Scripture: Galatians 2:11-14
Sermon Series: Galatians – Set Free, Live Free – Sermon 05

What do you do when you’re bored? Have you ever had a boring job and looked for ways to kill time? Hopefully, you don’t do something as stupid as one art gallery security guard.

In 2022, reportedly egged on by some teenagers, (never a good thing) a bored 60-year-old security guard on his very first day on the job, tried to improve a million-dollar work of art. The security guard drew eyes with a ballpoint pen on Anna Leporskaya’s famous abstract painting of three faceless figures, Three Figures. It’s one of her most celebrated pieces. By adding eyes, this guard removed the most famous feature of the painting, facelessness.

His doodling cost him. Not only was he fired but he faced a hefty fine and a possible jail sentence. The good news is that the painting has been restored and is now back on display in all its former faceless glory. When it comes to priceless works of art, any addition is always a subtraction, which no matter how well intentioned it might be, we call vandalism.

In the book of Galatians, Paul says the same thing is true when it comes to the gospel. Any addition is always a subtraction, no matter how well intentioned it might be. It’s an act of spiritual vandalism. Because as Paul repeatedly reminds the Galatians – Jesus plus anything equals nothing.

Galatians is about gospel-rooted freedom. It’s freedom birthed by a new life-giving belief in the gospel that results in new behavior. A vital question is: How should we live in light of the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins? The gospel not just a belief, it’s a behavioral change. It’s not say a prayer and your ticket to heaven is punched. If you believe the gospel, there’s a behavior that always goes with the gospel. You’re transformed from the inside out. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

The gospel transforms us, changing our actions and our relationships. Without Christ, like bubbles we go our own way with little regard to paths taken by others. Being a Christ-follower means we no longer lead lives centered on ourselves often at the expense of others. The gospel changes my relationship with God who becomes my Heavenly Father, and Christ-followers, who become my brothers and sisters in Christ.

If we live independently, minding our own business, we too easily succumb to Two-Faced Grace. Our passage in Galatians heralds that truth through a confrontation between two pillars of the early church, Peter and Paul.

Please turn to Galatians 2:11-14 (p. 913). “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?” Before we dig into the text, we need to ask some introductory questions. If you’re taking notes.

1. Two Introductory Questions

Why is this here? The gospel is never Jesus and me. It’s Jesus and us. If you believe the gospel, a behavior accompanies it. You’re transformed and so are your relationships. We’re not islands. We’re equal members of God’s forever family, responsible to Jesus and each other to grow up in godliness.

When anyone abandons this biblical obligation, intentionally or not, we should be confronted and brought back with Christian compassion. No matter how gifted, important, or popular we are, none of us are exempt from accountability. In other words, the gospel revolutionizes our marriages, our families and our church relationships. Peter violated gospel relationships.

What occurred and when? Paul has been writing about the radical transformation of the gospel. Many pick up the gospel, but some just put it on their fridge and basically forget it. The gospel – the good news that Jesus made a way for us to be accepted by God through His sacrificial death – is hanging there on our fridge, but we haven’t seen its value. It hasn’t become real to us. It hasn’t transformed our lives, and it hasn’t transformed our relationships.

These verses are about getting to that next level, where the gospel isn’t something just hanging on your fridge, something we think is valuable but not lifechanging. This is about realizing the gospel transforms everything.

This is one of the most tense and dramatic episodes in the New Testament. We have two leading apostles going nose to nose. Both are godly, both believe the gospel, both are men of God who know what it is to be forgiven through Christ. They’re both Christ-followers. What’s going on?

2. In that day, eating is a cultural event.

What we eat and with whom we eat says something about who we are, even today. Sometimes certain people refuse to eat with certain other people. That’s something black Hall of Fame pitcher, Bob Gibson discovered after he made it to the big leagues. He walked on the team bus and saw a white ball player drinking an orange soda. “That really looks good,” he said. “Can I have a swig?” Gibson’s teammate looked down at his drink, looked back at Gibson, and said, “I’ll save you some.” His white lips would never share a drink with a black man. That’s one reason this incident in Antioch is so ugly. It has racial overtones.

Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire, was the center of Gentile Christianity. Acts 11:26 tells us believers were first called Christians in Antioch. It was a strong church there, comprised of two groups: Jewish Christians who’d been raised keeping the dietary Laws of Moses. Gentile Christians who’d come out of pagan religions with no dietary regulations.

One day Christ-followers in Antioch received some exciting news. The great apostle, Peter, was coming to visit! Peter who’d walked on water, who’d seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the grave, who’d preached on the Day of Pentecost with 3,000 converts. He’s a rock star and is coming to visit the church in Antioch. This visit sets the stage for this confrontation.

3. No one is exempt from messing up the gospel.

This situation with Peter is a warning that even seasoned saints can go astray. It all had to do with what Peter ate and who he ate it with. It’s a food and fellowship problem.

