Sunday Morning Service

Galatians 2

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“A Gospel Worth Fighting For!” • 6.2.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Paul continues this first section of the book of Galatians, detailing his "Personal Experience" with God's grace. We covered the first two sections in chapter 1.

- Paul experienced "Grace In His Calling." God had called him to be an Apostle, just as God called the Galatians to a relationship simply and solely by grace.

- Second, Paul experienced "Grace In His Conversion." Paul was not looking for God, but at the right time, God got a hold of Paul's heart, changing him radically.

- Today, we see the final two points that Paul wants to convey regarding his grace experience.

I. Grace In The Apostle's Confirmation (v.1-10)

II. Grace In Conflict (v.11-21)

Text

I. Grace In The Apostle's Confirmation (v.1-10)

• Galatians 2:1,2 : "Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain." : Fourteen years between trips to Jerusalem! Good Jewish men were to come to Jerusalem to commemorate three feasts a year!

- Paul is revealing just how distant he was from Judaism as this visit was not occassioned by religious ceremony or by church summons, but by God's revealing it as necessary.

- Paul and Barnabas were both Jewish men, tied together by the work in Antioch that Barnabas had overseen before installing Paul as the Pastor in Acts 11.

- It's likely that Titus, who we'll see was Greek, had become a Christian in Antioch under Paul's ministry. When Paul came to communicate what he had been preaching, Titus was exhibit A!

- Paul came seeking unity, seeking those of reputation, the Apostles, wanting to be clear that they were in agreement together.

• Galatians 2:3 : "Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." : The Apostles met with Paul and affirmed Titus as a brother.

- Neither Peter or James insisted on any other requirement, especially that of circumcision.

- The word "compelled" refers to forcing with threats. There were no ultimatums issued.

- Titus was a full Christian brother without any need for improvement!

• Galatians 2:4,5 : "And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." : The leaders in Jerusalem did not call for this meeting. The occasion was the question raised by false brethren who secretly entered the church with an agenda to legalize Christianity.

- They were people who acted as if they were true Christians, but were pushing a gospel that was not consistent with the gospel of the Apostles.

- These came in by stealth, literally, they crept in like bugs looking for a weakness to exploit!

- This is spiritual reconnaisance, in the hopes of enslaving the people of God with their perverted brand of gospel! That's the usual way in which wolves enter a congregation.

- They don't come in and face the leadership. They don't have the guts to start a church. They are too cowardly for that. Rather, they sneak in and see who they can prey upon!

- It's a suggestion here, a well placed verse out of context there. Before you know it, they've converted some unsuspecting person. Not in Antioch though!

- Paul fought them tooth and nail, not bending obediently, even for the shortest time! Why? Because the truth of the gospel must continue with the Galatians. He was not going to give an inch!

• Galatians 2:6-10 : "But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do." : Paul is talking about the Apostles! Those who seemed to be something! It didn't matter to Paul.

- God doesn't have special people, blessed in extraordinary ways over another person.

- He doesn't favor anyone above another and they added nothing, in terms of gospel knowledge to Paul. Imagine that: 14 years, no intersection, but the same gospel message!

- Instead of influencing the Apostle Paul to adopt a strict legalistic slant, the Apostles recognized that Paul's ministry was equally as valid as that of Peter!

- God worked through Peter's ministry, which was predominantly to the Jews, and He worked through Paul's ministry to the Gentiles. The same energetic expression of God manifested equally!

- Consider something of great importance here: God wants to work in people's lives, but He chooses the people He uses! Some are gifted for this group and some for another group!

- The important matter contextually is that the Apostles recognized that the Lord had brought salvation to both groups, making one group out of the two!

- Salvation was not just a Jewish phenomenon! Paul's ministry was welcomed and was approved by the fruit that had come from it! That was when the full endorsement took place!

- The men who mattered, the pillars of the church, those which supported it's standing, saw what God was doing and extended partnership.

- Their sole desire was simply that they remember the poor of Jerusalem. They agreed on that point, but Paul's point here is that there was never a mention of circumcision or law keeping!

- They simply confirmed what Paul was already thinking: The gospel of grace received manifests in grace extended to others! Grace finds a way to give! It has to have an outflow!

II. Grace In Conflict (v.11-21)

• Galatians 2:11-13 : "Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy." : Peter's visit to Antioch began well, but exposed a deeply held issue that was still being worked out in the first century. It ended with these words: "Paul v. Peter!"

- He set his feet and stood his ground against Peter because he acted against what he knew to be right. He was at fault.

- I believe that this sets this episode after the events of Acts 12, but before the council of Acts 15. Peter personally knew that he was not to treat the Gentiles as unclean.

- We know that he knew that because we find him eating with the Gentiles as if nothing was strange. He enjoyed bacon and pulled pork sandwiches with them and was having a good time.

- That's when some delegates came from J.C.F. and Peter immediately changed his tune. Literally he shrunk away and excluded himself from their company! Note the lessons we learn here.

- First, while we know that there is no favoritism with God, even the most godly and privileged have to guard their hearts to keep themselves from it!

- Are there some that we favor above others or is every man equal at the foot of the cross? However you answer now, please do so humbly, as the occasion may prove you believe otherwise!

- Second, there is always a temptation to fear men above God! Peter respected these men that Paul doesn't even name! Whoever they were, Peter was apt to shrink away from sight!

- We know that they were Jews and they had come from James, meaning that they were either friends with James or were related to the church that James pastored.

- Third, notice that Peter's behavior affected both the rest of the Jews and even Barnabas! In the Christian life, your behavior will inspire believers for good or error.

