People Pleasing Peter

Galatians 2:11–14 ESV

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 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. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 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?”

Greek theater term to wear a mask. Your true identity would be hidden and from under the mask you would be speaking their lines. It is acting.

And acting can be convincing can’t it? Actors can be so good at their craft that they have had the ability to make people think that they are that actual character. So when people see Mark Hamil walking down the street they will call him Luke Skywalker

When Sylvester Stallone walks down the street what do you think people yell to him?

I read a bunch of stories this week about actors who cant even go out into public anymore because they have this problem where people treat them like they are the actual character they play on their show.

And for some, on some level it’s really nice, they think, “wow, I must be doing a really good job with this character that people would call me in the supermarket the name of the character I play.”

The problem is that some of those actors play characters that aren’t always that nice. I read one story about a bad guy from a show I never heard of who literally cannot go outside because people would yell at him, throw rocks at him from across the street and he has even had someone punch him in the head.

People really think he is that guy. There are fans that look at these actors like they are the actual characters that they play.

But fans aren’t the only ones who can go a little overboard.

Sometimes the actors go overboard. Sometimes actors can take their roles a little too far. They do what is called Method Acting. Method acting is a system where you get really really deep into the character. Where if you have to display a particular emotion of the character that you dig down deep into your past and try to identify with that feeling so that you aren’t just acting an emotion, you are actually feeling it.

Some of these actors will stay in character the entire time of filming, meaning even after shooting, at dinner or even when scenes aren’t shot. They are still in character.

There is an actor famous for this named Daniel Day Lewis. Whatever role he plays, he goes all out.

When he played Abraham Lincoln he stayed in character the whole time, even leading up to shooting. His interaction with his co stars was always in the language of the day and in character.

When he played is character in last of the mohicans he learned how to hunt and skin animals, he learned how an Indian would cut out a canoe, he learned how to load and shoot a musket while running.

He actually caught pneumonia playing another part because he didn’t want to wear a modern winter coat. That is taking acting maybe a little too far.

But the reality is that these actors are just acting. They are playing a part. And we love it. Because we love movies, and we love the characters that are out there.

And theater goes back to biblical times. There would be plays and there were actors. And they wore masks to portray that character.

They would speak out from underneath these masks and they were called hypocrisis. They are essentially “wearing” these masks and act out a part.

And this is what is expected of all actors, or our entertainers. It’s their job, their job is to act and that is good and right and we buy movie tickets to enjoy it.

But sometimes we experience people that do the same thing. But they aren’t trying to entertain. They wear masks, though. The Greek term for an actor, a mask wearer is hypocrisis, what word do you think we get from that?

You know what word we get from that don’t we? Hypocrite. And that is a very strong, very real term that means that someone isn’t on the up and up. They are saying one thing and acting out in another way.

You know what word we get from that don’t we? Hypocrite.

So this is a terrible thing for a Christian, especially a Christian. For a few reasons.

1. God has always hated it.

Matthew 15:8–9 ESV

“ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Isaiah 29:13 ESV

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

Jesus is quoting Isaiah. The idea is that God is not pleased with someone who says they are a Christian but doesn’t act like it. Remember that Christianity is a heart thing. You can’t fake it, not in front of God, anyway.

This is why it is such a terrible thing for the Christian and this brings us to our next portion of Scripture in Galatians.

Turn with me..

Remember we are in the context of the Galatian churches who knew what Grace was, grace being a gift from God that isn’t deserved, but God just wanting to love us.

And there were the Judaizers who wanted these Christians to act Jewish by getting circumcised. Paul wanted nothing to do with it and told the Galatians about this time he went to Jerusalem to back up or to legitimize his convictions with the church of Jerusalem.

We talked about that last week. Paul now gives another example that centered on a really difficult thing that he had to go through. He had to face Peter, oppose Peter, call Peter out by the way that he was acting. Peter was being a Hypocrite.

Galatians 2:11–14 ESV

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 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. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 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?”

