Galatians 2.11-21 Garden to Garden City - Reformation truth

Textual theme: Paul opposes Peter because contrary to the universal acceptance found in the Gospel, Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles because of his fear of the circumcision group.

Universal Truth: one cannot deny fellowship with any Christian because they clash with our cultural heritage because we are justified before God only on the basis of Christ.

Main Message: Because we are justified before God on the basis of Christ, we cannot deny our fellowship to other Christians who are culturally or sociologically different to us.

[intro Garden to Garden City]

Today is Reformation Sunday, the Sunday closest to Reformation day. Now much to the disappointment of some, I am not big on the ecclesiastical calendar. I think we can very lost in the liturgies of the year if we are continually moving from one celebration to the next. And it actually ends up leaving very little room for the kind of depth you develop over time when you explore scripture sequentially as we have been doing over our garden to garden city series.

But when the good Lord gives us these moments of coincidental convergence, who I am I to argue - because today is Reformation Sunday, and it is also the time in our garden to garden city series where we are starting to look at some of the key truths of the letters which the New Testament writers gave us.

So where we are in the story is that the Chrisitian faith has now spread through a number of different cities throughout the ancient world. But how do the Apostles make sure that the church stays true to the teachings of Jesus?

Well what they did is they wrote letters, and of course the apostle Paul here shines through as one of the most prolific writers of the day. And in his letter to the church in Galatia, he deals with one of the core central truths that the Reformation helped the church rediscover some 1500 years later.

And that truth has to do with our justification. IT has to do with HOW we are saved.

And as we will see, this question has enduring relevance for us today too.

So what does our text say: let’s have a look. We are reading from Galatians 2:11-21

Galatians 2:11–21 CSB

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. 12 For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. 13 Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?” 15 We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,” 16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. 17 But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. 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 comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

The first thing I want us to look at today is the reason for Paul opposing Peter

What is the problem here?

Why was Paul so irate that he left all sense of propriety behind him?

This goes against every grain of our being.

Imagine if you are visiting some mega-church somewhere,

you know with one of those celebrity pastors.

And then the guy from the church next door,

comes,

right in front of everyone

and tells this guy he is so wrong in what he is doing.

Would this happen in our circles?

What shock,

what scandal,

what shame.

This would never happen in our circles.

What is much more likely is that if we disagree with the guy on stage,

we might make a slight mention to one of the elders,

quietly after the sermon have a quiet word with the pastor,

if we are really concerned we might actually write a letter to the session.

But we would not take someone head on,

in front of the whole assembly.

It just wouldn’t happen.

You see Peter was a very important apostle.

So was Paul.

Virtually half of the book of Acts chronicles the actions of Peter,

the other half chronicle the actions of Paul.

Both guys were very important people in the early church.

Peter was one of the Pillars of the Jerusalem church,

he was the man to whom Jesus said

“on this rock I will build my church”

. Peter was an important guy.

Opposing him to his face,

in front of them all,

was a really drastic action.

And why did it happen?

Because Peter stood condemned.

The word there used for condemn,

occurs only 3 times in the New Testament.

And in this form it occurs only here.

In this case it refers to someone’s present state based on their past action.

And this is highly significant.

You see there is a real interplay between being Justified by Jesus,

and being condemned by our own action in this text.

Now it is probably right for us to pause here and just think about what Justification is, otehrwise we wont understand why this is so important.

Now remember that the main issue, the big problem that the whole big picture story has been all about is how can that gap between humans and God be closed? That gap that exists because of our sin. Adam and Eve are cast from teh garden of eden, precicely because their relationship with God has been broken. Legally they stood condemned before him. They had incurred a death debt, which needed to account for.

And what happens on the cross is that Jesus takes that death debt onto himself. And he pays the debt and we are set free.

When we believe in Jesus, when we trust in that sacrifice, when we accept that free gift through, then that judgement “paid in full” is applied to us.

That is our justification.

it happens once, at the time of us coming to faith, based on the once for all sacrifice of Jesus.

it is the legal declaration that we are in a right relationship with God. its like getting a sign hung around your neck saying this label applies to me.

It is our debt cancelled, on the basis of Jesus work on the cross.

