vJ9z44f9D0DEBuEky74YQpNkVxSBpBE
