Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 9:30.
[00:00:07] Good morning.
[00:00:08] If I have not had the chance to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here. And I am very excited to open up God's Word with you.
[00:00:16] I want to. I want to set up our message with a question.
[00:00:21] Do you have good friends?
[00:00:26] But if they knew what you actually believed about Jesus or certain moral issues, that they would be upset with you or maybe even possibly they would stop being your friend?
[00:00:40] Are there close friends and maybe even family that still don't know that you are a committed Christian?
[00:00:49] And I want you to just take a moment, I want you to be honest with yourself about this. Sit on this. We're going to come back to this at the end of the message. So in order to set up our text in Galatians, I wanna ask you to turn with me in your Bibles to the Book of Acts, chapter 13. And what we're gonna do is something a little bit different. We're gonna actually spend quite a few minutes in Acts, chapters 13 and 14. I'm not gonna have it all up on the screen. So the best way for you to follow along is open up your Bible, open up your phone, and kind of track with me. And what I wanna do is I wanna really set up this text in Galatians. And by getting our heads around what happens in Acts 13 and 14 is gonna help us a ton. So Acts is where we start. And speaking about Paul and his companions, that's Barnabas and John, Mark, and here's what it says.
[00:01:36] It says, but they went on from Perga and they came to Antioch in Pisidia. Now, can you guess what region this might be in?
[00:01:48] Not Jesus, not the Bible, Galatians. Okay, so we're in the book of Galatians, so I'm not gonna surprise you anymore. They're in Antioch, in Pisidia, which is in Galatia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and they sat down.
[00:02:01] After reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. Yeah, awesome. So verse 16 says, Paul stood up and he motions with his hand. And then for 26 verses, Paul shares the Gospel from the Old Testament to all of these Jews who had never heard the Gospel. Jump with me to chapter 13, verse 42. They're still in Antioch. And Pisidia says, as they went out after sharing the Gospel, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the Meeting of the synagogue broke up. Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. In other words, people are converting to Christianity and or seriously considering giving their life to Jesus. In verse 44, it says the next Sabbath. This is awesome. Almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. Now, I want to ask you a very important question.
[00:03:10] What happens every time the gospel takes new territory?
[00:03:16] Dark demonic opposition is never far behind. Verse 45.
[00:03:22] But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with what?
[00:03:29] Jealousy?
[00:03:30] And began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.
[00:03:37] Now, why would they be jealous? Let me give you an illustration to help you understand.
[00:03:44] I want you to imagine that you attend a liberal progressive church who has been a staple in your community for over 100 years. And like most liberal progressive churches, this one is dying.
[00:03:59] And a new pastor comes into town, and this pastor is boldly preaching the gospel. And you and others from your church, you visit because it's maybe going to be a bit of a spectacle and rumors are spreading, but deep down inside, you're kind of just curious. And you go to this gospel preaching church and you are shocked by what you hear. A pure, simple Gospel. You came to see a spectacle and you left, confessing your sins and giving your life to Christ for the very first time.
[00:04:33] You never once heard the gospel in your liberal progressive church. And you think about it for a moment and you quickly realize, what? Why? Because they cannot give you what they do not have.
[00:04:46] When you go back to your pastor, she reviles the new guy in town, contradicting his gospel, declaring it as judgmental and exclusive. And it doesn't have the heart of Jesus, her gospel, the gospel. Your old church was a political gospel, a social gospel more concerned with people's sexuality and sexual orientation than it was their salvation. It justified sin in the name of inclusivity and kindness. And you realize immediately that her gospel is not in the Bible.
[00:05:15] And so you leave. And so do others.
[00:05:18] Now, what might this progressive liberal pastor feel?
[00:05:22] Jealousy, maybe.
[00:05:24] And what happens to unattended jealousy?
[00:05:28] It turns into competitiveness, anger, slander, reviling, maybe even malice.
[00:05:37] Turn with me to. Jump with me to Acts 13:48 says, when the Gentiles heard this, the gospel, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed another day of their time. You should come back to that verse. There's a lot there. But verse 49 says this. The word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. Okay, pop quiz. What region is the word of the Lord spreading?
