Kept True By the Gospel

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0:01My name is Joel. I also forgot to introduce myself. So again, I'm so glad that you're here. Visitors, thank you for coming, for taking the bold step of faith to come to a brand new church. We hope that you meet God today. We're going to continue our brand new sermon series on the church's core values, new creation's core values. The core values, simply put, these are principles that we want to constantly true ourselves up to as we move forward in our mission. You have to have some principles that you continue to kind of hone in on, remind yourself of.

0:35If you want to see what they are, you can look at the back of your bulletin. They are the Bible, the gospel, discipleship, and unity. Now, last Sunday, we focused on the gospel. We talked about from 2 Corinthians 5, how new life begins only through the gospel, only through faith in Christ. We're focusing on the gospel again this week, and here's why. The gospel is not just the means for new life to begin. It's also the principle for new life to flourish. I can't tell you how important this is. It is not just the means for new life to begin. It is the principle by which new life flourishes, and that's what this passage is all about. Think of it this way. On a mission to the moon, the spacecraft needs not just a rocket to help it break Earth's orbit, but it also needs a guidance system so that it stays on track towards its destination. The gospel is both the rocket that lifts us up out of the force of gravity, but it also is the guidance system that keeps us true towards the destination that we're headed. It's both of those things. Today's passage, it tells us about a dramatic public confrontation between two church leaders, two apostles, two of the most influential apostles, Peter and Paul. Basically, Peter messes up big time, big time. Paul calls them out on it, calls them out on it publicly. There's a lot that we can learn from this passage, a lot to glean from it. We see in this passage lessons about conflict, about leadership, about fellowship in the church, but the most important lesson from this passage, the reason why I think the passage is in

2:29Scripture, is to teach us that we are kept true by the gospel, that even a leader like Peter needed to be trued up to be trued up to the gospel sometimes. So read with me. It's in your bulletin. It's on the screen. Galatians 2, 11 through 16. This is the Word of God for us today. Let's pay attention to it. Let's learn from it. Let's sit underneath Scripture today and be taught. But when Cephas, if you don't know Cephas is just a different name for Peter, so this is Peter, but when Cephas came to Antioch, I, Paul, 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?

3:52We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. Pray with me. Holy Spirit, be at work. Help our hearts to receive your word. Lord, help it to bear fruit. Change us, Lord. We want to want the same things that you want.

4:33And what you want for us is for the gospel to not just start our new life, but can constantly influence it. Help us to learn from this passage and help us to be your faithful disciples, Lord. Lord, if there's anyone here who is still wondering about Jesus, I pray that the gospel would be clear and compelling and that Jesus himself would just seem magnificent and beautiful. Lord, I pray that for all of us. Help us all to want him more to look like him more. Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen. Okay, so the main point of this passage is this. I've already said it. We are kept true by the gospel. For those who like alliteration and rhyming, last week we learned we are made new by the gospel. Today is we're kept true by the gospel. I know it's probably just me that cares about that kind of stuff, but here's the first section. Verses 11 through 13. Peter's mistake. Peter's mistake. Fear and hypocrisy.

5:33The text has a simple and a powerful point. Really just one point. But we need two pieces of context before we can even unpack that. Before we can even see it. So bear with me here. Here's two important pieces of context that you need to know. First, the place, Antioch. What is this place? It was a huge city in the Roman Empire. The third biggest in size and importance. Population at this time was over half a million. Huge city. It was located in what is now Turkey and it was also a cosmopolitan city. Roads passed through there from east to west, north to south. People ended up there for commerce, for trade, for business. It was a very cosmopolitan city. When the gospel spread there, when the message of Jesus Christ reached there, the church was established with a group that included both Jews and Gentiles who put their faith in Jesus. So it was a mixed congregation coming from two very different backgrounds in the same church. In fact, this church became the center of the mission to the Gentiles with the gospel. It was the sending church for Paul and for Barnabas later. Actually, by this time it had already happened. The first missionary journey had already taken place. Antioch was where believers in Jesus were called Christians for the first time. They needed a new name because it was this motley crew of people. What do we call these people? First, it was derogatory, people think, the Christ people. Then it became a term that they actually adopted and used. The second piece of