- Peter, the Jews and Barnabas all played the hypocrite at this time! Even Barnabas, the guy who sought after Paul to care for the Antioch church was swept away. "Men at their best..."

• Galatians 2:14-16 : "But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, 'If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." : Paul confronted Peter having seen what happened. You cannot confront what you do not see! Paul was a witness to this behavior.

- What he saw was that they, Peter, the Jews that had come with him and Barnabas, were not being straightforward, literally walking properly regarding the truth of the gospel.

- What is the truth of the gospel? Every man, woman and child in Christ is equally loved and accepted by God, regardless of nationality or heritage.

- You are an equal member the moment you come to Christ. This doesn't mean that you are immediately ready for equal service, but you are no less a saint than any other member!

- You are as much a saint as Paul and greater in the moment of your conversion than John the Baptist, according to Christ's own words! That is the truth of the gospel of Christ.

- Since Peter was the ringleader, Paul came to speak to him in front of all of them.

- Paul's charge was that Peter was telling people to live like he said, but not like he lived! Paul is making reference to eating and worshipping as a Gentile without connection to the law.

- By his actions, he was compelling the Gentiles to act in a different way in order to live alongside of him.

- His actions were not just excluding them. His actions were informing them that they needed to be different, in fact, needing to be Jewish. What an insult!

- Paul continues by laying out the theological implications of Peter's actions. We who are national Jews have a sure knowledge about God's actions with men!

- It was not like they were uninformed heathens! They knew well that any man that stood before God, could only do so justly by faith in Christ!

- A man is not declared right by works of the law, ie. what they eat, what they drink or whether or not they are circumcised. There is no salvation in those things.

- But there is for those who have believed in Jesus Christ, even those who are Jews by nature! Paul says emphatically, "even we!"

- Paul could not stand on his Jewish background and Peter could not stand on being Christ's disciple. Both would be let into heaven because they had believed upon Jesus Christ!

- Peter was acting as if that mattered by excluding himself. He was pretending that there were distinctions and that there was still a separating, dividing line!

- His actions betrayed a subconscious or ingrained, embedded belief that works did matter to God, but no flesh, no one shall be justified, declared right that way!

- Your perceived good works merit nothing in the sight of God for justification. The scripture cannot be more plain regarding that belief.

• Galatians 2:17-19 : "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God." : If it were unlawful to disregard the law, then Christ was leading them to be sinners!

- What a horrible charge! Peter would never have said that, but his actions spoke that!

- In attempting to live in this duplicity, Peter was again building that which had been destroyed.

- Every time you and I put up a set of legal boundaries, we're creating a city from the rubble that it was! That makes me a lawbreaker! I'm going against the Lord!

- I'm proclaiming one thing with my mouth, while my life preaches another thing! It's either all of grace and I relate to people regardless of their station in life by that or I build up walls of ruins!

- But the law can't build anything in any person's life regarding a right standing with God! The law killed Paul. Literally, through the law Paul was dead to the law.

- Think about his logic: What is the worst that God's law could do to you on earth? You could feasibly be executed. What then? For Paul there was light in that life of Christ.

- The law killed him, but his life unto the law being ended, he began a new sort of life with God!

- Until you come to Christ, the law of God kills you to! It stands to condemn you and you cannot stand before it! Thankfully, there is a better life!

• Galatians 2:20,21 : "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which 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 set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.'" : This brings us to one of the greatest verses in the New Testament. I have been crucified with Christ. What a statement!

- Paul was not physically standing there, nailed to a cross. He was not one of the thieves on His right or left side. But Paul was there nonetheless!

- This enters into what we learned back in Romans 5. The concept is called "Federal Representation." All believers were represented by Christ at His death. I was there too!

- Your sins were judged on the day Christ died! God's wrath was fully expelled upon Christ, against all of the sin that Christ was taking upon Himself.

- If a person who does not believe right now, but believes in a few moments, their sins are there as well! That is the greatness of Christ's sacrifice!

- Paul had been crucified with Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. You who have believed can put your name there as well! When He died, all who believe died with Him!

- Scripturally speaking, in God's eyes, the law has been satisfied, having taken our very lives.

- Frank, the old man no longer lives. It's Christ living through Frank that is alive now! Christ continues His ministry now through my willing body, heart and mind.

- This life that you can observe in my physical body is governed by my faith in Jesus, the unique Son of God who loved Paul. Do you know God's love for you in Jesus?

- Can you say with Paul that God has loved you in Christ? Some may doubt and say "when?" Paul answers that He loved and then gave Himself for me!

- Again, can you say that He has given Himself for you? You cannot if you have not believed upon Him! If you haven't trusted in Him, you have none of Him and He has none of you!

- Paul knew that God's love and sacrifice were personally for Him. Every believer agrees!

- This is why Paul never set aside, rejected, or frustrated God's grace. What frustrates God's grace? People who attempt to earn His favor by subscribing to the law that's been fulfilled in Christ!

- You cannot have it both ways. If the law could bring about righteousness, you have to ask yourself this: Why then did Jesus have to die? No legalist can answer that!

- If I still have to accomplish something or need to add something to Jesus' work, then I am saying in that action that Christ's work was for nothing! I don't want to ever say that!

Conclusion
- Paul's gospel of grace was confirmed. 14 years away from Jerusalem, but the same spirit and the same message yielded the same result: Saved people!

- But if this passage teaches us anything, we learn how easy it is to get carried away with legalism and pride that build walls for men to climb and walls to separate!

- Some of the most gifted and godly men have fallen into this trap. Therefore we are warned. God's grace was enough to call and change us!

- Let us never seek to add anything to that, for our friends and loved ones, need only His grace to change them as well!