PETER, PAUL AND THE CHURCH POTLUCK (Part 1)
KEY VERSE – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) SECONDARY THEME VERSES: “A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16); “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Gal. 2:21).
THEME: Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone releases us from the yoke of the law, freeing us to live a life of love through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Legal (Imputed) Righteousness: We are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Imparted Righteousness: Immediate Moral Change at conversion (Gal. 6:15); Gradual Moral Change through the fruit-growing work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which requires our cooperation (Gal 5:16-17, 25, 6:8). We cooperate by using CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving. Foundational verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Good Teachers: (1) Constantly re-evaluate what they are doing; (2) Set large goals; (3) Ask – Does everything I do contribute to learning?; (4) Prepare well; (5) Check for understanding; (6) Like teaching; (7) Get results from their teaching; (8) Have perseverance. Don’t give up.
TEACHING GOAL: How to maintain unity in the church while focusing on God’s worldwide ministry of the Gospel.
REVIEW
Paul’s thesis: My apostleship is equal to that of the twelve; the Gospel I received by divine revelation and preach was authenticated by the Jerusalem leadership. (Galatians 1:11-12)
From 1:13-4:31 Paul defends his position as an apostle and the divine authenticity of the Gospel he preaches. Paul shows his independence from: (1) Human Teaching (1:13-17); (2) Judean churches (1:18-24); (3) Jerusalem “pillars” (2:1-10); (4) Apostle Peter (2:11-21).
TEXT FOR THE DAY:
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? (Galatians 2:11-14)
PETER, PAUL AND THE ANTIOCH CHURCH POTLUCK
1. Peter’s Understanding
2. Peter’s Practice
3. Peter’s Fault
4. Peter’s Fear
5. Peter’s Hypocrisy
6. Peter’s Influence
7. Peter’s Shame
8. Peter’s Lessons (For Us)
INTRODUCTION:
The two visits in Galatians 2 could be called “The Tale of Two Cities,” Jerusalem and Antioch.
ILLUSTRATION: Pastor Ryken of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia began his sermon on this passage like this: It was an awkward moment, to say the least. It’s always embarrassing when a fight breaks out at church, but this one was a real doozy. For one thing, it took place during a church potluck, where everyone was supposed to be having a good time. For another thing, the combatants were the pillars of the church. It was Peter against Paul, two apostles in a face-to-face, knock-down, drag-out showdown. The battle was completely unexpected ….” (Ryken, 52)
But in spite of all this, when Rock (Peter) came to Albany (Antioch) I had to rebuke him to his face, because he was clearly in error. For, before the committee appointed by Jim (James) arrived, he was eating with Negroes. But when they came, he shrank back and segregated himself because he was afraid of the whites. He even got the rest of the white liberals to play the hypocrite with him, so that even Barney (Barnabas) was carried away by their hypocrisy. (Gal. 2:11-14, Cotton Patch Bible)
“This is without doubt one of the most tense and dramatic episodes in the New Testament. Here are two leading apostles of Jesus Christ face to face in complete and open conflict.” (Stott, 49)
READING: For fourth century Christians this (the conflict between Peter and Paul in Galatians 2:11-14) was not distant incident. Such evidence of conflict between the two principal Apostles of the faith was an embarrassment to them. The tendency was to explain it away. The majority of Christian exegetes held that the confrontation between Peter and Paul had not involved a real difference of opinion between the two Apostles. Instead it had been a charitable pretence, designed to maintain the unity of the Christian community. Peter had allowed Paul to pretend to rebuke him in public for having imposed circumcision [food laws] on the Gentiles. But Peter, of course, had done no such thing. The rebuke to Peter had merely given Paul an opportunity to condemn, through Peter, the practices of others. Such as the view offered by Jerome [translator of the Vulgate] and the greatest minds of Eastern Christendom. To think otherwise was, by implication, to tolerate Judaism (by admitting that Peter had not abandoned Jewish practice) and to suggest that two great apostles could disagree on a serious issue. (Augustine of Hippo, Peter Brown, Pg. 449-450)
“Some early church leaders (Origin, Chrysostom and Jerome) could not believe that this conflict really occurred. They explained that Paul and Peter must have staged the conflict to illustrate the issue at stake. Augustine, however, interpreted the story as a genuine conflict in which Paul established the higher claim of the truth of the gospel over the rank and office of Peter.” (Hansen, 61)
“He hath here no trifling matter in hand, but the chiefest articles of all Christian doctrine . . . For what is Peter? What is Paul? What is an angel from heaven? What are all other creatures to the article of justification? Which if we know, then are we in the clear light; but if we be ignorant thereof, then are we in most miserable darkness.” (John Stott quoting Martin Luther, 54)
I. PETER’S UNDERSTANDING
Peter’s Revelation in Joppa and Caesarea
It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:12-15)
Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. (Acts 10:47-48)
The accusation Peter faced when he got back to Jerusalem
“. . . [Peter] went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” (Acts 11:13)
Peter’s Summary of What He Had Learned
“God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)
“. . . God does not show favoritism.” (Acts 10:34)
II. PETER’S PRACTICE
Antioch had a population of 500,000 people of which 10% were Jews. Thus a Jewish population of 50,000.