So when you mess with justification by faith in JEsus’ work on the cross, you mess with the whole story.

it is a critical reformational truth.

So we then must ask why Paul here get’s his nose so bent out of shape.

And what is it that Peter was doing?

Well,

at first glance,

it doesn’t seem that bad.

You see all Peter was doing

Was that he started to withdraw from eating with the Gentiles.

He started only eating with the Jewish Christians again.

Our text puts it this way

“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.”

He began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles.

That is not exactly a strong action is it?

He simply started not eating with the Gentiles.

And that was it.

That was his big crime.

He started not eating with the Gentiles.

So why was this such a big issue for Paul.

Why would Paul take such drastic action

as to oppose Peter to his face in front of all the crowds,

if Peter’s great sin was simply starting

not to eat with the Gentiles?

To understand this we have to look at what this small action meant.

To eat with someone in the culture of the day,

meant to accept them,

to share life with them,

to accept them as brothers and sisters.

This is why Jesus got into so much trouble

when he would routinely eat with sinners

and tax collectors.

He was effectively saying

“These are my people”.

So when Peter started withdrawing from table fellowship with the gentile Christians

he was effectively saying

“these are not my people”.

What Peter was starting to do through his actions, was to say that yes Jesus died on the cross, and yes that is what saves you, but now you are also a little bit better if you also happen to be a Jew, or you get circumcised, you know, like a real follower of JEsus would.

Peter was starting to introduce a hierarchy of faith, based on our actions, not based on the action of JEsus on the cross.

And Paul says, if you mess with that, you are condemed.

You see Paul is so strong here

that he borders on saying that the apostle Peter’s actions

are placing his standing before God

in jeopardy.

He was effectively saying that unless you became circumcised

you are effectively less of a Christian

than me.

And if you look at what this small action resulted

in we see how much of a problem this really is.

You see Paul exclaims that even Barnabas was led astray.

And this isn’t a small leading astray

– Barnabas,

the person who traveled with Paul

– the apostle to the Gentiles,

separated himself from the gentiles.

And we have to appreciate how easily this happened for these guys.

You see,

all their life they had been taught:

you are the special people,

you are the Jews.

God’s chosen people,

God’s special nation.

And as God’s special nation,

don’t intermingle with the nations around you.

Don’t intermarry with them.

Keep yourselves separate from them.

Make sure you remain pure

– this is the duty of a Jew.

And then Jesus came,

and blew it all away.

The laws which were created to separate the Jews from the world,

found their fulfillment in Jesus.

And no longer is it necessary to separate themselves,

to keep themselves apart from the other people.

And this was difficult for them.

They were trying to figure out how they could live as Jewish Christians.

They were asking themselves

– am I a Jew,

am I a Christian?

Am I a Jewish Christian?

You see their very cultural identity as Jews was at stake here

– and Jesus comes and declares Gentiles to be clean

because of his work on the Cross.

And it is hard for these Jews to make sense of the world.

And Peter struggled with this too,

and he got it wrong.

And so Paul opposes him to his face.

So that is the first thing I wanted us to see

– the reason Paul opposed Peter.

And now I want us to look at how this affects us today:

want you to see that I find this both terribly confronting

and terribly comforting.

So firstly Terribly confronting

Why do I find this terribly confronting?

Well for a couple of reasons.

When I read this it makes me question

which cultural presuppositions I hold?

Especially when it comes to other Christians.

As you know I am from South Africa.

Johannesburg – Crime capital of the world.

Go me.

And as a boy growing up there racism is all around me.

Even in church.

I went to a church in South Africa,

and towards the last couple of years we attended there,

the church started up a service for black people.

But not during the same time as the white people service.

And this was long after apartheid came to an end in south Africa.

The official policy of the church was to welcome everyone to every service,

but everyone knew

that the white people had their service in the morning

– at the civilized hours of the day.

And then during the middle of the day,

the black people could have their service.

And heaven forbid that they run a bit overtime,

because see the night service

for the white people had to begin again…

And the justification for this was pretty easy to give

– you see the way black people worshiped God

was so different from the way white people worship God,

that it just makes sense for us to separate

“us” from “them”.

And yet of course this is not how it is to be.

