Welcome to the Florida School of Preaching Harvester podcast.
I am host Brian Kenyon along with
Steven Ford.
Forest Antemesaris
and we welcome you to our first season and our eleventh episode of this podcast and we
have been having a great time talking about unity throughout the podcast and so these last
podcast we talked about paul and barnabas and the contention that they had but yet they
came out on the other side of that unified still and today we'd like to talk about the
contention that paul paul paul and peter had in galatians chapter two
And we're going to study that, talk about that for just a little bit, and then make some
good applications from that.
And so Steven, what have you to say?
Well, this one is kind of of interest to me because you have two men who are pillars in
the New Testament.
mean, when you file the book of Acts, the first half you got Peter, the second half you
got Paul.
And these men are renowned for their faithfulness and so on.
And then you have them coming together, not for a mission trip like we studied in the last
podcast episode, but here you have these two coming together and there's immediate
conflict here.
And so I'll just want to, let's just kind of set it up by reading some of the verses here.
This is in Galatians chapter two and beginning at verse number 11, we read, but when Peter
was come to Antioch, I was stood him to the face because he was to be blamed.
Before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the
circumcision.
And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried
away with their dissimulation.
So right off the bat, you have this conflict that Paul notices, and it's kind of this
age-old conflict with them, the Jew and the Gentile.
kind of the catalyst for their argument or contention, if you will.
Yes, we see, of course, he does call them pillars of the church, Paul referring to Peter
maybe earlier in the chapter, but yes, that was definitely a Jew-gentile thing.
And of course, before this, Peter, mean, Peter is the one that went to Cornelius, a
Gentile.
And so Peter, we would think, should have known better.
But I think there's a key there when certain brethren came from James.
he would eat with the gentiles but when they came he withdrew and separated himself
fearing those who were the circumcision and so he allowed what other people with would
think of him perhaps that swayed him to not have fellowship with the gentiles
Yeah, I think, you know, Paul calls it, like the King James said, dissimulation.
King James says hypocrisy.
And I think sometimes we have, mean, I, know, from whenever I read this off the bat, I
always think, man, took a lot of bravery from Paul.
That's the way I look at it, because I'm personally my own, just the way I am, like my own
personality.
I'm a little bit more passive.
And a lot of times I'm like, it'll really have to raise to a level.
for me to feel like I should call it out.
You know what I mean?
And I think sometimes you have, and we know it shouldn't be like this, but sometimes we
have like quote unquote like hard sins and then like quote unquote like soft sins.
You know what I mean?
Like hard sins like murder, adultery, fornication, know, things like that.
And then hypocrisy might be like a soft sin, but it was at that level already, Paul said,
no.
And it's not even like, I can't even wait till later to talk to you about this.
Like right here, right now.
I've got to say something in them and like with all these people as witnesses.
And I think, you know, Paul obviously did that out of a love for Peter, out of a love for
Barnabas, out of all the people, out of a love for all the people getting swept up in this
hypocrisy where, you know, Paul wasn't even willing to give an inch to that kind of
judyizing, hypocritical, you know, liberty robbing idea.
And that's what always jumps out to me here is, you know, some conflict is good.
which we see here because paul did what he needed to do but also requires bravery to do
what is right i think we see that from paul
The weight of the situation, mean, can, the weight of it is just so monumental it seems
because here you have James, I believe he's the brother of the Lord here and so if you
have the literal brother of Jesus, he absolutely carries some cache in the church in
Jerusalem.
Then you have Peter, the, you know, hand-picked one of the best friends of Jesus.
He's there with him on the Mount of Transfiguration.
He's there with him.
in the garden, he's there with them walking on water, he's there at the Last Supper.
So you have these two huge spiritual figures.
And then you have Paul, who wasn't either of those things, but he still was a Christian,
and he still felt a sense of ought toward his brethren.
It wasn't, it seems like just for the sake of contention, here's a, you know, in the last
episode we were talking about Paul and Barnabas, and so if at first blush we look at it,
it might seem, man, Paul's always out looking for a fight.
But then if you read the text a little bit more in both of these, you know, passages, it
demonstrates that Paul wasn't necessarily looking for a fight, but Paul wanted what was
right to be done in the way he saw right.
For sure.
I've heard Hiram say this before.
I this is original to him, but there's a difference between contending for the faith and
being contentious for the faith.
And I think we see Paul, he's contending for the faith here, especially, we stopped
reading in verse 13, but in 14, Paul says, I saw that they were not straightforward about
the truth of the gospel.
So really Paul sees this as a matter of truth and a matter of you, like whether,
Peter, whether you're aware of it or not, your actions are denying the truth of the
gospel.
