In Step With the Gospel
Elder Mark Schmeissing preaches from Galatians 2:11-21. Discussion points: Peter’s vision showed him that all foods and people were declared clean by Jesus, Peter’s fear of man caused him to take his eyes off of the gospel, we haven’t done anything to earn the grace that God gives us that makes us clean before him.
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Scripture Reader: [Galatians 2:11-21] 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?"
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. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus 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. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.
In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Preacher: Good morning. As Jeremy said, my name is Mark Schmeissing and I'm an elder here at City on a Hill. Our lead Pastor Fletcher is out on sabbatical this summer. And he'll be back in just a couple of weeks, but it's always a joy and a privilege to share God's word with all of you on a Sunday morning. And I'm thankful to get the opportunity to do that again.
Along with what I assume many of you have been doing over the last couple of weeks, I've been watching a lot of the Olympics, been watching the, the swimming, the gymnastics, the track and field. I've learned what the steeple chase is. I still don't understand how they do gymnastic scoring after watching it for several Olympic cycles. But one thing that's abundantly clear when you watch the Olympics, you see their performances, you look at their kind of race times and things that these athletes, you know, regardless of whether they're an eighth or first, regardless of which country they're from, or which sport you're watching, that it took a lot of work and dedication and focus for these people to even get to that point, to even get to Paris. These people have spent the last several years really orienting their lives around their training schedules, their diets, what they're wearing, their form in terms of running or swimming, all their family time and free time and all of that's oriented towards this singular goal of fine tuning their performance down to the hundreds of seconds or 10th of points that are really the difference when you get to the Olympics.
As I look at the New Testament and we read our passage this morning. Paul really seems to have this sort of same Olympic athlete mindset when it comes to the gospel. There's a lot of opportunities in his life after his conversion to be distracted. a lot of opportunities where life provides chances for him to take shortcuts. He's shipwrecked, he's put in jail several times. There's things like popularity or people pleasing that come into play, suffering and hardships. He was shipwrecked a couple of times. Anything that could have really slowed him down, but nothing seems to stop him from defending or sharing the truth of the gospel message.
Our passage this morning in Galatians is about this sort of major clash between these two towering figures of the early church. We have the apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter. He's referred to in the passage that Amanda read as Cephas, which is this translation from Aramaic, but it's the same Peter that we've been going through and reading about in the book of John over the last year, these were two men that God used to write over half the books of the New Testament. They were on the same team aligned in their purpose to see God glorified in his message of grace spread. Paul went to great lengths to make this very clear that they're on the same team earlier in his letter to Corinth, he wrote for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there's quarreling among you. My brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says I follow Paul or I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius. And later for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom. Lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
And all this context makes this conflict that we see in Galatians two here that much more weighty wasn't a conflict of, of sort of opinions or personal preferences. I would even go so far as to say this isn't a conflict about food and, and who Peter was eating with. Rather, it's a conflict about the very heart of the gospel and the role of the gospel in our lives. As I've said, Paul was laser focused on defending the gospel. And that's what this passage is about.
A message that I believe is very relevant for us today as we seek to understand the gospel and take it from our heads. Something that we believe and know and understand to our hearts where the gospel is changing and transforming and shaping every aspect of our lives from now until the day that we die. I pray that like Paul, we won't fear confrontation against anything that compromises the truth of the gospel. Before we dig into this passage, I just wanted to open up with a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank you for bringing us here today. We ask that you open our hearts and our minds to your word. We ask that you soften our hearts towards the ways that you want to work in and through us this morning. May we grow in our understanding of the truth of the gospel? That is your good news for us that we might live it out. With integrity and faithfulness all the days of our lives. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
So the passage begins in verse 11 and I'll, I'll reread a section of it. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I posed 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. And there's a lot going on here in this passage. So I think some context is helpful before we dig in, in the early church, particularly as this church was, was growing and expanding. We're starting to see Gentile Christians worshiping alongside Jewish believers and the Old Testament Laws.