Here is what happened. Peter visited Antioch, we don’t know why but he was part of the church.

Part of belonging to a Christian fellowship like this would be the sharing of meals together. That was a normal occurence which would happen every week, in some cases every day. Christians would regularly get together and share a meal.

And it would have been for everyone. From the slave to the rich landowner, everyone was equal and for the slaves, this meal could have been the only good meal they got all week.

Peter is there and he is eating with everybody including the Gentiles. And probably enjoying it too. Remember that this is fairly new. Jews didn’t associate with non Jews, it was just the rules.

Enjoying BBQ, Spare Ribs. Bacon maybe! Maybe some shrimp or lobster, or steamed crabs. All those foods he wasn’t allowed to eat growing up. Peter would never have eaten those foods because Jewish people didn’t do that. But if we remember our study of Acts we remember that God told Peter specifically that those unclean foods that were previously unclean are now considered clean.

Peter saw that vision of all those animals on the sheet that was lowered down and God said “get up Peter, kill and eat and Peter said, No Way! I can’t eat those, I haven’t ever eaten anything unclean. and God replies in

Acts 10:15 ESV

And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

So when we read that Peter was eating with the Gentiles but then he drew back and started eating with the Jews exclusively

Galatians 2:12 ESV

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.

I don’t know how to explain this. Peter knows that there is nothing wrong with eating “Gentile food, with Gentile people. Which makes it so perplexing that when some of the Judaizers came, Peter started separating himself from the Gentiles.

It’s like when the cool guy comes to eat at your lunch table at work or at school. Wow, so and so is sitting with us. Awesome. Glad to have him. But then the next week his friends come back and he leaves you high and dry and goes back to sitting with them,

Peter was wrong. It was contradicting everything God had personally told him. He is being a hypocrite, an actor. He’s wearing a mask. You can see how this could be a problem. Peter believed in the message of God but wasn’t acting it out.

Paul see’s what’s going on. Paul calls him out. In front of everybody.

Galatians 2:11 ESV

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

Galatians 2:14 ESV

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 are you doing Peter? You aren’t doing right. And Paul calls him out in front of them all? Why does he do this? Why such the display?

Because a public sin has to have a public response. A private sin deserves a private one. That makes sense right? You don’t need to go to the church and make a big stink about someone’s personal private sin. Read to learn how to deal with sin in other people.

But what Peter did was very public and had public implications, so, if he was in the wrong, then Paul would have to go after it in a public way.

Remember who Peter was. This guy was roommates with Jesus for 3 years. This is Peter after all. Not that he asked for it, but Peter is a public figure. Everybody knew Peter. He walked on water with Jesus. He witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus. He had the resurrected Jesus talk with him privately. This is Peter. He was a celebrity in the church. Even if he didn’t want to be.

So when the circumcision group came and Peter went back to eating only with them it would have sent a big message. A message that needed to be taken care of immediately.

It was important because hypocrisy can have such far... reaching results. There are so many people out there today that won’t step foot in a church, or wont have 10 seconds of conversation about Jesus because some hypocrite, even a well intentioned hypocrite messed it up for them.

Hypocrisy is so dangerous and so serious.

Hypocrisy will destroy your reputation. If you catch someone in hypocrisy then you are done with them. You won’t believe another thing they say. It’s so hard to trust someone who has lied to you, who has acted in a way that isn’t in step with who they are supposed to be. If you are jilted or if you are the recipient of hypocritical behavior, lying, cheating, etc that stays with you.

There will always be that little thing in the back of your mind. Is what they are saying true? Can I trust this? Will I get burned again?

Hypocrisy will not only will it destroy your reputation but (and I think this one is even more important… Hypocrisy will destroy your influence. What I mean is that if you are a Christian trying to “sell” Christ and you act in a hypocritical behavior then you are effectively destroying the reputation of Christ, and if you are trying to tell someone about Jesus they may never have anything to do with Jesus or God simply because of the behavior of a hypocrite.