[00:06:05] Galatia. Good job. So a bunch of people are coming to Christ and the Jews, the unbelieving Jews are not happy about this. So I wanna ask you again. What happens every time the gospel takes new territory? Dark demonic opposition is never far behind. Look at verse 50.
[00:06:25] But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing.
[00:06:30] And the leading men of the city stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
[00:06:39] But they, Paul and his companions shook off the dust from their feet against them. This is not a metaphor. This was a literal motion that they would make when they would leave these cities. And they went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. I don't know about y', all, but I don't know if I'm being persecuted. Being filled with joy in the Holy Spirit wouldn't be my natural response. But what region is Iconium in?
[00:07:04] Galatia. I'm not tripping. I'm not gonna trick you guys, I promise. It's the Bible. No, it's galatia. Okay. Acts 14, verse 1. Now, at Iconium, they entered together into the Jewish synagogue. And they spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. Could I be redundant for a moment and ask you the same question? What happens? And every time the gospel takes new territory, dark demonic opposition is never far behind. Look at chapter 14, verse 2. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and this is. Pay attention here. And poisoned their minds against the brothers.
[00:07:42] So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by. By their hands. Chapter 14, verse 5. And when an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and they fled to Lystra and Derbe, in cities of Laconia, and to the surrounding country. And there they continued to preach the Gospel. All of these cities, what region are they in?
[00:08:15] Galatia. Look at verse eight. Now, at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and. And had never walked. He listened to Paul, and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made. Well said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he sprang up and began walking. Now, I know you don't know what Question's coming. But what happens Every time the gospel takes new territory, Dark demonic opposition is never far behind. Jump down to verse 19 in Lystra.
[00:08:49] But the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city.
[00:09:00] Supposing he was dead. Just word of advice. If someone tries to, like, compel you to stone and murder somebody, don't do it. Good. All right.
[00:09:07] The Jews are done with Paul. They're now at the point where they are like, we need to murder this guy.
[00:09:14] Chapter 14, verse 20. But when the disciples gathered about him, he, Paul rose up, entered the city. I love it. He goes back into the city where they just killed him. And on the next day, he went with Barnabas to Derbe.
[00:09:26] When they had preached the Gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, all in Galatia, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of now. This is really important. These Galatian churches were not just haphazard churches where Paul and some leaders came in and shared the Gospel. People got saved, and then they left. And they crossed their fingers and hoped everything was going to work out. In fact, whenever they would come into these cities and start a church, there was a lot of intentionality and time and prayer put into this. And Acts 14:23 describes the process. So you can see, even though the text reads quick, these churches were very intentional. It says when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Okay, what happens every time the Gospel takes new territory?
[00:10:34] Dark demonic opposition is never far behind. The very next verse, Acts, chapter 15, verse 1.
[00:10:42] But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers. Quote, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. So last week, we identified the names of the people preaching this false gospel. They are called Judaizers, or the Circumcision party. And it's a group of Jews who began to follow Jesus as their rabbi. And I need you to listen carefully as I say this, because this is going to help you understand what happens next. In the book of Galatians, the only difference between the unbelieving Jews and the Judaizers is that the Judaizers had a different rabbi than the Jews.
[00:11:34] They were following the moral teachings of. Of Jesus, but they did not believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:11:43] Essentially, the Jews, the unbelieving Jews and the Judaizers or the circumcision party, they're just two versions of the same thing. There are two versions of a form of Judaism that at the end of the day rejects the gospel. And here's what's interesting.
[00:11:59] You can believe and follow the moral teachings of Jesus and and reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is the story of the Judaizers or the circumcision party. Look again at verse one here. Here's their passion, here's their message, here's their false gospel. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And to be clear, this is not Christianity, this is Judaism with Jesus as your salt and pepper.
[00:12:28] That's all this is.
