Paul and Peter and the Gospel, pt 2

Okay, if you look at the title of our study today, it's, A Tale of Two Cities. Let me read part of our passage today. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. That's our passage? It was the age of foolishness. That's the wrong book. We're supposed to be studying Galatians. We're not studying London and Paris. We're studying Jerusalem and Antioch. I like for you all to think that I'm a pretty smart guy. The only part of that book I ever read was the first two lines and the last two lines. I've never read the rest of it. I suppose at my age I could do that, but I think I'd want to use the Cliff Notes. Do they still have Cliff Notes today? I'm sure they do. They sure helped out when I was in high school.

Okay, so when we're talking about the teller two cities In Galatians chapter 2 we have two completely different cities In verses 1 through 10 we saw what took place When Saul went up to Jerusalem And now this week, in verses 11 through 14, we're going to see what happened when Peter came down to Antioch. And I think it's pretty important that we take a look at both of these cities to see just exactly what's been going on in the early church, because this will really determine a lot about how we interpret what's happening We're going to do this in three stages.

I like outlines. Roger likes those little boxes. What do you call that? Diagrams. Diagrams. Well, I grew up with outlines. First of all, we're going to take a look at the difference between Jerusalem and Antioch, and then the conflict between Peter and Paul, and then the third point, the outcome of that meeting. By introduction, we'll look at what went on in Jerusalem in verses 1 through 10. And most of that, Myles provided for us in the last several weeks.

In Galatians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Agabus, a prophet of Jerusalem, came to Antioch with a revelation from God concerning the coming famine in Jerusalem. Saul and Barnabas took an offering to Jerusalem, and in doing so, he was able to submit to them the gospel he preached to the Gentiles. And then in verses 3 through 5, Saul took Titus along, an uncircumcised Gentile, knowing ahead of time that the controversy of circumcision would come up. So, originally, They showed up in Jerusalem to take offerings to the poor because of that famine. This took place right around 44 to 47 A.D. when Claudius, who was the emperor of Judea, declared the famine. But that may have been their main reason written why they went down to Jerusalem, but Paul, ahead of time, knew what he was getting into, so he took Titus along with him.

Even though this was a private meeting with the leaders of the church, false brethren snuck in to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But Saul did not put up with them for even an hour. so that the truth of the gospel would remain. In verses 6 through 10, James, Peter, and John acknowledge that Saul had been entrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles, just as they had been to the Jews. They extended the right hand of fellowship to Saul and Barnabas, symbolizing their partnership in the gospel. So while they were in Jerusalem, I think we find out that the leaders of Jerusalem agreed to the fact that Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Their only request was for Saul and Barnabas to remember the poor, and that's a cause Saul was eager to do. And if you go throughout the book of Acts, you'll find that he was continually taking contributions to take back to Jerusalem.

And this brings us to our passage today. Not that book I mentioned earlier, but we're talking about Galatians here. We are now back in Antioch, And Peter is probably living there. It doesn't say that, but I'm going to point out a little later why I believe that Peter was probably living there at that time.

In Galatians 2, 11 through 14, we read, but once Cephas, now remember his name is not Cephas, it's Cephas. There's no C in the Greek language. And for you sports fans, I don't know where you get the Celtics. They're the Celtics, aren't they? People in Boston have a different accent. Yeah, I guess they do.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with 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. When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? And in the first 10 verses, Peter is in Jerusalem, but now we find him in Antioch. The difference between Jerusalem and Antioch.

You're gonna find that I'm gonna be putting Jerusalem down a little bit, but I'm talking about what's going on with the majority of the believers in Jerusalem. I'm sure there were many that followed the Lord, loved the Lord, and were doing the right thing. But we're not gonna look so much at the cities, we are going to look at the believers in each city. We'll look at Antioch first. Because of the diaspora caused by the persecution of Jewish believers and Stephen's death, many of those of the way relocated to other cities. Antioch being one of those cities. Early on, the believers in Jerusalem were called themselves by the way.

Many men, both Jew and Gentile believers, came to Antioch preaching to the Gentiles concerning the Lord Jesus. We read in Acts chapter 11, so that those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. I wonder if we should pronounce that Let's move on. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, the Gentiles. Speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

There's a map of that area. You see Antioch up in the upper right-hand corner. You see Phoenicia down there. Actually, that map is just a little bit off. I think Phoenicia wasn't that much further north of Samaria. It was more along the coast, just to the west of Samaria. And I think Caesarea, Joppa, they were all included in Phoenicia.