7:12context that you need is this. In the practice of Judaism, the law of Moses was very, very important. This is what God had given his people to tell them how to worship, how to treat one another, how to govern when they actually had a government to operate, how to live as God's set-apart people. The law told them about ceremonial cleanliness. Now, this is something we have very little understanding of or very little way to relate to at all. But it meant something very significant to the Israelite people. To be ceremonially clean meant that you could enter the temple, you could bring your sacrifices before God, that you could actually practice your faith. If you weren't ceremonially clean, you couldn't do those things. So God gave these laws, these rules. This is how you were clean before me. He was trying to make, the sermon is not about this, but he was trying to make an impression on them. You have to be clean to be in my presence. Now, during this time, Jewish leaders taught people not just to avoid the foods specified in the book of Leviticus, but also to avoid the people that didn't belong to the Jewish group, to Gentiles. They said, don't eat with those people.

8:34You have to not just avoid foods, but avoid people. You can't eat with them. You can't break bread with them. This meant all Gentiles, all Gentiles were excluded from table fellowship. Observant Jews could not share a meal with Gentiles. It wasn't allowed. Now, this rules set upon laws, that approach reflects a distortion that had been happening for some time among God's people. The distortion is this. Many Jewish people at this point believed that it was their careful obedience to the law that made them righteous before God. The Mosaic law was no longer a means of living as God's covenant and beloved people. It was the basis for why God loved them more than other people. Do you see the difference? Do you see how it had switched? It had moved from being a means of living as God's beloved people to actually being loved by God? This is why God loves us more than other people, they would tell themselves.

9:38Now, keep those two elements of context in mind. Otherwise, this passage won't make much sense to you. When Peter came to visit Antioch, Paul opposed him to his face. That's where the text starts. What had Peter done? Look at verse 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. For some time after he arrived, Peter had been in regular fellowship with Gentiles, eating with them, certainly sharing meals, but probably also breaking bread and the Lord's Supper together.

10:20He had been doing that together with them. And you might be asking, well, wait a minute, Joel, how can Peter be doing that? You just said that Jews can't associate with Gentiles. Well, even though Paul was from a Jewish background, God had told him that it was okay. This is why we read that passage earlier from Acts 11. God had told him clearly, it's okay now. Now, something new has happened. I've brought the Gentiles in by faith. They're clean. They're clean by faith now, Peter. You don't have to separate yourself anymore from them. Peter realized that the Gentile believers had been accepted by God just as the Jewish believers had. And so the church in Jerusalem heard his testimony and had said yes, right? So something new had happened.

11:07Seven or eight years later, from that Acts 11 passage, when Peter got that vision, he goes to visit Antioch, right? What he sees is that his vision has now come to full fruition. You have a whole church now of different people fellowshipping together, breaking bread together. The Gentiles had been brought in. So he sees come to life the thing that he saw in miniature that we read about earlier in Acts 11. But then certain men showed up. They came from Jerusalem. The text says that they're from James, if you look there. But that just means that they're from his church. That doesn't mean that they had James' permission or authority. Sometime later, look at Acts 15, 24, if you want to see exactly what James said about these people that went out. These men, basically, this was the far right of the church at that time. They were a group of Jewish believers who, before confessing Christ, they had been Pharisees. They had been a part of that group, either officially or they would actually endorse that group. So they came to Christ and they were finding that their dear attachment to the law was just, it was just hanging on to them. They could not let it go. So they were bringing that into their faith. And they were saying, these Gentiles have got to do other things besides just believe in Jesus. They have to be clean and they have to even be circumcised. That's why they're called the circumcision party. It's not, yay, circumcision party like you're throwing a party.

12:47It's a group of people who believe you have to do this and believe in Jesus in order to be in the church, right? This comes up a lot in Paul's letters. Paul is constantly battling with these people. He's trying to stay clear on the gospel. No, you don't have to do anything else other than believe in Christ to be a part of the church. He's trying to stand up to them, clarify to them, because they've come to Christ, but they're still hanging on. They're hanging on to their old thought process, their old life, okay? So this crew rolls up into Antioch and Peter gets shaky in the knees.