[00:12:29] And both false gospels, whether it's unbelieving Jews or Judaizers in the circumcision party, they all come from the same dark origins, from the demonic realm. And here's the deal. They've got a gospel for everybody that isn't the real gospel. Every one of us is susceptible to a different kind of false gospel. And they have one just for you. Some of them fell for the Jews unbelieving gospel. Some fell for the Judaizer circumcision gospel. Some fall for the Mormon gospel. Some fall for the Jehovah's Witness gospel. Some fall for the workspace gospel. Everyone is susceptible to a false gospel. And the demonic realm has created a special false gospel just for you to trip you up if at all possible. Now turn with me to Galatians, chapter two. We're gonna be in verse 11 says this one. Cephas came to Antioch.
[00:13:22] Paul says this. I opposed him to his face because he, Cephas, he stood condemned. Now there's a lot of Antiochs in the Bible. This one is not in Galatia. So Paul is telling the Galatian church a story about something that happened with him. And who's Cephas? What's his other name? Peter, the Apostle Peter.
[00:13:48] And so this story is a doozy. Now Peter, Peter isn't a nobody. And Peter isn't just somebody.
[00:13:58] Peter is the leader of the apostles, if you will. And to my Catholic friends, this does not mean that he's the Pope. It just means that in the first century, Jesus put him as the leader. And so like, he had unbelievable leadership and influence in the early church. And whatever sin Paul is confronting, it's a pretty big deal. To the point where Paul is telling the disgalation church that, listen when we were in Antioch, I actually, in front of a whole bunch of people, had to stand up out him publicly and confront him to his face. Verse 12 tells us what Peter was guilty of.
[00:14:40] Says this, for before certain men came from James, he, Peter was eating with the Gentiles. But when they, the certain men from James came, he drew back, he separated himself.
[00:14:56] And here's the motivation. Fearing the circumcision party.
[00:15:02] Couple things you need to know. Who's James?
[00:15:04] James is the half brother of Jesus.
[00:15:07] James is the senior pastor of the Jerusalem Church, the most influential church in the world at the time.
[00:15:18] And these certain men, these are the Judaizers, These are the circumcision party. These are the people coming and saying, you can't be saved unless you get circumcised. And then after you're circumcised, you have to follow the Old Testament or Old Covenant Law. Here's what this means.
[00:15:36] James, the senior pastor of the most influential church in the world at the time, the half brother of Jesus, has a group of heretics in his church preaching a false gospel. And James has not been able to get them under control or to correct them and to clarify the true gospel in this church.
[00:15:58] So here's what's happening with Peter.
[00:16:00] It's a normal day. Peter's in town, you're pumped. This is the leader of the apostles, and Peter is eating with you. Peter is teaching you. Peter is worshiping with you. And so you get to hear the stories. Remember, they didn't have the Bible like we have it now. Okay?
[00:16:19] So you get to hear all the stories that we read about firsthand, like, experience. And then, I don't know if you know this, but there's a whole lot more that Jesus did that isn't written in the Bible. And so you get to hear firsthand from Peter story after story after story. You get to hear about the miracles and the crazy things they saw. And then the majority of the Gospels actually tell the story of the last week of Jesus life before his crucifixion. And you get to hear about what they went through and the anxiety and all the challenges and watching Jesus be murdered. And Peter probably tells the story about how he. He betrayed Jesus and all the things went down. And then the days between Good Friday and the resurrection and the sadness they felt and the joy. And then Acts 2, and it was Pentecost, the falling of the Holy Spirit. And like, so many cool stories, guys, I don't know about y'. All. This would be like a conversation or set of conversations I would just love to be a part of. And then one day, this group of Jews arrive from Jerusalem, from the mother church.
[00:17:20] And you know something is off. Because the moment Peter sees them, he stops speaking to you. He stops looking at you, he stops acknowledging you. And you are aware that these people have some kind of power over Peter. The guy who taught you, sat with you, laughed with you, drank with you, told you stories about Jesus, encouraged you, worshiped with you, shared meals with you, now acts like you are low class, you are beneath him, you are nobody.
[00:17:51] And then it's not just him. After he does this, all the other Christian, real Christian Jews, they start following Peter and they stop talking to you. And then, not just that, your favorite person of them all, Barnabas, the son of encouragement, the one who calls out who God made you to be and always has a kind, encouraging word for you, even he stops speaking to you. And they all go sit with these Jews from Jerusalem. And so you, you all you Gentiles, you look at each other and you ask, what is going on? Look at verse 13.
