Separated from Grace
Notes
Transcript
Intro
It’s funny what happens when you’re not concentrating.
I used to live on the north side of Sydney. And I’d often have to travel south, over the Harbour bridge for work and then return north to go home. Used to do it so many times. Very familiar road. But on that road there’s an intersection where if I turn right, it will take you to the Northern Beaches where we used to live, but turn left, it’ll take you to the North Shore, where my mother-in-law lives.
Now, it’s been 7 years since I lived in Sydney, but since then, more times than I care to admit, I’ve gotten to that intersection intending to go and visit my mother-in-law but I’ve just automatically turned right - without thinking. Call it a brain explosion. Whatever. To this day, I have to concentrate hard to turn right.
Old habbits die hard.
What we see in our passage, this part of Galatians is the apostle Peter, friend of Jesus, the one Jesus’ told to lead the church, we see this Peter returning to an old habbit. Having a bit of a brain explosion. We’ll get to why a bit later.
But what we see is that what Peter knew, the gospel, that God’s acceptance of him is a gift, given in Jesus, available to everyone regardless of who they are - what Peter knew, wasn’t reaching how Peter behaved. He’s having a bit of a brain explosion where what he knew - the gospel - was in direct conflict with how he lived: heirarchy with God depending on your Jewish ancestry and observance.
We all have brain explosions, mostly it just leads to a bit of embarassment, like absent mindedly driving ‘home’ to a place you haven’t lived in for almost a decade.
But sometimes, a brain explosion can lead to a major disaster, like looking right before stepping onto the road in the US - a good way to get yourself run over from behind.
Peter’s brian explosion is more like the second one. It’s damaging, messy, and it doesn’t fit with the life he is now, supposedly living.
But this is not just about Peter. God in his kindness has caused this to be written for us. Because God in his knowledge of us, knows that we are just as suceptible to brain explosions, and stubborn bad habbits as Peter.
So think of this passage, this book really, as God, through the apostle Paul, shouting at us to wake up, pay attention, put brain in gear before we step out onto the road.
Pray
Point 1: Wake up!
Point 1: Wake up!
state
Wake up!
show
Galatians 2:16 (BE:NT)
But we know that a person is not declared ‘righteous’ by works of the Jewish law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.
Explain
To be declared righteous, in biblical language is to be ‘in the right with God’.
To be in his favour and his family. To have God the Father say to us, what he said of Jesus: ‘this is my son, or this is my daughter, I’m well pleased with them’.
The gospel is the news that that is available to everyone who accepts Jesus life, death, resurrection on their behalf. It has nothing to do with whether or not you keep eat Kosher, keep the Sabbath, are circumcised, or if ancestry tells you that you have some Jewish DNA - that’s me.
No, it’s all a gift.
And Peter was living as if that were true. As if Jesus died so that anyone can be declared righteous. But then he had a brain explosion, and went back to living as Jesus had never happened, that’s how Paul characterises what Peter is doing in verse 21. He’s setting aside grace, saying that Christ died for no reason!
Illustrate
My friend Justin Moffatt said he’s only ever flown business class once. Years ago he was living in the US and he and his wife and daughter were going to fly back home to Australia. They’d booked economy class but because the airline thought his wife was the daughter of an NBC news anchor who favoured the airline, when they got to the door of the plane and were about to turn right, they were ushered left instead.
It’s such an interesting thing isn’t the class divide on a plane - maybe the last part of the class sytem left in Australia. Turn right, and you use plastic cutlery, turn left and it’s stainless steel. Turn right and you eat junk, turn left and you ask for your steak medium rare. Turn right, you sleep upright, turn left, you sleep reclining, turn right and you are squeezed in like sardines, turn left and there’s room for your elbows and the elbows of the person next to you. And of course, you’re separated from all of the plebs back in economy by a curtain.
Now, we get that business class isn’t something you’re born into. Even if your surname is Rinehart or Packer, or for us Canberrans, Snow, someone still had to pay and if it was Dad or Mum, you still had to be on good terms with them, not squander your inheritance, or get disinherited. You get let in because you paid or the family paid.
Why are we talking about airlines? Well I think my friend Justin is right to say that airline travel may just be the perfect analogy for understanding Peter’s brain explosion.
Because airline travel reflects so well, what every ancient Jew knew about the way God relates to human beings. Some - those who kept the Jewish Torah, the law of Moses, earned their place among God’s people. Sure, they were born Jewish, but then kept Torah. And so they were found to be righteous - part of God’s special people, up in business class.
If you think I’m stretching the analogy, the temple in Jerusalem was set up exactly like this - down to the curtain - amazing.
In the outer court you had cattle class. The place for the Gentile, those who wanted to fly, but weren’t willing to do what it takes to get into business class. Those who couldn’t quite bring themselves to eat Kosher, observe Sabbath and get circumcised. That’s the outer court - you’re kind near God, but not part of the ‘decent people’ on the other side of the curtain, in the inner court, business class.
A Gentile man could get past the curtain, if they were prepared to pay up, start following Torah - including getting the snip. A Gentile could convert to Judaism. But like business class, not many were willing to do.