Founding of the church in Antioch: Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. (Acts 11:19-24)
JEWISH RESTRICTION ON EATING WITH GENTILES
The “Book of Jubilees” (22:16), an ancient Jewish religious book contains a verse, “Eat not with them . . . for their works are unclean.”
“ . . . The complicated system of Jewish food laws made social intercourse between Jews and Gentiles almost impossible.” (Cole, 119)
Basically, the Bible (Lev. 11, Deut. 14) prohibits the consumption of (1) all four-footed animals except sheep, goats, cattle, and a few kinds of deer, the most notable prohibition being pork; (2) shellfish and mollusks, (3) birds of prey; (4) most insects (except locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers); (5) swarming land creatures (like lizards, crocodiles, chameleons, and weasels); and (6) dead animals (which should be obvious). Furthermore, for food that was permissible there was a further restriction: no food could be consumed that had either fat or blood (Lev. 3:17). In the passage of history, Jews added other prohibitions, like Gentile meat and wine (cf. Dan. 1:12-16), because both could have been contaminated through idolatry. One other prohibition was the eating of food that was not properly tithed, though Pharisees debated this point quite heatedly.” (McKnight, 101-102)
“The food laws stood out, along with the observance of the Sabbath, as being a central and defining aspect of Judaism.” (Sanders as quoted by McKnight, 102)
A strict Jew was forbidden to do business with a Gentile. He must not travel with a Gentile. He must never give hospitality to a Gentile and received hospitality from a Gentile.
A Jewish man’s morning prayer said by millions of Jews around the world: Blessed are you, HaShem, King of the Universe, for not having made me a Gentile. Blessed are you, HaShem, King of the Universe, for not having made me a woman; Blessed are you HaShem, King of the Universe, for not having made me a slave.” (HaShem is Hebrew for ‘the Name’ and is said to avoid saying the name God)
PETER HAD BEEN EATING WITH GENTILES
“ . . . he [Peter] used to eat with the Gentiles. . . . He began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles. . . . You live like a Gentile . . . .“ (Gal. 2:12, 14)
“Eat” is in the imperfect tense (past continuous) meaning that Peter had been eating with the Gentiles for some time.
“He . . . was in the habit of eating his meals with the Gentiles.” (J.B. Phillips)
“Eating” included table fellowship, the love feast (agape meal, potluck) and sharing the Lord’s Supper. This was the established custom between Jews and Gentiles in the church in Antioch.
Peter joined in “table fellowship with Gentiles when he arrived in Antioch. He had been in Antioch long enough for Christians to realize that he ate with Gentiles.
Thus his usual custom was to eat with the Gentiles. Peter was setting at a table with Gentiles, eating food that was forbidden in the law, eating food that was not properly prepared according to Jewish food laws. He was living like a Gentile.
Peter’s vision was not just on how to evangelize. It also included the matter of fellowship with Gentiles.
What Jewish law was he breaking? Eating foods forbidden, not prepared properly, not tithed?
BIBLICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EATING WITH GENTILES
QUESTION: What was the significance of eating together?
When you eat together in the Middle East you tear your bread from a common loaf, you dip it into a common dish.
Breaking Bread Together Meant Acceptance.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
“On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.” (Acts 20:7)
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20)
ILLLUSTRATION/POEM: LOVE (George Herbert, 1593-1633)
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back.
Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked anything.
A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, you shall be he.
I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah my deare,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
Breaking Bread Together Meant Oneness
“Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body, for we partake of one loaf.” (I Cor. 10:17)
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. . . .
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household. (Eph. 2:13-16, 19)
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)
Eating together is a sign of unity, acceptance, and friendship … an end to enmity.