[00:18:27] The rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, Peter, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
[00:18:38] I have no idea how long this went on for, but here's what I can say with confidence.
[00:18:44] This would have been nothing short of devastating the leader of the apostles, the men chosen by God to establish the foundations of the Church, the doctrine of the Church, to represent the heart of Christ to the Church who has been sharing with you the Gospel, now will not acknowledge you or speak to you and is treating you like you're the scum of the earth. He is not representing the heart of.
[00:19:08] Of Jesus.
[00:19:10] And the question has to be asked, what could make Peter so afraid? And not just Peter, but the rest of the Jews and even Barnabas.
[00:19:20] Well, here's what we know about the Circumcision party or the Judaizers. Number one, they are very influential. How influential, you ask? Let me tell you.
[00:19:32] Influential enough to make Peter afraid of what they might do to him if they saw Peter eating with the Gentile scum, uncircumcised, lower than life people. Which is how, by the way, the Jews saw Gentiles at the time.
[00:19:48] They were influential enough in the Jerusalem church that even James apparently had hesitations dealing decisively with their false gospel.
[00:20:01] You know intuitively that they had the power, with just an accusation to stir up the Jews who we know are capable at this time, in this place, even of stoning. Paul and murder. What else do we know about the Circumcision Party? The Judaizers? Number two, they're troublemakers.
[00:20:18] Not only are they more committed to Judaism than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are willing to subvert leadership to divide a church.
[00:20:27] There are some people, we saw this last week, that these Judaizers would send spies into the Galatian Church to spy out where their weak points were. To walk into this church to slander Paul, undo the Gospel, and then to pressure Gentiles who didn't know any better that if you want to go to heaven, you need to be circumcised. And then like, some of the people actually went through with it, thinking that if they did this and they believed in Jesus, that they could go to heaven. And if we're being honest, as we just kind of read the story of Acts 13 and 14 and 15, number one, we don't know what these people are capable of. And number two, Acts or Luke, who wrote Acts, is not hesitant for a moment to connect the Circumcision Judaizer Party with the unbelieving Jews.
[00:21:14] And so Peter, like, I get it, you don't know what they're capable of. And so Peter buckles under the pressure. I do appreciate the Apostle Paul's clarity.
[00:21:25] He does not call Peter and Barnabas and the rest of the Christian Jews heretics.
[00:21:31] He calls them hypocrites.
[00:21:35] Peter and Barnabas, they had the pure gospel.
[00:21:40] If you were to sit down with them and say, share with me the gospel, they are not going to give you Jesus faith in Christ. Plus, they're not going to tell you that you need to be circumcised in order to be saved.
[00:21:51] Here's the problem.
[00:21:52] They profess to believe one thing, but then they're acting as if that thing isn't true.
[00:21:59] They're hypocrites. Now, I think every one of us, we've been in a situation where we have been afraid to be a Christian, to be a proud Christian, to say what we think. And if you've never been in that circumstance yet, I'm so happy for you.
[00:22:16] A while back, Nadine, who is our connections director, she oversees our community groups. She made our community group leaders T shirts. It's really cool. And on the front it says devoted. And then there's a scripture, and in the back is the whole scripture verse. So this last week I had a nail in my tire driving me nuts, and so kept deflating. So I finally went and I said, I'm gonna get this done. So I go into Discount tire. As I get out of my car, I have this immediate impulse.
[00:22:49] If I get a mechanic who doesn't like Christians, are they going to make my tire worse?
[00:22:57] And then I thought, do I just like, do I go take off my shirt? I mean, like, not actually take it off. Like, go put on a different shirt. Okay? And that, that went through my brain.
[00:23:07] And then my next thought was this, who cares?
[00:23:12] Like, I was just like, who cares? Like, I'm talking to myself. Like, I must look like an idiot. I'm like, who cares? People are being persecuted for their faith in Christ. And I'm hesitant to walk into discount tire cause I'm afraid of one little inconvenience they're gonna do to it. Like, if that is the worst thing that happens to me, if that is the worst level of quote, it's not even fair to say persecution is a discount tire mechanic doing something dumb to my car. Because I'm wearing a shirt that says devoted with a Bible verse like, give me a break. Like, what is going on? And then here's the thought that went through my brain.