Many of the believers in Jerusalem fled to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. There were also many Gentile believers moving to Antioch from the island of Cyprus and Cyrene, which is on the northern coast of Africa, which is now called Libya. And so we have many believers coming all the way from Africa.

And this was most likely the result of Philip's ministry in Samaria, when he took the gospel to the Hellenistic Jews, and then Peter taking the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, and his military friends in Caesarea. When Peter took the gospel to Cornelius, he had a house full of his military buddies. And I'm sure after that took place, they went out all over the region spreading the gospel. So we had the gospel going all the way to North Africa.

Later on, several years later, we're going to find Barnabas. and Mark going to North Africa. But that hasn't anything to do with this right here. Antioch became the center of Christianity for both Jew and Gentile in the early church. Antioch had a large number of Gentile believers in the church. It was so successful that Jerusalem sent Barnabas down to see what was going on. At this time, Barnabas was in Jerusalem, and he's traveling to Antioch. In Acts 11, we read, the news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.

Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. The gospel to the Gentiles was so successful at Antioch that Barnabas went to Tarsus to get Saul to help out in the work. But why do you suppose he went to get Saul? Don't answer that, I'll answer it for you. Barnabas was aware of Saul's calling to the Gentiles. He knew God had called him to the Gentiles, and he thought that this would be the perfect man to assist in the ministry in Antioch, which had many Gentile believers.

In Acts 11.25 we read, and for an entire year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught considerable numbers.

And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So they're no longer called the way they are called Christians. Antioch became the main outreach for evangelism, while Jerusalem was a different story. So let's take a look at Jerusalem. Like I said before, I may be saying some negative things about Jerusalem, but God had a purpose for those believers in Jerusalem. And I don't want to talk badly about everybody there. But there is a huge difference between Jerusalem and Antioch.

After the resurrection, Christ told his 11 disciples, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Those 11 disciples, along with Matthias, became the apostles to the church. The church prospered and grew despite opposition from the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin. In Acts 6, verse 7, we read, the word of God kept on spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

But with the martyr of Stephen, many of the believers left Jerusalem. They had to get away from that persecution. We learn from God's Word and historical sources that most of the apostles left Jerusalem and went out into the world spreading the gospel just as Christ told them to do. Now, is it possible that those who stayed behind in Jerusalem weren't really following the Great Commission? Christ told them to go out into all the world, but a lot of the believers decided to just stay right where they were.

But of the Jewish believers that stayed, most continued to live under the Mosaic Law, and we're going to see that a little bit later. You no longer hear much about the church in Jerusalem after this, and what you do hear is mostly negative. Most believers in Jerusalem never did get with God's plan.

This was mostly due to the heavy influence of Judaism in the city. And this included Peter. Although Peter did a lot of great things while he was in Jerusalem, most of the time while he was out of Jerusalem, either in Caesarea or some of his other travels, But Peter was taken up with this heavy influence of Judaism. In the book of Acts, Jerusalem was slowly fading away as Antioch and later Ephesus became the center of Christianity.

Just about every time Paul dealt with Jerusalem, he was greeted with opposition from the Judaizers and the legalists. If you go all the way through the book of Acts, every time he ended up in Jerusalem, he had problems. When he first came to Jerusalem after Damascus, they tried to have him killed.

We read in Acts 9.28, and he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews, but they were attempting to put him to death.

Here in Galatians 2.4, false brethren in Jerusalem tried to sabotage his message.

We read that it was because of the false brethren, sacredly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. Something I'd like to point out here is this phrase, false brethren. We had a discussion a couple weeks ago.

Are we talking about believers or unbelievers? I think we have to realize, especially in the Book of Galatians, there are two types of legalists. There are the Judaizers, who mainly were the unsaved, who said, you have to follow the Mosaic law to be saved. And then there's what I call the legalists, who were believers, and they said, although we are saved by faith, We need to live our life according to the Mosaic law.

