It is January once again, and as is our custom each year, we now turn to a sermon series on the Church. Over the years we’ve done this in numerous ways, explaining what the Church is, who the Church is, what the Church believes, how the Church ought to function, and more. This year we’re focusing on something we’ve never really focused on much before, the culture of the Church.
Is that something you’ve thought about? The culture of the Church? More specifically, have you ever given thought to the culture of our church, here at SonRise? What is it? Why is it that way? What feeds it? What helps and grows it? What hinders and hurts it? I think, these questions though often unasked and unthought on, are some of the most important questions we can ask and discuss with each other. Why? Because, I’m convinced, that the culture of our church matters as much as the doctrine of our church. Don’t hear that wrong, as if I’m downplaying doctrine, I’m not. What we believe really matters, and precision in doctrine and convictions is essential to the health of a church. But while our convictions matter, so does our culture. We should labor for as much precision and soundness in our culture and life together as we do our convictions. In fact, I think we could say, if you wanted to know what SonRise really believes about God, look at how we live, look at how we relate to one another, look at how we interact with the world around us, or…look at our culture and you’ll likely see what we value most.
Here’s the thing Church. We here at SonRise cherish our doctrine. And we don’t hide the fact that we are reformed in doctrine. We don’t see this as a thing to be embarrassed about, but something to take pride in. Even if some of you don’t like the labels we are a people who love the doctrines of the reformation. But, while we love reformed doctrine there’s a lot about reformed culture that’s unhealthy and in need of further reformation. For example, churches like ours are often known for being places where right theology is more emphasized than right living, where humility is rare and pride is rampant, where abrasiveness abounds and gentleness is seen as weakness, where we lack relational grace even though the Lord is overflowing in grace. Even though a church’s culture isn’t obvious or advertised, it is certainly known and felt at the level of vibe or ethos as we live in community with one another.
That’s what this series is all about, and this is what we need to face as a church.[1] We desire the glory and the loveliness and the sweetness of Christ to shape everything about our church, from the content of the preaching to the quality of our relationships and life together. So it’s not gospel doctrine alone, but gospel doctrine taking root and creating a gospel culture among us…this is what forms and fuels gospel mission.
That’s the gist of our January this year. We’ll camp out on four passages of Scripture, one each week, to see the beauty of what gospel culture is all about. To launch us off this week, we look to Galatians 2:11-14. John Stott once called this passage “…without a doubt one of the most tense and dramatic episodes in the New Testament.”[2] So, it is sure to teach us much today.
“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step 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 force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
It’s always a moment worth reflecting upon when a fight breaks out in church. Have any of you ever seen a fight breakout in church, or been a part of a fight in church? I’ve been lots of churches and seen lots of things, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fight. Well, that’s what we have in this text in v11. It was a moment when the Galatian church had gathered together for a meal, everyone was having a good time, everyone was enjoying one another’s company, until two friends got into it in front of everyone. What made this moment so surprising was that these two friends just so happened to be two pillars of the church, the apostles Peter and Paul. The last time they had seen each other they embraced and welcomed one another as brothers, but now, Paul opposes Peter to his face. Why did Paul do this, why did Peter deserve this, and why is it a good thing this fight happened? These are all questions we need answers to. The first thing we need to do to arrive at some answers is to understand a few things about first century table manners.[3]
In their context, much like it is in ours today, what we eat and who we eat with says a lot about who we are. Back then generally Jews ate with Jews and Gentiles ate with Gentiles. This kind of religious racial barrier existed because Jews believed mealtimes were sacred, a place where God was to be honored, so they believed they should only eat with those who had the same opinion about how God was to be honored in that meal. And since the Gentiles didn’t abide by the strict Jewish dietary laws and washing rituals, the Jews didn’t eat with them. Perhaps you remember how madly the Pharisees reacted when Jesus ate with sinners? Well, even though the gospel had made great headway into this region and in the city of Galatia, among both Jews and Gentiles, this Jewish cultural mealtime taboo was clearly still a felt reality.
That is the soil in which this fight between Peter and Paul grew. And that it was Peter who gets rebuked by Paul is telling, because it was Peter who received a vision from God about this very thing! In Acts 10 God shows Peter in a vision that everything is now clean. That the old dietary laws have been fulfilled in Christ and in the New Covenant they no longer have the significance they once did. After this vision Peter is called to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, who hears the gospel and embraces the gospel. Peter then baptizes him. In the midst of this scene Peter learns much, not only that the food laws no longer make one clean or unclean before God, but more importantly, that God now shows no partiality, that anyone from any nation can come to in Christ. Peter even says in Acts 11:17, “If God gave the Holy Spirit to them as He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I would stand in God’s way?”
In light of all of this, look at v12-13. Here we see the situation at hand. Apparently Peter was doing well and living his life in line with the vision he saw, enjoying his time with the Gentile believers in Galatia, even breaking with his Jewish roots and eating with these Gentile converts. In this he was doing very well…but notice what v12 says…until a group of Jews came from James. This group was from Jerusalem, where James was, and they were uber traditional, the definition of conservative. They likely came to Galatia because they heard of the great gospel work occurring there and they desired to go see if any Jewish believers were compromising their Jewish roots. As soon as they arrive, Peter, who was moving away from his Jewish roots into healthier New Covenant gospel patterns, grew fearful, and cowardly, and began to draw back and separate from the Gentile believers. In effect this means Peter stopped sitting with those liberal Gentiles at their church meals, and began sitting on the other side of the lunch room with the far more conservative Jewish believers. And not only so, look at v13. From watching Peter’s poor example the rest of the Jewish Christians, including Barnabas himself, began to do the exact same thing.