13:22The same guy that was afraid of being associated with Jesus at that campfire, when just ordinary people said, hey, don't you belong to Jesus? And he got afraid then and he gets afraid now. Peter seems to have a problem with fear. Maybe he feared that they're going to slander him and undermine him. He was afraid of what they might think, what they might say, what they might do, but these men from Jerusalem represented, these were his kinfolk and he really, really wanted them to think well of him, right? So he started to get afraid and what did he do? He backs off from fellowshipping with the Gentiles. He drew back and separated himself. He valued the opinion of his bros from Jerusalem more than his brothers and his sisters there in Antioch that he had just been eating with. I mean, just let that sink in for a second. Imagine it was a real-life situation. This is not fantasy. This is not myth, kids. This is actual history. Some visiting people came in and an important leader who had been hanging out in the church for a long time suddenly starts pulling away from you, distancing himself, acting like he didn't know you anymore. Think about how that might feel. Think about what kind of a message that would send to everyone else in the church. And that's exactly what happens. He wanted it to be a kind of quiet thing, but it didn't stay quiet. Verse 13, the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him. Leadership matters.

15:03Bad leadership has a ripple effect. Peter's actions gave the other Jews a bad example. He endorsed separation in the church. The other Jewish leaders followed his lead. The text says even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. Now this must have stung for Paul. This was hard. Barnabas was his close friend. Barnabas is who vouched for Paul. When Paul had first become a Christian, Barnabas had vouched for him in Jerusalem. This guy's okay. He really has changed. Barnabas is who went and found Paul and brought him to Antioch to be co-laborers in the gospel there. The whole reason Paul was in Antioch was because of Barnabas. And now Barnabas starts to turn away. Even Barnabas was led astray.

15:57We just have to pause. And if this hasn't sunk in yet, I want to help it sink in. This was a really, really bad situation. It was terrible. It was a disaster. This is not just, hey, some people can't get along during a meal. Let's take stock of the damage that Peter's actions had done. The Jewish believers had become hypocritical and arrogant, thinking that they were better than other people. The Gentile believers had been marginalized and offended.

16:26They'd been made to think that they weren't really good enough to even be there. The once united church, it had been a beautiful example of the work of Christ, and now it was divided. Their fellowship had been broken. Many people were now confused. Well, has Christ actually made me clean? Maybe these people are right. Maybe I haven't done enough to be accepted by God. This was an unmitigated disaster. It was really bad. Paul steps in. At great risk to himself, he steps in, and he confronts Peter. Let's go to verses 14 through 16. Paul's solution is the gospel, okay? It's real simple. His solution is the gospel. Paul diagnoses the problem. Look at verse 14.

17:23I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. Paul says this is the root cause of the issue. When I worked as an engineer, forgive me for talking about this. When there was a problem with a process or when there was a safety issue, we had a rigorous process to try to figure out where did this come from. You had to find out what the root cause was. If you don't find the root cause and treat it and address it, all you're doing is just treating the symptoms, right? And the problem keeps happening over and over and over. You've got to go to the root cause. Peter's behavior isn't good, and it's having a harmful impact, but Paul wants to get to the belief beneath the behavior. Paul has zeroed in on it. They've forgotten the gospel. The separation is just a symptom of the problem.

18:15It's really bad. People have been genuinely hurt, but it's just a symptom of the problem. He doesn't say, Peter, you're being really rude. The Gentiles, you know, they brought a nice casserole to the church potluck. Would it kill you just to try it? Nope. That would be treating the symptoms. No, he says, Peter, your actions don't agree with the gospel. You're acting as if faith in Jesus isn't enough to make them clean to bring you together. You're posturing. You're posturing yourself like you're better than they are. It's not that Peter actually denied Jesus or repudiated the gospel message, but he was acting contrarily to them. He believed one thing and was acting another. That's his hypocrisy. Their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.