We're talking about two completely different types of people here. After his first missionary journey, men from Jerusalem showed up in Antioch teaching, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And this led up to the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15. During the Jerusalem Council, we read, Every time Paul ends up in Jerusalem, he's confronted with all of this. Even after that meeting, We thank the Council of Jerusalem, a great council. Historically, everybody historically knew about it. Still, there were many believers in Jerusalem that didn't quite get with the program. Even after that meeting, many believers in Jerusalem continued to embrace circumcision and the Mosaic Law. After the second missionary journey, Paul stopped by Jerusalem on his way to Antioch, but he didn't bother staying very long. If you remember, he was in Corinth, and he decided he was going to head on out to Ephesus.

And in Ephesus, he said, I got to get back home. I can't spend much time here. If you're part of our Acts study up at Bob's place, we know all about this. If you're not familiar with that, I encourage you to read the first 15 chapters of Acts. But he said, I can't stay long here in Ephesus. I have to get back home.

And when he did leave, it says, when he landed in Caesarea, which was the port, He went up and greeted the church and went down to Antioch. That's all that is said about his visit to Jerusalem. Could it be that Paul no longer wanted to put up with the Judaizers and legalists in Jerusalem? He went up and greeted them, probably had some offerings to give to them, and then said, I'm getting out of here. I'm not going to put up with you guys. I'm going back home to Antioch.

Many of the believers in Jerusalem, although saved, still demanded that the Mosaic Law was essential to their sanctification. And when I use the term sanctification, I am talking about their daily life after salvation. Justification has to do with putting your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Sanctification has to do with your lifestyle after salvation.

This can be seen in Acts 21, and this is very interesting to me. In Acts 21, when Paul arrives in Jerusalem after his third missionary journey, and in the book of Acts, this is the last time we see Paul going to Jerusalem, James, the head of the church, and James, I think, was a truly great believer, but he was still influenced by Judaism and all the legalists and Judaizers that was in his church. But James, the head of the church, wants Paul to participate in a vow to show that he has not abandoned the Mosaic law. There were literally thousands of believers who were still following the Mosaic Law in Jerusalem. So when we're comparing Antioch and Jerusalem, I want to point out right here that there were thousands. And the Greek word, if you go to the New King James Version, it's transliterated as Myriads, myriads of believers. And the Greek definition is actually 10,000. But now in this context, I think we can just say a good number of thousand people, good thousand number of believers were still following the Mosaic Law and circumcision.

And James wanted Paul to participate in a vow. There were four men who were getting ready to take a vow, probably a Nazarite vow. And when Paul showed up, James said, hey, in order for you to prove you're not totally against the Mosaic Law, why don't you go ahead and take this vow with him? And he did.

And we could spend a whole lot of time talking about that, but we won't. In Acts 21 we read, You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. And they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, nor walk according to the Jewish customs. So we see a huge difference between the Antioch believers and the Jerusalem believers. This brings us up to our second point, the conflict between Peter and Paul.

You know, in Galatians 2.11 we read, but when Cephas came to Antioch, we have to ask the question, why did Paul include this in his letter to the Galatians.

This is the only time in the New Testament that this is mentioned. A lot of his other exploits and travels, he's mentioned two or three times. But this is the only time he mentions this conflict with Peter. So why in the world did he include it in Galatians?

We'll look at that in a moment, maybe. And when exactly did Peter go to Antioch? Now, I had a problem with this. I was hoping Roger would be teaching this, and he would tell us. It appears that this wasn't just a visit. Peter was probably living in Antioch, and he eventually becomes the head of the church in Antioch.

When I say the head of the church, whether it's James in Jerusalem or Peter in Antioch, we're not talking about just one church. We're talking about a group of churches. Whatever that's talked about in the book of Acts, we're talking about probably several different churches. James was probably the head. under several elders of different churches. And here in Antioch, Peter was the head under several elders of the different churches in Antioch.

I'm reminded of trying to get my son to go to a church down in Phoenix. And I recommended, what's the name of the church? The Scottsdale Bible Church. Scottsdale Bible Church. Andrew's. Andrew recommended that to us. Rick Holman. Yeah. Apparently Mavis knows Rick Holman down there.

And if you look at that church, it isn't just one church. They have what they call satellite churches all over town. So they consider themselves one church, but they have several elders leading each church, some in Scottsdale, some in northern Phoenix, which I'm trying to get my son to go to, but he's been kind of defiant. But this is how churches were in Jerusalem and Antioch. We're not talking about just one church.

