February 1, 2009

Lesson: Galatians 2.11-21

Sermon Title: Thick or Thin

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INTRODUCTION

Miniature Cross (1)

One Sunday a priest announced he was passing out miniature crosses made of palm leaves. "Put this cross in the room where your family argues most," he advised. "When you look at it, the cross will remind you that God is watching."

When the parishioners were leaving church, a woman walked up to the priest, shook his hand, and said, "I'll take five."

  1. Paul did not have a room, he had a city.

    1. He lived in Antioch.

    2. It was a mixed community of Jews and Gentiles, Believers and Non-believers.

  2. Paul did not need five crosses, he already had one.

    1. He accepted and worshiped the Christ of the cross.

    2. He also had a cross to bear.

    3. The cross's name was Peter.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Why did he do it?

    1. See the Notes in your Study Guide for this week.

      1. There are some comments that are very important.

      2. They help us to understand.

        1. 2:11ff: The Judaizers accused Paul of watering down the gospel to make it easier for Gentiles to accept, while Paul accused the Judaizers of nullifying the truth of the gospel by adding conditions to it. The basis of salvation was the issue-is salvation through Christ alone, or does it come through Christ and adherence to the law? The argument came to a climax when Peter, Paul, the Judaizers, and some Gentile Christians all gathered together in Antioch to share a meal.

Peter probably thought that by staying away from the Gentiles, he was promoting harmony-he did not want to offend James and the Jewish Christians. James had a very prominent position and presided over the Jerusalem council (Acts 15). But Paul charged that Peter's action violated the gospel. By joining the Judaizers, Peter implicitly was supporting their claim that Christ was not sufficient for salvation.

  1. 2:11-12: Although Peter was a leader of the church, he was acting like a hypocrite. He knew better, yet he was driven by fear of what James and the others would think.

  1. He knew better.

    1. He had come down from Jerusalem from the council.

    2. Peter had come down to see the work of God among the Gentiles.

    3. Peter not only approved it, he rejoices in it.

  2. He had testified to the graciousness of God.

  3. He, with the rest of the leaders in Jerusalem had approved of the gospel that Paul was preaching and offered to him the right hand of fellowship.

  4. Now Peter is dissimulating (to conceal one's true motives, thoughts, etc., by some pretense; speak or act hypocritically (2)).

    1. He is concealing his association with the Gentiles from the Judaizers.

    2. Is he do dense that he is unaware of the implications of his decision.

  5. Laying aside all his Jewish prejudices he had taken his seat at the table of the Gentiles.

    1. Certain "false brethren" having come around, and having urged the imperative necessity of ceremony he yielded to his fears, withdrew from the Gentiles and lived in quarantine with the Judaizers.

    2. Barnabas and the Jewish Christians were also influenced to go with Peter.

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  1. Paul finds it necessary to confront Peter and remind him of his position and influence.

  1. You can understand the reasoning of Paul in verses 11-14

    1. 11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned;

    2. 12for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles.

    3. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction.

    4. 13And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

  2. 14But when I saw that they were not acting consistently 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 compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

  1. Paul moves on to reason out the very basics of Christianity and the doctrine of Justification by Faith.

  1. Faith is often a very confusing subject.

    1. This is because of the way in which it is approached or understood by differing authorities.

    2. We need to learn the meaning and application of faith so that we may avoid the influence and the pressure of the Judaizers.

  2. So let's talk a little about faith, what it is and how to acquire enough of it to help us.

    1. Faith is not a leap in the dark.

    2. It is not trusting in something that cannot be seen.

    3. Faith is sight, and insight created by hope and love.

    4. Faith has to be more than belief.

      1. As James has written: "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder," (James 2:19, NRSVA).

      2. Belief, alone, sometimes creates shuddering, especially when belief is sorely tested and tried.

    5. A very popular description of faith that is often used as a definition is found in Hebrews 11.1.

      1. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1, NRSVA).

      2. In my life I have often heard two concepts drawn from this passage.

        1. Things hoped for.

        2. Things not seen.

      3. This may also be understood as walking by faith and not by sight.

      4. There are two words that definitely ought to be emphasized.

        1. Assurance (confidence).

        2. Conviction (certainty).

      5. Faith is not belief in something or someone that cannot be seen.

      6. Faith is not the acceptance of what cannot be understood.

  3. One of the best ways to understand faith is to study the way that the Apostle Paul attempts to help us grasp the process by which it is acquired.

    1. He does this in Galatians 2.19b-21.

      1. Here are verses 15-19a:

15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.

And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

17But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

18But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

19aFor through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

19bI have been crucified with Christ;

20...it is no longer I who live, but it is 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.

        1. Paul is thoughtfully speaking of a symbiotic relationship.

        2. This is an interdependent or mutually beneficial relationship between two persons, groups (3)

      1. 21I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

    1. Justification comes through FAITH!

A DEFINITION OF-CHRISTIAN FAITH: A. Graham Maxwell, PhD, Emeritus Professor of New Testament Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA

"'Faith' is a word we use to describe a relationship with God as with a person well known. The better we know him, the better the relationship may be.

"Faith implies an attitude toward God of love, trust, and deep admiration, It means having enough confidence in God, based upon the more than adequate evidence revealed, to be willing to believe whatever he says, to accept whatever he offers, and to do whatever he wishes-without reservation-for the rest of eternity.

"Anyone who has such faith is perfectly safe to save.

"This is why faith is the only requirement for heaven."

  1. Now I believe we have a working definition.

    1. Faith is dependent on knowing.

    2. Knowing is dependent on proclamation.

    3. Proclamation is in the Scriptures of the New Testament.

    4. Faith is a relationship with Jesus as with a person well known.

  2. The next stage is to put it into practice.

    1. This requires action.

    2. It also requires taking a necessary risk.

    3. But, then, why not.

From an anonymous Chicago teacher in the Treasury of Women's Quotations, by Carolyn Warner comes the following:

To Risk (4)

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. So now the test is to apply what we have learned so that we may have a strong and vibrant faith.

    1. But remember that there is danger and how to avoid it.

    2. This is where the words to a song come to mind.

Put Your Hand In The Hand
Words and Music: Gene McLellan

Put your hand in the hand of the Man who stilled the water.
Put your hand in the hand of the Man who parted the sea.
Take a look at your life, and you will look at others differently,
By putting your hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee.

Every time I look into the Holy Book, I want to tremble,
When I read about the part where a carpenter cleared the temple.
For the buyers and the sellers were no different fellas that what I profess to be,
And it causes me pain to know I'm not the guy that I should be.

Put your hand in the hand of the Man who stilled the water.
Put your hand in the hand of the Man who parted the sea.
Take a look at your life, and you will look at others differently,
By putting your hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee.

Mama taught me how to pray before I reached the age of seven,
And when I'm do on my knees, that's when I'm closest to Heaven.
Daddy lived his life with two kids and a wife, and you do what you must do
But he showed me enough of what it takes to get you through.

Put your hand in the hand of the Man who stilled the water.
Put your hand in the hand of the Man who parted the sea.
Take a look at your life, and you will look at others differently,
By putting your hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee.

Amen!

1. Received from Paula Sanning. The Good, Clean Funnies List [gcfl-info@gcfl.net]

2. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

3. symbiotic. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved January 30, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/symbiotic

4. Anonymous Chicago Teacher: From Treasury of Women's Quotations, by Carolyn Warner (Prentice Hall, 1992); pages 78-79.

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