[00:23:43] I was thinking about the public school kids at our church who go into public school and they wear shirts with Bible verses or forge on it or Jesus loves you and they walk in and I'm like, you know What? If a 9th grade girl can walk into a public school with a Christian T shirt, I can walk into discount tire with a shirt that says Devoted. And I'm just being straight with you guys. Like these impulses inside of me and I'm like, do I change who I am because I'm afraid of what somebody might do to me or my car? But we all have these kind of ridiculous thoughts. Look what Paul says in verse 14. He says, When I saw that their conduct was not in stock up with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas, to Peter, before them all. This is a great correction. If you though a Jew, live like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?
[00:24:45] Okay, so the more you sit on that text, the better it gets. But I want to give you maybe a modern illustration that might unlock it a little bit.
[00:24:55] I want to talk about vegans.
[00:24:58] Now. The reason why is because there are a handful of vegans at village church. You know who you are, I know who you are. And you guys. No, I didn't mean it a bad way. They're so nice. They're so nice.
[00:25:09] So I can use this. I was trying to think of what Category of people could I. Could I give an illustration of that Are like, I cannot think of one like, mean vegan at village church. So praise God for you. Okay, so I want you to imagine this is hypothetical, all right?
[00:25:26] I want you to imagine that there's a group of vegans at village church, and everywhere they go, everywhere they go, they judge the non vegans. They look down on the non vegans. They won't eat with the non vegans. In fact, they disparage them with a nickname, the carnivores. Right?
[00:25:42] They even demand that veganism be a requirement for membership at village church. And this becomes quite the issue all of a sudden. There's women small groups, there's vegan groups and non vegan groups. There's men's groups that like fighting. There's men's vegan groups and non vegan groups. And it's making its way down to the student ministries. And like, you get these kids, like, my mom won't let me have a non vegan small group leader, so can you give me a vegan small group? And this thing is like becoming a big deal in the church. And so whenever I see the vegans coming, I pull off my leather belt and I throw it away and. And I'm like, hey. So one day we're at first Tuesday and the vegans are there and they're sitting at a table and I go sit with them and they're making fun of the carnivores and they're kind of like looking down on them and side eyeing them. And of course it's like the pig roast night. And I'm like, what did you think was gonna happen?
[00:26:31] But I'm sitting there and they don't know I'm trying to play the game, you know what I mean? I'm like, I don't want them to know I'm not a vegan. I haven't said I'm not a vegan. I just haven't told them I'm not a vegan. So they don't know. And then all of a sudden, Pastor Dean, he's done with this. He's like, he gets up and he goes to the microphone and he says, pastor Michael, earlier today, you and I had lunch and you ate a, quote, delicious meat lovers omelet gasp in the room.
[00:27:04] And then all the vegans look at me with disgust. How could you? You led us to believe you were our ally.
[00:27:13] And then Pastor Dean carries on. If you eat like a carnivore at lunch and not like a vegan, how can you stand here and act like you're vegan and look down on the carnivores? You're a. What's the word? Hypocrite.
[00:27:29] Hypocrite. Could you imagine Paul walking into this environment?
[00:27:35] And Paul is like, okay, Jesus has personally commissioned me to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. A pure, simple, unadulterated gospel.
[00:27:44] Peter comes into town and you're like, sweet. Another apostle, the leader, he's coming to help.
[00:27:50] And Paul, Peter comes in and he severely wounds your ministry. These people makes everything more difficult. What do you feel towards Peter in that moment?
[00:28:04] Anger.
[00:28:05] You are coming in while I am trying to establish a pure gospel. And I got these Judaizers in the circumcision party, creeping on us at every church, trying to undo everything. And you know this.
[00:28:17] And you walk into this church and you give these false gospel preachers a platform.
[00:28:23] You validate them and in the process invalidate the gospel.