The mosaic laws were this hot topic and point of contention in the church. Many unbelief, many early believers were just a little unsure or unclear about how these practices of circumcision and the purity laws listed in the Old Testament. These rituals and practices that had played a major part of their lives for literally centuries and not just a part of their lives, but a part of their worship for centuries, including what they ate and what they wore, like the fabrics that they wore, what they touched. All these ceremonial laws around cleanliness and how and whether those laws were now going to be relevant to their lives after Jesus had come and lived and died and been resurrected from the dead was a question in their minds. A lot of the early Jewish Christians, people who truly believe that Jesus was the son of God, lived, died and was resurrected, still continued to follow these old Testament and mosaic laws.
But this was an issue because the Gentiles were not accustomed to these laws and were not practicing them was creating this division in the church, which was both a racial issue where you had the Gentiles who are not practicing and the and the Jews who were, who looked down on them where they were considered unclean as well as a part of the worship and as a part of the body of God. In addition to sort of the specific purity laws around cleanliness, what they were eating and who they were eating with and what they touched.
There is also the second aspect of Old Testament worship, which were the animal sacrifices and animal sacrifices were to atone for their sins. No matter how hard you tried to keep the purity laws of staying clean. It was impossible to follow every law. And so the animal sacrifices must be made to kind of atone for this lack of cleanliness.
When Jesus came along as Lord and Savior, he was both the final sacrifice. No more animal sacrifices were needed as he had lived a sinless life died on our behalf. But also he declared that all these purity laws pointed to himself only in him. Can you be completely and perfectly cleansed? Now, the Apostle Peter, here in our story was a devout Jewish Christian along with the other disciples. And despite having spent several years literally at the side of Jesus walking with him in his ministry, he had this front row seat to everything that Jesus had been saying. But it was really hard for him to kind of break out of that decades old traditions and, and, and and mindset of of the Jewish attachment to these old Testament laws. This this continued even after Jesus had ascended uh into heaven.
But we see in Acts 10, this was prior to where we get to the story in Galatians two that God provided a supernatural, vivid vision for clarity on these topics. For Peter. God broke down these divisions and declared that everyone Jew and Gentile very plainly for him are equal before him equally sinful, equally right before Christ and Peter must eat with the Gentiles.
Peter took that message to heart as we can see in Galatians two verse 12, he was eating with the Gentiles, responding to this vision from the Lord. He's sharing the good news of the gospel as he eats alongside Gentiles, declaring the freedom and the equality found in the cross of Christ, living out what he had learned in acts 10 that God shows no partiality and doesn't declare certain foods or certain people as unclean or unworthy of grace until, until we get to this delegation from James that has arrived.
Now, I'm not gonna go deep into the role of James in this story or who James was, but he was an early church leader who held a lot of influence. And this delegation caused Peter to really waver in his steadfastness. The man that Jesus had referred to as the rock, drew back and separated himself out of fear.
I see parallels here between Galatians two and a story that we're probably familiar with in Matthew 14. It's a popular one amongst CoaH kids groups where during a windy and stormy night at sea, Jesus walked on the water to the boat filled with terrified disciples verse 27. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart. It is I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is, you command me to come to you on the water. He said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying, oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt?
Peter had his eyes on Jesus until he took a brief moment to look around at his circumstances in this situation. And he was struck with fear. Similarly, here in Galatians, we see Peter living with his eyes set on Jesus eating and drinking with Gentiles. But at least for a brief moment, takes his eyes off of Jesus to look at his circumstances and his situation. And he struck with fear, stepping back and rejecting the Gentile believers.
How does Paul the Apostle Paul respond to Peter when he sees this happen? Let's continue in verse 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? 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. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus 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.