We're talking about several churches, and probably the head man in Jerusalem was James, and the head man in Antioch became Peter. And it appears this wasn't just a visit, because we read in verse 12, for prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. So here's Peter hanging around with the Gentiles in Antioch. Eusebius, a 4th century historian, has Peter as the head of the church at Antioch and turning over that leadership to Evodius and then to Ignatius before going to Rome around 55 AD. So it's not really mentioned in the Book of Acts, but history tells us that Peter, for several years, was the head of the church in Antioch.

And this, what happened here in Galatians chapter 2, this would have had to happen just before the missionary journey, the first missionary journey, or right after, due to the fact that Barnabas was still with them. And this is a clue to narrowing down when this happened. After James, Peter, and John gave Saul the right hand of fellowship, Peter moves to Antioch. This probably happened, and this is my own opinion, before Barnabas and Saul's first missionary journey.

It could have happened after the second one, but Paul, Barnabas, and others go up to Jerusalem, and possibly along with Peter, he goes up with them after the first missionary journey for that famous Jerusalem Council. And it could be that Peter and Paul had this conflict long before they arrived at the Jerusalem Council. Because by the time Peter gets to the Jerusalem Council, he has been completely won over to what Paul has been telling him. That's why I believe it happened before the first missionary journey, not just before they went to the Jerusalem council, after the first missionary journey.

Because Peter actually stood up in the council And he said to them, Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe, and he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are. So Peter is convinced by the time he gets to the Jerusalem Council that Paul has straightened him out. Whether it was before or after the first missionary journey, let's get back to our passage. I'll let you decide when this happened.

In Galatians 2.11, But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. This is a major turning point in the book of Galatians.

Peter has accepted Paul's apostleship which we've been talking now for the last several weeks, but he still fears the Judaizers and legalists from Jerusalem. He hasn't quite got the message yet. Paul may have put up with this in Jerusalem, but he's not going to put up with it in Antioch. Paul condemns him for what is about to happen.

Now that Peter has left the legalists in Jerusalem, he has found a new freedom in Christ. And I bet he's having fun up there with this new freedom in Christ. He is now associating and eating with the Gentile believers just as he did in Caesarea with Cornelius and the other Gentiles. Can you imagine what would be going through Peter's mind right now? I mean, in the past, you weren't allowed to associate with Gentiles. You weren't even allowed to eat with them or even go into their house.

Yes. You know, I think The reason Peter was flip-flopping a little bit is because a lot of the people that were saved were from the Sanhedrin. And those are very, very powerful people. So when they said, you need to follow the law, you better do it. And Peter was no exemption. That's right. And a lot of this is due to the fact that he was living in Jerusalem with all those people around him. It's called peer pressure. I used to be guilty of a lot of peer pressure when I was young, and then when I got older, I still am. But now he's associating meekly with the Gentile believers. So he's probably on Monday afternoon or Sunday afternoon, he goes over to his buddy's house, a Gentile. Let's call this guy, his name is Wayne. He goes over to Wayne's house and Wayne says to him, hey, have you ever had a cheese sandwich? It tastes pretty good. Or he could have. operative ham hocks, I would refuse that.

But here, Peter is now enjoying a lot of things that the Gentiles had enjoyed, and he has this freedom in it, because he's no longer under the Mosaic law, circumcision, or any of what would be in bondage to believers. So he's having a pretty good time. He and his wife probably went to the country club. They sat down to a nice pork dinner. Probably had a Chardonnay or a Zinfandel. I looked those up on the internet. I don't know what those are. In my younger days, the closest I ever got to that was either Boone's Farm or Ripple. That was a long time ago, though.

But anyway, he is now associating with the Gentiles. But, Judaizers from Jerusalem show up and Peter reverts back to his old ways. He hasn't quite been convinced to get away from the Mosaic law. In verse 12, 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 circumcision. Then the rest of the Jews, along with Barnabas even, they joined Peter in his hypocrisy. Verse 13, the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. When Saul was in Jerusalem, he spoke privately with the elders. But here in Antioch, he opposed him to his face in the presence of everyone.

There comes a time in our church when things could get so bad with some of the believers in the church, and everybody in the church knows about it, that the elders have to speak out publicly about that. Now, there's a lot of little things. There might be a few little things that I owe to, because I've only been around here for a couple of years, that if Roger or Mike don't like what I'm teaching, they would probably come to me and say, hey, we don't like such and such. And I will either say, OK, I'll consider that, or I might say something else. I don't know.

