Galatians: Legalism vs. Liberty
By Pastor Ronald H. Gann
Sermon Title
Paul v. Peter: Justification by Faith (Part 1)
Bible Text:Galatians 2:11-21
Date Preached:Sunday, October 23, 2011
Series:Galatians: Legalism vs. Liberty
Message:#6 / MP3: BCC_04_06
Transcription:Rhonda Fowler
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Pastor Ronald H. Gann
BridgeWay Christian Church
182 Rockingham Road
Londonderry, NH 03053
(603) 759-7120
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ell good morning. If you have your Bible with you, I want to invite you to turn with me to Acts 10. Acts 10. And while you are turning there, I also want to call your attention to the screen.
Leviticus 20:25-26 says this:
You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and unclean and clean birds. Do no defile yourselves by an animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you. You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
Now the longing for God’s heart in the Old Testament is that He would have a holy people, separated from the abominations of the Gentiles, set apart for Himself and enjoying the blessings of the promise land. And that is exactly what God did when he elected the Israelites, the Jews, the Hebrews, as His chosen people, His chosen nation.
And one way God that went about making the Jews separate, among other things, was by ascribing to them a rigid code of dietary restrictions. That is what a Jew could and could not eat. And because it was imperative the Jews remain distinct and separate from their idolatrous neighbors. These dietary restrictions were meant to hamper their interaction with non-Jews.
Ahhh, but by the time we get to the New Testament, especially Acts 10, all of that is yesterday’s news. The dietary restrictions of Leviticus 20 become obsolete, because, there in the city of Joppa, on the rooftop of Simon the Tanner’s house, Peter has a miraculous vision. And this vision is what we would call a game changer.
Acts 10:9. Read with me if you will.
About noon the following day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat. And while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice to him, “Get up Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not Lord,” Peter replied, “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” And this happened three times. And immediately, the sheet was taken back to heaven.
Now jump ahead and look at Acts 10:34 real quickly.
Then Peter began to speak. “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism. But accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.”
Again, real quickly, jump ahead to Acts 10:47.
Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.
Now this is a remarkable story. While sitting on the rooftop of Simon the Tanner’s house in Joppa, Peter experiences a miraculous vision. And in this vision, this sheet descends from heaven with an assortment of all kinds of clean and unclean animals on it. And the Lord says to Peter, “Get up Peter. Kill and have some lunch.” And Peter says, “No Way!These lips have never tasted anything that has been impure or unclean.” And God responded by saying “Don’t you dare call impure what I have made clean.”
Well from this vision Peter realized the dietary restrictions of Acts 20 no longer applied. But even more than that, what this vision really meant was that Jesus Christ had come and died and torn down the barrier between unclean Gentiles and clean Jews. There no longer was any such thing as spiritual inequality among God’s people.
That’s why Peter could conclude in Acts 10:34 that,
“I now know that God doesn’t show favoritism but He accepts everybody from all nations, regardless of their background, who believe in Him and do what is right.”
The days of restriction were over. The days of separation among God’s people were gone. God showed Peter in this vision in Acts 10 that he accepted believing Gentiles in as much as he accepted believing Jews. There no longer was any distinction between them.
God’s people had in thing in common among them—they were related to one another through faith in Jesus Christ. The days of restrictions were gone. The days of separation between ethnic people were over. The days of racial inequality had come to an end. And the days of Jew versus Gentile were a thing of the past. God sees his people, regardless of their ethnic background, as one people. And he expects only one thing from them, from both Jew and Gentile alike, and that is faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul reminds us in Colossians 3, there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free—for Christ is all and is in all. Again, he reminds us in Galatians 3, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female—for you are all one in Christ Jesus. A Jew who believed in Jesus Christ was no more bound by the restrictions of the Law than a Gentile was expected to keep it. Jesus Christ had fulfilled the Law perfectly. It’s what theologians call His act of obedience.
So both Jew and Gentile had been set free from the bondage and yoke of Law-keeping. And nobody knew this better than the apostle Peter. He was the one who experienced this vision in Acts 10 that tells us as much. He was the one who admitted in Acts 10:34 that God doesn’t show favoritism. He was the one who admitted in Acts 10:47 that the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit just as much as the Jews had. And just so you know, so supportive of the Gentiles was the apostle Peter that he was the first of apostle to go on record and to testify on their behalf at the Jerusalem Council, where the early Church came together to debate the prerequisites for allowing Gentiles into the Church.
In fact, let’s let Peter speak for himself.
Act 15:6-11 records his testimony. Peter said this:
Brothers, you know that some time ago that God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God who knows the heart showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? Know we believe it is by the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as the Gentiles are.
The idea that a Gentile had to first become a Jew before they could enter the Christian Church was bogus to Peter’s mind. That issue had long since been divinely settled in his mind going back to his vision in Acts 10. And Peter’s point at the Council was simple and it was direct. The Judaizers who required the Gentiles to be circumcised had no right to require of the Gentiles what God had not. Again, that issue had already been settled in Peter’s mind.As far as he was concerned, Gentiles were on equal footing with Jews in the sight of God.
Ahhh, but even the godliest men, even the most orthodox, have a tendency to slip up every now and then. Even the most spiritual, most advanced Christian, is liable to fall into error. And Peter was no different.
We learn from our passage this morning in Galatians 2 that the first great champion of the Gentile cause, the apostle Peter, didn’t always keep the courage of his convictions. In fact the Peter we meet this morning in Galatians 2 seems to be a far cry from the Peter we just read about in Acts 10 and Acts 15. He slipped up big time. And so, exactly was Peter’s sin? Well, let me see if I can illustrate this for you.