[00:28:28] Like, what's he gonna do in that moment? He calls him out and I love this. In front of the Judaizers, exposes him when they're not here. You're eating with the Gentiles. He's eating with the Gentiles. Peter, I thought you were one of us. No, you're not one of us. You're a hypocrite. That that is what you are. And if you're Peter, what do you do in this moment?
[00:28:45] It doesn't tell us what Peter did. We do learn fairly quickly here that, thank God, Peter was humble and Peter repented. And then in Acts, chapter 15, kind of after all this happens, this issue of circumcision in the gospel gets brought to the table. And who is the chief advocate of the pure gospel but Peter? And guess where they do this? At Jerusalem and James's church. And so Peter finally, actually after this event, clearly something positive happened in Peter. There was a real repentance. And Peter established in the Jerusalem church in the presence of the apostles. No, circumcision is not a requirement to come to faith in Jesus. It is faith in Christ plus nothing else. That's it. And I love it. Peter actually is the one who rises up and he repents by establishing a pure gospel in the church.
[00:29:39] Let's bring this home.
[00:29:41] There are a hundred. So what's. And I'm only going to focus on one. This is one of those texts that I would love another month to unpack the implications, walk in step with the gospel.
[00:29:56] Sometimes people act like hypocrites out of fear. I think we've probably all been there.
[00:30:03] You declare one thing at church, you go to school, work, family, friends. And you do everything you can to hide that.
[00:30:13] Because, you know, if your family or your friends know what you really believe, they'll probably stop being close to you or being your friend.
[00:30:23] Like, there's this weird season we're in as a culture where there are a whole bunch of people that demand agreement on really strange things in order for any relationship to happen. And here's the deal. They don't have to say it intuitively in your bones. You know it.
[00:30:43] And so you repress or suppress these thoughts, these. You avoid conversations.
[00:30:50] And you know, you do this because you're afraid. And here's what I just wanna say to you guys. As a believer in Jesus, we do not love or have relationship contingent on agreement.
[00:31:03] If anything, I almost wanna call that some version of abuse.
[00:31:07] It's conditional love.
[00:31:09] Conform to every standard of belief I have, or you don't get access to us. I hate it. It is ugly, it's vile. And may it never be said of us. Like, I got a lot of friends who aren't Christians. They don't agree with me, and I don't agree with them. And I will never look at somebody and say, I require agreement for you to be my friend. The one place I required agreement was Brianne. If you wanna marry me, we need to agree on Jesus and some core doctrines. But that's my prerogative if I wanna marry somebody.
[00:31:37] But outside of that, like, I'm not interested in loving conditionally and making you dance and go through hoops and agree. Cause all that does is creates a relationship of fear. And perfect love casts out fear.
[00:31:51] And so what you find in this world right now is a set of fearful relationships. Comply, agree, or else I'm done with that world. I don't want anything to do with it. And I hope I never hear about any of us conditionally loving people mandating agreement on things. I don't know about y', all, but anytime somebody mandates me to agree on something, it just makes me want to disagree. So I find it to be generally unproductive.
[00:32:13] There's another reason for hypocrisy, though. And I just want to. I want to call this out because it's a little more subtle, but it's what happened in Antioch with Peter and Barnabas.
[00:32:23] Sometimes people justify hypocrisy because their spiritual leader does the sin.
[00:32:31] So here's what happens with Peter. Peter goes and does this. And the Jews are like, well, if Peter's doing It. It can't be that bad.
[00:32:39] And Barnabas is like, well, if Peter's doing it, maybe that's enough reason for me to do it. So here's the deal. Do we justify sinful lifestyles because our parents say it's okay and they do it?
[00:32:53] No. Do we justify sinful lifestyles because I might lose a friend if I stop doing X, y, or Z?
[00:33:00] No. Do we justify sinful lifestyles because some pastor on TV said it's okay?
[00:33:05] No. Do we justify sinful lifestyles because my spiritual leader, my small group leader, my mentor, they do it. And I kind of know it's not right, but they do it. So it must not be that big of a deal. Is that how we justify sinful behavior in our lives?
[00:33:19] No. And what I appreciate about this text is that this isn't just a pastor. This is an apostle chosen by Jesus. Peter had a incredible position of leadership. And here's what you find.