Remember back in school? It made a big difference who your crew was. You didn’t eat lunch or hang with just anyone. Who wanted to sit at the nerd table?

So, let’s imagine that when Peter arrived in Antioch the church served a big welcome meal for him. The main course was barbecue. The church served beef brisket for Jewish Christians who preferred Jewish dietary rules, but they served barbeque pork for Gentile Christians. When Peter went through the serving line, everybody was watching. He loads up his plate with both beef and pork. Then he sat down and ate at the same table with Gentile and Jewish Christians. Everyone sighed a big relief. They rejoiced to know the gospel eliminated all the tedious rules and regulations of the Old Testament.

Everything was cool until some Jewish VIPs came from the Jerusalem church, the James Gang. When they arrived, Peter suddenly changes his behavior. He arrived in the fellowship hall and when he saw the pork he was indignant. “What are you doing serving pork? Don’t you know that it’s unclean according to the Law? I’m a Jew. I don’t eat pork! Get rid of it!” To top it all off, Peter switches tables so he’s only sitting with Jewish believers.

Peter forced the Gentiles to follow Jewish customs. Perhaps he turned to Gentile Christians and said, “I don’t want you eating pork either! Don’t you know your Bible? Furthermore, the Law forbids Jews and Gentiles eating together. So, we Jews will eat together in here. The rest of you can eat outside.”  

When Peter changed his behavior, I’d imagine Antioch Christians (Jewish and Gentile) were standing thinking, “What happened? Peter has been scarfing down pork and eating with us for the past month! Why the sudden change?”

Peter is being spiritually two-faced. He acted like someone set free by grace when he first arrived, but when Jerusalem Jews arrived, he reverted back to Old Testament rules. Peter acts out of fear of the “circumcision group.” In other words, these were the Pharisaical Christians from Jerusalem who demanded Gentile men be circumcised before they could be saved. And Peter joined those who were adding to the gospel!

It violated the gospel for Jewish Christians to exclude Gentile Christians. Jewish believers pulled away from Gentile Christians. Tragically, Peter, the leader from Jerusalem, led the way even though he knew it was wrong.

We can do the same thing. While it’s not wrong to be with your friends at church, be careful not to send out an exclusionary message that says, “Others aren’t welcome.” It’s wrong when we segregate into age, marital, ethnic, economic or even old members and newcomers.

4. We need more mature Christ-followers to help straighten us out.

Peter was not in step with the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:14). The word for step is ortho-podia. Ortho means straight, podia means, foot. Orthopedics is concerned with the correction of skeletal deformities. When two bones are out of line, an orthopedist is called in. Paul is a spiritual orthopedic surgeon. He compared the belief of the gospel and Peter’s behavior, and said, “They don’t line up! Peter, your walk doesn’t match your talk!”

One strong evidence of the Divine authorship of the Bible is that Scripture never glosses over failures of even main characters. If ordinary people had written the Bible, they’d have covered up the faults of the heroes. Yet, the Bible is full of stories of great people who failed tremendously.

That gives us hope. We all make dumb mistakes. We all sin. God loves to forgive and clean us up. He loves to redeem our lives and use us again.  

Paul speaks the truth in love. That’s supremely biblical. Yet it’s not how most Christians handle conflict. We were at a conference last week. A pastor’s wife shared how she was chewed out for two hours over a minor disagreement.

5. There are truths worth fighting for.

Most churches fight over things that aren’t biblical or worth fighting over. Dwight Pentecost, beloved Dallas Seminary professor told of a church in Texas where a church leader got all bent out of shape when the portion of food given to him was not as large as the young person next to him at a church dinner. Not only did the church split over it, but the division went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court.

Most of us hate fighting. The gospel is always worth fighting for. Though Peter believes the gospel, he joins with those adding to the gospel. Then, he excludes the Gentiles who believed Jesus, His cross and the gospel are enough.   

These Jews from Jerusalem believed obeying the Old Testament Law was part of the gospel. They believed that to go to heaven you had to be circumcised and obey Old Testament dietary laws…and Peter joins them. His actions caused a church rift between Jews and Gentiles. He joined those who added to Christ’s sacrifice and Paul rightly rebukes him for it.

When essential biblical truths are at stake, they must be defended, even at the risk of losing close friends, financial security or popular support. If we don’t believe this is true and act accordingly, we’re in danger of accommodating false beliefs and immoral lifestyles, which God won’t tolerate for long.

Major denominations that are apostate today began by fudging on essential doctrines like the inspiration of Scripture. They capitulated on truth like a one man-one woman marriage. We must hold to these truths because they’re what the Bible teaches, not because we’re hateful or judgmental.  