And there's people here right now who are watching you with your influence and with your
being a pillar who are going to go back and not think that Gentiles and Jews are one in
Christ.
So Paul really saw it, and it rose to that level, so to speak, of I can't not speak about
this.
And I think, obviously, Paul did it in love.
But I'm sure Peter
blushed or felt embarrassed or whatever, right?
He's kind of getting called out here, but sometimes that's what love feels like.
And I think we see Paul's willingness to do that.
absolutely, so there are several attributes that I see Paul exhibit in the text and you
just mentioned the one for us so we'll just highlight that one where there's a sense of
courage when he withstands Peter to his face.
He's not saying well you know this is Peter I'll kind of wait till everybody kind of
dissipates until the crowd goes away we finish lunch and I'll talk to him but there's some
serious
courage and commitment that it takes to be able to confront a brother when he's wrong.
Where can you see or how would you all maybe talk about that aspect in particular as it
relates to unity, the courage that it takes?
Yeah, I would say it takes courage to do that.
and also notice he to his face, not writing them up in the book and the brotherhood
journals or sending all these emails about him or anything like that, but to his face.
And yet it does take courage.
I'm kind of like as a force just mentioned there, I'm kind of like, you know, Passive ish.
but I will call things out when it comes to that.
but, but I think,
difference here between this one and the one we looked at last episode with Paul and
Barnabas is this one here for sure is a violation of the truth I mean there's no optional
matter with this we need to have fellowship with everybody that Christ has fellowship with
and when Peter says no I'm not gonna have fellowship with you even though I should I'm not
going to that is that's a requirement that he is not doing
And we see that in verse 14, as Forrest mentioned, pointed out, reminded us that they were
not straightforward, or as the old King James says, they did not walk uprightly according
to the truth of the gospel.
So that's a different between an optional thing that we talked about last episode.
Yeah, in that, you know, the other element to it is Peter saying, I'm not going to have
fellowship with you, even though I should in order to placate these influential brethren
over here who are wrong.
Yes.
Right.
And that's the thing that kind of you can see it.
because of their influence, Peter's willing to go along with their wrongness, so to speak,
so that he looks sound to them.
while denying from Paul's perspective and truthfully while denying the truth of the
gospel.
And I think that's why Paul has to stand up.
But I think the more influential the brethren involved are, the more courage it requires.
So it'd be one thing if Paul, you know, has to withstand, you know, ticacus to the face
or, you know, like one of these like, you know, lesser known guys, know, a pathrodytus or
whatever.
But he's he was talking about Peter and the circumcision party.
So these are people who.
are established who are well known, who obviously wield a great amount of influence, where
if this goes wrong, it could be wrong for Paul from a social perspective or from a group
perspective.
But Paul cares more about the truth than he does those things.
And I think that's where his courage comes from.
Oh absolutely, there's some other attributes that I kind of see jump out in the text and
you guys see if you see these with me.
So we talked about the courage, you know they're in verse number 11 where he has to
withstand him to the face, but also in verse number 14 it says, when I saw they walked not
uprightly.
So I see him there just being attentive to unity.
You know when we think about what Paul would write in Ephesians chapter 4,
that we should be endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
You know, if we're gonna be endeavoring, working hard to make sure unity is maintained, I
guess we have to pay attention to it.
And so he was attentive to what was going on around him.
He wasn't aloof.
He didn't ignore it.
It was something that was of the utmost importance to him.
That's a good point.
It wasn't indifferent.
Yeah, and he was attentive.
because what's the truth of the gospels what's at stake here that that's gets his
attention and course in the in the context here in the early part of galatians part of
this is paul the showing that he's just as legitimate of an apostle as in the other
apostles you know going back to chapter one verse ten and stuff and he is legitimate
because of the way he received his revelation he's legitimate because he he can even call
out peter you know who was
as Steven mentioned, they're the pillar of the church.
But Paul still has, because he's got the truth of the gospel with him, he can call out
Peter on this sin that he committed.
Yeah, yeah, I was just gonna say, you know, and he's willing to expand.
He's willing to and that's it's not just the courage of can I say this, but the courage of
what might the repercussions be right?
What if Peter doubles down?
What if you know, well, the circumcision party is going to view Paul differently now or
whatever, like there's all kinds of things that gets rolled through your head.
And Paul says, like you said, motivated by the truth, this is important enough.
the fact that he saw it too, cause you know, it could have been like he wasn't even aware
of the fact that Paul, Peter was playing the hypocrite, you know, but he sees it, like you
said, he's attentive to it.
And then he, and then he calls it out.
