Staying Free

INTRO

If you have your Bible you can turn to Galatians 2, if you don’t have one grab one around you or make sure to follow along on the screen.

We are in part 3 of Paul’s testimony which is important to us today because it helps us see evidence of the Gospel that should be in our lives. But also, it shows us how our testimony is important, and how it should be shared with others so that people can know how to be free in Jesus.

Because the important word that Paul has been driving home is the word/wprds: Rescue/Deliver. Jesus recued you and delivered you from bondage into freedom. He pulled you from death to life. If that is not your testimony than you may not be believing the Gospel. Yes it looks different for everyone, but we should be careful to be aware of how the Gospel continues to transform us because the Gospel is something we believer every day and not just a one time event. It changes is the way we think, act, and behave. And when we are not careful we, like the churches in Galatia can start to believe a false Gospel. Or, as we will see in today’s text, that even Peter the super apostle that walked with Jesus on water, can forget the Gospel when other things creep into our lives.

So we are going to read this today but I’m going to need some help from kids today because we are going to make this into a one act play.

Grab T-Shirts. Hand out to kids. Have people put tables up on stage.

SCRIPT Put kids up at the gentile and jew table.

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, Have Peter come up. Peter is Cephas because it is the Aramaic name for Peter. But remember last week, Paul and Peter where in unity over the Gospel in Jerusalem. Now Peter comes into Gentile territory where Paul’s missionary base is, in Antioch. Peter welcome to Antioch, you are about to be rebuked. Have a seat at this table.

I (Paul) opposed him to his face, Paul, come on up here man. Paul is still sharing his testimony to the churches in Galatia to show them that he is not here to be approved of by anyone but God. So no person, even if it means the one and only Peter, the rock, the one who walked with Jesus and had 3,000 people come to Jesus after preaching his first sermon at pentecost, needed to be rebuked for not upholding the Gospel.

because he stood condemned.

12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; Peter come sit at this table with these Gentiles. Peter is fellowshipping with Gentiles because he was believieving the Gospel that Gentiles do not need to uphold jewish laws to be saved. We are going to talk more later about why this was such a bug deal.

but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. Peter, please sheepishly and cowardly move from one table to another as these three Jewish leaders approach you in condemnation and shame. Now you can all have a seat at this table.

13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. Barnabas siting at Gentile table get up and sheepishly walk over to the jewish table. Paul will be in the background.

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?” Have a piece of paper for him to read. Make him read it with passion a second time.

AND END SCENE! Okay give them a round of applause. You guys did great!

BODY

English Standard Version Chapter 2

11 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?”

So this situation is important to Paul’s testimony and to the Gospel for a lot of reasons. More than we have time for. But like I promised you, we need to talk about why this was such a big deal for Peter (Cephas) to first sit with the Gentiles, and then to switch sides to the Jews.

UNDERSTANDING CEREMONIAL LAWS

This is all in your notes and I’m going to try to make it as simple enough for even a child to understand it hopefully.

Ceremonial laws were obeyed to stay clean and acceptable to worship God.

In Leviticus 11, 15, 20, there were different foods that Jews could and could not eat, things they could and could not touch, that if they followed, they could enter the temple and worship God. If they did not follow those laws, then they could not go into worship God in the temple. This was not God being mean, this was showing that God is Holy and we are sinful, and so we need to act in a certain way in order to worship a Holy God. You can’t just walk right into God’s Holy and magnificent presence.

Because of these laws, Gentiles were seen as unclean

Jews were not to associate with Gentiles. They were different. The Gentiles could come and worship Yahweh only if they followed these Jewish laws. But even then, only to a point. So what do you think happened for Jewish people who forgot that God called them in his grace? They became prideful, racist, and religiously prideful toward Gentiles. We are better than you. This is what Peter was taught growing up. He was instilled this fear of Gentiles like you and I were instilled to not run out into the street unless we want to be hit by a truck. We need to know this so that we can get into Peter’s head in this situation

In Mark 7:14-23 Jesus declares all foods clean with his arrival.

How can that be? Doesn’t God still care about His holiness? Doesn’t God still need to deal with our sinfulness? Not when Jesus who took care of our sin so that we could know the father and His holiness is here. He is what makes us clean. Not food. He is what makes us acceptable. All the laws and rules of the Jewish tradition were not there to make you a savior (meaning you could obey them) but were there to show you your need for a savior.

In Acts 10 and 11 God gives Peter a vision and experience showing that Gentiles are accepted by God through Jesus.

Take some time to read it on your own but Peter has this vision that God has made all animals clean. He then is welcomed to a Gentiles house named Cornelious and preaches the Gospel. The Holy Spirit falls on this room of Gentiles and Peter realizes that Gentiles can be in the family of God because of Jesus not because of clean and unclean food.

That vision and experience all happened before this visit to Antioch with Paul.

So this begs the question, after all of this What is going on with Peter? Why was he going back into bondage even after having these amazing events?

I think it is worth exploring why Peter fell into bondage and how Paul calls him out of bondage because it will help us today too.