In my early to mid-20’s, I had a really good friend by the name of Jeff. Jeff and I went to high school together, but we didn’t become friends until many years later until after I had got out of the Marine Corps. We attended the same church and because we had mutual friends in common, we got to know each other and we started hanging out a bit. Well, Jeff was the type of Christian guy who treated church more like high school rather than a place of worship. Not that I suppose I was much different than him at the time.
He seemed to be in it for all the wrong reasons—for the fellowship, for the activities, for the sense of community that comes with a church, and dare I even say it, for the girls. You see, that was the real problem with Jeff. He was girl crazy. And he was a husky guy and he never won over any of the ladies with his looks. So what he lacked in physicality, he made up for with an outgoing personality. And so Jeff had this insatiable appetite to flirt with virtually every woman that he met; almost regardless of her age.
Now, sure he would come to all of the men’s groups. He would attend all of the men’s retreats. He would come to church on Sunday morning. We played on the church softball team together. And he was actively involved in the singles club. Jeff was mister popular, there’s no doubt it. And when it was just him and the guys, Jeff came off like a natural born leader. He was fun to be around and he an awesome sense of humor. And he could quote the Bible almost as good as he next guy if he needed to.
But whenever a girl came around, Jeff changed. He no longer was this spiritually refined guy that he pretended to be with other guys. Instead when a girl was thrown into the mix, he became awfully worldly. Instead of talking about the Bible or theological matters, like he would do with the guys, he would instead tell off-color jokes to spark a smile from the girl. After all, we all you know if you want to win a woman’s heart, you gotta make her smile, right?
And if you had a conversation with Jeff when a girl was around, he wouldn’t look you in the eye because it was obvious that something else was vying for his attention. But the thing that bothered me the most is that whenever I talked with Jeff when there was girl within earshot, his voice changed. When it was just him and the guys, he was real, he was authentic. But when there was a girl around, he sounded fakebecause he was obviously showing off.
My point being this is Jeff’s convictions were swayed by the company that he kept. If he was hanging out with the guys at church, he conducted himself accordingly. If he was hanging out with the church softball team, he came off like a natural leader and he was our coach. If he was hanging out with his friends, he was real and he was authentic. But when we hung out with girls, those of us who knew him best knew that it was a fake Jeff. It was a Jeff who feigned spirituality to keep up appearances. But he didn’t act according to his convictions.
Well folks, this was the problem with Peter. His convictions were swayed by the company that he kept. And when he was in Antioch with Paul and Barnabus, visiting the Gentile church there, Peter would prove to everyone, especially Paul, that he lacked the courage of his convictions. Now there’s no doubt that Peter was the life of the party. Right? After all he was the great apostle Peter. Right? He fellowshipped with the Gentiles. He meandered about with non-Jewish Christians. He ate at the Lord’s Table with all of the saints, regardless of their ethnic background.
But when some unexpected visitors from Jerusalem, some Judaizers, claiming to come from James—when they arrived in Antioch, something changed in Peter. The Peter of Acts 10 and Acts 15, this great champion of the Gentile cause, he was nowhere to be found. Just like my friend Jeff who acted differently whenever there was a girl in the room, the real Peter disappeared in Antioch when the Judaizers showed up. And a phony Peter suddenly emerged, who took his place.
Galatians 2:11-21 is our text this morning. Read with me if you will.
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong. 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. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabus was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew yet you live like a Gentile not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, know that a man is not justified by observing the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law. Because by observing the Law, no one will be justified. If, we while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. If I rebuild what I destroy, I prove that am a Law breaker. For through the Law, I died to the Law so that I might be live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing.”
And as far as we know, there was no response from Peter. When Paul had visited Jerusalem, Peter, James and John, they entrusted to him the right hand of fellowship. However, when Peter visited Paul in Antioch, Paul opposed him to his face. Why? What gives? Both men were apostles. Both men knew what it was to be forgiven for their sins. Both men knew what it was to receive the Holy Spirit and to be called and commissioned and used by God. In fact, the book of Acts is divided between the two of them. The first part dedicated to the story of Peter—the second part, the story of Paul. Yet, here in Galatians 2, while in Antioch, Paul opposes Peter to his face, rebuking him, contradicting him, admonishing him, condemning him. How could something so right end up so wrong if even for a season? The answer is because the first great champion of the Gentiles cause, the apostle Peter. He lacked the courage of his convictions and he withdrew from table fellowship with the Gentiles because he was swayed by the company he kept.
So let’s look at Galatians 2:11-13.
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong. 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. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabus was led astray.
Now in Galatians 2:11, the scene shifts from Jerusalem, where Paul had been talking about his visit to Jerusalem with Barnabus and Titus at the Jerusalem Council. And now the scene shifts to Antioch, where the first Gentile church was established were Christians were called Christians for the very first time, and where Paul and Barnabus served on staff as co-pastors along with some other men.
Well, when Peter shows up in Antioch to pay his respect to Paul and Barnabus, apparently he joined Paul in eating with the Gentiles. His Jewish scruples had been overcome, due in large part to his vision in Acts 10 and, of course, the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. And he didn’t consider himself in any way to be defiled or contaminated by his contact with uncircumcised Gentile believers. In fact, he embraced them and he enjoyed table fellowship with them. Peter knew that there is only one body of Christ. And that this one body of Christ is a mutt. It’s not a pure breed. It is comprised of all kinds of types and classes and people of the earth from every tongue, tribe, and nation—not just Jewish.