Live video and notes for my message at Central Church of Christ in Stockton, CA for September 19, 2021.

The preaching text was Galatians 2:11-16.

Acts 10:9-48 was also read during worship, for added context on Peter’s hypocrisy.

Video link is below. Sermon notes are below that.

Soli Deo Gloria!

When Peter ruined the potluck and Paul got in his face

It was a wonderful church potluck in Antioch, with all the trimmings and the baked goods and the pies.

It was wonderful, at least, until the fight broke out.

Everybody was so busy raving over Brother Michael’s rib tips and going back for seconds and thirds of Sister Susan’s pastries, nobody seemed to notice unhappy-looking men, clustered at a table together in the back of the fellowship hall.

Nothing on their plates but a few slices of bread, and a couple of deviled eggs.

No one noticed these people who weren’t having a great time, and that’s why a shocked silence fell over the potluck when they heard Paul tearing into Peter. 

Paul was the lead pastor there at the church in Antioch. And Peter was a visiting preacher from the church in Jerusalem. 

Peter had been sitting, hunched over, at that unhappy table in the back of the fellowship hall. 

It’s always painful when Christians argue. It’s even more embarrassing when the fight breaks out in church. 

But this conflict was super-awkward for two reasons: 1) It happened during a church potluck, and ruined everybody’s good time; and 2) this conflict was between two apostles, two trusted leaders in the church.

But Paul had to oppose Peter, and I’m about to tell you all the reasons why. But more importantly: Paul’s example teaches us how Christians should confront sin.

So here’s the very wrong thing Peter did. Paul says:

When Cephas came to Antioch—Cephas is another name for Peter—I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 

The old King James Version said Peter was to be blamed. The NLT says what Peter did was very wrong.

Peter had come to visit Paul at his church in Antioch. Here’s what we did there that was very wrong.

For before certain men came from James—that means from the church in Jerusalem, where James was an elder; later on James categorically denied sending them

So before these dudes came from Jerusalem, Peter used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

Okay, so probably most of us feel very far removed from this situation. Like, you can tell it was obviously a very big deal, but maybe some of you don’t understand why it was such a big deal.

So I’m going to try and break down the reasons why what Peter did was very wrong.

First, Peter sinned publicly, so Paul had to rebuke him publicly. This wasn’t a private sin that Paul could counsel him about in private. And it wasn’t just a slip up that Paul could let go. It was a big, bad, public sin.

Second, look at v13. Peter’s sin involved hypocrisy. Let me explain why.

Remember, Peter was born and raised a Jew. All of the leadership and the members of the church in Jerusalem were Jewish.

They had grown up with strict laws from God about what they could and could not eat. Most notably, they could not eat any pork or any shellfish.

No bacon, no sausage, no ham. No shrimp, no lobster, no crawfish.

These laws had a spiritual meaning. They were to help remind God’s people that they were holy. And holy just means set apart—you belong to God. The food laws helped divide off Jews from Gentiles. 

But once Christ came, those laws were no longer necessary. Eph. 2:15 teaches us that Jesus’ death on the cross set aside the law’s commandments and regulations about things like food.

God’s people no longer express our holiness to God by what we eat or don’t eat. We find our holiness in Christ alone. We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, Heb. 10:10.

God knew this would be a difficult adjustment for Jews like Peter. That’s why he sent Peter that vision we heard about in Acts 10 today. The one where God kept sending Peter all these foods that had been unclean under the law of Moses, and telling him: It’s okay, Peter! Eat up!

God had to reassure Peter it was okay. God said: Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.

Okay, and the point was, God wasn’t just talking about Gentile foods. He was also talking about Gentile people.

Now, here’s Peter’s hypocrisy. 

Antioch was a culturally diverse church, with both Jews and Gentiles.

Acts 11:26 tells us that Antioch was the first place where followers of Jesus were first called Christians. Because it was the church that put everyone on notice that Jesus wasn’t just for Jews.

And when Peter came to Antioch, he was eating with the Gentile Christians. But look at v14. Paul said that while Peter was in Antioch, he lived like a Gentile and not like a Jew.

He wasn’t just eating with Gentiles. He was eating along with them. He was chowing down at the crab feeds, and eating pulled pork at their BBQs. He was enjoying the freedom he had in Christ.

But when these guys came from Jerusalem, v12 says Peter began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

The circumcision group were these same guys who kept following Paul around and saying: If these Gentiles won’t get circumcised and start eating according to the law of Moses, they’re not real Christians. 