Peter ate with the unclean gentiles,

but friends I don’t think I ever shared Lord’s supper

with a black person

growing up.

Not because my parents prohibited it

(they were actually quite progressive in this area)

but because the church culture I grew up in

prohibited it.

And what is the problem with that?

Is the problem primarily a race or cultural issue?

No the issue is more fundamentally an issue of identity.

You see God had declared to Peter

that all Christians are clean because of Jesus.

That is what the whole episode in Acts

with the sheet of unclean food being dropped from heaven

was all about.

God declares that because of Jesus,

all Christians are clean before him.

Except that Peter acted

as if this was not the case,

and I think my old church too acted

as if this was not the case.

You see in not eating with the Gentiles

Peter,

through his actions

said,

even though God has declared you clean and righteous because of the work of Jesus,

I do not view you as such

. To me you are still lesser and somehow unacceptable.

Do you see the problem here?

In having a view like this we not only negate the good news of the Gospel,

we actually place ourselves above God!

The good news of the gospel

is that we are all sinners who have been saved by grace alone,

not out of any goodness of our own.

And when we

through our actions

act as if

even though God has declared you clean because of Jesus,

I see you as somehow lesser than me,

we are saying that it is actually our opinion,

our view,

our judgement

means more than that of God!

When we separate ourselves

or judge other Christians as being of less worth than us

for any reason,

We are in effect saying

“ Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross is

, you know, ok I guess,

but MY opinion of you is far more important.”

Peter knew this,

he knew it,

and yet he still did it.

And I wonder what form this takes today?

Where we view other Christians as somehow less than ourselves,

even though we know

that they share the same place as us before God.

That they are of equal worth before God.

The obvious first form is as I mentioned racial exclusion.

Now I am not sure,

but I honestly don’t think this is much of a problem here in our church,

anyway I haven’t really seen much evidence of this.

It could be I guess,

but I just haven’t seen it,

which is great.

Then there is socio-economic exclusion:

this is where we do not mix

with the other socio-economic classes.

In its worst form it comes down to

– you have less money than me,

therefore you are worth less than I am.

And this is especially a temptation for those who are are affluent.

To Paraphrase Kath and Kim

– the affluent to do mix with the effluent.

Then there is group exclusion

you know where the cool/popular people exclude less popular people.

This is especially prevalent in school and uni age people,

but can stretch across the ages.

This is where those who are perhaps socially less skilled

are excluded from a group

just because they are not

the “life of the party”.

And friends these are not things that non-christians are doing to us,

I think what Paul is writing to about here

is what Christians are doing to each other.

And our text here says

– this is totally inconsistent with the truth of the Gospel.

That is why it is so terribly confronting.

Any type of exclusion,

any type of prejudice,

any view which exalts me

and lowers another person

is totally inconsistent with the truth of the Gospel.

Any type of exclusion,

any type of prejudice,

any view which exalts me

and lowers another person

is totally inconsistent with the truth of the Gospel.

You see coming to grips

with our own iniquity,

our sin,

our own ugliness

our own guilt before God,

doesn’t really leave us with much superiority.

The more and more I am convicted of my sin,

the more I see my need for Jesus,

the more I see my own insufficiency

before the throne of our mighty glorious God,

who out of his sheer mercy

chose to redeem even one such as me,

The more I see that,

the less space there is for any sense of superiority.

The more I get to know myself,

And the more I get to know my God and my king Jesus,

the more I see

that there are literally zero grounds

on which I can cling to any type of superiority.

How then can I exclude any brother

or sister in Christ of mine

from Christian fellowship?

How can I pretend that I am worth somehow more than anyone else?

The plain and simple fact is

– I cant. .

Jesus had to die,

because I had no grounds on which to stand before God.

Jesus had to die,

because I had no grounds on which to stand before God.

How can I pretend that I am worth somehow more than anyone else?

I cant.

The plain and simple fact is

– none of us can.

Jesus died for all Christians

precisely because they had no grounds

on which to claim any sense of superiority over other people.

And that is terribly confronting.

It drives us to our knees before an awesome God

in thankfulness and worship.

It is terribly confronting

because it leave us

with no room to exalt ourselves.

