Galatians 2:11-13
Sermon Summary
On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson picked up Paul's case where he left it. Paul has spent a chapter and a half establishing that he got the gospel from Jesus and not from men, and he has just reported that the Jerusalem pillars added nothing to his message. Agreement in theory is different from agreement in practice, Pastor Russell said, and Galatians 2:11-16 gives us a dinner party, a retreat, a domino effect, and a public confrontation. Antioch was the first place believers were called Christians, and the first room in history where Jew and Gentile sat at one table under one Lord. Peter had been eating there regularly, and after the vision in Acts 10 he knew better than anyone that he could. Then men arrived from James, and Peter began to pull back, afraid of the hardliners at home. The others followed, and so did Barnabas. Paul told him in front of everyone that he was walking crooked. They did not disagree about how a person is justified. They disagreed about whether pushing Gentiles toward the Law fits that gospel. Pastor Russell closed with the Christian life as a river, Jesus describing it from before the cross and Paul from after, the same life in a different order.
Discussion Questions
- ICEBREAKER: Who is someone whose habits you picked up just from being around them?
- LIKE NEVER BEFORE: Extending grace like never before will sometimes cost you comfort in the room. Pastor Russell said the fear of man is a snare because it does not look like sin, it looks like wisdom, and he named the lines we use: I am just keeping the peace, I do not want to cause problems. When have you said one of those to yourself?
- Read Galatians 2:11-13. Peter had been eating with the Gentile believers regularly, and when the men from Jerusalem arrived he began to pull back from the table. What do you think the Gentile believers watching him concluded?
- Barnabas had vouched for Paul when nobody trusted him, traveled with him, and was stoned alongside him at Lystra. Then he followed Peter away from the table too. When have you gone along with something because someone you trusted did it first?
- Paul said it to Peter in front of everyone rather than privately. Pastor Russell pointed to Galatians 6:1, where someone caught in a trespass is restored gently, and said Paul's goal was not to win but to get Peter back on the road. What makes that goal hard to hold onto when you have something hard to say to someone?
- Pastor Russell said you cannot opt out of influence. Peter did not send a memo, he just moved his chair, and the rest of the table moved theirs. Who in your life is watching how you live?
- The letters and the gospel accounts describe the same life from opposite sides of the cross, and Pastor Russell gave a reading plan for it: start with the letters, where you learn how it starts and how you live, then go to the gospels and pick up what it looks like. What is one book you will open this week?
Extra Credit
Look up Ephesians 2:8-9, Ephesians 5:18, John 14:6, and John 13:34. Ephesians 2 is where Paul says you were saved by grace through faith and not by anything you did, which Pastor Russell called how you start; Ephesians 5:18 is the hinge he pointed to in the middle of all those commands, be filled with the Spirit, which is how you live; John 14:6 is Jesus saying no one comes to the Father except through Him, the same starting point from the other side of the cross; and John 13:34 is the new command to love one another, which Pastor Russell said is the one word the whole life looks like.
How do these passages together shape the way you understand the order of your own life with God, and what would it look like this week to do one quiet, unglamorous thing for someone the way Jesus washed the disciples' feet?
How do these passages together shape the way you understand the order of your own life with God, and what would it look like this week to do one quiet, unglamorous thing for someone the way Jesus washed the disciples' feet?
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