How Did Peter Fall Into Bondage? / How Can We Fall Into Bondage?

Fear of man

Racism

Religious Pride

I gave you all of them up front, because really they are all connected. Fear of man and religious pride are almost the same thing. Racism and religious pride are the same thing. But the all have a different flare. So let’s talk about fear of man first.

FEAR OF MAN

Bold and fearless Peter, the one who stood up on Pentecost to preach the Gospel, fell to fearing these prominent Jewish leaders AND a belief that he grew up with that Jews were supposed to no eat with Gentiles. Let’s give him that benefit of the dobt. Adults, are there still some things in your life that you are doing because of how you grew up? Okay, something we are all working on. But the thing that happened for Peter can also happen for us in that we change how we act around different people for the worse. Can we all be honest and say that it is really east to fool people in church. It doesn’t take much skill for someone to walk in here, talk a certain talk and then leave and get drunk by Sunday night. Or go home and yell at their wife. Or go to work the next day and have no evidence of CHrist in their lives. If that is happening, you don’t just have fear of man in your life, you are not believing the Gospel.

The remedy, the healing for all of these is the Gospel. The true Gospel. Not the I prayed a prayer once and go to church sometimes Gospel. The beliefe that God accepts you fully into his family because of Jesus. That he loves you with a love that makes you uncomfortable because it is extravagant. A welcoming home that makes angels rejoice and you feel like you have been delivered from bondage and are walking in freedom. So the need to be accepted by others is a deficiancy in believing the Gospel.

Paul, who calls himself the lowest of the Apostles, is able to stand up and confront not just Peter, but barnabas, and these other high leaders in the church because he knew his identity in the Gospel. He was transformed and lived in that transformation everyday. Oh give us grace to believe the Gospel and get set free from this need for approval from others.

RACISM

I know this can be hot topic these days, but I’m just reading what is happening in the text. There was a hatred and a superiority from Jews towards Gentiles that was saying we are better than you. Kids, there are things called caste systems or another translation, who is cool and who is not. Here are some examples (as for examples?)

Caste Examples: Rich/Poor, Weak/ Strong, Talented/Not Talented, Socially Acceptable/Awkward, Fun/Grumpy, White/Black Indian/ White, Clean/unclean

I’m sure there is more but the idea is that one group of people thinks that the other group is better for whatever reason. It could be because of life choices, it could be because of diet, or whatever. There are two tables and one is the cool table and the other is the loser table and Jesus says enough. You are unified in me. The wall of hostility is torn down because I care for the poor and you rich people, I called you in grace too. Do you just do what your friends do? Or is there any kind of following Jesus because that’s where your identity is not just in your friends, or your social status, or whatever you find comfort in?

Paul confronts Peter in saying, hold on man, you who are a jew can act like a gentile but you are going to make Gentiles act Jewish? You are going to make sure the weak have no off days but the strong can? Your going to have one standard for you and a different for another person just because they are different than you? That’s not what Jesus taught us. Are you Biblically illiterate Peter? Have you forgotten the words of Jesus? Have you forgotten that he says we should go to Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth to talk about him, not Jewish traditions?

All of this can happen even in the church today. We don’t associate with those people because, they are different. They are from Luverene, they like hymns, they don’t listen to Fox News, they don’t drink black coffee. It’s always dumb stuff. We make these little racist pockets of “I’m better than you” which show us once again we don’t believe the Gospel. We have not been transformed by the Gospel that when we were at the not cool table, Jesus sat with us. When we were the poor, Jesus made us rich. When we were unclean, Jesus came and made us clean. So now we are called to follow Him. The Gospel transforms you, even the deepest part of you that for whatever reason thinks you are better than that person, but humbling you.

Religious Pride

As I said before, this is connected with racism and fear of man. Peter and the Jews that withdrew from the Gentiles were doing this out of a place of thinking that their doctrine supported the hatred. So the Jewish law, which Jesus had fulfilled in himself, was something that they still wanted to hold onto, even though Jesus told them all food is clean, and yet to justify their actions they looked to a man made religious tradition to calm their conscience. Now wait a minuted Josh, it wasn’t man made because God gave them those laws! But God also, through His son made a better statement on the cross saying that it is finished. The curtain tore. No more need to follow these ceremonial laws because Jesus has washed us clean. The only reason they wanted to hold onto them was control.

The Gospel challenges our innermost thoughts. It doesn’t just change outside behavior, it sets us free from the inside out every day. Sometime in our day and time can use religious pride to cover up sin. Well ya I’m a Christian, I go to church. I even listen to Christian radio sometimes. And those are good things. But are you saying those to prove that you are even though you know there is another life that you are trying to control and live? Or are you saying them because people see the Gospel and they want to know why you are so different.

Listen, if we filled every church on a Sunday morning, had the best worship and the best sermons preached, it would mean nothing if all of us did not take to heart what Paul is telling us here in Galatians. Believe, every day, the Gospel. Let it transform you and deliver you from fear of man, racism, religious pride, and anything else in this present evil age so you can live in the freedom of what Christ has purchased.