19:11It's like a ballroom dance. The gospel is the lead and Peter's the follower, but Peter's out of step with his leader. Those of you who have taken dance lessons, I see, she's in the nursery, right? But we'll tell her I said this. So Linda teaches dance. She knows what happens when the follower doesn't follow the leader. It's chaos on the dance floor, right? People step on each other's feet and toes. That's what happens when I dance. Paul is like the dance instructor correcting Peter about this. Because of what Christ has done, even you don't live under the law anymore, Peter.

19:51Wake up, Peter. Wake up, Peter. You don't even live under the law anymore. How can you force them to? Peter, wake up. You've forgotten the gospel. Peter, Paul's root cause was spot on, and that's what informs his solution. This needs more than just Peter, say you're sorry. Gentiles say you forgive them. Okay, let's get together for a meal. It takes more than that. In verses 15 and 16, Paul gives a gospel reorientation. There can't be real reconciliation and real change without this, without the application of the gospel. We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. Justified, if you don't know what this means, it basically means God declaring that you are in the right. God's declaration that he accepts you. Paul says three times here in verse 16 that our works can't justify us, that it only happens through faith in Christ. He's laying out two opposing principles. Righteousness earned through our actions versus righteousness given to us in Christ.

21:15Acceptance because you deserve it, or acceptance by the grace of God alone. And Paul's saying, Peter, you know which one is true. Why are you acting like this when this is true?

21:31Peter was fearful of these men from Jerusalem. He wanted their acceptance, and he tried to earn it by playing by the rules. It was hypocritical. It told the church that righteousness given by Christ wasn't enough. That even, that these Gentiles had not done enough, but that the Jews had done enough. Paul knows what Peter needs. He needs a reorientation. Christ is enough for you, Peter. Christ is enough. You don't need to fear the opinion and the rejection of these guys from Jerusalem.

22:04Let it happen if it's going to happen. Hold on to the gospel. Just like Christ was enough for you, it's enough for your Gentile brothers and sisters. Stop pulling away from them.

22:17Now, having said all that, what does this have to do with us? We're not dealing with Gentile believers and Jewish believers having to eat together. So what does this passage have to do with us? Well, I would submit to you that it has everything to do with us. Everything. We're not wondering about the same issue that they are, but we all had the same struggle going on inside of us all the time. We get out of step with the truth of the gospel. The gospel, it's totally unnatural to our flesh.

22:55Don't forget that. It is unnatural to us. It runs counter to all of our expectations. In our lives, love is conditional. You have to do something to earn it. You have to make yourself lovable to get love. It is extremely hard to rest in God's gracious love for us, freely given to us in Christ, not because of some condition that we have qualified for. Do you see how unnatural that is? How everywhere else in your life, love is conditional.

23:29It can't really be true that God accepts us, we tell ourselves. In our world, rewards are earned. We can't get used to the idea that faith alone saves us. Deep down, we would rather have earned it somehow. Surely there was something we did. It was Jesus plus this other thing that I did. Jesus plus this group that I'm from. Jesus plus I'm just really hardworking and industrious. Jesus plus, well, I really helped my neighbor the other day. It's got to be that, right God?

24:11Jesus plus something. It is so unnatural for us to believe that it is ours by faith alone. We slip into this performance mindset all the time. It's not that we deny the gospel cognitively or consciously. These other thoughts or feelings rise up. Fear, insecurity, arrogance, pride, and they lie to us. The gospel recedes from our view. It goes to the back of our minds. It recedes from our view. It no longer influences us. And so we act out of falsehood just like Peter did in Antioch.

24:52Let me give you a small but a very recent example from my own life. This happened this week. I was on the phone with a good friend of mine who's also a pastor. And we were just telling each other about how life is going, how ministry is going. And he asked me, oh, hey, so how was Halloween? Did you meet any of your neighbors? And I was like, what do you mean? And he goes, oh, well, I find that, you know, a lot of people are out. People are out having a good time.