[00:33:32] Even Peter isn't perfect.
[00:33:34] Your pastor isn't perfect. Amen. Amen. Your mom and dad aren't perfect. Your mentor isn't perfect. There is one Jesus. And when all the imperfect people in your life fail to meet that standard, as the Gospel already declares that they will, we're not crushed. And we also don't use this as a justification.
[00:33:53] Sometimes we have to look at our mom, at our dad, our mentors, our spiritual leaders, and our pastors and say, that's not right.
[00:34:00] And I'm not gonna do that just because you do it. And I'm not gonna allow your sin to allow me to justify the sin I and my flesh want to participate in.
[00:34:11] Let's come back to where we started.
[00:34:13] Do you have good friends?
[00:34:16] But if they knew what you actually believed about Jesus or moral issues, they would be upset with you or would stop being your friend.
[00:34:24] Are there close friends and family that don't know that you are a committed Christian?
[00:34:31] I have good news and bad news. Here's the bad news.
[00:34:35] You're a hypocrite.
[00:34:36] Here's the good news.
[00:34:38] We've all been there, and that doesn't need to define you.
[00:34:42] And you can change. Isn't that awesome?
[00:34:46] If you struggle, it does not need to be condemnation.
[00:34:52] It can be conviction.
[00:34:55] And then we can say, you know what? I think there are some relationships in my life that I need to intentionally and gently shift in a different direction. There are some relationships in my life that I kind of know deep down inside that if I'm gonna be who I really am, they're probably not going to like it. And so we need to exercise wisdom and we need prayer and some counsel and help kind of shifting some dynamics in relationships. But I want to share with you just like here are just a few commitments that I make as a follower of Jesus. They're not crazy, but I think they're helpful.
[00:35:28] I will be proud of Jesus.
[00:35:31] I will not be ashamed of what I believe about Jesus in the Bible.
[00:35:36] But I will not be an obnoxious jerk to any non Christian. And I should have just put anybody right. Christians as well.
[00:35:43] I will be wise, but I will not require agreement as a condition for friendship.
[00:35:49] I will admit when my behavior and my faith are at odds, there's power. If you've been living kind of a dual life and confessing it.
[00:36:00] Like, I have never had somebody apologize to me. And I thought to myself, man, I don't like you anymore. I actually appreciate when people take ownership. It's a powerful thing. And I think for most people, if we kind of just say, hey, I want to let you know, like, I have this relationship with God and I have not been living it. Like I need to make some changes in my life. And here's what I find for most people. If you sell them, would you help me?
[00:36:22] That if they actually love you, then the answer is going to be, yeah, I don't get it, but I'd love to help you.
[00:36:29] And so just have really good news for you guys. Not only does the blood of Christ cover you and forgive you, the Holy Spirit is ready to empower you to gently but intentionally be proud of Jesus, to be proud of what you believe, to not be an obnoxious jerk. I just need another amen on that one, guys. Cause that's what I'm really nervous about. So people can be really obnoxious when they make changes, you know, like, no. Take ownership of the things you need to take ownership for. And let it be said of us that we don't love with conditions.
[00:37:00] We love unconditionally. We are wise with who we love, but we love unconditionally. Let it be said of us. So Village church, I want to take a moment. I want to pray over us, and we're going to celebrate communion together. Father, I want to thank you for how blunt Paul is in this passage. I thank you that all the spiritual leaders in the entire Bible, except for Jesus, unashamedly, you make sure that we, thousands, millennia, thousands of years millennia later, we see them not just for the good, but we see kind of the ugliest parts of them. And we are just reminded, there's one Jesus, there is one flawless shepherd, and it's definitely not us. There's one perfect spiritual leader, and it hasn't been our mom or our dad or our mentors, as great as they have been.
[00:37:47] And so, God, I just. I just thank you for this text. I thank you for the strength of Paul the cloud.
[00:37:52] I thank you for Peter's repentance. I thank you, God, that we can mess up big. We can be hypocrites and be forgiven and set a new path. And so, Lord, would you continue to empower Village church to be proud of Jesus, to be savvy, and to be wise? We love you and we pray all of these things in Jesus name, Amen.