It is terribly confronting

because it makes us see our own smallness

in the face of God’s bigness.

That is why it I find this so terribly confronting.

So terribly confronting.

And that is the second thing I wanted us to see today.

So we have seen why Paul opposed Peter.

And we have seen why this is terribly confronting.

So now let’s look at the final part of our message today,

Why this is so terribly comforting.

Terribly comforting.

Why do I find this terribly comforting?

Why do I find this terribly comforting?

Because the Apostle Peter got it wrong.

Because Peter stuffed it up.

You know so often we think of the Apostles as super Christians.

And of course they definitely were special

– they were the ones who had spoken to

and met Jesus personally.

They established the early church,

most of them were killed for their beliefs.

In many many ways

they were extraordinary people.

But this was only because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit.

This was only because of God.

These guys were just 12 ordinary guys

from various different occupations.

Peter was a simple fisherman.

Paul was a tentmaker.

Matthew was a tax collector.

And it was only because of Jesus

that the simple fisherman Simon became the apostle Peter, the rock.

It was only because of Jesus

that the murderer Saul became the apostle Paul.

And still,

Peter got it wrong

Peter got it wrong,

and this I find to be a great source of encouragement.

Because friends,

I get it wrong,

and I am sure you get it wrong too.

You know Peter here was guilty of hypocrisy,

he was guilty of creating cliques within his church,

he was guilty of acting contrary

to the truth he knew to be true.

But Paul reminded Peter

, quite publically,

about the truth of the Gospel.

God was not done with Peter yet,

he sent Paul to straighten him out.

And I think that that is a great comfort.

I find it a great encouragement,

that the gospel of Jesus Christ,

him crucified and

him resurrected

continually straightens us out.

It continually aligns us to the will of our king.

Sure it isn’t always nice to hear a rebuke when we get one,

it hurts us and

it humbles us,

but it is for our good.

Friends the gospel is good news,

it is the good news that despite ourselves,

despite our shortcomings,

despite our best

and worst efforts,

God sent Jesus Christ to die

because God loved the world so much.

It is the good news that despite any superiority

we might feel over our fellow Christians

, because of our intellect,

because our social status,

because our financial status

or because our racial or cultural status,

that we are still all brothers and sisters,

the same,

before God.

It is the good news

that despite our sinful and deceptive hearts

– God is not finished with us yet.

And if even Peter could get it wrong,

and had to be straightened out with the truth of the Gospel,

then because of Jesus,

I am Ok with God.

And that my friends,

is terribly comforting.

That like Peter,

like Paul,

like all other Christians,

because of Jesus,

I am OK with God.

And that is terribly comforting.

Do you share in this comfort?

Do you believe,

have you experienced the truth,

that despite yourself, because of Jesus,

you are OK with God?

If you don’t believe this, if you don’t feel this comfort friend,

I urge you,

even today

– place your trust in him.

Jesus Christ is the one who makes us right with God.

Not because we are circumcised,

Not because we don’t mix with the wrong crowd,

Not because we do anything good,

But by grace alone,

through faith in him.

What a terribly comforting thought.

Because of Jesus,

I am OK with God.

Amen.

Songs:

1. E1 Exalt the Lord Our God (twice)

2. BoW 441 Guide Me, O my great Redeemer (v1,2&3).

1. O4 O Lord Hear My Prayer (v1 & 2, repeat v1)

2. BoW 428 We are Heirs of the Father (1,2,3,4)

1. L12 Lord Make Us Instruments (all verses)

2. BoW 237 Blest be the tie that binds (1,2,3,5,6)

1. BoW 434 The Servant Song (all verses)

NEW SONG Build Your Kingdom (rend collective)

Sources:

Keller, Tim 2013. Galatians for you: The Good Book Company. London.

Longenecker, Richard N. 1998. 41 Galatians. Dallas: Word, Incorporated.

McKnight, Scot. 1995. Galatians. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Robertson, A.T. 1933. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.

Simeon, Charles. 1833. 17 Horae Homileticae: Galatians-Ephesians. London: Holdsworth and Ball.

Spurgeon, Charles. 2013. Galatians. ed. Elliot Ritzema. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.