Yeah, I'm also thinking earlier in Acts 15, have, it seems Paul and Barham are coming in
there seeking out the wisdom of these elders and James is there to kind of set things in
order.
How should we talk about what the Gentiles are going to do relative to fornication and
strangled and things with blood?
And so he yields there.
But then here in Galatians chapter 2,
this is not one of those situations because he sees this is actually wrong so him being
attentive was essential.
Then Brian you alluded to the second thing that I see happening here in the text where in
the second half of verse 14 he saw them walking out of rightly according to the truth of
the gospel.
So the second thing is he was biblically minded so he's not measuring Peter by himself to
say hey listen man
I like these fellas, know, Bob and Joe, these are my buddies, why aren't you eating with
them?
It was like, hey, this is something that's important because of Christ.
Right the problem wasn't Peter was living away Paul wouldn't have the problem was Peter
was living away Jesus wouldn't have mm-hmm right so he's able to say hey by this
subjective standard that we're called to you've transgressed not well Peter let me show
you how I would have done it if I were you you know what I mean that they sometimes even
We're willing to call people out and stuff like that and say hey draw a line in the same
remember There isn't one and say hey.
This is the way you do this
That's not what's going on here.
He's saying, this is the way that Jesus taught us how to do this.
And you're not doing it that way.
and i think the biblical awareness or her unit that that we see that in this with the
truth of the gospel and as i was looking at this a few days ago as a matter of fact i
didn't connected with this podcast or not but a few days because you look at verse five
and of course in verse five he's talking about
whether he should circumcise Titus.
But he says, whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, why?
That the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
So here's something.
So in this verse five, it's an option, like circumcision is an optional matter.
Timothy was circumcised in Acts chapter 16, verses one through three.
He was working with Jews.
But over here, the Judaizing teachers were trying to make it
test of salvation a matter of salvation test of fellowship and so Paul says no way because
when you take an optional matter we discussed this in the podcast or two before but when
we take a Optional matter and we require it
right then it violates the truth of the gospel right and so whether it was an optional
matter that was being violated or a requirement that was being violated in case of verse
eleven to fourteen paul was aware of that and he knew the difference and he knew that that
difference mattered and at all costs stick up for the truth of the gospel
Right, that's a great point.
And I think an important side note is there even when people have arguments for why an
optional matter is the best route, even when they say, this is the wise option, even then
to require it and maintain that you have to do it is still a problem.
see that.
of course, it's easy.
Well, I was going to say something else, but I'm not going to do that.
I think you see that delineation here is really, I didn't notice that before, where you
have kind of both, and Paul reacting to both in a way that accords with the truth of the
gospel.
This really goes to what we talked about in the last episode with Paul and Barnabas
separating.
This is what the Gospel say.
We need to get out and teach so the Gospel can be spread.
Period.
That's the goal.
And so Paul is really pushing this biblical mindset.
He wants the Gospel to go out.
He the Gospel to go out so he's attentive.
He's biblically minded.
We also see sincerity in verse 13, just jumping back up.
where he says, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, this is with Peter, and so
much so that Barnabas also was carried away with their King James dissimulation, and I
think New King James has hypocrisy.
And so he's saying these people are being carried away with your being fake.
And so it's not that, as you mentioned earlier, it's not that Peter is just always saying,
I'm just not gonna eat with these Gentiles, man.
I don't care what I said in Acts two.
I don't care what I preach in Acts 10, I'm just not eating with these guys.
But he was eating with them.
And so I can just imagine Paul's face, as Peter's clearing away the crumbs from his mouth,
having just eaten with the Gentiles.
And now it's like, wait a minute, I just saw you eating over there with them, and now
you're pretending like these guys aren't worth.
And so Paul demonstrates some sincerity.
And so if you have a belief and a conviction, stand with it.
Be bold enough to say, this is what I believe.
And that's why
It's important even when we have our confession in Christ, if a person's been baptized in
Christ, confess it.
Have the boldness and courage to confess that and let it be known.
And Peter, as I guess he may have been prone to in other cases, was not willing to
continue to profess with action or his beliefs.
Yeah, kind of trying to play both sides of the fence, you know, and that's where you see,
you know, again, Paul saying, I don't care.
And that's the thing about sincerity.
It's really easy to be sincere.
If by being sincere, you don't ruffle any feathers, right?
But if by being sincere, there's influential people who are going to be upset or whatever,
I'm going to be out of their club or whatever it might be.
You know, it's really just politics and clicks really is what we're reading about here to
a degree.
you know the circumcision party's gonna reject me paul paul says so be it because i said
to do was right
Yeah, and of course he was being rejected by the circumcision party and because if you go
back to chapter one, I think it's a pretty good point here in verse 10, for do I now
persuade men or God or do I seek to please men for if I still please men, I would not be
the bond servant of Christ.