ILLUSTRATION: A beautiful illustration of (acceptance and unity) comes from the life and ministry of William Carey (1761-1834), the great Baptist missionary to India. Indian culture dominated by the ridid Hindu caste system under which members of different social classes were not permitted to share a common meal. Carey’s real breakthrough came when his first convert, a man named Krishna Pal, rejected his caste and began to eat dinner with the missionaries. One of Carey’s co-workers exclaimed, “Thus the door of faith is open to the Gentiles. Who shall shut it? The chain of caste is broken; who shall mend it?” (Ryken, 65)
III. PETER’S FAULT
“… he [Peter] was clearly in the wrong.” (Gal. 2:11)
Various translations: very wrong, completely wrong, to be blamed, clearly out of line, off-track, stood condemned.
WHAT WAS PETER COMMUNICATING TO THE GENTILES?
He was communicating that they were unclean, unacceptable and second class Christians.
QUESTION: Put yourselves in the shoes of these Gentile believers. How do you think they felt?
Peter was causing a “social” if not “racial” rift in the church.
WHAT WAS PETER FORCING ON THE GENTILES?
Were the Jewish believers the majority in the church? If not they certainly were the most influential due to the fact that they were Jews. That they would never be “one” until they followed Jewish food laws etc. He was “forcing” them to follow Jewish customs.
“How is it, then, that your force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” (Gal. 2:14)
The word “force” is a powerful word, often used of physical force. Note in 2:3 where Titus was not compelled to be circumcised. In other words Peter was putting tremendous pressure on the Gentile Christian just by his action of separating from them at the common meals.
HOW WAS PETER CONTRADICTING THE GOSPEL?
Peter was acting against (1) His special revelation from the Lord as noted in Acts 10; (2) The meeting in Jerusalem where he did not agree to compel Titus to be circumcised and where the Jerusalem Apostles added nothing to Paul’s Gospel message; (3) The usual culture of table fellowship in Antioch that he had accepted and participated in before the James Gang came from Jerusalem.
Paul said, “… they [he, Peter] was not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel.” (Gal. 2:14)
“acting in line” is from the Greek word orthopedeo. From ortho we get the words orthodontist, orthopedic, orthodoxy. Ortho means straight, true, upright. From the Greek term pedeo we get the English term podiatrist, a specialist in the care of the feet.
Orthopedeo can be translated to walk uprightly, acting in line, following the truth, straightforward about the truth, acting consistently with the truth, properly following the truth, living uprightly in agreement with the truth.
My take and translation: The Gospel’s straight line is grace + nothing. We are to live our religious lives on that line, the minute we veer away from grace in even a minute way, we are no longer orthodox, no longer acting uprightly, no longer keeping in step and properly following the core truth of the Gospel.
What is the “truth” of the Gospel? It is that our whole religious life – the foundation and flow of our lives – is founded in God’s unmerited favor. Whenever I feel that God is rejecting me due to something I have done or not done I am not walking in line with the core truth of the Gospel, which is grace.
The minute I reject fellowship with a brother or sister based on a religious law, ceremony etc performed or not performed, or based on racial or social preference etc. I am not “living in line” with the core truth of the Gospel which is grace.
“We must have fellowship with anyone and everyone who is in fellowship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. If we refuse to have fellowship with them, then our actions deny the gospel. (Ryken, 60)
“If God has accepted them, how can we reject them? If He receives them to His fellowship, how can we reject them? If He receives them to Himself; how can we withdraw from those whom God has reconciled?” (Stott, 55)
ILLUSTRATION: A tragic example comes from the history of the Southern Presbyterian Church prior to the Civil War. In those days it was customary for Presbyterian elders to give their parishioners tokens signifying that they were eligible to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Sadly, in some churches African slaves were not given the customary silver token, but one made of base metal. Nor were they allowed to receive the sacrament until all the white church members had been served. This was a divisive and prejudicial way of handling a sacrament that God intends to signify our union together in Christ. Whether the elders believed the gospel or not, their actions clearly denied it. (Ryken, 59)
SO WHAT????
1. When studying the Scriptures keep in mind that the prophets and apostles were not without faults. We can learn from their weaknesses just like we can learn from their strengths.
2. When God opens your mind to new truth you are responsible to live out that truth in your life.
3. Acceptance of one another and oneness in the church should be a major quality of every Christian fellowship.
4. If we have grasped grace we will know that our standing as God’s child is never affected by what we do or do not do.
5. The minute we refuse to have fellowship with a brother or sister based on religious scruples or racial or social standing we are veering away from the truth of the Gospel.