Paul didn’t keep his mouth shut or whisper behind Peter’s back. He held him accountable. The gospel is at stake. Unity in the church is at stake. Rebuke at times is healthy. Better is open rebuke than hidden love (Proverbs 27:5).

We need to learn from this that much of church error is inferential. I don’t think Peter had a clue he was denying the gospel, but he was. He did so, not by what he said, but by what he did. In his actions, Peter sided with the Judaizers, who insisted that Gentiles weren’t saved unless they added the Mosaic Law to the gospel in addition to turning to Christ in faith.

As Christ-followers, we must be conscious of the implications of our actions. Brennan Manning wrote, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their mouths and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.”

At Grace Church, we’re not looking for a big crowd. If you’re checking out Christianity, we’re glad that you’re here. If though you profess to be a Christ-follower and mistreat your spouse or children. Or you’re a poor testimony in the workplace, please do not tell others that you’re a Christ-follower.

We had a man a few years ago who was a leader in this church when I first came. He was arrogant and angry and a terrible testimony for the gospel. We confronted him and he moved on…and we’re thankful he did.

The gospel is everything! Tim Keller said, Christian living is a continual realignment process of bringing everything in line with the truth of the gospel. The gospel must make us true-faced not two-faced, or we’ll cause others to stumble. When we notice a believer on the wrong track, we must speak the truth in love. If I saw you driving toward a bridge that’s out, the most loving thing I can do is to tell you to stop and go in another direction. That’s why Paul realized he must confront Peter. He cared enough about the gospel, these young believers, and Peter that he had say something.

What Paul said was out of love and concern and not in anger or in order to destroy a person. Robert Gromacki rightly notes, “Public sins require public criticism and public repentance. Everyone saw what Peter did. There was no way that Paul could have taken Peter aside privately…Peter deserved the rebuttal because he was to be blamed.”

Many of us have seen the scandal that’s erupted when a church fails to deal with known sin. Evil is covered up and the church leader just moved to another church. If we do not judge ourselves, we shouldn’t be surprised if a pagan world judges us. Sadly, it’s a rare church that will deal with evil in its midst.

When the testimony of Christ is at stake, we can’t stick our heads in the sand. We must deal with sin for the gospel’s sake. Just a word of warning, before we confront sin, we must first examine ourselves to check out the sinner we know best. Then, we must ask, Why do I want to confront this? Is this for the good of the other person? Does it glorify God? Am I doing this out of love?

6. What was so bad about this?

What sins do you think are big? I’ve been reading the Gospel of Mark in my personal quiet time. In Mark 7, Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23).

Most of those we don’t even consider sins. Do we really believe pride, envy or slander are wrong? They are. Peter snubbed other Christ-followers. He sins against the gospel. Sadly, we too often do the same thing.

The sin of fear. Fear is a universal human emotion that we all experience at some point in our lives. There is a healthy fear. Fear becomes a sin when it replaces trusting God. If you’ve ever asked yourself “Why am I afraid?” or wondered what the Bible says about the root causes of fear, you’re not alone.

Peter gave into fear when he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party (Galatians 2:12). He violated Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” Are you afraid to tell others you’re a Christ-follower? Will you listen to a dirty joke or someone being verbally trashed, even by other professing Christians, out of fear?

The sin of giving into peer pressure.Are there certain individuals that you dodge because you’re concerned about what others might think? It was an abomination to eat with Gentiles under the Law, so when the James Gang hit town, Peter drew back (Galatians 2:12).

Who do you draw back from? Who do you dodge at work? Who won’t you invite to your home because it wouldn’t go over in your circle? Are you sinning by giving into peer pressure? Peter did. He feared criticism from other Jews. And when he gave into peer pressure it had a ripple affect on Barnabus and other Jews. Sin always has a ripple effect.

The sin of hypocrisy.The word hypocrisy literally meant to wear a mask, to play a part. Peter was acting like he had higher standards than he did. Many try to act more spiritually committed than they actually are.

Jesus’ strongest words of rebuke were for hypocrites. The word hypocrite is found 23 times in the New Testament and of those, Jesus used the term 20. We easily act like we’re more committed to Jesus than we are. Todd Wilson says Hypocrisy is like a married person removing their wedding ring to play the part of a single person.

Let me share a common hypocrisy. We act more loving than we are. Believers have experienced God’s love yet can be hypocrites when it comes to forgiveness. Do you carry grudges? You smile, act loving but carry a chip on your shoulder toward someone who mistreated you.

I get it. This may surprise you but there are people who don’t like me. Some once attended here and even were members, but I ticked them off. Do you know what those horrible people do? Some trash talk me. And I must choose to go all Romans 12 where I’m commanded to love, forgive and pray for them.   

I’m not going to tell you it’s easy. My sinful nature wants to go all Old Testament on them and have the Lord smite them. It’d be a sin. We have had grace showered on us and we must shower grace. Peter forgot that. We can’t.