25:20It's just a good time to be out and meet people. Well, I proceeded to poo-poo the whole idea. I don't know what it was. It was some kind of top-of-the-mind nonsense about, well, you know, that's not really a good opportunity to do that. And, you know, Halloween's so overblown and it's gotten so gruesome and, you know, we really should keep our distance and, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

25:50I didn't realize until after I'd hung up the phone just how critical I had been. And I texted him and I apologized. But it wasn't until preparing this sermon that I realized, oh, I felt inadequate. I felt incompetent. He had pointed out something that had already passed. I hadn't even thought about meeting my neighbors. I hadn't done anything. It hadn't even occurred to me. I felt like a loser. I felt like, man, yeah, there was another opportunity that I really botched it on.

26:28I'm really bad at this whole thing. And that inadequacy took over my perspective. I acted out of my insecurity and I got critical towards him. When I replayed what I said and how he responded, I realized I had actually been disparaging something that was a real strength in my friend. He is very, very good at finding these opportunities to meet people and build a relationship. He's good at it. But I made him feel like it was some kind of problem in his life.

27:05I needed the gospel to reorient me. That God loves me regardless of how effective I am in ministry. That mistakes I make don't change my place in God's kingdom. That other people's gifts don't make me less significant.

27:27See, those were the lies that I was believing. And it was only in the gospel that I was reoriented. That's what I'm talking about. The gospel is not just how new life begins, but it is constantly how we're reoriented and guided back to the truth that we need to walk in every day. Without it, we lose our step. We get out of step. We hurt ourselves. We hurt other people, just like Peter did. Peter hurt a lot of people. And it all had to do with getting out of step with the gospel.

28:06So I want to conclude the sermon with a single application that has three parts to it. Here's the first part. Try to understand the beliefs that drive your behavior. Try to understand the beliefs that drive your behavior. Ask God to reveal to you the lies that get you out of step with the gospel. What are you afraid of? What makes you insecure? What do you tend to boast in? What is it that really makes you feel significant that you want other people to notice?

28:41What are you measuring when you compare yourself to other people? Those are questions to get you going on. What are the beliefs that are driving my un-gospel-like behavior? The second part of this single application is this. Counter those beliefs with the truth of the gospel. When you see a lie, rebuke it with the truth. Living by faith means having a mindset controlled by the gospel. I am loved and accepted by God only by His grace through faith in Christ.

29:21I'll say that again. I am loved and accepted by God only by His grace through faith in Christ. To discover this and rediscover this, it is glorious freedom. That's how I felt this week when God met me as I was preparing this text and helped me to see this is what was happening in that phone call. God spoke to me and reminded me, stop feeling inadequate. Yes, you're going to make mistakes, but my love for you continues. My use of you in the kingdom continues.

29:57Your significance doesn't change. The gospel makes insecurity and pride wither. This is the third one, the third part of the single application. Repeat often and encourage others in the same way. This is not a today application. This is a tomorrow application and everyday application. This is a lifelong process for you and for me and for all Christians. Help others to embrace the truth of the gospel in their lives. And I should have put this on the slide too.

30:32Receive it from other people when it comes your way. Just like Peter did. Receive it when somebody offers you correction on the gospel to help you get back in step with it. Parents, this is without a doubt the best thing you can do for your kids. It's not even close. This is the best thing you can do for your kids. When they sin, help them to look deeper than their actions. And take note of this. The gospel, this is still the gospel. When they succeed, help them to look to Christ alone for their identity.

31:16Don't miss that. Gospel is not just what we need when we sin. It's also what we need sometimes when we succeed. Because then we start thinking, oh, here's that thing. I finally found that thing that I add to Christ's work and that's what makes me acceptable to God. Okay? Help them look deeper than their actions and help them look to Christ alone for their identity. Speak truth to them in both places.

31:47This incident was really painful. It was awkward. But good fruit came of it. The gospel brought the Gentiles in. The separation didn't last. It was healed. Peter received the correction. He later writes favorable words about Paul. Clarity on the gospel. First and second Peter were written after this whole incident took place. You can go and read there. The correction took. It took root. This is what Peter writes. Sometime after that, probably about 10 or 15 years after this incident.

32:27He's writing this to a group of diverse Christians, including the Gentiles. Including the Galatians themselves. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Church, may we likewise always be kept true by the gospel. Pray with me.