But this issue was prominent throughout the whole church. So the elders and Paul had to go to him publicly and talk to him about that. The word opposed, it's antihistomi. That's a combination of two Greek words. Histomi, which means to stand, and anti, which means against. Saul took a strong stand against Peter.

In Galatians 2.14, if you being a Jew live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews? You're not making any sense at all, Peter. There are some doctrinal differences that should be addressed publicly and dealt with.

Paul includes this encounter with Peter And this is why I believe he put it in his epistle to the Galatians. He included this encounter with Peter to teach us that we are not only saved by faith apart from the law, but that we live by faith apart from the law. And as we go forward in chapters 3 through 6, we're going to find out, chapters 3 and 4, we talk about our justification, that we are saved, apart from the law, faith and faith alone. And then in chapters 5 and 6, after he shows us how we are saved, he's going to show us in chapters 5 and 6 that not only are we saved that way, but we are to live that way. Paul spends the rest of this chapter explaining this to Peter in Galatians 2, 15 through 21. We're going to start into the doctrinal issues of this book, but for the rest of this chapter, I believe that Paul is actually talking to Peter privately about this, explaining these things, which he's going to bring up further in the next four chapters.

And then part three, the outcome of this meeting. We can only assume that Peter responded in a positive way. It doesn't really say how Peter reacted, but if we go on into the last part of this chapter in Galatians 2.20, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, And 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 up for me." I think we can assume that Peter finally got things straightened out.

When comparing Jerusalem and Antioch, once Peter got away from the legalism in Jerusalem, which included the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees, his life prospered. He became a totally different man. And you see that in his writings when he was in Rome.

He says in 1 Peter 5, 12, And then once again in 2 Peter, He wrote, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the air of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. So Peter now knows what the grace of God is as opposed to what he may have been associated with before when he was living in Jerusalem. So, there we have it. Any questions, comments? Yes.

You know, I find it a little odd that God saved one of the most zealous Pharisees in the whole world. Why didn't he save more of them? Because all the rest of them still wanted to follow the law. But Paul was so adamant against following the law that he led Peter in the right path. And he was in conflict for his whole life with all the other Pharisees and disagreed with him.

Yes. But I think with the foreknowledge and sovereignty of God, what we find in Scripture is he's going to follow Paul's journey. throughout the Book of Acts and throughout his epistles. But that doesn't mean the other original apostles weren't the same way. We just don't read about them. Historically, they went out into the whole world, and all of them, with the exception of one, was martyred for what he believed.

Now, if you're going to stand up and say, I'm not changing my mind, you go ahead and kill me because I'm not changing my mind. I mean, that is really something. How many of us can do that if we were taken over by Iran or China or whatever? Any other comments?

This conflict with Paul and Peter straightened out the rest of the apostles, too. They were really focused heavily on following grace and not law. Yes, and that's why I believe that this account was put in Galatians 2. You don't find it anywhere else in any of Scripture. But Paul put it in there for that purpose. Anything else?

Well, it's interesting that the Lord allows conflict in the local church, and largely for that purpose, for getting things figured out, getting things straightened out. It takes sometimes that confrontation to see the contrast, and you see it there pretty clearly. Look at how many churches, how many denominations, they still are holding on to the law. That's right.

I mean, it's just really unbelievable if they read this, I mean, if they really read the Bible, that they don't see that. What a conflict this was, I mean, from the very beginning. Well, let me tell you, I was born again Christian at a very young age. I actually went to Bible college, and I went to a seminary for a while, and there were years When I felt like I had to get out and work for the Lord and do things, I was brought up in Baptist circles that held to that. And just like Jerusalem, we read in Acts 21 that there were thousands of believers who still felt that way. And there are literally thousands of believers in our churches today. Millions. Millions. And I thank the Lord. They think we're strange. They think we're strange because we believe this.

And they, I don't know how many times in Bible studies in some of the churches I was in, went through the book of Galatians, and even after going through the book of Galatians, they never saw this. They never saw what they themselves, or we ourselves, were doing. It took me a while. Or they don't teach it at all, because they don't want to teach it. They don't want the conflict. I've been in churches where they wouldn't even look at Galatians. Even Romans! And we're talking about born-again believers here. Anything else?

Jim, why don't you close us in prayer? Father, we thank you so much for the truth of your Word and how it affects our lives. We ask that you continue to guide us to really search the truth from your word and to make it effective in our lives, to believe it. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.