And so he's already laying the foundation that we can't be doing things just to please
men, but we need to please Christ.
And so when Peter does this, he's doing it to please
men, refusing to eat on just this one occasion, but I didn't like the illustration, he's
wiping the crumbs off his face and now all of sudden he can't do it, but you know he is
pleasing men.
I'm certain it came down from James.
Yeah, and let it also be noted that there was no like long-standing beef with who's, you
know, the top of the puzzle between Peter and Paul.
Just jump up a few verses in chapter 118, then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to
see Peter and abode with him fifteen days.
So they have a relationship, so it's not like Paul is saying, man, here's this Peter guy,
know, and now the rest of you guys are watching, I gotta really show who's the big dog
here.
No, this is, I'm doing this for the sake of the gospel, so there's some actual sincerity.
with wanting the gospel to be at the forefront of everything.
So along with that, I also see in that same verse number 14, some loving boldness where he
says, I said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew and lives after the man of
the Gentiles.
continues on, he says it in front of everybody.
I think there's, as we kind of talked about, I think we all maybe have similar behaviors
as you guys have talked about.
I don't like conflict if I don't have to have it.
I would love for everything to just be great.
My core personality part is like a people pleaser, so I want everybody to kind of be happy
and get along.
But this was important enough for Paul to say, no man, this has to be done now because
whatever his personal feelings were didn't matter.
And I think you highlighted earlier, Brian, up in the previous verses the sake of the
gospel, the sake of the gospel.
He wants the gospel to continue, the truth of the gospel, excuse me.
So this boldness that he has is not contentious or harmful boldness, but it seems to be
loving boldness.
Yeah, you know, and if Paul's unwilling to call him out to his face right then and there,
he's kind of swept up in the same spirit or mindset that got Peter into trouble, right?
Where it's like, hey, I want to save face and I want to look good in front of the right
people.
because paul could have said will not hear not now not for peter's sake but for his own
right like i don't wanna i don't want i want to save face now and wait till later but he
was willing to do it even if it changed people's opinion of them like you said he valid
the gospel more than those other things
And I think it could be an illustration also of, you know, that it's like, if we're
sinning just between, if I'm sinning just between me and God, I mean, that's where the
repentance needs to take place.
That's where the, you know, now I can pray, I ask others for strength and all that.
But if I, and if I sin against my family, you know, within my house and I need to repent
to them.
and if I sin in public, I need to repent in public.
And so when you see Paul here, you know, he's.
before them all, all those ones that are involved in that, is withstanding Peter to the
face before them all so that they will all realize that what Peter's doing is wrong
because, know, Barnabas is sold as that stake, he got swept away in it, and who knows how
many other people will if it continues, and so it needs to be stopped.
And so that's very important because it's gonna take others away.
Paul is I really admire Paul and not just for the not just for the fact that you know he
was an apostle and did these things but the kind of the under layer of his heart.
So I'm thinking of Romans chapter 9 and Romans chapter 10 how they both begin.
Paul sincerely and desperately wanted souls to be saved.
That was like his thing.
I want souls to be saved.
at whatever cost.
And so if it maybe costs the relationship between he and Peter at that moment, or between
he and James at that moment, if it causes an argument, that's alright.
I need for these Jews to be able to understand that they are one in Christ too.
I want these Gentiles to know that they are one in Christ too.
And so I'm thinking, you know, when he says that he wants all to be saved, and he would
himself be accursed in Romans chapter 9, and in Romans chapter 10,
is not only the content of his prayer, but is his own personal heart's desire that Israel
will be saved.
so for him, the primary focus is on souls, and the gospel reaches those souls.
And his heart just kind of shines through in these moments where you could otherwise
shrink.
And then what would be lost, potentially?
What if Paul got swept away with them?
And he says, you know what, I'm not gonna let James look down on me.
And then he goes and sits with Peter and all the rest of the Jews, and then where would
those Gentile souls be?
Even though Christ had commissioned him to go preach to them, he could have done that.
But then where would those souls be?
Yeah, I feel like you know part of Paul and his background is a little bit off topic, but
he's been in that group He's been in that you know, I've sat at the feet of Gamaliel.
I was a Pharisee and you know Philippians chapter Two three four three
I'm gonna count it all as rubbish right for the sake of Christ, you know, so I think he
really had that That part of him really died when he converted and became a Christian to
say hey I'm not willing to compromise the truth to fit in and be in the right circles and
all that kind of stuff and you see that come out here with with Peter and I think it's a
good reminder to that the truth of the gospel, know, sometimes people try to reduce the
gospel just to
like a checklist of facts.