So when they showed up, Peter was all of a sudden more afraid of offending these bullies, than he was of offending God.

When these guys from the circumcision party were around, Peter would basically pretend that he hadn’t just been eating bacon-wrapped shrimp with his Gentile brothers and sisters.

Paul called it hypocrisy because Peter was being dishonest.

Here’s the third reason why what Peter did was very wrong: Peter was acting out of cowardice, not conscience. 

If Peter had simply believed that he shouldn’t eat the Gentile food, he didn’t have to eat it. And Paul could have privately taught him better.

But Peter did what he did because he was afraid of these guys from Jerusalem. He cried uncle and gave up his freedom in Christ before they even twisted his arm.

And it’s not the first time Peter did something like that, was it? The night Jesus was betrayed, three times Peter denied even knowing him. Because he was afraid of what others would think.

Whether he realized it or not, Peter denied Christ all over again at that church potluck. Because when he denied fellowship with those Gentile Christians, he was denying his brothers and sisters Jesus had died for.

Fourth, Peter set a very bad example by his behavior. 

V13 says, The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. Other Jewish Christians began following Peter’s bad example. Even Barnabas, Paul’s right-hand coworker.

Because when they say Peter drawing back from the Gentile believers—well, he’s an Apostle; he was Jesus’ best friend, so this must be okay to do.

Peter led others astray into sin with him.

But the was the biggest reason that Paul had to get all up in Peter’s grill is in the beginning of v14. Paul says that Peter and the others were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel.

Peter wasn’t preaching a false Gospel. But he was living like the Gospel wasn’t true. 

The Gospel had set Peter free to eat brother Michael’s pork ribs along with all the Gentile Christians. But more importantly—Christ’s blood made those Gentile believers just as holy as Peter or any other Jew.

Peter had an opportunity to stand up for the Gospel against those guys from Jerusalem. Instead, when he gave in and stopped eating freely with the Gentiles, Peter denied the Gospel.

So that’s the big reason Paul publicly opposed Peter.

And that’s what I want to focus on the rest of our time.

Because this isn’t just a story about the time Peter ruined a potluck.

Christians still sin–a lot

You see, becoming a Christian doesn’t make us immune from sinning. We all know that. Saving faith doesn’t mean you’re going to just start making all the right choices. Baptism isn’t a vaccine that magically makes us instantly righteous.

I don’t want to shock anybody, but Christians still sin. A lot. And that’s actually natural.

Don’t believe me? Paul himself said so. 1 Tim. 1:15: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.

Paul didn’t say, I used to be a great sinner. He said: I am the worst sinner I know.

And he said that as an Apostle. He said that as an old man who’d been a Christian for decades. 

Christians are still going to sin. You’re going to sin, I’m going to sin. I bet you can’t even make it through the day without sinning.

And sometimes those sins are going to be significant enough that they need to be confronted. You will need somebody to get in your face about your sin. Or you’ll need to confront someone else about their sin.

This passage actually gives us some good guidelines for when we need to confront each other’s sins forcefully—like Paul did with Peter.

When they’re public.

When the sin is harming others.

When someone is being dishonest or hypocritical.

When someone is setting a bad example with their sin.

These are sins we can’t ignore or brush off. Because they’re not just weakness of the flesh. They’re not sins we’re struggling with, like lustful thoughts or jealousy.

These are a class of sins that are out of step with the Gospel. Because they’re leading you to live like the Gospel isn’t true.

And this passage in Galatians not only teaches us how to recognize those sins. It teaches us how to confront them.

And it’s really simple: When Christians fall into these sins, it’s usually because we’ve forgotten the Gospel. So you have to remind them of the Gospel.

Paul confronted Peter’s sin by reminding him of the Gospel

That’s what Paul did to Peter at the potluck.

He could have told Peter: Hey Peter, you’re being so racist against the Gentiles right now. He wouldn’t have been wrong. But that’s not what he said.

Paul also could’ve said: Hey Peter, you’re setting a really bad Christian example right now. He wouldn’t have been wrong. But that’s not what he said.

Instead—look at v16 and see what Paul told Peter. He reminded him of the Gospel. He said:

Peter, we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

No one is justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the Gospel.

Paul reminded Peter of the Good News that had saved both of them; the Good News that they both preached; and the Good News that Paul knew Peter still believed.