Paul responds by saying Peter is out of step with the truth of the gospel. Let's not miss how he referred to the situation back in verse 11, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. There's a gravity here to what seemingly looked like a, a rather simple or, or, or minor error that Peter wasn't understanding. And when we see this term gospel or when we hear the term gospel in, in church, there's probably a variety of reactions or thoughts about that. I would say maybe for, for the average church goer hearing the word gospel, they think that's just sort of the, the basic principles of Christianity. Jesus died for our sins. He was raised from the dead. It's an important message for, for non-christian. It's an important message for New Christians. It's a very important part of Christianity. But we're also kind of looking for more of, more of the meat here. Yet here we see the Apostle Paul telling Peter. Just as a reminder of who Peter is: someone who is there at the last supper. Someone who saw Jesus die with his eyes and walked with him throughout his ministry. That he had forgotten the gospel.
What he means by that is that Peter was not applying the implications of the gospel to the way that he was living. Gospel is not just just the essential principles of Christianity. We move beyond, we kind of graduate from the longer we stay in church. Well, that's kind of the, the early stage, but we're gonna get beyond that eventually. But rather the gospel has a breadth and a depth to it that it should impact every aspect of every day of our lives. If someone like Peter needed a reminder of this, I'm sure I do as well. Who am I to think that I am beyond needing this reminder of, of what the gospel is.
We can see three ways in this passage that Paul talks about how Peter is living out of step with the truth of the gospel. The first one is a fear of man. We don't have to wonder about Peter's reasoning for ceasing to eat with the Gentiles. It's listed plainly here in verse 12. Fear of the circumcision party. Now, it's not clear exactly what this delegation from James, the circumcision party specifically said to Peter. It may have been that he feared his reputation amongst Jewish Christians. It may have been that he feared his reputation amongst Jewish non-Christian people who may have been persecuting those who weren't, weren't keeping the old Testament, purity laws regardless. It was Peter's fear of man that led him astray and out of step with the gospel truth. Peter had justified and rationalized in his mind, something that probably sounded very reasonable on the surface, but it stood in stark contrast to what he had heard directly in his vision from the Lord in Acts 10.
I find this incredibly relatable sitting in a City on a Hill service on a Sunday morning, sitting in your community group on a Thursday night. If I'm by myself with my Bible and quietly reading the word of God can feel alive, can feel relevant, can feel full of life. And then we have to get up out of the chair, walk out the doors to our jobs, to our homes, our other relationships and those are the moments where the gospel goes from something that's in our heads to something that's in our hearts. It's where we get a taste of where the depth that the gospel has penetrated my soul is truly evident.
There are many things that can be rationalized that stand in opposition to what the Gospel truth is. Paul writes in Romans eight to some of these fears, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously? Give us all things who shall bring any charge against God's elect. It is God who justifies, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who is raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
A life in step with the truth of the gospel does not fear man. God is our only judge and he has shown us grace and interceding for us. The second way that Peter is living how to step with the truth of the Gospel is through his hypocrisy as we see in verses 13 and 14, Peter was acting so insincerely that even Barnabas and some of these other teachers were led astray. Peter and Barnabas and these others were two faced when they withdrew from eating with the Gentiles by saying one thing with their actions and believing another thing in their heart.
It's important to note here in kind of this whole exchange that Paul doesn't confront Peter about a change in his theology or wrong beliefs or his head knowledge. It appears that by all accounts, Peter had the right head knowledge and understanding of the gospel. He had had a vision from the Lord in Acts 10, but it wasn't evident in how he was living. It's an interesting contrast here between the ways that we see. Jesus often talking about hypocrisy in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The hypocrisy that Jesus often faced was with religious leaders who acted righteously morally piously, but their hearts were cold and lacked understanding of who he was.
In this situation, we see the opposite. Peter understands who Jesus is and he had the right thinking but wasn't acting in alignment with what he knew internally, even if it was only a momentary lapse in judgment, it was enough of a dangerous hypocrisy that he was leading other church leaders astray and out of step with the gospel. You pass. A Paul seemed to know exactly what Peter was going through as he wrote in Romans seven. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand for I delight in the law of God, in my inner being. But I see in my members that's sort of his his body, his physical actions, another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death.