So there in the Galatian church, a division arose between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. Can you imagine what this scene would’ve been like? It almost feels like a high school lunchroom. Imagine them eating. There on one side is the smug Jewish crew from Jerusalem, happy and content in their success to have brought so many of their friends back from the error of their ways to live according to their conservative ideals, likely ecstatic to have Peter and Barnabas back on their side. Then imagine the other side the room. There sit the Gentile converts, filled with confusion and shame, feeling as if they don’t measure up as Christians because they’re not Jewish, because they don’t abide by the same rules and laws, likely perplexed because they’ve been taught that all these racial and religious walls have been broken down in the gospel, and that anyone who comes to Christ belongs to everyone who comes to Christ. Yet, here they sit, feeling every bit ‘less than’ to those on the other side of the room.
Did you note the word used in v13 to describe Peter? Hypocrite. Peter acted the hypocrite, the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically, and Barnabas was led away by their hypocrisy. We know what this word means. Hypocrisy is when someone pretends to be something or pretends to believe something they don’t in order to gain some kind of recognition. It’s an act. Such is Peter here. He didn’t really believe Gentiles were a kind of second class Christian, he knew perfectly well that anyone, Jew or Gentile, only needed to have faith in Jesus to be accepted by God. Yet, here in this instance Peter did act like the Jews held first class status. He never would’ve said that out loud, he would’ve said the opposite in fact, but his actions spoke louder. His actions stated that the Gentiles are unclean, that they are unfit to eat with, and that they must conform to Jewish laws in order to be good Christians.[4]
There are great lessons in this. One can affirm the faith doctrinally, but deny all those things practically. Or to say it another way. We can confess the faith with our mouths, but deny the faith with our lives.
So, all of this then leads to what we find in v14. Because Peter was behaving so hypocritically, see in v14 what Paul does. “But when I saw that their conduct was not in step 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 force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” Did you hear in this the main reason Paul confronted Peter about his actions? He didn’t do it because Peter was his rival, or because he thought Peter had denied the faith entirely, no. Paul confronted Peter because Peter’s actions were not in step with the truth of the gospel. When Peter distanced himself from the Gentiles, thinking them unclean, he was throwing redemptive history in reverse gear.[5] The Jewish traditions were good and had a beauty of their own, but to absolutize them and enforce them as the only way to be a Christian is to go backwards with the gospel! You see, it was the cross that broke down the Jew/Gentile barrier, such that now the only way to be a good Christian is to have faith in Jesus. Ephesians 2 makes this very clear saying in v14-15, “For Christ Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two…making peace…”
So, by acting in this manner, Peter was dishonoring Christ and His cross, and was hurting the Gentile Christians. We could actually call this Peter’s fourth denial of the gospel. Back in the more well-known three denials of Christ Peter was all about self-preservation, not wanting to be linked to Jesus for fear of being arrested and crucified with Him. Now here in this fourth denial of Jesus, Peter yet again, caves and gives in to a kind of social self-preservation.[6] A kind of phony posing or posturing, where he deeply desired to be seen in a certain light and identified with a certain group of people.
Thank God for Paul. He courageously opposed Peter when he acted the coward, called him out, and called him home. I mean, what would’ve happened if Paul had also caved and joined in with Peter and Barnabas? The fast and fierce spread of the gospel and the growth of the early church would’ve likely been stalled.
Conclusion:
Now, what does all of this mean for our purposes here in examining what a gospel culture is? And how does this text help us build a gospel culture?
Hear it Church, Paul confronted Peter because his life was not in step with the truth of the gospel, so the call here is this: we must always seek to live a life that’s in step with the gospel! That’s the call. What does that look like? It looks like not working hard at getting our doctrine right and then enforcing that doctrine to make sure everyone else is on the same page. No. Living in step with the gospel looks like getting our doctrine right and letting that doctrine sink so deep into us that it transforms how we live with one another.[7] Or to say it another way, “The gospel is more than a place to stand, it’s a path to follow.”
Church, do you see what Paul did here? Don’t just see his rebuke or his confrontation as the main thing here. No, Paul’s opposition to Peter shows us far more. It shows us that Paul wholeheartedly believed that gospel culture matters just as much as gospel doctrine does. That what we believe matters just as much as how we live with one another. When Peter stepped away from the Gentiles at that meal Peter added another layer of acceptability to the gospel, that real Christians not only believe in Christ, but they abide by these other laws to. Church, this is not how we’re to live with one another in the kingdom. There are no other layers, no other conditions, no other laws, only faith in Christ. Faith in Christ brings us in and unites us with all others who have faith in Christ!
You see[8], when a church acts like Peter did here and begins to add layers and layers of acceptability, a dark culture emerges that ends up dividing what Christ has united. But when, a church sees the finished work of Christ, the beauty of the cross, believes the gospel deeply, and refuses to add layers of acceptability in their life together, a gospel culture flourishes and blossoms.
There’s no point in going any further until we face this and ask ourselves, ‘Has the gospel come to me like this?’ ‘Is this how we’ve experienced the gospel?’ ‘Or do I resemble Peter here, adding extras and more works onto the finished work of Christ?’ ‘Are we in step or out of step with the gospel?’ Our mouths might say one thing, but what do our lives say?
[1] Ray Ortlund & Sam Allberry, You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023) xv-xviii.
[2] John Stott, Only One Way: The Message of Galatians (London, UK: IVP, 1968) 49.
[3] Philip Graham Ryken, Galatians: Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2005) 52-53.
[4] Ryken, Galatians, 59.
[5] Ortlund & Allberry, You’re Not Crazy, 12-13.
[6] Ibid., 13.
[7] Ibid., 14-15.
[8] Ibid., 16-20.