Peter, why are you doing this? You know following those food laws never made anyone right in God’s eyes. That’s why we put our trust in Jesus, why we rest in Him alone for our salvation. Nothing we do makes us holy. It’s what Christ has done that makes us holy. So why don’t you start acting like the Gospel is true, that Jesus’ death actually accomplished something, and come back over here and eat some more of Sister Bertha’s crawfish étouffée.

Paul confronted Peter’s sin. But he confronted it with the Gospel. He got Peter walking back in line with the Gospel by reminding him of the Gospel. What a radical idea, right?

Oh—and we know it worked, too. You know how we know? The Bible tells us so!

Because years later, Peter called him our beloved brother Paul (2 Peter 3:15). So obviously, their throw-down at the church potluck didn’t permanently damage their relationship. The Gospel won Peter over, and his fellowship to Paul and the Gentile believers was restored.

Big Sins still need a Big Gospel

In fact, what happened between Paul and Peter at the church potluck that day is really an example of how we should confront believers now when they fall into sin.

Among believers, we should confront sin with the Gospel. 

That’s where we should go first: What Jesus has done to save us, why it matters, and why we should trust Him.

We remind each other—or we remind ourselves, when we’re struggling with a sin we can’t seem to stop doing—of the Good News of Christ.

Instead of burdening ourselves and others with a to-do list of things we ought to be doing better. 

When someone is stepping out of line, that’s our natural inclination: Stop doing that thing, do better, read your Bible more, be more like me.

But what the Bible says actually works is to offer the promises of the Gospel. Rom. 2:4 says it’s the kindness of God that leads people to repentance. That’s the Gospel. God’s kindness is that in Christ, he draws sinners to Himself. He declares us righteous because of what Christ has done. He makes unholy people holy by His own Holy Spirit.

Rom. 1:16 says that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Because the Gospel unites us to Christ by faith. And He’s at the right hand of God, praying that we will not lose our faith. Christ is holding on to us—even in our seasons of sin and prodigal wandering. And He has put His own Holy Spirit in us, to do the lifelong, tedious work of weeding out our deepest-rooted sins.

In fact, this is exactly how both Paul and Peter dealt with Christians who had gotten caught in serious sins. They gave them the Gospel.

1 Cor. 6:12-20: Paul had to confront Christians who were committing serious immorality, sexual immorality. Some of them were even turning to prostitution.

That’s serious sin that needs to be confronted. But you know what Paul told them? Here’s what he said:

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

That’s all Gospel. 

Paul’s saying: No, Roxanne—seriously, you don’t have to turn on the red light. Those days are over. Christ bought you out of all that with his own body and blood. Don’t you remember? He put His own Holy Spirit in you—the Spirit of God dwells in your body!

Jesus rescued you, and now you’re holy to God. Body and soul, in life and in death, you belong to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

Paul reminded Christians who were engaging in serious sin of the Gospel promises: That Jesus has rescued us, God’s Spirit is living in our bodies, and one day our bodies will be made perfect and sinless in resurrection.

Peter did the same thing. 

In 2 Peter 1:5ff, he’s dealing with Christians who have faith, but that’s about it. Their lives were still a mess of immorality. They weren’t growing in their knowledge of God. They didn’t seem to have any self-control. They gave up too easily. They weren’t striving for godliness. And they were doing a poor job of being unselfish and loving each other.

Peter didn’t write them off. He didn’t say, Wow—I don’t think you guys are really even Christians. He said they were unproductive and ineffective Christians.

And then he told them what their problem was: You guys are forgetting that [you] have been cleansed from [your] past sins.

In other words, the reason they weren’t growing, and they were ineffective and unproductive is that they’d forgotten the Gospel. They’d forgotten that Jesus rescued them from being ignorant and petty and unloving. 

We become ineffective and unfruitful when we forget that Christ is the source of any and all of goodness, wisdom, self-control, perseverance, and godly love in us. Jesus is not just our example of those things—He is all of them. When we’re joined to Jesus by faith, He plants and grows those good fruits in us by His Holy Spirit in us.

That’s the Gospel. And it works. It’s the infinite love and patience of Christ, His life poured out into us by the Holy Spirit, His promise to complete the good work He began in us that transforms us.

No matter how badly we fall, or how far we wonder—it’s the Gospel that leads believers to repentance, and brings us back to the potluck. 

Indeed, the promises of the Gospel will carry us all the way home to the great feast of God—when Christ will raise us from the dead to dwell in the house of the Lord, to glorify Him, and enjoy Him forever.