The sin of violating God’s Word.Peter measured spirituality by an unbiblical yardstick. He takes away from the gospel by adding to the gospel.

We’re still doing that today. We think that you’re not spiritual unless you dress a certain way or use a certain version of the Bible. We’ll question your spirituality if you vote for the wrong political party. Or you’re not spiritual if you listen to the wrong kind of music or don’t worship the right way. And like Peter, we add human baggage to God’s Word. Peter is on dangerous ground and so are we when we add our extras to God’s Word for what a Christian is and what they should be like and do.

What’s the gospel? That’s what we must know and set aside all distractions from it. There are only two destinations – heaven and hell. Our mission, our passion must be to take as many people to heaven with us as we can! We get off mission like Peter did when we carry religious baggage. 

Conclusion

So, how do you handle correction? How we handle it says a lot about the condition of our heart. None of us have it together. We all need to grow in grace. It’s clear from what follows that we know what Peter’s response was. He responded well and with maturity, and I think with gratitude.

At the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 which took place after these events and after Paul wrote Galatians, Peter took the lead in defending the gospel that Paul defended in Antioch. Later in 2 Peter 3, Peter mentions Paul, calling him our beloved brother Paul and speaks of the wisdom given to Paul. Solomon said, Reprove a wise man, and he will love you (Proverbs 9:8). Peter was a wise man who blew it yet loved Paul for the correction. Are you wise?

Too much of what most Christians get all bent out of shape over is like taking a ballpoint pen to Mona Lisa. It’s not the gospel. It’s church baggage.

What’s the gospel? Jesus Christ came into this world—fully God and fully man. He perfectly obeyed God’s law and perfectly fulfilled God’s will. He died in our place and as our substitute, paying for our sins.

God knew that there was no hope for us unless He took the initiative to save us. Salvation begins with the admission that there is zero good in us, nothing in us that can contribute to our salvation. We’re sinners and totally helpless. Salvation must come from outside of us. We confess that we need the help that only Jesus can supply.

Salvation is a free gift that a loving God offers on one single condition—a wholehearted faith in Jesus Christ, trusting Him alone as Lord and Savior.

And those who trust in Jesus Christ alone are saved forever. They’re forgiven of all their sins, born again into God’s family, declared righteous while they’re still sinners because all of their sins are placed on Christ and His righteousness is imputed to them. They receive a new nature that transforms them and enables them to believe and behave in a brand-new way.

My friend, have you accepted the gospel? Have you accepted God’s free gift of salvation? If you haven’t, please commit your life to Christ today.

The truth is, “Christ plus” anything will send you to hell. It is “only Jesus and Jesus only.” Paul taught “all of Christ and none of me.” If we teach “some of Christ and some of me,” we’re not teaching the gospel.

So, here’s my challenge for you as you head home. Go back, taking with you all of the diversity that God has in His magnificent plan for gospel believers, making sure nothing interrupts biblical unity. Accept others based on the gospel, not physical appearance, economic situation or even denominational label. The content of their life in Christ determines the joy we have in your united coming together to worship our Lord.

When I was growing up, I loved Superman. Now, Clark Kent was a bumbling idiot. Lois Lane couldn’t stand him. He was mocked and ridiculed. But don’t let him find a telephone booth. The criminals of Metropolis would come out and wreak havoc in the city. The Daily Planet would get the story, and somebody would say “Where’s Superman?” Clark Kent would get the word. He’d take off his glasses. Unhook his tie and there he’d go.

He’d go inside some closet, some booth and come out with a red and blue jumpsuit on. He wasn’t Clark Kent anymore. He was totally different. Now he was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive. That dude could leap tall buildings in a single bound. He goes streaking across the sky and they say, “It’s a bird.” “No.” “It’s a plane.” “Uh-uh.” “It’s Superman!”

All of a sudden, the topography of the land was changed. All of a sudden things became different in the city where he lived. Why? Because Superman wasn’t from here. He was from a place called Krypton. When he brought the power of that sphere and made it work down here in this sphere, he was able to change this sphere to look like that sphere because the power of there lived down here. He was able to transform the environment in which he was.

Most of us need to take a trip to God’s telephone booth. Take off our old way of thinking, that old way of walking, that old way of talking and that old way of relating. Trust the gospel. Trust Jesus alone for your salvation. Then, come out with a big ‘S’ on our chest. That ‘S’ doesn’t mean you’re Superman. It means that you’re saved. It means you’re sanctified. That ‘S’ doesn’t mean that you’re Superman, but it does mean you’re a Saint. So that when you go back home and people see you coming, they say, “It’s a bird.” “No.” “It’s a plane.” “No.” “It’s God’s Super Saved.”

That’s the gospel! It’s a gospel transformed Christ-follower! That’s who I want to be…don’t you!?!