The thing is, the gospel that both Peter and Paul heard, remember last week we heard they compared notes, they agreed, was the news that Jesus had come and thrown out the plastic cutlery, ripped out the cattle class seating and torn out the curtains.
The gospel is the news that Jesus has transformed the entire plane into first class and given us a ticket paid for with his blood. Righteousness is a gift. To both business and economy people. Jews and Gentiles. Everyone gets a first class ticket.
And yet, even when we know that, even when we say that’s what we believe, passionately, it’s so easy to forget it. At least, it’s so easy for this part of us [the part below the ears] to forget it.
Old habbits die hard.
That’s why Paul says in verse 21
I don’t set aside God’s grace. If ‘righteousness’ comes through the law, then the Messiah died for nothing.
Application
Easy to forget grace. Old habbits die hard. Grace is not a natural thing for us. What’s natural is living or speak as if there’s a divide, some heirarchy that God pays attention to. Some ladder with ‘our kind of people’ at the top, and others at the bottom. And this doesn’t always neatly map onto the traditional class structure in Australia. It’s not like only those who went to private school and drive German cars put themself at the top and those who went public and drive Korean cars at the bottom. We all do this. We all tend to place ourselves in a heirarchy. Even Australias.
Sometimes it’s just old habbits. There’s people we’d prefer not to be around because they’re not our kind of people. Sometimes we have reasons. Pressure to be more serious, ‘bad company corrupts good morals’, don’t go near them. Sometimes it’s quite practical, remember there’s pressure on the church to be more Jewish because of the Roman exemption. Sometimes we find it easier to distance ourselves from ‘those types of Christians’.
exp of group paying out Christians - ‘oh but not you, you’re not like that.’ Token Christian in group. Easy to throw your brother or sister under the bus
Whatever the reason, Paul says to Peter, you’re not living in line with the truth of the gospel. With what you know. Wake up!
Jesus says, it’s the fruit of your life that shows whether or not you know him.
Old habbits die hard, we all have brain explosions. Gotta wake up, put brain into gear.
Transition
And then we’ve got to use our brains. We’ve got to think.
Point 2: Engage brain!
Point 2: Engage brain!
State
Think through the implications. Consider how what you know ought to shape your life.
Show
Peter had doen that. He really had realised that the gospel had huge implications for his entire life. Paul realised that, in Arabia - heard that last week. Peter realised that in Acts 10-11. He has this vision of unclean foods and after 3 times finally understood it wasn’t really about unclean foods, but unclean people. Peter actually went into bat for Gentile Christians, was eating in their homes - Jewish taboo, defending them against others who said they had to become Jews.
Paul acknowledges that, Peter, you live like a Gentile - you were liberated. How is it then that you are now forcing Gentiles to live as Jews, when you gave it up, because God told you to give it up? Why are you now trying to force them - like I used to force people to be more ‘Jewish’ at the end of a spear?
Engage brain. Take the gospel you know and trace the implications.
Show
Galatians 2:15–16 (BE:NT)
We are Jews by birth, not ‘Gentile sinners’. But we know that a person is not declared ‘righteous’ by works of the Jewish law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.
That is why we too believed in the Messiah, Jesus: so that we might be declared ‘righteous’ on the basis of the Messiah’s faithfulness, and not on the basis of works of the Jewish law. On that basis, you see, no creature will be declared ‘righteous’.
We are Jews by birth, not ‘Gentile sinners’. But we know that a person is not declared ‘righteous’ by works of the Jewish law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. That is why we too believed in the Messiah, Jesus: so that we might be declared ‘righteous’ on the basis of the Messiah’s faithfulness, and not on the basis of works of the Jewish law. On that basis, you see, no creature will be declared ‘righteous’.
Explain
We know that. Peter, you and I, we’re Jews by birth. And we kept Torah. We we’re in business class.
And yet, we also know that no one is declared ‘righteous’ because they keep Kosher or get circumcised.
How did they know that?
At the start of the Torah, what we know as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy - at the start, and at the very foundation God did something gracious.
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
If you don’t know, or can’t remember, Abraham lived centuries before anyone said a word about Kosher! Or Sabbath! And he was declared righteous - in with God decades before anyone said anything about circumcision.
Paul says, we Jews know this. You can’t get more Jewish than Abraham. And Abraham is in with God because of grace.
But we know it even more emphatically by the gospel:
show
V16 ‘we believed in the Messiah Jesus, so that we migth be declared ‘righteous’ on the basis of the Messiah’s faithfulness, and not on the basis of works of the Jewish law’.
Anyone, can be a child of God, simply by his grace.
And so Peter, can you see how refusing to eat with Gentiles, is sending a different message?
Can you see that insisting that people become Jews is sending a different message? Can you see how that is saying Jesus died for nothing?
I know you’d never want to say that with your words, but your actions are saying that!
Teaching point
Notice how practical this is. It’s about who you eat with. Whose house you’ll enter. Who you’ll be seen with. Not about going to heaven when you die. Of course, the gospel has implications on what happens after death. But the criticism of Christianity, that it’s an opiate of the masses, promises pie in the sky while doing nothing about fixing the mess of the world is just wrong.