It can feel like a constant battle when we're feeling insecure or afraid or tempted to avoid standing up for what we know to be true. And that is a battle to believe the Gospel. The Gospel tells us that the death of Christ assures us of God's love. And so it gives a deep root in stability and security to our lives. It centers our lives on Jesus. If we center our lives on Jesus and his gospel, then the roots of hypocrisy can be broken.
Lastly, the way that Peter practiced, obedience was out of step with gospel truth. To, to phrase that a different way. Peter's legalism was out of step with gospel truth. Let's look again at Galatians two verses 17 to 21. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ, then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Notice, verse 21 I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Earlier in Galatians, two, Paul pushes back on this group that has come to insist that Titus must be circumcised to be accepted in God's family in that situation. And here again, if these Gentile Christians in Antioch have to keep the Jewish dietary laws to enjoy full fellowship in the body of Christ, then grace is nullified and Christ has died for no purpose to better understand what's happening here.
Let's go back and re-examine this delegation from James. This group that came from James really, I really like the way that Jay Gresham Machin describes this in his notes on Galatians. It's kind of a smaller commentary about how this group views the gospel and understand salvations and the pro understand salvation and some of the problems with it. So, so the error of the delegation is a very modern error indeed, as well as a very ancient error. It's found in the modern church, wherever men seek salvation by their own character, instead of by the imputed righteousness of Christ or by trusting in his redeeming blood. These are just ways of exalting the merit of man over against the cross of Christ. And they are all of them attacks upon the very heart and core of Christianity.
He goes on to talk about how this delegation views salvation and justification in our passage here in Galatians two, this delegation from James had an order that they thought that things worked. Belief in Jesus belief that he was the son of God lived a perfect life, died for our sins, was raised from the dead, obey act morally and uprightly following the letter of the laws and salvation is the desired end result of those first two steps and they had the order wrong.
I believe many of us in the church today believe and live out the same error. It's our natural human tendency in a lot of ways I believe when I think back to the Olympics, and if I was selected to be a part of the relay team. Some of my initial questions would be, what do you need me to do? Where can I help? How can I provide a valuable contribution to this team to make sure that we achieve the goal that we wanna get so that we get the gold? This order though is out of step with Gospel truth.
Let's go back to Galatians two verse 16. 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 Christ, Jesus 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. The truth of the Gospel is that we've been justified by faith alone. Our standing before God is based on faith in Christ, not on works or anything that you or I have done.
The truth of the Gospel takes this delegation's order and flips it around. It's not believe, obey and you'll be saved. It's believe and you are saved. You're justified by faith alone. You've been selected to be on the Olympic team. Here's your Olympic gold medal. And you say, well, I haven't run the race and it's, that's the point. That's the point of grace. You haven't run the race, you haven't done anything. Probably the greatest news I can possibly give you this morning.
But let's get practical for a second. Where does that obedience come into play? Surely I don't want to continue to sin. And Paul responds to that in Romans six. What shall, what, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? So the order's believe and be saved and then obey. And this sequence in this order completely changes our approach to obedience no longer is obedient, selfish and anxious, burdensome and joyless. Rather, it's in response to what God has already done for us.
Can you imagine the difference between two racers at the beginning at the starting line ready to, to, to begin their race? We, we're kind of waiting for that starting gun to go off. One of them counting on all of their training and all of the work that they've done hoping that they've shaved off enough of the hundreds of seconds to win the race and get the gold medal. The other one is just handed a gold medal right at the starting line before the gun is even fired. It's gonna dramatically change the way that these two racers run their race.