Jesus died.
Jesus was buried.
Jesus resurrected.
But that truth impacts how you live.
Right?
So Peter, by being a hypocrite, you'd say, well, how is he denying the death, burial,
resurrection of Jesus?
He is because he's making that essentially to no effect, right?
By closing the door on the Gentiles and by acting a hypocrite and saying, cozying up to
the people who are adding laws that
Jesus doesn't have an order for salvation So he's denying the gospel essentially by his
actions even though he believes in the death burial resurrection of Christ He's not living
like it right so that if that if the gospel doesn't impact how we live how it treat other
people etc We haven't figured that out yet with you know it totally impacts every area of
our life at least it should
You know, I think that's a good point that...
you the gospel is more than just the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ even though
that's the foundation of it that's you know that's the gist of it kind of like the Ten
Commandments are to the old law I mean they're the heart and soul of it but that's not the
whole law and so yeah so no one denied the death, burial, resurrection of Christ at least
verbally but they are denying it as Forrest said in the way they're living because they're
basically saying you Jesus died he hung that old law on the cross with him it's gone he
fulfilled it
so why you bringing that back up again?
So it's almost like you're trampling, as the Hebrews writer said, trampling underfoot the
Son of God again.
Right, and Jesus died for the Gentiles, but I'm not going to treat them like it.
You know, they're over here, they're not really equal with us, they're not made one with
us, all of those things.
You're denying the gospel.
And it can happen today, you the way we treat people.
there's...
like we talked about in the last episode, by kind of keeping the gospel unstained, about
Christ being exalted, Christ winning, all that, you know.
The way we treat people and the way we act in front of people and the people we try to
cozy up with and the people we ignore, all of that can be done in a way not worthy of the
gospel.
And people will come away thinking, man, those Christians don't care about me because I'm
not in the right group or I'm not in the right club or I don't check the right boxes or
whatever.
So, you know, these things that might not seem like a big deal and are part of normal
social interactions sometimes can deny the gospel implicitly.
by what it says about other people.
Absolutely, James even speaks to that a little bit about how we would talk to the one with
the gay clothing, he says, and to the other.
But I'm also thinking about it denies just the basic premise of the gospel.
When you think about what the gospel means, it's far, far, far more, and maybe we can do
this on a couple of episodes maybe one day, about what actually is the gospel.
What is all encompassed by that phrase?
And it's not just 1 Corinthians 15, those first two verses or so.
But it's also the fact that there is a oneness with God and there is just a unity period.
know, God brings his group of people together, Jew and Gentile, but he then takes all of
humanity and brings them close to God.
And if by chance we were to turn our backs on that like Peter was doing, then we're
literally turning our backs on the whole purpose of mankind being unified if we say, well,
I'm gonna make this division now.
So we have to maintain that unity as Paul would say in Ephesians chapter 4 and he talked
about it so much there in Ephesians chapter 2 how that yeah, there was this group of
people who were once afar off from God and they were aliens and this but now we're back,
we're one and then for Peter to kind of take that backward and roll it backward is just
kind of taken away from everything that Christ did.
So the important part I guess is just that unity has to be on the basis of the gospel.
It can't be on anything superficial.
this interaction that Peter has, or Paul rather, has with Peter really demonstrates kind
of the core of that, the focus kind of has to be at all times.
And Paul seemed to really maintain that.
Yes, so courage was the first point we looked at here.
And then the second one was.
There was.
they give us a recap
Well, how they occurred in the text, there was courage, and then there was, let's see, I
have them highlighted here, there's sincerity.
Then you have verse number 14, he was attentive, he was biblically minded also, verse 14,
and then there was loving boldness.
Okay, and so that is what kept the unity.
And so just like we talked about with Paul and Barnabas, you know, at the end of all this,
Peter had no hard feelings against Paul, because we do read about in 2 Peter 3 verses 15
and 16 where he talks about that salvation is of the Lord, even as our beloved brother
Paul said in some of his writings,
which are some of which are hard to be understood as also said in other scriptures and so
Peter just like Barnabas and John Mark there was no animosity lasting animosity or any
animosity at all between Paul and Peter even though he withstood him to the face and so
they're still brethren they're still working together in the gospel
and so the gospel still magnified we haven't come up with a great yet we're going to get
that but the gospels magnified christ is magnified and uh...
the church is not damaged by that and so satan does not get the upper hand there and
that's very important
Absolutely, that was a good text to study.
Alright, we appreciate your being with us on this podcast, this number 11 podcast.
so join us next time and we'd appreciate your feedback.
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