Week 4 Hypocrisy
Notes
Transcript
Announcements: Get out your calendars
Announcements: Get out your calendars
All location in adults continues this Thursday at 7 PM At the Hall location
If you’ve never been, this is a time of worship community message, and fellowship after at the gym
I would love to see you there. It’s a great opportunity for you to invite friends and family who don’t know Jesus.
October 10th Is our all location bonfire
This will be at Pastor Josh Combs’s house. He is the head pastor of The River Church location, pastor of Goodrich and reach Pastor.
He will be doing a Q&A and I highly recommend writing down notes, bringing friends who don’t know Christ who have questions. It’s a great opportunity to learn and grow.
And October 12 is our men’s night out. This will be a car show at The River Holly once again. This is a great opportunity for the gospel to be heard and for us to grow as men in our relationship with Christ.
And finally, if you haven’t signed up for the ladies retreat, that will be this weekend. Registration is still open I believe.
Recent Tragedy:
Recent Tragedy:
..Now for a few minutes, I’d like to just take a moment and pray… As I’m sure most if not all of you are aware of the recent tragedy this weekend just down the road. i would like to lift up Those who are affected and continue to be affected by this tragedy…
Lets pray…
Intro:
Intro:
But with all that said, I have a question for you tonight…
Who are you on the front stage and who are you backstage?
Who are you in public and who are you in private?
When I was in Pastors Academy, they have this section called front stage backstage where they talk about in ministry. You can look good from the pulp, but you can look good teaching the lesson, but sometimes the backstage of your life is in shambles.
And I’m curious in this room how many of us put up a face put a front put on a mask
of doing well… Of righteousness… Of being a good Christian… Of pretending everything’s fine in your relationship….
I’m curious to know does our front stage match up with our backstage?
Because it’s so easy to fake it till you make it it’s so easy to create a public persona on Instagram, Facebook and whatever else you use but tonight in your heart in your mind, where are you at?
Because tonight we’re gonna look at the damage it does when we live one way In front of certain people and live another in front of others
Tonight we’re gonna look at Cephas. We’re gonna look at the apostle Peter. And what inconsistency in his life did to the Christian community…
But what that said open up your Bibles to Galatians chapter 2:11-14
Text:
Text:
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?”
Prayer: Amen….
Prayer: Amen….
Recap:
Recap:
By way of quick reminder throughout the book of Galatians, we’ve seen Paul Step into a quick and swift rebuke
He rebukes the churches in Galatia that they have abandoned, deserted the gospel, deserted the truth of Jesus Christ in order to follow something different something twisted something perverted from the truth
And then Paul steps into his credentials, talking about who he is, and then he verifies his gospel with other apostles, showing the Galatians that if they don’t trust him, they can trust and ultimately they should trust God
But now Paul shifts towards the argument towards the division that they are choosing to follow, which is the division between Jews and Gentiles
This tension was that for gentiles to truly be saved. They had to follow the old testament covenant. They had to follow the law of Moses and I’m not talking about the 10 Commandments we’re talking about the ceremonial law.
Which means circumcision, kosher certain feasts and other practices must be kept in order to be saved. Was this so-called other gospel
And Paul is quickly showing the Galatians that he is willing to stand up for the truth of the gospel to anybody
And he also points out the importance of living a life, consistent with the truth of the gospel
Starting inverse 11
Galatians 2:11–14 (ESV)
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
Paul makes this shift when he talks about when Peter and In our text, he is called Cephas Came to Paul In Antioch. And Paul talks about him confronting Peter and he is very strong language to his face
How many of us in this room are high confrontation people how many of us are low confrontation people?
From what we can read about with Paul he seems to be a high confrontation person when it matters
But Paul gives us more context of why he’s going before Peter and confronting him what he’s confronting him about we get more context in the next verses
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.
So what are we seeing here? What’s happening with Peter? What is Paul observing?
Well, Paul is observing that Peter when he was alone when he was just with Paul when he was just with the Gentiles, he was eating and living like the Gentiles… Walking in the freedom, we have in Christ
But when those from James, when the Jewish party came, he drew back, he turned his back on the Gentiles, pretending like he was different than they were acting as though he never dined with them
In this moment, we see Peter acting in hypocrisy
And we know this because Peter already affirmed the gospel is for the Gentiles and already affirmed that the Gentiles do not have to follow the decrees of the Old Testament law to be saved…
And we see this in act chapter 15
5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,
9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
So here we see Peter and the apostles declare that the Gentiles do not need to carry the yolk of the old testament law, but they should seek the Will of the Lord they should seek to obey the Lord through salvation through the grace of God
And later on we see in Acts 15 that Peter says we should tell To keep themselves from idols and not fall into sexual immorality…
Peter is encouraging sanctification, not works based salvation…
But with all that said Peter isn’t standing up and saying oh the Gentiles now have to follow the law… Peter is only changing his behavior not his words. Why does this matter what we see why this in verse 13…
13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
All of us have heard the term actions speak louder than words… And often times that is true it is true that the way you act will affect those around you
Each and every one of us in this room is a leader is a person of influence. The way you live will dictate the way others live.