While we're justified by our faith, our actions should reflect the truth of the gospel. How does the truth of the gospel impact the way we do our work, the way that we manage our finances, the way that we interact with our families and our friendships, not out of this anxious or competitive spirit, striving for the approval of God, but out of a joy and a peace in knowing that we are already justified and accepted by a gracious God. So as we look back on, on, on Peter's errors and Paul's responses, we are to one, believe the truth of the gospel of Christ and not fear what men can do to us. Two, to believe the great gospel of Christ and not succumb to hypocrisy. Holding on to our Biblical principles and willing to suffer the consequences because there's great security and comfort and love and joy in the gospel. And three believe the great gospel of Christ and not nullify the grace of God for by grace, you have been saved through faith. We read that earlier this morning and this is not your own doing is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast.
If we make it our aim to be laser focused and all we do to magnify the free grace of God rather than our own achievements. We will be in step with the truth of the gospel. A few years ago, I had a really impactful conversation with a friend of mine. It was extremely brief conversation. I'm not even sure that my friend would remember it, but it had kind of an impact on me and it was surely a word of truth from the Lord that I needed at that time. And it started with this simple question of how's your relationship with the Lord? Maybe you all can relate to, to how I answered that question. I said something along the lines of, I haven't been as consistent in my devotions and time with the Lord. I get kind of frustrated at my inability to have this deep and meaningful prayer life and I'm trying and, and things are going ok, but I've got some more work to do. And he responded very simply. Mark, do you know that God does not love you any less because you're struggling with those things?
In all transparency in that moment, I'm sure I scoffed a bit internally because that's gospel 101. That's what I sing to my kids every night at bed that they, that God loves them. Of course, I know that. But is it a truth that's made its way from my head to my heart on reflection. And over time, I was struck by the realization that I was living in the same paradigm as this delegation from James and Peter through my obedience that I was striving to earn this salvation and pursue self righteousness. And it was dictating how I answer that question of how is my relationship with the Lord? I was less focused on what the God of the universe was trying to say to me than I was about how I was holding up my end of the bargain.
There can be two people here this morning in our service, two people sitting next to each other. Both of them daily spending time in the word. Both of them generously tithing both of them serving this church volunteering. But doing it for radically different reasons and motivations and it will lead to radically different and results. Obedience for the approval of men will never leave us satisfied. Obedience for self righteousness will leave us anxious, burdened and joyless, always falling short of the bar. But obedience in response to the love and grace of God will lead to a joy and freedom. And that is the truth of the gospel.
As we walk out of here this morning, I pray that we walk out in the freedom and grace of the good news of the gospel, knowing that there is nothing we have done that can separate us from the love of Christ and nothing we can do that will somehow add to our ledger of righteousness. But rather that we will pursue the Lord with every ounce of our being, whether in work in our family and our friendships and our worship and allow the gospel the truth of the gospel to guide every decision that we make this week as we seek to align everything we do with it.
There's a song I really enjoy called Simple Gospel and in closing, I just kind of wanted to share some of a condensed version of some of the lyrics with you all because it speaks to the reminder that I need that living out. The gospel is about my relationship with the Lord and not about my own efforts to be righteous before him. Some of the lyrics are, I want to know you Lord. Like I know a friend. I want to know you Lord. So I'm laying down all my religion. I'm laying down. I want to know you Lord. Lord. I've been told to be ashamed. Lord, I've been told, I don't measure up. Lord, I've been told, I'm not good enough, but you're here with me and I reach out and you find me in the dust. You say no amount of untruth can separate us. I will rejoice in the simple gospel. I will rejoice in you, Lord. Let's close in prayer together.
Heavenly Father, we come before you with hearts full of gratitude for the truth of the gospel. We thank you that our justification is found in Christ alone, through faith alone. Help us Lord to examine our hearts and our lives, to walk in step with the truth of the gospel. Just as Paul confronted Peter in love, give us courage to confront anything in our lives that nullifies your grace. May our obedience to you not flow from fear, not flow from legalism, but from hearts transformed by your grace, driven by the love of Christ, grounded in the truth of your word. Remind us daily of this freedom and joy that we have in Christ. Empower us to live lives that reflect your glory and to share your love with those around us. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.