At the church where I serve, we have been spending
our time together in a sermon series entitled “Mosaic: the gospel and race”. During
this series, we are going to examine the issue of racism from the prism and
lens of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. During this series,
our hope and our prayer as a church is to demonstrate that the claims of Christ
and the message of the gospel provides both the explanation as to why racism
exists and the solution to the problem of racism.
This week, I would like for us
to spend our time together looking at a section of a letter that is recorded in
the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Galatians. Now the book of Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul
around 48 A.D., which was within 20 years of Jesus life, death, and
resurrection. The Apostle Paul
wrote this letter to confront a group within a group of churches who seemed to
be abandoning a gospel centered lifestyle of lifestyle that placed their confident
trust in Jesus and followed the message and teachings of Jesus by faith to
instead embrace one of two different forms of religion so as to live a
religious centered life.
The first form of a religious
centered life that this group within the churches was embracing is the religion
of legalism. For the legalist, the claims of Christ and the message of the
gospel seems just too easy, too simple. There has to be more than faith in
God’s grace. So what a legalist does is make a list of religious rules to
follow in order to be right with God. The legalist lives a life that is driven
by faith in Christ plus works for God in order to be right with God. Or the legalist is driven by works for God
apart from faith in Christ in order to be right with God.
The second form of religion is
the religion of license. For the licentious person, they live a life that is
driven by the belief that, as a result of God’s grace, they can do whatever
they want and still be right with God. The licentious person can lie, cheat,
steal, sleep around and have friends with benefits, because at the end of the
day, we are saved by grace.
And it is in this context that
we are going to jump into this section of this letter, where we are given a
glimpse into a conflict that occurred between two men who played a major role
in the life of the early church. And it is in this conflict that we will
discover another reason why the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel
provide the solution to the universal problem of racism. We are given a glimpse
into this conflict in Galatians 2:11. Let’s look at it together:
But when
Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of
the churches of Galatia by sharing with them the story a major conflict that
occurred between himself and Peter, who was the undisputed leader of the twelve
closest followers of Jesus and the early church. This conflict is recorded for
us in another letter in the New Testament of our Bibles, called the book of
Acts, in Acts 14:26-15:2. After his first missionary journey, which resulted in
the gospel being proclaimed and the churches of Galatia being planted, Paul
returned to Antioch, which was his base of operations, and began to share all
that God had done through himself and Barnabas.
Peter, who also had been used by God to share the claims
of Christ and the message of the gospel with the non-Jewish world, came to
visit Antioch and rejoiced at the evidence of God’s activity. However something
happened between Peter and Paul the resulted in Paul being in open conflict and
opposition with Peter. This conflict was so heated that Paul states that Peter
stood condemned. In other words, Peter was convicted of wrongdoing. Paul then reveals
exactly what Peter did that resulted in him being condemned in verse 12-13:
For prior to
the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but
when they came, he began to
withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The
rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas
was carried away by their hypocrisy.
To understand what is happening in this event from
history, we first need to understand who the characters are in this event from
history and define some words. When Paul refers to the coming of certain men
from James, he is referring to Jewish followers of Jesus who were from the
church at Jerusalem. By contrast, when Paul refers to Gentiles, he is referring
to non-Jewish followers of Jesus who did not follow the Jewish dietary laws.
The party of the circumcision refers to Jewish followers of Jesus in general.
Now that we know the characters in this event from
history, let’s look at what happened in this event from history. When Peter
first came to Antioch, he was mixing and mingling with the members of the
church at Antioch, which was primarily composed of Gentiles. And as Gentiles,
these followers of Jesus did not follow the Jewish dietary laws; they enjoyed
BBQ ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. And Peter was going to their church
dinners and eating some pulled pork and BBQ with them.
However, things changed when some Jewish followers of
Jesus from the church at Jerusalem came to Antioch to visit. Paul explains that
Peter began to withdrawal and hold himself aloof. Peter separated himself from
the Gentile followers of Jesus. Peter stopped mixing and mingling with the
Gentile followers of Jesus. Peter stopped attending the BBQ’s at the church.
Instead Peter only hung out with fellow Jewish followers of Jesus at their BBQ
and only ate Hebrew national hot dogs.
Since the Jewish followers of Jesus viewed themselves as
being superior to the Gentile followers of Jesus at Antioch, they would not
hang out with the Gentile followers of Jesus. And Peter, who did not want to
get on the wrong side of his fellow Jewish followers of Jesus, changed his
behavior so as to no longer hang around the Gentile followers of Jesus. Paul
explained that Peter’s change of behavior, combined with the influence that he
had as a leader, resulted in every other Jewish follower of Jesus at Antioch
following his example. Paul explains that the rest of the Jews joined him in
hypocrisy.
Now to understand what Paul is communicating when he uses
the word hypocrisy, we first need to understand what the word hypocrisy
actually means. The word hypocrisy, in the language that this letter was
originally written in, means to join in playing a part of pretending. The word
hypocrite was used to describe someone who was an actor in the Greek theatre. A
hypocrite creates a public impression that is at odds with ones real
motivations or purpose. So, to be a follower of Jesus who strives to follow the
message and teachings of Jesus, yet sometimes falls short is not to being a hypocrite.
A hypocrite is someone that says “here is the message and teachings of Jesus,
and you need to follow them, but I am not going to follow them”. A hypocrite
fails to follow the message and teachings that they impose on others.
And that is exactly what Peter had done in Antioch.
Previously, Peter clearly and accurately communicated and advocated for a
gospel centered lifestyle that was based on faith and that strove to follow the
message and teachings of Jesus. Previously, Peter had no problem hanging out
with Gentile followers of Jesus who were different in their customs as a result
of being from a different ethnic and racial background.
But now, Peter was clearly communicating and advocating a
religious centered lifestyle that was based on faith in Jesus plus keeping a
list of rules in order to be right with Jesus. Now, Peter was clearly
distancing himself from other races so as to hang out solely with those who
were of the same race and who had the same customs.
Tomorrow, we will see how Paul responded to Peter…
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