This is a concern about your life, and the life of the people around you for whom Jesus died. Whom he loves.
Paul goes on there in verse 17-18
Well, then; if, in seeking to be declared ‘righteous’ in the Messiah, we ourselves are found to be ‘sinners’, does that make the Messiah an agent of ‘sin’? Certainly not! If I build up once more the things which I tore down, I demonstrate that I am a lawbreaker.
Explain
Paul says, I’m meeting with sinners, that’s what the Jews called the Gentiles, I’m mixing with the wrong kind of people, unenlightened plebs, cattle class people, does that mean is Christ promoting sin. Are we defiling the kingdom of God somehow. Turning business class into economy. Next thing you know there might be a child in here or something. Jesus wouldn’t have that!
Vesre 18: Christ destroyed the curtain. I went and preached this.
But if I put it back, then I would really be a law-breaker.
Unless I include the Gentiles, live in the reality that Jesus has ripped up the curtain, as those who were in the temple at the time of his death saw, I’m defiling the kingdom.
Defiling it with this awful, heirarchy - which is something we 21st century Aussies are very atuned to hate - but more than that v 21 I’m setting aside God’s grace and I’m saying Christ died for nothing - which is surely an infinitely more offensive thing to say isn’t it?
Apply
Our actions matter. Our actions say something. Our actions can influence others.
Peter influenced all of the Jews in Antioch - a whole city. Peter influenced even Barnabas, Paul’s closest friend.
What we do shapes what the people around us do. Our brain explosions can destroy others. It can turn people into hypocrites - it can turn the people we find a bit ick, or difficult, or not our kind of people into second class citizens - people who trust in Jesus but we exclude, and god forbid, others join us in excluding them.
What we do matters. Not because it earns us a seat on the plane. No, because it can so injure the other passengers, and totally silence the message of the gospel.
Instead of our lives saying ‘everyone in Jesus is first class’ we say ‘sir, maam, please return to the rear of the aircraft with your people. ’
Point 3: Walk the line!
Point 3: Walk the line!
State
Live the new life.
Being a gospel person - that’s the definition of a Christian - someone taken with the gospel - it’s not something you sprinkle over the rest of your life like a seasoning. It’s not augmenting a decent and otherwise fine life with a bit of religion.
No it’s a new life. It changes everything.
Show
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ;
Death is about the most profound change that can happen to us yeah?
And the gospel is about death. Death of the old you. Paul says Jesus has changed who I am. Everything. When he went to the cross, I went with him. When he walked out of the tomb to new life, I walked out with him.
This is where the plane analogy is so helpful again, because it’s just like a plane right? When I get on a plane to fly to Brisbane in 2032, as I hope to do to catch the olympics, my destiny will be tied to that plane. When it goes up, I go up, when it reaches a cruising speed of 950km/h, so do I, when it lands in Brisbane, so will I - I hope!
That is what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. We are in him. Theologians talk about participation in Christ. I died. I was curcified with him.
I am, however, alive—but it isn’t me any longer, it’s the Messiah who lives in me. And the life I do still live in the flesh, I live within the faithfulness of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You might’ve noticed we’re using a slightly different translation today for our bible readings. I think this translation is really helpful because it draws our attention to the fact that this new life we live is all about Jesus’ faithfulness to his Father, going all the way to the cross.
It’s not about how big or small, strong or weak our faith is. How I feel on any given day.
Sentiment about it can change. Some days we may feel like we really trust God. We really know that we’re loved, so we don’t have to look for love elsewhere, we know that God will provide for us, so we don’t have to take what he says isn’t ours, we know that he values us, so we don’t have to prove anything to anyone. Some days we know that.
And other days we dont.
But thank God, that the gospel says it’s not about my feelings, my faith, but his.
I live within the faithfulness of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Me. Not ‘people’. Not ‘humanity’. Me.
Illustration - M&Ms
Our youth group has been reading this great book called ‘Who am I and why do I matter’ by Chris Morphew. And in it Chris talks about how he loves M&Ms (the chocolates). But Chris says, no one, certainly not him, loves each individual M&M. If you lose one behind the couch as you’re throwing them into your mouth, you just shrug and dig out another one.
God’s love for us is not like Chris’ love for M&Ms. He loves us each personally. Individually.
Application
See what Paul is doing. He’s trying to give Peter and you and I some time in Arabia - some time to let the gospel sink in into our heads yes, but then into our hearts, and out to our hands, our feet, our mouths, our calendars, our wallets. All of the things that demonstrate what we trust. Where we think our life is to be found.
Old habbits die hard. And if they die hard for Peter, the rock of the church, the first apostle, the die hard for us too.
But because God loves Peter, and he loves you and me, he caused Paul to go and oppose Peter, and then to write it down for us.
God did that so that Peter would be free. And the Gentile Christians in Galatia would be free. And we would be free. Free of our ugly prejudices. Free to mix with everyone. Free to enjoy a family where there is no second class and nothing to prove.