Is it fair? Absolutely not. Is it true? Sadly, yes.

You see we have a world out there that is full of Christians, people who claim to be Christians who give God a bad name. I think about Facebook and Instagram and the posts that I see. People are posting bible verses one day, and maybe the same day they will post something that isn’t in step at all with God. And when I see those things I think “if you are going to post this bad thing, don’t post the bible verse! You are sending mixed messages, you are identifying yourself as being a hypocrite.”

Every time a Christian acts like a hypocrite it can damage the work of all Christians do.

This is why it is so serious. This is why Paul made such a big deal about it. Peter was acting hypocritically and Christianity was at stake. Paul knew this. Paul realizes that hypocrisy not only destroys our reputation but it destroys our influence. And of course Paul was all about convincing people, all people, not just the Jews that Jesus was God, and here is Peter acting like you are supposed to be Jewish?

“Peter, oh yeah that guy who walked on water with Jesus. Yeah, he doesn’t eat any food unless it’s kosher. What’s going on? Is Peter going back and being Jewish? He must be, I don’t know. All I know is that he is spending all his time with those guys who want everybody to be Jewish again. Well, I guess he knows what he is doing. I guess we are supposed to be Jewish.

The influence that Peter Peter had was so influential that his actions here could have affected the future of Christianity. Is there a Paul Christianity and a Peter Christianity? Paul had to step in.

Hypocrisy voids our influence

Hypocrisy voids our reputation

Why is Peter doing this? Why would he “separate himself from the gentiles”? The second part of verse 12 tells us.

Hypocrisy voids our influence

Galatians 2:12 ESV

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.

He feared the circumcision party. He feared them. This is a little bizarre but yes, Peter feared them. This happened before when Peter denied Jesus the three times by the servant girl.

Fearing man over God is ridiculous but we do it all the time.

We just want to keep the peace. We just want harmony and unity. But we need to remember that we follow God first and foremost. We never follow man, especially if they are causing us to sin.

This, again is why Paul made such a big deal over it.

Proverbs 29:25 ESV

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

Peter let people get in the way of what God wanted. He wanted to be accepted, and he began to let it happen when he compromised, but Paul won’t let it.

Wouldn’t it be great to have someone in your life that cares enough to tell the truth? That is what Paul was doing. Let’s go back to chapter 1 in Galatians for just a second.

Galatians 1:10 ESV

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

What Peter was doing was trying to get the approval of man and God. The problem is that you usually don’t get to do both. You and I have to make a choice when it comes to who we follow. Are we going to follow man, or are we going to follow God?

If we choose man then it might feel good for the moment but then we know that we have done wrong. When we put people’s feelings above what we are supposed to do for God we are making an idol out of other people. We want to be accepted by them so we compromise a little here, or there but in the end it is the sin of idolatry. We are putting others above God.

It is a very serious sin but I will remind you once again that we belong, to, yes belong to Jesus when we “surrender” our lives to him. Belong to. And that means that we technically shouldn’t be tempted by how others perceive us.

What is our goal then? We know that living without hypocrisy is the goal. How do we do that? Part of that is we remember who we belong to. If we belong to Christ then we remember that our lives belong to him. As a matter of fact we will be talking about this next week when we talk about Justification where Paul reminds us that we have been crucified with Christ. We no longer live but Christ lives through us.

Are you living your life as if it belongs to Jesus? If you aren’t what would that look like? What would it look like if you truly belonged to Jesus? Because we cannot have it both ways. We can’t have one foot in Christ and one foot in the world. It just doesn’t work.

Peter thought he would be able to balance that out but it never works. How do you stop being a hypocrite in your life?

I think that it helps to remember who we belong to. We belong to Christ and no other. That helps, I think. It helps to know that we are not our own. We don’t need to please those around us, our aim in life is to live for God.

Remember this, we represent Christ in everything that we do. We represent him. And when we act like hypocrites we misrepresent Him. How are you representing God these days?