Peter in a more private setting was comfortable living in the freedom of Christ and enjoying fellowship with the Gentile brothers, but once the circumcision party came once the other Jewish Christians came, Peter drew back, separated himself
He acted embarrassed of the Gentiles and was in fear of man
And this action, this demonstration of falling interfere led to those around the apostle Peter to fall into the same hypocrisy
Barnabas, who was preaching to the Gentiles fell into it as well
Who in your life is falling into hypocrisy because they’re looking to you for how to live like Jesus?
And maybe you’re in this room and you’re like oh why would people look to me? They should look to Jesus.
And I agree with you I agree in a perfect world. We should only look to Christ as our example, but that’s not the world we live in and even according to Paul we are meant to be examples to each other.
1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
We are to imitate Paul we are to imitate Christ and others will imitate us. They will look to you for what is right and wrong as Christians.
And the people who do not even believe in Christ will look to you as a moral standard whether they say it or not…
So again I wanna ask you what did your front stage and backstage look like?
Who are you when you are in the church and who are you when you are outside the church do they lineup? Are they the same person? Would you recommend following them?
Because we are called to live in step with the truth of scripture in step with the truth of the gospel
This doesn’t mean perfect, but this does mean that you and I live in life that represents Jesus
6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
If we claim to be Christian, that means we are Christ followers, and that means that we live privately and publicly for Christ daily
And when we don’t, when we don’t live for Christ and every aspect of our life, we lead people astray… And that’s what Peter did and we see how Paul response
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?”
What we see here is Paul confronting Peter before everyone…
And there’s a reason for that because Paul isn’t looking to humiliate or publicly shame, Peter
But he’s looking to establish the truth of the gospel before everyone who is misled before everyone who Was lead to a different gospel because of Peter’s actions
Paul wasn’t trying to be me. Paul wasn’t trying to say I told you so Paul was trying to bring people back to the truth of the gospel and sometimes that means public rebuke.
If myself or Pastor Chuck were to speak something that was contrary to gospel or live in a way that was leading people astray we should be publicly reprimanded publicly corrected, so that not just us, but everyone would see the truth of the gospel
Now I have another question for you are you willing to publicly stand up for the gospel?
When someone’s words or actions lead people to works based salvation, are you willing to stand up for the gospel? Are you willing to publicly say that that’s actually not accurate
Are you willing to publicly with kindness and love but firmness show people the truth?
Because in our world in person and online, we see people living in a way that gives license to sin that leads people to workspace salvation that leads people to an empty gospel and my question is, will we stand out for the truth?
With kindness and love will be keep each other accountable to the truth of the gospel???
Because your backstage is just as if not more important than your front stage
Who you are at work who you are at home who you are at the grocery store who you are driving down? I 75 in the middle of construction is just as important as who you are on Sunday mornings
And honestly, I would say it’s for more important because hypocrisy has no place amongst Christianity
A double life has no place amongst Jesus followers
And I wanna remind us that no one is perfect in this room. No one is without sin and every single one of us have struggled and may be struggling with this tonight.
So I’m gonna give us a layout for response
Number one recognize all have sent in fallen short of glory of God, every single one of us
No one is righteous no not one
And according to first John
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Our hope is not in perfection our hope is in Christ… Our hope is in the gospel
So if you’re in this room and you feel like you’re living a double life It’s time for you to repent and turn back to Christ maybe for the first time or the 10 millionth time
And if you’re in this room and you’re living a life, not perfectly but consistently for Christ front stage and backstage, you must call out, lies with truth and love
We can’t allow people to think of Christianity as a works based system we can’t allow different gospels to live in public life. When someone speaks a lie, we must speak truth.
Close with a story about George at Qdoba
George and I went to Qdoba and he started saying things that weren’t true about Christianity and then I began to speak truth and explain truth to him
At this point tonight, I would like to pray and after prayer, I’m gonna invite you to break up into two group groups, ladies I’d like you to move towards the front and put together a little circle for discussion groups
And gentlemen, I’d like you to go grab a chair from the back and head out to the lobby and put together a circle for discussion groups
We’re gonna have some time to go through the text together and talk about what we see and what stands out to us and then after about 20 minutes, let’s go ahead and pray for each other in groups of two or three and then we’ll be done for the evening at about 8:30
